e
answered, and that every chain of servitude may be broken. This
sentiment at times breaks out in such as the following poetic strain:

"In the beauty of the lily Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make them free."

And as slavery was the cause, and not, as some say, the pretext, of the
war, if the Union arms succeed, this "irrepressible conflict" and
villanous wrong must come to an end.

Our confidence in the ultimate success of our arms is daily increasing.
Since the first of August our ranks have been wonderfully swelled; and
now regiment after regiment, battery after battery, is pouring in from
the North, filling the camps of instruction, and manning the
fortifications around Washington. Meanwhile, earthworks are being
constructed on all the high hills and commanding positions; strong
abatis are made of the forest-trees, and every thing done that can give
the city an air of security, and the country round about the appearance
of a bristling porcupine. Should this influx of troops continue, we
shall be compelled to advance our lines for very room on which to
station them. We have some intimations that our advance to this point
to-day is preparatory to such a movement.

The day following our advance I was promoted to the rank of corporal, on
the recommendation of Captain Buel, my appointment to date from the
fifteenth. On the sixteenth our lines were advanced to Vienna, a station
on the Leesburg Railroad, and on the seventeenth as far as Fairfax Court
House, the Confederates falling back toward Centreville and Manassas
without offering the least resistance.

FORAGING AND SCOUTING.

We are spending our time mostly in foraging, scouting, and patrolling.
In consequence of imperfect transportation, the cavalry especially is
compelled to seek its own forage, with which, however, the country
abounds. Corn is found in "right smart heaps," as the natives say,
either in the fields or barns, and hayricks dot the country on every
side. But there is a certain degree of scrupulousness on the part of
some of our commanders with regard to appropriating the produce of the
"sacred soil" to our own use, which greatly embarrasses our foraging
expeditions, and exasperates not a little those of us who are needy of
the things we are at times ordered not to take. It is no uncommon thing
to find one of our men stationed as saf