ing
or muttering against the judgment of superiors,--but one can't help
surmising, and," the Lieutenant had half mechanically added when the
Sergeant-Major saluted him.

"Where is the Captain, Lieutenant?"

"Not about, at present."

"Well," continued the Sergeant, "reveille at four, and in line at five
in the morning."

Those beds of thickly littered straw were hard to leave in the chill
mist of the morning. The warning notes of the reveille trilling in
sweetest melody from the fife of the accomplished fife-major,
accompanied by the slumber-ending rattle of the drum, admitted of no
alternative. Many a brave boy as he stood in line that morning, ready
for the march, the first sparkle of sunrise glistening upon his bayonet,
wondered whether father or mother, sister or brother, yet in their
slumbers, doubtless, in the dear old homestead, knew that the army was
on the move, and that the setting sun might gild his breast-plate as in
his last sleep he faced the sky.

"Oh! why did you go for a soldier?" sang our little news-boy,
tauntingly, as he capered behind a big burly Dutchman in the rear rank,
who had encountered all manner of misfortune that morning,--missing his
coffee--and what is a man worth on a day's march without coffee--because
it was too hot to drink, when the bugle sounded the call to fall in, his
meat raw, not even the smell of fire about it, and his crackers half
roasted; his clothes, too, half on, belts twisted, knapsack badly made
up. As he grumbled over his mishaps, in his peculiar vernacular,
laughter commenced with the men, and ended in a roar at the song of the
news-boy.

A crowd gathers food for mirth from the most trivial matters. Incidents
that would not provoke a smile individually, convulse them collectively.
Men under restraint in ranks are particularly infectious from the
influence of the passions. With lightning-like rapidity, to misapply a
familiar line--

"They pass from grave to gay, from lively to severe."

Snicker's Gap, which drew its euphoneous name from a First Virginia
family that flourished in the neighborhood, was one of the coveted
points. In the afternoon our advance occupied it, and the neighboring
village of Snickersville; fortunately first perhaps, in force, or what
is most probable, considering results, amused by a show of resistance to
cover the main Rebel movement then rapidly progressing further down the
valley. From whatever cause, firing--musketry and a