h order as to resemble those of a
chain of piquets. In a word, the deception was so well managed,
that even we ourselves were at first doubtful whether the rest of
the troops had fallen back.

When we reached the ground where yesterday's battle had been
fought, the moon rose, and exhibited a spectacle by no means
enlivening.--The dead were still unburied, and lay about in every
direction completely naked. They had been stripped even of their
shirts, and having been exposed in this state to the violent rain
in the morning, they appeared to be bleached to a most unnatural
degree of whiteness. The heat and rain together had likewise
affected them in a different manner; and the smell which rose
upon the night air was horrible.

There is something in such a scene as this extremely humbling,
and repugnant to the feelings of human nature. During the
agitation of a battle, it is nothing to see men fall in hundreds
by your side. You may look at them, perhaps, for an instant, but
you do so almost without being yourself aware of it, so
completely are your thoughts carried away by the excitation of
the moment and the shouts of your companions.--But when you come
to view the dead in an hour of calmness, stripped as they
generally are, you cannot help remembering how frail may have
been the covering which saved yourself from being the loathsome
thing on which you are now gazing.--For myself, I confess that
these reflections rose within my mind on the present occasion;
and if any one should say that, similarly situated, they would not
rise in his, I should give him no credit for a superior degree of
courage, though I might be inclined to despise him for his want
of the common feelings of a reasonable being.

BLADENSBURG.

In Bladensburg the brigade halted for an hour, while those men
who had thrown away their knapsacks endeavoured to recover them.
During this interval I strolled up to a house which had been
converted into an hospital, and paid a hasty visit to the
wounded. I found them in great pain, and some of them deeply
affected at the thought of being abandoned by their comrades, and
left to the mercy of their enemies. Yet, in their apprehension
of evil treatment from the Americans, the event proved that they
had done injustice to that people; who were found to possess at
least one generous trait in their character, namely, that of
behaving kindly and attentively to their prisoners.

As soon as the stragglers had