s upon his rank; he draws subsistence for the number
allowed to him. A mere cavalry captain can draw for and usually has two
horses. His horses and trappings, his mess, must be cared for by others;
and hence the thousands of servants that must go with the thousands of
officers.

But let us pass from this, which is common to every army, and proceed on
our journey. The easily pulverized, light, clayey soil around Sandy Hook
was raised in huge clouds by the countless wagons and the hoofs of the
horses of the squads of cavalry officers, couriers, and wagonmasters.
The little tavern was once, the old woman who kept it assured us,
surrounded by a pretty fence, and a garden with grass and flowers: now
the fence was half gone, and to its pickets were tied the horses of
officers, quartermasters, baggagemasters, and orderlies, and the flowers
were trampled into light dust. The provisions in the house had been
eaten by hungry travellers, who were supplied with very scanty fare, and
were thankful to get that. The old woman, having dealt out to us the
little she had left, for which she demanded most abundant compensation,
amused us with her tales. Her house had been alternately the home of
Unionists and rebels. It was not many days since divisions of rebels had
gone by and encamped there, both before and after the surrender of
Harper's Ferry. The shells fired in that fight had passed over her
tavern. Her description of the hungry, tired troopers, arriving in the
evening, and surrounding the house, the men falling down asleep under
their horses' bellies, horses and men packed in together as thick as a
swarm of bees, was quite graphic. Her accounts of her conversations with
the great rebel leaders were interesting, but I feared were apocryphal,
as she ended by assuring us that General Lee had to sleep supperless on
her woodpile. If it were not for this last tale, kind reader, you would
have been entertained with the conversations of the great chiefs of
rebeldom, as related by a reliable witness. We did hear from her, and
from officers who saw the rebel soldiers at Harper's Ferry, of the
pitiable condition of some of the infantry, of their naked, bleeding
feet, and their gaunt looks. Our landlady affirmed that we could not
find a dog in the neighborhood; for they had gone before the rebel
hordes in the way that such flesh disappears before the Chinese and
Pacific Islanders. It is probably true that at times they were hard
pressed for f