tom up. You rush out in the darkness, not
minding your steps, and are caught by the tent-ropes. You tumble
headlong, upsetting to-morrow's breakfast of beans. You take your place
in the ranks, nervous, excited, and trembling at you know not what. The
regiment rushes toward the firing, which suddenly ceases. An officer
rides up in the darkness and says it is a false alarm! You march back to
camp, cool and collected now, grumbling at the stupidity of the picket,
who saw a bush, thought it was a Rebel, fired his gun, and alarmed the
whole camp.

In the autumn of 1861 the army of the Potomac, encamped around
Washington, numbered about two hundred thousand men. Before it marches
to the battle-field, let us see how it is organized, how it looks, how
it is fed; let us get an insight into its machinery.

Go up in the balloon which you see hanging in the air across the Potomac
from Georgetown, and look down upon this great army. All the country
round is dotted with white tents,--some in the open fields, and some
half hid by the forest-trees. Looking away to the northwest you see the
right wing. Arlington is the centre, and at Alexandria is the left wing.
You see men in ranks, in files, in long lines, in masses, moving to and
fro, marching and countermarching, learning how to fight a battle. There
are thousands of wagons and horses; there are from two to three hundred
pieces of artillery. How long the line, if all were on the march! Men
marching in files are about three feet apart. A wagon with four horses
occupies fifty feet. If this army was moving on a narrow country road,
four cavalrymen riding abreast, and men in files of four, with all the
artillery, ammunition-wagons, supply-trains, ambulances, and equipment,
it would reach from Boston to Hartford, or from New York city to Albany,
a hundred and fifty miles!

To move such a multitude, to bring order out of confusion, there must be
a system, a plan, and an organization. Regiments are therefore formed
into brigades, with usually about four regiments to a brigade. Three or
four brigades compose a division, and three or four divisions make an
army corps. A corps when full numbers from twenty-five to thirty
thousand men.

When an army moves, the general commanding it issues his orders to the
generals commanding the corps; they issue their orders to the division
commanders, the division commanders to the brigadiers, they to the
colonels, and the colonels to captains, and the