n after the
battle of Bull Run, July 21st, 1861.

Of course the ride that beautiful night was too exciting
for sleep. It was just after daybreak, when we were
taking a hasty breakfast at a small tavern, that we heard
the first boom of a heavy gun. This was the gun that
opened the great battle of Bull Run. We were yet six
miles away from the army--and all were impatient to reach
our destination. The horses were kept at their best
working pace, and when we had gone three miles we met
troops marching towards us. These were certain regiments
that wouldn't fight because the ninety days of their term
of service had just expired. They looked thoroughly
ashamed of themselves, and marched in great disorder. The
officer with our wagon, and the soldier who drove it,
both scoffed at them and called them sneaks and cowards;
and, cowards as they were, they didn't resent the
insults. For myself, I felt as though they all deserved
shooting when they got to Washington.

An hour later we reached Centreville and looked down on
the battle-field. Hastily finding where my friend's dead
brother was buried, I left him to his mournful task of
recovering the corpse while I went to find my own brother
whom I yet hoped to meet alive. But it wasn't an easy
task. The line of battle was long; and, in spite of my
inquiries, I went wrong. I went to the right wing only to
find that the regiment I sought was probably away off on
the left wing. Nobody seemed able to give exact
information, and everybody wanted to know what a boy in
black clothes and a straw hat was doing on the
battle-field. Once I went up and sat down in the rear of
a battery of light artillery to watch the effect of the
firing, and the Capt. drove me off with terrible oaths.
But I went around a small farm house and crept back
again, and saw the grapeshot scatter the "rebs." And so I
went on from point to point, staring and asking
questions, and being stared at and questioned in return.
At length I learned that the regiment I wanted was at the
extreme left. So off I started, already weary from loss
of sleep, excitement and tramping under the hot sun.

Arriving at the left, I again was attracted by a battery
in action, and it was while I stood entranced with
excitement that