tinel who was on guard at his quarters and gave him a drink, and then went to bed. Now, when this same sentinel was on post again, about daylight, he put his head in the tent door, and, finding the General still asleep, woke him up by exclaiming: "General! General! ain't it about time for us to take another drink?"
The General roused up, and, not being in as merry a mood as the night before, ordered him to be taken off to the guardhouse for his insolence.
That soldier was greeted for months afterwards by the whole command by, "General, General, ain't it about time for us to take another drink?"
The Federal General Patterson had crossed the Potomac with a considerable force. Our army, under General Joseph E. Johnston, had evacuated Harper's Perry, and the two armies were close together below Martinsburg. One day our advance had a considerable skirmish with the enemy and captured forty-five prisoners, and then fell back south of town to Darksville, where our whole force lay in line of battle. They were the first prisoners I had seen. As we were ordered to tear down all fences, it looked like a battle was imminent. We lay in line the next day, which was the 4th of July, but still no fight, and on the 5th we returned to Winchester and went into camp at the "Shawnee Springs."
The boys were all mad because we had had no fight, and accused General Johnston of being a coward, but they soon found out that he knew his business, and that a braver man never lived. After remaining in this camp three days our battalion was ordered to report to Colonel Cummings, one mile south of Winchester, where we found he had collected five more companies, viz.: Page Grays, Captain Rippetoe; Shenandoah Riflemen, Captain Gatewood; Emerald Guards, Captain Sibert (nearly all Irishmen); Mount Jackson Rifles, Captain Allen, and Brook Company, Captain Crabill.
We remained in this camp several days, and received our equipments from Springfield, as our company was equipped by private subscription, and they were not ready
