misbehaving States, I might say it. And involuntarily I have said it.
So the young ladies of New York — including, I hope, her who made my sandwiches for the march hither — had been making us a flag, as they have made us havelocks, pots of jelly, bundles of lint, flannel dressing-gowns, embroidered slippers for a rainy day in camp, and other necessaries of the soldier’s life.
May 23d was the day we were to get this sweet symbol of good-will. At evening parade appeared General Thomas, as the agent of the ladies, the donors, with a neat speech on a clean sheet of paper. He read it with feeling; and Private W., who has his sentimental moments, avows that he was touched by the General’s earnest manner and patriotic words. Our Colonel responded with his neat speech, very apropos. The regiment then made its neat speech, nine cheers and a roar of tigers, — very brief and pointed.
There had been a note of preparation in General Thomas’s remarks, — a “Virginia, cave canem!” And before parade was dismissed, we saw our officers holding parley with the Colonel.
Something in the wind! As I was strolling off to see the sunset and the ladies on parade, I began to hear great irrepressible cheers bursting from the streets of the different companies.
“Orders to be ready to march at a moment’s notice!” — so I learned presently from dozens of overjoyed fellows. “Harper’s Ferry!” says one. “
