whose culinary avocations occupy most of the night. On reaching a stream the column was invariably halted a few minutes that the canteens might be refilled; but streams were rare, and sometimes, rendered half delirious by heat and thirst, the men drank greedily from
Gilded puddles which beasts might cough at.
Excepting on such occasions, the column steadily pursued its march at an even pace until it arrived at a spot, adapted by the possession of wood and water for an encampment; the length of the day’s march depending entirely on this. When the existence of these conditions was satisfactorily ascertained, the line halted, broke into columns of companies, and stacked arms. On the arrival of the baggage-waggons, which were always in the van of the train, the tents were pitched in ranges parallel to and between these lines of arms. After providing the cooks with wood and water, the weary men reposed while awaiting dinner, with the exception of those unhappy ones who had been selected for guard, and were destined, notwithstanding their fatigue, to be on duty and awake most of the coming night. Dinner was usually ready about four, when the rear-guard was coming with the slower waggons into camp. Guard-mount and doctor’s-call then rapidly succeeded; tattoo was beaten invariably at eight, that the men might retire early to slumber; and, five minutes later, all lights within the tents were extinguished, and all noise or talking that might have interfered with the general repose strictly prohibited. Nevertheless, after a short nap, certain dissipated fellows would assemble, according to previous appointment, among the further waggons; and there, screened from observation, and indifferent to the plunging and kicking of the vicious mules around them, would carouse and gamble until early réveillée abruptly terminated their enjoyment, and recalled them, haggard, heavy-eyed, and jaded, to the duties of another day.
A fortnight thus elapsed, and finally, without having encountered other annoyances than those arising from the heat of the season and the general deficiency of water, the goal was attained, and the regiment was reunited towards the end of August on the left bank of the Brazos.
The two main branches of that great river, at this point a hundred miles apart, are termed the Clear and Red Forks of Brazos respectively; the waters of the first being sweet and pellucid, but those of the second, whereon the camp stood, and of all its affluents, being turbid and nauseously saline. The only spring as yet discovered in the vicinity was several miles distant, and the supply it afforded was so scanty and precarious that it was necessary to put the force on allowance.
After some days’ suffering on this account, it was considered advisable to divide the command; and the left wing of the regiment in consequence took a new position to the west on the Clear Fork, leaving the right wing to waste the autumn in excavating useless wells on the elevated plains, where water could not possibly have existed. The prairie here terminated abruptly in bold bluffs, leaving a fertile flat at their base, from 1000 to 5000 feet in width. Through this flat flowed the Brazos, with an average width of 500 or 600 feet, alternately approximating and receding from the cliffs which restrained its course, and though generally shallow, subject to such capricious variations of level, that the adventurer who had found it but knee-deep in crossing two or three hours before, might discover to his dismay that return was intercepted by a furious torrent. Gradually, exploring parties ascertained the existence of a large pine forest at a distance of forty miles; the scrub-oaks of the vicinity were found to furnish timber of better quality than had been anticipated; gypsum, lime, and stone admirably adapted for building were plentiful; the plain was strewn in one direction with immense boulders of almost virgin iron; excellent coal cropped out from the cliffs on either side of the river; and from these coal measures fresh water flowed out in tiny rills so abundantly that only cisterns at the base of the cliffs were lacking to secure as ample a supply as could possibly be required. Thus, ere the Indian summer, or last days of autumn, had passed away, every one was satisfied that the region was by no means so bad as had at first been conceived.
Terrific thunderstorms, accompanied by the first rain that had been known in that country for years, preceded an exceptionally rigorous winter. Snow lay heavy on the ground for a month, during which the troops, intermitting their labours in dismay, gazed mournfully from their tents at the inclement skies and whitened ground, uncheered by grog, while masticating their lenten fare sighing after the fleshpots of Egypt,—“the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, and the onions,”—and bitterly exclaiming that they had been led out into the wilderness to die!
Then became apparent the excellence of the organisation of the American army. The thoughts of the despondent soldiery were withdrawn from contemplation of inconveniences unavoidably incidental to an exceptional position to those active exertions whereby it might be improved. An area 1000 feet square was cleared of brush on an eligible slope, sheltered from the wintry northern blasts by a dense coppice, for the purpose of erecting temporary quarters. The position of the designed buildings being then marked out thereon according to the usual quadrangular arrangement, and trenches two feet deep cut on the lines of walls, the scrub-oaks of the adjacent prairies were felled by hundreds, and cut into twenty-feet pickets, which, being planted in the trenches side by side, and connected above by battens and cross-ties, the excavated earth was then filled in, and trodden down, so as to retain them in position. These palisades were then chinked and daubed with clay, so as to form walls impervious to the weather; rough stone chimneys were built at either end of each tenement; rude doors were made and hung; and the older tents, now to be discarded, were formed into coverings, which, after being extended over the roof-trees, were drawn down tight, and securely fastened at the eaves. Within those buildings to be occupied as barracks double tiers of berths were erected along the walls, formed of packing cases and such other impromptu material as could be furnished by the quarter-