Page 4

refrain from tears

In twenty minutes the Bugles
sounded the advance! & our whole
Brigade deployed into the road to
Richmond. The rain had just
hardened the loaming dust so
that the travelling was excellent
& for 3 hours the long line of bristling
bayonets & interspersed baggage wagons
wound their way through Virginia
plantations & [underserving?] forests - so
silently that the song of birds & the
hum of insects fell distinctly upon the
ear- The considerate officers rested their
men every hour, when the weary soldier
without unstrapping his knapsack
would ground his arms & adroitly throw
himself upon his back & slipping the
knapsack up under his head & thus
in a twinkling form a most convenient
& luxuriant pillow_ At about 9 o clock
the slight mist of the morning became
rain - In another hour it was pouring
in torrents.