CHAPTER VI.

THE BLUNDER AT CHANCELLO I SVILLE.

MEANWHILE, how had Daniel been faring in the Old Dominion? Had the soldiers of the East kept pace with the victorious march of their comrades in the West? Thus far in the new year Daniel's letters had given the shaded side of the sketch drawn by Horace; and Maedy said that the two descriptions were like her set of stereoscopic views, which displayed first a warm, sunny picture, succeeded by a similar scene in winter and night. From the time of the unfortunate assault of the Fredericksburg heights, in December, till the latter part of April, the brief letters written by Daniel recorded no success of the National arms. The "situation" in

Virginia was, from his point of view, far from encouraging.

One piece of news there was, indeed, ,which gave great satisfaction at home. The boy's good character, and in particular his "meritorious conduct," mentioned in his colonel's report of the last engagement, had obtained his promotion. He was now third lieutenant, with a prospect of further advancement.

In January he wrote:

"One day when we were lounging in our tent, discussing the disaster at Fredericksburg, writing letters we have sent as many as ten thousand at a mail, showing that we are rather an intelligent army, I think some of us stretched lazily among the knapsacks and blankets, our colonel paused at the door, saying: 'The rumor is, we're to have marching orders, boys; and we may as well be ready for them.' A troop of Black Horse couldn't have made more of a stir than these few words. Knapsacks, blankets, half-devoured hams, halfwritten letters, were at once stowed in their proper places; the tent was cleared in fifteen minutes, and before the noon mess was served our company was ready to start. Two days later, which happened

to be stormy ones, the order came-Fall in;' and we set forth. I began to fear that my boots would get muddy, upon observing the character of the soil, which has sand enough to make it movable, clay enough to make it sticky, and water enough to float the whole. The bottom of the roads had fallen out, consequently we couldn't get over them very fast; and some of us thought 'twould have been better to have built an ark beforehand, considering the signs of the heavens above and the earth beneath, which looked as if the deluge was to be repeated. Still we pressed on, more obstinate than the mules, many of whom had lost breath and life in their struggles with the liquid muck. Looking ahead at the scattered, floating mass of men and animals, I observed a sorry-looking figure making its way toward me. Hallo, old Pottery !' I called. 'Why aren't you with your regiment? › 'Don't speak to me,' he panted. 'I'm a spared moniment; I've marched in mud, swam in it, drank it, slept in it, left all my friends in it-think likely they're drowned; the regiment's nowhere, and I'm demoralized as-'

"A poor demoralized monument, indeed! The first one I ever saw,' I commented, and began to query, not as hitherto-'How shall we go on,' but

How in the earth-or water-shall we ever get back!' For the rest, you have heard of this famous

'Mud March,' and of our floundering back to camp

"There in the twilight cold and grey,
Considerably played out we lay;

And through the vapor, grey and thick,
A voice tell like a rocket-stick-

Skedaddle!'

"Deserters at the rate of two hundred a day have been pursuing this retrogade movement, supported by a force of about eighty-two thousand men noț here to answer at roll-call. We have seen trouble before, but were never in such wretched plight as at present."

In February he wrote:

"The enemy goes his own way without fear of molestation; we have ceased to be surprised at his boldness. 'Jeb' Stuart, 'the untiring'-thus he is named in Lee's army-has been out on another disastrous raid, which is but one of six cavalry expeditions made by their troopers within a few weeks. At the last of these dashes, a young brigadier-general was captured in bed, and hurried off, guard, horses, and all his retinue. The story is that when the affair was reported to President Lincoln, with expressions of regret, he rejoined, with a touch of

his dry numor, 'Yes, the loss of the horses is bad, but I can make another general in five minutes.' He is often asked for passes, you know, by gentlemen wishing to go South. To one of these he said lately I would be very happy to oblige you, sir, if my passes were respected; but the fact is, I have given passes within the last two years to two hundred and fifty thousand men to go to Richmond, and not one has reached there yet!' However, we shall keep 'pegging away'-the only hope of successfully closing the war, as he himself says; and, meantime, we are beginning to improve under the new rule, for Burnside has resigned, and Hooker takes his place. The ranks are filling up, the cavalry force is being enlarged and disciplined. We shall soon be in trim to break camp and take the field."

In May came news of a battle:

"Well, we have met the enemy, and he is not ours. We don't like to confess ourselves beaten, yet as we retreated, and our loss was the heavier, Lee will assuredly claim a victory. The truth is, we didn't fight the battle through; we were foiled, and ordered to retreat, to the displeasure of all except the commander. Yet the start was brave enough, and for once Lee was outgeneraled by our quick passage of the Rappahannock, and occupa