band were abandoned to the enemy. We missed the tents afterward, but managed to get along without the band.

The command numbered about fifteen hundred, officers and men, in good condition, well mounted and armed. The night was fine, but intensely dark.

Although the enemy was believed to be in strong force on the road chosen, and there were unknown dangers to be met in the darkness of night, it was an immense relief to be once more in motion with a chance for liberty. Hemmed in on all sides as they had been, harried by shot and shell without being able to strike back, and with the gloomiest forebodings of the future, the spirits of officers and men had been depressed to the point of despondency; but all now recovered their cheerfulness, and pressed forward, full of hope and courage, and equal to any emergency.

The real situation was this: McLaws still occupied Maryland Heights, Lee was moving from Turner's Gap towards Sharpsburg, and Longstreet was at Hagerstown, with part of his command near Williamsport on the Potomac; so that the enemy was in heavy force between Harper's Ferry and McClellan, as well as along the entire route taken by the cavalry as far as Williamsport. The battle of South Mountain, it will be remembered, had been fought on that day.

The command was formed in column of twos, and, with Lieutenant Green of the First Maryland Cavalry and Tom Noakes a scout who had been for some months with General White's command in Virginia - as guides, began the march.

The bridge was necessarily crossed at a walk; but each company on reaching the further shore took the gallop, and, turning to the left, passed between the canal and the high ground near the river, and then, turning to the right, took the road over the Heights toward Sharpsburg, closing up as rapidly as possible into column of fours.

The effect of thus increasing the speed of a portion of the column while the remainder was proceeding at a walk can be easily imagined. It was extremely difficult, in the darkness, to keep touch, as one may say (for it was impossible to see), with the preceding company. The only clew was the clatter of hoofs and the rattle of sabres; and the direction of these sounds was not easy to determine.

The result of this manœuvre came nigh proving disastrous. As Company D of the Twelfth Illinois came off the bridge, it missed the rear of the preceding company, turned to the right instead of to the left, and, marching down the road toward Sandy Hook, soon struck the enemy's pickets. The captain was convinced he had made a mistake, and, turning hastily to the right about, he returned to the bridge in time to take his place in the column.

The command still held to the gallop, although the road was steep and rocky. For a company commander to keep within sight or sound of the flying column in his front, without running away from his own command, was no easy task. It was a killing pace, and very hard work to keep up.

The command pushed on to a point near Sharpsburg, which was reached about 10 P. M., without drawing rein. A Rebel picket was encountered at the base of the mountain, but its challenge was unheeded, and the few shots fired were without effect.

On nearing Sharpsburg, it was thought we were in the vicinity of McClellan's army, and orders were given to reply to any challenge that might be made. The night had now become starlight, and as we approached the town, several cavalry videttes were discovered in the road. To the challenge, "Who comes there?" the answer was, "Friends to the Union." This reply was evidently unsatisfactory, for the pickets immediately fired upon us, but again without effect.

VOL. II.-3

A charge was ordered and promptly executed, driving the pickets and their reserve into and through the principal street of Sharpsburg on the road toward Hagerstown. Here the command was moving slowly northward, when the darkness was suddenly illumined by a sheet of flame, and the stillness broken by a rattling volley of musketry. The discharge was harmless, but it was evident that the enemy was present in considerable force, as the commotion in their camp, the commands of their officers, and the rumbling of artillery wheels could be distinctly heard. A citizen also informed an officer of the Eighth New York that the column was "going right into Lee's army."

A hurried consultation was held between the officers and guides, and it was decided to turn back and try another road. The movement was quickly executed, the Twelfth Illinois, guided by Noakes, taking the advance, and leaving Sharpsburg by a road running to the left, or westward, toward Falling Waters on the Potomac.

We were not going anywhere in particular, and it was hoped the country in this direction would prove more open and unobstructed, and better "adapted to manoeuvring cavalry," than that toward Hagerstown.

The enemy had now gotten their artillery in position, and sent a few shells after us as we moved out of the village. It was necessary to avoid the main roads, which were in possession of the enemy; but Noakes, who was familiar with every foot of ground in the neighborhood, found a circuitous path through lanes and by-roads, woods and fields. So the column marched steadily and silently, threading its way between the camps of the sleeping foe, until it emerged at a point on the Hagerstown and Williamsport turnpike about two miles from Williamsport. The march from Sharpsburg to this point had been made mainly at a walk, and was without incident.

The writer had often heard, with incredulity, of sleeping in the saddle; but on this part of the march a great

many of the men, worn out by constant duty for a week previous, slept as they rode. One would awake, and, finding he had lost his place in the column, regain it, only to go to sleep again and repeat the process.

It was now just in the gray of morning. The bivouac fires of a large camp of the enemy, near Williamsport, and not more than a mile distant, were plainly visible, and sounds of men astir were distinctly heard.

As the advance of the column approached the pike, the rumbling of wheels in the distance toward Hagerstown was heard. The sound indicated the approach of artillery or wagons. It was an anxious moment; but Colonel Davis (Eighth New York) and Lieutenant-Colonel Davis. (Twelfth Illinois), who were at the head of the column, were equal to the occasion. They promptly decided to surprise the enemy and capture the guns or wagons, whichever they should prove to be.

The Eighth New York was immediately formed in line facing the road on the north side, the Twelfth Illinois in the same order south of the road, the Maryland and Rhode Island cavalry being held in reserve; while Colonel Davis (Eighth New York), with a squadron of his regiment, advanced and took possession of the road so as to intercept the enemy, who was apparently moving toward Williamsport. All was done in silence, and it was still too dark for our troops, concealed in the timber which skirted the road, to be seen.

The approaching column proved to be a train of army wagons (ninety-seven in number), loaded principally with ammunition and escorted by infantry, — four or five men accompanying each wagon, with a detachment of cavalry in the rear.

When the head of the train came up it was halted, and the guard ordered to surrender, which it did without a shot being fired on either side.

Captain William Frisbie (Eighth New York Cavalry) was then ordered to take the train, turn it on the Green

castle pike, and run it through to that place at the rate o eight miles an hour.

The Captain says this was the hardest order he ever received. After riding all night in a strange country, he had no idea where he was, knowing only that he was somewhere on the north side of the Potomac ; and Greencastle was a place he had never heard of before. He naturally, and, as he says, "innocently," asked Colonel Davis the road, and was peremptorily ordered to "Find it, and be off, without delay!" The Marylanders fortunately furnished him a guide, and Greencastle proved to be about twelve miles distant, in a northerly direction, with a good road nearly all the way.

While Captain Frisbie was holding the train and disarming the prisoners, the Rebel officer in charge of the escort came up and demanded of the teamster, in no gentle tones, by what authority he stopped the train. The teamster pointed to his captor, with the remark, "The woods are full of Yanks!" The Rebel officer had the temerity to turn upon the Captain and roughly demand his authority. The Captain replied, "By the authority of an officer of the United States Army!" The Rebel put his hand on his revolver; but seeing the force by which he was surrounded, was convinced that resistance was hopeless, and in his turn surrendered, and joined his comrades in the corner of the fence. The train was immediately started forward, the foremost wagons being turned to the right, driven a short distance. over a dirt road to the Greencastle turnpike, and then driven northward on that road at a rapid rate.

As each wagon successively reached the point where Colonel Davis was posted, it shared the fate of its predecessors. Its escort was noiselessly captured, and, with scarcely another halt or check of the column, the whole train was transferred to the Greencastle road and travelling northward faster than a wagon train ever moved before.