. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . llya pontoon boat or rubber blanket. The scene was a busy one. The red cap,white leggins, and baggy trousers of the Zouaves mingled with the blue uni-forms and dark trimmings of the regular infantry-men, the short jackets andyellow trimmings of the cavalry, the red stripes of the artillery, and the darkblue with orange trimmings of the engineers; together with the ragged, many-colored costumes of the black laborers and teamsters, all busy at morning we broke camp and
. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . llya pontoon boat or rubber blanket. The scene was a busy one. The red cap,white leggins, and baggy trousers of the Zouaves mingled with the blue uni-forms and dark trimmings of the regular infantry-men, the short jackets andyellow trimmings of the cavalry, the red stripes of the artillery, and the darkblue with orange trimmings of the engineers; together with the ragged, many-colored costumes of the black laborers and teamsters, all busy at morning we broke camp and went marching up the Peninsula. Theroads were very poor and muddy with recent rains, and were crowded withthe indescribable material of the vast army which was slowly creeping throughthe mud over the flat, wooded country. It was a bright day in April — a per-fect Virginia day; the grass was green beneath our feet, the buds of thetrees were just unrolling into leaves under the warming sun of spring, andin the woods the buds were singing. The march was at first orderly, but 189 190 YORKTOWN AND - S EXODUS. under the unaccus-tomed burden ofheavy equipmentsand knapsacks, andthe warmth of theweather, the menstraggled along theroads, mingling withthe baggage-wag-ons, ambulances, andpontoon trains, inseeming confusion. During our seconddays march it rain-ed, and the muddyroads, cut up andkneaded, as it were, by the teams preceding us, left them in a state of semi-liquid filth hardly possible to describe or imagine. When we arrived at Big-Bethel the rain was coming down in sheets. A dozen houses of very ordi-nary character, scattered over an area of a third of a mile, constituted whatwas called the village. Just outside and west of the town was an insignifi-cant building from which the place takes its name. It did not seem largeenough or of sufficient consequence to give name to a hamlet as small asBig Bethel. Before our arrival it had evidently been occupied as offic
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1887
