. Three years in the army. The story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers from July 16, 1861, to August 1, 1864 . ers to march un ay, c]own the riVer about four miles, the enemy being in forceAugust 17. on the opposite side. Our camp was not far from Mitchells station, and the water scarce. In the afternoon a batch of recruits arrived from Bos-Monday, ton, and another fine lot of boys they were. Their knap-August 18. sacks were loaded, as we knew from experience, withmany things they could do without, and beside ours theylooked like Saratogas. They were at once drawn up in line andassign
. Three years in the army. The story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers from July 16, 1861, to August 1, 1864 . ers to march un ay, c]own the riVer about four miles, the enemy being in forceAugust 17. on the opposite side. Our camp was not far from Mitchells station, and the water scarce. In the afternoon a batch of recruits arrived from Bos-Monday, ton, and another fine lot of boys they were. Their knap-August 18. sacks were loaded, as we knew from experience, withmany things they could do without, and beside ours theylooked like Saratogas. They were at once drawn up in line andassigned to companies, after which the chaplain gave them somefriendly advice as to what we old fellows were; cautioning themto beware of our seductive advice about discarding this or that, andparticularly cautioning them about swapping their bright, new dippersfor our old, battered ones. His advice was, no doubt, well-inten-tioned, but his accusations were so general that the recruits hardlyknew whom to trust, and it was, therefore, a rather delicate matterfor us to give advice, though they sadly needed it. However, we. MAP N9 G THIRTEENTH MASS. VOLS. 101 1862. did our best to make them comfortable, though the best must have seemed very little to them, and let experience teach them the rest. As there were very few surplus guns, most of these recruits had to do without them until after the 30th of 11 the long roll was sounded and, nearly dead with sleep, we turned out to answer to our names, and then to march. We marched about an hour toward Culpeper, when we were halted to allow the wagon train to pass. From midnight until 9 oclock in the morning we Tuesday, stood in the road, with our noses pointed toward Cul- August 19. peper, patiently waiting for an order to march, in aframe of mind that is well described by Mr. Kipling in the following lines : Wot makes the soldiers eart to penk, wot makes Mm to perspire?It isnt standin up to charge or lying down to lire;But its
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