| Show A afu t along akong THE PICKET LINE IN THE I 1 december f j picketing hero bero oi on the north horth korthof nor of fhe the james is a different business from picketing before petersburg or at bermuda hundred where strong lines of works aro are over against each other with sentinels merely advanced a little in their front here hero all tile tho country around is to be watched and the tho vid ettes are at some tome points quite remote from the in trench ments of either side outside of our works is a strong amstrong infantry line beyond is a line of dismounted cava eava cavalry 1 ry still further out are mounted vid ettes skirting the entire front from chapins alutto bluff to Malvern Hills the infantry line can only be passed by special permit from corps headquarters obtaining that a few days since we rode out of the sally port near the new market road 0 opposite p osite the tenth corps front for a look ahong afong the line over the ground where was waa sharpest fighting and bloodiest iest work on the ath of october where t brave gen birney spent his last strength in recovering the ground lost by gen kautz and where the texas and alabama troops were hurled back by the new england soldiers of terrys divi division sion slon I 1 we passed to the old kell koll place which at the time of that battle was wag a dwelling in good repair but which has since been carried away by piecemeal to eke che out our winter quarters until only one or two rooms of the nira first aldon aidon floon floor remain standing out in the cold aa AS a scanty lath and plaster cover of the cavalry reserve along the ravine beyond reir weir nd we found the infantry pickets their reserve has cosy log cabins chinked with mud to look upon the picturesque groups of men cooking supper over a gipsy fired nire fire washing in illde the brook near by lolling 0 on fi the hillside hill s ide side chatting or playing cards carda while their comrades stood at neighboring posts on duty one ono could hardly realize that they we repart odthe of the outpost ut 0 s guard u a rd between een the two mightiest I 1 e s a armies r m i e s of earth ready to fall in at the earliest alarm and meet the first shock of the next battle battie which might prove the last fi night fight flit to them and their comrades still burther further further on we found the dismounted cavalry pacing a regular beat then at a turn of the path through the dense woods we came camo upon a cavalry vidette breet in his saddle his very horse still as a statue he sni sai with carbine ready cocked its muzzle raised watching with vigilant eye and car the thicket before him whence at any moment an enemy might spring to kill or capture him even then a hostile rifle might be leveled against li his bis is f breast A seconds inattention would probably cost him his life or his army a battle tiresome work that the hour on vidette post in such a country is nerve straining and strength taxing no wonder that the lonely sentinel longs to hear A step to the soldiers par oar most dea dear rf A sound that banishes all of his grf gri grief the welcome tread of the next relief there was an opening in the woods beyond opposing vid ettes were in sight I 1 i t of each other there we saw a sif sli fa fair r illustration of yankee soldiering A union videtto vidette stood hy y the ruins of an old dwelling before him at perhaps yards was another ruin in which was a single window that was the post of a rebel vidette by the union trooper stood a quartermaster sergeant of a connecticut regiment evidently in perplexity he was out for building materials for his colonels quarters he iye wanted that window over the way it was but a step to it but the rebel guard was a serious obstacle to its possession he was calculating the T cost As he told his trouble he remark lemark ed I 1 they say theres only one of lem there if I 1 had my rifle here I 1 could nix fix him and get the window then he added with perhaps a dash of sour grape in the argument but two 61 6 the airape fights is broken I 1 don t know as ast would pay theres only four on lern lein em lefty left JV we e passed gassed on leaving the yankee pee pec reckoning koning up the comparative value of a charge of powder and a broken window the morality of rebel killing was not an element of the mental arithmetic awas was it worth while to take so much pains to get so few panes that was the tho I 1 sum 1 oer over 4 a bog where we mired and well weli nigh lost our horse we skirted the vi vl dette line to the open field and high ground beyond the johnon johnson place on the darbytown Darby town road the darbytown Darby narby lown iown town road up which we have advanced so many times with high hopes or anxious hearts and down which we have haver so often returned the object of our recon ja lissance ois sance fully accomplished and omo ome some of our bravest andrest left weltering on the bloody fields adjacent there in full view stretched rc ro beldom before us up tilo the I 1 darbytown Darby arby town road but a few hundred yards wasa was a screen of fallen trees to coyer a rebel picket post about that a group of johnnies were loun lounging in the pleasant november su sunlight I 1 still higher up the road was seen the frowning bank of a strong earth carth earthwork wor 41 over the parapet of which L gleamed beamed the white tent tops and above all ali tho the hedd heid headquarters flag with its starry blue cross on the blood red field away to the right a continuation of the same samo earthwork was seen stretching out to the charles city road where a formidable redoubt pointed its heavy guns on our immediate flank tents were visible all the way along extending far back in successive regular lines jines pickets were posted in the edge of the wood at our front and again in the tho fields just beneath us A group loitered again in the fields just beneath us A group loitered about the ruins of the gerbardt house which was ou our oun r hospital during tho the fight of the fatal of october when gallant major camp laid down his life before those bristling works in the woods beyond parties for wood and water were were moving hither and thither and all gave evidence of th the e nearness of the vast army spring field republican |
