Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/306

 800 Southern Hixtm-n-nl. Society Papers.

waited in vain. Before dawn those who were awake heard a con- fused and uncertain hum in the direction of Centreville, which ere the day broadly dawned had grown into a mighty rumbling of artil- lery wheels, rattling of wagons, trains, and din of human voices. How sound travels on such a morning, when the world is waking to life again! I slept that dreamless sleep that only comes to a tired man out beneath the wide sky, breathing the unfettered air on such a summer's night, and awoke refreshed beyond the conception of one who has never enjoyed such a privilege.

Before the sun was up we had our coffee simmering on the fire in tin-cups (we had some coffee in those days), and saluted him as he arose with this delightful libation, and such a sun-rise it was! Alto- gether it was such a morning as Bagby describes in his " Reuben- stein." He describes a country home with apple trees all in bloom, and says something like this: As the sun rose kissing from blossom and leaf the trembling dew-drop, a little bird 'way down in the or- chard awoke and began to trill his matin song. Then another, and another, and another, answered back the first little bird till the world was full of melody, and then the servant gal threw open the blinds in the house, and it was day once more. So, that morning the robin in the oak on the hill, and the red bird in the bottom by the stream, seemed to sing their sweetest for the boys in gray, till old McDowell chimed in with his deep base from the other side, when the feathered songsters quit in disgust.

CURIOUS WEAPONS.

What a morning for a battle! We had scarcely swallowed our coffee when the boom of the two guns immediately in our front and the hurling of a few shells far over our heads warned us that the ball was about to open, and hastened us down to our hastily-constructed rifle-pits (they had been thrown up with bayonets and tin-cups the night before). As the enemy's skirmishers approached and the minie-balls whistled overhead and thumped the earth-works in front, I noticed that one man took a Testament from his pocket, and sit- ing bolt-upright, with his head above the breast-works, began to read. He seemed totally unconscious that he was disobeying orders and exposing his person to the bullets at the same time. Lieutenant Brown ordered him several times to lower his head behind the em- bankment, but he seemed not to hear, until Brown drew his sword and threatened to take his head off, when he suddenly returned to consciousness and obeyed. This old sword of Brown's was a most