Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/74

 68 Southern Historical. Society Papers.

and then moved back and camped near the house where General Jackson had his headquarters on the road to Manassas Station. We camped in the open field near a muddy stream, exposed to the heat of the sun and the attacks of innumerable insects, with the muddiest water to drink, and when it rained our camp was a perfect slush. Our stay at this camp produced such a vivid impression on us that we ever afterwards referred to it as "Camp Mudhole." While at this camp, about August 3d, I obtained permission from Captain Pendleton to go up to Clarke county for three days to visit my cousins at Mr. Page's, which furlough I spent there very pleasantly, and on returning found that the battery had moved down about one mile below Centreville on the turnpike to Fairfax Courthouse, and was camped there with the brigade (" Stonewall ") to which it was attached.

This camp was named by General Jackson " Camp Harman." It was very pleasantly situated about one-fourth of a mile off the road, on the edge of a piece of woods, and convenient to two excellent springs. We enjoyed our stay there very much, tho' the daily rou- tine of camp life became very monotonous. We drilled both morn- ing and evening, and part of the time before breakfast also, but that was soon dispensed with. We had three posts of guard duty, one at the guns and two at the horses, and each one's turn came once in every five or six days. While here we exchanged some pieces of our battery and obtained two additional pieces, so that it was now con- stituted two (2) ten-pounder Parrott rifled guns, three (3) six-pounder smooth-bore guns, and one (i) twelve-pounder Howitzer; the six- pounder we retained was the one at which I served at the first battle of Manassas, which was then the third piece, but now the sixth, at which I was No. 2; this was the only piece used at the battle of Hainesville (or Falling Waters), the first skirmish that occurred in the Valley of Virginia, and this was the first piece fired in the Valley after the war commenced; it was also used in the war with Mexico and should have been preserved, but it has now, alas ! been melted up to make twelve-pounder Napoleons, and so "gone the way of all flesh."

Some more of my University friends joined the battery at this camp, among whom were Randolph Fairfax (a noble boy, afterwards killed at the first battle of Fredericksburg, December i3th, '62), Lanty Blackford and Berkeley Minor. 17 Our mess at that time con- sisted of about twenty-five or thirty, nearly all of the best fellows in