Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/120



the afternoon of June eighteenth, we reached City Point, and landed. We had an excellent meal of canned chicken and crackers, from the Christian Commission, and sat down to await further orders, which soon came. We were to walk a mile distance to find our shelter for the night.

It was a motley procession, suggesting Falstaff's Ragged Regiment, or a Fourth of July demonstration of Young America, as we travelled on, each with knapsack, and such possessions as could not be dispensed with. I, more fortunate than some of my companions, had provided myself with a coffee-pot and frying-pan, which hung to my knapsack, and tired and dusty we kept on our way, regardless of military precision, seeking first one side of the road then the other, to avoid the thick dust, then forsaking it as another path seemed to look more inviting to the aching feet.

Dr. Hays and several others led the way, and a surgeon from the Fifth Regiment Mass. Infantry, going from the hospital to join his command, kept up wearily with the throng.

We arrived, and not a tent to shelter our heads,