Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/68



regiment was now broken indeed. Co. G was left at Bladensburg, Co. B and Co. I were about two miles from Falls Church, others were at Mason's Island, and a part with us. Yet they were enjoying themselves, and had many a privilege which was denied the soldier in camp.

The long roll beat one night, and the order for our boys to double quick it a mile, to where the Second District lay, for a band of raiders were supposed to be there. Excited, but fearless, they reached the spot in time to find that the alarm was only occasioned by the pickets firing upon an old white horse which, in his ghostly garb, had startled them with visions of a surprise.

The boys laughed as heartily as any one over the joke, some, in their hearts, no doubt, glad that the enemy was not a formidable force of desperate men, which had roused them from slumber in the December midnight.

The weather was quite severe for the climate, but we were as comfortable as could be expected.

While at Falls Church I visited one afternoon with Capt. Gordon's wife. They had a room, and