Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/79



promised never to leave the boys, whether in camp or at the front, and that day I went to Miss Dix to see about being sent up. She gave me her word that I should go as soon as any woman was allowed there, and I rested for the time, with the wild beating at my heart which told of death and wounds to those who were dear as brothers and children to me.

I took the cars for Hyattsville, Md., where I found my friend, Mrs. A. E. Youngs, and was welcomed to her house. I enjoyed the rest in body, although, with the floating rumors of extensive movements, my mind was constantly on the march with our brave troops, dreaming of them nightly; the morning's first awakening filled with thoughts of them, perhaps preparing their coffee by the hasty fire, perhaps called by the long roll from the drowsy arms of sleep, to rush into the foray with breakfast untasted as yet.

I received while at Hyattsville the first letter from our regiment, from Sergeant Kresgee of the Pioneer Corps, giving me in detail the incidents of their march, the first night with Burnside, of the halt at Fairfax Station, and thence, as all the world knows, the