At this time pickets were only changed every third day, "three-day
picket," we called it. We preferred this, as it gave us such a long time
without any duty of this kind, that the change was welcome. We were
almost two months in this camp, and during this time I was only on
picket twice. There was no enemy in our immediate front. The days passed
as tranquilly and as free from danger as if war had never been. Now and
then you could hear a boom of cannon far to the right; but if you wanted
to see a rebel, you had to travel four or five miles to get a glimpse of
one.
The second time I was on picket, the weather was extremely cold. The
first day we were placed on reserve, at a substantial rifle pit, about
fifty yards back of the regular picket line. During the night, for some
reason, we had orders to strengthen the line. I was sent to the extreme
right of our brigade line, where we joined with pickets of German
troops. The posts were about a hundred yards apart, at each post a
strong rifle-pit. The fires were built at the right or left of the
rifle-pit, and carefully screened with bushes, so that those about them
could not be seen from the outside. Our line here was in woods, and the
timber was cut down between the posts. In front of the posts, videttes
were placed during the night, who were relieved every two hours. The men
at this post were from a Delaware regiment, and all strangers to me.
It was very cold work, standing vidette two hours at a time; in fact, my
toes were slightly frosted the first night. We discussed the question,
and concluded we could relieve matters a little. We arranged with the
men on the post at our left to put out but one man from the two posts.
By alternating, we would only be on post one-half as long. The officer
in charge of the line would come from the left, and it was arranged that
the other post would signal us when he approached, and one of us would
go out. In this way we always had a man out from each post when he
inquired into matters. This was rather an irresponsible way of running
the Army of the Potomac, but it seemed to us an improvement.
An incident occurred the second night, which convinced us that our plan
was open to objection. The men were all sleeping around the fire, except
one, a nervous fellow, of whose qualities I had not a high opinion. I
must have been sleeping but lightly. Suddenly I was aroused by a noise
outside the screen, to the right, as if some one had been passing
stealthily along and tripped, falling headlong. I was instantly on my
feet, and telling the men to scatter out and see what was the matter, I
hastened out toward the right, followed only by the nervous man. We
searched the ground carefully as far as the pit on our right. With our
bayonets we thrust among the brush, and examined every dark corner,
without any result. We returned, to find part of the men still at the
fire, and the rest behind the rifle-pit outside. A similar search toward
the left was equally fruitless. We never were able to explain the thing
satisfactorily, but concluded to keep out our videttes.
After the Hatcher's Run campaign, I saw one of these men in rather
unfavorable circumstances. We had been in camp a few days, and were
engaged in building our tents, when we heard the sound of a fife and
drum approaching. As they drew near, we saw a corporal and a file of
men, and in their midst one of the heroes of the picket adventure, who
had shivered over the fire that night, when he should have been out
looking for the supposed intruder. Across his back was hung a board,
about three feet long by one in breadth, on which was inscribed, in
large letters:
=COWARD.=
The musicians were playing "Rogues' March," to which the soldiers had
adapted the following touching lines:
"Poor old soldier,
Poor old soldier,
Bucked and gagged and sent to ----,
Because he wouldn't soldier."