Now these late-in-the-evening fights are the most disagreeable things imaginable, as will readily be conceded by all who have participated in them, and I sincerely hoped the General’s prediction would not be verified. In the first place, you are as liable to shoot and be shot by friend as by foe. Moreover, the inextricable confusion inevitable is unpleasant, for you are more likely to get into the enemy’s lines than keep in your own, and I saw many instances of it that night. While we were conversing, some of the pickets brought in a prisoner, an ill-favored, brutal looking Dutchman, who had been pounced upon while out foraging. The fellow appeared relieved at the idea of escaping the fight, for drawing a long breath he said: “Ich been feel mooch besser; I like not mooch fight.” Upon our inquiring why Hooker had been superceded by Meade, he replied: “Vat for he let der Lee in Pennsylvany coom?” The prisoner could not or would not give us any information upon many points we questioned him. He only knew that he belonged to a “Pennsylvany” regiment in the “Oonan” army. So much and no more could his intelligent mind comprehend. “It is too bad,” exclaimed “Walker, rather excitedly, “to think that such men as we have around us should be butchered by the miserable mercenary devils of which this is a fair specimen. Sometimes I am half inclined to show the wretches no quarter. Take the creature to the rear.” Expressing a mutual wish that fortune would favor us in the coming fight, we separated, not to meet again for many months. Soon after reaching the battalion Capt. W. H. Murray, of whom I have before spoken in this narrative and of whom I have yet to speak, joined us. He was one of my dearest friends, and his was a friendship I was proud to boast. With Colonel Herbert we had started out early in ’61 as privates in the First Maryland; arose to the rank of Captain almost simultaneously; first saw fighting at the battle of Manassas; and had together participated in most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia from that time to this. A thorough disciplinarian, brave as a lion, calm and collected amid the roar of artillery, the rattle of musketry, and the carnage of battle, I regarded him as one of the very best officers I ever saw. By his men he was almost idolized, whilst by the battalion he was universally beloved. The companies he commanded in the First and Second Infantry were model ones, and I question whether throughout the whole Confederate Army two such could have been found. As an evidence of their discipline and fighting qualities, and the tenacity and desperation with which they stood to their work at Gettysburg, I would state that out of ninety-eight men that he took into the fight, but thirty-one reported after the battle. “Anything to be done to-day?” was his inquiry as he took a seat by our side.