About dusk the order was given to fall back quickly and quietly, but how to do it safely in the face of a regiment of Confederates was a puzzle to be solved; edging backward till at fair distance from the fence, we suddenly rose and scampered, in knots of two or three, at break-neck speed for the other side of the field, with bullets and grape buzzing around us like angry wasps. When, at length, we gathered, shivering with the cold, around our pile of blankets, and felt hungrily in the emptiness of our haversacks for one remaining cracker, the prevailing feeling was that "we wanted to go home," but, to our intense disgust, we were ordered to eat our hardtack, if so fortunate as to have any, and, as soon as sufficiently dark to conceal our movements, to picket the river bank near the bridge and be ready to support the battery in any attempted night surprise. This we felt to be an outrage on good nature, and so expressed ourselves in language not at all polite. We were tired and hungry, and the night cold and sharp, but orders are orders and must be obeyed, and we moodily wended our way to our various stations. It was a good time to illustrate those lines of Tennyson,-- "Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why." Nevertheless we were not at all in harmony with the poem, but felt perfectly willing and wholly competent to instruct our commanders on the correct way to handle troops. As we pushed on through the underbrush and debris of the forest, the smallest stick trod upon would crack like a rifle-shot, and the unearthly howl of a dog, in the yard of a hut near by, made our hair stand on end as it echoed through the woods. The hours passed tediously as we peered through the darkness across the sluggish stream to the opposite side; but a little after midnight movements of the enemy, which they did not try to conceal, awakened our fears; the noise of bodies of men moving from different points, mingled with the sound of voices and frequent shouts, led us to feel that life would be safer and pleasanter behind our battery, when an officer came from the rear and ordered us to come out in a hurry. We didn't stand upon the order of going, but "got, right smart,"--not a word of fault was found, nor a complaint made, out of harmony with the officer's wishes. Company was formed at once, and the retreat up the road commenced, many an eye peering back into the darkness to see if the expected pursuit had begun; and had we waited an hour longer, our march would have been towards the prison-pens of Georgia, for our opponents then crossed the bridge with a force that would have swept us away in a moment; and the longer we live the happier we feel that our curiosity remained unsatisfied. Upon reaching the regiment we learned that our corps, having been unable to accomplish the object in view, as so many other expeditions failed to do, were in retreat, with heavy forces fresh from Lee's army in pursuit,