that they were looking after, but they wished to get out of the fight. After the war I talked with one of the seven men who was not captured, and he said that just after we left the trenches General J. B. Gordon came up with his division, and charged Meagher’s Brigade, tumbling them into the trenches that we had left and, crossing them, was soon in the midst of Hancock’s Corps, whose ranks had been so depleted by his men going with us to the rear that a gap was left in front. It was in this charge that General Gordon caught the bridle rein of Traveler and asked General Lee to retire to the rear, as his boys would do the fighting. Our three or four guards each trotted us to the rear rapidly, and I suspect would have gone with us as far as Fredericksburg, but for General Grant; for when we reached his headquarters, about a mile in the rear, the General was directing couriers to different positions on the field. When he saw the head column of prisoners attended by so many guards, he knew why there was trouble in General Hancock’s ranks. Turning to one of his staff, General Grant said: “Reorganize that line; for every four prisoners a guard, and place Lieutenant —— in command.” When the line was reorganized, we proceeded slowly along the dirt road in single file toward the town of Fredericksburg, distant sixteen miles. Soon we had to move out of the road and take to the edge of the woods, for marching in columns of fours were twenty-five thousand soldiers who had been doing duty as guards since we invaded Pennsylvania and Maryland. Many of them were members of the heavy artillery, and had been armed as infantrymen. Each regiment was headed by a fine band. We were in a sorry plight to meet such an array of tinseled regalia. Many of our men were hatless, shoeless, and coatless, and were covered with mud from the trenches. This grand army guyed us all day. As we met one column a good-natured-looking soldier yelled out: “Hello, Johnnies! we are taking you North, and will give you something to eat, put some clothes on your backs, and shoes on your feet.” Toward nightfall we bivouacked on the marshy plains of Marye Heights, overlooking Fredericksburg. The ground was wet and marshy. One of our boys had a pocketknife, and we cut some chinquapin bushes, and four of us set back to back on the pile of bushes. This was a good way to rest and sleep when the wet ground would not allow a horizontal position. We had a chain picket around our camp. In army parlance a chain picket is one in which the guards are so close together that with extended arms they can touch hands; so it would be difficult to get away with guards so near each other. [Illustration: THE BIVOUAC]