The man moved about the fire, attending to his cooking. The talk almost ceased. I pulled an envelope from my pocket and began tearing it into little bits, which I threw into the fire one by one, pretending mere abstraction. The envelope had borne the address:-- CAPTAIN GEORGE B. JOHNSTON, _Co. G, 28th N.C. Reg't, Branch's Brigade, Hanover C.H., Va_. I took out another envelope. It was addressed to Lieut. E.G. Morrow, of the same company--Company G of the Twenty-eighth. A third bore the address:-- CAPTAIN S.N. STOWE, _Co. B, 7th N.C. Reg't,_ _Gordonsville, Va._ More envelopes went into the fire. They bore the names of privates, corporals, and sergeants; some were of the Eighteenth, others of the Thirty-seventh North Carolina Volunteers. One envelope had no address. Another gave me the name of Col. James H. Lane, but no regiment. "Time your friend was getting back," said I. "Seems to me so, too," said he; "but I reckin he found a crowd ahead of him." "How many men in your regiment?" I asked. "Dunno; there was more'n a thousand at first; not more'n seven or eight hundred, I reckin; how many in your'n?" "About the same," I replied; "how many in your company?" "Eighty-two," he said. The other man returned from the spring. "Know what I heerd?" he asked. "No; what was it?" inquired his companion. "I heard down thar at the branch that the Twelf' No'th Ca'lina was here summers." "Well, maybe it is." "I got it mighty straight." "How did you hear it?" I asked. "A man told me that one of Branch's couriers told him so; he had jest come from 'em; said they is camped not more'n two mile from here" "Only the Twelfth? No other regiment?" I asked. "Didn't hear of no other," he replied, "I wonder what we are here for?" I ventured to say. "Plain case," said he; "guyard the railroad."