morning, September 1, part of the time in a drenching rain, we were placed in cattle cars and started on a forty-mile ride for Washington, but, being sidetracked so often for passing trains, it was noon ere that city was reached. We filed into some barracks, called a "Soldiers' Retreat," for dinner, but a single company could have eaten the whole spread had the quality of the food admitted. This was our first experience with the outrageous army contractor who received full pay for food that would insult a hog. Ranks were again formed, and up Pennsylvania avenue we marched, thence south to the Long Bridge across the Potomac, which leads to "Secessia." Here the regiment was halted for some time to allow a long train of ambulances to pass, containing wounded from the neighboring battle-fields. In one was the body of Colonel Horace S. Roberts, of Detroit, which produced a profound sensation in the regiment. The sight of these wounded soldiers caused the first emphatic impression of the work we had enlisted to engage in. Crossing the Long Bridge to the tune of "Dixie," we first set feet upon rebellion soil. CHAPTER III. FIRST MONTHS OF ARMY LIFE. P ALEXANDRIA - FORT LYON. URSUING our march into Virginia on the evening of September 1, we reached Alexandria, the quaint old town from which, in colonial days over a century before, Braddock's troops marched for the field of his fatal defeat. The city was a hot-bed of secession. Here was the Marshal House where the youthful Ellsworth and Jackson, his murderer, met death in the same moment. Yonder was the Slave Pen from which the F. F. V’s* shipped their surplus human chattels to the slave marts of the far South. But its barbarous purposes were ended forever. Marching a couple of miles beyond this city, we climbed to the top of a high hill crowned by Fort Lyon, named in honor of the hero of Wilson's Creek. Its ponderous guns frowned down upon the secesh city below. It was now past sunset, and scarcely had the crest been reached when angry, dark clouds hovered low over our heads, soon bursting into one of Virginia's severest rain storms, which lasted till morning. The men had neither tents nor shelter, and they suffered greatly from the cold storm-a most severe initiation into the hardships of soldier life. And such was our first night at the front. Colonel Morrow and a few of the men found shelter in a house where General Joseph Hooker was stopping for the night. The latter had just arrived from the battlefields near by, and the two formed an acquaintanceship which continued through later experiences in army life. CAMP MORROW — JADED TROOPS. The next morning, September 2d, fires were built, our clothes dried upon our backs, and from our haversacks we ate our first meal in "Dixie," as the South was called. The location was named "Camp Morrow." It was customary to name regimental camps after some member, patron, friend or dead member of the regiment. At two First Families of Virginia, o'clock marching orders came but no start was made. Ammunition was distributed and that night we slept on our arms, or with our guns by our side, as the enemy's pickets were not far away. The following day we saw the jaded, foot-sore and dusty fragments of the once magnificent Army of the Potomac, pass by our camp, to within the fortifications around Washington. For seventeen days had these decimated regiments been fighting and retreating before a victorious foe-men who had fought their way up the Peninsula to within sight of the Richmond spires, slept in the noxious swamps of the Chickahominy, and even among festering bodies of unburied dead men and horses, and whom we had come to re-enforce. Surely the authority that stopped enlistments the spring before, most stupidly miscalculated the necessities of the hour and scope of the war. CAMP WAYNE-FALSE ALARM. On the afternoon of September 4th, we marched to Camp Wayne, about four miles South of Fort Lyon. While pitching our tents all were ordered in great haste into line of battle. It proved a false alarm, and well it was such, for some amusing and clumsy evolutions were made, this being our first maneuver of the kind. Retiring under our tents, we were suddenly awakened again at midnight by the long roll and shrill voices of orderlies to "fall in." This time the movement was quickly executed and without confusion, each man being able by some private identification to place his hand upon his own gun by night or day. It proved to be another false alarm, but the discipline was good. The regiment was now on the extreme left of the army, guarding Hooker's division. The enemy's lines were a mile beyond. Camp Wayne was finely situated in the woods. It was the location of the Michigan brigade the winter before, and then called Camp Michigan. On the 6th, the men On the 6th, the men were gladdened by the presence of John J. Bagley and several Detroit citizens. Though but a week from home, anybody, or even a dog, from Wayne county was welcome in camp. On Sunday, the 7th, a few of us visited Mount Vernon, about four miles away. Our guns were left outside the enclosure, as no soldier of either army was allowed to bear arms inside the hallowed grounds. With delight we stood upon the stately veranda, passed |