By and by, in came the left wing, weary but safe, and were greeted with three tremendous cheers.  I hastened to find Company I. The first lieutenant had come on with us—­the captain I had not yet seen.  To him I was now introduced.

Very soon the Fair ground was a camp; we on one side—­the 8th N.Y., Colonel Varian, opposite.  Tents were up, fires blazing, and cooking and eating going on.  As I had not started with the regiment, I had no tent, and none could be had here, so my camping consisted of piling my traps in a heap.  But I needed none, and indeed, throughout the whole time was under one but twice.  Tents are all very well, when you are quietly encamped for any length, of time; but when, as with us, you are on the more continually, I consider them a humbug and nuisance.  You must carry half a one all day, and at night join it with your comrade’s half.  The common shelter tent, which is the only one that can be so carried, is a poor protection against heavy rain, for the water can beat in at the sides and form pools beneath you; against midday sun you can guard with a blanket and two muskets, and at any other time you need no shelter.

That night I went on guard.  Two hours you watch, four for sleep, and then two hours you watch again.  All quiet, save that two or three prisoners are brought in from the front to be deposited in limbo, and gazed at in the morning by recruits who have never seen a live rebel.

The most surprising thing I learned in these first days, was that everything one has will certainly be stolen by his own regiment, even by his own company, if he does not watch it carefully.  This practice is styled ‘winning.’  It is simple, naked stealing, in no wise to be excused or palliated, and utterly disgraceful.  It imposes, moreover, the grievous nuisance of remaining to guard your property when you would be loafing about, or of carrying everything—­no light load—­with you, wherever you go.  Of course, all colonels should prevent this, and one of any force and energy could easily do so; but Colonel ——­ is not of that kind.  An excellent company officer, as I judge, he has not the activity and nerve required in the commander of a regiment, and many a wish did I hear expressed in those thirty days that his predecessor, Colonel Martin, were still in command.  Confidence in his bravery before the enemy, was universal; but many things necessary to the decorum, discipline, health, &c., of the regiment devolve duties finally upon the colonel, for whose discharge other qualities than bravery are needed.

The next afternoon, the 24th, our laziness is disturbed by orders to take three days’ rations; our knapsacks are to be sent to Harrisburg; we are to pack up everything, to be ready to move, Nobody knows, of course, what it means; but a decided conviction prevails that ’something heavy is up.’  Presently a hollow square is ‘up,’ formed of the 8th and ourselves, field officers in the centre.  Colonel Varian advances.