CHAPTER VIII.
Campaign of 1782.
A man with morbid pains oppress'd
Who feels the nightmare in his breast;
Rejoices when the pressure's o'er,
And the distress is felt no more:
So wars and tumults, when they cease
Bring comfort in the thoughts of peace.
The arm of British power in America being dislocated by the capture of lord Cornwallis and his myrmidons, we had not much to disturb us on account of the enemy; I fared rather better than I did when I was here on my journey to Mud Island in 1777. Our duty was not very hard, but I was a soldier yet, and had to submit to soldier's rules and discipline, and soldier's fare.
Either here, or just before, our officers had enlisted a recruit; he had lately been discharged from the New-Jersey line. After enlisting with us, he obtained a furlough to visit his friends; but receiving no money when he engaged with us (which was, I believe, the sole motive of his entering the service at this time) and obtaining his ends in getting home, he took especial care to keep himself there; at least, till he could get another opportunity to try his luck again, which he accordingly did, by enlisting in a corps of new levies in his own State—New-Jersey. My Captain hearing where he was, and how engaged, sent me with two men to find him out, and bring him back to his duty.
And now, my dear reader, excuse me for being so minute in detailing this little excursion, for it yet seems to my fancy, among the privations of that war, like one of those little verdant plats of ground, amid the burning sands of Arabia, so often described by travellers.
One of our Captains and another of our men being about going that way on furlough, I and my two men sat off with them. We received, that day, two or three rations of fresh pork and hard bread. We had no cause to call this pork "carrion," or "hogmeat," for, on the contrary, it was so fat, and being entirely fresh, we could not eat it at all. The first night of our expedition, we boiled our meat; and I asked the landlady for a little sauce, she told me to go to the garden and take as much
