CHAPTER V.
The returning Spring brought anxious thoughts to my heart. How long, I asked myself, will our regiment be detained on guard-duty, and escape the fatigue of marches and the chances of battle. I listened eagerly for any flying report; but May's fairy fingers fringed the borders of the dusty road, and Hooker's men fought again on the old contested ground, to retreat wearily and hurriedly across the river, to leave their seventeen thousand comrades dead, wounded, or prisoners.
We followed them in thought to the river's side, where they contended for a passage and won it—to the heights of Fredericksburg, where victory crowned their charging columns; then through reverse and retreat, and the final recrossing of the river to encamp on the old ground; to miss so many faces, to hearken vainly for voices which had strengthened the courage of many a one whose heart recoiled at the prospect of bloody battle.
Spring rapidly glided into the early Summer, and rumors of Lee's approach suggested descents upon the railroad, and our regiment now on strict duty, almost envying the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac,
