ous barking of the dogs-that the wild jäger of Germany, or some equally ferocious beast of the European forest, had come over on a visit to the backwoods of America. Very frequently in the opossumhunt the dogs start a racoon, which more closely resembles the fox, and makes always a gallant fight, at times punishing his assailants severely.

CHAPTER XIV.

DISPOSITION OF OUR CAVALRY FORCE-PELHAM'S FIGHT WITH 1 ANOTHER

GUNBOATS - GREAT SNOWBALL ENGAGEMENT
ENGLISH VISITOR-AMUSEMENTS OF THE CAMP.

THE different brigades of our cavalry were now separated, guarding the numerous fords of the Rappahannock, which rendered necessary a picket-line of more than fifty miles in length. W. H. F. Lee's brigade was stationed on the Lower Rappahannock, near Port Royal; Fitz Lee's command, under Rosser, at a point some distance beyond our headquarters, at Spotsylvania Court-house; and Hampton's on the Upper Rappahannock, in Culpepper county. On the morning of the 27th November I galloped over to Rosser's headquarters upon some matters of business, which, having been duly transacted, the Colonel and I proceeded together to the estate of a neighbouring planter, Mr R., a noted fox-hunter, with whose hounds the officers of Fitz Lee's brigade, when duty would admit of it, were accustomed to engage in the exciting diversion of the chase. General

80

WINE-BUYING AT FREDERICKSBURG.

Stuart and his Staff had been invited by Mr R. to take part in a fox-hunt, the arrangements for which had been fully made, and we had looked forward to it with no little satisfaction; but our hopes in this direction were frustrated by the important events which pressed upon us.

Returning to our headquarters, I learned that Stuart had gone with Pelham to Port Royal, to drive off some of the enemy's gunboats which had ascended the river thus far with the view of forcing their way through to Fredericksburg; and next morning Dr Eliason and myself followed them, to take part in the engagement which was in all probability to come off. Being little acquainted with the country, however, we missed our way completely; and as it seemed too late to proceed farther, in complete uncertainty as to where we were going, and, moreover, as General Stuart was expected to return that same night, we resolved to retrace our steps to camp, taking Fredericksburg in our route. Here we stopped at the house of a well-known old wine-merchant, Mr A., with whom Dr Eliason was personally acquainted, and in whose cellar, after a good deal of tasting, we purchased for our mess two demijohns of excellent old madeira. We regretted very much, a few days later, that we had not laid in a larger supply of this capital wine, which was worthy of a happier destiny than to

OUR RIDE TO PORT ROYAL.

81

fall into the hands of the Yankees. Getting back to camp, we were derided mercilessly by our companions of the Staff for having missed our way to Port Royal; but when next day we produced the madeira, there was an evident change in public opinion as to the ill-success of our expedition, and our little misadventure was set down as a most fortunate accident. Our purchase, indeed, met with a higher degree of appreciation than we had wished for, since, the news of it having been widely circulated, we had numerous visitors at camp; and several officers, whose names need not be given, plied the demijohns so industriously that we thought they would never be able to find their way back to their respective encampments.

On the morning of the 2d December I received by a courier information from Stuart that he had been unexpectedly detained at Port Royal, together with orders that I should join him there at once; so that I started a second time with my portly friend the doctor on our journey. It was a disagreeable ride enough. The cold was intense, the road rough, and the distance long. We had ridden already more than twenty miles, the icicles hanging from our beards and our horses' nostrils, when we met General Stuart returning to Fredericksburg. He laughed heartily at us for our former unsuccessful ride, and ordered us to turn back with him.

VOL. II.

F

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76

82

PELHAM'S FIGHT WITH GUNBOATS.

The fighting was over at Port Royal, and Pelham with his horse-artillery had met with his usual good fortune, inflicting much damage upon the enemy, and driving off the gunboats, which, from the narrowness of the stream and the height of the cliffs where our guns were posted, had scarcely been able to respond at all to the destructive fire which was pouring down upon them at so near a range. The return to camp was even more distressing than our ride of the morning, as a heavy snow-storm set in, which continued throughout the night; and we reached our headquarters, men and horses wet and chilled, and almost wearied out by a journey of more than forty miles.

The following morning we were enlivened by snowball fights, which commenced as skirmishes near our headquarters, but extended over the neighbouring camps, and assumed the aspect of general engagements. In front of our headquarters, beyond an open field of about half a mile square, Hood's division lay encamped in a piece of wood; in our immediate rear stretched the tents and huts of a part of M'Laws's division. Between these two bodies of troops animated little skirmishes had frequently occurred whenever there was snow enough on the ground to furnish the ammunition; but on the morning of the 4th, an extensive expedition having been undertaken by several hundred of M'Laws's