Louis Bellot asked me, one night, if I should not like to see Richmond.  He had got permission to go into town on the next day.  The Captain readily granted me leave of absence for twenty-four hours, and Bellot and I spent the day in rambling over the town.  We saw the State House, and the Confederate Congress in session, and wandered down to the river and took a long look at the Libby Prison.

The First had been in bivouac behind the main lines of Lee’s left, but now the regiment took position in the front, the lines having been extended still farther to the left.  A battery at our right—­some distance away—­would throw a few shells over at the Yankees, and their guns would reply; beyond this almost daily artillery practice, nothing unusual occurred.

One morning, about ten o’clock, Captain Haskell ordered me to get my arms and follow him.  He at once set out toward the front, Corporal Veitch being with him.  The Captain was unarmed, except for his sword.  He led us through our pickets and straight on toward the river.  The slope of the hill was covered with sedge, and there were clumps of pine bushes which hid us from any casual view from either flank; and as for the river swamp in our front, unless a man had been on its hither edge, we were perfectly screened.  I observed that, as we approached the swamp, the Captain advanced more stealthily, keeping in the thickest and tallest of the bushes.  Veitch and I followed in his footsteps, bending over and slipping along from bush to bush in imitation of our leader.  The river bottom, which we reached very shortly, was covered with a dense forest of large trees and undergrowth.  Soon we came to water, into which the Captain waded at once, Veitch behind him and I following Veitch.  Captain Haskell had not said a word to me concerning the purpose of our movements, nor do I now know what he intended, if it was not merely to learn the position of the Yankee pickets.

We went on, the water at last reaching to my waist.  Now the Captain signalled us to stop.  He went forward some ten yards and stood behind a tree.  He looked long in his front, bending his body this way and that; then he beckoned to us to come.  The undergrowth here was less thick, the trees larger.  I could see nothing, in any direction, except trees and muddy water.  The Captain went on again for a few paces, and stopped with a jerk.  After a little he beckoned to us again.  Veitch and I waded slowly on.  Before we reached Captain Haskell, he motioned to us to get behind trees.

From my tree I looked out, first in one direction and then in another.  There was nothing—­nothing except water and woods.  But the Captain was still peering from behind his tree, and I could now see that his whole attention was fixed on something.  Veitch, also, at my right, was silent and alert and rigid, so that I felt, rather than saw, that there was something in front of us, and I kept my eyes intent upon a narrow