“Privates Jones and George, halt!  Skirmishers, fill intervals to the right!”

Two men came to the lieutenant.

“Who are you, sir?” asked the lieutenant.

“Private Berwick, Eleventh Massachusetts,” said I.

“Do you know anything of the enemy?  Speak quick!”

“They are this side of Lee’s Mill, Lieutenant, but I got lost in the night, and I don’t even know where I am now.  About fifty of their cavalry went by ten minutes ago.”

The line went on in the rain.

The lieutenant placed me in charge of the two men, ordering them to take me at once to the rear, and to report to General Davidson.  I have never learned the name of that lieutenant; he had some good qualities.

Meanwhile a sharp skirmish was going on in front, and our line did not seem to advance.  A section of artillery dashed by.  I began to understand that, if I had gone on a few hundred yards, I should have run upon the enemy in force.

I was brought before General Davidson.  He was on horse, at the head of his brigade.  He asked me my name.

“Jones Berwick, General,” said I.

“What is your business?”

“I am a private, sir, in the Eleventh Massachusetts.”

He smiled at this; then he asked, still smiling, “Where is your regiment?”

“It is in camp below Washington, General, I suppose; at least, it had not reached Newport News on the evening of the day before yesterday.”

“How is it that you are here while your regiment is still near Washington?”

“I had surgeon’s leave to precede my regiment on account of my health, General.”

“And this is the way you take care of your health, is it, by lying out in the woods in the rain?”

“It was a month ago, General, that the surgeon dismissed me, and I am now fully recovered.”

General Davidson looked serious.  “You were at Newport News on day before yesterday?”

“I was near Newport News, sir, at the Sanitary camp.  General McClellan had just arrived at Fortress Monroe; so I heard before I left.”

“And what are you doing here?  I think you have the Southern accent.”

“I have been told so before, General; but I am not a Southerner; I came out to observe the rebel lines.”

“By whose authority?”

Now, I could have told General Davidson that I had had a pass, signed by such an officer; but I feared to do so, lest some complication should arise which would give trouble to such an officer, for Dr. Khayme had not fully informed me about my privileges.

“It was only a private enterprise, General.”

“Tell me all about it,” he said.

I said briefly that, on the day before, I had passed up the Warwick River; and that the main line of the enemy lay behind it; that the fords had been destroyed by dams, and that there were no rebels on this side of the river now, in my opinion, except pickets, and possibly a force just in front of Lee’s Mill.