BUILDING A BRIDGE.

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lounge in the Lieutenant Colonel's tent, a sharpshooter deliberately fired at him from a neighboring tree, the ball passing through the lounge and out at the back side of the tent. He immediately ordered out several of his best shots to pick off the impudent rebel.

Not content with constantly annoying us during the daytime, they frequently got up night demonstrations, compelling our "troops" to turn out at very unseasonable hours. The Thirty-third were aroused from their slumbers one night by the bursting of a shell directly over the centre of the encampment. Gorman's Brigade frequently engaged in these night skirmishes. Colonel Taylor's command rarely indulged in picket firing, as many of the Regiments did, unless it was provoked by the enemy. This custom, so prevalent at the commencement of the war, has almost wholly ceased, and now, instead of "blazing away" on the slightest pretext, the pickets patrol their beats month after month within speaking distance, without molesting one another.

As the month advanced, the troops were kept busily employed in throwing up breastworks and constructing a new bridge over the Chickahominy, below the point where the lowest of the three previously carried away by the freshet was built. Frequently they were compelled to stand waist deep in the water, while cutting timbers, which were carried to the river on handspikes, many of them requiring sixteen or more men to transport them. bridge, when completed, was animposing structure,

This

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GEN. M'CLELLAN IN A TREE TOP.

and afterwards saved the right wing of the army, by furnishing a passage to the opposite side of the river, when the rebel legions were hurled against it with such rapidity and violence.

Nearly three months had now elapsed since the Army of the Potomac landed at Fortress Monroe, and began the Peninsular Campaign. Yorktown had been evacuated, the bloody battles of "Williamsburg," ," "West Point," "Fair Oaks" and "Seven Pines," besides several lesser engagements, fought, the troops arrived before and around Richmond, and our labors were apparently about to be crowned with success by its capture.

One evening, about the 20th of the month, Gen. McClellan, accompanied by Gens. Smith, Gorman and Porter, rode down to the picket line where Captain Warford, with his Company, was stationed. After removing their coats, in order to conceal their rank, and fording a small creek, they ascended to a tree-top to reconnoitre the enemy's position. Their pickets were only about twenty rods distant, on the opposite side of a wheat field. Descending, the Commander-in Chief remarked to Gen. Smith, with a smile on his face, "I have got them now," accompanying the remark with a significant doubling up of his right fist. His army then numbered one hundred and fifteen thousand men fit for duty.

A few brief hours served to dispel the visions of success and glory which had brightened up his countenance. On the evening of the 25th, Gen. McClellan telegraphed to the President: "I incline to

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think that Jackson will attack my right and rear. The rebel force is stated at two hundred thousand, including Jackson and Beauregard. I shall have to contend against vastly superior odds, if these reports be true, but this army will do all in the power of man to hold their position, and repulse an attack. I regret my inferiority in numbers, but feel that I am in no way responsible for it, as I have not failed to represent repeatedly the necessity of reinforcements; that this was the decisive point, and that all should be concentrated here. I will do all that a General can do, with the splendid army I have the honor to command, and if it is destroyed by overwhelming numbers, can at least die with it and share its fate. I shall probably be attacked to-morrow, and now go to the other side of the Chickahominy to arrange for the defence on that side."

The reader will understand that our army was then arranged in the form of a semi-circle, extending across the Chickahominy, the left resting upon Savage's Station, and the right upon Mechanicsville, In the rear of the right wing was "White House," on the Pamunkey River, used as a base of supplies for the army, which were brought by way of York River. The plan of Gen. Lee, who had now succeeded Gen. Johnston, was to concentrate his whole force on our right wing, destroy it before the troops on the other side of the river could be brought against him, gain possession of White House, thereby cutting off our supplies as well as way of retreat, and capture the entire army. He had no sooner