SEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 263

Camp Talk.

The following, from a letter from camp written at about the same time, throws some
light upon the topics then engaging the attention of the men :

" For some time past rumors have been afloat that our brigade is to be ordered home
to vote on the 6th of April. Of course, the men who have failed to obtain furloughs are in
ecstacies at the idea. One report goes so far as that we are to be permanently detached
from this army. It would not be honest to deny that this prospect is also immensely
popular. The discipline is severe, the marching heavy, duty tough and quarters rough,
and, whatever the newspapers may say, all men are not spoiling for a fight all the time.
No furloughs, no frenches, no hen-roosts, no whiskey, not a pig. They look back wist-
fully upon the good old days of the upper Potomac and West Virginia, and think they
left there the flesh pots of Egypt to come and perish in this wilderness, where the quails
are regulation salt pork, and the manna mouldy hard tack. There are some of us, how-
ever, who would, if the choice were presented to us, decide to take our chances with this
army. On the eve of the fourth campaign of the Civil War, we have hopes that it will be
the decisive one. There are battles to be fought, and our ranks will be thinned, but if
we fall, it will be no more than we bargained for when we volunteered, and if we survive
there will be satisfaction, glory and promotion—perhaps. The steadiest, oftenest tried,
best disciplined and most unfortunate army in the world is about being led by the ablest
and most successful general of the war. We feel a faith that it will at last be led to
victory. And to have participated in a victorious and conclusive campaign of the Army
of the Potomac would be an experience and a record that we would not exchange
for milk and maple sugar."

Furlough.

The brigade was not ordered home to vote, but the Seventh was fortunate enough to
have a friend "at court," and, after failing in his efforts in behalf of the whole brigade,
Col. Webster at length succeeded in obtaining for his old regiment a furlough from the
1st to the 8th of April, with transportation to Baltimore. Upon arriving there the regiment
was practically disbanded, and the men went home. The confidence thus reposed was
not abused, except in a very few instances. Promptly, upon the day named, the regiment
reassembled in Baltimore. There was no loss by desertion, but, on the contrary, the
handsome acquisition was made of 144 first-class recruits from Baltimore, almost enough
to make up all the losses which the regiment had ever sustained. These men had all
served their time in the 10th Maryland, a six months' organization, and had re-enlisted
for the war for that regiment, which failed to reach the required strength; and upon
application made by them through their officers, the War Department ordered that the
re-enlisted portion thereof, composed of one company of eighty-seven men with their
officers, and a squad of fifty-seven men with one officer, be transferred and assigned to
the Seventh Maryland.

With this cheering reinforcement, the Seventh resumed its old quarters, where
times had continued as dull and quiet as ever.

Stripping for Fight.

Soon, however, every sign began to indicate that the great army was at last stripping
for fight. Transportation was being reduced, surplus baggage was packed off to the