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in which he held the battery, he procured them permission from General Ewell next
morning to select from among the captured guns the best pieces, to take the place
of their own, which were greatly inferior.

The day after the battle of Winchester, the corps of General Ewell took up its
line of march toward the Potomac. The Baltimore Light Artillery was directed by
some subordinate officers to report to General Nelson of the reserve artillery. The
order occasioned the greatest surprise and indignation throughout the command,
for always before they had led the advance and covered the retreat. Such an
indignity, as they considered it, could not be tamely submitted to, and a protest
was immediately drawn up and forwarded to General Ewell, who at once ordered
the battery to join Albert G. Jenkins' brigade of cavalry, which was the van of the
army in the invasion of Pennsylvania.

The battery crossed the Potomac on the 18th of June, and that day joined
Jenkins, when the whole command moved rapidly forward in the greatest good
humor. Many were the jokes they practiced, and many the quaint sayings peculiar
only to the soldier. " Take them mice out of your mouth," one would bawl out,
as an officer with well-waxed mustache rode by; " Take 'em out, no use to say they
ain't thar, for I see their tails stickin' out." And as another came along, but a short
time in the service, and wearing a " boiled shirt" and white collar, his ears were
sure to be assailed with " Say, mister, how long did you have to soldier afore one
of them things growed 'round your neck ? " and a staff officer, with handsome
cavalry boots, would be requested by a dozen voices to " Come out of them thar
boots, for it's too soon to go into winter quarters."

En parenthase, soldiers are queer beings, and will have their joke, even in the
face of almost certain death. At the battle of Malvern Hill, whilst the First Mary-
land Regiment was awaiting its turn to " go in," and the men were closely hugging
the earth to avoid the terrible fire of grape and canister which swept over and
around them, I heard an officer of the regiment remark to another at his side, whose
face was pressed close to the ground : " Say. Captain, you'll get a scrape down
your back directly, and you know it's something we don't allow here." and the
officer addressed coolly turned over on his back, remarking : " Well, if it will please
you better. I'll take it in front."

The command of Jenkins pursued its march rapidly through Maryland, and
struck the Pennsylvania line near Greencastle. Thence their way lay up the
Cumberland Valley to Shippensburg, where a halt was made for a short time to
allow the tired troops to partake of the delicious apple-butter, ham, bread, etc.,
furnished them in abundance by the startled inhabitants. Whilst thus enjoying
themselves to their hearts' content, the cry of " Yanks " wais raised, and in an
instant the scene changed. Cavalrymen sprang to their horses, and artillerymen to
their guns. but the wary enemy could not he induced to come within range of
Griffin's Parrott's. but retired towards Carlisle, followed leisurely by Jenkins.