tion was now given of the probable destination of the Army of the Potomac. Orders were received, that, during the approaching campaign, no bugle calls would be sounded, or music by bands or drum-corps allowed, without special permission.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS -TODD'S TAVERN, AND PO RIVER.

T eleven o'clock, P. M., of Tuesday, May third, 1864, the Army of the Potomac broke camp and prepared for a march. At sunset of that day, the enemy from his signal station on Clark's Mountain, beheld the camps of the "Yankee army," with wagon parks and batteries undisturbed and tranquil, as though no movement was anticipated. As soon as the shades of night shut them from view, all was bustle and confusion. No unusual bonfires were kindled, no sound of bugle or drum was heard, yet in an almost incredibly brief period, the entire army, with its immense trains of ambulances, ammunition, and supplies, was on the move. So suddenly and unexpectedly came the orders to us, that there was no possibility of the enemy receiving intelligence of our movement, before, from his signal station on the following morning, he beheld

the deserted camps around Culpepper. Every division, brigade, and regiment had its allotted position, and moved punctually at the appointed time.

The Seventeenth Maine, under command of Colonel West, commenced the campaign with twenty-one commissioned officers, five acting officers, and four hundred and thirty-nine enlisted men in the ranks. Lieutenant Colonel Merrill was absent, on duty in Portland, Maine, and Major Mattocks was commanding the First Regiment of United States Sharp Shooters; having been assigned thereto by orders from Major-General Birney.

Shortly after daybreak, of the fourth, the division crossed the Rapidan on a Pontoon bridge, at Ely's Ford, without meeting with any resistance from the enemy. Halting half an hour for breakfast, we continued our march, a portion of which was by the Plank Road, and at two o'clock, P. M., halted on the battlefield of Chancellorsville, on the very spot occupied by our division during the memorable action of Sunday morning, one year before. The field still showed signs of that desperate conflict. Skeletons and skulls of men and horses, fragments of shell and cannon balls, with all the incidental debris of a fiercely contested battle, lay strewn upon the ground. Many of the bodies of our brave union soldiers, with their knapsacks and clothing still clinging to their skeleton forms, lay where they fighting fell. Some of them were rec

ognized by comrades, but others afforded no clue whatever to their identity. Every rod of that battle-field seemed to possess peculiar interest, and suggested many a sad tale of the disastrous fight, as groups of soldiers in every direction collected to relate their experiences of that bloody and terrible day.

Here a soldier tells his comrades where he received a wound; here fell a comrade; there we made a charge. Here fell our gallant JOHNSON; there the noble LORD lay with his fractured limb, refusing to be borne from the field; and, as we charged by him, brandished his sword in air, and despising the pain, gave words of cheer and encouragement to the boys. Here GOLDERMAN and MERRILL received those wounds which disabled them. for further service; there the spot where BROWN was wounded. Others revisit the narrow road, the scene of our midnight charge, which resulted in the death of the famous rebel general, Stonewall Jackson.

The tent of the writer was pitched but a few -rods* from the spot where, one year before, his horse was killed under him by a shell. The skeleton of the noble animal, recognized by the fractured ribs and missing leg, lay where he fell; the saddle and equipments had gone to help some needy rebel, and even the horses shoes had been pulled off, and were undoubtedly doing duty in the army of the rebel confederacy.

Not far from our bivouac, fell the idol of his men, Maine's noble son and hero, Major-General BERRY.

On the morning of the fifth, we marched at five o'clock, via the Plank Road, passing the " Furnaces," memorable as the scene of our battle of Saturday, of the previous year, when our division was cut off from the army by the disgraceful breaking of the eleventh corps.

On arriving at Todd's Tavern, a line of battle was formed, skirmishers sent forward, and such information received as decided the commanding general to change the direction of our march; and with the brigade we marched by the left flank to near the junction of the Plank and Brock Roads, where a line of battle was formed.

As the writer was on duty at the head-quarters of the First Brigade, during the time the Seventeenth composed a portion of the Second, for a more ac curate report of the part taken by the regiment during this time, he has quoted passim from the official report of Lieutenant Colonel Merrill.

"The Brigade (Second) was then hastily placed in "position, and this regiment was carried to the ex"treme right of the Second Corps, moving by the left "into the dense woods skirting the road, with orders "from General Hays to connect with the Sixth Corps "on the right.

"After repeated attempts to discover the troops, "with whom the connection was to be formed, had "failed, the regiment was advanced in line to meet