"
Dick and Warner were so much elated that they worked all that night,
and they did not hesitate to go to Sergeant Whitley for advice or
instruction. At the first spear of dawn the regiment marched away in
splendid order from Arlington to Washington, where the train that was
to bear them to new fields and unknown fortunes was ready.
It was a long train of many coaches, as the regiment numbered seven
hundred men, and it also carried with it four guns, mounted on trucks.
The coaches were all of primitive pattern. The soldiers were to sleep
on the seats, and their arms and supplies were heaped in the aisles.
It was a cold, drizzling day of closing autumn, and the capital looked
sodden and gloomy. Cameron, the Secretary of War, came to see them off
and to make the customary prediction concerning their valor and victory
to come. But he was a cold man, and he was repellent to Dick, used to
more warmth of temperament.
Then, with a ringing of bells, a heave of the engine, a great puffing of
smoke, and a mighty rattling of wheels, the train drew out of Washington
and made its noisy way toward Baltimore. Dick and Warner were on the
same seat. It was only forty miles to Baltimore, but their slow train
would be perhaps three hours in arriving. So they had ample opportunity
to see the country, which they examined with the curious eyes of youth.
But there was little to see. The last leaves were falling from the
trees under the early winter rain.
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