A NIGHT WITH THE FOURTH CORPS. 8^ 



helmet shifted off their streaming foreheads, not a strap of the 

 heavy knapsacks unbuckled or eased up, with eyes straight to 

 the front, heels together, bodies erect, and the alignment perfect, 

 our sturdy infantrymen stood motionless where they had been 

 halted, as if on parade, fresh from their barracks. Although 

 on their feet since early morning, marching and skirmishing 

 all day long, although footsore and half faint with hunger — for 

 they had not had a chance to eat since their breakfast — the iron 

 German discipline held its stern sway over officers and men 

 alike, and every movement, and every detail of a movement, 

 every necessary change in the manual of arms, was executed 

 throughout with the mechanical precision of a tireless machine. 

 As the order to stack arms was given, the pieces came together 

 without clashing, their butts falling with a dull thud to the 

 ground, the leathern, brass-bound, spear-pointed " Pickelhauben" 

 were lifted off, placed under the stacks, each man's helmet by 

 the butt of his rifle, and replaced by the soft, vizorless, blue for- 

 age-caps. The hair-covered knapsacks were unslung, and placed 

 in correctly aligned rows in rear of the lines of stacks, over- 

 coats were unrolled and put on, the heavy cartridge-boxes, 

 swinging on their pipe-clayed leather belts, were buckled around 

 the waists, and the canteens and haversacks slung over the 

 shoulders, for, when in the advanced guards, soldiers, even when 

 preparing for rest, lie down in harness, and if awakened by the 

 call to arms, are ready at once. Facing to the right, and break- 

 ing as one man into the cadenced step, the battalion marched 

 to a position alongside of its arms, each company in a line 

 with its own rifles ; the ranks were broken, and the soldiers 

 immediately began preparations for the evening meal and for 

 passing the night. Some were detailed to go in search of 

 water, and the various squads, their tin camp-kettles, habitually 

 carried strapped to the top of the knapsacks, hanging on their 



