CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. 135 



durance, and fidelity of this superbly useful 

 brute. 



There is an elasticity in youth and health, 

 trained and hardened by years of active field- 

 service, which asserts itself under the most de- 

 pressing circumstances. Even this shameful and 

 horrible defeat and flight had their ludicrous 

 incidents, which we were permitted to appreci- 

 ate. Thus, for instance, during a lull in the 

 engagement at Guntown, I had seated myself in 

 a rush-bottomed chair under the lee of a broad 

 tree-trunk ; a prudent pig, suspecting danger, 

 had taken shelter between the legs of the chair, 

 leaving, however, his rear unprotected. Random 

 bullets have an odd way of finding weak places, 

 and it was due to one of these that I was un- 

 seated, with an accompaniment of squeal, by the 

 rapid and articulate flight of my companion. 



During our last night's march, my brigade 

 having the advance, and I being at its rear, 

 Grierson ordered me to prevent the pushing 

 ahead of the stragglers of the other brigades, 

 who were to be recognized, he reminded me, by 



