322 SKETCHES IN PROSE. 



the track dying from his injuries. So the first violent death 

 of the 114th was not to have the fiery romance of battle to 

 surround it, but was to result from contact with a prosaic coal- 

 bin. The dead soldier was the son of a widowed mother, and 

 to her home, as his friend and tent-mate, Robert Kenderdine 

 bore the mortal remains of poor Mordecai, while the rest went 

 sadly on their southward way. 



Until after the invasion and retreat of Lee in September the 

 Zouaves lay around Washington. When Stuart made his raid 

 through Maryland to Chambersburg, and near to Gettysburg, 

 in October, they were marched back and forth along the shore 

 of the Potomac, in a vain attempt to intercept the retreat of 

 that successful cavalry leader. To reach one ford they marched 

 thirty miles, and retraced their route after guarding it thirty 

 minutes. This service was hard on these raw troops. One 

 night Robert's company of eighty-nine men got into camp with 

 but sixteen, but he wrote proudly back that he was one of 

 them, nor did he discard his knapsack, as did many. With 

 chafed limbs and blistered feet, the rest had sunk exhausted 

 by the way. Still the remainder got in before morning. When 

 the march was ordered again the men thought they could not 

 move, but sixty-four got in line and started on their hopeless 

 search for Stuart. Hither and yon they dragged their wearied 

 limbs, through dust and mud, in sun and rain ; hard usage 

 for a boy whose life had been a succession of study and teach- 

 ing, and which was unacquainted with hardship. Still he 

 wrote home cheerfully, and speaking for himself and two home 

 comrades, the third having been discharged, said they were in 

 good spirits. But the last march was more than he could bear. 

 After an exhausting day marching in the rain he laid down at 

 night in his drenched clothes. In a few days word came from 

 Poolsville he was down sick. His father and brother-in-law, 

 Eastburn Reeder, at once started for Maryland, that they might 

 bring him home, but when they arrived at Poolsville the 



