7'A THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 81 hard wood trees cut down in a single day by a single battalion. Nevertheless, all this work was not done without much fatigue both moral and material, as the natural consequence of incessant toil under an incessant fire. In these vast and pathless woods, where you run a constant risk of being surprised, it is impossible to throw out one’s advance very far. So we form what in America is called a “picket line,” an uninterrupted line of sentinels supported by strong reserves, which never move far from the corps to which they belong. The two armies were now so near together, and so determined to cede no inch of ground that their pickets were stationed within hailing distance of one another. Generally they got along very amicably together, and contented themselves with a reciprocal watchfulness. Sometimes friendly communications took place between them—they trafficked in various trifles, and exchanged the Richmond newspapers for the New York Herald. It even happened one day that some federal officers were invited by their confederate comrades to a ball in Richmond, on condition that they would suffer their eyes to be bandaged in going and returning. But a single shot would disturb these good relations—the firing would last a greater part of an hour, and a hundred men perhaps be killed or wounded before they became quiet again. At other times the troops were surprised in their tents by a shower of shells, coming nobody knew where from, over the heads of the pickets. This was a disagreeable reveille^ when it happened at night. If it took place in the daytime the men would clamber up into some high tree to spy out the spot from which the firing came. This would be betrayed by the smoke, and sometimes a confederate soldier would be seen perched in some towering tree himself directing the fire of the artillerymen. Then the federals would reply, and make great efforts to “ bring down” the aerial gunner. These isolated annoyances, whether of “ picket firing” or “long-range shelling” G
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