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General Miles. “Oh, dear me, of course, yes; Captain Murphy's bay gelding.”
“No! red,” suggests Miles.
“Ah, yes, to be sure — red.”
“Here,” says the long-expectant Murphy.
Then a bugler blows at a great rate and the horses are brought to the line; the bugler blows at a great rate some more, and away they go. There were a good many different races, some of which were rather tiresome, by reason of the long waiting and the fact that none of the horses were really racers, but only swift officers' steeds, which were not enough trained to go round regularly, but often would balk at the hurdles and refuse to go round at all. Wherefrom we had tragic consequences: for one, scared by the crowd and by the brush hurdle, bolted violently and knocked down a soldier; and Colonel von Schack, in another race, had his horse, which had overleaped, fall on him heavily. . . . Everything was extremely quiet and orderly, and no tipsy people about. . . .
[Mrs. Meade, with a large party, including Mrs. Lyman, arrived at City Point on the evening of March 22.
The next two days were spent in visiting the front, and in excursions on the river.
On the morning of the 25th, it was found that the Confederates had made an unexpected attack.
The visitors were shipped back to Washington, and their hosts made for the front.]
March 25, 1865
We may indeed call this a many-sided field-day: a breakfast with a pleasure party, an assault and a recapture of an entrenched line, a review by the President of a division of infantry, and sharp fighting at sundry points of a front of eighteen miles! If that is not a mixed affair, I would like to know what is?
It has been a lucky day, for us; and the 9th Corps, after patient waiting for eight months, have 