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[68] where all wished it to come; and when at last the moon withdrew her face, for once unwelcome, the relief that came to every soldier's mind was inseparably connected with confidence in his commander. The brigade fell back to the city unobserved, remained in the streets through Monday, and by Tuesday had recrossed the river and was on its way back to the old camp; Vincent relinquishing the command of the brigade for that of his regiment. Many officers will remember Vincent's quarters near Potomac Creek, after the battle of Fredericksburg. He lived in the most homelike of tents; and, though he was not much given to visiting other officers, he had a way of drawing people to himself. He had much leisure, as the men of his regiment had been long in the field, and it required but little attention to keep them comfortable and in good drill and discipline, and his officers were competent and energetic. Therefore he was ever ready to extend a welcome to those who came. As a general thing his companions were older than himself, for though Vincent was but twenty-five years old, he was already a little gray and quite stout; and this with his decisive countenance and confident address, made him seem the compeer of men of forty. Among his associates were officers of the highest rank. He could adapt himself to all, —could talk with the politician on questions of history, with a general officer on military evolutions, or with a sporting man on the relative merits of horses,—and all respected his opinion. The quiet life of this winter was a taste of the life Vincent would have chosen. He was a soldier from a sense of duty, not from mere love of the profession, although he undoubtedly had the same enjoyment in a reconnoissance or a battle that he had felt in earlier life on a deer-hunt. But it would have been sweeter to him to sit in the door of his home, surrounded by those most dear to him, and feeling himself trusted and honored by the citizens of his county and State, than to view
Sever and Francis, 1866.
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