George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

[54] safety, therefore, a summary jurisdiction of terrible extent must, in camps, be intrusted to a rude tribunal, composed of men of the sword.

If the opinions of men whose judgment is entitled to great consideration may be quoted in defence of the policy we adopted for the government of our regiment, I may refer to Macaulay's most excellent comments as vindicating our judgment, when opposed by Governor Andrew at West Roxbury, and for a second time by Governor Banks and the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment at Darnstown.

I now resume this history, to speak first of the portentous orders of those days,--stampedes we called them,when we moved but to halt again upon the land of some unfortunate farmer, to trample down his fields, burn his fences, eat his harvests, pluck and roast his growing corn, decapitate his geese, drink his milk, eat his butter and eggs, and occupy his house and barns. Such cases were grave attacks of stampedes, but generally they were of a milder type. It was in camp at Darnstown that I was once aroused at midnight with the order, “Get your command in immediate readiness to move, but don't wake your men until further orders,” --upon which I proceeded to put myself in immediate readiness by pulling on my stockings, after which, overpowered with sleep, I remained undisturbed until bright daylight brought with it the consciousness of another stampede.

When the advancing season brought cold nights after hot days, when the murky atmosphere of fall rested upon the hills, and the soft Indian summer began to lay hold of the landscape, there fell upon us storms, in which the strong winds swayed our tents, struggling with the flimsy fastenings. Can we ever forget the crashing of the thunder, the glare of the lightning, and the moaning of the tempest, as the big drops pelted our frail covering, and the clouds