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By the additions of the videttes and parties that had been out, and which now had all joined, the whole number of the horse was increased to nearly two hundred.
What if all those weary men back there should sleep till clearer light should made me a mark for the unseen foe, that did such good shooting last evening? Why were not the videttes, at least, advanced into the underbrush, instead of being posted at its edge, to be shot at by rebel sharpshooters? Thoughts like these were running through my mind as daylight approached.
Over the border, in Dixie, two videttes in gray trot briskly from out a leafy woodland, side by side, and looking with keen eyes right and left; one, erect, boyish, bronzed; the other, slouching, bearded, huge the boy, Daniel Dean; the man, Rebel Jerry Dillon, one of the giant twins. Fifty yards behind them emerges a single picket; after him come three more videttes, the same distance apart.
We lashed blocks to our lower mast-heads, rove hawsers through them, sent the ends on shore, made them fast to the guns, and hove off three of them, one after another, by the capstan; and had the end of the hawser on shore, ready for the others, when our marine videttes were surprised by the French, driven in, and retreated to the beach with the loss of one man taken prisoner.
We kin take him back a pris'ner. Now, cap, do 'ee see how?" "You would have these twenty to keep far in the advance then, capture the videttes, and wait till the main body comes up?" "Sartinly; thet's my idee adzactly." "It is the best, the only one. We shall follow it." And Seguin immediately ordered the Indians to be stripped of their dresses.
"Look there, sir," and his outstretched arm indicated the direction while Carter swung his glasses around to the place. "Videttes," he exclaimed without looking up. "Sizing us up through glasses, eh?" "Russians?" The chauffeur's excitement was manifest, for he was frowning in a vain endeavor to discern the distant specks. "I don't know.
Here for the next three days they skirmished with my videttes and infantry pickets, Emory and Cook receiving the main attention; but finding that they could make no impression, and judging it to be an auspicious time to intensify the scare in the North, on the 25th of August Early despatched Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry to Williamsport, and moved all the rest of his army but Anderson's infantry and McCausland's cavalry to Kerneysville.
The fires were built at the right or left of the rifle-pit, and carefully screened with bushes, so that those about them could not be seen from the outside. Our line here was in woods, and the timber was cut down between the posts. In front of the posts, videttes were placed during the night, who were relieved every two hours.
The devoted horse is in fact a well-conditioned animal; and placing our videttes again, we proceed to the thicket to slaughter him. We set about it with great caution. We tie him to a tree, and hopple his fore and hind feet, lest he may struggle. We propose bleeding him to death.
At last they debouched into the plain; but, to my surprise, they wheeled about to the right, leaving the farm-house on their flank, as if to march beyond it. This was to lose their way totally: nothing would be easier than to carry the position of the farm, for the Germans were evidently few, had no videttes, and thought themselves in perfect security.
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