Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery — George Michael Neese.

October 10 — Rations seem to be scarce in Uncle Sam’s domain, especially on his army front. We got no supper yesterday evening, and rations were so slim and slow this morning that I breakfasted on a little green pumpkin that I found in the field close to where I slept; I sliced it up and roasted the slices by the campfire. It was delicious and no mean filling for an empty stomach. This forenoon the Twenty-Second New York Cavalry turned us over into the care of the Third New Jersey Cavalry. Soon after the new guard took charge of us we were put on the move down Tom’s Brook to the Valley pike, then down the pike, through Strasburg, and this evening we are at General Sheridan’s headquarters, at Belle Grove, a large stone house in Frederick County, situated between Cedar Creek and Middletown, and a little distance west of the Valley pike. At Strasburg we were counted and turned over to a new guard, detailed from the First Regiment of Rhode Island Infantry, to march us to General Sheridan’s headquarters; then that guard turned us over to the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, doing guard duty around headquarters. We passed through a great many camps to-day along Tom’s Brook and the Valley pike, between Tom’s Brook and Fisher’s Hill. The whole country seems to be full of infantry.