For a brief period quiet ruled the hour,
and the weary soldier had begun his dreams of home and happiness long
before he was ready to stretch his limbs upon the mattresses that
covered the floors of the spacious hotel.
Suddenly the "Long-roll" was heard echoing along the streets and through
the halls of the Gerard House. The accoutrements and garments that had
been doffed in readiness for sleep were hastely resumed; and at the word
"Fall in," every man was in his place.
The "weight of affliction" in this crisis fell upon the field and staff
officers. They had but just assembled in the drawing-room of the
Continental Hotel, and gone through with those preliminary forms that
are quite as indicative of a good appetite as of good manners, and were
quiet taking their places at the table, amid the sumptuous surroundings
of a dining hall at that time scarcely equalled on the continent, when
Col. Jones entered the apartment, with the abrupt salutation,
"Gentlemen, to your posts; we start for Baltimore immediately, the
regiment awaits the order to march.
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