OF THE

CIVIL WAR;

BEING THE INCIDENT, ADVENTURE AND WAYSIDE EXPLOIT OF THE

BIVOUAC AND BATTLE FIELD,

AS RELATED BY

VETERAN SOLDIERS THEMSELVES.

EMBRACING THE TRAGEDY, ROMANCE, COMEDY, HUMOR
AND PATHOS IN THE VARIED EXPERIENCES
OF ARMY LIFE.

BY WASHINGTON DAVIS.

ALSO A HISTORY OF THE

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

FROM ITS BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT DATE, AND OTHER VALUABLE
INFORMATION.

BY A COMRADE.

CHICAGO:

SIDNEY C. MILLER & CO.

1888.

Daya

COPYRIGHT BY

B. GEHMAN & CO.,

1836.

THE

L

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC,

THE VETERANS AND THE VOLUNTEERS

OF THE

CIVIL WAR,

UPON WHOSE LOYALTY AROSE THE STANDARD OF PERPE JA UNION AND TO THEIR WIVES, SISTERS AND MOTHER,

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

IN THE HOPE THAT IT MAY REMAIN

▲ TESTAMENT TO THEir heroic ENDURANCE, AND A TRIBUT TO THEIR
HALLOWED MEMORY.

V

363887

We're tenting to-night on the old camp ground,—

Give us a song to cheer

Our weary hearts, a song of home

And the friends we love so dear.

CHORUS:

Many are the hearts that are weary to-night,
Wishing for the war to cease;

Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.

REFRAIN:

Tenting to-night, tenting to-night,
Tenting on the old camp ground.

We've been tenting to-night on the old camp ground
Thinking of days gone by;

Of the loved ones at home who gave us the hand.
And the tear that said " Good-bye!"

CHORUS.

We are tired of war on the old camp ground,-

Many are dead and gone,

Of the loved and true who've left their homes;

Others been wounded long.

CHORUS.

We've been fighting to-day on the old camp ground,—

Many are lying near;

Some are dead, and some dying:

Many are in tears.

CHORUS AND REFRAIN:

Dying to-night, dying to-night,
Dying on the old camp ground.

* Copyright. Used by permission of O. Ditson & Co.

T is hoped that no "crying need" or "long-felt want" has been satisfied by the publication of CAMP-FIRE Chats. Nor has the manuscript been prepared for the private perusal of a few of the author's friends; but this volume has been published for the same purpose as are other books in these latter days (save the reports issued by good old honest Uncle Sam), with the additional intent of preserving a few points of history, and some features of army life not before delineated. To this end the subject matter has been selected, with sufficient humorous incident, it is thought, to relieve the work of aryness.

Only one claim is made: the stories are fresh and hereto fore unpublished; and in gathering the material from the field the publishers and the author have spared neither labor nor expense. It was realized that much wholesome romance, to gether with many details in the history of the Civil War, remained treasured only in the memories of the veterans, or at least had not found their way into print, and must necessarily perish with the soldiers, unless the many interesting stories told at the various camp-fires of the Grand Army of the Republic, were preserved. The preservation of these also achieves a very praiseworthy result: It furnishes to youthful minds a far better class of reading than the mass of exciting and pernicious literature thrust upon them from all sides.