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assigned to him was the covering of Washington, the safety of the valley of the Shenandoah, and the operating upon the enemy's lines in the direction of Gordonsville and Charlottesville to draw off, if possible, a portion of the enemy from Richmond. As early as the 16th of July, Jackson's advance force under Ewell reached Gordonsville, and on the 7th of August all the infantry and artillery forces of Pope's army, amounting to twentyeight thousand and five hundred men, were assembled along the turnpike from Sperryville to Culpeper, excepting King's division, which was opposite Fredericksburg. The cavalry pickets extending on the right from the Blue Ridge on the Rapidan, down the same until they joined King's, at its junction with the Rappahannock.

On the 9th, General Banks was ordered to move forward to Cedar or Slaughter Mountains, and to take up a strong position occupied by Crawford's brigade, and hold the enemy in check. General Banks, however, left his strong position late in the day, and advanced at least a mile, throwing his whole corps into action against a superior force of the enemy strongly posted and sheltered by woods and ridges. This advance led him over open ground, which was everywhere swept by the fire of the enemy concealed in the woods and ravines beyond. The battle lasted about an hour and a half, during which time our forces were driven back to their former position with heavy loss. At this point Rickett's division came up and joined in the engagement, and General Pope, at the same time arriving, drew in General Bank's too much extended line, and the enemy were driven back. An artillery fight was kept up until midnight. Both sides suffered severely during the action, and the estimate loss of our army was one thousand eight hundred in killed, wounded and prisoners.

General Pope, in his official report, states: The consolidated report of General Bank's corps, received some days previously (to the battle), exhibited an effective force of something over fourteen thousand men. It ap

peared subsequently, however, that General Bank's force at that time did not exceed eight thousand men!" Under such a display of military genius, as shown upon this occasion, we would prefer not to serve under General Banks.

Before daylight the next morning Jackson withdrew his forces two miles and during the night of the 11th, he fell back across the Rapidan, in the direction of Gordonsville leaving many of his dead and wounded on the field. General Pope being subsequently reinforced by General King's and Reno's division advanced again to the Rapidan. Having captured a letter from General Lee to General Stuart, dated Gordonsville, August 15th, General Pope was apprised of the position of the enemy and their intention to overwhelm him, before the arrival of reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac. He therefore on the 18th, retired behind the Rappahannock and occupied that line from three miles above Rappahannock station to Kelly's ford. On the 20th, the enemy drove in his pickets in front of Rappahannock station and Kelly's ford and during the next three days made strong efforts to cross at various points, but was repulsed.

On the 22nd, the Pennsylvania Reserves under General Reynolds, with the exception of the second regiment, joined the Army of Virginia, at Kelly's ford, and was attached to the Third corps, General McDowell, they being among the very last to leave Harrison's Landing and the first to join General Pope.

Early on the morning of the 22d, our regiment moved into a field near by and had three days' rations served 'out, and, although, we had had no meat for six days, we were forced to leave this behind as we had no kettles to boil it in, and salt beef roasted creates too great thirst for men to march with during hot weather. That day, at noon, we commenced our march through Falmouth, and moved up the river on the Bealton road. The weather was oppressively hot, and the men suffered

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much. During the march, for the first time this season, we met with fruit, and although it was green and the men were suffering much from the diarrhoea, they could not restrain their appetites from enjoying the delicacies, and, contrary to all expectations, it proved a most effectual remedy for the disease; their systems being disposed to the scurvy, the acids of the apples acting as an antidote. At dark we bivouacked in a wood by a roadside.

Early the next morning we marched to the tune of the booming gun that came rolling down the river, passing by Hartwood and halting at the Grove churches during the heat of the day. About a mile beyond there we turned to the left passing Crittenden's mills where Morell's division was encamped. Pushing on towards Rappahannock station, which laid eight miles beyond, and where we knew the Reserves were engaged with the enemy, we marched four miles, when about dark we met two cavalrymen, who informed us our division had abandoned the station, at two o'clock that afternoon, and fallen back towards Warrenton. Under these circumstances, Colonel McCandless fell back to the mills, where we reported to, and bivouacked with, General Morell. A heavy rain had fallen through the afternoon and continued through the night. That day we marched seventeen miles, though we made but nine.

The next morning some of the boys discovering a number of sheep running around loose in the woods, shot several of them and brought them into camp, which General Morell hearing of, was shocked beyond measure at the impropriety of the act, and ordered them to be buried near his tent, that he could see it done with his own eyes. But while the culprits were digging the grave, another party were tunneling from the side of the bank, and drew the sheep out, which soon became part and parcel of the Second Reserves.

That afternoon, General Morell marched with his whole force to the northeast where we took up a strong position at the gold mines near Morrisville and laid during the

night. Here we remained until the next afternoon, when our Colonel, anxious to join the division, solicited and obtained permission to attempt the hazardous task of running the gauntlet outside our picket line, and General Morell taking compassion on our craven stomachs, gave us a fine ox and his blessing, with which we departed on our way rejoicing. In a few miles we were outside the picket lines, pushing direct for our forces, through a section of country continually scoured by the enemy's cavalry. About dark we passed Bealton station, which is four miles from Rappahannock station, and moving one mile beyond bivouacked in a wood, and killing our ox, we enjoyed a hearty meal to which we had been strangers for some time past. That night we posted strong guards and pickets under Captain Connor and sleeping soundly were up before daybreak the next morning and off.

Being in entire ignorance of the country excepting the general directions, and the unreliable information we gathered from the few inhabitants we met, and having no knowledge of the location of our forces except that they were falling back, and that the rear guard of cavalry and artillery were engaged with the enemy in the direction of Warrenton, Sulphur Springs and Waterloo bridge, the booming of whose guns we could plainly hear, we felt exceedingly anxious to find our division. A regi ment lost from its division, is like a soldier lost from his regiment, or a child from his home. Though it was excessively hot, and we had added to the length of our wearied march by a long detour in the early part of the day, the boys steadily pressed on over the hilly roads, with but few and short halts for rest or water. About four o'clock the spires of Warrenton were seen, and soon afterwards we passed through the town and moved about two miles down the Waterloo road, where we at length found our division, and bivouacked in a woods near the road, having marched twenty miles.

The next morning, the 27th, our wagons arrived, and

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rations were again served out to us, but the heads of the beef barrels had hardly been stove in before we received orders to march. This was rather hard for the boys, as they had had but one ration of meat since the morning of the 16th. But there was no remedy, so the meat was packed in the wagons again, and we took up the line of march through Warrenton, past New Baltimore, and bivouacked at Buckland Mills, where Broad Run crosses the Alexandria and Warrenton turnpike.

The enemy during the preceding night having passed through Thoroughfare Gap, and cut the railroad in the neighborhood of Kettle Run, about six miles east of Warrenton Junction, were attacked on the afternoon of the 27th, by Hooker's division, about four miles west of Bristoe Station, and driven back along the railroad to Broad Run, where, at dark, he still confronted Hooker. The loss on each side was about three hundred killed and wounded, the enemy leaving his wounded, and much of his baggage on the battle-field. During the night Ewell retired to Manassas Junction.

CHAPTER XVII.

SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN. CONDUCT OF GENERAL FITZJOHN PORTER. THE ARMY FALLS BACK. BATTLE OF CHANTILLY. ARLINGTON HEIGHTS. UPTON'S HILL.

SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN, ON THE PLAINS OF MANASSAS, JULY 28TH, 29TH, AND 30TH, THE next morning, the 28th, we commenced our march at three o'clock, and upon arriving at Gainesville about ten, the head of the column was fired upon by a battery of artillery posted on an elevation to our front and left. The whole column was marvellously soon unwoven, and formed into line of battle and skirmishers advanced, but upon Cooper's rifled guns being brought to bear upon