wspapers,
and their rumors, that the enemy was in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in
all places where he was not, yet these men could still be relied upon, I
believe, when the day of conflict should come. "_Haec olim meminisse
juvabit._" We did not then know this. I mention them now, that you may
see that in those times we had several matters to think about, and to
do, that were not as pleasant as sleeping upon a bank of violets in the
shade.

In moving from near Falmouth, Va., the army was formed in several
columns, and took several roads. The Second Corps, the rear of the
whole, was the last to move, and left Falmouth at daybreak, on the 15th
of June, and pursued its march through Aquia, Dumfries, Wolf Run
Shoales, Centerville, Gainesville, Thoroughfare Gap--this last we left
on the 25th, marching back to Haymarket, where we had a skirmish with
the cavalry and horse artillery of the enemy--Gum Spring, crossing the
Potomac at Edward's Ferry, thence through Poolesville, Frederick,
Liberty, and Union Town. We marched from near Frederick to Union Town, a
distance of thirty-two miles, from eight o'clock A. M. to nine P. M., on
the 28th, and I think this is the longest march, accomplished in so
short a time, by a corps during the war. On the 28th, while we were near
this latter place, we breathed a full breath of joy, and of hope. The
Providence of God had been with us--we ought not to have doubted
it--General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac.

Not a favorable time, one would be apt to suppose, to change the General
of a large army, on the eve of battle, the result of which might be to
destroy the Government and country! But it should have been done long
before. At all events, any change could not have been for the worse, and
the Administration, therefore, hazarded little, in making it now. From
this moment my own mind was easy concerning results. I now felt that we
had a clear-headed, honest soldier, to command the army, who would do
his best always--that there would be no repetition of Chancellorsville.
Meade was not as much known in the Army as many of the other corps
commanders, but the officers who knew, all thought highly of him, a man
of great modesty, with none of those qualities which are noisy and
assuming, and hankering for cheap newspaper fame, not at all of the
"_gallant_" Sickles stamp. I happened to know much of General Meade--he
and General Gibbon had always been very intimate, and I had seen much of
hi