got orders on the 29th of October to
prepare for the march, I was assured by the adjutant-general of our
brigade that it was nothing more than a day's reconnoissance, and that
we were certainly not going to move our quarters. He knew as much about
it as I did. Within an hour after this order another came directing us
to move in heavy marching order, with three days' rations and sixty
rounds of ammunition. And so we moved out of Harper's Ferry on the 31st
of October, leaving our fixed-up quarters, with my four-dollar stove, to
Geary's division, which succeeded to our camp.

We crossed the Shenandoah on a pontoon bridge and skirted the mountain
under Loudon Heights over the same route south that we had taken on our
way in from the Leesburg raid. We marched very leisurely, making during
the first four days only about twenty-five miles, to a village bearing
the serious (?) name of Snickersville. Here we had the first evidence of
the presence of the enemy. We were hurried through this village and up
through the gap in the mountain called "Snicker's Gap" to head off the
rebels. We soon came on to their scouts and pickets, who fled
precipitately without firing a gun. Part of our division halted on the
top of the gap, while a couple of regiments skirmished through the woods
both sides of the road down to the foot of the mountain on the other
side. The enemy had taken "French leave," and so our men returned and
our division bivouacked here for the night.

We now learned that these giant armies were moving south in parallel
columns, the mountain separating them. At every gap or pass in the
mountain a bristling head or a clinched fist, so to speak, of one would
be thrust through and the other would try to hit it. This was our
mission, as we double-quicked it through this gap. When we got there the
"fist" had been withdrawn, and our work for the time was over. But our
bivouac here--how beautiful it was! The fields were clean and green,
with plenty of shade, for right in the gap were some good farms. Then
the cavalry had not cleaned the country of everything eatable, as was
usual, they being always in the advance. There was milk and bread to be
had, and somehow--I never dared to inquire too closely about it--some
good mutton came into camp that night, so that we had a splendid
breakfast next morning. Some fine honey was added to the bill of fare.
The man who brought in the latter claimed that a rebel hive of bees
attacked him whils