ur route being
through a wooded country, some of it so wet and spongy that corduroy
roads had to be built for the wagons and artillery. The army can, as a
rule, move as rapidly as it can move its artillery and supply trains,
and no faster. Of course, for short distances and special expeditions,
where circumstances require, both cavalry and infantry move very
rapidly, ignoring the wagon trains and artillery; but on a general
campaign this is impossible, and so where the ground is bad these must
be helped along. In a wooded country the usual method is by corduroy
road. Extra details are made to assist the pioneer corps, who cut down
young saplings three to six inches in diameter and about six feet in
length and lay them side by side on the ground, which is roughly
levelled to receive them. They do not make a handsome road to speed
over, but they bear up the artillery and army schooners, and that is all
that is wanted of them.

The second day we crossed the Rappahannock at United States ford on a
pontoon bridge. There had been a sharp skirmish here when the first
troops crossed a couple of days before, and a battery of artillery was
still in position guarding the crossing. We now began to experience once
more the unmistakable symptoms of approaching battle,--sharp spurts of
cannonading at irregular intervals some distance to the south and west
of us, with the hurry of marching troops, ambulances and stretcher corps
towards the front; more or less of army debris scattered about, and the
nervous bustle everywhere apparent. We reached the famous
Chancellorsville House shortly after midnight. This was an old-time
hostelry, situated on what was called the Culpeper plank-road. It stood
with two or three smaller houses in a cleared square space containing
some twenty or thirty acres, in the midst of the densest forest of trees
and undergrowth I ever saw. We had marched all day on plank and corduroy
roads, through this wild tanglewood forest, most of the time in a
drizzling rain, and we had been much delayed by the artillery trains,
and it was after midnight when we reached our destination. The distance
marched must have been twelve or more miles, and our men became greatly
fatigued towards the last.

It was my first experience with the regiment on the march in the field
in my new position as major. As adjutant my place had been with the
colonel at the head of the column. Now my duties required me to march in
the rear and keep u