ohnnies were pouring through Ashby's Gap in force and that they meant
fight. At nine o'clock we started for Ashby's Gap, but on our arrival
there, there was not a Johnnie in sight--another of those old-fashioned
false reports. We moved on as far as Manassas Gap the 5th. All the way
along as we approached we could hear the artillery at the gap. Our men
occupied the east end and the Confederates the west end. Some one said the
artillerymen were paying their respects to each other.

November 6. We moved back from the mountain range about ten miles to the
town of Orleans. The next morning we started out and marched a few miles,
then filed left, crossed a narrow field into a piece of woods and stacked
arms. After sitting around a little while I started out to see if I could
find a house and get something to eat a little out of the ordinary, for to
be constantly eating hardtack and salt horse became a little monotonous
after being indulged in month after month.

I passed along through a series of fields on high ground, then bearing a
little to the right passed through a strip of wood from the farther side
of which a ridge appeared a few rods out in the field. When I reached the
top of the ridge, the looked-for-house appeared in sight a few rods down
the other slope, and down to it I went. When I got within five or six rods
of the house, a Johnnie came out and walked off down towards some wood on
the farther side of the field. This opened my eyes, and then I saw for the
first time that that wood down there was alive with Johnnies--not an
ordinary picket post but a regiment, or a brigade was there. There were
tents and camp-fires in large numbers. I must have been five or six rods
from the house, and the wood where the Johnnies were, some eight or ten
rods beyond, when I made this discovery, but this was no time to hesitate.

I walked down to the house and asked the woman if she had any corn-bread
to sell. She said, "No, I have just sold the last I had to one of our
men." That "our men" showed me at once that she knew who I was. I stepped
out into the yard, took a look around and sauntered back up over the hill
again. When I got out of sight of the house I quickened my steps until I
was a good distance from that camp.

November 8. A change of great importance has taken place in the army.
General McClellan has been relieved of command of the "Army of the
Potomac," and General Burnside, the old commander of the 9th Army Corps,