y Col. VARIAN of
the 8th and Col. TRAFFORD of the 71st in their published reports of the
campaign), having accomplished a distance of some fourteen miles from
Cashtown. Here we realized more keenly than we had yet done that we
were coming upon classic ground. Through the grove flowed a brawling
brook named the Little Antietam. The waters which there soothed our
travel-bruised feet and refreshed our weary limbs were destined to
bathe the historic field where the patriot army hurled back the first
rebel invasion. But the neighborhood is itself memorable for a prior
transaction, connected with one of the most pregnant events in the
history of the country. Near the place of our bivouac, John E. Cook,
one of the unfortunate confederates of John Brown of Harper's Ferry,
was arrested. Cook, it will be remembered, escaped from Harper's Ferry
by taking to the mountains of Maryland on foot; and after having
reached a spot where he expected to find sympathizing friends, was
treacherously seized by one Logan, and sent back to a Virginia gallows.
This execrated wretch now lives, poor and despised by his neighbors, in
this village of Altodale. But it is pleasant to be able to say that his
wife, as if an atoning angel, opened her doors, (Logan was absent on a
distant journey at the time), and showed to our men--they being
ignorant of who their entertainer was--a generous hospitality. She fed
the hungry and nursed the sick with christian charity.

On this Tuesday morning the entire rebel army reached Hagerstown; and
at the same moment General Meade set on foot from Gettysburg a flank
movement by way of Middletown.

The skies threatening we pitched tents for the night along the Little
Antietam. Toward morning the rain fell furiously. It dripped through
the canvas above us, it crept in under the edges of the tents, and
soaked the rubber cloths on which we lay. When our situation under
cover had become sufficiently miserable, seized with insane impatience
we crawled out into the open air, only to find that our neighbors had
been as insane as ourselves. It was then early daybreak. You could
dimly see, gathered around the faintly burning embers of the company
fires, a few strange-looking objects, black and utterly shapeless
except near the ground where a pair of legs protruded. As you moved
through the wood you everywhere met forms like these wandering about
aimlessly and in moody silence. Squat on the ground were others--mere
black shape