re
were according to the fancy of the fair correspondent. Did these highly
favored fellows know, I wonder, through what tribulations these
precious messages had passed to reach their hands? All knew how, owing
to our constant and rapid marches, and the impracticable condition of
the roads, we had been deprived, ever since we left Harrisburg, of all
means of communicating with home except as accident provided. The
chaplain of the Twenty-Third interested himself in forwarding our
letters whenever there seemed to be a reasonable chance of getting them
through. But we were all indebted more than once to the energy and
kindness of a gentleman of New York, not connected with any of the
regiments, for tidings from home and for the opportunity of sending
return letters.[5]

[5] As this gentleman[5-1] in making his way to join us went over
much the same ground that we did, his observations are
interesting as showing how things looked in our wake. His
adventures, moreover, are full of entertainment as well on
account of their novelty and freshness as for the remarkable
energy displayed in overcoming obstacles that would have appalled
most men.

[5-1] JOHN H. TRIPLER, Esq.

On the fifth of July he obtained after great difficulty a pass to
cross the bridge at Harrisburg; and having reached Carlisle the
same afternoon by the cars, set out with one or two others on
foot to overtake the column. At Papertown they halted for the
night at a deserted house, where they found "some soldiers
sitting around on the floor eating bread and molasses by the
light of a dilapidated tallow candle." Next morning they entered
upon the mountain road leading to Laurel Forge, which they found
still nearly impassable. In the words of the narrator, "It was
nothing but mud, mud, of the worst kind. Thus we travelled for
many weary miles till we came to where a number of the
Thirty-Seventh Regiment had been encamped with their teams. The
road grew worse as we proceeded. We began now to pass a good many
stragglers and wagons, some of them stuck in the mud, the
soldiers with ropes assisting the horses to get through the
well-nigh impassable mire. We came to a wagon that had broken
down, belonging to the Thirty-Seventh, and found in it a barrel
of hard-tack from which we filled our handkerchiefs and