country, such as the Iraelitish scouts
who went over into the land of Canaan never looked upon or dreamed of.

To be sure we had to pay for what we had. Especially after we crossed
over into Pennsylvania among the frugal Dutch was this the case. But
their charges were not exorbitant, and so long as we had a dollar, it
was cheerfully parted with for their food. But it seemed a little hard
for the Michiganders to be there defending the homes of those opulent
farmers, while they, so far from taking up the musket to aid in driving
out the army that was invading their soil, were seemingly unwilling to
contribute a cent, though I may have misjudged them.

It looked odd, too, to see so many able-bodied men at home, pursuing
their ordinary avocations, with no thought of enlisting, while a hostile
army was at their very doors. It looked so to the soldiers who had been
serving in Virginia, and who knew that in the South, every man able to
bear arms was compelled to do so, and that within the lines of the
confederacy, the cradle and the grave were robbed to fill the ranks.
Lee, with a hundred thousand men was somewhere in that region, we knew
and they knew. We were searching for him and the time was close at hand
when the two armies must come into contact, and oceans of blood would
flow, before the confederates could be driven from Northern soil. The
government was calling loudly for reinforcements of short time men to
serve for the immediate emergency. Yet, these selfish farmers would
drive as sharp a bargain, and figure as closely on the weight and price
of an article supplied to the federal troops, as though they had never
heard of war. Indeed, I believe many of them knew little about what was
going on. Their world was the little Eden in which they passed their
daily lives--the neighborhood in which they lived. They were a happy and
bucolic people, contented to exist and accumulate, with no ambition
beyond that; and while loyal to the government, in the sense that they
obeyed its laws and would have scorned to enter into a conspiracy to
destroy it, yet they possessed little of that patriotism which inspires
men to serve and make sacrifices for their country.

On Sunday morning, June 28, 1863, the two regiments, having passed the
night in camp near the Pennsylvania line, resumed the march and passed
through the town of Emmittsburg. It was a little place, with scarce more
than a thousand inhabitants, but with several churches, a