ESERTERS SHOT--CROSS THE RAPPAHANNOCK

At the conclusion of this sojourn in camp, Jackson's command again took
the march and toiled along the line of the Central Railroad toward
Gordonsville. I, being sick, was given transportation by rail in a
freight-car with a mixture of troops. A week was spent in Louisa County,
in the celebrated Green Spring neighborhood, where we fared well. My old
mess, numbering seventeen when I joined it, had by this time been
greatly reduced. My brother John had gotten a discharge from the army,
his office of commissioner of chancery exempting him. Gregory, Frank
Preston and Stuart had been left in Winchester in the enemy's lines
severely wounded. Singleton had been captured at Port Republic, and
others were off on sick-leave. My bedfellow, Walter Packard, had
contracted fever in the Chickahominy swamps, from which he soon after
died. He had been left at the house of a friend in Hanover County,
attended by his brother. In his delirium he impatiently rehearsed the
names of his companions, calling the roll of the company over and over.
From Green Spring we marched to the neighborhood of Gordonsville, where
we remained in camp until about the fifth or sixth of August.

We now heard reports of the approach of the renowned General Pope with
"headquarters in the saddle," along the line of the old Orange and
Alexandria Railroad. On August 7, we moved out of camp, going in his
direction. On the third day's march, being too unwell to foot it, I was
riding in the ambulance. About noon indications in front showed that a
battle was at hand. I was excused from duty, but was asked by the
captain if I would assist in caring for the wounded. This I declined to
do. About this time the battery was ordered forward, and, seeing my gun
start off at a trot, I mounted and rode in with it. We had a long hill
to descend, from the top of which could be seen and heard the
cannonading in front. Then, entering an extensive body of woods, we
passed by the bodies of four infantrymen lying side by side, having just
been killed by a bursting shell.

We took position in the road near the corner of an open field with our
two Parrott guns and one gun of Carpenter's battery, en echelon, with
each gun's horses and limber off on its left among the trees. Both Capt.
Joe Carpenter and his brother, John, who was his first lieutenant, were
with this gun, as was their custom when any one of their guns went into
action. We soon let t