le room in the
ferry-boats for them. The river was so high that this was very
dangerous, and only expert swimmers dared to undertake it. Twenty
dollars was paid for swimming a horse over, and I saw numbers swept down
by the current and landed hundreds of yards below, many on the side from
which they had started. I crossed in a ferry-boat on my recently
acquired horse, having left my faithful old charger, his head encased in
mud to the tips of his ears, with mingled feelings of sadness and
gratitude.

A great curiosity to understand this battle and battlefield induced me
to visit it at the first opportunity, and in 1887, twenty-four years
after it was fought, I, with Colonel Poague, gladly accepted an
invitation from the survivors of Pickett's division to go with them to
Gettysburg, whither they had been invited to meet the Philadelphia
Brigade, as their guests, and go over the battlefield together. After
our arrival there, in company with two officers of the Philadelphia
Brigade, one of Pickett's men and an intelligent guide, I drove over the
field. As a part of our entertainment we saw the Pickett men formed on
the same ground and in the same order in which they had advanced to the
charge. Farther on we saw the superb monuments, marking the location
of the different Federal regiments, presenting the appearance of a vast
cemetery. The position held by the Federals for defense was perfect. Its
extent required the whole of the Confederate army present to occupy the
one line they first adopted, with no troops to spare for flanking. Its
shape, somewhat like a fish-hook, enabled the Federal army to reinforce
promptly any part that was even threatened. Its terrain was such that
the only ground sufficiently smooth for an enemy to advance on, that in
front of its center, was exposed throughout, not only to missiles from
its front, but could be raked from the heights on its left. And, in
addition to all this, the whole face of the country, when the battle was
fought, was closely intersected with post and rail and stone fences.

[Illustration: EDWARD A. MOORE

(February, 1907)]

CHAPTER XXIII

AT "THE BOWER"--RETURN TO ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA--BLUE RUN
CHURCH--BRISTOW STATION--RAPPAHANNOCK BRIDGE--SUPPLEMENTING CAMP RATIONS

To return to my retreat from Gettysburg. The clothes that I wore were
all that I now possessed. My blanket, extra wearing apparel, lard,
apple-butter, sole-leather, etc., with the wounded, were