men, their powers completely
exhausted, without waiting for food, or to provide comfortable quarters,
lay down in the bed of mud and were soon in heavy slumbers.

Again, after a poor night's rest, the corps was marched to a new
position on the front line, where we remained to celebrate the
anniversary of the nation's birthday. A gloomy "Fourth of July" was this
to us, though every effort was made to keep up the spirits of the men.
Early in the morning the enemy opened a fire upon parts of our line, to
which our guns responded. A national salute had been ordered, and
precisely at the hour appointed, while the fighting was in progress, the
heavy guns were heard booming the salute. Our boys listened for a
moment, and then, as if all inspired with new life, they made the welkin
ring with their cheers. The bands, roused from their long inactivity,
pealed forth stirring national airs, and the Commander-in-Chief issued
an address to his array, in which he praised its gallantry and firmness,
declared that he himself had established the new line, and that if the
enemy would come upon us now we would convert his repulse into a final
defeat.

At home, a heavy gloom hung over the nation. The news of our retreat and
of the terrible battles, had been carried by the magic wires to the
remotest parts of the north; but few yet knew the fate of their friends
who were in the great army. It was enough that the siege of Richmond,
which had cost so much time and money, and, above all, so many thousands
of brave men, was abandoned, and the grand army, on which the hopes of
the nation hung, was now beleaguered, defending itself in an unhealthy
position, which offered little advantage for anything but defense.
Sympathizers with the rebellion secretly rejoiced and openly prophesied
the speedy destruction of our army by the scorching sun and poisoned
air, even if left to itself by the rebels.

The cause of all these disastrous circumstances was by some attributed
to unwise interference, on the part of the authorities in Washington,
with the plans of the chief of our army. They claimed that the
President, Secretary of War and the Major General commanding all the
armies of the Union, had, in the words of General McClellan, "done what
they could to defeat this army." They complained loudly that
reinforcements had been withheld, and that McDowell, with a large force,
had been kept unemployed in the vicinity of Fredericksburgh, when his
corps would