les, all waiting for the
orders to cross. The men were universally eager to push forward, and the
necessary delay caused by crossing the men and material of so large an
army seemed to them a wearisome expenditure of time. While waiting here,
the Second division was honored by the presence of several ladies, wives
of officers of different regiments, who had been waiting in Washington
an opportunity of visiting their husbands, and had met them here. As a
memento of this brief visit, the Seventy-seventh New York received from
the wife of the surgeon the gift of a pair of beautiful guidons, which
the regiment boasted were unequaled in the army. The design was a white
cross, the badge of our division, upon a ground of deep blue silk. In
the center of the cross were wrought the figures "77." These beautiful
guidons were carried by the regiment until its final discharge from the
service, when, with the old banner, the tattered national flag, and the
magnificent new flag which was presented afterward by the ladies of
Saratoga, they were presented to the State of New York, on the Fourth of
July, 1865, in the presence of General Grant and a great concourse of
illustrious men.

On Sunday, the 19th, the Sixth corps crossed the pontoon bridge to
Virginia, the bands playing "O carry me back." As usual, while the corps
was crossing a bridge or passing a difficult place, General Sedgwick
stood at the farther end of the bridge preventing confusion and hurrying
up teams which might obstruct the way. We climbed the rocky defile, and,
at four o'clock, found ourselves well on the Virginia side of the
Potomac. On our march we passed through the little village of
Lovettsville, and, much to the surprise of all, the doors and windows of
the dwellings were filled with ladies, whose hair and dresses were
decked with ribbons of red, white and blue, and scores of Union flags
waved a welcome to our soldiers. Such a sight had not greeted us before
in Dixie, and it was most refreshing to witness such a demonstration of
loyalty in Virginia.

The corps encamped about ten miles from the river, near a beautiful
clear stream of water, which was very soon filled with bathers. Here
orders came for each regiment in the army to send, to the State in which
the regiment was raised, a certain number of commissioned officers and
enlisted men for recruiting duty.

The march on the 20th was slow and through groves and pleasant meadows.
Twelve miles were made, and