we halted for the night and the next day.
Wednesday we passed through Union town and Snickersville, reaching the
base of Cobbler's mountain, a high spur from the Blue Ridge, not far
from Ashby's Gap. Thursday the Sixth corps proceeded to Ashby's Gap,
and, halting there for a few hours in a most delightful valley, again
started southward. Vines of the trailing blackberry covered the ground,
and the delicious fruit grew in such profusion that the men enjoyed a
continual feast. Never had we, in our wanderings in the south, found
such an abundance of fruit, and the effect upon the health of the men
was marvelous. By the time that we reached Warrenton the occupation of
the surgeons was almost gone. At no time, perhaps, in the history of the
Army of the Potomac, did the medical reports exhibit a more general
state of health than during our stay in the vicinity of Warrenton.

Thus, marching along at the foot of Blue Ridge, now turning aside to
enter some mountain pass, and again proceeding on the general course,
the army, on the 25th of July, reached the vicinity of Warrenton, our
Sixth corps occupying a line from Warrenton to Waterloo, the scene of
some of the early engagements of General Pope's army at the first rebel
invasion. The First division was stationed in and about Warrenton; the
Jersey brigade being provost guard of the town, where the gentlemanly
conduct of the men, and the strict order preserved in the town, won for
them the good opinions of the town's people, as well as of army
officers. The Third division was in the rear of the other two divisions,
and guarding the flank. The Second division encamped about an old
Baptist church, which, inclosed by a thick growth of trees, large and
small, had been, before the war, the only house of worship for miles
around. No paint had ever stained its seats or casings, and no steeple
from its roof had ever pointed toward heaven. The pulpit, the white
folks' seats and the black folks' seats, were all in ruins now. The
Rappahannock river was but a half a mile distant, and the
Seventy-seventh and Fifth Vermont were sent to perform picket duty along
its banks. On the following day the camps of the two regiments were
moved to the vicinity of the river, in front of the remainder of the
division, and we were ordered to perform picket duty while the division
remained in its present camp. The camp of the Fifth Vermont was
established a fourth of a mile from that of the Seventy-seventh,