ime. He meant nothing more nor less than
this: "We are beaten and our army is retreating."

The wagons going back over the same road that had brought us to
Gettysburg told the story, and soon the whole army knew the fact. This
is the first time Lee's army had ever met defeat.

It is said that the loss of the two armies was about 50,000. This
probably included the prisoners; but there were not many prisoners taken
on either side. The major portion of the losses were in killed and
wounded.

The badly wounded were left on the field to be cared for by the enemy.
Those who could walk, and those who were able to ride and could find
places in the wagons, followed the retreating army.

The wagon train was miles and miles long. It did not follow the road to
Chambersburg very far, but turned off and took a shorter cut through a
mountainous district toward the point where the army had crossed the
river into Maryland. This wagon train was guarded by a large body of
cavalry, including my command.

Just as the sun was going down, dark ominous clouds came trooping up
from the west with thunder and lightning, and it was not long before the
whole heavens were covered and rain was falling in torrents.

I am not familiar with the topography of the country through which we
retreated, but all night long we seemed to be in a narrow road, with
steep hills or mountains on either side. We had with us a good many
cattle with which to feed the army. These got loose in the mountains and
hills covered with timber, and between their constant bellowing and the
flashes of lightning and crashing thunder the night was hideous in the
extreme. Wagons were breaking down, others getting stalled, and, to make
matters worse, about midnight we were attacked by the Union cavalry.

This mountainous road came out on a wide turnpike, and just at this
point Kilpatrick (commanding the Union cavalry) had cut our wagon train
in two and planted a battery of artillery with the guns pointing toward
the point from which we were advancing.

The cavalry which was stretched along the wagon train was ordered to the
front. It was with great difficulty that we could get past the wagons in
the darkness, and hence our progress was slow, but we finally worked our
way up to the front and were dismounted and formed in line as best we
could on either side of the road among the rocks and trees and then
moved forward in an effort to drive the battery away from its position
so