wiped out forever, in Rebel blood, the disgrace and foul stain cast upon
our arms in the momentous military blunders and defeats which have
followed us since the beginning of this great American conflict.

The losses were heavy on both sides, but the enemy was fairly beaten,
and driven from his chosen positions; and night closed the most
sanguinary day ever known to the American continent. McClellan ought to
have followed up his victory early next morning, but hesitating, the
enemy made good his escape across the Potomac, leaving only his dead
and desperately wounded, the latter numbering about two thousand, in
our hands.

_October 4._--We are still in our camps at Hall's Hill, teaching and
learning the tactics of war. To-day Kilpatrick detailed me to act as
drill-master, and gave me the command of a detachment of recruits. This
gives me a new phase of army experience, and though it has its
difficulties, as one will always find when he endeavors to control "men
of many minds," yet I find a good exercise of my little knowledge of
human nature, and realize that the influence of my new labor upon myself
is very salutary. I had thought that I was master of all the preliminary
steps of the science and art of a soldier's discipline, but in
endeavoring to teach the same to others, I have learned so much myself,
that it now seems to me that what I knew before was the merest rudiment.
This I learn is the experience of others who are engaged in similar
work. Helping others has a wonderful reflex influence upon ourselves. I
often wonder if this may no explain in part the philosophy of that
passage of Holy Writ, which says, "It is more blessed to give than to
receive." In this exercise of drilling, and in the comparative monotony
of camp life, we spent the month of October.

All was quiet along the entire lines of the great armies. Our ranks had
been greatly swollen by new accessions; yet General McClellan was
constantly calling for reenforcements, and all kinds of supplies,
alleging that the army was in no condition to move. At length about the
twenty-sixth of October a feeble advance was made across the Potomac.
Several days were spent in putting the Federal army on the sacred soil
and under marching orders. No opposition was encountered in the march.
Our forces moved along the east side of the Blue Ridge, the enemy still
occupying the Shenandoah Valley, and moving southward on a line parallel
with our own.

_November 2._--