itives as
closely as the changed circumstances of affairs would permit, and to
give the Rebels no rest, while he endeavored to press them determinedly,
and watched them by means of scouts and signal-stations with a jealous
eye. "There is, however, a limit to the endurance which men and horses
are capable of, and, beyond this, the overtaxed powers give way, and
exhausted nature claims her rights. Few there are, except those who have
had experience, who know how much privation the brave soldier and his
general suffer in the toils of the field, on the rapid march, the hasty
bivouac, the broken slumbers, the wakeful watchings, and the scanty
fare." It must be remembered, also, that our army had made many forced
marches, describing in its route a line somewhat resembling the
circumference of a great circle, as a careful survey of the map of
movements will show; while the route of the enemy, who had several days
the start of us, was more like the diameter of that circle. Our cavalry
had not only fought and defeated the Rebel cavalry on many sanguinary
fields, but it had met the serried lines of their infantry also, as at
Gettysburg, where the brave Farnsworth fell. Owing to this fatigue of
our forces, our pursuit of the enemy was not as vigorous, it would seem
in a cursory glance, as it should have been.

As soon as it was ascertained that the Rebel army was in full retreat, a
force of our cavalry was sent across the Potomac at Harper's Ferry,
bivouacking, the night of the fourteenth of July, on Bolivar Heights.
Early the next morning we advanced on the Winchester Turnpike as far as
Halltown, where we deflected to the right on the road to Shepherdstown.
We had not proceeded far before we encountered the enemy's cavalry under
Fitzhugh Lee, with which we were soon involved in a spirited contest. At
first our troopers were worsted and driven back a short distance. But,
having found a good position, we rallied, and repulsed several desperate
charges, inflicting heavy losses, until the Rebels were glad to give up
the game, and consequently retired. Colonel Drake (First Virginia) and
Colonel Gregg were among the Rebel slain, while on our side the highest
officer killed was Captain Fisher, of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania. The
fighting was done principally on foot.

While these things were transpiring, Kilpatrick moved his division from
Falling Waters to Boonsboro' by way of Williamsport and Hagerstown. Sad
evidences of the recent bat