y, within a space of three miles. Movements from one part to
another of this compact field could be made with celerity. Lee's forces,
on the other hand, extended over a circle of seven miles or more around,
in a country where all their movements could be watched by us and
anticipated.

At a point well forward on the foot of this shoe, Meade had his
head-quarters. I tied my horse at the gate, and entered the little
square box of a house which enjoys that historical celebrity. It is
scarcely more than a hut, having but two little rooms on the
ground-floor, and I know not what narrow, low-roofed chambers above. Two
small girls, with brown, German faces, were paring wormy apples under
the porch; and a round-shouldered, bareheaded, and barefooted woman,
also with a German face and a strong German accent, was drawing water at
the well. I asked her for a drink, which she kindly gave me, and invited
me into the house.

The little box was whitewashed outside and in, except the floor and
ceilings and inside doors, which were neatly scoured. The woman sat down
to some mending, and entered freely into conversation. She was a widow,
and the mother of six children. The two girls cutting wormy apples at
the door were the youngest, and the only ones that were left to her. A
son in the army was expected home in a few days. She did not know how
old her children were,--she did not know how old she herself was, "she
was so forgetful."

She ran away at the time of the fight, but was sorry afterwards she did
not stay at home. "She lost a heap." The house was robbed of almost
everything; "coverlids and sheets and some of our own clo'es, all
carried away. They got about two ton of hay from me. I owed a little on
my land yit, and thought I'd put in two lots of wheat that year, and it
was all trampled down, and I didn't get nothing from it. I had seven
pieces of meat yit, and them was all took. All I had when I got back was
jest a little bit of flour yit. The fences was all tore down, so that
there wa'n't one standing, and the rails was burnt up. One shell come
into the house and knocked a bedstead all to pieces for me. One come in
under the roof and knocked out a rafter for me. The porch was all
knocked down. There was seventeen dead horses on my land. They burnt
five of 'em around my best peach-tree, and killed it; so I ha'n't no
peaches this year. They broke down all my young apple-trees for me. The
dead horses sp'iled my spring, so I had