our memories
with the Valley Forge of the Fathers by reason of a common
suffering--our Fourth of July in the wilderness. If those immortal
patriots who gave us the day fared worse for our sakes, we who kept the
day are content to know that we fared about as badly as was in our
power for the sake of those who are to follow us. To think of friends
at home setting off rockets and the like in honor of the day, and very
likely in our honor too, seemed so ridiculous in connection with our
sorry plight as to provoke laughter irresistibly. It was like trying to
cheer a mourning friend at a funeral by telling him stories.

To sum up our Fourth of July work:--Distance travelled, including the
countermarch, half of it through frightful mire, _seventeen miles_;
weight carried, allowing for the additional weight given to overcoat,
tents and clothes by their being soaked through and through a good deal
of the time, _thirty-two and a half pounds_; with insufficient food,
and bad feet under most of us.

At Gettysburg there was a cessation of hostilities throughout the day,
both armies remaining in position, apparently taking a breathing spell
preparatory to renewing the struggle on the morrow. During the night,
however, the rebel retreat began by the Fairfield road. The rear of the
column did not get away till after daylight on the 5th.

_Sunday, July 5th._--In the early morning, which it were a satire to
call the Sabbath day, as it had seemed ridiculous to us to think of the
day before being the jubilee day of our boyhood, we scratched open our
eyes and looked about us to see what sort of a place it was we had
fallen upon. Half a dozen small, unpainted, dingy wooden cabins stuck
along the road-side, an iron furnace and a few other buildings,
appendages of the latter, or non-descripts, greeted our sight. But
there was one thing we saw which made us glad--a fine mill-stream,
where though the water was turbid and yellow we bathed, and washed the
mud and grit out of our clothes. Some of us found in the miserable
settlement a little coffee and some flour, the latter of which we were
at no loss how to use--for what soldier has not heard of flap-jack?
Entering a cabin, and taking possession of the family cooking
stove--the women of the establishment meekly withdrawing--a small party
of us prepared our repast. One brought water from a neighboring spring;
another mixed the dough; another fed the fire from the wood-pile in the
corner; anoth