trimental to the
country such a course was, morally he was a traitor, and ought to
suffer the odium of treason committed. Some of the states had the wisdom
and the patriotism to adopt the plan of keeping the regiments at the
front filled up. It was a crying shame to allow Frances C. Barlow to
command a regiment carrying but a little over one hundred muskets.
Someone should have seen to it that the Sixty-first should never have
been long with less than five hundred men in the ranks.

On the tenth we marched ten miles, passing through Hyattstown. On
Saturday, the 13th, we marched through one of the finest towns I had
seen in the South--Frederick, Md. We camped on the further side of the
town. Sunday we hoped would be a day of rest. In the morning a field of
ripe potatoes was discovered close by, and notwithstanding McClellan's
savage order against taking anything, in a short time that field had
upon it, almost a man to a hill of potatoes. It did not take long to dig
that field. Our anticipations of a day of rest, with a vegetable diet,
were disappointed. The bugles sounded "Strike tents," and we were soon
on our way on the road over South Mountain.

At this time fortune favored "Little Mac." Gen. Lee's plan of campaign
fell into his hands, and he was fully informed as to the purposes of the
Confederates. Some generals would have made good use of this important
knowledge, but it did the Union commander but little good. This general
order of Lee directed one of his corps to take Harper's Ferry. I think
the common sense of most people would have said, "Now you concentrate
your army and fight and destroy Lee's two-thirds, before he can
concentrate." If that would have been good strategy, McClellan did not
use it.

We had an uphill march out of Frederick. Having gained the crest of the
first range of hills, we halted, and our regiment was deployed on a
picket line. While lying about waiting for something to turn up, we
discovered a farm house to the front, and sent several of the men to see
what could be purchased for the table. In a short time they returned
with milk and soft bread. Porter E. Whitney of my company was one of
them, and he expressed his contempt for their simplicity in not charging
more than they did for the amount furnished.

While we were preparing to cook our foraged potatoes and eat the
provision from the farm house, we noticed the movement of troops in line
of battle moving up the mountain side ahead o