oldier neither by
profession nor from choice, he wore the uniform of the Union because he
could not conscientiously shirk the duty he felt that he owed the
government, and relinquished fortune, home, ambition, life itself, for
the cause of the Union.

Some time about the middle of June, the picket line was taken up. Major
Foote's detachment was ordered to report to Colonel Gray, and Stahel's
division was concentrated at Fairfax Court House. The rumors of the
movements of armies had become realities. Lee was in motion. The army of
Northern Virginia was trying to steal a march on its great adversary.
Long columns of gray were stealthily passing through the Shenandoah
Valley to invade the North, and to be on hand to help the farmers of
Pennsylvania and Maryland reap their golden harvests.

But the alert federal commander, gallant "Fighting 'Joe' Hooker," was
not caught napping. Lee did not escape from Fredericksburg unobserved.
The army of the Potomac cavalry was sent to guard the passes in the
mountains and see to it that Jackson's and Longstreet's maneuvers of the
previous summer were not repeated, while six corps of infantry marched
leisurely toward the fords of the Potomac, ready to cross into Maryland
as soon as it should appear that Lee was actually bent on invasion of
Northern soil. Hooker's opportunity had come and he saw it. For Lee to
venture into Pennsylvania, was to court destruction. All felt that, and
it was with elastic step and buoyant spirits, that the veterans of
Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, of Antietam and Chancellorsville, kept step
to the music of the Union, as they moved toward the land where the flag
was still honored, and where they would be among friends. All the troops
in the Department of Washington were set in motion by Hooker as soon as
he arrived where they were. His plan was to concentrate everything in
front of Lee, believing that the best way to protect Washington was to
destroy the confederate army. Stahel was ordered to report to General
Reynolds, who commanded the left grand division of Hooker's army, and
who was to have the post of honor, the advance, and to lose his life
while leading the vanguard of the federal army in the very beginning of
the battle of Gettysburg. Thus it happened that we were at last, part
and parcel of that historic army whose fame will last as long as the
history of heroic deeds and patriotic endeavor.

Hooker's policy did not coincide with the views of the slow