As soon as we had halted, the division formed line of battle, on the rise
of a little hill fronting Hagerstown (to act as supports to General
Kilpatrick, who had gone forward that morning to attack it), and we then
lay down to rest, first sending details in all directions to forage for a
meal.

While idling around, bemoaning the condition of our feet, and discussing
the chances of capturing Hagerstown, the sultry promise of the morning was
amply redeemed by one of the most tremendous thunder-storms ever seen; the
rain fell in torrents (but this was a matter of course, and excited no
remark), and the thunder pealed and the lightning flashed all around
us--too near to some. Five men of the Fifty-sixth Brooklyn were struck,
one of whom died instantly, and the others were badly hurt. A gun
belonging to the Thirty-seventh was shattered to pieces by the electric
fluid; and several men in the different regiments were reminded by slight
shocks that the farther they kept from the stacks of arms the better.

During the afternoon our ears and eyes were gladdened, the one by
intelligence that Hagerstown had been taken after a sharp fight, the other
by the sight of our dinner (or breakfast) coming up the road, in the shape
of an astonished ox, who, when he threw up his head in response to the
cheers which greeted his entre, was shot, skinned, and boiling, before he
fairly knew what he was wanted for; and finally, the arrival and
distribution of a case of shoes to those who were actually barefoot, put
us all in the seventh heaven of delight. We also found some tobacco! To be
sure it was poor stuff, apparently a villanous compound of seaweed and
tea; but only those who have known what it is to see their stock of the
precious weed vanish day by day, with no available means of replenishing
it, can imagine our feelings on finding a supply, after we had been
reduced to less than a quarter of a pound to a company.

At about twelve o'clock the next day, the column camped by division, some
three miles from General Meade's headquarters, about the same distance
from Boonesboro', and within sight of the immense train of the reserve
artillery, at a place where the old bivouacs of the Army of the Potomac
filled the air with the nauseating smells invariably incident to deserted
camps. In this delightful spot we waited for the battle which was to be
brought on.

All were in high spirits;--it was universally supposed that the rains had
made the P