er corduroy; some of the logs were a
foot, and others a foot and a half through. They were slippery from the
rain, and the men, heavily laden with knapsacks, guns and cartridges,
tumbled headlong, many of them going off at the side, and rolling far
down the steep embankments. A laugh from the comrades of the luckless
ones, while some one would call out, "Have you a pass to go down there?"
was the only notice taken of such accidents; and the dark column hurried
on, until at three o'clock in the morning, we halted at Potomac creek,
where we slept soundly upon the ground until morning.

The following day was Sunday. Our corps did not march until evening; we
lay resting from the fatigues of the night before, and watching the
immense army trains hurrying by, the horses and mules lashed to their
full speed, or viewing the destruction of the great hospitals which had
been established here.

There were here immense quantities of stores; bedding, glass and
earthenware, instruments and medicines, with cooking and other utensils
which could not, in the haste of breaking up, be transported; so they
were thrown in great heaps and burned.

All day long the trains crowded by, four and five wagons abreast; the
drivers shouting and lashing their beasts to their greatest speed. No
one who has not seen the train of an army in motion, can form any just
conception of its magnitude, and of the difficulties attending its
movements. It was said that the train of the Army of the Potomac,
including artillery, at the time of which we speak, if placed in a
single line, the teams at the distance necessary for the march, would
extend over seventy miles.

At Fairfax Court House, soon after this, the trains were greatly
reduced, and again at Fairfax Station; and after General Meade took
command of the army they were still further reduced. Yet,
notwithstanding all these curtailments, our trains were said to be
between thirty and forty miles long.

How little did the impatient people, who clamored at all times, in
winter as well as summer, for an immediate "advance" of the army,
consider that this immense body must always advance with the army; that
it must always be protected; that the army on every march and at every
halt must be so disposed as to prevent the enemy from reaching it from
front, flank or rear; and that when an advance was commenced, if the
trains were to become blocked up, or stuck fast in mud, the whole army
must wait for them, n