's corps, which was hastening to intercept our
progress. The rebels made repeated charges upon the corps, but were each
time repulsed, and under cover of the night they fell back, leaving
their dead on the ground. The loss to the Third corps was between three
and four hundred; that of the rebels, judging from the dead left upon
the ground, must have been greater.

While the fight was in progress, General Sedgwick and his staff
dismounted and were reclining about a large tree, when the attention of
all was directed to two soldiers who were approaching, bearing between
them a stretcher on which lay a wounded man. As the men approached
within a few rods of the place where the general and his staff were, a
solid cannon shot came shrieking along, striking both of the stretcher
bearers. Both fell to the ground--the one behind fatally wounded, the
other dead. But the man upon the stretcher leaped up and ran away as
fast as his legs could carry him, never stopping to look behind at his
unfortunate companions. Shocking as was the occurrence, neither the
general nor the members of his staff could suppress a laugh at the
speedy restoration of the man who was being borne disabled from the
field.

The two corps moved during the night to Robertson's Tavern, the
destination which they should have reached twenty-four hours before.

The unexpected encounter with the rebels in the Wilderness had hindered
the two corps thus long, and as might have been expected the time was
not left unimproved by General Lee. On moving in the morning on the road
to Orange Court House, Lee's whole army was found strongly posted along
the banks of a muddy stream called Mine Run. Our army was brought into
position on the north side of the stream, and arrangements commenced for
a general assault. Sharp picket firing and the occasional roar of
artillery, warned us that we were on the eve of a great battle. A cold
storm of rain rendered the situation cheerless and uncomfortable, but
the excitement of getting into position, regiments and brigades marching
from one part of the line to another, now approaching where the bullets
of the rebel skirmishers whistled about them, and then withdrawing a
little to the rear, kept up the spirits of the men notwithstanding the
tedious storm.

The greater part of the lines of both armies were in the midst of
forests. Between the two lines and in the midst of a deep valley, was
the little stream Mine Run, bordered on each s