armies under Butler.
Indeed, at the moment of its arrival at Poolesville, the First
division had been ordered to take the same destination, but this
the movements of the contending armies prevented. The first of
the troops to land at Bermuda Hundred was the 15th Maine on the
17th of July. It was at once sent to the right of the lines before
Petersburg, and within the next ten days there were assembled there
parts of four brigades--McMillan's and Currie's of the First
division, and Birge's and Molineux's of Grover's. Part of Currie's
brigade was engaged, under Hancock, in the affair at Deep Bottom
on the north bank of the James on the 25th of July, losing eighteen
killed and wounded and twenty-four prisoners. The work and duty
in the trenches and on the skirmishing line were hard and constant,
reminding the men of their days and nights before Port Hudson, but
this was not to last long, and the loss was light.(2)

On the 20th of July at Carter's Farm, three miles north of Winchester,
Averell, who was following Early, met and routed Ramseur, who had
been sent back to check the pursuit. Early continued his retreat
to Strasburg on the 22d, but when the next day he learned that
Wright was gone, he turned back to punish the weak force under
Hunter, and on the 24th overwhelmed Crook at Kernstown. Crook
retreated through Martinsburg into Maryland, and marching by
Williamsport and Boonsborough, took post at Sharpsburg, while
Averell stayed at Hagerstown to watch the upper fords of the
Potomac.

To break up the Baltimore and Ohio railway and to ravage the borders
of Pennsylvania were favorite ideas with Early. He now entered
with zest on the unopposed gratification of both desires, and while
he himself bestrode the railway at Martinsburg with his army engaged
in its destruction, he sent McCausland with his own brigade of
cavalry and Bradley Johnson's on the famous marauding expedition
that culminated in the wanton burning of Chambersburg in default
of an impossible ransom, and at last resulted in the flight of
McCausland's whole force, with Averell at his heels, and its ultimate
destruction or dispersion by Averell, after a long chase, at
Moorefield far up the south branch of the Potomac.

When on the 23d of July he saw Wright back at Washington and Early
at Strasburg in retreat, as was imagined, up the valley, Grant
partly changed his mind about recalling the troops he had spared
for the defence of Washington, and de