ed to be
our artillery firing at a scouting party of United States cavalry. On
through Culpepper we marched, to within one mile of Rapidan Station,
our starting point of near two months before. And what a fruitless
march--over the mountains, dusty roads, through briars and thickets,
and heat almost unbearable--fighting and skirmishing, with nightly
picketing, over rivers and mountain sides, losing officers, and many,
too, being field officers captured. While in camp here we heard of
Early's disaster in the Valley, which cast a damper over all the
troops. It seems that as soon as Sheridan heard of our detachment from
Early's command he planned and perfected a surprise, defeating him in
the action that followed, and was then driving him out of the Valley.
Could we have been stopped at this point and returned to Early, which
we had to do later, it would have saved the division many miles of
marching, and perhaps further discomfiture of Early and his men. But
reports had to be made to the war department.

Orders came for our return while we were continuing our march to
Gordonsville, which place we reached on the 23rd of September, at 4
o'clock, having been on the continuous march for exactly fifty days.
On the morning of the 24th we received the orders to return to the
relief of Early, and at daylight, in a blinding rain, we commenced to
retrace our steps, consoling ourselves with the motto, "Do your
duty, therein all honor lies," passing through Barboursville and
Standardville, a neat little village nestled among the hills, and
crossed the mountain at Swift Run Gap. We camped about one mile of the
delightful Shenandoah, which, by crossing and recrossing its clear,
blue-tinged waters and camping on its banks so often, had become near
and dear to all of us, and nothing was more delightful than to take
a plunge beneath its waters. But most often we had to take the water
with clothes and shoes on in the dead of winter, still the name of the
Shenandoah had become classic to our ears.

The situation of Early had become so critical, the orders so
imperative to join him as soon as possible, that we took up the march
next morning at a forced speed, going twelve miles before a halt, a
feat never before excelled by any body of troops during the war.
When within two miles of Port Republic, a little beyond its two roads
leading off from that place, one to Brown's Gap, we encountered the
enemy's cavalry. Here they made an attack upon