ll then fail to criticise Lee. His chances were as good as Meade's.
The combination of so many little circumstances, and the absence of
his cavalry, all conduced to our defeat.

Hill took the lead, Longstreet followed, while Ewell brought up the
rear. Our wagon trains had gone on, some of them the day before,
towards Williamsport. Kilpatrick made a dash and captured and
destroyed a goodly number of them, but the teamsters, non-combatants
and the wounded succeeded in driving them off after some little
damage.

Along down the mountain sides, through gorges and over hills, the
army slowly made its way. No haste, no confusion. The enemy's cavalry
harassed over rear, but did little more. Meade had had too severe a
lesson to hover dangerously close on the heels of Lee, not knowing
what moment the wily Confederate Chieftain might turn and strike him a
blow he would not be able to receive. The rain fell in torrents, night
and day. The roads were soon greatly cut up, which in a measure was to
Lee's advantage, preventing the enemy from following him too closely,
it being almost impossible to follow with his artillery and wagons
after our trains had passed. We passed through Fairfield and
Hagerstown and on to Williamsport. Near Funkstown we had some
excitement by being called upon to help some of Stuart's Cavalry, who
were being hard pressed at Antietam Creek.

After remaining in line of battle for several hours, on a rocky
hillside, near the crossing of a sluggish stream, and our pickets
exchanging a few shots with those of the enemy, we continued our
march. On the night of the 6th and day of the 7th our army took up a
line of battle in a kind of semi-circle, from Williamsport to Falling
Waters. The Potomac was too much swollen from the continuous rains to
ford, and the enemy having destroyed the bridge at Falling Waters we
were compelled to entrench ourselves and defend our numerous trains of
wagons and artillery until a bridge could be built. In the enclosure
of several miles the whole of Lee's army, with the exception of some
of his cavalry, were packed. Here Lee must have been in the most
critical condition of the war, outside of Appomattox. Behind him was
the raging Potomac, with a continual down-pour of rain, in front was
the entire Federal army. There were but few heights from which to
plant our batteries, and had the enemy pressed sufficiently near to
have reached our vast camp with shells, our whole trains of ordnance