[51] and break shoes, so that a day's march on a railroad has always done more harm to men than two or three on an ordinary dirt road.
From Culpeper we started for Madison Courthouse, but marching in that direction five or six miles, retraced our steps, and continuing on the railroad, the next night reached Orange Courthouse. During most of the time it was raining, and the wet bivouacs made it anything but comfortable. After going to Gordonsville we camped at Liberty Mills, or Somerset, seven miles west of it. Thence by a delightful road, sixteen miles to Stanardsville, a charming village in the bosom of the Blue Ridge, and from there through Swift Run gap into the Valley of Virginia to the Shenandoah, at Conrad's store. The river was dear to the regiment. Born at the point of its debouchure at Harper's Ferry, it was destined to start from its head in the mountains and to illustrate a glorious campaign on its banks, equalled by few and surpassed by none. We got to know the Shenandoah; we crossed it on the grand march to Manassas; we fought over it at Front Royal; the echoes of Bolivar sent the ring of our rifles across its bosom to Loudoun, and thence they leaped back to Maryland; and at Mount Jackson and Rood's hill we trusted to the river to protect our flank while we fronted Fremont's pursuit; at Cross Keys and Port Republic again its pure waters were mingled with blood. In this quiet nook General Ewell remained until he started on the glorious campaign down the Valley, which at once placed the name of Jackson by the side of the greatest soldiers.
