Chapter 6:
July 31 to October 19, 1863.
- Sulphur Springs as it was -- camp life -- the advance to Culpepper -- back to the Rappahannock -- Auburn -- our Maiden fight -- Centreville -- Fairfax Station -- ovation to Gen. Sickles -- shot for desertion.
Sulphur Springs—or Warrenton Sulphur Springs, as they are usually termed to distinguish them front the more famous White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia—the spot selected for the encampment of the Third Corps, is situated some six miles from Warrenton, on the north bank of the Rappahannock River. Before the war it had been a fashionable watering-place for wealthy planters and their families, who frequented it in large numbers from the States farther south. The buildings originally consisted of two large hotels, one on either side of the road, with a capacity of eight hundred guests. Both of these were in ruins, having been set on fire by shells thrown, we were told, by Union troops the summer previous, to dislodge sharpshooters. It seems that they were actually thrown by the Rebel army,—perhaps the 24th of August, when Sigel's detachment of Pope's army occupied the place, as he was heavily shelled by the enemy at that time, from the ridge of land across the river. The spacious stable, too, that stood near by, was completely destroyed. The walls of the larger hotel and a part of its roof were in tolerably good condition. It was a four and one-half storied structure.
