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Chapter 15: movement into Maryland.
On the 2nd of September our army rested, while the movements of the enemy were being ascertained.
Provisions were now very scarce, as the supply in the wagons, with which we had started, was exhausted.
The rations obtained by
Jackson's command from the enemy's stores, at
Manassas, which were confined to what could be brought off in haversacks, were also exhausted, and on this day boiled fresh beef, without salt or bread, was issued to my brigade, which with an ear or two of green corn roasted by a fire, constituted also my own supply of food, at this time.
Longstreet's wing of the army was in a worse condition than
Jackson's, as it had not participated in the supply found at
Manassas.
On the morning of the 3rd,
Jackson's wing commenced the march towards the
Potomac, and moved to the left over some country roads, crossing the Loudoun &
Hampshire Railroad at a station, above
Vienna, until we reached the turnpike from
Georgetown to
Leesburg in
Loudoun, and then along this road through Drainesville, until we passed
Leesburg on the afternoon of the 4th, and bivouacked near
Big Springs, two or three miles from the latter place, at night.
On the 5th we resumed the march and crossed the
Potomac at
White's Ford, about seven miles above
Leesburg, into
Maryland.
This ford was an obscure one on the road through the farm of
Captain Elijah White, and the banks of the river had to be dug down so that our wagons and artillery might cross.
On the
Maryland side of the river the
Chesapeake &
Ohio Canal runs along the bank, and the canal had to be bridged over a lock to enable our wagons to pass, as they could not get through the culvert where the road ran. That night we bivouacked near
Three Springs in
Maryland on the road leading
