Appendix.
- An account of the capture, Imprisonment, and Release of Privates S. Augustus Alden, Lewis R. Allard, Alvin Abbott, and Frank A. Chase, substantially as related by Mr. Alden.
We were with the Battery until July 19, 1863, when I received orders to select three good men, and with them return to Berlin, Md., for mules and harnesses. We were then some twenty miles into Virginia. Having selected comrades Allard, Abbott, and Chase, in the latter part of the afternoon we took our departure, mounted, for Berlin, all feeling in good spirits. On our arrival at Harper's Ferry we dismounted, fed our horses, ate our rations, and bivouacked. On the following morning early, after feeding once more and eating another frugal meal of hard-tack and coffee, we started for our destination, reaching it about the middle of the forenoon of the 20th. We could get the mules, but could obtain no harnesses; and as we could not procure both, agreeably with instructions, left the mules and set out on our return, crossing again at Harper's Ferry into Virginia. We had ridden perhaps fifteen miles up London Valley, when we were suddenly surprised by a band of Mosby's guerrillas, lying in ambush behind stone walls both sides of the road, their carbines covering us. Not a word passed between us, but they beckoned for us to approach and enter their lines
