Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[715] cover the points of crossing, without, however, allowing himself to be pushed back in the direction where stood the obstacle. Wofford's brigade, detached by Longstreet, was posted at Downsville in order to close the entrance of the angle in the middle of which Falling Waters is located. The cavalry; bearing to the right along this point, envelops the army eastward as far north as Hagerstown. Its outposts are pressing hard upon Buford and Kilpatrick, who are holding the line of the Antietam. At the Confederate Headquarters boats are being collected for removing the wounded into Virginia, constructing a bridge, and gathering supplies—the latter a very difficult matter to accomplish, for the rise in all the streams stops the working of the mills and does not allow grain to be ground.

Meade was leaving Gettysburg on the same day. On reaching Frederick, he was informed of the combat at Williamsport and of the rise of the Potomac waters. The rain, which was falling incessantly, was a sure guarantee that Lee would not be able to cross the river for some days. Some effort must therefore be made to overtake him on Maryland soil. But the Union army was ranged en échelon east of the Catoctin Mountain, on all the roads between Gettysburg and Middletown, and it was necessary, before altering its direction, that it should be brought together in the vicinity of the last-mentioned village, where there was only a single division belonging to the Eleventh corps. French, with about four thousand men, had occupied the defiles of Crampton's and Turner's Gaps since the 7th of July: from this latter point he commanded Boonsboroa, where Buford and Kilpatrick had just retired after recrossing the Antietam. On the 6th he had, in pursuance of Meade's orders, sent Kenly's brigade to take possession of Maryland Heights, for the purpose of closing the passage of Harper's Ferry to the enemy. This position had been occupied after a slight skirmish. The plank floor thrown over the stringers on the railway bridge at Harper's Ferry had been destroyed the day before by a squad of Federal cavalry. Meade did not want it replaced, fearing, no doubt, that the enemy would take possession of it. He soon had cause to regret his action, for if he had been able to send a portion of his cavalry to the right bank of the river on the 8th or the 9th by means of this