Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/132

 126 Southern Hi*t<>rn;il ,sv>, /'//,/

In the afternoon of the 6th it snowed again, and the company was withdrawn again a short distance so as to get the shelter of a piece of woods. On the morning of the yth we were put in motion again, and we hoped that we could be allowed to march, but the whole wagon-train of the the army was with it and had to be cared for and sent back ahead of the troops. The shoes of the horses had worn smooth, and the snow had been beaten along the road, so that they were almost as smooth as ice. This caused the delay in our movements, and it was not till noon that we got back as far as Bath. All the army except our brigade, and the whole of the wagon-train, had passed over the road, beating down the snow and increasing our troubles, as every horse in our battery was smooth-shod. The in- fantry of. our brigade remained in our rear till we passed Bath, when they filed by us on their way to Unger's store, where they and we expected to encamp that night. Our march was very wearisome to men and horses. The men of each detachment were compelled to assist the horses to drag their guns and caissons up every hill, and were also required to assist in holding back the carriages and to pre- vent them from sliding sideways in going down hills. There were many times when all the horses would fall as they began to descend a hill, and the weight of the gun, or caisson, would push them in a heap to the foot. Then came the necessity of raising the poor horses to their feet again, and of assisting them to pull their loads up the next hill. Several of the men were thoroughly exhausted, and finally the captain wisely determined to halt the command and wait till morning, though we were still about two miles from the place of our destined camp.* We were halted at a place called Michael's* near a stable full of hay, and where we got some corn for the horses. The orders which we had observed up to this time in regard to burning fences were ignored, and the fences were freely used for camp-fires. We were on an exposed hill, and went into camp about 2 o'clock in the morning. We had no thermometers, but the cold was variously estimated at from twenty to forty degrees below zero. Sleep was impossible, but men sat about the fires nodding, faces be- grimed with smoke, and with freezing backs. Many shoes were

to their feet, and in holding in check wagons by the aid of ropes attached behind. Men suffered severely on picket duty from the intense cold, and their hardships on this particular expedition are claimed to have at least equalled the historic experience of the patriots of the First Revolution at Valley Forge. ED.
 * The infantry had similar duty in leading wagon horses and assisting them