Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/327

 time could be allowed for dressing and undressing"—so in I went with the balance; and although it was a hot June day, the water was biting cold, so cold that I crawled upon a projecting rock in the middle of the stream until I was forced to leave it. We moved down the river, where we camped for several days. At Millwood, in the Valley of Virginia, I went to General Longstreet and appealed to him to detail me to his headquarters as courier upon his staff. He sent the order to General Lee for approval, making it special, giving me ten days' leave of absence to obtain better clothes and to mount myself. Within the ten days I joined Longstreet six miles to the north of Hagerstown, Md., on the pike to Chambersburg, Pa., which place we reached within a day.

At Chambersburg we halted to await the movement of General A. P. Hill, who was near Gettysburg. In a few days we moved on toward Gettysburg, General Longstreet and his staff in advance of the troop. It was less than a day's ride for the General and his staff. We arrived at or near where the line of battle was being pitched about four in the afternoon. General Longstreet looked over the field and surroundings that evening, which was the first day of July, went back behind Cashtown and pitched tents for the night. The troops had approached to about three or four miles of Gettysburg, arriving about night, and had gone into camp. I had not had time to unsaddle and feed my horse before Colonel Sorrell called me to his office (a fly tent) and told me I must go back to Chambersburg for General Pickett; that I would find him on the east side of the town awaiting orders. I asked for time to feed myself and horse, and was given thirty minutes. This started me on my night's ride to Chambersburg, through an enemy's country, on a dark night. I found the ride as lonesome and dull as if no man was near or had a few hours before passed over it. As I passed the smouldering ruins of Thad Steven's iron works I could smell the unsavory smoke, and it seemed as if I was passing the burial ground of some ruined hospital with the dead and dying all around. I found General Pickett, as I expected. As I approached a sentinel called out, "Halt! Who goes there?" I answered, "A courier hunting General Pickett."