We remained here for two weeks, and threw up a line of breastworks that will remain for centuries as a memorial of our handiwork. At the end of this time, we received orders to break up camp and report at Richmond. Now it was that our hardest suffering began. In accordance with our orders we broke camp and marched to Richmond. Here I met with a considerable misfortune. My boy, Jesse, took sick and I was compelled to leave him behind a short time. When we reported at Richmond we were ordered to the depot on the Gordonville Road. Here we took the cars and made sail ho for the valley made memorable by Jackson’s exploits. After traveling all day we reached Gordonsville and I may tell you here, this was the last riding we did for a long time. We encamped in a very pleasant grove in Gordonsville that night, hungry and tired, but I managed to get a good supper from one of the surrounding houses by paying an exorbitant price. The next morning rations of the best crackers we had ever had were issued to us and we received orders to march. We left Gordonsville and marched over what I thought a very hilly country, about seven or eight miles. I was carrying a knapsack full of clothes and I can inform you it made no addition to my speed. We at length arrived at our halting place and some of us had made us tents of pole and bushes, and some of blankets and oil cloths. When we were ordered to move our camp about half a mile westward, behold the inconstancy of a soldier’s life the change and disappointment he undergoes, the privations he endures, all for the sake of his country. The spot we were ordered to move to was entirely free from woods with the exception of an apple orchard and seems to resemble a tremendous potato patch, for it was a confined succession of hills, very lofty and grand and sublime in appearance. Here was the whole of Longstreet’s1 corps bivouacked on those hills, the azure light of thousands of camp fires sent their ruddy hues toward the skies. The whole landscape, as far as the eye could reach was illuminated by this succession of lights, and by night the scene lent and additional enchantment to the view. This enchanting scene was enlivened by numerous bands of marshall music that sounded forth on the still night breeze, its brazen melodies, and lent an additional luxury to the already enchanting scenery. Look over those hills and you will see the whole of Longstreet’s invincible corps, sitting, reclining and sleeping on the grassy hillsides. Look at the self devotion, the patriotism of our noble soldiers, as they assemble to vindicate the rights and honor of our oppressed country, and be thankful to an omnipotent God that you live in such a land. We established ourselves on the summit of one of these hills and lay here a week and I can positively say that I ate more beef and flour that week than I ever did in any two previous to it. Our cooking was truly of an original style. We had no cooking utensils with us, but we invented substitutes by taking flat rocks and heating them to broil our beef upon. You would be surprised at the delicate flavor this style produced, and our plan for cooking flour was still more original. We poured water into the barrel of flour and each one grabbed in and made up his own dough; then some drew it out into a long string and twisted it around sticks to cook before the fire; some made ash cakes, and some more, ingenious still, got flat boards and succeeded pretty well in making decent hoe cakes. At length however, and to our regret, we received orders to pull-up stakes and move.
1 James Longstreet - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Longstreet
