CHAPTER X.

THE GREAT WAGON TRAIN OF WOUNDED.

S stated in a previous chapter, as soon as the darkness of night closed over the terrible scene of the third and concluding day of the series of battles at Gettysburg, General Lee began his preparations for returning with his defeated and shattered forces to Virginia. His first and greatest care, next to the safety of his army, was for his large number of wounded, and he determined to take as many of these with him as possible. Consequently all his available transportation was used for this purpose, and an immense train, not less than twenty-five or thirty miles long, was loaded with wounded and suffering men. All that could walk were required to accompany this train on foot, and the remainder of the wounded were left to the care of the Federals. This train was placed in charge of General J. D. Imboden, and the head of it left the scene of conflict amidst a terrific rain storm about four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 4th. It recrossed the South Mountain by Cashtownthe same way the army had come,-and at Greenwood left the turnpike and took a country road which cuts directly across toward the Potomac, leaving Chambersburg to the right. This side road is known as the Pine Stump Road

and the Walnut Bottom Road. It passes through the small places known as New Guilford and New Franklin, and intersects the road leading south from Chambersburg at Marion, six miles south of the former place. From Marion the train proceeded to Greencastle and thence diverged to the right and reached Williamsport on the Potomac by the Williamsport Pike. Such was the route taken by this train, but, as will appear in statements by eye-witnesses, it did not confine itself to the road. Fences were torn away, and men and wagons took to the fields, either to shorten the distances to be traversed or to accelerate their progress.

This train was thirty-four hours in passing a given point. General Imboden, who had charge of it, and whose statement will be given, says it was seventeen miles long. Allowing a mile of its length to each hour of passing any point, and it will be seen that it was not less than thirty miles in extent. Competent eye-witnesses have estimated the number of wounded in these wagons and walking along by them, as not less than ten or twelve thousand. Add to these the seven thousand five hundred and forty who were left upon the field because too badly wounded to be borne away, or for whom transportation could not be given, and some idea may be formed of the extent of the losses of those three eventful days.

All along the route by which this train made its way, broken wagons and dead and dying soldiers were strewed. The bottom of the wagons was smeared with blood. Barns and houses were improvised into hospitals. Groans and shrieks of agony filled the air as the wagons jolted on the rough and stony way, while cries and prayers and

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curses were heard all along that moving line of human woe. During all this time the rain was pouring down in torrents, and the roads, as a consequence, were soon rendered almost impassable. Wagons were ditched and teams stalled, and as the roads became blocked the train took to the fields where the wheels sank to the axles in the soft earth. Drivers lashed their horses; curses and profanity abounded; axles were broken; wagons and caissons, and an occasional cannon, were abandoned; and dead soldiers were taken from the wagons to give more room for the remaining inmates, and thrown by the way-side. To add to the terror of the scene the Federal cavalry were upon them, and dashes were made here and there along the line and hundreds of wagons with their miserable and suffering inmates were captured.

The vastness of this train, and the aggregate of human agony it contained, has never been understood by the country. And now to bring these before the reader in some adequate form, I append here several statements, written especially for this history, by competent and reliable persons who resided along the line. I will, however, first introduce the following graphic description given by General Imboden, who had charge of this train. This statement was written for the Galaxy of April, 1871, from which I copy it. After detailing his operations along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Western Virginia, from Cumberland to Hancock, Maryland, and his entering Pennsylvania and march to the rear of the Confederate line near Gettysburg, where he arrived about noon of Friday, July 3d, just previous to General Pickett's great charge, General Imboden says:

"I belonged to no division or corps in the Confederate army, and therefore on arriving near Gettysburg about noon, when the conflict was raging in all its fury, I reported directly to General Lee for orders, and was assigned a position to aid in repelling any cavalry demonstration that might occur on his flanks or rear. None being made, my little force took no part in the battle. I then had only about two thousand one hundred effective mounted men, and a six- gun battery.

"When night closed upon the grand scene the Confederate army was repulsed. Silence and gloom pervaded our camps. We knew that the day had gone against us, but the extent of the disaster was not known except in high quarters. The carnage of the day was reported to have been frightful, but the Confederate army was not in retreat, and we all surmised that with the dawn of the next day would come a renewal of the struggle. We also knew that if such was the case, those who had not been in the fight would have their full share in the honors and dangers of the next day. All felt and appreciated the momentous consequences of final defeat or victory on that great field. These considerations made that, to us, one of those solemn and awful nights that every one who fought through our long war sometimes experienced before a great battle.

"Few camp-fires enlivened the scene. It was a warm summer's night, and the weary soldiers were lying in groups on the luxuriant grass of the meadows we occupied, discussing the events of the day or watching that their horses did not straggle off in browsing around. About eleven o'clock a horseman approached and deliv

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ered a message from General Lee that he wished to see me immediately. I mounted at once, and, accompanied by Lieutenant McPhail of my staff, and guided by the courier, rode about two miles toward Gettysburg, where half a dozen small tents on the road-side were pointed out as General Lee's head-quarters for the night. He was not there, but I was informed that I would find him with General A. P. Hill half a mile further on. On reaching the place indicated, a flickering, solitary candle, visible through the open front of a common tent, showed where Generals Lee and Hill were seated on camp-stools, with a county map spread upon their knees, and engaged in a low and earnest conversation. They ceased speaking as I approached, and after the ordinary salutations General Lee directed me to go to his head-quarters and wait for him. He did not return until about one o'clock, when he came riding along at a slow walk and evidently wrapped in profound thought.

"There was not even a sentinel on duty, and no one of his staff was about. The moon was high in the heavens, shedding a flood of soft silvery light, almost as bright as day, upon the scene. When he approached and saw us, he spoke, reined up his horse, and essayed to dismount. The effort to do so betrayed so much physical exhaustion. that I stepped forward to assist him, but before I reached him he had alighted. He threw his arm across his saddle to rest himself, and fixing his eyes upon the ground leaned in silence upon his equally weary horse, the two forming a striking group, as motionless as a statue. The moon shone full upon his massive features, and revealed an expression of sadness I had never seen upon that fine