[Illustration: Monument and group of survivors of the 57th Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers.]
It was humiliating to think that the enemy escaped so easily. With the swollen Potomac in their front, their pontoon bridge destroyed, and our victorious army in their rear, they ought to have been compelled to surrender. But Appomattox was still a long way off and many brave boys would fall before the end came. The news that General Grant had taken Vicksburg, and caused the surrender of Pemberton's army, was some consolation in our disappointment over Lee's escape.
On the 15th we passed over the old Antietam battlefield, and halted for the night about two miles beyond Sharpsburg. On the 16th we passed through Brownsville and Rohrersville and encamped near Harper's Ferry. The next day about dark we crossed the Potomac at Harper's Ferry and were once more on the soil of Virginia.
We resumed our march on the 18th and 19th, and on the 20th we reached Upperville. On the 23d we were near Manassas Gap, where it was expected we would strike the enemy's column, which was moving up the Shenandoah valley. We moved to the top of a high hill, where we had a fine view of Front Royal and the surrounding country. We also witnessed a fight in a field in the valley to our right, of a force of the enemy and Sickles' old Excelsior brigade. This engagement, in which we were but slightly engaged, is known as the skirmish of "Wapping Heights." The enemy retreated during the night and next day we moved some miles beyond Piedmont on the Manassas Gap railroad. The greater part of our march was over the torn up railroad track, and as the day was excessively hot we were a tired lot of men when we encamped that night.
On the 25th we marched to within six miles of Warrenton, in Fauquier county, Va. The next day we moved four miles beyond the town and encamped at Fauqueir Sulphur Springs. Here we remained for about six weeks, during which time Colonel Sides and some of the officers and men who had been wounded at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg returned for duty. Here we had a fine camp, with good facilities for bathing in Hedgeman's river, a branch of the Rappahannock. The large brick hotel at the springs had been destroyed by fire the year before during Pope's campaign. Back of the hotel site was a fine park which was surrounded on three sides by cottages which had been used by summer sojourners at this place. Near the center of the park stood a pavilion, under which was the noted spring, the water of which was very cold and strongly impregnated with sulphur. We drank freely of this water and were advised to do so by the medical officers of the division. If we had been afflicted with the itch, the water would no doubt have been an effective remedy, but the only itch that troubled us was caused by a small insect known among scientists as the _pediculus vestimenti_ and the sulphur water was not effective in driving the pests away.