[48] whose cavalry had already made its appearance. As soon as a pontoon bridge could be laid down, the rest of his corps crossed the river, and marched through Chester Gap to Culpeper Courthouse, where it arrived on the 24th. He was followed by General A. P. Hill without serious opposition.General Ewell having been detained in the Valley by an effort to capture a force of the enemy guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of Martinsburg, Wright's brigade was left to hold Manassas Gap until his arrival. He reached Front Royal on the 23d with Johnson's and Rodes' divisions, Early's being near Winchester, and found General Wright skirmishing with the enemy's infantry, which had already appeared in Manassas Gap. General Ewell supported Wright with Rodes' division, and some artillery, and the enemy was held in check.
Finding that the Federal force greatly exceeded his own, General Ewell marched through Thornton s Gap and ordered Early to move up the Valley by Strasburg and New Market. He encamped near Madison Courthouse on the 29th July.
The enemy massed his army in the vicinity of Warrenton, and in the night of the 31st July his cavalry, with a large supporting force of infantry, crossed the Rappahannock at Rappahannock Station and Kelley's Ford. The next day they advanced towards Brandy Station, their progress being gallantly resisted by General Stuart, with Hampton's brigade, commanded by Colonel Baker, who fell back gradually to our lines about two miles south of Brandy. Our infantry skirmishers advanced and drove the enemy beyond Brandy Station.
It was now determined to place the army in a position to enable it more readily to oppose the enemy should he attempt to move southward, that near Culpeper Courthouse being one that he could easily avoid. Longstreet and Hill were put in motion on the 3d August, leaving the cavalry at Culpeper. Ewell had been previously ordered from Madison, and by the 4th the army occupied the line of the Rapidan.
The highest praise is due to both officers and men for their conduct during the campaign.
The privations and hardships of the march and camp were cheerfully encountered and borne with fortitude unsurpassed by our ancestors in their struggle for independence, while their courage in battle entitles them to rank with the soldiers of any army and of any time. Their forbearance and discipline, under strong provocation to retaliate for the cruelty of the enemy to our own citizens, is not their least claim to the respect and admiration of their countrymen and of the world.
I forward returns of our loss in killed, wounded and missing. Many of the latter were killed or wounded in the several assaults at Gettysburg and necessarily left in the hands of the enemy.
I cannot speak of these brave men as their merits and exploits deserve. Some of them are appropriately mentioned in the accompanying
