FROM GETTYSBURG TO THE COMING OF GRANT.
BY MARTIN T. MCMAHON, BREVET MAJOR GENERAL, U. S. V.

PROVOST GUARD AT THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC (114TH PENNSYLVANIA INFANTRY).

THE chief events of this chapter in the history of the Army of the Potomac were the pursuit of Lee to Virginia, the affair of the Vermont brigade at Beaver Creek, in Maryland, the cavalry engagements at Hagerstown and Williamsport, the action at Bristoe station, the taking of the Rappahannock redoubts, the movement to Mine Run, and the Kilpatrick - Dahlgren raid to Richmond.

After the battle of Gettysburg two corps of the army, the First and the Sixth, under Major-General .John Sedgwick, pressed Lee's retreating forces to the pass at Fairfield. [See maps, Vol. III., pp. 381 and 382.] A strong rearguard held the pursuit in check, compelling frequent formations of the leading brigades in line of battle. Every house and barn along our route of march was filled with wounded Confederates. Lee passed through the mountains in the night of July 5th. One brigade, General T. H. Neill's, was detailed by General Sedgwick to follow and observe the enemy's movements, and the rest of the corps rejoined the main body of the army in the neighbor hood of Emmitsburg, crossed the Catoctin range at Hamburg, and came upon the enemy at Beaver Creek July 10th, 1863. At this point it seemed that Lee intended to make a decided stand. His position was a strong one, and apparently was held by a sufficient number of troops. The Vermont brigade, under Colonel L. A. Grant, was ordered to the front as skirmishers and deployed in a piece of woods covering a front of about half a mile: The rest of the command was...massed in readiness, and a general engagement was confidently expected. The enemy advanced in line of battle upon the woods