which was placed in the city as provost guard. I found the division at this time very much reduced in numbers by the recent severe battles and the long and wearisome marches.

Orders were received on Tuesday night, September 10, to march at 3 o'clock the following morning. The march was continued across the Potomac at Williamsport, through Martinsburg, to the vicinity of Harper's Ferry.

It is appropriate at this point to pay the well-merited tribute to the good conduct of the soldiers of this division during their march through Maryland. Never has the army been so dirty, ragged, and ill-provided for as on this march, and yet there was no marauding, no plundering. The rights of person and property were strictly respected, eliciting the following comparison from the New York World of December 15:

The ragged, half-starved rebels passed through Maryland without disorder or marauding, without injury to the country, showing their excellent discipline. The well-fed, well-clothed Union soldiers laid waste everything before them, plundering houses, hen-roosts, and hog-pens, showing an utter want of discipline.

CAPTURE OF HARPER'S FERRY.

Encamped 4 miles from Harper's Ferry. On the 14th orders were received to move the division near the Potomac and above Bolivar Heights, on which the enemy were strongly posted. Commanding positions were secured for the batteries, and a heavy fire opened upon the works of the enemy and their line of battle. While good work was done by our batteries, the enemy replied without any effect, not a single casualty occurring in the division. Toward night I ordered the division to move nearer the river, directing Starke's brigade to rest on the river road to prevent the enemy from making his escape if he should attempt to do so.

At dawn on the 15th the attack was renewed, and at 7 a. m. the garrison surrendered, much to the joy of the toil-worn soldiers, who were ready again to encounter the enemy if necessary. At 3 p. m. orders were received to march back to camp and cook two days' rations and be ready to march. The cooking was completed by 12 o'clock at night, and at 1 o'clock the march was commenced. Reaching the Potomac at sunrise, the division was hurried across and on to Sharpsburg.

BATTLE OF SHARPSBURG.

Resting for two hours in a grove a mile from Sharpsburg, the division was again put in motion, and took up its position on the extreme left, its right resting on the Sharpsburg and Hagerstown turnpike. A double line was formed, the front, composed of Jones and Winder's brigades, placed in an open field, under the immediate command of Colonel Grigsby; Taliaferro's and Starke's brigades, forming the reserve, places at the edge of a wood, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General Starke; the whole under the command of Brigadier General J. R. Jones. This disposition was placed in the road on the right. A battery of the enemy, about 500 yards in front and to the right, was playing upon the troops of Hood's division, which was on my right. Poague opened briskly upon it and silenced it in twenty minutes. The skirmishers