Yet there were many desolate homes in the North. The babes of the South and the babes of the North clung to their mothers' knees and asked them why they wept—mercifully were they denied a share in the glory of the hour. Aged parents sat in the corner and mourned, until they were reunited with their slaughtered boys. Ah, the fatalities in that war were not confined to the boys in blue.
The wounded men of the regiment were gathered together and cared for by surgeons of both armies, while the battle was pending. When the Union army gained possession of the village, everything possible was done to alleviate suffering. Nurses came from all directions: many women and among them Sisters of Charity. Theirs was a noble work.
Very feeble are words to express the tender care of the women nurses in the war. The youngster who pores over war history will drink in all the horrors of battle scenes, or feed his imagination with cannon smoke. He will not care to gather the groaning victims and bear them from the field. Then, the sickening odors of human blood which one scents everywhere. Yet, amid those dreadful scenes those nurses went. They bathed the fevered faces, they moistened the parching throats. From hastily appointed kitchens they supplied tempting broth, or by woman's magic produced cooling drinks.
The women of the war. History says little of them, but the hearts of thousands of soldiers are theirs.
July 5th the regiment was marched back toward Emmettsburg, eight miles. Next day the little band moved into that village. By calling in detached men and by the return of all available men, the command had reached the number of eighty. Col. Brown was assigned to duty elsewhere. Maj. Carmichael was on the staff of Gen. Schurz. The command of the 157th devolved upon Capt. Bailey, with two or three lieutenants. They made two companies of the battalion and the state colors waved above them.
The honor of Lenox had been sorely tried at Gettysburg and the reduced ranks of Co.'s B and G bent now under the weight of responsibility. Still there was no shrinking, they were yet on a war-footing even if their shoes were dropping from their feet.
They were not a very attractive little band of warriors as they shuffled and limped into Middletown about 10 p.m., July 7th. But they were very thankful for a rain storm which softened the roads and thus eased the bruised feet. It had been a rough march over the Chitocton Mountain, the sun pouring down hot, the pathway rough, with plenty of climbing. Thus they toiled over nearly twenty miles, encouraged on the way that shoes awaited them in Middletown; but they were disappointed.
A rest was given until the 9th and as the whereabouts of Lee was then known, the army was set in motion. On that day Co. G were on the road, their shoes were worn out and their feet very nearly so, but the boys made the best of it and dragged along in the hot, muggy atmosphere, over Smith Mountain, camping near Boonsboro after a very trying march of six miles only.
They lay at Boonsboro on the 10th, where shoes were issued. On the 11th the boys marched out on the Hagerstown Pike, in the advance and camped. Next day, July 12th, Major Carmichael assumed command. Col. Brown was temporarily at the head of a brigade in another division.
On the 10th Gen. Howard had issued his "General Order No. 18.—The General again thanks his command for what has been done during the last month…. The Eleventh Corps, as a Corps, has done well—well in marching, well in fighting. The sacrifices it has made shall not be forgotten—in the retrospect your General feels satisfied. Now we must make one more effort; let there be no wavering, no doubt."