While the right section of the battery was with Captain Hazard at Rappahannock Station, First Lieut. George W. Blair remained in command of the camp at Union Mills. On the 17th of the month the centre section, which was on picket guarding the ford at Kettle Run Shoals, was relieved by the left section.
At ten o’clock on the morning of the 20th the battery received marching orders and left Union Mills for Chantilly, near Centreville, arriving there about one P. M., and going into park near the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh Maine regiments of infantry.
On the 24th many of the members of the battery availed themselves of the privilege of visiting the old Chantilly battlefield.
May 26th. The sound of artillery firing was heard in the direction of Drownsville, causing our battery to be held in readiness to move at a moment’s notice.
May 29th. The long roll awakened us from our slumbers, and “boots and saddles” call was sounded. The battery was hitched up and ready to move in eight minutes. We anticipated an attack of the rebels on our picket line. If they had come upon us then they would have found confronting them the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh Maine regiments (each eleven hundred strong), and, with the Eleventh Massachusetts Battery and our own battery, they would have met with a warm reception, as the night was very dark and we had the advantage of a good position.
June 7th. Reviewed at ten A. M. by Gen. Alfred Pleasonton.
June 12th. While the battery was drilling in rapid movements, this forenoon, one of our attached men, Private John D. White, of Company D, Sixteenth Vermont Infantry, met with a painful accident. In mounting, and while throwing his right leg over the back of his horse his left foot slipped from the stirrup, throwing him on the pummel of his saddle and causing a severe rupture. He remained in camp a week or more, and was then sent to the post hospital, at Camp Barry, and remained there until the muster out of his regiment.
It being the plan of the rebel General Lee to attempt an invasion of the northern States, he at once set his troops in motion and did not meet with any serious obstacle to his progress until Gettysburg was reached, which we will notice further on.
On June 15th the battery witnessed the passage by its camp of the Eleventh, Twelfth, Second and Third Corps of the Army of the Potomac, on their way to intercept the rebel army, which was moving on Gettysburg. On this date Private Earl Fenner was ordered on special duty to carry dispatches to the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac. On his return he narrowly escaped capture by Mosby’s guerillas.
June 17th. We can hear distant cannonading in the direction of Aldie Gap. We learn that our forces are having quite a brush with the enemy. A large body of our troops are concentrating at Fairfax Court House, awaiting orders to move toward Gettysburg. A number of rebel prisoners passed our camp to-day under guard. Their brown butternut uniforms and slouch hats indicated that they hailed from North Carolina.