On the 28th we turned over the balance of our horses, and loaded guns and caissons on steamer and started for Washington, landing at the Navy Yard on the night of the 31st, and turned in our battery, then marched to Fort Lincoln, about four miles north of the city, and went into barracks. We remained there doing garrison duty and having drills on both light and heavy artillery until July 5th.
On the morning of the 5th we started for Fort Sumner, on the northwest of the city near the Potomac, arriving there in the afternoon, and went into barracks. In the fort was a battery of six thirty-two pound rifled guns, and we were given charge of these. The infantry in the fort were all one hundred day men.
On the 7th Gen. Augur visited the fort and ordered Capt. Buckley to draw muskets for the men. We did not like this move, but had to "take our medicine." We had to smile when we saw some of the hundred-day men out on drill; but when we went out on our first drill with muskets I guess it must have been rather amusing to the spectators.
We appeared on dress parade with the infantry the same night we received our muskets, and it wasn't a success as far as we were concerned. Quite a large number of our men had been in the service long enough to get quite a good idea of infantry tactics, but on this occasion they failed to remember "just a little bit" of them.
The next morning we sent a detail of thirteen men and a sergeant up the Potomac on picket. That night at about one o'clock we heard firing on our picket-line, and in a short time some of the infantry pickets reached the fort and reported that the rebel cavalry were driving in our whole line.
Everybody was turned out, and there was considerable excitement. We waited for some of our men to show up, but they did not come, and we came to the conclusion that it was a scare.
In the morning our relief went out, and when our men came in we found that two farmers had come down the road with a wagon and some led horses. Our men halted them, but some of the led horses got away and started on. The infantry pickets opened on them, and our men tried to stop their firing, but the more they halloed the faster came the bullets. For self-protection, our men opened on the pickets, firing high, and in a few minutes everything was quiet on the picket-line.
Perhaps a slight history of the situation of affairs at this time will be of interest. The Army of the Potomac was before Richmond; Gen. Hunter, commanding forces in the Shenandoah Valley, had moved up the valley and had met with good success, destroying the Central Virginia Railroad at Goshen Springs and at Staunton, also destroying at Staunton the enemy's depot, woolen factory, government stables, and large quantities of army material, and captured fifteen hundred prisoners and three pieces of artillery.
Here Hunter was joined on June 8th by the troops of Crook and Averell, who had marched from West Virginia by way of Warm Springs and Goshen, making his available force about eighteen thousand men. On the 10th Hunter started with his whole army for Lynchburg. Two days marching brought him to Lexington, Va., where he remained until the 14th, waiting for his expected wagon train, and then continued his march. Averell reached Lynchburg on the afternoon of the 17th, and Hunter's main force the same evening.