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was informed, as were all others who reported the enemy's movements, that Lee was in retreat. Schurz, not satisfied, sent a trusted officer—Dilger—to reconnoitre, with orders not to return until sure that the flank was not in danger. Dilger, riding less than a mile from the Union pickets, encountered Jackson's whole advance. He was pursued by cavalrymen, and narrowly escaped capture. Late in the afternoon he reported at Schurz's headquarters. Acting on his own initiative, Schurz hurriedly executed part of the plan he had urged earlier in the day. Hardly had the batteries been changed when, with crashing musketry and piercing yells, the Confederates fell upon Deven's division and threw it upon Schurz in confusion. Schurz resisted until both his flanks were turned, and then, beaten back by overwhelming numbers, and losing heavily in officers and men, contested every inch of ground, until, Jackson, at 7.15, halted his troops—too weary to continue the contest. All of the resistance that Jackson met that day, to the time that he fell, came from the devoted Eleventh corps, a third in strength, but bravely led and gallant to a man.
Soon the centre of operations shifted northward. Then came the marches of our troops to Pennsylvania and the commencement of the campaign that ended at Gettysburg. Many of the incidents of those days those who were nearest the General will always well remember. His good humor and spirit of fellowship helped us wonderfully. I recall a typical incident near Leesburg, in Virginia. General Schurz had placed a regiment on the flank to guard against the approach of the enemy. Visiting the front, as was his custom, he called the
