I
CAMPAIGNING TO NO PURPOSE.
MARYLAND HEIGHTS.
LOUDOUN HEIGHTS.
' ...
C'U; .'i?vSf*ir
EAST SLOPE OFBOLIVAR HEIGHTS.
tory on and.~' around which issituated the pictur-esque village of Har-per’s Ferry , at the con-fluence of the Potomac andShenandoah rivers. It was coldat our camping-place, between thecanal and the river. There were norations awaiting our arrival, and wewere suffering from the hunger so common to soldiers. Who ever saw oneoff duty who was not in pursuit of something to eat? We couldn’t getanything for love or money. We had at last reached a place where thepeople showed some of the distress incident to war, and a strong disincli-nation to feed or believe in us. We were grieved, but it couldn’t be helped.
The bridge from the Maryland to the Virginia or Harper’s Ferry shore hadbeen destroyed by fire, leaving only the granite abutments (which were after-ward built upon again), and we were soon set at work conveying some flat-bottomed scows from Sandy Hook to Harper’s Ferry . As early as 9 o’clockabout one hundred men came down opposite the ferry, just above the oldbridge, and broke into little groups, in military precision. Four or five withspades and other implements improvised a wooden abutment on the shore;another party rowed against the stream, moored a scow, and let it drift downuntil it was opposite the wooden abutment; then a party of ten advanced,each two men carrying a claw-balk, or timbers fitted with a claw, one of whichheld the gunwale of the boat, the other the shore abutment. Twenty mennow came down on the left with planks, one inch thick, six inches wide, andfifteen feet long, narrowed at each end; these they laid across the five joists orbalks, and returned on the right. Another party meanwhile moored anotherboat, which dropped down-stream opposite the one already bridged; fivejoists, each twenty feet long, were laid upon the gunwale by five men; thesewere fastened by those in the boat, by means of ropes, to cleats or hooks pro-