Samuel Pickens of the 5th Alabama Infantry described his crossing of the Potomac at Williamsport. The pontoon bridge at Falling Waters used by Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s corps had been rebuilt by Confederate engineers after the July 4 cavalry raid that destroyed its predecessor.
July 14, Tuesday
Late yesterday evening the troops left the breastworks quietly & commenced falling back, leaving one Regt. from each Brig. to fill the space occupied by the Brig. Our Regt. was one of the no. that remained. The Yankees soon found that most of our troops were gone & commenced a brisk skirmishing & on the left charged with a double line of skirmishers, & a line-of-battle; but Ramseur’s sharpshooters fought splendidly & 3 or 4 pieces of artillery at the breastworks where we were, opened on them & they charged back again. About 8 or 9 O’clock the remaining Regts. fell back, while only our sharpshooters and a few Cavalry were left along the lines. We marched about two miles along behind the ridge on which are our fortifications, & where fires were left burning. What a splendid position we occupied! I think if the Yankees had attacked Genl Lee he would have whipped them badly. We had very rough, muddy, & bad marching before reaching the pike, which was itself perfectly sloppy; & to make it still more disagreeable there was a light rain falling for a while. The road was so blocked up with troops that we did not get on very fast, & when we got to Williamsport we found it crowded with soldiers. Here we had to stand & wait an hour or more, for there was no place to sit down as the streets were ankle deep with mud & water. Finally we moved on down towards the River, but every few yards the column would halt—so that we were just creeping along at a most fatiguing pace. We went to a ford several hundred yards higher up the river than where we crossed before—going up the aqueduct through water that smelt very offensively. As soon as we got near the river we knew the men were wading, by the yelling & hallooing that we heard. The Potomac being swollen, was very wide & was over waist deep. The water felt cool when we first entered it, but afterwards very pleasant. We waded two & two side by side, holding on to each other in order to resist the current better & be more steady. There were orders for the men to hang their cartridge-boxes around their necks, but a great many failed to do it & there was a considerable amount of ammunition damaged & destroyed by getting wet. Our clothes, blankets (partly) & havresacks all got wet, which increased our load & made it very disagreeable marching after crossing. The banks were muddy & on this side so steep & slippery that it was difficult to scuffle up it. We were very tired & confidently expected to stop directly after getting over the river, but on we went without stopping. Although the distance from Hagerstown was only about six miles, & we were on our feet from 8 or nine O’clock last night, it was daybreak when we got across the Potomac. We passed by “Falling Water” where our Pontoon bridge spanned the river, on which Longstreet’s & A. P. Hill’s Corps were crossing & also the artillery & wagon trains. At 6 or 7 O’clock this morning we came to a halt. After being on our feet the whole night—marching on a sloppy pike, & stopped to rest only once (5 or 10 mins.) during the whole trip. Oh! it was a killing march. It beggars description. We waded into a little pond where we stopped and washed the mud off our pants, socks and shoes, then made fires and dried our clothes—after which we lay down and slept. At 11½ A.M., though we were called up & marched on 3 or 4 miles & camped in a nice piece of woods. As we had gotten our rations wet—what little we had—David Barnum & several others went out & killed two hogs. We broiled the meat at the fire & ate one for supper. I had the pleasure of hearing from home to-day by a letter from Jamie. Happy to hear Mama has, at last gotten rid of the Standenmeyers—having dismissed them. Our Mess was up till 10 or 11 O’clock P.M. cooking. Marched 8 or 9 miles from Williamsport.