The Retreat From Gettysburg

The Retreat From Gettysburg. Hill’s Corps. , At 8:00 a.m. on July 5, General A.P. Hill’s Corps led the Confederate retreat. They marched along the old Fairfield Road to Monterey Pass. Leading Hill’s Corps was General Richard Anderson’s Division, followed by General William Pender’s Division. Bringing up the rear was General Henry Heth’s Division, along with a portion of General Lee’s baggage train. Hill’s Corps encamped along the Maria Furnace Road during the night., Early in the morning of July 6, Pender’s division took the advance of Hill’s Corps, followed by Heth’s Division, with Anderson’s Division bringing up the rear. Hill’s Corps marched into Waynesboro, encamping in the area that night., On July 14, Hill Corps was safely south of the Potomac River, crossing at Falling Waters, MD., ”One of our men noticed a tree of mountain birch. He said the bark was sweet and tasted like wintergreen. He stepped out of the ranks and brought back a sample. Soon every man of the company was chewing bark,. We had to get it as near to being a powder as possible in order to eat it. This was all the food we had for the fourth and fifth of July. There were very few blackberries along that road.” , David Holt, 16th Mississippi Infantry, ”I soon found that we were in a lane that the artillery and hundreds of wagons and hosts of men had travelled ahead of us and the thin mud was in places waist deep. I do not know mow many times I fell and went head and ears under.” , J.B. Johnson, 2nd Florida Infantry