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expedition was to co-operate with General Imboden in the destruction of as
much of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as possible, the collection of supplies
and to capture and disperse the enemy wherever found.

The morning the command left Lacey's Springs the weather was everything
that could have been desired, but before night a hard, cold rain had set in. The
mountain streams, then almost dry, soon became raging torrents, and the men
of the Second Maryland (it comprised the only infantry connected with the
expedition) were compelled to ford many streams waist deep. For three days
the rain continued, and when, at the end of that time, Moorefield was reached,
the infantry was much broken down, nor was the cavalry and artillery in a better
plight. To add to their suffering, the brigade quartermaster failed to have
supplies near Moorefield, as he had been ordered. Men who had marched for
three days under such circumstances were not, then, likely to bestow any very
complimentary criticisms upon the commanding general, who, of course, is
blamed for everything.

But this was all forgotten when the next morning the good people of Moore-
field turned out en masse and contributed unsparingly to their wants, and the trip
to Moorefield was ever after a pleasant remembrance to the members of the
Second.

The enemy having failed to make his appearance in the vicinity of Moorefield,
and the subsequent movements of the cavalry, to be successful, required a celerity
not attainable by infantry and artillery, it was deemed best to send these, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert, back to the Valley as convoy to the wagon train.
After remaining at Moorefield two or three days the return trip of the infantry
and artillery was made by way of Franklin, the whole reaching Harrisonburg on
the evening of April 30, after an uneventful trip, and reported to Lieutenant-
Colonel Funsten, who had been left behind by General Jones to watch the
enemy in the Valley.

During the absence of the Second Maryland, Captain Joseph L. McAleer,
of that command, who had been left behind by reason of his not having been at
that time physically able to make so long and arduous a march, had been placed
in command of one hundred and fifty dismounted cavalry and ordered to report
to Major S. B. Myers at Fisher's Hill. On April 28 two regiments of Federal
cavalry, four regiments of infantry and some artillery made their appearance at
Fisher's Hill. The cavalry (Twelfth and Thirteenth Pennsylvania) were easily
drawn into an ambuscade, and seventy of them killed, wounded or captured.
Colonel Funsten, in his official report, says:

"Much credit is due to Major Myers and Captain McAleer for the skill and
bravery which they displayed in this affair."

Again he says, after the return of the Second Maryland to Harrisonburg :

"On the morning of the 8th of May the enemy had advanced above New-