SEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 253

It was understood that French was acting as the reserve of Meade's army, keeping
open its line of communication and covering Washington and Baltimore. In the event
of Meade's defeat, it is easy to see that his task would have been one of vital importance.

On the 4th day of July, 1863, the news of a great victory at Gettysburg flew like
wildfire, followed up by long trains of captured wagons and prisoners, escorted by cav-
alry. All was activity and vigilance, constant marching and counter-marching, posting
of pickets and calling them in again, with hourly expectation of something important to
happen immediately. Late in the day the Seventh was counter-marched back to its old
bivouac on Rizer's farm, west of Frederick, on the Harper's Ferry road.

In the early dawn of the 6th, as the field officer of the day was riding along the out-
posts, he descried an object swinging from the limb of a tree, surrounded by a force of
cavalry. They reported that the body was that of a spy, caught with the evidence in
his boots, and hung by drum-head court by order of General Buford. He was easily
recognized as a former visitor to the camp of the Maryland brigade, offering various
small articles for sale and getting up ornamental company rolls.

Army of the Potomac.

General French was then assigned to the command of the third corps, and Kenly's
brigade hurried back to Maryland Heights. The Seventh being on picket at the time,
did not start with the brigade, which had a skirmish as they occupied the Heights. As
soon as the Seventh was relieved by its namesake, the famous Seventh New York Militia,
National Guard, it rejoined the brigade, which, on the 10th of July, moved out through
Pleasant Valley to a point near Boonsboro. The march was directly toward the sound of
cannon. The march was a forced one of seventeen miles, the day was hot and sultry,
and many of the best men fell out from sheer exhaustion. The straggling was excessive
and much of it was unavoidable; most of the stragglers came up during the night.

Here the Maryland brigade brought up against the Army of the Potomac and rein-
forced its weakest corps, being designated as the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 1st Corps.
General Newton commanded the corps, Kenly the division and Colonel Dushane, of the
first Maryland, commanded the brigade.

The next day the brigade took its place in the corps line of battle, drawn up in a field
along the Hagerstown pike. The men opened their eyes as the reserve artillery thun-
dered by, battery after battery, the heavy Parrot guns drawn by ten or twelve horses
each. From the time they struck the Army of the Potomac, they had found themselves
in an atmosphere of novelty and wonder. The thinned ranks of many of the regiments,
shrunken by losses in battle to the proportions of a company or so, the tattered and
bullet-ridden colors, and those queer-looking badges worn by men and officers, of various
devices, shapes and colors, corresponding with the conspicuous standards borne by
mounted orderlies, following every movement of the general officers, formed the principal
subjects of curiosity and topics for discussion among the men of the Maryland brigade.
Many are still living who will remember the thrill of pride with which, on that day, the
brigade and division standards were received, and the corps badges attached.

Skirmish at Funkstown.

After several changes of position, on the 12th of July the Maryland brigade was
brought into contact with the enemy near Funkstown. The Seventh being called on for