Sept. 1, 1862, quartermaster clerk William H. Hill of the Spartan Band wrote in his diary apparently while riding in a wagon or on a horse after leaving the camp at Warrenton Springs.
“Monday. ON THE MARCH. Clear and Pleasant. Started at 6 a.m. We passed through the town of Warrenton at [noon] and camped near Gainesville on the Manassas Gap R.R. We marched 18 miles today.”
It rained that night. They made a late start the next day, Tuesday, leaving at 2 p.m. and marching just 8 miles to Sudley Springs.
“We passed through the battlefield,” Minutemen of Attala Private Mike Hubbert wrote in his diary, “where Jackson and Longstreet fought Pope last Friday. The ground is covered with dead Yankees yet unburied. It almost sickens the army to pass through such a place of carnage.”