On August 15th, the army broke camp and commenced the retrograde movement back through Williamsburg and Yorktown, our campaign ground of the earlier spring, its ultimate destination being to join Pope in his disastrous campaign with headquarters "in the saddle."
The breaking camp of a great army is always a stirring scene. The mounted aids and orderlies riding in hot haste; the mustering legions and forming squadrons with flying colors; the bonfires of camp debris; the popping of discarded cartridges with occasional deeper intonation of exploding bomb, altogether make a scene not soon to be forgotten.
The time of year was the "roasting ear" season of the Virginia cornfields, and great fears were entertained by the army medical staff as to the probable disastrous results to the men of a too free indulgence by them in that luxury. As a consequence they were strictly admonished to abstain from the toothsome viand, but all to no purpose. We had roasting ears boiled, roasting ears roasted, and roasting ears broiled in the husk. We had green corn on the cob and off the cob. Green corn for breakfast, green corn for dinner, and green corn for supper, with an occasional lunch of green corn between times. Yet, wonderful to relate, instead of any injury resulting, on the contrary the effect was decidedly beneficial, in that by the time we arrived at Yorktown there was scarcely a man to respond to sick call.
The evening of the first day's march the regiment camped near a large brick plantation house. The owner and family were absent, but the negro servants were very much "at home" with the "Yanks" and until late in the night were busily employed baking "hoe cake" for all who applied.
The following day the 57th with the 4th Maine were detached and served as "flankers" on the left of the army, marching by a road that intersected the road by which the regiment had advanced from Williamsburg toward Richmond at a point near Barhamsville, thence by the last named road to Williamsburg and Yorktown. At Williamsburg there still remained many evidences of the struggle of the preceding May, particularly the marks of shot and shell upon the standing timber, many of these marks being high up on the tree trunks and exhibiting a very unsteady aim.