Reveille at daylight, then roll call, breakfast. Packed up
waiting for orders to march, while in line. The command being given, we began
our march, passing through town, out on the Winchester Pike. Macadamized roads
were known as pikes. Going towards Winchester it was named after that town.
Going from Winchester the same road was known as the Martinsburg Pike because
it led to that town. Just outside of Martinsburg the 8th Corps was forming,
under the command of General Sigel. This corps was also called The Army of West
Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Our regiment was the last to arrive.
Received hearty cheers from the Ohio and West Virginia boys, which we returned
in good old Yankee style. We could cheer. At this point we were brigaded
with the 28th and 126th Ohio Regiments under the command of Colonel Moore, 28th
Ohio, a German officer. About nine o'clock we began our march, the day being
very hot and the road very dusty. Pushing up the valley. After a slow, tedious
march, late in the day, a halt was made at Bunker Hill, a small village on the
main pike. A supply of good water. Tired and leg weary. Our record for today's
march, ten miles.
SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary,
1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 55-6
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