Saturday, 21st–Reveille sounded at 3 o’clock and at 5 we took up the line of march, our company being rear guard for the brigade. We marched seventeen miles and went into bivouac several miles beyond Elkhorn, which we reached at 1 o’clock. Here we waded the Elkhorn[1] river, which is from three to five feet deep and two hundred feet wide. The boys had a great deal of fun in wading across. The country is very rough and rocky, and the hard turnpike over which we marched most of the day made our feet very sore.
[1] Now called Elk river. The town which our diarist calls Elkhorn was probably what is now Aspen Hill.—Ed.