Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Some estimated that the wagon train of Confederate wounded heading south from Gettysburg was seventeen miles long. Many more wounded struggled along on foot. Rain on the afternoon of July 4th turned Lee's retreat into a muddy, bumpy, rutted nightmare. Added to that was the Yankee cavalry who sometimes swooped down on portions of the train. When the infantry reached the Potomac at Williamsport, Maryland, they found that union troops had destroyed the pontoon bridge. There they entrenched until engineers could build a new bridge for their escape back into Virginia.
