Susannah POV
I was unfortunate to have been separated from William for the rest of the journey although I thought about him constantly. I also didn't get to ride with Eliza for a few days after our talk and was unable to tell her of my new understanding with William. Instead, I was with Margaret Wolfe, the nurse, and she taught me how to make a few remedies for some common illnesses as well as how to prevent them. In the long run, they will no doubt come in handy, but at the time, they bored me to tears.
We only made stops in the few towns still intact and sympathetic to the South. Most of the small cities were "ravaged" by those "damned Yankees" in the words of the Confederate soldiers. When we stopped, we would fill canteens, and scour around for any extra food. The men often came back with wild game they had just shot. While it was a way of survival when we were low on rations, I found it disgusting. I know that any meat I eat was once an animal, but it's different when you can see it being skinned in front of you.
After another week or so, we arrived at our destination, although by then it had been figured out and passed on from man to man. We were near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was June 30, 1863. Elise and I were sitting with Major General Henry Heth when his troops returned from looking for shoes, or at least that's what we had been told they were up to.
Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew stumbled his way towards us and spoke to Heth, "Union cavalry is arriving from the south! They must have found out we were coming here!" The Third Corps' Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill overheard and started to chuckle. "Nonsense! I don't believe you, how could they have found out about this? If there are soldiers here, I doubt that they are a substantial federal force, they must have just been Pennsylvania militiamen." Heth agreed with Hill's statement, saying, "There's no soldiers in these parts," but they still left us to inform General Lee.
Eliza and I were very worried we'd be caught in the middle of an attack. We believed that the Union was on the way. We knew we would be the first suspected of being spies, as our loyalty to the Union is well known to all of the men. I did wonder who had leaked the information of our trip here. I figured that the Union commanders would have had to have known about this for around the same amount of time as it had been decided upon; otherwise they could not have possibly made it here in time.
William POV
General Lee and I were talking when Hill and Heth came into the tent, going on about how some of the troops believed that there were Union soldiers in the vicinity. They thought it nonsense. I, with my extensive knowledge of the Union plans, knew that they were, in fact, there and planned on defending themselves.
General Lee ordered them to avoid an engagement with any troops until his army was more concentrated. Knowing Hill, he would probably disregard this order and Heth would no doubt follow along.