When they marched toward the Second Manassas they had suffered from an almost intolerable heat and dust.

Now they advanced through a winter that seemed to pour upon them every variety of discomfort.

Heavy snows fell, icy rains came and fierce winds blew.

The country was deserted, and the roads beneath the rain and snow and the passage of great armies disappeared.

Vast muddy trenches marked where they had been, and the mud was deep and sticky, covering everything as it was ground up, and coloring the whole army the same hue.