THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862

THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES

Well, once we got the landowners okay to traverse his property to White’s Ford, we traveled north from Leesburg, VA on Hwy 15 about 5 miles and turned right on Limestone School Road. It was paved for about 1 mile and then became gravel. Proceeding another 2 miles we came to White’s Ford Road that turned to the right and when about ¾ of a mile where it deadened. We parked our car and proceeded to what I thought was a lane leading to the ford based upon the description the landowner had given me.The dirt lane was used for vehicles and I could see a SUV down the lane.

We walked toward the SUV for about 30 yards and I saw a family to our left picking up something off the ground. We continued toward the SUV when all of a sudden we heard barking and two large German Shepherds were bounding toward us. Nancy is deathly afraid of large dogs and was scared to death. I started calling to them as they approached acting like I was friendly by offering to pet them. They definitely were not attack dogs, but tried to jump up on us in a playful manner. They still barked some, but had calmed down from their initial approach. All of a sudden one of the dogs jumped up and put his front paws on Nancy’s shoulders. It was all she could do to keep from screaming. By this time the family we had seen had come our way and called the dogs to them. I asked if this was the landowners’ property that we had contacted and the father of the family said it wasn’t and that the property was theirs. I apologized profusely and mentioned the landowner’s name and that we had gotten his permission to go across his property to White’s Ford. I also stated that based upon the landowner’s description I thought this lane was the entrance to his property. I apologized again and then asked if we could continue down the land to White’s Ford. He gave us permission and we thanked him and promptly walked away from the family and their large friendly and rambunctious dogs.

I have to take a moment to describe the clothes we were wearing that day. As usual I was shabbily dressed in jeans, an Antietam t-shirt and running shoes. Nancy always is immaculately and beautifully dressed. She had on white athletic socks and white workout shoes, white shorts and a white collared shirt with a few designs in it.Her shirt now had two dirty paw prints, one on each collar bone. (cont.)