The advance of Union Gen. John F. Reynolds’ I Corps began slogging through Barnesville on the morning of Friday, June 26, 1863, after crossing the Potomac River the afternoon before and camping west of town. Continuous heavy rain made marching muddy and camping soggy, though recently mowed straw from a nearby farm provided dry bedding for some. A Pennsylvania officer recalled that the troops had a bad night, made more dismal by their inability to cook supper and the incessant braying of hundreds of mules from nearby wagon trains. Early on June 27, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's II Corps began marching through town; it had camped near Barnesville less than a year earlier, on September 13, 1862, while on its way to Antietam. After two days of soldiers tramping by, townspeople thought they were finally rid of them, but on Sunday, June 28, 1863, Gen. John Sedgwick’s VI Corps also came through after crossing the Potomac early that morning. While marching, many VI Corps soldiers heard church bells ringing, and some attended services at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, where they were gratified to hear prayers for President Abraham Lincoln and peace. After eight months in Virginia, the men enjoyed the smiling faces and warm greetings. The congregation at St. Mary’s had an old and distinguished history, with the Carroll family among its founders in 1741; the church the soldiers entered had been built in 1822 to replace one that had burned, and the present brick church was built in 1900.
