John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

Rumors now began to prevail that the Heights and Harper's Ferry were to be evacuated, and soon the order came to be ready to move, June 30, at six in the morning. We were ready at the time appointed, but vainly waited hour after hour for further orders. The heavy artillerymen were busily employed in removing siege guns down the mountain to the canal, where they were loaded on canal boats to be sent to Washington; also in removing quartermasters' stores, preparing to destroy ammunition, etc.; so that we knew the evacuation was certainly determined upon. During our wait the usual showers visited us at short intervals, and we huddled as best we could under the tarpaulins hastily stretched over the guns and caissons. In the height of one of these, several explosions occurring in rapid succession led us to suppose the work of destruction had begun. We afterwards learned that they were the result of carelessness. Some one with more zeal than discretion struck a percussion shell with an axe, intending to destroy it. He accomplished his object, but not in accordance with his expectations. The shell exploded, communicating fire to a small magazine near by, and this in turn exploded, all of which resulted in killing eleven and wounding sixteen men. They were members of the Fourteenth Massachusetts and One Hundred and Fifty-first New York heavy artillery.

Shortly after 3 o'clock orders finally came to start, and down we went over rocks and through streams of water, retracing our course hither, until, having traversed some six or seven miles, we went into camp for the night, about a mile distant from our former stopping-place, near Petersville. It was with no feelings of regret that we turned our backs on Maryland Heights, for it rained when we approached