Just my input, I think people of the civil War era were a lot more in touch with time and the land, than we are today. Walking or riding a horse you kinda have a clock in your head that tells you how far you've gone and the time it takes to get there. I've rode horses all my life and as a kid if I were 5, 6 or 7 miles from home. I knew about exactly how many minutes it would take me to get home to do my chores before dark, whether I walked, trotted or cantered the horse. And I'm sure a lot time a local would tell soldiers just how far they were from any given place with the hope they'd move on.