Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/280

258 from his signal station on the Peak. On Saturday, June 7th, Carroll received fresh orders to press forward to Waynesboro, some 37 miles, by way of Port Republic, doing all the damage he could, in passing, to Jackson's flank and rear. He marched that afternoon with less than 1,000 infantry, a battery of six guns and 150 cavalry, and reached the vicinity of the Lewiston farm, six miles below Port Republic, that night, where his scouts informed him that Jackson's train, lightly guarded, was parked near Port Republic. The same day Shields sent Tyler's brigade from Columbia bridge to aid Carroll; this reached Lewiston at 2 p. m. of the 8th. while the battle of Cross Keys was raging.

On the morning of the 8th, while quiet reigned in Jackson's camps near Port Republic, and just as the general was mounting his horse to ride to Ewell's command, Carroll, who had learned from renegade spies the condition of affairs at Port Republic, and whom he had for guides, dashed forward with his cavalry and two pieces of artillery, drove in the Confederate pickets, and, rapidly crossing South river, took possession of the little village; and a portion of his force, turning to the right, with one gun, seized the south end of the bridge over which the road leading to Cross Keys crosses, and planted there a piece of artillery, while another portion of his force turned to the left to seize the trains parked to the southwest of the town. Providentially, Jackson had time to ride rapidly across the bridge before the street was occupied by the Federal cavalry, but a portion of his staff was captured and affairs were in a critical condition for a short time. Capt. S. J. C. Moore had a few men of his company on picket at the western end of the town. These he promptly rallied behind a fence and poured a checking volley into the Federal cavalry pushing in that direction. Carrington's not fully organized battery was in camp just beyond, near the wagon train; Maj. R. L. Dabney, Jackson's chief of staff, who was remaining at headquarters preparing to conduct religious services in Jackson's camps at a later hour, hastened to this battery, the guns of which were soon brought into position, and joined Captain Moore in a raking fire down the street, which forced the Federals to retreat toward the bridge and to the shelter of the houses in the cross streets. As soon as Jackson got across the bridge and gained the bluff beyond,