Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/117

Rh Captain Fox, and the Federal horsemen retreated rapidly. The leader, who proved to be Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, had fallen as his horse wheeled. He was killed instantaneously, being struck by five buckshot. The men of the party, deserted during the night by their officers, next morning from the flat below the hill, sent in the white flag by two Confederate prisoners, whom they had previously captured.

The papers which were sent with the dispatch conveying the above information, were those found on Dahlgren's person. Most of these papers had been copied from the memorandum-book. They comprised an address to his command in view of the hazardous enterprise in which they were to engage; the order of attack upon the city of Richmond; enjoining the release of the prisoners on Belle Isle; the assassination of the officers of the Confederate Government; the burning and gutting of the city, with directions where to apply for the combustibles necessary to set it on fire, and an exact copy of the last field return of our cavalry made to General Stuart, with the location of every regiment indicated. This return had been furnished by the Bureau of Information in Washington. The orders and directions were unsigned. The papers were forwarded by Pollard's courier to Richmond. The order-book was retained. After the papers were published in the newspapers and their authenticity was denied by the northern press, inquiries came to the writer from the government in Richmond, and an order for the book, which was accordingly sent on. We set out next morning for our camp by way of New Castle Ferry, and reached it the following day. Our orders from General Stuart now were to watch the movements of Kilpatrick, who was at Gloucester Point, and to prevent, if possible, his crossing the Rappahannock into the Northern Neck. Should he attempt to move up between the