Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/125

Rh successful. The loss on our side we estimated to be scarcely one-tenth of that of the enemy. A good many prisoners were taken. A detail was sent and the bodies of Martin and Pemberton, which lay as they had fallen in the morning, were removed.

The next day we were ordered to picket every road from the Ni to the Rappahannock river. Orders received directly from General Robert E. Lee made it manifest that anxiety was felt about the movements of the enemy on our right flank. A penciled order under his own hand, given the author, showed a familiarity with the topography of the country, extending not only to by-roads, but even to paths, that was matter of great surprise. Our brigade moved to Stanard's Mill on the Po, where we joined it, after leaving one squadron on picket. Two skirmishes occurred about this time with the enemy's cavalry, the Ninth Regiment taking part in the first, just above Guinea's Station, and other troops with two of our squadrons, engaging in the second. No serious casualties occurred with us.

On the night of the 20th of May, General Grant commenced his flank movement around the right of our army. The squadron composed of Companies C and K, under Captain Robinson, was on picket on the north side of the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad. Lieutenant Law. Washington, with a detail of twelve or fifteen men at Hamilton's Crossing, was cut off, and escaped by crossing over the Rappahannock to the Northern Neck. Robinson and Lieutenant Beale, with the main body of the squadron, were on the road to Bowling Green, a little below Guinea's Station. Along this road Grant's advance column moved. Pressed by the enemy's cavalry, Robinson was forced before daylight to cross the river at a bridge two miles below Guinea's. Lieutenant John T. Stewart held the bridge above and near Guinea's, and handsomely repulsed a charge made upon it about daylight. When light came, from our position on the hills overlooking the river, Guinea's, and the country, beyond dense