Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/92

86 assurance that the promise was fair that Pennsylvania would on the morrow be open to our army. The reply was sent that the request would be cheerfully complied with; but that the utmost verge of endurance by men and horses had been reached, and that whatever the morrow might bring, we feared that neither horses nor men could be used either to march or fight. We were soon ordered to dismount in the fields immediately around us, where we found food for the horses. The captured sheep came in due time, and then the grassy sod supplied a couch softer to the wearied limbs than any downy bed in days of moping peace.

We were in the saddesaddle [sic] early next morning—the memorable 3d of July. We moved in column a mile or two to the left, on the York turnpike, and after bearing to the right, formed line of battle in a body of woods, east of the ridges which had confronted us on the previous evening. One of our squadrons was dismounted and thrown forward on foot, some three hundred yards in front, occupying a barnyard and two fences which connected with the barn, and formed an obtuse angle. Some of the men of Jenkins' brigade dismounted, held the line to our right, and Hampton's and Fitz. Lee's commands were on our left. A deep depression in our front and to the right, partly wooded, was bounded beyond by high ground which sloped very gently; and to our left beyond the head of the bottom it became almost a plain. The author was mounted upon a borrowed horse which had all the qualities of an ox, except its freedom from stumbling and falling; he was in no charge, though on the field and a close observer of what was passing. On the hills to our right and front the enemy had several field-pieces. Beyond these a broad road descended from the ridges, running south, and from the frequency of the passage of horsemen along this road, we concluded it was the line of communication between General Meade and his supply and ammunition-trains. The firing on our skirmish-line began before noon, and steadily continued, and at times so hotly that it required some effort on the part