Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/296

286 him, General Hampton slowly retired to the city, sending his artillery on before to occupy a position commanding the ground between the city and the mountain. The enemy now pressed forward, and planting a gun in the suburbs of the city, supported by a body of cavalry and a regiment and half of infantry, opened fire upon the crowded thoroughfares of the place. To secure a safe retreat for the brigade, it was necessary to charge this force, which was gallantly done by the Second South Carolina cavalry, Colonel Butler, Lieutenant Meighan leading his squadron in advance.

The enemy were scattered in every direction, many of them killed and wounded, ten prisoners taken, among them Colonel Moore, Twenty-third Ohio, and the gun captured. Unfortunately, five of the horses attached to the piece were killed; so that it could not be removed. The enemy's account, subsequently published, admits the repulse of their force and the capture of the gun. After this repulse the enemy made no further efforts to annoy our rear. The brigade retired slowly, bringing off the prisoners captured, and bivouacked that night at Middletown—Lieutenant-Colonel Martin having been left with his command and two pieces of artillery to hold the Catoctin mountain. Munford was in the meanwhile ordered to occupy the gap in this range near the town of Jefferson. The force under his command consisted at this time of only the Second and Twelfth Virginia cavalry—the Sixth Virginia having been left at Centreville to collect arms, etc., the Seventeenth battalion detached before crossing the Potomac on an expedition into Berkely, and the Seventh Virginia cavalry having been ordered a day or two before to report to General Jackson for operations against Harper's Ferry. Every means was taken to ascertain what the nature of the enemy's movement was, whether a reconnoisance feeling for our whereabouts, or an aggressive movement of the army. The enemy studiously avoided displaying any force, except a part of Burnside's corps, and built no camp fires in their halt at Frederick that night. The information was conveyed promptly to the Commanding General, through General D. H. Hill, now at Boonsboro'; and it was suggested that the gap which I held this night was a very strong position for infantry and artillery. Friday, the day on which (by the calculation of the Commanding General) Harper's Ferry would fall, had passed, and as the garrison was not believed to be very strong at that point, I supposed the object already accomplished. I nevertheless felt it important to check the enemy as much as possible, in order to develop his force. With