Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/150

142 upon the road and a part of a regiment of infantry, under Colonel Hundly. I had the section to open upon the enemy, but it had no effect, except to increase the speed of his flanking columns, and made no impression upon that one advancing directly upon our front. After firing ten rounds with no better effect, I ordered the officer (I do not know his name) to move his pieces to the rear. I also directed Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, commanding Sixteenth Louisiana Volunteers, upon my extreme right, to deploy his regiment as skirmishers in retreat, and Colonel Campbell and Major Flournoy, with the First, Thirteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth, in all about two hundred and fifty muskets, to move to the rear, and to fight as they went. I also directed Colonel Hundly to deploy his men as skirmishers. The cavalry of the enemy charged all around us. Colonel Campbell broke up by a well-delivered fire the column charging down the road, and thus gave time to the section of artillery to cross the river. The enemy came up within less than one hundred yards of the section and fired his revolvers at those about it. My command fought its way to the river, entirely surrounded, with a loss of ten killed, twenty-five wounded and five captured. We continued to make dispositions against this cavalry, under orders of Major-General Clayton, without being engaged, until near sunset, when he again charged, coming from the left, and wheeled into and down the road just where my left flank rested upon it. I immediately changed front upon the left regiment, and ordered Colonel Henderson, Forty-Second Georgia, temporarily in charge of Stovall's brigade, upon my right, to face by the rear rank and wheel to the right so as to cover the road. A few well-directed volleys cut the charging column, and part of two regiments continued down the road while the rest fell back into the woods. Major-General Clayton coming from the front, where he had gone to superintend the advance of Holtzclaw's brigade, then came up, and made dispositions which resulted in the defeat of this body of cavalry, the killing of many, and the capture of colors and prisoners.

My command was not again engaged. I trust my officers and men behaved themselves, under all circumstances, in a way to entitle them to the confidence of my superior officers. Colonel Hunter, Fourth Louisiana Volunteers; Major Picolet, commanding Thirtieth; Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, Colonel Campbell and