Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/185

Rh was about twenty men, and most of these were pickets, to whom the order to retreat had not been communicated.

The brigade at Gettysburg had 1,280 men and 140 officers, according to my recollection.

On the last day's fight, about 2 P. M., we heard from the mountain we had taken the day before a great shouting in our rear down the Emmettsburg road. We soon distinguished it to be the enemy's cheer. Very soon the head of a line of his cavalry in that road emerged from the wood, galloping, hurrahing and waving their swords as if frantic. Our artillery, which had been thrown forward across the road, opened on them. They road on. An infantry fire from a wood on their left opened on them. They then turned to their right to escape, taking down a lane. Some men of ours (cooking details) threw themselves behind the stone fence on the side of the lane and opened on them as they came down the lane. They then turned again to the right and entered the field and directed themselves back towards the point where they had first appeared to us. In doing so they had to pass a wood on their left. From this an infantry fire opened on them, and their direction was again changed to the right. The result was that they galloped round and round in the large field, finding a fire at every outlet, until most of them were killed or captured. Every thing passed before our eyes on the mountain side as if in an amphitheatre.

Some of the men engaged (Cook's) told me that the prisoners said it was General Farnsworth's brigade, and that they were all drunk. The same men told me that in going over the field for spoils they approached a fallen horse with his rider by his side, but not dead. They ordered him to surrender. He replied wait a little, or something to that effect, and put his hand to his pistol, drew it and blew his brains out. This was General Farnsworth.

Brigadier-General E. M. Law, who commanded the division, General Hood having been wounded the day before, made the disposition to receive this cavalry. At very short notice he put the artillery across the road, the Seventh Georgia beside the road in a wood a little beyond the artillery, and the Ninth Georgia in a wood at some distance on the other side of the road and of the enclosed field. These two regiments were very small, having suffered heavily the day before. They were all that could be