Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/16

4 greater than my two regiments could sustain, the remaining three regiments were placed in action on the right of the road. My brigade held its ground with heroic tenacity, but must have been driven back, by overwhelming forces, but for the timely arrival of reinforcements. The Seventh regiment, having been the first engaged, and having remained constantly under heavy fire, suffered most severely in officers and men. Colonel Reuben P. Campbell, who might be justly classed among "the bravest of the brave," fell while bearing in his hands the colors of the regiment. Brave and honorable as a man and skillful as an officer, his loss to the brigade is irreparable.

The enemy having been driven from the field, my brigade bivouacked near it. During the march of Sunday and Monday in pursuit of the enemy, nothing noteworthy occurred until Monday afternoon about two o'clock, when I was ordered by Major-General Hill to mask my brigade in a wood to the right of the road. I remained in that position, when the shells of the enemy's artillery commenced falling near us, and I was ordered to proceed and attack. Having no guide and no knowledge of the enemy's position, I took the direction whence came the shells, which carried me to the right of the road. Forming my line of battle in a cleared field, and advancing we soon encountered the enemy, and drove them for nearly a mile. This was done under the fire of two batteries—one of which we silenced and the other of which enfiladed the left of my line. After proceeding about this distance, the enemy's force rapidly accumulated as they fell back, and finding that the enemy extended much beyond my right flank, no further advance was attempted. At dark I placed my brigade in bivouac on the edge of the battlefield, and having reported to Major-General Hill through a member of my staff, was ordered to remain there until daylight, and then return to the point from which I had started into battle on the previous afternoon. In this engagement, I had the misfortune to lose Colonel Charles C. Lee, of the Thirty-seventh regiment. A thoroughly educated soldier and an exemplary gentleman, whose life had been devoted to the profession of arms, the service lost in him one of its most promising officers.

During the afternoon of Thursday I received marching orders, and after proceeding a short distance down the road on which we had previously been moving, was ordered to return to camp. I was returning, when a heavy fire of artillery and small arms on the left showed that attack had been made on Malvern hill, and it