Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 09.djvu/128

Rh one Lieutenant and twenty-five men, losing Colonel Harman, one Lieutenant and three men. In this campaign my brigade participated in three battles and the affair of Boonsboro. It killed and wounded many of the enemy, and captured over six hundred prisoners.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, , Brigadier-General Commanding.

, August 4th, 1863.

Captain J. D. Ferguson:

Captain,—The brigade leaving Piedmont, in Loudoun county, on the morning of the 17th of June, I was ordered to withdraw my pickets after the column had passed, and followed in the rear. Marching via Paris and Upperville, I arrived at Dover (near Aldie) about 12 or 1 o'clock, finding the brigade going into camp. I received an order from Colonel Wickham, under whose command I had been temporarily placed, to move down the road and select a camp, make my men comfortable, &c. I consequently did so, and when I was just passing the brigade, I met the pickets running in, and the Yankees were rapidly and closely pursuing them. I caused sabres to be drawn, and charged immediately, at the same time sending the information to the rear to the Colonel commanding. I drove the enemy upon his main body, which was in the town of Aldie. His sharp-shooters got possession of the heights on my left, in the wood and behind the fences, and it was impossible for me to engage him further with the sabre, consequently I deployed my sharp-shooters to the front, under Captain R. B. Boston, and withdrew the regiment beyond the range of the enemy's rifles. As soon as this was done, he charged my skirmishers, who were doing terrible execution in his ranks, endeavoring to dislodge them, but by a countercharge I gave them immediate relief. The enemy now showed considerable force, his flanks extending far beyond mine; on the left, on the Snicker's Gap Pike, his dismounted skirmishers had pressed upon mine until their fighting had become desperate and close. The most of the horses of my dismounted men had been killed, and the enemy seeing that my force was small (the