Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/299

 Vol. XII.

July— August— September.

Nos. 7, 8, 9.

The Seventeenth Virginia Infantry at Flat Creek and Drewry's Bluff.

By Col. A. Herbert.

Rev. J. William Jones, D. D.,

Secretary Southern Historical Society :

In response to invitations given by you in the Southern Histo- rical Papers to officers and men of the late Southern Confederacy for incidents interesting in their character, but lost or submerged in weightier events of the late war, I feel encouraged to give a sketch of an engagement of my old command, the Seventeenth Virginia infantry, at Flat Creek bridge, Richmond and Danville railroad, with Kautz's cavalry on the 14th May, 1864, and events following. The time was fraught with events of great moment to the then struggling Confed- eracy. The great battle of the Wilderness commenced between Lee and Grant on the 6th May. Butler, with 20,000 men, had thrown himself between Petersburg and Richmond ; Kautz, with a strong force of cavalry, had cut the Petersburg railroad in several places, and everywhere our small armies were confronted with the enemy in larger numbers, and every command and every Confederate soldier