Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/192

 186 Southern Historical Society Papers.

mand of the western army and not having been assigned any other. He was acting as a volunteer aid of General Beauregard, and that general had not as yet reached Virginia.

" I will take the responsibility of your moving," said he.

I at once started the battalion, marching by the left flank along the railroad. We had not moved very far, till, greatly to my relief, we found Major Glover and our three companies on the railroad track. The pleasure of meeting our comrades, for whose safety we had felt so much solicitude, was very much marred by learning that they had sustained some loss. Private Tharin, of Company B, a brave and highly estimable young man, was lying on the track shot through the head. There had been other casualties. When our skirmish line was driven in the major and his command were posted where we found them, and had held their position since. He was not at liberty to leave his post, and he and the companies under his command could not accompany us. About the time that I found Glover I met Captain Mazyck, of General Hagood's staff, coming with orders for me to move towards the left. Hagood's orders had been anticipated by General Hill's advice. The ground over which we had been passing was of such a character that I could not have used my horse, and he had been sent in charge of a man to the rear. Mazyck directed me to leave the railroad, turn to the left at an acute angle, and after marching about a couple of hundred yards further to take position in the edge of a field, our line being parallel to the railroad, with the woods about thirty yards in our rear. The enemy had gotten possession of the railroad, and both the Twenty first and Twenty-seventh had suffered severely. As soon as we got in line in our new position we opened fire on the enemy on the railroad in our front. I soon perceived that while the enemy's shots were passing through our ranks and telling on our numbers, ours were doing them no harm. The railroad cut and the embankment (where the cut left the hill and reached the lower ground) effectually protected them. Besides this, quite a number of men belonging to the Twenty- first and Twenty -seventh were coming from the left, and passing in confusion immediately in our rear. I concluded, under these circum- stances, that there was danger of disorder in my ranks, and that we might be swept back to the woods in our rear. The surest way to pre- vent such a disaster was to move a force towards the enemy. I gave the command, and the men moved forward with a yell. There was no wavering or hesitation. [I was under the impression, till long after- wards, that my forward movement was without orders from General