Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/115

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Marching through the old capital of Virginia, we left our baggage at one of the private residences, and halted in the rear, and to the right of Fort Magruder, which was occupied by the Richmond Fayette artillery and two guns of the Richmond Howitzers, who were subjected to hot fire from the enemy's guns, loosing a great many men, but holding on to their position, from which the enemy was unable to silence or drive them. After forming in line of battle and halting awhile we were ordered forward into the woods, to the right, where the battle was then raging. Soon after we reached the posi- tion, as the regiment became engaged, they got separated, and each regiment, so to say, fought on its own hook. We were ordered to support the Nineteenth Mississippi regiment, which was being forced back by the enemy. Before we could reach them some of the com- panies broke and ran through our ranks, closely pursued by the enemy, who, getting into the felled timber or abattis, was in turn charged by our regiment and driven off in great confusion. Follow- ing them through the felled timber, we came out right into a six-gun battery, which we captured, together with a large United States bat- tle flag, also a small brigade guide flag. It was of blue silk with a golden 3 embroidered thereon. This we carried with us to Rich- mond. An aide of General Longstreet now came up and requested Colonel Williams to make a detail of 100 men to carry off the guns. This Colonel Williams was unable to do, as he could not spare that force. Subsequently a detail was made from the Nineteenth Vir- ginia regiment, and the guns were safely carried off.

From the point where we struck the battery we charged across an open field into another piece of woods. While halting in the edge of the woods, we observed several lines of the enemy passing be- tween us and our line which was in the felled timber. At first we thought they were some of our men until we were fired upon by them. We then fell back into the fallen timber a short distance in rear of where we captured the battery ; but now, the enemy having been reinforced, they swarmed all around us. The bullets seem to come from all directions. We lost a good many men, Colonel L. B. Williams was badly wounded, and the command was turned over to Major W. H. Palmer. Most of our muskets had become useless from the continued rain, and our ammunition was nearly all expended, but by supplying ourselves with the enemy's muskets and ammuni- tion, which was abundantly scattered about, the fight was continued