Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/168

 156 Southern Historical Society Papers.

he directed General Hancock to send a strong brigade and a battery of artillery down the plank road, and last, he directed the cavalry force, which was picketing between the plank road and the Black - water, to be withdrawn and to join in the pursuit.

THE PETTY FIGHT THE FEDERALS MADE.

And all that any of them did was to make the little fight that Gen- eral Davies reports at 10:30 P. M. of the i6th. He reports from Proctor's, on the Jerusalem plank road, that he marched there at 12:30 P. M., and sent a brigade over the Jerusalem plank road to intercept the enemy; met them at a point about five miles hence, and drove them about a mile (he did not drive us; we were going for all we were worth) to the vicinity of Hawkinsville, where he found them strongly posted behind earthworks, having in their front an impas- sable swamp. He moved down and found General W. H. F. Lee's Division, which he failed to dislodge, and gave up the job on that road and sent a brigade to Stony Creek to try and intercept the head of the column there. All this time our cattle were on the trot, and with all their forces they could not stop them.

A SAFE APPEAL TO THE VERDICT OF HISTORY.

I think, as. I have intimated, this raid ranks as high as any per- formance by any troops, and I am surprised that abler pens than mine have not long since given it the prominence that it deserves.

D. CARDWELL.