Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/343

 '/'// /.///- /V///./A .\nrfl. <',,,:,/,', i In fn,,t, ';l. 885

nd line, and when I >.i\ is' Brigade was repulsed at Brocken- hr inch's, did not get beyond the position occupied by General Thorn. is. it moved handsomely forward with the rest of "Lane's brave fellows" who took the position of those- two brigades on the extreme left of the first line. Though a column of infantry was thrown against its left tlank and the whole line was exposed to a raking artillery fire from the right, it advanced in magnificent order, n-serving its fire in obedience to orders, was the last command to leave the field, and it did so under orders. Its loss was twelve killed and ninety-two wounded.

On the 1 2th it formed line of battle near Hagerstown, Maryland, threw up breast-works and skirmished with the enemy until the night of the 1 3th. The retreat from Hagerstown through mud and rain was worse than that from Gettysburg, which was "awful." Some fell by the wayside from exhaustion, and the whole command was fast asleep as soon as halted for a rest about a mile from the pontoon bridge at " Falling Waters." On the morning of the i4th, Lane's brigade alone covered the crossing at ' ' Falling Waters, ' ' and Cap- tain Crowell, of the Twenty-eighth, commanded its skirmishers. After all the other troops were safely over the Potomac, the whole brigade retired in splendid order and the enemy opened with its artil- lery just as the bridge swung loose from the Virginia shore.

On returning from Pennsylvania the regiment camped for a short time at Culpeper Courthouse, and was then ordered to Orange Courthouse, where it did picket duty on the Rapidan at Morton's ford. It was next ordered to Liberty Mills as a support to the cav- alry which was engaged at Jack's Shops. There it spent most of the winter doing picket duty on the Rapidan river and the Stanards- ville road. Once during that winter it had a terrible march through sleet and snow to Madison Courthouse, trying to intercept some of the Federal cavalry raiders.

At Bristow Station, October I4th, this regiment was under fire but not actively engaged. There it helped to tear up the railroad, some- thing at which it had become expert. As early as the middle of Octo- ber, 1862, General Jackson complimented the brigade for the thor- ough manner in which it destroyed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at North Mountain Depot, where, beyond the cavalry pickets, it tore up about ten miles of the track; and the men amused themselves when the rails on the burning ties were red-hot by tieing ' ' iron cra- vats ' ' around the adjacent trees. The depot was not burned at that time because the wind would have endangered private property.