Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/154

 146 Southern Historical Society Papers.

rebels made the woods ring, some of the men were in their shirt sleeves, some with nothing but shirt on, some with one shoe on, etc., hardly one with a hat, but every man was in his place.

POPE'S STAND.

Next morning, August Qth, we resume the march, Ewell's division in front, about i o'clock we hear the boom of a cannon in our front and know that Pope has made a stand.

" Peace and beauty all around us, death and danger just ahead, On our faces careless courage, in our hearts a sombre dread.

Then the skirmish line went forward, and the only sounds we heard

Were the hum of droning insects and the carol of a bird;

Till, far off, a flash of fire, and a little cloud went by,

Like an angel's mantle floating down from out an azure sky.

Then a shell went screaming o'er us, and the air at once was rife With a million whispering hornets, swiftly searching for a life; And the birds and insects fled away before the ' rebel yell," The thunder of the battle and the iurious flames of hell."

We are hurried along for some distance. when the Second brigade is marched to the front of our division and halted, roll is called and we are ordered to load, after a few minutes rest we resume the march and are hurried up, after going a short distance we find that Ewell's division has filed to the right of the road, we, however, keep the road and on going a short distance further, the men on the left of the road clear the way for a cannon ball that comes bouncing along like a boy's ball, but to show with what force it was travelling, soon after passing my regiment it struck the stump of a tree, glanced up, and went out of sight. A little farther on we come to four men lying in the road dead, killed by this same ball. The road is fairly alive now with shot and shell from the enemy, and to protect us some we march a short distance into the woods on the left of the road, or more properly speaking, as the road ran here north and south, we were marching north to Culpeper Courthouse.

WAS NOT MAD.

We now enter the woods west of the road; Ewell's division had gone to the east of the road some time ago. We continue the march in the wood parallel to the road; here we pass an old rebel standing beside a small sapling, with his hand resting on it; we ask