Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/155

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him \vh;it is the matter; he says: "I don't want to fight; I ain't mad with anybody." This puts us all in good humor, and amidst 1. in-liter and cheers we continue the march; after going a short dis- tance we are halted and ordered to lie down. The Yankees are shelling this wood terribly, and soon our captain, Morgan, is killed by them. We are now ordered forward, and halt at the edge of the road; this is the same road we had been marching on. The woods ran north along this road about 200 yards from where my regiment now was, when it came to an open field. In the corner or angle of the wood the Second brigade is now formed; the 2ist Virginia on the edge of the wood along the road and facing east ; the 48th Vir- ginia on our left and along the road facing east; the 42d Virginia on their left in the edge of the wood, but at right angles to the road and facing north with the field in their front; then on their left and an extension of their line, the Irish battalion, which, in the left ol the brigade and as we are thus formed, it makes a right angle. The field mentioned above ran along the road about 200 yards, when it comes to a second wood. In this second wood, which is in front ot the Irish battalion and the 42d Virginia regiment, are a part of the Yankee line of battle, lying down. In front of the 2ist Virginia and the 48th Virginia is a large open field surrounded by a rail fence, the road running between the wood we are in and the fence; about 200 to 300 yards left obliquely in front of the 2ist regiment is a corn field. This corn field is full of the enemy, it making a splendid screen, and a line of them are advancing on us when we reach the road; we open on them at once, and the battle of Cedar Run is hot from the beginning. The Second brigade is alone, as none of our division has gotten up. The Yankees who have been lying down in front of the Irish battalion and 42d regiment now make an advance, and, as their line is longer than ours, it overlaps the Irish battalion, and that part of their line swings around, doubles up the battalion, and occupies the position that we had recently advanced from, which is directly in our rear.

KKPT THEM BACK.

'The Twenty-first and Forty-eighth are fighting the force at and near the corn-field, and with such effect as to keep them back. The force on our flank are firing directly up the road in the flank of the Forty-eighth and our regiment and our men are falling fast from this fire. Our Colonel, Cunningham is sick; he now comes along the line