Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/338

 330 Southern Historical Society Papers.

fight was, of course, only a small affair, but the wonder was and is, how guns and men escaped capture.

The citations from official reports given above show that Ouster's and Devine's divisions of Federal cavalry were present and engaged, and other forces were near by, if not participating. General Pen- dleton's report, written soon after the surrender, states his personal knowledge of the almost defenceless condition of that column ot artillery, and his statement emphasizes the absence of infantry, duster's assertion, on the other hand, of two divisions of infantry, is necessarily only his estimate of the force that repulsed his first at- tacks. It is an estimate only more amazing, as coming from an experienced officer, than the fact of his failure to capture everything before him. Perhaps the estimate is the explanation of the failure. His assertion, however, is contradicted by the knowledge and recol- lection, so far as known, of every Confederate soldier on that field. From all information now obtainable, there were less than four hun- dred muskets and cavalry defending that train; arid the cavalry, the remnants of Gary's brigade, did not arrive on the field till the guns were being withdrawn, having galloped up from the rear on hearing the firing.

The last shot was fired, and it is believed that the second piece was the last gun, of all that escaped, to get away from that perilous field. The piece had not gone a hundred yards when it stalled in a ditch, from which the broken-down team, aided by frantic tugging of cannoneers at the wheels, could not drag it, until a fence rail was found to prize out the wheels. Bullets were flying thick, and between the piece and the enemy was only that thin line of men, who were keeping them back. By hard work the piece was started and joined the others in the road, all four guns saved. And then began a night march, the memory of which is like a confused dream. Forward and on, but whither and to what fate.

It is impossible now to give the impressions, pure and simple, or the recoVcctions of that night, untinged with the subsequent knowl- edge of what the morrow had in store for us. Forward and on, ualk'-ig t ometimes in sleep, holding on to tail of gun or wagon, as is the belief and assertion of some, who believe they remember the ''ct. Tired out drivers urged on poor, jaded beasts, ready to drop with fatigue, hunger and thirst, but seemingly kept up to their work by sharing the feeling that those guns must be saved, while con- scious of dinoer threatening from the rear, that might at any mo- ment mater -'lize in sheas and sabre strokes of charging squadrons.