Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/317

 General //mWx /?///'" /r. 301

number of Federal troops under cover of their gunboats. The en- tire brigade lost some forty or fifty killed and wounded, while the enemy's loss was at least twice that number. Here it was that Cap- tain Denny, of the Fifth, and Lieutenant-Colonel Black, of the First, were killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel Rainey, of the First, was se- verely wounded. I mention this battle, not so much on account of its importance as compared with others which ensued, but because it was the first contact the Texas troops as a brigade had with the enemy, and in that engagement it performed its part so well as to receive the encomium of General Gustavus W. Smith, the command- ing officer. Hear what he says in his official report: "The brunt of the contest was borne by the Texans, and to them is due the largest share of the honors of the day at Eltham." And again, he says: <{ Had I 40,000 such troops I would undertake a successful invasion of the North."

AN AGGRESSIVE CAMPAIGN.

I pass by the battle of Seven Pines, as the Texas brigade were merely passive spectators in that engagement. Shortly thereafter General Robert E. Lee took command of the Confederate forces in Virginia, and thenceforward that army ceased to retreat from the foe, and began an aggressive campaign which crowned our cause with victory after victory, until the name of the Confederate soldier became illustrious wherever heroism is admired. As soon as General Lee assumed command of the army he undertook a campaign for the relief of Richmond and for the purpose of driving the Federal invaders from the soil of Virginia. I shall not stop here to relate the splendid strategy which re-enforced Jackson, who was operating in the Valley, with the division of Whiting, to which the Texas brigade then belonged; and how all these troops were immediately transferred from the Valley to the rear of McClellan's right flank at Mechanicsville. Suffice it, the battle of the 26th of June at Me- chanicsville ensued, in. which the Federals were driven from their works, and the two wings of our army, that on the north bank of the Chickahominy under Jackson, and that on the south bank under Lee, were reunited.

On the morning of the 2yth of June, to-day thirty-nine years ago, at early dawn, the Confederates began seeking the enemy; Long- street and A. P. Hill pursued the routes on our right nearest the Chickahominy, and came soonest on their lines, while the troops under Jackson, composed of the divisions of Whiting, Ewell and D.