Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/268

 260 Southern Historical Society Papers.

mentioned as "deserving praise for the gallant manner in which he made a charge with ten men on two companies of the enemy's infantry. Lieutenant Charles Wildman, who will be heard from later on, is complimented, and "Sergeant Strother, of the Madison cavalry; Sergeant- Major Baugh, of the Chesterfield troop, and Private Toler, of the Loudoun cavalry, rendered good service in carrying orders."

"And now," says Colonel White, "was their best time to recross the river, for Hunton, with his Eighth Virginia (except Wampler's company, left at the Burnt Bridge to look out for McCall) was com- ing at a double quick, with 375 more people in bad temper."

Then came the tug of the battle. Colonel Baker had now arrived with the rest of his brigade, making in all about 1,900 men, with two howitzers and one rifle cannon.

"Colonel Hunton," says Colonel White, "moved forward into the heavy timber, where Colonel Jenifer's fight had left the Federals. The battle opened again severely, the Eighth Virginia fighting- straight ahead, with Jenifer's force covering their left, which gave them opportunity for aggressive battle, although but one to three, with no artillery to answer Baker's salutes The firing was rapid and the fighting stubborn, the Federals standing up to their work well, giving and receiving bloody blows with high courage; but notwithstanding their superiority of force, amply sufficient to have swept the Confederates from the field at one rushing charge, they failed for lack of a proper leader, the result proving that Baker was as inferior to Hunton, in skill and promptness on the battle line as was Stone or Evans in general conduct of the field of operations."

THE KEY OF THE BATTLE-FIELD.

Devens, with the Fifteenth Massachusetts, was holding on hard along a ridge, at the edge of the woods, which faced an open field of about ten acres in area in front of the Bluff, looking towards Leesburg. Realizing with the quick eye of a soldier, that this ridge was the key of the situation, Hunton assailed Devens' left with a vigor that caused him to retire into the open field, where Baker was forming his line of battle. Seizing the abandoned ridge, the Eighth Regiment poured an incessant and destructive fire into the enemy, which killed and disabled their artillerists so rapidly that, as Hunton says in his report, "there were only three discharges of