Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/271

 Men of Virginia at BaWs Bluff. 263

Bluff.' Featherston replied, 'I do not know the ground;' and Hunton exclaimed, 'Come on, I will lead you;' but Featherston curtly said: 'No, sir; I will lead my own men, but want a guide who knows the ground; when Hunton turned to me and said, 'Lige, my boy, won't you go with them.' I was thoroughly acquainted with the country, having fox-hunted over it many times, and now, at sunset of a busy day, I rode up to the front, shouting, 'Follow me; I'll show you the way.' The two regiments moved promptly a. short distance, when they were met with a galling fire, to which they heartily responded, and in a rushing charge drove the enemy headlong over the steep, rugged bluff, capturing three hundred prisoners, among them Colonel Cogswell of the Tammany Regiment, but now acting brigadier-general in place of the gallant Baker, and Colonel W. R. Lee, 2oth Massachusetts, together with the rifle cannon."

REMARKABLE EVENT OF WAR.

A remarkable incident, attended with serious loss to the enemy, occurred just before Featherston's final charge, which must not be omitted. After Baker was killed, Cogswell says, in his report, that he went to the point occupied by Colonels Devens and Lee and found that they had decided on making a retreat that he in- formed them he was in command of the field that a retreat across the river was impossible, and the only movement to be made was to cut their way through to Edward's Ferry and that a column of attack must be at once formed for that purpose. While endeavor- ing to make the necessary dispositions for this desperate attempt, we learn, from the reports of both Stone and Devens that an officer of the enemy rode rapidly in front of the Tammany Regiment and called on them to charge the enemy. The Tammany men, think- ing he was one of their own officers, or perhaps, rattled by the excitement and confusion (which no one can appreciate who has not been in a hot battle), charged forward with a yell, carrying with them in their advance a part of the Massachusetts Regiments. The Confederates met this charge with a deadly fire, which killed and wounded at least twenty-five of the Federals; and Stone, in his report, says when they found out their mistake they had got into such a position that the movement designed was impracticable, and Colonel Cogswell reluctantly gave the order to retire, adding that "the enemy pursued our troops to the edge of the bluft over