Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/171

Rh have personal encounters with them, when the butts of our rifles served a good purpose. When we formed and moved up to attack it, it was discovered that the "dominecker" had not struck our gallant young guide, Eppes, who was among the foremost in the fray. He was more familiar with the swamp than any of us, and may have been over cautious as a pilot across it, but it was not fear or timidity, as his subsequent conduct proved. Instead of crossing the Petersburg and Weldon railroad at or near Stone Creek Station, as the Yankee general, Wilson, evidently intended, he took a long circle with his demoralized troopers. How or when he reached Grant's lines this deponent sayeth not, but that he had about the roughest time of his life I think it will not be denied. The Yankee raiders lost 1,200 prisoners, and besides there were numerous dead and wounded left on the fields and byways. But this, though bad enough, was not the worst of it for Wilson, for the demoralization produced by the mode of their escape was even more damaging to his troops than the losses.