Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 9.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[660] others deserted their colors and voluntarily surrendered themselves. After advancing in line beyond Cedar Run, we were half-wheeled to the right and marched across the road, through a field of corn and over an open field, until we reached the left of the forces under Brigadier-General W. B. Taliaferro, where we were halted. It was then dark, and the infantry firing had ceased in all directions. During the entire engagement, the officers and men behaved as well as could be desired, notwithstanding the disorderly manner in which some of the troops we were ordered to support fell back.

Lieutenants Dunn and Coltraine, of the First Virginia (Irish) battalion, tendered me their services on the field, as they had been left without a command. I put them in charge of two companies of the Twenty-eighth regiment, previously commanded by Sergeants, and both discharged the duties assigned them only as brave men can do.

Our loss was twelve killed and eighty-eight wounded. I did not see the Seventh regiment after we were ordered forward, and, as Colonel Haywood is absent, I will submit so much of Captain Turner's report as relates to the part taken by his regiment in this engagement. When the brigade moved forward, this regiment, for causes unknown to the writer, did not move for several minutes, and consequently was considerably behind the brigade. We were finally ordered forward, but had not proceeded more than one hundred yards, when we were halted and the line dressed. By this time the brigade was entirely out of sight. We marched forward, and were again halted and the line dressed. We next wheeled to the right and marched into a road running nearly perpendicular to our original line of battle. Colonel Haywood, at this point, left the regiment to look for General Branch. The command then devolved upon Captain R. B. McRae, who, hearing heavy firing in our front, was just on the eve of ordering the regiment in that direction, when Colonel Haywood returned with orders from General Jackson. We then marched by the right flank to a wheatfield on the left of the Culpeper road, and formed on a hill in rear of and nearly perpendicular to the brigade, which was then at the bottom of the hill, and in the same field. We marched forward at a double-quick to the support of General Taliaferro's division, which we found engaging a force of the enemy concealed in a cornfield. We fired several rounds, when the enemy broke and fled. We pursued them about three quarters of a mile, taking about thirty prisoners, including two commissioned officers, when we were halted by command of General Taliaferro, and marched to a point on the Culpeper road, where we joined the brigade, and bivouacked for the night. The regiment sustained a loss of one man killed and one wounded in this action.

shelling across the Rappahannock, August 24TH.

On Sunday, August twenty-fourth, the Eighteenth regiment was ordered to the support of McIntosh's battery. It lay during the whole of the day under a very heavy fire of the enemy's artillery, but sustained no loss. The Twenty-eighth and Thirty-third regiments were sent, under my command, to support Braxton's and Davidson's batteries, and to prevent, if possible, the destruction of the bridge across the Rappahannock, near the Warrenton White Sulphur Springs. I threw a portion of the Twenty-eighth far in advance into an open field, as far as practicable, to act as sharpshooters, and kept the rest of my command sheltered behind a hill. We had only three wounded, although we were under a very heavy shelling all that day. The remaining regiments were also under fire a part of the time.

Manassas Junction, August 26TH.

We reached Manassas Junction the morning of the third day after the above shelling. The Eighteenth regiment was detached to guard the captured stores, and the rest of the brigade was halted not far from the depot, near an earthwork to the left. While resting and awaiting an issue of Yankee rations, the enemy were seen advancing upon our position in line of battle. General Branch immediately put his command in motion, and moved by the flank to the left of a battery planted near the earthwork. Our artillery opened upon them, soon put them to flight, and we pursued there rapidly, in a diagonal direction, across the field in rear of the hospital, and some distance beyond Bull Run, but never overtook the main body, as the Crenshaw battery advanced more rapidly than we did, and poured charge after charge of canister into their disordered ranks. We succeeded, however, in capturing a large number of prisoners.

Manassas Plains, August 28TH, 29TH, and 30TH.

Next day, after marching through Centreville and across Bull Run, on the Stone Bridge road, we were ordered from the road, to the right, into a piece of woods, fronting a large, open field, in which one of our batteries was planted. As soon as the engagement was opened on our right, General Archer's brigade, which was in front of us, moved from the woods into the field, up to and to the right of the battery, where it was halted. Our brigade also moved a short distance into the field in the same direction, when the enemy opened a left enfilade artillery fire upon us. General Branch then ordered the Twenty-eighth regiment to continue its march, and directed me to halt it in rear of General Archer, while he moved the rest of his command some distance to the left. The whole brigade, with no protection whatever, stood this artillery fire for several hours in the open field. The Eighteenth at one time was ordered to the support of General Ewell, and was marched down; but, as the enemy had been driven from the field, it was not put in. None of us were actively engaged that day, and about nightfall the whole command was moved into the woods, into the railroad cut, where we slept upon our arms. Next day we were marched