[554]
the Blue Ridge, and I moved next day to Bunker Hill, and then through Winchester on the 22d to the Opequan on the Front Royal road; but, in consequence of instructions from General Ewell, I turned off to the main Valley road from Cedarville the next day, and marching by the way of Strasburg, New Market, Fisher's or Milam's Gap, Madison C. H., Locust Grove and Rapidan Station, I reached my present camp near Clark's Mountain, in the vicinity of Orange C. H., on the 1st of this month.
The Fifty-Fourth N. C. regiment and Fifty-Eighth Virginia regiment rejoined their brigades near Hagerstown on the march back, after having participated in the repulse of the enemy's cavalry attack on our trains near Williamsport on the 6th of July, and the Thirteenth Virginia regiment rejoined its brigade on our passage through Winchester.
The conduct of my troops during the entire campaign, on the march as well as in action, was deserving of the highest commendation.1 To Brigadier Generals Hays and Gordon I was especially indebted for their cheerful, active and intelligent cooperations on all occasions, and their gallantry in action was eminently conspicuous.
I had to regret the absence of the gallant Brigadier--General Hoke, who was severely wounded in the action of the 4th of May at Fredericksburg and had not recovered; but his place was worthily filled by Colonel Avery of the Sixth N. C., regiment, who fell mortally wounded while gallantly leading his brigade in the charge on Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg on the 2d of July.
In his death the Confederacy lost a good and brave soldier.
The conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Jones and his artillery battalion on all occasions, as well as that of Brown's battalion under Captain Dance at Winchester, was admirable.
My commendations are also due to Colonel French and Lieutenant-Colonel White and their respective cavalry commands for the efficient services performed by them.
To the members of my staff, Major S. Hale, Division-Inspector, Major J. W. Daniel, Assistant Adjutant-General, Lieutenants A. L. Pitzer and Wm. G. Calloway, my aides, and Mr. Robert D. Early, a volunteer aide, I was indebted for the active zeal, energy and courage with which they performed their duties.
This text is part of:
1 Smith's brigade had not gone into action under my immediate command, but on the 3d at Gettysburg his three regiments present had gone into action under General Johnson's command on his extreme left when he attacked the enemy's right flank on that day. They acted with their usual gallantry, and the Forty-Ninth Virginia regiment sustained a very heavy loss — heavier perhaps then that of any other regiment in my division. The loss of this brigade is included in that of the division mentioned in the report.
Richmond, VA. 1882.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.