L. P. Brockett, The camp, the battlefield, and the hospital: or, lights and shadows of the great rebellion

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[70] make up an outfit for her assumed character, she wended her way to the rebel camp, five or six miles distant, and having ascertained what she could of the position and intentions of the rebels, and the location of the batteries they had concealed along the route of the approach of the Union army, she sought Major McKee, but was obliged to wait till five P. M. before she could see him. He was very much affected at the intelligence of Captain Hall's death, and offered to reward her, but she would accept no reward. He then requested her to guide a detachment of his men to the place where the captain had died. As she was really unable to walk that distance, at her request he furnished her with a horse to ride. The lone house was on debatable ground, and there was reason to fear that the Union troops might fall upon them while engaged in this humane work; but they reached the place in safety and found the body, and the commander of the detachment requesting her to ride down the road and see if there were any Yankees in sight, she complied with his request very willingly, and became so much interested in her search that she did not draw rein till she arrived in the Union camp, when she reported her discoveries, and prevented the army from falling into the traps set for them. The horse thus taken from the enemy, though spirited, proved a vicious brute, and with its teeth and heels came near costing her her life. At the battle of Fair Oaks, she acted as orderly to General Kearny, and twice swam the Chickahominy to hurry forward reinforcements for the sorely pressed Union troops. In the retreat across the Peninsula, she was again repeatedly under fire, while serving as orderly or on detached duty with the wounded; and