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A remarkable shot.
That was the most remarkable shot I witnessed or heard of during the war, and I have never yet been able to understand how it could pass between two sets of fours (the usual formation of cavalry) and across the front of three troopers on the left, and nearest and toward the battery, and strike only Clarence, who was on the right of his set of fours and farthest from the battery.
I would state that these four guns were on our left flank, in plain view, not more than 300 yards distant. Finding that they had the range on us, we were hastily withdrawn and did not make the charge.
On the next day, the 28th, we marched to the
White House and captured that place and a number of prisoners, and destroyed the supplies there collected-hundreds, it seemed to me thousands, of barrels of eggs, and boxes of sardines almost beyond computation—and rejoined the army, as I have before stated, about the time of the
battle of Malvern Hill.
And now let us return, if you please, to the field of
Manassas, which, after supplying ourselves with all we could carry away, we left late in the afternoon of the 27th of August, 1862.
Jackson's troops remained in the place that night and destroyed all the stores (and they were immense) which they could not use. We crossed
Bull Run and advanced towards
Fairfax and
Centreville, but before reaching those places our company, which was familiar with that section of the country—having passed a large part of the previous year there—was detached from the line of march and ordered to proceed to the railroad, about a mile distant, and destroy a bridge, and thereby delay the progress of the troops who were hastening from
Washington to
Manassas.
We found the bridge very easily, and drove off the forty or fifty men guarding it, and captured some prisoners, but the enemy were speedily reinforced, and in turn drove us off, and we could not accomplish the object of the expedition.
We had one man badly wounded, the late
N. M. Wilson, well known in this city, and we were compelled to leave him on the field in the hands of the enemy.
Among the prisoners we captured was a physician, whom we released on condition that he would attend to our wounded comrade, and as an instance of the duplicity of these people, as
General Lee was wont to call them, but who were commonly and popularly known among us at that time as ‘those Yankees,’ but who, I am happy to observe, are now greeted and welcomed everywhere as our dear
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friends and well-beloved brothers, we learned afterwards that this doctor paid no attention whatever to
Sergeant Wilson.
Fortunately he found friends among our own people who had known him when we were among them the previous year, who took care of him and nursed him back to health and strength.
