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

[622] accordingly to move by the flank, putting myself upon the leading flank. During this movement I heard a very considerable musketry fire; but as the woods were very thick, and it was raining very hard at the time, I could see a very short distance, and took it for granted that the firing proceeded from the troops in front of me. On reaching the position General Starke wished me to occupy, I found that three of my regiments, the Thirteenth, Twenty-fifth, and Thirty-first Virginia regiments, had not followed the rest of the brigade, and I immediately sent my Aid, Lieutenant Early, to see what was the cause of it. He found these regiments engaged with the enemy in their front, Hays's brigade, under Colonel Strong, of the Sixth Louisiana regiment, having fallen back in confusion, and passed through these regiments, followed by the enemy, just as my orders were being carried out. This affair could not be seen by me from the flank on which I was, and the regiments engaged in it were very properly detained by the commanding officers. I immediately marched back the rest of the brigade, and found that the enemy had been successfully repulsed by my three regiments. It is due to Hays's brigade to state that the confusion into which it was thrown was caused by an attempt of the officer in command, Colonel Strong, to change its position when the enemy were advancing, and that his want of sufficient skill in the command of a brigade caused him to get it confused, so that it could present no front, and it had, therefore, to fall back. The Eighth Louisiana regiment, commanded by Major Lewis, fell back in better order than the rest of the brigade, and formed in line immediately in rear of my regiments. The rest of the brigade was soon rallied and brought back, and having been placed under my command by General Lawton, it was placed in line on the left of my brigade, General Jackson's division, under General Starke, having been withdrawn a short time after the above-named affair, and moved to the rear. Hays's brigade and my own thus covered the same front that had been covered by Jackson's division and that brigade, with, however, a contracted line.

About the time Hays's brigade fell back, Captain Brown, of the Twelfth Georgia, commanding Trimble's brigade, was killed, and one or two regiments of it were thrown into some confusion; but the brigade held its position. Lawton's brigade was not engaged, and I am unable to give the particulars of the part taken by Trimble's brigade. After the enemy had retired, Trimble's brigade having been withdrawn back to the line occupied by the division, the whole lay on their arms during the night in the wet woods without fires. The next day my brigade was advanced to the front, and formed in line a quarter of a mile in front of its position of the day before — Hays being posted on the left flank, at right angles to it. The rest of the division remained in its former position, and Colonel Walker, of the Thirteenth Virginia regiment, was assigned to the command of Trimble's brigade.

On the morning of the third, the division, with the rest of the troops, was moved to the. left, crossing the Loudon and Hampshire Railroad at a station above Vienna, and then passing through Dranesville in the direction of Leesburg, and encamped on a creek not far from Dranesville. On the next day it passed through Leesburg, and camped near a large spring.

On the next day, (the fifth,) it took up the line of march to White's Ford on the Potomac, at which place it crossed into Maryland, camping some three or four miles from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and on the morning of the sixth, it marched to the railroad bridge over the Monocacy, at the junction of the railroad to Frederick city with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and took up a position so as to command the approaches on and adjacent to the railroad, from the direction of Washington city. In this position it remained until the morning of the tenth of September.

march from Frederick City to Harper's Ferry, and capture of that place.

On the morning of the tenth, the division, with the rest of the troops, moved from the vicinity of Frederick city westward, passing through Middletown, and bivouacked about ten miles from Frederick. On the next day we moved through Boonesboroa, and took the direction of Williamsport, at which point we recrossed the Potomac, and proceeded to the North Mountain depot, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, near which we bivouacked. On the next day we proceeded to Martinsburg, and passed through the town in the direction of Harper's Ferry, and bivouacked on the banks of the Opequan.

On the following morning, (the thirteenth,) we marched toward Harper's Ferry, and proceeded to the turnpike road, one mile above Halltown, where we encamped.

Late in the afternoon of the fourteenth, (Sunday,) we were ordered to advance toward Harper's Ferry in three columns, one along the road and another on each side of it.

After passing Halltown, the division advanced to the woods on School-House Hill, in line in the following order: Lawton and Trimble's brigades were formed in line of battle on the right of the turnpike, Hays's brigade on the left of it, and my own brigade in rear of Lawton's; and in this manner the whole advanced to the woods without opposition, thus getting possession of this hill, which fronted Bolivar Heights, and was in easy range for artillery. My brigade was then moved across the road by flank, and placed immediately in rear of Hays's brigade, which General Lawton put under my command. The several brigades lay on their arms in this wood during the night, it having become dark by the time they reached it. During the night, Brown's and Dement's batteries, which had been attached to my brigade at Frederick in lieu of Johnson's, which was transferred to Trimble's, were carried across the Shenandoah, under direction of Colonel Crutchfield, to some heights on the east side of the