Robert Stiles, Four years under Marse Robert

[78] withdraw our pieces, and I met a line or mass of troops advancing to our support. Hearing some one call “Stiles!” I asked, “Who said ‘Stiles’ and who are you speaking to?” A voice answered, “I called Stiles,” and another, close beside me, said, “He's speaking to me. Stiles is my name. I'm Capt. Edward Stiles, of Savannah, Georgia.” I grasped his hand, unable to see him, and having only time to say, “Then I'm your cousin, Robert Stiles, of Richmond, Virginia. Look you up to-morrow.” Until that moment I did not know I had a relative in the Virginia army, knowing that some and supposing that all of my cousins were in the armies of the coast defense.

It was, of course, well understood by all of us that the Federal commander, having complete control of the navigable rivers, by virtue of his overwhelming naval power, could at any time turn either of our flanks or land a heavy force between us and Richmond, and that therefore our present line could not be a permanent one. We were not surprised, then, at receiving orders, about the 2d of May, to withdraw and march toward Richmond, which we did.

The enemy followed, but not vigorously. My recollection is that our company was the rear battery during the next day and that we several times unlimbered our pieces, but never fired a shot; so the evening of the 4th of May found us on the Richmond side of Williamsburg, hitched up and ready to fall in behind our brigade. We heard firing in the rear, but thought little of it until a mounted officer rode up with orders from competent authority to bring up as rapidly as possible the first battery he could find ready hitched up, and so we passed rapidly back through Williamsburg, and became at once hotly engaged, doing good service, as we also did the next day. Indeed our action the first evening might, without much strain, be termed “distinguished.” The enemy, under a heavy fire from our battery and another, abandoned a three-inch rifled gun and a caisson of ammunition, and the general at whose orders we had entered the fight calling for volunteers to bring them into our lines, our boys volunteered and brought them off the field, using the captured gun with fine effect the following day.