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[138]
in part by a rise of ground.
After the action had lasted about twenty minutes the firing of the enemy ceased, as did that of the Battery.
Then the infantry rose, and pouring in a volley, charged with a ringing cheer into the woods; but the Rebels had retreated before them, and the fight was ended.
Our foe was said to be a body of Stuart's Cavalry, variously estimated at from five hundred to two thousand in number.1 Now came another new chapter in our experience.
Wounded men hobbled to the rear or were carried thither, and a few, half an hour since in the full enjoyment of a vigorous manhood, lay pale in death.
Our two wounded were taken to the ambulance train to be cared for. Private Hooper underwent the amputation of his arm. Sergt. Woodfin never rejoined the Company.
He gradually recovered from his wound, and March 10, 1864, was promoted to a second and afterwards a first lieutenancy in the Sixteenth Massachusetts Battery.
For the commendable behavior of the Battery on this occasion, mention was made of it in the following General Order of the division commander:—
1 Lossing gives the latter figures in his ‘Civil War in America.’ On what authority, I am unable to state. The following is undoubtedly a good synopsis of the affair:
‘My division had a little fight at Auburn before we reached Greenwich. Two brigades of cavalry under Stuart attacked the head of my column. The fight lasted about thirty minutes, and resulted in a retreat of the enemy, leaving their dead and wounded. I lost about fifty in killed and wounded from my leading brigade. Stuart was cut off by this repulse at Auburn and bivouacked that night to our right within our army.’—Gen. Birney: Testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, Vol. I., 1865.
The Arakelyan press, Boston, 1909.
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