Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 27.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

The citations from official reports given above show that Custer's and Devine's divisions of Federal cavalry were present and engaged, and other forces were near by, if not participating. General Pendleton's report, written soon after the surrender, states his personal knowledge of the almost defenceless condition of that column of artillery, and his statement emphasizes the absence of infantry. Custer's assertion, on the other hand, of two divisions of infantry, is necessarily only his estimate of the force that repulsed his first attacks. It is an estimate only more amazing, as coming from an experienced officer, than the fact of his failure to capture everything before him. Perhaps the estimate is the explanation of the failure. His assertion, however, is contradicted by the knowledge and recollection, so far as known, of every Confederate soldier on that field. From all information now obtainable, there were less than four hundred muskets and cavalry defending that train; and the cavalry, the remnants of Gary's brigade, did not arrive on the field till the guns were being withdrawn, having galloped up from the rear on hearing the firing.

The last shot was fired, and it is believed that the second piece was the last gun, of all that escaped, to get away from that perilous field. The piece had not gone a hundred yards when it stalled in a ditch, from which the broken-down team, aided by frantic tugging of cannoneers at the wheels, could not drag it, until a fence rail was found to prize out the wheels. Bullets were flying thick, and between the piece and the enemy was only that thin line of men, who were keeping them back. By hard work the piece was started and joined the others in the road, all four guns saved. And then began a night march, the memory of which is like a confused dream. Forward and on, but whither and to what fate.

It is impossible now to give the impressions, pure and simple, or the recollections of that night, untinged with the subsequent knowledge of what the morrow had in store for us. Forward and on, walking sometimes in sleep, holding on to tail of gun or wagon, as is the belief and assertion of some, who believe they remember the fact. Tired out drivers urged on poor, jaded beasts, ready to drop with fatigue, hunger and thirst, but seemingly kept up to their work by sharing the feeling that those guns must be saved, while conscious of danger threatening from the rear, that might at any moment materialize in shots and sabre strokes of charging squadrons.