Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[804] at last placed Prince on the right road, he alters once more his plans and orders him to the right against Halford's brigade, which is at the head of the enemy's column. Meade is informed of these new dispositions, and imperatively orders French again to come to Robertson's Tavern, and if the enemy bar the way to at least push forward his left as far as the turnpike. The hours pass away, however: the Third corps, motionless, closes the road to the Sixth, and the whole right is paralyzed at the moment when the success of the movement depends on its prompt execution.

French receives Meade's orders about two o'clock, and, refusing to obey, pushes Prince forward in the direction of Bartlett's Mill, and confines himself to deploying Carr's division on the left of the road in the glade, as if he could in that manner reach the road, from which he is separated by more than three miles. Prince, while leaving his battery in the glade, engages the enemy in the thicket. But French's remissness has given Johnson time to be prepared. When, about three o'clock, Prince becomes seriously engaged with Halford, he finds him supported by the remainder of the enemy's division, and after a bloody struggle he is thrown back to the glade. Carr is engaged in his turn. But Johnson, by a vigorous assault against his left, causes the retirement of Smith's brigade, deployed on a too extended front in the vain hope of joining the Second corps. The two other brigades, short of ammunition, are about to follow his example, and the remainder of the column, squeezed between the two hills, cannot rescue the troops so seriously engaged. Fortunately, Birney has been able to deploy his men, taking Carr's place, and with a few guns stops the enemy. Johnson has attained his end in having prevented the Federals from completing their movement. This murderous combat has cost him more than five hundred men; the Union losses are about seven hundred killed and wounded. Night finds the combatants face to face. French allows himself to be overtaken by it in a position which he has not known how to leave; darkness renders all movements of the troops impossible in the midst of the labyrinth of the forest. On the 27th the right column has not been able to travel over the seven miles which separate Jacobs' Ford from Robertson's Tavern. This deplorable result, which Meade in his report attributes