"AGATE'S" STORY CONTINUED.
THE BATTLE OF SUNDAY, APRIL 6TH--THE UNION TROOPS SURPRISED--AN
ARMY IN DISORDER--SHERMAN'S HEROIC EFFORT TO STEM THE TIDE--
McCLERNAND'S SHARE IN THE BATTLE--THE REBELS PRESSING THEIR
ADVANTAGE--THE ASSAULT ON SHERMAN'S LEFT--MEN TOO BRAVE TO BE
KILLED--DESPERATE POSITION OF THE UNION ARMY--LOOKING TO THE
GUNBOATS FOR AID--THREE DESPERATE CHARGES REPULSED--DEATH OF
GENERAL WALLACE.
"Agate" continues the story of the great battle of Sunday, April 6th,
as follows:
Almost at dawn, Prentiss's pickets were driven in; a very little later
Hildebrand's (in Sherman's Division) were; and the enemy were in the
camps almost as soon as were the pickets themselves.
Here began scenes which, let us hope, will have no parallel in our
remaining annals of the war. Some, particularly among our officers,
were not yet out of bed. Others were dressing, others washing, others
cooking, a few eating their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded,
accoutrements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied--in short,
the camps were virtually surprised--disgracefully, it might be added,
unless someone can hereafter give some yet undiscovered reason to the
contrary--and were taken at almost every possible disadvantage.
The first wild cries from the pickets rushing in, and the few
scattering shots that preceded their arrival, aroused the regiments
to a sense of their peril; an instant afterward shells were hurling
through the tents, while, before there was time for thought of
preparation, there came rushing through the woods with lines of battle
sweeping the whole fronts of the division-camps, and bending down on
either flank, the fine, dashing, compact columns of the enemy.
Into the just-aroused camps thronged the Rebel regiments, firing sharp
volleys as they came, and springing toward our laggards with the
bayonet. Some were shot down as they were running, without weapons,
hatless, coatless, toward the river. The searching bullets found other
poor unfortunates in their tents, and there, all unheeding now, they
still slumbered, while the unseen foe rushed on. Others fell, as they
were disentangling themselves from the flaps that formed the doors to
their tents; others as they were buckling on their accoutrements; a
few, it was even said, as they were vainly trying to impress on the
cruelly exultant enemy their readiness to surrender.
Officers were wounded in their beds, and left for dead, who, through
the whole two days' fearful struggle, lay there gasping in their agony,
and on Monday evening were found in their gore, inside their tents, and
still able to tell the tale.
Such were the fearful disasters that opened the Rebel onset on the
lines of Prentiss's Division. Similar were the fates of Hildebrand's
Brigade in Sherman's Division.
Meantime, what they could our shattered regiments did. Falling rapidly
back through the heavy woods till they gained a protecting ridge,
firing as they ran, and making what resistance men thus situated might,
Sherman's men succeeded in partially checking the rush of the enemy,
long enough to form their hasty line of battle. Meantime the other two
brigades of the division (to the right) sprang hastily to their arms,
and had barely done so when the enemy's lines came sweeping up against
their fronts too, and the battle thus opened fiercely along Sherman's
whole line on the right.
Hildebrand's Brigade had been compelled to abandon their camps without
a struggle. Some of the regiments, it is even said, ran without firing
a gun. Colonel Appler's Fifty-third Ohio, is loudly complained of on
this score, and others are mentioned. It is certain that parts of
regiments, both here and in other divisions, ran disgracefully. Yet
they were not wholly without excuse. They were raw troops, just from
the usual idleness of our "camps of instruction;" hundreds of them had
never heard a gun fired in anger; their officers, for the most part,
were equally inexperienced; they had been reposing in fancied security,
and were awakened, perhaps from sweet dreams of home and wives and
children, by the stunning roar of cannon in their very midst, and the
bursting of bomb-shells among their tents--to see only the serried
columns of the magnificent Rebel advance, and through the blinding,
stifling smoke, the hasty retreat of comrades and supports, right and
left. Certainly, it is sad enough, but hardly surprising, that under
such circumstances, some should run. Half as much caused the wild panic
at Bull Run, for which the nation, as one man, became a loud-mouthed
apologist.
But they ran--here as in Prentiss's Division, of which last more in a
moment--and the enemy did not fail to profit by the wild disorder. As
Hildebrand's Brigade fell back, McClernand threw forward his left to
support it. Meanwhile Sherman was doing his best to rally his troops.
Dashing along the lines, encouraging them everywhere by his presence,
and exposing his own life with the same freedom with which he demanded
their offer of theirs, he did much to save the division from utter
destruction. Buckland and McDowell held their ground fiercely for a
time. At last they were compelled to retire their brigades from their
camps across the little ravine behind; but here again they made a
gallant defence, while what was left of Hildebrand's was falling back
in such order as it might, and leaving McClernand's left to take their
place, and check the wave of Rebel advance.
Prentiss was faring scarcely so well. Most of his troops stood their
ground, to be formed into line, but strangely enough, the line was
drawn up in an open space, leaving to the enemy the cover of the dense
scrub-oak in front, from which they could pour in their volleys in
comparative safety.
The men held their position with an obstinacy that adds new laurels to
the character of the American soldiers, but it was too late. Down on
either flank came the overwhelming enemy. Fiercely pushed in front,
with a wall of bayonets closing in on either side, like the contracting
iron chamber of the Inquisition, what could they do but what they did?
Speedily their resistance became less obstinate, more and more rapidly
they fell back, less and less frequent became their returning volleys.
The enemy pushed their advantage. They were already within our lines;
they had driven one division from all its camps, and nearly opened,
as they supposed, the way to the river. Just here--between 9 and 10
o'clock--McArthur's Brigade of W. H. L. Wallace's Division came up to
give some assistance to Stuart's Brigade of Sherman's Division on the
extreme left, now in imminent danger of being cut off by Prentiss's
defection. McArthur mistook the way, marched too far to the right,
and so, instead of reaching Stuart, came in on the other side of the
Rebels, now closely pushing Prentiss. His men at once opened vigorously
on the enemy, and for a time they seemed likely still to save our
imperilled division. But coming unawares, as they seem to have done,
upon the enemy, their positions were not well chosen, and all had to
fall back together.
General Prentiss seems here to have become separated from a large
portion of his command. The division fell into confusion; fragments of
brigades and regiments continued the fight, but there was no longer
concert of action or continuity of lines of defence. Most of the troops
drifted back behind the new lines that were being formed; many, as they
continued an isolated struggle, were surrounded and taken prisoners.
Practically, by 10 o'clock the division was gone. General Prentiss and
the few troops that surrounded him maintained a detached position some
hours longer, till they were completely cut off and surrounded; and the
Rebels signalized their success by marching three regiments, with a
division general, as prisoners, to their rear.
By 10 o'clock, however, this entire division was virtually _hors du
combat_. A deep gap in our front line was made, the Rebels had nearly
pierced through, and were only held back by McArthur's Brigade and
the rest of W. H. L. Wallace's Division, which hurried over to its
assistance.
For the present, let us leave them there. They held the line from this
time until four.
We left Sherman's Brigade maintaining a confused fight, Hildebrand's
about gone, Buckland's and McDowell's holding their ground more
tenaciously. The firing aroused McClernand's Division. At first they
supposed it to be a mere skirmish; perhaps even only the irregular
discharge of muskets by guards and pickets, to clean out their guns--a
practice which, to the disgrace of our discipline be it said, was well
nigh universal--and rendered it almost impossible at any time to know
whether firing meant anything at all, beyond ordinary disorder of our
own soldiers. But the continued rattle of musketry soon undeceived
them, and almost as soon the advance of the Rebels, pouring after
Hildebrand, was upon them.
The division, it will be remembered, lay a short distance in the rear,
and with one brigade stretching out to the left of Sherman's line.
Properly speaking, merely from the location of the camp, McClernand did
not belong to the front line at all. Two-thirds of his division were
entirely behind Sherman. But as the latter fell back, McClernand had to
bear the shock of battle.
His division was composed as follows: First Brigade, Colonel Hare
commanding, Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois, Eleventh and Thirteenth
Iowa; Second Brigade, Colonel C. C. Marsh commanding, Eleventh,
Twentieth, Forty-eighth and Forty-fifth Illinois, Colonels Ransom,
Marsh, Haynie and Smith (the latter is the "lead mine regiment");
Third Brigade, Colonel Raith commanding, Seventeenth, Twenty-ninth and
Forty-ninth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonels Wood, Farrell and Pease,
and Forty-third Illinois, Colonel Marsh. Besides this fine show of
experienced troops, they had Schwartz's, Dresser's, McAllister's and
Waterhouse's Batteries.
As already stated, McClernand was first called into action shortly
after the surprise of Sherman's left Brigade (Hildebrand's)--about
7 in the morning--by having to move up his left brigade to support
Sherman's retreating left, and preserve the line. Then, as Sherman's
other brigades fell back, McClernand's moved up and engaged the enemy
in support. Gradually the resistance in Buckland's Brigade and what
was still left to its right of Hildebrand's, became more confused
and irresolute. The line wavered, the men fell back in squads and
companies, they failed to rally promptly at the call of their officers.
As they retreated, the woods behind them became thinner, and there was
less protection from the storm of grape that swept as if on blasts of
a hurricane among the trees. Lieutenant-Colonel Canfield, commanding
the Seventy-second Ohio, was mortally wounded and borne dying from
the field. Colonel Sullivan, of the Forty-eighth Ohio, was wounded,
but continued at the head of his men. Company officers fell and were
carried away from their men.
At one of our wavering retreats, the Rebels, by a sudden dash forward,
had taken part of Waterhouse's Battery, which McClernand had sent
them over. Behr's Battery, too, was taken, and Taylor's Chicago Light
Artillery was so terribly pounded as to be forced to retire with heavy
loss. As the troops gave way, they came out from the open woods into
old fields, completely raked by the enemy's fire. For them all was
lost, and away went Buckland's and Hildebrand's Brigades, Ohioans and
Illinoisans together, to the rear and right, in such order as they
might.
McDowell's Brigade had fallen back less slowly than its two companions
of the same division, but it was now left entirely alone. It had formed
our extreme right, and, of course, had no support there; its supporting
brigades on the left had gone; through the space they had occupied the
Rebels were pouring; they were in imminent danger of being entirely
cut off, and back they fell, too, still farther to the right and rear,
among the ravines that border Snake Creek.
And here, so far as Sunday's fight is concerned, the greater part
of Sherman's Division passes out of view. The General himself was
indefatigable in collecting and reorganizing his men, and a straggling
contest was doubtless kept up along portions of his new lines, but
with little weight in inclining the scales of battle. The General bore
with him one token of the danger to which he had exposed himself, a
musket-ball through the hand. It was the common expression of all that
his escape so lightly was wonderful. Whatever may be his faults or
neglects, none can accuse him of a lack of gallantry and energy when
the attack was made on his raw division that memorable Sunday morning.
To return to McClernand's Division: I have spoken of his sending up
first, his left, and then his centre brigade, to support Sherman,
shortly after the surprise. As Sherman fell back, McClernand was
compelled to bring in his brigades again to protect his left against
the onset of the Rebels, who, seeing how he had weakened himself there,
and inspired by their recent success over Prentiss, hurled themselves
against him with tremendous force. To avoid bringing back these troops,
a couple of new regiments, the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa, were
brought up, but taking utterly raw troops on the field, under heavy
fire, was too severe a trial for them, and they gave way in confusion.
To meet the attack, then the whole division made a change of front,
and faced along the Corinth road. Here the batteries were placed in
position, and till 10 o'clock the Rebels were foiled in every attempt
to gain the road.
But Sherman having now fallen back, there was nothing to prevent
the Rebels from coming in, farther out on the road, and turning
McClernand's right. Prompt to seize the advantage, a brigade of them
went dashing audaciously through the division's abandoned camp, pushing
up the road to come in above McClernand, between him and where Sherman
had been. Dresser's Battery of rifled guns opened on them as they
passed, and with fearful slaughter--not confined, alas! to one side
only--drove them back.
But the enemy's reserves were most skillfully handled, and the constant
advance of fresh regiments was, at last too much for our inferior
numbers. Major Eaton, commanding the Eighteenth Illinois, was killed;
Colonel Haynie was severely wounded; Colonel Raith, commanding a
brigade, had his leg so shattered that amputation was necessary; Major
Nevins, of the Eleventh Illinois, was wounded; Lieutenant-Colonel
Ransom of the same regiment was wounded; three of General McClernand's
staff, Major Schwartz, Major Stewart and Lieutenant Freeman, were
wounded and carried from the field. Line officers had suffered
heavily. The batteries were broken up. Schwartz had lost half his guns
and sixteen horse. Dresser had lost several of his rifled pieces,
three caissons and eighteen horses. McAllister had lost half his
twenty-four-pound howitzers.
The soldiers fought bravely to the last--let no man question that--but
they were at a fearful disadvantage. Gradually they began falling back,
more slowly than had Prentiss's regiments, or part of Sherman's, making
more determined, because better organized, resistance, occasionally
rallying and repulsing the enemy in turn for a hundred yards, then
being beaten back again, and renewing the retreat to some new position
for fresh defence.
By 11 o'clock the division was back in a line with Hurlbut's. It still
did some gallant fighting; once its right swept around and drove the
enemy for a considerable distance, but again fell back, and at the last
it brought up near the position of W. H. L. Wallace's camps.
We have seen how Prentiss, Sherman, McClernand were driven back; how,
fight as fiercely as they would, they still lost ground; how their
camps were all in the hands of the enemy; and how this whole front
line, for which Hurlbut and Wallace were but the reserves, was gone.
But the fortunes of the isolated brigade of Sherman's Division, on the
extreme left, must not be forgotten. It was doubly let alone by the
Generals. General Grant did not arrive on the field till after nearly
all these disasters had crowded upon us, and each Division General
had done that which was good in his own eyes, and carried on the
battle independent of the rest; but this brigade was even left by its
Division General, who was four miles away, doing his best to rally his
panic-stricken regiments there.
It was Commanded by Colonel David Stuart, (of late Chicago divorce-case
fame, and ex-Congressman,) and was composed of the Fifty-fifth
Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Malmbourg, commanding; Seventy-first Ohio,
Colonel Rodney Mason; the Fifty-fourth Ohio, (Zouaves,) Colonel T. K.
Smith. It was posted along the circuitous road from Pittsburgh Landing,
up the river to Hamburgh, some two miles from the Landing, and near
the crossing of Lick Creek, the bluffs on the opposite side of which
commanded the position, and stretching on down to join Prentiss's
Division on its right. In selecting the grounds for the encampment
of our army, it seems to have been forgotten that from Corinth an
excellent road led direct to Hamburgh, a few miles above this left wing
of our forces. Within a few days, the oversight had indeed been
discovered, and the determination had been expressed to land Buell's
forces at Hamburgh, when they arrived, and thus make all safe. It was
unfortunate, of course, that Beauregard and Johnston did not wait for
us to perfect our pleasing arrangements.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT GENERAL SHERIDAN.]
When the Rebels marched out from Corinth, a couple of brigades (rumored
to be under the command of Breckinridge) had taken this road, and thus
easily, and without molestation reached the bluffs of Lick Creek,
commanding Stuart's position.
During the attack on Prentiss, Stuart's Brigade was formed
along the road, the left resting near the Lick Creek Ford, the
right, Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel Rodney Mason, (late Assistant
Adjutant-General of Ohio, and Colonel of the Second Ohio at Manassas,)
being nearest Prentiss. The first intimation they had of disaster to
their right was the partial cessation of firing. An instant afterward
muskets were seen glinting among the leaves, and presently a Rebel
column emerged from a bend in the road, with banners flying and moving
at double-quick down the road toward them. Their supports to the left
were further off than the Rebels, and it was at once seen that, with
but one piece of artillery a single regiment could do nothing there.
They accordingly fell rapidly back toward the ford, and were re-formed
in an orchard near the other regiments.
The Rebel column veered on further to the right, in search of
Prentiss's flying troops, and for a brief space, though utterly
isolated, they were unmolested.
Before ten, however, the brigade, which had still stood listening to
the surging roar of battle on the left, was startled by the screaming
of a shell that came directly over their heads. In an instant the
batteries of the Rebel force that had gained the commanding bluffs
opposite, by approaching on the Corinth and Hamburgh road, were in
full play, and the orchards and open fields in which they were posted
(looking only for attack in the opposite direction) were swept with the
exploding shells and hail-storm rush of grape.
Under cover of this fire from the bluffs, the Rebels rushed down,
crossed the ford, and in a moment were seen forming this side of the
creek, in open fields also, and within close musket range. Their
color-bearers stepped defiantly to the front, as the engagement
opened furiously, the Rebels pouring in sharp, quick volleys of
musketry, and their batteries above continuing to support them
with a destructive fire. Our sharpshooters wanted to pick off the
audacious Rebel color-bearers, but Colonel Stuart interposed: "No, no,
they're too brave fellows to be killed." Almost at the first fire,
Lieutenant-Colonel Barton S. Kyle, of the Seventy-first, was shot
through the breast. The brigade stood for scarcely ten minutes, when it
became evident that its position was untenable, and they fell rapidly
back, perhaps a quarter of a mile, to the next ridge; a few of his men,
at great personal risk, carrying Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, in a dying
condition, from the field they were abandoning. Ohio lost no braver,
truer man that day.
As they reached the next woody ridge, Rebel cavalry, that had crossed
the creek lower down, were seen coming up on their left; and to
resist this new attack the line of battle was formed, fronting in
that direction. For three quarters of an hour the brigade stood here.
The cavalry, finding its purpose foiled, did not come within range.
In front they were hard pressed, and the Rebels, who had followed
Prentiss, began to come in on their right. Colonel Stuart had sent
across to Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, then not engaged, for
support. Brigadier-General McArthur's Brigade was promptly started
across, but mistaking the way, and bearing too much on the right, it
speedily found itself in the midst of the Rebel forces, that had poured
in after Prentiss. General McArthur could thus render Stuart's Brigade
no assistance, but he vigorously engaged the Rebels to his front and
flanks, fell back to a good position, and held these troops in bay
till the rest of his division came up to his aid. General McArthur was
himself disabled by a wound in the foot, but he rode into a hospital,
had it dressed, and returned to the brigade, which meantime sturdily
held its position.
But this brought Stuart's isolated brigade little help. They were soon
forced to fall back to another ridge, then to another, and finally,
about 12 o'clock, badly shattered and disordered, they retreated to
the right and rear, falling in behind General McArthur's Brigade to
reorganize. Colonel Stuart was himself wounded by a ball through
his right shoulder, and the loss of field and company-officers was
sufficient to greatly discourage the troops.
This clears our entire front line of divisions. The enemy has full
possession of all Sherman's, Prentiss's, and McClernand's camps. By 10
o'clock our whole front, except Stuart's Brigade, had given way, and
the burden of the fight was resting on Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace.
Before 12 Stuart, too, had come back, and for the time absolutely only
those two divisions stood between our army and destruction or surrender.
Still all was not lost. Hurlbut and Wallace began making a most gallant
stand; and meantime most of the troops from the three driven divisions
were still to some extent available. Many of them had wandered down
the river--some as far as Crump's Landing, and some even to Savannah.
These were brought back again on transports. Lines of guards were
extended to prevent skulkers from getting back to the Landing, and
especially to stop the shrewd dodge among the cravans of taking six
or eight able-bodied soldiers to assist some slightly-wounded fellow
into the hospital; and between this cordon and the rear of the fighting
divisions the fragments of regiments were reorganized after a fashion,
and sent back to the field. Brigades could not be got together again,
much less divisions, but the regiments pieced together from the loose
squads that could be gathered and officered, often by men who could
find scarcely a soldier of their own commands, were hurried to the
front, and many of them did good service.
It was fortunate for us that the accidental circumstance that
Prentiss's portion of our lines had been completely broken sooner than
any of the rest, had caused the enemy's onset to veer chiefly to our
left. There we were tolerably safe; and at worst, if the Rebels drove
us to the river on the left flank, the gunboats would come into play.
Our weakest point was the right, and to turning this the Rebels do not
seem to have paid so much attention on Sunday.
According to general understanding, in the event of an attack at
Pittsburgh Landing, Major-General Lew. Wallace was to come in on our
right and flank the Rebels by marching across from Crump's Landing
below. Yet strangely enough, Wallace, though with his division all
drawn up and ready to march anywhere at a moment's notice, was not
ordered to Pittsburgh Landing till nearly if not quite 12 o'clock. Then
through misdirection as to the way to come in on the flank, four miles
of marching were lost, and the circuitous route made it twelve miles
more, before they could reach the scene of battle. Meantime our right
was almost wholly unprotected. Fortunately, as I said, however, the
Rebels do not seem to have discovered the full extent of this weakness,
and their heaviest fighting was done on the centre and left, where we
still preserved our line.
Hurlbut's Division, it will be remembered, stretched across the Corinth
road, facing rather to our left. W. H. L. Wallace's other brigades had
gone over to assist McArthur, and the division, thus reunited, steadily
closed the line, where Prentiss's Division and Stuart's Brigade, in
their retreat, had left it open. To Hurlbut's right the lines were
patched out with the reorganized regiments that had been resent to the
field. McClernand and Sherman were both there.
Hurlbut had been encamped in the edge nearest the river, of a stretch
of open fields, backed with heavy timber. Among his troops were the
Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky, Forty-fourth and Thirty-first
Indiana, constituting Lauman's Brigade; Third Iowa, Forty-first
Illinois and some others, forming Colonel Williams' Brigade.
As Prentiss fell back, Hurlbut's left aided Wallace in sustaining
the Rebel onset, and when McClernand gave way, the remainder of the
division was thrown forward. The position beyond the camp, however, was
not a good one, and the division was compelled to fall back through
its camp to the thick woods behind. Here, with open fields before
them, they could rake the Rebel approach. Nobly did they now stand
their ground. From 10 to half-past 3 they held the enemy in check, and
through nearly that whole time were actively engaged. Hurlbut himself
displayed the most daring and brilliant gallantry, and his example,
with that of the brave officers under him, nerved the men to the
sternest endurance.
Three times during those long hours the heavy Rebel masses on the left
charged upon the division, and three times were they repulsed, with
terrible slaughter. Close, sharp, continuous musketry, whole lines
belching fire on the Rebels as the leaden storm swept the fields over
which they attempted to advance, were too much for Rebel discipline,
though the bodies left scattered over the fields, even on Monday
evening, bore ghastly testimony to the daring with which they had been
precipitated toward our lines.
But there is still much in the Napoleonic theory that Providence has a
tendency at least to go with the heaviest battalions. The battalions
were against us. The Rebel generals, too, handled their forces with a
skill that extorted admiration in the midst of our suffering. Repulse
was nothing to them. A rush on our lines failed; they took their
disordered troops to the rear, and sent up fresh troops, who, unknowing
the fearful reception awaiting them, were ready to try it again. The
jaded division was compelled to yield, and after six hours' magnificent
fighting, it fell back out of sight of its camps, and to a point within
half a mile of the Landing.
Let us turn to the fate of Hurlbut's companion division--that of
Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, which included the Second and
Seventh Iowa, Ninth and Twenty-eighth Illinois, and several of the
other regiments composing Major-General Smith's old division; with also
three excellent batteries, Stone's, Richardson's and Weber's (all from
Missouri), forming an artillery battalion, under the general management
of Major Cavender.
Here, too, the fight began about ten o'clock, as already described.
From that time until four in the afternoon they manfully bore up. The
musketry fire was absolutely continuous; there was scarcely a moment
that some part of the line was not pouring in it rattling volleys,
and the artillery was admirably served, with but little intermission
through the entire time.
Once or twice the infantry advanced, attempting to drive the
continually increasing enemy, but though they could hold what they had,
their numbers were not equal to the task of conquering any more.
Four separate times the Rebels attempted to turn to charge on them.
Each time the infantry poured in its quickest volleys, the artillery
redoubled its exertions, and the Rebels retreated with heavy slaughter.
The division was eager to remain, even when Hurlbut fell back, and the
fine fellows with the guns were particularly indignant at not being
permitted to pound away. But their supports were gone on either side;
to have remained in isolated advance would have been madness. Just as
the necessity for retreating was becoming apparent, General Wallace,
whose cool, collected bravery had commanded the admiration of all, was
mortally wounded, and borne away from the field. At last the division
fell back. Its soldiers claim--justly, I believe--the proud distinction
of being the last to yield, in the general break of our lines, that
gloomy Sunday afternoon, which, at half past four o'clock, had left
most of our army within half a mile of the Landing, with the Rebels up
to a thousand yards of their position.
Captain Stone could not resist the temptation of stopping, as he passed
what had been Hurlbut's headquarters, to try a few parting shots. He
did fine execution, but narrowly escaped losing some guns, by having
his wheel horses shot down. Captain Walker did lose a twenty pounder
through some breakage in the carriage. It was recovered again on
Monday.