d halted.
Our fire continuing, Colonel Pattee rode up to us, excitedly, to learn
what it meant. Adjutant Wright explained that rebel skirmishers were
still firing at us.

"Have this firing stopped at once," he said; and seeing a protest in
Wright's face, he went on: "I tell you, you're excited, adjutant, and
the men are excited. They've surrendered, and this must cease."

"Excited!" was the reply. "If they want to surrender, let _them_ cease
firing."

At this moment a bullet whizzed past the colonel's head, and killed a
cavalry man on the bank beyond him. He rode off to the right, and left
us to manage it to suit ourselves. In a little while the firing from
both sides ceased. The Army of the Potomac had accomplished its
mission. We had fought our last battle. The One Hundred and Ninetieth
and One Hundred and Ninety-first had proved themselves, to the last
hour, worthy successors of the Pennsylvania Reserves.

The preceding narrative will be better understood by a fuller statement
of the part taken by the entire regiment in the engagement. The original
intention was for Colonel Pattee to connect the right of his command
with the First Division and the left with the command of General Ord. On
reaching the front, he discovered that the cavalry were hard pressed,
and would soon be dislodged from the woods, which would have to be
regained at great disadvantage, and perhaps serious loss. He, therefore,
ordered the regiment forward to their relief. Advancing rapidly, they
relieved the cavalry and engaged the enemy before the troops on either
flank were in position. Colonel Pattee now found his skirmish line
confronting heavy lines of battle, and back of these, on the ridge near
the village, in position to sweep all the open ground in front, Lee's
artillery was massed. He at once thinned the exposed center and right of
his line, strengthened the left, and charged boldly forward upon the
enemy, throwing his left around upon their flank. Meantime the right
pressed rapidly on, and engaged the rebel infantry in the open ground,
and, later, the artillery on the ridge. Their infantry was routed, and
driven back over the ridge, where their officers tried in vain to rally
and lead them forward. Their artillery resisted with desperation until
their commander was killed. By this time many of their horses had been
shot, and they tried to drag the guns away by hand. But now the left of
the regiment, under Colonel Pattee, came charging