ached the last descent to the river-bottom at
Buffington Bar at 5.30 A.M. on the 19th. Here, halting my force,
and placing my artillery in a commanding position, I determined
to make a reconnaissance in person, for the purpose of
ascertaining if a report just made to me--that the gunboats had
left on a previous evening, the home guards had retreated, and
that the enemy had been crossing all night--was true. A very
dense fog enveloped everything, confining the view of surrounding
objects to a radius of about fifty yards. I was accompanied by a
small advance-guard, my escort, and one piece of Henshaw's
battery, a section of which, under Captain Henshaw, I had ordered
to join my force. I advanced slowly and cautiously along a road
leading toward the river, ... when my little force found itself
enveloped on three sides--front and both flanks--by three
regiments, dismounted, and led by Colonel Basil [W.] Duke, just
discernible through the fog, at a distance of from fifty to a
hundred yards. This force, as I afterward learned, had been
disposed for the capture of the home guards, intrenched on the
bank of the river. To use Colonel Duke's own expression after his
capture, "He could not have been more surprised at the presence
of my force if it had been dropped from the clouds." As soon as
discovered, the enemy opened a heavy fire, advancing so rapidly
that before the piece of artillery could be brought into battery
it was captured, as were also Captain R.C. Kise, my assistant
adjutant-general, Captain Grafton, volunteer aide-de-camp, and
between twenty and thirty of my men. Two privates were killed.
Major McCook (since dead), paymaster and volunteer
aide-de-camp,[8] Lieutenant F.G. Price, aide-de-camp, and ten men
were wounded. Searching in vain for an opening through which to
charge and temporarily beat back the enemy, I was compelled to
fall back upon the main body, which I rapidly brought up into
position, and opened a rapid and beautifully accurate artillery
fire from the pieces of the 5th Indiana upon a battery of two
pieces which the enemy had opened upon me, as well as upon his
deployed dismounted force in line. Obstructing fences prevented a
charge by my cavalry. In less than half an hour the enemy's lines
were broken and in retreat. The advan