e was no check to the charge. The squadrons kept on in good form.
Every man yelled at the top of his voice until the regiment had gone,
perhaps, five or six hundred yards straight towards the confederate
batteries, when the head of column was deflected to the left, making a
quarter turn, and the regiment was hurled headlong against a
post-and-rail fence that ran obliquely in front of the Rummel buildings.
This proved for the time an impassable barrier. The squadrons coming up
successively at a charge, rushed pell mell on each other and were thrown
into a state of indescribable confusion, though the rear troops, without
order or orders, formed left and right front into line along the fence,
and pluckily began firing across it into the faces of the confederates
who, when they saw the impetuous onset of the Seventh thus abruptly
checked, rallied and began to collect in swarms upon the opposite side.
Some of the officers leaped from their saddles and called upon the men
to assist in making an opening. Among these were Colonel George G.
Briggs, then adjutant, and Captain H.N. Moore. The task was a difficult
and hazardous one, the posts and rails being so firmly united that it
could be accomplished only by lifting the posts, which were deeply set,
and removing several lengths at once. This was finally done, however,
though the regiment was exposed not only to a fire from the force in
front, but to a flanking fire from a strong skirmish line along a fence
to the right and running nearly at right angles with the one through
which it was trying to pass.

While this was going on, Briggs's horse was shot and he found himself on
foot, with three confederate prisoners on his hands. With these he
started to the rear, having no remount. Before he could reach a place of
safety, the rush of charging squadrons from either side had intercepted
his retreat. In the melee that followed, two of his men ran away, the
other undertook the duty of escorting his captor back to the confederate
lines. The experiment cost him his life, but the plucky adjutant,
although he did not "run away," lived to fight again on many "another
day."

In the meantime, through the passage-way thus effected, the Seventh
moved forward, the center squadron leading, and resumed the charge. The
confederates once more fell back before it. The charge was continued
across a plowed field to the front and right, up to and past Rummel's,
to a point within 200 or 300 yards of t