d to the left of our line, and on the way
thither joined Raines's battery, of Lynchburg, and a battery of
Louisianians--eleven guns in all. Besides the ordinary number of guns
accompanying infantry, we had to contend with about thirty 32-pounders
on the high ground in the rear and entirely commanding that part of the
field. In view of the superior odds against us, our orders were to hold
our positions as long as possible, then to move to our left and occupy
new ones. Why such instructions were given was soon explained, as the
ground over which we passed, and where we stopped to fire, was strewn
with the dead horses and the wrecks of guns and caissons of the
batteries which had preceded us. By the practice thus afforded, the
Federal batteries had gotten a perfect range, and by the time our guns
were unlimbered we were enveloped in the smoke and dust of bursting
shells, and the air was alive with flying iron. At most of the positions
we occupied on this move it was the exception when splinters and pieces
of broken rails were not flying from the fences which stood in our
front, hurled by shot and shell.

Working in the lead of one of the Louisiana battery teams was a horse
that frequently attracted my admiration. A rich blood-bay in color, with
flowing black mane and tail, as he swept around in the various changes
with wide, glowing nostrils and flecked with foam, in my eyes he came
well up to the description of the warhorse whose "neck was clothed with
thunder."

Moving as we had been doing, toward the left of our line, we passed
beyond that portion held by regular infantry commands into what was
defended by a mere show of force when scarcely any existed. In charge of
it was Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, who demonstrated on this occasion his
ability to accomplish what it would seem impossible for one man to do.
With a few skeleton regiments supplied with numerous flags which he
posted to show over the crests of the ridges in our rear, as if there
were men in proportion, he himself took command of a line of
sharpshooters in our front. This skirmish-line was composed of
stragglers he had gathered up, and whom he had transformed from a lot of
shirkers into a band of heroes. With black plume floating, cheering and
singing, back and forth along the line he swept.

The Federals confronting us in the three blue lines could not have been
less than 8,000 men, who, with their powerful artillery, should have
utterly overwhelmed the scant