us a visit, having ridden from Lexington to see
his three sons. After having gotten ourselves comfortable, orders came
to pack up and be ready to move. I had carried in my knapsack a pair of
lady's shoes captured from Banks's plunder at Winchester. These I gave
to a camp scavenger who came from the town for plunder.

Little did we dream of the marching and fighting that were in store for
us. Jackson, having vanquished three armies in the Valley, was now
ordered to Richmond with his "bloody brigades."

We left Staunton about the twentieth of June, crossed the Blue Ridge at
Rockfish Gap, passed through Charlottesville, and were choked, day after
day, by the red dust of the Piedmont region. In Louisa County we had
rain and mud to contend with, thence through the low, flat lands of
Hanover, bearing to the left after passing Ashland.

Our destination was now evident. The army around Richmond was waiting
for Jackson to dislodge McClellan from the Chickahominy swamps, and our
attack was to be made on his right flank. It seems that our powers of
endurance had been over-estimated or the distance miscalculated, as the
initiatory battle at Mechanicsville was fought by A. P. Hill without
Jackson's aid. This was the first of the seven days' fighting around
Richmond. We arrived in the neighborhood of Cold Harbor about two P. M.
on June 27, and approached more and more nearly the preliminary
cannonading, most of which was done by the enemy's guns. About three
o'clock the musketry began, and soon thereafter the infantry of our
brigade was halted in the road alongside of us, and, loading their guns,
moved forward.

[Illustration: JOHN M. BROWN

(War-time portrait)]

In a short time the fighting became furious, done almost entirely on our
side with small arms, as few positions could be found for artillery. For
two or three hours the noise of the battle remained almost stationary,
accentuated at intervals by the shouting of the combatants, as ground
was lost or won. It was here that General Lee said to General Jackson,
"That fire is very heavy! Do you think your men can stand it?" The reply
was, "They can stand almost anything; they can stand that!" We stood
expecting every moment to be ordered in, as every effort was made by our
officers to find a piece of open ground on which we could unlimber. By
sundown the firing had gradually lessened and was farther from us, and
when night came on the enemy had been driven from their fortific