ed at Bermuda Hundred and
passing out took the advance of Butler's Army, being at the time the only
cavalry he had. The first day out we came to the Richmond and Petersburg
turnpike and turning to the right on said pike started "on to Richmond,"
but as the road approached Drewry's Bluff we were fired on by both
infantry and artillery and forced back with loss. Halting and feeding at
the Howlett House, a fine mansion on a high bluff overlooking the James,
where the Confederates afterward erected a strong battery to hold back our
Navy from ascending the river. In the afternoon we started out again on
the same road with orders to break the Richmond & Petersburg R. R., which
ran parallel with the pike; beyond the pike, when we crossed, we left
three companies to guard and hold the crossing which was in a low swamp
and heavily wooded ground. The remainder of the force passed through the
swamp up a steep hill, and when we were fairly on top of the hill there
came a crashing volley of musketry down behind us at the crossing, and
looking down to the pike we saw the fragments of those three companies
drift down the pike toward Petersburg like dry leaves before an autumn
gale. A brigade of Confederate infantry was concealed in that swamp, who,
letting us pass, thinking they had us cut off and securely bagged, had
then simply risen and fired a volley at close range into these three
companies. This volley killed Lieutenant Mains and killed and wounded a
good many of the men. When we heard the volley, Lieutenant Vandervoort,
commanding the howitzers, tore down the fence, running his guns out into
an open field on the brow of the hill, opened fire on the confederate
infantry: but the Colonel did not think our position was just what he
desired, as we now had the confederate infantry behind us and we knew the
confederate cavalry was guarding the R. R. in front of us. These we went
out expecting to fight but were not reckoning on the infantry, so we
started on toward the R. R., seeking another road to return to our own
lines and soon found one into which we turned at a gallop. Just as we did
so the Confederate Cavalry, whose curiosity had been excited by the
firing, and had come down the road to meet us, poured a volley into us,
the bullets rattling on the wooden fence at the turn of the road like
hail. This did not retard our speed and we came back into our infantry
lines in such a cloud of dust that they sprang into line to meet us. The