but replied as before, "Yes, sir.
But I ordered you to be here at sunrise, and I have been waiting for
you for a quarter of an hour."

"Seeing that he was in a peculiar mood, I determined to make the best
of my trouble, sent my adjutant back, and made him halt the
stragglers and form my men as they came up; and with what I had,
determined to give him no cause for complaint. When we came upon the
enemy's picket we charged, and pushed the picket every step of the
way into their camp, where there were a large number of wounded and
many stores. It was done so rapidly that the enemy's battery on the
other side of White Oak Swamp could not fire on us without
endangering their own friends.

"When Jackson came up he was smiling, and he at once (shortly after
noon) ordered Colonel Crutchfield to bring up the artillery, and very
soon the batteries were at work. After the lapse of about an hour my
regiment had assembled, and while our batteries were shelling those
of the enemy, Jackson sent for me and said, "Colonel, move your
regiment over the creek, and secure those guns. I will ride with you
to the Swamp." When we reached the crossing we found that the enemy
had torn up the bridge, and had thrown the timbers into the stream,
forming a tangled mass which seemed to prohibit a crossing. I said to
General Jackson that I did not think that we could cross. He looked
at me, waved his hand, and replied, "Yes, Colonel, try it." In we
went and floundered over, and before I formed the men, Jackson cried
out to me to move on at the guns. Colonel Breckenridge started out
with what we had over, and I soon got over the second squadron, and
moved up the hill. We reached the guns, but they had an infantry
support which gave us a volley; at the same time a battery on our
right, which we had not seen, opened on us, and back we had to come.
I moved down the Swamp about a quarter of a mile, and re-crossed with
great difficulty by a cow-path."* (* "Jackson himself," writes Dr.
McGuire, "accompanied by three or four members of his staff, of whom
I was one, followed the cavalry across the Swamp. The ford was miry
and deep, and impracticable for either artillery or infantry.")

The artillery did little better than the cavalry. The ground on the
north bank of the Swamp by no means favoured the action of the guns.
To the right of the road the slopes were clear and unobstructed, hut
the crest was within the forest; while to the left a thick pine wood