Then comes the peerless chieftain, Lee, and he
orders the pursuing columns to halt. A line of hastily constructed
fieldworks arise. A shout--such a shout rolls from right to left
of Lee's lines. It has a meaning, and that meaning is that Grant's
advance is baffled! But the Federal commander is not to be shut off.
If he cannot advance one way, he will another. Hence, the parallel
lines are started--the farther he stretches to our right, we must
stretch also.

So now comes the affair at Brock's Road, on the 8th of May. 1864. As
before remarked, Grant commenced his attempt at a flank movement, by
means of an extension of his columns parallel to ours, hoping to meet
some opening through which he might pour a torrent of armed men. Early
in the morning of the 8th of May, 1864, we are aroused and begin our
march. Soon we see an old Virginia gentleman, bareheaded and without
his shoes, riding in haste towards us. He reports that our cavalry are
holding the enemy back on Brock's Road, but that the Federal infantry
are seen to be forming for the attack, and, of course, our cavalry
cannot stand such a pressure. General Kershaw orders us forward
in double-quick. Still we are not then. Then it was that a gallant
cavalryman rushes to us and said, "Run for our rail piles; the Federal
infantry will reach them first, if you don't run." Our men sprang
forward as if by magic. We occupy the rail piles in time to see a
column, a gallant column, moving towards us, about sixty yards away.
Fire, deadening fire, is poured into that column by our men. A gallant
Federal officer rides just in rear, directing the movement. "Pick that
officer off of his horse," is the command given to two or three of our
cool marksmen. He falls. The column staggers and then falls back. Once
more they come to time. We are better prepared for them.

Right here let me state a funny occurrence. Sim Price observed old
man John Duckett, in the excitement, shooting his rifle high over the
heads of the Yankees. This was too much for Sim Price, and he said,
"Good God, John Duckett, are you shooting at the moon?"

Here is the gallant J.E.B. Stuart, Lieutenant General, commanding the
cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, with hat off, waiving it in
an enthusiastic cheering of the gallant men of the old Third. Well he
may, for the line they held on that day was that adopted by General
Lee for the famous Spottsylvania battle.

Just prior to the battle of Spottsylvania Co