ve been destroyed or
captured had he not succeeded in hiding it in a thicket of old
field-pines, close by the road whereon our men marched by: the rear of
the corps encamping close beside the enemy, utterly unsuspicious of
their neighborhood, though every word uttered in our lines, as they
passed, was distinctly heard by the lurking foe. Stuart at first
resolved to abandon his guns and attempt to escape with moderate loss,
but finally picked three of his men, gave them muskets, made them up so
as to look as much as possible like our soldiers, and thus drop silently
into our ranks as they passed, march awhile, then slip out on the other
side of the column, and make all haste to General Lee, at Warrenton, in
quest of help. During the night two of our officers, who stepped into
the thicket, were quietly captured.

"At daylight the crack of skirmishers' muskets in the distance gave
token that Lee had received and responded to the prayer for help, when
Stuart promptly opened with grape and canister on the rear of our
astounded column, which had bivouacked just in his front, throwing it
into such confusion that he easily dashed by and rejoined his chief,
having inflicted some loss and suffered little or none."

BATTLE OF BRISTOE.

The above manoeuvre was a great and unexpected or unsought risk,
which, however, did not prove disastrous to the authors, but which might
not again be ventured with similar results. A performance resembling it
somewhat was enacted by the Rebels, but with very different issue. Early
in the morning of the fourteenth A. P. Hill's corps left Warrenton, with
orders to strike our rear at Bristoe Station. They moved up the
Alexandria Turnpike to Broad Run Church, where they deflected on the
road to Greenwich, and soon after struck our trail just behind the
Third Corps, and eagerly pursued it. They were busy picking up
stragglers and making some preparation for an attack upon our
unsuspecting corps, when about noon General Warren's Second Corps, which
was still behind, and bringing up the rear, made its appearance on the
tapis, and materially changed the programme of the scene. Hill, finding
himself nicely sandwiched or trapped by his own indiscretion, turned
away from the retreating Third Corps, to fight, and, if possible, drive
back the advancing Second. Warren's surprise in finding an enemy in
force before him was not less than Hill's in finding one behind him; but
it took Warren only about ten minu