the
rescue. The infantry encampment was about two miles north of Walton, and
this by-road comes into the pike about one thousand yards from the site
of the encampment, and between it and Walton.

The column was accordingly put in motion again at daybreak, and marched
rapidly. Just at sunrise we reached the Georgetown and Covington pike,
and saw standing, in sight of the point where we would enter, ten
cavalry pickets. The column was at once halted, and arrangements made to
capture them. They had not yet seen us. A brief reconnoisance showed an
infantry regiment on post, some three hundred yards further down the
road. There was now no hope of passing this point without discovery by
the main body, and it only remained to make the most out of the
situation.

Lieutenant Messick, of Company A, was sent with ten men to take in the
cavalry videttes, and Lieutenant Roberts, commanding the advance-guard,
was sent with a portion of it to try the same game with the infantry. He
went right into the midst of it. The column was moved forward at a
gallop, as soon as the pickets were disturbed, and turned in the
direction of Walton; the rear company, however, being carried at full
speed to the assistance of Lieutenant Roberts. One of the howitzers
which had been brought along, was planted at the point where we entered
the pike, to cover our retreat, if it were pressed. When I reached the
little squad of Lieutenant Roberts with the company which I took to
assist it, I found it, or rather a fragment of it, in a situation which
perhaps was never paralleled daring the war.

Lieutenant Roberts was still further down the road, and toward the
encampment, with a portion of the detachment, picking up stragglers.
Sergeant Will Hays stood with six men in the midst of a company of
sixty-nine Federal infantry. The infantry seemed sullen and bewildered,
and stood with their rifles cocked and at a ready. Hays had his rifle
at the head of the Lieutenant commanding, demanding that he should order
his men to surrender, and threatening to blow his brains out if he
encouraged them to resist. Hays' six men were grouped around him, ready
to shoot down any man who should raise a gun against him. I thought it
the finest sight I had ever seen. The arrival of the company decided the
infantry to surrender, and the caps and bayonets having been taken off
of their guns, they were sent off, guarded by the men which had been
brought up to complete their capture.