2)6

INCIDENTS OF THE FIRST BULL RUN.

their batteries when they unlimbered, j) But Heaton and Brockenbrough wereequal to the occasion. Heaton had been under my command with his batteryat the Point of Rocks, below Harper’s Ferry , the previous May, and was abrave and skillful young officer. Several other batteries soon came into line,so that by the time Griffin and Ricketts were in position near the Henryhouse, we had, as I now remember, 26 fresh guns ready for them.

The contest that ensued was terrific. Jackson ordered me to go from bat-tery to battery and see that the guns were properly aimed and the fuses cutthe right length. This was the work of but a few minutes. On returningto the left of the line of guns, I stopped to ask General Jackson’s permis-sion to rejoin my battery. The fight was just then hot enough to make himfeel well. His eyes fairly blazed. He had a way of throwing up his lefthand with the open palm toward the person he was addressing. And as hetold me to go, he made this gesture. The air was full of flying missiles, andas he spoke he jerked down his hand, and I saw that blood was streamingfrom it. I exclaimed, “ General, you are wounded.” He replied, as he drewa handkerchief from his breast-pocket, and began to bind it up, “Only ascratch — a mere scratch,” and galloped away along his line.

To save my horse, I had hitched him in a little gully some fifty yards ormore in the rear. And to reach him, I had to pass the six hundred infantryof Hampton’s Legion, who were lying down in supporting distance of ourartillery, then all in full play. While I was untying my horse, a shell explodedin the midst of Hampton’s infantry, killing several and stampeding 15 or 20nearest the spot. I tried to rally them; but one huge fellow, musket in hand,and with bayonet fixed, had started on a run. I threw myself in his frontwith drawn sword, and threatened to cut him down, whereupon he made alunge at me. I threw up my left arm to ward oft the blow, and the bayonet-point ran under the wristband of my red flannel shirt, and raked the skinof my arm from wrist to shoulder. The blow knocked me sprawling on theground, and the fellow got away. I tore off the dangling shirt-sleeve, andwas bare-armed as to my left, the remainder of the fight.

I overtook my battery on the hill near the Lewis house, which was used asa hospital. In a field in front I saw General Johnston and his staff groupedon their horses, and under fire from numerous shells that reached that hill. Irode up to him, reported our ammunition all gone, and requested to knowwhere I could find the ordnance wagons and get a fresh supply. Observingthe sorry plight of the battery and the condition of the surviving men andhorses, he directed me to remove them farther to the rear to a place ofperfect safety, and return myself to the field, where I might be of someservice.

I took the battery back perhaps a mile, where we found a welcome littlestream of water. Being greatly exhausted, I rested for perhaps an hour, andreturned to the front with Sergeant Joseph Shumate.

i Captain, afterward General, Pendleton had the Rockbridge Artillery. Captain Rogers, I alsorecently been made a colonel and chief of artillery learn, had a section somewhere lower down onto General Johnston, which separated him from Bull Run with the troops at the fords.— J. D. I.