378 REAR-GUARD FIGHTING DURING THE CHANGE OF BASE.
direction of the bridge, the severity of which I had never heard eqnaied inthe field. The wood through which I was riding seemed torn to pieces withround shot and exploding shells. But the danger was really greater fromfalling branches than from the shot, which did small damage.
It appears that Jackson, having left Savage’s Station early in the morning,arrived at the vicinity of White Oak Bridge about noon, without excitingsuspicion of his presence on our part, the whole movement being hidden bythe woods. Here, masked by the trees, he massed about thirty guns, whichopened simultaneously on the troops in the clearings, and on the rear part ofthe wagon train, which had not yet started from the clearing where it hadpassed the night. The troops immediately got under cover of the wood,except Caldwell’s brigade [Richardson’s division], which was guarding thebatteries. It remained in the open ground, and lost many men, but the effectof the firing was otherwise small, except on the wagon train, which wasthrown into some confusion, many of the wagons not being hitched up.These were at first abandoned by the drivers, but nearly all got away duringthe day. One field-piece was dismounted. The batteries were, however, soonin position to return the enemy’s fire, which they did with such effect thatmany of his guns were silenced. It was here that Captain Hazzard, alreadymentioned, was mortally wounded, ending a brilliant career with a gloriousdeath. Captain (afterward General) Romeyn B. Ayres, who commanded theartillery of Smith’s division, used his guns with excellent effect. One of theenemy’s batteries came into view near the bridge, but was forced to retirealmost immediately. The bombardment lasted with great severity for abouta half-hour, when it slackened and gradually fell off, opening again at inter-vals during the day, but never with its original vigor. A cavalry forcewhich was sent over by the enemy just after the bombardment had reachedits height was forced to retire much faster than it advanced.
The development of our defense of the crossing convinced General Jack-son that it would be impossible for him to force it. At any rate, he made noattempt during the day to cross his infantry, unless sending sharp-shootersacross to pick off our pickets may be so considered. The fight at White OakBridge was entirely with artillery, there being little musketry firing.
About 4 o’clock the enemy made a movement to our left, threateningBrackett’s Ford, where I knew we were very weak. This was met by Dana’sand Colonel Alfred Sully’s brigades of Sedgwick’s division, which were sentby General Sumner upon information of the danger. There was no furthermovement in that direction after these troops appeared, and they werereturned to General Sumner about 5 o’clock, in time to do good service atGlendale. Toward sundown, at the request of General Sumner, Caldwell’s andMeagher’s brigades of Richardson’s division were also sent to reenforce him.
No other movement was made by General Jackson’s force during the day.Our artillery fired at whatever could be seen on the other side, and wasanswered by theirs in what seemed a reluctant manner. When the bom-bardment began, the mules belonging to an engineer ponton-train were beingwatered at the swamp. The noise stampeded them, and they rushed to the