THE TIME OF LONGSTREET’S ARRIVAL AT GROVETON.

“TV M. Perry, sergeant in Company E, 76th New• York (of Doubleday’s brigade, King’s division,McDowell’s corps), wrote to the editors in 1886 tosay that he was wounded in the attack made on theflank of King’s division as it was passing Jackson’sfront on the evening of August 28th, was left onthe field, was taken prisoner, hobbled off the nextmorning, and again fell into the hands of theenemy, Hood’s men, of Longstreet’s corps. By aningenious device he managed to retain possessionof his watch. He says :

“I awoke at 7 a. m., August 29tli, by tlie WarrentonPike, near Douglass’s woods. A few yards away, underthe trees, were several wounded comrades. ... Imade use of a broken musket as a crutch, and was wellon my way to the shelter of the trees, when some onecalled out: ‘Throw down that gun.’ It was not untilthe order had been repeated that I was aware it wasaddressed to me. Looking round, I saw a companyof the enemy’s cavalry approaching. I dropped the gun,and they rode up and claimed us as prisoners.

“A few of the Confederates remained with us nearlytwo hours, and were then compelled to retire beforeSchenck’s skirmishers, who passed through the woods,and remained west of us, possibly thirty minutes, whenthey in turn retired whence they came, followed by thoseof the enemy, with whom they exchanged a few shots.The enemy’s skirmishers passed down the pike andthrough the field south of it, followed by the 2d Missis-sippi , of Hood’s division, which halted a few yards eastof us. The enemy now began to arrive in force, andoccupied the woods. Hood’s troops remained here fromll a. m. until nearly sundown, when they went forwardand engaged our troops under Hatch south-east ofGroveton.

“This action between Hood and Hatch at sunset,August 29th, was fought east, rather than west of Grove-ton, as laid down on the map [p. 473], which wouldhave been only a few yards from us, and within full view.The battle took place, I should think, at least a mile eastof Douglass’s woods. Participants in that action, whovisited the field with me in October, 1883, were positiveregarding the locality of the fight.

“My recollection of the time of Hood’s arrival is con-curred in by fellow-prisoners with whom I have recentlycorresponded. They say,‘10 a. m., and the woods werefull of the enemy’s troops at 11 o’clock.’

“ General Lee’s headquarters during the 29th and 30tliwere on the elevation between Pageland lane andMeadowville lane [see p. 473], a few hundred yardswest of us. When he moved on the 31st, the bandstopped and played ‘Dixie ’ for us in good old Southernstyle.”

William R. Houghton, attorney-at-law, of Hayne-ville, Alabama , writes to the editors as follows :

“ I belonged to Toombs’s brigade of D. R. Jones’s di-vision, and we were ready to march from the easternetid of Thoroughfare Gap at daylight on the morning ofthe 29th of August, but other troops filing past occupiedthe road, so that we did not move until a little after sun-rise. We moved at a quick pace, without halting, untilwe filed to the right of the road near Groveton. Myrecollection of the distance we marched is that it waseight or nine miles. At the time of our arrival some ofLongstreet’s troops who had preceded us were formedin two lines fronting toward Centreville, while Jones’sdivision was deployed, facing more toward ManassasStation . I do not know the exact time of our arrival,but it could not have been later than 11 o’clock. Myrecollection is that it was earlier than the hour named,and that Jones’s whole division, in addition to the twolines of men who had preceded us, was in position onvery favorable ground before 11 o’clock in the day, and

between Porter’s corps and Jackson’s right flank. Be-fore Porter could have attacked Jackson’s right, it wouldhave been necessary for him to remove or disperse thisforce, which must have been much larger than —if notdouble—his own. I volunteered for skirmish duty, andwe remained in this position all the remainder of thatday, and until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the30th of August, at which time we advanced against theenemy, whose line was then at the Chinn house. I feelperfectly assured that we—that is, D. R. Jones’s divisionof several thousand men—were in front of Porter all theday, 29th of August, and that General Pope is utterlymistaken when he says we were not.”

General E. M. Law, then colonel of tlie 4th Ala-bama Regiment, commanding Whiting’s brigadeof Hood’s division, has written as follows in thePhiladelphia “Weekly Press ”:

“ The true story of the forcing of Thoroughfare Gaphas never been fully told. Bare allusions were madein some of the official reports to the fact that Hood’s di-vision was sent over the mountain by a trail north ofthe pass, and I have seen it stated that Hood wasguided by a wood-chopper, who was familiar with themountain. The facts are these: My brigade wasleading the division when it reached the mountain.There I met General Hood, coming from the direc-tion of the gap. He informed me that it was heldon the other side in strong force by the enemy, and thatJones’s division was unable to force it. He was accom-panied by a man living in the vicinity, who, he said,would guide me by a trail across the mountain, a shortdistance above the gap. His own brigade was to followmine. The head of my column w T as at once turned to theleft, and, striking a slight trail, commenced the ascent.Iliad not gone half-way up the side of the mountainwhen my guide either missed the trail or it ran out. Atany rate, he seemed to know as little as I did, and toldme he could guide me no farther. Letting him go, Imoved on through the tangled woods and huge rocksuntil the crest was reached. Here we were confrontedby a natural wall of rock, which seemed impassable.Men were sent out on both sides to search for some open-ing through which we might pass, and a crevice was soonfound several feet above our level, where the men couldget through one at a time, the first one being lifted up bythose behind, and each man as he got up lending a help-ing hand to the next. As I stood on the crest and heardtlie fighting in the gap below and the distant thunderingof Jackson’s battle at Manassas , I felt that the soundof each gun was a call for help, and the progress of themen, one by one, across the rocky barrier seemed pain-fully slow. In fact, they got through in an almost in-credibly abort time. As soon as the leading regiment wasover, a skirmish line was pushed down the mountain,which on this side sloped gently, and presented few ob-stacles except a small ravine and stream which issuedfrom the gap itself. The Federal batteries at the mouthof the gap soon came in sight. They were firing steadilybut leisurely, and seemed as if they were there to stay.My whole brigade were soon over, the skirmishers in themeantime pressing forward upon the flank of the bat-teries, which were less than half a mile off. As theyemerged into the open ground at the foot of the mount-ain aud engaged the Federal skirmishers on the ravinealready mentioned, there was a commotion among thebatteries, which limbered up and rapidly moved off.

“ It was now nearly dark. My skirmishers were press-ing steadily forward, followed by the main line, when Ireceived an order from a staff-officer of General Hooddirecting me to return at once to the gap by the way Ihad come — that the enemy was retiring. This wasplain enough, but of what had caused him to retire Hoodwas at that time entirely ignorant. I remonstratedagainst the order, hut was told that it was peremptory.I therefore had no choice hut to move back, and march