A BIT OF PARTISAN SERVICE.
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he ans-w er was, “ We have a dispatch for General°ughton.” An officer (Lieutenant Prentiss) camee the front door to get it. I caught hold of his, . t and whispered my name in his ear, and toldta to lead me to the general’s room. Resistancea ® Useless, and he did so. A light was struck,
. before us lay the sleeping general. He quicklyra «ed himself in bed and asked what this meant. Isaul ; “General, get up — dress quick — you are aWteoner.” “ What! ” exclaimed the indignant gen-ai. “ jjy name j s M os ijy ■ Stuart’s cavalry are inPossession of this place, and General Jackson holds^entreville.” “Is Fitz Lee here ?” “Yes.” “Theno me to him; we were classmates.” “Very11 > but dress quick.” Two of my men assistedor to put on jjjg e i 0 tlies. My motive in deceivingm in regard to the amount of my force was toprive him of all hope of rescue. I was in a mostical situation, for in addition to several thousand0o Ps in the surrounding camps, a considerableIf n> bei " Were Quartered in the houses in the village.^ here had been the least concert among themy could easily have driven us out; but, although6 remained there an hour, not a shot was fired;t r - S , 00u as our presence became known each mane d to save himself. Stoughton did not delay a®ent, for he had no idea how few of us thereho r6 ’ ^ ccra pl e of men had been left to hold our
(j Ses while we were in the house. One of these,eorge Whitescarver, surrounded and captured aho. s r x men sleeping in a tent. Stoughton’ssacOi S S ^ 00< I the door as we came out, withst' 6S an< ^ bridles on. Lieutenant Prentisscon so °u parted company with us. We
coi t DOt See w ^ iei ' e b 0 went. When I got to theIp^'yhrd I found all my different squads col-there with their prisoners and spoils. No°ut resistance had been shown. The prisonersW Umbered us three or four to one, and eachstartT^ autl lea< t iu S a horse. The cavalcadeteudd ^ an direction from where we in-
go- etl 1° go, in order to deceive our pursuers. Afterthe ? a hundred yards we turned and flanked^eavahy camp, and struck the pike to Centreville.\v ere ° U ®kton soon discovered how few of us theretap. " * u °t allow him to hold his bridle-reins,h 6g i? a ^ e , them to one of my men (Hunter), who rodeth; n 6 dm. Stoughton remarked, “ This is a boldhave done; but you will certainly behap g > our cavalry will soon be after you.” “Per-c 0u i d So ’” t said. It was so dark that the bluethe n distinguished from the gray. Hence
hrm d j. 1S ,° ners a ll thought there were at least onegot v 6< * °t us. We lost many of them before wecolajQ 6 ^ 011 ^ the lines. They were all formed in a8 om e t°urs, and after we got on the pike I rodeStoo i ^ ls tanee in the roar while Hunter, withtr° t f i ’ was I ea diug in front. We went at al^o Q d the chances of our escape were improving.ue seemed to be on our track, as our winding
about had baffled pursuit. It never entered thehead of any one that I would march up the pike inthe face of two or three thousand troops at Centre-ville. When within a mile of that place, and justabout the break of day, we came upon a camp-firewhich had evidently just been deserted. A pickethad been posted there on the evening before to stayduring the night. The officer, thinking it unneces-sary to remain longer, had gone into camp. As wehad taken the precaution to cut the telegraph wires,no news had yet reached Centreville of our workat the Court House. When I saw the picket-fire onthe pike I halted the column and galloped forwardto reconnoiter. Seeing that no one was there,I called to Hunter to come on. It was necessaryto make a circuit around Centreville, and to passbetween encampments of Union troops on bothsides of it. I was certain to be lost if I went eithertoo far to the left or the right. Just as we turnedoff from the pike Captain Barker made a desperateattempt to escape. He darted from the line, butmy Hungarian Jake was at his heels, and sent aharmless shot after him just as his horse fell in aditch. I rode up to him and inquired if he washurt. He said “No,” and Jake assisted him tomount. No one else cared to repeat the experi-ment. We passed within a few hundred yards of theforts, and could see the guns pointing through theembrasures and hear the challenge of the sentinelsas they walked on the parapets. My heart began tobeat with joy. The odds were now rapidly getting inmy favor. We were soon on the other side of Centre-ville. Although we could be plainly seen from there,it was probably supposed that we were a scout-ing party of Federal cavalry. When we got to CubRun, it was so swollen by the melting snows thatit could not be forded. We were still within easycannon-shot of the guns on the heights, and therewas no time to be lost. I acted on the maxim ofplucking the flower safety from the nettle danger',and plunging into the brimming stream swam over.The rest followed, Stoughton being next to me.The first thing he said as he shivered with cold was,“ This is the first rough treatment I have received.”I knew that no cavalry would ever swim after me.Leaving Hunter to come on with my men and pris-oners, I galloped on ahead with George Slater andonce more got on the pike at Groveton. This wasthe very spot where, the year before, Fitz John Por-ter had made his disastrous assault on Jackson.From this hill I had a view of the pike seven milesback to Centreville. No enemy was in pursuit. Iwas safe. Just then Hunter appeared and the sunrose. It seemed to me that it never shone withsuch splendor before. I turned over my prisonersto Stuart at Culpeper Court House. He was asmuch delighted by what I had done as I was, andpublished a general order announcing it to thecavalry, in which he said that it was “a feat un-paralleled in the war.”