BY JOHN L. COLLINS, 8TH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
the afternoon of May 2d, 18G3, the 8th^ Pennsylvania Cavalry were ordered to dis-^ount, slack saddle-girths, and rest in the vicinity. General Hooker’s headquarters at Chancellors-^ le - Some of the men fell asleep holding theirhorsey some "began talking of the battle, while anot of officers, who always improved such occa-Sl011s in this way, sat down to their favorite gamePoker. Suddenly an order from headquartersnjade a complete change in the scene. At the^ord “Mount! ” the sleepers as well as the talkerssprang t 0 their saddles, the gamblers snatched upbeir stakes and their cards, and a regiment ofcavalry took the place of a lounging crowd.Passing to the left of the Chancellorsville House,crossed our line of battle at the edge of a wooda hd came up with a recoimoitering party that hadcaptured the 23d Georgia. We had heard that66 Was retreating, and supposed that this un-° l ’tunate regiment had been sacrificed to give the1 ” aau hody a chance to escape; but while we werecommiserating the poor fellows, one of them de-antly s a id, “ You may think you have done al fJ thing just now, but wait till Jackson getsl '°und on your right.”
**6 laughed at his harmless bravado, for we, u not think he would betray Jackson ’s move had6 known anything about it; but while we werevet trying to get through the thick wood the roar, . niusketry and artillery on our right confirmed. ls s Peech. We now came back at a gallop towardPoint between the place where we were rest-£ and the place where the battle was raging.s We node into an elevated clearing, calledai!e l Grove , the regiment (the Sth Pennsylvania)brought into line. We surmised a disasterkt ^ ^o^ously braced ourselves for the ordeal, not’lowing whether we were to make an attack orthere to receive one.
the roar of musketry was now heavier andarer; the vast woods between us and Dowdall’savern seemed to shake with it. There was no„ 6 to ask or to wonder what had happened, forrilv ’^imont was ordered off! at a gallop. After' n g about three hundred yards we turned into a^airo w roa d that promised to take us into the midsttli e enemy. Half a dozen horsemen in cadetag y most likely a general’s staff reconnoitering,ah no * r ^ e ™ ran ^ s — were in the road
ea d of u S an d turned and fled back to theiru Pes.
Ip^J- 6 Wor ^ “Charge!” was now passed from the°Ur s T uac lron, mid sabers flew into the air alonginti 1116 ’ but «one too soon, for we were already'p] le ’ e midst of the foe, and they were ready for us.
Unfortunate squadron that led caught all thetod aS We dashed alougtlie narrow lane, and we whonext it got only the smoke from the enemy’sSee ' cou id reach nothing as yet, and couldWilling hut fire and smoke, for tlioir line of6 Was safely posted behind a thicket that lined
the left of the road, while their rifles were aimedthrough it.
It was a long lane and a hot lane to go through;hut the lane had a turn, and we got to it at lastwhen we reached the Plank road and struckRodes’s division right in the front. We struck it asa wave strikes a stately ship: the ship is staggered,maybe thrown on her beam ends, hut the wave isdashed into spray, and the ship sails on as before.
Major Keeuan, who led his battalion in thecharge, the captain in command of the leadingsquadron, the adjutant, and a few score of theirfollowers went down at this shock together. Thedetail sent over to recover their bodies after thebattle said that the major had thirteen bullets inhis body, the adjutant nine, and others fewer. Itwas reported by some who rode close upon themajor that in falling he shouted, “To the right!”seeing that the impenetrable masses on his leftcould not he forced, and that there was no wayout hut over the thinner lines on the right. Whenturning at full speed, my horse was killed and Iwas pitched over his neck on the roadside. HereI parted company witli the regiment. When Ijumped to my feet I had time to take only oneglance at my surroundings, My sole thought wasto escape capture or death. On one side werethe heavy lines of Confederate infantry doubledand bent by the charge, their officers trying torecover their alignment; on the other side the sur-vivors of the leading squadrons were galloping inthe Plank road, the others breaking over the Con-federate skirmish lines as far hack as I could seeinto the woods.
By instinct I turned toward the woods on theright of the Plank road as the best way out, andmade a dash at the lines, which had just recoveredfrom their surprise that a cavalry regiment shouldhave ridden over them, and were firing after it.They were loading when I ran out between them,and when they began to fire I dropped down be-hind some trees that had been cut to make anabatis, or had been shot down by the cannon;when the volley was over I jumped up and ranas fast as before.
The Plank road, and the woods that borderedit, presented a scene of terror and confusion suchas I had never seen before. Men and animalswere dashing against one another in wild dismaybefore the line of fire that came crackling andcrashing after them. The constantly approachingrattle of musketry, the crash of the shells throughthe trees, seemed to come from three sides uponthe broken fragments of the Eleventh Corps thatcrowded each other on the road. The horses ofthe men of my regiment who had been shot,mingled with the pack-mules that carried the am-munition of the Eleventh Corps, tore like wildbeasts through the woods. I tried in vain to catchone.
This employment of the mules for ammunition
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