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Dulany, now Colonel of the Seventh cavalry, was in command of the rear-guard; was approached by the Yankee cavalry, it was dark, and when challenged, they replied, “Ashby's cavalry.”
Having been previously informed that General Ashby had one company out, he allowed them to approach very near, and suddenly they fired a volley and charged him; the Sixth cavalry were surprised, and dashed through the Second, who were sleeping, and relying upon the Sixth to guard the rear, as we had alternated each day with that regiment.
Colonel Dulany was badly shot in the leg, and several of his men were captured.
To add to the confusion thus caused, a part of the Seventh Louisiana fired into our ranks.
This was our first surprise.
Many of our men were nearly exhausted from hunger and loss of sleep.
We had been in the saddle, and had had no regular rations for three days. My command was soon formed, and we drove them back, capturing three or four, who, in the dark, mistook us for their friends.
The next morning, June second, found us still covering the retreat.
Near Wood-stock, Generals Stewart and Ashby, each with a battery and their cavalry, selected a position.
Each seemed determined to do something, as the enemy had become very bold and annoying.
My regiment was thrown to the right and rear of Caskie's battery, on the left of the road coming up the Valley, one company acting on my flank.
Here the enemy opened a battery and shelled us furiously, and I was ordered by General Stewart to move back out of range, and crossed with my command to the other side of the turnpike, to support a battery there in position, which would check the enemy whilst Caskie's battery was retiring.
In executing this order, after we had gone but a few hundred yards, to my utter surprise, I saw the battery and cavalry running together down the road pell mell, and the Yankees after them at full speed.
The head of my column was under a hill, and, as we came out of the woods, a part of the Forty-second Virginia infantry, mistaking us for the Yankees, fired into my advance squadron, causing a stampede, wounding several.
The Yankees, pressing on my rear, captured eight men. Such management I never saw before.
Had the batteries retired by echelon, and the cavalry in the same manner, we could have held our position, or driven back their cavalry by a counter charge from ours.
But a retreat was ordered, and a disgraceful stampede ensued.
Mortified and annoyed at such management, Colonel Flournoy, of the Sixth, accompanied me to see General Ewell, who was kind enough to intercede with General Jackson, and have us at once transferred to General Ashby's command.
Here the gallant Ashby succeeded in rallying about fifty straggling infantry, and poured a volley into the Yankee cavalry, emptying many saddles, and giving them a check, clearing the road for the rest of the day. Ashby's cavalry, the Sixth, and a portion of the Second were all equally stampeded. We then marched across the Shenandoah, beyond Mount Jackson, in a drenching rain all day and night, (camped for the night, getting rations for both men and horses.) The next morning we were ordered to recross the bridge, before it was burnt, relieving the Sixth, who were bringing up the rear.
After burning the bridge, a heavy picket was thrown out, and we retired to New-Market, and had heavy picket skirmishing all day. On the fifth, the enemy got their pontoon-bridges over, and about one regiment of their cavalry crossed.
The army moved up the Valley on the Port Republic Road.
About five o'clock P. M., while the Second and Seventh were grazing their horses in a field on the right of the road, the Sixth bringing up the rear, it was again suddenly charged by the Yankee cavalry; but we succeeded in repulsing them, who, in turn, were charged by the Second and Seventh, and driven back within half a mile of town.
In this fight the Yankees lost their Colonel, Sir Percy Wyndham, captured, and sixty-three officers and men, together with their colors.
Major Green, of the Sixth, was severely wounded here, but we sustained no other loss.
Here it was that Ashby determined to ambush them.
Leaving me in command of the brigade, he marched with the First Maryland and Fifty-eighth Virginia infantry, under cover of the woods, to my right, intending to flank the Yankees, instructing me, that as soon as he had dislodged them from the hill, to charge them with my whole force.
In that enterprise he was baffled and ambushed himself.
As soon as our forces became engaged, the Yankee cavalry advanced to the support of the “Bucktails.”
I advanced with my command to meet then, and getting within easy range, I opened with two pieces of Chew's battery, which had been masked in rear of the cavalry, and drove them from their position.
Finding that a severe engagement had taken place, and that the brave Ashby had fallen, General Ewell ordered me to retire, making a heavy detail from my regiment to bear off our wounded on horseback.
The next morning, June the eighth, I assumed command of the brigade.
The general commanding having determined to give battle, the cavalry were disposed of as follows: The Second on picket on the McGaheysville road, and on General Ewell's right flank.
The Sixth and Seventh were thrown across the river, protecting the baggage train.
Two compapanies, Captains Myers and Chipley, disgraced themselves by running, and leaving the bridge to be burnt by the enemy.
The night after the battle, I was engaged reconnoitring the road between Port Republic and Brown's Gap. Major Breckenridge, with the Second squadron, Second Virginia cavalry, was thrown on picket, on the road to Swift Run Gap, and skirmished with the enemy (Shields's command) until the battle commenced the next morning by the infantry, the Second regiment bringing up the rear.
Lieutenant Thomas Mullen, company E, was left on the other side of the bridge watching the enemy, which was burnt before he could cross, and in attempting to swim the river he was drowned.
We were not engaged in the fight until after the enemy had been routed.
The cavalry then pursued
