of the
insurrectionists and disposed of the guard of eight men whom Turner
had left at the roadside. The white men numbered eighteen and were
under the command of Captain Alexander P. Peete. They had been
directed to reserve their fire until within thirty paces, but one of
their number fired on the insurgents when within about one hundred
yards. Half of the whites beat a precipitate retreat when Nat Turner
ordered his men to fire and rush on them. The few remaining white men
stood their ground until Turner approached within fifty yards, when
they too followed the example of their comrades, fired and retreated
with several wounded. Turner pursued and overtook some of them and
their complete slaughter was only prevented by the timely arrival of a
party of whites approaching in another direction from Jerusalem.

Being baffled, Nat Turner with a party of twenty men determined to
cross the Nottaway river at the Cypress Bridge and attack Jerusalem
where he expected to procure additional arms and ammunition from the
rear. After trying in vain to collect a sufficient force to proceed to
Jerusalem, the insurgents turned back toward his rendezvous and
reached Major Thomas Ridley's, where forty assembled. He placed out
sentinels and lay down to sleep, but there was to be no sleep that
night. An attack on his forces was at hand, and the embarrassment
which ensued left him with one half, but Turner, determined to recruit
his forces, was proceeding in his effort to rally new adherents when
the firing of a gun by Hark was the signal for a fire in ambush and a
retreat followed. After this Turner never saw many of his men any
more. They had killed fifty-five whites but the tide had turned.
Turner concealed himself in the woods but was not dismayed, for by
messenger he directed his forces to rally at the point from which on
the previous Sunday they had started out on their bloody work; but
the discovery of white men riding around the place as though they were
looking for some one in hiding convinced him that he had been
betrayed. The leader then gave up hope of an immediate renewal of the
attack and on Thursday, after supplying himself with provisions from
the old plantation, he scratched a hole under a pile of fence rails in
a field and concealed himself for nearly six weeks, never leaving his
hiding place except for a few minutes in the quiet of night to obtain
water.

A reign of terror followed in Virginia.[5] Labor was paralyzed,