im the instructions, but as the major
had given me the instructions, in a low tone of voice, nobody but myself
knew where we were going or what we were going for, and that I was
responsible, and the first intimation I had from him that he wanted to
mutiny, or relieve me from my command, I would have him shot at once.
I told him he could go along, but he must keep his mouth shut, and obey
orders. He said he would obey, if he felt like it. We moved on, and I
would have given a month's pay if that corporal had not been there. In a
short time we were in sight of the house, and at a cross road I told the
corporal to take one man and stop there, until further orders, and if
any rebel came along, to capture him. He was willing enough to stay
there, because there was a patch, of musk melons just over the fence. I
moved my remaining eight men to a high piece of ground near the house,
and halted, to look over the field of battle. Pulling a spy glass from
my pocket, which I had borrowed from the sutler, I surveyed, as near
like a general as possible, the situation. On one side of the house
was a ravine, which I decided must be held at all hazards, and after
studying my copy of tactics a moment, I sent an Irishman over there to
hold the key to the situation, and told him he might consider himself
the Iron Brigade. The lay of the ground reminded me much of pictures I
had seen of the battle of Bull Run, and the road on which I had left
the corporal and one man, was the road to Washington, on which we would
retreat, if overcome by the enemy. To the right of the ravine, which was
held by the Iron Brigade, I noticed a hen-house with a gate leading back
to the nigger quarters, and I called a soldier and told him to make a
detour behind a piece of woods, and at a signal from me, the waving of
my right arm, to charge directly to the gate of the hen-house, and
hold it against any force that might attempt to carry it, and to let
no guilty man escape. Fifteen years afterwards Gen. Grant used those
self-same words, "Let no guilty man escape," and they became historic,
but I will take my oath I was the first commander to use the words,
when I sent that man to hold the gate of the hen-house. That man I
denominated the First Division. Farther to the right was a field of
sweet potatoes, in which was a colored man digging the potatoes. I sent
a Dutchman to hold that field, with their right resting on the left of
the First Division, located at the gat