Sheridan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they
could have returned. At any rate they did not do so, whether from choice
or necessity, and it was a part of our scheme to push them back into
their entrenchments. This work was delegated to the cavalry entirely,
but, as I have said before, mounted carbineers, are no match for
stubborn, bayoneted infantry. So when the horsemen were close up to the
Rebels, they were dismounted, and acted as infantry to all intents. A
portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie, still adhered to the saddle,
that they might be put in rapid motion for flanking and charging
purposes; but fully five thousand indurated men, who had seen service in
the Shenandoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of battle on foot, and
by charge and deploy essayed the difficult work of pressing back the
entire Rebel column. This they were to do so evenly and ingeniously,
that the Rebels should go no farther than their works, either to escape
eastward or to discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were
already forming. Had they espied the latter they might have become so
discouraged as to break and take to the woods; and Sheridan's object was
to capture them as well as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the
cavalry pushed them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and
terrifically. I have no space in this hurried despatch to advert either
to individual losses or to the many thrilling episodes of the fight. It
was fought at so close quarters that our carbines were never out of
range; for had this been otherwise, the long rifles of the enemy would
have given them every advantage. With their horses within call, the
cavalry-men, in line of battle, stood together like walls of stone,
swelling onward like those gradually elevating ridges of which Lyell
speaks. Now and then a detachment of Rebels would charge down upon us,
swaying the lines and threatening to annihilate us; for at no part of
the action, till its crisis, did the Southern men exhibit either doubt
or dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant treason the
world has ever had, and here and there showing some of those wonderful
feats of individual courage which are the miracles of the time.

A colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us in a charge. The
bayonets were fixed; the men came on with a yell; their gray uniforms
seemed black amidst the smoke; their preserved colors, torn by grape and
ball, waved yet defiantly