s of
undergrowth. It was impossible for the army to keep up with the enemy
while in line of battle. So sending our skirmishers ahead the army
followed the roads in columns of fours. In each regiment the right
or left company in the beginning of battle is always deployed at such
distance between each soldier as to cover the front of the regiment,
while in line of battle the regiments being from ten to fifty yards
apart. In this way we marched all day, sometimes in line of battle, at
others by the roads in columns. A great siege cannon had been erected
on a platform car and pushed abreast of us along the railroad by an
engine, and gave out thundering evidences of its presence by shelling
the woods in our front. This was one of the most novel batteries of
the war, a siege gun going in battle on board of cars. Near night at
Savage Station Sumner and Franklin, of the Federal Army, who had been
retreating all day, turned to give battle. Jackson was pressing on
our left, and it became necessary that Sumner should hold Magruder in
check until the army and trains of the Federals that were passing
in his rear should cross White Oak Swamp to a place of safety. Our
brigade was lying in a little declivity between two rises in the
ground; that in our front, and more than one hundred yards distance,
was thickly studded with briars, creepers, and underbrush with a
sparse growth of heavy timber. We had passed numerous redoubts, where
the field batteries of the enemy would occupy and shell our ranks
while the infantry continued the retreat. Our brigade skirmishers,
under command of Major Rutherford, had been halted in this thicket
while the line of battle was resting. But hardly had the skirmishers
been ordered forward than the enemy's line of battle, upon which they
had come, poured a galling fire into them, the bullets whistling over
our heads causing a momentary panic among the skirmishers, a part
retreating to the main line. A battery of six guns stationed in a
fort in our front, opened upon us with shell and grape. Being in the
valley, between the two hills, the bullets rattled over our heads
doing no damage, but threw us into some excitement. The Third being
near the center of the brigade, General Kershaw, in person, was
immediately in our rear on foot. As soon as the bullets had passed
over he called out in a loud, clear tone the single word "charge." The
troops bounded to the front with a yell, and made for the forest in
front, w