e up. But Lee's great mind ran quick and fast. He
knew the country and was well posted by his scouts of every move and
turn of the enemy on the chessboard of battle. Anderson, with his
division, being on our right, led the advance down the road to meet
Sedgwick. We passed great parks of wagons (ordnance and commissary)
on either side of the road. Here and there were the field infirmaries
where their wounded were being attended to and where all the surplus
baggage had been stacked before the battle.

On reaching Zoar Church, some five miles in rear, we encountered
Sedgwick's advance line of skirmishers, and a heavy fusilade began.
Anderson formed line of battle on extreme right, and on right of plank
road, with the purpose of sweeping round on the enemy's left. McLaws
formed on left of the corps, his extreme left reaching out toward the
river and across the road; Kershaw being immediately on right of the
road, with the Second resting on it, then the Fifteenth, the Third
Battalion, the Eighth, the Third, and the Seventh on the right. On
the left of the road leading to Fredericksburg was a large open
field extending to the bluff near the river; on the right was a dense
thicket of pines and undergrowth. In this we had to form. The Seventh
experienced some trouble in getting into line, and many camp rumors
were afloat a few days afterwards of an uncomplimentary nature of the
Seventh's action. But this was all false, for no more gallant
regiment nor better officered, both in courage and ability, was in
the Confederate service than the "Bloody Seventh." But it was the
unfavorable nature of the ground, the difficulties experienced in
forming a line, and the crowding and lapping of the men that caused
the confusion.

Soon after our line of battle was formed and Kershaw awaiting orders
from McLaws to advance, a line of support came up in our rear, and
mistaking us for the enemy, commenced firing upon us. Handkerchiefs
went up, calls of "friends," "friends," but still the firing
continued. One Colonel seeing the danger--the enemy just in front, and
our friends firing on us in the rear--called out, "Who will volunteer
to carry our colors back to our friends in rear?" Up sprang the
handsome and gallant young Sergeant, Copeland, of the "Clinton
Divers," (one of the most magnificent and finest looking companies in
his service, having at its enlistment forty men over six feet tall),
and said, "Colonel, send me." Grasping the colors i