which accompanied it, honorably sustained the credit of the Confederate arms. It ought to be stated to the credit of Latham's battery, that it reported to me from North Carolina only the evening before I left Hanover Courthouse, with only half enough men for the efficient service of the guns, and with horses entirely untrained.
Your obedient servant,
North Carolina Volunteers,
Near Richmond, June 1st, 1862.
Brigadier-General L. O'B. Branch,
Commanding Second North Carolina Brigade.
General—In obedience to your orders, I proceeded to Taliaferro's mill on the morning of the 27th of May with eight hundred and ninety (890) of my regiment and a section of Latham's battery, commanded by Lieutenant J. R. Potts. While I was there, examining the ground for a suitable position for my forces, information was received that the enemy was approaching in the direction of Hanover Courthouse. I immediately retraced my steps, marching left in front, and throwing out a platoon of Company G as flankers, under Captain George B. Johnston, to my right, the supposed direction of the enemy, while the other was thrown to my left and front, under Lieutenant E. G. Morrow. It was not until we had nearly emerged from the pine thicket in front of Br. Kinney's that we discovered some of the enemy ambushed in the same, to our left, and where we were not expecting them. The regiment was immediately halted, faced by the rear rank, and wheeled to the right through the woods, pouring a deadly fire into a portion of the Twenty-fifth New York regiment, as they executed the movement. As soon us we cleared the thicket and appeared in the road, running by Dr. Kinney's to Richmond, another portion of the enemy, previously concealed in the wheat and behind the house immediately in front of us, opened a sharp fire, which was promptly returned by the Twenty-eighth.
The regiment was then ordered to charge, and did it most gallantly, many of them, shouting, leaped the ditch and high fence inclosing the field of wheat, while the rest rushed into the yard
