cavalry, stationed at this point, and drove back the advance of the enemy. But this mere handful of men had to yield to the increasing numbers of the enemy. My staff and all my couriers having got separated from me and the enemy having the road in my front, I made through the fields and byways for Williamsport to escape or be useful as occasion might require. Arriving early in the morning all was found in confusion. Every one was anxious to cross the river—too much swollen to ford and the only boat available could not exceed seventy trips in twenty-four hours. To deprive all of the hope of what but a small fraction could obtain was deemed the most expedient means of establishing order.
I assumed command and put fifteen or twenty infantry, the only organized men I could see, to guard the boat and stop the crossing. Officers and men appealed to cheerfully took up arms, posting themselves in buildings to resist cavalry attacks. Soon a respectable defence could have been made, and a rash attack would doubtless have been severely punished. Order being restored, the wounded, and wagons with important papers, were allowed to recommence crossing the river. By evening, two regiments of infantry having arrived from Martinsburg, and General Imboden having got in from the direction of Greencastle with his brigade and some twenty-four pieces of artillery, I determined to make my way, with half a dozen men, through the enemy's lines to my command. This was effected with some very narrow escapes, on the night of the 5th and the morning of the 6th. I rejoined my command at Lightersburg and returned with it by way of Smithtown and Covetown and the old Frederick road so as to participate in the attacks on General Kilpatrick at Hagerstown and General Buford at Williamsport that evening. The brilliant charge of the Eleventh Virginia cavalry (Colonel Lomax commanding) is more fully detailed in the enclosed report.
The evening of the 7th the Sixth United States regular cavalry, making a reconnaissance near Funkstown, fell in with the Seventh Virginia cavalry, which availed itself of the opportunity of settling old scores. Sabres were freely used, and soon sixty-six bloody-headed prisoners were marched to the rear, and the road of slumbering wrath was marked here and there by cleft skulls and pierced bodies. The day at Fairfield is fully and nobly avenged. The Sixth United States regular cavalry numbers among the things that were.
Colonel Marshall's report will give more fully the particulars. The report of Colonel Massie will give the particulars of the affair of the 14th instant near Harper's Ferry, in which we captured one Major,
