Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/323

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Eighth Virginia's Part in Second Manassas.
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race would have been amusing, but as they ran far ahead of the regiment, several were struck going over the field. One man, Dave Hixson, was shot through the foot as he ran. We lost a good man in him, but Mosby gained one.

Jenkins presently changed direction to the left, intending, I suppose, to take a battery that had an enfilading fire on him. He came up on us, and as my men, having given up the chase, they joined the left. But very soon the battery was taken, and firing ceased. Who took this battery I cannot say, but I have always thought that both Hunton and the Fourth Texas had something to do with it.

The enemy being gone, we returned to our bivouac and sent out a detail to look for our missing men. After awhile Aden Rogers, with one or two more, came in with a finely equipped horse, on which was French Gulick, with a broken thigh.

"Colonel," Rogers said to me, "this saddle and bridle is for you, but I want the horse to go courting on after the war."

Poor fellow, he rode no horse courting, but rode one to his death soon after his exchange to the cavalry. Awaking the next morning, I looked up towards Company D and thought Rogers and his horse had quickly come to an excellent understanding. Going up to them I found all hands asleep and Rogers reclining against the horse, which was dead as a mackerel. I saw then he had been shot through, though it had shown no signs of distress when brought in.

We started in pursuit, but the events of the next two or. three days are so accurately related in McCabe's "Campaigns of General Lee" that every one remembers them. Our men were hungry, but cheerful. They did not expect the commissary to keep pace with Lee and Jackson, who were driving the enemy from hillock to hill, until finally they broke from Fairfax Courthouse for Washington.

We wanted to see our friends in Maryland, so turned north by the Fryingpan Road, and at night stopped near the home of some of my men.

"Colonel," a man would say to me, "my wife and children are just over that hill. I have not heard of them for months. Please