ride a great many miles, for I had two horses and they were both kept pretty busy. As we reached the bridge head, of course it was a very small bridge, there was a very heavy cannonade apparently across our front about half a mile away. I was sent to see what it was and found that the enemy had opened a battery or several batteries on a pack of our wagons which had in some way become exposed to them. The hill country was covered thickly with trees and underbrush. There were very few clearings and scarcely any high ground, and it was very difficult to see what was going on. I could see, however, that there was a great panic among the teamsters and that the wagons were being deserted, and the wagoners riding off on the mules and horses of the teams. Presently our line of skirmishers appeared facing the southwest and at that time the head of our column was facing the east, so the position was very much mixed. The skirmishers advanced towards the Rebel batteries very rapidly, and while I was looking on the batteries withdrew. I went back and reported to General Taylor and drew a diagram of what I had seen and gave it to him, and told him I was utterly unable to understand the positions, but that these were facts. An aid of General Slocum's came up with orders to cross the bridge and turn sharply to the right which would cause us to march about due south. This we did for probably a mile or more and then came to a fairly good bridge across White Oak Creek and this the brigade crossed. After crossing, the creek here ran through a ravine the sides of which were quite precipitous, the road down to the bridge on one side and up on the other being very steep. An aid of General Slocum's told General Taylor that our brigade was now the rear of the army, that there was a piece of our artillery on the north side of the creek, that he expected General Taylor to look after it when the pickets and skirmishers were withdrawn. After awhile, probably half an hour, some of the pickets commenced to come across the bridge, and having nothing to do I thought I would go across the bridge and see where that piece of artillery was. I found it on top of the hill about five hundred yards from the bridge in good position commanding the road. The officer in charge was a lieutenant of Williston's battery whom I knew very well. He asked me if I had any orders for him, when I said no, he said he would like to have an order.

So after a little while I went back to the brigade. The pickets and skirmishers were coming across the bridge and after a while a few of our cavalry came across and after that the pioneers commenced to destroy the bridge by hewing through the timbers. We were lying down and resting on the top of the hill on the south side of the ravine when I saw the pioneers commence to cut the bridge to pieces. I said to General Taylor: "Why that gun is over on the other side." He said, "How do you know it is?" I said: "Why I saw it half an hour ago." He used a very strong expression, pulling his moustache and told me to tell our lieutenant to "get out of that as quick as the Lord would let him." So I ran down and stopped the men from cutting the bridge, ran up the other side and told the officer of the gun what the general had said. They were all ready and sitting on their horses but had had no order to move. The enemy's skirmishers who were coming on had fired several shots at them, and I must say that I never saw a gun go down a hill more rapidly than that did. To make a long story short they got the gun over all right, and the enemy's skirmishers shot at our pioneers while they were cutting the bridge. This was a curious, but as it turned out, a very fortunate occurrence, for history shows that these were Stonewall Jackson's men, and that Jackson with a heavy force was behind them. They reported that this bridge was held strongly with artillery and infantry, and this report made such an impression upon Jackson that he did not attempt to force the passage of the creek at that place. Why he did not cross the creek at a ford about a mile further up of which he should have known, historians on both sides have never discovered; but that Jackson's delay on that occasion, at that spot and his counter march gave McClellan the opportunity to withdraw his armies successfully to Malvern Hill, is the opinion of all authorities whom I have read upon the subject.

This was about two o'clock in the afternoon, it must be remembered that this was when the days were long and also very hot. In half an hour we received orders to march and move south along the White Oak road towards Charles City crossroads. After marching about two miles we were halted and the men were directed to rest along the east side of the road which was well wooded on the east side, and on the west side were several quite large clearings. I am sure that General Taylor was not informed that we were occupying the line of battle, and I am sure that General Torbert, who was then colonel of the First Regiment, did not know this until several years after, but it is a fact that we were a part of the line and an exceedingly important part. While we were lying down along the edge of the road an aid of General Slocum's rode by and told General Taylor that General Slocum's headquarters were in the field on the left or east side of the road about five hundred yards ahead of us, and that was all he said to him, for I heard it, and he then rode away. In about fifteen minutes the enemy opened with about sixty pieces of artillery, firing across the road in front of us and gradually increasing the rapidity of the firing until it was the most tremendous cannonade I had ever heard. No enemy was visible to us anywhere, the smoke of those guns came over the edge of the woods probably eight hundred yards from the road, and a few hundred yards further along the right of the brigade. None of those shells came across where we were. While the cannonade was at its height, and of course such a cannonade as this is always the precursor of a charge of a line of battle, General Taylor said that he must have some orders from General Slocum's headquarters as he did not know what was wanted of him, so he said: "Grubb, ride to General Slocum's headquarters and ask him what he wants me to do." I had then one of the most terrible experiences that I ever had under artillery fire, and what is more, I had two of them, for I rode down that road across that line of firing, and I think I came nearer being killed by the flying pieces of fence rails and pieces of trees than by the shells. I found the oak tree, but I did not find General Slocum, and I came back to General Taylor, really very much bewildered by the terrible fire, and told him that General Slocum was not where he said. He merely said: "Go back and find him." And I had to do what I should have done, of course, at first. It must be remembered that I was only a little over nineteen years of age. I finally did find General Slocum more than half a mile from where I was told he would be, and a very heavy infantry fight going on in front of him. I told him what General Taylor had said. He did not even look at me but simply said: "When I want him I will let him know." Which I had the pleasure of repeating to General Taylor word for word. The last time I came down the road the cannonade had almost died out, and the infantry fighting about opposite to where I had seen General Slocum was very severe. The corps engaged, it turned out, was the Third Corps and the division on its left which was of course next to our right because we were right in front in column and had been marching south when we halted, was General Phil. Kearney's division and commanded by General Phil. Kearney in person. Now it will be seen that our brigade being in column of four right in front under the old tactics to have formed a line of battle the order would have been given front, and