Now, reader, if you
were ever on the rear guard of a routed and retreating army, you know how
tedious it is. You don't move more than ten feet at furthest before you
have to halt, and then ten feet again a few minutes afterwards, and so
on all day long. You haven't time to sit down a moment before you are
ordered to move on again. And the Yankees dash up every now and then,
and fire a volley into your rear. Now that is the way we were marched
that livelong day, until nearly dark, and then the Yankees began to crowd
us. We can see their line forming, and know we have to fight.
THE BATTLE OF CAT CREEK
About dark a small body of cavalry dashed in ahead of us and captured and
carried off one piece of artillery and Colonel John F. House, General
Maney's assistant adjutant-general. We will have to form line of battle
and drive them back. Well, we quickly form line of battle, and the
Yankees are seen to emerge from the woods about two hundred yards from
us. We promptly shell off those sides of bacon and sacks of hard-tack
that we had worried and tugged with all day long. Bang, bang, siz, siz.
We are ordered to load and fire promptly and to hold our position.
Yonder they come, a whole division. Our regiment is the only regiment
in the action.
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