Three or four of the enemy fell, and a few horses were captured, but the most of them made their escape. A part of the command, under Captain Grubb, were standing in the road when two or three pickets, who had been stationed on the Hamilton road, alarmed at the firing, came up, and were halted with a demand for a surrender. Some of Grubb’s men drew up their pistols to fire upon them, but the Captain prevented it, saying, "don’t shoot them, they will surrender," when one of the Yankees discharged his carbine almost in Captain Grubb’s face, and at the same time exclaimed, “I surrender,” and the whole party gave themselves up as prisoners.
Capt. Grubb fell, mortally wounded, and with mournful hearts his men carried him back to his father’s house near Hillsborough, where he died in about two hours, and the battalion met with a loss that was well nigh irreparable, for he was one of the best, if not the very best officer in it. He had been in the service from the commencement of the war, first as a member of Capt. N. R. Heaton’s Company, (A,) 8th Regiment Va. Volunteers, and the gallant Heaton bears willing testimony to the noble daring of R. B. Grubb, while under his command, at the bloody battles of Manassas and Ball’s Bluff, while Gen. Eppa Hunton pronounces him one of the best men he ever had in that regiment of heroes, whose name is crowned with the glory that beams brightly upon the fame of Virginia, won in a hundred battles. In the Spring of 1862, “Dick” Grubb was discharged from the infantry service, and going to the Valley, attached himself to the 7th Va. Cavalry, where he distinguished himself as a scout for Colonel (afterwards Major-General) Wm. E. Jones.
In the fall of that year, he obtained permission to raise a company for White’s battalion, in which he was entirely successful, as has been shown.
After this affair at Waterford, which had been fruitful only in disaster to his battalion, Colonel White established a camp on the Blue Ridge near Mr. Howell’s, where he remained for several days, during which time the business of the command was, to some extent, brought into shape, as it was highly necessary to do, for it had begun to suffer for want of proper attention.
The old Company of Capt. Grubb was now officered by Capt. Dowdell and Lieut. Sam. Grubb, who were promoted, and by Lieut. T. W. White who was elected Second Lieutenant.
Marcellus French had been made Captain of Co. F, with Charles James as his First Lieutenant, and everything put in order, as far as possible, to make the battalion efficient.
One morning, about the middle of August, Triplett, of Co. F, reported to the Colonel that a regiment of Yankee cavalry, encamped on the Rappahannock, near Orleans, in Fauquier county, was in the habit of sending a party every day, about 3 o’clock, to Barbour’s Cross Roads, on a scout; and the Colonel at once resolved to attempt their capture. So starting with about one hundred men he reached, just before midnight, an admirable place of concealment in the thick pines near the Cross Roads, where the command halted to wait until the scouting party came along the next day. The time passed wearily enough in that hot, piney encampment, but every man knew that an absolute certainty of success depended on their lying hid until the enemy came.
Lieut. Chiswell, with seventeen men of Co. B, was stationed in the thick bushes close along the road, with instructions to fire when the Yankees came opposite them, and a picket was placed on the Orleans road half a mile below, to watch for the enemy, and now nothing remained but to wait for the game.
About 3 o’clock, the picket came quietly in and reported above one hundred approaching, when all the men got up from their lounging among the broom sedge and mounted their horses, and notice being sent to Lieut. Chiswell, everything was, as the man-o’-wars-man would say, “cleared for action.” After waiting anxiously, with ears strained to catch the sound, for about ten minutes, the carbines of Chiswell’s men rung out, and with a shout, away dashed the mounted men to charge. On emerging from the pines into the road, the Yankees were seen in the field on the opposite side, in great confusion from the unexpected volley they had received, but as soon as they saw the battalion they dashed off towards a gap in the fence, to gain the road again; but now one of those unaccountable things, which so often occur without any reason at all, and just at the moment when their influence is most damaging, happened; and as Col. White, Adjt. Watts, and Capt. Myers, who were a little distance in front of the command, galloped up towards the gap to cut off the enemy’s escape, and thinking they were followed by the men, the Major, who was exactly at the head of the column, wheeled it down the road, leaving these three officers to meet the sixty Yankees alone.
In a few minutes the Colonel and Capt. M. were dismounted, both of their horses being shot at the same moment, and the Adjutant was among the blue-jackets without any assistance at all, but pretty soon Lieut. Conrad managed to turn Company A back, and with part of Company B, under Lieut. Crown, who had not been in the column when Major F. started it away from the Yankees, dashed in and made the scene look something like a fight, for the Yankees were resolute fellows from the 6th Ohio Cavalry, and in spite of their surprise, fought bravely.