October 4th.—Passed Fairfield, Midway and Greenville; camped on the famous Valley pike, seven miles from Staunton.
October 5.—Marched through Staunton to Augusta Church and turned to the left; encamped near Bridgewater; General Rosser is a Major General, with Wickham’s, Lomax’s and the old Ashby brigades; says he is going to “run over everything in the Valley.” This country is very different from the "land o’ cakes and brither Scots" we used to find it; for since we were here it has been roughly handled, but we get plenty of good water and pure air, and see the mountains just as they have stood from the beginning, and that is satisfaction enough.
On the 6th of October, before daylight, it was ascertained that Sheridan was retreating and Gen. Rosser immediately started with his division in pursuit, pressing as rapidly as possible to the front, but the scene was horrifying, for with the infernal instincts of his worse than savage nature, the merciless fiend, Sheridan, was disgracing the humanity of any age and visiting the Valley with a baptism of fire, in which was swept away the bread of the old men and women and children of that weeping land.
On every side, from mountain to mountain, the flames from all the barns, mills, grain and hay stacks, and in very many instances from dwellings, too, were blazing skyward, leaving a smoky trail of desolation to mark the footsteps of the devil’s inspector-general, and show in a fiery record, that will last as long as the war is remembered, that the United States, under the government of Satan and Lincoln, sent Phil. Sheridan to campaign in the Valley of Virginia.
Rosser’s men tried hard to overtake them, and did capture a few, who lingered to make sure work of a mill near New Market, but they were instantly shot, and when night came the troops encamped near Brock’s Gap, in a position where, all through the dark, they could see the work of the “journeymen of desolation” still progressing.
Early next morning the advance was continued, and about 2 o’clock the fire-fiends were overtaken at Mount Clifton, on Mill Creek, above Mount Jackson, and so strongly posted at the fords, that Rosser ordered Col. Dulaney to cross the creek some distance to the right, and with Hatcher’s squadron of the 7th Va. Cavalry and White’s battalion, attack them in flank, in order that they might be forced to uncover the ford.
The crossing was effected without difficulty, but after marching up the stream about half a mile, Capt. Hatcher met a force of the Yankees coming down, and with his usual game he charged and drove them in confusion towards Cedar Creek, and shortly after, the battalion reached the top of a hill overlooking the ford and open fields adjoining, where the Yankees were prepared to dispute Rosser’s progress until they could get their wagons, and great droves of cattle and sheep which they were driving with them down the Valley, clear.
Col. Dulaney halted the battalion on the crest of the hill, and the Yankees, perceiving it, commenced a brisk fire with Spencer and Henry rifles, and at the same moment, what was afterward found to be Custer’s brigade, began to form on a hill just opposite, in a field that sloped gradually down to the road in which White’s men were standing. The fire became too hot for comfort, and Capt. Myers rode up to Col. Dulaney, who was coolly watching the Yankees, and said to him, “Colonel, give us orders, and let us do something quick;” but the Colonel only replied, “Be cautious;” and the Captain thinking that he had not been understood, as the Colonel was somewhat deaf, repeated his request for orders, but received the same reply, and knowing that his men could not remain in that position a minute longer, Myers gave the order to charge, which was performed in the most brilliant style. There was a plank fence to open before getting into the field, and here the long-range guns, which had been forced upon the men some time before, were thrown away, and the “Comanches,” numbering now less than two hundred, passed the fence, and were within one hundred yards of three of Custer’s regiments, one of which was in line and the other two rapidly forming; but no halt was intended or attempted, and in a very brief space the battalion was among the Yankees, neutralizing their superiority in numbers and carbines by a very free use of their pistols and sabres. The enemy stood quiet until their assailants had gotten in ten steps, when they broke up in great confusion; and Gen. Rosser, at the moment, rushed the 11th and 12th, regiments over, which completed the business, and the Yankees fled in utter rout, losing many men killed, wounded and captured, and all their trains and stock. The battalion had several men wounded, among them Captain Myers, but none were killed or very badly hurt.
Captain Hatcher had fought heavily on the right and also lost heavily, but he pushed the retreating Yankees until dark.
The command of White’s Battalion now fell upon Lieutenant Nich. Dorsey, Company B, and moved with the brigade to a position on the “middle road,” at a stream known as Tom’s brook, where the division halted on the evening of the 8th, and Lieutenant Dorsey was ordered on picket with his battalion during the night. Very early in the morning (9th) the Yankee sharpshooters made their appearance and some very sharp skirmishing was engaged in, the men with carbines being sent to the front under command of Lieutenant Chiswell, who, with forty men, held a line more than a quarter of a mile in length for more than an hour, but finally the 12th regiment on his right was driven back, at the same moment a column of the enemy charged up a road to the left, and being thus outflanked on both wings, Lieutenant Chiswell and his men had to make a run for it on foot, barely escaping capture by the Yankees, who pressed them very hotly, and but for a gallant charge of the mounted men, led by Captain Dowdell, who had just arrived and taken command a few minutes before, these sharpshooters would have been captured.