The line was immediately halted, and Lieut. Gray rode ahead to reconnoiter. When he arrived at the edge of the woods he found a company of rebels drawn up in line in a large field adjoining the road. On looking over the situation he found that the fence in the rear and on the left had been taken down, to allow egress from the lot, which gave him the impression that the force there had some doubt as to the number of our men.
Riding back, the column was started forward, following the road until close to the edge of the woods where we could be seen from the lots. We filed by twos from the road into the woods and made a short countermarch on to the road and into the woods again, which manœuvre made it look as if we had two companies. On moving into the woods the second time, all the rebel cavalrymen were dismounted, their arms strapped to each other and ordered to sit down, and one man left as guard.
The darkies that had been confiscated to take care of the spare horses, twelve in number, were mounted on them, and a line was formed at the edge of the woods, consisting of twenty men, nine of us and eleven darkies sandwiched in, the other darkey being left to look after the horses. These arrangements were not quite satisfactory to some of the darkies; but they were told that when we started out of the woods they must keep well up in the line or get shot.
An order was given to charge, every man was told to halloo as loud as he could yell, and ride straight for the line of the rebel cavalry. The scheme worked like a charm. The rebel line soon broke and fled to the woods, we in hot pursuit, capturing three, two seriously wounded, while our loss was one darkey shot, and slight wounds on two horses. We soon collected our men together and sent them back to the woods under command of Sergt. Tucker.
Lieut. Gray and Mills rode down to the town to see if there were any rebels there, we having seen a squad of men leaving there a few minutes before we had our brush with the company of cavalry. Both Lieut. Gray and Mills had on rebel uniforms, and they soon had information that the body of men which had left the town a few minutes before were Yankees, which information was pleasing to them.
Mills was immediately sent back to have the line moved forward, and we soon entered the town. Lieut. Gray sat on his horse with a dozen people around him, who were giving what information they could, and urging him to hurry so as to capture some of the Yankees that had left a few minutes before. The squad of men we saw leaving the town was Lieut. Corthell and some men from Battery G. of our regiment. When our line came up there was a look of astonishment on the faces of some of the people when they found we were Yankees.
We arrived in camp about eight o'clock with twenty-eight horses and thirteen rebel cavalrymen, which we considered a good day's work for ten light artillerymen.
On the morning of the 6th Sheridan started his army down the valley, having done all the damage with his cavalry that he could in this neighborhood. We bivouacked at Mount Jackson, and started the next morning and reached Woodstock late in the evening.
On the morning of the 8th we hitched up early, but did not move. We soon learned that Sheridan had made up his mind to give the rebel cavalry another lesson.
Gen. Rosser had just arrived in the valley with his brigade, and he was put in command of all the cavalry. Since leaving Harrisonburg they had been annoying our rear guard, so Sheridan sent word to Torbert on the evening of the 7th to "give Rosser a drubbing in the morning, or get whipped yourself, and the infantry will be halted until the affair is over."