We were in a pretty fix indeed! In placing the regiments in position, by some blunder, quite excusable, no doubt, in the darkness and the tangled forest, we had been unwittingly pushed beyond the main line,—were, in fact, quite outside the picket-line! It needed only daylight to let the enemy see his game, and sweep us off the boards. And daylight was fast coming in the east.
Long after, a Company A boy, who was on picket that night, told me that, upon going to the rear somewhere about three o'clock, to cook a cup of coffee at a half-extinguished fire, a cavalry picket ordered him back within the lines.
"The lines are not back there; my regiment is out yonder in front, on skirmish!"
"No," said the cavalry-man, "our cavalry is the extreme picket-line, and our orders are to send in all men beyond us."
"Then take me at once to General Bragg's headquarters," said the Company A boy.
When General Bragg learned the true state of affairs, he at once ordered out an escort of five hundred men to bring in our regiment.
Meanwhile we were trying to get back of our own accord.
"This way, men!" said a voice in a whisper ahead.
"This way, men!" said another voice in the rear.
That we were wandering about vainly in the darkness, and under no certain leadership, was evident, for I noticed in the dim light that, in our tramping about in the tangle, we had twice crossed the same fallen tree, and so must have been moving in a circle.