Up to this time the Seventh had not been engaged.
At two o’clock, P. M., the Seventh was ordered forward and formed on the right of the road in a cornfield, near the river, and moved forward in line of battle.
In this field the ground was very wet and soft and there were many ditches several feet deep, which made it impossible to preserve a correct line, but we did the best we could under the circumstances, and by the time we reached the woodland the enemy were in full retreat down the pike.
On seeing this, Col. Garrard ordered a charge by squadrons or companies in columns of fours, and ordered Captain Rankin’s battalion to charge down the pike and out to the enemy’s left.
A universal shout went up from the regiment and at them they went, the woods being open and favorable for a charge.
This chase was for one and a half miles, and to within one hundred and fifty yards of a battery which opened on us and compelled us to fall back near one-fourth of a mile.
The regiment was soon formed and commenced skirmishing with the Johnnies.
Col. Garrard not being satisfied with anything short of the battery which had caused us such trouble, (it being the battery that had blockaded the Cumberland river and captured our transports, among them the Prima Donna, commanded by Capt. Joe. Scott, formerly of Ripley, and had withstood the combined efforts of our gun-boats and iron-clads to dislodge them,) the order to have the regiment formed in readiness to make the charge.
The order was first given to Captain Rankin to form his battalion on the slope of a hill in front of the battery, at a distance of about six hundred yards.
Co. E, Lt. Srofe, on the right, near the pike; then Co. F, Lt. Boggs, Co. B, Lt. Burton, Co. C, Lt. Archer, and Co. A, Lt. Derstine.