The cavalry that was engaged in this vidette line, picketted on the Shenandoah River and were often routed by the enemy. Some of the men didn’t stop until they got clear out of the country.
About this time we had a re-election of officers and Col. Munford was put in command of our whole regiment, where as he had only commanded half, and Col. Watts was elected Lieut. Col.
On the 3rd of May, when the regiment was near Linden Station, 13 of us were left at Flint Hill, several miles distant, to have our horses shod, and as we were going on to overtake the command, we met a man galloping up the road. Serg. Lemon, who had charge of us, met the man first and let him pass, but when he reached me I ordered him to halt, as I saw he was a northerner. But he fell flat on his horse and swiftly made a turn in the road, so we didn’t pursue him. He dropped a nice gum coat in his wild rush, which we didn’t fail to get.
We were in Rappahannock Co., and there were a great many stone fences, and I told Serg. Lemon we had better get out into the open on a high point and see if we could locate any forces of the enemy. We hadn’t gone any distance until we saw Gen. Gary with a division of Inft. and a regiment of cavalry, making his way from Front Royal to Richmond. We soon overtook Col. Munford and notified him of Gen. Gary’s movement and he waited until night fall and passed through Flint Hill, and took another road leading to Madison C. H. We camped and kept watch.
The next day some of Gary’s men came out in sight and Munford sent a couple of companies to cut these men off from the command and capture them, and when we got to a rock fence where we thought we could cut them off, we found the fifth Mich. Inft. lying just behind the fence. They raised up right at us and our horses were stopped so suddenly that six of the men were thrown and captured.
When Major Cary Breckinridge, who was in command of us, saw the trap we were in, he ordered us to “left about wheel,” and just in the act of turning, a bullet that was aimed at me struck C. C. Cahoon, the man next to me in the arm.
We had to retreat about 400 yards in full view of this whole regiment and they were firing at us all the time. But they were excited and overshot us and only the one man was wounded. My horse was struck on the foot and had to make three-fourths of the distance on three feet. The roll was called after we got back, but only the six men of Franklin Co., had been captured.
After awhile three independent scouts came up, Williams, Lamar Fontain, and Farley—S. Carolina and Mississippians. They wanted a dozen sharpshooters to go to where some Yankees were doing a lot of depredating, killing cattle, etc. I was sent among the others to within about 500 yards of where they were and we could see the hill beyond blue with Yankees.
We fired four or five shots each before they had time to protect themselves, and killed and wounded a dozen or more, but then had to retreat for our own safety.
The next morning I was sent with C. C. Cahoon, William Henderson and George Zimmerman, who had been wounded by their horses falling with them, except Cahoon, who was shot, to Madison C. H. I led their horses and took $100. to pay their expenses on the road, but we were so kindly treated by every one that I didn’t have to pay a penny. Mrs. Gen Kemper had charge of the hospital and took care of the men.