Before closing the account of this battle, I will relate one of the many incidents of cool and deliberate bravery exhibited by the Confederate soldiers on that day. While the firing at the edge of the woods was going on, Daniel Pillow, a private of Company C, Eleventh Virginia, when ready to fire, would raise up on his knees as high as he could, look intently out among the logs and stumps in front, then raise his gun, take deliberate aim and fire, and after firing raise his head again and look in the direction he had shot. I called to him, saying, "Daniel, when you have fired, don't expose yourself in that way by looking over there; get down and load as quickly as possible." Pillow turned his face towards me and said quietly in measured tones, "I reckon I want to see what I am doing," and continued firing.
I also noticed Robt. Cocke, pressing forward in the hottest of the fight in the attitude of one breasting a storm, leaning forward with a determined expression on his face; in fact, I did not see a single man of the company flinch.
Captain Clement wrote home highly complimenting the men and officers of his company for their conduct in this fight.
CHAPTER VIII
Back to Richmond—Battle of Seven Pines—The
Brigade in Reserve—Into the Fight
at Double-Quick—Incidents of the
Battle—On the Picket Lines
As before said, on the 6th of May we again marched through Williamsburg on towards Richmond. The roads were deep in mud; it was a hot, sultry May morning. A few miles out on the road I was taken suddenly very sick, and lay down on the roadside utterly unable to march any further. Visions of capture and prison rose before me like a nightmare. The regimental ambulance was in the rear, and when it came up I was taken in and rode all day, camping that night with the wagon trains, and the next day rejoined the command.
On the 9th of May we reached the Chickahominy River at Bottom's Bridge, where we remained for several days, waiting for the Yankees, but they did not come so fast as they did at Williamsburg. On the first day's march from here it was raining, the marching being very fatiguing. I remember that night when we turned off the road into woods partially cleared with the brush piled, I spread my blanket on one of the piles of brush, with a Yankee oilcloth over me, and slept soundly till morning. It rained nearly all night, but I was dry and ready for the march the next morning. The next day we trudged on up the Peninsula, passing by some historic old homesteads, among others, if I remember aright, Ex-President John Tyler's old place and his grave (the tombstone a simple white slab) by the roadside.
On the 15th of May the brigade went into camp in the vicinity of Richmond, near what was called Darbytown (though I don't remember seeing anything like a town or village), where it remained for a few days. This locality, I later learned, is called Darbytown after a family of Enroughties, whose local cognomen is Darby. How Darby could have been evolved out of Enroughty has always been, to me, one of the mysteries of evolution. Yet quite as reasonable as that man sprang from a monkey. I got a pass from here into Richmond, where I bought an officer's uniform, having before only a jacket.
On the 27th of May we moved to a camp near Howard's Grove, remaining there only four days, when the battle of Seven Pines came off.
THE BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES
Early on the morning of the 31st of May, 1862, the brigade marched out of camp to go into the battle of Seven Pines. Orders were issued the night before to take every available man, even the cooks.