Whilst thus engaged, General Ewell and staff went out to reconnoitre, but presently returned at full speed. Riding up to Colonel Johnson, he directed that officer to send some men to “drive those fellows off who had given him chase.” I was ordered to take a dozen men of my company, and the Colonel prepared to accompany me. After crossing a ravine by a narrow path I came into a large open space, when to my surprise, not over a hundred yards in front of me, I observed a mounted officer and two attendants. Commanding my men in a low voice to make no demonstration, we walked quietly towards them. Not to be caught in this way, however, they wheeled their horses and slowly rode off. Being in advance of my men, and seeing they were about to escape me, I levelled my Mississippi, which I invariably carried on such occasions, and fired. The shot was hastily aimed, and instead of taking effect upon the officer, for whom it was intended, it struck the man behind him, who, raising himself convulsively in his saddle, fell forward on his horse’s neck, and would have rolled to the ground had he not been caught and held by one of his companions. My men then fired, but without effect. At this instant Colonel Johnson, who had not yet overtaken us, dashed through the woods, exclaiming as he approached: “Look to your left, Captain, look to your left!” I did so, and what was my surprise to behold a heavy column of cavalry drawn up but a short way off, and apparently deliberating whether to charge or retire. I was in a bad scrape. A half mile from the main body, with a dozen men, and they, too, with unloaded guns. For a moment I thought I was gone; but Colonel Johnson, whose presence of mind never forsook him in the midst of the most trying difficulties, wheeled his horse towards the woods and cried at the top of his voice: “Come on, my brave men, here we have a whole regiment of them!” This had the desired effect, and the gallant troopers went off like the wind, nor did they stop until they had ridden a mile, when again halting they drew up in line.
General Ewell, hearing the firing, soon after joined us, when Griffin was ordered up with a section of the Baltimore Light Artillery. Scarcely had he fired the first shot, however, when there issued from the woods in the rear of the cavalry three or four puffs of smoke, and as many shells came shrieking over and around us, and almost at the same time a battery on our right opened an enfilading fire that made the position untenable.
“Some things can be done as well as some others!” exclaimed the General. “Captain Griffin, you will limber up and go to the rear.”
By twelve o’clock the next day, Sunday, the 29th of June, the railroad had been destroyed for a considerable distance, and we suspended our labors.
During the afternoon I took a stroll through the enemy’s deserted camps, and feeling fatigued, I laid down on the railroad bank and commenced to read a chapter from a little Testament I had picked up in my rambles. I had been thus engaged perhaps half an hour, when on raising my head I was astonished to behold, about two miles up the road on the other side of the Chickahominy, a locomotive and train of cars standing upon the track. Returning immediately to camp I reported the fact to Colonel Johnson, who informed General Ewell, and he, with General Trimble and several others, repaired to the spot. Glasses were brought into requisition, but to save us we could not make out what they were doing. During my absence a tree had been cut down and rolled in front of the engine to conceal their movements. For half an hour we were lost in conjecture, when suddenly the tree was removed from the track, and the train, all enveloped in flames and smoke, came rushing with fearful speed directly towards us.
That it was an infernal machine of some sort instantly suggested itself, and a general stampede ensued, we forgetting at the moment that the end of the bridge towards the enemy had been burned the evening before, and therefore the impossibility of the train reaching us. On the fiery mass rushed, every moment increasing its speed, until it reached the bridge, when it plunged headlong into the shallow stream, and a vast pillar of white smoke sprang upwards into the sky, which rose higher and higher, and continually unfolded itself from within in waves of snowy vapor, until the sun was hidden from our view. The sound of the explosion instantly followed, and the earth shook and trembled as though riven by an earthquake. It was a spectacle of inexpressible grandeur, and one never to be forgotten by the few who witnessed it. For a moment we were held spell-bound; when General Ewell, who was the first to recover his presence of mind, exclaimed “That was an ordnance train. Have the troops formed immediately, for the enemy is retreating, and we will be of no further use on this side of the Chickahominy.” And his conclusion seemed correct, for now in every direction could be seen the smoke from burning stores.
In the midst of a drenching rain which set in soon after, the troops retraced their steps until midnight, when we went into bivouac. Early next day our march was resumed, and soon after we crossed the Chickahominy near where McClellan had had his headquarters.
Now at every step something left by the enemy was encountered to attract our attention. Pontoon trains, wagons, cooking utensils, barrels of beef, and boxes of crackers; a balloon with apparatus complete for manufacturing the gas; towers, lookouts, &c., &c. Upon the Charles City road we found a great many of his dead, still unburied, killed the day before in an encounter with Magruder. That McClellan was retreating towards Harrison’s Landing by way of Malvern Hill was well known to our General-in-Chief, and in that direction we were ordered to direct our steps.
CHAPTER XII.
On the afternoon of the 1st of July the troops of Jackson passed by Frazier’s farm, and the dead that lay on every side gave evidence of the terrible conflict that Longstreet had had there the day before.