104 Norra Carona Troops, 1861-65.

eae ht
shot through the ge Ati ac carat hs : i
1 i and and his
- as Dae oa Turner, there was no better man or
am eee and countermarching from the =
to the North side of James river, the ennai = ‘ . —
i articipated in every engagement a
gang SS warovee, Boisseau’s farm and other
a of these engagements, near the White or pate
on the north side of the J ames river, and eee - es
General J. R. capers 7. Bear gaaeRn 7 e
ment had a close call. 1e division of Generé aks is ab
rried to the front in columns of fours, the } a
oe the last of the division. Suddenly I pr ees .
ments to my front bear to the right, and oun wee y shee
ter came an order from General Lee, borne ei a ~
Lee, of his staff, for the Nineteenth to hurry to t i: ~~ a :
command “trot,” “gallop,” was given, and in a aon Pow ne
reported to the Major-General. My orders were : > ent pe
regiment to my front, the Ninth Virginia, I think it v : ; si
he further said to me: ‘‘Roberts, you know what to do,
he hi st be held.” fe
hee division was soon withdrawn by some miscar-
riage of orders, as I afterwards learned, and ye was en a
long before the enemy advanced in great number s upo aoe
tle command, but it stood up against this onslaught as ~—
brave men can. At one time the regiment was ——
surrounded, and its annihilation seemed complete, but in :
very nick of time up dashed the Ninth N orth € eae bs
by the gallant Colotel W. H. Cheek, who finally — -
my wishes and put his regiment where I suggested at oe
be put, and by his action I was enabled to extricate my men.
But our loss was enormous; more than thirty officers and men
killed in a few minutes. Captain L. R. Cowper, of Company
C, and Captain George P. Bryan, of Company G, sae:
among the killed. They were both brave officers and ge i
soldiers, and their loss was a sad blow to the regiment. Cap-
tain Cowper and I had left home together—had been non-

ihe hone innn kc geo asic di

NINETEENTH REGIMENT. 105

commissioned officers together, and he was my personal
friend ; always jolly and in splendid humor, and ever begging
me to take care of myself if I wished to live; but always in-
sisting that no Yankee bullet had ever been molded to earry

off “Old Cowp,” as he called himself, to the “undiscovered

country from whose bourne no traveller returns.’

’ They were
both brave and gallant men, and died like soldiers with their
faces to the foe.

At Wilson’s farm, on the Boydton plank road, on 27 Octo-
ber, 1864, the Nineteenth Regiment was again conspicuous
for gallantry, and bore its full share of the fight, as it had
done at Reams, McDowell’s F arm, White Oak Swamp, and
other places.

In the great cattle raid in September, 1864, the Nineteenth

(Second Cavalry) was a part of the command of Gen-
eral Hampton commanding the expedition, and after
the herd of cattle, 2,700, had been captured and driven
from the corral, I received orders from him in per-
son to bring up the rear. The regiment remained in
the vicinity of where the cattle were captured for nearly an
hour after the entire command had been withdrawn, and I at
once, busied myself in making the necessary disposition of the
regiment to protect our rear. Very soon the Federal ecay-
alry began to press me and there were a number of mounted
charges given and received duri ng the day, but I was hardly
pressed and was glad when night came to end the pursuit.
The day’s work was a hard one: none more so that I remem-
ber, but I managed to keep my command so well in hand that
I lost only one or two men, I think, before reaching Belcher’s
mills,

The Nineteenth was at Bellfield on 8 December when
the Federals under General Warren attempted once more to
secure the Weldon and Petersburg Railroad, and when the
tear of Warren’s Corps was struck, a squadron of the Nine-
teenth commanded by Captain A. F. Harrell, made a splendid
charge and captured some prisoners.

Soon thereafter the regiment went into winter quarters
near Bellfield, where it was fairly comfortable during the
winter, being called out occasionally. During this interval