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570 NortH Carontina Troops, 1861-’65.

pass. Company F, under Lieutenant Wiley, attacked at
once and Baxter Caldwell, a young, daring trooper of Com-
pany F, was sent at a rush down the mountain to Colonel Gor-
don for help, who dashed to the top with the Sixty-third
whooping and yelling, drove off the enemy and camped on the
mountain that night. 6 July, the regiment, via Leitersburg,
was with Stuart at Hagerstown on his urgent mission to Wil-
liamsport to save the Confederate wagon trains all “congre-
gated in a narrow space at the foot of the hill, near the river,

too much swollen to admit their passage to the south bank”
of the Potomac.

WAGON TRAIN SAVED AT HAGERSTOWN,

At Hagerstown General J. E. B. Stuart rode along the line
and said joyously, “We’ve got ’em now, boys,”’ which was an-
swered with a wild yell all along the line of the Sixty-third.
In a moment Chambliss was pushing down the main road
after the enemy and Robertson, with the decimated Fifty-
ninth and Sixty-third Regiments, was moving parallel.
Chambliss put them on the run and the column that the
Sixty-third Regiment was in hurried up to attack their flank,
but post and rail fences delayed this column and it was raked
with artillery. Jenkins dismounted. and dislodged them.
And Stuart says: ‘The enemy, thus dislodged, was closely
pressed by the mounted cavalry, but made one effort at a
counter-charge, which was gallantly met and repulsed by
Colonel James B. Gordon, commanding a fragment of the
Sixty-third North Carolina, that officer exhibiting under my
eye individual prowess deserving special commendation.”
Vol. 44, p. 702. Of the action that day General Stuart says:
“Without this attack, it is certain that our trains would have
fallen into the hands of the enemy.” 7 July the regiment
spent on the north front of Hagerstown, on the Cavetown
road. Daily the regiment moved here and there to aid other
cavalry in covering “the retreat of the grand army.” 11
July, at 8:30 p. m., ‘Robertson was two and a half miles in
front of Ewell.” Vol. 45, p. 994. The night of the 13th
was chosen to cross the Potomac from in front of Meade who
“instead of attacking was intrenching in our front,” and “the

Sixtry-THirp REGIMENT. 571

arduous and difficult task of bringing up the rear was, as
usual, assigned to the cavalry” under this order, dated 13
July, 1863, 4:15 p. m., from General Robert E. Lee to Gen-
eral Stuart: ‘General: As arranged this afternoon, I wish
you to place your cavalry in position before night, so as to re-
lieve the infantry along the whole extent of their lines when
they retire, and take the place of their sharpshooters when
withdrawn. They will be withdrawn about 12 o’clock to-
night. Direct your men to be very vigilant and bold, and
not let the enemy discover that our lines have been vacated.
At daylight withdraw your skirmishers, and retire with all
your force to cross the river. * * I know it to be a dif-
ficult, as well as delicate operation to cover this army and
then withdraw your command with safety, but I rely upon
your good judgment, energy and boldness to accomplish it,
and trust you may be as successful as you have been on former
occasions. After crossing, continue to cover the rear of the
army with part of your force, and with the rest move forward
to our front, where you will receive further orders.” Vol.
45, p. 1001.

ACROSS THE POTOMAC

This order was as perfectly executed as anything hu-
man could be. “Just before night (which was unusual-
ly rainy), the cavalry was disposed from right to left,
to occupy, dismounted, the trenches of the infantry at dark,”
the Sixty-third taking their part of Ewell’s line. “The op-
eration was successfully performed by the cavalry” and on
the 14th at Williamsport the Sixty-third Regiment crossed
as the very last of Lee’s army. It then picketed a few days
the fords of the Shenandoah near Ashby’s Gap. Soon the
enemy was sending a heavy column east of the Blue Ridge to
interpose between our army and Richmond. Longstreet’s
Corps moved to counteract this and again the Sixty-third
‘was in the post of honor, being sent, with Robertson, as Long-
street’s “advance guard through Front Royal and Chester
Gap.” On the 23d, with other cavalry, it reached Chester
Gap and, “with great difficulty and a foreed march, bivou-
acked that night below Gaines’ Cross Roads, holding the Rock-