616 NortH Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

lowed in his immediate track and rear and harrassed him con-
tinually. They could not strike hard, but it was like the
blows of enraged birds on the hawk. They were demoralizing
and driving. And driving the enemy right into the ruin
prepared for them, when they expected peace and rest.

And now let General Wilson talk again. He says, on page
627, that on the afternoon of 28 June, near Stony Creek
Depot, “we learned that the advance of Hampton’s Cavalry
had just arrived from Richmond. Although it was then
night, a fierce fight ensued lasting to nearly 10 o’clock. It was
at once apparent that the prospect of penetrating their line at
this place was by no means flattering and that a new route
must be chosen.” He prepared “for an attempt to break
through the enemy’s line between Reams and the Six Mile
House. For the first time I then learned that, contrary to
my expectations, no part of the Weldon Railroad was in pos-
session of the infantry investing Petersburg, and that instead
of my command being in the immediate vicinity of our lines
the enemy held the road and interposed a strong force to pre-
vent our junction.” * *-* He tried another “route,”
when “a large force of infantry in line of battle was re-
ported advancing with a heavy line of skirmishers deployed
across the fields through which I proposed passing. I found
not less than a brigade of infantry with guns in position. My
scouts soon reported the movement of troops toward our ex-
treme left flank. Seeing no possible chance of getting
through to our lines by this route and fearing the loss of
my entire command, I ordered the immediate destruction
of the wagons and caissons and that the whole force should
move by the stage road. At Stony Creek the bridge being
bad and the creek unfordable, at one time the situation was
critical in the extreme. The negroes who had joined our
columns in large numbers on all parts of the route added
greatly to the embarrassment. * * * During the night
the flankers of Chapman’s Brigade met the enemy’s scouting
parties and brought in prisoners who said that Chambliss’
Brigade had left Stony Creek that morning to intercept us.
This caused my column to expedite its movements. Its ad-
vance reached the Blackwater to find the bridge gone and the

Sixty-Tuirp REGIMENT. 617

stream utterly unfordable. I immediately began the repair
of the bridge and soon had it fit for crossing by file, but the
materials, having been partly burned, gave way. It was
promptly repaired, but after crossing a few more men again
failed. New string pieces were cut from the woods and by
3 a. m. it was again covered with rails and ready for use.
The whole command was over by 6:15 a. m., and the bridge
destroyed.”” Now was not that an awful time in the darkness
of the night to have his bridge breaking under him twice and
precipitating into the Blackwater his now terrified, blanched-
faced troopers, who had started out “‘to cross into North Car-
olina and make their way either to the coast or to General
Sherman in North Georgia?’ Why it was worse than
“Buckland Races.” But that is the picture that General
Wilson himself draws, by my scattering quotations of his own
words on pages 627, 628, 629 and 630.

Wilson left Kautz to his own fate and of that fate, in
part, Kautz says: . “As we pursued no road, but marched by
compass, passing most of the way through timber and heavy
undergrowth, the artillery could not be brought through. It
was hauled off the field and finally abandoned in a swamp,
where the carriages mired, and could not be extricated. 732.

He lost all of his guns. ‘“‘Not a wheel was saved; moun-
tain howitzers and all fell into the hands of the enemy.” 735.
“As we pursued no road, but marched by compass, passing
most of the way through timber and heavy undergrowth, the
artillery could not be brought through. It was hauled off
the field and finally abandoned in a swamp, where the car-
riages mired, and could not be extricated. 732.

Now was not this, marching by a compass, through dense
timber and heavy undergrowth and swamps, on “no road at
all,” a peculiar exercise of one’s “own judgment as to what
route to pursue in returning to the Army of the Potomac?”
It was almost as much so as “the peculiar topography of the
sight” at Staunton river bridge.

And from the remnant of our brigade at Staunton river,
who followed in that final pursuit in Wilson’s immediate
track and rear, the Sixty-third North Carolina furnished
more men than all the other regiments put together. So says