detach part of the command to keep along east of the Blue Ridge while the rest was thus occupied, especially as Hampton's brigade was then expected.

On the morning of November e, about 9 a. m., the enemy advanced on our new position with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, moving simultaneously by all the roads and fords. His progress was obstinately and successfully resisted for nearly the entire day.

Before the position was yielded, Colonel Williams C. Wickham, commanding the brigade, who during all these operations had displayed great zeal, ability, and bravery, was struck in the neck by a fragment of a shell, which deprived me for the time being of his valuable services. He was succeeded in the command by Colonel T. L. Rosser, of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry.

Breathed's battery, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, added to its many laurels on these hard-fought fields, and was materially assisted by a battery from General D. H. Hill's command, which had been sent to re-enforce me.

Late in the afternoon, the enemy having moved so as to turn my left flank, I withdrew through Upperville, sending the First and Fifth Virginia Cavalry to Piedmont, so as to constitute a rear guard for our trains, which had passed on that road. With the remainder of the command I took up successive positions, resisting the enemy's advance from Upperville to the gap, near Paris. Upon arriving at this gap I found a small infantry force, with some artillery, posted on the heights, left by General D. H. Hill to report to me. One of these guns was a Whitworth, under Captain Hardaway, which, at a single shot, drove away a battery of the enemy, posted near Upperville, 3 or 4 miles off. General D. H. Hill had previously left, with the main portion of his command, by the Front Royal road. The enemy manifested at nightfall no intention of advancing on my front, but, anticipating a flank movement by a portion of their force on the road leading from Upperville to Piedmont Station, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, I directed Colonel Rosser to repair to the latter point, intending to make another stand at this point the next morning, with the re-enforcement of Hampton's brigade. The Fifth Virginia Cavalry, Major [B. B.] Douglas commanding, and the First Virginia Cavalry, by misconstruction of my orders, left Piedmont that evening, and as Colonel Rosser approached it from Paris after dark the place was found in possession of the enemy, Colonel Rosser encountering the enemy's picket between the two points, and moving so as to interpose his command between Markham and Piedmont. Finding, upon my arrival at Paris, that General Jackson was not in motion, and that his headquarters were at Millwood, I presumed that his plans had been changed since my instructions from the commanding general. I therefore repaired to Millwood to ascertain. Upon arriving there, I was informed by General Jackson that, instead of following General Longstreet, he would remain in the valley, so as to be upon McClellan's flank. A determined stand, therefore, at Paris Gap being unnecessary, I directed the infantry and artillery there of General D. H. Hill's command to proceed to rejoin him at Front Royal, while the cavalry picket, under Captain [W. B.] Wooldridge, Fourth Virginia Cavalry, was to retire, on the enemy's approach, by the same route.

Hampton's brigade, having reached Millwood, was, on the morning of the 4th, ordered to join the other brigade at Markham, while I proceeded on the same morning by a nearer route to the same point. The enemy had, however, gained possession of that point before I reached it, our forces retiring toward Barbee's Cross-Roads. I proceeded, therefore, to Linded, where I found Hampton's brigade, and diverted its line