and gave them a parting salute. He was greeted with grape and canister, and had 1 man killed. There were no casualties at my batteries. From Yankee sources, we learned that the pirates lost 6 killed and 20 wounded. Whether they overestimated or underestimated their loss I do not know. They sometimes lie on one side and sometimes on another.

In a few days the pirates returned as high as Port Tobacco with five more of their thievish consorts. Eleven rifle guns of Colonel [J. Thompson] Brown's reserve artillery and all my division batteries were brought down to the river under cover of a dense fog, and, when it lifted, were opened upon them. The firing was bad, except from the Whitworth, and it soon drove them under cover of a thick growth of woods, where they lay concealed. We have learned from the same respectable Yankee source that three of the pirates were struck [one three times], and that a captain was killed and four or five other thieves knocked on the head. We had no casualties.

Just before sundown on the 12th instant, I received an order to march that night to Fredericksburg, as the Yankees were expected to attack General Lee the next day. A portion of my command was 22 miles from that city, and the most of them 18 to 20. We began our march immediately, and proceeded until we were stopped by encountering General Early's column some 3 miles from Hamilton's Crossing. We waited until daylight, and them followed General Early. His division was placed in the second line behind General A. P. Hill, and my division in the third line behind General Early. We remained in that position until noon, when the division was ordered on the extreme right, to meet a flank movement of the Yankees under General [A.] Doubleday. We were, however, soon ordered back, as Doubleday did not advance, and our front line, under General A. P. Hill had been broken. General Early pushed forward and recovered the lost ground, and my division took Early's position. My division artillery and the reserve artillery, under Colonel Brown [temporarily under my command], were sent forward in the afternoon to relieve the batteries which had been engaged in the morning. The relieving batteries have been highly commended for gallant and effective service.

Captains Carter, Hardaway, Bondurant, Fry, and [R. C. M.] Page were conspicuous here, as everywhere, for gallantry and alacrity in the discharge of duty.

Toward sundown on the 13th, a general advance of our lines was ordered, preceded by artillery. Artillery officers were called for to volunteer for this hazardous duty. Captain Bondurant and Lieutenants [S. H.] Pendleton and [William P.] Carter, of my division, volunteered and brought out their batteries. The answering reply of the Yankee artillery to ours was so rapid and constant that the advance was halted before our columns emerged from the woods to view.

On the 14th instant, Generals Early and Taliaferro occupied the front line, my division the second, and General A. P. Hill's the third. The Yankees, having been terribly thrashed the day before, were quiescent on the 14th. They had established themselves in a hedge-row, and had it lined with artillery. Hardaway got a position with his Withworth gun from which he could enfilade the line. He drove out all their batteries and made them leave at a gallop. I think that his gun killed the Yankee General [George D.] Bayard, as no other of our guns could carry so far as to the point where he was struck. At Upperville, on November 2, this gun put to flight two Yankee batteries, and cavalry and artillery, at the distance of 3 1/2 miles.