oppose them. Humphreys' brigade and Rodes' division were thrown in just in time to meet them on the extension of my line. My right regiment (the Palmetto Sharpshooters, under colonel Walker), only participated in this fight, in which the enemy were repulsed. My skirmishers were sent in pursuit of the broken and retreating masses and succeeded in capturing about 125 prisoners. Night came on and closed this day's operations.

On the next morning (the 9th) we were moved to the left across the Brock road and put in position on the right of our division, with my right resting on the Brock road, my line nearly perpendicular to it, and stretching toward the

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River. Here, again, we threw up a little breast-work of logs and rails. My three right regiments-First Palmetto Sharpshooters, Colonel Walker; Second Rifles, Colonel Bowen; Sixth South Carolina Regiment, Colonel Steedman-had an open field in their front. The two left regiment-First South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel Hagood; Fifth South Carolina, Captain J. B. Lyle-were in the wood. The sharpshooting was incessant, but nothing of importance transpired until the morning of the 12th, when the enemy assaulted us heavily, advancing beautifully in two lines of battle. We held our fire until they were within 50 yards of us, when, by a deliberate and well-directed volley, a line of their dead w as laid down across the entire front of my brigade, with the exception of one regiment, whose fire was well and deliberately put, but the artillery opened a little too soon on this part of the line, and caused the enemy to drop behind a crest just in time to evade the storm of minie-balls. The fusillade continued for some minutes, and strewed the field with dead and wounded from their scattered and fleeing hordes. Many of those in the open field fled in comparative safety behind the c rest alluded to above (to their right, our left) to the woods, and were massed, partially rallied, in front of my two regiments (First and Fifth), still protected by this crest and the woods from our infantry fire. Their position could not be seen from our batteries, but I ordered them to open upon them, and directed from my position their fire, which was afterward found to have become more effective, killing and mutilating great numbers of them. Unfortunately, the commander of the battery informed me that his orders were to save ammunition, and to fire only when he was certain of doing execution. I could not be certain of this, and, fearing that ammunition might be scarce, ordered him to cease firing, and thus saved the lives of many Yankees. They kept up an active fusillade-indeed, a terrific roar of musketry-all the while. Our men were quietly awaiting their appearance over the crest. This continued so long (for some hours) that we began to suspect that by some happy mistake they were fighting themselves. It seemed a heavy battle and we had nothing to do with it. Skirmishers from the First and Fifth Regiments were ordered up to the crest to discover what it meant. They found them lying behind the crest firing at what did not clearly appear, but they with great gallantry charged them with a yell, routed and put the whole mass to flight most precipitate and headlong, capturing some 40 prisoners. In their haste and panic a multitude of them ran across a portion of open field and gave our battery and my line of battle on the right a shot at them; the skirmishers, too. We kept up a most effective fire upon them, and that field also was thickly dotted with their dead and wounded. My picket-line was re-established, and thus ended the battle of the 12th on this part of the line.