General Gregg now swung round his right, and prepared to advance along the eastern slope of the hill.  Stuart had, however, posted his artillery there, and, as the Federal line began to move, arrested it with a sudden and destructive fire of shell.  At the same time a portion of Hampton’s division, under the brave Georgian, General P.M.B.  Young, was ordered to charge the enemy.  The assault was promptly made with the sabre, unaided by carbine or pistol fire, and Young cut down or routed the force in front of him, which dispersed in disorder toward the river.  The dangerous assault on the rear of Fleetwood Hill was thus repulsed, and the advance of the enemy on the left, near the river, met with the same ill success.  General W.H.F.  Lee, son of the commanding general, gallantly charged them in that quarter, and drove them back to the Rappahannock, receiving a severe wound, which long confined him to his bed.  Hampton had followed the retreating enemy on the right, under the fire of Stuart’s guns from Fleetwood Hill; and by nightfall the whole force had recrossed the Rappahannock, leaving several hundred dead and wounded upon the field. [Footnote:  The Southern loss was also considerable.  Colonel Williams was killed, Generals Lee and Butler severely wounded—­the latter losing his foot—­and General Stuart’s staff had been peculiarly unfortunate.  Of the small group of officers, Captain Farley was killed, Captain White wounded, and Lieutenant Goldsborough captured.  The Federal force sustained a great loss in the death of the gallant Colonel Davis, of the Eighth New-York Cavalry, and other officers.]

This reconnoissance in force—­the Federal numbers probably amounting to fifteen thousand—­had no other result than the discovery of the fact that Lee had infantry in Culpepper.  Finding that the event of the fight was critical, General Lee had moved a body of infantry in the direction of the field of action, and the gleam of the bayonets was seen by the enemy.  The infantry was not, however, engaged on either side, unless the Federal infantry participated in the initial skirmish near Beverley’s Ford, and General Lee’s numbers and position were not discovered.

We have dwelt with some detail upon this cavalry combat, which was an animated affair, the hand-to-hand encounter of nearly twenty thousand horsemen throughout a whole day.  General Stuart was censured at the time for allowing himself to be “surprised,” and a ball at Culpepper Court-House, at which some of his officers were present several days before, was pointed to as the origin of this surprise.  The charge was wholly unjust, Stuart not having attended the ball.  Nor was there any truth in the further statement that “his headquarters were captured” in consequence of his negligence.  His tents on Fleetwood Hill were all sent to the rear soon after daylight; nothing whatever was found there but a section of the horse-artillery, who fought the charging cavalry with sabres and sponge-staffs over the guns; that Fleetwood Hill was at one time in the hands of the enemy, was due not to Stuart’s negligence, but to the numbers and excellent soldiership of General Gregg, who made the flank and rear attack while Stuart was breasting that in front.