I was half a mile from the cross-roads.  When I arrived, to my horror there sat Jackson waiting for me.  He was in a bad humour, and said, “Colonel, my orders to you were to be here at sunrise.”  I explained my situation, telling him that we had no provisions, and that the storm and the dark night had conspired against me.  When I got through he replied, “Yes, sir.  But, Colonel, I ordered you to be here at sunrise.  Move on with your regiment.  If you meet the enemy drive in his pickets, and if you want artillery, Colonel Crutchfield will furnish you.”

“I started on with my little handful of men.  As others came straggling on to join me, Jackson noticed it, and sent two couriers to inform me that “my men were straggling badly.”  I rode back and went over the same story, hoping that he would be impressed with my difficulties.  He listened to me, but replied as before, “Yes, sir.  But I ordered you to be here at sunrise, and I have been waiting for you for a quarter of an hour.”

“Seeing that he was in a peculiar mood, I determined to make the best of my trouble, sent my adjutant back, and made him halt the stragglers and form my men as they came up; and with what I had, determined to give him no cause for complaint.  When we came upon the enemy’s picket we charged, and pushed the picket every step of the way into their camp, where there were a large number of wounded and many stores.  It was done so rapidly that the enemy’s battery on the other side of White Oak Swamp could not fire on us without endangering their own friends.

“When Jackson came up he was smiling, and he at once (shortly after noon) ordered Colonel Crutchfield to bring up the artillery, and very soon the batteries were at work.  After the lapse of about an hour my regiment had assembled, and while our batteries were shelling those of the enemy, Jackson sent for me and said, “Colonel, move your regiment over the creek, and secure those guns.  I will ride with you to the Swamp.”  When we reached the crossing we found that the enemy had torn up the bridge, and had thrown the timbers into the stream, forming a tangled mass which seemed to prohibit a crossing.  I said to General Jackson that I did not think that we could cross.  He looked at me, waved his hand, and replied, “Yes, Colonel, try it.”  In we went and floundered over, and before I formed the men, Jackson cried out to me to move on at the guns.  Colonel Breckenridge started out with what we had over, and I soon got over the second squadron, and moved up the hill.  We reached the guns, but they had an infantry support which gave us a volley; at the same time a battery on our right, which we had not seen, opened on us, and back we had to come.  I moved down the Swamp about a quarter of a mile, and re-crossed with great difficulty by a cow-path."* (* “Jackson himself,” writes Dr. McGuire, “accompanied by three or four members of his staff, of whom I was one, followed the cavalry across the Swamp.  The ford was miry and deep, and impracticable for either artillery or infantry.”)