at such distance between each soldier as to cover the front of the regiment, while in line of battle the regiments being from ten to fifty yards apart.  In this way we marched all day, sometimes in line of battle, at others by the roads in columns.  A great siege cannon had been erected on a platform car and pushed abreast of us along the railroad by an engine, and gave out thundering evidences of its presence by shelling the woods in our front.  This was one of the most novel batteries of the war, a siege gun going in battle on board of cars.  Near night at Savage Station Sumner and Franklin, of the Federal Army, who had been retreating all day, turned to give battle.  Jackson was pressing on our left, and it became necessary that Sumner should hold Magruder in check until the army and trains of the Federals that were passing in his rear should cross White Oak Swamp to a place of safety.  Our brigade was lying in a little declivity between two rises in the ground; that in our front, and more than one hundred yards distance, was thickly studded with briars, creepers, and underbrush with a sparse growth of heavy timber.  We had passed numerous redoubts, where the field batteries of the enemy would occupy and shell our ranks while the infantry continued the retreat.  Our brigade skirmishers, under command of Major Rutherford, had been halted in this thicket while the line of battle was resting.  But hardly had the skirmishers been ordered forward than the enemy’s line of battle, upon which they had come, poured a galling fire into them, the bullets whistling over our heads causing a momentary panic among the skirmishers, a part retreating to the main line.  A battery of six guns stationed in a fort in our front, opened upon us with shell and grape.  Being in the valley, between the two hills, the bullets rattled over our heads doing no damage, but threw us into some excitement.  The Third being near the center of the brigade, General Kershaw, in person, was immediately in our rear on foot.  As soon as the bullets had passed over he called out in a loud, clear tone the single word “charge.”  The troops bounded to the front with a yell, and made for the forest in front, while the batteries graped us as we rushed through the tangled morass.  The topography of the country was such that our artillery could get no position to reply, but the heavy railroad siege gun made the welkin ring with its deafening reports.  Semmes and Barksdale put in on our right; Cobb remaining as reserve, while the Division of D.R.  Jones, which had been moving down on the left side of the railroad, soon became engaged.  The enemy fought with great energy and vigor, while the Confederates pressed them hard.  Much was at stake, and night was near.  Stunner was fighting for the safety of the long trains of artillery and wagons seeking cover in his rear, as well as for the very life of the army itself.  Soon after the first fire the settling smoke and dense shrubbery made the woods