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on the ground,dead with sleep.Nothing short of a beating with the flat of a saber would awaken some of them. In several instances they begged to be allowed to sleep,saying that they would run all risk of capture on the morrow.Two or three did escape our vigilance and were captured the next afternoon. While the rear of the column was thus drifting along through the night,more than half asleep, the advance, probably two miles in the lead, had its welcome aids to wakefulness in the complete surprise and capture of two Confederate camps, each with about forty men—one at the crossing of the Big Sandy, and the other at a ford of the Comite, only a few miles out from our destination. Between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. we were met by a cavalry company scouting out from Baton Rouge to learn the meaning of a rumor which had reached their camp that an important force was nearing the city. They knew nothing whatever of the raid, and were slow to believe our tale, as was also General Augur ,then in command of the post.It was not until we had been in bivouac three hours, and after Grierson had visited post headquarters, that we were admitted to the Federal lines, and to the protection of the flag.As we rode at last through Baton Rouge, the streets were banked for a mile or more on either side with cheering crowds of citizens of the town and the soldiers of Augur’s army, and the way-worn but triumphant column was brought to bivouac in a beautiful magnolia grove to the south of the city.It was pathetically significant of the stress and strain of the long hard ride, particularly on those responsible in any way for its successful issue, that the hero of the Enterprise episode, the captain of Company B of the Seventh, went suddenly delirious the next morning, as he lay resting by his campfire, and was taken with cautious violence to the post hospital , tearing the curtains from the ambulance on the way, and swearing that we might kill him if we would, but we could never take him prisoner. 17 Recollections of Marye’s Heights and Salem Church Benjamin G. Humphreys, Brigadier General, C.S.A. during the winter of 1862–63, [Major General Ambrose E.] Burnside had been superseded by [Major General Joseph] “Fighting Joe” Hooker, who was making gigantic preparations just across the Rappahannock for the fourth Marye’s Heights and Salem Church • 219 05.197-380_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:48 AM 219 220 • part 5: the war in 1863 “On to Richmond,” and boasted that he had the “finest army on the planet” and would “pulverize the rebellion.” General [Robert E.] Lee was not idle.Though cramped by his limited means and resources, both in men and appliances of war, he stood firm and unawed by the mighty hosts that confronted him. During the night of April 20, the Federals attacked some North Carolina pickets, drove off their reserves, laid down pontoon bridges, and crossed the [Rappahannock] river below Deep Run,near the Bernard house.The alarm was soon conveyed to [Brigadier General William] Barksdale’s pickets at Fernahough ’s house. The “long roll” and the alarm bell at Fredericksburg soon brought Barksdale’s brigade into line. During that day General Lee ascertained, through [Major] General J. E. B. Stuart, that General Hooker was moving his main army to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan and fall upon his left flank and rear through theWilderness.General Lee immediately moved his main force and confronted him at Chancellorsville on May 1.[Major General Jubal A.] Early ’s division was left at Hamilton’s Station to watch the Federal [Major General John] Sedgwick, who was left in command of thirty thousand troops in front of Fredericksburg. Barksdale’s brigade was left at Fredericksburg to picket the Rappahannock from the reservoir above Falmouth to Fernahough house below Fredericksburg, a distance of three miles. Sedgwick lay quietly in our front and contented himself with fortifying his position below Deep Run until May 2, when he commenced recrossing his troops at Deep Run and moving over the Stafford Heights, in full view, up the river, doubtless with the view of deceiving us into the belief that he was withdrawing from our front and going to the support of Hooker at Chancellorsville by way of the...

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