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The first words the brave boy uttered were : " Oh ! Pshaw ! you are not going to be
captured; the boys back there will not let them capture you. They can't come out of their
fort, for General McComb has brought up all the artillery possible, and will open on them if
they show themselves; but he says we must stay here until night ! "

Well, we stayed there all day, and that day was four years long. But night came at
last — it always does, and you should have seen how the boys crawled out of their holes.
And when we got within our works you should have heard that rebel yell !

And what do you think they told us when we got back — and don't you think we
should have felt complimented ? Well, it seems that when General McComb learned that
our little battalion alone had succeeded in carrying that part of the line assigned to them, and
that the rest of the attack was a failure, he was much worried. When daylight showed him
our dangerous position he at once sent for General Harry Heth (who, by the by, was In
command at the time of A. P. Hill's Corps), and upon that General's arrival McComb
pointed out the situation in which we were placed. General Heth at once expressed his
determination to prevent the capture of the battalion, saying : " Those men are too gallant
to allow of it," and he ordered up three batteries to be brought to cover that portion of the
picket line we occupied, or, you might say, the rifle pits. These were the guns we had seen,
for we had leu no artillery in the works.

That we were sleepy, you can rest assured, after our experience, and our sleep was long
and restful.

But this detention in the rifle pits all day brought about a disaster that the
Second Maryland could ill afford in its then depleted condition. Lieutenant
Thomas Tolson had been sent out on picket the day before with thirty-two men.
Captain Torsch from his position in the rifle pits could not recall him, as was his
intention, and by an attack by the enemy in force Tolson and his command were
captured.

At daylight on the morning of April 2, 1865, the battalion was ordered to
form. There was an indescribable something in everyone's presence that portended
of evil. What could it be ? It was true, the soldiers of Lee's army had revolved
the situation in their minds more than once, but then as long as " Mar's Bob " was
there all seemed right. But " Mar's Bob " could not build up armies without
material, and, alas ! that once glorious army was fast dwindling away through
desertion and casualties.

It seemed to those devoted troops that second day of April morning that the
whole Federal Army had been let loose. Everywhere was heard the roar of artil-
lery and the rattle of musketry. That handful of men composing the Army of
Northern Virginia was now but a pigmy battling with a giant; and still that
pigmy had not been of much greater proportions for many months, and yet the
giant had not before ventured an attack along the line. But the end was fast
approaching, and the end was as glorious as the beginning.