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was wounded, both of Company D, and Company E lost Private John C.
Spencer, killed.
Finding the place could not be carried without great sacrifice of life, General
Jones determined to wait until dark. Then Company C, Captain R. C. Smith,
and Company A, Captain F. A. Bond, were dismounted to storm the house, Major
Brown taking command of the whole. The necessary arrangements having been
made, at 9 o'clock the advance was ordered. Plunging into the mountain stream
that flowed between them and their prey, the Maryland boys dashed upon the house
in the midst of a heavy fire from the enemy ; but a delay became necessary after
they had reached the house, owing to the fact that the pioneers were not up, who
were to set it on fire. Upon their arrival, however, the windows and doors were
broken in, and the place set on fire by bundles of ignited straw being thrown in,
and the enemy to a man were either killed, wounded or captured.
In this unfortunate assault, Color-Corporal Carvill, of Company B, was killed,
as also was Private Samuel Dorsey, of Company C. Major Brown was badly
wounded, as was Adjutant G. W. Booth and Captain R. C. Smith, severely ; also
Lieutenants J. A. V. Pue and Edward Beatty. Thus of seven officers of the
battalion five were wounded. Private K. Grogan, of White's Battalion, had left
his command and went into the fight by the side of his brother, Robert Riddle
Grogan, who belonged to Company C, First Maryland. He was killed and his
brother was wounded.
The following additional description of this severe fight will be found highly
interesting. It is an extract from a paper read before the Beneficial Association of
the Maryland Line by Captain George W. Booth, who was severely wounded
at the time :
The advance regiment was the Seventh Virginia, under Colonel Dulany. Then
followed the First Maryland, and White' Battalion and the other commands, constituting
a column which stretched out for a mile or more, through the narrow defiles and narrower
roads of this mountainous region. After a march of some eighteen or twenty miles, the head
of the column encountered a Federal Infantry picket, posted at a small bridge where the road
crossed a mountain stream. It was the work of a moment to charge and capture the post
and its guard, when it was learned the road was blocked by the main body of the enemy —
some two companies of infantry, and about one hundred strong, who had taken post in a log
church located immediately on the roadside. Colonel Dulany, without hesitation, put his
regiment into rapid motion and charged ahead. On approaching the church, he was met by
a heavy fire, under which he lost a number of men and horses, receiving himself a serious
wound ; but some two hundred of his column ran the gauntlet and passed the church, taking
post beyond, while the remainder of his column was driven back. This unlooked-for event
necessitated a halt, and an examination of the situation. In a short while it would be dark,
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