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CHAPTER VI.

On the 9th of May, 1864. Sheridan began his raid around Richmond. Colonel
Johnson had gone on a scout toward Yorktown and left Lieutenant-Colonel
Ridgely Brown in camp in command of parts of four companies. On the afternoon
of that day Colonel Brown received information that a portion of the enemy's
cavalry were raiding on the rear of Lee's army, and had cut the railroad and
destroyed the cars and provisions accumulated at some point above Hanover
Court House. He immediately assembled his little command of one hundred and
fifty sabres and set out to ascertain the truth of the report. Shortly after passing
Hanover Junction the gleam of camp fires in the distance (it was just after dark)
along the line of railway in his front seemed to confirm the rumor. The battalion
pushed on at a trot, taking the usual precaution to throw out an advance guard
and flankers, and about u o'clock p. M. arrived at a point about a mile from
Beaver Dam, when it became evident that they were in close proximity to a large
force that was taking no pains to conceal their presence. The battalion was
halted, and Colonel Brown himself dismounted and went ahead on foot to recon-
noiter. He found the enemy in great glee, laughing and shouting at the top of
their voices, whilst at the same time they were busily engaged in burning railroad
ties, and generally seemed to feel the existence of an enemy to be an absurdity. So
close did Colonel Brown get to them that he came near surprising a party in a
cut. After having taken a good view, he quietly returned to his command, which
had been silently awaiting him, and dismounting all the men that could be
spared, amounting to some eighty or ninety, he advanced on the railroad. Silently
the little band crept on, carbine advanced, and ready to begin the work of death at
an instant's warning. Not a word was spoken, and the men held their breath in
anxious expectation, until right upon the bank of the railroad, when a whispered
exclamation announced that the enemy had gone. Not far, though, for they could
be plainly heard a short distance up the road.

The skirmish party was then formed in column, and moved to the left
toward the county road, not a hundred yards distant, with the intention to again
deploy and advance until the enemy was found. Not half the column had crossed
the fence which bounded the road when there was a challenge and shot almost
simultaneous, followed by a volley from both sides. In the darkness, blinded by
the fires the enemy had lighted, the head of the column had come suddenly upon
a Federal picket at a point which Colonel Brown, not half an hour before, had
found entirely unguarded; but during his absence they had finished their work
and gone to bed, posting pickets in the meantime, from habit more than anything