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but none were available, and under the desperate nature of the circumstances
General Lomax ordered a battery near the line of battle which the infantry was
forming, to open on the struggling mass. The artillery officer remonstrated, as he
was satisfied he would damage friend as well as foe; but the order was repeated.
The first few shots fell in the ranks of the enemy, and rendered material aid to
the handful of brave men in such imminent peril, but unfortunately a shell at last
struck right in their midst, when, of course, the battalion broke.

The fire of a foe in front and a friend in rear was more than human nature
could withstand; but even then they did not leave the field, but retired stubbornly
contesting every foot of ground until they reached a house standing in a field near
the pike, and midway between Bunker Hill and the infantry line, where some of
the command formed on both sides, which they were obliged to do to confront the
now rapidly advancing enemy. Here a stand was made, and the fight continued
for some time. On the side of the house next the pike was the color-bearer of the
First Maryland, Colonel Gilmor, Captain Ditty, Captain Rasin and some fifteen
officers and men, and, it becoming evident that they could no longer hold the enemy
at bay, Colonel Gilmor turned to this handful and exclaimed : "Well, go at them
again!" but had not gone five steps, the battalion, or rather what was left of it, at
his heels, when Colonel Gilmor dropped his pistol and wheeled around, the blood
streaming from his neck, and galloped off, saying as he did so, "I'm shot!"
Seeing the folly of remaining longer, the command retired upon the infantry,
which easily repulsed the enemy's cavalry.

In this desperate fight the gallant Lieutenant Henry C. Blackiston, of Company
B, was killed. Lieutenant Blackiston was much beloved by his comrades, with
whom he had engaged the enemy in a hundred battles.

After this affair, the battalion being much reduced, General Early ordered that
it be consolidated with Gilmor's battalion. Not wishing to lose its identity, and
for other reasons as well, this met with great opposition, and an earnest protest
was sent to the War Department at Richmond, and the order was revoked.

Some time during the month of August, 1864, in obedience to an order from
the War Department, Company K, First Virginia Cavalry, was transferred to the
First Maryland. This corfipany had been raised by Captain George R. Gaither
in May, 1861. and soon after attached to the First Virginia Cavalry, then
commanded by Colonel J. E. B. Stuart. It was composed entirely of Marylanders,
and at the time of its transfer to the First Maryland was commanded by Captain
Gustavus W. Dorsey, a most gallant soldier.

After the order of General Early had been revoked, and the First Maryland
returned to its original status, Captain G. W. Dorsey was assigned to the command,
with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of
the lamented Ridgely Brown. This vacancy had existed for some time, and was