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At Warrenton Springs, after the battery had crossed the river at that ford,
it became impassable through a sudden storm, thus cutting off their retreat and
preventing reinforcements from going to their relief. But so fiercely did the boys
fight their guns that time was given to build a bridge, over which they safely
recrossed in the very presence of a vastly superior force of the enemy, and then
made a forced march by way of Thoroughfare Gap to the second Manassas.

At Bristol's the Chesapeake was actively engaged keeping the enemy in
check whilst the immense amount of stores captured at Manassas were being
destroyed.

In this action Andrew Egan had his thigh terribly mutilated, and the battery
lost a good man, for the poor fellow was rendered a cripple for life. Dad Baker
made a narrow escape at the same time, having his clothes partially torn from his
body by an exploding shell.

In the midst of the hottest part of the fire, the boys were startled by the sight
of Stonewall Jackson, quietly looking on, and evidently much gratified at the
execution the battery was doing. Now, there were two things that would always
bring a yell from a Confederate soldier, and those were the sight of Jackson or
a rabbit. The impulse could not be resisted, and the fire of the battery was
stopped and three hearty cheers were given to the grim old soldier. But this
was evidently not to his liking, for he instantly ordered the battery to renew its
firing, and the way those guns were made to jump was a lesson to the enemy.

But this first day's fight over, the boys sought something refreshing to
compensate them in a measure for the danger they had escaped and the severe
work they had been compelled to perform; and even a soldier has his moments
of enjoyment, and one of these is a cup of good coffee, something to which the
Southern soldier was a stranger for a long period of the war, unless it was captured
from the enemy. After a fight, foraging is the first thing in order, and this was
not an exceptional occasion. The boys were in luck, and soon a quantity of
steaming coffee was being handed around, and that night the camp-fire was
enlivened with song and jest at the expense of the enemy.

But these things cannot last forever, for whilst enjoying the agreeable
innovation the bugle suddenly sounded the assembly, and the battery was soon
thundering away at the enemy in a desperate artillery duel in the night, with
nothing to direct their fire but the flash of the opposing guns. Having the
advantage of position, the Chesapeake suffered but small loss, whilst, when day
broke, the ground where had stood the hostile battery and its supporting infantry
was found thickly strewn with dead and wounded men and horses.

And here an incident occurred not so uncommon upon the battle-field as the
reader would suppose, that must challenge the admiration of all Christian people.
In passing over this ghastly field Lieutenant John Grason, of the Chesapeake,