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our arrival, from which escape was possible. I now learned that the Insur- gents had originally consisted of twenty two desperadoes from other sections of the Country, more than half of whom had al- ready been killed, disabled or captured by the armed Citizens of the place and Va Military. [ 13 ] The duty of guarding the Enclosure within which the rem- nant of the Insurgents had been driven and where they had strongly fortified themselves was during the whole night confided to my command, together with a body of Va Military, and was faithfully performed. The detachments were regularly relieved every two hours and I cannot too highly extol the zeal and vigilance and alacrity which were displayed by all the men. The Insurgents are believed to have meditated escape that night and to have made efforts to that end, but were effectually checked by the vig- ilance of the men on guard. They had posted themselves in a Brick Buil- ding [ 14 ] and had constructed loopholes by cutting out bricks in the walls, by means of which they could rake with their fire the street in which detach- ments from my command were placed on guard for a distance of several hundred feet, and the guards were repeatedly fired on during the night, without however I am happy