Here, along with other cavalry, in covering the retreat and protecting the immense wagon trains, they were continually engaged with the overwhelming forces of the enemy. Many and terrific were the encounters; but, hand to hand and sabre to sabre, they contested every foot of ground, losing many men in killed, wounded and prisoners. Upon this memorable retreat every officer and every man proved himself a hero. It seems invidious to particularize where so many were truly brave; but still, I will say, that among that heroic band, none shone more conspicuously than Captains George W. Emack and Warner E. Welsh. Fighting desperately, their deeds of daring at times amounted almost to madness. At length Hagerstown was reached. Upon the very heels of the First Maryland, and Tenth Virginia commanded by Colonel Lucius Davis, pressed the would-be incendiary and assassin, Ulric Dahlgren. Furiously he charged the Confederate column in the very streets of the town. The Tenth Virginia, in the rear, was thrown into confusion, and fell back and passed the command of Captain Bond. But that little band of heroes were not to be affected by the unmanly panic, but moved at the same dogged, determined pace. Bond was but waiting for the Virginians to get by. The enemy were within a hundred yards of him, and an unguarded Confederate wagon train was at their mercy. That wagon train must be saved, for it contained much of General Ewell’s supply of ammunition. “Fours, right-about wheel, march! Charge!” rung out the command; and in an instant the gallant fellows had obeyed the order. Bond, mounted upon his fiery mare, Bertha Rives, was too quick for his followers, and darting like lightning, amid a shower of bullets, he found himself within twenty yards of the astonished enemy before he was able to check her. Here, for an instant, that brave man confronted almost certain death, as the muzzle of his pistol swept from right to left, in search of a victim. He was found, a quick, ringing report is heard, a spasmodic motion of the leg, and Ulric Dahlgren was a cripple for the brief remainder of his wicked life. All this, reader, did not occupy half the time I have taken to relate it, for in an instant Captain Bond’s men were at his side, and closed with the enemy. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued, but they were driven back in confusion, pursued by the relentless Marylanders, who cut them down at every step. The wagon train was saved, and the command received the congratulations of General Ewell.