I detailed my fifty men, and after taking a careful survey of the ground I was to traverse, made a run for it across the field amidst a shower of bullets from the enemy’s sharpshooters, but which fortunately did no execution. Shortly after reaching the designated point I had the misfortune to lose the services of Lieutenant Dabney by the accidental explosion of his pistol, and I had, therefore, but one officer left. We had been there perhaps an hour when I became convinced from hearing the command “forward, guide centre,” repeatedly given in the woods some four hundred yards distant in our immediate front, that the enemy was massing for an attack. Finding my men reluctant to take the risk of recrossing the field with a message to the Colonel, I was compelled to go myself. Placing them under the command of a Sergeant, I made the attempt and reached the brigade in safety. I reported to Johnson what I had heard; and at his suggestion we walked to the brow of the hill before us, and to our astonishment beheld three lines of battle emerging from the woods, and moving rapidly upon the railroad excavation. It was out of the question for me to return to my fifty men, and I should not have gone if I could, for the greater portion of my command was with the brigade. Rushing back therefore with him, the command “forward, double-quick,” was instantly given, and then commenced a wild race as to which should reach the much coveted point first. As we emerged from the woods, and became exposed to the view of the enemy’s artillery, he opened a terrible fire, which was returned with interest upon his advancing columns by thirty pieces of our artillery on a plateau to the right of us. We reached the opposite banks of the cut simultaneously, and then began one of the most desperate and bloody conflicts of the war. Muzzle to muzzle, each delivered their fire into the very bosoms of their foe. Dead and wounded men fell by hundreds, and many on both sides rolled down the embankment and intermingled at the bottom. The importance of the place was known to each, and each was determined to possess it. The appearance of Colonel Johnson upon that field I shall never forget. But few men had ever before had so important a trust imposed in them, and there he intended to win or die. Never have I seen such sublime courage displayed upon the field of battle. In his shirt sleeves, his eye flashing, his lips compressed, he was everywhere encouraging his men. Three different times he ran along his line, the target for many a bullet, and how he escaped unscathed that awful fire, God only knows.