served on his staff), directed me to bring up Gen. A. P. Hill. I inquired where I should find him, and he simply replied, "Over in that direction," pointing with his hand. If I had known then what I learned aferwards, that Gen. A. P. Hill had switched from Manassas to Centreville and was then probably on the old Warrenton and Alexandria turnpike, somewhere between Cen- treville and Gainesville, I might have found him, but I did not know, and General Jackson did not tell me, so I rode around the country all the afternoon to no purpose. If I had not been sent off I should have gone in with our brigade (Stonewall) and might have been killed, as poor Col. Hoff, Thirty-third Virginia, was, for King's Division, the attacked party, put up a very stiff fight, and did not draw off until after dark. General Taliaferro was wounded, and so was Gen. Ewell, who lost his leg, and I think that considerably affected his future efficiency as a general. When I returned, the fight was over, and we had to mourn many killed and wounded in our brigade, especially in the Washington College company, the "Liberty Hall Volunteers," of the Fourth Virginia Regiment.
Next morning (August 29th) we continued our bivouac in the woods, our division (now commanded by Gen. Starke, of the Louisiana brigade) occupying the right of the line of battle, Ewell's, now Lawton's, division, next and A. P. Hill's on the left. We bore the brunt of this day's battle, which did not begin with our division unitl about 2 P. M., or later, although the battle is called the battle of Groveton, which was beyond our right. It was this afternoon, I think, that we charged through the woods in front of us to relieve Hill's troops and reached the open field on the farther side, but soon returned to our position, for there was no intention of bringing on a general engagement until Longstreet arrived. He came by twelve o'clock, some say earlier, although Pope would not believe it, but, as usual, it took a long time to get ready, and he wasn't in it until late that evening, when Hood's division drove back Hatch's, and we awaited the next day.
A large quantity of artillery was massed on a hill between the two corps, under Col. Stephen D. Lee, and it did good service next day in repulsing the attacks made on us, for it had
