Its first military essay was an attack upon the "Christiana Keen," a four-hundred-ton merchantman grounded on the bar off Upper Mochodoc Creek, made in two flat-boats by a detachment under Lieutenant Beale, and which resulted in the destruction of the vessel and the capture of its sails, ropes, and sundry valuable nautical instruments. This was followed by some skirmishes with marines from the steamer "Freeborn," in which the enemy used his artillery very freely.
On the 6th day of July, dismounted and in line with an infantry company from Caroline county, armed with rifles and called "The Sparta Grays," and led by Major R. M. Mayo, they attacked a body of marines which had been landed, and were throwing up breastworks on the shore, and drove them, with considerable loss, back to the steamer, which was forced to slip her cables and retire with the loss of Captain Ward, United States navy, her commander. Though daily exposed to the fire of cannon from gunboats in the river, and often to that of the rifles of the marines, the company escaped without the loss of a man.
About the middle of July we were ordered to Brooke's Station, in Stafford county, on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad, and on the morning of the 20th of that month assigned to duty with the Thirtieth Virginia Infantry, commanded by Colonel R. Milton Cary, of Richmond city. As the advance guard of this regiment, we moved in the evening to the old village of Acquia, and bivouacked for the night.
The march was resumed early on the morning of the 21st. The roar of artillery in the direction of Manassas told of a great battle, and our patience was sorely tried by the tedium of an infantry march. The enthusiasm of Virginia was at this time intense. Relying upon our perfect familiarity with firearms from boyhood and our horsemanship, we feared not the disparity of numbers, and though without an officer who had ever seen service, or studied tactics, we felt confident of our ability to cope successfully with thrice our
