were formed, however, and started forward, but went obliquely to the left to the wood, and I saw no more of them"—I am involved in utter confusion, because the Twenty-fourth Virginia was the first to emerge from the woods. It opened the fight and continued in it to the close. No other of the four regiments of Early's brigade than the Fifth North Carolina and the Twenty-fourth Virginia did participate, and there was no Early's regiment to recover from confusion, nor any other regiment to take Colonel Bratton's works, than the Twenty-fourth Virginia.
In the charge made by the Fifth North Carolina on the right, the Twenty-fourth Virginia bore part on the left. It moved upon them under my order, and at that time there certainly was no regiment "which formed and started forward, but went obliquely to the left to the wood." General Early had been wounded and retired. I saw South Carolina soldiers in the redoubt, but supposed they were under orders to remain there. None of them joined the charge that I saw or heard of. So if any regiment of Early's brigade did take Colonel Bratton's works, it must have been the Twenty-fourth Virginia; and I have had frequent conversations with the officers of that regiment, and I make bold to say that if it encountered any Confederate troops, or took any work from friendly occupiers, they were wholly unaware of the fact. And if this taking of works did occur, it must have been when General Early was present with the Twenty-fourth Virginia; for when I reached the redoubt, simultaneously with the passage of the Fifth North Carolina between the two, I found the Twenty-fourth—which had already been engaged—in line, on the left of the redoubt, and prepared to advance with the Fifth North Carolina. Some of its men were about the redoubt.
Colonel Bratton further says:
"I met General Early near this redoubt, himself and horse both wounded, and told him that I had checked the enemy, and been there watching him for three or four hours, and asked him to give me a place in the charge. He said, 'Certainly, go.' I told him that some of my men were in that fort. He said, 'Take them and go toward the enemy.' I took my men out of the fort and moved them all forward into the gap left by the oblique movement of Early's regiment into the woods. We advanced to within a hundred yards of the enemy, when we were ordered by General D. H. Hill to move by the left flank into the wood."
In the connection in which Colonel Bratton makes this state-
