into action that day would have fully realized the expectations of their noble chief. But the battle had changed from our left and centre to the right, and nothing was required of this brigade but to remain as a reserve to General Pryor, who occupied the line in their immediate front.
When night began to fall, these men, all strangers to each other, begun to long for their comrades, and so to become restive and uneasy among the strange faces which surrounded them; so that by nine o'clock there was scarcely one of them to be found in the line, excepting those who belonged to the division.
This speech of General Lee's, which I have never seen recorded, and which this reminiscence is written to preserve, is, I think, fully equal to that of Napoleon at the Pyramids of Egypt, "Soldiers! from those pyramids forty centuries contemplate your actions." The two speeches are eminently characteristic of the two men. The watchword and guiding principle of the Frenchman being "Glory," that of Lee, "Duty."
"The Battle of the Cane-Brake."
Report of General Daniel Ruggles.
| First Mil. Dist., Dept. Miss. and E. La., Headquarters in the Field. Okalona, Miss , June 25, 1863. |
|
Colonel B. S. Ewell, Assistant Adjutant-General, Jackson, Miss.:
Colonel:—I have the honor to state for the information of the general commanding the department, (General J. E. Johnston), that on the 4th instant, I received official notice that Governor Pettus had ordered Colonel J. F. Smith's regiment and Major T. W. Harris' battalion, Mississippi State troops, to be turned over to the Confederate authorities, and an inspector was immediately ordered to inspect them preparatory to their reception. Only thirty-five of Harris' battalion could be assembled, and Smith's entire regiment, which had been stationed near New Albany, disbanded on the 9th and 10th before any inspection could be made.
To cover the country and reassure the people, on the 13th instant, I marched a portion of my troops with two sections of Owens' Light Battery and your prairie pieces, to the locality previously occupied by Smith's State troops. Arriving at Pontotoc myself after dark of that
