fore we came to a defile, a muddy sloughy brook; while the Artillery were passing this place, we sat down by the road side;—in a few minutes the Commander-in-chief and suit crossed the road just where we were sitting. I heard him ask our officers "by whose order the troops were retreating," and being answered, "by Gen. Lee's;" he said something, but as he was moving forward all the time this was passing, he was too far off for me to hear it distinctly; those that were nearer to him, said that his words were—"d—n him;" whether he did thus express himself or not I do not know, it was certainly very unlike him, but he seemed at the instant to be in a great passion, his looks if not his words seemed to indicate as much. After passing us, he rode on to the plain field and took an observation of the advancing enemy; he remained there sometime upon his old English charger, while the shot from the British Artillery were rending up the earth all around him. After he had taken a view of the enemy, he returned and ordered the two Connecticut Brigades to make a stand at a fence, in order to keep the enemy in check while the Artillery and other troops crossed the before-mentioned defile. [It was the Connecticut and Rhode-Island forces which occupied this post, notwithstanding what Dr. Ramsay says to the contrary; he seems willing, to say the least, to give the southern troops the credit due to the northern; a Historian ought to be sure of the truth of circumstances before he relates them.] When we had secured our retreat, the Artillery formed a line of pieces upon a long piece of elevated ground. Our detachment formed directly in front of the Artillery, as a covering party, so far below on the declivity of the hill, that the pieces could play over our heads. And here we waited the approach of the enemy, should he see fit to attack us.
By this time the British had come in contact with the New-England forces at the fence, when a sharp conflict ensued; these troops maintained their ground, till the whole force of the enemy that could be brought to bear, had charged upon them through the fence, and after being overpowered by numbers and the platoon officers had given orders for their several platoons to leave the fence, they had to force them to retreat, so
