Notes Omissions &c in narrative incident No. 1

On the evening of our arrival at Big Sewel on the
advance towards Gauly, Gen. floyd rode across the
mountain some miles ahead of the army. Major
Perry, Capt. Peters & myself accompanied him. We
were entirely ignorant of any of our men being
on the road before us. The enemy were reported in
the vicinity. About a mile beyond the base of
the mountain our party, keeping a vigilant look-
out, were quietly riding along. We felt rather un-
safe & ventured to suggest his imprudence to the
General. He insisted on proceeding further.
Suddenly the P the 1st set of fours of a cavalry
force made its appearance around the end of
the road 40 yds. in advance. Yankees! Yankees!
ran from mouth to mouth. the countenance of
each proclaimed better than words that our worst
fears were realized. Our General was with us--
Our number was four -- We must never Sur-
render -- Running wd. not save us. The road was
straight & the fire from the opposite party wd. certain-
ly be fatal at that distance. Both sides halted.
Then a moment of breathless suspense. We
raised our guns & chose our marks. The sup--
posed Yankees didn't fire, neither did we.
Were they friends or enemies was the ques-
tion. A moment longer & we would have
sent the missiles of death against to do their
work when suddenly Gen. Floyd never excited,
always cool & decisive threw himself in full
view of the men opposed & stormed as he only
can, "Who are you?" Our trigers were yielding
to our bent fingers when the reply came, "Friends!"
We lowered our guns - & felt safe. The "Friends", were
a company of Cavalry returning from a Scout-
ing expedition. Had they proved enemies, it
is probably that our glorious old General
& all of us would have been killed - but
not without some of their number first bi-
ting the dust; The general's presence of mind
preserved us -- our fire would have probably
have been returned. It This was the first
opportunity I had to test my metal, & candid-
ly speaking, had not the General been along,
I should have (I think) showed my coat-tail
& made tracks to the rear! But to run from
my General would have disgraced me, so I
stood my ground. the horrid doubt that
hung around me was worse than ^'could have been' the reality.
In our suspense we knew nothing & I could
exclaim with the poet "Uncertainty, fell
demon of our fears!" -- May I never come
so near shooting our own men! May I never mis-
take our men for Yankees! May the Yankees never
shoot me!!!!!!