My untutored form of expressing terms granted may have seemed awkward to the better technically informed soldiers present, but I still think my proposition was as much to the point as that of “Stonewall” Jackson at Harpers Ferry or General Grant’s at Fort Donelson, to wit, “Unconditional surrender, sir.”
In regard to this night capture, the official reports of some officers, as published, are so misleading and inaccurate that I feel obliged to call attention to them, and especially that of Lieutenant-Colonel John McGuirk, Seventeenth Mississippi, found in Vol. V., Series 1, page 362, Official Records, which I would be glad for all who may see this little story, to read it, it being too voluminous to incorporate in this.
However, some allowance should be made for him, as we learn from his report that he was suffering under excessive fatigue, having been fifty-three hours in the saddle, breaking down one horse, having immediate supervision of all operations from Smart’s Mill to Edward’s Ferry during both days, taking many prisoners, guarding the battlefield all night, ending up on the night of 22d by having his last horse fall with and upon him, in Leesburg, producing a shock so serious that he was unable to remount without help, and finally having to be assisted from his horse and put to bed, with the heavy duty of having to prepare his report, so that General Evans might know just WHAT had been done and WHO did it, coming upon him before he had fully recovered. In view of all these things, we must admit that he made quite an interesting report, in which he says that “Mr. E. White, of Ashby’s Cavalry, entered the field with two companies of the Eighth Virginia and I joined my forces to his,” etc.
To vindicate the truth of history I here emphatically declare that there were no soldiers engaged in that capture—the greatest of the day—but those of the Eighth Virginia, except myself, who, at that time, belonged to Captain Mason’s company of Ashby’s Legion. I say this because it is the truth and that Lieut. Charles Berkeley, with the gallant band of the Eighth Virginia, who joined him in the enterprise, shall have the credit that belonged to them, Colonel Featherstone and Lieutenant Colonel McGuirk to the contrary notwithstanding, but I am well assured that Featherstone’s report is based upon McGuirk.