underbrush, through fields that had lain fallow for years, now studded with bushes and briars, and the night being exceedingly dark, the men floundered and fell as they marched.  But the needs were too urgent to be slack in the march now, so the men struggled with nature in their endeavor to keep in ranks.  Sometimes the head of the column would lose its way, and during the time it was hunting its way back to the lost bridle path, was about the only rest we got.  The men were already worn out by their forced march of the day before, and now they had to exert all their strength to its utmost to keep up.  About daylight we struck the plank road leading from Orange Court House to Fredericksburg, and into this we turned and marched down with a swinging step.  Kershaw’s Brigade was leading, followed by Humphreys’ and Wofford’s, with Bryan bringing up the rear.  The Second South Carolina was in front, then the Third, Seventh, Fifteenth, Third Battalion, and Eighth on extreme right, the brigade marching left in front.

[Illustration:  Capt.  Chesley W. Herbert, Co.  C, 3d S.C.  Regiment.]

[Illustration:  Capt.  Theodore F. Malloy, Co.  C, 8th S.C.  Regiment.]

[Illustration:  Capt.  John W. Wofford, Co.  K, 3d S.C.  Regiment.]

[Illustration:  Capt.  John Hampden Brooks, Co.  G, 7th S.C.  Regiment.]

After marching some two miles or more down the plank road at a rapid gait, passing Hill’s field infirmary, where the wounded of the day before were being cared for, we heard a sharp firing in our immediate front.  Longstreet’s artillery was far in the rear, floundering along through the blind roads as the infantry had done the night before.  Our wagons and subsistence supplies had not been since dawn of the 5th, although this made little difference to the men, as Longstreet’s Corps always marched with three days’ rations in their haversacks, with enough cooking utensils on their backs to meet immediate Wants.  So they were never thrown off their base for want of food.  The cartridge boxes were filled with forty rounds, with twenty more in their pockets, and all ready for the fray.

As soon as the musketry firing was heard, we hastened our steps, and as we reached the brow of a small elevation in the ground, orders were given to deploy across the road.  Colonel Gaillard, with the Second, formed on the left of the road, while the Third, under Colonel Nance; formed on the right, with the other regiments taking their places on the right of the Third in their order of march.  Field’s Division Was forming rapidly on the left of the plank road, but as yet did not reach it, thus the Second was for the time being detached to fill up.  The Mississippians, under Humphreys, had already left the plank road in our rear, and so had Wofford, with his Georgians, and were making their way as best they could through this tangled morass of the Wilderness, to form line of battle on Kershaw’s right.  The task was difficult in the extreme, but the men were equal to the occasion, Bryan’s Georgia Brigade filed off to the right, in rear, as reserves.