to assist in repelling a foe which was then preying upon the fairest portions of his native State.  He made application to join Company D, Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, which was made up principally from his county, and, therefore, contained many of his acquaintances, and seemed much surprised when told that the Confederate government did not furnish its cavalry with horses and equipments.  Some members of the company present, who noticed his earnestness and the disappointment caused by this announcement from the officer, said,—­

“Enroll him, captain; we will see that he has a horse and equipments the next fight we get into.”

On faith of this promise he was enrolled,—­James M. Watkins, Company D, Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, Jones’s Brigade.  Shortly afterward the campaign opened with the fight at Brandy Station, in which twenty thousand cavalry were engaged from daylight to sundown.  Before the battle was over Watkins, mounted and fully equipped, took his place with his company.  It was not long after this engagement that General Lee advanced the whole army, and crossed into Maryland, Watkins’s command covering the rear.  During the battle of Gettysburg, on the 3d and 4th of July, we were engaged several times with the enemy’s cavalry on our right, upon which occasions he was always found in the front, and while on the march was ever bright and cheerful.

On the evening of the 4th, General Lee, in preparation for his retreat, began to send his wagons to the rear in the direction of Williamsport, when it was found that the enemy’s cavalry had gone around our left and taken possession of a pass in South Mountain, through which lay our line of march.  To dislodge them required a stubborn fight, lasting late into the night, in which General Jones’s brigade was engaged, and he himself, becoming separated from his men in the darkness, was supposed to have been captured or killed.

Finally the Federals were repulsed, and the wagon-train proceeded on its way to Williamsport.  In the morning Watkins’s command was ordered to march on the left flank of the train to prevent a renewal of the attack upon it, and on approaching Hagerstown those in the rear of the column heard loud and repeated cheering from the men in front.  After having been in an enemy’s country fighting night and day, in rain and mud, those cheers came to those who heard them in the distance as the first rays of sunshine after a storm.  Many were the conjectures as to their cause:  some said it was fresh troops from the other side of the Potomac; others that it was the ammunition-wagons, for the supply was known to be short; while others surmised that it was General Jones reappearing after his supposed death or capture.  Whatever the cause was, its effect was wonderful upon the morale of those men, and cheers went up all along the line from those who did not know the cause in answer to those who did.  When the command had reached a stone mill, about three miles southeast