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172 Series I Volume XXXVI-II Serial 68 - Wilderness-Cold Harbor Part II

Page 172 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter XLVIII.

bridges, and of the three bridges, two were already taken up. Lieutenant Prud'homme, Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, was seriously wounded whilst leading the advance to drive off the enemy's pickets. He was sent in an ambulance to Fort Powhatan the same night and reached that place in safety. The command camped at Wakefield, where the Norfolk and Petersburg track was cut; the station house and some freight cars and a small amount of stores destroyed. The distance marched was about 50 miles this day.

On the morning of the 7th, between 2 and 3 o'clock, the march was resumed, passing via Littleon, Peter's Bridge, and leaving Sussex Court-House on the right, by Bolling's Bridge to Stony Grove, on the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. At Littleton we captured an officer, with a train of three or four wagons of commissary and other stores. Bolling's Bridge was defended by a picket of infantry, and a portion of the bridge was taken up. About 4 o'clock the guard at the railroad bridge, under Major Zeigler, Fifty-ninth Virginia [Holcombe Legion], surrendered, with about 40 men, after some firing and the loss of Lieutenant Mayes and several men killed and wounded. A frame bridge 110 feet long, two wood-sheds, two water-tanks, a large lot of extra bridge timber, three freight-cars loaded with lumber, a culvert, and turn-pits were here destroyed. Sufficient corn and bacon for the command were captured and used, and the three regiments of the command bivouacked here for the night.

Three trains loaded with troops of Beauregard's command passed on to Petersburg about noon, and five trains were dire between 5 and 6 o'clock. The Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, under Colonel S. P. Spear, I sent down to burn the Nottoway railroad bridge, but did not reach it in time before night set in. The bridge was found to be guarded, and no attempt was made to burn it that night. The distance marched was about 40 miles. At daylight on the 8th the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry was sent to the Eleventh with order to move on the Nottoway bridge from the south, and Colonel Mix was directed to move on the same from the north side, while I reconnoitered the railroad toward Petersburg with two companies of the First District of Columbia Cavalry. Finding a force defending the Rowanty bridge, after the lapse of two or three hours I withdrew to Bolling's Bridge, and, to my great disappointment, found Colonel Mix had not moved. Deeming it too late to co-operate with Colonel Spear, I recrossed Bolling's Bridge and moved directly on Nottoway bridge, and found that Colonel Spear with his command had devoted the morning to the destruction of Jarratt's Station, where my orders reached him. For a report of the damage done, see Colonel Spear's report.

Nottoway bridge was 210 feet long. I found it defended by a redoubt, and several hundred men under Colonel Tabb, of the Fifty-ninth Virginia. The ground about the bridge was open, and the embankment of the road on our side and the redoubt on the other side formed a strong defense. The enemy occupied both sides of the river. Placing the artillery to command the bridge and redoubt, a portion of the carbineers were dismounted and sent to the railroad track, to move along it and drive the enemy from the embankment. This force united with a portion of Colonel Spear's command, and drove the enemy through the bridge in handsome style, while the artillery opened a cross-fire upon them, and kept up a galling fire upon them until the bridge was in flames, when our forces with-


Page 172 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter XLVIII.