Under such circumstances as these, the spirit of discontent culminated in the Loudoun companies, and on the night of the 14th, about sixty of A and C took a regular “French leave” and went home, determined to supply themselves with winter clothing, no matter what might be the consequences of their desertion, and we will there leave them for a time, in order to tell of an event that had a brightening effect upon the heart of every man in the Ashby brigade, which was an order for General Rosser to march his command to the Valley.
On the night of the 18th December, the brigade crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and moved to Stafford C. H., where it encamped until morning, when the march was resumed, and all day long, through a drenching rain, the Valley men travelled on without a halt until about 11 o’clock at night, when they reached a fortified camp of the enemy at Sangster Station, on the Manassas Gap Rail Road, about twenty miles from Alexandria. Capt. Dan. Hatcher, with his squadron, (1st of 7th Regiment,) immediately charged through a stream of water and over the Rail Road bank, gaining the enemy’s rear, but was met by such a heavy force in the breastworks that he was unable to return, and the 11th Regiment dashed forward in a wild, reckless charge, which forced the Yankees to surrender, and released Hatcher and his boys from their perilous position.
The command marched on from Sangster as rapidly as possible, and on reaching Bull Run, about two miles from Centreville, found that stream almost impassable from the continuous rain which had been pouring down for nearly twenty-four hours, and with the greatest difficulty the crossing was effected, but just when the rear guard reached the stream a party of Yankees came down from Centreville, which produced a panic, and in the confusion some of White’s men were knocked from their horses into the stream. The night was excessively dark, and the country totally unknown to the men, and as the head of the column had waited for nothing, but marched quickly on as soon as the swollen stream was passed, the panic was increased by the fast riding of those who got across, and when Col. White got his men over there was no sign of the brigade nor any indication of the route it had taken, while the firing in the rear showed that the Yankees were coming up.