October 14 — This morning at daylight we heard heavy firing in front and not very far away. General Ewell’s forces passed our camp this morning just at daylight, going to the front at a double-quick whence came the thrilling sounds of actual war.
When we left camp this morning we turned off to the left of the Catlett Station road, and went to the Warrenton and Alexandria pike; just as we arrived at the pike General A. P. Hill’s troops were passing to the front. Then the ominous sound of booming cannon still came rolling from the east through the quiet morning air, and the deep growling thunder of the war dogs swept over the Fauquier hills and died away among the distant peaks of the Blue Ridge. We moved to New Baltimore, a small hamlet on the Warrenton pike, situated eleven miles below Warrenton. We halted there for our brigade, which arrived about two o’clock this afternoon, when we fell in with our cavalry and moved down the pike toward Manassas. We passed through Buckland, a small village of a few scattered houses, situated on Cub Run, in the eastern part of Fauquier County. We moved on the Warrenton pike as far as Gainesville, then turned to the right and marched toward Bristoe Station. It was then nearly dark and we were on the enemy’s right flank and about three miles from their main body. Some of General A. P. Hill’s forces attacked the Yankees late this evening at Bristoe Station. We heard heavy cannonading and a fierce roar of musketry in that direction this evening, but as yet have no tidings of the result. We are camped tonight in Prince William County, about three miles northwest of Bristoe. Bristoe is a station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, five miles south of Manassas. The firing we heard so early this morning was some of General Ewell’s battery and Rhodes’ division of infantry. They attacked the Yankees near Auburn Mills, in order to assist General Stuart and his cavalry to cut and force their way out through a column of Yankee infantry that was retreating during the night between Stuart’s cavalry and our army, and which had entirely surrounded our cavalry unknowingly. This morning at daybreak General Stuart, with his command, surprised the Yankee infantry and cut his way through their column so successfully that his loss is not worth mentioning. A section of our battery was in there too, and got out safely.
