The Battle Dies Out

The Battle Dies Out. "We Slept Within 300 Yards of the Enemy". , Evening, When the fighting near here ended in mid-afternoon, the sounds of battle could still be heard a mile to your left, where Union forces were advancing towards Mill Creek Ridge. But by dusk that fighting also ended. Union commander Gen. John C. Fremont, unnerved by Confederate Gen. Isaac Trimble's aggression in this area, ordered his troops to fall back to a line along Keezletown Road, a mile in front of you., As the darkness grew, Union and Confederate artillery briefly exchanged fire and "the heavens were aglare and hills trembled." By sunset, the last of the firing ceased and relative calm settled over the battlefield., Such calm did not suit the aggressive Trimble; having driven the Federals back more than a mile, he was eager to continue. He pressed his superior, Gen. Richard S. Ewell, to launch a night attack - and rode to Port Republic to plead his case to Stonewall Jackson - but Ewell refused, telling Trimble that "even a partial reverse would interfere with General Jackson's plan for the next day." As the frustrated Trimble later wrote, "So ended the matter.", The night passed with the soldiers resting on the field, some close to men they had just fought. A member of the 21st Georgia recalled that he "slept on the battlefield that night within 3 hundred yards of the Enemy." Others heard the voices of opposing skirmishers in the dark., The next morning, as most of Ewell's force marched south to support Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic, Trimble's brigade and Col. John Patton's 42nd Virginia initially stayed here as a rear guard to keep Fremont "in check." By mid-morning they were also on their way to Port Republic, the last Confederates to leave the field., (Caption):, Going into Bivouac. Drawing by Edwin Forbes. , Library of Congress.