First Person Report
of fighting in Rockville, July 13, 1864
(The Battle of Rockville)

From the report of Col. Charles Lowell. 2nd Mass. Cavalry, commander of Union forces in action in Rockville, July 13, 1864:

In civilian dress after the war.

"My dispatch was here interrupted by the report of a large number of rebels being met just through [Rockville] by my advance guard, who charged at once. My advance was then dismounted, and, after a sharp skirmish there, checked a good strong charge of the rebels, after being driven nearly through the town by them. We fell back to the edge of town and established a strong dismounted skirmish line, holding them, hearing they were endeavoring to flank us, I retired to a situation two miles from Rockville, slowly. My regiment in the town, I fear, was mostly enveloped by the enemy, and are very severly whipped." [Editor´s note: Nevertheless, Lowell´s men repulsed four charges in Rockville, and the nexy day a great many of his "missing" rejoined the command.]

[Also, this editor records the following description of the action with the comment "I will tell the story as told to me by a young lieutenant, who was in the fight ..."]

"Major Crownshield with his battlion had gone forward and was attacking briskly when the cavalry of the irritated enemy turned and charged in great force. Suddenly, upon Col. Lowell´s column advancing through the streets, a torrent of riders, flyers and pursuers, came pouring at full speed. It would have been in vain to have [counter] charged them. Lowell´s men were armed with the new Spencer repeating carbine. He shouted confidently the order "Dismount! and let your horses go" (no horse-holders could be spared, nor was there time), and the men obeyed and made a hasty line. He waited till the enemy came near, fired one volley at short range -- it checked the rush; another -- it stopped it. Lowell, on foot, ran out before them, waved his hat, and they ran forward firing, while their scattered comrades turned and rejoined them, and the rout was averted. Then he fell back slowly, having suffered a considerable loss, but taken many prisoners."

The Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, ed. Edward W. Emerson, Houghton Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1907. pp. 40-41, 455-456.