Our brigade moved along the turnpike on that quiet summer evening as unsuspectingly as if changing camp. Suddenly the stillness was broken by six cannon shots fired in rapid succession by a rebel battery, point blank at our regiment. The shell passed over the heads of our men and burst into the woods beyond. Surprise is no sufficient word for our astonishment, but the reverberation had not died away when gallant old Colonel Cutler's familiar voice rang out sharp and loud, "Battallion, halt! Front! Load at will! Load!"The men fairly jumped in their eagerness; and the iron ramrods were jingling, when--"Bang! Bang!" went the rebel cannon again they overshot our men, but a poor horse was knocked down over and over against the turnpike fence. "Lie down!" shouted Colonel Cutler. Fortunately a little bank along the roadside gave us good cover. Battery "B," 4th U.S. artillery, now came down the turnpike on a gallop. Quickly tearing away the fence, they wheeled into position in the open field, and the loud crack of their brass twelve pounders echoed the rebel cannon.Thus opened our first real battle.-Rufus R. Dawes, 6th Wisconsin Infantry