After a dull few days in camp near Waller’s Tavern along the North Anna River, including  a brigade inspection and brigade drill on Friday, Aug. 28, the calm was broken the next day.

“We received orders just before noon,” 17th Mississippi diarist Robert A. Moore recorded, “& had to march very suddenly.”

They marched about 8 miles, according to Spartan Band diarist William H. Hill, crossing the Davenport Bridge and camped near there on the south side of the river.

They moved a few miles the next day, about 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, to a new spot on the Virginia Central R.R. near Green Bay in Hanover County.

“We are here,” Moore wrote, “to guard against a raid of the enemy that is expected from the Peninsular. The country around here is mostly poor—the people are very kind.”

They stayed through Monday, drilling, Hill recorded, while the enemy advanced to about 15 miles east of Richmond before retreating back to the vicinity of Williamsburg. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, the brigade marched at daylight, making 10 miles in a return to its previous camp near Waller’s Tavern, on the north side of the North Anna River.

“All feel much livlier since our little tramp,” Moore wrote. “Capt. Clayton left us to go to Richmond. He will not be able for duty in the field any more.”

Clayton’s departure meant that Moore assumed command of the 17th’s Company G, the Confederate Guards, from Marshall County, Miss.