Nightfall of this same day found the Seventeenth, Fourteenth, and Twentieth Corps encamped at Raft Swamp between the fifteen and twenty-mile posts on the Fayetteville plank road and near McFarland's Bridge over the Lumber River.(2) The day's march, because of heavy rains, had been extremely difficult for all. Practically every foot of the way had to be corduroyed with fence rails and split saplings. 

The excitement and graveness of an expected clash with Hampton caused the Federal commander to spend much of the afternoon passing from one of his detachments to another. For consolation in such troubled times, "little Kil" shared the carriage of a beautiful young lady accompanying the army north. Made to walk behind the carriage was a Confederate prisoner, Lieutenant H. Clay Reynolds, who was able to view from a close range the entertaining spectacle of the General lying with his head in his lady friend's lap. That night Kilpatrick made his camp with Colonel George E. Spencer's brigade north of Solemn Grove. 

Hampton, upon learning that Kilpatrick was near, decided to attack the Federal camp at daylight the next morning, March 10. During the early part of the evening, one of Kilpatrick's officers mistakenly rode into the Confederate lines and was brought immediately to General Butler for questioning. Butler was able to learn from this officer the location of Kilpatrick's headquarters, which were in the Charles Monroe dwelling. Around midnight Butler reconnoitered the Federal position and learned that Kilpatrick had posted no pickets to protect his rear. This enabled Butler and his men to ride almost up to the camp fires without being noticed. Kilpatrick had moved around the head of a swamp and pitched his camp in front of it. His rear and right were protected by the swamp, but his left was entirely exposed.

By nine o'clock on the evening of March 9, Brigadier Generals Thomas J. Jordan and Smith D. Atkins, commanding Kilpatrick's First and Second Brigades respectively, discovered that while Hampton had been amusing them in front, he was passing with his main force on a road to his right. These officers at once made every effort to reach Kilpatrick before dawn but failed to do so, owing to bad roads and almost incessant skirmishing with the Confederates, who were marching on a parallel road at some points not a mile distant. The Confederate and Federal columns were so close that some of the time they became mixed together. One of Wheeler's men said that on this particular night he happened to glance up one time and discovered, much to his surprise, that a number of   Federal cavalrymen were riding by his side and that by the time he had reported this to his captain at the head of the column, the Federals had disappeared, taking with them as prisoners the Confederate rear guard.

To make his escape "little Kil" Had to spring from the warm bed of his lovely lady. The first thought to enter his mind at the sound of piercing "Rebel" yells was not the embarrassment of having such a delightful nocturnal slumber abruptly interrupted but that his four years of hard fighting for a major general's commission were going up with the surprise attack. The initial shock of this unexpected visit did not completely separate the cavalry commander from his wits, however. While standing in front of his headquarters, a Confederate rider dashed up to Kilpatrick and asked him if he had seen the General, to which he replied, "There he goes on that black horse," pointing to a man making off on such a mount. Thereupon the soldier pursued the figure pointed out to him. Kilpatrick, clad only in his night clothes, then jumped upon the nearest horse and made a hasty departure.(4)

By this time, chance bullets were fast perforating the weatherboards of the headquarters house. This was sufficient to bring the General's forsaken damsel to the doorway.(5) For a moment she looked disconsolately at her carriage as if the vague idea were dawning that it was time for her to be leaving. This was followed by a short period of mute despair when it became apparent to her that the carriage would not move without horses. The strange apparition of a lovely young woman in scanty night dress on the field of battle brought one Confederate captain's horse to a fast halt. Southern Chivalry rose to the occasion. Dismounting, the cavalryman led the distressed one to the safety of a nearby ditch.

About eight o'clock, Brigadier General J. G. Mitchell's brigade of the Fourteenth Corps came to Kilpatrick's assistance. Although the fighting was over, this infantry brigade moved into position and remained with Kilpatrick until 1:30 pm.

The casualty reports of this skirmish are both confusing and contradictory. Kilpatrick reported that he lost 4 officers killed and 7 wounded, 15 men killed and 61 severely and several slightly wounded, and 103 officers and men taken prisoners. He further stated that over 80 Confederate dead and a great number of wounded were left in his camp and that 30 prisoners and 150 horses were captured. The horses had been abandoned in the swamp.

Wheeler said he took over 350 prisoners. General Johnson put the figure at 500 plus 173 Confederate prisoners that were freed.

Kilpatrick's escape on the morning of the surprise attack is as controversial a subject as the number casualties suffered on each side. The Union General told M. C. Butler after the war that on this particular morning he had walked out of his headquarters in his slippers about daylight, as was his usual custom, to see that his horses were fed. Such a habit was certainly the exception rather than the rule for most high-ranking officers. A Confederate soldier who participated in this surprise attack presumed Kilpatrick to be the only example from Joshua to the nineteenth century of a major general who would walk out of a warm room in cold weather only partially dressed to see horses fed one hundred yards away.

Captain T. F. Northrup, Kilpatrick's chief scout, said he saw General Kilpatrick before he had a chance to change his clothes and that the General had on shirt, vest, trousers, and slippers or shoes, but he was without hat, coat and probably boots. He states emphatically that no nightshirt was in evidence. However, J. W. DuBose, in his article "The Fayetteville (N.C.) Road Fight," quotes Sergeant A. F. Hardee, one of Wheeler's scouts, as follows: "General Kilpatrick left his hat, coat pants, and pistols, etc."

The General did lose around thirty valuable horses from his headquarters. Among them were his two fine stallions, one a small spotted horse and the other a large black.

There will always be disagreement as to who actually got the better of the fighting at Solemn (Monroe's Cross-Roads), contemptuously tagged by the Federal infantry as "Kilpatrick's Shirt-Tail Skedaddle." Yet, the fact stands that by engaging Kilpatrick in battle, Hampton was able to open the road to Fayetteville, which the Federal camp had blocked. The Confederate cavalry joined Hardee near Fayetteville that night. But there was little rest in store for the weary horsemen.