of the
U. S. Cavalry for it.
.bn 139.png
.pn +1
Two days after Stahl’s expedition, Gen. Jones
ordered his brigade to assemble at Winchester,
and when dark came down with night, he marched
it to Strasburg, where he halted for a little time.
It was here that the old General tried to teach
White’s men how to bivouac in winter nights
with no comforts but fires and their blankets.
Said he, “Lie down by the fire on the opposite
side from where the wind blows, and the fire
keeps the wind from you while the smoke blows
over you and keeps off frost or dew.” “Oh,
but,” said one of the men, “the smoke is a little
too bitter for me.” “Yes,” replied the General,
“you get some of the bitter, but you get a damned
sight of the sweet, too.” There is good philosophy
in this, apart from the profanity—and all
who are compelled to camp out would do well to
practice it.
General Jones did not move any further up the
Valley, but marched back towards Winchester
and encamped near Kernstown.
Here it was that the same Capt. Webster, who
had been with Means’ men in Loudoun, and whom
White had paroled at Waterford, in August, came
out to the camp of the battalion, in company with
Charley Cooper, who rode with him from Upperville
without taking from him his arms. Webster
gave himself up to Myers, who happened to
be in command of the camp at that time, and to
whom he told his plans and purposes, and explained
.bn 140.png
.pn +1
the feasibility of capturing Means and all
his party, so very clearly, that Myers fell very
much in love with the scheme, and was sure that
Major White would embrace the apparently certain
opportunity to break up the Loudoun Rangers
for the war.
Webster’s proposition commenced with explaining
that Means had driven him from his company,
and also had caused him to be arrested and confined
in the Old Capitol prison in Washington,
from which he had escaped and now only lived to
revenge his wrongs by being instrumental in putting
Means in the power of White’s men, who be
was sure would not permit him to live.
He proposed to be tied on a horse, placed in
charge of as strong a guard as Maj. White should
deem necessary, the guards to be instructed to
kill him if he made one step that did not please
them; and for White to take his battalion, and
with Webster thus bound and guarded for a
guide, go to Means’ camp and capture it. Or, if
not willing to go with him, to leave him at Gen.
Jones’ headquarters and then move the battalion
by his directions, with the absolute certainty that
he would be hung or shot if the expedition failed,
under his instructions, to get Means and all his
men.
Capt. Myers thought Webster’s life was sufficient
pledge of his sincerity in the matter, and
in imagination already saw the pet scheme of the
.bn 141.png
.pn +1
whole battalion fully executed, being certain that
White would gladly avail himself of the opportunity
thus opened for it. But, alas for human
calculations! when the Major arrived in camp he
not only refused to speak to Webster at all, but
instantly ordered him to be securely tied with
ropes, hand and foot, and placed under strong
guard, at the same time bitterly censuring his
subordinate for holding conversation with him
instead of tying him as soon as he came in camp,
and declared his belief that Webster had only
come there for the purpose of killing him. At
the same time he ordered Cooper to be confined in
the general guard house, where he remained in
confinement until February, when he was acquitted
by a Brigade Court-martial.
About dark, some of the officers visited Webster
and found him suffering severely from the
manner in which he was tied, the ropes having
cut into his flesh, and they applied to the Major,
asking to have him relieved, but were refused.
They then made the following request in writing:
.pm start_quote
.ll 68
.rj
“Camp 35th Va Cavalry, Dec. —, 1862.
.ll
“Major—We have seen the prisoner, Capt. Webster, tied in
such a manner that his hands are blackened from it, and we
respectfully propose, that if you will permit, we will untie him
and guard him ourselves.
“We are perfectly willing to hang or shoot him, if you say
.bn 142.png
.pn +1
so, but desire to see him treated with humanity while a
prisoner.
.ul indent=28 style=none
.it “F. M. Myers, Capt. Co. A.
.it “Wm. F. Dowdell, 1st Lieut. Co. C.
.it “B. F. Conrad, 2d Lieut., Jr., Co. A.
.it “N. W. Dorsey, 2d Lieut. Co. B.
.it “S. E. Grubb, 2d Lieut. Co. C.
.it “R. C. Marlow, 2d Lieut. Co. A.”
.ul-
.pm end_quote
The Major returned the paper endorsed as follows:
.pm start_quote
.if t
.nf r
“Head-Quarters, White’s Battalion, }
“Dec. ——, 1862. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.if-
.if h
.li
“Head-Quarters, White’s Battalion
“Dec. —, 1862.}
.li-
.if-
“Capt. Myers—You can have Webster untied if you choose,
but I shall hold the officers signing this paper personally responsible
for his safe keeping.
.ll 68
.rj
“E. V. White, Major Comd’g.”
.ll
.pm end_quote
Webster was at once freed from his bonds, and
his self-constituted guardsmen sat with him all
night, listening to the story of his life, which,
supposing all he said to be true, was as full of
romantic adventure as any ever depicted by old
Sir Walter; and I doubt if in the annals of rascality
a more finished character than Webster
ever had a place, for certainly, by his own confession,
no sin in the decalogue had been untouched
by him. When morning came he was sent, in
charge of Lieut. Sam. Grubb, to Richmond, where
we will leave him for the present, to the tender
mercies of Gen. Winder.
About this time, White received permission
from Gen. Jones to scout into Loudoun, and arrived
there just while Slocum’s corps was passing
.bn 143.png
.pn +1
through to the aid of Burnside, then fighting the
battle of Fredericksburg, and the battalion immediately
beheld visions of captured trains and prisoners.
The Major’s first bivouac was in the Baptist
meeting-house at Ketocton, from which point
he sent Lieut. Dowdell with a party to Hillsboro’
to find, under the friendly shadows of night, the
situation of affairs in the rear of Slocum’s march.
Dowdell pushed on and found no enemy until
he reached Wheatland, where he learned that a
considerable number of infantry stragglers were
asleep in the mill, and the Lieutenant immediately
went in, taking quiet possession of the arms
of the sleeping soldiers, and demanding a surrender,
which, under the circumstances, they deemed
it prudent to comply with.
When morning broke, Major White marched
his command towards Wheatland and met Dowdell,
who informed him that the enemy’s rear
guard had camped the night before at Bowie’s, on
the turnpike. Moving quietly along the road the
battalion picked up about one hundred prisoners,
whom they sent back to Gen. Jones, and learning
that a wagon train was lost somewhere in the
neighborhood of Hamilton, the Major sent a party
to bring it in, but it could not be found. He then
marched to Leesburg, and there was informed that
some wagons, with a small guard of cavalry, had
passed through the town on the Ball’s Mill road,
about two hours before, and he at once resolved
.bn 144.png
.pn +1
to capture them; so ordering Lieut. Crown, of
Company B, to take the advance with a party of
his men, and to keep all the blue-coats in front
to deceive the enemy, he pushed on as rapidly
as possible after his prize. In a short time
Crown sent him a report that the enemy had
halted a few miles ahead to feed their horses, and
thinking there could be no escape for the wagons
now, he ordered Crown to go ahead and make the
attack; and very soon the ringing pistol shots in
front proclaimed that the advance guard was
among the enemy.
The gallant Lieut. Crown had, in fact, pushed
ahead so rapidly that he struck the escort of the
train, which was vastly superior to his force in
point of numbers, too far in front of the battalion
to receive timely support, and his men had
been hard pressed before the Major could get up;
but they had fought as Company B always did it,
and with their sabres were clearing the ground
when their comrades reached them. But the enemy
had held out long enough for the wagons to
get started and for a regiment of infantry to return
to their rescue; which latter circumstance induced
the Major to wheel his men off the road to avoid
the fire, which was very hot, and to permit the
train to rejoin the army.
All that men could do had been done; the escort
of the wagon train had been whipped fairly, in
open fight, by Crown’s boys, and nothing remained
.bn 145.png
.pn +1
to be done but turn the wagons and go
back, and but for the unforeseen accidental circumstance
of the officer commanding the rear
guard of the army sending the infantry regiment
to see what had become of the train, the raid
would have been perfectly successful. As it was,
with as good a grace as might be, the baffled battalion
returned, after considerable skirmishing,
to Leesburg, and the Major was there informed
that a few wagons were wandering in the direction
of Waterford, having, so report said, taken the
wrong road at Wheatland, and thitherward the
battalion marched, but on reaching the village of
Waterford learned that no such train had been in
that neighborhood, and there was no longer a
doubt but that the reported straggling wagons
were the same which the timely arrival of infantry
had saved from capture beyond Leesburg.
The Major then turned his attention to Means’
gang, and to make sure of them, if they were
over the river at all, went down into town after
dark, but the “rangers” were not around, and
after frightening the intensely tory citizens of
Waterford half out of their wits, the battalion
marched to Beans’ mill and encamped for the
night.
The next morning, very unexpectedly, but
greatly to the discomfort of the people there, the
Major moved his column back to Waterford, and
very much to his own surprise, as himself and
.bn 146.png
.pn +1
Dr. Wootten were riding a considerable distance
ahead of the command, met Means’ people in full
force advancing to meet the battalion, not intending
to find it of course, but they did so nevertheless,
and the result was a horse race, in which the
rangers, on their fresh, fast nags, made such extra
time that only two of them were captured.
From this point the battalion crossed the Potomac,
and struck out for Poolsville, Md., reaching
that town about 8 o’clock, P. M., and finding the
Federals there entirely oblivious to danger, knowing,
as they did, of Slocum’s march through Loudoun,
and besides, they felt perfectly safe anyhow,
because the old Potomac rolled its watery barrier
between themselves and the fighting boys of
Dixie, and they felt so easy, that no guards were
posted at all, and many of them were at church
(it was Sunday night) listening to a sermon from
the Rev. Mr. —— ——.
As may well be imagined, there was great commotion
in the congregation at the sudden apparition
of the Confederates, but from the pulpit the
preacher proclaimed to the people that they had
gentlemen to deal with, and urged them to be
quiet, which assurance and advice served to quell,
in a great measure, the fears that, with the rebels,
would come destruction and death to town and
inhabitants. The portion of the reverend gentleman’s
audience who wore the uniform of Uncle
Sam, took no encouragement from that portion of
.bn 147.png
.pn +1
his discourse, but as rapidly as they could, passed
out and endeavored to reach their quarters in the
town hall.
One of them, the Orderly Sergeant, was killed
in the street, and the others surrendered. Those
who were at their quarters in the hall made a
sharp fight, but were also soon compelled to give
up to the victorious raiders. Only one man on
the Confederate side was injured, and he was
killed, but by a singular circumstance the battalion
lost nothing by his death, he being an independent
and had volunteered to take his brother’s
place, who was unwell when the command marched
from camp. His name was Jenkins.
After spending some time very delightfully in
the village, where nearly all of Company B was
perfectly at home, the battalion crossed the river
with a large amount of captured property, including
about sixty horses, and marched to White
Post, in Clarke county, where the Major had stored
a quantity of the supplies drawn from the commissary
department of Gen. Burnside’s army, in
November, and here they halted for some days,
learning that Gen. Jones had moved his headquarters
to New Market.
The Major made another scout in Loudoun, soon
after, but nothing could be accomplished, and his
time of his absence having expired, he returned
to the brigade, arriving at camp on Christmas
day.
.bn 148.png
.pn +1
General Lee noticed the Poolsville raid in the
following note to Gen. Jones:
.pm start_quote
.if t
.nf r
"Head-Quarters, Army N. V., }
"January 31st, 1863. \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.if-
.if h
.li
Head-Quarters, Army N. V.,
"January 31st, 1863.}
.li-
.if-
.nf l
“Brig.-Gen. Wm. E. Jones,
“Commanding Valley District:
.nf-
“General—I have received Major E. V. White’s report, dated
Dec. 24th, 1862, of his scout to Poolsville, Maryland, and have
forwarded it to the Adjutant and Inspector-General at Richmond,
calling the attention of the War Department to the gallant
conduct of Major White and his command.
“I am much gratified at the manner in which Major White
conducted his scout, and the substantial results accomplished,
with such slight loss on his part.
“I have the honor to be, General, very respectfully,
.ll 68
.nf r
“Your obedient servant.
“R. E. Lee, General.”
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
General Jones was on the eve of marching to
Western Virginia at the time White reached him,
and leaving the Major in command of the Valley
District, with his battalion and such portions of
other regiments as could not move with him, that
enterprising officer went on his raid. Here the
battalion learned for the first time that its independence
was gone and it was a portion of Gen.
Jones’ brigade permanently, and that the men
were regular troops.
Insubordination, and almost open mutiny, was
the result, especially in the two Companies A
and B. The members of the old company claimed
that theirs was an independent command, organized
to serve on the border, and that they joined
.bn 149.png
.pn +1
it under the assurance that they never would be
attached to any regiment or brigade, but be always
on the border, and report to the nearest commanding
General, and according to the terms of
their enlistment they were never to forfeit, without
their consent, the independent character of
their command. This was the second time the
same issue had arisen in its history, the first being
the time when the company was thrown under
command of Lieut.-Col. Munford, in March, 1862,
and the men watched jealously any movement
which threw them, for ever so short a time, with
any other command.
Company B claimed, that as Marylanders, they
owed no allegiance to the Confederacy. They had
come over voluntarily, because their sympathies
were with the South, but being foreigners they
had the right to select for themselves the manner
in which they would serve her, and in accordance
with their privilege had united with the command
of Major White, under the assurance and
belief that his was an independent organization,
and that now, the contract having been broken
on the part of the Government, they were no
longer bound to remain in the battalion.
There can be no doubt as to the justice of the
claims advanced by both companies, but soldiers
must submit to the powers that be, and as soldiers
they had no right to question the validity of the
orders which removed from one branch of service
.bn 150.png
.pn +1
and assigned them to another. A Napoleon
or a Jackson would have had somebody shot for
such conduct, and in so doing would have totally
destroyed the efficiency of the battalion, for after
the first military execution, double their number
could not have kept three companies in service a
day longer. Their homes were in the enemy’s
lines, and among the mountains, and wild as they
were, they would have remained untamed for the
war, under such discipline as this.
The other companies were all quiet, but Company
C was resolved to share the fortunes of the
old company, and only waited for its action to be
defined to come out and join her. The dissatisfaction
was intense, and the Major absolutely alone
and unaided in his efforts to stem the tide of sedition
and mutiny in his camp, but his firmness
and coolness made him master of the fiery spirits
with whom he had to deal, and simply by appealing
to their better nature won them from their
desperate resolves, and very soon peace reigned in
White’s battalion. But never for a day did the
men forget their first love, or turn away their
longing hearts from sighing after their lost independence.
Gen. Jones soon returned from his raid to Petersburg
and Moorfield, and from now until February
nothing occurred to mar the monotony of
camp life, save the interminable drilling and
sabre grinding which the General imposed upon
his men.
.bn 151.png
.pn +1
Early in February, Major White was promoted
to Lieutenant-Colonel, by the President, and an
election was held to fill the vacancy occasioned
thereby, which resulted in the choice of Capt. F.
M. Myers, of Company A, to be Major of the battalion.
About this time Gen. Lee, through Gen. Jones,
ordered White to report to Gen. Jackson, and the
following letter from Jackson explains the duty
upon which he was to engage while under the
orders of “Stonewall:”
.pm start_quote
.if t
.nf r
“Head-Quarters, 2d Corps, A. N. V., }
“February 5th, 1863. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.if-
.if h
.li
“Head-Quarters, 2d Corps, A. N. V.,
“February 5th, 1863.}
.li-
.if-
“Major—The courier who bears this has an order from Gen.
R. E. Lee, through Brig.-Gen. W. E. Jones, directing you with
the whole, or part of your battalion, as may be necessary, to
report to me for orders.
“The object to be accomplished is explained by the accompanying
papers from Gen. Cooper.
“I wish you to take such of your battalion, or the whole of
it, if necessary, and arrest the witnesses and send them to Gen.
Cooper in Richmond.
“Charge those who may have the securing of them to treat
them kindly, unless it should be necessary to do otherwise. Say
to the witnesses, it has been thought, that by arresting them,
they would not be so likely to be annoyed by the enemy, as if
they had only been summoned and gone to Richmond.
“I hope that you will take special pains to see that all of
them are safely delivered to Gen. Cooper.
“I think that you had better arrest them all during the same
night; but I leave you to decide upon this, and I have such
confidence in you that I leave the whole process of securing
them to your discretion.
“I have written to Gen. Jones to let you take your entire
.bn 152.png
.pn +1
battalion, if you think it necessary, and in the event you only
require part of it to let you make the selection.
“Keep your instructions, and also your destination, confidential,
until your plans require you to make them known.
“I hope sometime to have the pleasure of being with you
again.
.ll 68
.nf r
“I am, Major, your obedient servant.
“T. J. Jackson, Lieut.-Gen’l.
.nf-
.ll
.nf
“Major E. V. White,
“Commanding Cavalry Battalion.”
.nf-
“It is important that you move at once. Please write to me
on your return, respecting your success.
.ll 68
.rj
T. J. J.”
.ll
.pm end_quote
The accompanying papers contained the names
of Isaac Vandevanter, John Ross, Gen. R. L.
Wright and Henry S. Williams, as witnesses
against Capt. Webster, whom White had sent to
Richmond in December, and against whom two
charges had been preferred, one of which was that
he had murdered two citizens of Loudoun county,
viz: Richard Simpson, formerly a Captain in that
gallant command, the 8th Va. Infantry, but at
the time of his murder not in any manner connected
with the service; and John Jones, of Hillsborough,
whom Webster wantonly shot in his
own door. The second charge was, that he had
broken his parole, given at Waterford, in August,
1862, when he surrendered to White at the Baptist
meeting-house.
In following up this subject, we may as well
dispose of Webster finally, by remarking that he
was found guilty of both charges, and on the
second was condemned to be hung, which sentence
.bn 153.png
.pn +1
was shortly afterwards executed in Richmond.
Just before his execution, Webster confessed
that the charges were correct, and also that
he had been married seven times, five of his wives
being alive.
Many persons, especially among the ladies, expressed
the opinion that he richly merited his
doom on the last count, even if neither of the
others had been sustained; and many others
thought that if the remedy for this case had been
applied in all, the Abolition army would have
been very nearly broken up, for in the eyes of the
civilized world, and by the laws of nations, they
were all murderers or worse.
White moved promptly, and without any incident
worthy of note, executed General Jackson’s
order to the letter.
.bn 154.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER IX.
.sp 2
The battalion returned to camp, near New Market,
about the 20th of February, and for two
months there was nothing to mar the monotony
of camp life, save the interminable drilling and
sabre grinding ordered by Gen. Jones, which was
really the most monotonous part of it as well as
the most vexatious, for White’s men didn’t like
to drill, and they had a small opinion of the sabre
as a weapon to fight Yankees with, no matter how
sharp it might be, and the regular Saturday grindings
were looked upon as perfect nuisances.
Discipline in the command was at a low ebb, in
fact it was hard to keep it up to any degree of perfection
at all, for several reasons; first of which
was, that Col. White himself was naturally much
better qualified for the stirring and active life of
a partisan, whose parade ground is the enemy’s
picket line and wagon camp, than to command the
choicest body of troops behind the army lines;
and experience gives as a rule, that as the Colonel
is, so is the regiment, and it is one that holds
good under all the circumstances of the camp, the
march and the battle-field.
The carelessness of the Colonel very soon showed
itself to a far greater degree in the battalion, and
.bn 155.png
.pn +1
really, as of necessity it must, impaired the efficiency
of it, for there is a vast difference between
the dashing tactics of the raider, in which numbers
are little considered, and all depends upon
the suddenness of the attack and surprise of the
enemy, and the operations in the face of a prepared
enemy, where the success of an army depends
upon its different parts performing the
proper evolutions at the right moment and best
manner, amid the din and roar of battle, where
the “flying shot and reeking steel” are performing
their bloody work.
Early in 1863, the Colonel had most fortunately
secured the services of an excellent Adjutant, in
the person of Lieut. R. T. Watts, formerly of the
2d Va. Cavalry, and a native of Bedford county,
Va., who had been recommended to him by Col.
Munford, of that regiment, and many persons
thought that the very existence of the battalion
was due to the precision and care with which
Lieut. Watts performed his duties, for the company
officers, with few exceptions, were as careless
as the Colonel.
Lieut. Crown, Co. B, Lieuts. Dowdell and Tom
White, Co. C, and Capt. Grabill, Co. E, were disciplinarians,
and did their best to make soldiers
of their men; but Capt. Myers and Lieut. Conrad,
who formed the character of Co. A, Lieut.
Sam. Grubb, Co. C, Lieuts. Dorsey and Chiswell,
Co. B, and Lieut. Strickler, Co. E, all officers of
.bn 156.png
.pn +1
great influence with their companies, cared as
little for drill and discipline as possible. Company
F had, for some time, been rendered rather
inefficient through the carelessness and indifference
of its officers, but it was finally raised to the
position of being one of the best in the service,
by having two first-rate officers given it in Capt.
French and Lieut. James; but previous to that,
Capt. Ferneyhough was seldom with it, and Lieut.
McVeigh was like the majority, willing to let matters
take their course. Lieut. Barrett was unfortunate
in being for a long time a prisoner, and
Lieut. Marlow was so frequently on detached service
in the quartermaster’s department, and elsewhere,
that his services were to a great extent lost
to his company.
The quartermaster’s department exhibited the
same lack of system observable in other places,
and it was soon discovered that high attainments
in law and literature, and brilliant talents as an
orator, did not fit Capt. Kilgour to perform the
duties of this important position, and he resigned
in favor of John J. White, who had been his Sergeant,
and who was vastly better calculated for
the office in question than the distinguished gentleman
who had preceded him. The business was
now managed by Capt. White, aided as he was by
active and energetic assistants, such as Wm. H.
Luckett, Quartermaster-Sergeant; Thomas Brown
and Jack Simpson, Frank Saffer, and last, but by
.bn 157.png
.pn +1
no means least, “Uncle Billy Dove,” as forage
and wagon-masters; in a systematic and highly
satisfactory manner.
The medical department, under the management
of Dr. Ed. Wootten, was almost a farce,
from the fact that medicines of all kinds were
scarce in the Confederacy, and worth almost their
weight in gold, so that the office of Surgeon, except
on battle days, when wounded men were to
be cared for, was almost a sinecure; but in the
absence of medicine, the Doctor, by all the little
arts known only to the profession, would work
upon the imagination of his patients and bring
them out, generally, all right, except in cases of
camp itch, which active disease prevailed widely,
and positively refused to succumb to the imaginary
efficacy of bread pills.
While in winter quarters, the first court-martial
in the battalion was convened; composed of
Captains Myers, Chiswell and Anderson, and Lieutenants
Watts (Co. F,) and Strickler, (Co. E,) and
proceeded to the trial of a number of cases of absence
without leave, and similar offenses.
After the court got through with its business,
the report of their proceedings, showing that they
had awarded only such light penalties as extra
duty, walking a beat, &c., was handed to the Colonel
for his approval, as military law required,
when, after examining the report, he came out in
a general order at dress parade, denouncing the
.bn 158.png
.pn +1
action of the court as folly, fit only for school-boy
nonsense, winding up by setting aside all its judgments
and discharging the delinquents unconditionally,
which ended the court-martial business
for a year.
Gen. Rosser used to tell a story which
Col. White’s attention to the minutiæ of the business
of the battalion, and which will not be out
of place here.
On one occasion Gen. Lee wrote to Rosser, saying
that no reports had been received for a long
time of the ordnance department of White’s Battalion,
and asking him to look into the matter, to
which Rosser replied that he had never been able
to get an ordnance report from that command, and
if Gen. Lee could do so he would be glad to see
it. This brought a staff officer from army headquarters
at once, to get a report; and Gen. R.
tells the story as he received it from the officer,
who, after calling at Rosser’s quarters, rode over to
the battalion, and introducing himself to Colonel
White, explained his business. “Very well,
sir,” said the Colonel, “go ahead.” And by aid
of Adjt. Watts, the report was made out pretty
well, until the officer, reading from a paper which
he held in his hand, said, “I see, Colonel, that
340 guns have been issued to your command;
what report do you make of them?” (White’s
men never would carry guns.) The Colonel turned
to the Adjutant and asked how many guns were
.bn 159.png
.pn +1
on hand, to which he replied, “eighty, sir.”
“Well,” said the officer, “how do you account
for the 260?” At which, White seemed somewhat
perplexed; but Gen. R. says that while he was
studying the matter over, one of the young “Comanches,”
in a corner of the tent, said: "Why,
Colonel, ain’t them the guns that busted in Western
Virginia?" “I golly, yaas;” said the Colonel,
“they did bust; you sent us a lot of them
drotted Richmond carbines, and they like to have
killed all the men.” The staff officer put down
on his report: “260 guns bursted in Western
Virginia,” and took his departure, everything
being now accounted for.
.bn 160.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER X.
.sp 2
On the 21st of April, 1863, Gen. Jones marched
his brigade from their camp, now near Harrisonburg,
for the memorable expedition through
West Virginia, intending to damage the Baltimore
and Ohio Rail Road, and to threaten the
enemy in that country, so as to not only prevent
troops from going to the Rappahannock where
“fighting Joe” Hooker was confronting the Army
of Northern Virginia, but to draw forces from his
army to protect the Rail Road and keep Western
communication with the capital unbroken; a
scheme which originated in the far-reaching mind
of General Lee, and one that exerted a telling
influence upon Hooker’s operations at Chancellorsville.
Gen. Jones’ brigade was a noble one, consisting
of the 6th, 7th, 11th and 12th Regiments of Virginia
Cavalry, 1st Maryland Battalion of Cavalry,
35th Battalion of Va. Cavalry, 41st Battalion of
Va. Cavalry, (Witcher’s mounted rifles,) Col. Herbert’s
Battalion of Maryland Infantry, Captain
Chew’s Battery of Horse Artillery, and the Baltimore
Battery of Light Artillery; in all, four regiments,
commanded by Cols. Flournoy, Dulaney,
Lomax and Harman, and four battalions, under
.bn 161.png
.pn +1
Lieut.-Cols. Brown, White, Witcher and Herbert;
with two batteries, of four guns each; making a
total of about four thousand men.
The brigade marched through Brock’s Gap, in
the North Mountain, and passing Howard’s Lick,
soon had a view, full and complete, of the famous
Moorfield Valley; and great was the gratification
and delight of all the men as they looked down
from the mountain top upon the lovely scene,
lying as it did like a picture of beauty at their
feet, girt with its dark mountain frame, and
fringed with its evergreen bordering of hemlock
and cedar; white snow-caps all around, but everything
fresh as springtime in the valley, where the
South Branch was foaming and dashing over its
rocky bed, sometimes winding along the base of
one mountain, then crossing to the other, and
sometimes rolling gloriously through the carpet
of living green in the centre of the valley.
The brigade encamped at Moorfield, until the
morning of the 24th, when the General marched
it to Petersburg, nine miles above, where the men
forded the river.
The ford at that place is covered with rocks of
almost every size and shape, making it a difficult
passage at any time, but now the mountain stream
was full to overflowing, and the waters foamed
over the rocks as from some enormous mill-flume,
increasing infinitely the difficulty and danger of
crossing, so that some of the men, in viewing the
.bn 162.png
.pn +1
angry flood, turned and fled in greater dismay
than if an army of Yankees had faced them; but
by aid of some noble-souled citizens, who rode
through the water and guided the horses of the
men, the crossing was effected, and the cavalry
found themselves fairly started into the mountains,
but the infantry and artillery, being unable
to cross, were sent back to the Shenandoah
Valley.
On the 25th, the command approached Greenland
Gap, in the eastern front ridge of the Alleghany
mountain, Col. Dulaney, with his regiment
(the 7th) being in front; and when, about
sunset, the enemy’s pickets were discovered, the
7th charged, driving them in and finding a force
of infantry strongly posted in an old log meetinghouse
and some other buildings near by. Col.
Dulaney himself was badly wounded, and his
regiment cut in two, as the enemy fired so heavily
upon it, after the leading squadrons had passed
their position, that the remaining ones were unable
to follow, and halted in front of the meetinghouse.
Gen. Jones soon came up, and at once began
his arrangements to take the place. He had
brought several kegs of powder with him to blow
up the Cheat River trestle work with, and he now
determined to try the effect of some of it just here
in his first encounter with the enemy. His pioneer
corps, made up by details from each regiment
.bn 163.png
.pn +1
and battalion, was provided with axes and
bundles of straw, the first to be used to break
open the windows of the fort, while the latter was
to be set on fire and thrown into it, and at the
same time Lieut. Williamson (his engineer) was
to get the powder under the building. He dismounted
his three battalions and placed White’s
men in front; Brown’s Marylander’s in the rear,
and Witcher’s mounted riflemen at the end of the
house, and it being now dark, the General rode
down near it, and politely informed the Yankees
that “he had them surrounded, and a barrel of
gunpowder under the house,” and that, unless
they surrendered, he would “blow them all to
hell in five minutes;” to which they, with equal
politeness responded, by requesting him to “go
there himself.”
The General’s information as to the surrounding
was correct, but Williamson’s gunpowder
plot was a failure, owing to his inability to approach
the fort without getting shot, and they
knew that if he had powder under them he wasn’t
likely to tell them, for they were fully persuaded
he would greatly prefer blowing them up, if possible,
to having them surrender on any terms;
and Gen. Jones, thinking they had received sufficient
warning, ordered his storming parties to
advance, telling the men to “go right up to the
building and punch out the chinking of the logs;”
“that the pioneers would throw blazing straw
.bn 164.png
.pn +1
into the house, and then all were to fire their guns
and pistols through the cracks, by the light of
the straw inside;” and assuring the men that
“a signal would be given for them to retire before
the powder was touched off.”
The battalions advanced promptly to the positions
assigned them; White’s men being compelled
to wade a stream that ran through the Gap,
nearly waist deep, three times; and all the while
exposed to a withering fire, for the Yankees
opened fire from the house the moment the troops
began to move, and kept it up incessantly.
The Marylanders, led by Col. Brown, moved
quickly to the rear of the house as White’s battalion
marched up in front, and here was a great
blunder, on the part of General Jones, in placing
these two commands in such a position, for their
fire was far more fatal to each other than to the
enemy, as they both commenced firing at short
range, with the old house exactly between them.
As for Witcher’s men, they were mountaineers,
and fired from behind the rocks at a safe distance,
scattering their bullets promiscuously all about
the house, but really doing quite as much good
as the other two commands which charged immediately
up to the walls.
The Yankees fired coolly and rapidly, and almost
before the pioneer corps could light the first
bundle of straw and throw it into the house, every
man of the corps was down, either killed or
.bn 165.png
.pn +1
wounded, but they acted while they were
allowed to act at all.
The affair lasted about fifteen minutes, during
which the firing was very heavy and constant,
and at one time the powder business very nearly
caused a stampede among the Confederates, as one
of them suddenly called out to his comrades to
“look out for the powder,” and they all took it
to be the promised signal of Gen. Jones.
The panic was soon over and the assault renewed
with unabated vigor, but no impression was made
upon the intrepid garrison, who all stood to their
work bravely, until Thos. E. Tippett, a gallant
soldier of Co. A, White battalion, climbed up the
stick chimney and placed some burning straw
upon the roof of the house, which very soon
brought out a flag of truce, and finally an unconditional
surrender of the Yankees, but a party of
them in a house near by kept up a scattered
firing a few minutes longer.
There were only seven of the enemy killed and
wounded, and their whole force was less than
eighty, but they were all Virginians, from among
the mountains, and were fighting in the gate that
if opened would let the Confederates right among
their homes, and they left no stain upon the honor
of Old Virginia in their defence of the pass, for
they held out until their fort was wrapped in
flames.
The loss of the two battalions was nearly one
.bn 166.png
.pn +1
hundred; but much of it was due to the miserable
position they occupied, by which they were
constantly firing upon each other.
Just as soon as everything was arranged, and
the wounded who were able to move, together with
the prisoners, had been sent back, the brigade continued
its march without further halt, until daylight,
when the almost worn out people were
allowed to stop awhile, to rest and refresh themselves
and horses. But soon the march was resumed,
and followed without any special incident,
until it led to Evansville, in Taylor County, where
a halt for half a day was made; and here the bushwhackers
were discovered in considerable numbers
for the first time.
It is true, that in passing what is known as the
"Shades of Death"—a dark and gloomy gorge
in the Shenandoah Mountain, which is shadowed
to twilight gloom even at noonday, by the rocky
wall which on either side is covered with the hemlock,
the cypress and the towering white pine—the
advance guard had skirmished with and captured
a few of the “Swamp Dragons,” as they
termed themselves, but at Evansville bands of
armed men, in hunting shirts, could be seen on
all the mountain crags, viewing from a safe distance
the army of rebels, lying quietly in their
country; but they seldom approached near enough
to the main body to get a shot or be shot at.
While here, some of the men, who had been engaged
.bn 167.png
.pn +1
in plundering a store on the route, came
up, and Gen. Jones finding two of them, one of
whom had a hoop skirt and the other an umbrella,
compelled the hoop skirt man to wear his plunder
around his neck, and the other to hold the
umbrella over him during all the afternoon, in
full view of the whole command. That night the
brigade crossed the R. R., at Independence Station,
and pushed rapidly forward to Morgantown,
at which place the “home guard” was found
drawn up in battle order on the hills; but they
fell back as Jones advanced, not firing a gun, and
finally disappeared, when the town authorities
sent an old citizen out to meet the raiders, and
negotiate a surrender of the town. This gentleman
approached in great trepidation, making all
the Masonic signs he was master of, and on being
brought to Gen. Jones, was informed that no
damage was intended the town, provided the town
people did not attempt to damage the troops,
which greatly pleased him, and he returned from
his mission highly pleased with Jones and his
men.
Here again the General exercised all his authority
to prevent plundering, and was so very
strict that he compelled Adjt. Watts to leave some
calico he had bought and paid for in U. S. money,
swearing that his men should not carry any such
rubbish; but a few of them managed to smuggle
some calico, by folding it in their saddle blankets.
.bn 168.png
.pn +1
His protection, however, did not extend to stock
suitable for the army, but on the contrary, it was
his policy to drive with him as many such horses
and cattle as he could find.
The brigade lay at Morgantown from about 10
A. M. until dark, when the march was resumed,
and the whole force pushed forward to Fairmount,
where it arrived about the 1st of May, and found
about nine hundred “home guards” and militia
concentrated for the defense of the town. The
raiders reached the vicinity of the place about
sunrise, but the morning was dismal and foggy,
and as Jones formed his line in front and flank of
Fairmount, the enemy formed theirs on the hills
above, and appeared resolved to do battle valiantly
for their town and the R. R. bridges. They had
three pieces of artillery, one an old iron twelve-pounder
and the others brass guns, brought upon
a platform car from Wheeling, with about twenty
soldiers to work them. The General dismounted
his men, and taking charge himself of the 7th
and 12th regiments and the Maryland battalion,
moved to the right, while Col. Lomax, of the 11th,
with his own regiment and the 6th, together with
White’s battalion, commanded the left, and leaving
Capt. Myers with his company, and a number
of men from the other regiments, mounted and
stationed on the road that leads directly to the
wire suspension bridge. Witcher’s riflemen had
dismounted long before, and were approaching the
place by a march up the railroad to the left.
.bn 169.png
.pn +1
Col. White, with his battalion and part of the
11th, was ordered by Lomax to advance upon the
right of the enemy’s line, which he did, driving
them like sheep, and at the same time the mounted
men charged into town, and took possession of the
bridge, which compelled the Yankees to ford the
river above the town, followed closely by White
and his men, who, immediately after crossing,
turned to the right, and forced the enemy to take
refuge in the R. R. bridge, where most of their
force was now concentrated, and from which they
opened fire with their artillery, but Gen. Jones
was moving quietly to their rear, which being
discovered, caused the men in charge of the two
brass pieces to beat a hasty retreat, a thing very
easily done considering the fact that they were
still mounted on the car to which a locomotive,
under steam, was attached.
A dash was now made upon them, in which the
iron gun was captured, and very soon after the
whole force, to the number of seven hundred, surrendered,
the others having made their escape
into the mountains.
The affair was a decided success, not a man
being hurt on either side, and now after destroying
the Rail Road bridges, and damaging the
track and rolling stock of the road very seriously,
the raiders passed on towards Clarksburg, in Harrison
county, on the N. W. Rail Road, at which
point they found a heavy force of infantry in fortifications,
.bn 170.png
.pn +1
and after some skirmishing, Gen. Jones
deemed it advisable to let it alone, especially as
he learned that the gallant Irishman, Col. Mulligan,
of Missouri fame, was in command; consequently
he flanked Clarksburg to the left, and
marched to Philippi.
The Maryland battalion was badly cut up in a
fight with infantry at Bridgeport, caused by charging
among the post and rail fences on the Rail
Road, in which Col. Brown was wounded.
The attack on the Cheat River works was a failure,
owing to the 6th Regiment being driven back
by a heavy infantry force, which defended the
ugly mountain gorges leading to the rail road,
and which fought from barricades inaccessible to
cavalry, even with no enemy to hold them.
Beaching Philippi, the General sent back to
the Valley all the prisoners and stock, and marched
his command to Buckhannon, in Upshur county,
where he halted for a short time to watch a party
of the enemy that came down from Clarksburg,
intending to guard the party conveying the stock
and prisoners from an attack by these fellows;
and after all danger from this source was over he
passed on by Weston, Lewis county, to West
Union in Doddridge county, near which place he
again operated on the Rail Road at Cairo Station,
where there were quite a number of short tunnels.
These tunnels had been blasted and bored through
almost solid rock, and inside of them a frame
.bn 171.png
.pn +1
work was built wide enough for the track, and
the space between the frame and side of the tunnel
was filled with cord wood, an immense quantity
of which was used for the purpose. There
was a large force of home guards and militia at
the station, and by the way, all the troops of this
kind were invariably in U. S. uniform, and armed
with U. S. muskets, while the “bushwhackers,”
or “Swamp Dragons,” carried only their old
sporting rifles, and dressed in homespun.
The Yankees only made a show of fight, and a
cavalry charge soon brought them to terms without
losing a man; some of them, of course, escaped,
but about three hundred were made prisoners.
The Rail Road buildings were burned, and
White’s men were detailed to work on the tunnels,
which they did most effectually by pouring
coal oil on the cord-wood and setting it on fire,
which caused the rock to burst and fall in, so that
the destruction was complete.
From Cairo the march was continued through
the counties of Pleasants, Ritchie, and Wirt, to
the Little Kanawha river, and at every turn the
bushwhackers enlivened the route by popping
away with their old rifles, but they would not
venture in range of the Sharpe’s carbines and
Colt’s revolvers carried by the brigade, and consequently
did no damage, but on the contrary did
much good, in acting as provost guard, to keep
up the stragglers; and their sprightly style of
.bn 172.png
.pn +1
warfare kept Jones’ men in a good humor all the
time, in fact the most pleasant part of the whole
raid was through the bushwhackers’ special territory,
for without anything to vary the monotony
of the march, this continual roaming through that
apparently interminable sea of mountains was a
very tiresome business.
The command reached the oil works about noon,
and a detail was sent forward to Elizabeth City,
while the main body halted at Oiltown. There
were a large number of wells in operation, worked
by steam engines, and up to the last moment the
oil men kept busily engaged, but after awhile
they learned the character of their visitors, and
surmising their object, the workmen turned away
from the wells, and shutting off steam, remarked,
with doleful faces, “I guess oiling is played out
now,” and of a surety their guess was correct, for
destruction was the watchword of Jones’ brigade
at Oiltown, and nowhere, except in a powder mill,
could it be more speedily and generally accomplished.
The oil was all around, some of it in
barrels piled up, and some in flatboats in the
river, the boats being built water-tight and filled
with the oil, some of them holding a thousand
barrels each, which was run into them by pipes
directly from the wells.
These boats, after being set on fire, were cut
loose from the shore and allowed to float away,
and as they burst, letting the blazing oil spread
.bn 173.png
.pn +1
over the water from shore to shore, the truly wonderful
spectacle of a river on fire was presented,
while to heighten the grandeur of the scene, explosion
after explosion boomed out upon the night
air, and columns of dense black smoke twined
with the red flame from the wrecks of the boats,
loomed skyward a hundred feet from the blazing
sea; and on shore the oil barrels were burning
and bursting, their contents flowing in streams of
liquid flame all over the ground, and from the
wells themselves great fiery pillars rose up, and
added to this, the many buildings contributed
their quota of flame to the great conflagration;
in fact no better illustration, on a small scale,
could be presented of the popular idea of the burning
brimstone lake, where
.pm start_poem
“The devil sits in his easy chair,
Sipping his sulphur tea,
And gazing out, with a pensive air,
On the broad bitumen sea,”
.pm end_poem
for from pump to river all was flame.
The amount of oil destroyed was estimated at
one hundred and fifty thousand barrels, and this
has been fully confirmed by reports of owners
published since the war; and taking into consideration
the destruction of boats, machinery, buildings,
&c., the damage was immense.
As soon as the destruction was complete, the
raiders went out into the night, leaving a bitter
.bn 174.png
.pn +1
remembrance of their visit in the hearts of the
people who dwelt on the desolated shore of the
Little Kanawha, and many an oilman was heard
to wish, in substance, as the brigade marched
away, that “he might never be any nearer hell
than he had been that night.”
These things occurred about the 10th of May,
and now the little army of Jones passed on through
the counties of Calhoun, Gilmer, Braxton, Nicholas
and Fayette, to Lewisburg in Greenbrier,
during part of which march the command was
divided for the better securing of rations of forage,
and Col. Lomax with his regiment and White’s
battalion took a new route through the mountains.
Arrived at Lewisburg, the command halted
from Saturday noon until Monday morning, and
visited the celebrated Greenbrier White Sulphur
Springs, where many of the men, by Gen. Jones’
permission, spent Sunday, the 17th of May, 1863.
On Monday morning, the brigade marched on
by the noted Hot, Warm, and Alum Springs of
Bath county, through Augusta to the camp near
Mount Crawford in Rockingham, where it arrived
on the evening of May 21st, having been absent
thirty-two days.
Owing to the loss of papers and diaries, by the
circumstances of war, it has been utterly impossible
for the author to give more than the most
meagre outline of the Western Virginia expedition
of General Jones’ brigade, which took rank
.bn 175.png
.pn +1
among the army campaigns as a very important
one, it having aided, to no small degree, in securing
to the Confederates the great victory at Chancellorsville,
by accomplishing the objects for which
it was intended, as explained in the beginning of
this chapter.
The visible fruits of the expedition, besides the
damage to the rail roads and oil works, were about
nine hundred and fifty of the enemy killed,
wounded and captured, about one thousand small
arms and one cannon destroyed, twelve hundred
horses and one thousand cattle brought safely
through to the Valley.
About twenty bridges and tunnels on the Baltimore
and Ohio and North Western Rail Roads had
been destroyed, and the Southern sympathizers, of
that country for a time relieved from the domineering
rule which invariably characterized the
home-made Yankee, wherever he had the power
to annoy his Southern neighbor, and finding by
this raid that it was not as impossible as they had
thought, for the Confederate troops to come among
them, these tories took the lesson to heart and
acted more like men towards the people who differed
with them in opinion and feeling, than before.
The turning point in the fortunes of the young
Confederacy had been passed, during the absence
of the Ashby brigade, and with the fall of “Stonewall”
Jackson her star began to wane.
.bn 176.png
.pn +1
The news of his death had reached the brigade
while in the wildest part of its mountain campaign,
and it clouded the spirits of the whole
command; many of the men having such implicit
faith in him that his death was to them the dreary
sign which told that all their hopes were dead,
like their hero, and buried in his grave; and from
that time their march took the character of a
funeral procession.
The following touching poem was written by
Capt. J. Mort. Kilgour, a day or two before the
return to camp:
.sp 1
.ce
THE DEATH OF GEN. THOMAS J. JACKSON.
.pm start_poem
“Give me the death of those,
Who for their country die,
And oh! be mine, like their repose,
When cold and low they lie.
Their loveliest mother earth,
Enshrines the fallen brave,
In her sweet lap, who gave them birth,
They find their tranquil grave.
.rj
Montgomery.”
.pm end_poem
.hr 5%
.pm start_poem
“Come, comrades, come, with lowly hearts come,
And grief’s cypress wreaths let us borrow,
Whilst the trumpet’s long wail, and the muffled drum,
Will bespeak our tear-burdened sorrow.
Come, comrades, come, a chieftain has gone,
A beacon with victory beaming,
Which through the dark battle-cloud brilliantly shone,
Where our war-tattered banners were streaming.
.bn 177.png
.pn +1
With slow, solemn steps let us gather around,
The spot where his ashes lie sleeping,
And we’ll feel in our souls that ’tis hallowed ground,
Whilst in anguish unspoken we’re weeping.
“The hero has gone, but there’s still left behind,
The beauteous light of the story,
Which history will tell, as the passing years bind,
’Round his name, fresher garlands of glory.
No more will he cheer the brave columns he led,
Where the lightnings of battle were flashing,
And over the heaps of the dying and dead,
Its volleying thunders were crashing;
But his clarion voice from his grave we will hear,
Through the conflict in melody flowing,
And the fire of his eye will beam radiant and clear,
In the pictures of memory glowing.
“Oh, come maidens, come, and together we’ll strew,
O’er his resting place, Spring’s sweetest flowers,
And the stars will shed on them their tear-drops of dew,
As they watch through the night’s stilly hours.
We will strew them in silence for our souls are opprest,
With an anguish too deep to be spoken,
Which can only be told by a sob in the breast,
That speaks of a heart nearly broken.
Farewell, matchless chieftain!—kind Heaven will forgive
The rebellious spirit of sorrow,
As it whispers—’though dead, his example will live,
Growing brighter each coming to-morrow.’
“Yes! his name will be written, in letters of gold,
On the crest of each sky-kissing mountain;
In music’s sweet measures his fame will be told,
By the murmur of streamlet and fountain;
.bn 178.png
.pn +1
It will haunt each green spot with its magical spell,
It will live in the song of each river,
In the bowers and aisles of each forest ’twill dwell,
Like a spirit of beauty, forever!
But come, comrades, come, let us back to the field,
’Tis there our duty still calls us,
With a tear and a sigh for our leader and shield,
And a heart for whatever befalls us.”
“J. Mortimer Kilgour.”
“White’s Battalion, May 17th, 1863.”
.pm end_poem
After the return to camp, and until the 1st of
June, the company officers were busy with muster
and pay-rolls, and other business which a month’s
neglect had left upon their hands, and on the 28th
May the State election was held, in which poll-books
were opened in the various regiments, so
that all the soldiers who were entitled to do so
could vote.
The weather was beautiful, rations and forage
plentiful and good, and the political horizon,
apart from the gloomy shadow left by the death
of General Jackson, was brighter than for many
months. True, the army of Hooker still lay on
the North bank of the Rappahannock, but the
bloody defeat at Chancellorsville had wrecked the
hopes of its General and its men to compete successfully
in a battle with Lee’s army, and all they
did, or could do, was to watch the Southern army,
and keep close to their entrenchments until their
ranks were again filled; but Gen. Lee did not
.bn 179.png
.pn +1
propose to be so very quiet while his adversary
was recruiting, and on the last day of May an
order was issued for tents and baggage to be stored
and the Ashby brigade prepared to join the army
East of the mountain.
Capt. George N. Ferneyhough, of Co. F., by
virtue of being the senior Captain in the battalion,
had, during the absence of the command in West
Virginia, succeeded in getting the election held
some time before, for Major, set aside, and himself
appointed to the position.
.bn 180.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XI.
.sp 2
On the morning of June 1st, 1863, the brigade
marched from the Valley for Gen. Stuart’s
camp in Culpeper county, the battalion having
the following officers: Lieut.-Col. White, Major
Ferneyhough, Adjt. Watts, Dr. Wootten, Quartermaster
White, and Sergeant-Major Stephenson,
in field and staff; Co. A, Lieuts. Barrett and Conrad;
Co. B, had her full corps of officers; Co. C,
Capt. Grubb and Lieut. Grubb; Co. D, had all
her officers present; Co. E, Capt. Grabill and
Lieut. Grubbs; Co. F, Lieut. Watts. Capt. Myers
and Lieut. Marlow, Co. A, were left sick in
the Valley; Lieut. Dowdell, Co. C, was on detail
there to settle up the quartermaster’s business,
incident to the change just made in that department;
one Lieutenant of Co. E, and one of Co. F,
had been removed for misconduct on the raid to
West Virginia.
Soon after the brigade reached the army, the
grand review of all the troops begun, that of the
cavalry being held on the 8th of June, in which
General Stuart brought a division of full fifteen
thousand troopers, in fine condition for service,
but all the Generals confessed that Jones’ was the
peer of the best brigade in the line.
.bn 181.png
.pn +1
The morning of June 9th, while the men, worried
out by the military foppery and display
(which was Stuart’s greatest weakness) of the
previous day’s review, were yet under their blankets,
the enemy sounded for them the reveille from
the smoking muzzles of carbines and revolvers, as
they drove the 6th Regiment vedettes from their
position on the river, and it was very soon discovered
that a heavy force had crossed at Kelly’s and
Beverly’s fords for the purpose of continuing the
review, but in a different style, and but for the
prompt action of Gen. Jones, would have had all of
Stuart’s artillery almost before that officer waked
up. The regiments moved rapidly to the front,
as soon as the men could obey the boot and saddle
bugle call, and with the first that came, which
were the 6th and 7th Regiments, Gen. Jones met
and checked the enemy, and arrangements for the
battle, which was now inevitable, were made as
quickly as possible. Col. White was ordered with
his battalion, to support the 12th Regiment, which
was ordered forward to make a charge; and he at
once began to form his men in line of battle, but
before it could be completed, Gen. Jones called to
him to charge, which he immediately did, riding
at a gallop towards the point where the firing
showed that the 12th was into it heavy, but after
going about two hundred yards, was met by that
regiment in full retreat, and whose disordered
ranks threw the right wing of the battalion in
.bn 182.png
.pn +1
confusion, and checked for a time the advance of
the “Comanches,” but order was quickly restored,
and again dashing forward they threw themselves
upon the enemy, whose column, flushed with their
successful charge on the 12th, was rapidly advancing,
but after a sharp fight of a few minutes were
compelled to retire before the irresistible onset of
White’s men. The Colonel says, in his official
report, that not a man faltered, but with yells that
a “Comanche” might envy, they pressed forward,
each man striving to gain the foremost rank and
ride with his commander.
The Yankees were driven over the field and
about a hundred yards into the woods, where they
met fresh troops coming up, and White’s people
were in turn compelled to retire, but rallying at
the edge of the woods, they again charged upon
the overwhelming forces of the enemy, and not
only checked their advance, which was all the
Colonel hoped to do, but completely routed them
and drove their demoralized line for half a mile
through the pines.
In this charge they captured about forty prisoners,
and killing General Davis, who was vainly
endeavoring to rally his flying troopers, and also
a brave Major, who, after a fierce sabre fight with
Wm. Shehan, of Co. B, in which both were severely
handled, was compelled to surrender to the
gallant Confederate.
While the battalion was thus occupied in front,
.bn 183.png
.pn +1
a regiment of the enemy came in their rear and
attempted to charge, but wheeling his left squadron,
the Colonel met and drove them back in
splendid style, the men all fighting with the
greatest enthusiasm, but Lieut. Crown, Co. B,
especially distinguishing himself.
About this time, Gen. Jones became aware that
a strong party of the enemy had succeeded in
flanking Stuart’s position, and were approaching
from the direction of Culpeper Court-House, and
he at once sent the information to General Stuart,
who said to the courier, "Tell Gen. Jones to attend
to the Yankees in his front, and I’ll watch
the flanks."
When this reply was communicated to Jones,
he remarked: "So he thinks they ain’t coming,
does he? Well, let him alone; he’ll damned
soon see for himself." And he did see, for about
one o’clock the flanking force appeared exactly in
rear of, and very near Stuart’s headquarters; and
again Col. White was ordered to follow and support
the 12th Regiment in case of need; but on
arriving near the house, Gen. Stuart ordered
White to form his battalion on the right of the
road leading to the Court-House and charge the
squadrons of the enemy on the high ground around
the General’s headquarters, and here again, just
as Col. White commenced to move, a squadron of
the 12th, which had met the enemy and been defeated,
broke the line of the battalion, badly deranging
.bn 184.png
.pn +1
its right wing, and causing the loss of
valuable time, but the Colonel ordered Major Ferneyhough
to charge with the first squadron (Companies
A and D) which had not been broken, upon
those squadrons of the enemy in front of the
house, while with two squadrons (Companies B, C,
E and F) he charged a regiment in rear and to
the left of the building. Both charges were successful,
the enemy being driven down the road
towards the Rail Road, but while the Colonel with
his party was pressing them, a regiment passed
between him and the hill, cutting off the first
squadron and again occupying the ground from
which they had just been driven.
As soon as the Colonel discovered this situation
of affairs, he withdrew all but twenty men from
the pursuit, and renewed the contest for the possession
of the hill, which, after a spirited fight,
he succeeded in gaining, driving off the regiment
and killing its Colonel.
In this fight around Stuart’s headquarters,
Lieut. Barret was wounded and captured, and
Captains Grabill and Anderson made prisoners.
The battalion was now reinforced by a company
of the 6th Va. Cavalry, and ordered by Gen. Stuart
to charge a battery which had been playing on
White’s men during all the fighting on the hill.
Without a moment’s hesitation the charge was
made, and the wreath of glory which White’s
battalion had been weaving and twining around
.bn 185.png
.pn +1
its name, during all that long summer day, was
completed.
The gallant fellows at the battery hurled a perfect
storm of grape upon the “Comanches,” while
from the supporting cavalry a rain of bullets fell
in their ranks, but with never a halt or a falter
the battalion dashed on, scattering the supports
and capturing the battery after a desperate fight,
in which the artillerymen fought like heroes, with
small arms, long after their guns were silenced.
There was no demand for a surrender, nor any
offer to do so, until nearly all the men at the battery,
with many of their horses, were killed and
wounded.
While most of the men pursued the flying cavalry
that had supported the battery, Col. White
with a few others attempted to turn the guns, and
work them on the Yankees who were rapidly closing
in upon him in heavy force both on the right
and left, not doubting for a moment that General
Stuart would support him, but nothing seemed
further from the General’s intention, and feeling
that he was being wantonly sacrificed, Col. White
rallied his men, and charging with desperation
upon the enveloping ranks of the foe, cut through
to safety again, but the deliverance cost half the
number of the battalion.
In the battle of Brandy Station, the battalion
had captured and brought out two regimental
standards, (besides two others taken, but lost in
.bn 186.png
.pn +1
the escape from the battery,) and upwards of one
hundred prisoners, with a great quantity of arms
and equipments and many horses, but many of its
gallant men had been lost.
Capt. Geo. W. Chiswell was badly wounded, so
badly that he was never again fit for service, and
the brave Lieut. Watts, of Co. F, was mortally
wounded, both of them in the charge upon the
battery.
The whole loss was ninety men killed, wounded
and missing, and but few of the latter ever returned
to the command, some having died of
wounds in U. S. hospitals, some in prison, and
some escaping from the battle after being wounded
died at the houses of citizens in the neighborhood;
as it was, only four of the dead were found
and buried by the battalion.
The following general order issued by Stuart,
shows the conduct of the battle and the desperate
valor of the men who fought and fell at Brandy
Station, a name rendered famous forever as the
scene of one of the greatest cavalry battles of
modern times:
.pm start_quote
.if t
.ll 68
.nf r
"Hd.-Qrs., Cav. Div., Army N. Va., }
"June 15th, 1863. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.ll
.if-
.if h
.li
"Hd.-Qrs., Cav. Div., Army N. Va.,
"June 15th, 1863.}
.li-
.if-
.ti 0
"General Orders, No. 24.
"The Major-General commanding congratulates the Cavalry
of the Army of Northern Virginia, upon the victory of “Fleetwood,”
achieved under Providence, by the prowess of their
arms, on the 9th instant.
"Comrades, two divisions of the enemy’s cavalry and artillery,
.bn 187.png
.pn +1
escorted by a strong force of infantry, “tested your metal”
and found it “proof steel.”
“Your sabre blows, inflicted on that glorious day, have taught
them again the weight of Southern vengeance.
“You confronted with cavalry and horse artillery alone, this
force, held the infantry in check, routed the cavalry and artillery,
capturing three pieces of the latter, without losing a gun,
and added six flags to the trophies of the nation, besides inflicting
a loss in killed, wounded and missing, at least double our
own, causing the entire force to retire beyond the Rappahannock.
“Nothing but the enemy’s infantry strongly posted in the
woods saved his cavalry from capture or annihilation. An act
of rashness on his part was severely punished by rout and the
loss of his artillery.
“With an abiding faith in the God of battles and a firm reliance
on the sabre, your success will continue.
“Let the example and heroism of our lamented fallen comrades
prompt us to renewed vigilance and inspire us with devotion
to duty.
.ll 68
.nf r
“J. E. B. Stuart,
“Major-General Commanding.”
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
The Orderly Sergeants of the several companies
of the battalion made the following reports of the
losses of the companies:
.ul style=none indent=4
.it Co. A—wounded 9, missing 7—total 16.
.it Co. B—killed 1, wounded 7, missing 12—total 20.
.it Co. C—wounded 5, missing 12—total 17.
.it Co. D—wounded 3, missing 5—total 8.
.it Co. E—killed 2, wounded 2, missing 8—total 12.
.it Co. F—killed 1, wounded 1, missing 15—total 17.
.ul-
After the battle of Brandy Station, Col. White’s
command was detached from the Cavalry Division,
.bn 188.png
.pn +1
and ordered by Gen. Lee to report to Lieut.-Gen.
Ewell, who had again taken the field and
been assigned to the command of the old 2d Corps
A. N. V., the men whom General Jackson had so
often led to victory, and who believed that the
mantle of military inspiration of their now sainted
chieftain had fallen upon the person of the lion-hearted
Gen. R. S. Ewell, and soon after his disabling
wound at Manassas, which now caused him
to appear with an artificial leg, Gen. Ewell had
told White that if he ever again took the field he
wanted White and his boys to be with him, an
assurance never forgotten by either of them.
At the time Gen. Ewell crossed the mountain
and made his attack upon the enemy at Winchester,
adding another to the invariable whippings
the bombastic coward and cow-stealer, Milroy,
received every time he stood long enough for the
rebels to reach him, Col. White asked and obtained
permission to make a raid on the Point of
Rocks, in the hope of striking again his old enemy,
Means.
Crossing the Potomac below Berlin, the Colonel
divided his force, sending Lieut. Crown, with sixty-two
men of Co. B, to pass along the Frederick
road and come up in rear of the Point, while he
marched with the remainder, about one hundred,
directly down the tow-path of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, intending to attack the enemy in
front, while Crown should intercept the retreat of
.bn 189.png
.pn +1
any who attempted to escape by the road to Frederick.
After a quick march of about two miles, Lieut.
Crown observed the rear of a body of cavalry
about a mile in advance, and wishing to ascertain
what force and command it was, he sent Lieut.
Dorsey forward with six men to capture a straggler,
which was soon done, and the prisoner reported
that the force in front was two hundred
men of Cole’s battalion, commanded by Captains
Vernon and Summers. Not disposed to take one
Yankee’s evidence without having it corroborated,
Crown again sent Dorsey forward, instructing him
as before, to capture a Yankee but to avoid the use
of fire-arms, if possible; but this time “Nich.”
rode up on two of them, one of whom he captured
but was obliged to shoot the other, and as
soon as Crown heard the firing he moved his command
rapidly to the front, only halting long
enough to assure himself that the story of the last
prisoner tallied exactly with the first. The enemy
halted after crossing Catocton creek, and forming
their line of battle, waited for the Confederates to
come up, which they very soon did, and Crown
discovered that as the advantage in position, numbers
and arms, was all greatly against him, he
must trust to charging and close quarters; and
he at once gave the order to charge, which Company
B executed in her usually gallant style, but
now with more of fiery valor than ever, for they
.bn 190.png
.pn +1
were that day upon the soil of their native State,
and to add to their enthusiasm, knew that the
blue jackets in their front covered the forms of
Maryland men.
The Yankees poured a heavy fire upon them
from their carbines, but Company B was moving
at a gallop and on the lowest ground, so that
most of the bullets flew over the heads of the
men, while those that were low enough only tore
their clothes or wounded their horses, and the fact
that Cole’s men had not been drilled to fight at
sabre’s length was soon evident, for the moment
that Crown’s boys gained their side of the creek
the Yankees broke, and notwithstanding the efforts
of one of their officers fled like sheep from hungry
wolves. A running fight for about four miles
was kept up, when finding his men overloaded
with horses and prisoners, and fearing too that
Col. White might need him at the Point, Lieut.
Crown recalled his men and turned towards that
place, taking with him thirty-seven men and
horses of Cole’s battalion, many more having
been captured, but in the darkness and confusion
made their escape.
When Company B joined Col. White at the
Point of Rocks, they found that he had already
taken the place, having routed Means’ command
and captured about twenty prisoners and horses,
and was then engaged in setting fire to two railroad
trains that had just come down, one of
.bn 191.png
.pn +1
which he destroyed where it stood, but after
getting the other in a good way to burn some of
the men let steam on the locomotive and started
the blazing train at full speed for Baltimore.
After getting all the men together, and taking
plenty of time to secure the plunder they
wished to take away, the Colonel marched his battalion
to Loudoun, and encamped near the Blue
Ridge, above Hillsborough, where his people
enjoyed themselves finely until the order came
calling them to join their General, who was now
leading the advance of Lee’s army through Maryland
and opening the way for the brilliant but
fruitless campaign in Pennsylvania.
.bn 192.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XII.
.sp 2
The battalion crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown,
and passing on by Sharpsburg
and Hagerstown, reached the head of Ewell’s
column at Greencastle, from which point it took
the advance, and under orders from Gen. Ewell
marched directly to Gettysburg, where a heavy
body of Pennsylvania militia was assembled to
keep the rebels out of town. Company E, commanded
by Lieut. H. M. Strickler, a gentleman,
a gallant soldier and good officer, but above all
an earnest Christian, and who is now (1870) a
devoted minister of the M. E. Church South, led
the advance, and charged bravely upon the
enemy, who were drawn up on the left and in
front, as the battalion moved forward, to the
number of thirteen hundred infantry and about
one hundred cavalry. The battalion did not
have over two hundred and fifty men in ranks,
but they came with barbarian yells and smoking
pistols, in such a desperate dash, that the blue-coated
troopers wheeled their horses and departed
towards Harrisburg without firing a shot, while
the infantry who could do so followed their example,
and those who could not threw down their
bright, new muskets, and begged frantically for
.bn 193.png
.pn +1
quarter. Of course, “nobody was hurt,” if we
except one fat militia Captain, who, in his exertion
to be first to surrender, managed to get himself
run over by one of Company E’s horses, and
bruised somewhat.
Most of White’s men pushed on after the cavalry,
who were finely mounted, but they had been
on the run while the others were losing time in
the camps, and were, of course, too far gone to
overtake, and the battalion rallied in the town,
where the citizens gave them all they wanted, and
more, so that in a little while all who ever did
indulge in the ardent were in a half-horse, half
wild-cat condition, and each man imagined himself
to be the greatest hero of the war; in fact,
some were heard recounting to the horrified citizens
of Gettysburg the immense execution they
had done with the sabre in a hundred battles.
But about five o’clock, after the “Comanches”
had been in town two hours, Gen. Early came in
and ordered the battalion to go on up the railroad
and catch some Yankees, but after a long chase
they returned without any “boys in blue,” and
bivouacked that night with the citizens—about a
mile from town.
Next day was passed in scouting and in gathering
up horses, supposed from their fat, sleek
appearance, to be fit for service, but no greater
mistake was ever committed, for a Southern cavalry
horse, after being entirely broken down,
.bn 194.png
.pn +1
travel farther and better than the fine-looking
steeds just from a Pennsylvania stable, and
many a man bitterly repented him of exchanging
his poor old horse for a new one, even if he got a
watch to boot.
The battalion marched to Hanover Junction,
where there had been about eight hundred
Yankee infantry, but who retired to their fortifications,
about two miles off, as the “Comanches”
advanced, nor did the latter deem it prudent to
attack them; so after skirmishing with them a
short time they passed by and encamped for the
night, moving out the next morning, in front of
Gen. Early’s division, to Little York, where they
arrived about noon; and as soon as the General
came up he ordered Colonel White to scout the
country and destroy as much railroad as possible.
Here the Colonel divided his command, sending
Captain Myers with his Company off to the left of
the town, several miles, to picket and scout, while
with the remainder he moved forward to the Susquehanna,
where he destroyed the bridge, and on
his return from Wrightsville to York burned
twenty-two railroad bridges.
When Gen. Early was ready to march to Gettysburg
again he called in his cavalry, and sent
them in advance, with orders to watch carefully
the left flank; and in the afternoon of the same
day a strong force of the enemy appeared, and in
a dash upon Company A captured one man (Thos.
.bn 195.png
.pn +1
Spates) who was picketing in a cherry tree. This
opened the eyes of the men to the fact that they
now had something more than militia to deal
with, but no one imagined that it was anything
but the army of Hooker, which had been beaten
on the Rappahannock, and no people were ever in
finer spirits than those who had followed the stars
and bars to Pennsylvania.
The weather was extremely hot, but the marching
was easy, and they were in a land where
abundance of everything could be obtained for
men and horses, while all the floating news and
rumors that reached the soldiers’ ears were of the
“good time coming,” and had never a tinge of
gloom to mar the brightness which flooded the
future as the seeming hand of destiny lifted the
veil which divided that shadowy land from the
now, giving a glimpse of the glory and peace
beyond; and looking back to the “auld lang
syne” they said, in the language of holy writ,
“the thing which hath been, it is that which
shall be, and that which is done is that which
shall be done; and there is no new thing under
the sun;” for had not America been the land of
rest to the oppressed of the Old World; and had
not Liberty always ground the tyrant’s power to
dust beneath the tread of Freedom’s legions in
this—her chosen home? and now the finger of
events was tracing the same old story before the
eyes of the wondering nations.
.bn 196.png
.pn +1
One current story was that Gen. Lee had said
that he would “winter his army on the Hudson,”
and another, that France had recognized the Confederate
States and was sending a fleet to open the
blockade; and just then an old soldier would
break out with "Confound French recognition
and all the rest of them, the English and French
wouldn’t recognize us when we wanted them to,
now we don’t thank them for it, because we will
make the Yankees themselves acknowledge our
independence in a month;" when, as if to confirm
the opinion and make it prophecy, a newspaper
would proclaim in big letters, “Hurrah!
the war is over! Commissioners from Washington
and Richmond have met at Fortress Monroe to
arrange terms for separation and peace!”
This was the atmosphere in which the soldiers
breathed while campaigning in Pennsylvania,
and many of them expressed fears that they
would not be permitted to fight the Yankees
“just once more” before the war ended, but as
they approached Gettysburg on Wednesday evening,
July 1st, all such fears were dispelled, for
there stood the army of the North in battle order,
and before the Southern troops were within two
miles of the place their foes came out to meet
them. White’s battalion, then the only body of
cavalry with the A. N. V., was sent by General
Ewell to the left of his corps, and as they gained
the high hills in that direction they had a full
.bn 197.png
.pn +1
view of the battle between Ewell’s Corps and the
11th Corps of Meade’s army, particularly that
part of it fought by Heth’s Division. The enemy
was posted at a fence and ditch which ran together
across an open, level meadow, and Heth’s men
came out of a woods about four hundred yards in
front, their thin line marching beautifully over
the smooth meadow towards the enemy’s position,
and although under a fire from the moment of
their appearance, that increased rapidly as they
advanced, the line moved without any more falter
or waver than if they had been on dress parade,
paying no attention to the men who occasionally
fell out of ranks smitten by the fire, but on reaching
a point about one hundred yards from the
Yankee position an officer on horseback gave an
order, and with a shout Heth’s men sprang forward
in a charge, and now the line which had
before been keeping step and moving so regularly
began to spread out as the fastest men would leave
the slow ones in the race of death, and the fire of
the enemy was now a perfect blaze and roar of
musketry, but in a few minutes the Confederate
bayonets drove them from the fence, and in utter
route the Yankees fled across the open ground to
the railroad, their men falling thick beneath the
withering rifle shots of the Confederates, who had
now no danger to affect their aim, and the rout
and pursuit disappeared from view through the
streets of Gettysburg.
.bn 198.png
.pn +1
Soon after this one of Ewell’s brigades marched
to the left of the town and into a large wheat
field where lay a line of men in blue, who raised
up when the gray jackets were in about fifty
yards, and throwing down their guns, surrendered
in a body—in all over one thousand.
The battalion passed on, and soon met some of
the Yankee skirmishers from a division of infantry
on Rocky Creek, whom they captured and sent
back, and in a short time Gen. Gordon marched
his brigade to the support of the cavalry.
About this time a battery, from the Cemetery
Hill, was fiercely shelling White’s men, and as
Gordon’s skirmishers appeared on the field a
storm of shot and shell ploughed the ground
along the line, causing part of it to falter; but
the Major who commanded was a splendid officer,
and brought his people up to it handsomely;
once, indeed, he displayed almost more than
human coolness and daring—in reforming a part
of his line that had broken under the fire, and
just as the Major reached it a heavy shell exploded
exactly under his horse, causing both it and the
rider to roll over on the ground in a cloud of dirt
and smoke, all who saw it thinking that they
were surely both killed, but amid the cloud the
beautiful bay sprang up, with the gallant Major
still in the saddle exclaiming, “Steady men,
steady; no use to break; keep the line steady;”
and the men were steady after that.
.bn 199.png
.pn +1
At dark the troops encamped, and in the morning
the battalion was broken up into scouting
parties for the Generals of the left wing, the Colonel
sending Captains Myers and Grubb with six
men each to find the right flank of the Yankee
army. They crossed the creek, and separating,
scouted through a rough, broken country, for
probably two hours, when they united exactly in
rear of the enemy’s right wing, and sent a courier
to inform the Colonel that they had found it;
Myers having gone around the right flank, while
Grubb passed through an opening in their line
without knowing it until he found himself in the
rear. Here they saw a long train of wagons, and
determined to capture some of them, but on arriving
in about two hundred yards of the train found
that a cavalry force had passed along in their rear,
while a line of infantry was marching directly
towards them, and from this interesting situation
they agreed to retire, without wagons, if they
could.
It was a very particular business, but by passing
off for Yankee scouts, which Captain Grubb
could do to perfection, they got clear, taking five
prisoners with them.
During the remainder of the day the battalion
did little but watch the flank and listen to fighting
along the lines to their right, and when night
came they bivouacked near a deserted farm-house
on the bank of Rocky Creek.
.bn 200.png
.pn +1
The morning of July 3d opened very clear and
very hot, and the stillness along the lines of
battle was at times almost oppressive, but the
occasional shell from Round Top and the Cemetery
kept the boys from going crazy with their
anxiety to interpret the long intervals of silence,
and when one of the Yankee bombs set fire to
their farm-house they became perfectly satisfied,
certain now, they said, “that the Yankee army
was still there.”
About noon, while the men were idly lying
along the fields in the full blaze of the July sun,
with no motion of the air to mitigate the oppressive
heat, they noticed that the artillerymen were
posting their cannon in a long curving line along
the hills, and to all appearances meant business,
although no firing was heard anywhere, but about
1 o’clock one single gun, (a long black Whitworth,)
pealed out its sharp, ringing battle-note,
and in an instant, from two hundred and ten
guns, boomed forth a raging tempest of lightning
and thunder that fairly shook the solid
ground and made every man leap to his feet in
bewildered excitement; but soon came the reply
from the lines of Gen. Meade, where the white
powder smoke, tinged with the lurid flashings,
puffed from the blazing muzzles of two hundred
and seventy cannon, and the great battle of Gettysburg
was fairly joined.
This firing continued until the veterans of Lee
.bn 201.png
.pn +1
had gone through the valleys and reached the fire-crowned
heights where lay the Northern army,
when the Southern guns ceased their bellowing;
but of the general battle the great historians
have written, and we have only to tell of what
White’s people did.
About 2 o’clock the Colonel marched his battalion
up the turnpike towards York, and no
sooner did he get clear of the infantry lines than
he became aware that the enemy’s cavalry was on
the ground.
Gen. Stuart had not yet appeared, and all that
was heard from him was that he was actively
operating in Meade’s rear, destroying trains, and
had even gone so far as to make a demonstration
on the fortifications around Washington City.
White’s people found the Yankee pickets on the
pike and drove them to their reserves, which were
drawn up in a body of timber running parallel
with the road and separated from it by an open
line of level grass fields, about three hundred
yards in width, and as soon as the Colonel found
that a heavy force of cavalry was here he reported
it to Gen. Lee, who sent Gen. “Extra Billy”
Smith with his infantry brigade to support the
battalion in guarding the flank.
There had always been a feeling of dislike
between the Infantry and Cavalry, the former
regarding the latter as the most favored branch—in
not being compelled to walk—but nothing so
.bn 202.png
.pn +1
thrilled them with dread as a cavalry charge,
while the cavalry feared even more to attack the
infantry of the enemy; and Napoleon, at the
Pyramids, proved that cool courage and scientific
handling made infantry invincible against the
finest cavalry in the world, for such the Mamelukes
certainly were; but for all that the Infantry
preferred to have their foes on foot.
White’s battalion moved up the turnpike, with
Gen. Smith’s brigade in support, but very soon
the General found that he was becoming separated
from the army, while on the flank and front the
enemy’s cavalry was threatening him, and fearing
to be cut off if he advanced further he decided to
retire, which he did, halting at a cross-road a
mile back, and White and his boys had a great
deal more than their hands full, but what they
could do they did, and in constant dashes, first up
the road in front and then out on the right, they
drove back the enemy’s parties as often as they
advanced.
The situation was full of excitement, to which
the roar of the great battle, raging at its hottest
in their rear, added force; but by-and-bye long
lines of cavalry were discovered marching quietly
from the woods on the left, and now it did appear
that the enemy was all around, for no one doubted
the new force being Yankees.
Making one last charge up the turnpike, in
which a regiment of the enemy was driven wildly
.bn 203.png
.pn +1
back, Col. White turned his command and retired
slowly toward the position of Gen. Smith, but
pretty soon, in a cloud of dust, Gen. Stuart and
staff galloped up the road, inquiring eagerly for
news; and just then, as the Colonel called his
attention to the new forces on the left, the wind
unfurled their banners and displayed the battle-flag
of Dixie, while Stuart remarked, "that is
Gen. Fitz Lee’s Division;" and a perfect storm of
cheers and glad shouts of welcome went up from
White’s excited battalion. As soon as General
Stuart could get his division up he opened the
battle by sending a regiment across the fields
before spoken of to the woods, but when half way
to the timber a regiment of the enemy came out,
and in a few minutes was driven back, but being
reinforced by another the Confederate regiment
retired, when Stuart sent a second regiment to
aid his first, and thus the battle spread, growing
fiercer as the numbers engaged increased, while
the artillery played upon all points where it could
be managed without injury to its own troops.
A story was told in ’62 to the effect that Gen.
Lee had said he would give ten dollars for every
cavalryman killed or wounded in battle with the
sabre, and if he had been held to the contract
now he would have been ruined, for the men
appeared to use their sabres that evening from
choice, and numbers on both sides fell under
the bloody blades.
.bn 204.png
.pn +1
After watching the conflict for some time, Col.
White noticed a Yankee regiment wheeling on
the right of Stuart’s line, and ordering his men
forward met it fairly, driving it back to the woods
in gallant style, for which he received General
Stuart’s thanks.
"When night had stilled the battle’s hum"
the troops bivouacked on the ground over which
they had fought; but the news from the lines
was discouraging, saying that General Lee had
failed to take the heights; and when, an hour
before day, the orders came to mount and fall
back silently, for fear the enemy’s batteries would
open fire again, the soldiers knew that the battle
was lost, but they still trusted to the genius and
generalship of their great leader to turn the
defeat to their advantage in some way.
The 4th of July, a dismal day of rain and gloom
was passed in gathering the stragglers and wagons
together, and in burying the dead, but when
evening came the battalion was divided; Colonel
White, with Companies B, C and E, acting as
rear guard for Ewell’s Corps, which brought up
the rear in the retreat, as it had led the van of
the army in the advance; and Maj. Ferneyhough,
with Companies A, D and F, was sent to A. P.
Hill, to be advance guard for his Corps, as it held
the front of the army.
The whole march was full of harassing attacks
by the enemy, but White fought those who followed,
.bn 205.png
.pn +1
from every hill-top, only being compelled
once to call upon the General for aid, when Gen.
Gordon, the fiery Georgian, marched his brigade
back and administered a reproof that made the
Yankees chary of pressing Ewell’s rear guard too
closely again.
Major F.’s command pressed forward under A.
P. Hill’s orders, driving the enemy’s pickets as
they went, and whipping a force of cavalry from
the town of Waynesboro’, but when the army
reached Hagerstown the battalion united again,
and remained with Gen. Ewell.
Nothing of special interest, other than what
was done by other commands, was performed by
White’s battalion in the further progress of the
retreat, and the history of it has been told by
other pens so fully that were mine capable of the
task there is nothing new to write, and when the
army of General Lee, baffled, it is true, in its
Northern campaign, but still in fighting trim and
ready for battle, reached the South bank of the
Potomac at Williamsport, the men felt that they
were at home once more, and believed that the only
result of the Gettysburg disaster would be to prolong
the war a few more years, and indeed all
hope of a speedy termination had died in the
hearts of the battle-scarred soldiers of the Army
of Northern Virginia, when, in connection with
their own defeat, they counted the bloody siege
and final surrender of Vicksburg, the news of
.bn 206.png
.pn +1
which saluted their ears almost as soon as their
own battle was over.
Almost as soon as he crossed the river, Colonel
White reported to Gen. Stuart, and asked permission
to take his battalion to Loudoun county,
which that officer readily granted, and the “Comanches”
marched rapidly to Castleman’s Ferry,
but found the Shenandoah so high, from the heavy
rains which had followed the battle, that it was
impassable, and the Colonel encamped his men a
short distance from the river to wait for it to fall.
.bn 207.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIII.
.sp 2
The battalion remained on the bank of the
Shenandoah for a day, but seeing no decrease
in the flood, impatience got the better of prudence,
and the Colonel, giving way to the wishes
of his men, (which in this case coincided so fully
with his own,) marched them to the river, and
such as were not afraid to “take water,” swam
the horses across, while the others went over in a
skiff. When about fifty men had got over, and
the shades of an early twilight commenced to
gather from the low-hanging clouds, a courier
from Lieut. Moon, of the 6th Va. Cavalry, who
had charge of the pickets in the Gap, came down
the mountain and informed Col. White that the
Yankees were moving into the Gap. The boys hastily
dressed, and mounting their horses marched
up to see if the report was true, but before going
far they met Lieut. Moon retiring, while behind
him came a large force of Yankee infantry; and
with many a curse on the delay in crossing the
river, the detachment turned back and passed up
between mountain and river to the Shepherd’s
mill road, which brought them out at the Trap.
The next day they learned that Meade’s army was
in Loudoun, following the track of Burnside, and
.bn 208.png
.pn +1
as nearly all the men who had been scattered
through the county, at their homes, returned to
the command, the Colonel retired to Ashby’s Gap,
where he resolved to make a fight, if anything
like his number advanced upon him.
On Sunday morning, July 19th, the long lines
of the Yankee army were seen marching along to
Southward, and when the sun was an hour high,
a few cavalry scouts rode up towards the mountain
position where White and his men were standing,
but showed no disposition either to be captured
themselves or to attempt to drive the rebels from
the Gap. After waiting and watching a long
while for such an advance as they had made at
Snicker’s Gap, the Colonel ordered Capt. Myers
to “send some men down there to stir up those
fellows,” and a party of half a dozen was instructed
to ride down and drive away the pickets
below Paris. This party went down, and making
a dash drove the picket out of sight over the hill,
but in an instant was seen coming back at full
speed, while along the hills, a blue line of infantry,
deployed as skirmishers, sprang up as if
by magic and advanced at a quick march towards
the Gap, and in the pike beyond, at least a brigade
was seen marching in the same direction.
Capt. M. now turned to the Colonel, and asked
if he would “have those fellows stirred up any
more?” to which he replied that he “thought
that would do just now,” and sending Captains
.bn 209.png
.pn +1
Grubb and Myers to the village to check the advance,
he prepared to leave the last corner-stone
of Loudoun. When the men with Grubb and
Myers reached their position at Paris, they dismounted,
and as the Federal advance on the turnpike,
which was a party of cavalry, came up, they
commenced a fire which drove them back; one
man, Harper, of Co. A, bringing down the Yankee
Major in command, and his horse, at one discharge
of buckshot from his musket. The battalion
now took the mountain road to Manassa
Gap, and on reaching that place saw and captured
a Signal Corps, which was operating on the side
of the mountain, near Linden.
The Yankees marched through towards Front
Royal, but were met and driven back by A. P.
Hill’s people.
Col. White now crossed the river again, to wait
until the remainder of his battalion could come
up, but gave permission to Captains Myers and
Grubb to take a party of their men on foot and
make a scout along the mountains to capture
wagons, if possible.
With eighteen men, they went down among
the enemy’s camps near Piedmont, at dark, but
found nothing but infantry, and the next day
went to Ashby’s Gap, where they discovered a
heavy force holding that position, which forced
them to cross the river at Berry’s Ferry, and passing
down to Shepherd’s mill they again went
.bn 210.png
.pn +1
over, climbing the Blue Ridge near Snicker’s
Gap, only to find that pass strongly guarded by
both infantry and cavalry, while all the wagons
passed along with the army, keeping entirely
clear of the mountain, it being pretty evident
that Gen. Meade had learned a valuable lesson
from the mistakes of Burnside the year before.
Everything was now at a stand-still, and thus
they remained for several days, when the Colonel
came over with the battalion, and moving down
into the lower country begun to trouble the enemy’s
scouting parties, and succeeded in capturing
a number of horses and prisoners. On the morning
of August 7th, he went to Woodgrove, where
he learned that a regiment of Michigan Cavalry
had come out from Harper’s Ferry to Hillsborough,
and moving cautiously to the latter place, found
that they had passed on towards Waterford.
The Colonel had about one hundred and twenty
men with him and determined to attack them, so
passing down the road he halted at a favorable
position near Mr. Vandevanter’s, and made his
arrangements for an ambuscade, thinking the
enemy would return to Harper’s Ferry in the
evening, but in this he was mistaken, for after
waiting some time, he learned, about sundown,
that they were preparing to encamp at Waterford
for the night. He now moved his command into
the woods on Catocton creek, near Mr. J. E.
Walker’s, and waited until about 9 o’clock, when,
.bn 211.png
.pn +1
leaving their horses, he marched his people over
toward the camp, as he had discovered it, on a
high hill south of the town.
He instructed his men to march quietly up to
the enemy’s position without firing, and when he
gave the signal, to rush upon them and secure as
many horses and prisoners as possible; and to prevent
mistakes in the confusion of the attack gave
as challenge and reply the words “Bob” and
“Joe.”
On getting into the field, the men found a great
number of haycocks, which caused them to become
somewhat scattered in their march, and as
the Colonel advanced in front, holding his pistol
ready to fire, he accidentally fell over one of the
cocks, in which his pistol was discharged.
This caused a panic, and while some of the
men, imagining that they were beset by the enemy,
commenced to retreat, the others looked upon
it as the signal for attack and rushed forward
firing their pistols, although nearly two hundred
yards from the enemy. The flying ones were
speedily rallied and brought back, but the Yankees
were all mounted and ready to retreat, which
they did with all haste, after firing one volley at
the Confederates, killing a very gallant young
soldier of Co. C,—John C. Grubb.
Three or four of the enemy fell, and a few horses
were captured, but the most of them made their
escape. A part of the command, under Captain
.bn 212.png
.pn +1
Grubb, were standing in the road when two or
three pickets, who had been stationed on the Hamilton
road, alarmed at the firing, came up, and
were halted with a demand for a surrender. Some
of Grubb’s men drew up their pistols to fire upon
them, but the Captain prevented it, saying, "don’t
shoot them, they will surrender," when one of
the Yankees discharged his carbine almost in
Captain Grubb’s face, and at the same time exclaimed,
“I surrender,” and the whole party
gave themselves up as prisoners.
Capt. Grubb fell, mortally wounded, and with
mournful hearts his men carried him back to his
father’s house near Hillsborough, where he died
in about two hours, and the battalion met with a
loss that was well nigh irreparable, for he was
one of the best, if not the very best officer in it.
He had been in the service from the commencement
of the war, first as a member of Capt. N. R.
Heaton’s Company, (A,) 8th Regiment Va. Volunteers,
and the gallant Heaton bears willing testimony
to the noble daring of R. B. Grubb, while
under his command, at the bloody battles of Manassas
and Ball’s Bluff, while Gen. Eppa Hunton
pronounces him one of the best men he ever had
in that regiment of heroes, whose name is crowned
with the glory that beams brightly upon the fame
of Virginia, won in a hundred battles. In the
Spring of 1862, “Dick” Grubb was discharged
from the infantry service, and going to the Valley,
.bn 213.png
.pn +1
attached himself to the 7th Va. Cavalry,
where he distinguished himself as a scout for Colonel
(afterwards Major-General) Wm. E. Jones.
In the fall of that year, he obtained permission
to raise a company for White’s battalion, in which
he was entirely successful, as has been shown.
After this affair at Waterford, which had been
fruitful only in disaster to his battalion, Colonel
White established a camp on the Blue Ridge near
Mr. Howell’s, where he remained for several days,
during which time the business of the command
was, to some extent, brought into shape, as it was
highly necessary to do, for it had begun to suffer
for want of proper attention.
The old Company of Capt. Grubb was now officered
by Capt. Dowdell and Lieut. Sam. Grubb,
who were promoted, and by Lieut. T. W. White
who was elected Second Lieutenant.
Marcellus French had been made Captain of
Co. F, with Charles James as his First Lieutenant,
and everything put in order, as far as possible,
to make the battalion efficient.
One morning, about the middle of August,
Triplett, of Co. F, reported to the Colonel that a
regiment of Yankee cavalry, encamped on the
Rappahannock, near Orleans, in Fauquier county,
was in the habit of sending a party every day,
about 3 o’clock, to Barbour’s Cross Roads, on a
scout; and the Colonel at once resolved to attempt
their capture. So starting with about one hundred
.bn 214.png
.pn +1
men he reached, just before midnight, an
admirable place of concealment in the thick pines
near the Cross Roads, where the command halted
to wait until the scouting party came along the
next day. The time passed wearily enough in
that hot, piney encampment, but every man knew
that an absolute certainty of success depended on
their lying hid until the enemy came.
Lieut. Chiswell, with seventeen men of Co. B,
was stationed in the thick bushes close along the
road, with instructions to fire when the Yankees
came opposite them, and a picket was placed on
the Orleans road half a mile below, to watch for
the enemy, and now nothing remained but to wait
for the game.
About 3 o’clock, the picket came quietly in
and reported above one hundred approaching,
when all the men got up from their lounging
among the broom sedge and mounted their horses,
and notice being sent to Lieut. Chiswell, everything
was, as the man-o’-wars-man would say,
“cleared for action.” After waiting anxiously,
with ears strained to catch the sound, for about
ten minutes, the carbines of Chiswell’s men rung
out, and with a shout, away dashed the mounted
men to charge. On emerging from the pines into
the road, the Yankees were seen in the field on
the opposite side, in great confusion from the unexpected
volley they had received, but as soon as
they saw the battalion they dashed off towards a
.bn 215.png
.pn +1
gap in the fence, to gain the road again; but now
one of those unaccountable things, which so often
occur without any reason at all, and just at the
moment when their influence is most damaging,
happened; and as Col. White, Adjt. Watts, and
Capt. Myers, who were a little distance in front
of the command, galloped up towards the gap to
cut off the enemy’s escape, and thinking they
were followed by the men, the Major, who was exactly
at the head of the column, wheeled it down
the road, leaving these three officers to meet the
sixty Yankees alone.
In a few minutes the Colonel and Capt. M.
were dismounted, both of their horses being shot
at the same moment, and the Adjutant was among
the blue-jackets without any assistance at all, but
pretty soon Lieut. Conrad managed to turn Company
A back, and with part of Company B, under
Lieut. Crown, who had not been in the column
when Major F. started it away from the Yankees,
dashed in and made the scene look something like
a fight, for the Yankees were resolute fellows from
the 6th Ohio Cavalry, and in spite of their surprise,
fought bravely.
Conrad, with a few men, followed a part of
them nearly to their camp, and on their return
met another portion, who had made a circuit towards
the Cross Roads at the first fire, and were
now going full tilt towards camp with Crown and
his boys right behind them.
.bn 216.png
.pn +1
Conrad and the few men with him were encumbered
with prisoners and horses, but attempted to
halt the Yankees, and fired into them as they
came, but they only called to the Confederates to
“clear the road,” and passed on with their sabres
flashing so dangerously that their foes gave them
room.
The whole force now returned to the Cross
Roads, having taken about twenty-five prisoners
and thirty horses, besides killing and wounding
about ten of the enemy, with no loss to themselves
except the two horses before spoken of.
Strange as it may appear only one man was
killed by the fire of Chiswell’s men, although
they had a rest and the distance was scarcely
twelve yards, but that one man had seven bullets
through him.
That was the usual result of ambuscades, for
under the most favorable circumstances they seldom
did much damage; and it would appear, (so
miraculous did the escapes from them seem,) that
Providence guarded in a special manner the unsuspecting
party who became entangled in the
murderous snare of a hidden enemy, no matter
how cunningly devised the plan might be; and it
must be confessed that such a mode of fighting is
a poor school in which to learn lessons of chivalry
and honor, the old adage that “all is fair in
war,” to the contrary notwithstanding.
After Barbour’s Cross Roads, there were many
.bn 217.png
.pn +1
attempts to strike the enemy’s scouting parties,
but they always came in such force it was impossible
to do anything with the slightest show for
success, and the Colonel turned his attention to
the camps of the foe in Fairfax and Maryland.
About the last of August, he learned that a
force, entitled "Scott’s 900," was stationed at
Edwards’ Ferry, and crossing the river some distance
above the ferry about midnight, with one
hundred and fifty men, the Colonel hid his force
along the bank to wait until the patrol which
passed up and down the tow-path of the canal,
every half hour, should go down, and at the same
time he placed two men near the tow-path, with
instructions to notice closely the patrol, and if
they appeared hurried or excited, to stop them,
for that would be evidence enough that they had
learned something of his presence on the Maryland
side, and they must not be permitted to reach
the camp, but if they came along quietly, as usual,
to let them pass, for they evidently would know
nothing of his movement; but it so happened that
old “Uncle” Charley Butler was along, and moreover
that he was about half drunk, and when the
patrol of two men came riding very leisurely
along, “Uncle Charley” sprang up and caught
the bridle of the leading Yankee, who raised his
gun to fire on Butler, and to save him the other
boys had to shoot the Yankee, and of course the
firing alarmed the camp.
.bn 218.png
.pn +1
Col. White now urged his people across the
canal as rapidly as possible, and coming up in
rear of the camp, (which he knew to be fortified
in front,) halted long enough to form his line and
ordered a charge, in which they received a volley
from the enemy that badly wounded one man, and
several slightly; and on reaching the camp found
that it had a regular fortification all around it, but
the men spurred their horses on, leaping the ditch
and riding recklessly over the breastworks. Most
of the enemy, thanks to Butler’s drunken blunder
at the canal, had escaped, and the daring and desperate
assault only resulted in the capture of
about a dozen, but their whole camp equipage fell
into the hands of White’s people.
The wounded man, Robert W. Jones, a splendid
soldier of Company A, was so badly hurt that it
was impossible to move him, and he was left at
the house of a citizen near by where he was kindly
treated, even by the Yankees; and up to this
time, (1870,) although more than seven weary
years have passed, he is still unable to walk, the
bullet having lodged near the spine.
This, and the affair at Barbour’s Cross Roads,
was acknowledged by Gen. Lee, in the following
letter to Gen. Stuart:
.bn 219.png
.pn +1
.pm start_quote
.if t
.ll 68
.nf r
“Head-Quarters, Army N. V., }
“Sept. 9th, 1863. \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.ll
.if-
.if h
.li
“Head-Quarters, Army N. V.,
“Sept. 9th, 1863.}
.li-
.if-
.nf
“Major-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart,
“Commanding Cavalry:
.nf-
“General—Your letter, enclosing reports of Lieut.-Colonel
E. V. White, of the operations of his battalion at Poole’s farm,
on August 27th, and his previous attack on Kilpatrick’s Cavalry,
have been received, and forwarded to the Department as
an evidence of the great boldness and skill of that officer.
“The activity and energy of his command, and the gallantry
of his officers and men, especially in the attack on Poole’s farm,
reflect great credit upon the service. I hope his operations will
always be attended with the same success.
“I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
.ll 68
.rj
“R. E. Lee, General.”
.ll
.pm end_quote
Soon after this, an order was received through
General Lee, from the Secretary of War, and the
execution of which has caused great blame to be
attached to Col. White, by those citizens of Loudoun
county, who, denying the ground-work upon
which the Federal Constitution was built, claimed
that the rights of the States were not merely delegated
but irrevocably transferred to the General
Government, the testimony of common justice,
common sense, and of the fathers and framers of
the Constitution to the contrary notwithstanding,
held their allegiance to the Northern government;
and while the praise or blame of traitors to their
State, in matters connected with the war, is of
small importance, yet to show that the Colonel
was blameless in this case, I make the explanation.
.bn 220.png
.pn +1
Two citizens of Loudoun, who, among many
others, had, at the tinkling of the “little bell,”
been dragged to a Federal prison, and although
no crimes were charged against them, were held
in durance on the ground that they refused to
take an oath of allegiance to the United States, a
government to whom they owed none, and which
was incapable of protecting them in it if they
did. These were Henry Ball and Campbell Belt,
and their friends, after appealing time and again
to the United States authorities for their release,
without success, and the health of both being so
delicate as to excite grave fears that confinement
would speedily end in death, sought by retaliation
to effect their discharge from prison, and procured
of the Secretary of War an order for the arrest
and confinement of William Williams and Asa
M. Bond—two prominent Union citizens—until
Messrs. Ball and Belt should be released, and
simply for the reason that Col. White was in a
situation to execute the order it was sent to him;
but owing to the inefficiency of the men detailed
to make the arrest, Mr. Bond escaped, and they
substituted R. I. Hollingsworth in his stead, who,
with Mr. Williams, was sent to Richmond, and
now their friends used their influence with the
United States authorities, which soon brought
about the release of both parties.
About the middle of September, the Colonel
was informed by one of his scouts that there
.bn 221.png
.pn +1
would be several carloads of horses sent down
on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road on the
16th, concluded to attempt their capture, and
having decided to take only Company B with him,
sent Lieut. Crown, with his people, on the night
of the 14th, to a point on the Catocton mountain
near Mr. Gray’s, above Leesburg, with instructions
to remain there until he (the Colonel) should
have examined the fords and fixed upon a place to
cross the Potomac, and as there is some difference
of opinion as to who was to blame for the disaster
that followed, I deem it proper to give all the
particulars, and let the reader settle the point.
No one was admitted by the Colonel into the
secret, but Lieut. Crown, and as the Colonel was
about to leave the battalion in charge of Major
Ferneyhough, he sent for Capt. Myers, and telling
him that Cole’s battalion and Means’ men
were in Waterford, gave him permission to go, if,
he so desired, and try to capture their pickets.
Lieut. Crown says, that Col. White promised to
send a force to attack the party at Waterford before
he would consent to take his company into
the mountain as White desired him, and that Col.
White informed him he had given such orders,
before he left the camp; but he certainly did not
order Capt. Myers to make an attack, or tell him
that anything depended on its being made, and
he merely told him he could go down and capture
their pickets if he desired.
.bn 222.png
.pn +1
Crown took his company to the appointed place,
and Myers, with his people, went down near
Waterford, but learning that the pickets were
drawn in after dark to the town, and that the
force there was composed of Cole’s battalion, a
regiment of Connecticut Cavalry, and Means’
Company, all commanded by Col. Cole, he retired
without making any attack, his orders being entirely
discretionary.
The next morning Cole’s command left Waterford
and marched straight to the camp of Co. B,
a spy having reported their position, and whether
Lieut. Crown is blameless entirely, and all the
fault lies with Col. White and Capt. Myers, or
not, it does appear that Co. B. was surprised in
the fullest sense of the word, for the first intimation
they had of Cole’s approach was the firing of
his advance guard among them, and both Lieuts.
Crown and Dorsey were at the house of Mr. Gray,
waiting for breakfast and listening to the piano.
Both officers were captured before they could
reach the company, and nine of their men were
made prisoners at the same time, but the others,
with great difficulty, made their escape. There is
no doubt that if Lieut. Crown had had a picket
out, and had notice of the enemy’s approach, he
would have whipped them, for he had about fifty
of the best fighting men in the army, and Crown
and Dorsey never counted odds in any kind of a
fight. So it is self-evident that situated as they
.bn 223.png
.pn +1
were there, they would have whipped Cole’s four
hundred easily, for the latter had not the best
troops in the world, in fact they were morally opposed
to the usual dangers of the battle-field.
Col. Cole treated Lieut. Crown just as cowards
always do those in their power, and even went so
far as to threaten him with hanging for being a
Confederate soldier so unfortunate as to be a prisoner
to Cole.
Of course this disaster wound up the projected
horse capture in Maryland, and Col. White returned
to camp with his spirits considerably below
zero, but he was never heard to charge the
damage to the misconduct of any one, and only
seemed to look upon it as one of the natural misfortunes
of war.
.hr 80%
.dv class='note'
Note.—Since writing the above, a letter from Lieut. Chiswell
has been received, which makes some correction necessary.
Lieut. C. says, that at the time of the attack, himself and
Lieut. Dorsey, with several of their men, were in Leesburg, and
as soon as they heard of it, Lieut. Dorsey, with one man, (a
member of the 8th Va. Infantry,) started to the scene of action
at Gray’s, but at a turn in the road they came suddenly upon
the enemy’s column and were captured, the man with Dorsey
having his thigh broken, and the Lieutenant himself being severely
handled in the conflict.
Lieut. Chiswell and his party were hard pressed, and with the
greatest difficulty effected their escape.
At one time Chiswell’s horse fell with him, and rolling over
lay prone upon his leg, but he managed to withdraw it, leaving
his boot in the stirrup, and having gotten his horse up, the
lieutenant took the boot in his hand, and though the Yankees
were close upon him, he got clear. He says, “boots were
boots” in those days, and he couldn’t think of losing his.
.dv-
.bn 224.png
.pn +1
Col. White had frequently been called upon by
General Lee to destroy the Rail Road bridges in
rear of Meade’s army, in order that their supplies
might, to some extent, be cut off; but such enterprises
were very difficult and hazardous, more
especially as he had no men who knew the country
well enough to pilot him at night to the scene of
operations. On several occasions he attempted to
accomplish something in this way, but to no purpose;
however, having learned something of the
bridge over Pope’s Head creek, on the O. and A.
Rail Road, he resolved to attempt its destruction,
and with nineteen men of Companies A and C, he
started in the evening from his camp in upper
Loudoun, with John Davis of Fairfax, for his
guide, and marching all night, camped about daylight
on the Hatmark creek, below Fairfax C. H.,
where the company remained all day with nothing
to eat but fox grapes; the enemy being so thick
around that part of the country that the men
would have been discovered if they had ventured
out of the friendly shade of the pine woods.
When night came, the little party moved out,
and passing Barnes’ mill on the Accotink, arrested
the miller and carried him along with them.
On arriving within half a mile of the bridge,
the Colonel, accompanied by Jack Dove, rode out
to reconnoitre, finding a guard of four or five
men on the bridge and a reserve of some twenty
or more lying around a fire about a hundred yards
.bn 225.png
.pn +1
from it. Returning to the command, the Colonel
moved it forward, intending to charge and drive
off the guards, but on reaching the bridge found
they had already retired, but whether they had
become alarmed at something they had heard, or,
as a patrol, had passed during the time he was
gone for his people, the Colonel could not determine,
nor did he waste much time in speculations
on the subject, but setting his men to work splitting
and piling up rails on each end and in the
middle of the bridge, they soon had a good lot of
kindling ready to fire up, and after emptying a
few canteens of coal oil on it, the fire was applied,
and the boys withdrew a short distance and
watched until the whole frame of the bridge was
burning well, when they started on their return.
It was long past midnight when they left the
bridge, and consequently could not go far before
daylight compelled them again to hide themselves,
and here another day was spent with nothing but
grapes to eat. Some wagon trains, from Fairfax
C. H., passed them, and could have been easily
captured, but this would have almost insured the
capture of the whole party, and consequently they
were permitted to drive on.
When dark came the third night, the now half-famished
band started again, this time for the
nearest point where rations could be obtained, and
very soon they were being well fed by the good
people of upper Fairfax, who, no matter how hard
.bn 226.png
.pn +1
pressed they were themselves, always had something
to divide with the Dixie boys, and no people
in the whole Confederacy would more gladly
share their last morsel with the Southern soldier,
than these very ones whose homes were constantly
overrun by the blue-coated gentry who looked
upon all they had as lawful spoil for Uncle Sam,
and treated all of them as if they were rebels
only wanting arms and an opportunity to show
their hand.
When the Colonel started on this expedition,
he had left Major Ferneyhough in command of all
the battalion except Capt. Myers and his company,
and had instructed the latter to scout around the
river country, mainly for the purpose of collecting
a supply of long range guns, in which his command
was always very deficient, and for which he
had special use in a contemplated attack on Cole’s
battalion. The Major moved the rest of the command
to the old camp at the Trap, and here Major
Cole paid him a visit, causing the whole thing
to move at a quick march into the mountain,
while Cole encamped for the night at Bellfield,
and strange to say he only lost one or two pickets
by the operation, whom “Moll” Green, of Co. B,
accidentally came in contact with. As Cole was
returning the next day he came near breaking up
the blacksmith department, by capturing Jo. Conner
and Wm. Horseman, who were at work shoeing
horses at the Woodgrove shop. Several other
.bn 227.png
.pn +1
soldiers were at the shop, but they made their
escape.
Myers in the meantime had been scouting
around in the neighborhoods of Hillsborough and
Lovettsville, and the night Cole was at Bellfields,
his party lay near Waterford, listening to the
music of a party of infantry left at that place as
a reserve for Cole in case he should need it.
What had been considered an impossibility the
year before was now demonstrated to be perfectly
feasible, and to the great discomfort of the border
land both uniforms were daily seen by the citizens,
and very frequently followed each other so
rapidly that when not in actual chase, one party
would scarcely be out of sight before the other
would be demanding rations and horse-feed, and
making awful threats against Rebels or Yankees
as the case might be.
Not long after the bridge burning expedition
the Colonel sent Capt. Dowdell with his company
and a part of Co. A, under Lieut. Conrad, to look
after Yankee scouting parties “between the hills,”
as the country lying between the Blue Ridge and
Short Hill from Hillsborough to the Potomac is
called, while with seventeen of Co. A he started
himself to arrest a notorious Yankee spy and
guide, in Fairfax county, named Amey.
Capt. Dowdell, with fifty-five men, marched to
St. Paul’s church below Neersville, at night, and
waited quietly in the woods for his game, but no
.bn 228.png
.pn +1
blue-jackets put in an appearance until about noon
the next day, when Dowdell’s scout, who was
none other than the famous John Mobberly, reported
about one hundred Yankees coming from
Harper’s Ferry. Soon after this, the pickets on
the Short Hill side came in at a gallop, saying
the enemy was in their rear, which caused the
Captain to wheel about and march his command
in that direction, and he soon came upon an interesting
little fight between Lieuts. Sam. Grubb
and Ben. Conrad, who, while reconnoitering, had
run upon two of the enemy’s scouts engaged in
the same business, and had attempted their capture.
After this was over they started back to
the grade, but the Yankees there had heard the
firing and were retreating towards the Ferry, and
owing to difficulties presented by the rough and
broken country, considerable time was lost by
Capt. D.’s command in reaching the road, but
those of the men who were best mounted soon
came up in the enemy’s rear, and chased them
under cover of the batteries on Maryland heights,
wounding two and capturing five, together with
eight horses of the enemy, who proved to be a
scouting party of Means’ command, numbering
about seventy-five men, with three days’ rations,
on an intended scout, but owing to Capt. Dowdell’s
interference with their plans, they did not
get more than two miles from their headquarters.
On their arrival at Harper’s Ferry, a brigade
.bn 229.png
.pn +1
of cavalry was sent out, which followed the Confederates
to Hillsborough, but travelled too slow
to overtake them.
Col. White with his party had, in the meantime,
passed through Fairfax, by Hunter’s Mill,
Lewensville and Vienna, to Green’s Store, where
he succeeded in taking Amey; and on his return
was told by “Jack” Dove, who got his information
from Albert Gunnell, that a strong force of
the enemy had passed up after Col. Mosby, who
had been troubling them, as was the custom of
that gallant and enterprising officer; and Col.
White turned out by Thornton’s Mill, but just
before reaching that place, about midnight, the
prisoner, who was riding behind one of the men,
leaped from the horse and escaped into the woods.
Several shots were fired at him, but with what
effect no one could tell, and the party moved forward
again, and just before reaching the mill
were fired upon by a party hid behind a fence.
The Colonel, supposing them to be citizens,
wheeled about and rode up to the fence, but some
of his men told him they were wounded, and the
firing being kept up, he turned to his guide saying,
“They shoot too well for citizens; show us
the way out of here.” They now passed a barn,
from behind which a party of about one hundred
opened another fire upon them, at very short
range, and Col. White ordered his men to cross
the Rail Road, but in attempting it were met and
.bn 230.png
.pn +1
fired upon by a third party of Yankees, when
they turned to go up the Rail Road and in a
few yards were again exposed to a galling fire
from a fourth party. It now seemed that escape
was impossible, but the Colonel determined to
make one more attempt, and his men following,
he rode over the Rail Road bank and got clear of
the trap into which they had so unwittingly wandered.
They lost two or three horses killed, but managed
to get all the wounded men out, and making
the best time possible, were five miles from Thornton’s
when daylight came.
It was afterwards ascertained that the force of
Yankees engaged in this affair was over four hundred,
and that the captured spy and guide knew
of the ambuscade, which induced him to risk so
much in his escape.
The next affair of importance was the raid to
Lewensville, which occurred about the 10th of
October. One of his scouts had reported to the
Colonel that a cavalry camp of about two hundred
men and horses was located near that place, and
taking with him about sixty of Companies A and
B, he secured the services of George Tramell as
pilot, and started on the hazardous expedition.
On arriving within five miles of the camp, about
noon, the Colonel halted his command to wait for
night, and on cross-examining his scout, elicited
the fact that he had never seen the camp and
.bn 231.png
.pn +1
knew nothing except what citizens had told him,
and not having anything at all reliable from this
source, upon which to base a plan of attack, the
Colonel resolved to find out for himself the enemy’s
situation, and putting on a Yankee uniform,
he, with his guide, started about sunset for the
camp, leaving orders for the command to meet
him about 9 o’clock, at a designated point near
the camp.
He reached the place at dark, and walked around
it, finding where the pickets were stationed, and
the best way to get in, so that by the time the
men came to him he had his plan all arranged.
Promptly at the hour his people came, and dismounting
about half of them he placed them
under command of “Jack” Dove, Co. A, and
William Shehan, Co. B, (than whom braver men
never breathed,) with instructions to march directly
upon the camp, while, with the mounted
men he made a circuit and came in the enemy’s
rear.
While the vedettes were halting the Colonel’s
party, the dismounted men had gone, unnoticed,
into the camp and made their presence known by
firing a volley among the tents, which caused a
general stampede among all the Yankees who
were able to run, and now White’s command coming
in, the camp was captured with about thirty
prisoners and sixty-three horses. The enemy lost
about fifteen killed and wounded, but none of the
.bn 232.png
.pn +1
Confederates were injured, and with horses, prisoners
and plunder, the raiders retired to their
camp at the Trap.
A few days after this, news was received that
Gen. Lee’s army was advancing towards Washington,
and Col. White, with a few men, started
on a scout towards Manassas, leaving Capt. Myers
in charge of the battalion, who, as soon as he
heard that the Colonel had reached his scouting
ground, marched the command over to join him,
and on approaching Thoroughfare Gap, discovered
a party of infantry, who seemed disposed to hold
the Gap, but a dashing charge resulted in their
capture, and they were found to be about twenty-five
men and a Lieutenant from a Vermont regiment,
who had been left on picket when their
regiment retired.
Passing through the Gap the battalion met Col.
White at Mt. Zion church, and made several attempt
to get among Gen. Meade’s wagons, but
he took quite as good care of them in his retreat
as he had done on his advance three months before,
and the scouting only resulted in the gathering
in of a few straggling troopers who wandered
too far away from their main army.
The Colonel soon branched off again with his
little squad, and during his absence Gen. Stuart
sent for Capt. Myers and ordered him to get all
the men together and report for duty to General
Rosser, who was now commanding the Ashby brigade,
.bn 233.png
.pn +1
and shortly afterwards Gen. Lee’s army
retired to their old lines on the Rappahannock.
The Colonel returned and went to work gathering
up his men preparatory to going into the regular
service again, and with heavy hearts the
battalion bade farewell to the fondly-loved border
land, about the 25th October, and marched to the
camp of the brigade, then near Flint Hill, in
Rappahannock county.
.bn 234.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIV.
.sp 2
The soldiers of Colonel White found their new
Brigadier to be a handsome, soldierly-looking
man, very different in manner, language and
appearance from Gen. Jones, though not a whit
behind that officer in the maintenance of discipline
in his brigade; but it did not take them
long to find that he was a genial, warm-hearted
gentleman, and they respected and loved him accordingly.
For several days there was very little
done beyond some scouting along the Rappahannock,
and an inspection or two by Gen. Rosser, but
about the middle of November the brigade was
ordered to join the division on the historic plains
of Brandy Station, where Gen. Stuart purposed
holding another of his “spread-eagle” grand
reviews, which did no good except to give Yankee
spies an opportunity to count the exact number of
cavalry attached to the Army of Northern Virginia,
and to display the foppishness of Stuart,
who rode along his war-torn lines with a multitude
of bouquets, which fair hands had presented
to him, fastened in his hat and coat.
After the review, Gen. Rosser encamped his
brigade at Hamilton’s Crossing, on the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac Rail Road, about
.bn 235.png
.pn +1
eight miles from Fredericksburg, where it remained
very quietly for several days, except on
one occasion, when Gen. Hampton desired to see
what the enemy meant by establishing a camp at
Stephensburg, a little town in Culpeper, and in
order to find out, he took a detail from his several
brigades, and crossing the river at Ely’s ford
with about three hundred men, attacked the camp
at daylight, completely routing the enemy and
taking a considerable number of prisoners, together
with all their tents and baggage. In this
affair the 7th regiment led the charge, supported
by White’s battalion, and the two commands did
all the fighting, which was not much, for the
enemy fled as soon as they could get away.
On the 27th of November, Gen. Meade’s army
effected a crossing to the south side of the river
at Germania ford, and the cavalry were kept busy,
night and day, watching his movements, but Gen.
Rosser did not confine himself to watching alone,
for on passing Spottsylvania C. H., he sent Lieut.
Conrad, with Town H. Vandevanter, “Jack”
Dove and Ed. Poland, to find the force and position
of the enemy, with orders to report to him
at Todd’s Tavern, and at the same time put Col.
White in front with his battalion, and marched
as rapidly as possible towards the plank road.
On arriving at Todd’s Tavern, about midnight,
and hearing nothing from Conrad, the General
sent Capt. Myers out alone on one road, and Sergt.
.bn 236.png
.pn +1
Everhart with a squad on another, telling them
to find the Yankees and report as soon as they
possibly could. Both of these scouts found the
enemy very soon, and returned, and Col. White, in
his ranging around through the pines, came upon
a large cavalry camp not over a mile from the General’s
headquarters. About an hour before day
the Yankees were discovered on the road leading
from Todd’s Tavern to the plank road, and soon
after it was ascertained that their wagon train
was on the plank road. At daylight all the Yankees
moved off towards Chancellorsville, and Gen.
Rosser started his brigade for the train, which he
cut exactly in two, bringing out eighteen ambulances
and about one hundred wagons and teams,
besides setting fire to a large number of wagons
that had passed the side road too far to turn off,
and as it was soon discovered that some of the
burning wagons were loaded with ammunition,
the raid terminated suddenly.
Lieut. Conrad and his party came in about sunrise,
having gotten in among the Yankees and
staid there all night, not knowing the country,
and were very nearly being captured several
times. They fought out of one difficulty with the
1st Jersey Cavalry, and passing on, charged and
captured some prisoners from another regiment,
finally coming out at the Court-house, where they
had started from in the evening. When Conrad
came up to Rosser in the morning the General
.bn 237.png
.pn +1
asked him why he didn’t report the night before,
according to orders, but when the Lieutenant explained
to him that he had got into a place where
he couldn’t report to anybody but Gen. Meade’s
people, he excused him.
On the morning of the 29th, Rosser marched
his command to Parker’s Store, on the plank road,
and found the enemy encamped there, when he
at once opened the fight, by charging them, with
the 7th regiment, which drove them from their
camps, and in the chase many prisoners were
taken, but heavy reinforcements came up and the
fight was obstinate and severe for two hours. At
one time a strong force of the enemy’s dismounted
men took position on Rosser’s left, at a high bank
of the Rail Road, with their flanks protected by
swamps, heavy timber, and dense undergrowth.
This force General Rosser ordered Col. White to
charge, which he did, the battalion going into it
in gallant style, and not only driving more than
three times their number from the Rail Road, but
pressing them through the thick timber until the
marsh became too soft for their horses to go farther,
when the men were rallied and reformed,
and on reaching the plank road the balance of the
brigade was found hotly engaged with a greatly
superior force, and being forced back over the Rail
Road. Here again the battalion charged just in
time to save the brigade from rout, and all together
drove the Yankees clear of the road.
.bn 238.png
.pn +1
When the battle was over the Colonel reported
to Gen. Rosser how he had “unjointed” the Yankees,
and the General gave the battalion the name
of “Comanches,” which stuck to them during
the remainder of the war.
On the night of the 30th, Meade went back to
his own side of the river so quietly that it was
almost daylight before the movement was discovered,
but as soon as Gen. Stuart found they were
on the move he ordered all his cavalry forward,
and harassed their rear-guard severely.
The battalion, with the exception of Co. A, now
returned to their old camp near Hamilton’s Crossing,
and found the quartermaster’s department
moved for safety towards Richmond, in consequence
of which neither rations nor forage was
issued for several days, and both men and horses
suffered for the necessaries of life.
Company A was detailed to picket on the river
at Gold Mine, Ely’s, Germania, Banks’, and
United States fords, and this, too, in the country
that had been devastated by the great battle of
Chancellorsville, so that they suffered more for
supplies than the others, but they opened negotiations
with the Yankees on the other side of the
river, by which much trading of tobacco for coffee
and crackers was effected, and the blue and gray
pickets would mount their horses and meet in the
middle of the river, where they would confer in
as friendly a manner as near neighbors generally
do.
.bn 239.png
.pn +1
White’s battalion was very poorly prepared for
a winter campaign, or even for winter quarters,
and seeing that there was not much prospect for
improvement the men became very much dissatisfied.
All their tents had been stored near Mount
Crawford, in the Valley, at the time of General
Jones’ march to Brandy Station, and in the preparation
for the Pennsylvania campaign, General
Lee had cut transportation so low that only one
wagon for baggage was allowed to the battalion,
in consequence of which, a great quantity of it
was stored for safety at Flint Hill, and fully expecting
to find that as they had left it, the men
had come out from their homes with almost nothing
except what they wore; but on reaching Flint
Hill they found that the people around that country
had appropriated everything of value, only leaving
for the depositors a few camp kettles, with
the bottoms knocked out, and some scraps of
leather that had formerly been valises.
As an evidence that citizens had stolen the property,
Lieut. Conrad found one of his shirts on the
person of an old citizen, who stoutly swore that
the shirt was always his, but the Lieutenant
proved his claim and made the gentleman “come
out of it.”
The men clung to the hope that the brigade
would be sent to the Valley, but after the last advance
and retreat of Gen. Meade, their camp appeared
.bn 240.png
.pn +1
to be permanently established and their
hope died. The Colonel used every means in his
power to procure from the government the much
needed supply of clothing, but notwithstanding
the battalion had never received anything of the
kind from that source, nor even drawn the commutation
allowed in lieu thereof, under the law,
he only succeeded after many trials in getting
about one-fourth the necessary quantity, and as a
consequence much discomfort, and in many cases
actual suffering prevailed during the cold December
of 1863.
Under such circumstances as these, the spirit
of discontent culminated in the Loudoun companies,
and on the night of the 14th, about sixty of
A and C took a regular “French leave” and went
home, determined to supply themselves with winter
clothing, no matter what might be the consequences
of their desertion, and we will there leave
them for a time, in order to tell of an event that
had a brightening effect upon the heart of every
man in the Ashby brigade, which was an order
for General Rosser to march his command to the
Valley.
On the night of the 18th December, the brigade
crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and
moved to Stafford C. H., where it encamped until
morning, when the march was resumed, and all
day long, through a drenching rain, the Valley
men travelled on without a halt until about 11
.bn 241.png
.pn +1
o’clock at night, when they reached a fortified
camp of the enemy at Sangster Station, on the
Manassas Gap Rail Road, about twenty miles from
Alexandria. Capt. Dan. Hatcher, with his squadron,
(1st of 7th Regiment,) immediately charged
through a stream of water and over the Rail Road
bank, gaining the enemy’s rear, but was met by
such a heavy force in the breastworks that he was
unable to return, and the 11th Regiment dashed
forward in a wild, reckless charge, which forced
the Yankees to surrender, and released Hatcher
and his boys from their perilous position.
The command marched on from Sangster as
rapidly as possible, and on reaching Bull Run,
about two miles from Centreville, found that
stream almost impassable from the continuous
rain which had been pouring down for nearly
twenty-four hours, and with the greatest difficulty
the crossing was effected, but just when the
rear guard reached the stream a party of Yankees
came down from Centreville, which produced a
panic, and in the confusion some of White’s men
were knocked from their horses into the stream.
The night was excessively dark, and the country
totally unknown to the men, and as the head of
the column had waited for nothing, but marched
quickly on as soon as the swollen stream was
passed, the panic was increased by the fast riding
of those who got across, and when Col. White got
his men over there was no sign of the brigade nor
.bn 242.png
.pn +1
any indication of the route it had taken, while
the firing in the rear showed that the Yankees
were coming up.
The Colonel sent a courier to the General for
assistance and on reaching the turnpike found
the 12th regiment waiting for him, and order
being now restored the command marched quietly
on; but the wind had sprung up keen and cold
from the northwest, causing the rain to freeze as
it fell, and almost depriving the men of the power
to keep their saddles, so intense was the cold, but
as best they could the dismal march was continued,
and at daylight the command reached Middleburg,
in Loudoun county, and pushing on to
Upperville halted to feed and rest, having traveled
over ninety miles during twenty-four hours,
with no halt except at Sangster, where one man
was killed, and several wounded in the 7th and
11th regiments, and about two hundred Yankees
killed, wounded, and captured.
When the brigade reached Upperville the run-away
boys from the battalion, who had come by
way of Greene county and Luray Valley, were
just coming in, and not wishing to risk so much
to get home and be met and arrested by their
command at the door, they had to go back into
the mountain and wait awhile; so that those who
came around with the brigade got home earlier
than they who had been on the road four days
longer.
.bn 243.png
.pn +1
Many hardships were experienced in reaching
the Valley, even when so near it, because the
Shenandoah was too full to cross with safety, and
the General marched to a ford above Swift Run
Gap before he could get his people over, and after
this came down the Valley to Mount Jackson,
where he encamped, in the coldest weather, for
about a week, when he set out for a raid in the
Moorfield Valley and on the B. & O. Railroad,
but owing to the extremely bad roads and intensely
cold weather his command was unable to
execute the General’s plans, and he returned to
camp with the fruits of some slight successes,
including a number of prisoners and a few
wagons, captured near Burlington, and with
many of his men frost-bitten, some of them
badly. The camp was now at Timberville, in
Shenandoah county, and here the Colonel exerted
himself to induce the deserters from Co.’s A and
C to return to the battalion. These men had
been told that it was the intention of the officers
to arrest and bring them before a general court
martial that would certainly sentence some of
them to be shot, and when Col. White sent a
messenger to them entreating them to return to
their duty, they returned for answer that they
were willing and anxious to do so, and had no
idea of escaping punishment, but that they would
never come back if there was a prospect of any of
them being shot, and that if the Colonel would
.bn 244.png
.pn +1
send Captain Myers to them with an assurance
that they should not go before a court martial
that had power to inflict the death penalty, they
would all return with him; and accordingly,
Capt. M. was detailed to proceed to Loudoun and
Fairfax counties to gather up the deserters, which
he did, reaching camp a few days after the brigade
had started out on what was familiarly known as
the "Patterson’s Creek raid."
The facts of this expedition have been principally
obtained from Messrs. T. H. Vandevanter,
Co. A, White’s Battalion, and Jas. T. Robinson,
12th Virginia Cavalry, who were couriers for
Gen. Rosser, and from Lieut. Conrad and Sergt.
E. L. Bennett, of Co. A.
The command moved from camp to Moorfield
about the 25th of January, 1864, where it
remained until Gen. Early, with a brigade of
infantry and battery of artillery, came over,
when it was resolved to attempt the capture of
Petersburg, where a strong force of the enemy
was reported to be located, and in pursuance of
this plan Gen. Early marched up the right bank
of the South Branch while Rosser, with his cavalry
and one piece of artillery, crossed the river
at Moorfield and gained the rear of Petersburg;
but on reaching the top of the mountain and
getting a view of the road leading to New Creek
it was discovered that a long train of wagons,
guarded by about 1,000 infantry, was quietly
.bn 245.png
.pn +1
moving along towards Petersburg, and as such
game was far more to Rosser’s notion than laying
siege to a town, he prepared to “come down on
it” (to use a familiar expression of the General’s).
His first step was to throw a few shells into the
head of the train, which brought it to a full stop,
and then to charge upon it with his “people,”
an operation which was entirely successful, and
the whole train of ninety wagons and teams was
captured, together with about two hundred of the
guards, which were all the troopers could catch,
as the others made such fast time to the mountain
that it was given up to be folly to attempt their
capture.
The train was carrying fifteen rations to
the garrison at Petersburg, but there were also
some sutler wagons along filled with the dainties
and delicacies that these traveling merchants bartered
to the soldiers for their pay, and Rosser’s
men had a “roaring night” of it.
The first squadron of the battalion, under Lieut.
Conrad, was sent forward to drive a party of the
enemy from Ridgeville, which was done in the
same gallant style that characterized all the performances
of Conrad, and the brigade moved
forward in the morning to Petersburg, but found
that the enemy had evacuated it by a mountain
road during the night, and that Gen. Early was
gone back to Moorfield, whither the captured
.bn 246.png
.pn +1
wagons and Yankees had been sent, and now
Gen. Rosser turned his column towards Patterson’s
Creek, sending Lieut. Conrad forward with
twenty-seven men as advance guard. On arriving
at Franklin, Conrad says, they “took on wood
and water,” in other words, got a drink or two of
whiskey all around, and here “Jim” Robinson
came up with an order from Gen. Rosser to Lieut.
Conrad, the substance of which was, "Go ahead
to Patterson’s Creek and run over every thing you
come to," to which Conrad replied, "All right;
I’ll do it;" and sending out his advance guard,
composed of Robinson, Mobberly, H. C. Sellman,
Bicksler, and Douglass, he moved forward briskly
on his reckless mission.
Just here it is necessary to briefly call attention
to Major Harry Gilmor’s statement of this affair,
in his “Four Years in the Saddle,” by way of
making a correction. The Major says, that by
Gen. Rosser’s order he commanded White’s first
squadron in the attack on Patterson’s Creek Station,
but Lieut. Conrad and his men say that he
did no such thing. Conrad says that Gilmor
came to him on the road saying that Gen. Rosser
had sent him there to get a detail of eight men to
go with him to procure artillery horses, and Conrad
refused positively to let him have a man until
he had got through with his business, which he
told him was to whip the Yankees at Patterson’s
Creek, when Gilmor remarked, "Very well;
.bn 247.png
.pn +1
come on, and I’ll lead you;" to which Conrad
replied, "No you won’t! You nor no other
damned man can lead me and my men now;"
and ordered his command forward again, and
coming in sight of the Station the advance squad
was discovered charging the Yankee vedettes,
when Conrad ordered his whole party to charge,
but Gilmor exclaimed, "Hold on, Lieutenant;
you don’t know what’s there!" “No!” said
Conrad, "and we don’t care a damn! Forward,
boys! Charge them!" and dashing in among
the blue-jackets they made quick work of it, killing
four, wounding six, and capturing forty-two
of the fifty-two infantry soldiers stationed there.
Soon after this, Gen. Rosser rode up and asked
hastily, “Where are the Yankees?” To which
Conrad’s men replied, “Here are the prisoners.”
Lieut. Conrad says, that there were desperate
attempts on the part of some of the men to burn
a large brick water tank at the Station, while
others set fire to the Rail Road bridge and tried
to learn how often they could ride over it on a
hand car before it fell in, but the main body engaged
in securing the plunder, of which there was
a great quantity.
After damaging the Rail Road as much as possible
and securing all the plunder and prisoners, the
column turned towards home, but on reaching the
graded road from New Creek to Romney, some
scouts reported to Gen. Rosser that Kelly was advancing
.bn 248.png
.pn +1
with five regiments of mounted infantry
to cut him off, while other scouts reported that
Averill, with his command, had reached Burlington.
The situation was not very pleasant now and
Rosser turned back, but he soon struck a new
mountain road, and ordering White to take the
front, pushed rapidly forward, coming out on the
grade about four miles east of Burlington, and
here Lieut. Conrad and John Stephenson, who
had been scouting, reported the road barricaded
and camp-fires in front. Col. White advanced
cautiously to the barricade, and finding no enemy
there he approached the camp-fires, but they, too,
were deserted, and he soon learned that Averill
had marched from them only half an hour before,
under the impression that Rosser was marching
on Cumberland. This left the road clear, and
now the raiders moved quietly along once more,
and took with them a large drove of cattle, marching
until late in the night, when the General
halted his people, but had them moving again by
dawn.
The Yankees soon learned that their game had
slipped them and turned to follow, but all the circumstances
in the case showed that they didn’t
care to overtake them, and Averill’s march from
Burlington was evidently made to avoid contact
with Rosser, for he simply moved out of the road
and when the rebel brigade had passed he quietly
.bn 249.png
.pn +1
fell in the rear and made no sign of attack until
Rosser reached Moorfield, when he drove in the
Confederate pickets, but refused most positively to
touch the tempting bait by which General Rosser
tried to entice him in reach of Early’s infantry,
who were still at this place. Averill’s infantry
came to the support of his cavalry, but no inducement
could make them do anything but skirmish,
and finally Rosser ordered Col. White to charge
them, but recalled the order just as the battalion
was ready to start, and now everything—the
ninety wagons, three hundred cattle, and two
hundred and fifty prisoners—being safely moving
on the road to the Valley, Gen. Rosser wheeled
his brigade into marching column, and followed
“Old Jubal,” leaving White in the rear to
amuse Gen. Averill. As soon as he was gone,
the Yankees charged into town and chased a few
vedettes some distance up the road, but Lieut.
Conrad with a party met and drove them back.
While retiring slowly towards the mountain
the Colonel had his horse killed dead by a sharpshooter,
fully one thousand yards distant, and he
would have been captured by a party of the enemy
that advanced up the road, at the moment,
only for the devotion of J. Clendenning, of Co. C,
who dismounted and gave him his horse.
This, and the horse of John Stephenson killed
in the charge at Patterson’s Creek, was all the
loss sustained by the battalion during the raid,
.bn 250.png
.pn +1
and I believe not a man in the whole brigade was
injured, otherwise than by taking on a little too
much “wood and water” occasionally.
The battalion reached camp on the 5th of
February, and on the 6th the first squadron,
now under Capt. Myers, was ordered to Brock’s
Gap on picket, where it remained for three
weeks, during which time the brigade marched
to a camp near Weyer’s Cave, where the Colonel
organized a court-martial for the trial of the
deserters, and on the return of the first squadron,
Company A, now having about eighty-five
men, placed seventy-seven of them under arrest
for absence without leave, while Co. C had all her
boys, but about a dozen, in the same predicament;
but the court worked fast, and soon had them all
released on double duty for a month, and for a
few days only two incidents broke the monotony
of the camp; the first being a grand horse race,
and the second a grand speech from Capt. J. Mort.
Kilgour, to the brigade, on the origin and ultimate
results of the war; in which he located the
origin in the “rule or ruin” spirit that made
the Puritans desolate England in the days of
Cromwell, and who, on the overthrow of their
power there by the death of their leader, emigrated
to America; and with prophetic finger he
raised the curtain from the future and showed its
ultimate results to be the abolition of negro slavery
and the Christianization of Africa.
.bn 251.png
.pn +1
On the 29th of February a report reached the
General, about 9 o’clock at night, that a grand
raid on Richmond, under Kilpatrick and Dahlgren,
was in progress, and hastily calling out his
“people,” Rosser marched all night through a
freezing rain, over the mountain to Charlottesville,
reaching that place about noon, March 1st.
As the part taken by Rosser’s brigade in this
most intolerable piece of audacious foolishness, on
both sides, was of little importance, I shall merely
give a brief journal of the marching and counter-marching
from the outset.
March 2d.—Marched from Charlottesville, by
Gordonsville, and encamped near Orange Springs
about 10 o’clock, P. M. Got corn, per M. G.
Hatcher, from Gen. Lee’s headquarters.
March 3d.—Left camp early, and wound around
on a very cold trail after Kilpatrick. Halted 8
miles from Spottsylvania C. H., about 3 o’clock,
to feed. Mounted at sunset and traveled all
night, reaching Hanover Junction at 9 o’clock A.
M., March 4th, and at 3 o’clock moved down to
6 miles of Richmond. Raining very hard, and
nobody knows where Kilpatrick is.
March 5th.—Lying in camp all day and the rain
pouring down. Drew three days rations of corn
meal and bacon—about enough for three meals.
March 6th.—Still in camp. Four orders to saddle
up and move, and four countermands. Plenty
of horse feed, by stealing a little.
.bn 252.png
.pn +1
Monday, March 7th.—Moved out this morning
on the road to the Valley, passing up the Rail
Road by Beaverdam to Bumpas Station, 16 miles
below Louisa C. H., and encamped. Yanks have
burned all the Rail Road wood and buildings at
Beaverdam, and tore up the rails.
March 8th.—Nothing to eat, and raining fast.
Marched to Louisa C. H. and laid over. Still no
rations.
March 9th.—Came to Gordonsville and camped.
Drew some mule meat and hard-tack about four
o’clock—first rations since 7th.
March 10th.—Lying in camp all day near the
nastiest and meanest hole in the Southern Confederacy,
to wit: Gordonsville. Found a grocery
store and bought it out. Cheese, $10 per pound.
Butter, $10. Ground Peas, $1.50 per quart. Tobacco,
$5 per plug. Lead pencils, $3 each.
March 11th.—Still at this sweet-scented little
place waiting for something to turn up, which it
did, about 4 P. M., in the shape of an old, long-legged,
razor-backed, slab-sided, black sow, poorer
than Pharaoh’s kine, and the last one left in the
county, but we killed and eat her, and the only
meat we’ve had since the mule gave out.
March 12th.—Left camp at sunrise, and marched
by Orange Springs to plank road, thence by the |
old familiar Parker’s Store to Chancellorsville,
and encamped upon the famous battle-field.
March 13th.—Marched at sunrise, and to-night
went into the same old camp at Gordonsville.
.bn 253.png
.pn +1
March 14th.—In camp at Gordonsville. No
rations.
March 15th.—In camp at Gordonsville. More
mule.
March 16th.—Marched through Charlottesville
and camped. Weather cold as Christmas.
March 17th.—Moved early by Hillsboro’, Afton,
Brown’s Gap, to Waynesborough.
March 18th.—Marched at sunrise through Greenville
to camp near Brownsburg, and the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren
campaign is ended; the Yankee
nation is indelibly disgraced by the objects of the
expedition, and Stuart’s laurels wilted by his failure
to annihilate the whole party.
On the 31st of March the battalion moved its
camp, passing Lexington and halting at a superb
place for a camp about eight miles from the
Natural Bridge, and now the men prepared for
winter quarters at last, when the winter was
almost over, but as they were always hungry it
may well be imagined that their enjoyment was
limited. The ration was reduced, by Gen. Lee’s
order, to a quarter of a pound of meat and one
pound of meal per day, and this always fell short
by our Quartermaster’s scales; nor did the horses
fare better, for with no hay at all they only got
seven ears of corn a day; and the Southern soldiers
often seriously doubted if the Revolutionary
Fathers could show a record of greater privations
than they endured. If the old Continentals were
.bn 254.png
.pn +1
often without shoes many a barefoot Confederate
could say “so am I;” and if the Continentals
often suffered for food, the Confederates could
point to many harassing scenes when, as Captain
Grubb said of Brandy Station, “they fought all
day before breakfast and went on picket all night
before supper;” and although there were often
heard complaints bitter and loud from the poorly-clad,
ill-fed, and bad-sheltered soldiers of Dixie,
it is doubtful if the Continentals themselves in
their dark hours evinced greater fortitude, endurance,
and devotion, than they; and the history of
the war that shall be written fairly when the
clouds of prejudice and passion, that now hide the
fame of the Confederates, have blown away, will
show before God and the true world a picture of
unselfish patriotism as bright as ever crowned
victory with glory or lighted the gloom of defeat
with honor, but such thoughts as these have no
true place in this history, and only show that the
clouds are still unbroken.
The month of April, 1864, was passed very
pleasantly, notwithstanding the privations that
naturally fall to the lot of men who support an
impoverished cause; and when, on the 27th, the
baggage accumulated during the winter was stored
away at Waynesborough, the soldiers felt that in
the approaching campaign the question of independence
or subjection would be decided, and they
prepared for it with hopeful hearts, for they believed
.bn 255.png
.pn +1
their cause was just, and their faith in
Gen. Lee was unbounded.
White had moved from his Lexington camp on
the 25th, to the Saltpetre works, near Waynesborough,
where the battalion remained until the
1st day of May, when the brigade was ordered to
cross the mountain and join the army on the Rappahannock,
but just before marching Co. D was
disbanded and its members became absorbed by
the other companies.
The reason of this was that it had no officers
and very few men for duty, and all who remained
earnestly desired to disband.
The command moved quietly over the Blue
Ridge into Greene county, and learned that Gen.
Grant’s army was crossing the river, and that
Gen. Lee was preparing everything for the inevitable
meeting with the foe, and strange enough
there were no murmurs now, as in all such movements,
from the men of Rosser’s brigade, about
leaving the bright Shenandoah Valley, for they
seemed to have learned from the experience that
they were soldiers, subject to the powers that be,
and whether they approved or not they must obey
orders.
On the march an incident occurred in Co. F,
of the battalion, which, although condemned generally
at the time, proved to be highly beneficial
in its results. This company had been without
an actual commanding officer during almost the
.bn 256.png
.pn +1
whole time of its connection with the battalion,
until the promotion of Capt. French, and he had
found it an extremely difficult task to bring many
of the men into any sort of subjection to discipline.
On the night of the first encampment in
Greene county, the Captain had given positive
orders that no man should leave the camp without
permission, but so far from the order being
obeyed, it was hardly spoken before some of his
men were gone, and remained out all night. In
the morning, as they returned, Capt. French met
one of them and inquired where he had been, to
which the soldier replied, “Out in the country
to stay all night.” “Did you not hear my order
last night?” asked the Captain. "Yes, but I
don’t mind orders when I want to go anywhere,"
was the answer; but it was scarcely given before
the Captain’s sabre came down on his head, and
the man fell badly hurt. This created great excitement
in the company, and while most of them
joined in a petition to the Captain to resign, some
of them threatened him with personal violence;
but when he heard of it he came out among the
men alone, and proposed to give any or all of
them the satisfaction they required, and awed by
his fearless manner, all of them to a man submitted
the case without a trial, and ever afterwards
Capt. French’s orders were law in Co. F, and as
has been stated, from being a very inefficient company,
he raised it to the position of a first-class
.bn 257.png
.pn +1
one for its numbers, but he never used his sabre
on his own men afterwards.
On the evening of May 4th, the “Comanches”
encamped in the pines on the Cataupin road, near
the right of Gen. Lee’s army, and about six miles
from Orange C. H.
.bn 258.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XV.
.sp 2
The morning of May 5th opened calm and
still, and there was no sign by which men
could judge of the bloody day before them, for
literally all was “quiet along the lines,” but the
quiet of the scene was oppressive in its extreme
stillness, and the sun rolled like an immense ball
of barely red hot iron, seeming to be almost
touching the tops of the pine trees under which
lay the “Laurel Brigade,” unrefreshed by even
the quiet repose of the past night, and many
remarks were made about the singular appearance
of the Day God as he waded higher and higher
through the still, smoke-laden air of that battle-morn,
some of the men repeating the Napoleonic
exclamation, “remember the sun of Austerlitz,”
and Colonel White declaring that it presaged a
bloody day.
Soon after sunrise the command moved slowly
down the Cataupin road, and in an hour the dismounted
men were skirmishing with the enemy
in the dense thickets of pine and undergrowth
which closely bordered the road on either side
and extended towards the river by Shady Grove
and White Hall, but the battalion was not engaged,
although rapidly marched from wing to
.bn 259.png
.pn +1
wing, expecting each moment to be thrown upon
the Yankee line, and not knowing just where the
blue would break through the gray and compel a
cavalry charge to drive them back, for the firing
each moment grew in volume and intensity until
the fight raged fiercely all along the lines. At
this time the battalion was out of ammunition,
and although details had been sent to the ordnance
trains frequently, they always returned
with the same aggravating report that none was
to be procured, as the cavalry train had not yet
come up, and under the circumstances the men
watched with a far deeper interest than usual the
progress of the battle. About the middle of the
day Capt. Emmett, A. A. General, and
Jim Robinson, the General’s pet courier, came
from the front, both badly wounded, and told
White’s men that the Yankees were reinforcing
and they would soon have to charge, but about 2
o’clock General Rosser succeeded in driving the
Yankees from their position, and at once pushed
his brigade rapidly forward. Just as the battalion
came in range of the enemy’s batteries the
column halted, and for several minutes the situation
was decidedly hot, the shells exploding precisely
at that point, and causing the loss of several
men and horses; but pretty soon one of the advance
regiments drove off the annoying battery,
and the whole column moved quickly forward
over the Po river, where they struck a considerable
.bn 260.png
.pn +1
force of the enemy, which, after a sharp
fight, was completely routed, and Rosser’s men
followed the retreating Yankees at a gallop, by
some plantation roads and swamp paths, far to
the left, bringing up at a body of woods on a hill
about a mile from the river they had just crossed,
and still on the Cataupin road, not far from
Todd’s Tavern, having made a circuit in the
chase of about three miles.
The men had become very much scattered in
the rapid ride through such a country, and White’s
people, being in the rear, were of course worse
strung out than any others, in fact when the head
of the first squadron (which by the evolutions on
the other side of the river had been thrown in
rear of the battalion) came up to the woods, where
a division of the enemy’s cavalry had met and
engaged the brigade in a fierce and stubborn fight,
there were scarcely a dozen men in sight, and
Capt. Myers called a halt in order to allow the
others time to close up, as the front of the battalion
was hid from view in the thick woods, but
Gen. Rosser, who was sitting on his horse near
the road, listening to the rapid firing in front of
him, called out, excitedly, "Let ’em out, Myers;
let ’em out! Old White’s in there, knocking
them right and left." And with a wild yell Company
A dashed forward, wheeling to the left as it
reached the road, the Captain supposing he could
thus come down upon the right flank of the enemy,
.bn 261.png
.pn +1
but they had scarcely gone one hundred
yards when a piece of artillery, hidden in the
pines on the road side, blazed a storm of grape
into the column, which for a minute checked its
progress, and by the time the squadron was ready
to charge the masked battery, it was limbered up
and moved rapidly away, barely escaping capture.
The first squadron then joined the battalion, finding
it hotly engaged with fully six times its number,
and for want of ammunition being slowly
driven back.
The enemy had attempted repeatedly to charge,
but was met and repulsed every time, and in this
rally and retreat style of fighting, individuals on
both sides displayed great skill and courage, but
the fight was altogether on horseback, and as in
the days when Cavalier and Puritan met in the
conflict long ago, so it was now with their descendants,
and the superiority of Southern horsemanship
gave the advantage to that side, but it
was the only one it did possess. Many prisoners
were taken by White’s men, and the first demand
was always for their cartridges and their arms
afterwards, and every bullet thus taken from the
captured Yankees was soon returned to their comrades,
minus the powder however.
After an hour of hard fighting, a flank movement
forced them almost to the edge of the woods
on the hill before spoken of, and the men, discouraged
because of their lack of ammunition,
.bn 262.png
.pn +1
were ready to give up the fight, which the enemy
did not show much disposition to press further,
but the officers rallied them for another
trial.
The battalion was drawn up alongside of the
road, and as a regiment of Yankees galloped down
in their front, Capt. Myers turned to Col. White,
and asked, "Colonel, how can we fight those fellows
with no ammunition? We’d as well have
rocks as empty pistols." But the Colonel replied
so grimly, “What are our sabres for?” that the
men drew their blades without any hesitation, and
charged square at the Yankee column, which
wheeled about and retired faster than it came,
closely pursued by the “Comanches,” but after
going about half a mile a force of the enemy was
observed moving through the pines to the right
and rear of the battalion, and Capt. Myers, with
Jack Dove and Jim Whaley, turned towards them
and firing with captured pistols as rapidly as possible,
called loudly for “first squadron,” “second
squadron,” &c., to “forward” and “charge,”
making so much noise in the operation, that the
Yankees halted and opened a sharp fire upon what
they supposed to be at least a rebel regiment, and
shortly after, the Colonel returned with the battalion
and the enemy retired over the hill.
This ended the fighting for that evening, with
the exception of some slight skirmishing as the
brigade retired over the Po river to Shady Grove,
where it encamped for the night.
.bn 263.png
.pn +1
The battalion did not number over one hundred
and fifty men in the last charge, about twenty
having been killed and wounded, and quite a
number (as is usually the case) were reported in
the list of “missing in action;” but only one
was never heard of afterwards, (John J. Clendenning
of Co. C,) and it was supposed that he had
fallen into the hands of the enemy after being
wounded, and died either in hospital or prison.
The hard work for both men and horses, had
told grievously on the little band of “Comanches,”
and they all hoped that they would not be called
upon to leave their camp the next day, but by
sunrise on the morning of the 6th, the bugles
were sounding to horse, and very soon the old
Ashby brigade was moving on the same Cataupin
road towards Todd’s Tavern—names long ago
made familiar and famous in the annals of the
war.
After crossing again the Po river, on the same
crazy, ricketty bridge, over that chocolate-colored
stream, which with the “Matt,” “Tay,” and
“Nye” rivers, form the now celebrated “Mattapony,”
the column turned to the left, leaving the
battle-ground of the preceding evening about half
a mile to the right, and when the gates, fields and
fences of the Chancellor plantation had been
cleared, and the brigade was marching easily and
freely through the open pine country bordering on
the “Wilderness,” General Rosser ordered Col.
.bn 264.png
.pn +1
White to “send his best squadron to the front,”
when the Colonel told Capt. Myers to take his
company and report to the General. As before
remarked, Company A was now the first squadron,
it being a large and unusually full company, and
the small company (D) which formerly with A
composed the squadron having been disbanded,
and also, besides thus being the easiest handled,
was at the head of the column, causing it to be
selected to fill the rather invidious order of the
General.
As the Captain rode forward and reported for
special duty, the General gave his order, which
was, verbatim, "Myers, move your people down
this road and run over everything you come to.
I’ll send a pilot with you." “The people”
moved in lively style along the road, which now
bore to the right and more in the direction of the
previous day’s fighting, when they commenced to
pass evidences of panic on the part of the “boys
in blue,” in the shape of gum cloths, blankets,
carbines, hats and saddles, and thinking that as
Yankee plunder was plenty, the men who left it
were out of the way, they moved too fast, and the
General sent one of his staff with orders to go
slower and not get too far from the brigade.
At length, after crossing a swampy stream and
marching quietly along the left of a sedgy old
field, in which some Yankees were discovered
about a hundred and fifty yards to the right, and
.bn 265.png
.pn +1
who began sending their compliments from Spencer
and Sharpe, the squadron found that their road
forked at the corner of the field, and not knowing
which to take, Myers halted and called for his
pilot, but not finding him, Jim Harper, in his
peculiar style, reported that "the dam ’scape
gallus had picked up a saddle at the branch, and
as soon as the first shot was fired in the field had
carried it to the rear like the devil."
The men in the field had now stopped firing
and gone into the woods, and Myers asked Lieut.
Conrad which road he thought they had better
take, to which the Lieutenant replied "that it
didn’t make much difference, so they got to the
Yankees," when the Captain turned the head of
the column to the right, and with the command,
“Forward, boys; and get ready to fight,”
marched down the side of the field about a hundred
yards, and looking back saw Col. White,
with the battalion, moving quietly from the
woods at the branch and turning into the field.
Fifty yards further brought the first squadron to
a point where the road turned abruptly from the
field into the woods, and with a rattling, whizzing
blaze of carbines they were received by a
squadron of the enemy not twenty steps distant.
The fire was instantly returned, and a charge
made, when the Yankees broke and as rapidly as
possible fell back upon their supporting regiment,
.bn 266.png
.pn +1
which in turn gave way before the dashing charge
of the victorious rebels.
Just here the enemy moved forward a heavy
line of cavalry, said by prisoners to be two divisions,
and Col. White went in with his battalion
in his usual “neck or nothing” style, but not
being supported, was in a few minutes so roughly
handled that it was with great difficulty his people
got clear of the swarming masses of Yankees
that lined all the space from woods to stream.
The Colonel’s horse was killed, the Adjutant’s
horse was killed, and in trying to save his papers
which were fastened on the saddle, that gallant
officer was captured.
Several men were killed and wounded in this
desperate charge, and the enemy dashed after the
retreating Confederates until met by the 11th
Regiment, which only checked them and gave
way when the 12th and 7th Regiments were, in
detail, met and driven back by the overwhelming
forces of the Yankees. But just at this moment
the ubiquitous Col. Chew threw his horse artillery
into position and poured such a storm of grape
and shell into the crowded columns of blue-jackets,
that they were in turn forced to retire and let
their own artillery come into the fight. The Yankee
batteries were posted in a semi-circle, with
their right wing thrown forward, and the fiery
Capt. Thompson had a red-hot position for his
.bn 267.png
.pn +1
guns, but like the hero he was he held it, and his
cannoniers, like smiths at their forges, labored
incessantly in the unequal fight, amid the baleful
death-fires that surrounded them. There are two
expressions in the military vocabulary that describe
situations usually fatal to the party occupying
them, the first of which is that terrible
word “flanked,” and the second “artillery cross-fire,”
carries with it almost equal dread, and this
second is what tried the metal of the boys of
Chew and Thompson that day, but they were
proof-steel.
However, it is not with the Stuart Horse Artillery
that we have to deal now, and to return to
the 35th Battalion. As soon as the artillery had
checked the enemy, the Colonel commenced to
rally and form his people in rear of the battery
as a support to it, but no one thing in the duty
of an officer is harder to accomplish than to form
broken troops under such a fire as now swept this
same old field of sedge. All the regiments of the
brigade were trying it, and with about equal success.
General Stuart rode back and forth along
the road in the rear, his black plume waving on
the death-laden morning air, and his beautiful
sword laid across his arm, doing his utmost to
stop the fugitives from the terrible field, and induce
them to return to their duty. He was perfectly
cool, and his calm but positive words,
"You must go back, boys, the Yankees can’t more
.bn 268.png
.pn +1
than kill you if you fight them—and if you don’t
go back I’ll kill you myself—better be shot by
the enemy than your own men—go back, boys!"
had a fine effect upon some, but the murderous
cross-fire had such a demoralizing power that even
Gen. Lee himself could not have kept the majority
of the runaways on the smoking field; and now,
if the enemy had pushed forward one resolute
brigade, such as Custer’s was said to be, the artillery
could have been captured and the victory
won, but they didn’t know it, and in their ignorance,
and Chew’s audacity, rested the salvation
of Rosser’s brigade.
After the cannonade had continued for perhaps
half an hour, and the little line of supports to
the battery had melted away almost to nothing,
composed now of men from the 11th and White’s
battalion, the Colonel resolved to bring such of
the men as were lurking to rearward in the woods,
into ranks again, and for this purpose ordered
Capt. French, of Co. F, to cross the swamp and
compel them to return. The Captain demurred
to the arrangement, however, fearing that those
who saw him ride back would imagine he, too,
was running from the fight—but no man who ever
saw Marcellus French on a battle-field could possibly
have entertained such a thought for even a
single moment, no matter what might be the surrounding
circumstances, or the business in which
he might be engaged, for a more stubbornly brave
.bn 269.png
.pn +1
man never drew a sabre, and he was by long odds
the coolest man in the battalion, “as cold as ice,”
was the verdict passed upon him by the lamented
Capt. Grubb. After a few moments’ consideration,
French proceeded to execute the Colonel’s
order, and succeeded in bringing several men
back to the command.
White himself was riding around arranging his
people, who were all dismounted, and here was
the only place he was ever seen to dodge. Shells
were plunging and bursting in, around, and over
the ranks every moment, and when the business
of re-organizing the line begun Capt. Myers was
placed on the right to rectify the alignment, and
stood on a tussock just at the edge of a marsh.
When the Colonel had arranged matters to his
notion he dismounted immediately in front of
Myers and springing over the mud stood face to
face with him on the tussock, but scarcely was he
located than a shell howled wickedly past and
very near their heads, when down went the Colonel’s
head in breast, in such a manner
that it was impossible for the latter to bow his
acknowledgment to the savage missile, and when,
a moment later, the Colonel raised his head
Myers was as near laughing in his face as the circumstances
would permit. White laughed and
shook himself, exclaiming "I golly! I believe
I’m demoralized myself;" and every man there
felt that they would be willing to exchange places
.bn 270.png
.pn +1
with the famous Light Brigade at Balaklava even,
for literally the guns volleyed and thundered on
the right, left and front of that little band which
was standing—and dying—at ease, without an
opportunity to strike a blow or shelter themselves
from the murderous fire that was literally ploughing
the whole field with cannon shot. By-and-bye
the fire became so hot that the Colonel ordered
his men to lie down, and just as a party of them
had crowded together in a little hollow that
seemed to present the best prospect for shelter, a
shell shrieked among them and completely tore
the head of young Broy, of Company F, from his
shoulders, scattering his blood and brains in the
faces of his comrades, and killing a horse by its
explosion a moment after.
A considerable number of the horses were
struck, and the danger from the wounded steeds
was almost as great as from the shells, for a
horse, as a general thing, becomes much more
frantic from a wound by an exploding shell than
by a bullet.
Ed. Oxley’s horse was instantly killed, and he
walked up to Capt. Myers to report the fact and
ask what he must do, when the Captain told him
to take his rigging from him and go to the rear,
which Oxley at once proceeded to do, but on
reaching his horse found that one of the 11th
regiment had already performed that duty for
him, and his saddle and clothes were nowhere to
.bn 271.png
.pn +1
be found, whereupon Oxley became decidedly the
most violently excited man in the field, swearing
terribly, in his peculiar style, that “any man
who would steal at such a time as that ought to
be hung.”
The Rev. Lieut. Strickler, of Co. E, and Capt.
French, both consistent members of the Methodist
Church, were standing together conversing
on the subject of religion when a party of the
enemy’s sharpshooters came near enough to add
their rifle bullets to the terrible storm of shell
that rained around, and during the hottest of it
the Lieutenant was heard to remark that whatever
was foreordained by the Almighty would be
accomplished, and if we were intended to be
killed there we couldn’t help it, while, on the
other hand, if our time had not yet been fulfilled
according to God’s predestined plan, we were safe,
although a thousand cannon should open their
thunder upon us; and in this comfortable doctrine
(under the circumstances) the Captain readily
acquiesced, greatly to the gratification of Colonel
White, who in religious opinion was an Old
School Baptist.
About 2 o’clock the firing ceased, and the war-storm
lulled to silence, allowing the soldiers a
breathing spell and time to inquire for those who
were missing from the ranks, and many of the
brave boys who had gone gallantly into the battle
that morning never came back again, for their
.bn 272.png
.pn +1
names were dropped from the Company rolls to
be recorded in the list of heroes who gave their
lives for the “Lost Cause,” but who made it a
glorious one by its bloody baptism.
Henry Moore, one of Company A’s best and
bravest, and who had been with it from the
beginning, had fallen in the front of the fight,
shot through the brain. Joseph Hendon, a gallant
young soldier, also of Company A, and a
native of North Carolina, was killed in the first
charge. Samuel W. Crumbaker, Company A,
was mortally wounded, and Lieut. Benjamin F.
Conrad, who deserved the title of “bravest of the
brave,” if any man ever did, was terribly wounded
in the thigh, (in the first charge, when Co. A was
running over “everything she came to,”) which
made amputation necessary, and he was never
able to do duty again. Color-Sergeant Thos. N.
Torreyson, Company C, also lost a leg, and John
Douglass and Hugh S. Thompson, Co. C, were
killed, as was also Jacob W. Huffman, of Co. E,
and quite a large number wounded, whose names,
as far as ascertained, will be found at the close of
the volume.
The enemy occupied the battle-ground, and of
course had the dead of the Confederate cavalry in
their lines, but they buried them and marked
their graves so their friends could find them.
The cavalry were not the only troops engaged
on that bloody day, for at every lull in the battle
.bn 273.png
.pn +1
on the right the muskets of the infantry could be
heard along the lines to the left, and during the
day the report came that Gen. Longstreet had
badly wounded by his own men, which was
soon confirmed, and the thoughts of the soldiers
flew back to “Stonewall” Jackson, while many of
them cursed the blundering carelessness of the infantry,
and the recklessness of the officers, in the
same breath. There was really a vast difference
between infantry and cavalry in this respect—the
latter, having learned caution from outpost duty,
would learn the character of an advancing party
before firing, while the former, not being able to
travel with the same celerity as the cavalry, nearly
always fired first and inquired “Who comes
there?” afterwards; a system that cost the Confederate
States their independence, for if Jackson
had lived, the North would have given up the
fight at the close of the battle of Gettysburg.
In about two hours after the battle ended among
the cavalry, the enemy fell back, and Maj. McClellan,
of Gen. Stuart’s staff, called for Col. White’s
people to go with him and establish communication
with the infantry of Gen. Longstreet on the
left, and marching quietly through the blazing
Wilderness, their greatest care was to prevent their
own men from firing into them.
The dense body of timber through which they
had to pass was all on fire, and the dead pine trees
.bn 274.png
.pn +1
were momentarily falling like flaming columns
around them, with dark masses of smoke draping
the wild scene as if Nature had thrown a funeral
pall over the withering tide of desolation which
contending armies were sweeping athwart the
land, while along the Rail Road to our right, as we
marched, we knew the Yankee line of battle was
waiting.
As the battalion, with great difficulty, gained
the middle of this burning forest, a kind of smothered
sound of marching troops was heard, and
peering silently through the smoke, we soon discovered
a long line of infantry in blue cautiously
marching directly towards us from the right, all
carrying their muskets at a shoulder arms. They
were not more than fifty yards away, and had not
yet discovered us; but the distance was rapidly
diminishing, and we knew that if we moved they
would see us. Pretty soon, however, an infantry
soldier, in tattered gray, met Col. White and Maj.
McClellan, and gave them the welcome information
that himself and twenty of his people had
scouted near the enemy’s line, and getting on the
flank of the Yankees, had captured about three
hundred of them without firing a shot, and were
now taking them back to Longstreet’s lines, with
all their arms, in fact, just as they found them;
and the Yankees were so impressed with the idea
that they were now surrounded by hostile rebels,
.bn 275.png
.pn +1
that their whole attention was given to the work
of convincing everybody that they were prisoners
and didn’t mean fight, when, in fact, they were
in a gap a mile long, between the right wing and
centre of Gen. Lee’s army, in which there were
no troops but this little force of about one hundred
cavalry, who were doing their best to get out of
their uncomfortably hot position. Passing on
about half a mile we came out on the plank road,
and after some difficulty in signaling to the grim
old veterans of Longstreet’s corps, who held it,
that we were all right, they allowed us to come
among them.
The next move was to establish vedettes through
the Wilderness space we had just passed, and draw
the line as near the Rail Road as possible, which
was so well done that by dark White’s battalion
stood on the track for more than half the distance;
the enemy having retired a quarter of a mile from
it, and about 10 o’clock the infantry extended
their lines over the whole ground, relieving the
“Comanches,” who now retired to their same
camp at Shady Grove, and the day’s work was
done.
It would be useless to proclaim that these men
had met the foe unflinchingly, and had braved the
iron tempest of this bloody battle day with unbroken
front, for this would be at once to pronounce
them more than mortal, and like gods, free from
all the feelings common to humanity; but we do
.bn 276.png
.pn +1
say, that they had, like men battling for the dearest
rights which were given to the race, gone
through the fire in the discharge of their duty,
and while some had fled in panic from the conflict,
the majority had held their ground against a foe
that outnumbered them twenty to one, and had
only given way when it was absolute suicide to
remain longer on that harvest-field of death.
.bn 277.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVI.
.sp 2
General Rosser ordered the “Comanches”
to remain at the Po river bridge during the
7th, and guard it from the attacks of the enemy,
who, still posted in the woods where the hard
fighting was done on the evening of the 5th,
showed a disposition to take the bridge. Here
the Colonel had some breastworks thrown up, and
leaving Capt. Myers with Company A to hold the
bridge, he attempted a flank movement to the right
with the remainder of his battalion, hoping to
capture some horses, but was unsuccessful; and
during his absence the Yankees made a demonstration
with dismounted cavalry on the little
force at the bridge, which, however, held the
position, although vigorously shelled for some
time. One man was wounded slightly, and on
the return of the Colonel, with a piece of artillery,
they gave it up, and allowed White’s men to
rest quietly.
On Sunday morning, May 8th, the whole brigade
moved early and commenced skirmishing
near Todd’s Tavern, but the enemy seemed to be
shifting, and not quite willing to make a stand
anywhere until about 10 o’clock, when we came
up with them in force and strongly posted in a
heavy body of timber.
.bn 278.png
.pn +1
Here all the men with long-range guns were
dismounted and ordered into the woods, Lieut.
Thos. W. White, of Company C, commanding the
sharpshooters of the battalion, and pretty soon the
firing showed that a sharp fight was going on in
the Wilderness.
In a few minutes the mounted men were ordered
forward to charge, but the enemy retired beyond
the head waters and swamp of the Nye river.
As the battalion moved forward they met some
of the sharpshooters bearing to the rear all that
was left of their accomplished commander, Lieut.
White, who had been shot dead by a rifleman hid
in the woods, as he was arranging that part of the
line immediately under his supervision. He was
a native of Loudoun county, and as Lieut. Colonel
of the militia at the breaking out of the war,
had done all that lay in his power to aid Virginia
in defending her border against the Northman’s
ire, but at the time of the evacuation of Manassas
and all the lines of defense held in connection
with it by the Southern Army, he and Mr. A. M.
Vandevanter were engaged in the work of trying
to raise a company of volunteer cavalry, and not
being posted as to the sudden fall back, was unfortunately
left in the hostile lines of Geary before
he knew it; but when Capt. Grubb commenced
to recruit for his company, Lieut. Col. White was
the first to join him, and at the organization was
appointed Orderly Sergeant, discharging his duties
.bn 279.png
.pn +1
faithfully until the death of Capt. Grubb and consequent
promotion of the other officers caused his
election to the office of Second Lieutenant.
Lieut. White and the Colonel were not on entirely
friendly terms, for the reason that when the
latter was raising his company, the Lieutenant
caused some opposition, by objecting to the men
enlisted by the Colonel being excused from duty
as militia until the company was organized and
in actual service.
This caused a coolness which was not fully dissipated
until, in the tremendous battle of Brandy
Station, Lieut. White displayed such conspicuous
gallantry that he completely gained the Colonel’s
confidence and good will, and was ever after considered
by his commander one of the best officers
in the battalion, as he fully deserved to be.
One little incident connected with this, his last
day of life on earth, would seem to indicate that
he felt a presentiment of his fate, for while riding
down to his death, he and Capt. Myers were discussing
an order of the General’s to the effect that
the battalion should be armed with long-range
guns, and both agreed that they very much objected,
for the reason that they disliked fighting
on foot, but the Lieutenant remarked that if he
should ever be dismounted and sent into that Wilderness
country there to fight, that he would certainly
be killed, for it would so excite him that
he would not understand how to act; and when
.bn 280.png
.pn +1
the order was given for the men to dismount, and
he was designated to lead them, he said to the
Captain as he passed to the front, in allusion to
their conversation, "Good-bye, Frank; I am going,
and don’t expect to see you any more;" and
there we saw for the last time the gay, high-spirited
and popular Lieut. Tom White.
From this time until the 21st, the battalion was
occupied, with the brigade, in picketing and skirmishing,
varied with occasional scouts, in one of
which the Colonel took a part of his command by
the left flank to the rear of Grant’s army, visiting
three large field hospitals, in which lay thousands
of wounded men whose discharges from the service
had been issued from the muzzles of Confederate
rifles, and on this trip the boys broke up nearly
2,000 stand of arms. All this while the infantry
were passing through that tremendous ordeal of
fire which has made the Spottsylvania Wilderness
famous for all time in the bloody history which
marks the progress of the world from the days of
old down to the present, and if ever hard, stubborn
fighting deserved success, the army of Lee
in those May days of 1864 earned it, for every
day the same awful roar of battle rolled along the
lines, and every night came the same encouraging
reports of the enemy repulsed with heavy slaughter,
until it was a given up point that soon Grant
would stop his “hammering,” for the good reason
that the hammer was shivered to atoms on the
.bn 281.png
.pn +1
solid anvil of Southern endurance and grit, but
the national butcher kept throwing his doomed
legions upon the invincible veterans of Gen. Lee,
and supplying, from the teeming millions of Yankeeland
and Germany, the places of the slaughtered
men in blue, and day after day the hateful
gridiron of the Yankee nation floated along the
Rappahannock, telling that the war was not over
yet.
On the 15th of May, Gen. Rosser marched to
Enan Church, near the plank road, where he
fought hard for an hour, to find if the enemy had
infantry in that neighborhood, which proved to
be the case.
Some of the boys said he only took the brigade
down to hold the usual Sunday morning service,
as the General had recently joined the
Episcopal Church, but others remarked that he
made a mistake in the prayer book, as Colt’s
was not generally used in that Church. The
night before had been spent by Company A on
picket in the Wilderness, and as the author
witnessed the performance, it will not be amiss
to describe it, showing as it does one part of the
soldier’s duty, and the manner in which it was
performed in that God-forsaken country which
is fit for nothing but a battle-field, and the worst
one imaginable for that. The Company reached
the picket line on the Cataupin road about dark,
and the night set in rainy, and black as Erebus
.bn 282.png
.pn +1
by the time the posts were established. There it
was necessary to picket all around, and having at
length got everything arranged, the reserve lay
down on pieces of cracker boxes, an immense
number of which were scattered around, for headquarters
was established at what had been a field
hospital for the 5th and 6th of May.
Nobody was permitted to unsaddle, of course,
and without blankets the night was unpleasant
enough, but pretty soon firing was heard towards
the river, and by the time the pickets came in the
company was mounted and ready for action, but
no enemy appeared, and soon the line was re-established,
only to be broken again in a few
minutes, and the same ceremony of preparation
for fight gone through with, which ended as before,
without it.
This was done several times, and finally two
men who never yet experienced the sensation of
fear, were placed at the same post, which appeared
to be the very centre of the Wilderness. These
two men were John W. White and John Chadwell,
and pretty soon firing was heard at their
post, when all the pickets came in except the two
who were supposed to have done the shooting, and
after waiting in line of battle for some time, Capt.
Myers ordered the Corporal, to whose relief they
belonged, to ride out and see what was the matter,
but that gentleman flatly refused to go, declaring
his belief that the Yankees had killed the
.bn 283.png
.pn +1
pickets and were waiting now to shoot whoever
went to look for the missing men. After a little
hesitation, the Captain concluded to go himself,
and riding cautiously along the crooked woods-path
soon came up to the two men, who halted
him promptly and showed that they were up to
their duty, and here the Captain found that these
two men had captured a squad of the enemy’s
sharp-shooters, armed with the long-barreled
Sharpe’s rifle, and who had been causing all the
disturbance during the night by creeping through
the thick undergrowth, in the dark and rain, trying
to get away from the rebel lines they said, but
continually coming in contact with skirmishers,
and having to lay quiet, until they were heard by
White and Chadwell, who fired on them and then
charged, when they surrendered.
The Captain asked his men why they didn’t
come in and report the cause of it, to which
White replied, that "there were some more Yankees
out there in the woods, and as soon as they
caught them, “Chad” was going to take the
whole squad in together."
The Captain went back and told the company
to “go to sleep, for White and Chadwell were
on picket,” and taking his gum-cloth he spread
it down, by feeling, at what he considered a good
place for a nap, having a little mound for a pillow;
and notwithstanding the offensive smell,
went to sleep until day-break, when, rousing up,
.bn 284.png
.pn +1
he was rather non-plussed at the discovery that
his pillow was a pile of amputated legs and arms,
and in arms-reach of him lay the swollen, blackened
corpse of a Yankee Sergeant, whose thigh
had been shivered by a shell.
When White and Chadwell came in, they reported
total captures, in their two hours on duty,
to be fourteen, and were going back to capture a
squad quartered for the night in a log-cabin about
a mile away, of which some of their prisoners had
informed them, and taking with them two or three
of the men at the reserve, they did go and capture
several more.
On the 19th of May, Gen. Ewell, with part of
his corps and Rosser’s brigade, made a flank
movement, about 4 o’clock in the evening of that
rainy day, around the left wing of Grant’s line,
and had a very severe fight of about half an hour,
in which the battalion only engaged as supports
to Chew’s artillery, and after Ewell had withdrawn,
having learned the important fact that
Grant was flanking, which was the object of his
expedition, the brigade followed slowly and by
dark was at its old camp near Shady Grove. The
boys used to say that no matter what direction
Gen. Rosser moved, during those fighting days in
the Wilderness, White’s battalion would surely
bring up at Shady Grove, and it was true, too, for
more than two weeks.
Part of the time, during this warm campaign,
.bn 285.png
.pn +1
“the people” suffered for rations, but were generally
better fed than they anticipated, and as a
general thing, men under constant and high excitement
require less food than at other times; in
fact I have frequently seen the soldiers, while listening
to details of a battle, apparently forget to
eat, although they had fasted for a day; but rations
was the first thought which flashed through
the minds of White’s battalion when the news
reached them, about the 10th of May, that Sheridan’s
cavalry had cut the Virginia Central Rail
Road, at Beaverdam Station, and destroyed fifty
thousand pounds of bacon. They had no idea of
being whipped in the field, for all thought that
no army commanded by “Uncle Bobby” could
he whipped by fighting, but if starvation came
upon them they knew the war must end, and
when Gen. Stuart hastily gathered what force he
had convenient, to go after the raiders, he had the
prayers of every praying man in the Army of
Northern Virginia, and the earnest wishes of all
the rest, for his success.
About this time the enemy made a heavy movement
on the left flank, and General Hampton,
with the few cavalry left him by Stuart, had to do
his best, and on the evening of the 18th ordered
the battalion to support Thompson’s battery which,
as usual, got into a very hot place. The Cobb
Legion was in front along the edge of the pines,
dismounted, and the artillery on a hill something
.bn 286.png
.pn +1
like a hundred yards in their rear, while fifty yards
to the rear of the guns stood White’s people, and
when the swarm of Yankee infantry made their
appearance the legion retired to their horses without
firing a shot, but Thompson opened with grape
and canister and for a short time checked the advance,
but by this time the musket balls were
cutting the wheels of his gun-carriages, and Rosser
ordered him to retire, at the same time calling to
Colonel White to move everything but one squadron
and to leave that with instructions to follow
the battery and save it.
The Colonel called out to Captain Myers, “hold
your squadron there and when the Yankees come
on the hill, charge them,” and moved the rest of
the command to the woods on the left. The enemy’s
artillery, from the other side of Po river,
was now firing rapidly at Thompson, and nearly
every shell passed over or through the squadron,
while the infantry fire was making the situation
very hot, and when at length the battery did move
it was found that the tongue of one of the caissons
was broken, but Mec Souder, a Loudoun county
man and Sergeant of the battery, cut a sapling
and as rapidly as possible improvised a pole which
enabled him to save the caisson.
The 1st squadron then moved off, but none too
soon, for as they passed the woods about a hundred
yards to the left, the Yankees swarmed upon
the hill, cutting General Hampton off from his
.bn 287.png
.pn +1
command, and capturing one man of the battalion.
This was looked upon by the men as decidedly the
narrowest escape they had ever made, for certainly
if they had remained three minutes longer not a
man could have escaped, as fully ten thousand infantry
would have been within less than fifty
yards and the squadron would have stood exactly
in the centre of their line.
These were the men who captured General Edward
Johnson, of Ewell’s Corps, with most of his
division that same day, and they were then moving
up to make their attack on the Confederate works.
The cavalry halted a short distance to the left and
waited for the Yankee troopers to appear, but they
were all with Sheridan near Richmond.
The battalion had become so much reduced in
numbers by the casualties of war that it was now
formed in two squadrons, the first composed of
Companies A and C, under Captains Myers and
Dowdell and Lieut. Sam. Grubb, and the second,
of Companies B, E and F, with Capt. French and
Lieutenants Strickler, Chiswell and James for
officers.
The second squadron was sent on picket to the
left of the army, where it remained for some days,
and on its return to the command about the 20th,
the first was ordered out for a tour of duty of the
same kind between Todd’s Tavern and the Court
House; but about 2 o’clock on the morning of the
21st received an order to join the battalion, then
.bn 288.png
.pn +1
bringing up the rear of the army, which was moving
by Spottsylvania Court-house towards the North
Anna river. The march was rather an exciting
one, leading as it did over the broad battle-fields
of the Wilderness, where many hundreds of dead
men still lay unburied, and the squadron was
obliged to pass directly over them, when, as the
hoofs of the horses would strike the corpses, the
flesh would strip from the bones, leaving them
glistening in the phosphorescent light that played
around them, and the weird, ghostly influence of
the scene affected the men, in the silence and
gloom of that early morning, more than the presence
of any number of live Yankees could have
done; but the night wore away—very slowly indeed,
it seemed—and by an hour after sunrise the
battalion united a few miles below the Court-house,
when it slowly marched along the Richmond road,
still acting as rear guard for the army. A small
party of the men under Lieutenant Samuel Grubb
came directly by the Court-house, barely escaping
capture by the force of the enemy which occupied
the village, as rear guard for Grant’s army, and
after passing that point they captured about a
hundred stragglers, whom the Lieutenant and
his squad formed in line, and after breaking their
guns and “going through them” for watches
and greenbacks, paroled the whole party and sent
them on their way rejoicing; with a net result of
about a dozen brass watches that wouldn’t keep
.bn 289.png
.pn +1
time; a hundred pocket-books containing in all,
probably five hundred photographs, and two dollars
in five cent notes, besides a few sutler tickets.
The battalion crossed the North Anna about
sun-set and having no horse-feed, rode until 11
o’clock hunting for a grass field, which they at
last found near Hanover Junction. For several
days the old Fork Church took the place of Shady
Grove, to the “Comanches,” and although they
might be operating along the river—on the Rail
Road; or skirmishing on the Telegraph road—yet
every day found them in bivouac during some
part of it at the church which had stood for more
than a century; its bricks having been brought
from England during colonial days, and all its
surroundings associated with the memory of the
boyhood of Henry Clay; indeed the home of the
great statesman’s mother was scarce half a mile
from the church, in the slashes of Hanover, where,
as a boy, he cultivated corn and tobacco.
During all these days the rations were scanty,
and hard in both senses of the word, but what
the commissary department furnished was all that
the troops could get, for the country was so impoverished,
and the people so naturally shiftless,
that they did not live better than the soldiers,
and plentiful as were the negroes, none of them
made enough to live on without stealing the corn
and potatoes of the few white people who did try
.bn 290.png
.pn +1
their best to make a sufficient quantity of provisions
to subsist their families.
On the 28th of May the battalion marched with
the division in the direction of Mechanicsville, and
on arriving near Hawes’ Shop, came in contact
with a division of the enemy’s cavalry. Here
Chew’s artillery took position on an open field
about two hundred yards in front of a heavy pine
forest, while the battalion, as usual, formed squadrons
in the rear, to support the battery.
Just as this arrangement was completed, Gen.
Hampton passed along, and saluting Col. White,
exclaimed, "Good morning, Colonel, we’ve got
the Yankees where we want them now;" but in
about fifteen minutes the battalion concluded that
the boot was on the other foot, for the Yankees
certainly had them where they didn’t want to be.
The storm of shot and shell that howled madly
over and around them was terrific, and very soon
two splendid men, Lieut. Strickler, Co. E, and
Jack Howard, Co. A, were wounded, the Lieutenant
in the knee, and Howard in the face with the
big end of an exploded shell, which came bounding
along the field. Several horses were also
struck, among them that ridden by Capt. Dowdell,
and which had been the property of Lieut. Tom
White, was killed. Here the “new issue,” a
brigade of new recruits from South Carolina and
Georgia, which was commanded by the veteran
.bn 291.png
.pn +1
Gen. Butler, of South Carolina, was put, for the
first time, under fire, and although their horses
were stampeded and their queer bundles of clothes
scattered through the pines in every direction,
yet the men, fighting on foot with their long
guns, stood bravely up to their work and whipped
the enemy’s cavalry fairly, but when the 6th
Corps of Yankee infantry came against them
Gen. Hampton was compelled to withdraw them
from the position they had held.
The battle had lasted two hours, and when the
Confederates withdrew before the heavy lines of
infantry the enemy did not follow, clearly showing
that they had no taste for Hampton’s mode of
handling cavalry.
Up to this time the Cavalry Corps had not
learned the style of their new commander, but
now they discovered a vast difference between the
old and the new, for while General Stuart would
attempt his work with whatever force he had at
hand, and often seemed to try to accomplish a
given result with the smallest possible number of
men, Gen. Hampton always endeavored to carry
every available man to his point of operation, and
the larger his force the better he liked it.
The advantage of this style of generalship was
soon apparent, for while under Stuart stampedes
were frequent, with Hampton they were unknown,
and the men of his corps soon had the same unwavering
confidence in him that the “Stonewall
Brigade” entertained for their General.
.bn 292.png
.pn +1
This was the last battle for the month, and the
battalion now went on picket until the 1st of
June, engaged in frequent skirmishes with the
enemy’s line of vedettes, but no casualties occurred
except the occasional wounding of a horse,
which always caused the loss of one man for duty,
for no sooner was a horse disabled than his rider
applied for and received a detail to go and supply
himself with another, and besides the wounded
men, the number on horse-detail, as it was called,
so reduced the fighting men that the whole battalion
now scarcely numbered more than Co. A
did at the beginning of the campaign, and officers
were scarce in proportion, but on the 1st of June
Lieut. Marlow, Co. A, who had been absent since
February, reported for duty.
.bn 293.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVII.
.sp 2
On the 4th of June an order was received carrying
everything to the right; and Rosser’s
brigade moved out to “Old Church,” near the
Pamunky, where they found a force of Yankees
behind breastworks, which the General ordered
White to charge. The order was promptly obeyed
without dismounting, and the Yankees fled precipitately
from the rather novel scene of horsemen
leaping their works, and using both steel and ball
in their curious evolution, and the General’s wild
“Hurrah for the Comanches” was re-echoed from
the whole brigade who witnessed the operation.
On the 8th, an order to prepare three day’s rations,
was sent around to the different commands;
and many were the rumors of what Sheridan’s
cavalry was going to do on the Virginia Central
Rail Road. But nothing positive was learned as
to the destination or object of the expedition for
which Hampton was preparing, but all the Valley
brigade concurred in the opinion that anything was
better than campaigning in that hateful pine
country, where no glimpse of the Blue Ridge
could be had.
At daylight on the 9th, the command left the
camp at Atlee’s Station, and took up the line of
.bn 294.png
.pn +1
march along the Rail Road, encamping that night
at Beaver Dam, where they drew four days rations
of bacon and “hard tack,” making six days on
hand, and on the 10th, at dawn, they moved slowly
towards Louisa Court-house, where they arrived
about 2 o’clock, P. M., and learned that Sheridan
was marching with his whole force along the
north bank of the North Anna river, and aiming
for the junction of the Rail Roads at Gordonsville,
where he was going to whip Hampton, and then
branch off towards Lynchburg to co-operate with
Hunter, who was moving his army from the Valley
to take that city, and thereby cut off a large portion
of Lee’s supplies, compelling him to give up
Richmond, and either surrender or retreat along
the Weldon Rail Road into North Carolina.
How all this information was obtained, nobody
could tell, but nearly all the men accepted it as a
fair statement of the problem to be worked out,
and it will be observed that the success of the
whole train of operations depended upon Hampton’s
receipt of the prescribed whipping at Gordonsville,
of which his “people” were extremely
doubtful, for “old Wade” had never been whipped
yet, nor did they think Sheridan was the man to
do it, even though he had command of all the
cavalry in the United States.
The night of the 10th Gen. Hampton’s own division,
now commanded by Gen. Butler, went into
camp near Trevillian Station, on the Rail Road,
.bn 295.png
.pn +1
and in the early morning Gen. Rosser moved his
brigade up to the road leading off to the left into
the Green Spring Valley—the most lovely of all
the beautiful Virginia country. Here he made a
detail from the several regiments, and sent it, under
command of Lieut. Col. Ball, 11th Virginia,
towards Gordonsville, while with the brigade he
halted very quietly, and waited for whatever duty
circumstances might bring him. It may not be
amiss here to give a statement, as the writer understood
them in the light of after events, of General
Hampton’s plans, and his reasons for them,
as by this means the reader will better understand
the operations about to be described, and which
had such a mighty influence in prolonging the
defense of the Confederate Capitol. In the first
place, then, Gen. Hampton’s force was vastly inferior
to Sheridan’s, not only in point of numbers,
but in arms and equipments.
The United States cavalry was splendidly armed
with the improved repeating rifles of Spencer and
Henry, besides their revolvers, while the Confederates,
as a general thing, carried only the ordinary
Sharpe’s carbine and sabre, and many of them had
nothing better than the common infantry musket;
in fact, Rosser’s brigade was the only one in the
division thoroughly armed with revolvers and improved
carbines, and these they had captured from
the enemy, as the Confederacy was too poor and
unskilled in the manufacture of arms to keep pace
.bn 296.png
.pn +1
with their wealthy and ingenious opponents, who
also had open ports through which to receive the
best supplies of the Old World, and money to
buy what they wanted.
In view of all this, it was General Hampton’s
policy to fight the battle in a position of his own
selection, where, in some measure, the superiority
of his antagonist could be matched by strategy;
and after choosing that position, the next thing
was to toll the “blue birds” into his trap, and
in order to show how this was done we must go
back to Rosser’s brigade, which we left above the
junction of the Green Spring Valley road with
the Rail Road, while Young’s Brigade lay some
distance below. The Yankees crossed the river
and came down heavily on Young’s people, capturing
a great many and stampeding the remainder
with the exception of one regiment which
drew up in line some distance from the road and
watched the Yankee chase after their comrades.
As soon as the attack on Young’s men was known,
Rosser started his brigade at a gallop to meet
them, and arriving at the Green Spring road,
found the Yankees loading their prisoners in captured
ambulances while all along the road the
victorious blue-jackets were chasing and “gobbling
up” the scattered Confederates, and right here
among the ambulances the fight commenced; Rosser’s
boys going in, as the General said, “very
heavy,” the Yankees breaking and trying to
.bn 297.png
.pn +1
escape, while Young’s men sent up mixed yells of
"don’t shoot this way," and "hurrah! you ’uns
has saved we ’uns agin." Pretty soon the tide
was turned, and in a perfect whirlwind of dust
and smoke the “Comanches” pushed hotly after
the retreating enemy, many of whom they captured
and sent to the rear, and in the chase they
passed the regiment before spoken off, still
standing quietly in line apparently interested in
the view they had of the little “mill” going on
around them, but having no inclination to become
mixed up with it.
In the chase, many of the Yankees broke into
the woods on the right of the road and endeavored
escape, in consequence of which many of White’s
men made a corresponding movement in order to
catch them, so that the battalion was soon very
much reduced, and on reaching a hill about a
mile down the road and finding, as they supposed,
a Confederate battery on the right in full play and
apparently unsupported, the Colonel resolved to
form his men along side of it, as a large number
of the enemy were discovered in the wood below
him, and a strong force posted behind a brick-kiln
to the left, and with this view, he ordered the
plank fence on the right of the road to be broken
down; at the same time starting Irish Pat, of
Company C, up the road in charge of a wagon
and team which had been deserted by somebody
just at this point. The battery was not more than
.bn 298.png
.pn +1
two hundred yards away and the force behind the
brick-kiln was every moment growing stronger,
all of which made the Colonel more impatient for
the fence to be opened, but it was a strong one
and not easily broken, and while thus engaged,
General Hampton galloped over the hill exclaiming,
“Colonel White, what are you going to do?”
“Going to support that battery,” said the Colonel.
"Get away from here, Colonel, it’s a Yankee
battery," replied the General, and immediately
the Colonel commenced to “get away.”
Marching slowly back over the hill we found
the brigade forming in a field to the right, and
Chew placing his artillery in position just above
them. Farther along, and just where we were to
leave the road to join the brigade, lay a wagon
that the Yankees had cut down, and out of which
a barrel of apple-jack had rolled. Three dismounted
men were at work on it trying to fill
their canteens, and as the head of White’s column
passed it, Captain Myers, who was just at the
head, with Lieutenant Marlow on his right,
Orderly Sergeant Bennett on his left, Will Edwards
and Frank Lee immediately behind him
and the bugler just before him, turned to Will
Edwards and said, "Will, you’d better get Frank
Lee’s canteen and fill it there, hadn’t you?"
This was in allusion to Frank’s solemn resolution
not to drink any more, caused by some of the
boys having fooled him into taking too much a
.bn 299.png
.pn +1
short time before. The words were scarcely uttered
when a shell from the battery they had just
left exploded within a yard of the Captain’s head,
and leaving him untouched, mortally wounded
poor Will Edwards, terribly mangled Ed Bennett,
causing him to lose a leg, wounded Lieutenant
Marlow, and cut Crone Phillips (the bugler) very
severely in the arm and side, besides killing one
and wounding badly two of the dismounted men at
the barrel, killing Phillips’ horse and badly damaging
that of Sergeant Bennett. Seldom has such
execution been done by a single shell, or such an
escape made as Myers.
As may be supposed, the calamity caused great
excitement for a short time, and it was with difficulty
that order was maintained under the incessant
fire which now poured in upon them, but
pretty soon the battalion formed her line, Major
Ferneyhough displaying great coolness, as did all
the officers and men who were left. The scene
was one of wild confusion, shells and grape-shot
whizzing and howling all around, riderless horses
dashing frantically over the field, and ambulances
rattling past at a gallop with their freight of
wounded men screaming in agony, while high
above all other sounds boomed and crashed the
contending batteries; but amid all this the Major
turned to count the men in ranks, and Orderly
Sergeant Campbell, of Co. F, who had been
severely wounded in the arm by a grape-shot
.bn 300.png
.pn +1
while assisting to align his company, turned
coolly to Captain French saying, “Captain, I am
wounded and would like to have permission to go
to the rear,” which was of course readily granted,
but not many waited to ask permission to retire
after being wounded; and this instance shows
that panic did not reign entirely among the
“Comanches” even under circumstances most
calculated to inspire it.
The whole brigade had by this time retired to
a more sheltered position beyond the woods, and
now the Colonel ordered his battalion to fall back
to the woods, which it did very quietly, and just
here was the first actual view of flying cannon-shot
we had ever enjoyed. A heavy battery beyond
the Rail Road was throwing solid shot directly
across our line of march, one of which, striking
the solid ground the eighth of a mile to the right,
bounded with a whirling motion just in our front,
and so close to the Colonel’s horse that all who
saw it were sure it would strike him, but it did
not. After halting awhile near the woods, and
being still in range of the grape, we were ordered
to retire to the position of the brigade, where the
battalion formed in front of the 12th regiment,
and here we witnessed another freak of a round-shot
which struck in front of the battalion,
bounded over it, and striking again, went over
the 12th, and from its third strike made another
jump, clearing the led horses as it did so.
.bn 301.png
.pn +1
The operations of the day were evidently against
the Confederates, and the men were blaming
Hampton for allowing his men to be beaten in
that way, by brigades, but he was working out
his problem and baiting his trap for to-morrow,
but some of his bait came near being carried off,
for the enemy entirely surrounded Col. Chew,
who immediately began fighting his guns all
around him, and made his position so near “red-hot”
that neither friend or foe could reach him,
until without difficulty he could limber up and
move back to his people again.
Soon after this the enemy occupied the ground
from which Chew had retired, and began to advance
cautiously upon the woods where Rosser had
his dismounted men, and in the fight which ensued
the General was severely wounded in the leg
and compelled to leave the field.
The command of the brigade now devolved upon
Col. Dulaney, of the 7th regiment, and the fighting
became stubborn for the possession of the
woods; the enemy using artillery sparingly, and
the Confederates entirely deprived of the aid of
theirs because the situation of the ground would
not permit its use without damaging their own
men as much as the enemy.
The “Comanches” lay at the mouth of the
Green Spring road, dismounted, to avoid the storm
of bullets that whistled over them, when Col.
Chew rode past them a short distance to see if he
.bn 302.png
.pn +1
could plant his guns there, and Col. White rode
up by his side. Just then the Yankees threw
some shells which exploded immediately at them,
and killed Chew’s horse, but the cast-iron artilleryman
didn’t change his countenance in the
least; and Maj. Thompson came prancing up to
have a look too, when a shell burst almost in his
face, but Thompson only laughed, and giving his
hand a flutter in the white cloud of smoke, exclaimed,
"Oh! but don’t that sound wicked?"
About 5 o’clock Maj. Ferneyhough took the
first squadron on a scout up the Rail Road, and
on his return found a battery posted at the forks
of the road, which, after our previous artillery
experience, we proceeded to inspect closely, and
it, too, proved to be a Yankee, so branching off to
the right, we gave it as wide a berth as the timber
would let us.
It was now past sunset, and Sheridan had succeeded,
with his whole force, in driving two of
Hampton’s brigades from their position, and himself
occupying, at dark, the same line they held
at daylight; but thus far he was successful, and
Gen. Hampton knew that he would follow it up
to-morrow. But the two Generals had very different
ideas about the day’s work; Sheridan supposing
the battle was over, and Hampton knowing
that it had not been fought yet.
About dark the Confederates retired to their
camp on the Green Spring road, and rested securely
.bn 303.png
.pn +1
until morning, when, without any hurry
at all, they fed their horses, got breakfast, and
prepared for the business of this bright and beautiful
Sunday morning in June. A shower of rain
had fallen during the night, and the stifling dust
was nicely laid, so that, with the exception of
fighting, whatever they had to do, could be performed
in comfort.
Shortly after sunrise White’s battalion marched
down to the line which Gen. Hampton had fortified,
and found the dismounted men quietly lying
behind the hastily thrown up piles of rails which
stretched along the side of a hill that rose gradually
from a creek, both flanks protected by heavy
woods with thick undergrowth, and the country
in front perfectly clear as far as their rifles would
reach. The artillery was posted on the high
ground along the road, and could command fully
half the circle around them, in fact, it was a
splendid position in which to receive an attack;
but Sheridan did not seem to be in any hurry to
break the glad Sunday quiet of the Valley, and
hardly any firing was heard until after 12 o’clock.
The had been ordered to the extreme
right of the line, on vedette duty, and were
occasionally annoyed by Sheridan’s sharpshooters,
but nothing serious occurred until about 4 o’clock,
when the Yankees were discovered advancing in
heavy lines, dismounted, on Hampton’s left,
where all of Butler’s big “new issue” regiments
.bn 304.png
.pn +1
were stationed, and almost immediately the artillery
opened on them; but that was nothing to the
hail-storm of lead that fell upon them from the
“new issue.” Those raw men didn’t know anything
at all about being whipped, and had no idea
of anything but killing all the Yankees in sight,
to which interesting occupation they bent all their
energies, and made their rail piles look as if they
were on fire, so incessantly did they burn their
powder. In a very short time the first assault was
repulsed, and the “new issue” didn’t really know
they had been fighting; but other attacks followed
in quick succession until about dark, when every
man in Sheridan’s army had been whipped, and
his whole force was in full retreat, their ambulances,
wagons and demoralized troops rushing
pell-mell along the road which ran within one
hundred yards of Col. White’s position, and every
moment the shells would crash from Chew’s guns
right among the yelling, panic-stricken fugitives,
making it a regular “Bull Run” on a small scale.
Col. White and his people moved up as close to
them as the shells would permit, and the Colonel
conceived the idea that with four hundred dismounted
men he could capture the whole roadfull,
but after sending repeatedly to Col. Dulaney for
the required force, that officer finally sent him
forty-two men, whom White sent back in disgust
and gave up the project.
By nine o’clock everything was quiet along
.bn 305.png
.pn +1
Hampton’s lines, and the utterly routed and defeated
army of Sheridan was in full retreat towards
Grant’s headquarters, where he published
to the world that he had whipped Hampton’s cavalry,
driving it to Gordonsville, but finding a
heavy force of infantry in the entrenchments at
that place had given up the pursuit.
The literal fact in the case was, that Sheridan
had been most splendidly outgeneraled, and most
terribly beaten by half his number, and not a solitary
infantry soldier was engaged in the fight,
nor did he get in sight of Gordonsville, but no
one blames him for thinking that he met infantry,
because the “new issue” certainly did act infantry
up to nature, but they were raw recruits,
and had never been under fire but once before,
while Sheridan’s were all veteran troops. Pollard,
in “The Lost Cause,” makes the same unfounded
assertion, that Sheridan was “repulsed
by infantry in the rifle-pits,” but it is probable
he drew his information from the official report of
that General, instead of the one made by General
Hampton.
During the fight of to-day, Lieut. Nich. Dorsey,
of Co. B, who had been a prisoner, closely
confined in Fort McHenry for several months,
reported to the command for duty, having made
his escape by cutting through the slate roof of his
prison with a barlow knife, and at once assumed
command of his company.
.bn 306.png
.pn +1
Early on the morning of the 13th, the army of
Hampton started in pursuit of the Yankees, and
about 3 o’clock came up with their rear guard at
the North Anna, when some skirmishing took
place, but the enemy moved rapidly, and could
not be brought to a stand long enough to make a
fight of it, and at night Hampton’s men went to
the Rail Road, where they drew three double
handfuls of corn for their horses, which was the
first grain they had eaten since the 8th. In the
morning the pursuit was continued through Caroline
county, but Sheridan marched rapidly, taking
every horse in the country he passed through, and
killing his own as fast as they gave out. It was
estimated that in his retreat of one hundred miles
his army left, on an average, twelve dead horses
to the mile; that besides his losses in horse-flesh
at the battle, twelve hundred were shot, by his
order, on his retreat; but he took quite that number
from the citizens along his route, and in a
manner that no other man than a Sheridan or
Sherman would have done.
On the 16th, Col. White started with a picked
party to intercept a courier with an escort of
thirty-eight men, taking dispatches from Sheridan
to Grant, but failed to catch them, although he
had a brush with a party from the 6th Pa. Cavalry,
in which he captured several prisoners and
horses, and rejoined the battalion on the 19th,
near the White House on the Pamunky.
.bn 307.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVIII.
.sp 2
Early on the morning of the 20th we marched
for the White House, but before reaching that
point met the enemy in heavy force of infantry,
cavalry, artillery, and gun-boats, and had a
severe fight, which lasted all the afternoon,
during which the gun-boats did some of the most
magnificent shooting with their heavy guns ever
witnessed, exploding their shells at the precise
point desired, at nearly two miles. Nothing was
accomplished by the fighting except to ascertain
that Sheridan was now safe, having reached navigable
water, and met strong reinforcements, as
well as supplies.
For some days the battalion was on detached
duty, scouting in King William county, and trying
to catch whatever scattered parties of Yankees
that might be ranging in that county, but with no
success, for Sheridan did not permit his men to
scatter much, knowing the danger of their being
caught by the Rebels if they strayed too far from
their lines.
On Sunday morning, 26th June, the whole force
of Hampton marched quietly down to Drewry’s
Bluff and crossed the James. Then there was
loud and deep complaints and curses heard among
.bn 308.png
.pn +1
the “Comanches,” and many prophecies uttered
by the various wise men among them that they
were going to give up Virginia, all of which combined
to make their spirits sink from the hopeful
blood-heat, to which their success at Trevillian
had raised them, far below the zero of disappointment,
in not being allowed to reach the mountain,
and their hope of ever again roaming along the
Potomac and Shenandoah withered and almost
died in the freezing despondency of the hour; but
all this was soon over, for the reason that they
were much better fed on this side of the James
than while operating on the north bank of it, but
still the battalion considered this move very much
in the light that Cæsar is supposed to have looked
upon the famous crossing of the Rubicon, and
felt that the whole thing was reduced to the issue
of “victory or death” now, for no live man would
be permitted to re-cross the James until the Yankees
were whipped, but it was not long until they
learned that Hampton’s object in coming on this
side was to get at the Wilson and Kautz raiders,
who had been for some time devastating the
“South Side” country and trying to destroy the
Rail Roads below and west of Richmond. As the
story of this terrible visitation has already passed
into history, together with the (to the raiders)
grievous conclusion of it, we will only tell as near
as possible the share taken by the “Comanches”
in the winding up of the great raid.
.bn 309.png
.pn +1
On the 27th we passed through Petersburg
while the Yankees were shelling the place, and it
was really refreshing to see ladies pass coolly
along the streets as though nothing unusual was
transpiring while the 160-pound shells were howling
like hawks of perdition through the smoky
air and bursting in the very heart of the city, but
they didn’t mind it a bit; and even the children
would stand and watch, at the sound of the passing
shells, to see the explosion, and make funny
little speeches about them, as if they had been
curious birds flying over their heads. Familiarity
with the danger of the bombardment had cured
them of all their fears of it, and when it would
be told to people on the street, as was frequently
the case, that Miss or Mrs. So-and-so was killed in
her house by a shell, nobody was horrified at all,
but all seemed to take it as a matter of course and
to care very little about it.
On the 28th the battalion reached Stony Creek
Station, on the Weldon Rail Road, where they
drew corn and rations, and about dark took the
road to Sapony Church, where they came up with
the raiders about 10 o’clock, who had fortified
themselves near the Church, and while General
Hampton studied out the situation the men lay
down to rest for the busy to-morrow which they
knew was before them, for if they had hard
marching to find the Yankees it was evident the
work was not to be easy now they were before
them.
.bn 310.png
.pn +1
During the night there was occasional heavy
firing between the advanced parties of the two armies,
and just before dawn of the 29th, Gen. Butler
took White’s Battalion through the swamps and
thick pines, around the left flank of the raiders,
and at daylight the Colonel formed “his people”
exactly in rear of the fortified line held by the
dismounted raiders, whom he charged simultaneously
with General Hampton’s attack upon their
front, when their whole force broke and scampered
off through the pines with the yelling “Comanches”
after them, but the “race is not always
to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” and
after White’s men had lost time enough with the
captured Yankees to give the remainder an opportunity
to rally, which they did about two miles
from their fortifications, to the number of about
two hundred, it was found to be decidedly hot
work capturing a force larger than their own,
who availed themselves of every fence, house,
swamp and pine forest to form a square and blaze
into their pursuers a volley of bullets from their
16-shooting Henry rifles, and the “Comanches”
being mounted, in a fight where horses were only
an encumbrance, had to watch their points very
closely for they had certainly waked up a batch
of extremely hard-fighting Yankees.
Two of White’s men, John Marlow, Company
A, and Aaron Bevans, Company C, were severely
wounded, and several of the enemy were killed
.bn 311.png
.pn +1
and wounded, but after reaching the heavy body
of timber which spread along the Nottaway river,
the brave boys in blue had earned the right to
continue their retreat unmolested, and the Colonel
called off his men and returned to the brigade
which he left five or six miles behind him.
On reaching the line of retreat followed by the
main body of the raiders, it was discovered that
through the failure of the Confederates to push
forward and seize the bridge over which the Yankees
must pass, the most of them had escaped,
with the loss of six pieces of artillery and about
seven hundred prisoners. The remainder of the
day was spent in gathering up the arms and
plunder thrown away by the flying raiders, among
the latter of which was a large quantity of ladies’
clothing which they had stolen from the citizens’
houses, and the men would come in with bonnets,
shawls, silk dresses, mantles of velvet and many
other things, looking, in fact, as if they had broken
up all the millinery establishments on the “South
Side,” but the most curious scene of all was the
troops of negroes of all sizes and ages, from the
three-day old baby to the gray-wooled hag of
ninety, which were found hid in the woods.
They had been persuaded by the Yankees to leave
their homes and go with them to their land of
“liberty and glory;” and nearly every negro in
the country, especially the women and children,
had joined them, but now when they had fallen
.bn 312.png
.pn +1
in evil times, and as the Confederates were picking
them up, the first thing they would say was
to tell the names of masters or mistresses, and
beg piteously to be permitted to go home, declaring,
“fore God, we neber will beliebe de dam
Yankees agin.” For two days the battalion was
on picket in this country and during that time
the men were constantly picking up the scattered
raiders and negroes, who were wandering in the
pines almost starved and yet too much afraid of
the Rebels to come out of the woods. They had
passed through a fiery ordeal during the raid,
having been badly whipped by militia at Staunton
river, then cut up severely by W. H. F. Lee at
Blacks and Whites, and in endeavoring to escape
at Reams’ had been met by Fitz Lee’s cavalry and
worse handled than before. While at Stony creek
Hampton had completely ruined them, but their
Generals, Wilson and Kautz, managed to escape
with a small portion of their wretched command,
and this was their last raid during that campaign
on the “South Side.”
Up to the 1st of July the Colonel had been
without an adjutant since the 6th of May, but
now Lieutenant Sam Baker, of Frederick county,
Va., who had been an officer in the disbanded
Company D, came over and took upon himself the
responsible duties of that position, which he held
until the close of the war, performing all his
duties to the entire satisfaction of Colonel White
and the whole command.
.bn 313.png
.pn +1
It was now midsummer, and in the hot climate
of that piney, sandy country, where good water
was a rarity, many of the men got sick, and the
resting days of this month were very gladly accepted
by these border men, who had never in
their lives known any other than the pure mountain
air and water under the shadow of the Blue
Ridge; but Col. White was entirely too restless
in disposition to let his people lie quietly in camp
when there was a chance to operate in his partisan
style, so taking with him a detail of 80 men, he
left the camp on the evening of the 8th, and
marched to the Blackwater, in Sussex county,
with the intention of trying a raid on some negro
cavalry, who patrolled the road leading from
Grant’s army, by Cabin Point, to the James
river.
Here he halted and made his arrangements,
which were not completed until the 13th, when,
with about 90 men, the battalion having all
moved down in the meantime, he crossed Warwick
Swamp and the Blackwater, into Surry
county, and marching quietly through the pines
reached Cabin Point an hour before day, and halting
in the woods a mile beyond the town, on the
telegraph road, made his dispositions for the attack,
by placing Major Ferneyhough with twenty
men armed with double-barrel guns, in ambush
along the road, and leaving the remainder, under
Capt. Myers, in readiness to charge, while the
.bn 314.png
.pn +1
Colonel himself scouted and watched for the enemy
to make their appearance.
The usual scouting party consisted of about
sixty mounted negroes, and generally passed up
a little after sunrise, from a camp of about ten
thousand troops of all arms, near the old Surry
Court-house, and all the negroes in the country
were in the interest of the Yankees and would do
anything, short of breaking their necks, to give
information of any movement of the Rebels on
their side of the Blackwater. So, to render the
situation of White’s men still more interesting,
they had discovered some cabins near them, filled
to overflowing, almost, with negroes, and the
Colonel had posted some men to guard them, but
one or two of the small ones had already escaped
to the woods with the knowledge that Southern
troops were on the road, and under these circumstances
it was to be presumed that the patrol
would not come as usual, this morning, but after
awhile they were discovered quietly advancing,
and all thought the affair was to be successful,
and prepared themselves for what promised to be
genuine sport, but bye-and-bye the Colonel discovered
that the negroes were only used this time
as a bait, and that while about 3,000 infantry
were following them, a body of about 1,000 cavalry
was moving through the pines to gain his
rear and cut him off from the bridges over the
Blackwater. These bridges were his only mode
.bn 315.png
.pn +1
of escape, and if the Yankees succeeded, he knew
that his raiding would be ended forevermore, unless
there should happen to be war in the Elysian
fields of glory beyond the Jordan, where all good
soldiers hoped to go, but just now the Colonel had
no intention of crossing that last named river,
where it is said boats are used instead of bridges,
so hastily leaving the telegraph road, he made a
quick march to the Blackwater, and reached it just
in time to save his raiders.
The boys, who all fully understood the situation,
were perfectly satisfied with their experience
by daylight behind Grant’s lines, and had no desire
to make any further expeditions in that quarter,
provided the Colonel would be satisfied too;
but on their return to camp, and learning that
“old Jubal” was thundering at the gates of
Washington, every man immediately became possessed
of an almost insane desire to desert and go
to him, in fact, Co. B did go on the night of the
15th, without leave or license, and left scarcely a
man from Maryland to tell the tale of what had
become of his companions. They said Companies
A and C had done the same thing before and not
been punished, and now that Maryland was open
and their homes inside of the Confederate lines
they intended, if possible, to go to them.
The Colonel sympathized deeply with his men
and would never enforce the penalties for violations
of the Army regulations, when it was possible
.bn 316.png
.pn +1
to avoid it, and to this one fact belongs the
reason why a Brigadier’s stars and wreath never
adorned his collar. When he was recommended
by the Military Committee of the Confederate
Congress, by such men as Gov. Letcher and Judge
Brockenborough in private life, and by a multitude
of officers in the Ashby Brigade and other
portions of the army, Gen. Lee refused to endorse
him, simply because his men ran away and went
home and the Colonel did not punish them; and
so, because he had too much heart, he was not promoted
to a position that no man in the army could
fill as well as he after General Rosser was made
Major-General; but all this is going too far ahead
of the events we are trying to describe, and it is
time to go back to the “Comanche” camp on the
Nottaway.
This camp was about ten miles from the brigade,
and in a really good country, with prime spring
water, plenty of fruit, vegetables, and melons,
and the people very kind and hospitable, and for
the reason that no troops except the Yankee raiders
had ever been among them, there was plenty
of forage there. Game, such as turkeys and
squirrels, was abundant, deer also, but they had
to be hunted in large parties, with hounds, while
the river had plenty of fish, so that the battalion
would have considered itself literally “in clover”
only for the tantalizing reports of the brilliant
success of Gen. Early’s operations on the Potomac.
.bn 317.png
.pn +1
This made the boys restless and dissatisfied,
and some of them even expressed satisfaction
when “Old Jubilee” was compelled to
retire to the south bank of the Potomac.
On the morning of the 20th the Colonel started
with thirty men for Cabin Point again, this time
to intercept dispatches on the telegraph, and for
this purpose took with him an expert operator.
He succeeded in gaining the desired point before
daylight on the morning of the 21st, and his
operator at once proceeded to cut the telegraph
wire and attach his instruments, so that he was
enabled to read every dispatch that passed, and to
keep the thing all right he sent them on to their
destination as soon as copied; but after carrying
on this amusing process for about two hours he
became satisfied that from some cause the enemy
suspected the line was tapped, from the fact that
some ridiculous and foolish dispatches were passed,
and communicating his suspicions to Col. White,
the latter decided that it was time to be traveling,
for he knew that if the enemy really did suspect
anything wrong on the line they would soon send
an investigating committee, so calling in his
pickets he started for the Blackwater. Before
going far he discovered that a force of infantry
was following him, having reached his position
on the telegraph road shortly after he started
from it, and on reaching the bridge over the
Blackwater the Colonel halted his party to see if
.bn 318.png
.pn +1
the Yankees would attack. In about half an
hour they came up and skirmished with him, but
would not advance into the swamp, although
they had fully ten times his number. During
the skirmishing James Atwood, of Co. E, who
was on the bridge to the rear, had his leg broken
by a stray ball, and the Colonel retired through
the swamp, the enemy going back at the same
time.
On the 27th the battalion was ordered by Col.
Dulaney to report to the brigade, then fifteen
miles off, at Freeman’s ford, on the Nottaway, and
on arriving there was sent to Reams’ Station to
picket, where we remained until the 1st of August,
without any incidents other than the usual routine
of such duty, except that on the night of the 30th
the Yankees were very active and annoyed the
pickets exceedingly all night, and when, just before
dawn of day, they grew quiet and allowed
the tired men to lie down to rest, the great mine
fiasco which Grant had been preparing at Petersburg
for a month, broke with a terrible explosion
on the morning air, and shook the solid ground
for miles, the “Comanches” scrambled up and
mounted their horses without a word, but after
awhile some of them begun to talk, and wonder
“whether it was the day of judgment or an
earthquake,” but pretty soon, in the distance
could be heard the yelling and shouting of the
charging columns, as they rolled like a billow
.bn 319.png
.pn +1
upon the Confederate works, and then White’s
boys dismounted, saying it was "some new-fangled
Yankee mill or other that they didn’t know
anything about, but they did know Beaureguard
and Uncle Bobby could attend to it."
Capt. Dan. Hatcher, of 7th Regiment, relieved
the battalion on the evening of 31st, and on the
1st of August it moved to Stony Creek and encamped,
drawing forage by wagon trains from
North Carolina, and for several days did nothing
but rest, having plenty to eat, and for a rarity,
when Col. Dulaney commanded the brigade, no
drilling to do.
On Sunday, August 7th, the first sermon the
“Comanches” had heard this year was preached
in camp, by the Rev. Lieut. Strickler, of Co. E.
The religious training of the battalion was very
loosely conducted, as a general thing, and yet
there were some bright and working Christians in
it, especially in Companies C and E, some of whom
would engage in prayer before going into battle,
and it was remarked by all, that these men made
none the worse soldiers for bending the knee to
God, and commending their souls and their cause
to His keeping, but generally, religion in the
ranks was unpopular, and many who had been
members of Church endeavored to hide the fact
from their comrades that they ever prayed.
A state of war, and life in camp is always demoralizing;
but the soldier always honors the man
.bn 320.png
.pn +1
who bravely stands by his principles, and even
though they might jeer and laugh at the one who
carried his religion openly, into the camp and on
the march, with him, yet in their hearts the most
reckless and profane would count him who did it
a double hero, in that he both conquered his own
pride and lived down—as live down he would—the
scoffing of his comrades.
On the 8th Maj. Ferneyhough went on a scout
into Surry county, to capture some Yankee pickets,
but returned without accomplishing anything;
and now the command encamped on the Nottaway
again, and luxuriated on the many delicacies of
the season again, such as watermelons, potatoes,
roasting-ears, tomatoes, cucumbers, and last, but
not by any means least, the prime spring water,
all of which they had in abundance, and the memory
of the pleasant days spent on the Nottaway
will be a bright one in the hearts of White’s Battalion
while memory exists; and they were all
willing to spend the summer there, and enjoy the
good fare and the boating and fishing excursions
on the river, but these days couldn’t last; and on
the 12th the brigade joined the division and took
up the line of march for Richmond. Everybody
thought this move had some connection, in some
way, with Early’s operations on the Shenandoah,
and immediately the brigade had dreams of
heaven and the Valley, which brightened more and
more each mile that they advanced, until they
.bn 321.png
.pn +1
were once more on the north bank of the James,
and securely booked, as they thought, for over the
mountains. Passing through Richmond, the
whole division halted on Main and Broad streets,
and from the endless supplies of melons which
lined the sidewalks, the men eat, until watermelons
and cantelopes lost their flavor and were no
longer fit to it, and then marched to the South
Anna and encamped for the night, moving early
in the morning to Beaver Dam, on the Rail Road,
where three day’s rations were issued, and the
whole command laid over until next day, when
the column took the telegraph road to Ashland,
passing that place and going into camp on the
Chickahominy, seven miles from Richmond, and
still nobody could form an idea of what we had
started to do, but there was now considerable
doubt, to say the least of it, about going to the
Valley right away.
The next morning the division again marched
through Richmond and passed out on the Charles
City road to Malvern Hill, where General W. H.
F. Lee was fighting the enemy, and here the
“Comanches” were ordered forward to cut off
some Yankee pickets to the left, but they left so
quick we had no chance at them at all.
After this the brigade moved over to the Williamsburg
road, and encamped at Savage Station
on York River Rail Road, leaving White’s men on
picket at the Chickahominy, where they remained
.bn 322.png
.pn +1
until the 19th, when they again marched to the
Charles City road and encamped until the 22d,
when it was found that the Yankees, who had
caused all this trouble by trying to steal Richmond,
had gone across the James, after losing
about one thousand of their men; and at midnight
Hampton moved his people over to the
“South Side” again, and kept on to Reams’ Station,
where, on the 23d, he met the Yankees and
commenced to fight in earnest about 4 o’clock in
the afternoon. Here the battalion was divided,
Captain Myers being sent with the first squadron
to report to General Butler on the right, while
the Colonel with the remainder moved to the left
with Rosser, who, to-day, resumed the command
of his brigade. The first order of General Butler
to Myers was to “find the Yankees in his front
and tell him how many there were,” and in order
to do this the Captain took five men—Jim Oneale,
Frank Lee, John White, Billy Lee, and Lum
Wenner—and deployed them at the edge of the
woods, from where they rode out into a field covered
with tall sedge grass and small pine bushes,
in which a thousand Yankees could have lain in
line, without being perceived, but they had not
advanced far when a long blue line raised up and
commenced firing. This was enough and the
Captain rode up to the General with the report
that he had found about twelve hundred Yankees
on the left of the road. “Very well,” said Gen.
.bn 323.png
.pn +1
Butler, "I know what’s on the right," and ordering
forward a brigade of dismounted men, this
wooden-legged General led them in a furious
attack upon the enemy, galloping along full fifty
yards in front of his line, and exposed to the fire
of both friends and foes. This settled the question
on that part of the field, for the Yankees
ran, and Butler followed them half a mile, when
they met reinforcements and made a stubborn
resistance for some time, but General Rosser came
in on the left and they were again forced back.
The battalion now united again, and formed,
by General Butler’s order, on a hill in the road,
prepared to charge when the enemy attempted to
advance, and here from six o’clock until dark they
stood exposed to a hot fire from the Yankee line
below them, but fortunately not a man was injured,
although seven horses were struck and killed.
About dark Hancock’s corps of infantry moved up
from the Rail Road and joined in the fight, when
General Butler, who was sitting on his horse a
short distance from the battalion, and under a
very hot fire, called for a courier to go to his line
of dismounted men below and order them to retire.
The man who was sent to him displayed
evident signs of much perturbation under the
storm of bullets that whistled around, and the
General said to him, "Young man, you’re scared;
go back to Captain Myers and tell him to send me
a COURIER!" upon which the fellow returned instanter,
.bn 324.png
.pn +1
and the Captain sent Sergeant Everhart,
whom the General asked if he could carry a dispatch
down to the dismounted men; to which
Everhart replied, "I God! I’ll start! don’t know
so much about going," when the General replied
"you’ll do," sent the order, and withdrew his
line from the fight. It was evident that Grant
had made a heavy lodgment on the Rail Road at
Reams’, and that General Hampton couldn’t make
him give it up with his cavalry, but the latter
was compelled to send wagons to Stony Creek to
get forage, which was twenty miles further away
than Reams’, soon the morning of the 24th, before
day, Captain Myers was ordered to mount his
squadron and escort the battalion train to that
place, where they arrived about 11 o’clock. Here
they found big, luscious watermelons from North
Carolina by the car-load, which they enjoyed to
their utmost until late in the evening, when they
pushed on after the wagons which had loaded and
started back by two o’clock, and having overtaken
them, the squadron moved with them over the
dangerous part of the road, and it being now midnight
and the trains safe, the escort bivouacked
in the pines while the wagons drove on to camp.
An hour before daylight Col. White, with a
few men, came down the road, and halting with
the 1st squadron informed Capt. Myers that A.
P. Hill was coming down during the day to drive
the Yankees away from Reams’; that Hampton
.bn 325.png
.pn +1
was going to draw their attention and amuse
them until Hill could get his position; that the
Colonel was going on a scout for Hampton, and
would be gone all day, and that Myers was to
take charge of the battalion for that length of
time.
About sunrise Gen. Hampton came along, and
putting White’s men in front ordered them to go
to Wyatt’s Crossing, about a mile from Reams’,
and wait further orders.
Gen. Rosser was now at the head of the Laurel
Brigade, and he soon came up and remarked to
Myers that he wanted “his people” for advance
guard again to-day, to which the Captain replied
that he "didn’t mind the hanging half as much
as he did the being told of it so long beforehand."
On reaching the Crossing they found some Yankee
pickets who retired towards Reams’, and with the
exception of an occasional shot, everything was
quiet until 9 o’clock, when the enemy opened fire
with artillery upon Rosser’s men, and pretty soon
Chew commenced to reply, but no advance was
attempted on either side.
During the cannonade Generals Rosser and
Butler sat on their horses just in front of White’s
Battalion, which, as a matter of course, stood by
Chew’s artillery, and once, when the shells flew
low over their heads, and some of the men dodged,
Gen. Butler remarked, “They are disposed to be
rather familiar this morning,” to which Rosser
.bn 326.png
.pn +1
replied, "Yes, politeness is in order this morning,
but don’t bow too low, boys, it isn’t becoming;"
but Henry Simpson exclaimed, "Yes it is; it’s
becoming a little too dam hot here, if that’s what
you mean," and most of the boys were of Henry’s
opinion.
The day passed in constant marching and
counter-marching; sometimes the “Comanches”
would be dismounted and ordered to pile up rails
for breastworks, and then ordered to mount quick
and charge; but no fighting was done until about
3 o’clock in the evening, when the heavy firing
on the left showed that Hampton had “amused”
the Yankees long enough, and now A. P. Hill
was at them.
The Yankees were strongly fortified at the
Station, and in their front had an abattis of trees
felled with their tops from the works, and all the
branches trimmed sharp, so that it was almost
impossible for Hill’s infantry to get through at
all, and in fact two brigades were repulsed with
heavy loss, but when Gen. Mahone, the builder
and president of the Rail Road, came up with his
brigade; he took his people through and up to
the breastworks, but the enemy was still there,
and now both parties lay along the works, so that
neither could fight or retreat, but pretty soon
Mahone’s men out-Yankeed the Yankees, and
taking up some heavy cross-ties and rail-bars that
were convenient they threw them high over the
.bn 327.png
.pn +1
fortifications, causing them to fall with telling
effect upon the heads of the Yankees, forcing
them to leave their defences, and as they retired
Mahone’s men, with the works now completely
turned upon them, raised up and poured a terribly
destructive fire upon the retreating enemy, causing
tremendous slaughter, and at the same moment
Gen. Hampton charged them in flank, capturing
four guns and many prisoners.
Gen. Hill’s infantry took twelve pieces in the
works, making sixteen guns captured, and about
three thousand prisoners, besides five hundred
killed and many wounded, making their loss in
this day’s fight certainly reach very near five
thousand in all, while the Confederates lost about
seven hundred, killed, wounded and missing.
At dark, Gen. Rosser ordered Capt. Sipe, commanding
the 12th regiment, and Capt. Myers, of
White’s Battalion, to report to Gen. Hampton,
who instructed them to move their commands to
Reams’ and relieve the infantry in the fortifications,
which they did about midnight, in the
most terrible storm of rain, thunder and lightning
it is possible to imagine. The vivid streams,
not flashes, of lightning danced and glanced along
the Rail Road track and over the captured guns,
which still stood there, while every moment the
crashing thunder just overhead pealed out as if
the inky sky was being torn to splinters, and in
sheets and torrents the floods of rain poured
.bn 328.png
.pn +1
down, while through the thick blackness of the
storm and night could be heard all around the
shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying
Federals, who, totally unable to help themselves,
were gasping out their lives in agony, without
one friend to shelter them from the raging of the
fierce tempest or stop the ebbing life-tide that
poured from their mangled bodies, and in the
morning light there lay many corpses along the
ground at Reams’ whose souls had gone up to the
judgment-throne amid the bursting storm and
thunder of that horrible night.
Among those who survived was a Captain of
Infantry, who had cause to bless the genius of
Freemasonry, for by aid of its mystic signs he
found a brother in the ranks of his foes, who
helped him as only a brother would have done
and gave him back to life again.
There was no attempt on the part of the enemy
to come back to Reams’, but they established their
vedette lines along the pines and old fields of
tossing sedge to the right of the Rail Road,
towards Petersburg, and on the 26th Col. White
placed his battalion on picket in front of them and
scarcely three hundred yards from their lines, but
there was no firing, and both sides, in act, agreed
to the childish proposition of "I’ll let you alone
if you’ll let me alone."
It was now apparent that Gen. Hampton’s style
of fighting was a decided success, for he had so
.bn 329.png
.pn +1
invariably whipped the enemy’s cavalry that they
were afraid to come from behind their infantry
lines, and as a consequence his own people had
much less duty to perform than at any time during
the long and arduous campaign.
On the 11th of September the General became
impatient to hear the news from the Presidential
Conventions in the North, and as the Southern
papers were deficient, he took a detail from the
“Laurel Brigade” and made a raid to the rear of
Grant’s lines at Petersburg for Yankee newspapers,
in which he attacked and whipped a
brigade of cavalry from their camp, with considerable
loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, to
them, but none whatever to himself, and brought
out enough papers to supply his camps for a
month with reading matter.
Major Ferneyhough, who commanded the detail
of White’s Battalion on the expedition, incurred
Gen. Hampton’s displeasure because of a
misconception of orders, in consequence of which
he resigned on the 13th, and a few days after
Capt. Myers, of Co. A, was selected by Colonel
White, and by Generals Rosser and Hampton, to
fill the vacancy.
On the 14th of September General Hampton
marched with a division of his cavalry in the
direction of Grant’s left wing, and succeeded in
gaining, unobserved, the rear of his army, an
operation which was comparatively easy, from the
.bn 330.png
.pn +1
character of the country, which was low and flat,
with many swamps and vast bodies of dense pine
forest, through which an army might have
marched without being discovered, except by
accident, as there were few inhabitants in that
region, they having been compelled, from the
proximity of the two armies, to refugee or starve.
About daylight, on the 16th, when the raiders
had reached a point about one mile from the
James river, and not more than six miles in rear
of the main line of the Federal Army, a strong
party of dismounted cavalry was discovered behind
some barricades, near an old church, and the
7th and 11th Regiments, of Rosser’s brigade,
which was in front, were dismounted and sent forward
to dislodge the enemy, which they did after
a severe fight, and now the General ordered the
battalion forward at a brisk trot, which soon
brought them in full view of an immense drove
of beef cattle, guarded by a Federal brigade, one
regiment of which, the 1st D. C. Cavalry, was
mounted near the cattle pens. Gen. Rosser sent
a flag of truce demanding the surrender of this
force, but the officer commanding, returned for
answer, “Come and get us, if you want us,” and
at the same time told the truce-bearer that if he
came there any more with “that damned thing,”
(the flag) he would shoot him. The General at
once turned to the battalion, and in his short,
solid tone, that always had something of the
.bn 331.png
.pn +1
wicked ring of a Whitworth in it, when he meant
fight, exclaimed, “Come down on them, White!”
and the “Comanches” did it with such splendid
effect, that the Yankees were scattered in wild
flight, in less than five minutes, pursued in every
direction by the men of the battalion.
Some prisoners were taken, and a large quantity
of camp equipage and arms, among the latter
quite a number of the “Henry rifles” or “sixteen-shooters,”
fell into the hands of the “Comanches,”
but what pleased them most and really made this
one of the grandest raids of the war, was the capture
of the immense herd of broad-horned Western
beeves, averaging over fifteen hundred pounds,
and numbering two thousand five hundred and
thirty-five head, all of which were brought safely
out.
On the return, Col. White was sent with a portion
of his command to Sycamore Church, on the
Jerusalem plank road, to guard that point until
the cattle could be driven over the Blackwater,
but on reaching his position he was assailed by a
force of the enemy numbering about five thousand
cavalry and artillery, and after a stubborn
engagement, was forced to retire a mile from the
plank road, but by strategy in keeping his men
concealed, and by moving his flag from one point
to another, he succeeded in deceiving the enemy
and holding them in check until the arrival of
.bn 332.png
.pn +1
Gen. Rosser with the remainder of the brigade,
some two hours after his first meeting with them.
While contesting the Yankee advance the Colonel
caused his men to throw up rail fortifications
at Monk’s Neck bridge, and here the enemy used
artillery upon them severely, by which two men
of Company A were killed, viz.: Samuel T. Presgraves,
of Loudoun, and William Brown, a native
of North Carolina, both excellent soldiers.
After holding the Yankees here until the safety
of the cattle was assured, the brigade flanked them
and quietly returned to camp near Reams’, highly
elated with the splendid success of the expedition,
and more than ever convinced of the ability and
generalship of their great commander, General
Hampton.
.bn 333.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIX.
.sp 2
Everything was very quiet in camp after the
“cattle raid” until the 27th of September,
when the eager longing of the “Ash by Brigade” to
go home was gratified, and General Rosser, in a
beautifully touching General Order, in which he
reviewed the past campaign and paid eloquent
tributes to the fallen members of the command,
announced that he was ordered to proceed immediately
to the Valley, and the brigade marched out
for the “promised land” again.
Colonel White had obtained a furlough, or rather
a sick leave, and Captain Myers commanded the
“Comanches.” The season was the most pleasant
of the whole year, and the line of march was
through a beautiful (in part, a grandly magnificent)
country, and notwithstanding the unfavorable
news from General Early’s department, the
“Laurel Brigade” moved with joyous hearts towards
“their own country.”
A journal of the march will tell best of its
pleasures, and it is inserted for the benefit of the
men who made it.
Tuesday, September 27th.—Bade (we hope) a
long farewell to the “Old Virginia lowlands,
low,” and turned our faces towards the grand old
.bn 334.png
.pn +1
mountain-bound Valley of the Shenandoah, and
everybody is glad.
September 28th.—Passed Blacks-and-Whites
and Burksville Junction; camped sixty miles from
Lynchburg.
September 29th.—Marched through Prince Edward
by the C. H. and camped in Charlotte county,
thirty miles from Lynchburg. The people down
here reckon all distances “from Lynchburg.”
September 30th.—Marched at 9-1/2 A. M. into
Campbell county, and camped three miles from
Lynchburg among the bushes; weather delightful
and news from Valley more so, for they say Early
has whipped the Yankees.
October 1st.—Passed the great “Tobacco city,”
a dingy old town; crossed the James on a dilapidated
bridge and took the road to Lexington;
raining all day.
October 2d.—Marching all day through the
mountains, along the James river and canal, and
it is worth a whole year of life to ride for the first
time through this wildly picturesque country, but
for the men who love the mountains as we do, and
have not so much as seen them for five months, it
is more than glorious to find ourselves in their
very heart.
October 3d.—Still in the blessed old Blue Ridge,
but passed Lexington about 1 o’clock P. M. and
camped near Fairfield; raining very hard.
October 4th.—Passed Fairfield, Midway and
.bn 335.png
.pn +1
Greenville; camped on the famous Valley pike,
seven miles from Staunton.
October 5.—Marched through Staunton to Augusta
Church and turned to the left; encamped
near Bridgewater; General Rosser is a Major
General, with Wickham’s, Lomax’s and the old
Ashby brigades; says he is going to “run over
everything in the Valley.” This country is very
different from the "land o’ cakes and brither
Scots" we used to find it; for since we were here
it has been roughly handled, but we get plenty of
good water and pure air, and see the mountains
just as they have stood from the beginning, and
that is satisfaction enough.
On the 6th of October, before daylight, it was
ascertained that Sheridan was retreating and Gen.
Rosser immediately started with his division in
pursuit, pressing as rapidly as possible to the
front, but the scene was horrifying, for with the
infernal instincts of his worse than savage nature,
the merciless fiend, Sheridan, was disgracing the
humanity of any age and visiting the Valley with
a baptism of fire, in which was swept away the
bread of the old men and women and children of
that weeping land.
On every side, from mountain to mountain, the
flames from all the barns, mills, grain and hay
stacks, and in very many instances from dwellings,
too, were blazing skyward, leaving a smoky trail
of desolation to mark the footsteps of the devil’s
.bn 336.png
.pn +1
inspector-general, and show in a fiery record, that
will last as long as the war is remembered, that
the United States, under the government of Satan
and Lincoln, sent Phil. Sheridan to campaign in
the Valley of Virginia.
Rosser’s men tried hard to overtake them, and
did capture a few, who lingered to make sure
work of a mill near New Market, but they were
instantly shot, and when night came the troops
encamped near Brock’s Gap, in a position where,
all through the dark, they could see the work
of the “journeymen of desolation” still progressing.
Early next morning the advance was continued,
and about 2 o’clock the fire-fiends were overtaken
at Mount Clifton, on Mill Creek, above Mount
Jackson, and so strongly posted at the fords, that
Rosser ordered Col. Dulaney to cross the creek
some distance to the right, and with Hatcher’s
squadron of the 7th Va. Cavalry and White’s battalion,
attack them in flank, in order that they
might be forced to uncover the ford.
The crossing was effected without difficulty, but
after marching up the stream about half a mile,
Capt. Hatcher met a force of the Yankees coming
down, and with his usual game he charged and
drove them in confusion towards Cedar Creek, and
shortly after, the battalion reached the top of a
hill overlooking the ford and open fields adjoining,
where the Yankees were prepared to dispute
.bn 337.png
.pn +1
Rosser’s progress until they could get their wagons,
and great droves of cattle and sheep which
they were driving with them down the Valley,
clear.
Col. Dulaney halted the battalion on the crest
of the hill, and the Yankees, perceiving it, commenced
a brisk fire with Spencer and Henry rifles,
and at the same moment, what was afterward
found to be Custer’s brigade, began to form on a
hill just opposite, in a field that sloped gradually
down to the road in which White’s men were
standing. The fire became too hot for comfort,
and Capt. Myers rode up to Col. Dulaney, who
was coolly watching the Yankees, and said to him,
“Colonel, give us orders, and let us do something
quick;” but the Colonel only replied, “Be cautious;”
and the Captain thinking that he had not
been understood, as the Colonel was somewhat
deaf, repeated his request for orders, but received
the same reply, and knowing that his men could
not remain in that position a minute longer,
Myers gave the order to charge, which was performed
in the most brilliant style. There was a
plank fence to open before getting into the field,
and here the long-range guns, which had been
forced upon the men some time before, were thrown
away, and the “Comanches,” numbering now
less than two hundred, passed the fence, and were
within one hundred yards of three of Custer’s
regiments, one of which was in line and the other
.bn 338.png
.pn +1
two rapidly forming; but no halt was intended or
attempted, and in a very brief space the battalion
was among the Yankees, neutralizing their superiority
in numbers and carbines by a very free use
of their pistols and sabres. The enemy stood
quiet until their assailants had gotten in ten steps,
when they broke up in great confusion; and Gen.
Rosser, at the moment, rushed the 11th and 12th,
regiments over, which completed the business,
and the Yankees fled in utter rout, losing many
men killed, wounded and captured, and all their
trains and stock. The battalion had several men
wounded, among them Captain Myers, but none
were killed or very badly hurt.
Captain Hatcher had fought heavily on the
right and also lost heavily, but he pushed the retreating
Yankees until dark.
The command of White’s Battalion now fell
upon Lieutenant Nich. Dorsey, Company B, and
moved with the brigade to a position on the
“middle road,” at a stream known as Tom’s
brook, where the division halted on the evening
of the 8th, and Lieutenant Dorsey was ordered on
picket with his battalion during the night. Very
early in the morning (9th) the Yankee sharpshooters
made their appearance and some very
sharp skirmishing was engaged in, the men with
carbines being sent to the front under command
of Lieutenant Chiswell, who, with forty men,
held a line more than a quarter of a mile in
.bn 339.png
.pn +1
length for more than an hour, but finally the 12th
regiment on his right was driven back, at the
same moment a column of the enemy charged up
a road to the left, and being thus outflanked on
both wings, Lieutenant Chiswell and his men had
to make a run for it on foot, barely escaping capture
by the Yankees, who pressed them very hotly,
and but for a gallant charge of the mounted men,
led by Captain Dowdell, who had just arrived and
taken command a few minutes before, these sharpshooters
would have been captured.
The Yankee force in the road was driven back
for two hundred yards, but the flank firing compelled
the battalion to retire, and now the whole
Confederate line, from the Valley pike to the back
road, gave way, and what had before been a
boasting advance of Rosser’s men, turned into a
shameful rout and stampede which continued for
several miles, although only a comparatively small
force of the enemy pursued. The battalion lost
severely in wounded, among whom was Orderly
Sergeant Thomas S. Grubb, of Company A, who
was mortally wounded, and died one week afterwards.
He was one of the first to join the old company
and no more faithful soldier, or honest, conscientious
Christian gentleman ever lived to defend the
stars and bars, or died to consecrate its memory.
When the lines commenced to give way the
artillery of Captain Thompson was firing rapidly
.bn 340.png
.pn +1
upon the advancing columns of the enemy, and
made desperate efforts to check the Yankees long
enough to give Rosser a chance to rally his people,
but nothing could bring anything like order
out of the confused mass of fugitives that fled so
wildly from the field. They had been flanked,
and without seeing more than the skirmish line
of the enemy, gave way to a panic that increased
each moment, and unaccountable as such things
were, every soldier knows that it only requires a
shout in the rear to keep a stampeded force on the
run, and it was so now, for the author saw fully
six hundred veteran Confederate troops flying
madly along the “back road” with no pursuers
but about thirty Yankees who were afraid to ride
closer than a mile to the demoralized crowd in
their front, and in this miserable retreat the gallant
Thompson lost his guns, but he held them until
the main body of the enemy was around him.
Every wagon and ambulance that Rosser had
brought down with him, and every piece of artillery,
fell into the Yankees’ hands. And on this
subject General Imboden got off a rather sharp
specimen of satire at the expense of Gen. Rosser.
At the opening of the campaign in the Wilderness
in May, the brigade of Rosser had been
highly complimented by Generals Lee and Stuart
for its desperately gallant fighting, and General
Rosser had christened it the “Laurel Brigade,”
in a General Order, which prescribed that the
.bn 341.png
.pn +1
battle-flags should be trimmed with laurel and
the members should wear a badge of three or five
leaves of laurel. The brigade of Gen. Imboden
had made a very poor reputation for fighting,
simply because it had not been in a situation
where much could be accomplished, as the enemy’s
cavalry in the Valley was all the time in vastly
superior force, and well handled.
When Rosser’s men were going down the Valley
they flourished their laurels proudly, and declared
they were going to whip the Yankees and
then chase Imboden’s brigade to the mountains.
On the day of the stampede, when Rosser lost
all his artillery, the Yankees made an advance on
Imboden in the Page Valley, who drove them back
and captured two guns, after which he sent his
compliments to Gen. Rosser, with a polite request
to know how he would “trade laurels for
artillery.” The “Laurel Brigade” shouted
“Bully for Imboden,” and they never said any
more about “chasing him into the mountains.”
After the stampede, the Yankees went back towards
Winchester, and for ten days nothing was
done but picket and scout, but on the 19th Gen.
Early made his advance on the enemy, in which
he surprised and routed Sheridan’s army, capturing
a great quantity of artillery, arms and camp
equipage, with many prisoners; and was himself
surprised, his army routed, his artillery captured,
and his wagon train destroyed, all in one and the
.bn 342.png
.pn +1
same day, constituting one of the most remarkable
cases on record, and the only one that ever
occurred in the war, where a Yankee army, after
being routed, returned the same day and inflicted
a loss on its foe.
In this affair Gen. Rosser operated along the
“back road,” to Early’s left, and succeeded in
whipping the Yankee cavalry there, with small
loss in men to himself.
White’s Battalion was engaged in skirmishing,
but the enemy did not press their right wing forward
until Early had been driven on the turnpike,
and when that was known, Rosser retired
also.
The battalion was engaged in no special service
of much consequence, for some time after the battle,
and it was, in fact, hardly a good squadron,
so many of the men being absent, some on detail
to procure fresh horses, some on furlough, and
many on sick leave, while others again were absent
without leave; but they were the lucky ones who
always avoided the fights, kept clear of camp
duty and court-martial, and yet had a reputation
as soldiers, were doted on by the ladies, and could
make eloquent parlor speeches about their devotion
to the “Sunny South,” and tell of daring
deeds performed by themselves, which, like themselves,
possessed but one thing upon which the
listener could rely, and that one thing was falsehood.
.bn 343.png
.pn +1
About the 1st of November Col. White took his
battalion to Loudoun, and for several days was
engaged in collecting cattle and sending them to
the army, an operation which he also performed
in the counties of Fauquier and Rappahannock,
by which means the scarcity in the Valley was
counterbalanced and the troops furnished with
meat.
The brigade was now commanded by Col. O. R.
Funsten, of the 11th, Col. Dulaney having been
severely wounded in the stampede on the 9th, and
there was great interest taken in the question as
to who was to be Brigadier, many of the men expressing
their preference for Col. White, but, as
before stated, he was not enough of a disciplinarian
for Gen. Lee.
The following letter of recommendation to
President Davis, in his favor, shows that his
merit was appreciated by the great men of Virginia:
.pm start_quote
.ti 0
“To his Excellency Jefferson Davis:
“We take great pleasure in recommending Colonel Elijah V.
White as a most fit successor to the gallant Gen. Thomas L.
Rosser to the command of the ’Laurel Brigade.’
“We are well aware that but little weight is generally attached
to a recommendation, by mere civilians, of military men
for promotion; yet we are so strongly impressed with the conviction
of Col. White’s peculiar fitness for the command of this
distinguished brigade that we cannot forbear to place our estimate
of his qualifications on record.
“The chivalric courage and dashing gallantry of this battle-scarred
.bn 344.png
.pn +1
hero, combined, as we are persuaded, with quickness of
apprehension and coolness in action, inspiring perfect and enthusiastic
confidence in the troops under his command, seem to
point him out as a worthy successor of the noble Rosser.
.in +30
“Respectfully submitted,
.ul style=none indent=8
.it “John Letcher,
.it “John W. Brockenborough.”
.ul-
.in
.pm end_quote
The battalion arrived in camp, eight miles above
New Market, on the 19th, and the next day
marched down the pike with the brigade to meet
the enemy, who had advanced in force as far as
Rood’s Hill, but only staid long enough for a
slight skirmish with the Confederates, and retired
to Strasburg, after which White’s “people” were
ordered on picket, and remained at this duty until
the 24th, when they returned to camp only to prepare
for a raid into the mountains.
On the morning of the 26th of November Gen.
Rosser marched with two brigades, his own and
Gen. Paine’s, towards West Virginia, passing
through Brock’s Gap, and camping at Matthias’,
on Lost river, a place well-remembered as being
the first night’s bivouac of every expedition to
that country, and the next morning the march
was continued all day and night, when about 9
o’clock A. M. of the 28th the column advanced
upon the forts at New Creek Station on the Baltimore
and Ohio Rail Road.
There was a strong force, of all arms, at this
place, but the General conducted everything so
.bn 345.png
.pn +1
rapidly that almost before they knew it he had
surprised the fort where the infantry were stationed,
making prisoners of the garrison, and
capturing all the artillery. A charge was then
made upon the Station, and all the horses of the
cavalry and artillery taken at the first dash,
besides a number of prisoners, but the greater
portion of the Yankees, who were outside of the
fort, crossed the Rail Road bridge and escaped into
the mountains.
A large quantity of stores of all kinds fell into
the hands of the raiders, and they were busily
employed in securing them when a tremendous
firing was heard near by, causing almost a panic,
but it was soon learned that the depot building
had been set on fire and the flames had reached
about fifteen thousand rounds of fixed ammunition
for artillery that had been stored there, which
caused a sound very much like as if a heavy cannonade
had opened in that quarter.
As soon as everything was attended to the Division
set out for the Valley again, having destroyed
the Rail Road for some distance, captured
about six hundred prisoners, seven pieces of artillery,
over a thousand horses and mules, and
secured a large quantity of plunder of all sorts,
making it a highly successful raid, without the
loss of a man on the Confederate side, as the
enemy were pushed so close that they did not fire
a gun.
.bn 346.png
.pn +1
The return was effected without difficulty, and
the camp reached on the 2d of December, where
all remained quiet until the 15th, when Colonel
White started with the battalion for an independent
raid among the Swamp-Dragons of Western
Virginia.
The weather was very cold, the ground covered
with snow, and both men and horses were badly
prepared for such an expedition, nor could anybody
form an idea of what it was intended to
accomplish, and as a consequence the “Comanches”
were rather savage at the prospect of a useless
winter campaign among the mountains, and in
order to get any the company officers were obliged
to take all the men in camp, who had horses lit to
travel at all, which broke seriously into the
wagon-train escort, and left Co. “Q” with a
small force.
Marching by Moorfield the Colonel halted opposite
Petersburg, where he was joined by the Company
of the famous Capt. McNeill, of the Moorfield
Valley, and by Captains Woodson and Kirkendall,
with their companies, from the brigade, but
all did not make his force more than three hundred
men.
The 18th was a rainy day, and the Colonel permitted
the regiment to lie in camp, but the camp
was not more comfortable than the march. About
noon Henry Simpson, sometimes called the “reckless
babe,” started with three or four men to visit
.bn 347.png
.pn +1
a shooting-match which some citizens had told
him of, and where it was supposed that some of
the “Swamps” could be found, but getting lost
in the mountains they brought up at a cabin
where some of the aforesaid “Swamps” were
visiting. Henry and his party forced them to
surrender, after which, by blowing a horn, yelling,
firing, and other equally characteristic operations,
they induced the people in the neighborhood
to believe that they were the crazy advance guard
of an army of lunatics about to be turned loose
upon the country, and securing whatever of rations
they wanted, the scouts returned with their
prisoners to camp without being molested by the
“Dragons,” a performance which no other man
than Henry Simpson could have accomplished.
The command marched out the next morning
on the Franklin grade, and during the day were
fired at frequently, but at too great a distance to
do any harm; however, about noon a party of them
came too near, and were attacked by Mobberly,
who killed one and chased the others into the
mountains, as he said, “as far as the devil went,”
and being asked how far that was, he replied,
“as far as he could get for the rocks.”
These “Swamp Dragons” were a different people
from the “bushwhackers,” the latter being
only citizens armed with their sporting guns,
while the former were a sort of home organization,
armed by the United States, and who operated
.bn 348.png
.pn +1
just as the Highland outlaws of Scotland, in
former days did, by coming in forays upon the
citizens in the low country, and appropriating
whatever of their property they pleased to their
own use, supplying themselves and families with
bacon, beef, corn and flour from the defenseless
inhabitants, and if the latter objected to this
blackmail proceeding or attempted to follow their
plunderers, they were unhesitatingly shot by the
“Swamp Dragons.” Whether or not they were
in the pay of the Government for such work as
this, I do not know, but there is no question of
the fact that the United States furnished them
uniforms, arms and ammunition.
The road led by the house of a man named
Bond, who was a Captain among the Dragons, and
on approaching it, the Confederates discovered his
Company on the side of the mountain, about a
mile distant, and from their appearance, the Colonel
judged that they would attack him, but after
waiting on them awhile, he gave Mobberly permission
to make another charge, and the Dragons
scattered, soon disappearing entirely, when the
command moved forward once more; but Captain
Bond had no reason to complain that the Scripture
law of “What measure ye mete it shall be measured
to you again,” had not been fulfilled, for
White’s people took everything about the premises
they wanted, and if the whole truth must be
told, a good many that they didn’t want, as they
passed his residence.
.bn 349.png
.pn +1
The command halted for the night near the
town of Franklin, and in the morning the extra
Companies left the battalion; McNeil to return to
Moorfield, and Woodson and Kirkendall to go on
toward the Valley, by way of Monterey, while
White, with his people, turned short to the right,
and climbed into the Alleghany mountains, at a
point where a tributary stream, to the South
Branch of Potomac, cut close along the base of the
main mountain, and leaving only a narrow path,
up a perpendicular wall of rock that rose a hundred
yards in height from the water. Along the
right bank of the stream was a little cove of flat
land, completely hemmed in by the mountain,
and where the Colonel decided to make some investigation
of the business of the Swamp Dragons,
sending Capt. Myers with a party, at the same
time, up this mule path, to gain the overhanging
mountain top and keep the “Swamps” from getting
the position on him, for if one hundred men
had been stationed on the top of the precipice,
they could, with stones, have whipped a thousand
down in the cove.
On reaching the top, Myers sent Jack Dove,
Henry Simpson, John Stephenson, and two or
three others, down a road towards some houses,
while with half a dozen others he struck out for
a scout to the southward, and after going about
two miles, came to some cabins where there were
only women, but they told the scouts that their
.bn 350.png
.pn +1
husbands, brothers, sweethearts and all, were out
with the “Dragons.”
Here one of the men roused the ire of a lady,
by attempting to take a coverlet, to such an extent
that she made an attack on him with stones,
and pressed him so close and hot, cursing him
roundly all the while, that Richards, unable to
mount his mule, surrendered the property, and
soon after a rapid firing was heard in the direction
of the party over on the road, which compelled
the Captain to return to their assistance,
and on approaching their position they were found
warmly engaged with a party of the Dragons, and
it was with great difficulty that Simpson and Stephenson,
who were completely cut off, rejoined
their comrades. The Dragons could now be seen
skulking and creeping among the rocks and trees,
on the mountain side, in considerable numbers,
and Myers judged it best to keep his party well
together and ready for emergencies, until the Colonel
should get through with his arrangements
in the cove and come to his assistance, which he
did soon after, and the command moved down the
mountain to the west, through what the citizens
called “Smoke Hole,” a narrow gorge with the
great walls of mountains on either side. Arrived
at a cabin, with greased paper for windows, and
everything else in keeping, a yearling colt and an
enormous deer hound volunteered to take service
in the battalion, and followed the column, which
.bn 351.png
.pn +1
marched along a narrow path on the side of one
mountain for a half mile further, when suddenly,
from the top of the opposite one, the “Swamp
Dragons,” in considerable force, opened a hot fire,
but as good luck would have it they fired too
high. The command was very much scattered,
marching by file, and the head of the column
halted as it came out of the gorge below, which
forced the rear and centre to stand still under the
fire, but the Colonel, with about half a dozen
men, charged instantly up the steep side of the
mountain, on which the “Swamps” were posted,
gallantly led by the colt and dog, who dashed
into the foremost fire, and as soon as the enemy
found that they had waked up fighting people in
earnest they ran off; but one man, an old citizen
with a sporting rifle, resolved to kill somebody,
and creeping through the bushes, had levelled his
gun on the Colonel, at ten steps, when Nich. Dorsey
saw him and warned White, who instantly
fired on him with his pistol, wounding him in the
hip, and at the same moment Alonzo Sellman shot
him in the side, and the old man rolled over with
the load still in his rifle.
The other “Swamps” all made their escape,
although they had nearly equal force with the
“Comanches,” and had all advantages possible
in position, with the latter so hemmed in that not
one-fourth of them could move. The old citizen
was placed behind John Walker, and carried
.bn 352.png
.pn +1
down the mountain, but he soon died, and was
left at a cabin on the road where his son lived,
and with no further attention than to lay him on
the ground, (except that the dog licked his face
in passing,) the battalion marched on, looking out
for more trouble with the Dragons. On approaching
a house in a less wild and broken country, a
woman, mounted man-fashion, on a horse, met
the command, proclaiming that she was a rebel,
and being shown the rifle of the old citizen, who
had been shot, she exclaimed, "It’s daddy’s gun;
I know it; he’s a damned old Yankee, and I hope
you have killed him." Col. White made no halt
at her house, although his boys had cleaned out
pretty generally all the houses they had passed,
but marched quietly on and camped at the first
hay stacks they had seen in the mountains, in fact
the only long forage found all day was buckwheat
straw in little round stacks, and a few fodder
blades.
On the morning of the 21st, the “Comanches”
waked up finding a foot of snow on their blankets
and more of it coming down, but they had slept
warm and sound beneath this extra covering, and
soon as possible the march was resumed for Petersburg,
but it was a very disagreeable one, the
weather being excessively cold and the “people”
were forced to ford the South branch six times in
deep water, which told bitterly on the horses, and
at the last one, which was at Petersburg, some of
.bn 353.png
.pn +1
the weak ones fell and the men had to wade out,
but an early camp with plenty of feed and good
attention made everything all ready for the mountain
march in the morning.
The weather continued freezing cold, and the
Colonel halted for two nights and a day in the
South Fork Valley, but on Christmas day the
battalion passed Brock’s Gap—the gateway to
the Valley—and if there was a sober man in the
battalion, outside of Company E, I did not see
him; was with the command all day too.
The great business was now to get permission
for the “Comanches” to disband. The escaped
convict from the devil’s penitentiary, Sheridan,
had made the destruction of forage in the Valley
complete; the snow lay deep upon the blue grass
field, making it impossible for the starving horses
to glean the shadow of a subsistence from them;
and the worn-out Rail Road, with its rickety rolling
stock, was scarcely capable of carrying supplies
to Early’s men at Staunton, while the cavalry
division, in camp at Swope’s Depot, six miles
west of that place, only had an allowance of six
pounds of wheat straw a day for the horses, and
no grain at all, all of which made White’s battalion
swear that they would not winter in the
Valley, but all the exertions of the Colonel seemed
to be fruitless, for General Early declined to permit
them to shift for themselves; and now Company
F, following the examples set by Companies
.bn 354.png
.pn +1
A, B and C, deserted in a body on the night of
the 27th December, leaving Company E the banner
Company, as being the only one that did not
stain its reputation with the shame of desertion.
The Colonel was in Staunton trying to get permission
to take his battalion to Loudoun, and
when Captain Myers called for the morning reports
on the 28th, they showed a force in camp
all told of forty-three men and three officers, viz:
Company A, 18 men, 1 officer; Company B, 16
men, 1 officer; Company C, 3 men; Company E,
6 men, 1 officer; and when the Colonel came in
on the 30th and learned of the desertion of Company
F, he was so much troubled and excited over
it that he declared he would not try to do anything
more for the “Comanches,” and would
never command them again, but the Loudoun
boys gathered around their Chief like children
around a father, beseeching him to think better
of it, and not cast them away from his care entirely,
and he recalled his bitter words, promising
to try again to have them disbanded for this winter,
as portions of General Fitz Lee’s division had
been done the preceding one; and on the last day
of the year he started again for Staunton, telling
Captain Myers he would dispatch to him the next
day at Harrisonburg, telling him what to do, and
when on Sunday morning, January 1st, 1865, the
Captain entered the telegraph office at that place,
he found the welcome dispatch:
.bn 355.png
.pn +1
.pm start_quote
“Move out as soon as you like; take my horses with you to
Semper’s.
.ll 68
.rj
“E. V. White, Lieut. Colonel.”
.ll
.pm end_quote
There was no time lost; but Myers had taken
time by the forelock, and before leaving camp in
the morning, had ordered the border Companies
to move out for Loudoun, and Company E to go
home, so that he, being sixteen miles behind, did
not overtake them until they reached Front
Royal.
A violent snow-storm was raging as they passed
through Manassa Gap, but it was no hindrance to
them now; in fact, they were glad of it, for it
served to prevent scouting parties of Yankees
from coming out, and also shut other avenues
through which news of them might have been
communicated to the enemy; and the little band of
“Comanches” felt very much like fugitives, for
what they had seen and experienced in the Valley,
had impressed upon them, to a considerable extent,
the belief that the “starry cross” was being
enveloped in the gloom of annihilation, and the
fact that their Government was unable to support
them, had tamed their spirits wonderfully.
When they entered their paradise, for such
Loudoun county seemed to them, they found that
the fire-fiends had been to work there too, but not
to the same extent they had practiced their inhuman
desolation on the Shenandoah; and now they
were glad that the “Quaker settlements” and
.bn 356.png
.pn +1
“Dutch corner” of this county, were full of men
loyal to Yankee land, for, as the burning devils
began their work among the Union men first, it
brought such influential remonstrances to the
powers that were, that the destruction was partially
averted; and then the gallant Mosby, with
his partizans in the mountains, had a most salutary
effect in preventing the burners from wandering
too far from their line of march and too near
the mountains which run through this region.
So that badly damaged though they were, the people
of Loudoun were far more removed from the
want of provisions that fell heavily upon their
neighbors over the Blue Ridge, and the soldiers,
whose homes were here, found themselves in the
midst of what seemed to them an endless abundance.
The men whose homes were in Albemarle, were
far the most fortunate though, for, with an abundance
of rations and forage, they were entirely free
from any fear of the enemy’s raiding parties,
while Company E, in Page and Shenandoah and
Warren, were not only in a destitute country, but
in nightly danger of being “gobbled up” by the
scouting bands sent out by Sheridan’s army in the
“lower Valley,” but they betook themselves to
the mountains and the “Little Foot Valley,” or
Powell’s Foot, as it is sometimes called, and enjoyed
themselves as only men can do who have
continual danger to add zest to their enjoyment of
home and rest.
.bn 357.png
.pn +1
Of how the winter passed away, each individual
had a different story to tell, and it would be impossible
to give them all in the history of the battalion;
but of two or three incidents that kept the
men from forgetting they were still soldiers, we
must tell the history.
The three Companies, A, B and C, were scattered
through Loudoun and Fairfax counties,
nominally under the command of Captain Myers,
Co. A, who held weekly meetings of his squadron
at various points, but apart from the meetings the
men were under no restrictions or control except
such as the necessity for watching the Yankees
and keeping out of the way of their scouting
parties imposed.
Company B staid, for the most part, in the
mountain near Hughesville and Leesburg, but
Lieut. Chiswell had his headquarters near the
Potomac, and learning of a Yankee camp on the
Maryland side, at Edwards’ Ferry, he concluded
to attempt a raid on their horses, and early in
February he got twenty-two of his men together,
started from Mrs. Mavin’s mill about 8 o’clock at
night, leaving their horses on the Virginia side.
They crossed the river on the ice, about three-quarters
of a mile below the Ferry, and coming
out on the road made as good time as possible
for the camp, but when within one hundred
yards of it were called upon by two vedettes to
halt. This brought on some firing, and without
.bn 358.png
.pn +1
waiting a moment for the Yankees to get ready,
the Lieutenant and his men, giving the customary
yell, and keeping it up, charged at a double-quick
into the camp. The Yankees had not yet gone to
bed, and rushed to see what was coming, but one
glance was sufficient for them it seems, for Lieut.
Chiswell says they could not have disappeared any
quicker than they did if the ground had opened
beneath them and swallowed them, but there was
one exception, for one man (a soldier he was) tried
his utmost to fire his carbine, but it refused to go
off, and he was captured in the attempt to defend
his camp; he and one other were wounded, and
one prisoner taken, and as soon as the camp was
cleared Lieut. Chiswell and some of his men
hunted up and secured fourteen good horses and
rigging, the property of the 1st Delaware Cavalry.
While this was being done another party
paid a visit to a store near by, and Lieut. C. says,
that considering the fact of their having no light,
he thinks they made a very fair selection of goods.
After arranging matters to their notion the
raiders returned to the Virginia side with their
spoils, bringing their one prisoner along, but as
soon as they got over the question arose “What
will we do with him?” and as none of the party
was willing to escort the gentleman to Richmond,
which was the only place they could take him,
they proposed to him that if he would trade shoes
with one of the captors, who was bad off in that
.bn 359.png
.pn +1
line, they would release him unconditionally, a
proposition which he eagerly accepted, and lost
no time in consummating the trade.
About Christmas a Federal brigade, commanded
by General Deven, had established itself in winter
quarters near Lovettsville, in Loudoun county,
with its right wing protected by the Short Hill
and its left resting on the turnpike, near the Berlin
Ferry on the Potomac; and during the time
they were there these troops had treated the inhabitants
of the country through which they
scouted and foraged with far more courtesy and
consideration than was the custom of Federal soldiers
south of the Potomac. It is true that buildings
in the vicinity of their camps were in many
instances stripped of their planking to be used for
the more comfortable fitting up of the soldiers
quarters, but as a general thing Deven showed
that his warfare was not upon helpless citizens,
whose persons and property were entirely at his
mercy, and in this respect proved himself an exception
to the majority of commanding officers in
the abolition crusade upon the South, who only
limited their license to the extent of their power.
And this forbearance on the part of Gen. Deven
was all the more remarkable from the fact that
the indomitable Mobberly, in company with a few
others whose homes and sweethearts were in the
Federal lines, made almost nightly attacks upon
the pickets, and some nights this rough-riding
.bn 360.png
.pn +1
scout with his little band would commence at one
end of the chain and make the entire circuit of
the camps, driving in every picket on the line,
and keeping the regiments under arms the whole
night. It is easy to imagine what a visitation of
wrath this would have brought upon the citizens
in his power, from Sir “Headquarters-in-the-Saddle,”
although they were as innocent of any complicity
in or knowledge of these forays as the
silent tenants of the graveyard, and because Gen.
Deven looked upon them with the judgment of
the true soldier in an enemy’s country, and acted
like a soldier and not a barbarian, the people respected
him; but when his scouting parties went
through the country piloted by Means’ men, hen-roosts,
milk-houses and ladies’ wardrobes were
invaded in the most approved style of genuine
Yankee warfare, as was invariably the case when
the “Independent Loudoun Rangers” went out
on the war-path, and no dread of Mosby or White
sharpened their consciences.
This much for General Deven and his men.
In February, 1865, Colonel White came to
Loudoun and taking a view of the situation, resolved
to try a raid into the Federal camp.
Mobberly, Lum Wenner and others who knew
the Lovettsville country almost as well as if they
had made it, scouted for him and with great difficulty
obtained the information that the 6th New
York Cavalry was encamped nearest the Short
.bn 361.png
.pn +1
Hill and had about two hundred and fifty men in
camp.
On the evening of the 17th, the Colonel quietly
collected what force he could in that part of the
county, and at Woodgrove found he had about
eighty men all told, including Colonel R. P. Chew,
of the famous “Horse Artillery,” and a few of
Mosby’s men, and about 9 o’clock the little squadron
moved from the rendezvous, and passing
Neersville, crossed the Short Hill by a narrow
path near St. Paul’s.
On clearing the mountain a small advance
guard, led by Mobberly, was sent out to capture
the pickets, but very soon firing was heard, and
dashing rapidly forward the Colonel found that
Mobberly and Frank Curry had been compelled to
shoot some of the enemy at the reserve of the
post, and knowing that success depended on surprising
the camp, he continued the charge.
On reaching the place the unwelcome discovery
was made that instead of two hundred and fifty—which
was considered about as many as White’s
eighty men wanted—the enemy’s force had been
increased that day by the addition of over three
hundred new men, making fully six hundred, and
it had something the appearance of fool-hardiness
to attack them, especially as a large portion were
in strong log huts; however, a good part of the
new men were in tents along the side of the camp
where the attack was to be made, and their canvas
.bn 362.png
.pn +1
walls were not much protection against the
bullets that White’s charging command began to
pour into them as soon as they became fairly
headed for them.
Great confusion was the result of the attack,
and fully one hundred and fifty prisoners, and as
many horses, were captured at the first onset, and
if the Colonel had now been content to retire, he
would have had as much as he ought to have expected,
but still ignorant of the new force, he
judged from the confusion that he was in a fair
way to become master of the camp, when, in fact,
he had only captured the outskirts, and had not
reached the real camp, which, as stated, was composed
of huts, and under this wrong impression
he remained too long, for a veteran officer, Capt.
Bell, coolly proceeded to rally such of his men as
were not too much demoralized, and in a very
brief space had about two hundred of them in
line on the opposite side of the extensive ground,
with whom he advanced very unexpectedly upon
the raiders, who were compelled to retire very
precipitately, only bringing out about fifty horses
and a dozen prisoners; but the Colonel had lost
nothing, only one of his men being wounded, and
he very slightly, so that all he got was clear gain
to his command.
On reaching Woodgrove again the command
disbanded and prepared to “lie low” until the
inevitable scouring of the country by parties from
.bn 363.png
.pn +1
Devon’s camp was accomplished, which sunrise
would be the signal for commencing, and this was
the last blow struck by the famous battalion
against the enemy in Old Loudoun, whose hills
and valleys were still darkened by the smoke of
the burning barns and grain of her people, which
had been fired by the vandal foe whom the 35th
battalion was organized to protect the Loudoun
border against.
.bn 364.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XX.
.sp 2
During the month following the foray into
Deven’s camp, the “Comanches” devoted
themselves to the duty of recruiting their horses
and preparing for the return to the army whenever
their chief should call them from their
winter quarters to perform their part in what all
felt and believed was to be the final campaign of
the war.
The long rest and freedom from discipline had
not been beneficial to the “morale” of the command,
and in fact a great deal of the energy and
fire that had formerly characterized White’s Battalion,
had been chilled and worn out by the
privations and blood of the many trying campaigns
through which they had passed, and which
had been productive of no result, so far as they
could see, except to make each succeeding one
more desperate and bloody, and the isolated raids,
skirmishes and picket fights, which had once been
their delight and pride, had now lost the peculiar
charm to them, for all the men saw that in the
magnitude to which the war had grown, such
affairs were of no importance at all, and they all
felt that to attain the liberty for which so much
blood had already been spilled, there must be
.bn 365.png
.pn +1
great and decisive battles fought, in which superior
generalship and stubborn courage on the part
of the South should overmatch the swarming
legions of Northmen, who, bought by the Federal
bounty, were constantly swelling the ranks of
Grant’s army.
Very few of the Southern soldiers doubted the
ultimate success of the cause which had stood
such terrible storms, and all believed that the last
day of the war was very near, when, with a
second Waterloo, the stars on the Southern Cross
would blaze grandly in a glorious triumph or
sink beneath an ocean of blood into the dark, but
still glorious, gloom of defeat; and with a faith
that might shame the Christian in his trust in his
God the soldiers trusted in Gen. Lee, willing to
give their lives to his keeping, and if not willing
to die for their cause they were willing and ready
to follow their great commander with unquestioning
confidence wherever he might lead them.
On the 17th of March, 1865, Col. White’s order
for his men to join him was put into the hands of
his Company officers, and as it was his last General
Order to an organized battalion, I append it
in full; and the reader will bear in mind that it
was written the day after the Yankee Sheridan,
whose name will ever be synonymous with infamy,
had marched with fifteen thousand cavalry up the
Shenandoah Valley;
.bn 366.png
.pn +1
.pm start_quote
.if t
.nf r
“Head-Quarters, 35th Battalion, }
“March 6th, 1865.\ \ \ \ \ \ }
.nf-
.if-
.if h
.li
“Head-Quarters, 35th Battalion,
“March 6th, 1865.}
.li-
.if-
.ti 0
“General Order, No. 1.
“Soldiers of the renowned 35th: Your Chief calls you again
from your pleasant homes and loved ones to the field of battle!
You will not be slow to answer his call.
“The invading foe has penetrated to the very heart of your
beloved Virginia, and proud spirits like yours cannot tamely
rest while upon every breeze is borne the wailing of helpless
women and children!
“Come, my gallant boys! and we will throw the weight of
our sabres in the scale with our brethren in arms against the
dastard hordes of the North, who thus, without mercy or
justice, pollute the sacred altars of our bleeding land.
.ll 68
.nf r
“E. V. White,
“Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding.”
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
After several attempts, which failed because of
the scattered condition of his command, Captain
Myers got about sixty men of Companies A, B
and C, together on the night of the 20th, at the
Semper’s Mill rendezvous, and on the morning of
the 21st started for Richmond, leaving Boyd
Barrett and Sam White in Loudoun, with instructions
to gather up the remaining “Comanches,”
who were not yet ready to march, and bring them
out in ten days.
The line of march was by Madison C. H. and
Gordonsville, through the country that Sheridan’s
army had just passed over, and it would have
taken a man with a nicely balanced mind for calculation
to figure out anything in the way of destruction
that might be added to what had been
.bn 367.png
.pn +1
accomplished by these fire-brands of Satan or
Stanton; but what affected the military situation
was the ruin to the Rail Road, for there was literally
not a rail or even a cross-tie left upon it for
miles, and everything that bore the faintest resemblance
to a bridge, though it was only a foot-plank
over a ditch, had been taken up and destroyed,
but the injury which this destruction was intended
to inflict upon the army of Gen. Lee was scarcely
felt by it now, from the fact that the road ran
through an already impoverished country, and
there were no supplies in the Valley to be brought
over it, while the necessity for sending rations
from Richmond to Gen. Early’s forces at Staunton
was ended by the annihilation of that command
by Sheridan before he struck the Rail Road at all,
and consequently the raiding on the road was, in
a military point of view, utterly useless.
The Loudoun detachment marched by Hanover
Junction, over the well remembered fighting-ground
of Cold Harbor and Mechanicsville, and
joined the brigade, on the night of the 25th, near
Atlee’s Station, six miles north of Richmond,
where it encamped for the night, and on the morning
of the 26th passed through the city, crossing
on Mayo’s bridge to the south side of the James.
General Rosser’s division was composed now of
two brigades, one commanded by Brig. General
McCausland, and the other—his own old brigade—by
Brig. General Dearing, an accomplished young
.bn 368.png
.pn +1
officer, who had highly distinguished himself under
General Hoke at the capture of Plymouth,
N. C., and also on the Petersburg lines during
the long campaign of 1864, and although a total
stranger to the Valley brigade, his genial, affable
disposition and soldierly appearance, together
with the brilliant reputation which had preceded
him, soon rendered him a great favorite with the
troops who had followed the lead of such men as
Ashby, Jones and Rosser.
The division passed Petersburg on the 27th,
and on the 28th united with General W. H. F.
Lee’s division near Stony Creek Station, and encamped
on the Nottaway river. The two divisions
had less than three thousand men in them, that
of Rosser not numbering over twelve hundred,
when if all its men out of prison and capable of
duty had been present the brigade of Dearing
alone would have had certainly not less than
twenty-five hundred in ranks; but what was true
of one part of the army was also true of the balance
of it, and General Lee had only a remnant
of what had been the A. N. V. to meet Grant’s
hundred and sixty thousand men.
The weather was most unfavorable, as rain fell
almost continually; the ground was as full of
water as a sponge, so that it was difficult and dangerous
to ride a horse off the roads, which were
themselves almost knee-deep in mire and mud,
while the streams were swollen to the brim, and
.bn 369.png
.pn +1
many of them the troopers had to cross by swimming
their horses, to the great damage of ammunition
and such rations as they had.
On the 39th the command was ordered towards
Dinwiddie Court-house, where Sheridan was pressing
the Confederates in his attempt to reach the
South Side Rail Road, which, if cut, would completely
destroy all outside communication with
Richmond and Petersburg, and here Gen. Fitz.
Lee, who now commanded the Cavalry Corps A.
N. V., was combining all his energies to save the
road and the right wing of Lee’s army.
On the 31st of March the battalion took part in
the battle of Five Forks, and on the 1st of April
was engaged all day in fighting, scouting and
picketing, in the vicinity of Hatcher’s run; two
names rendered famous in the history of the war
by the desperate fighting of the Cavalry Corps,
and of the glorious Infantry Division of General
Pickett; and from now to the end, the battalion
was closely connected with the operations of the
army, in the last brief and gloomy, but forever
glorious campaign, which crushed the hopes that
had sustained the hearts of Lee’s veterans through
four weary years of suffering and blood, and we
cannot separate the history of the “Comanches”
from that of the Corps to which they belonged,
and in which they performed all the duties allotted
to them.
The night of April 1st was a sleepless one, for
.bn 370.png
.pn +1
the horribly incessant thundering of the artillery
at Petersburg, and the rattling of the muskets
over Hatcher’s run, told to the troopers that the
moment when they must take to their saddles and
engage in the fray might be at hand; but no
move was made until the morning of the 2d, when
the enemy on the right succeeded in flanking the
divisions of Fitz. and W. H. Lee and Pickett,
routing and driving them from their position, and
the retreat began, not towards Petersburg, for
that, too, had fallen, but along the Rail Road towards
the West.
Here Col. White, with his battalion of eighty
men, was placed in the rear, and until 3 o’clock
kept back the harassing forces of the enemy which
pressed close on flanks and rear, threatening to
ride over the “Comanches” at almost every step
of the march, which was clogged and hindered
continually by the trains of wagons that the worn-out
teams were dragging through the mud at
what seemed almost a snail’s pace.
In the evening it became necessary to halt, in
order to protect the trains, and Fitz. Lee’s division
wheeled to the rear, where temporary breastworks
were thrown up, and the Yankees checked
for a time; but the battalion lost the services of
two of its best officers in Lieut. Chiswell, of Company
B, and Lieut. Strickler, Company E, who
were both severely wounded, and also of Sergeant
Alonzo Sellman, Company B, who, though shot
.bn 371.png
.pn +1
in the head and given up for dead, survived and
finally recovered.
The division of General Johnson (infantry)
moved also to the rear, and by aid of the cavalry
repulsed every attack of the Yankees until
midnight, when the whole force again crossed
Hatcher’s run and halted until daylight, when
the toilsome retreat was continued, the wagons
still dragging along slower and slower, requiring
the cavalry to dispute the passage of every stream
with the enemy, and halt on every hill-top to
offer battle to their pressing columns, which,
flushed with success, and brave because of their
numbers, grew more and more determined in their
dogging attacks upon the rear, while the Confederates,
worn-out, hungry and disheartened, still
plodded on through rain and mud, and still faintly
hoped that General Lee would stop, in some way,
the advancing foe, and bring success out of the
cloud of disaster that now overwhelmed them.
The Quartermasters said that there were plenty
of rations for the army at Amelia C. H., and the
prospect kept the men up, and on the evening of
the 4th they reached that place, only to meet the
bitterest disappointment, for not an ounce of
rations was there, and now it really did seem that
famine would accomplish what all of Grant’s
bayonets could not effect and compel the veteran
army of Lee to surrender; but that alternative
impressed the men as worse than starvation, and
.bn 372.png
.pn +1
plucking the buds and twigs of the trees as they
passed along, these men of iron nerves and lion
hearts essayed to quiet the cravings of hunger by
eating them.
A short rest was permitted at the Court-house,
as the enemy’s cavalry had not pressed them so
closely to-day as before, and the reason for this
was discovered on the 5th, when near Amelia
Springs, a strong force of them dashed in from
the flank upon the wagon-train and destroyed
more than a hundred wagons, causing such a
stampede among the Quartermasters, teamsters
and stragglers, as only those who had been in the
Valley with Gen. Early could imagine, and leaving
the road blocked up with the smoking wrecks.
As soon as Gen. Rosser learned this he started the
brigade of Dearing forward, and as rapidly as
possible they came up with the Yankees at the
Springs and attacked them furiously, the 11th
Virginia, under Lieut. Col. M. D. Ball, leading
most gallantly, and being supported by the
remainder of the division, and by a portion of
Gen. Fitz. Lee’s division, they whipped the
enemy’s cavalry handsomely, killing and wounding
nearly as many as were engaged on the Confederate
side, and driving the remainder back
upon their infantry.
This affair did more to revive the drooping
spirits of the Cavalry Corps than anything else
could, but it is doubtful if they would have fought
.bn 373.png
.pn +1
so fiercely if they had not been so hungry, and
the first demand, on taking a prisoner, was
"hand me your haversack, quick, or I’ll blow
your brains out."
They camped that night at the Springs, and
after this the cavalry fared much better than the
infantry, for they were kept constantly riding on
the flanks, from rear to front, and back again,
having thereby an opportunity to obtain something
to eat at the houses of citizens off from the
line of march pursued by the main army, but it
was saddening to see the despairing looks cast by
the inhabitants of the country as they would say
farewell to the boys in gray after they had willingly
fed them with the best they had and saw
them ride away, for they dreaded what was to
come after them more than if all the plagues of
old Egypt’s King had been turned loose in their
land and were approaching their plantations, and
on one occasion, when the “Comanches” were
riding past a house, some beautiful young ladies
came out, and closing the gate in front of the
column, said, "You are going the wrong way;
please don’t leave us to Sheridan’s mercy; go
back and whip the Yankees for our sakes;" but
noticing the bitterness which their act and words
added to the already heart-crushing sadness of
retreat and defeat, they opened the gate, saying,
"Go on; we know you can’t help it; but we will
pray for you, and hope that you will soon be back
.bn 374.png
.pn +1
to drive them away; don’t forget us when you
meet the Yankees."
There is no doubt that the citizens of the South
were subjugated long before the armies were
reduced to the extremity of surrendering, but the
noble-souled, true-hearted women of the sunny
Southern land were not, nor ever have been,
willing to surrender their faith in the justice of the
“Lost Cause,” or to give up their hope of a final
triumph of the principles they so fondly loved
and cherished, and
.pm start_poem
“Though long deferred their hope hath been,
Yet it shall come at last.”
.pm end_poem
The Southern women were the “power behind
the throne” during the whole existence of the
Confederate States, and were so acknowledged by
Seward, the Yankee Secretary of State; by Butler,
“the Beast;” and by Sherman, the prince of
“bummers” and thieves, in their bitter persecution
of them, for they knew that the steady, unchanging
influence of the mothers, sisters, wives
and sweethearts of the South did more to fill the
ranks of the Confederate army than all the edicts
of its Congress or acts of its Conscript Bureau.
And nobly and bravely did the ladies meet their
persecution. Up to the day of Lee’s surrender
their voices were still for war, and their tongues,
sharper than sabre-blades, turned against deserters
and skulkers from the army and “bomb-proof”
.bn 375.png
.pn +1
officers in it. They equalled the women of
Poland in their enthusiasm and devotion, and excelled
them in persistent opposition to, and hatred
of, those whom they regarded as the oppressors of
their country. Many a poor fellow whom the
surrender caught in a Northern prison, hesitated
to take the oath of allegiance which would have
procured his release, although he knew there was
no longer a “Dixie” banner to be true to, because
he did not know “what the women at home would
say to it;” and when they did take the oath and
go home the women sometimes blamed them,
sometimes said nothing, and sometimes only remarked,
"Yes, you did right, ’needs must when
the devil drives,’ and if ever he held the reins
on earth he does to-day."
A Federal officer in North Carolina asked a lady
“Are you not sorry you ever used your influence
in support of this rebellion, when you see the
misery which has followed it?”
“No, sir,” she replied, “we have done what
we could, and my sorrow is not for the effort we
made, but for its failure. Better, ten thousand
times better, the present sufferings than the degredation
of submitting tamely without a struggle.
We feel that we were right and that is a great
thing, let the conviction cost us what it may.”
But it is time to go back into the forlorn death-march
of Lee’s army.
Early in the morning of the 6th the enemy advanced
.bn 376.png
.pn +1
on the pickets at Amelia Springs, who
were from the second squadron of White’s Battalion,
commanded by Captain French, who, after
a firm resistance, was compelled to retire upon
the infantry, who at the same time were being
warmly pressed by the main body of Grant’s army
in the rear, and the retreat was resumed and continued
during the day with constant fighting.
On arriving near Rice’s Station a heavy force
of the enemy’s cavalry made an attack upon
Rosser’s division, but the General wheeled his
regiments and threw them in fierce and desperate
charges upon the foe, routing and driving him
back upon his infantry.
The old brigade seemed inspired with the fiery
valor which had in other days given it the proud
title of the “Laurel,” and impelled its men to
follow the battle-flag of Dixie through blood to
victory, on many a well-fought field, and never
in all the years of the war, had it acted more
gallantly.
When this affair opened the “Laurel” brigade
was near the High Bridge, and was forced to
charge the enemy’s infantry, which in strong force
was posted in the edge of a body of timber, and
here the Yankee line was driven back, but pretty
soon Gen. Dearing ordered his people to retire,
and riding up to Col. White, the General informed
him that the enemy had surrounded them, and
asked his advice, saying, “We must cut through
.bn 377.png
.pn +1
or surrender.” The Colonel only replied, by saying,
“You know best what to do;” and Dearing
then said, “We must whip that and if
you and I lead the charge, it can be done,” which
Col. White at once agreed to, and the regiment
were again ordered forward, the battalion in front,
with Col. White and Gen. Dearing leading it.
By this time the Yankees had returned and
taken position some fifteen yards in front of the
woods, from which they opened a terrible fire, but
the “Comanches” swept onward, supported by
the brigade, and the enemy was again driven in
great confusion over the hill.
Here Gen. Dearing was mortally wounded, and
carried from the field, and Federal Gen. Read, who
commanded the Yankee forces, was also mortally
wounded, and fell into the hands of the Confederates.
On reaching the top of the hill, and finding
himself in command of the brigade, Col. White
halted, to reform his scattered line, preparatory
to charging again upon the Yankees, who were
rallying at a corner of woods about a quarter of a
mile away, but while thus engaged, a small party
of the enemy’s cavalry, from towards Rice’s, appeared,
and two of them attacked the gallant
Maj. Breathed, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, who
had ridden alone, some distance beyond the Confederate
line, and a desperate conflict took place,
in full view of both parties, wherein nothing but
.bn 378.png
.pn +1
the sabre was used. In a short time the Major
knocked one of his foes from his horse, and was
almost instantly knocked down himself by the remaining
one, but just as the Yankee had wheeled
his horse, and was leaning over with his sabre in
tierce to despatch the prostrate Major, one of
White’s men approached, and with a pistol shot
brought the Yankee to the ground, when Breathed
sprang up with his sabre still in his hand, exclaiming,
"Oh! damn you! I’ve got you now,"
and killed him.
This seemed to convince the Yankees that they
could do nothing with such men, and they again
retreated; but now a force of cavalry was discovered
advancing rapidly upon the right of the
brigade, and White turned to meet them, as they
advanced bravely to the charge, led by as gallant
an officer as ever graced a battle-field, but brave
as was the commander, and promptly supported
by his men as he was, the “Comanches” had their
fighting blood on fire, with the excitement of victory,
and in a few minutes broke the Yankee line
and captured their Colonel, using their sabres
with such desperate courage, that no troops could
have stood long before this little band of men who
had been starved and harassed into very devils of
war and blood.
The battle-tide was again turned against the
enemy’s legions, and the cavalry driven back upon
their infantry, who, in heavy force had taken position
.bn 379.png
.pn +1
on the crest of a steep, rocky hill, and here
for a moment they checked the Confederate advance,
but General Munford had now arrived with
his division, and Gen. McCausland ordered Capt.
Myers to go to a regiment of dismounted men and
take them to the top of the hill. This regiment
proved to be the 6th Virginia Cavalry, commanded
by Major Grimsley, who moved his men forward
at once, and Col. Boston, the commander of
Paine’s Brigade, rode to the head of the regiment
to lead it, but was shot through the brain.
The 6th, however, kept on, and now Colonel
White led his men through a perfect storm of bullets,
up the bluff, and again the Yankees fled, pursued
fiercely by the “Comanches,” who captured
many prisoners in the chase to the river, and on
reaching the bank, near the High Bridge, their
infantry, to the number of over seven hundred,
threw down their arms and surrendered to White’s
Battalion.
In this last charge, as Maj. Thompson, who had
left his battery to help the cavalry fight, was
riding recklessly down upon the enemy, whirling
his sabre around his head and shouting to the
“Comanches” to “charge the devils,” that he
"wanted to go in with White’s Battalion," &c.,
a Yankee fired upon him with fatal aim, sending
a bullet through his head, and the brave young
officer leaped from his saddle a corpse, and thus
the light of that gallant spirit, which for four
.bn 380.png
.pn +1
years had revelled unscathed, amid the most appalling
dangers, went out in blood upon the field of
victory to the men whom he had so often seen following
the lead of his loved friend and commander,
Turner Ashby; that friend who, on the bloody
field at Harrisonburg, breathed out his noble life
in Jamie Thompson’s arms, but his eyes’ last
glance rested on a beaten foe, and the last sounds
that fell upon his ear were the wild triumphant
yells of the “Comanches.”
The battalion took four regimental standards
and about eight hundred prisoners, while the total
of prisoners amounted to about eleven hundred,
greatly exceeding the whole Confederate force engaged,
and their loss in killed and wounded was
certainly not less than four hundred, including
many officers, and six flags were displayed as trophies
of the fight.
General Dearing had been carried to a house
near the field, and after the battle Colonel White
went to see him, finding him unable to speak
above a whisper, and in fact, dying. Gen. Rosser
was seated on one side, and as White came in, the
wounded General took his hand, and pointing with
the other to the Brigadier’s stars on his own collar,
turned his face to General Rosser and whispered,
“I want these to be put on his coat.”
Among the wounded in the battalion was Benjamin
F. Leslie, Company A, who had been remarkable
for his unwavering faith in the success
.bn 381.png
.pn +1
of the South, through all the gloomy retreat,
even when every heart was despondent, and who
while fighting desperately at the bridge was mortally
wounded.
He, too, was at the house, and when the Colonel
went in to see him found him suffering greatly
from the bullet wound through his body and lying
with his knees almost drawn up to his chin. The
Colonel asked him if he was badly hurt, and he
replied, “Yes, Colonel, I am mortally wounded.”
“Oh!” said the Colonel, “I hope not. Ben, you
must cheer up.” “No, sir,” said Ben, "there’s
do hope for me; I asked the doctor and he says I
must die," and then raising his head, with the
light of faith in and devotion to his cherished
country’s cause beaming from his eye, he exclaimed,
“But there are men enough left to gain
our independence.”
The gallant commander of the 12th Virginia
cavalry, Major Nott, was killed in the charge
upon the infantry early in the engagement, and
the scene was full of sad and solemn meaning as
the soldiers buried their dead comrades on the hill
near the house, just before leaving the ground to
the enemy, but many felt that the hero blood of
the Southland had not been spilled in vain when
they saw so many of their foes laid beneath the
same sod, and knew they had lost so many more,
but the enemy had fought bravely and well, and
the Confederate loss was very severe, the battalion
.bn 382.png
.pn +1
alone losing eighteen killed and wounded out of
about forty engaged. Only the first squadron
was present at the opening of the fight, as Capt.
French with his squadron had been left on picket
at Amelia Springs in the morning, and all day
long was bringing up the rear closely pressed by
the enemy, and compelled to turn and fight at
every hill and wood and stream along the route,
so that he did not reach the ground until towards
the close of the battle.
About dark the command of White reached the
main army, which was still wearily plodding
along the muddy road towards Lynchburg, and
now the brigade lay in line of battle until midnight,
waiting for the slow-moving train to pass,
while less than a mile away the camp-fires of
Grant’s army shone brightly through the gloom
of that dismal night.
Two hours after the last wagon had passed, the
old Valley brigade marched silently along in rear
of the whole army, but it was as slow as ever, for
the rain was again falling, and the bottom of the
road sinking deeper and deeper beneath the mud,
so that, although the enemy had rested during the
hours of darkness, their advance was up with the
Confederates by 9 o’clock on the morning of the
7th, and the latter, who had toiled on through all
the weary night, were forced to renew and continue
the same old story of turning at bay on
every hill along the route.
.bn 383.png
.pn +1
About noon the rear-guard reached Farmville,
in Prince Edward county, and so stubbornly did
Rosser hang on in his bull-dog style to the favorable
positions around that place, that the pursuit
was checked, and the enemy compelled to resort
to a flank movement, which their great force
rendered easy, but which came to grief from being
performed too near the view of Gen. Rosser.
During the operations on the hills of Farmville
a Federal brigade approached White’s people,
and the commander, mistaking them for a part of
his own force, sent a courier forward to order
them not to advance too far ahead of their supports,
but Col. White, not wishing to be so supported,
made no attempt to obey the Yankee’s
order, and only pointed his pistol at the courier’s
head with a demand for his surrender, which was
of course complied with.
After destroying the bridges the brigade of
White retired, and the battalion, being the rear
guard, was very hotly pressed, many of the men
being forced to swim the river in effecting their
escape, as the enemy advanced their whole force
the moment the Confederates commenced to fall
back, and Captain Dowdell’s Company, together
with a portion of Co. A, under Lieut. Marlow,
were very near being taken.
After getting clear of Farmville the men found
some oat stacks, and of course helped themselves
to what they could carry, intending to feed their
.bn 384.png
.pn +1
horses at the first halt, and as Col. White was
riding along with Capt. Myers, who was in command
of the battalion, each of them carrying a
sheaf of oats before him, while the battalion was
scattered for a mile (there being no thought of
danger now as the enemy had halted at Farmville),
a sudden commotion was observed in the
woods through which the route of the main army
lay, and in a few moments Gen. Rosser appeared,
almost alone, with the Yankees charging after
him.
Col. White instantly ordered his people forward,
and hastily throwing away their oats, the
men went in again, driving the enemy back upon
their main body, which proved to be the flanking
force before spoken of, and numbered about four
thousand cavalry commanded by Gen. Gregg, who
had been sent over the river to fall upon the wagon
train while the affair was enacting at Farmville,
but although they reached to within fifty yards
of the train they not reach it from the
fact that the very men whom they had left confronting
Sheridan at Farmville, were here between
them and the wagons.
The few men of Rosser’s division held the whole
force of the enemy in check until Gen. Fitz. Lee’s
division came up, and the two together attacked
so vigorously that Gregg’s command was driven
back in confusion before scarcely a third of its
number, and Gen. Gregg himself was captured
.bn 385.png
.pn +1
as he was gallantly attempting to rally his fugitive
troops, he having made the same mistake as
the courier to Col. White, and tried to prevail on
a body of Confederates, who were chasing the
Yankees, to “halt and form.”
After this, the Southern troops destroyed about
one hundred of their wagons, as it was evident
they could not take them much farther, and putting
their teams to the other wagons attempted to
make up in speed for the time lost already; and
to-night the Colonel halted his brigade in line of
battle again to watch the rear, and about two
o’clock in the morning followed on after the army,
leaving the battalion to act as rear guard for him,
with instructions not to approach nearer than one
mile to the brigade unless forced back, and it was
fully understood by the “Comanches” that they
were not to consider themselves forced without a
fight.
About sunrise the enemy became very troublesome
and as not more than one mile could be
marched without a halt to wait for the wagons to
be pulled out of the mud, which in many places
was hub-deep, the position of the rear guard became
a very exciting one, especially as it was
found that the enemy’s infantry had left the road
and was outmarching them through the fields and
open pine woods to the left. During one of the
halts, about nine o’clock, as the battalion was, as
usual, drawn up in line facing the left, and Capt.
.bn 386.png
.pn +1
Myers, with a few pickets, was a half mile from
his people down a road that led towards the enemy,
a party of four Yankees were seen approaching
through the woods, and as they came very
confidently along making no sign to the two Confederates,
who were standing in full view, it was
decided best to halt them with a shot from a
Sharpe’s rifle, which resulted in the killing of the
foremost Yankee, and in falling he displayed a
white flag, which, until that moment, had not
been seen, because of the pines.
Both parties hastily retired, and it being now
discovered that the army was moving again, the
battalion also marched quietly, but in the distance
of two miles another halt was called, and
now the country being open the thousands of men
in blue could be seen, drawing close along the flank
and rear, but what puzzled the Confederates was
the total absence of cavalry, in any force, with
Grant’s army.
While standing here, a mounted Yankee was
observed galloping along the road waving a white
flag, and being met by one of the battalion, he
presented a letter addressed to General Lee, but
Capt. Myers refused to forward it unless the line
of infantry, now within half a mile, would halt,
which the bearer of the flag communicated to the
enemy’s officers, and a halt was immediately ordered,
the command being distinctly heard by the
Confederate rear-guard.
.bn 387.png
.pn +1
The letter was now sent forward to Gen. Lee, and
in half an hour an answer, directed to Gen. Grant,
was returned, with a request from Gen. Lee that
one or two of the best dressed officers in the battalion
be sent in company with the truce-bearer to
the enemy’s line, and this mission fell upon Capt.
French and Lieut. James, who rode back to
Grant’s headquarters and met with his Chief-of-Staff,
Gen. Williams, who treated them handsomely,
gave them a drink of whiskey, and talked,
as James said, “exactly like a gentleman.” He
asked them a number of questions, and informed
them that they (the Yankees) had taken thirty-two
thousand prisoners since the capture of Petersburg.
Capt. French asked him the meaning of
the correspondence between the Generals, to
which he replied that Gen. Custis Lee had been
taken prisoner, and his father, Gen. Lee, had
merely inquired if he was killed or wounded, and
that Gen. Grant had replied, telling him that his
son was unhurt.
Another letter was dispatched to Gen. Lee, and
the well-dressed Confederates returned to their own
lines, with no idea that they were aiding the
negotiations for the surrender of Lee’s army by
carrying the letters on the subject back and forth,
and as the wagons were again out of the mud the
rear-guard resumed its march, as also did the
Federal army. About 3 o’clock the battalion was
relieved from its perilous position in the rear by
.bn 388.png
.pn +1
a portion of Gen. W. H. F. Lee’s division, and
soon after the division of Rosser was ordered to
the front.
The scene which presented itself to the view of
the rear-guard as it passed the army on the way
was distressing in the extreme. The few men
who still carried their muskets had hardly the
appearance of soldiers as they wearily moved
along the toilsome route, their clothes all tattered
and covered with mud, their eyes sunken and
lustreless, and their faces peaked and pinched
from their ceaseless march, through storm and
sunshine, without food or sleep, through all that
dire retreat, when in fact they were worn-out,
from excessive duty in the trenches at Petersburg,
before the retreat begun.
Many of the men who had thrown away their
arms and knapsacks were lying prone on the
ground along the road-side, too much exhausted
to march further, and only waiting for the enemy
to come and pick them up as prisoners, while at
short intervals there were wagons mired down,
their teams of horses and mules lying in the mud,
from which they had struggled to extricate themselves
until complete exhaustion had forced them
to be still and wait for death to glaze their wildly
starting eyes, and still their quick gasping and
panting for the breath which could scarcely reach
some of them through the mud that almost closed
their nostrils; but through all this a part of the
.bn 389.png
.pn +1
army still trudged on, with their faith still strong,
and only waiting for General Lee to say where
they were to face about and fight, for they knew
that the enemy would be whipped, and that every
day brought nearer the last decisive battle-field,
where the hosts of the North would be overthrown
and the final success of the Confederate States
assured.
About sunset of the 8th the cavalry, now entirely
clear of the army, went into a pleasant
bivouac in a body of timber, where they were permitted
to build fires and remove the saddles from
the horses’ backs, upon which they had constantly
been since the fifth, and the tired troopers felt
good at the prospect of an all night rest, but in
less than two hours the bugles sounded “to horse,”
and the march was again taken up, and slowly
followed until about two o’clock in the morning,
when the division of Rosser, which was in front,
halted at Appomattox C. H.
After waiting awhile to see if anything further
was to be done, the men made fires of the fences,
and sat down, each man holding his bridle rein
and wondering what would come with daylight,
but about an hour before dawn a battery exactly
in front opened fire, and now the absence of cavalry
in the rear during all of the day before was
explained, as was also the reason why the Confederate
cavalry had been brought forward, for
right here, exactly before them, stood Sheridan’s
.bn 390.png
.pn +1
whole command, cutting off the retreat of the
army from Lynchburg.
Soon after the battery opened, Colonel White
moved his brigade forward a short distance and
formed on a hill near some timber that extended
to the head of a swamp, and here it remained
until after sunrise, when the Colonel rode out to
the battalion, which was on the right of the line,
and informed Captain Myers that the army was
about to surrender and Rosser was arranging to
take his cavalry out. There was no time to arrive
at a full realization of the meaning contained in
this simple announcement, for the enemy was now
pressing vigorously in front and Sheridan’s cannon
were throwing their shells among the Confederates
with great rapidity.
General Rosser moved forward about half a
mile and halted to wait for a demonstration which
General Gordon, who now commanded all that
was left of “Stonewall” Jackson’s old corps, had
arranged to make with his infantry, in order to
draw Sheridan’s force towards the left, and about
7 o’clock the signal was given in the rattling
rifles of Gordon’s men, who had followed Lee and
Jackson through victory after victory, from Manassas,
where they had made “Stonewall” immortal,
to fire their last shot and lay down their
arms in surrender at Appomattox Court-house.
Rosser now put White’s brigade in front and
moved promptly upon the enemy, who appeared
.bn 391.png
.pn +1
not to understand exactly what was expected of
them, and as White took a position on a hill in
an open field about four or five hundred yards from
a division of Federal cavalry, the latter only
looked, but made no hostile movement, and now
Rosser, finding the way open to gain the Lynchburg
road, pushed forward with the brigades of
Munford and McCausland, leaving Colonel White
to guard the rear and the old brigade to be the
sacrifice, if necessary, to secure the safety of the
balance. After looking at the little line of Confederates
for a little while a party of about four
hundred marched from the division and commenced
to form on the same hill with the little
remnant of the “Laurel Brigade,” but this was
too much for White, and he ordered Capt. Hatcher,
of the 7th regiment, to charge, and Capt. Myers,
of the battalion to support him. The enemy soon
broke and retreated upon their reserve, which in
turn gave way, and the whole force fled, panic-stricken,
before the little party of about one hundred
Rebels, who were within an hour of surrendering,
and again, but for the last time, the
avenging sabres of the Ashby boys glanced fiercely
over the Yankee cavalry. Many of the enemy
fell killed or wounded, but no prisoners were
taken, and when the chase had continued about
two miles the Colonel again called a halt, and the
boys had to dismount and skirmish with the Yankee
infantry for a short time, and when the great
.bn 392.png
.pn +1
firing of guns and sky-rending shouts of Grant’s
army away off to the front and right announced
that 9 o’clock had passed, and that General Lee,
with his troops had surrendered, Colonel White
withdrew his men and took the way to Lynchburg,
overtaking Rosser about seven miles from that
place, and on reaching the city everything was in
confusion, nobody knew what to do and all
thought it pretty certain that the Yankees would
soon be up.
About dark Gen. Rosser ordered the division to
move to the Fair Grounds, near the town, and
wait for orders, but shortly after a rumor was circulated
to the effect that the Yankees were advancing,
and that Gen. Grant had sent a summons
to the Mayor ordering that the place be surrendered
by 9 o’clock that night, which produced a
panic, and the regiments moved out across the
river, where Colonels White and Ball, the only
two field officers in the whole brigade, addressed
them, urging the men to still keep their faith
bright and trust in the God who “gives not the
battle to the strong;” and about midnight the
Laurel Brigade was disbanded, never to meet
again, the men going to their homes to wait for
orders (which were never received) to follow Gen.
Rosser and Col. White to the army of Johnson.
After this, the men who were not captured
went by twos and threes to the Federal officers
and were paroled, and by the 1st of May the
.bn 393.png
.pn +1
“Comanches” could scarcely be recognized in the
men who were in their fields holding the plow-handles,
or behind the counter, but they hoped
against hope for many months that they would be
called upon to rally again around the stars and
bars and draw their sabres for “Dixie” and
Freedom.
Hope died at last though, and the world saw a
nation of soldiers transformed, as suddenly as the
night vanishes before the rising sun, into a nation
of quiet, law-abiding citizens.
The war was over; the Confederacy was dead;
and her soldiers accepted the terms granted by
their conquerors, in good faith, and began to hope
that peace would bring them back the blessings
which the sword had driven from them, and that
the country might be united, although they were
conscientious in the conviction that the Southern
States had the right to separate from the compact
styled the Federal Constitution, and that it was
vastly to their interests to do so; and thus the
Southern Confederacy, in her brief but brilliant
career, followed the footsteps of nations gone
before, and like them, passed through all the
chances and changes of triumph and defeat that
in this weak human life follow each other so
closely from sunshine to the sunless land.
.bn 394.png
.bn 395.png
.pn +2
.sp 2
.ce
Killed and Wounded in White’s Battalion.
.hr 15%
The list of killed and wounded is incomplete, in consequence
of the loss of all the muster-rolls, which were in the wagons,
and at the surrender of the army, fell into the hands of the
enemy; and the author will esteem it a favor on the part of
any one who will furnish him with the names of any who are
omitted.
.sp 2
.ce
KILLED AND DIED OF WOUNDS.
.pm start_poem
"On fame’s eternal camping ground,
Their silent tents are spread;
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
.pm end_poem
.ce
COMPANY A.
.ix
Brook Hays, Waterford, August 27th, 1862.
Peter J. Kabrich, mortally wounded, August 27th, 1862, and\
died at Waterford, September 6th, 1862.
Lycurgus W. Bussard, killed, Glenmore, October 21st, 1862.
Samuel Jenkins, killed, Poolsville, December, 1862.
Daniel L. Prince, killed, Brandy Station, June 9th, 1863.
Henry O. Hummer, killed, Parker’s Store, Nov. 29th, 1863.
Henry R. Moore, killed, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.
Joseph Hendon, killed, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.
Samuel W. Crumbaker, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864, mortally\
wounded, and died May 16th, 1864.
Thomas E. Tippett, killed, Wilderness, May 12th, 1864.
William Edwards, killed, Trevillian, June 11th, 1864.
Samuel T. Presgraves, killed, Monk’s Neck, Sept. 16th, 1864.
William Brown, killed, Monk’s Neck, September 16th, 1864.
Orderly-Sergeant Thomas S. Grubb, mortally wounded at\
Tom’s Brook, October 9th, 1864, and died Oct. 16th, 1864.
.bn 396.png
.pn +1
Edwin Drish, killed in Leesburg, July, 1864, after he had surrendered\
to Means’ Company.
James R. Douglass, killed at Neersville, February, 1865.
Benjamin F. Leslie, killed at High Bridge, April 6th, 1865.
John W. Mobberly, murdered in Loudoun, April, 1865.
.ix-
.sp 1
.ce
COMPANY B.
.ix
Edward Welch, killed, Brandy Station, June 9th, 1863.
— McCormack, killed, Mount Clifton, October 7th, 1864.
.ix-
.sp 1
.ce
COMPANY C.
.ix
Capt. R. B. Grubb, killed, Waterford, August 7th, 1863.
Lieut. Thomas W. White, killed, Wilderness, May 8th, 1864.
John C. Grubb, killed, Waterford, August 7th, 1863.
— Wilson, killed, Maryland, September, 1863.
John J. Clendening, killed, Wilderness, May 5th, 1864.
John Douglass, killed, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.
William D. Gooding, killed, Hillsboro’, January, 1865.
.ix-
.sp 1
.ce
COMPANY E.
.ix
Isaac N. Brumback, killed, Brandy Station, June 9th, 1863.
Marcus McInturff, killed, Brandy Station, June 9th, 1863.
Philip A. Hockman, killed, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.
George Bennett, killed, Wilderness, May 20th, 1864.
— Rogers, killed, Wilderness, May, 1864.
.ix-
.sp 1
.ce
COMPANY F.
.ix
— Grogan, killed, Greenland Gap, April 25th, 1863.
— Broy, killed, Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.
— Rhodes, killed, Hawes’ Shop.
Charles Sinclair, killed, Tom’s Brook, October 9th, 1864.
Lieut. Watts, killed at Brandy Station, June 9th, 1863.
.ix-
.bn 397.png
.pn +1
.ce
WOUNDED IN THE BATTALION.
.hr 15%
.ta h:30 l:8 l:8 l:14 l:12 bl=n
COMPANY A.
Sergt. John Dove, |Waterford,| | August 27th,| 1862.
Jacob H. Robertson, |Glenmore,| | October 21st, | 1862.
John Stephenson, |Snicker’s Gap,| | November 1st,| 1862.
Fenton Foley, |Greenland Gap, | | April 25,| 1863.
Thomas Spates, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ \ \ ”
Lieut. W. F. Barrett,|Brandy Station,| | June 9th,| 1863.
Edward S. Wright, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Philip W. Carper, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
William P. Kyle, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
H. C. McFarland, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
James T. Freeman, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Charles F. Gallaway, |\ \ ”|\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Robert F. Jones, | Edward’s Ferry,|| September 2d,| 1863.
Corp. D. C. Pettingall,| Thornton’s Mill,|| October 10th,| 1863.
Charles L. Myers, |\ \ ” |\ ”|\ \ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
Sergt. Thomas S. Grubb,| Wilderness,|| May 5th,| 1864.
\ \ ”\ \ \ \ Geo. F. Everhart, |\ \ ”| |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
C. Boyd Barrett, |\ \ ”| |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
J. Frank Bicksler, |\ \ ”| |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
John Kephart, |\ \ ”| |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
W. W. McDonough, |\ \ ”| |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
Lieut. Benj. F. Conrad,|\ \ ” | |May 6th,| 1864.
Sergt. William Snoots, |\ \ ” | |\ ”\ \ ” |\ \ ”
William O. Housholder, |\ \ ” | |\ ”\ \ ”|\ \ ”
John Howard, |Enan Church, || May 28th,| 1864.
Lieut. R. C. Marlow, |Trevillian, || June 11th,| 1864.
Sergt. Edward L. Bennett,| Trevillian,|| June 11th,| 1864.
John H. Marlow, | Sapony Church,|| June 29th,| 1864.
Capt. F. M. Myers, | Mount Clifton,|| October 7th,| 1864.
James Goard, |\ \ ” | |\ ”\ \ \ ”|\ \ ”
Corp. E. H. Tavenner, | Tom’s Brook,|| October 9th,| 1864.
William Titus, |\ \ ” | |\ ”\ \ \ ”|\ \ ”
O. M. Bussard,| Fairfax,|| February, | 1865.
George Craig, |High Bridge, ||April 6th,|1865.
George Lee,| High Bridge,|| April 6th, |1865.
John W. Fletcher,| High Bridge,|| April 6th, |1865.
John W. White, |High Bridge, ||April 6th,| 1865.
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O. M. Bussard, | Fairfax, | | February, |1865.
George Craig, | High Bridge,| | April 6th, | 1865.
George Lee, | High Bridge, | | April 6th,| 1865.
John W. Fletcher,| High Bridge,| | April 6th,| 1865.
John W. White, | High Bridge,|| April 6th, |1865.
COMPANY B.
Frank Williams,| Greenland Gap,| | April 25th,| 1863.
Orderly-Sergeant Henry C. Sellman,| Brandy Station,|| June 9th,| 1863.
Capt. George W. Chiswell, |Brandy Station,| |June 9th, | 1863, badly.
Lieut. J. R. Crown,| Brandy Station,||June 9th, |1863.
William Herbert,|\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Pinkney Martin, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
— Peters, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Elias Price,|Parker’s Store,|| November 29th, |1863.
Daniel Key, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Charles Smith,| Moorfield, || January,| 1864.
Alonzo Sellman,| Wilderness,|| May 5th,| 1864.
Frank Williams, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
William Shehan, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Robert Dade, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Martin Taylor, |\ \ ”| | May 6th,|\ ”
Elijah Viers, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
— Oden, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Crone Phillips, (bugler,) |Trevillian, || June 11th,| 1864.
Lieut. E. J. Chiswell,| Tom’s Brook,|| October 9th,| 1864.
Sergt. Alonzo Sellman, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
\ \ ”\ \ Charles Green, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Henry Orme, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Byron Thomas, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Ab. Gamar,| Lovettsville,|| February 25, |1865.
Lieut. E. J. Chiswell,| Hatcher’s Run,|| April 3d,| 1865.
Sergt. Alonzo Sellman, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Lewis Needhammer,|High Bridge,|| April 6th, |1865.
Charles Scoll, |Monk’s Neck,|| September 16th,| 1864.
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COMPANY C.
James Hood, |Glenmore,|| October 21st,|1862.
John J. White, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
William Fritz, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Corp. James M. Foster,|Greenland Gap,|| February 25th, |1863.
Sydnor Fouche, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Sergt. Silas Copeland, |Brandy Station,|| June 9th, |1863.
John W. Hammerly, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Joseph S. Hart, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
John Milbourn, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
William D. Gooding,|\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
— Wilson,| Waterford,|| August 7th,| 1863.
Maitland Taylor, | Wilderness,|| May 5th, |1864.
Richard Follen, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Manly Triplett, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Color-Sergt. T. N. Torreyson, |Wilderness,|| May 6th, |1864.
William T. Clendening, |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Hugh S. Thompson, (mortally,) |\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Aaron T. Beans,| Sapony Church,|| June 29th,| 1864.
Sergt. Eben Simpson,| Tom’s Brook, ||October 9th,| 1864.
Thomas Elgin, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Elwood Beans, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
Lieut. Sam. E. Grubb,| Hillsboro’,|| January,|1865.
George Chamblin,| Neersville, ||February,| 1865.
Color-Sergt. Rodney Matthews,| High Bridge,|| April 6th, |1865.
John W. Davisson, |\ \ ”|\ ”| \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
COMPANY E.
Lieut. H. M. Strickler,| Payne’s Church,|| April 2d,| 1865.
\ \ ”\ \ A. C. Grubbs,| Parker’s Store,||November 29th, |1863.
William T. Warren, |Wilderness,|| May 6th,| 1864.
Jacob Huffman,|\ \ ”| | \ ”\ \ \ ”|\ ”
James Atwood,|Cabin Point, ||August 20th,|1864.
Charles B. Fristoe,| Brandy Station,|| June 9th, |1863.
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RECAPITULATION.
.ta c:9 c:1 r:10 r:10 r:20
| | Killed. | Wounded. | Total.
Company |A | 18 | 37 | 55
” |B | 2 | 28 | 30
” |C | 7 | 25 | 32
” |E | 5 | 6 | 11
” |F | 4 | 1 |at Brandy Stat’n. 5
” |D | — | 3 | ”\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ ”\ \ \ \ \ 3
| | —— |—— | ——
| | 36 |100| 136
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Transcriber’s Note
The conventional use of single quotes within quoted material was
not followed in this text, and is given as printed.
Hyphenation of words is not entirely consistent, and is generally
given here as printed. Where hyphenation occurs on a line break,
the decision to retain or remove is based on occurrences elsewhere
in the text.
The errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been
corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line
in the original text.
.ta l:10 l:44 l:12 w=90%
| they are very far f[t/r]om presenting | Replaced.
| to go into south Loudoun and upper Fa[n/u]quier | Replaced.
| with the other side of the river[.] | Added.
| asking each other [“]how far it was to Brown’s Gap| Added.
| as soon as ever[y]thing had crossed the bridge | Inserted.
| on being made General-in[-]Chief | Added.
| which illustra[ted] Col. White’s attention | Added.
| they acted nob[l]y while they were allowed | Inserted.
| c[o]uld travel farther | Restored.
| carrying fifteen days[’] rations | Added.
| Ross[s]er’s A. A. General | Removed.
| down went the Colonel’s head in Myer[’s/s’] breast | Transposed.
| bee[d/n] badly wounded by his own men | Replaced.
| The “Comanches[”] had been ordered | Added.
| We must whip that infantry[./,], and if | Replaced.
| they did[ did] not reach it | Removed.
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