FROM RICHMOND TO GORDONSVILLE--BATTLE OF CEDAR RUN--DEATH OF GENERAL
WINDER--DESERTERS SHOT--CROSS THE RAPPAHANNOCK
At the conclusion of this sojourn in camp, Jackson's command again took
the march and toiled along the line of the Central Railroad toward
Gordonsville. I, being sick, was given transportation by rail in a
freight-car with a mixture of troops. A week was spent in Louisa County,
in the celebrated Green Spring neighborhood, where we fared well. My old
mess, numbering seventeen when I joined it, had by this time been
greatly reduced. My brother John had gotten a discharge from the army,
his office of commissioner of chancery exempting him. Gregory, Frank
Preston and Stuart had been left in Winchester in the enemy's lines
severely wounded. Singleton had been captured at Port Republic, and
others were off on sick-leave. My bedfellow, Walter Packard, had
contracted fever in the Chickahominy swamps, from which he soon after
died. He had been left at the house of a friend in Hanover County,
attended by his brother. In his delirium he impatiently rehearsed the
names of his companions, calling the roll of the company over and over.
From Green Spring we marched to the neighborhood of Gordonsville, where
we remained in camp until about the fifth or sixth of August.
We now heard reports of the approach of the renowned General Pope with
"headquarters in the saddle," along the line of the old Orange and
Alexandria Railroad. On August 7, we moved out of camp, going in his
direction. On the third day's march, being too unwell to foot it, I was
riding in the ambulance. About noon indications in front showed that a
battle was at hand. I was excused from duty, but was asked by the
captain if I would assist in caring for the wounded. This I declined to
do. About this time the battery was ordered forward, and, seeing my gun
start off at a trot, I mounted and rode in with it. We had a long hill
to descend, from the top of which could be seen and heard the
cannonading in front. Then, entering an extensive body of woods, we
passed by the bodies of four infantrymen lying side by side, having just
been killed by a bursting shell.
We took position in the road near the corner of an open field with our
two Parrott guns and one gun of Carpenter's battery, en echelon, with
each gun's horses and limber off on its left among the trees. Both Capt.
Joe Carpenter and his brother, John, who was his first lieutenant, were
with this gun, as was their custom when any one of their guns went into
action. We soon let the enemy know where we were, and they replied
promptly, getting our range in a few rounds.
General Winder, commander of our brigade, dismounted, and, in his
shirt-sleeves, had taken his stand a few paces to the left of my gun and
with his field-glass was intently observing the progress of the battle.
We had been engaged less than fifteen minutes when Captain Carpenter was
struck in the head by a piece of shell, from which, after lingering a
few weeks, he died. Between my gun and limber, where General Winder
stood, was a constant stream of shells tearing through the trees and
bursting close by. While the enemy's guns were changing their position
he gave some directions, which we could not hear for the surrounding
noise. I, being nearest, turned and, walking toward him, asked what he
had said. As he put his hand to his mouth to repeat the remark, a shell
passed through his side and arm, tearing them fearfully. He fell
straight back at full length, and lay quivering on the ground. He had
issued strict orders that morning that no one, except those detailed for
the purpose, should leave his post to carry off the wounded, in
obedience to which I turned to the gun and went to work. He was soon
carried off, however, and died a few hours later.
The next man struck was Major Snowdon Andrews, afterward colonel of
artillery. While standing near by us a shell burst as it passed him,
tearing his clothes and wounding him severely. Though drawn to a
stooping posture, he lived many years. Next I saw a ricocheting shell
strike Captain Caskie, of Richmond, Virginia, on his seat, which knocked
him eight or ten feet and his red cap some feet farther. He did not get
straightened up until he had overtaken his cap on the opposite side of
some bushes, through which they had both been propelled. Lieutenant
Graham, of our battery, also received a painful, though not serious,
wound before the day was over. This proved to be a very dangerous place
for officers, but not a private soldier was touched.
By frequent firing during the campaign the vent of my gun had been
burned to several times its proper size, so that at each discharge an
excess of smoke gushed from it. After the captain's attention was called
to it, it happened that a tree in front, but somewhat out of line, was
cut off by a Federal shell just as our gun fired. Supposing the defect
had caused a wild shot, we were ordered to take the gun to the rear, the
other gun soon following. We got away at a fortunate time, as the Second
Brigade of Jackson's division was flanked by the enemy and driven over
the place a few minutes later. One company in the Twenty-first Virginia
Regiment lost, in a few minutes, seventeen men killed, besides those
wounded. The flankers, however, were soon attacked by fresh troops, who
drove them back and took a large number of prisoners, who walked and
looked, as they passed, as if they had done their best and had nothing
of which to be ashamed. By nightfall the whole of Pope's army had been
driven back, and we held the entire battlefield. This battle was called
Cedar Run by the Confederates, and Slaughter's Mountain by the Federals.
On the following day we retraced our steps and occupied an excellent
camping-ground near Gordonsville. Shortly after our arrival, my brother
David, who had been absent on sick-leave, returned from home, bringing a
large mess-chest of delicious edibles, which we enjoyed immensely,
having Willie Preston, from Lexington, who had just joined the College
company, to dine with us. From a nearby cornfield we managed to supply
ourselves with roasting ears, and the number a young Confederate could
consume in a day would have been ample rations for a horse.
While here we had visits from some of our former messmates. One of them,
Frank Singleton, after being captured at Port Republic had been taken to
Fort Warren, where were in confinement as prisoners members of the
Maryland legislature, Generals Pillow and Buckner, and others captured
at Fort Donelson. Singleton gave glowing accounts of the "to-do" that
was made over him, he being the only representative from the army of
Stonewall, whose fame was now filling the world. His presence even
became known outside of prison-walls, and brought substantial tokens of
esteem and sympathy.
Gregory, who we supposed had received his death-wound at Winchester in
May, after escaping into our lines spent a day or two with us. Both,
however, having gotten discharges, left us--Singleton to go to Kentucky,
his native State, to raise a company of cavalry under Morgan, and
Gregory to become captain of ordnance.
An extensive move was evidently now on foot, and about August 17th it
began, proving to be by far the most eventful of that eventful year. On
reaching the Rapidan, a few miles distant, we were ordered to leave all
baggage we could not carry on our backs, and in that August weather we
chose to make our burdens light. This was the last we saw of our
baggage, as it was plundered and stolen by camp-followers and shirkers
who stayed behind.
Having recuperated somewhat during my stay in camp I had set out, with
the battery, for the march, but a few days of hot sun soon weakened me
again, so I had to be excused from duty, and remain with the wagons.
Part of a day with them was sufficient, so I returned to the battery,
sick or well. Soon after my return, about sundown, Arthur Robinson, of
Baltimore, whom I had regarded as a sort of dude, brought me a cup of
delicious tea and several lumps of cut loaf-sugar. Cut loaf-sugar! What
associations it awakened and how kindly I felt toward the donor ever
afterward! As I dropped each lump into the tea I could sympathize with
an old lady in Rockbridge County, who eyed a lump of it lovingly and
said, "Before the war I used to buy that _by the pound_."
[Illustration: WILLIAM M. WILLSON
(Corporal)]
On the following morning, August 18, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart came dashing
into our camp bareheaded and, for him, very much excited. He had just
narrowly escaped capture by a scouting-party of Federal cavalry at a
house near Verdiersville, where he had passed the night. Leaving his
hat, he mounted and leaped the fence with his horse. His adjutant,
however, Major Fitzhugh, in possession of General Lee's instructions to
General Stuart, was captured, and thus General Pope informed of the plan
of campaign. Four days later General Stuart, with a large force of
cavalry, having passed to the rear of the Federal army, captured, at
Catlett's Station, General Pope's headquarters wagon with his official
papers and personal effects. As his plan of campaign was to be governed
by General Lee's movements, these papers were not very reliable guides.
Our stay in this bivouac was only thirty-six hours in duration, but
another scene witnessed in the afternoon leaves an indelible impression.
To escape the arduous service to which we had for some time been
subjected, a few, probably eight or ten men, of Jackson's old division
had deserted. Of these, three had been caught, one of whom was a member
of the Stonewall Brigade, and they were sentenced by court-martial to be
shot. As a warning to others, the whole division was mustered out to
witness the painfully solemn spectacle. After marching in column
through intervening woods, with bands playing the dead march, we entered
an extensive field. Here the three men, blindfolded, were directed to
kneel in front of their open graves, and a platoon of twelve or fifteen
men, half of them with their muskets loaded with ball, and half with
blank cartridges (so that no man would feel that he had fired a fatal
shot), at the word "Fire!" emptied their guns at close range. Then the
whole division marched by within a few steps to view their lifeless
bodies.
Jackson's object now was to cross the Rappahannock, trying first one
ford and then another. We spent most of the following day galloping to
and fro, firing and being fired at. At one ford my gun crossed the
river, but, as no support followed it, although the rest of our battery
and Brockenbrough's Maryland Battery were close by, we soon recrossed.
Rain during the afternoon and night made the river past fording,
catching Early's brigade, which had crossed further up-stream, on the
enemy's side. He was not pressed, however, and by the next afternoon the
whole of Jackson's command had crossed the stream by the fords nearer
its source, at Hinson's mill. Thence we traveled northwest through
Little Washington, the county-seat of Rappahannock. Then to Flint Hill,
at the base of the Blue Ridge. Then turned southeast into Fauquier
County and through Warrenton, the prettiest town I had seen since
leaving the Valley. We had made an extensive detour, and were no longer
disturbed by General Pope, who possibly thought Jackson was on his way
to Ohio or New York, and a week later no doubt regretted that one of
those distant places had not been his destination.
Before reaching Thoroughfare Gap we had the pleasure of a visit from Mr.
Robert Bolling, or rather found him waiting on the roadside to see his
son, of our mess, having driven from his home in the neighborhood. His
son had been left behind sick, but his messmates did full justice to the
bountiful supply of refreshments brought in the carriage for him. I
remember, as we stood regaling ourselves, when some hungry infantryman
would fall out of ranks, and ask to purchase a "wee bite," how
delicately we would endeavor to "shoo" him off, without appearing to the
old gentleman as the natural heirs to what he had brought for his boy.