Quis jam fluctus, quae regio in terris non nostri plena laboris.
--_Æneid._
At this time Gen. Lee was making the preliminary movement of the
Gettysburg campaign up the left bank of the Rappahannock, while Hooker
moved on a parallel line on the other. Pleasanton's cavalry corps was
massed on the river, near Rappahannock station, about fifty miles from
Washington, which was now covered by Hooker's army. In compliance with
my request, Stuart sent me a small mountain howitzer by Beattie. A
brigade of cavalry and one of infantry were lying between Manassas and
Catlett's station; and here was the only possible chance of reaching
the railroad without being discovered. On May 29, 1863, I set out with
about forty men, and my little gun, to strike it somewhere between
these points. I had no caisson; but carried fifteen rounds of
ammunition in the limber-chest. The enterprise on which I was going,
when judged by the common standards of prudence, appeared not only
hazardous but foolhardy. The camps of the enemy were distributed along
the road at intervals of one or two miles, with patrols continually
passing. Every train had on board a strong infantry guard. If I should
succeed in penetrating their lines and making a capture, it could not
be done without alarming the camps, which would make my retreat
difficult, if not impossible. But I thought the end justified the risk.
An attack, even by my small band, at such a critical time, might create
an important diversion in favor of Gen. Lee. If this could be done,
then the loss of the gun, and even of my whole command, would be as
dust in the balance against the advantage of it.
We bivouacked that night in the pines near Catlett's, and were awakened
in the morning by the reveille in the Union camps, which were a mile or
so distant on either side of us. There was a narrow pathway through the
pines, along which we marched until within a hundred yards of the
railroad. The telegraph wire was cut, and a rail sufficiently removed
to allow a train to run off the track. The howitzer was in charge of
the Rev. Sam Chapman, who had been so conspicuous in the fight at
Miskel's; it was now made ready for action. All of us were under cover,
with one man near the road to give notice of an approaching train. We
had not waited long before he gave the signal. I rode forward, and saw
it puffing along. Chapman rammed down a charge in his gun; and all
awaited the event with breathless interest. I was in fear every moment
of a patrol coming on the road who might give the alarm and stop the
train. Fortunately, none came. The engineer, not suspecting danger, was
driving at full speed, when suddenly the locomotive glided from the
track. The infantry guard fired a volley, which did no injury to us
except killing a horse. In an instant, a shell from Chapman's gun went
crashing through the cars. They all jumped off and took to their heels
through the pines. In the stampede, they did not take time to count our
number. If they had stood their ground, they could have easily driven
us away. Another shell was sent through the boiler of the engine. The
infernal noise of the escaping steam increased the panic among the
fugitives. There were several bales of hay on the train that were set
on fire. The whole was soon in flames. One car was loaded with sutlers'
goods, which the men did not permit to be entirely consumed by the
fire. There was also a number of fresh shad; and each man secured one
of these. The blockade of the Potomac had for a long time deprived us
of that luxury. The United States mail bags were tied to the carriage
of the howitzer; and we started to retrace our steps.
I have been criticised a good deal at the North for capturing trains on
railroads used for military purposes. To justify myself, it is not
necessary for me to use the _tu quoque_ argument, and retort that
my adversaries did the same whenever they could; for the plain reason
that I was simply exercising a belligerent right. There was nobody but
soldiers on this train; but, if there had been women and children, too,
it would have been all the same to me. Those who travel on a road
running through a military district must accept the risk of the
accidents of war. It does not hurt people any more to be killed in a
railroad wreck than having their heads knocked off by a cannon shot.
One of the most effective ways of impeding the march of an army is by
cutting off its supplies; and this is just as legitimate as to attack
it in line of battle. Jomini says that the irregular warfare of the
Cossacks did more to destroy the French army on the expedition to
Moscow than the élite regiments of the Russian guard. After the peace,
all Europe hailed their hetman, Platoff, as the hero of the war, and
the corporation of London gave him a sword.
But to return to my story. I had penetrated the enemy's lines, and the
difficulty was now to get out. The sound of the cannon had given the
alarm. The long roll was beaten through all the infantry camps, and the
bugles sounded--"to horse." As I had never used a piece of artillery
before, it was not known that I had it. It was thought at first that
Stuart had come in behind them, and hence they advanced on me
cautiously. When I had got about a mile from the railroad I met a
regiment of New York cavalry (the 5th), in the road directly in front
of me. It had come up from the camp below at Kettle Run to cut us off.
We halted while Chapman unlimbered, and sent a shell at them, which,
fortunately, burst at the head of the column, and killed the horse of
the commanding officer. This created a stampede, and they scattered
before another shell could get to them. The way was now open, and we
went on by the horse lying with his accoutrements in the road. I made
Foster and a few others gallop forward, to produce the impression that
we were pursuing, but soon recalled them to the gun, as I was expecting
the enemy every moment in my rear. We were now girt with foes on every
side. It would, of course, have been easy to save ourselves by
scattering through the woods, but I was fighting on a point of honor.
I wanted to save the howitzer, or, if I had to lose it, I was
determined to exact all that it was worth in blood. After we got
about a mile further on, the regiment we had broken rallied, and with
reinforcements came on again in pursuit. Another shell was thrown at
them, and they fell back. We were just on the edge of a wood, and I
ordered Chapman to go forward with his gun at a gallop, while I
remained behind with six men as a rear-guard to cover the retreat.
Clouds of cavalry which had been attracted by the firing were now seen
in different directions, and the enemy once more moved toward us. With
less than 50 men I was confronting Deforest's brigade of cavalry. At
one time we had been entirely enveloped by them, but had broken through
their line. As the enemy came near we slowly withdrew. Their advance
guard of 12 or 15 men suddenly dashed upon us as we were retiring
through the woods. We wheeled and had a fierce hand-to-hand fight, in
which they were routed and driven back. Several of their dead and
wounded were left on the ground. I have before spoken of Capt. Hoskins,
an English officer, who had recently joined me. He was riding by my
side when the fight began. The tradition of chivalry inherited from the
ancient knights of using the sword in single combat still asserted its
dominion over him, but my other men had no more use for that antiquated
weapon than a coat of mail. They had discarded it as a useless
incumbrance. Hoskins was in the act of giving a thrust when he was
shot. In an instant after, his adversary fell before a deadly revolver.
Hoskins's wound was mortal. When the fight was over, he was taken to
the house of an Englishman near by, and lived a day or two. Thus died
as gallant a gentleman as ever pricked his steed over Palestine's
plains. He had passed without a scar through the fire of the Redan and
the Malakoff to fall in a petty skirmish in the American forests. I
could not stay by him, and I had no means of carrying him off. The
overwhelming numbers pressing upon us forced a retreat, and we had to
leave him by the roadside with his life-blood ebbing fast away. The
horse that I had presented to him disdained capture and followed us. I
gave it to Beattie. He was buried in his martial cloak at Greenwich
church, and now, like Lara,
Sleeps not where his fathers sleep.
Seeing that no hope was left us but to save our honor and stand by the
gun, I sent Foster with an order to Chapman to halt and unlimber in
a narrow lane on a hill. The high fences on both sides were some
protection against a flank attack of cavalry. I knew we could hold the
position as long as the ammunition lasted for the gun. Some of the men
who had joined me, thinking that they were going on a picnic, had
already left to fry their shad and eat the confectioneries they had
got on the train. When I rode up to Chapman, he had his gun already
shotted. Mountjoy and Beattie were standing by it. Their faces beamed
with what the Romans called the _gaudia certaminis_, and they had
never looked so happy in their lives. As for myself, realizing the
desperate straits we were in, I wished I was somewhere else.
Sam Chapman and his brother William, who afterward became the
lieutenant-colonel of my battalion, had commanded the battery which,
under Longstreet's orders, had shattered Fitz John Porter's corps in
its assault on Jackson's line at Groveton heights. When the Federal
cavalry came in sight a couple of hundred yards off, he sent them a
shell that exploded in their ranks, and they fell back in confusion to
the woods. They re-formed and came again. If they had deployed as
foragers, we would have been driven away without inflicting much loss
on them. But they committed the error of charging up the road in a
solid column of fours, where every discharge from the gun raked them
with grape and canister. They made several successive onsets of this
kind, which Chapman repulsed. In turn, we would charge and drive them a
considerable distance, and then return to the gun. This was repeated
several times over ground strewn with their killed and wounded men and
horses. The damage done here to my side was that Bill Elzey had several
teeth knocked out by a bullet. They used their sabres, and we the
revolver. At last the supreme moment came. Chapman had rammed home his
last round of ammunition, and a heavy column was again advancing. I sat
on my horse just behind the gun: when they got within 50 yards, it
again belched with fire and knocked down a number of men and horses in
their front. They halted, and, at the same time, I ordered a charge,
and drove them down to the foot of the hill. I was riding a spirited
sorrel horse, who carried me with so much force that I could not hold
him up until I had gone some distance through their ranks. Charlie
McDonough followed me. As I passed by a big cavalryman he struck me a
blow with his sabre on the shoulder that nearly knocked me from my
seat. At the same instant my pistol flashed, and he reeled from his
saddle. McDonough and I were now hemmed in by high fences on both
sides; the Federal soldiers we had passed in the road, seeing that
nearly all my men had left the gun, which had ceased firing, made a
dash at it. Beattie managed to mount and get away. George Tuberville,
who acted as driver, went off at full speed, and saved his two horses
and limber-chest. Mountjoy, who was one of the bravest of the brave,
was captured at the gun, after he had fired his last cartridge.
The Rev. Sam Chapman had passed through so many fights unscathed that
the men had a superstition that he was as invulnerable as the son of
Thetis. His hour had come at last, and a bullet pierced the celestial
armor of the soldier-priest; but he fought with the rammer of his gun
as he fell. He lived to pay the debt he contracted that day. "For time,
at last, sets all things even." The victors now held the howitzer, and
barred the only way for my escape; but I held in my hand a more potent
talisman than Douglas threw into the Saracen ranks. My faith in the
power of a six-shooter was as strong as the Crusader's was in the heart
of the Bruce. I darted by the men who were now in possession of the
gun, and received no hurt, except getting my face badly scratched by
the limb of a tree as I passed. I had left Hoskins, Chapman, and
Mountjoy in the hands of the enemy. Their shouts of triumph now rang
through the woods; but no further pursuit was made. With a single
companion, I stopped at a farmhouse, washed the blood from my face,
and started back to get ready for another raid.
In a week I had rallied, and was down in Fairfax stirring up the
outposts. Stuart sent me a message, that I might sell another gun for
the same price. I had effected more than I had hoped. When the news of
my rout reached headquarters at Fairfax Court House, a flaming despatch
(which is printed in Moore's "Rebellion Record") was sent North,
announcing that "within two or three days Mosby had lost 150 men, and
Gen. Stahel will not let him rest until his band is exterminated." As I
had all the time acted on the offensive, it was easy enough for me to
get rest by keeping quiet. As I had never had one-half that number of
men, of course I could not have lost them. As long as I could keep a
thousand men watching on the defensive for every one that I had with
me, it was a small matter who got the best in a fight.
The Count of Paris, who was a staff officer in the Union army, in his
history of the war, mentions the two affairs on the railroad, and says:
"In Washington itself, Gen. Heintzelman was in command, who, beside the
depots, the regiments under instruction, and the artillery in the
forts, had under his control several thousand infantry ready to take
the field, and Stahel's division of cavalry, numbering 6000 horses,
whose only task was to pursue Mosby and the few hundred partisans led
by this daring chief." If Pleasanton had had those 6000 sabres with him
a few days after this, on June 9, 1863, in his great cavalry combat
with Stuart at Brandy Station, the result might have been different.
Hooker had asked for them, but had been refused, on the ground that
they could not be spared from the defence of Washington.[3]
[3] [_Telegram._]
HEADQUARTERS, May 30, 1863.
STAHEL TO HEINTZELMAN:--
We had a hard fight with Mosby this morning, who had
artillery,--the same which was used to destroy the train of
cars. We whipped him like the devil, and took his artillery.
My forces are still pursuing him. A more full report will
follow, hoping the General will be satisfied with this
result.
JUL. STAHEL, _Major-General_.
Major-General Stahel reports of the above affair, that "The
train for Bealeton had just passed up, and believing it to
have been attacked, he [Col. Mann] immediately went with a
detachment of the 5th N.Y. Cavalry, under command of Capt. A.
H. Hasbrouck, a detachment of the 1st Vermont, under command
of Lieut.-Col. Preston, and a small detachment of the 7th
Michigan. The detachment of the 5th New York was sent
directly across the country, in order to intercept the
Rebels, while the balance of the command went directly to the
scene of action. The advance of the 5th New York, led by
Lieut. Elmer Barker, came up with the enemy first, and found
them with the howitzer posted on a hill, with the cavalry
drawn up in line in the rear to support it. Lieut. Barker,
with his small detachment of about 25 men, dashed up the
hill, and when within about 50 yards of the gun, received a
charge of grape and canister, which killed three (3) and
wounded seven (7) of our men, and several horses. The enemy
then charged upon us, but were met with a stubborn resistance
by the Lieutenant and his men, although the Lieutenant had
received two grape-shots in his thigh. We were, however,
overpowered and driven back a short distance. Just then Col.
Preston of the 1st Vermont (Lieut. Hazleton, with companies H
and C, being in advance) came up at a full charge upon their
flank, and were received with a discharge from the howitzer
of grape and canister. Our men pressed on, however, until
they came to a hand-to-hand conflict, when the enemy
gradually fell back. We took their howitzer, and they fled in
every direction.... Our loss was four (4) killed, fifteen
(15) wounded, the names of which please find enclosed. We
also lost eleven (11) horses killed and several wounded."