On the morning of Sunday, the 23d, the Regiment was ordered into camp
on the left of the Kernstown Road, and it was while Colonel Murray was
engaged in laying out the ground, word came that a battle was at hand,
and immediately the order was given to "Fall in."
The artillery fire opened about eleven o'clock.
The Regiment was ordered to take position on the extreme right of the
Division line, and about 2 P.M. was ordered to the centre in support of
Clark's Regular and Robinson's Ohio Batteries.
The attack on the left of the Division at this time was successfully
met by Sullivan's Brigade.
After this repulse, Jackson's attention was directed to our right.
Passing his troops along our front, under cover of the woods, he took
a position commanding the right of the Division and with a view to
turning that flank and getting to our rear. To aid in this movement,
with his men well protected, he started a furious fire from his guns at
a distance of half a mile.
About four o'clock the order came from Kimball to Murray to charge
straight up to the battery and take it if possible.
The place of the battery was the very key to the enemy's position.
That hour, near the close of that March day, the 23d, made for the
84th Pa. a reputation which was never for a moment blurred in any of
its after course. The Regiment equalled itself on other fields, at
other times, but it never could have had the opportunity to surpass the
gallantry, the true bravery, the manly courage, the noble heroism, the
devotion to country, displayed at Winchester, its first battle.
As it did then, so it did always. Wherever ordered to go it went.
Through forest, across open field, was no matter in the execution of
the order to go. Its Soldiers never stopped to estimate the probable
result. Casualties were noted only after the battle, when they went
upon the roll as unalterable fact.
On this day, over the intervening space, went the Regiment, and Murray
with it.
No doubt, then, of the moral worth of their commander. No waver of
thought then as to the true courage of their leader. But for one moment
following upon the contest, in which for officers and men to have
spoken to him the word which would have been their every assurance,
that in the sure test of a soldier he had proved himself all that could
have been asked for, and more. But time, _this side_, with him, had
stopped, ere the Regiment crossed the line of its victory. Where the
Regiment was to strike his line, the enemy was in strong position on
the edge of a wood, behind natural breast-works of rocks and hillocks,
and with two hundred yards of open space to his front.
The moment the order to charge was received, the Regiment started off
by the flank, the Pioneer corps in the advance to take down fences.
Down the hill, over the meadow ground and through the woods to the
opening, all the time exposed to the rebel artillery fire.
Unsupported on either flank, the Regiment pressed forward in line, up
the slope, two-thirds of the distance across the open space, and halted
just before reaching the top.
Colonel Murray knew that the Regiment could not stay where it was.
To his Adjutant he said: "We cannot hold this place; we must either
advance or retreat, and we will not retreat."
Both his Field Officers were absent. His horse had been killed, as had
also that of his Adjutant, and he was now dismounted.
Waiting only long enough for his Adjutant to make known his purpose to
the Company Commanders, Murray gave the order to "Charge!" Promptly the
order was obeyed, and he and his Regiment were well on the way, when he
fell, without a word, instantly killed, his forehead pierced by a ball,
seemingly guided in its course by the flash of the figures 8 and 4 upon
his cap, through which the bullet crashed on its way to claim the life
which thus far had led the Regiment that was to turn the tide.
Inspired as they were by so noble an example, even so great a loss, at
so critical a moment, did not stop the Regiment in its course.
Without a Field Officer, on they went, until within twenty paces,
or less, of that well-protected line, and there stood, firing and
receiving the greater fire, never thinking to go back, not knowing but
that they were there to stay, either as soldiers fighting in the ranks,
or lying, helpless, cheering their comrades on--or dead.
The 14th Indiana coming up, aided in forcing the enemy's line, and
Tyler's Brigade having forced the line behind the stone fence in their
front, the battle was over. The enemy was pursued a mile or more, and
under cover of night Jackson started his whole army, which before
morning was in full retreat up the Valley, leaving the victory of
Winchester to Shields' Division.
* * * * *
The 84th numbered 255 in the battle. At its close it numbered 92 less.
Three officers and eighteen men killed. Two officers and sixty-nine men
wounded.
Captain Gallagher, "E" Co., and Lieutenant Reem, "A" Co., were among
the killed.
* * * * *
The poetical side of the Regiment is shown in the following verses: