For several days after the close of the seven days’ campaign the
army lay quiet, and White’s people had a delightful camp at Meadow
Bridge, about 7 miles from Richmond, on the Rail Road, from which
they could send to the city daily for such luxuries as the markets
afforded; and during this time there was not much to do in the way
of carrying dispatches, so that there was little to do except rest.
Here the company held an election for Orderly Sergeant, which
resulted in the choice of C. M. C. Whaley, for that important
position, and the list of non-commissioned officers was now full,
viz: Edward S. Wright, 2d Sergt.; Benjamin F. Conrad, 3d Sergt.;
John Dove, 4th Sergt.; and J. Mortimore Kilgour, 5th Sergeant and
Quartermaster; John T. Tribbey, 1st Corporal; Daniel C. Pettingall,
2d Corporal; William Snoots, 3d Corporal; and Peter J. Kabrich, 4th
Corporal.
About the 10th of July, Gen. Ewell marched his division to his old
camp near Liberty Mills, on the Rapidan, where for some weeks he
remained watching “Mr. Head-quarters-in-the-saddle,” who was
prospecting towards Gordonsville, in the new “On to Richmond”
movement of his own and father Abraham’s invention, and ravaging all
the country inside of his lines in the barbarous manner which had
been predicted of him from the beginning of his reign, which was as
literally a “reign of terror,” to the defenseless people under his
dominion, as ever was the bloody revolution to the citizens of Paris
during the days when flame and murder held high carnival at command
of the devils incarnate who ruled in France.
White’s company had now increased to nearly one hundred men, and the
Captain spent much time in scouting in Madison County, which was
just on the border of the “grand army,” and very much infested with
its cavalry raiding parties.
On one occasion, with about thirty men, he drove a strong force of
infantry and cavalry from Madison C. H., making the citizens imagine
that they were once more free from the terrible dominion of Pope.
And again, from the mountain top near Wolfton, he discovered a
company of cavalry engaged in plundering a farm-house, and as
rapidly as possible came down on them; but owing to the fact that
some of his men had been seen by the enemy as they descended the
mountain, he was only able to catch about half a dozen, chasing,
however, the remainder _out_ of their hats, and _into_ their camp.
About the last of July, Capt. White left camp at dark, and marching
all night, with twenty men, reached a farm-house five miles from
Stanardsville about daylight, and halting his command, he sent
Lieut. Myers, with the citizen pilot who had volunteered to guide
him, to look up the Yankees. On reaching the Conway river, about
sunrise, they discovered seven Yankees on foot, going from a camp
over the river to a citizen’s house for breakfast, and sending the
guide with all haste to inform the Captain, the Lieutenant took a
position at the gate, about one hundred yards from the house, to
watch the “boys in blue” until the command could come up and get
them.
After about an hour’s watching and waiting, which, to the lonely
picket appeared like four hours, the Captain came up with a part of
his squad, and before the Yankees knew it, the rebels were in the
yard; when, hastily leaving the table, they each “took a tree,” and
with their carbines attempted to fight it out; but it was too late,
and with what grace they could command, the foragers had to “on to
Richmond.”
The next expedition White made was for the purpose of bushwhacking a
patrol of cavalry, which daily passed over the road from Robertson
river to Madison C. H., and reaching the road in the evening, he
dismounted his men and placed them in the woods alongside of it,
sending Lieut. Myers, with Ferro and Spicer, up the road as a decoy,
expecting the Yankees to chase these men past the ambuscade, when
the others would open on them with their double-barrels and
buckshot; but the
"Best laid schemes o’ mice and men,
Gang aft agley,"
and the patrol failed to pass that evening.
In the morning the Captain moved his people by the Poorhouse to
another point on the road; but, after waiting about two hours, found
the enemy advancing in strong force of infantry and cavalry to
occupy the Court House, and on exchanging a few shots found a full
brigade developed against him, when he retired.
On the way to camp in the afternoon the Confederate pickets at
Jack’s Shop, without any warning at all, fired upon the little
company, fortunately without doing any damage, when the Captain
galloped forward alone and succeeded in rallying the retreating
pickets and convincing them that they were running from their own
men.
When White’s men came up they found their Captain talking very
sharply to the pickets about firing on him before they halted him,
and high words were passing, when one of the firing party said "if
you wasn’t a Captain you shouldn’t talk that way;" but the Captain
exclaimed "no I ain’t; I’m no Captain; I’m Lige White, and can whip
you any way! Come on! I dare you!" But nobody took up the gauntlet;
and with a pleasant little malediction on cowards everywhere, but
especially on picket, the ranger chief marched on to camp.
About the 6th of August Gen. Jackson commenced to show some
uneasiness, and ordered Gen. Ewell down the road towards Louisa, but
came back the next evening, and instead of halting at the old camp,
kept right on towards Culpeper, and commenced picketing beyond
Robertson river. The boys begun to have ideas that the man with the
movable headquarters had better commence moving; but when they found
that Jackson’s Quartermaster-General (Banks) was in front, they said
they "just knew ’Old Stonewall’ was getting scarce of supplies and
only came up after some."
On the morning of the 9th, as White’s boys were lazily lying around
the shady yard of the house where General Ewell’s headquarters were,
talking about the prospects, in imagination, of ever seeing Loudoun
again, and listening to the General’s baby-talk to some little
children he had coaxed to come to him on the porch, Gen. Jackson
rode up, and very soon the two were studying intently some maps and
papers which they spread out on the floor.
Gen. Ewell’s ideas appeared to be in accord with "Stonewall’s," and
they soon laid themselves out for a rest; but after dinner everybody
got busy all at once, and it wasn’t very long until we found
ourselves face to face with a Yankee line of cavalry deployed as
vedettes, and apparently bent on investigating the rebel operations
and ascertaining why they came so near to Gen. Banks’ wagon trains
at Culpeper C. H. Their cavalry was commanded by Gen. Prince, who
had been a classmate of Stuart at West Point, and was a fine
officer, and a gentleman. His troops were splendidly drilled, and
the first that White’s men had seen who performed their evolutions
on the field at the sound of the bugle. About 3 o’clock Capt. White
and Lieut. Myers rode out on the lines, to gratify their curiosity,
to see what was going on, and before they were aware of it almost,
were witnessing the movements of a regiment of cavalry, that
deployed most beautifully as the bugle notes floated musically on
the air, and in a short time had advanced to a fence not a hundred
yards from the curiosity hunters, who quietly rode off as a shell
from one of Jackson’s guns exploded in a group of Yankee cavalry.
While riding up the line a Yankee approached them from the woods,
but scampered away again as Capt. White called to him “come here to
me, you rascal.” About an hour after this Gen. Ewell called for his
cavalry to go with him, and riding at a gallop, soon reached the
foot of Slaughter Mountain, where White’s boys, by order of the
General, dismounted, and dragged Lattimer’s Battery of artillery to
the top of the mountain, where the “Napoleon of the Valley,” as
General Jackson called Capt. Lattimer, commenced firing as soon as
his first piece was in position, and until his own men came up with
the remainder of the battery, White’s men acted as gunners for him.
By this time the blue and the gray were getting into a very warm
fight down on the plain at the foot of the mountain, and Lattimer’s
first shot was a fine one, exploding exactly _at_ a Yankee battery,
but the blue jackets instantly replied with one gun, which sent a
shell within two feet of the muzzle of Capt. L.’s piece, striking
the trail of the gun-carriage.
The shells and solid shot now hailed thick around the Confederate
position on the mountain, and the Louisiana brigade, which had taken
post there, enjoyed it hugely, some of the men being on the open
ground in front, instead of in rear of the battery, where they
belonged, would run to the places where the Yankee shot tore up the
earth and coolly sit down, saying they were safe now, “as lightning
never struck twice in the same place,” but some of them lost their
heads by the operation in spite of the proverb.
The battle raged with great violence until dark, and even when her
sable wing had spread over the wild scene of blood and death, the
artillery continued to fire, and if there is anything in war that
can be called splendidly beautiful, it is a night cannonade, when
high overhead, in the very middle, apparently, of the black field,
the hissing shells fly in curving lines of beauty, leaving behind
them a track of sparkling flame, until the explosion blazes a lurid
glare all around the sky, which can he likened to nothing better
than to the fitful flashings of Aurora in her most gorgeous
masquerades.
When the firing ceased White’s men had left the mountain and
advanced to a house near where the Yankee battery which had been the
recipient of Lattimer’s first compliment had stood, the enemy having
been driven back a considerable distance, and here they laid down
and slept soundly till daylight, when their first notion was to look
around for Yankees and plunder, in which interesting occupation they
passed the time until noon, having secured a number of prisoners and
quite a large quantity of arms and other trophies of the
battle-field.
About 1 o’clock the company retired to a large spring, near the
house before spoken of, and unbitting their horses, turned them out
to graze, while the men lay in the shade of the trees around the
spring reading the Yankee papers they had gathered up. The Captain
was very busily engaged in conversation with Mr. Henry Ball, who had
just come from Loudoun, and brought to the Captain the delightful
intelligence that his wife was near the old camp at Somerset, having
accompanied Mr. Ball through the Yankee lines without difficulty.
A small detail of the company was assisting Major Christie, ordnance
officer of the division, to remove a quantity of ammunition from a
broken-down wagon, about a quarter of a mile above, when the officer
in command of the infantry skirmish line passed along and informed
the Captain that the pickets were all withdrawn from his front and
he must look out for Yankees. “All right,” responded White, and
straightway forgot all about it in the interest of his talk with Mr.
Ball.
Soon after this a commotion was heard in the direction of the
ordnance detail, and before the men had time to get up, a squadron
of Yankee cavalry charged down upon them, firing, yelling, and
making everything look very blue. There was of course great
consternation among White’s people, but all scrambled to their
horses—the Captain mounting his own before putting the bit in its
mouth—and as soon as they found themselves in their “headquarters,”
the confusion manifestly subsided, so that when Capt. White called
on them to follow him in a charge upon the enemy, they responded
gallantly, and chased the Yankee squadron in most splendid style
over the same track they had come, at the same time rescuing Major
Christie and his detail from the hands of the Yankees. Two of the
men who were with the Major had already effected their escape, viz:
Jas. H. Mock, by splendid riding, and Thomas Spates by literally
outrunning his horse, a thing until then entirely unheard of. The
old Major was doing his best to get away on foot, but the enemy had
him surrounded and were striking him over the head and back with
their sabres, but they instantly left him when the pistols of
White’s boys begun cracking among them, and the old man mounted
behind Lieut. Marlow, who carried him out of danger; and always
thereafter there was no difficulty in Capt. White’s men getting all
the ammunition they wanted from the ordnance department of Ewell’s
Division.
The horses of Lieut. Myers and Sergt. Conrad carried them some
distance in pursuit of the enemy after the balance of the company
had retired, and were not stopped until the two men found themselves
exposed to the fire of a line of infantry, which wounded Conrad’s
horse, when they too fell back, but not until the Sergeant had
cursed heartily the Yankees who shot his steed. From his position on
the top of Slaughter Mountain Gen. Ewell had witnessed the whole of
the gallant affair, and he complimented the Captain very highly,
calling it “a beautiful thing.”
This advance of the Yankees, and skirmish of White, brought on a
fight among the cavalry of both armies, which resulted in the
discomfiture of the enemy and capture of Gen. Prince.
The next morning Capt. White obtained permission to visit his wife,
and the command of the company devolved upon Lieut. Myers, who was
called upon to go, with a few men, to see that the Yankees did not
raid upon the wagon train, and on reaching them found everything in
great confusion owing to a report that the enemy’s cavalry was about
to attack the train; but the Lieutenant and his party soon rallied,
and formed into line, about two hundred infantry stragglers who were
about the wagons, and thus restored order among quartermasters and
teamsters.
After dark, when the company had rejoined the General, the division
withdrew from the mountain, and White’s men were left to keep up the
fires and make the Yankees believe the whole force was still there;
and once, when Sam White and John Marlow piled hay on a fire, making
a blaze that lighted up the side of the mountain, the General
threatened to “throw a pistol ball among them if they did so any
more,” but they quietly promised to return all the pistol balls he
threw them; however, they put no more hay on the fires. About
midnight the General ordered Lieut. Myers to take his company and
march rapidly to the bridge at Liberty Mills, with instructions to
hold it and prevent the Yankees from destroying it before the
infantry could get up. About daylight they reached the bridge, and
in half an hour an order came to send ten men, as couriers, to
report to the General on a road north of the Rapidan, but after
considerable difficulty in finding that number of men whose horses
could stand the trip, the detail was sent on the wrong road and
missing the General, excited his ire against Lieut M., and when he
reached camp and met the Lieutenant he abused him considerably for
not obeying his order, winding up with asking why he had not sent
the detail; and as the Lieutenant commenced to explain he
unfortunately used the expression, “I supposed, General,” when the
General broke out, “You supposed; you supposed, you say; what right
had you to suppose anything about it, sir; do as _I tell you_, sir;
do as _I tell you_.” That was the end of it, and during all the
whole tirade of words the subordinate had only had an opportunity to
use three. The whole force was again in the camp at Somerset, and
now the Captain and his people began to talk about a raid to Loudoun
for the purpose of chastising a band of renegades and Yankees which,
under Sam. Means, was reported to be harassing the people of that
county very severely; but, like foreign recognition and rumors of
peace, it appeared to be more talk than anything else, and the men,
as a general thing, hardly thought it possible to reach the
“promised land,” although it was the heartfelt aspiration of each to
once more behold it and enjoy the pleasure of sweet companionship
with homes and loved ones again. On the 16th, one week after the
battle of Cedar Run, General Jackson marched across the Rapidan
towards Culpeper C. H., and now hope burned brightly in Southern
hearts, for all the men believed that Gen. Lee could march into the
North Country and conquer a willing peace treaty from the Government
at Washington.
Pope made a stand on the Rappahannock, and while waiting for the
Southern army to drive him back again Capt. White perfected his
plans for the Loudoun expedition, and at Warrenton White Sulphur
Springs got Gen. Ewell’s sanction to it. When, on the 25th of
August, “Stonewall” left the main army and started on his flank
movement to Manassas, White marched with him, crossing the river
opposite Orleans, after which he made as fast time as possible in
order to gain the front of Jackson’s corps, which he succeeded in
doing at Salem. Just as his company passed the last regiment the
men, who had halted to rest, called out, "you wouldn’t have caught
up with us if the Colonel’s horse hadn’t given out." At sunset the
raiding party, having cleared all the troops, marched to the Bull
Run Mountain, which point they reached about daylight, and where
they proposed to lie over until night of the 26th. During the day
the true-hearted citizens of the neighborhood brought in plenty to
eat, and some of them spent a great part of the day in the camp,
among them Mr. Ball, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Wynkoop and others.
When the dark came down over the mountain the Captain formed his
men, consisting of about twenty of his own company, with Lieuts.
Myers and Marlow, about twenty of Capt. Randolph’s company, with
Capt. R. and Lieuts. Redmond and Mount, and half a dozen of Gen.
Jackson’s scouts under that splendid soldier Dr. Gallaher. After the
line was formed White made a short speech, telling his command that
his object in the expedition was to _whip_ Means’ men, and that no
matter how much force they had he intended to do it; that he knew
where they were, and if the expedition failed it would be the fault
of his own men; closing by saying with King Henry, if any man among
them had no stomach for the fight upon such terms he was now at
liberty to return. The little force, augmented by the addition of
Messrs. Henry Ball and J. Simpson, now took up the line of march for
Waterford, passing along the mountain all the way, and arriving at
Franklin’s Mill an hour before daylight, when a halt was ordered and
scouts sent out to ascertain if any changes had been made in the
disposition of Means’ command.
While lying here a party of eight was heard passing the road from
Leesburg, who, from their conversation, were rightly judged to have
been scouting all night to learn if there was any movements of the
Southern army to the northward, and their words proved that they
were perfectly satisfied and felt entirely secure, for among other
things their leader was heard to declare, as they watered their
horses within ten feet of one of White’s scouts, that "there wasn’t
a rebel soldier north of the Rappahannock."
As soon as this party passed beyond hearing, White moved his people
to Mr. Hollingsworth’s barn-yard, where about twenty of them were
dismounted, under command of Capt. Randolph, and ordered to march to
the enemy’s quarters, which were in the Baptist meeting-house, about
one hundred yards distant, with instructions not to fire until they
entered the house, or, in case the enemy was outside, to get into
the yard with them before firing, and then to rush upon them and go
with them into the house. The Captain held the remainder of his men
mounted, and rode to the brow of the hill in the road by
Hollingsworth’s gate to wait for the movement of Randolph to drive
the Yankee boys from their quarters, when the cavalry would dash
down and capture them.
Dawn was just beginning to turn the black of night to the gray of
early morn when the movement commenced, and on Capt. Randolph’s
party getting near enough to see, they discovered Means’ whole force
standing in the yard listening to the report of their scouting
party, which had just come in, and though they looked wonderingly at
the infantry advance of White’s army, not one of them said a word;
but in spite of his orders, which could have been executed with
perfect safety, Randolph ordered his men to fire as soon as they
reached the corner of the palings around the yard, which caused the
Yankees to break and rush into the house in great confusion, having
their commander, Lieut. Slater, badly wounded; and now, instead of
following them, as his orders required, Randolph retired to Virts’
house, just opposite; but the gallant Gallaher, with Jack Dove and a
few others, tried to execute the order, and while Gallaher,
springing into one window, fired his revolver bullets among the
demoralized “boys in blue,” the others poured their buckshot in at
the other windows.
As soon as the firing commenced White brought his cavalry down the
road at a gallop, and halting long enough to fire a round or two at
the side windows of the meeting-house, discovered quite a number of
Means’ men leaping from the windows and making the fastest kind of
time across the lots below the house, so calling on his boys to
follow the Captain made a dash down into town, but only succeeded in
capturing two of the fugitives. From here some of the men galloped
down to Means’ house in the hope of getting that gentleman, but he
was by that time “over the hills and far away,” according to his
custom when rebel bullets were on the wing.
Returning to the meeting-house, in broad daylight, White found his
infantry laying close siege to it, and standing in the vestibule was
the daring Webster, who had assumed command of the Yankees, and who,
seeing White’s mounted men riding up, supposed them to be a
reinforcement for himself, and began firing upon Randolph’s men at
Virt’s house, calling, as he did so, for his own men to come out and
fight. A few pistol balls near him showed him his mistake, when he
deliberately turned on the cavalry and emptied his revolver at them,
after which he stepped back into the house and commenced to
barricade the doors. White’s whole force now dismounted and opened a
brisk fire at the windows, which was returned by Webster, Cox, and a
few others, whom Webster succeeded in bringing from under the
benches long enough to take a shot; but pretty soon it was
discovered that ammunition was running short in White’s ranks, and
knowing the impossibility of taking the place by assault now, the
Captain prepared to withdraw his people, but on reaching the horses
of the dismounted men he resolved upon shooting the horses of the
Yankees, which had been tied in the yard during the fight, and
presented to the gaze of the now baffled Confederates a prize well
worth fighting for, composed as they were of the very best horses of
Loudoun, a land always noted for fine ones, and equipped in the most
superb style of the U. S. A. Previous to this, however, an attempt
had been made to negotiate a surrender by sending Mrs. Virts, under
a truce, to make the proposition, but on her second mission the
enemy informed her that if she came again they would shoot her; and
now nothing remained but to get away in safety, which could only be
done by depriving the Yankees of the means of following; and
collecting the remaining cartridges a detail was sent to kill the
horses; but while this party was getting in position around Virts’
house it appears that the enemy were so badly frightened they were
trying to force their commander to make terms, and a few shots from
Ben. Conrad and Ross Douglass at some Yankees they saw by a window,
precipitated matters and brought Webster out with a flag of truce.
He demanded the usual terms in such cases, viz: his men to be
released on parole, their private property respected, and officers
to retain their side arms; which White immediately granted, and the
affair was concluded as soon as possible, the victors getting
fifty-six horses, saddles and bridles, about one hundred fine
revolvers and as many carbines, with a vast quantity of plunder
which they were unable to carry off; and paroling twenty-eight
prisoners, which, with the two previously captured, made thirty in
all.
White lost Brook Hays, killed, and Corporal Peter J. Kabrich,
mortally wounded; both gallant soldiers as ever drew a sabre. A few
others were slightly injured. The enemy lost about seven or eight in
killed and wounded.
The scene at the surrender, when Means’ men, after being formed in
line, laid down their arms, was a curious one. Many of them were old
friends, and had been schoolboys with some of White’s men; and in
one instance, brothers met: one, Wm. Snoots, being a Sergeant in
White’s company, and the other, Charles, a member of Means’ command.
Rebel and Yankee had swallowed up the feeling of brotherhood, or
rather, that feeling had intensified the bitterness and hatred with
which enemies in the hour of conflict regard each other; and the
rebel would have certainly shot his Yankee brother, even after the
surrender, but for the interference of one of the officers. As soon
as possible, after getting everything in movable shape, and
arranging for the care of Kabrich, who was too badly hurt to be
moved, and for the burial of Hays, the raiders turned their faces
towards the South again, expecting to rejoin Gen. Jackson that
night. At the point where the line of march diverged from the
Leesburg road, Capt. White left Lieut. Myers in charge of the
column, and taking with him a small detail, galloped into Leesburg,
where he created quite a commotion, causing a few Yankee soldiers
there to depart in the shortest time imaginable, and making the
Southern people of that extremely Southern town almost wild with
joy.
They had been under the galling rule of Yankeedom, as administered
by such as Geary, until simple endurance had almost culminated in
despair, and the advent of White, so unexpectedly, among them, was
hailed as an omen that their day was beginning to dawn; and
consequently, in their freshly blooming hope, they petted and
lionized to their heart’s content the little band of boys in gray
who came to assure them that soon they would be free from the rule
of their hated tyrants.
The two parties united about sunset, at Aldie, where all partook of
an excellent supper at Mr. Henry Ball’s, and where the Captain again
met his wife, but not for long could he remain in this earthly Eden,
for while here the Rev. John Pickett notified the command that he
had found a brigade of Yankee cavalry at the Plains, on the Manassas
Gap Rail Road, and immediately the overloaded little band prepared
for a night march to Manassas, making the third night of sleepless
travel.
But all kept up, and about 9 o’clock on the morning of the 28th
August, Capt. White reported to Gen. Ewell, and when evening came
the boys carried their General from the battle-field to the house of
Mr. Buckner, he having been badly wounded in the leg. And it now
appeared that what they had considered as irksome duty, that of
acting as couriers for Gen. Ewell and his brigadiers, was to the
company the easiest and most pleasant they had ever or would ever
perform; and they felt bitterly the loss of the best friend, of
influence, they had in the army, in the person of Gen. Ewell. After
this the company took but little part in the battle, but lay quietly
in the yard around the house where their General was, until the
close of the battle, when the country was cleared of the enemy to
such an extent that people from the border could get out to the
army, and here many young men came and enrolled themselves in
White’s company.
Citizens, also, who had heard of the capture of Means’ horses at
Waterford, came to look at the stock, and as that command had been
mounted on horses taken from the people of Loudoun, and Capt. White
invariably returned their property, it was not long until all the
captured horses, so far as White’s men were concerned, were among
the things that had been.
Pope’s army, too, as an army, was in the same situation, and the
quarters for “Stonewall Jackson and 16,000 prisoners,” which the
mighty bummer had ordered to be prepared at Washington, were not
occupied—for John had to “skedaddle,” and just in his rear “old
Stonewall” with that identical little party of 16,000 “foot cavalry”
pushed bravely on, and with him went White and all his mounted men
fit for duty, while Myers was sent to Loudoun in charge of
dismounted men, and such as had broken down horses, for the double
purpose of recruiting in both men and horses.