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 85and 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 86twenty 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 87past 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, 88but 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 89of 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 90Jackson 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 91shells 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.
92A 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 93by 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 94company 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 s............