Never were the veteran hearts of the men whom Lee and Stonewall led to victory, so thrilled with triumphant pride as on that morning in September, when the wild refrain of “Maryland, my Maryland,” echoed from a thousand throats, rolled on the morning breezes over the border, and the ragged men in gray marched through the waters of the old Potomac which some of them had made to run red with the life-blood of the invading hosts of Yankeeland, who made their boasting advance, at almost the same point the year before, and added the name of Ball’s Bluff to the list of Southern victories.
But none other than those born on the soil of Maryland could fully enter into the feelings that filled the heart of our Captain when he saw the army that had tramped over the heaps of dead men, strewn from the blue and billowy James to the dashing surges of the Potomac, actually marching through the boundary that had, up to this time, been considered the de facto line of separation between the two Confederacies, and felt that of a truth the hour had come when another star would blaze in the Southern Cross, and that star the sign that Maryland, by aid of the iron 106legions of the Southland, had broken the rod of the Blackamoor’s god, and joined, at last, her sisters in their crusade for freedom.
It will avail nothing, however, to revert here to the bitter disappointment which quenched these proud feelings in the hearts of the brave sons of the State of Maryland, who had been battling for the cause of Southern rights, when they found no responsive greeting from the now pitifully cowed spirit of poor, conquered Maryland, and felt that in spite of the hero-blood that had baptized the wreath of glory woven for her queenly brow by such hands as Carroll, Howard, May, and a thousand others, who, in the days of yore, had made her name so famous, she was now a subjugated thing, too much afraid of the power that had bound the slavish chain upon her very soul, to lift the folded hands from which the tyrant’s fetters had just been so bravely torn, even though upon her own soil the conquering battle-flag of Dixie waved high above the bloody Northern standard.
Through treachery at the council board she had been betrayed into the power of her enemies, and had not enough spirit left to do more than gaze with sad-eyed wonder upon the war-worn soldiers whose mission to their State was to give her people an opportunity to draw their swords in an equal fight for their desecrated altars.
Maryland was dumb before her shearers, and 107lamb-like she submitted, while the Southern army looked vainly for the lion to awake to glory again.
At Frederick City, Capt. White fell under the displeasure of General Stuart, and was ordered by that commander to return with his company to Loudoun County, Va., but the Captain protested, saying that he was a Marylander by birth and had fought as hard as any man for the privilege of fighting once upon the soil of his native State.
The General seemed only to want an excuse to become offended with him, and exclaimed, “Do you say you have done as much as any man, for the South?”
“No, sir,” said Capt. White, “I did not say that; but I have done my duty to the South as a soldier, so far as my ability extends, as fully as anybody.”
Again the General broke out with, “You did say you had done as much as any man.” And the Captain replied, “I did not say so.”
Thus the quarrel went on, and finally Stuart ordered White to go back to Loudoun and watch for a flanking force of the enemy expected by way of Dranesville, or Fairfax C. H., from Washington. But White refused to go, saying he would go see Gen. Lee.
“Come on,” said Stuart, “I’ll go with you.” And the two proceeded at once to Army Headquarters. 108Arrived there, Gen. S. passed in, and White saw that Gen. Jackson was also there.
Gen. Lee met White at the door and asked him his business, when the Captain replied, “I want to see you, sir.” “Very well,” said the General, "just wait a little while and I’ll see you."
Pretty soon General Jackson came out and approached White, who was walking in front of Headquarters, and actually so much excited over what he considered the injustice of Gen. Stuart, that he was crying.
“Stonewall” asked him his difficulty, and was told that Stuart wanted to send him back to Loudoun, and he didn’t want to go. The General appeared surprised, and remarked, “Why, I just heard Gen. Stuart tell Gen. Lee that you desired to be sent back, and recommended that it be done.”
At this the Captain tried to tell Gen. Jackson that it was not so, but before he could explain, his feelings so overcame him that he completely choked down and could not say anything.
Presently, Gen. Jackson said, “Capt. White, I think I can understand your feelings, for I was once situated just as you are now. During the Mexican war I was ordered to the rear just as a battle was about to take place, and I knew of no reason why I should be so unjustly treated; but I obeyed, and it so happened that by doing so I had an opportunity to acquire distinction that I never could have had in front. And Captain, my advice 109to you is to obey orders, no matter how unjust they may be. We are poor, short-sighted creatures at best, and in the very thing that seems hardest for us to bear, Providence may have hidden a rich blessing for us. Go, Captain, and obey orders.”
White says he knew Gen. Jackson was too good a man for him to talk to, and consequently he made no reply. But Gen. Stuart now came out and calling him to his side said, “Capt. White, did you say you was a Marylander?” “Yes, sir,” said White. “Ah!” said the General, "I didn’t know that. Gen. Lee wants you. Go in and see him."
As may be supposed, the Captain lost no time in appearing in the presence of the Commanding General, and his orders were to scout towards Harper’s Ferry and report to Gen. Lee. This meant that for the present he was free from the spite of Stuart, and he at once commenced his scout, learning of the condition of affairs about Harper’s Ferry, and gathering much valuable information; without, however, being required to engage the enemy.
"He had now been joined by the long-expected company of Capt. Chiswell, and on Saturday night, September 12th, the two companies crossed the river into Loudoun County, and on Sunday evening marched down to Waterford, where they bivouacked in the same meeting-house which 110Webster had tried so hard to hold against White’s men a few weeks before. Here they were joined by Lieut. Myers, whose detachment had grown into a very respectable company; and the next morning White moved with his squadron towards the river, intending to make an examination of the enemy’s force which was following Lee’s army up through Maryland.
On the top of Catocton mountain, they had a partial view of the cannonading at Harper’s Ferry, where Gen. Jackson had penned up Gen. Miles in the “nose of the tunnel,” just as Jo. Johnston had declared, in 1861, that he (Johnston) would not be caught.
About noon Capt. White reached his own farm on the river, and in the bottom, near the ford, discovered a party of Yankee infantry and cavalry, which he immediately charged, capturing all the infantry, in number thirty-five, with the Lieutenant in command, but the cavalry made their escape over the river. From here the command went to Leesburg, from which place a detail from the two companies was made to guard the prisoners, and Lieut. Myers placed in charge, with orders to deliver the Yankees to the Provost Marshal at Winchester, while the Captain moved his command back to Waterford, where he spent the next day; but on the 17th he received a notice that a force of the enemy was advancing on Leesburg from towards Washington, which 111caused him to hastily return to Leesburg. On arriving there he found the troops preparing to leave the town, but he prevailed on them to remain for a short time at least. The force there consisted of Co. A, 6th Va. Cavalry, under Capt. Gibson, and about forty Mississippi infantry commanded by Capt. Young, who was the Provost Marshal of the town. Captain White, owing to the rapidity of his march from Waterford, did not have more than thirty of his men with him. The force of the enemy was about four hundred cavalry, with four pieces of artillery, under command of Gen. Kilpatrick, who had come up to see if there was any Confederate force in Loudoun county.
Capt. Young, with his infantry, halted on the turnpike above town, and Capt. Gibson did the same, while Capt. White moved his command below Leesburg, and found the enemy still advancing, but rather slowly. Here he exchanged a few shots with them, and seeing them placing a battery in position he retired through the town and halted near Capt. Young.
Kilpatrick now, in perfect wantonness, and without any warning, opened fire from his artillery upon the town, and the women and children of Leesburg only knew that they were to be bombarded when the shrieking shells came crashing through walls and roofs in the centre of their town.
112After awhile a party of cavalry advanced, and the tiring having stopped they marched through and came out on the road near where the little force of Confederates were standing, upon which Capt. White ordered his men to charge, but just as he was riding forward the infantry fired a volley at the Yankees, one ball from which struck him just under the shoulder blade, and lodged under the skin in front of his throat. This unfortunate affair stopped the charge which, had the Captain not been wounded, would undoubtedly have routed Kilpatrick’s whole force, as citizens on the road reported him and his men to have been very much excited and in great confusion when the party which the infantry had fired on returned at a run from their advance through Leesburg. Capt. Gibson’s men and the infantry of Young now retired, and White’s men, bearing their wounded Captain, followed them slowly up the turnpike as far as Rice’s house, where they left him in charge of Boyd Barrett, and went an to Hamilton, where Lieut. Myers and his party from Winchester met them. Myers at once took command of the squadron, and as it was now dark halted for the night in the village, and when morning came marched back to Leesburg; shortly after which the Captain was moved to Colonel Vandevanter’s, where he remained for a few days; but the battle of Sharpsburg having now been fought and the Southern 113army forced back across the Potomac, and the border country, in consequence, being overrun with parties of the enemy’s cavalry, it was thought best to move him nearer the mountain, which was done, and for some time he sojourned at Mr. Humphrey’s, near Snickersville, care being taken not to let his whereabouts be known, as the Yankees desired nothing better than to get possession of Capt. White, the guerrilla, as they called him; in fact, a party of them had come very near capturing him while he was at Colonel Vandevanter’s, only missing him by having been wrongly informed as to his location, they having gone to Mr. Washington Vandevanter’s instead of the Colonel’s. After this Lieut. Myers established his camp in Snicker’s Gap, from where he scouted the border to Fairfax C. H., under the orders of Gen. Jackson, and reporting directly to that commander, whose headquarters were in Winchester.
Some time passed in this manner, the two companies operating actively in Loudoun and Fairfax, occasionally picking up a few Yankees, and to a great extent stopping their incursions in the country, except in large bodies, one of which came near gobbling up the little command. Maj. Foster, of the Quartermaster’s Department, had been instructed by Gen. Stuart to call on Lieut. Myers for assistance in bringing out a lot of cattle from the Lovettsville country, and had fixed upon 114the 16th of October to meet at Wheatland for that purpose; but Myers, knowing that Gen. Kenley, with a strong force of infantry, cavalry and artillery, was somewhere near Leesburg, thought it best to let the cattle alone for that day. He, however, sent scouts to find where the Yankees were, and with about thirty men went to Wheatland, according to instructions, where he halted, and threw out pickets.
Pretty soon the picket on the Waterford road, who happened to be a young soldier (E. H. Tavenner) on his first tour of duty, came in and reported the enemy advancing, saying they had came within fifty yards of him and refused to stop when he told them to do so; and being asked why he didn’t fire on them, he replied that he “did try, but his carbine kept snapping, and that was why they got so close to him before he left his post.” The Lieutenant concluded that as green a man as that didn’t know a Yankee when he saw him, and sending "for the other pickets to come in, trotted off to see for himself, and before getting to the post his picket had occupied, he saw, and heard too, for the advance guard of Kenly’s brigade opened fire on him from a turn of the road, and charging upon him at the same time, nearly captured him with Dick and Sam. Grubb and Ben. Conrad, who came to his assistance; but they were in luck and escaped without injury, or losing any of the command.
115That night, John DeButts, with Tom. Spates and one or two others, captured Kenly’s pickets near Hillsboro’, and the General marched to Harper’s Ferry before day.
Previous to this, a company commanded by Lieut. James Anderson, one under Capt. John H. Grabill, and one under Lieut. Wood, had reported to Lieut. Myers, and these with the two companies of White and Chiswell, and about fifty men raised by R. B. Grubb, formed a battalion which Myers did not feel disposed to command. The companies of Chiswell and Grubb, not being yet organized, and were moreover attached to the old company as a part of it, he could manage very well, but Capt. Grabill refused to command the whole force and the delicacy Myers felt in assuming the command of officers higher in rank than himself, made the matter a very awkward one in the new battalion, but all the officers insisted upon his occupying the position, and he finally did so, and commanded until the 19th of October, when Capt. James F. Trayhern, whose company, under Anderson, was already in camp, came in and assumed the command.
Capt. Trayhern immediately resolved on an extended scout to find the enemy, and for this purpose ordered all the available force of the battalion then in camp to mount and form for the expedition. The whole force thus called out was about one hundred and thirty, in two squadrons; the 116first, commanded by Lieut. Myers, was composed of portions of the old company and of Chiswell’s and Grubb’s men, the Marylanders led by Sergt. Henry Sellman, and Grubb’s boys by Sam. Grubb. The second squadron was commanded by Capt. Grabill, and composed of his own company, that of Trayhern under Lieut. Anderson, and part of the Albemarle company.
Capt. Dick Grubb acted as Adjutant; and thus organized, the battalion marched out of the mountain, assured by its commander that “he intended to go wherever he heard of Yankees across the Potomac.” On the 20th, the command halted on the river hills opposite Berlin, and looked at the long line of bluejackets on drill on the Maryland side of the line, but none had yet been discovered or heard of south of it. About sunset Capt. Trayhern retired to the old Rehoboth Church and disbanded his command, in order that the men could get something to eat in the neighborhood for themselves and horses, but gave instructions for all to report at the Church by nine o’clock, which they did, and the pickets were duly posted by Lieut. Myers, who was detailed as officer of the guard for the night; and all, except the guards, unsaddled and went into the church to sleep. About an hour before daylight, Myers started out for his last visit to the outposts that night, and on reaching the post at Bolington was surprised to find all the pickets missing; and a further examination 117convinced him that the Yankees had certainly been down and carried off the whole business—guards, reserve and all. Returning to the command, he informed Trayhern of the affair, and rode on to the other pickets, whom he found all right, not having heard or seen anything more alarming than cattle during the night. Taking his pickets with him, the Lieutenant went back to the battalion, and after a consultation, it was resolved by Trayhern to follow the enemy, who, according to the testimony of some persons at Bolington, had not been gone long, and endeavor to recapture the prisoners; and sending Sam. Grubb with a squad in advance, the command pushed forward rapidly; but soon met Sam. coming back with the information, that Lovettsville was full of Yankees, and that an infantry force was posted in a piece of woods on the grade, a short distance from town. And here Capt. Trayhern committed the fatal error of attempting to drive this force from their position, which was all the enemy wished, hoping to keep him occupied until the flanking party from Harper’s Ferry could gain the rear of the Confederates. After a short skirmish, Trayhern decided to go back, and on his way, halted for a short time at Morrisonville, and then moved on towards Hillsborough.
Pretty soon he met some of the men from the latter place, who informed him that Hillsborough also was occupied by a strong force; and counter-marching, 118the little............