On the 21st of April, 1863, Gen. Jones marched his brigade from their camp, now near Harrisonburg, for the memorable expedition through West Virginia, intending to damage the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, and to threaten the enemy in that country, so as to not only prevent troops from going to the Rappahannock where “fighting Joe” Hooker was confronting the Army of Northern Virginia, but to draw forces from his army to protect the Rail Road and keep Western communication with the capital unbroken; a scheme which originated in the far-reaching mind of General Lee, and one that exerted a telling influence upon Hooker’s operations at Chancellorsville.
Gen. Jones’ brigade was a noble one, consisting of the 6th, 7th, 11th and 12th Regiments of Virginia Cavalry, 1st Maryland Battalion of Cavalry, 35th Battalion of Va. Cavalry, 41st Battalion of Va. Cavalry, (Witcher’s mounted rifles,) Col. Herbert’s Battalion of Maryland Infantry, Captain Chew’s Battery of Horse Artillery, and the Baltimore Battery of Light Artillery; in all, four regiments, commanded by Cols. Flournoy, Dulaney, Lomax and Harman, and four battalions, under 161Lieut.-Cols. Brown, White, Witcher and Herbert; with two batteries, of four guns each; making a total of about four thousand men.
The brigade marched through Brock’s Gap, in the North Mountain, and passing Howard’s Lick, soon had a view, full and complete, of the famous Moorfield Valley; and great was the gratification and delight of all the men as they looked down from the mountain top upon the lovely scene, lying as it did like a picture of beauty at their feet, girt with its dark mountain frame, and fringed with its evergreen bordering of hemlock and cedar; white snow-caps all around, but everything fresh as springtime in the valley, where the South Branch was foaming and dashing over its rocky bed, sometimes winding along the base of one mountain, then crossing to the other, and sometimes rolling gloriously through the carpet of living green in the centre of the valley.
The brigade encamped at Moorfield, until the morning of the 24th, when the General marched it to Petersburg, nine miles above, where the men forded the river.
The ford at that place is covered with rocks of almost every size and shape, making it a difficult passage at any time, but now the mountain stream was full to overflowing, and the waters foamed over the rocks as from some enormous mill-flume, increasing infinitely the difficulty and danger of crossing, so that some of the men, in viewing the 162angry flood, turned and fled in greater dismay than if an army of Yankees had faced them; but by aid of some noble-souled citizens, who rode through the water and guided the horses of the men, the crossing was effected, and the cavalry found themselves fairly started into the mountains, but the infantry and artillery, being unable to cross, were sent back to the Shenandoah Valley.
On the 25th, the command approached Greenland Gap, in the eastern front ridge of the Alleghany mountain, Col. Dulaney, with his regiment (the 7th) being in front; and when, about sunset, the enemy’s pickets were discovered, the 7th charged, driving them in and finding a force of infantry strongly posted in an old log meetinghouse and some other buildings near by. Col. Dulaney himself was badly wounded, and his regiment cut in two, as the enemy fired so heavily upon it, after the leading squadrons had passed their position, that the remaining ones were unable to follow, and halted in front of the meetinghouse.
Gen. Jones soon came up, and at once began his arrangements to take the place. He had brought several kegs of powder with him to blow up the Cheat River trestle work with, and he now determined to try the effect of some of it just here in his first encounter with the enemy. His pioneer corps, made up by details from each regiment 163and battalion, was provided with axes and bundles of straw, the first to be used to break open the windows of the fort, while the latter was to be set on fire and thrown into it, and at the same time Lieut. Williamson (his engineer) was to get the powder under the building. He dismounted his three battalions and placed White’s men in front; Brown’s Marylander’s in the rear, and Witcher’s mounted riflemen at the end of the house, and it being now dark, the General rode down near it, and politely informed the Yankees that “he had them surrounded, and a barrel of gunpowder under the house,” and that, unless they surrendered, he would “blow them all to hell in five minutes;” to which they, with equal politeness responded, by requesting him to “go there himself.”
The General’s information as to the surrounding was correct, but Williamson’s gunpowder plot was a failure, owing to his inability to approach the fort without getting shot, and they knew that if he had powder under them he wasn’t likely to tell them, for they were fully persuaded he would greatly prefer blowing them up, if possible, to having them surrender on any terms; and Gen. Jones, thinking they had received sufficient warning, ordered his storming parties to advance, telling the men to “go right up to the building and punch out the chinking of the logs;” “that the pioneers would throw blazing straw 164into the house, and then all were to fire their guns and pistols through the cracks, by the light of the straw inside;” and assuring the men that “a signal would be given for them to retire before the powder was touched off.”
The battalions advanced promptly to the positions assigned them; White’s men being compelled to wade a stream that ran through the Gap, nearly waist deep, three times; and all the while exposed to a withering fire, for the Yankees opened fire from the house the moment the troops began to move, and kept it up incessantly.
The Marylanders, led by Col. Brown, moved quickly to the rear of the house as White’s battalion marched up in front, and here was a great blunder, on the part of General Jones, in placing these two commands in such a position, for their fire was far more fatal to each other than to the enemy, as they both commenced firing at short range, with the old house exactly between them.
As for Witcher’s men, they were mountaineers, and fired from behind the rocks at a safe distance, scattering their bullets promiscuously all about the house, but really doing quite as much good as the other two commands which charged immediately up to the walls.
The Yankees fired coolly and rapidly, and almost before the pioneer corps could light the first bundle of straw and throw it into the house, every man of the corps was down, either killed or 165wounded, but they acted nobly while they were allowed to act at all.
The affair lasted about fifteen minutes, during which the firing was very heavy and constant, and at one time the powder business very nearly caused a stampede among the Confederates, as one of them suddenly called out to his comrades to “look out for the powder,” and they all took it to be the promised signal of Gen. Jones.
The panic was soon over and the assault renewed with unabated vigor, but no impression was made upon the intrepid garrison, who all stood to their work bravely, until Thos. E. Tippett, a gallant soldier of Co. A, White battalion, climbed up the stick chimney and placed some burning straw upon the roof of the house, which very soon brought out a flag of truce, and finally an unconditional surrender of the Yankees, but a party of them in a house near by kept up a scattered firing a few minutes longer.
There were only seven of the enemy killed and wounded, and their whole force was less than eighty, but they were all Virginians, from among the mountains, and were fighting in the gate that if opened would let the Confederates right among their homes, and they left no stain upon the honor of Old Virginia in their defence of the pass, for they held out until their fort was wrapped in flames.
The loss of the two battalions was nearly one 166hundred; but much of it was due to the miserable position they occupied, by which they were constantly firing upon each other.
Just as soon as everything was arranged, and the wounded who were able to move, together with the prisoners, had been sent back, the brigade continued its march without further halt, until daylight, when the almost worn out people were allowed to stop awhile, to rest and refresh themselves and horses. But soon the march was resumed, and followed without any special incident, until it led to Evansville, in Taylor County, where a halt for half a day was made; and here the bushwhackers were discovered in considerable numbers for the first time.
It is true, that in passing what is known as the "Shades of Death"—a dark and gloomy gorge in the Shenandoah Mountain, which is shadowed to twilight gloom even at noonday, by the rocky wall which on either side is covered with the hemlock, the cypress and the towering white pine—the advance guard had skirmished with and captured a few of the “Swamp Dragons,” as they termed themselves, but at Evansville bands of armed men, in hunting shirts, could be seen on all the mountain crags, viewing from a safe distance the army of rebels, lying quietly in their country; but they seldom approached near enough to the main body to get a shot or be shot at. While here, some of the men, who had been engaged 167in plundering a store on the route, came up, and Gen. Jones finding two of them, one of whom had a hoop skirt and the other an umbrella, compelled the hoop skirt man to wear his plunder around his neck, and the other to hold the umbrella over him during all the afternoon, in full view of the whole command. That night the brigade crossed the R. R., at Independence Station, and pushed rapidly forward to Morgantown, at which place the “home guard” was found drawn up in battle order on the hills; but they fell back as Jones advanced, not firing a gun, and finally disappeared, when the town authorities sent an old citizen out to meet the raiders, and negotiate a surrender of the town. This gentleman approached in great trepidation, making all the Masonic signs he was master of, and on being brought to Gen. Jones, was informed that no damage was intended the town, provided the town people did not attempt to damage the troops, which greatly pleased him, and he returned from his mission highly pleased with Jones and his men.
Here again the General exercised all his authority to prevent plundering, and was so very strict that he compelled Adjt. Watts to leave some calico he had bought and paid for in U. S. money, swearing that his men should not carry any such rubbish; but a few of them managed to smuggle some calico, by folding it in their saddle blankets. 168His protection, however, did not extend to stock suitable for the army, but on the contrary, it was his policy to drive with him as many such horses and cattle as he could find.
The brigade lay at Morgantown from about 10 A. M. until dark, when the march was resumed, and the whole force pushed forward to Fairmount, where it arrived about the 1st of May, and found about nine hundred “home guards” and militia concentrated for the defense of the town. The raiders reached the vicinity of the place about sunrise, but the morning was dismal and foggy, and as Jones formed his line in front and flank of Fairmount, the enemy formed theirs on the hills above, and appeared resolved to do battle valiantly for their town and the R. R. bridges. They had three pieces of artillery, one an old iron twelve-pounder and the others brass guns, brought upon a platform car from Wheeling, with about twenty soldiers to work them. The General dismounted his men, and taking charge himself of the 7th and 12th regiments and the Maryland battalion, moved to the right, while Col. Lomax, of the 11th, with his own regiment and the 6th, together with White’s battalion, commanded the left, and leaving Capt. Myers with his company, and a number of men from the other regiments, mounted and stationed on the road that leads directly to the wire suspension bridge. Witcher’s riflemen had dismounted long before, and were approaching the place by a march up the railroad to the left.
169Col. White, with his battalion and part of the 11th, was ordered by Lomax to advance upon the right of the enemy’s line, which he did, driving them like sheep, and at the same time the mounted men charged into town, and took possession of the bridge, which compelled the Yankees to ford the river above the town, followed closely by White and his men, who, immediately after crossing, turned to the right, and forced the enemy to take refuge in the R. R. bridge, where most of their force was now concentrated, and from which they opened fire with their artillery, but Gen. Jones was moving quietly to their rear, which being discovered, caused the men in charge of the two brass pieces to beat a hasty retreat, a thing very easily done considering the fact that they were still mounted on the car to which a locomotive, under steam, was attached.
A dash was now made upon them, in which the iron gun was captured, and very soon after the whole force, to the number of seven hundred, surrendered, the others having made their escape into the mountains.
The affair was a decided success, not a man being hurt on either side, and now after destroying the Rail Road br............