The soldiers of Colonel White found their new Brigadier to be a handsome, soldierly-looking man, very different in manner, language and appearance from Gen. Jones, though not a whit behind that officer in the maintenance of discipline in his brigade; but it did not take them long to find that he was a genial, warm-hearted gentleman, and they respected and loved him accordingly. For several days there was very little done beyond some scouting along the Rappahannock, and an inspection or two by Gen. Rosser, but about the middle of November the brigade was ordered to join the division on the historic plains of Brandy Station, where Gen. Stuart purposed holding another of his “spread-eagle” grand reviews, which did no good except to give Yankee spies an opportunity to count the exact number of cavalry attached to the Army of Northern Virginia, and to display the foppishness of Stuart, who rode along his war-torn lines with a multitude of bouquets, which fair hands had presented to him, fastened in his hat and coat.
After the review, Gen. Rosser encamped his brigade at Hamilton’s Crossing, on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Rail Road, about 235eight miles from Fredericksburg, where it remained very quietly for several days, except on one occasion, when Gen. Hampton desired to see what the enemy meant by establishing a camp at Stephensburg, a little town in Culpeper, and in order to find out, he took a detail from his several brigades, and crossing the river at Ely’s ford with about three hundred men, attacked the camp at daylight, completely routing the enemy and taking a considerable number of prisoners, together with all their tents and baggage. In this affair the 7th regiment led the charge, supported by White’s battalion, and the two commands did all the fighting, which was not much, for the enemy fled as soon as they could get away.
On the 27th of November, Gen. Meade’s army effected a crossing to the south side of the river at Germania ford, and the cavalry were kept busy, night and day, watching his movements, but Gen. Rosser did not confine himself to watching alone, for on passing Spottsylvania C. H., he sent Lieut. Conrad, with Town H. Vandevanter, “Jack” Dove and Ed. Poland, to find the force and position of the enemy, with orders to report to him at Todd’s Tavern, and at the same time put Col. White in front with his battalion, and marched as rapidly as possible towards the plank road. On arriving at Todd’s Tavern, about midnight, and hearing nothing from Conrad, the General sent Capt. Myers out alone on one road, and Sergt. 236Everhart with a squad on another, telling them to find the Yankees and report as soon as they possibly could. Both of these scouts found the enemy very soon, and returned, and Col. White, in his ranging around through the pines, came upon a large cavalry camp not over a mile from the General’s headquarters. About an hour before day the Yankees were discovered on the road leading from Todd’s Tavern to the plank road, and soon after it was ascertained that their wagon train was on the plank road. At daylight all the Yankees moved off towards Chancellorsville, and Gen. Rosser started his brigade for the train, which he cut exactly in two, bringing out eighteen ambulances and about one hundred wagons and teams, besides setting fire to a large number of wagons that had passed the side road too far to turn off, and as it was soon discovered that some of the burning wagons were loaded with ammunition, the raid terminated suddenly.
Lieut. Conrad and his party came in about sunrise, having gotten in among the Yankees and staid there all night, not knowing the country, and were very nearly being captured several times. They fought out of one difficulty with the 1st Jersey Cavalry, and passing on, charged and captured some prisoners from another regiment, finally coming out at the Court-house, where they had started from in the evening. When Conrad came up to Rosser in the morning the General 237asked him why he didn’t report the night before, according to orders, but when the Lieutenant explained to him that he had got into a place where he couldn’t report to anybody but Gen. Meade’s people, he excused him.
On the morning of the 29th, Rosser marched his command to Parker’s Store, on the plank road, and found the enemy encamped there, when he at once opened the fight, by charging them, with the 7th regiment, which drove them from their camps, and in the chase many prisoners were taken, but heavy reinforcements came up and the fight was obstinate and severe for two hours. At one time a strong force of the enemy’s dismounted men took position on Rosser’s left, at a high bank of the Rail Road, with their flanks protected by swamps, heavy timber, and dense undergrowth. This force General Rosser ordered Col. White to charge, which he did, the battalion going into it in gallant style, and not only driving more than three times their number from the Rail Road, but pressing them through the thick timber until the marsh became too soft for their horses to go farther, when the men were rallied and reformed, and on reaching the plank road the balance of the brigade was found hotly engaged with a greatly superior force, and being forced back over the Rail Road. Here again the battalion charged just in time to save the brigade from rout, and all together drove the Yankees clear of the road.
238When the battle was over the Colonel reported to Gen. Rosser how he had “unjointed” the Yankees, and the General gave the battalion the name of “Comanches,” which stuck to them during the remainder of the war.
On the night of the 30th, Meade went back to his own side of the river so quietly that it was almost daylight before the movement was discovered, but as soon as Gen. Stuart found they were on the move he ordered all his cavalry forward, and harassed their rear-guard severely.
The battalion, with the exception of Co. A, now returned to their old camp near Hamilton’s Crossing, and found the quartermaster’s department moved for safety towards Richmond, in consequence of which neither rations nor forage was issued for several days, and both men and horses suffered for the necessaries of life.
Company A was detailed to picket on the river at Gold Mine, Ely’s, Germania, Banks’, and United States fords, and this, too, in the country that had been devastated by the great battle of Chancellorsville, so that they suffered more for supplies than the others, but they opened negotiations with the Yankees on the other side of the river, by which much trading of tobacco for coffee and crackers was effected, and the blue and gray pickets would mount their horses and meet in the middle of the river, where they would confer in as friendly a manner as near neighbors generally do.
239White’s battalion was very poorly prepared for a winter campaign, or even for winter quarters, and seeing that there was not much prospect for improvement the men became very much dissatisfied.
All their tents had been stored near Mount Crawford, in the Valley, at the time of General Jones’ march to Brandy Station, and in the preparation for the Pennsylvania campaign, General Lee had cut transportation so low that only one wagon for baggage was allowed to the battalion, in consequence of which, a great quantity of it was stored for safety at Flint Hill, and fully expecting to find that as they had left it, the men had come out from their homes with almost nothing except what they wore; but on reaching Flint Hill they found that the people around that country had appropriated everything of value, only leaving for the depositors a few camp kettles, with the bottoms knocked out, and some scraps of leather that had formerly been valises.
As an evidence that citizens had stolen the property, Lieut. Conrad found one of his shirts on the person of an old citizen, who stoutly swore that the shirt was always his, but the Lieutenant proved his claim and made the gentleman “come out of it.”
The men clung to the hope that the brigade would be sent to the Valley, but after the last advance and retreat of Gen. Meade, their camp appeared 240to be permanently established and their hope died. The Colonel used every means in his power to procure from the government the much needed supply of clothing, but notwithstanding the battalion had never received anything of the kind from that source, nor even drawn the commutation allowed in lieu thereof, under the law, he only succeeded after many trials in getting about one-fourth the necessary quantity, and as a consequence much discomfort, and in many cases actual suffering prevailed during the cold December of 1863.
Under such circumstances as these, the spirit of discontent culminated in the Loudoun companies, and on the night of the 14th, about sixty of A and C took a regular “French leave” and went home, determined to supply themselves with winter clothing, no matter what might be the consequences of their desertion, and we will there leave them for a time, in order to tell of an event that had a brightening effect upon the heart of every man in the Ashby brigade, which was an order for General Rosser to march his command to the Valley.
On the night of the 18th December, the brigade crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and moved to Stafford C. H., where it encamped until morning, when the march was resumed, and all day long, through a drenching rain, the Valley men travelled on without a halt until about 11 241o’clock at night, when they reached a fortified camp of the enemy at Sangster Station, on the Manassas Gap Rail Road, about twenty miles from Alexandria. Capt. Dan. Hatcher, with his squadron, (1st of 7th Regiment,) immediately charged through a stream of water and over the Rail Road bank, gaining the enemy’s rear, but was met by such a heavy force in the breastworks that he was unable to return, and the 11th Regiment dashed forward in a wild, reckless charge, which forced the Yankees to surrender, and released Hatcher and his boys from their perilous position.
The command marched on from Sangster as rapidly as possible, and on reaching Bull Run, about two miles from Centreville, found that stream almost impassable from the continuous rain which had been pouring down for nearly twenty-four hours, and with the greatest difficulty the crossing was effected, but just when the rear guard reached the stream a party of Yankees came down from Centreville, which produced a panic, and in the confusion some of White’s men were knocked from their horses into the stream. The night was excessively dark, and the country totally unknown to the men, and as the head of the column had waited for nothing, but marched quickly on as soon as the swollen stream was passed, the panic was increased by the fast riding of those who got across, and when Col. White got his men over there was no sign of the brigade nor 242any indication of the route it had taken, while the firing in the rear showed that the Yankees were coming up.
The Colonel sent a courier to the General for assistance and on reaching the turnpike found the 12th regiment waiting for him, and order being now restored the command marched quietly on; but the wind had sprung up keen and cold from the northwest, causing the rain to freeze as it fell, and almost depriving the men of the power to keep their saddles, so intense was the cold, but as best they could the dismal march was continued, and at daylight the command reached Middleburg, in Loudoun county, and pushing on to Upperville halted to feed and rest, having traveled over ninety miles during twenty-four hours, with no halt except at Sangster, where one man was killed, and several wounded in the 7th and 11th regiments, and about two hundred Yankees killed, wounded, and captured.
When the brigade reached Upperville the run-away boys from the battalion, who had come by way of Greene county and Luray Valley, were just coming in, and not wishing to risk so much to get home and be met and arrested by their command at the door, they had to go back into the mountain and wait awhile; so that those who came around with the brigade got home earlier than they who had been on the road four days longer.
243Many hardships were experienced in reaching the Valley, even when so near it, because the Shenandoah was too full to cross with safety, and the General marched to a ford above Swift Run Gap before he could get his people over, and after this came down the Valley to Mount Jackson, where he encamped, in the coldest weather, for about a week, when he set out for a raid in the Moorfield Valley and on the B. & O. Railroad, but owing to the extremely bad roads and intensely cold weather his command was unable to execute the General’s plans, and he returned to camp with the fruits of some slight successes, including a number of prisoners and a few wagons, captured near Burlington, and with many of his men frost-bitten, some of them badly. The camp was now at Timberville, in Shenandoah county, and here the Colonel exerted himself to induce the deserters from Co.’s A and C to return to the battalion. These men had been told that it was the intention of the officers to arrest and bring them before a general court martial that would certainly sentence some of them to be shot, and when Col. White sent a messenger to them entreating them to return to their duty, they returned for answer that they were willing and anxious to do so, and had no idea of escaping punishment, but that they would never come back if there was a prospect of any of them being shot, and that if the Colonel would 244send Captain Myers to them with an assurance that they should not go before a court martial that had power to inflict the death penalty, they would all return with him; and accordingly, Capt. M. was detailed to proceed to Loudoun and Fairfax counties to gather up the deserters, which he did, reaching camp a few days after the brigade had started out on what was familiarly known as the "Patterson’s Creek raid."
The facts of this expedition have been principally obtained from Messrs. T. H. Vandevanter, Co. A, White’s Battalion, and Jas. T. Robinson, 12th Virginia Cavalry, who were couriers for Gen. Rosser, and from Lieut. Conrad and Sergt. E. L. Bennett, of Co. A.
The command moved from camp to Moorfield about the 25th of January, 1864, where it remained until Gen. Early, with a brigade of infantry and battery of artillery, came over, when it was resolved to attempt the capture of Petersburg, where a strong force of the enemy was reported to be located, and in pursuance of this plan Gen. Early marched up the right bank of the South Branch while Rosser, with his cavalry and one piece of artillery, crossed the river at Moorfield and gained the rear of Petersburg; but on reaching the top of the mountain and getting a view of the road leading to New Creek it was discovered that a long train of wagons, guarded by about 1,000 infantry, was quietly 245moving along towards Petersburg, and as such game was far more to Rosser’s notion than laying siege to a town, he prepared to “come down on it” (to use a familiar expression of the General’s).
His first step was to throw a few shells into the head of the train, which brought it to a full stop, and then to charge upon it with his “people,” an operation which was entirely successful, and the whole train of ninety wagons and teams was captured, together with about two hundred of the guards, which were all the troopers could catch, as the others made such fast time to the mountain that it was given up to be folly to attempt their capture.
The train was carrying fifteen days’ rations to the garrison at Petersburg, but there were also some sutler wagons along filled with the dainties and delicacies that these traveling merchants bartered to the soldiers for their pay, and Rosser’s men had a “roaring night” of it.
The first squadron of the battalion, under Lieut. Conrad, was sent forward to drive a party of the enemy from Ridgeville, which was done in the same gallant style that ............