Everything was very quiet in camp after the “cattle raid” until the 27th of September, when the eager longing of the “Ash by Brigade” to go home was gratified, and General Rosser, in a beautifully touching General Order, in which he reviewed the past campaign and paid eloquent tributes to the fallen members of the command, announced that he was ordered to proceed immediately to the Valley, and the brigade marched out for the “promised land” again.

Colonel White had obtained a furlough, or rather a sick leave, and Captain Myers commanded the “Comanches.” The season was the most pleasant of the whole year, and the line of march was through a beautiful (in part, a grandly magnificent) country, and notwithstanding the unfavorable news from General Early’s department, the “Laurel Brigade” moved with joyous hearts towards “their own country.”

A journal of the march will tell best of its pleasures, and it is inserted for the benefit of the men who made it.

Tuesday, September 27th.—Bade (we hope) a long farewell to the “Old Virginia lowlands, low,” and turned our faces towards the grand old 334mountain-bound Valley of the Shenandoah, and everybody is glad.

September 28th.—Passed Blacks-and-Whites and Burksville Junction; camped sixty miles from Lynchburg.

September 29th.—Marched through Prince Edward by the C. H. and camped in Charlotte county, thirty miles from Lynchburg. The people down here reckon all distances “from Lynchburg.”

September 30th.—Marched at 9-1/2 A. M. into Campbell county, and camped three miles from Lynchburg among the bushes; weather delightful and news from Valley more so, for they say Early has whipped the Yankees.

October 1st.—Passed the great “Tobacco city,” a dingy old town; crossed the James on a dilapidated bridge and took the road to Lexington; raining all day.

October 2d.—Marching all day through the mountains, along the James river and canal, and it is worth a whole year of life to ride for the first time through this wildly picturesque country, but for the men who love the mountains as we do, and have not so much as seen them for five months, it is more than glorious to find ourselves in their very heart.

October 3d.—Still in the blessed old Blue Ridge, but passed Lexington about 1 o’clock P. M. and camped near Fairfield; raining very hard.

October 4th.—Passed Fairfield, Midway and 335Greenville; camped on the famous Valley pike, seven miles from Staunton.

October 5.—Marched through Staunton to Augusta Church and turned to the left; encamped near Bridgewater; General Rosser is a Major General, with Wickham’s, Lomax’s and the old Ashby brigades; says he is going to “run over everything in the Valley.” This country is very different from the "land o’ cakes and brither Scots" we used to find it; for since we were here it has been roughly handled, but we get plenty of good water and pure air, and see the mountains just as they have stood from the beginning, and that is satisfaction enough.

On the 6th of October, before daylight, it was ascertained that Sheridan was retreating and Gen. Rosser immediately started with his division in pursuit, pressing as rapidly as possible to the front, but the scene was horrifying, for with the infernal instincts of his worse than savage nature, the merciless fiend, Sheridan, was disgracing the humanity of any age and visiting the Valley with a baptism of fire, in which was swept away the bread of the old men and women and children of that weeping land.

On every side, from mountain to mountain, the flames from all the barns, mills, grain and hay stacks, and in very many instances from dwellings, too, were blazing skyward, leaving a smoky trail of desolation to mark the footsteps of the devil’s 336inspector-general, and show in a fiery record, that will last as long as the war is remembered, that the United States, under the government of Satan and Lincoln, sent Phil. Sheridan to campaign in the Valley of Virginia.

Rosser’s men tried hard to overtake them, and did capture a few, who lingered to make sure work of a mill near New Market, but they were instantly shot, and when night came the troops encamped near Brock’s Gap, in a position where, all through the dark, they could see the work of the “journeymen of desolation” still progressing.

Early next morning the advance was continued, and about 2 o’clock the fire-fiends were overtaken at Mount Clifton, on Mill Creek, above Mount Jackson, and so strongly posted at the fords, that Rosser ordered Col. Dulaney to cross the creek some distance to the right, and with Hatcher’s squadron of the 7th Va. Cavalry and White’s battalion, attack them in flank, in order that they might be forced to uncover the ford.

The crossing was effected without difficulty, but after marching up the stream about half a mile, Capt. Hatcher met a force of the Yankees coming down, and with his usual game he charged and drove them in confusion towards Cedar Creek, and shortly after, the battalion reached the top of a hill overlooking the ford and open fields adjoining, where the Yankees were prepared to dispute 337Rosser’s progress until they could get their wagons, and great droves of cattle and sheep which they were driving with them down the Valley, clear.

Col. Dulaney halted the battalion on the crest of the hill, and the Yankees, perceiving it, commenced a brisk fire with Spencer and Henry rifles, and at the same moment, what was afterward found to be Custer’s brigade, began to form on a hill just opposite, in a field that sloped gradually down to the road in which White’s men were standing. The fire became too hot for comfort, and Capt. Myers rode up to Col. Dulaney, who was coolly watching the Yankees, and said to him, “Colonel, give us orders, and let us do something quick;” but the Colonel only replied, “Be cautious;” and the Captain thinking that he had not been understood, as the Colonel was somewhat deaf, repeated his request for orders, but received the same reply, and knowing that his men could not remain in that position a minute longer, Myers gave the order to charge, which was performed in the most brilliant style. There was a plank fence to open before getting into the field, and here the long-range guns, which had been forced upon the men some time before, were thrown away, and the “Comanches,” numbering now less than two hundred, passed the fence, and were within one hundred yards of three of Custer’s regiments, one of which was in line and the other 338two rapidly forming; but no halt was intended or attempted, and in a very brief space the battalion was among the Yankees, neutralizing their superiority in numbers and carbines by a very free use of their pistols and sabres. The enemy stood quiet until their assailants had gotten in ten steps, when they broke up in great confusion; and Gen. Rosser, at the moment, rushed the 11th and 12th, regiments over, which completed the business, and the Yankees fled in utter rout, losing many men killed, wounded and captured, and all their trains and stock. The battalion had several men wounded, among them Captain Myers, but none were killed or very badly hurt.

Captain Hatcher had fought heavily on the right and also lost heavily, but he pushed the retreating Yankees until dark.

The command of White’s Battalion now fell upon Lieutenant Nich. Dorsey, Company B, and moved with the brigade to a position on the “middle road,” at a stream known as Tom’s brook, where the division halted on the evening of the 8th, and Lieutenant Dorsey was ordered on picket with his battalion during the night. Very early in the morning (9th) the Yankee sharpshooters made their appearance and some very sharp skirmishing was engaged in, the men with carbines being sent to the front under command of Lieutenant Chiswell, who, with forty men, held a line more than a quarter of a mile in 339length for more than an hour, but finally the 12th regiment on his right was driven back, at the same moment a column of the enemy charged up a road to the left, and being thus outflanked on both wings, Lieutenant Chiswell and his men had to make a run for it on foot, barely escaping capture by the Yankees, who pressed them very hotly, and but for a gallant charge of the mounted men, led by Captain Dowdell, who had just arrived and taken command a few minutes before, these sharpshooters would have been captured.

The Yankee force in the road was driven back for two hundred yards, but the flank firing compelled the battalion to retire, and now the whole Confederate line, from the Valley pike to the back road, gave way, and what had before been a boasting advance of Rosser’s men, turned into a shameful rout and stampede which continued for several miles, although only a comparatively small force of the enemy pursued. The battalion lost severely in wounded, among whom was Orderly Sergeant Thomas S. Grubb, of Company A, who was mortally wounded, and died one week afterwards.

He was one of the first to join the old company and no more faithful soldier, or honest, conscientious Christian gentleman ever lived to defend the stars and bars, or died to consecrate its memory.

When the lines commenced to give way the artillery of Captain Thompson was firing rapidly 340upon the advancing columns of the enemy, and made desperate efforts to check the Yankees long enough to give Rosser a chance to rally his people, but nothing could bring anything like order out of the confused mass of fugitives that fled so wildly from the field. They had been flanked, and without seeing more than the skirmish line of the enemy, gave way to a panic that increased each moment, and unaccountable as such things were, every soldier knows that it only requires a shout in the rear to keep a stampeded force on the run, and it was so now, for the author saw fully six hundred veteran Confederate troops flying madly along the “back road” with no pursuers but about thirty Yankees who were afraid to ride closer than a mile to the demoralized crowd in their front, and in this miserable retreat the gallant Thompson lost his guns, but he held them until the main body of the enemy was around him. Every wagon and ambulance that Rosser had brought down with him, and every piece of artillery, fell into the Yankees’ hands. And on this subject General Imboden got off a rather sharp specimen of satire at the expense of Gen. Rosser. At the opening of the campaign in the Wilderness in May, the brigade of Rosser had been highly complimented by Generals Lee and Stuart for its desperately gallant fighting, and General Rosser had christened it the “Laurel Brigade,” in a General Order, which prescribed that the 341battle-flags should be trimmed with laurel and the members should wear a badge of three or five leaves of laurel. The brigade of Gen. Imboden had made a very poor reputation for fighting, simply because it had not been in a situation where much could be accomplished, as the enemy’s cavalry in the Valley was all the time in vastly superior force, and well handled.

When Rosser’s men were going down the Valley they flourished their laurels proudly, and declared they were going to whip the Yankees and then chase Imboden’s brigade to the mountains.

On the day of the stampede, when Rosser lost all his artillery, the Yankees made an advance on Imboden in the Page Valley, who drove them back and captured two guns, after which he sent his compliments to Gen. Rosser, with a polite request to know how he would “trade laurels for artillery.” The “Laurel Brigade” shouted “Bully for Imboden,” and they never said any more about “chasing him into the mountains.”

After the stampede, the Yankees went back towards Winchester, and for ten days nothing was done but picket and scout, but on the 19th Gen. Early made his advance on the enemy, in which he surprised and routed Sheridan’s army, capturing a great quantity of artillery, arms and camp equipage, with many prisoners; and was himself surprised, his army routed, his artillery captured, and his wagon train destroyed, all in one and the 342same day, constituting one of the most remarkable cases on record, and the only one that ever occurred in the war, where a Yankee army, after being routed, returned the same day and inflicted a loss on its foe.

In this affair Gen. Rosser operated along the “back road,” to Early’s left, and succeeded in whipping the Yankee cavalry there, with small loss in men to himself.

White’s Battalion was engaged in skirmishing, but the enemy did not press their right wing forward until Early had been driven on the turnpike, and when that was known, Rosser retired also.

The battalion was engaged in no special service of much consequence, for some time after the battle, and it was, in fact, hardly a good squadron, so many of the men being absent, some on detail to procure fresh horses, some on furlough, and many on sick leave, while others again were absent without leave; but they were the lucky ones who always avoided the fights, kept clear of camp duty and court-martial, and yet had a reputation as soldiers, were doted on by the ladies, and could make eloquent parlor speeches about their devotion to the “Sunny South,” and tell of daring deeds performed by themselves, which, like themselves, possessed but one thing upon which the listener could rely, and that one thing was falsehood.

343About the 1st of November Col. White took his battalion to Loudoun, and for several days was engaged in collecting cattle and sending them to the army, an operation which he also performed in the counties of Fauquier and Rappahannock, by which means the scarcity in the Valley was counterbalanced and the troops furnished with meat.

The brigade was now commanded by Col. O. R. Funsten, of the 11th, Col. Dulaney having been severely wounded in the stampede on the 9th, and there was great interest taken in the question as to who was to be Brigadier, many of the men expressing their preference for Col. White, but, as before stated, he was not enough of a disciplinarian for Gen. Lee.

The following letter of recommendation to President Davis, in his favor, shows that his merit was appreciated by the great men of Virginia:

“To his Excellency Jefferson Davis:

“We take great pleasure in recommending Colonel Elijah V. White as a most fit successor to the gallant Gen. Thomas L. Rosser to the command of the ’Laurel Brigade.’

“We are well aware that but little weight is generally attached to a recommendation, by mere civilians, of military men for promotion; yet we are so strongly impressed with the conviction of Col. White’s peculiar fitness for the command of this distinguished brigade that we cannot forbear to place our estimate of his qualifications on record.

“The chivalric courage and dashing gallantry of this battle-scarred 344hero, combined, as we are persuaded, with quickness of apprehension and coolness in action, inspiring perfect and enthusiastic confidence in the troops under his command, seem to point him out as a worthy successor of the noble Rosser.

“Respectfully submitted,

    “John Letcher,
    “John W. Brockenborough.”

The battalion arrived in camp, eight miles above New Market, on the 19th, and the next day marched down the pike with the brigade to meet the enemy, who had advanced in force as far as Rood’s Hill, but only staid long enough for a slight skirmish with the Confederates, and retired to Strasburg, after which White’s “people” were ordered on picket, and remained at this duty until the 24th, when they returned to camp only to prepare for a raid into the mountains.

On the morning of the 26th of November Gen. Rosser marched with two brigades, his own and Gen. Paine’s, towards West Virginia, passing through Brock’s Gap, and camping at Matthias’, on Lost river, a place well-remembered as being the first night’s bivouac of every expedition to that country, and the next morning the march was continued all day and night, when about 9 o’clock A. M. of the 28th the column advanced upon the forts at New Creek Station on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road.

There was a strong force, of all arms, at this place, but the General conducted everything so 345rapidly that almost before they knew it he had surprised the fort where the infantry were stationed, making prisoners of the garrison, and capturing all the artillery. A charge was then made upon the Station, and all the horses of the cavalry and artillery taken at the first dash, besides a number of prisoners, but the greater portion of the Yankees, who were outside of the fort, crossed the Rail Road bridge and escaped into the mountains.

A large quantity of stores of all kinds fell into the hands of the raiders, and they were busily employed in securing them when a tremendous firing was heard near by, causing almost a panic, but it was soon learned that the depot building had been set on fire and the flames had reached about fifteen thousand rounds of fixed ammunition for artillery that had been stored there, which caused a sound very much like as if a heavy cannonade had opened in that quarter.

As soon as everything was attended to the Division set out for the Valley again, having destroyed the Rail Road for some distance, captured about six hundred prisoners, seven pieces of artillery, over a thousand horses and mules, and secured a large quantity of plunder of all sorts, making it a highly successful raid, without the loss of a man on the Confederate side, as the enemy were pushed so close that they did not fire a gun.

346The return was effected without difficulty, and the camp reached on the 2d of December, where all remained quiet until the 15th, when Colonel White started with the battalion for an independent raid among the Swamp-Dragons of Western Virginia.

The weather was very cold, the ground covered with snow, and both men and horses were badly prepared for such an expedition, nor could anybody form an idea of what it was intended to accomplish, and as a consequence the “Comanches” were rather savage at the prospect of a useless winter campaign among the mountains, and in order to get any the company officers were obliged to take all the men in camp, who had horses lit to travel at all, which broke seriously into the wagon-train escort, and left Co. “Q” with a small force.

Marching by Moorfield the Colonel halted opposite Petersburg, where he was joined by the Company of the famous Capt. McNeill, of the Moorfield Valley, and by Captains Woodson and Kirkendall, with their companies, from the brigade, but all did not make his force more than three hundred men.

The 18th was a rainy day, and the Colonel permitted the regiment to lie in camp, but the camp was not more comfortable than the march. About noon Henry Simpson, sometimes called the “reckless babe,” started with three or four men to visit 347a shooting-match which some citizens had told him of, and where it was supposed that some of the “Swamps” could be found, but getting lost in the mountains they brought up at a cabin where some of the aforesaid “Swamps” were visiting. Henry and his party forced them to surrender, after which, by blowing a horn, yelling, firing, and other equally characteristic operations, they induced the people in the neighborhood to believe that they were the crazy advance guard of an army of lunatics about to be turned loose upon the country, and securing whatever of rations they wanted, the scouts returned with their prisoners to camp without being molested by the “Dragons,” a performance which no other man than Henry Simpson could have accomplished.

The command marched out the next morning on the Franklin grade, and during the day were fired at frequently, but at too great a distance to do any harm; however, about noon a party of them came too near, and were attacked by Mobberly, who killed one and chased the others into the mountains, as he said, “as far as the devil went,” and being asked how far that was, he replied, “as far as he could get for the rocks.”

These “Swamp Dragons” were a different people from the “bushwhackers,” the latter being only citizens armed with their sporting guns, while the former were a sort of home organization, armed by the United States, and who operated 348just as the Highland outlaws of Scotland, in former days did, by coming in forays upon the citizens in the low country, and appropriating whatever of their property they pleased to their own use, supplying themselves and families with bacon, beef, corn and flour from the defenseless inhabitants, an............