During the month following the foray into Deven’s camp, the “Comanches” devoted themselves to the duty of recruiting their horses and preparing for the return to the army whenever their chief should call them from their winter quarters to perform their part in what all felt and believed was to be the final campaign of the war.
The long rest and freedom from discipline had not been beneficial to the “morale” of the command, and in fact a great deal of the energy and fire that had formerly characterized White’s Battalion, had been chilled and worn out by the privations and blood of the many trying campaigns through which they had passed, and which had been productive of no result, so far as they could see, except to make each succeeding one more desperate and bloody, and the isolated raids, skirmishes and picket fights, which had once been their delight and pride, had now lost the peculiar charm to them, for all the men saw that in the magnitude to which the war had grown, such affairs were of no importance at all, and they all felt that to attain the liberty for which so much blood had already been spilled, there must be 365great and decisive battles fought, in which superior generalship and stubborn courage on the part of the South should overmatch the swarming legions of Northmen, who, bought by the Federal bounty, were constantly swelling the ranks of Grant’s army.
Very few of the Southern soldiers doubted the ultimate success of the cause which had stood such terrible storms, and all believed that the last day of the war was very near, when, with a second Waterloo, the stars on the Southern Cross would blaze grandly in a glorious triumph or sink beneath an ocean of blood into the dark, but still glorious, gloom of defeat; and with a faith that might shame the Christian in his trust in his God the soldiers trusted in Gen. Lee, willing to give their lives to his keeping, and if not willing to die for their cause they were willing and ready to follow their great commander with unquestioning confidence wherever he might lead them.
On the 17th of March, 1865, Col. White’s order for his men to join him was put into the hands of his Company officers, and as it was his last General Order to an organized battalion, I append it in full; and the reader will bear in mind that it was written the day after the Yankee Sheridan, whose name will ever be synonymous with infamy, had marched with fifteen thousand cavalry up the Shenandoah Valley;
366
“Head-Quarters, 35th Battalion,
“March 6th, 1865.}
“General Order, No. 1.
“Soldiers of the renowned 35th: Your Chief calls you again from your pleasant homes and loved ones to the field of battle! You will not be slow to answer his call.
“The invading foe has penetrated to the very heart of your beloved Virginia, and proud spirits like yours cannot tamely rest while upon every breeze is borne the wailing of helpless women and children!
“Come, my gallant boys! and we will throw the weight of our sabres in the scale with our brethren in arms against the dastard hordes of the North, who thus, without mercy or justice, pollute the sacred altars of our bleeding land.
“E. V. White,
“Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding.”
After several attempts, which failed because of the scattered condition of his command, Captain Myers got about sixty men of Companies A, B and C, together on the night of the 20th, at the Semper’s Mill rendezvous, and on the morning of the 21st started for Richmond, leaving Boyd Barrett and Sam White in Loudoun, with instructions to gather up the remaining “Comanches,” who were not yet ready to march, and bring them out in ten days.
The line of march was by Madison C. H. and Gordonsville, through the country that Sheridan’s army had just passed over, and it would have taken a man with a nicely balanced mind for calculation to figure out anything in the way of destruction that might be added to what had been 367accomplished by these fire-brands of Satan or Stanton; but what affected the military situation was the ruin to the Rail Road, for there was literally not a rail or even a cross-tie left upon it for miles, and everything that bore the faintest resemblance to a bridge, though it was only a foot-plank over a ditch, had been taken up and destroyed, but the injury which this destruction was intended to inflict upon the army of Gen. Lee was scarcely felt by it now, from the fact that the road ran through an already impoverished country, and there were no supplies in the Valley to be brought over it, while the necessity for sending rations from Richmond to Gen. Early’s forces at Staunton was ended by the annihilation of that command by Sheridan before he struck the Rail Road at all, and consequently the raiding on the road was, in a military point of view, utterly useless.
The Loudoun detachment marched by Hanover Junction, over the well remembered fighting-ground of Cold Harbor and Mechanicsville, and joined the brigade, on the night of the 25th, near Atlee’s Station, six miles north of Richmond, where it encamped for the night, and on the morning of the 26th passed through the city, crossing on Mayo’s bridge to the south side of the James.
General Rosser’s division was composed now of two brigades, one commanded by Brig. General McCausland, and the other—his own old brigade—by Brig. General Dearing, an accomplished young 368officer, who had highly distinguished himself under General Hoke at the capture of Plymouth, N. C., and also on the Petersburg lines during the long campaign of 1864, and although a total stranger to the Valley brigade, his genial, affable disposition and soldierly appearance, together with the brilliant reputation which had preceded him, soon rendered him a great favorite with the troops who had followed the lead of such men as Ashby, Jones and Rosser.
The division passed Petersburg on the 27th, and on the 28th united with General W. H. F. Lee’s division near Stony Creek Station, and encamped on the Nottaway river. The two divisions had less than three thousand men in them, that of Rosser not numbering over twelve hundred, when if all its men out of prison and capable of duty had been present the brigade of Dearing alone would have had certainly not less than twenty-five hundred in ranks; but what was true of one part of the army was also true of the balance of it, and General Lee had only a remnant of what had been the A. N. V. to meet Grant’s hundred and sixty thousand men.
The weather was most unfavorable, as rain fell almost continually; the ground was as full of water as a sponge, so that it was difficult and dangerous to ride a horse off the roads, which were themselves almost knee-deep in mire and mud, while the streams were swollen to the brim, and 369many of them the troopers had to cross by swimming their horses, to the great damage of ammunition and such rations as they had.
On the 39th the command was ordered towards Dinwiddie Court-house, where Sheridan was pressing the Confederates in his attempt to reach the South Side Rail Road, which, if cut, would completely destroy all outside communication with Richmond and Petersburg, and here Gen. Fitz. Lee, who now commanded the Cavalry Corps A. N. V., was combining all his energies to save the road and the right wing of Lee’s army.
On the 31st of March the battalion took part in the battle of Five Forks, and on the 1st of April was engaged all day in fighting, scouting and picketing, in the vicinity of Hatcher’s run; two names rendered famous in the history of the war by the desperate fighting of the Cavalry Corps, and of the glorious Infantry Division of General Pickett; and from now to the end, the battalion was closely connected with the operations of the army, in the last brief and gloomy, but forever glorious campaign, which crushed the hopes that had sustained the hearts of Lee’s veterans through four weary years of suffering and blood, and we cannot separate the history of the “Comanches” from that of the Corps to which they belonged, and in which they performed all the duties allotted to them.
The night of April 1st was a sleepless one, for 370the horribly incessant thundering of the artillery at Petersburg, and the rattling of the muskets over Hatcher’s run, told to the troopers that the moment when they must take to their saddles and engage in the fray might be at hand; but no move was made until the morning of the 2d, when the enemy on the right succeeded in flanking the divisions of Fitz. and W. H. Lee and Pickett, routing and driving them from their position, and the retreat began, not towards Petersburg, for that, too, had fallen, but along the Rail Road towards the West.
Here Col. White, with his battalion of eighty men, was placed in the rear, and until 3 o’clock kept back the harassing forces of the enemy which pressed close on flanks and rear, threatening to ride over the “Comanches” at almost every step of the march, which was clogged and hindered continually by the trains of wagons that the worn-out teams were dragging through the mud at what seemed almost a snail’s pace.
In the evening it became necessary to halt, in order to protect the trains, and Fitz. Lee’s division wheeled to the rear, where temporary breastworks were thrown up, and the Yankees checked for a time; but the battalion lost the services of two of its best officers in Lieut. Chiswell, of Company B, and Lieut. Strickler, Company E, who were both severely wounded, and also of Sergeant Alonzo Sellman, Company B, who, though shot 371in the head and given up for dead, survived and finally recovered.
The division of General Johnson (infantry) moved also to the rear, and by aid of the cavalry repulsed every attack of the Yankees until midnight, when the whole force again crossed Hatcher’s run and halted until daylight, when the toilsome retreat was continued, the wagons still dragging along slower and slower, requiring the cavalry to dispute the passage of every stream with the enemy, and halt on every hill-top to offer battle to their pressing columns, which, flushed with success, and brave because of their numbers, grew more and more determined in their dogging attacks upon the rear, while the Confederates, worn-out, hungry and disheartened, still plodded on through rain and mud, and still faintly hoped that General Lee would stop, in some way, the advancing foe, and bring success out of the cloud of disaster that now overwhelmed them.
The Quartermasters said that there were plenty of rations for the army at Amelia C. H., and the prospect kept the men up, and on the evening of the 4th they reached that place, only to meet the bitterest disappointment, for not an ounce of rations was there, and now it really did seem that famine would accomplish what all of Grant’s bayonets could not effect and compel the veteran army of Lee to surrender; but that alternative impressed the men as worse than starvation, and 372plucking the buds and twigs of the trees as they passed along, these men of iron nerves and lion hearts essayed to quiet the cravings of hunger by eating them.
A short rest was permitted at the Court-house, as the enemy’s cavalry had not pressed them so closely to-day as before, and the reason for this was discovered on the 5th, when near Amelia Springs, a strong force of them dashed in from the flank upon the wagon-train and destroyed more than a hundred wagons, causing such a stampede among the Quartermasters, teamsters and stragglers, as only those who had been in the Valley with Gen. Early could imagine, and leaving the road blocked up with the smoking wrecks. As soon as Gen. Rosser learned this he started the brigade of Dearing forward, and as rapidly as possible they came up with the Yankees at the Springs and attacked them furiously, the 11th Virginia, under Lieut. Col. M. D. Ball, leading most gallantly, and being supported by the remainder of the division, and by a portion of Gen. Fitz. Lee’s division, they whipped the enemy’s cavalry handsomely, killing and wounding nearly as many as were engaged on the Confederate side, and driving the remainder back upon their infantry.
This affair did more to revive the drooping spirits of the Cavalry Corps than anything else could, but it is doubtful if they would have fought 373so fiercely if they had not been so hungry, and the first demand, on taking a prisoner, was "hand me your haversack, quick, or I’ll blow your brains out."
They camped that night at the Springs, and after this the cavalry fared much better than the infantry, for they were kept constantly riding on the flanks, from rear to front, and back again, having thereby an opportunity to obtain something to eat at the houses of citizens off from the line of march pursued by the main army, but it was saddening to see the despairing looks cast by the inhabitants of the country as they would say farewell to the boys in gray after they had willingly fed them with the best they had and saw them ride away, for they dreaded what was to come after them more than if all the plagues of old Egypt’s King had been turned loose in their land and were approaching their plantations, and on one occasion, when the “Comanches” were riding past a house, some beautiful young ladies came out, and closing the gate in front of the column, said, "You are going the wrong way; please don’t leave us to Sheridan’s mercy; go back and whip the Yankees for our sakes;" but noticing the bitterness which their act and words added to the already heart-crushing sadness of retreat and defeat, they opened the gate, saying, "Go on; we know you can’t help it; but we will pray for you, and hope that you will soon be back 374to drive them away; don’t forget us when you meet the Yankees."
There is no doubt that the citizens of the South were subjugated long before the armies were reduced to the extremity of surrendering, but the noble-souled, true-hearted women of the sunny Southern land were not, nor ever have been, willing to surrender their faith in the justice of the “Lost Cause,” or to give up their hope of a final triumph of the principles they so fondly loved and cherished, and
“Though long deferred their hope hath been,
Yet it shall come at last.”
The Southern women were the “power behind the throne” during the whole existence of the Confederate States, and were so acknowledged by Seward, the Yankee Secretary of State; by Butler, “the Beast;” and by Sherman, the prince of “bummers” and thieves, in their bitter persecution of them, for they knew that the steady, unchanging influence of the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts of the South did more to fill the ranks of the Confederate army than all the edicts of its Congress or acts of its Conscript Bureau. And nobly and bravely did the ladies meet their persecution. Up to the day of Lee’s surrender their voices were still for war, and their tongues, sharper than sabre-blades, turned against deserters and skulkers from the army and “bomb-proof” 375officers in it. They equalled the women of Poland in their enthusiasm and devotion, and excelled them in persistent opposition to, and hatred of, those whom they regarded as the oppressors of their country. Many a poor fellow whom the surrender caught in a Northern prison, hesitated to take the oath of allegiance which would have procured his release, although he knew there was no longer a “Dixie” banner to be true to, because he did not know “what the women at home would say to it;” and when they did take the oath and go home the women sometimes blamed them, sometimes said nothing, and sometimes only remarked, "Yes, you did right, ’needs must when the devil drives,’ and if ever he held the reins on earth he does to-day."
A Federal officer in North Carolina asked a lady “Are you not sorry you ever used your influence in support of this rebellion, when you see the misery which has followed it?”
“No, sir,” she replied, “we have done what we could, and my sorrow is not for the effort we made, but for its failure. Better, ten thousand times better, the present sufferings than the degredation of submitting tamely without a struggle. We feel that we were right and that is a great thing, let the conviction cost us what it may.”
But it is time to go back into the forlorn death-march of Lee’s army.
Early in the morning of the 6th the enemy advanced 376on the pickets at Amelia Springs, who were from the second squadron of White’s Battalion, commanded by Captain French, who, after a firm resistance, was compelled to retire upon the infantry, who at the same time were being warmly pressed by the main body of Grant’s army in the rear, and the retreat was resumed and continued during the day with constant fighting.
On arriving near Rice’s Station a heavy force of the enemy’s cavalry made an attack upon Rosser’s division, but the General wheeled his regiments and threw them in fierce and desperate charges upon the foe, routing and driving him back upon his infantry.
The old brigade seemed inspired with the fiery valor which had in other days given it the proud title of the “Laurel,” and impelled its men to follow the battle-flag of Dixie through blood to victory, on many a well-fought field, and never in all the years of the war, had it acted more gallantly.
When this affair opened the “Laurel” brigade was near the High Bridge, and was forced to charge the enemy’s infantry, which in strong force was posted in the edge of a body of timber, and here the Yankee line was driven back, but pretty soon Gen. Dearing ordered his people to retire, and riding up to Col. White, the General informed him that the enemy had surrounded them, and asked his advice, saying, “We must cut through 377or surrender.” The Colonel only replied, by saying, “You know best what to do;” and Dearing then said, “We must whip that infantry, and if you and I lead the charge, it can be done,” which Col. White at once agreed to, and the regiment were again ordered forward, the battalion in front, with Col. White and Gen. Dearing leading it.
By this time the Yankees had returned and taken position some fifteen yards in front of the woods, from which they opened a terrible fire, but the “Comanches” swept onward, supported by the brigade, and the enemy was again driven in great confusion over the hill.
Here Gen. Dearing was mortally wounded, and carried from the field, and Federal Gen. Read, who commanded the Yankee forces, was also mortally wounded, and fell into the hands of the Confederates.
On reaching the top of the hill, and finding himself in command of the brigade, Col. White halted, to reform his scattered line, preparatory to charging again upon the Yankees, who were rallying at a corner of woods about a quarter of a mile away, but while thus engaged, a small party of the enemy’s cavalry, from towards Rice’s, appeared, and two of them attacked the gallant Maj. Breathed, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, who had ridden alone, some distance beyond the Confederate line, and a desperate conflict took place, in full view of both parties, wherein nothing but 378the sabre was used. In a short time the Major knocked one of his foes from his horse, and was almost instantly knocked down himself by the remaining one, but just as the Yankee had wheeled his horse, and was leaning over with his sabre in tierce to despatch the prostrate Major, one of White’s men approached, and with a pistol shot brought the Yankee to the ground, when Breathed sprang up with his sabre still in his hand, exclaiming, "Oh! damn you! I’ve got you now," and killed him.
This seemed to convince the Yankees that they could do nothing with such men, and they again retreated; but now a force of cavalry was discovered advancing rapidly upon the right of the brigade, and White turned to meet them, as they advanced bravely to the charge, led by as gallant an officer as ever graced a battle-field, but brave as was the commander, and promptly supported by his men as he was, the “Comanches” had their fighting blood on fire, with the excitement of victory, and in a few minutes broke the Yankee line and captured their Colonel, using their sabres with such desperate courage, that no troops could have stood long before this little band of men who had been starved and harassed into very devils of war and blood.
The battle-tide was again turned against the enemy’s legions, and the cavalry driven back upon their infantry, who, in heavy force had taken position 379on the crest of a steep, rocky hill, and here for a moment they checked the Confederate advance, but General Munford had now arrived with his division,............