USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 3
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to return with all his trains to Winchester": and "Gen. Williams expects you to leave one regiment at Berryville, with one section of artillery ; and Col. Andrews " hopes I will leave some other force to guard the bridge and ordnance train, and send Capt. Abbott's company to report" to him.
From the multitude of despatches and orders that poured fast and furious upon me, it was evident that a battle was imminent; and that I was expected to push on to be in time to take a hand. It was late in the evening when I reached Winchester: I had done two days' work in one, -had marched twenty-six miles. Banks was at Middletown. There had been a fight; Shields's Division had whipped Jackson, who was now being pursued by Banks, and the urgent calls upon me were to aid in the pursuit. I sent a messenger to Banks (twelve miles) to announce my arrival, and he, on the morning of the 25th, ordered me to report to him at Stras- burg. It was apparent the fight with Jackson was not to be renewel at once. There was still a little daylight left, as, with my staff, I rode into Winchester in the evening of the 24th ; and I improved it, to ride with my aid over the field, on which we had gained a decided victory. The wounded of both sides had been removed ; but the dead still lay where they fell. Along the enemyy's lines the ground was covered with them. The coming shades of twilight in the thick woods rendered everything obscure. To a novice the scene was awful. As they were when stricken, so in death the dead remained: the clenched hand, the uplifted arm, the effort to stanch a bleed- ing limb, the solitude, the dreary light -- it was a picture I cannot forget, and yet to all to its horror, amidst this deathly silence. I heard a voice invoking curses on the dead.
Peering into the darkness, I saw a man on horseback, slowly moving towards me, with head bowed low, graving sternly into the upturned ghastly faces, while angry denunciations fell from his lips, as without pity in His heart he rejoiced in this carnival of death.
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The bitterness of his cries filled me with horror. Who was he that had no sorrow for a scene like that ? Nearer came the rider, near enough for recognition. It was a son of Virginia, here upon the soil of his native State, cursing with all the bit- terness of his heart his dead kinsman at his feet : a loyal Virginian, who had been driven from home, wife, and children ; who had seen his aged father driven out of his House to die, --- driven out by those who had plunged the nation into war, a man maddened by outrages and gloating over this terrible retribution, and plunging yet deeper in that gloom of horrors as if his vengeance could not be repaid.
The history of the preceding two days began on the very day that we left Winchester for our march to Centreville, when the enemy, under command of " Stonewall" Jackson, showed themselves in the edge of the woods that skirt the town on the southern side. From here shells were thrown at our pickets, and our artillery replied, but Gen. Shields paid but little attention to this demonstration, though he gave personal attention to directing his artillery, until his arm was fractured by a fragment of a shell. Sunday the 23d the artillery firing was recommenced about noon ; but so little was thought of it that Gen. Banks, between one and two p. M., left to go to Harper's Ferry on public business. At four r. M., the enemy's infantry made their appearance, and formed in line of battle, about three miles from the town. This pounding of artillery was what Major Crane heard when he sent me his note. Now the scene changed. The troops of Shields's Division, under their re- spective colonels, turned cagerly to greet Jackson, who had marched swiftly upon the town. Brigadier General (so act- ing) Kimball was in command.
The battle of Kernstown, as the enemy named it, was fought near the eastern declivity of the little North Mountain, not far from the spot where the Opecquan takes its rise. The enemy's line followed the crest of the hills that He south of the town, and on the west of the pike leading to Strasburg. On the
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eastern side of this road, crowning a wooded knoll, the enemy had posted a battery. Jackson's centre was covered by a stone wall ; his leit flank was covered by a growth of thick small timber, into which it extended; his right, by the battery and by timber. The action commenced, as usual, with inter- changes of shots from opposing artillery. Then our men moved to turn the enemy on his left flank. Behind a growth of timber, in front of the enemy's stone wall, our infantry gained a vantage-ground unperceived. From there, by the riglit, our troops were obliged to march across an open field to turn the line hidden in the undergrowth. But it was done. Bravely did some Ohio regiments charge up to, and into, this cover ; unmoved by the rebel fire, unterrified by the rebel yell. In vain did Jackson implore his men to stand ; in vain address them as " my brave boys," and in vain cry out " give them one more round." He saw his left flank forced back upon his cen- tre, and our troops sweeping over the stone wall, driving his left farther into the woods, capturing his cannon, and many prison- ers. So while his force was retreating in disorder, Jackson turned, thoroughly beaten, towards Strasburg."
Jackson had promised the people of Winchester that he would return to them. This time he failed to keep his word. His dead, dying, and wounded were left to our care. Too much praise cannot be awarded the men for their courage, especially the Ohio troops. It was pluck, more than leader- ship, in this action. The thickets were out up into slivers by the storm of bullets poured in by them from the open field over which they passed to the assault.
That Jackson was deceived in the number of our troops
* Jackson blamed Gen. R. B. Garnett, of whom he says in his official report : "Though our troops were tichting under great disadvantage, I regret that Gen. Garnett gave orders to fall back, as otherwise the enemy's advance would have been retarded, and other regiments brought up. Col. John Campbell was rapidly advancing with his regiment, but night, and an indi-position of the enemy to press further, had termin ttel the battle, which commenced at four o'clock, P. M."
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in front of Winchester, is admitted by Southern writers,* and that he intended to deceive him, was always claimed by Gen. Shields. It was part of his feint to move forward to Strasburg on the igth of March, and retreat rapidly again, passing through Winchester, after three brigades of Banks's Corps had marched for Centreville .; And this was his movement.
Gen. Shields dwelt with unfeigned delight upon his " strata- gem " in placing his force in a secluded position two miles from Winchester upon the Martinsburg road, to give the inhabitants an impression that the main part of his army had left, and that nothing remained but a few regiments to garrison the place. He knew that the people would convey false informa- tion to Jackson at New Market, as indeed they did -- Jackson turned instantly in pursuit. On the 22d, when Ashby drove in Shields's pickets, he discovered only what he supposed to be a single brigade. On the ad, when Jackson attacked, he soon found he had caught a " tartar." His force of 1,000 was opposed, not to 2,000 less than his own, but to the whole of Shields's Division of 6,750 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and no more.# There is no evidence that Jackson contem- plated the result that followed, although some writers claim unforeseen consequences, when favorable, as results of well-laid plans. Southern writers, while speaking openly of Jackson's not doubting that he could crush the four regiments at Win-
* " I heard that the enemy's infantry force at Winchester did not exceed four regiments. A large Federal force was leaving the valley, and had already reached Castleton's Ferry on the Shema loan." - Jackson's Oficial Report, Battle of
t " On the preceding Friday evening, despatches frem Col. Turner Ashby were received, stating that the enemy had evacuated Strasburg." - Jackson's Report.
# If Shields had remained at Strasberg, the history of Banks's retreat would never have been written. My brigade would have followed the others of the division, and all would have reported to McDowell in front of Fredericksburg. As it was, on'y Abercrombie got away, and him we saw no more. In this event Lee would probably have found enough to engage lib attention, without sending Jackson on the rampage thecaghi the valley.
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chester,* further affirm that this battle brought upon him a great deal of censure ; for it was a fierce and frightful engage- ment, in which he lost nearly twenty per cent of his force in a very few hours of conflict. One of his officers at this time said of him that he was "cussed by every one"; "and it must be confessed," says Pollard, f " in this instance, at least, the great commander had been entrapped by the enemy." # Again, on the other side, it is claimed, that " this was not a blind, heedless assault; that it was not a blunder or an acci-
* Life of Stonewall Jackson, by John Esten Cooke, page 109.
t Poilard's " Lost Cause," pp. 264, 265.
# The recent narrative of Gen. Johnston, of the Confederate service, confirms these views. He says : " After it became evident that the valley was to be in- vaded by an army too strong to be encountered by Jackson's Division, that officer was instructed to endeavor to employ the invaders in the valley, but without exposing himself to the danger of defeat, by keeping so near the enemy as to prevent him from making any considerable detachment to support Mcclellan, but not so near that he might be compelled to fight. Under these instructions, when Banks, approaching with a Federal force greatly superior to his own, was within four miles of Winchester, Jackson, on March 12, fell d'orly bick to Strasburg, eighteen miles in two days, remaining there undisturbed until the sixteenth, when, finding that the Federal army was again advancing, he fell back to Mount Jack- son, twenty-four mille-, his adversary halting at Strasburg. I received these reports on the nineteenth, and suggested that his distance was too great from the Federal army for objects in view. On the twenty-first he acknowledged thi , and said the : he was about to move his headquarters to Woodstock, twelve miles from the enemy's camp. At about half-past six A. M., on the twenty-third, at Strasburg, he expressed a hope that he should be wear Winchester that afternoon ; and at ter. o'clock that night he wrote in his brief manner that he attacked the Feder army at four P. M., and was repulsed by it at dark. He gave his force as three thousand and eighty-seven infantry, two hundred and ninety cavalry, and twenty- seven pieces of artillery ; and his I s at eighty hill d, three Lindred and iotti- (no wounded, and two hundred and thirty prisoners." - Narrative of Military Operations directed during the Late Wir between the States, By Joseph E. Johnston, General C. S. A., 1874, AP. 106, 107.
[NOTE - It would seem that not only was Jackson deceived by Shields, bat that a gentle reminder from Johnston that the former was too far from his enem; may have irritat. d Jackson to make his ill-judged movement. We find, too, that Johnston instructed Jackson to keep the Federals in the velley, all of which has buon claimed for Jackson. - AUTHOR.]
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dent, but the result of calculation and design: to wit, the retention of the Federal forces in the valley." *
" It was not until he was actually engaged with the enemy that he found their force numbered 11,000 men,"t is a Southern statement, falsely made, to excuse a defeat, and yet containing an undeniable admission that, if Jackson had known our force was superior in numbers to his own, he would not have attacked us.#
When the enemy fled, their flight was rapid, and. as described by the fugitives, fatiguing, - Jackson foreing his men along the valley pike all night, pushed on through Strasburg,§ and did not rest until far enough towards Char- lottesville to be secured against a rapid pursuit.
As narrated, I proceeded on the morning of the 25th to unite my forces with the advance, under Banks. Every- where, there were signs of a hasty retreat. To hinder pursuit, bridges had been destroyed by the fugitives; whether over pike or railroad, they were doomed. We found some dead and wounded in houses along the road, and in a miserable hut there laid a poor fellow, a wounded rebel, hit so hard by a shell, that his arm had been amputated, his right leg badly lacerated in twelve places, and his left badly torn. Before deserting him, a surgeon had amputated the army, but the leg, having received no attention, when we arrived mortification
* " I feel justified in saying that. though the field is in possession of the enemy, the most essential fruits of the battle are ours." - Jackson's Official Report, Battle of Kernstown.
i Cooke's Life of Jackson.
# The nun.ber of troops presets in the Geld, availa'le for the fight, in Jackson's army, was : " Infantry, 3,087 ; Artillery, 27 guns; and Achby's Cavalry."- Jock- son's Oficial Retort.
From the same source we find Jackson admitted a loss of killed, wounded, and missing, of 701 ; of which 46 were officers. In addition to this, Shields claims to have captured a guns, 4 caissons, and 1, oco small arms.
Ou loss was (from Shieldis's official report), in kille I and wounded, 504. § Battle-fell, of the South, vol. 1, Achton's Letter, page 321.
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had set in. All we could do was to make him as comfortable as possible, and leave him to die.
Though the reality of this retreat was bad enough, the papers of the day indulged in flights of fancy that if possible put to shame a rebel pen. No one ever saw the "nine wagon-loads of the enemy's dead upon the road," nor did they exist, although our papers so reported. A German aid to Gen. Shields performed marvels of gallantry -so he said ; three rebel horsemen, if not six. being in turn killed by sword and pistol by his single band. A bullet-hole through his cap he showed me in proof of his escape in this deadly encounter, a satirical sketch of which was made for " Harper's Weekly." representing this ferocious German in the act of transfixing two rebel cavalrymen, while a third in rear, with jaws agape at such wonders, received the point in his mouth. The tables of our laughter were turned when this sketch appeared, solemnly representing a swordsman transfixing two only. The sword had been rubbed out beyond the second, and thus the sketch was sent and published as a true delineation .*
On the evening of the 26th of March, my tired brigade laid down their knapsacks in the town of Strasburg. The effect of our victory we perceived in strong professions of love for the Union, expressed by men of intelligence, in the towns along our route. We heard many confessions of regret and accusations of deception against Southern leaders by people here who affirmed their belief, that upon our coming, their property would be taken, their houses destroyed, and them- selves made prisoners. I slept the first night of my arrival in Strasburg in the house of a fine-looking and cheery oll gentle- man, who said to me, that, when he first saw our troops coming down the hill into town, he was firmly convinced that be would be killed or made prisoner. and that he could not express his astonishment and delight at our treatment of the people ;
* The German had borrowed it of the artist, and sent it, stripped of its ludicrous e ements, to the publisher.
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adding that such information as he could now impart would cause hundreds of men to return to their allegiance.
These confessions, coming on the heels of our decisive vic- tory, filled us with enthusiasm, gave tone to our feelings, and made our hearts bound with delight at the thought of carrying onward the old flag, though our marches might be in days and nights of travel, in hunger, privation, and death. As the superb scenery of the valley opened before us in the sparkling waters of the Shenandoah, winding between the Blue Ridge and its parallel ranges ; in the trees of cedar and pine that lined its banks ; in the rolling surfaces of the valley, peacefully resting by the mountain-side, and occupied by rich fields and quiet farms, there was no foreshadowing of the terror, the des- olation and death, that were to follow.
On the day after our arrival, we were thrown forward through the town towards Woodstock to a camp back from the road concealed behind Round Hill, in front of which was Col. Sullivan, of Shields's brigade, and, for some purpose of offence, beyond Col. Sullivan was Jackson. Now Jackson was constantly stirring up Sullivan, and Sullivan was as con- stantly stirring up my brigade at Round Hill. The enemy seemed to be always advancing. Bits of paper announcing it in hurried though laconic style floated through camp, until How is Sullivan? became a popular inquiry. The enemy were constantly in readiness to move, said our spies, but in which direction was the conundrum of the hour. When we pursued towards Strasburg, Ashby made a display of his artillery, fired a few shots, and retreated; and in this manner we had chased him about four miles beyond the town. When we halted, Jackson halted. Our pickets were about a mile beyond our camp : they were up to Tom's Brook, as it was called. About a mile beyond the brook I could see the enemy's cavalry. Sometimes the enemy amused himself by throwing shells at our pickets, when they were a little too venturesome; but beyond a feeble show of strength
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and ugliness, nothing transpired to disturb the dulness of camp.
It was on the first of April that Banks received from Gen. McClellan a new plan of operations. Up to this point Jackson had planned our campaign. Now we were to plan Jackson's.
From the steamer "Commodore" as his headquarters, on the ist of April Gen. McClellan addressed to Gen. Banks, com- man ling the Fifth Corps, a communication, in which he affirmed that the change in affairs in the valley of the Shenan- doah rendered necessary a departure " from the plan we some days since agreed upon." Assuming that Banks had a force sufficiently ample to drive Jackson before him, provided the latter was not largely reinforced, and that the former might find it impossible to detach anything towards Manassas for some days, probably not until the operations of the main army had drawn all the rebels towards Richmond, Banks was ordered, as the most important thing he could do at present, to throw Jackson well back, and then to assume such a position as to prevent his return. When railway communications were re- established, MeClellan thought it would be advisable to move on Staunton ; "which would require a force of twenty-five or thirty thousand men, and should be mainly coincident with my own movement on Richmond, at all events not so long before as to enable the rebels to combine against you, perhaps with smaller force after the main battle near Richmond."
Thus began our second campaign. Up and along the North Fork of the Shenandoah we moved out on the ad of April, in pursuit of Gen. Jackson's army. My brigade with cavalry and artillery was ordered to take the advance.
As our sturdy columns, with bayonets glistening in the sun- light, moved out upon the main road to form on that bright April morning for an eventful campaign, I was never more impressed with the march of a column of troops, moving forward for the accomplishment of a determined purpose. As the long lines conform in graceful curves to the undulations
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of the earth, they scem, with their solid tread, like a symbol of irresistible force centred in the immovable rocks beneath. I know of nothing like it in nature. The columns pass, leaving scarce a trace of motion; and lo ! what changes are wrought. Forms and customs, laws and religions, property and possessions, all give way before this mysterious power. In view of such scenes I have often felt the sternness of this reality. Here indeed is the inevitable. It is born of destiny.
Hardly had we passed Tom's Brook, where our advance guard had been stationed, when we came in sight of the enemy's cavalry pickets. Saluting them with a shot or two from my bat- tery (" Cothran's Parrotts"), I moved rapidly towards Wood- stock. As we were descending the hill which brought us into this picturesque little town, bang went a gun, and a shell whizzed about ten feet over our heads (I won't be accurate about the feet), grazing the neck of Col. Brodhead's horse,* and striking the road a few feet in front of a company of the Second Mas- sachusetts Regiment. Fortunately the shell did not explode. Perhaps a minute passed, when there arose a puff of smoke, then a report, and a shell screamed along the road ; but this, like its predecessor, did not burst Cothran's battery was close behind. At a spanking gallop his horses came up, his guns were unlimbered, and we gave them a dozen to their four ; which not liking they retired with their artillery, and threw forward some of their skirmishers (probably dismounted cavalry).
To meet them I ordered Lieut .- Col. Andrews to deploy the Second Massachusetts, and move over them ; which was done rapidly, with but few casualties. Without a halt we pushed on for Edenburg, which is about five miles from Woodstock. At every hill we got some shells, but paid them back with interest. These jargel pieces of iron whirring around one's ears gave a new sensation to our men. " If there is anything
* The colonel commanded the cavalry force attchol to my column.
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that can scare a man," said one of the best of the officers of the Second, "it is a shell ; and I've seen precious few who are not scared." As we approached Edenburg, the scenes at Woodstock were repeated ; but here the enemy's infantry snarled at us. Deploying the Second Massachusetts as skir- mishers, they advanced handsomely towards the town. Bullets fell thick around them ; but they moved forward without hesi- tation. At Edenburg, Stony Creek, a deep and rapid stream running easterly across the pike and railroad, empties into the North Fork of the Shenandoah. The place was favorable for a stand, and it looked for a time as if the enemy were deter- mined to make one there. Retreating, however, across the creek, Jackson burned both the pike and railroad bridges in his flight, and then placed his cavalry and artillery on a com- manding ridge on the south side of the creek, confronting us on the northern side. The enemy's batteries, posted about three fourths of a mile from us, exchanged continual shots with our Parrott's. Our guns, cleverly concealed just over the brow of a hill, did good execution without loss of men or horses. Beneath the hill, resting from their fatiguing march of a good sixteen miles, were my infantry. The enemy's guns, answer- ing our fire, sent shells merrily around our heads : but the men had got somewhat used to the sound, and munched their cold rations with indifference, and kept on too; all but one poor fellow, a private of my Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, who would have continued to masticate his hard bread, but, alas! a ragged piece of iron severed the back of his head from the front, as cleverly as if a knife had passed through. The crowd around him was great, the comme tion noticeable ; but no one else was hit. It was determined to remain at Eden- burg for several days ; so before sunset the line of the creek swarmed with our pickets. Our men tumbled down in their designated encampments, unmindful of the sharp reports of hostile muskets or the deeper base of answering artillery. Through the day we had been fighting Ashby, with his cavalry
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and horse artillery, -- the rear-guard of Jackson's army. Ashby's cavalry force numbered about one thousand, and, as cavalry, were greatly superior to ours. In reply to some orders I had given, my cavalry commander replied, "I can't catchi them, sir; they leap the fences and walls like deer : nei- ther our men or horses are so trained." And this was true ; although, before the war was much older, we could give them odds and beat them. Ashby was as cool and brave as he was experienced. I think our men had a kind of admiration for the man, as he sat unmoved upon his horse, and let our men pepper away at him, as if he enjoyed it. In Southern histories the writers never tired in praising Ashby. The more absurd the stories, the more credible they were to Southern admirers, who gloated over such Munchausenisms as that, when our troops entered Winchester, Ashby, on his white horse, at some conspicuous point in the town, alone awaited our advance. There he sat, motionless, until almost approached ; when, with a defiant wave, he galloped rapidly away, killing one, and lifting by the coat-collar from his horse to Ashby's own, and so bearing hire off, the other of two of our cavalry- men sent around to intercept hill.
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