USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 8
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when I discovered that, six days later, Banks officially reported that before three o'clock on the morning of the 24th, he made up his mind "that to remain at Strasburg was 'to be sur- rounded'"; and now, seven hours later, here was an order to "remain at Strasburg," and "be surrounded"! Ah, no! for hardly had I contemptuously thrust the foregoing letter into my pocket, when an orderly, galloping furiously to my side, delivered a note in pencil, of which the following is a copy [the italics are mine] : ---
Colone!, - Orders have just been received for the division to move at once towards Middletown, taking such steps to oppose the enemy (reported to be on the road belegen Front Royal and Middletown) as to Gen. Williams may seem proper. The general is absent, but I have sent for him, Would it not be well to have the Third Brigade ready to debosch on the pike ?
Cothran's Battery is on the hill behind us awaiting your orders: will you notify him? Reports from Front Royal confirm Kenly's death, and the cutting up of the First Maryland.
Respectfully yours, Wy. D. WILKINS, Capt. and A. A. G.
Turning now to Jackson's army. it belongs to this history to follow their movements, and discover why they did not sur- round us at Strasburg before daylight of the 24th of May. Hal Jackson moved all night of the 23d. as he intended,* the morning of May 24; would have dawned upon his army sur- rounding Banks in Strasburg. An untoward event, a blun- der, says a Southern writer, delayed Jackson's march ;f it was that the main body of his command diverged to the right by the steep and narrow by-path taken by the advance when they gained the Gooncy Manor Road (the road from the Blue Hills) to precipitate themselves the more suddenly upon Kenly. It was not Jackson's intention to use his whole 20,000 to crush Kenly's 1,000; so when he found that the latter's pickets were driven in, he told one of his orderlies, a cavalry- man, to direct the rear brigades to avoid the circuitous path
* Cooke, p. 144.
t Dabney, P. 94.
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taken by the First Maryland and Wheat's Battalion, and move for Front Royal by the direct and shorter route. This boy orderly, as he is called, started upon his errand ; but ere he had reached the column, the sound of Kenly's artil- lery broke upon his ears; when, thinking only of hiding from the dreadful sound, he turned his horse's head home-' ward, and was seen no more. And thus it was that all of Jackson's infantry toiled over the hills through the steep and narrow pathway, guided by the footsteps of the attack- ing column in making the useless circuit. It was night before these troops reached the village of Front Royal, and then so fatigued, that they laid down to rest instead of pursu- ing the enemy.
Well was it for us that the " pastures green" of a Virginia farm were more seductive to the boy orderly than the sound of Kenly's artillery! Thus it was that the night of May 23 left us without disturbance, and that the hours of the 24th were not cut short soon after sunrise.
This delay on the part of Jackson gave, I think, confidence to Banks that his judgment was sound, and that it was not the intention of the enemy to interfere with us.
Strasburg, Front Royal. and Winchester, joined by irregu- lar lines, form a triangular A gule, closely resembling the letter A; Winchester at the vertex forms with Strasburg and Front Royal the western and eastern sides of the figure. When Jackson's troops, ignorantly following the footsteps of the advance, foundered into Front Royal at night, they threw themselves exhausted on the ground, and remainel there until morning. At Collarville, four and a half miles farther north, was the cavalry and infantry that had captured Kenly.
At the first down on the eigh. Jacken's column w's in motion .* Gen. Geo. H. Stewart, with the Second and
· Cooke, p. 19h.
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Sixth Virginia Cavalry, moved northward to Newtown, a dis- tance of ten miles : Gen. Ewell, with Trimble's Brigade, the First Maryland Regiment, Courtney's and Brockenbrough's Batteries, was ordered to move to Winchester, on the main Front Royal turnpike a distance of nineteen miles; while Jackson in person, in command of the main body of his army, proceeded in the direction of Middletown,* which is distant from Front Royal twelve miles. Stewart's orders were to strike the Winchester road at the village of Newtown, and to observe the movements of the enemy at that point; Ewell was directed to observe appearances of the enemy's retreat and be prepared to strike him in flank; while Jackson, re- serving to himself the main body of his army, after reaching Cedarville moved by a cross-road towards Middletown. Ashby moved in Jackson's front with batteries, and covered his left to prevent any attempt on Banks's part to retreat to Front Royal. All the detachments of Jackson's army were in easy communication, and could have been rapidly concentrated at Strasburg or Winchester or at any intermediate point.
Before Jackson's main body was fairly in motion, Gen. Stewart had already sent news | of his arrival at Newtown, and that he had there captured a number of ambulances, with prisoners and medical stores, and found evident signs of a gen- eral retreat upon Winchester. This was the second attack upon Banks's command, and was so significant as to make it plain, even to Gen. Banks, that the enemy had not "returned to Strasburg," and not only would, but even now were, " attempt- ing our rear." As soon as refugees flying from Stewart's attack brought us the news at Strasburg, the order sent me in pencil from Gen. Williams, adjutant-general, was received, and " Banks's retreat" became a reality.#
* Dabney, p. 94. Johnston's Narrative, p. 129.
t Dabney, p. 9S.
# Upon comparing the time of Stewart's attack, the distance from Newtown to Strasburg, and the hour we started from Strasburg, this will be apparent. Start-
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We may now proceed with our own column. As soon as ordered, our movement was instantaneous. It was eleven o'clock in the morning .* The two brigades of infantry were in the order of march indicated, Col. Donelly in front, myself in rear ; and Gen. Hatch with cavalry, as rear-guard, instructed then, but too late, to do what Banks says in his report he had ordered done at 3 A. M. Our course was directly for Win- chester, the distance eighteen miles. Fortunately for us, the day was cool and misty. We had cleared the town and reached Cedar Creek, about two miles out, when signs of excitement and panic were apparent. Frightened teamsters came thundering back towards Strasburg, urging their mules at a gallop, - some as if to gain the town we had left for new loads of stores, others as if in a frenzy of fright to escape from the front. Here too I met, in woful plight, the theatri- cal company, so gay the night before, but now how crest-fallen ! There were actors, male and female, with their canvas theatre, looking inquiringly yet despairingly into the face of every pass- ing officer, as if, in this hopeless maze, there alone could hope be found. In the midst of all this confusion there came gal- loping rapidly back a staff-officer from Banks, crying, "The enemy is upon us!" and without stop, keeping on to hurry up my battery, which went at double-quick, while we followed three or four miles farther, until we came to where there was a halted wagon-train. Here two or three wagon-masters were striking the stampeded wagoners right and left with their heavy cowhide whips, inter-persing oaths more forcible than solemn to drive them back to their duty. The cry was then that the
ing at three o'clock, our sick an I teamsters would have reached Newtown, distant twelve iniles, at between 6 and 7 A. M. Stewart, with his cavalry, starting from Cedarville at daylight, would have moved over his ten miles by six or seven o'clock, and the refuge ... woul ! have returned to Strasburg, twelve iniles, in about three and a half or four hours, or by eleven o'clock, A. M.
* Quint, Boston Traveler, May, 1862. Col. Andrews' Report, Vol. IN, Moore's Keb. Recor.i.
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rebel cavalry had come down on the train, so there had been a regular stampede. Gen. Banks was now on the alert, and well he might be. Before him was a confused mob of terror- stricken teamsters, intermingled with infantry and artillery, and behind him, volumes of smoke and flame arising from the town, announcing the destruction of that property which the night before might have been removed to a place of safety. At last he seems to have been convinced of his error, for as he was hurrying along the roadway, he turned to one of his staff, with a " countenance grave but resolute," as we are informed, and said, " It seems we have made a mistake." *
The head of the column now moved forward, and reached Middletown, six miles from Strasburg, without interruption. None of the enemy were found in the town, although three hundred had been seen there. f Skirmishers from the Forty- Sixth Pennsylvania were sent into the woods on the right, and they discovered five companies of the enemy's cavalry in rear of the woods. Banks directed the artillery to open fire, and the enemy retreated ; then the Twenty-Eighth New York was brought up, and under a heavy fire of infantry and artillery the five companies of cavalry were driven back more than two miles from the pike, at which point Col. Donelly, command-
* In a paper published in " Harper's Monthly " for March, 186;, Mr. Strother, of Virginia, has given his " Recollections of a Campaign in Virginia." Strother, who was atthuned to Banks's staff in the valley campaign, makes it appear in this paper that he derided the reports of the number of Jackson's army with such effect that it influenced Banks's conduct. Thus Strother er deavors to shield the latter, and relat 's the following occurrence, when he was riding away from the smoking ruins of Strasburg to the sound of the cannon of the army of Jackson. "I was mort Red at the future of my judgment, and filled with self-reproach that ob: ti- nate and open expressed disbelief in the danger might have had svine influence in delaying a movement upon which the safety of our army depended. Banks's countenance was grave and resolute ; as I rode towards him, be observed, " It seems we have made a mistake." I said, " It seems so indeed."
When Banks made his official report, he forgot that he had made this remark ; he forgot, too, that note, that we would " remain at Strasburg." 1 Banks's Peport.
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ing the brigade, was informed by a citizen that 4,000 men were in the woods beyond .* Gen. Banks attributes the safety of his column to what he calls this episode ; for had the enemy " vigorously attacked the train," he says, "while at the head of the column, it would have been thrown into such dire con- fusion as to have made the successful continuation of our march impossible." Undoubtedly ! but why did not the enemy vigorously attack the train ? Simply because the small force of cavalry which Banks met was the rebel Gen. Geo. H. Stewart's Second and Sixth Virginia Cavalry, which, having destroyed the ambulance-train at Newtown, had been down the road towards Middletown, and was watching the route from the woods on the right where Donelly's skirmishers found them.
There were, no doubt. " 4.000 men in the woods beyond," but they were many miles beyond. It was Ewell's force, con- sisting. as stated, of Trimble's Brigade and the First Maryland Regiment, with two batteries. If this column moved at day- light, as ordered, it had made, between 10 and Il A. M., eleven miles at least, and would have reached the toll-gate on the Front Royal road to Winchester, opposite Newtown and about five miles from it. Ewell was hurrying forward to Winchester to cut off our retreat from that place as well as to capture all the public property there; and for this he was using the ut- most expedition, and had no time to make cross-cut diversions with his infantry over to the Strasburg pike, to Winchester, and he did not make any ; nor did any one but Stewart, with his small cavalry force, - for I shall show, that until after dark that night, the road was open from Newtown to Winchester.
After Donelly's affair with Stewart's cavalry, the latter were heard of no more that day. As Stewart was attached to Ewell's force, ; it is more than probable that he joined
* Banks's Report.
t See Stewart's refusal to obey Jackson's order to follow our retreat, on the ground that only from Ewell would he receive orders. - Post.
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his column, and moved on Winchester content to watch the avenues of our escape to the east, and awaiting the move- ments of Jackson, whom he knew was hurrying with almost the whole of his large army to crush us on the route we were taking.
It was not wise to attribute our safety to Donelly's attack upon less than 1,000 of the 20,000 that were pushing upon us in every direction; yet it would be unfair to Banks to deny that, when he wrote his report, he sincerely believed that this little skirmish of "one killed and nine wounded" saved his whole column.
Pending this contest, Banks* ordered " Col. Brodhead, of the First Michigan Cavalry, to advance and if possible cut his way through, and occupy Winchester" Finding no enemy in his path, the Colonel went without opposition to the town. This is conclusive that the attack to be made upon Banks's column in retreat was not made at the head of the column ; and that this affair was of no moment in deciding the fortunes of the day.
When the first rumors from the teamsters came to us, filled with apprehension that he had permitted Jackson to throw his whole army between him and Strasburg, and fearing that he would be obliged to return, Banks directed Capt. Abert, of the topographical engineers on his staff, to turn back with his body-guard t and foil the enemy's pursuit, by preparing Cedar Creek Bridge for the flames. While they returned on their mission # the column pushed forward. We had been detained about an hour.
Donelly's Brigade and a wagon-train entered Winchester carly in the afternoon of the 24th of May, without sight or sound of an enemy; but our fate was different, and was as
* Banks's Report.
t A red-uniformed company from Philadelphia, calling themselves Zouaves d'Afrique.
# Banks's Report.
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follows : Notwithstanding the confusion," we pushed on, with- out much hinderance or delay, with orders to move towards Newtown en route to Winchester, to check an approach of the enemy in that direction. The train that preceded as well as that which followed us was immense. The distance to Middletown from Strasburg is six miles. When the wagons were straightened out, after Donelly's skirmish, the line was continuous for this distance, and was continually lengthening, as wagons emerged from Strasburg to fill the spaces of the line, still extending.
It was nearly one o'clock in the afternoon when my brigade passed through Middletown. There was no enemy there, but between Middletown and Newtown the ominous sound of can- non was heard in our rear. Quickly there came more reports of artillery, and then single troopers from the cavalry, riding rapidly towards Winchester, and halting, as they came up with the head of my brigade, only long enough to cry out that Jackson had attacked our rear, had cut our train in two, and in short was having the thing pretty much his own way. I made the same reply to one and all of these panic-stricken cavalrymen, " Go and tell Gen. Banks what you have seen." They obeyed, passing forward to the head of the column. Shortly, however, the number of fugitives increased, the roar of artillery was continuous, and reports from the rear more appalling. At length Newtown was reached, and here we found the dead body of one of Shields's men killed in Stew- ait's daylight attack upon our ambulances and sick. The man had been discharged from the hospital, and was march- ing along with the anibalances, unarmed, when he was shot through the head.
I had passed through the village, when a report reached me that the enemy had come in between my own brigade and the rear-guard, that they had captured many wagons and were now in pursuit. I instantly formed a new rear-guard of the
* Wagons ordered to the rear, Steward's attack with cavalry.
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Twenty-Seventh Indiana Regiment, and two sections of artil- lery. "Keep the enemy back, and protect all the train that's left," were my instructions, as I pushed on, until Bartonville, a little town about one mile and a half from Newtown, was reached. Here reports came to me that the enemy had planted a battery in the middle of the road, and having cut off all communication with the rear-guard of cavalry, were firing into the rear of my column.
It was now between 2 and 3 P. M. We were but five and a half miles from Winchester. At this point and time Gen. Banks made his appearance. Following him came the Twenty-Eighth New York Regiment, conducted thus far under orders to report to Gen. Hatch if practicable. Gen. Banks also directed me to order the Second Massachusetts Regiment to the rear, and gave orders himself for two sec- tions of artillery attached to my brigade to proceed in the same direction. Lieut .- Col. Andrews directed the men of the Second to remove their knapsacks, for they were much fatigued with the march over a dry and dusty road. This was done, and then the regiment turned its face rearward ; so did the artillery, - a section of Best's Battery under Lieut. Cush- ing. While this force was moving out, the wagons in advance of my brigade got into a condition of inextricable confusion, from which I saw Banks for a moment attempting personally to disengage them, with the assistance of my aid, Lieut. Scott of the Second, whom he requested to keep the wagons mov- ing until they got out of the snarl. These orders given, Banks turned away, and rode forward to the head of the column.
There was thus a new rear-guard constituted, -- the Second Massachusetts, the Twenty-Eighth New York, and the Twenty- Seventh Indiana Regiment, then in rear. Two of these regi- mients were from my brigade, and the battery was minc. There were also two of my regiments left with the main col- umn, the Third Wisconsin and the Twenty-Ninth Pennsyl- vania, and these were moving rapidly on towards Winchester.
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Which half should I join ? No orders had been given to me. Knowing that Bauks had ordered the Twenty-Eighth New York to report to Gen. Hatch of the cavalry, I assumed that he intended the remainder of the force so to report. I knew that Gen. Hatch could not be found; that he was somewhere near Strasburg, or escaping through the passes of the North Mountain to rejoin us. So I determined to assume command, and without a moment's hesitation turned to attack the enemy. and do what I could in rescuing the rear-guard and the baggage.
Near the outskirts of the straggling little village of New- town, I found some confusion in the train, and saw six or seven wagons that had been overturned and abandoned I found unhappy mules, helplessly tied down by the pressure of fallen teams, appealing so beseechingly for aid that I halted long enough to free them all. Around there were signs of panic and confusion. Here in advance I found Col. Colgrove, holding his little regiment of four hundred and thirty-one men (the Twenty-Seventh Indiana) stanchly in line of battle, while his artillery was firing upon the enemy's cavalry showing themselves in the woods on our left. The colonel reported that the enemy, with infantry and artillery, were in the town.
I determined to attack and drive them out. The Second Massachusetts being called upon to take the brunt of it, the regiment, with skirmishers thrown out, moved forward, sup- ported by the Twenty-Eighth New York and a section of Best's Battery. As Companies A and C, Capts. Abbott and Cogswell, moved forward through the main street, followed by supporting companies of the regiment, the enemy, posted in the streets, opened upon them with their artillery a strong and well-directed fire. Moving forward the Twenty-Seventh Indiana to their support, I sent in with this regiment two sections of Cothran's Parrotts to show the same old teeth that had so many. times proved fatal to their antagonists. As we advanced the enemy fell back from the town and planted their guns on the heights beyond, where they held out obsti-
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nately. The advance of my little column, with the Second Massachusetts leading off, and the shells bursting square over our regiment, was not so much of an experience in warfare as afterwards befell us ; but if we had known the immense supe- riority of the force in our front, on our flanks, and pressing to our rear, we should be obliged to admit that it was among our boldest. While Best's and Cothran's Batteries were replying to the enemy's shells that burst close enough to be endured, while the Second Massachusetts were firing occasional volleys, and dropping shots were heard, on the left by Capt. Abbott's Company, let us step over and look into the enemy's camp.
As the plan of Jackson's attack, it will be remembered, con- templated nothing less than the capture of our whole com- mand, his dispositions were made accordingly. Taking upon himself the task of shutting up Banks in Strasburg, Jackson expected to cut the Winchester road before we could pass it at Middletown. Recalling the condition of fatigue in which his troops entered Front Royal on the night of the 23d, it will be remembered why Jackson was obliged to defer his march until daylight of the 24th, when, with his whole army, save the forces under Stewart and Ewell, -that is, with at least five brigades of infantry from his own division and Ewell's, and all of Ashby's cavalry, and with forty field-guns less the two batteries that had followed Ewell, -he advanced upon Middletown.
The distance was twelve miles. With no opposition, save that near the town, he opened with his artillery upon a small body of our cavalry sent out by Gen. Hatch to observe him, --- the little village came in view across the broad and level fields. It was then between one and two in the afternoon. As his columns moved up in view of the main street they sow it " canopied with a vast cloud of gray dust, and crowded beneath, as far as the eye could reach, with a column of troops .*
» Dabney, p. 99.
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The troops were our cavalry, under command of Gen. Hatch, proceeding to join the head of the column, because of an order from Banks when he thought the enemy were between him and Winchester. Leaving at Strasburg six companies of the Fifth New York Cavalry and six com- panies of the First Vermont Cavalry to cover our rear and destroy stores that could not be carried away, Gen. Hatch, at the head of his column, arrived at Middletown in time to witness the enemy swarming upon his right, from the hillsides. In an instant two batteries of the enemy's artillery dashed forward to a commanding position at a gallop. Ashby, at the head of his cavalry, threw himself forward on the right; while Taylor, throwing forward the first regiment of his brigade into line, advanced at double- quick to the centre of the village. Then the artillery roared, the shells burst, and the fragments howled : Taylor's in- fantry poured terrific volleys into the confused mass that filled the streets ; and Ashby, swooping down, took advantage of this confusion to dash with sword and pistol among the overwhelmed troopers ; while all along the ridges, the rest of Jackson's overpowering numbers were pressing onward.
Gen. Hatch's whole cavalry command, not numbering over nine hundred ihen,* was lessened by the companies left as rear-guard, and those at the front with Banks, --- truly an unequal contest, and one which, not even for a moment, did our cavalry undertake. That under such circum- stances they broke in disorder and scattered over the adja- cent fields is undoubtedly true ; but that the way was encum- bered with dying horse, and men; that at every furious volley from the enemy, our cavalry seemed to melt in scores from their saddles, while the frantic, riderless horses rushed up and down, trampling the wounded wretches into the dust; or that cavalrymen fell from their horses before they were struck. and squatted behind stone fences and surren-
* Banks's Report.
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dered at first challenge, as reported in Southern histories,* is a picture of Southern fancy as imaginative as that " Ashby alone charged five hundred Yankee cavalry, dashed through their line, and firing his pistol right and left, wheeled about and summoned them to surrender, taking thirty in this way in one instance, being all who heard his voice," -- all of which was reported as a fact by "a gentleman of character and veracity." ; It is as true as that " Banks, after he retreated to Winchester, took the cars for Harper's Ferry, shedding tears, and declaring that he had been sacrificed by his Govern- ment." which is solemnly written in Southern history.
Notwithstanding Gen. Jackson in his report says that the turnpike, which had just before teemed with life, presented such an appalling spectacle of carnage, destruction, and demor- alization, he avers that he captured only "about two hundred prisoners, with their horses and equipages, and that the great body of the Federal cavalry made good their retreat."
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