USA > Maryland > The Maryland line in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865 > Part 26
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On the 24th of February two guns were sent to Cumberland Gap, under command of Captain Latrobe and Lieutenant Patten. When, on March I, Captain Latrobe returned, Lieutenant Claiborne was sent to command the section. On the 16th of March a brigade consisting of the Twentieth and Twenty-third Alabama, Vaughn's Third Tennessee, and the guns of the Third Maryland, under Captain Latrobe and Lieutenant Rowan, the whole commanded by General Leadbetter, made an expedition to Clinch River. The river was first reached at Clinton, whence the brigade continued forty miles down the valley to Kingston, reaching this point about the 28th. Thence on the next day one gun, with a detach- ment, accompanied General Leadbetter to Wattsburg, where they surprised and captured twenty-one bushwhackers.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Rowan had been ordered to repair to Knoxville to command the detachment left there in March, and now (April 14) Captain Latrobe himself returned, leaving Sergeant Ritter in command of the section. Lieutenant Rowan presently returned with orders to proceed immediately to Lenoir Station, eighteen miles distant, and there embark on the train for Chatta- nooga, to meet the enemy reported to be marching on that place. It proved to be a false alarm, and the battery marched back to Knoxville, where the right section. which had just returned from Cumberland Gap, was found encamped. During the stay of the right section at the Gap the enemy had assaulted the Confederate works during a snowstorm. The firing was kept up all day with no loss to the
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battery but a caisson damaged by a Federal shell. In the evening the enemy withdrew, having been repulsed in every assault. On May I Holmes Erwin was appointed Junior Second Lieutenant of the battery (having furnished twenty-five Tennessee recruits ) and it was made a six-gun battery. About this time two more guns were accordingly received from Richmond. On the IIth orders were received to join General Reynolds' Brigade at Clinton, Tennessee. This brigade consisted of the Thirty-sixth, Thirty-ninth and Forty-third Georgia, and Thirty-ninth North Carolina Regiments.
Again, on the 6th of June, the brigade proceeded to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and thence, after a few days, to Morristown, and then Loudon, in the same State. After a few days a march was made to Blain's Cross Roads, where the brigade remained in camp till the Ist of August. Here the battery received fifty recruits from Georgia.
The next movement was to Tazewell, in East Tennessee, where the enemy was met, defeated and driven back to Cumberland Gap. On the night of the 16th General Reynolds advanced to within four miles of the Gap, driving in the outposts of the enemy, and seizing a range of hills in their front. This position was main- tained till the 23d, when General Reynolds received orders from General E. Kirby Smith to march by way of Roger's Gap and Cumberland Ford, and join him in Kentucky. Richmond, Kentucky, was reached two days after the Confederate victory at that place. The enemy had suffered the loss of all their artillery and baggage wagons and the capture of their infantry force. In the subsequent march through Kentucky to the Ohio River, Reynolds' Brigade overtook Smith's advance, and the Third Maryland was the first to enter Lexington. They were greeted on all sides with exclamations of joy and welcome. Great quantities of clothing which had been captured were turned over to the Marylanders and others. The command proceeded thence to Covington, opposite Cincinnati, the whole movement being intended as a feint to draw troops from Louisville, on which Bragg was advancing.
The Confederate advance was ordered back to Georgetown on the IIth of September, and on the 3d of October, at Big Eagle Creek, near Frankfort, there was a review of Reynolds' Brigade by General E. Kirby Smith. When, on the 4th, Governor Hawes was inaugurated Military Governor of Kentucky, at Frankfort, the Third Maryland Artillery was selected to fire the honorary salute of fourteen guns.
That night, however, Frankfort was evacuated, and Smith retired towards Harrodsburg. The battle of Perryville was followed by Bragg's withdrawal to Tennessee, and the Third Maryland battery returned to Knoxville, via Cumberland Gap, where needed repairs were received. On the retreat Reynolds' Brigade closed the Confederate rear. While the Third Maryland was at Knoxville
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Lieutenant Rowan served as Judge Advocate in a general court-martial there convened. On the 20th of December the brigade was ordered to proceed to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where it arrived on the 2d of January, 1863. On the 23d three guns of the Maryland battery were sent to Warrenton, a few miles down the river. Two days later one section, under Sergeant Edward H. Langley, was put aboard the steamer Archer, and went down the river, on secret service. At this time Lieutenants Rowan and Patten, who had accompanied the wagon train overland, had not yet come up with the horses belonging to the battery, and Captain Latrobe and Lieutenant Erwin were away on leave of absence. The Archer went up Red River to Fort De Russy, and on the 27th the Third Mary- land had the pleasure of firing into the DeSoto. This vessel had been captured by the enemy but a few days previously, while stopping at Jolinson's Landing to take on wood.
January 30 a twelve-pound howitzer, with a gun detachment under Sergeant Daniel Toomey, was sent up the Mississippi to General Ferguson's command on Deer Creek. Thus the battery was divided into three parts, scattered up and down the river. Meanwhile Lieutenants Rowan and Patten, having rejoined the battery with the horses, it was now again ready for the field. The guns at War- renton were at this time placed under the command of Lieutenant Patten. Early on the morning of the 2d of February, the ram Queen of the West passed the batteries at Vicksburg and proceeded down the river. As she passed Warrenton, Patten opened on her without effect, but as she returned on the 4th, Sergeant Ritter hailed her with about sixty rounds of shot and shell, eliciting the compli- ment from her commander that "those guns at Warrenton annoyed him more on his return than the siege pieces at Vicksburg." A few days later the Queen of the West again passed down (during the night) and went up Red River to Fort De Russy, where she was captured by the Confederates. Sergeant Langley's section was now transferred to the Queen of the West from the Archer, and immediately after the former, with the Grand Era and the Webb, proceeded up the river to Grand Gulf, where (on the 24th ) they captured the iron-clad Indianola. The latter was a formidable craft, armed with eight and eleven-inch guns, and had just run the blockade at Vicksburg.
Captain James McCloskey, of General Richard Taylor's staff, commanded the Queen. The entire fleet was commanded by Major J. L. Brent.
A correspondent, speaking of this affair, says :
In closing, we cannot refrain from mentioning specially the command of Edward H. Langley, of the Third Maryland Artillery. He had detachments for two guns (thirteen men) on the Queen, and was in command of the two Parrott guns. He himself took charge of the eighty-six-pounder bow gun, with which he remained during the action, neither he nor
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huis men for a moment leaving their much-exposed position. While the bow of the Queen was yet resting against the side of the Indianola, his guns were still manned and fired, though he and his men were completely exposed. Aside from the courage thus shown, his skill and judgment in manoeuvring his piece in so contracted a space is certainly deserving the highest commendation.
The officers and crew of the Indianola were made prisoners, and the vessel formed a valuable addition to the small Confederate fleet on the Mississippi. Her subsequent career, however, was a brief one, as she was fired and abandoned by a Lieutenant of infantry, who, with a small detachment, was in charge of her. The enemy above Vicksburg had devised an imitation iron-clad (made of a coal barge, with pine logs for guns, and turned it adrift. ) As it floated down near the Indianola, the Lieutenant in charge became alarmed at the approach of so formidable a craft and decamped, after setting fire to his vessel.
Admiral Porter was much chagrined at the capture of this fine vessel, of which so much had been expected, and thus announced his loss :
UNITED STATES MISSISSIPPI SQUADRON, February 27, 1863.
To Secretary Gideon Welles :
Sir :- I regret to inform you that the Indianola has also fallen into the hands of the enemy. The rams Webb and Queen of the West attacked her twenty-five miles from here and rammed her until she surrendered, etc.
DAVID D. PORTER.
Lieutenant Patten, on March I, was ordered to Red River to take command of the section of the Third Maryland aboard the Queen of the West. He found her at Shreveport, Louisiana.
Early on the morning of the 14th of April Captain E. A. Fuller, now in command of the Queen, with the Lizzie Simmons as a supply boat, attacked the enemy's fleet on Grand Lake, Louisiana, consisting of the Calhoun, Estrella and Arizona, but before the vessels came within short range, an incendiary percussion shell from the Calhoun penetrated the deck of the Queen, exploded and set the vessel on fire. About twenty minutes afterward the fire reached the magazine, and the career of this celebrated boat was closed. After discovering the boat to be on fire, Lieutenant Patten rolled a cotton bale off the side of the vessel and jumped upon it, but it turned with him and he sank, not being able to swim. Thus perished one of the noblest and bravest of the Marylanders who went South. He Was a man of commanding physique, polished manners and rare attainments, a SIdier who reflected credit upon the cause he espoused ; and in his death the
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battery sustained an irreparable loss, and the service a gallant, brave and faithful officer. Sergeant Langley and all but four of his men remained upon the Queen, and were lost in the general destruction of the vessel. Captain Fuller jumped off the Queen and was picked up by the men of one of the enemy's boats. The Lizzie Simmons escaped capture.
The losses of the Third Maryland in this disastrous affair were :
Killed in the action or drowned in their endeavor to escape from the burning Queen : Lieutenant William Thompson Patten, Sergeant Edward H. Langley, Corporal Michael O'Connell, Privates Richard Tyson, J. Chafin, J. J. McKissick, Thomas Bowler, Edward Kenn and Joseph Edgar.
Captain Latrobe left the service on the Ist of March, 1863, and Lieutenant Claiborne succeeded to the Captaincy. On the 17th of March Orderly Sergeant William L. Ritter was elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Holmes Erwin, Junior Second Lieutenant. On the 21st of March Lieutenant Ritter was promoted to Senior Second Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Patten to Junior First ; at the same time Sergeant Thomas D. Giles was elected Junior Second Lieutenant to fill the vacancy caused by Lieutenant Ritter's promotion.
The battery remained encamped at Jett's plantation until Grant crossed his army at Grand Gulf, when it accompanied Pemberton's army to meet him at Baker's Creek, and was engaged in the battle fought there. On the 18th of May it returned with the army to Vicksburg. Private Henry Stewart was captured by the enemy in this engagement, and died afterwards at Fort Delaware.
During the siege of Vicksburg several men of the battery were wounded. Two were killed - Captain Claiborne and Private John Cosson. Captain Claiborne was struck by a piece of shell, on the 22d of June, and fell without uttering a word. He was a fine officer, and a braver one never drew blade in any cause. In him the South lost a generous, gallant and magnanimous man. He was a native of Mississippi, a grandson of General F. L. Claiborne, of Natchez, well known among the early settlers of Alabama, and a cousin of Ferdinand C. Latrobe, Ex-Mayor of Baltimore.
Lieutenant Rowan, on the 30th of June, was promoted to the Captaincy. At the same time Lieutenant Ritter was made Senior First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Giles was made Senior Second Lieutenant, and Sergeant J. W. Doncaster was elected Junior Second Lieutenant. When, on the 4th of July, Vicksburg fell, three officers and seventy men of the Third Maryland battery fell into the enemy's hands. Five of their guns, one hundred and thirty horses and mules, and all the appliances of a six-gun battery were also surrendered.
Only one gun, under the command of Lieutenant Ritter, remained. To trace its history it will be necessary to return to a point three months previous to the fall of Vicksburg, when, on the 2d of April, Lieutenant Ritter was ordered to the
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command of Toomey's detachment of the Third Maryland Artillery, previously commanded by Lieutenant T. J. Bates, of Waddell's Alabama Artillery. This section, one of Bledsoe's Missouri battery, and one of a Louisiana battery (Lieutenant Cottonham) were all under the command of Lieutenant R. L. Wood, of the Missouri Artillery, and were a part of a force under General Ferguson, which had for several months been operating along the Mississippi River. Their employment was to harrass the enemy by firing into their vessels of war and transports. When, in March, 1863, Porter's fleet of five gunboats entered Black Bayon in order to flank the Confederate batteries at Snyder's Bluff, General Ferguson met him at Rolling Fork and after an engagement lasting three days drove him back, inflicting considerable loss.
The greatest execution in this battle, strange to say, was done, not by the Confederate artillery, whose shot rolled harmlessly upon the backs of the enemy's iron-plated vessels, but by the sharpshooters. These were mainly Texans, who acted with characteristic daring. They approached the very bank of the stream and fired into the portholes of the iron-clads as soon as these were opened by the Federals for a shot at the Confederate artillery. The enemy labored under the additional disadvantage of being unable to depress their pieces sufficiently to reach their antagonists. so that their shell damaged only the tree tops. Harrassed and annoyed past endurance, they at length withdrew.
During April nothing of special note occurred. Steel's command of Federals employed itself in burning dwellings and gin-houses along Deer Creek, in its ustal manner.
On the 20th of April Lieutenant Ritter, with his section of the Third Mary- land, was ordered to join Major Bridges' force at Fish Lake, near Greenville, Mississippi. He came up with that command on the Ist of May, and the next day proceeded to the river to fire upon the boats, which were continually passing. The object of the Confederates was to prevent, as much as possible, reinforce- ments from reaching Grant at Vicksburg. Soon after the arrival of the Maryland section a transport appeared in view, ascending the river. Lieutenant Ritter opened fire on her, some of the shell exploding on her deck and others passing through her. She got by, but cast anchor a few miles up the river to repair damages. A swamp prevented further attack on her at her anchorage.
The firing had scarcely ceased when a gunboat hove in sight. The section took position behind the levee, where it would be sheltered somewhat during the engagement which was now anticipated. Lieutenant Ritter had taken the precau- tion to cut embrasures in the levee, so that he might thus protect his guns in an emergency. Approaching within range, the gunboat proceeded at once to open fire on the Confederates. The latter replied with shot and shell, and the engage- ment lasted about half an hour, when the enemy steamed away. It was afterward
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ascertained that the vessel was iron-plated only about the portholes for the protection of her gunners, and that some of Ritter's shells passed through the monster. About the Ist of May Lieutenant Cottonham's section was ordered to Vicksburg.
On the morning of the 4th one of Major Bridges' scouts brought the news that a transport heavily laden with stores, was coming down the river. Here was sport ! Lieutenant Ritter took his guns and masked them at a point where the current ran in near the bank on his side and awaited the vessel's approach. Soon the black smoke of a steamer was seen rising above the tree tops, beyond Carter's Bend, a few miles off, and shortly afterwards she came in sight. On the vessel came, rapidly and quietly, anticipating no danger. The Confederates were ordered to their positions, the guns were loaded, and as the boat came within their range the order " Fire !" was given.
The stillness of the calm summer morning must have seemed to the crew rudely broken, when in quick succession the shrill report of the rifle piece and the loud roar of the twelve-pound howitzer broke upon their ears. The first or second shot cut the tiller rope, and another broke a piston rod of one of the engines. The crew, despairing of escape, hoisted a white flag of surrender, and brought the boat ashore. Major Bridges and Lieutenant Ritter were the first to board the prize, which was found to be the Minnesota. The crew met them at the head of the saloon steps, and politely requested their captors, in true Western style, to " take a drink !" This was as politely declined, but a revolver which one of them wore at his waist was accepted instead - an article of which Lien- tenant Ritter was in special need at that time.
The prisoners - seventeen in number - were ordered ashore, and the Con- federates took possession. The boat was found to be heavily laden with sutlers' stores - flour, bacon, potatoes, pickles of all sorts, sugar, coffee, rice, ginger. syrup. cheese, butter, oranges, lemons, almonds, preserves, canned oysters, whisky, wines, mosquito nets, clothing, stationery, smokers' articles, etc. To impover- ished Confederates no greater mass of wealth could have seemed conceivable. They sat down to a luxurious dinner, which was in preparation at the time of their attack, and relished it, perhaps, more than those for whom it had been intended. Part of the festivities consisted in breaking a bottle of wine over Black Bess, Lieutenant Ritter's . iron twelve-pounder, to a shot from which Major Bridges attributed the speedy surrender of the Minnesota. She had long been familiarly known in the battery by this name, but only now at length on this happy occasion received her formal christening. After everything which would be of service was brought ashore, the steamer was fired. Her value was estimated at $250.000. She was the property of a Yankee speculator.
About 5 P. M. that day the enemy's gunboats appeared, and, without notice to the women and children upon them, began to shell the neighboring plantations.
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On the 6th the section was ordered to return to Rolling Fork, and upon its arrival Lieutenant Ritter was complimented by General Ferguson and Lieutenant Wood on his management of his guns. On the 14th both sections of artillery and Major Bridges' battalion of cavalry were ordered to Greenville, and on the 16th proceeded to their old camp at Fish Lake.
The morning of May 18, 1863, dawned with splendid promise. The sun rose bright and clear, laughing away the mist and heavy fog that had hid the face of the Father of Waters, and stirring to activity the Federals and Confederates pitted against each other along his whole course. The Confederates encamped at Fish Lake were still jubilant over their recent success with the Minnesota, and the captured stores enabled them to indulge in luxuries to which they had long been strangers. Grouped picturesquely about their fires, they drank their morning coffee with all the gusto due the genuine berry. Chatting, laughing over the details of their recent exploit, some sitting, and some half-reclining on their elbows, under their bivouac shelters, they slipped the aromatic beverage in complete enjoyment. If their inner man was well-to-do, their outer man had no less reason to be felicitated on his surroundings. Their camp was snugly inclosed on all sides by a deep and primitive forest of cottonwood, magnolia and live oak.
The Marylanders of Major Bridges' command were surrendering themselves to the charms of this romantic situation, when an order was received which made them oblivious of it all. The news had just come in through scouts that lined the river for miles above that a number of transports laden with reinforcements for Grant's army at Vicksburg were coming down, and would reach Carter's Bend that morning. Immediately all was life and bustling activity, and the soldier's peculiar feeling of quiet delight at the approach of danger took the place of the more amiable sentimentality of a few moments before.
Major Bridges' force consisted of one section of artillery under command of Lieutenant Anderson, another under Lieutenant Ritter, each with about twenty-five men. and a small squadron of Texas Rangers, the whole command numbering about two hundred and fifty inen.
Getting his command speedily in motion, he proceeded rapidly up the Green- ville road, eight miles, to a point above Carter's Bend. The Mississippi here makes a detour of fifteen miles, and then, returning upon itself, forms a peninsula, the neck of which is but one mile across. It was thought best to take this position above rather than the one below the Bend, as in case of success there would be an opportunity to fire a second time below at the vessels that had been disabled in the first attack.
The four pieces of artillery were placed on the river bank unprotected. but masked by the thick brush that grew along the water's edge. The dismounted cavalry. acting as sharpshooters and supporting the Maryland section, were
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disposed to the right and left along the river. The levee was about a hundred and fifty yards in the rear, and beyond that were the open fields of Carter's plantation. Thus disposed, the Confederates awaited the enemy's approach, beguiling the time by picking the luscious blackberries found here in great profusion.
They had not long to wait, as the Federal vessels soon appeared. The Crescent City, a side-wheeler which had formerly plied between New Orleans and Memphis, led the van. She was now employed as a transport, and was loaded down with troops, the whole vessel being blue with them. They covered the entire hurricane deck and crowded the water deck below, packed and jammed in a way that only pleasure-seekers can tolerate and enjoy. Behind the Crescent City, at a distance of about half a mile, was a gunboat, and following that at regular intervals four more transports. The number of troops aboard the five vessels was estimated at about four thousand infantry and cavalry. As the first transport - its decks a scene of jollity and animation - drew near the Confederate battery, the latter opened on her with a rapid fire of shell and cannister, the effect of which on the Yankees was, of course, startling. . They jumped and rushed with pain and fright to the opposite side of the boat, thus careening it fearfully and exposing its hull to the artillerists on shore. The latter proceeded at once to fire shell into it, till the Yankee officers got the men back and righted the boat again.
The infantry aboard returned the fire and wounded three Confederates. As soon as the gunboat came within easy cannister range, the artillery withdrew behind the levee in the rear. While this was going on below, the transports above came to the shore, threw out their stages, and speedily landed a force of three thousand cavalry and infantry to capture the pestilent Confederates. The latter withdrew their artillery at once across the open fields in the direction of Greenville, while Major Bridges, with the sharpshooters, remained at the levee to cover their retreat. To cover his own he ordered Lieutenant Ritter to halt his section of artillery at a bridge across a bayou half a mile in the rear, and await further orders. He himself withdrew by another road over a bridge half a mile farther up the bayou, while the enemy, in line of battle, advanced along both roads. As there was no force to hold the upper bridge, the way was open to Lieutenant Ritter's rear ; and yet no " further orders " came. The enemy had actually crossed the upper bridge and were nearing their line of retreat, when the Third Maryland limbered up and passed down the road at a gallop. At the same moment. seeing Lieutenant Ritter's peril, Major Bridges ordered a countercharge of his cavalry, on the other road, and thus held the enemy in check until the section was out of danger of capture.
Passing through a strip of woods into an adjacent plantation, the Confederates drew up in line to await the enemy. They not appearing, the retreat was continued by the artillery. The latter had not proceeded far, however, before a hurried order
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wo- recripoi - "Form battery and load with cannister, as the enemy will presently bemupon us !" Major Bridges, still lingering in the very presence of their advance. leing so close as to be summoned by them to surrender, but emptying his revolver mtotheir faces by way of reply, he then came dashing back to the artillery, which let him pass with his Texans, and then opened on the enemy with eight rounds, sweeping the road clear for the distance of more than three hundred yards. The effect on them was decisive ; they were thrown into the greatest confusion, many saddles were emptied and their advance checked.
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