USA > Ohio > The Twelfth Ohio cavalry; a record of its organization, and services in the war of the rebellion, together with a complete roster of the regiment > Part 7
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About a mile beyond Abingdon Stoneman's advance en- countered a formidable force, and after a sharp skirmish in the darkness formed a line across the road and lay down without fires to wait for morning. Daylight revealed a considerable body of cavalry, which, after firing a few shots and seeing the proportions of the Federal force, retired rapidly toward Marion. Stoneman's column was again set in motion, and moving rapidly eastward, passed Emory and Henry Hospital half way to Marion, where a number of the wounded of Burbridge's brigades, who had fallen at Saltville in October, came pouring out of their sick beds and insisted on accompanying their comrades. It was a happy, unexpected meeting, and many of the poor fellows were wrapped up, mounted on captured horses and taken along. Pushing forward all the afternoon and night, the column, led by General Gillem with his Tennessee Brigade, reached Marion just at daylight the next morning. Just before dawn General Stoneman had ordered the Twelfth Ohio up to the front to join the Brigade of Gillem. Galloping instantly forward, the Twelfth had just reached its position with the advance brigade, when the column dashed into town, and without halting a moment
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spurred on after the mob of surprised rebels who, thus unex- pectedly disturbed, were trying to reach their camp, which soon appeared, covering a low, oblong mound or hill twenty rods in length, ten in width, and comprising tents for about three regiments. This was the permanent camp of Vaughan's Cavalry Brigade, whom Stoneman had flanked by his rapid night march and the capture of Bristol. It had been hoped that Vaughan thus cut off and left behind in Tennessee, would give us no fur- ther trouble for the present, but by forced marches over a par- allel road far to our right and unknown to Stoneman, he had passed the Federal column, and was now squarely posted in his own camp directly in our front. Gillem, upon confronting this new and formidable enemy, had four regiments in hand, the 9th, 10th and 12th Tennessee and the 12th Ohio. They were only two thousand men in all, but they were men in whom he relied. Comprehending the situation at a glance, that dar- ing officer instantly shouted, in a voice that distanced all bugles, `the order to " CHARGE." Away over the field to the foot of the hills went the Cavalry, up the slope, through the Camp, sabreing the rebels in their very tents, and in ten minutes Vaughan's full brigade, with eight pieces of cannon, was in pell mell retreat along the pike toward Wytheville. Then began one of the most remarkable and determined pursuits in the whole history of the war. Without waiting a moment in the captured camp, Gillem with his four regiments tore madly along the broad, smooth road upon the track of Vaughan. The latter attempted to use his artillery, and one after another the eight guns were stopped in the road, loaded with shell or can- ister, and as the Union column came sweeping on, blazed into the advance. The result was the same in eight successive in- stances. Before the piece could be reloaded their remorseless pursuers would be upon them, and an abandoned gun and a gunner lying here and there with a cleft head, would be left to tell Stoneman how valiantly Gillem was following up his advantage at the front. For thirty five miles Gillem's regiments rode and sabred without firing a shot. One by one they gathered in the
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eight cannon of Vaughan; his wagons, ambulances, and carriages filled with citizens, all were overtaken and captured. It was seven in the morning when Gillem had swept through the camp at Marion; it was only one in the afternoon when his advance trotted over the hill that looked down into Wytheville, the headquarters of Breckenridge and the military centre of the Department. He had chased his enemy thirty-three miles in six hours. Three hundred prisoners had been taken and half as many killed and wounded. The chase had not been without its humorous side, for there is never a victory so sweeping but it embodies some word or scene to be afterwards laughed over. During the autumn previous this same cavalry brigade of Vaughan had achieved a decisive victory over a small force under Gen. Gillem at Bull's Gap in Tennessee, at which time the stubborn General, flanked and outnumbered, had been driven precipitately into Knoxville. Prominent among the men of Vaughan's brigade who had pressed Gillem's rear so sorely was a florid and sanguinary sinner graced with the title of "Major Day." As the pursuit continued past Strawberry Plains toward Knoxville, that unfortunate night some one would call out at intervals, in a voice which to Gillem was like the croak of doom, "Give it to them Major Day." This ghastly formula the Tennesseeans vividly remembered, and during the hard gallop from Marion to Wytheville, the answering taunts, "Close up, Major Day," and " Give it to them, Major Day," rang along Gillem's column like an avenging fate. Major Day, it may be remarked, was among the prisoners picked np during this raid.
Arriving at the crest of a hill just outside the confines of Wytheville, General Gillem sent a flag of truce with a demand for the instant surrender of the place. As the white flag went forward, the four Federal regiments were formed in column, two regiments on each side of the road, ready for any event. This done, all eyes were turned to the little party with the flag, which could still be plainly seen meeting the rebel picket in the road near the town. The conference lasted but a moment,
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Wytheville refused to surrender, and, as the Confederate saluted the flag officer and rode away, Gillem understood the refusal, shouted the order to charge and fairly chased the Captain, who had met the flag, into Wytheville. The flight of Vaughan's beaten and demoralized brigade through the place had thrown every one there into the wildest panic, and a single volley from the picket was all the resistance encountered by the invaders. Soldiers, citizens, negroes, loose horses and mules, joined in the general stampede to the hills and fields that encircled the place. Many were captured, but few or none wounded or killed, for resistance was at an end, and Gillem's men had not learned the noble Confederate art of massacreing defenceless prisoners. The goal was now reached. In six days Stoneman's command had traversed an entire department and now held its Capitol. There might be trouble before it could extricate itself, for the main army of Breckenridge had not yet been met. There was not a moment to lose. The Twelfth Ohio was set to work destroy- ing the immense military stores of the post, and two Tennessee regiments were immediately sent forward twenty miles further to destroy the magnificent bridge by which the railroad to Rich- mond crosses New River. This last was successfully accom- plished and at nine o'clock that night the immense structure, - one of the finest and most costly pieces of engineering in the Confederacy, fell, a blazing ruin, into the River. During the afternoon the two regiments left behind at Wythe- ville had been equally busy. The large railroad depot filled with arms and cavalry equipments, a large church stored with ammunition, large quantities of forage, corn, meat, and flour, the medical dispensary of the department, and various other Confederate property, were destroyed. From the subsequent report of General Breckenridge, it appears that the loss at Wytheville amounted to 900 stand of arms, 5,000,000 rounds of small arm ammunition, 5 pieces of cannon, 35 caissons, 15,000 rounds of fixed artillery ammunition, 7,000 blankets, 225 harnesses and pack-saddles, $15,000 worth of medical stores, 5,000 bushels of grain, 13,000 rations and 60 Confederate wagons.
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The humiliation of Breckenridge was complete. Upon entering the town the men and officers of the Twelfth looked eagerly among the faces of the flying mass for the face of Captain Mason of Squadron "L" whose capture in Kentucky two months before has been already recorded, and of whom the regiment had intellegince through prisoners captured. The Captain had been kept at Wytheville during the intervening period, and was run out by rail toward Richmond, only a few hours before the arrival of his comrades. His only consolation, as he was tum- bled along toward Libby Prison, was the reflection that the frightened mob with which he was going were his enemies, and it was his own Regiment and Squadron who were driving them.
Just before midnight the force sent to destroy New River bridge, returned, and Gillem with his brigade, set out on his return toward Marion. The Twelfth Ohio, which had labored all the afternoon filling the wells and cisterns with captured ammunition, seeing the impossibility of completing its task before morning in that manner, fired the church which had served Breckenridge as an arsenal, and marched away toward Marion, to the music of such a fusilade as even the havoc of „war seldom creates. Gillem moved briskly toward Marion, and soon after midnight met General Stoneman with the main command and the pack trains of his own Brigade. A brief consultation took place, and the division bivouacked beside the road till morning. General Stoneman had the day before sent three regiments from Marion under command of Col. Buckley to destroy a valuable lead smelting establishment in the margin of North Carolina, and this force was still absent. But with the remainder of his divisions now together, Stoneman felt capable of fighting his way back to Saltville, the real objective point of the expedition. Saltville had been left behind in the mad chase after Vaughan, and it was fortuuate for Stoneman that this was his plan. In Saltville was General Breckenridge with a force of 3000 infantry, several hundred cavalry and a battery of field artillery, besides the heavy guns of the fortifi- cations and the regular garrison of the post. Had Stoneman
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advanced directly against Saltville, he would have met this force behind permanent works, and with Vaughan's cavalry on his flank and rear could have hardly escaped repeating the disaster of Burbridge at the same point two months before. But his deter- mined conquest at Marion, and the vengeance with which Gil- lem had followed Vaughan to Wytheville, had driven that part of Breckenridge's army far out of the way, and Breckenridge seeing his department being torn to pieces by a Cavalry divi- sion, came out of Saltville with his full force, marched down to the main road by which Stoneman had passed on toward the east, and planted himself at a bridge a short distance east of Marion, to oppose Stoneman's return. He had thus been drawn into taking open ground, where each side could have advan- tages nearly equal, and where, if victorious, he could practically destroy the division of his enemy.
We now return to the Federal column which was left on the morning after the destruction of Wytheville encamp- ed along the road eight miles west of that place. Soon after light the camp was astir, and as neither men nor horses had much to eat, breakfast was speedily dispatched. The Twelfth Ohio was restored to its original place in Burbridge's Brigade, and the column moved leisurely back toward Marion, distant twenty-five miles. About noon, after having marched sixteen miles, the advance guard suddenly encountered a body of 400 cavalry drawn up on a hill. This was a part of Breckenridge's force sent forward to recon- noitre. As the cavalry showed a disposition to be stubborn, a halt was ordered, and all men in Burbridge's brigade having sabres and good horses were sent forward to be used as cavalry for sabre fighting. This detail included 200 men of the Twelfth Ohio who went forward under Major Herrick, the remainder being left with the main body in the rear. In going forward with his two hundred, Major Herrick took position in the column immediately behind the Fifteenth Kentucky, which under Colonel Wm. Boyle, led the advance. Thus disposed, the men with sabres, advanced determinedly, twice charged the rebel cavalry and twice sent it flying to the rear. In this way
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the pursuers reached a point where the road, after passing some distance along the left bank of a considerable river, sud- denly turns to the right and crosses the stream by a long, covered bridge. Here the enemy made a determined stand. and as Colonel Boyle came round to enter the bridge, he was received with a fire that checked his advance. His men began dismounting and fighting from behind such cover as the nature of the ground offered. Unable for the moment to advance, Boyle rode back to Major Herrick and said : " They are meet- ing us heavily, Major; what shall we do?" "Charge them, by all means," replied Herrick, and added, " My men are all mounted and well in hand, Colonel ; let us take the advance." " All right," replied Boyle, and the Major, calling his men to charge, whirled down the road, through the bridge, and again put the enemy to flight. The cavalry mostly retired over a hill to the right of the road, and Major Herrick, having success- fully carried the bridge, left his men in column and rode up the hill to the right to see what had become of the enemy. As he mounted the slope, the road toward Marion, which up to that point had been hidden by the hill, was revealed to him, and there stretching across the way in line of battle, and not fifty rods from where he was then standing, was the whole force of Breckenridge ; the infantry in line, the artillery in position to sweep the pike, and the cavalry massing in the road for a dash at the coming Federals. Hardly had the Major comprehended this picture, and the shower of bullets with which he was saluted, when he saw the hostile cavalry dash down the road at the charge. There was but one way to meet such an assault and that was to give blow for blow. Spur- ring down the hill to within sight of Major Moderwell, who headed the two hundred of the Twelfth Ohio, who alone had crossed the bridge, he shouted, "The cavalry is coming upon us, meet them with a charge." The order was instantly obeyed, and with drawn sabres, the two hundred in a close column of fours, and with Majors Herrick and Moderwell at their head, charged round the hill and came crashing into the front of the
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rebel column, four hundred strong and brave, but not confident enough to eschew fire arms at such a time, and trust to the sabre. As the two columns came together, the Confederates checked, their horses and began firing ; the two hundred drove savagely into them and soon had them turned and in full retreat. They could not be chased far, for only a few rods beyond lay three thousand infantry in line of battle. So the moment Major Herrick saw the rebel troopers fairly turned, he gave the order "Fours right about," and trotted briskly back to the bridge. This charge had been made by Major Herrick wholly on his own judgment, indeed his rush across the bridge had been only in obedience to the general plan of attacking the enemy wherever he could be found. Col. Brown, the Brigade Com- mander was not present on the field until an hour afterward. Without reflecting upon the conduct of any officer or regiment it is but simple justice to Major Herrick and his gallant detach- ment to say, that had their charge been supported by the remainder of the column, they could have gone through Breck- enridge's line like a thunderbolt, doubled him up and captured his cannon and bagged hundreds of his command. Finding himself, on the contrary, wholly unsupported, Major Herrick had only to take advantage of his success thus far, and retire. The moment his detachment became disengaged from the enemy's cavalry, the artillery and infantry opened upon him, and as he retired through the bridge the shells and shrapnel were whistling through its timbers most unpleasantly. At the moment of meeting the rebel column, Major Moderwell's horse was shot, and the Major himself had received two ugly wounds. Lieut. Newell of Squadron "A" had likewise fallen desperately wounded, a third man had been killed, and Major Herrick's horse shot and disabled. Both the wounded officers were left in the road and fell into the hands of the enemy, by whom they were robbed, but otherwise well treated.
In the general melee which followed the headlong dash of the Twelfth Ohio into the column of Breckinridge, Lieutenant James J. Defigh of Squadron "L" was captured. In the ex-
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citement of the moment his captors forgot to disarm and dis- mount their prisoner. The Lieutenant sat quietly on his horse for a moment, then as the crowd began to press toward the bridge on the heels of the retreating Federals, he quietly drifted along in that direction. Just then there came up a swaggering rebel who accosted Defigh with the salutation, "You d-d Yankee s-n of a b-, how does that feel," at the same time giving him a harmless blow with his sabre. The insult was a fortunate one, for it made its victim momentarily desperate. Snatching his long regulation sabre from its scabbard, he clove the head of his enemy down to the eyes, then spurring his old white horse to a gallop, he slashed through the crowd in front of him, cutting right and left with his sabre and escaping amid a shower of pistol bullets into the bridge. There was a loud happy cheer among the two hundred as the old white horse came trotting back to the new line behind the river.
Colonel Boyle had accompanied Major Herrick's detachment in its dash across the bridge, but his regiment had remained where it had dismounted just before reaching the river. Hav- ing retired across the stream, the six or eight hundred men with sabres took up a defensive position reaching out to the left or down the river. This was necessary, for the rebel infantry immediately began crossing the stream lower down and moving round on a ridge as though to flank the line along the river. The remainder of the command under Stoneman soon came up, and took position on the left of the line already formed, the ar- tillery occupying a round knoll behind the centre of the posi- tion. General Gillem had been sent off to the right with his brigade to gain if possible the rear of the cavalry force which we had been fighting all the forenoon in order to render its capture certain. During his absence the entire force of Breckenridge had been found, as already described, and Stoneman wished he had not sent Gillem and his three regiments away. Indeed, what with the absence of Gillem and that of Colonel Buckley with his three regiments, gone to destroy the lead works, it was apparent that Breckenridge had just then in line as many,
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if not more men than Stoneman. Thus the afternoon of the 17th and all day of the 18th passed away-Breckenridge con- stantly pushing his infantry round on our left, and Stoneman moving his men to confront each new attack. The fighting on the 18th was at times severe, and about noon of that day Colo- nel Boyle, the gallant leader of the Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry, was killed. Both sides fought exclusively on foot, the carbin- eers of Stoneman making and repelling charges without the moral aid of bayonets. The horses were sent round to the rear of the knoll upon which Stoneman's artillery was posted, and there held by as few men as possible. During the afternoon of the second day a small force of the enemy seemed likely to swing quite round our left and gain our rear. No men could be spared from the main line, so an order was sent to Lieuten- ant Lohmire, of Squadron " I" Twelfth Ohio, commanding the led horse brigade, to detach a force for the protection of this threatened point. Tying the horses into groups of 15 or 20, each of which could be held by one man, the Lieutenant formed a forlorn hope of thirty men and went off up the hill to the left, held the path, made a charge, and received a severe wound in the shoulder, but held his own till dark, when he was ordered back to the main body. Late in the afternoon a detachment of rebel cavalry, which by some means had gained Stoneman's. rear, came charging down upon him from the direction of Wytheville. To beat off this new enemy, ten more men of the Twelfth from those left to hold horses, were sent, and after a brisk skirmish this new danger was averted. As night closed the prospects of Stoneman and his command were desperate. He was outnumbered by a fresh and determined force under Breckenridge, an accomplished tactician and a desperate fighter. His enemy had begun the fight the day before with a strong advantage of position, which had been extended until Stone- man's force had been completely enveloped. Gillem and Buck- ley were still absent, and his ammunition was nearly exhausted by nearly two days constant fighting. He had neither food for his men nor forage for his horses. Orders were therefore given
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for the troops to rest where they stood till morning ; an hour before day, all would mount and the command would form in column, with the Twelfth Ohio in front, and at dawn cut its way out of the trap. During the evening, Gillem returned, having accomplished nothing-he too had found the force in our front too large a one to be easily bagged. Thus strength- ened, Stoneman, just before dawn, silently mounted and formed his men, but as the light grew clearer the expected fire of the enemy did not come. The hills they had held the day before were scanned with glasses, but not a grayback was to be seen. Scouts were sent across the bridge and returned to say that no enemy appeared in that quarter. Breckenridge was gone, and with lightened hearts the column pressed forward to Marion. Here were found Major Moderwell, Lieut. Newell, and several others who had been wounded during the previous engage- ment, captured and brought to Marion and left by the retreat- ing enemy. Their story explained the marvel of Brecken- ridge's retreat. Col. Buckley, sent two days before to destroy the lead works, had mistaken his orders and returned to Seven Mile Ford, on the main road seven miles west of Marion. Here he had encamped to await orders, and Breckenridge, hearing of this force in his rear imagined himself surrounded. He had therefore silently abandoned his attack upon Stoneman, fallen back by night to Marion, left there his wounded, and retreated from Marion directly southward into North Carolina. With Breckenridge and Vaughan thus disposed of, Stoneman, his full division again united, could capture Saltville at his leisure. Major Moderwell was put into an ambulance and taken with the command, and the remains of Col. Boyle, killed at the bridge the afternoon before, were embalmed in salt and likewise brought away with Burbridge's column on its retreat. From Marion, Stoneman marched to Seven Mile Ford ,by the main road and then struck northward to Saltville, twenty miles distant. He approached the place during the afternoon, moved his forces so as to envelop it quietly while keeping as much as possible out of reach of its guns, and dur-
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ing the night, rushed in from all sides and overpowered the small garrison almost without loss. The next day was given up to devastation. Three hundred buildings belonging to the salt manufacture were burned, three thousand salt kettles broken up, and the salt wells themselves stopped up by driving solid shot and shell down them. The Confederacy could get no more salt from that quarter. The artillery of the fortifica- tions was also spiked and rolled into the river. The work of the expedition was now done, and it only remained for the victors to get safely home. Adding the four hundred prisoners captured at Saltville to the large number previously taken, General Stoneman with Gillem's brigade returned in safety to Tennessee, passing down nearly the same road by which the division had entered Virginia. Burbridge, with his six regi- ments, forded the Holston River in front of Saltville in the midst of a bitter, freezing rain, and on the 22nd of December set out to return through the Pound Gap to Kentucky. He was still fearful that when divided from Stoneman, he might be assailed by Vaughan and Breckenridge combined, and to make matters safe it was necessary to get beyond the Clinch river and the Cumberland Mountains as early as possi- ble. Marching all day through the freezing rain, the brigade stopped just at night at a rich farmer's, whose grain, poultry and cattle disappeared before the hungry troopers and their horses like snow before a summer sun. This was the last com- fortable meal that the little army was to have for many a weary day, and they made the most of the hour given them to enjoy it. . At dark the column again moved on, and made that night one of the most terrible marches on record during the war. A furious gale froze the heavy rain as it fell, and the road was soon covered with a thick, slippery coating of ice. Horses could no longer walk with certainty, and after a dozen falls, most of the men dismounted and led their animals as best they could. Stiffened as their clothing was by the frozen rain, many of the men found walking almost impossible, and the fre- quent falls that ensued disabled many a soldier who had come
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