USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, together with a complete roster of the regiment and regimental officers > Part 10
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"During the months of February, March, and April, many recruits came to the regiment, swelling the companies beyond the maximum number allowed by law, and the extra men were dis- tributed among the companies as unassigned recruits.' At Williamsburg, stables and huts were again constructed, and ali the time available was employed in perfecting the drill."
In February. Company G was detached for duty on the eastern shore of Virginia. From that time on until mustered out. the regiment was short one company. Companies A and H were temporarily detached for duty in Gloucester County soon after the Bottom's Bridge expedition, and remained there until the regiment returned to Camp Getty in April.
The first experience of Company A at Gloucester was far from pleasant. The avowed object was to enroll the inhabitants. They had been out all day in a hard rain. and returned to the Point after dark. There was no shelter-not even the woods. Running their sabres into the ground, they tied their horses to them, wrapped themselves in their wet blankets and passed the night as best they could. It became cold. and in the morning everything was frozen. The wind swept in from the Chesapeake like an Iowa blizzard. They made their way to Huntingdon Church, four miles distant : in the woods they made fires, thawed out, and got breakfast. They finally came up with Company H of the Eleventh, and the Sixteenth New York Heavy Artillery. camped opposite Yorktown. They soon made another trip. Gen- eral Lee's army was on the Rapidan. in front of Grant on the Rap- pahannock. The Gloucester and Matthews Counties' companies had been furloughed. and had returned home to recruit and spend the winter. At a large plantation house above Belle Roi a dance was planned in honor of the returned braves. The ever-
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present contraband came into our camp and reported it. Cap- tain Ringland. having obtained permission, went out with twenty men, timing his march so that he might arrive there at nine o'clock in the evening. Halting in front of the house, number four was ordered to hold horses ; numbers one, two, and three to dismount and surround the house. There was a picket fence in front. and in their hurry they did not stop to find the gate, but clambered over. Several were caught by their sabre straps, and had to call for help. The noise alarmed the guests within. They made a rush for the back door. but Ringland was there before them. Though alone, he called out as if he had a whole com- pany: "Come on, boys, here they are!" The frightened Con- federates went back into the house. Nine were captured ; two, who were outside, escaped. Captain Ringland and his men stayed long enough to help eat the roast turkey and pigs. The girls wished them to stay for the dance, but, being so far from home. they were bashful. since they were unaccustomed to strange lassies, deeming it better to return with their prisoners.
On the 25th of February, an expedition consisting of 3.600 men and a six-gun battery of horse artillery, under General Kil- patrick, left the cavalry camp of the Army of the Potomac for another dash at Richmond. The object of the expedition failed in its accomplishment, but Kilpatrick did not retire before he had driven the enemy within their inner line of works, and only withdrew when a strong reinforcement came up for the enemy. Learning that a large body of cavalry had been sent down from Lee's army to intercept his return, General Kilpatrick decided to proceed to General Butler's lines at Williamsburg. General But- ler ordered Colonel West to take 2,000 infantry, Colonel Spear's brigade, and a battery of artillery, to proceed to New Kent Court House : to remain there and render such aid to General Kilpatrick as might be necessary. Colonel West arrived there at 7.30 .A. M. on the 2d of March, and at HI A. M. Colonel Spear was sent to Tunstall's Station : here all the railroad property was destroyed. together with a large, valuable saw mill belonging to the Con- federate government. Several detachments were sent out by Colonel Spear to search for Kilpatrick's command, which was found on the morning of the 3d below White House. The two commands, with Colonel Spear in the rear, moved to New Kent. and next day returned to Fort Magruder. It was on this trip the famous guerrilla, Robert Cotton, was captured and killed near the six-mile Ordinary. He had been bushwhacking on
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the Peninsula for more than a year, and his character was well known.
Colonel Spear had his camp equipments in a spring wagon. He had sent his orderly ahead to go as far as a certain house and have supper ready. The orderly had tied the horse in front of the house and had gone in, when Cotton, the celebrated Con- federate scout of the Peninsula, came out of the woods, took horse and wagon, and made off with it. The advance came in sight, and after a long chase captured him. He was given his choice either to go as a prisoner or to take a start of twenty rods and take the chances of getting away. He took the latter, and the neighborhood was safer ever afterwards-Sergeant Crapster, an old deer hunter, shot him, or he would have escaped.
"On the gth," says General Butler, "while waiting for trans- portation. I sent a party of Kilpatrick's cavalry, with a part of Colonel Onderdonk's and Colonel Spear's cavalry from my own command. up to King and Queen's Court House to deal with those citizens who claimed to be non-combatants when a force of ours was present, but ambushed Dahlgreen."
Colonel Dahlgreen commanded a separate detachment of Kilpatrick's command, numbering 460, and had been cut off from his own command, together with a hundred of his men, during a night attack above Richmond on the James River. Failing to find his own command or Kilpatrick's, the Colonel at- tempted to make his way to General Butler's lines at Gloucester Point ; but arriving at King and Queen Court House, he was ambushed in the night by a force of regular Confederate cavalry and home guard, killed. his body mutilated. a number of his men were killed, and the remainder, seeing that resistance was useless, surrendered.
The companies of the Eleventh which took part in this ex- pedition are not definitely known, since the report of Captain Reynolds, who commanded them, is marked "not found" in the Rebellion records. Colonel Stratton's brief history is silent also ; not a single officer claiming the engagement at King and Queen Court House as his own. It is certain, however, that Companies F, K, and MI were there. Colonel Onderdonk, who commanded General Butler's cavalry, gives an account of the affair:
"On reporting to Colonel Spear. he placed me in command of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry and the First New York Mounted Rifles, with orders to report at Gloucester Point with my command to the senior officer commanding the Potomac
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cavalry. On the roth, at 4.30 A. M., I was ordered by General Kilpatrick to take the advance and move toward King and Queen Court House-the Eleventh Cavalry leading. We halted at the cross-roads within seven miles of the Court House and Carlton's Store, and were ordered by Kilpatrick to attempt the capture of the Forty-second Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, encamped near the store, and to burn the court house, jail, mill, and ferry located there. I detailed the Eleventh for the latter duty, with orders to join me at the store. I went, myself. with the Mounted Rifles to attack the camp, and upon reaching the store captured the mail and a large package of official papers, and learned from them that the North Virginia Cavalry, as well as the Forty-second Bat- talion, and about 150 citizen soldiers were waiting us in the vicinity. I then halted to await the Eleventh, deeming it unsafe and unwise to advance with my small force. When the Eleventh arrived they again led the advance. As we approached their camp, the Confederates retreated until about three miles from the store, where they formed in line with the appearance of resistance, but fled in disorder when charged by a battalion of the Eleventh. We pursued them for three miles, capturing five and wounding three; the rest dispersed in the woods, and formed in our rear at the store. Returning, we burned their camp, met them at the store, and the Mounted Riflemen pursued them toward Saluda, capturing five and mortally wounding one. We would have cap- tured a large number here, their horses being fatigued, but an aide-de-camp met me at the store, ordering me to move on the return route as rapidly as possible, and I was obliged to recall the charge. The prisoners at first reported the enemy's forces to be from 1.000 to 2,000, but, later, said they were not more than 500: but I have every reason to believe the former state- ment to be correct.
"Captain Reynolds, commanding the Eleventh Pennsyl- vania Cavalry, together with his officers and men, are entitled to the highest praise for their gallant action on the charge; also the Mounted Rifles."
It has been commonly said that the colored troops behaved nobly, but Major Wetherill says: "The regiment of colored cav- alry, Colonel Cole commanding, treated our old Suffolk friends so shamefully, stealing and plundering, until their conduct caused their removal to Williamsburg." But elsewhere we note. their strict adherence to instructions, though attended often by great inconvenience and sometimes with considerable danger. No officer or enlisted man was allowed to take liberties when going
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the rounds of a black picket line, but had to obey the very letter of army regulations.
When President Lincoln issued his preliminary proclama- tion in September. 1862, the general opinion, as expressed at the campfires of the Eleventh, was strongly against emancipation. Many spirited discussions were heard. and the defenders of the measure were decidedly unpopular. The discussions generally ended with "Well, I'll be d-d if I'd have enlisted if I'd known it was to free the d-d niggers." But, as time wore on, the wisdom of the measure was seen, so that when the final proclam- ation was made in 1863 all gave it their approval.
The enlistment of colored troops. also, at first met with op- position, the principal objection being found in the possibility of serving under non-commissioned colored officers-an objec- tion which never occurred. as care was taken to prevent it. Dignity and prejudice gave way to the chance of promotion. there being no case recorded where a soldier deemed fit to lead colored troops rejected the offer, clinging to his own ranks out of deference to an invincible antipathy to "niggers."
As the campaign of 1864 wore on, and the black troops proved themselves worthy, prejudice gave way to toleration. toleration to respect, and when the colored brigade of General Foster's command came proudly into line on the left of the Army of the James at Appomattox respect was supplanted by admiration. Although not cavalrymen, the colored soldiers won their spurs at Petersburg. Wilson's Landing. Burnside's Mine, and Fort Gilmore.
The King and Queen expedition closed the incidents, with the raids to capture Richmond and release the prisoners con- fined there. Whether the capture of the Confederate capital would have affected the continuance of the war is an open ques- tion. It might have caused some depression, but at the same time the spirit of desperation might have urged the Confederate army still in the field to wage war to the very end. How many a fair promise is spoiled by those we little expect! The expedi- tion which started on its trip to Richmond was confident of suc- cess, wlticht, had it been effected, would have added a glowing page to the record of the Eleventh. Perhaps some. in looking back, may -point out wherein failure ensued. but the fate of war is not always on one side, though it be in the right : wrong hath its triumph. its vantage grounds-many an Austerlitz before its Waterloo. Richmond was still named the capital of the Con- federacy-the attempt at its overthrow had been thwarted.
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CHAPTER VIII.
CAVALRY EXPEDITIONS.
PETERSBURG.
ON the 9th of April, the Eleventh broke camp at Fort Ma- gruder, and took up the line of march for the last time down the Peninsula, arriving on the following afternoon at Newport News, where transports were awaiting. We went to Camp Getty, took up our old quarters, which looked hard and dirty. The camp had other occupants during the absence of the Eleventh. On the 8th. Major Cornog was discharged on account of dis- ability, and Captain Ackerly was promoted to the vacancy. At the time of his promotion, Captain Ackerly was the ranking captain in the Eighteenth Corps. An order was issued on the 18th from department headquarters organizing what was after- wards designated as the Cavalry Division of the Army of the James. August V. Kautz, a newly-appointed brigadier-general, was assigned to its command. General Kautz had been pro- moted from the colonelcy of the Second Ohio Cavalry, at the re- quest of General Grant, for the skillful management in his pursuit of the Confederate General John Morgan during his famous raid through Indiana and Ohio the previous year. General Kautz was an unassuming man, not given to military display ; a safe, reliable cavalry leader, and did good service in the campaigns of 1864. The general expressed himself as being delighted with the Eleventh.
Lieutenant John L. Roper was assigned to the staff of Gen- eral Kautz as Division Commissary. The newly-organized division consisted of two brigades, two regiments in each brigade: the first brigade consisting of the First District of Columbia and the Third New York; the second brigade of the Fifth and Eleventh Pennsylvania. The brigade commanders were Colonel Mix, of the Third New York, and Colonel Spear.
On the toth, the Eleventh was part of a cavalry expedition to the Blackwater under Colonel Spear. Nothing was accom- plished so far as the Eleventh was concerned. except a dead horse : there were but few Confederate pickets along the river. The command returned to Camp Getty after an absence of three or four days. During the rest of the stay at Camp Getty the time was spent in preparing for the coming campaign. Colonel
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Stratton says: "As long raids into the enemy's country were contemplated everything possible was done to make the outfit complete, and to reduce the transportation to its lowest limit."
On the 5th of May, the command mounted horses and marched out of Camp Getty for the last time. It was a bright May morning -- all nature happy-the warm sunshine, the trees bursting into bud and blossom-the air filled with fragrance and song. It hardly seemed possible to be out of harmony with such a scene, yet the errand was destruction and death. Just outside the camp the band was stationed along the roadside, and played as the regiments marched by. The Eleventh had the advance. Marching was continued all day and far into the night. Beyond Suffolk a halt was made for a few hours. Here it was first inferred that Petersburg was the objective point.
General Kautz says of the day's march : "We marched via Suffolk to Andrew's Corners, about 40 miles. This point was selected for our first camp, so as to leave the enemy in doubt as to the destination of the next day's march, and to prevent their concentrating against our advance. The command moved at midnight of the 6th, and we directed our march toward the sources of the Blackwater by way of Windsor, arriving at Farm- ville about noon. There was a ford at this place across the Blackwater, and I made a pretence of crossing while the main force was marching on the Birchen Island Bridge. The guard at these bridges was engaged in taking them up as we arrived."
Late in the afternoon a point was reached three miles north of the Wakefield Station on the Petersburg and Norfolk Railroad, where the Blackwater enters a wide swamp, and two islands divide the stream into two channels, making three bridges. On the farther side was a breastwork which commanded the road and bridges, manned by a detachment of the enemy. The car- bineers of the Eleventh, under Major Ackerly. dismounted. floundered through the swamps, swam the streams. and flanked the enemy out of his position. Lieutenant Prudhomme. accom- panied by five men, had made his way through the swamp at the side of the road, and crossed the first bridge on the stringers. The lieutenant, exposing himself, was shot through the hip, which ended his military life, much to the regret of the regiment, for "Prudy," as he was called, was a general favorite. Dr. Rivers, division surgeon, said the lieutenant could only be saved by sending him to a hospital. and he was sent to Fort Pow- hattan. on the James River, where he arrived that night.
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The bridges were soon repaired and the command marched to Wakefield, where it bivouaced. having marched 50 miles that day. That night the railroad property, including the station, a few cars, and some of the track was destroyed. Before daylight of the 7th the command was again on the road, with the First Brigade in advance, and the Eleventh bringing up the rear. At Littletown the advance captured three wagons and fifteen prisoners. One of the wagons had been captured from Major Wetherill's command the previous fall at Suffolk.
It was a hot, sultry day, causing much suffering among the horses, forty of which were abandoned and left along the road. Their places were supplied so far as possible from the country. Boling's Bridge over the Nottaway was reached at 3 P. M., 40 miles having been marched during the day.
Rapidity of movement is one of the prime factors in a suc- cessful cavalry raid. When the advance arrived at Boling's the guard was busily engaged removing the planks from the bridge- conclusive evidence that the army had traveled as fast as the news of its coming. Colonel Mix drove the guard from the bridge, with the loss of Lieutenant John Mayo and two enlisted men of the Third New York. The planks were re-laid, and the com- mand moved rapidly to Stony Creek Bridge, which was burned after the guard of fifty men had surrendered.
Lieutenant-colonel Stetzel, with the Eleventh, was sent to burn the bridge over the Nottoway, six miles below Stony Creek, and arrived there at sundown : but, the bridge being de- iended by a strong force, Colonel Spear deemed it too late to venture an attack, and directed Lieutenant-colonel Stetzel to re- sume operations early next morning. During the night orders were received to move on the enemy at Jarrett's Station, five miles south, which were promptly obeyed, and the regiment ar- rived at the station a little before daylight. Two charges were made upon the enemy's position by the dismounted carbineers, but the enemy was too strongly posted to be dislodged. Lieu- tenant-colonel Stetzel withdrew beyond rifle range, and sent a large part of the regiment to take up and twist the rails. In the meantime, Colonel Spear, with the Fifth Pennsylvania, arrived. Another advance was made by the carbineers of the two regi- ments, aided by a vigorous fire from Sergeant Shannon's howitzers, dislodging the enemy, and capturing 35 prisoners. One of the prisoners wore a long coat fairly covered with military
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buttons of all kinds, and very reluctantly gave up some of them, begged as souvenirs of the occasion.
After destroying the railroad property and military stores at Jarrett's Station, Colonel Spear countermarched to the railroad bridge on the Nottoway, when he arrived to participate with Colonel Mix in the fight which ended in the destruction of the bridge. The bridge was defended by the Fifty-ninth Virginia, under Colonel Tabb, who assumed the offensive, trying to drive away the approaching Union force. But he reckoned unwisely, for the dismounted men of the First Brigade, and the Fifth Penn- sylvania, led by Colonel Spear, met the attack with such vigor that the enemy were driven back across the river and the bridge was in flames before it could be protected. General Kautz says of this affair : "It was a fatal mistake for Colonel Tabb to leave his entrenchments. for had he remained within the redoubt, we could not have reached the bridge to burn it without mnuch greater loss ; perhaps we would have failed entirely. The enemy could not fire upon our men until they reached the redoubt, and by that time the bridge was in flames."
The Confederates had followed Spear to Jarrett's Station, where Spear's brigade had a lively fight with Colonel Stubbs and 1, 100 Confederates, driving them down the railroad into their entrenchments. This earthwork covered Nottaway Bridge. Spear led the men gallantly. As the enemy came down the rail- road, our artillery played havoc with their flanks. They fled across the bridge. In this action Colonel Spear was reported killed. In these actions the Union loss was 50 ; the Confederate, 70. Colonel Spear came in unhurt.
As soon as the bridge was burned, General Kautz directed Lieutenant-colonel Stetzel to communicate under a flag of truce with Colonel Tabb, to effect an exchange of prisoners, which was soon done, but Colonel Tabb had only one officer and four privates to exchange for the 130 officers and men held by our forces. General Kautz says in his official report: "I could. no doubt, have captured Colonel Tabb's command : but reflecting that the loss of ammunition probably necessary to do it. the in- creased number of prisoners, and the time lost might seriously interfere, if it did not altogether defeat my return to City Point, I reluctantly left him to guard where the bridge had been." Doubtless. this was a wise conclusion. for troops were being hurried over the road from the south to the defence of Petersburg and Richmond: three train loads had passed
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up the road about noon on the 7th, and others were then ex- pected.
After exchanging prisoners, the command took up the line of march for City Point. The railroad bridge having been burned, the command fell back to Sussex Court House, where it encamped after dark, starting again at 4 A. M., and crossed to the north side of the Nottoway by an old wagon bridge. At a house near by, letters were found, advising the citizens to burn the bridge and cut us off. Boyington Plank Road was then struck, twenty-eight miles from Petersburg, which was followed to within twelve miles of the place. Camp was pitched after dark nine miles from Petersburg. The men and horses were worn out. Those who had coffee made it ; many were without, and had had no rations for two days.
The river in the vicinity of City Point was full of water craft of every description from a canal boat to a French man-of-war, somewhat calling to mind the scenes at White House two years previous. Heavy firing was heard up the river ; it was the Union gunboats attacking the batteries below Richmond.
On the IIth, the cavalry division was ferried to Bermuda Hundred, about a mile up the James, and past its confluence with the Appomattox. Butler's main force had landed here, which served for his base of supplies. Butler's army occupied a line extending from near Post Walthall on the Appomattox to Dutch Gap on the James, a line afterwards known as the "Ber- muda Front." From here, General Butler was expected to move against Richmond, but was, as Grant said, as completely shut off from further operations as if he had been in a tightly-corked bottle. During the day Companies B and H were detached for duty at the headquarters of General W. F. Smith, command- ing the Eighteenth Corps. These two companies participated in the Cold Harbor campaign, and Company B returned to the regiment in time to take part in the Wilson raid.
The next morning, General Kautz started on an expedition against the Richmond and Danville Railroad. concerning which General Kautz says: "The general (Butler) had planned an ad- vance on Richmond, which resulted in his repulse at Drewry's Bluff. He intended to move on the 12th, and I should take ad- vantage of the movement, passing from the leit to the Danville road to commit all the damage I could, and return as best I was able. I had but one day to prepare, and felt that the time was too limited to prepare properly for such an expedition. It
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was not possible to recover from the results of the hard work and long marches of the preceding week in the one day devoted to the preparation for another still more severe expedition. The expedition started out in a drizzling rain which continued through the day, and was the forerunner of a rainy week." We passed along the left of Butler's army, and struck the Richmond and Petersburg pike twelve miles from Richmond. A brigade of infantry with a battery of artillery was moving up the pike, but it was wide enough for us to move abreast. Ten miles from Richmond, the infantry advance encountered the Confederates ; a brisk skirmish ensued. The battery came up on a gallop, and went into position. We turned to the left and through the fields, and struck the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad at Chester- field Station, which we burned : continued on to Chesterfield Court House, arriving there at 5 P. M. The court house stood in the open country, and it was an old looking place. We con- tinued our march by cross-roads through woods, and at 2 P. M. on the 13th, came to the Richmond and Danville Railroad at Coalfield Station. 13 miles west of Richmond. We tore up the track and burned the depot in which was stored a large quantity of apple brandy, which made a bright blaze.
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