USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry which was recruited and known as the Anderson cavalry in the rebellion of 1861-1865; > Part 2
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I must confess there was enough human nature in me to give me an exalted sense of military distinction when I rode into the midst of these men on my fine war horse, with jingling saber and the handsome navy blue and orange braid special uniform of the Anderson Cavalry.
One of my stirring memories of that journey down the Cum- berland Valley is of a scene worth remembering. When General Miles surrendered to the rebels at Harper's Ferry, a gallant band of Union cavalry refused to yield, and cut their way out. Journey- ing northward, they came across a long wagon train loaded with supplies for Longstreet's corps of Lee's army. The train-con- sisting, so far as I recollect, of some seventy wagons-they captured together with its escort, and brought them along. I saw the dusty procession marching into Greencastle, and had the honor of being placed, loaded revolver in hand, on the hind step of an omnibus, to stand guard over the rebel prisoners of that escort, whom I conducted to the town jail. I felt almost as proud as if I had captured that wagon train myself.
Our Regiment was forwarded to the front, in a number of separate detachments, and there engaged in different duties, such as scouting, guarding batteries and the like. It was seen in so many parts of the field, and so ubiquitous were its operations that the impression was created that the Anderson Cavalry was a body 10,000 strong, as I heard it stated by some of the country people at that time. On Friday, which must have been the 17th or 18th of September, it fell to my lot to go on a scouting expedition in a
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Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry.
squad of twenty, under a Lieutenant, who, I think, belonged to a Philadelphia company. We left Hagerstown early in the morn- ing, and, after pursuing many devious paths, without adventure (although we heard the booming of heavy guns and met long trains of ambulances bringing in the wounded), we struck the Hagerstown-Willamsport turnpike, about midway between the two towns, somewhat late in the afternoon.
Proceeding toward Williamsport, we encountered a small force of Confederate cavalry, and exchanged shots with them until they retired. Five of us were then placed in a field to watch some woods for the enemy, while the remaining sixteen advanced fur- ther down the road. In half an hour or so we heard firing and the clatter of hoofs down the road, and the sixteen came back at full gallop, with no less than 200 or 250 rebel cavalry in hot pur- suit. They called on us to "fall in," and we promptly acted on the suggestion. Here my swift horse did me a good turn and fairly flew up a long, gentle slope to a tollgate, where we found one of our infantry picket posts. Here we halted and faced about in ranks across the road, while the infantry, a company of the Gray Reserves of Philadelphia, lying in the field behind the fence, opened fire on the rebel cavalry. On this they also halted and ex- changed volleys with us until it became quite dark.
After some time the Captain of the infantry company ordered our Lieutenant to send a couple of his men down the road in order to ascertain what had become of the enemy. The Lieutenant de- murred, saying the infantry could better perform this service, as they could quietly creep along the side of the road unobserved and that it was the place of infantrymen to do advanced vidette duty. To this the Captain replied that it was safer for cavalry, as they were "high up out of range." He further insisted that he, being a Captain, and therefore outranking our Lieutenant, had a right to command. I listened with much interest to the discussion of this important question, and although inclined to think our champion had the best of the argument, nevertheless, when either from con- viction or necessity he yielded the point, and ordered two of us to advance and investigate, I felt flattered at his selecting me as one of the two. We rode down a considerable distance in the thick darkness and were able to return and report that the enemy had withdrawn.
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
About midnight the Captain withdrew the whole picket from the tollgate and took up a position at a crossroads a quarter of a mile to the rear. There was no reason for this that I know of, except that we had heard two or three shots fired far away on our left flank. But the retirement was hasty and partook somewhat of the nature of a panic, as will appear further on.
Shortly after I was sent back toward Hagerstown with a mes- sage from the Captain to the Colonel of his regiment, requesting him to send another company to relieve the one on duty there. I was surprised on going back on this errand to find an army of 15,000 men drawn up in three lines of battle at right angles to the road, under the command of General Reynolds. As our scouting party had come by roundabout country roads, we had no knowl- edge of this large force on the turnpike. It was a grand and inspiring sight, as the men sat or reclined around their bivouac fires in these three great lines. It was reported that Lee was expected to make an attack on Hagerstown and this force was drawn up to repel the attack.
Having searched in vain for my Captain's Colonel, I returned to the picket post and reported accordingly; then lying down at the side of the road with my horse, we both succeeded in getting a little rest.
At daybreak a quiet-looking gentleman in black came riding out, and stopping, asked "Who is the Commander of this post?" The Captain replied somewhat pompously that he was the Commander of the post. The stranger, in language very emphatic but not altogether polite, asked him why the - he had fallen back from the tollgate. The Captain did not seem to like the stranger's manner of speaking, and asked him who he was. "I am General Reynolds," said the gentleman in black; and being thus enlight- ened, the Captain stammered out an apology and explained that we were in danger of being outflanked by the enemy and had retired as a precautionary measure. General Reynolds thereupon peremptorily ordered him to go back to the tollgate, and back we went, the cavalry, as a further precautionary measure, in advance.
Arriving at the tollgate, we found the field strewn with haver- sacks, canteens and overcoats, showing the hasty nature of the retreat ; thereupon we looked into some of the haversacks and found them well stocked with bologna sausages and other good .
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Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry.
things fresh from home. We were glad the enemy had not out- flanked the sausages, and annexed them ourselves, being almost starved, with hard work and no food for twenty-four hours past.
Our little force of twenty-one was soon after allowed to retire to Hagerstown, but as we marched toward the town I was much excited by meeting General Reynolds' little army advancing witlı their artillery, in the direction of Williamsport. They planted a battery at our tollgate on high ground, commanding a view almost to Williamsport, where Lee's whole army was then concentrating in its retreat by the ford at that point across the Potomac. The fact that the enemy was in full retreat was not known to us at the time, and we supposed the expected attack on Hagerstown was about to begin.
Soon we met a large column of our own Anderson Cavalry, probably several hundred in number, though I never knew how many there were, and my enthusiasm knew no bounds. The Regiment was all broken up into fragments during the whole of that Antietam campaign, and I had no idea where my own Com- pany was, so I broke abruptly from the little squad of twenty-one, and, wheeling around, fell in with the column mentioned. Pro- ceeding to the tollgate once more, we were drawn up in double rank on the slope below and in front of our battery, which fired over our heads at the enemy now visible in the distance, and shelled a piece of woods somewhat to the left of the front, the same we had been exploring the day before. The first fire of our battery seemed to go wild, and endangered some of our own men who had taken a position in advance of our post. I heard that some rebel sympathizers at Hagerstown had tampered with our guns, but, however this may have been, the error was soon rectified, and we could hear our shells crashing through the treetops and bursting all right.
Meanwhile the rebels had brought up a battery and their shells were soon hurtling past and over us, together with their humming minie balls. Our infantry lines were extended far to the right and left, firing from behind the stone walls, which were the usual fences of the farms in that region. There were also some post- and-rail fences along the road in our immediate front, and some of our Regiment were detailed to knock them down in order to give the cavalry free play.
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
All this was very impressive to a new hand, like myself, but it came to a climax when we were ordered to advance down the turnpike and charge the Confederate battery. My position was in the front rank, on the right, and when we wheeled by fours to the right to form into a marching column I was, of course, at the head of the column.
Well do I remember, as if it had been but yesterday instead of forty-two years ago, the crowding emotions which tingled within me as we marched down the road on that dangerous duty. It was a strange, complex feeling, compounded of physical fear plus men- tal and moral exaltation.
General Lee did not make his attack after all; it was only a feint to cover the retreat of his shattered army into Virginia.
The firing gradually died away, and this was about the last of the great battle of Antietam.
We all soon returned to Carlisle, and were subsequently sent by rail, via Pittsburg and Indianapolis, to Louisville, Ky., and were there again supplied with horses and thence marched to Nash- ville, Tenn., to join the Army of the Cumberland, under General Rosecrans. I do not know what had become of the idea of our being made General Buell's bodyguard. It seems to have evapo- rated by this time.
I felt, after reaching Nashville, that we were a rather forlorn set of orphans, for our gallant Colonel had mysteriously disap- peared at Antietam, having been taken prisoner. Nevertheless, our spirits up to this time at least were irrepressible. I remember that some of our boys made a part of the railroad journey seated on the cowcatcher of the locomotive, and seemed to enjoy it. I was not myself in this party of cow (catcher) boys, but still feel rather proud of having, with my messmate, John Henry Sharpe, made myself a kind of informal member of the Legislature of Indiana and having even occupied the Speaker's chair in the Senate Chamber. The incident may be worth relating as a further illustration of the superabundant energy and spirits of the Fif- teenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
At Indianapolis, having learned that the Regiment was to. stay at the Soldier's Home till morning and perhaps all the next day, too. I was determined to embrace the oppor- tunity of calling on a gentleman whose sister, Mrs. Porter, I had
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Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry.
known when a boy in India. This gentleman was Dr. Theophilus Parvin, then a practicing physician in Indianapolis and afterward a professor in the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. I did not know him personally, and probably he had never heard of me. But such considerations were nothing, and I proposed to my old chum, Sharpe, that he should go with me. He was too ready for anything in the shape of an adventure, and the moment our train stopped we two skipped out before the usual guards could be stationed around to prevent straggling. Going to a hotel nearby we looked into a directory to find the doctor's address, and then begged a candle-end from some of the darkey servants, who also pointed out the street we wished to reach. Arriving there, we lit our candle and followed the numbers on the doors until we struck Dr. Parvin's house. Ringing the bell we were admitted by the doctor himself, and, after explaining the circumstances, he con- ducted us, with amazing good nature, seeing it was I o'clock A.M., into his parlor. We had a pleasant visit and received a cordial invitation to take dinner with the doctor the next day, when he said he would be pleased to introduce us to his wife. This we promised to do in case the Regiment remained in town throughout the day.
Proceeding then through the best streets, we viewed the city and its architecture, and somewhere near 3 A.M. came across the State House. A watchman was pacing up and down in front of the building, which stood back a little distance from the street, with an iron railing in front and a gate standing open. Waiting i11 a shadow until the watchman had passed the entrance and had his back to us, we quietly slipped in unobserved. A long corridor led us to the center of the building, and there, in a hall running crosswise, we discovered a stairway, which we ascended. Upstairs we found a door which was not locked, and this admitted us to the Senate Chamber. We lit the gas and then proceeded to hold a session of the Legislature. I took the Speaker's chair, while Sharpe made a speech on the conduct of the war. After this he took the chair and I made a speech. We passed a unanimous resolution to stand by the Government in prosecuting the war vigorously, and we decided also "to hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree." After sufficiently enjoying ourselves in our new rôle as Senators, we adjourned sine die and slipped out to the street, behind the watchman, as we had entered.
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Daylight soon appeared and we inquired our way to the Sol- diers' Home, where we arrived in time to partake of the break- fast furnished by that institution.
The Regiment remained in Indianapolis that day and we got our dinner at the good doctor's, although we had to do some first- class running to get away from the officious sentinels at the Home. After a royal repast and most cordial entertainment by Dr. and Mrs. Parvin, we again inspected the town and visited a large asylum for the blind, in the outskirts. Here the superintendent received us courteously, and until he could dispose of some urgent business and find time to show us around, left us for an hour to the kindly care of his daughter, a young lady who gracefully ful- filled her trust by playing for us on the piano and singing like a seraph. The doctor, her father, then came and showed us every- thing of interest in the asylum, and, from a lofty tower sur- mounting the building, gave us a splendid panoramic view of the city.
Three times during that day we were pursued by squads of twenty to thirty men from our Regiment, patrolling the streets to arrest stragglers, but we escaped their malice each time, for our motto was "no surrender."
On the march from Louisville to Nashville, in December, it was reported that the notorious guerrilla chief, John Morgan, with his band of marauders, was encamped at a town thirty miles distant from us, and several companies, including my own, made a night march, in freezing weather, to surprise him. We reached our destination at 6 A.M. and dashed into the town at a gallop, but only to learn that Morgan had left for parts unknown the evening before.
Returning by another route, we marched all day, were over- taken by darkness and lost ourselves in the woods. However, we straggled back to camp about midnight, after fording a river, having ridden some sixty miles. I have a distinct recollection of many other incidents of the journey to Nashville-such as camping at the Lost River cave, and at another place being compelled to strike our tents just after they had been pitched in a clean, grassy orchard and march a couple of miles further through a furious rain storm and pitch again in a field of deep mud, where it was necessary to cut brush from a neighboring wood and pile it three
Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry. 25
feet high in our tents to sleep on. No sooner had we arranged ourselves for the night than an order came for Companies E and F to saddle up and go out into the inky night and pouring rain on a scouting expedition. But even misery was pleasure in those ardent days, and I positively enjoyed lying on the roadside and sleeping all night in a driving rain, while at Nashville, on one occasion, when the pickets refused to let me pass out through the lines to our camp. Such instances of privation made me feel that I was a soldier, and it was ample satisfaction for everything that I be- longed to the Anderson Cavalry. Ah! that esprit du corps was a powerful thing and a grand thing, too.
Another incident very clearly stamped on my memory was an at- tempt made by a few hundred of us, under the leadership of an officer (who I think was an infantry Captain), to go out from our old camp at Nashville to Murfreesboro. We got almost as far as Lavergne, eighteen miles out, when we ran against a rather memorable circumstance, which put a stop to our progress. There were probably 300 or 400 of us (although I speak somewhat at random when it comes to numbers). Lavergne is a straggling village running along the turnpike and situated in a broad, level valley. Our approach to it lay over a low ridge, so it was not visible until we reached the top of the ridge, when the whole valley and the village opened up before us like a panorama. Near the summit, on the Nashville side, there was a house, and as our column was passing this house, an old gray-headed negro, with snowy wool flying about his ears, came running out and urged us, with frantic gesticulation, to stop. "Stop, gentlemen, stop! for God's sake go back !" he cried. "Why, what is the matter ?" sonie- one asked. "General Wheeler is just ahead, with 2500 cavalry and a battery of guns," he replied, and he again begged us to go back. However, we proceeded a little further and came upon a couple of Confederate officers sitting at the roadside eating their lunch, with their horses tied to the fence. This apparition became a dissolving view as they jumped over the fence and disappeared in the woods, leaving their horses and their lunch for us to take as the spoils of war. A few steps more brought us to the crest of the ridge, and then we saw at a glance that the old negro had told the truth. Lavergne lay in full view, perhaps half a mile distant. Wheeler's brigade was there, burning up a long line of wagons,
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
which we learned belonged to Davis' division of Rosecrans' army, and the Union troops that had formed its escort had been cap- tured, disarmed and paroled, and at the moment of our arrival came running past our column, in the direction of Nashville. We asked them why they were in such a hurry, and they replied that General Wheeler had a battery which was about to open on us, and they wanted to get out of the way. The scene was an im- pressive one, and most picturesque, with its blazing wagon train ; but when our commanding officer ( the only officer we had) ordered a retreat, without our firing a shot, it awakened bitter feelings. What had become of the esprit du corps and the irrepressible spirit of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry? We were no longer a regiment, but a disorganized mob, and the only man who could have made us once more a credit to ourselves and to our country was chafing like a caged lion in a Richmond prison.
I haven't the slightest doubt that, under the circumstances, the best thing-in fact, the only thing-we could do was to retreat. It would have been madness to attack such a force as Wheeler's brigade with our inferior numbers and in our disorganized con- dition.
Shortly after our return to Nashville we heard rumors of a great battle, the battle of Stone River.
There were twenty of us who were already sick enough of our inglorious life in camp-or I should say, rather, of our state of suspended animation-when reports of the battle being waged at that very moment moved us to action. We saddled our horses and marched into the city to the headquarters of the Commandant, and asked that we might be sent at once to rejoin those of our Comrades who had gone to the front at an earlier date. Our request was taken into consideration, and it was decided that being so few in number it was not worth while to send us to Murfrees- boro at present, and we were attached to headquarters for orderly and military police duty. Quarters were assigned us in a gym- nasium, and we were present on duty, off and on, at the office for some weeks following.
When off duty I used to go about Nashville to see the place, and once or twice visited our boys in a building or shed which they called the Smoke House.
Again I found a firm of wholesale merchants of the name of
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Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry.
McClung, who were related to a former very good friend and classmate of mine at Lawrenceville, N. J., before the war. Hugh L. McClung was his name, and his home was in Knoxville, Tenn. The Nashville merchants told me, in reply to my inquiries, that Hugh had become a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate army, and had been killed while fighting under Zollicoffer in the battle of Mill Springs. They upbraided me bitterly for joining the horde of ruthless invaders of their country and did not invite me to call again or dine with them.
Still again I attended church one Sunday and there, before tlie service began, met a very handsome young lady from Paducah, Ky., with whom I had become acquainted in Steubenville, Ohio. She did not recognize me, however, and gave me-or perhaps it was my uniform-such a withering glance of scorn that I treated her as I had Wheeler and his brigade-turned my back on her and retreated.
I noticed in those days (and subsequent observation has con- firmed the opinion) that the people of the North and the people of the South looked upon each other in totally different ways. Taking my own feelings as a fair criterion, I never felt the per- sonal rancor or hostility they seemed to entertain for us. My leading thought, when I entered the army, was that our country must be saved from disruption, with destruction as its logical con- sequence; and I think this was the predominant feeling in the North. It rather puzzled and somewhat amused me to hear our Southern friends speak of our invading their country, for I thought it was our country as much as theirs.
Before closing this narrative, I must relate one or two experi- ences when on duty. I was ordered one night to accompany thie officer of the day, a Major in an Illinois regiment, on his round of inspecting the pickets outside of Nashville. We went clear around in a semicircle from the river above the city to the river below the city, and it was quite an arduous journey in the dark night. I started out gaily enough, riding alongside of my Major, until he informed me that an orderly ought to follow his superior officer. I promptly fell back and brought up the rear of the procession. Before we had got through the night's work, however, the Major got to feeling lonely, and gradually edging back alongside, he ended by forgetting I was his orderly and he my officer. That
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
night I learned something about military discipline as observed in our army which astonished me. It is impossible to recall all our experiences, but at one of the picket posts we found all our mien comfortably squatting around a big fire, the weather being very cold, while their arms were stacked some way off on one side. The Major scolded them in a mild way and told them to keep a sharp lookout, as we were expecting an attack from the enemy. In a number of instances there was the same carelessness, while in one the whole post was sound asleep around their fire. Here the officer, after waking them up, asked a number of questions. "Who is the Post Commander in Nashville? How many men in the garrison? How many guns in position?" etc. They answered his questions to the best of their ability, without a particle of hesitation, and when he proceeded to upbraid them for too reck- lessly giving away information which might be of use to the enemy, they smiled complacently and said they knew he was all right, he was the officer of the day, etc.
The following will serve as an illustration of our duty as mili- tary police : A gentleman living some six or eight miles out of Nashville became an object of suspicion to the authorities. It was suspected that he was in the habit of taking over the arıns and accouterments of Union soldiers who wished to desert, or at least shirk their duties, and giving them paroles which they brought in and presented at headquarters, pretending that they had been captured by some wandering force of the enemy. This gave them a vacation from active service and kept them in idleness until they could be regularly exchanged. In order to test the matter, the Commandant, who, I think, was General Mitchell, sent a spy to this gentleman's house to deliver himself up as a prisoner and get his parole. He went and surrendered himself with his arms and horse, got his parole and then came back and reported. He had also learned that a couple of Confederate officers were expected at this house on a certain night. A squad of eight of us were sent on the night named to capture the rebel officers in case they turned up, and also to arrest the proprietor of the mansion and to search the premises for arms and other United States property. We took a covered wagon along for the prisoners and the property. It was a dark night and raining steadily. On arrival we sur- rounded the house, while the leader with the spy and one or two
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