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 3
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Early Days of the Anderson Cavalry.
others went in. The man of the house was found, but the rebel officers had not come, and so they missed the party. The rest of us, who had been stationed at the various doors and windows, were now called into the house to aid in the search operations. The lady of the house was very indignant at our intrusion and called us many bad names, such as Yankee thieves and robbers. When candles were lighted to search the house from cellar to garret, she said she would go with us, as she could not trust us out of her sight-we would be sure to steal something. We found in the house and barn a number of McClellan saddles and bridles, as well as United States horses and army tents and arms of all sorts. We loaded up our wagon with such of these articles as we could get into it and seated our host inside, with a couple of men to take care of him, and then took our places around and in the rear. The prisoner's wife had never for a moment ceased scolding, although her husband every now and then told her to be quiet, and as the wagon began to move she exclaimed, "I wish all the Yankees had one neck and I could see it cut off before my eyes." I sat on my horse not far from her, and moving nearer said, in a low voice, "My dear madam, you surely do not mean what you say. Now, honestly, would you really like to see my throat cut right before your eyes ?" "I don't know that I would," she replied ; "you may be a gentleman, but I'm sure the Yankees, as a rule, are not." "Thank you very much for being so considerate," I said. "Good- night, madam." We proceeded to Nashville, where our friend was placed in secure lodgings. I never heard of him again, but pre- sume he was not allowed to carry on his old tactics any longer.
Soon after this incident I was struck down with typhoid fever, placed in a hospital and eventually rescued from almost certain death by Rev. Messrs. McCauley and Scott, of Philadelphia, agents of the Christian Commission, who procured my discharge on a medical certificate. Mr. Scott conveyed me to my friends in the North. I recovered after a severe illness of two months' dura- tion, and feel thankful that I am to-day alive to tell the tale. But it has always been a matter of regret to me that I missed the glorious active days of the Anderson Cavalry after Colonel Palmer rejoined and reorganized the Regiment.
ANTIETAM.
FRED. J. ANSPACH, COMPANY D, PHILADELPHIA.
T O a military critic the Anderson Cavalry, Fifteenth Penn- sylvania, at Carlisle, Pa., was in no condition to enter on an active campaign when on September 9, 1862, orders were received for the Regiment to move south and do what they could to oppose the invasion of their State by Lee's army. We had not been three weeks in the United States volunteer service, and the major- ity of the 900 men in camp had not yet received uniforms. We had no commissioned officers; Captain Palmer, who commanded the Anderson Troop, then serving with the Army of the Cumber- land, was the only man who held a commission, and even his was not in our Regiment, although he had raised it and was addressed as Colonel Palmer. It was a period of temporary arrangements. The non-commissioned officers and privates of the old Troop who visited us were temporarily assigned to the different companies as temporary officers. Even the non-commissioned officers in the companies were temporary, and were what is described in army parlance as "lance" officers. The selection of permanent officers and non-commissioned officers was to be made by Colonel Palmer after becoming better acquainted with the men-before leaving for the western theater of war. No man had been promised any office.
In the matter of arms we had already received our sabers, and the drill Sergeants from the regulars at the barracks had initiated us into the mysteries of cut and parry. The marching drill came naturally to us, as it does to all youngsters in war times, and the non-commissioned officers had been put through a special course of study in learning how to saddle and bridle a horse properly and then ride him with crossed stirrups. But our lack of efficiency in military trappings was more than made up by the earnestness and zeal with which each one carried on the campaign and his anxiety to do something worthy of a soldier. The first call was
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Antietam.
for a detail of about 200 men who "knew how to ride a horse," and a busy afternoon was spent in providing uniforms and boots for those who had not yet received them. It was late at night, and when drawn up in front of the officers' quarters, that revolvers and ammunition were issued, with the orders to load them.
About midnight we took the cars in the town, and three hours after rolled into Greencastle, and, after getting a little sleep in the warehouse alongside of the railway track, were most bountifully fed by the citizens when, at daylight, our presence became known to them. Orders were issued to go out into the country and im- press horses, saddles and bridles from the farmers and give re- ceipts for them. By early afternoon the majority of the Green- castle detachment was mounted, and at once began a tour of duty in the field. About dark Colonel Palmer took the mounted men and started for Hagerstown. He placed them on picket on all the roads leading into that town, and with two others, John W. Jackson and David Barnhart, went ahead scouting to find the whereabouts of the rebels.
They passed through Hagerstown and about two miles beyond, where they entered the farmhouse of Wm. T. Beeler. Barnhart was then sent back alone, carrying the uniforms of Colonel Palmer and Jackson, and soon after the latter started for Hagerstown, leaving the Colonel alone. Before morning the rebel force arrived, and their cavalry encamped on the farm where Palmer was stop- ping. Later in the day two regiments of their infantry, and a sec- tion of artillery with twenty-five wagons, passed the farm on their way to Hagerstown. Colonel Palmer mingled freely with the rebel soldiers, and took supper with their officers at Beeler's table and obtained much information. Along in the afternoon both Palmer and Beeler got the information from different sources that this force had received orders to move into Pennsylvania, the march to commence between midnight and 2 A.M. This information was of such importance that the Colonel realized the necessity of at once starting for our lines, but the guards around the place hin- dered his starting until darkness had set in and eliminated some of the dangers of the trip. To the kindness and loyalty of Mr. Beeler, his son and the rest of the family Colonel Palmer owes his escape, for in the night Mr. Beeler guided him through his corn field to the highway, and then gave him careful directions for the
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
following ten miles-how to avoid the rebel pickets and to reach the Pennsylvania State line. He also directed him to another Union man, about ten miles north of his farm, which place he reached after midnight, and this man hitched up at once and drove him to our lines, so that at 4 o'clock, on the morning of the 12th, Palmer was telegraphing to Colonel McClure, at Chambersburg, the situation in and around Hagerstown.
It is hard to give in detail what these 200 men did in the next four days. They were continually on duty, either picketing or scouting, and by the activity of their movements covered such a large territory as to give the rebels in Hagerstown the impres- sion that the force in front of them amounted to thousands. The enemy's scouts sent out returned with the message that the "Yan- kees were as thick as grasshoppers on the State line," and threats were made that "they would hang any of the Anderson guerrillas they caught." It seems incredible what a small force, ignorant of the methods of war, accomplished ; and later, when we had learned the full duties of a soldier, it would hardly have been possible to have carried on such a campaign. The approach of two hostile forces toward each other is governed by well-known rules of warfare, and the Commander of each can fairly judge of the intentions of the other by the character of the approach. First comes the advance or a skirmish line, followed at regulation dis- tance by the reserve, and this by the line of battle. We did nothing of the kind. Very frequently all we had were our advanced pickets, and no reserve nearer than Chambersburg-twenty miles away. What added to the confusion in the rebels' minds as to our num- bers was the curiosity of our boys to see what the rebels looked like and to have their advance pickets fire a long but not dangerous shot at us. During the day some of these small scouting parties were sure to be approaching the rebel lines, not from any orders received to do so, but led by curiosity and the absence of orders. As viewed from the rebel position in Hagerstown, each one of these parties was only the advance of a much greater force behind, and the estimate they made of "ten thousand Andersons" did not seem to them to be amiss. A bold advance on their part would have dispelled this illusion, and they did make a few dashes at our pickets and nearly captured one of our posts. With only sabers and revolvers, and mounted on such farmers' horses as could
BVT. BRIG. GENL. WM. J. PALMER
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Antictam.
be pressed into service, with civilian saddles and bridles and no spurs we were in no condition for a serious fight ; but carbines were issued to us in a few days, and inspired the desire to put them to use against the enemy should the Army of Virginia cross the border.
Anxious hearts were beating back of us in Pennsylvania. When the Confederate army entered Maryland, it being a semi-rebel State, its people were treated with the utmost consideration. No foraging was permitted and all supplies for the army were duly paid for, and on one or two occasions their horses went hungry rather than take by force any of the corn which was on all sides of them. "Wait till we get into Pennsylvania-we'll show the Dutchmen what an invasion is like," was the word that came from their lines, and our farmers were in hourly dread of the fate the rebels had threatened them with. Our noble War Governor, Andrew G. Curtin, was making strenuous exertions to get together a body of citizen soldiers, and Col. Alexander K. McClure, his Assistant Adjutant General, was doing the work of a dozen men to keep the rebel horde below the line of his native State, and most of the time it looked as though the chances were against him. For several days all the information which the Army of the Potomac got of its enemy was furnished by us to Colonel McClure, and he must have used that great ability of his to its utmost in hurrying on its tardy footsteps; but he won, and Lee's army, threatened in its rear, recalled Longstreet from his advanced post at Hagerstown, and the proposed invasion of Pennsylvania was postponed for a year.
Colonel McClure had furnished us a very able assistant, in the person of Wm. B. Wilson, as expert telegrapher, who took the information we secured and sent it off to Harrisburg. There was no delay in this, as Wilson was generally found up near our ad- vance pickets with his instrument connected with the wire to Harrisburg. On the night of September IIth Wilson, with J. N. Lewis and Peter Wallace, of our Regiment, took a hand car at Greencastle and started toward Hagerstown and got near the State line. Here the wire was connected, and soon the instrument was ticking away, via Greencastle to Harrisburg, what the picket posts had learned. About daybreak Lewis went off to a farmhouse and engaged a toothsome breakfast for the party, but before they could
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
put it where it would do them the most good, a large party of Colonel Brinn's Confederate cavalry appeared, driving them off and eating the breakfast.
Back in our camp at Carlisle strenuous exertions were made to hasten the 700 men there to the front, but such was the lack of material with which to fit them out, that the majority was armed with muskets that had originally been old flintlocks, and quite a sprinkling of the men did duty at the front in citizen's dress.
About 9 P.M., on the night of September 13th, a large propor- tion of those in camp were marched into Carlisle to take the train for Chambersburg; but there was some hitch in the arrangements, for while the cars were there the locomotive was not, and it was not till 7 o'clock the next morning that they got off, and arrived in due time at Chambersburg. Another detachment was sent off about this time and came through to Greencastle. The State authorities were assembling at the former place all the militia and those who had volunteered for the emergency, and several thousand had assembled under the command of Gen. Jno. F. Reynolds, who, within a year, gave up his life at Gettysburg. Horses were ob- tained for our men by impressment and some by voluntary offer- ing, and the start for the front was immediately made. On the night of the 15th they reached Greencastle, and the next day pushed. on to Hagerstown and charged through that town and went on to Lappins' or Jones' crossroads.
It was a feather in our cap to be able to boast that we had "charged through Hagerstown." That place had typified to our minds the rebel army, and a charge was the heroic feature of a cavalryman's life, and it appears that each detachment, as it drew near to it, charged. About 3 P.M. of the 15th, Serg. R. W. Hammel, with a detachment, raced through the town and met some of our men coming from the opposite direction. They had picked up about twenty-five prisoners, among them being a First Lieutenant of a Maryland regiment and some privates from a Louisiana regiment. Colonel Palmer came through the town with about 150 men from some long march, and the dust covered them so that they were scarcely recognized by their intimate friends.
That same night Colonel Palmer scouted the country toward the enemy's left, and cautiously reached a farmhouse just outside of the rebel line of battle. The farmer had been inside their lines
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Antietam.
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during the day, as it was on his own farm, and gave the Colonel information of the positions of the enemy's troops and batteries so far as he had seen them. All this time our men sat quietly on their horses, holding their sabers to prevent any noise, and watch- ing the picket fires of the Confederates, not far off. Colonel Palmer made a map of the positions occupied by the rebel force, and at 4 A.M. in the morning delivered it at General Mcclellan's headquarters, together with the information that "Stonewall" Jackson and his corps had gone to Harper's Ferry and were then at or near that place. The receipt of this news was a relief to General McClellan. He had already heard of it, but the way in which it had come to him was so peculiarly direct that he was fearful that it was a ruse of the enemy to lead hint into a move- ment which would have been disastrous to his army.
It often happens that great events hinge on comparatively small incidents. If General Lee had intrusted his special order, No. 191, to a careful officer, the battles of South Mountain and Antietam would not have been fought; but the careless officer dropped it at Frederick, Md., and a member of the Twenty-seventh Indiana found it on September 13th, and its importance being seen at once, it was hurried to General McClellan, who found he was in pos- session of Lee's order giving the present position of all his troops and the movements they were to make for the next five or six days. His army was widely scattered; "Stonewall" Jackson was to capture Harper's Ferry, the principal object of the invasion, while Longstreet was at Hagerstown, Md. General Lee calcu- lated on the caution and slowness of General McClellan, whose marches were usually about six miles a day ; but with this informa- tion in hand General McClellan got up to South Mountain and fought on September 14th and won. He ought to have fought Lee on the Antietam the next day, or by the latest on September 16th, while "Stonewall" Jackson was still behind at Harper's Ferry ; but his caution made him suspicious that the information had been put in his way purposely by the enemy, and he felt his ground so carefully and slowly that Jackson was enabled to finish his work at Harper's Ferry and get back in time to take part in the battle, which took place on the 17th.
Early in the morning of the 16th a small scouting party, under Major Ward, met a woman on the road, who gave the information
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
that a party of rebels was at her sister's house getting breakfast. The house was close at hand, and the Major, turning to Serg. Harry C. Butcher, told him to take two men and capture them. Butcher, taking David How and one other man, started on the gallop, rode up to the door of the room in which they were ; and the Sergeant jumped off his horse and into the room, surprising the party, who, under the influence of a Colt's navy, surrendered at once, and soon after expressed the supremest chagrin that five men should surrender to three boys.
Lieut. Wm. Spencer, of the old Troop, commanded a squad of from twenty-five to fifty men, with Serg. A. H. Mershon as orderly; but the very hard duty in which we were engaged used up Spencer, who, while he had plenty of grit, had not the physical strength to keep it up, so had to retire and leave Sergeant Mershon in command. Just below Hagerstown this command with some others surprised and captured a considerable force of the enemy under a Captain Griffin, of a Georgia regiment, and Lieutenant Bilbro, of Alabama. These officers were very courteous and friendly, and had none of the characteristics of the fire-eating Southerner, and our men must have impressed them the same way, for when they bid each other good-bye, Griffin took off his spurs and Bilbro his belt and presented them to Mershon, with the wish that they would meet again under happier auspices.
A scouting party below Hagerstown, under Serg. Chas. M. Betts, who later in the war commanded the Regiment, riding over a hill, discovered a camp of the enemy. Two of their officers rode out to reconnoiter us, and Betts took off his cap and with it mo- tioned to them to come on, which they did until satisfied that we were not friendly, when shots were exchanged, which aroused their camp, and, their numbers proving too large, Betts fell back.
Early in the morning of September 17th, the day of the great battle of Antietam, Colonel Palmer gathered up all the Regiment he could find at Jones' crossroads and in Hagerstown and marched toward the battlefield to report to the Commanding General for duty. Before we had gone a great distance the sound of heavy firing was heard, which became clearer, sharper and more inces- sant as we neared the field, and at last we could plainly hear the rattle of musketry and the shriek of shells. At a point not far from the east woods the column left the pike and moved over to the
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Antietam.
woods, taking down the fence to enable us to cross the field to it. On the pike our march was in column of fours, but broke into twos on entering the field, and we continued our march toward the firing line, and the order had just been given to "file right," when the shot came which took Thomas Stockton through the heart, killing him instantly. Without stopping, our march we continued on a line parallel with the line of battle, and little details were made for men to be stationed along the firing line to prevent stragglers from passing to the rear. No one was allowed to go in that direc- tion unless incapacitated from wounds. Others of our men were as- sisting in taking care of the wounded in the various barns and im- provised hospitals. At this time the firing became quick, and seem- ingly close by us came a most deafening roll of musketry. The deep-breasted cheer of the Northern men given in unison told of a point gained after a hard struggle, while the "rebel yell" was a high, shrill yelp, given without concert and kept up continually, as if it were an incentive to further action. Cheers and yells were about equally mixed. Clouds of smoke prevented us seeing what took place in front, but the stream of wounded passing to the rear told of the fearful work going on. Fresh troops were continually coming up to take the place of those retiring to secure a new supply of ammunition. We were in close proximity to the famous Dunkard Church, around which was the most terrible fighting of the day. Sergeant Mershon and his squad were sent in with Brown's New York Battery, and remained with it until a heavy artillery fire was poured into it from a couple of batteries in front, and then the Sergeant moved his men to a depression on the left where several of our officers were, including Major Ward and Captain Vezin. The fire on Brown's Battery was so heavy and destructive that the guns were all dismounted and Captain Brown and a number of his men killed. By someone's order I dismounted and laid on the ground, holding my horse. Then a battery of artillery came rushing up and took a position directly to my right, between the east woods and the Hagerstown pike, and the Captain commanding it told me to retire. General Meade was near me, dismounted, but was giving orders and receiving reports. Near him was General Duryea, of the New York Brigade. His horse had been shot, and he, too, was on foot. At this time, in the absence of orders, I did not know what to do; and to General
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History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Duryea's inquiry as to where my command was, I could only tell him I didn't know, when he said, "Remain with me-I may have use for you," but when his aids came up he told me to retire to the rear and try to find my command.
While in this position I had a splendid view of this part of the battlefield-saw the charges of the infantry and the batteries in action giving and receiving a hot fire. This was all in the direc- tion of the Dunkard Church, behind which the rebels had a strong position and were apparently in large force. On the pike strag- glers and wounded men were passing in large numbers, and all the confusion of a battlefield was in sight. In the rear and close to a barn was a field hospital filled with wounded. The surgeons were at work, with coats off and sleeves rolled up, and the barn doors were used as tables on which were placed those receiving attention. The sight to me was a sickening one, and I turned away from it with horror.
At about this time I met my old schoolmate, Wm. M. Maurice, and I don't know why we did it, but on each of our faces was a kind of sickening grin, and instead of talking war and its glorics we talked of the playmates we left at Broad and Poplar Streets, in Philadelphia. We did say a little about the chances of the day, but in all the self-examination I ever made afterward I could not determine why, in the midst of that most fearful battle, we talked about something of which, just then, neither of us cared a rap. But we soon parted, and after replenishing my two canteens, both of which I had emptied in relieving the wounded, I continued along the Hagerstown pike and soon met a detachment of our men and was ordered to "fall in." This was some time in the afternoon, and the great battle of Antietam was about over, only occasional shots being fired by the combatants in the neighborhood of the Dunkard Church and away over to our left where General Burn- side was engaged.
General McClellan had directed Colonel Palmer to make a scout up the Potomac River and destroy the pontoon there, which Lee's army might otherwise use to recross into Virginia. It was a long, hard ride, most of it over the towpath between the canal and river, and at one place it was necessary to go under the canal through a tunnel and in single file. About the only orders received after we started were to "close up," and these were given
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Antietam.
in low tones, which, to us, indicated danger ; but before dark the work was accomplished, and we marched back and closed in on the right of our army and bivouacked around a farmhouse, making a liberal use of the farmer's hay for our beds.
The morning after the battle some citizens were at our canıp anxiously inquiring for relatives who were serving with the Penn- sylvania Reserves, and Major Ward detailed Wm. E. Reppert to take them to the position the Reserves had fought over the day before, as he had been with them a part of the time. They were furnished horses and started. After crossing the Antietam, they took up a smart gallop and soon were on that portion of the field between two woods, where the dead of both armies lay thick; but in their eagerness to get there had passed beyond our skirmish line, and nearing that of the enemy were fired on by the skir- mishers and made to seek safety in the cover of the woods, where our men were in line of battle. Just then a staff officer approached, who ordered them off, as acting as they were "it would bring on an engagement," which General McClellan did not want, and had stationed officers on the field to stop all hostile demonstrations ; but the orders raised the ire of a Captain commanding a battery nearby, who made things warm with his profanity and was en- couraged by those near him. He said: "That was just what they wanted to do, and he had a notion to open the engagement him- self. Lee's army was licked, and now was the time to capture most of them." But it was not to be, although subsequent events have proved that if the spirit animating the Captain of that battery had prevailed at headquarters the war might have been over sooner.
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