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 4
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It was in the afternoon of September 19th that Colonel Palmer concluded to cross the Potomac to find out what General Lee's plans were from personal observation in his rear. He had been ordered by General McClellan to scout to the right of our line and strike the Potomac River at Dam No. 4, and to endeavor to ascer- tain what the next move of the enemy would be. Colonel Palmer was not ordered to cross the Potomac to the Virginia side, nor was it at first his intention to do so; neither did he volunteer to cross. His expedition was without the previous knowledge of head- quarters, although he sent them word when he crossed. He had with him two civilians : one a cool, courageous blacksmith, and the other a patriotic parson. These he had intended to send across
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the ford and within the enemy's lines, but at the last moment he decided to ride across with them, see and question for himself on the Virginia side and return. It seemed to the young Colonel that, with such a wide river as the Potomac at the back of the enemy, his retreat might become a fatal rout if the right moment could be known and promptly availed of for a vigorous attack; and although the hazardous nature of the undertaking appealed strongly to him, he would not have taken such an extra-military step had it not been for his belief that the situation for Lee's army was so critical that "perhaps," to use the Colonel's words, "the war might be ended then and there." The Colonel crossed the river toward evening, spent the night within the rebel lines and after midnight got the information he sought, to wit, that Lee's retreat was about to begin across the Potomac, when Stuart's entire cavalry force, preparing for a raid into Pennsylvania around Mc- Clellan's rear, came up and guarded the bank forward and back, preventing the Colonel's return. He, with the blacksmith, was taken prisoner by a battery. The parson brought the information back to General McClellan, but too late.
On September 19th Maj. Frank Ward, commanding the Regi- ment, was ordered by Gen. Jno. F. Reynolds, to make a demon- stration on the rebel force at Williamsport. His force was about 300 men, and the advance was in command of Captains Hurst and Norman M. Smith, who attacked the rebel cavalry and soon drove it to shelter behind one of their batteries, which opened furiously and made a great deal of noise, but hurt no one. Major Ward asked General Reynolds to support him with infantry, but the General, having no troops but the militia which the State of Penn- sylvania had called into service, concluded not to do so, as the object of the demonstration had been attained.
Our work in this field was now done. The rebel army had suc- cessfully retreated across the Potomac. Our Colonel was a pris- oner in the hands of General Pendleton (Lee's Chief of Artillery), whose men had captured him in citizen's clothes while obtaining information, which meant death as a spy; but he escaped later, and joined us at a time when he was badly needed. At Greencastle we returned the horses and accouterments we had impressed from the citizens, were then loaded on a train and in a few hours landed at our old camp at Carlisle.
A SCOUT TO HAGERSTOWN.
CORP. JAMES W. OVER, COMPANY G, PITTSBURG, PA.
I N September, 1862, when Lee invaded Maryland, we pro- ceeded by rail from Carlisle to Chambersburg and Green- castle, where horses, saddles and bridles belonging to the thrifty farmers of the Cumberland Valley were pressed into ser- vice and part of the Regiment mounted. Longstreet was then in Hagerstown, about ten miles distant, and our whole force was placed on picket along the State line. By keeping up a bold front, though inwardly quaking, we did what we could to prevent the Confederate cavalry from making incursions into our State. Another Comrade whose name I have forgotten, and myself, one morning at Greencastle were ordered to report to Colonel McClure's telegraph operator, Mr. Wilson, for scouting duty. We found him with his telegraphic apparatus on a hand car on the railroad at the State line sending dispatches to Harrisburg, and were ordered by him to take a road leading to Hagerstown paralleling the main road or pike, and to get as near that place as we could safely and procure information for him. We passed our pickets, rode up a hill by a large plantation house on our right, and a short distance beyond it passed a crossroad leading from ours to the Hagers- town pike. We thought at the time that the enemy might come over from the Hagerstown pike by this road and prevent our return by the road we were on. Our orders left everything to our discretion, and, believing "discretion to be the better part of valor," after riding some distance without seeing the enemy or getting any information, and influenced also by the fact that we had a premonition that sooner or later a Confederate cavalry force would cross over from the Hagerstown pike to our road, we started back for our lines, keeping a sharp lookout for the ex- pected enemy, and soon discovered a squad of cavalry on a hill between us and our picket line and a horseman galloping rapidly toward us. We concealed ourselves in the woods by the side of
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the road, and, as he passed, seeing that he was a citizen, we joined him in his ride, and discovered that the house we had passed was the home of a Confederate Colonel, named Brinn; that he was there, and that the cavalry in sight belonged to his command. The citizen was an ardent rebel, carrying a message to the Colonel's relatives, and was so much excited that he mistook us for Con- federates, talked very freely to us and seemed to enjoy our com- pany. This enjoyment terminated suddenly when we halted him, and after some talk, punctuated by the muzzles of our revolvers close to his face, we succeeded in making him understand we were Yankees, that he was our prisoner and that he would have to guide us across the country to our pickets, which he did very un- willingly. On the trip through the woods and fields a number of refugees from Hagerstown were discovered in hiding. We thought our safety depended on making them prisoners, and we arrived safely inside of our lines with the rebel citizen riding between us and about fifty refugees, white and black-men, women and chil- dren-driven in front like a flock of sheep. The Confederate Colonel and his escort arrived at his house, which was in sight of our pickets, soon after we had passed it; they supposed we were captured, and so informed the telegraph operator, who was much relieved. when we reported to him.
EXTRACT FROM COL. A. K. MCCLURE'S BOOK, "LINCOLN AND MEN OF WAR TIMES."
"A" N interesting story may be here told of the methods by which information was obtained to guide the actions of great armies. I was then Assistant Adjutant General of the United States, assigned to duty at Harrisburg to make a draft under the State laws of Pennsylvania. There was no mili- tary force on the border and not even an officer of the army who had exercised any command of troops. I was compelled, there- fore, to exercise what little military authority could be enforced under the circumstances, and Governor Curtin ordered a half- organized Regiment of cavalry, that Capt. W. J. Palmer was recruiting at Carlisle, to report to me at Chambersburg for duty as scouts. I thus became Commander of an army of nearly 100 men, or about one man to each mile of border I had to guard ; but Captain Palmer proved to be a host within himself, as he entered the Confederate lines every night for nearly a week under various disguises, obtained all information possible as to the movements of Lee's command, and with the aid of William B. Wilson, an expert telegrapher, who was co-operating with him, attached his instru- rent to the first telegraph wire he struck and communicated to me all movements of the enemy, present and prospective, as far as he had been able to ascertain them. As rapidly as these tele- grams reached me they were sent to Governor Curtin, who promptly forwarded them to the War Department, whence they were hastened to General McClellan's headquarters, who was then moving through Maryland against Lee; and all the important information that McClellan received from the front of Lee's army until their lines faced each other at Antietam came from Captain Palmer's nightly visits within the 'enemy's lines and his prompt reports to me in the morning. Howell Cobb's division finally reached as far north as Hagerstown, and Captain Palmer spent most of the night within Cobb's camp, and learned from leading
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subordinate officers that the destination of Lee's army was Penn- sylvania, and that Cobb's command would lead the movement probably the next day.
"I need hardly say that I hastened the information to Curtin, who hurried it through to Washington, whence McClellan received it within a few hours. McClellan was then ignorant of the exact movements of General Reynolds, whom he had sent to Pennsyl- vania to organize a force of 'emergency men' and bring them to the aid of McClellan in western Maryland. He did not know, therefore, who was in command at Chambersburg or what force was there, but doubtless supposed that either Reynolds or some part of his command was already there on its way to join him. General McClellan, on receipt of the news that Lee was likely to advance into Pennsylvania, sent substantially this telegram to the Commander at Chambersburg, without naming him: 'I am ad- vised that Lee's probable destination is Pennsylvania, and if he shall advance in that direction, concentrate all your forces and obstruct his march until I can overtake him and give battle. The occasion calls for prompt action.' As I was the Commander and had less than 100 men, all told, and not twenty of them within fif- teen miles of me, the prospect of concentrating my forces and marching out to meet one of Lee's army corps was not specially enticing. I promptly advised Curtin of the situation and of the orders I had received from McClellan. Thaddeus Stevens hap- pened to be in the Executive Chamber when the message was received, and McClellan's order to me to confront one of Lee's army corps with my force, which did not amount to a Corporal's guard within reach, caused considerable merriment. Stevens, who at that time never lost an opportunity to slur McClellan, said : 'Well, McClure will do something. If he can't do better, he'll instruct the tollgate keeper not to permit Lee's army to pass through ; but as to McClellan, God only knows what he'll do.'
"Thus one bold, heroic and adventurous young Captain, aided by an equally heroic young telegrapher, furnished McClellan all the reliable information he received about Lee's movements from the time McClellan left Rockville in the Antietam campaign until the shock of battle came, ten days later. I met Captain Palmer at Antietam when the battle was in progress, and after compli- menting him, as he so well deserved, for the great work he had
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done, I earnestly cautioned him against attempting to repeat his experiments if Lee should be driven into Virginia. He was a young man of very few words, and made no response to any ad- monition beyond thanking me for my kind expressions of confi- dence. When Lee retreated across the Potomac, Captain Palmer preceded him the same night, entered his lines again and brought important reports which, as I believe, led to the battle of Shep- herdstown that was successfully fought by General Fitz John Porter. He then passed beyond my jurisdiction, and became known to some of the leading officers of Mcclellan's army as the scout or spy who had given McClellan most reliable and important information. For several nights he entered Lee's lines and re- ported in the morning. Finally, he was missed at the usual time his report was expected. When the second day passed without any word from him, great anxiety was felt for his safety, and every effort was made that could be made, without exposing him to the discovery of his identity, to learn of his whereabouts, but without success. When he had been missing a week it was evident that he had been captured, and, upon being advised of it from the headquarters of McClellan's army, I hastened to Philadelphia to confer with President J. Edgar Thompson, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, whose secretary Captain Palmer had been until he entered the service, and who was greatly interested in him personally.
"A conference with President Thompson and Vice-President Scott resulted in the purpose to endeavor to save Palmer from being identified by his captors, and it was finally decided that I should go to the offices of the North American, the Press and the Inquirer, the leading morning journals of the city, and write up for publication the next morning displayed dispatches announcing the arrival in Washington of Capt. W. J. Palmer, who had been scouting in Virginia for some days and who had brought most important information of the movements and purposes of the enemy. Some details of his reported facts were given to make the story plausible, to which was added the statement that he had brought momentous information that could not be given to the public, but that would doubtless lead to early military movements against the enemy. The dispatches were all accepted by the pub- lishers, as all felt a special interest in Captain Palmer's fate, and
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that publication doubtless saved him from being gibbeted as a spy. He had been arrested by the enemy, tried and convicted as a spy, but he had managed to maintain doubt as to his identity. His execution was delayed from time to time to ascertain who he was.
"The dispatches published in the Philadelphia papers, all of which reached the enemy's lines within forty-eight hours, if not sooner, entirely misled the Confederates as to Captain Palmer, and the failure to identify him saved him, until he finally effected his own exchange by quietly taking the place of a dead prisoner in the ranks and responding to his name when the roll was called for the men who were to be sent to the North. He is better known to the world of to-day as President Palmer, of Colorado Springs, lately of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, and one of the for- tunate and potential railroad magnates of the land."
AFTER INFORMATION WITH COLONEL PALMER.
SERG. DAVID BARNHART, COMPANY B, PLEASANT UNITY, PA.
O NE of the first trips we made after reaching Greencastle, on September Ioth, I took with Colonel Palmer. We went down the road toward Hagerstown, and about a mile from that place put our pickets on each side of the road until all were posted, except John W. Jackson, a first cousin of Colonel Palmer and a member of the old Troop and afterward an officer in the Regiment, and myself. We three started toward Hagers- town in silence, and on this night we could have called him "Wil- liam, the silent," from the fact that he spoke no word, nor gave a command, from the time we left Greencastle till we reached Hagerstown, which was after dark, and then said: "Keep quiet ; make no noise."
When we were about half way down the street, suddenly, from a point in the front and left of the street, came out of the darkness that order that few cared to disobey-"Halt !" I made ready for business, when there was a laugh from the same quarter, which gave the assurance that it was all right and for us to advance, which we did, and found one man standing on the sidewalk. Colonel Palmer dismounted and went into the house with him for a short time. When he came out we continued on through Hagerstown, on the road toward Williamsport, a short distance, then turned to the right through a gate into a field about 200 yards to a large house, where we found a man standing as if he was waiting for someone. Colonel Palmer dismounted and shook hands with him, and without a word they went into the house. In a short time Lieutenant Jackson was called in, and after that I was called, and when I went upstairs I found Palmer and Jack- son disrobed and their uniforms put in two bundles. Colonel Palmer told me to take the bundles back to Muttontown, where I would find a man at a certain place, and to give them to him,
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but if asked to tell where he (Palmer) was to deny knowing any- thing about him.
I arrived at Muttontown about daybreak and, finding my man, delivered the bundles with the instructions to hold them until called for. He excitedly wanted to know where Colonel Palmer was and I replied that I had no knowledge of him. After getting my breakfast at the hotel, I was standing in front of it, looking up the road toward Hagerstown, and saw a man dressed in a butter- nut colored suit come riding toward me. When he got near I saw it was Jackson, who said to me: "I see you got through all right, and you must have had a narrow escape, as the 'rebs' must llave entered the town just as you were leaving it." He told me that on his way back from where I had left them he got into Hagerstown and found it full of "rebs," and that he had a fine time making his way through them by playing citizen, and didn't waste much time, either. Colonel Palmer remained, but joined us again in a day or two.
REMINISCENCES OF ANTIETAM.
CORP. DARWIN E. PHELPS, COMPANY G, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON.
A BOUT the Ioth of September, 1862, while our Regiment was at Carlisle, Pa., being drilled by the regular army drill Sergeants, a dispatch came ordering us to help in the defence of the State from the threatened invasion of General Lee. We could not be considered a well-organized body of sol- diers, for we had not been a month in the service and many of the men had not even received their uniforms, and sabers were the only weapons we possessed up to this time, but we went. A small detachment started at once to Greencastle, with Colonel Palmer, and were very active in gathering in horses and scouting in front of the rebels, who had advanced as far as Hagerstown, Md. The bulk of the Regiment followed in a few days and were quickly mounted.
The people of Pennsylvania were greatly alarmed, as well as the authorities at Washington, as it was not clear what Lee's inten- tions were. After everything was in readiness, Colonel Palmer took command and we started for Hagerstown, Md., it being re- ported that the rebels were in that place. The day was warm and the roads dusty. As we approached the outskirts of the town our pace was quickened, and soon we were on a full charge in column of fours. The first intimation the citizens had of our approach was the sounds of our horses' hoofs, and many of the women were terribly frightened. The banging of doors and rattle of sash re- sounded all along the street. This and the screams of women and children made quite a din. The dust was so thick we could scarcely see. A pile of bricks had been dumped in front of a house being built, and the rider's horse in front of me stumbled and fell. My mare made a flying leap, clearing everything. I never heard whether the man was badly hurt or not. On we went, clear through, without halting. We found no rebels in the town, so con- tinued our wild dash for about a mile further, then halted, to give
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our horses time to breathe a little. We were a dusty-looking set. It was getting on toward night, and, after going a few miles further, we turned into a clover field by the side of the road, where we dismounted and were ordered to stay by our horses, ready to mount at any moment. Our horses enjoyed the clover and soon filled themselves, but their riders went hungry. We had to stay awake all night and watch the horses. At daylight we continued our march until we came to Jones' crossroads. There we were divided up into squads and placed on picket, while others were kept scouting around all through the day and night, watching the different roads.
Comrade J. H. Crum and I were together, and our appetites had become so sharpened by our recent experiences that we thought a good meal at the hotel would go better than hard-tack. There was a good country hotel at the crossroads, so, after we had awakened and brushed up, we went to it and ordered breakfast. When we were ushered into the dining-room we were most agreeably sur- prised, everything was so neat and clean ; the table looked inviting and everything on it was of the best. We had warm biscuit, excellent bread, honey, good butter, ham and hot coffee. To a couple of hungry, half-starved fellows like us, everything was good and we did not fail to do it justice. After we had eaten to our satisfaction we went out, got our horses and joined the pickets. We had the four roads to guard. Throughout the day and night scouting parties were sent out to reconnoiter. We kept our horses in a field alongside the road, tied to the fences, and each man was expected to sleep in the rear of his horse.
The night before the battle there was a fine, sifting shower of rain. Crum and I concluded we didn't want to go scouting that night, feeling tired and sleepy ; so, in order not to be disturbed, we crawled over the fence and made our bed in the other field at our horses' heads in place of their, heels. Each of us had a good gum poncho. We spread one on the ground and the other over us. This, with our saddles for pillows, comprised our bed. Our car- bines were placed under our heads, so as to keep them dry. We were soon fast asleep, in defiance of rain, rebels and everything else. Somewhere along about the middle of the night I was awak- ened from my sweet dreams by the manly voice of an officer call- ing to know if we boys didn't want to go out with Lieutenant
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Tintsman on a reconnoitering expedition. No answer. Finally, after calling and calling in vain, I felt a firm hand grasp me by my boot, and after giving me a good shake said, "Wake up here !" I couldn't play off any longer, so I said "Hugh?" "Wake up, you fellows! Don't you want to go out with Lieutenant Tintsman on a scout ?" I said, "No." "Well, then, you will have to go." "Oh, all right; of course, then we will go;" so we got up and found the night clear and beautiful, the stars shining in all their brilliancy. We soon saddled and bridled our horses and took our places in line, then away we went down the road, looking sharp for the enemy. We had gone perhaps four or five miles when, in an instant, the quiet of the night was broken by the roar of at least half a dozen guns. All we could see was the flash. The column was thrown into some slight confusion at first, but quickly got straightened up. It was found that the Lieutenant's horse had been instantly killed. The Lieutenant mounted behind one of the men and we started on our return. I soon found that Crum was not in the crowd. Someone said he was coming back there. I rode back a short distance, and could hear him cursing his luck for being obliged to ride such "a contemptible little pot-bellied lazy beast." The idea of giving him such a thing as this for a cavalry horse, etc. I called, "John, is that you?" "Yes, that's me." "Well, hurry up." "I have all the steam on now I can raise with this thing," said he. Well, we soon caught up with the column and marched back to camp, where we got a pretty good sleep before daylight, after all the fuss. The next day we found that Crum had had a pretty close call, a bullet having chipped a patch out of the right shoulder of his jacket. I was riding right behind him, and being so much taller than he I can't see how it missed me. The pickets that fired on us belonged to a Wisconsin regiment ; their orders were to fire without halting. We found this out afterward.
We were awakened in the morning by the booming of cannon. It was the ushering in of one of the bloodiest days America ever saw. All now was excitement. The sound of the cannonading in the distance was grand. Everybody was busy getting ready to move, horses had to be fed, watered, cleaned, saddled and bridled ; besides we had our own grub to look after-hard-tack and coffee- but soon all were ready, and, at the command, the column was
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formed and we took up our line of march to the battlefield. The road was almost hidden by the heavy mist that had settled down during the night, but the rays of the rising sun were fast dispelling it, and every indication pointed to a hot day. On our way we passed the Lieutenant's horse, lying by the roadside, where it had fallen after being shot, and although the time that had elapsed was so short, yet the carcass was all puffed up. We hadn't trav- eled many miles until we arrived at the place where the battle was raging. We were halted, right on the road at the edge of a dense woods, and it seemed but a short distance through the woods to where the fighting was going on. Presently two or three country wagons emerged from the woods. They were covered with sheets, bloody in places. This struck me as strange. I couldn't imagine what they were hauling dead bodies off the field for. The wagons were driven by country people-farmers. They said nothing to any of us and nothing was said to them.
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