USA > Pennsylvania > The Twenty-second Pennsylvania cavalry and the Ringgold battalion, 1861-1865; > Part 45
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444 TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
side the railroad tracks. As a train of coal cars would approach, a number of the men would board the moving train and toss off large lumps of coal while the train was passing camp. This practice soon brought a complaint from the shippers and from the railroad com- pany, which resulted in a sufficient supply of coal being furnished the camp.
Our horses, however, were obliged to stand out in zero weather and driving storm with no protection but a blanket. Oftentimes without feed or hay for a day or longer during these weeks. the suffering of the poor animals from cold and starvation must have been terrible. They gnawed and literally ate up the rails to which they were hitched, and their cries at night were heart-rending. A large number, 200 at least, died right there, starved and frozen to death through incompetency and inefficiency in the quartermaster's department somewhere higher up. We dragged out the dead horses . and threw them over the high bank into the river.
During January and February, 1865, large numbers of Con- federate cavalry were being wintered in the counties south of Moorfield, having been sent there owing to the lack of forage farther east. Such large numbers of the enemy within striking distance was a constant menace to New Creek, Cumberland, and other points along that part of the railroad west of the Shenan- doah Valley, and to keep informed of their movements and location, required constant cavalry scouting from the frontier outpost of New Creek. The winter was severe, and as our regiment was the only cavalry at this post, details for picket and scout, were heavy and the service hard. To recall the soldier life here, we quote from Donaldson's journal :
" Jan. 1. Sabbath. Regiment inspected by Major Work at ten o'clock. Dress parade in the evening. Thirty men from a Ken- tucky battery relieved the detail from our regiment that had been doing garrison duty in the fort. Lieutenant Welch held prayer- meeting in Orderly Sergeant Galbraith's tent to-night.
" Jan. 2. I am sergeant of pickets ; placed a corporal and three men on the post out Knobley Road; a corporal and three men at the post in the hollow to the left, and then had three corporals an ! thirteen men at the post by the old mill on New Creek Road, three miles from camp.
" Jan. 3. Our orders are to allow no one through without a pa-, and it gives us a great deal of trouble as well as the citizens. my dinner. supper and breakfast at Bayards'; they are nice people.
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NEW CREEK, JANUARY, 1865.
Miss Maggie is a very pleasant lady, and only wanted to charge me thirty cents, as I had given them my rations, but I paid eighty cents. Our details relieved at ten o'clock.
" Jan. 5. Hay train with cavalry guard sent out over Knobley Mountain. Colonel Higgins commanding brigade, Colonel Green- field commanding post and Major Troxell commanding the regi- ment.
" Jan. 10. Rained all night, froze as it fell and everything is glazed with ice. Detailed with fifteen men from our company (C) to go with Lieutenant Lane on a scout; the scout consisted of sixty men from the regiment, and set out early. Riding was very unsafe unless the horse was rough-shod. We went at a lope and a num- ber of the horses fell. One broke a leg and a number gave out and were sent back. Went to Purgitsville, and then down Beaver Run to Sheetsville and back to camp ; in all forty miles, an extremely hard and difficult ride.
" Jan. 14. My horse was stolen before daylight. Hunted three hours, but did not find him. A wagon-train for hay was sent out with strong guard, to be gone two days. Commander of post sent me with a detail of six men to the neighborhood of Sheetstown on Patterson's Creek to summon the Carscaddens, Johnstons, Bailey and Davis as witnesses to attend a court-martial at Cumberland on Monday. Started at eleven o'clock and returned at seven, having ridden thirty-two miles. At Carscaddens I met a beautiful young schoolmarm, Miss Henning. The 6th W. Virginia Regiment left here to-day. Perrin Lynn, who had been a prisoner at Belle Isle for more than a year, returned to-day."
While this necessary and constant vigilance grew somewhat monotonous, there were occasional happenings that furnished the real excitement of war. On January 11, Rosser with a brigade of cavalry, crossed the mountain, surprised and captured the garrison of over 500 men at Beverly. Every such foray of the enemy quick- ened the scouting activity at New Creek for several days. Referring to our journal, we find under this date: "Major Troxell with part of our regiment and the Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th West Vir- ginia with part of his command and two pieces of artillery, went on a ten-day scout to Franklin. Captain McNulty with part of Com- pany C, went with the scout." Again, on January 16th: "Our scouts report that General Rosser will probably strike the railroad here or west of here this morning; the regiment was called out under
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446 TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
arms before daylight ; the dismounted men were sent up and quar- tered near the fort in anticipation of an attack."
Rosser did not appear and next day, Major Troxell's scout re- turned, and neither had they found him.
Immediately after the Beverly expedition, General Rosser tem- porarily disbanded his command, sending his men with their horses to. their homes, to report upon call. This was made necessary owing to the difficulty in obtaining forage for the animals.
General Lightburn came up from Cumberland on the night of the 14th to assume command of the post, and our regimental band was routed out at eleven o'clock to serenade him. Next day. Generals Kelley and Lightburn inspected post. On the 16th, General Sheridan and staff, with General Crook and staff, visited and in- spected this post. The fort fired a salute of fourteen guns, our regiment turned out on dress parade, and the band serenaded the distinguished party as they took the train to go farther west.
During the month of January and the early part of February. the regiment was required to obtain its supply of hay almost ex- clusively from the mountain country to the south of the post. The supply within one day's journey was entirely exhausted, and at this time, hay trains were obliged to go a greater distance, requiring two days to make the round trip, and with a battalion of cavalry as guard. The amount of hay in bulk that could be loaded upon a wagon, owing to the character of the mountain roads, was necessar- ily limited, so that a cargo of a hay train did not last long. Why baled hay was not supplied in abundance by railroad, was a won- der then and is to-day. One excuse offered at the time was that the Government demanded the exclusive use of the railroad for the transportation of troops from the western army to the east. An- other reason offered was that drawing our supply of hay from Hampshire and Hardy counties would exhaust the store from which the enemy subsisted when making raids.
From a soldier's journal, under date of February 1, we read :
" The wagon-train came in with hay, and we have a small bun- dle for each horse. A train carrying soldiers, and having attached to the rear end a car-load of baled hay and a car-load of sacks of oats, stopped on a siding opposite camp to allow a passenger train to pass; our regiment, having no feed for their horses, charged the train and took all the oats and hay. The conductor reported the matter to headquarters and a guard was put around the train, but only in time to guard empty cars. The Colonel is talking about
447
NEW CREEK, JANUARY, 1865.
having an investigation, and the boys are getting shy. Company M hid some sacks of oats up the railroad at the house of a citizen, and had " the old man " guarding the loot until the shades of night would permit them to carry it away. Donaldson, of C, and Thomp- son, of F, 'got wind of it' in some way, and went up to the place at dusk and so frightened the citizen for being an accomplice in the theft that he let them have the oats, and they appropriated the entire ' cache ' for their own hungry horses."
The Baltimore papers were received daily at the New Creek camp, and the soldiers were thus kept up to date on the progress of the war. The papers of January 17th brought the news of a hard-fought battle and bloody victory, resulting in the capture of Fort Fisher at the mouth of Cape Fear River in North Carolina ; the occupation of this fort by our troops, effectually closed the great blockade-running port of Wilmington, where hundreds of blockade-running steamers had eluded the blockade fleet of Union war vessels, and carried in to Wilmington several hundred million dollars' worth of arms, ammunition and supplies for the Confed- erate government, mostly purchased from English merchants and manufacturers ;. the same blockade runners had slipped out again from that port, loaded with as many million dollars' worth of Confederate cotton in payment for the cargoes delivered. This vic- tory practically sealed up the Confederate Government and cut it off from the rest of the world. Some two weeks later, the papers brought the news that Sherman's victorious army, after a month's rest at Savannah, had started to march north through South Carolina. Such news filled the men with hope; it was now evi- dent to the dullest pessimist that the Confederacy was fast crum- bling and that the spring campaign would " wipe it off the map.".
For several weeks after the capture of the garrison at Bev- erly, the enemy assumed an aggressive attitude, menacing the moun- tain districts of West Virginia, and also the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Cumberland to Harper's Ferry. A con- siderable force of his cavalry assembled in the region about Lewis- burg and threatened another invasion of the mountain valleys north and west. Moseby, who had been seriously wounded, was now back in Loudon County; his command, hunted down by Sher- idan's troopers, had broken up into small squads, who kept in hiding along the Blue Ridge and operated principally as train- robbers, holding up passenger trains on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, robbing the passengers and mail. These forays were
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448 TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
made during the night; the well mounted robbers escaping with their loot before daylight revealed the direction they had taken.
Major Harry Gilmore, Moseby's most daring and 'energetic lieutenant, who commanded a body of rangers known as the " Sec- ond Maryland Battalion," was now sent with his command to the vicinity of Moorfield, to reorganize and take command of McNeill's and Woodson's companies.
It was well known to Sheridan that large numbers of the enemy's cavalry were wintering in Pendleton and adjoining coun- ties, and he fully realized that these might be quietly assembled at any time in considerable force and by a rapid march of a day and part of the night, attack some point on the railroad or a garri- son along the border. In view of all this, he made an effort to have the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry released from garrison duty, that they might be free to move as a regiment against such a force of the enemy. (War Records, Vol. XLVI, Part II, page 323.)
On January 31st, he dispatched General Crook as follows: " The regiment of cavalry at New Creek can be made an effective body of men to be cut loose from the post at any time, if you will send a regiment of infantry there."
Later he again dispatched: "When I suggested that an in- fantry regiment be sent to New Creek, it was for the purpose of garrisoning that place and relieving the cavalry regiment there, from all garrison duty, so that if it should be necessary to have a movable force, you could use the whole of the cavalry regiment, and the infantry could protect the post and the cavalry camp, wagons, etc."
General Lightburn, in command at New Creek, had made a similar request the previous day, to which General Kelley replied : " The request is approved, but I am unable to send it to that point without totally exposing other portions of this command."
SHERIDAN'S SCOUTS. CAPTURE OF MAJOR GILMOR.
Sheridan had an excellent body of secret service men or scouts, as they were called; they were Union soldiers, who had been se- lected with great care as to their courage and fitness for this dan- gerous work, and were placed under command of Colonel H. K. Young, of the 1st Rhode Island Infantry. This well-organized secret service kept Sheridan well-informed of the location, strength and movements of the enemy. They kept an especial watch upon Moseby and the other rangers and guerrillas that infested the mountains on either side of the Valley.
449
NEW CREEK, FEBRUARY, 1865.
Gilmor had been trailed to Harrisonburg, and then on into Lost River Valley. The purpose of his movement was discovered and reported to Sheridan, who, on January 28th, dispatched to General Crook: " Harry Gilmor is not as far down as Moorfield, but is on the head-waters of Lost River, trying to unite the 2nd Maryland and McNeill's. and Woodson's commands."
Colonel Young sent two * scouts on to Moorfield to discover and report Gilmor's stopping place. These soon reported the de- sired information, and Colonel Young, with a squad of his scouts, set out for Moorfield. They told the citizens along the way that they were recruits going to join Gilmor's command at Moorfield.
Next day, February 4th, Sheridan sent Colonel Whittaker with a force of 300 cavalry to follow Young's band. Whittaker gave out the impression that he was in pursuit of the band of Confederate recruits that had passed on.
On the morning of February 5th, before daylight, Young's Scouts, followed closely by Whittaker's men, reached the house where Gilmor stayed. Young was readily admitted and found Gil- mor in bed, sound asleep, his revolver on a chair nearby.
The valuable prisoner was carried off by his captors, although they were pursued and fired upon for a distance of many miles. Gilmor was sent to Fort Warren as a prisoner.
In a letter to Crook next day, Sheridan writes: "From papers taken from Harry Gilmor, it appears he had had a rough time with Woodson's and McNeill's men. He says in a letter that they are in a state of mutiny, and had dispersed; that he arrested one of the commanding officers, but that he would not recognize the arrest, and called on some officer from Warren County to hurry over with his company and help him."
Next day after the capture of Gilmor, there seems to have been some apprehension of a raid upon New Creek, for Companies L and M of our regiment were detailed to support a battery stationed on the hill over by the fort, and the rest of the regiment, in com- mand of Major Work, went out on a reconnaissance.
On the 12th, twenty-five deserters from Imboden's command came in. The newspapers reported many deserters coming into Grant's lines around Petersburg. The same vigilant picketing and scouting is kept up throughout the month.
The men of the Old Battalion were well acquainted with New
* Arch. Rowand, Esq., of Pittsburg and another scout named Campbell.
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450
TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
Creek and the region which they were now scouting, having operated in this field during the previous years of the war. Many of the troopers had become well acquainted with many of the residents. both in the towns and the country about. Now, upon their return to this field, after having participated in the glorious victories of the Valley campaign, they were more than ever welcome in the ยท families of these loyal citizens. As the war clouds seemed to he breaking away and the dawn of peace almost visible, some of the officers' wives came to reside with their husbands at this military post. These, with the few local Virginia belles, constituted the feminine group of the social set, which on occasion, was further supplemented by lady friends from Cumberland.
Parties, dances and suppers were arranged, and the somber. war-stricken hamlet and camp assumed something of the social gayety of a military post in time of peace. Our regimental band had within its membership an excellent orchestra, which contributed much to the pleasure of these social functions, and the band boys were in great demand.
The band had now become quite an institution of the regi- ment. Organized in December, just before leaving Martinsburg. it was still young as an organization, but with good teaching and al- most constant practice, had exceeded the expectations of its warme-t friends. When the regiment reached New Creek in December, the band found quarters in the large stone house on the bank above the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, some 400 yards below the station, where it remained until the majority of the members were mustered out in June. This house had been the residence of a Virginia gen- tleman, who was at this time an officer in the Confederate army and the house had been " confiscated " for the use of whomever couldi get possession of any part of it. The basement was used as a post Guard House or prison. The band used the attic and the dining- room. A widow, Mrs. Murphy, occupied the rest of the house as a boarding house, the boarders being mostly officers, government em- ployees, and their wives. The stone house from attic to basement was quite a vaudeville theater, the attic furnishing the music and. other stage stunts on occasion; the basement furnished the tragedy and acrobatic feats, the most thrilling of the latter being the tossing of every new prisoner in an army blanket; the boarding house fur- nished light comedy in great variety and constant supply.
After sleeping several months in the attic, we learned that it was supposed to be haunted, which probably accounts for the fact
451
NEW CREEK, FEBRUARY, 1865.
that it was the only apartment in New Creek that had no visible occupants when the band arrived there in .December. The old darkies of the neighborhood had a legend that some one had been murdered in that house and the body hid somewhere under the roof beside the attic. Some of the boys finally concluded to investigate, and pried open a low door in the wall of the attic, and over beside the large stone chimney, they found a row of short boards in the floor, which they took up, and sure enough, there was a vault about the size of a rough-box or coffin-case, and in the floor of this vault were what appeared to be blood stains, but no bones.
Alex. Hamilton, leader of the famous old West Middletown Band of Washington County, was the first band teacher, and to his excellent instruction and leadership, is due the rapid progress made by the men. Levi Scott, the regular band leader, had been the regimental bugler, a former band man who had played a cornet in Lucien Gray's 2nd West Virginia Veteran band for a time. Scott and most of the other members were mustered out in June, when the band was reorganized under the leadership of John A. Starry.
CAPTURE OF GENERALS CROOK AND KELLEY.
Cumberland, Md., Feb. 21, 1865.
Major General Sheridan,
Winchester, Va.
This morning, about three o'clock, a party of Rebel horsemen came up to the New Creek Road, about sixty in number. They captured the pickets and quietly rode into town, went directly to the headquarters of Generals Crook and Kelley, sending a couple of men to each place to overpower the headquarters guard, when they went directly to the room of General Crook, and without disturbing anybody else in the house, ordered him to dress and took him down stairs and placed him upon a horse, ready saddled and waiting. The same was done to General Kelley. Captain Melvin, A. A. G. to General Kelley, was also taken. While this was being done, a few of them, without creating any disturbance, opened a few stores, but left without waiting to take anything. It was done so quietly that others of us who were sleeping in adjoining rooms to General Crook, were not disturbed. The alarm was given within ten minutes by a negro watchman at the hotel who escaped from them. and within an hour, we had a party of fifty cavalry after them. They tore up the telegraph lines, and it took almost an hour to get them in order. As soon as New Creek could be called. I ordered
452 TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
a force to be sent to Romney, and it started without any unnece -- sary delay. A second force has gone from New Creek to Moor- field, and a regiment of infantry has gone to New Creek to supply the place of the cavalry. They rode good horses and left at a very rapid gait, evidently fearful of being overtaken. They did not re- main in Cumberland over ten minutes. From all information, I am inclined to believe that instead of Rosser, it is McNeill's company. Most of the men of that company are of this place. I will telegraph you any further information.
ROBERT P. KENNEDY, Major and A. A. G.
Colonel Greenfield, returning from a visit to his home, stopped off his train at Cumberland at 1 o'clock that morning and, finding the hotels full, turned in for the rest of the night, with Captain James P. Hart, who was boarding at the Barnum House. Imme- diately after the departure of the raiders, the sleepers were aroused. when they hurried to the Revere House, General Crook's head- quarters. Among the group of officers gathered here, were General Rutherford B. Hayes and Colonel William Mckinley, two future presidents of the United States. The telegraph outfit had been :0) badly broken that it was about five o'clock before they got it to working. The operator then got a wire through Pittsburgh and Wheeling to New Creek and notified that place of the capture. The 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry was put in the saddle immediately and a strong detachment under command of Major Troxell was sent by way of Moorfield to cut off the escape of the raiders with their distinguished prisoners, and another scout under Major Work was sent out by way of Romney for the same purpose.
Unfortunately, there was no cavalry force at Cumberland to send in pursuit. There were some 3,500 infantry and artillery sta- tioned there at the time, who were encamped some distance out vi the town. The only troops in the town were a small infantry patrol and a sentinel in front of each hotel.
A company of Ohio infantry, encamped near Cumberland. was hastily mounted on such horses as could be collected, and, led by Captain James P. Hart * of the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, with Lieutenant William E. Griffith of the same command, started in hot
War Rec .. XLVI, II, 624.
* Captain Hart was a member of General Kelley's staff and lived at the Bar .. .?? House, his room being not far from Kelley's. Griffith happened to be in Cumbers !! that night. and was a guest at the Barnum House. He was paroled and returned !. Cumberland next day ..
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NEW CREEK, FEBRUARY, 1865.
pursuit of the enemy. As this party approached Romney, Hart sighted some Confederate cavalry, and, as was his custom, imme- diately charged them. As he closed up on them, he discovered that he and Griffith were practically alone, the infantry not having re- sponded to his command. A sharp hand-to-hand skirmish ensued, in which Griffith was captured, after he had exhausted his ammu- nition.
Very early in the morning, Colonel Greenfield and General Lightburn secured an engine and started for New Creek, but were sidetracked for a long while at Brady's Station to give way to regular trains from the west; it was nine o'clock when they ar- rived at New Creek. Greenfield gathered up a small scout from the remnants of cavalry, and started to overtake Troxell.
Upon receiving Major Kennedy's dispatch, Sheridan imme- diately replied: " Push on the New Creek cavalry as far as Moor- field. I will send to Wardensville. Your cavalry, if it gets to Moorfield in time, may force the Rebels to take the Wardensville road."
Major Kennedy answered: "The New Creek cavalry has been ordered to Moorfield. Couriers have gone after them and with orders not to spare horseflesh."
Later, Kennedy dispatched: "The first scout sent out from New Creek has been heard from. At 12:30 o'clock, they were three miles south of Purgitsville, and reported that the Rebels, with prisoners, took the Grassy Lick Road." Major Troxell says: " A small scout is in my front. I hope to catch them before they reach Moorfield. I think it would be a good idea to send scouts to picket at South Burlington. Imboden's command is reported at Moorfield. I will see. I am marching as rapidly as possible."
Kennedy dispatched General Lightburn at New Creek as fol- lows: " Captain Botsford has just returned and says the Rebels are about sixty in number, and that they are going direct to Rom- ney via Springfield. They are riding very fast. Hurry up your parties and head them off. Don't spare your horses."
Major Troxell with his scout of 150 men reached Moorfield be- tween one and two o'clock, just a short time after the enemy, with their distinguished prisoners, had moved off. Here Troxell was informed that McNeill had been reinforced by Rosser to an extent that would make an attack on them hazardous. He, there- upon, gave up pursuit and turned about, meeting Colonel Green- field's scout at Oldfields, some five miles back. Colonel Whittaker
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