USA > Pennsylvania > The Twenty-second Pennsylvania cavalry and the Ringgold battalion, 1861-1865; > Part 7
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* H. B. Hedge's Journal.
# When Sergeant Wickerham ordered the howitzer to take position and shell the enemy, the men in charge of the gun declined to do so, saying that they had orders not to fire without orders from the officer in command of the expedition. Wickerham had never before been known to swear, but at this refusal to obey his order, it is said that the atmosphere about there grew blue and sulphurous, at which the artillerymen brought the gun into action and shelled the hidden rebels among the rocks, who hastily decamped.
56
TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
hot haste to their relief, meeting the command which had proceeded as far as Huttonville, and did not need reinforcements.
Corporal Snyder was from Beallsville, Washington County, Pa., and Christian Snyder from West Brownsville. William Har- per, John W. Gray and Frank Fitzsimmons were detailed to ac- company the bodies home for burial.
.On September 12th, we received orders to take down tents, pack baggage and be ready to move. Did not move until the 14th when we marched to Phillippi and camped for the night. Next day, marched to Webster and camped; reached Clarksburg on the 17th, where we went into permanent camp, remaining for one month.
CLARKSBURG.
The serious defeat of the Union Army under General Pope by General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, gave great impetus to Confederate activity throughout the Virginias.
General Loring, in command of their forces in Southwestern Virginia, sent General Jenkins with a force of 550 cavalry to invade " Trans-Allegheny," Virginia, sweep around the northwest, destroy the railroads, capture the outposts, etc., etc. General Lee, in a let- ter to Loring at this time, heretofore referred to in the first chapter of this book, suggested the rich valley of the Lower Monongahela and the broad, fertile farms of Washington County, Pennsylvania, with their pastures of fine horses and fat cattle, as an excellent field for spoilation.
Jenkins set out on the 22nd of August, crossed the mountains quietly by an obscure trail, expecting to strike his first blow at Beverly, where he had been informed General Kelley had but 450 troops. As he approached Beverly, he captured a few Union sol- diers, from whom he learned that General Kelley's force at Beverly numbered some 1,500 men. He turned away from that place, going into Kelley's rear and capturing the towns of Buckhannon, Weston, Spencer and some others in his course.
The Ringgolds at Beverly, therefore, missed a match with General Jenkins' " Six Hundred "; but a few weeks later, they in- troduced themselves to part of Jenkins' cavalry as follows :
Oct. 1, 1862.
Gen. R. R. Marcy, Chief of Staff,
Army of the Potomac.
A detachment of my cavalry, fifty men, attacked sixty-five of Jenkins' cavalry near Glenville, Gilmer County, yesterday, and
THE WASHINGTON CAVALRY COMPANY, 1862. 57
routed them completely ; killed 5; wounded several ; took 2 prisoners and 8 horses. B. F. KELLEY, Brig. Gen.
Lieutenant James P. Hart of the Ringgold Cavalry, with forty- one men of his company, was ordered to join a detachment of Cap- tain Rowan's company of the 1st Virginia Cavalry at Weston, en- route. Information had been received at headquarters that bodies of Jenkins' Confederate cavalry were moving about down in Gilmer, and this scout was sent after them. He left Beverly at 4 P. M., on September 28th, and marched all night, and continued on next day to Weston, where he joined Captain Rowan's detachment, and the combined force marched as rapidly as their tired horses could go. The enemy, not aware that they were being pursued, halted at five o'clock, unsaddled some of their horses to graze, while they set about getting. supper. At five-thirty o'clock, our command espied their camp, and charged full into it, firing their carbines right and left. The Rebels ran in every direction. Some succeeded in getting their horses and getting away, and others gained the brush and escaped. The result in killed, wounded and prisoners is given in General Kelley's report above. None of Lieutenant Hart's men received . a scratch.
Hart's command had ridden eighty-four miles in twenty-five and a half hours, a great record over those rough mountain roads.
On October 12th, we were joined at Clarksburg by two new cavalry companies from Washington County, Pennsylvania, the Keystone Cavalry, under command of Captain George T. Work, and Beallsville Cavalry. under command of Captain Harvey H. Young. Just one week later, the Ringgold Cavalry Company, together with the two new companies, were ordered to march to New Creek. an account of which will be found in another chapter.
We left the Washington Cavalry, " Greenfield's Company," as the boys generally spoke of it, at Romney, Va., on the 10th of May, 1862. The reader will now go back to that date and follow these troops in their activities during the summer.
THE WASHINGTON CAVALRY, GARRISON ROMNEY.
The Washington Cavalry Company was ordered to Romney for outpost duty about May 1st, 1862. At that time, a lot of German soldiers from New York occupied that place. A fortnight later, Blinker's Division (all German) came through, when all marched off together for Petersburg and Franklin to join General Fremont's
£
58 TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
army.' This left the Washington Cavalry alone to garrison the post, of which Captain Greenfield was now commander. We took up our quarters in centrally located vacant houses and offices, of which there were many. The citizens liked our company and were desirous that we stay there as long as the place was occupied by soldiers. The local Rebel companies of Hardy County gave us very little trouble during May and June, a sort of truce existing, probably through the influence of the Confederate citizens of Romney, whose motto at that time seemed to be "Let well enough alone." We often carried the mail to Green Spring Run alone, sixteen miles, and our team went to the same station for supplies without a guard. We had pickets out a short distance on each road, and a guard of six men at the Suspension Bridge, seven miles from Romney on the Green Spring Road. The latter were the only soldiers between Romney and Cumberland. Guard duty at this bridge was more like a summer camp in vacation than like soldiering. While our duties were pretty heavy, having to keep guards stationed all night, still we had fine times fishing, skiff-riding, etc. A very nice widow, with her two children, lived in the house at the bridge, while we guards occupied the office. We gave this lady all our rations, sufficient for her family and ours, and she did our cooking, so that we were sort of summer boarders. She had been very kind to our sick when troops had been stationed there during the previous winter, and General Kelley allowed us to collect bridge toll from all citizens and pay the money to her. It went hard with old stockholders in the bridge to have to pay twenty-five cents for a horse, and fifty cents for a buggy or wagon, when they had heretofore always crossed free. We were short of feed one day and turned our horses out in a field to graze. When we went to get them in the evening, three. were gone, the Rebels having slipped in and stolen them.
On May 23rd, General Stonewall Jackson, with a large Con- federate force consisting of Ewell's Corps and Stuart's Cavalry, attacked General Banks' troops at Strasburg and drove them back into Maryland with heavy loss. By midsummer, the country was again overrun by bands of the enemy's cavalry, and our short truce came to an end.
General Kelley was apprehensive of a raid on Cumberland, and
Captain Greenfield had promised the company a feast when their first year was up, so he went to Cumberland and laid in a supply of fruits, cakes, pies, etc., and on the 14th of August. the whole company sat down to a fine dinner in celebration of our first anniversary. We had a good, enthusiastic time, and every man was then ready to mount his horse and follow wherever the Captain led.
.1
D
THE WASHINGTON CAVALRY COMPANY, 1862. 59
Captain Greenfield's command at Romney was the only force to watch and keep him posted of the enemy's movements. This kept our boys almost constantly in the saddle. Fremont and Banks were both telegraphing Greenfield for information in regard to the enemy's movements west of the Shenandoah Valley in the direction of Romney.
" On August 15th, a band of Rebels appeared on the rocks over- looking the Suspension Bridge and fired at two soldiers sitting on the porch. One of them, J. M. Weaver, was shot through the body ; but he jumped up, picked up a child, carried it through the house, handed it to its mother through a back window, jumped out of the window, and both men made their escape into a cornfield. When the Rebels fired, one of our horses broke loose and ran across the bridge, where one of our men caught it and rode to camp bareback, with only the halter on it, bringing word of the attack. The com- pany was soon in the saddle and scoured the country around for. many miles, but failed to find the enemy.
A SUNDAY SCOUT.
* " On Sunday morning, August 18th, Captain Greenfield led a scout out to Slane's Cross Roads and on to North River Mills. We then made a roundabout march of about ten miles, and came back to the mills. I, with two comrades, was riding some distance in ad- vance. Just before we came in sight of the buildings, I saw a little girl on the opposite side of the creek, running, shouting and making motions to some one at the miller's house. We spurred our horses and dashed ahead. Just as we came in sight of the house, a Rebel soldier ran out, mounted a horse at the door and galloped down the road, and we three after him. One comrade's horse fell and he got behind, but Hugh Horn and I kept right after him. He turned sev- eral times and tried to shoot us, but we were shooting so close that he gave that up and tried to escape. Finally we landed him. I caught his horse and we were standing beside the body when the Captain rode up and exclaimed : " What is the matter here? Whom have they killed?" thinking it was one of our men. I stepped aside, when he saw that it was a Rebel, and was greatly relieved. The ball had entered the back of his head and came out over his left eye. We all thought him dead, when, to our surprise, he became con- scious, turned over, rose to his knees and began to pray. We put him on a blanket, carried him back to the house and left him with
* Rogers.
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TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
his girl, whom he had come to take to church. We came on to the church, where the minister kept right on preaching. The Rebel sol- diers in attendance had fled on our approach, and we did not dis- turb the service; on this scout we traveled more than a hundred miles."
On August 20th, Captain Greenfield, with forty of his men, went to Moorfield on a reconnaissance. It was difficult to approach this town without being observed. This time, we forded the river five miles below town. The valley being perfectly level from this on, the town was in plain view all the time. The roads being very dusty, we rode close to the fences and were not discovered until we charged into the town. A number of Rebel soldiers ran from the houses ; one was killed and several taken prisoners. This was a hot Rebel town, and the women often boasted afterward that this was the only time the Yankees ever got in there without their knowing it beforehand. We learned some time after that McNeill's Rangers were hidden in a clump of timber not far from the road we came, and had watched us go up and also return, but were afraid to attack us.
Up to this time we had not more than seventy men in our company, but had been doing the duty of a full company. Now, however, we began to receive many recruits, good men from our own county, and soon had our full complement, one hundred men, on the roll. Each man in the company furnished his own horse.
GREENFIELD EVACUATES ROMNEY.
* " Lee with his army had defeated the Army of the Potomac, under Major General Pope, and was crossing into Maryland. The · whole North was greatly alarmed. Washington City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Harrisburg were all fearful of attack. Governor Curtin called out the State Militia. McClellan was again placed in command, relieving General Pope. I kept the country well scouted in the direction of Winchester, watching carefully the movements of the enemy.
" On the 12th of September, a Confederate officer with a small escort was brought into camp under a flag of truce, escorting a number of ladies, the wives of Union officers, who were left in Winchester when our army retreated. I received them kindly, gave them a good dinner and thanked them, requesting them to con-
. Colonel Greenfield's Memoirs.
+
THE WASHINGTON CAVALRY COMPANY, 1862. 61
vey my thanks to General Stuart for his kindness to the officers' wives.
" After their departure, I telegraphed General Kelley for in- structions as to what disposition I should make of the ladies. I also informed him that Colonel Imboden was approaching with con- siderable force, that I anticipated an attack within twenty-four hours, was preparing to meet him and would like reinforcements. As he could not reinforce me, he ordered me to fall back on Cum- berland. The next morning I evacuated Romney about three o'clock, and Imboden entered the place at daylight.
" Colonel Imboden, in a lengthy report of his operations, under date of September 27, 1862, after giving an account of what he called ' an almost successful attempt ' to destroy Cheat River Bridge over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which was frustrated by a Union woman riding twenty-five miles through the mountain woods to alarm General Kelley and enable him to concentrate a force to prevent it, he says further :
"'I then set out with four hundred men to capture Romney. I crossed the Shenandoah Mountains at Brock's Gap and came down Lost River very secretly ; made a night march on Romney, getting within five miles before midnight, when I ascertained that the enemy had evacuated the place that evening. Unfortunately, three soldiers from Winchester, escorting some ladies under a flag of truce, got to Romney the day before. They were young, wild fel- lows, and talked so confidently that Romney would be taken in a day or so that the commanding officer took fright, telegraphed General Kelley for permission to fall back to the railroad, got it, and left about twelve hours too soon for me.'
" There was no talk of this kind on the part of these Con- federates. While I was prepared to give Imboden a warm recep- tion, his command was so large that it would have been a very unequal fight. I had less than one hundred men and had held this exposed post for almost four months with this small command. Anybody familiar with Romney and knowing of the numerous roads entering there, can estimate the number of men required to picket the place. I was also required to keep a picket at the ‘Wire Bridge,' near Springfield, six miles north."
Captain Greenfield's company remained at Cumberland throughout the remainder of September and the month of October, during which time, General Lee's large army was camped about Martinsburg and Winchester, watching McClellan across the Po-
62
TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
tomac and destroying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Harper's Ferry almost to Cumberland. To keep watch on their movements, the Washington Cavalry boys were kept in the saddle almost constantly.
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63
THE RINGGOLD BATTALION, 1862.
CHAPTER VII. THE RINGGOLD BATTALION. AUGUST 26, 1862- DECEMBER 31, 1862.
By. the last of March, 1862, the Union Army had been re- cruited up to 600,000 men. The expenses of the war were neces- sarily great, and the burden of taxation was causing complaint, es- pecially from the large element that opposed the war. The general impression through the States was that the force now in the field was sufficiently large to put down the Rebellion; conse- quently, strong pressure was brought to bear on the Government to discontinue recruiting for the army. Yielding to this pressure, the Government stopped the recruiting on April 3rd.
The war dragged along. The Union forces in the West met with some success, but the progress of the Army of the Potomac was most disappointing, and it became apparent that a larger force was needed.
In the latter part of June, 1862, the Governors of seventeen Northern States requested President Lincoln to call out a large number of additional troops to fill up the depleted ranks of the organizations now in the field, and to add many new regiments to the army. The President heartily concurred with their views, and accordingly, on the 2nd of July, issued a call for three hundred thousand volunteers. Many officers right from the front of the different armies were sent to their home counties and cities to re- cruit for the army. Throughout the North, war meetings were held in the villages, towns and cities. Enthusiasm ran high. New regiments were being formed. Recruiting officers, many of them eloquent speakers, some wearing the scars of battle or an empty sleeve-more eloquent than words-appealed to the men to enlist and come to their Country's aid. Many men, whose business and family ties had heretofore held them back, now came forward and signed the enlistment rolls while the assembled patriots sang in rousing chorus :
" We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more, From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore; We are coming, we are coming, the Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more."
Not until this time had the war spirit risen so high in the towns and country districts of Western Pennsylvania, and many of the best regiments of the Old Keystone State were then recruited.
64
TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
In Washington County, then strictly an agricultural district, the cavalry arm of the service attracted the young farmers, and especially so at this time, as Captain John Keys, of the Ringgold Company, was then in the county recruiting for the cavalry. Cap- tain Keys succeeded in arousing great interest in the eastern part of the county, resulting in the enlistment of four cavalry companies during the next two months, the companies taking names as follows : Beallsville Cavalry, Independent Cavalry, Patton Cavalry and La- fayette Cavalry. These were later more familiarly known to the men as "Young's Company, Mitchner's Company, Barr's Com- pany and Smith's Company." -
Captain George T. Work of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry, who, on account of ill health, had resigned during the previous winter, but now fairly recovered and acting under authority from Governor Curtin, recruited a company of cavalry in the western part of the county, which was designated as "The Keystone Cavalry "; this company was ready to march on the 21st of August.
Dr. Keys' desire was to enlarge his own command to that of a battalion, or, if possible, a regiment. Captain Work, who had also started out to raise a larger organization, now joined forces with Captain Keys, as did the other four companies heretofore mentioned. As these companies were filled to the required quota, they went for- ward to rendezvous camps, where they were organized, mustered into the service, mounted and equipped. After a few weeks drill in rendezvous camp, mostly at Wheeling Island, the. companies pro- ceeded to New Creek, Virginia, on the headwaters of the Potomac, then the base of operations against the inroads of the enemy upon the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-a great transportation artery almost monopolized by the Government as a military road.
MAJOR GEORGE T. WORK.
* Captain George Tweed Work, who later became Major of the 1st Battalion, ?2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, was born in Washing- ton County, in 1825. The son of a farmer in a rural community, his schooling was necessarily limited to the log schoolhouse of that
* For this sketch of Major Work, we are indebted to Rev. W. W. Hunter, known in the Ringgold Battalion as " Work Hunter, the one-arm soldier."
Comrade Hunter lost his arm by an accident. several years before the war. There were three brothers; the other two, Joseph and Joshua, enlisted in the Keystone Cavalry and both gave their lives to their country. The one-arm brother tried to enlist also, but was refused. He followed the command into the enemy's country and persisted in serving in some capacity .. Firaling that he could not be enlisted as a soldier, he volunteered ax a teamster, and as such served for six months, enduring the hardships, exposure and dangers of a soldier without pay and with no thought of pension or any reward, other than the sweet satisfaction of serving his country in her time of peril.
.
Capt. James Y. Chessrown.
Capt. Andrew J. Barr.
Capt. George T. Work.
is
Capt. Caleb J. McNulty.
Capt. Benjamin W. Denny.
65
THE BOYS OF '62.
period, but his education by no means ended with the simple ele- mentary " three R's" taught in that primitive school; his thirst for knowledge made him a reader of books and by the time he reached his majority, he was one of the best informed young men of his community. He took great interest in the history of The American Revolution and Second War for Independence, or War of 1812, and the influence of his reading so imbued him with patriotism and military spirit, that he joined a local volunteer com- pany of cavalry, known as the Winfield Hussars, of which he was an enthusiastic member and voted to offer the services of his com- pany to the Government in the War with Mexico in 1846.
In the early summer of 1861, he was active in the reorganiza- tion of The Winfield Hussars, which, under command of Captain W. W. McNulty. went into camp at Pittsburgh with seven other cavalry companies. Of these eight companies, the 6th Regiment, Pennsylvania Cavalry, was organized, and Captain W. W. McNulty was elected its Colonel. This regiment was immediately sent for- ward to Washington City, where it camped on Seventh Street for some time, drilling and learning the art of war. Twelve companies were required for a cavalry regiment. Several of the Pennsylvania regiments previously organized, did not have the required number of companies; the 6th, being the last formed, was thereupon dis- membered, and the companies assigned to other regiments to com- plete their quotas. The Winfield Hussars then became Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Bayard. a West Point officer, thoroughly schooled and trained in military tactics and a rigid disciplinarian. Under the leadership of that able officer, Major Work. first as Lieutenant and later as Captain of Company I, learned his first lessons in the theory and practice of war, and had his first baptism of fire as an officer in the Army of the Potomac during the winter of 1861 -?.
In the spring of 1862, Captain Work was stricken with pneu- monia, which almost cost him his life, and left him in such an en- icebled condition that his surgeon ordered him to retire from the army at once, in the belief that he would never again be fit for military duty.
With the return of summer weather, Captain Work's health improved rapidly, his military spirit reasserted itself and he ob- tained from Governor Curtin, permission to recruit another cavalry command.
٦
66
TWENTY-SECOND PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.
THE KEYSTONE CAVALRY. COMPANY C, 22ND P. V. C.
West Middletown, in the western part of Washington County, was the recruiting center for this company, and Captain Work made his headquarters at McNulty's Hotel. Caleb J. McNulty, a young man scarcely out of his 'teens, had answered President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, as a member of Company C, 12th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry ; with the prestige of that service, he now be- came a popular and efficient recruiting officer, about whose stand- ard many of the young men of West Middletown and vicinity rallied. Samuel Donaldson, from whose diary we obtain many of these facts, got many recruits over toward Buffalo Village, while James Wood- burn rallied a good sized squad about Claysville and Taylorstown and William R. Galbraith was the leading spirit in another squad from Burgettstown. A number of young men from Washington joined the company. The result was, that in a very short time, the Keystone Cavalry had the full complement of a company and a day was appointed "to start for the war." That the survivors may live over again their first week, we quote from * Donaldson's diary :
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