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Gc 973.74 V81f 1770119
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00824 3542
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A BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE
MILITARY CAREER
OF
CARPENTER'S BATTERY
FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A RIFLE COMPANY UNDER THE NAME OF THE ALLEGHANY ROUGHS TO THE ENDING OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
BY C. A. FONERDEN
NEW MARKET, VA .: HENKEL & COMPANY, PRINTERS 1911
1770119
Copyright A SSS
8618 .3
Fonerden, Clarence A.
A brief history of the military career of Carpenter's battery, from its organization as a rifle company under the name of the Alleghany Roughs to the ending of the war between the states, by C. A. Fonerden. New Market, Va., Henkel & company, printers, 1911.
78 p. 3 pl. 20}em.
CHIEF CARO
1. Virginia artillery. Carpenter's battery, 1861-1865. 2. U. S .- Hist .- Civil war-Regimental histories -- Va. art .- Carpenter's battery.
195824
12-11700
Library of Congress
-
VIRGINIA
NIS
SIC SEMPER
This Epitomized History of Carprutter's Battery,
WRITTEN FIFTY YEARS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, IS RESPECTFULLY Ardirated to its Surviving Members,
AND TO ALL RELATIVES AND FRIENDS OF THE BRAVE AND TRUE MEN. OF BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, WHO WERE MEMBERS OF THIS ORGANIZATION, WHICH · MAINTAINED ITS REPUTATION AS A FIGHTING BATTERY IN THE OLD STONEWALL BRIGADE IN THE GREAT ARMY OF LEE AND JACK- . SON OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA FROM MANASSAS OF 1861 TO APPOMAT- TOX OF 1865, BY ITS AUTHOR
C. A. FONERDEN.
WAR IS HELL!
By C. A. FONERDEN.
When Stonewall Jackson charged the lines In battle's red array, The streaming blood, like mingling wines, Would flow upon that day: And when his bristling bayonets' thrust Was rushed against the foe, Unto that bloody day needs must Come havoc, death, and woe !
We've seen his blazing muskets pour Their shrieking missiles forth ; We've heard his thundering cannons' roar In battles South and North ; We've been along the seething front, Where death and hell were wrought In helping there to bear the brunt, Where Stonewall Jackson fought.
We've heard the bones of comrades crash ; We've seen their flesh and blood Bestrew the ground when came the clash Of some death-dealing thud ; We've heard the piteous prayers and groans Of torn and mangled men, Whose agonizing, dying moans Made Hell within us then !
On that red day when first led he Our old Stonewall Brigade Through proud Manassas' victory What deathless fame was made : Fame that shall hold its lustre bright In deeds so glory fraught, Which crowned with victory every fight That Stonewall Jackson fought.
But, "War is Hell," as Sherman said, Which Stonewall Jackson knew, Whose fierce guns painted it more red While he was passing through. Angels of Peace, what sights ye saw, What havoc was there wrought In that incessant Hell of war, Where Stonewall Jackson fought !
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER I.
NAME, NUMBERS, AND FIRST SERVICE.
A company composed heterogeneously of civil engineers, railroad contractors, construction em- ployees, mountaineers, farmers and country school boys was organized in Covington, Virginia, on the 20th day of April, 1861, voting itself the name of, and being thereafter until after the first battle of Manassas, known as "The Alleghany Roughs," numbering at date of organization 82 or 83 mem- bers, rank and file; but the entire enrollment of which during the war, from volunteer recruits, conscriptions, and assignments, would make a grand total of a probable membership of 150.
Could an accurately detailed account of this company be written it would prove it to have been from beginning to end with few equals and no su- periors for valorous, arduous, and continuous sert- ice, from the glory-emblazoned first battle of Ma- nassas, in which it bore so conspicuous a part, to the sorrowful culmination at Appomattox, where its existence so bravely ended.
Its services were tendered to Governor Letcher, of Virginia, on April 21, 1861, and it was enrolled in the service of the State that day as an infantry or rifle company, its officers then being Thompson McAllister, Captain ; Joseph Carpenter, Ist Lieu- tenant ; George McKendree, 2d Lieutenant ; and H. H. Dunot, 2d Lieutenant, Jr.
A few days later it was conveyed to Staunton, Virginia, by wagon train as far as Jackson River, and from there on by railroad-the Virginia Cen- tral of that day. Remaining in Staunton two or
6
A BRIEF HISTORY
three days, awaiting orders, these came from Gov- ernor Letcher, duly, for us to return to Covington to be uniformed and drilled preparatory for being regularly mustered into service a week or two later at Harper's Ferry. At the latter rendezvous it was made Company A of the 27th Regiment of the Ist Virginia Brigade of Infantry, which won by its courage and prowess of invincible qualities on the first Manassas battle field the proud and imperish- able name of the "Stonewall Brigade."
It will be seen from the date of the organization of this rifle company of Alleghany Roughs, and from its having so early entered into active service of the State, at Harper's Ferry, that its claim for recognition among the very first volunteer troops of the Confederate Army is indisputable.
Upon the assembling of a few thousand half armed, and less uniformed, boy soldiers at Harper's Ferry, the Ist Virginia Brigade was formed, con- sisting of the 2d, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33d Virginia Regiments, having for its first commander Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, subsequently the renowned "Stonewall Jackson."
After the destruction of the United States arsenal there, and the burning of the great bridge then spanning the Potomac River at that point, by our troops, this ist Virginia Brigade was maneuvered about, above and below Martinsburg until it came to its little initial fight at Falling Waters, in which gallant little action those few of the Brigade actu- ally engaged, sustaining no loss themselves, except the slight wounding of one or two, nevertheless in- flicted considerable loss on the enemy, in this be- ginning of what may be called its fighting career.
7
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS.
Soon after that baptismal escapade, and after con- fronting Pattison's greatly superior numbers for a necessary period of maneuvering before that redoubt- able general's attempted or threatened advance upon us, General Johnston's little army, including our old brigade, was double-quicked, for the greater part of the entire distance, from the Valley of Virginia over to Manassas Junction, where General Beaure- gard was closely confronting, in line of battle, the superbly equipped and largely outnumbering army of the Federals, under the chief command and lead- ership of the over-confident General Winfield Scott.
On Sunday morning, July 21, 1861, our brigade was ordered to double-quick for about five miles to the extreme left, as it then was, of our line of bat- tle, running that distance like panting dogs with flopping tongues, with our mouths and throats full of the impalpable red dust of that red clay country, thirsting for water almost unto death, and worn and weary indescribably, we were there halted to prepare for action, being made to lie down flat upon our faces in an old field fronting a body of pine woods, in which nerve-racking position we endured a deadly shelling and bombardment from both ar- tillery and infantry for two and a half blood-curd- ling and agonizing hours, amid the groaning and moaning of our wounded and dying, which attested at every volley of the muskets and booming of the artillery that deadly execution was being done. Iu further attestation that havoc was being then played upon us, I will relate my witnessing that the two companions on my immediate right were wounded
8
A BRIEF HISTORY
while the three immediately on my left were also badly wounded, the vagaries of battle leaving me in their midst, a little later to arise, unharmed and untouched by bullet or shell, or the fragments of an exploded caisson, which had done unusual wounding and killing in our company.
At the end of that fierce two and a half hours of lingering upon our faces, and awaiting the assault being prepared for us, while the death dealing ar- tillery was advancing closer and closer and the slaughtering infantry was just ready to pounce upon us, that most opportune and eagerly desired command rang out, "Make ready, fire, and charge bayonets," from Gen. Jackson whose whole brigade until that moment had been moored to its prone position immovable and imperturbable like a stone- wall in very reality. Instantly we sprang bolt up- right upon our feet, right into their startled and surprised faces, and such a dare-devil countercharge of ghosts in gray, as we must have appeared to those charging and unsuspecting hosts in blue was too audacious and too unearthly to be withstood. So back, pell-mell over their heaps of dead and dying, they were hurled and scattered, dismayed and routed beyond any hope of rallying. On and on precipitately and uncontrollably they fled utterly vanquished, while all that dreadful field of blood, with its countless dead and dying men, and groan- ing horses, its abandoned artillery and small arms, of guns and sabres and other equipment of war was ours by right of conquest and possession ; the full fruitage of a dearly bought victory, but all the more glorious for its incalculable cost of blood and life to the rag-tag volunteers of our first Confeder- ate army.
Every Confederate soldier who fought upon that
Loan of cut by Courtesy of Baltimore Sun. Some of General Beauregard's Defenses at or about Manassas Junction.
9
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
field on that blood-red Sunday, and witnessed there- from the tumultuous and thunderous charge of the Stonewall Brigade at that supreme moment of the wavering of the extreme left wing of our army, and saw the consternation it produced in the ene- my's lines must either willingly, cheerfully, and gratefully, or grudgingly and reluctantly concede the victory of that great first battle of Manassas, beyond the least shadow of doubt, to the timely and glorious work of the Stonewall Brigade. It must also be said that without doubt the entire left wing of our army contributed its full share of valor and decisive work. Indeed, without its timely and heroic aid we could not have had our extraordinary opportunity, and there is glory enough in that won- derful and crowning victory for us all to have a large share to be proud of, and pardonably so. Nevertheless, it is an incontrovertible fact that the supreme sledge-hammer blows of the Stonewall Brigade, at the decisive moment they were given, and the manner of their giving, won for the Con- federate cause that day that magnificent victory.
But we are to particularize more as to the action of the Alleghany Roughs, or Company A of the 27th Virginia Regiment of the Stonewall Brigade, in that, its first battle. Before the final charge was made by this brigade its position was about as follows : the 33d Regiment was on our left, and also the 2d Regiment ; the 4th and 27th were in the center, and just to the left of the battle- famed Henry House, while the 5th was to the right. Before the other regiments had received or heard the command to charge, the 33d had made a separate forward movement, through the need of its independent help to other troops then engaged on the extreme left, and had done a deadly work
IO
A BRIEF HISTORY
among the cannoneers and horses of the two bat- teries in our immediate front, but sustaining at that point itself a very heavy loss, and being hotly pressed by reinforcements of the enemy's infantry it was com- pelled to retreat, along with the other regiments on that extreme left. Then it was that the 4th and the 27th were ordered to charge, the 4th at that alignment was immediately in front of the 27th. But when the charge bayonets command was given, and after starting to the front, under some unac- countable misapprehension of orders the 4th regi- ment halted and again laid down. Thereupon, Captain Thompson McAllister of Co. A, 27th Reg- iment, seeing the confusion, learning the cause, and believing that no such order to halt and lie down had been given, took upon himself to shout out vehemently that General Jackson's order was to charge bayonets, saying which and flourishing his sword, he commanded his own company to forward, fire, and charge bayonets. His order being obeyed with alacrity, and our moving at once, the other companies of the 27th also catching its meaning and themselves pushing to the front before the 4th could correct its mistake, placed Company A and the entire 27th Regiment in front of the 4th, and in very short order among the guns of Ricketts' Battery. This in connection with the general charge of our rallied troops on the left, including the 33d and 2d Regiments of our brigade, put out of service the guns before us, some of which Com- pany A of the 27th Regiment captured and passed on to the front in hot pursuit of the fleeing enemy.
In substantiation of this claim, that the Alleghany Roughs, or Company A of the 27th Virginia Regi- ment, captured some of the guns of that renowned Ricketts' Battery, I will relate a personal incident.
,
II
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
When our company, or some of it, including myself rushed in amongst the then silenced guns, whose captain, Ricketts, was lying there badly wounded among a considerable number of his killed and wounded, with his horses probably all dead, a Lieu- tenant Ramsey of that battery, who was secreted behind a caisson, becoming either panic-stricken a moment after we had passed him, or conceiving the idea that he could then escape to his retreating comrades, arose to his feet and undertook to run the gauntlet through a small group of our company. He being just beyond my reach in an instant my musket, with the old-fashioned load of ball and buckshot, was leveled at him, but before I could fire, in the good fortune, as I have always deemed it, of some unusual tardiness on my part, a com- rade just in my rear, named William Fudge, fired with point blank aim, instantly killing the lieuten- ant, whose fine sword our Sergeant Thomas Rosser secured, while William Fudge, who fired the fatal shot, secured his blanket, upon which was inscribed the name Lt. Ramsey (initials now forgotten) of the Ist New York State Artillery. This incident, together with the facts leading up to it, namely, our being amongst those guns and, later, far be- yond them in pursuit of the flying enemy, with no Confederate soldiers in our front, puts it beyond cavil that the Alleghany Roughs were the actual capturers of the Ricketts Battery, either whole or in part. Others there are who are claimants of this honor, but as there were two batteries captured at that time and place, the claim of others may rest upon this fact, and may be allowed, as to the other battery; but what is here related of the part herein taken by the Alleghany Roughs is of easy and absolute authentification, there being many living
12
A BRIEF HISTORY
witnesses of all this, after the lapse of fifty years. Besides this, those captured guns were turned and trained upon the enemy by our First Lieutenant, Joseph Carpenter, a former artillery cadet under the tutorage of Stonewall Jackson at the Virginia Military Institute, with the help of others. More- over, at the time of our charge into the Ricketts Battery our second Lieutenant, Jr., H. H. Dunot, of Wilmington, Delaware, was captured, and car- ried along with the routed enemy. He is said to have been the first Confederate officer captured in the Civil War, and the first to escape from a Northern prison-the old Capitol in Washington- and rejoin his command. Some friendly ladies in Washington, visiting him in prison, fitted him out in female attire, in which disguise he escaped. But, alas ! just before our brilliant little battle at Kerns- town, Virginia, he was stricken with typhoid fever and died in a country house near Kernstown.
Before quitting this account of that first, and so all-important, battle of Manassas, and our charge into Ricketts' Battery, we will relate how we fought our way against and at some points actually into the first Michigan Regiment, the flag of which was captured by James Gleun of our company, whose name was inscribed upon it when it was sent to Richmond. Our charging into that fine fighting command made a very close and stubborn contest between us, of a very sanguinary nature too, with fixed bayonets and clubbed guns in the end. Our difficult and dangerous work of trying to persuade them to quit the field was indeed hard of accom- plishment, and cost us scores of lives, but we did finally put them to rout, and our victory, because of its disastrous results, was thereby the greater, and, in war terms, the more highly honorable. At
Loan of cut by Courtesy of Baltimore Sun.
The Stone House, probably the first Field Hospital of the Civil War, it being used at the time of battle, July 21st, 1861, by the Federal Army.
£
13
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
that time, or only a few moments later, what may be termed the slaughter of a regiment, or battalion of red-breeched Zouaves from Brooklyn, New York, immediately in front of the 27th Regiment, was a clear case, on their part, of self-imposed butchery. They had charged us to most uncomfortable near- ness, pouring upon us their deadly fire, while their own loss was so great in actual dead it has often been said, one could walk on their dead bodies over a space of several acres without touching a foot upon the ground. That sight indeed was a dread- ful one, and rendered ten-fold more conspicuous by the glittering of their bright red uniforms in the gleaming sun of that hot July. Those who have never witnessed the horrifying effect of the burning sun upon the corpse of a human being, such as scorched those arid plains at that time, have been spared a most pitiable and lamentable sight. Under such conditions a corpse is swollen to double or treble its natural size, becoming black and defaced beyond all recognition, while the odor emanating from it is the most intolerable stench that could possibly burden and distress one's olfactories. What then would be the sight of these by the hundreds or thousands! Well is it that imagination fails us here. Only the eye beholding it can give its hor- rors place and remembrance in our minds.
Our readers may remember into what prominence came the old Henry House in that first battle of Manassas, and I will be permitted thereby I trust to relate this circumstance concerning the death of an old lady in that house during that battle, who was killed in her bed by the grape or canister of the guns of Ricketts' Battery. In the beautiful lawn, or lot, of that historic house, which was lit- erally riddled with shot and shells and minie balls
----
14
A BRIEF HISTORY
in that deadly strife of the 21st day of July, 1861, is now well preserved, and handsomely adorned with shrub and vine and the wild ivy blossom, a grave at the head of which stands a large white marble slab, the inscription of which reads as fol- łows :
"The grave of our dear mother, Judith Henry; killed near this spot by the explosion of shells in her dwelling, during the battle of the 21st of July, IS61. When killed she was in her eighty-fifth year, and confined to her bed by the infirmities of age. She was the daughter of Landon Carter, Sr., and was born within a mile of this place. Her husband, Dr. Isaac Henry, was a surgeon in the United States Navy, on board the frigate Constellation, command- ed by Commodore Truxton, one of the six surgeons appointed by Washington in the organization of the Navy, 1794. Our mother through her long life, thirty-five years of which were spent at this place, was greatly loved and esteemed for her kind, gentle, and Christian spirit."
That inscription, of course, gives the correct ac- count of the killing of this estimable old lady, which has been given in many incorrect and incomprehen- sible ways. Captain Ricketts has declared that he did train his guns upon the Henry House, and com- pletely riddled it, he being informed that it was filled, at that time, with Confederate sharp-shooters.
The loss of the Alleghany Roughs in that great battle was 6 killed outright and 16 wounded.
15
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER III.
NEW CAPTAIN, NEW NAME, AND NEW GUNS.
Sometime in the early days of August, our brave and revered Captain, Thompson McAllister, a native of Pennsylvania, being then about fifty years of age, was compelled, on account of ill health, to resign his commission and return to his home in Alleghany County, Virginia, the rigors of our incessant drill- ing, in the blazing sun on those red clay plains about Centerville, and exposures incident to the hardships of camp life, rendering his health still more feeble, and beyond his ability to withstand such arduous duties. His detection and quick cor- rection of the misapprehended order on the battle- field, at so opportune a moment, as related above; his splendid leadership of his company, at that time : and his personal exhibition of such heroic conduct had endeared him to his men, or boys, as the greater part of us were then ; and, although he has so long since passed into the restful shade of the trees be- yond the river, his memory is still held in highest reverence by all who followed his leadership and who survive him.
At his resignation the captaincy devolved upon our First Lieutenant, Joseph Carpenter, of whon we have said, he was an artillery cadet under Gen- eral Jackson of the 1858 class at the Virginia Mili- tary Institute. And it is probably because of this, that when General Jackson was assigned to the in- dependent command of the Valley of Virginia, our company was converted into artillery, thenceforth to be called Carpenter's Battery. It was then sent, by request of General Jackson, at once to the Valley of Virginia to equip and drill for active field service,
16
A BRIEF HISTORY
with himself. This was before the Stonewall Bri- gade, as a whole, was transferred to him from Gen- eral Johnston's army, for the valley service ; and, therefore, as we proudly claimed, was the more highly complimentary to us. Later, however, when the old brigade was, as a whole, assigned to the same valley service to the army of General Jackson, the camp- ing, marching, and fighting of Carpenter's Battery were always thereafter done with it, which fact, added to that of our former membership with it, as infantry, gave us the name of the Stonewall Artil- lery, although in justice to our sister battery-the Rockbridge Artillery-which fought so masterfully with the old brigade at the first battle of Manassas, and for a considerable time subsequently, it too be- longed to that old "Stonewall" aggregation, and its history, throughout the war, is a counterpart of our own.
After reaching the Valley of Virginia, with head- quarters near Winchester, we, a little later, received our guns-four 6 pounders, smooth-bore iron things made at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. At these alleged cannon enough fun was poked by our jolly boys, and all others too who saw them, to make many columns of facetiæ for a comic newspaper for many editions; but, dear friends, kindly await subsequent proceedings, and you will discover that those funny little guns were sure-enough and true-blue shooters, which made a name and goodly fame for Carpenter's Battery at the tight and bloody little battle of Kernstown, and after that until they were exchanged for more mod- ern weapons of death.
17
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN.
After very considerable irksome drilling and other tedious preparation until January 1, 1862, we made our renowned march to Romney, Vir- ginia, that freezing and starvation escapade which gave General Jackson so hard a name for cru- elty and merciless unconcern for his men. On that expedition, in the coldest winter of the war, with insufficient clothing and scarcely anything to eat, or as our boys would say, "With noth- ing to eat and nothing to drink with it," so fright- fully frozen and slippery were the roads that our cannoneers, assisted by infantry in many cases, had to help the poor starved and shivering horses to pull even those comparatively light little guns up the steep hills and over the mountain roads, and not even a Hannibal crossing the Alps ever had a harder task as then had the soldiers of Stonewall Jackson's army. On reaching the Potomac in front of Hancock, Maryland, we made a feint as if to at- tack that town, our object being to deceive thereby and render more probable the capture of Gen. Kelly in Romney. Before Hancock that night with the thermometer away below zero we were forbidden to kindle any fires lest the enemy should discover the paucity of our numbers and our position ; and our close proximity to freezing was painfully and dan- gerously apparent. It is probable that the hard work we endured in helping our emaciated, half- starved horses to perform their onerous labors on the march kept many of us from being frozen stark and stiff there and then, and it is well known that our stealing the hard corn from the meagre allow-
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