USA > Virginia > A brief history of the miltary career of Carpenter's battery, from its organization as a rifle company under the name of Alleghany Roughs to the ending of the war between the states > Part 3
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A BRIEF HISTORY
bered in point blank range, and with double charges of canister gave that daring battery before us a raking fire and repeating that with fearful effect we limbered to the rear to escape similar treatment from their largely outnumbering guns, which had changed front upon us, and just as we had cleared the brow of protecting high ground a perfect ava- lanche of canister swept over our heads with fright- ful hissing and sputtering, but unfruitful of any great damage. We then returned to our old posi- tion, having done that big six gun battery a very considerable amount of havoc, and rendering it much less harmful to our infantry again in that part of the battle field. On the last day of that sanguinary field our battery was not engaged, and as the enemy was routed completely and put to full retreat upon Washington, we were hurried on to Ox Hill where the Federal General Kearney was killed in trying to rally his men. There we were sharply under fire, but not actually engaged.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XI.
BLOODY SHARPSBURG.
After thus disposing of Pope's army, so inglori- ously to him, after his boasting so loudly of what he would do to Stonewall Jackson, our army was moved over into Maryland to the city of Frederick, and after a short respite from fighting we crossed the South Mountain to invest Harper's Ferry ; Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's corps being left to confront Mcclellan's forward movement to inter- cept General Lee. Our corps, Jackson's, moved by Boonsboro and Williamsport across the Potomac River ; then by Martinsburg and Smithfield to Bolivar Heights, which commanded Harper's Ferry, the surrender of which town with its twelve thou- sand and five hundred men was very soon accom- plished by the indomitable Stonewall Jackson and his invincible little army. A very considerable bombardment of that besieged garrison occurred from three directions at once-from the Loudoun Heights, the Maryland Heights, and from the Bol- ivar Heights, the effect of which very speedily in- duced General Miles to surrender unconditionally. The writer of these pages will here relate that he being then a gunner in Carpenter's Battery was given Hail Columbia from our captain on that oc- casion for firing several shots into the town after the white flag of surrender had been displayed. This was owing to his not seeing the flag, or hear- ing of it, and having received no order to cease firing until Captain Carpenter uttered it with his reprimand. But his censure was withdrawn the moment he learned the particulars.
Leaving a considerable body in charge of the
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Harper's Ferry prisoners and captured munitions of war, General Jackson hastened to recross the Potomac River back into Maryland to reinforce General Lee, whose entire army, on that side of the river, was then engaged in heavy battle at Sharps- burg, the progress of which in the roaring artillery and frightful musketry attesting that war's havoc and butchery of the most savage kind was then in full blast and accomplishing its deadly work of de- struction in all its hellishness.
Carpenter's Battery went into position on that bloody field under heavy fire first at or near the bridge crossing Antietam Creek.
Ordered to report to General Jeb Stuart for de- tached duty at daylight the next morning, on the extreme left of our line, we became engaged fiercely, and Captain John Carpenter was severely wounded, being entirely incapacitated for duty, his knee being crushed so badly by a shell that the synovial fluid was discharged, which the surgeons then said necessitated amputation, or should it be possible to save the leg, he could never again have any use of it. But to shorten the story of this false diagnosis and decision, Captain Carpenter did return to his company in a comparatively short time, and is liv- ing at this remote day, 1911, in good health and with the perfect use of that surgically condemned leg. From that position we were again moved to the left and rear with Stuart's cavalry, and went into action in a cornfield, where our exposure was so great that Stuart ordered us out of that position into another, within a stone's throw of the advanc- ing enemy's full line of infantry. At the moment two of our pieces opened fire from that position we were fired into by 24 of the enemy's guns, accord- ing to their own account, and at their first on-
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slaught we were almost completely demolished, our loss being so great in men and horses, that we were ordered to abandon our guns and horses and secret ourselves as best we might, but while many of our cannoneers did seek places of safety at General Stuart's order, enough of them, with our brave and daring drivers, remained to pacify the frightened horses and save the guns from capture. However the havoc there was so great that our remaining two guns were thence forward in that battle com- manded by a sergeant who with his two detach- ments escaped capture in being ordered off the field at the last moment by General Stuart in person.
The writer again hopes it may be permissible for him to state that he was the sergeant in charge of those two guns on that occasion and a prouder day than that for him has never before or since occurred in his career-more particularly so as he believes that no other battle of the war was so fierce and bloody as was that of Sharpsburg. Without a doubt it was one of the greatest, most stubbornly contested, and most destructive of all the great battles of our war. It has been generally considered a drawn battle, of equal honors, though there can be no question of the fact that the better fighting was on the side of the Confederates, their numbers being very much less than those of the Federals. At its culmination our army crossed the Potomac River leisurely, back into Virginia as far as Winchester, and went into camp. A little later the old Stone- wall Brigade and our battery were sent to Kear- neysville to tear up the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks, and there we had a severe little brush with the Yankees, who were present to prevent our do- ing so, if possible. The loss in our battery there was several wounded, but no one killed. About
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that time our company was so greatly decimated by battle casualties and other war causes that another company was merged with us, namely, Cutshaw's Battery, which retained only one commissioned of- ficer, Lieutenant David Barton, and two or three non-commissioned officers, while it gave us a large number of privates, all of whom proved themselves eminently worthy to belong to a battery which had won such distinction, and the glory of which those recruits later did so much to enhance, onward to the very end of that almost interminable war. It is a singular fact that their loss by death in action was always very great.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XII.
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
After having been thus materially recruited by that fine body of men from a sister battery, and made strong again in numbers we were soon called upon to do deadly duty at Fredericksburg, where, at Hamilton's Crossing, we were desperately as- sailed by the advancing columns of infantry, bat- teries, and sharpshooters of Burnsides's powerful army. In the end, however, we won a great vic- tory. There we lost our brave and true Lieutenant David Barton, who had so recently joined us from the Cutshaw Battery, and two privates in killed, while another Lieutenant W. T. Lambie and a large number of men were wounded. After that splendid victory our battery was selected by Gener- al Jackson to remain along the Rappahannock River, where during that cold and snowy winter, we did actual picket duty, while the greater part of the artillery of our army was ordered into winter quar- ters. This picket duty we performed until the end of April, one half the battery alternating with the other half, when we were again sent to Fredericks- burg, rejoining there our general artillery and the army and moving up to Chancellorsville to receive orders from General Jackson, after he had turned the left of Hooker's army, for us to return to Fred- ericksburg and report to General Early who was then being sorely pressed by General Sedgwick's corps. Our position then was almost identically the same as that we occupied in the battle with Burnsides's army on December 13th. Our Captain, John C. Carpenter, and a number of men were wounded in this battle, and one was killed. Our
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Lieutenant Geo. McKendree then having been pro- moted to the rank of Major and assigned to General Echols's Brigade, in West Virginia, the command of the battery devolved upon Lieutenant W. T. Lambie who became very popular with the com- pany, and was a fine officer. About three weeks later the army broke camp and again headed for the valley, reaching Winchester early in June, and be- coming engaged in the second battle of that town our battery lost I man killed and 5 wounded.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XIII.
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
We moved next toward the Potomac River to Wil- liamsport and crossing there went on up the Cumber- land Valley to Greencastle, Pa., making a detour across the mountain to McConnellsville. There meeting bushwhackers we dislodged them with a sin- gle cannon shot and hastened back to the Cumberland Valley at Chambersburg, moving on up to Ship- pensburg and to Carlisle. From the latter town we turned toward Gettysburg and took position there on Culp's Hill, to the left of Cemetery Hill, in a field of rye where we took a very active part in the great battle of Gettysburg, our whole battalion of artillery, commanded by the heroic and matchless boy Major Latimer, becoming engaged, in a fright- ful din and roar of great destruction. From the guns immediately confronting us, and many others from a higher point near by, we were subjected to a most disastrous cannonading, as witnessed by the loss in our battery of 5 killed outright and 18 wounded, 3 of whom died before the engagement ended. Upon withdrawing later, a short distance to the rear, we buried 8 of our brave comrades in one grave. Some of our wounded were left at Gettysburg, falling into the hands of the enemy, though the greater part of them got away in the retreat of our army, some in ambulances, some in wagons, and some again on our caissons, as we re- crossed the Potomac, partly on pontoon bridges, but more numerously in wading, as best could be done, back to the more friendly soil of old Virgin- ia, and marching on up the Valley, and across the Blue Ridge at Luray, to the vicinity of Madison
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Courthouse, where we encamped for a season. But soon again the enemy essaying to march "On to Richmond," our army was thrust in his front, by our crossing the Raccoon Ford of the Rappahan- nock River, with Jackson's old division, and our artillery battalion, under the command of General Ed. Johnson. At Payne's farm we were confronted by a large body of the enemy, said to have been a full corps. A hurried line of battle was formed immediately to the left of the road, Carpenter's Battery moving to take position on the extreme left and there becoming hotly engaged, at short range.
Discovering a movement of the enemy to turn our flank we sent one section quickly to our left and rear, and went into action attempting to check their advance, but without avail. We were sorely pressed at that time, and had the enemy known his great advantage, and had not night, that timely friend of distressed armies, set in, the whole of Johnson's Division might have been captured or de- stroyed. Then we moved on to Mine Run fighting there the tight little battle of that name, when the enemy withdrew to the north side of the Rappa- hannock, which ended that very active campaign. In the Payne farm engagement the loss in our bat- tery was 7 wounded ; and at Mine Run 2 wounded. Then being shifted from place to place, we next moved on to Vidiersville, again on the picket line, where we enjoyed a restful time of probably three weeks' duration, when we were ordered to Freder- ick's Hall, on the then Virginia Central Railroad, to go into winter quarters, for our first session of that sort since the war began.
The most unusual thing occurring at that time to break the monotony of camp life was the daring attempt of Dahlgreen to capture Richmond, he
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
passing so near to our camp that two pieces of our battery, with a body of skirmishers, were put in motion to intercept him ; which we failed to accom- plish, because of the greater celerity of his move- ment, his command consisting entirely of cavalry. And so escaping us he continued his march until he ran so terribly amuck not far from Richmond, where he was killed and the greater part of his picked officers and men were either also killed or captured.
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CHAPTER XIV.
LEE AND GRANT IN DEATH GRAPPLE.
Our next move forward was to meet another "On to Richmond" commanded by the redoubtable General Grant, the most famous and most success- ful of all the Union army commanders-in-chief, and who then led the numerically greatest army ever mustered together on American soil. General Lee's army, the greatest fighting aggregation the world had ever known, was thrown in front of Grant, at the Wilderness, and vastly outgeneraled and out- fought him continuously from that point on until his plans were finally abandoned for his march to the south side of the James River, to lay siege to Petersburg, with his overwhelming forces, the prowess of which Lee had so effectually baffled, in all their battles. In the Wilderness encounter our battery had very little opportunity to exploit itself, the so appropriately named wilderness of woods and underbrush preventing any artillery from securing fighting positions, though on reaching Spottsyl- vania Courthouse, in that memorable racing of the two armies for vantage ground at that point, we had position, on the morning of the 12th, im- mediately in rear of the Bloody Angle, after the capture of General Johnson's Division, where we were fiercely engaged almost the entire day. Our loss there was I killed and 9 wounded.
After that desperate and most signally unsuccess- ful endeavor on his part General Grant made an- other fruitless attempt to dislodge General Lee at Hanover Courthouse, and was there again repulsed. Again, at Pole Green church, and yet again at Cold Harbor he was badly worsted. His frightful at-
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tack upon our lines at Cold Harbor, it is said, cost the sacrifice of more lives in a couple of hours than had ever before been known. When he had been hopelessly beaten back there his losses from the Wilderness to that place, inclusive, have been placed at 200,000, which he himself, in his biographical memoirs, justifies as a matter of necessity to reduce the Confederate army, on the ground that it could not recover its losses while the Union army could amply recruit from its vast citizenship of the North and that of the whole world.
It certainly was highly creditable to that most sagacious and determined General to know and to say from the beginning that it was a mere matter of attrition, and that only by overwhelmingly out- numbering us could they ever hope to conquer the South. In this great and generous compliment to the Southern soldier, General Grant first gave evi- dence of his fine magnanimity, which in the end, at Appomattox, so conspicuously shone in his kind- ly treatment of General Lee and our overpowered little remnant of an army.
But thus thwarted in every instance, all along that entire and fateful line, from the Wilderness to the crossing of the James River, there was nothing left General Grant but to lay siege to Petersburg, and there keep his hold until the Confederate army was starved and tired out, beyond recovery, or the possibility of defeating him. While he sat about doing that the despicable fire-fiend, General Hun- ter, was laying waste the beautiful and fruitful Valley of Virginia, and undertaking his threatened capture of Lynchburg, to prevent which General Early, with Jackson's old 2d corps, was sent out to meet and defeat him. That memorable march we made by way of Gordonsville and Charlottesville
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with such rapidity and dash as to enable us to rush Hunter's van guard army back from its close prox- imity to Lynchburg to his main body, and that main body in turn also into precipitate flight on and on through the mountain gaps clean to, and across, the Ohio River.
Accomplishing that, in short order and with no very serious opposition, we headed down the Valley by the way of Lexington to Staunton and Winches- ter, and again crossed the Potomac River to Fred- erick City, where we had a superb little victory in routing so effectually General Lew Wallace, at Monocacy whose army we drove for protection into Washington City. Our march then was continued to within sight of Washington where we went into camp and enjoyed our captured provender in a most comforting respite from active duty for a short period. It has been wondered why General Early at that time did not undertake the capture of Washington ! It is not in the province of this writing to under- take to solve that problem.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XV.
EARLY AND SHERIDAN CLASH.
Recrossing the Potomac at Leesburg we again marched away for the Virginia Valley, and up and down the old familiar places until General Sheridan approached so close that we turned upon him and . moved upon Charles Town and Opequon Creek. Meeting a body of the enemy at Wade's depot, General Early directed Carpenter's Battery to dis- lodge it, but they having the better of us in guns (6 to our 4) and exhibiting on that occasion unus- ual and remarkable gunnery, in very short order three of our guns were battered into uselessness, by that ably handled battery. One of these disabled guns, a 12-pound Napoleon, was struck in the muz- zle by a solid shot, and flared out like a trumpet ; a 3-inch rifle axle was broken in two and the third, a rifled steel gun, was choked with a cap shell, all of which put us entirely at the mercy of our relentless foes, we being left with only one fighting gun to contend against their six, which were so well doing their deadly work. While endeavoring to make one good and effective gun out of the two disabled, and trying to get the third unchoked the fire against us was so desolating that in a little while our one gun, which had been so valiantly battling against such fearful odds, had been almost destroyed by the bursting of a shell at so vital a place as to dismantle it, killing 3 and wounding 3 others of our cannon- eers, and leaving not more than two horses to serve each limber or caisson. That frightful duel being so uneven, in our dismantled condition from the start, left us nothing to do but to withdraw, and leave the enemy his well earned field of glory.
-
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In evidence of the savage havoc of that bloody fight between only two opposing batteries in the short time of probably no more than thirty minutes, our battery had been rendered helpless, with about 17 horses killed, 5 men killed outright, and 7 badly wounded, besides others with slight wounds. What a sorrowful day was that for Carpenter's Battery whose glory then and there had its greatest eclipse, on that red day, in that field of death and destruc- tion.
At that time General Sheridan, taking advantage of General Early's scattered forces, had determined, it would seem, upon crushing us in detail, before the latter could concentrate for defense. A clash occurred on the Berryville road, below Winchester, which was precipitated by our Captain John Car- penter, who, upon discovering the close approach of the enemy a short distance below where the main fight had occurred, upon his own initiative unlim- bered and began firing with telling effect. That action brought our whole artillery battalion into line in battle, which checked the enemy's dashing forward movement until our infantry of Rhodes's division could get into position. Carpenter's Bat- tery went into that action about 9 o'clock in the morning, and was engaged continuously from then until nightfall, being replenished with ammunition from an ordnance wagon sent upon the field for that purpose, and again from another battery alongside while in position. In that field we changed posi- tion frequently during the day, going over its sev- eral parts. At one time, while on the left and some distance advanced to the front with our Napoleon section of two guns, the numerical strength of the company having been so reduced by casualties as to render it necessary to send the other section to the
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rear, we were charged by cavalry, which produced fearful destruction of life and disabling; more par- ticularly of the enemy. They had emerged from a gorge, or hollow, between the hills unobserved and began their charge upon us at about 600 yards dis- tance, being formed into close column of companies, and were of right adjustment for our canister fusil- lade, which was poured into them most effectually, thinning their ranks very decidedly, but without thwarting their purpose. On they came gamely, grimly, and swiftly, while our only alternative was to give them repeated, double doses of canister, or be captured or killed. When they were within twenty paces of our guns we hurled a charge of canister at them with deafening roar and that half gallon of ounce balls crashing and tearing through their ranks with telling effect threw them into mo- mentary confusion, but they could not and dared not halt, as that would have meant more certain destruction, and so on they dashed pouring in amongst our cannoneers, pell-mell, when surrender on our part seemed inevitable, but the great mo- mentum they had acquired in that mad rush, made it impossible for them to stop, their front ranks passing on through or by us and their ranks fol- lowing. The moment they were passed another round of timely shots from our still smoking guns in addition to the scattering blows we had dealt them from hand spikes and sponge staffs during their quick passage through our battery were ready and most potent persuaders to keep them going. But almost simultaneously with the loud, clear command of our undaunted captain, "Load with canister, and fire to the rear," came also the sten- torian voice of that Yankee colonel, "Halt ! About face,-charge !" and charge they did, too, with the
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most reckless intrepidity, just as our guns flew around to the rear, and the limbers and caissons flew out of the way, while our last charge of can- ister was rammed into place. At that critically breathless moment the Yankee colonel cried out again, "Forward, charge !" Starting only a hun- dred yards or less away and plunging on with the speed of the wind and the impetuosity of a stam- peded herd of wild buffalos, to break through our cannoneers again, or slay us all, to regain their command, the opportune moment had arrived for our deadly execution. In quicker time than it can be told, our captain having shouted "Fire !" at the belching of our guns those heroic cavalrymen quailed and fell into confusion. That death blow had parted their ranks into two columns, which hastily passed us, the one on our right and the other on our left, to seek safety in retreat upon their main lines which they had so recently and so bravely parted from to make that splendid but disastrous charge upon Carpenter's Battery. That, indeed, was a superb and noble charge of a squadron of cavalry, and the defense of that battery by its vet- eran officers and men was equally as glorious. At the ending of that frightful onslaught, those who were left of those brave cavalrymen seemed to be glad enough to get away alive and still mounted, and probably no less glad and happy were we to rid ourselves of their unfriendly presence. Had our visitors known that that terrible volley of can- ister had exhausted our ammunition, in all likeli- hood they would have taken us and our guns along with them, but at that most lucky moment our means of escape to the rear was clear, and we too made for a safer place with equal alacrity. How- ever, we were soon again replenished with an ample
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supply of ammunition and went into action in vari- ous positions, being constantly engaged until late in the evening, when Sheridan's whole army made a concerted attack, and thundering down upon us in all directions, with such overwhelming numbers as to make necessary that heart-breaking retreat of the whole army under General Jubal Early. After the capture of many pieces of our artillery and ar- tillerymen, and large numbers of the infantry, our retreat became a panic and complete rout. As Car- penter's Battery had fired the first guns of that battle, as stated, by the initiative of our captain, it is likewise true that we fired in that disastrous stampede the last guns that were ever fired below Winchester during the continuance of the war, by our forces. The cost to the enemy of our deadly work on that occasion must have been very great, while to our battery alone it was unprecedented, II men being killed outright on the field and 20 being badly wounded and sent to the hospital in Winchester, while many others were slightly wound- ed. Our loss in horses killed and abandoned was not less than 20. We retreated hurriedly and in- continently up that old Valley that had witnessed so many of our glorious victories under Stonewall Jackson's magnificent and incomprehensibly fine leadership, with Sheridan's army in close pursuit, which in all truth was not so discreditable to Gen- eral Early, as beyond any question of doubt Sheri- dan with his immensely superior force and superbly equipped cavalry, ought to have captured or slain in those open plains every mother's son of us and have gotten all of our equipage. At Fisher's Hill we were again formed into battle line, but our ema- ciated and exhausted condition rendered it impos- sible for us to retrieve our lost fortune. Therefore,
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