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 4
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A BRIEF HISTORY
after a short and desperate attempt at resistance, we were compelled to abandon that position also, and continue the retreat on up the Valley. Car- penter's Battery had occupied a high wooded hill to the left of both the Valley pike and the railroad, with Battle's Alabama Brigade on its right and Nichols' Louisiana Brigade on its left, and that was the rallying point for our army which position Gen- eral Early had ordered to be held at all hazards. But soon the Louisiana Brigade gave way and had vanished, while a little later the Alabama Brigade also quit the field, and our battery at that juncture being almost surrounded, and about to be pounced upon, ceased firing, and we too had to fly to the rear with only time enough left to save ourselves, partly, our guns, caissons, horses, and everything else being captured. After doing its whole duty there, our battery loss was I man killed, 5 wounded, and 27 missing. Continuing our retreat up the Valley to New Market we there again made show of battle, contesting doggedly every foot of the way for several miles in good order until we reached Brown's Gap, where reinforcements awaited us, and where one of King's batteries which had been quartered at Staunton was given to Captain Car- penter to replace our loss at Fisher's Hill. From Brown's Gap, with his small reinforcement General Early sauntered forth to find the enemy again. That being soon accomplished a brisk skirmish en- sued, in which we had an opportunity to test the metal of our new guns and thus Sheridan's army was started on the back track down the Valley, we following him with due elation of spirits, though we failed to bring him to bay until we reached again that fateful Fisher's Hill. Here Captain Carpenter was again wounded, as was his usual custom, on
55
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
any favorable occasion. General Sheridan then having fallen back to Cedar Creek went into camp there, with a feeling, it is supposed, of absolute security for his army. When that had been com- paratively confirmed to General Sheridan it was then that General Gordon, being placed in com- mand temporarily of Early's army, moved our infantry in single file by stealth over tangled path- ways to the left flank of the unsuspecting enemy before day dawn and completely routed the entire force, capturing everything of their whole equip- ment in one of the most signal and conclusive vic- tories of the war ; and which he most undoubtedly would have converted into final utter destruction, or most disastrous routing of Sheridan's reserve forces, as well, had he been permitted to gather the full fruitage of his splendid morning victory. But General Early resuming command at about 9 o'clock that morning, deemed the victory complete and final as it then so surely appeared to be, and, so, halting his army and declining to push our victorious forces forward under the inspiration of the valorous ex- ploits of the earlier hours of that day he thus afforded General Sheridan the only opportunity he could have had to retrieve the day at the head of heavy reinforcements, who seeing our hesitation and indecision at that critical moment rushed upon us in our inexcusable inaction of halting to pillage the camps during which frightful accident of war we were again defeated, and ignominiously put to flight by a badly whipped army, being therein more incurably crippled than ever before.
In that battle our battery lost I killed, several wounded, and a number captured, among the latter being one of our officers, Lieutenant Wm. T. Lambie, who was then in command. We also lost two pieces of artillery and their caissons and horses.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
What a woeful catastrophe was that ! And how easily it could have been avoided. Had General Early pushed on after Sheridan's routed army, in its panic-stricken condition, its continued flight would so have demoralized his reserves, and Sher- idan himself, as to have made a far different story of " The Ride of Sheridan " and of the fame of that accidentally famous General. But he was permitted to give that crushing blow to our hitherto victorious little army of the Valley, and our hearts were well nigh broken in that sad and accidental Sheridan victory. Made thus again to flee up the Valley so involuntarily our next halt for battle was at Waynesboro. There after a short respite in the fighting we were again attacked and this time Car- penter's Battery lost its two remaining guns, clearly thus evidencing that there was no battle of that army in which this battery was not well to the front, and there doing its whole duty. After that we were marched to Richmond hurriedly, and on down the James River, to the south side, to Drury's Bluff, to man, for a short time, a stationary battery, until a field battery could be again procured for us, which was about the last of February, 1865.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XVI.
IN THE ROLE OF NEEDLE ARTIST.
Here I will ask again to be pardoned for relating a little more personal experience, this incident hav- ing prominent lodgment in my memory. While encamped at the Half-way house, occupying an old vacant store, or station, between Richmond and Petersburg, I was invited to call upon some charming young ladies, in return for the small courtesy shown them of shelter from the rain while they awaited a train to Richmond, but having no white store collar for my one well worn old gray hunting shirt, and being unable to procure one for love or money, the only alternative was for me to make that essential full dress equipment. This I proceeded to do, find- ing for the purpose a small piece of white muslin, and I acquitted myself so satisfactorily to myself in its accomplishment, and was so proud of the unique pattern and stitching of that particular work of art, nothing would do but for me to preserve, and some months later, show that dainty, dandy collar to my mother, an accomplished needle lady, who at once declared it to have been done in a most artistic manner and highly creditable to the designer and fabricator. And, O my friends, what is so incon- trovertibly so as the say so of one's own dear mother? So we had to substitute a common, coarse muslin, of the most inferior quality for linen ; and the Con- federate soldier's sewing and stitching for the fine old home work of the ante-bellum days of our good mothers, our sisters, and our cousins and our aunts. But if any one of those sweet girls we visited, with that collar a dominant feature of apparel, detected the slightest difference between that alleged collar
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A BRIEF HISTORY
and the genuine factory built article, no hint or insinuation thereof escaped her, or was observed by myself ; and so, to this remote day, I am still hug- ging my pride that I made for myself " enduring the war," under the inspiration of that prospective visit to those lovable girls, a beautiful and refined collar, which made me presentable and persona grata to them, and eligible in general for such an occa- sion. Oh, would I had that collar now ! Nothing, I am certain, ever preceded or succeeded that collar at all like, or comparable to it. And my ! what a treat it was, at that late day of that interminable war for the soldier boy to enjoy the privilege of visiting the beautiful and heart-loyal daughters of Dixie ! On my part such visits could be outnum- bered by the fingers on one of my hands. In short and in fact to even see a pretty girl at that time of enforced and prolonged separation from all female society was simply to fall heels over head in love with her there and then ; and the soldier's everlast- ing adoration and constancy would never let go until he saw the next girl, the next time at the next place, be that early or late.
..
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS.
After leaving that Half-way house encampment we did from that time onward much moving about, and some lesser fighting until late in March, when we were ordered to report to General Pickett at Five Forks, and Bloody Lane, near Dinwiddie Courthouse, to take part in the battle of Five Forks. There our Lieutenant Early, formerly of Raines's Battery, who had been assigned to the command of Carpenter's Battery, no one of the latter's commis- sioned officers being present on account of death or wounds, was killed, and a number were wounded. Many of our cannoneers were there captured, and all our guns yet again fell into the hands of the enemy, our battery at that time being commanded by Corporal John Willey who with a few cannon- eers made escape to the scattered fragment of Gen- eral Lee's army, which had so heroically kept its brave thin lines together in that harassed retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox, where the exigen- cies of war compelled us to surrender with desolate hearts, but with spirits still aflame with the memo- ries of our well sustained deeds of valor in that long service, opposed to numbers impossible for us to hold out against any longer with any hope of final success. And thus must end this brief, incomplete history of Carpenter's Battery, formerly the Alle- ghany Roughs, which evidences for the company a most active and brilliant career as a volunteer com- pany of the Stonewall Brigade, of the Second Corps, of the Army of Northern Virginia, from the first battle of Manassas to the Appomattox termination of that four years of privation, starvation, and des-
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A BRIEF HISTORY
olation, from April 20th, 1861, to April 9th, 1865, a period of four years, less eleven days, in the in- numerable battles of which it sustained a loss of 46 men and officers killed outright and of more than one hundred wounded.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SAD JOURNEY HOME.
But before finally closing these pages the author will again be personal in the narrative of his home- ward march when all was over and the great trag- edy had closed forever.
While General Lee's little worn to a frazzle army was being mobilized to surrender to General Grant, I chose to decamp from Appomattox station on a freight train for Lynchburg, hoping to be able from the latter place to make my way to Johnson's army, but the call at Lynchburg for volunteers to defend that city induced me to seek attachment to the ar- tillery service there, but instead of being placed in that, I was asked to take charge of an ambulance corps which was sent to the front to care for the wounded and sick in the event of attack upon the town. In the woods and all over the old fields at a distance could be seen bodies of the enemy's cav- alry, maneuvering as if to pounce upon us at any moment, but in very short order we were notified, in all parts of the field, to assemble on the heights in the city, on doing which General Nelson, there in command, proclaimed his intention to surrender the little army present, stating that as General Lee's surrender was then a matter of fact it would be useless shedding of blood and would accomplish nothing desirable for us to continue the defence of Lynchburg. He therefore advised us all to con- sent to surrender, also. However, said he, if any of you whose homes are near by or are accessible to you, desire to break ranks and go to your homes, you are at liberty to avail yourselves of that priv- ilege. Thereupon, seeing that all was lost and
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A BRIEF HISTORY
.
hopeless, I left that untenable place, and made for the mountain fastnesses of Craig County, and was there sheltered and cared for by the kind and gra- cious household of a good, loyal aunt who was at that time rejoicing over the return of a son, my cousin, who was one of the original members of the Alleghany Roughs, and of Carpenter's Battery, and who had continued in active and exemplary service in the company until disabled at Malvern Hill, from overexertion at his gun, in that terrible encounter of the hosts of Mcclellan, in the awful artillery duel of that field. Remaining at that hos- pitable home for about a week's relaxation and recuperation I then elected to foot it homeward to join the dear ones from whom I had been so long absent in the exactions of relentless warfare. It must be remembered, too, that those eager, dear ones had heard no tidings of me since the surrender, except to learn from a sergeant of a battery in our battalion, that he had seen me, a day or two before the surrender, riding right into the front of the enemy, and could but believe that I had been either killed or captured. How confirmatory of their fears did that story appear inasmuch as not a word had been heard from me personally, or through any other source? That kind of surmising and coujecturing was far too frequently indulged in at a time like that, and in this case the shock it pro- duced was a dreadful blow to my dear mother and to the others of our household, -my father and sister. Nor did they recover from that depression of mind and heart until I appeared in person to them, just one month later, at their home fireside in Ashland. And what a memorable meeting was that to me and to them ! Through that sergeant's unwarranted statement, and having heard nothing
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
from me personally, they had mourned me as dead, and my sudden, unheralded presence amongst them at such a time was another shock to them all. But this was quickly and joyfully succeeded by saluta- tions and felicitations ending at once their lamenta- tion and former despair, making that reunion a time and place to be remembered and revered to life's latest day, by that little group of happy par- ticipants.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
CHAPTER XIX.
A HARD MONEY STORY.
And not forgetting the hungry, fatiguing, tortur- ing route, of nearly 500 miles, of that march from my aunt's to my home in Ashland, induces me to relate an incident which occurred en route that may have some interest for some reader of these pages, if I can ever persuade any one to read them up to this finishing point. About dusk on a wet, raw day, arriving at a country inn, much out of sorts and fearing still worse indisposition if I should sleep out in the rain that forbidding night, impelled me to ask the landlord if he would accommodate me with lodging somewhere in the house. This re- quest being made after my confirming to him the startling news he had just received of the surrender of General Lee, thereupon he gently reminded me that thereby Confederate money was invalidated, and that I would have to pay him in hard money, as he and all his mountain neighbors in those days termed gold and silver. Instantly I conjectured that I was dealing with a sordid biped of a man, and I consented to trick the old commercial hotten- tot, who would exact so great a hardship of a poor, worn out, distressed and weary soldier, at such a time, so it flashed upon me to exhibit a Mexican silver dollar, which my loving aunt had graciously given me at our parting in her mountain home, with the admonition that I might need it in my long, arduous march homeward. Producing that and saying I would pay him "hard " money, I was in due course provided for, and really had a night in bed, and was served early in the morning a breakfast vastly superior to a Stonewall Jackson
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
breakfast, consisting of some grease and a little corn bread. And now for a settlement of that board bill with his pigship the inn-keeper. Hand- ing him a two dollar Confederate bill from my old somewhat pantaloons I thrust it toward him. With a look of scorn and indignation he exclaimed, Sir, you promised to pay me in hard money ! My friend, said I, if that is not hard money I do not know what hard money is ; and looking as fiercely as I could, with my helpful companion of a double-bar- reled shot gun, at a sort of present arms, he seemed to be convinced that it was hard money and proceed- ed to give me some change, in the shin-plaster scrip of that day and generation, which was also hard money ; quite as hard as the genuine Confederate kind with the bona fide promise to pay the bearer six months after the ratification of the treaty of peace between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. This hard money joke perpetrated on the old man I have often thought of sending to some respectable publi- cation with a joke-smith column for the edification of the public, but this is its first appearance in print.
Those were rugged, disjointed, and most unhappy times, but it may be said in all truth they were the proudest and most glorious days of all his days for the true Confederate soldier.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
CHAPTER XX.
WORK FOR FUTURE HISTORIAN.
There could be truthfully recorded here many in- teresting and splendid personal deeds of the heroic type performed by the officers and men of Carpen- ter's Battery, but this should be done by some less partial and non-participating historian, while we members of this already highly honored and widely known battery should be well satisfied with the knowledge that our whole duty was done from first to last and that proud memories remain with us, and will sustain us until we too have all crossed over the river to our final rest, with our immortal leader
STONEWALL JACKSON !
Peerless, invincible, splendid and glorious ; The Prince of earth's warriors great,
Whom to have served with, in fields so victorious, Is glory enough to elate
The soul of the soldier who valiantly fought, Where the prowess and daring and vim
Of his glorified Captain such victories wrought, Which also so glorify him
Who shared in the name and the fame that was made By the battle-scarred, war-renowned Stonewall Brigade.
He lived with the chaplet ablaze on his brow ; He died 'neath the splendor of fame ; l'et he lives in the hearts of his countrymen now, With reverenced and immortal name ; While his was the blessedness not to have known The cause he so loved had been lost ;
Whose battles by him were so brilliantly won, 'Till over the river he crossed, 1
To rest evermore 'neath the shade of the trees, Where glory eternal his life shall appease.
£
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
How blest was the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to have had such leaders as Lee and Jack- son, Hill, Gordon and their like, in some others, but these great soldiers had as followers in the ranks soldiers who did as much for their fame and honor, as did their own innate greatness of soul and mind, while for both, officer and man, the righteous cause for which they fought uplifted their manhood be- yond the ordinary soldier, and fitted them for mon- uments of time and immortality.
£
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A BRIEF HISTORY
CHAPTER XXI.
ORIGINAL ROLL AND CASUALTIES.
The following is a list of the original company- the Alleghany Roughs-which became later, and remained to the end of the war, Carpenter's Battery ; organized at Covington, Virginia, April 20th, 1861, as follows :
ORIGINAL ROSTER.
NAME.
RANK.
AGE.
Thompson McAllister,
Captain,
49 years.
Joseph Carpenter,
Ist Lieutenant,
- years.
George McKendree,
2d Lieutenant,
27 years.
H. H. Dunott,
3d Lieutenant, 28 years.
Anthony, Robt. I.
Ist Sergeant,
IS years.
Alford, Marion
Private,
23 years.
Bacon, Stephen W. P.
Private,
18 years
Baker, James T.
Private,
22 years.
Bancker, Van R.
Private,
22 years.
Branham, James W.
Private,
26 years.
Baggage, W'm. W.
Private,
20 years.
Byrd, George
Private,
21 years.
Boswell, Joseph M.
Private,
27 years.
Canty, Patrick
Private,
31 years.
Carpenter, John C. .
Private,
22 years.
Carpenter, S. S.
Corporal,
19 years.
Clark, James P.
Private,
18 years.
Corr, Patrick
Private,
23 years.
Dickey, L. T.
3d Sergeant,
26 years.
Dressler, Joseph S.
Private,
23 years.
Foster, Hopkins B.
Private,
20 years.
Fonerden, Clarence A.
Private,
20 years.
Fudge, Wm. C.
Private,
24 years.
Fudge, Joseph T.
Private,
21 years.
Glenn, James
Private,
41 years.
Grady, James
Private,
27 years.
Hastings, Thomas
Private,
23 years.
Hammond, James
Corporal,
20 years.
Holmes, James P.
Private.
21 years.
Hite, Wm. B.
Private,
21 years.
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OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
NAME.
RANK.
AGE.
Humphries, William
Private,
23 years.
Jordan, Chas. O.
Sergeant,
21 years.
Jordan, Edward W.
Private,
26 years.
Jones, Peter
Private,
19 years.
Jordan, James A.
Private,
- years.
Karnes, Benanıi
Sergeant,
24 years.
Karnes, Patrick
Private,
25 years.
Karnes, John
Private,
21 years.
Karnes, Francis L.
Private,
27 years.
King, John
Private,
21 years.
Kimberlin, Joseph
Private,.
24 years.
Knight, John M.
Private,
21 years.
Kupp, B. H.
Private,
28 years.
Low, Samuel
Private,
22 years.
Lambie, Wm. T.
Private,
23 years.
Lafferty, Charles
Private,
30 years.
Lampkins, John
Private,
35 years.
Moran, William
Private,
23 years.
Montague, Robert
Private,
19 years.
Matheny, John W.
Private,
22 years.
Milligan, John
Private,
21 years.
Murrell, Wm. M.
Private,
20 years.
McAllister, Wm. M.
Private,
IS years.
McDonald, Gabriel
Private,
31 years.
McGowan, Andrew
Private,
22 years.
McMahan, Patrick
Private,
28 years.
McKernan, Thomas
Private,
30 years.
Mccullough, John
Private,
22 years.
McKnight, George R.
Private,
23 years.
Myers, Jacob L.
Private,
19 years.
Otey, Virginius B.
Private,
21 years.
Pence, Peter M.
Private,
21 years.
Pitzer, Wm. D. W.
Private,
21 years.
Quinlin, Michael
Private,
21 years.
Rogers, James A.
Private,
22 years.
Rosser, Thomas W.
Private,
19 years.
Rose, James E.
Private,
24 years.
Ray, Henry B.
Private;
26 years.
Read, Alexander
Private,
21 years.
Read, James W.
Private,
35 years.
Riley, James M. C.
Private,
31 years.
Rixey, John G.
Sergeant,
30 years.
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A BRIEF HISTORY
NAME.
RANK.
AGE.
Sawyers, John
Private,
24 years.
Scott, Kyle C.
Private,
22 years.
Stewart, John W.
Private,
19 years.
Stewart, Benjamin P.
Private,
27 years.
Steele, William
Private,
27 years.
Smith, John
Private,
30 years.
Smith, Patrick
Private,
40 years.
Thompson, I. H.
Corporal,
22 years.
Vowells, Philip D.
Corporal,
35 years.
The recruits added to the above original list from time to time during the war, as nearly as may be remembered, or collected from any source procur- able at this remote date, are as follows :
J. M. Carpenter, J. H. A. Boswell, George Crawford, Thomas M. Jordan, Samuel Matheny, Archibald A. Fudge, James P. Payne, Charles S. J. Skeen, Tedford A. Sively and C. C. Via, from Alleghany County, Va.
William S. Arey, George F. Arey, Benjamin Caricoff, Samuel M. Woodward, Thomas D. Wood- ward, Booker Hunter, and Chesley Woodward, from Augusta County, Va.
W. Barnes, from Nelson County, Va.
F. W. Figgatt, J. F. Lotts, James Leopard, J. M. Mackay, Reuben L. Martin, James Walker, Wm. J. Winn, and David Syren, from Rockbridge County, Va.
. J. Sprecker, S. Sprecker, and J. Swindle, from Wythe County, Va.
When the Cutshaw Battery was merged into Car- penter's Battery it embraced the following list : Lieutenant D. R. Barton, J. W. Willey, Fred Willey, G. A. Williams, J. W. Hoffman, W. F. Coburn, W. J. Miller, E. W. Pifer, J. M. Wilkinson, H. Riden- our, Fred Ridings, A. W. Staff, W. W. Reid, W.
71
OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.
F. Hicks, A. McCarty, George Keeler, Daniel W. Kline, Charles Kaiser, James Beeler, L. P. Blake, Joseph Cooley, M. Clemm, A. Ridenour, T. T. Hite, George E. Everett, John McCarty, W. J. V. Jones, H. Lauck, A. J. Barrow, W. S. Bradford, J. W. Edmondson, Joseph Manne, W. W. Demp- sey, Joseph Allemong, James C. Reid, Samuel Ma- theney, R. N. St. John, William St. John and - Fitzgerald.
It will thus appear that the total enrollment of Carpenter's Battery from first to last was about 150 men, 46 of whom were killed in battle, while the wounded, if we are to include those who were hurt upon the field more than once, would more than consume the entire enrollment. In twenty-five of our battles we have a list of 124 wounded, not in- cluding the killed.
At the first battle of Manassas our killed num- bered 6 ; 2d battle Manassas, I ; Kelley's Ford, I ; Ist Winchester, 2 ; 2d, 1; 3d, 11 ; Cedar Creek, I; Cedar Mountain, I ; Ist Fredericksburg, 3 ; 2d, I ; Fisher's Hill, I ; Spottsylvania, I ; Wade's Depot, 5 ; Gettysburg, S; Malvern Hill, 2; Five Forks, I ; totaling 46.
After the first battle of Manassas, on August 8th, 1861, on the reorganization of the commission- ed officers, this second status was :
Joseph Carpenter, captain ; John C. Carpenter, Ist lieutenant ; George McKendree, 2d lieutenant ; Wm. T. Lambie, 2d lieutenant, Jr.
Later, the third status was :
John C. Carpenter, captain ; Wm. T. Lambie, Ist lieutenant ; S. S. Carpenter, 2d lieutenant ; Chas. O. Jordan, 2d lieutenant, Jr.
Additional to this two other lieutenants were as-
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A BRIEF HISTORY -
signed to the battery, Lieutenant D. R. Barton, from the Cutshaw Battery, who was killed at Fred- ericksburg, and Lieutenant Early, of Raines's Bat- tery, who was killed at Five Forks.
This brief and altogether inadequate history of Carpenter's Battery is written a little less than fifty years after the first battle of Manassas, and so few of its old members are left, and these few are, for the greater part, so far separated from each other, as to make it impossible to obtain the proper data for anything like a true and correctly elabo- rated account of the activity of a company, which saw such constant work as a whole and individ- ually, as did this battery. Inadequate as it is, it is submitted to the sons and daughters and other generations of the brave and heroic men who made it a history honoring and ennobling not alone them- selves as participants but their devoted descendants as well to the end of time, in whose respect and remembrance we now leave them reverentially without fear and without reproach.
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