USA > West Virginia > Hampshire County > History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : from its earliest settlement to the present > Part 44
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CHAPTER LII, -
THE FRONTIER RIFLEMEN.
Following is a roll of the Frontier Riflemen, known also as Company I, Thirteenth Virginia Infantry: Captain, Robert White; first lieutenant, E. L. Irvin; second lieu- tenant, Job N. Cookus; third lieutenant, Daniel T. Keller; first sergeant, Richard Roberson; second sergeant, H. B. Willis; third sergeant, B. W. Armstrong; fourth sergeant, Robert J. Pugh. Privates-James H. Atkins, A. F. Barnes, J. W. Bobo, M. V. Bobo, James Bonney, James E. Brown, Benjamin Brooks, Frederick Carder, Joseph F. Carder, Joseph Carder, Sanford Carder, Uriah Cheshire, George W. Cheshire, Newton Cherry, John S. M. Combs, Jesse Chilcot, J. W. Davis, Alfred Doman, Tobias Doman, Thomas B. Emmart, Thomas Kelly, Granville Friddle, John Greitzner, Thomas Gulick, W. H. Gerrard, William H. High, Andrew Hines, John W. Hannas, William Hickel C. Hott, Benjamin Haines, A. J. Kreemer, Thomas Keely, J. N. Lewis, M. Lewis, William Loy, W. Loy, Samuel Loy, John Loy, J. W. Loy, Solomon Lopp, W. H. Ludwick, E. Liller, Samuel Mohler, Samuel McCanley, Arthur Mc- Cauley, Walter McAtee, Joseph Nixon, J. Nealis, H. H. Orndorff, W. T. Parker, V. M. Poling, T. S. Poling, Jos- eph S. Poland, William Pownell, Absalom Pownell, W. S. Purgett, Jacob Powelson, Michael Randall, Joel Roberson, G. W. Ruckman, Alonzo Shawen, Christopher Shanholtzer, W. F. Sheetz, James Starnes, Frank Shingleton, Thomas Scanlin, Stephen Swisher, Perry Saville, Gibson Timbrook, Hiram Terry, J. B. Trenton, John Thompson, Edward
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Whiteman, J. L. Wilson, H. A. Wilson. Musicians-Levi Carder, G. McNemar, L. Johnson.
This company was organized in 1860, after the John Brown raid. with Robert White captain, Elias L. Irvin first lieu- tenant, Job N. Cookus second lieutenant and Daniel T. Keller third lieutenant. On May 18, 1861, by order of Governor Letcher. the company reported to Colonel T. J. Jackson (Stonewall), then commanding at Harper's Ferry. While there the company voted on the ordinance of seces- sion, there being seven votes against it. The company was placed in the Fourth Regiment, under Colonel A. P. Hill, and was designated as Company I. It being found that there were two Fourth Regiments, this one was changed to Thirteenth. While at Harper's Ferry the first death occurred in the company, Henry Wilson, but it was by no means the last death, for this company was al- most totally destroyed before the close of the war.
The First Fight .- Active service soon commenced. Colonel Hill, with the Thirteenth and Tenth Virginia and Third Tennessee Regiments, marched to Romney in June, 1861, and a detachment, consisting of Companies I and K and the Third Tennessee, was sent to New creek to de- stroy railroad bridges. The bridges were burned, and a skirmish occurred with the Cumberland home guards, in which the guards were defeated, with the loss of two small cannon, which fell into the hands of the confederates. These were the first trophies of war. Colonel Hill marched to Winchester, and Company I was soon in the command of General Joseph Johnston, who was falling back from Harper's Ferry. After a few days General Johnston eluded and deceived General Patterson, of the union army, and slipped away to Manassas in time to turn the tide of battle (July 21) from apparent defeat to certain victory. Company I did not take part in the battle, having been posted on the right to guard a ford. After the battle the Thirteenth Regiment did picket duty in the vicinity of
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Alexandria. John Bobo died of fever at this camp, and Thomas Scanlon was accidentally shot in the foot. In the autumn of 1861 the army moved to Manassas, and here Thomas Kelly and Samuel McCauley died in the hospital. Captain White and Lieutenant Irvin resigned January, 1862, and left the army. Johnston's army moved from Manassas in the spring of 1862, and General Ewell's divis- ion, to which the Thirteenth Regiment belonged, was sta- tioned on the Rappahannock river, and afterward fell back to Gordonsville.
The confederate army was here reorganized. The time of enlistment of many of the men had expired; but the confederate congress having passed the conscript act, it compelled the men to remain in the commands where they then were. Many of the men felt themselves much ag- grieved at this, as they had volunteered, and they thought they should be allowed to choose the arm of the service in which they would fight. Company I reorganized by elect- ing Job N. Cookus captain, Abraham Smith first lieutenant, James Moorehead second lieutenant and Abraham Barnes third lieutenant. The division to which this company be- longed moved from Gordonsville to Swift run gap, Jack- son's old camp, facing Banks' army at Harrisonburg, in the valley of Virginia. In all the fighting which followed, Company I did its full share. General Banks was forced out of the valley, with great loss of stores, artillery and prisoners. But General Fremont and General Shields coming upon the scene, there was continued and heavy fighting. The confederates gained a victory at Cross Keys. This was the first real battle taken part in by Company I, although it had seen much service. After the battle at Cross Keys, the division to which Company I be- longed crossed the south fork of the Shenandoah and helped Jackson, who was fighting Shields. The federals had a strong position. A brigade of Ewell's division and a regimentof Jackson's took a battery of six pieces on Shields'
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left, which proved to be the key to the field and decided the battle in favor of the confederates. The victory did not come too soon for them, for their army was completely exhausted, and it was with great difficulty that a pursuit of five miles was made, many of the men falling by the roadside. They had fought two days without a mouthful to eat.
Adventures of Boney Loy .- Among the well- known members of Company I was William B. Loy, nick- named "Boney," who passed through many dangers and lived to see peace restored. He returned to Hampshire and proved by his life that the bravest in war are the best citizens in peace. He was of small statue, but of iron cor- stitution, capable of enduring excessive fatigue; taking part in the hardest marches, the severest battles, and al- ways at his post. In the battle above mentioned he had a long, hard time of it. When the fight was over he wrapped himself in a new rubber blanket and lay down among the dead and dying, and was soon asleep. During the night some stragglers who were robbing the dead, found him, and supposing him dead also, rolled him over, pulled his blanket out and began to fold it up. But Loy awoke and soon convinced the thief that he had tackled a very lively corpse. The straggler turned away, remarking, "take your old blanket; I thought you were dead. " Loy wrapped the blanket about him and again lay down to sleep. When he awoke in the morning he found that his gun and boots had been stolen. Unarmed and barefooted he started out to forage, and soon found a rusty gun, which he took; but he was not so fortunate in procuring coverings for his feet, which were so small that he was hard to fit. But, finally he found a yankee with boots about the right size, and he proceeded to pull them off. He received a kick in the stomach from the yankee whom he had supposed dead, and the rebuke: "What are you about! Can't you let a man die in peace! Can't you wait till he is dead before you rob
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him!" As Mr. Loy had no intention of robbing a wounded soldier, he let go the boot with many apologies and moved off. He found no other boots of the proper size, and re- turned to camp barefooted. It was not long after that that Banks' commissary stores were captured by the rebels, and Boney Loy had the pick of several hundred cases of yankee boots, and succeeded in finding a pair to fit him exactly.
Death of George Cheshire .- After the battle of Port Republic, many of the members of Company I joined the cavalry and did good service; others left and went home to remain. After a rest of a few days, Company I, now reduced in numbers, was sent to Richmond to defend the capital of the Southern Confederacy against Mcclellan. On June 27, 1862, when the company found itself on Mc- Clellan's right at Coal Harbor it had only eighteen men, including two conscripts. Although General Lee had forced General McClellan from his fortifications, his new position was a very strong one. In the battle which fol- lowed, Company I passed through many dangerous places. It had to cross a swamp hip-deep to attack the enemy's in- fantry posted on an eminence. The confederates were unmercifully raked by the artillery fire. The survivors of the terrible battle tell of the gallant manner in which Ser- geant George W. Cheshire met his death. He is looked upon as one of the bravest of the one hundred and twenty- two Hampshire men who gave their lives in the cause of the South. He was killed near Richmond. The battle had raged with almost unprecedented fury, and seven en- signs had fallen. Cheshire seized the colors of his regi- ment and led the charge, calling to his comrades to follow. He held the flag until the staff was shot off in three places. It looked like a rush into the jaws of death, but they pressed forward. Cheshire fell, but the men who had fol- lowed him met the enemy and forced them back. The governor of Virginia made a special report on the gallantry
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of the young Hampshire officer, and his name stands re- corded in history. The flag, cut into ribbons by bullets was sent to Governor Letcher, who returned a new flag, remarking that the old one "was battle worn and bullet torn, and bathed in the blood of the gallant Cheshire." George Ruckman, another brave man of the company, fell in this battle, as did also one of the conscripts. Frank Singleton of Delaware, who had joined the company, Boney Loy and the other conscript were badly wounded.
Boney carried a Mississippi rifle which soon became foul. He was in the thick of the fight and had fired until he could not ram another bullet down. His gun was choked, and at that critical moment a retreat was ordered. Just then a bullet struck him in the thigh. It roused his ire and he turned upon the advancing yankees and putting his ram- rod against a tree, tried to push the bullet down, and in the endeavor his ramrod became fast in the barrel. He raised his gin, fired ramrod and all at the enemy, and turned to run. A bullet struck his knapsack, passed through it and lodged in his clothing without hurting him. But another ball struck him a moment later and passed through his lungs. He dropped his gun, but continued running until he overtook his comrades. V. M. Poling asked him if he had been wounded, to which Loy replied with more vehemence than piety: "No, -- , I'm killed." His wounds, however, were not fatal, and after several months in the hospital he was back in his regiment, and ready for more fighting.
In this battle Joel Roberson was so severely wounded that he was unable to perform service in the infantry, but as soon as he had sufficiently recovered he joined the cav- alry. He was a good soldier, and was liked by all who knew him. B. W. Armstrong, a man of superior educa- tion, died of a fever in August, 1861. He was in every way a gentleman.
The company took part in the battles of Malvern Hill, 41
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1. DR. J. W. SHULL.
3. HOWARD L. SWISHER.
2. T. G. POWNALL.
4. V. M. POLING, ON FURLOUGH IN RICHMOND, 1864.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDA: .. .
THE FRONTIER RIFLEMEN. 609
Charles City and Cedar Mountain; at the latter place Sam- uel Mohler and V. M. Poling were wounded, Mohler badly in the foot, Poling slightly in the side. His capbox saved him. This company took an active part in the second bat- tle of Bull Run, and followed Lee and Jackson through the Maryland campaign, culminating at Antietam. At the second battle of Bull Run the company went with Jackson in his flank movement around Pope. All the confederate wagons were left behind to make better speed, and the only rations issued to the men were four roasting ears each per day. But when they camped near cornfields they helped themselves. However, they succeeded in capturing Pope's supply train and were then told to help themselves, which they did with an unspairing hand. Each man took all he could carry. On the retreat from Antietam the soldiers waded the Potomac. The water came to their cartridge boxes. Stonewall Jackson sat on his horse in the middle of the river encouraging his men. The soldiers cheered him as they struggled by, through the swift water, and he sat with his hat off, in a beating rain. The field of action for Company I changed to Fredericksburg. At this place the yankee and rebel pickets on the Rappahannock traded tobacco and coffee. The rebels on one side of the river put a sail on a plank, tied their tobacco to the staff, and the wind would carry the frail bark to the other side. The yankees took the tobacco and sent coffee back in exchange for it. The sail was changed each time so as to carry the boat straight across. This trading was kept up till the yankees moved their pickets back.
Death of Lieutenant Morehead .- In the spring of 1863 General Hooker left Sedgwick's corps at Freder- icksburg and he crossed to Chancellorsville. Company I was left, in Early's division, to watch Sedgwick. In a bat- tle at that place the thirteenth regiment was sent forward alone to attack a hill as a feint. The soldiers charged and took it three times; but on the top of the hill the regiment
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encountered two lines of battle, and was forced to fall back. At this place Lieutenant James Morehead met his death. His last words were, "They are running! Come on, boys!" He was a gallant officer, and was very popular with the men. The soldiers procured boards from a barn, made him a coffin, and buried him. Captain Smith offered a prayer, while shells were falling and exploding on all sides. The company lost other valuable men in this charge. Samuel Loy was mortally wounded and died in a few days. Richard Roberson, Sanford Carder and. Joseph Carder were badly wounded. During the retreat from the hill, hotly parsued by federals, Boney Loy and V. M. Poling, afterwards clerk of the Hampshire circuit court, were fighting the best they could to cover the retreat, when they were so hard pressed that they were compelled to conceal themselves in a deep gulley, while the yankees took pos- session of other gullies near by, and made a stand, not knowing that rebels were in an adjoining gully. The con- federate troops rallied, and for some time there was the prospect of a sharp fight over the heads of Poling and Loy, but they were not uneasy on that score, as they could lie low and escape the bullets, but they did not feel comforts- ble when they considered the result if the yankees should see them and use the bayonet. They could hear the yankees talking near them, but did not dare raise their heads for fear of discovery. They thus hugged the bottom of the gully for hours. About five o'clock in the afternoon they heard a noise like the flight of a drove of pigeons, and a moment later saw that the rebel infantry were charging. The peculiar noise was made by soldiers running through the grass. General Gordon was making the charge. He drove the federals back and the men emerged from the gully and rejoined their comrades.
Company I, now reduced to a few men, was transferred to Winchester and took part in the battle with Milroy, which resulted in forcing him to retreat down the valley
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THE FRONTIER RIFLEMEN.
with heavy loss. The thirteenth regiment was left at Winchester to guard military stores, and thus missed Gettysburg. The company moved east of the Blue Ridge after the Gettysburg campaign and spent the winter on the Rappahannock, 1863-4. At that time the confederate states were hard pressed for food and clothing, and the soldiers were on short rations, one day three-quarters of a pound of beef and no bread; next day they would get flour and no meat; then rice for one day, and no salt at any time. In February a detachment was sent to the Rappa- hannock to catch fish. They lived without salt or flour. They cooked their fish in various ways to see if some sort of flavor could not be given them; but a fish without salt is not good, no matter how it is cooked. In the spring of 1864 the confederate army commenced fighting Grant in the Wilderness. A member of Company I expressed in these words a truth which no doubt was clearly seen by many at the time: "After we had fought Grant a few days in the Wilderness, there was not an officer, nor an intelli- gent soldier, in our army who did not realize that the Southern Confederacy was doomed. But we fought on, hoping against hope that something would happen that would save us; some foreign power might help us; or some other assitance come from some quarter," On May 5 Com- pany I was reduced to nine men, in ranks, and the captain, as follows: Captain Abraham Smith, R. J. Pugh, Richard Roberson, William Loy, W. Loy, William Sheetz, Samuel Mohler, Joseph Carder, Uriah Cheshire and V. M. Poling. The . company was in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House in May, 1864. B. M. Haines had been detached with the signal corps.
The Broken Line .- At that battle there was desper- ale fighting. Grant was pressing Lee hard at every point. One foggy morning General Hancock led a charge which broke Lee's line. The confederates at that place had built fortifications in the shape of V with the point to the en-
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emy. Company I was in the works on the left. Hancock came through on the right, and his victorious soldiers were sweeping everything before them and threatening to gain possossion of the road to Richmond. It was a moment of extreme danger for Lee's army, and that great general saw it. Unless the federals could be checked and driven back, Richmond must fall. The confederates from the left were countermarched on the double-quick across the open space to get in front of the federals. Bullets and grape fell like rain. Boney Loy fell, shot through the leg, and was left on the field, while the rebels hurried on, and after running half a mile found themselves in front of the yankees. It was at this critical moment that General Lee appeared on the scene. He saw that everything depended upon checking the federal advance. It is believed to be the only instance during the war in which General Lee offered to lead a charge, and it is worthy of note, to the honor of Hampshire, that this old county furnished its share of the soldiers which Lee was to lead on that momen- tuous occasion, the most critical, perhaps, in the whole war. No one had noticed the general as he came up. He suddenly appeared at the head of the thirteenth regiment, with his hat off and smiling, but did not say a word. He looked at the men and they understood that he was ready to lead the charge. General Gordon came up at the moment and exclaimed: "I will lead these Virginians; General Lee, go to the rear!" At once every man saw General Lee's danger, and called as with one voice: "Gen- eral Lee. to the rear." Richard Roberson of Company I, caught Lee's horse by the bridle and turned him around. By that time several of Lee's staff officers came up. Gen- eral Gordon then turned to the men and said: "Virginians, you have never failed before, and I know you will not fail today. Forward. Follow me."
The battle that day, to recover the lost ground, can be fittingly compared to the charge of Ney at Waterloo. It was
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a stubborn, hand-to-hand fight, in which the finest troops of the South were pitted against the veterans of the. North. The soldiers on both sides knew what war was. They had learned the trade on many a field, and they were now to fight inch by inch for the mastery of the captured works. For a long time it was a doubtful contest; but inch by inch the confederates pushed the union troops back, and finally recaptured the lost works which General Edward Johnson, with Stonewall Jackson's old division, had lost that morn- ing. But the battle for the mastery did not end there. Three times the federals tried to retake the works, but were three times repulsed. Other brigades claim the honor of being the troops which .General Lee offered to lead; and it is not impossible that he did offer to lead other brigades at other times; but it was surely the brigade in which Hampshire's Company I, thirteenth Virginia in- fantry fought, which Lee offered to lead at Spottsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864. Jones, in his memoirs of Lee, says he asked General Lee what brigade it was which he offered to lead, and that Lee answered: "General Gordon was the officer." General Gordon could settle the contro- versy as to the brigade, if he would, and it is due the brave men who followed him, and to the cause of history, that he speak on the subject.
Rain foll all night following the battle. The confederate soldiers slept sitting, with their backs against the breast- works and gum blankets over their heads and guns. There was thunder and bright lightning, which served to keep up the battle. The federals had taken up a position in a pine thicket about fifty yards in front of the confederate works, and they kept up such a constant firing that no one could show his head without danger of having it shot off. A dead union soldier lay a few yards below the breast- works, between the federal and confederate lines. He had a ring on his finger, and several attempts to get it failed. As soon as a confederate attempted to crawl down,
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the yankees in the pines fired at him. At length Samuel Mohler, of Company I, watched his chances, between flashes of lightning, and crawled down and got the ring. He did not care for the value of the ring, but wished to exhibit his recklessness. Boney Loy, who was wounded in the charge, was taken prisoner and carried to a federal hospital near by. A few days later the confederates cap- tured the hospital, and Loy climbed on a horse, behind one of the cavalrymen, and rode back to the camp. His wound in the leg rendered it necessary for him to spend some time in a hospital. He was then granted a furlough, and he set out for home. On the way he fell in with some troops under General Early, just as the fight at Fisher's Hill commenced. He took part in the battle; then pro- ceeded to his home in 'Hampshire.
Death of Captain Smith .- The next day after retaking the works at Spottsylvania Court House, General Lee moved his line back half a mile. Company I was sent with Ewell's corps to make an attack on Grant's forces, seven miles distant. In the attack Captain Smith was shot through the lungs. He fell near V. M. Poling, and said : "Tell my wife my first thought, when I fell, was of her, my God and my country. I believe our cause is just, and I have given my life for it." That night the soldiers of his country carried him seven miles back to Lee's lines, there being no ambulance in which to send him. He died in the hospital seven days later. There were only seven of Company I left. On May 21 this company moved to Han- over Court House, where a charge by the brigade to which Company I belonged was ordered, to take a battery of six pieces. The charge was across an open field, without sup- port. It was a disastrous undertaking, and unsuccessful. The federal position could not be taken, and the confeder- ates were forced to retreat, with heavy loss of officers as well as men. The retreat was more fatal than the ad- vance. Of the four hundred who went into the charge,
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eight-one were left on the field. Company I suffered as usual. Joseph Carder lost his foot and R. J. Pugh was shot in the leg. It was an uncalled-for sacrifice of life. Pugh was a good fellow, liked by all. He died in Romney a few years ago. This left only five men in Company I, and the company lost its identity. It had not enough men left to clect officers. It had entered the army at the be- ginning of the war with eighty-six officers and men. On May 21, 1864, it had not an officer and only five men. It might be supposed that further history of the company would be unnecessary; but there were five brave men left, and it is proper to follow them through their vicissitudes of fortune till the close of the war. These five, not having an organization any longer as a company, joined the sharp- shooters under Lieutenant Stringfellow. Each regiment, at that time, had twenty picked men as sharpshooters, under a lieutenant, and the whole division was organized and was commanded by a major. It was the duty of the sharpshooters to be in front in an advance and in the rear in retreat, creeping or running from shelter to shelter, always on the lookout for a good shot. Of course, the sharpshooters of the enemy were doing the same.
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