in commencing the story of the brave deeds performed during the dark days of the great civil war in america by the gallant band known as "white’s battalion," it will be proper to give a short sketch of the man who, as chief of the “comanches,” gave to the thirty-fifth battalion, virginia cavalry, its existence, and led it through so many campaigns, battles and raids, to occupy a place in the history of the war second to no command of its numbers, and distinguished under the special notice of such men as “stonewall” jackson, richard s. ewell, j. e. b. stuart, william e. jones, thomas l. rosser and the gallant butler of south carolina; besides receiving the highest encomiums from the greatest cavalry commander since the days when murat led the squadrons of napoleon—general wade hampton—and of robert e. lee, before whose fame the most splendid garlands of glory that wreathe the brows of the noblest men of earth in all time, pale as does the silver moon-beam before the radiant rays of the noon-day sun.
8elijah v. white was born near poolsville, montgomery county, maryland, on the 29th of august, 1832, and continued at his father’s home until he was sixteen years of age, when he was sent to lima seminary, livingston co., n. y., to be educated. here he remained for two years, at the expiration of which he attended granville college, in licking co., ohio, for two more years, when he returned to his home in maryland.
during the war in kansas, in 1855 or ’56, he went to that territory, and joining a company from missouri, took an active part in the troubles that then threatened to overthrow the pillars of the old constitution in the terrible maelstrom of abolitionism that afterwards swept away their foundations.
after the kansas war closed, young white came home, and shortly afterwards bought a farm on the south bank of the potomac, in loudoun county, virginia, where he took up his residence in 1857, and on the 9th of december of the same year married miss sarah elizabeth gott.
at the first signal of war, given by john brown at harper’s ferry, in october, 1859, white was a corporal in the loudoun cavalry, a company then commanded by capt. dan. t. shreve, with which he took part in the scenes of excitement that followed this mad attempt of northern fanaticism to sweep the twin scourges of fire and blood over the south. at the breaking out of the war 9in 1861, white was still a member of this company; but owing to a change of its officers, which, to a great extent, damaged its efficiency, he left it and attached himself to the company of capt. frank mason, in ashby’s legion, with which he served until the autumn of that year, being engaged principally in scouting, much of which he did under the orders of col. eppa hunton, who, during the summer, commanded in loudoun county. on one of his scouts for col. hunton, in maryland, he captured the first yankee prisoner of the war in the person of one costine, of gen. mccall’s staff. when gen. evans took command in leesburg, “lige white,” as he was familiarly known, reported to him, and the night before the fight at bolivar, the general asked “lige” "if he didn’t want some fun," at the same time informing him that ashby intended to attack geary on the following morning; whereupon “lige” started at 9 o’clock, reaching ashby’s camp just as that commander was marching out to make his demonstration on harper’s ferry. in this brilliant affair he bore his full share, and when it was over returned on a furlough, to loudoun, to make necessary arrangements for leaving his family in as comfortable circumstances as possible, while he followed the fortunes of the battle flag of dixie. early on the morning of the 21st of october, while driving to leesburg from mr. henry ball’s, in a buggy, with miss kate ball, 10he heard the firing of the opening fight at ball’s bluff, and hastily returning to mr. ball’s, he mounted his horse and reported at once to general evans for duty.
the general, who was somewhat the worse for whiskey, gruffly asked him what he could do; to which “lige” replied that he could scout, could carry dispatches, or could go into the ranks and fight. after a few moments of study, evans exclaimed, “well, sir, go to the front and fight like hell and damnation;” and “lige” rode off and reported to col. hunton, who was the actual commander in this battle.
the colonel requested white to remain with him and scout for him during the day; and shortly after, when returning from a scout to the left to learn if the enemy was attempting any movement on the flank, he found fully one-third of the 8th virginia regiment in utter rout, caused by a misunderstanding of an order for that part of the regiment, which had been considerably advanced, to retire on the main line, and they taking it to be an order to retreat. with great difficulty the order was explained and the men rallied and brought back to the line, when col. hunton ordered an advance of his regiment which vigorously attacked the enemy, driving his whole right wing back to the woods bordering on the bluff, and capturing two brass howitzers, but the left of his line stood firm, and white was ordered by 11col. burt, of the 18th mississippi, to go into the woods and bring up two companies of his regiment that had been stationed on the extreme right of the confederate line to guard against a flank attack in that quarter, and form them on the right of the 17th.
as soon as this order had been executed, col. burt ordered his regiment to advance, which it did, the colonel and white riding in rear of the line, and when in about fifty yards of a skirt of timber that grew along a ravine in the old field, the enemy, who till that moment had lain concealed, raised up and poured a most terribly destructive volley into the mississippi line, by which about one hundred and thirty men were killed and wounded; in fact, by far the largest part of the confederate loss on that day was caused by this one murderous fire. col. burt was mortally wounded by white’s side and the latter represents himself as being terribly frightened but untouched, and says the men of the 18th stood unflinchingly in the storm and soon drove the enemy from his position. col. burt, who was held on his horse by two of his men, asked white to ride to col. jenifer and inform him that he (burt) was mortally wounded and must leave the field.
on his return he found col. hunton in front of the 18th regiment instructing its major to advance through the woods upon the enemy, but 12the major objected, saying he did not know the ground; when hunton said, "come on, i’ll lead you;" to which the major replied, “no, sir; i can lead my own men, all i want is a guide;” and col. hunton turned to white, saying, "lige, my boy, won’t you go with them?" which settled the question of a guide, and “lige” rode forward in front of the mississippians, soon finding himself between two fires, the foe in front and friends behind; but the yankees soon gave way, leaving a splendid brass 24-pounder rifle gun as a trophy to the gallantry of the noble 18th mississippi. this closed the battle, and col. hunton again sent “lige” on a scout to the left to see what the enemy was doing in that direction. it was now dark and white had not gone far before he was halted by a voice which he knew to belong to a yankee, and replying in a low tone, “halted;” the man asked who he was; “lige” answering by asking the same question, and the fellow replied—“i belong to the new york tammany regiment.” white, still speaking very low, called out excitedly, “you do!” “come to me, come to me!” and the yankee advanced close to him with gun at a charge bayonet, when white said to him, “surrender, or you are a dead man;” at the same time levelling his pistol on him, but the yankee was pluck, and exclaiming, “never, to any man!” stepped back to bayonet his foe, and “lige” at the same moment drew trigger but 13his pistol missed fire; hastily cocking it again he was just in time, and sent a bullet crashing through the yankee’s brain just as he was in the act of driving his bayonet through him.
“lige” now satisfied himself that the enemy had retired all along the line, and returned to col. hunton, who now marched his people back to their camp, ordering white to remain with lieut. chas. berkeley, who with fifteen men was to remain on picket near the river during the night. the ladies of leesburg had sent a kingly supper to the soldiers, and after satisfying their appetites, which had been sharp-set by a day of fasting and fighting, white proposed to lieut. berkeley that they take a scout to the river, for, strange as it may appear, not a single confederate had been to the bluff, although they had fought to within a few yards of its edge. to this lieut. b. readily agreed, and passing quietly along over the dead and dying, they reached the river, and soon heard a boat crossing over from the opposite bank. in a few minutes it struck the virginia shore, and leaving berkeley and his men, white walked up to the landing place where he found himself among a great crowd of yankees, all eager to get aboard the one gondola, and terribly excited. to return to the lieutenant and report was the next move, and “lige” declared that he believed there were 800 to 1,000 yankees down under the bluff, and asked berkeley what they were to do, to which he replied, “we will capture the whole of them.”
14white agreed to it, provided the fifteen would all promise to carry it through or die trying, when one of the men said to him that lieut. b. was a rash man and he, for one, was not willing to follow him, as he feared they would all be killed; upon which “lige” started to the camp of the 8th virginia for reinforcements. on arriving there he found lt.-col. tebbs in command, who said that if any of the men chose to do so they might go, but advised them to let the enterprise alone. on telling his story and asking for volunteers, captain w. n. berkeley said, "i’ll follow you," and at once some of capt. b’s men responded with, "yes, and we’ll follow you." so that in a short time quite a force had volunteered, composed as follows:—captains, w. n. and edmund berkeley; lieutenants, r. h. tyler, l. b. stephenson and r. coe; sergeants, f. wilson, j. o. adams and —— gochnauer; corporals aye, b. hurst, w. fleshler, b. hutchison and wm. thomas; and privates, a. s. adams, j. w. adams, f. a. boyer, j. l. chin, g. creel, r. s. downs, w. donnelly, g. insor, c. r. griffin, john george, d. l. hixson, t. w. hutchison, j. f. ish, r. i. smith, w. c. thomas, j. w. tavenner, j. m. mcveigh, l. w. luckett, c. d. luckett, m. h. luckett, a. m. o’bannon, rev. chas. linthicum, r. o. carter, george roach, e. nails, howard trussell, d. rourke, thomas e. tavenner, p. gochnauer, f. tinsman, t. h. benton, t. 15kidwell, c. fox, v. r. costello, will. moore, j. ellis, william mccarty, j. mcclanahan, e. herrington and r. julian. with this force white started back to the river, where he had left lieut. berkeley watching the enemy, and on reaching it, after an absence of nearly two hours, found the situation unchanged, except that the number of the enemy was perceptibly lessened, the gondola having made several trips. hastily arranging his forces, “lige” posted lieut. berkeley on top of the bluff, just over the yankees, while he moved the remainder down to the edge of the river and charged at once upon the enemy, firing and yelling like demons, when at the same moment lieut. b. opened fire from the bluff with his party. the consternation was terrible among the yankees, some leaping into the river and drowning themselves, some wading out in the water as far as they could, some running up the river bank, and some, too much paralyzed with fear to act at all, just fell down and screamed.
very soon an irish captain, a gallant fellow, appeared and called a parley, when the firing ceased and the captain asked who was in command, to which capt. william berkeley replied, “gen. white,” and the captain at once asked upon what terms his men would be allowed to surrender, and when told they should be treated kindly as prisoners of war, he called them up from their hiding places, saying, “the general 16assures me you shall be kindly treated; come out and give yourselves up.” this had the desired effect and they all came up, to the number of 320, and surrendered to the “brigade of general white.”
a few days after this, a recommendation was drawn up and signed by the regimental commanders, asking that white be commissioned in the regular army of the confederate states, for meritorious conduct at the battle of leesburg. this was approved by gen. evans, and cordially endorsed by gen. beauregard, but when “lige” presented it to the secretary of war, he was informed that no commissions in the regular army were being granted then, but that his name should be registered for the first vacancy. this did not suit him and learning that his old friend, col. hunton, was in richmond, called upon him, and was advised by that officer to apply for permission to organize an independent company for service on the border, which he did, and through col. hunton’s influence succeeded without any difficulty in getting the appointment of captain in the provisional army, with the authority to raise a company as proposed, and he now returned to leesburg where he opened a recruiting office under very favorable auspices, the militia of the county having been called to that point by gen. d. h. hill, (who succeeded evans in command of the department soon after the battle,) to work on 17the fortifications in course of construction there, and it was natural to suppose that many of them would prefer ranging service on the border to wielding the shovel and the hoe in the breast-works.
