for several days after the close of the seven days’ campaign the army lay quiet, and white’s people had a delightful camp at meadow bridge, about 7 miles from richmond, on the rail road, from which they could send to the city daily for such luxuries as the markets afforded; and during this time there was not much to do in the way of carrying dispatches, so that there was little to do except rest. here the company held an election for orderly sergeant, which resulted in the choice of c. m. c. whaley, for that important position, and the list of non-commissioned officers was now full, viz: edward s. wright, 2d sergt.; benjamin f. conrad, 3d sergt.; john dove, 4th sergt.; and j. mortimore kilgour, 5th sergeant and quartermaster; john t. tribbey, 1st corporal; daniel c. pettingall, 2d corporal; william snoots, 3d corporal; and peter j. kabrich, 4th corporal.
about the 10th of july, gen. ewell marched his division to his old camp near liberty mills, on the rapidan, where for some weeks he remained watching “mr. head-quarters-in-the-saddle,” who was prospecting towards gordonsville, in the new “on to richmond” movement of his own 85and father abraham’s invention, and ravaging all the country inside of his lines in the barbarous manner which had been predicted of him from the beginning of his reign, which was as literally a “reign of terror,” to the defenseless people under his dominion, as ever was the bloody revolution to the citizens of paris during the days when flame and murder held high carnival at command of the devils incarnate who ruled in france.
white’s company had now increased to nearly one hundred men, and the captain spent much time in scouting in madison county, which was just on the border of the “grand army,” and very much infested with its cavalry raiding parties.
on one occasion, with about thirty men, he drove a strong force of infantry and cavalry from madison c. h., making the citizens imagine that they were once more free from the terrible dominion of pope. and again, from the mountain top near wolfton, he discovered a company of cavalry engaged in plundering a farm-house, and as rapidly as possible came down on them; but owing to the fact that some of his men had been seen by the enemy as they descended the mountain, he was only able to catch about half a dozen, chasing, however, the remainder out of their hats, and into their camp. about the last of july, capt. white left camp at dark, and marching all night, with 86twenty men, reached a farm-house five miles from stanardsville about daylight, and halting his command, he sent lieut. myers, with the citizen pilot who had volunteered to guide him, to look up the yankees. on reaching the conway river, about sunrise, they discovered seven yankees on foot, going from a camp over the river to a citizen’s house for breakfast, and sending the guide with all haste to inform the captain, the lieutenant took a position at the gate, about one hundred yards from the house, to watch the “boys in blue” until the command could come up and get them.
after about an hour’s watching and waiting, which, to the lonely picket appeared like four hours, the captain came up with a part of his squad, and before the yankees knew it, the rebels were in the yard; when, hastily leaving the table, they each “took a tree,” and with their carbines attempted to fight it out; but it was too late, and with what grace they could command, the foragers had to “on to richmond.”
the next expedition white made was for the purpose of bushwhacking a patrol of cavalry, which daily passed over the road from robertson river to madison c. h., and reaching the road in the evening, he dismounted his men and placed them in the woods alongside of it, sending lieut. myers, with ferro and spicer, up the road as a decoy, expecting the yankees to chase these men 87past the ambuscade, when the others would open on them with their double-barrels and buckshot; but the
"best laid schemes o’ mice and men,
gang aft agley,"
and the patrol failed to pass that evening.
in the morning the captain moved his people by the poorhouse to another point on the road; but, after waiting about two hours, found the enemy advancing in strong force of infantry and cavalry to occupy the court house, and on exchanging a few shots found a full brigade developed against him, when he retired.
on the way to camp in the afternoon the confederate pickets at jack’s shop, without any warning at all, fired upon the little company, fortunately without doing any damage, when the captain galloped forward alone and succeeded in rallying the retreating pickets and convincing them that they were running from their own men.
when white’s men came up they found their captain talking very sharply to the pickets about firing on him before they halted him, and high words were passing, when one of the firing party said "if you wasn’t a captain you shouldn’t talk that way;" but the captain exclaimed "no i ain’t; i’m no captain; i’m lige white, and can whip you any way! come on! i dare you!" but nobody took up the gauntlet; and with a pleasant little malediction on cowards everywhere, 88but especially on picket, the ranger chief marched on to camp.
about the 6th of august gen. jackson commenced to show some uneasiness, and ordered gen. ewell down the road towards louisa, but came back the next evening, and instead of halting at the old camp, kept right on towards culpeper, and commenced picketing beyond robertson river. the boys begun to have ideas that the man with the movable headquarters had better commence moving; but when they found that jackson’s quartermaster-general (banks) was in front, they said they "just knew ’old stonewall’ was getting scarce of supplies and only came up after some."
on the morning of the 9th, as white’s boys were lazily lying around the shady yard of the house where general ewell’s headquarters were, talking about the prospects, in imagination, of ever seeing loudoun again, and listening to the general’s baby-talk to some little children he had coaxed to come to him on the porch, gen. jackson rode up, and very soon the two were studying intently some maps and papers which they spread out on the floor.
gen. ewell’s ideas appeared to be in accord with "stonewall’s," and they soon laid themselves out for a rest; but after dinner everybody got busy all at once, and it wasn’t very long until we found ourselves face to face with a yankee line 89of cavalry deployed as vedettes, and apparently bent on investigating the rebel operations and ascertaining why they came so near to gen. banks’ wagon trains at culpeper c. h. their cavalry was commanded by gen. prince, who had been a classmate of stuart at west point, and was a fine officer, and a gentleman. his troops were splendidly drilled, and the first that white’s men had seen who performed their evolutions on the field at the sound of the bugle. about 3 o’clock capt. white and lieut. myers rode out on the lines, to gratify their curiosity, to see what was going on, and before they were aware of it almost, were witnessing the movements of a regiment of cavalry, that deployed most beautifully as the bugle notes floated musically on the air, and in a short time had advanced to a fence not a hundred yards from the curiosity hunters, who quietly rode off as a shell from one of jackson’s guns exploded in a group of yankee cavalry. while riding up the line a yankee approached them from the woods, but scampered away again as capt. white called to him “come here to me, you rascal.” about an hour after this gen. ewell called for his cavalry to go with him, and riding at a gallop, soon reached the foot of slaughter mountain, where white’s boys, by order of the general, dismounted, and dragged lattimer’s battery of artillery to the top of the mountain, where the “napoleon of the valley,” as general 90jackson called capt. lattimer, commenced firing as soon as his first piece was in position, and until his own men came up with the remainder of the battery, white’s men acted as gunners for him. by this time the blue and the gray were getting into a very warm fight down on the plain at the foot of the mountain, and lattimer’s first shot was a fine one, exploding exactly at a yankee battery, but the blue jackets instantly replied with one gun, which sent a shell within two feet of the muzzle of capt. l.’s piece, striking the trail of the gun-carriage.
the shells and solid shot now hailed thick around the confederate position on the mountain, and the louisiana brigade, which had taken post there, enjoyed it hugely, some of the men being on the open ground in front, instead of in rear of the battery, where they belonged, would run to the places where the yankee shot tore up the earth and coolly sit down, saying they were safe now, “as lightning never struck twice in the same place,” but some of them lost their heads by the operation in spite of the proverb.
the battle raged with great violence until dark, and even when her sable wing had spread over the wild scene of blood and death, the artillery continued to fire, and if there is anything in war that can be called splendidly beautiful, it is a night cannonade, when high overhead, in the very middle, apparently, of the black field, the hissing 91shells fly in curving lines of beauty, leaving behind them a track of sparkling flame, until the explosion blazes a lurid glare all around the sky, which can he likened to nothing better than to the fitful flashings of aurora in her most gorgeous masquerades.
when the firing ceased white’s men had left the mountain and advanced to a house near where the yankee battery which had been the recipient of lattimer’s first compliment had stood, the enemy having been driven back a considerable distance, and here they laid down and slept soundly till daylight, when their first notion was to look around for yankees and plunder, in which interesting occupation they passed the time until noon, having secured a number of prisoners and quite a large quantity of arms and other trophies of the battle-field.
about 1 o’clock the company retired to a large spring, near the house before spoken of, and unbitting their horses, turned them out to graze, while the men lay in the shade of the trees around the spring reading the yankee papers they had gathered up. the captain was very busily engaged in conversation with mr. henry ball, who had just come from loudoun, and brought to the captain the delightful intelligence that his wife was near the old camp at somerset, having accompanied mr. ball through the yankee lines without difficulty.
92a small detail of the company was assisting major christie, ordnance officer of the division, to remove a quantity of ammunition from a broken-down wagon, about a quarter of a mile above, when the officer in command of the infantry skirmish line passed along and informed the captain that the pickets were all withdrawn from his front and he must look out for yankees. “all right,” responded white, and straightway forgot all about it in the interest of his talk with mr. ball.
soon after this a commotion was heard in the direction of the ordnance detail, and before the men had time to get up, a squadron of yankee cavalry charged down upon them, firing, yelling, and making everything look very blue. there was of course great consternation among white’s people, but all scrambled to their horses—the captain mounting his own before putting the bit in its mouth—and as soon as they found themselves in their “headquarters,” the confusion manifestly subsided, so that when capt. white called on them to follow him in a charge upon the enemy, they responded gallantly, and chased the yankee squadron in most splendid style over the same track they had come, at the same time rescuing major christie and his detail from the hands of the yankees. two of the men who were with the major had already effected their escape, viz: jas. h. mock, by splendid riding, and thomas spates 93by literally outrunning his horse, a thing until then entirely unheard of. the old major was doing his best to get away on foot, but the enemy had him surrounded and were striking him over the head and back with their sabres, but they instantly left him when the pistols of white’s boys begun cracking among them, and the old man mounted behind lieut. marlow, who carried him out of danger; and always thereafter there was no difficulty in capt. white’s men getting all the ammunition they wanted from the ordnance department of ewell’s division.
the horses of lieut. myers and sergt. conrad carried them some distance in pursuit of the enemy after the balance of the company had retired, and were not stopped until the two men found themselves exposed to the fire of a line of infantry, which wounded conrad’s horse, when they too fell back, but not until the sergeant had cursed heartily the yankees who shot his steed. from his position on the top of slaughter mountain gen. ewell had witnessed the whole of the gallant affair, and he complimented the captain very highly, calling it “a beautiful thing.”
this advance of the yankees, and skirmish of white, brought on a fight among the cavalry of both armies, which resulted in the discomfiture of the enemy and capture of gen. prince.
the next morning capt. white obtained permission to visit his wife, and the command of the 94company devolved upon lieut. myers, who was called upon to go, with a few men, to see that the yankees did not raid upon the wagon train, and on reaching them found everything in great confusion owing to a report that the enemy’s cavalry was about to attack the train; but the lieutenant and his party soon rallied, and formed into line, about two hundred infantry stragglers who were about the wagons, and thus restored order among quartermasters and teamsters.
after dark, when the company had rejoined the general, the division withdrew from the mountain, and white’s men were left to keep up the fires and make the yankees believe the whole force was still there; and once, when sam white and john marlow piled hay on a fire, making a blaze that lighted up the side of the mountain, the general threatened to “throw a pistol ball among them if they did so any more,” but they quietly promised to return all the pistol balls he threw them; however, they put no more hay on the fires. about midnight the general ordered lieut. myers to take his company and march rapidly to the bridge at liberty mills, with instructions to hold it and prevent the yankees from destroying it before the infantry could get up. about daylight they reached the bridge, and in half an hour an order came to send ten men, as couriers, to report to the general on a road north of the rapidan, but after considerable difficulty 95in finding that number of men whose horses could stand the trip, the detail was sent on the wrong road and missing the general, excited his ire against lieut m., and when he reached camp and met the lieutenant he abused him considerably for not obeying his order, winding up with asking why he had not sent the detail; and as the lieutenant commenced to explain he unfortunately used the expression, “i supposed, general,” when the general broke out, “you supposed; you supposed, you say; what right had you to suppose anything about it, sir; do as i tell you, sir; do as i tell you.” that was the end of it, and during all the whole tirade of words the subordinate had only had an opportunity to use three. the whole force was again in the camp at somerset, and now the captain and his people began to talk about a raid to loudoun for the purpose of chastising a band of renegades and yankees which, under sam. means, was reported to be harassing the people of that county very severely; but, like foreign recognition and rumors of peace, it appeared to be more talk than anything else, and the men, as a general thing, hardly thought it possible to reach the “promised land,” although it was the heartfelt aspiration of each to once more behold it and enjoy the pleasure of sweet companionship with homes and loved ones again. on the 16th, one week after the battle of cedar run, general jackson marched 96across the rapidan towards culpeper c. h., and now hope burned brightly in southern hearts, for all the men believed that gen. lee could march into the north country and conquer a willing peace treaty from the government at washington.
pope made a stand on the rappahannock, and while waiting for the southern army to drive him back again capt. white perfected his plans for the loudoun expedition, and at warrenton white sulphur springs got gen. ewell’s sanction to it. when, on the 25th of august, “stonewall” left the main army and started on his flank movement to manassas, white marched with him, crossing the river opposite orleans, after which he made as fast time as possible in order to gain the front of jackson’s corps, which he succeeded in doing at salem. just as his company passed the last regiment the men, who had halted to rest, called out, "you wouldn’t have caught up with us if the colonel’s horse hadn’t given out." at sunset the raiding party, having cleared all the troops, marched to the bull run mountain, which point they reached about daylight, and where they proposed to lie over until night of the 26th. during the day the true-hearted citizens of the neighborhood brought in plenty to eat, and some of them spent a great part of the day in the camp, among them mr. ball, mr. simpson, mr. wynkoop and others.
when the dark came down over the mountain 97the captain formed his men, consisting of about twenty of his own company, with lieuts. myers and marlow, about twenty of capt. randolph’s company, with capt. r. and lieuts. redmond and mount, and half a dozen of gen. jackson’s scouts under that splendid soldier dr. gallaher. after the line was formed white made a short speech, telling his command that his object in the expedition was to whip means’ men, and that no matter how much force they had he intended to do it; that he knew where they were, and if the expedition failed it would be the fault of his own men; closing by saying with king henry, if any man among them had no stomach for the fight upon such terms he was now at liberty to return. the little force, augmented by the addition of messrs. henry ball and j. simpson, now took up the line of march for waterford, passing along the mountain all the way, and arriving at franklin’s mill an hour before daylight, when a halt was ordered and scouts sent out to ascertain if any changes had been made in the disposition of means’ command.
while lying here a party of eight was heard passing the road from leesburg, who, from their conversation, were rightly judged to have been scouting all night to learn if there was any movements of the southern army to the northward, and their words proved that they were perfectly satisfied and felt entirely secure, for among other 98things their leader was heard to declare, as they watered their horses within ten feet of one of white’s scouts, that "there wasn’t a rebel soldier north of the rappahannock."
as soon as this party passed beyond hearing, white moved his people to mr. hollingsworth’s barn-yard, where about twenty of them were dismounted, under command of capt. randolph, and ordered to march to the enemy’s quarters, which were in the baptist meeting-house, about one hundred yards distant, with instructions not to fire until they entered the house, or, in case the enemy was outside, to get into the yard with them before firing, and then to rush upon them and go with them into the house. the captain held the remainder of his men mounted, and rode to the brow of the hill in the road by hollingsworth’s gate to wait for the movement of randolph to drive the yankee boys from their quarters, when the cavalry would dash down and capture them.
dawn was just beginning to turn the black of night to the gray of early morn when the movement commenced, and on capt. randolph’s party getting near enough to see, they discovered means’ whole force standing in the yard listening to the report of their scouting party, which had just come in, and though they looked wonderingly at the infantry advance of white’s army, not one of them said a word; but in spite of his orders, 99which could have been executed with perfect safety, randolph ordered his men to fire as soon as they reached the corner of the palings around the yard, which caused the yankees to break and rush into the house in great confusion, having their commander, lieut. slater, badly wounded; and now, instead of following them, as his orders required, randolph retired to virts’ house, just opposite; but the gallant gallaher, with jack dove and a few others, tried to execute the order, and while gallaher, springing into one window, fired his revolver bullets among the demoralized “boys in blue,” the others poured their buckshot in at the other windows.
as soon as the firing commenced white brought his cavalry down the road at a gallop, and halting long enough to fire a round or two at the side windows of the meeting-house, discovered quite a number of means’ men leaping from the windows and making the fastest kind of time across the lots below the house, so calling on his boys to follow the captain made a dash down into town, but only succeeded in capturing two of the fugitives. from here some of the men galloped down to means’ house in the hope of getting that gentleman, but he was by that time “over the hills and far away,” according to his custom when rebel bullets were on the wing.
returning to the meeting-house, in broad daylight, white found his infantry laying close siege 100to it, and standing in the vestibule was the daring webster, who had assumed command of the yankees, and who, seeing white’s mounted men riding up, supposed them to be a reinforcement for himself, and began firing upon randolph’s men at virt’s house, calling, as he did so, for his own men to come out and fight. a few pistol balls near him showed him his mistake, when he deliberately turned on the cavalry and emptied his revolver at them, after which he stepped back into the house and commenced to barricade the doors. white’s whole force now dismounted and opened a brisk fire at the windows, which was returned by webster, cox, and a few others, whom webster succeeded in bringing from under the benches long enough to take a shot; but pretty soon it was discovered that ammunition was running short in white’s ranks, and knowing the impossibility of taking the place by assault now, the captain prepared to withdraw his people, but on reaching the horses of the dismounted men he resolved upon shooting the horses of the yankees, which had been tied in the yard during the fight, and presented to the gaze of the now baffled confederates a prize well worth fighting for, composed as they were of the very best horses of loudoun, a land always noted for fine ones, and equipped in the most superb style of the u. s. a. previous to this, however, an attempt had been made to negotiate a surrender 101by sending mrs. virts, under a truce, to make the proposition, but on her second mission the enemy informed her that if she came again they would shoot her; and now nothing remained but to get away in safety, which could only be done by depriving the yankees of the means of following; and collecting the remaining cartridges a detail was sent to kill the horses; but while this party was getting in position around virts’ house it appears that the enemy were so badly frightened they were trying to force their commander to make terms, and a few shots from ben. conrad and ross douglass at some yankees they saw by a window, precipitated matters and brought webster out with a flag of truce. he demanded the usual terms in such cases, viz: his men to be released on parole, their private property respected, and officers to retain their side arms; which white immediately granted, and the affair was concluded as soon as possible, the victors getting fifty-six horses, saddles and bridles, about one hundred fine revolvers and as many carbines, with a vast quantity of plunder which they were unable to carry off; and paroling twenty-eight prisoners, which, with the two previously captured, made thirty in all.
white lost brook hays, killed, and corporal peter j. kabrich, mortally wounded; both gallant soldiers as ever drew a sabre. a few others were slightly injured. the enemy lost about seven or eight in killed and wounded.
102the scene at the surrender, when means’ men, after being formed in line, laid down their arms, was a curious one. many of them were old friends, and had been schoolboys with some of white’s men; and in one instance, brothers met: one, wm. snoots, being a sergeant in white’s company, and the other, charles, a member of means’ command. rebel and yankee had swallowed up the feeling of brotherhood, or rather, that feeling had intensified the bitterness and hatred with which enemies in the hour of conflict regard each other; and the rebel would have certainly shot his yankee brother, even after the surrender, but for the interference of one of the officers. as soon as possible, after getting everything in movable shape, and arranging for the care of kabrich, who was too badly hurt to be moved, and for the burial of hays, the raiders turned their faces towards the south again, expecting to rejoin gen. jackson that night. at the point where the line of march diverged from the leesburg road, capt. white left lieut. myers in charge of the column, and taking with him a small detail, galloped into leesburg, where he created quite a commotion, causing a few yankee soldiers there to depart in the shortest time imaginable, and making the southern people of that extremely southern town almost wild with joy.
they had been under the galling rule of yankeedom, as administered by such as geary, until 103simple endurance had almost culminated in despair, and the advent of white, so unexpectedly, among them, was hailed as an omen that their day was beginning to dawn; and consequently, in their freshly blooming hope, they petted and lionized to their heart’s content the little band of boys in gray who came to assure them that soon they would be free from the rule of their hated tyrants.
the two parties united about sunset, at aldie, where all partook of an excellent supper at mr. henry ball’s, and where the captain again met his wife, but not for long could he remain in this earthly eden, for while here the rev. john pickett notified the command that he had found a brigade of yankee cavalry at the plains, on the manassas gap rail road, and immediately the overloaded little band prepared for a night march to manassas, making the third night of sleepless travel.
but all kept up, and about 9 o’clock on the morning of the 28th august, capt. white reported to gen. ewell, and when evening came the boys carried their general from the battle-field to the house of mr. buckner, he having been badly wounded in the leg. and it now appeared that what they had considered as irksome duty, that of acting as couriers for gen. ewell and his brigadiers, was to the company the easiest and most pleasant they had ever or would ever perform; 104and they felt bitterly the loss of the best friend, of influence, they had in the army, in the person of gen. ewell. after this the company took but little part in the battle, but lay quietly in the yard around the house where their general was, until the close of the battle, when the country was cleared of the enemy to such an extent that people from the border could get out to the army, and here many young men came and enrolled themselves in white’s company.
citizens, also, who had heard of the capture of means’ horses at waterford, came to look at the stock, and as that command had been mounted on horses taken from the people of loudoun, and capt. white invariably returned their property, it was not long until all the captured horses, so far as white’s men were concerned, were among the things that had been.
pope’s army, too, as an army, was in the same situation, and the quarters for “stonewall jackson and 16,000 prisoners,” which the mighty bummer had ordered to be prepared at washington, were not occupied—for john had to “skedaddle,” and just in his rear “old stonewall” with that identical little party of 16,000 “foot cavalry” pushed bravely on, and with him went white and all his mounted men fit for duty, while myers was sent to loudoun in charge of dismounted men, and such as had broken down horses, for the double purpose of recruiting in both men and horses.
