the battalion remained on the bank of the shenandoah for a day, but seeing no decrease in the flood, impatience got the better of prudence, and the colonel, giving way to the wishes of his men, (which in this case coincided so fully with his own,) marched them to the river, and such as were not afraid to “take water,” swam the horses across, while the others went over in a skiff. when about fifty men had got over, and the shades of an early twilight commenced to gather from the low-hanging clouds, a courier from lieut. moon, of the 6th va. cavalry, who had charge of the pickets in the gap, came down the mountain and informed col. white that the yankees were moving into the gap. the boys hastily dressed, and mounting their horses marched up to see if the report was true, but before going far they met lieut. moon retiring, while behind him came a large force of yankee infantry; and with many a curse on the delay in crossing the river, the detachment turned back and passed up between mountain and river to the shepherd’s mill road, which brought them out at the trap. the next day they learned that meade’s army was in loudoun, following the track of burnside, and 208as nearly all the men who had been scattered through the county, at their homes, returned to the command, the colonel retired to ashby’s gap, where he resolved to make a fight, if anything like his number advanced upon him.
on sunday morning, july 19th, the long lines of the yankee army were seen marching along to southward, and when the sun was an hour high, a few cavalry scouts rode up towards the mountain position where white and his men were standing, but showed no disposition either to be captured themselves or to attempt to drive the rebels from the gap. after waiting and watching a long while for such an advance as they had made at snicker’s gap, the colonel ordered capt. myers to “send some men down there to stir up those fellows,” and a party of half a dozen was instructed to ride down and drive away the pickets below paris. this party went down, and making a dash drove the picket out of sight over the hill, but in an instant was seen coming back at full speed, while along the hills, a blue line of infantry, deployed as skirmishers, sprang up as if by magic and advanced at a quick march towards the gap, and in the pike beyond, at least a brigade was seen marching in the same direction.
capt. m. now turned to the colonel, and asked if he would “have those fellows stirred up any more?” to which he replied that he “thought that would do just now,” and sending captains 209grubb and myers to the village to check the advance, he prepared to leave the last corner-stone of loudoun. when the men with grubb and myers reached their position at paris, they dismounted, and as the federal advance on the turnpike, which was a party of cavalry, came up, they commenced a fire which drove them back; one man, harper, of co. a, bringing down the yankee major in command, and his horse, at one discharge of buckshot from his musket. the battalion now took the mountain road to manassa gap, and on reaching that place saw and captured a signal corps, which was operating on the side of the mountain, near linden.
the yankees marched through towards front royal, but were met and driven back by a. p. hill’s people.
col. white now crossed the river again, to wait until the remainder of his battalion could come up, but gave permission to captains myers and grubb to take a party of their men on foot and make a scout along the mountains to capture wagons, if possible.
with eighteen men, they went down among the enemy’s camps near piedmont, at dark, but found nothing but infantry, and the next day went to ashby’s gap, where they discovered a heavy force holding that position, which forced them to cross the river at berry’s ferry, and passing down to shepherd’s mill they again went 210over, climbing the blue ridge near snicker’s gap, only to find that pass strongly guarded by both infantry and cavalry, while all the wagons passed along with the army, keeping entirely clear of the mountain, it being pretty evident that gen. meade had learned a valuable lesson from the mistakes of burnside the year before.
everything was now at a stand-still, and thus they remained for several days, when the colonel came over with the battalion, and moving down into the lower country begun to trouble the enemy’s scouting parties, and succeeded in capturing a number of horses and prisoners. on the morning of august 7th, he went to woodgrove, where he learned that a regiment of michigan cavalry had come out from harper’s ferry to hillsborough, and moving cautiously to the latter place, found that they had passed on towards waterford.
the colonel had about one hundred and twenty men with him and determined to attack them, so passing down the road he halted at a favorable position near mr. vandevanter’s, and made his arrangements for an ambuscade, thinking the enemy would return to harper’s ferry in the evening, but in this he was mistaken, for after waiting some time, he learned, about sundown, that they were preparing to encamp at waterford for the night. he now moved his command into the woods on catocton creek, near mr. j. e. walker’s, and waited until about 9 o’clock, when, 211leaving their horses, he marched his people over toward the camp, as he had discovered it, on a high hill south of the town.
he instructed his men to march quietly up to the enemy’s position without firing, and when he gave the signal, to rush upon them and secure as many horses and prisoners as possible; and to prevent mistakes in the confusion of the attack gave as challenge and reply the words “bob” and “joe.”
on getting into the field, the men found a great number of haycocks, which caused them to become somewhat scattered in their march, and as the colonel advanced in front, holding his pistol ready to fire, he accidentally fell over one of the cocks, in which his pistol was discharged.
this caused a panic, and while some of the men, imagining that they were beset by the enemy, commenced to retreat, the others looked upon it as the signal for attack and rushed forward firing their pistols, although nearly two hundred yards from the enemy. the flying ones were speedily rallied and brought back, but the yankees were all mounted and ready to retreat, which they did with all haste, after firing one volley at the confederates, killing a very gallant young soldier of co. c,—john c. grubb.
three or four of the enemy fell, and a few horses were captured, but the most of them made their escape. a part of the command, under captain 212grubb, were standing in the road when two or three pickets, who had been stationed on the hamilton road, alarmed at the firing, came up, and were halted with a demand for a surrender. some of grubb’s men drew up their pistols to fire upon them, but the captain prevented it, saying, "don’t shoot them, they will surrender," when one of the yankees discharged his carbine almost in captain grubb’s face, and at the same time exclaimed, “i surrender,” and the whole party gave themselves up as prisoners.
capt. grubb fell, mortally wounded, and with mournful hearts his men carried him back to his father’s house near hillsborough, where he died in about two hours, and the battalion met with a loss that was well nigh irreparable, for he was one of the best, if not the very best officer in it. he had been in the service from the commencement of the war, first as a member of capt. n. r. heaton’s company, (a,) 8th regiment va. volunteers, and the gallant heaton bears willing testimony to the noble daring of r. b. grubb, while under his command, at the bloody battles of manassas and ball’s bluff, while gen. eppa hunton pronounces him one of the best men he ever had in that regiment of heroes, whose name is crowned with the glory that beams brightly upon the fame of virginia, won in a hundred battles. in the spring of 1862, “dick” grubb was discharged from the infantry service, and going to the valley, 213attached himself to the 7th va. cavalry, where he distinguished himself as a scout for colonel (afterwards major-general) wm. e. jones.
in the fall of that year, he obtained permission to raise a company for white’s battalion, in which he was entirely successful, as has been shown.
after this affair at waterford, which had been fruitful only in disaster to his battalion, colonel white established a camp on the blue ridge near mr. howell’s, where he remained for several days, during which time the business of the command was, to some extent, brought into shape, as it was highly necessary to do, for it had begun to suffer for want of proper attention.
the old company of capt. grubb was now officered by capt. dowdell and lieut. sam. grubb, who were promoted, and by lieut. t. w. white who was elected second lieutenant.
marcellus french had been made captain of co. f, with charles james as his first lieutenant, and everything put in order, as far as possible, to make the battalion efficient.
one morning, about the middle of august, triplett, of co. f, reported to the colonel that a regiment of yankee cavalry, encamped on the rappahannock, near orleans, in fauquier county, was in the habit of sending a party every day, about 3 o’clock, to barbour’s cross roads, on a scout; and the colonel at once resolved to attempt their capture. so starting with about one hundred 214men he reached, just before midnight, an admirable place of concealment in the thick pines near the cross roads, where the command halted to wait until the scouting party came along the next day. the time passed wearily enough in that hot, piney encampment, but every man knew that an absolute certainty of success depended on their lying hid until the enemy came.
lieut. chiswell, with seventeen men of co. b, was stationed in the thick bushes close along the road, with instructions to fire when the yankees came opposite them, and a picket was placed on the orleans road half a mile below, to watch for the enemy, and now nothing remained but to wait for the game.
about 3 o’clock, the picket came quietly in and reported above one hundred approaching, when all the men got up from their lounging among the broom sedge and mounted their horses, and notice being sent to lieut. chiswell, everything was, as the man-o’-wars-man would say, “cleared for action.” after waiting anxiously, with ears strained to catch the sound, for about ten minutes, the carbines of chiswell’s men rung out, and with a shout, away dashed the mounted men to charge. on emerging from the pines into the road, the yankees were seen in the field on the opposite side, in great confusion from the unexpected volley they had received, but as soon as they saw the battalion they dashed off towards a 215gap in the fence, to gain the road again; but now one of those unaccountable things, which so often occur without any reason at all, and just at the moment when their influence is most damaging, happened; and as col. white, adjt. watts, and capt. myers, who were a little distance in front of the command, galloped up towards the gap to cut off the enemy’s escape, and thinking they were followed by the men, the major, who was exactly at the head of the column, wheeled it down the road, leaving these three officers to meet the sixty yankees alone.
in a few minutes the colonel and capt. m. were dismounted, both of their horses being shot at the same moment, and the adjutant was among the blue-jackets without any assistance at all, but pretty soon lieut. conrad managed to turn company a back, and with part of company b, under lieut. crown, who had not been in the column when major f. started it away from the yankees, dashed in and made the scene look something like a fight, for the yankees were resolute fellows from the 6th ohio cavalry, and in spite of their surprise, fought bravely.
conrad, with a few men, followed a part of them nearly to their camp, and on their return met another portion, who had made a circuit towards the cross roads at the first fire, and were now going full tilt towards camp with crown and his boys right behind them.
216conrad and the few men with him were encumbered with prisoners and horses, but attempted to halt the yankees, and fired into them as they came, but they only called to the confederates to “clear the road,” and passed on with their sabres flashing so dangerously that their foes gave them room.
the whole force now returned to the cross roads, having taken about twenty-five prisoners and thirty horses, besides killing and wounding about ten of the enemy, with no loss to themselves except the two horses before spoken of.
strange as it may appear only one man was killed by the fire of chiswell’s men, although they had a rest and the distance was scarcely twelve yards, but that one man had seven bullets through him.
that was the usual result of ambuscades, for under the most favorable circumstances they seldom did much damage; and it would appear, (so miraculous did the escapes from them seem,) that providence guarded in a special manner the unsuspecting party who became entangled in the murderous snare of a hidden enemy, no matter how cunningly devised the plan might be; and it must be confessed that such a mode of fighting is a poor school in which to learn lessons of chivalry and honor, the old adage that “all is fair in war,” to the contrary notwithstanding.
after barbour’s cross roads, there were many 217attempts to strike the enemy’s scouting parties, but they always came in such force it was impossible to do anything with the slightest show for success, and the colonel turned his attention to the camps of the foe in fairfax and maryland.
about the last of august, he learned that a force, entitled "scott’s 900," was stationed at edwards’ ferry, and crossing the river some distance above the ferry about midnight, with one hundred and fifty men, the colonel hid his force along the bank to wait until the patrol which passed up and down the tow-path of the canal, every half hour, should go down, and at the same time he placed two men near the tow-path, with instructions to notice closely the patrol, and if they appeared hurried or excited, to stop them, for that would be evidence enough that they had learned something of his presence on the maryland side, and they must not be permitted to reach the camp, but if they came along quietly, as usual, to let them pass, for they evidently would know nothing of his movement; but it so happened that old “uncle” charley butler was along, and moreover that he was about half drunk, and when the patrol of two men came riding very leisurely along, “uncle charley” sprang up and caught the bridle of the leading yankee, who raised his gun to fire on butler, and to save him the other boys had to shoot the yankee, and of course the firing alarmed the camp.
218col. white now urged his people across the canal as rapidly as possible, and coming up in rear of the camp, (which he knew to be fortified in front,) halted long enough to form his line and ordered a charge, in which they received a volley from the enemy that badly wounded one man, and several slightly; and on reaching the camp found that it had a regular fortification all around it, but the men spurred their horses on, leaping the ditch and riding recklessly over the breastworks. most of the enemy, thanks to butler’s drunken blunder at the canal, had escaped, and the daring and desperate assault only resulted in the capture of about a dozen, but their whole camp equipage fell into the hands of white’s people.
the wounded man, robert w. jones, a splendid soldier of company a, was so badly hurt that it was impossible to move him, and he was left at the house of a citizen near by where he was kindly treated, even by the yankees; and up to this time, (1870,) although more than seven weary years have passed, he is still unable to walk, the bullet having lodged near the spine.
this, and the affair at barbour’s cross roads, was acknowledged by gen. lee, in the following letter to gen. stuart:
219
“head-quarters, army n. v.,
“sept. 9th, 1863.}
“major-gen. j. e. b. stuart,
“commanding cavalry:
“general—your letter, enclosing reports of lieut.-colonel e. v. white, of the operations of his battalion at poole’s farm, on august 27th, and his previous attack on kilpatrick’s cavalry, have been received, and forwarded to the department as an evidence of the great boldness and skill of that officer.
“the activity and energy of his command, and the gallantry of his officers and men, especially in the attack on poole’s farm, reflect great credit upon the service. i hope his operations will always be attended with the same success.
“i am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
“r. e. lee, general.”
soon after this, an order was received through general lee, from the secretary of war, and the execution of which has caused great blame to be attached to col. white, by those citizens of loudoun county, who, denying the ground-work upon which the federal constitution was built, claimed that the rights of the states were not merely delegated but irrevocably transferred to the general government, the testimony of common justice, common sense, and of the fathers and framers of the constitution to the contrary notwithstanding, held their allegiance to the northern government; and while the praise or blame of traitors to their state, in matters connected with the war, is of small importance, yet to show that the colonel was blameless in this case, i make the explanation.
220two citizens of loudoun, who, among many others, had, at the tinkling of the “little bell,” been dragged to a federal prison, and although no crimes were charged against them, were held in durance on the ground that they refused to take an oath of allegiance to the united states, a government to whom they owed none, and which was incapable of protecting them in it if they did. these were henry ball and campbell belt, and their friends, after appealing time and again to the united states authorities for their release, without success, and the health of both being so delicate as to excite grave fears that confinement would speedily end in death, sought by retaliation to effect their discharge from prison, and procured of the secretary of war an order for the arrest and confinement of william williams and asa m. bond—two prominent union citizens—until messrs. ball and belt should be released, and simply for the reason that col. white was in a situation to execute the order it was sent to him; but owing to the inefficiency of the men detailed to make the arrest, mr. bond escaped, and they substituted r. i. hollingsworth in his stead, who, with mr. williams, was sent to richmond, and now their friends used their influence with the united states authorities, which soon brought about the release of both parties.
about the middle of september, the colonel was informed by one of his scouts that there 221would be several carloads of horses sent down on the baltimore and ohio rail road on the 16th, concluded to attempt their capture, and having decided to take only company b with him, sent lieut. crown, with his people, on the night of the 14th, to a point on the catocton mountain near mr. gray’s, above leesburg, with instructions to remain there until he (the colonel) should have examined the fords and fixed upon a place to cross the potomac, and as there is some difference of opinion as to who was to blame for the disaster that followed, i deem it proper to give all the particulars, and let the reader settle the point.
no one was admitted by the colonel into the secret, but lieut. crown, and as the colonel was about to leave the battalion in charge of major ferneyhough, he sent for capt. myers, and telling him that cole’s battalion and means’ men were in waterford, gave him permission to go, if, he so desired, and try to capture their pickets.
lieut. crown says, that col. white promised to send a force to attack the party at waterford before he would consent to take his company into the mountain as white desired him, and that col. white informed him he had given such orders, before he left the camp; but he certainly did not order capt. myers to make an attack, or tell him that anything depended on its being made, and he merely told him he could go down and capture their pickets if he desired.
222crown took his company to the appointed place, and myers, with his people, went down near waterford, but learning that the pickets were drawn in after dark to the town, and that the force there was composed of cole’s battalion, a regiment of connecticut cavalry, and means’ company, all commanded by col. cole, he retired without making any attack, his orders being entirely discretionary.
the next morning cole’s command left waterford and marched straight to the camp of co. b, a spy having reported their position, and whether lieut. crown is blameless entirely, and all the fault lies with col. white and capt. myers, or not, it does appear that co. b. was surprised in the fullest sense of the word, for the first intimation they had of cole’s approach was the firing of his advance guard among them, and both lieuts. crown and dorsey were at the house of mr. gray, waiting for breakfast and listening to the piano.
both officers were captured before they could reach the company, and nine of their men were made prisoners at the same time, but the others, with great difficulty, made their escape. there is no doubt that if lieut. crown had had a picket out, and had notice of the enemy’s approach, he would have whipped them, for he had about fifty of the best fighting men in the army, and crown and dorsey never counted odds in any kind of a fight. so it is self-evident that situated as they 223were there, they would have whipped cole’s four hundred easily, for the latter had not the best troops in the world, in fact they were morally opposed to the usual dangers of the battle-field.
col. cole treated lieut. crown just as cowards always do those in their power, and even went so far as to threaten him with hanging for being a confederate soldier so unfortunate as to be a prisoner to cole.
of course this disaster wound up the projected horse capture in maryland, and col. white returned to camp with his spirits considerably below zero, but he was never heard to charge the damage to the misconduct of any one, and only seemed to look upon it as one of the natural misfortunes of war.
note.—since writing the above, a letter from lieut. chiswell has been received, which makes some correction necessary.
lieut. c. says, that at the time of the attack, himself and lieut. dorsey, with several of their men, were in leesburg, and as soon as they heard of it, lieut. dorsey, with one man, (a member of the 8th va. infantry,) started to the scene of action at gray’s, but at a turn in the road they came suddenly upon the enemy’s column and were captured, the man with dorsey having his thigh broken, and the lieutenant himself being severely handled in the conflict.
lieut. chiswell and his party were hard pressed, and with the greatest difficulty effected their escape.
at one time chiswell’s horse fell with him, and rolling over lay prone upon his leg, but he managed to withdraw it, leaving his boot in the stirrup, and having gotten his horse up, the lieutenant took the boot in his hand, and though the yankees were close upon him, he got clear. he says, “boots were boots” in those days, and he couldn’t think of losing his.
224col. white had frequently been called upon by general lee to destroy the rail road bridges in rear of meade’s army, in order that their supplies might, to some extent, be cut off; but such enterprises were very difficult and hazardous, more especially as he had no men who knew the country well enough to pilot him at night to the scene of operations. on several occasions he attempted to accomplish something in this way, but to no purpose; however, having learned something of the bridge over pope’s head creek, on the o. and a. rail road, he resolved to attempt its destruction, and with nineteen men of companies a and c, he started in the evening from his camp in upper loudoun, with john davis of fairfax, for his guide, and marching all night, camped about daylight on the hatmark creek, below fairfax c. h., where the company remained all day with nothing to eat but fox grapes; the enemy being so thick around that part of the country that the men would have been discovered if they had ventured out of the friendly shade of the pine woods.
when night came, the little party moved out, and passing barnes’ mill on the accotink, arrested the miller and carried him along with them.
on arriving within half a mile of the bridge, the colonel, accompanied by jack dove, rode out to reconnoitre, finding a guard of four or five men on the bridge and a reserve of some twenty or more lying around a fire about a hundred yards 225from it. returning to the command, the colonel moved it forward, intending to charge and drive off the guards, but on reaching the bridge found they had already retired, but whether they had become alarmed at something they had heard, or, as a patrol, had passed during the time he was gone for his people, the colonel could not determine, nor did he waste much time in speculations on the subject, but setting his men to work splitting and piling up rails on each end and in the middle of the bridge, they soon had a good lot of kindling ready to fire up, and after emptying a few canteens of coal oil on it, the fire was applied, and the boys withdrew a short distance and watched until the whole frame of the bridge was burning well, when they started on their return. it was long past midnight when they left the bridge, and consequently could not go far before daylight compelled them again to hide themselves, and here another day was spent with nothing but grapes to eat. some wagon trains, from fairfax c. h., passed them, and could have been easily captured, but this would have almost insured the capture of the whole party, and consequently they were permitted to drive on.
when dark came the third night, the now half-famished band started again, this time for the nearest point where rations could be obtained, and very soon they were being well fed by the good people of upper fairfax, who, no matter how hard 226pressed they were themselves, always had something to divide with the dixie boys, and no people in the whole confederacy would more gladly share their last morsel with the southern soldier, than these very ones whose homes were constantly overrun by the blue-coated gentry who looked upon all they had as lawful spoil for uncle sam, and treated all of them as if they were rebels only wanting arms and an opportunity to show their hand.
when the colonel started on this expedition, he had left major ferneyhough in command of all the battalion except capt. myers and his company, and had instructed the latter to scout around the river country, mainly for the purpose of collecting a supply of long range guns, in which his command was always very deficient, and for which he had special use in a contemplated attack on cole’s battalion. the major moved the rest of the command to the old camp at the trap, and here major cole paid him a visit, causing the whole thing to move at a quick march into the mountain, while cole encamped for the night at bellfield, and strange to say he only lost one or two pickets by the operation, whom “moll” green, of co. b, accidentally came in contact with. as cole was returning the next day he came near breaking up the blacksmith department, by capturing jo. conner and wm. horseman, who were at work shoeing horses at the woodgrove shop. several other 227soldiers were at the shop, but they made their escape.
myers in the meantime had been scouting around in the neighborhoods of hillsborough and lovettsville, and the night cole was at bellfields, his party lay near waterford, listening to the music of a party of infantry left at that place as a reserve for cole in case he should need it.
what had been considered an impossibility the year before was now demonstrated to be perfectly feasible, and to the great discomfort of the border land both uniforms were daily seen by the citizens, and very frequently followed each other so rapidly that when not in actual chase, one party would scarcely be out of sight before the other would be demanding rations and horse-feed, and making awful threats against rebels or yankees as the case might be.
not long after the bridge burning expedition the colonel sent capt. dowdell with his company and a part of co. a, under lieut. conrad, to look after yankee scouting parties “between the hills,” as the country lying between the blue ridge and short hill from hillsborough to the potomac is called, while with seventeen of co. a he started himself to arrest a notorious yankee spy and guide, in fairfax county, named amey.
capt. dowdell, with fifty-five men, marched to st. paul’s church below neersville, at night, and waited quietly in the woods for his game, but no 228blue-jackets put in an appearance until about noon the next day, when dowdell’s scout, who was none other than the famous john mobberly, reported about one hundred yankees coming from harper’s ferry. soon after this, the pickets on the short hill side came in at a gallop, saying the enemy was in their rear, which caused the captain to wheel about and march his command in that direction, and he soon came upon an interesting little fight between lieuts. sam. grubb and ben. conrad, who, while reconnoitering, had run upon two of the enemy’s scouts engaged in the same business, and had attempted their capture. after this was over they started back to the grade, but the yankees there had heard the firing and were retreating towards the ferry, and owing to difficulties presented by the rough and broken country, considerable time was lost by capt. d.’s command in reaching the road, but those of the men who were best mounted soon came up in the enemy’s rear, and chased them under cover of the batteries on maryland heights, wounding two and capturing five, together with eight horses of the enemy, who proved to be a scouting party of means’ command, numbering about seventy-five men, with three days’ rations, on an intended scout, but owing to capt. dowdell’s interference with their plans, they did not get more than two miles from their headquarters.
on their arrival at harper’s ferry, a brigade 229of cavalry was sent out, which followed the confederates to hillsborough, but travelled too slow to overtake them.
col. white with his party had, in the meantime, passed through fairfax, by hunter’s mill, lewensville and vienna, to green’s store, where he succeeded in taking amey; and on his return was told by “jack” dove, who got his information from albert gunnell, that a strong force of the enemy had passed up after col. mosby, who had been troubling them, as was the custom of that gallant and enterprising officer; and col. white turned out by thornton’s mill, but just before reaching that place, about midnight, the prisoner, who was riding behind one of the men, leaped from the horse and escaped into the woods.
several shots were fired at him, but with what effect no one could tell, and the party moved forward again, and just before reaching the mill were fired upon by a party hid behind a fence. the colonel, supposing them to be citizens, wheeled about and rode up to the fence, but some of his men told him they were wounded, and the firing being kept up, he turned to his guide saying, “they shoot too well for citizens; show us the way out of here.” they now passed a barn, from behind which a party of about one hundred opened another fire upon them, at very short range, and col. white ordered his men to cross the rail road, but in attempting it were met and 230fired upon by a third party of yankees, when they turned to go up the rail road and in a few yards were again exposed to a galling fire from a fourth party. it now seemed that escape was impossible, but the colonel determined to make one more attempt, and his men following, he rode over the rail road bank and got clear of the trap into which they had so unwittingly wandered.
they lost two or three horses killed, but managed to get all the wounded men out, and making the best time possible, were five miles from thornton’s when daylight came.
it was afterwards ascertained that the force of yankees engaged in this affair was over four hundred, and that the captured spy and guide knew of the ambuscade, which induced him to risk so much in his escape.
the next affair of importance was the raid to lewensville, which occurred about the 10th of october. one of his scouts had reported to the colonel that a cavalry camp of about two hundred men and horses was located near that place, and taking with him about sixty of companies a and b, he secured the services of george tramell as pilot, and started on the hazardous expedition.
on arriving within five miles of the camp, about noon, the colonel halted his command to wait for night, and on cross-examining his scout, elicited the fact that he had never seen the camp and 231knew nothing except what citizens had told him, and not having anything at all reliable from this source, upon which to base a plan of attack, the colonel resolved to find out for himself the enemy’s situation, and putting on a yankee uniform, he, with his guide, started about sunset for the camp, leaving orders for the command to meet him about 9 o’clock, at a designated point near the camp.
he reached the place at dark, and walked around it, finding where the pickets were stationed, and the best way to get in, so that by the time the men came to him he had his plan all arranged. promptly at the hour his people came, and dismounting about half of them he placed them under command of “jack” dove, co. a, and william shehan, co. b, (than whom braver men never breathed,) with instructions to march directly upon the camp, while, with the mounted men he made a circuit and came in the enemy’s rear.
while the vedettes were halting the colonel’s party, the dismounted men had gone, unnoticed, into the camp and made their presence known by firing a volley among the tents, which caused a general stampede among all the yankees who were able to run, and now white’s command coming in, the camp was captured with about thirty prisoners and sixty-three horses. the enemy lost about fifteen killed and wounded, but none of the 232confederates were injured, and with horses, prisoners and plunder, the raiders retired to their camp at the trap.
a few days after this, news was received that gen. lee’s army was advancing towards washington, and col. white, with a few men, started on a scout towards manassas, leaving capt. myers in charge of the battalion, who, as soon as he heard that the colonel had reached his scouting ground, marched the command over to join him, and on approaching thoroughfare gap, discovered a party of infantry, who seemed disposed to hold the gap, but a dashing charge resulted in their capture, and they were found to be about twenty-five men and a lieutenant from a vermont regiment, who had been left on picket when their regiment retired.
passing through the gap the battalion met col. white at mt. zion church, and made several attempt to get among gen. meade’s wagons, but he took quite as good care of them in his retreat as he had done on his advance three months before, and the scouting only resulted in the gathering in of a few straggling troopers who wandered too far away from their main army.
the colonel soon branched off again with his little squad, and during his absence gen. stuart sent for capt. myers and ordered him to get all the men together and report for duty to general rosser, who was now commanding the ashby brigade, 233and shortly afterwards gen. lee’s army retired to their old lines on the rappahannock.
the colonel returned and went to work gathering up his men preparatory to going into the regular service again, and with heavy hearts the battalion bade farewell to the fondly-loved border land, about the 25th october, and marched to the camp of the brigade, then near flint hill, in rappahannock county.