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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012

http://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofmiOOfone

A BRIEF HISTORY

OF THE

MILITARY CAREER

OF

CARPENTER'S BATTERY

FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A RIFLE COMPANY

UNDER THE NAME OF THE ALLEGHANY

ROUGHS TO THE ENDING OF THE

WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

By

C. A. FONERDEN

NEW MARKET. VA.:
HENKEL Or COMPANY. PRINTERS

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Fonerden, Clarence A.

A brief history of il\e military career of Carpenter's
battery, froih its organization as a rifle company under
the name of the Alleghany Roughs to the ending of the
war between the states, by C. A. Fonerden. New Market,
Va., Henkel & company, printers, 1911.

78 p. 3 pi. 20}crn.

C'ritLf C/RO

> 1. Virginia artillery. Carpenter's battery, 1861-1865. 2. U. S.— Hist.—
Civil war — Regimental histories — Va. art. — Carpenter's battery.

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WRITTEN FIFTY YEARS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR
BETWEEN THE STATES. IS RESPECTFULLY

Briiifairii tn its l&unrimng fBrmbrrs,

AND TO ALL RELATIVES AND FRIENDS OF THE BRAVE AND
TRUE MEN. OF BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. WHO
WERE MEMBERS OF THIS ORGANIZATION, WHICH
• MAINTAINED ITS REPUTATION AS A FIGHTING
BATTERY IN THE OLD STONEWALL BRIGADE
IN THE GREAT ARMY OF LEE AND JACK-
SON OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA FROM
MANASSAS OF 1861 TO APPOMAT-
TOX OF 1865. BY ITS AUTHOR

C. A. FONERDEN.

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--

WAR IS HELL!

By C. A. FONERDEN.

When Stonewall Jackson charged the lines

In battle's red array,
The streaming blood, like mingling wines,

Would flow upon that day:
And when his bristling bayonets' thrust

Was rushed against the foe,
Unto that bloody day needs must

Come havoc, deatia, and woe !

We've seen liis blazing muskets pour

Their shrieking missiles forth ;
We've heard his thundering cannons' roar

In battles South and North ;
We've been along the seething front,

Where death and hell were wrought
In helping there to bear the brunt,

Where Stonewall Jackson fought.

We've heard the bones of comrades crash ;

We've seen their flesh and blood
Bestrew the ground when came the clash

Of some death-dealing thud ;
We've heard the piteous prayers and groans

Of torn and mangled men.
Whose agonizing, dying moans

Made Hell within us then !

On that red day when first led he

Our old Stonewall Brigade
Through proud Manassas' victory

What deathless fame was made :
Fame that shall hold its lustre bright

In deeds so glory fraught.
Which crowned with victory every fight

That Stonewall Jackson fought.

But, "War is Hell," as Sherman said,

Which Stonewall Jackson knew,
Whose fierce guns painted it more red

While he was passing through.
Angels of Peace, what sights ye saw,

What havoc was there wrought
In that incessant Hell of war,

Where Stonewall Jackson fought !

r~

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY.

CHAPTER I.

NAME, NUMBERS, AND FIRST SERVICE.

A company composed heterogeneously of civil
engineers, railroad contractors, construction em-
ployees, mountaineers, farmers and country school
boys was organized in Covington, Virginia, on the
20th day of April, 1861, voting itself the name of,
and being thereafter until after the first battle of
Manassas, known as "The Alleghany Roughs,"
numbering at date of organization 82 or 83 mem-
bers, rank and file ; but the entire enrollment of
which during the war, from volunteer recruits,
conscriptions, and assignments, would make a grand
total of a probable membership of 150.

Could an accurately detailed account of this
company be written it would prove it to have been
from beginning to end with few equals and no su-
periors for valorous, arduous, and continuous serv-
ice, from the glory-emblazoned first battle of Ma-
nassas, in which it bore so conspicuous a part, to
the sorrowful culmination at Appomattox, where
its existence so bravely ended.

Its services were tendered to Governor Letcher,
of Virginia, on April 21, 1861, and it was enrolled
in the service of the State that day as an infantry or
rifle company, its officers then being Thompson
McAllister, Captain ; Joseph Carpenter, 1st Lieu-
tenant ; George McKendree, 2d Lieutenant ; and
H. H. Dunot, 2d Lieutenant, Jr.

A few days later it was conveyed to Staunton,
Virginia, by wagon train as far as Jackson River,
and from there on by railroad — the Virginia Cen-
tral of that day. Remaining in Staunton two or

r

6 A BRIEF HISTORY

three days, awaiting orders, these came from Gov-
ernor Letcher, duly, for us to return to Covington
to be uniformed and drilled preparatory for being
regularly mustered into service a week or two later
at Harper's Ferry. At the latter rendezvous it was
made Company A of the 27th Regiment of the
1 st Virginia Brigade of Infantry, which won by its
courage and prowess of invincible qualities on the
first "Manassas battle field the proud and imperish-
able name of the "Stonewall Brigade."

It will be seen from the date of the organization
of this rifle company of Alleghany Roughs, and
from its having so early entered into active service
of the State, at Harper's Ferry, that its claim for
recognition among the very first volunteer troops
of the Confederate Army is indisputable.

Upon the assembling of a few thousand half
armed, and less uniformed, boy soldiers at Harper's
Ferry, the 1st Virginia Brigade was formed, con-
sisting of the 2d, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33d Virginia
Regiments, having for its first commander Colonel
Thomas J. Jackson, subsequently the renowned
"Stonewall Jackson."

After the destruction of the United States arsenal
there, and the burning of the great bridge then
spanning the Potomac River at that point, by our
troops, this 1st Virginia Brigade was maneuvered
about, above and below Martinsburg until it came
to its little initial fight at Falling Waters, in which
gallant little action those few of the Brigade actu-
ally engaged, sustaining no loss themselves, except
the slight wounding of one or two, nevertheless in-
flicted considerable loss on the enemy, in this be-
ginning of what may be called its fighting career.

OF CARPENTERS BATTERY. 7

CHAPTER II.

FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS.

Soon after that baptismal escapade, and after con-
fronting Pattison's greatly superior numbers for a
necessary period of maneuvering before that redoubt-
able general's attempted or threatened advance upon
us. General Johnston's little army, including our old
brigade, was double-quicked, for the greater part
of the entire distance, from the Valley of Virginia
over to Manassas Junction, where General Beaure-
gard was closely confronting, in line of battle, the
superbly equipped and largely outnumbering army
of the Federals, under the chief command and lead-
ership of the over-confident General Winfield Scott.

On Sunday morning, July 21, 1861, our brigade
was ordered to double-quick for about five miles to
the extreme left, as it then was, of our line of bat-
tle, running that distance like panting dogs with
flopping tongues, with our mouths and throats full
of the impalpable red dust of that red clay country,
thirsting for water almost unto death, and worn
and weary indescribably, we were there halted to
prepare for action, being made to lie down flat upon
our faces in an old field fronting a body of pine
woods, in which nerve-racking position we endured
a deadly shelling and bombardment from both ar-
tillery and infantry for two and a half blood-curd-
ling and agonizing hours, amid the groaning and
moaning of our wounded and dying, which attested
at every volley of the muskets and booming of the
artillery that deadly execution was being done. In
further attestation that havoc was being then played
upon us, I will relate my witnessing that the two
companions on my immediate right were wounded

8 A BRIEF HISTORY

while the three immediately on my left were also
badly wounded, the vagaries of battle leaving me
in their midst, a little later to arise, unharmed and
untouched by bullet or shell, or the fragments of
an exploded caisson, which had done unusual
wounding and killing in our company.

At the end of that fierce two and a half hours of
lingering upon our faces, and awaiting the assault
being prepared for us, while the death dealing ar-
tillery was advancing closer and closer and the
slaughtering infantry was just ready to pounce
upon us, that most opportune and eagerly desired
command rang out, "Make ready, fire, and charge
bayonets," from Gen. Jackson whose whole brigade
until that moment had been moored to its prone
position immovable and imperturbable like a stone-
wall in very reality. Instantly we sprang bolt up-
right upon our feet, right into their startled and
surprised faces, and such a dare-devil countercharge
of ghosts in gray, as we must have appeared to
those charging and unsuspecting hosts in blue was
too audacious and too unearthly to be withstood.
So back, pell-mell over their heaps of dead and
dying, they were hurled and scattered, dismayed
and routed beyond any hope of rallying. On and
on precipitately and uncontrollably they fled utterly
vanquished, while all that dreadful field of blood,
with its countless dead and dying men, and groan-
ing horses, its abandoned artillery and small arms,
of guns and sabres and other equipment of war was
ours by right of conquest and possession ; the full
fruitage of a dearly bought victory, but all the
more glorious for its incalculable cost of blood and
life to the rag-tag volunteers of our first Confeder-
ate army.

Every Confederate soldier who fought upon that

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OF CARPENTERS BATTERY. 9

field 011 that blood-red Sunday, and witnessed there-
from the tumultuous and thunderous charge of the
Stonewall Brigade at that supreme moment of the
wavering of the extreme left wing of our army,
and saw the consternation it produced in the ene-
my's lines must either willingly, cheerfully, and
gratefully, or grudgingly and reluctantly concede
the victory of that great first battle of Manassas,
beyond the least shadow of doubt, to the timely
and glorious work of the Stonewall Brigade. It
must also be said that without doubt the entire left
wing of our army contributed its full share of valor
and decisive work. Indeed, without its timely and
heroic aid we could not have had our extraordinary
opportunity, and there is glory enough in that won-
derful and crowning victory for us all to have a
large share to be proud of, and pardonably so.
Nevertheless, it is an incontrovertible fact that the
supreme sledge-hammer blows of the Stonewall
Brigade, at the decisive moment they were given,
and the manner of their giving, won for the Con-
federate cause that day that magnificent victory.

But we are to particularize more as to the action
of the Alleghany Roughs, or Company A of the
27th Virginia Regiment of the Stonewall Brigade,
in that, its first battle. Before the final charge
was made by this brigade its position was about
as follows : the 33d Regiment was on our left,
and also the 2d Regiment ; the 4th and 27th were
in the center, and just to the left of the battle-
famed Henry House, while the 5th was to the
right. Before the other regiments had received
or heard the command to charge, the 33d had made
a separate forward movement, through the need of
its independent help to other troops then engaged
on the extreme left, and had done a deadly work

IO A BRIEF HISTORY

among the cannoneers and horses of the two bat-
teries in our immediate front, but sustaining at that
point itself a very heavy loss, and being hotly pressed
by reinforcements of the enemy's iufantry it was com-
pelled to retreat, along with the other regiments on
that extreme left. Then it was that the 4th and
the 27th were ordered to charge, the 4th at that
alignment was immediately in front of the 27th.
But when the charge bayonets command was given,
and after starting to the front, under some unac-
countable misapprehension of orders the 4th regi-
ment halted and again laid down. Thereupon,
Captain Thompson McAllister of Co. A, 27th Reg-
iment, seeing the confusion, learning the cause,
and believing that no such order to halt and lie
down had been given, took upon himself to shout
out vehemently that General Jackson's order was to
charge bayonets, saying which and flourishing his
sword, he commanded his own company to forward,
fire, and charge bayonets. His order beiug obeyed
with alacrity, and our moving at once, the other
companies of the 27th also catching its meaning
and themselves pushing to the front before the 4th
could correct its mistake, placed Company A and
the entire 27th Regiment in front of the 4th, and
in very short order among the guns of Ricketts'
Battery. This in connection with the general
charge of our rallied troops on the left, including
the 33d and 2d Regiments of our brigade, put out
of service the guns before us, some of which Com-
pany A of the 27th Regiment captured and passed
on to the front in hot pursuit of the fleeing enemy.
In substantiation of this claim, that the Alleghany
Roughs, or Company A of the 27th Virginia Regi-
ment, captured some of the guns of that renowned
Ricketts' Battery, I will relate a personal incident.

OF CARPENTER S BATTERY.

I I

Wheti our company, or some of it, including myself
rushed in amongst the then silenced guns, whose
captain, Ricketts, was lying there badly wounded
among a considerable number of his killed and
wounded, with his horses probably all dead, a Lieu-
tenant Ramsey of that battery, who was secreted
behind a caisson, becoming either panic-stricken a
moment after we had passed him, or conceiving the
idea that he could then escape to his retreating
comrades, arose to his feet and undertook to run
the gauntlet through a small group of our company.
He being just beyond my reach in an instant my
musket, with the old-fashioned load of ball and
buckshot, was leveled at him, but before I could
fire, in the good fortune, as I have always deemed
it, of some unusual tardiness on my part, a com-
rade just in my rear, named William Fudge, fired
with point blank aim, instantly killing the lieuten-
ant, whose fine sword our Sergeant Thomas Rosser
secured, while William Fudge, who fired the fatal
shot, secured his blanket, upon which was inscribed
the name Lt. Ramsey (initials now forgotten) of
the i st New York State Artillery. This incident,
together with the facts leading up to it, namely,
our beiug amongst those guns and, later, far be-
yond them in pursuit of the flying enemy, with no
Confederate soldiers in our front, puts it beyond
cavil that the Alleghany Roughs were the actual
capturers of the Ricketts Battery, either whole or
in part. Others there are who are claimants of this
honor, but as there were two batteries captured at
that time and place, the claim of others may rest
upon this fact, and may be allowed, as to the other
battery; but what is here related of the part herein
taken by the Alleghany Roughs is of easy and
absolute authentification, there being many living

12 A BRIEF HISTORY

witnesses of all this, after the lapse of fifty years.
Besides this, those captured guns were turned and
trained upon the enemy by our First Lieutenant,
Joseph Carpenter, a former artillery cadet under
the tutorage of Stonewall Jackson at the Virginia
Military Institute, with the help of others. More-
over, at the time of our charge into the Ricketts
Battery our second Lieutenant, Jr., H. H. Dunot,
of Wilmington, Delaware, was captured, and car-
ried along with the routed enemy. He is said
to have been the first Confederate officer captured
in the Civil War, and the first to escape from a
Northern prison — the old Capitol in Washington —
and rejoin his command. Some friendly ladies in
Washington, visiting him in prison, fitted him out
in female attire, in which disguise he escaped. But,
alas ! just before our brilliant little battle at Kerns-
town, Virginia, he was stricken with typhoid fever
and died in a country house near Kernstowu.

Before quitting this account of that first, and so
all-important, battle of Manassas, and our charge
into Ricketts' Battery, we will relate how we fought
our way against and at some points actually into
the first Michigan Regiment, the flag of which was
captured by James Glenn of our company, whose
name was inscribed upon it when it was sent to
Richmond. Our charging into that fine fighting
command made a very close and stubborn contest
between us, of a very sanguinary nature too, with
fixed bayonets and clubbed guns in the end. Our
difficult and dangerous work of trying to persuade
them to quit the field was indeed hard of accom-
plishment, and cost us scores of lives, but we did
finally put them to rout, and our victory, because
of its disastrous results, was thereby the greater,
and, in war terms, the more highly honorable. At

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OF CARPENTER S BATTERY. 1 3

that time, or only a few moments later, what may
be termed the slaughter of a regiment, or battalion
of red-breeched Zouaves from Brooklyn, New York,
immediately in front of the 27th Regiment, was a
clear case, on their part, of self-imposed butchery.
They had charged us to most uncomfortable near-
ness, pouring upon us their deadly fire, while their
own loss was so great in actual dead it has often
been said, one could walk on their dead bodies over
a space of several acres without touching a foot
upon the ground. That sight indeed was a dread-
ful one, and rendered ten- fold more conspicuous by
the glittering of their bright red uniforms in the
gleaming sun of that hot July. Those who have
never witnessed the horrifying effect of the burning
sun upon the corpse of a human being, such as
scorched those arid plains at that time, have been
spared a most pitiable and lamentable sight. Under
such conditions a corpse is swollen to double or
treble its natural size, becoming black and defaced
beyond all recognition, while the odor emanating
from it is the most intolerable stench that could
possibly burden and distress one's olfactories. What
then would be the sight of these by the hundreds
or thousands! Well is it that imagination fails us
here. Only the eye beholding it can give its hor-
rors place and remembrance in our minds.

Our readers may remember into what prominence
came the old Henry House in that first battle of
Manassas, and I will be permitted thereby I trust
to relate this circumstance concerning the death of
an old lady in that house during that battle, who
was killed in her bed by the grape or canister of
the guns of Ricketts' Battery. In the beautiful
lawn, or lot, of that historic house, which was lit-
erallv riddled with shot and shells and minie balls

14 A BRIEF HISTORY

in that deadly strife of the 21st day of July, 1S61,
is now well preserved, and handsomely adorned
with shrub and vine and the wild ivy blossom, a
grave at the head of which stands a large white
marble slab, the inscription of which reads as fol-
lows :

"The grave of our dear mother, Judith Henry;
killed near this spot by the explosion of shells in
her dwelling, during the battle of the 21st of July,
1S61. When killed she was in her eighty-fifth year,
and confined to her bed by the infirmities of age.
She was the daughter of Landon Carter, Sr., and
was born within a mile of this place. Her husband,
Dr. Isaac Henry, was a surgeon in the United States
Navy, on board the frigate Constellation, command-
ed by Commodore Truxton, one of the six surgeons
appointed by Washington in the organization of the
Nav3', 1794. Our mother through her long life,
thirty-five years of which were spent at this place,
was greatly loved and esteemed for her kind, gentle,
and Christian spirit."

That inscription, of course, gives the correct ac-
count of the killing of this estimable old lady, which
has been given in many incorrect and incomprehen-
sible ways. Captain Ricketts has declared that he
did train his guns upon the Henry House, and com-
pletely riddled it; he being informed that it was
filled, at that time, with Confederate sharp-shooters.

The loss of the Alleghany Roughs in that great
battle was 6 killed outright and 16 wounded.

OF CARPENTERS BATTERY. I 5

CHAPTER III.

NEW CAPTAIN, NEW NAME, AND NEW GUNS.

Sometime in the early days of August, our brave
and revered Captain, Thompson McAllister, a native
of Pennsylvania, being then about fifty years of age,
was compelled, on account of ill health, to resign his
commission and return to his home in Alleghany
County, Virginia, the rigors of out incessant drill-
ing, in the blazing sun on those red clay plains
about Centerville, and exposures incident to the
hardships of camp life, rendering his health still
more feeble, and beyond his ability to withstand
such arduous duties. His detection and quick cor-
rection of the misapprehended order on the battle-
field, at so opportune a moment, as related above;
his splendid leadership of his company, at that time ;
and his personal exhibition of such heroic conduct
had endeared him to his men, or boys, as the greater
part of us were then ; and, although he has so long
since passed into the restful shade of the trees be-
yond the river, his memory is still held in highest
reverence by all who followed his leadership and
who survive him.

At his resignation the captaincy devolved upon
our First Lieutenant, Joseph Carpenter, of whom
we have said, he was an artillery cadet under Gen-
eral Jackson of the 1858 class at the Virginia Mili-
tary Institute. And it is probably because of this,
that when General Jackson was assigned to the in-
dependent command of the Valley of Virginia, our
company was converted into artillery, thenceforth
to be called Carpenter's Battery. It was then sent,
by request of General Jackson, at once to the Valley
of Virginia to equip and drill for active field service,

1 6 A BRIEF HISTORY

with himself. This was before the Stonewall Bri-
gade, as a whole, was transferred to him from Gen-
eral Johnston's army, for the valley service ; and,
therefore, as we proudly claimed, was the more highly
complimentary to us. Later, however, when the old
brigade was, as a whole, assigned to the same valley
service to the army of General Jackson, the camp-
ing, marching, and fighting of Carpenter's Battery
were always thereafter done with it, which fact,
added to that of our former membership with it, as
infantry, gave us the name of the Stonewall Artil-
lery, although in justice to our sister battery — the
Rockbridge Artillery — which fought so masterfully
with the old brigade at the first battle of Manassas,
and for a considerable time subsequently, it too be-
longed to that old " Stonewall" aggregation, and
its history, throughout the war, is a counterpart of
our own.

After reaching the Valley of Virginia, with head-
quarters near Winchester, we, a little later, received
our guns — four 6 pounders, smooth-bore iron things
made at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond,
Virginia. At these alleged cannon enough fun was
poked by our jolly boys, and all others too who
saw them, to make many columns of facetiae for a
comic newspaper for many editions ; but, dear
friends, kindly await subsequent proceedings, and
you will discover that those funny little guns were
sure-enough and true-blue shooters, which made a
name and goodly fame for Carpenter's Battery at
the tight and bloody little battle of Kernstown, and
after that uutil they were exchanged for more mod-
ern weapons of death.

of carpenter's battery. 17

CHAPTER IV.

THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN.

After very considerable irksome drilling and
other tedious preparation until January 1, 1862,
we made our renowned march to Romney, Vir-
ginia, that freezing and starvation escapade which
gave General Jackson so hard a name for cru-
elty and merciless unconcern for his men. On
that expedition, in the coldest winter of the war,
with insufficient clothing and scarcely anything
to eat, or as our boys would say, "With noth-
ing to eat and nothing to drink with it," so fright-
fully frozen and slippery were the roads that our
cannoneers, assisted by infantry in many cases,
had to help the poor starved and shivering horses
to pull even those comparatively light little guns up
the steep hills and over the mountain roads, and
not even a Hannibal crossing the Alps ever had a
harder task as then had the soldiers of Stonewall
Jackson's army. On reaching the Potomac in front
of Hancock, Maryland, we made a feint as if to at-
tack that town, our object being to deceive thereby
and render more probable the capture of Gen. Kelly
in Romney. Before Hancock that night with the
thermometer away below zero we were forbidden to
kindle any fires lest the enemy should discover the
paucity of our numbers and our position ; and our
close proximity to freezing was painfully and dan-
gerously apparent. It is probable that the hard
work we endured in helping .our emaciated, half-
starved horses to perform their onerous labors on
the march kept many of us from being frozen stark
and stiff there and then, and it is well known that
our stealing the hard corn from the meagre allow-

1 8 A BRIEF HISTORY

ance to those equally starved beasts of burden did
actually keep alive many who otherwise would have
perished from the intense cold and gnawing hunger
of that unprecedented time. It is the truth purely
and absolutely that a goodly part of that little army
went three whole days and nights without a morsel
to eat, our first breaking of the long and deadly
fast being by means of that hard, dry corn allotted
to our horses and mules.

Finally, on reaching Romney we found General
Kelly and his army had incontinently flown, but
we captured in his abandoned camps a momentary
plenti tude of white Yankee beans, and it will not
be a very great mental strain for anyone to imagine
that we, in our genuine, heartfelt gratitude deemed
that particular provender, at that particular time,
angel cake, and their delicious concoction into soup
was precious nectar and ambrosia. Before the war
this deponent was so dainty and so small an eater
that his good mother thought he was in a ruinous
decline. But after he had associated with Stone-
wall Jackson's wolfish army a few weeks, on the
Loudoun Heights, at Harper's Ferry, his decline
was in the nature of refusing nothing thereafter in
the name and nature of food for man or beast, and
that war-inspired appetite abides with him unto
this day. That unparalleled inarching and starving
to Romney and return made our mother tongue
lash General Jackson very bitterly, and it is an undis-
puted fact that many a South Carolinian and Geor-
gian fell and perished by the wayside in that cam-
paign, but all that, with all it implied, belonged to
the Stonewall curriculum, and its matriculates were
thus made ready for the rigors and battle-scars of
our four years of war, and I verily believe the glory
won and worn thereby is ample compensation to

of carpenter's battery. 19

the soldier of Stonewall Jackson's incomparable
army. Yes, to have fought with that army, and to
have shared in its splendid victories and gigantic
achievements, gives us pride which we trust is as
pardonable as it is glorious.

20 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER V.

OUR FIRST ARTILLERY FIGHT.

On reaching the Virginia Valley again we made a
long and tortuous march up the old pike, and were
as speedily hurried down it again, in a tramp of 31
miles in one day, that we might make ready to meet
the army of General Shields at Kernstown. There
on March 23d, we had our first artillery fight, and
there, with those little insignificant old 6-pounder
Tredegar guns, Carpenter's Battery won distinction,
which it maintained without decrease to the bitter
end of our great war. Our first shot was witnessed,
from a nearby position, by General Jackson, who
upon seeing it crash through the door of an old
barn crowded with Federal soldiers, and scatter
them pell-mell to the four winds, passionately ex-
claimed, " Good, good," greatly to the pride and
joy of all present on that memorable occasion of
our battery baptism. From that position we con-
tinued firing until the enemy was driven from our
front, when we were advanced to the extreme left
of our line, there at once becoming hotly engaged
and doing fine execution throughout the action,
until, just at nightfall, when overpowering num-
bers in the act of capturing our entire little army of
less than 3.000 all told, forced us to cease firing
and make our escape to the rear, on the southern
edge of that hotly contested battle field. There we
halted and cooked our rations and fitfully slept
until the dawning of another day, in doing which,
right in the face of the enemy, and they declining
to pursue us with their vastly superior numbers,
our inflicting upon them such terrible loss, and hav-
iug ourselves suffered so severely, has always been

OF CARPENTER'S BATTERY. 2 1

considered by every Confederate soldier who par-
ticipated in that engagement a splendid victory for
General Jackson, who so signally accomplished his
purpose in detaining and holding so large an army
of Union soldiers in the Valley, the release of which
had been planned by, and was of so much import-
ance to, the Washington authorities for the purpose
of attacking Richmond.

As our company in the first battle of Manassas,
then infantry, had so distinguished itself, without
an}- previous experience in the use of its old army
muskets and bayonets; so there, in that fierce and
glorious little battle of Kernstown, as artillery,
without ever before having fired a shot from our
6-pounder Tredegars, we won a proud and lasting
name, and above all, the openly attested approval
of that greatest of artillerists — Stonewall Jackson,
in person.

But in all the desperate work, in close and long
contested quarters, our battery suffered no loss in
killed. Our guns, limbers, and caissons, however,
and the clothing and accouterments of our cannon-
eers liberally bore the marks and wounds of the
frightful assault.

22 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER VI.

THE MCDOWELL AND VALLEY CAMPAIGNS.

With only a short respite off again marched our
little army up the Valley, and camped at White's
Gap on top of the Blue Ridge, and on again by way
of Medium's River, on the Virginia Central R. R.,
and through Staunton to McDowell where, in a
severe little encounter, we won another victory in
short order. In this affair our battery was under
hot fire, though not actually engaged. The enemy
was driven to Franklin, in Pendleton County, where
on Sunday, while engaged in divine service we
were fired into with such vigor and precision as to
compel our quitting worship to make ready for the
Devil's work of killing people. Our worthy foes,
however, practicing discretion in lieu of valor, de-
camped before us again, and declining to continue
the chase after them we started on the back track
the following day for our old Valley of Virginia
stamping ground, to meet General Banks at Win-
chester, which was accomplished on May 25, 1S62,
resulting in his being driven into and out of that
town after a stubborn resistance in a considerable
battle, in which our company lost 2 killed and
5 wounded.

Pursuing him closely we rushed on with the old
Stonewall Brigade, then commanded by General
Charles Winder, of Maryland, than whom no com-
mander ever led it so well and effectually, of all its
brigadiers, except the first — the inimitable, unap-
proachable, original Stonewall Jackson.

On reaching Charles Town, iir hot pursuit, our
battery went through the main street of the town,
ahead of any skirmish line or scouts of cavalry or

of carpenter's battery. 23

infantry, firing by echelon straight and continu-
ously through the town at the flying enemy, and
the proof was given of our good and accurate shoot-
ing in that we kept the line of the street and neither
demolished nor marred any house or building on
either side. That running fire of our gunners was
kept up from one end of the town to the other,
from where the Berryville pike intercepts it to the
extreme northern limit. And while we were thus
engaged in charging, and, we may say, winning a
battle of our own independently of infantry or cav-
alry help, to prove furthermore how Confederate
artillery sometimes operated, it ma£ be related here
that while our battery was doing that independent
fighting, our sister battery, the Rockbridge Artil-
lery, commanded by Captain Poague, being then
on the Berryville pike, actually captured and turned
over to our old Stonewall Brigade a considerable
little body of Yankee cavalry, which in the confu-
sion of their general retreat had become isolated
from its army command, and was thus made a prey
of independently acting artillery.

Moving on down to Hall Town, near Harper's
Ferry and Bolivar Heights, we were left in that vi-
cinity to overawe General Banks by the maneuver-
ing of our artillery, and the Stonewall Brigade,
while General Jackson, with the main body of his
small army hastened back up the valley to Stras-
burg, upon which objective point Fremont's and
Milroy's were converging to cut us off and prevent
our escape to a farther and safer point up the val-
ley. After about a day's encampment near Hall
Town, we were informed that our battery and
the old Stonewall Brigade were cut off entirely from
General Jackson's main body, the army of General
Milroy being then interposed between us. There-

24 A BRIEF HISTORY

upon we began a hasty retreat, with dark forebod-
ings of consequent and inevitable capture, or utter
annihilation. But, lo ! our ever vigilant and al-
ways resourceful commander was not to be caught
napping. He summarily dislodging the over jub-
ilant enemy, gave us an opportunity, eagerly cov-
eted, to slip through the meshes, so effectually laid
for us, and rejoin him with palpitating hearts and
greatly fatigued underpinning, though again ready
and eager to shout the Rebel yell.

So with General Milroy being driven hopelessly
out of our pathway, and we being again safely re-
united with our old commander, we were rushed
hurriedly on up the valley to Harrisonburg, with
General Fremont closely following, and General
Shields moving rapidl>- up the parallel valley of
Luray, to intercept and cut us off at Port Republic.

Ewell's Division was halted at Cross Keys while
General Jackson hurried on to Port Republic to su-
pervise our crossing the two branches of the Shen-
andoah River there, a large covered bridge affording
our only means of crossing the North Branch, and
we having to improvise means to cross the South
Branch, which was accomplished duly, as will pres-
ently appear.

OF CARPENTER S BATTERY. 25

CHAPTER VII.

CROSS KEYS AND PORT REPUBLIC.

On the 7th of June, General Fremont attacked
General EwelPs small army at Cross Keys when a
severe battle raged, in which the Confederate arms
were signally victorious, handsomely repulsing Fre-
mont's much larger army, with heavy loss. The
morning following, June 8th, General Shields, by
forced marches, had the head of his column at Port
Republic and began a bombardment of our camps
resting on the north side still of the North Branch.
This was a very unexpected onslaught, taking us
entirely unawares while we were lolling lazily all
over the grassy fields, and while our horses were
leisurely grazing about with their harness on. But
in very short order our artillery was made ready
and the men alert for duty. Some confusion had
ensued, in this altogether unexpected attack, but in
double-quick time our battery and a portion of two
other batteries were placed in position along the
high river banks of the river front, commanding
the south side, and we very soon silenced the guns
of Shields' cavalry completely. In evidence of the
suddenness of General Shields' s attack upon us, and
our unpreparedness at that moment, it is only nec-
essary to state that their advance had actually cap-
tured the bridge over the North River branch and
had placed at its mouth an artillery guard, while
his troops were in possession of the village of Port
Republic, in which General Jackson personally was,
between the two rivers, literally cut off from his
army on the north side, though he daringly, or, as
he would have said, providentially, escaped through
the bridge, held then by the enemy, thus rejoining

26 a brip:f history

his command and ordering us to march at once to
the south side of both branches of the river, to
meet the main advancing army of General Shields,
which was then rapidly endeavoring to concentrate
in our front, to prevent our passage of the river, to
the south side. When our entire army had passed
over the North Branch, through the bridge, that
means of passage was at once destroyed by fire, by
order of General Jackson, to prevent General Fre-
mont from following us closely and attacking our
rear, and then improvising a pontoon bridge, by
running wagons into the South Branch River, and
stretching boards from one to another of these wag-
ons entirely across the stream, our infantry was
soon safely conveyed to the south side, and moved
with dispatch down the river to confront General
Shields's main body, which after a hot and bloody
fight was completely routed with great loss. In
the artillery duel from the north bank of the North
Branch we suffered no casualties in our battery, but
in the fierce fight on the south side with the main
army of Shields, at very close quarters in the open
wheat fields we were nearly demolished by an op-
posing 6-gun battery located in an elevated charcoal
pit, though our loss in wounded proved to be only
5 men and a number of horses, while our limbers
and caissons were wofully besmattered with shells
and the fateful minie balls. But had not General
Hayes's Louisiana Brigade, by a flank movement
through a tangled body of dense woods, captured
that bravely commanded battery, which it so nobly
did at a very dear cost of brave men, the loss in
Carpenter's Battery would undoubtedly have been
doubly as great as it was, in a very little longer
coutinuauce of that deadly fire. That splendid
Louisiana Brigade, in rescuing us from our perilous

OF CARPENTER S BATTERY. 27

position, suffered very severely itself from a con-
tinuous, raking fire of grape and canister which
tore and roared through that body of undergrowth
like a cyclone, or the racket of the fiercest thunder
devasling a forest of timber.

28 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER VIII.

MARCH ON TO RICHMOND.

After this signal routing of General Shields's
army, our army being again united, and ignoring
for the time being Fremont aod the rest of our Val-
ley of Virginia foes we crossed over the Blue Ridge
again at White's Gap and facing towards Richmond
made that memorable march to the rear of General
McClellan's right wing at Mechanicsville, and on
to Gaines's farm where our battery again passed
through a scathing fire on its victorious march.

On June 28th, it was placed in position as a tar-
get for the enemy's batteries to play upon, while
old Captain Mason, General Lee's pioneer was
building the pole and timber bridge across the
Chickahominy, over which our army was to pass
in pursuit of McClellan's retreating troops. The
story of the building of that memorable bridge be-
ing worthy of repetition, I will retell it here. This
Captain Mason, its builder, was so illiterate, it is
said, as not to be able to read or write. He had
been ordered by General Jackson the night before
to call at headquarters for a plan or sketch of the
bridge, which the army engineers would have com-
pleted and ready for him at daylight in the morn-
ing, so that the work might be executed accord-
ingly at the shortest time possible. The great pio-
neer calling promptly upon General Jackson at the
appointed time, was asked if he had been shown
and given the sketch. He replied, " Gineral Jack-
son, I ain't seen no sketch, aod don't know nothin'
about no pictures, nor plans for that bridge, but
that bridge is done, sir, and is ready, sir, and you
can right now send your folks across on to it."

of carpenter's battery. 29

Such a man was that pioneer Mason, and such
work as that he continually did, as if by magic ;
and we have always fully believed the truth of this
story of the bridge as unimpeachable. Carpenter's
Battery was placed just below that bridge building
to draw the fire of the enemy's guns upon it while
old Captain Mason proceeded with his work, from
start to finish, without a "picture" to aid him in
its construction. Indeed, and this is the self-same
Captain Mason who cut a pathway through the
dense undergrowth and forest shrubbery from the
WTilderuess to Spottsylvaiaia Courthouse, in one
night, for General Lee' sent ire army to pass through,
which resulted in halting and thwarting the daring,
dashing movement of Grant's army in its desperate
attempt to turn General Lee's extreme right at that
most critical point. The evidence is plain that men
of the Mason type were essential to the success of
the great commanders whom they thus enabled to
achieve such victories.

When General Jackson's army had crossed the
Chickahominy on that Aladdin constructed bridge
of poles we pursued the retreating enemy on and
on, with continual fighting to Malvern Hill, where
in a general engagement our battery was hotly as-
sailed for the greater part of the day, and suffered
severely, losing in killed 2 and in wounded 7.

1

30 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER IX.

BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN.

After that great victory of dethroning and driving
General McClellan's magnificent army from its
close proximity to Richmond back to the shelter of
his gun boats at Harrison's Landing on the James
River, with complete defeat and terrible loss, Gen-
eral Jackson's Corps was quickly dispatched to meet
the haughty army of the boastful Pope, which was
intercepted and collided with at Cedar Mountain,
not far distant from Culpeper Courthouse, on Au-
gust 9, 1S62. In that battle Carpenter's Battery
again had another conspicuous test of its staying
qualities and power of execution, its work there
being so well performed as to win the lavish plau-
dits of all the field officers who witnessed its ad-
mirable execution on that occasion. That, indeed,
was a costly battle to us, our fine and noble Captain
Joseph Carpenter, who, as has been heretofore
stated, was an educated artillerist, uuder General
Jackson, at the Virginia Military Institute at the
beginning of our gigantic Civil War, being there
mortally wounded, while our loss in others wounded
was considerable. This efficient officer's conspicu-
ous services and great popularity as a battery com-
mander endeared him very greatly to our company,
officers, and men alike, and his death occurring
later was deplored beyond expression. There, too,
in the midst of our booming pieces, within a few
feet of the gun of which the writer hereof was gun-
ner, that splendid and dashing commander of the
Stonewall Brigade, General Charles B. Winder, was
killed outright, a tremendous hole being torn in
his side by a bursting shell, while our battalion

OF carpenter's battery. 31

commander, Colonel R. Snowden Andrews, was
similarly wounded near the spot where General
Winder fell, but Colonel Andrews was not fatally
wounded, his life being spared to good old age.
These two officers of General Jackson's great com-
mand enjoyed the most enviable distinction for
bravery and efficiency, and no officers ever led into
battle their commands with finer results than did
these two. Both of these honored men had in a
marked degree the love and respect of Carpenter's
Battery, which were as well deserved as they were
gladly rendered. General Winder was killed almost
instantly, his body being borne a short distance
away by Colonel Andrews, myself, and one or two
others, out of range of the withering musketry and
cannon shots. Returning to my gun in a moment,
it was but a like short time after his return from
General Winder's side when Colonel Andrews re-
ceived his desperate wound, tearing out his side to
the full exposure of his internal structure, which
necessitated ever after his wearing a large silver
plate, covering his entire side until his death, which
did not occur until about 1903. He was buried
from the Kpiscopal church on Cathedral street,
corner of Read, in Baltimore, quietly and unosten-
tatiously, which sad obsequies it was my honored
privilege to attend in witness of my high apprecia-
tion of his fine ability as an officer and soldier of
the righteous cause for which the true Confederate
fought.

Only a little while before his death General An-
drews gave the author of this. brief history of Car-
penter's Battery an autograph letter, which it is
hoped it may not be considered amiss in him to
produce here, in valuable added testimony to the
well earned and widely given commendation of this

32 A BRIEF HISTORY

company, from a source of which its every member
living will be proud, and will highly prize. It is
as follows :

"Baltimore, June 30, 1900.

To C. A. FONERDEN, ESQ.,

Late of Carpenter's Battery:

I am glad to hear of your intention to inform the public
of some of the services and the great gallantry of Carpenter's
Batter}'. You owe it to the memory of your dead comrades ;
to the survivors of that war for principle ; to the education
of the present and future generations, to put on record the
brilliant actions in which you participated with your brave
companions.

I was proud of the Battalion of Artillery I commanded,
and it is no reflection on any other company to say, yours
had no superior, and I know no one more fitted than your-
self to tell the story; and the subject is enough for any
writer.

Remember me to your dear old Captain * Carpenter, when
you write him. Yours truly and sincerely,

R. Snowden Andrews."

*A brother of Joseph Carpenter, our captain, who died from the
wound received at Cedar Mountain, whereupon John C. Carpenter,
now living, became our captain, by promotion from Governor Letcher.

of carpenter's battery. 33

CHAPTER X.

SECOND MANASSAS BATTLE.

Our victory at Cedar Mountain, though costing
dearly, was of magnificent proportions, but needing
rest and rehabilitation we were moved back to Gor-
donsville, from which point we were very soon for-
warded to the Rapidan River and became engaged
in a fight at St. James' Church above Kelly's Ford,
where General Early's brigade had crossed, and
which rose so rapidly behind him as to cause great
anxiety, lest, being thus cut off, his command
should be captured by Pope before any other por-
tion of our army could cross over to his rescue.
But our heavy and continuous artillery duel across
the river upon the enemy probably prevented an
attack upon him. In that duel our battery lost i
killed and several wounded. Then moving on up
the river we crossed it at an unused ford, ascending
the opposite bank after a rough and tedious pas-
sage, pulling our guns up with the aid of infantry,
by the prolonges, and then moved as silently as pos-
sible for a few miles, and at nightfall went into
camp to prepare for our hurried march of the next
day through Thoroughfare Gap, at almost double
quick time until we reached Broad Creek. While
at that stream, watering our horses, our captain
discovered a battalion of Yankee cavalry almost in
our very faces, and ordered into position, on the
opposite side of the creek, our two 12-pounder
Napoleon guns, double shotted with canister, by
means of which summary persuasion, at the mo-
ment of their thundering, the enemy fled in utter
confusion, while our old Stonewall Brigade, as our
rear support, was almost equally filled with conster-

34 A BRIEF HISTORY

nation by the booming guns, not dreaming that the
enemy was so close upon us, or, in fact, anywhere
near that vicinity. Indeed, that old brigade of in-
vincibles having but a moment before begun taking
off their shoes and stockings, if this may be said of
a very nearly sockless brigade, to wade the stream,
was now seen to fly to our aid ; some with one sock
off and some with one shoe on, and some again in
all plights of preparation for wading. The scene
was truly ludicrous, despite what might have been
the impending peril had our cavalry foe been as
valiant as they ought to have been in meeting so
small a force as one small battery. But the one
volley of two shots was amply sufficient for their
satisfaction in full ; and so we passed on, August
27, 1S62, to take possession of Manassas Junction
with its tremendous stores of army and hospital
supplies, munitions and implements of war, almost
beyond calculation, and of unspeakable value to us.
Then and there our battery availed itself of an
exchange of guns, giving up our old worn pieces
for two new and spanking 12-pounder Napoleons
and two English steel 10-pounder Parrotts, replac-
ing as well our old for new limber chests and cais-
sons, while we caparisoned proudly our dear,
brave old horses with bespangled harness and all
needed accouterments. Thus speedily and unhin-
dered equipping ourselves with all that new and
costly plunder, and as much as we could get away
with of commissary supplies, internally and exter-
nally, only a little while elapsed before Taylor's
Yankee brigade came pouncing upon us from the
direction of Alexandria in the attempt to drive us
away from all that immense and so highly coveted
capture. How little did he know the hungry Con-
federate soldier !

1770119

of carpenter's battery. 35

Meantime other batteries had joined us, and a
sufficient force of infantry to enable us not only to
break the splendid and persistent attack of that
valorous Taylor's Brigade and whatever other forces
were with them, but to repulse them utterl}* into
complete route, whereupon Carpenter's Battery was
ordered to report to General Bradley T. Johnson
back toward Thoroughfare Gap. The following
day August 28th, we were in position on the right
of General Jackson's line along an unfinished rail-
road cut, and during the next day had frequent
occasion to drive away, now a battery, and again
infantry sharpshooters advancing upon that posi-
tion. On the 29th, our work and experiences were
much the same as on the preceding day, though at
one time we were ordered to the left to assist in
dispelling a fierce, determined effort to dislodge our
feces from the famous deep cut where the action
was tiger like for closeness and bloody ferocity.
There we were in action at close quarters against
both artillery and infantry, and had run the gaunt-
let of a terrible rain of shot and shell to get there.
One shot from an opposing gun wounded three of
our drivers, taking both legs off one of them ;
the hip muscles off another ; and giving the third
man a bad flesh wound of the arm ; at the same
time killing or completely disabling the three horses
on the driver's side and tearing off both wheels of
the limber. In very short order our loss there was
1 man killed and 5 wounded. Then being ordered
to our former position, a little later in the day a
Yankee battery of six guns was pushed forward on
a little knoll in close proximity where our battery
was ordered to dislodge it. Maneuvering into po-
sition through a most trying ordeal of rapid and
well directed firing of the enemy's guns we unlim-

36 A BRIEF HISTORY

bered in point blank range, and with double charges
of canister gave that daring battery before us a
raking fire and repeating that with fearful effect
we limbered to the rear to escape similar treatment
from their largely outnumbering guns, which had
changed front upon us, and just as we had cleared
the brow of protecting high ground a perfect ava-
lanche of canister swept over our heads with fright-
ful hissing and sputtering, but unfruitful of any
great damage. We then returned to our old posi-
tion, having done that big six gun battery a very
considerable amount of havoc, and rendering it
much less harmful to our infantry again in that
part of the battle field. On the last day of that
sanguinary field our battery was not engaged, and
as the enemy was routed completely and put to full
retreat upon Washington, we were hurried on to
Ox Hill where the Federal General Kearney was
killed in trying to rally his men. There we were
sharply under fire, but not actually engaged.

of carpenter's battery. 37

CHAPTER XI.

BLOODY SHARPSBURG.

After thus disposing of Pope's army, so inglori-
ously to him, after his boasting so loudly of what
he would do to Stonewall Jackson, our army was
moved over into Maryland to the city of Frederick,
and after a short respite from fighting we crossed
the South Mountain to invest Harper's Ferry ;
Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's corps being left to
confront McClellan's forward movement to inter-
cept General Lee. Our corps, Jackson's, moved
by Boonsboro and Williamsport across the Potomac
River ; then by Martinsburg and Smithfield to
Bolivar Heights, which commanded Harper's Ferry,
the surrender of which town with its twelve thou-
sand and five hundred men was very soon accom-
plished by the indomitable Stonewall Jackson aud
his invincible little army. A very considerable
bombardment of that besieged garrison occurred
from three directions at once — from the Loudoun
Heights, the Maryland Heights, and from the Bol-
ivar Heights, the effect of which very speedily in-
duced General Miles to surrender unconditionally.
The writer of these pages will here relate that he
being then a gunner in Carpenter's Battery was
given Hail Columbia from our captain on that oc-
casion for firing several shots into the town after
the white flag of surrender had been displayed.
This was owing to his not seeing the flag, or hear-
ing of it, and having received no order to cease
firing until Captain Carpenter uttered it with his
reprimand. But his censure was withdrawn the
moment he learned the particulars.

Leaving a considerable body in charge of the

38 A BRIEF HISTORY

Harper's Ferry prisoners and captured munitions
of war, General Jackson hastened to recross the
Potomac River back into Maryland to reinforce
General Lee, whose entire army, on that side of the
river, was then engaged in heavy battle at Sharps-
burg, the progress of which in the roaring artillery
and frightful musketry attesting that war's havoc
and butchery of the most savage kind was then in
full blast and accomplishing its deadly work of de-
struction in all its hellishness.

Carpenter's Battery went into position on that
bloody field under heavy fire first at or near the
bridge crossing Antietam Creek.

Ordered to report to General Jeb Stuart for de-
tached duty at daylight the next morning, on the
extreme left of our line, we became engaged fiercely,
and Captain John Carpenter was severely wounded,
being entirely incapacitated for duty, his knee
being crushed so badly by a shell that the synovial
fluid was discharged, which the surgeons then said
necessitated amputation, or should it be possible to
save the leg, he could never again have any use of
it. But to shorten the story of this false diagnosis
and decision, Captain Carpenter did return to his
company in a comparatively short time, and is liv-
ing at this remote day, 191 1, in good health and
with the perfect use of that surgically condemned
leg. From that position we were again moved to
the left and rear with Stuart's cavalry, and went
into action in a cornfield, where our exposure was
so great that Stuart ordered us out of that position
into another, within a stone's throw of the advanc-
ing enemy's full line of infantry. At the moment
two of our pieces opened fire from that position we
were fired into by 24 of the enemy's guns, accord-
ing to their own account, and at their first on-

of carpenter's battery. 39

slaught we were almost completely demolished, our
loss being so great in men and horses, that we were
ordered to abandon our guns and horses and secret
ourselves as best we might, but while many of our
cannoneers did seek places of safety at General
Stuart's order, enough of them, with our brave and
daring drivers, remained to pacify the frightened
horses and save the guns from capture. However
the havoc there was so great that our remaining
two guns were thence forward in that battle com-
manded by a sergeant who with his two detach-
ments escaped capture in being ordered off the field
at the last moment by General Stuart in person.

The writer again hopes it may be permissible for
him to state that he was the sergeant in charge of
those two guns on that occasion and a prouder day
than that for him has never before or since occurred in
his career — more particularly so as he believes that
no other battle of the war was so fierce and bloody
as was that of Sharpsburg. Without a doubt it
was one of the greatest, most stubbornly contested,
and most destructive of all the great battles of our
war. It has been generally considered a drawn
battle, of equal honors, though there can be no
question of the fact that the better fighting was on
the side of the Confederates, their numbers being
very much less than those of the Federals. At its
culmination our army crossed the Potomac River
leisurely, back into Virginia as far as Winchester,
and went into camp. A little later the old Stone-t
wall Brigade and our battery were sent to Kear-
neysville to tear up the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
tracks, and there we had a severe little brush with
the Yankees, who were present to prevent our do-
ing so, if possible. The loss in our battery there
was several wounded, but no one killed. About

40 A BRIEF HISTORY

that time our company was so greatly decimated by
battle casualties and other war causes that another
company was merged with us, namely, Cutshaw's
Battery, which retained only one commissioned of-
ficer, Lieutenant David Barton, and two or three
non-commissioned officers, while it gave us a large
number of privates, all of whom proved themselves
eminently worthy to belong to a battery which had
won such distinction, and the glory of which those
recruits later did so much to enhance, onward to
the very end of that almost interminable war. It
is a singular fact that their loss by death in action
was always very great.

of carpenter's battery. 41

CHAPTER XII.

BATTEE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

After having been thus materially recruited by
that fine body of men from a sister battery, and
made strong again in numbers we were soon called
upon to do deadly duty at Fredericksburg, where,
at Hamilton's Crossing, we were desperately as-
sailed by the advancing columns of infantry, bat-
teries, and sharpshooters of Burnsides's powerful
arm}'. In the end, however, we won a great vic-
tory. There we lost our brave and true Lieutenant
David Barton, who had so recently joined us from
the Cutshaw Battery, and two privates in killed,
while another Lieutenant W. T. Lambie and a
large number of men were wounded. After that
splendid victory our battery was selected by Gener-
al Jackson to remain along the Rappahannock River,
where during that cold and snowy winter, we did
actual picket duty, while the greater part of the
artillery of our army was ordered into winter quar-
ters. This picket duty we performed until the end
of April, one half the battery alternating with the
other half, when we were again sent to Fredericks-
burg, rejoining there our general artillery and the
army and moving up to Chancellorsville to receive
orders from General Jackson, after he had turned
the left of Hooker's army, for us to return to Fred-
ericksburg and report to General Early who was
then being sorely pressed by General Sedgwick's
corps. Our position then was almost identically
the same as that we occupied in the battle with
Burnsides's army on December 13th. Our Captain,
John C. Carpenter, and a number of men were
wounded in this battle, and one was killed. Our

42 A BRIEF HISTORY

Lieutenant Geo. McKendree then having been pro-
moted to the rank of Major and assigned to General
Echols's Brigade, in West Virginia, the command
of the battery devolved upon Lieutenant W. T.
Lambie who became very popular with the com-
pany, and was a fine officer. About three weeks
later the army broke camp and again headed for the
valley, reaching Winchester early in June, and be-
coming engaged in the second battle of that town
our battery lost i man killed and 5 wounded.

op carpenter's battery. 43

CHAPTER XIII.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.

We moved next toward the Potomac River to Wil-
liamsport and crossing there went on up the Cumber-
land Valle3T to Greencastle, Pa., making a detour
across the mountain to McConnellsville. There
meeting bushwhackers we dislodged them with a sin-
gle cannon shot and hastened back to the Cumberland
Valley at Chambersburg, moving on up to Ship-
pensburg and to Carlisle. From the latter town we
turned toward Gettysburg and took position there
on Culp's Hill, to the left of Cemetery Hill, in a
field of rye where we took a very active part in the
great battle of Gettysburg, our whole battalion of
artillery, commanded by the heroic and matchless
bo> Major Latimer, becoming engaged, in a fright-
ful din and roar of great destruction. From the
guns immediately confronting us, and many others
from a higher point near by, we were subjected to
a most disastrous cannonading, as witnessed by the
loss in our battery of 5 killed outright and 18
wounded, 3 of whom died before the engagement
ended. Upon withdrawing later, a short distance
to the rear, we buried 8 of our brave comrades in
one grave. Some of our wounded were left at
Gettysburg, falling into the hands of the enemy,
though the greater part of them got away in the
retreat of our army, some in ambulances, some in
wagons, and some again on our caissons, as we re-
crossed the Potomac, partly on pontoon bridges,
but more numerously in wading, as best could be
done, back to the more friendly soil of old Virgin-
ia, and marching on up the Valley, and across the
Blue Ridge at L,uray, to the vicinity of Madison

44 A BRIEF HISTORY

Courthouse, where we encamped for a seasou. But
soon again the enemy essaying to march "On to
Richmond," our army was thrust in his front, by
our crossing the Raccoon Ford of the Rappahan-
nock River, with Jackson's old division, and our
artillery battalion, under the command of General
Ed. Johnson. At Payne's farm we were confronted
by a large body of the enemy, said to have been a
full corps. A hurried line of battle was formed
immediately to the left of the road, Carpenter's
Battery moving to take position on the extreme left
and there becoming hotly engaged, at short range.

Discovering a movement of the enemy to turn
our flank we sent one section quickly to our left
and rear, and went into action attempting to check
their advance, but without avail. We were sorely
pressed at that time, and had the enemy known his
great advantage, and had not night, that timely
friend of distressed armies, set in, the whole of
Johnson's Division might have been captured or de-
stroyed. Then we moved on to Mine Run fighting
there the tight little battle of that name, when the
enemy withdrew to the north side of the Rappa-
hannock, which ended that very active campaign.
In the Payne farm engagement the loss in our bat-
tery was 7 wounded ; and at Mine Run 2 wounded.
Then being shifted from place to place, we next
moved on to Vidiersville, again on the picket line,
where we enjoyed a restful time of probably three
weeks' duration, when we were ordered to Freder-
ick's Hall, on the then Virginia Central Railroad,
to go into winter quarters, for our first session of
that sort since the war began.

The most unusual thing occurring at that time
to break the monotony of camp life was the daring
attempt of Dahlgreen to capture Richmond, he

OF CARPENTERS BATTERY. 45

passing so near to our camp that two pieces of our
battery, with a body of skirmishers, were put in
motion to intercept him ; which we failed to accom-
plish, because of the greater celerity of his move-
ment, his command consisting entirely of cavalry.
And so escaping us he continued his march until
he ran so terribly amuck not far from Richmond,
where he was killed and the greater part of his
picked officers and men were either also killed or
captured.

46 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER XIV.

LEE AND GRANT IN DEATH GRAPPLE.

Our next move forward was to meet another ''On
to Richmond" commanded by the redoubtable
General Grant, the most famous and most success-
ful of all the Union army commanders-in-chief, and
who then led the numerically greatest army ever
mustered together on American soil. General Lee's
army, the greatest fighting aggregation the world
had ever known, was thrown in front of Grant, at
the Wilderness, and vastly outgeneraled and out-
fought him continuously from that point on until
his plans were finally abandoned for his march to
the south side of the James River, to lay siege to
Petersburg, with his overwhelming forces, the
prowess of which Lee had so effectually baffled, in
all their battles. In the Wilderness encounter our
battery had very little opportunity to exploit itself,
the so appropriately named wilderness of woods and
underbrush preventing any artillery from securing
fighting positions, though on reaching Spottsyl-
vania Courthouse, in that memorable racing of
the two armies for vantage ground at that point,
we had position, on the morning of the 12th, im-
mediately in rear of the Bloody Angle, after the
capture of General Johnson's Division, where we
were fiercely engaged almost the entire day. Our
loss there was 1 killed and 9 wounded.

After that desperate and most signally unsuccess-
ful endeavor on his part General Grant made an-
other fruitless attempt to dislodge General Lee at
Hanover Courthouse, and was there again repulsed.
Again, at Pole Green church, and yet again at Cold
Harbor he was badly worsted. His frightful at-

OF carpenter's battery. 47

tack upon our lines at Cold Harbor, it is said, cost
the sacrifice of more lives in a couple of hours than
had ever before been known. When he had been
hopelessly beaten back there his losses from the
Wilderness to that place, inclusive, have been placed
at 200,000, which he himself, in his biographical
memoirs, justifies as a matter of necessity to reduce
the Confederate army, on the ground that it could
not recover its losses while the Union army could
amply recruit from its vast citizenship of the North
and that of the whole world.

It certainly was highly creditable to that most
sagacious and determined General to know and to
say from the beginning that it was a mere matter
of attrition, and that only by overwhelmingly out-
numbering us could they ever hope to conquer the
South. In this great and generous compliment to
the Southern soldier, General Grant first gave evi-
dence of his fine magnanimity, which in the end,
at Appomattox, so conspicuously shone in his kind-
ly treatment of General Lee and our overpowered
little remnant of an army.

But thus thwarted in every instance, all along
that entire and fateful line, from the Wilderness to
the crossing of the James River, there was nothing
left General Grant but to lay siege to Petersburg,
and there keep his hold until the Confederate army
was starved and tired out, beyond recover)', or the
possibility of defeating him. While he sat about
doing that the despicable fire-fiend, General Hun-
ter, was laying waste the beautiful and fruitful
Valley of Virginia, and undertaking his threatened
capture of Lynchburg, to prevent which General
Early, with Jackson's old 2d corps, was sent out to
meet and defeat him. That memorable march we
made by way of Gordonsville and Charlottesville

48 A BRIEF HISTORY

with such rapidity and dash as to enable us to rush
Hunter's van guard army back from its close prox-
imity to Lynchburg to his main body, and that
main body in turn also into precipitate flight on
and on through the mountain gaps clean to, and
across, the Ohio River.

Accomplishing that, in short order and with no
very serious opposition, we headed down the Valley
by the \\ray of Lexington to Staunton and Winches-
ter, and again crossed the Potomac River to Fred-
erick City, where we had a superb little victory in
routing so effectually General Lew Wallace, at
Monocacy whose army we drove for protection into
Washington City. Our march then was continued
to within sight of Washington where we went into
camp and enjoyed our captured provender in a most
comforting respite from active duty for a short period.
It has been wondered why General Early at that
time did not undertake the capture of Washington !
It is not in the province of this writing to under-
take to solve that problem.

OF carpenter's battery. 49

CHAPTER XV.

EARLY AND SHERIDAN CLASH.

Recrossing the Potomac at Leesburg we again
marched away for the Virginia Valley, and up and
down the old familiar places until General Sheridan
approached so close that we turned upon him and
moved upon Charles Town and Opequon Creek.
Meeting a body of the enemy at Wade's depot,
General Early directed Carpenter's Battery to dis-
lodge it, bat they having the better of us in guns
(6 to our 4) and exhibiting on that occasion unus-
ual and remarkable gunnery, in very short order
three of our guns were battered into uselessness, by
that ably handled battery. One of these disabled
guns, a 12-pound Napoleou, was struck in the muz-
zle by a solid shot, and flared out like a trumpet ;
a 3-inch rifle axle was broken in two and the third, a
rifled steel gun, was choked with a cap shell, all of
which put us entirely at the mercy of our relentless
foes, we being left with only one fighting gun to
contend against their six, which were so well doing
their deadly work. While endeavoriug to make
one good and effective gun out of the two disabled,
and trying to get the third unchoked the fire against
us was so desolating that in a little while our one
gun, which had been so valiantly battling against
such fearful odds, had been almost destroyed by the
bursting of a shell at so vital a place as to dismantle
it, killing 3 and wounding 3 others of our cannon-
eers, and leaving not more than two horses to serve
each limber or caisson. That frightful duel being
so uneven, in our dismantled condition from the
start, left us nothing to do but to withdraw, and
leave the enemy his well earned field of glory.

50 A BRIEF HISTORY

In evidence of the savage havoc of that bloody
fight between only two opposing batteries in the
short time of probably no more than thirty minutes,
our battery had been rendered helpless, with about
17 horses killed, 5 men killed outright, and 7 badly
wounded, besides others with slight wounds. What
a sorrowful day was that for Carpenter's Battery
whose glory then and there had its greatest eclipse,
on that red day, in that field of death and destruc-
tion.

At that time General Sheridan, taking advantage
of General Early's scattered forces, had determined,
it would seem, upon crushing us in detail, before
the latter could concentrate for defense. A clash
occurred on the Berryville road, below Winchester,
which was precipitated by our Captain John Car-
penter, who, upon discovering the close approach
of the enemy a short distance below where the main
fight had occurred, upon his own initiative unlim-
bered and began firing with telling effect. That
action brought our whole artillery battalion into
line in battle, which checked the enemy's dashing
forward movement until our infantry of Rhodes' s
division could get into position. Carpenter's Bat-
tery went into that action about 9 o'clock in the
morning, and was engaged continuously from then
until nightfall, being replenished with ammunition
from an ordnance wagon sent upon the field for that
purpose, and again from another battery alongside
while in position. In that field we changed posi-
tion frequently during the day, going over its sev-
eral parts. At one time, while on the left and some
distance advanced to the front with our Napoleon
section of two guns, the numerical strength of the
company having been so reduced by casualties as to
render it necessary to send the other section to the

OF carpenter's battery. 51

rear, we were charged by cavalry, which produced
fearful destruction of life and disabling; more par-
ticularly of the enemy. They had emerged from a
gorge, or hollow, between the hills unobserved and
began their charge upon us at about 600 yards dis-
tance, being formed into close column of companies,
and were of right adjustment for our canister fusil-
lade, which was poured into them most effectually,
thinning their ranks very decidedly, but without
thwarting their purpose. On they came gamely,
grimly, and swiftly, while our only alternative was
to give them repeated, double doses of canister, or
be captured or killed. When they were within
twenty paces of our guns we hurled a charge of
canister at them with deafening roar and that half
gallon of ounce balls crashing and tearing through
their ranks with telling effect threw them into mo-
mentary confusion, but they could not and dared
not halt, as that would have meant more certain
destruction, and so on they dashed pouring in
amongst our cannoneers, pell-mell, when surrender
on our part seemed inevitable, but the great mo-
mentum they had acquired in that mad rush, made
it impossible for them to stop, their front ranks
passing on through or by us and their ranks fol-
lowing. The moment they were passed another
round of timely shots from our still smoking guns
in addition to the scattering blows we had dealt
them from hand spikes and sponge staffs during
their quick passage through our battery were ready
and most potent persuaders to keep them going.
But almost simultaneously with the loud, clear
command of our undaunted captain, "Load with
canister, and fire to the rear," came also the sten-
torian voice of that Yankee colonel, "Halt ! About
face, — charge !" and charge they did, too, with the

52 A BRIEF HISTORY

most reckless intrepidity, just as our guns flew
around to the rear, and the limbers and caissons
flew out of the way, while our last charge of can-
ister was rammed into place. At that critically
breathless moment the Yankee colonel cried out
again, "Forward, charge !" Starting only a hun-
dred yards or less away and plunging on with the
speed of the wind and the impetuosity of a stam-
peded herd of wild buffalos, to break through our
cannoneers again, or slay us all, to regain their
command, the opportune moment had arrived for
our deadly execution. In quicker time than it can
be told, our captain having shouted "Fire !" at the
belching of our guns those heroic cavalrymen
quailed and fell into confusion. That death blow
had parted their ranks into two columns, which
hastily passed us, the one on our right and the other
on our left, to seek safety in retreat upon their main
lines which they had so recently and so bravely
parted from to make that splendid but disastrous
charge upon Carpenter's Battery. That, indeed,
was a superb and noble charge of a squadron of
cavalry, and the defense of that battery by its vet-
eran officers and men was equally as glorious. At
the ending of that frightful onslaught, those who
were left of those brave cavalrymen seemed to be
glad enough to get away alive and still mounted,
and probably no less glad and happy were we to
rid ourselves of their unfriendly presence. Had
our visitors known that that terrible volley of can-
ister had exhausted our ammunition, in all likeli-
hood they would have taken us and our guns along
with them, but at that most lucky moment our
means of escape to the rear was clear, and we too
made for a safer place with equal alacrity. How-
ever, we were soon again replenished with an ample

of carpenter's battery. 53

supply of ammunition and went into action in vari-
ous positions, being constantly engaged until late
in the evening, when Sheridan's whole army made
a concerted attack, and thundering down upon us
in all directions, with such overwhelming numbers
as to make necessary that heart-breaking retreat of
the whole army under General Jubal Early. After
the capture of many pieces of our artillery and ar-
tillerymen, and large numbers of the infantry, our
retreat became a panic and complete rout. As Car-
penter's Battery had fired the first guns of that
battle, as stated, by the initiative of our captain, it
is likewise true that we fired in 'that disastrous
stampede the last guns that were ever fired below
Winchester during the continuance of the war, by
our forces. The cost to the enemy of our deadly
work on that occasion must have been very great,
while to our battery alone it was unprecedented,
ii men being killed outright on the field and 20
being badly wounded and sent to the hospital in
Winchester, while many others were slightly wound-
ed. Our loss in horses killed and abandoned was
not less than 20. We retreated hurriedly and in-
continently up that old Valley that had witnessed
so many of our glorious victories under Stonewall
Jackson's magnificent and incomprehensibly fine
leadership, with Sheridan's army in close pursuit,
which in all truth was not so discreditable to Gen-
eral Early, as beyond any question of doubt Sheri-
dan with his immensely superior force and superbly
equipped cavalry, ought to have captured or slain
in those open plains every mother's son of us and
have gotten all of our equipage. At Fisher's Hill
we were again formed into battle line, but our ema-
ciated and exhausted condition rendered it impos-
sible for us to retrieve our lost fortune. Therefore,

54 A BRIEF HISTORY

after a short and desperate attempt at resistance,
we were compelled to abandon that position also,
and continue the retreat on up the Valley. Car-
penter's Battery had occupied a high wooded hill
to the left of both the Valley pike and the railroad,
with Battle's Alabama Brigade on its right and
Nichols' Louisiana Brigade on its left, and that was
the rallying point for our army which position Gen-
eral Early had ordered to be held at all hazards.
But soon the Louisiana Brigade gave way and had
vanished, while a little later the Alabama Brigade
also quit the field, and our battery at that juncture
being almost surrounded, and about to be pounced
upon, ceased firing, and we too had to fly to the
rear with only time enough left to save ourselves,
partly, our guns, caissons, horses, and everything
else being captured. After doing its whole duty
there, our battery loss was i man killed, 5 wounded,
and 27 missing. Continuing our retreat up the
Valley to New Market we there again made show
of battle, contesting doggedly every foot of the way
for several miles in good order until we reached
Brown's Gap, where reinforcements awaited us,
and where one of King's batteries which had been
quartered at Staunton was given to Captain Car-
penter to replace our loss at Fisher's Hill. From
Brown's Gap, with his small reinforcement General
Early sauntered forth to find the enemy again.
That being soon accomplished a brisk skirmish en-
sued, in which we had an opportunity to test the
metal of our new guns and thus Sheridan's army
was started on the back track down the Valley, we
following him with due elation of spirits, though
we failed to bring him to bay until we reached again
that fateful Fisher's Hill. Here Captain Carpenter
was again wounded, as was his usual custom, on

of carpenter's battery. 55

any favorable occasion. General Sheridan then
having fallen back to Cedar Creek went into camp
there, with a feeling, it is supposed, of absolute
security for his army. When that had been com-
paratively confirmed to General Sheridan it was
then that General Gordon, being placed in com-
mand temporarily of Early's army, moved our
infantry in single file by stealth over tangled path-
ways to the left flank of the unsuspecting enemy
before day dawn and completely routed the entire
force, capturing everything of their whole equip-
ment in one of the most signal and conclusive vic-
tories of the war ; and which he most undoubtedly
would have converted into final utter destruction,
or most disastrous routing of Sheridan's reserve
forces, as well, had he been permitted to gather the
full fruitage of his spleudid morning victory. But
Gereral Early resuming command at about 9 o'clock
that morning, deemed the victory complete and final
as it then so surely appeared to be, and, so, halting
his army and declining to push our victorious forces
forward under the inspiration of the valorous ex-
ploits of the earlier hours of that day he thus
afforded General Sheridan the only opportunity he
could have had to retrieve the day at the head of
heavy reinforcements, who seeing our hesitation
and indecision at that critical moment rushed upon
us in our inexcusable inaction of halting to pillage
the camps during which frightful accident of war
we were again defeated, and ignominiously put to
flight by a badly whipped army, being therein more
incurably crippled than ever before.

In that battle our battery lost 1 killed, several
wounded, and a number captured, among the latter
being one of our officers, Lieutenant Wm. T. Lambie,
who was then in command. We also lost two pieces
of artillery and their caissons and horses.

56 A BRIEF HISTORY

What a woeful catastrophe was that ! Arid how
easily it could have been avoided. Had General
Early pushed on after Sheridan's routed army, in
its panic-stricken condition, its continued flight
would so have demoralized his reserves, and Sher-
idan himself, as to have made a far different story
of ' ' The Ride of Sheridan ' ' and of the fame of that
accidentally famous General. But he was permitted
to give that crushing blow to our hitherto victorious
little army of the Valley, and our hearts were well
nigh broken in that sad and accidental Sheridan
victory. Made thus again to flee up the Valley so
involuntarily our next halt for battle was at
Waynesboro. There after a short respite in the
fighting we were again attacked and this time Car-
penter's Battery lost its two remaining guns, clearly
thus evidencing that there was no battle of that
army in which this battery was not well to the front,
and there doing its whole duty. After that we
were marched to Richmond hurriedly, and on down
the James River, to the south side, to Drury's Bluff,
to man, for a short time, a stationary battery, until
a field battery could be again procured for us, which
was about the last of February, 1865.

OF carpenter's battery. 57

CHAPTER XVI.

IN THE ROLE OF NEEDLE ARTIST.

Here I will ask again to be pardoned for relating
a little more personal experience, this incident hav-
ing prominent lodgment in my memory. While
encamped at the Half-way house, occupying an old
vacant store, or station, between Richmond and
Petersburg, I was invited to call upon some charming
young ladies, in return for the small courtesy shown
them of shelter from the rain while they awaited a
train to Richmond, but having no white store collar
for my one well worn old gray hunting shirt, and
beiug unable to procure one for love or money, the
only alternative was for me to make that essential
full dress equipment. This I proceeded to do, find-
ing for the purpose a small piece of white muslin,
and I acquitted myself so satisfactorily to myself in
its accomplishment, and was so proud of the unique
pattern and stitching of that particular work of art,
nothing would do but for me to preserve, and some
months later, show that dainty, dandy collar to my
mother, an accomplished needle lady, who at once
declared it to have been done in a most artistic
manner and highly creditable to the designer and
fabricator. And, O my friends, what is so incon-
trovertibly so as the say so of one's own dear mother?
So we had to substitute a common, coarse muslin,
of the most inferior quality for linen ; and the Con-
federate soldier's sewing and stitching for the fine
old home work of the ante-bellum days of our good
mothers, our sisters, and our cousins and our aunts.
But if any one of those sweet girls we visited, with
that collar a dominant feature of apparel, detected
the slightest difference between that alleged collar

58 A BRIEF HISTORY

and the genuine factor}- built article, no hint or
insinuation thereof escaped her, or was observed by
myself ; and so, to this remote day, I am still hug-
ging my pride that I made for myself " enduring
the war," under the inspiration of that prospective
visit to those lovable girls, a beautiful and refined
collar, which made me presentable and perso7ia grata
to them, and eligible in general for such an occa-
sion. Oh, would I had that collar now ! Nothing,
I am certain, ever preceded or succeeded that collar
at all like, or comparable to It. And my ! what a
treat it was, at that late day of that interminable
war for the soldier boy to enjoy the privilege of
visiting the beautiful and heart-loyal daughters of
Dixie ! On my part such visits could be outnum-
bered by the fingers on one of my hands. In short
and in fact to even see a pretty girl at that time of
enforced and prolonged separation from all female
society was simply to fall heels over head in love
with her there and then ; and the soldier's everlast-
ing adoration and constancy would never let go
until he saw the next girl, the next time at the
next place, be that early or late.

OF CARPENTER S .BATTERY.

59

CHAPTER XVII.

THE BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS.

After leaving that Half-way house encampment
we did from that time onward much moving about,
and some lesser fighting until late in March, when
we were ordered to report to General Pickett at
Five Forks, and Bloody Lane, near Dinwiddie
Courthouse, to take part in the battle of Five Forks.
There our Lieutenant Earl}*, formerly of Raines's
Battery, who had been assigned to the command of
Carpenter's Battery, no one of the latter's commis-
sioned officers being present on account of death or
wounds, was killed, and a number were wounded.
Many of our cannoneers were there captured, and
all our guns yet again fell into the hands of the
enemy, our battery at that time being commanded
by Corporal John Willey who with a few cannon-
eers made escape to the scattered fragment of Gen-
eral Lee's army, which had so heroically kept its
brave thin lines together in that harassed retreat
from Petersburg to Appomattox, where the exigen-
cies of war compelled us to surrender with desolate
hearts, but with spirits still aflame with the memo-
ries of our well sustained deeds of valor in that long
service, opposed to numbers impossible for us to
hold out against any longer with any hope of final
success. And thus must end this brief, incomplete
history of Carpenter's Battery, formerly the Alle-
ghany Roughs, which evidences for the company a
most active and brilliant career as a volunteer com-
pany of the Stonewall Brigade, of the Second Corps,
of the Army of Northern Virginia, from the first
battle of Manassas to the Appomattox termination
of that four years of privation, starvation, and dcs-

60 A BRIEF HISTORY

olation, from April 20th, 1861, to April 9th, 1865,
a period of four years, less eleven days, in the in-
numerable battles of which it sustained a loss of 46
men and officers killed outright and of more than
one hundred wounded.

OF carpenter's battery. 6 1

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SAD JOURNEY HOME.

But before finally closing these pages the author
will again be personal in the narrative of his home-
ward march when all was over and the great trag-
edy had closed forever.

While General Lee's little worn to a frazzle army
was being mobilized to surrender to General Grant,
I chose to decamp from Appomattox station on a
freight train for Lynchburg, hoping to be able from
the latter place to make my way to Johnson's army,
but the call at Lynchburg for volunteers to defend
that city induced me to seek attachment to the ar-
tillery service there, but instead of being placed in
that, I was asked to take charge of an ambulance
corps which was sent to the front to care for the
wounded and sick in the event of attack upon the
town. In the woods and all over the old fields at
a distance could be seen bodies of the enemy's cav-
alry, maneuvering as if to pounce upon us at any
moment, but in very short order we were notified,
in all parts of the field, to assemble on the heights
in the city, on doing which General Nelson, there
in command, proclaimed his intention to surrender
the little army present, stating that as General
Lee's surrender was then a matter of fact it would
be useless shedding of blood and would accomplish
nothing desirable for us to continue the defence of
Lynchburg. He therefore advised us all to con-
sent to surrender, also. However, said he, if any
of you whose homes are near by or are accessible
to you, desire to break ranks and go to your homes,
you are at liberty to avail yourselves of that priv-
ilege. Thereupon, seeing that all was lost and

62 A BRIEF HISTORY

hopeless, I left that untenable place, and made for
the mountain fastnesses of Craig County, and was
there sheltered and cared for by the kind and gra-
cious household of a good, loyal aunt who was at
that time rejoicing over the return of a son, my
cousin, who was one of the original members of the
Alleghany Roughs, and of Carpenter's Battery,
and who had continued in active and exemplary
service in the company until disabled at Malvern
Hill, from overexertion at his gun, in that terrible
encounter of the hosts of McClellan, in the awful
artillery duel of that field. Remaining at that hos-
pitable home for about a week's relaxation and
recuperation I then elected to foot it homeward to
join the dear ones from whom I had been so long
absent in the exactions of relentless warfare. It
must be remembered, too, that those eager, dear
ones had heard no tidings of me since the surrender,
except to learn from a sergeant of a battery in our
battalion, that he had seen me, a day or two before
the surrender, riding right into the front of the
enemy, and could but believe that I had been either
killed or captured. How confirmatory of their
fears did that story appear inasmuch as not a word
had been heard from me personally, or through
any other source? That kind of surmising and
conjecturing was far too frequently indulged in at
a time like that, and in this case the shock it pro-
duced was a dreadful blow to my dear mother and
to the others of our household, — my father and
sister. Nor did they recover from that depression
of mind and heart until I appeared in person to
them, just one month later, at their home fireside
in Ashland. And what a memorable meeting was
that to me and to them ! Through that sergeant's
unwarranted statement, and having heard nothing

OF carpenter's battery. 63

from me personally, they had mourned me as dead,
and my sudden, unheralded presence amongst them
at such a time was another shock to them all. But
this was quickly and joyfully succeeded by saluta-
tions and felicitations ending at once their lamenta-
tion and former despair, making that reunion a
time and place to be remembered and revered to
life's latest day, by that little group of happy par-
ticipants.

64 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER XIX.

A HARD MONEY STORY.

And not forgetting the hungry, fatiguing, tortur-
ing route, of nearly 500 miles, of that march from
my aunt's to my home in Ashland, induces me to
relate an incident which occurred en route that may
have some interest for some reader of these pages,
if I can ever persuade any one to read them up to
this finishing point. About dusk on a wet, raw
day, arriving at a country inn, much out of sorts
and fearing still worse indisposition if I should
sleep out in the rain that forbidding night, impelled
me to ask the landlord if he would accommodate
me with lodging somewhere in the house. This re-
quest being made after my confirming to him the
startling news he had just received of the surrender
of General Lee, thereupon he gently reminded me
that thereby Confederate money was invalidated,
and that I would have to pay him in hard money,
as he and all his mountain neighbors in those days
termed gold and silver. Instantly I conjectured
that I was dealing with a sordid biped of a man,
and I consented to trick the old commercial hotten-
tot, who would exact so great a hardship of a poor,
worn out, distressed and weary soldier, at such a
time, so it flashed upon me to exhibit a Mexican
silver dollar, which my loving aunt had graciously
given me at our parting in her mountain home,
with the admonition that I might need it in my
long, arduous march homeward. Producing that
and saying I would pay him "hard" money, I was
in due course provided for, and really had a night
in bed, and was served early in the morning a
breakfast vastly superior to a Stonewall Jackson

OF carpenter's battery. 65

breakfast, consisting of some grease and a little
corn bread. And now for a settlement of that
board bill with his pigship the inn-keeper. Hand-
ing him a two dollar Confederate bill from my old
somewhat pantaloons I thrust it toward him. With
a look of scorn and indignation he exclaimed, Sir,
you promised to pay me in hard money ! My friend,
said I, if that is not hard money I do not know
what hard mone3r is ; and looking as fiercely as I
could, with nay helpful companion of a double-bar-
reled shot gun, at a sort of present arms, he seemed
to be convinced that it was hard money and proceed-
ed to give me some change, in the shin-plaster scrip
of that day and generation, which was also hard
money ; quite as hard as the genuine Confederate
kind with the bona fide promise to pay the bearer
six months after the ratification of the treaty of
peace between the Confederate States of America
and the United States of America. This hard
money joke perpetrated on the old man I have
often thought of sending to some respectable publi-
cation with a joke-smith column for the edification
of the public, but this is its first appearance in print.
Those were rugged, disjointed, and most unhappy
times, but it may be said in all truth they were the
proudest and most glorious days of all his days for
the true Confederate soldier.

66 A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER XX.

WORK FOR FUTURE HISTORIAN.

There could be truthfully recorded here many in-
teresting and splendid personal deeds of the heroic
type performed by the officers and men of Carpen-
ter's Battery, but this should be done by some less
partial and non-participating historian, while we
members of this already highly honored and widely
known battery should be well satisfied with the
knowledge that our whole duty was done from first
to last and that proud memories remain with us,
and will sustain us until we too have all crossed
over the river to our final rest, with our immortal
leader

STONEWALL JACKSON !

Peerless, invincible, splendid and glorious ;

The Prince of earth's warriors great,
Whom to have served with, in fields so victorious,

Is glory enough to elate
The soul of the soldier who valiantly fought,

Where the prowess and daring and vim
Of his glorified Captain such victories wrought,

Which also so glorify him
Who shared in the name and the fame that was made
By the battle-scarred, war-renowned Stonewall Brigade.

He lived with the chaplet ablaze on his brow ;

He died 'neath the splendor of fame ;
Yet he lives in the hearts of his countrymen now,

With reverenced and immortal name ;
While his was the blessedness not to have known

The cause he so loved had been lost ;
Whose battles by him were so brilliantly won,

'Till over the river he crossed,
To rest evermore 'neath the shade of the trees,
Where glory eternal his life shall appease.

of carpenter's battery. 67

How blest was the Confederate Army of Northern
Virginia to have had such leaders as Lee and Jack-
son, Hill, Gordon and their like, in some others, but
these great soldiers had as followers in the ranks
soldiers who did as much for their fame and honor,
as did their own innate greatness of soul and mind,
while for both, officer and man, the righteous cause
for which they fought uplifted their manhood be-
yond the ordinary soldier, and fitted them for mon-
uments of time and immortality.

68

A BRIEF HISTORY

CHAPTER XXI.

ORIGINAL ROLL AND CASUALTIES.

The following is a list of the original company —

the Alleghany Roughs — which became later, and

remained to the end of the war, Carpenter's Battery ;

organized at Covington, Virginia, April 20th, 1861,

as follows :

ORIGINAL ROSTER.

NAME.
Thompson McAllister,
Joseph Carpenter,
George McKendree,
H. H. Dunott,
Anthony, Robt. I.
Alford, Marion
Bacon, Stephen W. P.
Baker, James T.
BancVer, Van R.
Branham, James W.
Baggage, Wm. W.
Byrd, George
Boswell, Joseph M.
Canty, Patrick
Carpenter, John C. ■
Carpenter, S. S.
Clark, James P.
Corr, Patrick
Dickey, L. T.
Dressier, Joseph S.
Foster, Hopkins B.
Fonerden, Clarence A.
Fudge, Wm. C.
Fudge, Joseph T.
Glenn, James
Grady, James
Hastings, Thomas
Hammond, James
Holmes, James P.
Hite, Wm. B.

RANK.

Captain,

1st Lieutenant,

2d Lieutenant,

3d Lieutenant,

1st Sergeant,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Corporal,

Private,

Private,

3d Sergeant,

Private,

Private.

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Private,

Corporal,

Private.

Private,

AGE.

49 years.
— years.

27 years.

28 years.
iS years.
23 years.

18 years
22 years.
22 years.

26 years.

20 years.

21 years.

27 years.
31 years.

22 years.

19 years.
iS years.

23 years.

26 years.

23 years.

20 years.

20 years.

24 years.

21 years.
41 years.

27 years.
23 years.

20 years.

21 years.
21 years.

OF CARPENTER S BATTERY

69

NAME. RANK.

Humphries, William Private,

Jordan, Chas. O. Sergeant,

Jordan, Edward W. Private,

Jones, Peter Private,

Jordan, James A. Private,

Karnes, Benami Sergeant,

Karnes, Patrick Private,

Karnes, John Private,

Karnes, Francis L. Private,

King, John Private,

Kimberlin, Joseph Private,.

Knight, John M. Private,

Kupp, B. H. Private,

Low, Samuel Private,

Lambie, Win. T. Private,

Lafferty, Charles Private,

Lampkins, John Private,

Moran, William Private,

Montague, Robert Private,

Matheny, John W. Private,

MiHigan, John Private,

Murrell, Wm. M. Private,

McAllister, Wm. M. Private,

McDonald, Gabriel Private,

McGowan, Andrew Private,

McMahan, Patrick Private,

McKernan, Thomas Private,

McCullough, John Private,

McK night, George R. Private,

Myers, Jacob L. Private,

Otey, Virginius B. Private,

Pence, Peter M. Private,

Pitzer, Wm. D. W. Private,

Quinlin, Michael Private,

Rogers, James A. Private,

Rosser, Thomas W. Private,

Rose, James E. Private,

Ray, Henry B. Private;

Read, Alexander Private,

Read, James W. Private,

Riley, James M. C. Private,

Rixey, John G. Sergeant,

AGE.

23 years.
21 years.

26 years.
19 years.
— years.

24 years.

25 years.
21 years.

27 years.
21 years.
24 years.

21 years.

28 years.

22 years.

23 years.

30 years.
35 years.
23 years.

19 years.
22 years.

21 years.

20 years.
iS years.

31 years.

22 years.
28 years.

30 years.

22 years.

23 years.
19 years.

21 years.
21 years.
21 years.

21 years.

22 years.
19 years.

24 years.
26 years.
21 years.
35 years.

31 years.
30 years.

A BRIEF HISTORY

NAME.

RANK.

AGE.

Sawyers, John

Private,

24 years

Scott, Kyle C.

Private,

22 years

Stewart, John W.

Private,

19 years

Stewart, Benjamin P.

Private,

27 years

Steele, William

Private,

27 years

Smith, John

Private,

30 years

Smith, Patrick

Private,

40 years

Thompson, I. H.

Corporal ,

22 years

Vowells, Philip D.

Corporal ,

35 years

The recruits added to the above original list from
time to time during the war, as nearly as may be
remembered, or collected from any source procur-
able at this remote date, are as follows :

J. M. Carpenter, J. H. A. Boswell, George
Crawford, Thomas M. Jordan, Samuel Matheny,
Archibald A. Fudge, James P. Payne, Charles S.
J. Skeen, Tedford A. Sively and C. C. Via, from
Alleghany County, Va.

William S. Arey, George F. Arey, Benjamin
CaricofT, Samuel M. Woodward, Thomas D. Wood-
ward, Booker Hunter, and Chesley Woodward, from
Augusta County, Va.

W. Barnes, from Nelson County, Va.

F. W. Figgatt, J. F. Lotts, James Leopard, J.
M. Mackay, Reuben L. Martin, James Walker,
Wm. J. Winn, and David Syren, from Rockbridge
County, Va.

J. Sprecker, S. Sprecker, and J. Swindle, from
Wythe County, Va.

When the Cutshaw Battery was merged into Car-
penter's Battery it embraced the following list :
Lieutenant D. R. Barton, J. W. Willey, Fred Willey,
G. A. Williams, J. W. Hoffman, W. F. Coburn, W.
J. Miller, E. W. Pifer, J. M. Wilkinson, H. Riden-
our, Fred Ridings, A. W. Staff, W. VV. Reid, W.

of carpenter's battery. 71

F. Hicks, A. McCarty, George Keeler, Daniel W.
Kline, Charles Kaiser, James Beeler, L. P. Blake,
Joseph Cooley, M. Clernm, A. Ridenour, T. T.
Hite, George E. Everett, John McCarty, W. J. V.
Jones, H. Lauck, A. J. Barrow, W. S. Bradford,
J. W. Edmondson, Joseph Manne, W. W. Demp-
sey, Joseph Allemong, James C. Reid, Samuel Ma-
theney, R. N. St. John, William St. John and - —
Fitzgerald.

It will thus appear that the total enrollment of
Carpenter's Battery from first to last was about 150
men, 46 of whom were killed in battle, while the
wounded, if we are to include those who were hurt
upon the field more than once, would more than
consume the entire enrollment. In twenty-five of
our battles we have a list of 124 wounded, not in-
cluding the killed.

At the first battle of Manassas our killed num-
bered 6 ; 2d battle Manassas, 1 ; Kelley's Ford, 1 ;
1st Winchester, 2 ; 2d, 1 ; 3d, 11 ; Cedar Creek,
1 ; Cedar Mountain, 1 ; 1st Fredericksburg, 3 ;
2d, 1 ; Fisher's Hill, 1 ; Spottsylvania, 1 ; Wade's
Depot, 5 ; Gettysburg, 8 ; Malvern Hill, 2 ; Five
Forks, 1 ; totaling 46.

After the first battle of Manassas, on August
8th, 1861, on the reorganization of the commission-
ed officers, this second status was :

Joseph Carpenter, captain ; John C. Carpenter,
1 st lieutenant ; George McKendree, 2d lieutenant ;
Wm. T. Lambie, 2d lieutenant, Jr.

Later, the third status was :

John C. Carpenter, captain ; Wm. T. Lambie,
1st lieutenant ; S. S. Carpenter, 2d lieutenant ;
Chas. O. Jordan, 2d lieutenant, Jr.

Additional to this two other lieutenants were as-

72 A BRIEF HISTORY

sigued to the battery, Lieutenant D. R. Barton,
from the Cutshaw Battery, who was killed at Fred-
ericksburg, and Lieutenant Early, of Raines's Bat-
tery, who was killed at Five Forks.

This brief and altogether inadequate history of
Carpenter's Battery is written a little less than
fifty years after the first battle of Manassas, and so
few of its old members are left, and these few are,
for the greater part, so far separated from each
other, as to make it impossible to obtain the proper
data for anything like a true and correctly elabo-
rated account of the activity of a company, which
saw such constant work as a whole and individ-
ually, as did this battery. Inadequate as it is, it
is submitted to the sons and daughters and other
generations of the brave and heroic men who made
it a history honoring and ennobling not alone them-
selves as participants but their devoted descendants
as v/ell to the end of time, in whose respect and
remembrance we now leave them reverentially
without fear and without reproach.

of carpenter's battery. 73

CHAPTER XXII.

MANASSAS PEACE JUBILEE.

On July 2 1 st, 191 1, was commemorated the Fif-
tieth Anniversary of the first battle of Manassas
on identically the same old sunbaked field where
the tragedies of July 21st, 1861, were enacted, in
all the savage ferocity of that sanguinary collision
of the Blue and the Gray in relentless, pitiless war.
At this latter meeting of those erstwhile foes of
1 86 1 whose enmity held together for four almost
interminable years, was commemorated a Peace
Jubilee so harmonious and commendable as to make
it worthy of record in this history, where some of
its occurrences may be contrasted with those of the
sceues and acts of that death dealing time of fifty
years ago, which are prominently featured on pre-
vious pages.

At that first meeting there were probably, in the
five regiments constituting the Stonewall Brigade,
3,000 of us to give a warm reception to the boys in
Blue, while at this last meeting there were only
three of us present, as far as we could ascertain, to
welcome our friends of the North. The truth of it
is, the old boys of the old Stonewall Brigade in
very large part have passed over the river, while
the comparatively few that are left are scattered to
all points of the compass, at remote distances. On
the last and most important day of this celebration
a great concourse of people assembled, consist-
ing, for the greater part, of country people from
the neighboring villages and counties for many
miles around and about, who came in all conceiva-
ble manner of vehicles, from the automobile, car-
riage, and buggy, to the common road wagon and

74 A BRIEF HISTORY

cart, which conveyed probably 2,000 or 2,500 of
these visitors. The number of old soldiers was
comparatively small, embracing, we think, not more
than 200 Confederates and 100 Federals. But de-
spite these sparce numbers of the Blue and the Gray,
the meeting was a great and good one, rife as it
was with such fraternal good will, and every mani-
festation of warmth of friendship between them,
and evidencing, as it did, such enthusiastic enjoy-
ment upon the part of all.

In numbering the old boys in Blue at 100, we must
not omit to mention that there were present, also,
a large troop of regular United States Cavalry, whose
fine drilling and maneuvering so graced the occa-
sion and so greatly enhanced its enjoyment. Their
present status of wonderful acquirements makes
their performances an entertainment equaling that
of the modern circus, as to the training and intelli-
gence of their horses. The riding is truly superb,
and its present day attainments make the horse and
•his rider a true counterpart of the veritable centaur.

On the morning of the 21st, all who had assem-
bled at Manassas previously and those who then
arrived, had to be conveyed to the battlefield, five
or six miles distant, by carriages, hacks, or other
"vehicles, and the sticky red dust of the drought-
-dried roads forcibly reminded us of the 1S61 period
of that particular time in that particular matter of
dust and grime. Another similarity of the old time
•trial and torments was that of the burning, wither-
ing heat of the sun, which again made that field
almost unendurable to the sweltering mass of cele-
brants.

Again, too, the pressing need and scarcity of
"water reinstated the old condition of distress in that
appalling deprivation. And yet again, later in the

of carpenter's battery. 75

day there burst upon those old plains, very sud-
denly, an electric storm, the lightning and thunder
of which were vivid reminders and picturings of
the fury and storm of the blazing and booming ar-
tillery of the old day. But while in those few in-
stances the two July days, of an interval of fifty
years, bore close resemblance, each to the other in
some other ways, the dissimilarity was very marked.

For example, amply numerous banqueting tables
were spread, to the proverbially groaning point,
with finely prepared and most palatable victuals,
all of which were in superabundance and of epi-
curean quality, served by ladies whose understand-
ing of their office gave grace and piquancy to
that function, to the delight and satisfaction of all
partakers of that fine feast. Had the old Stonewall
Brigade collided with that beautiful banquet, sore
and hungry as they were just fifty years ago, it
would have required no command, to put on your
appetites and charge, boys, from old Jack, to have
begotten a descent upon those tables which would
have killed or captured every mouthful of bread
and meat or sip of coffee, leaving not a morsel of
all that provender to tell the tale of utter annihila-
tion.

Who can imagine a picture any more replete
with the tranquillity and joyousness of Peace than
that of the Blue and the Gray banqueting together
in the good cheer and brotherly love that belongs
therewith ! The salient feature of the occasion,
however, was the hand-grasp of fraternal welcome,
of good will, and true reciprocity of kindliness be-
tween the Blue and the Gray of that great day.
Both participants, in that cordial clasping of hands,
and the spectator having any proper understanding
of its true meaning, must have been deeply im-

76 A BRIEF HISTORY

pressed with the solemnity and importance of it,
pregnant as it was with deep and far reaching sig-
nificance of a true peace and unity of North, South,
East and West into one grand central whole of in-
separable and perpetual brotherly love.

To the northward into line assembled the Blue,
and southward into line the Gray which formation
was photographed by the official photographer of
the Peace Jubilee, into a picture of much historic
interest and value to whom it may concern. When
the picture was finished, and the camera withdrawn,
the Blue and the Gray lines forwarded upon each
other, to within hand-clasping distance, and warmly
saluted, man to man, in that way of fraternal greet-
ing that only true friends and earnest votaries of
peace and harmony feel and know. Of both these
functious — the banqueting and the hand-shaking —
it may be said, they were interesting, commendable,
and most beautifully accomplished ; and we of the
Gray hope our brethren of the Blue enjoyed them
equally with ourselves.

To other enjoyable features was added that of
the fine speaking of orators on both sides, who were
duly appointed to that office, and who acquitted
themselves with the unstinted applause and ap-
proval of the assembled hosts.

Near the conclusion of the ceremonies out on the
field a pouring rain fell upon that parched and
red-hot place, in perfect torrents, which must have
wet to the soaking point many of the visitors, there
being no adequate shelter, or protection for the
people. Yet that was a most welcome and delight-
ful downpour, the drought having been of such
long duration, and so ruinous to the farm and gar-
den vegetation of that section, rendering too its
dust almost unbearable, or certainly very discom-

OF CARPENTERS BATTERY. 77

forting to whoever had to breathe or battle with it.
When the rain had about ceased the scurrying back
to Manassas began, very quickly giving evidence of
the incapacity of conveyance accommodation, al-
though all who desired to do so probably did get
back in time to hear the fine and particularly ap-
propriate speech of President Taft, full of promise
and peace, and the timely setting forth of facts in
accord with the Peace Jubilee and Reunion spirit of
that auspicious da3\ His oration was especially
felicitous in the expression of his appreciation of
the old soldier, Union and Confederate alike, which
won for him their equal admiration. There were,
also, other speeches of welcome and salutation,
filled to the brim with witticisms and eloquence,
jnost creditable to their authors, which entertain-
ment was held on the Court House square.

The night before, at the same place, was gath-
ered a large audience to witness a fine and beauti-
ful tableau drill, executed by the pretty, graceful
girls of Manassas, who certainly did that program
number with great credit to themselves, and being-
rewarded with the unanimous praise and admira-
tion of that large assembly. After that came the
fine, five minute camp fire speeches, by local and
abroad orators, who did justice to the occasion and
proved themselves rich and felicitous entertainers
in army life jokes and witticisms, which never fail
to produce highly pleasing and edifying effects,
when perpetrated by the Hail Fellow well met at
such a time and place.

I wish time and space would admit of the em-
bellishment of these pages with a goodly portion of
the funny and interesting anecdotes and facetiae of
that series of speeches and talks, but they must be
regretfully omitted. The Blue speakers, I think,

78 A BRIEF HISTORY

outnumbered the Gray, and what they said, and
the manner of saying it, made a fine impression,
and begot for themselves the good will of all.

Of Manassas it may be said, she was in her glory,
and was gloriously attired, being emblazoned with
innumerable banners, bunting, and festoonings of
all bright colors, the charming effect of which made
the old town glint and glisten — a thing of beauty
and a joy forever !

So taken in parts or as a whole, or all in all that
Fiftieth Anniversary of the first Manassas ; its
Peace Jubilee and Reunion of the Blue and the
Gray was a most enjoyable and creditable celebra-
tion.

Let us hope, in estimating so highly its great
pleasures, that its resultant good will be far reach-
ing and of never ending endurance !

History of Carpenter's Battery

Is on sale by the publishers, Henkel & Co.,
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