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3TORICAL. 

)GY  COLLECTION 


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ALLEN  COUNTY, PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


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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 


p 


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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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of 

fflarpnttn*'s  Satterg, 


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. 


r 


-- 


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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4.    '     J     *\/ 


*f? 


P«l 


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., 
New  Market,  Va.;  or  the  author,  C.  A. 
Fonerden;  No.  590  N.  Gay  street,  Balti- 
more, Md. 

Prick  :  75  cts.,  postpaid,  bound  in  cloth.  In  dozen 
or  more  lots,  50  cts.  each,  the  purchaser  to  pay  trans- 
portation charges. 

The  book  may  be  had  of  book-sellers,  upon  applica- 
tion. 


ARBUTUS! 

O  !  fragrant,  enchanting  Arbutus  ; 

All  beautiful  too ! 
How  rich  and  complete,  how  daintily  sweet 

Forever  are  you  : 
Exhaled  from  no  bower  of  bloom 
Ever  came  there  so  rare  a  perfume. 

What  perfection  of  odor  is  yours, 

And  yours  the  sweet  gift 
In  beauty  of  grace,  our  cares  to  efface, 

Our  souls  to  uplift, 
When  from  blossoming  beauty  so  rare 
Your  sweetness  enriches  the  air. 

When  the  white  and  the  delicate  pink 

Were  blended  in  you 
There  instantly  came  into  blossom  aflame 

Your  beautiful  hue, 
In  the  redolent,  radiant  bloom 
Inexpressibly  sweet  of  perfume. 


The  author   of   this    Odoriferous  Ode  is  the  author 
also  of  the  only  True  and  Genuine  Arbutus  Extract". 

Arbutus  Toilet  Water;  Arbutus  Sachet  and  Arbu- 
tus Talcum  Powder,  anyone  of  which  is  unequaled 
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Who  has  ever  made  an   Extract  of 
Arbutus  equal  to  ours  ?     An  Azurina, 
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genuine,  natural  Flower  odor  ? 

The  four  Speeiah  named  are  the 
latest,  daintiest,  most  delightful  hand- 
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We  prepay  Postage  or  Express,  and 
give  you  a  double  quantity  in  a  first 
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Will  send  you  a  dollar's  worth  of 
either,  or  the  four  kinds  assorted, 
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