For several days after the close of the seven days’ campaign the army lay quiet, and White’s people had a delightful camp at Meadow Bridge, about 7 miles from Richmond, on the Rail Road, from which they could send to the city daily for such luxuries as the markets afforded; and during this time there was not much to do in the way of carrying dispatches, so that there was little to do except rest. Here the company held an election for Orderly Sergeant, which resulted in the choice of C. M. C. Whaley, for that important position, and the list of non-commissioned officers was now full, viz: Edward S. Wright, 2d Sergt.; Benjamin F. Conrad, 3d Sergt.; John Dove, 4th Sergt.; and J. Mortimore Kilgour, 5th Sergeant and Quartermaster; John T. Tribbey, 1st Corporal; Daniel C. Pettingall, 2d Corporal; William Snoots, 3d Corporal; and Peter J. Kabrich, 4th Corporal. About the 10th of July, Gen. Ewell marched his division to his old camp near Liberty Mills, on the Rapidan, where for some weeks he remained watching “Mr. Head-quarters-in-the-saddle,” who was prospecting towards Gordonsville, in the new “On to Richmond” movement of his own White’s company had now increased to nearly one hundred men, and the Captain spent much time in scouting in Madison County, which was just on the border of the “grand army,” and very much infested with its cavalry raiding parties. On one occasion, with about thirty men, he drove a strong force of infantry and cavalry from Madison C. H., making the citizens imagine that they were once more free from the terrible dominion of Pope. And again, from the mountain top near Wolfton, he discovered a company of cavalry engaged in plundering a farm-house, and as rapidly as possible came down on them; but owing to the fact that some of his men had been seen by the enemy as they descended the mountain, he was only able to catch about half a dozen, chasing, however, the remainder out of their hats, and into their camp. About the last of July, Capt. White left camp at dark, and marching all night, with After about an hour’s watching and waiting, which, to the lonely picket appeared like four hours, the Captain came up with a part of his squad, and before the Yankees knew it, the rebels were in the yard; when, hastily leaving the table, they each “took a tree,” and with their carbines attempted to fight it out; but it was too late, and with what grace they could command, the foragers had to “on to Richmond.” The next expedition White made was for the purpose of bushwhacking a patrol of cavalry, which daily passed over the road from Robertson river to Madison C. H., and reaching the road in the evening, he dismounted his men and placed them in the woods alongside of it, sending Lieut. Myers, with Ferro and Spicer, up the road as a decoy, expecting the Yankees to chase these men "Best laid schemes o’ mice and men, Gang aft agley," and the patrol failed to pass that evening. In the morning the Captain moved his people by the Poorhouse to another point on the road; but, after waiting about two hours, found the enemy advancing in strong force of infantry and cavalry to occupy the Court House, and on exchanging a few shots found a full brigade developed against him, when he retired. On the way to camp in the afternoon the Confederate pickets at Jack’s Shop, without any warning at all, fired upon the little company, fortunately without doing any damage, when the Captain galloped forward alone and succeeded in rallying the retreating pickets and convincing them that they were running from their own men. When White’s men came up they found their Captain talking very sharply to the pickets about firing on him before they halted him, and high words were passing, when one of the firing party said "if you wasn’t a Captain you shouldn’t talk that way;" but the Captain exclaimed "no I ain’t; I’m no Captain; I’m Lige White, and can whip you any way! Come on! I dare you!" But nobody took up the gauntlet; and with a pleasant little malediction on cowards everywhere, About the 6th of August Gen. Jackson commenced to show some uneasiness, and ordered Gen. Ewell down the road towards Louisa, but came back the next evening, and instead of halting at the old camp, kept right on towards Culpeper, and commenced picketing beyond Robertson river. The boys begun to have ideas that the man with the movable headquarters had better commence moving; but when they found that Jackson’s Quartermaster-General (Banks) was in front, they said they "just knew ’Old Stonewall’ was getting scarce of supplies and only came up after some." On the morning of the 9th, as White’s boys were lazily lying around the shady yard of the house where General Ewell’s headquarters were, talking about the prospects, in imagination, of ever seeing Loudoun again, and listening to the General’s baby-talk to some little children he had coaxed to come to him on the porch, Gen. Jackson rode up, and very soon the two were studying intently some maps and papers which they spread out on the floor. Gen. Ewell’s ideas appeared to be in accord with "Stonewall’s," and they soon laid themselves out for a rest; but after dinner everybody got busy all at once, and it wasn’t very long until we found ourselves face to face with a Yankee line The shells and solid shot now hailed thick around the Confederate position on the mountain, and the Louisiana brigade, which had taken post there, enjoyed it hugely, some of the men being on the open ground in front, instead of in rear of the battery, where they belonged, would run to the places where the Yankee shot tore up the earth and coolly sit down, saying they were safe now, “as lightning never struck twice in the same place,” but some of them lost their heads by the operation in spite of the proverb. The battle raged with great violence until dark, and even when her sable wing had spread over the wild scene of blood and death, the artillery continued to fire, and if there is anything in war that can be called splendidly beautiful, it is a night cannonade, when high overhead, in the very middle, apparently, of the black field, the hissing When the firing ceased White’s men had left the mountain and advanced to a house near where the Yankee battery which had been the recipient of Lattimer’s first compliment had stood, the enemy having been driven back a considerable distance, and here they laid down and slept soundly till daylight, when their first notion was to look around for Yankees and plunder, in which interesting occupation they passed the time until noon, having secured a number of prisoners and quite a large quantity of arms and other trophies of the battle-field. About 1 o’clock the company retired to a large spring, near the house before spoken of, and unbitting their horses, turned them out to graze, while the men lay in the shade of the trees around the spring reading the Yankee papers they had gathered up. The Captain was very busily engaged in conversation with Mr. Henry Ball, who had just come from Loudoun, and brought to the Captain the delightful intelligence that his wife was near the old camp at Somerset, having accompanied Mr. Ball through the Yankee lines without difficulty. Soon after this a commotion was heard in the direction of the ordnance detail, and before the men had time to get up, a squadron of Yankee cavalry charged down upon them, firing, yelling, and making everything look very blue. There was of course great consternation among White’s people, but all scrambled to their horses—the Captain mounting his own before putting the bit in its mouth—and as soon as they found themselves in their “headquarters,” the confusion manifestly subsided, so that when Capt. White called on them to follow him in a charge upon the enemy, they responded gallantly, and chased the Yankee squadron in most splendid style over the same track they had come, at the same time rescuing Major Christie and his detail from the hands of the Yankees. Two of the men who were with the Major had already effected their escape, viz: Jas. H. Mock, by splendid riding, and Thomas Spates The horses of Lieut. Myers and Sergt. Conrad carried them some distance in pursuit of the enemy after the balance of the company had retired, and were not stopped until the two men found themselves exposed to the fire of a line of infantry, which wounded Conrad’s horse, when they too fell back, but not until the Sergeant had cursed heartily the Yankees who shot his steed. From his position on the top of Slaughter Mountain Gen. Ewell had witnessed the whole of the gallant affair, and he complimented the Captain very highly, calling it “a beautiful thing.” This advance of the Yankees, and skirmish of White, brought on a fight among the cavalry of both armies, which resulted in the discomfiture of the enemy and capture of Gen. Prince. The next morning Capt. White obtained permission to visit his wife, and the command of the After dark, when the company had rejoined the General, the division withdrew from the mountain, and White’s men were left to keep up the fires and make the Yankees believe the whole force was still there; and once, when Sam White and John Marlow piled hay on a fire, making a blaze that lighted up the side of the mountain, the General threatened to “throw a pistol ball among them if they did so any more,” but they quietly promised to return all the pistol balls he threw them; however, they put no more hay on the fires. About midnight the General ordered Lieut. Myers to take his company and march rapidly to the bridge at Liberty Mills, with instructions to hold it and prevent the Yankees from destroying it before the infantry could get up. About daylight they reached the bridge, and in half an hour an order came to send ten men, as couriers, to report to the General on a road north of the Rapidan, but after considerable difficulty Pope made a stand on the Rappahannock, and while waiting for the Southern army to drive him back again Capt. White perfected his plans for the Loudoun expedition, and at Warrenton White Sulphur Springs got Gen. Ewell’s sanction to it. When, on the 25th of August, “Stonewall” left the main army and started on his flank movement to Manassas, White marched with him, crossing the river opposite Orleans, after which he made as fast time as possible in order to gain the front of Jackson’s corps, which he succeeded in doing at Salem. Just as his company passed the last regiment the men, who had halted to rest, called out, "you wouldn’t have caught up with us if the Colonel’s horse hadn’t given out." At sunset the raiding party, having cleared all the troops, marched to the Bull Run Mountain, which point they reached about daylight, and where they proposed to lie over until night of the 26th. During the day the true-hearted citizens of the neighborhood brought in plenty to eat, and some of them spent a great part of the day in the camp, among them Mr. Ball, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Wynkoop and others. When the dark came down over the mountain While lying here a party of eight was heard passing the road from Leesburg, who, from their conversation, were rightly judged to have been scouting all night to learn if there was any movements of the Southern army to the northward, and their words proved that they were perfectly satisfied and felt entirely secure, for among other As soon as this party passed beyond hearing, White moved his people to Mr. Hollingsworth’s barn-yard, where about twenty of them were dismounted, under command of Capt. Randolph, and ordered to march to the enemy’s quarters, which were in the Baptist meeting-house, about one hundred yards distant, with instructions not to fire until they entered the house, or, in case the enemy was outside, to get into the yard with them before firing, and then to rush upon them and go with them into the house. The Captain held the remainder of his men mounted, and rode to the brow of the hill in the road by Hollingsworth’s gate to wait for the movement of Randolph to drive the Yankee boys from their quarters, when the cavalry would dash down and capture them. Dawn was just beginning to turn the black of night to the gray of early morn when the movement commenced, and on Capt. Randolph’s party getting near enough to see, they discovered Means’ whole force standing in the yard listening to the report of their scouting party, which had just come in, and though they looked wonderingly at the infantry advance of White’s army, not one of them said a word; but in spite of his orders, As soon as the firing commenced White brought his cavalry down the road at a gallop, and halting long enough to fire a round or two at the side windows of the meeting-house, discovered quite a number of Means’ men leaping from the windows and making the fastest kind of time across the lots below the house, so calling on his boys to follow the Captain made a dash down into town, but only succeeded in capturing two of the fugitives. From here some of the men galloped down to Means’ house in the hope of getting that gentleman, but he was by that time “over the hills and far away,” according to his custom when rebel bullets were on the wing. Returning to the meeting-house, in broad daylight, White found his infantry laying close siege White lost Brook Hays, killed, and Corporal Peter J. Kabrich, mortally wounded; both gallant soldiers as ever drew a sabre. A few others were slightly injured. The enemy lost about seven or eight in killed and wounded. They had been under the galling rule of Yankeedom, as administered by such as Geary, until The two parties united about sunset, at Aldie, where all partook of an excellent supper at Mr. Henry Ball’s, and where the Captain again met his wife, but not for long could he remain in this earthly Eden, for while here the Rev. John Pickett notified the command that he had found a brigade of Yankee cavalry at the Plains, on the Manassas Gap Rail Road, and immediately the overloaded little band prepared for a night march to Manassas, making the third night of sleepless travel. But all kept up, and about 9 o’clock on the morning of the 28th August, Capt. White reported to Gen. Ewell, and when evening came the boys carried their General from the battle-field to the house of Mr. Buckner, he having been badly wounded in the leg. And it now appeared that what they had considered as irksome duty, that of acting as couriers for Gen. Ewell and his brigadiers, was to the company the easiest and most pleasant they had ever or would ever perform; Citizens, also, who had heard of the capture of Means’ horses at Waterford, came to look at the stock, and as that command had been mounted on horses taken from the people of Loudoun, and Capt. White invariably returned their property, it was not long until all the captured horses, so far as White’s men were concerned, were among the things that had been. Pope’s army, too, as an army, was in the same situation, and the quarters for “Stonewall Jackson and 16,000 prisoners,” which the mighty bummer had ordered to be prepared at Washington, were not occupied—for John had to “skedaddle,” and just in his rear “old Stonewall” with that identical little party of 16,000 “foot cavalry” pushed bravely on, and with him went White and all his mounted men fit for duty, while Myers was sent to Loudoun in charge of dismounted men, and such as had broken down horses, for the double purpose of recruiting in both men and horses. |