THEBALTIMORE LIGHT ARTILLERY.
It was towards the close of a pleasant day in October, 1861, that the First Maryland Infantry dragged its weary length into camp near Centreville, after a long and fruitless expedition to Pohick Church in search of the enemy. Things seemed much changed, indeed, since their departure, for in their absence a battery of artillery had invaded the sacred confines of their camp, and a scowl was observed upon more than one face, for we were jealous of our rights and dared maintain them. Judge then our surprise when informed it was a battery manned by brother Marylanders, and called the “Baltimore Light Artillery.” They had just been organized at Richmond, and forwarded to the army at Centreville during our absence. They were welcomed, most heartily welcomed, and it was not long ere we discovered old friends and acquaintances among them.
Before many hours had elapsed we paid our respects to the officers of the battery, and found them to be the true type of the Maryland and Virginia gentlemen. But here they are:
Capt. W. HUNTER GRIFFIN.
Capt. W. HUNTER GRIFFIN.
Capt. W. HUNTER GRIFFIN.
Captain J. B. Brockenborough was a Virginian, a graduate of the Military Institute at Lexington, and a son of Judge Brockenborough, whose name is so well known to the people of the South. He was a young man, not long from college, but in that intellectual face you read more than the ordinary man, and the honor and glory with which he subsequently enveloped his fine command is a matter of history.
His First Lieutenant, W. Hunter Griffin, was also a Virginian, but had been engaged in business in Baltimore for many years. Brave, noble-hearted Griffin; how little I thought, as for the first time I took his hand, we should pass together through so many stirring scenes in the field and prison, for with the mention of his name appears before me all the horrors of the retaliatory dens and dungeons of Morris Island and Fort Pulaski. There we shared between us the wretched pittance given to sustain a bare existence, and there we more than once divided our last dollar.
Second Lieutenant, W. B. Bean, was a Marylander, and a fine officer and brave soldier.
Third Lieutenant, George Wilhelm, was also a Marylander, and during the little while he was with the battery proved himself an efficient officer. On his resigning the dashing McNulty was appointed to fill the vacancy.
Thepersonnelof the men was unsurpassed in the army, and was it a wonder, then, that with suchofficers, and such men, the Baltimore Light Artillery should soon become a household-word in the army of Northern Virginia.
During the winter of 1861 and 1862 the battery remained quietly in camp at Manassas, and when the army of General Joseph E. Johnston fell back from that place in March, they were ordered to remain with General Ewell upon the banks of the Rappahannock.
Here about the 1st of April the enemy for the first time heard the bellowing of their loud-mouthed Blakeleys, which were destined to carry death and destruction into their ranks upon more than one bloody field.
It was a lovely afternoon, and fresh in my memory, that the enemy were observed advancing in force towards the river. Their approach had been long expected, and preparations made to receive them. The Baltimore Light Artillery was posted on the extreme right of General Elzey’s brigade, and supported by the First Maryland Infantry. As the dense masses of the enemy came within range, Brockenborough opened with such accuracy of aim as to attract the attention of Elzey, who upon the spot predicted for them a glorious future. For an hour or two the fight was sharp and severe, and most of the enemy’s artillery fire concentrated upon the Maryland battery; but they stood their ground and fought their pieces like veterans of an hundred battles. Late in the evening the enemy retired, and left us masters of the field.
Once or twice after, they advanced in small force towards the river, but Brockenborough was ever ready to receive them, and a shell or two sufficed to drive them back.
On the 19th of April, 1862, the division of General Ewell broke camp, and began the wretched march to Gordonsville, and of which I have spoken in the First Maryland. For three days the rain poured in torrents, making the roads almost impassable, and for three days the officers and men of the Baltimore battery toiled through the mud, into which the wheels sank to the hubs, and at length reached Gordonsville.
After a halt here of three or four days, the division of General Ewell marched to join Jackson at Swift Run Gap.
After the return of that General from McDowell, the whole array advanced upon Kenly’s forces at Front Royal, and in the sharp fight which ensued the battery took a prominent part.
Early on the 25th of May, Jackson’s army stood in battle array before Winchester, and the engagement soon began. The Baltimore Light Artillery was stationed on the right, and throughout the fight played with much effect upon the enemy’s columns.
A few days after, at Bolivar Heights, they were engaged for some hours, and finally drove the Federal infantry and artillery from their strong position.
In Jackson’s memorable retreat down the Valleyfrom the overwhelming forces of Fremont and Shields, the battery was detailed to support the cavalry under Ashby and Steuart, which was bringing up the rear of the army. Here it was daily engaged with the enemy. At Fisher’s Hill a section under Griffin was entirely surrounded and cut off owing to the bad behavior of Steuart’s cavalry, which was supporting it, but the gallant fellow drove his pieces through the ranks of the enemy, and reached the main body in safety.
At the battle of Harrisonburg it supported Ashby in his fight with the Pennsylvania Bucktails, and did good service.
On the 8th of June the division of Ewell was drawn up in line of battle at Cross Keys to dispute the enemy’s advance, whilst Jackson crossed his prisoners and wagon trains over the Shenandoah at Port Republic. The ground for the battle had been selected by General Elzey, by order of General Ewell, and a most judicious selection it was, as the result of the fight proved, and for which General Elzey received the thanks of Ewell in an official order, which the author regrets he is unable to give the reader.
The Baltimore Light Artillery held the extreme left supported by the First Maryland Infantry. Theirs was a most exposed position, and upon which was concentrated the fire of several of the enemy’s batteries. All day long the battle lasted, and all day long the little battery continued to hurl its shotand shell into the ranks of the enemy. It was a most unequal contest, but stubbornly they held their ground. Generals Elzey and Steuart, who had remained by and watched the battery with painful interest, were both borne wounded from the field. Upon the behavior of that battery perhaps hung the fate of the day, for we were but a handful holding at bay a mighty army. But calmly the officers and men stood to their guns, and although the enemy essayed more than once to drive them from the position, there they remained until night closed upon the combatants, and Jackson’s army was saved from the destruction that seemed so imminent.
As a reward for the gallantry displayed in this fight, General Dick Taylor presented the battery with two of the splendid brass Napoleons, which his brigade captured next day at Port Republic. “I want you to have them,” he said, “for from what I saw of you yesterday, I know they will be in good hands.”
After the battle of Port Republic, which closed Jackson’s great Valley campaign, the army moved up the mountain, where, upon its summit, it remained two or three days, when it returned and went into camp near Weir’s Cave, about five miles from Port Republic. Here the Baltimore Light Artillery was supplied with new harness and fresh horses, and was in a splendid condition for the dreadful fighting about to commence around Richmond,but of which we had not then the slightest conception.
On the 19th of June, 1862, Jackson put his troops in motion for Richmond, and on the afternoon of the 26th the First Maryland Infantry, which had the advance, encountered the enemy in force about ten miles from Gaines’ Mills, and a sharp fight ensued, which lasted some time, when Brockenborough was ordered to open fire, which he did with effect, and the enemy retired.
At daylight on the morning of the 28th, Jackson resumed his march, but owing to the incompetency of his guides it was late in the afternoon before he neared the point of attack assigned him. But at length everything indicated a rise of the curtain in the fearful drama about to commence. Columns were marching and countermarching, staff officers dashed hither and thither, while the crash of small arms, and the sullen boom of artillery on the right told full well that the work of death had begun.
About 4 o’clock Jackson threw out his skirmishers and moved forward in line of battle, and in a few minutes the enemy were developed in heavy force, and strongly posted, when the fighting became terrific. The artillery was directed to take position in an open field on the left, and were soon heavily engaged. The battle here was very unequal, for the enemy had greatly the advantage in artillery and position, and soon succeeded in disabling a number of Jackson’s pieces. In a short time theJeff Davis Mississippi battery was torn to pieces and the Baltimore Light Artillery ordered to take its place, immediately under the eye of Jackson himself. Gallantly the Marylanders responded to the order, and dashing at a full run across the field, unlimbered and opened fire.
The author was standing close beside General Jackson when the battery went forward, and he shall long remember the look of anxiety with which he watched it, and well he might, for upon the success of that battery much depended. For a while the air was filled with exploding, crashing shells, and the horses and men fell rapidly before that withering fire, which was directed with almost the precision of a rifle shot. Away went a limber chest high in the air, scattering death and destruction around. “We are not close enough,” said the brave Brockenborough. “Limber to the front, forward, gallop!” rung out his sharp command, and in an instant the battery was in position at point blank range. Fiercely those guns were then worked despite the iron hail that ploughed up the ground around them, and in a few minutes Brockenborough had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy retire precipitately, leaving the ground covered with dead and dying men and horses, and shattered carriages and dismounted guns. It was French’s famous battery they had encountered, but French’s no longer, save in name.
On the morning of the 29th, the battery accompaniedEwell’s division to Dispatch Station, on the York River railroad, where a few shots were exchanged with the enemy, when Ewell retraced his steps, and moved towards Malvern Hill.
In the afternoon of the 1st of July the battle of Malvern Hill began, and soon raged fiercely. Through the tardiness of General Huger the enemy had been enabled to reach the heights of Malvern, where he posted sixty guns, which swept every foot of ground around. In vain did the heavy masses of infantry rush with desperate valor upon these guns, but it was only to be driven back, leaving the ground covered with heaps of dead and mangled men. In this unequal contest artillery was not available, for not a position was to be had. Two or three times the Baltimore Light Artillery tried it, but was as often compelled to hastily withdraw, and when night ended the conflict, Malvern Hill was not yet won.
Before morning McClellan withdrew to Harrison’s landing on the James, where he was safe, and General Lee had the mortification of knowing that the foe so completely within his toils had escaped him through the incapacity of a General of division.
CHAPTER II.
The long spring campaign in the Valley and the operations around Richmond had made sad havoc in the ranks of the Maryland Line, and it became necessary for them to recruit and reorganize before again ready for the field. For this purpose the First Maryland Infantry and Baltimore Light Artillery were ordered to Charlottesville, where they remained a month, when they were once more ordered to join Jackson, who was about to make his great movement to the rear of Pope’s army at Manassas. Alas, the two commands did not journey together far, for at Gordonsville an order overtook Colonel Johnson requiring him to at once disband the First Maryland, and the order was reluctantly obeyed.
The separation was affecting to the greatest degree, and the little battery pursued its way with sad and lonely hearts. It was like severing the ties that bind brother to brother, for in the series of battles in which they had participated side by side, the conduct of each had inspired the other with confidence and respect. “With the First Maryland in support,” I heard Captain Brockenborough say, “I know I am always safe.” And so it was, for one would never desert the other while life lasted.
On the morning of the 19th of August the battery reached Orange Court House, where, much to the joy of all, it was attached to Starke’s Louisianabrigade. An affinity had long existed between the Maryland and Louisiana troops, and they commanded each others’ fullest confidence. In fact they seemed nearer akin, for in both there was that sprightliness, dash and vim not so noticeable in troops from other States.
With three days’ rations in haversacks, Brockenborough, on the 21st, moved towards the Rappahannock, where he found the enemy occupying the north bank in force. A severe artillery fight immediately began, and was maintained for some hours. The battery pitted against Brockenborough was Company M, United States regulars, which, towards nightfall, he succeeded in silencing and driving back with the loss of many men and an exploded caisson.
On the morning of the 22d, the artillery was thrown across the river, but soon after encountered the enemy in heavy force, and were compelled to recross after a desperate struggle. In this affair the Baltimore Light Artillery suffered a loss of four men killed—Irvin, Cox, Bradley and Reynolds—and several severely wounded.
Brockenborough finding it impossible to cross at that point, moved up to Hanson’s Ford, where a crossing was effected, and he then pursued his way through Orleans, Salem and Thoroughfare Gap, and reached Manassas on the 26th, having marched fifty miles in two days, with nothing for his men or horses to eat save the green corn gathered along theroad. Here at Manassas, though, was found in the captured trains and sutlers’ stores all they could have desired, and for hours they revelled in the good things their new commissary had so bountifully supplied, and over Rhine wine and lobsters forgot for the time the privations of the past few days.
From Manassas, Jackson moved on Centreville, but finding the enemy there in force, he retraced his steps to Manassas, closely pursued, and formed his line of battle, about sunset on the 28th, upon the ground occupied by the enemy in the battle of July, 1861.
The engagement immediately commenced, and raged with great fury for some time, but the enemy was repulsed in every assault, and driven back with heavy loss. General Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the whole of Jackson’s artillery, then put the several batteries in position along the crest of a commanding hill, and there awaited the attack sure to be renewed next day.
About two o’clock on the 29th heavy columns emerged from the woods in Jackson’s front, and advanced boldly to the attack, but the storm of grape and canister which tore through their ranks was more than flesh and blood could withstand, and they were driven back with dreadful slaughter. But again and again did those devoted columns reform and return to the attack with undiminished ardor, but the same terrible fire greeted them, and strewed the ground with dead and dying.
But nevertheless Jackson’s situation was a most critical one. With but a handful of worn and wearied troops he was battling with ten times his numbers, which must necessarily soon wear him out and exhaust his ammunition; but as the hearts of his men were sinking within them, they were cheered by the clouds of dust that arose in the distance and heralded the approach of their great chieftain, Lee, with the veterans of Longstreet’s corps. At night the battle ceased, and the wearied troops threw themselves upon the ground to seek a little repose before the work of death and destruction should be resumed on the morrow.
At the break of day on the morning of the 30th of August, the troops were aroused from their slumbers and ordered to prepare for the great and decisive battle at hand. But hour after hour passed by, and except an occasional picket shot, all else was still. It was, though, but the calm which precedes the storm, for suddenly dense masses of the enemy emerged from the woods, and moved at the double-quick upon Jackson’s lines. It was a grand sight to see those three lines rush forward in the most beautiful order. For a minute a deathlike silence prevailed, when the very earth was made to tremble by the roar of Stephen D. Lee’s thirty-six pieces of artillery, fired at point blank range. The slaughter was appalling, and whole ranks melted away in an instant, but the brave survivors closed up their decimated columns, and despite thatawful fire pressed on until they encountered the infantry posted in the railroad cut in front, where for a time the fight was waged hand to hand. At length they began to break and to retreat, and the batteries, which had been silent for some time owing to the proximity of the struggling columns of infantry, again belched forth into the fleeing mass their deadly discharges of grape, which was continued until the fugitives reached the shelter of the woods from which they had emerged.
Of the several batteries under General Lee that day, not one was worked more fiercely than the Baltimore Light Artillery, and none contributed more to the defeat and destruction of the enemy.
Long before nightfall the victory was won, and the braggart Pope, with the remnant of his army, was seeking safety in the defences around Washington.
In the invasion of Maryland, which followed this signal victory, the battery was placed in the advance, and crossed the river at White’s Ford.
On the 6th of September the battery passed through Frederick city, and encamped on the suburbs. Many were the congratulations the brave fellows received from the citizens, and during the three days they remained, their wants were abundantly supplied.
Leaving Frederick city, the battery passed through Boonsboro, Middletown, and Williamsport, where they recrossed the Potomac, and on the 12th entered Martinsburg. From thence it moved towardsHarper’s Ferry, when upon arriving at Loudoun Heights Brockenborough was assigned a position from which, at early dawn of the 15th, he opened, along with other batteries, a terrific fire upon the enemy’s entrenched position on Bolivar Heights. The batteries were worked furiously for an hour, when just as the Confederate infantry were put in motion to storm the works, a white flag fluttered in the breeze, and Harper’s Ferry surrendered with its twelve thousand troops, and artillery and supplies in abundance.
But there was heavy work yet to be done, for General Lee with a portion of his army was confronting the overwhelming masses of McClellan at Sharpsburg, and no time was to be lost in reaching him. The surrender had therefore scarcely been effected when the troops were dispatched to his aid. By a forced night march Jackson’s artillery reached Sharpsburg on the 16th, and was immediately assigned a position on a range of hills rather northwest of the town.
The morning of the 17th of September found the two armies in position, and ready to begin the work of destruction. For the Confederates the prospects of success seemed gloomy enough, for General Lee had barely forty thousand men with which to meet the mighty army of McClellan, numbering over one hundred and twenty thousand troops. But the vast odds were made almost proportionate by the superior genius of the Confederate Generals. With Lee, Jackson and Longstreet in command nothingseemed impossible to their troops, and therefore it was with no feelings of fear for the result that they surveyed the long and glittering lines before them.
Soon after sunrise slight artillery skirmishing commenced along the lines, which increased in volume until the air seemed filled with exploding shells. Upon the position held by the batteries of Brockenborough, Carpenter, Poague, Moody, Rain and Caskie, was opened a terrific fire, which was promptly returned, and the enemy’s batteries several times compelled to change position. This continued for two hours, when it became evident that the infantry was massing for a charge. The position was of the most vital importance, for should the enemy succeed in gaining possession of this point, and turning Lee’s left flank, he would be irretrievably lost. His orders to General Jackson were therefore to “hold the range of hills to the last.”
McClellan’s advance upon this point was gallantly met by Jackson’s veteran infantry, and for some time the fighting was of the most determined character; but at length the immense superiority of numbers prevailed, and Jackson’s troops gradually fell back across the turnpike, past the Dunkard Church and through the woods, and appeared upon the plain beyond. Most beautifully did the heavy columns emerge from the woods and move forward upon the batteries quietly awaiting their nearerapproach. “Do not pull a lanyard,” said Brockenborough, who was temporarily in command of the whole, “until you get the command.” Nearer and nearer those solid columns approached, and amid loud huzzas rushed forward at the double-quick. It was a moment of dreadful suspense. On, on, they came. “Will Brockenborough never give the command?” Yes; he now has them at the muzzles of his guns, and the next instant the command “Fire!” was heard above the exultant cheers of the advancing columns, and twenty-four pieces of artillery, double shotted with canister, belched forth their deadly contents into the very faces of the assailants.
The scene that was presented as the smoke lifted beggars description. The ground was literally covered, nay piled, with the slain and maimed of the enemy, and the survivors were in full retreat. They were soon reformed, however, and again moved boldly to the attack, but only to be again mercilessly slaughtered and driven back. A third time they essayed, but with the same result, when, a disordered mass of fugitives, the survivors sought the shelter of the woods from which they had but a few minutes before emerged, confident of success.
How anxiously the great chieftain, Lee—who was close by—must have watched the dreadful struggle which was to decide the fate of his army, and perhaps of the cause for which he was battling; and how great must have been the relief as he saw the enemyin retreat and Jackson’s shattered columns once more reformed.
Night put an end to the dreadful conflict, and Lee still held his ground, despite the herculean efforts of his adversary to drive him from it, but the day’s struggle had cost him thousands of his bravest and best.
The brave Brockenborough that day won his Major’s star, and, with his battery, received special mention in General Lee’s official report.
The morning of the 18th broke clear and beautiful, and General Lee was in readiness to renew the fight, which it was not doubted would begin at an early hour. But McClellan’s beaten and shattered army required time and rest and reinforcements before again prepared for aggressive operations; and finding this to be the case, Lee proceeded to bury his dead, and that night, unmolested, recrossed the river at a point near Shepherdstown.