FIGHT AT BLOOMING GAP, VA.
February 14, 1862.
To General F. W. Lander’s brigade had been assigned the perilous duty of protecting the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Cumberland, Md., and the various towns and strategic points in Virginia within a radius of forty or fifty miles from that centre, at several of which his troops were quartered.
On the 13th of February, Lander received information that a brigade of rebels under General Carson had occupied Blooming Gap, a strong pass in the mountains seven miles beyond the Cacapon river, whose turbid waters, swollen by the storms of winter, were deemed an impassable barrier to the advance of the Federal forces. No bridge spanned the torrent, and the blackened buttress and crumbled pier gave evidence that the incendiary torch had been at work.
Lander was then at Pawpaw Tunnels, on the Maryland shore of the Potomac, a station on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, midway between Hancock and Cumberland, with a small force. He immediately marched to New Creek, in Hampshire county, Va., to join the detachment of troops at that point, where he also hastily concentrated all his available command. Taking twenty wagons loaded with lumber, he proceeded to a point on the Cacapon river, seven miles south of the railroad, and between the hours of nine and one o’clock at night he improvised a bridge one hundred and eighty feet long, by placing the wagons in the river as a foundation, over which he marched his force of four thousand men, and advanced upon the enemy’s pickets before the dawn of day.
With five hundred of the First Virginia cavalry, under Colonel Anastanzel, he had designed to charge through the rebel camp at the Gap, and then form immediately in his rear, cut off the retreat, and capture the whole force, after the Federal infantry, following up the cavalry charge, should have completed the discomfiture of the enemy. But the rebels had retired before Lander’s approach; and when led by the General and his staff, the cavalry flew through the Gap and beyond it, they met with no opposition. Colonel Anastanzel was at once ordered to push forward on the Winchester road with the cavalry, reconnoitre, and, if possible, overtake and capture the baggage of the enemy.
General Lander meantime brought up Colonel Carroll with the Eighth Ohio regiment, and the Seventh Virginia, Colonel Evans, for a support. Colonel Anastanzel encountered the enemy at the head of the pass, two miles from Blooming. He was met by a sharp fire, and halted his command. On hearing the firing, General Lander came up and led the charge, followed by Major Armstrong, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenants Fitz-James O’Brien, the well-known poet of his staff, and Major Bannister, Paymaster U.S.A., who had volunteered for the expedition. A group of rebel officers were distant about three hundred yards, encouraging their men. General Lander being the best mounted, outran the rest of the party, and cut off the retreat of the rebel officers.
“Surrender, gentlemen,” he said, coolly dismounting, and extending his hand to receive the sword of Colonel Baldwin, over whom an instant before he had appeared to be riding.
Five of the rebel officers surrendered to General Lander, and four others immediately afterward, to the officers of his staff, among them the Assistant Adjutant-General of General Carson.
By this time the rebel infantry, perceiving the small number of their adversaries, commenced a heavy fire from the woods, but the cavalry had recovered from its panic, and now rushed up the hill. General Lander ordered Anastanzel to charge up the road, and capture the baggage of the enemy. The cavalry dashed forward, and the advance guard soon overtook and turned fifteen wagons and horses out of the road. Colonel Evans now came up with his regiment of infantry, and captured many more of the rebels. Colonel Carroll cleared the road as he went, both infantry regiments behaving admirably, following and engaging the enemy to the last, until ordered back. The pursuit was continued eight miles.
The result of this affair was the capture of eighteen commissioned officers, and forty-five non-commissioned officers and privates. Thirty-three of the rebels were killed and wounded, with a loss on the Union side of seven killed and wounded.
During this engagement Lieutenant Fitz-James O’Brien was shot mortally while in advance of his comrades, and like the author-soldier Winthrop, immortalized his name with the sword, as he had before proved himself great with the pen.
General Dunning, of Lander’s command, returned to New Creek the same day from an expedition to Moorfield, forty miles south of Romney, having captured 225 beef cattle and 4,000 bushels of corn. In a skirmish two of his men were wounded, and several rebels killed.