BACK TO CENTREVILLE
On the 19th or 20th of October, 1861, the army moved back to Centreville and went into camp—the Eleventh Regiment on the same ground it had before occupied.
The whole army was encamped round about and along Bull Run; rations were plentiful and the men passed a very comfortable winter, making pipes and trinkets from ivy roots dug up along Bull Run, which had now become historic.
The Fifth Louisian Regiment was camped about one-half mile from the Eleventh Virginia. The Louisian Regiment had a fine band, and every afternoon would play many patriotic pieces, including "Dixie," "The Bonnie Blue Flag," etc. The Eleventh Regiment also had a very good band, led by Geo. W. Lyman, of Lynchburg.
We still picketed down close to Fairfax Court House. While on picket there during the winter I was taken with break-bone fever and sent home on a sick furlough. It was a rainy time, and I slept one night on a pile of rails, and the next morning every bone in my body was aching. I remember telling old Dr. Withers of this after I got home, when he remarked, "Sleeping on rails is well calculated to make one's bones ache." I had never seen our little boy, Dixie, who was born on the 25th of September, 1861, and was then about five months old. He was a fine little fellow, and a great comfort to his mother in my absence. Of course, we all enjoyed the home-coming.
While I was away the regiment went on a foraging expedition, in support of Stuart's Cavalry, north of Centreville. Near Drainesville they got into a fight with the Yankees, when Wm. H. Hobson, of Company C, a cousin of my wife, was mortally wounded, being shot through the bowels, dying soon afterwards. He was the first man of Company C killed. Lieut. H. C. Chalmers, of Company A, lost an arm in this fight.
As soon as I was well again, I returned to the army, which was still at Centreville, where it remained for some time.
While in camp here, Governor Letcher visited the army and presented each Virginia Regiment with a new State flag. The troops were all drawn up around one of the forts, the colonels going up into the fort, the Governor making a speech to each as he presented the flags, and the colonels, on receiving them, replying. I remember Col. Eppa Hunton, of the Eighth Virginia, said in his speech, "Every man in Fauquier County shall be carried home feet foremost before his flag will be surrendered." I think this was the summer or fall before or during our first encampment at Centreville.
CHAPTER VII
Fall Back From Centreville—The Peninsula
Campaign—Yorktown Line Evacuated—The
Battle of Williamsburg—"Give
it to Them"—Into a Hot Fire—Colonel
Garland Wounded—Incidents
of the Battle—Garland
and Kemper
Promoted
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had been for some time sole commander of the army, General Beauregard having been ordered south some months before. Gen. George B. McClellan, who succeeded General McDowell, was in command of the Yankee army, and had been all winter recruiting, reorganizing, equipping and drilling what he claimed to be "the finest army on the planet," some 125,000 strong. When winter began to break, General Johnston knew his adversary would soon move against him, and thinking it not prudent to stand his ground at Centreville or Manassas, against so powerful an army, with only about 40,000 men, just as McClellan was preparing to advance, the Confederate army, on the 9th of March, 1862, broke camp, having first made dummy cannons of wood, painted black, mounting them in the forts and redoubts around Centreville, also dummy soldiers, in order to deceive and delay the enemy. The army retired leisurely at first, stopping several days at a time in camp.
The terms of enlistment of most of the Confederate troops were about to expire, and the men were called upon to reenlist for the war, which nearly all did. On this march, while in camp a few days, Company C elected officers to take the place of those who had been at first elected and whose terms would expire about the 1st of May. Captain Clement was reëlected captain, I was elected first lieutenant, James Connelly was reëlected second lieutenant, and Jabez R. Rosser was elected third lieutenant. J. A. Hobson and H. H. Withers, first and second lieutenants, not being reëlected, left the company at the end of their terms. About this time the company received a number of recruits, the militiamen up to thirty-five years old having been called out and given the privilege of joining the companies of their choice. The recruits were mostly married men, from twenty-five to thirty-five years old.
McClellan did not essay to follow Johnston, but determined to change his base and plan of campaign from Northern Virginia to the Peninsula. His army was accordingly embarked on transports, sailing down the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay, landing at the lower end of the Peninsula at Fortress Monroe.
As soon as General Johnston was aware of this move, he put his army in motion and marched rapidly to Richmond. The march was through Prince William, Spottsylvania, Hanover, and Henrico counties, into Richmond, where we arrived on the 12th of April, 1862. This march was very laborious, through rain and mud, the troops often marching through fields to avoid the muddy roads, and to give place to the trains of artillery and baggage and commissary wagons. At that time each regiment had thirteen wagons, but never again after the Peninsula campaign; after that year about three was the limit.
This was the first real hard marching we had done. Some of the men gave out on the route, and had to be hauled in wagons and ambulances; many had their knapsacks hauled. Only one man of Company C besides myself carried their knapsacks, blankets and guns through without any help.