F. SIGEL,
Late Maj. Gen. of Vols.
(367) According to Pond before cited, General W. S. Lincoln, of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts infantry shows that the aggregate of Breckinridge's infantry the day after the battle was 4,047. We therefore must have had about 4,500 infantry in the battle as according to Rebel authority (See Pond) they had no reserves. It would appear therefore that we were out numbered, we having only five regiments of infantry so disposed and handled as to be effective; while the enemy had three brigades and the Cadet battalion of infantry. Our infantry and artillery had to stand the brunt of the battle and it is no disparagement to them under the circumstances that they were worsted in the engagement.
(368) Whatever may be said of Sigel's generalship regarding the battle of New Market, it must be said that he acted bravely; was right in the thick of the fight all the time and after the battle began did the best he could to save the day. And in view of the heavy losses sustained on each side in the battle, and our slow and orderly retreat to Cedar Creek, the following message sent to Grant by Halleck: "Sigel is in full retreat on Strasburg. He will do nothing but run; never did anything else," is markedly untrue and undeserved, and so far as it seems to imply that Sigel was cowardly, is grossly unjust, as his entire command at New Market would testify.
(369) A day or two after Sigel's command had fallen back to Cedar Creek. He called on the Twelfth to furnish a squad of volunteer scouts to go up the Valley and learn what the strength of the enemy in our front was. Corporal De Bee, of the regiment and six or eight men volunteered to go. They went to Sigel's headquarters for instructions. He told them to go into a house and put on citizens cloths and go right into the enemy's camp and learn their strength. The boys answer "Yes," as if to say that they understood and would do so; but at the same time there was an unexpressed conclusion that they were not anxious to wear citizens cloths on that trip and they would forego that pleasure.
(370) The scouts started out on that expedition traveling nearly all of that day, along on North Mountain, it is believed. After they had traveled a while, three or four of the squad concluded that they would turn back, which they did, but the rest of the boys being more plucky kept on, and in the evening they came in sight of the Rebel camp. In the morning the boys found such a position as from which they could view the entire camp of the enemy, and they carefully counted the number of tents they had, and then started on the return to Cedar Creek, arriving there sometime during the day. When they reached our pickets they (the latter) not being of the Twelfth and not knowing the scouts, sent them into camp under guard. The scouts reported to Sigel that they had found the Rebel camp, giving its locality and said that they counted the number of tents in it, telling the number, Sigel complimented Corporal De Bee and his comrades for what they had done saying that they had given him more information than he had got from all the cavalry that had been out scouting.
(371) Here is a humorous incident of the battle of New Market that was current among the boys afterward. As well as can be recalled it was told thus: Col. Wells of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts was a strict disciplinarian, but in defiance of this fact the boys of his regiment would sometimes fire off their guns in camp. In such cases he was want to say "Orderly, orderly go and ascertain who fired that gun and report him to me immediately."
(372) This order of the Colonel's having been repeated in the same stereotyped language at different times impressed itself upon the minds of the boys of the Thirty-fourth and became a matter of remark and jest among them. Well at the battle of New Market when the battle was opening and the first gun or so was fired, some fellow that regiment with characteristic American humor, who was bound to have his joke if it was to be his last on earth yelled out, "Orderly, orderly, go and ascertain who fired that gun and report him to me immediately."
(373) Comrade Jas. N. Miller, of Company A, taken prisoner at the battle of New Market tells of an incident of the battle, and his prison experience as follows:
(374) The first man killed in Company A, if I remember rightly, was John A. Christman. He was a recruit, who came to us at Harpers Ferry, in the winter of 1863-64. He was a light hearted fellow, somewhat reckless, who carried a fiddle often playing and singing. At the battle of New Market as we were going into the fight, Christman and I were in file together. The battle had begun and the cannons were booming. He said to me in his jovial way, "Hickory"—that was the nick-name the boys gave me because I was "tough" physically—"I hope I will be killed to day." I said to him as calmly as I could for my heart was up in my throat like a great lump. "Christman, you oughtn't to talk that way." "Well," he replied, "I don't care."