HOOKER’S CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA.
January 26, 1863.
After the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, General Burnside’s army remained inactive at Falmouth for several weeks. The Army of the Potomac was then as strong in numbers as it had ever been. An important movement on the 26th of January was frustrated by a severe storm, and the army after marching fifteen miles, was compelled to return to its original position. General Burnside then tendered the resignation of his command to the President, which was accepted.
On the 26th of January, 1863, the command of the Army of the Potomac was transferred from General Burnside to General Hooker. On the same day, Generals Sumner and Franklin were removed from the command of the right and left divisions of the army.
At this period the extreme cold rendered it impossible for any movement to be made either by the Army of the Potomac or by its opponent, at Fredericksburg. Occasional rebel raids, and cavalry movements were the only operations taking place on either side. The cavalry of the enemy made a raid, marked with considerable success, as far inside the Union lines as Fairfax Court-House, in Virginia. This occurred about March 12th, and the rebels carried off Brigadier-General Stoughton, whom they surprised in bed, besides capturing a detachment from his brigade, with horses and other property.
Five days later, a sharp fight took place between a body of cavalry, under General Averill, and a force of the enemy’s cavalry, near Kelly’s ford. Nothing more of special interest transpired until April 13th, when an expedition of cavalry, artillery and infantry, from the Federal army proceeded in detachments to Bealton, Warrenton, Rappahannock, and Liberty, with Major-General Stoneman in command. Thence, General Stoneman moved to the Rapidan fords, and took possession of them; these operations being in advance of a grand movement to cross the Rappahannock, and attack General Lee on the opposite side.
GENERAL STONEMAN’S CAVALRY RAID.
May 1, 1863.
The storms which ensued prevented active movements by General Stoneman until the 29th of April. On that day he crossed at Kelly’s Ford. The division of General Averill moved to the Orange and Alexandria railroad, and encountered two regiments of the enemy, who retired towards Gordonsville. Thence he proceeded to Culpeper, and dispersed a force of the rebels there, capturing their rear guard, and seizing a large amount of flour, salt, and bacon. The enemy were pursued by way of Cedar Mountain toward the Rapidan. Here he received a dispatch from General Stoneman, desiring him to push the enemy as vigorously as possible, and keep him occupied. On the 1st, scouting parties were sent up and down on both sides of the Rapidan. On the 2d, orders were received by him to join General Hooker at United States Ford, at once.
General Stoneman, after crossing at Kelly’s Ford, moved the main body of his command across Fleshman’s creek, and encamped for the night in an open field. On the next day, the 3d, General Buford crossed the Rapidan, two miles below Racoon Ford, and drove a body of infantry from the ford, where General Gregg crossed later in the day. A lieutenant and thirteen privates of an artillery company were captured here. At night, the whole force bivouacked one mile from the river. On the next day the march was commenced, and at Orange Spring, a force of the enemy, approaching by railroad, barely escaped capture. That night, the command encamped at Greenwood, one mile from Louisa Court House, through which the Virginia Central railroad passes, connecting Gordonsville with Richmond. On the next day, the 2d of May, a squadron of the Tenth New York, under Colonel Irwin, was sent five miles above the town, and another of the same regiment, under Major Avery, was sent the same distance below, to destroy the track of the road, while Colonel Kilpatrick took possession of the town. The track was torn up for some distance, the telegraph cut, and some commissary stores seized. In the afternoon, the command moved to Thompson’s Four Corners. From this place, as headquarters, several expeditions were sent out. On the next morning, Colonel Wyndham proceeded to Columbia, on the James river, where the Lynchburg and Richmond Canal crosses the river. An unsuccessful attempt was made to destroy the aqueduct. Five locks were injured, three canal boats, loaded with commissary stores, and five bridges, were burned, and the canal lock cut in several places. A large quantity of commissary stores and medicines in the town were also destroyed. Another detachment, under Captain Drummond, of the Fifth United States Cavalry, destroyed the bridge over the James river, at Centreville. Other small parties were sent out in different directions, and some skirmishing took place with small parties of the enemy. At the same time, a force, consisting of the Tenth New York and First Maine, with two pieces of artillery, was sent out under General Gregg, to destroy the railroad bridge at Ashland, while Colonel Kilpatrick, with the Harris Light, and Twelfth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, were to go between Ashland and Richmond, destroying the railroad, bridges, &c. General Gregg destroyed the railroad bridge across the South Anna, on the road from Columbia to Spottsylvania; thence he moved east, and destroyed the road to Beaver Dam Station. He then turned north to the Richmond and Gordonsville turnpike, sending out a detachment to burn the Ground Squirrel bridge. That night he bivouacked eight miles from Ashland. A detachment sent out to burn the bridge at Ashland found it too strongly defended. Some portions of the railroad track, however, were destroyed. Leaving Colonel Kilpatrick and Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, General Gregg returned on the next day to General Stoneman. On the night of the 4th, General Gregg moved near Yanceyville, and was followed the next day by General Stoneman and General Buford’s command. On the 5th, the retrograde movement commenced, and crossing Racoon Ford, on the Rapidan, the command arrived at Kelley’s Ford on the North Fork. Meantime, the advance of Colonel Kilpatrick was made, and thus subsequently reported by him:
“By directions from Major-General Stoneman, I left Louisa Court House on the morning of the 3d instant, with one regiment (the Harris Light Cavalry) of my brigade; reached Hungary, on the Fredericksburg railroad, at daylight on the 4th; destroyed the depot and telegraph wires and railroad for several miles; passed over to Brook turnpike, drove in the rebel pickets; down the pike, across the brook, charged a battery, and forced it to retire within two miles of the city of Richmond; captured Lieutenant Brown, aid-de-camp to General Winder, and eleven men within the fortifications; passed down to the left of the Meadow bridge on the Chickahominy, which I burned; ran a train of cars into the river; retired to Hanovertown on the peninsula; crossed and destroyed the ferry boat just in time to check the advance of a pursuing cavalry force; burned a train of thirty wagons loaded with bacon; captured thirteen prisoners, and encamped for the night five miles from the river.
“I resumed my march at 1 P. M. of the 5th; surprised a force of three hundred cavalry at Aylett’s; captured two officers and thirty-three men; burned fifty-six wagons, the depot, containing upwards of twenty thousand bushels of corn and wheat, quantities of clothing and commissary stores, and safely crossed the Mattapony, and destroyed the ferry again just in time to escape the advance of the rebel cavalry pursuit. Late in the evening I destroyed a third wagon train and depot a few miles above and west of the Tappahannock on the Rappahannock, and from that point made a forced march of twenty miles, being closely pursued by a superior force of cavalry, supposed to be a portion of Stuart’s, from the fact that we captured prisoners from the Eighth, First, and Tenth Virginia cavalry. At sundown discovered a force of cavalry drawn up in line of battle about King and Queen Court House. Their strength was unknown, but I at once advanced to the attack, only to discover, however, that they were friends—a portion of the Tenth Illinois cavalry, who had become separated from the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, of the same regiment.