Corp'l Wm. R. H. Powelson was promoted to be sergeant in place of Hayes, and James K. P. Magill to be corporal in his place.
One instance should here be related in K's favor. J. B. Allison, a private of this Company, was the instrument of saving the colors of our Regiment. I give it as he told it to me in a recent letter: "As we were falling back from our position near and in sight of the Peach Orchard, at Gettysburg, our color-bearer was severely wounded in the back. He fell forward, and raising himself partly up called to me to save the flag. I lifted him partly up and drew the flag staff from under him. I kept the flag in my possession for say a half hour, until I came up with the scattered group of the Regiment. I gave the flag into the hands of a corporal of Co. E (I don't remember his name). I believe he was finally made a captain." This, I am told, was Corporal Power.
The "fiery ordeal" of Gettysburg as a test found some wanting in true courage. And one faint heart in K was sifted out. George Star was missing when with our Corps we took up our march southward after Lee. And we had to report him a deserter, under date of July 15, '63. Comrade Mounts reports that Star was seen three years after and reported himself as having traded suits with a farm lad a short distance out from Gettysburg, and gone west.
K's readiness in coping with obstacles and meeting present emergencies was manifest when on July 17th the race to head off Lee's army being ended, we quietly turned in east of "Maryland Heights," below Harper's Ferry, to rid ourselves of a month's accumulated dirt together with the usual accompaniment, and the wholesale and retail slaughter of the pediculos vestimenti was immense. Then, when on next day we came upon nature's own sanitary provision in fields of dewberries and what some foraging on the farms of Loudoun valley brought us, we toned up our impoverished and abused bodily systems, and further fitted ourselves for the active work in the months to come, in which we pushed the rebels back through Culpepper to the Rapidan, and then, when they were reinforced, ran with them a race for Washington, with the brisk encounter at Auburn, or "Coffee Hill" and battle of Bristoe Station, heading them off effectually at Centerville, and in turn pushing them back across the Rappahannock, with encounter here and there, and last the early winter dash and conflict at Mine Run, where the Johnnies were strongly entrenched, and finally settling down in good winter quarters at Stevensburg and near Brandy Station.
K shared in enough of the spices of soldier life to keep the boys in good humor and give them a zest for the hardships endured. Will Powelson and others of the Candor mess got off easily, when mustered up to headquarters by the provo-guard, having in their possession a good-sized pig, by a caution from Gen. Miles not to ever be caught again. They got even with the General by sending him a neat roast from a hind quarter. And Silas Cooke tells of the wading of the Rapidan in the latter part of November when it cut like a knife, and charging up the heights into the rebel breast-works, and drying ourselves in the sun; then of the race after the long-tailed lamb, and the row of fat porkers all dressed that morning by the rebels, left in their haste, and divided among us. Some of our boys will remember the "hot coffee made from the contents of a whiskey canteen, which blistered our mouths while we swallowed it to the music of the long roll, and did not know what was the matter until the owner of the canteen (who had come in late and hung canteen on top of others, and, in Will Powelson's haste to make the coffee, was first to be taken) let it out." But let it pass now—42 or more years have passed—what matters it now whose canteen it was? He may be living and be serving the God of his fathers faithfully as an elder in some staid Presbyterian church. The circumstances were then trying, and possibly some one needed a warming up. Comrade McCalmont assures us that the coffee was warming and made the marching enlivening to some of them, as we forced our way along on, as Cooke adds, "the march along the railroad, the camp in the cut, the fearfully cold night, and the troops the next morning stripped for the charge (at Mine Run) on the frosty hillside, but called off on account of the cold, the long, gloomy night of retreat amidst fires on either side to keep us warm (and light our way). Retreat No. 2 for the 140th, and the last I believe." So in all this campaign K sustained a worthy record.
Some changes had taken place. Enoch Mounts was discharged Aug. 22, '63, on surgeon's certificate of disability; Robert Virtue, one of Cross Creek's best young men, died from effects of wounds received at Gettysburg, in the hospital at Baltimore, Sept. 9, '63. Joseph C. Frazier was discharged on surgeon's certificate of disability, Sept. 30, '63, having been in hospital a long time. John W. Nickeson was on account of impaired health transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, Nov. 15, '63. John M. Day was discharged Dec. 12, '63, at Convalescent Camp, Philadelphia, on surgeon's certificate of disability. Ben F. Earnest, who had been severely wounded in face at Gettysburg, but had been back on duty for some time, died rather suddenly in camp near Brandy Station, on Dec. 14, '63. Here K lost one of its most devoted members. Corporal J. F. Gardner and James L. Noah were on Dec. 17, '63, transferred by special order No. 328, Headquarters Army of Potomac, to the Corps Artillery Brigade. These losses brought K's list down to 65. Wm. Porter was promoted corporal in the vacancy caused by the transfer of Gardner. Capt. Stockton had been detailed to service in the General Recruiting Station at Pittsburg, Pa., leaving the Company on July 29th. And Lieut. Sweeney was appointed, on Dec. 29, '63, to duty at 2nd Corps headquarters; later he was assigned to duty at Gen. Barlow's headquarters, and in latter part of '64 he was appointed on the staff of Gen. Miles. Thus the Company was without a commissioned officer, and it remained so until about the latter part of June, '64.
In the latter part of December, '63, Serg't B. F. Powelson was given a furlough of ten days as a recognition of his services in looking after the Company's interests. And in the latter part of January he was assigned to recruiting service at Washington, Pa. And at close of this special duty he was granted leave to attend a military school at Philadelphia and to go before Gen. Casey's examining board at Washington, D.C.
During the winter K shared in picket and other duties and in the early spring reconnoissance to the Rapidan, "when we lay," says Silas Cooke, "and slept with the rain pouring down upon us from above and the water running under us—bones all aching—then back to camp."
During this time and up to the opening (May 1st) of campaign, K lost four more, as follows: James K. McCurdy was discharged Feb. 17, '64 by special order 78, War Department; Serg't Sam'l K. Shindle died March 17, '64, in Andersonville (Ga.) prison, buried in grave No. 1114. He taken prisoner at Gettysburg, was kept for a while on Belle Island, then in Charlotte, N.C., and finally was herded in that awful prison pen. Thus went out the life of one possessing many commendable traits as a soldier. Michael Daugherty died March 18, '64, Brandy Station, Va., from injury inflicted by the kick of a mule. He was buried in the National Cemetery, Culpepper, Va., Block 1, Sec. A, Row 4, Grave 17. He served well as a teamster in the Q.M. department. Isaac Chisholm was, on March 20, '64, transferred to Co. G, 9th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps.
