[CHAPTER III.]
BATTLE OF DRANESVILLE AND THE WINTER OF 1862.
On the old turnpike which leads from the Chain Bridge above Georgetown to Leesburg there is a hamlet of a half-dozen houses, called Dranesville. The great road to Alexandria joins the turnpike there, also a road which leads to Centreville. Near the junction of the roads, on the west side of the turnpike, there is a large brick house, a fine old Virginia mansion, owned by Mr. Thornton, surrounded by old trees. Just beyond Mr. Thornton's, as we go toward Leesburg, is Mr. Coleman's store, and a small church. Doctor Day's house is opposite the store. There are other small, white-washed houses scattered along the roadside, and years ago, before the Alexandria and Leesburg railroad was built, before Virginia gave up the cultivation of corn and wheat for the raising of negroes for the South, it was a great highway. Stage-coaches filled with passengers rumbled over the road, and long lines of canvas-covered wagons, like a moving caravan.
It is a rich and fertile country. The fields of Loudon are ever verdant; there are no hillsides more sunny or valleys more pleasant. Wheat and corn and cattle are raised in great abundance.
On the 20th of December, 1861, General McCall, whose division of Union troops was at Lewinsville, sent General Ord with a brigade and a large number of wagons to Dranesville to gather forage. On the same morning the Rebel General Stuart started from Centreville with a brigade bound on the same errand.
General Ord had the Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth Regiments of Pennsylvania Reserves, with four guns of Easton's battery, and a company of cavalry. One of the regiments wore bucktails in their caps instead of plumes. The soldiers of that regiment were excellent marksmen. They were from the Alleghany Mountains, and often had the valleys and forests and hillsides rung with the crack of their rifles. They had hunted the deer, the squirrels, and partridges, and could bring down a squirrel from the tallest tree by their unerring aim.
General Stuart had the First Kentucky, Sixth South Carolina, Tenth Alabama, Eleventh Virginia, with the First South Carolina Battery, commanded by Captain Cutts, also a company of cavalry. The two forces were nearly equal.
General Ord started early in the morning. The ground was frozen, the air was clear, there was a beautiful sunshine, and the men marched cheerily along the road, thinking of the chickens and turkeys which might fall into their hands, and would be very acceptable for Christmas dinners. They reached Difficult Creek at noon where the troops halted, kindled their fires, cooked their coffee, ate their beef and bread, and then pushed on towards Dranesville.
An officer of the cavalry came back in haste from the advance, and reported having seen a rebel cavalryman.
"Keep a sharp lookout," was the order. The column moved on; but General Ord was prudent and threw out companies of flankers, who threaded their way through the woods, keeping a sharp eye for Rebels, for they had heard that the enemy was near at hand.