Campaign and battle of Lynchburg, Va.

by Charles Minor Blackford

General Early has been severely criticised for permitting the escape of Hunter. It is always much easier to criticise than to accomplish; to point out how a thing should have been done, after we know the result of what was done, than to do it at the time. The facts heretofore stated can leave no doubt that all was done, as far as the prompt pursuit of Hunter is concerned, which could have been done. Early's line of defence, owing to the smallness of his force, was not only thin but was short; he had therefore to keep in such a condition that by changing front rapidly with the troops he had, he could supply the place of those he did not have. Hence, when he noticed Hunter moving away from his immediate front, he did not suppose he was retiring, but merely withdrawing for the purpose of making his attack at another point, and prudence demanded that he should keep his troops in hand until the enemy's purpose was developed. To do this the delay until daylight was essential.

It is a subject of remark that with Hunter's army there were two men who very faithfully discharged their duties as soldiers and subsequently became Presidents of the United States—one Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, who commanded a brigade, and the other Major William McKinley, who was a staff officer.

The loss on neither side was very heavy, but it was very much greater on that of the invader than upon ours. Hunter left his dead on the field to be buried by his enemy, and his wounded in a field hospital; facts which show how precipitously he departed.

The Federal line of battle was formed on the left, directly through the yard of the residence of the late C.H. Moorman, whose farm lay on both sides of Blackwater Creek, and occupied most of what is now called West Lynchburg. When it was known that Hunter was approaching, Mr. Moorman packed several wagons with provisions, and, with his negroes and stock, moved down toward the Staunton River, leaving his house in charge of his young, unmarried daughter, now Mrs. Hurt, his wife, an old negro man and several negro women. Before Mr. Moorman cleared his own plantation, which was large, he found it necessary to lighten his load, and to that end selected a spot and buried his supply of well-cured and much prized hams. It turned out that the line of battle of Crook's division ran across the spot, and the buried treasure was discovered, much to the delight of the troops, who greatly enjoyed a very fine lot of old Virginia hams, always valuable, but especially so under such circumstances.

At sunrise on the morning of the 17th, Miss Moorman went out on a hill near her house to reconnoitre the military situation. She saw a column of Federal troops moving on the Salem Turnpike, and was looking at them very anxiously when she was shocked to see a line of blue coats crossing the field close to her home. She at once ran back, sheltering herself behind the fence, but the officer in command was at the door before she was, and very politely advised her to stay in the house while the fight was going on. The family were not molested during the two days that the troops were there. With exceptional visits to the front yard, she obeyed the officer's instructions very carefully. She heard the constant cannonading and the picket firing without cessation all of the 17th and until the evening of the 18th, when the sounds changed and indicated that a real battle was going on close at hand. She was naturally in a fever of excitement, but could hear nothing of the result. About midnight of the 18th, or more probably on the morning of the 19th, she heard the rumbling of wagons and artillery on the Salem Turnpike, and found the lines around her house were being withdrawn, but it was some time before she discovered that the Federal troops were retreating. It was then nearly daylight, and she slipped out of the house and ran down to the ford across Blackwater Creek and notified the cavalry at that point what she had seen. A company was at once sent off in pursuit to verify her statement. After they had gone, and as she returned home, she met a solitary Federal soldier on foot, who asked her what had become of his command. She told him they had been whipped and had retreated, and informed him that he was her prisoner. He stated he had fallen asleep and had been left, and at once surrendered to her.

On reaching her home, although it was not yet sunrise, she started over on foot to the point where the heaviest fighting had taken place, that she might learn the fate of her brother, Major Marcellus N. Moorman, who commanded a battalion of artillery in the Second Corps. He had not been in the fight, as the battalion had not reached Lynchburg until during the night of the 18th. His command had started in the pursuit when she left home on her mission, but she met him on the battle-field going to tell his mother good-bye. Thus another son of Lynchburg was in line to battle for her defence.

On the extreme right of the Confederate lines, and on a part of what is now the farm of Senator Daniel, was stationed the brigade in command of Colonel Aug. Forsberg, then a stranger in the city, and here merely by the accident of war. On the right of his brigade was the Thirtieth battalion of Virginia infantry, under the command of Captain, now Judge, Stephen Adams, who, on the breaking out of the war, was a practicing attorney of West Virginia. He had married Miss Emma Saunders, of Lynchburg, but was then a stranger thrown into the line of defence of the city by the like accident. Captain Adams, after he became a citizen of Lynchburg, purchased the very land on which his men were that day formed in line of battle, and has often dug up pieces of shell and bullets which were fired at him. He now preserves them as pleasant reminders of the past. Both Captain Adams and Colonel Forsberg are now valued citizens of Lynchburg, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their gallant efforts in its defence.

It is not generally known that a few of the Federal shells were thrown into the city, but such was the case. The writer has in his possession a part of a three-inch percussion shell, shot from a rifle cannon, which fell in what was then known as "Meem's Garden," near the spot where the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross is now situated. His mother lived in the immediate vicinity of the place where it exploded, and, when the sound was heard, one of the servants ran over and picked it up, and it was thus preserved in the family.

The blood-stained and battle-torn little command of Breckinridge reached Lynchburg on the 16th of June. Up to that moment no one in the city had hoped that the place could be saved from Hunter's vandalism by the cordon of boys, cripples and irregular troops which surrounded it, and there was an anxiety which cannot be described; its depth may be imagined, but the pen cannot paint it.

The arrival of this small force brought hope back to the hearts of the old men and helpless women and children who constituted the population of the city, and as the hardy old veterans moved up Main and then up Fifth streets they were cheered by joyous crowds of excited women, jubilant convalescents and hopeful old men. The troops had made a two-days' forced march from the headwaters of Rockfish River and were in bad physical condition, but in high spirits. They much enjoyed their cordial reception. This is shown by a little incident preserved out of the many of the same character by a person who was one of the girls present on the occasion.