With a tear and a sigh for our leader and shield,
And a heart for whatever befalls us.”
“J. Mortimer Kilgour.”
“White’s Battalion, May 17th, 1863.”
After the return to camp, and until the 1st of June, the company officers were busy with muster and pay-rolls, and other business which a month’s neglect had left upon their hands, and on the 28th May the State election was held, in which poll-books were opened in the various regiments, so that all the soldiers who were entitled to do so could vote.
The weather was beautiful, rations and forage plentiful and good, and the political horizon, apart from the gloomy shadow left by the death of General Jackson, was brighter than for many months. True, the army of Hooker still lay on the North bank of the Rappahannock, but the bloody defeat at Chancellorsville had wrecked the hopes of its General and its men to compete successfully in a battle with Lee’s army, and all they did, or could do, was to watch the Southern army, and keep close to their entrenchments until their ranks were again filled; but Gen. Lee did not propose to be so very quiet while his adversary was recruiting, and on the last day of May an order was issued for tents and baggage to be stored and the Ashby brigade prepared to join the army East of the mountain.
Capt. George N. Ferneyhough, of Co. F., by virtue of being the senior Captain in the battalion, had, during the absence of the command in West Virginia, succeeded in getting the election held some time before, for Major, set aside, and himself appointed to the position.
CHAPTER XI.
On the morning of June 1st, 1863, the brigade marched from the Valley for Gen. Stuart’s camp in Culpeper county, the battalion having the following officers: Lieut.-Col. White, Major Ferneyhough, Adjt. Watts, Dr. Wootten, Quartermaster White, and Sergeant-Major Stephenson, in field and staff; Co. A, Lieuts. Barrett and Conrad; Co. B, had her full corps of officers; Co. C, Capt. Grubb and Lieut. Grubb; Co. D, had all her officers present; Co. E, Capt. Grabill and Lieut. Grubbs; Co. F, Lieut. Watts. Capt. Myers and Lieut. Marlow, Co. A, were left sick in the Valley; Lieut. Dowdell, Co. C, was on detail there to settle up the quartermaster’s business, incident to the change just made in that department; one Lieutenant of Co. E, and one of Co. F, had been removed for misconduct on the raid to West Virginia.
Soon after the brigade reached the army, the grand review of all the troops begun, that of the cavalry being held on the 8th of June, in which General Stuart brought a division of full fifteen thousand troopers, in fine condition for service, but all the Generals confessed that Jones’ was the peer of the best brigade in the line.