The Comanches: A History of White's Battalion, Virginia Cavalry

by Frank M. Myers

During the night there was occasional heavy firing between the advanced parties of the two armies, and just before dawn of the 29th, Gen. Butler took White’s Battalion through the swamps and thick pines, around the left flank of the raiders, and at daylight the Colonel formed “his people” exactly in rear of the fortified line held by the dismounted raiders, whom he charged simultaneously with General Hampton’s attack upon their front, when their whole force broke and scampered off through the pines with the yelling “Comanches” after them, but the “race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” and after White’s men had lost time enough with the captured Yankees to give the remainder an opportunity to rally, which they did about two miles from their fortifications, to the number of about two hundred, it was found to be decidedly hot work capturing a force larger than their own, who availed themselves of every fence, house, swamp and pine forest to form a square and blaze into their pursuers a volley of bullets from their 16-shooting Henry rifles, and the “Comanches” being mounted, in a fight where horses were only an encumbrance, had to watch their points very closely for they had certainly waked up a batch of extremely hard-fighting Yankees.

Two of White’s men, John Marlow, Company A, and Aaron Bevans, Company C, were severely wounded, and several of the enemy were killed and wounded, but after reaching the heavy body of timber which spread along the Nottaway river, the brave boys in blue had earned the right to continue their retreat unmolested, and the Colonel called off his men and returned to the brigade which he left five or six miles behind him.

On reaching the line of retreat followed by the main body of the raiders, it was discovered that through the failure of the Confederates to push forward and seize the bridge over which the Yankees must pass, the most of them had escaped, with the loss of six pieces of artillery and about seven hundred prisoners. The remainder of the day was spent in gathering up the arms and plunder thrown away by the flying raiders, among the latter of which was a large quantity of ladies’ clothing which they had stolen from the citizens’ houses, and the men would come in with bonnets, shawls, silk dresses, mantles of velvet and many other things, looking, in fact, as if they had broken up all the millinery establishments on the “South Side,” but the most curious scene of all was the troops of negroes of all sizes and ages, from the three-day old baby to the gray-wooled hag of ninety, which were found hid in the woods. They had been persuaded by the Yankees to leave their homes and go with them to their land of “liberty and glory;” and nearly every negro in the country, especially the women and children, had joined them, but now when they had fallen in evil times, and as the Confederates were picking them up, the first thing they would say was to tell the names of masters or mistresses, and beg piteously to be permitted to go home, declaring, “fore God, we neber will beliebe de dam Yankees agin.” For two days the battalion was on picket in this country and during that time the men were constantly picking up the scattered raiders and negroes, who were wandering in the pines almost starved and yet too much afraid of the Rebels to come out of the woods. They had passed through a fiery ordeal during the raid, having been badly whipped by militia at Staunton river, then cut up severely by W. H. F. Lee at Blacks and Whites, and in endeavoring to escape at Reams’ had been met by Fitz Lee’s cavalry and worse handled than before. While at Stony creek Hampton had completely ruined them, but their Generals, Wilson and Kautz, managed to escape with a small portion of their wretched command, and this was their last raid during that campaign on the “South Side.”

Up to the 1st of July the Colonel had been without an adjutant since the 6th of May, but now Lieutenant Sam Baker, of Frederick county, Va., who had been an officer in the disbanded Company D, came over and took upon himself the responsible duties of that position, which he held until the close of the war, performing all his duties to the entire satisfaction of Colonel White and the whole command.

It was now midsummer, and in the hot climate of that piney, sandy country, where good water was a rarity, many of the men got sick, and the resting days of this month were very gladly accepted by these border men, who had never in their lives known any other than the pure mountain air and water under the shadow of the Blue Ridge; but Col. White was entirely too restless in disposition to let his people lie quietly in camp when there was a chance to operate in his partisan style, so taking with him a detail of 80 men, he left the camp on the evening of the 8th, and marched to the Blackwater, in Sussex county, with the intention of trying a raid on some negro cavalry, who patrolled the road leading from Grant’s army, by Cabin Point, to the James river.

Here he halted and made his arrangements, which were not completed until the 13th, when, with about 90 men, the battalion having all moved down in the meantime, he crossed Warwick Swamp and the Blackwater, into Surry county, and marching quietly through the pines reached Cabin Point an hour before day, and halting in the woods a mile beyond the town, on the telegraph road, made his dispositions for the attack, by placing Major Ferneyhough with twenty men armed with double-barrel guns, in ambush along the road, and leaving the remainder, under Capt. Myers, in readiness to charge, while the Colonel himself scouted and watched for the enemy to make their appearance.

The usual scouting party consisted of about sixty mounted negroes, and generally passed up a little after sunrise, from a camp of about ten thousand troops of all arms, near the old Surry Court-house, and all the negroes in the country were in the interest of the Yankees and would do anything, short of breaking their necks, to give information of any movement of the Rebels on their side of the Blackwater. So, to render the situation of White’s men still more interesting, they had discovered some cabins near them, filled to overflowing, almost, with negroes, and the Colonel had posted some men to guard them, but one or two of the small ones had already escaped to the woods with the knowledge that Southern troops were on the road, and under these circumstances it was to be presumed that the patrol would not come as usual, this morning, but after awhile they were discovered quietly advancing, and all thought the affair was to be successful, and prepared themselves for what promised to be genuine sport, but bye-and-bye the Colonel discovered that the negroes were only used this time as a bait, and that while about 3,000 infantry were following them, a body of about 1,000 cavalry was moving through the pines to gain his rear and cut him off from the bridges over the Blackwater. These bridges were his only mode of escape, and if the Yankees succeeded, he knew that his raiding would be ended forevermore, unless there should happen to be war in the Elysian fields of glory beyond the Jordan, where all good soldiers hoped to go, but just now the Colonel had no intention of crossing that last named river, where it is said boats are used instead of bridges, so hastily leaving the telegraph road, he made a quick march to the Blackwater, and reached it just in time to save his raiders.

The boys, who all fully understood the situation, were perfectly satisfied with their experience by daylight behind Grant’s lines, and had no desire to make any further expeditions in that quarter, provided the Colonel would be satisfied too; but on their return to camp, and learning that “old Jubal” was thundering at the gates of Washington, every man immediately became possessed of an almost insane desire to desert and go to him, in fact, Co. B did go on the night of the 15th, without leave or license, and left scarcely a man from Maryland to tell the tale of what had become of his companions. They said Companies A and C had done the same thing before and not been punished, and now that Maryland was open and their homes inside of the Confederate lines they intended, if possible, to go to them.

The Colonel sympathized deeply with his men and would never enforce the penalties for violations of the Army regulations, when it was possible to avoid it, and to this one fact belongs the reason why a Brigadier’s stars and wreath never adorned his collar. When he was recommended by the Military Committee of the Confederate Congress, by such men as Gov. Letcher and Judge Brockenborough in private life, and by a multitude of officers in the Ashby Brigade and other portions of the army, Gen. Lee refused to endorse him, simply because his men ran away and went home and the Colonel did not punish them; and so, because he had too much heart, he was not promoted to a position that no man in the army could fill as well as he after General Rosser was made Major-General; but all this is going too far ahead of the events we are trying to describe, and it is time to go back to the “Comanche” camp on the Nottaway.

This camp was about ten miles from the brigade, and in a really good country, with prime spring water, plenty of fruit, vegetables, and melons, and the people very kind and hospitable, and for the reason that no troops except the Yankee raiders had ever been among them, there was plenty of forage there. Game, such as turkeys and squirrels, was abundant, deer also, but they had to be hunted in large parties, with hounds, while the river had plenty of fish, so that the battalion would have considered itself literally “in clover” only for the tantalizing reports of the brilliant success of Gen. Early’s operations on the Potomac. This made the boys restless and dissatisfied, and some of them even expressed satisfaction when “Old Jubilee” was compelled to retire to the south bank of the Potomac.