“Lige” now satisfied himself that the enemy had retired all along the line, and returned to Col. Hunton, who now marched his people back to their camp, ordering White to remain with Lieut. Chas. Berkeley, who with fifteen men was to remain on picket near the river during the night. The ladies of Leesburg had sent a kingly supper to the soldiers, and after satisfying their appetites, which had been sharp-set by a day of fasting and fighting, White proposed to Lieut. Berkeley that they take a scout to the river, for, strange as it may appear, not a single Confederate had been to the bluff, although they had fought to within a few yards of its edge. To this Lieut. B. readily agreed, and passing quietly along over the dead and dying, they reached the river, and soon heard a boat crossing over from the opposite bank. In a few minutes it struck the Virginia shore, and leaving Berkeley and his men, White walked up to the landing place where he found himself among a great crowd of Yankees, all eager to get aboard the one gondola, and terribly excited. To return to the Lieutenant and report was the next move, and “Lige” declared that he believed there were 800 to 1,000 Yankees down under the bluff, and asked Berkeley what they were to do, to which he replied, “We will capture the whole of them.”
White agreed to it, provided the fifteen would all promise to carry it through or die trying, when one of the men said to him that Lieut. B. was a rash man and he, for one, was not willing to follow him, as he feared they would all be killed; upon which “Lige” started to the camp of the 8th Virginia for reinforcements. On arriving there he found Lt.-Col. Tebbs in command, who said that if any of the men chose to do so they might go, but advised them to let the enterprise alone. On telling his story and asking for volunteers, Captain W. N. Berkeley said, "I’ll follow you," and at once some of Capt. B’s men responded with, "Yes, and we’ll follow you." So that in a short time quite a force had volunteered, composed as follows:—Captains, W. N. and Edmund Berkeley; Lieutenants, R. H. Tyler, L. B. Stephenson and R. Coe; Sergeants, F. Wilson, J. O. Adams and —— Gochnauer; Corporals Aye, B. Hurst, W. Fleshler, B. Hutchison and Wm. Thomas; and Privates, A. S. Adams, J. W. Adams, F. A. Boyer, J. L. Chin, G. Creel, R. S. Downs, W. Donnelly, G. Insor, C. R. Griffin, John George, D. L. Hixson, T. W. Hutchison, J. F. Ish, R. I. Smith, W. C. Thomas, J. W. Tavenner, J. M. McVeigh, L. W. Luckett, C. D. Luckett, M. H. Luckett, A. M. O’Bannon, Rev. Chas. Linthicum, R. O. Carter, George Roach, E. Nails, Howard Trussell, D. Rourke, Thomas E. Tavenner, P. Gochnauer, F. Tinsman, T. H. Benton, T. Kidwell, C. Fox, V. R. Costello, Will. Moore, J. Ellis, William McCarty, J. McClanahan, E. Herrington and R. Julian. With this force White started back to the river, where he had left Lieut. Berkeley watching the enemy, and on reaching it, after an absence of nearly two hours, found the situation unchanged, except that the number of the enemy was perceptibly lessened, the gondola having made several trips. Hastily arranging his forces, “Lige” posted Lieut. Berkeley on top of the bluff, just over the Yankees, while he moved the remainder down to the edge of the river and charged at once upon the enemy, firing and yelling like demons, when at the same moment Lieut. B. opened fire from the bluff with his party. The consternation was terrible among the Yankees, some leaping into the river and drowning themselves, some wading out in the water as far as they could, some running up the river bank, and some, too much paralyzed with fear to act at all, just fell down and screamed.
Very soon an Irish Captain, a gallant fellow, appeared and called a parley, when the firing ceased and the Captain asked who was in command, to which Capt. William Berkeley replied, “Gen. White,” and the Captain at once asked upon what terms his men would be allowed to surrender, and when told they should be treated kindly as prisoners of war, he called them up from their hiding places, saying, “the General assures me you shall be kindly treated; come out and give yourselves up.” This had the desired effect and they all came up, to the number of 320, and surrendered to the “brigade of General White.”
A few days after this, a recommendation was drawn up and signed by the regimental commanders, asking that White be commissioned in the Regular Army of the Confederate States, for meritorious conduct at the battle of Leesburg. This was approved by Gen. Evans, and cordially endorsed by Gen. Beauregard, but when “Lige” presented it to the Secretary of War, he was informed that no commissions in the Regular Army were being granted then, but that his name should be registered for the first vacancy. This did not suit him and learning that his old friend, Col. Hunton, was in Richmond, called upon him, and was advised by that officer to apply for permission to organize an independent company for service on the border, which he did, and through Col. Hunton’s influence succeeded without any difficulty in getting the appointment of Captain in the Provisional Army, with the authority to raise a company as proposed, and he now returned to Leesburg where he opened a recruiting office under very favorable auspices, the militia of the county having been called to that point by Gen. D. H. Hill, (who succeeded Evans in command of the Department soon after the battle,) to work on the fortifications in course of construction there, and it was natural to suppose that many of them would prefer ranging service on the border to wielding the shovel and the hoe in the breast-works.
CHAPTER II.
In the last days of December, 1861, Captain Elijah V. White, for such was his rank now, reported to General Hill, with fifteen men for duty, and was ordered by that officer to establish a line of couriers between Leesburg and Winchester, which he did on the 29th, stationing Ben. F. Conrad and James W. Harper at Leesburg, Richard Harding and William H. Luckett at Hamilton, Peter J. Kabrich and Frank. M. Myers at Round Hill, C. C. Wenner and R. W. Washington at Castleman’s Ferry, Joseph E. Conner and W. T. Cruzen at Berryville, and Richard Ferro at Winchester, with Gip. Peter in command at that end of the line, while the Captain himself remained at Leesburg. The company was thus employed until the 14th of January following, when an order was passed along the line calling all the men to assemble in Leesburg, and on reaching that point the Captain found he had about twenty-five men, whom he marched to Waterford and established in winter quarters at that place. Maj. Win. F. Barrett, of the 57th Regiment Virginia Militia, acted as Orderly Sergeant and Quartermaster, and with the Captain formed the board of officers of the company. The Madison Cavalry, under Capt. Graves, was also stationed at Waterford and picketed the Potomac from the Point of Rocks to Berlin, and Capt. White proposed to co-operate with these men in scouting, and guarding the line of river all the way to Harper’s Ferry; and here commenced the active duty of what was afterwards to be the famous Battalion, now not having enough men to entitle it to a company organization, but whose rolls afterwards bore nearly 700 names. About this time an officer was sent by Gen. Hill to muster the company regularly into the military service of the Confederate States, and this duty performed, the men considered themselves tied fast and were perfectly satisfied with their lot.
Among the first duties required of the company was that of executing an order of Gen. Hill, to collect the delinquent Militia of the 56th Virginia Regiment, and take them to their comrades who were at work on the fortifications around Leesburg, but this was no easy matter, many of them having crossed the Potomac—some to take service in the army of Abraham I, and others to escape doing any kind of military duty in the Confederacy—while a large portion of those who remained were Quakers, who, according to the tenets of their religion, could not perform such duty, and paid their exemption fines.
Another order of the General’s required Capt. White to go into south Loudoun and upper Fauquier[Fauquier], and impress into the service all the wagons, teams and negroes that could be spared from that section, and take them to Leesburg.
The execution of this order was entrusted to Henry K. Moore, who, finding the citizens exceeding loth to give over their property to the tender mercies of the C. S. A., took their excuses instead, and returned to camp with sundry promises on the part of the people to send the required articles at a “more convenient season.”
On making his report to the Captain, the latter expressed decided disapprobation of that style of executing a military order, and to show what he considered the proper mode, he only allowed Henry and his detail time enough to feed their horses, when he had them in the saddle again, and taking charge of the expedition himself, he sallied forth among the reluctant citizens of the favored region named in Gen. Hill’s order. And this time the wagons and contrabands came; but he left a very bitter memory among the people whom he visited, for they were just congratulating themselves that they had so easily escaped the fulfilment of the order which Henry had shown them, when White swooped down upon them and executed it promptly and to the letter.