The command halted for the night near the town of Franklin, and in the morning the extra Companies left the battalion; McNeil to return to Moorfield, and Woodson and Kirkendall to go on toward the Valley, by way of Monterey, while White, with his people, turned short to the right, and climbed into the Alleghany mountains, at a point where a tributary stream, to the South Branch of Potomac, cut close along the base of the main mountain, and leaving only a narrow path, up a perpendicular wall of rock that rose a hundred yards in height from the water. Along the right bank of the stream was a little cove of flat land, completely hemmed in by the mountain, and where the Colonel decided to make some investigation of the business of the Swamp Dragons, sending Capt. Myers with a party, at the same time, up this mule path, to gain the overhanging mountain top and keep the “Swamps” from getting the position on him, for if one hundred men had been stationed on the top of the precipice, they could, with stones, have whipped a thousand down in the cove.
On reaching the top, Myers sent Jack Dove, Henry Simpson, John Stephenson, and two or three others, down a road towards some houses, while with half a dozen others he struck out for a scout to the southward, and after going about two miles, came to some cabins where there were only women, but they told the scouts that their husbands, brothers, sweethearts and all, were out with the “Dragons.”
Here one of the men roused the ire of a lady, by attempting to take a coverlet, to such an extent that she made an attack on him with stones, and pressed him so close and hot, cursing him roundly all the while, that Richards, unable to mount his mule, surrendered the property, and soon after a rapid firing was heard in the direction of the party over on the road, which compelled the Captain to return to their assistance, and on approaching their position they were found warmly engaged with a party of the Dragons, and it was with great difficulty that Simpson and Stephenson, who were completely cut off, rejoined their comrades. The Dragons could now be seen skulking and creeping among the rocks and trees, on the mountain side, in considerable numbers, and Myers judged it best to keep his party well together and ready for emergencies, until the Colonel should get through with his arrangements in the cove and come to his assistance, which he did soon after, and the command moved down the mountain to the west, through what the citizens called “Smoke Hole,” a narrow gorge with the great walls of mountains on either side. Arrived at a cabin, with greased paper for windows, and everything else in keeping, a yearling colt and an enormous deer hound volunteered to take service in the battalion, and followed the column, which marched along a narrow path on the side of one mountain for a half mile further, when suddenly, from the top of the opposite one, the “Swamp Dragons,” in considerable force, opened a hot fire, but as good luck would have it they fired too high. The command was very much scattered, marching by file, and the head of the column halted as it came out of the gorge below, which forced the rear and centre to stand still under the fire, but the Colonel, with about half a dozen men, charged instantly up the steep side of the mountain, on which the “Swamps” were posted, gallantly led by the colt and dog, who dashed into the foremost fire, and as soon as the enemy found that they had waked up fighting people in earnest they ran off; but one man, an old citizen with a sporting rifle, resolved to kill somebody, and creeping through the bushes, had levelled his gun on the Colonel, at ten steps, when Nich. Dorsey saw him and warned White, who instantly fired on him with his pistol, wounding him in the hip, and at the same moment Alonzo Sellman shot him in the side, and the old man rolled over with the load still in his rifle.
The other “Swamps” all made their escape, although they had nearly equal force with the “Comanches,” and had all advantages possible in position, with the latter so hemmed in that not one-fourth of them could move. The old citizen was placed behind John Walker, and carried down the mountain, but he soon died, and was left at a cabin on the road where his son lived, and with no further attention than to lay him on the ground, (except that the dog licked his face in passing,) the battalion marched on, looking out for more trouble with the Dragons. On approaching a house in a less wild and broken country, a woman, mounted man-fashion, on a horse, met the command, proclaiming that she was a rebel, and being shown the rifle of the old citizen, who had been shot, she exclaimed, "It’s daddy’s gun; I know it; he’s a damned old Yankee, and I hope you have killed him." Col. White made no halt at her house, although his boys had cleaned out pretty generally all the houses they had passed, but marched quietly on and camped at the first hay stacks they had seen in the mountains, in fact the only long forage found all day was buckwheat straw in little round stacks, and a few fodder blades.
On the morning of the 21st, the “Comanches” waked up finding a foot of snow on their blankets and more of it coming down, but they had slept warm and sound beneath this extra covering, and soon as possible the march was resumed for Petersburg, but it was a very disagreeable one, the weather being excessively cold and the “people” were forced to ford the South branch six times in deep water, which told bitterly on the horses, and at the last one, which was at Petersburg, some of the weak ones fell and the men had to wade out, but an early camp with plenty of feed and good attention made everything all ready for the mountain march in the morning.
The weather continued freezing cold, and the Colonel halted for two nights and a day in the South Fork Valley, but on Christmas day the battalion passed Brock’s Gap—the gateway to the Valley—and if there was a sober man in the battalion, outside of Company E, I did not see him; was with the command all day too.
The great business was now to get permission for the “Comanches” to disband. The escaped convict from the devil’s penitentiary, Sheridan, had made the destruction of forage in the Valley complete; the snow lay deep upon the blue grass field, making it impossible for the starving horses to glean the shadow of a subsistence from them; and the worn-out Rail Road, with its rickety rolling stock, was scarcely capable of carrying supplies to Early’s men at Staunton, while the cavalry division, in camp at Swope’s Depot, six miles west of that place, only had an allowance of six pounds of wheat straw a day for the horses, and no grain at all, all of which made White’s battalion swear that they would not winter in the Valley, but all the exertions of the Colonel seemed to be fruitless, for General Early declined to permit them to shift for themselves; and now Company F, following the examples set by Companies A, B and C, deserted in a body on the night of the 27th December, leaving Company E the banner Company, as being the only one that did not stain its reputation with the shame of desertion. The Colonel was in Staunton trying to get permission to take his battalion to Loudoun, and when Captain Myers called for the morning reports on the 28th, they showed a force in camp all told of forty-three men and three officers, viz: Company A, 18 men, 1 officer; Company B, 16 men, 1 officer; Company C, 3 men; Company E, 6 men, 1 officer; and when the Colonel came in on the 30th and learned of the desertion of Company F, he was so much troubled and excited over it that he declared he would not try to do anything more for the “Comanches,” and would never command them again, but the Loudoun boys gathered around their Chief like children around a father, beseeching him to think better of it, and not cast them away from his care entirely, and he recalled his bitter words, promising to try again to have them disbanded for this winter, as portions of General Fitz Lee’s division had been done the preceding one; and on the last day of the year he started again for Staunton, telling Captain Myers he would dispatch to him the next day at Harrisonburg, telling him what to do, and when on Sunday morning, January 1st, 1865, the Captain entered the telegraph office at that place, he found the welcome dispatch:
“Move out as soon as you like; take my horses with you to Semper’s.
“E. V. White, Lieut. Colonel.”
There was no time lost; but Myers had taken time by the forelock, and before leaving camp in the morning, had ordered the border Companies to move out for Loudoun, and Company E to go home, so that he, being sixteen miles behind, did not overtake them until they reached Front Royal.