FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR.

We left Fincastle on the morning of May 17, 1861, amid the cheers, good wishes, farewells and tears of mothers, wives and sweethearts. The ladies had prepared neat little pin cushions supplied with pins and needles, also bandage cotton and hospital necessities, some of which were needed before we had gotten five miles from Fincastle. Trooper Frasier spied a “frizzly hog” and called the attention of his comrades, which created so much laughter that his horse on seeing the hog and hearing the noise, became unmanageable and threw Frazier, whose head had to be bandaged, there and then in vinegar and brown paper, (in the language of Jack and Jill.)

We marched off gaily uniformed now in gray, following the flag presented to us by the Botetourt ladies and carried by Wm. McCue. This flag was used during the first two years of the war, and after our victory at the first battle of Manassas Junction we were presented with another flag and our first flag was sent to Richmond. It remained there until after the war and was then sent back to Fincastle, where it remained until 1907. It was then sent back to Richmond to the Confederate Museum to be kept as a relic, and I had the honor of presenting it on the 7th day of May 1907, to Mrs. Norman Randolph, manager of the Museum. This was the same day on which the Davis and Steuart monuments were unveiled at Richmond.

Now back to our march from Fincastle to Lynchburg. We were cheered on our way by the waving of kerchiefs and throwing of bouquets as we passed on, following the blue ridge road until we came to Buford’s Station, where we enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Paschal Buford.

Our next stop was at Liberty, now called Bedford City. Here the kind people of the town took us into their homes and entertained and accommodated us for the night. We were welcomed in every home and invited to stop with them again if we should pass that way, which I did on one of my trips home from Petersburg. We left Liberty on the morning of May the 18th, and took dinner near Forest Depot at Col. Radford’s home. We reached Lynchburg the night of the 18th and as two companies had preceeded us and were enlisted as A and B, we came in as Co. C. We remained here three days, occupying tobacco factories and keeping our horses in Friend’s warehouse. We were furnished with tents and moved out near the fair grounds and were mustered into service on the 23 of May, by Gen. Jubal A. Early. By this time Co. D. from Franklin County had arrived and the remaining six companies came in in a few days. The companies were commanded as follows:

We remained at Lynchburg one month guarding the two magazines and drilling on foot and on horse-back. On June 10th, Capt. Terry with Co’s A and B went on to Manassas Junction, while we of Co. C with Co. D were ordered out June 17th.

Our first stop was at Rockfish Station where we camped for the night, and our second night was spent at New Glasgow. We reached Charlottesville by noon the next day and spent the night near Orange C. H. The next day found us at Culpepper C. H. by noon and night overtook at Warrenton Springs. We reached Manassas Junction by night fall of the next day. We moved on to Fairfax C. H. the following day and found Gen. Bornem commanding the first South Carolina Brigade, stationed there. Here we pitched our tents on Sat. eve and on Sunday a. m. a part of our Co. was sent out on a scout and two of our men, Calvin Garret and Joseph Robinson, were captured by the New York Zouaves. We remained at Fairfax C. H. until the 17th of July, and I was sent with fourteen other men, commanded by Serg. Garret, three miles below Fairfax C. H. on the Falls Church road to stand picket, and at 9 o’clock a. m. we found that McDowell was moving on Manassas Junction by three roads, viz.: Falls Church road, Little River turnpike, and Flint Hill road. Serg. Garret returned to notify the General of McDowell’s movement, but the Gen. had already learned from other pickets, of his advance, so he ordered the army to retreat immediately. As Serg. Garret did not return to us, Corporal McCue sent me back 3 miles to Fairfax C. H., and when I arrived our Adjt. told me of the retreat and from there I could see Col. Kershaw’s regiment already engaged with the enemy, so I had to return to notify the other pickets to join the command, which we could only do by a flank movement and came very near being cut off entirely by the enemy. When I returned I found that two of our pickets on the Flint Hill road, John Mays and William Maller, had been captured. We continued our retreat to Centerville and remained there until night. Gen. Beauregard’s plan was to throw sky rockets to let us know when to retreat further towards Manassas Junction, and when we called in the last pickets, we were fired upon by the enemy and two of our horses were killed from under their riders, Edward Hayth and William Walton.

During the night we marched across Bull Run at Mitchel’s Ford and laid down for the remainder of the night in front of the guns at Manassas Junction. We were awakened next morning by the firing of one of the enemy’s guns called “Long Tom.” As this was the first big gun I had seen fired, I remember well the appearance of that shell to me. It looked more like a gate-post flying through the air than any thing else I could compare it to. After hissing through the air about a mile it exploded and I told the boys I knew it had blown Manassas Junction to “kingdom come” and she would need no more protection. It wasn’t many days after this though, until we became more accustomed to the big guns, so we didn’t jump at such hasty conclusions and the firing wasn’t so exciting or terrifying. I hadn’t seen much of the infantry until that day and when they began double quicking and crossing Bull’s Run at Mitchel’s Ford in order to meet the enemy, I imagined we had men enough to whip the North right there.

At 9 o’clock on the 18th, the two armies met and for two hours a raging battle followed and when the Southerners made a charge all along the line, they drove the enemy back with considerable slaughter, into the timber back of the lowlands, where the battle was fought, and they remained there until Sunday, with “Long Tom” occasionally saluting us. Our line of battle extended from Blackburn’s Ford up nearly to Stone Bridge, a distance of 10 miles.