The brave Brockenborough that day won his Major’s star, and, with his battery, received special mention in General Lee’s official report.
The morning of the 18th broke clear and beautiful, and General Lee was in readiness to renew the fight, which it was not doubted would begin at an early hour. But McClellan’s beaten and shattered army required time and rest and reinforcements before again prepared for aggressive operations; and finding this to be the case, Lee proceeded to bury his dead, and that night, unmolested, recrossed the river at a point near Shepherdstown.
CHAPTER III.
Soon after the battle of Sharpsburg, the Baltimore Light Artillery, now under command of Captain W. H. Griffin, was ordered to join the cavalry and infantry of the Maryland Line, then encamped near New Market, in the Valley of Virginia. Here they passed the fall and winter months quietly in camp, and in early spring were again prepared, with recruited ranks and renewed equipments, to enter the field.
On the 13th of June the infantry and artillery of the Maryland Line, with one company of its cavalry, all under command of Lieutenant-Colonel James R. Herbert, moved towards Winchester, near which place they were to unite with the division of General Early, which was moving across from Front Royal. Near Kearnstown a body of Milroy’s cavalry was encountered, but a shot from the battery scattered them in all directions. A short time after, Early came up and proceeded to form line of battle. The enemy soon made his appearance in force, and opened a severe fire upon Griffin from his batteries, which was vigorously responded to, and in a little while the enemy were driven beyond Kearnstown. Early, as soon as he had formed his line of battle, moved forward, and by a spirited charge of Gordon’s brigade, drove him into his strong works to the left of Winchester.
The next afternoon Hays’ Louisiana brigade was moved around to the enemy’s right with orders to charge a strong line of works whilst the artillery opened upon him in front. Griffin was posted on a commanding hill a little to the left of the pike, and threw his first shell into the very centre of the Star fort. Finding he had the exact range, he commenced a furious fire, which threw the enemy for a moment into the greatest confusion, and greatly assisted Hays in his movement upon their right. The fire was soon spiritedly returned by a Federal Maryland battery, and continued until night, when Milroy evacuated his fortifications and attempted to escape with his army, but in this he was unsuccessful, although he himself succeeded in reaching Harper’s Ferry with a few of his troops.
The precision and effect with which the guns of the Baltimore Light Artillery were served upon this occasion elicited the highest praise from General Gordon, to whose brigade it was temporarily attached, and as a mark of the high esteem in which he held the battery, he procured them permission from General Ewell next morning to select from among the captured guns the best pieces, to take the place of their own, which were greatly inferior.
The day after the battle of Winchester, the corps of General Ewell took up its line of march towards the Potomac. The Baltimore Light Artillery was directed by some subordinate officers to report to General Nelson of the reserve artillery. The order occasioned the greatest surprise and indignation throughout the command, for always before they had led the advance and covered the retreat. Such an indignity, as they considered it, could not be tamely submitted to, and a protest was immediately drawn up and forwarded to General Ewell, who at once ordered the battery to join Albert G. Jenkins’ brigade of cavalry, which was the van of the army in the invasion of Pennsylvania.
The battery crossed the Potomac on the 18th of June, and that day joined Jenkins, when the whole command moved rapidly forward in the greatest good humor. Many were the jokes they practiced, and many the quaint sayings, peculiar only to the soldier. “Take them mice out of your mouth,” one would bawl out as an officer with well waxed moustache rode by; “take ’em out, no use to say they ain’t thar, for I see their tails stickin out.” And as another came along, but a short time in the service, and wearing a “boiled shirt,” and white collar, his ears were sure to be assailed with “say mister how long did you have to soldier ‘afore one of them things growd’ round your neck?” And the staff officer, with handsome cavalry boots, would be requested by a dozen voices to “come out of them thar boots, for it’s too soon to go into winter quarters.”
En parenthèse, soldiers are queer beings, and will have their joke, even in the face of almost certain death. At the battle of Malvern Hill, whilst the First Maryland regiment was awaiting its turn to “go in,” and the men were closely hugging the earth to avoid the terrible fire of grape and canister which swept over and around them, I heard an officer of the regiment remark to another at his side, whose face was pressed close to the ground, “say, Captain, you’ll get a scrape down your back directly, and you know it’s something we don’t allow here,” and the officer addressed coolly turned over on his back, remarking, “well, if it will please you better, I’ll take it in front.”