During the hottest of the fight private John Hayden was struck by a piece of shell, and dreadfully mangled, and would have bled to death in a few minutes had not the Surgeon of the battery, Dr. Wortham, carried him on his back into the woods and staunched the hemorrhage. In a short time the enemy had possession of the field, but carefully concealing himself and his charge until they had passed on, he that night carried Hayden to a place of safety, where he eventually recovered.
With the two guns saved from the wreck of the battery, Lieutenant McNulty crossed the Chickahominy, closely pursued, and took position on the right of the road, commanding the bridge, where, by a vigorous fire, he checked the enemy’s advance and covered the retreat. McNulty then pushed on to Old Church and joined the main body, which had been there reassembled.
On the 13th he was ordered to Hanover Junction, where he joined the army of General Lee, with which he remained until after the battle of Cold Harbor, when he was ordered to Early’s command in the Valley of Virginia.
After a march of six days, the battery reached Waynesboro’, where four days after it joined Early, en route for the Lower Valley. Here the battery (now under the command of Lieutenant W. B. Bean, who had been for some time absent) was attached to General Bradley T. Johnson’s brigade of cavalry, which had the advance.
On the morning of the 4th of July, Johnson approached Martinsburg, when he was charged by about six hundred of the enemy’s cavalry, which for a moment created some confusion in his ranks; but a few well directed discharges of spherical-case from Bean caused them to beat a precipitate retreat.
The command then pushed on and entered Martinsburg, when they came suddenly upon a battalion of women, dressed in their holiday attire, drawn up on the sidewalks, as though bent on preventing Johnson from taking possession of the town, or at least their wagon train, ladened with ice cream, confectionery, &c.; for the fair and unfair dames, damsels and sweethearts of the troopers were about to celebrate their great national holiday by a picnic, when surprised by the naughty rebel Johnson, upon whom they at once opened such a fusillade of invectives in bad and not very choice English as to compel him and his command to retire in disgust, leaving them masters of the field.
From Martinsburg Johnson moved to Shepherdstown, and crossed the Potomac into Maryland, and took position on Catoctin Mountain, where he encountered a force of the enemy with artillery, but Bean soon drove them off, when they retired to Frederick city, closely pursued by Johnson’s cavalry. Here, being reinforced, they made a stand within the confines of the city, and opened fire from their battery, protected by the houses. The fire was not returned for some time, as Johnson was loth to open his guns upon defenceless women and children, but finally forbearance ceasing to be a virtue, he opened his battery, and a sharp artillery fight continued until night, when Johnson retired to the mountain to await Early’s arrival.
Early having at length come up, Johnson with his cavalry, and a section of the artillery under command of Lieutenant J. McNulty, proceeded to destroy the railroad bridges at Cockeysville, and this accomplished, he made a rapid move around Baltimore, and struck the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Beltsville, where a large body of the enemy’s cavalry was met, which, after a few shots from the battery and a charge from the cavalry, broke and fled towards Washington in the utmost confusion.
The battery, with Johnson’s cavalry, covered Early’s retreat from Washington, though it was but seldom brought into requisition until the army reached Poolsville, where the enemy made a vigorous attack, but were kept in check by Johnson’s cavalry and artillery until the whole army had crossed in safety.
On the 29th of July General Johnson was ordered by General Early to accompany McCausland into Pennsylvania and exact a stipulated sum of money from the citizens of Chambersburg, or in case of their not complying with that demand to burn the town. The Baltimore Light Artillery was attached to the brigade, and the whole crossed at McCoy’s Ferry and proceeded on their way. Before day on the morning of the 30th the advance approached Chambersburg, and after feeling the place with a few shells, and finding no enemy, the town was entered and burned.