Thus ended the battle of Front Royal, if it can be so termed, and in which Marylander met Marylander for the first time in the war. It has been said Kenly’s command had fought a vastly superior force of the Confederates, whereas it was a much inferior one, which, however did not compel him to withdraw from the position he had taken in front of the town, but the flank movement by heavy bodies of our troops did, and it was then we pressed our advantage. The actual number of assailants prior to his recrossing the river with what remained of his command, did not exceed four hundred men. And it has been more than once asserted, also, that Colonel Kenly did not offer the spirited resistance to the Confederate advance expected of him, and that there was no reason why he should have lost his command. This is doing him injustice. He fought his troops like the brave man that he is, and Commissary Banks can thank him for being instrumental in saving the little he did from the wreck of his army at Strasburg and Winchester. He committed one great, inexcusable error, however, in not having his cavalry scouts and pickets out, but it is said they reached him but an hour or two before our attack, although he had called for them several days before. If this be true, he deserves no blame or censure for his misfortune at Front Royal.
The morning after the fight, when the prisoners were drawn up in line, it was truly amusing to see the men of the two Maryland regiments greet each other. “Why, if there ain’t my brother Bill;” “And there’s my cousin Jim,” could be heard, whilst nearly all recognized old friends and acquaintances, whom they greeted cordially, and divided with them the rations which had just changed hands.
The kindest attention was shown the wounded officers and men, the former being paroled, and allowed to accept the invitation of the citizens to accompany them to their homes, where they were provided with all they required. And whilst we were thus treating our enemies in the field, the cowardly ruffians in Baltimore, who had remained at home, were brutally assaulting every citizen there suspected of sympathizing with the people of the South in their struggle for independence, because some poltroon, who had deserted his companions at the first fire, reported they had been murdered in cold blood to a man after having surrendered themselves.
The officers of the First Maryland Confederate called upon those of the First Maryland Federal, and offered them any assistance in their power, and in some instances it was thankfully accepted. Colonel Kenly was quite badly wounded, by either a pistol ball or a sabre cut, in the head, and at the time that I saw him appeared to be suffering much mental depression, caused by his misfortune. His wound he seemed to care but little for; but, as he paced the floor, would, from time to time, bend over his adjutant, Tarr, who was desperately wounded, and gaze anxiously in his face.
CHAPTER VII.
On the morning of the 24th Ewell took up the line of march for Winchester, Jackson having moved on Strasburg the evening before. That night we encamped on the banks of the Opequon, six miles from our destination. Here we were ordered to cook some rations, and be ready to move at midnight upon Banks, whom we intended to attack at daylight.
Long before the sun had risen on the morning of the 25th, the commands of Jackson and Ewell were in line of battle about two miles from the town, the former to the left of the Valley turnpike, the latter joining him on the right. Skirmishers were thrown out, and cautiously, at early dawn, through the dense fog that prevailed, the Confederate line advanced.
In front of a portion of Ewell’s line the First Maryland was deployed, which, after proceeding a short distance, encountered the enemy’s skirmishers, who fell back at our approach. About the same time was heard the spattering of musketry in the direction of Jackson, which told us he, too, had them in his front.
The fog had now become so dense as to make it impossible to see twenty steps in any direction; and Colonel Johnson therefore thought it advisable to assemble his skirmish line, as we had entirely lost sight of our line of battle, and did not know but we might be enveloped by the enemy. Quietly the men were drawn in, and the regiment lay down in an orchard and concealed itself behind a board fence, to await the lifting of the fog.
For an hour everything was still as death, when, the fog rising somewhat, a column of the enemy was revealed lying behind a stone wall about three hundred yards in our front, with his right flank resting toward us, and totally unconscious of our close proximity. They were apparently intent on watching something before them; and presently, to our horror, there emerged from the fog the Twenty-First North Carolina regiment, marching directly upon the stone wall, and altogether ignorant of the ambuscade there awaiting. Scarcely two hundred yards separated them, and in a minute the poor fellows would be in the fatal trap. Like ourselves, they had become separated from the main body and lost their way; but, unlike ourselves, had failed to exercise the precaution to ascertain where they were before advancing.