Some time after, whilst at Centreville, Company I joined us, having the following officers:
Company I.—Captain, Michael S. Robertson; Lieutenants, H. H. Bean, Hugh Mitchell and Eugene Diggs.[[2]]
[2]. There were many changes in the regiment afterwards.
The regiment numbered over seven hundred men, and was second to none in the Confederate army. But two companies were uniformed at the time of its organization, (those from Richmond), but soon after, through the exertions of Mrs. Bradley T. Johnson, the whole command was dressed in neat, well-fitting gray uniforms.
With the exception of two companies, the regiment was armed with the deadly Mississippi rifle, which was also procured by Mrs. Johnson, through her influence with the Governor of North Carolina, of which State she was a native.
The organization had scarcely been effected when, in the afternoon of the first day of July, orders were received to cook two day’s rations and prepare to move at a moment’s notice. Our destination was for some time unknown; but it was soon whispered around that Patterson had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport with a large army, and, although vigorously attacked by a brigade under General Jackson, was driving that General before him, and advancing rapidly in the direction of Winchester. At four o’clock, we commenced the march to meet the enemy, every man full of confidence and enthusiasm. As we passed the then beautiful residence of the Hon. James M. Mason, that venerable gentleman, with his lovely family, stood in the gateway and bid us God speed. Alas, Yankee vandals have been there since; and, when last I visited the place, I found nothing but a mass of rubbish to mark the spot where once stood the stately mansion of one of Virginia’s wisest and purest statesmen.
That night the army went into camp near Bunker Hill, some ten miles from Winchester. The march was resumed early next morning, and by twelve o’clock our line of battle was formed a short distance beyond the little village of Darksville, and about five miles from the advance of Patterson’s army. To the First Maryland was assigned the post of honor, the extreme right; and, had there been occasion, most stubbornly would they have contested every inch of the ground they occupied.
The army, under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, numbered eleven thousand men of all arms, indifferently armed and equipped, and totally unacquainted with the drill and discipline so essential to the soldier; and yet these were the very troops that a few days later hurled back the legions of McDowell from the plains of Manassas, and who now threw down the gage of battle to Patterson and his twenty-five thousand trained volunteers from the cities of the North. The material was there, and time was only required to make them the invincible troops they afterwards proved themselves on more than one hard fought battle field.
Four days we awaited the coming of the Federal army, although General Johnston wished to avoid an engagement if possible. The odds were fearful, two to one, but the troops were sanguine of success should the enemy attack us upon ground of our own choosing. But the enemy did not advance; and, fearing he was too far from Manassas, where Beauregard was daily expecting an attack from McDowell, the Confederate commander determined to fall back to Winchester, and from that place watch the movements of Patterson.
A few days after, that General advanced his army to Bunker Hill, and went into camp.