Kilpatrick finding the expedition a failure, and believing himself pressed by a superior force, although but sixty sabres were at his heels, made for the lower ferries of the Pamunky, but failed to cross, for the same reason Dahlgren had, and finally reached Tunstall’s Station, and joined the forces under Butler, having been followed the whole way by the Maryland Battalion.
For this gallant exploit, General Elzey, in command of the defences of Richmond, issued a general order complimenting the command, and General Wade Hampton, in his report to General Lee, distinctly gave the credit of saving Richmond to the little battalion; for, by destroying the combination between Dahlgren and Kilpatrick, they prevented the joint attack on the city, and by the vigorous and incessant harrassing of the latter’s rear, conveyed the impression that he was attacked in force, at once changing his movements into a retreat, (deserting his subordinate Dahlgren,) and converting the attacks of Johnson into a pursuit.
Thus the devilish scheme originated by the wretched Dahlgren to get possession of the Confederate Capital, was frustrated. I say devilish, for upon his inanimate body was found papers that will cover his name forever with infamy. Although not the senior officer, he had command of the expedition, and these papers prove that it was his purpose to murder President Davis and the members of his cabinet, destroy the city, and give its women up to the lusts of his brutal soldiers. But, to thwart his hellish designs, God interposed a little band of brave men, and the city was not only saved, but the hirelings of Yankeedom scattered to the four winds, and its leader’s career brought to an ignominious end, by a bullet from the gun of a mere boy. It is indeed hard to conceive how a heart so young should have been so steeped in wickedness; but his own history, written by his own hand just before the wrath of an offended God overtook him, cannot be denied.
It is a little singular that this man should have lost his leg, in the streets of Hagerstown, at the hands of one of the officers of the very command that baulked him in his wholesale attempt at murder, arson and outrage.
For the services rendered upon this occasion Colonel Johnson won his rank as Brigadier General, which had been so long denied him by the Confederate Congress, although urged upon them months before by General Jackson, who had kept a vacancy in the Third Brigade open for him, and had refused to assign the command to any one else. This body of wise men contended that Maryland had its share of general officers, and could have no more, no matter how great the merit or ability the applicant might present for their august consideration. No, these important positions must be parcelled out as a fisherwoman does her stock in trade, and old and superannuated political hulks who aspired to a command were to be served first. So it was with the gallant Colonel Edwin Willis, of Georgia, who was killed at Cold Harbor. This young man, with a thorough military education, and one of the most brilliant and comprehensive minds in the South, and whose promotion had been more than once urged, was compelled to act in a subordinate capacity because Toombs and Cobb and other useless political generals stood in his way.
CHAPTER VI.
On the 9th of May, 1864, Sheridan began his raid around Richmond. Colonel Johnson, had gone on a scout towards Yorktown, and left Colonel Brown in camp in command of parts of four companies. On the afternoon of that day Colonel Brown received information that a portion of the enemy’s cavalry were raiding in the rear of Lee’s army, and had cut the railroad and destroyed the cars and provisions accumulated at some point above Hanover Court House. He immediately assembled his little command of one hundred and fifty sabres, and set out to ascertain the truth of the report. Shortly after passing Hanover Junction the gleam of camp fires in the distance, (it was just after dark,) along the line of railway in his front, seemed to confirm the rumor. The battalion pushed on at a trot, taking the usual precaution to throw out an advance guard and flankers, and about 11 o’clock, P. M., arrived at a point about a mile from Beaver Dam, when it became evident that they were in close proximity to a large force that was taking no pains to conceal their presence. The battalion was halted, and Colonel Brown himself dismounted and went ahead on foot to reconnoitre. He found the enemy in great glee, laughing and shouting at the top of their voices, whilst at the same time they were busily engaged in burning railroad ties, and generally seemed to feel the existence of an enemy to be an absurdity. So close did Colonel Brown get to them, that he came near surprising a party in a cut, and from where he could see, by the light of the burning cross-ties, for a mile or two along the road, whilst he was invisible to the enemy. After having taken a good view, he quietly returned to his command, which had been silently awaiting him, and dismounting all the men that could be spared, amounting to some eighty or ninety, he advanced on the railroad. Silently the little band crept on, carbine advanced, and ready to begin the work of death at an instant’s warning. Not a word was spoken; and the men held their breaths in anxious expectation, until right upon the bank of the railroad, when a whispered exclamation announced that the enemy had gone. Not far, though; for they could be plainly heard a short distance up the road. The skirmish party was then formed in column, and moved by the left towards the county road, not a hundred yards distant, with the intention to again deploy and advance until the enemy was found. Not half the column had crossed the fence which bounded the road, when there was a challenge and shot, almost simultaneous, followed by a volley from both sides. In the darkness, blinded by the fires the enemy had lighted, the head of the column had come suddenly upon a Yankee picket, at a point which Colonel Brown, not an half hour before, had found entirely unguarded; but during his absence they had finished their work and gone to bed, posting pickets, in the meantime, from habit more than anything else, as the picket was only a few yards from the main body, which appeared to be resting in a continuous line along and on both sides of the road.
Colonel Brown deployed at once, and advanced rapidly, the whole line keeping up a vigorous fire, which was made more effectual, because, while being in the shadow themselves, the confused enemy was distinctly visible by the light of the fires they had built. This could be plainly seen, as in driving the Yankees back they passed over the ground which had been held by them, and found many dead and wounded men and horses. Still pressing the enemy back, Brown came to a skirt of woods, about half a mile from the point where he first met them, when a cavalry charge was made upon his thin line, which, however, was handsomely repulsed, and the enemy driven back in confusion. Passing through this woods, he found them posted in great strength on both sides of the road, in open fields, awaiting his attack. Upon observing this, Colonel Brown slowly withdrew his command unmolested.
He now ascertained, from evidence before him, and from prisoners taken, that instead of fighting, as he supposed, a small raiding party, he had engaged the advance of Sheridan’s army of thirteen thousand men. Mounting his men, he held his ground until daylight, when a dispatch was received from General J. E. B. Stuart, directing Colonel Brown to harrass and delay the enemy as long as possible, as he was in pursuit. Accordingly, he at once advanced upon the enemy’s pickets and drove them back, when they were reinforced, but again driven back several times in succession, until Sheridan pushed forward heavy reinforcements, when Colonel Brown deemed it advisable to retire a short distance, the enemy manifesting no disposition to pursue. Thus for some time the opposing forces watched each other in silence, when Brown moved his men some distance to the rear to feed the horses, but leaving a force of twenty men, under command of Lieutenant C. Irving Ditty, to observe their movements.
But a few moments elapsed before the enemy became restive, and could be seen forming a strong column in the road, with heavy masses on each side of it, and clouds of mounted and dismounted skirmishers taking position in front. The fact was at once communicated to Colonel Brown. A bugle sound now announced the enemy’s approach, and the heavy columns moved forward in imposing array upon Ditty’s little force of twenty men. At this instant Brown came up at a gallop, and a spirited fight ensued. A dozen times did the column of mounted men attack, but a dozen times they were foiled and driven back in confusion, until the dismounted men moved through the woods on Brown’s flank, and compelled him to retire; and at last, about midday, they forced him back beyond the woods into the clear country, where Sheridan could see the insignificant force that had for so many precious hours kept his army in check. Then, and not until then, could his cavalry be brought to a charge, which the First Maryland, from its better knowledge of the country, easily avoided, not, however, without a parting volley, which emptied several saddles, two riderless horses running into their ranks.