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volunteers are freely laying their lives upon the altar of their country — fighting battles and suffering all the trials and exposure incident to active military life — that now, when death and disease has thinned their ranks, and the necessities of the country require more men, there can be found those at home who have the effrontery to resist the means adopted to secure so desirable an end. Could the men engaged in the recent disturbance in
New-York have heard the indignation expressed by our soldiers when they first read of the riot in
New-York, from newspapers scattered along the column to-day, and the wish that they could be led against that mob, they would never dare look a soldier in the face again.
On the twenty-fifth of June, after the battles of
Aldie,
Middleburgh, and
Upperville, the cavalry moved forward to
Leesburgh, thence across the
Potomac at Edwards's Ferry to
Poolesville, passing through
Seneca Mills,
Middlebrook, Doub's Station,
Jefferson, to Frederick City.
At this point the force was divided, and went in different directions.
As
General Kilpatrick was placed in command of the largest division, and being a man of fertile genius, whose heart is in the cause in which he is engaged — and withal one of the most dashing cavalry officers in the
United States or any other service, the writer concluded that his duty to the paper he represented required him to proceed with a command which promised so much.
For once his judgment was not at fault.
The experience of the last ten days has proved quite conclusively that the Third division of the cavalry is the place for representatives of newspapers in search of either news, fatigue, or fighting.
Leaving Frederick on Sunday, the twenty-eighth,
Walkerville,
Mount Pleasant, Liberty,
Johnsville,
Middleburgh,
Taneytown, and Littletown were passed through, without any important event to record; and, on the thirtieth, (Tuesday,)
Hanover was reached.
As the troops crossed the line into
Pennsylvania, their spirits seemed to be revived by the fertile fields and homelike scenes around them.
Cheerfully they moved on — many of them, alas!
too soon, to their last resting-place.
The battle at Hanover.
At about midday,
General Kilpatrick, with his command, was passing through
Hanover, in
York County, Pennsylvania--a town containing three thousand inhabitants — and when the rear of
General Farnsworth's brigade had arrived at the easterly end of the place,
General Custer's brigade having advanced to Abbottsville,
General Stuart made a simultaneous attack upon his rear and right flank.
The attack was entirely a surprise, as no enemy had been reported in the vicinity; and under any ordinary general, or less brave troops, so sudden and impetuous was the first charge, the whole command would have been thrown into the wildest confusion, and, as a necessary consequence, suffered a severe loss and a disastrous defeat.
The force was in the hands of a master.
Speedily making his dispositions, the
General hurled upon the insolent and advancing enemy the Fifth New-York cavalry--a regiment never known to falter in an emergency.
General Stuart in person led the charging column, and the Fifth was led by
General Farnsworth and
Major Hammond.
For some time the contest hung in the balance, but
General Custer's brigade returning after a severe struggle, which lasted nearly four hours, the enemy was forced to retire.
They lost in this engagement a stand of colors, fifty men--ten of whom were killed — and included among the latter was
Captain James Dickenson, of
Baltimore, attached to the Tenth Virginia cavalry.
Lieutenant-Colonel Payne, of the same regiment was taken prisoner, together with forty others — officers of the line, non-commissioned officers and privates.
It was in this fight that the
Adjutant of the Fifth New-York,
Lieutenant Gaul, lost his life while gallantly leading his men.
As the cavalry by the battles at
Aldie and
Upperville, prevented the rebel
Stuart from marching his column through
Maryland and
Pennsylvania by the way of Edwards's Ferry and
Boonsboro, so did the whipping of him at
Hanover prevent further marauding excursions toward the centre of the
State.
Stuart and
Early, the marauding chiefs of the rebel army, when they heard that
Kilpatrick was on their track, abandoned the disgraceful work they were engaged in, and began to look about them for a safe exit from the
State.
These legalized
Dick Turpins had demanded tribute in almost every town visited by them, and threatened to destroy the towns unless their demands were promptly met. In some towns the citizens nobly refused to comply, but prepared rather to sacrifice their property than to yield to the invader.
In many places, I regret to say, the reverse of all this was acted upon.
At
York, a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, the chief burgomaster, a man named Small, rode seven miles to surrender the town, and before any demand had been made for its surrender.
General Early condescended to say, that if in the course of his peregrinations
York was visited, he would consider the surrender as an ameliorating circumstance.
Visiting the place, he demanded a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars and a supply of provisions and clothing for his whole command.
A committee of citizens was actually formed, and forty-five thousand dollars in greenbacks and the required provisions were turned over to the Early aforesaid, who magnanimously offered to spare the town then, provided the balance of the money demanded was paid upon his return, which he said would be within a few days.
Fortunately,
General Kilpatrick's troops frightened this pink of generals away, and the citizens of
York and vicinity were saved the opportunity of further humiliating themselves.
On the
Saturday previous to arriving in
Hanover, one hundred and fifty of
Stuart's cavalry entered that place, and did pretty much as they pleased, not one of the three thousand inhabitants daring to remonstrate or raise a finger in self-defence.
