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[516] in General G. W. Smith's division, and General R. H. Anderson, of South Carolina,1 was transferred from Pensacola, where he had previously served, to command the South Carolina brigade. General Ewell had been assigned to command General Longstreet's old brigade in December, but being shortly afterward made Major-General; the command reverted to Col. Kemper, who retained it until March, when General A. P. Hill was assigned to it. On the 9th of March, 1862, General Johnston ordered the evacuation of the lines of Centreville and Manassas, and put his army in motion for the line of the Rapidan. General Longstreet's division, with Stuart's cavalry covered the movement, which, however, was unmolested, the enemy only discovering it after it was under way. General McClellan was at that period collecting the necessary transportation for his movement to the Peninsula, but as this was not yet ready, he improved the opportunity to mobolize his army by marching it as far as Centreville. A cavalry force under Stonemen pushed forward to Cedar Run and exchanged a few carbine shots with Stuart, but did not cross. Owing to lack of transportation upon the railroad, some provisions, stores and baggage had to be burned at Manassas at the last moment, although two days more time had been allowed for their removal than the superintendent of the road had requested. The total value of these stores was, however, not great, and when all things are considered, the movement was as eminently successful as it was judicious. The Washington artillery battalion2 of New Orleans was assigned to Longstreet's division when this movement commenced, and continued to serve with the division and corps until the latter came to Georgia in September, 1863. After crossing the Rappahannock, a halt of a few days was made,
1 General R. H. Anderson graduated at West Point, in 1838, and served in the First United States Dragoons until the secession of South Carolina. He was brevetted for gallantry in Mexico, and was a Captain when he resigned.
2 This celebrated battalion was originally founded in 1838. In the Mexican war it was Company A, of Colonel Persifer Smith's regiment, of which Colonel J. B. Walton, who commanded the battalion from 1861 to 1864, was Lieutenant-Colonel. It was composed of five batteries, of which the first four served in Virginia, and the fifth with the Army of Tennessee. Its battery commanders in March, 1862, were: Captains C. W. Squires, T. L. Rosser, (afterwards Major-General of calvary), M. B. Miller, and B. F. Eshleman. Its material was superb; the cannooneers being almost exclusively young men of the best families of New Orleans. Its numbers were general small, as it refused to receive recruits promiscuously, and the four batteries usually averaged but three guns each.
Richmond, VA. 1881.
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