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A striking War incident.
[from the Baltimore, Md., sun, December, 1901.]
How General ‘Jeb.’
Stuart lost his life in Recapturing a borrowed Maryland Battery.
General Bradley T. Johnson, the distinguished
Maryland exCon-federate, writes to the
Sun as follows, giving some hitherto unpublished military dispatches connected with the operations of
Maryland troops in the battles around
Richmond in 1864:
Among your collection of unpublished military dispatches you may include these two, which have never been printed.
In October, 1863, I was ordered by
General Lee to assemble the
Maryland Line, then in separate commands in the Army of Northern Virginia—except the
Latrobe Battery, which was with the Army of the Southwest —at
Hanover Junction, to guard the five long, high bridges there, over the
North Anna, the
South Anna, and the
Middle river, all within a mile or two of each other, and which were vital for
Lee's communication with the
Valley, with
Richmond, and thence the whole
South.
I there collected the Second Maryland Infantry, First Maryland Cavalry, First Maryland Artillery,
Captain Dement; Second Maryland Artillery,
Captain Griffin (the
Baltimore Light), and the Fourth Maryland Artillery,
Captain W. Scott Chew; the Third Maryland Artillery.
Latrobe's Battery served in the west, and was never in my command.
The
Maryland Line, thus gotten together, was the largest collection of Marylanders who ever fought under the
gold and
black.
Our duty was very important, and we picketed the country all to the east and down the
Pamunkey to New Kent.
Shortly after midnight I received the following from
General Jeb Stuart, who was then at
Taylorsville, a mile and a half distant, with the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia:
