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tained that our presence on the opposite side was not required, when we went back to our old quarters. February, 16 To-day we crossed the Big Barren, and are now in Bowling Green. Turchin's brigade preceded us, and has gutted many houses. The rebels burned a million dollars worth of stores, but left enough pork, salt beef, and other necessaries to supply our division for a month; in fact the cigar I am smoking, the paper on which I write, the ink and pen, were all captured. General Beauregard left the day before our arrival. It is said he was for days reported to be lying in General Hardee's quarters, dangerously ill, and that under cover of this report he left town dressed in citizen's clothes and visited our camps on Green River. February, 18 The weather is turning warm again, the men are quartered in houses. I room at the hotel. This sort of life, however pleasant it may be, has a demoralizing effect upon the soldier. February, 19 Spent the forenoon at th
Heros von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, Chapter 23: (search)
war. The remaining weeks of the beautiful month of May passed away in quiet, so far as regards any interruption on the part of the enemy; but were actively employed in preparations for the summer campaign, and in reorganising our whole army, the ranks of which were rapidly filled by the return of the absentees, and strengthened by the arrival of numerous reinforcements-Longstreet having been recalled with his two divisions from North Carolina, and several brigades joined to these from Beauregard's army. The army of Northern Virginia was now divided into three equal and distinct corps, each numbering about 20,000 men. Longstreet commanded the 1st corps, consisting of Hood's, McLaws's, and Picket's divisions; Ewell the 2d, consisting of Early's, Rodes's, and Johnson's divisions, formerly under Jackson's command, and now committed to this general in accordance with a request made by Stonewall on his deathbed, in his solicitude for the welfare of his veterans. The 3d corps was plac
on his arrival he was made lieutenant-colonel, and placed in command of the cavalry on the Upper Potomac, where he proved himself so vigilant a soldier that Johnston called him the indefatigable Stuart, and compared him to a yellow jacket, which was no sooner brushed off than it lit back. He had command of the whole front until Johnston left the valley, when he moved with the column to Manassas, and charged and broke the New York Zouaves; afterwards held the front toward Alexandria, under Beauregard; then came the hard falling back, the struggle upon the Peninsula, the battle of Cold Harbour, and the advance which followed into Maryland. Stuart was now a general, and laid the foundation of his fame by the ride around McClellan on the Chickahominy. Thenceforth he was the right hand of Lee until his death. The incidents of his career from the spring of 1862 to May, 1864, would fill whole volumes. The ride around McClellan; the fights on the Rapidan; the night march to Catlett's,
Ferry, soon afterwards fighting General Patterson at Falling Water, thence descending to Manassas. Here the small force-2,611 muskets — of Brigadier-General Jackson saved the day. Without them the Federal column would have flanked and routed Beauregard. Bee, forced back, shattered and overwhelmed, galloped up to Jackson and groaned out, General, they are beating us back! Jackson's set face did not move. Sir, he said, we will give them the bayonet. Without those 2,611 muskets that morning, good-by to Beauregard! In the next year came the Valley campaign; the desperate and most remarkable fight at Kernstown; the defeat and retreat of Banks from Strasburg and Winchester; the retreat, in turn, of his great opponent, timed with such mathematical accuracy, that at Strasburg he strikes with his right hand and his left the columns of Fremont and Shields, closing in from east and west to destroy him-strikes them and passes through, continuing his retreat up the Valley. Then comes the l
brave stuff, and officered by hard-fighting gentlemen — the flower indeed of the great South Carolina race; a good stock. It first took the field in earnest at the first battle of Manassas--as an independent organization, belonging neither to Beauregard's Army of the Potomac nor to Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah. But there it was, as though dropped from the clouds, on the morning of that fiery twenty-first of July, 1861, amid the corn-fields of Manassas. It made its mark without loss of tf South Carolina. At ten o'clock in the morning, on this eventful day, the battle seemed lost to the Southerners. Evans was cut to pieces; Bee shattered and driven back in utter defeat to the Henry-House hill; between the victorious enemy and Beauregard's unprotected flank were interposed only the six hundred men of the Legion already up, and the two thousand six hundred and eleven muskets of Jackson not yet in position. The Legion occupied the Warrenton road near the Stone House, where it m
Beauregard. I. The most uniformly fortunate General of the late war was Beauregard. So marBeauregard. So marked was this circumstance, and so regularly did victory perch upon his standard, that Daniel, the trand hardy critic of the Examiner, called him Beauregard Felix. Among the Romans that term signified -House hill, the key of the whole position. Beauregard was four miles off, awaiting an advance of hut three thousand-and to this critical point Beauregard now went at a swift gallop, with General Johhe men of the escort, and among the rest General Beauregard. His laugh was peculiar; the eyes sparkhe had taken two steps toward her horse, General Beauregard was at her side, completely distancing tne else could rival him in their favour. Beauregard had certainly secured this personal populariancy; to present an accurate likeness of General Beauregard as he appeared to us of Virginia in thosl, daring, and impetuous soldier, had become Beauregard the cautious, thoughtful, self-sacrificing p[28 more...]
ich he bore his own State. He joined Gregg's regiment, in which he served three months, and on the disbanding of which he became an independent fighter. From this time commences that career of personal adventure and romantic exploits which made him so famous. Shouldering his rifle-now riding, then on foot-he proceeded to the far outposts nearest to the enemy, and was indefatigable in penetrating their lines, harassing detached parties, and gaining information for Generals Bonham and Beauregard. Falling back with the army from Fairfax, he fought-though so sick that he could scarcely stand — in the first battle of Manassas, and then entered permanently upon the life of the scout, speedily attracting to himself the unconcealed admiration of the whole army. To note the outlines even of his performances at that time, would require thrice the space we have at our disposal. He seemed omnipresent on every portion of the lines; and if any daring deed was undertaken-any expedition which
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes, and Adventures of War., Stuart on the outpost: a scene at camp Qui Vive (search)
h full of such varied and passionate emotions. Manassas! Centreville! Fairfax! Vienna!-what memories do those names excite in the hearts of the old soldiers of Beauregard! That country, now so desolate, was then a virgin land, untouched by the foot of war. The hosts who were to trample it still lingered upon the banks of the Potuch vivid colours that I thought, if I could paint it, some of my readers would be interested. It took place in autumn of the gay years 1861, when Johnston and Beauregard were holding the lines of Centreville against McClellan; and when Stuart, that pearl of cavaliers, was in command of the front, which he guarded with his cavalrndria. Now, as General McClellan was sojourning with a large escort near that place, and would doubtless be glad to ascertain a number of things in relation to Beauregard, Stuart had refused the pass. When the fugitives attempted to elude his pickets they were caught, forwarded to headquarters, and there they were. The young
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes, and Adventures of War., A glimpse of Colonel Jeb Stuart (search)
back to the early years of the late war, and to its first arena, the country between Manassas and the Potomac. Let us, therefore, leave the present year, 1866, of which many persons are weary, and return to 1861, of which many never grow tired talking-1861, with its joy, its laughter, its inexperience, and its confiding simplicity, when everybody thought that the big battle on the shores of Bull's Run had terminated the war at one blow. At that time the present writer was attached to Beauregard's or Johnson's Army of the Potomac, and had gone with the advance force of the army, after Manassas, to the little village of Vienna-General Bonham commanding the detachment of a brigade or so. Here we duly waited for an enemy who did not come; watched his mysterious balloons hovering above the trees, and regularly turned out whenever one picket (gray) fired into another (gray). This was tiresome, and one day in August I mounted my horse and set forward toward Fairfax Court-House, int
bad representative of Captain D'Artagnan, the hero of Dumas' Three Guardsmen. When the Captain fixed his eyes upon me, he seemed to aim at reading me through. When he questioned me he evidently scrutinized my words carefully, and weighed each one. Such a precaution was not unreasonable. The period was critical, the time dangerous. Our generals entertained well grounded fears that the enemy designed a flank movement on Centreville, up this very road, either to attack Johnston and Beauregard's left, or to cut off Evans at Leesburg, and destroy him before succour could reach him. I was personally cognizant of the fact that General Evans suspected such an attack, from conversation with him in Leesburg, and was not surprised to find, as I soon did, that the road over which the enemy must advance to assail him was heavily picketed all along its extent in the direction of Fairfax. If this situation be comprehended by the reader, he will not fail to understand why the Captain sc
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