Brig.-Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 2.1, Maryland
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[101]

Chapter 9: Maryland artillery—Second Maryland regiment infantry—First Maryland cavalry.

The First Maryland artillery was organized at Richmond, Va., in July, 1861, with Richard Snowden Andrews as captain, William F. Dement first-lieutenant, and Charles Snowden Couter second lieutenant. The captain, Andrews, was the son of Colonel Andrews of the United States army and had peculiar qualifications for the profession of arms. He had been born and reared in the military and impressed with the traditions of the ‘Old Army,’ which for deep convictions of duty, devotion to ideals of high chivalry, purity of motive, entire unselfishness, patriotism, valor and genius for war has never been excelled by any army that ever marched under any flag. Snowden Andrews was the ideal of a young gentleman formed by such influences—intellectual, well-informed on army matters, firm, persistent, indefatigable. No man went into service better equipped on either side. Believing himself better qualified for the scientific service of the artillery, he left his home and young wife in Bath, with the deliberate purpose of creating a battery, of which he intended to be commander. He procured from the department of war in Washington drawings of the most approved models of guns for the army. At Richmond he recruited his battery with indomitable energy. He selected his assistants, his lieutenants, with unerring judgment, for no better or braver men ever directed a gun than Dement and Couter. He submitted his drawings to the Confederate war department, secured its official endorsement, and by authority had the ordnance manufactured at the [102] Tredegar works in Richmond, as far as the resources of that establishment could go. So that when the First Maryland artillery took the field, it might have been said that the whole of it, men and guns, harness and wheels, was the creation of the head and heart, the mind and will of its captain. It occupied a position on the extreme right of the Confederate line, at Shipping Point on the Potomac, where its fire effectually blockaded that river until March, 1862, when Johnston withdrew from Manassas and the line of the Potomac. In the Seven Days battles it was attached to the division of Maj.-Gen. A. P. Hill. When Lee began his movement around McClellan's right on June 26, 1862, the First Maryland artillery fired the first shots at Mechanicsville, just as the First Maryland regiment had fired the first shots against McClellan's pickets at Hundley's Corner an hour before. It was attached to Pender's North Carolina brigade, and Captain Andrews was slightly wounded. General Pender in his report says: ‘The section of Andrews' battery was under Lieutenant Dement, who did fine service. Captain Andrews as usual was present, chafing for a fight.’

After that campaign he was promoted major ‘for gallant and meritorious conduct displayed in the battles before Richmond,’ and a battalion was formed for him consisting of the First Maryland; the Chesapeake, Captain William D. Brown—afterward known in the Maryland Line as the Third Maryland; and several Virginia batteries.

In the movement on Pope in August, 1862, Major Andrews commanded the artillery of Winder's division, originally Jackson's. On the 9th of August Pope moved from Culpeper Court House on Jackson at Slaughter's Mountain, half a march distant. Charles Winder, though too sick for duty, insisted on commanding his division in action. His place was the left of Jackson's line and with him was Andrews' battalion of artillery. [103] The Federals struck Winder on his exposed flank, doubled up his two left brigades, the First and Second, and sent them back behind the right of the division. Just at that minute a Federal line of battle was marching straight across the open fields against Winder's right and, with the broken brigades and Federals in the rear and the attack in front, they would have been crushed and Jackson ruined. Andrews, without waiting for orders, took his old battery, the First Maryland, across the front of the two brigades in a sweeping gallop, whirled them into battery on a hillock five hundred yards from the charging line of battle and opened on it with grape and canister with such bitterness, vigor and intensity, that human nature could not stand it, and in three minutes the charge became a rout and the field was filled with fugitives. It is the only case on record of a line of battle being charged by a battery of artillery. But though the service was the most brilliant and valuable done that day, it was more than paid for. As Winder was attempting to rally his broken brigades, a shell knocked him from his horse dead, and as Andrews rode at the head of his battery, he was nearly cut in two by a shell which laid open the anterior covering of his abdomen. It was useless to harass a dying man, it was thought by the surgeons; so he was left on the field with his devoted friend and faithful surgeon, Grafton Tyler of the First Maryland.

Maryland lost one of her most distinguished sons when Charles Winder fell, and nearly lost another as good a man when Snowden Andrews was so badly wounded. He ought to have died by all the rules of anatomy and experience of surgery, but he was of fiber too tough to be killed merely by one Yankee shell. His indomitable will and his unflinching courage pulled him through, and he lives to-day, vigorous in mind and body, just as obstinate as ever, and as faithful to friends as in the days when he was left lying on the field of Culpeper, with his [104] head on Grafton Tyler's lap, insisting that he wouldn't die when everybody said he must die. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel for this. Col. A. R. Courtney, chief of artillery of the Third division, in his report said, ‘The officers and men of Captain Dement's First Maryland battery, the only one which had been in action before, showed more coolness and deliberation.’ Colonel Crutchfield, chief of artillery of the Second corps, in his report said: ‘These two batteries were capitally handled and evidently damaged the enemy severely.’ He also ‘calls special attention to the gallantry displayed by Maj. R. S. Andrews in this action.’ General Jackson said, ‘Special credit is due Major Andrews for the success and gallantry with which his guns were directed, until he was severely wounded and taken from the field.’

After the battle of Slaughter's Mountain the First Maryland was foremost in every skirmish and affair in which the army of Northern Virginia was engaged in its transfer from the front of McClellan on the James to the rear of Pope at Manassas. On the 22d of August Early's brigade of Ewell's division crossed the Rappahannock at the White Sulphur Springs by the ford, the bridge having been broken. Early had with him the Thirteenth Georgia and the two Maryland batteries. Pope believed that this was Lee's advance over the river and forthwith concentrated a large force (Early says, ‘his whole force’) to attack it. During the night a tremendous rain fell and the river rose six feet and the bridge was impassable This little force, therefore, was cut off on the northern side of the river. During the entire day Early made a great show by marching and countermarching his regiments, and that stood off the Federals until dark. Then they made a move in heavy force to crush the small body in front of them and they charged with cheers, but Dement opened on them with canister at very short range, repulsed them and saved the command. When Jackson moved around Pope's flank and [105] got in his rear at Bristoe Station on the 26th of August, 1862, Ewell's division was left at Bristoe, while Hill and Taliaferro (who had succeeded Charles Winder in command of the First division) were sent to Manassas Junction. In the afternoon Pope's advance came up in heavy force, but Dement's guns stopped them until Ewell got out comfortably to Manassas. At Manassas in the battle of August 28, 29, 30, 1862, the three Maryland batteries —the First, Captain Dement; the Second, Baltimore light, Captain Brockenbrough; the Third, Chesapeake, Captain Brown, performed distinguished services. On the last day the First Maryland having exhausted all its long range projectiles of shot and shell, was moved up closer so as to shorten the range and increase the efficiency of canister.

Upon the investment of Harper's Ferry, during the night of September 14th, Colonel Crutchfield, Jackson's chief of artillery, took two guns each from the batteries of Dement, Brown, Latimer and Garber, and moved them across the Shenandoah, so as to flank and enfilade the Federal lines. This was the key of the position. Crutchfield was ordered to open at daylight, but the work of cutting a road along the mountain delayed him. At dawn the Confederate batteries of Pegram, McIntosh, Davidson and Braxton of A. P. Hill's division opened on the Federal right. General Miles, the Federal commander, began to form to charge them, when Crutchfield broke out in a tremendous fire which silenced the Federal battery on the left and drove the Federal infantry from their entrenchments. As the circle of fire from mountain to mountain closed around General Miles, he put up the white flag and surrendered. At Sharpsburg the Maryland batteries were on the Confederate left operating with Maj.-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart and his cavalry. At Fredericksburg, the Chesapeake artillery, under Lieutenant Plater, at Hamilton's Crossing did excellent service, said Early. At the battle of [106] Chancellorsville, the First Maryland and the Chesapeake artillery defended an important position in Early's line against Sedgwick on the 2d, and on the 3d was on Marye's Hill. Both batteries lost heavily in these engagements and received distinctive notice from General Early in his report.

The Second Maryland infantry¹ was organized at Winchester, Va., in the fall of 1862, of companies recruited in Richmond by officers of the First Maryland and some Marylanders who had come to Virginia after the battle of Sharpsburg. Those most active and influential in recruiting new companies were Captains Herbert, Goldsborough, Lieutenant George Thomas, Corporal Clapham Murray, Private W. P. Zollinger, late of the First Maryland, and Captains J. Parran Crane, Ferdinand C. Duvall, Jos. L. McAleer, John W. Torsch, Gwynn and Stewart, who were generally new men, except Torsch, who had commanded a company in a Virginia regiment for the preceding year. The regiment was organized as follows:

Lieutenant-Colonel, James R. Herbert.

Major, William W. Goldsborough,

Adjutant, J. Winder Laird.

Acting Adjutant, Lieut. George Thomas.

Quartermaster, Maj. Charles W. Harding.

Commissary of Subsistence, Capt. John Eager Howard.

Surgeon, Richard P. Johnson.

Assistant Surgeon, De Wilton Snowden.

Sergeant Major, William R. McCullough.

Quartermaster Sergeant, Edwin James.

Ordnance Sergeant, Francis L. Higdon.

Chief Musician, Michael A. Quinn.

Company A: Captain, William H. Murray. Lieutenants, Geo. Thomas, Clapham Murray, William P. Zollinger. [107]

Company B: Captain, J. Parran Crane. Lieutenants, J. H. Stone, Chas. B. Wise, James H. Wilson.

Company C: Captain, Ferdinand C. Duvall. Lieutenants, Charles W. Hodges, Joseph W. Barber, Thomas H. Tolson.

Company D: Captain, Joseph L. McAleer. Lieutenants, James S. Franklin, J. T. Bussey, S. T. McCullough.

Company E: Captain, John W. Torsch. Lieutenants, William J. Broadfoot, Wm. R. Byus, Joseph P. Quinn.

Company F: Captain, A. J. Gwynn. Lieutenants, John W. Polk, David C. Forrest, John G. Hyland.

Company G: Captain, Thomas R. Stewart. Lieutenants, G. G. Guillette, George Brighthaupt, William C. Wrighttor.

Company H: Captain, J. Thomas Bussey.

Col. Bradley T. Johnson had first been unanimously elected by the officers of the battalion to be lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Johnson was at that time on the military court at Richmond and had not contributed to the organization of the new command. He declined the proffered commission on the ground that it was due to Herbert as the senior officer of those who had got together, armed, equipped, drilled and instructed the Second Maryland. They had done the work and should have the honors. So Captain Herbert was elected lieutenant-colonel and Captain Goldsborough major.

The Second Maryland was employed during the winter and spring of 1863 at New Market, Harrisonburg and various other points along the Valley pike, sometimes on picket, sometimes in scouting. They several times accompanied Gen. Wm. E. Jones, who was in command of the valley, with his brigade of Virginia cavalry, the Second Maryland infantry and the Baltimore light artillery, on raids and long and arduous marches over the mountains of West Virginia, to disable the Baltimore & Ohio railroad by tearing up its track and burning its bridges.

In June, 1863, when General Lee commenced his move [108] on Pennsylvania by pushing Ewell's corps from Culpeper over the mountains to attack Milroy at Winchester, Jones' command was moved down the valley to make a junction with Ewell. At Kernstown, a few miles from Winchester, three companies of the Second Maryland, under Major Goldsborough, were out as skirmishers. They soon struck the enemy and drove him steadily back into the town of Winchester. They passed the night half a mile from the town and before sunrise next morning the Marylanders charged into the town, but were withdrawn by order of Gen. John B. Gordon, who had his brigade near them. The next day was occupied in Ewell's preparations to assault the fortifications around the town, into which Milroy had collected his army, but at daylight next morning the Maryland skirmishers entered the town and found everything had been evacuated during the night and Milroy had marched out toward Harper's Ferry. Ewell, however, had prepared for that movement and captured almost his entire command, though Milroy himself escaped. The loss of the Second Maryland in this affair was nine wounded and one captured.²

The curious part of this affair was that the Confederate Marylanders for the two days were fighting their own friends and kinsmen, the Fifth Maryland Federal, in which Major Goldsborough's brother was surgeon. The major captured his own brother. The regiment, the morning after the battle of Winchester, was attached to the brigade of Gen. George H. Steuart, former colonel of the First Maryland. It was composed of Virginia and North Carolina regiments, in Maj.-Gen. Edward John. son's division of Ewell's corps.

From Winchester they marched with the army to Gettysburg. On the evening of the first of July, 1863, Johnson's division being on the left of Ewell's corps, [109] which was the left of the army, moved about nightfall to attack Culp's Hill. After a bitter struggle they took the position with a loss of three hundred in Steuart's brigade, including one hundred in the Second Maryland. In this attack Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert was severely wounded by three balls, it was believed mortally. They held their place all night, and at daylight next morning Steuart's brigade was formed at right angles to the works they had taken the night before, and charged down them at a line held by the enemy two hundred yards in front, with an open field between. As the brigade emerged into the open, it was swept by the fire in front and a tenfold more destructive one from the left, where a large force of the enemy had been concentrated during the night. Major Goldsborough was shot down and Captain Murray killed, and the Second Maryland annihilated. It had carried five hundred men into battle the night before. Two hundred reported the morning after. Almost all the remainder were killed and wounded, for none were captured except five men tending wounded or dying comrades. After Gettysburg the Second Maryland marched with the army to Orange Court House in Virginia, where in November it was detached from Steuart's brigade and ordered to report to Col. Bradley T. Johnson, commanding the Maryland Line at Hanover Junction.

On June 2, 1864, the Second Maryland was held in reserve to Echols' brigade of Virginians, who occupied a line of works in front of McGehee's house at Cold Harbor, on the same ground over which the battle of Cold Harbor had been fought June 27, 1862. At daylight of June 3d Hancock's corps made a sudden rush at the works, ran over them, and the first thing the Marylanders knew the Union flag was right over them and the Union troops ramming canister in the captured guns in the fortification, to open them on their late owners. Without waiting for orders, officers and men rushed straight at the enemy with the naked bayonet, and in the [110] twinkling of an eye hurled them back the way they had come and turned the guns they had shotted on the routed mass. It was a most brilliant exploit, for it saved Lee's line and probably a serious disaster, for Grant had massed troops to pour them through the opening made by Hancock. Their loss was severe.

From that date the Second Maryland was engaged in every combat of Ewell's corps. They were first assigned to Walker's brigade and then to Archer's brigade of Heth's division. On the 13th of June they had a severe fight at White Oak Swamp and continual skirmishes followed up to August 25th. On August 18th General Mahone made an attack on Ream's Station on the Petersburg and Weldon railroad, south of Petersburg, Archer's brigade being part of his force. The fighting here was extremely bloody and the loss heavy on both sides. At Pegram's Farm, September 30, 1864, Heth's division had another severe fight. The Second Maryland lost out of one hundred and forty-nine men who went into the fight, fifty-three killed and wounded. At that time there were only six commissioned officers left with the regiment. All the rest had been killed or wounded. On October 1st they had another bloody fight on the Squirrel Level road and lost heavily.

From that day they were constantly fighting in the trenches until April 2, 1865, when they made their last gallant stand in the lines of Petersburg. General Archer having been wounded, the brigade command devolved on Brigadier-General McComb, of Tennessee. General McComb held his place on the line until nearly surrounded, and then fell back to Hatcher's Run. From there they marched with the army to Appomattox Court House, Where they were inscribed on the roll of honor of those who were paroled with Lee.³

The First Maryland cavalry was organized at Winchester, [111] Va., on the 25th of November, 1862, with—

Major, Ridgely Brown.

Adjutant, George W. Booth.

Assistant Quartermaster, Capt. Ignatius Dorsey.

Surgeon, Wilbur R. McKnew.

Sergeant-Major, Edward Johnson.

Quartermaster Sergeant, Charles I. Tregner.

Company A: Captain, Frank A. Bond. First-Lieu tenant, Thomas Griffith. Second-Lieutenant, J. A. V. Pue, Edward Beatty.

Company B: Captain, George M. Emack. Lieutenants, Mason E. McKnew, Adolphus Cook, Henry C. Blackiston.

Company C: Captain, Robert C. Smith. Lieutenants, George Howard, J. Jeff. Smith, Groeme Turnbull.

Company D: Captain, Warner G. Welsh. Lieutenants, William H. H. Dorsey, Stephen D. Lawrence, Milton Welsh.

Subsequently the battalion was joined by—

Company E: Captain, William J. Raisin. Lieutenants, John B. Burroughs, Nathaniel Chapman, Joseph K. Roberts.

Company F: Captain, Augustus F. Schwartz. Lieutenants, C. Irving Ditty, Fielder C. Slinghoff, Samuel G. Bond.

Thereupon Major Brown was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and Capt. Robert Carter Smith major.

In July, 1864, Capt. Gustavus W. Dorsey joined the battalion with Company K of the First Virginia cavalry as Company H: Captain, Gustavus W. Dorsey. Lieutenants, N. C. Hobbs, Edward Pugh. Second Lieutenant, Mr. Quinn. (Rudolphus Cecil had been killed in battle.)

The battalion served in the valley of Virginia in the brigade of Wm. E. Jones, as a constituent part of the Maryland Line, consisting of the First Maryland infantry, the First Maryland cavalry and the Second Maryland or Baltimore light artillery. [112]

The winter of 1862-63 was employed in picketing and scouting General Jones' front and accompanying the command on various raids on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and to collect provisions and horses. In the latter part of April, 1863, General Jones went through Moorefield and western Maryland, having numerous skirmishes at the villages of that region and collecting much spoil. On their way to Oakland in Maryland, at Greenland Gap, a pass in the mountain range, necessary to go through in order to reach their destination, they encountered a strong blockhouse of logs, garrisoned with one hundred and fifty infantry, which commanded the way. The Seventh Virginia, Col. Richard H. Dulany, was first ordered in, but was repulsed, its colonel badly and supposed mortally wounded. The First Maryland was then sent forward. The position was almost impregnable. The strong log house was crenelated and the garrison poured through its crevices a constant and devouring fire. Its only approach was by a path, along which only two could charge abreast. Brown took charge and with his adjutant, Booth, led the forlorn hope. With a small number of men they got up to the side of the house, and by sticking close to the wall and firing through the crevices with their revolvers, managed for some moments to live. Brown was shouting for fire, when both he and Booth were shot through the leg from muskets poked through the cracks at them. But the fire was got up and the house set in flames and then the garrison surrendered. Maj. Robert Carter Smith and Lieutenants Pue and Beatty of Company A were severely wounded. The First Maryland lost several in its rank and file. All the field and staff were wounded. After a few days Colonel Brown's, Major Smith's and Captain Booth's wounds became so bad that they had to be sent to the rear, when Capt. Frank A. Bond was assigned to the command.

In the movement on Pennsylvania in June, 1863, the First Maryland was assigned to the command of Brig.- [113] Gen. Albert G. Jenkins, who had been ordered to the valley with his cavalry brigade. With Jenkins' brigade the First Maryland made the Gettysburg campaign and participated in all the raids, foragings and skirmishes of that command, General Jenkins being in the advance in Lee's forward movement. When Lee withdrew from Gettysburg, Jenkins was sent with his brigade to protect the trains which were forwarded ahead of the infantry. Meade detached Kilpatrick's division down through Maryland to strike Lee's trains in the mountains, and at midnight it attacked them at Monterey, on the dividing line between Maryland and Pennsylvania—Mason and Dixon's line. Emack's and Welsh's squadrons were at the point of attack. They were thrown behind the stone fences, part held mounted, and as Kilpatrick's advance charged in the pitch dark, the Marylanders sent them whirling back, and charged them mounted. These two squadrons held back Kilpatrick's division from midnight until dawn, when Jenkins got up, it having been impossible to pass the wagon train in the dark. They saved Ewell's train, his ammunition and his ambulances with his wounded. Passing on down the mountain, they again met the enemy's cavalry at Hagerstown, where a desperate hand-to-hand melee took place in the streets, and Maj. Ulric Dahlgren lost his leg. Captain Bond also received a wound which lamed him for life.

After the army returned to Virginia the First cavalry served in Jenkins' brigade, and then in the brigades of Gens. Fitz Lee and Lomax until November, 1863, when it was ordered to report to Col. Bradley T. Johnson, commanding the Maryland Line.