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as Dranesville, and, having come down to Vienna, had just torn up some of the railway and destroyed a water-tank, and were departing, when they heard the whistle of a locomotive engine below the village. They hastened to the curve of the railway, in a deep cut a quarter of a mile from the village, and there planted two cannon so as to sweep the road, and masked them.

Unsuspicious of danger, McCook and his men entered the deep cut. Contrary to orders, the engineer had run up to that point quite rapidly, and there had been no opportunity for reconnoitering. The engine was behind the train, and was pushing it up. When the whole train was fairly exposed to the masked cannon, they opened fire, and swept it from front to rear with grape and canister shot. Fortunately, the

shot went high, and most of the soldiers were sitting. The frightened engineer, instead of drawing the whole train out of the peril, uncoupled the engine and one passenger-car, and fled with all possible speed toward Alexandria. The troops leaped from the train, fell back along the railway, and rallied in a grove near by, where they maintained so bold a front, under a shower of shell and other missiles, that the assailants believed them to be the advance of a heavier force near. With that belief they soon retired, and hastened to Fairfax Court House, leaving the handful of Ohio troops, whom they might have captured with ease, to make their way leisurely back, carrying their dead and wounded companions on litters

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SOUTH CAROLINA FLAG.

ROBERT C. SCHENCK.

and in blankets. The Union loss was five killed, six wounded, and thirteen missing. That of the insurgents is unknown. The latter destroyed the portion of the train that was left in the deep cut, and captured a quantity of stores. When they ascertained that the National troops were not in force in that vicinity, they returned and took possession of Vienna and Falls Church Village. On that occasion, the flag of the "Sovereign State of South Carolina "* was displayed, for the first time, in the presence of National troops out of that State.

We have observed that the insurgents were endeavoring to blockade the Potomac. Ten days after the affair at Vienna, there were some stirring scenes connected with that blockade at Matthias Point, a bold promontory in King George's County, Virginia, jutting out into the river, and giving it a short sharp turn. That point was covered with woods, and there the insurgents commenced erecting a battery which might completely destroy the

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1 Report of General Schenck to Lieutenant-General Scott. June 29, and New York Tribune, June 20.

Correspondence of the Louisville Courier.

2 The flag was composed of blue silk, with a golden Palmetto-tree on a white oval center-piece, and a silver crescent in the left upper corner. Partly surrounding the white oval were the words of the motto of the State: -"ANIMIS OPIBUSQUE PARATI." See picture of the Seal of South Carolina, on page 105.

INSURGENTS AT MATTHIAS POINT.

527

water communication with the Capital. Captain Ward, of the Potomac flotilla, was with the Freeborn, his flagship, below this point, when information of the presence of an insurgent force on the promontory reached him. He determined to

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and denude the Point of trees, so that there might be no shelter for the aggressors from the observation of cruisers on the river.

& June, 1961.

On the morning of the 27th,' the Freeborn, with the boats from the Pawnee, went up to Matthias Point, when the former commenced firing shot and shell into the woods. Under cover of this fire, Lieutenant Chaplin and his party, with others from the Freeborn, landed at about ten o'clock. Captain Ward accompanied them. Skirmishers were thrown out, and these soon encountered the pickets of the insurgents, who fired and fled. Just then a body of four or five hundred of the foe were seen coming over a hill. Ward hastened back to the Freeborn, to renew the shelling, while Chaplin and his men took to their boats. The insurgents were checked, and, in the course of fifteen minutes, Chaplin was again ordered to land, and to throw up a breast work of sand-bags. This was nearly ready for the guns that were to be sent ashore to arm them when a signal was given for him to retire, for the insurgents were too many for them. Before the men could reach their boats, the foe fired upon them with muskets. They safely embarked. Chaplin was the last to leave. The boats

1 This is a view of the ancient church which gives the name to the village, mentioned on page 526, as it appeared when the writer visited and sketched it, at the close of April, 1865. The church is a cotemporary with Pohick Church, near Mount Vernon, built before the Revolution, of brick, and in a style similar to the latter. It is about eight miles north of Alexandria, and the same distance west of Washington City. The village that has grown up around the church was built chiefly by Massachusetts people who had settled there, but the congregation of this church (Episcopalians) were chiefly native Virginians, and were nearly all secessionists. Their rector, a secessionist, afraid to pray for the President of the United States or for Jefferson Davis, when the war broke out, took the safe course of praying for the Governor of Virginia. The church is now (1865) a ruin, made so by the National troops, who took out all of its wood-work for timber and fuel, and had commenced taking the brick walls for chimneys to huts. The latter depredation was immediately checked.

528

DEATH OF CAPTAIN WARD.

had drifted away. Unwilling to call the men back to an exposed position, the Lieutenant swam out to the nearest one, carrying on his back a soldier (and his musket) who could not swim.

Only one man of the party who landed was injured; but a sad event

JAMES HARMAN WARD.

occurred on the deck of the Freeborn. The gunner was wounded in the thigh, when Captain Ward took charge of the piece. While sighting it, a well-aimed Minié ball came from the shore and mortally wounded him by entering the abdomen. As he fell he was caught by one arm of Harry Churchill, the boatswain's mate, who used his other hand with the string to fire the well-aimed cannon, whose round shot struck plump among the insurgents. Ward lived only forty-five minutes. The ball had passed through the intestines and liver. His was the only life sacrificed on the occasion, on the Union side.'

This attack on the works of the insurgents on Matthias Point, and those on the batteries at Sewell's and Pig Point, and at Acquia Creek, convinced the Government that little could be done by armed vessels, without an accompanying land force, competent to meet the foe in fair battle.

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1861.

While these events were transpiring in the region of the Potomac, others equally stirring and important were occurring in Northwestern June 11, Virginia. For a month after the dash on Romney," Colonel Wallace and his regiment were placed in an important and perilous position at Cumberland, in Western Maryland. When the insurgents recovered from the panic produced by that dash, which made them flee sixteen miles without halting, and found that Wallace had fallen back to Cumberland, they took heart, advanced to Romney, four thousand strong, under Colonel McDonald-infantry, cavalry, and artillery-and, pushing on to New

1 Captain Ward was the first naval officer who was killed in the war. His body was taken to the Washington Navy Yard, and thence to New York, where, on the deck of the North Carolina, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it lay in state, and was visited by many persons. It was then conveyed to Hartford, where funeral services were performed by the Roman Catholic Bishop of that diocese, in the Cathedral. It was buried with imposing ceremonies.

The Pawnee became so obnoxious to the insurgents that they devised many schemes for her destruction. Among other contrivances was a torpedo, or floating mine, delineated

in the accompanying sketch. It was picked up in the Potomac, a few yards from the Pawnee, on the evening of the 7th of July, 1861. The following is a description:-1, 1, Oil-casks, serving for buoys. 2, 2, iron tubes, four feet six inches long, and eighteen inches in diameter, charged with gunpowder. 3, A 3-inch rope, with large pieces of cork two feet apart. 4, 4, Boxes on top of casks with fusces. 5, 5, Gutta-percha tubing connected with capped tubes. 6, 6, Brass tops on the torpedoes. 7, 7, Copper tubes running through the casks. 8. Wooden platform in center of cask, on which the fusee was coiled and secured. 9, Fusee. This infernal machine was to be set afloat with the tide in the direction of the vessel to be destroyed, after the fusee or slow match was lighted. This was the beginning of the use of torpedoes, which the insurgents employed very extensively during the war. Others will be hereafter delineated and described.

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TORPEDO.

EVENTS IN THE VICINITY OF CUMBERLAND.

529 Creek, destroyed the bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway at that place. Then they passed on to Piedmont, five miles farther westward, where they cut the telegraph-wires, and destroyed all communication between Cumberland and Grafton. Fortunately, the advance of the insurgents upon Piedmont was known in time to send all the rolling stock of the railway there to Grafton, and save it from seizure.

Wallace was now completely isolated, and expected an immediate attack upon his camp at Cumberland. He had no cannon, no cavalry, and very little ammunition. For twenty-one days his men had only ten rounds of cartridges apiece. He could not hold Cumberland against the overwhelming force of the insurgents, so he prepared for a retreat, if necessary, to Bedford, in Pennsylvania. He sent his sick and baggage in that direction, and after advising the Union people in Cumberland to keep within their houses, he led his regiment out upon the same road, to the dismay of the loyal inhabitants and the chagrin of his men, who did not comprehend his design. It was soon made apparent. He halted, changed front, and prepared for battle. Believing that when the insurgents should enter Cumberland they would scatter in search of plunder, he prepared to rush in, attack them in the streets, and defeat them in detail.

When the insurgents under McDonald reached Frostburg, only six miles from Cumberland, they were informed of Wallace's bold stand, and ventured no farther, but remained at that place until evening, when they turned southward and hastened to Romney. Wallace returned to Cumberland, and was joyfully received. He appealed to both Morris and McClellan at Grafton, and to Patterson at Hagerstown, for re-enforcements and supplies, but neither of them had any to spare. There was danger at all points and weakness at all points. Only the Governor of Pennsylvania could afford relief. He sent Wallace some ammunition, and ordered two regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves,' under Colonel Charles J. Biddle, with a field-battery under Captain Campbell, to take post on the frontier of Maryland, but not to step over the line unless the Indianians should be attacked. That frontier line was only five or six miles from Cumberland.

During that month of peril, while the Indiana regiment was engaged in independent duty, and successfully guarding the railway for about a hundred miles each way from Cumberland, it was subjected to the most trying and exhausting services. Wallace succeeded in impressing thirteen horses into his service, and on these scouts were mounted, whose performances, night and day, crowded that month's history of the Zouaves with the most exciting events. The insurgents felt a wholesome dread of these Zouaves; and their appearance created many a sudden flight of a much superior force. The foot-soldiers of the Eleventh were equally active. The Potomac was everywhere fordable, and both parties crossed and re-crossed it at their pleasure,

1 See note 2, page 520.

2 The Pennsylvanians were restive under the restraints of this portion of the order. "Campbell," says Dr. Stevenson, "ascertained exactly where the line of division ran, and camping his men close by, with cutting practical sarcasm, planted his guns so that the wheels were in Pennsylvania and the muzzles in Maryland.”— 'Indiana's Roll of Honor, page 100. The order was in accordance with the deference then felt for the jurisdiction of the respective States. The Reserves were Pennsylvania State troops, and it was felt that they had no right upon the soil of Maryland.

VOL. I.-34

530

1861.

EXPLOITS OF INDIANA TROOPS.

and often engaged in little skirmishes. Finally, on the 26th," a spirited affair occurred near Frankfort, on the road between Cumberland and Romney, in which thirteen picked men of the regiment, mounted on the thir• June, teen impressed horses, were engaged. They were sent on a scout, led by Corporal D. B. Hay, one of their number. They boldly attacked forty-one mounted insurgents, killing eight of them, chasing the remainder two miles, and capturing seventeen of their horses. The leader of the scouts was severely wounded, but was saved. On their way back, they were attacked by seventy-five mounted men of the command of the afterward famous Ashby, near the mouth of Patterson's Creek. They fell back across a portion of the stream to Kelley's Island, at the mouth of the creek, where they had a terrible hand-to-hand fight with their assailants, that ceased only with the daylight. It ended at nightfall, with a loss to the Zouaves of only one man killed. The remainder made their way back to camp in the darkness. Their bravery elicited the highest praise of both Patterson and McClellan. The former, in general orders, commended their example to his troops; and the latter thanked them for their noble services, ⚫ June 28. and said to Colonel Wallace:'-"I more than ever regret that you are not under my command. I have urged General Scott to send the Pennsylvania regiments. I begin to doubt whether the Eleventh Indiana needs re-enforcements."

1

July 21.

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On the 8th of July, by order of General Patterson, Wallace's regiment broke camp at Cumberland, and joined the forces under their chief at Martinsburg; and they were engaged on duty in that vicinity until after the battle of Bull's Run, notwithstanding the term of their three months' enlistment had expired. For his eminent services in this three months' campaign, Wallace was rewarded with the commission of a brigadier.

Whilst the Baltimore and Ohio Railway-the great line of communication with the West-was thus held by the National troops, attempts were made by the insurgents to occupy the country in Western Virginia south of it. We have observed that Colonel Porterfield had notified the authorities at Richmond that a large force must be immediately sent into that region, or it would be lost to the "Confederacy." A plan of campaign in that direction was immediately formed and put in execution. Porterfield was succeeded in command in Northwestern Virginia by General Robert S. Garnett, a meritorious officer, who served on the staff of General Taylor, in Mexico, and was breveted a major for gallantry in the battle of Buena Vista. He made his head-quarters at Beverly, in Randolph County, a pleasant village on a plain, traversed by Tygart's Valley River. It was an important point in operations to prevent McClellan pushing through the gaps of the mountain ranges into the Shenandoah Valley. Garnett proceeded at once to fortify places on the roads leading from Beverly through these mountain passes.

1 The following are the names of the thirteen brave men:-D. B. Hay, E. H. Baker, E. Burkett, J. C. Hollenback, T. Grover, J. Hollowell, T. Brazier. G. W. Mudbargar, L. Farley, F. Harrison, P. M. Dunlap, R. Dunlap, and E. P. Thomas.

"Dated Hagerstown, June 30, 1861.

3 Letter from General McClellan to Colonel Wallace, dated Grafton, June 28. 1861.

4 See page 494.

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