The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army.Goldsborough, W. W. (William Worthington)
History
The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army.
Goldsborough, W. W. (William Worthington)
Confederate States of America. Army; Maryland -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
During the hottest of the fight private John Hayden was struck by a
piece of shell, and dreadfully mangled, and would have bled to death in
a few minutes had not the Surgeon of the battery, Dr. Wortham, carried
him on his back into the woods and staunched the hemorrhage. In a short
time the enemy had possession of the field, but carefully concealing
himself and his charge until they had passed on, he that night carried
Hayden to a place of safety, where he eventually recovered.
With the two guns saved from the wreck of the battery, Lieutenant
McNulty crossed the Chickahominy, closely pursued, and took position on
the right of the road, commanding the bridge, where, by a vigorous fire,
he checked the enemy’s advance and covered the retreat. McNulty then
pushed on to Old Church and joined the main body, which had been there
reassembled.
On the 13th he was ordered to Hanover Junction, where he joined the army
of General Lee, with which he remained until after the battle of Cold
Harbor, when he was ordered to Early’s command in the Valley of
Virginia.
After a march of six days, the battery reached Waynesboro’, where four
days after it joined Early, _en route_ for the Lower Valley. Here the
battery (now under the command of Lieutenant W. B. Bean, who had been
for some time absent) was attached to General Bradley T. Johnson’s
brigade of cavalry, which had the advance.
On the morning of the 4th of July, Johnson approached Martinsburg, when
he was charged by about six hundred of the enemy’s cavalry, which for a
moment created some confusion in his ranks; but a few well directed
discharges of spherical-case from Bean caused them to beat a precipitate
retreat.
The command then pushed on and entered Martinsburg, when they came
suddenly upon a battalion of women, dressed in their holiday attire,
drawn up on the sidewalks, as though bent on preventing Johnson from
taking possession of the town, or at least their wagon train, ladened
with ice cream, confectionery, &c.; for the fair and unfair dames,
damsels and sweethearts of the troopers were about to celebrate their
great national holiday by a picnic, when surprised by the naughty rebel
Johnson, upon whom they at once opened such a fusillade of invectives in
bad and not very choice English as to compel him and his command to
retire in disgust, leaving them masters of the field.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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