The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson: In Which is Told the Part Taken by the Rockbridge Artillery in the Army of Northern VirginiaMoore, Edward Alexander
History
The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson: In Which is Told the Part Taken by the Rockbridge Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia
Moore, Edward Alexander
Confederate States of America. Army. Virginia Artillery. Rockbridge Battery, 1st; Jackson, Stonewall, 1824-1863; Moore, Edward Alexander, 1842-; Soldiers -- Virginia -- Biography; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Perso
After camping for a day or two about three miles below Winchester we
marched again toward Harper's Ferry, thirty miles below. Four of the six
guns of the battery were sent in advance with the infantry of the
brigade; the other two guns, to one of which I belonged, coming on
leisurely in the rear. As we approached Charlestown, seated on the
limbers and caissons, we saw three or four of our cavalrymen coming at
full speed along a road on our left, which joined the road we were on,
making an acute angle at the end of the main street. They announced
"Yankee cavalry" as they passed and disappeared into the town. In a
moment the Federals were within one hundred yards of us. We had no
officer, except Sergeant Jordan, but we needed none. Instantly every man
was on his feet, the guns unlimbered, and, by the time the muzzles were
in the right direction, No. 5 handed me a charge of canister, No. 1
standing ready to ram. Before I put the charge into the gun the enemy
had come to a halt within eighty yards of us, and their commanding
officer drew and waved a white handkerchief. We, afraid to leave our
guns lest they should escape or turn the tables on us, after some time
prevailed on our straggling cavalry, who had halted around the turn, to
ride forward and take them. There were seventeen Federals, well-mounted
and equipped. Our cavalry claimed all the spoils, and I heard afterward
most of the credit, too. We got four of the horses, one of which, under
various sergeants and corporals, and by the name of "Fizzle," became
quite a celebrity.
[Illustration: EDWARD A. MOORE
(March, 1862)]
Delighted with our success and gallantry, we again mounted our caissons
and entered the town at a trot. The people had been under Northern rule
for a long time, and were rejoiced to greet their friends. I heard a
very old lady say to a little girl, as we drove by, "Oh, dear! if your
father was just here, to see this!" The young ladies were standing on
the sides of the streets, and, as our guns rattled by, would reach out
to hand us some of the dainties from their baskets; but we had had
plenty, so they could not reach far enough. The excitement over, we went
into camp in a pretty piece of woods two miles below the town and six
from Harper's Ferry. Here we spent several days pleasantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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