Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-05-09
4 CAVALRY DASH
THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF CAR
TER'S FARM, VIRGINIA.
THE MEETING OF GENERAL AVERILI
AND GENERAL LILLEY, WHO LED
THE CONTENDING FORCES, RE-
WIVES MEMORIES OF THE
FIGHT
A CAVALRY DASH.

"Soldiers, won't you kill this snake ?"
Thus spoke in feeble voice of q wound
ed Confederate Brigadier- General TO a
half.a-dozen Federal cavalry men who
belonged to the command following his
retreating brigade. He had been shot
in the charge the Union forces had made
upon his lines, and was, when he called
to the soldiers, terribly wounded and
weak from the loss OF blood. A piece of
shell had struck him in the thigh and a
minnie ball had carried away his right
arm.
He had crawled beneath the shadow
of great rock in the edge of the woods
in order to escape from the fierce rays of
the sun, which were beating down on
that July day in 1864, and he lay prone
upon the ground, to keep as much out
of the range of flying bullets as he
could. A snake crawled from beneath
the stone and liesurely drew its shiny
lengthy over his face just as the victorl-
GUS cavalrymen came up. For few
moments the soldiers were puzzled at
his request and thought that his suffer
ings had made him delirious. They
soon. however, perceived the reptile
that had glided over the forehead of the
helpless man and Stopped just beyond.
Three of them alighted. Two of the
soldiers raised him up, that his shatter
ed body might not be made q pathway
for the snakes return, while third
killed it with his sword. Then they
carried the wounded officer tack into
the yard of the farm house near which
the charge began which had resulted so
disastrously for him and his cause.
It had not been great action /; simply
&, hnf hot hnt fyun
of troops. 1t might be called an Incl
dent of the war, when viewed in the
light of the many greater fights, the
story of which books record. But these
incidents re lily make up the interest
ing part of the history of the great strug-
gle. Short and decisive encounters and
sharp skirmishes very often had much
to do with the result of the great battles
which they preceded. They rarely get
in print, however, except through the
newspapers, and are seldom reviewed
except when the soldiers or officers di-
rectly interested meet and talk about
them.
Only few days ago two gentlemen
stood in the rotunda of the Girard House,
in Philadelphia, and retold the story of
the Carter's Farm fight, which took
place on the afternoon of the Goth of
July, 1864, and recalled the above in
cident. Both men were alike In one
sense, IS their erect figures and martial
bearing told that they had been soldiers.
One of the gentlemen was stout, of
medium height, with a large round face,
clean-shaven with the exception of a
small goatee and mOustache. A ponder
GUS under jaw and the penetrating
glances from pair of light blue eyes be
tokened the courageous qualities of the
man. He leaned on cane in such a
manner as to show that the traces of the
dangers, exposure and haidships atten-
dant upon war still remained with him
Ia dress he resembled a man from the
North, one who had lived there all his
life and was welded to its customs. The
other gentleman was also of medium
height, but slimly built. He wore a
full set of dark brown whiskers, thickly
strewn with gray. A broad brimmed
hat of such a size and style as to at once
proclaim the fact that the wearer was of
Southern lineage, covered his head. The
right sleeve of his coat was pinned to
the lapel and it was empty.
The larger man was Major General
w. w. Averill, of the Federal army,
and the other Brigadier-General Robert
D. Lilley, who in the late war succeed
ed General Jubal A. EARLY in command
of the old brigade he first organized and
commanded for the Confederacy.
Ijoined the group and found that these
men, who had opposed each other so of
ten during the late war, had met by ac-
cident after this lapse of time and were
engaged in fighting the battle of Carter's
Farm over again. The arm which be-
longed in the sleeve which hung empty
on General Lilley's breast had been shot
away in that fight by the troops which
Averill commanded, and he was the Of
ficer who lay in the shadow of the rock
wounded, while the Union forces, who
had inflicted the ipjnries upon him.
were pushing his troops beyond the
woods.
MEETING THE ENEMY.
Carter's farm is situated on the magni.
ficent turnpike road running from Mar
tinsburg to Winchester, through the
lower counties of the Shenandoah VAL
ley. A large mansion, built in style
of architecture that can only be found
in the South, with roomy porches and
huge chimneys on either end, stands but
short distance from the wood. The
yard is now filled with splendid shade
trees, and as far as the eye can reach the
green fields give evidence that the soil
is fertile. Good fences, beautiful flowers
and carefully titled land on every hand,
show that the ground yields royalty to
Its owners. There is nothing now on
the farm or In the immediate vicinity to
tell of the time when the hoof of war al
most stamped out every sign of oiviliza-
tion, and yet but few years have elaps-
| ed since the fertile country was bar
rem waste, its green fields ploughed up
hV the tramn of fhnusands of mon