Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-11-02

in the former situation:
lowing to sudden rise in the river,
the bridges became too short, and there
was some doubt as to the practicability
Of passing over them; but, by taking
down one and piecing the others with
it, the difficulty was overcome, and the
army retired without being followed
up, under cover of thirty-two guns
posted on the heights on the opposite
bank"
I do not know how much of this sit
uation General Doubleday saw person
ally. Those who had an opportunity
to see it as did will always remember
it as one of the most critical and alarm
ing situations of the war. Circum-
stances at that time made me acquaint-
ed with some details that never went
into history, to give which is the OBJ
ject of this sketch.
There is in my possession brief
written order from General Hooker,
made on the left bank Of the river to
his generals on the other bank, which,
with the greatest difficulty, I succeeded
in conveying across by signals that
memorable night. I will tell how it
came to be given.
1t was toward evening that the lay
ing of the pontoons was completed, or
supposed to be completed. The COM
handing General, his staff and escort
had come over. As signal officer at
tached to headquarters, l was with
| them.
The Upper Rappahannock is deep
but usually not wide stream. The
laying of the pontoons, when not I'M
der fire, was no difficult job, as had
been often before proved. But the
| Sudden rise" of the river referred to
| changed the situation. The stream was
widened by the flood of water COM
ing down from the mountains after
the spring rains, and was swollen to q
torrent. The bridges were swaying
about. carried down by the force Of the
current, leaving wide gaps between
their ends and this side. They were
just IFS useless for the crossing of a
single soldier OF a single gun as no
bridge at all would have been.
The night came on, dark as pitch;
but while there was still light enough
to see across had observed the spec
tacle on the other shore that caused
all of us to shudder with apprehension.
The retreating army was crowding
down to the water. Of course we only
saw the advance divisions; but the
whole were near at hand. In some
places the troops looked all huddled
together, their officers, no doubt, sup
posing that the crossing could be COM
menced in a few minutes.
| The thirty-two guns posted on the
heights beyond, and the rear guard,
under General Meade, We're ali
we'll enough; but think what might
have happened that night had Gen
eral Lee learned of this situation.
It was plain enough to me that
an army cooped up as ours was
there by the river was in no shape to
fight, and that sudden and resolute
attack might have resulted in such a
disaster as that unlucky campaign had
not yet given us.
| Hooker had his headquarters at Mrs.
Barton's house. l had established my
self and my assistants near by, at what
was known as the "Chestnut-tree Sta
tion," from the great tree that grow
and had been used for signaling during
the few days preceding.
I was ordered to establish communi-
cation by signal with the other shore,
and [ went at it. The darkness was
intense, and lights had to be used.
For half an hour [ worked there,
trying to stir up somebody on the other
side to answer. No response came.
Our moving lights must have been
seen by thousands, and many must
have known that we were trying to
| ss0municate; but the signal men on