Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-05-03
WAR SKETCHES,
BEING ANECDOTES AND EXPERIENCES on
WEST VIRGINIA WARRIORS
On the Field and in the Camp-RecollectionS Of
Army Life by George ". McClslland Of
the Wheeling Battsry-Ihird Days
Battle Of Winchester
rbird Dav,. Battle Of winchester.

] was IN conf uSlOus Tue 6uuS A"u OS~i
/ and the harness was being CIT TO pieces
'rbe drivers and cannoneers were prepar
/ inc TO mount the artillery horses and get
away if possible. 49,,
| ryvo Of our caisson horses being disabled,
We had not enough horses to mount our de-
tachpent. and for a time thought l would
/ nave TO walk. Martin Beamer finally
opened his heart and allowed me 10 rae oe-
hind him. -.
Inst as we were leaving the fort, | saw
the company of heavy artillery marcn
away. | noted their composed appearance
land their muskets. II was the only lIme
that | wanted musket or enYleu Il man
whom saw Carrying one
/ We were soon down on the Marunsourg
road Here we found the wagons aOan-
doned Beamer and undertook TO ind our
knapsacks We might as well have tried
Ito fud u needle in haYstack." l found
d sabre aud we journeyed on toward the
! front. There was no attempt to keep the
company together, and there were about a
thousand unarmed men, consisting OF wag-
| on drivers, artillerymen and what-nots,
whites and blacks There was no attempt
| 10 pursue our organization. l doubt II we
could have done so if we tried. In less than
an hour we were scattered along for mile
along that heterogeneous column OF fugi
tives.
Just as daylight broke a battery Of artil-
/ lery opened on us in our front. Prepare
| tons were made Immediately by the in
| fautry to charge it, Lieut.. Harris was the
| only commissioned officer Of our company
whom / saw, when it was light enough TO
distinguish one man from another. There
were probably a half dozen of US to-
gethcr Harris asked where is the
Captain" Then he said he would ride
down the front and find him. That was
the last Of Harris. We saw cavalry regi-
ment, the Thirteenth Pennsylvania, on the
right of the pike forming 10 charge. A
| lot of Us formed in the rear, hoping 10 90
out with them. Their major asked if we
were armed. When we answered in the
negative, he ordered US back so as not to
cumber and hinder their movements. We
turned reluctantly away and crossed the
road to the left Beamer'S horse had cast
a shoe on leaving the fort, and travelling on
the hard macadamized pike had famed him
considerably. / felt it was not right TO
hinder his escape so l told BeaE.er that
would get down. He told me not to, but
he did not urge me TO stay. | should have
always regretted IL, if would have stayed
on and caused his capture l gently slid to
the ground and away he rode. That was
/ the last of Beamer.
! Wdlhcu DdCh tONdIu q ldl TIC bLlCh MUSE
about a quarter of mile liz the rear.
could have walked to Winchester, l be-
! lieve, on kuapsacks which had been thr. wn
away.
When 1 reached the house ! found sev-
eral of the company already congregated
there. Among them were AL. Redman. Jim
/ Mills, Corporal Phillips, and others. jim
! MOfFat a brother of Tom MOffat of our
company, was also there / believe he was
on visit 10 see his brother He made the
| trim to Richmond and back with US.
don't know that any of the boys at
! tempted to get out; can only speak for
myself; / did not. | stayed around that
house in the shade and watched the other
boys. Some were whiting, some cracking
Jokes, and some rummaging wagons, KNAPP
sacks etc. and some looking about. All
awaiting the inevitable
l suppose we were there two or three
hours, and there was quite q bunch Of US,
fifteen or twenty Of whom belonged to our
company.
Alonzo d. Ergenbrght, Of our detach-
ment, found an officers valse. and in it a
6ue new uniform. He cut off the shoulder
straps, shed his buds, and bossomed out
gayer than a militia general on muster.
tie was sorry for it afterwards. for ,hey
took him 10 be an officer. who for some rea-
privates.
At ten o'clock line of grey was seen
coming down upon US from the direction of
Winchester. They came on very slowly.
! suppose because they did not know just
what we were going 10 do. Presently u
man riOng on little, lean brown
mare rode up to where we were clustered
around the fence He demanded our
arms and Corporal Phillips handed over
! his siore in true "dime novel style" The
man hardly glanced at it, but throw it a.
far from him as he possibly could, and |
| thought 50 viciously that he tried TO break
the old frog sticker" He then turned to
Phillips. Gimme that revolver" Phil
| lips handed it over, sword belt, holster,
| sea bard and all. He took out the revolver
and carefully examined it; stuck it back
in the holster, unfastened the scabbard
and threw il away and ouckled the belt
around him, as much as to say, That's
the jockey"
We were then formed in line and lay
along the pike watching the troops march
ing past us on to Gettysburg. | counted
eighty pieces of artillery OF all sorts and
sizes, principally ten and twenty Founders.
1 did not count all. 1t made me feel too
bad to think what fools we had been.
saw regiment after regiment pass me in
| their long swinging steps peculiar TO the
Southern troops. Poor fellows. Many of
them went down in the shock Of battle in
less than twenty days on the bloody field Of
| Gettysburg l counted forty stands Of
cnlors rs they marched by. / did not count
Ian. / lust quit counting because ! was
| sick nj heart looking at their battle flags.
The boys Is they passed US seemed 70 be in
the best possible spirits, generally greeting
us with Hello Yanks. Is hell frOze overf
/ Gen. Milroy, in answer 10 the demand 10
surrender made the hight before mad sent
us his answer he would surrender when
he'll froze over" Hence The greeting Our
reply was, YES, it's frozen over, aud Mil
roy has skated out on the zee. -
mo he isn't, either; we have him down
in the 'front.'
But they had no MilrOy The old Grey
/ EAGLE had ride out at the head OF nearly
half Of his little division, who had held in
check for nearly three days that superb
corps of Lees army so lately under com
mand OF the lamented "Stouewalln Jack
son, causing them TO cut a road around TO
our right for nearly six miles, and gave
them as determined q resistance as they
had met during the war
saw but one regimental organization
surrender. Shortly after we were drawn
up alongside of the pike and a Gordon of
guards was thrown around US. a regiment
with their arms at a carry and their colors
! flying were marched out OF the woods. 1t
proved TO be the Eighteenth Connecticut
| They were formed in line and at the com
maud, ground arms " their muskets and
colors were laid on the ground aud the reg
iment raised without them. Then they
threw Off their accoutrements. the officers
were separated and the men were marched
/ into our band. There were about three
hundred, think, Of the regiment that sur
rendered.
Our losses so far as our company was
concerned consisted of four wounded: Ser
geant Scott Riley, Al stephens Alex Fra
ger and Joe Booth. Booth was more Sc
verely wounded than any Of them. Our
/ loss in prisoners was about eighty Among
these it must be remembered there were
about twenty sick and wounded in the hos