Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1900-09-19
Clarke Troops At Winchester.


spondence is taken from the columns
of the Baltimore Sun:
Under date of Amelia Court House.
Va, August %, Gen. Brady Il. Johnson
writes the sun in correction of state
ments contained in a letter from Berry
vile, Va, relating TO the recent reunion
of the Clarke Cavalry, in which il was
stated that Judge =. J. {. Moore was
quoted as pointing out alleged mistakes
made by General Johnson i'm regards TO
Milroy's defeat at Winchester, said TO
have appeared "in his history of the
Civil War" General johnson writes:
never wrote any history of the Civil
War and Appleton never published any
Confederate work of mine, of any kind
whatever. The whole statement is.
take ii confused statement eff Mai
MOore's address. who certainly never
wrote or said what he is reported lie
was acting Adjutant of the Second brig
ade when | commanded il. in 1862. |
think, for had the brigade in 1862 and
again in 1868, and therefore knows me
perfectly well. The only reference |
have ever made in print was in an ac-
count of the Second Maryland under
Herbert, attacking Milrov at Winchester
in June, 1868, which got from Colds
bOrough'S Maryland Line in the {. =
a, and GoldbOrough was Major of the
battalion and commanded the skirmish-
ers and was first in the town, as he says
| suspect that this is the 'mistake'-mv
claim that the -Harylanders were first
They generally were. 1t was way
they had in the army Where impu-
dence, push, check, utterly reckless. dare
devil gallantry could get in front, there
they were. But | never wrote any
History of the Civil War and Appleton
never published any. And the MARYLAND
Battalion under Herbert and Goldsbor-
Ough were the first in the town. Though
a few of the Clarke Cavalry may have
been scouting ahead of them don't know
! that; but l let it go"
Maj. Moore, in reply TO the above
communication, writes the Sun as
follows.
The address referred TO was an ex-
tempore one and was not correctly re-
ported. l first took up statement in
| Appleton : CyclOpedia of American BIZ
ography purporting to give an account
of MilrOy's defense of Winchester in
June, 1868, and exposed its gross mis-
| representations, which | was prepared
to by reference TO the official reports
made by officers of both armies. | then
| said. in substance. that other writer's
| noN AdllCu Aulo cIlOIS. some no DOUBT
| through inadvertence. and among them
| General Brady f. Johnson in his ac-
count of the battle AT Winchester of
May -, 1862, when Banks was defeated
/ by Jackson and driven across the POtO-
mac, which account is TO lee found in
the Second volume of The Confederate
| Military History. pages 74-5, and was
written by Gen. Bradley +. Johnson
After commencing the patriotism. gal
lantry and devotion of General Johnson,
ana he Marylanders in the Confederate
service / remarked upon that the Gener-
al 5 statement that the MARYLAND regi-
ment under his command were the first
TO reach the Taylor House. i'm Winches-
ter on that morning. The fact is that
Company |, of the Second Virginia In
fantry, StOnewall Brigade, under my
command passed down Main Street from
one end to the other of the city driving
the retreating Yankees before them over
Fort Hill and out upon the Martinsburg
road. As the company pressed the re
treating enemy some of the boldest of
them would turn and fire at their pur-
suers, which was returned by a vOlley
from the first platoon of the company.
Main Street is SO narrow that the COM
pany could not march with its full front
and therefore marched by platoons In
this manner we reached and passed the
Taylor House and were the first COnfed-
crates to DO so on that morning. NV
memory cannot be at fault about this
as many incidents occurred in the march
through Main Street that are as fresh in
my memory as if they had happened a
month or two ago and there are several
survivors of Company I livingthere who
Will concur with me in this statement
Il am quite sure that the Maryland
|
command was capable of doing all that
he claims for them if the opportunity
was offered them and that the General is
incapable of making an intentional mis-
representation or of claiming for himself
or his regiment what he knew at the
time of writing was done by other troops
/ have always remembered the time
with pleasure when ! served under Gen.
; eral johnson, while he was temporarily
in command of the Second Brigade, OF
which | was then assistant adiutant
+ general, in the first Division, in 1868
and / know him very well as a gallan
soldier and an agreeable gentleman
The mistakes he has made NAV be ac
counted for by rejecting that they may
be owing 10 an imperfect recollection o.
events that occurred 81 years before hi.
- book was written, in 1899, or as Win
chester changed hands many times il
A the campaigns of 1923 he may have haC
S in his mind some other occasion in which
: his command rendered the services
, which, through mistake, he fixes as o
the 25th of May, 1862. The latter theor,
! is the most probable, as in the 'Confed
crate Military History he speaks of tn,
battle of March 1862, and in his presen
> letter of the attack on Milroy in June
j 1868, and seems to have COMPOUNDED th
two engagements"