The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-02-12
HUNTERS LYNcHBURG RAID.
Hazardous Expedition Into the Enemy's
Country and the Retreat Through the
Mountains.

Country and the Retreat Through the
Mountains.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: After the
defeat of Gen. Sigel at Newmarket, in
May, 1864, he was relieved from COM
mand, and Gen. David Hunter was placed
in command of the troops in the Shenan-
doah Valley-knOwn as part of the Army
OF West Virginia. He had about 1900
men. We advanced from Strasburg about
June I, driving the COnfederates before us
through Harrisonburg and on to Piedmont.
where Gen. Jones, the rebel commander,
made a stand, and hard battle was
fought on June 5. Our loss was heavy,
but 1t was complete victory. Gen. Jones
was killed, and more than 2,1OO of his
army captured. / was on detail to help
bury the dead, next morning, the army
marching on to Staunton. After the dead
were buried, we gathered up two piles of
ammunition. broken guns, etc., as large as
two good-sized haystacks, and set them on
fre. Everything that would be of service
to the enemy had to be destroyed, as we
were entirely in the enemy's country, no
Union troops having advanced that far
up the valley before. 1t was very unsafe
standing around those burning piles, and
one poor fellow was killed by a bullet from
one of the guns; so we FASTENED on and
Joined our command at Staunton. We
were sent out to tear up the Virginia Cen
trail Railroad. The regiment was
stretched out full length, each man to
tie, then it was cut in sections of 200 or
800 feet, turned over and thrown down the
bank, making it impossible to ever use it
again.
Gen. Geo. w. Crook, with the Kanawha
Division of the Army of West Virginia,
joined us here, and suppose Hunter had
nearly 25,OOO troops when he advanced on
Lexington, which was about the list of
June. We had our pOntcon bridges with
us, as all the bridges had been either de-
stroyed by the enemy retreating before us,
or by our rear guard after We passed. 1
was anxious to see the Natural Bridge
Once when We halted for our 10 minutes
rest, l saw woman standing in the door
of log cabin. She was smoking cob
pipe. l asked her if we were on the road
leading to the Natural Bridge, and how
far it was. She replied: Eyes, sab; it's
about two sights and go-by." (She meant
we should go as far as we could see, to a
bend in the road, then look again and re-
peat, and go little farther and we would
be at the Natural Bridge.) She continued
the conversation by saying: "You's all
mustn't destroy that, though" 1 presume
she had never before seen q Union sol
der.
iCihChubCA " idISc IcSiucuCe,
which was on fire. A woman was sitting
on trunk in. the 5ard, weeping bitterly.
learned the story. Her husband had
made a VOW that he would shoot the first
Union soldier lie saw. As our advance
guard came along that morning, the Ser |
geant in command stopped to ask for a
drink. The proprietor Il think his name
w"s Peppers) shot the Sergeant down. He
Il .ppers) was Immediately peppered full
Of bullet holes, and his wife was given five |
minutes to get her trunk out of the house, |
home and all it contained went up in flame |
and smoke.
We marched on to Lexington, the rebels |
as our cavalry advanced, max
ing very little resistance. l broke the |
blade of my knife cutting souvenir from
the flagstaff over Gen. Stonewall Jack
sons grave, and have the souvenir yet.
If there ever was rebel that l admired,
it was Stonewall Jackson. I saw the Vir-
ginia Military Institute and all the pro
fessors' houses burn down, also Gov. Let
cher's residence, together with other build
them a star factory"-and
oh, what a smoke.
l saw the bronze statue OF George
which stood in front of the
Institute, loaded by derrick into a wagon,
and six strong mules hauled II through the
mountains with our train; which think
was very foolish, when so many soldiers
were giving out, and some of whom were
left to be captured by the enemy. The
statue was shipped to Wheeling, and /
understood Gov. Pierpont ordered its re-
turn to Lexington. We crossed the james
River at Buchanan. The retreating foe
mad burned the bridge Mt both ends, and
t fell and was lying On the water, and
was on fire In several places when we