The National tribune., 1908-03-19

| happened to prevent him. In this case
| it was the heavy Spring rains which set
| in with what is represented to be un-
| usual violence. On April II and is
Stoneman succeeded in getting posses
sion of the principal crossings of the
| Upper Rappahannock. and one of his
divisions advanced as far as Brandy
Station. The rain fell in such torrents
that the streams were swollen beyond
their banks, and the roads made i'm
passable, so that the division had the
greatest difficulty in getting back to
the side of the river where the main
body was.
Stoneman thereupon received orders
to remain where he was until the wa
ters subsided and the roads became bet
ter. In this way Is days of precious
time We're occupied, and it was not un-
til April 81 that the movement was
directed to be resumed.
Then Hooker, with part of his staff.
visited Stoneman at Warrenton juno
ton, and informed him that the army
was about to cross the Rappahannock,
and ordering him to proceed to execute
his orders. which were at the same time
considerably modified from the original
Averell. with three brigades, was to
advance on Culpeper Court House, while
Stoneman, with three brigades, under
D. Mem. Gregg. was to take the shorter
route via Stevensburg, seven miles east
of Culpeper Court House.
StOneman Immediately called in his
pickets, a work of no little difficulty.
as he held a line of about 26 miles. and
gave orders for the advance to begin
the next morning. April 20. During
the day small parties of the enemy
were encountered and driven back with
out much trouble. The Rapidan was
reached about six miles below Raccoon
Ford, and carried by handsome dash
of the advance guard. in which a Lieu
tenant and several Virginia cavalrymen
were captured. This uncovered Rae
coon Ford so as to let the main column
cross at that point, and by 10 o'clock
the whole corps was over.
No fires were allowed to be built, as
the mountains near by afforded excel
lent lookouts for the Confederate scouts
Stuart had withdrawn FitZhugh Lees
Brigade from their front, and it was
supposed that he was waiting for Stone
man on the plank road not far from
Fredericksburg. The command lay
down on the damp ground beside their
horses to get a few hours sleep before
resuming their march at o'clock in
the morning. When the reveille aroused
them it was found that the fog was so
thick as to prevent any movement, and
W Ndit uHlii dIy light
On Lees RniIroat.s-
Then the command pushed on, with
Gregg's Division turning to the left to
strike at Lees main line of conlmuli-
cations, the Virginia Central Railroad
running from Orange Court House to
Richmond. Gregg arrived at Louisa
Court House about o'clock a. m, May
2, and Immediately began tearing up
the track of the railroad. destroying the
telegraph and doing such other damage
as occurred to the commander. The
track was destroyed for the distance
of about five miles. Then Gregg pushed
on down the river, destroying two
bridges, tearing up the railroad track,
and burning some storehouses. The
bridge over the South Anna was found
to be too strongly guarded by infantry
and artillery to be attacked.
In the meantime the whole corps had
been concentrated around Louisa Court
House, and from there Stoneman sent
out parties in various directions to de-
stroy bridges, telegraphic depots, wa
ter tanks, etc. On May the entire
command moved to ThOmpson's Cross
roads, point where the James and
South Anna Rivers are but 10 miles
apart This Stoneman made another
center from which to send out de-
stroying parties. The 1st n. J. Cav,
under Col. Wyndham. was sent to strike
the James River at Columbia, the
mouth of the Rivanna River. and de-
stroy the large canal aqueduct. which
would ruin the canal for use as source
of supplies.
Col. Fitzpatrick was sent with the I'd
n. Y. Cav. to push on to the railroad
bridges over the Chickahominy, destroy
them and the telegraphs, and create an
alarm in Richmond.
Col Hasbrouck Davis. with the 18th
Ill Cav, was to strike the two rail-
roads at or near the vicinity of Ash
land. and do all the harm possible.
Gen. Gregg, with the 1st Me-, 1st Md.
Cav. and a section of artillery. was sent
down the South Anna River to destroy
the railroad and road bridges as fast
as possible.
Capt. Wesley Merritt. with a part of
the 1st Md, was sent off to find or
make some opportunity to be trouble
some to the enemy.
All these parties started at a. m.
May 3, leaving but 500 men with Stone
man. The plan was that by these vari-
ous parties striking in so many differ
ent directions the enemy would be con-
fused and unable to concentrate on any
one of them.
Capt Merritt found too strong a
guard at the bridge over the South
Anna for him to attack, and returned.
after having burned the depot buildings,
with a quantity of ammunition, stores,
etc. Gen. Gregg destroyed the Ground
Squirrel Bridge and another one of less
importance.