The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-11-22

Union Veteran Tells OF An Incident
In the Life Of Stonewal Jackcon.

s0tn sh~h W0AO Sttth8 ~
front Of Willow Springs boarding
house or "hoteli' as they call It In
thu suburbs. when the oldest one of
tho group said:
That was a good paper Col.
John 8. Cooper had on the battle Of
Port Republic. / was down there
with John q. Reid when that fight
came on"
so was II said the next man to
him. A third man ventured the
same Information. Finally the four
teen rose solemnly from their chairs
on learning that each and all OF
them had been with Mcclellan In
the Peninsula campaign. Working
together for many Of the past
months. not one Of the fourteen had
thought to discuss army life with his
companions Brave men usually
have little TO say about their per-
sonai war experiences. The best
var stories like that Of Col. Coop
o.. have never been In print
The first speaker. whose name was
Hassy. started the conversation
again with the remark:
'T read q story the other day Of
an entire Illinois regiment having
rot full on stone fence In the Ten
nsssee campaign. That's funny. but
not 20 funny an the fact that In 1862
Bienksr's division Of the army Of the
Potomac. comprising nearly 10000
men. with three batteries Of artillery.
got lost going from near Manassas
Junction across the Shenandoah VAL
ley to Join Gen. Fremont. 1t was lost
% long. 10 completely swallowed up.
that Gen. Rosencrans was finally
sent out after several weeks with
large body OF cavalry to find out
what had become of The division.
"You could hardly believe that
was true. but there are plenty Of
men TO substantiate tho statement
that nearly 10000 men Of our force
were absolutely lost to the main
army for over two weeks and nei-
ther the war department nor the
commanding sfSicers In the field
knew where they were. 1t was
about this time that the movement
on Richmond was checked for the
purpose OF attending to Gen. Stone
wall Jackson's operations In the
Shenandoah Valley. He was twenty
miles from strasburg. and we had
$4,000 men on his flank. and rear
within striking distance. We out
numbered his forces two to one or
more.
Our object was to capture him.
You remember that?"
The thirteen listeners nodded. The
fourteenth continued:
He didn't appear to care a rap
about our object We did recapture
Front Royal. which had been taken
from Us. but then after We were set
down In the sun and allowed to bake
there while his forces Ieisurely
moved away from US was In
Shields division. which finally early
I'm June was sent after Jackson. or
At him and effect his capture. Briga-
dier General Carroll was the one
who got the famous order from
Shields to save the bridge at Port
Republic. the one across the shenan-
doah which In his flight It was
feared Jackson would destroy.
when General Carroll got to the
Port Republic bridge Jackson was
acros II and In the town with his
wagon trains. His troops were on
the opposite side OF the stream. Car
roll realized the situation at once,
ard he ordsred his artillery in no.
ation whore they would command
the bridge and directed the officer
commanding his cavalry to take pos
session OF the bridge. Captain Reid
aided In the execution OF this COM
mand and the bridge was taken. In
accomplishing this ore OF Jack.
sons stan officers. Lieutenant Doug
las. was captured.
II saw him wounded. and then
brought In" said one OF the group.
WELL" said Hasey. Captain
Reid ordered him to sit down at the
west end Of the bridge until the ira
cas- was over and then his wound
would be attended to. Just then
mounted officer came along wearing
hanging over coat and riding rrom
Port Rfpubllc across the hrid1a 10