The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-02-24
ALEXANDER ]. HUBBARD.

Recollections by Colonel Winfield
Peters, of Baltimore, Private
in Company h, Captain w. h.
Murray, First Maryland In
fantry, I961-'62, Promoted to
Lieutenant, G. S. A., and Served
Throughout the War.
Early in May. 1861, playing Southern
airs on his fine fiat cornet. presented by
his Baltimore admirers. Alexander
Hubbard marched out of Frederick, Md,
with Captain Bradley I. Johnson's fifty
recruits for the Confederate Army. AT
Harpers' Ferry. West Virginia, with
many newcomerS-chiefly from the First
Rifle Regiment, Colonel George Peters,
father Of Colonel Winfield Peters-a full
company was formed, which on May
Sth, 1861. was mustered in as Company
A. First Maryland Battalion Infantry,
at Harpers' Ferry, West Virginia, Lieu
tenant Colonel George H. Steuart, Major
Bradley T. Johnson, General J. L.
Iohnston's Army of the Shenandoah.
Private Hubbard was promptly made
Chief Musician, and the battalion became
a regiment at Winchester, Va. with
Arnold Elzev as colonel. A drum corps
was formed, under Drum Major Hozea
Pitt Hu5bard's single instrument and
the drum corps was the only marching
music that the regiment ever had, but
il was a unit Of the regiment which
with the esprit de corps the six hundred
gallant Maryland volunteers, il was the
command most talked of and admired
4. IL ILL
and Manassas campaigns, in 1861. In
the battle OF the First Manassas, march
ing music was dispensed with by reason
of the rapid advance and fighting OF the
regiment, Mr. Hubbard was made acting
Sergeant-Maior. The regiment when
marching independently TO meet the
enemy would attract hundreds of sol
diers towards it, who cheered and yelled
at the famous Marylanders, marching
TO their unique music, singing their
camp songs; worthy successors of their
prototypes, the dandy Maryland Mac
caronis' under Washington.
Through Jackson's Valley Campaign,
in the spring of 1862, and the battles
below Richmond, Hubbard and his
cornet with the drum corps, were in the
lead, and never absent, as from the
beginning. The camp calls were always
sounded with precision and the dress
parade Of the regiment was an event
Tor the music.
The regiment was under thorough
training and discipline, and Colonel
Steuart. who succeeded Elzey, and who
had been promoted to Brigadier General
at the First Manassas, was voted the
finest colonel in the army. Both Elzey
and Steuart were West Pointers. and
resigned from the United States Army.
Lieutenant-C Colonel Johnson succeeded
Steuart as Colonel, ON the latter pro-
motion in March, 1862, and won fame
under Jackson and then under Lee.
Johnson and the other younger officers
were all the while diligently learning
from the West Pointers. Jackson urged
ohnson's promotion to Brigadier- Gen
eral, after (by special assignment
fighting small brigade of 500 men
against Fitz John Porter's Federal
Corps at Second Manassas; the Brigade
Adjutant Captain George w. Booth,
at the most critical poin, bringing up
Pender's brigade to reinforce Johnson's
decimated line, after two days fighting.
Captain Booth who was Johnson's par
ticular protege, was a yonng officer OF
exceptional merit. He IS at present the
Comptroller Of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad.
Upon the muster out of the First
Maryland, in August, IS62-an unjust
and i'll advised step at the War Office
in Richmond, Virginia-Hubbard be-
came Chief Bugler of the First Virginia
Cavalry Regiment and served until the
close OF the war.
Following is copy of letter from
General Bradley T. Johnson, to Mr.
Alex !. Hubbard, upon hearing of the
deadly assault made upon him:
The Woodlands"
Amelie c. H., Virginia..
November Fl, 1900.
Mr.. 4Aler j. Hubbard, 29 South
Shyicher Street, Baltimore, MD.
My dear old friend and comrade: Il
was greatly shocked at the news of your
disaster. 1t wss done by some scoun.
drels who knew your ways and how
utterly defenceless you were. Your
pecuniary loss distresses me, but not
half so much as the physical injury done
you. You are old, but any man who
led the First Maryland Infantry from
its first muster in TO its discharge must