Evening star., 1935-03-06
Holmes Reliued Soldier Days
In Rides around Wasl,in gtOn
Found Pleasure in Visit
ing OId.Time Bat.
hefelds.

NOlSNAN1 memories OF COUNT
- less motor trips which former
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
L made to Civil War battle
scenes in and around Wash
ington. to live over in reminiScence
his stirring experiences as a Union
officer, are fresh in the mind of 81
year-old Charles Buckley, chauffeur
to the late jurist.
There was nothing he loved so
much as to have me drive him to
the battlef1elds where he fought for
the Union" Buckley disclosed in an
interview.
You know, he was wounded three
times during the war and he lost no
opportunity to revisit the old forts
and trenches where. as a young in
fantryman. he battled against the
Confederates.
Nearly always he would take some
friends along with him and would
tell them all about the battle"
Heard Tales of Wartime.
Buckley had heard those tales
countless times during the 80 years
he served Holmes. first as driver Of
hired horse and buggy and later as
chauffeur of an automobile. In the
pre-motor days, Buckley said. Holmes
hired a rig" from Downey's livery
stable. which was on L street between
Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets.
When the automobile came into its
own, he first hired cars and later
bought them.
The car he used in Washington is
a 7-year-old model of an expensive
make. kept in perfect mechanical
shape and appearance q Buckley said
the Justice liked this old car because
it had 'lots Of head room" in contrast
streamline era.
Visited Fort Stevens.
The veteran chauffeur said his en-
ployer visited old Fort Stevens. in
Brightwood. more frequently than
any other Civil War site. There, as
a captain of Infantry. attached to the
Goth Massachusetts,, he aided in the
repulse of Gen. Jubal Early, whose
gray-clad troops were pressing peril
ously close to the Capital. President
Lincoln stood on the ramparts of Fort
Stevens and watched the Union troops
beat the invaders back after a bitter
struggle along the old Seventh street
pike.
That was in 1864. Three years prior
to that. 20-year-old Lieut. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, just out of Harvard, had
marched along Pennsylvania avenue
with the resplendent Massachusetts,
troops, keen for action. That regi-
ment was fresh-its officers just out
of Harvard and inexperienced. It
had never smelled gunpowder. The
trip from Boston, by boat and by train
by cattle car from Baltimore-had
required 81 hours.
Harvard Regiment in Town.
The soldiers were tired as they
marched IN review before Lieut. Gen.
Scott. The streets were dusty and
soldiers were everywhere. If Lieut..
Holmes looked toward the Capitol he
saw an incomplete building, with scaf-
folding set up for work on the dome.
The Monument was not half done
the stonework of the base rising out
of the Potomac fats. Nobody cheered
the new soldiers, for everybody was
used TO soldiers. Maybe an occasional
patriotic son of Massachusetts, raised
his hat and yelled as he saw the
Harvard regiment" come marching
along, uniforms spic and span and
new, but its ranks only three-quarterS
filled. Camp was made that evening
on the heights above Georgetown. 1t
was the regiments first hike.
Long years after, Holmes, as a men,
ber of the Supreme Court, retraced
again and again that walk along the
Avenue, and he must have recalled re-
peatedly that great occasion in 81
when he marched forth to conquer
the enemy. He walked every day to
and from the Capitol-2 miles each
way from his home-until he was
86 years old.
Prior to his retirement from the
Supreme bench, and subsequent
LlleEeUO, f1OllIlcS lldu ouCh1Cy o1iSC
him occasionally over the Maryland
countryside to Balls Bluff. a few miles
from Frederick. It was there. in the
Fall of 81, that he was carried, NOR
tally wounded" as the surgeon thought,
to the river bank after the first burst
of gunfire from the enemy.
According to Silas Bent'S biography
of Holmes, it was on the 21st day of
October, 1861, that Lieut.. Holmes was
standing with his men about half way
up the slope of Balls Bluff. Con-
federate soldiers were firing from
the crest. A bullet struck the
ground and ricocheted, striking the
lieutenant in the abdomen. He fell,
the breath knocked out Of him, and
his colonel ordered him to the rear.
He crawled back and then found that
he was not badly hurt-the bullet had