Artillery Regiment (Detachment of Rockbridge Artillery 2 guns from Jacksons[?]
Mrs Mary B Blackford Lynchburg Va
My Dear Mother I had scarcely sealed my long letter of the 30th Sept
yesterday week when our captain received orders to send down early next morning two pieces from his battery to back the regimental infantry picquets in this quarter of the outposts.
The Captain selected guns Nos I & VI, and directed their respective detachments im-
mediately to make ready for marching. I belong to No. VI and so of course was included. (A detachment is the quota of men including drivers and supernumeraries, necessary to work and permanently connected with each gun & caisson. In our battery the detachments average something over 20 men. Wherever a gun goes, its detachment goes: indeed detachments are to the battery what companies are to a regiment, in some measure. Each one is commanded by a sergeant, who has under him a corporal, who is the gunner--So much for detachments. Early on the morning of the day, which for so many successive years marked the important and delightful era for me of the beginning of the University session, with a bright sun and bracing air, our party numbering 35 or 40, started hither. Our road lay just by the Camp of the Wise Troop where I stopped a few minutes to see bro. Charles. Here I learned the deeply painful intelligence that poor Chalmers wounds had proved fatal. Scarce any casualty of the whole war has affected me more: indeed the deceased was the only many of whom I had of late seen much that has fallen a victim. He will prove a great loss to the Troop, for he was an excellent soldier, conscientious, industrious, and efficient. Socially he will prove none the less so, particularly by his captain and other officers. If he was a faithful soldier in the service of the Confederate States he was none the less in that of the Captain of our Salvation, who we have every reason to believe, has ere this welcomed him to the "rest which remaineth for the people of God."
A march of a couple of hours brought us to our destination. We immediately took up our post on a hill beneath which, between us and the Acotink Creek, several regiments of Infantry were bivouacked, their picquets, i.e. the outmost lines, being thrown out a mile or two further, across the creek & beyond
[page 2]
There is a ford over the creek which is the only point for some distance above & below where troops could cross. It marks the place where the old "Braddock Road" (the one which Braddock is said to have cut when going to the N.W. in the old French War) This ford we have strongly fortified with breastworks above & below, of the best description. We artillerymen arranged our pieces on the brow of our hill, masking them in high trees: our own quarters were taken up in an oak wood just behind. We have never yet changed our position, though we cut several roads through woods to enable us to get another and better position, upon occasion, on a neighbouring hill, entirely covered with wood. From it we could operate on an advancing column of the enemy across the creek with excellent effect. Such occasion is not likely to arise however. Our place of abode for picquet service, is unusually comfortable. Our shelters consist of caisson covers--great pieces of duck, say 10 x 15 ft.--made into temporary roofs, and of boothes constructed of branches, &c. Our big oil cloths and blankets under these on the ground compose our beds. Until last evening the weather had been so bright & mild that we had been quite comfortable, indeed some of the men slept in the open air from preference. We found upon reaching here that the Infantry consisted of the 2nd Va, 1st Ky, & 1st Md. Regts. The latter of course proved quite a windfall by way of society, and I spent a good deal of time with my Baltimore friends. They came down the day before we did and returned Saturday evening late to their camp. The last I heard of the Regt. it was tramping the Braddock Road after dark singing "Dixie." Randolph McKim came down with his regiment but being very unwell was sent back to his camp almost immediately so I did not meet him. I regretted this extremely. I have not heard from him since. Another of Eugene's and my old college mates & friends has come on from Balt. & joined the Md. Regt. since I saw them last viz Thos. B. Mackell. I enjoyed meeting him much; he is a very fine fellow, good, intelligent & cultivated. We have had frequent alarms since we came here, but all as yet false. One came an hour or two after we got here in this shape. an officer came with a mes-
[page 3]
sage from the officer commanding the post-- "Captain--Col Stuart (of the 1st Md) says the enemy are reported as forming in columns on a field about 1/2 mile beyond our picquets; that you must hold yourself in readiness to march a a moments warning"--We made ready of course and remained with horses in harness & men on the qui vive until night, but to no avail. such alarms, either by orders or by suspicious firing on the front, have caused us perhaps a half dozen times in a week to call up our baggage for transport and hitch up horses. You see thus that we have had abundant exercise for the nerves: we are getting used to it now, however, but I hope will be none the less ready when the wolf does come. We have seen 3 or 4 columns of smoke at a distance in the direction of the Yankee Lines: these we take to be houses of citizens fired by our vandal Enemies. Firing in the same quarter we hear almost daily; some times musketry, but more frequently artillery. To day we have heard a great deal of cannonading, which sounds most like heavy guns on the river. This point is some 9 or 10 miles from Alexa. & the same distance from Mt Vernon. It is said that much of the cannon shooting we hear is the discharging of enemy's pieces after rains which they do to save the risk of having damp loads when they have to fight. This country is in the main uninteresting, though there is one redeeming feature, in the the estate of Mrs Fitzhugh the mansion home is a bout a mile from us, on a hill beyond the Creek, almost hidden in the trees. The house itself, though of wood, is very large and handsome & well preserved. The yard & grounds are exquisitely beautiful and highly finished & very extensive. I walked through them last week. The widowed proprietor is a friend or acquaintance of Gen Scott and holds from him a written security that the fair domains of "Ravensworth" shall be unmolested by the Yankees, on the event of another advance. We have had a good deal of difficulty here about provisions both as to quantity and quality. We have few cooking utensils, nothing like a complement for a single mess, e.g. only one coffee pot and one frying pan in all, and yet nearly everything cooked before it is sent to us from camp. For the first three days I lived on nothing but jerked beef
[page 4]
and stale biscuit. Since then my fare has been amended by the addition of what is known in camp as SOP viz the greasing of fat pork fried in a pan, a favourite dish with us on picquet, as well as by some coffee (a rare luxury now) without sugar. We get plenty of roasting ears from a neighbouring field. Since yesterday I have done better than ever before as to eating, as one of my friends had a box from home sent down to him from camp. All the table furniture I have used down here is a pocket knife and a tin cup. I think it would make you laugh to see the way we eat, indeed the ground presents a varied aspect about eating-time. A knot here and there sitting or squatting on the ground around a frying pan or single tin plate, all dipping their bread into the sop and enjoying it hugely. Men scattered standing and munching roasting-ears or cooking them at the end of long sticks around the fire, etc etc. I say none of these things by way of complaint, but only for your amusement. When we came hither it was with the expectation of staying but 5 days, but we have been here now a week to day and have no relief yet. We do not expect to go back before two other pieces come to relieve us. Since we left camp, by general orders to the army and for what reason we know not, our baggage has all been sent from camp as far as practicable, to Manassas. This will give me a deal of inconvenience as I have nothing but the scanty allotment of baggage brought hither; I dont know when I shall see the rest. Our brigade at last accounts was encamped as before 1 mile above the C.H. We have almost daily communication with our Co. My address is the same as before. If any box came to Manassas last week, I presume it is there yet, tho' I have not heard I can take no measures for getting it until I return to camp, which I expect daily & will let you know as soon as I get it All things are very unsettled just now and boxes would probably not be sent beyond Manassas without special direction. My love to all at home & kindest regards to our good Peggy and the other servants.
Your affectionate son
L[ancelot]. M[inor]. Blackford
University of Virginia alumnus Lancelot Minor Blackford, 1837-1914, later the beloved principal of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, V., for over 40 years.
MSS 5088
[too be continued]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.