STONEMAN’S RAID IN THE CHANCELLORSNILLE CAMPAIGN.

153

~ let Maine , under Captain Tucker of tliat regi-. 3*'’ 1:0 ward Gordonsville to find out the whereabouts

°1 the

— enemy in that direction, as we knew that six oreven trains had passed up the evening previous loaded'vdk troops. The captain drove in their pickets uponhe main body, the 9tli Virginia Cavalry', which in turntracked him, killing 1 man, wounding 1 , and capturingheutenant and 23 men. Captain Lord, with the 1 st U.• Cavalry , was sent to Tolersville Station, and fromhere to Frederickshall Station, twelve miles from°uisa Court House. From here a party under Lieuten-

ant

Brirlj

t party 1

- went to the North Anna and destroyed Carr’s

" 1J| tge, which is on the main road leading from Spotsyl-th 1Ua Goochland, on the James River, and is one ofVi°. -? r i nc 'l'al highways. After having destroyed thePot' Slnia G ei)tra, l railroad ami telegraph, burned the dc-"Water-tanks, etc., for eighteen miles, and accom-Mked all that time would permit, we pushed 011 toanceyvilie, on the South Anna, and from there tori ona P8°n’s Cross-roads, ten miles lower down the“At’ w ? lere we arrived about 10 i\ M., May 2d.tk l'°™t the Jnines and South Anna rivers are less

thou 12 Whiles apart, and here I determined to make theCei st °f >ny 35co men in carrying out my jireviously con-B' ai1 of operations. . . . One party, the IstNewtli U11 der Colonel [Percy] Wyndliaui, was to strikev 08 Biver at Columbia, at the.i unction of the Jamesca uivanna rivers, to destroy', if possible, the largecee 1 ’“ineduct over the Itivanna, and from thence pro-all H aloug fBe canal in the direction of Richmond , doingYo a ^ anu Possible. . . . Another party, the 2d Newra jj 7 ’ Colonel [Judson] Kilpatrick, was to push onto theatia r ° il< l bridges over the Cliickaliominy, destroy them'hoi 1 fvP-'graph, and operate in the direction of Kieli-flie i*?’ four m iles distant from the bridges. Anotherforee,t 0 s . Illinois Cavalry', Colonel Hasbrouek Davis, was

otJ . . n “ e the two railroads at or in the vicinity' of Ashland,trai 16 Pl ' et l ov >eh8burg, and Atlee’s, on the Virginia Cen-jj' au< t do all the harm it could. Another party, the 1stUnde' 1 ? an<1 l8t Maryland , with a section of artillery, allA| 1U r ®. eu oral Gregg, was to follow down the Southif _ r* ver > destroy all the road bridges thereon, and,■^hott 91 ^ e> t ,w0 railroad bridges across that river.Brin, F P^ty, the 5th U. S. Cavalry, under Captain«tr u ,.!’"" 1 - 1 ' 1 ' "was to follow this last and see that the de

ction

Party f w,ls complete. Captain Merritt, with a Hying

fhon„i°5 1st Maiyland, was sent out to do what he- “slit he —” .- ...

brill

could accomplish in the way of destroying

°U the 3 ^°* ^ lese ^ifl’erent parties all got offhy 3 a. m.

■ Colonels Wyndham, Kilpatrick, and Davisat UeC ^ e< ^ eitli er return or to push on .and bring up^- r ° r ktown or Gloucester Point. The rest were■ty-yrub to return to the reserve with myself. Colonelan< l Captain Lord returned the same day.lle xt i and Captains Merritt and Drummond the

throu'Jj 1 ^' Kilpatrick and Davis pushed on

bo u > g p 1 Gloueester Point. . . . We remained at Shan-tho OSH " r oads during the 4th, and on the morning ofWe -\ v 1 ln oved to Yanccyville, on the South Anna, wherea hd Joined by General Gregg, Colonel Wyndham,Qonw^i^nins Merritt and Drummond, each with Ms

Ul hand.”

Th

6 operations of the column under GeneralaTe ^ 1US ^ escl ’^ )e( J in a cominu-

tl °h to the editors dated May 11th, 1888 :

“ Mr®

^ti>oi l£r oncounterod the enemy’s cavalry, two thousandll hder General W. II. F. Lee on the morning of

the 30th, and drove it through Culpeper Court House inthe direction of Kapidan Station.

“ On the 1st we pressed the enemy’s cavalry andpushed our right to within three miles of Orange CourtHouse in an effort to dislodge the enemy from a strongposition occupied by him on the south bank of the Kapi-dan, after he had crossed and destroyed the bridge.

“ While thus engaged on the morning of the 2d wewere recalled to the Army of the Potomac at U. S. Ford by orders from General Hooker. We reached Ely’sFord of the Kapidan after dark on the evening of the2d, and were fired upon by the enemy’s iufantry fromthe opposite bank. A part of McIntosh's brigade fordedthe river, dismounted, drove away the enemy, some ofthe 13th North Carolina , and captured some prisoners.Early on the moruing of the 3d we crossed the Kapi-dan and entered the right of our lines.

“ It was found necessary to issue immediate orderssending cavalry to protect the right and rear of thearmy, which had become exposed to danger from theenemy’s cavalry set free by our recall.”

The column with Stoneman now prepared to re-turn to the army. His report continues :

“ The six days having now expired, during which wewere assured by the commanding general he would cer-tainly communicate with us, and no communicationhaving been received, no retreating enemy having beenseen or beard of, and no information as to the conditionof things in the vicinity of Fredericksburg , except vaguerumors of our defeat and capture, having been obtained,supplies for man and beast becoming scarce, having ac-complished all that we were sent to perform, and havingcome to tho conclusion that Colonels Kilpatrick andDavis, with their commands, had gone in the directionof Yorktown, I determined to make the best of our wayback to the Army of the Potomac.

“To take the enemy by surprise and penetrate hiscountry was easy enough; to withdraw from it was amore difficult matter. We knew that Lee and Hamptonwere to the-west of us. . . . We knew also that therewas a strong force at and In the vicinity of Gordonsville,and heard that another force was at Louisa Court House,and a small force of infantry at Tolersville.

“After thinking the matter over, I determined to sendGeneral Buford, with 650 picked horses of his brigade, tothreaten any force in the vicinity of Gordonsville, andinduce Lee and Hampton to believe that we were goingto get out by that way; and another force, under CaptainKodenbough, was sent in the direction of Bowling Green,with the view of threatening the enemy’s communica-tion in that direction, and, under cover of night, withthe main body, to take the middle road loading throughTolersville, and crossing the North Anna near the Vic-toria Iron Works; from thence to Orange Springs, whereall were to rendezvous the next day.

“All our plans and calculations worked admirably,and though we had no little difficulty in finding and fol-lowing the almost impassable roads, owing to the inkydarkness of the night and the incessant pouring of therain, the whole command was assembled at OrangeSprings at 12 m. on the 6th. Here we first began to hearrumors, through negroes, of the repulse and withdrawalof our army to the north side of the Rappahannock.

“After watering and feeding our animals, we pushedon to the Plank road leading from Fredericksburg toOrange Court House, and from thence to Raccoon Ford,which, to our groat joy, we found fordable, nod were allover safe by daylight on the morning of the 7th.”

Editors.