A Soldier's Story of His Regiment (61st Georgia): And Incidentally of the Lawton-Gordon-Evans Brigade Army of Northern Virginia

Chapter 14

169 show their appreciation of their friend and fellow-citizen 's (Stonewall Jackson's) old command. I never saw prettier girls. How I did want a nice suit of clean clothes and permission to stop'with them a week or two. Well, to tell the truth, I love them yet. They could hand us so many nice things to eat as we marched along! I hope God has blessed them. They were dressed like queens and they treated us like kings and princes. They did not want any more Yankees in their town, especially those that loved the torch, like General Hunter. Their tender hearts were full of old Virginia patriotism. We went on to Staunton and rested a part of one day, drew clothing and shoes. and everything was put in readiness. CHAPTER XIV. BA'l"l'LliS OF MARYLAND HnIGH'rS, MONOCACY, MARCH 'to WASHING1'ON AND SKIRMISH BA'l"l'LnS-RuTURN TO THn VALLnv OF VIRGINIA. On the morning of the 28th of June, 1864, we started down the valley by the way of Harrisburg, Va., New Market, Mount Jackson, Woodstock, Fisher's Hill, Strasburg , Middletown and arrived at Winchester on the 2nd of July. At Middletown the Yankees had burned a great many houses that were owned by the best Southerners , among them the city ministers. At Winchester the great Shenandoah valley widens out, and General Early divided his corps and marched on different roads. Early went to Harper's Ferry with part of his men, and captured it, with a great deal of army stores. The gallant General Gordon was in command of the rest of the corps, and went directly to Martinsburg, W. Va. 1'10 Martinsburg is a beautiful town situated on the Baltimore ar...d Ohio railroad, and was one of the strongest Union towns I ever saw, while Winchester was one of the strongest Confederate towns in the South, and the two towns are only twenty-two miles apart. We arrived at Martinsburg before night, and ran General Sigel off and captured the town, with a considerable quantity of army stores. Sigel retreated across the Potomac at Shepherdstown to his strongholds on the Maryland Heights. We burned the railroad bridge across the Opequon river and destroyed some of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. We then went to Duffie's Depot, where we rested a few hours. Five companies of the Thirtyeighth Georgia Regiment were left at Martinsburg to guard the army stores we had captured. On July 5th we crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown into Maryland. We crossed Antietam creek, and on the 6th Gordon's division drove the enemy into their works on the Maryland Heights. Here we drew plenty of good shoes, of which we were in great need. The Yankees shelled us severely from the Heights, killing and wounding some in the brigade. None of Company D got seriously hurt. I got my leg considerably bruised with a piece of shell, which partially crippled me. But I kept my place on the march. On the morning of the 8th we marched through South Mountain, at Fox Gap, to Frederick City, Md. Here we found a large force of Yankees commanded by General Lew Wallace, who retreated across Monocacy river and took a position in a road leading towards Washington. McCausland's brigade of cavalry crossed the river in pursuit and raised a row with them. Evans' brigade crossed the river, formed in line and advanced on their position about three-quarters of a mile 171 through an open field. Wallace's men were well posted in a road that was washed out and graded till it was as fine breast works as I ever saw. Here our brigade suffered as bad as it ever did in battle for the amount of men and the length of time engaged, especially the Sixty-first Georgia Regiment and the Twelfth Georgia Battalion. General Evans was shot off his horse in the charge, the ball passing through his body. We advanced to within thirty yards of the line of Yankees , but we would have had to fall back, for our men were killed and wounded until we did not have but a mere skirmish hne. If it had not been that Hay's Lou~ isiana Brigade crossed over the river and formed a line on our left and flanked the Yankees out of their position, we would have suffered...