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Chapter 12. Dabney’s Mill and the Quaker Meeting House
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204 richmond must fall “pressing forward” With gregg covering the left flank to the south, Hancock’s Second Corps resumed its westward march from Cummings Ford. Thomas egan’s division crossed first, with Thomas Smyth’s brigade in the lead.1 Smyth, in turn, deployed a Pennsylvania regiment to pursue the retreating Confederates and then followed with his entire brigade southwest along the vaughan Road for a short distance, scattering aside pockets of resistance.2 Soon, however, the brigade retraced its steps to the ford. egan’s entire division then resumed the march, turning north onto the duncan Road and proceeding along the south bank of Hatcher’s Run toward armstrong’s Mill, with lieutenant Colonel Horace Rugg’s brigade at the head, followed by James Willett’s brigade, then Smyth’s.3 as egan tramped north on the duncan Road, Brevet Major general gershom Mott’s division filled the vaughan Road in place of egan’s division and ventured southwest toward gravelly Run. Brigadier general Regis de trobriand’s brigade fanned out with the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters and the 73rd new York at the point, driving Confederates away from hastily dug rifles pits.4 a mile down the road, Mott’s column left the vaughan Road and took a narrow path in the direction of the dabney Mill, a working sawmill at a remote crossroads a mile north. Flankers spread out in advance of the column, a difficult task given the terrain. “[to] us the march was particularly severe,” reported lieutenant Colonel Casper tyler of the 141st Pennsylvania, “the woods and bushes being so dense as at times to be almost impenetrable.”5 The Confederate cavalry struggled to delay Hancock’s progress. to the southwest , members of the Jeff davis legion from Young’s brigade saddled up and probed along the vaughan Road, where they encountered comrades retreating from Cummings Ford smarting from Hancock’s blow. as the legion neared Hatcher’s Run, they dismounted, left their horses in the care of a few comrades, and formed a weak line along the vaughan Road in Mott’s path. When shots rang 204 Chapter 12 dabney’s Mill and the Quaker Meeting House • dabney’s mill and the quaker meeting house 205 out, their commander, lieutenant Colonel Fred Waring, discovered Union cavalry threatening his rear, probably elements of gregg’s division heading west from Monk’s neck Bridge. Waring was in a tight spot, and, in the confusion, his men failed to reach their horses and fled on foot west toward the Quaker Road.6 to the north, egan’s division continued its trek on the duncan Road, which “led mostly through a thick forest of princely pines.”7 at 8:30 a.m., the formation reached armstrong’s Mill. egan’s column approached the rebel works there from the rear. His men soon found that rebel pickets had already abandoned the position .8 in seizing armstrong’s Mill, the Second Corps formed a direct connection to the Fifth and ninth Corps north at the Clements house and a solid line of communication to the rest of the army. With armstrong’s Mill secured, egan pressed westward toward dabney’s Mill along a narrow tree-lined road, deploying two of Rugg’s regiments as a rear guard.9 Thus, both of Hancock’s prongs, Mott’s and egan’s divisions, headed for dabney’s Mill on separate routes. Shortly after 9 a.m., egan reached the crossroads and skirmishers of the 36th Wisconsin, led by Captain george a. Fisk, overwhelmed enemy pickets, seizing rifle pits at the sawmill and capturing about forty men from Young’s and Butler’s cavalry brigades.10 More rebels were not far away. Members of the 6th South Carolina regiment reined up within six hundred yards of the dabney Mill crossroads to find egan’s skirmishers a short distance ahead. The rebels dismounted and stepped forward to fight. But as they fired their weapons at the blue forms ahead, news arrived of another enemy column approaching from the south. The cavalrymen postponed the bloodshed and, as one soldier explained, “fell back a mile and a half . . . put two pieces of Hart’s battery in position and awaited the approach of the enemy.”11 The horsemen simply could not stop the heavy infantry columns. Mott’s infantry division approached the mill from the south to join egan. The march had not been peaceful. a member of the 124th new York recalled, “every few moments a...