by Unknown
When I reached the rest of the troop I said, “Well done. Sergeant Major, take a roll call, Sergeant James collect those spare horses.” Some of the Yankee horses had followed us. They were worth money to us. The Confederate Government did not supply horsemen with their own horses we had to buy our own.
“Just one man missing sir, Trooper Rae.”
It would have had to be one of the newer ones. We had found that if you could survive a couple of encounters then the odds of survival rose rapidly. Still it was not a bad result. I did not know how many of the enemy we had killed but we had prevented a patrol from scouting our beleaguered Army of North Virginia and we had damaged their morale again.
“Corporal Jones, take a couple of men and make sure we aren’t being followed.” I thought it was unlikely that we would be followed but it paid to be careful.
We headed back to Kelly’s Ford where we had recently defeated the Yankees but at a great cost to ourselves. We now controlled the crossing but it was just three guns and our depleted regiment which did so. The rest of the Army of Northern Virginia was at Falmouth and Fredericksburg. As we approached the Rappahannock Trooper Grey rode up. “Corporal Jones said the Yankees ain’t following sir.”
“Good. Rejoin the rearguard.”
The Sergeant Major joined me. “It seems there’s more Yankee cavalry than fleas on a dog.”
“You’re right but I am more concerned with the fact that there are so many new cavalry units. There is something up.”
“We keep whupping them sir so we needn’t worry.”
I waved a hand behind me. “Look back there Sergeant Major; is that a full troop?”
“Well no sir but…”
“And where will we get a replacement for Trooper Rae?” He had no answer to that. I felt bad that I had snapped at him. “The thing is, Sergeant Major Mulrooney that we are bleeding slowly to death. We need to end this war once and for all and we need to do it quickly before we run out of men.”
“But we never lose.”
“I know. We have the best men, the best horses, the best cavalry bar none but they have the better weapons and the greater numbers of men. It is simple mathematics. They can afford to lose four men to one of ours and we will run out of men sooner or later. I even heard that they have a darkie regiment now.”
“They’ve armed the slaves? That is madness.”
“I think it is quite clever. The former slaves hate the south and there are thousands of them. Who will worry when they all get killed? No, that is the most worrying thing of all. It gives them an unlimited supply of men.” We headed across the river depressed, despite our victory.
The sentries were alert as we rode across the shallow ford. The Yankees had tried to infiltrate our camp before and with so few of us we could not afford to be caught in our own camp.
“Major Murphy just got in sir.”
“Thanks Kershaw.”
We only kept a skeleton garrison in the camp. Our job was to annoy the Union forces whilst finding out their strengths. It was what we were good at.
When we had dismounted at the picket lines Irish said, “I’ll get one of the lads to walk Copper. Major Murphy will need your report.”
“Thanks.” We only had half a dozen officers and our mess tent was smaller than most but I knew that it would be where the others were. As I has expected Danny Murphy, the major and adjutant of the regiment, was already there and had a mug of Irish whiskey in his hand. He was talking with Captain Harry Grimes; we had been the first of the men from Boswell’s Horse to be promoted. Lieutenants Dag Spinelli and Jed Smith were also there. The sixth officer, Lieutenant Dinsdale would be seeing to his patients. Our seventh was hundreds of miles away. Colonel Boswell was recuperating from a ball in the back courtesy of an English traitor, Colonel Beauregard. He would not rejoin us until the autumn.
“Ah, Lucky Jack; did you have good hunting?”
“We surprised a troop of Union cavalry on the other side of the Rappahannock. They looked, from their uniforms, like they were Connecticut boys. We cut them up a bit and then skedaddled back here.” We had become experts at identifying who we were fighting. We found that it helped.
“Lose any?”
“Just one of the new boys.”
“It’s always the way.”
I sat down and poured myself a small beaker of the powerful liquor. “The trouble is, sir, that this is the third new regiment we have seen in the past five days. Something is up.”
“I know. Well you won’t be surprised that the three of us have been summoned to Fredericksburg to see the general. Dago and Jed you are in charge.”
“When do we leave?”
“Now. We were just waiting for you to return.” He looked at Dago and Jed, “ We’ll be back before nightfall.”
My immediate concern was Copper. When I reached the horse lines I found the Horse Sergeant, Carlton James. “Has Apples been out today?” I had captured the Appaloosa last year and given her to the sergeant. He loved horses.
“No sir. Why, you going out again?”
“Yeah. Gotta meet the general.”
“Then take Apples. Copper looks plum tuckered out.” She didn’t but I knew that our horse whisperer would want nothing to hurt one of his horses; least of all me.
The Appaloosa was the second best horse in the regiment. She was not ridden as much as the other horses and was in perfect condition. She positively pranced as we headed east.
I turned to Danny. “Any news of the colonel?”
“No, Jack. The last letter I had from Jarvis was at the end of last month. So there is no change so far as I know.”
That was all that we could have expected. It had been touch and go when we took the ball from his back. He could have been crippled for life. “And any more recruits?”
“I am afraid they go to the glamorous regiments. The 1st Virginia Scouts is not the most popular.” We had been cobbled together by Jeb Stuart from the remnants of three regiments. I liked to think that we were the best but then I was biased.
The pickets on the pike stopped us and asked us to identify ourselves. The Union had taken a leaf out of our book and were now trying to operate behind our lines. Mosby’s Rangers and Boswell’s Wildcats had had a disproportionate affect on tactics. So far they had been remarkably unsuccessful but things could change quickly. When they saw Apples they smiled and waved us through. There was just one Appaloosa in this part of the world and she belonged to the 1st Virginia Scouts.
We held on to the south bank of the Rappahannock, but only just. General Hooker’s forces loomed large just north of the river. We knew, from experience, that there were many areas where the river could be forded. General Lee had other regiments watching them but it was not an easy task. Of course, we would not be meeting the great man himself. We would be meeting General Stuart, the cavalry commander. We had performed services for the general in the past and he held us in high esteem. We hitched our horses outside the general’s headquarters. It was festooned with flags and was clearly the flamboyant general’s temporary home. It was filled with cavalry officers. Jeb Stuart was full of life both on and off the battlefield. His aide, Lieutenant Geraghty, greeted us. Stuart was always changing his aides as he did favours for his friends but we had known the lieutenant for a month or so.
“Come along gentlemen. The general is in the rear parlour with General Jackson.”
“Stonewall?” Harry admired the stoic general.
“None other. I believe he has a request to make of you.” The lieutenant realised that he had been indiscreet and he shut up as he ushered us through.
There were just the two generals. They could not have been more different. Jeb Stuart was small and almost delicate with more gold and decoration on his uniform than Joachim Murat. General Jackson, in contrast, was a bear of a man who wore a plain blue frock coat. Colonel Boswell had once had the effrontery to ask the famous right hand of General Lee why he wore a Union uniform. He had been told, quite curtly, tha
t he had always worn it. He could be quite blunt. I always thought it dangerous. He might not be the bright target that was Jeb Stuart but he was a big man in a blue uniform.
Stuart was always ebullient and he greeted us warmly. He immediately poured us three generous glasses of his favourite whisky. “And how are my favourite scouts faring? Keeping the Yankees on their toes I bet.”
“General Stuart, if we could keep to matters in hand these gentlemen would be able to get back to their billets tonight.”
General Stuart cocked his head at General Jackson, “Always has his mind on military matters does Stonewall.” Jackson began to open his mouth and Stuart held up his hand. “Point taken, Tom.” He pointed to the map on the wall. “Now then boys, as you can see the Yankees have us holding this river. There are at least five fords where they can cross upstream of us here: Ely’s Ford, U.S. Ford, Bank’s Ford, Germanna Ford, Scott’s Ford and, of course, your camp at Kelly’s Ford. Now we can hold them at those crossings but we want you to stop them getting close. We want you to divide your command into five columns and do as you did when you were Partisan Rangers. We want you to spend the next two weeks harassing them in the rear of their lines so that they spend all their time looking for you and don’t try to cross the river.”
Danny frowned; this would be a hard task. “Why two weeks sir?”
“A good question, major. We will have all of the crossings protected by then. You need to buy us some time.”
General Jackson stood. “I know I am asking a lot of your men but we are heavily outnumbered and General Lee and I need time to reorganise our forces and defeat this new general, Joe Hooker. He has a large cavalry force and we have been getting reports of lots of new regiments appearing. Cavalry in southern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley would be a disaster. You have to keep them occupied.”
Danny nodded firmly, “In that case, General Jackson, my men will buy you that time.” He stood and tossed off his drink, “Although I am not sure how many of my boys we will be bringing back.”
Stonewall’s face softened, “Please God you bring all of your boys back safely, Major Murphy.”
We left the building and I knew that all three of us were worried in equal measure. We would each be patrolling with less than forty men each. That was a small number when you might run up against a full troop or even regiment of Union cavalry. We rode in silence for a while. Harry was always the pragmatic one. “How do we divide the men up then? The troops have different numbers of recruits and experienced men.”
“I will just divide them up again and the non-coms.”
“And David?” David was our doctor but he could also fight.
“I’ll keep him with me and you, Jack, can have Irish.” He laughed. “I don’t think anyone else will want him in their troop. Take Carlton too. You two seem to understand each other.”
“It’s lucky that you captured those horses Jack. At least we can all have a few remounts.”
“What about food and ammunition? We will have to hit and run. We can’t be trailing around with pack mules.”
Even in the dark I could see Danny’s shoulders sag. “It looks like we revert to being thieves in the night.”
“At least we are good at that.”
Dago and Jed, the other two officers, were both past masters at acquiring Yankee supplies. The problem was it increased the risk of getting caught. Those of us with Union guns would have less of a problem. “And what about Kelly’s Ford? If we are not there then who will guard it?”
“I assume that someone else will have worked that one out.”
I laughed, “Don’t count on it. I have not seen much evidence of intelligence so far in the generals and their thinking. Stonewall Jackson is the only one I would trust.”
When we reached the camp Dago, Jed and David were more than a little interested in what we had been told. Danny surprised all three of them. None were worried but they, like Harry and me, had concerns. David, in particular was worried about injuries and wounds. “If I had known that this would happen then I would have trained up some men to be medical orderlies.”
Danny shrugged, “I guess that will have to be us. We have all watched you work and we know what to do.” He took a map and placed it on the table. “I will take the middle section, as far north as Gainesville. Harry, you take the next section; north to Centreville, Jed, the rest from Manassas Junction to the Potomac. Jack you have the area to the west; as far north as Upperville and Dago, as far as the Blue Ridge.”
That was a tall order. I could see that Dago and I had the largest area and the one with the fewest settlements. I felt like complaining but then I realised that none of us had an easy time. At least it would be Dago who would be guarding my flank. We would have to work something out.
Jed sat back and asked. “When do we start?”
“Tomorrow!”
Chapter 2
As I led my thirty eight troopers across Kelly’s Ford I wondered just how many I would bring back. The Sergeant Major had managed to acquire as much food, ammunition and spares as he could, and we had four remounts laden down with the precious cargo. He made it quite clear to the four men leading the remounts that if anything was lost they would answer to him. He was a force of nature and I could leave that side of it safely in his hands. The other sergeant, Sergeant James, would make sure that all of our horses were in the best possible condition. I think he preferred horses to people.
As soon as we stepped on the northern bank we were in Union territory. It was unlikely that we would see any this close to the ford but we had to be diligent and cautious.
“Corporal Stewart, take three men and scout out the land ahead of us. I want to be as close to Upperville as we can manage by nightfall.”
“Sir!” The four of them took off and headed north.
We knew the area north of us quite well but what we didn’t know was where the Union forces were bivouacked. That was our first job. “Corporal Jones, take Trooper Connor and see if the Yankees are in Warrenton. Head north to Upperville and we’ll meet you there.”
As Davy galloped off it struck me that this was why our small numbers put us in danger. I only had thirty men left now. I hoped that we would not run into another full troop of new cavalry eager to show off their new weapons. I took my Colt out and checked that it was loaded. I knew it was but it showed me how nervous I was. The last time I had been on a patrol like this there had just been Dago and me to worry about; now I responsible for thirty eight men. Their lives depended upon my decisions. We kept on heading deeper into Union territory while my scouts closed with the enemy. They were adept at seeing and not being seen.
All six of my troopers rode in at almost the same time. They reined in and both corporals saluted. Corporal Stewart had arrived first and he spoke hurriedly. “There’s a big Yankee camp yonder sir. Just south of Warrenton. It looks like a regiment of infantry; about twelve guns and some cavalry.”
“Yes sir,” Corporal Jones added the vital information which had been missing from the first account. “There is a regiment of Maryland cavalry and there is a troop heading in this direction.”
Sensibly Corporal Jones had decided to return with the news of the juicy target so close to us. The targets further away could wait. We learned to make decisions fast in the 1st Virginia Scouts. I looked around and saw a small wooded hillock. “Sergeant Major, get everyone in those trees. Dismount and hide the horses.”
I had expected that the road would be patrolled but I had hoped that my famous luck would hold. We made the trees and one man in four took the horses to the rear. We grabbed our carbines and Sergeant Major Mulrooney spread them out in a skirmish line. I risked leaving the woods to look back; I could not see the enemy. Once back in the woods I said, “No one fires until I give the order.” The two sergeants were close by, “I would rather damage the whole camp than just one troop of cavalry. You two take the two ends of the line and make sure no one gets trigger happy.”
We heard the jing
le of metal on metal as the troop of cavalry trotted down the road we had so recently vacated. My heart sank when I saw the slightly faded uniforms. This was the 2nd Maryland and we had fought them before. They were good and were not to be underestimated. I made sure my carbine was cocked and took off my hat. I peered through the leaves of the bush behind which I was hiding. They were more spread out than the boys from Connecticut had been. They had more confidence and more skill. I also noticed that they were all checking the land around them. Worryingly a couple of their horses were sniffing the air and neighing. They could smell our strange horses but fortunately the troopers ignored those warnings and they disappeared south towards Kelly’s Ford.
“Get them mounted Sergeant Major. Corporal Jones you and Trooper Connor hang back half a mile and watch for those Yankee boys coming back.” I hoped that they would be on patrol for the rest of the day. We had a chance to scout out their camp and plan an attack.
We left the road a mile or so before Warrenton. We had to cross some open fields first but we eventually found some cover. “Rest the men here Sergeant Major. I want one trooper to come with me.”
Cecil flashed me a look which suggested he would argue with me but thought better of it. “Trooper Cooper comes from these parts.” He whistled, “Ben, get over here.”
Ben was a young trooper. I had not recognised the name which meant he was one of the younger men. He had a slight frame and looked as though a strong wind would blow him over. I had, however, learned that it was a mistake to judge someone on appearances only. I rummaged around in my saddlebags until I found what I was looking for. I slipped my deer hide jacket over my uniform and donned the old black slouch hat I had stolen last year in Fredericksburg. I tossed a union kepi at Trooper Cooper. “Sergeant Major, give him your Yankee greatcoat.”
The veterans all had Union uniform in our saddlebags. We had found that disguise was a handy thing. The coat was too big but that didn’t matter; he looked like a Yankee.