by Unknown
“Bert and Cecil; go back and bring the horses and the rest of the section. Take the horses into the trees.” I pointed to a clump of scrubby bushes. “We’ll be there.” As they trotted down the track I checked to make sure we hadn’t left any obvious tracks. The stones around the box showed our boot prints. “We’ll tidy this little lot up.” I knelt down next to Johnny and we hand smoothed the stones so that they showed no sign of being disturbed. There was a line of scrubby weeds next to the line. “Follow me and jump over so that we don’t leave a sign that we were here.” I quickly checked to see that there was not a huge drop on the other side and leapt. It was just long grass and I rolled clear. When we had both managed to move a couple of yards away I looked back. The grass was already rising; there would be no sign that we had ever been there.
We raced up to the bushes and crouched behind a couple of the larger ones. We had all managed to acquire watches during our raids and robberies. I took mine out to check the time. It was twelve twenty five. I figured it was a three hour ride back to camp and so we would wait until three to see if any track inspectors or trains came along. I heard a noise to my right and cocked my Colt. “It’s us sarge.”
Davy’s voice made me holster my gun. “Did you see anything that way?”
“No. I see you found a box.”
“Yup. It looks well used. We’ll just watch it for a while and see if anything turns up.”
Wilkie gave me a curious look. “What for sarge?”
Cecil clucked his tongue as though Wilkie had said something stupid. I smiled for that would have been the Irishman three months ago. “If we know what time a train comes through then we can plan when to ambush or derail it. At the same time we need to know when the track crews come by and how many men are in them. We may not find any of that today but it is worth a three hour wait eh?”
He grinned sheepishly, “Yes sarge.”
“The Wildcats aren’t all about shooting and fighting. Sometimes we are just plain sneaky.”
I allowed the men to pair up to share the watches. I would watch the whole time. I didn’t like letting Captain Boswell down. I was a sergeant now and I took my responsibilities seriously. We had only been watching for a matter of thirty minutes when we heard the sound of squeaking and wheels trundling along the line. It was coming from the east. I held up my hand and we all lay flat on the ground. A trolley, with five men on board, creaked to a noisy halt besides the track. One of the men went to the line box and opened it. He was obviously the leader as he handed the tools to the men and, while they walked along the track tapping the rails, he sat on the trolley and smoked his short, stubby pipe. The smell drifted up to us. It smelled like a European mix, probably Dutch. We had noticed that the European tobaccos each had a distinctive smell. It was all useful information. After they had walked up and down checking the rails they all gathered for a meal. The leader had not moved and he had smoked a second pipe after his meal. He tapped out his pipe and blew on a whistle. A few minutes later they returned and the tools were locked in the locker and the trolley squeaked and squealed its way towards the west and Brunswick.
It was silent and Jacob began to speak. I held up my hand and Davy put his finger to his lips. I waited five minutes before I spoke. “Don’t talk until you are sure there is no-one around. Now what were you going to ask?”
“Do we go now?”
I took my watch out and opened it. “It isn’t even three o’clock yet. You got a date tonight?”
The others laughed and the young recruit blushed. “No, but I thought that there wouldn’t be a train if there was a trolley on the track.”
“They’ll just lift the trolley off the track when they hear the train whistle.”
“Ah!”
It was two thirty when we heard the train whistle sound three times in the distance. We became alert. Ten minutes later and it sounded three times again but closer. Then we heard the clank of its wheels and the hiss of its engine as it lumbered along the track. It was not travelling quickly and we saw why; it was carrying cannons on open top cars and the box cars had guards upon them. I made a guess that it was ammunition and cannons to reinforce McClellan’s army and to make good the losses from Antietam. It seemed to take an age to pass by but once it had I circled my hand above my head and we headed back to the horses.
“Nice train sarge. Pity we didn’t derail it.”
“No Davy, that would be the dumb way of doing it. That train was going so slowly that derailing would not have done as much damage as the last one we destroyed. Hell, they would probably just bring another engine and push the train to Brunswick. That’s why we report back to Captain Boswell and let him come up with a plan. You never know they may have a better target anyway.”
However, when we returned to the camp, we discovered that it was the best target. “Well done, Jack. We found the railroad as well but you found it close to the river with an exit for us. We found it close to warehouses and buildings. What about you Danny?”
“There is a munitions warehouse at Hagerstown but it looks like it has a regiment guarding it.”
Jed too had found only difficult targets and so we decided to hit the railroad first. “When we have done that one, we will see if we can do a little explosive work in Hagerstown. It is far enough away from the river to make them think we have gone home again.”
The captain decided that we would take down the tents and hide them. He and his section would leave first with Davy and they would watch the trains from noon. We would hide all traces of the camp and join them about mid afternoon. The captain reasoned that we would then have the hours of darkness to do a good job of destroying the railroad. We would hide up during the next day and then be on hand should anything go wrong.
The younger men, the likes of Colm, Jacob and Geraghty couldn’t wait to get going and they were racing around the camp like nettled hens. “Will you lads calm down? We don’t want you wetting yourselves before we get to the ambush.”
“It’s alright for you and the sergeant, you have done this before. We can’t wait to do something for the Confederacy!”
Danny relented and gave a smile, “Sure and I understand your enthusiasm but it won’t make it come any quicker. We have a way of doing things. Now make sure there are no signs that we camped here.”
Despite Danny’s words, the older hands knew that we could never eradicate all signs of our presence. The blackened area around the fire, even though we had cut the turf and replaced it on the burnt soil, was a clear sign that someone had been there. All we could do was disguise the number of men who had been there. We all rode in different directions and then met up a mile south of the camp. It would take a good tracker to follow us.
When we reached the ambush site the captain had made a corral in a small clearing in the forest. It looked to me as though someone had taken the trees for some lumber but it aided us. He summoned Danny, Jed and me. “Two trains went by. Did one go by at around two thirty yesterday, Jack.”
“About that time sir. It was a very slow train with lots of cannons on board.”
He nodded. “Another one came by today filled with horses, looked like a couple of companies and that was a fast train.”
“Any track workers?”
“Not today. It may be that they won’t be back this way for a few days.”
“Did the train sound its whistle?”
“No Jack, why?”
“Yesterday it kept blowing its whistle to warn the workers. So I am guessing no whistle means no track workers.”
“Tell your men to get some rest. Harry, have your boys take the first watch, Jack, you have the second watch, Danny the third and my boys will do the last one. Just make a note of the trains and their make up.”
When I relieved Jed he said, “No trains heading west but two headed east.”
I lay down resting my head upon my hands watching and listening. I glanced to my right and saw that Cecil was copying me exactly. Beyond him Davy caught my eye and shoo
k his head. Poor Irish certainly had a bad case of hero worship. I heard the engine coming from the west. I didn’t need to tell the boys to lie down; they all just did it without thinking. The train was moving quite quickly and appeared to be empty. Soon I found it time to wake Danny. We had all learned to sleep when we could. We operated a great deal at night. I put my head on my saddle and the next thing I knew Harry was shaking my shoulder. “Come on Jackie boy. Time for work.”
Harry and I were the two sergeants in the company and we were good friends. He was from the north of England and had a bluff humour which I liked. He was more dependable than anyone else and that included the two officers. If you had Harry at your back then you were safe.
The captain waved us over. “It looks like they send full trains east to west in the morning and then empty ones west to east in the afternoon. That means that we can choose a good target. We will attack a west bound train. We will take out sixty feet of rail, bend them and then throw them in the river.” One of the engineers at Front Royal had told us that if you could bend a rail, however slightly, then it was almost impossible to straighten it. Of course he had recommended heating the rail first but we couldn’t risk a fire. I knew that Danny would have an idea about that. “Then I want Jack and Harry to take their sections to the east. Go beyond where we have taken out the rails. If we get the chance we will take whatever we can from the train. You two will need to take care of any guards. Danny and I will deal with the engine.”
Danny pointed to two huge rocks just visible in the river. “When you have lifted your rail then use the rocks to bend them. We won’t have far to throw them. Put one end between them and then have all your men bend them. It doesn’t have to be a big bend; even a small one will weaken the metal.”
We worked just like the team building the railroad but in reverse. With the tools taken from the locker one section loosened the bolts. A second section lifted the bolts and then the other two sections bent and disposed of the rails. Even the captain and the lieutenant joined in and by dawn there was a gap of sixty feet. We still had time before dawn and the captain said, “Now throw the sleepers into the river and then get rid of the gravel. They will have a really big job to get this railroad going again.”
We were exhausted by dawn but I led my weary section to the east along with Harry. We were not finished yet. We saddled our horses first and then took our carbines. Harry had the idea of taking half a dozen sleepers and making a breastwork behind which we could shelter. Once we had done that we had our own little fort. We had no idea what would be on the train that we would derail. It was a lottery. If it was filled with infantry then we might have a problem. Jimmy spotted the smoke in the distance. “Sarge! Smoke!”
“Davy, run and tell the captain. The rest of you check your carbines and your Colts. This will be your last chance.”
Harry growled, “And if any of you dozy buggers fires before we say I’ll have your bollocks for breakfast.”
Davy had returned by the time we began to hear it as it hurtled along the rails. “This one is certainly shifting, sarge.”
“It sounds like it is.” I was disappointed. I had hoped for cannon or ammunition but this seemed almost empty. I could see, even at a distance of a mile that there were blue uniforms on the train. “Looks like it is guarded then Harry.”
“You didn’t think this would be easy did you?” He raised himself on one arm. “As soon as I give the word shoot anything in blue and keep shooting until I say otherwise. There are soldier boys on this train. Don’t miss!”
The first missing rail was just beyond the bend to our right. The engineer would brake as soon as he saw that the track had been damaged but by then it would be too late to stop the metal behemoth. As soon as we heard the brakes then we would fire. I saw the engineer and the fireman as they laboured to keep up the speed. I noted that there were two guards on the footplate too and a flatcar just behind the tender with men and sandbags. There were just two wagons and the rest had men on flatcars behind sandbags. Whatever was in the wagons was valuable. We heard the squeal of the brakes and then Harry shouted, “Fire!”
Twenty Henry carbines provide a huge amount of firepower. The men on the flatcars were assaulted on two fronts; they had to face us and then try to keep their balance as the cars and the wagons began to tip over. We lost sight of them all as our guns spewed smoke but we kept firing anyway. A sporadic shot or two came back at us but as I heard the branches above us cracking as they were struck, I knew that they were firing blind. After a few moments there were no more bullets coming in our direction and I held my hand, “Cease fire! Reload.” I nodded to Harry. We reloaded and rose to our feet.
Harry said, “Right lads, take it easy and keep your eyes open.”
As the smoke cleared we could see the whole train had derailed and was on its side. I looked east and saw the half submerged loco and heard the hiss of steam from its cooling boiler. There were some wounded amongst the Union soldiers but most of them were dead. Some had died in the impact while our fusillade had finished the rest. I headed for the wagons. “My section, cover me. Davy! On my right.”
The wagon was lying half on its side but the doors had held and it was still locked. “Cecil, bring me the crowbar we used on the rails.”
With two of us leaning on the long crowbar used to lift the rails we prised the latch from the door. It groaned and cracked as it broke. We had to drop down from the door to slide it open. As we were doing so Davy shouted, “Sarge! It says paymaster on the wagon!”
Cecil and I slid the door open. It was not easy as the door was at an acute angle. Once it opened we saw the boxes lying in disorganised heaps, all of them imprinted with U.S. Paymaster. Cecil and I hauled ourselves into the car. I still had the crowbar and I picked up one box. It did not feel heavy. I prised open the lock and saw that it was filled with U.S. dollar bills. “Here Cecil get some of the guys to start unloading this. We’ll see what the captain wants us to do with it.” He hefted the box and manhandled it from the car. I picked up another box and this one felt heavier. When I opened this one I saw that it was filled with U.S. silver dollars. This was a better find. I laid it to one side and began to search through the car. By the time Cecil and the rest of the section returned I had worked out which boxes contained paper. I pointed to the boxes containing coins. “Two men to a box. Take these off the car. They are coins.”
I heard the captain outside and I went to join him. “Looks like we hit the jackpot sir. That box is filled with paper money. There are more inside.” Cecil and Jimmy were just emerging with the second box. “This one has coins. Silver dollars. I have the boys bringing them out. The coins are bagged inside.”
“Well done boys. Put the paper money back in and open the boxes. We’ll burn it. Harry, get your boys to check the second wagon.” He strode over and opened the box. He began to empty it. “It looks like there are twenty bags in each one.” He weighed one in his hand. “I reckon one man can carry about six of these in his saddlebags.”
I grinned, “I reckon.” I turned to Jacob. “When the boxes come out, you open them.”
Harry and his boys had collected the weapons already and I wondered at how we would carry the extra weight back to our camp. He took the crowbar from me and opened the second car. I heard a rebel yell from one of his men and then saw Harry’s grinning face. “Ammunition sir. Forty four calibre!”
That was good news for it would fit both the Henry and the Army Colts I used. The captain shouted over. “Divide it between the men. I want us out of here in fifteen minutes and I want the train ready to burn. Jed, take Colm and Geraghty and get some kindling. The paper money should burn real well.”
Just then we heard the sound of horses as Danny and his section led our mounts from the trees. I turned to my men. “Get the coins and the ammunition distributed amongst all of the horses. Make sure you balance the weight. I don’t want to lose any on the way back.”
We were all mounted, waiting for Jed and the other
two to set the fire. I could hear another train, although it was way off in the distance. The captain heard it too. “Come on boys. Get a move on.”
I watched as Jed fired into the paper. There was a pause and then it whooshed into life. The three of them raced over to us and leapt on their horses. “Come on boys. Head for the ridge. When that fire gets to the ammunition there will be a fourth of July to end all.”
Colm suddenly shouted, “Sir I dropped my Colt by the track box.”
Danny shouted, “Leave it Colm, we’ll get you another.”
He grinned, “Sure and I’ll be but a minute.” He turned and galloped along the track.
Danny shook his head, “He’s a mad bugger but a good man in a fight. He shot two of the guards on the engine who were about to plug the captain. He is really fast with the Colt. I can see why he doesn’t want to lose it.”
“Is it worth getting blown to kingdom come for?”
Danny laughed, “I think Colm is going to be as lucky as you Jack and that is going some.”
We were in the tree line when there was an almighty crump as the ammunition wagon exploded. We began to be showered with small pieces of wood which cascaded down from the skies. We all turned in our saddles although all that we could see was the plume of smoke rising above the trees.
Then we saw Colm grinning and galloping towards us. “Well boys that was as close as I want to get to an explosion. Damned near lost my eyebrows!” Even the captain laughed. Colm was an easy man to like.
Chapter 3
We made it back safely to our camp. The first thing that we did was to check that it had not been disturbed and we were relieved to find it had not. There were no signs of even an occasional wild animal paying us a visit. We put the tents up and then each section cleared the turf from the fires and began to cook our meal. The captain called the corporals and sergeants together at his tent. He took out a bottle of whiskey. It was Irish. “It seems the engineer was a drinking man and, miraculously, this didn’t break. I thought that we could celebrate.” Even in a tin mug the whisky tasted fine. “Here’s to the Wildcats.”