Glover Chapter 4

Militia on Maneuver

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June 1861 found what would become the Northern Army of the Potomac under the command of General Irwin McDowell, head of the Department of Northeastern Virginia, with headquarters at Arlington. In southern Pennsylvania was a smaller force under General Robert Patterson a retired regular army officer who had served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Patterson was in command of the Department of Pennsylvania with headquarters then at Chambersburg. McDowell's army was to cover Washington.It was Patterson's intention to attack strategic Harpers Ferry by way of Hagerstown and Williamsport, Maryland. Patterson, McDowell, and aged Winfield Scott, general-in-chief, all believed the Confederates under General Joseph E. Johnston would defend Harpers Ferry to the bitter end.
Stationed at Cumberland in western Maryland since June 6, was a volunteer colonel who would later write a famous novel, Colonel Lewis Wallace, with the Eleventh Indiana Volunteers. Upon no authority but his own, Lew Wallace led his little regiment toward Romney, Virginia where he understood a Confederate force to be. Most of the enemy had withdrawn before the Hoosiers reached Romney. They destroyed what property the Confederates had left there and immediately returned to Cumberland. Johnston interpreted this bold move of Wallace's to mean that General Georger B.

McClellan was advancing in force from farther west at Grafton, Virginia. Johnston immediately began to pull out of Harpers Ferry for Winchester. Wallace's raid was on June 13. Patterson crossed the Potomac and was in Martinsburg, Virginia by July 3. Since June 29 a movement by McDowell toward Manassas had been shaping up and was scheduled to start July 8. The day before that Wallace had again left Cumberland moving toward Romney. All these movements had combined to bring the Bucktails and the Fifth Pennsylvania Reserves into the war.
When General Patterson ordered Wallace to halt at Cumberland, he had hopes that the Indiana regiment could be reinforced. Patterson suggested to the Union general-in-chief that Wallace should have two regiments to protect his rear, as he moved east, to keen communications open and look after bridges. Scott was deaf to this request, and within a few days ordered regiments away from Patterson to the vicinity of Washington instead of strengthening him. On June 20 Patterson, at Hagerstown, telegraphed McCall at Harrisburg that Colonel Wallace was being threatened at Cumberland and might have to fall back into Pennsylvania. Patterson could send Wallace no aid. What could McCall do? McCall's answer to this was to start the Bucktails and the Fifth toward Cumberland the next day. Patterson and McCall , two old Pennsylvania generals, had been to war before. They would both soon fade out of this war, but they were working well together on June 20-21.[1]
As General Patterson started his forces toward Virginia, he continued to worry about Pennsylvania. On June 25 he wrote Governor Curtin that his movement south would leave the Keystone State unprotected. He suggested that units of the Reserve Corps be stationed along the southern border from York to Bedford. The next day Patterson sent a

note to McCall making the same suggestion. The reply of the commander of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps is revealing. McCall told Patterson that the Bucktails and the Fifth Regiment had been pushed forward to support Wallace at Cumberland. Then he added "the other regiments are without clothing, arms, or equipments still, notwithstanding my efforts to fit them for the field." The Bucktails were considered a favorite of McCall's This message gives support to that belief.[2]
Instead of the entire Pennsylvania Reserve Corps to hold the Pennsylvania line while Patterson sought to keep the Confederate Johnston occupied in Virginia, there were but the two regiments and a battery at their "Camp Misery and Despair." As it would turn out, there was no need to be alarmed for Pennsylvania. However, when Wallace led his Indiana regiment out of Cumberland on July , rumor was rife. Cumberland was predominately pro-Union. The people were afraid of attack by the Rebe1s, Supposedly, there was Confederate cavalry about. The commander of the little brigade of what was still only Pennsylvania militia was requested by the citizenry of Cumberland to cross the Mason-Dixon Line and protect the place. Late in the evening of the same day that Wallace left, Colonel Biddle took his regiments into the Maryland town Biddle apparently took this step without a specific order. but the next day General Patterson ordered him to do what he had already done.
Established at the camp site vacated by the Hoosiers, the Pennsylvanians liked its location and looked forward to some action. In this most of them would be disappointed. The rumors concerning Confederate activity toward Cumberland were rumors only. The men found this out, but

what they probably did not know was that Patterson had told Biddle to hold Cumberland "but unless threatened, to make no aggressive movement in Virginia without strong inducements and certainty of success." The last three quoted words were indeed restrictive of action. Patterson did give the Bucktail colonel discretionary authority to occupy Piedmont, Virginia, twenty miles southwest of Cumberland. Lieutenant Colonel Kane was just as anxious as some of his recruits to get into the war. He persuaded Biddle to let him do a little scouting. Kane chose sixty men from the various Bucktail companies. In view of what he did within the next few days, it would be interesting to know just what instructions the colonel gave to his second in command on the morning of July 12 when Kane started out.[3]
On a rainy night Kane's little band of scouts camped a short distance from Piedmont, still on the Maryland side of the Potomac (North Branch). A year or two later the boys who did picket duty would laugh at their nervousness that dark, rainy night along the Potomac. Early the next morning Kane crossed his party over the river to Piedmont. He was still well within Biddle's order. Enemy cavalry had been in Piedmont the day before, but had cleared out. With some caution, Kane reconnoitered the territory around Piedmont. He decided to press on to New Creek, Virginia (the present Keyser, West Virginia). Leaving ten men in Piedmont, the scouts, now moving in a southeasterly direction reached New Creek and stationed themselves in a brick house on the outskirts of the village. The enemy with whom Kane was trying to make contact was a troop of cavalry, a part of the command of Colonel Angus W. MacDonald. This Confederate colonel, with a very Scottish name, had been operating out of Romney and had been doing some

damage to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He said he preferred the hatchet to the saber.
The Bucktail scouts had not been long at New Creek before the Rebel troop ran into them. Warned by their pickets of the approach of MacDonald's men, a squad of Kane's sent out for that purpose, fired a volley into the flank of the advancing troopers. The squad regained the brick house where the rest of the party was holed up awaiting the Confederates. The Rebel cavalry came dashing down the road taking random pistol shots at the brick house. The green Bucktails broke every rule in the book. Kane had instructed them to withhold their fire until he gave the order. This they just could not do. Although premature, the fire was effective. Three troopers fell to the ground dead and the column wheeled and spurred away. The scouts ran from the house, and with empty guns, tried to pursue the retreating foe. Kane finally rounded up his little party. It had not been much of a fight---fifty barricaded Northern infantrymen against possibly one hundred Southern cavalry men with only a few shots exchanged. But the Bucktails had met the enemy and he had retreated. In spite of their mistakes, they had repulsed their adversaries. It gave them confidence. They could boast that they had "seen the elephant."[4]
Meanwhile, back in Cumberland, Colonel Biddle had sent another detachment to Piedmont. Although their pickets were attacked, this detachment, composed of Company B of the Bucktails and two companies of the Fifth held the town until July 16 when Biddle moved the entire brigade into Piedmont. The bridge had been burned and all baggage had to be carried over by the men. This job was about completed by nightfall when a messenger arrived from Kane. He was very near Romney, at least fifteen miles from

support, and there was Confederate cavalry about. Biddle's reaction to this news of his subordinate's position is easy to guess. Most certainly Kane knew what Patterson had ordered regarding penetration of Virginia beyond Piedmont. This example of the over-zealousness of the organizer of the Bucktails presaged things to come. The colonel lost no time in putting the entire brigade in motion in the direction of his lieutenant and his scouts. At midnight he found Kane and his men, blithely barricaded, this time in a stone house. The next morning, by order of the colonel, all moved back to New Creek, and then to Piedmont.
The regiments remained at Piedmont for about ten days. There was a little more scouting and considerable picket duty and drill. The men had been paid at last, which made things better for a while. Some of the Fifth Regiment, being more literate than the Bucktails got into the printing office of the "Piedmont Independent" and brought forth an edition of the Pennsyvania Reserves." The Bucktails, however, found their way into a local shoe factory and those who were so inclined supplemented their army "gunboats" with civilian shoes free of charge.[5] Then came the news of First Bull Run. Johnston had eluded Patterson and had joined Beaureard. McDowell had been repulsed and had retreated all the way to a defenses of Washington. The three-months men could go home. It looked like there would be plenty of opportunity for the Bucktails really to get into the war. Apparently it would last for quite a while after all. The regiments broke camp on July 27 and started back to Harrisburg. A big battle had been fought and they had missed it, but they had had some tough marches, they had begun to look like something in regimental drill, they had had a go at life in bivouac, and some of them had received hostile fire.[6]

they had carried out their assignment, dull as it was. As the brigade splashed back across the river headed north, the men could take with them the realization that they had at least a start toward becoming soldiers. They would cross the Potomac again.