8

"On to Richmond?"

 

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Nearly nine hundred strong,[1] the Bucktails hopefully marched to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, glad to be

on the way again regardless of the direction or mode of trans­portation. Over three weeks had been spent at Alexandria in

ignorance and uncertainty, while topside made up its mind. The regiment piled into box cars. That is, all but Company E

which drew platform cars. To add to this company's woes, a storm of half sleet and half snow had started. The old engine

wheezed and snorted, and seemed barely able to pull the train at a snail-like pace. At every water tank a stop was made. The sleet and ice continued and Company E was wet to the bone. At one of the frequent water stops Major Stone got the company a sheet iron stove, which, one boy said, kept them from freezing to death. The train had gone fourteen miles in seven hours, when, with one last combined wheeze, snort, and groan, it gave out entirely about dark. Finally, an­other engine picked up the train and pulled it into Manassas at 3 A.M. One fellow, who rode a platform car, wryly observed

with slight, but pardonable, exaggeration, that on the first day of the advance from Pierpont they had marched nearly

to Manassas, and now, after being sidetracked at Alexandria for over three weeks, they had finally arrived. He added an

even more caustic comment concerning the Army's waiting until the weather was at its worst to ship them there.

 

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While at Manassas a few of the Wildcats were able to pilfer some consigned to the division medical director. It was so good that they went back for more. By mistake in the dark a couple of them got laudanum instead of liquor. The Bucktail casualty return of the next day had to list two dead.

Apparently the news of the slow rail trips from Alexan­dria found its way to corps headquarters. On April l 1, Mc­Dowell wired McCall to send the rest of the division on.by foot. The corps commander had decided that even in bad weather the men could march faster than the O. and A. could travel. [2]

The First Rifles had been transferred from Meade's Sec­ond Brigade to the First under the command of Brigadier

General John F. Reynolds. Reynolds had formed a good im­pression of the Bucktails and spoke well of them. The Buck­tails would again serve under Meade. In a little more than a year, Meade and Reynolds and the Bucktails, now two little known Pennsylvania brigadiers and just another Pennsylva­nia regiment, would help to make history at a little Penn­sylvania town. Each would reach the rendezvous at different times. Each would play a different role. Reynolds would bring about the greatest battle of the war. Meade would be the commander of the victorious Union Army. As for the Bucktails, it would be another bitter battle.

By irregular and comparatively easy marches the First Brigade reached Falmouth across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, on April 28. The plan still was for McDowell's First Corps to advance beyond Fredericksburg and form the right of the Union Army before Richmond.  At this time Mcdellan was temporarily stalled at Yorktown, a few

miles up the Peninsula.

A fine camp site was chosen about a mile and a half from

 

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Falmouth.. A row of cedars bordered the parade grounds. The site was high and dry. The soldiers decorated the camp with evergreens. There were evergreen arches over every company street.and a bower of evergreens at the entrance of each tent. The First Rifles had their own special evergreen decoration a huge buck, all green but the tail, which was the real thing. While they waited for the war, the men would enjoy a little fun and beauty. There was just one thing to mar this pleasant spot. The beef tasted of leeks. Civil War armies when possible carried their beef supply on the hoof. Prior to slaughter the animals were permitted to graze and leeks grew in abundance around Falmouth. The Wildcats came from lush leek territory, and many of the boys were fond of this wild vegetable, but not in their beef.

Replacing lost, stolen, or wornout bucktails was usually somewhat of a problem for the men. No one wanted to be for long without the regimental insignia. Deertails were hard to come by in a Virginia army camp. No doubt the regiment

would turn out to a man to help a comrade whose bucktail had been pilfered by a member of some other outfit. Intra­

regimental larceny of the insignia was considered no great misdeed. 

Anyway, the Bucktails in the early years of the war seemed always to be writing home for bucktails. One Potter County soldier hit the jackpot after he had penned home a fervent plea for just one copy of the outfit's sacred symbol. Pleased indeed was this boy when he opened the crate which had been sent him from the Wildcat District of Pennsylvania. It was full of bucktails! The soldier peddled them out to his buddies at. a quarter each and, for a while, he became the sutlers' best customer.

The northern Pennsylvania soldiers who proudly displayed the "bucktail" of course knew that all those deertails

 

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which the home folks sent them were not "bucktails." How­ever, none ever considered himself a "doetail."

The prices of the sutlers and the few Falmouth merchants were high, but some of the Bucktails struck a real bargain with a Rebel miller. These men had acquired eleven hun­dred dollars in bogus Confederate bills. These bills sold in the North for a cent apiece, an early wartime curiosity. Ap­parently they were a good imitation. Gradually the miller's entire stock of flour found its way to the Bucktail camp in  exchange for the worthless paper.[3]

While the regiment was opposite Fredericksburg, Colonel McNeil became ill with tyhoid fever and Kane.was again in command. For months Kane had been devising a system of skirmish tactics peculiarly his own. Many a day had seen the controversial lieutenant colonel drilling a battalion in his somewhat unorthodox maneuvers. The drill plus Kane un­der his umbrella, which he was wont to carry for a sunshade, was an unusual sight indeed, even in an army in which each colonel trained his regiment as he saw fit. 4[4]  A battalion composed of Companies C, G, H, and I became Kane's favorite

for his skirmish tactics. These three companies of Wildcats and the company of Chester County Bucktails had given the

lieutenant colonel his strongest support in his unsuccessful second bid for the colonelcy. The regiment had been opposite

Fredericksburg a month when on May 27 an order was received detaching Kane and his, battalion of rifles. A new cavalry brigade, soon to be, known as the "Flying Brigade," had been constituted under the command of Brigadier Gen­

eral George D. Bayard. It consisted of the First New Jersey Cavalry and the First Pennsylvania, and to it was attached

Kanes Rifle Battalion. It would soon be seeing service in the Shenandoah Valley against an outfit, which had already

proven it could "fly",led by Stonewall Jackson. .[5]

 

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The news of Kane's detachment was received by the Buck­tails with somewhat varied emotions. There was consider­able resentment over the fact that the regiment was to be broken up even temporarily. The explanation that the skirmishing of a rifle regiment constituted rather a special service and made detachment of parts necessary at times satisfied many of the men. There was some camp talk to the effect that Kane's money and influence got him the assign­ment, and that McCall and Reynolds were opposed to it. The last was probably true as usually no officer likes to see a part of his command taken from him. The extremist view­point was illustrated by the language of one Wildcat who wrote home that "Colonel Kane had seceded and taken with him . . . ."[6]

The Bucktails had little time to lament their separation. After a month of comparative quiet in their evergreen camp

above the Rappahannock things were beginning to happen. McClellan, after preparing for a siege at Yorktown, found, it

unnecessary, as the Confederates withdrew. Then "Little Mac" had slowly advanced up the Peninsula, and by the end of May was close to Richmond. About the middle of the month McDowell had been ordered to push on toward the

Confederate capital as soon as he received the division of Brigadier General James Shields. Shields had been with the

forces of General Banks in the Shenandoah Valley. Shields had reached Fredericksburg, and McDowell was all set to

advance on May 25. On May 23, Stonewall Jackson erupted in the Shenandoah Valley and started  driving Banks weak-

ened command. Lincoln cancelled the order to McDowell to advance.  Shields and McDowell, with the exception of Mc­

Call's Division, were sent toward the Valley in the hope of helping to bag Jackson. On May 21 McClellan's- forces

 fought the battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) almost at the

 

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outskirts of Richmond. Everywhere there was action, except opposite Fredericksburg where the remaining companies of the Bucktails were left with McCall's Division. The inactivity was not for long.

McCall was staying at Falmouth as ordered, but for a while on that hectic May 31 in Washington, Lincoln and the

War Department somehow became afraid he was falling back. That evening the wire was hot between the capital and Falmouth. The President started it in the late afternoon by A short telegram indicating that he feared McCall's withdrawal  contrary to orders. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stan­ton got into the act with two messages, one, containing the words, "maintain your position there as becomes a soldier and a General, and the other, Do not let an discredit fall on your division." This was too much for the old soldier. McCall let Washington know in no uncertain terms that he and  his Pennsylvania Reserves were staying where they had been ordered to stay. Probably mustering all the restraint at his

command, the general in one of his messages to Stanton added: "I trust that as yet no discredit has fallen on the di­vision none will be apprehended now." As a matter of fact McCall was in no danger and he knew it. The First Brigade which had been on the right bank of the Rappahannock for several days had been ordered back to Falmouth, on the 31st. This was all the withdrawing McCall had done.. Heavy rains had caused the river to rise and the move was a precautionary measure.[7]

Within the next ten days things would quiet down in the Shenandoah. After some fast marching and fighting Jackson would elude both McDowell and another force under the command of General John C. Freemont, of "Pathfinder" fame. McClellan, stalled again after Fair Oaks, had been ask­ing for McCall's Division ever since April. On June 6 by di-

 

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rection of the President, Stanton issued the order. McCall's Division would leave at once for the Peninsula-by water. At last, it appeared to-the six remaining companies of Bucktails, they were headed for the real war, and this time they would go by boat.[8]

Seven miles below Fredericksburg wharves were built. The work continued all night long, and on the morning of June 9 the Bucktails and all the First Brigade boarded the transport South America, which had arrived during the eve­ning of the day before. To the landlubber Wildcats the trip down tidewater was a pleasant voyage. Lumber rafts on the Susquehanna had been the extent of their nautical experi­ence. They had marched to the newly constructed wharves on a lovely moonlit night in high spirits. Now they were sailing down the beautiful Rappahannock on a balmy day. If one would go to war, this was the way to go. The transport entered Chespeake Bay and then up the York River and into the winding Pamunkey. On June 11 the brigade stepped ashore at White House for the grim business ahead.[9]

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