KANE'S BATTALION.

II.

CATLETT'S STATION AND SECOND BULL RUN.

 

168

 

 

The raid by Jackson had shown the Government the desir­ability of not keeping scattered the forces retained to defend Washington, while McClellan labored over the Peninsular route towards Richmond. On June 26th, therefore, the troops under Fremont, Banks, McDowell and Sturgis were consolidated into the Army of Virginia, under the command of General John Pope. The Third corps of this army was placed under General McDowell, and to this corps Bayard's cavalry and the Bucktails were attached. On June 26th, McClellan, on the Peninsula com­menced his Seven Days' retreat, reaching camp at Harrison's Landing on July 2nd. If McClellan should remain inactive, an attack on Washington was to be apprehended. Pope, therefore, with correct military foresight, proceeded to collect his scattered forces in front of Washington, throwing them forward along the line of the Washington and Alexandria Railroad towards Charlottesville.

Quick to take advantage of the situation on the Peninsula, Lee ordered Jackson north, thus proving the sagacity of Pope's measures. Jackson crossed the Rapidan on July 7th and 8th. Pope, to parry the movement, advanced his army south, and on August 9th the opposing forces came into contact at Cedar Mountain. Bates in his "History of the Pennsylvania Volun-

 

169

 

 

"teers"[1] states that the Bucktail battalion was engaged in that action, but it seems probable that if they were, the part they took was not a prominent one, as they then, with the Maine Light Artillery, Third battery, formed the Headquarters corps of General McDowell's Third Army corps.[2] Moreover, it seems inconceivable that such hard fighters could participate in a battle where the Union casualties totaled over 2,000, without losing a man. Yet in the official casualty report, [3]they are not men­tioned.

Apparently they were assigned to the Headquarters corps, between June 28th and July gist; for on the former date, from Manassas, General Bayard reported their strength as 184-sick 13,[4] and on the latter date, at Fairfax, he requested that if possible they be sent to him.[5] At all events their official desig­nation August i6-3i, was Corps headquarters, Third army corps.[6]

The most kaleidoscopic campaign of the war succeeded the Confederate repulse at Cedar Mountain.

Jackson retreated southward to Gordonsville, and Lee ordered Longstreet to move up and form junction with him. This was accomplished on the 15th of August. The Bucktail battalion on the 19th, was at Brandy Station, and great was

 

 

170

 

their pleasure, when on that date Colonel Kane returned to them. After his capture Colonel Kane, with Captain Taylor, had been carried across Virginia, Kane's wound unattended to and the bullet unextracted. Finding that orders had been given for their incarceration in a Southern prison, notorious for the ill­treatment accorded to its occupants, and recognizing that such an experience would jeopardize Captain Taylor's health, which at that time showed plainly the effects of his recent exertions and deprivations, Kane decided to accept the parole offered. With Taylor, he was sent to Fortress Monroe, and upon his being exchanged, he was still on crutches. His masterful spirit, how­ever, remained dominant; for he immediately issued orders that "the soldiers carry at all times, until further orders, one hundred rounds of ball cartridges, forty or more rounds in the "cartridge-box, the remainder in the haversack." Possibly he remembered a previous experience during the expedition to New Creek, when his scouts, with but four rounds apiece, had been compelled to borrow cartridges from their companions, on the promise that they would be repaid upon their return.

On the 20th, Jackson and Longstreet crossed the Rapidan, Pope falling back behind the Rappahannock. The Bucktails, still attached to the Headquarters Guard, were, on the 22nd, ordered to accompany the staff trains, and marched to Catlett's Station, where the trains were packed.[7] On the same day, Jackson intended to start his raid in Pope's rear, and actually succeeded in crossing a portion of his men higher up the Rap­pahannock. To further confuse the Union General, Stuart, with 15oo cavalry and two pieces of artillery, crossed the

 

 

171

 

Waterloo and Hart's Mill bridges, moved up the Warrenton pike, and then swung round to the right with the object of swooping down on Catlett's Station and there destroying the railroad bridge over Cedar Creek and bagging anything that he could seize. With the guard protecting the train, the exact strength of which will probably never be known, were the Bucktails; Lieutenant Winslow, with fifteen men, being on picket.

Early in the evening a terrific thunderstorm broke over the camp. Stuart's force had arrived, without the Union troops being aware of it, within a mile and a half of the Station, and while the torrents of rain made Stuart declare that the night was the darkest he had ever known, the darkness itself would have prevented him from executing his designs, had not a negro whom he captured, and who had known him previously, given him information. Dividing his forces, Stuart ordered Colonel W. H. F. Lee to proceed to the place indicated by the negro as containing Pope's personal baggage, while the First and Fifth Virginia were ordered to attack the camp, over which the Buck­tails stood guard.[8]

Moving forward they surprised and overwhelmed Lieuten­ant Winslow and his men before they could give warning. Fol­lowing this capture of the pickets they charged right through the camp itself, overturned everything with which they came in contact, and proceeded to set fire to the train.[9] In a moment

 

 

172

 

Kane, with all his faculties alert, was quivering to rectify the damage done. By prompt action he succeeded in rallying sixty­eight men in an adjoining wood, and recognizing instantly that the railroad bridge was the real object of the Confederates' attack, he marched to the support of the Purnell Legion, which had been assigned to the defense of the railroad and bridge. Apparently before even Kane could get to the bridge the Con­federate force, which under Captain Blackford had been sent forward to destroy it, had desisted from their attempt to fire the structure. In the deluge of rain, "they might just as well "have tried to burn the creek!"[10] Some attempt was made to secure axes, but the darkness proved a hindrance. Moreover, the bridge "was formed of double trestle work, superposed, "'which rendered destruction difficult and repair easy."[11]Kane, therefore, though he failed to find the Purnell Legion, [12]found the vicinity of the bridge comparatively quiet. As the enemy returned up the Manassas road, from out the darkness of the trees the Bucktails poured in a volley at short range into his face. The maddened horses stampeded. A half mile away, however, their riders stopped them, and then set fire to the tents and wagons of General Pope's staff. Seeking shelter behind trees and wagons, the little band of Bucktails attempted to pick off the cavalrymen engaged in their work of destruction, when­ever the light of a torch betrayed that an attempt was being made to set fire to the saturated wagons. So dark was it that it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, excepting by the momentary flashes of the guns. "The animals became "frightened, and increased the noise and confusion of the fight. "The shooting and shouting of the men, the braying of the

 

173

 

 

mules, the glare of the lightning and roll of the thunder, made it .seem like all Pandemonium had broken loose."[13]

Taking advantage of the turmoil that increased with every moment, Kane boldly charged his men across the open field in which the train was stationed. Contemptible as were the Buck­tails numerically, as compared with their opponents, they at­tacked with such fury that they drove the Confederates from the field in confusion.

The blame for this surprise must rest on other shoulders than those of the brave men suddenly overwhelmed. What was the cavalry doing? With what work were the scouts en­gaged, that fifteen hundred men, with two pieces of artillery, were permitted to sweep down from the rear of the army in the blackness of the night on the wagon camp, without an iota of warning being given?

Perhaps the best commentary that can be made is that for gallantry at Catlett's Station and at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Colonel Kane was on the 7th of September commissioned a Brigadier-General.[14]

 

 

174

 

Colonel Kane in his report states that of the sixty-eight men that he rallied, he lost five wounded-one mortally[15]-in the charge. The Confederate loss was 25 killed, wounded and missing, which was exceedingly slight for the damage com­mitted, as General Stuart reported that he took over 300 pris­oners, and also secured General Pope's uniform, horses, equip­ments, money-chests and papers giving the strength of the vari­ous regiments under his command and disclosing his (General Pope's) own views in regard to his ability to defend the line of the Rappahannock. Moreover, such a successful raid in the rear of an army must inevitably have a bad effect on its morale.

After the Catlett's Station affair the Bucktail battalion moved up to the Bull Run battleground[16] and took part in that action. Unassigned, Colonel Kane was not the man to remain inactive. As the Union troops came pouring in disorder over the bridge across Cub Run, he, with his small force, attempted to check the panic and change what almost approximated a rout into an orderly retreat. Finding his force inadequate, he then moved forward and picked up some pieces of artillery

 

175

 

under command of a Lieutenant, with which he repaired to the Bull Run Bridge, where he found Captain Thompson with one rifled gun, Captain Mathews with one three-inch rifled gun, and Lieutenant Twitchell with one brass Napoleon.[17] The Con­federates made no attempt to capture the bridge, and the pres­ence of his force, small though it was, calm and undisturbed, standing guard amidst the confusion, had a salutary effect on the retreating troops. Night closed in rapidly, but the battal­ion still stood guard. When, after midnight the last troops passed over in safety, then and not till then, the Bucktails retired, destroying the bridge behind them, in accordance with their orders.[18]

The battalion was under fire at the battle of Chantilly[19]; on September 1st, suffering no loss, and not being actively engaged. From there they moved to Alexandria, where, amidst much jubilation, they were reunited with the other six com­panies, who after taking a spectacular part in the Peninsular campaign, had been ordered north to assist the Army of Vir­ginia, under General Pope, and who, though their numbers had been depleted while taking part in the struggle before Rich­mond, had skirmished for Reynolds' division in such a manner

 

 

176

 

as to evoke his commendation; losing in the campaign (August i6-September 2) 27 killed, wounded and missing.[20]

The consciousness that the army had been driven back to­wards Washington, was not sufficient to prevent the men show­ing how happy they were in the knowledge that they were to be together in the future. Colonel Kane on the 7th of Septem­ber received his commission as Brigadier-General, for bravery at Catlett's Station and the Second Battle of Bull Run. Though with his acceptance of this commission he severed his con­nection with the Bucktails, his name remains indissolubly asso­ciated with them.

The regiment, which had been conceived in his brain, saw him depart from it to a larger sphere of influence confident that his future record would justify his promotion. Nor was this belief to be disappointed. His brevet as Major-General, subsequent to his retirement from the army November 7, 1863, was for "gallant and meritorious services at Gettysburg."[21]

'