Rufus H. Peck

“ I hadn’t seen much of the infantry until that day and when they began double quicking and crossing Bull’s Run at Mitchel’s Ford in order to meet the enemy, I imagined we had men enough to whip the North right there.
At 9 o’clock on the 18th, the two armies met and for two hours a raging battle followed and when the Southerners made a charge all along the line, they drove the enemy back with considerable slaughter, into the timber back of the lowlands, where the battle was fought, and they remained there until Sunday, with “Long Tom” occasionally saluting us. ”

“ The infantry and artillery moved in front and the extreme rear, was brought up by the cavalry, as usual.
The business of the cavalry was to fortify behind us and protect our men in front. We took wheat shocks and piled them up high and threw dirt on them and when the advance guards of the enemy would see our fortifications, they would slack in their movements. They would bring up their artillery and open fire on us often and we would retreat to other fortifications built by cavalry ahead of us and so on. Sometimes we would have to stop in the open field and fight the enemy. ”

“ The regulars took us on to our outpost and we bade them farewell, never to meet again. Major Mason knew some of the men personally, so we enjoyed their kindness very much. Major Mason took us back to Lee’s headquarters and Gen. Lee released us and sent us on back to our command.
In going back to our command, we passed by the remnant of Pickett’s gallant division. It didn’t look to be more than a regiment. The first man I recognized was my brother-in-law, Lieut. John Dill, who is still living. I asked him how many they had lost and his reply was: “We have lost all.” ”

“ The dining room was in the basement and we all went out at an east door while the Yankees were coming in on the west side of the house on the upper floor. We ran and got our horses as rapidly as possible and rode about a mile, and then Mr. Poindexter and I went to a cross road to see if we could hear anything of them coming and to our surprise there was a whole division of cavalry coming. We had left our two horses with the other 28 men and we just stayed in the heavy pine timber, where we knew the Yankees couldn’t see us, until Stoneman’s whole division passed. ”

“ When I got to the end of the ravine and out of the range of the line of Yankees, I found the man that had been left to tell us where to go with the ammunition. I told him I’d lost the man and sack of ammunition, by his not staying at his post and had run one of the narrowest risks of my life. I guess fully a thousand shots was fired at me, but it is hard to shoot a man galloping down hill.
When I got to the command, they had commenced fortifying at a place that one of R. E. Lee’s engineers had located. ”

“ In less than an hour I felt so much better that I helped the boys eat their pork and corn bread.
We moved through the snow and cold again that day, to a nice hickory grove, near the Potomac again, so we’d have no scarcity of water, the small streams all being frozen. Some of the boys began cutting down trees for our fires and others to foraging for food. I remembered of seeing a big iron kettle about a mile behind us, that I thought would be so good to scald hogs and cook a whole one in. So Chas. Cahoon, John Sears and myself, went back to get the kettle, but found it filled with ice. ”

“ After a few days we crossed the Blue Ridge and went back into Culpepper Co., near the same place from which we had made our start to Gettysburg. We rested and recuperated at this place a few days and the first disturbance was one day when half of our division of cavalry was out letting the horses graze, when the pickets came in and said that Kilpatrick was crossing the Rappahannock. The bugle sounded, a signal to saddle and make ready for movement. Our horses all being out and half of the men, naturally we had a considerable stampede before the men could get back and we could all make ready. ”

“ When we got out we saw a regiment of Yankee cavalry coming to the horses and surrounding them, and some of the Yankees were opening the fence and taking out the horses and men in the direction of where Custer’s army was stationed. They came right on to the house and captured all of us. They got out about 500 horses and one man to every four horses, of course.
Gen. Rosser, whose men hadn’t been dismounted, heard the firing and rushed down and recaptured about two thirds of us and our horses and captured some of the Yankees also. I was free then to start on my journey to the horse pasture. ”

“ Wade Hampton, following on, got a message from Gen. Stewart that Stoneman was in front of us and Kilpatrick behind us, and for him to camp in the woods just behind Kilpatrick and at daybreak to open fire on Kilpatrick’s men and he, Stewart, would have us fire on Kilpatrick’s and Stoneman’s men also. This we carried out and completely routed both commands. They didn’t know the other’s position and we surprised them so, that all they could do was to try to get away. We killed and captured a good many, but they didn’t resist us. It was just a running fight. ”

“ Every man, though, that got behind a wheat shock, was killed. Capt. Graves and I fell down behind a large lime stone rock and a shell struck in the ground about 20 feet from us and ploughed right along to our rock and exploded. It threw dirt all over us, but didn’t hurt us at all.
Just at that time, I looked to the rear and saw J. E. Stewart, Wade Hampton and Fitz Hugh Lee coming right up the ravine and would soon have been in full view of the men at the rock fence and grave yard. ”

“ The enemy was so near the fence that they lost heavily before they could retreat and re-cross the fence used as their fortification.
The Confederates followed them on into the town, and just as we entered the village a lady began ringing a church bell, giving us new zeal, and the cavalry was ordered to charge after they had gotten through the town. This they did with heavy loss to the enemy and considerable loss to us. We could have captured a great many more men, but they lined up a lot of wagons and set fire to them, completely blockading the road. ”

“ The men had to march very nearly two miles in the retreat, in full view of the enemy’s artillery, before they reached the timber, which served as a protection. If Heath had brought his men up as Pickett expected, it would only have caused a heavier slaughter, because I saw the tents of a number of lines of battle the next day, that the regulars told us were right there to support the breastworks, that Pickett couldn’t see when he was making the charge. He never could have held the position, against such heavy forces. ”

“ When day broke when we could have maybe found a little provisions, the enemy was pressing on so that we had to continue marching. Gen. R. E. Lee had ordered a lot of provisions to be sent to Amelia Springs and as we did not get there when the train arrived, it was sent back, so our nearest source of supplies was at Lynchburg, which was a long way off.
The next day the wagon train was attacked by a lot of colored cavalry, but we succeeded in driving them off. I went into a stable to get some feed for my horse and in getting the hay, found a black man shot in the mouth, but not dead. ”

“ Our troops made a stand near Winchester, but were unable to hold it. We had no fortifications and word came to Fitz Lee’s cavalry that the 60th Va. Regiment had been captured and we were ordered out to try to recapture it. We hurried to the scene and succeeded in getting about half of them, but a Yankee cavalry Gen. marched the others off prisoners at the same time. We were placed at different positions to let the enemy know that our cavalry was present, and the infantry was left at the temporary breastworks, fighting hard. The enemy often shelled us so that we’d have to get out of sight. ”

“ It was steal or starve those days, though, and I told the boys that Pharoah’s dream had taught me that in time of plenty to always prepare for famine. I baked the meal into batter-cakes that night, and as no one else had gotten any provision, I had to bake it all for supper and divide among the hungry boys. I didn’t even get a good ration for myself, much less my mess-mates. We all always made it a rule to try to get enough for our mess-mates, as well as ourselves, when foraging. ”

“ I found our command near Mount Jackson, when I returned to the army. Shortly after I got there the Yankee cavalry made a raid up to Mt. Jackson. Our artillery took a position on Rude’s Hill and fired across Meam’s Bottoms at the enemy’s artillery, stationed on the heights at Mt. Jackson. Levi Wheat and a young man named Scott, of Co. A., Bedford Co., were killed here. Our cavalry made a charge and the enemy fled. A few of our men were killed, but more of the Yankees. Our artillery did the most of the damage. ”

“ On the 3rd of May, when the regiment was near Linden Station, 13 of us were left at Flint Hill, several miles distant, to have our horses shod, and as we were going on to overtake the command, we met a man galloping up the road. Serg. Lemon, who had charge of us, met the man first and let him pass, but when he reached me I ordered him to halt, as I saw he was a northerner. But he fell flat on his horse and swiftly made a turn in the road, so we didn’t pursue him. He dropped a nice gum coat in his wild rush, which we didn’t fail to get. ”

“ We went out to the fair grounds, just where we had drilled and had been mustered in, four years before. There is a nice park at this place now, and the U. S. government presented Col. Munford and the 2nd Va. cavalry with two pieces of artillery and placed them in this park with two pyramids of cannon balls, to mark the place where his men were mustered into service and disbanded.
As we passed through Lynchburg, some one told us that one of our men who had been wounded wanted to go home with us and was able to ride on horse back. It proved to be Jas. Godwin. ”

“ Norman Hayth was our cook at this time and when the other members of mess got back from picket duty one day he had a lot of beef cooked, that was highly flavored with garlic. Not one of the boys in the mess could eat it, but me, so I traded each of them some other part of my supper for their beef and ate all eight of the rations. They all said I’d die before morning. I told them I’d come nearer dying from not getting enough beef than too much. ”