The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson Part 16

The enrollment of the Rockbridge Artillery began April 19, 1861, and by the 21st the company numbered about seventy men, and was organized by the election of the following officers: Captain, John McCausland; and J.

Bowyer Brockenbrough, Wm. McLaughlin and Wm. T. Poague, lieutenants.

Captain McCausland soon thereafter was made lieutenant-colonel and ordered to the western part of the State. On the 29th of April the company unanimously elected Rev. Wm. N. Pendleton captain.

The company left Lexington for the seat of war May 10, 1861, with two small, bra.s.s six-pounders obtained at the Virginia Military Inst.i.tute.

It was regularly mustered into the Confederate service at Staunton, Virginia, on May 11, and at once ordered to Harper's Ferry, where it received two more guns. After the First Brigade was organized, under Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, the Rockbridge Artillery was a.s.signed to it, and continued a component part of the Stonewall Brigade, in touch with and occupying the same positions with it in all its battles and skirmishes up to Sharpsburg.

Upon the reorganization of the artillery, in October, 1862, the battery was a.s.signed to the First Regiment Virginia Artillery, under the command of Col. J. Thompson Brown, and continued with it till the close of the war. The first fight it was engaged in, and which made a part of its history, occurred July 2 near Hainesville, when General Patterson crossed the Potomac and advanced on Winchester. But one piece was engaged, and this fired the first shot from a Confederate gun in the Shenandoah Valley.

The battery had five captains from first to last: First, John McCausland, afterward brigadier-general of cavalry; second, Rev. Wm. N.

Pendleton, D. D., in command from May 1, 1861, until after the first battle of Mana.s.sas, afterward brigadier-general and chief of artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia; third, Wm. McLaughlin, afterward lieutenant-colonel of artillery, in command until April 2, 1862; fourth, Wm. T. Poague, afterward lieutenant-colonel of artillery, Army of Northern Virginia, in command until after the first battle of Fredericksburg; fifth, Archibald Graham, from that time until the surrender at Appomattox, at which place ninety-three men and officers laid down their arms.

This company had the reputation of being one of the finest companies in the service. So high was the intellectual quality of the men that forty-five were commissioned as officers and a.s.signed to other companies in the service. Many of them reached high distinction. At no time during the war did this company want for recruits, but it was so popular that it always had a list from which it could fill its ranks, which were sometimes depleted by its heavy casualties and numerous promotions from its roster.

The following officers and men were mustered into the service of the Confederate States at Staunton, Virginia, on the 11th day of May, 1861:

*Captain W. N. Pendleton; brigadier-general, chief of artillery A. N. V.; paroled at Appomattox.

*First Lieutenant J. B. Brockenbrough; wounded at first Mana.s.sas; captain Baltimore Artillery, major of artillery A. N. V.

*Second Lieutenant Wm. McLaughlin; captain; lieutenant-colonel of artillery.

*Second Lieutenant W. T. Poague; captain; lieutenant-colonel of artillery A. N. V.; wounded at second Cold Harbor; paroled at Appomattox.

*First Sergeant J. McD. Alexander; lieutenant Rockbridge Artillery; entered cavalry.

*Second Sergeant J. Cole Davis; lieutenant Rockbridge Artillery; wounded at Port Republic; paroled at Appomattox.

*Third Sergeant Archibald Graham; lieutenant and captain Rockbridge Artillery; paroled at Appomattox.

PRIVATES

*Agner, Jos. S.; killed at Fredericksburg December 13, 1862.

*Ayres, Jas.; discharged for physical disability August, 1861.

*Ayres, N. B.; deserted, went into Federal army.

*Anderson, S. D.; killed at Kernstown March 23, 1862.

*Beard, John; killed at Fredericksburg December 13, 1862.

*Beard, W. B.; died from effects of measles summer of 1861.

*Bain, Samuel.

*Brockenbrough, W. N.; corporal; transferred to Baltimore Light Artillery.

*Brown, W. M.; corporal, sergeant, lieutenant; wounded and captured at Gettysburg.

*b.u.mpus, W. N.; corporal; paroled at Appomattox.

*Conner, Blain; discharged for physical disability in spring, 1861.

*Conner, George; arm broken by stallion; absent after winter of 1861-62.

*Conner, Jas. A.; wounded at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg; took the oath in prison and joined Federal army and fought Indians in Northwest.

*Conner, John C.; paroled at Appomattox.

*Coffee, A. W.

*Craig, John B.; paroled at Appomattox.

*Crosen, W.

*Curran, Daniel; died from disease in summer of 1862.

*Davis, Mark; deserted.

*Davis, R. G.; died from disease in 1861.

*Doran, John; wounded at Malvern Hill in 1862; disabled.

*Dudley, R. M.

*Ford, Henry; discharged after one year.

*Ford, Jas. A.; wounded.

*Gibbs, J. T., Jr.; wounded at Port Republic June 22, 1862; died from disease.

*Gold, J. M.; captured at Gettysburg and died in prison.

*Gordon, W. C.; wounded at Fredericksburg; disabled.

*Harris, Alex.; captured at Gettysburg and died in prison.

*Harris, Bowlin; captured at Gettysburg; kept in prison.

*Hetterick, Ferdinand; discharged after one year.

*Henry, N. S.; corporal, sergeant; paroled at Appomattox.

*Hughes, Wm.; discharged.

*Hostetter, G. W.; transferred to infantry.

*Johnson, Lawson; died in summer of 1861.