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Image by Jim Surkamp<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n
Civil War Scholars: The Powerful Experience of the War-Torn, Northern Shenandoah Valley<\/p>\n
civilwarscholars.com\/2016\/02\/newton-d-baker-sees-the-elep\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n Newton D. Baker \u201cSees The Elephant\u201d \u2013 July, 1861 (Pt. 2 of 4) by Jim Surkamp NEWTON D. BAKER \u201cSEES THE ELEPHANT\u201d \u2013 JULY 21, 1862 (Pt. 2 of 4) by Jim Surkamp<\/p>\n Newton_D_Baker_Elephant_Homer_Defiance_Shot_Petersburg<\/p>\n SUMMARY: Life in a wartime saddle matured him for four years: battles, imprisonment, routine heroics, his wounding, having a fine bay mare shot from under him, (and later, a suspiciously extravagant compensation package for this lost horse offered by a cousin with clout), and, finally, coming home. Bearing witness to so many in need of medical care begat Newton\u2019s post-war calling as a doctor. He finished training, was mentored by Shepherdstown neighbor and physician, John Quigley, who transferred his practice to the young up-and-comer.<\/p>\n But burgeoning ambition called away the next son of a Baker \u2013 Newton D. Baker Jr. Reading voraciously and eschewing the stethoscope and his father\u2019s beckoning practice, off Junior went to Cleveland \u2013 joking that he was being a carpetbagger invading the Northern states \u2013 ascending a skyward ladder to heights of acclaim unprecedented for the Bakers. He was the progressive mayor of Cleveland; then, after more promotions, President Woodrow Wilson approached his fellow Virginian and appointed Newton D. Baker, Jr. to be our Secretary of War, managing the best he could the American role in the calamitous First World War. Today we have the Newton D. Baker Veterans\u2019 Hospital in Martinsburg to his fond memory.<\/p>\n Newton \u201cSees The Elephant\u201d \u2013 July 21st, Manassas\/Bull Run:<\/p>\n Cousins of Co_F_FINAL<\/p>\n William Morgan, Newton Baker and his eleven cousins in the First Virginia Cavalry\u2019s Companies F B would soon \u201csee the elephant\u201d on July 21st, 1861 at Manassas\/Bull Run, Virginia \u2013 but not before Col. J.E.B. Stuart, their new commander, gives them a lecture on the cavalry craft.<\/p>\n display_image.php<\/p>\n Newton Baker left home and his dismayed parents Friday, June 15th to Charlestown where he joined Captain Morgan\u2019s company and his cousins at their campsite on the Bullskin Run south of town. From there, they rode to either Winchester where the First Virginia Cavalry formally consolidated, or to Bunker Hill, an early encampment for that regiment.<\/p>\n David Hunter Strother observed the encampment where Baker\u2019s Company F was a part, after it marched through Charlestown:<\/p>\n David_Hunter_Strother_D<\/p>\n By sunset the army was gone and the town quiet. They encamped for the night on Bull Skin run, about four miles on the road toward Winchester. During the day I had a full opportunity of criticizing the appearance and material of the army. The infantry despite its rags and dust, had a dangerous look. . . The regiments from the Gulf States were apparently of picked men. The tenth Georgia (I think it was) numbering eleven hundred, was the finest looking regiment I ever saw. Looking along the line, you were struck with the uniformity of size and height, all healthy, athletic men, between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. . . . \u2013 Strother.<\/p>\n Waud_loc_gov_overall_2<\/p>\n The cavalry, under Col. J.E.B. Stuart, was admirably mounted, and better equipped according to its needs than any other . . . It was composed almost entirely of volunteers from the rural gentry and independent landholders of the country, who furnished their own horses, arms, and accouterments. They generally appeared on picked animals, and armed with a greater variety of ordinance stores . . .<\/p>\n havelockexhibit<\/p>\n not omitting the Havelock oblige. These young fellows were bold and dashing riders, good shots, full of spirit and emulation, and promised with experience and iron discipline to constitute a formidable body of cavalry. The habits and opinions of the times, however, had developed in them that exaggerated individuality which would render the strict enforcement of discipline almost impossible, and they had begun to exhibit decided Cossack tendency. \u2013 Strother, July, 1866, p. 142. (According to service records, about sixty-eight men from Jefferson County served in the 1st Virginia Cavalry, enlisting at different times.-ED)<\/p>\n Their first task was to go north and confront, with an infantry of about 4,000 men under Confederate Col. Thomas J. Jackson about 8,000 men under Federal commander Robert Patterson crossing into Virginia at Williamsport. (These were portions of larger forces: Patterson had 18,000; Johnston, Jackson\u2019s commander, had 12,000).<\/p>\n LATE JUNE-VERY EARLY JULY, 1861 \u2013 1st Va. Cavalry Camp \u2013 Bunker Hill, Va.:<\/p>\n 462px-Jeb_stuart2-231\u00d7300<\/p>\n The camp was in a little valley \u2013 between the rows of company tents picket ropes were stretched, to which were haltered the horses, while over a detached group of tents some forty or fifty horsemen were drawn up for inspection, and the young officer in a U.S. undress uniform was Lt. Col. Stuart. He was giving the men their final instructions for the night, for this was the guard going out for the relief on picket posts. . . . He was a little above medium height, broad shouldered and powerfully built, ruddy complexion and blue-gray eyes which could flash fire on the battlefield . . . \u2013 Blackford, p. 16.<\/p>\n Newton Baker and his cousins no doubt listened intently to Stuart\u2019s horseback tutorial to his greenhorns: DHS_Conscientious_Trooper<\/p>\n I want you to observe that a good man on a good horse can never be caught. Another thing: cavalry can trot away from anything, and a gallop is a gait unbecoming a soldier, unless he is going toward the enemy. Remember that. We gallop at the enemy, and trot away, always. Steady now! don\u2019t break ranks!\u201d (NOTE: Near Falling Waters at that time, according to David Hunter Strother, Stuart had to employ a gallop, not a trot, to escape capture, momentarily dropping his usual vigilance when he happened upon a classmate and chum from West Point, and \u2013 a Federal commander. \u2013 Strother July, 1866, p. 153. (See \u201cReferences.\u201d)<\/p>\n The tutorial continued: Wrote another greenhorn:<\/p>\n George_Cary_Eggleston_D<\/p>\n We spent the next day or two literally within the Federal lines. We were shelled, skirmished with, charged, and surrounded scores of times, until we learned to hold in regard our colonel\u2019s masterly skill in getting into and out of perilous positions. He seemed to blunder into them in sheer recklessness, but in getting out he showed us the quality of his genius; and before we reached Manassas, we had learned, among other things, to entertain a feeling closely akin to worship for our brilliant and daring leader. We had begun to understand, too, how much force he meant to give his favorite dictum that the cavalry is the eye of the army. \u2013 Eggleston, pp. 116-117.<\/p>\n Tuesday \u2013 July 2nd, 1861 \u2013 Hoke\u2019s Run (Falling Waters, Va.):<\/p>\n Battle_Hokes_Run_Montage<\/p>\n In what has been called the Battle of Hoke\u2019s Run or Falling Waters, Jackson and Stuart\u2019s men stopped Patterson\u2019s southward progression into Virginia toward Martinsburg, thus crippling the Federal plan to have Patterson keep Jackson and Stuart\u2019s men under Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston from ever travelling east and combining at Manassas with a Confederate army of 20,000 that was nervously watching the approach of a 35,000-man Federal Army.<\/p>\n boy_broom_12th_NY_Militiagroup_12th_NY_Militia_Charlestown_July_1861<\/p>\n Patterson\u2019s total force of 18,000 men would stay put in Charlestown \u2013 about fifteen miles to the east \u2013 with the mistaken notion that he was successfully confining Stuart, Jackson and Johnston to his area. Inaction was popular because his men had three-month tours of duty scheduled to expire in just six days on the 24th.<\/p>\n Joe Johnston and his army at Winchester needed to leave the Valley immediately, and scurry to Manassas Junction to reinforce the Confederates there and to stop this Union advance. And so Jackson\u2019s men hurriedly began to march east from Winchester \u2013 to the Shenandoah River, crossing at Berry\u2019s Ferry in Clarke County. . . \u2013 Dennis Frye, Chief Historian, Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. More. . .<\/p>\n NOON, THURSDAY, JULY 18TH, 1861 \u2013 BUNKER HILL, VA. ENCAMPMENT OF JACKSON AND STUART:<\/p>\n Jackson wrote his wife:<\/p>\n Thomas_J_Jackson_D<\/p>\n On the 18th of July I struck my tents, rolled them up, and left them on the ground, and about noon marched through Winchester, as I had been encamped on the other side of the town (at Bunker Hill). \u2013 Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir, p. 175.<\/p>\n His men had to hard-march over the Blue Ridge to Piedmont, Va. where they would catch a ride on the Manassas Gap Railroad the rest of the way, making several trips.<\/p>\n Next, Gen. Johnston informed Stuart that his 334 cavalry troopers \u2013 including Morgan, Baker, his cousins and about sixty other men in the regiment from Jefferson County \u2013 had to linger to screen this departure farther away from Federal Gen. Patterson at Charlestown. They also had to ride and walk the whole way \u2013 and train-less. \u2013 Driver, pp. 11-12.; Official Record, Series 1, Vol. 2, Chapter IX, p. 187.<\/p>\n Winfield_Scott_D<\/p>\n Almost at that same time, the overall Federal commander, General Winfield Scott, telegraphs Gen. Patterson at Charlestown:<\/p>\n WS: McDowell\u2019s first day\u2019s work has driven the enemy behind Fairfax Court House. Do not let the enemy (Johnston) amuse and delay you with a small force in front while he reinforces the Junction with his main body.<\/p>\n With Johnston\u2019s main force already a good hour into their departure on July 18th, Patterson sent the second of two reassuring, but wrong replies to his superiors. The first reply was:<\/p>\n Robert_Patterson_D<\/p>\n \u201cThe enemy has stolen no march upon me. I have caused him to be reinforced.\u201d<\/p>\n The second reply at 1 PM on the 18th stated: I have succeeded, in accordance with the wishes of the General-in-Chief, in keeping General Johnston\u2019s force at Winchester. \u2013 Battles and Leaders Vol. 1, footnote, pp. 182-183.<\/p>\n FRIDAY EARLY MORNING, JULY 19 \u2013 NEWTON\u2019s HARD RIDE: EXHAUSTING AND HUNGRY:<\/p>\n Horse_NDB<\/p>\n Montagge_to_Manassas_Berrys_Ford<\/p>\n Baker, his many cousins, Captain Morgan, Stuart and the others began their own stealthy withdrawl from the northern Valley, still screening the movements of the Confederate force \u2013 first to Winchester then east to Berry\u2019s Ferry, stopping for water at Millwood then a hard climb up to the top of the Blue Ridge, through Ashby\u2019s Gap to the eastern side and onwards \u2013 those thirty-five hours \u2013 spread over Friday, overnight and Saturday \u2013 in the saddle with little food or rest for neither man nor horse. The bond between a horse and its rider is a mystical thing.<\/p>\n Wiliam_Blackford_D<\/p>\n tired_horse_FINAL<\/p>\n Another new recruit on that march wrote after the war, speaking for all: \u201cto a cavalry officer in active service, his horse is his second self, his companion and friend, upon whom his very life may depend.\u201d Confederate officers generally provided their own horse while the Federal Army\u2019s cavalrymen were provided with horses. \u2013 Blackford, pp. 21-22. More. . .<\/p>\n William Blackford on the trek with Baker shared every dust-choked step of his famished progress with his horse \u2013 a dark mahogany bay, almost brown, with black mane, tail and legs and a small white star on his forehead \u2013 great eyes standing out like those of a deer, small delicate muzzle \u2013 delicate ears in which you could see the veins, and which were in constant motion with every thought which passed through his mind \u2013 small and beautiful feet \u2013 and legs as hard as bone itself. . . . When I would be eating on the march his eyes would watch me, and if I did not soon lean forward and hand him a taste, he would stop deliberately and reach his mouth up for his share; nothing seemed to come amiss; bread, crackers, meat, sugar, and fruit all seemed to be relished. I could tie the halter strap to my leg and lie down to sleep while he would graze around, step over me or lie down by me without ever treading on me. Sometimes when he would lie down he would lay his head in an affectionate if uncomfortable manner upon me, and though it was disagreeable I could never have the heart to push it off. \u2013 Ibid.<\/p>\n FRIDAY, JULY 19TH-SATURDAY, 20TH \u2013 BERRY\u2019S FERRY, VA. OVER THE BLUE RIDGE EN ROUTE TO MANASSAS:<\/p>\n played_out_tired_soldiers<\/p>\n The road was full of infantry and artillery and we had to pass through the fields. All night long they marched forward, and we were compelled to encounter the fatigue of constantly crossing ditches and fences and the uneven ground on the side. Hundreds of men from the infantry, who had slipped out of the road to sleep, were scattered about everywhere and we had constantly to be on the lookout to keep from riding over them in the dark. \u2013 Ibid., p. 19.<\/p>\n Remembered one cavalryman on the trek: As all this was going on, the telegraphed exchange between Federal Gen. Patterson and his understandably peeved superior, General Scott was:<\/p>\n Patterson: Shall I attack? Newton Baker\u2019s company commander, William Morgan, writes his wife, Anna Jacquelin:<\/p>\n My Dearest Wife: July_1861_moon<\/p>\n SUNDAY, JULY 21st, 1861 \u2013 BLACKBURN\u2019S MITCHELL\u2019S FORD VICINITY:<\/p>\n Manassas_July_1861_Baylor_Map_detail<\/p>\n The first major battle of the Civil War began early, while Col. Jackson\u2019s units and Stuart\u2019s cavalry waited for orders calling them into battle. Men in the nearby Clarke County Cavalry (soon to be merged into the Virginia 6th Cavalry) scorned and derided an order to wear identifying strips of cloth to set their motley collection of uniforms apart from those of the enemy in battle. Wrote one: . . . the regiments having formed into line, great bolts of white cotton were brought out, which the officers tore into strips, and we tied a piece around our hats and another to our left arms. Opie, p. 26. This measure would turn out to be prescient as mistaking the foe-for-friend was a decisive fact several times in the day\u2019s battle, even for Stuart, when he mistook Federals for his men; also when a Federal battery commander in the vicinity of Stuart\u2019s charging cavalry fatefully took the fast approaching 33rd Virginia Infantry under Col. William Lee of Shepherdstown, for arriving support Federals. His moment\u2019s hesitation in reacting to the charge cost many lives and the battery was captured.<\/p>\n THE FACE OFF, THE FLANKING AND THE FEDERAL FIASCO:<\/p>\n Morgan wrote Anna Jacquelin: Recalled one of Stuart\u2019s men: He continued: First_Bull_Run_July21_1400 The state of the battle at two o\u2019clock was this: 2 PM \u2013 STUART\u2019S ROLE UNFOLDS:<\/p>\n The day\u2019s fighting had many deadlocked moments and then turning points. The sequence beginning at 2 PM in which the 33rd Virginia charged and briefly took Ricketts\u2019 powerful battery, timed with Stuart\u2019s 1st Cavalry sabotaging the support regiment coming to aid Rickett\u2019s \u2013 conspired to begin a spreading confusion, then panicked flight of larger and larger numbers of green Federal troops \u2013 a change in morale that escalated and gave the Confederates the field strewn with valuable arms and goods.<\/p>\n Stuart_ManassasMap_2.30PM_July_21_1861<\/p>\n . . . About two o\u2019clock Stuart was striding backwards and forwards in great impatience. Presently we saw a staff officer dash out of the woods and come spurring towards us. The men all sprang to their feet and began tightening their saddle girths, for we had a presentiment he was coming for us. The supreme moment had come at last. Col. Stuart stepped forward to meet the officer. The officer reined up his horse and with a military salute, said: \u201cCol. Stuart, General Beauregard directs that you bring your command into action at once and that you attack that you attack where the firing is hottest.\u201d<\/p>\n The bugle sounded \u201cboots and saddles\u201d and in a moment more we were moving off at a trot in a column of fours. . . Upon reaching the edge of the wood a view of the battle burst upon us, and Stuart halted to take a look. Smoke in dense white clouds lit up by lurid flashes from the cannon wrapped the position of the artillery .<\/p>\n THE FLANK:<\/p>\n . . . about seventy yards distant, and in the head of the column as the grand panorama opened before us, and there right in front, and in strong relief against the smoke beyond, stretched a brilliant line of scarlet \u2013 a regiment of New York Zouaves in columns of fours, marching out of the Sudley road to attack the flank of our line of battle.<\/p>\n Dressed in scarlet caps and trousers, blue jackets with a fringe with quantities of gilt buttons, and white gaiters, with a fringe of bayonets swaying above them as they moved, their appearance was indeed magnificent. . . there were about five hundred men in sight \u2013 they were all looking toward the battlefield and did not see us.<\/p>\n . . . Just then, however, all doubt was removed by the appearance of their colors, emerging from the road \u2013 the Stars and Stripes. I shall never forget the feeling with which I regarded this emblem of our country so long beloved and now seen for the first time in the hands of a mortal foe.<\/p>\n THE FACE OFF: Five hundred men of the 11th New York Zouaves leaving Sudley Road and cutting into a wooded area towards the fight at Ricketts\u2019 battery with the 33rd Virginia Infantry, stopped \u2013 and turned upon seeing Stuart\u2019s cavalrymen coming and fired their leveled guns. Capt. Welby Carter\u2019s horse sprang forward and rolled over dead. . . . and seventeen other charging horses.<\/p>\n Wm_A_Morgan_D Wiliam_Blackford_D The smoke which wrapped them from our sight also hid us from them, and thinking perhaps that we had been swept away by the volley, they, instead of coming to a \u201ccharge bayonet,\u201d lowered their pieces to load, and in this position we struck them. The tremendous impetus of horses at full speed broke through and scattered their line like chaff before the wind. \u2013 Ibid., pp. 29-30.<\/p>\n Owing to the dust and smoke which made vision impenetrable, the enemy did not see us until we were among them. With our pistols and sabers we charged them through and returned, cutting and riding them down in every direction. The charge was made just in the nick of time for believe me we were whipped beyond doubt, but our cavalry charge decided the fate of the day. \u2013 Morgan.<\/p>\n THE FEDERAL FIASCO:<\/p>\n 800px-MNBPRickettsBatteryPainting7<\/p>\n We charged back taking their line in the rear at another place, but they had begun to break and scatter clear down to the Sudley road before we reached them; all order was gone and it became a general melee or rather a chase. \u2013 Blackford, p. 30.<\/p>\n The Fire Zouaves were completely paralyzed by this charge, and though their actual loss in killed and wounded was not very great, their demoralization was complete. The arrest of their dangerous move upon the exposed flank of our mainline of battle was a result of the utmost importance. Our loss was nine men and eighteen horses killed. \u2013 Ibid., p. 31. . . . two or three of us were slightly wounded, myself among the number \u2013 three or four horses were shot and bayoneted by the Zouaves \u2013 my wound was caused by the jam of horses and men and has ceased to give me any trouble. It was in the knee of my right leg; in an hour I had forgotten it. In my first letter I did not mention it, for the reason it was not worth notice, so you need not be at all uneasy \u2014 for I assume I am in perfect health now. My horse, George, behaved nobly, never flinching at any time. \u2013 Morgan<\/p>\n MONDAY, JULY 22nd \u2013 A SOBERING SCENE . . . WITH \u201cTREATS\u201d:<\/p>\n The following morning \u2013 Monday, July 22nd, Baker and his cousins saw the evidence of the previous day, wandering mute among the carnage while also finding treats to keep, much to the fleeting consternation of their commander.<\/p>\n Wm_A_Morgan_D Our boys (in Company F) are literally loaded down and I had to scold them for having so much about them \u2013 they all turned out in new clothes of the finest kind \u2013 most of them had more clothes now than they ever had. When I started from Winchester, I had but one shirt, and that on my back, and after wearing it a week and a half, it was of course ready for a change \u2013 and seeing quantities of nice new shirts lying around I just appropriated one to myself. We have quantities of overcoats, in addition to all our other traps.<\/p>\n Wrote another of the \u201chaul of booty\u201d that even included a pile of bacon higher than a house: Thomas P. Rossiter (American painter, 1818-1871) The Rural Post Office 1857 While Newton may well have been keen on a new shirt he drew from the plunder on the battlefield, a deeper impression was left in him \u2013 as he and the others passed through a hospital area to their first battle charge \u2013 from the scene of the wounded under the fierce care of doctors \u2013 then followed this aftermath Monday, when strewn everywhere were those who died in the worst ways \u2013 all such impressions stayed with Newton, so that he would spend the rest of his postwar life in Martinsburg as a family doctor.<\/p>\n Wrote one: Newton_D_Baker_D 1. NEWTON BAKER\u2019S \u201cMOST\u201d DIVIDED CLAN (Pt. 1 of 4) by Jim Surkamp 2. NEWTON BAKER \u201cSEES THE ELEPHANT\u201d MANASSAS, VA (Pt. 2 of 4)(above) by Jim Surkamp For References and Image Credits: More Pretoria Images<\/a><\/p>\n This Blue Bulls<\/em> image was automatically curated and published with WP Robot<\/a> plugin \u2013 CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more about WP Robot for WordPress<\/a> \u2013 a massive time and money saver.<\/small><\/p>\n
\nBy Jim Surkamp on February 2, 2016 in Jefferson County<\/p>\n
\nEach generation rebels against the former. The Bakers of Maryland, Shepherdstown and finally Martinsburg \u2013 muddled thru traditional inter-generational discords like a schooner pitching through high seas. Elias Baker one-upped a father who deserted his children by being a good father. His son, antsy nineteen-year-old Newton D. Baker rebelled against his doting father, a soon-to-be appointed federal postmaster in Shepherdstown, by riding off and enlisting in Company F of the First Virginia Cavalry \u2013 Confederate \u2013 following the recent example of a figurative avalanche of nine of his blood cousins into that same company. Still more cousins would enlist.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAttention!\u201d he cried. \u201cNow I want to talk to you, men. You are fellows, and patriotic ones too, but you are ignorant of this kind of work, and I am teaching you.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as the words left his lips, a shell from a battery half a mile to the rear hissed over our heads. \u201cThere,\u201d he resumed, \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for that, and watching those fellows. I knew they\u2019d shoot too high, and I wanted you to learn how a shell sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI was famishing when we halted for rest, but just then a man passed by with a huge bullfrog he had just caught in a creek we had crossed and he told me I might have it if I liked as he would not eat one for all the world. It was but the work of a few moments to kindle a fire, dress the frog and broil him, not the hind legs, but the whole body; it was delicious and quite enough to serve as a pretty good meal. . . I had been in saddle all the day before and all the night, and without food during that time, except the bullfrog \u2013 Ibid, p. 20.
\nMore. . .<\/p>\n
\nGeneral Scott: I have certainly been expecting you to beat the enemy, or that you at least had occupied him by threats and demonstrations. You have been at least his equal and I suppose superior in numbers. \u2013 Battles and Leaders Vol. 1, footnote, pp. 182-183.<\/p>\n
\nWe left the neighborhood of Winchester very suddenly and marched day and night for the (Manassas) Junction \u2013 which we reached on Saturday. We camped that night on what was the battlefield the next day. . .<\/p>\n
\nJohn_N_Opie_D<\/p>\n
\nMore. . .<\/p>\n
\nSunday bright and early, by dawn the conflict began with the booming of artillery and the sharp reports of musketry, mingled with the hoarse commands given by the officers, the screams of the dying horses and the groans of the wounded which was kept up without intermission . . . \u2013 Morgan \u2013 More. . .<\/p>\n
\nAbout daylight I was awakened by Col. Stuart\u2019s springing up and exclaiming, \u201cHello! What is that?\u201d It was rapid musketry firing away off several miles on our left . . .The horses were fed and we took breakfast, and wishing to know something of the country, our Colonel then took us on a scout across the Bull Run. . . . It not being a part of Stuart\u2019s plan to make an attack, he re-crossed the Bull Run and here we remained until about two o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n
\nA skirt of woods hid the battlefield from our view, but occasionally a shell would burst high in the air, and sometimes the wind wafted the clouds upward above the trees, the roar of conflict becoming louder and louder. Stuart was uneasy for fear that he would not be called into action. \u2013 Blackford, p. 26.<\/p>\n
\nTheir task was to prevent the Federals from turning Col. Thomas J. Jackson\u2019s threatened left flank.<\/p>\n
\nThe slaughter had ebbed and flowed over rolling terrain. The arrival of Johnstons\u2019s men (Jackson and Stuart) to help the Confederate line and the wearing effects on new Federal troops of much marching prior to battle were gradually combining to begin turning the battle to the Confederates. Two key events involving the unauthorized charge by the 33rd Virginia Infantry and ordered charges by Stuart cavalrymen, including Company F, to protect Col. Jackson\u2019s threatened left flank \u2013 had the initial effect of breaking the line of the Federals and, as time passed, gave added pressure to what transformed a fixable break-down of the Federal offensive, into an unforeseen outcome for the day.<\/p>\n
\nThe instant the flag appeared, Stuart ordered the charge, and at them we went like an arrow from a bow.. . . . Half the distance was passed before they saw the avalanche coming upon them, but then they came to a \u201cfront face\u201d \u2013 a long line of bright muskets was leveled \u2013 a sheet of red flame gleamed, and we could see no more.- Ibid, pp. 28-29.<\/p>\n
\nOur cavalry, that is one or two companies suffered a good deal \u2013 two whole front ranks went down as they entered the enemies\u2019 lines, myself and company were in the very center of their ranks. The balls flying thick all around, apparently as thick as hail and yet strange to say there was no one killed . . . Morgan.<\/p>\n
\nIt seemed strange that the fire from five hundred muskets, at thirty yards, should not have been more effective, but they had to shoot in a hurry and they were no doubt a little nervous . . . \u2013 Blackford, p. 31.<\/p>\n
\nMore. . .<\/p>\n
\nWrote Morgan to wife Anne Jacquelin:
\nSeeing so much blood and carnage (I) soon became used to it, and my curiosity was only to know what sort of wound the poor wretch had received to kill him. There are dead men everywhere \u2013 all around \u2013 some crawled into the bushes and died, some went a mile or two and died, everywhere are the dead, \u2013 and the whole country smells so very offensively that no one can stay in it or near that region. Our loss in officers has been severe. You have no idea of the plunder that was taken \u2013 500 wagons would not hold it \u2013 arms \u2013 40 odd pieces of artillery \u2013 numbers of elegant horses \u2013 any quantity of provisions and clothing, fancy articles, etc.<\/p>\n
\nBy stepping or jumping from one thing to another of what had been thrown away in the stampede, I could have gone long distances without ever letting my foot touch the ground, and over a belt forty or fifty yards wide on each side of the road. \u2013 Blackford, p. 32.<\/p>\n
\nAs the news of the great battle began to filter out to the world at large, families in the eastern Panhandle waited for word of their sons. We don\u2019t know if Newton Baker wrote Father Elias and Mother Susan. But they waited for any news.<\/p>\n
\nIt was our fate, however, to pass through a sickening ordeal before reaching the field. Along a shady little valley through which our road lay, the surgeons had been plying their vocation all the morning upon the battlefield. Tables about breast high had been erected upon which screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and their assistants, stripped to the waist and all bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows, while others armed with long bloody knives and saws cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the mangled limbs on a pile near by as soon as removed. \u2013 Ibid, p. 27.<\/p>\n
\nBAKER, NEWTON DIEHL: b. Washington County, Md. 10\/3\/41. 5\u20196? fair complexion, brown hair, blue eyes. attended Wittenberg College one year; clerk Shepherdstown post office, Jefferson County; enlisted in the 1st Virginia Cavalry Charles Town 6\/15\/61 as Pvt. in Co. F. Present until detached to Gainesville 12\/10\/61. Captured Smithfield 5\/31\/63. Sent to Ft. McHenry. Exch. 6\/63. Promoted 2nd Corp. Present until detailed as ordinance Sgt. of regt 11\/15\/63. Horse killed 8\/19\/64. Wounded leg Fishers Hill 9\/22\/64. Paroled Winchester 4\/23\/65. Medical school 1868; surgeon for the BO railroad. d. Martinsburg 1909. \u2013 Driver, Robert J. (1991). \u201c1st Virginia Cavalry.\u201d Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print. More . . .<\/p>\n
civilwarscholars.com\/2016\/02\/newton-d-bakers-most-divided\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n
civilwarscholars.com\/2016\/02\/newton-d-baker-sees-the-elep\u2026<\/a>
\n3. NEWTON BAKER\u2019S LIFE IN THE FAMED FIRST VIRGINIA CAVALRY 1861-1865 (Pt. 3 of 4) by Jim Surkamp
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\n4. NEWTON BAKER\u201dS REMARKABLE SON (Pt. 4 of 4) by Jim Surkamp
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civilwarscholars.com\/2016\/02\/newton-d-baker-sees-the-elep\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n