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in t3, *■Ca» Lewis, near Cumberland, Md.,\ ! theJanuary 19th, 1862. ) . ^Messes. Editoes After a long silence, allow | ^ ]me a-small-space in the columns of your paper, to : ^state to yotfr numerous readers that Company A• of the 11 Oth Regiment still, holds a place among j ^! the troops of old Pennsylvania add the otbet loVal |I States.. .! Wej I shall merely sketch our trip from Harrisburg ^ (whence we started on last Thursday two weeks,) \ forJ j to thia town, which we reached a couple of days j ^o. After bidding adieu to our friends—particularly the kdies-^-We rtaHed for a long separation , from our native State, and at daybreak on Friday | morning we found ourselves in Hagerstown, Md*. j 3 We remained there that day, and then, having j bee received marching orders, we started about 10 j me! o’clock next morning for Hancock, a distance of thirty miles. After marching some fifteen miles, we pitched our tents with1 the purpose of I encamping for the night, but hardly had we driven | our stakes when two dispatches—one treading' on j usi the other’s heels-^ordered us to continue our * Stc march, as there was a fight going on at Bath, Va.,■tenRoformoabout six miles from Hancock; that ottr troopgalofofthewere retreating towards the latter place, and-that we should come up instanter. We were apprised that the force of the rebels was 15,000, and that. j 0 the Pennsylvania 84th, under Col. Murray, and part of the Illinois together with two pieces of artillery and one company of cavalry was the amount of our strength, although the enemy considered our force to he 5,000. We immediately theme: | cock, as if our salvation depended upon our reaching there before midnight, for our arms were there► iels.woroldei!l• struck tents and started, on quick time, for Han-wiePrbeso,fbi1etr8keein readiness the moinfent we should arrive, and if j oh the place fell into the bands of the enemy we would lose our arms and be entirely defenceless and impotent. Before we reached our destination we heard the boom and saw the flash of the can- ! Tl non, which told us the town was really attacked, [ ou and as we neared the place we met women and | let children, and even men, fleeing for safety, who J tin informed us that the town was being shelled and j thjwould probably be burned before we could reach j ra it. But instead of discouraging us, the news only j had the effect of adding new vitality to our weary j crlimbs, and urged us to greater speed. As we th neared the town, however, and when within about at two miles of it, the firing suddenly ceased and a j th bright light sprang up, which. we supposed to be the town on fire, but which eventually proved to lie some building on the opposite side of the river, which had been fired bv the rebels. We reached the town about 9J o’clock Pi M. and found it to be still occupied by our -troops, and but little dam- ! gi aged by the bombs hurled into it. We quartered ! thrornw:afitththeefcnIfiet-•yyfor the night in the churches, houses, and wherever we could find a canopy which might protect us from the weather. We slept soundly until the | p« next riming (Sunday) which opeucd to us a view j re of the rebels planting their batteries on an adja- j w cent hill across the Potomac* tlie opposing forces being so close together that our pickets were within rifle-shot of the rebels. We soon availed ourselvesof our arms, which are Belgium rifles, but, while*we were yet cleaning them, a ffag of truce madetlUPwits appearance on the Virginia side of the water, ki-idStUhotitlvand its bearer, after being blindfolded and con-ducted into the presence of Gen. Lander, demanded, on behalf of the rebels, an unconditional surrrender, declaring that the alternative would be their shelling1 and burning of the town. The General gave him a Union answer—it consisting of sentence which closes With a strcngthy expletive, to wit:—“Shell and be d—-—d!” So, according ; a* •. 1 Ito promise, at about 11 o’clock A. M. they opened • k *e j upon us with .about five or six guns, the fire of j tl in | which we returned, with interest The firing was j c kept up nearly all day, and terminated by the | t rebels being driven in confusion back to the shel- j ter of a hill. What their loss was I am not pre- : t pared to say, although we could see them distinctly, ! t through the glasses, and see our shells being distributed among them very freely. No lives werebefist15-heaIv.*r-)nstasQgu-lost ujjon our side, and, with the exception of scv- ! tera! houses having been pierced with shell and | (sliot, the town was not damaged. j 1We retired to our quarters., little rested from our j i it- j tiresome inarch, having been upon our feet all \ it on - day. At daybreak on Monday morning the rebels ! tAA | 1 %^ | again made their appearance on the hill afore- j I Qf | mentioned and were in.the act of planting a bat- . 1 si- ) tery, when we opened on them and scattered them j t like chaff before they could fire a shot. The firing ' 1 was kept up on bur side—our shell exploding in j i their camp behind a hill, and upon the hill we • t could see them dragging away their dead. Thev i 1 \ could also be seen straggling here and there at a 1 i2SSX-h-o-fc-| great distance over on their side of the river, untillt;^ about 11 o’clock, A. M., when not a vestige of a ' i rebel was to be seen, even if the eyeballs had : i been strained from their sockets in the attempt. j j The time passed along quietly until Friday eve- j ^ | ning—nothing transpiring in- the interval, except ! the arrival of reinforcements which made us about in-ite°gleild5,000 strong. On the same evening we received • orders to march to Cumberland, Md., a distance 1 of forty miles. We started' about dusk and jmarched 12 miles through mud and over raoun- |- »tains, and Jay in the woods, on the wet ground, j njj j without tents or fires—the woods being clear of j jie j underbrush. We rose in the morning, stiff, sore and tired, and made our breakfast on sea-biscuit. * jalone, for we liad not had time to cook anything, jand many had not even a biscuit during the whole. • •as ; march. Only nineteen out of onr company nr-I _ oof, rived at Cumberland that evening, and not thatiLCtonof[Till-noms;ntmany of any other company in the regiment!,— But they have all straggled in, except a few whom ! we left behind in sickness. Wc took quarters j here for a few days, in different houses which j were given us, but we are now* in camp, awaiting i marching orders. jIt now becomes ray painful duty to record here ;. . . ' jm ‘ the death of two brother soldiers, memlers of iU1 j Company A (Capt. D. M. Jones,) 110th Rcgi- Jld j ment P. V. The first was Win. Wilson, aged 18 jyears. He was left in the hospital at Harrisburg, 1when our regiment started out. and died of the :measles on the 3d dav of January, 1862. The !• * *second who was taken from us was Jas. Stoddard, j who took sick on the road, was left at Hagerstown, 1i * * i i * •and has since died. We, the officers and members jit.r)B-in^ ; of Company A, :do heartily sympathize with the j. relatives and friends of the^b young men; and, ’; while they may mourn the loss of a son, a brothern(j Qr a friend, we sincerely mourn the loss of two j 1kjj; noble, true-hearted and patriotic soldiers, who jfo. j both ready and willing to do their whole ; 1 ° |*daty Hr defence of their country** rights; and,j 1though th$y ner^r had the privilege of Stowing i
Newspaper Details
Altoona Tribune
Altoona, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jan 25, 1862
Page 2
Full Page
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Kyle W.
USA 11 Apr 2020
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