June 9,
1862:
Battle
of Port Republic
Virginia
Shenandoah Valley
Campaign
Port Republic itself
lies in the junction of the North and South Rivers, which combine to form the
South Fork of the Shenandoah River; the bridges run through the town. The Union brigades of Samuel Carroll and
Erastus Tyler are advancing to threaten the crossings. The rest of Shields’ division is still strung
out along the road from the Luray Valley.
Jackson proposes to strike before Shields can bring up the rest of his
division. After blunting Fremont’s
intended advance at Cross Keys yesterday, Gen. Richard Ewell hustles his
division five miles south to Port Republic, where Gen. Jackson has the rivers
to help him keep Gen. Shields’ eager Federals at bay. Trimble’s brigade and part of Patton’s
brigade are left at Cross Keys to keep an eye on Fremont, while Jackson moves
Winder’s Stonewall Brigade across the South River to prepare to take on the
Federals. At about 5 A.M., Winder forms
a line of battle, and sends two regiments to the far right to contest the Union
left flank anchored on The Coaling, a steep hill where the Federals have posted
their artillery. Jackson is surprised to
find the Federals so close, but orders forward the attack anyway. To the rear, Richard Taylor’s brigade has
arrived and crossed the river, but lacks orders. He finally moves his men forward as he hears
the artillery. Jackson throws Taylor in
on the right to find a way to the Coaling.
Winder orders his brigade forward in a charge: within 200 yards of the
Union line, the Stonewall Brigade uses rail fence for cover and begins a torrid
rifle firefight with Carroll’s brigade.
After suffering big losses, Winder pulls his brigade back in retreat
half a mile, short on ammunition. Jackson
orders Trimble and Patton to leave Cross Keys, march down, cross the bridges,
and burn them. Then Gen. Ewell arrives
with several regiments, and moves them to the right, following Taylor.
 |
| Battle of Port Republic |
Confederate
Victory.
Losses: Killed
Wounded Missing & Captured
Union 67 361 574
Confederate 88 535
34
---Private
George Michael Neese, a Confederate artilleryman with Chew’s Battery, gives his
account of the battle:
When we
arrived in sight of the field and smelled the battle smoke one of Jackson’s
aids came dashing from the front with a ready and prompt inquiry, “Whose
battery is this?” “Chew’s,” was the quick response. “Have you plenty of
ammunition?” The last question was answered in the affirmative, and the
fleeting courier said, “Hurry to the front, captain.” “Forward, double quick!”
was the ringing command of our calm but gallant captain, and in a very few
moments after we wheeled in battery on the battle-field, under a raking fire
from the eight-gun battery strongly posted on the coaling against the mountain
side, and with perfect command of the field we were in.
The
fire of that battery was terrible for a while. However, we held our ground and
opened on the coaling with all our guns, with the utmost endeavor to give the
enemy the best work we had in the shop. Some of Jackson’s batteries were in the
same field with us, and were firing on the coaling battery. The air trembled
with a continual roll of musketry and the thunder of the artillery shook the
ground. . . . The shell from the battery on the coaling was ripping the ground
open all around us, and the air was full of screaming fragments of exploding
shell, and I thought I was a goner.
After
we had been under this dreadful fire about thirty minutes I heard a mighty
shout on the mountain side in close proximity to the coaling, and in a few
minutes after I saw General Dick Taylor’s Louisianians debouching from the
undergrowth, and like a wave crested with shining steel rush toward the fatal
coaling and deadly battery with fixed bayonets, giving the Rebel yell like mad
demons. The crest of the coaling was one sheet of fire as the Federal batteries
poured round after round of grape and canister into the faces of the charging
Louisianians. Yet the undaunted Southerners refused to be checked by the death
and carnage in their ranks . . .
 |
| Taylor's Louisiana Brigade attacks the Coaling by Rocco |
The Federals held to the coaling with bulldog
tenacity, fighting like fiends, recognizing the fact that the point they were
so gallantly defending was an all-important one, as it was the citadel of
strength in Shields’s line and the key to his position. But the firm and
unwavering courage and invincible prowess of Taylor’s Louisianians made them as
persistent and obdurate in gaining and demanding, at the point of the bayonet,
full possession . . . and for a while the hand-to-hand conflict raged
frightfully, resembling more the onslaught of maddened savages than the
fighting of civilized men. . . . then Northern valor began to succumb to
Southern courage. The Federals wavered, sullenly gave back, and finally broke
and retreated hastily, abandoning the batteries for which they had fought so
valiantly, and left them in full and undisputed possession of the Confederates.
. . .
Soon
after the coaling battery was wrested from the Federals Shields’s whole line
began to give back, and his army retreated in an almost routed fashion. We
pursued them about five miles down the river. The track of the retiring foe was
strewn with the accouterments of a discomfited army. Guns, knapsacks,
overcoats, haversacks, and canteens were scattered all along the road. . . . This morning the butchering had
commenced some time before we reached the shambles, and in going toward the
field we passed a farmhouse that had been converted into an operating field
hospital; dissecting room would be a more appropriate name, for as we passed
the house I saw a subject on the kitchen table, on whom the surgeons were
practicing their skillful severing operations. They tossed a man’s foot out of
the window just as we passed.
The
star of Stonewall Jackson’s fame as a brilliant strategist is growing brighter
day by day. It has already won a worthy setting in the dazzling galaxy that
flashes with martial splendor around the hero of Austerlitz. In the last month
he, by quick and strategic movements, forced marches, deceptive maneuvering,
and effectual fighting, has defeated and discomfited four Yankee generals —
Milroy at McDowell, Banks at Winchester,— which was a perfect rout that landed
Banks in Maryland and cast a tremor of fear over the Department of War at
Washington — Fremont at Cross Keys; and to-day Shields, the ablest and most
skillful of the four, was struck by lightning that flashed from the little
faded cap, on the field at Port Republic.
 |
| Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson |
---Lt.
Charles Wright Wills of the Union army writes in his journal of his experiences
in occupied territory in and around Corinth, Mississippi. One story involves the courting customs of
the locals:
At 12
m. we drew rein 25 miles from Corinth at Iuka.
There
are a couple of splendid springs in Iuka. One chalybeate, and the other sulphur
water, and the town is the neatest I have seen in the country. Snuff-dipping is
an universal custom here, and there are only two women in all Iuka that do not
practice it. At tea parties, after they have supped, the sticks and snuff are
passed round and the dipping commences. Sometimes girls ask their beaux to take
a dip with them during a spark. I asked one if it didn’t interfere with the
old-fashioned habit of kissing. She assured me that it did not in the least,
and I marveled. . . . We celebrated the capture of Richmond on the 4th, but are
now trying to forget that we made such fools of ourselves. Damn the telegraphs.
We have awful news from Richmond to-day. It would make me sick to write it. I
would rather have the army whipped than McClellan.
No comments:
Post a Comment