Saturday, May 30, 1863. Mosby burns a supply train

Boxes of Oranges and Candy,

 a Howitzer, 

and a Daring Yankee – 

Mosby’s Raid on Catlett’s Station

"Bristow Station, Virginia May 30, 1863

"Dear Parents: When we are moving about the time flies away so rapidly that we can scarcely keep track of the rapidly flying weeks. Nine months ago yesterday - August 29th- we went to Ludlow and organized our company. Therefore according to law and order our time was out yesterday, but it seems we must stay a while longer. Well we are good for it. If we don't see any harder times than we have seen thus far. 

"Immediately after arriving here we went to work to get us some boards and build us some first class summer houses. Indeed we have got the best quarters now that we have ever had, considering the season of the year, though they would not be so good for winter use. The table that our cooks use for giving out rations etc. was once the counter to an old store, and there is one or two shanties built entirely of green window blinds and several composed of good panel doors, painted and grained, which makes them all the better for soldiers' use. 

"We do not expect to stay here more than a fortnight anyhow. We will then either go back to Union Mills or else got to Occoquan where the 13th now is. They say that 'tis a splendid country down there so that if we do have to march down we will get partly paid for our travel. The grass is up now about as high as it usually is in Vt. at the 20th of June or 1st of July, and the clover has been in blossom this long time.

"Give my thanks to Dr. Scott for a copy of the Bellows Falls Times sent to me, and tell little Charlie that the "drummers" are out now trying to learn to drum as well as he can. ... 

"Uncle Joe is at Catlett with his company. You will remember that Popes wagon Train was surprised and burned there last August by Stuarts Cavalry and many of his papers captured. Companies E, H, C, and D and F are here and B, I, and N, at Catlett, and A and G at Manassas Junction." ~ Hezron G. Day, pvt., Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter of May 30, 1863


While private Day is at Bristoe writing home, a unit of the 15th Vt. is detailed to guard a supply train carrying forage to Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock:

"On the 30th of May a supply train of ten cars loaded with forage for the cavalry at Rappahannock Station left Alexandria. At Union Mills it took on a train guard of twenty-five men, detailed from the Fifteenth regiment under command of Lieutenant Hartshorn of company E of that regiment. Chaplain Brastow of the Twelfth accompanied the train as a passenger.

 "In the neighborhood of Catlett's Station, Major Mosby, with 50 or 60 men, was lying in wait for the train. He had obtained from General Stuart a mountain howitzer to assist his operations against the railroad trains, and, proud as a boy with a new top, he took it to a favorable spot, put it in position behind a screen of bushes about a hundred yards from the track, removed a rail sufficiently to derail the train, and taking his men under cover, awaited the train. It approached at a good rate of speed, ran off from the track and came to a halt. Mosby's first shell crashed through a car.

"His second shot went through the boiler of the locomotive. The engineer, train-men and guard waited for no more; the latter fired a few shots, one of which killed one of Mosby's horses; and springing from the cars, made their escape into the woods near by. Mosby's men at once surrounded the train, pillaged a car loaded with sutlers' supplies, and setting fire to the hay in the rest, destroyed the train and started back for the mountains."

 ~ 2 George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War 436-37 (Burlington Vt 1888).

Lt. Col Cummings at Catlett's Station heard the firing and saw the train burn:

 I heard the firing, saw the train burn, at late the smoke and suspected mischief, but as my duties were here I could not go away and going could have done no good. If the rebs had come this way they would have met wit a warm reception. With 25 men I could have charged upon the gun and captured it and all the men who did not run. Mosby is a darling brave fellow indeed

~ Charles Cummings, letter of June 1, 1863 

The news spread to the 13th:

"Captain Thatcher returned on the 30th from Union Mills where he had been attending a court martial hearing, and reported that the Rebel guerilla Mosby with a large force had captured a supply train at Catletts Station about fifteen miles south of Fairfax Station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, consisting of ten cars of forage, a quantity of soft bread and Sutler's supplies had taken what they wanted and destroyed the rest, and were on their way east and might be expected at our camp any hour, and he had hastened back to camp to bring the news.

~ Pictorial History of the 13t, Regt. 169

Back at Union Mills, Pvt. Barlow celebrates a birthday and at Occoquan Lt. Palmer experiences a peaceful night:

"Saturday May 30th 1863. My Birthday & the first one I have ever spent away from home. To-day completes my 21st year & brings me to my majority. Five weeks more, if my life is spared, & I hope to see Parents, friends & home. Tho' not especially tired or weary of my service, yet it is not a congenial one, by any means, & there is joy in the thought of home, sweet home. As we were all here, yesterday & I feared some one might be away to-day, I procured a few things in the eatable line, to answer for my birthday. Drills as usual to-day. Charles Thacher still quite sick. Cleaned my gun in P.M." ~ Diary of Horace Barlow (UVM), 123-4, Horace Barlow, Pvt., Co. C, 12th Regiment

"May 30. On pickets. The night is really splendid. The blue bay of Occoquan, many feet below us, gives back the shining moon and stars, the air not uncomfortable hot, and just wind enough to stir the luxuriant foliage of oaks near our post. Then there is the noise of the river to the right of us, (here it empties itself into the bay,) dashing against huge rocks; of the whippoorwill, singing its own name, by turns, all night, and often imitated by the soldiers; and of yelping curs, and now and then, loud baying, barking blood-hounds, disturbed in their kennels."  ~ Lt. Edwin Palmer, 13th Regiment, The Second Brigade: or, Camp Life, By a Volunteer (1864)

Sunday, May 3, 1863. A skirmish with Mosby. "We are approaching the front"

"At Warrenton Junction (Calverton) on May 3, 1863, 

Colonel John S. Mosby attacked

 the Federal 1st West Virginia Regiment,

 but was forced to flee when 

surprised by 1st Vermont
and the 5th New York Calvary."

'Camp in the field Near Warrenton Junction Va.
" May third 1863

"Well father, I commenced this letter this morning had written five lines & the order came along for Co. A & B to fall in as quick as possible. We did so & under the command of Capt. Savage we marched to Warrenton Junction a distance of about three miles & there I saw a sight that I never see before.

"...one of our boys of Co H came into camp a horse back & said that he had been taken prisoner by mosbys cavalry but by close work had got away & took a horse with him. ... In a few minutes after the man came in . there was another one came in to camp in the same shape, horse and all & about the same time there was a cavalryman from the 1st Vt. who are stationed at Warrinton junction & said that they had (been) attacked by the rebels under Mosby & that they wished for a reinforcement of infantry. 

"So Co.s A & B under the command of Capt Savage started for that place. But before we arrived there they were gone. ...The first Va. had one man killed instantly & from twelve to fifteen wounded. The Rebs had one man killed at the house & when we left the house at three Oclock there were 2 rebels dead & 18 wounded & several of those were wounded mortally & when we left they were fetching in the wounded ones in ambulances that were wounded in their retreat. they stated that there was several dead rebels laid along the road that the rebs took.

"The Rebels were the roughest looking mortals that you ever saw. dirt & rags, rags & dirt. A goodly number o them were citizens & one of them I have seen a great many times in our camp at wolf run Shoals & there was another one that was badly wounded who we saw a harrowing with a yoke of cattle only the night before & all of them were dressed in citizens clothes..." ~ Jabez H. Hammond, West Windsor, age 20, Sgt. Co. A, 12th Regt Letter No. 39


"....A body of cavalry, in the blue uniforms of Uncle Sam's boys, held the Junction, and the bodies of a dozen dead horses strewn around the solitary house at the station told of a sharp skirmish on that spot. Springing from the train, I had hardly taken twenty steps before I came upon the body of a dead rebel, stretched stark and cold, face upward, in coats of rusty brown and pantaloons of butternut. 

"They showed me papers taken from his pockets, showing him to be one Templeman, a well known scout and spy of Mosby's command. Passing on to the house I found lying around it seventeen wounded "butternuts" of all ages, from boys of sixteen to shaggy and grizzled men of fifty years. They lay in their blood, with wounds as yet undressed, for the skirmish ended but a little while before we arrived, some with gaping sabre cuts, some with terrible bullet wounds through face, body or limbs. 

"Four or five rebel prisoners, unhurt, stood by, with downcast faces, but willing to answer civil questions. Close by, covered decently with a blanket, lay the body of a Union cavalryman, shot in cold blood after he had surrendered and given up his arms, by a long haired young rebel, who had received his reward for the dastardly act and lay near his victim, with a bullet wound in his stomach.

"The floor of the house was strewn with wounded men, among them Major Steele of the First Virginia, mortally wounded, and two of Mosby's officers. Their wounds had just been dressed, and the surgeon now began to give attention to the wounded rebels outside." ~ Lieut.  G.G. Benedict, Company C, 12th Regiment, Letter to the Free Press of May 4, 1863 in Army Life in Virginia

"Sunday 3rd.  This A.M. off guard & are ordered to Union Mills, our knapsacks being carried in an ambulance. Reached Union Mills & waited about an hour for train & left on it about 11½. Found two Co's K & G. at Catlett's station, & the rest of the reg't about 5 miles below Warrenton Junction. 

"This A.M. (it seems) Capt Mosely with a force of about 150 attacked a party of our 1st Virginia Cav & as they were totally unprepared, as they were engaged in watering their horses &c, they took them prisoners, but as the 5th N.Y. bore down on them immediately they were hardly used & were scattered.

"We took (i.e. the 5th N.Y. & 1st Vt Cav) a Major 2 Capt's, several Lieut's & some 30 Prisoners & wounded. This occurred at W. Junction & as we passed by on the train, we saw Prisoners, dead & wounded, & traces of the fight. We are approaching the "Front"." ~ Diary of Horace Barlow, 113, Pvt., Co. C, 12th Regiment

"Union Mills, Virginia, May 3, 1863

"Dear Parents,

"We are going down to Bristow Station to stay four days, and relieve the 13th, who are down there now, if the Rebs don't catch us, and I don't much think they will. We came down on the cars, and expect to go back the same way. We are working quite hard down here, doing guard duty on the railroad, and patrolling all over the country, yet we are having a good time, good weather, and a superb country to stay in. I understand that the captain is going to try to get permission to stay four days longer, He thinks that he has got a clue that will enable him to catch a Reb or two...

"Matt Stewart was shot at night before last while on picket. There is no regular force of Rebs about here, only some men detached for scouting service- some say 150 in all. There is once in a while a Union man in the neighborhood, but most of the citizens are either Sesesh openly or sympathize with them.

"The cavalry catch a Reb or two almost every day. A dozen of us went out scouting, and only a little later two Rebs came on the opposite side of the woods and were caught. We can hear cannonading even now, and know that Hooker is at work. We are very anxious to know the result. 

"Mosely's gang of Rebs got thrashed down at Warrenton Junction twelve miles from here. They first caught about fifty of the 1st Virginia (Union) Cavalry with horses unsaddled and turned out to graze, and the men cooking coffee, and charged them. They rallied in a house, as they did not have time to saddle and mount, and there held Mosely's men-110 in all, at bay until they set fire to the house and burst in the doors.

"They sabred the Rebs as they came in, but they had to surrender at last, though not before the 5th NY Cavalry, which was some little distance away, had time to get up, and the tables were turned. 

"The 1st Virginians were all released, three of Mosely's men killed, 25 or 30 taken prisoner, the most of whom were wounded, including two lieutenants and one captain. And Mosely himself was wounded in the shoulder severely enough to make him drop his saber, which the boys picked up. The loss on our side, I believe, was one killed, thirteen wounded. But dinner is ready, and I must go on duty afterward. H.G. Day" ~ Hezron G. Day, pvt., Company C, Sixteenth Regiment, Letter of May 3, 1863