Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/293

 History of Crenshaw Battery. 285

drove them from our front, but the fighting on our left, where our left gun was stationed, was not so successful, for the enemy had massed their infantry there in four or five lines of battle outflank- ing the works and charged up the line, and finally captured the three guns, although the men behind them fought until the infantry were about to bayonet them. The lines then broke everywhere, but we got off with the three remaining guns of the Crenshaw Battery. Then commenced the last act in the tragedy of four years the retreat to Appomattox. Sleepless nights and days of hunger and fighting from the 3d to the evening of the 8th, when we unlimbered our guns for the last time, and repulsed the enemy's attack, sup- ported only by a few artillerymen with muskets the Otey Battery when night came on. The next day we cut down our guns, and sorrowfully wended our way homeward. The curtain fell. That

was the end.

INCIDENTAL.

Captain Crenshaw was ever mindful of the welfare of his old com- mand, and one of his first acts after going to Europe for the govern- ment was to send a full uniform and a pair of boots to each member of the company. This gift was captured by a Federal cruiser in transit, but as soon as he heard of it, he duplicated it, and the second gift got through the blockade, and added much to the comfort of his men.

Captain Crenshaw died at " Hawfield," near Orange Courthouse, his country residence, on the 24th of May, 1897, mourned and beloved by all his neighbors. His remains were brought to Richmond and buried in the family section in Hollywood. The bullet-ridden battle- flag of the Crenshaw Battery, draped in mourning, was placed at the head of the grave as the members of his old company filed in, and their sorrowful countenances betokened the high esteem in which their old commander was held.

Captain Crenshaw commanded the battery from its organization until October r, 1862; Lieutenant James Ellett commanded until December 13, 1862, when he was killed; Lieut. A. B. Johnston com- manded until November, 1863; Captain Thomas Ellett commanded until the surrender at Appomattox.

Captain J. Hampden Chamberlayne commanded temporarily for about two months until he was captured, a few days before the battle of Gettysburg, June, 1863.

The company participated in forty-eight hard-fought battles and a good many skirmishes from first to last.