Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/355

 From the Times-Dispatch, December 9, 1906.

DEMONSTRATION ON HARPERS FERRY,

'''May 29, 1862 How Jackson Eluded Fremont and Won Three Fights in Four Days—Scouting in the Darkness— Famous Valley Campaign of 1862— Well-laid Plans That Worked Well.''' During the last week of May, 1862, my regiment, "the 2nd Virginia Cavalry," commanded by Colonel T. T. Munford (afterward General Munford) was doing duty around Bolivar Heights, near Harper's Ferry.

During the night of May 29th I was aroused by Colonel Mun-ford, who ordered me to take my company (Company B, the Wise Troop, of Lynchburg), and move down the pike to the neighborhood of Halltown, which is near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to establish a picket.

As I was entirely ignorant of the country, having come there in the night, the colonel proceeded by the light of a Confederate candle to outline the route he wished me to take with pencil on a small piece of paper. He directed me to pass our infantry pickets, and not to go into Halltown, but to be sure to stop before the town and establish a picket, and to await future orders. I aroused my men they grumbled very much about being waked so soon after going to rest, but they soon got saddled up and off. We started with positive instructions from Colonel Munford, not to go into Halltown. I suppose that place was looked on as being in the Yankees' lines, or too far from ours.

SCOUTING IN THE DARK.

On we rode in an entirely new country. None of us had ever been there before. We passed infantry in the road. Some were asleep by the side, while others were sitting around camp fires. Muskets were sometimes stacked, but not always by a good deal. Then the artillery the guns were in the road, the horses fastened to the fences; some of the men awake; others