Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/14

2 General Lee's staff, of which the only survivors are Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Norfolk, his A. A. G., and Major Henry E. Young, of Charleston, the judge advocate general, was a very small one, though very efficient, but military critics of the present day marvel at it and contend that it should have been larger in numbers and organization.

The general staff of the army was also not over officered, and there was plenty of work for all.

My first important work came almost at once, early in October, and was an order to mount the heavy guns in Batteries Wood, Semmes and Brook. These batteries were on the south side of James River, and intended to command the Dutch Gap Canal, which General Butler was having dug to flank the heavy battery at Howlett's Bluff, on the river approach to Richmond.

It is reported that General Lee was in much doubt at first as to Butler's object, but when the project was developed the batteries were located and work on them rushed.

I was told that the guns would be delivered at Chester Station (now Centralia), on the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, where I was to receive them, transport them to the batteries, about two and one-half to three and one-half miles distant, respectively, and mount them. The guns were of the Brook banded type, weighing over ten tons, constructed at the Tredegar Works in Richmond, and a special carry-log, with twelve-foot wheels, was sent with them. With much labor the gun would be slung under the carry-log and then the team would be started. Imagine about thirty miles in a team, with the negro drivers all yelling and cracking their whips! It was like a charge of artillery.

The road was a sandy soil through the pines and the wheels sometimes sank so that the gun rested on the ground, and the difficulty of transport often seemed insurmountable. Sometimes good progress would be made and sometimes a whole day would be spent on a few yards. But by main strength and determination the guns were all gotten there. George Apperson, chief quartermaster sergeant of the train, a fine man, is entitled to the credit of this part of the work.

I remember that once, just as we were getting across the