John Lewis Poe's Account

The War of 1861 to 1865

Our Company, Flint Hill Rifle Company, was organized in May 1861 by Captain Dr. Williams of Flint Hill. We drilled there twice a week until June. We went on to Culpeper Court House and drilled there twice a day until the 18th of July, were then ordered to Manassa.

Co. E, 49th VA Infantry Regiment, Flint Hill Rifles¹
Dr. Williams is Captain William Jackson Williams. Commissioned Captain June 16, 1861. Not re-elected April 30, 1862. Dropped from the Rolls. Became Surgeon in Lynchburg Confederate Hospital. Later served as Surgeon in Early's Army. Born Orange County, Virginia January 1824. Died 1895. Graduate of University of Pennsylvania as M.D. 1851.²

On the 21st day of July our regiment was fighting at Bull Run Mountain, but our company was kept at Manassa for guard. Here we were made 49th Va. Regiment Company A. We camped at Manassa all the rest of that winter. On 27th day March 1862 we left Manassa went to Richmond and from there to Yorktown and stayed there as guards until 4th day of May. While we were there Captain Williams resigned and Will Eastham was elected Captain and then we were Company E.

On the 4th day of May we went to Williamsburg, from there to seven miles below Richmond to Seven Pines and put up breastwork.

Will Eastham is First Lieutenant Wellington Eastham, who enlisted as 1st Lieutenant June 16, 1861. Promoted to Captain April 30, 1862. Wounded December 13, 1862 at Fredericksburg. Resigned November 24, 1864 with only three men left in the Company.²

General Joseph Johnston's troops began the evacuation of Yorktown on 3 May 1862, faced with a seige by McClellan's huge Army of the Potomac. The retreat from Yorktown to Richmond results in a serious clash at Williamsburg, where there are roughly 1,700 Confederate and 800 Union casualties, and on 7 May G.W. Smith clashed with Franklin's Federals at Eltham's Landing in an attempt to keep the road from Williamsburg to Richmond open. Throughout the rest of May, McClellan would slowly advance on the Confederate capital of Richmond while his flanks and reinforcements are harried by Stonewall Jackson.

On 31st day of May were in battle under shell and musket three hours and forty minutes. One half of our regiment were killed and wounded. This was the hottest place I was ever in during the war. General Johnson was mortally wounded; he was our Chief Commander. Robert E. Lee was put in his place.

The Battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, was an attempt by Gen. Johnston to relieve the growing pressure on Richmond by a counteroffensive. 6,000 Confederates and 5,000 Union troops are lost. The strategic intent is a failure -- the threat to Richmond continues.

On the 26th day of June the Seven Days fight begun and we fought hard for seven days. The last fight was at Malvern Hill. At this fight McClellan gave up a hard fought field and went back to the gunboats for protection.

The Seven Days campaign was a strong and desperate effort by the Confederates to save Richmond. In a series of battles east of Richmond, Lee's forces force McClellan backwards towards the James River, where they eventually set up a strong defense at Malvern Hill. Finally, in the night of 1/2 July, McClellan retreated to the James. There are an estimated 16,000 casualties in this campaign for the Federal forces; 20,000 for the Confederates.

From here we went thru Richmond to Druids Bluff, which is about 8 miles below and then we were transferred to Early's Brigade, Ewell's Division, Jackson's Corps. After staying there about two weeks, were put on trains and sent to Gordonsville and there began to march. We joined Jackson at Culpeper, marched from there to Warrenton Springs, from there to Jefferson and camped there on Sunday night and on Monday night at Marshall and Tuesday at Bristow Station, which is four miles from Manassa. Marched thirty miles a day. On the following day we were drove to Manassa. Two days later our regiment were in the Second Battle of Manassa, but I was cut off and was not in this battle, but come near being captured.

The Second Bull Run Campaign, also known as Second Manassas, was a series of battles and skirmishes in August 1862, from Cedar Mountain (9 Aug) to the climatic battle on 29 Aug between Pope's Federals and Jackson's Confederates. Though outnumbered 3-to-1, Jackson has kept Pope guessing about his numbers, and he's soon reinforced by Longstreet, and the Confederates rout the Union forces.

Details: Brig. Gen. Jubal A. Early serving under Maj. Gen. R.S. Ewell, under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's Corps on the left wing of General Robert E. Lee's army.

After this battle we went by Leesburg over in Maryland by Frederick to Williamsport, crossed the Potomac River and went on and captured Harpers Ferry, which was on the 15th day of September 1862.

After the victory of Second Bull Run, Lee begins a campaign into Maryland, but unfortunately for Lee, his plans are discovered. Nevertheless, Lee (with Jackson leading) manages to take Harper's Ferry with light resistance. Over 12,000 Union soldiers are captured.

In following day we fount at Antietam, fought hard all day. Neither side gained any foothold, so it was called a draw battle. I heard every order Jackson gave.

My bother Billy was hit in this battle, was stuck by a bullet and it went through the blanket under his arm several times and struck a pocket book in his coat pocket. I had given him the pocket book several days before to go buy us something to eat, and he had not give it back. It had three clasps on it. It bent them double, but it turned the ball and saved his life.

Two days later we crossed the River and went into camp about sun up to get our breakfast. All at once I saw a man coming in full sweep. I said, "Boys, there is something out." In a few minutes we had marching orders and were double quicked, but before we reached the river, the troops closer by drove the enemy back. Lots of McClellan men run into the river and were drowned.

The Battle of Antietem Creek, around Sharpsburg, MD, was one of the bloodiest single engagements of the war. Each side loses around 20,000 troops in vicious fighting. Though the battle was considered a draw, it weakened Lee's forces and the Maryland Campaign had to be abandoned.

We camped around in the Valley until November, and then we waded the Shannandoah River and tore up Manassa Gap railroad down to Markham. I spent the night near where Dr. Elliot now lives.

We then went back to Smoketown, form there to New Market, marched about one hundred miles and crossed Swift Run Gap, steepest gap I ever crossed in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We came out at Crigglersville. I was taken sick here and never got back to camp until January 1863, and they were at Port Royal below Fredericksburg. We stayed there the rest of the winter.

The next fight I was in was at Winchester. Hayes Brigade, Louisiana, were in front, Hook's Brigade, North Carolina, was second and Early's Brigade to which I belonged was third. Hays sent for us to support him. The North Carolina soldiers had to lay down and let us walk over them. Some of our boys said, "Lay down there, tar heels, and let these Virginians get over you." You ought to have hard them curse and rare. I did not say a word.

We charged the breastworks one half of a mile long and I didn't see but one man killed, we took it so quick they did not have time to kill many of us. This was the fastest double quicking we ever did. We drove them back to the town, and they began to shell us. One shell burst just in front of our company and Jemmy Brown, the next man to me, was wounded.

On 15 Jun 1863 General Ewell's Confederate forces pushed back General Milroy's 9,000 Union troops in a quick attack, capturing 4,000 and a large quantity of war supplies. The Confederates have seized the initiative and are again pushing north into Pennsylvania.

This was actually Brig. Gen. William Smith's brigade, Early's division, Jackson's Corps.

We went from here to York, Pennsylvania, and then back to Gettysburg; began to fight there the first day of July 1863. We fought there three days. We lost about 20,000 men, killed, captured, and wounded. The Yankees lost about twenty-three thousand. Lieutenant John Lee was wounded the second day; I saw him when he fell. My brother and Frank Rolls were also wounded, but I was not allowed to stop with them. All of our whole company were lost but five. On our way back from Gettysburg, Captain Eastham told us that we could go and join any command that we wanted; he would not bother us.

I left the regiment the 14th day of July and marched home barefooted and was in bed for nearly a week before I was able to do anything.

The climatic three-day battle of Gettysburg results again in huge losses, but the South cannot afford such losses when outnumbered and on the offensive. Modern historians put the number closer to 28,000 Confederate casualties, more than one third of the 75,000 Southerners that took part in the battle.

At Gettysburg, the company was still part of 49th Virginia, under Lt. Col. J. Catlett Gibson, Brig. Gen. William Smith's brigade, Maj. Gen. J.A. Early's division, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Army Corps.³

I joined Gillmore Battalion in August 1863; he was camping at Mt. Jackson. The first hard fight we had after I found Gillmore was at Chambersburg and then at Gun Powder Station above Baltimore. We captured two passenger trains here loaded with Yankee soldiers and one Yankee general.

We had a fight at Winchester and about seventy-five of our Battalion fought Averill Brigade of about three or four thousand men, and we run them, too. We captured lots of them and would of captured more if our horses had not given out.

We had skirmishes at Hancock and Old Town near Cumberland and then come down Moorefield Valley and went into camp on Saturday evening, and on Monday morning about light Averill Brigade run in on us and captured about four hundred and fifty of us without the fire of a gun. I never hated anything as bad in my life. We had been marching day and night and the whole crowd was broken down. They captured our picket and caught us all asleep.

After the battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Meade began a slow campaign to push Lee's forces back into the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. Skirmishes and raids are common, but the larger focus has shifted to Tennessee.

In June 1864, J.E. Early beat L. Wallace near Frederick and moved on Washington, D.C. Under R.E.Lee's orders, Early dispatched a cavalry brigade under the command of Gen. Bradley T. Johnson to free the thousands of Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout. This column consisted of the First Maryland Cavalry, remnants of Jones' Brigade, and Gilmor's Partisan Battalion. A variety of partisan adventures followed, including cutting telegraph wires, burning railroad bridges, destroying tracks, capturing trains and Union troops. The Gunpowder Bridge incident refers to the capture of two Union trains only 40 minutes apart, their burning, and burning of the Penn. RR bridge over the Gunpowder river, shortly after July 10, 1864.¹⁰ The passengers we reportedly treated kindly and cares were taken even to ensure their luggage was returned.⁹ The captured Union general was Maj. Gen. William Franklin, commander of XIX Corps, who escaped shortly afterwards when his exhausted guards drifted off to sleep. ⁸

Maj. Harry Gilmor had organized six companies of partisan rangers back in September of 1863. His command's area of operation was the Shenandoah Valley and parts of "West" Virginia.⁴ A force led by Gen. John McCausland and supported by Bradley Johnson and Gilmor pushed into Chambersburg and demanded $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in currency as ransom against burning the town. Seeing how that kind of money would not -- and very likely could not -- be paid by the town. So on 30 July 1865, McCausland ordered Gilmor's men to "make a thorough work" of destroying the town, most especially the finer houses.⁹ This act was clearly examined some twenty years later in a letter by Fielder Slingluff⁵, but considered a war crime by the local citizens.

By August 1864, the Union dispatched Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley to not only slow the partisan raids but to deprive the Confederates of their breadbasket by seizing livestock and burning fields (and later homes). A raid on Winchester in mid-late August by Rebel cavalry drove away a union division⁹.

After Chambersburg McCausland's forces moved to Hancock, MD, around July 31, where McCausland threatened another burning unless paid ransom, over the objections of Marylanders Johnson and Gilmor. Gilmor even ended up protecting Hancock homes with his own 1st and 2nd Maryland Cavalry.¹² By then, Averell's Union forces were approaching Hancock, so on August 1, the Rebels moved toward Cumberland in a day and night march. Cumberland's defense under Gen. B.F. Kelley proved too strong, so McCausland moved on to Old Town, MD, on the Potomac, again through a long march, arriving early on August 2. Gilmor and Johnson attacked the defending Ohioans across a canal, including a duel between a Union armored train and Rebel artillery. After a time the defenders surrendered and McCausland was able to cross the Potomac to harass the railroads and towns at New Creek, withdrawing to Moorefield after facing strong resistance. Averell approached McCausland's division, whose rear was guarded by Bradley T. Johnson's Brigade. Despite advance warning, Johnson's exhausted troops were ill-prepared for Averell's daylight raid of 7 August 1864. 420 were taken prisoner and there were 150 Confederate casualties, with only 41 casualties total to the Union troops. The Battle of Moorefield proved to be a minor disaster for the Rebels in the valley campaign, and most of the prisoners from Johnson's brigade were sent to Camp Chase. ^{6, 11}

They marched us two days and one night without anything to eat except some green apples we picked up along the roadsides, and we didn't get any water except out of the creek, and their horses would be standing above us in it. I didn't get anything to eat from Sunday night to Wednesday morning when I got some crackers. They put us on the train and sent us to Wheeling; they kept us there one day and night and then sent us to Columbus, Ohio. Then we marched three miles to Camp Chase.

I was captured the seventh of August 1864 and stayed there until 14th of March 1865. We stayed at Camp Chase about 8 month, and I didn't know what it was to get enough to eat but twice while I was there. Three crackers and a piece of pickle pork was a day's ration. On the 17th of March 1865 I left Camp Chase; we were paroled for a prisoner's exchange.

Conditions at Camp Chase became increasingly poor as more and more Confederate prisoners were crammed in. Originally built to handle 3,500-4,000 men, there may have been 10,000 there by the end of the war. Poor sewage systems, crowding, and inadequate food led to outbreaks of disease, and a large number prisoners never returned to the South.⁷

We got to Richmond the twenty-seventh of March. I was paroled there for thirty days to come home. I go home the first day of April about sundown. Mosco Davis and I marched all the way from Richmond home, which was about three miles from Amissville near the Rappahannock River where my two sisters, half brother, and family now live. It took us five days to march home. Lee surrendered the ninth of April while I was home.

I was born January twenty-ninth 1839. I was twenty-two years old when I went to war, and I was 87 years old the day this was written: January 29, 1926.

Dictated by John L. Poe to Eva Poe, wife of O.B. Poe

Our Old War Song
I Little you good people know What we poor soldiers undergo When called upon to take up arms To guard Virginia from all harm At the break of day the morning gun To the rifle, fife, and drum Breaks the soldier's sweet repose. He arouses up puts on his clothes. The sergeant then comes and goes about Saying "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Boys turn out."	IV Sometimes young upstarts do command Coats laced up with sword in hand At Harpers Ferry we had a plan To soberize a drunken man We will have him bucked We'll have him gagged And after all we'll have him ducked.
II In front and rear he forms his line. His courtiments and swords do shine. Eyes right -- Eyes left -- Study the word. The captain then presents his sword. The sergeant then takes out his roll. Our names are called and absent told.	V We have a doctor in our lot The boys here call him Dr. Got When we are ordered to form a line Dr. Got gets behind a pine.
III Sometimes we lay on the cold ground, There no shelter to be found. Sometimes rain and sometimes snow. When stormy wind and tempest blow.	VI If you want to know Who composed this song. I will tell you now, It won't take long. It was composed by the Augusta Grays On the Maryland Heights Two rainy days.

  ¹ Jeffery Weaver, Virginia Confederate Units, By Count Listing R and S
  ² 49th Virginia Infantry
quoting from History of the Forty-Ninth Virginia Infantry C.S.A, Extra Billy Smith's Boys 1861-1865; Laura Virginia Hale and Stanley S. Phillips, 1981.
  ³ Gettysburg Order of Battle
  ⁴ Col. Harry W. Gilmor Camp, #1388, Sons of Confederate Veterans
  ⁵ Fielder Slingluff's Letter
  ⁶ James Earl Brown, Life of Brigadier General John McCausland
  ⁷ Camp Chase Prison
  ⁸ Gary Baker, Gilmor's Ride Around Baltimore
  ⁹Virgil Carringon Jones, Grey Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, 1956, Promontory Press, ISBN 0-88394-092-2.
  ¹⁰ Harry Gilmor's Raid Historical Marker
  ¹¹" The Battle of Moorefield
  ¹²Patchan, Scott C., Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign.

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