History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
the enemy ordered a charge, which resulted in the killing or capture of all but the lieutenant and seventeen men. Col. Simpson had in the meantime learned the force of the enemy and the number of pieces of artillery, and his men, who had been organized but two months, and had never been in action before, became panic-stricken, could not be kept in line, broke in confusion, destroyed their arms, and were very soon all made prisoners.
Col. Simpson was remarkably cool, and at the head of his column, assisted by his officers, endeavored to rally his men, that an orderly retreat might be effected; but all efforts to do so failing, and the command having scattered in every direction, he struck off through the fields in company with his mounted officers and succeeded in escaping capture. In consequence of this disaster a court of inquiry was convened to investigate the case, and acquitted Col. Simpson of all blame, the court expressing the opinion " that the surprise and capture of the greater part of the forces under command of Col. Benjamin L. Simpson, Ninth Maryland Infantry, at Charlestown, on the morning of the 18th of October ult., were inevitable, because of the peculiar location of the place, which, surrounded by an open country for several miles on all sides, and approached by a large number of roads from all directions, was easy to be flanked and surrounded, and because of the superior force by which it was attacked, and of the inferior force for its defense. The rebel attacking force was two thousand men, with six pieces of artillery. The defending force, under command of Col. Simpson, consisted of three hundred and seventy-five infantry and seventy-five cavalry."
Gen. Kelley forwarded the record of the case, with the statement that he did not concur in the findings of the court, but believed that Col. Simpson was derelict in allowing himself to be surprised, and that he should have maintained himself in his position until the reinforcements reached him, which started from Harper's Ferry as soon as the cannonading was heard. He therefore recommended that Col. Simpson should be dismissed the service. The War Department, however, approved the finding of the court, and the judge-advocate-general, in declining to concur in Gen. Kelley's recommendation, said, " After a disaster of this kind has occurred it is much less difficult for a military commander to review the details, and remark what should or should not have been done, than for a subordinate to anticipate the strength, position, and design of the enemy, and to successfully have met or withstood their attack."
Among the officers who escaped capture were Lieut-Col. Thomas Clandeley, Maj. George Church, Surgeon Morgan, Asst. Surgeon Kemp, Chaplain G. T. Gray.
CHAPTER XIV. CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
While the Army of the Potomac lay on the north of the Rapidan, Maj.-Gen. U. S. Grant, who had been made lieutenant-general, was assigned by President Lincoln, on the 10th of March, 1864, to the command of all the " armies of the United States." Gen. Meade was selected as his second in command of the Army of the Potomac, and to him was entrusted the execution of his plans. This portion of the army was consolidated into three corps, the Second, Fifth, and Sixth, commanded respectively by Gens. Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick, and numbering, with Burnside's independent corps, about one hundred and forty thousand men. The Confederates under Lee numbered about sixty thousand men. By the consolidation of the Army of the Potomac on the 23rd of March, 1864, into three corps, the Maryland Brigade, under Col. N. B. Dushane, of the First Maryland Regiment, became the Third Brigade in the Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps. Brig.-Gen. John C. Robinson commanded the division, and Maj.-Gen. G. K. Warren the corps. Gen. Kenly, much to the regret of his command, was assigned a district in the Middle Department. During the temporary absence of Col. Dushane (afterwards killed at the battle of Weldon Railroad) the command of the brigade devolved upon Col. Andrew W. Denison, of the Eighth Maryland Regiment.
On the 3rd of May, 1864, Gen. Meade issued an address to his army, and on the following day it left Culpeper for the Rapidan. In the evening Meade reached that tangled forest where was fought, from the 5th to the 9th, the battle of the Wilderness, the most terrible and bloody of the war. In this series of bloody engagements, fought in a mass of tangled underwood, the Maryland Brigade took a conspicuous part in Warren's corps and met with severe loss. On Sunday, the 8th of May, with its division, they charged Longstreet's command, posted in a skirt of wood at Laurel Hill, near Spottsylvania Court-House, in the face of a galling fire of musketry and a storm of both canister and shell from both front and flank. The First, Seventh, and Eighth Maryland Regiments pushed on to within fifty yards of Longstreet's intrenchments, but the terrible fire poured into their depleted ranks forced them to retire, leaving the field covered with their dead and wounded. Gen. Robinson, their division commander, was wounded in the leg, and Col. Denison, who commanded the brigade, lost his arm. The command of the brigade then devolved upon Col. Charles E. Phelps, who had succeeded Col. E. H. Webster, elected to Congress. While gallantly leading his men into action, Col. Phelps was struck down within the Confederate line and was taken prisoner, but was afterwards recaptured by Custer's cavalry. Col. Richard M. Bowerman, of the Fourth Regiment, was then assigned command of the brigade. In consequence of the disabling wound of Gen. Robinson, his division was broken up, and the various regiments, with the exception of the Maryland Brigade, were assigned to other commands. The Maryland Brigade, as a light corps, was placed under the immediate command of Gen. Warren. It was employed in various duties until the 29th of May, when the old Second Division was reorganized, and the Maryland Brigade again became the Third Brigade, Second Division, Fifth Army Corps, which it retained until the 6th of June, when it was designated the Second Brigade of the same division and corps. Brig.-Gen. R. B. Ayres was assigned to the command of the division, and the Purnell Legion, Maryland Infantry, under Col. Samuel A. Graham, was joined to the brigade. In all the various battles in which their division was engaged, from Spottsylvania Court-House to the Chickahominy, which they crossed on the 14th of June, the Maryland Brigade bore a distinguished and active part, and suffered severe loss in killed and wounded. On the 16th, moving by way of Charles City Court-House, it crossed the James at Wilcox's Landing with the Second and Fifth Corps, and proceeded towards the lines near Petersburg, where it arrived early on the morning of the 17th.
While the Maryland Brigade was thus operating with Grant in his movements against Richmond, other Maryland commands were performing active service in other sections of the country. The Sixth Maryland Regiment of Infantry, under Col. Horn, was in the Sixth Corps, under the distinguished and lamented Gen. Sedgwick; and the Second and Third Regiments, in the Ninth Corps, under Gen. Burnside, on more than one occasion proved their patriotism by their valor. At the battle of Cold Harbor the Second and Third Regiments were in all the severe engagements in which the Ninth Corps participated, and was part of the rear-guard when Grant and his army crossed the James. On the 17th of June this brigade was ordered to charge the Confederate breastworks in front of Petersburg, and the command was successfully executed. They held the breastworks until late at night, when for want of support their whole line fell back to their former position.
At early dawn on the morning of the 10th of January, 1864, Mosby's Confederate battalion of cavalry made an attack upon the camp of Maj. Cole's Maryland cavalry, on Loudon Heights, Va. They avoided the pickets, dashed into the camp with a yell, and poured a volley of bullets into the tents where the officers and men were sleeping. The following is Maj. Cole's official report of this spirited affair:
"HDQRS BATT. P. H. B. CW., MDS. VOLS.
" Lundon Heights, Va.. Jan. 10, 1864.
" Wm. M. Boone.
"Asst. Adjt.-Gen. First Division, Dept. West Virginia:
" Sir, — I have the honor of addressing you for the purpose of reporting the facts of an attempt by Maj. Mosby's battalion of guerrilla cavalry to surprise and capture my camp between the hours of three and four a.m. of this day. They studiously avoided my pickets, divided themselves into small bodies, which were speedily consolidated in sight of my camp; they then made an impetuous charge with a yell on the right of the same. In consequence of the suddenness of the same this company could offer but a feeble resistance. In the meantime Company A, the second in the line, was speedily rallied by its commanding officer, Capt. Vernon, who contested their further advance in such a sanguinary manner that formed a rallying-point for the balance of the command, who