1862 Civil War Letter 6th Maine Fearing Attack by Stonewall Jackson Runaway Sla

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1862 Civil War Letter 6th Maine Fearing Attack by Stonewall Jackson Runaway Sla:
$203.96

1862 Civil War Letter 6th Maine Fearing Attack by Stonewall Jackson Runaway Slaves

Defending DC w/General Amiel Whipple Runaway Slaves

This is a wonderful 8 page letter from a member of the 6th Maine Battery from 1862. It is detailing the end of the Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign and the fear that he was going to attack Washington DC. It details the defense of this officer and General Amiel Whipple preparing for the attack. It is quite and an incredible description. It says in part:

OnTuesday the 20th of Maywe left Fort Buffalo and taking all our guns with us moved over to Fort Ramsey about a mile distant here we stayed until thenext Saturdaywhen we were ordered to move down to Falls Church village to guard the hospital at that place. We took two of our 6 pounder rifled pieces with us and 50 muskets. Our duties were quite hard as we had 4 hospitals to guard which with he patrol guard which we had to keep throughout the village made our guard up to 45 men so that the men had to stand guard every other night. We had some pretty exciting times then especially on the night of the27th of May. Just at sundown one of General Whipple’s aids came riding into camp with his horse covered with foam with a dispatch from the General informing us that we should probably be attacked during the night. You know Banks had just been repulsed by Jackson and then Jackson had disappeared suddenly from before Banks front and the authorities at Washington were thoroughly frightened expecting that he would march in on the Leesburg turnpike to attack the city. We were ordered to have everything in readiness to make what defense we could and then fall back on the city…

We scoured the country fro horses and soon had some 30 or 40 with which to work our two field pieces we also sent mounted pickets out on all the roads to watch for the approach of the enemy. The captain gave me 34 good fellows with orders to arm them with muskets and be on readiness at a moments warning. I gave each man 40 rounds and then marched them out into a field below the camp but the roadside and ordered every man to lie down with his musket in his hand ready for a spring at the least alarm. I stood guard by them myself for the first two hours…

We had a set of signals arranged with General Whipple so that we could notify him of any advance in one minute after we discovered it ourselves. It was arranged in this way, we had a man stationed with a large torch in Ft Buffalo and another across on Ft Ramsey. As soon as we knew of any approach we were to wave a torch at the camp. This would be seen by the man in Ft Buffalo who would then wave his which would be seen by the man in Ft Ramsey would on a high hill beyond Ramsey we had a large pile of brush and light stuff with a guard station by it and as soon as he saw the torch wave he was to light his signal fire which could be seen at Arlington Heights where General Whipple had his headquarters…

The next night I was Sergeant of the Guard and I had guards posted for a long distance up and down the turnpike. About9 o’clockI went out to the farthest outpost and found five contrabands who had left their masters the night before and had been traveling ever since and they were happy niggers when I took them inside the lines and told them they were safe. the Capt kept one of them for a ? the rest went on to Alexandria the next day…

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