May 7, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
(From the Richmond Examiner of Monday.)
On Saturday morning the belief became general in the city that Hooker had succeeded in throwing the main body of his army across the upper waters of the Rappahannock and had established himself on a line running from Chancellorsville, on the Orange plank road, ten miles west of Fredericksburg, to Spotsylvania Court House, a point twelve miles southwest of the latter place. Though it was clear that our position had been turned by this movement, and our army deprived of the immense advantages it enjoyed in the famous battle of the 13th December, 1862, the admission gave rise to no uneasiness. The morning, however, wore away without anything transpiring.
But about 12 o’clock the city was electrified by the report that the Yankees, in immense force, had taken possession of the Central Railroad at Louisa Court House, fourteen miles southwest of Spotsylvania Court House, and sixty miles from the city, and, being uninterrupted by our troops, were tearing up the track for miles. This statement being made on the authority of the telegraph operator at Louisa Court House, who had only escaped capture after performing prodigies of pedestrianism, was currently believed, and gave rise to vague but grave apprehensions. On every hand the questions were asked, ‘Where is Gen. Lee?’– ‘Where is our army?’ In the course of an hour the above story received an addition in the shape of a report that a heavy detachment of the enemy had appeared at Columbia, and, after cutting the canal at that place, were making their way to the high bridge on the South Side Railroad. At four o’clock p.m., a city paper issued an extra containing the following:
‘The telegraph operator from Louisa Court House arrived at Frederick’s Hall Station, twelve miles this side of the Court House, at 11:45 today (Saturday). He walked from Louisa Court House to Frederick’s Hall, bareheaded and without a coat. He reports that the enemy, about one thousand strong, came into Louisa Court House at three o’clock this morning, and have since that time torn up the railroad track for a distance of four miles, in this direction and are still at the work.
‘Their first inquiry at Louisa Court House was for the operator, who made his escape by the back door while they were searching the house for him. He states that reinforcements were coming up very rapidly, and presumes that, by this time, their force must be greatly augmented. At Trevillian, five miles higher up the road, they appeared, it is reported, ten thousand strong. This, however, may be an exaggeration. The report comes, we understand, from Gordonsville via Lynchburg, and was brought to the former place by a courier.
‘The mail train on the Central Road is now at Hanover Junction, and will return to the city. The freight train which left Richmond this morning, at 4 oclock, is at Beaver Dam, and will also return, we learn, as soon as some stores there can be loaded. All the trains at and west of Gordonsville have been stopped, and none are between Beaver Dam and that point. So the enemy cannot injure us much in the way of destroying cars. We have also the gratifying information that all the stores that were at all the railroad stations, accessible to the enemy, had been removed, in anticipation of this raid. It will, therefore, prove to them a fruitless movement, except the injury to the track, which can be repaired in less time than it will take them to tear up the rails. There are no bridges nearer them than those over the Rivanna River and Moore Creed, which are about two miles east of Charlottesville and nineteen west of Gordonsville.’
The above, coolly translated, seems to mean that the Yankee cavalry, no doubt in considerable force, left Spotsylvania Court House on Friday night, with the intention of tapping the Central Railroad at Louisa Court House and Trevillian, and arrived at the former place about three o’clock in the morning; that the telegraph operator, being aroused from his slumbers by the announcement that the Yankees were upon him, fled wildly for the next station. His statements of the force of the enemy and the damage done by them to the railroad are worth nothing, as it is very clear, from his own account, that he didn’t even wait to see whether the report of the advent of the Yankees was true or false. He says he walked to Frederick’s Hall. It is more likely that he ran the whole distance. We believe that the Yankees reached the railroad, not from the telegraph man story, but because, being near Spotsylvania Court House, there was nothing to obstruct their raid.
It was expected that news of importance would be received by the Fredericksburg train on Saturday evening. It was near six o’s before the train reached the city, and the public expectation was much dashed. There had been no fighting of consequence since the affair at Chancellorsville; but cannonading at long taw and the skirmishing of pickets was incessant. The piece of news of most interest, and greatest importance if authentic, was that whilst Hooker was stretching away into the heart of Spotsylvania, General Jackson had got in his rear by ascending the Rapidan River, and was in a position to cut off his communications.
THE NEWS OF SUNDAY.
Telegrams from Beaver Dam Station, forty miles from the city, received here yesterday morning, confirmed the report that the enemy was on the Central Railroad at Louisa Court House. Farmers and other country people were from time to time bringing intelligence that the Yankees were tearing up the railroad track in the direction of Richmond. About noon an employee of the Central Railroad went with an engine on a reconnoissance up the road. When within two miles of Frederick’s Hall, fifty miles from Richmond, and twelve miles on this side of Louisa Court House, he met a negro who told him there were two hundred Yankees there; that they had not, up to the time of his leaving, interfered with anything, but expressed the intention of tearing up the track. The negro also stated that he heard the Yankees say they had torn up the track at Louisa Court House.
Towards the middle of the day it was bruited about that information had been received at headquarters that on the night before, at 12 o’clock, General Lee had attacked the enemy lines above Fredericksburg; that the battle became general and had raged with unexampled fury until 10 o’clock, a.m., yesterday. It was also reported that during the battle just mentioned five squadrons of cavalry and a large force of artillery had made a desperate attack on our troops at Hamilton’s Crossing, and been repulsed with great slaughter. About five o’clock the ambulance committee received orders to repair this morning to Guinea’s Station. These reports, together with the last mentioned fact, increased the general anxiety to hear from our army direct. At three o’clock crowds began to collect about the Fredericksburg depot, which, by five o’clock, had swelled to several thousands. It was expected that the train due at five o’clock, p.m., would come laden with wounded, and bring some definite intelligence of movements on the Rappahannock. But six and then seven o’clock came without any appearance of the anxiously looked for train. This delay was accounted for by the great length of time which it was known would be occupied in transporting the wounded to the cars and getting them aboard.
Shortly after seven o’clock, however, all uncertainty as to the delay was removed by the arrival of Mr. John Davis, of Hanover, who had ridden down from Ashland, to bring the information that two hundred Yankee cavalry had reached that place about three o’clock, p.m., and were engaged in destroying the railroad track. Mr. Davis said his information of the appearance of the Yankees at Ashland had been brought to his house by a member of the City Battalion, who was on a visit in the neighborhood. Not choosing to rely upon the statement of any one, he took a horse and rode to within a short distance of the place. On getting within sight he saw what appeared to him to be the railroad track on fire. Without further delay he came to this city to warn the railroad authorities of the danger.
About the time of the above arrival, a gentleman in the Confederate service, named Tally, who resides at Frederick Hall, also reached the city. He left home yesterday morning with the design of reporting the movements of the enemy cavalry. He reported that they were crossing the country from Frederick’s Hall towards Richmond, in three or more detachments, and by different roads; and that he had reached here only by flanking them, which he was enabled to do by his knowledge of the country.
After the receipt of this information there was little room left to doubt but that the Yankees had captured the long expected train unless the conductor happily had received intelligence of their presence at Ashland in time to enable him to put back. A train came down the Central Road at half-past seven, a.m., bringing information that the down Fredericksburg train had passed the Junction at two o’clock. This settled the matter. And up to the time of writing there seems no reason to doubt that the train and its freight of sick and wounded soldiers has fallen into the hands of the enemy.
LATER – RUMORED ADVANCE OF THE ENEMY UPON RICHMOND
At eight and a half o’clock, p.m., it was reported that two couriers had arrived at General Elzey’s headquarters, bringing the report that the enemy with cavalry and artillery, about six thousand strong, was advancing on Richmond by the Brooke Turnpike and the old Short Pump road, and that he was then only nine miles distant. The couriers had themselves only seen fifteen or twenty of the enemy, and how they managed to estimate the number we have been unable to ascertain. It is unnecessary to add that implicit credit was not given to the story of the couriers, though it was felt it might contain too much truth to be safely disregarded.
We are happy to be able to give what we believe to be the proper solution of the above story. At two o’clock yesterday, Mr. Mereweather Macmurdo and two other young men, all residents of Ashland, hearing that the Yankees were in the neighborhood, started out on horseback on a scout. When about four miles west of Ashland, on the Mountain Road, they came unexpectedly within a hundred yards of a party of thirty or forty Yankee cavalry. The Yankees saw them, but did not fire upon them. As our informants were making their way to this city, they saw a dense column of smoke in the direction of Ashland. The only railroad buildings at the place were a depot and a large wood house filled with green pine wood, both of which were no doubt destroyed. Before Mr. Macmurdo left Ashland, an empty railroad train had started for this city. As up to a late hour last night it had not arrived, it is believed that it also has been captured. About eight o’clock last evening a telegram was received by the President of the Fredericksburg Road, stating that the Yankee cavalry were at Ashland, and had certainly captured the ambulance train, containing a number of sick and wounded.
THE LATEST.
At half past seven o’clock last evening a telegram was received from Hanover Junction, stating that General Pettigrew and staff had reached that point in safety. Half an hour later the telegraph wires on the Central Railroad were cut, and with it all communication between this city and General Lee’s army. From what we have been able to learn from all sources, we believe this to have been the plan of the raid so successfully carried out by the Yankees. A thousand or twelve hundred strong, they came to Louisa Court House at three o’clock a.m. on Saturday, and separated into three equal parties – one party striking due west across the country to Columbia, to cut the Aqueduct at that place, another taking route for Ashland, and the third applying themselves to tearing up the track and doing other damage on the Central Railroad. These three detachments, after performing each its allotted work, rendezvoused at Ashland, and thence made for the Central Railroad, near Hanover Court House, where they cut the telegraph wires, and perhaps burnt the bridge on the South Anna. From this point they most probably bore east, crossed the Mattapony, and thence due north to Port Royal. This idea of their route was first suggested to us by the fact that at six o’clock p.m., last evening, they were known to be at Ashland, and two hours later the wires on the Central road, eight or ten miles distant at the nearest point, were cut.
THE BATTLE AT FREDERICKSBURG.
All that is known of the battle said to have been fought near Fredericksburg yesterday, comes through an unofficial telegram, which states that after the severest battle of the war, we repulsed the enemy at all points save one, but that he succeeded in taking Marye’s Hill; that the slaughter of the enemy was very great, and that we captured five thousand prisoners. Both Generals Jackson and A.P. Hill were wounded, the former so slightly as not to be forced to leave the field, but the latter seriously, a musket ball having passed through the calf of his leg. Nothing is known of the positions of the armies during the battle. The announcement that Marye’s Hill had been taken adds to the confusion of ideas on the subject. There are two Marye’s Hills, one at Fredericksburg and the other at Hamilton’s Crossing. We hope that the news of today will clear up all doubts and confirm the opinion that we have achieved another victory on the blood-stained plains of Spotsylvannia. We are glad to be able to say, in conclusion, that, by the best informed the damage to our communication is not believed to be so serious that it cannot be repaired in a day.
(From the Richmond Whig of Monday.)
Mr. John Atkinson, engineer of the ambulance train, reached the city at a late hour. He states that as the train neared Ashland, he was fired upon by the Yankees, which was the first intimation he had of their presence. He immediately fell back upon the tender as if dead, when several soldiers got up, and finding that he was alive, compelled him to run the train on to Ashland, where it was burnt, with a material train which was there. The buildings were not destroyed. The bridges on the road are safe. Mr. Atkinson was make prisoner, and as he stood conversing with a Yankee officer whom he formerly knew as a workman at the Tredegar Foundry, in Richmond, managed, by stratagem, to make his escape to the woods, and travelled eight miles to Hungary Station. Here he procured a hand car and came on to the city. The Yankee told him that about 500 were engaged in the raid at Ashland, but that the entire expedition was some 5000 strong. The sick and wounded on the ambulance train were removed to the buildings at Ashland.
(Correspondence of the Whig.)
The heavy firing heard up the river at the time the return train for Richmond started was occasioned by a partial engagement on the ‘Old Turnpike Road,’ about seven miles above Fredericksburg. The troops engaged on the part of the Confederates were McLaws’ division. The enemy crossed in large force at Piney Fork, fifteen miles above, and at Eley’s Ford, on the Rapidan. Coming down, they expected to take our forces in the rear, who, informed of the advance, wheeled and awaited the attack. The engagement was not expected to occur today, but, owing to the heavy skirmishing between Kershaw’s brigade and those of the enemy, it precipitated the conflict, which resulted in the repulse of the enemy, who were driven up the road, foiled in his confident expectation of falling in upon our rear unawares.
The engagement, as I have stated, was very partial, the bulk of our army in that direction taking no part whatever. It commenced about 1 o’clock, lasting for two or three hours, accompanied with heavy and rapid cannonading. At this early hour after the fight I have been unable to ascertain definitely the casualties on either side, but, from the most reliable information, may set down our entire loss, killed, wounded and missing, at 100. From the style in which the enemy were fought and driven back, he must have suffered severely. At this writing, the noise of battle has entirely ceased, and everything has subsided into quiet. It is believed that three-fourths of Hooker’s army have been massed and crossed the river at the fords above, which accords with the belief I have heretofore expressed in my communications, that the indications for two or three weeks past showed that such was his plan. The extreme right wing of that portion of our army rests on Banks’ Ford, three miles above Fredericksburg.
This morning I visited the batteries on the crest of the hill, near Hamilton’s Crossing, which command the inclined plane – about a mile in width – to the river. Here were stationed the Rockbridge Battery and a section of the Chesapeake Battery, with several splendid 20 pounder rifled guns. About 5 o’clock they opened on the Yankees stationed on this side of the river, and did splendid practice and execution judging from the haste with which they […..] down under the protection of the hill, our shell falling among them with great accuracy. Their batteries on the other side replied, but without effect, their missiles falling harmlessly short, or going over to a considerable distance beyond. From this point, up to Deep Run, our men confront the enemy – both in line of battle – the pickets of both being within three hundred yards of each other. We have still possession of the road running from Hamilton’s Crossing to Fredericksburg, and which runs midway through the plane between Hamilton Heights and the river.
Coming up our line of pickets, the enemy could be seen very distinctly erecting batteries and throwing up breast-works just below the Pratt House. It is estimated that about 10,000 have crossed, from the mouth of Deep Run down to our extreme right, opposite Hamilton’s Crossing. On the other side of the river, there appears a perfect cloud of tents, which have been moved up and pitched since the crossing was effected. Large numbers of troops also may be seen on the other side, immediately opposite.
In the skirmish Wednesday – the day the enemy first crossed – only two of our regiments were engaged – the 18th Georgia and the 6th Louisiana – not the 2d, as has been stated. The latter lost 25, as nearly as can be ascertained, in killed, wounded and prisoners. The 13th Georgia lost two killed and several wounded. Being hard pressed by overwhelming numbers, these regiments, though fighting very gallantly, did not, as I learn, succeed in bringing off all their dead. Our troops still hold Fredericksburg, no demonstration to cross or to bombard the town having been made.