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The Great Escape!
"It was Sunday, the 14th of September, the day of the battle of South Mountain. The party consisted of twenty-two hundred cavalry and a number of mounted civilians who took advantage of the expedition to escape from the town before it was surrendered. Lieutenant Speaker and Colonel Davis rode side by side at the head of the column. They crossed on the pontoon bridge, which formed the military connection between Harper's Ferry and Maryland Heights, and turned up the road which runs between the canal and the Heights, riding at full charge along the left bank of the Potomac. It was a wild road; the night was dark; only the camp-fires on the mountain were visible; and there was no sound but the swift clatter of thousands of galloping hoofs, and the solitary rush of the Potomac waters.
"... We struck the pike between Hagerstown and Williamsport about two o'clock. We came to a halt pretty quick, although, for there was a Rebel wagon-train several miles in length, passing along the pike. There were no fences; and the woods were clear and beautiful for our purpose. Our line was formed along by the pike, extensive some three-quarters of a mile. Then we charged. The first the guards and drivers knew, there were sabres at their heads; and all they had to do was to turn their wagons, right about and go with us. We captured over seventy wagons, all the rear of the train. They had to travel a little faster in the other direction than they had been going, so that some of the wagons broke down by the way; but the rest we got safely off.
"It was just daylight when they arrived at Greencastle [Pennsylvania] and turned the wagons over to the Federal quartermaster there..."
-- Except from The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Cities, a Journey Through the Desolated States, And Talks With The People by J.T. Trowbridge
"Our town was thrown into the wildest state of excitement on last Monday a week by the arrival of 50 or 60 "secesh" prisoners together with a long train of wagons loaded with ammunition and guarded by a company of the first Maryland Cavalry. This train was captured that morning between Hagerstown and Williamsport, by about 1,500 of our Cavalry from Harper's Ferry, who were cutting their way through the enemy lines, which they succeeded in doing in the most successful manner, and arriving safely in this place with their valuable price, without losing a single man. This we consider the most successful exploit of the war..."
-- Valley Spirit, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1862 |