Augusta: "Thrilling Account of a Capture in Virginia," by M. L. Leonard, Company E, 1st Virginia Cavalry, 1907
Summary: M. L. Leonard recalls the sneaky capture of Yankee troops by E. G. Fishburne and W. D. McCausland in Augusta County.
On the night of August 30, 1862, after the second battle of Manassas, Company E, of the 1st Virginia Cavalry, was ordered to advance and establish a picket line. Captain McClung sent Sergt. E. G. Fishburne, with W. D. McCausland and Henry Kennedy, on a road leading across the country and connecting with the "Little River Turnpike" to take a position and wait for further orders from him. Shortly after Fishburne had selected his position a body of horsemen approached them from the direction of the enemy. Thinking that probably it was Captain McClung returning from the front with the remainder of the company after completing the picket line, the detail allowed them to advance to within one hundred yards before calling themm to a halt. Fishburne demanded what regiment they belonged to, and received the answer, "--New York," and in return was asked "Who are you?" Fishburne replied, "4th Pennsylvania," and at once consulted with his two comrades how they could manage to capture the New Yorkers. he then asked the captain to send his orderly sergeant forward. When the orderly rode up, they disarmed him and sent Kennedy back with him, instructing Kennedy to take him to the first camp he could find and ask the commander of the camp to send him a squad of men to aid in the capture of the Yankees that he was detaining.
The Yankee captian, becoming impatient at the delay, inquired why he could not come on with his command. Wishing to consume as much time as possible and expecting reenforcements as soon as Kennedy could reach some camp, Fishburne evaded the captain's question as long as possible, and then requested him to ride up to where he (Fishburne) was, that they might consult over the matter more fully and come to some understanding. This the captain agreed to; and when he rode up, Fishburne put the drop on him and told him that if he gave the alarm to his men he would be a dead man. He then placed the captain between McCausland and himself, facing the rear, and ordered him to command his scompany forward. The captian answered, "I am your prisoner and cannot do that," adding, "I suspected something was wrong."
Fishburne then gave the command himself, "Forward! Trot! March !" and started for the rear with one prisoner and forty-two armed men following, intending to keep the space of one hundred yards between them intact; but the men riding in the rear soon closed up the space between them.> When they had marched thus for about one mile, they saw and recognized the dead body of Kennedy lying in the road, and realized that there was no hope of meeting reenforcements. At this point of the march to the rear a suspicion was aroused among their armed prisoners (for these men were no disarmed until camp was reached) when one of them said in a loud tone to his comrades: "Boys, I'll be d-- if I don't believe these fellows are Rebels. Didn't you see that dead man lying back there in the road?" He evidently thought they were nearing the battlefiedl they had so hastily left a few hours before.
McCausland says that wne he heard this chat going on among the armed men then trotting along in the rear he drew the rein a little tighter on his horse and gradually guided him to the left, so as to place himself on the flank and near the rear of the column, thinking Fishburne and himself were soon to meet the fate of Kenney, and he wanted to be in position to do some shooting himself while the fun lasted. After marching a few miles farther, they came in sight of a regiment of cavalry in camp and marched direct to it, when Fishburne repeated his second order to "Halt and surrender," and McCausland from the rear repeated the order to surrender.
This regiment was the 12th Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Col. Asher W. Harmna, and to them were turned over the captain and forty-two armed men. Then, and then only, was there any confusion in this whole affair. The surprise was so great to these men in camp that they at once secured their arms, and Fishburne had to dismount as quickly as possible and run among the men and explain to keep from being fired upon. Fishburne and McCausland at once arranged to have the body of Kennedy brought into camp, and upon examination it was found that he had been murdered by his prisoner by a stab in the heart with a knife, which had been overlooked in the hasty search of the prisoner whne captured. Kennedy's body was sent home to his parents, and now lies in the old cemetery near Crimor, Augusta County, Va.
McCausland, so far as known, is still living (?) somewhere in Texas. Whether living or dead, no two braver soldiers ever served in the Confederate army.
The account of this capture is as near Fishburne's and McCausland's own language as I can give it, and I believe correct, as I have gone over the matter with Fishburne several times since the war, and also with McCausland, and as a comrade in the same company was familiar with the details at the time as recounted by those who made the capture.
The number of the New York regiment in question, I think, was the 47th, but I am not certain. At the time we had the captain's name, also the orderly sergeant who murdered Kennedy. The boys kept a sharp lookout for him ever afterwards among all prisoners captured, and I believe if they could have gotten their hands on him they certainly would have courtmartialed him on the spot.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Leonard, M. L. "Thrilling Account of a Capture in Virginia," Confederate Veteran, Volume 15, 1907, p. 120.
