Summary:
Confederate Lieutenant Colonel James R. Herbert reports to Captain Walter K.
Martin on an expedition from Moorefield to Harrisonburg, VA. Herbert made the
trip with a number of prisoners and stragglers. He reports leaving a bushwhacker
in irons in the Staunton jail.
Capt. WALTER K. MARTIN,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.,
Valley District.
MAY 24, 1863.
SIR:
Having been left in command at Moorefield by the general, April 24, with orders to move when I got ready via Franklin to this place, I collected upward of 350 stragglers, formed them in a battalion, had 350 bushels of wheat ground into chop, and on the morning of the 27th left for this place in the following order: Advance guard (infantry), battalion of infantry, R. P. Chew's battery, Baltimore Light Artillery; wagon-train, each regiment to itself, under its quartermaster or commissary, the whole train under the especial care of Capt. P. H. Woodward, whose services were invaluable to me in having the train parked at night and move at sun-up in the promptest manner. Next came a guard of cavalry, to prevent any one on horseback getting in the way of the train, the rear being brought up by battalion of cavalry, under Lieut. J. C. Allen, followed by rear guard with myself. The prisoners sent from Greenland to me were (after my arrival here) sent on to Richmond, with the exception of one--a man by name of Shreve, said to be a noted bushwhacker--I ordered to be heavily ironed and left in jail at Staunton, subject to the general's order. The Jews I returned to Richmond.
The morning we left Moorefield I rode into the town to see that all the men were out. Just as I left the place and had got half-way to the toll-gate, about half a mile from town, I heard a dozen shots fired, citizens running, and a man rode up and reported the Yankees as having run him into town, and they were going up on the other side of the river to cut us off. The command was at least 4 miles ahead. I had 20 men with me. I dispatched a courier to Maj. William W. Goldsborough, First Maryland Battalion, to halt and send me one company of infantry back. I stopped on the hill where our camp was, but could see or hear no more of the Yankees. They came into Moorefield that evening about 3 o'clock.
I reached Harrisonburg the evening of the 30th, and reported at once to Lieut.-Col. Funsten.
To Maj. George H. Kyle I was under the greatest obligations for his zeal and activity in the double capacity of quartermaster and commissary. Having my command unexpectedly increased by the prisoners, guard, and 450 to 500 men, stragglers, for whom no provision had been made, through his aid I was enabled through a scarce country to bring everything through safely. Thinking the general would like to have it, I make this report.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES R. HERBERT,
Lieut.-Col.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 25, Serial No. 39, Pages 123-124, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
