After meeting and skirmishing with, chasing, and being chased by a detachment of the regular Yankee cavalry, he had eluded and followed them, without their knowledge, into town, where, finding them quartered in a livery stable, he formed his line around, and barricaded the streets and alleys so strongly and successfully that they could not get out except at great sacrifice. Under Captain Sheldon’s guidance Colonel Morgan dismounted his regiment to go to the relief of Company C, supporting him until morning, when an immediate surrender was asked. The Major commanding, however, refused to comply.
The brigade having arrived about daylight, a piece of ordnance was brought to bear upon the stable, the “expression” of which appeared so ferocious that the Major submitted and hung out his white flag without further hesitation. The Major, a lieutenant, and fifty men surrendered, with as many horses, splendidly equipped.
Feeding and breakfasting, we were soon moving for the “Lew” and Nashville Railroad south of Shepherdstown, and not more than twenty miles distant from Louisville. The head of the column reached the railroad about the hour that the evening passenger train north was due. The General, who was riding with the advance, sent Company A of the Fourteenth to the road on our left to obstruct the cars after they passed. Company B was ordered to intercept them in front.
We had just arrived at the crossing when the train hove in sight. Quick as thought the General had one of Burns’s field pieces upon the track, and sent its contents booming down the track, checking the train, and almost instantly the engineer commenced reversing his engine. But Company B, which was rapidly advancing, put a stop to its wild career. The guard on the train, consisting of thirty or forty infantry, contested their ground stubbornly. Getting out on the opposite side from us, they used the train for breastworks. But, to use a soldier’s term, “we went for them,” dislodging and driving them into the woods.
After ordering the driver to move his engine up to the crossing, Company B, already formed, escorted her to the General’s presence.
Her passengers were principally Yankee officers, field and staff, from whom I fell heir to several useful articles—without their consent, I imagine, if their faces were a true index to their feelings. Nor could I blame them much, for the cavalry boots, No. 6, were splendid, the navies handsome, and the swords and rigging rich and beautiful. Besides all of these, the boys appropriated some valuable property, such as gold and silver watches, meerschaum pipes, greenbacks and specie, etc. The U. S. mail numbered over a hundred sacks, which were turned over to the brigade A. Q. M., with the exception of a few sacks the boys reserved for their own use. The General let all the passengers retain their effects, save the military, and without injury, and ordered the train to return to Elizabethtown.