The June 1863 battle of Winchester was a resounding Confederate victory and a good start to the Gettysburg campaign. Confederate forces under Richard Ewell were assigned the job of capturing or pushing out the 6,900 Federals garrisoning in and around Winchester, Virginia. The Federal force was under the command of Gen. Robert Milroy. One historian writes that the Federal soldiers, largely from Ohio and West Virginia, “had done little since their enlistments but guard duty on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and their fortifications were badly suited to resist a determined attack.”[1]
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| Richard Ewell |
Milroy believed
that the gathering Confederate forces south of him were merely staging for a
cavalry raid. When news arrived that a large Confederate force had near by, it
was really too late to escape. The Confederates broke through the outer defenses
on the evening of June 14, and Milroy ordered a retreat that began at 2:00 am
the next morning. Four miles from Winchester, Milroy ran into Confederate
forces at Stephenson’s Depot. It was an “ambush cleverly laid by Ewell.”[2]
Leading the ambush were the three brigades under Allegheny Johnson. After three
failed attempts to break through the Confederate lines, Milroy ordered his
regiments to each “leave to look out for
itself, and what had once been Milroy’s command broke up in desperately fleeing
fragments.”[3]
Based upon returns
from the Federal regiment, the loses were approximately 3,856 captured, although
it is unclear just who was captured in Winchester and who was captured at
Stephenson’s Depot. The heaviest-hit were the 67th Pennsylvania
Infantry, losing 714 men, the 18th Connecticut, with 513 men
captured, and the 123rd Ohio, losing 445 men captured.[4]
Following the
battle, the prisoners were marched to the recently captured Federal forts. It
would take several days to move all of the prisoners to Richmond. On June 16,
captured Federals began to make the trip to Richmond. They, with their guards,
would travel over 200 miles, part of it on foot, and part via rails. The 58th
Virginia and the 54th North Carolina were assigned the task of
escorting the prisoners. Colonel Francis H. Board, 58th Virginia,
addressed the guards: “Men, these Yankees have fallen into our hands by the
fortune of war. I want them treated like gentlemen. If I hear of any insults or
abuse, it will be punished.” The men would walk from Winchester to Staunton,
where they boarded the cars to Richmond. According to one Federal, it took six
days, from June 18 to June 24, to reach Staunton.[5]
The Federals often
had harsh words about their captors and the citizens they met. The chaplain of
the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry complained that turnpike seemed to
burn and blister his feet. “Half-clad, many shoeless and hatless and unfed, the
cavalcade was a sorrowful one. The sufferings of the trip I cannot express.
Nothing to eat but what we begged or bought off citizens who hated us intensely,
shut their doors in our face, and from appearances would have been far better
pleased with a visit from even his Satanic majesty himself. Indeed, unless the
guard had [not] interfered in our behalf, we should have fared very badly.”[6]
A captain in the 123rd Ohio was even harsher, writing that during
the march to Staunton, “we were necessitated, by our unfortunate condition as
prisoners of war, to submit to the most contemptible treatment, and outrageous insults,
that an enraged and diabolical enemy could heap upon us. This detestable treatment
was not confined, neither was it most rampant among the soldier guards; but the
citizens outrivaled even the soldiers in the exhibition of hate and virulence.
They seemed to take great intense delight in hurling their anathemas upon us
with unmitigated fury, such as ‘d----d Yankees,’ Milroy’s thieves and robbers,’
‘black abolitionists,’ ‘every one of you, out to be hung,’ &c. &c.” Of course,
some vitriol might be expected. But at one point, the colonel of the 58th
Virginia asked if their were any musicians among the Federals captives. When
the answer was yes, he ordered them to the front, provided them with a fife and
drum, and allowed them to play what ever airs they wanted, which included “Yankee
Doodle” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”[7]
David Parker, 54th
North Carolina, was one of those detailed to guard the prisoners. He wrote home
that his column contained 2,200 Federal prisoners. “We had to march ninety two
miles by land to Stanton. It took us five days. . . I tell you that we have had
a hard time getting them here [Richmond]. We scarcely got to sleep any on the
road. We had to stand guard two hours and only sleep two hours through the
night and then march hard the next day.” On arriving in Staunton, the prisoners
were placed in the cars, fifty per car. The guards were likewise divided up.
Parker was assigned to continue the trip on to Richmond. “They then detailed
twenty eight out of our regt to guard seven hundred of them to Richmond. We
left Staunton a Tuesday evening about half an hour by sun and landed here the
next evening.”[8]
The Federal officers were sent to Libby Prison, while the enlisted men were
sent to first to Castle Thunder, and then to Belle Island.
If you are
interested in this part of the Gettysburg Campaign, let me highly recommend The
Second
Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory that Opened the Door to
Gettysburg (Savas Beatie, 2016) by Eric J. Wittenberg and Scot L. Mingus, Jr.
It is a fantastic book at this overlooked part of the history of the war.
[1] Guelzo,
Gettysburg, 60.
[2] Coddington,
Gettysburg, 89.
[3] Guelzo,
Gettysburg, 62.
[4] ORs,
Vol. 27, pt. 2, 53.
[5] Wittenburg
and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 379.
[6] Wittenburg
and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 385.
[7] Wittenburg
and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 382-383.
[8] Henry,
Pen in Hand, 91.
[9] Hess,
Pickett’s Charge, 354.
[10] Brown,
Retreat from Gettysburg, 177.
[11] Sears,
Gettysburg, 479.
Thanks so very much!
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