MILITARY: T. F. DORNBLASER's, "Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865" - Contents
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________________________________________________
SABRE STROKES
of the
PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS
in the
WAR OF 1861-1865.
INTERSPERSED WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES
By T. F. DORNBLASER
Army Correspondent "Dragoon," and Present Chaplain of
Lincoln Post, No. 1, G.A.R., Topeka, Kansas.
Published for the Author.
Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1884.
Copyright, 1884, by the Author.
In Perpetuam Memoriam
in
Memory of
the Heroism of My
FALLEN COMRADES
of the Seventh Pennsylvania
Veteran Volunteer Cavalry,
This Volume is Affectionately Inscribed by the Author.
[campaign map]
-v-
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I. LEAVING HOME 13
II. CAMP CAMERON, HARRISBURG 17
III. BREAKING CAMP 27
IV. OUR FIRST CAVALRY MARCH 38
V. MARCH TO NASHVILLE 48
VI. OUR FIRST FIGHT WITH MORGAN 63
VII. SUMMER CAMPAIGN OF 1862 71
VIII. FORAGING IN CLOSE QUARTERS 80
IX. BATTLE OF STONE RIVER 95
X. SABRE CHARGES ON WHEELER'S CAVALRY 110
XI. BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA 122
XII. RE-ENLISTMENT AND FURLOUGH HOME 135
XIII. RE-UNION AND RETURN TO THE FRONT 144
XIV. ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 155
XV. KILPATRICK'S RAID 172
XVI. PURSUIT AND DESTRUCTION OF HOOD'S ARMY 190
XVII. WILSON'S RAID 206
XVIII. SHOUTS AND TEARS 225
-vi-
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
XIX. CAPTURE OF JEFF. DAVIS 230
XX. RE-CONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 239
XXI. HOMEWARD BOUND 249
XXII. ROLL OF HONOR 257
-vii-
PREFACE.
THE facts and incidents narrated in the following pages are drawn principally
from memory. Diaries and letters written in "camp and field" have been
consulted, as far as possible, to correct and confirm the author's
recollections.
It is not proposed to give the history of an army, or to elucidate the plans of
any particular campaign, but simply to tell the story of army life as seen and
experienced by a soldier in the ranks.
The rank and file of the army had nothing to do in originating the plans of
battle; notwithstanding, they had more to do than all others with the successful
execution of those plans.
The writer, of necessity, must depend largely on his personal knowledge, and if
he should fail to do justice to the memory and heroism of a single
viii PREFACE.
comrade, it must be ascribed to a lack of information, and not to a want of
disposition.
T. F. D.
-9-
INTRODUCTION.
THE Independent Dragoons were organized in Nittany Valley, Pennsylvania, by
Colonel John Smith, five or six years prior to the outbreak of the rebellion.
They were organized as State Volunteers. The State furnished them with
broadswords and horse-pistols. The handsome uniforms and horse-regalia were
purchased by the men themselves, at a cost of seventy-five dollars to each man.
This troop was the best uniformed company of cavalry at the State Military
Encampment in eighteen hundred and fifty-nine and sixty.
After the promotion of Col. Smith to Brigadier General of State Militia, I. B.
Schaeffer, his son-in-law, was unanimously elected captain of the company.
This troop of horse met for drill three and four times a year. On the day
appointed they often rode from ten to fifteen miles to the place of muster,
starting before day, drilling in the field three hours in the forenoon and three
in the afternoon, charging and counter-charging, wheeling in platoons and by
company, until the troopers' legs were sore from the scrouging of their prancing
steeds.
10 INTRODUCTION.
Weary and jaded, both man and beast, the home ride had to be made that same
night. How their sides ached with the weight of the sabre! How their heads
reeled with agony under the plumed helmets! But it was heroic. The crowd of
spectators looked with admiration upon the mounted dragoons, giving expression
to their enthusiasm by huzzahs as loud and long as ever greeted the knights of
ancient chivalry. Men, women, and children along the highways, gazed with wonder
at the advancing column of these gay cavaliers. When the command was given to
fire a volley from those old-time horse-pistols, the scene beggars description.
Women shrieked, children cried, the horses stood on their hind feet and pawed
the air, and as the cloud of smoke lifted from the scene of confusion, more than
one horseman was seen on the ground readjusting his accoutrements. These pistols
had a bore large enough to admit a good-sized acorn. Like the blunderbuss, they
were calculated not so much to hurt as to scare people.
In order to increase the effect and to terrify the natives beyond measure, a
twelve-pound howitzer was planted on an eminence commanding some quiet village,
and while the cavalry dashed into town, pouring their volleys into the air,
peals of thunder and volumes of smoke were belching forth from the hill-top,
shaking the houses by the mighty concussion, and smashing in a score or more of
window-
INTRODUCTION. 11
panes, for which a generous public was always willing to pay. But this play with
firearms was soon followed by dread reality.
Sumpter fell under the fire of hostile cannon! At the first call for seventy-
five thousand men, the Independent Dragoons promptly tendered their services,
but the War Department had no use for any more cavalry.
The company was about to offer its services as infantry, when Col. Geo. C.
Wynkoop was commissioned by Governor Curtin to recruit the Seventh Pennsylvania
Cavalry, at Harrisburg. Accordingly, on the fourteenth of October, 1861, a
number of dragoons and fellow-citizens of Clinton and Centre counties enlisted
in the service of the United States.