University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXV.

During the weeks immediately succeeding the victory at
Manassas, Colonel Pendleton, as chief of artillery, was engaged
in distributing the guns, caissons, horses, etc., captured from the
enemy. The cannon were especially valuable, and the artillery
captains were eager to replace their old-fashioned iron six-pounders
by the heavier howitzers and Parrotts taken from the Federal
army. To give him complete control over all these munitions
he was made temporary chief of ordnance, and his previous duties
assigned to Captain E. P. Alexander.

Of this work General Johnston says, "The captured material
enabled Colonel Pendleton to increase and improve our artillery

very much."[1] But the need for more artillery was great, and it
was evident that every effort must be made to obtain an increase
of guns, caissons, horses, accoutrements, and, above all, ammunition.
On the 10th of August, General Johnston wrote to President
Davis urging an increase of this arm, "by borrowing from
the States or by casting, especially in Richmond,"[2] and asking
particularly for twelve-pounder howitzers. Mr. Davis promised to
have a number of these sent to him as fast as Major Gorgas could
have them made and mounted.[3]

To expedite this work, and especially to press forward the
making gun-carriages, harness, and all the varieties of material
requisite for the equipping a number of new batteries, Colonel
Pendleton was sent to Richmond, with full authority to procure
cannon, caissons, harness, horses, etc., and, above all, ammunition.
His orders were in an autograph letter from General Johnston:

General Johnston's efforts to bring up his artillery to full
efficiency were unremitting. August 18 he telegraphed Colonel
Pendleton in Richmond,—

"Captain Riley tells me that there are four six-pounders
mounted, but without caissons, at Fort Johnston, North Carolina.
Try and get them."

By constant and unwearying diligence Colonel Pendleton accomplished
most important results. A letter to his wife, written
on the 22d, tells of his work up to that date:

"Have had a great deal to do here in pushing up artillery
preparations. Will have several batteries at Manassas next
week, and several others the week after, etc. Several difficulties
obstruct the way. Want of tin to make brass; only one good
foundry here, deficiency of hands, etc.; and, not least of all, no
suitable head in the War Department. Still, by hook or by
crook we get along. And I trust our force, artillery and all, will
be strong for the work to be done. The Lincoln dynasty will
press the war, I am persuaded, to the bitter end. You are all
improving in health, I trust. Sickness prevails very much in
every division of our army. The news from Missouri very
cheering. . . . My duties about harness, etc., may take me to
Staunton and Lynchburg. If so I shall take Lexington in the
way for next Sunday. I long to be back in the brigade again.
All this equipping work is the plague of my life. But it must be
done, however disagreeable."

General Johnston wrote to him about this time:

The want of equipments for the batteries was almost more
difficult to supply than that of the guns. So many skilled mechanics
had gone into active service that workmen enough to
supply the larger establishments were scarcely to be found.
These were, therefore, unable to undertake large contracts for
furnishing the needed artillery supplies.

To contract for them by the dozen or score wherever blacksmiths,
wheelwrights, harness-makers, and tinners could be found
was the only resource. This was accordingly done throughout
the small towns and villages in the Shenandoah Valley and
Piedmont country. From them, with the aid of a capable workman
here and there, sent home from the army for the purpose,
the necessary equipments were procured. The spirit of the people
at home was stirred within them to assist, as best they might,
their sons, brothers, and husbands who had proved such gallant
defenders in battle. Old men and boys wrought at the forge and
carpenter's bench, while the women made tents, uniforms, and
knapsacks.

To visit these small contractors and encourage them, and
wherever it was possible to engage others in the same work, was
part of Colonel Pendleton's most important business. For this
purpose it was necessary to see the cannon-founders and other
workmen in Lynchburg and the harness-makers in Staunton.
Passing from one place to the other in September, he had the
happiness of spending a few days in Lexington and preaching
to his congregation. Here, too, he persuaded some of his neighbors
to make for him harness, canteens, and other small articles.
This brief visit home—the only one till the winter of 1863—was
intensely enjoyed, but in a few days he was back at his arduous
task in Richmond.

The want of ammunition for the artillery was even more pressing
than that of larger and better guns. Such, indeed, was the
absolute scarcity of it in the army at Manassas, that had the
Federal general made an advance during the late summer and
autumn no long fight could have been maintained by the Confederate
forces. General Johnston refers to his deficiencies in this
respect in his "Narrative."[4] The messages to Colonel Pendleton

to hurry forward the needed ordnance supplies were frequent
and urgent.[5]

The government in Richmond made strenuous exertions to
supply all the calls made upon it.[6] On the 5th of September
President Davis wrote General Johnston,—

"Every effort shall be made to furnish you the howitzers you
want. Colonel Pendleton will give you details. . . . My means
are short of the wants of each of division the wide frontier
I am laboring to protect."[7]

But the exigencies continued great and pressing. On October
27, 1861, Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War, wrote
to Governor Letcher, of Virginia,—

"Dear Sir,—We are in very urgent straits for powder, which is
being required on all sides for the defence of the frontiers of Virginia.
During your absence the Secretary of State gave me an
order for five hundred barrels of rifle powder to be sent at once to
General Joseph E. Johnston, who made a pressing request for its
immediate transmission, but I learn that your chief of ordnance
has suspended the order. There are also seventy-five barrels of
cannon powder in the Bellona Arsenal which it would be very
important to send to General Magruder for the heavy guns sent
to Yorktown and Gloucester Point. Could you not do me the
favor to put this powder at my disposal? I will settle for it on
any reasonable terms, and it shall not be used out of the State.
. . . I am told that you have four twelve-pounder bronze howitzers
not in use. General Johnston is constantly asking for howitzers,
and I will send them also to him if you will let me have
them."[8]

This was a few weeks after Colonel Pendleton's return to
Manassas. While he continued at work in Richmond the range
of his duties constantly widened as his efficiency became daily
more apparent. The confidence in his ability to comply with any
demand made upon him seems to have been almost unlimited.

Of his return to Manassas Colonel Pendleton wrote to his
daughter Rose from Fairfax Court-House,—

To his sister-in-law, Miss A. R. Page, he wrote from Centreville,
October 22,—

". . . You have heard, I suppose, that I have gotten the captaincy
and quartermastership in my corps for John. He is much
needed, and will, I hope, come in a few days. It will give him
an immense amount of labor, but on that account he will rather
prefer the life, I reckon. He will, of course, belong to my staff,
and live with me. This will be doubly agreeable.

"Camp-life, at all times a trial to one of my age and habits, is
peculiarly so in weather like this, so damp and chilly. Still, I
get along quite comfortably, all things considered,—sleep well,
have a good appetite, and am kept so far from sickness.

"On Sunday, for the first time, I had an opportunity to preach
to my new command. They were very attentive, morning and
afternoon. Good was, I trust, done. Lewis Coleman[9] is under
my command, and is very pleasant. His lieutenant, Jones, spoke
to me about joining the church."

His immunity from sickness did not continue very long. A
large number of the privates and officers were down with measles,
camp fever, and various other ailments incident to the
crowding into camp of men unused to exposure. A letter from
his son, written on November 3, informs his mother that "papa
has jaundice very badly." On the 5th, Colonel Pendleton wrote
himself, to relieve his wife's anxiety, on the same sheet which his
son had begun,—

"When Sandie had written this far, night before the last, he fell
to nodding. I was in bed, and noticing how quiet he was, looked
and found him fast asleep. To arouse him was the next thing,
of course. I then fell asleep myself, but, waking up after some
minutes, found him nodding again; advised him to go to bed,
which he did. Since then he has been so busy he could not
write. Indeed, yesterday, under orders from the War Department
in Richmond, General Jackson and his staff left here about
twelve, via Manassas, for Winchester. I was sorry to be thus
separated from them, but commit him and the rest to the same
guardian care of God which I endeavor to make my trust for
them as for myself here. I do not yet send for you to meet me
at Orange Court-House, as I at first intended, my purpose still
being to try fairly for a cure here. But I am beginning to have
my doubts about being adequately attended to here. Randolph
Page[10] is right far off and has a great deal to do, and it is not
always practicable to get the most proper medicines. The remedies
I have taken so far have not affected me much one way or

another. I am as yellow as any white human being you ever
saw,—more like a Malayan than one of the European stock.
Still, although weakened and feeling good for nothing, I am not
seriously sick by comparison with what I so often experience.
On the whole, I have abundant reason to be thankful."

His persistent devotion to his duties and the exposure and exertion
consequent upon it retarded his recovery, and he was again
very sick. His son-in-law, who had been, on General Jackson's
recommendation, commissioned major and assigned to the Thirty-third
Virginia Regiment, became very ill with camp fever about
this time and went on sick-furlough to Lexington. To Mrs. Lee
her father wrote,—

All during his own protracted indisposition he had been untiring
in his care for the comfort and welfare of his men. The
captains were required to make reports of the number of blankets
their companies had. As in frequent instances the deficiency
was greater than could be supplied from their homes or by the
government, Colonel Pendleton resolved to try what he could
procure for them by personal appeal.

To the Episcopal congregations at Millwood and Berryville he
wrote,—

"Imagine what it must be to men accustomed to those home
comforts in which you still rejoice to pass these chilly nights
within tent-walls, covered by only one blanket! to perform
guard or picket duty away from all shelter, with no more wrapping!
How much suffering must result from this exposure!
How many valuable lives may be sacrificed! Now, however, we
have but the foretaste of frost; presently winter will be here, with
its snow, ice, and piercing blasts. What, then, must be the fate
of your gallant defenders if more comfortable wrapping is not
furnished them? Not only their fate, but that of the great cause
for which they are exposed?

"Your inquiry at once is, What can be done? This is the
answer. Give to the cause all the blankets you can spare. Some
households can spare only one, some several; the aggregate will
be large. The plan generously proposed by some of devoting
their carpets to this purpose, though well worthy of trial in an
ultimate emergency, seems not now best. Because such wrapping
is at once too heavy for a soldier to carry and too unpliable to
keep him warm. Nor is any kind of quilting with cotton good.
Because when once moistened, as all covering in camp is often
likely to be, it is exceedingly difficult to dry. All the blankets,
therefore, you can, devote to the cause."

Officers shared also his care and attention. On Sunday night,
November 24, he writes,—

". . . Again I employ the evening of the Lord's day in writing
to you, and surely I have occasion in doing so to praise God for
His goodness and the mercies I enjoy. Twice have I been privileged
to meet with the congregation in the Lord's house here,—
disfigured though it be with worse than foolish scribblings on the
walls,—and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And
now, while the pitiless snow-storm is pelting hundreds and thousands
of good men and true in tents frail and cheerless, I am
sheltered in a good house, within a comfortable room. I finished
supper a half-hour ago, shared in part by one of our young
assistant surgeons, Dr. Perrin, of Alabama,—a very nice fellow,
whom I found so sick in his tent from taking cold that I insisted on
his sharing my room. It has perhaps saved him from a dreadful
attack,—likely, indeed, from the grave. He is now much better,
and will soon be well,"

Four days later:

". . . Lewis Coleman is now an inmate of my room and bed.
Yesterday afternoon I found him so sick that I insisted on his
coming to our room. He is really very sick. He is, as I have
mentioned before, a fine fellow and a capital officer. We are pretty
thick in one room,—not quite sixteen feet square,—Coleman, Dr.
Perrin, John, Willie, and myself. But it was right to shelter these
invalids. Tents won't do for sick men. They are bad enough at
this season for well ones."

Under this conviction he soon took steps to render his command
more comfortable. A few days later he says,—

". . . I am having a hut encampment made for my corps a mile
and a half back of our present camp. It is in the woods, so that
logs are abundant. We shall also have plenty of firewood and be
sheltered a good deal from the wind by trees left standing on the
north side. It will be vastly more comfortable for the men even
in such rude apologies for houses than in tents, and much less
conducive to disease. We have, in fact, quite a number sick from
cold in various forms, fever, jaundice, pneumonia, etc. It is
doubtful whether these will be our winter-quarters, but, even if
we stay only a week or two, that much comfort will have been

secured and the men will have the advantage of cheerful work.
Sandie has probably written you that he has his commission as
first lieutenant and aide-de-camp. I am grieved to learn that
Edwin Lee continues so sick. Let him nurse himself until he
feels quite restored."

The number and apportionment of the artillery with the army
under General Johnston at this time is thus stated in a letter to a
friend:

". . . It has required, as you in part know, a great deal of varied
care, labor, and responsibility to get up our artillery force to anything
like dimensions for an encounter with the formidable array
preparing on the other side, and to secure anything like adequate
efficiency in officers and men so suddenly raised for service on
which so much may depend. Success nothing short of remarkable
has attended these efforts. Every brigade of this army has
its own battery,—often of six pieces, occasionally of four,—besides
the reserve corps under Major Walton. And in addition to these
I have under my immediate charge, for drill and for action, the
large reserve force of nine batteries, numbering forty-four guns,
with several other batteries expected."[11]

To one of his daughters he describes his life at this time:

"We are up about sunrise daily, get breakfast in our room as
soon as Jackson[12] can have it ready, and then generally walk a
mile to my camp. There I discharge all the office business requiring
my attention, such as issuing necessary orders for the day,
writing official letters, passing judgment upon applications of
various kinds, such as for leaves of absence, for supplies of this
or that which may be needed, etc. Then I ride out on some
field duty, inspecting breastworks, examining the country, etc.,
and now superintending the building of the log huts for my corps.
It will be quite a little city of cabins, with straight streets. The
boys call it 'New Centreville.' If this fine weather lasts a few
days longer we shall get right snugly sheltered from rain,

frost, and biting blasts, and have our poor horses also under
shelter.

"But it may very well be that by the time we get things ready
for so much of comfort that we shall have to dash off with all
speed to meet Lieutenant-General McClellan. That he will venture
here at this critical season I hardly think. He is too liable
to be caught in the trap of boggy roads, a deep snow, or a spell
of rain that may render next to impossible either his advance or
retreat. . . . To return to my history of a day by this one as a
specimen. About twelve I rode to this new encampment, where
axes, hammers, etc., were enlivening the woods with their music.
It was four when my duties there were over. Then other duties
called me to the old camp. These over and my horse being
cared for, your Uncle John and I walked back to our lodgings,
it being dark when we reached our room.

"So our days pass. No great variety, no high excitement,
and very little to stimulate the intellect or stir the heart. You
see, then, what a special blessing it is to get letters from home
and to write in return. I have said nothing about dinner. Today
I took none. Sometimes we return for it to our room, sometimes
we share the viands of some friend, and sometimes we make
a fast of it. Near the new encampment, if McClellan does not
summon us away, I shall probably be quartered in an humble
road-side dwelling. If so, your mamma might possibly visit us
in the winter. If we are still threatened here I cannot expect to
get away for a long time."

McClellan did not come, but the uncertainty as to his movements
continued, and Colonel Pendleton, feeling that he could
not ask for a furlough, made arrangements for his wife to visit
him. Her going was delayed by the death of her eldest brother,
Mr. Lucius Page.

On the last day of 1861 he received a letter from Bishop
Meade, who kept up a regular correspondence with him:

STATEMENT OF GUNS, CARRIAGES, CAISSONS, ETC., ORDERED.

• Talbott & Bro., thirty 6-pounder carriages; no caissons. Ten will be completed in
  a few days, and ten each three months till the order is finished.
• P. Rham, fourteen 6-pounder carriages and caissons. Four of each delivered, four
  will be ready in ten days, and the remaining six in three weeks.
• J. R. Cato, three 6-pounder carriages and caissons.
• I. & J. Van Pelt, twenty-five 6-pounder carriages and caissons.
• Tappy & Lumsden, twenty-five 6-pounder carriages and caissons.
• Tappy & Lumsden, five 24-pounder carriages.
• Ettenger & Edmond, sixteen 6-pounder carriages and caissons. Deliveries of four
  of each will be made every two weeks.
• H. M. Smith, ten 6-pounder carriages and caissons.
• B. F. Harris, six 6-pounder carriages and caissons.
• Anderson & Co., twenty-four 12-pounder carriages and caissons.
• P. Rham, six 12-pounder carriages and caissons. Completed in six weeks.
• Rice & Wright, forty 24-pounder carriages and caissons.
• Anderson & Co., sixty 24-pounder carriages and caissons; no limbers.

GUNS.

• Anderson & Co., twenty-four 12-pounder howitzers; forty-eight 3-inch iron rifled
  guns; sixty 6-pounder carriages and caissons; twenty-four 6-pounder iron guns.
• Noble Brothers & Co., six 6-pounder brass guns; fifty 3-inch iron rifled guns.
• Rice & Wright, forty 24-pounder howitzers.
• J. L. Archer, forty 12-pounder howitzers.
• F. B. Deane, Jr., & Son, forty 12-pounder howitzers.
• J. L. Archer, eighty 3-inch iron rifled guns.

RECAPITULATION.

                   

6-pounder brass guns	6
6-pounder iron guns	24
		30
3-inch, iron rifled guns		178
12-pounder howitzers		104
			312
6-pounder carriages			219
6-pounder caissons			189
24-pounder carriages complete			45
24-pounder carriages; no limbers			40

Richmond, August 17, 1861.

• Talbott & Bro., Richmond.
• J. R. Anderson & Co., Richmond.
• Philip Rham, Richmond.
• Ettenger & Edmond, Richmond.
• H. M. Smith, Richmond.
• Rice & Wright, Florence, Alabama.
• J. L. Archer, Black Heth, Chesterfield, Virginia.
• Noble Brothers & Co., Rome, Georgia.
• I. & J. Van Pelt, Petersburg, Virginia.
• Tappy & Lumsden, Petersburg, Virginia.
• F. B. Deane, Jr., & Son, Lynchburg, Virginia.
• B. F. Harris, Charlottesville, Virginia.

HARNESS.

• Messrs. Cottrell & Co., Richmond, unlimited order. Contracted through Major
  Smith, New Orleans, four hundred sets for two horses.
• The most perfect list of the distribution of this artillery is the Report of the Artillery
  in vol. v. of the Official Records, pp. 1029–1032:
• Kemper's battery, Virginia, to Bonham's brigade.
• Jeff. Davis Artillery, Alabama, Captain Boudurant, attached to Early's brigade.
• King William Artillery, Virginia, Captain Carter, to Rodes's brigade.
• Wise Artillery, Virginia,—brigade.
• Wilcox's brigade, Thomas's artillery.
• Toomb's brigade, Blodget's battery.
• Ewell's brigade, Loudoun Artillery, Virginia, Captain Rogers.
• Dr. R. Jones's brigade, Fauquier Artillery, Virginia, Captain Stribling.
• —brigade, Latham's artillery, Virginia.
• Elzey's brigade, Baltimore Light Artillery, Maryland.
• Trimble's brigade, Courtney's artillery, Virginia.
• Taylor's brigade, Bowyer's artillery, Virginia.
• —brigade, Staunton Artillery, Virginia.
• Wigfall's brigade, detachment Reilly's artillery, North Carolina; Rives's battery,
  South Carolina.
• Griffith's brigade, detachment Richmond howitzers.

RESERVE ARTILLERY.
(Colonel Pendleton commanding.)

• Ashland Artillery, Virginia, Captain Woolfolk.
• Cocke's battery (Fluvanna Artillery), Virginia, Captain Ancell.
• Morris Artillery, Virginia, Captain Coleman.
• Sumter Artillery, South Carolina, Captain Cutts.
• Powhatan Artillery, Virginia, Captain Dance.
• Hamilton's battery, Georgia.
• Holman's battery, Virginia.
• Amherst Artillery, Virginia, Captain Kirkpatrick.
• Lane's battery, Georgia.

(Major Walton commanding.)

• Washington Light Artillery Battalion, Louisiana.
• French's brigade, Braxton's battery, Maryland Flying Artillery.
• General Garnett's brigade, Rockbridge Battery, Captain McLaughlin.
• Heavy batteries at Manassas, Acquia and Potomac Creeks; Cooke's battery,
• Brooke's Station.