“W. P. S.,” Bee’s Brigade, On Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee and the Campaign

REMINISCENCES
OF THE LATE GEN. BARNARD E. BEE.

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On the fifteenth day of July the hills and valleys around Winchester, Va., were white with the tents of Gen. Johnston’s army, which consisted of the commands of Brigadier Generals Barnard E. Bee and E. Kirby Smith, and of Colonels Elzy, Bartow and Jackson, acting Brigadier Generals, and the cavalry command of Lieut. Colonel Stuart.

The town was all excitement under the information that Gen. Patterson had advanced from Martinsburg four miles in the directions of Winchester. Early the next morning the strains of martial music were heard on every side; the entire camp was in motion; and soon, out of the apparent disorder and confusion, came fort the regularly ordered columns, stretching along the roads leading in the direction of the enemy. The troops were in high spirits at the prospect of an engagement; but as it was well ascertained that such could not take place for a least several hours, while some of the commands took their positions in line of battle to await intelligence, General Bee availed himself of the opportunity to give the brigade some practical instruction, and spent most of the morning in “evolutions of the line.” Nothing further having been heard from the enemy, the troops were returned to their camps; but, in the evening, a courier from the ever-watchful Col. Stuart announced the enemy at Bunker’s Hill, nine miles from Winchester, and advancing. Orders were immediately issued to advance our troops to their respective positions and take up line of battle. As the order passed from camp to camp, it was received by the soldiers with the wildest enthusiasm, and the joyous shouts from determined men rang through the valleys. Every man sprang promptly to his position, and at night the men laid upon their arms in expectation of the attack, which was looked for with the first dawn of morning. The morning came; and, as hour after hour passed silently by, and still no signs of the enemy, disappointment was seen on every face. At last a messenger from Col. Stuart tells the story: “Patterson has fallen back on Bunker’s Hill, and commenced a movement to his right, which will take him to Charlestown and beyond our reach.” The lines were again retired, and the men moved sullenly back to camp. They had confidently expected to annihilate Patterson’s army of thirty thousand, notwithstanding our army numbered but little over half his force. At daybreak on Wednesday, the 18th, orders were issued that the troops should be supplied with two day’s cooked rations, and be ready to move at a moment’s notice. Early in the day orders to commanders of Brigades announced that Gen. Beauregard was being attacked at Manassas by overwhelming numbers, and that our army would be immediately moved to his support. This order was published to the troops after they were on the march, and several miles out of Winchester.

The object of Gen. Patterson in so suddenly abandoning what seemed to have been his purpose in moving on Bunker Hill, could not be certainly known. It might be to pass around and attack the unfortified side of Winchester, or it might be to get between Johnston’s army and Manassas, and prevent him from reinforcing Gen. McDowell. In either event, it was more than likely that we should encounter him en route to Manassas; and it was therefore important that the army should move with its appointments looking to an attack. Gen. Bee was in command of the rear division, consisting of his own brigade of five regiments and a Virginia battery of four brass field pieces, under the gallant Imboden; also, the brigade of Col. Elzy and Col. Stuart’s command of thirteen companies of Virginia cavalry.

The manly and soldierly bearing of General Bee, together with his constant efforts to secure for the troops of his command all the comforts that circumstances would allow, had won from them an admiration amounting to affection, which was demonstrated by the wildest and most enthusiastic cheering, as regiment after regiment defiled past him, where he stood dismounted on a slight eminence by the road side, watching to see that all was in order with the rear guard. But these men were yet to know him better and appreciate him more amid the storm of battle, the shrill sound of the enemy’s shells, and the sharp whistle of their Minnie balls filling the air – the dead and the dying strewed all around him – his cool steady courage as he moved from battalion to battalion of his command, a living, speaking example, [?]ing “death rather than defeat.”

It was late in the afternoon of the 18th July when the last regiment (the 6th North Carolina, commanded by Colonel Fisher,) left the town of Winchester. The troops were in the highest spirits, and their anxiety to reach Manassas could illy brook the frequent delays to which they were subjected by the trains of wagons extending for miles along the road between the advanced and rear columns. Hour after hour during the night the rumbling of heavy wagons and the steady tramp of soldiers echoed along the rugged road, reaching away in the direction of the Shenandoah. It was long past midnight when the exhausted teams were halted for food and rest, and the wearied soldiers stretched themselves and slept in the very roads. With the first streaks of dawn General Bee, who, with his staff, had obtained some two hours’ rest under a tree by the road side, was moving among his troops, and the column again on the march, soon reached the banks of the Shenandoah River. While the wagon train was crossing the stream the men despatched a scanty breakfast, and then themselves fording the river waist-deep, were quickly ascending the Blue Ridge Mountains through Ashby’s Gap. The scenery of this mountain pass is beautiful beyond description, but the men who then moved along it had not time or thought for the fairest beauties of nature. There was life and death on their movements, and, more than that, there was victory or defeat to our national arms, and each man strained his every nerve in the march. On reaching Paris, at the foot of the mountains, orders were received from General Johnston, who had reached Piedmont, on the Manassas Gap railroad, directing General Bee to march with his Division directly to Manassas, while the main body of the army should proceed thither by Railroad. General Bee at once issued an order detaching and organizing his command as separate from that of Genera Johnston, and commenced his march as directed. We had proceeded but a few miles, when Captain Randolph brough orders countermanding those received at Paris, and directing a junction with General Johnston at Piedmont. This was accomplished by the close of the day. When near Piedmont, a courier was met with orders for General Bee to report himself at headquarters as soon as possible. On returning from this interview Gen. Bee said, “I would have given anything in the world could I have said to Gen. Johnston, ‘my troops are in condition to march immediately to Manassas.’” That march would have taken him, as he supposed, within reach of Patterson’s force, and successfully to execute his orders in the face of such danger and obstacle, was an honor well worth the venture. He knew, however, that his men were in no condition for such a march without rest, and could not possibly make it in the time required. They had been on their feet for twenty-eight hours, most of the time under a burning sun, and without water, and not they absolutely required rest. Therefore, though with deep regret, he found himself compelled to admit that he could not go on that night, His care and solicitude for his soldiers was remarkable. He knew their wants, and made every effort to relieve them. When his column reached Piedmont he might have been seen, regardless of the drenching rain, moving everywhere among his troops, doing everything in his power which could contribute to their comfort. His gallantry, and patriotism had a parallel only in his kindness of heart.

At three o’clock in the morning the troops were ordered on board the cars for Manassas. Of General Bee’s command the Second Mississippi, the Fourth Alabama and two companies of the Eleventh Mississippi, under Lieutenant Colonel Liddell, obtained places in the train, while Imboden, with his Battery, resumed his march for Manassas. Generals Johnston and Bee, with their respective staff officers, completed the detachment which filled the train, and we proceeded to Manassas, arriving about 9 o’clock. Colonel Bartow had preceded us the evening before, with two regiments of his brigade.

We were scarcely well clear from the cars when a report was brought in that the enemy was advancing, and General Bee received orders to march his command to Camp Walker, about three miles from Manassas, in the direction of Centreville. Here he occupied only a supporting position, and it was evident to those around that a shadow overcast the face of our General. He had hoped for a post of honor, which, in his view, was in the front and nearest the enemy.

In this position our troops bivouacked during the night of Saturday, the 20th. At about 12 o’clock that night Captain Imboden reported his Battery just in from Piedmont.

At sunrise on the 21st July the booming of the enemy’s guns awoke the echoes along our whole line, and ushered in the bloody battle of Manassas Plains. I know write only of

GENERAL BEE ON THE BATTLE FIELD.

It was immediately evident that General Bee had not been overlooked, but that great confidence was placed in his judgement and military capacity, for at six o’clock he received orders to take his own command, with that of Colonel Bartow and Pendleton’s Battery (supposing Imboden’s too much exhausted), and move to the extreme left, in the vicinity of Stone Bridge, giving him a large discretion in co-operating with the Generals Cocke and Jackson of that wing.

Immediately on the receipt of these instructions the General sent for Captain Imboden, and said to hem, “Captain I have been ordered to take into battle a battery supposed to be fresher than yours; will you stand that?” “Not if I can help it,” was the reply. “Harness up, then,” was the order, “and I will leave my guide to bring you up.” Despatching an order to Colonel Bartow to follow, the General then placed himself at that head of the column, and with only a chart to guide him, started for his position on the extreme left. Advancing in the direction of Stone Bridge, or more directly on a line for Sudley’s Ford, he passed first General Jackson, and then General Cocke.

Upon communicating with these officers and learning their position, Gen. Bee at once perceived that the discretion in his orders, as senior officer, could be used to attack the enemy in advance of those with whom he had been directed to co operate. Disregarding, therefore, the suggestion of Gen. Jackson to take position between himself and Gen. Bonham, and directing that he (Jackson) had better extend towards Bonham, he passed on to the exposed left of General Cocke, where he rightly divined was the post of danger. Continuing to advance until the enemy came into full view, he quickly detected their extension to the right to turn our left flank, when, directing his march in a parallel directions, he checked the movement and compelled them to take position and form line of battle.

Imboden, with his battery, came up most opportunely, and was established on our left just as Rickett’s Battery of the enemy was advancing to their front. Leaving Col. Bartow with two regiments to support the gallant Imboden, the General, at the head of the 2d Mississippi and the 4th Alabama Regiments, advanced on the right whilst the two companies of the 11th Mississippi had been sent forward to the support of the battery under General Evans. The command of Gen. Evans had been engaged with the enemy as he advanced, but now fell back through our ranks. Our line was then advanced close on the enemy, and opened a terrible fire on Rickett’s Battery and the divisions under the command of Cols. Hunter and Heintzelman.

A portion of Gen. Evans’ command rallied in our rear, and returned to the charge, co-operating with our force. That General, reporting in person that a column of the enemy was about to turn our right, an order was sent to Col. Bartow to advance one regiment to the support of that point. The Colonel obeyed, and himself led the regiment into position. The 4th Alabama was thrown forward up the face of a hill, and there held their position close up, delivering a terrible fire, from which the enemy reeled and shook. The thunder of artillery, the heavy sound of bursting shells, around, above and below us, the sharp and incessant rattle of musketry, and the constant whizzing of the balls as the storm burst upon our little handful, was enough to shake the nerves of veterans; but our men stood firm, and time and again were the enemy hurled back, bleeding and shrinking from the well directed fire. But the storm raged on; and, as the advanced lines of the enemy melted away, new troops moved up to fill their places until overpowered by superior numbers. The Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels of both the Mississippi Regiments, killed or wounded, and many gallant officers besides, stretched upon the bloody field, our brave troops, unable longer to stay the tide, began slowly to give way. Gen. Bee, in the midst of the storm, was seen everywhere that the danger most threatened – riding up and down the lines; encouraging the troops by his voice and example; urging them, by all they held most dear, to stand up and resist the tide which threatened them with destruction. Forming his lines wherever the field offered an advantage, and in the last extremity falling back to a new position, for three mortal hours he bore the brunt of this terrible battle, disputing with his small force, inch by inch, the bloody ground, and only yielding to overwhelming numbers. Now our reserved began to come up. The first was a regiment unknown to us. The General at once assigned it position. Then came Hampton’s Legion. Still all were compelled to fall back until Jackson’s Brigade moved up. Riding up to the commanding officer, Gen. Bee remarked: You see, General, we have been overwhelmed by superior numbers, and driven back.” “Let them come on, sir, we will give them the bayonet,” was the reply. Confident that Jackson would do all that a brave man could do, the General turned from him, and once more forming his own command, now dwindled to a mere handful, addressed them briefly. I think he used these words: “Soldiers, you have fought gallantly, and have only been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers; now we are strongly reinforced; there is Gen. Jackson standing like a stone wall; if we determine to die here, we will conquer. Follow me!” And that devoted band did follow him to the death.

The impression made upon the writer by Gen. Bee, while delivering this brief address, is one which time cannot efface. Of commanding figure, with an eye of unusual expression and brilliancy, and a voice at once manly and commanding, as he rose in his saddle and uttered those memorable words, “If we determine to die here” – words which make him a patriot-martyr – he presented a picture truly sublime. His determination had been made, and near that spot he fell. He had passed safely through eight hard fought fields on the soil of Mexico, fearlessly exposing his life at the head of a company of the Third U. S. Infantry, fighting under the banner of what was then a great and glorious Union; but here, on his first battle field for his beloved South, fighting for her rights and her honor, he fell; fell, perhaps, by a ball from his own commanded ranged among his enemies on the bloody field. While advancing at the head of his troops, the fatal ball struck him from his horse, inflicting a mortal wound, and he was borne from the field by the officers of his staff. Though suffering severely, he roused himself on the succeeding morning and asked the fate of the day; when told that the enemy was totally routed, and expression of satisfaction passed across his features, and a few hours afterwards the spirit of the patriot soldier passed calmly away.

In the death of General Bee the country sustains the loss of a gallant and accomplished officer, and to he bereaved family and friends the loss is irreparable; but to him it was all that he would have asked. In his youth it is said he was ever fond of the quotation –

“The life that others pay let us bestow,
And give to glory what we to nature owe!”

He fell as a soldier should fall – amid the shock of battle, in a just cause, fighting for all the rights that man holds most dear, not for himself, but for us and for all that will come after us. And his bright example will teach others how do die in defence of their country’s honor. Many brave and noble spirits will follow him, but none more brave, more noble, or more worthy than General Barnard Elliott Bee.

W. P. S.

The Charleston (SC) Mercury, 9/7/1861

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