Burke Davis on the Civil War by Burke Davis

Author:Burke Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504045490
Publisher: Open Road Media

The ordnance reserve train of the army stood between the Richmond-Petersburg Pike and the Woodpecker Road, not far from Swift Creek—forty-four wagons under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Packard. A storehouse at the spot was crammed with artillery ammunition, piles of mortar shells and more than 1300 pounds of gunpowder in boxes.

In the late afternoon an order reached the train: Captain Fred Colston, the assistant ordnance chief, was to see to the destruction of the supplies, except those that the wagons could carry, and join the retreat at nightfall.

Packard and Colston directed their men for an hour or more as they tossed mortar shells into Swift Creek above Dunlop’s Station. Others carried ammunition to the Pocahontas and the upper pontoon bridges for the use of engineers. The wagons moved at dark, but Packard and Colston were forced to wait. A companion, Sergeant Robert S. Burwell, was in Petersburg passing good-bye kisses to the lady friends of a wide acquaintance.

About midnight they went to Dunlop’s Station to blow up stored ammunition. A quartermaster officer arrived at the same time with orders to burn surplus food. Packard remembered of his last moments in the Petersburg campaign:

“I took a ham from the pile, which I strapped behind my saddle.… About one o’clock we rode on to overtake the train, and about an hour later we heard a tremendous report; the quartermaster had carried out his instructions. At intervals during the night as we rode along we heard the explosions which followed the destruction of our fleet in the James River. Many times during the night the sky was lit up from these explosions, and the earth seemed to tremble beneath our feet.”

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