Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah by Powell David;

Author:Powell, David;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / United States
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

While headed back north, the missing 250 cavalrymen finally caught up, but it was too late to do anything but return to Edinburg for the night. Quinn reported his findings to Moor. Moor in turn sent a courier back to Sigel, informing the army commander that while Quinn’s trip was opposed by some “enemy in front making a show . . . [they] were not believed to be in force.” This was a curious conclusion, ignoring the presence of the entire 62nd Virginia at Rude’s Hill, and it is not known whether the opinion was Quinn’s take on the afternoon’s ride or if Moor discounted Quinn’s findings. In any case, having decided that the threat to the south was minimal, Moor elected to leave the 12th West Virginia and Quinn’s cavalry battalion at Edinburg while he and the 28th Ohio returned to the main camp at Woodstock.15

Moor seemed to have forgotten about Colonel Boyd. Also left unresolved was the issue of the overheard cannon fire. In fact, that distant artillery rumbling marked Boyd’s arrival in New Market. Unlike Moor’s expedition, Boyd met with plenty of opposition. Much more than he could handle, as it turned out: he met with disaster.

Boyd’s 300 men left Luray about midday on the 13th, crossing the South Fork of the Shenandoah River a little west of town and then ascending the road to New Market Gap. Massanutten Mountain narrows here to a single ridge, with Fort Valley’s southern apex beginning just a few miles farther north along the spine of the mountain. Once Boyd’s column crested the ridge the Federals were presented with a wide view of New Market and the rest of the Shenandoah Valley spread out below. They were also visible to anyone watching the gap.

One of the first to spot the Federal column was “young Davey Crabill,” a 16-year-old private in the 18th Virginia Cavalry. Along with the rest of his company, Crabill had been sent to picket the Luray Road. Excited now, Crabill “shouted, ‘Lieutenant, lieutenant, come out here. Sir, I see men riding through the Gap.’” Plenty of others saw them, too. Charles O’Farrell of the 23rd Virginia Cavalry remembered that “a Federal regiment was discovered on top of the mountain, four miles distant.” Fascinated, O’Farrell watched as “there they halted for a few minutes and then commenced to descend the mountain, coming directly towards us. The movement was a great surprise . . .” Imboden, with plenty of time to react while the Yankees picked their way down the west face of the mountain, left Colonel Smith’s 62nd Virginia Infantry to watch Moor and took the rest of the brigade to confront this new threat.16

That pause O’Farrell witnessed was due to a debate within the Federal ranks. Captain Stevenson and Lieutenant New of the 1st New York Lincoln, leading the column, halted when they saw “a large body of troops marching up the Valley Pike, from Mount Jackson to New Market.” Stevenson was sure they were Rebels, but when Boyd rode up, the colonel insisted they must be Sigel’s advanced guard.

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