MILITARY: T. F. DORNBLASER's, "Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865" - Contents Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm HTML TABLE of CONTENTS at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/dornblaser/sabre-strokes.htm ________________________________________________ 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.