Civil War Tales: The Great Union Cavalry Escape from Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

    Our American Civil War of 1861-1865 is filled with stories of poor officership and delays that cost us tens of thousands of lives in the end. Here is a tale of one Union officer who was of stronger stuff.. and does not believe in waiting for defeat,

   The time was September 14,1862..the place..Harpers Ferry, W.Va. ..and it as a bad day for the Union troops stationed there..as they were surrounded by the Confederate Army of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The Union army was approx. 18,000 men in the Harpers Ferry garrison..and "Stonewall" had brought approx. 30,000 Confederates..a portion of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia that split off the main Confederate Army as Lee headed north into Maryland.

Lee is bringing the war north out of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He wants the northern population to feel the war and its terror, destruction, and loss as the south has felt it. And Bobby Lee will have his battle soon .. near a small creek called Antietam Creek

After all..CSA General Robert E. Lee has been doing well recently fighting against the Union Army .. under Union General George McClellan. Lee has had many victories the past summer of '62 during McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. The clashes of the "7 Days Battles" during June and Second Bull Run in August '62 showed Lee and the Confederate Army to be a worthy adversary. And McClellan is now even more cautious even though he has twice the men.

Lee will move north with that confidence and elan..so much so that he can take on McClellan even though he has left 1/3 of his army to take the Harpers Ferry Garrison and the soldiers.. through battle..or as prisoners to be marched to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va.

So as night falls and the Confederates dig in their artillery around the high hills surrounding Harpers Ferry to open up at dawn ( the high ground that might have been held by Union troops) the Union commanders Colonel Miles and Franklin now realizes they must surrender..or be shelled into dust.

There is however 1,300 cavalry within the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. They are the 8th New York, 12th Illinois, 1st Maryland and 7th Rhode Island Cavalry under a brave and impatient Colonel named Benjamin F. Davis.

In fact the 8th New York Cavalry, mustered up by Rochester, N.Y. is only in the saddle so to speak for about a month. They have just received their horses in August..so the previous months they were pretty much on foot..dragging their sabers and talking cavalry talk while they waited patiently for their mounts. After just a month with their ponies..there is no way they want to unsaddle and walk to a Confederate prison.

Colonel Davis himself is West Point educated..and surprisingly this southern son of Alabama who was raised in Mississippi chose to stay with the Union as the war breaks out. In fact he will lose 2 brothers during the war who fought with the 11th Mississippi Infantry. So he is dedicated to the cause..and he is an experienced veteran..and a fighter.

And Davis has a plan to escape with his troopers. So as dark falls on the little town of Harpers Ferry, he lines up his 1,300 troopers taking his post at the head of the column with his scouts and guide..and a handpicked patrol of 25 men.

The boys are surprised when the regimental sutler passes out free tobacco to the Union boys as they pass, knowing that his wagon of goods will be looted the next day by the Confederates. A little something to look forward to as the boys dream of reaching the Union lines up northwest and freedom..instead of dying slow in a rebel prison down south.

They start their march out in the dark slowly, in singe file moving at a walk toward a small bridge that will get them across the Potomac River, on the only road left unguarded by General McLaws division. (In fact this is the same road that John Brown and his small band had traveled down into Harpers Ferry just 3 years previous when he had his plan to free and arm slaves for insurrection.)

Now the boys clear the river and break into a trot, the 1,300 men now stringing out from each other as they try to follow the men in front on this pitch black night.( One officer remembered the only way we could see the men in front was by the horses hooves "striking fire" on the stones of the road.)

Continuing through backroads and small paths..through cornfields and by farmyards they finally reach Maryland. Now they are passing the small town of Sharpsburg and scatter small Rebel patrols and pickets as they suddenly have more luck than Davis would have imagined.

Suddenly, Davis hears the rumbling of a wagon train as they come upon a Rebel suppy train in the dark, full of much needed supplies for the battle coming in 3 days.

This 40+ wagon supply train belongs to none other than CSA General James Longstreet's corp, and the teamsters driving the supply train wagons see only dark cavalrymen in the dark coming up on them. So once again Colonel Davis uses his wits and in the dark using his best Mississippi accent, he poses as a Rebel officer and directs the lead team drivers to turn at the next crossroads ( actually toward Pennsylvania) and for the rebel cavalry escort to fall in at the back of his line.

He has the 8th NY accompany the wagons and as the Rebel cavalry escort rides up after seeing the turn, Davis lets his Illinois troopers attack with sabers drawn and scatters the Rebel escort.

As dawn starts to light this military procession, the rebel teamsters start to ask the Union cavalrymen "which unit are you with". They proudly yell we are with the 8th NY.. and the rebel teamsters swearing and cussing are pulled from their seats at gunpoint. He now has the 40 odd wagons that are filled with ammunition for the Rebel fight, 6 mules per wagon, and 200+ prisoners.

Toward 9 am the Union troopers, full supply wagons and prisoners reach Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Davis and his 1,300 troopers are thanking their stars as he turns over the train and prisoners to the authorities. He takes his bone tired men to a quiet field, unsaddles and his boys get some much needed sleep after their all night ride filled with fear, anxiety,and surprises. But only after they enjoy a great breakfast brought out by the women of the town.

All in all, this was a very successful little exploit, the escape and the garnishing of so much Rebel supplies. While the 18,000 Union soldiers at Harpers Ferrny are taken prisoner, the now quite satisfied Union troopers under Davis reflect on their nights escape and adventure.

One young Union cavalryman states that "soldiering wasn't so bad after all". But he knew he was just lucky to ride under an officer like Colonel Benjamin "Grimes" Davis. Alabama born, Mississippi raised, but Union to the core. Had we had more Union officers like Davis..the war would have possibly been much shorter and the losses in those terrible 4 years not so staggering for both sides.

Colonel Benjamin F. Davis, one Union officer who unlike too many others, refused to wait until tomorrow.

And he will die as tenacious and committed as he lived.

Just 9 months later in June of 1863, Davis will lead a cavalry charge near Brandy Station at a place called Beverly Ford. His command will be repulsed and he will watch his troopers fall back.

The story goes as documented that Colonel Ben "Grimes" Davis does not fall back instead firing his Colt revolver until out of ammunition, while twirling his saber in the other hand challenging all comers. A Rebel Lieutenent O.R. Allen will charge Davis, hugging his horses neck to avoid Davis's saber. Allen will fire 3 rounds at Davis..the first 2 missing..but the third hitting Davis directly in his forehead..killing him in an instant.

Just 31 years old at death..this daring young southern man..full of the dash and elan that all Americans can find pride in .. who saved 1,300 men from a certain death in a Confederate prison..will be interred at the Military Academy at West Point. His spirit of patriotism and triumph lives on.

The memory of his defiant decisions and brave actions against a greater foe eternally casting a proud and lasting shadow..from his beloved southern home in Mississippi all the way north to our own much loved Hudson River Valley.

Colonel Benjamin F. Davis..more than just a man and a soldier during those historic and desperate times..The Civil War.