1813-1863
Colonel, 1st Maine Cavalry
Killed at Aldie, Virginia
It wasn't that Maine folks weren't familiar enough with horses, but they didn't go in much for riding, unlike so many Southerners. They used horses for pulling wagons, buggies, carriages and sleighs. At least one company of recruits were all seafarers from the coast, and they found learning to drill on horseback in snow and ice particularly trying, what with all the small boys, pretty girls and State officials in Augusta looking on.
The regimental historian described one of their low moments: "... Company K was largely composed of sea-faring men and Captain Prince was himself an old sea captain. On the occasion of a review of the regiment by Governor Washburn, Joe Gatchell of this company found himself and horse crowded out of his place in the line, and his best efforts failed to navigate the horse back into place. Captain Prince noticed his situation, and forgetting his military in his anxiety that his company should present a correct appearance before His Excellency, he called out in the old quarter-deck tone and manner, 'Come up there! What in hell are you falling astern for!' This put Joe in sailing trim at once, and quicker than thought he replied, 'Why Captain, I can't get the damn thing in stays!' 'Well, give her more headway, then!' was the reply."
They discovered to their horror that many of the horses purchased for them had never been broken in. The newly raised 11th Maine Infantry moved into camp right next to them and added their hoots and jeers. The cavalry boys had to learn sabre drill, but were issued no sabres, and so had to improvise with sticks and wooden lathes. To complete their misery, they were encumbered with a band which was supposed to tootle around mounted with them as they performed their manoeuvers!
It's a wonder they didn't all desert. But by the spring of 1862 they were in the field, scattered in battalions and squadrons in the Shenandoah Valley and elsewhere in Virginia; and they learned their trade very quickly. In the valley, the Confederate General Turner Ashby said to one of his 1st Maine Cavalry prisoners: "You are of the 1st Maine Cavalry are you? A fine set of fellows. I have met no such cavalry. They were stubborn as mules. I couldn't move them a damned inch without shelling them. Banks owes his escape to that force!" But, it would be another year before any Federal cavalry could match the hard-riding skills of their Confederate opponents. At that time, in the spring of 1863, all the companies and battalions were brought back together into one regiment and, beginning in June, they showed their mettle in a series of thunderous fights with Jeb Stuart at Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville.
Years later William O. Howe of Company G wrote a long account of his service for the Adjutant General who was seeking material for a history of Maine's part in the Civil War. Howe had served out his three years with the 1st Maine Cavalry, and reenlisted with the 1st Maine Volunteer Sharpshooters. That unit was consolidated with the 20th Maine. He was with them at Appomattox. But of all his experiences, the fight at Aldie stood out most in his memory. Here is a partial transcript of his account with his original spelling and punctuation intact:
"I wish to call attention particularly to the part I played in
the Aldie Battle at the time of the fall of Colonel Daughty of the 1st
Maine Cavalry = of course the main details and part taken by our Regt.
will all be set forth by others in a more general and detailed manner but
for the purpose of correcting an error I wish to state that when that famous
charge was made, up the road towards the heights of Aldie Col. Daughty
kept to the right and in the open field while the Regt. charged up the
road close at the heels of the enemy and midst such a storm of dust that
it was impossible to tell the dividing point between friends and foes.
To add still more to the confusion and bewilderment of the situation; the
storm of shot and shell which came pouring down into the road and spreading
devastation to our troopers; rendered it quite out of the power of the
Colonel to have anything like control over the infuriated old 1st Maine
who at that particular moment knew no officers and who like a wild horse
with the furor of a tornado plunged onward and upward with but one object
- i.e. to reach the heights or die. This was the situation and while Daughty's
subbordinate staff and field officers were in the fray and mostly, as I
believe, at their proper stations; The Col. for the purpose of a more advantageous
position of command regardless of the additional danger charged up on his
old white horse in the open field; along side and as near to the troops
as was advisable considering the blinding clouds of dust, which completely
obscured the troops therein. I know these facts because when the charge
was ordered, the enemy was pouring down upon us and in both field and road
the fight for a few moments became a hand to hand conflict and when the
enemy could no longer stand the keen edge of the old Pine Tree Statesmens
sword and turned to flee before their persuers I found myself in deadly
conflict with an enemy which had led me a chase far to the right of the
main force, but when I discovered my position and that the Regiment had
taken the road I fired a final shot at my antagonist which sent him reeling
away on his horse and struck a bee line for the main force. There were
a few scattering men still in the open field but they soon found their
way into the cloud of dust and no one was then individually visable, but
a lone horseman charging up the line leaping fences and every obsticle
that lay in his path; as I followed closely in his wake I saw that it was
Col. Daughty; the line of dust and smoke was one long line stretching from
the summate of the hill to the base and no man could tell where the dividing
point between friend and foe began or ended but the column charged on and
on up the slope and I followed, believing the while that it was our columns
all along the line. The canonading from the heights had ceased in a measure
and when the Col had reached the terminus of the field and at a point where
the road turned in a right angle to the left, he espied me in his wake
and with his sword uplifted he shouted where is the head of the regt. I
pointed ahead believing that the regt was in possession of the hill: The
column plunged on through the opening in the fence over a pair of bars
and through a dugout road in the side of the hill and elevated on the right
by a heavy stone wall. this dugout was litterally filled with dead and
dyeing men and horses and about twenty rods from the right angle the stone
wall ended, or rather was intersected by another which joined at right-angles
and ran over the brow of the hill leaving the field open beyond the intersection.
Here it was at this corner as the Colonel was turning to the right to go
in to the open field beyond, with his sword hand raised that I last saw
him alive. Just then a voly came from behind the stone walls and the Colonel
fell. My horse was wounded and I received a slight wound in the right ancle.
I saw my life depended upon my speedy flight and jumping my horse over
the fence down the slope on the other side I just escaped another volly
from behind the stone wall. down I went into the canyon untill I began
to assend towards the woods on the high ground at the other side. here
arranged under command of Lt. Col. Boothby was the regt. awaiting orders
and as I assended the slope Boothby came forward and asked if I knew where
was the Colonel. I told him he was yonder on the heights dead I believed,
and then the second charge and the most misurible ever known was made by
the old first main cavalry. Inside of ten minutes the life of this indomnable
hero was avenged, the heights captured and Colonel Dautys body recovered
from the point where I last saw him in life. His wound was two Buckshots
under the right arm pit which must have entered the heart. I will here
show you a diagram of the situation.
This is about the lay of the ground,and the history of Daughty's fall,
which has been misquoted as a general thing, but which more forcibly expresses
the terrable hell hole we captured singlehanded and alone as a regiment.
It further conveys the awfull disadvantages to which the colonel was subjected
in this particular fight but the truth robs the colonel of no laurals which
are so justly due to him as a brave man for it shows that his great anxiety
was to be in a position where he might see as well as to lead and thus
guard his regiment against a reckless plung to their death but all this
desire to be cautious and still lead, cost him his life; for the verry
thought that the regiment had surpassed his lead fired his brave heart
with a recklessness that knew no restraint - If the historian thinks it
advisable to make note of this event I am ready to varify it under oath
any time in honor of the bravery of my old and much esteemed Colonel.I
might add that when I mad the leap over the fence (a leap for life) and
went sailing down the canyon I believe it was the longest leap every mad
by man or beast, for my horses feet did not strike ground for several rods
but when they did I was so severely thrust upon the horn of my saddle that
the injury has ever since been a serious disability and barr against physical
exertian or manual labor."
Reprinted with permission from the Maine State Archives