| From the Southern Banner (Athens,
Ga.) |
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| July 16, 1862 |
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| From the Richmond Examiner, 8th inst. |
| The Battles about Richmond |
| ***** |
| The Railway Battery or Dry Land Merrimac |
| For weeks before the opening
of the recent bloody battles before Richmond, hundreds of our citizens
daily flocked to look upon and wonder at an iron clad railroad battery
that was being swiftly but mysteriously constructed on the railroad
near the York river depot. Many were the speculations as to the
purpose for which it was designed, and not a few were the predictions
that it would prove a failure. Some persons, indeed, conceived so low
an opinion of its usefulness as to predict that it would be
"taken prisoner" on its first trip. Unchecked by ominous
predictions, the work went on and the battery was completed. Lest our
enemies should borrow the idea, we refrain from giving a minute
description of the work. It is an iron clad battery, mounted on seven
sets of wheels, and carrying one large rifle gun. The whole machine
was propelled by an ordinary locomotive. |
| Lieut. James Barry, of the
Norfolk United Artillery, was assigned to the command of the novel
craft. His crew consisted of Sergeant Daniel Knowles and thirteen men,
all members of the same artillery corps. Mr. N{athaniel}.
S. Walker, of the {Richmond &} York
River railroad, volunteered to run the engine which was to push the
battery into action. Owing to the breakage of one of the timbers
supporting the gun, the first trip of the battery down the railroad {the
Richmond & York River RR} proved a failure, and it was
necessary to bring it back to the city for repairs. These were soon
effected, and on a Saturday evening it again got under way, and bore
down towards the Yankee army at Fair Oaks. It was halted that night at
our last entrenchment, between five and six miles from Richmond.
Sunday morning the engine attached to the battery, got up steam, and
Lieut. Barry prepared for action and awaited orders. The men were in exuberant
spirits and anxious for the fray. |
| At 10 o'clock, A. M., having
received orders from Gen. Magrauder, Lieut. Barry proceeded down the
road a mile, when his farther advance was obstructed by the Yankee
fortification, which crossed the track. About two hours were consumed
in re-opening the track, when the battery advanced steadily down the
road. About 12 o'clock, the battery being about seven miles from
Richmond, Lieut. Barry came in sight of several thousand Yankees,
moving at a double quick down the road in front of him, in the
direction of Savage's. He was about to open into the flying mass, when
he was stopped by Gen. Magruder, who suggested that they were our own
troops in pursuit of the enemy. Just as the troops disappeared round a
curve, one of the enemy's batteries stationed in the woods, in front
of Savage's house, opened fire upon our forces, who were in the woods
to the left of the railroad, and about 7 miles from Richmond. -- The
first gun of the enemy killed Gen. Griffeth of Mississippi. Lieut.
Barry was ordered to engage this battery, which he did with such
effect that the second shell from his gun silenced it. He then
continued for some time to shell the woods near and around the spot
from which the Yankee battery had retreated. |
| At four o'clock he was ordered
to proceed down the railroad abreast of our skirmishers, and to fire
into anything and everything he saw ahead. As he turned the curve and
entered Savage's field, he saw a half a mile in advance of him a party
of Yankees engaged in setting fire to a train on the track. Having
fired two shots into this train, a white flag was raised on it, Gen.
Cobb coming up at the moment, ordered him not fire into it again, as
he had information the train was loaded with sick. Immediately
afterwards Gen. Magruder road up, and seeing the enemy drawn up in
line of battle in the field in front of Savage's house, ordered Lieut.
Barry to go a quarter of a mile nearer and open into his ranks. On the
bursting of the second shell the enemy fled in confusion to the cover
of the woods to the right of the battery, and from the point poured on
it and the engine a perfect hail of rifle bullets. Kemper's battery
now opened on the enemy from a position in the rear of the battery,
Lieut. Barry was obliged to withdraw in the direction of Richmond. |
| As he was receding up the
railroad his battery drew the whole fire of the enemy, but
fortunately, though the narrow escapes were innumerable, not one of
his men was struck. A minnie ball passed with in an inch of the
engineer's head and struck in the railroad embankment. As the battery
drew back to Fair Oaks, the Third South Carolina, supported by other
regiments, dashed across the railroad and charged into the woods in
which the enemy had taken shelter from the rifle shells of Lieutenant
Barry, drove them in the direction of Bottom's Bridge with great
slaughter. It was estimated by General Magruder at the time that the
loss of the enemy in this engagement was between eight hundred and a
thousand in killed and wounded. How important a part was played by the
railroad battery in this engagement may be conjectured from the
statement of a prisoner who was captured on the occasion. He informed
Lieut. Barry that the second shell thrown in the ranks drawn up in the
field just in front of Savage's house killed and wounded one hundred
men and thirty horses. It is believed also to have done great
execution in the woods and contributed by the terror inspired by its
immense missiles to the easy route of the entire division of the
enemy. |
| Since the battle, the enemy
having left the track of the railroad, the battery has no service. It
has performed handsomely all it has undertaken, and must, therefore,
be pronounced a complete success. But had the enemy, after the fight
at Coal Harbour, retreated towards the White House, on the Pamunkey,
instead of toward James river, in protecting our advance, and annoying
the enemy, and destroying his trains, it would have been of
incalculable value to our cause. As it is, its period of usefulness
may have not terminated. We have hopes of its playing a conspicuous
part either at Drury's Bluff or Westover. |
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