Today in History:

799 Series I Volume XII-II Serial 16 - Second Manassas Part II

Page 799 Chapter XXIV. EVACUATION OF WINCHESTER, VA.

Answer. Yes, sir; and I had actually to go down to Winchester twice while I was there, and threaten to have the engineer shot if he dared to move the train out until we had got on all the ammunition we wanted to get on.

Question. Was the most valuable property taken away and the least valuable destroyed? Were the quartermaster's and ordnance stores more valuable than the commissary stores that were destroyed?

Answer. Yes, sir. All the artillery ammunition that belonged to the guns that were carried away, even to some guns that we had not mounted, wa brought off to Harper's Ferry; all, with the exception of the small-arm ammunition, which we had not the means of conveying, and the 32-pounder barrette-gun ammunition. That was all that was left to be destroyed.

Question. The remainder was taken away?

Answer. The remainder was taken to Harper's Ferry.

Question. Do you remember my asking Captain Rigby for horses to haul the 20-pounder Parrott guns?

Answer. Yes, sir; and he had to take horses away from his own guns to haul them.

Question. Was there considerable difficulty in going so?

Answer. Yes, sir; it detained us an hour every hill we came to, to get those guns up.

Question. In your judgment, was it necessary or unnecessary to have destroyed what property was left there to keep it out of the hands of the enemy?

Answer. It was necessary, because the stores were such-that is, the quartermaster's stores, the commissary stores, and the powder that belonged to the 32-pounder guns-as would have been of service to the enemy, and, if they had not been destroyed, the enemy who came in that night, after the evacuation, after the magazine exploded, would, of course, have taken them for their own use. When the last train of cars left Winchester, the rebel cavalry were in Winchester, riding around us.

Question. Have you any idea of the value of the ammunition in dollars and cents in the magazine that was destroyed? And, if so, state what you think it was.

Answer. There was in the neighborhood of from $5,000 to $7,000 worth of ammunition destroyed.

Question. Not to exceed $7,000?

Answer. No, sir; it would not go beyond that.

Question. The remainder was all saved and carried away?

Answer. All saved and carried to Harper's Ferry. We even put some in wagons that we could not get on the cars.

By the JUDGE-ADVOCATE:

Question. What was the value of the guns destroyed?

Answer. I suppose those guns were worth in the neighborhood of $500 or $600.

Question. Each?

Answer. Yes, sir. I would not have given that for them. I did not think they were of any account.

Question. Do you know anything about the destruction of the stores other then the guns and ammunition?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Quartermaster's stores and subsistence?

Answer. The stores in Winchester I knew nothing about, because they were destroyed by Captain Mallory. All the quartermaster's stores, i think, were carried off by Captain Goodman. He even had to take some of his stores out to get our ammunition in, and then put them on the train, in one place and another, where he could.


Page 799 Chapter XXIV. EVACUATION OF WINCHESTER, VA.