From: Slavery and Four Years of War by Joseph Warren
Keifer.
Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1900. Vol. 1, page 312:
At New Creek I first met G. P. Cluseret, a French soldier of fortune, but
recently appointed a Brigadier-General. He held a command under Milroy in
the Cheat Mountain Division. He assumed much military and other learning,
was imperious and overbearing by nature, spoke English imperfectly, and did not
seem to desire to get in touch with volunteers. With him I had my only personal
difficulty of a serious nature during the war.
At New Creek a constant drill was kept up. To avoid surprises by sudden
dashes, the companies as well as the battalion were taught to form squares
quickly and to guard against cavalry. Early in December Milroy marched to
Little Petersburg, on the South Branch of the Potomac, and I was assigned to
command a post at Moorefield to include Hardy County, West Virginia, Milroy's
headquarters being ten miles distant. General Lee ordered General W. E.
Jones, then temporarily in command in the Shenandoah Valley, to retake the
country we occupied. A feeble effort to do this failed. We were kept
constantly on the alert, however, by annoying attacks of Captain McNeil's
irregular cavalry or guerrillas. Late in December, 1862, it was decided to make
a raid into the lower Shenandoah Valley and, if found practicable, occupy it
permanently. I
was designated to lead the raid with about two thousand infantry, cavalry, and
artillery. This made it necessary for me to be relieved of the command of
the post. Cluseret was therefore ordered from Petersburg to relieve me.
He arrived late in the evening with his staff and escort, showed his orders, and
I suggested that he assume the command at once. This he declined to do until he
ascertained the position of the troops, roads, etc. I provided him
comfortable quarters, and everything would
have gone along pleasantly but for an unexpected incident.
Before Cluseret's arrival, a lieutenant-colonel of a West Virginia regiment
applied for leave to go to Petersburg to visit a lady friend. This I refused,
and he undertook to go without leave. After he had proceeded along the
river road by moonlight about three miles, he was halted by a man who, from
behind a tree, pointed a musket at him and demanded his surrender and that he
deliver up his sword, pistols, overcoat, horse, and trappings, all of which he
did promptly, and accepted a parole. The man who made the capture claimed
to be a regular Confederate soldier returning from a furlough to his command.
With the
colonel's property and on the horse he proceeded by a mountain path on his
journey. The colonel walked back to Moorefield and related his adventure.
I at once ordered Captain Rowan with a small number of his West Virginia cavalry
to pursue the Confederate. As there was snow on the ground, his pursuit
was easy, and before midnight the Captain had captured him and all the colonel's
property and returned to Moorefield. When the man was brought before me, I made
some examination of him and then ordered him taken to the guard-house. At
this time Cluseret appeared on the scene, and in an excited way demanded that I
should order the prisoner shot forthwith. This being declined, he again
produced his order to supersede me, and declared he would at once take command
and himself order the man shot that night. I could not deny his right to
assume command notwithstanding what had taken place, but I strongly denied his
authority to shoot the captive, and insisted that there was no cause for
shooting him summarily; that only through a court-martial or military commission
could he be condemned, and a sentence to death would, to carry it out, require
the approval of the President. (It was not until later in the war that
department, district, or army commanders could approve a capital sentence.)
Cluseret vehemently denounced the
authorities, including the President, for their mild way of carrying on the war,
and talked himself into a frenzy. As he was preparing an order to require
the Provost-Marshal to shoot the man without trial, I repaired to the telegraph
office and made Milroy acquainted with the situation, whereupon he ordered me to
retain command of the post until further orders. Milroy, on coming to
Moorefield the next day, sustained me, and the soldier was treated as an
ordinary prisoner of war. Cluseret
pretended to be satisfied, and later succeeded in getting himself assigned to
command the expedition to the Shenandoah Valley --- not a very desirable one in
mid-winter. He reached Strasburg, and moved through the Valley northward
to Winchester, but was pursued by a small force under Jones. This made it
necessary to reinforce him, and I started under orders for that place via Romney
and Blue's Gap, and was joined on the way by Milroy with the body of his
division. On leaving Moorefield, on the 30th of December, I with two
orderlies rode ahead about a mile to the South Branch of the Potomac to examine
the ford, as we had no pontoons, and, having crossed the river, awaited the
approach of the wagon train and its guard, which was to take the advance, as no
enemy was known to be in that direction. As the head of the train
reached the ford Captain J. H. McNeil (whose home was nearby), with about fifty
of his guerrilla band, attacked it by emerging from ambush on the Moorefield
side of the river. A short fight ensued, during which I recrossed the
river and joined in it. McNeil was driven off with little loss, but for a
brief time I was in much danger of capture, at least. On this day a colored boy,
an escaped slave, whom we named Andrew Jackson, joined me. He became my
servant to the end of the war. He was
always faithful, honest, good-natured, and brave. He was a full-blood
African, and during a battle would voluntarily take a soldier's arms and fight
with the advance line. He became widely known throughout the Army of the
Potomac and other armies in which I served, and was kindly treated and welcomed
wherever he went. He resided after the war in Springfield,
Ohio, and died there (1895) of an injury resulting from the kick of a horse.