'
296 Southern Historical Society Papers.
ter's thirty-two guns, Early had none of the artillery attached to the Second Corps and only the guns under Major Floyd King belonging to Breckinridge's command, Douthat's Battery, two of Berkeley's and several of Lurty's, some fifteen or twenty all told. King had four companies of four guns each in his command, but Otey's Bat- tery was on duty elsewhere. The batteries with him were Chapman's, Bryant's and Lowry's. Doing good service in Lowry's company was our townsman M. H. Dudley, of the Glamorgan Works.
Early 's Cavalry, opposed to the elegant divisions of Averell and Duffie, consisted of Imboden's remnant, one-half of which was dis- mounted, and all of which, though it did good service, was disor- ganized by the defeat at Piedmont, and, in addition, the gallant little brigade so admirably handled by General McCausland.
If General Hunter did not know all this, it was his fault, for it was his duty to know, and he had ample opportunity to acquire the in- formation. He had scouts on both railroads and the country was filled with the vigilant spies who prided themselves on their clever- ness. They were famous under the name of "Jessie's Scouts;" a name assumed in honor of Mrs. General Fremont, who was a daugh- ter of Senator Thomas H. Benton. He also had the aid of several notorious local traitors, who affected to keep him informed. The truth is he had all the necessary information, but lacked the nerve to act on it.
The other excuse made by General Hunter that his army was out of ammunition, is equally untenable. It cannot be believed that a corps was short of ammunition which had been organized but a few weeks, a part only of which had been engaged at Piedmont, and which had fought no serious pitched battle, and the sheep, chickens, hogs and cattle they wantonly shot on their march could not have exhausted their supply. The corps would not have started had the ammunition been so scarce. It would have been against all prece- dent, and any thinking man must know that the Ordnance Depart- ment of the United States army, always full-handed, had well supplied ammunition to an army about to start on so important an undertak- ing. No brigade or division commander in his correspondence or in his report made any such complaint. It would have given them pleasure to have had some excuse for retreating. They undertook to give no excuse, and their silence is so logical that it points out with great effect the fact that they had no belief in Hunter's excuses, and laid the real blame of the ignominious failure upon the incom- petence of Hunter himself.
