Lige White at Gettysburg

By Carl Sell Jr. · Originally published October 2022 · pp. 10–11

While Major General Jeb Stuart led most the Confederate cavalry around the Union Army on his way north in June 1863, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah V. White guided his Thirty-Fifth Battalion Virginia Cavalry on a more direct route. As a result, White and his men were the first to enter Gettysburg, on June 26, well before the famous battle began on July 1; Stuart only arrived July 2. White was actually supposed to be with Stuart on the ride around the entire Army of the Potomac. After the June 9, Battle at Brandy Station, Lieutenant General Richard (Baldy) Ewell, requested that White join his newly formed Second Corps. Stuart at first refused, but was apparently overruled by General Robert E. Lee. White and his men had been in the thick of the fighting at Brandy Station, the largest cavalry encounter of the war up until that point. The Thirty-Fifth blunted a surprise Union attack in the morning and then helped turn the tide at Fleetwood Hill later that day. White and his men had

Lige White at Gettysburg just rejoined Stuart after a monthlong, 700 total miles campaign into the new state of West Virginia to destroy Union rail and wagon bridges over rivers and ravines. Ewell had begun his march down (north because the valley rises as it spreads southward) the Shenandoah Valley toward the Potomac River, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. White received fresh ammunition on June 11 and then headed up east of the Blue Ridge. He crossed the Potomac near what is now Lovettsville and raided the B&O Railroad at Point of Rocks, Md., destroying two locomotives and cars while engaging and routing two Union cavalry units, the Loudoun Rangers and Cole’s Battalion. He then recrossed the Potomac, went through the Blue Ridge Mountains, forded the Shenandoah River, and recrossed the Potomac at Boteler’s Ford near Shepherdstown, W.Va. They rode on through Sharpsburg and Hagerstown, then caught up with Ewell at Chambersburg, Penn., on June 24. At Chambersburg, Ewell decided to split his corps, commanding one group that went toward Carlisle, Harrisburg, and the Susquehanna River, while sending White with Major General Jubal Early toward Gettysburg, York, and, ultimately the Susquehanna farther east. The idea was to threaten supply lines heading west from Philadelphia and New York, as well as north from Baltimore and Washington City. Early then split his own force, sending White and Brigadier General John B. Gordon’s Georgia infantry straight down the Cashtown Road toward Gettysburg. On June 26, White rode into Gettysburg, brushing aside the TwentySixth Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment, which had just arrived to protect the town. A Gettysburg newspaper reported the “advance consisted of about 200 of White’s mounted guerrillas, who charged up Chambersburg street in the most terrific manner, yelling like demons and firing their revolvers as they passed through town.” Just outside town, the Comanches caught up with two members of the Adams County Cavalry, a militia unit recruited from the Gettysburg area. George Washington Sandoe was killed trying to escape, the first soldier from either side to die at Gettysburg. When Major General Early arrived at Gettysburg, he gathered town leaders and demanded that the town supply him with ransom and supplies. However, he found that town’s coffers had been moved out of reach and supplies were limited to some 2,000 rations found in railroad cars. The rations were distributed to Gordon’s soldiers. General Early fared better at York. There, he collected $28,600 of a $100,000 ransom demand in addition to between 1,200 and 1,500 pairs of shoes and socks and three days rations. Town leaders told him additional

Lieut. Col. Elijah Viers “Lige” White (1832–1907). money and supplies had been “run off” previously, and Early said in his memoirs that he was satisfied that an honest effort had been made to raise what had been called for. That night, General Early rode out to the Susquehanna bridge to determine if it had been burned. He found the bridge to Columbia on the eastern shore on fire, having been destroyed by Union militia to thwart a Confederate advance. Early had hoped to cross, cut the Pennsylvania Railroad, then advance on Lancaster and Harrisburg. Likewise, White reported he destroyed the depot at Hanover Junction and two bridges but had not been successful in destroying other bridges because they were defended by infantry. The evening of June 29, General Lee ordered General Ewell to move the entire Second Corps back, west of South Mountain. Early started in that direction with the Thirty-Fifth in the lead. The morning of July 1, he was told to move toward Gettysburg. Upon arriving in sight of Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill, he saw the two armies were engaged. Earlier, White and his men had fared well in capturing horses, food, clothing, and other items from civilians along the way. They enjoyed the food and wore the clothes but found the horses were not as suitable for cavalry as they had hoped.

On June 27 at Hanover, they intercepted a wagon loaded with jewelry. The owner, storekeeper William Broadenhamer, was fleeing town. The Confederates confiscated watches, rings, and other jewelry and buried the rest. After the war, White wrote to partisan Ranger John Singleton Mosby, telling him of the affair. Broadenhamer estimated his loss at $1,000 and filed a Civil War Damage claim for that amount with York County. Records indicate he collected. That afternoon, White’s cavalry raided a store, taking calico, muslin, and gingham dress goods, as well as hats, shoes, boots, hose, handkerchiefs and a large quantity of groceries. They tried to pay with Confederate money, but Sarah Ziegler Bott, wife of an owner, refused to accept it. Later, Confederate riders opened a distillery and drank some rye whiskey before officers intervened and 46 42-gallon containers were destroyed. Owner Henry Fishel claimed a $1,200 loss. The next day, they raided another store, taking 200 dozen eggs and 10 barrels of mackerel, among other things. At Gettysburg, White divided his forces to scout for information about what was in front of the left wing of the army. On July 1, White and a few men advanced on foot so as to get close enough to see what the Federals were up to. He reported that they hid in the thicket and could hear Union teamsters talking. White reported back that the teamsters said “the whole army was on the way up,” dashing reports that the Federals were retreating. On July 2, White later said that he “scouted for General Ewell until General Stuart came up, and was with General Stuart in his fight with the enemy that day.” Stuart fought Union cavalry at Hunterstown on July 2, and then on East Cavalry Field behind Cemetery Hill on July 3 but White wasn’t mentioned in either report. One of White’s subordinates, Captain Frank Myers, mentioned tangling with Union pickets during those times. White’s cavalry established its headquarters on Benner’s Hill, late on July 2, then moved to a nearby field to avoid Federal cannon fire on July 3. When the order came to move toward the Potomac at 2 a.m. July 4, the Thirty-Fifth took a position between Ewell’s Corps and the enemy, fighting off attacks on several occasions. After leaving Gettysburg, Lee indicated he planned to consolidate his forces, move across the Blue Ridge into Loudoun County, and confront the advancing Union army moving down east of the Blue Ridge.

CivilWarNews.com The same high water conditions the Confederates encountered on the Potomac put an end to those plans when they tried to cross the Shenandoah River. Union cavalry and infantry had moved down east of the Blue Ridge and taken possession of the mountain passes. Undaunted, White moved the Thirty-Fifth Battalion into Loudoun County by swimming their horses across the swollen Shenandoah River at Castleman’s Ferry. Stuart directed the rest of the Confederate cavalry farther south where they joined Lee and his infantry on the Rapidan River. Shortly after he set up headquarters in Purcellville, Union Brigadier General George Custer messaged his superiors on July 18 that his cavalry had driven White’s Battalion “out of this county yesterday.” Custer’s announcement proved a tad premature as White and John Singleton Mosby’s guerrillas harassed Union forces in Loudoun and Fairfax County, as well as along the Chesapeake & Ohio canal in Maryland, for the next three months. On July 20, White and 150 men joined 200 troopers from the Fifth North Carolina Cavalry at Ashby’s Gap. White took command; after a brief engagement with Union infantry, the Confederates retired, recrossed the Shenandoah at Front Royal, and camped west of the river. Anxious to return to their old stomping grounds, the Thirty-Fifth returned to Loudoun County through Snickers Gap and remained there until summoned by Stuart to rejoin his command for the November Mine Run campaign. During that interval, White and Mosby maintained a cat and mouse game with Federal pursuers from the Blue Ridge as far east as Dranesville and Vienna in Fairfax County. They also attacked the Orange & Alexandria Railroad at Fairfax Station, but did little damage, only interrupting rail traffic for a day. Union estimates of White’s strength ranged as high as 700 men. Despite being in enemy territory, the Thirty-Fifth received a large shipment of ammunition on September 27. Provisions and secrecy marked the Thirty-Fifth’s stay near Snickers Gap during the threemonth period after Gettysburg. On long rides and periods of hiding or waiting to ambush Federal riders, the Confederate troopers existed mostly on grapes or they feasted on meals provided by sympathetic local farmers or captured Union supply wagons they emptied of food and other necessities.

After an October raid on Leesburg Pike near Chain Bridge Road (today’s Routes 7 and 123), the Confederates were pursued by the Sixteenth New York Cavalry, which recovered “four or five saddles, some sabers” and a Confederate haversack that included “about a dozen fresh biscuits, a roast chicken and a tin box of butter.” At one point the C&O Canal was closed from Point of Rocks to Washington City because of a fear of attacks by either White of Mosby. The canal had just been reopened after being shut down by Stuart at Rowser’s Ford on his roundabout ride to Gettysburg in late June. White and his men suffered setbacks at Harper’s Ferry and between Waterford and Leesburg because of inadvertent pistol firings just before action began. In the Waterford-Leesburg incident, White himself was guilty of the discharge that warned Union defenders. Otherwise, the Confederates were successful in surprising Union outposts. In between, they gathered at hideouts in the mountains or the village of Woodgrove. On September 24, they were getting their horses shod at Woodgrove when Union forces arrived, scattered the Confederates and captured four, including two farriers. During the three months, White lost three men killed or mortally wounded, 78 were captured, and four were wounded. An incident at Waterford caused the Comanches some embarrassment when the wife of Sam Means, head of the pro-Union Loudoun Rangers, scattered them with an assortment of brooms and rolling pins as weapons! Much of the information in this article was assembled from Horace Mewborn’s book “None Were Truer or Braver” about Elijah White’s Thirty-Fifth Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. Mewborn died shortly after completing the book. Its content will boggle your mind. Information also came from Official Records, and public records. Like Stuart and Mosby, articles and books about White often are sensationalized when the facts are just as entertaining.

Carl Sell is a frequent contributor to the Civil War News and has written several books, including two about his great grandfather’s service in the Thirty-Eighth and his great uncle in the Fifty-Third Virginia. Both were wounded and survived Pickett’s Charge. Sell can be reached at sellcarl@aol. com or 703-971-4716. Contacts usually result in more stories!