Excitement filled the halls. War had been declared! Botetourt Male Academy was going to close its doors. Older cadets, who could shoulder a musket, rushed from their classrooms to join local units. For most of Virginia’s young gentlemen, war was a chance to prove their honor and repel a godless, Yankee invader. A second lieutenant of cadets, Samuel Zenas Ammen, signed up with a company from Fincastle, his hometown. While a cadet, marching and drilling prepared him for army discipline, but not for the battlefield horrors to come.
Born on October 22, 1843, Samuel Z. Ammen was the youngest of nine children born to Benjamin and Naomi Ammen. Benjamin was the grandson of a Swiss immigrant, Durst Ammen, who settled in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1783. With a passion for mechanics, Benjamin built a successful mill in Fincastle for the production of woolen cloth, blankets, and yarn. Young Samuel would become well acquainted with the wool business while growing up in the family mill. A staunch Calvinist, Benjamin was a firm believer in strict discipline and a rigorous education. At the age of eight, Samuel was sent to the school of a Presbyterian minister. Later, he attended the Botetourt Male Academy; a classical school with heavy emphasis on mathematics and language arts. He displayed an extraordinary talent in all areas of the school’s curriculum.
While attending school, talk of secession began to emerge. On October 16, 1859, famed abolitionist, John Brown, launched his ill-fated raid on Harper’s Ferry. The news electrified the Virginia countryside. Afraid of more raids, volunteer militia units were formed throughout the state. Among these units was Botetourt County’s “Fincastle Rifles.” Samuel’s brother, John, signed up along with other Fincastle residents.
Botetourt Male Academy formed its own militia unit, the “Junior Guard.” The cadets wore red, flannel shirts, white pants and black caps. Wooden guns were used in place of actual muskets. During general musters, the “Junior Guard” would march with the “Rifles” in Anderson’s field on the western edge of town.
Secession became a reality with the election of Abraham Lincoln. Most Southerners were convinced Lincoln would impose the Federal Government on their customs and livelihoods. In January 1861, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas broke away from the Union. The Confederacy was formed a month later in Montgomery, Alabama. Showing their support, Virginia students at Washington College and the University of Virginia raised Confederate flags on their campuses. “We scarcely hear anything talked of but war," remarked one Virginian, “Even clergymen whose mission it is to preach ‘peace on earth and good will toward men’ are infected by the belligerent spirit now prevailing and they divide their time between the Sermon on the Mount and conversations upon the subject of fighting.”
After the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to put down the fledgling Confederacy. His call rankled the remaining Southern states, which didn’t want to fight their Southern brethren. North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia seceded. Richmond became the new capital of the Confederacy.
Virginia’s militia units were formed into Confederate companies. Thousands of recruits, from every corner of the South, poured into Richmond. “So impatient did I become for starting,” recalled one recruit, “that I felt like ten thousand pins were pricking me in every part of my body.” The “Fincastle Rifles” became Company D, 11th Virginia Infantry. At eighteen years of age, Samuel Z. Ammen signed up in August 1861. Colonel Samuel Garland, a lawyer from Lynchburg, commanded the 11th. Garland was a promising officer with a reckless taste for battle. His superiors praised him as “that brave and accomplished young officer.”
The 11th Virginia was in camp at Centreville, Virginia. Fifty-five year old, General Joseph E. Johnston was the overall commander of Confederate forces in Virginia. Moral was high following their victory last July at Manassas. The Confederacy was following a defensive policy because of their inferior numbers, and to promote the image that they were defending themselves against a Union aggressor. While the Union was regrouping after their Manassas debacle, Confederate troops waited for them to make the first move.
Drill and more drill was the standing order for the new volunteers. Proficient use of the rifle musket, with its many steps, required hours of practice. As many as five, two-hour drill sessions were held each day. Infantry tactics were taught verbatim from a manual by William Hardee entitled, “Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics”- the infantry bible for both sides during the war. Unfortunately, the tactics were not well suited for the devastating accuracy and range of the rifle musket. Thousands would perish as a result.
North of Centreville was a calvary brigade under General Jeb Stuart. Flamboyant, audacious, and chivalrous to a tee, Jeb Stuart was the consummate cavalier. His headquarters was at an abandoned farmhouse between Centreville and Fairfax Courthouse. He named his headquarters “Qui Vive,” French for “Who goes there?” Stuart’s troopers patrolled tirelessly along the front lines looking for any Union activity.
Stuart was ordered to guard a foraging party heading for Dranesville near the Potomac River. He gathered a mixed expeditionary force of 1,600 men that included four infantry regiments, one hundred fifty troopers, and four artillery pieces. The party was to gather hay to feed the calvary horses during the winter months. The 11th Virginia was among the infantry regiments.
A 3,500 man Union force, under Brigadier General Edward O.C. Ord, also came looking for hay. Ord reached the area first. To divert attention from his wagons, Stuart’s troopers attacked Ord just south of Dranesville. Ord deployed his men into a defensive line. Stuart brought up his infantry regiments, but two of them became entangled in a maze of dense thickets. In the confusion, the green infantrymen began firing at each other. Stuart redeployed his troops and began firing on Ord with his artillery. The Union artillery responded with deadly accuracy; killing most of the artillery horses. For two hours, the battle raged with neither side gaining an advantage. Stuart decided to retreat after additional Union batteries opened up on his line. After the wagons were safely withdrawn, he fell back two miles to the tiny hamlet of Frying Pan. Because of the loss of horses, members of Company D had to push the artillery from the field by hand. Dr. Ammen later recalled:
“I took part, December 19,1861, in a bloody little fight at Dranesville, near the Potomac, between a Confederate force of about 2,000 led by General J.E.B. Stuart, who took wagons to get stacks of hay for his Calvary, and a force of 4,000 Yankees, who by chance went the same day to get the same hay. Jeb this time was badly beaten, and the Yankees got all the hay.”
As winter rolled in, snow and rain turned the ground into a morass of mud and stagnant puddles. Commanders on both sides were not anxious to campaign in such conditions. Instead, the armies went into “winter quarters.” The 11th Virginia erected log huts chinked with mud. Furniture consisted of seats made from discarded commissary boxes and tables made of boards laid-out over logs. Crude fireplaces made of brick and old barrels topped off their new homes.
Relief from winter doldrums included cards, letter writing, and reading. Bibles and religious tracts were provided by the Bible Society of the Confederate States and the various protestant denominations. Among the numerous tracts, the favorite was the eight-page “A Mother’s Parting Words to her Soldier Boy.” Written in the form of a letter, the mother implores her son to be a courageous soldier and that a just and defensive war is compatible with righteousness. For the less than righteous, there was the comfort of whiskey. A popular concoction called “Pine-Top” (named for the strong pine scent it gave off) was issued to help fight off the cold.
The spring of 1862 brought out a rejuvenated Union Army and a new Union General, George B. McClellan. At the age of 35, “Little Mac” was the youngest major general in U.S. history. A lover of pomp, his staff included no fewer than 19 aides. While his aides struggled to keep up, McClellan loved to ride at full gallop in front of his cheering men. His real talent was in training and organizing, not in offensive operations. To the frustration of Lincoln and Congress, he procrastinated, preferring to out maneuver his opponent instead.
The 11th Virginia received a new brigade commander, General Ambrose Powell Hill. A.P. Hill was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the War with Mexico. Ironically, he was once engaged to McClellan’s wife, Ellen Marcy. Unlike McClellan, he disdained pomp and fancy uniforms. He wore a calico shirt (made by his wife), a black felt hat, and oversized buckskin gloves. A pipe usually protruded from his mouth. Despite his odd appearance, Hill was a very aggressive commander who played a pivotal role in future battles.
McClellan decided he would bypass Johnston’s Army and attack Richmond from the East. The plan called for the transport of the entire army to Union held Ft. Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. From there it was only 60 miles to Richmond. If all went well, he would capture the Confederate Capital before Johnston had time to react. During the last weeks of March 1862, three hundred eighty nine vessels transported the Army of the Potomac to Ft. Monroe. A British military observer called the movement, “the stride of a giant.”
The nearest Confederate forces were 10,000 men under General John Magruder. Nicknamed “Prince John” for his well-heeled manners, Magruder had built a series of trenches and forts along the Revolutionary War battlefield at Yorktown. In thirty hours, the ladies of Richmond stitched together 30,000 sandbags to bolster his defenses. Portions of his trenches had been dug decades earlier by British redcoats. A master of deception, Magruder staged a series of theatrical maneuvers to deceive McClellan as to the actual size of his command. Lieutenant Robert Miller of the 14th Louisiana recalled, “The way Magruder fooled them was to divide each body of troops into two parts and keep them traveling all the time for twenty-four hours.” McClellan was duped into thinking he was outnumbered. He hesitated to attack Magruder’s trenches, but decided instead to mount a siege.
Through an array of scouts and spies, Johnston figured out McClellan’s game plan. He quickly set out to reinforce Magruder. A Mississippi soldier wrote, “Richmond was one living, moving mass of soldiers and today the streets show nothing but a continuous stream on their way to Yorktown – infantry, calvary, and artillery.” Regimental bands struck up “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag.” Richmond’s citizens mobbed Main Street to cheer Johnston’s men. The troops made their way to the York River Railroad Station or the wharves at Rocketts for a steamboat passage down the James River.
The 11th Virginia traveled by the later. They boarded the steamer CSS Schultz, disembarked at Jamestown, and marched down to Yorktown. It rained without letup upon their arrival. The trenches were half-filled with water. Because of the mud, boards were stripped from nearby buildings and used as planking at the bottom of the trenches. Sporadic sniper and cannon fire made life extremely hazardous for the Confederate defenders. Dr. Ammen himself nearly became a casualty. Upon leaving his post to look for a novel to read, a stray Union shell obliterated his vacated position and his backpack. One Confederate remarked on the snipers, “It was only necessary to hold up your hand to get a furlough.”
McClellan had doubts about his numerical strength, but had no doubts about his artillery strength. Seventy giant artillery pieces and forty-one mortars were brought up on rollers. When they opened fire, 7,000 pounds of shrapnel would rain down on the Yorktown defenders. Realizing the futility of surviving such firepower, Johnston decided to fall back to Williamsburg. On the evening of May 3, the Confederates opened up a tremendous bombardment with their own heavy guns. Afterwards, they abandoned their guns and campsites. A message was scrawled on one of the tent walls: “He that fights and runs away will live to fight another day. May 3.” When McClellan was awakened at six o’clock the following morning and told of Johnston’s evacuation, he refused to believe it and went back to sleep.
For two days, the 11th Virginia marched 12 miles to the colonial town of Williamsburg. The “Rifles” camped at the College of William and Mary. Food was a daily issue of ten, rock-solid crackers called Hardtack and three quarters of a pound of raw pork – cooked and eaten with sticks.
An earthen fort, General Magruder had named for himself, defended Williamsburg. A line of earthworks ran from either side of the fort. A sizeable number of trees, in a nearby forest, were felled to provide a defensive obstacle and a clear field of fire.
General James Longstreet, Hill’s division commander, decided to attack to slow down the Union pursuit. He ordered Hill to advance to a position behind the trenches west of Fort Magruder. Union troops under General Joseph Hooker appeared at the edge of the forest and unlimbered their artillery. Smoke and mist hampered the view. Hill’s command was ordered forward. As he so often did, Hill dismounted his horse and marched on foot with his men. One of them later stated, “He made a splendid picture of the heroic and gallant soldier that he was.” Colonel James Kemper, of the 17th Virginia, tried to make out the enemy, but was unsure because of the mist. Hill looked through his binoculars, then shouted, “Yes, they are Yankees. Give it to them!” A series of volleys ripped into Hooker’s ranks. With bayonets fixed, the Virginians charged headlong into the Union ranks and drove them back. “We were victorious,” recalled Dr. Ammen, “driving the enemy back through the woods and across a clearing, inflicting and suffering heavy losses.” His messmate, Ed James, was shot through the temple.
The fighting settled in a clearing of felled timber, which offered excellent cover. For two hours, both sides fired on each other with forty-one yards separating them. As darkness fell, the ammo ran low and the rain began to fall. Hill decided to fall back. “As we were leaving the battlefield,” wrote Dr. Ammen, “through the clearing of fallen trees, a pitiable moaning of the wounded, left behind in the rain and darkness attended us. But the enemy had had his lesson and troubled us no more.” Dr. Ammen’s company slept that night on fence rails laid over a muddy plowed field.
The Union army was beaten to a standstill. Hill’s casualties were 67 dead and 245 injured; the highest Confederate brigade loss during the battle. Every building in Williamsburg became a hospital for the wounded.
Heavily outnumbered, Johnston fell back again to entrenchments on the outskirts of Richmond. Union soldiers could now set their watches by the chimes from Richmond church steeples. Fortunately, McClellan believed he was still outnumbered and was in no hurry to attack. He sent a flurry of telegrams to Washington requesting more troops.
Toward the end of May 1862, Samuel Z. Ammen was reassigned to the homefront as a chemist. His new assignment would be the manufacture of dyestuffs used in making Confederate uniforms – an expertise he picked up from the family textile mill. His days as an infantryman were over. He would serve in a homeguard unit to help protect Richmond from Union calvary raids.
General Johnston decided to take advantage of McClellan’s inactivity and attack two isolated corps south of the Chickahominy River. Two thirds of his army would be used in the attack. The resulting Battle of Seven Pines was a masterpiece of careless planning. Poor coordination led to only nine of the twenty-two brigades doing any actual fighting. Johnston himself was severely wounded in the shoulder and would be out for six months. A new commander was needed.
On June 1, 1862, a man with a gray beard on a gray horse rode up to the headquarters of Johnston’s temporary replacement, General G. W. Smith. A man who would become immortalized for his character and victories in battle. General Robert E. Lee had arrived to take command.
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Donald L. Barnhart, Jr. grew up in Wichita Falls, TX and is an alumni of Gamma Omega Chapter (initiated 1977). He received a BA-History (1980) from the University of Texas at Austin as well as a BBA - Accounting (1984) and a MA- Business (1991) from Midwestern State University. He is currently employed at Brinks Home Security, Inc. in Irving, TX as a tax accountant. Don resides in The Colony, TX with a wife of 20 years and 2 children. A passion for the Civil War has led to the publication of four articles in "Civil War Times" and "America's Civil War." The most notable of those have been about the Confederate ironclads C.S.S. Arkansas, C.S.S. Atlanta and C.S.S. Manassas. An article about the Civil War in Oklahoma will be out in June 2005 in "Wild West" magazine. Don is currently working on a civil war article about the "White River Expedition" in Arkansas.
