Raynors HCA 2018-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2018
On June 22, 1864 Union Generals James Wilson and August V. Kautz set out with their cavalry divisions and horse artillery on a raid towards Burkeville, Virginia in an effort disrupt the Confederate supply lines south and west of Petersburg. At first the raid met with success when Wilson's men captured a locomotive with its train cars still attached at the South Side railroad's Ford's Station. The depot at Ford's Station was pillaged and burned before the command moved on. By the 24th, the jubilant Union troopers turned south on the Richmond & Wilmington railroad aiming to burn the bridge over the Staunton River. They reached the bridge the morning of the next day, but found the structure heavily defended. One gun of Maynadier's 1st United States Artillery was disabled, during a pitched fight, by a lucky shot from the Confederates. Forced to withdraw towards the safety of the Union lines at Reams' Station. The Union troopers were doggedly pursued by Confederate cavalrymen under the command of Mag. Gen. W. H. "Rooney" Lee. After riding hard for four days the exhausted troopers reached Reams Station on June 29th, but found their escape route blocked by "Billy" Mahone's infantrymen. During the ensuing battle (known as the First Battle of Reams Station) Battery K, 1st United States Regular Artillery under the command of 1st Lt. William H. Maynadier fought gallantly, but Gen. Wilson, in his after action report, describes best what happened next, "the guns of Fitzhugh's and Maynadier's batteries as well as those attached to Kautz's division fell into the hands of the enemy, but were not captured in the fight. Having been compelled by the movement on our flank to withdraw through the woods, the officer's and men could not get them through the swamp of Hatcher's Run and Rowanty Creek, and only abandoned them after every effort to extricate them had failed. Lieutenant Ward, of Maynadier's battery, succeeded in getting two of his guns away, but his horses having become exhausted by the rapid and long continued march he was compelled to throw the guns in the Nottaway River." Many of the exhausted artillerymen and the battery's officers, including Capt. Maynadier and 1st Lt. Thomas Egan, were captured while trying to save the guns. In all the raid was deemed a success, but only temporarily cut the Confederate supply lines since the sixty miles of destroyed tracks was soon repaired and the rail lines opened again. We are pleased to offer here the following rare account, 2pp. 8vo., written by Pvt. Horatio C. Patch, Battery K, 1st United States Regular Artillery, Fort Barry, Washington, D. C., July 14, 1864, reads, in part: "…we have been on an raid and had like to get taken prisoner but about 80 men got out and 40 were taken…we lost our battery. The whole of it. We lost our captain [William H. Maynadier] and first lieutenant [Thomas Egan]. A good many men were killed and wounded. We come to Washington this morning to get recruits and a battery…Horatio C. Patch." Also included is the original stamped transmittal cover. Overall VG
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