The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner | Page 5

disease in his fine company. He had
risen to the rank of Colonel, and was then on his return to duty in the
army of Northern Virginia after recovery from wounds received in
battle. The graphic account given by him of the manner in which he
was wounded and his narrow escape from death, may interest others as
much as it did me. His regiment formed part of Gen. Ed. Johnson's
division, which held the salient angle in Gen. Lee's line at
Spottsylvania C. H. when it was forced by the Federal troops. The
attack was made at early dawn and in the additional obscurity of a
Scotch mist; and so complete was the surprise according to B.'s account,
that he was only made aware of the close proximity of the enemy by
dimly discerning, a few paces distant, a Federal soldier with his musket
levelled at him. The soldier fired, and B. fell insensible, shot through
one of the lungs. Upon recovering consciousness, he found himself on
a litter borne by Federal soldiers. An officer leaned over him, and
offered him some liquor from his canteen, which revived him so far
that he was able to speak. His humane captor then volunteered to
transmit any message to B.'s friends and relatives. While B. was
rallying his failing senses to deliver what he believed to be his dying
messages to the loved ones at home, a rattling fire of musketry opened
upon them, the litter bearers and the officer were shot down; the latter

falling across Brown, who relapsed into insensibility. When he again
recovered consciousness, he found himself borne in the same litter,
now carried by Confederate soldiers. The position had been retaken.
His good friend had been shot dead.
Our mess at Acquia Creek was abundantly supplied with food from
land and water. Every member of it, no doubt, frequently longed
afterwards for the "flesh pots of Egypt." We discovered, by chance, a
large bulk of coal, which had been stored on the long wharf where the
Acquia Creek steam-boats used to make their landings. When the Point
was shelled about the commencement of the war by the gunboats, the
wharf was destroyed, the coal falling uninjured ten or twelve feet to the
bottom of the river. We fished up our supplies with oyster tongs as they
were needed, and our snug quarters were kept warm during the winter.
Towards the end of the season, one of the mess servants lately arrived
from the rural districts, was sent in the boat for a supply from the coal
mine. He had made many a fire of soft coal in the drawing room at
home; but although an accomplished servant, his education had been so
far neglected that he was ignorant of all the "'ologies." He was very
much astonished at our process of coal mining, and asked me with
great gravity, on his return with the load, "if coal grew like that all over
the Potomac." Of course I replied in the affirmative. It was anthracite
hard coal, a specimen of which he had never seen; so he was further
informed that it was hard or soft according to the season when it was
fished up, being soft in the summer and hard in the winter. He was
much pleased to have acquired all this information, and probably took
the earliest opportunity, on his return home, to enlighten his circle of
friends and acquaintances upon the subject of coal mining on the
Potomac.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The belief still prevails, probably, at the North, that extensive
preparations had been made by the South for the war. But General
Joseph E. Johnston who was assigned to the service of organizing and
instructing the Virginia volunteers called out by Governor Letcher
states the contrary. He asserts that all the arms to be depended upon at

that time, were those found in the Southern arsenals, U. S. muskets, and
rifles of discarded patterns to the number of about 75,000; 40,000 flint
muskets belonging to the State of Virginia, and 20,000 procured for the
State of Georgia by Governor Brown.
It was charged that Mr. Floyd of Virginia while Secretary of War under
President Buchanan had caused the removal of public arms to the
Southern arsenals; but a Committee of the House of Representatives, in
1861, exonerated Mr. Floyd from the charge, and the chairman of that
Committee was the Hon. Mr. Stanton, a prominent and zealous member
of the Republican party.
General Johnston, who was in a position to know the facts, states in his
"Narrative, etc.," that the "Confederate States began the war with one
hundred and twenty thousand arms of obsolete models, and seven
hundred of the recently adopted weapons rifled-muskets, and the
United States with about four hundred and fifty thousand of