1                 Bucks County Intelligencer  The Doylestown Guards.  July 23, 1861  Page 3  Col. 1-2                1

 

The Doylestown Guards.—Several letters from

members of this company are published in our columns

this week.  Although the Guards have just performed an

arduous march from the city of Washington to their pres-

ent location in the heart of Virginia, and are called on to

discharge their full share of the perilous duties of an army

passing through an enemy’s country, they still find time

to keep up an active correspondence with their friends at

home.  Scarcely a mail arrives in Doylestown that does

not come freighted with intelligence from our fellow-

citizens who have taken up the musket and knapsack in

support of the Constitution Laws.  The Guards, with

several other companies of the Twenty-fifth Regiment,

are in Col. Stone’s division, which forms a part of the

grand army of 30,000 men under Gen. Patterson.  Since

their junction with Patterson’s corps, the Guards have

passed nearly two weeks in camp at Martinsburg and

have taken part in the pursuit of the rebels to Bunker

Hill, Charlestown and Winchester.  As yet they have not

been able to get within shooting distance of the enemy,

whose heels have proved entirely too light for their pur-

suere.  One night last week, while at Bunker Hill, the

company was posted in pickets of four men each several

miles from camp, on the Winchester road, the nearest

point to the rebel entrenchments.  They had orders to

shoot down any person that might approach them, no

matter upon what pretence, as there could be none but

enemies in that locality.  The night passed, however,

without any disturbance.  Our boys are becoming accus-

tomed to this kind of service, and are disposed to make

themselves as comfortable as possible under the circum-

stances.  They are very anxious to see some real fighting

before they come home.  Their term of service will ex-

pire in a week or ten days, when they expect to return

home—some to remain, while a large number will pay a

short visit and then try it again.

It will be remembered that six members of the Guards—

Sergeant E. L. Rogers, and Private Jackson Pierce, Jas.

M. Rogers, William McCarty, J. S. Hough, and J. M.

Hogeland—were left at the Washington Arsenal when the

company took up the line of march for Harper’s Ferry—

After remaining there a few days, these men proceeded

forward, and succeeded in getting as far a place called

Sandy Run, about a mile this side of the Ferry.  They

could get no further, as the Federal forces had moved

forward in Virginia by way of Williamsport, leaving

Harper’s Ferry unoccupied.  A small party, under com-

mand of Capt. Braceland, remained at Sandy Run.  Here

the squad men were compelled to halt until a route was

discovered by Robert and George Eastburn, as narrated

in our columns last week.  Upon hearing of their situa-

tion, deprived of every comfort and subject to great hard-

ships, Gen. W. T. Rogers, father of two of the boys, deter-

mined to pay them a visit, and endeavor to do something

for their relief.  He reached their quarters, at the extreme

and of the road now in use by the Baltimore and Ohio

Railroad, without difficulty.  Upon getting out of the cars,

the first man he saw was his son Edward, though un-

observed by the latter until he heard the salutation—

“ Well, Squire, how do you do ? - The General’s sensen-

deavored to induce him to take up his quarters at the

village tavern, but he insisted upon going with them and

sharing their meals and sleeping accommodations.  They

reluctantly conducted him to their quarters, which con-

sisted of a board shanty built against a bank, the base-

ment being occupied as a pig sty.  When dinner was served

it was found to consist of beans and potatoes boiled to-

gether, to discuss which the men squatted around the

door.  When supper time came, the boys again endeavored

to persuade their guest to resort to the tavern, but he still

insisted on eating with them.  They were at length

obligated to tell him they had but one meal a day.  Their

quarters were so infested with vermin as not to be fit to

sleep in.  The men were in rags, and were almost ashamed

to be seen out of doors.  Their duties were very severe,

and they were sometimes obliged to stand guard two or

three miles from camp for twenty-four hours at a time.—

While undergoing these hardships, they asserted their de-

termination to perform their whole duty according to the

terms of their enlistment.  As Harper’s Ferry is now oc-

cupied by the Union troops, we presume that these men

have, ere now, started to rejoin their comrades in the ad-

vancing army.  Gen. Rogers, before his return, made a

brief visit to Harper’s Ferry, and obtained a number of

curious relics from that scene of destruction.

Mr. Genzel of the Doylestown Guards, in a letter dated

Martinsburg, July 14th, writes as follows:

“ One of the prettiest places I have yet seen, is the country

residence of Charles J. Faulkner, Minister to the Court of

France, under Pennsylvania’s dishonored son.  All that wealth

can impart, has been lavished to render this place attractive;

and all the appointments of the house are in the most luxurious

style, while the grounds by which it is surrounded have been

rendered exceedingly beautiful by the combined efforts of nature

and art.  The lady of the late minister, is the sole inhabitant of

this abode of luxury; her two sons are officers in the Secession

army, while it has been discovered that Mr. Faulkner is in com-

plicity with the conspirators, and he dare not return to this

country.  I was politely shown through the grounds by an old,

worth out slave.

“ Last evening four straggling letters found their way into our

camp, which is the only mail we have had since leaving Wil-

liamsport, one week ago.  One copy of the Intelligencer found

its way here on Friday, and had been almost read to pieces.  We

have two large mail bags, full of letters, at Harper’s Ferry; but

one of us know when they will reach us. “

 


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