My Most Successful Exploits

The Battle of Cedar Mountain was fought August 9^th 1862.

Union Major General John Pope had a new army under his command, which he christened the Army of Virginia.  Pope moved on Culpeper Court House and Confederate General Robert E Lee sent the order to General Thomas J Jackson that he wanted “Pope to be suppressed.”

Jackson was outnumbered, but Pope helped him with the numbers, when he divided his troops along the Rapidan River.  Jackson moved on the part of Pope’s army that was near Culpeper.  Moving on the main road toward Culpeper in extreme heat on bad roads Jackson’s exhausted troops encountered Union cavalry near Cedar Run on August 9^th 1862.  Confederate Brigadier General Jubal A Early formed a line along the road, he anchored it on Cedar Mountain.  The Confederate artillery posted along the mountain, a small knoll known as the Cedars and near the Crittenden House beginning a duel with Union artillery on the Mitchell Station Road.  During the artillery bombardment Confederate Brigadier General Charles S Winder was mortally wounded.  Around 5pm Union Major General Nathaniel P Banks launched an attack on the Confederate line.  Union troops led by Union Brigadier General Samuel W Crawford attacked the Confederate left in what became hand to hand combat, while other Union troops under Brigadier General Christopher C Auger hit the other end of the line near the guns on the knoll.

The Confederate troops began to show signs of a rout, but Jackson road into the middle of his men and rallied the troops.  With Jackson holding his men in place and restoring order, Confederate General A P Hill arrived in time to strengthen the line and push the Union troops back across the field.  A battalion of the 1^st Pennsylvania Cavalry held the Confederate counterattack long enough so that most of the Union men could retreat.

Two days after this battle Jackson began his move to join up with Robert E Lee for what would lead up to Second Manassas.  Jackson said that the Battle of Cedar Mountain was “the most successful of his exploits.”

Would Not Surrender The Symbols of Pride

The 16^th Maine Infantry was organized in Augusta, Maine and was mustered into service August 14^th 1862, for a term of three years.

The 16^th Maine Infantry was organized with Colonel Charles W Tilden as its commander.  They were mustered into Union service August 14^th 1862 and arrived in Washington, DC a few days later.  They went into active duty immediately in Maryland.  The 16^th was assigned to General John Gibbon’s Division of the First Corps. 

The first action for this regiment was at the Battle of Fredericksburg, where they had 427 men present, losing 27 killed, 170 wounded and 34 missing.  The next time the men of the 16^th saw heavy fighting as the Battle of Gettysburg, where the 16^th went in with 248 officers and men and ended the battle with 2 officers and 15 men able to report for duty.  They saved their flags as the Confederates closed in on the men on July 1^st 1863 by tearing up the colors into small pieces.  As Abner Small of the 16^th said, “For a few last moments our little regiment defended angrily its hopeless challenge, but it was useless to fight longer.  We looked at our colors, and our faces burned. We must not surrender those symbols of our pride and our faith."  The men hid the pieces on their person there by depriving the Confederates of capturing the flags.  In March 1864 the 16^th was transferred to the Union Fifth Corps, serving in General Samuel W Crawford’s Division.  The men would see hard fighting at the Battles of Spotsylvania, Hatcher’s Run and others.

During the three years of service 1,907 men served in the 16^th Maine.  They had 181 killed in battle or die of wounds.  578 men were wounded in action.  259 of the 16^th died from disease.  76 good men of Maine would die in Confederate prison of war camps.