The Battle of Bonnie Doon

General David Hunter replaced General Franz Sigel on May 21, 1864, just six days after the Battle of New Market. General Ulysses S. Grant immediately ordered Hunter to apply scorched earth policies, if necessary, in his advance up the Shenandoah Valley. His instructions were to march through Staunton, Charlottesville, and then on to Lynchburg destroying the Virginia Central railroad and make sure it was “beyond possibility of repair for weeks.”

Hunter began advancing his army from its camp at Belle Grove, near Middletown, on May 25. By the following day, his army had arrived at Woodstock, and by May 30, Hunter had reached New Market. Here he would, for the most part, cut himself free from his supply line and live off the land.

Hunter would remain at New Market until June 2^nd, at which time he picked up camp and headed for Harrisonburg. Along the way he met with very little resistance from Confederate forces. Hunter’s scouts informed Hunter on June 4, however, that General John Imboden’s men were dug in on the south side of North River at Mount Crawford. Imboden concentrated his forces there, intent on obstructing a direct approach to Staunton. To avoid a direct crossing of the river, Hunter decided he would move east around Imboden’s right flank passing through Port Republic. He would then employ a pontoon bridge to force a safe crossing of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.

Reacting to Hunter’s move, General Imboden shuffled his headquarters from Mount Crawford to the Mount Meridian area so that he could continue to contest the advance of Hunter’s Army. With him he took Harnsberger’s Old Man and Chrisman’s Boy Cavalry Companies. These forces were operating under the command of Captain T. Sturgis Davis. They were to position themselves in front of Hunter’s army and resist his continued advance up the valley. Meanwhile, John Mosby and other rangers would strike Hunter’s flanks and rear.

On June 4 the 18^th Virginia Cavalry set up camp near Mount Meridian, six miles south of Port Republic. A second contingent went into bivouac a mile to their south on the Bonnie Doon Plantation. The estate was situated on upon easily defended high ground. Here Chrisman’s Boy Company, and Harnsberger’s Old Men were joined by Sturgis Davis’s Marylanders. John Opie’s and Henry Peck’s mounted reserves from Augusta County arrived shortly thereafter.

This Field is where Rebel Cavalry Camped at Bonnie Doon.

The following morning the 1^st and 21^st New York Cavalry arose early and on the march by 4 am. The weather was foggy with drizzling rain as Union troopers mounted up and headed south toward the settlement of Mount Meridian. The 1^st New York was leading the advance with the 21^st trailing some distance behind.

After two hours on the road Federal scouts bumped into “the enemy in force.” They had collided with the 18^th Virginia Cavalry. The New Yorkers quickly formed line and initiated an attack. “Skirmishers were thrown out in front and flankers to the right and left.” Major Timothy Quinn pushed Company C into line in the woods on the right and Company A to the right. The remaining companies were deployed into column.

The attackers were quickly slowed by a wooden rail fence which crossed their path. The men were forced to dismount and tear down the obstruction. When they remounted, they were surprised to “see immediately in front of them a broad rounded hill filled with the enemy.” The sight spawned a momentary pause on the part of the assailants.

Hotchkiss Map displaying the region between Port Republic and Piedmont.

The New Yorkers remounted their horses and pressed forward. Regrettably, they were “forced to halt once again and became a mark for the Confederates on the hill. They were taken at a disadvantage.” Lieutenant Isaac Vermilya was instantly shot from his horse. “There seemed to be no one just there to give the command to deploy and charge.” Instead, “they held their ground and promptly and continuously returned the enemy’s fire.”

An unnamed Confederate officer reacted quickly, “Charging with uplifted sabre (he) led a charge down the slope of the hill with such vigor that these companies were forced back into the woods.” There was complete turmoil on the field of battle. In the “fierce saber fight” that ensued the New York cavalrymen were punished and repulsed.

The 1^st New York was not yet ready to give up. They quickly regrouped and initiated a counterattack. The pursuit of the retreating Confederates was swift. The 1^st New York’s Lieutenant Edwin Savacool’s horse got out of control and bolted into the Confederate lines. Fortunately for the Lieutenant he was wearing his rubber coat. Reflexively he began to mingle with the enemy and remained unobserved. He later gained his freedom during a second attack led by his own regiment.

The fire from the 18^th Virginia devastated the 1^st New York. “Sergeant Buss, George Mason, and twenty or more of the other companies were wounded in probably less than five minutes. Lieutenant Clark Stanton was shot in the thigh.” Thomas Gorman, while attempting to jump a rail fence fell with his horse and was trapped under the weight of it. A couple of confederates happened along and captured Gorman, only to be released moments later during a Union counterattack.

Colonel William Badger Tibbits’ 21^st New York cavalry regiment arrived in short order adding four hundred cavalrymen to the fight. Tibbits was quick to react, quickly throwing his New Yorkers into the fight. Once again, the fighting was close and ferocious. It was “saber to saber.”

Colonel Tibbits, who found himself immersed in this savagery, had a very close call while riding his beloved war horse “Old Bill.” An incoming musket round struck him in his “saber hand,” forcing him to pull out his revolver. He began firing at a Confederate cavalryman who was swinging his saber at close quarters. Tibbets fired his gun at pointblank range and though the cap flashed, the powder did not ignite. As the rebel cavalryman swung his sword Tibbits threw himself over on one side of Bill’s neck and gave him the spur. “Old Bill leapt over a fence leaving the rebel cutting air with his sword.”

The 21^st New York, Chrisman’s Boys, and Harnsberger’s Old Men fought here.

As the 21st New York renewed its assault, the 18^th Virginia’s line broke and the cavalrymen began a retreat toward the Bonnie Doon farm with the 1^st New York in close pursuit. Simultaneously, the 21^st New York began pounded up the road toward the farm from the east. Most of the 18^th Virginia “made the leap over the plank fence on the north side of Bonnie Doon Lane only to find they did not have room to obtain the momentum needed to clear the fence on the south side.” The cavalrymen were trapped. The troopers of the 1^st New York galloped up to the fence and began to pour fire into the milling Confederate horsemen. The battle appeared to be lost.

Author’s Sketch of the Battle at Bonnie Doon.

Imboden realized that he must call in his reserves. Chrisman’s Boy cavalry and Hearnsbergers Old Man Company were ordered into the fight. The two tiny commands were made up of young 16 and 17-year-old boys, and old men between the ages of 50 and 65. All of them had very little or no training and almost no combat experience. This would be only their second call to battle.

Spread amongst these two companies were many youngsters and seniors, each with lives to live and stories still to tell. John Hooke was one of them. Hooke was a member of Chrisman’s Boy Company. He had grown up in the Hamlet of Cross Keys where he had celebrated his seventeenth birthday just one month prior. Two of John’s older brothers had already perished from injuries suffered at the Battles of 1^st and 2^nd Bull Run. John’s 46-year-old father, William, too old to join the regular army, had recently attached himself to Harnsberger’s Old Man Company. Both sat astride their horses on that rainy June morning, each undoubtedly stealing glances at one another, and both wondering if either of them would live long enough to embrace each other once again.

The moment had come. and Captain Davis ordered his reserves into the fray. These combatants were called upon to assist the 18^th Virginia in their escape from the fenced in enclosure surrounding Bonnie Doon. The 21^st New York, which was currently pounding south along the East Road, was threatening to pass to the rear of the 18^th. If successful, the 18^th Virginia cavalrymen was about to be surrounded and captured.

Chrisman’s Boys and Harnsberger’s Old Men “thundered down the road in a ‘reckless thrust’ and hit the head of the New York Column with a crash.” “It was hand to hand combat with sabers and pistols.” Captain Harnsberger was quickly shot in the left leg and arm. In short order more than half of the men from both companies were forced to fight dismounted. The hand-to-hand fighting was brutal and deadly.

Chrisman’s boys were crushed by the impact of the assault. The youngsters were in a standup fight against veteran New York cavalrymen. The sabering was horrific, and the young men were at a major disadvantage. Though better armed than they had been in their first fight at New Market on May 13, many still did not have standard issue pistols or swords. Colonel Chrisman, witnessing the carnage, quickly inserted himself into the melee, firing his revolver repeatedly. Though he made a quick work of two of his opponents, he too was disabled by a shot to the right hand.

The quick response made by the reserves delayed the advance of the 21^st New York long enough to allow most of the trapped members of the 18^th Virginia to escape from the fenced-in confines of Bonnie Doon. Their intervention also allowed the 23^rd Virginia Cavalry time to add their weight to the Confederate assault. These men came charging down the road and joined in the brawl offered by the Christman’s boys and the Old Men.

The 18^th Virginia cavalrymen, who were able to extricate themselves safely, retreated and reformed once gain to resist the Union onslaught. The timely arrival of the reinforcements had, undoubtedly saved the Virginians from capture or death. The intervention of the Boy Company and the Old Men had saved the day for Imboden and the Virginia cavalrymen.

Having regrouped, the Confederate cavalry force was finally forced to retreat to a point where they could reform and fight once again. They did this time and time again. Imboden’s cavalry would “deploy at every hill” finally leading to the defensive position chosen by General William Jones at Piedmont.

Chrisman’s Boy Company had suffered heavily in the fighting. Less than one month before they had numbered eighty souls. Major Chrisman would indicate he had brought forty-five of the sixteen and seventeen-year-olds into the fight. He related they had “made a desperate stand,” along the East Road, outnumbered, and fighting against veterans of the 21^st New York Cavalry. In this brief episode they had lost thirty members of their company. Two thirds of their numbers.

Remarkably, John and William Hooke survived the encounter. Both would outlast the war and return home a year later. John did not remain at Cross Keys but headed west to California. He would marry Emma Van Lear and raise two children to adulthood there. He would die at his home in Pomona California in 1923. His dad would pass shortly after the war and is buried in the Cross Keys Cemetery.

Later that day a major battle would take place in the hamlet of Piedmont with General William (Extra Billy) Jones commanding. Outnumbered, the battle would go badly for the Confederates. During the severe fighting General Jones was killed and the Confederates routed. Prior to the battle General Imboden had assigned a 4-foot 10-inch-tall private, named Joseph Altaffer, to Jones as a courier. He was the shortest member of the Boy Company. He was at General Jones’s side when he was struck in the head and killed by a Union bullet. Altaffer would be one of just two of the original members of the Boy Company who would live to surrender at Appomattox Court House. Though the bravery of the boys would “spread through the Valley,” most of its members would not survive the war.

The neighing troop, the flashing blade

The Bugles stirring blast

The Charge, the dreadful cannonade

The din and shout are past.

anonymous

Sources:

Beach, William H. The First New York Lincoln Cavalry: From April 19, 1861 to July 7, 1865. The Lincoln Cavalry Association. New York. 1902.

Bonnell, John C. Jr. Sabres in the Shenandoah: The 21^st New York Cavalry, 1863-1866. Burd Street Press. Shippensburg, Pa. 1996.

Heatwole, John L. “Remember Me is All I ask:” Chrisman’s Boy Company. Mountain Valley Publishing. Bridgewater, Va. 2000.

War of the Rebellion, Official Records. Union and Confederate Armies. Series I. Volume XXXVII.