Early on the 17th of April 1861, Captain Strother H. Bowen received orders to march with the Clarke Rifles to aid in the capture of the Union armory at Harpers Ferry. All men of the company were in a flurry at the prospect of battle, some men even loaded their cartridges backward in anxious anticipation. With tension high and blood running hot, Captain Bowen and Company I marched into Harpers Ferry to give battle, finding that the Yankees had already fled and the armory put to the torch. Their excitement and fears had been for naught.
It was there that, for some time, Company I was billeted in a Catholic Church when the then little known Thomas Jackson took command of the 2nd Virginia. The then ‘Colonel’, soon promoted to Brigadier, Jackson drilled the men relentlessly. Their days and nights and lives filled with nothing but drill and discipline. Though many of the men of the company were already excellent shots, accustomed to muskets and rifles, Jackson’s constant drilling would prove well for the men of the 2ndVA.
The Clarke Rifles were constantly assigned to duties detached from the rest of the regiment, at first the men believed this to be Brigadier Jackson’s outlet of dislike for the men of Company I. Later they came to realize he favored them more, giving them difficult assignments due to his confidence in the abilities of the officers and enlisted men of the company. They continued to prove the Brigadier’s (later Lieutenant-General’s) assurance that the men of Company I, would do well whatever duty was put upon them throughout the war, until that fateful day at Appomattox.
Jackson's incessant drill proved to be apt, attested to at First Manassas, where the men of the 2ndVA and the “First Brigade” gave an excellent account of themselves, holding the line and repulsing a Union advance as the Confederates were in disarray and about to be overrun. This was where Jackson and his brigade received the nickname “Stonewall”, becoming legends in the years to come.
Captain Bowen, thought a gallant and competent officer, was coming up past sixty and old age was catching up. He retired from the service in November of 1861, to take up work producing gun carriages for the CSA. The Lieutenant of the first platoon, S. J. C. Moore was made Captain, resulting in a promotion for the officers and NCO’s under him. This new command structure was popular and did well for the men. New changes at a brigade level were underway as well, Brigadier Jackson was promoted and replaced by Brigadier Richard B. Garnett. Garnett was a poor officer and the men of Company I were not pleased, thankfully the Clarke Rifles and Stonewall Brigade remained under the effectual command of Jackson throughout the war.
Company I proved itself to be a dutiful and steadfast unit throughout the American Civil War, they drove the Yankees back with shot and bayonet time and again at Henry House, Cedar Creek through to the Maryland campaign and Jackson’s flank attack at Chancellorsville. They held the line at First Manassas and again at the Second. Through mundane provost assignments and grim battle, the Clarke Rifles were committed and loyal all the way through to their final engagement at Appomattox
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(The Napoleonic era plumed shakos were soon traded for the iconic grey kepi of the Confederate forces.) |
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