| Battle of Falling Waters, Va July 2, 1861 The first time the 5th and the brigade saw combat |
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| About 7:30 am, on July 2, 1861 Colonel Thomas J. Jackson received word from J.E.B. Stuart that some of the Patterson�s Federal troops had crossed the Potomac River, and were about 4 � miles from Camp Stephens (4 mi. from Martinsburg). The 5th Regiment and the Rockbridge Artillery were ordered to move ahead of the Brigade while the remainder of the brigade stayed behind in support. Captain Letcher�s Rockbridge Rifles and Waters� West Augusta Guard moved in advance, deployed as skirmishers. Three guns of the Rockbridge battery were left behind in reserve.
Contact was made with the enemy about a mile from Falling Waters on the Potomac, and six miles from Williamsport. On Jackson�s orders, Colonel Kenton Harper deployed the 5th Regiment to the right of the road at the Porterfield farm. Captain Waters� West Augusta Guard was sent to reconnoiter on the right. His company had just entered the field when the enemy�s skirmishers, concealed in the wheat and tall grass, opened fire. Letcher�s company and the Augusta Grays, both under Major Baylor, were ordered to support of Waters� company. The firing was severe on both sides, and at one time the second platoon of the Rockbridge Rifles was mistaken for the enemy. Remarkably, they escaped with few casualties. In the meanwhile, the West View Infantry, Ready Rifles, and the Continental Morgan Guards were drawn up in line. The Mountain Guard and Southern Guard advanced and occupied the farm buildings, with Colonel Harman in charge of the operations at that point. The front was cleared, and the 5th Regiment came up against the main line of the Wisconsin and Pennsylvania troops. A light battery of the 4th U.S. Artillery began shelling Harper�s lines, but the regiment held up under the severe fire, and on several occasions turned back enemy advances. Harper believed he would soon have to abandon the farm buildings, and sent Major Baylor back to request that artillery be sent up to give support in the withdrawal. The regiment continued to hold their positions until flanking movements by the enemy necessitated them to fall back through fields to an open wood. One of the Reverend Captain Pendleton�s six-pounders was brough up, and under Jackson�s direction was positioned to wait for the best moment to open fire. It came when a body of cavalry appeared to be preparing for a charge about a � mile in front. A well-directed shot sent the enemy scurrying. Another round sent against an enemy gun scattered its crew. �I am sure that gun fired no more,� wrote the reverend-captain. The fighting was over at 10:30 a.m. Jackson fell slowly back, and went into camp for the night about 3 miles below Martinsburg on the road to Winchester. The enemy occupied Camp Stephens, where they found, and destroyed 150 tents. Nine companies of the 5th Virginia, numbering 380 rank and file were engaged at Falling Waters, or Hainesville, as the action was at times called. The regiment�s baptism under fire cost one death, George Rupe of the Mountain Guard, who has the unenviable distinction of being the first battle fatality of the brigade. His body was left on the field, and was later buried at Shepherdstown. William S. Wright also of Mountain Guard, remembered in 1885 that he was about 5 paces from Ruse and had a distinct recollection of the dull thud sound made when he was shot. He saw Ruse fall behind a shock of wheat. The Staunton Spectator July 9, 1861, reported that Ruse was shot in the thigh and bled to death. Jack Doyle of West Augusta Guard was recognized as the first soldier in the brigade to receive a battle wound. Another of the 7 wounded was Captain Avis� son, James, who was declared unfit for further service in the field. �Little Charley Turner,� age 15, was mentioned in the Spectator�s account of Falling Waters. He had �insisted so strongly on going with the West Augusta Guard that his father finally yielded to his yearnings and allowed him to go. �The result shows that little Charley went to perform service, for he made one of the enemy bite the dust.� �Little Charley� fought as a cadet at New Market, and years later became adjutant general of Montana. Another who made the papers was John F. Brooke of Staunton, who died as the last known survivor of the 5th Regiment. Brooke reported the Spectator, was at a fence firing away at the enemy, �when cannonball took off the two top rails. He stooped a little lower and continued to return the compliment with his mini.� Jackson on July 3 marched his brigade to Darkesville, where they joined General Joseph E. Johnston�s forces brought up from Winchester. After four days of waiting for Patterson�s attack, Johnston moved his army, including the first brigade, to about a mile north of Winchester, where camp Johnston was established. Thus ended the Falling Water�s campaign Compiled from: The Virginia Regimental Series: 5th Virginia Infantry By: Lee A. Wallace, Jr. |