Another Man in the Frying Pan
Narrow Escape #17
Ironton Register 10 March 1887
Submitted by Peggy Wells
In a “Narrow Escape” already published in the Register, we narrated the experience of John Wilson, who caught a grape shot in the frying pan at Winchester on July 14, 1864. Isaac Arbaugh had a similar experience, and it took place during the same battle. Seeing Mr. Arbaugh the other day, we asked him, “Haven’t you a “Narrow Escape” for the Register readers, Mr. Arbaugh?”
“Well, I have had several narrow escapes. A spent ball went through my pants leg at the second Battle of Bull Run in 1862, but about as close a place as ever I was in, was on July 24, 1864, at Winchester.”
“What regiment were you in?”
“I was in Company C., 5th VA. Infantry.”
“Well, how about your close call at Winchester?”
“Well, there wasn’t much of a fight about it. It soon became clear that we could not hold our ground. We were outfired one or two rounds when we commenced retreating down the valley. We were at Winchester on the morning of the 24th and were ordered into the fight at about noon. The roads were soon crowded with stragglers. The main idea was to increase our speed for the rear. I hadn’t any chance to get away when our lines broke, and with three comrades, I had to run about half a mile.
“The rebels were nearly all around us. We had to run squarely opposite to their lines – had no chance to do anything else on account of their cavalry. Our capture or death seemed only a question of a few minutes. Gabriel Leighty, Jesse McMullen, and I was together. We were running hard for shelter.
“While I was running the line, I felt a shock as if something had struck me. Looking to see what was the matter, I found that my clothes were torn and that my frying pan, which had been hanging to my cartridge belt, was cut in two, leaving nothing but a piece of the handle. It was caused by a shell, which had just burst over our heads, scattering the pieces all around us.
“I had come to the front, too heavily laden, I guess and the rebs thought they would lighten my load. I felt kind o’ bad just then as fellas say – felt like I wasn’t going to get away from there. The rebs were determined we shouldn’t if they could help it.”
“We ran until we found shelter behind a pile of rails that had been thrown up for temporary breastworks and had been used by our cavalry skirmishers that morning before we came on the field. We continued here for a little while, but the situation as regards safety did not improve a bit. While we were lying behind the rails. General Mulligan, accompanied by an orderly, rode along and ordered us out. Had he stopped and taken shelter with us, it would have been better for him.
“He had not ridden fifty yards from us until he was shot dead. Here he met the fate of war. I saw him roll off his horse. We obeyed his order, every fellow taking his own course to get away from there. We retreated back through Winchester making a small stand-about, a brigade between Winchester and Bunker Hill. We fell back then nearly to Bunker Hill, and made a stand behind a stone fence.”
“We laid in line there until Early’s Cavalry charged up. We were ordered to fire one round on the cavalry. I expect I can give an as good account of the damage done to them by our fire as anyone, as I have it from Marion Robinet, Wash. Robinet, and Gordon Havens, who were in Early’s Cavalry and who, after the war, came to Ohio and worked awhile for Elias Justice of Aid Township who was a cousin to them. They told me they lost 1,200 men killed and wounded. We then retreated to Bunker Hill and encamped for the night.”
“Well, Mr. Arbaugh, the old soldiers have lots to tell of the war. They possess, as Bill Nye puts it, the experience and rheumatism, that and both its fruits. They spend their days in giving their experience and their nights in putting arnica on their rheumatism.”
“Very true, sir.”
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