Ironton Register 29 March 1888 – James Chambers was a member of Company K 5th West Virginia Infantry and passed through the whole war and many battles without getting a scratch but he came very near getting several.
“On one occasion,” James Chambers said, “while on a picket on New River, he was standing leaning against a tree with his face to a big fire for it was a cold winter night when the musket balls came whizzing from the overhanging cliffs and buried themselves in the tree, only a few inches over his head, one of the balls almost grazing the scalp. And the balls kept dropping among them so frequently that they had to skip out and return to camp, very happy that they got away at all for the bushwhackers kept close behind them.
“But a curious thing happened on the raid to Lynchburg. You remember,” said James Chambers “when near Lexington we were stopped by a small rebel force and formed in line ready for a fight.
Well, we were in the advance and exchanged a few shots with the rebs. Then, while I was loading a firing, I had a queer experience. I had fired a couple of shots and was drawing my ramrod from a third load and just as it was clear of the barrel a reb Minnie ball struck it far and sent it spinning over a fence into the undergrowth beyond. Of this experience, my arm received a shock that it was dead for a few moments as if it had received a charge of electricity.
“However, it was soon over, and I picked up another gun and went in. Just then we were ordered to open ranks to let Blazer’s Scouts pass through and then occurred another singular but ghastly event that will never leave my memory. While the scouts were passing through our ranks the rebel scouts [shot him] in the forehead killing him instantly and knocking him from his horse so that he tumbled over on me, his crushed and mangled head striking my shoulder and smearing the blood and brains over my coat.
I tell you that looked like war. I’ll never forget it. So soiled was my blouse and it being warm weather so unpleasant was the odor that I threw the blouse away and went through Lynchburg Campaign in my shirt sleeves.
“Coming from Lynchburg I had a close call that was in some respects laughable. You know how sleepy we were – how we marched sound asleep and woke up only when we ran against a comrade or stumbled over something on the road? Well, we had left Lynchburg and got to Liberty without a chance to get a square nap and there we rested for half an hour or so.
Charley Rice and I jumped over into a field where there was some deep grass and went to sleep as soon as we struck the ground. There we slept until we were awakened by shouts and reports of guns. We jumped up and lo! the regiment was gone and right near us was a troop of reb cavalry. I started down the road as fast as I could go, and Charley skipped out sideways somewhere. The rebs took after me, shooting at me, and crying ‘surrender, surrender.’
“I looked back and saw a big reb sergeant with a mustache nearly six inches long making for me as tight as he could come and I fled like a racehorse thinking every moment one of his bullets would hit me. As I ran, I thought of the long road to Richmond and that moved me to fly faster.
Soon I heard a commotion in the rear and looking back saw they had stopped chasing me and so I stopped and soon observed that part of our regiment had been hiding and had rushed in behind the reb cavalry and cut off the big mustached sergeant and his squad and so I returned and helped capture him, but I was too much out of breath to enjoy it as I have every time I thought of it since,” said James Chambers.
0 Comments