History of the Dearings Artillery Battalion

Battery "B", 38th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery

Dearingle Battalion
November 1862 - March 1863

On November 23, 1862, James G. Dearing, Jr., as a captain, was assigned a battalion of guns. Three days later the organization was attached to General Montgomery Corse's Brigade. In the new artillery organization were his own Lynchburg Artillery, Captain Robert M. Stribling's Fauquier Artillery, and Captain Miles C. Macon's Richmond Fayette Artillery. It was highly unusual to have a captain assigned to such a position. If the West Pointer wished to keep the set of batteries as his own and make the rank of major he needed to prove his ability to lead such a large organization in battle. The advance of General Ambrose E. Burnslde's Federals on Fredericksburg would offer that opportunity in a few weeks.

From the camp of the Fayette Artillery near Fredericksburg Lieutenant Clopton wrote of what seemed imminent:
Fredericksburg is not yet destroyed - The bloody hand of war has not yet commenced Its work In its once quiet streets but how long this may be so no one knows. A battle is impending but most of us do not think it will occur In this locality. Our position is too strong for them to attempt an attack and if they do their defeat is inevitable. I think Burnside will however, by another movement force Lee to fall back on Richmond and the great struggle of the war will take place around its walls.

Clopton's expectations would be fulfilled, but not for more than year, and not at the hands of Burnside.

The Richmond lieutnant also wrote on November 26 of better things made possible by his mother and sister:
Gillespie arrived yesterday and it is needless to say that my heart over flowed with gratitude first to the Lord that I have such a mother and sisters and next for the comforts you sent me. I took a bath In the stream and put on clean new clothes from top to toe - all except the boots - and you don't know how nice I did feel. Not that I do not generally have clean clothes but I have been wearing the same old ones so long that it was a relief to get on new ones.

On December 11 two signal guns were fired at 5 a.m., indicating that Federal troops were crossing the river. Burnside had committed his force as Clopton had suspected he would not, and was coming headlong through Fredericksburg toward Lee's waiting army. Orders were given to the artillerists to have all batteries harnessed and ready to move by daylight.

Two days later Dearing's Battalion was put in position along with the batteries of McLaws' Division by the Fayette Artillery's old commander, Colonel Henry C. Cabell, now chief of artillery of Major General McLaws' Division. The Fayette Artillery, less one of the ten-pounders, was placed in position on the hill back of the Howlson house, while only one of Dearing's ten-pounder Parrotts, under Lieutenant Blount, was placed along that same line.

McLaws' Division occupied the front of the defense from Hazel Run along the ridge of hills tothe right and through a point of woods which extended into Mr. Alfred Bernard's field. Colonel Cabell reported little that would indicate the intensity of fire from the ten batteries in his charge along that line. He did feel that his guns contributed substantially to the loss of the enemy troops and stated that he had learned from Federal reports that "about one-fifth of those killed and wounded were from artillery." Lieutenant Clopton in a letter of December 15 gave more insight on the action and about his section of ten-pounder Parrotts:
Last Saturday we had a heavy engagement with the enemy which resulted in a glorious victory to us. The enemy were repulsed at all points of attack with great slaughter. The loss of our army is comparatively small. I fired 180 shots from my section of parrott guns. They fire at us even now at long range but Burnside seems for the present to have enough of it.... The yankees fought with great desperation and their dead cover the fields by thousands. Nobody hurt in our company.... It was Indeed a magnificent sight to see the immense columns of the enemy marching up to the assault - the whole plain glistening with bayonets - to see the long line of smoke and the great puffs of smoke from the hundreds of guns.... I was on a high hill a little to the left of the center and on both sides of me for miles and miles the battle in its grandeur was spread out before me....

LOSSES AT THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG
Companies:
Fouquier Artillery: KIA 0, WIA 1, MIA 0.
Richmond Fayette Artillery: None Recorded.
Lynchburg Artillery: None Recorded.

On December 28 the battalion left Fredericksburg and went into winter quarters at Ruther Glen in Caroline County. The faithful penman Clopton wrote from this place to his mother and sisters on January 6:
Its true I have not written for some time.... but then I've been building my "quarters" - very necessary things these cold nights and frosty mornings. What a charming fall and winter we have had. I do not recollect a more delightful season than thelast four months.... as far as the weather is concerned.

About a month after Clopton's letter Dearing's rank as Major was confirmed and his battalion now included Captain Thompson's Louisiana Guard Artillery. At the time Stribling's and Macon's batteries each maintained six guns, the Lynchburg Artillery, now under Blount, had four, and the Louisiana Guard had three.

On February 15 the battalion received orders to accompany General Pickett's Division on a march to Petersburg. After the men mounted train cars at Hamilton's Crossing, the horses and drivers prepared to move via the Telegraph Road. On February 18 Dearlng's Battalion passed through Hanover Junction and began to march afoot again.

The roads were in "dreadful condition," wrote Captain Blount. The battalion reboarded cars on the 19th and moved toward Richmond. Blount recalled that while the men were en route by rail they "lost a large portion of harness from the storehouse where it was placed by Major Dearing's order." Having had the harness of the Lynchburg battery replaced, the battalion resumed movement from Richmond on a clear and warm Saturday, February 21.

Two days later the battalion finally reached Petersburg and went into camp, where it would remain for a month.

The coming months would put the new major and his battalion to a quick test of endurance in dealing with the enemy and in trying out the reorganization which had come to the artillery of the army.

Suffolk, Gettysburg and a Well Deserved Real
April - December 1863

On March 25, Dearlng's Battalion fell in line with Pickett's and Hood's Divisions and commenced a march to the southeast. Federal troop size was growing in the area of Suffolk and threatened the security of Richmond. Lee in turn figured it better to send Longstreet's Corps in that direction now, before they would have to deal with those same enemy troops later at the very doorstep of Richmond. Another purpose behind Longstreet's expedition was to gather supplies from that abundant area.

On March 28 the expedition reached Ivor Station on the Petersburg and Norfolk Railroad. Captain Blount of the Lynchburg Artillery gave report that from this place on April 3 a group of men from his company, along with others, crossed the Blackwater and scouted. That mission, in essence, was charged to Major Dearing and consisted of some of the men of the Lynchburg Artillery, some of Armlstead's Infantry, and twenty-five of the best-mounted men of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry. Setting out on the 3rd, the small contingent scouted the Isle of Wight corrldor, moving undetected and managing to come close enough to Suffolk "to capture some Federal pickets; skirting around the north of the town, down the left bank of the Nansemond River, and across country via Chuckatuck to Smithfield." Dearing's band successfully made it back to Franklin on the 4th.

Leaving Ivor on the 7th the column proceeded to Franklin. That same day Lieutenant Clopton of the Fayette Artillery gave an overall picture of what the place was like:
I am out in the wilderness for reallythis section seems to be utterly separate and apart from the rest of the world - the land of swamps, dense forests and frogs. There are plenty of fine fish however for our mess. Yesterday we got two large... shad and three hickories for three dollars. What would the hucksters of R[ichmond] have charged for the same? I am in command of a section of Napoleon guns at the little town of Franklin.... The rest of our battery is.... some twenty-miles distant.

Longstreet opened the attack on Suffolk at dawn Saturday, April 11,with Micah Jenkins'column leading the advance across the Blackwater Creek, followed by Pickett's Division. Lieutenant Clopton wrote that the Fayette battery accompanied Jenkins'advance column and participated in the capture of two enemy cavalry pickets.

On the 16th and lgth of April Captain Blount recorded that his battery was involved in skirmishes with the enemy, resulting in only one horse hurt. In the days that followed and after considerable skirmishing, Longstrest found that it would be much easier to hold the Federal force at bay while others of his command continued to procure supplies.

Dearing tended to the supplies of his own battalion during this time. In a report to Brigadier General William N. Pendleton the major wrote on April 21 that he hoped "every day to see the 'phiz' of my quartermaster." Of his battalion staff officers, Dearing wrote that he had "two medical officers.....one ordnance officer, one adjutant, and a lieutenant acting as quartermaster."

During the month of April the Hampden Artillery was assigned to Dearing's Battalion in replacement for the Louisiana Guard Artillery. This battery was sorely depleted as a result of the previous year's activities. On April 17 the battery was reported to have the following:
1-10 Pounder Parrott, an axle of which is split... turned in 3 brass 6 Pounders to be recast Into Napoleons, harness tolerable, ammo good, but very little; 2 wagons good and 2 bad; 2 officers and 82 men present, 7 detached, 17 absent sick, 57 AWOL; stables not clean and impossibility of getting shovels as the reason; 50 horses, very indifferent.

The former West Pointer wished to do much for his new battery, including a shakedown of the officer structure. One of the measures taken was to secure Samuel F. Chapman, formerly of the Dixie Artillery, to the position of lieutenant in the Hampden Artillery. This recommendation was Dearing's own preference for the position, as opposed to Lieutenant Booker in that spot. Undoubtedly the major had formed a friendship with the young minister/soldier in the days when the Washington Artillery and the Dixie Artillery spent the winter of 1861-62 together while near Cantreville. Though Chapman was assigned the arrangement was only temporary, as the young minister followed the steps of his younger brother, William H., and joined Mosby's command.

Dearing also preferred charges against one of his lieutenants. Thomas McCurdy of the Hampden battery Dearing called "an indifferent and worthless officer and talks of resigning.... I hope he may." McCurdy was sent to Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield for trial.

When Caskie's battery arrived Dearing was also disgusted with the status of its supplies; it arrived "without horses or guns." For the armament of the battery, Major Dearing saw to it that Captain Caskle was sent "personally" to Richmond to fill his requisition for guns. He also wished that a Parrott gun of that battery would be turned over to Colonel Crutchfield. "I am greatly in need of rifles," wrote Dearing, "and wish to have a rifle battery." By April 21 the Hampden Artillery was a battery of four Napoloons and two Parrofts. The ambitious Dearing also worked to obtain a Parrott for Blount's battery and sent Lieutenant Peyton Johnston to Richmond to obtain fifty new conscripts for the Fayette Artillery.

In that same report to Pendleton, Dearing also wrote of something that disturbed him greatly. In the days following the arrival of the battalion near suffolk, Major General French came to Dearing, "and having no command (though being the ranking major-general here), General Longstreet finally... [allowed him to take] two of my batteries - Captain Stribling's and Captain Bradford's [from Mississippi] which has been assigned me at Petersburg, composed of four 12-pounder brass pieces - and sent them away down on Nansemond River, some 15 miles from me. . . ." The division of the battalion dealt a tremendous blow to Dearlng's confidence in the new organization of the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia.

On April 19 Captain Robert M. Stribling's battery was overrun while placed In the run-down fortifications at Fort Huger, with only the support of two companies from the 44th Alabama Infantry. The Federals swept the works at about 6 p.m. on that day and captured three Napoleons, two 24-pounder brass howitzers, and fifty-five men. To compound this loss, French reassigned, "All of the rest of the [remaining] horses... to some other batteries," instead of leaving them in the rightful care of Dearing's battalion. The angry major continued:
I do think it very trying to have one's command thus split up and captured, especially In such a way as this has been done. If it is a military necessity to separate battalions no one will more cheerfully acquiesce than myself; but this has proven itself not to be such an one, for General French has hastened to remove all batteries remaining near that point to some safe inland position. I have been working hard and straining every pont to fully equip and man my battalion, and was flattering myself that I was succeeding pretty well when this drawback comes upon me. It does seem that it is but a poor inducement for one to get a fine battalion if he is ... to be placed in traps to be captured without fighting. I had hoped that I might have the honor of commandlng my own battalion on a battle-field, there to share its honors, victories, or defeats; but it seems otherwise. I had no idea of accepting a sinecure when I became a field officer of artlllery, and when my battalion is needed I wish to carry it into battle myself.

After Pendleton received this correspondence, the general wrote that he understood Dearing's need to "express the anxiety.. lest much care in adjusting our artillery organization be frustrated by change of

This account is from the book entitled: The Richmond Fayette, Hampden, Thomas, and Blount's Lynchburg Artillery from the H. E. Howard book series by Robert H. Moore II Copyright 1991.

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