“A Wild Night Ride – One of the Swiftest Military Movements on Record”

I was in Baltimore recently, visiting my daughter.  We stood on Federal Hill in her neighborhood – a downtown hill of about 50 feet that overlooks the Inner Harbor.  I told her about a recent news article that I had come across about our Civil War ancestor, Samuel Humes, and a trip he made to Baltimore.  And I guessed that while visiting, he likely stood where we were standing, atop Federal Hill and looking across the harbor to downtown Baltimore.   It’s one of the best views in town.  Generally, when you do genealogy research, you find just the dry bones left in the records – birth, marriage and death dates, census records, family names.  All good – but sometimes you long for a story that brings some of this history to life.  That’s what I found last month.  So first, some background. 

In June of 1863, General Robert E. Lee determined to take the war north again, as he had done the previous year before being turned back at Antietam.  Virginia had borne the brunt of the ravages of war in the North.  Time for the Northern states to feel the pain of plunder and occupation.  On the way, he could threaten Washington, Baltimore, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Maybe seize the coal fields of upstate Pennsylvania and set them on fire, destroying the fuel that powered its movements by train.  His army of about 75,000 men began streaming north that month, following different routes. 

General J.E.B. Stuart

The “eyes” of his army, General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry, moved north through the heart of Virginia – with the mission to find and report on the location of the Union Army.  But Stuart was distracted – running into skirmishes, and then finding and seizing a Union supply train, which slowed him down.  His troops crossed the Potomac River near Dranesville, Virginia.  Barb’s daughter lives nearby and in a visit a few months ago I ran along the C&O Trail along the Potomac near where Stuart crossed.

The citizens of Baltimore were alarmed.  The city was defended by militia, who generally did not stand and fight against an organized group of veteran soldiers like the ones commanded by Stuart.  The Union troops that were not marching to try to head off Lee’s march north were protecting the capital, 40 miles south.  That is where we find Samuel Humes, on the afternoon of June 25, 1863, at Camp Barry and Fort Lincoln, near the current National Arboretum.

Hearing of the threat to Baltimore posed by Stuart, General Barry, the head of Union artillery, was asked if he could put some troops and cannons on a train and get them up to Baltimore immediately.  It was estimated that it might take at least 30 hours to assemble the men, horses, equipment and supplies, march them to the train, get them loaded and heading north to Baltimore. That was not good enough – it might be too late.

The Major in charge at Fort Lincoln offered another solution – he would take 3 batteries of artillery and march there under cover of night – and be in Baltimore in 20 hours or less.  Generally, an artillery unit did not march independently of the foot soldiers – the infantry – who would protect them; and there were no infantry units to spare.  The Major suggested that road north was mostly paved, that the noise of the night march would suggest a much larger army, and the Rebels would not expect an artillery unit to be marching alone without infantry support.  According to the newspaper account, “The General sat looking the Major right in the face for the moment thinking, and then said, “Will you try it?”  The Major responded, “Give me the orders and I’ll go.” 

Within an hour, the Major had assembled his three chosen batteries, including Samuel Humes’ unit, the 1^st Pa Light Artillery, Battery D, and they were marching north by about 4:30 p.m.  By dark, they were to Laurel, where they rested their horses for an hour.  The men did not ride on the “limbers” and caissons so that the horses would not be more stressed.  Some officers dismounted and marched as well to conserve the strength of their horses.  Four brief stops were made to rest both men and horses.  Only one person was met on the way – a Southern sympathizer who mistook the Union troops for Rebels, and told them that Stuart had crossed the Patapsco at nearby Ellicott City, and that the city of Baltimore was lightly defended by militia who “won’t fight”.  The Union batteries marched into Monument Square in downtown Baltimore and the Major reported to the commanding officer there at 4:50 a.m.  The troops had marched the 40 miles in 12 hours and 15 minutes.  Baltimore was secured.

In hindsight, Stuart was probably not going to threaten Baltimore.  He was already running late for his date with destiny at Gettysburg.  He arrived there on the afternoon of the 2nd day of the battle.  General Lee has been without his “eyes and ears”, for most of the week.  When he walked in, Lee greeted him: “Well, General Stuart, you are here at last.”  Lee’s rebuke was mild, considering the situation.  However, according to an aide who witnessed the meeting, the conversation was “painful beyond description.” 

Quartermaster Sgt. Samuel Humes

Perhaps, Samuel Humes and Battery D made their way back to the defensive positions outside of Washington, after several days of rest, and receiving the reports of the Union victory at Gettysburg and the Rebel retreat. However, his service record indicates that by the following month, his battery moved off to Harpers Ferry, and they took part in the Shenandoah Campaign of the following year. Son Drew and I are heading off to Harpers Ferry in a few days, to walk in more footsteps of Samuel Humes. For me, the search for family history never gets old.  

The news article that I came across was the result of a search for any mention of the battery commander, Andrew Rosney.  As you do more research, you start to branch out and attack the problem from different ways.  The article I found was the reminiscences of the Major, more than 20 years later, as related to a Boston Globe reporter.  It may have the “quality control” problems of all boastful 20-year-old memories, but the basic story of a night march would not have been made up out of whole cloth.  And so a little bit more of the life and times of G-G-Grandfather Samuel Humes comes to light.  It was fun to be able to stand atop Federal Hill with my son and daughter, and her daughter, 157 years later, and feel that we were walking in the footsteps of our Civil War ancestor. 

Here is a link to the original 1884 article about the "Wild Night Ride".  

And here is the view that Sam may have had from Federal Hill when he was there:

And here are four of his descendants on Federal Hill in 2020: