Marched through
Charlestown, and thence to Berryville. On this occasion, something happened
that wants mentioning. When leaving Poolesville, Captain J. A. Tompkins ordered
the men to carry the knapsacks on the back. This is contrary to regulations. It
created a great deal of dissatisfaction. The lot of a soldier is hard enough,
without irritating him unreasonably. But, honor to the lamented hero, General
Sedgwick, who, riding by our battery, at Charlestown, peremptorily ordered
Captain Tompkins to have no more knapsacks carried by any of his men. An
engagement was anticipated. Rebels were seen beyond Ripton. By one and a-half
o'clock, our left section unlimbered, and fired two shells towards Berryville.
Van Allen's, and the Eighth Michigan cavalry, drove the rebel cavalry, two
hundred and fifty strong, out of the town. Our battery followed closely—Gorman's
brigade in our rear. The stars and bars were lowered from the church steeple,
and a substitute furnished in the shape of the colors of the First Minnesota.
The pieces of the battery were brought in separate position by sections.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, pp. 34-5
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