Action at Stumpy's Hollow

Action at Stumpy's Hollow. "Throw down your arms or you are dead men!". As he advanced south from the Potomac, Union Gen. Robert Patterson sent Gen. James Negley's brigade along a smaller road to the west to guard his right flank. Company I of the 15th Pennsylvania Infantry moved ahead of Negley's main body as skirmishers... but as they marched, they became dangerously separated from the rest of their regiment., Confederate Lt. Col. Jeb Stuart and his cavalry were watching the Union flanking movement. When Co. I became isolated, Stuart struck. He divided his force, sending one group under Robert Swan to move through the woods and approach the isolated Federals from the south. Swan and his men surprised part of Co. I at William McGary's farm, shouting "Surrender to Jeff Davis!", and captured 31 Union soldiers., The rest of Co. I reached the crossroads at Stumpy's Hollow, just 250 yards to your front. Uncertain of which route to take, the men stopped in a fenced field and waited for the main body. Stuart, still wearing his blue pre-war U.S. Army uniform, rode up to the Federals and ordered them to take down the fence rails to allow his cavalry to pass. The Federals, mistaking them for their own cavalry, tore down the fence. Stuart then thundered, "Throw down your arms, or you are dead men!" As Stuart's troopers rushed up, the Union soldiers fell on their faces, and 13 more were captured., The next Union company fired one round, then fell back to their main regiment, while the Confederates hustled their prisoners south, even as they could hear firing coming from the east, where the main battle had broken out.

The captured men were taken to Winchester, where they were put to work helping dig entrenchments that would become Fort Collier.

(captions) , Jeb Stuart was promoted to general in the fall of 1861. Courtesy Library of Congress, Union Capt. Frank Has, commander of Co. I, 15th Pennsylvania