Lewis “Lew” Wallace’s 11th Indiana Infantry had been protecting the vital transportation hub of Cumberland, Maryland, along the Potomac River, since early June 1861. When Wallace’s regiment departed on July 7, Cumberland and key points along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad were left dangerously exposed.
At the request of General Winfield Scott, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin finally ordered the troops at Camp Mason & Dixon, which included the 13th and 5th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiments, and Battery A of the 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, to advance and protect Cumberland. The 13th Pennsylvania Reserve, nicknamed the “Bucktails” for the deer tails worn on their hats, was commanded by Col. Charles J. Biddle and was later redesignated the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.
Thirty-nine-year-old Thomas L. Kane, a diminutive abolitionist attorney who spoke fluent French, organized the regiment during the spring and early summer of 1861. Though not a Mormon himself, he was a friend and confidant of Brigham Young. The men mustered into state service on June 21. Kane recruited heavily among the woodsmen of northwestern Pennsylvania’s “wildcat district.” The regiment initially elected Kane as colonel and Charles J. Biddle as lieutenant colonel, but Kane voluntarily exchanged ranks with Biddle in recognition of his distinguished service during the Mexican-American War.
They reached Cumberland late on the same evening Wallace’s regiment departed and slept on their arms, prepared for an attack that never came. The next morning, they occupied the Hoosiers’ former campsite. Kane organized a corps of sixty dismounted scouts and placed himself at its head. Like Confederate cavalier Turner Ashby, Kane viewed himself as both a gentleman and a knightly Christian soldier, leading by personal example. The Bucktail scouts borrowed rifles from the Home Guard because, in Harrisburg, they had been forced to exchange their often superior privately owned firearms for obsolete 1837 Harper’s Ferry muskets.
On Friday, July 12, Col. Biddle received word that Confederates had destroyed train cars and two trestle bridges over George’s Creek on the Maryland side of the Potomac, north of Piedmont, Virginia. Biddle dispatched Kane and his scouts through the Cumberland Narrows aboard the Cumberland & Pennsylvania and Georges Creek railroads south, stopping a few miles north of Piedmont to spend a fitful night in an old stone grist mill.
After crossing the river into Piedmont, Kane led about forty men five miles along the south bank of the Potomac to New Creek (present-day Keyser). As they advanced beneath the forested escarpments lining the narrow valley, many suspected Confederate cavalry lurked around every bend. Kane dispatched a sergeant on horseback back to Piedmont to summon reinforcements, leaving the sergeant and the remaining scouts to guard the town. Reinforced to fifty men, Kane entered New Creek and relieved two companies sent their earlier.
That night, Kane and his men took shelter in a stone house owned by William Armstrong southwest of the train station. Just before sunrise on July 14, Confederate cavalry rode into New Creek from the direction of Piedmont with roughly eighty-five to one hundred men. Hearing the commotion, Kane sent a squad to investigate. The Bucktails concealed themselves in a meadow of tall grass, fired several shots at Jordan’s troopers, then fell back to the stone house. The Confederate cavalry formed up and charged, but the Bucktails, renowned for their marksmanship, unleashed a deadly volley from the windows.
“They came up in fine order, but broke and ran on receiving a fire which was reserved till they were ready to dismount,” Kane later wrote. The Confederate raiders retreated south, with Kane and his men in pursuit. About eight miles down the Northwestern Turnpike towards Romney, east of the small village of Ridgeville, the two sides briefly exchanged fire again. Kane’s force then took shelter in a large stone house that night, erected barricades, and sent a messenger racing back to Colonel Biddle for reinforcements.
Kane’s messenger reached Col. Biddle shortly after midnight, and he immediately put the remainder of his regiments in motion, leaving two companies behind to guard the camp. After an exhausting march of ten to twelve miles through the mountains, they reached Kane’s outpost. Rather than advance on Romney, however, the Federals withdrew back to New Creek Station and then to Piedmont.
On July 27, Biddle’s brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves was ordered to return to Harrisburg in the aftermath of the Union defeat at the Battle of Bull Run. Over the following months, Kane and Biddle’s relationship deteriorated to the point that Kane challenged his commander to a duel, though the challenge never came to fruition. Kane was captured on June 6, 1862, at the Battle of Good’s Farm, the same engagement in which Confederate Col. Turner Ashby was killed. After being exchanged, Kane returned to service and eventually rose to the rank of brevet major general.
Sources
Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, Vol. 1. B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
Civilian and Telegraph (Cumberland, MD) 18 July 1861.
Glover, Edward A. Bucktailed Wildcats: A Regiment of Civil War Volunteers. Thomas Yoseloff, 1960.
Grow, Mathew J. “Liberty to the Downtrodden”: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer. Yale University Press, 2009.
Haselberger, Fritz and Mark. “The Skirmishes at New Creek and Piedmont.” West Virginia History 27 (April 1966): 211-19.
Sypher, Josiah R. History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Elias Barr & Co., 1865.
Thomson, Osmund R. H. and William H. Rauch. History of the “Bucktails” Kane Rifle Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Electric Printing Company, 1906.
Whittaker, David J. “‘My Dear Friend’: The Friendship and Correspondence of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane.” Brigham Young University Studies 48, No. 4 (2009): 193-225.
Zobell, Albert L. Sentinel in the East: A Biography of Thomas L. Kane. Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., 1965.
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