Funkstown raid kills a Maine Yankee’s pipe

Many buildings along East Baltimore Street in Funkstown, Md. were present when Union troops advanced through the Washington County town to attack retreating Confederate troops in July 1863. (Brian F. Swartz Photo)

A wild raid on Robert E. Lee’s post-Gettysburg retreat lines earned a Calais officer a mention in dispatches — and almost got him shot.

A 25-year-old Calais schoolmaster in 1861, Reuel W. Furlong stood 6-2½ and had gray eyes, black hair, and a florid complexion. He joined the 6th Maine Infantry Regiment as Co. D’s first lieutenant on April 27, 1861 and soon became its captain.

Capt. Reuel W. Furlong took Co. D, 6th Maine Infantry on a daring raid into the Confederate skirmish lines outside Funkstown, Md. on July 12, 1863. He lived to tell the tale. (Bangor Public Library)

Commanded by Col. Hiram Burnham, the 6th Maine belonged to the 3rd Brigade of Brig. Gen. David A. Russell, a native New Yorker and West Point graduate (’45) whose low academic grades sent him to the infantry rather than the vaunted U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He had initially led the 7th Massachusetts Infantry before gaining his star in 1862.

The 3rd Brigade belonged to the 1st Division (Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright) of VI Corps, led by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick.

Writing from “In the Field” on Monday, July 13, Reuel Furlong told his father about the previous day’s excitement, including the incident in which “you came very near [to] having only two boys left.”

Saturday evening, July 11 found the 3rd Brigade camped “within about 2 miles of Funkstown, Md.,” Russell said. The brigade included the 5th Wisconsin Infantry (the 6th Maine’s soul mate) and the 49th and 119th Pennsylvania infantry regiments.

Hampered by Gettysburg’s heavy casualties and ammunition expenditures, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade had slowly pursued the retreating Robert E. Lee, or so President Abraham Lincoln and many Union soldiers believed. Once across South Mountain and nearer the Potomac River, Lee found his retreat delayed by rising water and by Union cavalry destroying a pontoon bridge.

A Maryland Civil War Trails panel identifies the area where a Confederate artillery battery deployed during the battle of Funkstown in July 1863. (BFS)

He turned, dug in, bristled his bayonets, and awaited Meade. Confederates deployed near Antietam Creek and Funkstown. At 4:30 a.m., Sunday, July 12, with the air already promising heat and humidity, the brigade “broke camp and marched out about half a mile beyond Funkstown, where we halted and formed line of battle,” Russell said.

Its right flank “resting on the road” (possibly modern Alternate 40, also called the Frederick Road), the 6th Maine spread eastward across it. The 5th Wisconsin formed beyond the 6th Maine, the 119th Pennsylvania formed on the Mainers’ right flank, and Russell placed the 49th Pennsylvania “about a third of a mile” west of the road “to support a battery in position at that point.

Pursuing Robert E. Lee’s retreating army, VI Corps infantry crosses Antietam Creek on a stone-arch bridge at Funkstown, Md., in July 1863. The 6th Maine Infantry Regiment was attached to the corps’ 1st Division. (Edwin Forbes, Library of Congress)

A strong line of skirmishers was thrown out in front of the Sixth Maine Volunteers, and the skirmish line … advanced a little during the morning, and some brisk skirmish firing ensued therein,” Russell noted.

Furlong received orders at 4 p.m. (Russell recorded the time as “about 2 p. m.”) to move Co. D “to the front[,] out by the skirmish line.” There he learned “that I was to make a sally on the enemy’s ‘skirmish] lines and gobble some prisoners if I could.”

Furlong studied the ground between Co. D and the enemy and looked over his own command, “a little handful of 24 men.

It seemed to be perfect madness and folly” to attack, he thought. “I made up my mind to myself that we were going right straight into eternity.

But I had my orders, and all a soldier has to do is to obey,” Furlong realized.

Stealth would not work, “so I instructed my men—which, by the way, are every one heroes—what we had to do,” he said.

Away we dashed through our [skirmish] lines and with fixed bayonets and unearthly yells, at a double-quick, we soon struck the enemy,” Furlong recalled.

Brig. Gen. David A Russell commanded the 3rd Brigade to which the 6th Maine Infantry was attached. (LOC)

The attack sounded easier in ink than on the ground. “The run almost exhausted my men as it was very hot and they were in heavy marching order,” he explained. The Maine boys ran into flying lead; “the bullets flew thick and fast all about us[,] but” the Confederates “were so surprised” that they “could not fire with accuracy.

We went into them right and left, each man trying to outdo the other,” the “panic stricken” enemy fired constantly for “about ten minutes,” and “it was exciting I tell you,” Furlong admitted.

He suddenly realized that “one rebel had his gun to his shoulder not more than two paces from me, and was just in the act of pulling the trigger” when Corp. William H. Weeks and Pvt. Alexander Hanson “both saw him and fired … they shot him dead. It looked kind of scaley at the time[,] but its all right now.”

Many Southerners fled, and “the boys would drop them in their tracks” as they bolted for safety. Furlong counted “from 25 to 30 [Confederates] killed and wounded on the field, most of whom were killed,” and Co. D “took 39 prisoners and sent them in to the General” Russell.

Furlong reported capturing “a Captain and … a 1st Lieut. We killed their 2d Lieut. We took about double the men we went in with, and killed and wounded as many, which I think is doing pretty well for 24 men.”

Russell praised Furlong for the “highly daring and gallant manner” raid in which Co. D “broke through the skirmish line” and “surrounded” and “captured 33 enlisted men, a captain, and a lieutenant—an entire company.”

The beauty of it is not a man on our side received the slightest injury,” wrote Furlong, his news echoed by Russell in his official report. “Some of the boys I believe had their packs or clothes shot through and I lost my pipe, which I believe are the only casualties.”

After Co. D escorted its prisoners into the 6th Maine’s lines, Russell “called me and thanked me earnestly for doing so well,” Furlong said. “I told him the credit was all due to the members of my Company, and of course I may well feel proud of it.”

Sources: Brilliant Exploits of Down-east Boys, Portland Daily Press, Saturday, August 1, 1863; Reuel W. Furlong Soldier’s File, Maine State Archives; Brig. Gen. David A. Russell, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Vol. 27, Part 1, No. 228, p. 674



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Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

 

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.