"I got hold of the lanyard and was pulling it off, when I felt someone pulling at my overcoat tail, and I found one of my men named Bishop... laying at the trail of the gun, he said to me, 'look there', I looked a little to the right, and there stood a Federal officer in a colonel's uniform with a pistol cocked and directed at my head... I turned suddenly taking him as much by surprise as he had taken me, knocked his pistol off and got mine on him, when he very cooly said to me, 'I could have killed you, and here are my men all around you', and sure enough within twenty steps of me there were a number of men laying down with their muskets cocked... Mr. Fife said to me, 'Good-bye.'"
In the flash of a moment the Federal onslaught on the "East Angle", at Spotsylvania Court House, put an end to the brief but shining career of the Charlottesville Artillery. Gallantly, the artillerists stood by their guns that day until one-half of the men present were captured, wounded, or killed.
Two years prior to that fateful day in May, 1864, the company came into existence under the guidance of James McDowell Carrington, and was equipped through the influence of his coercive mother. By the end of the day on March 15, 1862, the Charlottesville Artillery closely mirrored the already popular Rockbridge battery, in that forty-four of its number had attended some of Virginia's finest colleges and universities; most of those had attended the University of Virginia. After joining Stonewall Jackson's army in the Shenandoah Valley, the battery served with distinction and took a particularly brilliant stand at Port Republic, on June 8, 1862. Crossing over the Blue Ridge to join Robert E. Lee, the company continued noteworthy service with the Army of Northern Virginia, until the day of its demise, in the spring of 1864.
The Bedford Artillery was a company that faced nothing but disappointment and missed opportunities. From the date of the unit's conversation from infantry to artillery, almost one full year elapsed before it finally engaged in a full-scale battle, at Second Manassas. Less than a month later, the Bedford men took a beating at Sharpsburg and suffered terribly. Partially as a result, they were disbanded and reassigned in October, 1862.
The Lee Battery was formed by an energetic Tennessean, former West Pointer, and hero of Chepultepec, Pierce Butler Anderson. Under his engineering, the Lynchburg Artillery was raised and in battle one month after it mustered, sustaining high casualties. Recuperating from the fight at Rich Mountain, the company fought again at Greenbrier River and Camp Alleghany, where Anderson was killed. Next under the command of Capt. Charles Raine, the company nobly served in the Shenandoah Valley under Stonewall Jackson and on through the season of victory that lead up to Gettysburg. From the fields of Pennsylvania, the Lynchburg company marched on with the Army of Northern Virginia and steadily declined with its nation, losing another captain and taking severe beatings while back in the Shenandoah, in 1864. Finally, in April, 1865, the few men that remained submitted to surrender at Appomattox, just yards away from where Capt. Raine lay buried.
