[
526]
as
Dranesville, and, having come down to
Vienna, had just torn up some of the railway and destroyed a water-tank, and were departing, when they heard the whistle of a locomotive engine below the village.
They hastened to the curve of the railway, in a deep cut a quarter of a mile from the village, and there planted two cannon so as to sweep the road, and masked them.
Unsuspicious of.danger, McCook and his men entered the deep cut. Contrary to orders, the engineer had run up to that point quite rapidly, and there had been no opportunity for reconnoitering.
The engine was behind the train, and was pushing it .up.
When the whole train was fairly exposed to the masked cannon, they opened fire, and swept it from front to rear with
grape and canister shot.
Fortunately, the shot went high, and most of the soldiers were sitting.
The frightened engineer, instead of drawing the whole train out of the peril, uncoupled the engine and one passenger-car, and fled with all possible speed toward
Alexandria.
The troops leaped from the train, fell back along the railway, and rallied in a grove near by, where they maintained so bold a front under a shower of shell and other missiles, that the assailants believed them to be the advance of a heavier force near.
With that belief they soon retired, and hastened to Fairfax Court House, leaving the handful of
Ohio troops, whom they might have captured with ease, to make their way leisurely back, carrying their dead and wounded companions on litters and in blankets.
The Union loss was five killed, six wounded, and thirteen missing.
1 That of the insurgents is unknown.
The latter destroyed the portion of the train that was left in the deep cut, and captured a quantity of stores.
When they ascertained that the
National troops were not in force in that vicinity, they returned and took possession of
Vienna and
Falls Church Village.
On that occasion, the flag of the “Sovereign
State of South Carolina”
2 was displayed, for the first time, in the presence of National troops out of that State.
We have observed that the insurgents were endeavoring to blockade the Potomac.
Ten days after the affair at Vienna, there were some stirring scenes connected with that blockade at Matthias Point, a bold promontory in King George's County, Virginia, jutting out into the river, and giving it a short sharp turn.
That point was covered with woods, and there the insurgents commenced erecting a battery which might completely destroy the
