After spending a peaceful few weeks on Maryland Heights in the summer of 1861, the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry finally got its marching orders. A small force was left on the Heights while the rest of the regiment struck its tents.At the last minute an order came to send a small force over the river to Harper's Ferry to seize all of the flour at a mill. Col. Andrews returned with 5 companies to load up the flour and destroy the mill. He had with him the mechanics from Lowell of Edward Abbott's Company A and was having a grand time breaking the buskets and smashing the gearing when Lt. Brown, who was loading the flour onto the ferry, saw some Rebel cavalry coming down the road into Harper's Ferry.
Standing picket duty up on the mountain, Lt. Horton also spied them. The 2nd Massachusetts prepared for battle.
Near the old railroad bridge, Capt. William Cogswell's Company C waited and, according to Maj. Dwight, managed to "dismount one or two horsemen," and scattered the rest.
Capt. Richard Cary's was stationed above the Potomac guarding the ford. Just after sending one of his men down to see what was going on, a few Confederate bullets came whistling over the heads of his men, who were lounging about "and then such a jumping you never did see." At first the men seemed "surprised and flustered", but as soon as Cary began barking orders, they "scattered out as skirmishers up the road behind the trees & bushes in good style." Cary was joined by a fatigue party under Lt. Sawyer, but the range was so long that little side did much damage to the other. It was all over, he estimated, in 15-20 minutes. None of the 2nd Massachusetts were injured.
Afterwards, Cary wrote to his wife, "Under fire at last. We had been out so long without even a sight of the enemy that I began to doubt whether the war was not all humbug made up to make the papers sell and the rebels myths." Now, he went on, he had finally heard the "peculiar whiz zip" of a rifle ball.
And how did he feel about being under fire? "I can't tell you. It was an entirely new sensation--quite different from anything I ever experienced before, but one thing I know--it was not fear & when the first balls came I don't recollect thinking of anything but getting the men out to suit me....I thought what a shame it would be if I was knocked over in such a contemptible little skirmish & that was all." He also admitted to having dodged his head once, but that he "stood as upright as a Major for some time afterward as penance."
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