The Fight at Waterford - The Skirmish

The Skirmish

In the pre-dawn hours of the 27th, guided by local Confederate sympathizers, White's Rebels approached the Baptists church under cover of darkness to find the 28 Rangers there camped on the porch. Cpt. White decided to split his command in two and sent 30 men, mounted, onto the road as a decoy to draw the Rangers into the open, while the other 20, on foot, waited in the field across the street with orders to fire only after the Rangers took the bait. The anxious Rebels, however, failed to wait and opened fire on the Rangers early causing them to scramble into the refuge of the church, though not before suffering one killed one and two injured, including Lt. Slater who relinquished command to Charles A. Webster. White then sent his decoy force into town to capture Means and the Rangers pickets, while he, with the rest of the command laid siege to the church. In town, the Rebels found that Means and the pickets had fled, but were able to capture two sentries at Means house and a cache of weapons and supplies.

30 minutes into the fight, White sent local resident Mrs. Virts, whose home was adjacent to the Rebels position, across from the church, under a flag of truce to demand the Rangers surrender to which Webster flatly refused. Fighting continued for another hour before White again sent Mrs. Virts into the church to demand surrender, and again Webster refused, this time threatening to kill Mrs. Virts if she entered the church again. Fighting again resumed for another hour and half until 7 a.m. before surrender was demanded for again. With the Rangers out of ammunition, Webster agreed, so long as the prisoners would be immediately paroled. The Rebels too were short on ammunition and White agreed, taking the Rangers horses and weapons and paroling the 19 Rangers captured, the four unaccounted for Rangers had previously escaped by fleeing into the basement and exiting through a window in the back. The two sentries captured outside the church were not paroled and were sent to Richmond as P.O.W.s. During the surrender a member of the Rebels, William Snoot, rushed into the church and attempted to kill his brother, Charles, who was serving with the Rangers, but was disarmed before accomplishing his task.