Bog Wallow Ambush (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

On 4 December 1861, fifty-five men of the 3rd New Jersey Infantry, Col. George W. Taylor commanding, set an ambush nearby in retaliation for attacks on Union pickets. They stretched two telegraph wires across Braddock Road at the eastern end of a “perfect bog hole” to dismount riders. Near midnight, twenty-four Georgia Hussars cavalrymen, led by Capt. J. Fred. Waring, entered the trap from the west. A “sheet of fire” erupted from the tree line along the swamp’s edge. The Confederates returned fire and escaped with four men wounded and one captured. Union losses were one killed, two wounded and one captured.

Erected 2013 by The Fairfax County History Commission (the marker reads 2011, the year it was made).


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Also see . . .
1. Background on Bog Wallow Ambush. The regimental scout of the 3rd NJ Infantry who planned the Bog Wallow ambush and was one of the Union wounded, had an encounter and shootout with Capt. Waring and three other members of the Georgia Hussars a month earlier at Oak Hill, the home of David Fitzhugh. This "kitchen skirmish" provided some of the Union impetus for the Bog Wallow ambush. A lengthy article examines the Oak Hill incident and how it ties into the midnight ambuscade of December 4-5.

The marker is located at the intersection of Braddock Road and Dunleigh Drive. It commemorates the early Civil War action that occurred a short distance eastward on Braddock Road approaching Rolling Road. A spring-fed pond on the south side of the road is evidence of the water source that would have produced the swamp-like conditions.

2. Grave of Pvt. Thomas G. Heidt is located in Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia. He was wounded in the Bog Wallow skirmish. Pvt. Thomas G. Heidt was riding at the rear of the Confederate column ambushed by 3rd NJ infantry hidden in the woods on their right. He was wounded by five buckshot received in his left leg, suggesting that he was in the process of following his captain's order to retreat. The shot killed his horse and blocked the route of retreat. Heidt was rescued by one of the Hussars. He died in a Charlottesville Hospital more than 2 weeks after the skirmish, presumably from complications of the wound.

3. Grave of Pvt. Stephen Tomkinson is located in the Alexandria National Cemetery. Pvt. Stephen Tomkinson of Company B, 3rd Regiment New Jersey Infantry, was wounded in the Bog Wallow skirmish and inexplicably left behind in the dark. Scouts returning on the morning of the 5th found him alive but frozen in the mud. After extracting him from the ice they took him to the picket post at Edsall's Hill, where he died around noon. It is supposed from exposure, rather than his wounds. He was an Englishman, about 19 years old, who had been in the country for 6 months at the time of the war's commencement.

The Inscription on the gravestone reads:
SACRED [illegible] memory of Stephen Tonkinson of Co. B 3rd Regt. N. J. Inf. [killed] in a skirmish on the night of Dec. 4, 1861. He was an honest upright Man [illegible] Christian a steadfast friend a forgiving [illegible] in the very prime of life he fell a sacrifice to our glorious cause. His comrades erect this unpretending Slab to mark the spot where lies a good and valiant soldier.

4. Grave of Pvt. John W. Eacritt is located at Arlington National Cemetery. Pvt. John W. Eacritt of Co. A, 3rd NJ Regt. of Volunteers, dropped his gun and ran when he heard Capt. J. F. Waring of the Ga. Hussars order his cavalry to charge. He was captured the next day by a skirmish party led by J.E.B. Stuart and imprisoned in Richmond. The account of his capture is printed in the December 10, 1861 Richmond Daily Dispatch. Exchanged in 1862 he returned to his regiment and finished his 3-year term, mustering out June, 1864. There's no indication that his comrades were ever aware of his cowardice.

5. Pvt. Edward S. E. Newbury is buried in the Rahway Cemetery in New Jersey. He was the principal scout of the 3rd NJ who obtained intelligence that Confederate cavalry would be conducting a raid on the night of December 4. He piloted the skirmish party to the ambush site and it was his scheme to stretch telegraph wires across the road. Newbury received permission to command a small party of 7 that would hide near the road's entrance into the bog and would attempt to block the route of retreat. He was shot point blank in his left arm and side with a shotgun and pistol. Brig. Gen. Phil Kearny would give him the sobriquet "The Jersey Scout" for his exceptional skill and recommend him for an officer's commission in the U.S. Regular Army.

Additional commentary:
03/22/13 The FX CO History Commission just took down the marker to correct the name of "CPT Waring, Co F, Georgia Hussars from "George" to "Joseph" Frederick Waring. FYI...Col. Joseph F. Waring's remembrance web site has a pic of Col. J.F. Waring with a "furrow" wound scar on his left cheek which he received in the "Bog Hollow Ambush of Wed. Dec. 4, 1861. Waring is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia.

Correction:
The text of the sign, as commissioned, incorrectly named the captain of the Georgia Hussars as George F. Waring, rather than J. Fred. Waring. The sign was sent back for correction on March 19, 2013, and will be re-installed shortly before the dedication ceremony on May 5, 2013.