Captain George Newman Bliss expected a routine day on Sept. 28, 1864. A large cavalry force, including his troopers in the 1st Rhode Island, rode through Waynesboro, Va., to water its horses in the Shenandoah River. Bliss rode ahead and instructed the various detachments of provost guards to keep the cavalrymen from entering private homes.
As Bliss completed his task, a burning a wood and iron railroad bridge caught his eye, the work of Vermont cavalrymen. Part of the structure had already collapsed. Bliss paused his horse and watched the demolition.
Gunshots interrupted the moment. Bliss’s eyes followed the sound and spotted Confederates exchanging fire with pickets about a mile off. He thought little of it—Union forces appeared to have the upper hand.
They did not. The enemy turned out in force and rapidly gained ground. Bliss, who had seen his share of action after more than two years with the Army of the Potomac, sensed trouble. He rode over to the provost guard stationed in Waynesboro and ordered its captain to form a line and let no Union soldiers through unless wounded. The captain, reluctant, and without combat experience, asked Bliss to take over. He did.
By this time, the Confederates had advanced close to the river. A request for assistance arrived from Col. Charles Russell Lowell, who commanded the overwhelmed picket. Before long, Lowell himself appeared, with bullets skittering in the road, leaving puffs of dust that drifted up and dissipated into the crisp autumn air.
In a bid to gain time, Lowell and Bliss set their sights on a charge. Lowell rounded up a squadron of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry, known as the Butterflies for their elaborate hussar-style uniforms. The Jerseymen formed for a fight and charged ahead with Bliss and Lowell in the lead. Lowell peeled off, leaving Bliss in sole command.
Bliss and the Butterflies flew towards the enemy horsemen, driving them back. Bliss kept on going, realizing too late that the Jerseymen had withdrawn, believing the mission accomplished. Confederate troopers filled the gap, trapping Bliss. “Kill that damned Yankee,” Bliss heard them yelling.
A chase through the streets of Waynesboro ended when the rebels fired a shot into Bliss’s mount, sending man and horse sprawling. The enemy beat Bliss with saber blades and a carbine butt, and he hit back with a few blows of his own before being compelled to surrender.
Weak from blood loss, he recovered with the help of one of the men he had wounded, who, like Bliss, happened to be a Mason.
Bliss gained his release from prison in February 1865. The federal government awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1897 for charging the enemy without support. He died in 1928 at age 91.
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