USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 4
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The patriotism of those who had to stay at home, the old, the young, women, and invalids, -in fact, all loyal people,- was as genuine as that of those who were in the camp, and they racked their brains to express their feeling by timely gifts to the soldiers. Money was poured out without stint.
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From the outset, scarcely a household in the State had failed to send its gifts to the soldier boys. From scraping lint, rolling bandages, and making needle-books, the work advanced to things of vital necessity. Personal affection for the absent sons and brothers was not so narrow as to exclude the comrades, and it suggested all the comforts that could be transported to the field. On the festival days, Thanksgiv- ing and Christmas, no one could sit down to a bountiful din- ner without the assurance that the camp-table was spread with a feast.
It was not always easy to secure prompt delivery of the boxes and barrels in the field. So long as the Connecticut regiments were stationed near Washington,-that is, for seven or eight months,-packages were forwarded there twice a week by Craw and Martin, afterwards by J. M. Crofut, under the name of the Connecticut Troops Express. Before long the systematic habits of the people asserted them- selves, with the result of the famous Sanitary and Christian Commissions, organizations which carried home blessings to the battle-field and to the hospital throughout the remainder of the war. That great work is a part of the nation's history, and Connecticut had a full share in it.
Space fails to describe the persistent enthusiasm with which sewing societies met to make sheets and shirts and dressing- gowns, and alas ! arm-slings; and with which old ladies knit- ted socks, and housewives made jellies and pickles and pies ; or the devotion with which men and women denied them- selves in every way to contribute to the ceaseless streams of bounty that flowed to the men who were giving health and life to keep our country intact for us.
Besides money and material, time and trouble were given lavishly in establishing the orderly assembling and distribu-
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tion of these gifts. The great sanitary fairs gave the key- note of turning every available article into sanitary funds. It was wisely resolved to accumulate and store supplies, so that the army hospitals could draw on them without hesitation in time of need.
It is impossible to touch this subject without referring to the disinterested and most successful labors of Mr. Alfred Walker of New Haven. Early in October 1861, as the result of an informal meeting of a few citizens, he announced in the newspapers that he would receive, pack, and forward any contributions for the Sanitary Commission. To some people it seemed a useless offer ; and even he had so little idea of the magnitude which his enterprise would reach that he began his accounts in the few vacant leaves of an old ledger. In one week, Professor E. E. Salisbury had given him $20, James Brewster, James M. Hoppin, and N. B. Ives, each $10, for freight. Two days later, he sent the first box; in three weeks he had sent twenty-eight boxes; and in a year the value conservatively estimated, of the boxes forwarded by him reached $25,000.
This value was distributed among three hundred and seventy-one boxes to the Commission, and forty-four to Con- necticut regiments; and the articles had been sent from eighty-three places, including New Haven. Great pains were taken to economize the generosity of the citizens. Mr. Walker gave the use of his own furniture store as an office and packing-house, and he and his clerks, with some ladies, kept all the accounts and did the packing gratuitously. He secured free transportation by boat to New York, whence his freight was taken to Washington by the Government. Mr. Walker also undertook the collection of money for defraying the necessary expenses, which for a year were $1,242.
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Having set in motion all this machinery of mercy, Mr. Walker kept it in the most perfect running order. Four copies were made of each list of articles contributed, and the variety of these donations showed how thoroughly houses were ransacked for the cause. Perhaps one case contained twenty-seven bottles of wine; another was a cask of bar- berry jam; another held blankets and sheets; still another pillows, thread, needles, buttons, old linen, handkerchiefs, sugar and catsup; and one more, stockings, mittens, and games.
The country towns were unsparing in their zeal; and many a household was stinted in food and clothing, in order that a bag of feathers or a case of jelly or dried fruit might go to the soldiers. In the large cities and towns, the ladies organ- ized Soldiers' Aid Societies which were conducted with the utmost system. The people at home, having once accepted the idea that the war would be long and severe, girded them- selves for their part of the work, and prepared to give the very best support possible.
To some ladies was assigned the work of regularly col- lecting funds ;- many individuals, churches and associations, pledging themselves to a certain sum at stated intervals; and thus a definite income was established. This was increased by every device known to providers of entertainment, from concerts and tableaux up to the great fairs. The Aid Societies in the cities were so organized that some ladies were on duty in turn every day to receive and send out articles to be sewn. The different committees for purchasing, cutting out, and cor- responding, did their work with perfect regularity, and the accounts of every department were kept with the minuteness and exactness of a business establishment.
Generally the purchasing and cutting out of garments was
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done in the cities; and the sewing, by the auxiliary socie- ties in the country, where equal diligence was observed in performing their part. Only the best material was used. Each garment was finished by receiving the stamp of the Commission ; and although, in many cases, a sick soldier in a field hospital was too ill to notice where his flannel gown or soft handkerchief came from, he felt the comfort, and often he was cheered by reading that proof of home interest. And the garments, made by loving though stranger hands, in far away Connecticut, often wrapped the soldier dead for their hasty burial.
The volume of work accomplished by the women of the State for the Sanitary Commission, and in private ways, can never be fully estimated. As a hint of its magnitude, it may be mentioned, that one lady in New Haven, Mrs. James D. Dana, during two years, superintended in her house the cut- ting out of seven thousand shirts and pairs of drawers; while Mrs. William A. Norton, the wife of Professor Norton of the Sheffield Scientific School, with his full consent, devoted all her time for one year to the work of Corresponding Sec- retary, and was in communication with one hundred places, including New Haven. We honor the women who struggled through colonial hardships; let us not fail to hold in equal remembrance those noble women of 1861-65, who with greater scope and demand for good deeds, achieved a work which would have appalled their foremothers.
The same interest which provided for the physical needs of the army, inspired the idea of supplying reading matter and regimental libraries. The religious life of men who were risking their lives for a principle was not likely to cease because they were beyond the sound of church bells, and some of the men missed the Sunday services at home. The Rev.
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Edward Ashley Walker, chaplain of the Fourth, wrote home that he wanted a chapel tent; and forthwith, his father, the aforementioned Alfred Walker, secured for him a fine large tent, which was greatly enjoyed by the men as long as pos- sible, was the model for many others, and finally was appro- priated for the stern uses of an army hospital. In those tents the men held religious and temperance services, and to them they resorted for reading and writing. Francis Wayland of New Haven, invented a portable bookcase for regimental libraries, and fresh, desirable books, besides periodicals, were eagerly supplied from home.
As is well known, the U. S. Army of Volunteers contained a vast number of men not only well educated and accustomed to the refinements of life, but also imbued with the highest principles. This caused a standard of morals far higher than is often found in armies. Even if a joke, the story that the colonel of the Fourteenth Connecticut offered to pay five dollars for every man in it found swearing, and was never called on to redeem his pledge, is significant. Who can say that these influences of lofty purpose and upright life did not strengthen, and sometimes implant, those qualities of sublime patience and devotion to duty that made the Union army so remarkable ?
In 1862 the unenlivening occupation of digging on Tybee Island was varied for the Sixth by an unproductive expedition against Charleston, which cost the regiment almost as much as a small battle. With the usual fatal short sight of those who provide for the physical wants of armies, some one at headquarters failed to perceive that to crowd men in a small ship for sixteen days with only poor and wormy food, no vegetables, and water that had stood for weeks in camphene casks, would be as fatal as cold lead.
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Through all these trying months, the men were held to their first high standard by their beloved commanders, Col- onel Chatfield and Colonel Terry; and when as a result of those months of toil, Pulaski fell, again the Seventh, followed by the Sixth, led the forces into the captured fort. These regiments had by this time acquired a reputation which secured for them hard fighting throughout the war.
The Eighth and Eleventh, in Burnside's expedition, went to Roanoke Island, and took part in the battle of New Berne, where Colonel Harland distinguished himself for bravery. In the battle of Roanoke Island, the Tenth lost its gallant colonel, Charles L. Russell, who had brought a whole com- pany to the regiment with him, and had won the love and admiration of all for his soldierly qualities and noble char- acter. In the following June, his successor, Albert W. Drake, who was one of the very first recruits from Hartford, died; Colonel Pettibone, the next, having resigned, was followed by Colonel Otis, and later by Colonel Greeley, both of whom ended the war as brigadier-generals.
It was in this winter of 1862 that the Tenth distinguished itself in the sharp conflict at Kinston, N. C. Regiment after regiment had been hurled back from the confederate defenses, when the Tenth was summoned from the rear, passing six regiments and a whole brigade, and charging on the enemy alone; carrying the burning bridge, capturing five hundred prisoners with small arms and eleven guns, and covering itself with glory. This regiment, it is needless to say, never lost its fine reputation for discipline and gallantry.
The Ninth, having been, soon after enlistment, assigned to Butler's "New England" expedition, rendezvoused at Boston, and seems to have passed from the care of the State to that of the government. It was not quite fairly
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treated in the matter of original equipment, for reasons hid- den in red tape; but the Irishmen who composed it, and their commander, Colonel Cahill, were patient and light-hearted when drudgery on Ship Island was required, brave when they had a chance to fight; and best of all, had, after months of privation, this praise from the general commanding the suc- cessful expedition to Pass Christian and Biloxi :- "These well-disciplined soldiers, although for many hours in full pos- session of two rebel villages, filled with what to them were most desirable luxuries, abstained from the least unauthorized interference with private property, and all molestations of peaceful citizens". They may have felt rewarded when the Ninth was allowed to make the first public parade through the streets of New Orleans after the capture, and was then distributed through the city on provost duty. One of its bat- tle-trophies was the flag of the Third Mississippi; and it was the pleasure of the veterans of the Ninth, at the time of the Atlanta Exposition, to heal its battle-scars as much as possi- ble, and then restore it to its original custodians.
The Twelfth was organized in Hartford especially for the Butler expedition, and was at first called the Charter Oak Regiment, in accordance with the early idea of giving to each regiment an appropriate State name, as the "Granite State", the "Pine Tree", etc. Louisiana was its destination, and it was the first to arrive before New Orleans. Later, its colonel, Henry C. Deming of Hartford, was detailed as Mayor of New Orleans, and served most acceptably in that capacity. During the winter of enlistment, while the Twelfth was in tents on the snowy fields outside of Hartford, the Thirteenth was in barracks in Durham and Booth's warehouse in New Haven, with the record of health in favor of fresh air against musty rooms.
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The Thirteenth was a very choice regiment, and its com- mander, Colonel Birge, was extremely particular about the appearance of his men as well as their manual of arms. No blemish or awkwardness escaped his censure, but his men idolized him, and would have followed him into the teeth of any battery. Colonel Birge was placed in command of the defenses of New Orleans, and displayed remarkable ability. After a battle in which his "dandy" regiment had shown fine mettle, he said, "I noticed that it didn't run away as much as some of those dirty regiments !"
All of the Northern troops that were sent to Louisiana suffered much from the change of climate and the operations in the swamps enforced by most of the expeditions.
The Fourth Regiment was reorganized as the First Con- necticut Heavy Artillery; and later, the Nineteenth, the Litchfield County regiment was transferred to the Artillery as the Second Connecticut Artillery, both making fine records.
The Fifth had been gathered for three months' terms under the banner of Colonel Colt of Hartford, and had dis- banded, chiefly because he wished them to enter the regular army; and had re-enlisted on the same day for three years, under Colonel O. S. Ferry. It had ample experience in marching during the first winter, for it had to keep vigilant guard on the Baltimore and Ohio, and Chesapeake and Ohio railroads, and was always face to face with Stonewall Jack- son, who wore out his own and our men by his rapid dashes at railroad bridges and camps.
The regiment once broke camp in the midst of a winter night, and marched fourteen miles through a snow-storm; and on another occasion marched forty-five miles in fourteen hours. It may be understood generally that the longest marches, being under the pressure of necessity, were per-
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formed with very scanty rations. But in many cases, men would even then carry the pets which seemed to give them a home feeling; and letters of the time speak of the fre- quency with which a little dog, a squirrel, or even a kitten, would be seen peeping from the pocket of a marching sol- dier.
The most fearful ordeal which the Fifth encountered in its career was at Cedar Mountain, in Sept. 1862. That was the only time when it was obliged to yield, and that was after it had taken the key to the position, but was left with- out support. This was one of the most regrettable engage- ments of the war; for it was a butchery of noble men without adequate cause or result. On that day, the Fifth made a splendid appearance when it marched out with drums beat- ing and colors flying; with two days' rations and one hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition to a man, in spite of only five minutes' notice. In a few hours, scores of those men were cold in death.
The battle was fought in the ravine at the foot of Cedar Mountain, a hill about five hundred feet high and covered with trees, in which the divisions of Jackson, Hill, and Ewell had been strongly posted. There was blundering on our side ; Early was even calling for reinforcements, while Banks, not properly informed by Pope, supposed that he was in great force, and was pressing our men. Crawford's Brigade, com- prising the Fifth, the Twenty-Eighth New York, and the Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, was ordered to charge the rebel position. This involved crossing an open field of ragged stubble, swept by a devastating fire from the enemy concealed among trees and shrubs on three sides. Not a soldier wav- ered in that gallant charge.
At least six color bearers in succession were killed; and
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at last the United States flag fell into the hands of the enemy. But when Sergeant Hewison, who bore the State colors fell, he managed to tear off the flag, wrap it inside his coat, and then crawl away. He was found by his comrades, who rescued him and took him to a hospital; and the pre- cious colors floated proudly in many another battle. The three regiments, with the Tenth Maine, finally got into the woods, and there, in a hand-to-hand battle, felt on equal terms with the enemy, drove the Virginia regiments, com- pletely broke through the enemy's lines, and would have held the position had they been supported.
The Southerners claimed that Jackson turned their rout into victory. The ground was strewn with the Union and Confederate dead. Of the three regiments making the charge, every field officer was killed, wounded, or captured; and of the line officers, the same may be said of the Twenty- Eighth New York; of the Fifth, all excepting two; and of the Forty-Sixth Pennsylvania, all excepting five.
Colonel Chatfield was twice captured. The second time, "with scarcely a bluecoat in sight", a handful of his men charged to his rescue. In vain ; nearly every one of them was killed. From the eight companies that went into the battle, only a few more than half remained. A few words from General Crawford's report tell the story :- "I point the general commanding to the vacant places of my officers, and the skeleton regiments of my brigade, to speak more earnestly than I can do of the part they played in the day's contest".
Here it was that Lieutenant-Colonel Stone, of spotless character, was wounded and captured-to die during the winter in prison at Charlottsburg; here that bright and fear- less youth, Adjutant Heber Smith, who had left his course at Trinity College to go to the war, perished; here, too, died
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Lieutenant Henry Melzar Dutton, the son of ex-Governor Dutton, generous, genial, and brave, conspicuous in the battle as he grasped the colors from dying hands. He and Major Edward F. Blake were born in New Haven only a year apart; were both Yale men of high standing and lawyers of promise ; and almost together they fell, each in the act of snatching the colors from disgrace. Major Blake had rare ability for any- thing he undertook, whether athletics, study, or war; and his earnest Christianity was so evidently a part of his life that all felt he was always ready for death. He was last seen waving the colors at the head of the left of his regiment. No one who survived him saw him fall.
Seldom has so great sacrifice been made with so little recompense as in that lamentable battle on that hot August day.
That disheartening summer of 1862, with its disappoint- ments and reverses, its wasteful trench-digging, its exasper- ating vacillation and changes of plan, was the most trying of the war. The friends of secession looked triumphant, and the supporters of the Union wondered when the tide would turn. Stonewall Jackson drove us from the Shenandoah Val- ley, Lee raised the siege of Richmond, and forced Pope back to the defenses of Washington; and we were still testing our generals.
Governor Buckingham did not relax his efforts, and the army never lost hope, whatever the stay-at-homes did. The loyal governors encouraged the President to call, early in the July of 1862, for 300,000 troops for three years. The quota of Connecticut was 7, 145.
Enthusiastic war-meetings were again held, and large bounties were offered to volunteers, the small towns vying with the cities in liberality. The high-water mark in boun-
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ties at this time was reached by Bloomfield and Watertown, each offering $250 per man. General Daniel Tyler came home, and was indefatigable in preparing the new regiments for departure. So zealously did the State respond to this call, that it was the first to fill its quota, with a thousand to spare. Ever since the outbreak of the war, no village was so small that it did not have a company "drilling" regularly. The tramp of marching feet, the sharp thud of muskets grounded, the quick orders, became familiar sounds. The fever for military science touched all classes, and the pro- fessors of Yale College did not think it beneath their dignity to join the students in those drills which gave first lessons to many a youth who proved to be a hero in the "tug of war".
These July regiments must have derived some benefit from such preparation, in contrast with the unprepared state of the first ones. They were of choice material. The Fourteenth was raised from the State in general; the Fifteenth, from New Haven County, and was called the "Lyon Regiment". The Sixteenth was raised in Hartford County, Francis Beach of the regular army being its colonel. To this regi- ment the town of Farmington contributed sixty-five men. On its rolls were some of the finest names in the State. It went out with high hopes, and it seemed doomed to misfortune.
In the Seventeenth, a Fairfield County regiment, was the famous private, Elias Howe, Jr., one of the richest and most patriotic men in the State. He had said that the "only thing for him to do was to go and learn to do what he could with a musket", but his chronic lameness made it impossible for him to serve even as a sentry. Determined to be of use, he offered to be the regiment's postmaster and expressman. At that time, it was stationed near Baltimore; and having sent home for a suitable horse and wagon, Howe drove into town
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twice a day for the mail and packages, which he delivered with painstaking so unbounded as to bring sunshine to both ends of the route. Mr. Howe put on no airs, and sought no rank; but there was a time when he was the most famous man in the Seventeenth. The stringency in the Government treasury had caused a dearth of pay for four months. This meant serious discomfort for the families of some of the men, and dissatisfaction for all.
One day the Paymaster in Washington, seeing a quiet young man awaiting his turn at his desk, was rather gruff when he discovered that he had "come to see about the back pay of the Seventeenth Connecticut" and intimated more for- cibly than politely that his time was too valuable to be wasted by idle complaints. To his utter astonishment, the young man meekly replied that all he wanted was to find out the amount of two months' pay for the regiment, that he might give his check for it! Accordingly, he paid $31,000 to the Government; and two days later, Private Elias Howe, Jr., in line with the others, gave his receipt for his share, $28.65 ! It was not strange that the officers in a neighboring regi- ment sent to "borrow the Seventeenth's private". Mr. Howe remained with the regiment till it was mustered out in 1865.
This well-known incident is a good illustration of the char- acteristic habit of Connecticut people, to feel a personal responsibility for the war. Each citizen, each town, although vastly preferring peace to war on general principles, was yet determined, when war was inevitable, to carry it through with the same promptness and thoroughness that had been success- ful in the arts of peace and the pursuit of wealth.
A month after the July call for three years' troops, came one for 300,000 for nine months; and the State was again canvassed for its strongest and best. There were those who,
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as usual, objected to the continuance of the war; but the recruiting was urged briskly, and as the State had a large surplus to her credit, the second quota of 7,145 was made without great difficulty.
The necessity of resorting to the dreaded and objectionable draft was escaped in many places, in some very narrowly. In New Haven, a large crowd assembled at the old State House on the morning of the drafting day. Speeches were made; one citizen offered $15 for one volunteer; another offered that sum for each of ten; another offered the same sum for thirty; then a collection of small sums was made, amounting to $1,200 for equal distribution. The drafting was to begin at four o'clock. At a quarter before four, twenty-five men were needed to complete the number. The drafting was deferred a half-hour. At half-past four the quota for New Haven was full, and nine cheers expressed the satisfaction of the crowd. Hartford drafted for four hun- dred and twenty-one.
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