USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 5
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It was soon evident that conscripts were not the best sol- diers, and it was fortunate that our armies never contained very many of them. In the regiments that had gone into the service from purely patriotic motives, there was a decided disrelish to having additions to their depleted ranks made from "bounty-jumpers". Much may be said on the other side, however, for the necessity was very great.
At that time, fifteen regiments were raised in two months Then it was said that Connecticut was the first State to fill her quota. This was true as far as New England went; but it appeared later that that honor belonged to lowa. In the words of the Boston Traveller :- "Connecticut worshipped the Union, and believed that work was worship".
It was in September of that year that some of those raw
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regiments, by a blunder, were hurled into the bloodiest battle of the war, Antietam. The Eighth and the Eleventh were in the pursuit of Lee, who had crossed the Potomac and was moving on Frederick. The Fourteenth had been mustered in only two weeks, the Sixteenth only one, the latter without muskets until the last moment, when, without sufficient drill or experience in brigade movements and orders, they were ordered to join Harland's Brigade, a part of the Ninth Corps, which was far in advance. At South Mountain, the Eighth and Eleventh were held in reserve.
At Antietam, after uneasy sleep, the men rose to a day of horrid battle; the Eleventh "to leap into the valley of death" in the desperate effort to take Antietam Bridge; the Four- teenth, to get its lesson of war in the hard school of experi- ence. The river was crossed by two fords, far apart, and by three bridges. On that beautiful day, Lee had posted him- self admirably for four miles on the wooded heights along the winding Antietam, using fences and stone walls as breast- works. The crests of the steep banks bristled with artillery. The Union troops were on the east side of the river, behind a low range of hills. Around these crossings the fighting raged in fury. The Fourteenth was fighting for thirty-six hours, without anything to drink and only a little hardtack to eat, exposed to the murderous fire of sharpshooters, and yet man- aging to capture forty or fifty rebel prisoners and two flags.
Of the Sixteenth, only half the regiment could be mus- tered on the second day, and the surgeons worked till they dropped down from exhaustion. The Eighth, with its greater experience, advanced to the very crest of the hill, and made an orderly retreat when it was inevitable. But at what a loss! Dead and wounded officers were scattered on the
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ground, and only a hundred of the regiment could gather round the colors.
The horror of the dismal night when two armies paused from exhaustion, when the deathly silence was broken by the cries and groans of the wounded, left its ineffaceable stamp of unequaled gloom on the memories of those boys just from home. In this dreadful battle, Connecticut reached the cli- max of her losses, one hundred and thirty-six killed outright, and four hundred and sixty-six wounded.
The long list of officers was headed by Joseph K. F. Mansfield, Major-General of Volunteers, Brigadier-General U. S. A., a soldier of irreproachable reputation. Born in New Haven, educated in Middletown and at West Point, he had served with great distinction in the Mexican War, and was Inspector-General U. S. A., in Texas, when the war broke out. Neither persuasion nor insult could swerve his integrity, and with some difficulty he escaped to the North to help his country in her peril. Reaching Washington on April 15th, on horseback and through by-ways, he was of immense ser- vice in engineering and building the forts for the defense of the capital. In spite of Scott's hesitation he took the respon- sibility of fortifying Arlington. Having led our forces in the capture of Norfolk, he had ridden in haste, in response to McClellan's summons, to take command of Banks' corps, and had arrived at Sharpsburg the night before the battle. On the next day, the General, while gallantly leading his corps, received his mortal wound, and he died the next even- ing. His loss was keenly felt. Lieutenant Gover- nor Douglass, his townsman, went to the front to bring him home, and he was buried with all the honor that the State could give.
Connecticut indeed sat in the shadow of great tribulation
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after Antietam; and she lamented sorely for her slain. Among them were Lieutenant Wait of Norwich, an eighteen- year-old-sophomore (in Union College) when he enlisted in the Eighth, but so bright and lovable that his presence was an inspiration ; and Lieutentant Maine, past middle life, and with all the sober fortitude of his years ; and Sergeant Marsh, who rose from a sick bed to go into battle, and fell under the sunrise gun; and Sergeant Whiting Wilcox, a modern Her- cules ; and Col. Henry Kingsbury, who brought the discipline of West Point and the enthusiasm of a noble soul to the per- fecting of his regiment; and the scholarly, dainty, fearless, absolutely gentlemanly Captain John Griswold, also of Lyme, whose character was shown in his last words. The gleam- ing of blue water through the tent-door brought an apt quo- tation from Horace to the lips that closed with courteous thanks for the care he had received, deprecation of absorbing attention that might have been given to others, and the last message, "Tell them at home that I died for my country;" and Captain Drake, who was called the "very soul of court- esy"; and Captain Manross, a professor at Amherst, a min- eralogist so accomplished that Professor Dana said of him that "his death was a loss to the scientific world"; and a long line of others, just as brave as these and just as dear to their friends.
They died as have died the heroes in all ages.
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CHAPTER III
THE DAYS OF STRIFE
W HILE the army had been making history on land, the navy had not failed to distinguish itself. Possibly the long coast line of the state had induced an especial interest in sea- fighting ; at all events, the fact that sturdy, honest Gideon Welles held the portfolio of the Navy, and that Connecticut naval officers were winning laurels, caused that branch of the service to be contemplated with much sat- isfaction.
The State gave Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory, Com- modores John Rogers, C. R. P. Rogers, and R. B. Hitchcock, Lieutenant Commanders Henry C. White, Edward Terry and Francis M. Bunce, afterward Admiral, besides Andrew Hull Foote, Commodore, afterwards Admiral U. S. N.
Like Mansfield, Foote was a native of New Haven, and like him, had had careful religious training at home. He was a lifelong advocate of temperance principles, and his powers of persuasion must have equalled his strength of conviction ; for twice during his life did the sailors on his ship voluntarily give up the spirit ration, and that with satisfaction to them- selves. One of these ships was the famous Cumberland.
After a long and varied service in African and Mediter- ranean waters, and at the barrier forts on the Canton, he found himself in 1861 in command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. When the great problem of opening the Mississippi was considered, Commodore Foote was called on to construct and organize a flotilla of gunboats. With extraordinary ex- ertions, he evoked a river navy out of chaos; and his name will ever be connected with the cheer of one of our first suc- cesses, the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson. From that victory Commodore Foote went to the more difficult task of reducing the strong fortifications of Island Number Ten.
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The army and navy were of mutual assistance; and when the channel across the peninsula had been dug in the surpris- ingly short time of nineteen days, and Foote's gunboats appeared on both sides, the question was quickly decided. A great store of munitions of war fell into our hands; but still greater was the advantage derived from the free passage of the river at that point.
Commodore Foote was rewarded by promotion to Ad- miral, and although enfeebled by a wound, he did not abate his zeal. In the midst of preparations for relieving Admiral DuPont, on the South Atlantic Squadron, he died in New York, June 26, 1863. He was buried with honors and lamentation in New Haven. Conscientious, patriotic, and intrepid beyond ordinary men, he was mourned by the whole North. Foote's old temperance ship, the Cumberland, went down with colors flying, on that historic morning when the Merrimac sallied forth to destroy our fleet at Hampton Roads, and had not yet met the Monitor.
The name of Ericsson had not rung round the world then ; but it was known in engineering circles as that of an inventor of genius. In the Princeton, a naval vessel designed by him in 1844, the warning note of the Monitor had been sounded; for its engines were below the water-line, and it used a screw instead of paddle-wheels for propulsive force. But the unfor- tunate bursting of a gun, for which Stockton, not Ericsson, was responsible, causing the death of two Cabinet members while on a party of pleasure, with President Tyler on board, resulted in the unjust refusal to pay Ericsson for his services. He at last declared that he would never set foot in Wash- ington again.
The plan of the Monitor had been made for some years, and in 1854 he had a letter of thanks from Napoleon III.
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for the privilege of examining it. So near did France come to gaining a prize; but she was even then beginning to use armored vessels. Secretary Welles had asked for a Board to look into and order floating batteries; but Ericsson, with the plan of the immortal Monitor in his hand, could not get a hearing. To him, while despairing of favor, and yet sure of the value of his invention, C. S. Bushnell came for esti- mates on the amount of metal that could be borne by the Galena, which Bushnell was building for the Government. After his business was finished, Ericsson showed him his pasteboard model; and Bushnell was so filled with enthu- siasm for it that he carried it at once to Hartford to show it to Secretary Welles, who happened to be there at that time. He too, was greatly impressed by the importance of the mat- ter, and urged Bushnell to take it before the Naval Board.
Full of zeal, Mr. Bushnell secured the co-operation of John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, both at the head of large iron works in Troy; and also interested Secre- tary Seward, who gave a telling letter of introduction to President Lincoln. Armed with this, he hastened to Wash- ington, and was successful in arousing the interest of the Pres- ident to the degree that he offered to accompany him the next day to the Naval Board and give his personal aid to the pre- sentation of the plan. But even that was insufficient to win the naval officers.
On a second hearing, Mr. Bushnell presented the future merits of the battery and the past achievements of Ericsson in glowing terms; but still some men on the Board were obdurate. Undaunted, Mr. Bushnell rushed back to New York to accomplish the almost hopeless task of luring Ericsson to Washington to speak for himself. He says in his letter to Secretary Welles :- "I appeared at his house the
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next morning precisely at nine o'clock, and heard his sharp greeting :
"'Well, how is it'?
" 'Glorious' said I.
" 'Go on, go on', said he with impatience. 'What did they say'?
" 'Admiral Smith says it is quite worthy of the genius of an Ericsson'.
"The pride fairly gleamed in his eye.
" 'But Paulding-what did he say of it'?
" 'He said it was just the thing to clear the rebels out of Charleston with'.
" 'How about Davis' ? he inquired, as I appeared to delay a moment.
" 'Captain Davis' said I, 'wants two or three explanations in detail that I couldn't give him, and Secretary Welles wishes you to come right on and make them before the entire board in his room at the Department'.
" 'Well, I'll go to-night' ".
The glowing eloquence of the inventor melted the last scruples of the icy members of the Board, and extorted its approval of a contract. In Ericsson's words, "I returned at once, and before the contract was completed, the keel plate of the intended vessel had already passed through the rollers of the mill."
By Bushnell's efforts, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Griswold became partners with Captain Ericsson and himself in respon- sibility for building the Monitor; losses and profits to be equally divided among the four; "the three (American) associates agreeing to advance all money needed for the con- struction of the vessel". N. D. Sperry of New Haven, and
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Daniel Drew of New York, indorsed Mr. Bushnell's bond for his share.
On Oct. 25, 1861, the four partners signed a contract with Thomas Fitch Rowland, an enthusiastic young man, himself interested in floating batteries, for the construction of the "iron battery" at his works, the Continental Iron Works, at Greenpoint, N. Y., "in a thorough and workmanlike manner and to the entire satisfaction of Captain Ericsson", and "in the shortest possible space of time".
In spite of all efforts to look at the situation from the naval standpoint of 1861, the terms made by the Government seem very hard :- $275,000 would be paid in instalments, with twenty-five per cent. reserved; one hundred days were stipu- lated as the time for completing the work; a trial of ninety days after being handed over to the Government was required before the test would be deemed sufficiently thorough to assure final acceptance; failure to meet any of these require- ments would involve the return of every dollar received from the Government. Mr. G. V. Fox, the able Assistant-Secre- tary of the Navy, was converted to friendship; but the boat was truly built under continued official protest. In truth, there was so much delay in receiving the actual money that on Dec. 26, 1861, before the receipt of a dollar from the Gov- ernment, $158,043.42 had been expended on the work; and less than three weeks before the launching of the Monitor, only $37, 500 had been received. Thus did the Naval Board gain a model for an epoch-making war-vessel without spend- ing a dollar in experiments. As all the world knows, it was by prodigious efforts that under such drawbacks, the boat was sent forth on its first trip-a trip that was to revolutionize naval warfare.
Never has history afforded a more dramatic scene than
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that of the morning of March 9, 1862, when the "little cheese-box on a raft", its engineer sick, its volunteer crew buffeted by a storm, under strict orders to avoid meeting the rebel iron-clad, and unconsciously acting against orders in being there at all, steamed into the glow of the burning Con- gress at Hampton Roads, challenged the victorious Merri- mac, and drove her back to trouble us no more.
We cannot adequately conceive the crisis. The vast iron- clad bulk of the Merrimac-Virginia had swept upon the wooden fleet at Hampton Roads with the devastation of a mythical monster. The Cumberland sunk, the Congress burn- ing, all that came in her way destroyed, it was evident that every ship in our proud navy was at her mercy. Profound consternation seized Washington and New York. The Sec- retary of War, expecting every moment to feel the enemy's shot from the river, sent hasty orders to all Northern ports to protect themselves as best they could. The eminent danger of losing Fortress Monroe, and thereby our hold on Virginia, of the crippling of the Army of the Potomac, of the raising of the blockade and of the recognition of the Confederacy by foreign powers, made loyal hearts sink, and gold, that ther- mometer of panics, go up.
No crisis of the war involved so dire disaster with so little reason for hope. That it became a momentous victory in- stead of a national disgrace seems even now almost incredi- ble. "It was Providence that decreed the success of the Mon- itor, not the navy." And under Providence, is it not evident that the Monitor would never have been present in that dreadful emergency had it not been for the inextinguishable enthusiasm and enterprise of Mr. Bushnell, who had the in- sight to recognize a work of genius, the sagacity to enlist the assistance of men of note, and the ardor to inspire an associa-
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tion of private individuals to accomplish the salvation of the North ? No one else has ever been heard of who was impelled to push forward Ericsson's invention with persistent energy till he conquered fate and wrested from her immortal victory.
The expression of gratitude from his fellow-citizens has been delayed; but an association, beginning in New Haven, and extending throughout the North, has been formed with Colonel Norris G. Osborne as president, which will soon show, by a fitting memorial, the appreciation of the unique service rendered by Cornelius S. Bushnell.
The cold, dreary December of 1862 saw the shocking de- feat of Fredericksburg, a hopeless and useless proof of the heroic stuff that was in the Northern army. It is idle to in- quire into the reasons which impelled Burnside to his wild at- tempt to storm a fortified hillside on the far side of a river which must be crossed by a pontoon bridge. The heart-break- ing sacrifice of human life was made; and it was unavailing. Connecticut did not suffer more than other states, for some of her regiments were held as reserves; but the best was bad enough. The Eighth, Eleventh, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Six- teenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-seventh, were en- gaged in the three days' contest.
When the Fifty-Seventh and Sixty-Sixth New York had been driven from the pontoon bridge they were laying, one hundred men of the Eighth Connecticut, under Captain Marsh and Lieutenants Morgan and Ford, offered them- selves for the perilous work, and in the midst of a death-deal- ing fire accomplished their task. The Eighth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-First were in Harland's Brigade with the Fourth Rhode Island and during the entire second day held an advanced position near the Eleventh. The Twenty- Seventh, in Hancock's Division, made a bold charge on the
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stone wall, and succeeded in holding a position within one hundred yards of it; but the Fourteenth suffered most severely in that awful, futile charge on Marye's Heights. The sheer bravery of those repeated dashes against that stone wall at the bottom of the hill, with shot and shell bursting from cannon and mortars and muskets above, behind, on all sides, with ranks mowed down each moment, and almost certain defeat in view, extorted praise from even hostile pens. The loss of the Fourteenth was very severe-twenty-four killed and mortally wounded, and eighty-one wounded.
Among the dead were Captain Gibbons, who had raised his own company, and had been a faithful, efficient officer ; and Lieutenant Theodore Stanley, a high-bred youth, one of the five Stanley cousins of New Britain who enlisted, and of whom only one survived the war. The wounded were so many that they lay on the field in agony for hours, and in many cases, days. One private in the Seventeenth, shot through both head and chest, lay there until time enough had passed for a relative to go from Connecticut to the field, and by persistent searching among the heaps of dead and dying, rescue him. He survived; but hundreds or thousands must have perished because it was impossible to succor them in time.
Not long before this, the Thirteenth, in Louisiana, had had its first real battle, at Georgia Landing, and a successful one. The Twenty-Eighth was sent to occupy Pensacola, the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth were in the expedition against Baton Rouge.
The versatility of the men was often disclosed in those campaigns in Louisiana. Is it necessary to build a firm and commodious bridge at Bayou Sara? Forth from the ranks of the Twenty-Fifth steps Sergeant William Webster of
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Unionville, who knows all about bridge-building; and in a short time the bridge is completed in fine style, after a West Point engineer has despaired of the job. Is the Twelfth Regiment in need of more surgeons? There is Private Dr. Fletcher, who cheerfully gives his professional services, receiving only the trifling pay for "extra duty". Is another steamboat demanded in New Orleans? Colonel Colburn of the Twelfth is discovered to be an expert; and although he has to stop to build a saw-mill so that the logs from a rebel boom may be utilized, a strong steamboat, one hundred and fifty-four feet long over all, is quickly built.
All these regiments suffered privations, disappointment, and hardships. It was hard to dig and march in the mud for days, for no apparent purpose, to have the quinine so tightly tied up with red tape in New Orleans that sick people could not have it, to be ordered into a meadow which resembled a pond to pass the night ; but they bore these trials philosoph- ically.
In the summer days of '63, those Northern boys sweltered through the Red River expedition, and fought and died at Irish Bend and at Port Hudson. It was then that the Thir- teenth, the "dandy regiment", proved its mettle. Assault after assault on the stern defenses of Port Hudson had been made in vain, and the last, June 14, had been especially disastrous. General Banks, under these circumstances, called for a thousand men, as a 'forlorn hope', to storm the fortifications.
From the Thirteenth, sixteen officers-all but one-and two hundred and fifteen privates responded, more than from any brigade even in the whole corps. Colonel Birge, their colonel and brigade commander, was selected to lead the attack. All knew that they were going into the very jaws of
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destruction, and each one arranged his affairs in the solemn expectation of death. Day after day they made their prep- arations for an instantaneous assault; but before the time came, the surrender of Port Hudson, following the fall of Vicksburg, relieved them of the dreadful tension. The prom- ise of a medal for each private, and promotion for each officer, was not kept, except in, the case of some officers, who received brevets after the close of the war.
Time fails to chronicle the deeds of daring as well as of patience in that long siege of Port Hudson; to tell of the charges across ravines and pitfalls and abatis, beneath raking fires of a desperate variety of missiles, "explosive bullets, case 'knives, flat-irons, spikes, hatchets, ramrods, pig-iron and wooden plugs wound with cotton"; of the exploits of individ- uals who crept up to the enemy's embrasures to have private reconnoissance of affairs inside; or of dashes on to the lost field to recover the colors from a fallen guard.
When the Twenty-Fifth returned from Baton Rouge, the men had to pass a dreadful night without food or shelter. Quartermaster John S. Ives, himself almost dying, rode his equally unsteady horse into Baton Rouge, through a pouring rain, and brought back coffee and sugar to the regiment, thereby probably saving many lives. The nine-months regi- ments, the Twenty-Fourth, Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Seventh, distinguished themselves at Port Hudson.
On one day appointed for a grand assault, the order for the Twenty-Fourth was that each man should take two thirty- pound gunny bags of cotton to fill up a ditch over which the charging column was to pass, and that done, join the charge. The charging party was unable to stand the murderous fire, but "the Twenty-Fourth thrust their cotton-bags before them and rushed onto the crest of a little hill within fifty yards of
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the enemy's works, piled up their cotton bags, forming a tem- porary breastwork, and held it; and of all the regiments that advanced across the plateau in the morning, the Twenty- Fourth was the only one able to maintain its position." Quick- ly arranging their Jacksonian intrenchments, the men held their ground till night, when, under cover of darkness, they strengthened it with sand; and there, within speaking dis- tance of the enemy, and so surrounded by impassable obstruc- tions as to be practically isolated from their friends, they remained.
On the third day, the Connecticut colors given by the Mid- dletown ladies were unfurled, to the unspeakable rage of the defenders of Port Hudson, and amid cheers and salutes from the Twenty-Fourth and an indignant fire from the enemy. For twenty-five days this little band, reduced to one hundred men, held their tiny fort, which they christened Fort Mans- field. One-half was on duty each twenty-four hours; and they did a great work in mining, digging parallels, and grad- ually perfecting an approach which would have ended in the downfall of the fortifications.
The shattered troops of the Army of the Potomac were allowed to rest during the winter of 1862-3, after Burnside had been relieved by Hooker in the command.
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