USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 6
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The opposition in Connecticut, always a nearly balanced State, now swelled its murmurs to loud roars of condemnation of the war policy. Never was the little State more racked by an election than in the spring of 1863. Thomas H. Sey- mour, the Democratic candidate for Governor, openly abet- ted the rebellious States by his published words; the party lines, swept away for a brief time at the beginning, were now sharply drawn on the question of peace or war; and the war
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was really fought a second time on home ground. The regi- ments in the field sent home urgent and almost unanimous appeals for the re-election of Buckingham, and each soldier whose furlough fell near the time of the spring election rejoiced in the opportunity of voting. Buckingham was re-elected by a majority of more than two thousand, so the war party was safe for another term.
The unfortunate disaffection to the war was of course strengthened by the disaster of Hooker at Chancellorsville. In early May, in full force and with high hopes, he crossed the Rappahannock to try his fortunes in the advance on Rich- mond. The failure of his attempt is too well known to need full description. The fearful contest for three days, when armies surged back and forth in desperate encounter, and even lighted up the darkness of the night with the glare of the conflict, ended in retreat and disaster for Hooker's army. The forced marches, the individual gallantry of regiments and men, could not counterbalance the over-confidence of the generals. For the Confederates, the joy of victory was clouded by the death of Stonewall Jackson, slain by the mis- take of his own men. It is pleasant to know that all admit- ted that the Connecticut troops behaved gallantly, and that the best authorities uphold the course of General Sedgwick, who was "set an impossible task to be accomplished in an impossible time." Obeying his orders, he took the heights of Fredericksburg, and threatened the rear of Lee; but was forced to recross the river.
Gloom fell on the North; for victories on the east and west, although now seen in their true importance, did not then count when all our efforts to go "on to Richmond" failed. But the darkest night of our affairs then turned to the glad morning of the news of Gettysburg and Vicksburg ; mak-
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ing probably the most joyful Fourth of July that this nation has ever known.
Lee's victory at Chancellorsville led to his defeat at Get- tysburg; for his men, measuring their opponents less wisely than he did, really demanded an advance which his judgment disapproved. When he saw Meade's army intrenched on the famous fish-hook range of hills, he must have perceived that Marye's Heights would be re-enacted with the parts exchanged.
The Fifth Connecticut arrived on the evening of the Ist of July, and took its place on Culp's Hill on the morning of the 2d, where it built strong earthworks. Being called off to support Sickles, it was ordered to return to its first position when he fell back to his new line; but it found the Confed- erates in possession. At the end of that day and the begin- ning of the next, the regiment was divided; a part retaking its own works, and the other part moving to the right to support the cavalry.
The Fourteenth, with numbers sadly reduced by the dread- ful battle it had fought, was in the Second Corps, when it drove back Longstreet from his grand charge on the ridge, on July 3. That forenoon the regiment had distinguished itself by its dashing capture of the brick barn and the house of William Blinn, involving an exposure to a galling fire for an unprotected half mile.
The Seventeenth was hurried on to the field in the midst of the first day's fierce fight, and in the Eleventh Corps, at the exposed right, and on Oak Hill, now Barlow's Knoll, it was overwhelmed by a superior force, losing one hundred and ninety-eight men. Here Lieutenant-Colonel Fowler was killed. The Seventeenth was ordered to retire to Cemetery Hill, and for two days of fierce fighting held the position.
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The Eighteenth was not at Gettysburg, having suffered in its first battle at Winchester; where General Milroy, with only 7,000, was outnumbered by Early, with 30,000. The Eighteenth won praise from friend and foe for its courage and discipline. In a charge made into the very heart of Johnson's division, five hundred men and their noble com- mander, Colonel Ely, were captured. General Walker showed his magnanimity by returning Colonel Ely's sword to him on the battle-field. If Milroy's little army had not checked Lee's advance by thus sacrificing itself, it is probable that Gettysburg would have been fought on another field, and possibly with another result.
The Twentieth, in the Twelfth Corps, distinguished itself on Culp's Hill; for seven long hours warding off Ewell's Corps, and finally hurling it back to charge no more.
The Twenty-Seventh had been greatly weakened by whole- sale capture at Chancellorsville; but the seventy-five men who were left, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Merwin, a fine New Haven man, himself just returned from the not invigorating experience of Southern prisons, were with the Second Corps, and did effectual service in supporting the wavering line of the Third Corps on the Wheat Field. Then fell Colonel Merwin, so brave and true and beloved that he was greatly mourned.
The good fortune of the Second Light Battery was remark- able. In position for fifty-six consecutive hours, and in the hottest fighting, it reported not one man killed, and only three men wounded and three horses killed.
Surely each regiment that was permitted to take part in that battle, the most momentous fought on American soil during the nineteenth century, must have rejoiced in that high privilege; and well may the fast-dwindling ranks of
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veterans look with pride on the historic field, where the name- less dead yet speak with eloquence, and regimental monu- ments mark the spot where the great question was decided.
But in the shadow of Charleston's frowning forts, vic- tory still wavered in her choice. In March 1862, Colonel Terry of the Seventh had been promoted to be brigadier-gen- eral; and Joseph R. Hawley, dear to Hartford County, was made colonel in his place. The Sixth and Seventh were brigaded under General Terry. There had been a brilliant and successful fight at Pocotaligo, where Lieutenant-Colonel Speidal and Colonel Chatfield, who had made the Sixth a first-class regiment, were wounded. There had been long weeks of intense work on the level wastes of Folly Island, when the men appeared to take life as a military holiday by day; and by night, worked like spirits of the mine, stealthily, swiftly, and silently toiling to build intrenchments, to land and drag into place heavy guns; wading through mud and water knee-deep, unfaltering even in violent thunderstorms. At last they had forty-eight guns in place for carrying out General Gillmore's plans at Morris Island, with reference to reducing the defenses of Charleston. The enemy appeared to have little suspicion of what was going on.
At midnight of July 9, the men were under arms for the attack on Morris Island; and at five the battle began. A detachment of the Seventh landed first, followed by the Sixth. After lying in boats for two hours under a heavy fire, they leaped into the water, knee-deep, "and rushed forward with bayonets fixed and an honest Union cheer", keeping the advance all day, and capturing one hundred and twenty-five prisoners and a rebel flag bearing "Pocotaligo" on it.
Two days later came that first assault on Fort Wagner, which was one of the most memorable exhibitions of sheer
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courage that the war, full of daring and heroic deeds, can furnish. General Strong commanded in person. Lieutenant- Colonel Rodman was to lead the assault, supported by the Seventy-Sixth Pennsylvania and Ninth Maine, with the Third and Seventh New Hampshire in reserve. In the early morning light, the devoted Seventh advanced to the assault. Like waves beating on the rocks, again and again those men faced the blinding fire of the battery, at a "stately double- quick", in the words of the foe. With a cheer they dressed their broken ranks each time, their only chance of taking the fort by storm being to rush on without stopping to fire them- selves.
The survivors almost reached the goal. They were so far under the guns that the gunners could not hit them; but, alas! the terrific fire had mowed down their support, the Seventy-Sixth Pennsylvania had stopped for a few moments to lie down beneath the storm, and although they rose and fired bravely afterwards, the precious moments were gone in which victory might have been won. The little band of the Seventh could not retreat. Could it surrender ?
Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman had fallen; to Captain Val- entine Chamberlain the men looked. The narrative may be continued in the words of a Charleston writer, after ten years had passed. "He said to his men, 'You may yield here, but I will not'! Suiting the action to the word, he clambered up the face of the works, and cried out to the overwhelming numbers who confronted him, not one of whom offered vio- lence to so stalwart and fearless an enemy-'I want to sur- render to the officer who fought this battery' ".
We do not need to eulogize this wondrous first charge on July II; for the admiration of regiments from other States and of the foe himself has been unreservedly expressed. One
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Southern writer has thus recorded his opinion : "I actually felt sorry for them; it was 'war' and hence 'fair'; but it did seem to me that we were taking an unfair advantage of them ! Their success depended on reaching the battery without delay; and hence they had to receive those dreadful volleys without responding; the enemy dashed on, but barely gave us time to reach the inside of the works before they were repulsed. The Seventh Connecticut, under Colonel Rod- man, led the attacking party. It behaved gallantly, not only upon this occasion, but likewise at Fort Pulaski, and was never known to flinch anywhere". The commanding general announced : "The Seventh has covered itself with glory".
Captain Chamberlain, whose brother, Abiram Chamber- lain, became Governor of Connecticut in 1902, had been a classmate of Garfield at Williams, and throughout his life won the deserved admiration and affection of all who knew him. It may be added here, that in 1900 his sword was returned to his widow by the widow of Captain Chichester, to whom he surrendered it. But at that time, there was nothing but grim captivity for the prisoners, who were hur- ried off to Columbia's horrors. Of the eleven officers who went into the action, four returned; of one hundred and ninety-one privates, eighty-eight came back. The Seventh could not be called on again at once.
A week later, another attack by Stevenson's Brigade, Ter- ry's Division, was made, again unsuccessfully, but valorously. The Tenth Connecticut was engaged at the close, although on account of exhausting preliminary service, it was not sent to the front.
Then it befell that the David and Jonathan of that regi- ment, Henry Clay Trumbull, whose faithful and inspired ministrations had made him an almost ideal chaplain, and
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Adjutant Henry Camp (afterwards Major), a man of lofti- est purity and courage-went forth together to aid the wounded men who lay dying on the sandy battle-field without a helping hand to drag them from the advancing tide. Trust- ing to a temporary armistice, they went about their errand of mercy in perfect unconsciousness of risk. Walking up to address a group of officers, they were promptly called on to surrender. No explanations or appeals to the truce availed. It was evidently regarded by the Confederates as a provi- dence that so stalwart, fine-looking men should fall into their hands. The friends were blindfolded, led past the works into Charleston, and in a short time rejoined, at Columbia, Captain Chamberlain and the captured officers of the Sev- enth.
The persistent attacks of Terry on Fort Wagner ended in its evacuation on Sept. 7, 1863 ; and one more vantage point was gained. The command of the Tenth then fell on Major (now General Greeley) ; an able officer, under whom the regiment reached a high state of discipline and efficiency. Its work in the trenches that summer was so trying that when the fort was taken, sixty per cent. of the Tenth was on the sick list.
The saddest pages of the history of the war tell the story of the suffering of our men in Southern prisons. Perhaps nothing more significant could be said than that the sur- vivors shuddered at the remembrance, and to their dying day shrank from recalling those months of misery. The experiences of Chaplain Trumbell and Adjutant Camp have been vividly portrayed in that war-classic, "The Knightly Soldier". None brought more philosophy to the task of enduring insult and deprivation than they; but even between
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the lines of forced cheerfulness, it is easy to read the under- tones of the struggle with hunger, cold, and neglect.
Of the Southern prisons, Libby was preferred by the cap- tives, because it had at least a roof to shelter them from the weather; and Andersonville achieved the most infamous notoriety. But they were all alike in systematic depriva- tion of the ordinary requisites of life, such as are granted in all civilized countries to even incarcerated criminals.
At that time, about thirty officers were kept in Columbia jail, the extensive prison pens outside the town not having been made until later. Among them were Captain Chamber- lain and Adjutant Camp, besides Chaplain Trumbull, who, after having had jail-fever, was so fortunate as to be exchanged. The other two laid a skilful plan for escape by crawling through a hole in the chimney into a shed. They were in light marching order, and with all that had to be omitted, the comb, tooth-brush, and family photographs were retained !
For a week they kept their anxious northern course, sleep- ing in concealment afforded by upturned trees, or by sitting on a rail in a fence corner, with no shelter from drenching rain but the rubber blanket. They learned to subsist on very slender meals, and to their strained nerves, gray coats lurked behind every bush, and footfalls and voices were heard in the stillness of the night. After several days of conceal- ment, tramping by night through swamps and woods, of fording ice-cold rivers, of bewilderment as to route, they fell into the hands of their pursuers, who had been out with hounds after them; and the rush for liberty had failed.
They were taken to a private house for safe-keeping that night; and after months of privation, were ready to thor- oughly enjoy the abundant meal that the family was about to
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eat. "Beefsteak, ham and eggs, griddle cakes, hot biscuits and fresh butter, wheat coffee, all in great abundance were there". Both these officers were of unusually fine personal appearance, and the little girl of the family, who used, like most Southern children, the negro dialect, announced that she "didn't tink the Yankees was dat good-lookin' ".
Animated discussions of the war filled the evening. Cap- tain Chamberlain's gift of ready eloquence won many com- pliments, and the evident importance of the prisoners gave them fairly good treatment, and called for four guards to watch their slumbers on the feather-bed. The next day they were lashed to their horses, and taken to a jail, where they were thrown into a cell filthy and repulsive in the extreme, the furniture consisting of a pile of rags and pitcher; while crowds hurried to jeer at them through the grating. From there, bound and tied together, they were taken back to the scene of their former captivity, having been absent a little more than a week. Their experience was perhaps more than ordinarily fortunate, although they failed in their object. Many were the other attempts to escape, some men even try- ing three times.
Adjutant Camp was afterwards sent to Libby. For him, as for others, anxious friends at home tried to alleviate the situation by sending money and boxes. For some time the Confederates refused to allow U. S. greenbacks to be passed ; but that reluctance was finally overcome by the conspicuous advantage of possessing the despised currency.
Whenever the privilege of buying food was allowed, there was a chance of prolonging life. The boxes were always searched, and many of their contents were appropriated before the prisoners saw them ; and delivery was often effected by tearing and punching the covers, pouring on the floor
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apple sauce, shoe blacking, sugar and clothing in a mass. The officers fared a little better than the enlisted men; but when their home supplies were exhausted they too "had to depend on the prison corn bread, regardless of the mice baked whole in it".
Adjutant Camp, after some months, was exchanged, was promoted to be major, and did good service in his regiment in Terry's Corps. He was instantly killed while leading his men in a fruitless charge before Richmond. Before his body could be recovered, the enemy, as was seen by wounded men lying near, stripped it of money, papers, watch, sword, pis- tols, even his regatta ring, and his outer clothing. The diary was afterwards returned by the courtesy of a Southern officer. So passed another noble Connecticut man, having won his fame in a few intense years.
For the fighting chaplain of the Tenth, Henry Clay Trum- bull, whose lion heart took him, with his rifle, into every bat- tle where the bullets flew thickest, the officers, supported by General Terry, asked the rank of major by brevet. They pleaded that one who had never failed to play the part of a staff officer deserved the honor; but the War Department shuddered at the precedent, and refused. Dr. Trumbull's active and beneficent life did not end till December, 1903.
It was not until March 1865, in the last days of the Con- federacy, that Captain Chamberlain was released, having spent nearly half the period of the war in prison. This may have preserved a valuable life for a long career of usefulness and honor as Judge and State Treasurer.
The details of the life led by the captured enlisted men in Macon, Andersonville, Florence, Columbia, Belle Isle, are heart-rending, and we shrink from them, although we ought not to avoid the bare recital of those sufferings which our
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soldiers experienced in grim reality, while they were patiently waiting for the day of exchange, which for many, came only under the hand and seal of death. To those who saw the haggard and emaciated wrecks of humanity who were returned to the North, it was superfluous to adduce proof that they had been starved; but besides that, there is abun- dant testimony.
As the last years of the Confederacy came, there was undoubtedly a scarcity of some articles like coffee ; but plain rations and small hardly excused their being raw or infested with vermin. In Macon, a pint or half-pint of meal a day, a half-teacupful of rice or the same of beans, a teaspoonful of salt, three or four ounces of bacon, always maggoty and decayed, with two exceptions, were given. At the Roper Hospital Prison, in Charleston, the exact rations for ten days were two and one-third quarts of corn meal, two quarts of rice, five pints of corn meal, five pints of black beans, bad, four ounces daily of beef or bacon. A party of prisoners was known one Thursday noon to have had only five ounces of bread since Monday morning; and how much longer the fast continued was problematic.
At Charleston an ounce of bacon was given but once a day for a week, and after that, none; for sixty hours they had not a morsel to eat, and the yard in which they were kept was so flooded with water that the prisoners could neither lie down nor do any cooking in rainy weather. At Savannah, in spite of fetid water, the prisoners were treated better than in any other place, because the keepers gave them tents and cooking utensils, and a fair supply of provisions.
At Columbia the enlisted men were turned into an open field like a drove of cattle to pass the winter, without any shelter whatever, without cooking utensils, axes, spades, or
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any implements, many without shoes, and with little cloth- ing.
With all efforts to excuse such shortcomings, it is difficult to understand why, in a country abounding in trees, it was necessary to refuse wood for cooking or for a roof over the heads of the prisoners ; or to give a just reason for the estab- lishment of a dead line beyond which none might pass even inadvertently and live; or for the general order worded as follows :- "Any soldier killing a Federal soldier approaching the dead line shall receive a furlough of sixty days; while for wounding one, he shall receive a furlough for thirty days"; or for the famous order No. 13 of General Winder, wherein he commanded the officers in charge of the artillery to open their batteries, loaded with grape shot, as soon as the Fed- erals approached within seven miles, and to continue the slaughter till every prisoner was exterminated; and the min- ing of Libby Prison by the keeper, Turner, with the avowed determination to blow every man to atoms if there should be any effort to rescue the prisoners.
The account given by Andrew J. Spring of Collinsville, who escaped, is interesting. He says: "Before Stoneman's raid, the rebels had a chain-gang in the stockade, made up of such as had attempted to escape. Thirteen poor fellows were chained together by the ankles in a line on one side; each man having a 32-pound ball attached by a chain to the leg. A short chain ran from one leg to the other, giving each man a step of eight inches. On the other leg, every fourth man had a 64-pound ball chained to his leg. When the gang moved, each man carried his 32-pounder on one side; and on the other side a rod was run through rings in the balls, and four men carried each of the 64-pounders. And so the poor soldiers were kept, day after day-lugging the terrible
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weight of iron with which they were encumbered. This chain-gang was released when Stoneman was making his raid; the rebels not caring to have that General find such an evi- dence of barbarity in case he surprised them at Anderson- ville".
With vegetables abounding in the summer all around, men were allowed to perish of scurvy, without even taking them to a hospital. Deliberate planning to kill defenseless men in cold blood is not in accord with the northern ideas of chiv- alry. Whatever mistakes of policy or generalship the North may have made, she treated the Southern prisoners of war so well, housing them in comfortable buildings erected for the purpose, that they returned to their army decidedly recuper- ated by their enforced absence. So, too, it is difficult to see the need of crowding men into box cars, so that they could neither sit nor lie down during long trips, taken under such circumstances that in some instances many died from starva- tion on the journey, and on one occasion a man who was on the top froze to death.
With the virtues and the influence ascribed to Lee, why did he refrain from using that influence to prevent such barbari- ties as these ? A single order from him would have put a roof over the heads of thousands of suffering men, and would have put a stop to the dead-line and the chain-gang. Through these horrors, thousands of Connecticut men passed; less than one-half surviving the ordeal. Yet they were patient and we have their word that to a man, they would have died rather than harm the interests of the cause.
In March 1864, the little army of sixteen hundred under General Wessels of the regular army, a Connecticut man, was attacked at Wilmington by General Hoke with an army of twelve thousand, assisted by the ram Albemarle. After three
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days of obstinate defense, and as obstinate attack, the little force had to yield to literally overwhelming numbers; and in that way the Sixteenth Connecticut lost four hundred and thirty-six men, of whom many were captured. "Fort Pillow was re-enacted." The negroes were stripped of their clothing, lined up, and then shot down. The white prisoners were crowded into box-cars, and sent to Andersonville, to Macon, and to other prison pens.
One-half of the captives of the Sixteenth died in prison. Not one could be induced to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Company H had been detailed for other duty, and thus escaping capture, and being reinforced by a few men who had been on the sick list, or had escaped from prison, carried the name of the Sixteenth through the war.
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