USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 7
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On the day of Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration, the pris- oners were exchanged, having lacked only a few days of a year of captivity. Sometimes the return of their released ones was made quite a gala affair, as, when the surviv- ors of the Sixteenth reached the Cape Fear River, and the United States flag, they were greeted by the Sixth, which was encamped on the hither side of the river, and had built a handsome arbor on the end of the pontoon bridge, and in an arch of evergreens, placed the words "Welcome, Broth- ers".
More dreary was the return of the prisoners from the Fifteenth, which had been overcome after a gallant defense against superior numbers at Kinston. Their hardships were not so long as those of the Sixteenth, but Major Osborne and other wounded ones died from the exposure. At one place, after being in open cars all day; they were put for the night in an open field, and were not allowed to go to the spring to get water. While they were discussing the point, some rebel
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prisoners returning from the North arrived and insisted that our men should have the water. On April 2d, 1865, they were sent to within four miles of our lines. Here, at night- fall, they were left on the roadside. Those who were able to walk took up the others in blankets and struggled through the mud and rain till they finally reached our pickets and the dear old flag. What thought might come with such a sight of the Stars and Stripes was told by Captain, then Judge, Chamber- lain, many years after, at a flag-raising in New Britain. He was one of those of whom he spoke.
"On the 3d day of March, 1865, at Wilmington, N. C., I saw, as they came into our lines, several thousand Union sol- diers, paroled prisoners of war. Many were ragged and hungry, many of them had been prisoners for months, some even for years. Day after day, they had seen the sun rise and set, but the splendid scenery of the sky brought no day- spring into their hearts. At night they had watched the procession of the stars, but of the stars none brought hope to them save one, and that the north star which nightly came and stood over their homes. That brought to their hearts hope and joy. During all those months they had seen no flag, save the flag which to them represented treason, upon which they had been compelled to gaze. But now they were free, and stood once more upon their country's soil, over which floated their country's flag. Gray-headed men, ragged and hungry, waited not for nourishment of the body, but seized the old flag and kissed it as a mother kisses her babe. What did that flag represent to them? It stood for their country. It was to them a comprehensive picture in which were the portraits of all whom they'loved at home. Boys, I want you to love that flag. I want you so to live that when
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you go forth from beneath those stars you shall dwell among the stars that are above".
Such feelings animated the men of the Sixteenth who were captured at Plymouth. Surely we can never forget the story of the Sixteenth Connecticut. Hear it in the words of one of the principal actors. "When every hope of escape was destroyed, the color guard tore each flag from the staff, and strips torn into shreds were distributed among the members of the regiment, and concealed in various ways through weary days of their imprisonment. In 1879, as many of these remnants as could be obtained from the sur- vivors of the regiment were gathered and made up in the shield surmounted by an eagle, which has been sewn upon a white silk banner trimmed with gold fringe, and bearing in letters of gold the inscription :
'Antietam, Edenton Road, Nansemond, Fredericksburg, Siege of Suffolk, Plymouth' ".
Oh, faithful hearts! Can our words enhance the glory of your deeds ?
As the plans of Grant and Sherman were gradually worked out, and the troops were massed near Richmond, many of the Connecticut regiments were transferred from the Gulf to Virginia; and in all the fierce and prolonged strug- gles of that memorable campaign, bore an honorable part. Disease, as in other places, carried off more victims than actual battles, but the losses in battle were fearful.
It was in that desperate Virginia campaign that we lost the "lion-hearted" General Sedgwick. A true son of the Litchfield County hills, he had shown the sterling virtues of a Christian and a soldier at every step of his career; at West Point, in the Indian and Mexican Wars, and at the turning- point in 1861, when he refused to follow brother officers out
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of the Union. He succeeded Robert E. Lee as Colonel of the Fourth Cavalry, Regular Army, and from that time had a national reputation, rising quickly to be Major-General. His kindness and modesty endeared him to all who knew him, while the whole army was proud of his soldierly qualities. He was selected to storm the heights of Fredericksburg; he was carried almost lifeless off the field at Antietam, after fighting like a hero; his intrepidity and coolness saved us at Fair Oaks; he had twice refused the command of the Army of the Potomac and was defying danger at Spottsylvania when he fell, shot through the head. He was a worthy descendant of his Revolutionary ancestor, quick, energetic, self-sacrificing, and in the words of a war-historian, "the army felt it could better have afforded to sacrifice the best division". At his burial among his native hills in Cornwall, from the darkening sky came the last volley in a thunder- peal! and the mourning thousands gathered there felt that the nation had parted with one of its best generals, Con- necticut with one of her most illustrious sons.
At Spottsylvania, North Anna, Drewry's Bluff, Cold Har- bor, Deep Bottom, Deep Run, in the Wilderness, in the trenches, on the picket line, in rain and mud, in cold and hunger, the Army of the Potomac gave its best. The First Cavalry, the Second Heavy Artillery, the Eighth, the Eleventh, the Fourteenth, the Eighteenth, the Twenty-First, were concerned in almost every battle during that fighting winter.
It was before Petersburg that a chance shot inflicted a mor- tal wound on Colonel Griffin A. Stedman, a man whom Hart- ford was proud to call hers. A gentleman and a soldier in every fiber of his being, he had won the love of his men, the praise of his superiors, had kept his pure spirit so unsullied
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that his influence was a shining light; and he died greatly lamented, on the day which brought his brevet as brigadier- general.
The list of precious lives lost grew sadly long, too long to give the names of all.
The Confederate army was intrenched at Petersburg and Richmond behind thirty miles of almost impenetrable works. In the Northern councils it was felt that there must be no more dallying, and that every blow must tell. One port was still in control of the Confederates, and afforded an open door for the export of their one commodity, cotton, and for the ingress of munitions of war. With it, the contest might be dragged on indefinitely; without it, it must certainly cease from lack of support. This port was Wilmington, and Fort Fisher was its guardian. The works were deemed impreg- nable by their makers and were likened to the world-re- nowned ones of Sevastopol. Fort Fisher must be taken. But Butler's effort to storm it was a conspicuous failure, for reasons not to be discussed here. Who could be found to lower the flag of Fort Fisher?
General Grant's choice fell on General Terry, a choice justified by his career. His courage, self-control, and wisdom had been proved again and again. On Morris Island, in the James River campaign with its constant fighting, and under Hancock, at Deep Bottom, Terry, with the Tenth Division, comprising the Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, and Rockwell's Bat- tery, had driven the enemy again and again. In the fighting through April and May, 1864, his division lost thirteen hun- dred men, and the corps commander reported "three assaults made on General Terry's front, each having been repulsed handsomely". Among other marked actions, he had dis- tinguished himself by leading an assault on the main line of
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the enemy's works; and at Fussell's Mills he had won espe- cial commendation for carrying the fortifications, and cap- turing about three hundred prisoners and six battle-flags. The grim Secretary of War had accompanied his brevet for Major-General of Volunteers with a personal letter explain- ing that only the fact that the legal number of Major-Gen- erals was full prevented his receiving the full rank.
Terry took, with slight additions, the same troops which had been selected for the first attempt under Butler; the Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth. The compliment was obvious. Vessels to the number of one hundred and fifty had been col- lected from all parts to swell the naval force, which was called the mightiest that had ever assembled in America. Admiral Porter, on the whole our greatest naval com- mander, had come from the West, after two years of success, in order to conduct the naval part of the enterprise. In spite of the Hatteras gales of midwinter, the fleet and army carried out their combined operations with complete success. The vigor and experience of Hoke, the rebel commander, had served him well many times, and he was stronger in numbers than Terry. But both Union commanders were resolved on victory, and they acted in perfect harmony.
General Terry left nothing undone that vigilance could suggest. For seventy-two hours he was without sleep, every moment being occupied in preparation,-in disembarking his command, in deciding on the best line of defense for his rear across from the sea to the Cape Fear River, in a minute reconnoissance of the fort, in arranging with Admiral Porter for harmonious action in attack, and finally in making the assault.
It had been questioned whether the armament of a fleet could reduce fortifications so strong as those of the fort; but
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so accurate was the firing from the boats that there was a terrible demolition of the elaborate defenses. The little army of tried veterans, intrenching itself at every forward move, each brigade taking the place left by the preceding one, grad- ually reached the parapet. The attention of the garrison was successfully diverted by the assault of a detachment of marines and blue-jackets, so that while Hoke congratulated himself on repulsing what he thought to be the main attack, he had the unpleasant surprise of finding Terry's advancing columns bearing their colors over his works. Bitter was the contest ; again and again did both sides return to the charge; but at last the stronghold was ours, with nineteen hundred prisoners, forty-four heavy guns, and many field pieces.
The complete success of plans so well laid and executed was hailed with enthusiasm by the government and the peo- ple. Admiral Porter for the third time received by name the thanks of Congress, and General Terry, "the hero of Fort Fisher", was congratulated in personal letters from Stanton, Grant, and the President. Secretary Stanton stopped at Cape Fear River in returning from Sherman's camp, and assured Terry that he would recommend him for brigadier-general in the regular army; Grant seconded this strongly, and Mr. Lincoln used his power extraordinary to add, in this special instance, one to the legal number of major-generals in the Volunteers, by appointing Alfred H. Terry a Provisional Major-General of Volunteers. The war afforded no other instance of this. Not only was this exception made in his honor, but he was the solitary instance of an officer of volun- teers being made a brigadier-general of the regular army.
The taking of Fort Fisher was one of the complete achieve- ments of the war; and it was accomplished in great measure by Connecticut troops, led by a Connecticut general, in co-
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operation with a great admiral who expressed his unqualified satisfaction with his military coadjutor. Terry's war career was crowned by being promoted to brevet Major-General U. S. A., on account of his success on the left bank of the Cape Fear River in February 1865. He commanded the Tenth Corps in co-operation with Sherman at Goldsboro, and helped to secure the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston.
The great conflict was hastening to a close; and in the last historic scene at Appomattox, Connecticut troops played no unimportant part.
The First Connecticut Cavalry had a remarkable record during a service of nearly four years, beginning as a battalion of four companies, and ending as a full regiment : 1361 men had been on its rolls. In spite of being on provost duty in Baltimore for fourteen months, it had participated in eighty- eight engagements and had won an enviable reputation. Of the twelve medals given by Congress to Connecticut soldiers for bravery, three were assigned to members of this regiment. As a part of Sheridan's renowned cavalry, first in Wilson's, then in Custer's Division, as foot, horse, or artillery, behind or in front of intrenchments, it was always ready to fight with spirit in the way most to the purpose. It was in the fore- front of the wild rides, the desperate charges, the hardships, the hair-breadth escapes, which make the story of Sheridan forever thrilling. The valley of the Shenandoah became a favorite fighting ground. Five times at Winchester, four times at Cedar Creek, twice at Newmarket, and once at Five Forks, did its sabres flash. And at last, in Sheridan's well- placed squadrons, it helped to cut off Lee's last chance of re- treat. On that historic April 9th, the regiment was proud to have its colonel, Whitaker, then Custer's chief of staff, se- lected to go within the lines with the returning Confederate
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flag of truce, to confer with Longstreet, acting for Lee; and its glory was crowned on the same day by being detailed as the guard for General Grant when he went to receive the momentous surrender.
"The Fourteenth, under Colonel Moore, was hard by, within sight of the memorable house; the Second Artillery, under Colonel James Hubbard, was with the Sixth Corps, a short distance north; and the Tenth was a mile away west, where it had helped to resist and turn back the desperate charge of Gordon."
In the meantime, Terry and Schofield had united their corps with Sherman's army at Goldsboro; and the Fifth and Twentieth were in advance in entering Smithfield in the pur- suit of Johnston, and were present when that General sur- rendered.
The murder of Lincoln, whose urgent counsels for leniency to the vanquished were reflected in Grant's celebrated terms, cast its black shadow over the rejoicing of the North. Governor Buckingham, whose proclamations, worthy to be war classics, had followed the vicissitudes of the conflict in calling the State to days of fasting and supplication as well as of thanksgiving, had the sad duty of summoning his people to lament our first martyr President.
In the great review at Washington, when, day after day, there was the ceaseless tramp of veteran battalions, and the waving of tattered battle-flags, eloquent of the hard-won victory, the Connecticut regiments honored the State once more by their splendid discipline.
About these regiments there was an individuality such as clings to persons. There were the "marching Fifth", that had tramped farther than any other Connecticut regiment, and had been with Sherman in his stately march to the sea ;
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the Sixth and Seventh, twins in danger and honor, and scarred from charges on Carolina forts; the Eighth and Eleventh, linked in similar honorable companionship; the Tenth, with its "splendid reputation" and long list of twenty-seven engagements, from Roanoke to the fierce contest at Fort Gregg which gained the key of the situation one week before Appomattox; the Ninth, that with the Twelfth and Thir- teenth led the return pursuit after "Sheridan's ride"; the Thirteenth, too, with such a reputation for discipline that it was to be kept on provost duty in Georgia for more than a year after the close of hostilities; the "fighting Fourteenth", that had been in thirty-four battles and skirmishes, breaking the record for the State,-that had never lost a color, but had captured flags and prisoners in great numbers; the Fif- teenth, that had had a worse onslaught from yellow fever than from rebel batteries, and yet had survived to show its valor at Kinston; the Sixteenth, the unfortunate, patient, heroic Sixteenth, guarding the sacred relics of its flag; the Seventeenth, that had been literally mowed down at Chan- . cellorsville and Gettysburg; the Eighteenth, that had fought such odds at Winchester; the Twentieth, that had stood unflinchingly for seven hours on the front of the line at Get- tysburg; the nine months' regiments, with their glorious Louisianian record; the Twenty-Ninth and Thirtieth, with the dusky skins that marked them for certain butchery in case of defeat; the First Artillery, called by the great artillery officer, General Barry, "unrivalled in the armies of the United States"; the Second Artillery, made up of Litchfield County's sons, of which General Terry said that there might be a better, but he had never seen it; the First Cavalry, with battle-flags covered with laurels plucked in Virginian valleys -each one had led its own life and made its own name, and
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yet had been an important part of the victorious army of the Union. Whether digging intrenchments, enduring cap- tivity, or charging batteries, they worked together for the same cause and shared the same glory.
In the oft-quoted words of Croffut, the military historian of the State :-
"The first great martyrs of the war-Ellsworth, Win- throp, Ward, and Lyon-were of Connecticut stock. A Con- necticut general, with Connecticut regiments, opened the bat- tle of Bull Run, and closed it; and a Connecticut regiment was marshaled in front of the farm-house at Appomattox, when Lee surrenderd to a soldier of Connecticut blood. A Connecticut flag first displaced the palmetto upon the soil of South Carolina ; a Connecticut flag was first planted in Mis- sissippi; a Connecticut flag was first unfurled before New Orleans. Upon the reclaimed walls of Pulaski, Donelson, Macon, Jackson, St. Philip, Morgan, Wagner, Sumter, Fisher, our State left its ineffaceable mark. The sons of Con- necticut followed the illustrious grandson of Connecticut, as he swung his army with amazing momentum, from the fast- nesses of Tennessee to the Confederacy's vital center. At Antietam, Gettysburg, and in all the fierce campaigns of Vir- ginia, our soldiers won crimson glories; and at Port Hud- son, they were the very first and readiest in that valiant little band-every man a Winkelried, resolved to gather the shafts of flame into their bosoms to make a path for Liberty to tread. On the banks of every river of the South, and in the battle smoke of every contested ridge and mountain-peak, the sons of Connecticut have stood and patiently struggled. In every ransomed State we have a holy acre on which the storm has left its emerald waves".
The value of a volunteer army had been settled for all time
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in the United States, by the four years of experience. Gov- ernor Buckingham, in his Proclamation for a Thanksgiving, spoke truly when he said :- "The Fourth of July, 1865, will witness a nation preserved from the powers of an aristoc- racy of wealth and class combined for its disintegration. Through the courage, endurance, and undaunted bravery of a volunteer soldiery democracy has triumphed".
The total expense of the war to the State, not including private contributions nor indirect loss, both very great, was $6,623,580.60, with a grand list in 1864 of $276,086,457. Of the cities, New Haven spent most, and Hartford next; of the counties, Hartford most, and New Haven next; and the generosity of the small towns and villages was fairly heroic. The population of Connecticut during that war was 461,- 000, of whom 80,000 were voters. From this number, she sent to the army 54,882, distributed among twenty-eight reg- iments of infantry, two regiments and three batteries of artil- lery, one regiment and one squadron of cavalry. The First Squadron of Cavalry, in spite of promises to the contrary, was included in the New York Harris Light Cavalry, and, officers and privates, was credited to New York's quota. This enumeration does not take into account our contribution to the navy, nor the large numbers of citizens of the State, who, in the first outburst of zeal, enlisted in the regiments of other States because their own regiments were full, or for various other reasons.
When reduced to three-years' terms, the number sent from the State is equivalent to 48, 18 1 three years' men, 6,698 more than her quota, and nearly equaling the number of able-bod- ied men, 50,000, on her militia rolls in 1861.
Of the regiments, the First Heavy Artillery was longest in the service, four years and four months; the Thirteenth
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Infantry next, four years and three months; and the Eighth and Eleventh next, four years and two months, and four years and one month.
Countless numbers of able and noted officers of all ranks, in the service of other States, were originally Connecticut citizens; and of the generals of the armies of the country, fifty-two were actual residents of the State at the time.
These bodies of men were well equipped, and, owing to the Governor's rare discrimination, were well commanded; and gained for themselves and the State a reputation for orderly, trustworthy, cleanly behavior, and unexcelled cour- age, that still lingers in pleasant memories among the veter- ans of other States. This account has indicated that the blue flag was usually expected to be first on the enemy's ramparts, and last in covering a retreat; and that it seldom disap- pointed expectations.
Of these volunteers, the number of killed, wounded, and missing, and dying of disease, was 20,573, (209 of these being officers), more than two-fifths of the voters of the State. Besides this tragic loss, there was the uncounted number of those who returned to their homes to die after a few months, or to drag out some years with health per- manently impaired by wounds, disease, captivity, or exposure. It may be said that an irreparable injury was wrought by the destruction in the prime of life of two-fifths of the voters of the State, many of them the very flower of her sons; but they gave their lives willingly, and "though dead", they speak to us in tones of eloquence that should carry never- dying lessons of their devotion, their patriotism, and their courage.
Succeeding generations enjoy the blessings which they fought to preserve; and surely the debt of gratitude ought
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to be paid with ever increasing admiration and veneration for that glorious patriotism which has shed on their State undy- ing glory.
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CHAPTER IV AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR
D URING the latter part of the war, the mel- ancholy fraternity of croakers had not ceased to utter dismal forebodings that the country, even if it did barely survive the shock and losses of the conflict, would succumb to the flood of returning soldiers, who, accustomed to a roving and adventurous life, would be loath to take up the homely tasks left by them in 1861. But, like the melting of snow in the spring, the change was accomplished almost invisibly, and the body of veterans gladly and quietly settled back into the old life.
For many men, places were waiting ; and the few lazy ones were out of sight in the crowds who wanted to work. Two significant items appear in the post-bellum records of the New Haven Soldier's Aid Society, which was ready to help the returning soldier when stranded on the home shore; one item, the loan of seven dollars to a veteran, "to buy a work- bench", and the other, after a short interval, to credit him with returning the money. With him, "Business had been resumed at the old stand".
While the politicians at Washington were wearying them- selves with the mistakes and perplexities of Johnson's admin- istration, the rank and file turned with assiduity to the vast opportunities for business that were presented by the new state of affairs. It is a truism to say that the Civil War began a new era; it is indeed hard to find any department of activity in this country which has not derived fresh impetus and new developments, if not origin itself, from the war.
The grand scale on which public affairs were necessarily conducted during the conflict enlarged the scope of indus- try; and the ideas of the organizers of industrial undertak- ings were correspondingly expanded. The prodigious waste
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