USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 66
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In the 5th C. V., afterward under the command of Col. Warren W. Packer of Mystic, Norwich had no officers, and only a few enlisted men, less than twenty in all. This regiment was mustered in July, 1861, and was sent to Virginia, where they had many sharp conflicts with the enemy. Stonewall Jackson inquired of a prisoner how many 5th Connecticuts there were, since he heard of them on all sides. At the battle of Cedar Mount- ain, they lost 173, killed, wounded, and missing. Nine brave men fell in defending their colors ; among whom was Sergeant Alexander S. Avery, of Norwich, who died upon the battle-field, Aug. 9, 1862.
In September, 1863, the 5th C. V. was transferred from the Army of the Potomac to that of the Cumberland. It was with Sherman in his long southern march. At the hard-fought battle of Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864, out of ten men belonging to Norwich, who had re-enlisted as vet- erans, four were reported among the wounded .*
Of the 6th C. V. William G. Ely of Norwich was appointed Lieut. Colonel, but was soon transferred by promotion to the 18th. The Quar-
* John G. Blake, Thomas W. Baird, Delano Carpenter, and Stephen Corcoran.
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master, J. V. B. Williams, and twelve enlisted Germans, were from Nor- wich. This regiment obtained honorable notice for its conspicuous gal- lantry in the fierce assaults upon the Morris Island batteries and Fort Wagner, near Charleston. In one of these attacks, its commander, Col. Chatfield, received his death wound.
Alfred P. Rockwell, of Norwich, was appointed Colonel in June, 1864. He had previously served two years as Captain of the 1st Light Battery, C. V., and had been stationed on James Island and other parts of the Carolinian coast, co-operating in the siege of Charleston.
The 7th C. V. received the first regular company of three years men that was recruited in Norwich. The Captain, John B. Dennis, and the Lieutenants, Theodore Burdick and Gorham Dennis, were town residents. Of the enlisted men, twenty-three were from Norwich, the remainder of the company from neighboring towns. Lieut. Burdick, subsequently pro- moted to the command of a company, was killed at Fort Wagner, July 11, 1863.
The 7th C. V. was the first Union regiment that landed on the soil of South Carolina. They were in Wright's Brigade under Sherman, in the expedition against Beaufort, and after the bombardment and ruin of Fort Walker, when the troops disembarked, the 7th Connecticut took the lead, landing in twenty-seven boats upon the beach below Hilton Head.
This regiment afterward performed a vast amount of exhausting work at Tybee Island, preparatory to the reduction of Fort Pulaski. These labors were continued for four months without intermission. During the bombardment, the 7th Connecticut managed five out of the eleven batteries that fired upon the fort, and the flag of the captured fortress was sent to . the Governor of Connecticut, as a token of the distinguished part the reg- iment had taken in its reduction .*
Capt. Dennis of Norwich commanded one of the batteries. His brother, 2d Lient. Gorham Dennis, was obliged to resign and return home, the drifting sands and bright sunshine of the place affecting his eyes, and threatening him with entire loss of sight.t
This regiment in February, 1864, participated in the hazardous and exhausting march upon Olustee, Fla., and was afterward engaged upon the James River and in the trenches before Petersburg. On the first of June, while guarding the picket line, the regiment was attacked with great fury, several companies flanked, and 83 prisoners taken by the enemy. Capt. Dennis and 20 of his company were of the number.
While Capt. Dennis was detained a prisoner, he was one of the Union soldiers sent to Charleston and placed within the range of the U. S. cannon
* Conn. War Record, p. 32.
t Four brothers Dennis, sons of Jared Dennis of Norwich Falls, were in the army during the war.
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in retaliation for the bombardment of the city, which was then in progress under Gen. Gillmore. In a letter published soon after his escape, he says :
" On the 16th of August last, [1864,] I was one of 600 U. S. prisoners of war that arrived in the city of Charleston to be placed under fire of the U. S. batteries on Moon's Island ; 600 having arrived a few days before, and 600 a few days after, making in all 1800, all confined within one square, viz., Work-house, Marine Hospital, Jail, and Roper Hospital. Our condition was one of extreme wretchedness, very few having any money, and fewer still clothes to cover them."
Capt. Dennis was afterward transferred to other places of confinement, and during his captivity was a tenant of six different prisons. The last was Richland Jail in Columbus, S. C., from which he attempted to escape with two other officers early in November, 1864. They obtained a small boat, and passing down the Congaree, concealed themselves by day, and pursued their course by night. But the second night, while enveloped in a thick fog, the boat struck a snag, and upset in deep, rapid water. After nearly perishing in the struggle for life, they succeeded in reaching the shore, but were discovered, recaptured, and sent back to Columbus.
On the 24th of December, Capt. Dennis, with thirteen companions, made another attempt, which proved successful. They obtained a flat-boat through the aid of friendly negroes, and in their passage down the river were guided and fed by others of the colored race, till at length they reached the ocean, where fortunately a gunboat was lying off shore, to which they made signals, and were taken on board .*
In the 8th C. V. Norwich had a large interest. Edward Harland, one of the Captains of the three months service, was its Colonel ; Charles M. Coit, Adjutant ; De Witt C. Lathrop, Assistant Surgeon ; and John E. Ward, Captain of Co. D, with James R. Moore and Charles A. Breed, Lieutenants. Nearly half of the enlisted men in Capt. Ward's company belonged in Norwich.
This regiment was in Burnside's expedition to North Carolina. Col. Harland was soon placed in command of a brigade, and Capt. Ward by rapid promotion became Colonel of the regiment. Two of the Norwich officers, after a few months of efficient service, were numbered with the dead. Dr. De Witt C. Lathrop died at Newbern in April, 1862, of illness caused by over-exertion in the duties of his office. Lieut. Breed, while engaged in important service on the Signal Corps, took the fever of the country, and expired in July. These men, languishing and perishing from disease, died for their country as truly as others on the battle-field.
This regiment was in the battle's front at South Mountain and at An- tietam. In the last-named terrible fight they suffered severely. “We
* Speech of Hon. L. F. S. Foster in the U. S. Senate, Jan. 25, 1865, published in the Daily Globe at Washington.
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faced the foe until half the regiment were shot down, and retired only when we were ordered."*
In this battle the regiment was led by Capt. J. E. Ward, Col. Harland having charge of a brigade. It went into action about 400 strong, and lost 194, killed, wounded, and missing.
Among the slain was Lieut. Marvin Wait of Norwich. His comrades afterward spoke with admiration of the "steadfast and courageous de- meanor" which this young man, scarcely above the age of boyhood, dis- played in the field of battle. When a ball from a rebel battery struck in the midst of his company, killing three, wounding others, covering the lieutenant himself with blood and earth, and creating some confusion in the ranks, he rushed to the front, closed up their lines, and cheered them on to the assault. He stood firm amid a shower of bullets, and when wounded in the arm, refused to retire, nor left his post until he had received three shots and was fainting with the loss of blood. He was then aided to a place considered safe, but received the last fatal shot while lying helpless on the ground.
He was the first commissioned officer from Norwich, that fell in the war for the Union. His remains were tenderly conveyed to his parents, and laid in the quiet cemetery upon the Yantic, where the marble dedi- cated to his memory is inscribed with names that keep fresh the remem- brance of his valor: Roanoke Island, Fort Macon, South Mountain, An- tietam.t
In the campaign of 1863, the 8th Conn. was in Eastern Virginia. On the 19th of April, while stationed at Suffolk, Col. Ward, acting under orders from Gen. Getty, with 130 men from his own regiment, and 150 of the 89th N. Y. Vols. under Lieut. Col. England, went up the Nanse- mond and made a brilliant charge upon the Hill's Point battery, an annoy- ing post held by the enemy upon the river bank. The first man to leap from the gunboat to the shore and press forward to the attack was Capt. McCall of the 8th C. V.# The post was taken by storm ; the New York and the Connecticut soldiers planted their flags side by side upon the ram- parts ; the garrison was captured, and the cannon turned against their former owners in the shortest possible time. The official report says :
" We were landed at Hill's Point, in the rear of Fort Hnger, a little before sunset,
* Conn. War Record, p. 11.
f Forrest Spofford, another of Capt. Ward's company, enlisting at the age of eighteen, lost his left arm in consequence of wounds received at Antietam, but he remained in the service, and at Walthall Junction, in May, 1864, was slightly wounded in his right arm. He was earnestly desirous of re-enlisting as a veteran, but being rejected by the examining surgeon, served out his three years and was honorably discharged.
# Conn. War Record, p. 12.
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immediately charged upon the works, and after a very short struggle, captured the fort, with five pieces of artillery, a large quantity of ammunition, and about 130 prisoners, including seven officers."
This gallant exploit was alike honorable to Col. Ward and the brave men of his command.
In the advance upon the enemy made by a part of Gen. Butler's army, May 7, 1864, the 8th Conn. led the van, as a skirmishing force. A severe engagement took place, near the Walthall junction of the Richmond and Petersburg R. R., in which the regiment was exposed to a raking fire from artillery in the open field, and was at last compelled to retreat with a list of casualties amounting to 72.
In this action Col. Ward was severely bruised with a shell, Capt. James R. Moore badly wounded, and Lieut. Alfred M. Goddard struck down by a fatal bullet while advancing in the battle's front and cheering on his men.
Lieut. Goddard was a young man of noble character. The purest patri- otism, a deep conviction that he owed this service to his country, led him into the field. He had been absent for some time from his regiment, en- gaged on staff duty with Gen. Harland, but hastened to rejoin his com- mand when it was called into action, and fell in his first fight. He was conveyed to Fortress Monroe, and there died two days afterward.
On the 16th of May, in a battle fought in the midst of an Egyptian fog, at Drury's Bluff, near Fort Darling, where the Union forces were again repulsed, the gallant Capt. John McCall of Norwich was shot through the heart, and died instantly. This young officer possessed all the prominent characteristics of a good soldier ; he was cool, steady, prompt, and skillful. He had enlisted as a private, and obtained promotion by acknowledged merit.
Lieut. Goddard and Capt. McCall were interred at Norwich, with an interval of one week between the funeral services. The city authorities, the military, and the public generally, vied with personal friends in honor- ing the remains of these heroic young men. They were of equal age, went from the same place, and were slain within ten days of each other, in the sanguinary conflicts upon the James river, martyrs to the same nobility of principle,-love for liberty and the Union.
In this campaign, the 8th Conn., forming a part of the Army of Vir- ginia, could find of course no season of repose .* It was a crisis requiring incessant watchfulness and action. The actors described it as a daily bat- tle continuing for months,-a constant round of marching, fighting, sieging, doing picket duty, digging trenches and lying in them, unless startled by
* "The 8th Connecticut, one of the most heroic bands of men that ever marched beneath a battle-flag." Abbott's History of the War, 2 : 175.
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mines, or called away by sudden attacks to more arduous service .* The regiment was reduced to little more than half its original strength. Col. Ward was placed in command of a brigade, and Capt. Charles M. Coit of Co. B. commanded the regiment through the sanguinary conflicts at Cold Harbor, the successful charge before Petersburg, and the months of heavy siege work that followed, but in an engagement at Fair Oaks, Oct. 28th, while acting as Assistant Adjutant-General, he was severely wounded in the chest, and recovering but slowly, retired from the service in May, 1865.
The 9th C. V. was principally an Irish regiment. A company was recruited for it in Norwich, called the Sarsfield Guards. Silas W. Saw- yer was Captain, and between 20 and 30 of the enlisted men were resi- dents in the town. The regiment was mustered into service at Lowell, Mass., in November, 1861. The Sarsfield Guards were at first somewhat wild and unruly, and the petty trespasses of the company near Lowell made the warning cry of "Connecticut over the fence!" a temporary watch-word; but when well drilled they made excellent soldiers.
This regiment was sent to New Orleans, and performed its three years of arduous duty in the regions bordering upon the Mississippi. It came home on veteran furlough in April, 1864, and was then sent into Vir- ginia. Capt. Addis E. Payne and Lieut. J. II. Lawler were from Nor- wich.t
In the 10th regiment, as it went first into the army, Norwich had no representatives. George C. Ripley was afterward appointed Lieutenant, but detached to act upon the staff of Gen. Ferry.
The 11th C. V. was mustered into service under Col. Thomas H. C. Kingsbury of Franklin, and was afterward commanded by Col. H. W. Kingsbury, who was killed at Antietam. A fine company called the Harland Rifles, recruited in Norwich and gathering 23 of the enlisted men from the town, went into this regiment, under Captain Daniels of Franklin.
The 8th, 10th and 11th regiments were in Burnside's expedition against North Carolina. Col. Kingsbury and 500 of his men were on board the Voltigeur when she stranded on Cape Hatteras, and lay there twenty-three days before they could get ashore.
In the renowned battle of Antietam, so destructive to human life, no single regiment was visited with such fearful slaughter as the 11th Con-
* Report of Major Pratt.
t In October, 1865, Lieut. Lawler, late of the 9th C. V., went to Ireland on a visit to his kindred. On arriving in Dublin, he was arrested by the British authorities on suspicion of being a secret agent of the Fenians. His revolver, army medals, &c., were taken as proofs of his hostile intentions. He was soon, however, released and his pis- tols and documents restored. [Norwich Aurora.
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necticut. Besides losing its Colonel, it was nearly halved. Before the conflict its strength was 440; 97 were killed, and 102 wounded .*
In less than two years this regiment was again deprived of its com- mander by the pitiless stroke of war. Col. Griffin A. Stedman, of Hart- ford, a brave and accomplished officer, was killed before Petersburg, Aug. 5, 1864.
The commissioned officers from Norwich in the 11th C. V. were Capt. Joseph H. Nickerson, and Lieuts. G. W. Keables and James E. Fuller.
In the 12th C. V. Norwich had but a few enlisted men, and only one commissioned officer that remained in the regiment, viz., Lieut. Dwight McCall of Yantic; but in the 13th C. V. the town was largely repre- sented. Henry W. Birge, Colonel; J. B. Bromley, Quartermaster; N. A. Fisher, Assistant Surgeon ; G. W. Whittlesey, Adjutant ; Captains Alfred Mitchell and James McCord; Lieuts. J. C. Abbott, W. P. Miner, and R. A. Ripley, with nearly half a hundred enlisted men, were from Norwich.
These two regiments, 12th and 13th, were sent to New Orleans, and employed in the departments of the Gulf and the Mississippi.
The 13th was quartered at first in the custom-house, and was like a right hand to General Butler in preserving order and sustaining the honor of the Union flag. This regiment was remarkable not only for its fine appearance, neat equipments, and soldier-like regard to manners and eti- quette, but for prompt obedience of orders and faithful performance of duty.
These regiments in their southern campaigns had a trying experience of battles, sieges, skirmishes, fevers, and long marches. At Georgia Landing their first blood was shed. They were in sharp fights at Thibo- deaux, Labadierville, Camp Bissell, Irish Bend,t and Port Hudson.
At Port Hudson, after the Union forces had been twice repulsed, Gen. Banks called upon the army for a storming party of 1,000 volunteers, to take the post or perish in the attempt. Col. Birge was the first officer to respond. He collected a roll of 1,026 volunteers,-91 officers and 935 enlisted men,-and offered himself with them to the commanding General to make the attempt. Of this party, 242 were from the regiment of Col. Birge, (13th C. V.) and 45 from the 12th C. V. The others were gath- ered out of the forty or fifty regiments at that time composing the Union Army of the Mississippi. While this heroic band were preparing for
* Four of the Norwich men in the company of Capt. Daniels were slain : David M. Ford, J. C. Holwell, H. M. Scholfield, and John W. Wood.
t Capt. McCord of Norwich was highly commended for bravery at Irish Bend. While the 13th was encamped at Thibodeaux, Lieut. Andrew T. Johnson of Montville and Lieut. Wheeler of New Haven were killed by the explosion of a car loaded with am- munition.
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their hazardous task, the post was unexpectedly surrendered, and the service was not required. This, however, does not detract from the patri- otism and self-sacrifice implied in the offer, which history will record as a special instance of heroism and devotion to the Union cause. When the formal surrender of the fort took place, the storming party, led by Col. Birge and bearing the flag of the 13th C. V., were the first that entered the works, and the garrison grounded their arms before them. .
In the 14th C. V. Norwich had several efficient officers and nearly 40 enlisted men. William H. Tubbs and James B. Coit were Captains ; Henry P. Goddard and James R. Nickels promoted to the same rank ; Morton F. Hale and Frederick Schalk, Lieutenants.
This regiment has a martial record that places it high in the ranks of heroism. In the first four battles inscribed upon its banners, it was suc- cessively divided into nearly equal shares between those that suffered and those that escaped injury. The loss at Antietam was 156 ;* at Freder- icksburg, 120 out of 320 that went into battle ; at Chancellorville, 70 out of 220; at Gettysburg, 66 out of 160. Notwithstanding its reduced ranks, this regiment at Gettysburg, in the final terrific charge, when the grand attack of Lee was repulsed, took five regimental battle-flags and over forty prisoners.t
In the Virginia campaign of 1864, this regiment again met with severe losses,-taking part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and others. . Capt. Coit, promoted Major in October, 1863, was wounded in five different battles. Lieut. Schalk died of wounds received in the Wilderness. Capt. Nickels, severely wounded in the bat- tle at Ream's Station, languished and died in a hospital at Washington,- one of the purest, bravest spirits that the war numbered among its vic- tims.
In the next three regiments Norwich had no local interest, but the 18th was regarded as peculiarly her own, or the home regiment. It was the first that was here mustered into service. The Fair Ground near the city was prepared for the camp, and a hickory flag-staff eighty feet high raised as the signal-post. The regiment consisted of five companies from Windham county, and five from New London county. The latter were all recruited in Norwich, and the costly banners of the regiment, National and State, were a gift from the ladies of the place.
Of the commissioned officers, eighteen were from Norwich, viz., Wm. G. Ely, Colonel; D. W. Hakes, Quartermaster ; C. M. Carleton, Sur- geon ; J. P. Rockwell, Sergeant-Major; five Captains,-Davis, Bromley, Hakes, Peale, Knapp; and nine Lieutenants,-1st, Lindsay, Morrison, Merwin, Palmer,-2d, Cowles, Francis, Higgins, Lilly, and Tiffany. Of
* Report of Col. Morris.
t Report of Col. Ellis.
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the enlisted men, 240 are credited to Norwich on the rolls of the Adjutant- General.
The regiment left Norwich Aug. 22, 1862. As they marched through the streets to the place of embarkation, flowers and evergreens were showered upon them, prayers and blessings followed them in the way.
They were stationed for several months in and near Baltimore; not indeed idle, but winning no laurels, and chafing somewhat at their inglo- rious ease. Capt. Peale was appointed Major of the regiment ; Capt. Bromley detailed to act as Provost-marshal ; Capts. Hakes and Knapp resigned, and were succeeded by their Lieutenants, F. A. Palmer and J. H. Morrison. Dr. Carleton relinquished the post of Surgeon on account of ill health.
At the opening of the campaign of 1863, the 18th was placed at once in the front of danger, being assigned to Milroy's command in Virginia, and stationed at or near Winchester, which was then an outpost against the inroads of the enemy.
The three days of June, 1863, (13th, 14th, and 15th,) were a severe ordeal to this regiment. The Confederate forces under Generals Ewell, Early, and Jackson, advanced against Winchester, drove the Union de- tachments back upon the town, made attacks in different directions, and after several sharp contests, came suddenly upon the ontworks of the main fort and took them by storm. The fight continuing, and General Milroy, who had previously sent off his artillery and wagons, finding himself in danger of being surrounded, spiked his guns and withdrew during the night with all his command. Four miles from Winchester, he was inter- cepted by a strong force of the enemy planted in the way with artillery, but after a desperate fight of two hours, succeeded in cutting his way through with the greater part of his army. Two regiments, 18th Conn. and 5th Maryland, being dissevered from the main body, after a fruitless resistance, were captured almost entire.
Of the 18th C. V. 60 were left dead upon the field, 90 more wounded, and 469 taken prisoners. In this last number Col. Ely and Lieut. Col. Nichols were included. Among the slain was the gallant Capt. Edward L. Porter, a fine scholar and an able officer, who enlisted at Norwich, though belonging to New London. He graduated at Yale College in 1857, and was both endowed by nature and prepared by culture to embel- lish society, extend the domain of science, and benefit mankind.
The captured men were immediately sent forward to Richmond, except the wounded, who were left at Winchester in charge of J. D. Ripley, the hospital steward of the 18th, who, though himself wounded, dressed the wounds of thirty-six others before attending to his own hurt .* That part
* Mr. Ripley was afterward released by a party of Union soldiers who made a dash-
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of the regiment which escaped capture, numbering about 200, assembled at Harrisburg under Major Peale. Most of the private soldiers that had been sent to Richmond, were after a few weeks paroled and exchanged, rejoining the regiment in October ; but the officers were confined for nine months in the Libby and Belle-island prisons, and not exchanged till the next March. Col. Ely was one of a party of Union officers that escaped from Libby in February, 1864, by tunneling, but was recaptured before reaching the Federal lines, and carried back to confinement.
With its ranks partially restored, the 18th entered upon the campaign of 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley. It took part in the action at New- market, May 15th, and fought with conspicuous gallantry under General Hunter's command, at the severe battle of Piedmont, June 5th. Colonel Ely's report says :
" The 18th Conn. Volunteers were on the right of Gen. Hunter's line of battle, its colors took the lead in the first charge, and floated defiant till we triumphed. All of the Color Guard were wounded except one, onr banner riddled by minie balls and can- non shot, and a loss of 127 in killed and wounded tells our story."
Among the victims were Adjutant E. B. Culver, a brave and valued officer, Corporal J. T. Bradley, and private William H. Hamilton, young men from Norwich who left good situations to devote themselves to the service of their country. Lieut. J. T. Maginnis of Co. E, after being released from his long captivity in Richmond, came home on a brief fur- loughi, and had rejoined the regiment only a week before the battle. Faithful and gallant to the last, he fell at his post, mortally wounded, and died the next day .*
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