The Connecticut war record, 1863-1865, Part 10

Author: Morris, John M., ed
Publication date: 1863
Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck
Number of Pages: 886

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The loss of the brigade was about one-

Texas Rangers, and as soon as the ready for them. when I heard heavy Thirteenth emerged upon the open field firing beyond the turn of the road, and fourth of the force engaged. The Thir- they opened a very hot fire. Having saw our men running in every direction. weenth, though exposed to its share of dressed the line perfectly. we advanced By the manner in which you advanced, 1 the fire, cut it short by the greater sever- in ordinary step, and without halting reckoned you had a large force there, ity of its own and by its rapid advance, gave them the most heavy and rapid roll- and as we were outflanked and ent off and lost only fifty-nine, of whom seven ing fire that I ever heard from any regi -: from our reinforcements, I was not sur -: were killed on the spot and three have ment, in action or on drill. It was as prised that the order was at once given since died. A ball strnek and broke into continuous as the roar of a waterfall. . to fall back through the woods to the small pieces upon Captain Sprague's The rebels stood it a few seconds, and Cut-off." In fact officers of the Ninety- sword-hit, giving him slight injuries; broke in confusion, though some took first New York, which was thrown for -. Lieutenant Strickland's arm was eut, but cover in the woods, and about a cottage . ward as skirmishers to cover the advance so slightly as not to take him from duty on the left, to continue the fight skir- of Dwight's Brigade, and which was the a day. That no officer was killed, and mish-fashion. As we advanced into the fouly regiment beside Birge's command only three slightly wounded, when so main wood, this fire on both flanks as that lost a man or fired a gun, stated that many men were hit and the fire was so well as in front became annoying, and we 'they saw not a single rebel in passing heavy and close, is surprising. halted there and sileneed it, killing many | through the woods, except some of their. After four days' march, averaging and capturing over one hundred prison- wounded who had not been able to get twenty miles each day, over plains hot ers, including several officers. We found off. And yet, General Dwight being a and dusty beyond endurance, the army ourselves masters of three caissons fulli New Yorker, you will learn from metro- reached Opelousas, and that night the of ammunition, several horses, and a fine politan journals that " General Dwight's Thirteenth was sent forward six miles to flag recently presented to the battery. brigade drove the enemy, with but slight hold a very important bridge at Wash- whose Captain and First Lieutenant ; loss, from the position from which Colo- ington, making abont twenty-five miles were killed, as was also Captain Riely, inel Birge had failed to dislodge them that day. These fatigues were followed commanding the brigade. After some; after losing three hundred and fifty , by two weeks of rest at that point, and

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

1863.]

here, having sketched the history of the 'may hope that there will be something ; magazine and eleven service magazines regiment to the commencement of the of interest in an effort to recall to mind must be constructed; splinter proofs and siege of Port Hudson, this paper termi -. some of the events and toils that led to sugaries built, and eleven batteries erect- nate's. Lists of losses in battle, by ac- the reduction of the Fort, and to assign ed. Much of this work too lay within cident and by disease, not now accessi- with justice the honor of the achieve- range of the guns of the Fort, and must ble to the writer, are necessarily defer- ment. Having been conversant with the be done at night, so that the men at work red to another number. M.

For the Connecticut War Record.

The Seventh Connecticut before Fort Pulaski.

If "a good name is rather to be chosen may claim the higher qualification of im- and foes united in regarding as next to

than great riches," then surely to rob one of an honorable distinction that he has won toilsomely and perilously, and to transfer it to another, is no less an injus- tice and wrong than to spoil him of money,

Early in December, 1861, the Forty-sixth of the task undertaken to recall the fact New York,-a German corps, formed un- that a General, an officer high in rank in der the name of the " Fremont Rifles," -- . the Regular Army, as he stood on the landed on Tybee, for the purpose of hold- shore of Tybee and looked toward Pulas- less hardly gained, and less highly prized. ing the island. This regiment was but ; ki, said, "There is not iron enough in the This reflection ocenrred to me while read- ing in Harper's Monthly for June, " Two that the importance of the position de- Weeks at Port Royal." The article con- tains mumberless errors, resulting proba- bly from extreme haste, or from imper- feet information, or perhaps from a desire to put things in a striking form, and to ereate an impression more startling than the simple truth would produce. Some of the errors are harmless enough absurd- ities, but others are calculated to do gross injustice, and seem to demand correction. about two-thirds full, and it was thought United States to batter down that Fort." In relation to the manner in which the manded the services of more troops. Ac- Seventh Connecticut discharged their cordingly, on the 19th of December, the share of these ardnous duties, I venture main body of the Seventh Connecticut, to quote from the official report of Lient. being seven companies, landed on the Horace Porter, of the United States Ord- island, and from that day till the afternoon ; nance Corps, who was Ordnance Officer when the white flag was raised on the | of the Post, and who, from his mili- Fort, they were incessantly employed, first tary knowledge, and from the position in rendering the possession of the Island, which he held in connection with all the seenre, and second, in erecting batteries, siege operations, is qualified to speak au- landing and drawing ordnance, and per -; thoritatively. After allnding to the la-

After speaking in just terms of the forming the ardnons and interminable; bor involved in moving the thirteen inch Herculean labor in the reduction of Fort ; labors needed in preparing for the bom- mortars, (twelve in mimber,) weighing Pulaski, involved in the erection of the bardment. The Forty-sixth New York : 17,000 lbs, and the other ordnance and

batteries on Tybee Island, by which Fort Pulaski was breached, the writer adds, " The 48th New York, now in garrison

shared these labors, in so far as their ordnance stores, he adds :

seanty numbers and their imperfect dis- : "I can pay no greater tribute to the cipline enabled them. Toward the close patriotism of the Seventh Connectient at Fort Pulaski, performed a large part of of February, two companies of the Third Volunteers, the troops generally furnish- this work of the investment, and its pres- Rhode Island, and two companies of the ed me for this duty, than to say that ent Colonel, Barton, described to me the New York Volunteer Engineers, arrived, when the sling carts frequently sank to toil and the suffering of his men, and the at Tybee, and shared in the labor of the 'their hubs in the marshes and had to be patience and endurance, the magnificent siege. On the 13th of March, the three extricated by unloading the mortar, roll- spirit with which they bore themselves: companies of the Seventh Connectient, ing it upon planks until harder ground through it all. We who listened to the that had been employed in completing could be found, and then reloading it, they recital, could in some measure appreciate the investment of the Fort upon the ; toiled night after night, often ina drench- the difficulties of the work; for we had Savannah River, rejoined the Regiment, ; ing rain under the guns of the Fort, speak- passed that morning close to the slight and at once bore their part in all itsfing ouly in whispers and directed entire- mounds which mark along the beach the duties. Five days before the bombard-fly by the sound of a whistle, without ut- site of the batteries, and had seen some- ment commenced, five companies of the tering a murmur. When drilling the same thing of the. frightful marshes which: Eighth Maine arrived. men in the mortar batteries they exhibit- line the flat shore hereabouts." The im- It is difficult to conceive the magnitude ed an intelligence equaled only by their pression left on the mind of the reader of the task set before the troops whose former physical endurance." by the whole page from which this ex- duty it was to undertake the reduction of About a week previous to the opening tract is made, is, that the batteries on the Fort. Not only must all the ordinary of the batteries, there being reason to ap- Tybee were to a great extent erected by ! camp, fatigue and picket duty be done, prchend a night attack from the enemy, the Forty-eighth New York, and that it but ordnance of the heaviest description two companies of the Seventh Connecti- was to their fortitude, toil and valor, then known, and ordnance stores must 'eut, (B and I,) ocenpied and held the bat- that the capture of this rebel stronghold be unloaded into boats, and landed, ( with- tery nearest the Fort, and continued to do was chiefly dae.

out a wharf,) then dragged by hand. so till after the bombardment.

At the opening of the action, on the

The narration of the trip here by this | (with no draft beasts.) for from one to time became an old story. But truth has two and a half miles: part of the way 10th April, live batteries mounting (16) ever the charm of novelty, and we are | through sand, and part over a marsh isixteen pieces were assigned to the Sev- not apt to be so familiar with justice as: whose muddy depths were first coated, enth Connectient, four batteries mounting to have contempt for it engendered. I over with a layer of earth. A depot (14) fourteen pieces to three companies

progress of the affair from the very be- were subjected to the absolute torture of ginning, I believe I am competent to; clouds of guats and mosquitoes.

speak ; while yet having no military am- | And then all this labor was but prelim- bition to satisfy, nor promotion to win, I inary to attacking a work which friends impregnable. It may aid onr estimate partiality.

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

[SEPTEMBER,

of the Third Rhode Island, one battery ging at the ropes attached to the mortars maxim, "honor to whom honor is due," with (6) six pieces to the Forty-sixth on Tybee. And others who yet survived not only accords with absolute justice, New York, and one battery with (1) one have never fully recovered from the ef- but eminently promotes valor, fidelity piece to the Eighth Maine. At the close fects of those months of exhausting toil, and generous emulation among our noble of the first days' action, the General The victory was, in reality, purchased at army of volunteers. II. I .. W. Commanding relieved the Forty-Sixth an expense of life and suffering equal to New York from their battery, and divi- that entailed by a hotly contested battle; For the Connecticut War Record. ded it between the Eighth Maine, who. it was too dearly purchased for us to see ! manned two of the guns, and a detach- with indifference the honors of the vie- ment of the United States Ship Wa- tory wrongly and unjustly assigned bash, who manned four gons. through ignorance or dishonesty. One

Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Jess 27th, 1863. No new movements having taken place with ns lately, I will give you a brief description of Manchae, which has been the scene of two or three engagements,

During the bombardment the batteries of the preliminary operations of the siege manned by the Seventh Connecticut, consisted in the erection of two small thirteen inch shells. and (588) five hun-fer, and designed to ent off communica.

three (989) nine hundred and eighty-nine batteries commanding the Savannah Riv-jin this war, and may again.

About thirty-eight miles from New dred and eighty-eight ten inch shells, in tion between Savannah and the Fort. Orleans there enters into Lake Ponchar- all (1577) fifteen hundred and seventy- The first step toward this, was the occu- seven. All the other batteries united, pation of Daufuskie Island, and the guard- threw (3698) three thousand six hundred ing of Wall's Cut. In this movement train, a stream about a mile wide, called " Pass Manchae." At this point there stood a Light House, since destroyed by and ninety-eight shot and shell. When three companies,-B, E, and I,-of the the rebels. Ascending this stream west- ward about four miles it branches west-

it is remembered that these were of vary -. Seventh Connecticut took the lead, and ing calibre, from twenty-four pomrlers subsequently labored in the erection of ward again into " North and South Pass upward, it cannot be doubted, (though I the batteries just named, and in the Manchac." The piece of land (?) (swamp) between these passes, abont ten miles ¡long, and two miles wide, being called the batteries manmed by the Seventh Tybee. The Forty-eighth New York, a ".Jones' Island." At the upper end of Connecticut, ontbalanced that of all the portion of the New York Volunteer En- ! the island the two passes unite and take other batteries combined. As to aceu- gineers, and a part of the Third Rhode! their sonree from Lake Maurepas. Thus raey and effectiveness of fire, there was I-land, also bore an honorable share in- you see they are the connecting links be- no room for dispute. The battery man- this part of the labor of the investment. ned by Company II, Third Rhode Island These two batteries were manned by

have not the means of an exact estimate.) dragging of ordnauee to them, under diffi- · that the weight of the metal thrown from culties not less than were encountered on

tween Maurepas and Ponchartrain. They carry a depth of water sufficient. for large

Volunteers, mounting four James Rifles, members of the Third Rhode Island, and schooners, and are each of them nearly a held the unquestioned superiority. mile wide.

It fired in all thirty-nine shots at the steam- was this battery which breached the Fort. ers of the enemy, which were passing be- After the surrender of the Fort, the tweeu the Fort and the city.

Near the entranceinto Lake Maurepas, across the passes and island runs " The General commanding assigned to the Under these circumstances it may be New Orleans, Jackson and Great North- Seventh Connectient the duty of garri- left to any candid mind whether it does! ern Railroad," so much traveled former- soning the captured strongholdl. By this not indicate a degree of hardlihood that ly by southerners going north, built assignment he recognized the eminent would be invaluable, if exhibited on the mostly on crib work through cypress services in the work of the investment field of battle, to arrogate the honor of swamps, until it reaches the Piney Woods, above Ponchotula, about nine miles above North Pass. It was by and bombardment. He bore yet more ' the capture of Fort Pulaski to the corps emphatie testimony to the services, by which was never ou Tybee till months sending the flag of the captured Fortress after the surrendering of the Fort, which means of this great outlet that Lovell to the Governor of Connecticut, to be was never for a moment under fire of and bis " Louisiana Definders " skedad- preserved by the State as a trophy of the the Fort. which never manned a battery,

died from New Orleans, upon the ap- proach of " The Admiral " last year, not or fired a piece at the Fort, and which valor and toil of her sons. It is true that during the two days has uever yet had a man killed or wound- that they were exposed to " Pulaski's ed in collision with the enemy. I am informed that the Forty-eighth iron hail," no member of the Seventh Councetient lost his life. The only man New York has the name " Fort Pulaski " killed in the trenches was a member of inscribed on its regimental colors. forgetting in their " intense excitement," to carry off all the gold and silver, pub- lie and private, they could get hold of. But railroads here, as well as elsewhere, If have their ups and downs, and the stock company H, Third Rhode Island. Yet this be so I should be curious to know of this road, which was worth a hand- the victory was by no means cheaply on what occasion, and upon the strength some premium two years ago, to-day is won on the part of the Seventh Conce- of what evidence, Congress authorized; worthless. Out of some two hundred tient. During several months snecced- the inscription.

miles traveled then, but twenty-three ing the action, a number of men died. I take the liberty to submit these facts miles are now in running order, from from disease indneed by the toil and ex- to you, believing that a knowledge of Jackson to Canton, where Johnson is posure of the nightly labors in those them is due to the people of Connectient, making his headquarters. This has been trenebes and malarions swamps. Indeed, and especially to the surviving friends of caused by the different expeditions we so late as last winter, one of our men those of her sons who had died of disshave sent out at different times and from died of disease of the heart, dating back case contracted in the trenches before different places, including " The Gries- to a strain received while lifting and tug-, Pulaski. I believe also that the scriptural son raid ;" but now we are reparing, and

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

1943.]

trains run daily from New Orleans to Man- chac, where they are rebuilding the bridges across the North and South Pass, which were completely destroyed last year by Ma- jor (now Brigadier-General) Strong.

These passes connecting with the Lakes. and by rail with New Orleans, were consid- ered by the rebels one of the important points through which we might attack the city, (they never dreaming of our passing forts Jackson and Phillip,) prior to our occu- pation. They therefore erected at the pass- es, three breastworks, mounting six long thirty-two pounders ; but about three months after our arrival in the city, the New Lon- don came up to the pass and shelled them all three out, and-a small land force entering captured or drove out the rebels and destroy- cd the guns. Now, however, it is looked upon again as one of " the defenses of New Orleans," and a large and strong star fort has been erected out of the old rebel em- bankments, (which had to be brought from Ponchotoula, there being no dry ground here.)

This fort is well mounted and equip- ped. llere it is that a portion of the 9th Connecticut, and of the 21st Indiana, are stationed, under Major Frye of the 9th, commanding the post. The enemy still con- tinually threatening and flattering themselves that they are to reburn the bridges and re- take New Orlerns. Their pickets are fre- quently in sight and occasionally "gobble up" one or two, when the boys carelessly venture out a little too far unprotected.

From its situation one would imagine Manchac to be very healthy, but it is quite the reverse ; chills and swamp fevers are very prevalent, and our men suffer more there from sickness than in any other place, (if we except Vicksburg last year.) Their water is taken to them in barrels from New Orleans, none the cooler or fresher; they are obliged to sleep and camp on the rail- road track, under Palmetto huts and small shelter tent-, under a broiling sun, surround- ed on all sides by swamps abounding in snakes, alligators, and their kind.

The moccasin and rattle snakes arc quite abundant, and apparently old set- tlers, as we killed one with nine rattles, and are quite a protection against a flank movement of the enemy through the eut Volunteers was raised in Fairfieldl conn- swamp ; and the alligators actually stick

and yellow ilies. One knows not how it is, ; of General Wool at Baltimore, and after- but though every soldier has a musquito bar, wards nnder General Siegel in Virginia. still daylight will find as many inside as out;

Without detailing its varied experiences and then innumerable green lizards about in the camp and field, without describing four inches long, harmless but sportive, gam- the sufferings endured beneath the snow- clad shelters at Chantilly and Belle Plain, where miseries were too numerous and bit-

bol and catch flies and musquitoes freely up- on your face or body.

You at the North know nothing of ter to be told without complaint, or the fa- a warm night in a southern swamp.

tigue and hardships borne in long and forced I have heard of the ancients torturing their victims by smearing them with honey mareles in Virginia mud; without, on the other hand, describing the more acceptable and tying them naked where the flies existence in the log huts of our winter could torment them, but if they could have | quarters at Brooks' Station, where absence secured Pass Manchae they could have saved their lioney, it requiring no inducement of that kind to invite the fly and musquito tor- ture. from home and privations from comforts and social pleasures, we strove, as best we could, to endure and make tolerable by chat, and song, and merry laugh, while gathered When the war is over, and the call is for free white labor in Louisiana, echo will use a very common expression and say " We don't see it.". around our blazing fires; without also re- [calling minutely the particulars of our march to wilderness, the peculiar feelings excited by the circumstances of our crossing Since commencing this letter "a change has come over the spirit of our dreams." The enemy have come down in considerable numbers across the river, have captured a pelting rain from above, and the water oozing in the thick darkness of the Rappahannock, and yet again the Rapidan, where, weary and exhausted, we slept soundly in spite of the forth from the drenched soil beneath-it is sufficient to begin the historic tale of the Seventeenth with tho part it performed in the sanguinary battle of Chancellorsville.

number of our sick and wounded at Brashear City, pretty badly cut up the 23d Connecti- cut, who were guarding the Opelousas rail- road, taken a quantity of stores, baggage, e., and pretty considerably damaged the Though as a part of the Eleventh Corps we had to bear our share of the unjust een- sure passed upon it by those who knew nothing of the situation in which it had been placed, still we had the glory of being Teche country. Lieut. Col. Fitz Gibbons, with five companies of the 9th Connecticut, and some other troops, have gone across to stay their progress. The enemy are about twenty-five miles from New Orleans, and in the brigade that received the just praise about fifteen miles across from Manchac. of stauding the longest, even as long as du- Gen. Emory commanding defenses of New Orleans is prepared to receive them. The work has stopped on the bridges. the rail- road men and contrabands drawn into the

ty demanded. It is true as it is noteworthy that the Seventeenth Connecticut, for the first time brought under fire, did not retreat until ordered to, and then in good order, city, and the "dogs of war" loosened at though under circumstances the most trying Manchac.

in my next.

even to the veteran soldiers. In this en- I will not be able to give you any further gagement it lost heavily. Its Colonel, who this mail, but will try to give you particulars | stood the bravest of the brave, and was con- spienous as being the ouly mounted officer Yours, MANCHAC. visible, even after the brigade in advance of it had retreated by it in confusion, was se- verely wounded in the arm. Its Lieutenant Colonel was killed instantly at the first tre- For the Connecticut War Record. Seventeenth Regiment. mendous advance of the enemy, just as an MIDDLETOWN, MD., ¿ Friday, July 17, 1808. The Seventeenth Regiment of Connecti- 1 earnest exhortation to stand had escaped from his lips. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Walter was a noble man, to whose character and worth no praise could be too great and no encomium too laudatory. In line officers and men it lost heavily in wounded and missing. The Seventeenth fully proved on that eventful day, and by the conduct some

ty and mustered into the service of the their noses into the tents, in hopes of United States in the summer of 3862, hav- stealing a biscuit or a piece of pork. ing for its fieldl officers, Colonel William H. And then all night long the soldier is

Noble and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Wal- | displayed in another corps on the following Inilel to sleep by the most infernal croaking Iter of Bridgeport, and Major A. G. Brady of day, of what stuff it was made, and what it Stamford. could accomplish when placed in a position of tree toads, and kept to sleep by the buz- zing and biting of myriads of musquitoes!

It was first placed under the command | where an opportunity was given it to fight.

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

[ SEPTEMBER,

At that time, to have stood was to be butch- tions of duty. Captain William HI. Hubbell, said he, ' that the Tigers of Louisiana were ered or taken prisoner; to retreat a duty, of Bridgeport, a young man of promise and , repulsed. You punished us severely." At and this they did in obedience to orders. | ability, the former efficient adjutant, and at ; that place fell Metealf, and there the much But more pleasant is it to revert to later ex- the time acting as an aid to General Bar- beloved, the pure minded and fervent Chris- periences and to speak of the glorious part low, having been previously detailed as Aet- tian, Alvah Wilcox, received the wounds performed by some of Connecticut's sons in, ing Assistant Inspector General of the Divis-

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The Connecticut war record, 1863-1865, Part 10

Author: Morris, John M., ed Publication date: 1863 Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck Number of Pages: 886

Author: Morris, John M., ed
Publication date: 1863
Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck
Number of Pages: 886