USA > Connecticut > The "Twenty-seventh." A regimental history > Part 2
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With particular interest we gazed upon a regiment of the corps, as, tired, dusty, and powder.smeared, it re- joined us after a protracted effort at the bridge. His- tory records but few parallels to the more than hervie valor which crowned that day's work. A trusty weapon supports the soldier's courage, but to stand, unarmed,
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the target of unerring sharp-shooters, unable to respond to their attacks, and in view of almost inevitable death, is the highest test of courage. It became evident that the bridge could be completed only by driving the sharp- shooters from the houses on the opposite side, by a sud- den dash across the river. This hazardous duty was intrusted to the Seventh Michigan and detachments from several other regiments, and nobly was it performed. The rebels were driven from their hiding-places, the bridge touched the opposite shore, and the first act in this fearful drama closed. This success was received with universal joy, and all attention now concentrated in what the future should unfold. General Howard's divis- ion of the Second Corps crossed over into the city, while Hancock's and French's bivouacked for the night in a strip of woods near the Phillips House.
Early the next morning, December twelfth, we crossed into Fredericksburg, over the bridge which had cost so much blood and labor the preceding day. Evidences of the bombardment everywhere presented themselves, in the houses perforated with shot and shell, and in the mis- cellaneous rubbish which hindered our progress through the street. Mattresses, pitchers, chairs, kitchen utensils, and other furniture, scattered about in grotesque confu- sion, testified that those who had passed the night in the town had availed themselves of all the comforts within reach. We moved down Water street, and halted at the first pontoon bridge, a few rods below the railroad, where we encamped that day and night. The Twenty- seventh spent the day in bridging gullies and mud-holes with boards and planks from neighboring fences, so that the artillery could pass. Company B was detailed to lay pontoons across a stream uniting with the Rappahannock
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just below the town. About the middle of the after- noon the rebel batteries attempted to annoy the men engaged in these preparations, and for a time a very brisk artillery duel was maintained between the oppos- ing forces. Sheltered as we were by the steep bank, the rebels could not obtain accurate range, and most of the shells shrieked harmlessly over our heads, and fell into the river or struck on the opposite side.
At length the eventful thirteenth arrived-a day full of scenes and experiences which will never fade from the memory of those who participated in them. Immedi- ately after breakfast we were marched up to Caroline street, the principal street of the town, parallel with the river. Here the division was formed in line of battle, and stacked arms, while arrangements were being com- pleted to storm the heights back of the city. Staff offi- cers were riding in hot haste to and fro, carrying orders, or disposing the forces, and occasionally our division general, Hancock, rode slowly and proudly up and down the line, surveying the ranks, his countenance wearing an aspect of quiet and cool determination. At length the sound of cannonading comes to our ears from below, indicating that General Franklin has entered upon the 'task assigned him, of seizing the railroad and turning the enemy's flank. Like banks of keys in a great organ, the rebel works rise behind the town, and gradually the chorus of notes bursts forth directly in front of us. The rebel shell crash among the houses or strike in the street, while the batteries of the Second Corps, on the north bank of the Rappahannock, send their shrieking replies over the city. "Attention !" rings out loud and long above the din. Every man is in his place, his musket at a shoulder. "Right face !" "Right shoulder shift arms !"
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follow in quick succession. At this moment General Hancock rides up to the Twenty-seventh, and leaning forward in his saddle, with his right arm upraised, briefly addresses them : "You are the only Connecticut regi- ment in my division. Bring no dishonor upon the State you represent." The order is given, "Forward ! March !" reechoed by commanders of brigades, regiments, and companies, and we move in quick time down the street to the railroad.
While the column is moving on, let us briefly survey the position of the battle-field. Fredericksburg is situ- ated in a large amphitheatre, admirably adapted for defence. Directly in the rear of the town is a smooth field with a slightly ascending grade, extending back a little less than half a mile to the telegraph road, which is flanked bya stone wall, beyond which rises a ridge some- what abruptly from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet high. This range of high ground extends as far as Hazel Run, a little stream emptying into the Rappahan- nock just below the lower edge of the town, and in the other direction bends toward the river, which it very nearly touches just above Falmouth, about a mile above Fredericksburg. Rebel batteries were strongly posted along this eminence, so that a front and enfilading fire could be secured upon any force advancing across the level plateau. General Longstreet was in command of these lines of fortifications, while Stonewall Jackson commanded the rebel right, opposite General Franklin, the whole under the supreme direction of General Lee. Bearing in mind that the task before us was to capture these formidable heights, let us return to the storming column.
Sheltered in a measure by the houses, it passes down
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Caroline street with little interruption; but as soon as we arrived at the railroad depot, several rebel guus, trained upon the spot with fatal accuracy, welcome us to the encounter. Very near this point fell Captain Schweizer, the first of the long list of casualties which at nightfall told how fearfully the conflict had decimated the ranks of the Twenty-seventh. Several were knocked down, one of whom, leaping up, exclaimed earnestly, "I'll have pay for that!" then springing to his place, rushed on to death, for no one ever saw or heard of him afterward. The division now advanced at a double- quick into the open field ; then, after resting a few mo- ments on the ground, at the order, "Charge !" moved by the left flank with fixed bayonets, passing French's division, which had been obliged to fall back. A second brief rest, then on again, while shot and shell plow the ground in front, burst over our heads, or make fearful gaps in the line. Yet on we rush. The wounded are left where they fall. Not a word is spoken, not a gun fired. As we approach nearer the rebel lines, all the clements of destruction ingenuity ean devise or position afford, are concentrated upon the narrow space. From rows of rifle-pits, protected by a heavy stone wall, bursts a continuous roll of musketry ; from neighboring houses flashes the deadly fire of sharp-shooters, while batteries posted on the heights behind strong field-works, and sup- ported by infantry, sweep the field with shot and shell and grape and canister. Enfilading batteries on the right and left of the rebel semicircle pour in their swift di-charges, and behind us, the batteries of the Second Corps, on the other side of the river, shell the enemy's works with little effect at the distance of nearly three thousand yards, but with so much danger to the storm-
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH
ing party, that General Couch orders them to cease firing. The line now begins to waver, and, with some disorder, presses forward to a brick house, from which a brisk musketry fire is kept up in the direction of the stone wall. At this time the various regiments became mingled together, and, unfortunately, at the order to deploy into line to renew the charge, the Twenty-seventh, in consequence of the confusion, separated into several fragments, advancing to the right and left of the house. The time for a sudden dash had passed, and unable longer to stem the avalanche of fire, which seemed to gather intensity as we proceeded, the charge was con- tinued only as far as a board fence, all full of bullet holes and torn with shot, less than a hundred yards from the famous stone wall, as estimated by an officer of the regi- ment who afterward visited the spot under flag of truce. With the exception of a partially successful attempt to approach still nearer the rebel rifle-pits, the men remain- ed at this point the rest of the afternoon, loading their guns on the ground, then rising sufficiently to deliver their fire.
The rebel musketry continued with almost uninter- rupted violence until night overshadowed the scene, never entirely ceasing in our front. At times it surged off to another part of the line, with only a scattering fire opposite our position ; then rolled back again with re- doubled power, the peculiar rattling of separate dis- charges being fused into one prolonged sound. Lines of rebel troops could be seen marching along the ridge. and running down to aid their comrades in the rifle-pits below. But for a weary two hours no reenforcement : 1. vanced to the support of the Union forces. At one tina appearances seemed to indicate that the rebels were
生化
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about to charge upon our feeble line, but a few well- directed volleys admonished them to remain behind their stone walls.
The Union artillery had thus far accomplished com- paratively little, owing to its distance from the rebel works, and to the absence of all favorable positions where guns could be posted, on the Fredericksburg side of the river. Late in the afternoon, however, sev- eral guns took position in the upper streets of the city. The battle-field shook with their combined discharge. Meanwhile Hancock's division had been mostly with- drawn, to give place to the other division of the Second Corps. But many of the Twenty-seventh and other regiments remained at their posts, their safety being still more endangered if they attempted to leave the field.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Howard's division advanced to the attack, to be hurled back before the overwhelming fire of the rebels. Only a brief time is now left before darkness will cover the scene. A final, desperate effort must be made to take the heights. Sup- ported by the batteries in the streets, a fresh division advances into the field. How splendidly they charge! with what a perfect line! We can look into the faces of the men as they come on. Nothing apparently can withstand their onset. They come steadily to within a few paces of where we lie. Then bursts forth from the rebel works an iron tempest which had scarcely a paral- lel even on that day. Showers of bullets went whist- ling by or struck the ground in every direction, while pieces of shell, bits of old iron, grape and canister, rained down with a dull sound as they hit the carth. Arrested in its course, the line wavers, fires a few vol-
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leys, then scatters like chaff. It was now about dusk, and many of the Twenty-seventh who had remained on the field after the withdrawal of our division, retired into the city. At the edge of the plateau, where a bat- tery was stationed, mounted officers were endeavoring to rally into some sort of order the shattered remnants of the division, whose magnificent charge we have just described.
The aspect of Fredericksburg that night cannot be adequately described. Lines of troops were under arms in the streets, ready to meet the enemy should they at- tempt to follow up their advantage and drive the army across the river. Crowds of soldiers, all excited by the events of the day, moved rapidly along the sidewalks. Processions of stretcher bearers tenderly conveyed their mangled freight to the hospitals. The eloquent red flag waved from almost every house, suggesting that the surgeons were diligently at work, while the glare of candles from the windows added to the wildness of the scene without.
The next day was the Sabbath, bright and clear over- head, but inexpressibly sad to us; for one third of the three hundred and seventy-five who followed the colors of the Twenty-seventh into battle, lay dead on the field, or wounded in the hospital. That forenoon was spent in cleaning our guns, in anticipation of further fighting. The Connecticut Brigade, under General Harland, was drawn up in line of battle on the main street, under orders to be ready at any moment to charge up the heights. As will subsequently appear; they were spared this perilous duty. Occasionally a resident of the town came timidly forth from his hiding-place, or a family. loaded down with bundles of household effects, slowly
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wended their way across the pontoon bridge, to escape the terrors surrounding them. A disagreeable uncer- tainty hung over every moment of the day, and when we awoke on the morning of the fifteenth, nothing had transpired to diminish our suspense. It was plain that something must be done, and that very soon. Delay only added to the difficulties of the situation. The army minst fight, or evacuate the city. Every few minutes during the day we were ordered to fall in. The ex- pretation was universal that we were again to be led to the attack. Hour after hour processions of ambulances moved across the pontoon bridge, and up the opposite bank, so that by evening the town was nearly empty of the wounded. General Burnside rode by and re- ceived a hearty welcome. Evidently a movement of some kind was soon to be made. A short time after dark the division was ordered under arms, and all, ex- cept the Twenty-seventh Connecticut, marched down Water street toward the railway bridge. Our little band stood waiting thus during the evening, in mo- mentary expectation of being led out to support the pickets. At length orders were received to advance a few hundred yards below the railroad. As we arrived, the rest of the brigade silently arose from the ground where they had been sleeping, and like spectres vanished in the darkness. Here we remained until near midnight, obtaining what sleep was possible, then noiselessly fell in, and without a word spoken above a whisper, retired rapidly down the street to the pontoon bridge. The streets were as silent as death. A few soldiers were preparing to loosen the moorings which held the pon- toons to the banks. After a brief halt, the Twenty- seventh, carrying a few boxes of ammunition, re-crossed
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTII
the river by the same bridge on which they had entered the city four days before. On the road to Falmouth we met General Hancock, who asked, " What regiment is this?" and being informed, the Twenty-seventh Con- necticut, expressed his great satisfaction with the con- duct of the regiment in the events of the last few days. After losing our way in the darkness, and experiencing a heavy rain-storm, we arrived at our old camp ground on the morning of the sixteenth.
All unconscious of the night's events, the rebels threw a few shells into the town, and meeting no response, crept cautiously down from their fortifications, expecting to find our forces concealed under the banks of the river. But no pickets challenged their advance: the Union army had slipped from their grasp, the pontoons were up, and thus was accomplished one of the most skilful movements recorded in military luistory.
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CHAPTER IV.
CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH.
THE failure at Fredericksburg, considered in itself, and especially in connection with its causes, was well calculated to produce much discouragement throughout the entire army. On the eleventh of December the troops streamed forth from their camps, confident iu their ability to drive the foc froin Marye's Heights, and hurl him back to Richmond. On the sixteenth they re- turned, baffled and dispirited, having lost twelve thon- sand men in fruitless efforts to overcome the natural and artificial advantages of the rebel position. The fearful scenes of a battle may well impress the veteran of many conflicts; but when, for the first time, a regiment meets the enemy with every advantage in favor of the latter, and when the list of killed and wounded swells to un- usual proportions, and nothing is accomplished by this . expense of life and energy, it is no sign of weakness that despondency and gloom for a time prevail. Such a feel- ing, resulting from failure in the campaign, and from the loss of a large number of our most esteemed officers and u. n. pervaded the Twenty-seventh in commen with the rest of the army. The loss of such men as Captains Schweizer and Taylor, Sergeants Barrett and Fowler, 2
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH
Corporals Mimmac and Alling, and many others, men of high character, who went to the field purely from a sense of duty -- such men in their death could not fail to leave behind, among their fellow soldiers, a universal sorrow, reaching to the very depths of the heart. The memory of those who fell on the thirteenth of December, and many of whom lie in unknown graves back of Fred- ericksburg, will never lose its freshness, but rather grow in strength as the history of future years adds significance to the conflicts of the present.
Fortunately for the success of Burnside's plan of evacuation, his operations were concealed in the dark- ness of a severe storm, which had not terminated when we arrived in our former camp on the morning of the sixteenth. In the afternoon the two hundred and fifty men of the Twenty-seventh who had been picketing along the Rappahannock for the previous six days, re- joined us, many of them much exhausted by their un- usually prolonged duties. Expecting to be absent from the regiment only a day, the ordinary limit of picket duty at one time, the party took with them only one day's rations, and in the confusion attending the move- ment of troops and the battle, rations for the additional time could be procured but irregularly and in insufficient quantities.
According to orders, the camp was now moved to a strip of pine woods skirting the west side of the division parade-ground. But this was not to be our permanent location ; and after manœuvring for several days from one place to another, we at length eneamped in the edge of a forest, only a few rods from where we first pitched our tents, on the line of the Rappahannock. An elevated plain stretched away between us and the river, and above
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a slight depression the clustered spires of Fredericks- burg rose to view, from whose belfreys, on a Sabbath morning, we could sometimes hear the summons to the house of God. A walk of a few rods brought us in full view of the city, sitting in calm quiet among the hills, while long red lines told where the rebel earthworks lay, and little specks of white in the background dis- closed the enemy's camps. Just under the edge of the bluff to our right, and concealed from view, was the village of Falmouth, a mongrel collection of houses ar- ranged along dirty, unpaved streets.
Although intimations were thrown out that the army would now go into winter quarters, yet it was nearly two weeks before our men could dispossess themselves of the idea that some fine morning the old stereotyped order, "Strike tents and pack knapsacks !" would scatter to the winds their plans of personal comfort.
As soon as it was evident that no further movements would be made, the men vigorously applied themselves to the work of building huts, devoting the mornings to this labor, while brigade drill occupied the afternoon. In the hundred and thirty log houses of our little regi- mental village was embraced an amount of comfort wholly inconceivable by those who know nothing of the numerous contrivances a soldier's ingenuity can suggest to supply the place of ordinary conveniences. General- ly, four congenial minds would unite their mechanical resources. A pine forest within reasonable distance, an axe and a shovel, one of Uncle Sam's mule teams, and a moderate degree of ingenuity, constitute the only capi- tal of these camp carpenters. Having secured a favora- bie site, ten by seven, these comrades in bunk sally forth to the neighboring grove, and before their sturdy
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blows the old pines come crashing down, are split into slabs of the required length, and in due time reach their destination in camp. After smoothing the ground, and carefully removing stumps, the logs are hewn out and placed one above another, with the ends dove-tailed to- gether, or set upright side by side in trenches, and soon the huts assume their full proportions-seven feet by ten. Every man now becomes a mason. The surround- ing region is ransacked for stone and brick, with which to construct a fire-place at the front end. While this important work is going on, another is vigorously plying his wooden trowel, in plastering up the fissures with clay, on the principle that nothing is without its use, even Virginia mud. The roof is made of thin shelter- tents, buttoned together. As regards internal arrange- ments, at the further end are two bunks, one above the other ; and as the upholsterer has not performed his part, and very likely never will, the occupants must con- tent themselves with the soft side of pine slabs. On one side of the hut is a rack for the reception of guns and equipments, while at the other a cracker-box cover on stilts does duty as a table. In respect to seats, the in- genuity of different individuals showed itself in rudely constructed benches, or square boards, elevated on three- pronged crotchets, obtained in the woods, or was satis- fied with the trunk of a tree cut into suitable lengths. Over the fire-place a mantle was generally located, con- taining a confused collection of tin plates and cups, knives and forks, and an endless variety of rubbish. In winter quarters it is very desirable to have a liberal sup- ply of culinary furniture. The man whose fire-place is adorned with an iron frying-pan, is an object of envy to all his comrades, and is universally agreed to have reach-
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ed the acme of comfort. However, the halves of old canteens, fitted with handles, answer very well in its place. In many of the huts, telegraph wire might be found doing service in the shape of a gridiron, upon which an occasional steak is broiled. Very likely, in its appropriate place is a coffee-pot, perhaps of the planta- tion style, two feet high, and large in proportion, which some argus-eyed soldier has observed and quietly con- fiscated.
Our huts were now nearly completed, and with no lit- tle satisfaction we surveyed their rough architecture, pork-barrel chimneys, and cracker-box doors, feeling that though the winds might blow, and the rainy season pour down its floods, we were prepared to endure it patiently. When the army has just completed its preparations for a comfortable time, it is safe to prophesy marching or- ders within three days thereafter. So it proved in the present instance. At dress parade, on the sixteenth of January, an order was read for the regiment to be ready to march on the next day with three days' rations. De- tails were dispatched at midnight to the Brigade Commis- sary's, after rations, and in good season on the seventeenth we were ready to start; but no final orders came, and it was bruited about that General J. E. B. Stuart, while roving around Dumfries and Alexandria with his rebel cavalry, in the absence of General Burnside in Washing- ton, had telegraphed an order, as if from him, for the army to be ready to move. This is of a piece with a joke Stuart perpetrated on another occasion, when in the name of a Union General he telegraphed to Washington for certain stores, and is reported to have received them in good order.
On the eighteenth, Generals Burnside and Sumner re-
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viewed our Army Corps. In the afternoon of the twen- tieth, an order was read, announcing that the army was "about to meet the enemy once more. The auspicious moment had arrived to strike a great and mortal blow at the rebellion, and to gain that decisive victory due to the country." The plan was for Hooker and Franklin to cross at Banks's Ford, six miles above Falmouth, and capture Taylor's Hill, the key of the position, from which they could advance in the rear of Fredericks- burg, and turn the enemy's flank. This being done, Sumner with his grand division, to which the Twenty- seventh belonged, was to cross directly in front of the city at the old place, and take the batteries which had baffled our efforts in the battle of December thirteenth. The plan was substantially the same as the previous one, except that the flank movement was to be made upon the rebel left wing instead of his right. The failure of December resulted from the inefficiency of Franklin's flank demonstration, which allowed the enemy to mass his forces in front of Sumner. But now it was proposed to use two corps in the preliminary movement, and, pro- vided they were successful in taking Taylor's Hill, Sum- ner's success would be assured, notwithstanding the reb- els had been engaged for a month previous in strengthen- ing and extending their works. Hooker and Franklin were in motion on the twentieth, while impetuous Sum- ner waited in his camps to hear the signal which should summon his veteran legions to the conflict. For several days, artillery and pontoons had been passing camp en route for Banks's Ford. If the weather continues favor- able, the morrow will bring to our ears the boom of : hundred and fifty cannon.
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