USA > Connecticut > The story of the Twenty-first Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War. 1861-1865 > Part 11
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Provost duty is a species of light-weight soldiering, more full of mishaps than of peril, more celebrated for recoils than for punishing the enemy. Still, it was an interesting experi- ence and our luck was much envied by the division when we were ordered to Portsmouth in July, 1863. It was during what was perhaps the most brilliant fortnight of the war. The month opened with the battle of Gettysburg, July Ist, 2d and 3d. The " Fourth " had been made once more glorious by the surrender of Vicksburg to Gen- eral Grant, while the Guerrilla Morgan had been beaten on the same day in Kentucky. On the sixth the rebel Johnston was defeated in Mississippi, and on the seventh General Bragg was driven with great loss beyond the Tennessee River. On the eighth occurred the surrender of Port Hudson to General Banks, and once more the Mississippi was open to commerce. On the tenth the Union forces landed at Morris Island and began the siege of Charleston. The same day the capital of Mississippi was occupied by Union troops. On the day following, the rebels were driven out of their earthworks on Morris Island and took refuge in Fort Wagner, while the Federal troops in Tennessee entered Nashville. Lee meanwhile had been cautiously pursued by Meade, until on the thirteenth he recrossed the Potomac, his rear guard, fifteen hundred strong, having been captured.
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At this time the Twenty-first Connecticut was, with the expedition under General Dix, sent out from Fort Monroe to destroy Lee's communications with Richmond. We had a weary march from Yorktown, moving the first day seventeen miles to Big Bethel and the next day the rest of the way to Hampton, the road being lined with overcoats and blankets discarded by the infantry in their hot and toilsome march. We reached Hampton on the thirteenth, just as Lee was crossing the Potomac, and the next morning boarded a transport for Portsmouth, and marched home to Bowers' Hill over a muddy road and under a burning sun. We were glad enough to tumble into our tents, and thus escape a heavy shower of rain, but were no sooner at ease than orders arrived for our immediate return to Portsmouth. The " Draft Riots" had broken ont in New York. General Dix had been ordered thither from our department. General Foster had been put in command at Fortress Monroe, and our regi- ment had been chosen for provost guard at Portsmouth, with our Major as Provost Marshal.
This revolutionary bit of news set the camp aflame in a moment, and while our blisters and sore heels cried out for rest, yet we knew there was no help for it, but to march back the nine miles to Portsmouth without delay. The Major finally compromised, however, by forwarding Lieuten- ant Jennings with seventy fresh men who had kept the camp during our absence. The next morning, therefore, we started gaily back, attired in our best uniforms and inspired by the music of a bass drum which the Major had managed some- how to buy or borrow. We marched into Portsmouth by company front, and were quartered in comfortable barracks in various parts of the town. At first everybody was delighted with the change.
Our various guards were stationed, relieving the One Hundred and Forty- Eighth New York, and we prepared to enjoy life after a new and luxurious fashion. For the first time in our regimental history, we were in
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reach of the best of provisions. Tomatoes were abun- dant, luscious and cheap. New potatoes could be had without trouble. Fresh eggs were delicious and plentiful, at twenty cents a dozen. Milk was ten cents a quart, and splendid bread, fresh daily, made us smile at the memory of the tooth-destroying hard tack, which still lay moulding in our haversacks.
Good-sized watermelons were plenty at thirty cents each, while cantaloupes went begging at five cents apiece. The great luxury of ice water was once more attainable both in hospital and in barracks. Besides this, the climate was de- lightful, the heat being tempered by a cool sea breeze in the afternoon of almost every day. While the men, therefore, at Bowers' Hill were sweltering in their tents with the mercury at 115 degrees, we of the provost guard suffered no incon- venience from heat and were remarkably free from summer maladies.
There was, however, a constant demand for detailed men, to be stationed here and there as orderlies, clerks, and guards throughout the district, and gradually the regiment became much depleted in this way. We also had about four miles of picket line to guard, and although the posts were pleasantly located, with little to do save to examine passes, to intercept the rebel mail hidden in bags of oats, or to count the darkies who came into our lines, yet the men considered it hard to be on duty for two nights out of every three, and Lieutenant- Colonel Burpee, who had now rejoined us from sick leave, was half inclined to make request for another detachment of troops to divide with us the care of the city. The astute Major Crosby, however, dissuaded him, on the ground that worse things . might befall us if we complained and that we might be sent back to Bowers' Hill to work nine hours a day in the trenches. On August Ist Colonel Dutton returned to us, and to everybody's delight resumed command of the regiment. We at once were made to feel his firm, yet im- partial, hand. Dress parades were resumed, and although the
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companies were small, yet a fine impression was made by concealing them on side streets until the drums sounded, and then having them emerge suddenly at once from their shelter and form on the colors along the line of the main street on which the headquarters was located. Occasionally we bor- rowed a band from the Norfolk post, and then the Ports- mouth ladies so far forgot their enmity as to draw near while the " troop beat off." The men were all obliged to wear white gloves at parade and the utmost polish was required upon all arms and equipments. The Colonel endeavored to stimulate a wholesome rivalry between the companies by announcing that there would soon be a competitive inspec- tion with a view to assign each company to its own place in the scale of merit. This inspection was held on the 14th of September and with the following result. The ten companies were found to rank in order as follows : First, Company K ; next came successively Companies C, A, D, I, G, F, E, H, and B. Company K was therefore given the right of the line, Company C the left, and Company A received the colors at the center.
On the seventeenth of this month we had a new and un- pleasant experience in connection with a military execution. The culprit was a member of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, commanded by the redoubtable Colonel "Sam" Spear of subsequent Fenian notoriety. The man's name was John T. Barnett, and he was originally a member of the Third Georgia Regiment, to which state he belonged. When the rebels evacuated Norfolk, Barnett deserted, and after living as a gambler for a time in Norfolk and Portsmouth, he enlisted in the Eleventh Pennsylvania. He again deserted and com- mitted highway robbery, also attempting murder at the same time. He was captured, tried by a court martial and sentenced to be shot. Escaping from jail, he crossed the Blackwater into North Carolina, but was pursued by a squadron of the Eleventh and recaptured. We all remember the return of his captors through the streets of Portsmouth, dragging him by
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a rope behind their horses. He was then defiant, shaking his fist at his captors and declaring that no jail could hold him.
We also remember him on the day when his execution took place; how he was brought in a carriage with three chaplains seeking to prepare him for death; how the three regiments with the artillery and cavalry formed in hollow square as the miserable man was led to the opening on the farther side of the square at the Oak Grove; how with bandaged eyes he was seated upon his own coffin, while a few yards before him stood the platoon of the provost guard, who were to execute the sentence (Their pieces had been loaded by other hands, and two of the twenty muskets con- tained only blank cartridges, so that each soldier might hope that he had not fired the fatal shot.) We also remember how the prisoner's white face was raised to Heaven and his lips moved in prayer as the band played a low, dirge-like requiem in signal for his death; how the officer raised his sword, the quick volley shattered the stillness and the poor wretch fell dead across his coffin pierced with eight bullets, any one of which would have been fatal ; how the column of troops was reformed and marched in gloomy silence past the bleeding form, and with what feelings of relief we hastened back to our barracks in the town.
An episode of a much more cheerful character occurred in connection with the departure of twenty or thirty Southern ladies from Portsmouth and Norfolk to be escorted beyond Suffolk across the lines to their 'male protectors in rebeldom. The packing of trunks by these ladies as superintended by officers of our regiment, who were bidden to watch lest any articles contraband of war were concealed in the luggage. The trunks were therefore first emptied and a bayonet was thrust through the bottom to discover any double layer in which aught might be concealed. Then each article must be laid in singly and all flannels and other fabrics unmade must be torn into breadths so as to become useful only for wearing apparel. Then the trunks were locked and the keys taken
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by the officer, who met the ladies afterwards at the station and handed them their keys after the trunks were on board. Nor was this the final precaution. The ladies departed in high spirits, having, as they plainly hinted, outwitted the Yankees after all. But on leaving the train at Suffolk, they were shown to a private room where a female detective lay in wait for them, who explored their clothing with a faithfulness that revealed an abundance of contraband material skillfully concealed beneath the ample folds of their raiment, so that the final laugh was after all on our side.
What persistent, unrelenting rebels those Portmouth beauties were in the summer of 1863 ! We can only wonder if they were ever reconstructed after we drifted beyond their defiant sight. It seemed that some of them had vowed not even to allow the shadow of "the Stars and Stripes" to fall upon their sacred Southern forms. Hence, they would always cross the street to avoid the passing beneath the folds of our flag. Knowing this peculiarity of their public walk, we contrived a trap to catch them despite their precautions. The entrance to the ferry boat was by a narrow gateway, over which we suspended an ample flag which covered every inch of the passage. Under its protecting shadow every person must walk who crossed over to Norfolk. But the fair rebels, having, as we suppose, held a council of war upon the sub- ject, appeared at the ferry each armed with a huge umbrella, which, as she neared the gate, was raised and carried like a shield above the head to interpose between them and the hated symbol of their conquerors.
With the little girls of eight or ten years, we could some- times make friends, but with their elder sisters or their mothers and aunts, no Yankee could be on speaking terms. They professed to view us with ineffable scorn and we thought their heroics a practical joke. Who does not wonder whether " Missouri Virginia Kelly" is still alive. She used to rage into the provost marshal's office to complain to Major Crosby about Yankee robberies of her father's plantation. And who
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does not recall how the adroit Major used to change the sub- ject by suggesting to Miss Missouri Virginia that she change her name to Massachusetts Vermont ?
We enjoyed about ten weeks of this easy and diversified life at Portsmouth, when a new commander, General Barnes, was all at once assigned to our district, and we had orders on September 30th to move across the river and to exchange places with the One hundred and Forty-eighth New York at Norfolk. This was received with slight objection, being, in fact, somewhat like another chapter of the same story, and our privileges were in some respects enlarged by the transfer. We at first went into barracks as before, but after we had been inspected by General Barnes, he ordered five companies to encamp in tents around Academy Place, where regimental headquarters were established in one of the public buildings of the city. Colonel Dutton and Lieutenant-Colonel Burpee were now detailed as members of a military commission, and Major Crosby, being provost marshal, the regiment was placed in charge of Captain J. F. Brown. We had less of picket duty to perform than at Portsmouth, but more patrol- ling of streets, guarding of warehouses and wharves, besides furnishing a harbor police of men who could manage a boat, and also the charge of the city prison and Custom House.
So many details had been made by the provost marshal of soldiers to work under him that only about one hundred and eighty men remained fit for duty with the regiment, and half of these went on guard regularly by turns every other day. There was a like scarcity of officers, so that the routine was rather laborious. Still, nothing would have vexed us more than to have been then relieved by some other regiment. We wished for no such relief as would cost us our situation.
There lay at this time in the city prison a noted civilian named Wright, under sentence of death for murder. He belonged to one of the first families in Norfolk and was a physician, an intense Southerner, who for some reason was not in the Confederate service, but residing with his wife and
MAJOR-GENERAL, AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.
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three daughters in their own home. The victim of his un- governed Southern "patriotism " was a Massachusetts officer named Sanborn, who had just been commissioned as Lieuten- ant in the new colored regiment, then recruiting at Norfolk. There was much subdued excitement among the rebels at this procedure, of enlisting negro troops, and, as we re- member, it was distinctly threatened by the Confederate government that no captured negro soldier would receive quarter or be recognized as a prisoner of war. The Norfolk rebels were therefore greatly incensed at the sight of Sanborn drilling his black recruits in the public streets. One morning in those days, Dr. Wright started out for his usual walk, but, as he stated on his trial, " prompted by some indefinable im- pulse " he returned to the house and placed in his pocket a loaded pistol. Resuming his walk, he soon encountered the squad of negro troops, marching and countermarching, with the officer standing on the sidewalk directing their move- ments.
As Dr. Wright passed by, he muttered contemptuously at the Lieutenant, "Oh, you coward!" Sanborn turned upon him sharply, asking, "What was that you said?" The doctor repeated his insulting words, at the same time placing his hand beneath the folds of his coat, "which gesture," said the doctor on his trial, "is the universally recognized sign among Southern gentlemen that a man is armed and is about to draw his weapon."
Poor Sanborn, having lacked the training of a Southern gentleman, was not versed in this bloody sign-language, and while in the act of demanding further explanations, was shot dead by the doctor. Not unnaturally the newly enrolled negro recruits, just out of slavery, were thrown into a momen- tary panic, but they rallied in a moment, seized their late master and marched him ignominiously to the provost.
Every facility was granted the homicide for a fair trial before a military commission, and he was allowed for counsel the United States District Attorney, Mr, Chandler, with other
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legal assistance. Of course there was no question of the deliberate murder. The prisoner indeed admitted the act. To most of us, Yankees, it seemed both unprovoked and cowardly. He was sentenced to be hanged on the 16th of October, or about two weeks after we removed to Nor- folk. The utmost pressure was brought to bear at Washing- ton for a pardon or for some commutation of sentence, and the condemned man was reprieved for one week about two hours before the time appointed for his execution. The rebels had repeatedly boasted that he never would be hanged, and all sorts of wild stories prevailed about his rescue and about mysterious measures to effect it. The doctor was a Freemason, and it was said that the Masonic Fraternity had decreed his release. It was said that on this ground Major Crosby had declined to hang a brother Mason, and Captain Shepard was therefore appointed Assistant Provost Marshal for that day in order to conduct the execution.
In connection with these rumors, one of our keenest and most eccentric officers, Lieutenant John Trumbull, visited the Norfolk Lodge, where, as he related, the following dialogue occurred :
" I've come down here this evening," said the Lieutenant, "to learn the truth of your stories about your intention to stop the hanging of Dr. Wright."
" Well, Lieutenant," was the reply, "of course there isn't a word of truth in it; we'd like to prevent it if we could, but we are completely overpowered by your forces."
" That is enough to be said, I'm satisfied," remarked Trum- bull, turning to withdraw. "But don't hurry away so," con- tinued the first speaker, " do stop and let us drink one an- other's health. Pray give us a toast, Lieutenant."
" Very well, let's have no hypocritical politeness about this thing. Here's to a clear field and a fair fight, and may the best man win."
" Hold a moment, I don't know about that toast," replied the Southerner, who was a disabled Confederate officer.
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" What do you call a fair fight; matching my son, for instance, against a nigger ?"
Measuring him slowly with his eye, Trumbull answered, " Well, yes ; I should say just about that."
The liquor remained untasted as Trumbull turned on his heel and withdrew.
The week wore slowly away and every day we heard some fresh story about the intended rescue. Two nights before the reprieve expired, the doctor very nearly made his escape in the disguise of a woman. His wife and daughters had been allowed free access to his room in the prison, where Captain Belden and Lieutenant Cook were on duty as wardens. One of the daughters remained in the cell, having taken his place on the bed with her father's boots on her outstretched feet and her head covered with the bedding, as if overcome with grief at the parting interview. The doctor, disguised in his daughter's clothing, walked out of the corridor between his wife and other daughter, impersonating the mother bowed with grief, and with head enveloped in a shawl. Every soldier on duty at the prison had been touched by the tears and outcries which had been plentiful that evening, and the sentries, with natural delicacy, forbore to intermeddle beyond what duty actually demanded.
Thus, the three, with loud lamentations, passed the guards and reached the street. Liberty was almost reached, when the outer sentinel at the gate detected the feet of a man below the skirts of the middle mourner, and, quickly bringing his musket to bear, halted the party on the very threshold of escape, shouting for the "corporal of the guard," which out- cry for once was not a vain clamor. The doctor was then seized and brought back, merely remarking to his captors, " Desperate measures justify desperate remedies." The guard had previously been offered a thousand dollars in greenbacks and a farm of five hundred acres if he would connive at the escape. On hearing this bit of news, Colonel Burpee ordered the entire regiment under arms, and to remain so for the
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thirty-six hours yet to elapse before the sentence could take effect. A cordon of guards was stretched three times around the prison. The Eighth and Fifteenth Connecticut and the Fourth Rhode Island came over from Getty's division and were posted at the Fair Grounds, just outside the city, where the gallows were erected. The One Hundred and Eighteenth New York came in from their camp beyond the Fair Grounds and bivouacked in the City Hall yard directly opposite the jail. The provost guard and our patrols kept the city under continual surveillance, and it was said to be " impossible for a rebel to wink " without attracting notice.
All these and the later precautions were deemed necessary by General Barnes, who had trusty information of a plan for a dash into Norfolk by rebel cavalry, in cooperation with a rising of the secession element within the city, to effect a rescue. Up to the night of his attempted escape, the doomed man clung to the hope of a second reprieve, for which his friends were working with desperate energy at Washington. A final dispatch, however, came from President Lincoln, and was handed to one of the daughters, who tremblingly re- quested Captain Belden to open and to read it. It contained these words :
" I cannot interfere."
"A. LINCOLN."
The next morning at nine o'clock the stern procession set out for the scaffold. We all remember the wailing and screams which greeted us from behind the closed window- shutters as we slowly marched through the principal streets. On reaching the scaffold, the prisoner was assisted to mount the platform, where he stood, calmly surveying the soldiers, arranged on three sides of the square about him.
Suddenly, his face lit up with eagerness, as he saw a cloud of dust in the distant road. Many of us at first thought of the rescue for which he evidently hoped. But soon we per- ceived that the dust was raised by a heavy column of infantry,
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and that it was the colored brigade to which the murdered Sanborn belonged.
The clerical friends of the prisoner then repeated a brief prayer, after which they embraced him and withdrew. Cap- tain Shepard next read the sentence of death and took his leave. Dr. Wright now advanced to the edge of the platform, and in a clear, firm voice spoke as follows : "For myself I have very little to say. As to the deed for which I am now about to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, I will say that it was done without malice and without a half hour's pre- meditation."
He then knelt down and repeated the Lord's Prayer, adding a short petition for mercy on his own soul. The fatal noose was then adjusted, the signal was given, and the next instant he was in eternity. His death was evidently painless, his neck being broken by the fall, and after sixteen minutes had elapsed, the body was cut down and given to his friends. The coffin was peculiar. At the head it was raised, as if a
box four inches high were fastened to the top. Around the sides of this upper rim were hung the photographs of his family.
The entire event made a most profound impression on the community, and, at least for a time, completely crushed the disloyal element in the two cities, which up to this day had been quite bold in the display of hatred toward the Union. Much as we sympathized with the sorrows of the doctor's family and with his manly bearing on the scaffold, yet we could not but feel that justice had triumphed and that his pardon would have been a grievous mistake. The rebel papers were boiling with indignation at what they styled
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" another Yankee victory," and the daughters of the un- fortunate doctor were adopted and their support assumed by some of the Southern States-such at least was their purpose.
A few days later a rebel was sent to Fort Norfolk for three months on account of beating a negro soldier, and afterwards the citizens were forced to respect our uniform, even when it covered a soldier with a black skin and woolly hair. The week previous to this, General Barnes had come into collision with the episcopate of Portsmouth-he insisting that one half the Sabbath day the soldiers should attend worship in the rebel church, and that the prayers be read for the President of the United States, as the book prescribes. The wardens, however, refused to have their edifice desecrated in any such way. The General then notified them that he should seize the house and use it as he liked. The wardens, therefore, invited the church members to remove books, cushions, com- munion service, etc., which they accordingly did. General Barnes, therefore, gave notice to the wardens that he should hold them responsible for the immediate return of everything abstracted. So the " Nasty Yankees " were left in full pos- session of the sanctuary. The following order was issued in connection with these events :
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