USA > Connecticut > The story of the Twenty-first Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War. 1861-1865 > Part 12
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HEADQUARTERS NORFOLK AND PORTSMOUTH.
NORFOLK, Va., October 31, 1863.
Circular.
Arrangements having been made for the regular celebration of divine service for the benefit of the officers and inen of this com- mand, with their families (not excluding, however, any citizens who may desire to be present), notice of the same is hereby promul- gated.
The service in Norfolk will be held at St. Paul's every Sunday morning at 10:30 o'clock.
The service in Portsmouth will be held at St. John's Church every Sunday evening at 7 o'clock.
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It is hoped that the officers and men of this command will feel the importance of attending these services.
The men will be marched with side-arms only to the church, and return to their quarters in the same way.
Care will be taken that no injury is done to the building, or property which may be left in the pews by their owners. The regiments will be held to a strict responsibility in this respect.
By command of
BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES BARNES.
GEORGE H. JOHNSTON,
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.
Lieutenant Walter Long of our regiment officiated as organist, and some of the officers with their wives made up a good New England choir. In various directions, therefore, the period of our stay was marked by a tightening grip of authority over the rebellious town.
On October 20th, Colonel Dutton was sent by General Foster on a secret reconnoissance to Wilmington. His orders were to ascertain the strength and character of the enemy's defenses, the depth of water on the beach, and the best place for landing troops, with the best location in which to establish batteries for breaching Fort Caswell, etc.
The next day an expedition was started out on a half hour's notice to rout some guerillas. Eighty of our men, under Captain Frank Long, with Lieutenants Edwards, Dut- ton, Crane, Trumbull and Buell, departed on a steam tug for a voyage of eight miles up to the canal to the guerilla haunts. Much fun and little glory resulted from this scout.
From the tri-monthly return issued during the same week, it appears that we had at this time two hundred and sixty- one absentees "accounted for by name," and besides this, eighty more who were on " special duty," so that fully half the regiment was at this time scattered under other com- manders than their own.
In November, General B. F. Butler arrived at Fortress Monroe, relieving General Foster, who was wanted in Ten-
.
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
nessee. We did not fancy this change, inasmuch as General Foster was the warm friend and patron of Colonel Dutton, both of them belonging to the Engineer Corps of the regular army. As if to celebrate this transfer, on the night of No- vember 6th a fire broke out in one of the Norfolk warehouses, wherein was stored a great quantity of sutlers' goods. The Twenty-first was ordered to assist in saving the property, and proceeded to do so, by replenishing their own stock of luxu- ries and necessaries. A large quantity of sutler's material was "saved" in this way to the great satisfaction of the volun- teer fire department. As Jim Buddington expressed himself on the next morning, " It was enough to make a man get right up and purr." Soldiers who had submitted to the sutler's extortion had not much sympathy for his losses.
On the 17th of November, Colonel Dutton, who had re- turned from his Wilmington explorations, made a little party in honor of his twenty-fifth birthday. Mrs. Dutton and her mother, Mrs. Sands, together with Miss Alida Carroll, Captain Farquhar, the Colonel's classmate at West Point, and several of our officers visited Admiral Lee on board the " Minnesota" and also inspected the iron clad "Roanoke." Our beloved Colonel was in high spirits throughout the excursion, and not one of us thought of this birthday as being the last which he would ever spend on earth.
We celebrated the day before Thanksgiving by a raid into Princess Ann County after more guerillas. Starting at mid- night, we marched eight miles in the mud and darkness, there being, in addition to the clouds, a total eclipse of the moon. Reaching the proposed rendezvous at five in the morning, we found (instead of forty rebels encamped on an island) only four men pretending to be citizens resident there. However, we brought them away with us on suspicion that one was a major and the other a lieutenant in the Confederate army. The night march no doubt did us good, but it took several days to restore the arms and equipments to their previous lustre. On our return, some of the men received Thanks-
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Provost Life in Virginia.
giving boxes from home, which caused great rejoicing and lengthened the sick list for the next week.
December now came in with decided cold and frost, yet we were all of us comfortably housed, and we were beginning to consider ourselves entitled to all the " soft things " of this earth. Our Assistant-Surgeon even prepared to wed one of the Norfolk beauties, the lovely Eleonore Harrison. The war was going well for the Union everywhere. Chattanooga and Chickamauga had just been won; Bragg's army had been destroyed. Meade had now crossed the Rapidan, inflicting heavy losses upon Lee. Longstreet had abandoned the siege of Knoxville; Congress had ordered a gold medal to be struck in honor of Grant for his decisive victories in the West and South ; President Lincoln had summed up the whole by his Proclamation of Amnesty, in case the defeated rebels would lay down their arms.
We fondly imagined that the rebellion might collapse before the new year, and already began to speculate whether we had met the demands of honor by serving twenty months with a loss in action of one man killed and a dozen wounded. At all events, we seemed likely to remain in Norfolk until the end of the war, for General Barnes had publicly affirmed that he would use all his influence to retain the Twenty-first Con- necticut at their present post as long as he remained in command.
Suddenly, however, on the day after the Amnesty Procla- mation, our marching orders came. We were relieved by the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts and ordered to Newport News, while General Barnes was replaced by General Wilds. Reluctant as we were to make this change, it was in every way best for us, and was needed to restore our martial tone and discipline. We had scarcely been practised in battalion drill for six months, the companies were much broken up and half the officers were on detached service. While as soldiers the men had gained in a species of smart- ness and style, yet we were fast losing that unity and harmony
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
which gives precision to a regiment and makes it formidable in the field. We fell in with regiments in our after service which had been made slack thoroughly and spoiled by like indulgence. We needed to live in tents once more ; to hear again the bugle calls and to resume the routine of camp ; to constitute one military household of ten companies side by side, and to recover the intimacies and the mutual dependence which this contact engenders.
Said Colonel Dutton to his officers: "Gentlemen, this order is good for us. Let us at all events pretend that we like it." A remark that deserves to be laid to heart by every soldier of the Republic.
So we passed out of provost duty, and though once after- . ward we narrowly missed being stationed in Portsmouth again, yet it proved to be only a halt on our way to the bloody fields before Richmond and Petersburg. In our weary marchings and desperate struggles with the enemy during the campaign of '64 and '65, how many times we longed for the flesh-pots and shade trees and safety of our six months' stay by the River Elizabeth ! How bewitching seemed those dreamy hours by the sea and in the half-deserted streets, where guard mounting and dress parade were the two great events of the day ; where even the officer-of-the-guard was furnished with a Quartermaster's horse on which to make his rounds, and where the officer-of-the-day could go to the theatre " for nothing." if it seemed necessary there to oversee the audience! How often, as we lay in those hot rifle pits before Petersburg, did we sigh as we recalled the awnings and easy chairs, the white linen suits and straw hats that were the off-duty indulgence of the summer of '63 ! And when we crept dodgingly up the zigzag called a " covered way" to the front line, amid whizzing bullets and bouncing Whitworth bolts, how many times did we long for those sauntering walks to the Marine Hospital on the bay or across to the fig groves by the fair grounds on the roadstead !
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Provost Life in Virginia.
If perchance we might once more again go South for pleasure, is there a place we would sooner frequent than Old Point Comfort and the two cities just above Hampton Roads ? Fortunate were we, once to dispense the military hospitalities of that charming retreat.
The following tribute to Connecticut soldiers was printed in the Old Dominion, a weekly paper, published at Ports- mouth, Virginia. It is no more than fair to add that, at the time, the paper was not precisely under Virginian manage- ment :
" The gallant little State of Connecticut is well represented in this vicinity among the soldiery. There are now no less than five regiments from that state hereabouts-the Eighth, Eleventh, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-first. Each of these regiments has seen active service, having been in several very severely contested engagements. Some, if not all of them, were in the memorable conflict on the banks of the Rappahannock, near Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, and there bravely upheld the fair fame of the 'land of steady habits.' And these brave men, as brave men ever do, know how to conduct themselves in the busy city and on guard duty, as well as on the field of strife. This has been ex- emplified in the orderly conduct which has uniformly charac- terized the members in our midst. We have not heard of a single case of rowdyism, or wanton interference with private rights, since they have been stationed in our vicinity, but everywhere we hear encomiums of praise bestowed upon them for the rectitude of their conduct and the excellent morals which they exhibit.
" If these men be a fair index of the people of their state, then surely does Connecticut richly deserve her honorable sobriquet as the 'land of steady habits.' It has been our good fortune to be blest, since the occupation of our 'twin cities' by the Union forces, with the presence of some noble specimens of American manhood, but none have surpassed the sons of Connecticut, who now form so large a proportion
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of the national forces in our midst. We wish you, soldiers of your country, long life and prosperity when your country shall be reunited and happy, hoping that you will receive, as we know you will, not only the grateful thanks of your countrymen, but the plaudits of your own consciences, for the efforts and sacrifices you are now making in behalf of Union and Liberty."
ABANDONED.
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By Land and Sea.
CHAPTER XII.
BY LAND AND SEA.
(December, 1863-February, 1864.)
After nearly three months of provost duty in Norfolk Virginia, as related in the preceding chapter, we were, on the 10th of December, relieved by the Twenty-seventh Massa- chusetts Regiment and ordered to Newport News. We went into camp near the same locality, where we were just about one year before. For more than a month after our return here our time was occupied mainly with the usual duties of camp life, together with daily practice in company and bat- talion drills. Newport News at that time was a place com- posed of only a few shanties occupied by negroes and the poorer class of whites, and was used mainly as a reserve camp and drill-ground for the unemployed troops of the Department of the James. Since then it has become a place of great commercial importance, the site of huge build- ings and immense grain elevators, the terminus of an im- portant railway, where millions of capital have been invested in the business now transacted there. During our stay there the wrecks of the ill-fated United States steamers " Cumber- land " and " Congress " were to be seen at low tide, not far from the shore, and the boys often swam out to them, seek- ing relics of the famous old ships, whose crews displayed so much gallantry in their hopeless contest with the rebel ran -- the destructive, the short-lived " Merrimac."
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
On Sunday morning, the 25th of January, 1864, an expe- dition, consisting of the gunboats "Flora Temple," "Smith Briggs," "General Jessup," and the large government steamer "George Washington," under the command of Brigadier- General Graham, accompanied by a force of about thirty of the harbor police of Norfolk, under command of Captain Lee, together with one hundred and fifty of the Twenty-first Connecticut, commanded by Captain Brown, left Old Point Comfort to make a reconnoissance up the James River. Pro- ceeding up the river until within a short distance of Fort Powhattan, the troops were landed at what was called the " Brandon Farm." Two small howitzers were placed in po- sition on the banks of the river. As soon as the forces were landed they made a reconnoissance back into the country some two miles, and succeeded in surprising a rebel signal- station, which was captured with all its apparatus and appur- tenances, among which were messages deploring the change of sentiment in North Carolina, and the possibility of the return of that State into the old Union; also, information of the movement of a large rebel force through Richmond to North Carolina, and letters relating to the removal to the city- of Richmond of a large quantity of grain and provisions then stored at the " Brandon Farm."
Having secured their prisoners and all the valuables that could be removed, the force returned to pay their respects to the stores on the farm, which the rebels intended to trans- port to Richmond for the use of the Confederate army. They found the farm in charge of Surgeon Ritchie, formerly of the United States navy, whom they made a prisoner. They succeeded in destroying bacon, flour, corn, oats, hay and other property, to the amount of from two hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand dollars. This being the estimate made by the rebels, it is not likely it was exaggerated.
The gunboats had not been idle during this time, but had captured a schooner laden with tobacco, also a sloop not
.
منطــ
4
مكطيه
بعدكـ
BRIGADIER-GENERAL GUY V. HENRY.
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By Land and Sea.
loaded. On board the schooner were Jews with a large amount of money in gold and silver, United States notes, and Southern bank funds, together with a large assortment of jewelry. The vessels were taken to Old Point Comfort with cargo and prisoners, where the flotilla arrived Monday even- ing. The following is a list of the booty brought back by the expedition : Twenty-two prisoners, one schooner laden with tobacco, one sloop (light), ten horses, one hundred and fifty-three contrabands, and many other articles of impor- tance.
By some mistake three of the members of the Twenty-first Regiment were left behind on the return of the expedition. Finding themselves alone in the enemy's country, and antici- pating a rather unhealthy reception from the rebels, they took to the woods, where a " council of war " was held, to deter- mine what course to take to get back again to the Union lines. Concealing themselves in the woods until night, they resolved to make an attempt to reach Old Point Comfort. They proceeded down the river about eight miles, where they found an old boat, in which they undertook to cross the river, but the boat sank with them and they were forced to abandon it. They constructed a raft, but that also sank and had to be abandoned. Proceeding further down the river, they luckily found another boat concealed in the bushes, with which, by constant bailing, they finally succeeded in crossing. They then struck across the Peninsula, in the direction of Williamsburg. Traveling only at night and keeping concealed during the daytime, they eluded all pickets and patrols, and after three nights of rapid marching-much of the way through deep swamps and tangled woods, with almost nothing to eat,-they arrived at Yorktown, bringing in with them three refugees from the rebel army. From Yorktown they were furnished transportation to Old Point Comfort, and from thence to the regiment at Newport News, where they entertained their comrades with the story of their sufferings and adventures.
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
Thus ended the expedition, which had proven a great success, and, if we may believe their own reports, was a severe blow to the rebels ; and the results accomplished reflected much honor upon both officers and men composing the expedition.
The month of January was fast nearing its close, and still enacting the somewhat monotonous routine of daily drills, and growing rapidly fat in the enjoyment of our sweet dreams of peace and the more substantial enjoyment of good living, we begun to think that after all it was not so bad a thing to be a soldier. How soon those day dreams vanished and gave place to the sterner realities of war, after events pres- ently showed. Thus in this case "coming events did not cast their shadows before."
To the soldier, who, at the dead of night, is startled from refreshing slumbers and pleasant dreams by the sound of the "long roll," or even at mid-day by the less startling but equally unexpected orders to be ready to march at a moment's notice, the remark may well be considered at least question- able, and the originator had evidently never been a soldier, and knew nothing of " long rolls " or " marching orders."
He had never experienced the indescribable and pleasurable emotions which the beating of the " long roll " at midnight, in the coldest season of the year, tends to awaken in the mind of one who, a moment before, was quietly and composedly sleeping, wrapped in his army blanket. He never had wit- nessed the spasmodic awakening of a regiment thus soundly sleeping, or beheld the laughable and ludicrous expressions upon the countenances of those thus called forth to duty by an event which cast no shadow in its coming.
To the spectator, the scene created by the "long roll" must be decidedly amusing. He sees some starting from their beds with the wildness of a maniac, others, but yet half awake, groping about in the darkness for a missing shoe, or tugging away at a tight-fitting boot, giving expression to all manner of unchristianlike words. Others, taking the matter
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By Land and Sea.
more coolly, joke and laugh at the expense of those more troubled and excited or less fortunate than themselves ; while the majority, being in no very good humor, very affectionately unite in consigning the author of the affair to the warmest portion of his satanic majesty's dominions.
Marching orders in the day time, however, is another and very different affair, and is looked upon more as a humane institution, and consequently there is less excitement and a shade less swearing, though there are those in every regiment who seem to think it a duty to swear fluently and profusely at all times and under all circumstances.
To us, quietly situated at Newport News, Va., in the best camp we had ever had, and many of us in the enjoyment of the society of our wives, those marching orders came unex- pectedly and preceded by no foregoing shadow.
But this was no time for ceremony, for the steamer " S R. Spaulding" was at the dock and we must embark. Orders came at 3 P. M. on February 3d, and at & P. M. we were nearly all on board, and after having provided as well as might be for the feminine portion of the regiment at what by courtesy was called a hotel, " we left them alone in their glory," with the hope that they might on the morrow return to their homes, where, far removed from "war's wild alarms," they might enjoy that rest which is unknown in the life of a soldier, and where marching orders may never come.
During the embarking of the regiment a very sad accident occurred, by which one man lost his life, and which cast a shade of sadness and melancholy over our whole voyage. In passing on board the steamer, Patrick Mulligan of Company E, owing to the imperfect light near the gang-plank, stepped from the dock into the river, and, the tide at the time running very swiftly, he was carried beyond the reach of assistance before help could reach him. A boat was immediately lowered, but the poor man, unable to hold out, threw up his arms, and uttering one wild and piercing shriek, sank down into the cold dark waves and was seen no more. A
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
thorough search was made by the boat for his body, but they returned to the steamer with only his knapsack, from which he had freed himself in his struggles in the water.
At 12 o'clock (midnight) we left the dock and began our voyage to Morehead City. N. C., having a very pleasant voyage until we passed Hatteras, when many of the officers and men began to lose their appetites, which had previously been remarkably good, and soon after many of them might have been seen upon the promenade deck leaning over the side of the ship and throwing themselves away. It happened very well for some of them, however, that their appetites were poor, for it was a bad place for a hungry man in Morehead City, and bad enough for a man that was not hungry.
We arrived here on the morning of the fifth, and dis- embarking immediately, went on duty in the fortifications. Previous to our arrival here the rebels had made an attack upon Newport Barracks, ten miles distant and on the line of the railroad running to Newberne, the barracks at the time being occupied by the Ninth Vermont, and succeeded in routing the Ninth, who, having in all probability an ex- aggerated idea of the enemy, made but a feeble stand, set fire to their barracks, the railroad bridge and a large amount of commissary stores, and fell back to the city.
A fort situated near the barracks and commanding the rail- road bridge, with several heavy cannon, one a thirty-two- pounder, was also abandoned by its occupants with but a faint show of resistance, the flag being left flying on the flag- staff and the cannon unspiked. The rebels, on taking pos- session of the fort, spiked the cannon and destroyed the carriages and a large quantity of ammunition, cut down the flag-staff and took the flag.
A part of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth New York regiment and a battery were in charge of the fortifications at the city, Colonel Jordeau, of the One Hundred and Fifty- eighth being in command of the sub-district.
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By Land and Sca.
On the afternoon of the day we landed, the Twenty-first, the Ninth Vermont, a part of the One Hundred and Fifty- eighth and one section of a battery, with a small force of cavalry, led by Colonel Arthur H. Dutton, of the Twenty- first, started for Newport Barracks, intending to go there or fight for it.
We arrived there about nine o'clock in the evening, having met with no opposition and seeing no enemy. We found the railroad damaged but little, one bridge only having been burned by them and one by the Ninth Vermont. The bar- racks were one mass of smoking ruins. A train of cars was also run up to the barracks the same evening. We encamped for the night near the ruins, and Colonel Dutton returned to the city on the cars, leaving the command to Colonel Ripley of the Ninth Vermont. In the morning we went on picket, where we remained until about two o'clock the next morning, February 7th, when we received orders from Colo- nel Ripley to fall back to the city, as the enemy had been discovered in our front in large force, and it was feared that they would outflank us and cut off our communication with the city. Accordingly we fell back a distance of five miles to a place honored with the name of Carolina City (though the city is one of the things yet to be), where, at the urgent request of Lieutenant-Colonel Burpee, commanding the Twenty-first, we made a stand and patiently awaited coming events.
Having remained here until afternoon and hearing and seeing no signs of an enemy, a company of the Twenty-first were ordered to move cautiously up the railroad towards Newport on a voyage of discovery, and to immediately report, by given signals, the state of the country and the practicability of an advance. A telegraph operator also accompanied the forlorn hope. They proceeded cautiously along until they arrived at Newport, when they were sur- prised, but not captured, by Assistant Surgeon Charles Ten- nant, of the Twenty-first Connecticut Volunteers, who, being
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asleep when the forces left to fall back on the city, had, upon awakening and finding himself alone with only an officer's cook left behind in like manner, concluded to remain in pos- session of the place, which he did, until the arrival of the expedition of discovery, when he immediately sent back a dispatch stating that he had held the place twenty-four hours, and thought that he should be able to do so until re-enforce- ments arrived. Upon the receipt of this despatch it was suggested by someone that we make an immediate advance, and no objection being raised, an amendment was offered that we advance by railroad as the quickest way of re-occupying the place. Many of the men being in favor of the amend- ment, having, as they thought, marched over the road as much as was necessary already, it was unanimously adopted and the cars were ordered up.
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