USA > Connecticut > The story of the Twenty-first Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War. 1861-1865 > Part 21
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Our next task was to scale the steep and high bank, so far above us that we could not reach the base of the walls with outstretched hands as we stood in the ditch below. But somehow we clambered up, holding our breath in expectation of another blast from that terrible hundred-pounder in the embrasure overhead. There was no such explosion, how- ever, and later we found that the gun (with its broad-arrow mark on the breech, showing that it came from a British arsenal) had been dismounted by the last discharge, and one of the trunions had been jammed against the carriage. But for this rebel mishap, all of us at this gateway would have been blown into eternity, and the assault at this point would prob- ably have failed. The officers of the Fifty-eighth Pennsylva-
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nia were among the first to mount the parapet, Captain Clay and Lieutenant Johnston leading, both of whom were severely wounded. Some fifteen or twenty others were killed or wounded in a space not twenty feet square, between the gun- carriage and a huge traverse of sand built for its protection. For a few seconds the shooting was lively on both sides at close quarters, and then, as our column came up from the opposite side where the brave General Burnham was killed, the enemy fled on the run.
Pardon me for recording a personal incident at this stage, in hope that it may perhaps explain to some Confederate officer the way in which he lost a fine new uniform. I had been specially provoked by the coolness of a rebel major, who stood on the traverse overlooking our advance and shot at me thrice as we neared the last ditch, taking a musket each time from a soldier near him. Curiously enough it never occurred to me to use my revolver in return, although it was fully charged, but, in the excitement of the moment, this available weapon was quite forgotten. As I crept into the em- brasure, this officer sprang down the traverse on the opposite side and fled across the parade ground to his quarters in the barracks. Snatching up something from the doorway, he ran behind the log buildings and escaped into the woods beyond. But I secured his dress-coat and overcoat, which remained in my possession for years, and at last, minus the Confederate buttons, were returned to the South in a barrel of supplies for the " Freedmen."
At the further side of the fort we met the column of General Burnham, with a group of officers around the pros- trate General, who was dying from a wound in the bowels. Here also was the brave Captain Jennings of Company E, Twenty-first Connecticut Volunteers, who had been shot through the body as he entered the fort, and who lingered for several weeks of suffering before relieved by death.
It, therefore, appears that the weight of this assault was delivered by the Third Brigade on the front to the enemy's
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left on the Varina road, across which road Fort Harrison was planted. On that side the enemy was first routed and the victory won, as the heavy loss on the counterscarp and para- pet declares. Had the troops of Burnham's Brigade first entered the work, we should have captured the garrison, whereas we took few, if any, prisoners on the 29th of Septem- ber. With no intention to rob the other assaulting column of its glorious share in that victory, we must nevertheless insist that Fort Harrison was not captured by their efforts alone nor was the flag which they bravely carried the first one to be raised upon its walls.
This formidable earthwork with its heavy guns and its log barracks for a garrison of fifteen hundred men, had been con- sidered impregnable by the enemy, and its capture caused the utmost alarm in Richmond. Had a fresh division, or even a fresh brigade, been available to pursue the enemy, there is little doubt that we could have followed them over their " heavy line " of interior defenses into Richmond itself. - But there seems to have been no intention at first on the part of General Grant to hold the position gained. Orders came at first to remove the fifteen captured cannon. But later in the day, when General Grant himself visited Fort Harrison, he says of his change of plan : " The position captured from the enemy was so threatening to Richmond that I determined to hold it. The enemy made several desperate attempts to dislodge us, for which he paid dearly." In General Horace Porter's volume, entitled " Campaigning with Grant," the writer thus describes the occurrences of that morning :
"Ord moved directly against Fort Harrison, a strong earth- work occupying a commanding position, carried it by assault, captured fifteen guns, and secured possession of an entire line of entrenchments. Everything promised further success, when Ord was so severely wounded in the leg that he had to leave the field, and proper advantage was not taken of the import- ant success which had been gained."
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As soon as we could reform our scattered and decimated forces in Fort Harrison we moved along the rebel entrench- ments toward the river, hoping to clear the whole line to the James. We found, however, that the capture of Fort Gilmer was necessary in order to give access to the river, and the assault on Fort Gilmer by General Birney had failed. Our little force had gone into action that morning with two thousand eight hundred and fifty-five men. Counting the troops actually composing the assaulting column, we had lost one man in every three and forty-four officers from the division. All the general officers of the command were dis- abled or slain, including the commanders of the corps, the division and the three brigades.
At this juncture the entire force was in command of a Lieutenant-Colonel, the gallant Edgar M. Cullen, of the Ninety-sixth New York, now a Supreme Court Judge in Brooklyn. Under his supervision we were about to assault a square redoubt in our front on the plain below Fort Harri- son, when a long line of the enemy arose from behind their entrenchments, and by a quick move forward threatened our left flank and compelled our return to the fortress on the hill. Two rebel gunboats on the James now began a shelling of our position with eight-inch projectiles, about the size of an ordinary water pail. The distance was less than two miles and they had the exact range. At no other time in our campaigning did we have the navy opposed to us, and this experience was far from pleasant. Many casualties re- sulted from these bursting shells before the men learned how to watch for them and to secure shelter.
In the midst of this shelling we were agreeably surprised to see General U. S. Grant riding across from the Newmarket to the Varina road. He dismounted outside the ditch and made his way on foot through the dead and the dying into the fort. Although myself an eye-witness of what then oc- curred, let me quote from the account of his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Horace Porter :
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
"The General-in-chief was greatly gratified at the hand- some manner in which the fort had been carried and the pluck which had been shown by our troops. The fort was an enclosed work and formed a salient upon the enemy's line. There were batteries in its rear, however, which still com- manded it. The ground gave ample evidence of the conflict, and was so torn with shot and shell and covered with killed and wounded, in some places, that the General had to pick his way in, stepping over the dead bodies that lay in his path. He turned his look upward to avoid as much as possible the ghastly sight, and the expression of profound grief impressed upon his features told, as usual, of the effect produced upon him by tho sad spectacle. Upon entering the fort, he climbed up and looked over the parapet on the north side and remained there for some time, viewing the surround- ing work and taking a look at Richmond, while the enemy's batteries continued to shell us. This was the nearest view of the city he had yet obtained, and the church spires could be distinctly seen. He sat down on the ground, tucked his legs under him, and wrote a dispatch to General Birney, dating it 10:35 A. M., stating that General Ord was wounded in capturing Fort Harrison, but that General Heckman had succeeded him, and directing Birney to move his colored troops along the Newmarket road. The enemy's projectiles were flying in our direction, and when the General had reached the middle of the dispatch a shell burst directly over him. Those standing about instinctively ducked their heads, but he paid no attention to the occurrence, and did not pause in his writing or even look up. The handwriting of the dispatch when finished did not bear the slightest evi- dence of the uncomfortable circumstances under which it was indited." .
Those of us who saw this occurrence deemed themselves specially fortunate, as we seldom fought under the eye of our Commander-in-chiet, and on no other occasion saw him under fire. He seemed to be absolutely indifferent to danger, and
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I-Capt. Frank S. Long. 5-Sergt. George W. French, 9-John Bolle -. 13 -Corp. Andrew E. Kinney.
6 7 8 S 2-Sergt. David A. Conant. 6 -Sergt. John K. Potter. 10-Corp. Henry W. Larkham. 14-Corp. Edward P. Conant.
10 12
II
9 3-Sergt. Dyer A. Clark. 7-Ist Lieut. Alvin M. Crane. II-Corp. Horace Harvey. 15-2d Lieut. Charles Fenton.
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4-Corp. Canfield J. Humphrey. 8-Fifer, Danforth O. Lombard. 12-Corp. Harrison Rood. 16-Corp. Madison 1. Cross
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as calm in the midst of a cannonade as if in his head- quarters at City Point. Soon after this incident he rode away to Deep Bottom, from which he could telegraph to General Meade, who was preparing for a move two miles to the west along the Weldon railroad, in case that General Lee attempted to retake Fort Harrison. At 4 P. M. General Grant left the north side of the James and returned to City Point to be near to General Meade on the morrow.
As for us at Fort Harrison, we took advantage of every lull in the cannonade and were busy all night long in fortify- ing the rear of the work against attack from the direction of Richmond, and in digging a sort of horse-shoe line of riffe pits to protect our flanks, for word was received that we should be assailed by the enemy, who boasted that we should be driven out of our hard-earned conquest on the morrow. They were not ready, and nearly one-third of our line of defense was incomplete when the battle opened on September soth, about noon.
General Robert E. Lee was present in person to direct the assault. He had brought with him from the defenses of Petersburg three divisions of his army. The commands of Generals Clingman, Colquitt, Law, G. T. Anderson, and Bratton, under General R. H. Anderson, in charge of Long- street's Corps, comprised the formidable force which made three determined and desperate attempts to retake their former stronghold. In every instance they were handsomely repulsed. It was a new experience for us to stand still behind protecting walls of earth and to receive an attack. Heretofore our lot had always been cast among the assail- ants, whose exposures and losses are so much greater. But now we saw from the distant woods the long lines advancing in brave array, with Confederate colors streaming and arms flashing, while, from the forts opposite and on our right-flank, a brisk fire of shot and shell kept down our curiosity and compelled us to crouch behind the walls of protecting sand.
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
Unfortunately we had no artillery to aid us at long range, but as soon as our musketry could reach the oncoming foe they began to fall rapidly, until as they neared us, our fire was too deadly for the bravest to bear, and at first they began to look behind them, and then to stop and return our fire, and then to fall back slowly, until they broke and ran to cover again in the woods, a half mile distant.
Their second attempt was similar to the first, except that it was aimed a little farther to our left, as if to pass to the side of our improvised defenses, which extended across the former rear of the fortress itself.
As our assailants ran into the range of our musketry, they would appear to stumble and fall, especially the color-bearers ' and the officers. The first thought of the spectator from our lines would be that the men in gray and butternut uniforms were tripping over roots or stones and falling over obstacles. At first the sight seemed humorous and provoked laughter, until the truth dawned on one's mind that these were not stumblers, but wounded men going down to death, and, despite their bravery, that most of them lay as they had fallen, unable to rise again. The boys in blue were cooler and more determined in stopping the second rush than during the first attack, and the enemy's loss was much more serious.
It was nearing sunset, and we could see their officers rush- ing to and fro, and the reserves marching to the front, while a new and severe cannonade of our scanty defenses warned us that the prelude to a third assault had begun. Our officers were now directed to encourage the Union soldiers with the assurance that our position could not be carried by the enemy, and to direct our men to reserve their fire until their foes were close at hand. On they came in the twilight, until greeted with a terrific volley at close range, before which they went down like grass before a scythe. As the smoke of that musketry cleared away, the enemy seemed to have vanished. They were too near us to flee, and the uninjured found safety only in hugging the ground. Nearly two thousand Con-
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federates had been killed or wounded in those three fierce attempts to retake Fort Harrison.
Darkness was now coming on apace, and we were anxious to secure as prisoners those who were lying on their faces before us and waiting for the night to cover their escape. Some of them at intervals would wave a handkerchief in token of surrender, and then would spring to their feet and run into our lines, whence they were passed to the rear. On our right, in easy musket-shot of our position, was a body of rebel sharpshooters who kept watch of the narrow passage leading across the ditch of the fort and constituting its old entrance from the rear. In order to check the surrender, or desertion as it seemed to them, of the prostrate Confederates, they were shot at by their old comrades as soon as they started to give themselves up, and many were thus picked off before reaching the fort.
A small party was now sent out by the flank from our lines in order to scoop in at one sweep these unwounded rebels who were so nearly within reach, and at once about three hundred of them arose and threw down their arms. One of them, a rather pompous major, approached the writer and said, " Who commands this party; I wish to surrender ?" Being informed that I would receive his sword, he exclaimed, " Then I have the honor to surrender to you the remains of General Clingman's Brigade." The whole party of prisoners were gathered behind the log barracks within our newly- entrenched line, and thence were rushed across the passage- way into the fort. Under the friendly darkness, the rest of the Confederates crept away and the bloody battle was over.
While our losses were slight in this conflict of September 30th, the enemy had suffered terribly from our musketry at close range, and Richmond was filled with the wounded. Every available vehicle was used to bring them to hospitals and to private houses in the city. From a servant of General Longstreet, whom the writer met some years ago in Rich- mond, a vivid account was received of the consternation
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
created there by these sanguinary battles of September 29th and 30th. It was expected that we would follow up the advantage on October Ist and that the city would be cap- tured. All available citizens, young and old, sick or well, were drafted into service and sent to the Fort Harrison front. Even government clerks and the city police were thus im- pressed, and all business was for the time suspended. The stores were closed and alarm-bells were rung in the churches.
General Grant, however, had taken advantage of the fight- ing at this point to push out toward the south side railroad on our left beyond Petersburg and had captured two redoubts, a line of rifle pits, and one cannon, together with a hundred prisoners. Thus our left was strongly established within two miles of the railway, which was the chief artery of supply for Lee's army, and the circle had been drawn closer about the beleaguered capital of Jefferson Davis.
These operations which we have described were also an important accessory to Sheridan's movement in the Shenan- doah Valley. When General Grant rode over from Fort Harrison to Deep Bottom on the morning of September 29th, he received the following telegram from President Lincoln : " I hope it will lay no constraint upon you, nor do harm in any way, for me to say, that I am a little afraid lest Lee sends re-enforcements to Early and thus enables him to turn upon Sheridan." To this General Grant at once replied, "Your dispatch just received. I am taking steps to prevent Lee sending re-enforcements to Early, by attacking him here."
A few days later, Sheridan drove Early twenty-six miles capturing eleven guns and many prisoners, while the expected re-enforcements could not be spared from General Lee, be- cause of our operations before Richmond. As it was decided not to move forward any further at present on the Fort Harri- son front, the whole line was securely entrenched and fortified as a standing menace to the rebel capital on the north side of the James. This required the enemy to keep a counter- force under Longstreet constantly in readiness to meet our
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possible attack, and to lengthen by at least two miles their already attenuated line of defense .. That they were quite un- reconciled to our proximity at this point was proved by their attempt to construct a mine across from their nearest out- work, with the object of blowing up Fort Harrison and its defenders. Countermining was resorted to on our part, in the shape of a series of deep wells sufficient to intercept the mine before it reached its goal. For this or for some other reason, the enemy abandoned their subterranean gallery after it was built for many rods from its starting point. It was an object of curious inspection when the rebel works fell into our hands on the morning of April 3, 1865.
It was also from Fort Harrison and along the Varina road, that the force under General Weitzel moved forward to the final capture of Richmond, and thus the task begun at this point on September 29th was finally completed. The same brigade, including the Twenty-first Connecticut, which had scaled the walls of Fort Harrison at our first triumph there, marched from that frowning parapet to plant our colors over Richmond. Thus the menace of that first attack was a truc prophecy of the final victory.
TALKING IT OVER.
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Twenty-first Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM FORT HARRISON TO FREDERICKS- BURG RAID.
(September-December, 1864.)
After the capture of Fort Harrison we remained on the front line or in supporting distance of the same, not far from the front. Our first camp was on the main line of defense, some distance to the right of the fort, which we occupied till the beginning of winter, when we changed our position, taking the camp once occupied by the Forty-first United States Colored Troops. Here we remained in reserve, directly in rear of, and one hundred rods from our former position. This camp we shared with the Fortieth Massachusetts Regiment. Our quarters were very comfortable, and we had no reason to complain of the conveniences enjoyed during the winter. The movements of General Grant had compelled the enemy to lengthen their line of defense till it was now thirty-seven miles in extent, reaching from White Oak Swamp on their left to Hatcher's Run on their right. Eight miles of this line was north of the James.
As we now settled down for our winter quarters we found the most of our energies directed to picket duty. As the winter of 1864-1865 was unusually severe, our work was correspondingly hard. We now felt the effects of our previ-
ISTHICE
....
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IN RIFLE PITS IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG .- SKETCH BY COMRADE HOWARD A. CAMP.
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From Fort Harrison to Fredericksburg Raid.
ous hardships, which, since the first of May, had been unusu- ally trying. Something of our condition may be inferred from the following letter written September 4th :
" I have had my patriotism tried more during the severe labors of the previous season than when in our comfortable quarters at Norfolk or at Newport News. Engaged in active service for four months, during which time, except when on the march, we were in reach of the enemy's artillery, most of the time within reach of his infantry, when to expose your head above the breastworks would call the enemy's fire; much of the time keeping awake nights, occasionally all night; seeing your company reduced by casualties in battle and sickness from fifty-two, the number we had in the ranks at the beginning of the season, to only fifteen present for duty ; with the officers of the regiment played out, till there are but few left, at one time only two line officers present for duty; with no great victory to cheer you only as you patiently hold on to what you get from hard fighting; listen- ing some of the time to conversation among the men, in which the hard times are dwelt upon and magnified-with all these conditions you may find a soldier's life like a furnace that tests his fortitude. I know of many in these conditions whose hearts fail them. And yet, when prosperity comes these same soldiers will forget all their hard times and be filled with hope and enthusiasm. For myself, I would sacri- fice money, health, glory, anything, if at length we may return home with the war ended and peace established in a reunited country."
During this active campaign our work had been much harder than that of the enemy, as we had almost always been the attacking party, while they, protected behind breast- works, could hold their ground. Only once did our regiment see this reversed, when the enemy attempted to recapture Fort Harrison on the day following the victory. But now that we go into winter quarters we find our work easier for us than theirs is for them, as we are better fed, better clothed,
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and have a larger number of men to do picket duty on the same extent of line. Their food, as General Humphrey in- forms us, was principally corn-bread, made of coarse meal. Of meat they had but little. Of coffee, tea and sugar they had none except in hospitals.
Our position on the picket line was on each side of the Newmarket road. Daily one hundred and fifteen men and three lieutenants, under the command of a captain, are sent from our brigade to the front to relieve those who have been on duty, and in turn to be relieved after twenty-four hours' service. These men are divided up into squads of four men and one corporal each-and each of these stationed on their respective posts on the picket line a few rods apart. Some one hundred feet in front of the line on which these posts are stationed is the vidette line, where one of these men in turn is stationed. His duty consists in walking his beat, which connects at each end with those on either side of him, while he keeps a watchful eye upon the enemy in front of him. A well-beaten and connected path was worn by them, extend- ing along the front of the entire line. Some five hundred feet or more in our front was the vidette line of the enemy, who in turn kept an equally watchful eye upon us. Thus were we employed during the entire winter, and regardless of storm or sunshine, heat or cold, darkness or light, this line was faith- fully maintained. Sometimes fires were not allowed. It seemed hard when the officer of the picket, in obedience to orders, required the little fire they had to be extinguished. "The other brigade picket have theirs," they pleaded. But when next day that picket who enjoyed the fires were re- quired to remain on duty an added twenty-four hours as punishment for disobeying orders, our men became better reconciled to the apparent severity of their officer.
There were frequent desertions along the picket line. From our side there was hardly ever one from the men that made up the original regiment. But among the recruits-some- times called bounty-jumpers, who for six hundred or a thou-
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sand dollars would enlist-desertions were more frequent. Fortunately for us we had none of this class. From the enemy desertions were frequent. To encourage these our government printed a proclamation on a small leaflet guaran- teeing free transportation to any part of the Union to all those who would desert from the enemy. The following device, among others, was made use of to place these in the hands of those in the opposing line. The leaflets are securely wrapped around a short stick. Possessed of this, the officer of the picket advances toward the opposing line till he secures their attention. Then he throws it as far as possible toward them. Curiosity leads some one to come out and get it. Then when brought into their line, in the midst of a gathering crowd it is read, when an officer from among them mounts the works and shakes his head. This ends all the efforts of that charac- ter for that time.
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