USA > Iowa > A history of the Sixth Iowa infantry > Part 30
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The Fourth, Second, and Third divisions of the 15th Corps moved out in that order, on the 15th, to South River, where they met and engaged the enemy's cavalry. The First Division remained in camp on the north side
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of the river, engaged in organizing and dispatching the refugees by wagon trains and steamers, to Wilmington. It poured down rain nearly all day and continued far into the night, causing the roads to be a perfect sea of mud and water again.
Everything being cleared at the river, the First Divi- sion broke camp at an early hour, on the morning of March 16th, and followed the other divisions of the corps. The marching was greatly impeded by continued rain - during the day, filling all the creeks and swamps to over- flowing.
A serious accident occurred while the column was passing through the pine forest, where the tapped trees in a large resin camp were on fire, causing intense heat and blinding smoke. At the time the Sixth Iowa was passing through it, a huge pine tree, that had burned off at the stump, fell across the road and seriously wounded musicians Madison I. Swift, Company D, and George Gutches, Company F. It killed Major Ennis' old mare, then being led behind the regimental wagon which was also badly wrecked in the collision with the tree. The distance marched during the day was 15 miles. An- nouncement was made to the troops telling of the battle of Averasborough, fought by the 20th Corps.
On March 17th, the division crossed South River on the pontoons, marched 10 miles and camped at Jenks' Cross- Roads. The experience had in passing through the swamps of South Carolina was repeated in the old north State, where the streams and swamps were impassable until they were bridged and corduroyed the entire dis- tance traveled over. March 1Sth, the column moved to the vicinity of Newton Grove Cross-Roads and camped before night. Here white oak timber was seen for the
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first time in many days and was hailed by the troops with shouts of joy, for it had been anything to get out of the pine woods.
March 19th, the First Division column was pressed rapidly to the front, passing through flooded swamps and the headwaters of Falling Creek, and meeting sharp resistance from the enemy's cavalry on the Cox's bridge road. Heavy cannonading was heard all during the day to the left, in the direction of the left wing column. The First and Fourth divisions camped for the night in battle position and threw up a line of substantial breast- works. The Sixth Iowa went on picket guard, with the enemy in plain view at rifle range. Picket firing was kept up until a late hour, with several shells from the enemy's guns passing over the camps.
At daybreak, March 20, 1865, all of the troops were busy wiping out guns, filling up cartridge boxes with fresh dry ammunition, and putting everything in order for the work of the day, for they knew, as well as did the general commanding, what was in store for them as the advance division of the corps column. The presence of Sherman, Howard, Logan, and Charles R. Woods on the field at that early hour, all mounted, and attended by their full complement of staff officers and escorts, giving orders and directing movements for the formations, in- dicated to a certainty that the First Division as the ad- vance of the corps column would be in the storm-center of the day's operations. The Second Brigade led the advance with the Sixth Iowa next to the advance regi- ment in the brigade. The Fourth Division, General Corse commanding, and the Third Division, General John E. Smith commanding, were formed to follow as re- serves, while the Second Division, General Hazen com-
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manding, had reported to General Slocum commanding the left wing, as reinforcements, during the fight the day before.
The bugles sounded attention and the Second Brigade took its assigned position as the advance force on the Bentonville road. Captain Orlando J. Fast, serving as brigade Adjutant-General and always a familiar figure at the front, spoke encouragingly to the troops as they filed into position, saying, "Keep a stiff upper lip boys, and give them the best you have". The enemy in con- siderable force was encountered only a short distance ont from the camps. The 97th Indiana was quickly de- ployed as advance skirmishers at right angles with the Bentonville road, its flanks extending well to the right and left, the road taken as the center guide with the 100th Indiana and the 6th lowa, closed up ready for action, supporting the line.
The battle opened at once with a crackling fire of small arms, accompanied by the familiar shouting of the 97th, which was heartily responded to by the whole brigade. Glorious commencement! The enemy was routed from his first position and the column steadily advanced for three miles, the skirmishers driving the foc out of several strong positions, protected by rail barricades. A halt was called to let the column close up, at which time the 97th Indiana was relieved and the 6th Iowa advanced as the skirmishers.
General Sherman personally directed Colonel Catter- son, commanding the brigade, to drive the enemy as fast as the men could travel. The dismounted cavalry force, disputing the advance, was routed out of six well con- structed barricades by the 6th Iowa and driven on the Bentonville road, a distance of five miles, to the junction
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of the Smithfield road. Here the line halted, the am- munition being expended and the men exhausted.
It was 11 a. m. when the 46th Ohio relieved the 6th Iowa and at once opened a furious fire with their breech- loading Spencer rifles. At the sound of the bugles, the 46th Ohio charged with a yell, routed the enemy from a strong barricade and drove them back to their infantry lines, posted in heavy carthworks. General Woods im- mediately deployed the First Division in position, cover- ing the cross-roads leading to Bentonville and Smithfield, and built a line of works. The Fourth Division extended the line to the right, the Third Division formed a reserve line, while the left of the new line connected with that of the Second Division, then in position on the right of the 14th Corps, thus connecting the two corps lines and uniting the two wings of the army, confronting the enemy's fortified position.
A continuous roar of musketry firing was kept up dur- ing the afternoon and the regiments of the Second Bri- gade engaged in several gallant charges, forcing the enemy to abandon his advance rifle-pits, when the whole Union line was advanced and fortified. The 17th Corps went into position on the right of the 15th, with its three divisions. General Slocum, in command of the left wing of the army - 14th and 20th corps - had fought a hard battle, on the day before, with General Johnston's combined forces in that vicinity. General Sherman and his army were again pitted against their old antagonist, General Joseph E. Johnston, with the remnant of his old army, posted behind strong parapets, fully as formidable and impregnable as their trenches in Georgia.
After being relieved on the skirmish line the 6th Iowa
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was not again engaged during the day and was allowed to take position in the rear of the fortified line. Firing continued throughout the night and at short intervals scare demonstrations were started, when the skirmishers on both sides would pour in volley after volley and the Union shouts were answered with defiant Confederate yells, making the night horrid, a bedlam of noise and battle. Never-the-less, the men of the 6th Iowa slept soundly, knowing that brave and alert soldiers held the works between them and the enemy.
On March 21st, at an early hour, troops were marching and being assigned positions in the lines; and engineers, pioneers, and heavy fatigue details, from all the com- mands, were engaged at strengthening the lines, and building new works and parapets for the artillery, which was brought to the front and placed in the line occupied by General Woods' and General Corse's divisions.
At mid-day, the First Division, 17th Army Corps, Gen- eral J. A. Mower commanding, was engaged in a hotly contested affair with the enemy in a big swamp along Mill Creek in front of the 17th Corps lines on the ex- treme right. This was the immediate cause of orders for General Woods and General Corse to press the enemy in their fronts, as a counter movement.
Before noon the 6th Iowa had moved forward and tak- en its regular place in the line of the Second Brigade and joined in the general advance. The lines advanced in handsome style, the skirmishers carrying the enemy's advance rifle-pits, which they tried repeatedly to regain, but failed in every instance. At several points along the division front the fortified lines were not more than fifty yards from the enemy's lines and were held under heavy volley firing by the enemy from his main works. At the same time, and covering the advance of the infan-
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try, the Union artillery opened fire with great fury and effect on the enemy's pits and fortified lines. This was kept up at short intervals during the afternoon and far into the night, making the day hideous and the night lurid, by the fire of fifty guns on each side.
Early in the morning a drizzling rain set in and con- tinued all day and all night, rendering the roads almost impassable again for teams and trains and covering the adjacent fields with a sea of mud and water. For those engaged at digging rifle-pits and building works, it was difficult to tell which was most annoying, the enemy's balls or the sticky North Carolina mud. The noise and roar of conflict was a vivid reminder, all during the day and night, of the siege of Atlanta and the campaign in Georgia. Shelter tents were put up by the men close behind the main works, where they slept sweetly and soundly within a few yards of a four gun battery, that kept up a regular fire at stated intervals during the night.
At daybreak, March 22nd, the Second Brigade skir- mishers advanced and found the works abandoned. John- ston's army had evacuated its fortified position during the night, adopting the same tactics so successfully prac- ticed in the Georgia campaign.
The 26th Illinois deployed as skirmishers and closely followed by the whole brigade moved out on the Benton- ville road three miles to that village, in time to save the burning bridge over Mill Creek; crossed over the bridge and commenced skirmishing with the rear guard of the retreating enemy, driving them in confusion beyond Hannah's Creek, on the Raleigh road. The brigade re- turned to Bentonville and there took up a position cover- ing the Mill Creek crossing and bivouacked for the night, thus ending the pursuit.
While camped at Mill Creek, there was witnessed
-
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the phenomenal spectacle of a river on fire. This was caused by a large quantity of resin stored at a factory on the bank of the creek being set on fire, the intense heat causing the burning and melted resin to flow down into the creek, where, coming in contact with the water, it sud- denly cooled and hardened, until the bed of the stream was filled with the burning mass for several hundred yards below the factory.
General Sherman's order announcing the end of the campaign, and that the army would be marched to Golds- borough and there enjoy a short season of rest, where rations and clothing would be issued in abundance, was hailed by the troops with shouts of joy and much genuine satisfaction.
The army moved from its position in the works about Bentonville, commencing with the left wing and passed by corps to the rear in the direction of Goldsborough, to which point General Schofield's corps had advanced from the coast.
The First Division, 15th Corps, held the position at Bentonville, until the morning of the 23rd. The corps was the last to draw out of the works and reached Golds- borough, March 24th, crossing the Neuse River on pon- toons below the railroad bridge. The 15th and 17th army corps were reviewed as they passed through the city of Goldsborough, by General Sherman and many distinguished officers of the army, the men presenting a strong, hearty appearance; but they were in rags and al- most shoeless. The camps of the two corps were estab- lished east and south of town, from one to two miles, where the army supply trains arrived from Kinston with five days rations.
The left wing of the army had sustained the brunt of the battle, with General Johnston's Confederate forces
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about Bentonville, as was indicated by the list of casual- ties. Losses were as follows: Fifteenth Corps - killed 22, wounded 166, captured 2, total 190; Seventeenth Corps - killed 20, wounded 125, captured 48, total 193; aggregate, right wing, 383; Fourteenth Corps -killed 130, wounded 640, captured 116, total 886; Twentieth Corps - killed 22, wounded 181, captured 55, total 258; aggregate, left wing, 1144 men; grand total, Sherman's army - killed 194, wounded 1112, captured 221; aggre- gate loss, 1527 men. Casualties in the Sixth Iowa were: killed - Sergeant Charles F. Stratton, Company D; wounded - Adjutant Andrew T. Samson, Private John W. Le Grand, Company D; Sergeant Richard W. Court- ney 33 and Private James P. Spinks, Company E, and Sergeant George S. Richardson, Company G.
No man in the ranks of the Sixth Iowa was any better known or more dearly beloved by all his comrades than was Charley Stratton, the curly headed drummer boy. He had been specially daring all day, while on the skir- mish line and in all the charges on the barricades, dis- playing great gallantry, and, just when the victory was won in the last advance, a musket ball pierced his heart, killing him instantly.
The casualties sustained by the Confederates, for the same period, were: killed 239, wounded 1694, missing 673; aggregate 2606 men.
Captain Orin S. Rarick, Company B, was detailed at the beginning of the campaign to command the 6th Iowa foragers and, having had much experience in that ser- vice on the march to Savannah, he selected two men from each company, with particular reference to their
33 The Adjutant General's report states that Sergeant Richard W. Courtney had been discharged for disability, January 5, 1865. - Report of the Adjutant General of Iowa, 1866-1867, Vol. I, p. 498.
29
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qualifications for that kind of hazardous service, to com- pose his squad. The detail started out on foot, but soon captured horses and mules sufficient to furnish each man with a mount. Hardly a day passed, during the sixty days campaigning, without a skirmish or brush of some kind with the enemy's mounted forces patrolling the flanks of the marching columns. Still the squad did not lose a man until it struck Captain A. M. Shannon's com- pany of special mounted scouts, attached to General Wheeler's Cavalry Corps of the Confederate army, on the Weldon Railroad ten or twelve miles north of Golds- borough, at Nahunta Depot, on March 24th.
The detail had crossed the Neuse River in advance of the Corps and proceeded to that neighborhood. Here two wagons had been secured and loaded with flour, meal, bacon, hams, poultry, and some other articles of pro- visions, and started towards camp at Goldsborough. When passing near the depot, Captain Rarick with four of his men left the wagons and the escort to proceed on their way and went to the station, where they were as- sailed by Captain Shannon's scouts, numbering twenty- five or thirty mounted men. Captain Rarick and his little band returned the fire and then commenced a hasty retreat. At a half mile from the station, one of the four men was shot and killed; at a half mile further, another was killed and one thrown from his horse; while the fourth was overtaken and captured by the pursuing enemy. Being well mounted, Captain Rarick then began a race for his life and was hotly pursued for another mile, until the escort with the wagons was overtaken, who poured a volley into the pursuers and turned them back with loss.
Captain Rarick quickly explained to his men what had happened and with them started back to recover the
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bodies of their dead comrades. They were joined by a number of foragers from the 12th New York Cavalry, in- creasing their force to twenty-five; but, before reaching the place where the men were killed, all the cavalry, ex- cept four, had backed out. Not daunted by the reduc- tion of his force, the intrepid Captain, with his squad and the four brave cavalrymen, proceeded on their er- rand of devotion to dead comrades. While arranging to carry the bodies back to camp the enemy assailed them again with a greatly increased force and compelled them to again abandon their dead, after a brave stand and a hard fight. Captain Rarick and eight of his men con- tinued the march, with the two wagon loads of forage, to Goldsborough, where they arrived that evening.
The casualties were: killed - Private Henry M. Ben- ner, Company C; Private John B. Brown, Company D; Private William H. Stewart, Company F; mortally wounded - Sergeant Charles Fleming, Company I, died, April 20, 1865; wounded - Corporal David Mann, Com- pany B, severely through the lung; captured - privates Jonathan S. Knight, Company E, Esau McBride, Com- pany F, Joseph Cassiday, Company H, Michael Holland, Company G; total, 9 men. Leonard F. Kemple, Com- pany A, John W. Dodge, Company B, Elijah D. Devore, Company D, and Benjamin Bixby, Company H, were members of the squad, but unharmed in the engagement. The four men of the New York Cavalry were all captured in the last affair, one being severely wounded through the thigh.
Captain Shannon reported the affair to General Wheeler, thus :
During the evening we killed 7, and now send you 13 pris- oners from the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Third Corps; also 4 from the Twelfth New York Cavalry.
4
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Sergeant Fleming and Corporal Mann were rescued in that vicinity, three days afterwards, by a 20th Corps party of foragers, and brought to the camp hospital at Goldsborough. Sergeant Fleming was shot through the head with a large musket ball, and did not recover con- sciousness.
A history of the mounted foragers -- "Sherman's Bummers" -- would be the recital of deeds of daring and heroic bravery, coupled with a patient endurance of hardships, unparalleled in the annals of warfare.
Considering the great distance traveled - 500 miles --- the inclement weather, the labor performed in building corduroy road, and bridging flooded streams, the scarcity of supplies for men and animals, the tattered condition of uniforms, an almost shoeless condition and the con- stant vigilance required to guard against a bold and de- termined foe, the troops arrived and established their camps about Goldsborough in good health and excellent spirits.
The officers and men of the Sixth Iowa present, per- formed their full proportion of the arduous duties, with military alacrity and precision, and with patriotic fidel- ity to the flag and the Union.
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GOLDSBOROUGH TO RALEIGH
General Sherman's army and the troops from the coast were united at Goldsborough, all under his command. The First Division took position on the New Berne road at Rouse's plantation, in the line of the 15th Army Corps, one mile and a half east of Webbville. This was a very pleasant location for a camp as well as a strong defen- sive position. A line of breastworks, with abatis in front, was built by the troops along the entire front of the division, also an embrasure battery for four guns, to be occupied by the 12th Wisconsin Battery. All this was done under the supervision of the engineer department and after the plans furnished by the chief engineer of the army, Colonel O. M. Poe.
The almost constant practice had by the army at build- ing field works made the troops expert and tolerably good judges of what it took to constitute a line of good defensive works. Many of the men in the ranks had be- come quite as skillful at locating and constructing as were the regular engineer officers assigned to that duty. The splendid marksmanship developed in both the Union and Confederate armies led to the adoption of the head- log in all rifle-pit and intrenchment building. It was a huge log laid upon blocks on top of the works, raised sufficiently from the parapet to allow a musket to pass through underneath it and to permit steady aim to be taken, while the log protected the head of the rifleman from the enemy's fire. In well constructed works skids
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were used, which rested on the ground in the rear of the inside trench, so that if the headlog was knocked off the parapet by artillery fire it rolled along the skids to the rear without injuring anyone in the trench. One day sufficed to erect the works covering the army, fully twenty-five miles in extent.
Camps were laid out and established, the regulation limits being assigned to each regiment, the ground cleared and neatly policed. The troops were at once set to work thoroughly cleaning their arms and accouter- ments, putting them in the best possible condition for future service. Each enlisted man was required, in gen- eral orders, to have his hair cut short.
Such excellent health in an army of 65,000 men at the close of a long and arduous campaign, with only a frac- tion over two per cent reported sick - much less than if the troops had been lying idle in camp - is best ac- counted for because of active campaigning in the open air, almost entire freedom from drunkenness, variety of food and the predatory method of obtaining it, but not the least of the causes was the fact that the army was led by a General in whom all had implicit confidence, making the soldier buoyant and happy.
An abundance of army rations together with a full sup- ply of new clothing was obtained from the depot estab- lished at Kinston, twenty-six miles east of Golds- borough at the head of navigation on the Neuse River, and, in less than ten days the troops were all equipped with clothing, shoes, and everything needed to make them comfortable and efficient. The shelter tents and gum blankets, together with a few boards and poles, procured in the vicinity, were ingeniously constructed by the men into comfortable quarters of irregular shape and size,
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which were not "a thing of beauty", but which gave the camp an appearance of comfort not experienced for months, while campaigning in the wilds of Georgia and in the South Carolina woods.
Northern newspapers were received in the camps and the history of events for the past two months eagerly devoured by the men. Huge piles of mail, with letters from home and friends, were received, some bearing joy and good cheer, while others bore tidings of death and sadness.
Many of the sick and wounded men, who were left in hospitals when the army departed from Atlanta in No- vember, rejoined their regiments, having marched from the coast in a provisional corps, attached to General Schofield's command.
The tiresome company and battalion drills ordered and practiced, forenoons and afternoons, were not relished by officers or men with any degree of satisfaction after the free nomadic habits acquired in the Carolinas. Nevertheless the exercise was very beneficial to the good health maintained in the camps while at Golds- borough.
The financial condition in Sherman's army on its ar- rival at Goldsborough and while there is aptly illus- trated by the General's own financial extremity as dis- closed in a letter to General Halleck, Chief of Staff at the War Department in the city of Washington, written April 5th, in which he said:
I send you by Sergeant [ William A.] Rose, of Iowa, my re- port [of the Carolina Campaign] and some things to Mrs. Sherman. We are all dead broke here; no paymaster, and none expected. The sergeant has a furlough to go to Iowa. If you can give him an order of transporta-
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tion, say to Burlington, Iowa, or give him $10 and charge to me; I expect to turn up somewhere, and have pay due since January 1, think my credit good for that amount.
On April 10th, General Halleck replied :
Sergeant Rose brought me your letter and report yesterday. I have given him $20 and a ticket to Iowa, via both South Bend and Chicago, so that he will be certain to find Mrs. S.
It was by such simple methods, honesty, and sincerity of purpose that the great commander was brought into such close touch with the soldiers of his army. He nev- er posed, but was always easy and respectful in manner, and free to speak. It required no display or pomp on his part to maintain dignity as a commander; intuitively the men paid him respectful homage, held him in the highest esteem, and had for him the most devoted love and trusting confidence. Any "chuck-a-luck" dealer in the army would have been pleased to furnish him with any amount of funds required.
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