USA > Illinois > Yates phalanx : the history of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry in the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 > Part 18
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Your Obed't Servant, Joshua B. Howell"
Lieutenant-Colonel Mann was wounded in the early part of the engagement by a musket ball in the lower third of the left leg. The ball passed completely through the large bone ( tibia) of the leg, lodging beneath the skin; and the curious circumstance in the case was, that the bone was not fractured-merely a hole punched through it. After his wound was dressed, he was sheltered for the
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night in a corn-crib near by, and the next morning was sent on a stretcher with a detail of six men to the hospital boat at the landing, and taken to Chesapeake Hospital at Fort Monroe.
Private George Riddle, Company I related to Dr. Clark,
"There is one thing I do feel proud over, and always shall, and that was carrying Captain Sam Gilmore off the field at Drewry's Bluff on the 16th of May 1864, when he was wounded. When we started to leave the works, I was with him alone, but soon came across comrade Asa Wren. He helped me a short distance. We put the Captain astride of my gun, and then put the gun on our shoulders, the Captain holding around my neck. We carried him some distance in this way until Wren gave out. I then took the Captain on my shoulder, and had carried him a short distance when I saw the rebel cavalry gaining on me, and also saw a number of our cavalry about the same distance away from me that the rebels were. I told the Captain that I couldn't carry him any further. He said, 'Oh, God! George, don't leave me!' I told him that I would save him, and laid him down and started for out for our cavalry, and fortunately one of them saw me. I beckoned him to me, and placed the Captain behind me. By this time the rebels were within a short distance of us. The cavalryman asked me, 'What, in the name of God, are you going to do?' I told him to take care of the Captain and I would take care of myself, and when he started I grabbed hold of the stirrup of his saddle, and I tell you, I held on for dear life until we reached the railroad, where I saw an old log lying partly up off the ground. I was 'play'd out,' so I threw myself down under it, panting like a lizard. Lots of our wounded had been left there. The rebel cavalry had come up by this time. All at once I saw comrades John Berry and Jeff Everts pop out of the brush just as the 'Johnnies' came along, and the 'rebs' called upon Berry to surrender or they would fire upon him. Berry was an Englishman, and as brave as a brick! He looked up at the 'rebs' and told them to go to 'y-ell!' for he had been under a 'ot fire all day, 'eny 'ow; and he struck out for the brush with the rebels after him, while I crawled from behind the log and struck for the brush also. We all three came out all right, and the cavalryman brought in the Captain."
Riddle also commented that "I had some pretty close calls-was at 'Wagner,' had my gun smashed in my hand at Drewry's Bluff, a button shot off my coat at Hatcher's Run, and several other close calls too tedious to mention."
The loss sustained by the Regiment in this engagement amounted to seventy officers and men, killed and wounded; no missing; and the loss to the Brigade was 300.
The following is General (then Lieutenant-Colonel) Mann's account of this battle:
"After the repulse the Army of the James had met with on the 16th of May at Drewry's Bluff, there had been more or less severe fighting almost daily, and on the morning of the 20th, at Ware Bottom Church, the enemy seemed determined to crowd our forces as near to
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the James River as was possible. Soon after two p.m., a vigorous charge was made by a Confederate division, led by General Walker of South Carolina, on a Brigade of General Terry's Division, under command of Brigadier-General Ames. The enemy were driven back after a stubborn resistance and gained an eminence of advantage to them and soon began to throw up earthworks.
"An hour later General Terry rode to our camp, and calling together the Brigade and Regimental commanders, spread out a chart of the field to be retaken, and said he 'expected the First Brigade to do the work with neatness and dispatch.'
"The Brigade, under the command of the brave and venerable Colonel Howell, moved out with promptness to its bloody task. Less than two miles from camp they reached the contested ground and deployed into line to the left of the main road, cheered by the roar of artillery whose shot and shell soon began their deadly work, and the hiss of smaller missiles whose mission was equally fatal. The Thirty-Ninth was on the extreme right and like the other regiments, was soon almost lost to view in the dense undergrowth which all this time had veiled the enemy from us, although we were constantly receiving their metallic and murderous compliments. The Thirty-Ninth was making its way through the thick chaparral, firing, in the meantime, like the veterans they were, when an officer rode up to me and said:
"For God's sake, cease firing! You are killing the men of a New York Regiment in front of you. Cease! Cease!"
"Are you sure of that?" I inquired.
"Certainly I am; the rebels have fallen back sometime ago."
"I then gave the command to cease firing, ordered the acting adjutant to pass the word down the line, and requested my informant to order the New York regiment in our front to 'cease firing' also.
"A few moments later Lieutenant-Colonel Cumminger of the Sixty-Seventh Ohio Volunteers, appeared on the right, mounted on his old iron-gray horse, and said to me, 'Why are you not fighting?' The reason was given, when Lieutenant-Colonel Cumminger replied, 'Not so, at all !! Nothing but rebels in our front. I have just seen them there, and rode here to ascertain why you were not firing.'
"I was about to order the Regiment up and forward, when I thought I would mount an old pine stump of great size near by and see what I could for myself. The large stump proved a mere shell from decay, and I had scarce mounted when it collapsed and encase me in the ruins. The few of the Regiment who saw the ridiculous plight I was in, rushed to my assistance, thinking I had been wounded. I saw nothing, however, but some of the enemy's dead and wounded just in our advance, and was satisfied as to whom we were facing, and the boys were soon on their feet again and doing splendid execution, through fighting by faith rather than by sight.
"Well under way again, I found myself to the right and front of the Regiment, urging them forward and hurriedly sighing for the brave fellows who were falling in the ranks, when I received a bullet in my left leg below the knee joint which barred me from active field duty during the continuance of the war. We had been under fire for about twenty minutes and had
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crowded our way over a broad space of contested ground, but excepting the dead and wounded over whom we passed I did not see a Confederate soldier in that battle.
"Captain Baker of Company A now took command and most ably led the Regiment out of the entangling bushes into a small open space. In the woods, at the further border of this clearing, the 'Johnnies' were plainly visible, some throwing up earthworks and others hastening their retreat behind them. It was but the work of a few moments and the Brigade was charging on the double-quick over the open space upon the rebels, who, surprised at the audacity of the assault, fled in confusion to the dense woods beyond. Our orders were to capture and hold the line of works, hence there was a halt here. Orders were issued to 'change front to rear' on the works the rebels had commenced.
"At this time, and before skirmishers had been sent into the woods, there appeared a Confederate mounted officer issuing from a thick growth of young pines. He saw that he was covered by a regiment of Union guns, and he subsequently told me at Chesapeake Hospital, that his first impulse was to surrender, so complete was his surprise; then he thought that by means of a little strategy he might escape. He would impersonate a Union officer. So raising his hand, he shouts: 'Hold your position firmly, boys, I will ride back for reinforcements and we will drive these rebels to hell!'
"Here the fine charger he bestrode presented a broad side to a score of hungry muskets in the hands of men whose keen and experienced eyes had discerned the ruse, and the next moment the rider and horse lay bleeding at our feet. The horse was dead, the receptacle of ammunition to make a 'brevet' arsenal. The gallant rider was General [William S.'Live Oaks'] Walker of South Carolina, whose division had been making the day lively from the time of their arrival from Charleston early that morning. Our prisoner was wounded in the arm, in the right side, and in the left leg so severely that amputation was necessary, which was performed that night at the headquarters of the Corps Commander, General Q. A. Gillmore, with whom our distinguished prisoner had been a classmate at West Point.
"It was on this occasion that the great kindness of heart and the matchless courtesy of Colonel Howell were very pleasingly illustrated. The moment General Walker fell, Colonel Howell bounded over the earthworks and approaching him asked, with a preliminary salute, if he could assist him in any way. "Certainly," said the prisoner. 'Take me into your lines as soon as possible; my entire division will be here in a few moments and I shall be under a crossfire if not removed."
"Thank you, Sir!" said Colonel Howell, this time lifting his hat-"thank you, Sir! order them on at once; I shall be very glad to meet your entire division." General Walker was taken to the rear, but his entire division failed to make their appearance."
It may be interesting to comrades to know what Thomas P. Kettell, a noted historian of some note if not of accuracy, says of this engagement in his history of the "Great Rebellion" published in 1865. He says:
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"In an attempt to retake the rifle-pits, the Ninety-Seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers [it should be the Eighty-Fifth] and the Thirteenth Illinois [it should read the Thirty-Ninth] Regiment were ordered to move through the skirt of the woods to cooperate with a movement made by another portion of General Gillmore's forces. Misunderstanding the order, the troops were moved by the flank along the skirt of the woods. Marching steadily forward, they came unexpectedly upon a battery, which opened a murderous crossfire, literally mowing them down. It appeared to the looker-on as though the entire force melted away before this terrific rain of grapeshot and canister. The loss is estimated at 300. The rebel General Walker was dangerously wounded, and captured."
If this author had watched the course and conquests of these two regiments until they stood victors at Appomattox, he would have concluded that the "melting away" process had not been very effective. They fought in the same Brigade on the 20th of May 1864, and did not march under any crossfire of the enemy.
THE FIELD HOSPITAL.
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Doctor Clark later related a ludicrous incident which occurred at the field hospital just after the fight at Ware Bottom Church.
"When night approached, Colonel Mann, who had passed through the ordeal of Surgeon Clark's anesthetics, scalpels, and prophylactics, was removed from the shade of a spreading oak and placed by the Doctor's order, in a large brick smoke house for the night, it being the best accommodation at hand. Near midnight, an officer displaying the rank of a Lieutenant of Cavalry stuck a light at the door and. desired to know who was there. On being told, he demanded that the patient vacate the place at once, as it was to be searched for silver plate which one of his dusky attendants, now as soldier, assured him had been buried there by his former master.
"A little deliberation, and the patient told the officer that it would be necessary for the surgeon to direct his removal, and a guard stationed nearby was sent for Dr. Clark. The door was closed, and it was determined that the Doctor should send for assistance and a stretcher, and the prospectors were so advised.
"A moment later the Doctor returned, and with him a corporal and four armed soldiers. The Surgeon now placed the Lieutenant and his two soldiers in arrest. A parley followed, in which the Lieutenant insisted that the wounded officer was resting over much wealth, and that one-half of it was at the Doctor's disposal if he would let the search be made. The bribe was refused, and the intruders were marched beyond the hospital lines and ordered to 'git.'
"It is hardly necessary to say that early the next morning Dr. Clark and his patient both thought it admissible to have the premises searched, and a careful investigation was made, but without discovering any plate or treasure."
This reminded the writer of more remunerative "diggings" discovered by some of the Thirty- Ninth's boys and others, the following winter, near General Butler's famous "Dutch Gap" canal.16
Fatigue-parties prosecuted this work on this great scheme for getting nearer to Richmond, in reliefs, and those off duty frequently killed time by fishing in the James River. In searching for bait, a soldier lifted a board that rested beneath a large apple tree, and began digging for worms with his bayonet. A few inches deeper he came in contact with another board. This was found to cover a small iron kettle which contained about $3,500 in gold and silver coin. A great scramble followed, in which the Thirty-Ninth's chaps got away with about one-tenth part of the plunder.
This money had evidently been buried there in July of 1862, when the Army of the Potomac was approaching Harrison's Landing, nearby. The occupants of the place had fled, and the house had been burned, probably by shells from our gunboats in that region.
In connection with this engagement we relate a little anecdote in which the late Colonel Howell, who commanded the Brigade at this time, was the hero.
16This enormous effort allowed the troops to travel by barge cross-country. If they had to travel on the river, the journey would have been six miles further.
"We will drive these rebels to hell!"
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Courtesy of the National Archives
The Dutch Gap Canal
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The day following the fight Colonel Howell, who was "officer of the day," made the "grand rounds," and at a particular point of our line our men were greatly annoyed by a sharpshooter, who would pick off, from his ambush, any man who dared to show his head. Various attempts had been made to finish the career of this rascal, who had succeeded in wounding several, and at last the gallant old Colonel came to the rescue, and hit upon the following expedient, which was ingenious though dangerous.
"Boys," said he, coolly, "you look out where the smoke comes from; for as soon as the traitor sees me he will let fly"; and getting deliberately up from the trenches where he had been watching operations, the Colonel walked a few paces and calmly seated himself on a stump. Scarcely had he done so, when bang! went a rifle, and a minie ball flew past in too close proximity to be agreeable; but ere the smoke had cleared away half a dozen bullets had sped on their way to the spot where the rebel lay, and in a few moments after, the body of a "Johnny," reeking with gore, was dragged from the spot with no less than three bullets through it.
"There!" said the Colonel, "did I not tell you that I could draw his fire?"
Colonel Howell was brave, even to desperation. He would on all occasions expose himself at the front, and seemingly courted death at the hands of the enemy. But he bore a charmed life, and bullets were not yet made to kill him. It was ordained that he should meet death in a sadder and less heroic form, the circumstances of which will be detailed further on, when in this history we reach the place, and the time.
The Regiment was now lying close to a large entrenchment under shelter tents, or as we termed them "button hole" tents, from the fact that four men each carried a piece that when brought together was pitched and buttoned together. It was scarcely large enough for four men, yet was made to answer the purpose.
The camp was situated on rolling ground, sparsely timbered, with good running water near by. The soil was a mixture of clay and sand, which, when sunbaked, was hard and unyielding, and the yellow glazed surface could be kept clean with a broom; but let rain come, and the hard flooring of camp was soon converted into the vilest of mud.
On the left, some 300 yards distant from the entrenchments, was a battery called No. Six, which was garrisoned by details from the different regiments, and the men there immured suffered great hardships, the least of which was the want of water. Diagonally at the right was another fort or battery, some six hundred yards distant, and armed "at all angles." Not a day passed without more or less skirmish firing, and we lost several men from the constant fusillade kept up from the enemy. The batteries would at times open up, and the dodging of shells was made a pastime both day and night.
May 23, Private Amos Reese, Company H, was wounded through the thigh by a stray ball from the enemy while asleep in his quarters at dead of night, and in the early morning of the 25th, Lieutenant James Burrill, while asleep was wounded by a stray bullet which passed through the neck. The same ball struck Private John Scanlan of Company A in the breast, but did not penetrate the skin by reason of its striking a button; the ball distinctly bearing the impress of the eagle, when picked up.
Jacob C. Franks, Private of Company B, was drowned on the 25th while swimming in the James River.
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From May 20 to the June 2 there was comparatively quiet along our part of the line. We had been constantly annoyed by the desultory firing the "rebs" gave us both day and night, which had occasioned the loss of some five or six men from the Regiment. The enemy had put forth every conceivable effort to dislodge us, but had failed each and every time.
On June 2, at three o'clock in the morning, they made their last and grandest effort. Beauregard opened lively with his heavy artillery and pushed his troops forward to our lines. This action was undoubtedly precipitated by the knowledge of the departure of General Smith's Corps and two of General Gillmore's divisions, and the enemy naturally inferred that we had not troops sufficient to hold the fortifications in our front. But alas! for the "rebs;" they did not know that the First Division of the Tenth Corps, Brigadier-General Alfred H. Terry commanding, was holding the right of our lines, and that the center and left were equally well guarded, although not so easily assailable. With their accustomed insight they chose the most exposed and open part of our position as the point to be attacked. The time was also well selected-when night shrouded everything in impenetrable gloom.
After the heavy fire of the batteries, which was mainly directed on our center for the space of an hour and promptly replied to by our own, there was a cessation on both sides and quiet was restored almost as suddenly as it had been broken.
Soon we perceived the rush of a large body of rebels who had been massed and who came yelling like demons on our thin line of pickets. They took our line in reverse and broke it in two places, and forming in the rear took a large number of our men prisoners, chiefly belonging to the Third New Hampshire and Sixth Connecticut Regiments. The enemy was gallantly met by our boys, who after a protracted struggle sent them back with thinned ranks and a higher opinion of what the veterans from Morris Island could achieve.
During this engagement Second Lieutenant A. W. Fellows, Company I, was killed by a bullet passing through his brain. Lieutenant Al C. Sweetser of Company B was wounded through both legs. The wound of the left leg was not serious, the ball making merely a flesh wound. The right limb fared worse, the bullet passing through the knee joint and so disrupting the articulation that amputation at the lower third of the thigh became necessary.
We shall never forget the courage and fortitude of Lieutenant Sweetser while on the operating table, or while suffering for long months at Chesapeake Hospital by reason of hospital gangrene and the subsequent operations that became necessary from the necrosis of bone. He came back to the field hospital on a stretcher, calmly smoking a cigar, and after an examination, and when told that he must sacrifice a limb, he said, "Well, Doc, just go to work, and do the very best you can for me." Lieutenant Sweetser was a brave and gallant officer.
The other losses to the Regiment amounted to thirty-three enlisted men in killed, wounded and missing. The rebel loss was much heavier than our own, and must have been, when we consider with what desperation they faced our fire.
Colonel Dantzier of the Twenty-Second South Carolina Regiment, which attacked our left, was left wounded in our hands, and on June 2 he was taken within the rebel lines under a flag of truce. Our division captured some eighty prisoners.
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General Terry, who commanded our Division of the Tenth Army Corps, was always spoken of as a cool and able soldier as well as a polished and courteous gentlemen, and he is to this day respected by each and every member of the Regiment as well as by the whole command which he so ably and surely conducted. He has won his present rank, Major-General U. S. A., by hard service in the field, and it is our wish that he may long live to wear the laurels that have been bestowed on so generous and brave a soldier by the grateful nation. His command was made up of veteran soldiers who had become hardened to the vicissitudes of camp and field, and presented the bronzed and "brawny" look of experienced men. They were as familiar with battlefields as with their muskets, and could always be relied upon in any emergency.
A Reminiscence from Captain Botsford, Company F
"In the early part of June 1864, when General Grant extended his lines on the north side of the James River, and order came to the headquarters of the Regiment for a detail of 150 men to report at the pontoon bridge at night.
"About dark, the acting Adjutant (Lieutenant Knapp) formed the command, and there was not a commissioned or non-commissioned officer to be found, when he turned it over to me. Of course there was no alternative, only to go as directed.
"In the meantime it had become rumored about the camp that we were to go back to our old quarters at Bermuda Hundred, and everybody volunteered to go. It was a queer command at best, only one officer.
"The bridge was not far away, and about ten p.m. a mounted officer rode up to me with orders to place my men in three pontoon boats and proceed to the creek called Deep Run, where I was to establish a post. In case of an attack, the gunboat Hunchback, anchored nearby in the James River, would support me, etc., etc. Some of the boys heard the order and didn't like the situation of affairs, and at once attempted to run the guards at the bridge, and a few succeeded in getting away.
"Having had some experience as a sailor when a boy, it served me to good purpose on this occasion, for we reached our destination safely. Climbing the steep bank of the creek, I divided my command into three reliefs and posted them as pickets. The line had scarcely been formed when rapid firing from a post in the advance indicated an attack by the enemy. Just then a private of Company F thought it about time to retreat, and made a break for the gunboat. In his haste and fright he stumbled and rolled down the steep and stony bank into the river and them swam to the gunboat; but the sentinels on board refused to assist or let him come on board, and he swam back to the shore again. The early morning revealed a wet, bruised and crestfallen soldier who never heard the last of his visit to the Hunchback to escape from the enemy. In a search made in the morning to ascertain the cause of the firing during the night, we found only a cavalryman's coat and belt, and nothing more, to account for it.
"We were relieved on the third day by the Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, having had rather a pleasant time. We were on the same ground where the disastrous charge
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was made on August 16 following, by our Brigade. I remember that on the morning of that day our Regiment could muster only 260 men for duty, and at the close of it only ninety-five men answered to the roll-call; and out of the eleven officers who went into that charge seven were either killed or wounded. I was the only lieutenant that was not wounded, and the first on the rebel works. It was myself who took the 150 prisoners and flag and turned them over in charge of a sergeant whom I did not know, but afterwards learned that it was a sergeant of Company G, Thirty-Ninth Illinois, who was afterwards commissioned by General Birney for the gallant act, a clear case of 'stolen thunder.' But, poor fellow, he was killed soon after, in front of Petersburg, Virginia. It was the excessive heat of that day, together with the extraordinary excitement and fatigue and the rain of the next night, that brought me down with typhoid fever, and which nearly terminated my life."
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