USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 53
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A short lull followed, during which Burnside advanced between Hancock and Warren. Hill's and Longstreet's corps immediately fell with united and concentrated strength on Burnside, not only pushing him back, but tearing his corps in two, and rushing through the break until checked by a single brigade, Carroll's, from Hancock's corps. Never did our stanch Fourteenth and its worthy coadjutors more steadily stand to their duty, and never had they better suc- cess. The Rebel flood rolled back, quailing also under a deadly fire from stout breastworks on Hancock's left. But again the Rebel right advanced, when flames which had sprung up in the woods several hours before, spread along the breastworks and drove back the defenders. The most forward of the enemy planted their standards on the burning works. The battle continued, with intervals of one or two hours duration, throughout the day,-the one army bent on finding its way out of the labyrinth, the other equally re-
623
OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.
solved to hold fast the doors of escape. Night fell on a dis- puted field, and friend and foe slept.
Early Saturday morning, the Army of the Potomac, only so far rested as to be conscious of its weariness, was up and prepared to go on with the fight; but guns, which had been posted on Sedgwick's right, opened without calling out a re- ply. Skirmishers warily advanced, and were met by skirm- ishers, whose line, falling slowly back, they were unable to penetrate. The body of Lec's army was evidently not so near as on the previous evening. At length it was discov- ered behind intrenchments, in wait for an attack, which Grant was not persuaded to make, as his only and urgent desire was to get out of the Wilderness and on to Spottsyl- vania Court House, fifteen miles south-east of his present position.
Presuming upon nothing but success, and calculating ex- actly as if he had beaten Lee, he occupied Fredericksburg with a small force, and established there a depot for his wounded, and a basis for supplies. He pushed his cavalry out over the Brock road, which leads directly to Spottsylva- nia Court House, sent his trains along the Orange plank road and the turnpike, more eastern and more circuitous routes, and started his corps,-the Fifth and Second in the rear of the cavalry, the Sixth and. Ninth behind the wagons.
It was nine Saturday night, before Warren, who had the advance, was fairly on the way. His progress was then ex- cessively slow, the road being at first obstructed by cavalry, the advance of which was engaged with Stuart's cavalry, and afterward by barricade upon barricade. At eight o'clock Sunday morning, three miles from Spottsylvania Court House, he was confronted by Longstreet's corps, which, having marched smoothly on a road parallel to his own ob- structed course, was now in position on a wooded ridge south of the little river Ny. The troops were faint with fa- tigue, want of sleep and the excessive heat of the day, and in consequence were in no condition for an unexpected encounter with a force which they had thought far in the rear. The advance division, Robinson's, was repulsed in disorder; the following, Griffin's, was driven back in equal
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
confusion. Crawford's and Cutler's divisions (Cutler had succeeded Wadsworth) coming up later, and knowing what was before them, moved forward steadily, and drove the enemy out of the woods, and out of his first and second line of intrenchments. They assaulted the third and last line unsuccessfully, and fell back until reinforced in the after- noon, when they captured the position, inflicting a loss of fifteen hundred, and suffering a smaller, though important loss.
Every corps was more or less engaged during the day. Wilson's cavalry penetrated to the Court House, but as it was impossible for infantry to come to its support, it was forced to relinquish the position to Hill and Ewell, who were close at hand.
At night, the Rebels threw up along the Spottsylvania ridge a bulwark of defence, which they strengthened each day of the following week. The Union troops, without or- ders, fell to intrenehing themselves where night found them. It was a characteristic of the campaign that wherever the soldier stopped he intrenched, be his tools what they might, spades or spoons.
For the distance of a mile from the point where the Wil- derness terminates, the country is rolling and dotted with bristling copses of pine and cedar. It is quite open round Spottsylvania Court House, between the Ny and the Po, which, with the Ta and the Mat, flow southeast, and uniting, form the Matapony.
Having mastered the Ny, Grant was now close on the Po, which, from an easterly course near its head, turns south two miles west of the Court House.
Monday the cavalry corps moved out on a raid toward Richmond, while the infantry corps assumed position in Lee's front in the following order, from right to left: Hancock, Warren, Sedgwick and Burnside. Early in the day the army met with a loss which was said to be equal to that of a di- vision. Sedgwick was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet. Toward evening Hancock, deluded by the hope of capturing a wagon-train which he saw leisurely winding its way toward Spottsylvania Court House, moved down the high ground on
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FIGHTING AT SPOTTSYLVANIA.
which he had position, and in the face of many difficulties, crossed the Po. Night prevented an attack on the train, which moved on out of reach. He encamped on the south- ern bank, hoping to advance in the morning. Tuesday, the tenth, was a sanguinary and desperate day. The line of battle was six miles, close to the front of the enemy, who, amply fortified, occupied abrupt hills and dense woods. Bat- teries covered the Union right flank and left centre, and for the first time in the campaign came into full and destructive play. Warren confronted Hill, who held the enemy's centre, the most formidable point on his line. It was crowned by earth-works and clothed in thickets of low cedars, whose fierce, bayonet-like boughs made artificial abatis unnecessary. The possession of this point would sever Lee's army, and open a direct passage to the coveted Court House. Grant therefore withdrew Gibbon and Birney from Hancock, the enemy hotly assailing Birney's rear meanwhile, and joined them to Warren's force. Shortly before noon two of Gib- bon's brigades, Webb's and Carroll's, essaying to mount Laurel Hill, suffered severe loss, and gained no advantage. At three the attempt was renewed in larger force, the divis- ions of Crawford and Cutler endeavoring to gain room to form lines of battle far forward for a still more general attack. This preliminary assault was also a bloody failure. Never- theless a general assault was made at five, Hancock and Warren bearing up hard against the embattled centre, and the whole line raging in the fight. Through dust, and din, and smoke, charge followed charge. The Fourteenth Indi- ana was in the very centre and blaze of the battle, and there lost its beloved commander. The good General Rice also gave up his life. At one or two points the men entered the breastworks, but they were driven out and driven back with constantly decreasing numbers until, wiser than their officers, who still cruelly urged them on to the slaughter, they showed an unconquerable reluctance.
The Sixth corps gained the first line of intrenchments with nine hundred prisoners and several guns, but was not able to hold its ground, nor to withdraw the captured guns.
40
626
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Burnside's corps made a successful advance in the face of a destructive fire, to a point but a short distance from the Court House, but was ordered to retire. Hancock, left with one division on the south bank of the Po, was forced to with- draw, and literally through fire and flood, as the woods be- tween him and the river were burning. A gun was lost in a swamp, and many wounded perished in the flames, but courage and skill succeeded in effecting a tolerably success- ful retreat.
Wednesday, May 11, Grant despatched the following bul- letin to the war department:
" HEADQUARTERS IN THE FIELD, } " May 11, 1864-8 A. M.
" We have now ended the sixth day of very heavy fighting. The result, to this time, is much in our favor.
"Our losses have been heavy, as well as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater.
" We have taken over five thousand prisoners by battle, whilst he has taken from us but few, except stragglers.
"I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.
"U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General,
"Commanding the Armies of the United States."
The sanguine character of the bulletin, as reported to But- ler, had an unfortunate influence on that officer's movements, which were now in full progress on the south of Richmond.
Skirmishing was hot on the eleventh of May, reconnoitring was active, artillery played into the Rebel woods at intervals to annoy diggers and builders, but no assault was made. In the afternoon a grateful thunder-storm, the first of the cam- paign, laid the dust and allayed the heat.
During the night, Hancock, under cover of storm and dark- ness, marched across to the right of Burnside and took up a position which was not quite twelve hundred yards from the Rebel centre. At half past four in the morning, his divisions, Barlow and Birney, Gibbon and Mott, guided by the com- pass through pathless woods, moved swiftly and cautiously toward the muzzies of the hostile guns. They tramped through thickets, swept over pickets, tore up abatis, and, rush-
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FIGHTING AT SPOTTSYLVANIA.
ing up the hill, leaped with a thundering cheer into the trenches. The banner of the Twentieth, beautiful still, though torn with shot and shell, was the first set up on the enemy's ramparts. With bayonets and clubbed muskets, the storming troops bore down a desperate resistance, and, capturing more than three thousand men,-nearly a whole division of Ewell's corps, with thirty flags and thirty guns,- they passed on to the second line of riffe pits. The surprised Rebels rallied with desperate speed and fought with desper- ate resolution. The struggle extended along the line, the entire Union force, under a terrific cannonade, assaulting at every point. Warren at length desisted and sent Cutler's and Griffin's divisions to reinforce Hancock, on whom Lee, in gigantic efforts to regain his captured works, inflicted his heaviest. blows. Here was the head and front of battle. Five times Lee assaulted Hancock. Five times Hancock repulsed Lee. Bayonets were interlocked. The fighting was hand to hand. The dead lay side by side, or heaped up, friend and foe together, and often fearfully mutilated. Cap- tain Thomas, of the Twentieth, died pierced by eleven bul- lets. The very trees were worn away and eut in two by musket balls. Rain poured down unnoticed. Water could not quench the fury. Toward midnight the Rebel general slowly withdrew his exhausted and mangled forces and took up an interior but not less formidable position. Friday the armies breathed, buried their dead, attended to their wounded, skirmished and reconnoitred.
During the thirteenth, Meade arranged to effect a second surprise by a joint attack of Burnside and Warren at four in the morning, this time by an assault upon the enemy's right flank, which was near the Fredericksburg turnpike.
At nine o'clock, Warren left his position on the right to march all night through tiresome mud and pitch darkness. He waded the Ny, and at length lost his way. Fires which were kindled along the route failed to be of service after mid- night, on account of a fog which was absolutely impervious to light. At daybreak twelve hundred men reached the de- signated position, whilst the residue still struggled along the dubious line of march, or lay lost in sleep wherever they had
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
sunk down in exhaustion. Birney and Tyler drove back the skirmishers, carried the first and second line of rifle pits in the midst of a sharp and deadly fire, and reached impenetra- ble abatis, behind which, in secure ambush, rested riflemen and artillery. Here was no choice. Destruction or retreat was the alternative. Of course the latter was chosen, and before noon the advanced troops were withdrawn.
At length the Spottsylvania hills were crimsoned with sufficient blood. More than forty thousand of the men who entered the Wilderness with dusty, tired feet were gone,- wrapped in the sleep that knows no waking, or stretched on beds of pain, or crowded in prison pens. The number of wounded was prodigious. A new base having been opened at Aquia creek, they were sent there in ambulances and army . wagons, which moved day and night over rough and painful roads. Moseby's guerillas scoured the ground and did not hesitate to rob and murder both the occupants of ambulan- ces and the multitudes of crippled soldiers, who dragged them- selves in the same direction. The transports, waiting for the wounded, were moved to a horseshoe-shaped wharf, on one side of which the ambulances filed down. Discharging their burdens they moved to the other side of the wharf and re- ceived "fighting rations" for the troops in the field. The tedious process increased the suffering. One day a line of vehicles stretched in an inextricable jam from the wharf to Fredericksburg, nearly ten miles.
The four Indiana infantry regiments, small at the begin- ning, were now but skeletons. Except the Twentieth, which twice already in its career had lost a Colonel in battle, they were all bereft of their leaders. Colonel Grover was either killed or captured. Colonel Coons, who had hitherto seemed to bear a charmed life, was killed on the twelfth, leading his men in the assault on the fortifications of Spottsylvania. Colonel Williams fell in the Wilderness, and there he was buried amid the tears of men he had led on the momentous fields of Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and in as many smaller engagements.
He left a wife, six little children and an aged mother. The
629
WRITING HOME.
night before the battle he wrote to his wife: "Whether we shall be permitted to meet again in this world or not, my earnest prayer is that you may live long and happily, and that we may at last meet in our Father's home, where there is no war to separate his children. May God bless you, and mother, and our little children."
The Nineteenth lost one-third of its strength in the first and second day of fighting,-seventeen killed, seventy-five wounded, and fifteen captured. The Seventh and Twenti- eth each lost more than two hundred. Captain Clayton, of the Seventh, was killed in the Wilderness, and Captain Jam- ison, of the same regiment, was killed at Spottsylvania. Captain Gordon and Lieutenant Bartholomew, of the Twen- tieth, were mortally wounded; and Captains Quigley and Thomas were killed the same day at Spottsylvania. Lieu- tenant Caldwell, of the Fourteenth, was killed in the Wilder- ness. Captain Simons, of the same regiment, was mortally wounded at Spottsylvania.
During the few and short pauses of march and battle, thousands of letters were written to the never-forgotten homes. On the paper smoothed out upon his knee, the bright, and loving, and untiring spirit of the soldier unconsciously indited lessons still full of instruction, though the fingers which wrote them have long been dust:
" BIVOUAC NEAR MINE RUN, - "EVENING, May 4.
" We left camp near Culpepper last night at twelve o'clock, and marched swiftly and steadily along until two o'clock this afternoon, fourteen hours of hard marching. We were so exhausted that we all went to sleep at the halt, and I have just woke up to find nothing but a dull glow in the west, in place of a hot sun, the valley full of white mist, and the plain- tive evening music of a neighboring marsh, a full chorus. We expect every hour to go into action. It will be desper- ate. God grant it may be successful."
"May 10. It looks dark. We have been fighting seven days now. God grant we may win. If I am killed, do get my body and bury it decently."
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
"May 13. Still alive, but the fatigue and fighting have been terrific. We have been under fire ever since the fifth. The regiment lost eighty-three yesterday, only one hundred and thirty-nine left."
" NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE, "May 19, 8 o'clock.
"Still unhurt, and in good spirits. We were under an awful artillery fire yesterday, but behind good works, and well protected. The dirt showered over us, though, plenti- fully, as the shot would plump into the breastwork. Both sides have been very quiet to-day, so far. The picket lines this morning are only a few yards apart. We can distinctly see all their movements. The first mail we have received since the first of May came last evening. While others were jolly over long, loving letters from home, I had to content myself with a pipe and memories. Out of three hundred and forty-five men we left Alexandria with, the first of the month, we have one hundred and sixty left, and six officers less than we started with.
" Well, good-bye. God grant the right may win, and that we may see each other again.
"JAMES PRATT." "ON THE BATTLE FIELD, " SPOTTSYLVANIA, May 13.
" For the first time since leaving Culpepper I have time and a chance to write. We have passed through the most severe battles that were ever fought. I will not attempt to give you an account of all our sufferings. This is the tenth day of the fight, and there has not been a day that our regi- ment has not been under fire. Our loss is terrible. Our company has lost thirty men killed, wounded and missing. I tell you it was hard to see my comrades falling round me. We went into the field with fifty guns in the company, and now we have about seventeen. The fight is still going on. Loss in our company occurred the first and second days' fight. Boys are very much worn out. Scarcely able to get along. Enemy strongly intrenched wherever we find them.
" SAM. LIST."
631
RAID TOWARD RICHMOND.
The cavalry under Sheridan, when, May 9, it left the Army of the Potomac, proceeded rapidly toward Fredericksburg. It turned south near that place, and proceeding by the 'Tele- graph road across the Matta river, and thence by the Negro Foot road, bivouacked at night on the North Anna river, near Beaver Dam. Some skirmishing took place during the day between a force of Rebel cavalry and the rear guard without interrupting the marel. At five o'clock on the morning of the tenth the enemy began shelling the camps of Wilson's division, and followed with a cavalry attack, which was casily repulsed. At eight the rear crossed the North Anna, and following the route of march pursued by the col- umn, crossed the South Anna river at Ground Squirrel bridge late in the day, and bivouacked on the south bank of the river. The enemy again shelled the camps on the morning of the fifteenth, and when the column resumed the march, heavily pressed the rear. In the afternoon General Custer's and Colonel Chapman's brigades, which were in advance, became warmly engaged with a heavy force of Rebel cavalry, commanded by Stuart, near " Yellow Tavern." During the engagement a regiment of Michigan cavalry, under Custer in person, and the First Vermont cavalry, under Chapman in person, charged and captured a section of Rebel artillery, compelling the supports to seek safety in rapid flight. "Jeb. Stuart" was mortally wounded, and his command was routed with severe loss in killed and wounded.
At dark Sheridan's troops were massed at the junction of the road from Ground Squirrel bridge with the Brook turn- pike, about five miles from Richmond. But the enemy did not again appear, and the command resumed the march shortly before midnight, Chapman in advance, under orders to proceed to Fair Oaks' Station, if practicable, passing be- tween Richmond and the Chickahominy. Moving by a cross
road from the Brook turnpike to the Meadow bridge road, and thence by a devious farm road running along the outer fortifications of Richmond, which were not then occupied, Wilson's division succeeded in reaching the Mechanicsville turnpike. Here it was halted and massed in an open field. It was impossible to gain a guide from that point to Fair
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Oaks. On the march to the Mechanicsburg' pike a Rebel cavalry outpost had discovered the column, and firing a shot, had fled rapidly toward the city, giving the alarm. Shortly after Chapman's brigade had massed, and before daylight, it was opened on by artillery posted in the inner line of fortifi- cations, and distant not more than seven hundred yards. 'The men, through remaining mounted, had most of them fallen asleep in their saddles, and being thus suddenly brought under artillery at short range, were thrown into confusion. The command was reformed almost immediately, and being withdrawn a short distance to gain a good position, was formed in battle array. Morning soon dawned, and skirmish- ing began. It continued until the middle of the afternoon, when Wilson's division handsomely repulsed a sortie made by a brigade of infantry from the inner line of the Richmond fortifications. No effort was made to carry the fortifications. The only work assigned to Wilson being to hold his position, and keep the Rebels in their works until Merritt's division should force a crossing of the Chickahominy at Meadow bridge, which was held by a large Rebel cavalry force. This was accomplished in the middle of the afternoon, when the troops of Sheridan crossed the Chickahominy, and were free from the trap in which the Rebels had hoped to hold and capture them. Chapman's brigade, being ordered to Gaines' House, reached it in the middle of the night, and there bivou- acked. Next morning a squadron of the Third Indiana, Cap- tain Moffet commanding, destroyed New Bridge. On the fourteenth the command crossed the Chiekahominy, proceeded to Malvern Hill, and established communication with Gen- eral Butler's forces at Bermuda Hundreds. Moving by way of Haxall's Landing, Baltimore store, White House and Hanover Court House, the cavalry rejoined the army on the twenty-fifth of May, seeing its wagon-train for the first time in sixteen days.
Stealing out from the Spottsylvania hills on the night of May 20, the Army of the Potomac moved, on several parallel roads, in a south-easterly direction, toward the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad. The weather was clear, though warm, and the soldiers were in gay spirits. An attack of
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CROSSING OF THE NORTH ANNA.
Hill's corps on the rear as it was on the point of starting, was repulsed. An attack on the advance by a cavalry force at the crossing of the Mattapony, was also repulsed. The march was comparatively undisturbed until on the third day the southern army was found arrayed on the south bank of the North Anna. "We expected you yesterday," was the re- sponse of southern pickets to northern pickets, who expressed surprise on again seeing before them the enemy they had just left behind.
Above Lee's position, at Jericho ford, where the river, en- closed between precipitous banks, rushes swiftly and breast- deep over a rocky bed, the head of Warren's column waded the stream, and after forming line of battle, covered the build- ing of a pontoon bridge, and the crossing of the residue of the Fifth corps. Half of the troops were yet barefoot, al- though advanced a mile from the river, and throwing up in- trenchiments, when they were impetuously assailed. The assault, decidedly repulsed by the centre, was renewed with undiminished fury on the right, where Cutler's division was getting into position. Disaster at first threatened Cutler, but in the end fell on the Rebels, of whom nearly a thousand were captured. Captain Gageby, of the Indiana Seventh, was killed here.
Meantime Hancock, who formed Grant's extreme left, was four miles distant from Warren, near the Chesterfield bridge, a mile above the railroad crossing. Between him and the bridge was a bare, ascending plain, several hundred yards in width, and entirely commanded by extensive and singularly strong defences. After arranging his artillery, Hancock directed Birney's division, supported by Barlow and Gibbon, to make an assault. It was just before sunset. The troops sprang to their task, leaped the ditch, climbed the parapet, and planted their colors on the works. In the morning they crossed the river, and carried the southern defences, which were scarcely less strong than the fortifications at the head of the bridge. The Twentieth alone charged and captured a Rebel redoubt. The Sixth corps, at the same time, crossed on Warren's bridge.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
The North Anna, however, was as far as ever from being cleared. The two wings of the army were entirely separated, as every effort made by Burnside to throw his corps across between Warren and Hancock was unsuccessful. Lee, with his line concentrated, with both flanks drawn back, his right protected by marshes, his left covered by Little river, his front on the North Anna, and projecting like a wedge into his an- tagonist's front, was invulnerable. Reconnoitring and skir- mishing only developed the fact, and on the night of the twenty-sixth, the army, by corps, took up the line of march. Wilson's cavalry, which had returned from the Richmond raid only the previous day, crossed the North Anna at Jeri- cho Mills, and made demonstrations on the right in order to cover the withdrawal.
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