USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 7
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To a candid observer the army seemed to have suffered no demoralization by the battle of Fredericksburg. Lieutenant Lewis Wilson, correspondent of the Indianapolis Journal, and a member of the Third cavalry, writes at this period:
"The greatest present fear of the army is that the anathe- mas of the nation will be showered upon the head of their glorious leader, who is still deserving of their highest confi- dence. Burnside has not lost the faith and kind wishes of the army. The strategy which required months to develop itself, and which the people learned heartily to despise,
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
formed no part of the military education of Burnside. He crossed the Rappahannock and made a costly experiment, but now we know the position and strength of the Rebel army, the troops will be better nerved for the struggle that will not long be delayed."
Richardson, correspondent of the New York Tribune, De- cember 21, writes: "The general tone of the army is good, far better than could be expected. I find little discourage- ment, and no demoralization." At a later period, he asserts: "Every private soldier knew that the battle of Fredericks- burg was a costly and bloody mistake, and yet, I think, on the day or the week following it, the soldiers would have gone into battle just as cheerfully and sturdily as before. The more I saw of the Army of the Potomac, the more I wondered at its invincible spirit." Captain Noyes, who was on Doubleday's staff, testifies to the same purpose: "If I may judge from my own observation and the opinion of brigade commanders, the men were never in better spirits, never more ready to do their whole duty."
Slocum's corps left Harper's Ferry on the 10th of Decem- ber, to assist in the assault on Fredericksburg. The ground was covered with snow, and it was difficult for the men to make themselves comfortable, but they endured discomforts cheerfully, often going into camp singing as if they were just commencing a march. When ten miles south of Fairfax Court House, the corps was ordered to turn back to Fairfax, the assault and repulse having been made and received.
General Burnside was not inelined to procrastinate. The army was scarcely in camp again, when he commenced sending out reconnoitring parties, and making roads prepar- atory to crossing the river six or seven miles below Freder- icksburg. He intended to make a feint, which could be turned into a positive assault above the town, if he should be discovered below. In connection with the movement, he made arrangements to distraet the attention of the enemy by a cavalry expedition. All went on smoothly and swiftly. The cavalry, twenty-five hundred in number, had already started and was crossing the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford, one thousand picked men of the force to cut Lee's com-
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"RAINY MARCHING IN THE PAINFUL FIELD."
munications with Richmond, to destroy the Richmond roads around the Southern capital, and after joining General Peck at Suffolk, return to Aquia creek by water, a portion of the remainder to go to Warrenton, a portion to Culpepper, and a portion to accompany the thousand picked men to the Rapidan, when President Lincoln, by dircet interposition, stopped the expedition and overthrew the entire plan.
Burnside was disappointed; and when inquiry disclosed the insubordinate feeling of many of his subordinates, and the fact that complaints and misrepresentations had been made by them to the President, he was perplexed. More than ever he was thrown on his own resources and responsi- bility. Not General Halleck, nor even Abraham Lincoln held up his hands. Still he was of good courage, and he prepared for one more attempt. Determining to cross the river with the main army at several fords above the city, he employed detachments from different brigades in making a number of roads. On Tuesday, January 20, the grand di- visions of Hooker and Franklin went up the river by parallel roads, and at night eneamped in the woods near the ford. Couch marched seven miles below Fredericksburg, to make demonstrations at the point selected for erossing in the pre- vious abortive movement. Sigel, with the reserve corps, guarded the line of the river, with the communications. The men were in fine spirits, well knowing that another at- tack on Fredericksburg was to be made, and ready to make it heartily.
Weather and roads had been good for many weeks, but during the evening of the 20th a cold, driving rain set in. It increased in violence and continued through the night, blowing away tents and drenching the sleeping soldiers as well as the details which hauled artillery and pontoons into position. By daylight, the guns were on the heights and covered the crossings; but only boats enough for one bridge had been dragged to the water's edge, while five bridges were necessary.
Whoever remembers Indiana roads twenty-five years ago, when it was no uncommon thing for a stage-coach traveller to walk nineteen miles out of twenty, carrying a. rail on his
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
shoulder for uncorduroyed abysses, can imagine the scene on the Rappanannock on the morning of the 21st. A sea of mud unfathomable stretched as far as the eye could reach. Rain still poured down. Burnside harnessed double and triple teams of horses and mules to each boat, and when these failed he added one hundred and fifty men to cach team. Toiling, staggering, floundering, never advancing, the patient troops held on to the ropes through the day. The tired muscles of the Indiana Twentieth were stretched to the utmost. But the mire clutched the feet of men no less tenaciously than the hoofs of horses. Human might and brute force were nothing. After a most laborious day not the slightest progress was made. The Rebels, by this time awake to what was going on, gathered on the opposite heights and shouted derisively, " We'll come over to-morrow and help you build the bridges," displaying, at the same time, a board with the words, painted large and black, "BURNSIDE STUCK IN THE MUD."
On Friday the storm abated, but the last spark in Burn- side's hopeful breast was quenched. He relinquished the struggle and led the army back to its old quarters.
Slocum's corps, which marched out from Fairfax to Burn- side's assistance, and reached Stafford Court House, ten miles from Fredericksburg, went into camp at Stafford.
Private Humphreys, of the Nineteenth, in a letter to a friend, gives his experience in the "Mud Campaign:"
"After the disastrous battle at Fredericksburg, we moved to our present encampment and erected comfortable winter huts, and for several weeks enjoyed ourselves quite well for soldiers. But alas for our hopes of spending the winter in them! On the 19th we received orders to march. Accord- ingly we prepared three days rations, and at noon of the 20th started in the direction of Fredericksburg again, with the intention of trying to cross the Rappahannock. The afternoon was cloudy, with strong indications of rain. We went ten miles and encamped for the night near Falmouth. At dark it began to rain. The teams did not arrive, conse- quently I had no tent. I made a fire, seated myself on a log, threw the cape of my overcoat over my head, and in
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BURNSIDE RESIGNS HIS POSITION.
that manner passed the night. The rain poured down in torrents and the air was very cold. God alone knows how much I suffered. But the longest night will have an end, and when day dawned a more miserable looking wretch than myself never was permitted to move on the face of the earth. After breakfast we started again, and floundered through mud and water for five miles, when we halted and "put up" in a pine forest. The pontoon and artillery trains could not get through the mud, consequently the intention to cross the river was abandoned, and on the fourth day we started back to our old camp and comfortable cabins, where we arrived about sundown."
Three times now, and by three powers, Burnside had been vanquished-by the enemy, by friends, and by the elements. Before making any further movements against the first he determined to be rid of the machinations of the second. Accordingly he issued an order, subject, of course, to the President's approval, dismissing from the service of the United States, or relieving from their command in the Army of the Potomac, several officers high in rank. Included in the obnoxious list were men of undoubted loyalty and bravery, whose whole offense consisted in an unsoldierly freedom of criticism.
The President could not approve so sweeping an order, and Burnside resigned his position.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER V.
CHIANCELLORSVILLE.
"Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off."-First Kings, xx: 11.
The Emancipation Proclamation was published on the first of January, 1863, but until the army was settled down in winter quarters, it excited no especial interest. Probably it would then have oceasioned no disquiet, had it not been for the insinuations of disaffected officers, and the machina- tions of disloyal civilians who prostituted the mail, the chief source of the soldier's enjoyment, to effect his ruin, filling it with letters which secretly exalted disloyalty, and newspapers which boldly advocated peace at any price, and who loaded the express with citizen's clothing, that the moment of weak- ness which sometimes comes to even brave and good hearts, should not be lost for want of means to put dark and das- tardly suggestions into execution.
The soldier, far from the gentle influences of home and society, often turning with the heaviest heart from the letter- carrier who brought nothing, or only a wicked message to him, was a ready prey to despondency in the depressing lulls of the war, and especially after a series of defeats. This was peculiarly the case in the Army of the Potomac, which was perhaps never so gencrous as the Army of the Ohio, and was embittered by many disappointments. Evil insin- uations worked through the mass like yeast. Deserters were counted by hundreds.
General Hooker, who was Burnside's successor, understood the field to which he was called, and set himself with tact and spirit at the work of reform. Providing rations of better quality than they had ever before had, and in every way at- tending to their comfort, he soon restored the men to vigor-
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EXORCISM.
ous health. He exercised a due severity, recalling absentees, dismissing disloyal officers, and insisting that the law should have its course with deserters. But chiefly he exorcised the devil of discontent by an all-prevailing activity. He en- gaged in the practice of field movements all troops who were not employed in expeditions to attack hostile pickets and outposts, and to gather supplies from the country in the enemy's possession. He encouraged the spirit of emulation, bestowing badges on different corps, thus carrying out an idea of General Kearney, who at Fair Oaks ordered the soldiers of his division to sew a piece of red flannel on their caps, so that he could recognize them in battle.
The President and Cabinet, and the civil governments generally, co-operated with Hooker, granting him sympathy, encouragement and assistance. Among others, Governor Morton, who always gave to Indiana soldiers the considera- tion of a parent to children in trying and dangerous circum- stances, visited the army. It is scarcely possible to overrate the value of his attentions. To be assured that they were appreciated, it is only necessary to hear the soldiers them- selves speak:
" One evening," says Samnel List, "we had just returned from dress-parade, when the drums beat, "Fall in!" We formed on the parade ground, and waited the arrival of the " Soldier's Friend." In a few minutes, he made his appear- ance, accompanied by Meredith and Cutler, our brigade generals. The Governor made a short speech, reviewing the history of the Seventh, and praising us very much for our gallant conduct. He then rode off amidst deafening cheers. Sunday night, we serenaded him, and he made us a short speech. Then Meredith made a speech, saying in the course of it, that an officer on Sigel's staff had told him that he never saw any body of troops, not excepting the veterans of Europe, fight with such gallantry as the old Seventh at Port Republic. He called us the flower of the army. We gave three rousing cheers for Morton, three for Meredith, for Hooker, for Old Abe, for the Union and for Indiana. I tell you, we made the clear night ring for miles.".
In those cheers vanished many a sullen murinur. How-
-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
ever, a powerful current of right feeling had already set in, or rather had never ceased to flow, as is evident from the reliable source of private letters.
Samuel List writes, February 3d, from Matthias Point : " I confess things are beginning to look a little dark. A few evenings since Captain Jeffrey received a copy of some reso- lutions that were passed by the infamous traitors of Johnson county and published in the Sentinel. They are more trea- sonable than anything I ever saw come from the heart of the Southern Confederacy. I tell you they caused immense ex- citement in the company. A meeting was immediately called, and speeches were made denouncing the resolutions."
Again he writes, February Sth : "Almost all the letters and papers that come to us from Indiana are filled with the doings of the infernal copperhead traitors of that State. Don't be astonished at me for calling them such names. They deserve the death of traitors, and I do hope if it ever becomes necessary for Governor Morton to call on a military force to put such fellows down, it will be the lot of the old Seventh to perform the work. They need not think they will find sympathy. I should rather meet the strongest secesh of the South to-day than one of those vipers of the North. There is more honor in Southern traitors, because they come out boldly like men and advocate their cause. It is an old saying, that 'Every dog has his day.' I hope these fellows will soon meet with their deserts. I see from some of the Southern papers that they are trying to get up a divi- sion between the East and the West. For this objeet, too, the copperheads of the North are working. I want you and all my friends to pay no attention to them. Tell them if they influence Governor Morton to call the Indiana troops home, it will be a sorry time for them when we come."
Frank Good, of the same regiment, under date of March 2d, writes: "You say you want this abominable rebellion put down, nigger or no nigger. My sentiments exactly. I was decidedly opposed to the proclamation at first, but I have come to the conclusion that it is a great blow on the South. It forces a large portion of their soldiers to leave the army and go home to provide for their families. For
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"FIRE IN THE REAR."
my part I think the tide has turned. Just after the election things looked rather dull. Every secesh, both North and South, was in high glee. We heard the villains at home shouting for Jeff. Davis in public, and all such discouraging things, and also the proceedings of the Indiana Legislature. We heard that they had refused to furnish any more money and men for the war, or, in other words, for the support of the Government. Now, let me tell you that such things are calculated to discourage any soldier. I am sorry to say there is a man in our company who is getting to be an open sccesh, but I am thinking his doom is about spoken. He gets out of every battle, and has a good deal of his pay taken off on that account. I think he is tired of the war and is making himself miserable. I was opposed to General Hooker's having command of the army at first, but I find he is all right in camp, and only hope he will be so in the field. He is very strict, but I have never come across an officer that was too strict. I learn the Democrats held a mass meeting in Franklin on the 21st of last month, in which they hoisted a flag of their own stripe. Is that so? Are they getting so bold? Why don't you shoot about half of them, and dry up this nonsense ?"
"March 28. How are the secesh sympathizers getting along? Are they as bad as ever, or are they cooling down a little? I heard they were arming themselves in some parts of the State, to resist the draft. If they go at that, I think they will get their fill of it, by the time the army marches through Indiana, as it has through Virginia."
On the 26th of February at two o'clock in the morning, in the midst of a severe rain, Pleasonton's cavalry was aroused by orders to get ready to march immediately in pursuit of a column of cavalry under Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, which had crossed to the north side of the Rappahannock, on a raid. The Third Indiana, Lieutenant Colonel Chapman com- manding, moved in advance of its brigade, which was under the command of Colonel Davis, at four. Early in the day, the rain changed to snow, and the mud so clogged the horses' feet that marching was exceedingly difficult as well as disa- greeable. Pushing on, however, the command reached Mor-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
risville, distant from the starting point twenty miles, late in the evening, and bivouacked in mud and water. The next day, learning that the enemy's cavalry had returned, the di- vision started back. The roads had become even worse than on the previous day; in many places, as Colonel Chapman writes, "the bottom seemingly had fallen out;" so night found Davis' brigade still nine miles from Stafford Court House. It bivouacked and returned to camp the following day. The march was the hardest the Third had made, and it was one of the most trying in which it participated during its term of service.
Lee's army held a line about twenty miles in extent, run- ning from north-west to south-east along the heights south of the Rappahannock, from Banks' ford to Port Royal. It was so disposed that it could be readily concentrated; so fortified by continuous intrenchments, by battery epaule- ments, abatis and impassable swamps, that it had few as- sailable points; and was so guarded by means of an elabor- ate spy-system, that it was secure against surprise. Its only apparent weakness consisted in its two lines of communica- tion-the railroad from Fredericksburg to Richmond, and the turnpike from the same place to Gordonsville.
To these lines, Hooker directed his regards. To turn his antagonist's right would require a move of pontoon trains and artillery more than twenty miles, over a broken and wooded country with clayey soil, which, by the slightest overflow of the interlacing branches of the Potomac and Rappahannock, is converted into bottomless mud; and would also necessitate one thousand feet of bridging at the first available point on the river, and of course an increased quantity at every point below. A foothold on the southern hills near Banks' ford, would give command of his adversary's left; but the position was guarded according to its import- ance. Three lines of earth parapets were so situated as to enable musketry to sweep every crossing place and practica- ble slope. Banks' ford moreover was but three miles over a good plank road from Fredericksburg, while it was six miles through a forest from the shore opposite. The United States Mine ford, about seven miles of very difficult country above
BOL % MALLEN. SENGE H. DAL MA
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STONEMAN BRAVELY DOES NOTHING.
Banks' ford, was also fortified and defended by an ample force. At both these points, the river is fordable only in dry weather.
On the 13th of April, Doubleday with the greater part of his division went down the Rappahannock twenty miles, put up Quaker guns, and lighted fires over a large district in order to detach Jackson from Lee. At the same time, Stoneman went up the river-to cross it above its junction with the Rapidan, to capture Gordonsville, destroy the Fred- cricksburg and Richmond Railroad, cut telegraphs, burn bridges and fight on every occasion. "Let your watchword be fight," was Hooker's command. And let your orders be, "Fight, fight, fight." The force consisted of thirteen thou-
sand cavalry. On the 15th, Davis' brigade crossed the Rappahannock at Freeman's ford, in the midst of a heavy fall of rain, which continued during the day. Turning to the left, the brigade moved down the river for the purpose of uncovering Beverly ford, which was guarded by a Rebel cavalry picket; so that the main body of Stoneman's force could effect a crossing at that point. On the Hazel, a tribut- ary of the Rappahannock, it surprised and captured a Rebel picket, and crossing without delay, moved to Beverly ford, from which the guard retreated. But, as the river was barely fordable now, and was still rising under the influence of a steady and heavy rain, Stoneman was afraid to venture. He accordingly ordered Colonel Davis to recross his command to the north side. The crossing was effected under the ene- my's fire, and at the expense of the rear guard, Lieutenant Shannon and nineteen men belonging to Captain Moffitt's squadron of the Third Cavalry. They were all captured.
In the latter part of April Hooker discovered that Long- street was detached from Lee to operate against General Peck, below the James; and he seized the opportunity to make a rapid, secret, and extended flank movement. Within three days-from Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th-his whole army, one hundred and twenty thousand men, in cx- cellent condition, came out of winter quarters, and dividing,
6
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
moved in opposite directions behind hills and woods along the river.
It consisted of seven corps-the First, Reynolds'; the Second, Couch's; the Third, Sickles'; the Fifth, Meade's; the Sixth, Sedgwick's; the Eleventh, Howard's, formerly Sigel's; and the Twelfth, Slocum's. The Twentieth Indiana, under Colonel Wheeler, who had been promoted in March, was in Ward's brigade, Birney's division, Sickles' corps. The Fourteenth, under Colonel Coons, promoted in January, was in Carroll's brigade, French's division, Couch's corps. The Nineteenth, Colonel Williams, who had been promoted in October, 1862, on the advancement of Meredith, in Mer- edith's brigade; and the Seventh, Colonel Grover, in Cutler's brigade, were in Wadsworth's division, Reynolds' corps. The Twenty-Seventh, Colonel Colgrove, was in Ruger's brigade, Williams' division, Slocum's corps. The Third cavalry, and the first squadron of the First cavalry, How- ard's body-guard, complete the list of Indiana troops. There were, indeed, Indianians in other than State organizations- several were officers in the Eleventh United States Regulars, which was in Syke's division, Meade's corps.
Tuesday night Sedgwick and Reynolds, followed by Sickles, marched two or three miles below Fredericksburg. The night was dark and rainy, and the roads were muddy; nevertheless, pontoons, each one weighing more than fifteen hundred pounds, were carried to the bank, a distance of one or two miles, on the shoulders of the men; bridges were laid, and Sedgwick's corps crossed the river and gained the enemy's rifle-pits before daylight. Reynolds was delayed by the difficulty of carrying the boats, and was obliged to move after day dawned and under the enemy's fire. His advance, Meredith's brigade, succeeded in forcing a passage and in capturing nearly two hundred Rebels in their rifle-pits.
Meantime Slocum, Howard and Mcade moved up the river by circuitous and obscure routes. The van reaching Kelley's Ford at midnight of Wednesday, the 29th, sur- priscd and captured the guard. Pontoon bridges were im- mediately thrown over.
Thursday Stoneman's cavalry, supported by Williams'
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WADING THE RAPIDAN.
division, crossed to the peninsula between the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, hurried forward a couple of miles and bivouacked. Williams pressed on eight miles and reached Germanna Ford of the Rapidan after night, Ruger's brigade forcing back a Rebel guard and taking more than a hundred prisoners. The night was very dark; the stream was high- waist deep to the tallest-turbid and swift; but huge fires were kindled; cavalry were posted in the current to catch men who might be swept from their feet, and our Twenty- Seventh, with clothes and cartridge-boxes hoisted on bayo- nets, plunged boldly in, followed by other regiments, and waded to the opposite shore. A bridge was constructed while Williams' division guarded the crossing, but all the next day troops waded the river.
"We crossed the Rappahannock," writes James Pratt, a Lieutenant in the Eleventh Regulars, "about eleven in the morning, and pressed on steadily until at nine or ten in the evening we halted on the brow of a hill. Below was the Rapidan, and on the opposite side were miles of camp fires. After halting an hour or thereabouts for other troops, we de- scended and forded the river. It was cold and raining, but an auditor would almost have sworn a belated picnic party were coming home, to have heard the gallant fellows' laughs and jokes, as they stripped and waded the chilly river. The mud was awful on both sides, for the earth had been trode by thousands before us. Just on the other side, we encamped. The mule that carried my blankets had been drowned, so I lay all night in the mud, and in soaked clothing, by a bivouac fire."
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