History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 50

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" But let us go out to the end of the sap. We pass the young captain of engineers who is in charge here,-a pleasant, active young fellow, who nods back to us as we give him the salute. We make several turns, and presently are at the end. Negroes are making the trench here wider. We push through them to the cotton-stuffed hogshead at the extremity. They roll this forward a foot or two, then dig out behind it, and so on. A lieutenant of engineers and a negro have just been shot here. From this crevice we can get a peep. Is it not near ? You can easily throw a hard tack across. Looking back on to

a side-hill, we can see some of the old wreck of the assault,-a rusty gun or two, muddy equipments, and there a skeleton. Some regiments got very near on the 14th. Close by runs the little disused path, among weeds and wild-flowers, along which, before we came, the garrison used to go from their works to the road. It looks innocent as the path np Pocomtue, but what a way of death it would be to him who should go out of the sap and try to walk in it! Our boys in the sap have dis- tinguished company. Almost every day Gen. Banks comes through,-sometimes with quite a retinue, sometimes only with Gen. Stone.

"' Well, boys, how do you stand it ?' said he the other day to our men.

"' Arrab, now, yer honor,' said Pat O'Toole, ' we're nearly dead intirely for the want of whisky.' "'

One more extract, and we elose the sketch. After the sur- render the troops visited Port Hudson and the grounds lying between the hostile lines. On the first day the " color-guard" visited the salient in front of where the 52d had lain for twenty- five days breasting the fiery storm of war. In speaking of his second visit to another portion of the rebel lines, Mr. Hosmer says :

"The 'citadel' at the southern end of the intrenchinents was the goal of an excursion on the day following. It was a walk of a mile and a half. Here the siege-operations had been of greater magnitude than at our approach. The effects of the enormous artillery of the fleet appeared as they could not he seen elsewhere. Here, too, the rebels had placed along the bluff their most formidable guns,-the mouths that had spoken so thunderously the doom of the ' Mississippi,' stranded . on the shore opposite there that night in March when we lis- tened in the woods. We found great cavities where the large bombs had exploded. If the earth was soft, it is not ex- aggerating much to say that these were large enough for cel- lars to small houses. If the earth was hard, they were large enough to make rifle-pits for a soldier. We came to smooth round holes, a foot or so in diameter, bored down into the earth out of sight .* I thought at first they were ventilators to some deep bomb-proof or subterranean passage of the enemy, but they were too numerous and too irregularly disposed for that. They were made by descending shot. Presently we found some projectiles,-gigantie bolts of iron two feet long and eight inches thick, and cone-shaped at one end. We could not begin to lift them, nor many of the fragments of the exploded shells.

" The shells were the missiles whose wonderful flight I had watched so often, alone, at midnight, from the top of the slope above the ravine of the color-guard. The southern horizon would light up with the wide-spreading glare of the dis- charge; then came the majestic planetary sweep of the as- eending bomb, revealed by its revolving fuse, far into the zenith, the deep, swinging roar, the stern music of the rush- ing sphere ; then the awful fall from the perihelion of its tre- mendous orbit, and the earthquake crash at last. In such manner once, perhaps, a circling world with fire-charged heart burst into the asteroids.

" As we approached the southern defenses, we found them to be evidently of older construction and more formidable charac- ter than those we had before seen. The citadel was an outly- ing work in front of a double or triple line of parapets. Less than an eighth of a mile opposite, across a depression, was a seventeen-gun battery of ours, which had added its force to that of the fleet. From this battery toward the river ran a trench perhaps forty rods in length. Opening from the trench, a zigzag sap approached the citadel, so dug that troops could come up to its walls without exposure. The approach touched

* A rebel surgeon, Dr. Boyd, taken prisoner during the siege of Vicksburg, stated that he had seen these holes made by heavy shells from the mortar fleet that extended into the ground sixteen feet by actual measurement.

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the hostile parapet, and ended in a mine which was nearly completed at the time of the surrender, and ran-a deep, re- sounding cavern-far under the feet of the defenders. It was designed, by means of this, to blow this whole part of the fort- ifications into the air.

"The clash of the hostile forces here had been tremendous. It was impossible to think of the Northern power except as a terrible fiery tide, which, responding to some tempest-breathing of God, had hurled itself upon this outpost. I came when the storm was gone, and could see the mark of the sublime impact. The sea had torn its rugged zigzag way through the bosom of the hill and plain, dashed against battlement and cliff, and reared at the bases until it had hollowed out for itself deep, penetrating channels. Everywhere it had scattered its fiery spume. Within the citadel lay siege-guns and field-pieces broken and dented by blows mightier than those of trip-ham- mers; wheels torn to bits; solid oaken beams riven as by light- ning ; stubborn parapets dashed through almost as a locomo- tive's plow dashes through a snow-drift,-these and the bloody garments of men."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

57TH AND 61ST REGIMENTS ARTILLERY AND CAVALRY.

QUITE a number of men enlisted in these regiments from the county of Hampden, though there was no full company from the county.

The 57th was organized at Worcester as the 2d Veteran Massachusetts Volunteers, in the autumn, winter, and spring of 1863-64. It left the State for the field on the 18th of April, 1864, though not fully organized, and with one company (H) unarmed.

The regiment arrived at Annapolis, Md., on the 20th of April, and was assigned to the 9th Army Corps, It crossed the Rapidan on the 5th of May, and at once became engaged in the Wilderness battles, and in that of the 6th sustained a loss of 251 men, killed, wounded, and missing. Among the wounded was Col. Bartlett. Again, in the action of the 24th, the regiment suffered severely, and Lieut .- Col. Chandler was taken prisoner.

On the 15th of June the regiment crossed the James River, and encamped within sight of Petersburg. About sunset on the 17th of June the 3d Division, 9th Corps, with which the 57th was connected, carried the rebel works with the bayonet. The loss was 5 officers and 41 men, and among the wounded of the 57th was Capt. J. M. Tueker.

In the bloody affair known as the action of the "erater," on the 30th of June, the regiment was in the assault which followed the springing of the mine under the rebel works. The "erater" was occupied by the 57th and other regiments, and the men were so crowded as to be incapable of acting to advantage, but they maintained the position against every at- tempt of the enemy to regain it until the repulse of the 4th (colored) Division of the 9th Corps, which fell back upon the troops already thronging the covered-way, and brought on the greatest confusion. A terrible charge of the rebel infantry followed, and the affair, which promised so much in the be- ginning, ended in disaster and defeat.

At the commencement of the action the 57th numbered 7 officers'and 91 enlisted men, of whom 6 officers and 45 men were killed, wounded, or captured, and the national standard of the regiment was lost in the mêlée.

Maj. Prescott and Capts. Howe and Dresser were killed, Lieuts. Barton and Anderson wounded, and Lieut. Reed miss- ing. The remnant of the regiment was left in command of Lieut. Albert Doty.

From July 31st to August 18th the regiment was on duty in the trenches, and in that period lost five enlisted men, killed

and wounded. On the 19th of August it took part in the operations on the Weldon Railway, and in a fight of an hour's duration lost 15 men out of a total of 46, or 33 per cent.

The regiment was again engaged on the 30th of October near the Pegram House, losing several men. Lieut .- Col. Tueker was now in command. It was engaged in the move- ment against the South Side Railway, and again on the Wel- don road on the 9th and 12th of December.

From the 1st of January to the 25th of March, 1865, it was in the lines before Petersburg, with the single exception of making a reconnoissance on the Weldon Railway under Gen. Warren.

On the 25th of March the 57th was engaged in the action with the rebel Gen. Gordon's corps, during which Sergt .- Maj. Pinkham captured the colors of the 57th North Carolina Regi- ment.

On the 3d of April the regiment entered Petersburg, and was subsequently engaged in picket duty on the roads until toward the last of April, when it proceeded with the 9th Corps to Washington, where it remained on duty in and around the city until August, when it was sent home and dis- charged at Readville on the 9th of that month. The 59th was consolidated with this regiment, June 20, 1865.

The services performed by the 57th, and the losses and hardships endured, were most remarkable, considering the time of its service. Among those who fell, none were more sincerely lamented than Maj. James Doherty, who was mor- tally wounded on the 25th of March, 1865, while gallantly encouraging his men.

The 61st Regiment was organized in October as a battalion of five companies at Galloupe's Island, Boston Harbor. On the 7th of October it embarked for the field, and reached City Point, Va., on the 12th, where it was immediately assigned to duty with Gen. Benham's engineer brigade in erecting forti- fications, where it continued until the 10th of November. It was then advanced toward Prince George's Court-House, on the extreme left of the defenses of City Point, where it re- mained on pieket-duty until the 10th of December. Here the sixth company joined the battalion.

Leaving this position, the brigade was moved to the lines to the left of Fort Sedgwick (commonly called Fort Hell), which it held until the 12th of December, when it was ordered back to its old camp at City Point.

This regiment was engaged in the desperate fight about Fort Sedgwick (Ilell) on the 2d of April, 1865, and wben the rebels forced a portion of the 9th Corps from Fort Mahone, the 61st retook the work in a furious charge with the bayonet, losing 35 men in the encounter.

The regiment was honored with a number of brevet pro- motions for gallant conduct. On the 12th of April it was sent in charge of the late army of Gen. Ewell to City Point. On the Ist of May it marched for Washington. The original companies were discharged at Readville, June 17. The re- maining companies were mustered out on the 1st of August.

In addition to those already named, there were many men from Ilampden County in other organizations. Cos. A and HI, of the 8th Infantry,-one hundred days' men,-were from Springfield, and Co. H, of the 8th Infantry,-nine months' men,-was partly from Springfield.

ARTILLERY.

Co. I, of the 3d Regiment Heavy Artillery, was mostly re- eruited at Springfield. The company was on detached service during its term of enlistment. The following sketch of its services is from the report of Gen. Michie, chief-engineer De- partment of Virginia :

"Co. I was ordered to report to Maj .- Gen. Butler, com- manding Department of Virginia and North Carolina. It was mostly recruited from Springfield Armory, and was com- posed of as fine a body of men as I have ever seen in the ser-

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vice ; and I may add here that their after-conduct more than justified the expectations then formed.

" It was at once assigned to duty with Capt. F. U. Farquhar, United States Corps of Engineers, chief-engineer of the De- partment, and was put in charge of the pontoon-trains of this army. Knowing nothing of pontoon-drill, the officers and men applied themselves so steadily that early in May they were excellent pontoniers, and could build a bridge as rapidly and as well as men of longer experienee.

" Briefly, it has sinee built two bridges across the Appo- mattox River and taken care of them. These bridges con- nected the armies of the Potomac and the James. Repaired, and almost re-made, the bridge-train wagons furnished by the government. Built two pontoon-bridges across the James, which enabled our army to eross and advance on Chaffin's Farm, Sept. 29, 1864. Assisted in building wharves, perma- nent bridges, and road-ways. Repaired and took charge of three captured and burnt saw-mills, which have cut nearly 2,000,000 feet of lumber since October last, used in building hospitals, bridges, batteries, and magazines, and thereby saved the government the cost of that quantity. Hlad charge of the pontoon-train which accompanied the Army of the James in its rapid march against Gen. Lee, and built the pontoon- bridges at Farmville, which passed over the artillery and trains of two corps of the Army of the Potomac-2d and 6th-and enabled them to follow in rapid pursuit of the enemy. Had charge of the pontoon-bridges across the James River at Rich- mond, which passed over safely all the Army of the James, Army of the Potomac, Sherman's army, and Sheridan's eav- alry, with their trains and artillery. Furnished the assistance to the surveying-parties engaged in mapping the rebel lines and country in the vicinity of Richmond.

" This company has merited the best praise and commenda- tion that a commander can give his men. They have always given a ready and willing obedience to every order, are good and worthy men, and are now ready to make upright citizens.""

The 1st, 2d, and 3d Regiments of heavy artillery contained more or less men from Hampden County, and the 30th unat- tached company of the same arm was from Springfield.

CAVALRY.

The 3d Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry had one com- pany (M) mostly from Springfield and vicinity. The regi- ment was recruited and organized as the 41st Infantry in 1862, and saw its first service in Louisiana under Gen. Banks. Its first experience under fire was at the battle of Irish Bend, in the Lafourche country, April 14, 1863.

As the 41st Mounted Rifles the regiment formed a part of the foree which, under Col. Chickering, left Barre Landing on the 21st of May, 1863, and conducted an immense train of army-wagons and contrabands to Berwick-a distance of one hundred and five miles-in five days. On the 25th, when near Franklin, the convoy was attacked by a large body of the enemy, consisting of infantry and Texas cavalry, but they were easily beaten off.

The 41st was reorganized on the 17th of June, by Special Orders No. 144, as the 3d Massachusetts Cavalry. During the month of September the regiment was encamped at Port Hudson, and suffered severely from sickness. During the months of October and November it was constantly in the saddle, and upon one occasion a detachment was fired upon by guerrillas, who killed and wounded 10 men and captured an officer and 4 men.

On the 5th of January, 1864, the regiment was assigned to the 4th Cavalry Brigade, and made ready for the Red River campaign. At Ilenderson Hill the regiment was eonspicuous in the engagement of March 21st, in which a Texas battery and the 2d Louisiana Infantry were captured. At the battle of Sabine Cross-Roads, on the 8th of April, the 3d was hotly. engaged, losing 73 men and 157 horses.

During the retreat of Banks' army the 3d formed the rear- guard of Gen. A. J. Smith's corps (19th), and was constantly skirmishing with the enemy for many miles. On the 26th of April was fought the action of Muddy Run, and on the 29th there was another collision with the celebrated Quantrell's band. In these encounters the 3d lost a number of men.

From the 9th to the 17th of May the regiment was skir- mishing daily, and in the battle of Yellow Bayon, on the 17th, made a splendid charge, in which 300 prisoners were captured, the regiment losing 14 men and 39 horses.

On the 25th of June the regiment was dismounted by special orders, armed as infantry, and ordered to report to Lieut .- Gen. Grant, at Fortress Monroe.

It was assigned to the command of Gen. Sheridan, and on the 10th of August moved with his army, and in the battle of Opequan made a gallant charge, driving the enemy three miles, and losing in the action 104 men. It participated in the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, and subsequently went into winter-quarters at Opequan Creek, where it re- mained until Dec. 25th.

Feb. 18, 1865, after performing duty as infantry for six months, the regiment was reorganized, and thoroughly, with new arms, horses, colors, and equipments, and again sent to the field as cavalry, where it relieved the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Duffield Station, Va.

On the 1st of March the regiment reported to Maj .- Gen. Torbert, chief of cavalry, at Winchester, Va. The 3d took part in the grand review at Washington in May, and was subsequently transferred to Nebraska. The regiment was mustered, out of service at Fort Kearney, Aug. 28, 1865. From thence it returned to Massachusetts ria Chicago, Detroit, and the Great Western Railway of Canada, having been the only regiment that entered the Dominion during the war.

On the 8th of October it was paid off and finally discharged from service. During its term of service it traversed fifteen thousand miles of territory and was in thirty engagements, among which were Irish Bend, Henderson Ilill, Cane River, Port Hudson, Sabine Cross-Roads, Muddy Bayou, Piney Woods, Snag Point, Bayou de Glaze, Yellow Bayou, Ope- quan Creek, Fisber's Hill, and Cedar Creek.

HISTORY

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER I. CIVIL ORGANIZATION.

A COMMITTEE was appointed by the town of Springfield, Feb. 26, 1662, " concerning settling the towns in this western portion of the colony into the form of a county." On the 7th day of May ensuing, the General Court passed the act estab- lishing the county of Hampshire.

The county was organized with very indefinite bounds, and a committee was soon afterward chosen by the several towns " to order and settle ye affaires of ye county." This commit- tee consisted of Capt. John Pynchon, Mr. Henry Clarke, Capt. Aaron Cooke, Lieut. David Milton, and Ehzur Holyoke, who reported April 2, 1663, that they had

" Agreed and determined yt ye Beginning of ye yeare for yo Shire meetings of this County shal be on ye first day of March yearly ; And that the Shire meetings shal be each other yeare at Springfield, and each other yeare at Northampton, in a con- stant course. And all our Shire meetings this yeare to be at Northampton ; Springfield having had them last yeere. Also they agreed that ye Commissioner chosen in March yearely by ye Shire Commissioner to carry ye votes for Nomination of Magistrates to Boston, shall have allowed him by the County thirty shillings, to be paid by the County Treasurer; the rest of his charges he is to beare himself; and that noe one man be thereby overburthened, It is determined that there be a change yearely of ye person to carry the votes, except for necessity or conveniency they shall see cause to act otherwise."

The county of Berkshire was set off from Hampshire in 1761.

The county of Franklin was set off from Hampshire in 1811, and the county of Hampden in 1812. The histories of these counties will be found elsewhere in this volume. Joseph Ly- man was appointed, Sept. 6, 1813, " a commissioner to meet with the commissioners appointed by the counties of Franklin and Hampden to complete and adjust the equitable share of each of said counties in the moneys and credits due them at the time of the division of the old county of Hampshire, agree- ably to an act of the General Court, passed Feb. 27, 1813."

The following addition was made to the county by an aet approved May 25, 1853 :

"SECT. I. So much of the towns of Chester and Blandford, in the county of Hampden, with the inhabitants thereon, as lies within the following-described line is hereby set off from said towns of Chester and Blandford, and annexed to the town of Norwich,t in the county of Hampshire, and made a part of said connty of Hampshire, to wit: Beginning at the southwest corner of Norwich, at a stone monument in the river at Chester Village, and running thence north six degrees and four minutes east, in the line between Chester and Norwich, six hundred and ninety rods, to a point forty-four rods north of the grist-mill in Nor- wich, known as the Red Mill; thence south fifty degrees forty-five minutes west, seven hundred and eighty rods, to a point in the line between Chester and Bland- ford; thence south forty-three degrees forty minutes east, eight hundred and thirty-five rods and thirteen links, to the angle in the line between Blandford and Russell, designated by a tree known as ' Love and Unity Tree;' thence north,

twenty-eight degrees forty-one minutes east in the line between Blandford and Montgomery, three hundred and seventy-five rods, to the corner known as Rock- house Corner; thence north seventy degrees west, in the line between Blandford and Norwich, two hundred and forty rods, to the first-mentioned bound."

A county treasurer was first chosen in 1660. William Pynchon, the first treasurer, held the office until 1681, when Mr. Peter Tilton succeeded, and served until 1689. Major John Pynchon followed Mr. Tilton. The next treasurer whose name appears on the records as such was William Pynchon, 1798.

A county marshal was appointed by the court in 1668. After 1692 the office of sheriff supplanted that of marshal. " The second Samuel Porter held the office several years, and in 1696 executed two Indians for murder."; The records do not certainly indicate who were sheriff's between the years 1696 and 1781, although in the years 1771, '72, and '73 Oliver Warner, - Wright, and William and Walter Pynchon seem to have attended the courts in such capacity.

Hampshire County contains twenty-three towns,-Amherst, Belchertown, Chesterfield, Cummington, Easthampton, En- field, Goshen, Granby, Greenwich, Hadley, Hatfield, Hunt- ington, Middlefield, Northampton, Pelham, Plainfield, Pres- cott, South Hadley, Southampton, Ware, Westhampton, Williamsburg, and Worthington.

PRESENT COUNTY OFFICERS.

State Senator, Hampshire District, John E. Otis; Judge of Probate and Insolveney, William G. Bassett, Easthamp- ton ; Register of Probate and Insolvency, Luke Lyman, Northampton ; Sheriff, Henry A. Longley; Clerk of the Courts, William P. Strickland ; Treasurer, Watson L. Smith ; Register of Deeds, Henry P. Billings ; County Commissioners, Elisha A. Edwards, Southampton, term expires December, 1879; Elnathan Graves, Williamsburg, term expires Decem- ber, 1880; Flavel Gaylord, Amherst, term expires December, 1881; Special County Commissioners, Samuel L. Parsons, Northampton, Charles E. Blood, Ware, whose terms expire December, 1880; Trial-Justices, Franklin D. Richards, Ware; Edward A. Thomas, Amherst ; Garry Munson, Huntington ; Charles Richards, Enfield ; Franklin Dickinson, Belchertown ; Nathan Morse, South Hadley ; Albion P. Peck and Haynes H. Chilson, Northampton ; Francis H. Dawes, Cummington ; Lafayette Clapp, Easthampton.

CHAPTER II.

THE COURTS, COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AND COUNTY BUILDINGS.

THE colonial courts of Massachusetts were established at an early period, and in September, 1639, the Legislature ordered that every judgment of court, "with all the evidence, be re-

* Prepared by Horace Mack.

+ Changed to Huntington.

# See Judd's History of Hadley, pp. 95, 96.

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corded in a book to be kept to posterity," and that records be " kept of wills, administrations, and inventories ;" also of marriages, births, and deaths.

The Court of Assistants was established by the charter of 1628, and remained a Superior Court ; while county courts were formed as early as 1642, having jurisdiction in cases in- volving the amount of forty shillings and upward. In 1642 certain actions were " triable before the commissioners in Bos- ton," and actions under forty shillings before such court or before one magistrate, "or the three commissioners for ending small causes." By an act passed in 1650 an appeal was al- lowed from any inferior court to the Court of Assistants, whose decision was final except in some special cases. By another aet, in 1654, the Inferior Court was allowed, in private suits, to state the question to be decided to the General Court, who thus determined the difficult questions arising.

Town magistrates were empowered, by acts passed in 1647 and subsequently, to hear and determine all causes arising within their county in matters of debt or trespass not exceed- ing forty shillings. In a town having no such magistrate the Court of Assistants or County Court might, on the request of the town, "appoint three of the freemen as commissioners in such cases."

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700