USA > Massachusetts > History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery : organized October 3, 1861, mustered out June 12, 1865, v.1 > Part 5
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FIFTH MASS. BATTERY.
tion, but few pay any attention to the advance of the troops afterwards. For the last week I have kept an account of military movements, and I have on my list 69 regiments of volunteers now in active duty in Virginia and Maryland, besides several batteries of field artillery, battalions of rifles &c., and my list is by no means complete, for there must be 20 or 30 regiments, at least, in these states, of which I have no account.
This does not include the troops at Cairo, encamped in Ohio, at Chambersburg, in Massachusetts, Staten Island &c &c .. which would more than double the number. This cer- tainly does not look like a lack of energy.
In addition to the plan I have sketched out, the approach of cool weather will probably witness an attack upon Charleston and New Orleans: the navy yards at Norfolk and Pensacola will be repossessed, and a fleet and army will move from Cairo down the Mississippi. Thus threat- ened on every side I do not see what the rebels can do but surrender.
In the meantime I am getting a little anxious about our foreign relations : the attitude of England is anything but friendly. Spain seems to have taken advantage of our dissensions to seize St. Domingo, and the rejection of Bur- lingame is a gratuitous insult on the part of Austria. I should not be surprised if a general war broke out within 8 year, with England, Spain, and Austria,-and perhaps Pru sia,-on one side, and France, Russia, and the United States on the other. Better this than that we should de- .cend so low as to bid against our rebel subjects for the favor of foreign nations.
I am studying law in Stephen's Boston office, and shall not, probably, return to New York."
Now approaches the Ist of August when the papers re- lating to the Rhode Island boundary were to be returned into court, and Charles A. Phillips was employed by his elder brother as special messenger. The commissioner says
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in his article in the Sun, referring to this mission, "He got through without difficulty. Upon completing his business a clerk in the office from a window in the west front of the capitol showed him rebel flags at Hall's Hill. The enemy never got nearer than Hall's Hill."
In a note dated Washington Aug. 1, 1861, written to his brother young Phillips says :-
"Immediately after my arrival I went up to the capitol.
I was in the Senate this morning, and left while Breckenridge was making a speech against confiscating property in the seceded states."
The utterances of the Southern press were read with great interest at the North. Said the Richmond Ilhig, as quoted in the Boston Journal of Aug. 23, 1861 :--
"They are alarmed for Washington, but they have not yet begun to tremble for New York and Boston. As England and France knew that there could be no stable peace with the treacherous, knavish, cow- ardly and cruel Chinese, short of Pekin, so we know that there can be no lasting peace with the Chinese counterparts on this continent until Confederate cannon overawe New York, and Confederate legions bivouac on Boston Common. Boston is the Pekin of the Western China: and 'On to Pekin' is the watchword of Southern armies. Washington is a mere circumstance."
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CHAPTER III.
THE COMPOSITION OF THE BATTERY.
"Whether in camp, on the march, or on the field of battle, there was a strength, an evident power in the artillery service that left an Impression on the mind of the spectator not liable to be effaced, and r.o scenes in war are more terribly suggestive than an array of bat- :ries in position, ready to open fire at the word of command."
EDWIN FORBES.
The artillery has been esteemed a valuable arm of the service, on account of its capability of inflicting so much more loss than it receives, and the many changes in the composition of the light batteries, which followed the for- tunes of the Army of the Potomac, as well as in their or- ganization, prove their adaptability to the requirements of the variable demands, and that the general disposition of them, as reduced or enlarged in their capacity, occupied a large share of the attention of the authorities whose delib- crations determined these changes, in the state legislatures, in Congress, and at General Head Quarters.
Her batteries of light artillery were sent out from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as independent batteries, known by numbers from the "First" to the "Sixteenth." This suited the requirements at the time, for at first single Batteries were attached directly to infantry Brigades,-one Battery to each Brigade .- and they "camped and marched, und fought together." Some batteries in other states were adependent, and some were formed into regiments, like De Regular artillery of 12 batteries each, designated by let- iors from A to L, but these were, like the rest, passed around from one Division or Corps to another, even after
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the artillery was grouped into Brigades, and in that way attached to a Division or Corps, forming a part of it and under the orders of its commander, and there was a distinct organization called the "Artillery Brigade," and the "Artil- lery Corps," with a chief who had his staff as in infantry or cavalry.
The only reason for preference seemed to be that in the regimental organization, although assigned like the rest to temporary service, there was chance for promotion for the . officers, while as independent batteries there was no such chance.
In respect to Massachusetts it will be shown that not- withstanding all the influence that could be brought to bear upon the War Department to effect the change, her bat- teries came back as they went out, designated by numbers and independent of each other, and had no right to be classed in any sense as a regiment and designated by let- ters, yet in the spring of 1863, when it was thought expe- dient to consolidate the artillery, General Orders No. 86 compelled the Fifth Mass. Battery, although not a part of any regiment, to accept the regimental company or battery designation of a letter "E."
CONSOLIDATION OF ARTILLERY.
WAR DEPARTMENT ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE WASHINGTON April 2, 1863.
General Orders No. 86.
1. Under the authority contained in Sections 19 and 20 of the act "for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other pur- poses." approved March 3, 1863, it is ordered that for each and every regiment of the volunteer army now reduced, or that may be reduced hereafter, as set forth in said sections, consolidation shall be made in accordance with the following rules :
ARTILLERY.
3. Each regiment will be consolidated into six, or a less number of batteries, an ! the colonel, two majors, and one assistant surgeon, mus- tered out.
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The companies and batteries formed by consolidation will be of the maximum strength, and will be organized as now directed by law and regulation. The first letters of the alphabet will be used to designate the companies. ( See p. 22. The "E" on the caps. Peacock.)
5. The company officers -- commissioned and non-commissioned- rendered supernumerary. with those enumerated in the foregoing, will be mustered out of service at the date of consolidation, all other offi- cers and non-commissioned officers will be retained.
6. The officers to be retained will be selected by the Division and Corns commanders, under the instructions of the Commanding Gen- eral of the Army or Department, from among the most efficient offi- cers of the respective regiments.
III. The following are the sections of the Act referred to, and under which the foregoing is ordered :
Sec. 19. And be it further enacted, That whenever a regiment of volunteers of the same arm, from the same state, is reduced to one- half the maximum number prescribed by law, the President may direct the consolidation of the companies of such regiment, Provided, That no company so formed shall excecd the maximum number prescribed by law. When such consolidation is made, the regimental officers shall be reduced in proportion to the reduction in the number of companies.
Sec. 20. And be it further enacted, That whenever a regiment is reduced below the minimum number allowed by law, no officers shall be appointed in such regiment, beyond those necessary for the com- mand of such reduced numbers.
By order of the Secretary of War.
E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General.
The legislature of Massachusetts, mindful of its respon- sibility hastened to put on its passage the following Act :-
Chapter 243, Section 2, of an Act in Addition to an Act concerning the militia.
The Militia so organized shall consist of at least one regiment of cavalry to consist of twelve troops or companies: one regiment of artillery of not more than twelve batteries, and eight regiments of infintry of ten companies each, which shall be officered in the manner prescribed by the laws of the United States and of this State concern- ing the Militia.
Approved April 29, 1863.
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NOTES OF CAPTAIN NATHAN APPLETON.
"That I gave some time and thought to the improvement of the Light Artillery service of our Army during the long months of comparative idleness of winter quarters, 1863 and '64, can be judged by the letters I wrote to the Secre- tary of War, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Hon. Alexander H. Rice M. C. from Massachusetts, and a long article to the 'Army and Navy Journal' which I do not think was pub- lished :---
TO SECRETARY STANTON.
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON.
Sir.
Ever since the Rebellion has existed. the Light Artillery of Massachusetts has been organized as so many independent batteries, each commanded by a captain.
The Governor and Senators of Massachusetts, I am in- formed, and some of the Artillery officers of the state, have interested themselves in the plan of having the batteries united in a regiment, with the appointment of field officers. I consider that it personally concerns all those connected with the Mass. Light Artillery, and I lately received a com- munication from one of Governor Andrew's staff on the subject, who said that a request from General Sykes, --- Captain Martin 3d. Mass. Battery, is the chief of artillery of the Fifth Corps, -- or from General Meade, to the Secre- tary of War, might have the desired effect.
This, at best, places the matter in uncertainty, and is an embassy which it would scarcely be becoming for one so young as myself (20 years of age) to undertake, unless so ordered, and I thought that I would write to you, and ex- press freely my opinion on the subject.
That Massachusetts should have Field officers of Light
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Artillery seems to me a right which she deserves, not merely in connection with other states that have regimental organizations, -- and I believe that most of the states hav- ing Light Artillery enough to warrant it are so arranged, -- but, also, in connection with her Cavalry and Infantry. For now there is a dead stop to promotion in Light Artil- lery, and some of the oldest and best tried officers of the state, who have served since the beginning of the war, and who do not wish to leave their favorite branch of the ser- vice, cannot get higher up the ladder than two bars. But, Sir, there is another consideration,-The Artillery Brigade of our Corps is commanded by a captain of Massachusetts. In the Brigade there are captains belonging to states hav- ing regimental organizations. In case of their promotion to field appointments in their regiments the Massachusetts captain would be ousted from his command.
I think that the subject of Artillery in the field is one about which little can be known except from actual expe- rience. A Brigade of Infantry must generally act to- yether, but it is not so with Artillery, for it has to do its work for the whole Corps. Some guns have to be put in one place, some in another, some rushed to the front, some kept in reserve, and the caissons must be put in some shel- tered spot. This must be all personally attended to by the Chief of Artillery, and in addition, the position of every- thing remembered, while he is responsible for everything.
A Brigade of Infantry is commanded by a brigadier gen- eral or a colonel : a Brigade of Artillery often by a captain !
It seems to me that a man commanding one hundred and Hity men, one hundred, odd, horses, six guns and six cais- sons, in all about fifty thousand dollars worth of United States property, and who has an independent command, should rank higher than one commanding one hundred son and one hundred muskets, and who is under the direct conmand of another.
Why cannot the Artillery be reorganized, and the chiefs
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of Artillery be commissioned by the President, and the old plan of calling a battery a company be dropped?
Is not a battery of six guns as responsible a command as that which a major of Infantry generally has? For while regiments are constantly thinned a battery must be kept full to a certain complement, or its guns are worse than useless.
And, finally, is Massachusetts to be forgotten ?
It may seem to you, sir, unbecoming for one so young as myself to write thus on this matter, but I think that in a democracy one cannot overrate the good or bad which he can individually perform, and I consider it the bounden duty of any one who has ideas which he thinks may accom- plish good, to present them to those in places of authority.
I have the honor to be most respectfully yours. NATHAN APPLETON 2d. Lieut. 5th Mass. Battery.
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON.
This very contingency mentioned in my letter to Secre- tary Stanton, occurred when General Grant came in person to the Army of the Potomac, and consolidated the corps.
When the Third Corps was united to the Fifth, its chief of Artillery was Colonel Charles S. Wainwright of the First N. Y. Regiment of Light Artillery, and as he ranked Captain A. P. Martin, he naturally assumed command of the Artillery Brigade. I was on his staff later as I had been on that of Captain Martin.
In a letter I wrote my brother W. S. Appleton from this camp about this date, I described Captain Martin's com- mand as follows :-
'Our Brigade is commanded by Captain Martin of the 3d. Mass. Battery, and he has as big a staff and as respon- sible a place as any Brigadier. It consists of the 3d. Mass. Lt. Walcott, 12 1b. Napoleons; 5th Mass. 3 inch; Battery D,
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ath U. S. Griffin's Battery, commanded by Hazlett killed at Gettysburg, now by Lieut. Rittenhouse, Parrotts 3 inch; Batteries F & K. 3d. U. S. four guns 12 1b. Napoleons, commanded by Lieut. Barstow; Battery L, Ist Ohio 12 1b. Napoleons, Capt. Gibbs; Battery C, Ist N. Y. 4 guns, 3 inch Ordnance,-same as 5th Mass., --- Capt. Barnes.'
I find this at the end of my letter :- 'And now .I want you, and some other influential people in Boston, to go to work, with John A. Andrew to get the light batteries formed regimentally, with a colonel, lieutenant colonel, 3 majors, adjutants, quartermasters &c &c. It ought to be done, as it stops promotion, keeps down pay, and gives the responsible command of a Brigade,-over 30 pieces of Ar- :lery,-to a captain. Moreover the other states are or- ganized and Massachusetts kept behind. If the matter was brought before the Governor in the right manner I think he would fix it all right. If I am in Boston this winter I shall try to do something about it myself.
Another thing is, the Mass. Batteries ought to have con- scripts immediately. I have no doubt but what there are « !! ugh at Long Island today to fill them all. This should be attended to, as it is hard on the men to have to do Guard Duty so often.'"
At the time this letter was sent home by Lieut. Appleton the Legislature of 1864, had assembled.
Jonathan E. Field was president of the Senate, Alexander HI. Bullock was speaker of the House of Representatives. John A. Andrew had been elected Governor for the fourth time. Joel Hayden was Lieut .- Governor. Warner and Oliver were Secretary and Treasurer as in 1861. The United States senators were the same, Sumner and Wilson, but there had been some changes in the members of Con- gress. Some of the old ones had dropped out. The new ties were Oakes Ames, Samuel Hooper, George S. Bout- well. John D. Baldwin and William B. Washburn. Edwin
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M. Stanton attorney general in Buchanan's Cabinet was U. S. Secretary of War.
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR ANDREW TO THE SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES FROM MASSACHUSETTS IN CONGRESS.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, May 5, 1864.
To the Honorable, the Senators, and the Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States :
I beg to renew my previous representations'of the anomaly existing in the organization of the light artillery arm of the volunteer forces of the United States, by means of which an injustice is done to cer- tain states relatively to certain other states and their officers. I will illustrate by the example of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the nature of this injustice, selecting that Commonwealth for the illustra- tion only because I am more familiar with the faets concerning it. but being informed and believing that similar injustice is practised towards others also.
There are in the volunteer service of the United States, at this time. sixteen batteries of light artillery from the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts.
The Government, having power in the premises to grant or to with- hold organization, denics a regimental organization for these bat- teries. or any portion of them, while it concedes. such organization for the artillery batteries of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michi- gan, New York. Ohio, and Rhode Island, certainly, and perhaps to some other states.
This diserimination ereates great dissatisfaction among the artillery troops, and with reason, for a man enlisting into an Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, or Rhode Island battery, has a road open to promotion to be a colonel, while in the Massachusetts batteries. no regimental organization existing, a soldier ean rise to no grade higher than captain.
Among the sixteen batteries of Massachusetts, is one which has been in the field sinee April 19, 1861, having accompanied the column which opened communication between Annapolis and Washington, and having re-enlisted for three years at the end of the three months' term of enlistment.
[This was the First Light Battery M. V. M. Major Asa M. Cook: Lieutenants Josiah Porter. Wm. H. McCartney, Caleb C. E. Mortimer and Robert L. Sawin. It proceeded to Washington with the Fifth Mass. Infantry, April 20.
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M. Stanton attorney general in Buchanan's Cabinet was U. S. Secretary of War.
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR ANDREW TO THE SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES FROM MASSACHUSETTS IN CONGRESS.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, May 5, 1864.
To the Honorable, the Senators, and the Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States :
I beg to renew my previous representations 'of the anomaly existing in the organization of the light artillery arm of the volunteer forces of the United States, by means of which an injustice is done to cer- tain states relatively to certain other states and their officers. I will illustrate by the example of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the nature of this injustice, selecting that Commonwealth for the illustra- tion only because I am more familiar with the facts concerning it. but being informed and believing that similar injustice is practised towards others also.
There are in the volunteer service of the United States, at this time, sixteen batteries of light artillery from the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts.
The Government, having power in the premises to grant or to with- hold organization. denies a regimental organization for these bat- teries. or any portion of them, while it concedes. such organization for the artillery batteries of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michi- gan, New York. Ohio, and Rhode Island, certainly, and perhaps to some other states.
This discrimination creates great dissatisfaction among the artillery troops, and with reason, for a man enlisting into an Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, or Rhode Island battery, has a road open to promotion to be a colonel, while in the Massachusetts batteries. no regimental organization existing, a soldier can rise to no grade higher than captain.
Among the sixteen batteries of Massachusetts, is one which has been in the field since April 19, 1861, having accompanied the column which opened communication between Annapolis and Washington, and having re-enlisted for three years at the end of the three months' term of enlistment.
[This was the First Light Battery M. V. M. Major Asa M. Cook: Lieutenants Josiah Porter. Wm. H. McCartney. Caleb C. E. Mortimer and Robert L. Sawin. It proceeded to Washington with the Fifth Mass. Infantry, April 20.
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1861, by way of Annapolis, and was stationed at the Relay House, 10 miles from Baltimore. ]
A majority of all the other Massachusetts batteries entered the field near the beginning of the war. They have served everywhere with honor: their officers have been tested and sifted by this long experience, and they deserve, by military accomplishment and merito- rious service, equal opportunity for promotion with the officers of any other state.
I have frequently, but in vain, by letter and by officers of my staff specially deputed for the purpose, asked for them from the Secretary of War such equal opportunity, which would be afforded by authoriz- ing the appointment of field officers of light artillery for the Massa- chusetts batteries in the same manner as for the batteries of Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
The reasons which are assigned, in reply, by the Secretary of War, for thus withholding from one state what he grants to others, are :--
1. The averment that he accepted the batteries from those other states as components of regimental organizations, while he accepted the batteries from Massachusetts as independent and unattached.
2. That he regards the appointment of any field-officers of artil- lery as useless, and
3. That by Section 1. of General Order No. 126 of War Depart. inent's series of 1862, he intended to restrict such appointments by denying special authorities for muster, and thereby ultimately to do away with them altogether.
But I would respectfully represent :--
1. That the volunteer batteries of all the states named, whether : cepted originally as components of regimental organizations or not, have all been serving in like manner.
2. That the weight of military practice sanctions the employment of field-officers of artillery, and
3. That since the date of General Order No. 126, above mentioned, porcial authorities for the muster of field-officers of artillery have repeatedly been granted by the War Department.
The example of all other military powers' instituting grades of rank among artillery officers corresponding with those among officers ni other arms of the service, has long been approved by the legisla- tion of your honorable body, and the artillery arm of the regular army of the United States is organized accordingly into regiments.
And in the volunteer service independent though the batteries may he. each constituting a unit of organization, yet, practically thev do serve in conjunction, and if no artillery officers have higher rank than Spain, there will be, in such a force as ours, a great number of such
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officers exercising more than a captain's command, and for every cap- tain thus employed, there will be a first lieutenant exercising a cap- tain's command, a second lieutenant exercising a first lieutenant's com- mand, and a sergeant exercising a second lieutenant's command.
Therefore the injustice of thus restricting to the rank of captain. officeis doing field-officers duty reaches the whole way down through all the grades of rank, preventing some first lieutenant from his right- ful promotion as captain, some second lieutenant as first lieutenant, some sergeant as second lieutenant, some corporal as sergeant, and some private as corporal.
I fully recognize that in any great army it will be often necessary, by the exigencies of the service, for officers to exercise commands, tem- porarily, superior to their grades of rank; but at the same time this fact in no manner justifies the restriction of rank as a principle, or rule, in the case of the light artillery officers of the volunteer service, and the unsoundness of the principle in its application to these officers is aggravated by the inequality of its administration; it being enforced against Massachusetts and certain other states, while it is relaxed from Illinois and Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island, and also, as I am informed from unofficial sources, from . New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
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