USA > Massachusetts > History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery : organized October 3, 1861, mustered out June 12, 1865, v.2 > Part 24
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Battery D, Ist N. Y. Light, moved past the cavalry, and pushed on about three-quarters of a mile beyond the Alsop house.
They formed two lines of battle across the road, and drove the rebels two or three miles. Robinson passed and secured the road leading to Fredericksburg, and continued to advance until at the junction of the old Court House road with the Brock road, he received another check, and fell back to the shelter of the woods.
While the Third Mass. Battery was being withdrawn to a rise in the ground which commanded the valley, Captain A. P. Martin was wounded, and Lieut. Aaron F. Walcot! again assumed command of the battery.
General Hancock with the Second Corps arrived at Todd's Tavern the same morning (8th May) at 9 o'clock, and relieving the cavalry, covered the Brock and Catharpin roads, and afterwards the Catharpin and Spottsylvania roads. At II o'clock, Colonel Nelson A. Miles, with in- fantry, cavalry, and artillery, made a reconnoissance on the Catharpin Road towards Corbin's Bridge, and on the way back to rejoin the Second Corps. met and drove back Mahone's Confederate Brigade.
In the report of Major James A. Cunningham of the 32d Mass. Infantry, who some years after the war became adjutant general of the Commonwealth of Massachusett .:. may be found the following :
"May 8, 1864, came up with the enemy near Todd's Tavern. The regiment was detached from the Brigade to support Battery E, (Fifth) Massachusetts. At midnight rejoined the Brigade, and took up posi- tion on the left, behind breastworks already constructed."
On May 9th Battery B, Ist Penn. Light, Captain James H. Cooper, held the position on the right and left of the Alsop house. Next on the right was Battery D. 5th U. S., Lieut. B. F. Rittenhouse. That afternoon about 400 yards in their rear was posted the Fifth Mass: Battery, on spacious
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grounds at the right of the Court House road and command- ing the valley towards the Pritchard house.
On the same day General Sheridan, with the Cavalry Corps went off on a raid with orders to cut the Fredericks- burg and the Virginia Central railroads, to threaten Rich. mond, to communicate with and diaw supplies from the James River.
While the Sixth Corps was adjusting its lines on the 9th General John Sedgwick was killed, and General H. G. Wright assumed command of the Corps.
On the roth the object of the fighting of the Fifth Corps was to obtain possession of Laurel Hill. The plan of placing the Army at Spottsylvania Court House II miles from Fredericksburg, between Lee and Richmond, had been abandoned when Meade's Army was intercepted at Alsop's Farm by the Confederate general, Anderson.
Hancock was ordered to send two Divisions of the Second Corps to aid the Fifth Corps in an attempt to tum the Confederate Left by attacking their fortifications placed on Laurel Hill. Battery B, 4th U. S., commanded by Lieut. James Stewart, was posted at the right and rear of the Fifth Mass. Battery, close to the Alsop House. During the day the batteries remained in position, but all that part of the line was quiet.
The Fifth and Sixth Corps broke through the rebel lines of intrenchment, and General Burnside with the Ninth Corps made a reconnoissance in the direction of the Spottsyl- vania Court House, and intrenched his Corps within a quar- ter of a mile of that place. In this movement General J. D. Stevenson was killed.
On May 11, 1864, the position of the Army of the Poto- mac was as follows: The Fifth Corps was on the extreme right from near the Po river, extending past the front of the Alsop house in an irregularly curved line. The Sixth Corps was on the left of the Fifth, the Second Corps it:
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front of the salient, or the advanced point in the fortifi- cations.
The Ninth Corps was on the extreme left, resting near Spottsylvania Court House.
The batteries were in their old positions. Batteries E and L, Ist New York Light, commanded by Lieut. George Breck, the Fifth Mass. Battery, and Battery B, 4th U. S., Lieut. James Stewart, were in position to the extreme left of the corps posted around the Alsop house to the left of the road which crosses the Po at Corbin's Bridge. In the afternoon Battery B, 4th U. S. was moved to the left and front of Battery B, Ist Penn .. and the Third Mass. Battery was ordered to report to General Ayres, now in command of the 2d Division of the Fifth Corps, and to be placed in the first line.
At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of May 11th, General Meade, by General Grant's direction, ordered the three Divisions of the Second Corps to move by the rear of the Fifth and Sixth Corps and joining the Ninth to make a vigorous assault at 4 a. m. of the 12th. The Fifth and Sixth Corps were to be held in their present places elose to the enemy's lines.
A part of the Fifth Corps was sent forward May 12th in advance of all the Union forces, the Fifth Mass. Battery and Batteries E and L, Ist N. Y., taking position to the left of the road which erosses the Po at Corbin's Bridge. During the forenoon they shelled the woods aeross the rive ... and replied to the guns which opened on our skirmish lines. and in the afternoon silenced a rebel battery at a distance of I200 yards.
Lee withdrew at midnight.
Leaving the pickets all in position, the Fifth Corps moved after dark on May 13th by eross roads and through the woods, fording the Ny river, across country in the direction of the Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania Court House, and
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along that road; the design being to turn Lec's Right flank. They reached the appointed place at daylight of the path, on which day the Fifth and Sixth Corps were placed in position in front of the Confederate intrenchments across the Fredericksburg road in front of the Court House.
On May 17th, it having been determined to move the Second and Sixth Corps to the extreme right to make another assault, the Fifth Corps was intrenched; General Warren ordering 26 guns into position and protecting his left flank by the 15th N. Y. Battery. Captain Hart, and the Third and Ninth Mass. Batteries at the Anderson house,- Battery D, 5th U. S., Lieut. Rittenhouse, with Battery D, 5th New York, six 20 pdr. Parrotts, was advanced to within 1400 yards of the . Court House .- and Ist N. V. Light Battery D, making It guns under Major Robert H. Fitz- hugh.
The Ist Pennsylvania Light Battery B, Captain Cooper, Batteries E and L, Ist N. Y. Light, Lieut. George Breck, and the Fifth Mass. Battery, Captain Phillips, twelve 3 inch guns, the order reducing each battery to 4 guns having been carried out, were posted in a very advantageous posi- tion on a hill, at the front and about 400 yards to the left of Fitzhugh's guns, at an angle of about 60 degrees with his line.
Opposed to these guns were the 20 pieces of the enemy in front and to the right of the Court House.
At daylight of May ISth, just when the Second Corps advanced on the Right the batteries opened on both sides. The firing which was about equally accurate, continued for about three-quarters of an hour continuously, and at inter- vals throughout the day with the result that the confederate general Hill's guns were silenced, but the general attack was given up when it was found that the enemy was prepared for it, and the Second and Sixth Corps went back to their positions of the 17th of May.
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AS RELATED BY MEMBERS OF THE BATTERY. FROM NOTES OF LIEUT. APPLETON.
"Grant knew that an absolute victory or defeat in such a country as the Wilderness, was impossible, and so he concluded that losing his communication on the right and by the railroad. he would establish it on the left, and by the great rivers. The Army soon eame to know that it had for its leader a strong and reliable man, and I am convinced that the three days at the Wilderness, and the five following ones at Spottsylvania, proved to all that the time for retreat- ing was over. Men, horses, ammunition, food and forage, all followed as rapidly as possible in the wake of the ever advancing Army, and the wounded were taken to Washing- ton by steamers, which were ready to meet them on the various rivers, from the Rappahannock to the James. Farly on the morning of the Sth of May, 1864, we reached Todd's Tavern, where the cavalry had been skirmishing under Sheridan, and there I saw a young officer of one of the cavalry regiments, wounded and reposing in the porch of the inn. We continued our advance, and later, under a tree, whom should I see also wounded, but Captain A. P. Martin, who had received a bullet shot in the neck, from which the blood was slowly oozing, and Colonel Fred T. Loeke the popular assistant adjutant general of the Fifth Corps, who had been hit in the face. It was a gruesome sight, and one calculated to make the observer feel the dangers of war very keenly. These officers recovered from their wounds, how- ever, and both returned to the service. (Colonel Locke died in 1893; this wound, it was said, being the indirect cause of his death, and General Martin died in Boston, March 13, 1902, of a complication of diseases after a year's illness, and was buried at Mount Auburn with military hon- ors. He was borne to the grave by members of Battery A. Light Artillery M. V. M., attended by Lieut. Aaron F. Walcott and 25 members of the Third Mass. Battery, with
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members of the Loyal Legion, Grand Army of the Republic, and civic organizations.)
Our Battery soon continued the advance, passing the body of a dead Union infantryman in an open bit of ground, and soon we were put in position to resist any attack that might be made. We were supported on either side by the 32d Mass. Regt., Colonel George L. Prescott, who was killed at the first attack on Petersburg, June 18, 1864. (See p. 882.) I made the acquaintance of Colonel Prescott and had some conversation with him. It was rather an ugly place to be in, hemmed in by woods, and not much open land ahead, in case a strong body of the enemy should appear, but Captain Phillips said he could hold his own front, and only wanted the infantry to do the work on either flank."
Todd's Tavern was situated at the junction of the Cathar- pin and Brock roads, and was a ten mile march. Here in- trenchments were thrown up.
"About 2 miles beyond the Tavern (Dyer's Notes, May 8. 1864) we found the cavalry fighting the Rebs. Went into position as soon as we reached the field. Remained till 10 p. m., then advanced about a mile; having driven the enemy from their position in breastworks. Unharnessed and turned in."
They were on the second line, in position on the right of the road to guard against an attack on our flank. Martin's battery was heavily engaged and Captain Martin was wounded. Sedgwick charged at dusk and carried the enemy's works. The advance to the front at 10 p. m. was to join the rest of the Fifth Corps. The supply train reached the camp that day, which was lucky as the forage was short. For six miles back from the front the provost guard were ordered to stop all passing to the rear, and it was said that of the two it was safer to go forward and engage the enemy, than to go back and be sabred to the front by the provost guard.
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HISTORY OF THE
May 9, 1864. Monday, lay still all the morning. Gen- eral Sedgwick was killed at 10 a. m. Lieut. Appleton hap- pened to be at the road when his body was carried to the rear on a stretcher. He was known in the Army as "Uncle Jolin," and was beloved and respected by all. After dinner on the gth went into position on a ridge in about the Centre of the line. A few stray enfilading shots came over from the left. One shell killed Private Joseph Kierstead trans- ferred to the Battery from the 118th Pennsylvania, and mor- tally wounded Private John Boynton of South Danvers: also wounded Private John Mensing, from the 118th P. V ... all drivers on the first piece. Boynton was a new recruit.
Bullets whistle. Entry in Quarter Master Sergeant Wm. H. Peacock's account-book is "one shovel broken by a shell." Colonel Percy Wyndham visited the Battery. In the even- ing threw up breastworks, and remained in position all night.
NOTES OF CORPORAL BENJAMIN GRAHAM.
WM. REYNOLDS SEES A GHOST.
"On the evening of the 9th May. 1864. in battery. with our left flank facing the enemy, there came a shell from one of the rebels' batteries, and just at that time Kierstead. (John) Mensing, and one other, I have lost his name. ( It was Boynton.) were digging a pit to shelter themselves in. They had it dug out about two feet, when they heard that shell coming, and all three dropped into the pit. The shell burst in the pit killing Kierstead and the unknown ( Boyn- ton), but only wounding Mensing in the wrist. Kierstead and the other it blew all to pieces, so I had to pick them up and put them in a blanket. That night we had a grave dug and buried them. I wanted to mark the spot, and asked Reynokls if he would not mark a board for thein, hie being a good penman. He said he would, so he got to work. and the wind was blowing, and he could not keep the candle lit.
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and I suggested to him to sit in the bottom of the grave. In he went, and he stuck a piece of wood in the end of the grave and set the candle on it. Then he started in again, and when I thought it was about time he had finished I went round to see him, and as I was passing the side of the grave my shadow fell on the opposite side of the grave, when to my surprise Reynolds came out of that grave as if he had been shot out of a Gun. When I asked what was the mat- ter, he said Kierstead's ghost had come in the grave."
FROM LIEUT. APPLETON'S LETTER OF MAY 9,
1864. "HEAD QUARTERS IN THE SADDLE, NEAR SPOTTSVIVANIA C. H.
The fighting has been perfectly terrific and our losses tre- mendous. Artillery has very little chance, as the country is solid woods, with now and then an opening. The bat- teries go into position in them so there is a good deal of luck whether or not you get engaged. The infantry has suffered tremendously. Almost all Massachusetts field of- ficers are killed or wounded."
On May roth keep position all day. "The artillery opened at daybreak and continued at intervals. (Dyer's Notes.) At 11 a. m. the whole line opened peal on peal. It seemed as if the heavens had opened. Also very severe charges by the infantry. Captured a large number of pris- oners, some guns, and stands of colors. At Io p. m. silence reigned in a measure." There was a tremendous, exciting fight all the afternoon in the woods in our front, Grant and Meade around. A bulletin was read to the sol- diers, announcing that General Butler was at Petersburg, and our forces had defeated the enemy in the West.
A good many Reb. prisoners taken. The rebels said to be at Brandy Station.
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May IIth there was firing by both artillery and infantry at intervals, but no very severe fighting. About 1000 pris- oners passed, going to the rear. In the afternoon a heavy thunder shower came up. Still in position on the extreme left of the Fifth Corps, with Batteries E and L, Ist New York Light, Lieut. George Breck in command, to the left of the road which crosses the Po river at Corbin's Bridge. May 12, 1864, moved to the extreme right of the line. General Hancock moved to the left and made a big capture in the morning .- Johnson's Division 7000 men, 4 generals, and 30 odd pieces of artillery, -- by a surprise before day- light. It rained almost all day. Appleton wrote home, -- "Just think of eight days almost solid fighting! Without doubt this is the hugest battle that ever took place in the world. I do not think that our wounded alone can be less than 25,000. They are going down to Fredericksburg on trains. Our Battery was engaged quite heavily on the 12th1 and we passed the afternoon in an artillery duel with a Reb. battery. One of our limbers was hit and exploded, but, strange to say, without hitting a horse. Our Battery has lost, thus far, two men killed and four wounded. We marched at night in the rain and came into camp along the road in a mud hole, near the Fifth Corps Hospitals. Grant will win the battle if it takes till next Christmas. ( It was about this time that Grant made the remark that has grown into a proverb viz. that he would "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.") Just keep cool up in the North. and this thing will soon be settled. I can't think it will last much longer, for it does not seem as if the cause could jus- tify such a tremendous slaughter."
FROM CAPTAIN PHILLIPS.
Letter of May 13, 1864, in relation to May 12th :-- "Dur- ing the forenoon we shelled the woods by General Warren s orders, and exchanged a few shots with a battery to our
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jeft. We were on a road which crossed the Po river, about 200 yds. ahead of us, at Corbin's Bridge. I believe. About noon, the rebels placed a battery on our right, just across the Po, but hidden from us by the woods. We made a guess as to the distance, and let them have it. I rode to the right about half a mile, and got within about 300 yds. of the rebel battery, and saw our shells bursting beautifully. They changed position, but I sent an orderly back to change our guns, correspondingly, and the rebs soon cleared out. About 2 this same battery, I suppose, took position in our front, still hidden by the woods, and having got all ready, banged away all at once as if they expected to clean us out the first thing. In this, however, they were very much mis- taken. For about half an hour we kept at it, quite lively; they blew up one of our limbers and we returned the com- pliment. At the end of half an hour they retired in disgust. They only hit one man and wounded him very slightly. Still they faced us longer than any rebel battery I have met, as we do not generally allow them more than 15 minutes. They opened again about an hour afterwards, only for two or three rounds, before they cleared out. . . . We left the field at sunset and came here near the 5th Corps hospitals.'
In Captain Phillips' report to the adjutant general of the state he mentions the killing of a few horses, and adds that "two of our men were wounded at this time by shells from one of our own batteries."
Notes of Corporal Jonas Shackley May 12. 1864: "Moved by the right flank about a mile. Exposed to fire from both flanks and front. Corporal ( Benjamin ) Graham (oi New Bedford) and ( Private) Thomas Mensing. (118th P. V.) were wounded by a shell from Battery L, Ist N. Y. A. K. P. Hayden (of New Bedford) wounded by rebel shell. One of our limbers was blown up. and 2 horses killed by rebel shells."
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They blew up the 4th limber. The Battery fired 486 rounds.
From John E. Dyer's Notes :- "May 12, 1864. Hitched up at daylight, changed our position and went on the right. Opened on the enemy. They soon returned it with a cross fire upon us. Soon it became the hottest of any place yet. The Rebs had four batteries playing upon us, all of which we silenced. We silenced their crack battery the Richmond Cadets. Had one limber blown up. Ben. Graham, Men- sing, and Al. Hayden wounded. Rained all day."
NOTES OF SERG'T. WM. H. BAXTER. BENNIE GRAHAM'S DOUBLE WOUND.
In a letter accompanying his Notes dated Oct. 4. 1900, Serg't. Baxter says that this incident he has related, "is a dead sure thing without drawing on the imagination and can be verified, as the other fellow is still alive." As to his title he says he is "Plain William H. In the old Battery 'Bill' for short, and 'Serg't.' sometimes."
"At Laurel Hill ( May 12. 1864) we were closely en- gaged with a Reb. Battery in an artillery duel, and from the manner that the Rebi stood up and took their medicine for a while, it was evident that there was A I fighting blood on both sides of the fence. The duel ended, however, as usual when the Old 5th had a hand in it.
Benny Graham was serving on the right Gun from the writer, and during a lull in the firing, the writer saw that he was struck, and at once crossed over to him. When I got there he was sitting on the ground nursing his left arm.
Where are you hit Bennie?'
In the muscle of the upper arm' said he.
I had taken a small strap from my pocket while running to him, and at once proposed to put it on above the wound
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to stop the flow of blood, but upon applying it found no hole for the buckle. I took out my jack knife, the smallest blade being about as long as a fore finger, and stooped over to make a hole in the strap. At the exact moment of pressing the point of the blade into the strap, a Reb shell burst over our heads, scattering its contents and fragments down among us, and, alas, when the shell burst the ten- dency to schrooch came upon me, and in my anxiety to ad- just the strap to the arm, I plunged the blade clean through strap, blouse, shirt and arm, out through the other side.
In telling it the incident could well be ended here, but I will simply add that for some time after I made that fatal lunge at the strap, there seemed to be echoes of quotations from the Bible, and a decidedly sulphurous smell. hovering around the spot occupied by Bennie Graham and the writer. He has long ago forgiven me, and we have had many a good laugh over it since." .-
In some notes made at Old Point Comfort, Va., April 20, 1901, Captain Nathan Appleton says :--
'Laurel Hill was a part of the Spottsylvania fight, and for some time I had a clasp with the name on my corps badge, but it was never recognized officially by our govern- ment, and so does not appear on the flags.'
At 7.30 of May 13. 1864, the men tried to keep comfort- able in the rain under a tarpaulin, and after hours of uncer- tainty marched by the left flank. Having remained in park until 2 p. m., started for the old position near General War- ren's Head Quarters and the Fifth Corps Hospitals. Turned in at 9 p. m. and were immediately aroused and hitched up and started toward the left of our lines; marched all night over an awful road knee deep in mud, through for-
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ests, stumbling over trec stumps in the pitch dark, rain pour- ing and putting out fires built along the road to light the way; fording the Nye where it was three feet deep. plodding on for eight miles to a position on General Burnside's left.
Arrived there about 4 o'clock in the morning of the 14th and here fed the last grain to the horses. This was the hour for the attack. Went into park on the field. Chance for only short naps. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon moved about a quarter of a mile to the rear across the river and went into park. Got supper and turned in about 7 p. m. At & were routed out to unhitch and unharness and stretch the picket rope. Two guns were captured from the Rebs that day.
Sunday, May 15, at 4 p. m. recrossed the Po, and were ordered out to the front of our breastworks, an exposed and very uncomfortable place. "Apparently as a decoy" write: Shackley, "to the rebels, but they did not take the bait, so about dark we returned."
Dyer says of May 15,-"Expected an attack on Burn- side's force to our right and we were to rush on them in return."
It appears that General Burnside in command of the Ninth Corps, had reported the enemy massing in his front as if for an attack, and thus the Fifth Corps was led to make preparations to receive them. .
May 16, 1864. Roused at 5 o'clock, cleaned and watered horses but no feed. During the day the teams came up. with grain for the horses, and Benjamin West came to the Battery. Some artillery and infantry firing but no hard fighting. On that day twenty-five thousand reinforcements to the Army arrived. Orders to turn in a section, two guns. All batteries to be four guns. Gun teams reor- ganized.
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TURNED IN A SECTION.
From Captain Appleton's Notes :- "It was during the last days of the fight at Spottsylvania, that we received the order to turn in one section, or two guns, leaving four guns in our Battery. I have always supposed that General Grant, seeing that the Army of the Potomac was encuni- bered by having too much artillery, decided upon this plan of reducing it, instead of disbanding or sending to the rear some of the batteries, which would have hurt the feelings of the captains and other officers, as well as of the men. There is no doubt but that there were too many guns for the country in which he was operating, and this reduction was a good thing for the batteries themselves, as few of them had their full complement of men, and were obliged to have details from the infantry. This plan showed, as many others had done, his great tact and perfect knowledge of the actual requirements of the situation."
May 17, 1864, the two guns belonging to the Left section were turned in. Kept the caissons, but Serg't. Elisha J. Gibbs took the guns to Belle Plain. The Reserve Artillery had been broken up and the batteries were attached to the several corps.
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