USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 10
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* We have, in the histories we have quoted, strong admissions of the plucky fight made here by our regiment, in that we attacked Jackson with great gal- lantry, our fre appearing dancing along the top of the walls (stone walls), accompanied by the sharp explosion of the rifles, and the bullets whistling up the road. (See Dabney, p. 1cz.)
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his company, upon outpost duty. It was with regret that I was compelled to hurry the regiment off from Kernstown, leaving in the hands of the enemy those of their wounded comrades whom they had supported while so faithfully guard- ing the rear of my colunm.
I had sent my aid for ambulances as I have said, and he had, in the night, found three full of wounded, which he had taken to the hospitals, emptied, sent off, and then searched for more ; but one surgeon sent him to another, who referred him to a third, with as much interest as if he were in search of forage for his horse. Finally, he sought for Gen. Banks, but could not find him ; then he came across Gen. Shields's surgeons, but they had no appliances for any one but Gen. Shields's sick. Then he searched unknown places, and found an ambulance, but the driver was afraid to go back, so my aid procured a soldier to drive, and came to where I had been, to find that I had become anxious at the non- appearance of the Second, and had gone out to meet it. Fol- lowing with his single ambulance, he got well out beyond the pickets ; but finding that the regiment was still farther out how much he could not imagine, he returned again to town. " ?
We had thas reached Winchester. From between two and three o'clock in the afternoon of the 24th, to between two and three o'clock in the morning of the 25th, we had held back the enemy. Though we could not cut through their columns, we had not only snatched from them much valuable property that they were just ready to grasp, but had so delayed their march that ample time had been afforded Banks to remove all the public property in town to a place of safety, and take such measures for the future as sound judgment should dictate. I determined to hunt up Gen. Banks, and give him such facts as the experiences I have related revealed. With-
* Lieut. Francis, then acting as regimental quartermaster, had been more fortunite, and met the regiment with half a dores ambulances, but the wounded hau been captured.
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out much difficulty I found the house he occupied in town, Hle was in a bedroom, but had not retired ; before him was a bathing-tub, giving evidence that he had found time to enjoy that luxury. To confirm, so far as he would reveal, my own belief in the force of the enemy, and that they would attack at daylight with a force that could overwhelm us at once, I brought with me my once inebriated surgeon, now, however, completely sobered. In a few words I tokl Banks all that had befallen us, urging that this afforded confirmation of the belief I had expressed to him the preceding night at Strasburg, and then bringing forward my prisoner, I pre- sented him as a man who, if he would speak at all, would tell the truth. I appealed to him. He replied that, filled with regret as he was at the circumstances of his capture, we could hardly expect him to reveal the number of Gen. Jack- - son's army ; still he would say that he believed his force to be greatly superior to ours, and further that it was Gen. Jack- son's intention to attack us at daylight, that is, he did not doubt such was his intention ; and then, said he, with a show ot humor, " If you can whip him, he won't whip you." If my own assertions, backed up by my prisoner, made any impres- sion on Gen. Banks, I did not perceive it. To my appeal that now, even at this hour, all the public property in the town should be sent forward to the other side of the Potomac, and preparations made to retire in proper order, before the tremendous odds against us, destroying publie property that conH not be transported, Banks preserved the same stolid front. the same or a more unintelligible silence than had met ine at Strasburg. Informing him, if he asked me, of the position of my brigade, I withdrew without a word from him of his plans.
Gen. Williams, commanding our division, was calnily sleep- ing in the principal hotel in Winchester. It required loud calls, added to the sound of my cavalry boots and spurs, as I stalked heavily along the halls in search of his nom, to bring
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him at last to the door of his apartment, where, as his red face beamed above his long flannel night-shirt, he was a spectacle to behold. To advise him of the situation, to represent how uncomfortable his interview with Gen. (Stone- wall) Jackson would be in such apparel, was the work of a moment. Other brigadier-generals, unattached to any com- mand, - Greene and Crawford, - in night array, had listened to my interview with Williams ; but under the circumstances these gentlemen were men of leisure. It was still dark, though near daylight, when I turned from the hotel, and sought my old Winchester quarters, if haply I might seize . a few moments' rest, the first in forty-eight hours.
I found the place my aid had selected for a very temporary headquarters, and threw myself upon a bed without removing an article of clothing ; but hardly had I touched the blankets when there came to my ears the sound of a horse's gallop, drawing nearer and nearer, until it ceased at my door. The rider was Major Dwight, and his greeting, " Colonel, the pick- ets are falling back ! the enemy is advancing!" It was four o'clock in the morning.
Gen. Jackson closely followed up from Kernstown my retiring column. Not until he had advanced so far that the coveted heights were within his easy grasp did he halt, and then, allowing the main body of his army to lie down upon the roadside for an hour's sleep, he pushed forward his skirmish- ers, who, although drenched with the dew, waded through the rank fields of clover and wheat, and stumbled across ditches in the darkness * until they encountered my outlying line of piskets, with whom for an hour they kept up a con- stant fire. Although through all the fatigue of the two days through which our regiment had passed, Capt. Cogswell main- tained stoutly through the remainder of the night his anequal combat with the enemy's skirmishers, holding them on his front at bay. But not much to be envied were those com-
« Dibney, p. 134.
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panies of my brigade who, during that brief hour, were allowed to rest. The constant firing at the outposts ; the weary march of over twenty miles, prolonged through fifteen hours, and the fight of one of them, the Second, from 3 P. M. until 2 A. M. of the next day ; the coldness of the night, and the want of shelter and blankets, combined to make sleep almost impos- sible.
" Yes, I will be there instantly." I replied to Major Dwight, as I jumped from my blankets and threw myself into the sad- dle. Galloping rapidly to Banks's headquarters, I rushed into his bedroom, and exclaimed, "Gen. Banks, the question of what is to be done has now settled itself. The enemy, now moving in force, has almost reached the town. I shall put my brigade instantly in line of battle upon the heights I now occupy. If you have any orders to give, you will find me there to receive them." Banks replied, " Yes, sir." Was he thinking, I wondered, of the opinions of his friends, or of the bayonets beyond the dark crests of the hills ; where for more than an hour, in the early dawn, without a cloak to protect Him from the chilling dews, standing as a sentinel at the head of his column, listening to every sound from his front, looking at the figures of the Federal skirmishers as on the hill-tops they stood out in distinct relief against the faint blush of the morning sky, was the figure of Stonewall Jackson. In a quiet under-tone the word " Forward !" had now fallen from his lips, was passed onward down his columns, and his hosts arising from their short slumbers, chill and stiff with the cold night damps, were advancing to battle * Ere the word was given, a dispatch from Ewell announced that he too was ready ; that early in the night he had reached a position three miles from the town, on Jackson's right, and that his pickets were yet one mile in a lvance. i
Dabney, p. 104.
1 Cooke, p. 149.
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CHAPTER VI.
Ox the north and west, within about one third of a mile from the town, a commanding ridge partially surrounds Winchester, and extends southwesterly parallel to the pike- road to Strasburg. South of the town the country is broken up into hills, which reach to within a mile of Kernstown. As you stand on the southern end of the ridge, facing south- ward, there is on your left the turnpike gradually surmounting a gentle ascent, in your front a valley, and beyond, the crest of a higher ridge, perhaps four hundred yards distant. Turn to your right and look up the valley, and you will see that it leads to the summit of a hill to the west, of about the height of the ridge on which you stand, but lower than the one beyond the valley, and, perhaps, a hundred yards from you.
When I arrived at the spot where the regiments of my brigade had dropped down to sleep, I found them forming in line in the valley I have described. Posting my battery of Parrotts (six guns, under command of Lieut. Peabody) on the bluff end of the ridge, I moved my brigade up the val- ley, and occupied the summit of the hill to the right and a little farther to the front, with the Second Massachusetts Regiment ; next came the Third Wisconsin, farther down the ravine the Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania, and on the left the Twenty-Seventh Indiana. Before us, just over the crest of the hill opposite, was the enemy, but they could not show themselves without being in sight and range of my com- mand. From one and a half to two miles on my left, on the Front Royal road, Ewell was confronted by Donelly's Brigade
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of three regiments, the Twenty-Eighth New York, Fifth Connecticut, Forty-Sixth Pennsylvania, and Best's United States Battery of six smooth-bore brass pieces, under com- mand of Lieut. Crosby. The country in front of Donelly on the south and east is almost level.
From this description it will be seen that, with Winchester as a centre, we occupied at daylight of the 25th a portion of an arc the whole of which was at least two and a half miles in length, or 4,400 yards. We could with our command occupy only 1,750 yards of the 4,400; for 3,500 men in two ranks will cover no more. In other words, we could extend over a little more than one third of our front. With 16,000 infantry in two ranks in line of battle, the enemy-could not only encircle our entire front, but extend beyond our right and left flanks 1, 800 yards, or forty more than a mile. With my brigade and Donelly's we could occupy only the flanks of our line; the centre was unprotected, except by a fire from Best's Battery, which was so posted as to bear upon either flank of the enemy's line.
My picket line, which had occupied the summit of the hill opposite our position, had been driven back upon the mai:, body just before my arrival. Gen. Jackson had hoped to seive those hills, before daylight warned us of his pres- ence ;* but if the detention of the previous day did not show the futility of such a wish, the strong line of pickets that confronted . him must have been more convincing. Jackson, looking upon this position as the key-point upon the field, and determining to possess it, threw forward, after a careful examination of a few moments, a brigade of infantry, under Gen. Winder, -- the Stonewall Brigade, - and strengthening this on its right with the Fifth Virginia . Regiment, he threw this force, larger than my whole com- mand, against my pickets on his front. This was the con- test that aroused me from an attempt to secure a moment's
. Cu ke's Life of factors, p. 1.4).
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sleep. Of course my pickets gave way, and when I reached the ground the enemy were in possession of their coveted prize, -- the hill beyond the ravine, in front of my battery and my line of infantry.
"That the enemy did not post their powerful artillery upon the foremost of these heights, supported by their main force, was," ejaculates the pious Dabney,* " due to the will of God." To which I reply that it was due to the will of the War Department, which deprived us of the requisite numbers of troops to hold any position against the overwhelming force in our front.
To continue: As soon as Jackson got possession of this hill, he advanced there, just below its crest, a strong detach- ment of artillery, composed of the batteries of Poague, Car- penter, and Cutshaw, and these he supported with two brigades of infantry, the Stonewall Brigade and that of Gen. John A. Campbell.
As the Second Regiment moved up on the right of the line to the crest of the hill, the enemy opened upon it with grape ; but this dil not disconcert or cause it to waver; steadily it moved on and took up its position. Col. An- drews then threw out to his right and front his right com- pany, commanded by Capt. Savage, as a covering skirmish- line. Soon, however, this company was sent forward to a stone wall a few rods in advance.
It was now five o'clock in the morning. As my eye fell on the enemy's columns, under Winder, moving up in support of their batteries, I ordered my gunners to fire upon them ; and at the same time Capt. Savage, finding the enemy's artil- lery within good range from his stone wall, opened upon their gunners. Now. Col. Andrews strengthened Capt. Savage by Capt. Cary's Company.
While the fire from my battery was incessant and effective, the two companies of the Second behind the wall poured an
* Dabney's Life of Jackson, p. 104.
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annoying fire into the enemy's gunners, and the two right companies of the regiment added to the effect by firing volleys at their battery. The effect of our artillery fire was to drive the enemy's columns back over the crest of the hill, where they had for a moment vauntingly showed them- selves, and to cause one of their gurs to be abandoned by their cannoneers. From five until almost seven o'clock in the morning, a fire of shell, round shot, and canister was poured forth upon my command, from which nothing saved us but the accurate aim of our men of the Second, who from behind the stone wall and the crest of the hill drove the enemy's gunners under cover so that their firing was wild.
The Southern account of this two hours of the fight bears testimony to the pluck with which we responded to our enemy's challenge.# Gen. Jackson, it seems, had been an observer of our movements. He is described as having ridden forward with two fiekl-officers, Campbell and another, to the very crest of the hill, and amidst a perfect shower of balls observed the position. It is said that though both the officers beside him were specdily wounded. he sat calmly on his horse until he had satisfied himself of our dispositions. He saw, it is said, my battery, as I was posting it on the edge of the ridge ; he saw, neater to his left front, Captains Cary and Savage just seizing a position behind an oblique stone fence ; and he saw these gallant fellows pouring a galling fire upon his gunners that struck down many men and horses. lle saw his battery, sometimes almost silenced, holding well up to jemishunt, until Winder ordered it to change front to the left and bring part of their guns to bear with solid shot, to shatter the wall, behind which were the two
* This part of the contest is spoken of as a ' fierce cann nade, intermingled with a sharp, rattling fire of rifle-men," the smoke ot which " melted away into the silvery vol of May dows, extraed by the beams of the rising sun." (See Dabney's Lite of Jackson, 1. 104)
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companies of the Second. With solid shot crashing into and over them, and with canister raking them, Gen. Jackson found that not one inch could he make Savage or Cary turn back, although Cary was knocked over by a flying stone, hit by a shell that killed a man by his side.
As Jackson looked upon the scene. it is represented that he did not doubt that the enemy would attempt to drive his artillery from this vital position and occupy it with their own ; and so turning to Col. Neff, commanding the Thirty-Third Virginia Infantry, then supporting Carpenter's Battery, he asked him, -- 1
" Colonel, where is your regiment posted ?"
" Here," he replied.
"I expect," answered Jackson, " the enemy to bring artillery to this hill : they must not do it. If they attempt to come, charge them with the bayonet." *
Then after this survey, Icaving two more of his batteries to reply to my single one, Jackson, glancing again at the scene, planned his attack and turned to his command.i
* Dabney relates this incident as of such powerful cast, that He uses the words " striden: voice " and " blood tingle" to convey its effect. (See Dabrey's Life of Jackson, p. IC .. )
+ There is still another account of the forwar I movement of the enemy to the hill upon which ofr pithets were stationed, of their reception by my brigade, and of Jackson's observation of the scene: " When the Fifth Virginia was thrown forward as skirmishers in advance of Wilder's Brigade, which was deployed in line of battle, a rush was made for the hill, and they [our three or four com- panies on picket duty] recolled before the Confederate fire, and the Southern troops, uttering loud cheers, gained the crest and were in possession of the hill. Prompt measures were then taken to improve this advantage, and open the at- task with on energy which should give the Polera! foress no time to prepare. They had hastily opened with a battery directly in front, and to dislodge these guns, Carpenter's and Cutshaw's Batteries, with two Parrott guns from the Rock- bridge Artillery, were rapidly placed in position and opened fire. The battle speedily commenced in good earnest. It was absolutely necessary, if the Federal forces expected to hold the town of Winchester, that the Contrderates should be dislodged from their comman ling position, and a body of Federal sharp. shooters was promptly throw forward to thel jackson's let, and drive him, if possible,
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Turning now to the southeastern part of the town, the left of our line of battle, we find Col. Donelly confronting Ewell. Having reached his position within two miles of Winchester at ten o'clock the preceding evening, Ewell at dawn had continued his march until he confronted our outlying pickets. This command consisted, as will be remembered, of a North Carolina brigade, under Gen. Trimble, the First Maryland Regiment, and two batteries, Courtney's and Brockenbrough's. As Ewell advanced his brigade, the left regiment, under com- mand of Col. Kirkland, encountered Donelly's Brigade in line,
from the Hill. [So the enemy seems to have interpreted the movements of Cap- tains Savage and Caly.] At the same moment another Federal battery began to thunder on the left, and a dangerous enfilade fire was poured upon the Southern lines This alvarce of infantry and the fire of the new battery was promptly responded to by Jackson. The battery in his front had been reduced to silence, and his guns were now turned upon the enemy's sharp-shooters, who hastily retreated behind a heavy stone fence that protected them. From this excellent position they opened a galling and destructive fire on the cannoneers and horses attached to the Confederate batteries, which were now engaged hotly on the left. The combined fire of sharp-shooters and artillery was so heavy that Capt. Poague, who was most exposed to the enemy, was compelled to change position in the midst of a storm of bills. He rapidly withdrew his guns, moved to the left and rear, and again taking position, poured a determined fire upon the enfilad- ing batteries of the enemy. The Federal sharp-shooters continued to fire from their position behind the stone wall with a precision which was galling and danger is in the extreme. No one could mount to the crest of the hill without healing the sudden report of their excellent long-range guns, succeeded by the whistling of balls near his person. Col. Campbell, comman ling the Second Brigade of Jackson's divi-ton. wert up to the summit to reconnoitre, and was giv- ing seine directions to Col. Patton, the senier officer under him, when a ball pierced his arm and breast, and he was borne from the field, leaving Patton in command. To drive out these persistent and accurate marksmen, Capt. Poague threw several solid shot at the wall which protected them, but in spite of the mis- shes and crashing stones around them, the The of sharp-shooters still gallantly held their position." - Cov's Life of Jackson, f. 19.
[NOTE -- The battery upon which Dabney says " Carpenter and Cutshaw also ke: t up so s; frited a contest with the batteries jt the direction of the town as to silence thul fire," was n'est's smooth-bore battery, which alone, near the Stras- burg pike and to my left, formed the centre of our line of battle. The battery which Cooke say, began to thunder on Jackson's left with a dangerous enfilading fire was mi battery of Parrotte. -- AUTHOR .. ]
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covered by a stone wall. Donelly's fire was terrific. We claim that Kirkland's regiment was nearly destroyed. The enemy admit that all the field-officers were wounded, and that the " gallant regiment was obliged to recoil"* (run away). Ewell then sent in the Twenty-First Georgia Regiment. Approaching with caution, its fate was better than that of its predecessor ; but yet Donelly was not routed nor in danger of it, either from that mode of attack or from any other that the small force Jackson had given Ewell could make. Seeing this, Trimble suggested throwing forward the right and turn- ing Donelly's flank. It was done, and the enemy claim that Donelly, who had been driven from his cover by the Georgia regiment, now gave way entirely. i In his report Gen. Banks thinks that Trimble's flank movement was abandoned, because Gen. Williams, our division commander, seeing the movement, sent a detachment of cavalry to intercept it. 2:
Could Donelly have held Ewell back? It is more than probable, if there had been no other force confronting us. Did Jackson's movements on my flank, by causing me to with- draw, compel Donelly to retire? It is quite probable : Banks so writes in his report. Why then did I withdraw? To answer
* Dabney, p. 100. t "Meanwhile Ewell had not been idie. As soon as Jackson's guns were heard on the lett, he raphilly advanced towards the southeast side of the town, and became engaged with the enemy, who were posted on the hills, and in the farm houses which here dot the rolling landscape. The Twenty-First North Carolina and Twenty-First Georgii attacked and drove lack the advanced force of the enemy, and Ewell pushed rapidly forward. But here, as on the left, one of these obstinate stone walls which appear so often in the narrative of bat- ties in the valley, offered its bristling front to his purpose. The Federal sharp- shooters lined it, and resting their guas on the top poured into the ranks of the Twenty-First North Carolina, which were in advance, so destructive a fire, that they were forced to fall back with heavy loss. This success was, however, brief ; taking the place of the repulsed regiment, the Twenty-Flist Germain tande a de. termined charge, the enemy were di.ven trin their cover, and the main body of Ewell's forces, which had been arrested by this obstacle, swept forward amidst the thunders of artillery to the assault." - C o42, 2. 153. # Punks's Report.
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this, I resume my narrative. For two hours the Stonewall Brigade (Jackson's own, under Gen. Winder) with Carpenter's and Taliaferro's Brigades, and three batteries, had been held in check on the heights opposite by the rifles of the Second Massachusetts and by the battery of six Parrotts on our flank. During this time the roar of artillery and infantry on our left before Donelly was continuous. And now Gen. Jackson, thinking the battle had reached a critical stage,* determined to strike a final blow. For this purpose he ordered forward one of his reserve brigades, the one commanded by Gen. Taylor. This, with Elsey's Brigade, was in reserve behind the mill-house on the turnpike, about three fourths of a mile from town. Burning with eagerness, Jackson's impatience outstripped the speed of his messenger, and he rode rapidly to meet it ; then conducting it by a hollow way in rear of the two brigades before us, he gained the cover of a wood to our right, and here directing its rapid formation in line of battle with the left regiments, thrown forward i to gain our rear, he was ready for his assault.
The moment the enemy began to emerge from the woods, Col. Andrews, through Major Dwight. reported to me that he could see them advancing in line of battle directly upon our right flank. Receiving this message while opposite the centre of my brigade line, I dashed up to the head of our regiment, jumped from my horse, and with Col. Andrews crawled for- ward to the crest of the hill, just behind which our regiment was in line. On any day in spring the view from that summit would have been most fascinating. There to the south and west were a cluster of beautiful hills, commanding the town, and covered with luxurious clover and pasturage, with here and there a forest grove crowning the eminences. Everywhere the fields wore enclosed with fences and stone walls. The ver- dure of the forest trees, the rich green of the grasses, the blue sky overhead, and the soft beams of the morning sun-
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