USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 11
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Dabney. pp. Ics, 10g.
f Dabney, pp. 124-139.
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light, lent all their beauties to adorn the picture. But to all that Nature offered, man had added his touch to stamp forever the scene upon my mind. There, just below us, in good rifle-range, preceded by swarms of skirmishers, regi- ment after regiment of the enemy were moving in good order steadily but rapidly up the hill .* Farther south, com- ing from the direction of the Strasburg pike, and gallop- ing across the fields, I saw a new battery urged. forward to a new position to support this attack ; while nearer my centre, the crest of the hill was wreathed with the smoke of the three batteries that for two hours had tried, in vain, to drive us from our position. There was no time to linger. In an instant I again mounted my horse ; ordered the Twenty- Ninth Pennsylvania and the Twenty-Seventh Indiana to move by flank on the run and extend to the right of the Second, at the same time directing a section of my battery to the front, where the guns could bear upon the enemy's columns. But at this time a shell killed one man and three horses, so that the guns were pulled up by hand, and progress was necessa- rily slow. Before the arrival of these regiments the Second had opened upon the enemy a heavy fire of musketry, which was taken up and continued by the new regiments as they came into position. Although the enemy claim that their flanking column was greeted with a shower of shells and rifle-
* This was Taylor's Brigade, numbering 4,000 men (about five hundred more than the whole of Banks's arayy, as appears from the following letter to me from Gen. Geo. L. Andrews, my former lieutenant colonel : --
" WEST POINT, N. Y., June 144, 1875.
" Din General, - . . . After the surrender at Meridian, on the borders of Alabama and Mississippi; where I went to receive the parole of General Taylor's army, I had a conversation with the latter about the Winchester fight. In the course of it, I said that if we could have opposed his whole brigade with a battery, and reserved the intantry the longer, I thought we might have checked him.
" He replied in substance that no doubt we should have hurt them a good deal, but he thought we could not have stopped bin ; adding, ' I had 4,coo men in that brigade.'"
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balls, it is true to history to state that when the Twenty- Ninth Pennsylvania and Twenty-Seventh Indiana reached their position, they were imperfectly formed; their fire was hasty and less effective than it should have been. At all events, the fire did not check the advance of the enemy, who, somewhat favored by the ground, formed his lines with the accuracy of a parade.
When Jackson saw Taylor in motion, he galloped along the rear of his line to the centre, and ordered a general advance ; then again moving to the hill where Carpenter's Battery was firing upon our lines, the same from which he had exposed himself at the beginning, he is represented as mounting it with an air of eager caution, and peering like a deer-stalker over its summit as soon as his eyes reached its level .* What Jackson saw ought to have encouraged him ; for now, looking down upon the steady movement of Taylor (despite the fire we poured into him), he saw the Twenty-Ninth and Twenty- Seventh of my brigade break into disorder and begin to fall to the rear ; he saw the Second holding on for a moment, then turn, and we were in retreat. i
"I can't help it," replied Col. Andrews, as I rode hastily up to him with the question, "Why are you falling back ?" It was true. With his right uncovered it would have been madness to remain." " Move in order, then, and retreat steadily," I replied, giving the same caution to the Third
* Dahrey, p. Ico.
t Gen. Andrews says, in letter of June 14th referred to, " The fire of the two regiments (Twenty-Seventh Indian and Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania), opened at first at too great a distance frera the enemy, suddetily ceased; the men broke ranks and fell to the rear. I now gave the command to the Second Massachusetts, . By company, right wheel. march !' intending to deploy forward and support what was left of the line opposed to the enemy ; but I soon saw that there was nothing left in line to oppose the enemy. The Twenty-Ninth Penns; Ivania had partially rallied i. a line olai que to the front of the Second Massachusetts, before the wheel into column, having their backs turned towards us. The Second Massachusetts being now in column of companies, I moved it to the rear towards the town by the right of companies, the organization being perfectly preserved."
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Wisconsin, as it too turned. The scene unfolded to Jack- son was one in which two regiments were retiring, some- what in disorder, down the hill towards the town ; another, the Second Massachusetts, was breaking to the rear in col- umns of companies as quietly and orderly as if on parade ; while the fourth and last, the Third Wisconsin, with line of battle formed to the rear by an about face, was moving leis- urely in retreat. Seeing this, Jackson, setting spurs to his horse, bounded upon the crest, and shouted to the officers nearest to him, " Forward after the enemy !" .Then, on right, left, and centre, they swarmed in pursuit. There in front were the Stonewall, Carpenter's, and Taliaferro's Brigades ; to my right was Taylor's Brigade; and hurrying up from the reserve was Elscy's, --- all in pursuit of my four regiments, who were now in full retreat for the town .*
On right, left, and centre, immensely superior columns of the enemy were pressing upon my brigade, which numbered at the beginning of the fight, all told, exactly 2,101 infantry and one battery. Not another man was available. There was no support between us and the Potomac. ; Above the surrounding crests surged the enemy, who opened upon us a sharp and withering fire of musketry. A storm of bullets from the hill where we ha ! so long confronted the main body of Jackson's forces crossed their fire with that from Taylor's Brigade now on the crest in our rear. Above the din of mus- ketry, a yell of triumph rose from the endless columns that seemed to gird the town. My troops were not dismayed. though many had fallen. We had not yet gained the cover of the streets, and some of my brigade, notably the Second
* Dabney, p. 109.
t During our whole fight the Tenth Maine Regiment, on duty as a provost- guard at Winchester, was allowed to perform the- duty. If Bucks knew they were in towr, he did not call upon them. It is dalmed that they were held in reserve ; but it is manifest that if, in that battle of Winchester, it was proper to Lold any troops in reserve, there was no lack of occasion to call upon them ; and this was not done. See Madine in the War, p. 229.
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Massachusetts and Third Wisconsin, disdained to do so until again they had turned in defiance upon the foe .* In full sight of Jackson and his army, the Second kept its formation, and delivered its fire, while three companies of the Third Wisconsin, from behind a stone wall, emptied their muskets into the faces of the advancing lines.
Not until my acting adjutant's f horse was shot dead by my side, not until my aid returned to reply that he had given my message to Gen. Banks that my right had been turned, and I was falling back, did I, with the last of my command, leave the field and turn into the streets of Winchester. We had made our last stand, and though driven after a three hours' fight, in such a retreat there was nothing of shame. There were but fifteen rounds of ammunition left for iny battery ; and there was no ammunition-train from which to replenish the cartridge-boxes of the infantry. All this, if there were no other reasons for turning when we did ; but there was another, even this : a delay of a few minutes from the time the Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania and Twenty-Seventh Indiana broke to the rear from the right would have caused our cap- ture or destruction. It was officially reported { that an order to these regiments to fall back was given. If so, it was with- out authority. I feel sure none was ever given ; but in view of the results, I cannot condemn the want of discipline that caused it.
* It was ab. at this time that Lieut. Crowninshield was wounded. Says Capt. Comey, of the Second Massachusetts Regiment, in a letter of April 24, 1$75 : " The right of the column had nearly reached a street on the outskirts of the town when Crowninshield was hit, and cried our, "Tamish !! Dinor leave me!' Inme- diately we left the ranks and want to lis assiconte ; found him trying to rise from the ground. Together we strove to reach the town, - had but little hopes of doing so, as the rebels were closing in on all sides but one. Sergt. McDowell came to our assistance, and picking Crowninshield up, we hurried him to one of the main streets, ont peciny him in an ambulance, he started for a saf place. The driver of the ambulance at one time was going to cut the traces and leave, but Crowninshield's revo'ver persuaded Lin to stand by."
" Ment. Char'e: P. Heton, of the Second Massachusetts. Banks's Report.
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As my troops faded away into the streets of Winchester, the scene, as painted in colored sketches by the imaginative Dabney, * is represented as the most imposing sight that ever greeted the eyes of a victorious captain. "Far to the east," he says, "the advancing lines of Ewell rolled forward, concealed in waves of white smoke from their volleys of mus- ketry, as they were rapidly passing the suburbs of the town. On the west, the long and glittering lines of Taylor, after one thundering discharge, were sweeping at a bayonet charge up the reverse of the hills with irresistible momentum. Nearer the general (Jackson) came the Stonewall Brigade, with the gallant Twenty-Third Virginia, who sprung from their lairs, ? and rushed panting down the hillsides. Between him (Jack- son) and the town the enemy were everywhere breaking away from the walls and fences, behind which they had sheltered themselves, at first with some semblance of order, but then dissolving into a vast confusion, in which the infantry, mounted officers, and artillery crowded and surged through the streets."
Vast confusion ! Our artillery and infantry moved through the town in as good order as the crowded condition of the streets would permit. The Second Massachusetts Regiment, marching in order, passed through the lower part of the sub- urbs, and formed in line by Lieut .- Col. Andrews with perfect steadiness and regularity, in order to change the position of certain companies # that they might be, if the fight were to Le continued, in the order provided for by the regulations. To do this, he threw out his guides to secure a good alignment. A hot fire of grape and shell from the enemy's batteries close
* P. 169. i " Lairs " is good.
t In Gen. Andrews's letter, of June 14, he says, " I supposed the struggle might be renewed in the town itself, as I saw some troops apparently disposed to make a stand in one of the streets of the town. It was in one of the streets that I halted the regiment and rectified the position of some of the companies that had got out of place in fling into the narrow streets. Soon finding, however, that every- thing was in full retreat, I marched of the regiment."
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to the town, the near approach of the cavalry, and the victo- rious cheers of their infantry about his ears, induced Col. Andrews to follow the retreating column, even though he sacrificed some paragraphis of the tactics. The Second, the last regiment to leave the town, followed the line of the rail- road, which for some miles runs parallel to the road from Win- chester to Martinsburg, and joined the main body of Banks's. column a few miles out ; but the enemy were so close upon them that Major Dwight fell into their hands. He could have escaped but for his sympathy with a wounded man, whom he aided into a house .*
Return now to the main street, through which, towards Martinsburg, moved the main column of our troops. An eiger enemy was close upon us; there was no time for any arrangement or defence. Pursuers and pursued were swal- lowed from view, and the rout roared through every street with rattling rifle-shots and ringing cheers f from the enemy. In the main street I found myself, with my staff, in rear of a battery. All around and in front, there was a confused mob. At the windows and on the piazzas there were more
" After Major Dwight's capture, a very quiet and peaceable affair (given by Quint in " Second Massachusetts Record"), the major remained! in Winchester, and of course was ne inactive. He visttel the scene of our fight, reviewed our position, comforted the wounded, and buried our dead. For some required con- veniences Major Dwight was compelled to appeal to Gen. Jackson, of whom the major had often heard me speak as an old friend and classmate, as well as asso- ciate in our Mexican War. It vas urged by Major Dwight, in his appeal to Stonewall Jackson, that he was a major in the Second Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Col. Gordon, of Massachusetts, "who is, I believe," said the major, "an old friend of yours."
" Friend of mine, sir ? " replied " old Jack." " He was, sir, once a friend."
Major Dwight retired, his request unheeded. As I write these lines, the name of " T. J. Jackson, of Virginia," confronts ine from a sheet filled with the auto- graph. of my classmates at the Military Academy at West Point, reminding me of that boy companion to whom the dawn of life was as serious as its close, - that honest, dear "old Jack," who as Lieut .- Gen (Stonewall) Jackson remem- bored me, in 1862, no longer as a friend - AUTHOR.
{ Dabney, p. 104.
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men than I had ever before seen in the town. Women, too, were there, well dressed, rushing to their doors and windows with unrepressed expressions of joy at our defeat. Besides soldiers, horses, and batteries, there were men, women, and children in the streets, each making frantic efforts to get out of the way. Amidst the crack of rifle-shots and the bursting of shells ; # through the fire of musketry and pistol-shots, which killed many of our men in the street ; and worse than all, under the humiliation of jeers and taunting glances of defiance from young and old, male and female, we at length came out of the town upon the north, on the Mar- tinsburg road, where a long column of baggage-wagons, divis- ion, brigade, and regimental, were making their way in fair order towards the Potomac. Gen. Jackson was in possession of Winchester. Greeted with every demonstration of affec- tion by the inhabitants, Jackson is represented as, for the first and only time in his life, tearing a greasy, faded old forage- cap from his head, swinging it in the air, and attempting to cheer ; then, with his " face inflamed with towering passion and triumph, galloping amidst the foremost of his pursuers and urging them upon the enemy."
With all the baggage that we had saved from Strasburg, and with all that we had added at Winchester, leaving behind us the sick, the dying, the dead, and many prisoners, we moved rapidly northward for Williamsport to cross the Poto- mac. As we gained the hill north of the town, I turned to look back upon the ridge of which I have spoken as almost surrounding Winchester. The entire crest for three parts of this vast circumference was covered with the enemy. Now, for the first time, I saw Gen. Banks making a feeble effort to arrest the troops, and uttering some words about promised reinforcements. Turning his eyes backward I think there was no doubt in his own mind that the enemy had developed his force to him, - thus reversing the necessity
* One of which burst close to us, nearly demolishing a house.
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with which Gen. Banks had met my most urgent appeals on the night of the 23d of May, -- " I must develop the force of the enemy." Gen. Banks had made no provision for a retreat, evidently believing that, with his inferior force, he should com- ply with his telegram to the War Department, sent the day before, and return to Strasburg. * Why, encumbered as we were with baggage and wagons and all the material that hours before should have been sent away, we were not de- stroyed, must be answered by those who claim that, on this occasion, Jackson exhibited the highest order of military talent.
The pursuit was feeble in the extreme. Jackson with his whole force followed us to Bunker Hill, thirteen miles, but finding that he could not ilank or cut us off, he halted his in- fantry and gave up the pursuit to Ashby, the untiring, who continued it with his battery and cavalry, sending shells, round shot, and grape into our rear, with destruction to some bat- tery-horses and a few men; but even this was stopped at Martinsburg. After twenty-four miles of mounted pursuit of foot-men, even Ashby was tired. Where was Stewart with his three cavalry regiments, Ashby's, Mumford's, and Flour- noy's, to oppose Gen. Hatch with less than one (he had, as it will be remembered, less than nine hundred men at Strasburg). Undoubtedly a feeble pursuit by cavalry was made on the Beryville road and on the railroad, where broken parts of our command were seeking to make their way to Harper's Ferry : many stragglers, and men wearied from long marching, fasting, and fighting, also the wounded " who had sunk on the ground overpowered," -many such were picked up by the enemy's cavalry ; but what else ? What, that any commander of even ordinary ability would have done, under similar circumstances ?
* Such a telegram? was in the hands of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and an explanation asked of a witness who was attempting to show that Banks knew before he left Strasburg, the number of Jackson's forces. When banks in his oficial report said he did knowy the number, he forgot this telegram.
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Feeling the necessity of defending him, Dabney or Cooke, or both of them, aver that Gen. Jackson ordered Gen. Stewart to follow with his cavalry, and capture us, even as Flournoy had ridden down and captured Kenly on the 23d in his attempt at escape ; and Stewart would not obey, because he was under the immediate command of Ewell, from whom he had received no orders. What man of military fame would not blush at such an excuse! It is with amazement that I, even now, recall that retreat from Winchester. Encun bered with baggage, a wearied, defeated, overworked, and despond- ing force plods on its foot-march for fifty-four miles to the Potomac, receiving a constant fire of artillery in its rear for twenty-four miles, and is permitted to cross, its material and its troops occupying in so doing until ten o'clock of the next day ; and this without an attempt to waylay, to flank, or to surprise it with a cavalry force in numbers quite equal to if not exceeding one half of all Banks's command.
It was cleven o'clock at night when the last of our column reached the banks of the Potomac, opposite Williamsport. Our men tumbled down upon the grass and slept until 2 A. Mf. of the 26th, when we were aroused to begin the passage of the river. The scene before crossing seems to have struck Gen. Banks # as " of the most animating and exciting descrip- tion." " A thousand camp-fires," he says, " were burning on the hillsides, a thousand carriages of every description were crowded on the banks ; and the broad river rolled between the exhausted troops and their coveted rest." The appliances for crossing were most inadequate. It was a mercy that Jackson's unwilling cavalry and too tired infantry did not follow us up ; it was a crime not to be forgiven that our passage of that river depended upon such contingencies. For the passage of the " thousand wagons" (if there were a thousand) by the "thousand camp-fires" ; there was a single ferry, and over this the ammunition-wagons had precedence. In the ford,
« Ranks's Report.
! One wagon to each fare.
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too deep for safety, many hapless mules were drowned and many wagons lost. Only a few strong animals got through. Some of the pontoon-boats, saved from the burning, luckily were found in our wagons, and with these, the ferry, and the ford, some in one way and some in another, all got safely to land. At midday of the 16th the last of our command had crossed, and there were "never more grateful hearts in the same number of men," says Banks, * "than when we stood on the opposite shore." I certainly can speak for one grateful heart, that of my colored woman Peggy, who with her child I passed among the first across the swollen river to a land of freedom.
Across the Potomac! Yes, we were again where, in July of the preceding year, we had made our march so gayly into Virginia. One more campaign was ended. There was now left from Banks's command on Virginia soil a feeble rear-guard of four companies from the Second Massachusetts and Third Wisconsin of my brigade.
The purposes and plans that animated Gen. Banks during this retreat were revealed to the world on the thirty-first day of May, 1862 (six days after the events here narrated had eccurred), in his Official Report. In this paper I not only learned for the first time what his plans were (if he had any) at our conference in Winchester, but I further found out that before three o'clock in the morning of the preceding day, the 24th, while at Strasburg, he knew all about " the extraordinary force of the enemy," and fully appreciated that " to attack him, he being in such overwhelming force, could only result in cer- tain destruction," and that "it was apparent that the enemy's troops, embracing at least 25,000 to 30,000 men, were close upon us." Now, with all this information and belief, Banks had arrived at Winchester, had heard all my statements in confirmation of his own opinions, had questioned my prisoner, had heard from all classes, - secessionists, Union men, refu-
~ Banks's Report.
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gees, fugitives, and prisoners, until as he says his " suspense was relieved, for all agreed that the enemy's force at or near Winchester was overwhelming, ranging from 25,000 to 30,000 men." With all this information, and conclusions based upon such incontrovertible testimony, Banks states in his Official Report that then and there at Winchester, he " determined to test the substance and strength of the enemy by actual collision."
Everything was confirmed at Winchester that was known at Strasburg of the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and yet Banks " determined to test by actual collision the sub- stance and strength of the enemy"; to attack an' encmy known to be "in such overwhelming force that our attack could only result in certain destruction" -to ourselves. And therefore upon his arrival at Winchester, Banks sent off his telegram to the War Department that he would return to Strasburg the next day .*
In conclusion, I may say that it was not until the scenes of that march from Strasburg had been carefully reviewed, not until the terrible fatigue, the heat and dust, the rack and roar of battle, the feared attacks of cavalry hovering around the long miles before us, the wide and dangerous river in our path, and the panic- stricken crowd of fugitives ; not until these were over could we fairly estimate our achievements. From the 24th of May, at eleven o'clock, A. M., until near midnight of the 25th, my brigade had marched from Stras- burg to Williamsport, a distance of fifty-four miles. To this, two miles more should be added to the march of the Second Massachusetts, on its return from Bartonville to Newtown, where we turned upon Jackson. Without sleep on the night of the 23d, the brigade marched the next day eighteen miles to Winchester. On this same day the Second Massachusetts not only marched farther than any other regiment of the brigade, but from three o'clock, p. M., until two o'clock of the next day,
* Alas for history when made up from Oncini Reports!
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it was engaged in an almost continuous skirmish with the enemy, holding back alone, in the most plucky manner, as narrated, the head of Jackson's army, materially defeating his plans, and giving ample opportunity, which might have been availed of, to remove much government property, that was destroyed or captured. And on the 25th, after two hours' rest, my brigade maintained its unequal contest for three hours against almost the whole of Jackson's army. In this the principal share of the fighting in the infantry fell to the Second Massachusetts. It was entirely due to this regi- ment that Jackson was unable to, or at any rate did not, seize the crests of the hill from which he had driven our pickets,* and render untenable the heights from which we at last fell back into the town. After their three hours' fight, my brigade marched thirty-six miles in about twelve hours.
On the evening of the same day in which we crossed the Potomac, Jackson's army, prostrated with fatigue and helpless as children, reached the vicinity of Williamsport. They had been overworked by their great commander, and to this we owed our safety.
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