USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 12
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There remains to consider our losses in this retreat, - first of men, second of material.
Banks, in his Oficial Report of Losses on the 24th and 25th, gives as total killed, 38; wounded, 155; missing, 711; total, 9044 ; he thinks the number of killed and wounded may be larger than this, while many missing may return, but that the aggregate w'll not be changed.f
Lieut .- Col. Andrews reports the loss in the Second Massa- chusetts Regiment on the 25th, as 7 killed and 28 wounded ; among the latter are included two commissioned officers, Capt.
* Major Dwight, while on parole at home, saw a Confederate captain at Fort Warren. taken at Cross Keyes. This captain sud to Dwight, " I have been in every battle in Virginia since B: HI Run, and I never was under such a fire as that of the Second Massachusetts at Winchester."
f To our own force, as enamerated, should be added five companies of Mary- land cavalry that were stationed at Winchester.
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Mudge and Second Lieut. Crowninshield. He also reports 131 missing, " though many are coming in daily, having been compelled to halt from exhaustion, and after recovery finding their way in by different routes." On the 24th, Lieut .- Col. Andrews reports his total loss to have been 3 killed and 17 wounded. Banks also reports that there were 189 men of Williams's Division sich in hospital at Strasburg, and that 125 of them were left in the hospital at Winchester and 64 not removed from Strasburg, -- left there with two surgeons and attendants. At Winchester, Dr. Stone of the Second was left in charge. In addition to these surgeons, there were 8 others who fell into the enemy's hands. Gen. Shields, when he marched for Fredericksburg, left 1,000 sick and disabled men at Strasburg. Banks says, "Surgeon King, division surgeon, exhibits the disposition of them," but does not say what it was.
Of material, Banks states, " All our guns were saved. Our wagon-train consisted of nearly five hundred wagons, of which number fifty-five were lost. They were not, with few excep- tions, abandoned to the enemy, but were burned # upon the road. Nearly all of our supplies were thus saved." But the stores at Front Royal, of which he " had no knowledge until" his visit to that post on the PIst inst., "and those at Win- chester, of which a considerable portion was destroyed by our troops," are not embraced in this statement. Quint ; says, " A wagon-train eight miles long lost only fifty wagons, and we brought off'all our artillery, losing only one caisson."
The enemy's account of his captures is put with force : " The complete success of our efforts can never be known. We have captured thousands of prisoners, killed and wounded
* I never heard of any wagens burned upon the road but the nine I destroyed ivar Newtown. I never heard of our recapture of the six miles of wagons, taken by the enemy between Strasburg and Middletown. -- AUTHOR.
+ Chaplain Second Massachusetts, in " Record of Second Massachusetts Infantry."
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hundreds more, seized miles of baggage-wagons, immense stores of every imaginable description, together with many cannon, thousands of small arms, ammunition by hundreds of tons, medicines, and public documents of value, thousands of shoes, and have burned millions of property for want of transportation."* Says another Southern writer, " Banks had abandoned at Winchester all his commissary and ordnance stores; he had left in our hands 4,000 prisoners, and stores amounting to millions of dollars." i
Our own papers reported our losses as very heavy. This excited Banks, who sent on the 31st of May, through the Associated Press, from Williamsport, a despatch that " Great regret and some indignation is felt here, that exaggerated and unauthorized and unfounded statements of losses of public property sustained by our retreat from Strasburg and Winchester have found publicity through papers at a distance. At present the figures cannot be accurately ascertained ; but the heaviest losses are known to be very light compared with the amounts exposed to cap- ture or abandonment by such a rapid retreat as it was nec- essary to perform."
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, in his order of May 29, 1862, announcing another brilliant victory by the combined divisions of Major-Generals Jackson and Ewell, constituting a portion of this army, over Gen. Banks at Front Royal, Middletown, and Winchester, declares " that several thousands of prisoners $ were captured, and an immense quantity of ammunition and stores of every description." $ Among other captures the enemy claimed to have taken a large amount of baggage at Cedar Creek, with all the knapsacks of the Zouaves,
* Ashton's Letter from Battle-Fields of the South, P. 324.
f Pollard's Los: Case.
# In Johnston's Narrative he puts the prisoners at 2,coo [probably nearly cor- rect. -- Autho ]. See Narrative of Military Operations, by Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. C. S. A., 1574, P. 120.
§ Richmond Examiner of June 5, IS6 ?.
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The original reports of this retreat, my own among the number, attributed many cold-blooded atrocities to the enemy. In the excitement of such a retreat, and thus early in the war, it was not strange that we put faith in improbable stories. I have before me the account of one of the theatrical company, whom I met in flight at Strasburg. He got through to Win- chester, slept through the fight there, and was captured. Taken for a Southerner, which he was by birth, he volunteered to drive Ashby to Martinsburg in an ambulance : Ashby, it appears, was wounded at Front Royal in the shoulder, and could not mount a horse. Following in the rear of our retreating army · amid cannonading and dust, he saw nothing of the reported cruelties, but upon one occasion was directed by Ashby to see if one of our men lying by the road-side was alive. He was of the Tenth Maine, -- was dead. "Carry him over into the adjoining field to prevent mutilation by animals," was Ashby's orders.
It does not come within the scope of this narrative to fol- low the fortunes of the enemy under Stonewall Jackson fur- ther than to say generally, that for one week he held high carnival all along the Potomac. He concentrated his troops in and around Charlestown ; he attempted with his infantry to ford the Potomac two miles above the railroad bridge at Har- per's Ferry, and was driven back by our shelis, fired from bat- teries established where we first pitched our encampment in July of ISGI; he ascended Loudon Heights between the Shenandoah and the Potomac, but was driven off by our guns from across the river. Information of the numbers of Stone- wall Jackson's forces given by observers during his occupation of towns between Winchester and Martinsburg, shows that we had not exaggerated his strength. Ewell's Division, consist- ing of Taylor's Brigade, 5,000, Johnson's, 4,000, and Trimble's, 4,000, was estimated at 13,000. Jackson's own immediate column was given as 9,000 or 10,000. The lowest estimate placed the combined strength of the enemy at 20,000. In
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the pursuit of Shields and Fremont, the battles of Cross Keyes and Port Republic, the march of Jackson to unite with the Army of Virginia, we did not participate ; therefore I leave them with no other allusion. On the 31st of May, the enemy at Bunker Hill, Martinsburg, and Charlestown were apprised that Fremont from the west and McDowell from the east were closing in upon his rear. In one week after our fight at Winchester, Jackson, with his whole army, turned southward in flight.
The effect of our retreat upon the country was startling. Here in Massachusetts the people were aroused by a proc- lamation. Hardly had "the thousand camp-fires " begun to glow around " the thousand wagons upon the banks of the Potomac," at eleven o'clock at night of the 25th of May, when Gov. Andrew at Boston penned the last words of a proclama- tion, calling upon Massachusetts to rise once more for the rescue and defence of the capital. The whole active militia of Massachusetts were summoned to report on Boston Com- mon " to-morrow," from thence to " oppose with fiery zeal and courageous patriotism the march of the foe." # The next day the public was again excited by an appeal from Major R. Morris Copeland, Banks's adjutant-general, who happened to be in Boston during the fight. Copeland blamed the War Department for leaving Banks defenceless .;
* This was datell the 25th of May, Sunday evening, at cleven o'clock.
| This appeal came out in the " Boston Daily Advertiser," of which C. F. Dun- bar was then edfor, on the alth of May, 1862. As soon as it came to Lis notice, Banks, in 2 telegram to Danbar, offered up Copeland as a propitiatory sacrifice, as follows : -
" WILLIAMSBURG, MD., June 2, 1862. "To MR. C. F. DENDAR, " Boston, Mass.
" Major Copeland should secure some position in the Massachusetts Regiments of e juat rank to that he now holds. It is not consistent that he should return to his post here after his proclamation in Boston. Please convey to him this infor- mation.
"N. P. BANKS, JI. G. C."
See Statement of R. M. Copeland, p. 17.
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" The hands that hold the pen, the ruler, and the hammer were made in these days," says Copeland, "for better things." "Seize the musket and the sabre!" he continues. But alas for Copeland ! that he should have told the country to blame the Secretary of War for our retreat ; for this was given by the President as one of the reasons * why Cope- land's hands, during the remainder of the war, held nothing more belligerent than " the pen, the ruler, and the hammer." i
In other States the excitement was scarcely less intense than in Massachusetts. New York sent her Eleventh Regiment of State Militia. They arrived at Harper's Ferry on the 30th of May, and refused to be sworn into the service of the United States unless they could dictate terms, which were, that they should go to Washington and be placed in a camp of instruction. This being refused by officers of the United States army, the whole regiment marched over to Sandy Hook, where they slept upon it, with the result that eight companies took the oath, one asked for further time, and one started for home.
On the 28th of May, Gen. Banks thought it his duty to assign a full brigadier-general to the command of my bri- gade, and make the War Department responsible for the change. For this he selected Gon. Greene, one of the two
* After Copeland's diants d fron the army, in August, 1862, he sought an interview with Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, at which the following occurred : -
" The President replied, ' Well, sir, I know something about your case, and I'll tell you what I know. You're the man who wert to Boston about the time Jack- son broke through at Front Royal, and wrote letters and editorials abusing the administration, and made speeches, and did all that you could to make a fuss.'" -- Statement of R. M. Con tin', F. 30.
" And then the President replied, ' Well, I did not know you were dismissed. I never saw the order, that I know of, until to-day, though of course it has been laid before me and rece' .e' my official sanction .. '" -- Statement of R. M. Copdi ants, 2. 32.
! See a letter vindicating Secretary Stanton, written by Horatio Woodman, Esq. in " Button Daily Transcript" of June 2, 1862, supposed to have been inspired by Gov. Andrew.
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supernumerary brigadiers who had accompanied us from Strasburg. In his order Gen. Banks takes especial care to speak in praise * of the part taken by my brigade during the retreat. Without the services rendered by my own Second Regiment, I could not have been commended.
* HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SHENANDOAH, WILLIAMSPORT, MID., May 28, 1862.
GENERAL, ORDER, NO. 26.
I. Brig .- Gen. Geo. S. Greene, U. S. A., having reported for duty at these headquarters in accordance with the orders of the War Department, is assigned to the command of the Third Brigade, Gen. A. S. Williams's Division, and will relieve Col. Geo. H. Gordon, Second Massachusetts Volunteers, who on being relieved will assume command of his regiment.
If. In announcing this change in the organization of the Third Brigade, under the general direction of the Department of War, the commanding general desires to express his unqualified approval of the manner in which Col. Geo. H. Gordon has discharged the duties of brigade-commander. In organization, discipline, instruction, and equipment he has maintained and elevated the standard of his com- mand. In the execution of his orders, often, from the extreme necessities of our position and the great reduction of our forces, sudden and difficult, he has been prompt and successful, cahibiting on all occasions the qualities of a prompt and patriotic office ..
The commanding general has also the pleasure of expressing his approval of the manner in which the Third Brigade and its commander discharged most important duties on the march from Strasburg, on the auth inst., in the affair with the energy, as the rear-guard of the column, on the evening of the same day, which com bute' so much to the sailty of the command, and in the engagement of the twenty-fifth a: Winchester, Virginia. He has the strongest confidence that its distinguished character and reputation will be maintained hereafter. The commanding general commends to the just consideration of the brigade its new commander. Gen. Geo. S. Greene, as an officer of large experience and dis- tinguished character.
l'y command of
MAJOR-GENERAL N. P. BANKS. D. D. PERKINS, Major and A. A. A. G.r.
By command of
GEN. A. S. WILLIAMS. W.M. D. WILKINS, Caft. A. A. G.
Official, S. E. PITTMAN, 17. Lient, and A. D. C.
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On the 31st of May a paper was handed me by Gen. Hatch* signed by all the officers of rank who were cognizant of or had participated in the events of the 24th and 25th of May. This paper, containing most flattering references to our brigade, was the more acceptable, as without any knowledge what- ever of it or its contents, it was presented to me with all the names it now bears, save that of Brig-Gen. Crawford, which was placed there afterwards. My own regiment shares with me in the not fulsome but discriminating praise bestowed, and again my heart speaks its thankfulness to the Second.
The feeling among the troops themselves, as indicating their opinion of the part taken by our regiment, is here recorded as of more worth than any praise bestowed upon us by others.
The 3Ist of May found Mr. Dwight, of Boston, the brother of our captured major, at our camp en route through Martins- burg to Winchester, to learn his brother's fate. Col. DeFor- est, then in command at Martinsburg, was ordered by Gen. Hatch to send with Mr. Dwight an escort of ten men, - "men who can remember what they see of the enemy and his
WILLIAMSPORT, MD., May 31, 1862.
TO THE HON. EDWIN STANTON,
Secretary of War.
The undersigned officers of the army, serving in the Department of the sten- arklouh, take great pleasure in recommending for the appointment of brigadier- general, Col. George H. Gordon, commanding Second Massachusetts Regiment.
Col. Gordon has for the last three months filled the position asked for him!, having been in command of the Third Brigade of Williams's Division. The high state of discipline attained by his brigade, together with its admirable drill, have proved his competency for the position.
The appointment is more particularly asked as a reward for the military ARI and good conduct shown by bin at the battle of Winchester cu Sunday last, and throughout the retreat from Strasburg to this place.
A. S. WILLIAMS, Brig-Gen. Com'g Ist Division.
JOHN P. HATCH,
Brig-Gen. Cut'y.
N. P. BANKS, M. G. C.
GEO. S. GREENF,
Brig-Gen. U. S. V. S. W. CRAWFORD, Brig.Gen. L. S. 1:
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strength." "Let them move," said the order, " with a white flag twenty yards in advance of the main body, and waving the flag, wait to be recognized by the enemy's pickets." **
A telegram from the Secretary of War, that my promotion from colonel to brigadier-general "could no longer be de- ferred," was sent immediately after our arrival at Williams- port to Gov. Andrew of Massachusetts. This final act con- nected with the days of the 24th and 25th of May requires explanation.
In july of 1861 it came to my knowledge that the congres- sional delegation from Massachusetts had recommended my promotion. The President of the United States in a personal interview informed me that the reason why he did not heed this recommendation was because "the governor of your State protests against it." Mr. Lincoln, at the time of making this reply, held in his hand a paper, from which he assumed to read the protest.
On the 4th of June, 1862, Gov. Andrew, in acknowledging my application for two surgeons, and informing me that he has sent Doctors Heath and Davis, adds, " Permit me in closing to congratulate you, Colonel, upon your nomination for promo- tion to the rank of brigadier-general, and also upon the bril- liant success achieved by the withdrawal of our forces, with so little loss, from the heart of the enemy's country and against a force so completely overwhelming."
On the 10th of June Gen. Banks's corps recrossed the river at Williamsport, moved through Martinsburg and Winches- ter, over historic ground, and went into camp at Bartonville, where the Second had so ably arrested Jackson's march in the night of the 24th of May.
On the 12th of June, at Washington, my commission as
* How our major escaped from captivity without aid from his brother. has been told too many times to repeat. On the 21st of June a despatch came to me, " Dwight is safe, prisoner at Winchester."
(Sigued)
F. d'HAUTEVILLE.
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brigadier-general of volunteers was handed me, accompanied with an order from the Secretary of War to "report imme- diately for duty to Gen. Banks, wherever he might be found," and this proved to be at Winchester, where I arrived the next night to learn from him that he could not remove the brigadier-general commanding my brigade without a special order from the Secretary of War .* The next day, there fore, I returned to Washington, carrying with me on her way to her new home, my negro woman Peggy and her child. Before I could purchase tickets for the woman I was compelled to give a bond to save the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- more Railroad harmless from any lawful claims that might be hereafter brought against it by the owner of this colored property. I readily gave my bond, secured the tickets, placed the bewildered woman and child in charge of a faithful express- man, and soon heard of their safe arrival at the North, where, since then, they have in prosperity continued.
On the 18th of June the Secretary of War specifically assigned me to the command of my old brigade ; f. and on the 22d, after & fruitless effort on the preceding day by rail via Manassas, to reach Front Royal, to which place my command bad moved from Bartonville, I shook the dust of Washington frort iny feet, not to return to it again for two months, when, as part of a wrecked and broken army, we
WINCHESTER, VA., June 15. Bris-Gop. Gordon will proceed at once to Washington, and report to the Secretary of War for further orders.
By command of
N. P. BANKS, M. G. C.
+ WAS DEPARTMENT, ADJr.GEN.'S OFFICE, 1 WASHINGTON, June 18, 1862. 5 D'y order of the Secretary of War.
SPECIAL ORDERS, NO. 138.
gth. Brig .- Gen. Gen. H. Gordon, U. S. Vals., is assigned to duty in tl.^ Department of the Shenandoah, to take command of the brigade now under Brig .Gen. Greene, and will report in person to Major-Gen. Banks.
I .. THOMAS, Adjt .- General.
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made our way across the Potomac to fight under Mcclellan at Antietam for the safety of Maryland and the North. Be- fore leaving Washington, I enlightened the Committee on the Conduct of the War upon the subject of Union guards over enemy's property, upon which political soldiers were much exercised.
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CHAPTER. VII.
BEARING peremptory orders to Gen. Banks, I took the route by Harper's Ferry, delaying there for an hour to stray up to our old encampment on Maryland Heights. The camp- ground had been converted into a flourishing wheat-field, in which the green bushes that once formed our shelter now lay in withered and unsightly heaps, testifying to the not too energetic efforts of the phlegmatic proprietor, the good old Dutchman, Unseld, from whom I received a cheerful and hearty welcome. Without pausing to moralize upon the events which our former bivonac recalled, and too hurried to hear any of the long stories which our old host delighted in telling in slow and measured tones, I recrossed to Harper's Ferry, where, taking cars for Winchester, I reached my com- mand on the 25th of June.
My camp was located on the Front Royal and Winchester road, some seven or eight miles north of the former town, where we could watch the crossings of the Shenandoah. The officers of our regiment took the occasion of my arrival to offer their congratulations upon my promotion. In full uniform, but without other display, they came forward to my tent, led by Capt. Cary, who, in behalf of all, in quiet bus feeling words, expressed for himself and others gratitude at my return. I replied very briefly, --- there was no occasion for much speaking : every one knew how glad I was to come back, and how I had labored to overcome plans (if there were any) for my removal to another army. There was hot an officer or private of the Second Regiment who did not
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know, without assurance of mine, that my nearest, dearest, and strongest tie was just themselves ; they knew it then, they know it now, and if they do not die in that conviction it will be because they will never die at all. Alas! how soon the kind voices, the sparkling eyes, the generous and manly hearts that expressed so much sympathy in my pros- perity, were to be hushed and lifeless on the fatal field of Cedar Mountain, towards which, over the Blue Ridge, we were soon to move, unconscious of the impending doom !
It was while Gen. Banks's headquarters were at Middle- town, and we were in camp near Front Royal, that we heard of the President's order of the 26th of June, 1862, gathering up all the stray and loose armies within the theatre of our operations, and placing in command John Pope, of the United States Engineers, with the rank of major-general. I well remember the day when this order came to my head- quarters. An intense heat was followed by a terrific storm, in which heavy clouds, obscuring the sun, spread over the landscape an unnatural gloom. The lightning flashed, and the thunder roared in incessant peuils, ---- a fitting prelude to almost any following tragedy. It was for us, at the beginning of our new campaign, a storm of ill omen, foreboding and portending dire ills. Whatever the future might be, we now, however, addressed ourselves to instant preparation for an active and important duty.
The three corps of the new army were to be commanded by Generals McDowell, Banks, and Fremont. Our corps, no longer the Fifth of the Army of the Potomac, was to be known as the Second of the Army of Virginia, and was to be commanded by Gen. Banks. Pope, at the date of this pro- motion, was Fremont's junior in rank, - a fact which the latter considered so offensive to his dignity that he refused to take the command assigned him ; therefore, Sigel was substituted, and Fremont retired, carrying with him all but our regrets.
Gen. Pope's department covered the region which holds,
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east of the Blue Ridge, the great battle-fields of the war. The troops were organized and posted to cover the city of Washington from any attack in the direction of Richmond ; to assure the safety of the Shenandoah Valley; and to operate upon the enemy's lines of communication in the direction of Gordonsville, thus hoping to draw a considerable force of the enemy from Richmond to the relief of the Army of the Potomac .*
It is affirmed by Pope, and established by many facts that form the groundwork of the history of that period, that McClellan's refusal to correspond with Pope, or to unite with him in the execution of his plans, caused his removal from the chief command of all the armies of the United States, and the substitution of Gen. Halleck as commander-in-chief.
The strength of the three corps commanded by Pope, was as follows: Sigel's Corps was reported as 11,500 strong ; Banks's Corps as 14,500, although in reality it numbered only about 8,000; and MeDowell's Corps was given as 18,400, - a grand total of 38,000, to which add for cavalry about 5,000.1
July came, to find us quiet in our camp, with Banks in Washington ; from whence, on the 2d, he telegraphed to his assistant adjutant-general to be in readiness to march. On the 5th, despite holding back and suppression by the War Department, we knew that the Army of the Potomac was driven back to Harrison's Landing, and that its struggles for Richmond had, for a time, ended. This adversity caused such a departure from the plan Pope had formed, that it was now, not how to aid the Army of the Potomac in the capture of Richmond, but how to unite the two armies to save the national capital and provide for a further prosecution of the attack upon Richmond. After consideration, it was de- termined to use the Army of Virginia mainly, while covering the front at Washington and securing the valley of the
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