USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
+ Stolord's and Fields's. of Hill's Divis on, were not engaged at all.
188
.
upon them." * The colonel still hesitating, to convince him of his error I rode forward to the right of his regiment, up to the fence that skirted the brushwood, and was received with a fire that settled the matter at once .; Then the firing of the enemy became heavier along our whole line, and the Twenty-Seventh Indiana, after giving many symptoms of disorder, broke, and fled through the woods to the open ground, a distance which Col. Colgrove gives as two hundred yards.
The fortunes of the Third Wisconsin were involved with those of the Twenty-Seventh. This regiment, on the extreme right of my line, stood, with six of its companies, bearing, for a second time within an hour, this baptism of blood. When the Twenty-Seventh fell back I could not cen- sure because the Third Wisconsin did not stand. I know of no other regiment in Banks's entire corps that twice on that day, in different brigades and in different parts of the field, stood so unflinchingly before numbers and fire so overwhelming.
And how was it with the officers and men of the Second Massachusetts ? Before them, too, appeared the enemy, with his long lines far outflanking the right of our brigade, and pouring upon them a bail-storm of musketry from lines open and concealed. Steady! they replied to the enemy's fire. in the face of the continual flashing of muskets, -an undimin- ished flame, -- from which bullets hissed with sound more terrible than ever heard by them before. They also saw, unmoved, the enemy advancing in line, throwing forward his left as ordered, and thus approaching obliquely their right fank ; and they received him with a fire so severe that his
* The Indiana Regiment had almost ceased firing, the colonel giving this as an excuse.
t " I saw you on the right of my regiment able forward to the fence, and home- diately a very heavy fire was opened upon that part of the line by the enemy, upon you. I cann it converse how you possibly escaped it without injury." - Col.
. Colgrete's Ogical Report, Battle of Celar Mountain.
....
1
189
shattered line could easily have been driven back,* had this been all. The Second stood there for some time, of all my brigade alone, for the right regiments had fallen back. Of course, when they, too, would be compelled to retire was only a question of moments ; but the moment had not yet come, and it was not anticipated.
The Twenty-Seventh Indiana, which had retreated through the woods, was rallied. re-formed,; and moved to the right of the Second Massachusetts, where again it opened fire upon the enemy. By this time, Pender with his brigade, who until now had kept carefully out of sight, had gained our rear. In the confusion, the roar and smoke, this force was not seen until after they had reached our side of the fence, and were within twenty paces of the right of Col. Col- grove's regiment # and a little in rear of our line. As they were marching deliberately towards us in columns of compa- nies, the commander of the Twenty-Seventh Indiana saw them, and shouted instantly to his men to face and file to the right, but he was obeyed by his right company only. The enemy halted, wheeled into line, opened fire with that portion of his front that could reach us, and threw forward the remainder of his brigade full upon our flank and rear.§ But the Twenty- Seventh Indiana had again fled, leaving exposed to this new attack the flank and rear of the Second Massachusetts. On the extreme right of the Second was brave Capt. Goodwin, fighting Co. K most valiantly and fearlessly; and in front
" It wa, here that Archer's Frigade received such a severe punishment from the Second Massachusett :. His losses were reported as very heavy. Sce Jackson's, Hill's, and Archer's Official Reports. Vol. IX, Moore's " Rebel Records."
t " In ral'ying and re-forming the regiment at this point, and indeed during the whole action, I was aided by yourself and your staff, and particularly by Capt, Scott, your assist int adjutant-general, whose energy and bravery it is impossible :: comme" I too Highg." - Col. Colgrove's Oficial Report, Battle of Colar Monn- Bin, to Gen. Geo. H. Gordon.
1 Col. Colgrove's Report.
$ When Pender's Pris le made its final charge, it was so much in our rear that its loss from our fire was only niteen in all. (See Jackson's Oficial Report.)
190
was Capt. Abbott with his company, in the open field, where, upon our arrival, he had deployed his skirmishers, who were lying down and firing upon the enemy.
Now, in front and on flank, full and fierce the storm tore through and around us. The crash was terrific; it was indescribable. Capt. Goodwin fell dead, and with him over twenty of his men; fifteen more were missing. Major Savage, opposite the right and rear, in the very face of this deadly blast, feli grievously wounded, while his horse was shot dead upon the spot. I will not here name the dead, as I shall refer to them where, under a flag of truce, we were permitted to recover their bodies. But as I am speaking of that terrible, that dreadful and remorseless fire, that came like a whirlwind, and licked up with its fiery blast more lives than were lost to our regiment and my brigade in any bat- tle of the war, I may upon this occasion be permitted to recall the name of one of our number, who, in the midst of all this carnage, in the very face and front of the enemy's fire, and almost within reach of their guns, himself unwounded, placed his own body and his own frail iffe between his friend and the enemy. Major Savage and Capt. Henry S. Russell were cap- tured together ; the former, lingering for a few weeks, died at Charlottesville, but the latter ve greet rejoicingly as among the survivors of the officers of our regiment."
Flesh and blood could stand no longer; the last attack had been made; and now we, too, were driven the last from
* Nowhere can I find more dating words to apply to this knightly act than those used by the aged father of Major Savage, under date of August 20, 1862, in reply to my letter of spiratig. "Merch satisfaction," he mage, " is derived by a parete from the price of supply with the mistotimes of a child, expressed balls nearest companions, and it will seldori happen that more affectionate regard is shown by his fellow-officers to any one than my only son gained from those of your original regiment. such evidente well's more than is a ways furnthe ! abundantly for mere ertrage, because bravery belongs to most of our race, und the want of it is a disgrace ; but the overflow of genial sentiment is not an in ! s- petrable requisite of the most valued and honorable servant of the pub it, att in p. portion to its rutity should be adiaired as a heavenly grace."
:
191
the field. While Col. Andrews was endeavoring to rally his regiment, his horse received two balls, one in the shoulder and one in the neck, the effect of which, the colonel says, was " to send him plunging among the branches and undergrowth and to bewilder his rider." My own horse, when that fire came, shook for a moment with terror, then bore me despite my will through the underbrush and woods to the left of the line of my brigade. ·
It was about half-past six o'clock in the evening, when, in the company of from thirty to fifty men (principally of the Wisconsin and Indiana regiments) whom I had rallied, I found myself out of the timber on its edge, ht the foot of the hill up which we had scrambled, and not three hundred yards from the fatal field. The horror with which at first I contemplated the possibility that these were all that remained was soon relieved by the sight of the Second Massachusetts, Jed by Col. Andrews, emerging from the woods, farther towards the centre of our line than he went in, and moving, all that were not dead, wounded, or captured, in perfect order to the rear. I directed my shattered and broken command towards the point from whence, scarce an hour before, we had started. We arrived after dark, to sink down exhausted upon the ground. But what a change since our departure! The cot- tage, the yard, the grounds around were filled with our dead and dying. All who could be recovered from Crawford's Brigade, as well as all from mine, were here. My bat- teries were in position, as when I had left them, but there was nothing else to resist the momentarily expected forward movement of the enemy. In the midst of much confusion, a staff-officer from Gen. Williams brought me an order to fall back. But little did Gen. Williams know what I should have to abandon. I sent one of my staff to inform him. It was quite dark, and my pickets were extended to the front. Soon a message was received from Gen. Banks ordering me to fall back. On my way to enlighten him the was near the
-
192
centre of our line on the pike) upon the condition of things around my station, I encountered one Clark, an aid of the general, who repeated to me an order from Banks to leave my present position when I should be relieved by troops from McDowell's Corps, and take up a position in the centre of our line. Replying that I would sce Banks in person, I groped my way forward, and soon came upon Major-Generals Pope and Banks, standing together in the road nearly two miles in rear of the wheat-field, and about one mile on the Culpepper side, from Cedar Creek.
Gen. Pope had at last arrived on the field, and the following will explain how he happened there : ---
The boom of artillery that echoed back to Culpepper Court House in the morning, and continued at intervals until it broke out into the heavy cannonade which I have described, made it at last no longer doubtful to Pope, and some officers of his staff, that a battle between our corps and Jackson's army was impending or in progress. Until four o'clock in the afternoon Pope sat quietly reading and smoking, at his tent- door in Culpepper. At this hour, as peal after peal from our artillery fell upon his ears, he sprang into his saddle, and calling upon his staff to follow, galloped rapidly through the village in the direction of Cedir Mountain, followed by glances of terror from the citizens, who, during the day, had listened with anxiety to the combat. Gen. McDowell, who accompanied Pope, gave to Rickett's Division of his corps, as he came up to it, orders to form and move forward immedi- ately. As Pope neared the battle-fiell, the cannonade becom- ing more and more furious, the troops of McDowell were pushed on through road and fields in separate columns and with increased rapidity. Soon a column of wounded with assistants was met, some on foot, some on horseback or in ambulances, whom Pope's staff, mistaking for stragglers, val- iantly set upon, and thus endeavored for a time to force back men, whose bloody bandages and stout countenances and
193
arms, to which they still clung, denoted, upon a closer inspec- tion, that there were no cowards among them. And now the sound of cannon ceased, and that piteous roll of musketry which I have described, was borne to Pope's ears, "while the . long procession of bandaged and bloody soldiers and dripping ambulances continued." # Then came silence, for Banks had been overpowered.
Alone, or attended by a single aid, in the twilight after our defeat, Banks encountered Pope. They met only a few min- utes before I came upon them as I have narrated. Gen. Pope briefly inquired of me as to the condition of my command. "I do not think I have now," I said, " more than three or four hundred troops together ; we have been very much cut up." " General Gordon," Gen. Pope replied, " you will move as soon as relieved to the right of the pike and form the centre of a new line of battle. I don't expect much of your troops to- morrow, but you will make a show and can support a battery. You will not have much to do. I shall have twenty thousand fresh troops to-morrow morning."
This was the first appearance of the major-general com- manding the Army of Virginia upon the disastrous battle- fiel! of Cedar Mountain. He had come, when disaster could not be averted, to talk of his twenty thousand fresh troops, all of whom had been available to give us the victory, - at least, save us from defeat; he had come to propose supporting a battery with my brigade on the morrow, and I was angry withal. In an instant I rejoined, "General Pope, this bat- tie should not have been fought, sir!" To which Pope as promptly replied, "I never ordered it fought, sir." And to this Gen. Banks made no reply, no retort or remonstrance, though he was standing by Pope's side.
Then turning to Banks, full of indignation at the crime, the blunder, of the battle, I exclaimed, " General Banks, I diso- beyed your or ler, received during the fight"
* Strother, in Harper's Monthiv.
194
" What was it, sir?" replied Banks.
" An order brought by an officer, purporting to come from you, to charge across the field, where my troops were then fighting."
" I never sent you such an order," retorted Banks.
" I am glad to know it." I replied; "it would have resulted in our total destruction."
So important an order, and so direct a denial, demand that the circumstances attending its reception should be given in full.
When Major Pelouse was attempting to move the Tenth Maine forward in the wheat-field, it will be remembered that an officer passed him, saying he had orders for Gordon's Brigade,* then on the right.
In the midst of the struggle of my brigade with the enemy, an officer, representing himself as sent by Banks, coming through the woods, rode up to me, saying, " General Banks wishes you to charge across the field." With what had transpired already in my front, the astonishinent this order caused may well be conceived.
"What field ?" I asked in amazement.
"I don't know," was the reply. "I suppose this field."
" Well, six," I retorted, " 'suppose' won't do at such a time as this. Go back to General Banks and get explicit instruc- tions as to what feld he wishes me to charge over."
The officer (1 had never seen him before) disappeared, and before he could have reported to Banks, the enemy solved all doubts as to where our commander wished me to charge, by doing all the charging himself, and gaining the flank and rear of my three regiments, with his five brigades. Into the open arms of the enemy, had I obeyed the order, I should most cer- tainly have entered.
But other orders, unauthorized and fatal, uselessly fatal if cheved, given to regiments of my brigade during that half * Col Pelouise, letter to Major Gould, 5x Tenth Maine in the War.
.
195
hour of battle, swell into most unseemly proportions the huge blunders committed at Cedar Mountain.
While the enemy's fire was at its hottest, Major Perkins, of Banks's staff, coming from the wooded cover, rode up to Col. Andrews with an order to charge, with the Second Mas- sachusetts, across the field. "In utter astonishment at such an order," writes Col. Andrews to me in a recent letter, " I exclaimed, ' Why, it will be the destruction of the regiment and will do no good !' Major Perkins (who was an educated soldier) made no reply, but shrugged his shoulders in a sig- nificant manner. Determined not to subject the regiment to such wanton destruction if I could avoid it, I reported to you, and you told me I need not obey the order. I met Major Perkins a day or two after, and he said to me he sup- posed I blamed him very much for bringing me such an order, but it was sent by signal, and, he had since found, under a misapprehension,* it having been forgotten that the regiment had been sent to the right instead of the centre, as first ordered."
It is somewhat of an explanation that Major Perkins, while on the extreme right of our line of battle, in giving an order to one of my regiments that he did not communicate through me, imparted in an automatic way what was received by signal ; but as an explanation, it is wholly inadequate to clear up why Major Perkins did not himself discover the error, and . not pat upon me the responsibility. Perkins knew, not only that Col. Andrews could not have made that movement with- out my orders, but that such a movement would have resulted in a most direful disaster ; he knew, moreover, that Banks did not know where we were.
Most important is it here to consider whether Banks sent me the order imputed to him. I do not think it admits of doubt. Who would have taken such responsibility ? Not the officer who brought me the order : I charged him with it in
X Col. Andrews's statement. Letter of June 14, 1075.
196
the presence and hearing of Banks a few days after, and he strongly and indignantly reiterated that he received the order from Gen. Banks ! And Banks made no reply.
If we seek for a solution in some of the well-proven facts of that battle, we shall find a management so inexplicable that the directions given me, and received by Col. Andrews, can be taken only as fitting parts of this abortive.effort. Did not Banks, at five o'clock in the afternoon, in sending his last despatch from the field, speak of the skirmishers approach- ing each other, without indicating that he expected a gen- eral engagement, and without asking for any assistance ; * although at four o'clock the cannonade which reached Pope's cars in Culpepper was so heavy and continuous that he feared a general engagement was going on, and so hurried forward? Hlad not Banks, with an estimate of 6,000 troops as his own strength, undertaken to whip Jackson's 25,000 under an impression that he could carry the field? . Had he' not, in entire ignorance of the numbers in his front, precipitated Geary's and Crawford's Brigades, and six com- panies of my Third Wisconsin Regiment, against two whole brigades in position, and five of Hill's Division in reserve ? Then had he not, when everything combined to inform him of the many thousands more than his own that were before him, attempted to whip them with the Tenth Maine, single- handed. on his right ? And when the enemy had poured into the woods in my front a brigade for each one of my small regiments, and two to spare, why should Banks, so long as he " feared the opinions of his friends " (as he conceived them) more than " the bayonets of his enemies," have hesitated to send me the order I received ?
There remains to tell, that when Jackson swung his forces around my brigade, he at the same time ordered Toliaferro's brigade to charge bearing towards their right (the position of the field of Indian corn), against our left and in front of
* Hope under oath bei are the McDowell Court of Inquiry.
197
Early's Brigade. At this time Gen. Prince, in ignorance of what had transpired, was riding to where Geary had been, to find out what had become of Banks's corps. In this laudable pursuit his bridle was suddenly seized, and himself summoned to surrender. He was captured when surrounded by the enemy, who were silently moving over the ground lately occupied by Geary, and enveloping his own troops, whom he could not warn of their danger, though his officers soon dis- covered it, and fell back, but not until four hundred of them were captured .*
There are yet two brigades of the enemy to account for : those of Ewell's Division, which remained inactive upon the face of the mountain through the scenes we have described. Kept back from advancing by the incessant fire of their own batteries, which swept the valley through which they must pass,; they now advanced upon the right, to turn the left flank of our line, but found we were in full retreat.
The battle was over. On our left, Gen. Prince was a pris- oner, Generals Geary and Augur wounded : not a general offi- cer left of those who formed that part of our line of battle. In the centre, out of a brigade numbering about 1,467 men, nearly every field-officer on the ground, and about half the compriny-officers and men, were killed of wounded.$
Upon receiving Pope's orders, I returned to my brigade, and directed commanders to move out their regiments, while I proceeded to point out to Gen. Tower, of Rickett's Division, who had now come up to relieve me, the exact position I had held for so many hours. Although it was then after daylight, a bright moon made objects sufficiently prominent to enable me to discover that the enemy's pickets had greatly advanced towards the woods north of the creek on the Culpepper road, and that our own were filling back. I could also see that the enemy had moved his batteries to the positions occupied dur- ing the fight by our own. My description of positions to Gen.
* Dab ney. + Jackson's Kepart. ! Strother.
------ ----
198
Tower concluded, ambulances sent with my command and scouts taken from my own escort recalled, I was ready to leave ; but to my surprise my command did not join me where I had ordered : they had taken a shorter way to the pike, where they expected to meet me. Upon approaching the road, in mov- ing with my staff to select our position, I perceived that our cavalry, which previously had been in line between the woods I was ordered to occupy and Cedar Creek, had now passed through the woods and were in line behind it on the Culpepper side, having fallen back before the approach of the enemy. As my orders from Pope were imperative, I headed my somewhat numerous retinue of staff-officers and orderlies (accompanied by Gen. Williams, who with his staff had joined me) for the woods, which I was about entering, when a hot fire, from what sounded like a regiment, was poured into our midst. In the darkness, aim was so uncertain that no greater damage followed than the killing of one of my orderlies, while Gen. Williams, myself, and our respective staffs were warned in time to'escape inevitable capture. Moving quickly to the rear of the cavalry, I there found the Twelfth Massachusetts regiment drawn up in line I halted for a moment to speak to its commander, when again the enemy opened fire, with more fatal effect; Capt. Shurtleff of the Twelfth falling dead with a bullet through his heart. This regiment returned the enemy's fire with vigor.
We will turn again to Pope. Believing that he could form his new line 'of battle in the woods I had just tried in vain to enter, Gen. Pope, with McDowell and Banks, their staffs and escorts, had, before my arrival, dismounted and seated them- selves behind the shelter of a rocky ledge which rose to a gentle eminence. In the woods or through them, or somewhere towards Celar Mountain, there had been heard at intervals a dropping fire of musketty, with occasional volleys and now and then a single shell. Sometimes a flight of shells, in coursing over the heads of Pope and his officers, hal rendered night
.
199
hideous with their screams. The situation was picturesque, almost romantic -- " As romantic as hell,"* one of the staff Ventured to remark, as attention was called to a full moon which disclosed the dark shadows of the woods and threw a dreamy light over the landscape. Three quarters of an hour passed ; the moon had become obscured ; stragglers and even organized companies seen in the moonlight moving from the woods and through the fields, to the rear along the Cul- pepper road, had dwindled into a dribbling stream. The fire from the batteries had ceased, when the cavalry (I found in my rear) emerged from the woods, and halted not over forty yards from where Pope and his general officers were reclining. When the fire broke out upon myself, Gen. Williams, and our staffs, and was continued upon the cavalry and the Twelfth Massachusetts, the bullets hissed through the bushes, sparkled in the darkness as they struck the flinty road, or singing through the tree-tops, covered Pope and his officers with leaves and twigs. The effect upon the conclive of romantic officers was as follows : Pope's party of officers, staff, and es- corts, numbering in all one hundred, rose suddenly to their feet, while the cavalry with pistols returned the enemy's fire in a continuous fusilade. Mounting with undue gravity, the commander of the Army of Virginia and his officers moved to the rear at a tror, which soon broke into a gallop, while the Twelfth Massachusetts, which was lying as I have said in rear of the cavalry, on a slight elevation, rose and opened fre as I have described.f
It was sufficiently apparent that the enemy were in pos- session of the wood I had been ordered to hold. It was a change of Pope's programie made by the enemy since I had received l'ope's orders. The only accident that had happened to the party of general officers or their staffs was a severe contusion suffered by Banks, who was struck by the forefoot
* Strochut is rester able for the story, not the comparison.
: Strother gives there fct, from his experience as one of Pope's staff officers.
£
.
!
200
of an orderly's horse as the animal reared from fright. The rider of the horse, it was said, was killed.
In the darkness and confusion, I had not been able to find my command. The two regiments that were to join me at the pike were not to be seen. I pushed to the rear in search, and soon came up with the Second Massachusetts and Twenty-Seventh Indiana, but the Third Wisconsin was not in sight. While groping around to find it, the enemy advanced his batteries to the position we had just vacated, and sent a shower of shot and shell at short range, that shook our ears and the earth itself with the noise. To add to this confusion, a battery of ours, some half mile to the rear, opened upon the enemy's guns with such malevolent satisfac- tion that its shells for a few moments threatened to destroy what little life the enemy's guns might leave in our bodies.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.