USA > Massachusetts > History of the Second Mass. Regiment of Infantry, third paper > Part 2
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Thus ve gros! d'in when the people, taking their house; horses, furniture, and live stock. Of many feathered bipeds, tashiding pigs, and stately scese the vote seen upon our entrance, alas! not one survived. The clones of the people to bear these woes with Christian resignation were sometimes het tous. " I hope I'm a Christian, and if my earmy hangers I'll feed him," furnished woorden consolation to a god woman, who hurled it at me, because I gave her no encourage- ment for her losses. Wo found the femdies here much inne violent than the males, but perhaps this was only from the female habit of not suppressing their feelings. The women took malicious pleasure in expressing to our officers their senti-
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ments of hatred to " your" president and to "your" government, and no amount of swearing induced them to believe in our recent victories at Henry, Mill Springs, and Donelson. We found some difficulty, too, in trading with our treasury notes, especially with the lower classes ; but when they found it was that or nothing, they took them eagerly. The thin, flimsy- looking currency, issued by the Confederate States, as well as by their municipal corporations, was exchanged among the people with confidence in its value, although I observed that the knowing ones used it, to buy lands of the foolish.
Many of our regiment can recall the guard duty, on picket or with the batteries, performed during our occupancy of Charlestown; can recall the buts, thatched with alternate layers of corn-stalks and rails, which afforded shelter from storms of snow and rain ; the fenceless fields, where hungry cattle homeless wandered, treading down the stalks with corn unplucked and wheat unthreshed : the pigs. hauled out from barros under what-stacks, and then despatched by swords in unpractised hands, and so untirady cut off in their prime, to satisfy a craving for pork chops ; the excitement and glorious fun of the enemy being near. to startle from the warmth of huge fires, and give perhaps a skirmish before meaning. On all these memories I bad touch, that I may recall to mind that the citizens of Charlestown were quite will- ing if not anxious to appeal to the officers for protection against the swaths of foragers who invaded their spring houses and their cellars for too L \s the army increased in numbers, our cumps were pitched on the outskirts of the town, where I selected as my boa lquarters the yard er park which enclosed a gentleman's house.
The man's name was Kennedy, and he was supposed to have some Union proclisites as well as a lou e fall of females and slaves. The inmates were so much surprised to see a leggiment of infantry file into their yard, and locate tents and bagage in front of the old family mansion, that there was
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an immediate appeal to Gen. Banks, who "thought I better move," which I did, first however calling upon the family to assure them, that I thought my protection was more valuable, than my presence was annoying.
The old lady of the house was full of apologies for her con- duct in locking the door, and flying to the bedroom in the upper story, as I entered with the regiment. Notwithstanding she " had heard " that I had " the best regiment in the United States service, and the best disciplined," she was alarmed, she said ; but she would be gratified if I would take a hed in her house, which I declined, and slept in camp where water froze, and where breakfast in the open air was cool and invigorating.
Again, I niet here one of my old friends of the Patterson Campaign, a Mr. James L. Ranson (I strongly suspect it was his slave that I was ordered in 1861 to catch and return from Harper's Ferry), who, in a polite note, begged the favor of my protection for his family, consisting of Mrs. Ranson in delicate health, his daughter and her child, and Himself their sole pro- tector. " Recalling" (the note continued) "our brief inter- view last summer, at Harper's Ferry, I congratulate myself in appealing to one who so favorably ingeessed me upon that
Hovering over a store in iny teut on the night of the 6th of March, - it was bitter cold, - I wore away the evening until late, in a win effet to read by a wretched candle stuck in a splinter of wood for a stan !; and then, with a sense of uneasi- ness, a presage that some disagreeable duty was impending, I invoked slamber, thetek in vain, for har ly had? I lost my ... when an orderly, porlopin., through my camp, halted at my tent, with " despatches for Col. Gordon."
With matches ready, I struck a light and read as follows: ~
Gen. Abercrombie will put his brigade immediately onder army, and will old r the Second Massachusetts and Sixty ich Indiana Volunteers to move cautiously down de Perryville : , At each a point as run le i Hated : y en aide de camp
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who will be sent out from these headquarters. Two squadrons of cavalry and two sections of artillery will report to Col. George H. Gordon, who will ce numand the entire force, subject to further orders from these headquarters. Let not a moment be lost.
By command of MAJ .- GENL. BANKS. R. MORRIS COPELAND, Muj. Vols., A. A. G.
Col. Gordon will comply with the above order.
By command of
GENI. ABERCROMBIE. GEO. B. DRAKE, A. A. G.
In a moment, I had shivered into my shoes, ordered my horse, aroused our regiment, met the staff-officer, received the report that artillery and cavalry were ready; and off I storted by the uncertain light of the stars. Soon the long column unwound itself in the road, and we proceeded on at a rapid pace. Now it was, for the first time, that I learned our destination. Our friends, the Maryland regiment. Col. Maalsby commanding, had been stationed as a guard at a ferry on the Shenandoah, between four and five miles from Charlestown to the southeast. During the day, Col. Maulaby had been threatened by the enen 's cavalry, and bad asked for rein- forcements, which were not furnished. Between twelve and one o'clock, A. M., of the ; th, a frightened teamster came flying from their camp to Banks's headquarters, crying out that the Iyal Maryland regiment had been cut to pieces. Twelve hundred cavalry, he said. had attacked them.
My route for a short distance was along a good pavel road : but soon turning to the left, upon a dirt road, the mud and obstructions rendered it impossible to proceed farther by night. Halting by the roadsite, I threw out pickets to the front, and directing the mer. to make themselves comfortable, fires soon blazed along our line from fuel furnished by adjoin- ing fence-mails. While awaiting daylight, I extracted from
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the frightened teamster, whom I had brought along as guide, the following story of the disaster that had overtaken Col. Mauisby : -
" When the twelve hundred cavalry of the enemy made the attack on us, I heard the first shots fired, and then heard the officers, say, 'Turn out, boys, the enemy is upon you.'" Throwing himself down in a hollow, this frightened teamster remained concealed, until he thought all the enemy had passed, when he arose to find, " that all his mules had broken away." As fast as his legs could carry him, he ran through fields, trembling with fear, spreading the report to our own pickets; who, many of them, with the fugitive teamster, came crowding into Charlestown.
" Did you see the enemy's cavalry ?" I asked.
"I saw the Maryland men run, and heard the firing ; and then I thought it time to take care of myself," he replied.
"But did you see any of the enemy ? " I urged.
" No; but I was told there were twelve hundred."
"Did you see any one killed ?"
" No, sir. Ibid los until they passed nie, and then I ran here through the fields."
"Can it be possible that this story is all of your own imag- ining?" l inquired.
"No, indeed, sir ; i'm sure the camp is taken," he answered.
The duty I was to perform, was to capture, if possible, the captors, and, if not, to bring back reliable information.
at daylight I rest of the maren. We were but four miles from our destination. As we approwhel the river, I came sud- denly upon five of six men of the Maryland regiment as they were crawling out of a hole that le i from a barn-loh. These men confirmed the story of the teamster, saying that their regi- ment had been out to pieces. Sweeping them in with n.y encircling line of skirmishers, I moved rapidly for the belt of woods in front of the ferry, where had been the encampment of the regiment. Near by was a small village, in which I
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saw the gleaming of bayonets, and troops apparently falling back, but with my glass I could not make out their colors nor their uniforms, so I threw out an entire company of skirmish- ers, and ordered up the artillery; but hardly had I made preparations for a fight, when one of my cavalry scouts came galloping back, saying. "Those are men of the Maryland regi- ment." Passing them, therefore, I directed my column for the camp, and soon came upon sentinels, whom recognizing by their uniform as of the Maryland regiment, I inquired if there had been a fight, and was promptly answered that there had not. Turning to my frightened teamster, who stood near, I asked him what this meant. "Have you not had firing?" he asked a sentinel, without directly address- ing himself to me. "Yes : we made a mistake last night, and our men just fired into our cavalry pickets, but didn't hurt anybody. Only a horse -perhaps a man - was wounded," he replied.
" Is this all ? " I asked.
" That is all !" replied the sentinel.
" I ought to tie you to the tail of my horse, and drag you, as a coward, back to Charlestown!" I said to the now pallid teamster by my side.
"Well, there was hring !" he stammered out.
" And as soon as you heard it, you ran, like a great lout, five miles to Charlestown, and with your false reports have caused three thousand infantry, two sections of artillery, and two squadrons of cavalry, to be trailed out on this useless march !"
After breakfasting with the officers, I returned again to my camp, which I reached es ten A. st, having been absent about twelve hours.
Information having been received that the enemy had abandoned his batteries on the lower Potomac, and was pre- paring to aban lon Manassas, our corps, ' pursuant to directions received from Washington," was ordered to move at seven o'clock, A. M., of the 10th of March.
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While Congress had been sitting in judgment upon McClel- lan, condemning his policy and his plans, discussing his move- ments and misapprehending his motives, as if it had become a body of misrepresentatives with the single purpose of decry- ing the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Gen. McClel- lan had been carefully and methodically preparing his vast army for the field.
I have referred to the onward movement ordered by the President on the end of February last, with Gen. McCleilan in command of the grand army of the Potomac, organized into its several divisionary corps, under McDowell, Sumner, Heintzle- man, Keyes, and Banks. Halleck was in charge of a department at the West, and Fremont in charge of the mountain depart- ment. It is with Banks's corps that our interest lies. While the others were to move on their devious way up the Peninsula to Yorktown, Williamsburg. the Chickahominy, and the James, we were to move up the valley of the Shenandoah, closing this gateway to the enemy. Our forse was as follows: We bad the brigades that wintered with us at Frederick, commanded by Generals Han ten, WIRDims, and Abercrombie. This force was increased by the division formerly commanded by Gen. Charies P. Stone, at Poolsville, and consisted of three brigades, coper, u. tel Is Generals Gorman, Barns, and Data. Only the first two were with us, and these were commanded by Gen. Sedgwick, to whom, after Stone's removal and incar- ceration, the division was assigned. We had also a force of some six thousand ia en, commanded by Gen. Shields, formeris Lander's force, which was ordered to report to Banks. Then there were about fourteen hundred men, comunale! by Col. Geary, not serving with any brigale. This made up the wide of Banks's commeal. The use to be made of it. was primarily the capture of Whichwater. It was reported, and we believe I, that Gen. (Stonewall) Jackson, with from seven to eleven thousand men, awaited us behind the e fortin. I walls. What- ever may have both Jackson's trice, we knew he would increase
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it from Manassas, or farther south. The disposition of our command was as follows. While our brigade moved on and to Charlestown from Harper's Ferry, Gen. Williams with my old Darnstown brigade moved from Hancock through Martinsburg to' Bunker Hill (our old position under Patter- son). Gen. Hamilton passing through Charlestown stopped at Smithfield, midway between Charlestown and Bunker Hill. Gen. Shields halted at Martinsburg and Gen. Sedgwick at Charlestown.
Our route was first south from Charlestown to Berryville, fourteen and one half miles, then due west to Winchester, about ten and one half ialles. Gen. Williams was only fourteen miles away, and Hamilton about the same. On the morning of the 10th of March, Gen. --- at 7 o'clock started with his brigade to make a reconnaissance to Berryville: we were to follow, and were ready. At 12 M. a mounted messenger from Gen. --- came tearing into camp, asking for reinforce- ments. Our brigade was instantly put in motion. Without adventure we encamped about sundown within one mile of Perryville; Gen. ~~ was there before us, and without oppe- sition, although not without a fight. While riding in advance. the commanding general saw, as he thought, preparations to oppose his march. On a distan. If'tt, surrounded with horse- men, a devilish invention met his gaze. " What is it?" he asked in vain. "Are these three men on horseback the advance of legions? Bring up the Red batteries!" he cried aloud. Pointing. like Napoleon to the British squares at Waterloo, he shouted, " Our patirway lies there." So Gen. hurled his shot and shell a this obstacle to his progress. Off scampered the three horsemen ; down from his perch scrambled and scal the driver of a threshing-machine, for this was the harmless implement that filled the soul of Gen. - with direful purpose. To comp that afternoon there came an old farmer to inquire why they fired at hint. "Ac- cording to the prochunation," said he, you didn't come to
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destroy property or interfere with citizens peaceably following their avocations : and certainly there was nothing rebellious in threshing wheat .*
There were no signs of Union feeling on our route, save in a single house in a mean, poverty-stricken little collection of hoases, by which our road ran, and here we found three or four young women and children lustily waving handkerchiefs, while a small boy held up conspicuously a Union flag, whose diminu- tive proportions could be embraced in two inches by three. The inmates of this house seemed reckless in their determina- tion to brave all danger ; indeed, had they been Northern men they could not have expressed more joy, although the judgment hereafter, if we did not sustain ourselves, no doubt caused some repression of feeling. The Second Regiment, with the rest of our brigade, bivouacked on Monday night, the 10th of March, in the woods near Berryville. With straw from farmers' stacks, we added to the warinth of our single blanket; with rails from farmers' fences we managed to moderate an atmosphere that was near the freezing point. Bright and early in the morning; of the 11th, our cavalry, moving for- ward for Winchester, encountered the enemy's cavalry, made prisoners of three and chased the rest to within three or four miles of the town it elf.
Gen. German now began to make arrangements for an armed reconnaissance. in force. towards Winchester. This, he wished me to comme wri, but somehow or - ther the day passed and nothing was done. We were awaiting the arrival of Gen. Banks. I rod aroand the town, out on the Winchester road, and saw that ample airing ments for guards an! a defence had been male. There were no alarms and no change during the day. The next morning, the reth of March. just after a long interview with a clerysarna of Beryville, a Union man, who had been giving me a pan of the works around
* This is no fiction : the sury was total m th , wien au rea het Berry We.
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Winchester, which I had committed to paper, news came that last night (Tuesday) the enemy fled from the town, and that our force from Bunker Hill (Gen. Williams) had entered. It was true. The Winchester that we had looked at in July of 1861, from this same Bunker Hill, had now been entered from Bunker Hill. The Winchester we had hoped to gain by Berryville, in 186t, when Patterson implored his militia to march to its attack, we were now about entering from Berryville. I galloped to the town with a staff-officer in anticipation of our march there on the morrow; found everything quiet and peace- able ; and fancied perhaps there was some Union feeling. Some Northern men were there, said to be from Milford, Mass., who told me of the flight of the enemy. When I returned to Berryville, it was dark : the ride had been weari- some. I was indulging in thoughts of a good supper and sleep; but my reverie was rudely broken, by the sight of bat- teries and brigades en route to Winchester. Berryville had been plunged into con motion by the report that a fierce battle was raging in that town. In vain Ivryed that I had just come from there, had i sand and left no chemy in sight or sound ; that marriage bells wire not more peaceful than was Win- chester. It was all in vaut. Ou streamed the columns of intantry. On rolled the batteries and the caissons, while the wieein jarred and cracked against the axles, and on lumbered the baggage-wagons and the camp-followers. Still onward, tramp, tranp, for the severe fight at Winchester, though not a sound of fighting we heard. In the darkness all was quiet. save the subdued noise of o frown senseless mirch. Atabout twelve o'clock at night, rwe or three miles from the percenbl? town, I laid down in the woods again, to bivouac in cold an.l in hunger, with a disgust, deep and undefinable, to awake, however, on the morning of the 13th, with all discomforts vanished, and our fatigues forgotten.
The feeling that agituted Gen. Jackson, as our columns approached the town from the north and cast, have, since his
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death, been given to the world. This noted commander was moved with doubts and perplexities. Now he was ready to hazard everything to make good his promise to the people of Winchester that the " Yankees" should not enter their town ; and then, more prudent considerations prevailing, he would resolve to retire, only again to reconsider, with renewed agitation .*
On the night of the 11th of March, Jackson entered the house of a Rev. Mr. Graham, of Winchester, with whose family he was imimate. Here he called for a Bible, read aloud, and prayed with the family. Then suddenly rising, he said, " I will never leave Winchester without a fight. never. never!" He said looking at his astonished auditors a moment, and then, his excitement disappearing, his sword was driven back with a ringing clash into its scabbard,t and in tones of profound discouragement he said, " No, I cannot sos- rifice my men. I intended to attack the enemy on the Mar- tinsburg road, but they are approaching on the Blanks, they, and would surround me. I cannot sacrifice my men, I must fall back ;" and so he fell back to Mount Jackson, forty fre miles from Winchester.
About two miles from town. the camp of our regiment was Lated. Then came days of cell, with huge fires in front of tents; and days of stenine and heat, when the blue- birds and the robins sang, and days when the air was filled
* Life of Gen. tweewally Jackson, 1 : Esten Cake, p. 126. tOliver Cromwell! Forme: Cromwell Loudt d . tons! The sloven',
with firmness, as if there in his mal. ! la the time a undhat, , at all ... which would, all others falling, esserelly prevail! Oliver Cromwell, who. ... sun ! Oliver Cromwell, who is piercing tones, bude is Ion ales char; home hundred and may you in Return on the page the . "Se me. all " Ja .......
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with flocks of unsightly ravens hovering over fields, noisome with the carcasses of dead horses. Here, too, were felt such cravings for poultry, that the feathered tribe became almost extinct. The peacock was caught by his magnificent tail, by vandal hands, and roasted like any common bird. The officers shut their eyes whenever a rooster crowed; for Gen. Abercrombie, commanding the brigade, had given strict orders to punish all detected foragers. This was hard, for Abercrom- bie ate secession chickens ; but he paid for them, it was said. So did the forager of a line officer's mess pay for a calf, he coveted, or attempted to pay for it, but the farmer would not sell. Federal money was offered; then Confederate, but the owner still refused.
"The officers have nothing to eat," said the man.
"Let them starve, then," replied the farmer.
" Not so," said the man, as he levelled his musket, and shot the calf.
A General Staff-Officer -- an unhallowed quarter-master -- did not shut his eyes; and thus it was that the whole force of the North was employed to punish the destroyer of calves, to the satisfaction of the destroyers of country; for the former was punished by imprisonment, and the latter encouraged to deny fool to his enemy. S.ill, I doubt not, our nien survived ; for I find, upon referring to that period, that our regiment arrived in camp at Winchester at two p. M., and at five p. M. some of the companies had built brick ovens, from which there came forth fresh bread, to make more pala- table the baked beans and mutton-chops which graced the line officers' mess table,. Such were sometimes rations.
The great fortifications, of which we had heard, surround- ing Winchester, proved to be of no moment. One could have jumped over them as easily as Remus over the walls of Rome. Much dissatisfaction was expressed in our regiment that Jack- son was permitted to get away from Winchester without a fight. and but little heed paid to my assurances that this chieftain
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would be apt, before the war closed, to give us an entertain- ment up to the utmost of our aspirations.
It was about this time that the appearance of our first " Monitor" off James River, so providential as it seemed, moved the fears of some of us that the end was about coming, and that, with the flight of Jackson, our last chance for a fight was gone. Though the country might not be restored in July of 1862, there was no doubt the war would be over then, said those whom neither reason or reproach could reach,
When Gen. McClellan's order of movement and strong appeal to his army appeared, we learned of the disposition to be made of our corps. Again the destiny of the Second Regiment gave it a new brigade commander; one that shared with it all the eventful scenes, with the attendant joys and sorrows, that so largely entered into the year of 1862. We were to be no more to Gen. Abercrombie. Gen. Hamil- ton was, by order of Gen. McClellan, transferred to another corps in his armny, and our regiment transferred to the brigade lately commanded by Hamilton. As senior colonel, I thus became the commander of a brigade which, then for the first time united, remained unbroken during the remainder of the war, -a brigade with a common history and a common glory.
When the achievements of any portion of that organization are spoken, deeds are declared in whose fame all share. The Second Massachusetts, the Third Wisconsin, and the Twenty- Seventh Indiana Regiments, made up, substantially, the brigade that fell to my connand.
From Winchester, Gen. Sedgwick, with his Division, was transferred to another corps in the Army of the Potomac.
We now enter upon our second movement, of which the advance upon Winchester was the first in MeClellan's plans. Williams's Division of the Fifth Corps was ordered to proceed, via Berryville, through Snicker's Gap to Centreville, while
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Shields, with his division of about six thousand men, was to remain at Winchester. Our division of three brigades moved very early in the morning of the 2ed for its destination. At night my brigade encamped at Berryville, and the next night we were at Snicker's Gap. Ignorant of the events transpiring in our rear, I was awakened on the morning of the 24th of March by despatches coming thick and fast, calling me back to Winchester. "We have heard cannon at intervals, hear them now," wrote Major Crane, of the Third Wisconsin, at half- past six of the day before; and so, as I read the orders sent me at ten minutes past six p. M. from Gen. Williams to return at once to Berryville, I cxchimed, " There are Major Crane's can- non." "Push on to Winchester," continued the orders, " if on your arrival at Berryville you hear the sound of large guns, giving an indication of an action in progress at the former place." Rapidly we retraced our steps. Six companies of our regiment had encamped for the night at the ferry across the Shenandoah. The bridge had broken down and delayed them. These were turned back to Berryville by orders from Gen. Williams. "Leave two regiments, with one section of artil- lery, at Berryville, and move the remainder of your command from three to five miles from there unless you hear firing at Winchester, in which event leave but oue regiment and one section of artillery, and push on for Winchester," came to me through a flying orderiy at eight o'clock ; and still following upon the heels of the former came another, to say that Gen. Banks 'had returned (from Harper's Ferry), that my brigade would proceed immediately to Winchester. Scarcely had I digested this, when out of the thick dust loomed up another orderly, galloping as if for life, and I read, from the headquarters of the Fifth Army Corps to Col. George H. Gordon : " Send forward your battery with all possible de- spatch." And still the cry was, " On they come " ; as yet again the orders came, "Send back the ordnance train with all possible despatch " ; ond " Send forward to Gen. Abercrombie
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