USA > Massachusetts > History of the Thirty-seventh Regiment, Mass., Volunteers, in the civil war of 1861-1865, with a comprehensive sketch of the doings of Massachusetts as a state, and of the principal campaigns of the war > Part 11
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126
ON THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
otherwise. First Lieutenant Mulloy succeeded him as captain of Company K, Lieutenant Chandley was advanced in turn, and First Sergeant Michael Harrigan of the same company became its second lieutenant. Assistant Surgeon Joshua J. Ellis ceased to hold that position on the 27th of March, and was succeeded by Dr. Albert L. Mitehell of Boston. Dr. Ellis died at New- port, R. I., during the summer. In the non-commissioned staff John E. Banks of Company G succeeded Thomas Porter Jr., as quartermaster sergeant, January 1; but the latter remained in the department as clerk throughout, rendering valuable and ap- preciated service.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
EVENTS IN THE WEST .- CHANCELLORSVILLE .- MARYE'S HIGHTS AND SALEM CHURCH.
We must now glance very briefly at the progress of the great struggle on other parts of the vast arena. Over the disputed territory of Tennessee and the adjacent regions great armies were surging back and forth, the advantage shifting from one banner to the other, but generally favoring the Union arms whenever the test of decisive battle was reached. Following the battle of Pittsburg Landing, April 7, 1862, Beauregard with the remains of his army had fallen back to Corinth, Miss., which place he evacuated late in May on the approach of the Union army under General Halleck. During the following month General Pope, who had joined the combined armies operating against Beauregard, was summoned to Washington to take com- inand of the Army of Virginia, and in July Halleck followed to assume direction from the national Capital of all the Federal armies. The armies at Corinth now separated, General Grant being assigned to the Department of West Tennessee while Buell with the Army of the Ohio operated against General Bragg, who had succeeded Beauregard in the command of the Confederate army. Tennessee and Kentucky were now free of any consid- erable bodies of Southern troops, and after arranging his army to protect Nashville, Buell contemplated the occupation of Chat- tanooga, an important strategic point near the Georgia bounda- ry, when he found that Bragg. moving by way of northern Ala- bama, had already passed through the place and was pushing to the northward past the left flank of the Union army. Crossing the Cumberland at Carthage, the Confederates moved directly
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128
THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
toward Louisville, Ky., while at the same time a smaller force under E. Kirby Smith had entered the state through Cumber- land Gap, and on August 30 defeated General Nelson at Rich- mond. At Munfordsville, Bragg encountered a small but deter- mined garrison commanded by Colonel John T. Wilder, which after three days' resistance was forced to surrender on the 17th of September; but the time gained had enabled Buell to over- take his antagonist, and for several days the two armies maneu- vered and a battle was expected. Finally the Confederates withdrew to the eastward, Buell marched to Louisville and pro- visioned his troops, and on the 30th moved once more in search of Bragg. A severe battle ensued at Perryville, Ky., October 8, and during the night Bragg retired leaving his dead and wounded on the field, and retreated toward Cumberland Gap. Buell fol- lowed the retiring invaders without further engagement till he felt obliged to concentrate his army toward Nashville, and Oeto- ber 30 he was relieved of his command and succeeded by Gen- eral Rosecrans.
On the departure of General Pope for Washington his western command had been given to General Rosecrans, and about the middle of September the latter was ordered by Grant to move with the Army of the Mississippi against the Southern General Sterling Price, who on the 10th had occupied Inka, Miss .. cap- turing considerable amounts of government property. Rosecrans moved vigorously and on the 19th fought the battle of Inka. Price retired during the night, in season to escape the cooperat- ing column of General Ord, who was moving to the assistance of Rosecrans, giving to the Federal forces the prestige of victory though the engagement itself had been indecisive. Rosecrans concentrated his forces at Corinth, where on the 3d of October he was attacked by the combined armies of Price and Van Dorn. under the command of the latter. From early morning till noon of the following day the assailants fought desperately. Corinth was the military key to Western Tennessee, and it con- tained vast quantities of stores and supplies, but though one assault followed another with destructive fury and at great cost to the Confederates, they achieved no permanent success, and by
129
ROSECRANS IN TENNESSEE.
noon of the 4th were in full retreat. On the following day Gen- eral Ord intercepted the fugitives at the Hatchee, and inflicted further loss upon them, being himself severely wounded, and Rosecrans pursued Van Dorn's flying columns for 60 miles, till recalled by General Grant.
With the prestige of these vigorous acts fresh in the public mind, Rosecrans succeeded to the command of Buell's army, much to the popular satisfaction, so impatient had the loyal people become of the delays of campaigns East and West. Hence- forth this command was designated as the Army of the Cum- berland, and it was at this time organized as the Fourteenth Corps, though on the 9th of January following it was divided into the Fourteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first, under the command, respectively, of Generals Thomas, McCook and Crit- tenden. Following the battle of Perryville, Bragg concentrated his army at Murfreesboro, 30 miles from Nashville, threatening the latter city, and on the 7th of November General McCook reached the city with Rosecrans's right grand division just in time to prevent a threatened attack by General Forrest. The two armies watched each other till late in December, when Rose- crans, annoyed by the extensive cavalry raiding of Forrest in his rear, with Morgan operating in Kentucky, moved forward his entire force and on the last day of the year opened the terrible battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro. The opposing forces were in position the night before, and by one of the singular coincidences of war each commander decided to make a very vigorous attack in the morning with his left on the right wing of his antagonist. Bragg was the first to deliver battle, and while Rosecrans was moving his own forces to the assault he was astonished to find his entire right swept back by a resistless on- slaught. His purpose of attack was at once abandoned, and every energy devoted to resistance of the Confederates, who still continued to sweep back McCook's right wing, though Sheridan's division fought bravely, repelling three desperate attacks and holding the enemy at bay for four hours, when with ammunition exhausted they were obliged at last to give way. As this last division of the right wing gave way the Confederate advance
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THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
struck and seriously involved the center, where the iron courage of General Thomas and his command inspired some of the most obstinate fighting of modern times. At last the firm lines withstood the shock of the repeated rebel onsets, and the heroic Federal commander saw the attacking legions break and drift away in fragments, and knew that the impetuosity of their dash had spent itself. The Union loss had been severe, in some com- mands terrible, and included the commander of McCook's Sec- ond Division, General Sill, and Colonel Kirk commanding a brigade, as well as Garesché, the chief of staff to Rosecrans, whose head was carried away by a shell that barely missed his commander. To the position thus tragically made vacant Gen- eral Garfield was appointed a few weeks later. For two days Bragg sought in vain to pierce the Federal lines. In every case his demonstrations were met with such determination that he realized the hopelessness of his task. Toward the close of the 2d of January one more desperate effort was made to drive the Union forces from a position across the river threatening the Confederate right; but it only resulted in severe loss to the at- tacking party, which was forced back for a considerable distance and the whole position occupied by Bragg put in such peril that he gave the order for a general retreat on the night of the 3d. Concentrating and intrenching near Tullahoma, some 40 miles south of Murfreesboro, General Bragg placed his army in winter quarters, while General Rosecrans devoted his energies to the repair of his communications and to strengthening the weak spots in the organization of his army, in which the next few months were spent.
West of the.Mississippi the situation had not greatly changed during the fall and winter. In Missouri General Blunt had operated vigorously, defeating the Confederates under Marma- duke at Boston Mountains, November 28, and following this victory by one over Hindman at Prairie Grove on the 7th of December, practically freeing the state from any organized rebel army. Texas, however, where so earnest a stand had been made against secession, seemed now utterly abandoned by the national government. Galveston had been occupied by three companies
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OPENING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
of the Forty-second Massachusetts regiment, supported by a fleet of gun-boats in the harbor, but on the first day of January, 1863, the fleet was dispersed by that of the Confederates and General Magruder casily captured the handful of infantry left unprotected in the streets. With the exception of an insignifi- cant force at certain points on the Rio Grande, no Union soldiers were left in Texas.
All other interests in that region were now subordinated to the supreme object of opening the Mississippi. With that vast waterway under the national control, cutting off the great trans- Mississippi region whence enormous quantities of supplies were furnished the Confederates, a powerful blow would be struck against the cause of disunion. Already great progress had been made, so that at only two points-Vicksburg and Port Hudson -- did the secessionists retain control. These posts, admirably adapted to the command of the river, had been strengthened by every device known to engineering skill. At Vicksburg the first battery on the Mississippi had been built, from which on the 18th of January, 1861, the steamer A. O. Tyler had been fired on. Here General Lovell had retreated with his army when the approach of General Butler drove him from New Orleans, and in May he was followed by Farragut's fleet, the batteries at Port Hudson not being completed. Fire was opened by Farragut, but the siege was not prosecuted, and toward the end of July, 1862, he returned to New Orleans. On the 7th of September the first fight with the batteries at Port Hudson occurred, and the Federal naval commander found the river practically closed to his vessels at that point.
Early in November General Grant began the concentration of his available forces for a vigorous campaign against Vicksburg, and was pressing forward with all speed when the capture of his depot of supplies at Holly Springs by Van Dorn obliged him to retire to Grand Junction till the loss could be repaired, and this respite gave General Pemberton time to concentrate his command for the defense of the threatened stronghold. At this time Grant divided his Army of the Tennessee into four corps- the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth, com-
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THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
manded respectively by Generals McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut and McPherson. On the 20th of December,-the day of Van Dorn's successful raid on Grant's supplies,-Sherman loft Memphis, Admiral Porter's fleet transporting his troops down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo to the rear of Vicksburg, where they debarked on the 26th, and three days later unsuccess- fully attacked the Confederates in a strong position at Chickasaw Bayon. This movement having thus proved a failure, the idea of a flank' attack on Pemberton was abandoned. A week later McClernand joined forces with Sherman and took command, being the senior officer, and January 11, 1863, the land forces in conjunction with the fleet captured Fort Hindman, on the Arkansas river, with its garrison of some 5,500 men. The next notable attempt was to cut a canal across the long peninsula . opposite Vicksburg, in the hope of diverting the river from its natural course; but after two months of incredible exertions in swamps, bayous and forests, the rise of the river compelled the abandonment of the scheme. On the 2d of February General Grant reached Young's Point and assumed personal command of the operations, and the following night the Queen of the West of Porter's fleet ran the batteries, destroyed four Confed- erate vessels below, and returned without serious damage. On a second passage this vessel was lost through the treachery of a pilot, and similar attempts followed, attended with more or less success, but it was demonstrated that the batteries could be passed, and Grant presently decided on one of the boldest move- ments known to military history. This was no less than to move his army on the west side of the river far below Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi by transports which Porter would undertake to run past the batteries, throw his force between the Confederate armies in Mississippi, defeat them in detail and capture Vicks- burg. This plan, daring as it was, the indomitable genius of its originator carried out almost exactly.
Porter successfully passed Vicksburg with the vessels required, but at Grand Gulf, near the mouth of the Big Black river. he found other strong batteries which he ineffectually attacked on the 29th of April, but that night ran his transports past
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133
GRANT'S REMARKABLE CAMPAIGN.
them and immediately moved the waiting army across the river. General McClernand's command encountered and defeated the Confederates under General John Bowen on the 1st of May, which defeat necessitated the abandonment of the works at Grand Gulf. On the Sth General Sherman, who had been oper- ating against Haines Bluff with the gun-boats, joined Grant on the Big Black, and the march toward Jackson was promptly taken up. General J. E. Johnston, the ablest of the Southern chieftains in the West, was reported on his way to assume per- sonal command of all the troops in that vicinity, but when he came he found only broken fragments. On the 12th McPherson's corps defeated General Gregg at Raymond, and two days later the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps defeated the Confederates at Jackson and captured the place. Finding that Pemberton was seeking to strike him in the rear, Grant now faced about, and on the 16th met and defeated his antagonist at Champion Hills. Pemberton fell back to a strong position on the Big Black, but on the following day he was attacked and driven with such vigor that he was unable to destroy the bridge over which his troops retreated, and on the 19th he found himself forced back upon Vicksburg by the victorious Federals. A com- bined and desperate assault upon the fortifications there was made on the 22d, but it was bloodily repulsed, when Grant, changing his base of supplies to the Yazoo, settled down to a siege of the place. Among the troops which came to his rein- forcement at this time were two divisions of the Ninth Corps under General Parke, detached during the winter from the Army of the Potomac. The course of the siege cannot be fol- lowed here ; suffice it to say that it was pressed with desperate energy and valiantly resisted. On the 15th of June General MeClernand, who had, in an order to his command, allowed some reflection on General Grant, was relieved from command of the Thirteenth Corps and succeeded by General E. O. C. Ord.
General Butler was relieved from the command of the Depart- ment of the Gulf, November 2. 1862, and a week later General V. P. Banks succeeded him, with head-quarters at New Orleans. A thorough campaign was at once planned, Baton Rouge being
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THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
reoccupied by a force under General Grover, and during the succeeding months General Dick Taylor, the Southern com- mander, was driven from point to point till his army was effect- nally scattered. Crossing the Mississippi at Bayou Sara, Banks moved down from the north toward Port Hudson, while General Augur approached on the south, and on the 24th of May the investment was complete. Here, too, strong assaults were made. but stubbornly repulsed by the garrison under General Gardner. and the slower process of siege became necessary.
This, then, was the situation in the West and Southwest at the end of June, 1863: Burnside, relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, had been assigned to East Tennessec. where he was gathering a considerable army; Van Dorn's com- mand-that officer having been killed in a personal quarrel by a Dr. Peters-had joined Bragg at Tullahoma, against whom Rosecrans was preparing to move; Grant was besieging Pember- ton at Vicksburg, and Banks performing a like service for Gardner at Port Hudson.
Return we now to the Army of the Potomac, of which, on the 26th of January, 1863, General Joseph Hooker had taken com- mand, Sumner and Franklin retiring at the same time. The former died soon after of disease while preparing to take a command in the West, and the latter had no further connection with the Army of the Potomac. The new commander at once bent his energies to the reorganization of his command, and as his accession followed close on the " mud march," there was abund- ant opportunity for the exercise of his genius. There was unmis- takably much demoralization. Desertions had been frequent and the absentees from the army at this time, including all causes, amounted to nearly 85,000. Many of these were sick or wounded, or on furlough, but these causes did not by any means cover the entire number. Better food, better clothing and better sanitary regulations were at once ordered, and what seemed mountains of discouragement to former commanders were now made to give way. Vegetables in some form were issned with regularity, ovens were built for the baking of soft bread, rations lost or damaged when in the possession of the soldier were re-
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135
GENERAL HOOKER IN COMMAND.
placed, sinks and drainage received careful attention, and with these and many other evidences of a lively interest in the phys- ical welfare of his command, General Hooker won the confidence and strengthened the morale of his men. At the opening of the Chancellorsville campaign the Army of the Potomac was un- doubtedly in the finest physical condition known to its history. The desertions, which were reported as reaching 200 per day at the time Hooker took command, soon nearly ceased, and a judicious system of brief furloughs gave an added incentive to excellence in soldierly duties.
In the organization of the army many changes occurred. The system of grand divisions was abolished, and in the place of the Ninth Corps, which left the Army of the Potomac during the winter, the Eleventh had been added, General Sigel, its recent commander, being succeeded by General O. O. Howard, to the serious displeasure of its large German element. But two of the corps commanders at Fredericksburg remained-General Rey- nolds of the First and General Couch of the Second. The Third was under General Daniel E. Sickles. General George G. Meade advanced from the Third Division of the First Corps to com- mand the Fifth Corps. General John Sedgwick left the Second Division of the Second Corps to command the Sixth Corps, sue- cecding General W. F. Smith, assigned to duty in North Caro- lina. The Twelfth Corps was under General II. W. Sloenm, advanced from the command of the First Division, Sixth Corps.
The make-up of the Sixth Corps during the Chancellorsville campaign may be thus described: The First Division, under General Brooks, previously commander of the Vermont Brigade, was composed of the First or New Jersey Brigade, General Tor- bert, the Second, General Bartlett, and the Third, General David A. Russell, promoted November 29, 1862, from the colonel- cy of the Seventh Massachusetts. General Howe's Second Divis- ion consisted of the Second or Vermont Brigade, Colonel L. A. Grant, and the Third, General Neill. The First Brigade of this division had been broken up, and a " Light Division" formed, under the command of Colonel Burnham, composed of the Fifth Wisconsin, Sixth Maine, Thirty-first and Forty-third
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THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.
New York and Sixty-first Pennsylvania. The Third Division. now under General John Newton, one of the most thorough engineers in the army, saw many changes among its command- ers. General Devens having been appointed to the command of a division in the Eleventh Corps, his brigade became the Second. and passed to the command of Colonel Browne of the Thirty- sixth New York, the senior regimental commander at the time. Colonel Wheaton having been commissioned a brigadier-general at the time of Colonel Russell's promotion, and assigned to the command of the Third Brigade. The First Brigade was com- manded by General Alexander Shaler. Colonel Horatio Rogers succeeded Wheaton in the Second Rhode Island, and Colonel Thomas D. Johns was assigned to the Seventh.
Especial effort had been made by General Hooker to organize the cavalry of his command as an important arm of the service. which thus far it had never been. The entire available force of this arm was consolidated under General Stoneman, and at the opening of the campaign it comprised an efficient total of some 12,000 men. Including the cavalry, Hooker's army now nun- bered not far from 125,000, of which he might well say that it was "the finest army on this planet."
It was during this period of reconstruction that the system of corps badges was adopted by General Hooker's order for the in- stant identification of the different commands. The figures adopted for the seven corps of the Army of the Potomac were: First, a disk; Second, a trefoil; Third, a diamond; Fifth, a Maltese cross; Sixth, a Greek cross; Eleventh, a crescent: Twelfth, a star. The color for the first division of cach corps was red, for the second white, and for the third blue-employ- ing in regular order the three national colors. Small cloth badges of the proper figure and color were sewn upon the tops of the men's caps or on the left side of hats when worn, and the head-quarters flags of the divisions and brigades were thus dis- tinguished: First division, a red figure on a white ground: second, a white figure on a blue ground; third, a blue figure on a white flag. The flags of divisions were rectangular, of brigades triangular. The brigade flags being of the same color as those
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THE INTRODUCTION OF CORPS BADGES.
of the division, with the corps badge in the center, the number of the brigade was thus designated: First, a plain flag; second, a stripe or border next the staff; third, the same on the three sides of the flag; fourth, a sector at each of the three corners. The color of these borders was that supplementing the body of the flag and the corps badge, the Second Brigade, Third Division, thus having a white flag with a blue cross in the center and a red bar next the staff. This excellent system, which was soon adopted by nearly every corps of the Union armies West and South, was the outgrowth of a device of General Kearney during the penin- sular campaign to distinguish the officers of his division, who for a time were all obliged to dress in the uniforms of enlisted men. After the death of that gallant officer at Chantilly, those who had fought under him continued to wear the badge in his memory.
The Confederate force at this time opposed to Hooker con- sisted of something over 60,000 men, so disposed as to be easily concentrated at any point where they might be needed, while for 25 miles along their front, from United States Ford above Fredericksburg to Port Royal below, extended a system of in- trenchment as perfect as military skill highly favored by the contour of the country could produce. Behind these defenses lay the four divisions of "Stonewall " Jackson's Second Corps, commanded respectively by Generals A. P. Hill, D. II. Hill, Trimble and Early, with two divisions of Longstreet's First Corps, under Generals Anderson and MeLaws, Longstreet in person with his other two divisions having been sent to the south of Richmond in February, to operate against General Peck.
The plan of attack which Hooker decided upon might be called an elaboration of Burnside's January attempt which had ended in the mud. Briefly stated, it was to throw the main body of his army far around the left of the Confederate position, while a demonstration in force was made at the old battle-ground near the city, to cover the real intention; meantime 10.000 cav- alry under Stoneman were to raid as far and as vigorously as possible against the enemy's lines of communication.
The cavalry on both sides had already become active. On the Sth of March the guerrilla leader John S. Moseby dashed into
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