USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts in the war, 1861-1865 Pt. 1 > Part 22
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At first the recruits were quartered and drilled in Faneuil Hall and other available buildings in the city ; but as their numbers in- creased they were transferred to the barracks in Fort Warren, Bos- ton Harbor, where the organization was completed. It was accepted as a part of the quota of Massachusetts on the 14th of June, 850 of its members were mustered into the United States service by Captain Marshall of the regular army on the 26th, and the balance on the 11th of July. The original roster follows :-
Colonel, Fletcher Webster of Marshfield; lieutenant colonel, Timothy M. Bryan, Jr., of Newton ; major, Elisha M. Burbank of Woburn ; surgeon, Jedediah II. Baxter of Boston; assistant surgeon, J. Mc Lean Hayward of Boston ; chaplain, Edward L. Clark of Andover; adjutant, Thomas P. Haviland of Newton ; quartermaster, David Wood of Lex- ington ; sergeant major, Gerald Fitzgerald of Boston ; quartermaster
1
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE WAR.
sergeant, Loring W. Muzzey of Lexington ; commissary sergeant, Charles W. Thompson of Boston ; hospital steward, C. C. Hutchins of Maine ; principal musician, Lucius M. Hamilton of Weymouth ; leader of band, William J. Martland of North Bridgewater.
Company A, Felton Guards-Captain, Richard H. Kimball ; first lieutenant, William G. White ; second lieutenant, George W. Orne, all of Boston.
Company B, Dehon Guards - Captain, George W. Murch ; first lieutenant, Frederick R. Shattuck, both of Boston ; second lieuten- ant, Charles T. Packard of North Bridgewater.
Company C-Captain, Daniel G. Handy of Bostou ; first lieutenant, Edward 'T. Pearce of Gloucester ; second lieutenant, Harlan P. Ben- nett of Boston.
Company D, Latin School Guard-Captain, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Jr .; first lieutenant, J. Otis Williams ; second lieutenant, George B. Drake, all of Boston.
Company E, Emerson Guards - Captain, Edward C. Saltmarsh ; first lieutenant, George H. Davis ; second lieutenant, Samuel Apple- ton, all of Boston.
Company F- Captain, Alexander Hichborn ; first lieutenant, Alpheus K. Harmon ; second lieutenant, Hiram W. Copeland, all of North Bridgewater.
Company G-Captain, Ira Blanchard ; first lieutenant, Edward P. Reed ; second lieutenant, Lysander F. Cushing, all of Abington.
Company H-Captain, James L. Bates ; first lieutenant, Charles W. Hastings ; second hentenant, Francis B. Pratt, all of Weymouth.
Company I-Captain, John Ripley ; first lieutenant, Chester Clark ; second lieutenant, Warren Thompson, all of Stoughton.
Company K, Dale Guards-Captain, David Allen ; first lienten- ant, Benjamin F. Cook ; second lieutenant, Gilman Saunders, all of Gloucester.
The regiment went over to the city and was reviewed by the gov- ernor on the 18th of July, after which it was presented with a fine stand of colors by Hon. Edward Everett in behalf of the ladies of Boston. A final adieu was given to Fort Warren on the 23d of July, the regiment taking cars to Fall River that evening, going by steamer to New York, and thence to Elizabethport, N. J .; from the latter place cars again took the command by way of Harrisburg and Baltimore to Sandy Hook, Md., opposite Harper's Ferry, which was reached on the morning 'of the 27th. The Twelfth were at- tached to Abercrombie's Brigade, forming a part of the force of which General Banks had just taken command, succeeding Gen- eral Patterson. Abercrombie's was known as the Second Brigade, Department of the Shenandoah, and consisted at that time, in ad- dition to the Twelfth, of the Second Massachusetts, Twelfth and
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Sixteenth Indiana, the First Pennsylvania Battery being assigned to it some weeks later. A reorganization of General Banks's com- mand on the 25th of September made this the First Brigade ; the Second Massachusetts went to the Third Brigade and its place was taken in the First by the Thirtieth Pennsylvania, the Sixty-sixth coming in subsequently. The Second was soon returned to the bri- gade, however, and remained with it till the following spring.
The first march was one of 26 miles on the 16th of August to Buckeyestown, crossing the Monacacy river next day and on the 19th the regiment proceeded to Hyattstown where it camped. A month passed quietly, the camp being shifted some five miles dur- ing the time ; drill, guard and picket duty gave practical education, and details were frequent. Major Burbank, with Companies B and G, was sent to Baltimore on the 12th of September, it being reported that a secession Legislature would convene there; but no such at- tempt was made and the detachment rejoined the regiment October 1.
The Twelfth moved through Darnestown to the Potomac Septem- ber 19, and the following day changed position to near Muddy Branch as a part of the force picketing the river. This duty con- tinued till the 22d, when the disaster at Ball's Bluff called the bri- gade toward Edwards Ferry, crossing Seneca Creek that day, halting till the 26th and then pushing on by way of Poolesville nearly to the Ferry. There the regiment remained till November 29, when it marched by way of Barnesville to near Frederick ; crossing the Monocaey and marching some miles along its eastern bank, a halt was made on a hillside in a forest near the Baltimore pike on the 3d of December, and the site of the first "winter quarters" was reached.
The men and officers were comfortably quartered during the win- ter in log cabins, and the only formal " turn-out" of the regiment was to join in the celebration of Washington's birthday at Frede- riek, February 22. Directly after this "marching orders" and rumors began to multiply and Camp Hicks was finally quitted carly in the morning of the 27th. Going by rail from Frederick to the Potomac, the regiment crossed the river on pontons and marched to Shenandoah Village, near by, which was reached in the evening, the night's bivouac being made in some old flour mills where there was much suffering from the cold weather which prevailed for some days. At noon of the 1st of March the regiment moved to Charlestown,
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encamping just beyond. From this point companies and detach- ments were sent out on scout and picket duty in various directions, but the regiment with two or three changes of site remained en- camped in that vicinity till the 10th, when it marched to Ripon, halting there for two days and on the evening of the 12th marching through Berryville and to within two miles of Winchester, where a halt was made till the 21st.
Changes in the make-up of the brigades were frequent at this time, and General Abercrombie's command now became the Second Brigade of Williams's Division and was composed of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts, Sixteenth Indiana and Ninth New York Regiments. The weather continued cold and disagreeable, with occasional snow-storms, and the presence of harassing parties of the enemy made the experiences of the soldiers anything but pleasant. On the 21st the brigade marched by way of Berryville, crossing the Shenandoah at Snicker's Ferry, through Snicker's Gap and past Philmont to Aldie, which was reached on the 23d.
Very early next morning the destination of the brigade was changed-baek over the mountains, to and across the Shenandoah it toiled, many of the men shoeless ; only to again about face on the 25th and follow out the original intention, reaching Centerville on the 29th, going thence to Manassas Junction and following the railroad in the direction of the Rappahannock, with frequent halts and side expeditions for reconnaissance ; often resulting in the capt- ure of Confederate deserters, spies and scouts, but provoking no engagement till the 18th of April, when a detachment of seven com- panies joined other details of infantry, cavalry and artillery, pro- ceeded to the Rappahannock and opened fire upon the enemy on the other side of the river while engaged in guard mounting. The fire was returned, and was the first received in actual conflict by any part of the Twelfth Regiment. The Confederates finally withdrew and the Union soldiers returned to camp.
Another period of comparative inactivity followed, during which, on the 1st of May, General Abercrombie being ordered to join Gen- eral Mcclellan's army at Yorktown, he was succeeded in command of the brigade by General George L. Hartsuff. The regimental band left for Massachusetts on the 9th and on the 12th the brigade marched toward Fredericksburg, halting on the 14th two miles be- low Falmouth on the north bank of the river. Here the brigade
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was attached to General Ord's Division of McDowell's Corps-the First-and was joined by the Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment.
Steamer was taken at Acquia Landing the 26th, and after some delays and difficulties the soldiers debarked next day at Alexandria. That night cars were taken and the regiment rode to Manassas Junction, marched on the 28th to Haymarket on the Manassas Gap Railroad, took cars and rode five miles, then marching through Thoroughfare Gap and the next day passing White Plains and camp- ing in Piedmont Gap. On the 1st of June Front Royal was reached by Ord's command and the next day an advance was made to Sul- phur Springs, but after advancing a few miles further the Twelfth returned on the 4th to Front Royal. Remaining in that vicinity till the 17th, the brigade took cars to Manassas Junction.
For a time the Twelfth became a part of General Pope's Army of Virginia, the brigade composed of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts, Eleventh Pennsylvania and Eighty-third New York, being designated as the Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps, General Ricketts commanding the division and General Mc- Dowell the corps. On the 4th of July the regiment marched to Gainesville and the next day to New Baltimore and two miles be- yond toward Warrenton, where it encamped and remained till the 22d, marching that day in a severe storm to the Rappahannock river, on the banks of which it lingered till the 8th of August.
Crossing the river at Rappahannock Station, the regiment, with its division, marched toward the battle-field of Cedar Mountain at noon of the 8th, bivouacked at dark, and at daybreak proceeded two miles further, halting then until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, while General Banks's Corps passed to the front, fought valiantly and were defeated. Ricketts's Division was then ordered forward, going into position in support of Banks about dusk. As the Third Brigade deployed the Twelfth Regiment was temporarily separated from its fellows by a dash of fugitive teams toward the rear, but being directed to its position in line moved to it under a heavy artillery fire by which Captain N. B. Shurtleff was killed and ten were wounded.
The remainder of the month until the battle of Manassas was one of weary and apparently purposeless marching and counter- marching back and forth over the debatable ground between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, now looking in vain for the enemy
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MASSACHUSETTS IN TIIE WAR.
and then at the most unexpected moment shrinking from the shriek of his shells. The 27th found the regiment at Warrenton, whence its division was sent to bar the approach of Longstreet through Thoroughfare Gap, marching to that important point through New Baltimore and reaching the Gap on the afternoon of the 28th. A conflict almost immediately opened, with a part of the Twelfth on the skirmish line; but about dusk the division was ordered to rejoin the corps between Centerville and Manassas and marched all night in the direction of Gainesville.
It was not till the afternoon of the last day's fight that the Twelfth were called into the battle of Manassas, or the Second Bull Run. At 1 o'clock the brigade, under command of General Z. B. Tower, Hartsuff being ill, was placed in support of Heintzelman and Reno in their attempt to turn the Confederate left, and when that attempt failed General Tower was ordered to Bald Hill, which the enemy were making a desperate attempt to possess. The Twelfth formed the right of the brigade, which took up the battle bravely, but the persistent onsets of the Confederates finally forced back the Union line, General Tower being severely wounded. The loss of the Twelfth was heavy, including Colonel Webster, who was mortally wounded while momentarily separated from his command, dying in the hands of the enemy. Captain Kimball was also among the 15 killed ; 60 were wounded and 63 missing, a total loss of 138.
Falling back to Centerville, the regiment remained there till the afternoon of September 1, when it marched to Chantilly in the severe storm during which that engagement was fought, and formed line of battle, but was not engaged and suffered no loss. Retiring to Hall's Hill the next day, the regiment remained there till the 5th, when it crossed Chain Bridge and began the northward march under McClellan. The reorganization of the army changed Hartsuff's to the Third Brigade, Second Division, First Army Corps, General Hooker commanding. The Sixteenth Maine was added to the brigade a few days later. Frederick was reached on the 14th, whence the brigade pressed on to South Mountain and took part in the fight there. Gaining the summit at 9 o'clock, with ammunition exhausted, the regiment was relieved at midnight, having lost one man killed and a few wounded.
The rival armies confronted each other across Antietam Creek on the 16th, and that afternoon General Hooker crossed the stream
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THIE TWELFTHI REGIMENT.
and deployed his corps in readiness for the conflict of the next day, Ricketts's Division forming his center. Early next morning the lines were advanced; Ricketts encountered Stonewall Jackson, and a terrible contest ensued. The Twelfth formed the right of the brigade, pressing forward through the smoke and mist which prac- tically concealed everything in its front till it stood almost in the face of the Confederate fire, which thinned the lines terribly. Finally a momentary lifting of the smoke showed a hostile line of battle lying in a hollow almost at their feet, upon which the muskets of the Twelfth were turned with deadly effect ; but the line was still decimated till at the time of its relief, not later than 9 o'clock, only 32 of the 340 taken into action accompanied the colors to the rear.
The actual loss of the regiment in the four hours of that Septem- ber morning from the first advance to the final retreat was 283, of which 70 were killed, 183 wounded and 30 missing. Three officers were slain,-Assistant Surgeon Albert A. Kendall of Newton who was struck by the fatal bullet when at the operating table, and First Lieutenants William G. White and Lysander F. Cushing. Nine other officers were wounded, Major Burbank and Second Lieutenant George W. Orne mortally, leaving but four unhurt, Captain Cook commanding what was left of the regiment. General Hartsuff was also severely wounded.
During the remainder of the day the fragments of the command supported some of the Union artillery and the 18th was spent in burying the dead and caring for the wounded. Two or three days later Colonel James L. Bates took command of the Twelfth. He had been promoted from captain in the Twelfth to major of the Thirty-third Massachusetts, but following the death of Colonel Web- ster was commissioned colonel of his original regiment. His little force remained in the vicinity of the battle-field till the 1st of Octo- ber, guarding Confederate prisoners, when it moved nearer to the Potomac. At the reviews held by President Lincoln and General MeClellan a day or two later the Twelfth, by calling in details and the return of wounded, mustered 119 men. A few days after Gen- eral Nelson Taylor took charge of the brigade.
The regiment began its southward march October 25, moving to Berlin where it crossed by ponton bridge into Virginia and reached Warrenton on the 7th of November, at which time General Mc- Clellan was succeeded in the command of the Army of the Potomac
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE WAR.
by General Burnside. The next day the Twelfth went on to Rap- pahannock Station, which was reached after a hard all day's march, intensified by taking the wrong road for several miles. The division was ordered there in support of Bayard's cavalry, which was feeling the enemy across the river, the Twelfth being at first detailed to guard the bridge, but next day moving some two miles to guard Cromley's Ford. Relieved on the 13th by the Thirteenth Massa- chusetts, the regiment went a mile to the rear and camped in a fine wood, from which it was ordered on the 16th to join General Tow- er's Brigade-the Second of the same division-exchanging with the Ninety-seventh New York ; the other regiments of the brigade were the Twenty-sixth New York, Nineteeth and One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Pennsylvania.
Next day the regiment began a march which ended after three days of floundering through the mud at Stafford Court House, from which on the 21st it moved to Brooks Station, half way to Belle Plain. There the camp, from the inclement weather, insufficient rations and 'demoralized clothing was christened " Starvation Hill," and was one of the especially unpleasant memories of the command. On the 9th and 10th of December the Twelfth marched to within three miles of Belle Plain, and starting very early in the morning of the 11th reached the Rappahannock below Falmouth about 7. o'clock. That day and the succeeding night were passed on that side of the river, the First Corps crossing the ponton bridges on the morning of the 12th.
In the battle of Fredericksburg the First Corps, under Major Gen- eral J. F. Reynolds, held the extreme left of the Union army, form- ing with the Sixth Corps Franklin's Left Grand Division. The Second Division was commanded by General John Gibbon, and the Second Brigade-in which were the Twelfth-by Colonel Lyle of the Ninetieth Pennsylvania. On the morning of the 13th Gibbon's Division was formed in column by brigades to support General Meade's Division, the Twelfth being on the right of the second line.
The regiment was under fire from 9 o'clock till 1, when the divis- ion was ordered forward. The first line-the Third Brigade-en- countered a very heavy fire, and after a half-hour of sharp fighting the second line were ordered to relieve them. In advancing the Twelfth were separated from the other regiments of the brigade, which were soon forced to retire ; but Colonel Bates and his com-
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THIE TWELFTH REGIMENT.
mand took up a position from which they kept up a sharp fire till their ammunition began to fail. As they were about to retire the third line advanced to charge the enemy, and at the request of Colonel Adrian P. Root of the Ninety-fourth New York, command- ing the brigade, Colonel Bates led his regiment forward with them, taking the right of the line. The Confederates were driven from the railroad embankment and the position was held for some time ; but the Union force was isolated, no support came, it was flanked and reluctantly fell back to the position from which the first ad- vance was made.
The Twelfth won high credit in the events of the day, but at serious cost. Of 258 men taken into action, 105 had been lost, three only being reported as missing; 17 were killed. First Lieuten- ant Arthur Dehon of Boston, on the staff of General Meade, was killed while bearing a dispatch to a brigade commander, and Captain John Ripley received wounds of which he died on the 20th.
The fighting was not resumed on that part of the field. The regiment lay on its arms in line of battle that night, went next day to the left to the support of General Doubleday's Division, and re- crossed the river on the night of the 15th, marching in the severe rain-storm to a wood in the vicinity of Falmouth. Moving on the 19th to Belle Plain on the Potomac, orders were received to report at King George Court House, 24 miles to the southeast, which was reached on the 20th. Remaining there through a snow-storm, the command started back on the 22d to Belle Plain, on reaching which preparations were at once made for winter quarters, and by the close of the year comfortable huts had been provided. These were quit- ted on the morning of January 20, 1863, to share in what proved the " Mnd march "-General Burnside's last attempt to join battle with the enemy. That night the regiment camped in a plowed field four miles above Banks Ford in a driving rain-storm, and next morn- ing floundered through four miles more of Virginia mud into a for- est some two miles from the Ford, where it remained till morn- ing of the 23d, when the enterprise was abandoned ; before night most of the huts in the camp at Smoky Hollow were reoccupied. The Second Division had some two weeks previous been placed under the command of General John C. Robinson, who commanded it for more than a year.
During the months which followed while the army was being re-
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cuperated under the able direction of General Hooker, a fruitless effort was made to have the Twelfth returned to Massachusetts to recruit its decimated ranks, it being at that time the smallest regi- ment from the state in the service, having frequently less than a hundred men present for duty. On the 21st of April General Henry Baxter took command of the brigade, having won promotion from the lieutenant colonelcy of the Second Michigan Regiment at Fredericksburg; and on the 28th the regiment left camp for the Chancellorsville campaign.
The part taken by the Twelfth in this battle was not important. The First Corps marched to Pollock's Mills, a mile below the site of the Sixth Corps bridges at Franklin's Crossing of the previous December, and Wadsworth's Division crossed while the others lay in support on the north bank of the Rappahannock. The latter were sharply shelled by the Confederate batteries on the opposite hights on the 30th, but moved to the cover of a ditch and escaped with slight loss-that of the Twelfth being but one man wounded. At 9 o'clock on the 2d of May orders were received by the First Corps to report to General Hooker at Chancellorsville and about dark they halted near United States Ford, but a few miles from the Union position. The Eleventh Corps had just been broken and as soon as a position could be decided on the First Corps occupied it. The Twelfth deployed and advanced as skirmishers through the woods while the night battle raged to their left, their position being on the extreme right near the Ely's Ford road.
The regiment operated in the rear of the Confederate lines next day, capturing a picket line and over a hundred other prisoners, and on the 4th, accompanied by the Thirteenth Massachusetts and Hall's Battery, made a reconnaissance to near Ely's Ford, where the enemy was found in strong force, when the expedition returned to its place in the lines. On the 6th the regiment recrossed the river with the rest of Hooker's army and went into camp near White Oak Church, having lost six men-two wounded and four missing.
The Gettysburg campaign, so far as the Twelfth Regiment was concerned, began on the 12th of June, when camp was struck and the command marched about the middle of the afternoon for Rap- pahannock Station, which was reached early next morning. There was a halt of 24 hours, then on by way of Manassas, Guilford's Station and Leesburg, which was reached on the 17th as Mosby's
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THIE TWELFTH REGIMENT.
troopers were leaving. After two days at Leesburg the corps marched back to Guilford, where it remained till the 25th, when it crossed the Potomac at Edwards Ferry and camped that night at Poolesville, pressing on during the next two days to Middletown, some miles west of Frederick, where it received intelligence of the transfer of the command of the army to General Meade.
The regiment camped near Emmittsburg on the 29th, and on the 30th moved but two or three miles. Early in the morning of July 1 it started on the march to Gettysburg, which was reached soon after the opening of the fight. After a brief halt in front of the Theological Seminary, to the west of the town, Baxter's Brigade, numbering in its five regiments but 1,100 men, moved by the flank to the north and formed along the Mummasburg road, Company K de- ploying and at the point of the bayonet driving the hostile skirmish- ers from a stone-wall in its front. No other troops were at that time in its immediate front, but a demonstration on the left soon caused a change of front in that direction, followed presently by another to the right. The enemy's superior force was thus beaten back from both flanks, when Iverson's North Carolina Brigade marched up close in front of Baxter's Brigade, as it laid behind a stone-wall. At the proper moment such an accurate and terrible fire was poured in by the Twelfth and its fellow-regiments that the Confederate com- mand was almost exterminated, and the great majority of those not killed or wounded surrendered, though a few succeeded in slipping away after showing a white flag.
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