USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts in the war, 1861-1865 Pt. 2 > Part 11
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE WAR.
turn to Petersburg. At Blacks and Whites Station on the South- side Railroad a halt was made on the 21st, and the regiment re- mained there till the 1st of May. During this time some of its members who had been prisoners in the hands of the enemy returned to duty, including Captain F. R. Kinsley, who resumed command.
Setting out on the 1st of May, the regiment marched to Arling- ton Hights by way of Petersburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg, encamping near Fort Albany on the 12th. The routine of camp life there was broken on the 23d by the grand review of the Army of the Potomac in Washington, and directly afterward the disband- ing of the army began. The recruits having been transferred to the Thirty-second Massachusetts, the muster out of the original members of the Thirty-ninth took place on the 2d of June, and two days later the regiment crossed the Potomac for the last time and took transportation from Washington for Boston, being quar- tered in the barracks at Readville on the 6th. On that day Colonel Tremlett died at his home in Boston from the effects of his wound, and the news of his fate brought much sadness to the members of the regiment, by whom he was held in high esteem. He had been commissioned lieutenant colonel and colonel, but not mustered to the offices.
After a week in camp at Readville the regiment was paid and discharged, closing an honorable record. It is worthy of mention that of the 250 lives which it gave for its country, 111 were lost in Confederate prison pens.
THE FORTIETH REGIMENT.
T HE Fortieth Regiment began to gather at Camp Edwin M. Stanton, Lynnfield, early in August, 1862, the first company, B, being filled and mustered on the 22d, Company A the day following, two others on the 31st, two on the 1st of September, three on the 3d, and the last, G, on the 5th. Major Burr Porter of the United States Army, who had served with distinction on Gen- eral Fremont's staff, was selected for colonel, but did not join the command till after it reached Washington; previous to his arrival it was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Dalton, an experienced militia officer, under whose lead it left Massachusetts September 8, reaching Washington at night of the 11th and the following day marching to Fort Ethan Allen, on the Virginia side of the Potomac near Chain Bridge. The regiment was officered as follows :--
Colonel, Burr Porter of New York; lieutenant colonel, Joseph A. Dalton of Salem ; major, Joseph M. Day of Barnstable ; surgeon, Oliver A. Brewster of Pittsfield; assistant surgeons, Andrew M. Smith of Williamstown and Jonathan Cass of Great Barrington; chaplain, J. Henry Thayer; adjutant, A. Parker Browne, both of Salem; quar- termaster, Edward Hitchings, of Saugus; sergeant major, Daniel E. Bowen; quartermaster sergeant, Charles A. Campbell, both of Chelsea; commissary sergeant, Edmund D. Bigelow of Boston; hospital steward, Sidney A. Merriam of Topsfield; principal musician, Martin Cunniff of Salem.
Company A-Captain, James T. Lurvey of Lowell; first lieutenant, Eugene A. Albee of Marlboro; second lieutenant, Charles B. Leathe of Reading.
Company B-Captain, Daniel H. Johnson, Jr .; first lieutenant, Joseph H. Webb; second lieutenant, George C. Bancroft, all of Salem. Company C, Lawrence-Captain, Stephen D. Stokes; first lieuten- ant, Eugene J. Mason; second lieutenant, John F. Weare.
Company D-Captain, Henry F. Danforth of Salem; first lieuten- ant, Stephen C. Rose of Marblehead; second lieutenant, John Pollock of Salem.
Company E-Captain, Charles A. Jackson of Chelsea; first lieuten-
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MASSACHUSETTS IN TIIE WAR.
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ant, Oreb F. Mitchell; second lieutenant, Southworth Loring, both of Middleboro.
Company F-Captain, Reuben L. Garlick; first lieutenant, William H. Cundy; second lieutenant, George F. Howard, all of Boston.
Company G-Captain, George E. Marshall; first lieutenant, William A. Smith, both of Chelsea; second lieutenant, Charles G. Cox of Salem.
Company H-Captain, Horatio Jenkins, Jr., of Chelsea; first lieu- tenant, Wisner Park; second lieutenant, Eugene H. Richards, both of Attleboro.
Company I-Captain, William H. Harper of Sandwich; first lieu- tenant, Benjamin H. Manning of Marshfield ; second lieutenant, Hartwell W. Freeman of Sandwich.
Company K, Beverly-Captain, Edward L. Giddings; first lieuten- ant, John F. Piper; second lieutenant, Leonard G. Dennis.
While encamped at Fort Ethan Allen the Fortieth was nominally a part of General Abercrombie's Brigade; but that organization was a rather indefinite one, comprising whatever troops chanced to be located in the vicinity of Chain Bridge, and the regiment had no association with and little knowledge of the other troops in its neighborhood. As other regiments arrived and the force in the de- fenses increased it was reorganized, the Fortieth being moved to Munson's Hill, five miles to the south on the Leesburg and Alexan- dria turnpike. A week later it was advanced to Miner's Hill, three miles further to the front, just outside the line of forts forming the Washington defenses, and near the village of Falls Church. There it was attached to the Second Brigade of Abercrombie's Division, commanded by General Robert Cowdin, the regiments associated with the Fortiethi in the brigade being the Eleventh Rhode Island, Twenty-second Connecticut and Fifteenth Virginia. The early his- tory of the regiment was not marked by activity. It remained in camp near Miner's Hill, picketing the front in that vicinity, till the 28th of December, when about an hour before midnight the brigade was called upon to repair at once to Mills Cross Roads, near which the Confederate cavalry under General Stuart had made a dash upon the Union lines ; but the command was only in time to capture a small rear guard, the main body of the enemy having disappeared. Return- ing to camp next evening, the regiment remained there till February 12, 1863, when it was moved to the vicinity of Hunter's Chapel, going into quarters there and picketing the roads in that vicinity.
On the adjournment of Congress, March 4, without the nomina- tion of Colonel Cowdin to be brigadier having been confirmed,
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THE FORTIETH REGIMENT.
that officer's commission expired by limitation and he returned to Massachusetts, when Colonel Porter, as senior officer, took com- mand of the brigade, leaving the Fortieth again under Lieutenant Colonel Dalton. Camp was broken at 9 o'clock in the evening of the 30th of March, and the regiment set out through a driving storm of snow and wind for Vienna, 15 miles distant, making the distance through forests and over execrable roads and in intense darkness in four hours. . The regiment remained on outpost duty there till April 11, when it returned to quarters, receiving for its arduous efforts the compensation of a complimentary notice in gen- eral orders from department head-quarters. Four days after with its brigade it was ordered to Alexandria, marched thither carly in the morning and at once embarked on transports, bound for Suffolk, Va., then besieged by General Longstreet. That point was reached about midnight, and the following day the Fortieth with the rest of its division formed camp outside the town near the Nansemond river.
The regiment at once became an active part of the defense, and occupied various positions in the works surrounding the town, but it was not till the 24th that it marched out with a column under command of General Corcoran by way of the Edenton road in search of the enemy. As he was found in force, and the intention was not to bring on an engagement, the column returned to its posi- tion within the works. The regiment took part in another recon- naissance on the 3d of May, and the day following, the siege having been raised by General Longstreet's retreat, the Fortieth with other troops under General Keyes set out for West Point, reaching there on the 7th. The regiment was the first to land, and at once de- ployed as skirmishers, advancing some three miles and establishing a picket line under the direction of General Keyes. Well to the rear of the outposts the main line was intrenched, and that general position was maintained during the month. On the 31st the com- mand set out for Yorktown, reaching there June 1 and remaining till the 9th, when it marched to Williamsburg, camping on the battle-field. On the following day the Fortieth were detailed to make an excursion across the Chickahominy river and as far as Jamestown Island, returning to the brigade on the 13th after having marched 75 miles. Two days later the force moved up the Peninsula to White House Landing, and on the 1st of July the Fortieth led the Fourth Corps to Baltimore Cross Roads.
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE WAR.
Colonel Porter's brigade was called into action during the evening of the 2d to support the brigade of Colonel West, which had been attacked by the enemy and was falling back in confusion. A lively skirmish ensued, in which the Fortieth had the lion's share and won credit. General Keyes's movement was abandoned on the 8th; the regiment, which had led much of the advance, formed the rear guard when the retrograde movement began, and after two days' severe marching reached Yorktown. With no more than an hour's rest it embarked on transports for Washington, passing through that city the evening of the 11th and reaching Frederick, Md., by rail during the night. There the brigade broke up, the time of the nine-months' regiments of which it was principally composed having expired, and Colonel Porter returned temporarily to the command of the Fortieth, with which he reported to the Eleventh Corps, then with the Army of the Potomac following Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back into the Old Dominion as, the result of the battle of Gettysburg. The regiment accompanied the army across the Potomac and as far as Warrenton, going thence to Catlett's Sta- tion, where on the 6th of August orders were received to report to Alexandria and take transport for South Carolina. At this time Colonel Porter had left the regiment, having returned to service in the regular army, and his successor was not immediately commissioned.
The regiment embarked on the 7th, and six days later debarked at Folly Island, Charleston Harbor. It went into the trenches at Fort Wagner on the 15th, and remained there till the stronghold was evacuated by the Confederates. Here the command lost its first member killed in action, Second Lieutenant Augustine F. Webb of Salem, on the 20th of August, while five men were wounded. For some time after the evacuation the active duty of the regiment was not noteworthy. The new commander, Colonel Guy V. Henry, promoted from lieutenant of artillery in the regular . service, arrived on the 10th of November. Major Day had resigned August 25, and that vacancy was filled by the promotion of Adju- tant Browne. On the 13th of November the regiment set out on an expedition to Kraivah and Seabrook Islands, during which there was some sharp skirmishing with the enemy, but no serious casual- ties in the regiment. After two or three days' absence the com- mand returned to camp, where it remained till January, 1864.
At that time the regiment enjoyed a high repute for excellence
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THIE FORTIETHI REGIMENT.
in drill and discipline, as a result of which it was selected for ser- vice as mounted infantry. It left camp on the morning of the 16th of January, marched to Stone Landing and took transports for Hilton Head, at which point it debarked on the 18th, going into camp outside the fortifications. Horses and the proper equipments were issued to the men on the 21st, and they began drilling in the new arm of service with zeal. But little time was allowed for this educational work. The regiment embarked for Jacksonville, Fla., on the 4th of February, reaching there on the 7th and taking pos- session of the town without opposition. What was known as the Light Brigade was organized, composed of the Fortieth, the Inde- pendent Battalion Massachusetts Cavalry (formerly part of the First Regiment) and Battery B, First United States Artillery, Colonel Henry acting brigadier. The regiment was placed under command of Major Day, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton having resigned a few days previous. This vacancy was filled later by the commis- sioning of Charles L. Chandler of Brookline.
The brigade began its advance on the afternoon of the 8th, and at midnight the Independent Battalion, supported by the Fortieth, captured a Confederate battery of four guns with all its belongings at Ten Mile Run without the loss of a man. Company HI was left in charge of the capture and the column pushed on to Baldwin where two more guns were taken in like manner. On the 10th an advance was made to Barber's Ford, where the enemy were defeated in a skirmish and driven to Sanderson, the regiment losing one killed and two wounded. Early next morning, while en route for Lake City, the enemy's pickets were encountered and the force proved so strong that the Union column fell back some six miles, where it remained encamped for three days, when the Light Bri- gade went to Starke. A detachment of 52 men from the Fortieth under Captain Marshall captured Gainsville on the 15th, with a large quantity of public stores, but the little force was soon after attacked by three times its own number. Captain Marshall hastily formed barricades of cotton bales behind which he placed his men, and without loss repulsed the attacking party, killing and wounding several. On the 18th he rejoined the brigade at Barber's Ford.
The main column under General Seymour having come up, an advance by way of Sanderson began on the morning of the 20th. Colonel Henry with his mounted troops leading. Early in the
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THE WAR.
afternoon, when within two or three miles of Olustee Station, the advance encountered the enemy in a strong position and at so close quarters that it was little better than an ambuscade for the Federal soldiers. The latter fought at a serious disadvantage, and after a desperate conflict of two or three hours, during which the Union command lost nearly half its number in killed, wounded and pris- oners, General Seymour's troops were forced to retire. The For- tieth were during the action placed in various important positions, covering the flanks, supporting the artillery, and the like. They were not so heavily engaged as the infantry, but lost four men killed, 21 wounded and four missing ; three horses were shot under Colonel Henry. The column retreated to Jacksonville, the Light Brigade holding an advanced position toward the enemy till the 1st of March, when the Confederates attacked it at Cedar Creek, and after a skirmish the Union outposts withdrew with slight loss. The regiment remained at Three Mile Run for some three weeks, and preparations were being made for a raid, when a considerable part of General Seymour's troops, including the Fortieth Regiment, were summoned to Virginia.
The Light Brigade was therefore broken up, the horses were turned in, the Fortieth became once more an infantry regiment commanded for the time by its gallant colonel, embarked on the 22d for Hilton Head, changed there on the 24th to the steamer S. R. Spaulding, sailed the following day and reached Gloucester Point where they debarked on the 28th and reported to General Butler, then organizing the Army of the James. Various changes occurred about this time among the field officers of the regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Chandler having been transferred to the Fifty- seventh Massachusetts, his place with the Fortieth was filled by the . promotion of Major George E. Marshall, dating from April 20. The latter had succeeded Major Browne, resigned March 5, and Captain Jenkins was advanced to the vacant majority.
The Fortieth were assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Tenth Corps, and two days after the landing of the regiment, the bri- gade under the command of Colonel Henry re-embarked and on the 1st of May sailed up the York river to West Point, where it landed and took position behind intrenchments, the Fortieth re-occupying its camping ground of a year before. The movement being only a diversion, the brigade remained in that vicinity for five days, till
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THIE FORTIETHI REGIMENT.
the Army of the James had established itself at Bermuda Hundred, when Colonel Henry withdrew his command and on the 6th joined the main force on the James river. On the 9th the regiment took part in an expedition against the Richmond and Petersburg rail- road, which it assisted in destroying in the vicinity of Chester, and shared, though not seriously engaged, in the fighting which ensued in the neighborhood of Swift Creek, generally known as the battle of Arrowfield Church. Returning to its intrenchments next morn- ing, it remained there till the 12th, when the Army of the James advanced toward Richmond, the Fortieth leading the right wing and skirmishing most of the day.
Position was taken in front of the enemy's works the following day, and with some changes of location the regiment remained there under the fire of Fort Darling till the morning of the 16th, when the battle of Drewry's Bluff occurred, in which the Fortieth bore their full share, suffering a loss of 10 killed, 42 wounded and 22 missing. Most of the killed and wounded were left in the hands of the Confederates and with the rest of the army the regiment re- turned to the fortifications at Bermuda Hundred. The Union picket line was captured on the morning of the 20th by the Confederates, and the Fortieth took part in the task of driving back the assail- ants, losing six killed and 16 wounded. A few days later, in prepa- ration for the movement of a considerable part of the Army of the James to Cold Harbor to join the Army of the Potomac, the For- tieth was made part of the Third Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Corps. Colonel Henry commanded the brigade, which consisted of the Twenty-first Connecticut, Ninety-second New York, Fifty-eighth and One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiments.
The movement of the Eighteenth Corps, under General "Baldy" Smith, began on the 28th of May, when the Fortieth, with its fellow- regiments, embarked at City Point. It landed at White House on the 30th and marched till midnight, rested for three hours and then pushed forward till early in the afternoon of the 1st of June when it reached Cold Harbor, General Smith forming his corps on the right of the Sixth Corps, which reached the scene about the same time. These two corps were soon ordered forward, some of the enemy's outer intrenchments were carried and the Union lines were established close to his main works. This advantage was gained at heavy cost, the Fortieth losing 12 killed, including Lieutenant
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MASSACHUSETTS IN THIE WAR.
Colonel Marshall and First Lieutenant Bancroft, and a large number wounded, most of whom were brought within the lines during the night. A sharp fire was kept up through the following day, inflicting some casualties, and on the morning of the 3d the regiment joined in the general attack on the Confederate position, and shared in the bloody repulse. The loss was ten killed, including First Lieutenant Edward Carleton of Lawrence, and many wounded. The Fortieth remained with the other troops in front of the impregnable works till the 12th, suffering some casualties, including one killed, when General Smith's command led the way toward Petersburg, whither the scene of carnage was to be transferred.
Going by transports from White House on the 13th, the regiment landed the next day at Point of Rocks on the Appomattox river, and at once advanced upon Petersburg, a division of colored troops in the lead. At evening of the 15th, after a day of skirmishing, an attack was made and some works were captured. From that time the regiment, now sadly reduced in numbers, was constantly under fire and engaged in the siege operations which followed. Its posi- tion was at the right of the Union lines, near the river, where on the 24th Colonel Henry's brigade was attacked by the Con- federate brigade of Hagood. The assault resulted most disas- trously, Hagood's brigade being almost annihilated, and the sur- vivors finding themselves prisoners of war, while the loss of the Fortieth was but two men killed and as many wounded. At the battle of the Crater, on the 30th of July, the regiment, though not heavily engaged, lost nine wounded. Such was the severity of the exposure, sickness and loss from the fire of the enemy that on the 27th of Angust, when the Eighteenth Corps was relieved by the Tenth, the Fortieth marched out of the trenches with but two offi- cers and 45 enlisted men present for duty. On the following day at the special request of Colonel Henry, the regiment was detached from the brigade for the comparative rest to be obtained during the performance of provost duty at Bermuda Landing, Captain Park taking command of the post.
The detail lasted for a month, during which the strength of the command was measurably increased by the return of convalescents. It was then ordered to the front once more on the 29th of Septem- ber, and remained on duty along the lines before Bermuda Hundred till the 24th of October, when it rejoined the Third Brigade near
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THE FORTIETII REGIMENT.
Fort Harrison. On the 30th of September First Lieutenant J. Arthur Fitch of Middleboro was killed in an engagement near Chapin's Bluff, in the vicinity of Fort Harrison, on the east side of the James river. With the exception of a skirmish on the Williams- burg road, October 27, the regiment was not actively engaged dur- ing the autumn, and after that event, in which the command lost three mnen missing, it was for some time encamped in reserve, under command of Captain John Pollock, who was subsequently promoted to major and lieutenant colonel. Major Jenkins was commissioned lieutenant colonel vice Marshall killed in action but was not mus- tered to either position, being discharged as captain to become lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Cavalry. Captain Charles G. Cox had also been promoted to major, but was obliged to resign on ac- count of wounds; and after the promotion of Pollock to lientenant colonel, February 4, 1865, Captain Josiah L. Elder of Lynn was advanced to the majority.
The Army of the James was reorganized into the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Corps, December 3, 1864, when Colonel Henry's brigade became the Third of the Third Division, Twenty-fourth Corps. It consisted of the same regiments as before, except that the Second New Hampshire had taken the place of the Ninety- second New York. At the opening of the campaign of 1865, General Ord commanded the Army of the James, General John Gibbon the corps, General Charles Devens the division, and Colonel Samuel H. Roberts of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth New York the brigade in the absence on sick leave of Colonel Henry, from which the latter did not again return to active duty with the brigade. At this time, notwithstanding its severe experiences in the past, the regiment enjoyed the distinction of standing first in the corps in discipline and morale, being awarded that position at five suc- cessive weekly inspections and afterward barred from the competi- tion. In recognition of this high standing it was excused from furnishing details for outside picket or fatigue duty for five weeks.
Colonel Roberts reported his brigade to General Grant for special service on the 3d of March, 1865, and the following morning it marched through a heavy rain to Deep Bottom Landing, where the Fortieth embarked on the steamer Metacomet and sailed for Fort- ress Monroe, whence it steamed up the Rappahannock river and on the evening of the 6th landed at Fredericksburg. The regiment
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was made provost guard for the city, while the rest of the expedi- tion devoted itself to destroying the railroad at Hamilton Crossing and capturing tobacco and public stores of various kinds, which were found there in large quantities. The regiment returned to Fortress Monroe without the loss of a man. This enterprise prov- ing so successful, the same force set out a few days later upon another, proceeding up the Potomac and the Yeocomico rivers to Kinsale Landing. The expedition, however, proved fruitless, and on reaching Point Lookout on the return orders were received from the commander-in-chief for the force to repair to White House Landing and establish a depot of supplies for General Sheridan and his cavalry, then on the way overland to that point from upper Virginia. This was done, a bridge being built across the Pamunkey, and on the 18th the weary riders appeared, crossed the river the following day, and after resting till the 24th set out to join the forces operating against Petersburg and Richmond, the Third Bri- gade marching to its camps, some 50 miles away.
Signal Hill, near the former location, was reached on the 26th, and there the regiment remained till the fall of Petersburg and the evacuation of Richmond, the division, with one of colored troops from the Twenty-fifth Corps, having been designated to hold the lines on that part of the field while the rest of the Army of the James was operating at the left. On the morning of the 3d of April the division set out for Richmond, which was found aban- doned and in flames. The Fortieth Regiment encamped outside the city, changed its location for a more healthful one ten days later, and on the 25th moved to Manchester, where it remained till the 17th of June, when it was mustered out of the national service and started for home. Going to New York by transport and thence by the steamer Connecticut, Readville was reached on the 21st. There the command remained in camp till the 30th, when it was paid off and discharged. The record of the regiment was an espe- cially honorable one; it had but 13 desertions during its varied service-a record which few organizations could equal.
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