USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts in the war, 1861-1865 Pt. 2 > Part 38
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Brevet Brigadier General Greely S. Curtis
Of Boston was one of the enthusiastic leaders in the formation of the famous Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, with which he entered the service as captain of Company B, May 24, 1861. Ile served in that capacity till the following autumn, when he was commissioned major of the First Massachusetts Cavalry, October 31, and led the first battalion of that arm of the service which left after the opening of the war. In May following he commanded the regiment in the James Island expedition against Charleston and on the return of Colonel Williams to the regular army was made lieutenant colonel dating from October 30, 1862. He was again in command of the regiment at Kelly's Ford on the 17th of
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March, 1863, and till after the battle of Gettysburg. Disability from ill-health caused his resignation March 4, 1864, after a little less than three years' faithful service. His brevet of brigadier gen- eral of volunteers dated from March 13, 1865.
Brevet Brigadier General Nelson H. Davis,
U. S. A., was at the opening of the war a captain in the Second United States Infantry, having been appointed to the Military Academy from Massachusetts, graduating in 1845 and serving in the Mexican war with distinction, winning a brevet. He was com-
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BREVET BRIG GEN. NELSON H DAVIS.
missioned colonel of the Seventh Massachusetts Regiment Septem- ber 4, 1861, but served in that capacity less than three months, dur- ing which time he did much to bring his command to a high state of efficiency. Resigning his commission as colonel November 18, he was appointed inspector general on the staff of General Sumner, and retained that position till after the siege of Yorktown the fol- lowing spring, when he was assigned to duty at General Mcclellan's head-quarters. Being relieved at his own request after the acces-
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sion of General Burnside to the command in November following, he was soon after sent to Tennessee to make investigations in Gen- eral Rosecrans's army. Returning to Washington, he was at the request of General Hooker assigned to duty at head-quarters of the Army of the Potomac, where he served till October following. win- ning the brevet of lieutenant colonel in the regular army for gallant conduct at Gettysburg. In October, 1863, he was assigned to duty under General Carleton in the Department of New Mexico, with head-quarters at Santa Fe, and in fighting the Apaches in Arizona the following year won the rank of colonel. Dating from the 13th of March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier general in the regular army, but continued on duty in the Department of New Mexico till the summer of 1867. From that time General Davis served at head-quarters of the various departments or under the direct orders of the Secretary of War till on the death of General D. B. Sacket, inspector general of the army, General Davis was on the 8th of March, 1885, appointed to the vacancy, with the rank of brigadier general. This position he filled till the 20th of September following, when he was placed on the retired list by the operation of law, after 40 years of honorable and active service.
Brevet Major General Charles Devens, Jr.,
A lawyer of Worcester, was not identified with the militia service at the outbreak of the rebellion, but promptly accepted the com- mand of the Third Battalion of Rifles with the rank of major, leav- ing unfinished a case on which he was engaged in the Supreme Court. He was ordered on the 20th of April to set out with his command for the endangered capital, and that evening left Worces- ter for Washington by way of New York and Annapolis. From the latter city he was ordered to Fort MeHenry at Baltimore, the presence of his command assuring the safety of that stronghold and no doubt doing much toward the retention of Maryland to the Union. Before the term of service of the battalion expired Major Devens was on the 15th of July, 1861, commissioned as colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment, then being recruited at Worcester, and with that organization he went to the front for the second time. Being stationed with his regiment at Poolesville, Md., late in August, Colonel Devens was sent across the Potomac on the night of the
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20th of October, with instructions to find and break up a. supposed Confederate camp on the Virginia side. The result was the dis- astrous battle of Ball's Bluff, in which the regiment lost heavily, Colonel Devens, who was slightly wounded, only escaping by swim- ming across the river, assisted by some of his soldiers. With the opening of the Peninsular campaign he was commissioned a briga- dier general, dating from April 15, 1862, and on the 3d of May took command of the Third Brigade of Couch's Division of Keyes's
BREVET MAJ. GEN. CHARLES DEVENS, JR.
(Fourth ) Corps. At the battle of Fair Oaks, on the 31st of May, he received a bullet wound which disabled him for some two months. He resumed the command of the brigade July 26, and retained it till the following spring, being at times in command of the division during the absence of General Couch. At the battle of Fredericks- burg he volunteered to lead the passage of the Rappahannock at the lower or " Franklin " bridges ; which was done without loss or serious resistance, the brigade holding the hostile shore unsupported during the night which followed. He also volunteered to cover the recrossing after the close of the battle, and did so with equal credit,
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his command, then known as the Second Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Corps, consisting of the Seventh, Tenth and Thirty-seventh Massachusetts . Regiments, Second Rhode Island and Thirty-sixth New York. On the 21st of April, 1863, he bade farewell to the brigade, having been assigned to the command of the First Division, Eleventh Corps, which he commanded at the battle of Chancellors- ville. While striving to rally his command during the rout of May 2, he was severely wounded in the foot. After the Draft riots of the following July, General Devens, not being able to return to active duty in the field, was assigned to command the Massachu- setts draft rendezvous, in Boston Harbor, where he remained till the following spring, when he rejoined the army in the field, taking a command in the Eighteenth Corps at the special request of Gen- cral W. F. Smith, its commander, and having part in the engage- ments at Port Walthal, Arrowfield Church, etc., under General But- ler, then operating from Bermuda Hundred in co-operation with the campaign of the Army of the Potomac. When, a little later, three divisions were sent under General Smith to join the latter army, General Devens commanded one of them - a provisional division of three brigades from the Tenth Corps. With this he fought bravely at Cold Harbor, but was soon afterward prostrated by rheumatic fever, serving during convalescence as president of a military commission for the trial of various classes of offenders, and when recovered was assigned by General Ord to the command of the First Division, Eighteenth Corps. At the reorganization of the Army of the James he took command of the Third Division, Twenty-Fourth Corps,-the first organization to enter the city of Richmond on the 3d of April, 1865, from which day Devens's bre- vet of major general of volunteers "for gallantry and good con- duct " was dated, at the request of General Grant. He remained with this division till the corps was mustered out of service, when he was appointed to the command of the Northeast Military District of Virginia, and at the end of August was ordered to the command of the Military Division of Charleston, embracing the eastern sec- tion of South Carolina, where he remained till the summer of 1866, when he was mustered out after more than five years of very honor- able service. He served as Attorney General of the United States in President Hayes's cabinet, being reappointed afterward to the su- preme judicial bench of Massachusetts, from which he had resigned.
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Brevet Brigadier General Arthur F. Devereux
Of Salem was at the beginning of the war captain of the Salem Light Infantry, a Zouave organization of high repute attached to the Seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Militia. When the Eighth Regiment was sent out on the 18th of April, 1861, for three months' service, Captain Devereux's company was attached to that regiment as Company J. On the arrival of the Eighth at Annapolis on the morning of the 21st, Captain Devereux with his own company and some other soldiers from the regiment was placed in charge of the
BREVET BRIG. GEN. A. F. DEVEREUX.
frigate Constitution, which was sent to New York. In a special order issued at the time, General Butler said : I have authorized Captain Devereux to obtain supplies and transportation for himself and men wherever he may deem proper and the faith and credit of the state of Massachusetts are pledged for the payment thereof." Two days after the muster out of the Eighth, Captain Devereux was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Nineteenth Regiment, and on the promotion of Colonel Hincks to a brigadier generalship Deve- reux was made colonel, dating from November 29, 1862. As such
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he served till the early spring of 1864, when he resigned, on the 27th of February. At the battle of Gettysburg, at the critical moment of the third day, when General Pickett's Division of Con- federates seemed on the point of breaking the Union line, Colonel Devereux obtained of General Hancock permission to put his regi- ment into action. His men met the head of Pickett's column breast to breast, fighting so closely that the bearer of the Massachusetts state flag knocked down with his flag staff a Virginia color sergeant and took his flag. On the surrender of Pickett's men, Colonel Deve- reux had on his arm four colors wrested from the enemy, for which he received official receipts. After the battle he was sent to Mas- sachusetts for duty during the draft, and was in command of the garrison at the draft rendezvous on Long Island till November, when he returned to the army and took command of the Second Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps. At Mine Run he was selected to lead the forlorn hope in the attempt to turn the Confederate right, but the assault was not ordered. His resignation was due to imperative family considerations, and was reluctantly tendered. He was wounded at Antietam and at the Second Bull Run, and received the brevet of brigadier general of volunteers from March 13, 1865.
Brevet Brigadier General Charles A. R. Dimon
Of Salem enlisted as a private in Company J, Eighth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, April 17, 1861, and served with it during the three months for which it was called into service, the company being one of those which boarded the United States frigate Constitution, anchored off Annapolis, and escorted her to a place of safety in New York harbor. Being mustered out August 1, following, Mr. Dimon gave his energies to the organization of the "Eastern Bay State Regiment," afterward the Thirtieth Massachusetts, serving as adjutant under direction of General Butler and being formally commissioned and mustered to that position February 20, 1862. In September following he was attached to the staff of Colonel N. A. M. Dudley, commanding a brigade, but on the 20th of October was commissioned major of the Second Louisiana Volunteers, a white regiment recruited in that state. While adjutant of the Thirtieth he took part in the various movements of that command, including the operations at the bend opposite Vicksburg, the battle
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of Baton Rouge, etc., and as major of the Louisianians engaged in the battle of Plains Store, May 10, 1863, the first reconnaissance against Port Hudson five days later, volunteered to lead "the for- lorn hope " at the first storming of the works there May 27, and also took part in the second assault a few weeks later. On the 1st of April, 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the First United States Volunteers, a regiment which he was largely instru- mental in recruiting from the Confederate prisoners at Point Look- out, Md. Four months later he was made colonel of the regiment, and during August commanded the expedition to Carrituck Sound and Suffolk, Va. Colonel Dimon with his regiment was ordered to Dakota in the fall of 1864, on the breaking out of Indian hostilities there, and in the discharge of his duties marched six companies of his regiment some 600 miles through Dakota territory, built Fort Rice on the Missouri river and was in command of the three posts of troops stationed from the mouth of the Yellowstone river to Fort Rice. The hostile Indians were fought during the winter, but the severity of the service is shown by the fact that while he lost 46 men in action, 86 were lost from scurvy. The following spring he was sent by General Pope, commanding the department, to Washington to consult with Secretary Stanton as to the policy to be pursued toward the Indians, and on his return rode on horseback from Kansas City to Fort Rice, 850 miles through a wild, barren country, the last 500 miles being made in nine days. A treaty was made with the Indians during the summer, and November 27, 1865, General Dimon was mustered out of the military service of the United States at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. His brevet rank dated from March 13, 1865, for "gallant and meritorious services during the war."
Brevet Brigadier General Alonzo G. Draper
Of Lynn was mustered into the United States service as captain of Company C, Fourteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, July 5, 1861, After the regiment had been changed to the First Heavy Artillery he was, on the 16th of January, 1863, commissioned major, and served in that capacity till the 2d of August of that year, when he was made colonel of the Second North Carolina Volunteers (col- ored). After serving for a time in North Carolina the regiment was transferred to the Army of the James. Colonel Draper was
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MASSACHUSETTS IN TIIE WAR.
much of the time in command of the brigade of which his regi- ment formed a part, which under General Ord was the First Bri- gade, First Division, Twenty-fifth Army Corps. He received his brevet to date from October 28, 1864, on account of gallant ser- vices rendered in the battle of that date at Fair Oaks during a de- monstration of the Army of the James against Richmond. After the close of the war he remained in service and died on the 3d of September, 1865, from an accidental gunshot wound.
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Brevet Brigadier General William F. Draper
Of Milford began to serve his country as a private in the Twenty- fifth Regiment September 9, 1861, receiving the commission of
BREVET BRIG. GEN. WILLIAM F. DRAPER.
second lieutenant October 11, and that of first lieutenant April 15, 1862. He served with the Signal Corps in North Carolina till the formation of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, when he was made captain of its Company F, August 12, 1862; he was promoted to major August 17, 1863, and from the 10th of October following was in
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command of the regiment with a brief exception during April, 1864, till the 6th of May of that year, when he was severely wounded in the Wilderness. His commission as lieutenant colonel dated from that day, and on the 10th of August, having recovered suffi- ciently, he resumed the command, which he held till the 12th of October, when having completed three years of faithful service he retired to private life, receiving the brevet of brigadier general of volunteers to date from March 13, 1865, "for gallant and meritori- ous services in the field during the war."
Brevet Brigadier General Nathan A. M. Dudley
Of Roxbury was in early life identified with the militia of his state, and on the 3d of March, 1855, was commissioned first lieutenant
BREVET BRIG. GEN. N. A. M. DUDLEY.
of Company E, Tenth United States Infantry, with which he served during the next two years in the Indian troubles on the western frontier, winning commendation for gallantry at the battle of Blue Water, in the fall of 1855, and in other encounters. In the fall of 1856 he marched with his company from Fort Laramie to Fort
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Snelling in Minnesota, across an unexplored portion of Indian Ter- ritory. Going thence to Fort Leavenworth, Lieutenant Dudley with his company formed part of the. Utah expedition of 1857, which failing in its attempt to reach the Mormon settlement passed the winter on Black's Fork, being for more than five months on half rations without salt. Utah was reached in the spring of 1858, and on the return of the expedition at the breaking out of the civil war Company E under Lieutenant Dudley formed the rear guard of the column. On the 7th of May, 1861, he was made captain, remaining on duty at Washington till the 5th of February, 1862, when he was granted leave of absence to accept the colonelcy of the Thirtieth Massachusetts Regiment, taking part in General Butler's New Orleans expedition. He was assigned to command the city, after its occupation, and was for a time a member of the commission to try persons accused of high crimes and misdemeanors. Early in June he commanded an expedition from Baton Rouge into the in- terior, and was with his regiment in the demonstration against Vicksburg in July. At the battle of Baton Rouge, August 5, he commanded the right wing of the Union army, and after the fall of General Williams directed all movements on the field. He was brevetted major in the regular army for "gallant conduct" on this occasion. Afterward he was in command of Camp Parapet at Car- rollton and Camp Williams at New Orleans, and in December was appointed inspector general of the Department of the Gulf, which he held till early in the spring of 1863, when he was assigned to the command of the Third Brigade of Augur's First Division sta- tioned at Baton Rouge. Prior to the Port Hudson siege, he suc- cessfully conducted an expedition up the Mississippi to open com- munication with Commodore Farragut, then on the river above Port Hudson. During the campaign against the latter place, he was in command of his brigade with several batteries of artillery, being under daily fire till the surrender of the stronghold. With his brigade he immediately embarked and sailed down the river to Donaldsonville, where he landed and at once moved against the Confederates in that vicinity, bringing on the engagement of Cox's Plantation. Being recalled in order to avoid a general battle, the brigade was sent to Baton Rouge, Colonel Dudley being put in com- mand of the defenses of that place till relieved by General .William B. Franklin. After again serving for a time as inspector general
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of the department, he was once more placed in command of the Third Brigade, First Division, which had been reorganized, but in preparation for the Red River campaign of 1864 he organized the Fourth Cavalry Brigade, which he ably commanded in that dis- astrous enterprise. On the 20th of April he was relieved and ordered to New Orleans to organize a cavalry force for the Mobile campaign, but after the transfer of a portion of the Nineteenth Corps to the Shenandoah Valley he was at his own request relieved from duty in the Department of the Gulf and ordered to report to General Emory. On reaching Washington he was again assigned to the command of his former brigade, with which he served during the fall and early winter, being brevetted brigadier general of voluin- teers January 19, 1865. Early in February he was ordered to re- port to Major General Thomas, commanding the Department of the Cumberland, and was placed in command of the 9,000 troops at Tullahoma, Tenn., which position he held till the close of the war. Subsequently he served as commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau; was in command of the District of Vicksburg, and later served under General Canby in Texas. He was afterward military super- intendent of public buildings in that department. On the re- organization of the United States Army, in 1870, General Dudley was assigned to duty as major of the Third Cavalry, and rendered valuable service in the far West, being on the 6th of June, 1885, promoted to the colonelcy of the First Cavalry, with head-quarters at Fort Custer, Montana, where he was stationed till his retirement in 1889. General Dudley's official record shows that he has over ninety days under fire, not including minor skirmishes. He has served in every state and territory except Alaska. He received five brevets during the war for gallant and meritorious services, three of them in the regular army.
Brevet Brigadier General Thomas H. Dunham, Jr.,
Of Boston was a traveling salesman at the beginning of the war, and heard of the firing on Sumter while in Vermont. He hastened to Boston, assisted in raising a company of volunteers "for the war," and on the 13th of June, 1861, was mustered as a private of Company F, Eleventh Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. Being soon after promoted a corporal, he was on the battle-field of Bull
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Run, July 21, made a sergeant of his company, and on the same field, August 28, 1862, he was advanced from first sergeant to ser- geant major of the regiment. Commissioned as second lieutenant February 6, 1863, he received his first severe wound in action at Chancellorsville. On the 15th of September following he was pro- moted to first lieutenant, was again badly wounded at the Wilder- ness while in command of his company, was commissioned captain June 16, 1864, commanded a company for a short time, but owing to his wounds was detached as assistant adjutant general of the Third Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, which position he held until the following February. Being made major to date from October 6, 1864, he commanded the Eleventh Massachusetts Battal- ion through the latter portion of its service, being commissioned colonel but unable to be mustered on account of the insufficient numbers of his command. He was breveted brigadier general of volunteers from March 13, 1865, for special services in front of Petersburg, accompanied the remnant of his regiment home and with them was mustered out July 14, 1865.
Brigadier General William Dwight
Was born at Springfield in 1831, entered a military school at West Point, N. Y., at the age of 15 and was afterward at the Military Academy there, which he left in 1853 before graduation, and entered manufacturing business at Boston, being located afterward at Phila- delphia. When the war broke out he offered his services to the United States, and on the 14th of May, 1861, was commissioned captain of the Fourteenth regular infantry. On the formation of the Seventieth Regiment New York Volunteers, Colonel Daniel E. Sick- les, Captain Dwight was made its lieutenant colonel, being promoted to colonel when Sickles was advanced to brigadier general in Sep- tember, 1861. Colonel Dwight entered the Peninsular campaign at the head of his regiment, fighting with great gallantry at the bat- tle of Williamsburg, where he received three wounds, being disabled and made prisoner, but was left in hospital at Williamsburg on parole. Being duly exchanged, he was on recovery made brigadier general of volunteers dating from the 29th of November, 1862, and soon afterward joined the forces under General Banks in Louisiana. On the organization of the Nineteenth Army Corps he was assigned
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to the command of the First Brigade, Fourth Division, in which capacity he rendered valuable service in the operations preliminary to the siege of Port Hudson and in those directed against the strong- hold itself. He served on the commission to settle the terms of surrender, and at the Red River campaign of the following spring he succeeded General Charles P. Stone as chief of staff to General Banks. In July following when a portion of the Nineteenth Corps was ordered to Washington in consequence of the raid against the national capital by General Early, General Dwight accompanied the troops in command of the First Division, which command he held during the operations in the Shenandoah valley of the summer and autumn. He continued in the service till the 15th of Jannary, 1866, when he was mustered out after almost five years of highly honorable duty. General Dwight died at Boston, April 22, 1888.
Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Cushing Edmands
Of Newton was a member of the Massachusetts Militia previous to the war, enlisted with the Twenty-fourth Regiment at its organiza- tion and was mustered as first sergeant of Company K, October 4, 1861, at the age of 19. He accompanied this regiment to the field, but his health failing, he was sent home the next summer on invalid furlough, and interested himself in recruiting Company K, Thirty- second Regiment, of which he was commissioned captain. With this command he joined the regiment then in the field near Alexan- dria, Va., September 3, 1862, and on the 29th of December follow- ing was promoted to major. On the 16th of December, 1863, while located on the outskirts of the Army of the Potomac, he was capt- ured by a raiding party of Confederates, and taken to Libby Prison at Richmond, where he remained until the 7th of March, 1864, when he was paroled. Having been exchanged he joined the Thirty- second on the 19th of May, and a few weeks later, by the death of Colonel Prescott and the resignation of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen- son, he became senior officer commanding, and was commissioned colonel dating from the 30th of June. In the charge on Fort McRae at the battle of Peebles Farm, September 30, he received a severe wound in the right leg and returned home, remaining there until the 27th of November, when, with the wound still unhealed, he re- turned to duty. He also received wounds at Gettysburg on the 3d
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