USA > Massachusetts > The story of the Thirty-second regiment, Massachusetts infantry. Whence it came; where it went; what it saw, and what it did > Part 11
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"On the 3d of July the wounded of the 5th corps were taken from the barns and other buildings in the immediate vicinity of the battle field, where they had heen placed during the progress of the fight, to a large grove about two miles distant.
The trains containing hospital supplies and tents had not arrived, and the wounded were placed under little shelter-tents, such as the soldiers carried with them upon the march. We lay on the bare
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FREDERICKSBURG TO GETTYSBURG.
ground without even straw for our beds, and he who obtained a knapsack for a pillow deemed himself fortunate.
Just at night the attendants brought to the place where I was lying, a young soldier of the 32d and laid him beside me. It was Charles Ward of New- ton. I remembered him well as one of the youngest of the Regiment, one whose purity of character, and attention to duty had won the esteem and love of all who knew him. The attendants placed him in the tent, furnished us with canteens of water, and left us for the night, for alas, there were thousands of wounded men to be cared for, and but little time could be spared for any one. My young com- panion had been wounded by a ball passing through his lungs, and it was with difficulty he could breathe while lying down. To relieve him, I laid flat on my back, putting up my knees, against which he leaned in a sitting posture. All night long we remained in this position, and a painful weary night it was. At intervals we would catch a few moments of sleep ; then waking, wet our wounds with water from the canteens, try to converse, and then again to sleep. So we wore away the night, longing for the light to come.
No one came near us ; we heard far away the drop- ping fire of musketry on the picket lines, the occa- sional booming of the cannon, and the groans wrung from the lips of hundreds of wounded men around us. My young friend knew that he must die ; never again to hear the familiar voices of home, never to
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FREDERICKSBURG TO GETTYSBURG.
feel a mother's kiss, away from brothers, sisters, and friends ; yet as we talked he told me that he did not for a moment regret the course he had taken in enlisting in the war of the Union, but that he was ready, willing to die, contented in the thought that his life was given in the performance of his duty to his country."
XII.
AFTER GETTYSBURG.
T T HE day succeeding the battle, we left Gettys- burg in pursuit of the defeated enemy, fol- lowed closely by the 6th Corps, by way of Emmetsburg, Adamsville, and Middletown to Wil- liamsport. Much of this time it rained heavily and the roads were bad, but we had the good spirits which attend success, and were cheery, as became victors. Near Williamsport we encountered the enemy, and on the 11th and 12th of July pressed him back toward the river, but he succeeded in crossing the Potomac without further serious loss.
Perhaps the finest thing that the army ever saw was the movement forward in line of battle near Williamsport and Hagerstown. As far as the eye could reach on either hand were broad open fields of grain with here and there little woods, the ground being undulating but not broken, and we were formed in close column of division by brigade, the 3d Corps touching our left and the 6th Corps our right ; and so we advanced across the wide, yellow fields in two dense lines which extended appar- ently to the horizon. This movement was con- tinued on two successive days.
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AFTER GETTYSBURG.
Then we tried a flank movement by our left, crossed the Potomac on the 17th, near Berlin, and keeping east of the Blue Ridge, were at Manassas Gap on the 23d, and stood spectators of some pretty fighting done by the 3d Corps, who secured posses- sion of the pass. On the 26th we were at Warren- ton, and remained there until August Sth, when we moved to Beverly Ford, and encamped there for five weeks.
Sergeant Spalding, in a letter home, describes our camp there as the cosiest he ever saw : "Our camp is in a forestof young pines, planted since our arrival. It looks beautifully, especially in the evening. I went out a little way from our camp last evening to take a bird's-eye view of it. How cosy it looked with the lights from our tallow candles glimmering through the trees from nearly every tent, which seemed almost buried in the green foliage that sur- rounded it. Our camp is laid out in streets, one for each company. At the head of each street is the captain's tent, which is surrounded by an artificial evergreen hedge with an arched entrance, with some device in evergreen wrought into or suspended from the arch-as, for instance, Company K has a Mal- tese Cross (our corps badge). Company I, of Charlestown, has the Bunker Hill Monument. Company D, of Gloucester (fishermen), has an anchor, &c., &c. But our tented cities, be they ever so comfortable and attractive, are short-lived. We build them up to-day and pull them down to-morrow. We may be quietly enjoying our
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AFTER GETTYSBURG.
quarters to-day, and to-morrow be twenty-five miles away. Such is a soldier's life."
On the 12th October, 1862, General Porter ordered our Colonel to detail one company for detached service as guard to the reserve artillery of the army, and Company C (Captain Fuller) was detailed. When the detail was made it was supposed that it would be only for a few weeks, but they did their duty so acceptably as to result in being separated from the Regiment for more than ten months.
It was their duty to accompany the trains of the artillery reserve on the march, the men being dis- tributed along the whole column and on each side of it, and they furnished the sentinels about the ammunition and supply trains, when parked for the night.
The duty was not very severe, and their position was one of comparative independence. It was pleas- ant to hear that a company of ours received praises alike from every commander of the reserve, and from the families of the Virginia farmers whose premises they had occasion to occupy. Their route was the general route of the army, and at Gettys- burg they were under sharp fire on the 3d of July, when Lee made his last assault, but the total of their casualties, while absent from the Regiment, was small.
They brought back many recollections of pleasant camps and stirring scenes, and the story of their experiences brought a welcome freshness to the gossip of the battalion. They rejoined the Regiment near Beverly Ford, August 24th, 1863.
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AFTER GETTYSBURG.
While we were encamped at Beverly Ford five deserters were tried, convicted, and sentenced to be shot, and the sentence was executed near our camp in the presence of the corps, massed on a hillside facing the place of execution. No more solemn scene was witnessed in the army than the march of those five men from the barn in which they had been confined to the graves in which they were to lie. They were dressed alike, in white shirts, trou- sers, shoes and stockings, and caps. The order of procession was as follows : First, the band, playing the death march, then four soldiers bearing an empty coffin, which was followed by the prisoner who was soon to occupy it, guarded by four soldiers, two in front with reversed arms, and two behind with trailed arms. Then another coffin and another prisoner, borne and guarded as described above, and so the five doomed men marched across the field to their graves, where each, seated upon his coffin, was to pay the penalty of desertion by death. Although at first they marched with firm and steady step, yet they staggered ere they reached the spot where they were to face death at the hands of com- rades. Eighty men selected from the provost guard were there in line, posted to fire the fatal volley. When all was ready, the men having been placed in position and blindfolded, the officer in command of the guard, without a word, but by the motion of his sword, indicated the ready-aim-fire, and instantly every gun (forty loaded with blank and forty with ball cartridge) was discharged and all
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AFTER GETTYSBURG.
was over. Silently we viewed the solemn spectacle, and as silently returned to camp-not with cheerful martial airs, as when a faithful soldier, having met a soldier's death, is left to his last repose, but with the sad ceremony uneffaced, and all deeply impressed with the ignominy of such an end.
On the 15th of September we broke up this pretty camp and moved along to Culpepper, with some lively skirmishing, and then rested for another month with some picket duty but no warring.
A French Canadian who left without permission on our march to Gettysburg, and took to bounty- jumping for a living, was detected, returned to us, and at this camp was tried, sentenced, and punished for his offences in the presence of the entire brigade ..
In the middle of a square formed by the troops who had been his fellows, one half of his head was shaven close, and his shoulder was branded with a letter D. The square was then deployed- the line formed with open ranks, the front rank faced to the rear, and the poor wretch, under guard, was marched down the path thus lined with on-looking soldiers, the musicians leading the way playing the Rogue's March, and then he was sent from the lines as not worthy to associate with an honest soldiery .*
Here, too, we received a reinforcement of ISo drafted men, who were assigned to the different companies, and of whom we made good soldiers.
*The scoundrel's own description of the proceedings was : " they shave my head - they burn my back - they march me in review."
ISO
AFTER GETTYSBURG.
Between the Ioth of October and the 29th of November the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Virginia were waltzing about the country between Culpepper and Fairfax. Frequently it was "forward and back," sometimes "forward all," and occasionally "back to back." Generals Meade and Lee called the figures, and we danced to the music of artillery and rifles. There was in fact no fun in all this; the campaigning was severe, and some of the engagements were marked by sharp fighting, but the campaign was mainly one of manœuvres.
Sunday morning, November 29th, found our corps in position, in the centre of the line of battle at Mine Run, with orders to be ready to charge the enemy's works at a given hour, when a signal gun was to be fired. There the two great armies of Viginia were brought face to face, each occupying a strong natural position, about a mile apart, with a deep valley between, through which passed a small stream called Mine Run.
We have said that each army occupied a strong natural position. The Confederate army however, had us at a great disadvantage. They knew it and expressed it by acts which spoke louder than words - coming out from behind their works by hundreds in the open field, seemingly to challenge us to charge across the valley, which they knew-and so did we-would be to many of our number the valley of death. For we had to charge down the hill across the Run and up the opposite slope, in the
ISI
AFTER GETTYSBURG.
face of a hundred guns, planted so as to sweep the field with grape and canister the moment we came within range, and thousands of muskets in the hands of the enemy, who were evidently not only ready, but anxious to see us storm their position, that they might mow us down like grass.
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Before taking our place in the line we were ordered to remove our knapsacks and all needless baggage that might interfere with our movements when the charge was ordered. That was the time that tried our nerves. The field was before us. The obstacles to be met and overcome we could see, and with our past experience it was evident to all that the contemplated movement if executed must involve a fearful sacrifice of life on our side. For hours we watched, and waited in suspense the signal that was to open the conflict, and the relief we expe- rienced when the order to charge was counter- manded, can better be imagined than described.
At dark we retired a little way from our posi- tion in the line of battle, built our camp fires, cooked our supper, and laid down to rest. About midnight we were aroused, and falling into line moved to the right about a mile, where our corps joined the 6th corps which occupied a position in the woods, and there we formed in line of battle. The following day will long be remembered by us on account of our bitter conflict with Jack Frost instead of Johnnie Reb. The day was extremely cold, freezing the water in our canteens, and although in danger of freezing ourselves, we were
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AFTER GETTYSBURG.
ordered not to build fires, or in any way make ourselves conspicuous, for we were within range of the enemy's guns. Our situation was one of exposure and peril, for if we obeyed orders we were sure to perish with the cold, and if we dis- obeyed, as sure to draw the enemy's fire, with the risk of losing life or limb. We took the latter risk-built fires by which to warm ourselves, or chased each other in a circle around a tree or stump to keep our blood in circulation and our limbs from freezing: And when a solid shot or a fragment of a shell came whizzing through the woods where we lay, we hugged the ground more closely, or sought the shelter of some rock or stump or tree, until the firing ceased, then resumed our exer- cise, or gathered around the fire again to cook our coffee, warm ourselves, and make another target for the enemy.
Thus for three days and nights the two great armies of Virginia menaced each other across the valley of Mine Run. At last the movement was abandoned and the campaign ended by the with- drawal of our army to the north of the Rappahan- nock, and two days afterward we found ourselves in what proved to be our winter quarters at Lib- erty.
. While in winter quarters we had the pleasure of seeing several ladies about the cantonments, among them Mrs. Faxon, the young wife of our surgeon, whose experience and memories of the time it may be better to render in the first person.
XIII.
A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
E ARLY in the winter of 1864, the 32d was in winter cantonments at Liberty, near Bealton Station, on the Orange & Alexandria railroad. Of course somebody must have commanded the army, but whoever he was, he never called upon me, and is of no consequence to my story. My orders to join came from an officer much more important in my eyes-the surgeon of the 32d, who, queerly enough, was also my husband.
After all manner of experiences I arrived at Beal- ton Station, a locality which by daylight appeared to be a quarter-section of Virginia land and a small, rough, and inconvenient platform of planks ; but it was evening when I arrived-yes, a dark, rainy, December evening. A shadowy form having the voice of our garrulous quartermaster waited to wel- come me, and by it I was ushered into the damp darkness, out of which loomed, by and by, the hazy form of an ambulance and two hazy mules-and then, but beyond and more misty, the upper half of what seemed to be my husband, and the ears of his horse. Whether I was sufficiently hearty in my greeting I do not know-I am afraid not, for all
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A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
this was not what I had imagined would be my first impressions on coming within army lines.
My idea of an army was made up of brilliant sights and stirring sounds. Nice clean flags- bright-buttoned uniforms-flying horses and full bands of music, were essential parts of the picture which my fancy had painted, and here was nothing but wet and darkness and mud. Through mud a foot deep, the creaking of the vehicle and "soh" of the feet of the wading mules, only breaking the moist silence-I was driven to the mansion in which my husband was quartered, and which was to be my home for the winter. Out of all this dreariness, however, I stepped into the cheerful light of glow- ing windows, and was welcomed to a most hospitable wood fire, in front of which was a table set out with a smoking supper of tempting odor-and my sur- geon appeared no longer misty and uncorporeal, but solid humanity, and looking really quite bright in the eyes, and happy in my coming.
The hearty welcome, the bright light, and the cheering warmth soon obliterated all memory of the weary journey and the dismal night. The fatted chicken had been killed for me, and was served with hot potatoes, corn-bread, tea, and cold meat. A bright little negro girl waited upon me, and it added to the pleasant novelty of my position to be served by a piece even so small of the "peculiar institution."
The "mansion" consisted of four rooms, the two on the lower floor separated by a hall ; the kitchen
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A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
was a small building across the yard-earth floored -and it was not only kitchen but bed-room for the. black servants, who, however, did not seem to use any beds. But all this I did not learn until daylight came again, and the drums, fifes, and bugles bursting out into reveille woke me amid dreams of home- life to the consciousness of my surroundings. Lis- tening to that stirring music (how exhilarating even now is the bare memory of the reveille) and look- ing out from my window upon the camp of our Regiment and of many other regiments, seeing everywhere the signs of real service, I was more than satisfied, and no longer bewailed the absence of my ideal army.
This winter was one of halcyon days to me. Accustomed to the rigors of a Northern winter, the many bright warm days of the season, in Virginia, were peculiarly enjoyable. The country had been stripped of fences, and our horseback rides were limited only by our picket lines. Now we walked our horses through the woods, the dry underbrush crackling beneath their hoofs-now cantered freely over some wide expanse of old fields, -reining up to pass some ugly bit of corduroy road, or to ford a full water-course. In the foreground might be a "mansion," occupied by some general officer as his headquarters, or a group of negro huts still tenanted by blacks of all ages. In the distance the high hills of the Blue Ridge, and perhaps between, in the middle distance, picturesque camps of artil- lery, cavalry, or infantry.
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A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
A few of the houses were still occupied by the families of their owners, among whom we made acquaintances ; the able-bodied men were all "away," the women said ; where, -they never told.
Besides our almost daily rides, we paid and received visits, and exchanged rather limited hos- pitalities. Quartermaster Hoyt entertained us fre- quently, and although his piece de resistance was invariably a dish of fish balls, yet having a cook who knew how to make good ones, his fare always seemed sumptuous. Once we dined with Colonel Prescott, who flared out with a joint of roast beef, but this was exceptional grandeur.
Our quarters became quite the evening resort for officers of the 32d, and the few ladies who were there, and the hours passed pleasantly away with chat and games and jokes and stories. I could not then with any success assume a matronly role, and sometimes perhaps actually enjoyed the practical jokes which abounded in the camp. Then, too, where ladies are but few, they certainly are better appreciated than in the crowded halls of fashion, and it was pleasant (for I am human and woman) to be the attraction in a circle of young and brave men.
Please don't anybody think that my time was entirely taken up with pleasures or trifling occupa- tions. Even doctors need all manner of work done for them by their wives-there were some house- keeping cares, and the regimental hospital was none the worse for having a woman's eye over it. My
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A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
first experience in dressmaking was in behalf of Mrs. O., a native neighbor, who had been useful, and possibly earned a trifle by mending for officers and men. To be sure when it was done it appeared that I had made the back of the basque all in one . piece, without any seam, but that may be the fashion some day. No, I was not idle, and all days were not bright and happy, but the bright ones linger longest in my memory.
I did, once in a while, wish that in my peaceful life there might be mingled, just for seasoning, a trifle of real war; but one evening, when we were attending a dance over at the spacious log camp of Martin's battery, there came an orderly all splashed with mud, with news that a raiding party of the enemy was close at hand, and the party scattered, infantry officers hurrying back to their regiments, and all to their posts. The brass guns, which, decked in fresh evergreen, had formed quite a strik- ing decoration to the temporary ball-room, were hustled away into position. The voices which had been saying pretty things to us changed to tones of command, hardly softening to tell us that safety forbade our return to quarters. Some sort of a hole was prepared for our safe-keeping in case of attack, but when all was quiet, beds were made in the log house assigned to us ladies, of boughs laid on raised boards, on which we slept soundly until daylight came, when the alarm was over, and it was safe for us to ride home. It was very nice for once, but my ambition for stirring scenes was fully satisfied.
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A LADY AT WINTER QUARTERS.
Late in the season there was quite a grand ball, and on St. Patrick's day a merry party gathered to witness the games, races, and sports which had been organized by the officers of the 9th Massachusetts Regiment in honor of the festival. This was the height of the winter's gaiety ; with the milder air of spring, we non-combatants must flit away to our homes, and leave our soldiers alone to meet the stern realities of the coming campaign.
But there were stern realities too, for us at home, as we waited, sometimes in dread, because we heard nothing, and yet again trembling for fear that we should hear a more dread something-trying even, while oppressed thus with terror and anxiety, to compose cheerful letters to the dear ones out of sight under the war-cloud. Is it wonderful that we welcomed with something of a weird satisfaction every call in behalf of the soldiers for our time, our labor, and our energy, or that we plunged into the work of our own sphere with a certain reckless desire to drown out in stirring occupation, the care and anxiety which haunted each idle hour.
Can anyone realize in these peaceful days what was one of the chief of women's sorrows then - that very often that which was the cause of their deepest grief and affliction, might be the occasion for public and general rejoicing, and that the wife of yesterday, the widow of today, must don her weeds of mourning at the moment when the country clad itself in gay bunting, and threw rockets to the sky for very joy that out of bloodshed there had come victory.
XIV.
AT LIBERTY.
D URING the winter of 1863-4, the portion of the Army of the Potomac which included our Regiment was encamped in a position to defend the railroad between Bealton and Warrenton, from attacks by guerillas, and the camp of the 32d was in close proximity to the village of Liberty, a very small place whose name meant, before the war, liberty to the white man only, and but for the "little unpleasantness " and its results, the name would have had no significance to men of color.
Liberty proved to be an agreeable camp for the 32d, for their rows of tented dwellings were pitched on a pleasant wooded slope where the ground was dry, with good drainage, an abundant supply of water near at hand, and soil less inclined to mud than in the greater part of the old Commonwealth of Virginia.
The picket duty was severe, as at this point there was a thoroughfare leading directly into the country of the enemy, and a railroad bridge, the loss of which would cause great annoyance to our own army by interrupting our line of communication, and cutting off one portion from its base of supply. But
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AT LIBERTY.
there was much to enliven us and break the monotony of camp life.
It was a little past midnight on the evening of the dance which was so rudely. interrupted, that the long roll was sounded and, in scarcely more time than is necessary to write it, the Regiment was under arms and deployed in various directions for the protection of the camp. The disturbance was caused by a squad of rebel cavalry who had forced the picket line at a weak point, their presumable object being a raid on the United States paymaster, who came into camp that night to pay off the brigade ; but the yankee soldier generally keeps picket with eyes and ears open, and whoever would cross his beat must have a feather tread. The paymaster (the late Major Holman), although the object of the attack, slept quietly through the whole uproar, and did not wake until morning. Apparently his safe might have been stolen and carried off without his being aware of it. We were out about two hours, when the enemy having been driven beyond our lines, we were sent back to our quarters.
An amusing incident occurred here one dark night which created quite a sensation on the picket line, at that time under command of Captain Farnsworth. Going the rounds at two o'clock A. M., posts eight, nine, and ten were found on the qui vive. They were stationed in the edge of a wood, where just across a narrow strip of grass-land there was another belt of forest. For some little time they had heard footsteps and other sounds which led them to believe
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