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 5
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After passing McDowell's men we marched rap- idly, and when five and a half or six miles out from
-
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Manassas Junction, came to a bold elevation of cleared land, extending from the road to the rail- way, and on a line nearly parallel could see a long line of dust marking the line upon which the enemy was moving ; and when there were openings in the wood, which for the most part masked the moving column, we could with a good glass see their artillery, infantry, and trains.
The cloud of dust which revealed the march of the enemy along our front was lost on the right, where it passed over a low wooded ridge, beyond which was seen the battle smoke. The guns could be heard only faintly by us in our high position, and must have been inaudible in the woods of the valley below.
Upon this hill we were deployed, and guns were brought up and placed in position. Our brigade (Griffin's) started out on the right flank, moved over the railroad track and for some distance into the woods, with skirmishers thrown out in the front and on the flank, but finding no practicable way through the woods returned and drew up on the hill. Two or three regiments were deployed to the front as skirmishers and sent down the hill and across the valley, as if to feel of the enemy, whose column continued to pour down from Thoroughfare. turning to the northeast at a point about two miles away- at or near Gainesville.
Generals Porter and McDowell, with other gen- erals and their staff, stood in a group; the infantry was closed in mass and the batteries ready for
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action when, from a corn-field in the flank of the marching column in the valley, there suddenly curled a wreath of smoke, and then another and another. A round shot buried itself in the face of the hill, throwing up a cloud of dust; then one after the other two shells burst close to the general officers, killing two men of our brigade. Our own batteries promptly replied and silenced the guns in front, but they opened again further to the right with such a rake upon our infantry as to make it prudent to withdraw them to the cover of the ground. Evidently our General intended an attack, and every- thing was ready ; but the remonstrances of Morell and Marshall prevailed upon Porter to countermand the order, and we finally bivouacked upon the hill.
On the 30th, before day-break, we took the road with orders to proceed to Centreville. Our brigade was to cover the rear in this movement, and of course was preceded in the march by the supply train of the corps. Before breakfast we had crossed Bull Run at Blackburn's Ford. It seems that orders had been sent to change the destination of our corps, but the officer charged with their delivery having followed back the column until he reached the trains, gave orders to the quartermaster in charge of them to continue on to Centreville, and either did not know or entirely forgot that our Brigade was beyond the wagons ; whence it happened that while the rest of our corps was in battle on the Gainesville road, we were waiting at Centreville, wondering where they were, hearing the roar of battle as it drew
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nearer and nearer to our hillside, and constantly expecting orders.
At about four o'clock we started for the field of battle. Almost immediately we came upon swarms of stragglers, who had left their ranks, and who were full of stories of regiments all cut up, as well as of their individual prowess. Then came crowds of wounded men, ambulances, wagons, empty caissons, until at last the road was fairly blocked with officers and men in no order, horses, wagons, and batteries. Men were running, panting, curs- ing, and some worn out and exhausted had thrown themselves upon the ground by the roadside utterly indifferent to their fate ; and now we knew that this was the route of an exhausted army, and that our duty was to guard their rear.
Forcing our way through all, just as we came to the well-ordered but retreating lines, night came on ; and although there were yet sounds of desultory firing, and occasional shot or shells plunging and exploding about us, the fight was over, and in the gloom of night we marched slowly back with the throng of troops to the heights of Centreville.
Next morning, Sunday, August 31st, 1862, it was raining hard. The scene of confusion about us beggars description, and everybody was hungry, wet, and dispirited. Before noon, however, order began to come out of chaos. Men found their col- ors, and regiments and brigades their appointed sta- tions, and our Brigade moved out upon the Gaines- ville Pike to receive the first onset of the enemy.
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Our position was on the right of the turnpike, and the line extended north and east toward Fairfax, with a strong picket two or three hundred yards in front, and here we passed the afternoon in quiet.
All day Monday, September Ist, trains of ambu- lances, under flags of truce, were going out to the field of battle and returning loaded with wounded men. The weather continued cold and rainy, with a north- east wind. Toward evening the sound of fighting was heard in the direction of Chantilly. The men were wet to the skin, rations exhausted, no fires allowed. Surgeons coming in from the battle-field reported the enemy in great force.a very short dis- tance out on the turnpike, and on the old Warrenton Road, waiting the order to attack. The night was passed in misery ; the hazard of our position forbade sleep, and comfort was impossible. The army had moved from Centreville, in our rear, and at 3 A. M. we drew in our pickets and moved quietly away.
Looking back as we left Centreville, we saw the enemy coming into the town in great numbers, but they made no attack. At Fairfax Court House we met large bodies of troops ; thence, taking a north- east course, we passed Vienna, and toward evening struck the Leesburg Turnpike. Beyond Levinsville we were met by General McClellan, who was enthu- siastically greeted by the troops, and at II P. M. we bivoucked at Langley's, after a march of twenty- eight miles.
Wednesday, September 3d, we encamped on Miners Hill, near Falls Church, which was the
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locality of Porter's command previous to the Penin- sula campaign.
Our active campaign with the army of Virginia comprised only ten days as almanacs count time, but these were days so full of excitement and of incident that memory recalls a whirl of occurences and events, succeeding so rapidly one to another that it is with difficulty one can separate them. There are pictures, but they are changing with the rapidity of those of the kaleidoscope.
One scene constantly recurring, not only on this, but on many another march, presents to us again the array of sick or exhausted men, who strewed the route of the hurried columns-their pinched and worn faces-their eyes half closed, gazing into space-their bodies crouched or cramped with pain, supported against trees or fences, or lying prone upon the ground ; the men almost always clinging to their rifles. "If one had told me yesterday," said an officer on his first march with the army, "that I could pass one man so stricken, and not stop to aid or console him, I should have resented the charge as a slander, and already I have passed hundreds." Many, many such, necessarily aban- doned to their fate, crept into the woods and died. Under repeated orders, all men absent and not accounted for, should have been reported as desert- ers, but Captains were more merciful than the orders, and few were found to brand as ignominious the names of men who deserved rather to be canon- ized as martyrs.
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Another memory is of a gallant Captain of artillery, whose battery marched just in advance of our Regiment-of an aide galloping back and wheeling to the Captain's side to communicate an order-the quick question, "where?" a short answer, a note of a bugle, and the Captain dashes off to our left, followed by his battery-the thunderous rumble of caissons and gun-carriages dying away as they pass out of our sight over a swell of land. It is strange that as this scene is recalled where a fellow-soldier rushed to immediate death, a promi- nent feature of the picture is the vivid color of the mass of blue flowers which clothed the entire field through which his battery dashed away from our column.
Another turn of the mnemonic glass, and we see the country about Manassas trodden into a vast highway. Just there Stuart had captured a train laden with quartermaster's stores, and the ground all about was strewn with broken cases and what had been their contents-new uniforms, undercloth- ing, hats and shoes, from which men helped them- selves at will, leaving the old where they found the new. Near by, on the railroad track, waited a long train loaded with sick and wounded-the cars packed full, and many lying on the top unsheltered in the sun.
Yet again, and we are in sight of Thoroughfare, and see the long lines of dust revealing the march of Lee's army down towards us from the Gap, and we remember the applause we gave when the first
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shell from Hazlitt's parrot guns exploded exactly in a line of rebel infantry (scattering them as is rarely done except in cheap engravings), and how little we appreciated the like accuracy of aim by which an enemy's shot killed two men in one of our own regiments.
And again there comes a mental photograph, date and locality indistinct, which represents nineteen officers gathered about a sumptuous repast, com- prising three loaves of old bread, a fragment of cheese and a half canteen of water, almost as stale as the bread, and the careful watch of Field upon Staff and Staff upon Line, to see that only one swallow of water is taken by each in his turn.
And finally, we stand blocking the way to gaze upon a wrecked omnibus, inscribed-"Georgetown and Navy Yard"-one of many vehicles impressed in Washington and sent out as ambulances, and which, after reviving in us memories of civilization, was to become a trophy in the hands of the enemy.
V.
OUR THIRD BATTALION.
W HEN the 32d Regiment left Massachusetts in May, the war fever was raging, and it was supposed that it would be the work but of a few days to recruit the four companies required to com- plete the Regiment, and it was clearly understood that the first recruits were to be assigned to us. But being out of sight we were indeed out of mind, and the pressure of officers interested in constructing new regiments constantly delayed our claims to consideration.
In two months over three thousand volunteers had been accepted, of whom only one hundred (our Company G) had been assigned to us. The ren- dezvous for the Eastern part of the State was the camp at Lynnfield, which was placed under the command of Colonel Maggi, of the 33d. His own regiment occupied the chief part of the camp, and the only entrance to it was through his regimental guard. Both he and his Lieutenant Colonel, a young and handsome officer named Underwood, had a quick eye for a promising recruit, and as the constantly arriving volunteers passed within the
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lines, the best were drafted into the 33d, and the remainder were passed into the command of Major Wilde, whose camp was just beyond.
Dr. Edward A. Wilde, afterward Colonel of the 35th Massachusetts, and yet later Brigadier General of Volunteers, was commissioned, July 24th, 1862, to fill the the then vacant majority in the 32d, and had been temporarily placed in charge of the unattached volunteers at Lynnfield, three hundred of whom had been roughly fashioned into companies, and were to be assigned to us.
Upon Colonel Parker's return to Massachusetts, Governor Andrew gave to our matters his willing attention. Upon inspection of the three companies, the Colonel thought that he could do better than to take Colonel Maggi's rejected recruits, and they were accordingly transferred to the 35th.
At the urgent request of the authorities of New- ton, supported by the Honorable J. Wiley Edmands, a company raised entirely in that town was reg- imented in the 32d. A company from Charlestown was made the basis of Company I, and taking a lesson from Colonel Maggi, whose regiment happily was now filled, a third company was organized at the camp by selecting from the town quotas the choicest material, and passing over the remainder to the 35th. We were able to accomplish this by the active aid of our Major Wilde. If the Major had known that he was to be the first Colonel of the 35th, that regiment might perhaps have been bene- fitted, but the 32d undoubtedly owed to his want of
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prophetic vision the fact that its 3d Battalion was composed of men in every respect equal to those of its First.
On the 2d of August the companies were detached from Major Wilde's recruits and ordered to report to Colonel Parker, who at once moved them some eight hundred yards away, where they encamped in a charming spot, between the pond and the highway, until they should be provided with clothing, arms, and equipments.
The beauty and convenience of that camp has impressed its memory upon every soldier of the Battalion ; but the proprietor of the land did not seem to be equally pleased with an arrangement to which very possibly his previous consent was not obtained ; but if he expected to drive us away by removing the rope and bucket from the well near by, he was sadly disappointed. He presented to the Colonel a huge bill for the use of the premises, and for damages caused by the cutting down of a sapling elm. and the removal of a rod or two of stone wall. If he never collected it he should have been comforted by the fact that we never charged him for the construction of two good wells on the ground, and the stones of his fence may yet be found in the walls of those wells.
On the 6th Colonel Parker left to rejoin the regi- ment, leaving the Battalion to follow under Major Wilde, but the Major was promoted to the 35th, and it was not until the 20th that the three companies. commanded by the senior Captain (Moulton). left
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Lynnfield by railroad to Somerville, thence marching to Charlestown, where a generous entertainment had been provided for them by the citizens. That even- ing they left by the Providence Railroad-the entire route through the cities of Charlestown and Boston being one ovation. At Stonington they took the steamer, landing the next morning at Jersey City, and taking a train for Philadelphia. Through that good city they marched to the Cooper Refreshment Rooms, and being well fed and otherwise refreshed, moved thence to the Baltimore Station. It was well into the next day before they arrived in that town of doubtful loyalty, and it was morning on the 22d when they landed in Washington, and took up quarters at the railroad barracks.
While the commanding officer was endeavoring to find somebody to give him orders, several hours of liberty were allowed to the men, few of whom had ever seen Washington. It was not the quiet place that it had been when the right wing arrived there months before, but was again astir with signs of active war. The movement to effect a junction between the armies of Generals Mcclellan and Pope was in progress, and long trains of wagons were moving between Alexandria and the various depots of supplies, and ambulances loaded with sick and wounded streamed to and from the hospitals, while on the walks, men in uniforms, some brand new and some ragged and dirty, jostled each other ; new recruits from the North-garrison men from the forts-stragglers and convalescents from the armies in the field.
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If at the word hospital there is presented to the mind's eye of the reader a spacious structure in stone or brick, covered with a dome and expanding into wings, all embosomed in a park-like enclosure, with verdant lawns shaded by trees and mottled with shrubbery, that reader did not go to muster in Vir- ginia in '62. Provision thought to be ample had been made in Washington, by the construction in several unoccupied squares, of rows of detached wooden sheds, each of which was the ward of a hospital. Rough and unattractive as these appeared set down among the dusty streets, upon a plot of land from which every green thing was trodden out, their interiors were in fact models of neatness, and in some sort, of comfort. But the battles of the Peninsula had soon filled these, and when there were added to them the sick from Mcclellan's army and the invalids from Pope's, every available build- ing was taken, and finally when within ten days, eight thousand patients were added from the James River, vacant house-lots were occupied, and for want of tents, awnings of sails or boards were laid over rough frames, and the passer-by could see the patients stretched upon the straw. The happy result of this, and other enforced experiments, was to prove that even these wretched makeshifts were better than close-walled houses, for hospital purposes.
On the 23d the Battalion marched over Long Bridge to the town of Alexandria-preferring at night the outside of the building designated to shelter them. The next day tents and wagons were
ـزيز
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obtained, and on the 25th their first camp was made on the hillside, near the Seminary.
Everything in that neighborhood was in confusion. During the week that the command remained encamped, Franklin's and Sumner's corps arrived at Alexandria, and not only was the town crowded with soldiers, but the woods were full of them, and all the energies of the authorities were devoted to endeavors to supply them, and push them out to the rescue of General Pope's army.
Considering that nobody, not even the General-in- chief, knew where Pope's army was, it is not sur- prising that all the efforts made by officers to find our Regiment were fruitless; indeed it mattered little that they were, for the wagons were taken away for the pressing service of more experienced troops, who were unable to move for want of trans- portation.
At last, on the 3d of September, the locality of Porter's Corps was ascertained, and the Battalion joined the rest of the Regiment. There was a striking contrast in the appearance of the old and new companies. The three new companies out- numbered all the other seven. The veterans looked with wonder upon the fresh northern faces and the bright new uniforms, while the recruits scanned with at least equal surprise the mud-stained, worn, and weary men who were to be their comrades. So long were the new platoons, that the detach- ment was christened "Moulton's Brigade," but the superiority of numbers was not long with them, and
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two weeks of campaigning amalgamated the com- mand.
The three companies comprising our "3d Bat- talion" were -
Company H, recruited at the Lynnfield Camp, commanded by Captain Henry W. Moulton; its Lieutenants were John H. Whidden and Joseph W. Wheelwright.
Company I, recruited in Charlestown, Captain Hannibal D. Norton ; Lieutenants, Chas. H. Hurd and Lucius H. Warren, since Brevet Brigadier- General.
Company K, recruited in Newton, Captain J. Cushing Edmands, afterwards Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General ; Lieutenants, Ambrose Bancroft and John F. Boyd.
At Upton's Hill the complete organization of the Regiment was published in the orders. The Lieu- tenant Colonel was promoted to be Colonel, Cap- tain Prescott to be Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Stephenson to be Major. The medical staff con- sisted of Z. Boylston Adams, Surgeon, with the rank of Major; William Lyman Faxon and W. H. Bigelow, Assistant Surgeons, ranking as First Lieu- tenants ; W. T. M. Odiorne, Hospital Steward. The non-commissioned staff consisted of James P. Wade, Sergeant Major ; James A. White, Quarter- master Sergeant ; Charles E. Madden, Commissary Sergeant ; and Freeman Field, Principal Musician.
Dr. Bigelow, Steward Odiorne, and Sergeant Madden, were new appointments. All the rest had
G
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been with the Regiment through all its experience in the field.
No chaplain was ever commissioned in the 32d, no application having ever been made on the part of the line officers, to whom belonged the initiative, and none being desired, so far as was known by any officer or man.
In an army composed of men of many different religious beliefs, as was the case in ours, the chap- lains should constitute a staff corps, its members proportioned as to faith, in some degree to the requirements of the army, so that from the head- quarters of an army or corps details might be made of the proper men for any required duty. Attached to regimental headquarters, they were very gener- ally utterly inefficient for good professionally. It was the rule with us that, when any of the sick were near death, the fact should be reported to the commanding officer, who was often the first to com- municate the tidings, and who invariably enquired of the dying man if he desired the service of a chaplain. When this was desired, an orderly was sent with the compliments of the Colonel, to some chaplain near by, to ask his attendance. With only rare exceptions such services were cheerfully and promptly rendered.
The burial service was usually read by the com- manding officer over the bodies of our dead; but in one case, where the man had been a Roman Cath- olic, it was thought better to ask the attendance of a chaplain of that faith. It happened that the
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orderly could not readily find one, and could find only one, and returned with the unusual reply that the chaplain could not come.
Upon further inquiry it appeared that the orderly had presented the message, with the compliments of the Colonel, to the chaplain, who was reposing after dinner. "Was he a good Catholic?" enquired the priest. The orderly assured him that he was. "My compliments to the Colonel, then, and tell him he can bury him. It is all right." With which reply the messenger was compelled to return. Failing the orderly's assurance of the man's good and reg- ular standing, of course the chaplain would have escaped the duty too.
In November, 1862, our camp hospital offered merely a canvas tent for shelter, and some straw spread upon the frosty ground for bedding. One of the patients, in view of approaching death, ex- pressed to the Adjutant his wish to be baptized, and of course a messenger was sent forth to seek a chaplain, with the customary compliments, and to ask his attendance on a dying man.
A chaplain promptly appeared at our headquarters, was escorted to the hospital tent and left at the side of the sick man. Very soon after, the Colonel, meeting the reverend officer pacing thoughtfully in the open air, stopped and enquired as to the patient's condition. Evidently considerably embarrassed, the chaplain said " you did not tell me that the man wanted baptism." "Very true." was the reply, "but why is that any difficulty?" "Because," rejoined the
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clergyman, hesitatingly, "I am of the Baptist per- suasion, and this is no case for immersion."
It was very awkward, but the Colonel, who had thought only of a chaplain as the proper officer for a present duty, apologized for his want of thought, thanked the gentleman, and said that he would try again, or if it became necessary, would himself ad- minister the holy rite. The chaplain, however, re- quested a few minutes for reflection, at the end of which he decided to officiate himself and did so, first taking the precaution to enquire of the soldier whether he preferred immersion or sprinkling, the latter of which very naturally was elected.
VI. THE ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN.
Until September 12th, our Division remained at Upton's Hill, while the rest of the Army of the Potomac drew off into Maryland in observation of General Lee, concerning whose movements no def- inite information could for a time be obtained.
It was a favorite theory among the authorities in Washington that General Lee would lead McClellan off into Western Maryland, and then slip round into his rear and capture the aforesaid authorities. Of course 80,000 men do not slip about such a country very easily, and of course General Lee would never have dared to place his army between the forts of Washington and the Army of the Potomac; but even such absurd fears required consideration, and in addition to the artillery garrisons in the forts and the new levies inside the defences, Morell's division was left for a time to watch the approaches to the Chain Bridge, which was the weakest point in the defences of the city.
During these days the various corps of the army whose organization a week before had been almost destroyed, were marching through the town in columns of platoons, with their drums beating and
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colors flying, their array as fine as it would have been on parade before they had ever seen the enemy, and inspiring all who saw them to a happy augury of the result of the first Maryland campaign.
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