USA > Massachusetts > Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment [circular no. 16] > Part 2
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a stayer after his own heart, but above all, the general par excellence who knew how to compel victory and knew what to do with it after he had attained it. A man who won his gratitude, satisfied his patriotic pride, and gained thereby his undying admiration !
Sherman ! Well, the heart of the old " coffee-cooler " overflows whenever " Uncle Billy " - " old Tecumseh " - comes to mind, and unwitting and unwonted tears are apt to trickle down his bronzed cheeks at the recollection.
But an altogether different and distinct emotion, or, rather, set of emotions, are awakened for them in the mind of the veteran when he recalls his terms of service under the two most famous com- manders of the old Army of the Potomac - " Little Mac" and " Fighting Joe."
It is doubtful if any commanding general of an army throughout the world's history, not even excepting Napoleon, ever aroused such a sentiment of pure, unqualified affection, and in so high a degree, as McClellan's personality engendered among his soldiers. To say that he was idolized in the sense that the former was idolized would be to disparage the intelligent and discriminating quality of the American soldier's intellectual make-up. The crude lurking taint of ignoble servility that characterizes the peasant soldiery of most old-world armies, the suppression of individuality that bows the soul in unseemly adulation to a mere man of flesh, is unknown to him. His emancipation from such fetters was accomplished ages ago, at Runnymede, at Naseby, to be confirmed at Lexington.
It was, then, but a mere figure of speech that led to the popular designation of McClellan as the idol of his men. But his grace of manner, his youth and bonhomie, his attractive person, his lauded but undoubted military skill, and the humanity which in his orders and the conduct of his high office seemed aimed to modify the tra- ditional harshness of military discipline without vitiating its effec- tiveness, and in which there appeared to be no taint of demagogism, all endeared him to the rank and file, and made them enthusiastic in their devotion to him whom they regarded as an ideal military leader.
The popularity of Hooker was in process of growth while McClel-
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lan's was at its apex. It never attained in its highest rise, perhaps, anything approaching that of the latter in exciting the element of a devoted personal affection.
But his brilliant military exploits in the Mexican War and in the peninsular campaign, especially his stubborn fight at Williams- burg, where for nine hours he held an overwhelming force of the · enemy at bay, and yielded only when he had accomplished the safety of Mcclellan's army, spread his fame and gave him that popular designation of " Fighting Joe," which has been affixed irretrievably to him, although it was as offensive to him as the tune of " Marching through Georgia " was to Sherman.
" It always sounds to me like ' Fighting Fool,'" he once said, " and has really done me much injury in making the public believe I am a furious headstrong idiot, bent on making reckless and crazy dashes at the enemy. I have never fought without good purpose and with fair chances of success. When I have decided to fight I have done so with all the vigor and strength I could command."
As the men came to know Hooker more intimately in his advance to higher and still higher command, and felt the influence of a direct personal contact, his unique personality made itself felt and gained for him an admiration and regard that, despite the misfortune attend- ing his brief career as commander-in-chief of the Army of the Poto- mac, has in no sense diminished and is undoubtedly lasting. More fortunate in this respect, that he seized the opportunity to regain his prestige by his service in the West and by his splendid feat at Look- out mountain, than his compeer, " Little Mac," whose brilliant sun was destined to sink and know no rising.
The regiment to which the present writer belonged, the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, a regiment, by the way, which was kept at the front from the day it landed in Maryland mud, in 1861, to the day, in 1864, when it left the Petersburg trenches at the end of its term of service, and meanwhile never knew the bliss of " a soft thing " in the way of garrisoning forts or timorous towns and cities a hundred or so miles to the rear -- this regiment, I repeat, saw a good deal of " Fighting Joe " from the time he relieved General McDowell after the second Bull Run battle, and was assigned to command our corps
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through the Antietam campaign and up to the time he resigned the chief command on the eve of Gettysburg.
Two picturesque incidents of his army life, both of a strikingly similar nature, are prominently associated in the writer's memory with McClellan and Hooker, and they in some sense illustrate the respective temperaments of the two men and typify the distinctive character of their popularity.
The first time I saw General Hooker to know him was as we lay along the Centreville road on the way to Chantilly, two days after the disaster at Bull Run. The battle was then raging just ahead of us, and we halted, being held in reserve and waiting for orders. We had heard of poor McDowell's downfall, and that Hooker had been assigned to command the corps in his place. The latter's fame was then well known, and we were naturally anxious to see our new com- mander, both on that account and because he was also a native of the Old Bay State.
Suddenly there were heard shouting and cheering along the road to the rear, and soon a general officer and his staff were seen ap- proaching. As the cavalcade drew nearer we distinguished amid the shouts the name of the personage whom the boys were applauding, and learned that it was Hooker.
It so happened that, as he came opposite to where I lay on the grassy bank of the road, the general halted and beckoned to an or- derly who was carrying a roll enveloped in an enamelled cloth cover, which, as he removed the latter, appeared to be a campaign map. This, as some of his staff officers gathered about him, he proceeded to consult, an animated discussion going on meanwhile among the group.
The incident probably did not cover the period of more than five minutes, but it sufficed to enable me to get an excellent view of " Fighting Joe " and to mentally fix a lasting impression of his hand- some and mobile face and erect military figure. He seemed every inch a soldier and a man to all of us who then beheld him for the first time.
As the brief conference ended and the party were about to pro- ceed on their way, some of the boys gathered around the general
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for a parting good word, and one of them called out : " Hope we'll lick 'em out of their boots this time, general ! "
The latter turned to him, nodded his head jocosely and replied : " At any rate, you've got another man to lead you to-day, boys," and rode off, with the cheers of the men following him till he had passed from sight.
It was barely a fortnight after this, on September 14, during the battle of South Mountain, that, under strangely similar conditions to the above, our division was halted just beyond the little village of Middletown, at the foot of Turner's Gap, where our advance and the ninth corps were engaging Longstreet's corps way up the precip- itous slopes of the mountain and in the roadway.
It was one of the most impressive sights, and the most dramatic spectacle, that the writer ever witnessed during his three years' war experience, with the flaming flashes of the batteries on either side of the steep incline, and the crash of volley after volley of the musketry repeating themselves in thundering echoes against the mountain slopes, the terrible sounds punctuated now by the shrill rebel yell and anon by the deep-throated Yankee cheers as we could see our comrades charge and drive their foe from one position to another.
In the midst of this turmoil a storm of frantic shouts and a perfect roar of cheers attracted our attention backward toward the village. The first thought arising was that it was an attack on our rear, per- haps one of Stonewall Jackson's famous flanking surprises. But the idea was quickly dispelled as we perceived regiment after regiment suddenly spring to attention and line up on either side of the road, along which slowly came an imposing array of mounted officers and a trailing cavalry escort.
" It's Mcclellan ! Little Mac !" came the magic cry, distinguish- able even above the cheers swelling and rolling along the line. As he drew near McClellan was seen to be, as usual, splendidly mounted, his horse tossing his head and caracoling after the most approved circus style, as if conscious that he bore the fortunes of the republic on his back. His rider looked spick and span in his fine uniform, as if the latter was just out of the tailor's shop, while his handsome face was flushed and lighted up at his enthusiastic greeting with an
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expression of unalloyed pleasure that was both becoming and perfectly natural.
At our left was an Indiana regiment, a brand new organization that had just arrived at the front. Their uniforms were fresh and bright, their ranks full. Tall, strapping fellows, their color-bearer was a giant above them all in stature. This Hercules bore a magnifi- cent silk national flag which, we had been told, the ladies of Indianapolis had recently presented to the regiment.
As " Little Mac" arrived in front of the Indiana men the color- bearer dipped the flag in salute, and for an instant a corner of the gorgeous ensign touched the pommel of the general's saddle. Quickly transferring a beautiful bouquet of flowers - a trophy from one of the loyal women of the little hamlet through which he had just passed - to his bridle hand, with a charming graceful movement he caught the hem of the flag and raised it to his lips.
The act was not theatrical ; at least, to the onlookers it seemed to be entirely spontaneous -- the graceful impulse of a man who did all things gracefully. But the effect of it was a demonstration of enthusiasm such as it would seem could hardly have had a counter- part, at least with such dramatic surroundings, in the annals of war. The soldiers broke ranks and rushed, a madly yelling mob, flocking around their leader, shouting his name with endearing epithets, while in their eagerness to caress his person or merely to touch his garments they were careless of the danger of being trampled under his horse's hoofs.
Forgotten was the terrific strife going on up the mountain, drowned were the cannon's roar and the crashing detonations of musketry that shook the earth ; unheeded every thought of our dying and dead comrades and the fearful struggle that Longstreet was making to keep us from mastering the pass.
In those moments of frantic enthusiasm - it seems supreme idiocy now - we thought only that it was " Little Mac," beloved of men and favorite of the gods, who had come to lead us this time to sure victory. It was a moment to inspire valorous deeds in an army of stags, let alone this splen lidly equipped, always ready, battle-trained
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Army of the Potomac, whose long-felt want was only for a lion-like leader, such as they fondly fancied they had found at last.
But alas ! only three days later this leonine quality seemed to have petered out. There were lions, indeed, all over the field that day of Antietam, leading their whelps into the hostile thickets and driving their foes from covert to covert. There were Hooker and Meade and Sumner, Slocum and Sickles and Burnside, but " Fighting Joe" first and foremost, wherever the combat most fiercely raged.
And, after all, it was a victory, though a barren one, and even an incomplete victory was something for the Army of the Potomac to boast of - a victory won by his corps commanders and in despite of the general-in-chief, who seemed content to rest upon vicarious and reflected laurels.
On the night before the main battle day General Hooker had moved our corps to its assigned position on the right flank, which had been intrusted to his charge. It was to prove one of the blood- iest and most fiercely contested portions of the field. Hooker's guns opened the battle at daylight, and almost immediately " Joe " ordered a charge through the great cornfield north of the Dunker Church, the field containing nearly thirty acres of standing corn higher than a man's head. The enemy, hidden therein in large numbers, received our advance with an unexpected fire that dropped a number of our comrades.
But Hooker had seen some movement among the corn, and, quickly placing several guns in position, volley after volley of canis- ter were poured into the ranks of the trapped foe. The field was swept down by this iron hail as clean as if the reapers had done their work there, and when our boys charged through to follow up such of the flying foe as had escaped the slaughter, they ran over solid rows of dead and dying " Johnnies."
In his report General Hooker says of this cornfield : " It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield. Those that escaped fled in the opposite direction from our advance, and sought refuge behind the trees, fences and stone ledges nearly on a line with the Dunker Church, etc., as there was no resisting this torrent of death-dealing missives. The whole morning
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had been one of unusual animation to me, and fraught with the grandest events. The conduct of my troops was sublime, and the occasion almost lifted me to the skies, and its memories will ever remain near me. My command followed the fugitives closely until we had passed the cornfield a quarter of a mile or more, when I was removed from my saddle in the act of falling out of it from loss of blood, having previously been struck without my knowledge."
The intrigues of the politicians and the cabals existing among the military chiefs, with their ramifications in every congressional dis- trict, that agitated the administration during the war period, and so frequently paralyzed its efforts, were reflected in the army and seri- ously reacted upon its efficiency.
General Hooker had kept his skirts free from all entanglement in Washington politics. He was the soldier first and always. His aspirations lay solely in the direction of his professional function. He wanted to be head of the army in the field.
There were for him peculiar difficulties in the way of his attaining this distinction. One of his besetting sins was a rather free and cer- tainly indiscreet and impolitic habit of criticising his superiors. Some one once said of him that " he never hesitates either to cen- sure or to fight."
At West Point he had indulged this propensity, and it nearly cost him dismissal. In the Mexican War he had dared to criticise the great Scott, and incurred old " Fuss and Feathers' " life-long enmity, so that when at the breaking out of the rebellion he had hastened to Washington and applied for a command, he was allowed to kick his heels in the war department ante-rooms waiting for the appointment that never came until after the first Bull Run battle and the conse- quent retirement of Scott.
His interview soon after this with the President, and his pungent criticism of that disaster, so tickled the latter's sense of humor that he made Hooker sit down and listen to some of his own funny stories, after which the long-deferred commission was no longer doubtful. President Lincoln used to relate the incident with great gusto, and would then rehearse Hooker's speech with imitative effect.
" Mr. President," began the visitor, who had been introduced as
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" Capt." Hooker, " I am not ' Capt.' Hooker, but was once Lieut .- Col. Hooker of the regular army. I was lately a farmer in Calfornia, but since the rebellion broke out I have been here trying to get into the service, but I find I am not wanted. I am about to return home, but before going I was anxious to pay my respects to you, and to express my wishes for your personal welfare and success in quelling this rebellion. And I want to say one word more," he added, abruptly, seeing the President was about to speak: "I was at Bull Run the other day, Mr. President, and it is no vanity in me to say I am a d - sight better general than you had on that field."
Hooker was at once made a brigadier-general.
His well-known criticism of McClellan caused him the enmity of the latter's friends, and his frank and unguarded strictures on the Fredericksburg catastrophe awoke Burnside's wrath to such a degree that that general issued an order discharging Hooker, together with several other general officers, from the army, among them being Meade and Franklin. This order was never promulgated, however, President Lincoln vetoing it, and Burnside had to suffer the added humiliation not long after of seeing the man he had proscribed pro- moted to the chief command in his place.
Hooker, as has been said, was no intriguer in politics, yet his last promotion was due to a political manœuvre. The administration and the aspirants for the presidency in the cabinet and elsewhere were so apprehensive that a successful general would be liable to be sprung upon the country as a candidate for that office that the Chase interests prevailed with the war department to select Hooker, having assured themselves that he, probably alone of all the eligible officers, had no aspirations or ambitions in that direction.
No more popular appointment with the rank and file of the army could have been made. Even after the failure at Chancellorsville, though there were wonder and regret at the retreat across the river, much sympathy was felt for "Fighting Joe," and much censure meted out to those who, it was believed, rather than the command- ing general, were responsible for the success of Jackson's flank movement.
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Whatever blame properly attached to Hooker was at least mitigated by his gallant conduct in putting hinself at the head of his old divi- sion - Birney's - which he had himself organized on the peninsula, and interposing it between the flying eleventh corps and the enemy, and so securing the safety of the uncovered right flank. He also threw himself with drawn sword into the midst of Howard's demor- alized and panic-stricken fugitives, and succeeded in rallying them by his efforts and his presence.
McClellan's chief military distinction was his ability as an organ- izer. Hooker displayed no less skill in this direction, in some respects more. His intellectual energy and physical activity were remarkable. His dash and his endurance were phenomenal in that the two qualities rarely go together. He made of his army a superb fighting machine.
He at once did away with Burnside's cumbrous grand divisions. He introduced the system of corps badges, which was not only a convenience, but saved no end of confusion, while preventing straggling to a considerable extent. He put a check to desertion, which had become alarmingly prevalent as the war dragged on, by some drastic measures, but more by the humane method of increas- ing the proportion of furloughs during the inactive season of the year. And, above all, he made what had long been a not very important branch of the service, the cavalry, one of the most effi- cient and dependable of its arms, till no longer was heard the once prevalent gibe : " Whoever saw a dead cavalryman ? "
His general plan at Chancellorsville has been pronounced by mili- tary experts to be exceptionally able, and in its initial strategical development exceedingly brilliant. Unfortunately, he left Jackson out of the combination, or rather relied too much on his explicit orders for strengthening his vulnerable flank being faithfully ob- served.
Undoubtedly he made a serious mistake, or so it turned out to be, in sending the bulk of his cavalry beyond recall in the raid on the Gordonsville railroad to cut Lee's communications. The chapter of accidents was here against him, Stoneman having been delayed for fifteen days by heavy rains which swelled the river and prevented a
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crossing. But for this interruption Lee probably would have been forced from his position, and Jackson's turning movement never have been made.
It will be remembered that it was "Jeb" Stuart who discovered on one of his scouts the weakness of Howard's flank, and it was his casual mention of the fact to Lee and Jackson that suggested to the enterprising "Stonewall " the bold design which he so successfully carried out, though at the cost of his own life.
Thus if Stoneman could have followed the programme laid out for him, and on time, Stuart, without doubt, would have been put on his trail and given no opportunity of finding out that Hooker's right flank was " in the air."
But the blunders and oversights of generals are the accounting factors for most victories. Lee himself but a few months later was to duplicate this same error of judgment, but with far less reason than Hooker had, when he permitted this self-same Stuart to make his famous, but foolish, raid around Hooker's right, on the movement into Pennsylvania, and so deprived himself for three vital days of " the eyes " of his army - his cavalry.
The strange paralysis that seemed to have taken possession of Hooker's faculties and prevented the execution of his plan to get out of the Wilderness and fight his battle in the open has never been satisfactorily accounted for. His inaction at the crucial moment was against every principle that had hitherto marked his military methods and his sagacity.
Averell, who with his all too few cavalry and artillery had probably saved the day by his magnificent stand at Hazel Grove, together with others of the commanding general's advisers, tried in vain to impress upon him the necessity of taking advantage of the favorable opportunity to move out of the confines of the Wilderness. But he obstinately refused to do so. His elaborate explanation, which is too long to quote, and is in truth somewhat specious, has never sat- isfied his friends and admirers nor impartial critics, while it has been harshly assailed by his detractors.
Two splendid army corps, the first and fifth, comprising twenty- five thousand men, were destined to remain practically unemployed
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during the conflict at Chancellorsville, and no one knows why. No doubt General Hooker had it in his plan to utilize this large body of trained veterans at some critical moment, but the crisis seems never to have arrived.
We of the first corps, whom he had led at Antietam and elsewhere, commanded now by Reynolds, whose reputation as a fighter was second to none, certainly expected our share of whatever fighting was going on. We had never been out of it before. So far we had lain inactive at the extreme left of the line, but on the north side of the Rappahannock, where we had for a view the wide plain across the river over which the corps had fought Hill and Jackson at the Fredericksburg battle of the previous December, and which Sedgwick now occupied.
According to the writer's diary, it was May 2, the day of Jackson's assault, that we got orders to cross the river at United States ford and proceed to the front. A hot day's march brought the corps at sun- down to what we hoped would prove to be our night's bivouac.
The sounds of Jackson's attack way off on the right suddenly burst upon the air, and while wondering what it meant, orders came for us to hasten onward. As the weary boys proceeded, crowds of panic- stricken stragglers of the broken eleventh corps were met, and some- thing of their story was gathered as we plodded on. The corps finally, near midnight, reached the vicinity of Ely's ford, where it was halted on the road and spent the rest of the night in throwing up breast-works.
The next day, Sunday, General Hooker rode along our lines and was greeted everywhere with enthusiastic cheers, the disaster of the previous night apparently having had no effect to lessen his prestige.
And as a matter of fact, " Fighting Joe's" popularity never per- ceptibly waned among his soldiers up to the moment when, as we were crossing the Potomac at Edward's ferry on the way to Gettys- burg, it was learned that he had been superseded by Meade.
Of course the men of the first corps knew the latter well ; that is, they knew that he was a good fighter, a severe disciplinarian, and when irritated, as he was apt to be frequently, the hardest swearer in the army.
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To displace our " Joe " for Meade was to arouse all the ire that veterans can feel when a favorite leader is ousted to put, say, some political favorite in his stead. American soldiers are apt to be hyper- critical, perhaps, and they are certainly not backward or at all timorous in expressing their opinions of persons and things that they dislike. It was so in this instance.
And the feeling that the grossest injustice was done both to himself and to his army by Hooker's supersedure still exists among the majority of the surviving veterans who, notwithstanding, fought so well at Gettysburg and assisted General Meade to crown himself with the laurels due to the winner of the greatest victory of the war and of modern times.
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