Wearing the blue in the Twenty-fifth Mass. volunteer infantry, with Burnside's coast division, 18th army corps, and Army of the James, Part 33

Author: Denny, Joseph Waldo, 1825 or 1826-
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Worcester, Putnam & Davis
Number of Pages: 1196


USA > Massachusetts > Wearing the blue in the Twenty-fifth Mass. volunteer infantry, with Burnside's coast division, 18th army corps, and Army of the James > Part 33


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ARRIVAL AND RECEPTION AT WORCESTER.


And so it was, coming into Worcester at four o'clock in the morning on the regular express train, while all our friends, official and otherwise, were soundly sleeping in their beds, which they had taken with the idea that the regiment would not arrive until nine o'clock; so it was, that we came upon the familiar Worcester common, which we left three years before amid the farewell cheers of thousands of the people, at this


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early morning hour, while the rain was pouring in torrents, to find ourselves received at the Front street crossing, by exactly one man with a lantern. That one man was a patriotic fellow -perhaps he had been to the war and returned before us-he swung his lantern and he cheered lustily, and the cheers were just as hearty as if the volume of sound had been swelled by ten thousand voices, for that single man with his lantern, cheering there at the Front street crossing, voiced the welcome of a sleeping city, and the greetings from many a little hill-side cottage in the country, which awaited the veteran soldiers of the Massachusetts Twenty-fifth, returned from the war.


At nine o'clock, the City Hall being filled with people, the regiment filed in, after having exchanged salutations with Colonel Pickett. His Honor Mayor Lincoln, made a welcome speech and then Colonel Pickett offered well-chosen words of greeting, followed by patriotic remarks from Colonel Wil- liam S. Lincoln, of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, who had successfully escaped from Southern captivity. After a breakfast provided by the city, the regiment was dismissed to gather again for muster-out of service on October 20th. There were many hand-shakings, many kind words spoken, as com- rados of three years' service separated from each other on that cold, dreary and wet October morning. .


We rested from war's alarms- our officers and men returned with no stain upon their character. There was only one thing to regret, and that was frequently spoken, that all our regiment did not come home together. But this could not be, and as we left our comrades in North Carolina, we will return there once more, and with them travel for a time in these pages, the old familiar war-path.


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CHAPTER XXI.


REBEL RAM ALBEMARLE DESTROYED - FORT FISHER -SCHOFIELD IN NORTH CAROLINA-WISE'S FORES-ARMIES OF SHERMAN AND SCHOFIELD UNITE-SURRENDER OF JOHNSTON-CHAR- LOTTE.


TE left the reenlisted men and recruits of the Twenty- fifth Massachusetts in the vicinity of New Berne, TEKNO N. C., where they remained under command of Captain James Tucker. The regiment was consolidated into four companies, viz: A, B, C and D, the other companies merging their organizations into the four companies named. The above companies were stationed at Brice's creek, and near Fort Spinola opposite New Berne, and were engaged in ordinary camp and picket duty during the fall and winter following, and up to March, 1865, when, as we shall see, the regiment participated in the movements connected with the important events closing the war.


As many of our regiment are interested in the history of the rebel ram Albemarle, whose coming down the Roanoke river was the occasion of the death of Commander Flusser, as stated in a previous chapter, we propose a digression for the purpose of briefly narrating the manner this formidable war vessel met its destruction.


On the 27th of October, 1864, Lieutenant William B. Cushing, a young and dashing naval officer, in command of a small steam-launch prepared as a torpedo boat, moved toward


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Plymouth, N. C., for the purpose of destroying the Albemarle, which was anchored in the stream opposite that town. The night selected for the enterprise was very dark, and Cushing was within twenty yards of the ram before those on board discovered their danger. Cushing, under a heavy fire moved up to the attack, lowered the torpedo boom, drove it directly under the overhang of the ram, when the torpedo exploded at the very moment a shot went crashing through the launch. The enemy summoned Cushing to surrender. He told his men to save themselves, and then jumped into the water. Cushing and one other man were alone saved from death, and after the intrepid Lieutenant reached the Valley City the next day, he was made happy by the information that the Albemarle was sunk in the mud at Plymouth. Soon after, Plymouth was recaptured by our forces.


FORT FISHER.


During the latter part of December, [1864] General Butler, in unison with the naval fleet under Admiral Porter, attacked Fort Fisher at the entrance of Cape Fear river, N. C. A powder boat was exploded, but without accomplishment of any good, and afterwards Porter concentrated a fire upon the fort, which he labored under the mistake of believing had effectually silenced its guns. He informed General Butler that "there was not a rebel within five miles of the fort. You have nothing to do but to march in and take it." The fact was, the garrison had not beeen reduced, but increased two hundred and fifty men since the previous day. General Whit- ing, the chief commander of troops about Fort Fisher, says- "The garrison was at no time driven from its guns, and fired in return according to orders, six hundred and sixty-two shot and shell."


Butler at last, satisfied that a force of the enemy larger than his own was near at hand, and, under the advice of General Weitzel, a thorough engineer officer, who said a successful


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assault would be impossible-gave the order for the return of the troops to Petersburg.


There was much controversy about this attack upon Fort Fisher, and attempts were made to damage the military capac- ity of General Butler, Admiral Porter joining in the cry raised against him. Those who examine the facts impartially, can only reach the conclusion that Butler was wise in withdrawing the troops as he did. Colonel Lamb, the immediate commander of Fort Fisher, said :-


" If I were a friend of General Butler, I could tell him facts which would prove he did perfectly right in not attacking Fort Fisher when he was before the place. My battery of nineteen heavy guos so commanded the land approach, that not a man could live to reach my works. It was only after the navy had, with beautiful precision, dismounted gun after gun, in regular order, [at the second attempt] leaving only one in place, that the attacking party had any chance of success."


On the 6th of January, 1865, a new military expedition under General Alfred H. Terry, of the Tenth Corps, left Hampton Roads for a second attack upon Fort Fisher. The cooperation of the navy was fully secured, and the operations of the military were of the nature of a siege. Terry landed the troops far up the beach and intrenched. The next day, [January 13th,] the assault was made under the heavy fire of Porter's guns. From half-past three o'clock in the afternoon, when the assault commenced, until nearly nine o'clock, the fighting continued and was very severe. The Confederates were gradually pushed back, losing traverses, one after another, until the occupation of the work was complete. The entire garrison was captured, including Colonel Lamb, and General Whiting was mortally wounded. Our loss was eighty-eight killed, five hundred and one wounded and ninety-two missing. General Terry captured two thousand and eighty-three pris- oners.


Gro. W. BIGELOW. Co. . 1.


JOHN P. COULTER, Co. A.


Corel F. L. MoonE. Co. I.


Wor. O. WILDER, Co. II.


Corp'l EDWIN C. ABBOTT. Co. K.


WEARING THE BLUE. 409


The day after the capture, one of the magazines accidentally exploded, killing two hundred and wounding one hundred men.


Wilmington was now closed to blockade-runners, and the next movement was for the capture of that place. General Hoke was holding Fort Anderson, half-way up the river towards Wilmington, and, in various fortified positions, from the river to the ocean, he had a force of six thousand Confederates. General Bragg was in chief command with headquarters at Wilmington.


SCHOFIELD IN NORTH CAROLINA.


General Schofield, who was in winter quarters with the Twenty-third Corps, at Eastport, Miss., was ordered by Lieu- tenant-General Grant to move to the North Carolina coast without delay. This order was given for the purpose of concentrating a column of troops to move into the interior of North Carolina in support of the movement of General Sherman, whose army was then advancing upon its famous march from Atlanta to the sea. Schofield moved with all possible celerity, but it was not until the 9th of February that the Third Division, under Major-General Theo. Cox arrived at Fort Fisher .. The other divisions soon followed, some of the troops going to New Berne. North Carolina was made a department, and General Schofield assigned to the command, having in all, about twenty thousand troops. It was expected that Sherman would be in the vicinity of Goldsboro' about the last of February, and it was arranged that Schofield should advance from Wilmington and New Berne, and, if possible, checkmate Johnston, who was concentrating an army in North Carolina «to oppose the progress of Sherman, and prevent him from forming a junction with the Army of the Potomac. Lieutenant-General Grant took upon himself the task of pre- venting Lee's escape from the vicinity of Richmond, and defeating any attempt he might make to unite with Johnston's army in North Carolina.


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Two days after Schofield reached Fort Fisher, Terry was moved forward and succeeded in turning Hoke's right flank. The garrison at Fort Anderson fled, leaving ten guns and much other property. General Cox followed the fugitives, routed them, they losing three hundred and seventy-five men and two guns. Wilmington was finally evacuated by the Confederates, and our troops marched in on the morning of the 22nd of February.


TWENTY-FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS.


When the time arrived for the consolidation of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts into four companies, as stated, a question of some delicacy arose as to seniority of rank between Captains Tucker and Harrington." In the discussion of the question, there was not the slightest manifestation of personal feeling, indeed, both officers desired only exact justice in the matter, and each honestly believed that he ranked the other. Tucker however assumed command, as we have stated, and Harrington yielded strict obedience to him. So much however was said upon the subject, pro and con, that Tucker invited Harrington to appeal to the War Department, but this the latter declined to do, where- upon Tucker made a statement and requested the Adjutant General of the army to give a decision as to seniority between himself and Harrington. On or about the first of March and just prior to the movement from New Berne, Adjutant-General Townsend forwarded an order, directing Captain Harrington to assume command of the regiment as senior officer. This vexed question being thus officially settled, both officers did their best for the general welfare of the regiment, and Tucker assumed command of Company C.


During the autumn of 1864, not long after the reorganization of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, the regimeut joined an ex- pedition, composed of a brigade of infantry under command of Colonel Upham of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers, and marched to near Kitiston and bivouaced for the night. The


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object of the expedition was to destroy a steam-ram which was being constructed upon the Neuse river near Kinston, to be used in an attack upon New Berne. The troops suffered very much through the night from the severe cold. Upon the march up, the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts under Captain Tucker, had the advance. Early in the morning, Colonel Upham learned that the enemy had been reenforced and was in very large number at Kinston. Not decming an attack advisable, he ordered a return march, placing Captain Tucker with his regiment in the rear, as a guard to protect the returning column from disaster. The enemy followed our troops down the road several miles, giving the rear guard much annoyance.


It was about this time (November, 1864,) that the veterans of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts were agreeably surprised by a visit from Colonel Pickett. He was still suffering from the wound received at Cold Harbor, the bullet not having been extracted. He went to North Carolina upon regimental busi- ness, completing which, he took leave of his old comrades on the 27th of December and returned to Massachusetts. He had now been in service nearly four years and left it only because he was disabled from further duty, regretting very deeply that he was unable to continue and join in the final triumph that he always felt confident was sure to come, thus crowning the efforts of our brave and loyal soldiers with a glorious victory for the Union cause. He therefore reluctantly retired, carrying with him the respect and good wishes of the officers and men, who, under his command, had performed duty so faithfully and fought so gallantly, to sustain the honor of the flag and supremacy of the government.


Schofield, preparatory to the general movement, directed Brigadier-General I. N. Palmer at New Berne to move for- ward five thousand troops from that place, on Kinston, and there establish a depot of supplies, while workmen should engage repairing the railroad connecting Kinston with New Berne and Morehead City. The following order was issued to the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts : -


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Headquarters Second Division, District of Beaufort, New Berne, N. C., March 2nd, 1865.


Commanding Officer,


Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry. S


Sir- The General Commanding the division directs you to draw in the companies of your regiment, now absent on picket duty, and move your command at seven (7) o'clock, A. M., to-morrow, to Dover crossing on Core creek.


Very respectfully your obedient servant,


H. H. THOMAS, Assistant Adjutant-General.


The Twenty-fifth Massachusetts was assigned to the Third Brigade, Second Division, District of Beaufort. General S. P. Carter of Tennessee, who had been connected with the western armies, was in command of the division, and Lieuteu- ant-Colonel Henry Splaine of the Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers was in command of the brigade. The regiment was fortunate in being under the general direction of these officers. The Division Commander brought with him a high reputation for every soldierly quality, and the Brigade Com- mander was personally known as a brave and gallant officer, whose lead it would be safe to follow. .


March 4th, Brigade Orders were issued as follows : --


Headquarters Third Brigade, Second Division, District of Beaufort, N. C. In the field, March 4th, 1865.


General Orders, No. 1.


In compliance with General Orders No. 2 from Headquarters Second Division, District of Beaufort, the undersigned hereby assumes com- mand of the Third Brigade, Second Division, District of Beaufort, consisting. of the following regiments and batteries, viz: -


Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.


Battery " A," Third New York Artillery (dismounted).


The following officers of the staff are announced : -


Lieutenant J. A. Moore, Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Acting Assistant Adjutant-General and Acting Aide-de-Camp; Lieutenant Horace Dexter, Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Acting Brig- ade Quartermaster; Assistant Surgeon John T. Walton, One-hundred-ani- third Pennsylvania Volunteers, Acting Brigade Surgeon.


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The following will be the formation of the brigade line : -


Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Battery " A," Third New York Artillery, Twenty-Fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. HENRY SPLAINE, Lieutenant-Colonel, Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Commanding.


Palmer, for some reason, was not ready to advance the troops as early as they were required, consequently General Cox went up from Wilmington, and, March 4th, assumed command, moving the troops at once.


Company C, stationed at Brice's creek, marched at two o'clock on the morning of March 3rd, and at daylight, united with the other companies of the regiment near Fort Spinola. Two hundred Indiana men of General Mahar's Provisional Division were attached to the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, and remained thus attached until the arrival at Goldsboro', where they were transferred to their regiments in Sherman's army.


On March 4th, the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts left New Berne, and on the 7th reached Wise's forks below Southwest creek, and that night bivouaced in the vicinity of Gum swamp in a pine grove. At this point, the troops of Schofield joined Ruger's Division of the Twenty-third Corps marching with the troops from New Berne. Upon this advance, Chaplain Dodd accompanied the regiment, and while upon the march, wrote as follows of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts : -


"With this grand campaign commences a new era in the history of the Twenty-fifth. The original three years' term of service expired in October last. The record of the regiment up to that time is bright and unsullied, second to none. Everywhere true, prompt. foremost at Roanoke island, at New Berne, at Goldsboro,' at Arrow- field Church near Petersburg, where it so gallantly met and repulsed the charge of the South Carolina Twenty-fifth, at Drewry's Bluff checking the rebel advance, at Cold Harbor leading the brigade in the bloody charge on the enemy's works, again at Petersburg on the 15th and 18th of June, sustaining a galling fire for hours, and there- after. through all the summer's heat, persistent in the trenches, in


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. spite of exhaustion and sickness, this noble regiment, constituted by volunteers with no bounties to allure them, has sustained the nation's flag and the honor of the old Bay State. Under the brave and ener- getic junior officers who have now assumed command, its future will not disgrace the past. We miss our old commander, Colonel Pickett, disabled for service by a wound in battle, and now mustered out. The retirement of so spirited, experienced and efficient an officer is a serious loss to the service. All honor to the gallant men whose heroism and skill have sustained and advanced our cause thus far.


"Heckman's Star Brigade is now entirely broken up and scattered. The Ninth New Jersey, Twenty-seventh Massachusetts and Twenty- third Massachusetts are here, but in different brigades.


"As I close, the crack of musketry along our skirmish line is echoing among the pines.


"The Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, Captain Samuel Harrington, is brigaded now with the Seventeenth Massachusetts, and Battery "A" Third New York Artillery, dismounted."


WISE'S FORKS.


The march from New Berne over roads softened by recent storms, and through swamps filled with water, was very severe, and tasked the strength of the troops to the utmost. But the officers and men of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, endured it all with the old-time patience, and reached Wise's forks in good spirits.


It was found that General Hoke who was in command of the Confederate army at this point, an army that now stood confronting the battalions under Schofield, Cos and Ruger, was determined to prevent a union of these with the expected army of Sherman then sweeping up from the sea.


The rebel Hoke, whose name is familiar to those who served long in North Carolina, just reinforced by troops under Cheat- ham, felt very strong, and, when the Second Brigade of our troops, commanded by Colonel Upham of the Fifteenth Con- necticut Volunteers, holding the right, a brigade composed of


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the Fifteenth Connecticut and the Twenty-seventh Massachu- setts, was ordered to seize the crossing of the creek on the Dover road, and attempted to do so, a large force of the enemy fell upon Upham's rear, and seven hundred of his brigade were captured. Finding success so easy, the enemy attempted to work in between Generals Carter and Palmer, but Ruger's Division interfered, and Hoke was checked.


And yet the enemy was undaunted. Hoke was fighting for Richmond. Schofield, a superb commander, and at this time exceedingly fortunate in having for his Lieutenants such ener- getic officers as Cox, Ruger, Terry and Carter, was the proper instrument to accomplish results. Grant selected well, when he determined that Schofield should push matters in North


Carolina, and open the way for Sherman to make a successful march from Atlanta to the eastern coast. The success of Sherman depended upon the ability of Schofield to keep the Confederates, in check and prevent them from massing against him. The fall of Richmond, the breaking of the shell of the Confederacy, depended upon the success of Sherman. What vast interests centred upon our valiant army penetrating to middle North Carolina !


The army of Hoke was quite equal to that of Schofield. Hoke, as we have said, was fighting for Richmond. Having been successful against the Second Brigade, though afterwards checked by Ruger, he determined upon another effort to drive Schofield's army back to the coast. Schofield however held his divisions well in hand. He was himself a fighting General and he commanded fighting men, the veterans of many a hard fought field. While Schofield was possessed of generous im- pulses, duty required that he should be able by a proper discipline of mind, to mask all those kindly feelings of the heart which would make a grand victory over the enemy secondary to the comfort or even the lives of his soldiers. Every commanding general who would win success, must pos- sess a natural instinct for fighting. Fighting is his profession,


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and without a love for it, he had better be engineering for a railroad or digging potatoes. The able author of the " Inva- sion of the Crimea," (Kinglake) declares that he who is without the " bodily ardor " for fighting is without the quality of a general, and goes on to say : - -


"For warfare is so anxious and complex a business, that, against every vigorous movement heaps of reasons can forever be found : and if a man is so cold a lover of battle as to have no stronger guide than the poor balance of the arguments and counter arguments which he addresses to his troubled spirit, his mind, driven first one way and then another, will oscillate, or even revolve, turning miserably on its own axis and making no movement straight forward."


Sir Colin Campbell, commanding the Guards Brigade at the battle of the Alma, illustrated the characteristics of a true soldier, when, upon hearing the remark that if he put the brigade over the Alma, " the Guards will be destroyed ; " replied -" It is better, sir, that every man of Her Majesty's Guards should lie dead upon the field, than that they should now turn their backs upon the enemy."


Would it be too severe a criticism to say that some of our commanders subordinated whatever " bodily ardor" for fight- ing they possessed, to that other feeling, fatal to success -- desire to spare the troops from the enemy's bullets ? Armies can win victory only by fighting for it. A commanding officer can never gain applause for himself or success for the cause, except it be over fields of gore-over fields where fall his bravest men and most loved comrades.


Neither Schofield or Hoke, now pitted against each other in North Carolina, lacked any of the " bodily ardor " for fighting. Grant, watching the field from the north, and Sherman march- ing up from the south:, were equally impetuous -- equally determined.


On the 10th of March, [1865] the Twenty-fifth Massachu- setts was commanded by Captain Harrington. The two


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hundred Indiana men were still attached to the regiment, and were great favorites with our Eastern veterans. Upon this day, the brigade of Splaine occupied the extreme left of the Union line. Captain Tucker had command of the brigade line of skirmishers, while Captain Arthur P. Forbes com- manded Company D, upon the skirmish line. It was this line of skirmishers which was to receive the first shock of Hoke's impending onslaught, for Hoke, watchful for victory, deter- mined that the time had come when the Confederate army massed behind Southwest creek, near Wise's forks, could break the Union line and disperse the threatening army of Schofield.


The brigades of the enemy made a sudden attack, and so little was it expected at the moment it was delivered, that the horses at the artillery park were not in harness. A road lead- ing directly to this park, was covered by that portion of the skirmish line commanded by Forbes. He held that road with a stubborn firmness which undoubtedly saved the artillery, at all events it gave the artillerists time to get the pieces into position. The brigade line of skirmishers under Tucker, rallied bravely from the first surprise, and held the advanced line for some time against overwhelming masses of the enemy, but were finally compelled to retire. Forbes was seriously wounded in the neck early in the action, but remained on the field leading and encouraging his men, until, weak from the loss of blood, Tucker directed some of the men to remove him carefully to the rear. It was at this time that our troops fell back, and had not some of the skirmishers taken the wounded officer in their arms, he must have been captured by the enemy. This serious wound which nearly ended his life, closed his ser- vice, he being mustered-out for disability by order of the War Department, June 28th, 1865. During the war he had ren- dered efficient service upon the staff's of Generals Ord, Weitzel, Ames and Heckman. Since the war he has engaged in business in the city of St. Louis.




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