USA > Maine > The history of the Twenty-seventh Maine Volunteer Infantry > Part 1
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M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00822 4088
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012
http://archive.org/details/historyoftwentys00ston
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. . The history of the Twenty - Seventh Regiment maine Volunteer Infantry
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& By Lieut .- Colonel James In. Stone « August XXUIT Eighteen Hundred & & ninety-five e «
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Stone, James M lieut .- col. 27th Me. infantry.
The history of the Twenty-seventh regiment Maine volunteer infantry. By Lieut .- Colonel James M. Stone. Portland, The Thurston print] 1895.
44 p. 23!"".
SHELF CARO
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1. Maine infantry. 27th regt .. 1862-1863. 2. U. S .- Hist .- Civil war -- Regimental histories -- Me. inf .- 27th.
2-12996
Library of Congress
E511.5.27th [23]]]
66982
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The Twenty-Seventh maine
C HIS REGIMENT was raised in the county of York and went into camp at Portland on the tenth day of Septem- ber A. D. 1862, and was organized for service on the nineteenth day of that month by the election of the following officers :
FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.
Rufus P. Tapley, Saco, Colonel.
Mark F. Wentworth, Kittery, Lieutenant-Colonel.
James M. Stone, Kennebunk, Major.
Edward M. Rand, Portland, Adjutant.
Lewis O'Brien, Saco, Quartermaster.
John E. L. Kimball, Saco, Surgeon.
Freeman Hall, North Berwick, Assistant Surgeon.
Calvin L. Hayes, Kittery, Sergeant-Major.
John Hall, North Berwick, Quartermaster-Sergeant.
William H. Tapley, Saco, Commissary-Sergeant.
Ivory M. Hodsdon, Saco, Hospital Steward.
Charles E. York, Biddeford, Drum-Major.
COMPANY OFFICERS.
COMPANY A. - George H. Ward, Saco, Captain. Samuel H. Libby, Limerick, First Lieutenant. Frank L. Harmon, Saco, Second Lieutenant.
COMPANY B. - Isaac P. Fall, South Berwick, Captain. Moses S. Hurd, North Berwick, First Lieuten- ant.
Lysander B. Young, South Berwick, Second Lieutenant.
COMPANY C. - John D. Hill, Buxton, Captain. John H. Came, Buxton, First Lieutenant. Joseph F. Warren, Hollis, Second Lieutenant.
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COMPANY D. - David B. Fullerton, Berwick, Captain.
Thomas Sherman, Jr., Lebanon, First Lieu- tenant.
Frederick S. Bryant, Kennebunkport, Second Lieutenant.
COMPANY E. - John M. Getchell, Wells, Captain.
William H. Miller, Sanford, First Lieutenant.
Joseph E. Chadbourne, Wells, Second Lieu- tenant.
COMPANY F. - Jeremiah Plumer, Biddeford, Captain.
Amos W. Page, Biddeford, First Lieutenant.
John W. Perkins, Biddeford, Second Lieuten- ant.
COMPANY G. - Edmund A. Dixon, Eliot, Captain.
Joseph D. Parker, Kittery, First Lieutenant.
Dennis M. Shapleigh, Kittery, Second Lieu- tenant.
COMPANY H. - Henry F. Snow, Cornish, Captain.
Almond O. Smart, Parsonfield, First Lieuten- ant.
Ralph R. Hussey, Acton, Second Lieutenant. COMPANY I. - Seth E. Bryant, Kennebunk, Captain.
Noah Gould, Lyman, First Lieutenant.
Henry B. Osgood, Alfred, Second Lieutenant. COMPANY K. - William H. Johnson, Waterboro, Captain. Frank A. Hutchins, Kennebunkport, First Lieutenant.
John McJellison, Shapleigh, Second Lieuten- ant.
On the fourth day of August, 1862, the President ordered that a draft be made of three hundred thousand militia to be imme- diately called into the service of the United States, to serve for nine months, unless sooner discharged. It was, also, at the same time ordered that if any state should not furnish its quota under the call by the fifteenth day of August, the deficiency should be made up by a special draft of the militia in that state. The quota assigned to Maine under this call was
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAINE.
nine thousand six hundred and nine, and the rendez- vous appointed for the western portion of the state was Camp Abraham Lincoln, at Portland. Most of the northern troops who first volunteered in the war enlisted for the term of three months, and the largest part of those who were engaged in the first battle at Bull Run were men whose term of service had expired, or was about expiring. The result of that action, however, was a rude but effective awakening of the loyal people of the land. Everywhere, now, the nature and magnitude of the contest began to be discerned. Maine fur- nished her entire quota under this call with volunteers and the Twenty-seventh Regiment of Infantry was raised and organ- ized under it. The regiment was mustered into service upon the thirtieth day of September A. D. 1862, by Capt. Dana of the Seventeenth United States Infantry, and left the state on Monday, the twentieth day of October, for the city of Wash- ington, where it arrived on Wednesday, the twenty-second. The next day it went into camp upon East Capitol Hill and was assigned to the Third Brigade of the Division of Gen. Casey, then commanding the Twenty-second Army Corps, for the defense of the national capital. Col. Francis Fessenden of the Twenty-fifth Maine Regiment was assigned to the com- mand of the brigade. Upon the twenty-sixth day of the month the regiment marched to Arlington Heights, where it went into camp upon the estate of the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee. While stationed here, the brigade for a time was com- manded by Col. Grimshaw of the Fourth Delaware, and was assigned to picket duty in connection with that regiment and the One Hundred and Fourteenth New York. It also furnished a daily fatigue party of four hundred men, to labor upon the unfinished fortifications located in that vicinity, for the defense of the capital, and in constructing infantry epaulements. Upon the twelfth of December, the brigade moved south of Little Hunting Creek, to relieve a Vermont brigade, stationed there in the duty of guarding a picket line eight miles in length, extending for the most part through a thickly wooded and very broken country, from the Potomac River, near Mount Vernon, to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. From the organiza-
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAINE.
tion of the regiment, there had been a nightly school for the instruction of officers, and constant squad, company and bat- talion drill, with frequent brigade movements, inspections and reviews, and upon several occasions the whole division was under arms.
While stationed upon the Lee estate, the regiment was for a time under orders to hold itself ready to march, at a moment's notice, and join the expedition then being fitted out at Fortress Monroe, under Gen. Banks, for the Department of the Gulf. Upon the sixteenth day of November, while six companies of the regiment were marching to Alexandria, to take transports to join that expedition, . they were met by a counter-order to return again to camp. This important change in the destina- tion of the regiment was occasioned by the want of a suitable transport to take the troops to New Orleans. The steamer Constitution had been designated for the purpose, but upon a survey subsequently ordered, she was pronounced unseaworthy, and the regiment was assigned to other duty. On the twenty-third day of January, 1863, Col. Tapley resigned as Colonel, and on the eleventh day of February, following, Lieut .- Col. Wentworth was commissioned as Colonel, Maj. James M. Stone, as Lieutenant- Colonel, and Capt. John D. Hill, of Company C., as Major, all ranking in their new grade from January thirtieth. On the first of January, 1863, the regiment was transferred from the Third Brigade of the division, to the First, with orders to remain in its position at Camp Vermont, and to report to Col. Fessen- den, of the Twenty-fifth Maine, commanding the First Brigade. Upon the second of February, 1863, Gen. S. P. Heintzelman was placed in command of the Twenty-second Army Corps and of the Defenses of Washington, which command he held until the fifteenth of April, of that year, when Gen. John J. Aber- crombie succeeded him, in command of the department. Upon the night of the eighth of March, in that year, the Confederate partisan chief, Col. Mosby, made a raid upon Fairfax Court House, Va., capturing Col. Stoughton, in command at that post, with two Captains, and thirty men with their arms and equipments, and fifty-eight horses, passing out again unharmed, and, as he reports, within two hundred yards of the Union
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fortifications at Centerville. This incident, trivial in itself, had an important bearing upon our subsequent regimental history and illustrates the necessities placed upon the Union forces, then invading the South. Gen. Grant, in his Personal Memoirs, speaking of the difference between the Confed- erate forces, acting mainly upon the defensive, and Union "forces when invading the South, says: "Operating in "an enemy's country, and being supplied always from a "distant base, large detachments had at all times to be "sent from the front, not only to guard the base of supplies "and the roads to it, but all the roads leading to our flanks "and rear. We were, also, operating in a country unknown "to us, and without competent guides or maps, showing the
"roads accurately." And in noticing the effect of guerilla warfare, he says : "During 1862-63, John H. Morgan, a "partisan officer, of no military education, but possessed of "courage and endurance, operated in the rear of the Army of "the Ohio in Kentucky and Tennessee. He had no base of " supplies to protect, but was at home wherever he went. "The army operating against the South, on the contrary, had "to protect its lines of communication with the North, from "which all supplies had to come to the front. Every foot of "road had to be guarded by troops stationed at convenient "distances apart. These guards could not render assistance "beyond the points where stationed.
" Morgan was foot-loose and could operate where his infor- "mation - always correct - led him to believe he could do the "greatest damage. During the time he was operating in this " way, he killed, wounded and captured several times the "number he ever had under his command at any one time. " He destroyed many millions of property in addition. Places " he did not attack had to be guarded, as if threatened by him. "Forrest, an abler soldier, operated farther west, and held "from the National front quite as many men as could be spared " for offensive operations. It is safe to say, that more than " half the National army was engaged in guarding lines of "supplies, or were on leave, sick in hospital, or on detail, "which prevented their bearing arms. Then, again, large
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" forces were employed where no Confederate army confronted "them." In fact, the General says, that in the campaign of 1864, while his headquarters were at Culpeper, Va., Mosby at one time, while operating in the rear of his army, crossed the railroad track near Warrenton Junction just as he approached it upon a special train, and unguarded, and came near postpon- ing his (Gen. Grant's) part in that campaign altogether. And Col. Mosby himself says, in a lecture recently delivered in Boston, "My purpose was to weaken the armies invading " Virginia by harassing their rear. As a line is only as strong "as its weakest point, it was necessary for it to be stronger "than I was at every point in order to resist my attack. It is "easy, therefore, to see the great results that may be accom- "plished by a small body of cavalry moving rapidly from point "to point on the communications of an army. To destroy " supply trains, to break the means of conveying intelligence, "and thus isolating an army from its base, as well as its " different corps from each other, to confuse their plans by " capturing dispatches, are the objects of partisan war. It is "just as legitimate to fight an enemy in the rear, as the front. " The only difference is the danger. Now, to prevent all these "things from being done, heavy detachments must be made to "guard against them. The military value of a partisan's work "is not measured by the amount of property destroyed, or the "number of men killed or captured, but by the number he " keeps watching. Every soldier withdrawn from the front to "guard the rear of an army is so much taken from its fighting "strength. I endeavored, as far as I was able, to diminish this "aggressive power of the Army of the Potomac by compelling " it to keep a large force on the defensive. I assailed its rear, "for there was its vulnerable point. My men had no camps. "If they had gone into camp they would soon have all been "captured. They would scatter for safety and gather at my " call, like the children of the mist. A blow would be struck "at a weak or unguarded point and then a quick retreat. The "alarm would spread through the sleeping camp, the long roll "would be beaten, or the bugles would sound to horse, there "would be mounting in hot haste and a rapid pursuit. But
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"the partisans generally got off with their prey. Their pursuers " were striking at an invisible foe. I have often sent small "squads at night to attack and run in the pickets along a line " of several miles. Of course, these alarms were very annoy- "ing, for no human being knows how sweet sleep is, but a "soldier."
I have made these quotations as illustrating the necessity and importance of the duty assigned us, which I have frequently found so little understood. It was to prevent a repetition of such raids as this of which I have spoken upon Fairfax Court House, and to protect the rear of the army and to guard and hold the Little River turnpike, one of the principal thoroughfares of this portion of Virginia, and thus to cover the city of Washington, the basis of supplies for the army, and the national capital, that the First Brigade of Casey's division, consisting then of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh Maine Regiments, was ordered upon the twenty-fourth of March A. D. 1863 to move to Chantilly, Va., situated upon the Little River turnpike and distant about twenty-five miles west from the city of Washington. The position it occupied is at a point about half-way between the Alexandria and Loudon and the Orange and Alexandria Railroads, and distant about five miles north from Center- ville. On the morning of the twenty-fourth of March, the regiment left Camp Casey and marched out upon the turnpike about fifteen miles, carrying shelter-tents, blankets and knap- sacks, and encamped for the night in a hardwood growth near Fairfax Court House, a locality containing, at that time, per- haps some twenty buildings, with a small brick structure known as the Court House.
Night came on with a driving rain ; but the next morning at nine o'clock the march was resumed and the brigade moved out upon the turnpike to Chantilly, and commenced picket duty on the outermost line of infantry in the Defenses of Washington. The brigade here encamped in a forest of pine and hardwood, near where the Chantilly mansion had stood before the war. There we were placed upon a picket line extending across the Little River turnpike, but running chiefly
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to the southwest of it, and connecting with the infantry pickets of Gen. Hayes' brigade at Centerville upon the left, and with the cavalry forces of Gen. Stahl upon the right. The Bull Run Mountains lay in full view, some nine miles to the west, and farther on the peaks of the Blue Ridge appeared. The site of the Bull Run battlefield was at the southwest of us and distant about eight miles ; and the field of Chantilly was about a mile and a half at the southeast of us and in our rear, where, upon the first of September, 1862, the gallant Union Generals, Stevens and Kearney fell. The Little River turn- pike is a macadamized road and one of the best in that portion of Virginia, leading out at Aldie, through a gap in the moun- tains, to the valley of the Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge beyond.
The vicinity of these gaps or passes through the mountain ranges was, through the war, the theater for guerilla opera- tions, to which, indeed, the whole country around them was admirably adapted. Sudden dashes of the enemy upon some portion of the picket line were frequent, and but few nights passed without an alarm upon it. Rebel videttes were con- stantly seen posted upon the pike in front of our cavalry line, which was uniformly drawn in at night behind the infantry. The portion of the line, however, held by the First Brigade, although constantly menaced, was never seriously attacked. On the twentieth day of May, the First Battery of Rhode Island artillery joined the brigade from Union Mills, and remained with it until we were ordered home. On one occasion, your historian was sent to Centerville, then the headquarters of Gen. Abercrombie, commanding the division, and while the fighting was going on at Aidie in our front, he asked me to be seated, saying : "We will watch the cannonading to see if it "approaches us, as it may be necessary to order the brigade "under arms ; he said that he considered the position of our " brigade the most exposed and important upon his line; that " in his opinion we were not strong enough to hold it, and that "we ought to be supported by several batteries of artillery "instead of one; that our position was the first he thought of " when his line was threatened ; and, that in case of an attack
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"upon his division, we might be sure we held the post of "honor and of danger." This was the opinion of a gray- haired veteran, regular officer, who had seen service in three wars and was now fresh from fighting in the front. Upon the twenty-first of June, 1863, the Army of the Potomac, then under the command of Gen. Hooker, moved up and took position near Centerville and Fairfax Court House, and that General took command of the Twenty-second Army Corps, to which our brigade belonged, then consisting of the Twenty-fifth and the Twenth-seventh Maine Regiments, and upon the twenty-eighth of the month, the brigade was ordered to report to Maj .- Gen. Slocum, commanding the Twelfth Army Corps, then at Lees- burg. This order was given, however, under the impression that the brigade was composed of three years' men; but when it was learned that its term of service had expired, the brigade was, on the twenty-fourth day of June, ordered to report to Gen. Heintzelman at Washington, for transportation home. The regiment left the camp at Chantilly on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of June, at six o'clock in the morning, and marched to Arlington Heights, where it arrived in the evening. At this moment, the Army of the Potomac was in motion to meet Gen. Lee, then rapidly advancing to invade Pennsylvania and the North. The whole territory in front of the fortifica- tions for the Defense of Washington lay exposed. All the veteran troops in the vicinity of the city had been sent forward to the Army of the Potomac, and the national capital was well- nigh uncovered. Clerks from the various departments in Washington were patrolling the city, and private citizens guarding Long bridge. It was the most anxious hour of the war. The intentions, too, of the rebel leaders were not yet fully known, but it was certain they were acting by advice and in concert with disloyal men in the North. These leaders, too, appeared buoyant and confident of success. A new com- mander, also, was now to be found for the Army of the Potomac; who' should the new general be, and would he inspire confidence at such an hour? Anxiety was clouding every loyal face and doubt oppressing the national heart. It was at such a moment as this, that the men of the Twenty-seventh
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Maine, were appealed to by the President and the Secretary of War, by a letter signed by them both and forwarded by the hand of a special messenger, and asked to volunteer anew, for the Defense of Washington, until the impending battle should be fought. It may be doubted if an army ever contained better material than that which was furnished by the nine months' men from Maine, and the Twenty-seventh Regiment had its full share of it. Gentlemen from each of the liberal professions entered its rank at the organization, and it was filled with well-to-do farmers, business men and mechanics. These men had been assured that they would be discharged from service on the tenth day of June, nine months from the date appointed for the draft, which they had prevented · by volunteering, but this promise had not been kept and they were not satisfied. In any event, it was thought they would not be held beyond the thirtieth of the month, or nine months from the date at which they were mustered ; and in this they had again been disappointed. The government, it was said, was not acting in good faith with these men, and had no legal right thus to detain them. And besides it was now almost July, and those who were farmers, had expected and arranged to be at home at that date, to secure their hay crop, many of whom were paying several times the daily wages they were receiving from the government, for labor upon their lands, which they could have better performed themselves. It was under such circumstances, that the appeal was made to the regiment to remain yet longer, and full well these soldiers knew what results compliance with this request might involve.
If the Union army was beaten in the impending battle, it was death to them in the Defense of Washington, or untold sufferings and perhaps a fate much worse than death, in a rebel prison. And yet, when that appeal was made, three hundred and twelve officers and men of the regiment (see Appendix A.), volunteered to remain and did remain, until the battle of Gettysburg had been fought and won, and the enemy were beaten and in full retreat, and the capital and the Union had alike been saved. The result of the battle was officially an- nounced by the President, upon the afternoon of Saturday, the
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fourth of July, and there being then no further necessity for the services of the regiment, it immediately marched to Wash- ington, after having received the thanks of Gen. DeRussy, commanding the fortifications for the defense of the capital, and taking transportation for home upon the evening of the fourth, it reached Portland upon the sixth of July, where the other portion of it had previously arrived, under Maj. Hill, upon the third of the month, in company with the Twenty-fifth Maine. The nation had been saved; and how the hearts of the people went forth to greet and welcome the returning soldier! Few then, cared to ask who these men were, or where they had been stationed, or to what particular duty they had been assigned. At that hour it was enough to know that they wore the uni- form of a soldier; that they had held a place somewhere in the armies of the republic; that they performed the duties assigned them, and were now returning home from the war. There were scenes which we witnessed upon our return, which I am sure none of us will forget, particularly the impromptu reception given us at Wilmington, Delaware, where we stopped for a few moments. The nation had been saved, and how the hearts of the people went out to greet and welcome these men returning from the front! There were thanks and blessings upon every lip and in every eye. Receptions were tendered the regiment by the cities of New York and Boston, and it was with some difficulty that the mayor and city authorities of Portland, were induced to relinquish the preparations they had made for a for- mal one, even after it had been repeatedly and gratefully declined. The regiment was mustered out upon the seventeenth day of July A. D. 1863, at Portland, by Lieut. Crossman, after a service of ten months and seven days. It left the state with nine hundred and forty-nine men, lost twenty-nine men by death, eight officers by resignation, and fifty-four men were discharged, leaving eight hundred and sixty-seven officers and men, when it reached home. At no time had it less than seven hundred and forty men for duty. It is not for the officers of a regiment in time of war to determine the position it shall occupy, or to assign its duties. It is sent where it is presumed to be needed most. The Twenty-seventh Maine Regiment was
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THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAINE.
ordered to Chantilly immediately after the post at Fairfax Court House had been surprised and Col. Stoughton with his men and supplies had been captured as hereinbefore stated. It should be remembered that the city of Washington was the objective point at which Gen. Lee and the Confederate authorities were aiming, as really as Richmond was ours. It is easy to see in part, at least, what would have been involved by its capture. Not only was it the capital of the nation and were the national archives and treasury there, but it was the real base of sup- plies for the Army of the Potomac, and in a certain sense, of all the Union armies, and its capture would have undoubtedly insured the recognition of the Confederate government by Eng- land and France, and probably by all the great powers of Europe. And we were placed upon that turnpike and between those two railroads to guard one of its main gateways. And this brigade of but two regiments of volunteer soldiers, and unsupported, held this position through the months of an unusually severe spring for that latitude. We were constantly told by the rebels around us, that no one brigade of two regi- ments could hold that position and that we should certainly be driven in. I have often had this said to me personally and most emphatically, thus confirming the apprehension which Gen. Abercrombie had previously expressed. Mosby was con- stantly raiding along our line, and it is said that his or other rebel forces, occupied our camp site in an hour from the time .
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