USA > Maine > First Maine bugle, 1893 (history of 1st Maine Cavalry) > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
Four dollars and a half for the ride to the hotel, with a very abbreviated supper, lodging and breakfast was not bad, although the bed room was double barrelled and both barrels loaded, and being waked near midnight for the second charge, I was tempted in settling to shoot off the old chestnut to the landlord to see what effect it would produce. I asked first if he had heard it -- he replied, no.
-
-
81
ON TO APPOMATTOX.
I then said that I had heard the reason assigned why Wash- ington, with his strong arm, was able to throw a silver dollar over the Natural Bridge, was "because a dollar went further in those ancient days." The landlord did not even smile-but I did internally. The next day on to Roanoke, proud city of recent growth. I know not whether to call it in the valley or not, Evidently the Blue Ridge and Alleghany ranges have met and kissed each other. From this midland Virginia where the mountains of the two . ranges intermingle, spring the head waters of most of the rivers in that State, the Shenandoah flow- ing northward, the James, eastward, the Roanoke, southeast to Pamlico Sound, the Kanawha, westward to the Ohio, while waters of the Tennessee take their course southwest and divide both that state and Kentucky.
In this city, the youngest in the state, but the third in popula- tion, is a colony of Maine State College, Worcester Technology and Bowdoin College boys and my sister, who has been a mem- ber of my household from 1871 till last spring. I found her the presiding goddess of the Bachelor's Club in a large brick house built by the Maine State College graduate and situated on the side of a mountain, one thousand feet above the sea level and overlooking the river and city of Roanoke, a city wonderful for its many attractive dwellings, its large churches, business blocks and Academy of Music and a most beautiful hotel -- cosmopoli- tan it is also --- for from my car window I saw the sign "Him Lec," Laundry" but "Her Lee" had no visible presence, but there was "Snyburg" with a sign "three balls" "Branch of New York Loan Office" and "Catoque Brothers, Fine Groceries."
We started on time emphatically, for I saw the conductor, two brakemen and two others all with their watches in their hands, and they all together sang out "time," and we went.
Captured by the Confederates again-the conductor was R. S. Eckley, Co. A. Twelfth Virginia Infantry in Malone Division and I was flanked by J. N. Ramey, Co. G. Thirteenth Virginia Cavalry, now of Surry County, in that state where he owns some one thousand acres of land and besides this plantation runs a large store. He has had ship
الية ٨ر
82
1
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
timber within the last few years cut from his farm by a Thomaston man, Mr. Vinal, well known to me. He came out of the service stripped of most of his property, but now has many acres and is a large, well built, typical Virginian.
I stop at Appomatox Station with strange feelings of ex- pectancy. I looked involuntarily around for the cars and ar- tillery we last saw there. There were some new buildings and an air of prosperity. I should judge it had doubled if not trebled its population since April 9th, 1865, but this statement must be accepted with the understanding that it was late at night when we saw it, and there were very few buildings.
Here my luck of falling into good hands continued, J. T. Lee of Co. H. Eighteenth Virginia Infantry, Pickett's Divi- sion, Longstreet's Corps, who was present at Dinwiddie Court House and Five Forks, and now a merchant, let me have his horse and carriage to ride to the Court House.
N. H. Gregory of Co. E. Eleventh Virginia Infantry, also of Pickett's Division, who was with him at the charge at Gettys- burg and also in the Antietam fight drove me to the Court House. He was furloughed home just before Richmond sur- rendered on account of sickness, and thus unfortunately could not give me any account of Lee's March from Rich- mond and his position at Appotamox.
As we rode to the Court House and without the slightest idea of how near it we had approached, I recognized with startling clearness the identical ground whereon we came dismounted, front into line the midnight of April 8, 1865 and waited for daylight and Lee's army. We pause but a moment and then go on to the village. The Court House has gone, only a few bricks remaining from the destroying fire that laid in ashes the edifice whose name designates the locality where Lee's army laid down their arms and the cavalry of that army hitched their horses to the plow instead of mounting them longer for war.
The Court House is now rising in large and better pro- portions on an appropriate lot near the depot but the historic Court House will live in memory and be preserved in history.
€
APPOMATTOA COURT HOUSE, VA. ; Drawn on the spot by W. Webber. Ild Ure, and Brie , And Ing y ath Vany Corps
Ma R-bel Am.m.Ption. ٤٠ * ** www. wOrama dark of f: vo. 7 Probt view of Mel.ran'w have, S View nt Apoin toe floora Il: am
٠٠٠:
٠٤٠.٠٠٠
84
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
The clerk of courts at the time of the surrender was George T. Piers. I found him still a resident of the village and its postmaster. R. P. Poore, a lawyer of the place, introduced himself to me --- claiming descent from Gen. Poore of the First New Hampshire line in the war of 1776, which regiment won the cognomen, in joke, as the Dam-Poor-Cilley regiment from the names of the three of its officers, Dam, Poor and Cilley, but which won an enduring reputation in the field at Saratoga and Monmouth, and received the distinction of being specially designated by Washington to be retained in service at the close of the war and had the longest continuous service of any regiment of that arm in the continental army. He was a grad- uate of Lexington Military Academy and was an officer in the Appomattox troops of the Second Virginia Cavalry, and afrerwards in the Tenth Virginia Cavalry. He passed safely through the war of the rebellion to be badly wounded through the body by the jailer of the county, in an alterca- tion concerning a prisoner he was to defend and with whom he desired the right as counsel to personally interview.
After exhausting the points of interest in the village and as- certaining the position of trains and artillery and such organiza- tions as remained in fighting form, I returned to the site of our fight April 9, '65. I left driver and team, alone walked the line our regiment hold the early half of that memorable Sun- day morning, went over the location where I did vidette duty that night in a manner that I never fully dared to tell. till after our muster out; and on foot over the wide fields where we slowly and in good order, receiving and inflicting loss, withdrew the cavalry curtain from the front of the solid ranks of the twenty-fourth corps and the black countenances of Birney's division of the twenty-fifth corps.
I thought of Melntyre, my district school recruit, who signed the enlisting roll during the moments of the forenoon recess and in a day or two reported for duty at Augusta. I saw again his swollen face as it appeared in the streets of Middletown, Va., May 24, 1862, and heard his words, " this is our first fight, Captain. I came here to fight and I wish to remain with my
85
ON TO APPOMATTOX.
company ;" and again when painfully wounded he said "the next time I prefer being hit square and fatally instead of being tortured by painful recovery."
Here in front of the wood before me his young life entered into its rest, on that memorable Sunday when all the bells throughout the wide North rang out the glad tidings, war is no more.
I wish most earnestly some monument might stand in this field to his memory and to the memory of the valiant seven whose death consecrate that field, and to the First of Maine which stands first in the number of its battles and in the cavalry column leads in the number of officers and men killed in action.
The position of the troops at Appomattox has never been accurately shown, nor has the spectacular view, from the circl- ing amphitheatre of hills clustering on the west, south and cast of the historical village and crowned in glory with the union blue, ever been pictured or described.
I turn to some minor views of closing scenes of the war and to a partial account of the position of the union army on that day, and must leave the rest to your own imagination and your own recollections.
The first exhibit, from the confederate side, has a little touch of boasting that is not accurate, but which is very pardonable to the under dog. The extracts following it leave many gaps but I hope this imperfect presentation may arouse other comrades to fill out the breaks and form the lines correctly and with justice to that great occasion.
General Fitz Lee says that on the evening of the 8th his cavalry, which had formed the rear guard, was moved to the front; that the corps commanders were called to Headquarters, where General Lee explained the situation fully, and submitted the correspondence he had had with General. Grant to them. It was decided that Fitz Lee, supported by Gordon, should attack Sheridan's cavalry at daylight, and in case nothing but cavalry was found, they were to open a way for the remaining troops; but in case the cavalry was supported by heavy bodies of infantry, the Commanding General must be at once notified.
At daybreak on the 9th Gordon's command was formed in line of battle half a mile west of the Court House on the Lynchburg road. The cavalry was posted on his right, W. II. F. Lee's division next to the infantry, Rosser's in the center, Munford's on the right, making, General Fitz Lee says, a mounted force of about 2,400 men.
86
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
" Our attack," he continues, " was made about sunrise, and the enemy's cavalry quickly driven out of the way, with a loss of two guns and a number of prisoners. Ti .. arrival at this time of two corps of their infantry necessitated the retiring of our lines.'
Gen. Fitz Lee is in error about the hour, as it was actually near nine o'clock instra ! of being daybreak, and in error in the number of guns captured. There was no gun actually captured. The gun left in the ravine by breaking of its axle was indeed left by us in that position, but no confederate came near enough to touch it. It was cap- tured by the eye only.
General Crook says: " At about 9 A. M. the enemy made a strong attack on my front and flanks with a large force of infantry, while their cavalry attacked my rear. Mackenzie and Smith were forced to retire by overwhelming numbers until relieved by the infantry, when we reorganized and were getting ready to go the front when an order for the cessation of hostilities reached me "
Mckenzie was not in our sight. In our fight our brigade were apparently alone till we reached the woods, when the Twenty-fourth Corps and the colored division of the Twenty-fifth Corps debouched. I have supposed Mckenzie was in the woods at the left of Lynchburg road. His fight may have been with the cavalry that passe! by our left flank for an hour or more after sunrise, as described in the history. All the accounts I have read place no confederate forces in the wille open field to the left of the Lynchburg road except the force in our regimental front, but only on the right of that road where they faced partly to the south.
General Merritt says the enemy advanced against Crook in heavy force. The cay- alry was forced back. Custer was brought up and the cavalry retired slowly but of necessity. Soon the Twenty-fourth Corps took up Crook's line on the left of Devir, and the Fifth Corps deployed in rear of him. As soon as the columns of the enemy discovered we had infantry in position they retired precipitately toward the valley The cavalry was thrown out rapidly to the right, taking possession of the high ground on the enemy's left and opened artillery.
General Orl states that he was barely in time on the morning of the 9th, "for in spite of General Sheridan's attempts the cavalry was falling back in confusion before Lee's infantry, "but," he says, " we soon deployed and went in, Gibbon on the left, at double quick, with Foster's and Turner's divisions, in beautiful style, and the colored troops also at double quick, under their respective comnonders, with the Fifth Corps under Griffin, when a white flag met him at the Fifth Corps front with a request for a cessation of arms until General Lee could meet General Grant and confer on the terms." General Ord continues: " As I knew that a surrender had been called for and terms asked for and made known, I knew this second request meant acceptance and the bugles were sounded to halt."
General Sheridan says: " A white flag was presented to General Custer, who ha ! the advance, and who sent the information to me at once that the enemy desired to surrender. Riding over to the left of Appomattox Court House, I met Major-General Gordon, of the rebel service, and Major-General Wilcox. General Gorden requested a suspension of hostilities pending negotiations for a surrender then being hell between Lieutenant-General Grant and General Lee. I notified him that I desire l to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood, but as there was nothing definitely settled in the correspondence, and as an attack had been made on my lines with a view to escape, under the impression that our force was only cavalry, I must have some a-sur- ance of an intended surrender. This General Gordon gave by saying that there was
87
ON TO APPOMATTOX.
no doubt of the surrender of General Lee's army. I then separated from him, with an agreement to meet those officers again in half an hour at Appomattox Court House, At the specified time, in company with General Ord, who commanded the infantry, I again met this officer, and also Lieutenant-General Longstreet, and received from them the same assurance, and hostilities ceased until the arrival of Lieutenant-General Grant."
General Grant arrived at Appomattox Court House about one o'clock, when the meeting between himself and General Lee took place. After a brief conference the two letters of General Grant and General Lee, respectively presenting and accepting the terms of surrender, having been written in each other's presence, were exchanged.
At about four o'clock the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia was announced to the Army of the Potomac .- Humphrey's Campaign of '644 and '65. tages 390-399.
"As the chimes of the early church-bells at home pealed their sweet matins, which clashed harmoniously in mid-air like cymbals, these fields trembled under the sound- ing peals of war's clangor, which met discordantly and were hurled in gruff rumblings far over the hills. For a little while Crook stood his ground; but when General Sheridan came up and looked about him, he sent back word to Generals Ord and Griffin to hurry on, and ordered Crook to fall back slowly and not sacrifice his jmen by trying to check the heavy force attacking them. The enemy's line was now incv- ing down the road but was formed almost parallel to it, and on the left as they looked towards the depot. To confront them, then, our infantry which had marched up the road, faced to the right and moved into the woods, in whose front Crook's conunand was fighting. Merritt was ordered, now, to get his divisions mounted and move round the right of our Infantry line, and Crook, as he retired, was instructed to give way in the same direction, in order to leave a fair field in front. Gibbon with the Twenty- fourth Corps, Griffin with the Fifth, and Birney's division of colored troops belonging to General Ord's command, were now ensconed among the trees silently waiting for orders to advance. Apparently we were deserting the fieldl; our cavalry had almost ceased to resist the enemy's advance, and from sharp and close fighting (so close that one of Crook's batteries lost a gun. ) they had gradually relapsed into a passive con- dition, as if they accepted the situation and would now permit General Lee to pass on unmolested.
Seeing our troopers march off by the flank, apparently giving up the fight for the road and opening a way of retreat, Lee's men yelled and quickenel their pace and doubled their fire; they would get away after all, they thought, for Sheridan's cav- alry couldn't hope to stop them and evidently we had no other troops at hand. But the sound of their peculiar cheer had hardly entered the woods before the long lines of our infantry emerged and burst upon their astonished sight.
Then our troops advanced quietly and grinily, saving their cheers for the end'of the rebellion, which everybody felt must soon be reached. The undulating lines of the infantry, now rising the crest of a knoll, now dipping into a valley or ravine, pressed on grandly across the open; for here at last we were out of the woods in the beauti- ful clear fields stretching away to the horizon, and here, if the rebellion should crumble, all who fought against it might see its fall. The cavalry on the right trotted out in advance of the infantry line, and made ready to take the enemy in flank if he should stand to fight, or dash at his trains, which were now in full view beyond Ap- pomattox Court House.
88
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
"Now came the riller bound on bound, bearing a white flag of truce and the whole line is halted on the crest over-looking Appomatox Court House and the Valley beyond in which lies broken the Army of Northern Virginia .--. With Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign, page 209-212.
A reference to the map will show these beautiful clear fields ; their rise and fall is well set forth in history, page 437. The left of the Twenty-fourth Corps advanced over the identical grounds, where we had fallen back and halted at about 10 A. M., where the lines our brigade held during the hours of midnight till 9 A. M.
The map should show the right of our regiment resting on the Lynchburg road. It is a singular coincident that as our regi- ment formed front into line in the last fight of the war, Co. A. held the right and Co. B. the left, just as these two companies held it at Augusta in our first formation and during the winter of 1861 and '62. The course of our falling back is indicated on the map ; at "A" where we crossed the ravine was the cannon of our brigade with a broken axle so that it could not be moved, near this spot McIntyre of Company B was hit, but continued on his feet till near the edge of the woods, when he fainted and in a short time expired. We continued our backward move- ment till near B. Martin's house, where we overtook our led horses and waited confirmation of the stories of the white flags and surrender. General Ord's forces advanced over the iden- tical ground we had left, to our midnight position on the top of the hill; which I have always called Clover Hill, and from thence extended their lines in nearly a due south course to Plain Run, where Chamberlain's division of the Fifth Corps joined ; the Fifth Corps lines extend easterly towards the home of A. Le Grange and beyond, the mass being in the triangle between W. Inge and Le Grand, while their artillery was back on he Prince Edward road. Partly in front of the Fifth Corps and towards the right extend the cavalry divisions of Custer and Devin. In front of the Twenty-fourth Corps was Gordon and Longstreet with their men, while the teams and large mass of the Confederate forces were down on the Farmville road, both on the village side of the north branch of the Appomattox and the
. 225
·
89
TTOX. C.Y
17 Road
& Mid Le Grand
AT APPOMATTOX.
90
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
farther side of that stream, while beyond and on the opposite side of Rocky Run, a tributary of the north branch from the North, lay Humphrey with the Second Corps and the Sixth Corps also, I think. The famous apple tree was about half wa: from the Court House to the North Branch and on the north- west side of Farmville road. The McLean house is the western house of the three shown on the south side of the Lynchburg road leading from the Court House which stands in the squar: in the village. The Eleventh Maine bore a remarkable record in the advance of Foster Division of the Twenty-fourth Corps losing six killed or mortally wounded and thirty-one wounded. nearly equalling the number of our dead on that field and ex- ceeding that of any other regiment. This loss was incurred on nearly the same ground we occupied and we anticipate receiving from Comrade Monroe Daggett a full account of their position and work that day.
The map is a reproduction of the United States map mad. soon after the surrender and shows accurately all the roads, streams and even the depression of the ground and the high lands on the south from which so large a proportion of our army overlooked the historic village. In our history, page 687, the loss of our regiment is given as two killed, eighteen wounded of . whom four died, it should be a loss of seven killed and mor- tally wounded, as I found from records of the Pension office that Corporal Edward S. Baker, who is reported as wounded and discharged by general order, number 77, died in hospital from his wound.
My ride from Appomattox Station to Petersburg was un- eventful. My time would not admit of stopping at Farmville, I viewed with regrets the village from the depot and soon passed over High Bridge with natural as well as symbolic ex- ultation as I saw the line of our advance and fighting on the way to Farmville. I mused on Appomattox memories and arrived in Petersburg quite late and continued its memories in dreams. Had no time to revisit the locations so long and so well known to us along the front of that city and to the south towards Reams' Station and Bellefield and westward to Din-
.
91
ON TO APPOMATTOX.
widdie and the rapid successions of battles to Appomattox. Those fields must await a more leisurely trip like that proposed by Comrade Perley Lowe, when duly mounted and armed with maps and camera we can see and retain and present to your view also, the nine days' gallop of April 1865, when fighting was the only sleep we enjoyed.
From Petersburg to Fredericksburg my companion was H. H. Morgan of the First Vermont Heavy Artillery, Sixth Corps, who was a participant of Sailors' Creek.
At Fredericksburg I had several hours at my disposal and under the guidance of Addison Coleman, a black Baptist preacher of that city, I rode along Marye's Heights and with special interest viewed the grounds over which the Sixth Maine Infantry charged. My acquaintance with Harris, who then commanded that regiment, his relationship to Lieutenant Har- ris and the two Hanscoms of our own regiment, and my re- membrance of seeing the sixth Maine again under Harris' leadership charge at Rappahannock Station, caused me to linger and study that event of pre-eminent valor.
Then we rode on to Salem church and were impressed with the wonderful and successful part of the Chancellorsville fight accomplished by Sedgwick and his men. I hope in some future Call to present an account of the Sixth Maine, so that their work and mode of charging may be more fully known to us who rejoice in their good record. While at Salem church, which bears on its walls many marks of bullets and shells, my colored preacher, who holds that position as an adjunct to his occupation as hostler, told me that a day or two before he had driven a Pennsylvania man to that locality, who halted sadly under a large oak near the church, and with tears told how in the rear of that tree his three sons fell mortally wounded.
Thence to Washington and a few days work in the Pension Office and the Departments, a day or two in Brooklyn and the steamer lands me. in Providence and I am out to Pawtucket where I sounded reveille in Tobie's office.
"We can't get them up, We can't get them up, We can't get them up In the morning."
V.
-
92
FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
but finally he appeared and a lot of work was planned for the Bugle. While waiting for the cars at the depot, I made th acquaintance of the chief of Police, Oliver H. Perry, who 1. held that position ever since the city was organized. He is : lineal descendant of the Lake Erie Perry and is as good a fe. low as the old Commodore was. He served in three differer: Rhode Island organizations in the war of '61, was at Frederick -- burg, an account of which was doubly interesting from my recent visit to that field. I close with the suggestion if you de- sire to add ten years to your actual life, revisit the old cam- paign grounds of '61 and '65.
93
THE ASSEMBLY.
THE ASSEMBLY. " Saddle up, pack up, and be ready to move out immediately."
We greet you all with a happy New Year. We feel assured that if you have com- plied with the Treasurer's re- quest in the last call and have closed the year with your BUGLE indebtedness fully paid and with the suggested Christ- mas gifts to members of your families, your Christmas was indeed a happy one.
This issue with its annual roll call brings to you the names and countenances of men with whom you marched knec to knee and bivouacked together in many a field nearly thirty years ago. We were comrades in every sense of the word and have drank from the same canteen of individual experience and mutual aid in line of battle. To-day we drink again from that same fountain of memory and inspira- tion canteened in our regi- mental quarterly. The ques- tion and desire arise, shall we drink alone or shall all
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.