USA > Maine > History of the First Maine cavalry, 1861-1865, V. 1 > Part 23
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The regiment, under command of Col. Smith, was in the saddle early the next morning, and going over the same road the six companies had traversed the night before. About half way to headquarters the advance saw suspicious signs on the right, which were duly reported to Col. Smith. He rode up to the front, and taking out his glass looked long and earnestly. talking in the meantime in a slow, deliberate manner something like this: " There's a couple loose horses -there's some sheep - there's something that looks like a battery - or a single gun. anyhow - I don't think the enemy can be there - but if that's our troops - I don't understand how it happens - that those sheep are unmolested -or those horses -if they are good for anything -I guess if I am going to fight to-day -it will be
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about here." Then sending Maj. Thaxter to find out what it all meant, he waited quietly till he saw the major ride right into the face of the battery and start to return, when he was satisfied that all was right, and the column started. A few moments more and the regiment reached the vicinity of the skirmish of the night before, when the advance grasped their carbines more firmly, and there was a general getting ready for contingencies throughout the regiment. Soon an infantry picket was discovered. but he wore blue. Salutations were exchanged, and he was found to belong to the Second corps. A few words passed between them, when the cavalry advance inquired if all had been quiet during the night, and received the reply, which he more than half anticipated : "There was a Dutch regiment on picket here the first part of the night, who report that a body of rebel cavalry came along just after dark and tried to go through the lines, but they didn't come it, though they had quite a skirmish." "Any one hurt on your side ?" was the next query on the part of the cavalry man, and on receiving a negative answer he didn't feel like saying anything more on that particular subject. It appeared that it was the stupidity of a Dutch regiment that prevented the communica- tion sought the night before, and that the six companies had had a bloodless skirmish with a portion of the Second corps. There was no more difficulty in reaching Gen. Meade's head- quarters, then near Richardson's tavern; and after reporting, the regiment was sent back half-way, along the road it had just come, passing quantities of troops on the way, and went on picket. It commenced raining and growing muddy in the fore- noon, and the regiment kept picketing and changing position all that day and night, with a bit of a skirmish occasionally, just for variety.
The forenoon of the twenty-ninth the regiment was relieved from picket and sent to the front on a plank road (Cos. H and I, under Lieut. Col. Boothby, making a reconnoissance of the line of battle by order of Gen. Gregg) to picket, though what plank road the boys did not stay long enough to find out; for they had barely settled there and got word that rations would be issued immediately, when the enemy made a dash in rear of
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the army, near Parker's store, in hopes of getting away with the supply train, striking the rest of the brigade. The First Maine was ordered to the rescue at a gallop, and found a desper- ate fight going on, though there seemed to be no pressing need of its services just yet. After waiting in reserve a while, the regiment went back to the picket station it had so suddenly left, and drew fifteen sheets of hard bread to a man, and coffee and sugar in proportion, -about two days' rations, - with no pork (which was ordered to last four days), and then rejoined the brigade and was sent off on picket in the vicinity of its skirmish with the Second corps two nights before, one company furnishing an hourly patrol to Gen. Meade's headquarters. It was very cold, and the mud of midday froze before midnight sufficiently to bear up the horses. But with a big white oak trunk for a back-log, and quantities of rails and clean white oak for fuel, magnificent fires were kept up, and the boys lay side by side in the open air, with their feet to the fire, nor dreamed of the cold. Next morning artillery opened along the whole line, but soon died down, though it was heard at intervals most all day, and at times there were sounds of mus- ketry. This was the battle of Mine Run. The Union forces were in position for a general attack at eight o'clock this morn- ing. but Gen. Warren early discovered that the enemy had changed and strengthened his position during the night by earthworks erected behind a creek, and by cutting down the small trees and twisting them around in such a manner as to make it next to impossible to get through; and deeming it unsafe and unwise to attack in the then condition. so reported to Gen. Meade, and the attempt was abandoned, on account of the strong position and numbers of the enemy, the danger of disaster, and the unusual amount of suffering that would enste to the wounded should a large battle be fought, and especially should disaster come, in such cold weather, so far from the base of supplies.
The regiment remained on pieket all day in the same position. the boys amusing themselves in various ways, some of them getting a good square meal of sweet potato sprouts from a house near the picket line, to the consternation of the owner
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thereof, who thus saw his hopes of next year's crop disappear down Yankee throats, and, as a general thing, thinking they were in luck in that engagement. They remained here till the next night (December first), when the reserves were called in to join the regiment and the whole stood "to horse," stealing what sleep they could, expecting every moment to be ordered to start, till two o'clock the next morning, when the regiment moved to Parker's store and took the position of rear guard for the left wing of the army on its withdrawal from the first battle of the " Wilderness." It was a bitter cold night, and the artillery and wagon trains ran easily over the frozen ground where the · previous noon their wheels would have sunk to the hubs. The rear guard had no trouble, the army getting across the Rapidan at Ely's ford before noon, and the First Maine getting across half an hour before the advance guard of the enemy appeared on the opposite bank. Half the regiment skirmished in a desultory way, just enough to let the enemy know they had no idea of going any further, till dark, while the remainder marched a couple of miles, and went into camp. Thus ended the campaign proper of the summer of 1863.
During the month of August Co. L, Capt. Taylor, which had been on duty at the headquarters of the First Army corps since the first of the previous November, rejoined the regiment. and about one hundred men of the regiment who had been serving as orderlies at various headquarters were recalled by order, that the regiment might have all its effective force that was possible. From this time, although the men of this regiment were always in demand as orderlies, the details for this purpose were smaller than before. A sketch of the duties and experiences of the men serving on this duty, prepared by Private Augustus D. Brown, of Co. L, who served as an orderly for months, is here presented, in justice to those who thus served : -
One of the most interesting and responsible services in which the mem- bers of the First Maine Cavalry were engaged, was that of the mounted orderly, the proper name for whom, and by which he was known in the Confederate army, was " courier." a French term. signifying " swift mes-
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senger." From its primary work of carrying despatches from one head- quarters to another. this service came to include a variety of duties of more or less importance. The requisites of this service were intelligence, relia- bility, promptness, and courage. And it was more than hinted that nearly every general of the Army of the Potomac considered his staff incomplete without some of the trusty troopers from Maine for an escort.
Orderly life, especially at brigade and division headquarters, was very enjoyable. The soldier here was not subject to guard or picket duty, nor to the numerous red tape formalities which were always regarded so necessary to good discipline with larger bodies of troops. " Going the grand rounds " of the picket line with the brigade commander was an occasion always looked forward to with interest by the orderly, as then the general was " off his dignity " enough to be on very familiar terms with his escort, and often tendered him kindly courtesies, even "a drink from the same canteen." which were thoroughly appreciated.
The first call for this regiment seems to have had the courier service in view, as the orders to the recruiting officers were to enlist none whose avoirdupois would exceed one hundred and sixty pounds. Then for the first year or more the arms of the regiment were only the sabre and the revolver, which the mounted orderly was always obliged to carry.
Almost as soon as the regiment was assigned to Gen. McDowell's corps on the Rappahannock, a heavy detail was made for headquarter purposes. The orderlies then detailed served with honor through the arduous cam- paign of Gen. Pope, which ended in the disaster of the second Bull Run, and then in the more inspiring scenes of South Mountain and Antietam. And when, soon after. that gallant soldier, John F. Reynolds, was made com- mander of the old First corps, the whole of Co. L, Capt. Taylor, and about fifty men from other companies, were ordered to report to him. And with him they remained, performing escort and other duties through his cam- paigns. until they bore his inanimate form from the first shock of Gettysburg. That Gen. Reynolds had unbounded faith in his Maine orderlies was shown on many occasions, but most conspicuously when one of his division com- manders, after having signally failed in making our boys do his dirty work, requested some different men in their places. Gen. Reynolds replied : "Take those men back and use them well; I have always found those First. Maine men of the best in my command." It is needless to add that we were all ardently attached to the old Pennsylvanian, and none more sin- cerely mourned his early fall in the opening of that historic battle, where he was so much needed.
At one time a detail from Co. M were on duty with Gen. Geary, the famous commander of the White Star division of the Twelfth corps, and when they were ordered back to their company, the general wrote a letter to Capt. Brown, commending his orderlies in the highest terms.
In the hour of battle the orderly was omnipresent, and his duties multi- farious, On his gallant steed, with his sabre swinging by his side, and his envelop bearing the talismanie letters " O. B." under his belt, he was a privileged character. No provost guard could stop him: he could go where officers of high rank could not. Ofttimes he was obliged to perform the duties of a staff officer, especially on occasions where the rebs were " getting
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careless in their firing," and in a few instances he was obliged to go inside the enemy's lines as a scout.
Anon he is sent to the picket line with a message, as was the case with Rufus Clayton, of Co. L, at Chancellorsville, who, while hunting for the line in the dense wilderness. in the dead hours of the night, was suddenly halted by a rebel picket, he having unconsciously gone through his own line.
Private Ebenezer Johnson. of Co. L, was a marked character, made so by the fact that he was equally at home in leading a prayer meeting or a charge upon the enemy. At the battle of Fredericksburg, while orderly for a brig- ade of the Pennsylvania Reserves, he was made a sergeant upon the recom- mendation of Gen. Taylor, commanding the brigade, for his bravery on that occasion. Next we see him at Gettysburg. Gen. Reynolds has just fallen, and Sergt. Johnson is ordered to ride with all speed to the city and inform Gen. Howard that he is in command. He takes to the railroad grade, runs the gauntlet between the two lines, which are hotly engaged, leaps his horse across a deep culvert, does his errand, and in a few minutes is back again. He and his horse have been hit four times, but are not seriously hurt. Gen. Robinson, in his official report, commends him for his gallantry, and subse- quently recommends him to the governor of Maine for a commission.
Private Edwin C. Teague, of Co. K, had a similar experience. He was orderly at the headquarters of Gen. Hartsuff's brigade in 1862. When this brigade met the head of Gen. Longstreet's corps at Thoroughfare Gap, August twenty-eighth, Teague volunteered to carry an order which required his running the gauntlet of a line of rebel skirmishers posted along the side of the gap. He delivered his order, and after resting a few moments under the shelter of the old stone mill. started to return. against the advice of the force there posted. He arrived back at brigade headquarters with a rifle ball in the right leg, and was personally thanked by Col. Stiles, then com- manding the brigade, and by Capt. Drake, A. A. A. G., his fearful ride hav- ing been in full view of our line. Teague remained on duty in spite of his wound, serving at the second battle of Bull Run, and at Chantilly, and then was sent to the hospital by Dr. Jackson, brigade surgeon.
When that final awful storm of shot and shell burst upon us, which pre- ceded the charge of Gen. Pickett's division, on the third day at Gettysburg. Sergt. Hiram M. Stevens, of Co. L, with four orderlies, took refuge behind a friendly boulder, but in a few moments they were driven out by a major gen- eral and his staff, when one of the shrieking missles severed Private Edward Cunningham's head from his body-the first man killed in action from Co. L.
In August, 1863, when orders came to rejoin the regiment, we may be pardoned if we cast a sigh of regret as we thought of the many associations with, and pleasant memories of, our infantry friends, which will always be green in our hearts. At the same time we were glad to again greet our old comrades, and hoped to share in the glory of the regiment, which had just become renowned at Brandy Station, Aldie, and Middleburg.
Private Brown neglects to say what a comrade says for him. He was orderly at the headquarters of the brigade of Pennsyl- vania Bucktails, Col. Roy Stone commanding, afterwards known
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as Dana's brigade. In the hottest part of the fight at the railroad out on the Chambersburg road, when the brigade was flanked by Rhodes' rebel division, he was sent to the division commander for re-enforcements, and on other duty; and when the brigade fell back through the town, he was the only mounted man left with it, the remainder of the horses being either killed, captured, or sent back. A comrade, then a pris- oner, says that he heard the rebel officers urge their men to fire at " that mounted Yankee officer."
Sergt. John B. Drake, of Co. G, while in command of orderlies at the headquarters of Gen. M. R. Patrick, provost marshal gen- eral of the Army of the Potomac, performed some very impor- tant service for Gen. Meade, shortly after the general assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, and while the army, then on the way to Gettysburg, was near Westminster, Md. The whereabouts of Gen. French were unknown at army head- quarters, he having been left in command at Harper's Ferry, and three couriers had been despatched to him with orders to evacuate Harper's Ferry and join the main army, but no word seemed to reach him; at least no answer was returned, and nothing was heard from the couriers. Consequently Gen. Meade called on Gen. Patrick for a man to go to Gen. French. Sergt. Drake detailed three men to report to Gen. Meade for that duty, but the three were rejected by the general, when Gen. Patrick ordered Sergt. Drake to report to him in person. The sergeant did so, and was readily accepted by the general. Upon receiving his orders, which were given him about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the sergeant started on his way to find Gen. French, having detailed James D. Foster, also of Co. G. to accompany him. After a long, hard ride, they found Gen. French about five o'clock in the afternoon, on the way from Harper's Ferry to Frederick City, Md., he having received no orders from Gen. Meade until Sergt. Drake reached him. The sergeant delivered his orders to the general, and immediately returned to headquarters, arriving there at about the time the rebels made the charge on the Third corps and were almost successful in breaking through the Union lines. Headquarters seemed to be scattered. no one seeming to know where Gen.
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Meade was, while rumors were in free circulation that he had been killed. Sergt. Drake found the headquarter. flag and established headquarters. The members of the staff began to gather about the flag, and finally Gen. Meade found his own headquarters, which had become separated from him.
After the battle of Gettysburg, on taking possession of the town, an old-fashioned thirteen-star flag was displayed from the residence of Gen. H. J. Stahle. The boys, thinking it to be a rebel flag, pulled it down, to which action Gen. Stahle strongly protested, and in the excitement he was put under arrest and turned over to Sergt. Drake, to be taken care of. The sergeant treated him with so much kindness and consid- eration that Gen. Stahle always remembered it. A few years after the war, when Hon. E. F. Pillsbury was stumping in Pennsylvania during a political campaign, he visited Gettys- burg and became acquainted with Gen. Stahle, who spoke of his arrest and imprisonment, expressing the warmest attach- ment for "a young man from Maine who had charge of him for a few days," and asking Mr. Pillsbury to put a card in his paper, the Maine Standard, and see if he could not find the young man. The card was published as requested, and was seen by Sergt. Drake, who responded to it, and quite a happy correspondence between the sergeant and Gen. Stahle was the result.
This incident is related by Chaplain Merrill : "The sad and the ludicrous are sometimes strangely mixed. During the three days' fight at Gettysburg Co. L, Capt. Taylor commanding, was on detached duty at Gen. Newton's headquarters. It is not strange that at the close of the third day's fighting the men were greatly exhausted. When the enemy fell back after their last terrible charge, Private Carlton P. Emery, who had done his duty well, threw himself upon the ground, and in a moment was in a sound sleep. A little later a party came along to bury the dead. Seeing this man stretched upon the ground, and supposing him -to be dead, they took his measure and dug his grave ; but when they attempted to place him in it. he awoke and objected to the whole proceeding so strenuously that they desisted. and allowed him to have his own way, much to the
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amusement of his comrades, who had been all the time looking on, ' laughing in their sleeves.'"
Maj. John D. Myrick, at the reunion in Brunswick, 1882, said : " And there is Sergt. Smith, 'of ours,' who rode unflinch- ingly into that hell of fire at Gettysburg, where Reynolds fell, when he was the only one left to Gen. Wadsworth of his entire staff and corps of orderlies, and whose conduct that day extorted from the general a recognition of which one might well be proud; the man on whom his officers relied in an emergency as on few others ; who, to-day, suffers from the barbarous treatment to which he was subjected in southern prisons ; a man, too, who never hesitated nor faltered, no matter how hazardous the duty devolved upon him, and who was every inch a soldier."
A sketch of the services and experiences of Simeon A. Holden, of Co. D, who was wounded while serving as orderly at Upperville, is given in connection with that engagement. Yet all these are but specimen bricks from the hundreds that made up the structure of the orderly service of the members of the First Maine Cavalry.
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CHAPTER X.
THE WINTER OF 1863-4.
BUILDING WINTER QUARTERS AT BEALTON. - RE-ENLISTMENTS. - EXPE- DITION TO LURAY. - CROSSING THE BLUE RIDGE. - A SPLENDID PIC- TURE. - SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS. - AT LURAY. - DESTRUCTION. - OVER THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN. - DESTRUCTION AT SPERRYVILLE. - ANOTHER EXPEDITION. - SEVERE COLD. BAD ROADS, AND INTENSE SUFFERING. - CAPT. TAYLOR'S ENCOUNTER WITH MOSEBY'S MEN. - WINTER QUARTERS IN EARNEST. - COMFORTABLE HABITATIONS, -- DUTIES OF THE WINTER. - RECONNAISSANCE TO PIEDMONT. - VET- ERAN FURLOUGHS. - RECRUITS. - GUERILLAS. - THE ". DAHLGREN RAID." -INSIDE THE FORTIFICATIONS OF RICHMOND. - THE ATTACK. - FIRST MAINE TO THE RESCUE. - BRILLIANT CHARGE OF CO. F. - FIGHTING IN THE DARK. - DEATH OF COL. DAHLGREN. - A NIGHT IN THE SWAMP. - SURROUNDED. - ANOTHER CHARGE. - KILPATRICK'S ASSAULT ON RICHMOND. - THE BIVOUAC WITHIN SIX MILES OF RICH- MOND. - HALF AN HOUR'S FIGHTING BY THE LIGHT OF THE CAMP- FIRES. - DRIVEN OUT OF CAMP. - CHARGE OF COS. A AND E AT OLD CHURCH. - INSIDE OUR LINES AGAIN. - AT YORKTOWN. - RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION. - A MINOR EXPEDITION. - BACK TO CAMP. - " GOOD- BY" WINTER QUARTERS.
A FTER returning from the " Wilderness " the regiment remained on the south side of the Rappahannock a few days, scouting, foraging and picketing in various locali- ties (at Ellis' and Skenker's fords December seventh to tenth), getting a scare on the night of the eighth, when every man was ordered to sleep with side-arms on and carbines handy, and all to stand " to horse " at four o'clock the next morning (that last order was honored more in the breach than in the observance). and having the usual amount of variety to enliven the dull rou- tine. On the twelfth the regiment recrossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's ford and went into camp near Bealton, where, for some reason or other, the boys expected to go into winter quarters. Sunday, the thirteenth, will long be remembered as a charming day for that time of year, being as warm and cheery
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as a day in June. On Monday the regiment went on picket on the Morrisville road, being relieved on Wednesday and going into camp half a mile or so from the camp of the Saturday before.
Again the impression became general throughout the regi- ment that this camp-ground was to be winter quarters, and the boys went to work to make themselves comfortable. The expe- rience of the winter at Camp Bayard the year before had been valuable to them, and they meant to profit by it. There was plenty of small pine timber in the vicinity, which had to be "toted"-a long distance the boys thought before they got done " toting "- and in a short time log walls might be seen going up very fast on the line of each company street. Some excellent and comfortable quarters were quickly made, while others were longer in being constructed, as the men's duties interfered with their building operations.
On the nineteenth the boys were assembled at regimental headquarters, when Col. Smith read to them the orders from the War Department concerning re-enlistment, offering a bounty of four hundred and two dollars and a thirty-five day furlough to such as chose to renew their enlistment to three years from that time, or to add two years to the time they still had to serve. It is due to Col. Smith to say that he would not advise the men to accept this offer, even when they personally asked his advice, preferring to let every man decide the matter for himself. At first, soldier-like, the boys made fun of the order, and a quotation from it, " At the end of six months you'll get fifty dollars more," became a by-word throughout the regiment. But as they thought more of it, and considered the chances. the amount offered, the prospect of the next year's campaign being the final one, the influence of the coming Presidential election, whichever way it went, on the war, the fact that they had another year to serve anyhow, and above all the improba- bility of their patriotism and interest in the result allowing them to remain quietly at home in case the war should con- tinue, very many of them finally did re-enlist, and the number of "veterans" in the regiment was quite large.
On the twentieth the paymaster visited the camp, and the
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men were paid up to October thirty-first previous. Early the next morning "Boots and saddles!" rang out loud and clear. and caused a general lively hustling out of bed, wonderment, flying round and saddling up. " What does it mean?" Is the enemy right here?" as well as more emphatic conundrums, were propounded, but for a time to no purpose. In the course of events it was learned that the regiment was ordered on an expe- dition to Luray, a town the other side of the Blue ridge, and that only the weak and disabled men and horses were to be left in camp.
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