USA > Maine > History of the First Maine cavalry, 1861-1865, V. 1 > Part 29
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277
. HAWES' SHOP.
never scream so fiercely or sound so wickedly as under those conditions. Men can only think and hope, and their nerves are sorely tried. They are inclined to wish the enemy would charge on the battery they are supporting, so they can have something to do -- something to think about besides themselves and their chances.1
Before the regiment was dismounted a shell came bounding along the line from right to left, taking off the legs of three horses in its course, and rolling along directly under the horse rode by Maj. Cilley, just in rear of Co. I. There was a general shudder for a moment by all who saw it, in anticipation of its explosion, for the fuse was smoking and the major's horse was so thoroughly frightened that it could not be induced by the most vigorous application of the spur to leave the dangerous locality. However, the explosion resulted harmlessly, as far as the major or his horse was concerned.
One of those hair-breadth escapes which were so common as to excite not much wonder at the time, occurred during this engagement. When the regiment dismounted, Sergt. Jumper. of Co. G, lingered by his saddle-bags for a moment to get some tobacco, and hardly had he left them and seated himself on the ground, when a shell struck his horse in such a manner that, had he stood as he did the moment before, or had he been on the horse, he would probably have been instantly killed. The boys learned to look upon such instances not as matters of luck, but as evidences of the protection of a higher power. The horse was killed. The sergeant took off his blankets, tent, etc., emptied the saddle-bags, distributed among his com- rades, to take care of until he returned, so much of his worldly goods as he could not conveniently carry on foot, bade his com-
" This feeling is well described by J. W. DeForest, in a short sketch entitled " A Night at Sea," published in 1869: " What does a man think of when he stands consciously en the borders of the grave " The writer of this knows by frequent experience that there i- in such conditions very little consecutive thought. The mind acts in brief and numer- - yet not violent corruscations, which seem almost to explode at once, and which .- tantly extinguish each other. The peril - the distant home - again the peril - what i- Beyond - the movement of some object - the outline of another - the dread of bodily j un - the chances of escape - what happened yesterday - what should be done to-morrow -. hopes that may be dashed - once more the loved ones - then again the peril - always a fore boding -a dull, persistent foreboding. Such is the waiting for conflict; a very dit- forent thing from conflict actual, - a thing much harder to bear."
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rades good-by, as he knew not when he should see them again. and left the field. In less than half an hour he was back again, having obtained a horse from one of the comrades who was ill, when he gathered up his worldly goods, packed saddle and saddle-bags, and took his place in line as though nothing had happened.
For three or four hours the fight raged, and then, the enemy having apparently got all he wanted, the firing ceased, though the battery and the regiment remained in position until nine o'clock in the evening, when the regiment went back to the river, the horses were unsaddled, and the men went into camp as if there was not a rebel within a thousand miles. The loss to the regiment in this engagement was one man killed and three wounded, while four horses were killed. The regiment had taken part, and an important part, in one of the most severely contested cavalry fights of the war, yet the men had not fired a shot or seen a rebel. They had really been in little danger, - the loss was small, -but they had shown quite as much courage as their comrades in the thick of the fight, and there was no time during the engagement that they would not willingly have changed places with them.
On the twenty-ninth the regiment remained comparatively idle, doing a little picket and other duty, and moving two or three miles to secure better grazing ground. Next day prep- arations were made to move early in the morning, but they were afterwards countermanded, and the men got a rest until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the pickets were attacked, everything went to their support, and a smart fight commenced near Old Church Tavern. This fight lasted a couple of hours or so, but the down east boys did not get engaged, being held in reserve. During its progress the train arrived, and forage was issued and mail delivered on the field, while the regiment was in position as support. Such are the comforts and con- veniences of modern warfare.
On the thirty-first there was marching, countermarching. picketing, scouting, etc., the regiment camping at night near White House Landing, the new base of supplies for the Army of the Potomac, and the first of June was like unto the last of
279
COAL HARBOR.
May, the regiment picketing on the flank of Gen. Baldy Smith's forces, which were moving up to join Gen. Grant's army, and camping that night on the Coal Harbor road.
The morning of June second the division was early on the move in the direction of and by Barker's Mills, this regiment having the advance. About eight o'clock a portion of the regiment was deployed as mounted skirmishers, and ordered to advance through the woods, while the remainder advanced in column through a road on the left. This last portion, as well as the left of the line of skirmishers, soon got through the woods, when, finding the enemy's skirmish line posted on top of a hill, Col. Smith at once charged up the hill with this force and drove the enemy ; but his command had barely reached the top of the hill and got into position when the enemy opened a severe fire with several batteries of artillery, from a larger and longer hill on the right. It seemed as if the air was full of deadly missiles, and the cannonading was inces- sant. Sending the horses back, a skirmish line was formed, and the position was held the greater part of the day (the Second and Thirteenth Pennsylvania regiments coming up and taking position on the right and left of the regiment), in spite of the heavy artillery fire and the frequent spasms of musketry with which the enemy was affected.
In the meantime the right of the regiment, which attempted to go through the woods mounted, found itself in thick under- brush, - such woods as they seldom saw in Virginia, - and it was with difficulty they got through, and that not until after the charge had been made and the artillery had opened. They reported the sounds of the cannon, mingled with that of the shot and shell crashing through the trees, as perfectly terrific ; and they got out of the woods as quickly as they could, when they were sent on picket duty on the right and left of the skirmish line, and then to support the dismounted line, in which position they remained till the line was withdrawn.
No attempt was made to advance from the position on the hill, and though one or two attempts were made to drive the regiment from there with dismounted men and the artil- lery, they were not successful. The regiment remained on
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FIRST MAINE CAVALRY.
the line till after four o'clock that afternoon, when it was relieved (the infantry coming up), and marched to near Bot- tom's bridge, and went into camp. The loss in this engage- ment was one officer and one enlisted man killed and five men wounded. The position of the regiment, just behind the brow of a hill, accounts for the comparatively small loss, for there was ammunition enough thrown at it to have given each man his weight, almost. This was known among the boys as the fight at Barker's Mills, but is on record officially as the battle of Coal Harbor, it being the preparation for, and commencement of, that engagement.
At the very first of the engagement Chaplain Bartlett was instantly killed. He had charged up the hill with the regi- ment, and when the enemy's artillery opened, a shell or solid shot struck him in the body, cutting him in two. His body was buried, after the fight was over, a short distance from the field, and that night his horse and effects were sold at auction, and naught but the memory of the kind, brave, patriotic chap- lain remained with the regiment. In the cool pursuits of civil life, to read of such a proceeding thrills one with horror; but in the hurry and bustle and exigencies of active service, it was looked upon as a matter of course, and the men turned from the tears at his grave and in his memory, to the curiosity of the auction sale, and then to the round of duties, with tender rever- ence, but with no thought of undue haste or any impropriety. Nor did they the next two days, as the plain board that marked his grave was midway between the two skirmish lines, hesitate to fire for fear of disfiguring that.
Narrow escapes were numerous in this fight, and many a man came very near being hit by shell or shot as they ricocheted over the brow of the hill, or were driven from their direct course by the trees. Early in the engagement a shell struck into the rails of a light breastwork, hastily thrown up, behind which was a portion of Co. A. At this the men stepped back down the hill a bit, when Col. Smith, who saw them, quietly remarked : " You are safe up there, that place has been hit." The men returned to their places. Later in the day, as Col. Smith, Maj. Cilley, Adjt. Bibber, and other officers and men --
281
NARROW ESCAPES.
nine in all- were sitting on the ground, in shade of a small tree just in rear of this breastwork, Adjt. Bibber said : "Those fellows have got our range, and I think the next shot will come about here "; and he got up and walked about. Sure enough, a moment later a shell passed between the bodies of Col. Smith and Maj. Cilley, struck in the middle of the group, ploughing the ground up along the leg of Corp. Thomas J. Neal, of Co. C, who was on duty at headquarters, and knock- ing his sabre hilt against him without hurting him, though it gave him a severe blow. Had Adjt. Bibber not got up just as he did, that shot would have gone through him. The boys of Co. A, to whom the colonel had spoken a little while before, saw this incident, and the colonel fancied he could see a sort of smile creep over their faces, as they thought of what he had said to them. Capt. Tucker and Lieut. Boyd were both hit by balls from shrapnel, but neither were injured, and Sergt. McCobb, of Co. B, had a portion of the rim of his hat carried away by a shell, while his forehead was torn by a sliver from the pile of rails behind which he had taken position for protec- tion. And there were other escapes as wonderful, which have not come down to history.
The next forenoon the men got a bit of rest, but at noon were again on the move, going back to near the ground of the fight of the day before, at Barker's Mills. Here they went on picket as a dismounted skirmish line, in sight of the enemy, the men putting up breastworks, and remained that night, the next day, and until the morning of the fifth. While on this line the men heard the sounds of the severe battle at Coal Harbor. On the fifth the regiment moved to Bottom's bridge, remaining there that night, and the next afternoon marched at a rapid rate back to near Old Church Tavern, crossing the Pamunkey River at Newcastle Ferry, half a dozen miles or so below Han- over Town, and going into camp about eleven o'clock.
The morning of the seventh, the regiment, with two divisions of the corps, under Gen. Sheridan, who by this time was well known to the men personally, and had won the pet name of "Little Phil," started on an expedition against the Virginia Central Railroad, with instructions to Gen. Hunter, who was
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FIRST MAINE CAVALRY.
expected to meet Sheridan at Charlottsville from the Shen- andoah valley, to join his force, then to effectually break up the railroad connection between Richmond and the Shenan- doah valley and Lynchburg, and then rejoin the Army of the Potomac. This was known among the boys as Sheridan's second raid, or the raid toward Gordonsville. The command camped the first night near Aylett's ; crossed Altoona swamp the second day, camping that night near Pole Cat Station, on the Fredericksburg Railroad, having marched slowly and halted much during the day ; marched a while on the direct road to Fredericksburg the third day, and then struck to the left, pass- ing through Newmarket, the regiment doing picket duty that night on the road leading from Newmarket to Bumpass Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, and a detachment under Maj. Thaxter reconnoitring the railroad during the night ; and marched slowly behind the trains the fourth day, passing by Waller's Tavern, Good Hope church and Andrews, crossing the North Anna River, and going into camp near Nelson's Branch. on the road to Louisa Court House.
There was little to distinguish this march from others, only that the orders against taking horses from the column, except with permission or by order, were so stringent and so rigidly enforced, that private foraging had to be done on foot, which. however, did not prevent it being quite extensively done. Adventurous and hungry boys would start off on foot in advance of the column in the morning, and scour along the line of march as well as they could, leaving their horses to be led along in the column by comrades, recompensing the com- rades for this trouble by dividing the spoils with them on their return, which oftentimes was not till the command had halted for the night. This method of foraging was quite successful, though now and then some of those who had wandered too far from the column visited Richmond before the comrades leading their horses got their share of the spoils. The foragers sent out by orders from headquarters were also quite successful. though some of them were fired on, and occasionally men were killed or captured. Lieut. Gordon, while out with a foraging party, was fired upon, but no one was injured. On the whole
283
A NEW MILITARY ORDER.
the men did not suffer a great deal from hunger, while many of them lived on the fat of the land.
On the third night out there was a bit of a scare, followed by lots of fun. The regiment was on picket, and after the line had been established the men at the reserve were allowed to unsad- dle their horses for an hour to rub them down and rest them. They had unsaddled and were busily engaged in getting supper, when the sound of the sharp crack of a rifle, followed by an- other and another, came from the direction of the pickets. Col. Smith, who was resting under a tree a short distance from the regiment, at once jumped to his feet and sang out, " Attention !" Then there was a hustling, a jumping for the horses, and a throwing on of the saddles such as the regiment but seldom witnessed. Before half a dozen of the liveliest had got saddled, an orderly rode up to Col. Smith and said a word, whereupon the colonel turned round, and with military voice and manner gave the entirely new order, "Go on with your Apple sauce!" an order which was long remembered. The boys obeyed this most willingly, the excitement was over, and hilarity ran ram- pant for a few moments. It appeared that the commander of the pickets found near his line some fine, fat cattle, and wisely judged they would do his men good, so he concluded to shoot one or two of them, first sending an orderly to notify Col. Smith, that no alarm might be created. The orderly had some difficulty in finding the regiment, and the cattle were killed just before he arrived, the officer thinking he had waited long enough.
The morning of June eleventh the command started at an early hour, this regiment next the advance, instead of at the rear where it properly belonged, owing to its being first in readiness to move out. The advance soon met the enemy in force near Trevillian Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, eight miles or so from Gordonsville. Skirmishing commenced between six and seven o'clock in the morning, and the engagement soon became general and severe, lasting all day long. This is known as the fight at Trevillian Station, and was a hard day's work for the command, while the Maine boys considered it one of the hardest days in their experience, for the amount of actual fight-
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FIRST MAINE CAVALRY.
ing they had to do. The regiment prepared to fight on foot half a dozen times in as many positions, without firing a shot. It moved all along the Union lines, taking up various positions. only to leave them without getting into action. In short, it was moving round and getting ready during the most of the engage- ment, a great part of the time supporting a battery which could not seem to get where it wanted to.
At one time the battery was drawn up behind a piece of woods, and so close to them that it was reported that the officer commanding declared, in response to an imperative order from Gen. Gregg to open on the enemy's battery, which was doing lively service, that he could not fire in that position, to which the general replied, " Well, I can," and he did, sending a shot through and over the woods, followed by others, that silenced the enemy's battery for a while. While there, a shot or shell came whizzing through the trees, knocking one of the battery drivers from his horse. Another came bounding sportively along toward the regiment, which was in line a short distance to the rear, almost tempting one to try and stop it with his foot. and passing between two companies. As it neared the regiment there was a general scattering of the men in its way, which caused a laugh from one who was farther off, and the query: "Can't you dodge anything coming so slow as that?" to which a dry joker replied: "Yes, but the darn thing may be rotten." The fact that it might be a shell, and liable to explode, had not crossed the mind of the questioner. At another time, while the battery was apparently in reserve, the regiment had a position where the shells and pieces of shell flew round altogether too thickly to be encouraging to men who had nothing to do but wait in patience and watch for the missiles, and the boys were not sorry to get orders to move, though they knew not what was in store for them next. Other portions of the command had severe fighting, and this regiment only escaped by the fortunes of the service.
About five o'clock a determined attack was made on the enemy's position by the dismounted men, accompanied by this regiment and its battery, who went down the pike, which finally succeeded in breaking the enemy's lines, and in a moment
285
TREVILLIAN STATION.
the battery was in position on a hill in the very place the rebel battery had just left, and the regiment was in line in a small field behind it, while the dismounted men had advanced and taken up a new position. Then all was quiet. The men began to get careless. Some were sitting on the ground in front of their horses; some had gone for water, leaving their horses in charge of their comrades; some were writing, and some were lying down. A portion of the artillery horses had been taken to water, and one or two companies of this regiment had led their horses away for the same purpose. Everything looked as little like fighting as it is possible to imagine, and there was a free and easy look to the whole field. Suddenly the dismounted men commenced firing briskly, and more briskly, and then the rebel artillery opened. Their gunnery was excellent. They had the exact distance, as they knew well enough the Yankees would place their battery on the ground they had just left, that being the only available place in the immediate vicinity; and they knew just how to time their fuses. (This knowledge of the country, and of the dis- fances from one position to another, was an advantage the enemy's artillery had all through the war). The first shot that. came over was shrapnel, and it struck plumb into the Union battery, wounding the commanding officer, disabling two horses, and bursting, scattered pieces of shell and iron balls all over the regiment. Others followed in rapid succession, all striking in the battery or between it and the regiment, and filling the air with their contents. Then there was excitement, but no confu- sion. The men who had wandered from the line returned in hot haste; the horses that had strayed from their places were brought back ; the artillery horses came galloping to their posi- tions. Still came the shells from the rebel guns with wonder- ful precision, striking in front of the regiment, and sending a shower of iron in all directions. The Union battery got ready to reply quicker than it takes to tell it, and opened fire. Col. Smith took in the situation at once, and coolly riding along. sang out in his clear, ringing voice and well-known manner : ".It-TEN-TION! Fours LEFT !- FORWARD!" These orders were obeyed with exceeding promptness, and before half
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FIRST MAINE CAVALRY.
a dozen shots had been fired the regiment had moved its length to the left, and was out of range, and the shot and shell, for the most part, went harmlessly by on the right, though the stray shrapnel bullets occasionally bounded round strangely, some stopping so near the men that they picked them up as mementoes of the fight, almost without leaving their places. . This artillery duel was of short duration, the enemy soon get- ting enough, and quiet was restored. Col. Smith then rode along the line, inquiring of each company : " How many men hurt in this company ?" To his surprise he found but three or four, and one or two horses (the regiment's loss in the engage- ment was three wounded and two missing, and five horses killed), and he rode back shaking his head, and saying, half to himself: "I cannot understand it; I cannot understand it. I cannot understand how they can throw so much of that stuff in amongst us and not hurt more of us; I cannot understand it."
Private Thomas A. Trask, of Co. B, was severely wounded in the arm in this engagement. On being taken to the sur- geons they decided to cut the arm off; but Trask was not agreeable to that idea, so he darted out of the house used for a . temporary hospital, and made his way to his company, where he stayed until he could be sent to a hospital. He was absent six weeks, and returned a sound man.
Gen. Grant, in his official report, speaks of this fight as an obstinate contest in which the enemy was driven from the field in a complete mob, leaving his wounded and about four hun- dred prisoners and several hundred horses in our hands.
It was now nearly dark, and there was no more fighting that night. One battalion of the regiment went on picket on the road to Louisa Court House, and the remainder bivouacked on the field behind the battery. The boys of this latter portion would have got a good night's sleep but that a great part of the night was spent in drawing rations (service the men were generally most ready to perform, but they would have preferred some other time than most of the night after a hard day's work), and before morning a drizzling rain rather interfered with first- class sleep in the open air.
Early rising was in order next morning, and at six o'clock
287
LOUISA COURT HOUSE AGAIN.
the regiment was again on the move, a portion to go on pieket. and the remainder to go by itself on a reconnoissance to Louisa Court House, going by different roads, a portion under com- mand of Maj. Cilley, and another portion under command of Maj. Thaxter, all under command of Col. Smith. There were small bodies of the enemy in the vicinity, slight skirmishing took place at times, and one or two charges were made by por- tions of the regiment ; but no large force was found, and the command reached Louisa Court House with but little trouble or hindrance. Here was a wonderful place in which to revive old memories. Well did the boys remember their visit the year before, under Gen. Stoneman, and well did the citizens remember it, too, and there was some sharp sparring about it. Beside, there were with the detachment some of those who were taken prisoners at Brandy Station, and who had promised the citizens of this village, as they went through there on the cars en route to Richmond, just a year before to a day, to call and see them again in a year; and right glad were they to make their promise good, especially when they remembered the taunts, and jeers, and insults they received from the inhabitants when they were under guard. No enemy was discovered in this vicinity, and the command did not make a long stay.
Before it left, however, the boys had done some foraging, securing goodly quantities of forage, bacon, and tobacco, and some government stores had been destroyed. The men who were on that trip, or a portion of them, at least, will never for- get the appearance the head of the column made as it left the town. Some of the boys, in their investigations, had found several jars of preserves, and of course helped themselves. The jars were brought out to the column, and each man, even to the officer who rode at the head, dipped in his hardtack for a bit of the delicacy. While this was going on, the order was received, "Forward !" and away the column went, nearly every man eating from a hardtack daubed with rebel preserves, to the general disgust of the citizens. In another portion of the vil- lage was a sweet time, also. The boys found some bee-hives, and being more powerful than the bees, captured the honey. During this operation Maj. Cilley had a similar experience to
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