USA > Maine > History of the First Maine cavalry, 1861-1865, V. 1 > Part 34
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On the picket line the time did not entirely pass without enlivening incidents. An officer one night discerned a suspi- cious looking object moving stealthily towards the fortifica- tions. Making a detour he got into its rear unperceived, and soon discovered that it was a man reconnoitring our works. By cautious movements, now stepping behind this tree, and now crouching behind that stump, still when the game was still, and moving quickly when it moved, he succeeded in getting sufficiently near, when, taking deliberate aim, he roared out : "Lay down!" Disarmed and brought in, the captive proved to be a lieutenant in the rebel service.
Corp. Wilbur F. Lunt, Co. I, thus describes life while on duty here : -
Here the actual experience of war begun. A little to the right of where we were encamped were two Union batteries. Our company lay entirely exposed, the breastworks in front being only four feet high, with a shallow ditch outside, beyond which the forest had been cleared off, leaving stumps and bushes, and trees with limbs sharpened. making an almost impassable space of some twenty or thirty rods in front. Once or twice a night, when we were certain to be almost dead for want of sleep, the batteries would open, the rebel shells come flying through the air, and we would be ordered to man the works. This was not so bad in good weather, but on rainy nights to be hurried out and compelled to stand in the mud for a couple of hours, became extremely tedious as soon as the novelty had worn off. We could not remove our clothing, because we never seemed to know the hour when we would be called, and when we were called the urgency of the occasion was too great to admit of delay, as each time it was expected that
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the enemy was to advance. Every other night we took our turn on picket duty, out in front of the works - two hours' watch and four hours' sleep. On clear, warm, moonlight nights this was not particularly disagreeable, but on cold and rainy nights it was anything but agreeable. because when we had once removed our blankets from the places which we had selected by daylight, we were certain not to be again comfortable or dry during the remainder of the night. for we could have no fires, and we were not per- mitted to strike a light, and if we lay down we most certainly would find a puddle of water to receive us.
The part of the picket line which extended along in front of the camp, from left to right, about one mile, was held by this regiment. On the right the line extending on in front of Fort Pride, and some distance beyond, was manned by another regi- ment. Before daybreak on the morning of the fourth the enemy commenced a furious shelling, which was continued till sun- rise. Meantime he had thrown out a strong line of skirmishers to attack the pickets on the left. for the purpose, doubtless. of diverting attention from the point at which he intended to strike. The attack was sudden and vigorous, but the reserve rallying promptly with their superior arms, the enemy was repulsed. The skirmishing continued, however, till about nine o'clock, when a regiment of South Carolina troops left their entrenchments, farther to the right, and advanced on Fort Pride, with a yell peculiarly their own. The pickets of the regiment referred to left their posts and came in. Capt. Sargent at once sent out twenty-one men under command of Lieut. Blethen. This small party, taking advantage of the ground, got a position from which, as the enemy advanced on the fort, they could give him an enfilading fire. The first volley told with terrible effect ; another equally destructive instantly followed. Another, another, and another, tore through their thinned and thinning ranks. It seemed as if a whole brigade was on their flank. In the meantime the artillery opened on them with grape and canister. A moment more and the sur vivors were seeking the shelter of their works, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Among the dead was the colonel of the regiment. A detachment from this regiment was sent out to man the picket line. Lieut. Blethen returned. bringing in thirteen prisoners, among whom was one commis-
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sioned officer. It is a singular fact that this regiment had not a man harmed. Two hours after the fight the body of the rebel colonel who fell was sent. under a flag of truce, across the enemy's lines, together with. his gold watch, a diamond ring, and various other articles of value found upon his person.
It is a noteworthy fact that the Sabbath was sometimes remembered in the army, even in the midst of a vigorous campaign. When the troops were on a march it was different. But during the ten months the two great armies confronted each other before Richmond, no instance is remembered in which the religious services of the Sabbath were interrupted by the enemy. As by common consent, aggressive movements on both sides, with rare exceptions, were suspended on that day. Usually on the Sabbath all was quiet along the lines. Especially so were the first Sabbaths this regiment passed at Bermuda Hundred front. At the suggestion of Col. Mix, of the Third New York Cavalry, that regiment and the First District of Columbia Cavalry attended a united service while stationed at that point, the chaplains of the two regiments officiating alternately.
At one o'clock on the morning of the tenth, the six mounted companies of the First District of Columbia Cavalry moved, with the division under Gen. Kautz, as it afterwards appeared. to capture Petersburg. The cavalry was to attack the city on the south, while the Tenth corps of infantry, under Gen. Gil- more, was to attack on the north side. The cavalry moved promptly. All the troops did their duty well. No further account of the matter, however, can here be given than is necessary to show the part borne by this regiment. As the column, marching by the Jerusalem turnpike, approached the enemy's defences, Lieut. Col. Conger, commanding, ordered Maj. Curtis to dismount his battalion and charge the enemy's works. Every fourth man was left in charge of the horses. The balance of the battalion moved steadily forward, firing rapidly as they advanced, nor did they pause at all till they were inside the rebel works, securing prisoners and destroying sutch camp equipage as they could not remove. It was then discovered that they had done this against three times their
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own number, fighting behind breastworks. With the common arm this would hardly have been possible. Some of the pris- oners said: " Your rapid firing confused our men ; they thought the devil helped you and it was of no use to fight." During the action, Capt. Griffin, of Co. C, with a small detachment from his own and another company, charged and took a twelve pound brass howitzer, against large odds of good fighting men. They could not stand the ready loaded and instant firing arms which these men used against them. After the defences had been carried, it was ascertained that the infantry had returned to Bermuda Hundred without striking a blow, and as the enemy was rapidly bringing up re-enforcements from Richmond and elsewhere, Gen. Kautz was compelled to retire, which he did without molestation. In the early part of the action, Lieut. Maguire received a painful wound in the leg. This was the only casualty. While this affair was in progress, a detachment from that portion of the regiment which remained behind reconnoitred the enemy's works in the front, found them deserted, and demolished them.
On the thirteenth the regiment was relieved from duty in the entrenchments by a regiment of one hundred days' men from Ohio. The next day the balance of the regiment was mounted, and moved at once with the cavalry division. in concert with the Eighteenth corps of infantry, for a second demonstration on Petersburg. The disadvantage under which they labored will be appreciated when it is stated that a por- tion of the District of Columbia men took the saddle that day for the first time in their lives. And yet the regiment was highly complimented for its gallantry in the engagement which resulted in foreing the enemy back to his inner line of entrench- ments. Lieut. Parkman, of Co. D, a brave and accomplished officer, and an excellent man, was killed.
Hitherto one-half the regiment had served as infantry. Now. mounted and released from duty in the entrenchments, they were so far prepared to take the field as cavalry. Probably. however, no other regiment in the service took the field in a condition so unfavorable to success. The expectations, based upon assurances given them at the time of their enlistment.
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WILSON'S RAID.
that they would be at once mounted and retained on duty at the seat of government, had been disappointed. They had been sent to the front to serve on foot, and on account of their superior arms. in every action they had been placed in the most perilous positions. And now, no sooner were these remaining companies mounted, than they were taken into action before they had been drilled in the saddle at all. Now if (as will hereafter be seen), notwithstanding all these adverse influences. they were distinguished for their bravery and efficiency on every field in which they fought, the fact will prove the ster- ling qualities of the men.
On the nineteenth, they broke camp near the breastworks at Bermuda Hundred front, and moved north about five miles, to a point near the James, about two miles below Jones' Land- ing. At four o'clock in the afternoon of the twentieth, an order was received to be ready to march at an hour's notice. At nine o'clock the horse equipments arrived from Washing- ton. The different parts of the saddle were in different boxes. and so unacquainted were the men with horse gear, that many of them were unable to adjust the various parts without assist- ance. Nor was this strange. Before their enlistment they had no occasion to learn, and subsequently, no opportunity. and yet, three hours later, they started on the celebrated Wilson's raid.
At one o'clock on the morning of the twenty-first of June. the regiment moved with the Third division of cavalry, under Gen. Kautz, and joined another division from the Army of the Potomac. The whole force numbered about eight thousand men, with sixteen pieces of artillery, and was commanded by Gen. Wilson. The object of the movement, like that of similar ones which had preceded it, was not to fight, but to weaken the enemy by cutting his communications, and by destroying army stores and other public property. The Army of the Potomac was now entrenched on the south side of Richmond. All supplies for the rebel capital must be drawn from the south and west. The question of its reduction was only a question of time, while every interruption of its communications, and every diminution of its supplies, would hasten the time.
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On the night of the twenty-first, the command bivouacked at Blanford. on the Suffolk Railroad, four miles south of Peters- burg. Of the use of this road the enemy had already been deprived. Passing on the twenty-second to Prince George Court House. then marching in a southerly direction, they struck the Weldon Railroad at Reams' Station, twelve miles from Petersburg. The place was guarded by a small body of militia. A portion of them were captured and the remainder dispersed. Here the sad but necessary work of destruction began. All the buildings at the station, together with a loco- motive, and a train of five or six cars, were consigned to the flames.
After tearing up the road for a considerable distance, the command marched to Ford's Station, on the South Side Rail- road, eighteen miles southwest from Petersburg. Here the work of destruction was resumed. The public buildings, to- gether with three locomotives and fifteen cars, shared the fate of those at Reams' Station.
On the twenty-third they advanced to Black's and White's. fifteen miles southwest on the same road, destroying the three intervening stations, and tearing up the road along their line of march. On the morning of the twenty-fourth. a march of eight miles led them to Nottaway Court House, where they destroyed a railroad station, together with a large storehouse filled with cotton. Resuming the line of march, they advanced to Keyes- ville, on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, leaving behind them a track of smouldering ruins, as far as the public property of the enemy furnished combustible matter. Nor is it to be denied that within certain limits a good deal of foraging was done.
In a healthy subject, free exercise in the open air, especially on horseback, tends to give an appetite, whose cravings nothing can appease but food.' This was the experience of the boys. And if their haversacks were sometimes empty, and they were fain to gnaw the raw corn, "which the horses did eat," their appetites were all the more clamorous when they came within reach of food. At such times, bread, and meat, and butter, and milk, and eggs, and cream, in a word, whatever the smoke-
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house, or the spring-house, or the, field, or garden, or stall, or pasture of a rebel contained, which was capable of being readily converted into good food, was remorselessly appropriated with- out waiting for either commissary or quartermaster process. These acts of the boys were never denied ; and yet there could never be discovered any signs of penitence on account of them.
After passing Drake's depot, eight miles further south, and paying it the same compliments they had paid to others, they approached Roanoke bridge, which crosses the Staunton River at the mouth of the Little Roanoke. As this was a point of great importance to the enemy, it was fortified and strongly guarded. On this side of the river, at a distance of about three- fourths of a mile, running parallel with it, was a range of hills. Between the hills and the river the ground was open and level. At the left of the railroad was a broad field of wheat, while on the right a luxuriant growth of grass and weeds, rising nearly to the height of a man's shoulders, covered the ground. The bluff on the opposite side of the river was lined with earth- works, and bristled with cannon, both above and below the bridge, while a strong line of the enemy's skirmishers had been thrown across the bridge and deployed along the shore.
Gen. Wilson's object was to burn the bridge, and Lieut. Col. Conger, of the First District of Columbia Cavalry, was detailed to do it. The regiment was composed of new recruits, with little experience, and had received less instruction than any other regiment in the command. The undertaking was a peril- ous one. Its wisdom the reader will be likely to question. And yet, when the final order was given to charge across the level ground in the face of the rebel batteries, the gallant First District of Columbia moved forward in splendid style, dis- mounted (except the intrepid Conger, who, being lame from previous wounds, was compelled to ride). The advance squad- ron, commanded by Capt. Benson, had not advanced far, when, from the line of the enemy's works in front, a murderous storm of grape and canister was hurled into their ranks with terrible effect. Officers and men went down in large numbers. Still, without the least protection, in the face of that withering fire. and at too great a distance from the enemy to effect much by
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their own, those brave men pressed on till near the bridge. Efforts were made to burn it, but they were unsuccessful. The regiment did but little actual fighting here, for the simple reason that they could not get at the enemy, but the cannonading was rapid and heavy. The hills presented a line of fire and smoke. and the earth trembled with the terrific concussions. Shells screamed across the horizon, bursting into deadly iron hail - the grim forms of smoke masked men, the gleam of burnished guns in the wheat-field, where the men were not engaged, and the flashing of sabres where they were, with horsemen in the distance, sweeping to and fro, formed a scene of exciting grand- eur such as few of the men had ever witnessed before. When at length it was discovered that the object could not be accom- plished but at too great a sacrifice of life, the advance was ordered back, and as nothing else was to be done in this direc- tion, the return march was commenced. The enemy followed all day, but made no attack. After a march of thirty-two miles directly east, through Greensborough, the column halted for the night near Oak grove.
A march of thirty-eight miles brought them to the iron bridge across Stony Creek, about ten o'clock on the morning of the twenty-eighth. Here a heavy force of cavalry and artillery was found in position to dispute the crossing. The cavalry consisted of Hampton's command, together with that of Fitz Hugh Lee. A severe engagement took place, in which this regiment lost about eighty men in killed, wounded, and missing. The result was indecisive. The enemy was pressed back, while the raiding column turned to the left and crossed the creek at a point above.
Gen. Kautz's division had the advance, this regiment moving at the head of the column. and the Eleventh Pennsylvania next. On approaching Reams Station. which had been supposed to be in possession of the Union forces, Gen. Kautz found himself confronted by the enemy, both infantry and artillery. Mahone's whole division. and one brigade from another division, had been sent out to intercept Wilson's command, which was now out- numbered two to one. The enemy was drawn up in strong line of battle, extending from the Nottaway River. on the right, to a point far out on the left. This regiment and the Eleventh
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Pennsylvania charged directly through. Gen. Wilson, how- ever, instead of following on, fell back.iabandoned his artillery, wagons, and ambulances, and by making a wide detour, avoided the enemy, and abandoned these two regiments to their fate.
Gen. Kautz had marched but a short distance when he found himself in a triangle, two sides of which, including his rear and left front, were held by the enemy in overwhelming numbers. Extending along his right front was the railroad, running through a cut from ten to twelve feet in depth. Beyond it, and running nearly parallel with it, was a stream of considerable depth, and beyond that an extensive swamp, supposed to be impassable. The enemy now thought himself sure of his prey. Under the circumstances, almost any other man would have surrendered. Not so the indomitable Kautz. It was a wild and exciting scene to see those mounted men slide down that steep embankment to the railroad track, scramble up the opposite bank, dash down the next declivity into the stream, and wal- low through mire and water, the horses in some instances rolling over and the men going under, amid the thunder of artillery, and with solid shot plunging, shells exploding, grape and canister raining, and musket balls whistling around them, till they reached the opposite shore and disappeared in the swamp, which had been made passable by a drought of great se- verity. Following their indefatigable commander, they pressed their way through, and reached their old camp at Jones' Land- ing the next day.
Lieut. Col. Conger, Maj. Curtis, and Capt. Sanford were severe- ly wounded. Capts. Benson and Chase, who had been wounded at Roanoke bridge, fell into the enemy's hands as prisoners when the ambulances were abandoned at Stony Creek. The damage to the enemy by this raid was immense. Besides the destruction of cotton, buildings, commissary stores, and rolling stock, Richmond and Petersburg were cut off from all railroad communication for several weeks.
Corp. Lunt, of Co. I, thus details his experience during this raid : -
On the twentieth of June. orders were received to prepare for a raid into the enemy's country, and nearly all night was spent in adjusting our equip -.
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ments and packing up for a move. we knew not where. Many of us did not sleep at all, but as we used to do, when boys, the night before the Fourth of July, we kept awake so that we might be the first on hand in the morning. Before the dawn of the morning of the twenty-first. the bugles sounded " Fall in !" and while the stars were still glittering in the sky, and the mist resting upon the waters of the Appomattox, our regiment was in motion. and just at daybreak we were leading our horses by twos over the pontoon bridge across the Appomattox River, near Point of Rocks. I remember the curious sensations we experienced, and the timorous motions of the reluctant horses, as they followed their file leaders across this swaying. undulating bridge.
After crossing the river we mounted and moved forward in. column of fours, towards the left flank of the army, then investing Petersburg. As we approached the old Prince George County Court House. the road was strewn with papers and manuscripts, evidently a part of the records of that county, from the loss and destruction of which landholders must have since suffered great inconvenience. A little after noon we went into bivouac, and word was sent around that all men who were unable to ride for seven or eight days and nights should return to the former camp; but as this was our first experience, no one seemed to doubt his ability to endure any of the hardships and perils of the expedition before us.
This day's journey was my first experience on horseback. As we set out on onr march froin the Appomattox River, in the morning, I waited impa- tiently for the column to move forward merrily at a gallop; but I waited in vain, for we moved only at a plodding, monotonous walk, amid clouds of dust, and under a burning sky. My lips were parched by the dust and heat. but the enthusiasm of youth led me to anticipate a more agreeable time when we should reach the open country of the enemy, and, like the troopers of Murat, ride down all the rebels who stood in our way: so I braced up my spirits with the illusions of hope never to be realized.
On the morning of the twenty-second, while the moon was yet bright in the heavens, and all was quiet, save the stir of the horses and the occasional braying of a mule. the notes of the bugle and the orders of the orderly ser- geant roused us from our slumbers, and after feeding and watering our horses and getting a hasty breakfast, "Boots and saddles! " was sounded. and away we started for the enemy's country. I was one of the number detailed to act as regimental rear guard, but I was no horseman, and jude- ing by the way my companions kept in their saddles, they were no more skilled in the equestrian art than I was. The fact is that we did not per- form our duty as rear guard very well, and Col. Conger, our commander. who was an old cavalry man, made some remarks to the effect that we were "a d-d sight worse than the stragglers."
Shortly after daylight the head of our column reached Reams' Station. on the Weldon Railroad, and the advance guard, by a sudden charge. site- ceeded in capturing a rebel picket, and drove away a squadron of their cavalry. We continued our march. By-and-by the sun rose in the heavens and the heat became intense. The roads were dusty. and the way a must weary one to me. Long before night I was as tired as boys usually are on the Fourth of July, when they have begun their celebration the night before.
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That night we bivouacked by the side of the road, near Ford's Station, on the South Side Railroad.
The next morning. continuing our way. the station building and store- houses, containing quantities of tobacco and other merchandise. were burned, and some portions of the railroad destroyed. Late in the afternoon we reached Burkesville, at the junction of the South Side and Richmond and Danville Railroads. I remember calling at some negro quarters adjoin- ing a fine old mansion which had been deserted by its proprietor, and there informing the negroes that we were Yankees coming to set them free. Some of these colored people were almost white, and I shall never forget their eagerness, coupled with a doubt, which their countenances expressed. They could not believe that a day so long hoped for, and delayed, had at last arrived. At Burkesville our forage was exhausted. and we were obliged to graze our horses in the fields and pastures. I felt as Mazeppa must have felt after he had been bound to the wild horse for several days -so tired and lame and sore that I was obliged to creep on hands and knees while I held the halter of my horse, as he grazed.
That night I slept soundly, and the next morning, having adjusted my stirrups and arranged my saddle, started off with the regiment, feeling much better. The track of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, along which we were marching, was not laid with ordinary iron T rails, but in place of them longitudinal timbers, or sleepers, were laid. with flat strap iron spiked down to these sleepers. Our work of destruction on this road was comparatively easy, for it was only necessary to take the rail fences down. pile the rails along the track and set them on fire, when the heat would expand the rails so that they would curl up, and the road was effectually destroyed for immediate use.
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