USA > Maine > History of the Thirteenth Maine regiment from its organization in 1861 to its muster-out in 1865 > Part 2
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
The weapons were the best that could be procured at the time. They were Enfeld riffes of English make ; good, serviceable weapons, and much superior to the Dutch or Belgian riffes which were issued to the other regiments then organizing at Augusta. They were. however, very coarsely finished and therefore hard to keep clean. They had originally what was called bronze finish, but the sea air and salt water soon ruined that, so that they had to be scoured, and they were afterward kept bright. The equipments, blankets, haversacks and canteens were of the ordinary quality. The knapsacks were very poor. They had light board frames, covered with black canvas, and the straps were fastened on with cheap, iron tacks. They had to be handled as care- fully as porcelain to save them from being smashed, and they were neither comfortable nor weather-proof. The only reasonable excuse for furnishing such inferior art- icles to troops was the lack of time, in the emergency, for making better ones.
The tents could not have been easily improved. They were of the Sibley pattern, of good quality, and cach
5
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
furnished with a small stove; the stove-pipe serving for a tent-pole. The only serious trouble about the tents was that there were not enough of them. The floors barely furnished sleeping room for the number of men required to occupy thein ; and after the arms and equip- ments had to be kept in the tents they were uncomfort- ably crowded, as owing to the center-pole being a stove- pipe there was no suitable place for a gun-rack. After about a year's use they became ruined by mildew so that they were condemned by an inspecting officer.
As soon as the squads of recruits began to assemble, squad drill was commenced, and company drill as fast as the companies were organized. Battalion drill soon followed and was prosecuted as energetically as circum- stances permitted. The winter of 1861 was very se- vere ; there being of hard snowstorms, cach followed by a northwest gale, an average of more than one a week. That was a great drawback, and another was the lack of a suitable place for battalion drill. There was a spot, known as the parade-ground, in the southwest corner of the Arsenal grounds near the river, on which there was room to form the regiment in line and to practice a few simple movements; but in order to use it the men, after rach snowstorm, had to turn out with shovels and sera- pers and clear away the snow, dumping it over the riv- or bank. Thorough battalion drill was only practica- ble when the ice on the river was in suitable condition : which was but a small part of the time. In stormy weather the only possible drill was the manual of arms. in the main building.
When the weather permitted, dress-parade took place on the parade-ground. In this ceremony the most prominent part belonged to Adjatant Speed. who was a bantam in size but had the voice of a lion. Ile had seen some previous service and knew luis daty thorough- ly; but it was an endless source of wonder to the men
6
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
how so large a voice could proceed from the throat of so small a man.
The Thirteenth, in common with all the volunteer regiments which were raised the first two years of the war, labored under the disadvantage that hardly any of its members had any military experience. A few of the officers and perhaps a baker's dozen of the men had served a short time in the army, and a few others had played soldier in the militia ; the rest, officers and men alike, were raw recruits. Nearly all, however, applied themselves to their task with a zeal which worked won- ders ; and by the first of February the regiment could perform the manual and all ordinary movements in a creditable manner, and also march steadily both by front and by Hank.
Like many other regiments, the Thirteenth during its stay at Augusta, had quite an experience with measles. The next morning after the arrival of the Franklin County squad, one of their number was found to have the measles, the eruption being well developed. He was instantly separated from the other men and soon carried across the river to the hospital where the cases of measles in the Ist Maine Cavalry were being treated, but it was too late. He had slept on the upper floor of the large Arsenal building with about three hundred others, and nearly every man who had not had the dis- ease, contracted it : so in a fortnight the regiment had enough cases of measles to start a hospital of its own.
Although so many cases at once laid quite a load up- on the shoulders of the Medical Staff, the best was done that was possible under the circumstances, and the num- ber of deaths and discharges caused by measles was very small. Duty was however made somewhat harder; as Col. Dow, by the advice of the surgeons, ordered that all who were convalescent from measles should be ex- cused from gnard and fatigue duty for eight weeks after being discharged from the hospital. This measure un-
7
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
doubtedly prevented many cases of relapse and ulti- mately increased the efficiency of the regiment. For a time Winthrop Hall was used as a hospital for the meas- les ; but cases soon became so numerous that half of a floor in the large Arsenal building was taken, and that proved to be none too much. Nearly all the cases re- covered so as to be able to leave the State with the reg- iment.
It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the strict discipline, the unquestioning obedience to officers and restriction within the limits of camp, although for the good of the service, was at first extremely irksome to men who had always enjoyed the liberty of American citizens. Many of the younger men, especialy, hardly realizing the need of restriction, evaded it when practi- cable, and ran the risk of punishment for the sake of enjoying a few hours liberty. A regulation was estab- lished at headquarters which allowed the issue of four passes per day to each company ; but, as this would al- low cach man to go into town only about once a month, it was very unsatisfactory and led to a system of repeat- ing, which was hard to detect and gave headquarters considerable trouble.
Another way by which many of the boys obtained a few hours liberty was as follows: as soon as the weather became severely cold the water supply in the Arsenal grounds failed, so that all water for drinking and cooking had to be brought from an aqueduct some distance outside of Camp Beaufort, as our camp was of- ficially called. An order was therefore issued that any man going out after water with six canteens should be allowed to pass the sentry at the gate. There was quick- ly developed a thirst for cold water which would have been considered abnormal anywhere except in " Neal Dow's temperance regiment." Often one of the water- carriers, from absent-mindedness no doubt, would pass the aqueduct without noticing it; and sometimes it
8
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
would be several hours before he would find his way back to camp, perhaps in a state of exhilaration which by the next morning would result in thirst that was not imaginary. This, together with the discovery of the fact that some of the canteens were brought into camp filled with something stronger than water, was the cause of an order that water-carriers should go out only in squads in charge of a trusty non-commissioned officer. This order accomplished its purpose reasonably well ; but still Yankee ingenuity found means of evading it to a certain extent.
It is to the credit of the members of the regiment that they never gave much occasion for the enforcement of military law. There were comparatively few cases of arrest in the regiment during its whole term of ser- vice, and most of these were at Augusta. Nearly ev- ery case was for some slight misbehavior, for which a few hours confinement was considered sufficient punish- ment, and a court-martial was almost unheard of in the regiment.
At one time some of the boys, for some infraction of discipline, were assigned quarters in the locality known to soldiers as the " bull-pen." To amuse themselves while there they formed a burlesque regimental organ- ization, with field, staff and line officers, and had mock drills, dress-parades and guard-mountings. Daily re- ports of the doings of the regiment inside furnished amusement for the regiment outside ; and, like all mil- itary men, many of the officers retained their titles after the organization was disbanded. Col. Butterfield and Capt. York. in particular, retained theirs permanently.
The opportunities of the regiment for attending re- ligious. services were very scanty. The season of course prevented the holding of services out of doors and there was no suitable place to hold them under shelter ; so the Chaplain confined his performance of duty, as a rule. to the distribution of a few tracts and an occasional visit
9
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
to the hospital. Squads of the men, generally in charge of non-commissioned officers, were permitted to attend services at the churches in the city ; and on one occa -; sion, shortly before leaving Augusta, the regiment at- tended service as an organization.
Interference with drill was not the only inconven- ience which the regiment suffered from the severe win- ter of 1861. During several of the storms the sentries suffered severely while on post, frost-bites being of quite common occurrence. Although the tents were of good quality, they were but a slight protection against a tem- perature below zero. As long as a good fire was kept the tents were comfortable, but if the fire went out they immediately grew cold. There was, therefore, much need of some one keeping awake every cold night to tend the fire. A petition was prepared and was signed by nearly all the men, asking the State authorities to issue to each man an extra blanket, but, whether pre- sented or not, nothing ever came of it.
As for their treatment by the citizens, the men of the Thirteenth had but little reason for complaint. There was of course, at that time, a certain number whose aim was to make all they could out of the soldiers ; but the situation in that respect was very different from what it became in 1864. Although at that time but little organized effort had been made in aid of the hospitals, visits from the ladies of the city with delicacies for the sick were quite frequent. Making allowance for the facts that there were nearly five thousand soldiers in a place the size of Augusta, that the camp of the Thir- teenth was the most distant from the town, and that hardly a man of the regiment belonged in Augusta, our invalids had little reason to feel themselves forgotten or neglected.
While at Augusta, quite a large number, if not a majority, of the members of the regiment, were induced to sign a roll allotting a certain portion of each month's
10
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
pay to their families; the sum allotted, in most cases ten dollars per month, to be paid directly to the family, so as to save the soldier the risk and expense of sending it home. This allotment, from the way in which it was mismanaged, proved to be a monstrous outrage upon the soldiers and their families, though perhaps that result was not foreseen by the authors of the measure.
The regiment, after leaving the State, was not paid till July, 1862, when there was six months' pay due. At that time they were paid for four months, but their families did not receive the portion of that payment al- lotted to them till February, 1868; and some of the families suffered severely for the want of it. It is evi- dent that Uncle Samuel, or some of his financial agents, saved nearly a year's interest on about twenty thousand dollars at the expense of the soldiers and their families ; and the result was that the allotment was cancelled as soon as possible by every man in the regiment who had signed it.
Early in the morning of February 5th, we saw the Fourteenth Maine break camp and march to the station. It was not known where they were going; but from some source the rumor was spreading that the Four- teenth, as well as the Thirteenth and Fifteenth, were to follow the Twelfth to the Gulf of Mexico, to serve under General Butler : and for once rumor proved correct. Probably the Thirteenth would have started as early as the Fourteenth. or carlier, if so many of the men had not been just recovering from the measles and therefore unfit for the journey. As it was, our turn came next.
February 17th, orders were issued to the men to break camp and be ready to take the cars for Boston, carly the next morning. All private property which could not be carried was sent home ; and regimental property, except tents, packed for transportation. The snow, sov- oral feet in depth, was dug away from the tents, and they were made ready to be struck at a moment's no-
ยท
11
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
tice. No one slept that night ; but all sat up and passed away the time singing and telling stories, the camp-fires being kept bright by using the tent-floors for fuel. At midnight three days' rations were issued. With song and jest, each strove to forget, or at least conceal, the sadness which he felt at leaving home and friends ; and each determined to show himself, as a soldier, worthy of the State whose motto is " Dirigo."
CHAPTER II.
" A Life on the Ocean Wave."
Adieu, adien! my native shore Fades o'er the waters blue; The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew. Yon sun that sets upon the sea We follow in his night: Farewell awhile to him and thee; My native land -- Good Night!
[Childe Harold, Canto I.
0 N the eighteenth of February, 1862, at four o'clock A. M., the regiment struck its tents and loaded them on sleds to be hauled to the railroad station. Then. gathered around fires which were kindled on the spots lately occupied by the tents, the boys made them- selves as comfortable as possible while awaiting further orders. At six o'clock, in the scarcely perceptible twi- light of that dall. gloomy. February morning. the regi- meint formed its fine for the last time on the Arsenal
12
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
grounds, and soon was slowly making its way over the solid ice of the Kennebec to take the cars for Boston. There was a long delay at the station, during which some of the patriotic citizens furnished refreshments. in- eluding hot coffee, which was very acceptable ; as, owing to the kettles being packed, our cooks had not been able to make any that morning. At last all was ready ; ev- ery one was on board, and, about nine o'clock, the long train of twenty-seven cars slowly left the station. The heavy train made slow progress, so that it was two P. M. before we reached Portland. There the regiment left the cars and marched quite a distance through some of the principal streets; then, somewhat past three o'clock, after drinking more hot coffee, we returned to the cars and the train started for Boston.
As long as daylight lasted, at almost every farmhouse we passed, hats and handkerchiefs were waving : and all the way to Boston. at every village, was a crowd heartily cheering. Our train went by way of the Bos- ton & Maine R. R., and did not reach the station in Haymarket Square till eleven P. M. From the station we marched to Faneuil Hall, through a street filled with a heartily cheering crowd, and at last lay down, about. midnight, with two nights' sleep due and half a night to obtain it in. There we remained till the afternoon of the 20th. when Companies A, B, E and I, under Col. Dow, with Maj. Hesseltine and a part of the staff, em- barked on the Steamer Mississippi for Ship Island, there to join Gen. Butler's expedition for the capture of New Orleans.
The next day the rest of the regiment, under Lieut. Col. Rust, with the remainder of the staff. took the cars for New York, where they remained till the 27th, when they embarked on the Steamer Fulton. in company with the 12th Connecticut, and sailed direct for Ship Island. No special incident is reported as having occurred der- ing the passage, and after a prosperous voyage of only
13
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
nine days, they reached Ship Island and went into camp.
The 14th Maine, which had left Augusta Feb. 5th, arrived at the Island the same day, March 8th.
The Steamer Mississippi, on which, besides Col. Dow's battalion, was embarked the 31st Massachusetts, com- manded by Col. O. P. Gooding, was a new, three-decked, screw steamer, of twenty-five hundred tons, and was commanded by Capt. Fulton. She was composite built -- that is, iron up to the middle deck and wood above --- and had a powerful double engine. She was full barque- rigged, and was provided with two water-tight, iron bulkheads, extending from the keel to the middle deck. These bulkheads, as will soon be learned, were a few days later the means of saving the vessel from total de- struction.
The battalion of the 18th was quartered on the lower deck, directly under the main cabin, in comfortable bunks, but with so little spare room that the inen had to remain either sitting or lying in their bunks most of the time. There was a well-fitted cook's galley on the upper deck just abaft the chimney, in which meat was boiled, and coffee made in large tanks heated by steam. Fresh water was obtained from sea-water by an excel- lent condensing apparatus. In connection with the cook-room, a sharp Yankee trick was played by some of the 13th boys, by means of which they obtained extra rations of fresh beef at the expense of the Massachusetts solliers. Changing the numbers on their caps from 13 to 31, they would fall in with the company having the same letter as their own ; and, as the cooks did not vet know all their men, it was several days before the trick was found out and guarded against.
Late in the afternoon of Feb. 20th, the Mississippi left the wharf and started on what proved to be a most eventful voyage. Her first destination was Fortress Monroe, which was reached in the afternoon of the 24th. after a pleasant trip, with no incidents worth noting.
14
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
unless we should mention some acts of brutality on the part of a Massachusetts officer, who thus early com- menced the career of tyranny which afterward made his name odious throughout the 19th Army Corps. When approaching the fortress, the Mississippi passed within a short distance of the man-of-war Minnesota ; and she anchored within plain sight of the ships Cumberland and Congress, which only twelve days later were de- stroved by the Merrimac.
The next morning a tug brought out from the fort several tons of uncharged shells which were loosely piled in a temporary bin on the lower deck ; room for the same being made by tearing out two lengths of the bunks occupied by our battalion. The occupants of said bunks were unceremoniously turned out and were obliged to crowd themselves in with others, where their room was much more desirable than their company. [The writer can speak somewhat feelingly on the subject, as he was one of the " evicted tenants."] In the afternoon, Gen. Butler came on board, with his staff. his wife and her maid : and in the evening the steamer started for Hat- teras Inlet to take on board Gen. Williams. It was al- so intended to call at Key West.
The morning of the 26th dawned fair ; and the Mis- sissippi, steaming along the coast of North Carolina, sceined assured of a pleasant trip ; but in the afternoon a southeast gale came up, and at 6 P. M., when within a few miles of Hatteras Inlet, the ocean was so rough that it was not thought prudent to attempt to cross the bar. The steamer was therefore headed seaward. and none too soon ; for while swinging round, her stern grazed on a shoal. The wind constantly increased, till. at 10 P. M., the situation was considered dangerous. Volunteers were called for to assist the sailors; and, as there were many old sailors in the 13th battalion, all were obtained that were needed. Still more fiercely howled the wind, and owing to the shoalness of the
15
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTHI.
water the waves seemed like breakers. Sweeping furi- ously over the deck so much water reached the fire-room as to seriously endanger the fires. Every man of the 13th who was not sea-sick was called up, and two lines formed of men with buckets ; and by constant hard work, from 1 o'clock A. M. till 9, the water was kept under control, so that the fires, and therefore the vessel, were saved.
Any one who has never been in a storm upon the ocean, cannot easily imagine the state of affairs upon the steamer during. the latter part of the night. The ves- sel, though headed directly towards the wind, rolling till her yards almost touched the waves ; the wire back- stays twanging at every roll like the strings of an im- mense bass viol ; the dashing about on the decks of ev- erything which was not securely fastened ; the unearth- ly shrieks of the ilerce wind howling through the rig- ging ; the groans and prayers of the sea-sick confined in the foul air beneath the decks ; the struggles to save themselves from going overboad of those whose duty re- quired them to be on deck ; all this, amid a darkness scarcely broken except by the phosphorescent light of the waves, combined to make even the bravest realize their danger.
The view after daylight, from the saloon window where the water from the fire-room was thrown out, was magnificent though terrible. The wind began to abate about daylight ; but the waves continued for some time to rise, till oldl sailors estimated them to be at least thirty feet in height, and the big steamer was tossed about by them as if she had been a chip. Most of the t'ine no other vesel was in sight ; but during the fore- noon one little schooner floated by, hove to, and under close-reefed foresail, riding the waves like a duck and not shipping a spoonful of water. The wind continued moderating, so that abont 9 A. M., the sailors, by a great effort, managed to bend and set the main spencer, which
16
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
steadied the vessel so that the water no longer came in- to the fire-room : and the weary soldiers were dismissed after eight hours of as hard work as they ever did.
It is not pleasant to describe or even imagine the con- dition of the unfortunates who were unable to assist in saving the vessel. Shut under hatches without a chance to get a breath of fresh air ; most of them seasick, and the deck in their quarters covered with a most offensive mixture of sawdust, chloride of lime &c. ; the only re- spect in which their condition was preferable to death was the slight hope of a change for the better. The sick ones of the 13th, had, in addition, to endure the noise of the shells in the after-part of their quarters : which, rolling and grinding in their improvised stowage, made a noise perhaps more frightful than dangerous : though if the partition which confined them had given way, a very distinct element of danger would have been added.
By noon of the 27th, the wind had gone down so the work of putting things to rights about the vessel was commenced ; but Hatteras Inlet was then so far astern. that Gen. Butler decided not to return there but to keep away for Ship Island. He was anxious to reach his destination as soon as possible, and perhaps he was as- sisted in his decision by the fact that he had begun to lose confidence in the captain of the steamer. For a few hours all went well, but soon the perils of the sca showed themselves in another form. and the fifteen hun- dred souls on board the Mississippi had to face the pros- pect of either drowning or captivity.
The morning of Feb. 28th was as pleasant as could have been desired. There was little if any wind and the gentle undulations on the surface of the ocean con- trasted pleasantly with the enormous waves of the pre- vious morning. Shortly before 9 o'clock, while some of the officers were at breakfast in the cabin and the steam- er was going ahead at fair speed, those on deck heard
17
STORY OF THE MAINE THIRTEENTH.
that sound so terrible to sailors, the grating of pebbles under the keel, and the vessel soon stopped. There was no shock, hardly a perceptible jar, and but few except those on deck realized what had happened until in- formed by others.
It was soon known that the steamer was aground on Frying-pan Shoal, that object of dread to sailors coast- ing between Northern and Southern ports. The weath- er was clear and the land but a few miles distant with Cape Fear lighthouse in plain sight. There was, there- fore, no excuse for placing the steamer in that position, as her proper course would have been several miles fur- ther out at sea. Under the circumstances there could be only two opinions about the captain ; that he was either treacherous or disgracefully incompetent, prob- ably the latter.
Attempts to get the steamer clear were quickly made. The soldiers were all ordered on deck and moved in a mass from bow to stern and from side to side, so as to stir the vessel in her bed; while the engines were worked to their full power both direct and reversed and the helm swung in all possible directions, but with little ef- fect. Boats were sent out and made soundings in all directions without finding sufficient difference in the depth of the water to offer a practicable channel of es- cape.
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.