USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 18
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187
OPERATIONS BEFORE BERMUDA HUNDRED.
LIST OF CASUALTIES. May 13th.
Company A .- Wounded, Private Phineas Witham.
Company B .- Killed, Private Charles P. Milton.
Company E .- Wounded, Corporal Simon Batchelder, Jr. Company I .- Killed, First Lieutenant William Brannen. Wounded, Private Justus E. Huff.
Company K .- Wounded, Corporal Augustus D. Locke ; Pri- vate William H. Conant.
May 14th.
Company C .- Wounded, Corporal William Libby. Company D .- Wounded, Private Jotbam S. Annis.
Company E .-- Wounded, Privates Morey Mulliken, Charles A. Mansell, Henry B. Stanhope, Charles E. Mason.
Company F .- Killed, Private George A. Goody. Wounded, Private George W. Haskell.
Company H .- Wounded, First Sergeant Nathan J. Gould.
Company 1 .- Wounded, First Sergeant Charles O. Lamson ; Privates, William H. Dunham, George W. Kinne, Isaac IL. Peters, John Wilson.
May 15th. Company G .- Wounded, Private Nathaniel G. Hooper. May 16th.
Company E .- Wounded, Private George II. Downs. Company K .- Wounded, Privato Franklin A. Quinn. Killed. 3 ; wounded, 21-total, 24.
Our regiment had not served with the brigade since Janding, or perhaps it would have been more heavily tried, the other regi- ments of our brigade participating more directly than did ours in the battle of Drury's Bluff. Ours had been used as a sort of flying reenforcement ; now strengthening Howell's brigade, now Burnham's, now Barton's, then hurrying to the support of the broken line of Brooks's division, and in a few hours were report- ing to General Ames to strengthen his critical position before Whiting's troops. But if we had not yet had an opportunity to
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
prove our valor, we had shown a capacity for zealous marching that argued well for the future, and whenever we had come under fire our men, old and new, had shown no sign of flinching. Al- together, we had served our various commanders well, so well that all of them thereafter had only warm words for the Eleventh Maine.
A
CHAPTER XX.
IN BERMUDA HUNDRED.
The Eleventh Makes a Night Attack-List of Casualties --- Heavy Fighting all along the Line --- The Men as Axemen -- " Bottled Up "-A Hearty Laugh-Reinforcements for the Army of the Potomac -- Beauregard's Reconnaissance in Force-The Stories of Our Companies-List of Casualties-Death of Colonel Spofford.
THE 17th of May was passed by the men in camp and in attending to their needs. Soon after taps we heard a column of cavalry moving to the front. About midnight we were routed out. Falling quickly into line, we marched out to the picket line, and halted just beyond Warebottom Church. It seems that the pickets had reported a movement down the pike, the sound of tramping horses and the rattling of heavy wagons coming to their ears. It was conjectured that a wagon train was moving down the pike from Richmond to Petersburg, and it was determined to try and capture it. Cavalry had advanced along the wood roads for that purpose, but as they could not effect anything against the Confederate infantry that covered the roads, infantry had been sent for.
Six companies of the Eleventh deployed as skirmishers, the remainder of the regiment remaining on reserve, with the Tenth Connecticut. The skirmishers moved into a dense wood growth, lighted by a brilliant moon. The line had gone some distance --- part of it was in a field, and part in the woods-when suddenly a rolling volley of musketry came crashing into it. Our men threw themselves on the ground, or behind trees, and opened an answer- ing fire. For an hour a fierce fire was exchanged by the opposing lines and at close range, the dark woods echoing to the crack of rifles, and the yells of combatants whose positions could only be conjectured by the lighting up of the wood arches by intermittent riffe flashes. And two pieces of artillery stationed in our rear added to the uproar by throwing shells over our heads to burst along the front of the rebel line. After a time, the ammunition of the men becoming exhausted and it becoming very clear that
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
the force guarding the turnpike was strong enough to withstand our onset, orders came for us to retire, which we did. It was breaking day when we marched into camp again. This affair is known as The Attack on Beauregard's Wagon 'Train.
LIST OF CASUALTIES, MAY 17TH.
Company B .- Wounded, First Sergeant Lewis W. Campbell ; Corporal Joseph H. Crosby ; Privates Henry S. Bryant, Daniel S. Brown, William Davis, Emanuel S. Feogodo.
Company D .-- Wounded, Privates George L. Butler, Alonzo Carver.
Company E .- Killed, Private Walter A. Crowell. Wounded, Privates William Clark, William H. Hurd, David K. Lowell.
Company F .-- Wounded, First Lieutenant Archibald Clark.
Company H .-- Wounded, Sergeant Seth A. Ramsdell ; Privates Ellis A. Briggs, James E. Dumphey, Llewellyn J. Livermore. Company I .- Wounded, Sergeant David B. Snow; Corporal Marshal B. Stone : Privates Thomas Kelley, George W. Young.
Company K .- Killed, Private William C. Drake. Wounded. First Lieutenant Charles H. Foster ; Privates George W. Bussey, David T. Smith, Walter G. Smith.
Killed, 2; wounded, 24-total, 26.
On the 18th of May there was heavy picket-firing from daylight until night. Our regiment was kept at the inner breastworks, the men passing the day in adding to and in strengthening the abatis. At night three companies remained at the breastworks, the others retiring to the camp. The regiment lay at the breast- works all the 19th. The enemy shelled our lines in the morning, and there was heavy picket-fighting all day long. We remained at the works all night, sleeping on our arms. At half-past eleven o'clock, and at three o'clock, there was heavy firing along the front line, but it did not last long either time.
The 20th of May was an exciting day. We were not engaged, but lay at the works all day. There was heavy shelling. the shells falling along our front and in our rear. The charging yells of the rebels could be heard along our advance posts. At times these posts were driven back, when reinforcements would be sent out, and then our men would charge and retake the works. The rebels lost heavily, having to expose themselves recklessly in
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IN BERMUDA HUNDRED.
making their charges. Among the prisoners was General Walker, of South Carolina, who was wounded. He was a rashly brave man. A lieutenant of the Sixty-seventh Ohio, into whose hands he fell, told Newcomb that as many as two hundred bullets were fired at General Walker in one volley as he rode away in defiance of a summons to surrender. His horse fell dead, the general was wounded in the foot and hand, and was brought inside our lines by our men. Just before sundown our regiment was ordered to the front line. We moved out and took position in the pits around Warebottom Church, the point where the severest fight- ing of the day had taken place. We relieved the Sixty-seventh Ohio. The moon was large, and the night a beautiful one. The rebel outposts were but a few yards in advance of ours. There was no firing. We could bear the movements of their main line plainly, and about twelve o'clock could hear artillery moving to the left. In the early morning, strains of music from a rebel band were plainly heard. An attack was expected in the early morn- ing, but there was none. Shortly after daybreak a train of cars stopped opposite our position. There was much yelling. About nine o'clock a body of rebels moved through the woods, in which we fought the night of the 17th, and opened fire on us. We responded vigorously, and after a short fight the onemy drew off. The rebels had intrenched during the night. They had a breast- work thrown up across the road about five hundred yards from us. They were still working at it. Our orders were not to fire unless we received orders, or to beat off an attack. So we looked idly on, until they began to cut embrasures for guns, when a report was made to the regimental commander, who hastened to send the news to headquarters. But Captain Lawrence, who commanded the outposts, could not wait for the circumlocution office to get in its work, so ordered a fire to be opened on the Confederate workmen, who promptly took to cover. Seven or eight dead rebels lay in front of our line all day. Just after sun- down we were relieved by the Seventh Connecticut and returned to camp.
About eleven o'clock at night we were startled out of our beds by a loud crash of musketry, followed by heavy artillery-firing. We fell in and marched to the works, where we lay all night. under a heavy fire. A rebel caisson blew up during the artillery duel. making a magnificent if but momentary spectacle.
-
192
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
After breakfast on the 22d of May, 300 men were ordered from our regiment on fatigue duty. It was to fell trees in and along the ravine running from Warebotton Church to the river, to allow the gunboats to shell the woods on our left front. New- comb wrote of this : " It seems a sacrilege almost to convert such a beautiful scene of magnificent oaks and stately elms into a stretch of dead trees." The monitors lay near our chopping party, occasionally sending a shell up the river.
Only picket skirmishing took place for some days. The regi- ment when not on picket was engaged on fatigue duty in the slashing and in strengthening the line of works.
Despite the disheartening knowledge which we now had, that we were no longer an army of aggression, and that to make sure that we should not make another forward movement, Beauregard was fencing us in with a line of strong works that extended from the James, at the Howlett House Battery, to the Appomattox, we could get up a hearty laugh on occasion ; as on the 25th of May, when, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the regiment was called in from tree-felling and drawn up in line to listen to the reading of a despatch to General Butler from the War Depart- ment that told us that Lee had fallen back from the North Anna. Three rousing cheers were given at this, and at the last one a mule hitched near us joined in with such energy as to set the regiment into a roar of laughter.
During the last days of May and the first days of June, the diaries of the regiment record daily that heavy firing could be heard across the James, in the direction of Richmond. Grant was slowly feeling his way along Lee's lines, moving steadily towards the James. .
As soon as General Grant learned of the futile result of Butler's movement, from which he had hoped so much -- the destruction of Confederate communication with North Carolina, the invesi- ment of Richmond, and the consequent withdrawal of a large body of Lee's army from his own front -- he directed that all the troops not actually needed to hold Bermuda Hundred and City Point be sent to him under command of General Smith. In cousequence of this order, 10,000 of the Army of the James, with sixteen guus, embarked on the night of the 28th, and on the 29th sailed for White House Landing, the head of navigation on the Pamunkey.
General Smith took with him Brooks's division of his own corps,
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INN BERMUDA HUNDRED.
and the Second and Third Divisions of the Tenth Corps-the divi- sions commanded by Generals Devens and Ames. General Butler retained about 10,000 infantry, Kautz's cavalry force of 1,600 men, and Hinks's colored cavalry brigade-about 2,000 strong.
At the same time, General Lee ordered Beauregard to send him all the men he could spare, which he did, retaining about 12,000 infantry and cavalry. There seems to have been a desire on the part of General Lee that still more of Beauregard's force should be sent, even that Beauregard himself should report with all his available troops, and take command of the right wing of the Confederate army, leaving Petersburg, with a small force, to take care of it- self. But Beauregard was tenacious in his determination to hold his position on the south side of the James. He argued that Butler's force was still large enough to endanger Petersburg, even against the small force he had retained there, and it was to test, this theory that he made the reconnoissance in force on the 2d of June that cost our regiment so many good men.
As the companies that were engaged that morning fought inde- pendently, it is thought best to give the reports of the companies as they can be gathered from surviving officers that took part in the engagement.
The regiment went on picket the evening of the 1st of June. The companies wore posted from left to right in the following order : I, G, B, C, with D at Warebottom Church, which stood at the head of the ravine that runs to the river. F, E, and K were posted along this ravino, along the other side of which was the line of intrenchments that covered the Howlett House Battery. Company A was posted about two hundred yards in roar of the .two left companies, and HI at about the same distance in rear of the church, as reserves for the line. The diagram below may help fix the positions of the companies in the reader's mind :
I G
B
C
D
F
A
E
K
19-1
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
Company I was commanded by Captain Simeon HI. Merrill. He writes the historical committee as follows : " On the morning of June 2, 1864, I was on the left of the picket line, in command of that part covering our brigade or division front. My man Friday, known as ' Washington,' had brought my breakfast, which con- sisted of boiled ham, sauce made from dried apples, hard tack, and coffee. My rubber blanket was spread on the edge of a rifle pit, and, with legs dangling in the same, I was enjoying my rations immensely. While in this happy state of mind a brisk firing opened on our left. Soon after, shots came from our front, and we observed the enemy advancing-that breakfast remained un- finished. We immediately did our best to repel the advance, but by superior force were driven back nearly through the woods to the line occupied by our reformed regiment, where we established a new picket line.
" In this skirmish an incident occurred worth relating. Corporal Thompson, of Company A, was shot through the leg, near the hip, and fainted from loss of blood. The enemy advanced, passed him, took his gun and ammunition, placed something under his head, and gave him a drink of water from a canteen. When they were repulsed and driven back, Corporal Thompson could be seen midway between our line and that of the enemy. We advanced until he was reached, and then, with a soldier, I carried him to. the rear. My coat sleeves were saturated with his blood. He re- covered, and my certificate to the fact was on his application for pension. His life was no doubt saved by our timely advance."
Captain F. W. Sabine was in command of G. From the report of Captain Clark, at the time First Sergeant of this company, it seems clear that G cast its fortunes in with Company I, and served in the engagement under the command of Captain Merrill.
His report for I will serve for G also. Incidentally, Captain Clark writes that he was at the side of Colonel Spofford when he was shot that morning, and he remembers that he had just warned the Colonel to keep better covered than he seemed disposed to do, when the fatal bullet struck him.
It is clear, from all the reports and from personal recollection, that the line of our regiment could not have been broken that morning had the regiments on our left not given way. Then the rebels poured over the works they abandoned, and, bearing sharply to the right, began to make their way to the rear of our left, oeca-
1
195
IN BERMUDA HUNDRED.
sioning the withdrawal of Companies 1 and G, and of the other companies, as the rebel line swept towards the right. The disaster might have been irredeemable had it not been for the prompt action of Company A, a reserve company, whose commander, Captain Folsom, deployed his men at almost right angles to the picket line and checked the rebel advance for a considerable time, thus affording the retiring companies time to pass to the rear under cover of his protecting line.
A letter written to Captain Folsom's father by Captain Sollmer, then on the brigade staff, tells the story of the gallantry of Com- pany A. Omitting the purely personal parts, it reads as follows :
BERMUDA HUNDRED, VA., June 6, 1861.
The Eleventh was ordered, on the evening of the 1st, to relieve the Tenth Connecticut on the right flank of our advance. Com- pany A, commanded by Captain Folsom, was assigned as the left reserve pickets of our regimental line, and was posted about two hundred yards in the rear of our extreme left. About six o'clock in the morning of the 2d instant the enemy commenced firing along our whole line, and shortly after began to assault everywhere from right to left. The troops to the left of our regiment gave way, forcing the left companies of the Eleventh to give way also, endangering the center and right of our line to be taken in flank and rear. The center of our line fought most gallantly (the right was not engaged by the rebels), but in vain ; finding the left ex- posed, the rebels marched in a solid line of battle and by the right flank, endeavoring to get into their rear and take them all prison-
ers. But seeing and at once apprehending this move, Melville gallantly deployed his company in such a masterly way as to secure our regiment's flank and rear, giving the center and flank time to withdraw. He held his position most obstinately, in the face of four times his number, refusing to give way at any hazard until his comrades at the center and right were out of immediate danger. Then he connected his right with the left center, and thereby saved many a good soldier from captivity. Melville behaved most gallantly, and he has the well-earned approbation of all officers and men of the regiment. I take special pleasure in giving you this little account. for I know too well that his modesty would not admit to tell you all himself ; for he certainly can call himself the bravest of the brave on that day.
Lieutenant Philip H. Andrews, then a sergeant of Company B, writes that Captain Baldwin was in command of Company B that morning. Ile adds : " Soon after daybreak there was very heavy firing on our left, and at the same time the enemy crossed the
196
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
road that ran along the front of the thick piece of woods in front of B and the company on the right. The firing ceased on the left for some time, but there was desultory firing in our front, and many bullets passed me. The company cooks were on the way to the front with breakfast, when the firing started away to the left, to spread rapidly to the right. We were doing but little firing, as we could not see the enemy on account of the thicket. There was very open timber to the left. In a short time we saw the regiment on our left falling back. I said to Captain Baldwin : ' If that regiment is falling back, we will have to go.' He waited two minutes perhaps, and then gave the order to fall back. We went in a hurry, and I do not think, when we left the pits, that the enemy was three rods from us."
As Captain Nickels, of Company O, was serving as officer of the day, Lieutenant Newcomb, its First Lieutenant, commanded this company on this occasion. Shortly after the affair, he noted in his diary as follows : " About seven o'clock in the morning the rebels commenced a rapid fire on our left. (During the night they had shelled the woods where we lay.) Soon after this, bul- lets began to whistle over our heads, and when our boys could see a grayback to fire at they responded. Lieutenant-Colonel Spof- ford passed along our rear, and when just beyond the right of our company was severely wounded in the right thigh-a mortal wound it proved to be. After a half-hour's fighting, I could see through the woods on our immediate left the rebels charging in close order, and then the companies on my right and left. fell back. When we had fallen back about two hundred yards, I was called to by Captain Lawrence, whose company, II, held a reserve pit, to fall my men in with his ; but seeing that his pits were crowded, Company D having joined him, I thought it best to continue the retreat until I could take up a desirable position. About one hun- dred yards farther back ) halted my men, and formed them in one rank behind the erest of a ridge, and then reported to Cap- tain Hill, now in command of the regiment, who ordered me to deploy my men as skirmishers and try and connect with Captain Lawrence on the right, and with A, which company he said was to the left, and in advance. I was moving my men forward, when they were fired on actively from the direction Company A was supposed to be in. One man was immediately wounded, and then a bullet struck me in the neck, and I was taken from the field."
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IN BERMUDA HUNDRED.
We supplement Captain Newcomb's report with excerpts from an interesting letter from Sergeant Edwin J. Miller, of Company C, who was with his company that morning, as when was he not ? The Sergeant writes as follows :
"Previous to the break in the line on our left, we held the enemy very easily, and had no thought of being driven out. We could hear the commands of the rebel officer in our immediate front very plainly. He would order the men forward, but they only made a feint, and when we would open upon them they would throw themselves flat upon the ground, when all would become silent for several minutes, save an occasional shot, when the same thing would again be repeated. This all occurred pre- vious to the charge which broke the line on our left. I remem- ber that one Johnnie had a position behind a large oak-tree, and was very regular in getting off his gun. A smaller tree on the right grew within about a foot of the oak. He would load behind the oak, and then step to the right, and fire from between the two trees, and return so quickly that no one could hit him, although several of the boys had made the trial. I had been watching his game, and told the boys to hold back and let me have the next whack. Accordingly, I placed my gun upon the bank of the pit and sighted it for the gap which he invariably filled in his efforts to subdue the North ; and, like the old darky in the bear story, the instant I saw the hole darked, I pulled, but not quick enough to stop his fire, for his bullet skipped the pit, and filled my car with dirt. He canted over, but saved himself by coming upon his hands, and immediately righted and disap- peared by making a couple of hops on one leg. He appeared to have been hit in the leg, and his wouad was at least severe enough to silence his battery.
" While we were having this little engagement, Colonel Spofford came walking slowly along behind the pits, giving encouraging words to the boys. He was in full view of the enemy, and they commenced firing at him. The bullets were skipping by, and some one advised him to get down or they would hit him. In au instant, he was struck.
" We were not all driven out at once, but cach man from the breach towards the right followed the other in quick succession. As they were going they resembled the waving of a kite's tail."
The story of D Company for this morning covers that of H, and
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it was so carofully told in the published history of the former company that it is not thought necessary by the representatives of the two interested companies to change it in any particular. The position of D was at Warebottom Church. The pickets had by this time settled into a state of armed neutrality, the more venturesome even trading in coffee and tobacco ; Private Bridges, of D, was especially active in this sort of barter. He frequently went across the strip of ground that lay between the picket lines to drive lively trades with the enemy for tobacco, which was scarce with us, bartering coffee therefor, which was scarce with them.
Private Bridges, " Old Turk," as he was called, was a charac- ter. A half-surly look in his eyes, something like that in those of a half-tamed steer, caused him to receive the bucolic nickname. IIe had ideas of his own about guns ; the Springfield rifles we were armed with he despised. He wanted a gun that would carry a bullet to the spot be aimed at. Somewhere at Gloucester Point, I think, he got hold of a sporting rifle, a heavy, thick-barrelled, strongly grooved piece, and then the bother was to get suitable ammunition for it, our cartridges being much too large for its bore. After a deal of wandering through camps he secured, through a good-natured cavalryman, a suitable cartridge for his gun, a carbine cartridge that fitted it perfectly. With a stock of these in his cartridge-box, he was ready for the enemy. Of course. the carrying of this gun had to be winked at by his officers, and when he went on inspection or parade he had to borrow a despised Springfield rifle from someone off duty to appear with, giving rise to a story of his carrying two guns.
This evening, that of the Ist of June, Corporal Weymouth made himself the medium of exchange between the pickets. Hc went towards the rebel pickets in the early evening, and was met by one of their number, whom he arranged to meet at the same spot in the early morning for the exchange of goods agreed upon. The night was a moonless one, I remember ; for, as we were not allowed fires or to light matches on the outposts, when we wanted to learn the time of night we had to catch a firefly and make him crawl across the face of a watch, that when he flashed we might catch the positions of the hands. In the carly part of the night the rebel batteries opened on our lines, firing most vigorously for a time ; but, as we did not reply, they ceased firing after about one
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