USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 20
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"Lying down upon the grass, we were awaiting the arrival of the division, when a roar like that of a dozen shrieking locomo- tives came close at hand -- a shriek which made the earth tremble beneath us ; and a tremendous explosion, all nearly simultaneous, startled us, not to use a stronger expression. Looking down the river, a cloud of white smoke, drifting away from the turret of a monitor, showed us what it meant. A. 100-pound rifle shell had struck the bank just below us, and exploded there. We were supposed by our naval friends to be some of the rebels to whom they had been devoting their attention for a month past. While we still looked, another cloud of smoke rolled out from a second
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porthole. We jumped to cover, or threw ourselves flat upon the ground a second or two-and again the shell and explosion -- the latter not far from overhead, while the huge fragments of a 200- pound shell from a 15-inch gun flew all around us, striking the trees close by, burying themselves in the carth, or whizzing past a redoubt some two hundred yards distant. The upshot of the adventure was that the party of the Tenth put out a white flag, when presently a boat put off from the monitor, a white flag fly- ing at her bow, and pulled towards us, the officer in charge prob- ably expecting to receive the surrender of a body of rebels. He was somewhat chagrined at the reception he received, but philo- sophically filled his boat with ice and returned to the monitor."
The Eleventh Maine did not cross the captured works. It was placed in position at Warebottom Church, the regimental line crossing the road which led through our works, and into the rebel works. Here we passed the day in hourly expectation of attack, for it was too much to expect that Lee's veterans now marching down the turnpike would be satisfied with occupying the rebel works, but that they would pour over it and assault our position. We did not expect the troops now holding the captured works in our immediate front to make any defense. It was composed of a force of one hundred days men from Ohio-good material enough, but in the nature of things quite undisciplined, mere raw recruits, and without the veteran organization of officers and men that enabled our own new men to do such good work. They held their position beautifully so long as they were not troubled by the Confederates ; but along in the afternoon a commotion was visible among them, then a few came hurrying over the works they were in, then more and more, a confused firing was heard, then the "rebel yell " rose clear and shrill, and the whole force of Ohio men came flocking over the works and across the slashing, a strong skirmish line of gray-clothed soldiers moving after them- the van of Lee's army. The hundred days men came tearing towards us at the top of their speed without order, or orders, so far as could be seen. We opened rauks to let them through, the scared, white-faced flock of sheep, one of them, I remember, hold- ing up a hand from which the blood was trickling from a scratch probably made by a limb of a fallen tree of the slashing, lamen- tably crying, "I'm wounded, I'm wounded," while our men roared with laughter. What would have become of them ---
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whether they would have stopped short of Ohio-I do not know, had not a reserve regiment deployed with fixed bayonets and forced them into something like order.
But we had no time for enjoyment of this part of the comedy. Closing up as the Ohio men passed through us, we turned so heavy a fire on the advancing lines of the enemy that they stopped, staggered, fell back, and finally retired to their recaptured works.
And right here I must tell a little joke on the writer of this. Covering the road, or sally port, through the works by the old church was an outlying work, a short, strong breastwork covered by abatis. In expectation of the enemy's onslaught, Colonel Plaisted, brigade commander, and in especial charge of our posi- tion, directed me to enter this outwork with a body of picked men, and to hold it at all hazards. Here we placed ourselves in position to open a vigorous fire on the enemy when he should sweep across the slashing and around the ends of our little work. The enemy appeared, crossed the works before us, and the huu- dred days men having been cleared away, our line opened a terri- ble fire on the advancing rebels. Well, do you know, there were so many of our men that failed to aim at the enemy, but let fly right ahead, that a shower of bullets whistled from the rear around our heads, thudded in the earth around our bodies, and the first order I was called upon to give was, " Flat on the ground, for your lives," at the same time setting the fashion. And in- stantly every man of our little party was hugging the ground with mo. When the hailstorm ceased we sat up and looked each other over. All safe, but how we roared with laughter at the ridiculous part we had played in the little melee. And our friends in the line laughed with and at us-even General Plaisted's anx- ious face relaxing a trifle at the comic part his advanced party had played in the affray.
Had we occupied Beauregard's temporarily abandoned line in force, a very different story might have resulted from that day's work. General Humphreys says : " When General Grant learned on the 16th that General Butler occupied General Beauregard's Bermuda Hundred lines, being anxious that they should be held and a footing on the railroad secured, he directed General Meade to send General Wright with two of his divisions by boat to Gen- eral Butler, when they abandoned the crossing place of the army. Accordingly, they embarked at midnight, and on the morning of
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the 17th General Wright reported to General Butler, but Beaure- gard's lines were then held by Fickett and Field, and General Wright was directed to support General Terry in an attack upon them. The attack, however, giving no great promise of success, was not made."
General Osborn says that at daybreak of June 17th the Con- federates assaulted the Union line in our front, and were repulsed, but when they assaulted in the afternoon they broke through a portion of the line, driving it back. Captain Maxfield's diary states that in the evening of the 17th the Eleventh charged to support the left of the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, where some one hundred days men had given way-our Ohio runaways again. And for the 18th his diary states that we had fallen back to the old line of rifle pits, back of the church, and that either inten- tionally or by accident the rebels set fire to the recaptured church, and it was burned to the ground.
A letter written by Major Camp, of the Tenth Connecticut, and published in " The Knightly Soldier," indicates that the 18th of June was an exciting day, one of assaults and of counter assaults, on the Bermuda Hundred front as well as before Peters- burg, where the Army of the Potomac, reenforced by all that could be spared of the Army of the James, was engaged in assault- ing the enemy's works.
The Major wrote : " At half-past three Saturday morning (June 18th) we were ordered out to support the Eleventh Maine, occupying the right of the picket line. The fire came from all directions. One gun on our frout seemed never to fail ; every shell which it sent burst over some part of our line, as if thrown like a hand grenade. Another, far to our right, flung its shells a few. feet above our heads, and on they went, crashing through the trees with a swift succession of sharp reports, mingling with the shrieks, as tree-trunks snapped like pipe stems, their tops whirled in air. . . . At length there was a lull, a little time of utter quiet, then came that for which all this had been only preparing : a wild yell sounded through the woods upon our left, and in a moment more there mingled with it the crack of a thousand rifles."
The night of June 18th, after the corps of the Army of the Potomac had made a series of desperate and bloody assaults on the Confederate works at Petersburg-works that military authorities
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agree should have been taken the 15th, could have been taken the 16th, might have been taken on the 17th, but that were impreg- nable for the time, now that the divisions of the Army of Northern Virginia were behind them-General Grant, recognizing the futil- ity of further direct efforts against Petersburg, gave orders that all assaults should cease, and that the positions gained by the sev- eral corps close against the enemy's line should be intrenched. General Humphreys says of these intrenchments : "The two opposing lines of works before Petersburg remained substantially the same in position to the close of the war."
CASUALTIES FROM JUNE STH TO JUNE 18TH.
June 8th.
Company A. - Wounded, Private Francis Poor.
June 16th.
Company A .- Wounded, Private George H. Richardson. Company G .- Wounded, Private Josiah L. Bonnett.
Company K .- Wounded, Corporal Josiah Furbish.
June 17th.
Company B .- Wounded, Private Charles E. Carter. Company D .- Wounded, Corporal Stephen R. Bearce. Company K .- Wounded, Private William L. Harmon.
June 18th.
Company A .- Wounded, Corporal Sylvester Stone, Private William S. Heald.
Company B .- Wounded, Private John R. Weeks.
Company G .-- Prisoners, Privato William T. Cressey, George W. Hamor, Annable Martin, George Peacquette.
Company K .- Wounded, Private John Green.
Wounded, 11 ; prisoners, 4-total, 15.
CHAPTER XXII.
AT DEEP BOTTOM.
We Cross the James and Capture Deep Bottom Bluff-Its Advantages as a Base of Operations on the North Side-Finding a "Pot of Gold" -Hill and Baldwin Promoted-A False Alarm-Raiding the Enemy's Sources of Supply-Capturing Pickets to Secure Information-Colo- nel Hill's Adventure-The Rebels Shell Us .- Colonel Hill Leads an Attack on the Enemy and is Commended in Reports-Colonel Plaisted Commands the Eleventh and the Tenth Connecticut in Operations on Strawberry Plains-Hard Fighting -- A Sad Accident-Grant's Object -- Arrival of Hancock and Sheridan -- Miles's Brigade, assisted by the Tenth Connecticut, Captures Four Twenty-pound Guns -- The Move- ments of Hancock and Sheridan -- General Grant on the Ground- Report of a Rebel Prisoner --- Hancock's Troops Withdrawn-We Re- tire to the Bluff-Casualties.
IN the afternoon of the 20th of June our brigade broke camp, and at five o'clock took up a line of march that brought us to Jones's Landing on the James. Crossing the river in ponton boats after dark, we landed on a bluff on the north shore of Deep Bottom. The position was picketed by the enemy when we landed, but their pickets retired quickly before the advance of our brigade skirmish line, which was under command of Colonel Otis, of the Tenth Connecticut. Ilis line pushed that of the enemy back for a con- siderable distance through the darkness, and was then halted and established as a picket linc.
Deep Bottom is the name of the very deep and wide mouth of two crecks. The principal creek, Bailey's, runs north and south, crossing the Newmarket and the Darbytown roads in its course. Four Mile Creek flows into the head of Deep Bottom from a south- westerly direction, flowing along the front of where our picket line was established, which was at about five hundred yards from the outer rifle pits of our intrenched camp. Three Mile Creek flows from so westerly a course as to run at rather more than a right angle to Bailey's Creek. It ran along the front of our fortifica- tions, which it finally intersected, flowing into the James just above the ponton bridge landing.
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Deep Bottom, as the position we occupied was now called, was a wooded bluff when we secured it, but it was bare enough before many days, so vigorously did details from our regiment ply their axes, while other fatigue parties from regiments of the brigade were throwing up a strong line of intrenchments that, with gun- boats anchored on the flanks, presented a practically impregnable " bridge head " to the enemy, covering the north end of the pon- ton bridge now laid down to the south shore of the James. And a second ponton bridge was then laid across the river from a point below the mouth of Deep Run, and its north-side landing was covered with a redan that was not permanently occupied, nor was the bridge laid except when needed for raiding purposes, this Jower position being so thoroughly under the fire of the gunboats that it could be occupied at any time without interference from the rebels. This lower bridge opened a road to Strawberry Plains, -- a broad stretch of cleared land occupying a large part of Ourl's Neck-a convex bend of the James that, on the map, fits neatly into a concavity of the Bermuda Hundred peninsula.
The enemy was strongly intrenched opposite our camps on Deep Bottom Bluff, their works extending from near Chapin's Bluff to the mouth of Bailey's Creek, and along the creek to Fussell's Mills, near its rise, at about five miles from Deep Run. From Fussell's Mills their line was sharply " refused," as the term is, bearing away to the west. They occupied an advanced position in the woods opposite the lower bridge, but at such a distance from the river that it was not at the mercy of the gunboats. This ad- vanced Confederate position covered the river road, which runs out of the Newmarket road just to the west of Bailey's Creek, and, traversing the wooded edge of Strawberry Plains, runs down the river to Malvern Hill, and beyond.
As we have said, the camps of our brigade were on Deep Bot- tom Bluff. To the left of our works a field extended for a dis- tance, reaching back from the river and over the brow of a long rise at some distance from the river. The Confederates had established an outwork on the further slope of this hill, just peep- ing over it, from which to shell our gunboats, but they made little resistance to our advance, abandoning the position at our approach. Their main works were beyond this position, and were screened from our observation by woods which thickened towards the river as they extended cast until a thick woods ran
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close to our works, running all along Deep Bottom and up along Bailey's Creek, the bluff we occupied having been hewn out of this forest growth by our axemen. Our picket line extended from the creek through the woods, then swung back through the field on the left to the river. Near the mouth of Four Mile Creek, at a point near the river road, we maintained a force of observation. This responsible and honorable post was held by Companies A and H of our regiment, and was commanded by Captain Lawrence.
We occupied Deep Bottom for two months, General Grant making it the base of his operations on the north side of the James, operations in which we participated, fighting all along the rebel line of fortifications from Deep Bottom to Fussell's Mills.
During the rest of June, and until after the middle of July, there was little activity displayed on either side of the James. The weather was very hot and oppressive, as it was during the whole summer. The pickets were on amicable terms, and rarely came in collision, and bodies of the enemy were rarely seen, the gunboats making it their business to throw shells at any troop of cavalry or party of infantry that ventured from the cover of the woods, either above us on the river or on Strawberry Plains. .
Incidents of interest were few now. On the 22d of June, members of the Tenth Connecticut found a so-called " pot of gold " in the ruins of a burned house while throwing up intrench- ments on Strawberry Plains. A member of the regiment tells us that the finder became so excited at his discovery that, instead of quickly disposing the treasure in his clothes, he yelled to his comrades, and they promptly entered into such an effective scrambling match for the gold that the finder was very little richer for his discovery.
On the 29th of June, in the forenoon, a rebel battery opened on the gunboats from a position at the head of Strawberry Plains, on the river road. One shot struck a gunboat, but a monitor dropped down and threw a few shells in the battery's direction, and it quickly became silent.
On the 1st day of July, Brigadier-General R. S. Foster assumed command of the brigade, and Colonel Plaisted returned to the regiment. . Colonel Plaisted had not been in direct command of the regiment, except for a few days at a time --- as while on its way from Fernandina to Morris Island, and again on its way north-
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for over a year. When we went from Beaufort, S. C., to Fer- nandina, he was placed in command of the post covering the whole of Amelia Island. Then he commanded our brigade on Morris Island, and had now held command of the brigade we were in since it was formed at Gloucester Point, conducting its operations at Bermuda Hundred and during the advance on Richmond.
On the 3d of July Major Hill was mustered as Lieutenant- Colonel, and Captain Baldwin, of Company B, as Major. The promotion of Major Hill was peculiarly gratifying to the regi- ment, and that of Captain Baldwin was received with favor, for he was known as a brave and alert officer and a cultivated gen- tleman.
At three o'clock in the morning of July 5th we were turned out and went into the rifle pits. It appears that General Weit- zel, Butler's chief of staff, had heard, probably through a deserter, that our position was to be assaulted at daylight by 5,000 men. This information he gave to General Butler, who sent General Foster orders to be ready to meet the assailants, They did not materialize. The next morning we were turned out at the same hour, as there had been picket firing during the night on our line ; ouly an outpost flurry, as it turned out.
In the evening of the 11th of July a force from the Tenth Connecticut went up the river and destroyed a mill that was grinding a hundred bushels of meal daily for the Confederate commissary department. They also burned several other build- ings that were serving the purposes of the Confederacy, and cap- tured fourteen men and an officer, and returned without loss. About this time scouting parties from Captain Lawrence's com- mand sallied out and fired large stores of grain which were in- tended for the Confederates.
On the 13th our regiment was on picket under command of Major Baldwin. It was posted in the woods before our works. During the day the Major advanced a force of twelve men of Company C, under command of Captain Nickels, and made a descent on the enemy's picket posts, capturing two men. There were features of this little diversion that make it worth recording here. Colonel Baldwin writes of it as follows : " I had charge of the regiment on picket. As the general had expressed a desire to know what was going on in his front, I decided to go through the
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woods in front of our line and find out what there might be beyond. The day was especially propitious for such a movement, as the rain had thoroughly soaked the dry leaves and twigs so that we could go through the woods as silently as cats, while by bending down low we were completely hidden by the green under- growth. I invited Captain Nickels to accompany me, and he, of course, accepted the invitation with his customary alacrity. We then selected a number of cool, steady men. After enjoining strict silence upon them, and giving them a short drill in moving forward, back, and by the flank at signal, we started forward."
We will let First Sergeant Miller, of Company C, tell the rest of the story: "When we were deployed, Captain Nickels took position on the right, and ordered me to take the left. We moved forward and soon entered an almost impassable thicket of small trees, the foliage of which was thoroughly saturated with water from the recent rain. By reason of the dense growth, we obliqued to the right and left to find accessible passages, and I soon be- came conscious that the line was broken, and that five men were with me and the balance were with Nickels. I took a hasty run to the right, but as I saw nothing of Nickels or his men I re- turned to the left, and ordered the men to oblique to the right and try and make a connection before we should encounter the enemy. On the extreme left was the recruit Morse, who, by the way, was an old hunter, and a dead shot. He carried a rifle with which he had been presented by Colonel Plaisted. I ran down the line, which was halted, until I came to this man, who was at the edge of the woods bordering a road which was parallel with our line. I hastily glanced up and down this road, but as I saw nothing I ordered Morse to follow me, and try and connect the line. When I came to the other men they informed me that Morse had been talking with a Reb. I replied that he had been talking with me ; but they insisted that such was the fact. So I ordered a halt and questioned Morse, who admitted that he had bidden a Reb ' good morning,' with the remark that 'it was very wet.' I asked him why he did not order his surrender, and he allowed that that was a part of the play with which he was entirely unfamiliar. So I immediately ordered him to return to his old position with two men, while I entered the road with the other two, and performed a front and flank movement on the rebel position, which was accompanied with yells and oaths sufli-
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cient to bring any ordinary ' Johnnie' into submission. At my request he came from behind a pile of wood, with which he was surrounded, but I ordered him to return and bring the musket, which he, in his haste to obey, had forgotten. After making my capture, I immediately started to find Nickels. I had not gone far before I heard shouts and yells, in which, I was sure, the familiar, stentorian voice of the commander of Company C was freely min- gled. I did not witness the proceedings of this capture, but Nickels told me at the time how it happened. He said : ' When I came out of the thicket, I entered a growth of large oak trees, free from underbrush, and I at once saw the location of my man, who held a position in a road running back to the rebel line, the position of the post being between two hills. I saw my method of capture, which must be bloodless, if possible. I left a part of my men in front, with instructions to keep running from tree to tree, to attract his attention, while I made a detour with the bal- ance to come down on his flank. It worked like a charm, and if you ever saw a surprised lad of eighteen summers it was my boy of the rebel post when he discovered the muskets with which he was covered upon turning his head at the command, "Surrender !" But he was plucky, and ordered us to surrender against the great odds with which he was confronted. And that was the cause of our lusty yells, to prevent him from being rash enough to shoot, and to prevent my men from shooting him.'
" We returned to our line with the prisoners, whom we invited to breakfast with us on the baked beans and hot coffee with which the cook had just arrived. The young fellow, who was fiery, and took his capture at heart, at first declined, declaring that he had just partaken of a breakfast much better than we could offer, but when we opened his haversack he had to acknowledge the corn. The old man was past sixty, and declared the Confederacy a failure, which raised the indignation of the youngster, who called him Grandpa. After breakfast they were sent to General Foster."
There was a constant desire at headquarters to know what was going on in our front, and scouting parties were out almost daily, often taking desperate risks to get the coveted information. Boldness and quickness of wit were imperative necessities in the make-up of the scouts, and these qualities often extracted these venturesome men from most embarrassing situations. Our own
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General Hill, then our Lieutenant-Colonel, was one of the bold- est of our scouts, often volunteering, despite his rank, for the dangerous service just to escape the dullness of camp life. An adventure of his in this month of July will give an idea of the risks he and other brave men ran, and of the nonchalance with which they faced unexpected dangers.
General Foster liad requested him to go out through the big cornfield already told of, and learn what he could of the force of the rebels in our front, and to do it in his own way. Taking a couple of orderlies with him, Colonel Hill rode into the interior until he judged that he was a mile from the river. Not having seen any rebels yet, he then bore to the left to strike the river away above us, intending to ride down along the river bank to Deep Bottom. After riding for about a half-mile toward the river, he suddenly rode into the rear of an undeployed rebel picket force of about twenty-five men. As they clustered around him, their officer laughingly asked the Colonel where he was going. Personally the Colonel felt very sure that he was going to Richmond, however much against his will, but putting on a bold face, he answered that he had ridden out to get the news by exchanging papers with them. "This is pretty cool," said the rebel officer ; "let me see your papers." Luckily the Colonel had a copy of the New York Tribune and one of the Philadelphia Inquirer in his pocket, and luckily, too, a rebel sergeant here said, " This is the same officer that sent us a paper the other day." This was so, the Colonel a week before, when ofheer of the day, having effected an exchange of papers with this sergeant through the medium of one of our men, when the sergeant must have taken a sharp look at the officer who moved so coolly along a dangerous picket line. " Well," said the good-natured rebel lieu- tenant, " I guess I will let you go ; you look as though you were telling the truth. But I must say you took a good deal of pains to come so far, and to come in our rear, too."
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