USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 29
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General Dandy had had an experience on Morris Island that made him cautious in respect to the line of troops before him in a night attack. In the assault on Fort Wagner his regiment was in the second line, and on entering the fort fired into a body of Union troops that had gained a foothold. This accident had an effect on his mind that reasonably enough made him doubly care- ful ; and, with his fear reenforeed by the answers to our calls, it is not at all surprising that he should have thought it a part of the Eleventh Maine that was before us and have tried to stop the firing.
At daylight a large number of the rebel assaulting column rose from behind logs and stepped from behind trees to surrender themselves. Our heavy fire had kept these from retreating with their comrades.
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THE FALL OF PETERSBURG AND OF RICHMOND.
During the combat Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin was severely wounded. The gallant colonel was thus incapacitated for further service in the campaign, and it is a matter of great regret with him, as he says, "that his wounds should have been received in such small engagements." Had he been permitted to take part in the Battle of Deep Run, instead of being wounded at that of Deep Bottom, two days before, he would have taken a wound cheerfully ; and could he have received his last wound on the field of Appomattox, he would not have cared had it been doubly severe. But it is not forgotten that, both times he was taken from the field, it was from the extreme front, where he had cheered his men on to brave acts, both by precept and example.
This attempt to surprise us took place in the morning of April 1st, the day the Battle of Five Forks was fought away to our left. We lay behind our new works all this day, with a heavy skirmish line constantly engaged. It was during this day that General Grant arranged his plan and gave his orders for the final assault, which was to be made the next morning, by the Sixth and Ninth Corps, and Ord's force. The Sixth Corps, on our immediate right, was to form by brigades in regimental front, and, at a sig- nal-a cannon shot from a particular point-was to charge and break the enemy's lines. The Ninth Corps, occupying the front we did the previous September, was to charge the works in its front at the same time. Ord was to attack on his front simul- taneously with the advance of the Sixth and Ninth Corps.
We passed the night as we did the day -- behind our new line of works, lying on our arms, now sleeping, now listening to the tre- mendons cannonade with which the Union artillery was bombard- ing the rebel line. During the night our brigade picket line, under command of Captain Maxfield, of the Eleventh, who was acting as brigade officer of the day, was reenforced by the brigade sharpshooters and a detail of axemen from our regiment. Captain Maxfield's orders were to force his line close to the enemy's abatis, which the axemen were to bew down, under cover of the heavy fire he was to open. It was intended to follow his move- ment with a line of battle, with a view to assault the works should he succeed in clearing the ground. Following out his orders, the officer of the day, despite the darkness, drove in the ontlying force of the enemy along his front, and, reaching the abatis, ordered the axemen forward. Until now the rebels within the
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works had held their fire; but, as the axe-strokes told what was being attempted, every gun opened, the bullets pouring into the attacking line " as if thrown by the bucket full," as the Captain expresses it. Of course, unless supported by a line of battle, nothing more could be accomplished by the picket line, which returned to its old position, where it remained until near day- light, when it was again advanced by Captain Maxfield under cover of a thick fog. When within fifty yards of the enemy's works the fog suddenly lifted, exposing the line to a sharp fire. By direction of their commander, they sought such shelter as the ground afforded, and a sharp skirmish fight ensued.
During the night Captain Norris, of the Eleventh, was ordered to take a few men and reconnoiter along our brigade front to find a point where an assault could be made with a possible chance of success. After a careful and perilous search, he reported to bri- gade headquarters that nowhere along the front of our brigade was there a point where the ground was so unbroken as to allow the compact formation necessary to secure a successful assault. It was for this reason that the forward movement of the picket line was not supported as Captain Maxfield expected it would be.
The night was so dark, with a heavy fog towards morning, that the assaulting columns of the Ninth, Sixth, and Twenty-fourth Corps could not move intelligently. For this reason the signal shot was delayed until five o'clock. As it boomed its message, the massed brigades of the Sixth Corps moved rapidly forward, and after a severe struggle broke through the Confederate line of intrenchments. The Ninth Corps advanced at the same time and crossed the works in its front, to find itself checked by a second line, which it was not able to force.
As the roar of the Sixth Corps attack lessened, the brigade offi- cer of the day, who had rallied his men as the signal gun was fired, gave the order to charge. Instantly, regardless of the superior force confronting it, the line climbed the abatis and mounted the works of the demoralized enemy, who could see the masses of the First Brigade of our division, on our right, and of the West Virginia Brigade, on our left, rapidly converging ou the salient the pickets were entering. Realizing the hopelessness of a contest, the rebels threw down their arms and surrendered. It was found that our picket, line had captured more men than it numbered, besides a battery of artillery. The prisoners were
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THE FALL OF -PETERSBURG AND OF RICHMOND.
sent to the rear in charge of Sergeant Locke, of Company K, of the Eleventh, and a small escort, and the pickets rejoined their regiments.
Early in the morning, Foster's division had been ordered to support the Sixth Corps movement. The division crossed the works at the point of the Sixth Corps assault, and, swinging to the right, moved along the face of the enemy's line, sweeping all opposition before it. After it had passed the front of the Sixth Corps line it moved directly on the enemy's second line, followed by the divisions of the Sixth Corps.
Ord halted his line along the Boydtown Plank road, and threw out a skirmish line which was ordered to advance as fast and as far as possible. Companies A and B of the Eleventh were in this line. The skirmishers encountered the enemy almost as soon as they began to advance, and driving them steadily back were soon before the enemy's inner line, running up from the Appo- mattox and along Indiantown Creek. Two forts lay in front of the advance, Forts Gregg and Whitworth. Before the first of these the skirmish line of the Tenth Connecticut took position. They were soon reenforced by Lieutenant Payne's sharpshooters. Against Whitworth, Companies A and B of our regiment were ranged. Before this work was an area of log barracks. These the enemy set on fire, and fought from street to street of the blazing structures, making it warm for our boys in more ways than one. But we soon drove them out of the barracks and into Fort Whitworth, when, crowding closely to the fort, we returned the heavy fire that came from its strongly manned parapets with as active a one, if of less volume, emulating Payne's boys, who were engaged in the same work with Gregg a short distance on our right.
At last the lines of battle were seen advancing to our support. Our brigade pressed down on Gregg, throwing our regiment to the left and into the barracks before Whitworth. The West Virginia Brigade advanced against Whitworth. Thrown to the left as they were, our men could only watch the assault on Gregg, one that General Gibbon, no inexperienced authority, calls the most desperate assault of the war. The little fort was enveloped in a surging mass of assailants, They filled the ditches, and eagerly sought for a footway by which to reach the stubborn defenders, who fought with magnificent desperation. But one
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
narrow footway led across a deep ditch, and that was constantly swept by a terrible fire, while every attempt to climb the parapet from the ditch was beaten back by rifle shots and clubbed muskets. At last Lieutenant Payne, of the Eleventh, who had been watching the assault without taking any part in it, rallied his sharpshooters at the bottom of the footway, and, calling on them to follow him, darted along the deadly path to fling himself headlong into the fort, where he laid about so vigorously with his saber-a weapon he was master of, having served as a trooper in Mexico and in the Indian wars on the frontier -- that before he could be struck down his men were closing around him, and the masses of the assailing force, taking advantage of his desperate diversion, were surging over the parapet, and the fort was won.
Before Gregg fell, the West Virginia Brigade assaulted Whit- worth, their advance led by the skirmishers of the Eleventh. These skirmishers had reconnoitered the fort carefully, and had an idea of its form. They swept swiftly around its right to rush through its sallyport. As the West Virginians swarmed in after them, the rebels were throwing down their arms.
This closed the advance of the lines of battle for the day, but Companies A and B, with other skirmish commands, felt sure that the enemy's line beyond the creek would be assaulted. With- out waiting for orders they pressed across the intervening fields and deployed their line against the enemy's works, fully deter- mined to head any assault that should be made, and to lead the way into the Cockade City. But General Humphreys says that the Sixth Corps men were exhausted, having been under arms for eighteen hours, so it was decided not to assault further until the next morning. The skirmishers were recalled, a heavy picket line was established, and the troops went into bivouac. Our division lay for the night around the captured forts.
The losses of the regiment up to this time were as follows :
CASUALTIES AT HATCHER'S RUN, VA. March 31, 1865.
Company 21 .- Wounded, Private Thomas Nye, Jr.
Company B .- Wounded, First Sergeant Lewis W. Campbell ; Private Thomas F. White.
Company C .- Wounded, Private William Haley.
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THE FALL OF PETERSBURG AND OF RICHMOND.
Company D .-- Wounded, Private Dennis Tehan.
Company E .- Killed, Privates John Bartlett, Abial W. Bowley. Company F .- Wounded, Privates Bowman Eldridge, William S. Pierce.
Company H .- Wounded, Privates Richard Gray, Benjamin F. Jones, Dennis Post.
April 1, 1865.
Field .- Wounded, Major Charles P. Baldwin.
Company A .- Wounded, Private Edgar A. Stevens. .
Company D .- Wounded, Privates Albion P. Bickmore, William HI. Findel, George Seavey. Prisoners, Sergeant Alphonzo C. Gowell ; Privates Albion P. Biokmore, Patrick Brien, William H. Findel, George Geary, Elisha W. Gibbs, George Seavey, James Simmons, John T. Stevens.
Company E .- Wounded, Private Charles Simmons.
Company G .- Prisoners, Lieutenant Peter Bunker; Sergeant Horace B. Mills ; Privates Leonard F. Blackwell, William E. Denico, Joseph Glasstater.
Company H .- Wounded, Lieutenant Jerome B. Ireland.
Company I .- Prisoners, Sergeant Charles E. Elwell ; Private Hardcastle Stephenson.
Company K .- Wounded, Privates Levi Pooler, Andrew R. Powers.
Killed, 2 ; wounded, 19 ; prisoners. 16-total, 37.
CASUALTIES AT HATCHER'S RUN, AND FORTS WHITWORTH AND GREGG. April 2, 1865.
Company A .- Killed, Private James B. Davis. Wounded, Sergeant Charles I. Wood ; Privates Benjamin F. Boston, Joseph Bowdenstein, George A. Orr, Henry G. Struck.
Company B .-- Wounded, Lieutenant Nelson HI. Norris ; Cor- poral George Jackson ; Privates Charles H. Clark, Ellis A. Lothrop, Patrick Murphy, Samuel C. Niles.
Company C .- Killed, Private George A. Robbins. Wounded, Corporal Thomas Donahoe.
Company D .- Killed, Private Otis W. Rvan. Wounded, Cor- poral Jeremiah Stratton ; Privates Robert Mathews, Charles F. Morrill, George W. Watson.
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Company F .- Killed, Corporal Edwin L. Parker.
Company G .- Wounded, Lieutenant George Payne ; Privates William N. Murray, Henry Peck.
Company H .- Wounded, Private John Hurst.
Company I .- Killed, Private Michael Smith. Wounded, Pri- vates Fred J. Robbins, Joseph Braer.
Company K .- Killed, Private Thomas P. Cunliffe.
Killed, 6; wounded, 22-total, 28.
The men made prisoners were taken in the night attack on our brigade. They were on the picket line which was so suddenly overrun by the Confederate line of battle. Private Peter Haegan, of Company D, would have been added to the list of prisoners but for his shrewdly begging permission of his captor to be allowed to get his haversack, that he had left at the foot of a tree near the post on which he was surprised. The good-natured Mississip- pian who had captured him allowed him to go the few feet only separating him and his provender bag ; but Peter failed to return, preferring to throw himself on the ground and crawl to the rear until he had reached our line. There had been many a laugh at Peter's expense, but now the laugh was with him.
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CHAPTER XXX.
THE PURSUIT AND THE SURRENDER.
The Predicament of General Lee-His Decision-The Abandonment of Richmond and its Occupancy by Union Troops-Grant Follows Lee's Escaping Column-Ord and the Twenty-fourth Corps Cut Loose as a Flying Column-Incidents of the March-We Reach the Burkeville Junction and Place Ourselves between Lee and Johnston after a Steady March of Fifty-three Miles -- The Movements of Sheridan and Meade-General Read's Fatal March on High Bridge-We Advance on Rice's Station to Meet Longstreet --- He Evades Us-The Battle of Sailor's Creek -- Farmville -- The Bridges Burned except one Saved by the Second Corps -- This Corps boldly Crosses, and Unsupported Confronts the Confederate Army -- The Twenty-fourth and the Fifth Corps Move out of Farmville and Push towards Appomattox Court House to Cut off Lee-Incidents of the March-An Early Morning Rest in the Rear of Sheridan-A Greasy Breakfast-Interrupted by the Advancing Enemy -- In Line of Battle and in the Front Once More-A Cavalry Retreat-The Assault of Gordon's Men-We Beat them Back and Follow on Their Heels-Our Assault on a Battery -- Beaten Back, we Reform and are again Advancing when the An- nouncement of Lee's Surrender is Made to Us-Casualties.
THAT Petersburg and Richmond could not be held against the next advance of Grant's vastly superior forces had been clear to General Lee for months ; and, but for the difficulty of impressing this fact upon the minds of the members of the Confederate administration, he would have abandoned his lines and have been well on his way to unite with Johnston before Grant opened the campaign.
Colonel Taylor, of General Lee's personal staff-undoubtedly echoing Lee's private opinion-noted in his diary, under date of March 27th : " There appears to be an unaccountable apathy and listlessness in high places. There seems to be no prepara- tion for the removal of the several departments of the Govern- ment. When the pressure is upon us, it may be impossible." And then he states what would have been General Lee's policy if unhampered : " To unite the greater part of his army, before it
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
wasted away from disease, from battles and from desertions, with that under General Johnston ; then to fall upon General Sherman with the hope of destroying him, then to return with the united armies to confront General Grant."
Having the interior lines, Lee could move to accomplish such a plan much more quickly than Grant could to thwart it. The plan involved the giving up of Richmond, but that which was finally pursued involved the same with a certainty nearly absolute, and left Sherman to overwhelm Johnston, and, at the same time, to destroy the granaries of the Confederacy from which Lee's army was supplied.
But, embarrassed by the necessity of caring for the safety of the members of the Confederate Government, Lee remained in his trenches a few days too long, and now the choice was flight or surrender. As we know, he postponed the latter a few days, by deciding to attempt the former.
As soon as his lines were broken on the morning of April 2d, Lee made his decision, and began his preparations to attempt to reach Johnston ; and at eight o'clock that evening he proceeded to evacuate his lines at Petersburg and Richmond. By the dawn of April ad his columns were converging on his first objective point ----- Amelia Court House. His intention, as Taylor states it, " was to take the direction of Danville, and turn to our [their] advantage the good line of resistance offered by the Dan and Staunton riy- ers." "This intention was thwarted, and the Confederates were forced to attempt to reach another point. As Taylor states it: " But the activity of the Federal cavalry and the want of supplies compelled a different course, and the retreat was continued up the South Side road toward Lynchburg."
The abandonment of their trenches by the Confederates was not discovered by the Union forces until three o'clock in the morning of April 3d. Petersburg was entered by the division of General Wilcox at daylight. On the north side of the James, General Weitzel entered Richmond, and a little after eight o'clock the Stars and Stripes-a flag of the Army of the James -- were waving over the Confederate Capitol.
Captain Thomas Clark, of our regiment, who had been left in charge of our regimental camp, participated in the triumphal entry into the captured city, marching in with the guards and the convalescents of his command.
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THE PURSUIT AND THE SURRENDER.
As soon as General Grant was informed of Lee's escape, he issued orders for a pursuit. Was Lee moving his army directly west for Lynchburg, or southwest for Danville ? In either case, he must move by way of Burkeville. Junction. Sheridan, with his cavalry and the Fifth Corps, followed by the Second and Sixth Corps, was ordered to push along the south side of the Appomattox River, to keep in constant touch with Lee's forces, and to strike the Danville Railroad between High Bridge, where it crosses the Appomattox, and Burkeville Junction. Ord, with the troops from the Twenty-fourth Corps, put in the lightest possible marching order, was to push for Burkeville Junction with all possible speed .. The Ninth Corps followed after Ord.
When Ord's " flying column " marched away from Forts Gregg and Whitworth the morning of the 3d, it was with a jubilant stop. The end seemed close at hand ; Petersburg and Richmond had fallen, and Lee was in the toils. Joy was in the air, and laughter and frolic, long unknown to the marching column of our Virginia armies, where a movement of troops had for a long time. meant assaulting strong and well-manned earthworks, were freely indulged in. Our brigade marched through a peach orchard that was in full bloom. The men broke branches from the trees and placed them in the muzzles of their rifles, giving the column an unwonted holi- day appearance. Whenever we balted, negro women were hired to make hoe-cakes ; hot, easily made-just a stirring of corn-meal and water, a pinch of salt, and baked on a shovel thrust into a fire. Some of these just freed cooks realized what to them were small fortunes.
In spite of the warning order posted on trees, that the property of the inhabitants of the country through which we were march- ing was to be respected, under pain of the Provost Marshal, there was a tendency to loot abandoned houses. One stout trooper appeared in all the glory of an abandoned hoopskirt. He thought it a good joke to wear it, and the merry laughter with which this incongruous addition to a trooper's outfit was greeted by his com- rades confirmed him in his idea. But, alas ! General Ord hap- pened to see him, and the General's sense of humor was not strong enough to see any fun in the trooper's appearance. Then came the punishment -- to continue to wear the skirt until sundown. This changed the complexion of the joke entirely ; the laugh was no longer with the jester, but quite against him, and he endured
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
bitter hours of jeering before the slow-moving sun sank below the horizon.
Mules and horses were fair prizes, according to the ideas of many of our horsey-minded fellows. Quite a cavalcade of these useful animals followed our regiment, each bearing a captor, with bags of plunder, consisting of cook's gear of the captor's company. or the appurtenances of his comrades, until the Provost Marshal swooped down and confiscated the stolen animals-stealing them over again, as many grumbled-and the proud cavaliers became " foot cavalry " again.
At one plantation the proprietor, a portly old Virginian with a suggestion of mint juleps in his red nose, watched with a mournful face as his few mules and horses were driven away. After a while he volunteered the information that in a nearby paddock he had a stallion that any Yank that could ride was wel- come to. There was a rush for the paddock, and many attempted to secure the prize ; but the stallion remained unridden, while his chuckling owner gathered what consolation he could for his losses and the fall of the Confederacy from the discomfiture of all the confident fellows who tried to ride his living tornado, which could bite, kick, plunge, buck, rear, and all at the same time, as it would seem to the unhappy fellow trying to cling to the horse's back. The mad creature did not need the Provost Marshal to protect him ; he could protect himself with tooth and hoof.
But as the line lengthened, and its divisions got their distances, the marching pace was increased, and the halts grew fewer and fewer, and shorter and shorter, so that, as the day wore away, and tired nature began to assert itself, the men became more and more subdued.
We went into bivouac, threw out pickets, and passed a quiet night. Soon after daylight of April 4th we were en route again. We plodded on all day, with infrequent halts. Our column took a free step and a very open order, only closing up as we approached some Virginia village, when the bands would strike up and we would march through the settlement in close column, with colors flying, producing a most imposing effect. Soon after sunset we went into bivouac, and passed another quiet night.
The morning of April 5th we started on our way again, and, by dint of putting one foot before the other, at nightfall had reached Burkeville Junction, having covered fifty-three miles of Virginia
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roadway since the morning of the 3d to attain General Grant's object-which was to place Ord's force between Lee and Johnston.
We were very tired and considerably footsore this night, and, taking our assigned position, ate our frugal supper, then lay down and slept the deep, dreamless sleep of the thoroughly exhausted.
During the 3d Sheridan's cavalry had harassed the retreating Confederates at every opportunity. About dark be attacked the rear guard vigorously as it was crossing Deep Creok. Here the cavalry and the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps passed the night.
General Sheridan decided from the day's movements that Lee was concentrating his forces at Amelia Court House, and arranged his forces to cut him off from the south. Crook was ordered to move out with his cavalry division at an carly hour of the morning of the 4th, and move so that he would strike the Danville road somewhere between Burkeville Junction and Jetersville. Griffin was ordered to march the Fifth Corps directly to Jetersville. Both commands reached their stations late in the afternoon of the 4th. The Fifth Corps threw up light intrenchments.
The Second and Sixth Corps followed the Fifth, but were delayed, as during the forenoon Merritt's cavalry came across their road from the right and took precedence, forcing the infantry to halt for the day. At one o'clock in the morning of the 5th of April these corps were on the march for Jetersville, when again Merritt's cavalry came into their road, and again the infantry was forced to make a long halt. The consequence was that it was late in the afternoon of the 5th when they reached Jetersville, probably at about the same hour that we reached Burkeville Junction. The positions of the pursuing army the night of April 5th were : the troops of the Twenty-fourth Corps and the Ninth Corps at Burkeville Junction, Sheridan's cavalry between the Junction and Jetersville, and the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps at Jetersville, where General Meade established his headquarters.
It was not until the 5th that the head of Lee's column moved out of Amelia Court House, his trains moving by inner roads that his troops covered. He moved on Jetersville, but, finding it so strongly held by infantry, changed his course somewhat, hoping that by a sharp night march he would get so far in advance of the Union forces that he could reach Lynchburg by way of Rice's
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