USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 6
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Trusting that the conduct of the Eleventh Maine in the Bat- tle of "Seven Pines " was such as will meet the approbation of the comoanding general, I have the honor to be, sir,
Very respectfully,
Your obt. servt.,
(Signed,) HI. M. PLAISTED, Col. Comdg. Eleventh Regt. Me. Vols.
To CAPT. GEO. H. JOHNSON,
A. A. Gen. Naglee & Brig.
CASUALTIES FAIR OAKS, VA., MAY 31, 1862.
Non-commissioned Jaff .- Wounded, Sergeant-Major Henry O. Fox.
Company A .- Killed, Privates Thomas F. Deray, George W. Warren. Wounded, Lieutenant Lewis IL. Holt ; Corporals Elias P. Morton, George A. Bakeman : Privates John A. Brackett, Daniel A. Bean, Cyrus L. Bickford, Benjamin P. Bibber, Edwin F. Collins, James II. Durgin, Samuel E. Keniston, Watson Keniston, David Morrison, Calvin D. Moore, Charles E. Palmer, Samuel Warren, Cass Tuck.
Company C .- Killed, Lieutenant J. William West; Privates Jerry MeCarty, John F. Moore. Wounded, Sergeants Adams D. Plummer, Lemuel E. Newcomb ; Privates James W. Cole, Rich- ard Connor, William F. Elwell, Edwin C. Haycock, Leander K. Foster, John McWalter, Joseph M. Munson, Herrick E. Nash, Benjamin D. Willey. Prisoners, Musician Henry E. Gardiner ; Privates William Emery, John Mc Walter.
Company D .-- Killed, Private Daniel Gray. Wounded, Private
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
Thomas R. Blaine. Prisoners, First Sergeant Robert Brady ; Sergeant Abner F. Bassett; Corporal Freeman R. Dakin ; Musician Robert A. Strickland ; Privates Matthew P. House, Moses E. Sherman, William Sherman.
Company E .- Wounded, Corporal Elias H. Frost.
Company F .- Killed, Corporal James A. Scoullar ; Privates George Farrow, John Flagg, James Lang. Wounded, First Sergeant Thomas A. Brann ; Sergeants Archibald Clark, Ben- jamin F. Dunbar ; Privates Franklin N. Hayden, George W. Ken- niston, Ellison Libby, James W. Little, John F. Meserve, John E. Morrill, Nelson H. Norris, David Philbrick, Francis Scotney, George E. Stickney. Prisoners, Privates Thomas C. Blaisdel, Eleazer Wycr.
Company G. - Killed, Private William H. H. Dodge. Wounded, Lieutenant William H. If. Rice ; Private Charles F. Bunker.
Company II .- Wounded, William II. Dill, Henry G. Prescott. Prisoners, Corporal Daniel M. Dill; Privates William H. Dill, Seth W. Towle.
Company I .- Prisoner, Sergeant Charles Trott ..
Company K .- Killed, Corporal Willis Maddocks. Wounded, Corporal Calvin S. Chapman ; Privates John F. Buzzell, John Whitcomb, Jr. Prisoner, Private Henry J. Moore.
Killed. 12 ; wounded, 50 ; prisoners, 17-total, 79.
CHAPTER VI.
ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
Guarding the Bridges-Jackson Reenforces Lee-The Battles of Mechanics- ville and Gaines Mill-Preparations for Retreat to the James -- A Strange Bombardment-Left at Savage Station.
FOR a few days we remained on the field of battle. During one of the first nights, as we lay in the edge of a piece of woods, certain miles belonging to the Quartermaster's Department of our army were stampeded and galloped in a body along our biouvacking line of battle, the rattling of the chains of their harnesses, which had not been removed when they were unhitched from the wagons, so resembling the clanking of the scabbards of galloping cavalrymen that many of the Eleventh, more than will confess it, were sure that the rebel Stuart and his cavalry were upon us. For a few minutes the utmost consternation and confusion pre- vailed, but the truth was quickly known and quiet restored. Of course, no one was really scared ; still, it is said that during the misconception some of the Eleventh, and they not all of the rauk and file either, displayed an unexpected aptitude for tree-climbing.
We had occasion to look over the battlefield, for we did not. know how many of our missing were captured ; some might be killed or wounded. It told the same ghastly story of war as had that of Williamsburg. Our hastily abandoned camp had been rummaged by the Confederates, and the shelter tents and blankets taken from it to spread on the wet ground as they lay in line of battle. The long line of wet, trampled tents and blankets told the exact position the enemy occupied the night of the first day of the battle. The kettles still hung over the charred embers of the extinguished cook fires, just as they had been abandoned by our flecing cooks ; the headquarters tents still stood in their places, the horns of the band still hung on the limbs of the apple-trees they were hanging on when the bandmen hastily became a stretcher corps. Their music cheered ns no more.
In a day or two we moved to the rear. Lary's diary notes, for
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
June 4th : "Moved back to the Chickahominy." Newcomb's, for June 4th : "Notwithstanding the pouring rain we were turned ont at daybreak, and were soon wading for Bottom's Bridge. The heavy rains of hours had now swollen every little rivulet and filled every depression of the fields. We bad to ford several torrents, one of which was strong enough to take men off their feet, and but for the help of a rope stretched across the stream some would have been drowned. Many muskets and blankets were lost in the torrent. I stood in the water to my waist for an hour helping hold the rope. We encamped on the Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge, holding a position covered by rifle pits."
Our division now guarded the railroad bridge and Bottom's Bridge, Couch's division guarding the fords across White Oak Swamp.
General Peck assumed command of our division at abont this time, General Casey taking command at White House Landing, our base of supplies on the York River. After the abandonment of that post, General Casey was ordered to Washington, where he resumed charge of incoming troops, the work he had efficiently performed during the fall and winter of 1861-62.
General Casey was not with us long enough for us to know him as we came to know many other generals, but in the short time he was with us he gained the respect of our men, who came to look upon him as a somewhat abused officer, one that others higher in command had attempted to make a scapegoat for their own short- comings. When the reenlisted men, after their return from vet- cran furlough in Maine, were camping on Arlington Heights in the spring of 1864, with the recruits they were taking back to the regiment, then on its way from the Department of the South, General Casey and his staff rode by the camp. Instantly the ' veterans " rushed to the roadside, a sturdy body, and, zealously reënforced by the strong body of recruits, all gave General Casey three times three cheers at the stentorian command of a self-appointed leader, who called for them for "the hero of Fair Oaks." The bright smile that beamed on the suddenly fhished face of Casey, as the answer to a few words of inquiry made known to him what regiment he was indebted to for the unex- pected compliment, told us that he had not forgotten the Eleventh Maine. And as the old soldier -- a hero of the Florida and of the
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ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
Mexican War, wounded at Chapultepec-rode away. be bared his gray head in grateful acknowledgment of our loyal remembrance.
For some days our position was near the bridges. We shifted our camp once or twice, at last camping not far from the end of the railroad bridge, near where the Confederate artillery had stood that D company and a Federal piece of artillery had a smart engagement with before we crossed the Chickahominy. Maxfield rejoined the regiment the night of June 9th, and noted that it was then encamped "about a mile and a half from the Chickahominy," and noted, the 17th, that the camp ground was that day changed to one about three-quarters of a mile distant-" to higher ground and nearer the railroad "; nearer the Cbickahominy, too.
We were occupied in ordinary camp and field work while in these camps. The following extracts from Maxfield's diary will give a fair idea of its range : "June 13th .- Was detailed on a for- aging expedition, went four or five miles from camp, and cut clover enough to fill four army wagons." "June 22d .-- Went out in the morning after apples and blackberries, then went on picket at a fort a mile and a half from camp."
And we were settling down into a drilling system, that desider- atum of regimental commanders, and which they sieze every opportunity to set in motion, for Maxfield notes : "June 24th. --- Company drill from nine to eleven in the forenoon and from three to five in the afternoon." "June 25th .-- Company drill in the forenoon and battalion drill in the afternoon "; adding, "Heary firing towards Richmond during the day and night." The begin- ning of the end of the Peninsula campaign had come.
General MeClellan states, in his report, that after the battle of Fair Oaks there was a pause of two weeks' duration in active operations. During this time the bridges across the Chickahom- iny were repaired, and the line of works already laid out beyond Seven Pines was completed from Golding's to White Oak Swamp. And changes were made in the disposition of the troops. The front of Seven Pines was heavily reenforced preparatory to moving on Richmond. On our side of the river, Franklin's corps was now on the right of the line, covering the Chickahominy and reaching to Sumner's, with Heintzelman's on Sumner's left; Keyes's corps in reserve. Porter's corps alone. remained on the left bank of the Chickahominy, disposed in the vicinity of Gaines Mill, with McCall's division of Pennsylvania Reserves --
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
which had recently come by water from before Washington -- ad- vanced to and near Mechanicsville.
General Lee had been in command of the Army of Northern Virginia since June 2d. Gathering a strong force at Richmond, he planned to have Jackson move swiftly and unexpectedly from the Valley to the Chickahominy, uniting with himself to make a sudden and overwhelming attack on Mcclellan's right wing- Porter's corps and McCall's division-crush it, and so cut our army off from the White House, our base of supplies, thus forcing us to retreat down the Peninsula. Lee does not seem to have thought of the possibility that McClellan might prefer to retreat to the James, if he must retreat at all.
The plans of MeClellan and Lee came to a head at about the same hour-McClellan's to advance on Richmond from Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, and Leo's to drive him from his position before that city. The "heavy firing towards Richmond during the day and night," noted by Maxfield, was occasioned by an ad- vance of our picket lines on our side of the Chickahominy, an advance necessary for the deploying of troops to make the attack planned for the 26th or 27th, to be made by Franklin's corps on the rebel position at Old Tavern. The attack was made by Hooker's division, supported by Kearney's, by divisions of the Third Corps, and by Palmer's brigade of Couch's division of our corps, and by a part of Richardson's division of the Second Corps. The movement was entirely successful, and by night the attacking force was in position to make a rapid and effective advance. So much for MeClellan's forward movement ; its beginning and end. "June 26th, very heavy firing toward Richmond all day and night." notes Maxfield. This was the Battle of Mechanicsville, the beginning of Lee's movement. A. P. Hill crossed the Chick- ahominy that morning to cover Jackson's advance, and attacking McCall's division, drove in his outposts. But as Hill was unable to make any head against MeCall's main line, and night falling with the Union position unshaken, the battle was a virtual Union victory, But although MeCall held his ground at Mechanicsville. this engagement was the turning point of the campaign. MeChel- lan learned positively from it that what he had for some days feared was now taking place, a deserter and spies reporting that Jackson was marching for the Chickahominy, and that Lee and Jackson were uniting.
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ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
Far from being surprised by it, Mcclellan had been preparing for just this contingency. General Webb states that some time in early June Mcclellan conferred with General Porter on the advantages of the James as a base, and the desirability of chang- ing from the York to that river. The conclusion reached was that necessity, and necessity only, would warrant such a movement -a dangerous and difficult one -- in the face of such a vigilant foe as General Lee ; and a disaster would endanger our cause at home and abroad. Still, for security, General Mcclellan had sent a cavalry force and topographical engineer officers to map the country from White Oak Swamp to the James, and to obtain all information necessary to enable him to make a change of base if need be. And on the 18th of June MeClellan made arrange- ments for transports, with supplies of subsistence and forage, to move up the James, under convoy of gunboats. This fleet reached Harrison's Landing in time to be available for the army on its arrival there.
It was after the 13th of June, the date that Stuart, with fifteen hundred rebel cavalry and four guns, attacked our cavalry advance at Hanover Court House, overpowered it, and pushed for our depots of supply, making the circuit of the army, crossing the Chickahominy at Long Bridge, and escaping through White Oak Swamp, that these preparations were made. Mcclellan says of this raid, in his report : " The burning of two schooners laden with forage and of fourteen army wagons, the destruction of some sutler's stores, the killing of several of the guard and team- sters at Garlick's Landing, some little damage done at Tunstall's Station, and a little éclat, were the principal results of the expe- dition." He might have added that another result was an increase of conviction in his own mind that our base of supplies was an easily disturbed one, and that the James, now cleared of rebel gunboats to Drury's Bluff -- our gunboats occupying the river to that point very soon after Norfolk was evacuated on April 10th-was the true road to Richmond. It was immediately after this raid that MeClellan had the conference with Porter on the possibility of making a change of base.
The evening of the day of the Battle of Mechanicsville, General McClellan determined that the time had come to make the change of base he had been contemplating and preparing for, as you have seen. All his energies were now bent on the task of getting
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
his immense supply and artillery trains-" stretching for forty miles if they had been strung out on a single road," states Gen- eral Keyes-and his army to the James in the face of a powerful and aggressive foe. It could not be done in a day, or two days, and battles must be fought and won and on their winning depended the fate of the contest.
Ordering Porter to withdraw McCall from Mechanicsville, and to fall back with all his force to Gaines Mill, to close his left on the Chickahominy in the best position possible, and to curve his line to the right in the arc of a circle, Mcclellan hurried his preparations for retreat, while Porter fought the battle of Gaines Mill, to gain time needed for the trains to move to safety.
Maxfield notes, of the day this battle was fought, June 27th : " Heavy firing on the lines during the forenoon and most of the afternoon ; MeClellan's balloon up many times during the day." The firing of the forenoon was occasioned by Magruder's move- ments along the front of our line on our bank of the Chicka- hominy. Lce had stripped that side of all available troops, and had marched them to attack Porter ; and Magruder, to cover the weakness of the Confederates on our side of the river, and to pre- vent reënforcements from being sent from our divisions to the aid of Porter, opened a furious artillery fire along our whole front, using the troops at his command in making threatening demon- strations, really leading our commanders to fancy that the Confed- erates had a heavy attacking force in their fronts. causing them not only to declare to MeClellan their inability to spare reenforce- ments for Porter, but to refrain from making the slightest for- ward movement, when the weakness of the Confederate line under Magruder would have been quickly shown. Magruder was a great military actor, and his peculiar abilities served the Con- federates well in the Peninsula campaign. Confederate General "Dick" Taylor says of him : " Of a boiling, headlong courage, he was too excitable for high command. Widely known for his social attractions, he had a histrionic vein, and indeed was fond of private theatricals. Few managers could have surpassed him in imposing on an audience a score of supernumeraries for a great army."
It was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that the attack was begin on Porter. A. P. Hill attacked his left, followed by Longstreet on his left, and Jackson on his. Jackson's line out-
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ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
reached and flanked Porter's ; so that, in spite of his being reenforced by Slocum's division, and by French's and Meagher's brigades, Porter was forced to move across the river, and by morning was on our side of the Chickahominy, with all the bridges destroyed.
The evening of June 27th, General Mcclellan called the corps. commanders together and gave them his final orders. They were iminediately acted upon. Keyes's corps was across the White Oak Swamp by noon of the 28th (except Naglee's brigade, left at Bottom's and the railroad bridges), and had seized the high ground beyond the swamp, taking position to guard the crossing trains from attacks by Confederates moving down the roads from Rich- mond. Franklin fell back the morning of the 28th from his advanced position, repelling an attack while doing so. Sumner and Heintzelman held their lines till the morning of the 29th, falling back to interior lines that reached from near White Oak Swamp and curved to the right to cover Savage Station. Porter crossed White Oak Swamp during the day and night of the 28th, and took position with Keyes. The whole plan looked to the final crossing of White Oak Swamp during the night of the 29th.
Our regiment was stationed at the railroad bridge. The story of the Battle of Gaines Mill was brought to us by the seemingly interminable army of disheartened soldiers and camp followers that for hours filed across the bridge, without officers or order, clamoring that all was lost, that Jackson was moving swiftly towards us, crushing all opposition. With a well-manned battery. strongly supported, placed on the hill behind our camp, the Eleventh went down into the swamps of the Chickahominy, remaining there in a long skirmish live for two or three days, expecting every hour to hear the skirmishers of the enemy crash- ing through the woods lining the opposite shore of the Chicka- hominy, now easily fordable. But we were not attacked by infantry.
Newcomb records in his diary, under date of June 28th : " Sev- eral shells were thrown by both sides about dusk, and about twelve o'clock at night a piece was fired that brought us all to our feet. It was horrible work visiting pickets in the dark, tearing through woods and bushes, and wading through the mud as I had to."
While awaiting the momentarily uncertain enemy, men of our
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
regiment destroyed the railroad bridge. This was considered a dangerous service, and was assigned to Provost and Pioneer Ser- geant Dunbar, who received and deserved great credit for the thorough manner in which the work was done.
Before the enemy, uncertain of MeClellan's intentions, moved forward at all vigorously-Jackson, A. P. Hill, and Longstreet not crossing the Chickahominy until the 29th, delayed by the necessity of rebuilding the destroyed bridges before their artillery could cross-before they were across the Chickahominy, McClel- lan's rapidly laid plans had been fully acted on, and the retreat to the James was in full operation ; and so quietly were the com- plex movements of our troops made that Magruder and Huger, left by Lee on our side of the river to watch MeClellan, only awoke on the morning of the 29th to the fact that he was retiring his lines. Then Magruder made his furious attack on Sumner at Allen's Farm, the position occupied by Couch's division at the beginning of the Battle of Fair Oaks, and later in the day attacked Sumner and Franklin at Savage Station, to which posi- tion Sumner had now retired to join Franklin. In both affairs the rebels were severely handled by the Union troops. Foiled here, Magruder, Huger, A. P. Hill, and Longstreet hurried to the north of White Oak Swamp to gain the roads leading from Rich- mond, to try and break through our long covering line, while Jackson pushed on to White Oak Swamp Bridge, to endure the mortification of being " stood off" by a vastly inferior force.
As we moved away from the ruins of the railroad bridge the afternoon of June 29th, the famous train of cars that was loaded with shells and combustibles at Savage Station, fired and started on its way to destruction, came tearing down the track, and, reaching the broken bridge, took its mighty header. General "Dick" Taylor, of the Confederates, who was in command of the troops at the other end of the bridge, says of this incident that, while the Battle of Savage Station was raging in the afternoon of June 29th, the din of the distant combat was silenced to his ears by the clamor of an approaching train, evidently gathering speed as it rushed along. It quickly emerged from the forest, to show two engines drawing a long string of cars. Reaching the broken bridge, the engines exploded with a terrible noise, followed in suc- cession by the explosion of the carriages laden with ammunition. Shells burst in all directions, the river was lashed into foam,
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ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
trees were torn for acres around, and several of Taylor's men were wounded.
Newcomb's diary gives a graphic sketch of the effect on our pickets : "About four o'clock the colonel sent me down to the bridge to withdraw the pickets. When I had gone about one- half the distance our pickets fired a volley, killing at least one rebel, who had stalked out on the bridge in full view. Before I could withdraw the pickets, the regiment started away. The pickets on the extreme right of the line were the last to leave their posts, and we were about fifteen rods from the bridge when the train came rushing on. We were in anxious suspense as it came nearer and nearer to the chasm. We first heard a crash, and then there was a terrible explosion. We threw ourselves flat on the ground. The tops of the trees were shivered by the flying fragments, and a large ball buried itself in the mud about ten feet from me."
To this harsh music we moved swiftly away, not halting until we had crossed White Oak Swamp Bridge in gathering darkness, and reached the high ground beyond. Here we bivouacked in line of battle, the incoming brigades taking the places of those of Keyes and Porter, whose brigades were now making a night march to occupy Malvern Hill and its approaches, the trains pushing on in their rear to be placed under the protection of the gunboats as they reached the river. A sad feature of the retreat was the necessity, through lack of transportation, of leaving twenty-five hundred Union wounded and sick at Savage Station. With them was left a staff of nearly five hundred surgeons, nurses, and attend- ants, and au ample supply of stores saved for their use amid the vast destruction of stores that had gone on for a day and a night at the station.
Among the abandoned sufferers were the following named mem- bers of the Eleventh Maine : Corporals Seth C. Welch and Thomas T. Tabor, of Company B; Private Francis N. Elwell. of Com- pany C ; Private Aaron Sands, of Company F ; Private George R. Pettingill, of Company G : Private Charles B. Rogers, of Com- pany H; and Privates Charles A. Cochran and AAdelbert P. Chick, of Company K.
CHAPTER VII.
WITHDRAWAL TO THE JAMES.
Across White Oak Swamp-Jackson Salutes with Thirty Guns -- Nagice's Yankee Squad-A Battery Arrives just in Time-Battle of Glendale -- Other Engagements of the Day -- A Night March to the James -- The Battle of Malvern Hill -- Arrival at Harrison's Landing.
THE morning of June 30th, exhausted men could be seen lying fast asleep everywhere-in the fields and the woods, on the safe side of White Oak Swamp, even in the dusty road. All our army bad crossed by White Oak Swamp Bridge, except Heintzelman's command, which crossed farther to the north, by Brackett's Ford, destroying the bridge after crossing. From daylight, as fast as the packed condition of the roads to the James would permit. all troops but those of us who were to form the rear guard of the day (the divisions of Smith and Richardson, two brigades of Sedg- wick's division, and Naglee's brigade, all under the command of Franklin, to lie here and hold Jackson at bay) were moving slowly to positions towards the next selected position at which to make a stand-Malvern Hill. That Jackson was on the other side of the bridge, we knew. The rattle of the skirmishors' rifles told us that, and just about noon he announced his presence by suddenly opening on us with thirty pieces of artillery. One moment there was nothing above us but a cloudless sky, the next the air was full of shrieking shells, bursting in white puffs of smoke, and showering down a storm of broken iron. Newcomb notes : " The scene was terribly sublime."
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