USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
So startling was the suddenness of the change, it is not strange that, as the Second Corps chronicler puts it, " there was a scene of dire confusion." And to add to it, the men in charge of a ponton train drawn up by the roadside, waiting for an opportu- nity to lumber away, unhitched their mules, mounted them, and fled for the James.
The confusion lasted but a few minutes, and in it the Eleventh had no share. We were lying in the edge of the woods that bor-
1
61
WITHDRAWAL TO THE JAMES.
dered the great cleared field in which the troops and trains were massed, and perhaps had an advantage in all being wide awake. At any rate, we were not a bit demoralized. Scarcely a man started to his feet, all waiting for the word of command. It came quickly, and from the mouth of General Naglee himself, who, riding up to us and seeing our immovability, while the troops around us were in evident confusion, could not restrain his delight at our coolness, as he cried out, " Fall in, my Yankee squad " ; for the Eleventh was few in numbers now. We fell in, and, as he proudly led us across the big field to a new position, we stiffened our neeks and neither dodged nor bowed to the storm of iron beating down upon us. We had made a hit, and we knew it.
Taking position behind the rails of a torn-down fence, the Eleventh lay listening to Jackson's cannon while watching Haz- zard's battery as it swept the White Oak Swamp Bridge with a storm of grape and canister, that kept even Jackson at bay. The cannoncers fell one by one-were thinned out until the officers not yet killed or wounded dismounted and took places at the guns ; it was whispered that the ammunition was giving out-was almost gone-a few rounds more and the last shell would be fired, and then Jackson and his thirty-five thousand men would pour across the bridge and up the heights to learn what sort of stuff Franklin's force was made of. But this was not to be. Just as we were gathering ourselves for the apparently fast-coming struggle, there came a vell from the rear, a sound of desperately galloping borges, and, with slashing whips. Pottit's guns came tearing on at the top of their horses' speed, General Naglee. who had brought them from the far rear, leading them into position. Ours, as did all the regiments massed in the big field, rose and cheered Naglee and the artillerymen as they swept by. Inside of a minute from their first appearance the guus were in position, unlimbered, and were sweeping the bridge with grape and can- ister.
Away on the left, at Glendale, there was fighting, and hard fighting. too. Our men were so hard pressed that Franklin felt obliged to return to Sedgwick the two brigades that he had bor- rowed from bim. And our first colonel, now General Caldwell, who had been with us during the day, commanding a brigade of Richardson's division, marched away with his brigade to render effective service in beating back the masses of the enemy. The
62
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
rebels had attacked at several points in their efforts to break through the lines that covered our retreating supply, ammuni- tion, and artillery trains, but always unsuccessfully. But not until about three o'clock did the attack of the day begin, A. P. Hill and Longstreet charging McCall at Glendale, and overwhelm- ing him after a desperate struggle, in which McCall was captured, with guns and many of his division. But Hooker was on his right rear and Kearney on his left rear, and their divisions closing in and uniting with that of Sedgwick, now in McCall's rear, with three brigades (the two lent to Franklin had now returned), and Caldwell's brigade and one of Slocum's arriving in time to take an active part in the battle, Hill and Longstreet were held in check until dark. Magruder did not get to their support until night, through taking a wrong road, and Inger not at all, being taken off by a misleading message from Holmes, whose division, drawn from the south bank of the James, did not reach a position on the New Market road until a day later than Lee intended it should.
Before the attack on MeCall, an attempt had been made to dis- lodge Slocum from his position on the right of the Charles City road, his line extending to White Oak Swamp and covering Brackett's Ford. Slocum resisted with a sweeping artillery fire similar to, and as effective as, that with which we were holding Jackson at bay.
Late in the day an attempt was made on Porter, now at Mal- vern Hill with Keyes. Holmes and Wise moved down from Richmond by the river road, and made a feeble attack ; but the concentrated fire of thirty pieces of artillery on their column, and the shells of the gunboats, forced them to beat a hasty and dis- orderly retreat.
The only other attack of the day was a sharp skirmish that took place with the enemy's cavalry on the Quaker road, an attack that caused Mcclellan to fear other attacks of the sort. But the enemy was now weak in cavalry, Stuart having remained on the other bank of the Chickahominy to crowd Stoneman down the Peninsula.
Taylor states that Stuart did not reach the rebel army until after the Battle of Malvern Hill ; adding : " Had he been brought over Long Bridge two days carlier, MeClellan's huge train on the Charles City road would have fallen an easy prey to his cavalry
63
WITHDRAWAL TO THE JAMES.
and he could have blocked the roads through the forest." The night of June 30th, after dark, we prepared to retreat from White Oak Swamp Bridge. The abandoned ponton train was set on fire, and by its flaring light we fell back, and daylight found us in position with our own division at Malvern Ilill. Newcomb writes : " We did not move from the field until nearly ten o'clock at night," and that " daylight found us weary mortals in a large wheat-field on the bank of the James, not far from Haxall's."
The Battle of Malvern Hill was fought during this day. Gen- eral " Dick " Taylor gives the Confederate view of the battle. We quote : " The Union right was covered by Turkey Creek, an affluent of the James, the left near the river and protected by gunboats, which, though hidden by timber, threw shells across his (McClellan's) entire left front. Distance and uncertainty of aim saved us from much loss by their projectiles, but their shriek and elongated form astonished our landward men, who called them ' lampposts.'" After noting that the rebel artillery labored under a great disadvantage through its inferior elevation, and that it was brought into action in detail only to be overpowered, he adds, of the rebel plan of battle, that it was to be a dual " mass and charge," the left attack to be made by Jackson, the right by Magruder, Longstreet and A. P. Hill in support. But it was late in the afternoon, after three o'clock, before the dispositions were made, when the orders were for D. H. Hill, of Jackson's force, to attack with the bayonet as soon as he heard the cheers of Magruder's charge. At about five o'clock, hearing a shout and firing to the right, and supposing it to be Magruder's attack, Hill led his men to the charge, to be beaten off with serious loss. Four brigades were sent to his assistance, but could accomplish nothing. About sunset, and after Hill's attack had failed, Magruder led his men forward with a similar result, losing heavily.
General MeClellan describes Malvern Hill by stating that " it is an elevated plateau, about a mile and half by three-quarters of a mile in area, well cleared of timber, and with several converging roads running over it. In front are numerous defensible ravines, and the ground slopes gradually towards the north and cast to the woodland, giving elear ranges for the artillery in those directions. Toward the northeast the plateau falls off more sharply into a ravine, which extends to the James River." He adds : " From the position of the enemy, his most obvious line of attack would come
1
64
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
from the direction of White Oak Swamp. Here, therefore, the line was strengthened by massing the troops, and collecting the principal part of the artillery."
General Mcclellan gives his formation from left to right : Porter's corps, the Sixth-Sykes's division on the left, then Mor- rell's division of the same corps; then Couch's of the Fourth Corps, then Kearney's and Hooker's of the Third Corps, then Sedgwick's and Richardson's of the Second Corps, then Smith's and Slocum's of the Fifth Corps, then Peck's division (ours) of the Fourth Corps. The right extended in a backward curve nearly to the river. McCall was placed in rear of Porter, where the weight of the attack was expected to and did largely fall, and Commodore Rodgers's gunboats were stationed off that flank to cover the approaches from Richmond.
About nine o'clock the enemy opened with artillery, and rebel skirmishers felt along our line from the left to as far as Hooker. From then until in the afternoon there was heavy firing by the batteries of both sides, and a continual rattle of skirmishors' rifles, with now and then a rolling volley as the troops of the two sides came in view of each other. At three o'clock a heavy fire of artillery opened on Kearney's left and on Couch's division. This was speedily followed by a brisk attack of infantry on Couch. This attack was made by Anderson's brigade, of D. H. Hill's divi- sion. It charged against the right of Couch, and became engaged with Palmer's brigade (late Devens's), to be repulsed, leaving the flag of the Fourteenth North Carolina in possession of the Thirty- sixth New York.
At 4.30 o'clock D. IL. Hill, under cover of an artillery fire, led his men into action, attacking Morrell, but Morrell's front was guarded by fourteen rifled Parrott guns and eleven field pieces. Hill's assault was speedily broken, and his column driven back with a heavy loss.
About six o'clock Magruder's charge was made. Magruder's plan was as simple as formidable ; to mass fifteen thousand men, and charge the batteries and supporting infantry. Hurled against an ordinary line, this mass would have broken through by sheer weight, but, hurled against a concentrated artillery fire and massed infantry, his brigades and their reinforcements were shat- tered before they could reach our lines. MeClellan describes this attack and its fate. After stating that at six o'clock the rebels
WITHDRAWAL TO THE JAMES. 65
opened with their artillery on Couch and Porter again, at once pushing forward their columns of attack, he says : " Brigade after brigade formed under cover of the woods, started at a run to cross the open space and charge our batteries, but the heavy fire of the guns, and the cool and steady volleys of our infantry, in every case sent them reeling back to shelter, and covered the ground with their dead and wounded. In several instances our infantry withheld their fire until the attacking column, pushed through the storm of canister and shell of our artillery, had reached within a few yards of our lines. Our men then poured in a single volley and dashed forward with the bayonet, capturing prisoners and colors, and driving the routed columns in confusion from the field." Darkness ended the Battle of Malvern Hill, though it was not until nine o'clock that the artillery ceased to fire.
I must confess that I slept through most of the uproar of this battle-slept the sleep of the thoroughly tired out ; and I under- stand that all that could of the army did so too, refreshing tired nature against the hour of need. Many of the troops actually engaged had to be awakened to do their brief part in repelling an assault, and that done, would lie down and fall asleep again. And I do not believe that even observing Maxfield heard a sound of the battle, else his diary note for the day would have been a more elaborate one than it is : " Arrived. where our teams were encamped soon after daybreak, and, after taking a short nap, moved a short distance and stopped in the edge of a wood so as to be in the shade, remaining there all day." Newcomb notes: " We las in the edge of the woods. as Keves said, like a snake in the grass." When darkness set in, the retreat was continued. The movement was now by the left and rear, Keyes's corps covering it.
Newcomb notes, for July 2d : "We were turned out at one o'clock in the morning, and told to get our breakfasts. During the night long trains of wagons were passing us. As soon as it was daylight we were again in line. About nine o'clock it com- menced to rain, and continued to pour for twenty hours, with very little cessation. We were marched hither and thither during the day. Night found us about four miles down the river. Dur- ing the day some Western regiments from Shield's division came into the field. This little circumstance lightened our spirits wonderfully. The main incident of the day was the taking of a rebel battery, a short distance from us, at the point of the bayonet.
5
66
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
It had been firing nearly all day upon our teams. Major Camp- bell rejoined the regiment from his home, where he had been on sick leave. He left us at Bottom's Bridge."
McClellan's new position was selected by Commodore Rodgers, who declared to him that it would be necessary for the navy to fall back from Malvern Hill to a point below City Point, as the river channel was so near the Southern shore that it would not be pos- sible to bring up the transports should the enemy occupy City Point. Harrison's Landing was in his opinion the nearest suit- able point.
As indicated by Newcomb, troops, batteries, and trains moved towards the Landing all the night of July Ist and the morning of July 2d. The heavens opened and torrents "of rain' descended. Our division lay in a covering position to oppose any advance the enemy might make, but Lee had given up the chase. With our troops already on the James, under cover of our gunboats, he knew it was madness to pursue further.
So, quite unmolested, the sodden, tired men, the trains of wounded, our batteries and wagon trains, floundered through mud into Harrison's Landing, and not till all were past us, the last wagon and the last straggling man, did we of the rear guard move into that haven of rest and safety for the beaten, battered, exhausted Army of the Potomac.
CHAPTER VIII.
HARRISON'S LANDING.
Evlington Heights -- General MeClellan's Address to the Army -- From the Richmond Enquirer-A Foraging Raid and its Results-A Morning Alarm-From the Diaries-Lee Relieves Richmond by Threatening Washington -- The Retreat to Yorktown. 4
THE Army of the Potomac occupied a line of heights encircling a plain that extended along the river. These heights, Evlington by name, commanded our whole position, and how nearly we came to losing them, to our undoing, is perhaps not generally known.
The 3d of July, while our divisions were massed on the river, as yet not disposed for defense, Stuart's cavalry rode up Evlington Heights, not then occupied, and, finding that they overlooked our camps, injudiciously began to throw shells from their howitzers into our lines. At the same time, Stuart sent word to Longstreet and Jackson of the commanding position, hitherto unknown to them or to our commanders. But before Longstreet or JJackson could reach Stuart with infantry, our own infantry had been moved out and had taken the heights in force, which they immediately proceeded to fortify. Had Stuart remained quiet until the rebel infantry had taken position on these heights, the result might have been most disastrous to our army.
But with these heights occupied, the flanks of our army resting on the river and the crecks running into the James on the right. and left, and the guns of the fleet added to those of our batteries, the rebel engineers decided that our position was practically im- pregnable.
General McClellan issued the following address to the army :
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP NEAR HARRISON'S LANDING, VA., Friday, July Ath, 1862.
Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac! Your achievements of the last ten days have illustrated the valor and endurance of the American soldier. Attacked by superior forces, and without hope
-
68
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
of reinforcements, you have succeeded in changing your base of operations by a flank movement, always regarded as the most hazardous of military experiments.
You have saved all your material, all your trains, and all your guns except a few lost in battle, taking in return guns and colors from the enemy. Upon your march you have been assailed day after day with desperate fury by men of the same race and nation, skillfully massed and led.
Under . every disadvantage of numbers, and, necessarily, of position also, you have in every conflict beaten back your foes with enormous slaughter. Your conduct ranks you among the celebrated armies of history. No one will now question that each of you may always with pride say : " I belong to the Army of the Potomac." You have reached the new base, complete in organiza- tion and unimpaired in spirit.
The enemy may at any time attack you. We are prepared to meet them. I have personally established your lines. Let them come, and we will convert their repulse into a final defeat. Your Government is strengthening you with the resources of a great people.
On this our Nation's birthday, we declare to our foes, who are rebels against the best interests of mankind, that this army shall enter the capital of the so-called Confederacy; that our National Constitution shall prevail ; and that the Union, which can alone insure internal peace and external security to cach State, "must and shall be preserved," cost what it may in time, treasure, and blood.
(Signed), GEO. B. MCCLELLAN.
This bravely and hopefully worded address is an epitome of the campaign of the Peninsula, and its epitaph.
However unsatisfactory the " change of base" was to the people of the North, it was a most welcome one to the army. Not that its fighting qualities were impaired to a great degree, but it had lost in the swamps of the Chickahominy more men from disease than from bullets, and nearly every man, from the Commander-in- Chief down to the drummer boys, had had his greater or less touch of fever -- an enemy that killed hundreds, invalided thousands, and physically weakened all still with the colors. For example, D Company of the Eleventh marched into Harrison's Landing just about a dozen strong, and A Company marched in behind D with a bare half-dozen to its name. Curiously enough. the men that held out were mainly " ponies," the left files of the companies -- the youngsters the brawny Anaks of the right files had so benevo- Jently, while in Washington, talked of carrying on their shoulders
--
-
.
69
HARRISON'S LANDING.
when the little fellows should give out on the march. But from that time forward it was demonstrated that mere weight is a marching disqualification ; that, as MeDowell puts it somewhere, the skin of a heavy man is no thicker than that of a light one, while the wear and tear of cuticle is in proportion to weight- the greater the weight the greater the inflammation, and the greater the inflammation the greater the exhaustion.
We trailed into Harrison's Landing worn out and exhausted, and with sadly thinned ranks ; but the general recuperation was speedy, the purer air and water thinning out the hospitals to strengthen the battle line.
The Richmond Enquirer stated the sanitary advantage of the new position : " Ten days ago when MeClellan beleaguered Rich- mond, with the exception of about five miles of the Chickahom- iny low ground he occupied the most barren and, at the same time, the worst watered and most unhealthy region of Eastern Virginia. Agues, hoop-poles, and whortleberries have been always the only sure crops of the country. Within a radius of ten miles about the Seven Pines, taking that point as a center, and bnt two living streams cross the Nine Mile or Williamsburg roads, between Richmond and Bottom's Bridge. On these two roads, with the Seven Pines as their headquarters, the very pick and flower of the Northern army was concentrated, and here for weeks their vigor and numbers melted away under the influence of the miasma, bad water, and a Southern sun ; but by his hasty trip through White Oak Swamp, MeClellan has emerged with thinned ranks into a more genial land. A broad, fresh river flows before him, while. his tired and hungry hordes will find boundless supplies in as fair and rich a valley as the sun shines ou. The country on the lower James River is the very garden spot of Virginia. Nowhere does the soil better repay the toil and skill of the husbandman."
Yet so ill informed was our War Department of the character of the country we were now in that General Halleck gravely stated to General MeClellan, as one of the reasons for the with- drawal of the army from the Peninsula : " The months of July . and August are almost fatal to whites who live on that portion of the James River."
Our regiment was encamped on the left of the line, and our camp was near the river. Here we led a quiet life. "There was but one alarm, that of the morning of August 1st, when the enemy
1
70
THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
ran some light guns to Coggin's Point, opposite Harrison's Land- ing, and proceeded to shell the Landing. For about thirty min- utes there was a lively exchange of shell between the battery and our gunboats. The result was that the enemy was glad to fall back. This led General McClellan to make a landing at Coggin's Point, and to fortify it as a protection to Harrison's Landing, and as a point of departure to the south side of the James, if such a movement should be decided on ; in thought anticipating 1864.
Many foraging and scouting parties took the field from Harri- son's Landing. The only raid I was personally engaged in was a foraging one a party of us made to an island opposite City Point. We were well outside our line for awhile, but we did not sight a single Confederate soldier. The only sign of the Confederacy that we saw was a bars and stars flag floating from the garrison flagstaff at City Point. Getting the use of a couple of boats, we made a landing on the island. We found it defended by a vigor- ous-tongued lady only, who gave us her opinion of Yankees, present and absent, without stint. We each took it, as a character of my native town said he took a broomsticking his wife ouce gave him, " like a little man," and consoled ourselves by carrying off stores of tobacco, flour, fowls-everything that we could, or imag. ined we could, use in any way-loading our boats to the gun- wales, and rowing away under the fire of the indomitable matron's tongue.
Some of our raiding party killed their chickens and ate them. Others tried to keep theirs as egg-bearers, tying them to the legs of their shelter-teut frames. The tents had been set on stilted frames to enable the occupants to sleep off the ground. The arrangement consisted of four crotched sticks holding two stout poles, across which a bed bottom formed of small poles was laid transversely and close together over the whole size of the base of the shelter tent. On this primitive bedstead were piled boughs and the blankets of the two or three occupants of each tent. But to return to our hens. This and that one failed to carry out the hopes of her Yankee captor, who would decide that a nice pot-pie in the dish was better than eggs in expectation ; and after one or two of the tethered creatures had mysteriously disappeared while their owners were asleep, the neck-wringing craze became a general one. The tobacco lasted longer. The flour ? Oh ! those doughboy pancakes made of flour, salt and water, and
9
71
HARRISON'S LANDING.
fried in pork fat on tin plates, then caten after being well smothered in commissary molasses. " Wow, docther, for the love of God," moaned Private Pat Doherty. " What's the matter, Pat ?" " Oh ! docther," groaned the irrepressible Irishunan, "it's flapjacks made of flour, ground of whate that grew on land that was manoored wid the lavings of a kicking mule."
The diary record for the month of July shows that during it we were occupied in throwing up intrenchments, cutting trees in front of the works, and in generally strengthening our position, . and that during this month General Naglee went North on leave, and Brigadier-General Emory took command of the brigade.
Perhaps as good a way to revive the memory of the life we led here will be to select from Maxfield's diary for July.
"July 3d .- On picket. The reserve pickets made sad havoc with the droves of pigs strolling around. Returned to the regi- ment in the afternoon. The regiment fell in and marched about one and a half miles and encamped near the James."
"July 4th .- Just after noon we were drawn up in line and General Mcclellan passed us."
"July 5th .-- Near night we moved about half a mile and camped in the woods in line of battle, pitching our shelter tents in rear of the stacks."
"July 6th .-- With about forty others was detailed to fall trees to strengthen our position."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.