USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 44
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On the 30th of October the Fifth Corps broke camp and marched by way of Harper's Ferry, a point at which the Potomac river was crossed, to Warrenton, Virginia. This march occupied ten days, and during its con- tinuance the men of the Sixteenth, in common with those of other regi- ments, foraged almost at will in the country through which they passed; the result was that their commissariat was abundantly supplied with rations of the best quality. "So well," says Captain Powers, "was the regiment sup- plied with poultry, fresh meats, honey and preserves that the commanding officer of the division made a sly insinuation to Colonel Stockton that the Sixteenth must have had a lax training in its youth to so soon forget that high moral culture that had made the Army of the Potomac so fond of fur- nishing food for the powder of rebel bushwhackers."
On the arrival of the Fifth Corps at Warrenton, the regiment found itself under a new commander of the Army of the Potomac-General Burn- side-who had superseded General McClellan in that command on the 5th of November; at about the same time General Porter was relieved of the command of his corps. General Burnside, on assuming command of the army, reorganized it into three grand divisions of two corps each. The Fifth and Third Corps forming the centre grand division were placed under command of "Fighting Joe" Hooker.
The army, resuming its march reached the Acquia Creek railroad on the 26th of November, and the brigade of which the Sixteenth Michigan formed a part encamped in the vicinity of what was afterwards known as Stoneman's Switch.
On the 12th of December the Fifth Corps moved to the Rappahannock river, opposite Fredericksburg, where the commander of the army was pre- paring for the great battle which was fought on the following day. During the progress of that unequal fight the Third Brigade remained quiescent until about four p. m., when it was ordered across the river. It crossed and formed line in the outskirts of the town, then advanced under a heavy fire of musketry and canister, halting near the front at a point which was slightly protected by the conformation of the field. This position was held, but with some loss, until darkness closed the contest for the day. The fight was renewed on the 14th, but the results were far less sanguinary, both sides held their ground, though the general result was most disastrous to the Union arms.
At midnight of the 15th the brigade went to the front and withdrew all the pickets on that part of the field, and shortly after daylight crossed to
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the north side of the Rappahannock as the main body of the army had done during the night.
The Sixteenth Regiment cannot be said to have participated prominently in the battle of Fredericksburg, but it performed all that was required of it, and in doing so sustained a loss of twenty-three killed and wounded. After the battle it went into winter quarters at Stoneman's Switch.
In the spring, after General Hooker had been placed in command of the army and was making preparation for that forward movement which ended at Chancellorsville, the Sixteenth moved with the other regiments of the command to the Rappahannock and passed up on the left bank of the river April 27. It crossed to the south side of the stream on the 28th and was present on the field of Chancellorsville during all of the three bloody days succeeding May I, taking part in the fight at Hooker's headquarters on Sun- day, but sustaining no heavy attacks and losing only one killed and six wounded. At the close of the campaign it recrossed the river with the army and returned to camp at Falmouth, where on the 18th of May at even- ing parade Colonel Stockton took leave of the regiment, having resigned for the purpose of raising a brigade of Tennessee troops, under authority con- ferred by Gov. Andrew Johnson and sanctioned by the war department. This resignation gave the command of the regiment to Lieut-Col. Norval E. Welch who was afterwards killed in an assault upon the enemy's works at Poplar Grove Church in the Petersburg campaign.
Early in June it was learned that the enemy was moving towards the Shenandoah valley and the Army of the Potomac was put in motion to meet and oppose him. On the 20th, at Aldie, the Third Brigade joined General Pleasonton on an expedition to disperse Stuart's cavalry, which resulted in a fight at Middleburg, June 21, in which the loss of the Sixteenth was nine wounded; this was one-half the loss of the whole brigade. The command then returned to Aldie where it remained till the 25th, when it commenced a forced march to Maryland and Pennsylvania; it reached Gettysburg in the morning of July 2, when the great conflict had already commenced. The Third Brigade was detached from the remainder of the division and about three p. m. was posted on the Little Round Top, forming the extreme left of the Union line. The order of the brigade line was as follows: On the left, the Twentieth Maine, Colonel Chamberlain; next, the Thirty-third Pennsylvania, Captain Woodward; next the Forty-fourth New York, Colonel Rice; and on the right, the Sixteenth Michigan, Colonel Welch; the brigade being under command of Colonel Vincent who on that day fell mortally wounded. In this position the brigade was soon attacked by Hood's
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division of Longstreet's corps. The enemy came on impetuously and with great confidence on account of superiority in numbers, being a division against a single brigade; but his repeated assaults were successfully repelled. His last attack was made simultaneously on the front and flank of the brigade so that the Maine regiment was compelled to change face to repel the flank- ing column. But the work was bravely and successfully done, and when ammunition was well-nigh exhausted and no reinforcements were near, Colonel Rice, who succeeded to the command of the brigade when Vincent fell, sent word to each of the regimental commanders to fix bayonets and on a signal from him, to charge. The enemy received the charge steadily at first, then wavered, rallied, wavered again, and at last broke in confusion, with a loss of five hundred prisoners and over one thousand stand of arms. The brigade pressed on through the valley and halted with its left resting on Big Round Top, on which its line was soon after established. The fight- ing at Little Round Top was nearly all in which the Sixteenth took active part at Gettysburg, and in it the loss of the regiment was sixty in killed and wounded.
A special correspondent of the New York Tribune mentions the brigade as follows :
While this main battle, involving two-thirds of both armies, had for its object the possession of Sickles' false line, an episodical combat had taken place upon the scythe- handle itself, more limited but more furious. When, at the beginning of the fight, the Texan line overlapped the left of Sickles', and burst across the Devil's Den, there were not Union soldiers on either of the Round Tops, only a group of signal-men and General Warren, the chief engineer, on the Smaller Knob. The rebel column looked up amazed. No troops peered over to oppose them. Lonely and frightened, the little bunch of signal-men flung their mysterious messages through the blue air. But the natural grimness of the gnarled mountain seemed of itself to intimidate the arrested Texans. Like a fortress dismantled, it rose, piled high with natural masonries, and on its granite ramparts oaks of a hundred years waved darkly. The signal colors were no more than tulips, as they blew to and fro on its deserted profile. Its flanks were wild ravines, like the lairs of satyrs and goblins. Before this northern hill the tangled-haired Texans shrank an instant, looking up through powdery countenances. Then, with a yell, they moved up among the bowlders and quarries, threw their sharp- shooters into shelves of outcropping shale and hollow rhomboids of gneiss and green- stone, and at the crest of Little Round Top, their artillery, far behind, hailed showers of shell and ball.
It was a terrible instant. With the Round Top lost, the Union position would be a scythe without a handle, a man one-armed and one-footed; the destruction of the whole army was positive. Already the signal flags were folded; the signal men were retreating.
"Stay !" cried Warren, "you are the army now. Wave your flags, as if they stood in line of battle, and you ten were ten thousand."
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They shook down defiances-that handful of impotent telegraphers-and raised a cheer out of their forlornness that was like a dying comedian's laugh.
For a moment the Texans wavered; they closed up column and advanced more slowly, anticipating a desperate defense.
Just then music burst through one of the gorges and the tread of men came in from the rear. They wore blue uniforms. They were marching to the peach orchard to reinforce Birney. Warren galloped down, his dark Indian face almost bloodless. "I must have a brigade," he said. "I take the responsibility of detaching you, General Vincent ! Out yonder we may be repulsed; here we should be destroyed."
The brigade of Vincent faced left and ran up the hill with a will. The plain, morass gorge and farther woodside, as they looked over, was full of advancing, deploy- ing, flanking columns of gray. A huzza they flung over their bristling bayonets as they boldly advanced down the declivity, and simultaneous volleys poured upward and downward. Hazlitt, the gunner, came also at Warren's command. His battery would not budge on the rock-strewn height. The horses could not keep their balance up the almost vertical places, with the dead weight of thirty-pounders below them. Pioneers, with frenzied blows, leveled the oak trees; they charged the bowlders and blew them to pieces; they made a roadway as speedily as a housewife sweeps a stair. Then to every gun lines of men put their sinews and shoulders. Lever and shovel cleared the path. A flying battery, indeed, it went hawking into the clouds, and when it screamed from its eyrie the line of battle-flags waved like the pinions of its young. Warren was away for reinforcements. Vincent shouted, "Aim, men ! We must hold fast here though we all perish."
"Aye! Aye!" came in the niche between the volleys.
Now the strong mountain groaned to see the blood they spilt down his face. He grew into a volcano, palpitating, smoking, running over with fire. Great seams of blaze zigzagged down his cheeks. His eyes were shot through with shells. Into the oaken tangles of his hair men climbed like battle-panthers and, mortally shot in their perches, leaped out with a yell of rage.
Steadily, deadly, murderous, the Texans, column after column, wound up the ledges. Vincent's ammunition was failing. His men robbed the cartridge boxes of their slain comrades. They rolled the boulders down and half way to the base stabbed and parried with cold steel. Side swords were crossed. Heads opened to scabbard cuts. The devilish things that were done half way to heaven on that scarred knob will haunt it a thousand years. The hot battery quaked over all through its natural granite embrasures. Line after line driven back, new columns of yelling savages leaped upward.
Men of Maine, Michiganders, New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians hurled them back. From a series of charges the enemy's attack resolved into a volleying rest, lying upon their faces. A cry ran through the Union line almost plaintive in its poverty : "The ammunition is out !"
Then said young Chamberlain, of Maine, a boy-faced college professor: "Men ! Our only hope is in the steel; charge with me!" Like the swooping out of the clouds of a flock of blackbirds, gold-daggered, upon the files of corn, the lumbermen and watermen of Maine whistled down the precipices, the rebel lines were swallowed, as if the ground had opened, into the gorges behind the Devil's Den and Round Top was saved to the Union, of which it became the keystone, indeed, on this decisive day of blood.
Standing now on Round Top, who can revive all the strong or beautiful episodes that were written on the scorched parchment of this landscape; the tenderness, the
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atrocities, the forgivenesses, the lonely agonies, the crying on deaf men to help and blind men to have mercy. A hundred and fifty thousand fighting men represented the population of the greatest city. Set this city afire, loosen the jails and dens of it, make fiends howl in 'the flames for lust or fly in despair, send charity and heroism upon bold and noble errands, and you have superficial battle. What noble hearts ceased to beat at Gettysburg and got no fame; what awful crimes were committed and got no infamy ! Dropped into the century and the republic, the good and the evil that fell that day were but as the poisons and the sweets that ripen in the purple apple.
In the morning of the 3d the brigade was relieved and took position in the rear of the main line. On the morning of July 5 it was discovered that the enemy had retreated and the Fifteenth marched with the army in pursuit. Slight collisions were had with Lee's rear guard at Jones' Cross Roads on the 10th, and at Williamsport, Maryland, on the 12th of July. On the 17th the regiment crossed the Potomac at Berlin and was almost constantly on the march from that time until September 16 when it reached Culpeper. There it remained till October 7, when it moved to Raccoon Ford and crossed the Rapidan. It crossed the Rappahannock on the 10th, recrossed on the 11th, and moved to Brandy Station, where the enemy was attacked by a portion of the corps; but the Sixteenth Regiment was not engaged. Another period then ensued of marching and countermarching, with a stay of a week in camp on the Orange and Alexandria railroad, until the 7th of November, when the Sixteenth was slightly engaged and lost three wounded in the capture of a rebel work near Rappahannock Station. It moved with the army, November 26, on the Mine Run campaign, which ended without results on the 2d of December, when the regiment went into camp on the north bank of the Rap- pahannock near the railway station.
At this place nearly three hundred members of the regiment re-enlisted as veterans, were mustered as such on the 24th of December, and about a week later left for Michigan on furlough. They reached Detroit on the 9th of January. At the expiration of their furlough February 9, they reassem- bled at Saginaw City, and on the 17th left that place to rejoin the army. On their return the regiment made winter quarters at Bealton Station, where they remained till April 30, 1864, when they moved to Brandy Station pre- paratory to commencing the campaign of the Wilderness.
In that campaign the movements of the Sixteenth were too numerous to follow in detail. It moved across the Rapidan at Germania Ford, May 4, and on the 6th and 7th took part in the battles of the Wilderness, sustaining no loss on the 6th, but losing on the following day thirty-five in killed and wounded. On the 8th it made a forced march to Laurel Hill near Spottsyl- vania Court House, and in the evening of that day was attacked by the enemy
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in an almost impassable swamp; but its loss was inconsiderable, while a con- siderable number of the enemy were taken prisoners. May 22 the Sixteenth moved from Spottsylvania towards the North Anna river and, being the advanced guard of the corps, it encountered the rear guard of the enemy at Polecat creek and captured a considerable number of prisoners. The next day it was engaged at North Anna river, where it charged successfully and drove the enemy. It crossed the Pamunkey river at Hanover Town in the morning of the 28th, and assisted in throwing up works on South creek. On the 29th it moved to Tolopotomoy creek and crossed it just before evening. May 30 it moved forward and became engaged with the enemy, losing the major, Robert T. Elliott, who was killed at the head of the regiment. On June I the brigade was ordered to advance its line, and in doing so was brought under a raking cross-fire. The Sixteenth advanced, drove the enemy from their rifle-pits and held the position thus secured. The next day the corps took up a new position and while the movement was in progress the enemy attacked in heavy force, but a heavy storm came up and stopped the battle; it was renewed, however, on the 3d of June, and again on the 4th. This three days' fight was near Bethesda church, and in it the Sixteenth Regiment was engaged during each day. From this point it moved by way of Cold Harbor and Dispatch Station to the left bank of the Chickahominy, and there remained until the 12th, this being its first rest since crossing the Rapidan on the 4th of May; the intervening time had been constantly em- ployed in march, skirmish, or battle.
On the 13th of June the regiment crossed the Chickahominy by the Long Bridge and marched to the James river, which it crossed on the 16th and arrived in front of Petersburg on the 17th. Then followed a month of severe labor in the trenches, from which the regiment was relieved and placed in reserve August 15. Three days later it moved to the Weldon railroad, and was there engaged in the construction and occupation of defenses until Sep- tember 30 when it formed part of the force which stormed and carried the enemy's fortifications near Poplar Grove church, in which desperate assault the Sixteenth lost fifty-two killed and wounded, among the former being the commanding officer of the regiment, Colonel Welch, who died on the parapet.
Following the death of Colonel Welch, Major Partridge assumed com- mand of the regiment, retaining it until the muster out of service. A corre- spondent writes as follows :
"A more magnificent charge was never made by any corps in any war," said Gen- eral Warren, speaking of the charge made today by General Griffin's division upon a
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redoubt and line of formidable breastworks fronting upon our headquarters. The place is called Peeble's farm, from this being the name of the owner and late occupant of a large deserted house nearby, five miles from Petersburg and about the same distance from the Danville railroad. "Was it not a splendid charge?" I have heard scores ask. The natural tendency of General Warren to speak in terms of glowing exulta- tion of the brilliant and daring achievements of his troops, or any portion of them, cannot in this case be set down as exaggeration. Everyone who saw the charge, or who has expressed an opinion on it-and there are none who have not passed an opinion-speak in the highest terms of the dash, courage and impetuosity of the men engaged. There were two charges made, and subsequently some fighting. I will recite the events in the order of their occurrence. The story is not lengthy, for in each case the rout was short and decisive.
At 9 a. m. the First and Second Divisions of the corps, Colonel Hoffman's brigade of the Third Division and several batteries took up their line of march. The other troops of General Crawford's division and most of the corps batteries, together with a division of the Ninth Corps, remained to hold the works and forts at our old position, the latter troops, as well as the batteries, being under General Crawford's command. Arriving at the edge of a piece of woods, fronting which was an open space, beyond Peeble's house, was seen a redoubt and a line of the enemy's entrenchments. The enemy's pickets, meantime, had fallen back before our advancing column to the redoubt. The enemy opened with six pieces of artillery. To this redoubt and the earthworks in the distance was not over six hundred yards and a line of battle was formed.
It was determined to charge this redoubt and the works. The charge was made solely by General Griffin's division. General Ayres' division was on the right of Gen- eral Griffin's, and Colonel Hoffman's brigade on the right of the former division; but the latter troops did not charge. The Eighteenth Massachusetts Battalion, Captain Bert commanding, was first sent forward as skirmishers, but found too weak, and was subsequently strengthened by the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania, Colonel Rinson, and the First Michigan, Major Hopper commanding. The order being given to charge, the skirmish battle lines soon advanced across the open ground. The charg- ing column pressed steadily, earnestly, persistently forward. Rebel shell and bullets had no dismaying effect.
"A commission to him who first mounts the parapet of that redoubt," shouted Colonel Welch, of the Sixteenth Michigan, to his men. "Follow me!" He led his regi- ment. He was the first to mount the parapet, when he waved his sword. In an instant a rebel bullet penetrated his brain and he lay dead. The men followed simultaneously and mounted the works at different points, the colors of some half dozen regiments floating triumphantly where a few moments before rebel colors had flaunted their traitorous folds to the breeze. It is no wonder that there should be different claimants for the honor of being the first to plant the Stars and Stripes on the works. All behaved magnificently and all are deserving of life and honor. Nearly one hundred prisoners were captured and one cannon. The enemy got off his remaining guns, but not all his horses.
"We have taken the enemy's first line of works; can you take the second?" shouted General Griffin. "Yes, yes," was the responsive shout from a thousand throats, and they did take the second line, as bravely as they took the first. In the second line was a second redoubt. Brave heroes had fallen, but a splendid victory, a double victory, had been won. It was all the work of a few minutes, a work requiring less time that I have taken to write it. The second line was on the farther edge of the open field, and beyond were woods. Through the latter woods the beaten enemy fled
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in haste. Two brigades of Heth's division were in the force opposing us. No artillery was used on our side. Both lines of earthworks were very strong and the redoubts were substantially put up. The Ninth Corps troops were shortly after placed in front of the Fifth Corps.
Desultory firing was kept up between the opposing pickets until about 5 p. m., when the enemy charged on the Ninth Corps, causing them to fall back in confusion. Quickly the Fifth Corps rushed to the rescue of the Ninth, and sent the enemy back beyond the ground he had recovered. Night and darkness and rain ended the day's conflict. But it has been a day of splendid success, and our troops-as well they may be-are jubilant over their victory.
Major Partridge, Sixteenth Michigan, but commanding the Eighty-third Pennsyl- vania, had an exceedingly narrow escape. He was hit on the chin by a minie ball, which struck the neck, just glancing the jugular vein, and then entering the shoulder and passing out at the back.
There is deep and universal regret at the loss of Colonel Welch. A more popular and vigilant officer was not in the division. Not twenty-seven years of age, .a most promising career in the future seemed open before I.im. He came out as major of the regiment. Impulsive, patriotic and fearless, he was brave to rashness, and this was his great and only fault. After completing his education, he became a student at law, which profession he had just entered upon with the most brilliant prospects of success before him, when, like thousands of the brilliant young men of our country, he entered the army to fight in defense of his country. At one time he was private secretary to Lewis Cass. His body will be embalmed and sent home. Captain Finley, commissary, his classmate and fellow-townsman, will convey his remains to his friends in Michigan.
For more than two months after this battle the regiment lay most of the time in the trenches at Poplar Grove church. In December it accompanied the corps on a raid to Bellefield, Virginia, on which about sixteen miles of railroad was destroyed. It was in the trenches before Petersburg during January, 1865, and on the 6th and 7th of February took part in the battle of Dabney's Mills, losing heavily. It fought at Hatcher's Run, March 25; at White Oak Road, March 29; at Quaker Road, March 31; at Five Forks, April 1 ; at Amelia Court House, April 5, and at High Bridge, April 6. After Lee's surrender it marched to Sutherland Station, where it remained stationed during April, and early in May it marched to Washington, D. C., arriving there on the 12th and taking part in the grand review of the Army of the Potomac, May 23. It was encamped near Washington until the 16th of June, when it moved under orders for Louisville, Kentucky, arriving there on the 21st. Thence it moved across the river to Jeffersonville, Indiana, and was there mustered out of service July 8. The men and officers left on the Ioth for Michigan, and on the 12th arrived at Jackson, where on the 25th of July, 1865, they received their pay and were disbanded.
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