History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 20

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 617

USA > Michigan > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 20

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).

" While the Twenty-sixth was in camp at Jackson, and immediately preceding the march of the regiment to the front, it received from the fair hands of the ladies of Jackson a magnificent silk flag,-the field of blue, with letters of gold. The presentation speech was made in good taste by the Hon. Fidus Livermore, who had been commissioned by the Governor, as commander of the camp, to raise the regiment ; and which was responded to in a patriotic manner by Colonel J. S. Farrar, commanding the regiment. The flag was borne by the Twenty-sixth through many sanguinary fields, and what is left of it is now in the archives of the State."

The regiment, nine hundred strong, left Jackson on the thirteenth of December, 1862, and pro- ceeded, by way of Cleveland, Ohio; Elmira, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Baltimore, to Washington, where it arrived on the eighteenth. A day or two later it crossed the Potomac and marched to Alexandria, where it remained a short

time and moved out to Union Mills, which place was reached on the twenty-first. It was supposed that this would be its winter quarters; but on the twenty-ninth it was moved back to Alexandria, and detailed for duty as provost-guard, Lieutenant- Colonel Wells being made provost-marshal of the city. The camp of the regiment was in the sub- urbs of Alexandria, and here it remained for about four months,-a period which is remembered by the survivors of the regiment as among the most agreeable of any in their war experience. It was while the regiment was stationed at this place that the small newspaper called Our Camp Journal was started,-its editors being Lieutenant L. D. Burch, Lieutenant C. H. Holden, and Henry H. Smith. The first number appeared under date of April I, 1863, and it was afterwards occasionally issued at several different camps of the regiment.

One event of a peculiarly sad nature, however, occurred to cast a gloom over the regiment during its stay, which was the death of Lieutenant Wash- ington W. Burch, of one of the Livingston compa- nies. A notice of the event, and a just tribute to the character of the dead lieutenant, was pub- lished in the special correspondence of the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune immediately afterwards, as follows :

"The saddest incident of all our history as a regi- ment was the death of First Lieutenant W. W. Burch, of Company B, which occurred on the morning of February 7th. He was a brave, generous, and high- minded officer, and by his gentlemanly bearing had won the admiration of the entire regiment. How much we loved him, and how greatly he had endeared himself to us all, no words of mine may ever tell. But when our work as soldiers is done, and we are ' home again,' full of the sad and joyous memories of all we have seen and felt and heard, not the least of them will be the recollection of our chivalrous lieutenant, whose pure nature was incapable of wrong."

On the twentieth of April, 1863, the Twenty- sixth, under marching orders, embarked at Alex- andria on board the steamer "Zephyr," and pro- ceeded down the Potomac, bound for an unknown destination. At night the steamer had reached the mouth of the Potomac, and there anchored. In the morning she resumed her way, and that night (April 21st) the regiment was disembarked at Nor- folk, Virginia. From this place-on the twenty- second-it proceeded to Suffolk, Virginia, which place was then threatened by the enemy, under General Longstreet. The Twenty-sixth arrived at Suffolk at ten o'clock P.M., and on the following morning made its camp on the western outskirts of the town. It was assigned to duty with the Third Brigade (General Terry), First Division,

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Seventh Army Corps, in the department of General Dix. On Friday, April 24th, the men had their first glimpse of the horrors of actual war, in seeing a large number of wounded brought in from the front past its camp, on their way to the hospital in Suffolk.

On the sixteenth of May the regiment left its camp at Suffolk and moved out ten miles, to " De- serted House." Here was the New York Sixty- ninth (then under command of Colonel Corcoran), and a number of other regiments. On the twenty- third of May the Twenty-sixth was ordered to the front, and became engaged in a skirmish with the enemy in the vicinity of Windsor. A member of the regiment who was in this fight wrote of it as follows :

" Our brigade, with two others, went out on a re- connoissance towards Blackwater River. We did not find the enemy in very heavy force, although it was reported that Longstreet had several thousand men in that vicinity. Our pickets had one or two slight skirmishes with the rebels, but without any- thing disastrous occurring to us. While our men were out on picket the enemy made a charge on our line, at a post where Company A was on duty, near the edge of a narrow strip of woods. The rebels charged through the woods, yelling like ten thousand demons, thinking thus to intimidate our boys, who were now for the first time hearing and seeing 'gray-backs' face to face on the field of battle. But they stood their ground like veterans. When the enemy came in sight of our men, they found they had a foe to contend with ' well worthy of their steel.' Although the enemy outnumbered us three to one, yet on seeing the firmness with which we stood our ground, they thought 'discre- tion the better part of valor,' and returned back faster than they came; and, as turn about is con- sidered fair play, our men now charged on them, and sent them back again beyond the woods."

In this affair Captain John C. Culver, of E Com- pany, was mortally wounded, while in command of a detachment, scouting in the woods outside the picket-line. The ball took effect in his right arm, between the shoulder and elbow, and though it was not at first thought to be dangerous, ampu- tation became necessary, and the brave captain died in the hospital at Suffolk in the afternoon of Sunday, the twenty-fourth of May. By this casu- alty the command of the company devolved on Lieutenant Hadley, who was immediately after- wards commissioned as its captain. During its stay on the Blackwater the regiment was engaged in another skirmish (June 17th), in which, how- ever, it sustained little or no loss; and on the nineteenth of June it left Suffolk by rail for Nor-

folk, where it was embarked the same night on board the steamer "Utica" and transported to Yorktown, on the Virginia peninsula, where it became a part of the force under General E. D. Keyes. It was disembarked at ten P.M. on Satur- day, the twentieth, and on the following Monday was moved out on the road to Williamsburg, which town it passed through on the twenty-third, and camped eight miles beyond. From this place it marched to Cumberland Landing and White House. Moving from the latter place on the first of July, it marched up the Peninsula to the vicinity of Bottom's Bridge, on the Chickahominy, where it remained for eight days on the plantation for- merly of ex-President John Tyler. Nothing of much importance happened there, and on the eleventh the regiment, with the other forces of General Keyes' command, reached Yorktown on the return. At eleven o'clock in the evening of the same day the Twenty-sixth embarked on a steamer at Yorktown, destined for Maryland and Pennsylvania, as the officers and men thought ; but the opinion proved unfounded. At nine o'clock the next morning it arrived at Washington, and soon after left by railroad for the North. It was now understood that its destination was New York City, being moved there in view of the necessity of using its power to quell the lawless and mur- derous hordes who were inciting resistance to the military draft. Arriving in New York on the six- teenth it was first quartered in the Park Barracks, then in the old arsenal on White and Centre Streets, and was shortly afterwards moved to Fort Richmond, Staten Island.

Shortly after the encampment of the Twenty- sixth on Staten Island, three companies (D, E, and G), with a battery, were transported by steamer to Tarrytown, on the Hudson River. Here, at their pleasant "Camp Irving," they remained some two or three weeks, which was a season of great enjoy- ment, and of very little laborious duty to the soldiers, so that marching orders, when they came, were received with much regret. A member of the command, in writing of the stay at Tarrytown, and the scenes immediately preceding their depar- ture from it, said, "There is not an officer or soldier of our little battalion, or the battery, but has some peculiar and pleasant attachment to Tarrytown. When it was known that we had marching orders, the ladies purchased and pre- sented to the battalion a stand of colors, which presentation was made the occasion of a large patriotic gathering. The Rev. Mr. Wines pre- sented the flag on behalf of the ladies of Tarry- town, as a pledge of their devotion to their country, and an earnest of their future labors in its cause.

TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY.

He spoke in flattering terms of the conduct of the soldiers during their brief sojourn at Camp Irving, and was pleased to bear testimony to the intelli- gence and honor of Michigan soldiers. Rev. Mr. Todd followed in an enthusiastic and powerful speech, and Lieutenant Burch responded on the part of Captain Dailey and the officers and soldiers of his command. In behalf of Captain Dailey and his command, of Colonel Farrar and his regiment, of Governor Blair and the ladies of Michigan, he thanked the patriotic ladies of Tarrytown for the banner, and for the kindness and courtesy they had extended. In the hearts of these officers and soldiers henceforth Tarrytown and its loyal citizens would be canonized. The memory of all they had seen and felt and heard would go with them to their graves. The flag, the ladies, and the speakers were loudly cheered, and our work in Tarrytown was done. Long and pleasantly shall we remem- ber and speak of our visit on the Hudson, of the happy hours we passed in Camp Irving, of the pleasant evenings with the Clevelands, of our sail upon the river in Walter Byron's yacht, of Captain Storm and his kindness, and all the warm hearts and sunny faces of Tarrytown."

The Twenty-sixth was not called on to perform the duty for which it was transported to New York, and after a very pleasant stay of about three months, mostly passed amid the invigorating breezes of the lower bay, it left on the thirteenth of October, pro- ceeding south by railroad to rejoin the Army of the Potomac. In due time it reached Alexandria, and marched thence to Warrenton, Virginia, where it went into camp, and was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division of the Second Army Corps. On seventh of November the regiment moved thence to Stevensburg, where it again went into camp, and there remained until the twenty- sixth, when it moved forward with the army on the expedition to Mine Run. It crossed the Rap- idan at Germania Ford, and reached Robertson's Tavern on the twenty-seventh. On the twenty- ninth it had reached the front of the hostile works at Mine Run. The story of its assault of one of the enemy's positions is thus told by an officer who was present: "Shelling and sharpshooting, skir- mishing and reconnoitering are the order, until Sunday morning the twenty-ninth of November, when, dropping down upon the left of the line at White Hall Church, our brigade is thrown in the advance, and, forming into a strong skirmish-line, move forward under Colonel Miles and drive the enemy's pickets to within a mile of his main works, when we are ordered to halt in full view of his line of battle. Colonel Miles, commanding the brigade, Colonel Farrar, of the Twenty-sixth, and Colonel

McKean, of the Eighty-first Pennsylvania, were repeatedly shelled by the enemy's batteries as they rode out upon the field to reconnoitre. Eighty rods to our front, and between us and the enemy's right, a piece of pine-woods was held by a force twice our strength, both in numbers and advantage of position. After a half-hour's halt we were or- dered to charge the enemy from this position, and to hold the wood with our brigade. To charge across an open field for eighty rods exposed to a raking fire of musketry from the woods and shell from the batteries is no mean work, even for vet- erans; but the First Brigade knew how to do it, and so across they go with a yell and a will that puts the enemy to flight, and in ten minutes they hold the wood within easy musket range of the rebel intrenchments. Repeatedly they try to dis- lodge us from this position; but it is worse than useless, for amid the bursting of shells, the hissing of balls, and the falling of boughs, the men of the First Brigade are coolly holding their position, and Colonel Miles is not solicitous about the result. This charge cost us some noble blood. Captain Phillips, of the Eighty-first, is among the killed, and Lieutenant Mckinley, of the same regiment, ten of our own, and several from the Sixty-first New York, and other regiments, are wounded. From our great exposure to musketry and shell, it was only the bad practice of the enemy's gun- ners and infantry that prevented a hundred or more of us from being cut down."

The Mine Run expedition was but a reconnois- sance in force, and upon its completion the Twenty- sixth returned (December 3d) to its encampment at Stevensburg, where it remained in winter quar- ters, engaged only in picket duty (and in an expe- dition to Morton's Ford, February 6th and 7th), until the opening of the historic campaign of the Wilderness in the spring of 1864.

On the third of May at eleven P.M. the regiment marched away with its brigade from the Stevens- burg camp, and took the road to the Rapidan, each man carrying five days' rations and sixty rounds of ammunition. It crossed the river at Ely's Ford on the following day, and at night bivouacked on the old field of Chancellorsville. On the fifth, the march was resumed at an early hour, and by the middle of the afternoon the roar of battle was heard to the southward all along the front. The Twenty-sixth formed in line of battle, but was not engaged during this day. That night, and through the following day, it was employed in throwing up defensive works. On the seventh, Company E was sent out, and met the enemy in some force, but, having driven them a short distance and killed one officer and several men, retired again, finding it

100

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

impracticable to hold the position against the superior number of the Confederates. Then the regiment advanced, supported by the One Hundred and Fortieth Pennsylvania, and drove the enemy back, capturing two prisoners and some important dispatches, and losing one man from Company A.

On the eighth of May the regiment marched to Todd's Tavern, threw up some works, and then moved out towards Corbin's Bridge, skirmishing and losing one man wounded, after which it re- tired to the works at Todd's. On the ninth it crossed the Po River, and advanced about two miles to the immediate front of the enemy's line, and there lay on its arms through the night. In the morning of the tenth it covered the crossing of the Po River. On the eleventh it recrossed that stream, reconnoitred the enemy's position, became sharply engaged, and lost eighteen killed and wounded.

In the memorable and successful assault of the Second Corps on the enemy's works at Spottsyl- vania, on the twelfth of May, the Twenty-sixth took active and gallant part, charging with the bayonet, fighting hand to hand, capturing two brass guns with their gunners, and being the first regiment to plant its colors on the hostile works. It was also engaged in the desperate fight that followed the assault of the defenses, and assisted in the capture of a large number of guns, colors, and prisoners. In this day's work the loss of the regiment was one hundred and twenty-five killed and wounded and fourteen missing, it being after- wards found that the greater part of those reported missing were among the slain. Following are the lists, as published at the time, of the killed, wounded, and missing from the two Livingston companies of the Twenty-sixth in the slaughter of the twelfth of May.

COMPANY B. Killed. J. W. Wilson.

Wounded.

Charles R. Dutton.

Thomas Lister.

J. M. Kearney.

Watson Lister.

James W. Fife.

Squire Holt.

James D. Burgess.

James Waters.

Josiah H. Munick.

James A. Wilder.

Orlando H. Sly. G. E. Farnum.

W. S. Holmes. W. H. Dakin.

David Frink. J. H. Oaks.

James Metcalf. John Dago,

Missing.

Samuel D. Wood.

COMPANY E.

Killed.

Samuel B. Appleton.

Rufus H. Wines.

Eli Rambo.

John Olds.

Daniel Meekin.

Wounded.

Lieut. C. E. Grisson.

D. E. Hathaway.

Albert Bates.

Nelson T. Hinckley.

Edwin Butler. Sylvester Bates.

John Bennett.

Joseph Low.

Aaron Slater. Charles E. Royce.

B. F. Batcheler. Ashley C. Elder.

Missing.

George Petteys.

John M. Rice.

Newton T. Kirk.

The above lists, being official, are believed to be correct, though it is possible that they are not entirely so, having been made on the field, imme- diately after the battle.

On the night of the twentieth of May the regi- ment left its position at Spottsylvania Court-House and marched to the North Anna River, reaching that line on the twenty-third. The next day it crossed that stream at Jericho Bridge under a heavy artillery fire, and drove the enemy into his works, losing fourteen in killed and wounded. It recrossed the North Anna in the night of the twenty-sixth and marched to the Pamunkey River, which it crossed on the morning of the twenty- eighth, and advanced to a position near Hawes' Shop, which it at once fortified. On the twenty- ninth it moved to a reconnoissance of the enemy's position on Tolopotomoy Creek, in which move- ment three companies became engaged, and lost four men killed and wounded.

The regiment reached Cold Harbor on the sec- ond of June, and in the fighting of that and the following day lost fifteen wounded and five missing. The following nine days were passed on the skir- mish line and in the intrenchments, and during that time the loss of the regiment was ten in killed and wounded. On the thirteenth it moved across the Chickahominy. In the night of the fourteenth it crossed the James near the mansion of Dr. Wilcox, and reached the front of Peters- burg in the morning of the sixteenth. On the day of its arrival there, it took part in the assault by which the first line of Confederate rifle-pits were carried. In this attack it lost twelve in killed and

* Mr. N. T. Kirk, the present county clerk of Livingston, was taken prisoner at Spottsylvania, in the battle of that day, and spent some months in Andersonville prison, as is mentioned in Hosted by another place.

IOI

TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY.

wounded; among the latter (mortally) being its commanding officer, Captain James A. Lothian. Again, on the seventeenth it took part in the assault and capture of a line of works, and lost nine killed and wounded in the charge. On the eighteenth it skirmished with slight loss, and it was a part of the force which sustained and re- pulsed a determined attack of the enemy on our lines, on the twenty-second, near the Williams House.

In the morning of the twenty-sixth of July the regiment marched with its brigade to Deep Bot- tom, where, on the twenty-seventh, it participated in the assault and capture of the enemy's works, with four pieces of artillery and a large number of prisoners. On the following day it was engaged in a reconnoissance from Deep Bottom in the di- rection of New Market, and on this expedition it attacked and routed a largely superior force of Confederates, and compelled them to take refuge within their fortifications. It was not again seriously engaged until the sixteenth of August, at which time, near White Oak Swamp, it encountered the enemy, and in the sharp action which resulted lost seventeen killed and wounded, and seventeen prisoners, among the latter being Captain Dailey, its commanding officer.

The Twenty-sixth recrossed to the south side of the James River on the twentieth of August, and on the following day took its place in the lines fronting Petersburg. It moved to the Weldon Railroad on the twenty-second, and energetically worked at destroying the track until the twenty- fifth, when the force was furiously assaulted at Ream's Station by the enemy, and driven from its defenses, which were, however, retaken by a deter- mined charge, in which the Twenty-sixth took part, with considerable loss. From the fifth of September until the ninth of October it was em- ployed in constructing earthworks near the Wil- liams House, but on the latter date moved to a position farther to the right, and from the latter part of October for about five months it was daily employed in picket and fatigue duty in front of the invested city.

On the twenty-fifth of March, 1865, immediately after the furious Confederate attack on Forts Stead- man and Hancock, the Twenty-sixth Regiment, with its brigade, made a charge on the hostile works in its front, carrying a part of the line, and captured a considerable number of prisoners. The brigade occupied this position until the army com- menced its flanking movement to the left, when the Twenty-sixth moved as skirmishers in front of the corps during the twenty-ninth, thirtieth, and thirty- first of March, being heavily engaged in skirmish-

ing during a good part of the last-named day. From the first to the fourth of April it was en- gaged in the pursuit of the retreating enemy, and fighting every day. On the sixth of April the regiment attacked a train of two hundred and sixty wagons loaded with amunition and provis- ions, all of which were captured.

At the surrender of General Lee, the Twenty- sixth was in the skirmish line, and the flag of truce, which arranged the terms of the surrender, passed through the regiment's line. "From March 28th until April 9th the regiment had captured over four hundred prisoners, and during that time its losses had been, in killed and wounded, about sixty, or more than one-fourth of its number pres- ent for duty ; and had often been complimented by the brigade and division commanders as the best skirmishing regiment in the corps." It remained with the brigade at Appomattox for eight days after the surrender, parking the captured artillery and guarding the trains of captured arms and am- munition. It rejoined the army at Burkeville on the eighteenth, and remained there till May 2d, when it proceeded by rail through Richmond and Fredericksburg to Washington, D. C., where it arrived on the thirteenth, and took its place in the grand review of the Army of the Potomac on the twenty-third of May. It was mustered out of ser- vice on the fourth of June, reached Jackson, Michi- gan, on the seventh, and was paid and disbanded on the fourteenth of the same month.

EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER OF THE TWENTY- SIXTH AT ANDERSONVILLE.

Among the members of the Twenty-sixth Regi- ment who were unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the enemy during the terrible struggle at Spottsylvania on the 12th of May, 1864, and to find their way to the prison-pen at Andersonville, was Newton T. Kirk, of Company E, who spent several months in confinement there. Mr. Kirk (who is the present county clerk of Livingston) has written an account of the experience of him- self and fellow-prisoners in that frightful place, and extracts from that account are here given. There were other Livingston County men besides Mr. Kirk who suffered within that hideous inclos- ure, and his narrative of the atrocities which they there endured in, common, cannot fail to be read with interest.

"This prison," says Mr. Kirk, "was located in what has been called the Empire State of the South, on the railroad leading from Macon to Americus, and about sixty miles from the former place. Its location was selected in the latter part of 1863, after the rejection of several places more

102

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

suitable to the health and comfort of the prisoners, and with the intention, as was asserted, of building a pen for the Yankees where they would rot faster than they could be sent. In January, 1864, a stockade was erected of pine-logs, about twenty feet in height, inclosing an area of about seventeen acres ; to this was given the name ' Camp Sumter.' In the following July the inclosure was enlarged to afford room for the confinement of an increased number of prisoners, which was accomplished by extending the stockade about forty rods to the north ; the work being performed by the inmates of the prison. With the addition, the stockade embraced about twenty-three and a half acres. Across this, from west to east, and about one- third of the distance from the southerly end of the stockade, ran a sluggish stream of water, five or six feet wide, and bordered on the north by a low swamp, embracing an area of perhaps four or five acres. This swamp became in time the receptacle for the offal which naturally drained into it from the surface of the camp, as well as the wash and waste of the camps and cook-houses outside. Out- side the stockade, near where the stream entered it, the cook-house was located, and farther up, the rebel guards were accustomed to wash and bathe, while close to the stockade, animals were per- mitted to die and rot in its waters. This stream was the only place, with the exception of a few shallow wells and springs, from which the pris- oners could procure water for general use. When the stream entered the stockade, it was covered with a mantle of filth, grease, and drippings that continually floated upon it when the creek was at its ordinary stage. From this pure and in- vigorating stream the prisoners drew their main supply of water. Outside the main stockade were two other lines built for defense and protection, in case of attempts to escape on the part of the pris- oners; one being twelve, the other sixteen feet in height. The hospital was situated outside the lines, some distance from the southeast corner of the camp, having been erected in June, 1864. There were two entrances to the stockade, both on the westerly side, one north, and the other south of the stream, secured by strongly-con- structed gates. It was guarded and garrisoned by rebel troops, whose camps were on the west side. Thirty-five sentry-boxes, well sheltered from sun and rain, were provided for the guards, and placed on the top of the stockade, at intervals of one hundred feet, so that the sentinels could see all that transpired among the prisoners within. On an eminence on the southwest corner, command- ing the camp, were forts well supplied with artil- lery. The country around Andersonville prison

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.

History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 20

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 617

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 617