USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 11
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On the morning of the Ist, Hooker sent out columns by the river, turnpike and plank roads to meet Lee, over whom he had secured several strategic advantages in position, surprise, etc. But as soon as the opposing pickets met Hooker ordered his forces back and began to fell trees that night for an abatis, and to throw up rifle pits, on the defensive, though having a greatly superior force-a movement strangely enigmatical to this day. Military critics aver that he frittered away a golden opportunity for victory.
All day Saturday, the 2d, Hooker lay upon the defensive. Now, it was Lee's turn to flank. While engaging Hooker with front demonstrations, he sent "Stonewall" Jackson with 22,000 men
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ROUTE OF "IRON BRIGADE " AT FITZHUGH CROSSING AND THE FIELD OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
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CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN.
around on the west side of Hooker and suddenly struck his right at five o'clock in the afternoon, completely scattering the Eleventh Corps, whose fleeing caused a panic. General Warren, with Hooker's old division and fifty pieces of artillery, stemmed Jackson's advance after dark. On Sunday morning the First Corps ( Reynolds') took the place of the Eleventh Corps.
Soon after nightfall the intrepid Confederate leader, " Stonewall" Jackson, with his staff, rode forward beyond his lines to make a personal reconnoissance, and when they turned back to re-enter their lines the party was fired upon by their own pickets, and Jackson mortally wounded. And thus died the greatest of Lee's generals. He was the Phil Sheridan of the Southern Army -a bold, dashing officer, with acuteness to comprehend the situation in an instant, and quickly take advantage of it. He was noted for successful flank movements, and though his soldiers did not love his exacting discipline, yet it was their boast that he usually gave them victory.
Lee's army was now divided. All of Hooker's forces but the Sixth Corps under Sedgwick lay between Lee's divided forces. Sedgwick was still below Falmouth, and could easily have joined the main body via the United States Ford without the loss of a man, and Hooker's army been thus united. But the latter ordered Sedgwick to occupy Fredericksburg, seize Marye's Height, gain the plank road in the rear, and join the main body that way. Early Sunday morning he occupied the town, formed a storming column and gallantly carried the Height at the cost of 1,000 men. He then started for Chancellorsville by the plank road, but was intercepted by Lee at Salem Heights and defeated with a loss of 4,000 more men.
Prior to Sedgwick's fight at Salem, Hooker's main force was being transferred to a new line of defense back of Chancellorsville, nearer the fords of the river, in which movement a part of the main force was badly punished by Lee, who then turned and defeated Sedgwick in his rear, and the next day, May 4, drove him across the Rappahannock. Sedgwick's corps thus being eliminated from the battle, Lee turned back on Tuesday, May 6, to strike Hooker's main force again. But during the night, Hooker withdrew all his army across the river, leaving behind its killed and wounded and fourteen pieces of artillery, not to mention thousands of small arms.
134
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
MOVEMENTS OF THE IRON BRIGADE AND TWENTY-FOURTHI MICHIGAN.
After recrossing the Rappahannock to the north side at Fitzhugh, on Saturday morning, the Iron Brigade moved up the river a mile and lay near the Sixth Corps in the open field until II o'clock. It was near Franklin's Crossing to the Fredericksburg field in December preceding. The Sixth Corps had been helping the ruse at this point. The Iron Brigade then passed up the river via Falmouth, having a most beautiful view of Fredericksburg and the hills beyond, the heights still frowning with confederate batteries. The march was continued for seventeen miles along the river road to the Catlett road, thence to Hartwood church, and bivouacked at IO o'clock at night near United States Ford. At 2 o'clock the next morning, Sunday, May 3, they crossed the Rappahannock at United States Ford, and taking the Ely Ford road for four miles, reached the battlefield of Chancellorsville at 6 o'clock.
The Iron Brigade took position just behind the Pike leading from Fredericksburg up to Ely's Ford, forming the second line of battle. Syke's Regulars were directly in front behind some breast-works which they were throwing up. A terrible artillery firing began early in the morning and lasted until noon. The Fifth Maine Battery lost all its horses. The Irish Brigade, by hand, drew off their guns. During the afternoon, General Hooker and staff rode by. He recognized the Twenty-fourth Michigan, and said, "You are the boys that crossed at Port Royal." The fighting was very severe during the day, but the Twenty-fourth being in the reserve, had but one man wounded, Thomas Burns of F. One of its men was also wounded in Battery B, Thomas D. Ellston of E.
On Monday, May 4th, a flattering compliment was paid to the Twenty-fourth on the battle-field. By some oversight, the right flank of the Federal Army had been left exposed. The two roads leading from United States Ford on the Rappahannock to Ely's Ford on the Rapidan, had been left unguarded, so that the enemy might easily cut off the Army from its pontoons. In the monrning, an Aide of General Reynolds reported this state of things to General Hooker, who was silent for a moment. He compressed his lips as if in deep thought, and then said; "Tell General Reynolds to "send the best regiment he has to guard the roads. Tell him to send Colonel Morrow and the Twenty-fourth Michigan."
The regiment moved on its mission to the extreme right within a mile of the Rapidan near Hunting Creek, where it barricaded the
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CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN.
roads. Company A was deployed as skirmishers in front and B to the extreme right near the Rapidan. On Tuesday, May 5th, H and three other companies were taken still further to the right where they formed an abatis, threw up earthworks and lay on their arms at night. The position of the regiment was dangerous, but honorable. A terrible thunder storm came up which lasted thirty-six hours, saturating the men's clothes and greatly swelling the rivulets and streams.
When the withdrawal of the army began, the Twenty-fourth Michigan seemed to have been forgotten while out on its picket duty. That night, General Paul of the Regular Army came upon the regiment and calling Colonel Morrow out of his "dog tent," informed him that he was the last man except the Twenty-fourth Michigan on the field; that the rest had all gone over the river! The pickets were called in and at 3 o'clock on the morning of May 6th, while the men were leaning against trees, trying thus to keep the rain off and get some sleep, the regiment quietly marched back to where the army had been, but to their astonishment, no troops could be seen, and the men then first knew that it was a retreat.
For miles they traveled through the brush until they came in sight of our troops crossing the pontoons at the United States Ford on the double-quick. During the darkness, five companies got separated from the regiment in the woods and were supposed to be captured, but they finally came up all right, and all joined the rest of the Iron Brigade near the river. In the haste at the pontoons, there was danger of a panic and the Iron Brigade was ordered back to the woods once more to build fires and make coffee, thus leaving the rest of the army to believe that there was no danger of an attack. At 9 o'clock the regiment re-crossed the river, being the last troops to leave the inglorious field of Chancellorsville.
All day the regiment marched, considerably despondent. The rain came down incessantly. After descending precipices, wading creeks and through mud knee deep for fifteen miles, it bivouacked at night, three miles from Stoneman's Station, wet, hungry and so fatigued that in ten minutes the men fell asleep in some pine woods, each one where he happened to be.
COMMENTS -COMPLIMENTS.
In these engagements, including the crossing below Fredericksburg, the battle of the Sixth Corps at Marye's Height and at Salem Heights, Lee reported an aggregate loss of 10,281 while the aggregate
136
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Union loss was 16,030. And thus another inglorious chapter was added to the history of the Union arms. We have neither space nor heart to dilate upon the want of Generalship that allowed 70,000 Confederates to outmaneuver and rout 120,000 Union men. There was not an hour from the beginning of this movement to its close, when victory was not within the grasp of the Union commander, but sad to say, it was frittered away completely by an inexcusable imbecility. Oh, for a leader for the Army for the Potomac !
On May 9th, General Wadsworth, in general orders, commended the recent gallantry of the Iron Brigade, as follows :
The General commanding deems it proper to express his thanks to Colonel Morrow, (Twenty-fourth Michigan), and Colonel Bragg, (Sixth Wisconsin), and the gallant men under their command, for the heroic manner in which they crossed the Rappahannock and seized the heights on the opposite shore, on the 29th of April, and to the whole of the Brigade for the promptness with which they followed, on this daring enterprise.
Commenting on which the Detroit Tribune said :
We had faith in the Twenty-fourth before they left us; but now, what Detroiter does not feel his bosom heave with pride as he reads the history of their heroism and the acknowledgment of their services from the Commanding General. Those who have known General Wadsworth, will describe him as a man of great deliberation and very few words, from whom a line of praise is more valuable than volumes from others.
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM CHANCELLORSVILLE TO GETTYSBURG.
CAMP WAY-THE FITZHUGH ESTATE.
ARLY on the morning of May 7, the wearied men continued their march through Falmouth to within a mile and a half of White Oak church, and encamped on a rising knoll in an old orchard on the Fitzhugh estate, near the crossing of that name. It was a most beautiful spot, well supplied with wood and water, and by far the pleasantest camping ground of the regiment yet. It was named "Camp Way," after our Chaplain.
The ten days of marching and fighting and retreating had made camp life, with its routine, welcome. Company streets were laid out, graded and ornamented with evergreens from the groves, forming fine walks and arbors. And here the men gathered about the camp-fires and related hair-breadth escapes from lips eloquent with patriotic inspiration. The regiment had added new laurels to its history. Its worn and tattered flag was first across at Port Royal and at Fitzhugh Crossing, and will be borne in the van while a shred of it remains.
This Fitzhugh estate once belonged to the Washington family, and was the scene of the youthful George's experiment with his- hatchet upon the cherry tree, which historical incident gave the old house, the orchard, and broad inter-vale for more than a mile from the wood-crowned bluff of the Rappahannock, an additional interest. The buildings were now untenanted and dilapidated, and the once magnificent garden in ruins. It was near the crossing where Washington, when a young man, is related to have thrown a stone across the Rappahannock, a feat, like his inability to tell a lie, considered sufficiently marvelous for historical record of the great man; but when several members of the Twenty-fourth Michigan easily performed the same feat, they believed that the youthful George's ability to tell the truth and perform this stone throwing act was not at all remarkable.
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
CHUCK-OR-LUCK-FRIENDLY PICKETS, ETC.
On Sunday, May 10, the Chaplains of the Iron Brigade were endeavoring to re-establish religious services, but they met with a counter-attraction, as the following facetious request of Colonel Robinson of the Seventh Wisconsin to the Assistant Adjutant of the Iron Brigade will show:
Sir-There is a large crowd of soldiers in the grove below, engaged in the interesting game called "Chuck-or-Luck." My chaplain is running his church on the other side of me, but "Chuck-or-Luck" has the largest crowd. I think this unfair, as the church runs only once a week, but the game goes on daily. I suggest that one or the other of the parties be dispersed.
SOLDIERS PLAYING CHUCK-OR-LUCK.
This game which had such a fascination among the soldiers, was a diminutive system of gambling, the elements of which too often are found in methods adopted by churches and Sunday schools for raising money by raffles and chance. This game was played with dice or small blocks in imitation. Sometimes it was played on a board ; often on a rubber blanket or the hard ground. Six sections were spaced off, each numbered in order. Two soldiers would play the game, one representing the "banker" and the other the venturer. The latter would choose one or two of the numbers and place
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FROM CHANCELLORSVILLE TO GETTYSBURG.
a piece of money on each, which were covered by the "banker" with an equal amount. If the dice thrown gave the number or numbers chosen, then the player won and the "banker" lost. If the dice failed to turn up the numbers chosen, then the "banker" took all the money. The chances were about five to one in favor of the latter. Soon after pay-day this game had a great run, and many a poor fellow's two month's pay was gone in this manner.
This game was sometimes called the "sweat board," but there were other games by night in some tents of officers of the army where decks of " sweat boards " were used for much larger amounts at stake. Early in its service, Colonel Morrow issued stringent orders against the practice of gaming for money within the regiment.
On May 13th, our ambulances crossed the river for the wounded left behind in the recent battle. The enemy was full of exultation and confidence. That night the Twenty-fourth was sent out on picket for forty-eight hours, along the Rappahannock. The enemy's pickets were very friendly and conversation was continually had with them. It was a frequent occurrence to see the opposing pickets swim to the middle of the stream and exchange coffee and tobacco. They had only rye coffee and no sugar, while eggs were $3.50 a dozen in their currency. The enemy seemed to be very active across the river all day on the 14th, and that night the men were aroused twice from their slumbers, amid a terrible thunder shower.
Returning from picket duty at noon of the 15th, they were regaled in the afternoon with speeches from Senators Chandler of Michigan and Wade of Ohio, who were on the committee on the Conduct of the War, and were doubtless looking up the causes of our recent disaster.
For two weeks after its return from the bloody field the Twenty-fourth enjoyed the repose of its pleasant camp amid green fields, fine groves and stately oak forests. An abandoned yoke of oxen were brought into camp and used to haul the fuel and water for the Twenty-fourth. They were general favorites, as they saved the men some hard lugging of those necessary articles. A few weeks later, when the army started North, they were killed for beef.
The rest for the Twenty-fourth was of brief duration. Soon after midnight on Thursday, the 21st, it was roused up and ordered to march at daylight, with three days' cooked rations. To and fro the men hurried, filling canteens and haversacks, wondering, and asking each other, " What's up now ?"
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
WESTMORELAND EXPEDITION.
After two hours of busy preparation, the stir proved to be an expedition composed of the Twenty-fourth Michigan, Nineteenth Indiana, Second and Sixth Wisconsin regiments of the Iron Brigade, about 1,200 men, under command of Colonel Morrow. Destination : King George and Westmoreland Counties. Its object was to clear the
YOKE OF OXEN FOUND AT CAMP WAY -SKETCHED BY H. J. BROWN OF THE "TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN."
Northern Neck (as the Peninsula is called, between the Potomac and Rappahannock), of any Confederate troops intercepting the Eighth Illinois Cavalry which had gone down a few days before. The following is Colonel Morrow's report of the expedition :
At daybreak on May 21st, the Expedition marched directly for King George Court House, where it halted for dinner ; thence to Millville where we arrived before dark, having marched twenty-eight miles. The day was excessively hot and many gave out from exhaustion. "Resumed march at daylight of 22d and arrived at Mattox Creek about 8 o'clock, (seven or eight miles). The bridge over Mattox Creek had been destroyed the Sunday before. From a few half-burned planks and timbers, Captain Ford of General Wadsworth's staff and Captain Merritt of the Twenty-fourth Michigan, in a few hours with a working party, had so far repaired the bridge as to allow the passage of Infantry and Cavalry. These officers are deserving of much credit for their skill and efficiency. Having information of a force of the enemy near Leesville, opposite Port Micou, I resolved to march to that place, leaving a small detachment with Captain Merritt to complete the bridge and guard it. I marched to Leesville, scouring the country on both sides of the road to be sure the enemy did not get in our rear. We saw no rebels and arrived at Leesville a little before sunset, a march of thirteen miles. We bivouacked for the night behind a skirt of woods out of sight of the opposite side of the river. I picketed the river and attempted to burn the boats on the opposite side of the river, but failed.
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FROM CHANCELLORSVILLE TO GETTYSBURG.
I fired a few rounds across the river at a squadron of Cavalry doing picket duty about Port Micou. After the first volley, the Cavalry quickly withdrew behind a slight rise of ground in rear of the town, leaving not a picket to watch our movements. It was now about 7 o'clock Saturday morning, the 23d, and I moved the column down the river as if to march for Leedstown, three miles below, but after marching a short distance, I turned to the left and marched for Oak Grove to intercept any rebels that might be there. I sent a party of mounted men to Leedstown.
As I was turning to leave the river, I saw a man in rebel uniform crossing the field and evidently making for the water. He was captured and proved to be Lieutenant Col. Critcher, Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry. The column halted at Oak Grove a little after noon (812 miles), a place of no importance except it is the intersection of several roads on Northern Neck. Early Sunday morning, I marched my command to within one mile of Westmoreland Court House, and met the advance of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry on its return, with an enormous train of wagons, carts, horses, mules and contrabands, and encamped for the night, after a march of eleven miles. At 4 o'clock in the morning we retraced our steps, marching fourteen miles before breakfast, and bivouacked for the night near King George Court House, after a march of twenty-nine miles. At 5 o'clock on the morning of the 26th, the column resumed its march and reached camp near White Oak Church, at noon (21 miles), having marched 130 miles in five and a half days.
Besides Colonel Critcher, the captured train consisted of three confederate officers, fifty prisoners, five hundred horses and mules, one thousand slaves of all ages and both sexes, and a large quantity of bacon and corn. Besides three hundred confederate prisoners were paroled. The country was bursting into vernal greenness, and was a marvel of beauty and fertility. The boys lived on the " fat of the land," though it was very warm and dusty and many of them blistered their feet. It was the captured Colonel's cavalry that retreated from Port Royal upon the advent of our men there a month before. He had come over the river to visit his family ostensibly, but really to plan for the capture of our cavalry, which the arrival of the Iron Brigade prevented. He had burned the Mattox Creek bridge and was hiding in the grass when a mounted orderly found him. It was Captain A. M. Edwards and six men who volunteered to cross the river at Port Micou aud burn the two boats. The pilot steered the wrong way and they were discovered and driven back. Upon their return, the column passed near the site of Washington's birthplace, marked only by fragments of a chimney. Upon a stone, overgrown with bushes, is the inscription : " Here was born George Washington, February II, 1732."
VISITORS - BLACK HATS-REORGANIZATION, ETC.
Upon arrival in camp they found several visitors from Detroit. The following evening, May 27th, the regiment listened to speeches from several of them-from John J. Speed, brother of (10)
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Captain Speed, Rev. F. A. Blades, Henry Barns, and a "rouser" from private Jones of the Sixth Wisconsin. The regiment was this day furnished with the " Black Hats" peculiar to the Iron Brigade, no other troops wearing them, making their appearance like their name, quite unique. On May 28, Governor Blair and his wife, also David Preston, of Detroit, visited the camp, the former making a speech on dress parade. On May 30, General Reynolds reviewed the First Corps, and the next day the regiment went on picket. It witnessed a review of twenty-five regiments of the enemy on the old Fredericksburg battle-ground, which betokened a mysterious something brewing among them.
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By reason of the expiration of the terms of service of the two years' men and the nine months' men, the First Corps had been reduced from 16,000 to 9,000 men, the smallest in the Army of the Potomac. There was a consequent re-arrangement of organizations and the "Iron Brigade" became, after June Ist, 1863, the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps, which gave it the honor of carrying the division colors- a large white, tri-angular flag with the symbol of the First Corps-a red sphere or disc in the center. If all the Armies of the United States were in one line, the Iron Brigade would now be on the extreme right, adding the uniqueness of position and number to that of name and dress, of this now celebrated Brigade.
Mysterious movements continued across the river and midnight of June 3d, brought moving orders. Tents were struck at daylight
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FROM CHANCELLORSVILLE TO GETTYSBURG.
and, after lying around till eleven o'clock, orders came to “pitch tents " again, and camp routine was resumed. The enemy seemed to have left their camps over the river, leaving a strong line of picket. The next afternoon, a part of the Sixth Corps crossed the river to reconnoitre, capturing 300 prisoners. Evening brought new orders to move at daylight on the 6th. All readiness was made, wagons loaded and arms stacked on the parade grounds till ten o'clock, when tents were again pitched and camp life resumed.
On Sunday, May 7th, the Seventh Wisconsin and a part of the Second Wisconsin were sent off on an expedition to uncover the movements of the enemy. A few days later they struck the enemy near Culpepper, and ascertained by this event and captured mails that Lee had started on an invasion of the North. The defeats of the Union Army at Fredericksburg in December, 1862, and recently at Chancellorsville, and the reduction of Hooker's Army by battle, and departure of those whose enlistment terms had expired, to less than 90,000 men, not to mention an assured hope or promise of foreign recognition and consequent intervention of European powers, in case of a successful Northern Campaign, doubtless induced Lee to this bold attempt.
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