USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 18
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WORKS
REBEL POSITION WITH RIFLE PITS
PINE
BATTERY
WORKS
2 DIVISION BRD CORPS
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AFTER GETTYSBURG-1863.
Iron Brigade bivouacked for the night near Robinson's Farm on the old turnpike.
At four o'clock the next morning, November 28, they advanced to Locust Grove and halted. At eight o'clock the Twenty-fourth Michigan and the New York Sharpshooters advanced as skirmishers, deploying six companies and advancing two miles, taking six prisoners. The next morning, November 29, the entire Iron Brigade moved forward to the crest overlooking Mine Run and the enemy's works opposite.
All this day, Sunday, was spent in preparing for a great battle to begin the next morning, November 30. The weather was severe and cold and some of the pickets had frozen to death on their posts. Generals Sedgwick and Warren were to attack, at the same time, the flanks of the enemy. The former actually opened his artillery ; but General Warren, to whom fame had few allurements, carefully noting with the eye of a skillful engineer, the great hazard of assaulting Lee's works, took the responsibility to abandon his part of the programme, and so reported to Meade, who approved his judgment and decision. The water in the Run was breast deep and covered with a coating of thin ice. On the opposite side was a strong abatis of tree tops felled into the Run, and behind all a strong array of fortified batteries, and any attempt to move across the Run for a charge would have been another insane Fredericksburg slaughter. Would that the army had had more such Generals as John F. Reynolds and G. K. Warren.
The attack upon the enemy's works having been abandoned, the army withdrew on the night of December I. One man, Henry Hoisington of K, had been severely wounded in the Twenty-fourth in this movement. The Twenty-fourth arrived at Germanna Ford at II P. M. and bivouacked on the south side. At 8 o'clock the next morning, December 2, it crossed the Rapidan and moving up as far as Mitchell's Ford, bivouacked till I o'clock P. M. of the 3d, when it marched towards Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock, halting half a mile north of Mountain Run. The following day the camp was moved to near Kelly's Ford.
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CHAPTER XI.
WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
LOG HUTS-LETTER OF CHAPLAIN WAY.
N SATURDAY morning, December 5, the sound of axes rang through the forest of oak, hickory and pine, which continued until the men of the First Corps had provided themselves with very comfortable winter huts. Colonel Morrow returned on the 6th and the regiment abode in their snug log cabins doing outpost duty until December 24, naming the place "Camp Beech" in honor of our efficient surgeon. The following letter of Chaplain Wm. C. Way will explain the camp life and trials of the men at this period :
NEAR CULPEPER C. H., VA., December 31, 1863. - "Out in the cold !" The first corps were turned out of their comfortable quarters near Kelly's Ford on a keen, cutting, cold day. At daylight on the morning before Christmas, we wound our way out of camp on the road hither in the face of a fierce, cold wind. Through the open fields the ground was frozen hard. The swamp roads were of the log or corduroy construction, but the wagons plunged into an occasional slough with a broken axle. Late in the afternoon we reached our present position, fairly in the front, on the Gordonsville Pike, in a location poorly supplied with wood, and it requires much activity and rubbing to enjoy a night's sleep, from the cold.
The men out on picket, through the fields and upon the bleak ridges, need the thickest clothing to keep the life current flowing. The cold stars overhead, the ice-bound earth-tramp, tramp through the long hours of the longest nights of winter, walks the picket on his beat till the relief comes, and the sentry returns. If there happens to be a smoldering fire at the reserve, he rakes out the embers and holds his benumbed hands a moment over the heat and then turns in. Otherwise he slaps his hands vigorously to warm up his finger tips, and rolls himself snugly up in his blanket, with knapsack under his head and is soon dreaming of home and its cheery fireside.
I see sights every day of woe and want about the fields and squalid dwellings. Stillness as of the grave and a blight as of a curse brood in the streets of yonder town that once sat beautifully on the undulating hills whose feet the stream below laves. The meadows that were shaven by the scythe, now grow rank with weeds, and the fields once green, now lie hard. Yon spires beneath whose shadow worshipers once gathered, now rise above the stenchy atmosphere of stables into which the edifices have been turned.
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
Christmas found us in our shelter tents and the camp of December 25 and 26 was named "Camp Cheerless." The men set about felling trees for cabins and in a few days their second edition of cabins were built far superior to the first."
PROGRESS OF THE WAR. - CAMP ROUTINE.
The year 1863 closed with a brighter outlook for the union arms than the year before. By the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, and of Port Hudson, July 9, the Confederacy sustained a combined loss of 38,500 soldiers to 7,500 by the Union armies, then under General Grant. These victories occurring about the time of the Gettysburg success left the Confederacy cut into by the Mississippi which was now open from the North to the Gulf of Mexico. It also was another nail well driven into the Confederate coffin.
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GENERAL RUFUS KING, FIRST COMMANDER OF IRON BRIGADE.
At Chickamauga, Georgia, on the 19th and 20th of September there was a terrible battle. The Confederate army there had been reinforced by Longstreet from the East with his corps and they were determined to destroy the Western Union army. At this battle the Confederates lost 17,864 men and the Federals but 15,851; yet the latter were driven from the field and it became a very dearly bought Confederate victory, which was more than counterbalanced by the brilliant Union victories on November 23, 24 and 25, at Chattanooga,
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, when Hooker's corps became famous for their "battle above the clouds" on this height, which electrified the world. And thus the year closed in a halo of glory for the Union.
There was a corresponding depression in the South, as the following from the Richmond Examiner of December 31, indicated :
To-day closes the gloomiest year of our struggle. No sanguine hope of intervention buoys up the spirits of the Confederate public as at the end of 1861. No brilliant victory, like that at Fredericksburg, encourages us to look forward to a speedy and successful termination of the war, as in the last week of 1862. *
* Meanwhile the financial chaos is becoming wider and wider. Hoarders keep a more resolute grasp than ever on the necessaries of life. Non-producers are suffering more and more. What was once competence has become poverty, poverty has become penury, and penury is lapsing into pauperism.
January 1, 1864, was the coldest day experienced in the army during the war. It is also well remembered by many in the North. There was much suffering among the men whose cabins were not yet completed. The regiment had moved out still further on the Sperrysville road near a pine forest to make their winter quarters which became known as "Camp Meade." The cabins complete, the men became comfortable and settled down to the routine which a winter camp brings, such as fuel gathering, picket and sentinel duty, drill, etc.
On the 3d, Colonel Morrow took command of the Iron Brigade and Captain Edwards of the regiment. The Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin and Nineteenth Indiana having veteranized for another three years were now gone home on the usual furlough in such cases, , and the Seventy-sixth New York was temporarily attached to the Iron Brigade.
The mail which usually arrived at sunset in this camp, gladdened the hearts of such as received missives from home and friends. Next to the Paymaster nothing so rejoiced the hearts of the soldiers as the sight of the approaching postmaster. They flocked to him like a parcel of children and listened for their names to be called out for a letter, as attentively as if it was a lottery wheel and they expected some valuable prize-for a most valuable prize was a letter to the soldier, only realized by those who have experienced this soldier-life enjoyment. Disappointment and often homesickness followed a failure to receive letters from home.
A school of instruction for non-commissioned officers was established and a house erected for their drill. Captain William
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
Hutchinson had charge of the school. The men also built a church near Brigade headquarters, 20 by 30 feet in size. About the middle of the month the camp was cheered by the arrival of Mrs. Morrow, Mrs. Dillon and Mrs. Way. Several promotions also occurred about this period. First Lieutenant George W. Burchell became Captain ; private David Congdon became First Lieutenant and Quartermaster, and Sergeants George A. Pinkney Benjamin W. Hendricks and Everard B. Welton became First Lieutenants.
As at home, so in the army, a few required penal discipline, though to the credit of the Twenty-fourth, the "Guard House" was
PENAL DRILL WITH STICKS OF WOOD .- SKETCHED BY H. J. BROWN.
almost always unknown. Very little use was there at any time for it. The usual practice in regiments was to appoint the Major to try offenses. He was judge, jury and sheriff. His sentences were sent up to the Brigadier-General for approval, and they came back scarcely ever modified. Usually some mild form of punishment was meted out such a deduction of pay for a time, or in case of non-commissioned officers, reduction to the ranks, for failure to do proper duty or for unsoldierlike conduct. Sometimes they were compelled to drill a certain number of hours each day with rather heavy sticks of wood upon their shoulders, like the representation in the illustration. These punishments were for nothing very serious the offenders had done, but still their offences were sufficient to constitute violations of good discipline.
This was the beaten field of war. The golden sunsets overspread great camps of warlike men, for coming deadly strife. Yonder town of Culpepper was a canvas city busy in the arts of war. But few
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
inhabitants were left except the old and decrepit, women and children, who were often dependent upon our commissariat for food. They were all "Secesh" and the "Bonnie Blue Flag" was sung with spirit by the lassies who had a hatred of all Yankeedom; yet, those F. F. V. damsels would occasionally indulge in a flirtation with some of the dashing young Union officers. The denunciation of their peculiar institution led the people to believe that they, and not slavery, were hated. They mourned their loved and lost, and the widows' weeds told of bitter grief.
A Division Review by General Rice occurred on January 29, and the Twenty-fourth Michigan carried off the palm for appearance.
RACCOONVILLE RAID.
On Saturday morning, February 6, reveille sounded at 5 o'clock with orders to fall in at 6. It was raining and visions of another mud march loomed up in the men's minds. Coffee over, the regiment was soon off for Brigade headquarters, and at 8 o'clock the column
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THE GUARD " OVER A VIRGINIA RAIL FENCE.
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
marched for Raccoon Ford and halted about two miles away, being cautioned to keep quiet. While on the march details were made from each regiment of the Iron Brigade to storm the town of Raccoonville on the bank of the Rapidan, directly under the enemy's guns, and supposed to be occupied by their sharpshooters. At evening the picket formed a line of battle for support, and the storming party went forward with matches into the town and in the very teeth of the enemy, set it on fire which soon lighted up the heavens for miles around. A dead Union cavalryman was found and taken from one of the houses first. The enemy opposite were perfectly amazed and soon could be seen in line of battle amid the gleamı of the burning buildings, all of which were soon in blackened ruins.
The party returned to the bivouac at II P. M. and all lay there till sunset on Sunday, February 7, when they started for camp. The roads were very muddy, it having rained most of the time since leaving camp. Three columns of troops moved on parallel lines and got somewhat mixed up. The Twenty-fourth became separated from the Iron Brigade, but all got safely into camp about 10 o'clock, very tired. The departure on this reconnoissance fanned into life the dying hopes of the village secessionists and they began to open their shutters and fairly insult our men with secesh songs and in other ways, but upon the return of the column to camp, their doors were closed again.
On the 15th of February, General Sedgwick, in the temporary absence of General Meade, reviewed the First and Second Divisions of the First Corps. A snow storm blew up before the review was over. On the 23d the whole First Corps was reviewed by General Newton who had succeeded General Reynolds in its command after the latter was killed at Gettysburg.
WINTER CAMP LIFE-CAMPAIGN PREPARATIONS.
The months of February and March passed as usual in winter camp, with an occasional death in hospital. Places of amusement sprung up. The boys of the Fourteenth Brooklyn established an amateur theater for the edification of the camp. The veteranized regiments returned with some additions to their ranks in new recruits. During the latter part of March, Colonel Morrow and eight non-commissioned officers left for Michigan on special recruiting duty, and about this time the ladies who had been sojourning in camp for
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
two months went home also. During Colonel Morrow's absence, Lieutenant-Colonel W. W. Wight commanded the regiment, having been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel Flanigan's position. But forty recruits had thus far joined the Twenty-fourth. Occasionally a few convalescents and recovered wounded comrades returned. The recruits very readily picked up the drill from the veterans.
GENERAL JOHN NEWTON, COMMANDER OF FIRST CORPS.
One would suppose that Sunday would be a welcome day in camp, but usually the reverse was true, for on that day, instead of being devoted to rest, there was more to fatigue the men than on any other day, even with their drill. When a severe march or fight was not planned for this holy day, a review or inspection was usually substituted. This day brought an inspection of the soldiers' accoutrements and knapsacks. His "brasses" must be polished and
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
shoes " blackened" though there might not be a box of blacking and brush within a hundred miles which they could obtain.
It was customary for the bugle to assemble the companies each Sunday morning, after guard mount, which was about like a dress parade on a small scale, on the parade ground. Each man's gun must be in good order and thoroughly cleaned, his knapsack neatly packed and everything in like order. The Band formed on the parade ground, the companies marching to the music and forming as if on dress parade. The Adjutant saluted the Colonel, telling him the battalion was formed. The Colonel then gave the order for the companies to right wheel. The right of the company stood still, and the rest of it wheeled, halting at a right angle from the line in which
it was, thus leaving a space between the companies. Then the command "To the rear-open order" and the front ranks came to an "about face"-the rear ranks having taken a few paces to the rear. This left a space between both ranks for the inspecting officers to pass. In this position several hours often intervened before these functionaries arrived-the men meanwhile standing there in open field, in rain, hail, snow or sunshine. When they did appear the men were ordered to "ground arms" and unsling knapsacks. These orders had to be executed with exactly the same number and like motions. Each man placed his knapsack at his feet, opened for inspection. The contents must be clean and neatly arranged. The overcoat was folded into a nice roll and strapped on top. The right company was inspected first the Band playing a slow tune. As fast as a company was inspected the men returned to their quarters, and as it usually took two hours to inspect the whole regiment, the last company had a tedious time waiting. There was so much required of the soldiers on Sunday that it called forth from President Lincoln, in November, 1862, an order against it, but there never seemed to be any change from the old practice.
The month of April wore away and still found the men in their winter huts at their usual duties, but the opening spring brought warmer and more cheerful weather after a winter of mud. Busy preparations began to be made for another campaign. All extra baggage was ordered turned in, the men placed in light marching trim, and the sutlers ordered to the rear.
At last the army had a commander, one who would brook no interference from the meddlesome marplots who infested the war office and confused plans and their execution. The President had let the contract of finishing up the rebellion to Ulysses S. Grant, without
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
condition or interference from headless subheads. The confident belief was that the task would be accomplished though at the cost of much blood. Still if it be not spilled in vain, and the lives lost would only count for some good result, the men were willing for the sacrifice.
Soon after his appointment as Lieutenant-General, General Grant made his headquarters with the army of the Potomac where he
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.
' directed affairs till the close of the war, although General Meade continued its commander, receiving his orders from Grant, whose tents were but a few rods apart. He immediately set about a reorganization of the Army of the Potomac into three corps, known as the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps, with a separate corps under Burnside. The old First and Third Corps were broken up and consolidated with the others. Most of the First Corps went into the Fifth Corps under General Warren. General Hancock continued in command of
the Second Corps. The Sixth Corps was under Sedgwick. This produced no little ill feeling at first, as the brigade and corps disorganized would lose their identity purchased with blood and held most sacred. However, the men were permitted to wear their old corps badges. Upon retiring from the command of the First Corps, after its consolidation, General Newton said of it in an order :
HON. AUSTIN BLAIR, "WAR GOVERNOR " OF MICHIGAN.
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
Identified by its services with the history of the war, the First Corps gave at Gettysburg a crowning proof of valor and endurance in saving from the grasp of the enemy the strong position upon which the battle was fought. Its terrible losses in that conflict attest its supreme devotion to the country. Though the corps has lost its distinctive name, history will not be silent upon the magnitude of its services.
The Fifth Corps now consisted of four divisions, as follows : - Ist, General Griffin; 2d, General Robinson; 3d, General Crawford; and 4th, General Wadsworth. The latter division consisted of three brigades : Ist, General Cutler ; 2d, General Rice; 3d General Stone. The old Iron Brigade in the main preserved its identity, except it now became the First Brigade, Fourth Division, Fifth Corps. It consisted of the Second, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin, Twenty-fourth Michigan and Nineteenth Indiana as formerly, to which had been since attached the Seventh Indiana and a battalion of the First New York Sharpshooters. General Cutler commanded the Iron Brigade, General Wadsworth the Fourth Division and General Warren the Fifth Corps. If the reader will be careful to remember this arrangement, it will often make clear the movements of our regiment and brigade.
NEW FLAG FOR THE TWENTY-FOURTII MICHIGAN.
The old flag of the Twenty-fourth Michigan having become too battle torn for duty, the friends of the regiment in Detroit purchased a new one for it, and its presentation to Colonel Morrow for the regiment called forth a large concourse of people on the Campus Martius, on April 27, 1864. Judge James V. Campbell delivered a patriotic and finished address on the occasion in which, after reviewing the honorable record of the regiment, he said :
There is no duty so pleasant as that of publicly honoring those who have defended their country, I feel proud to express the thanks of the people of this old county to her gallant sons, brave among the bravest, for doing deeds that will crown her with endless glory. The noble veteran Twenty-fourth rests its fame securely in the pages of history whose like the world never saw. Time has never before looked upon so sublime an uprising as its organization. On August 26, 1862, the Twenty-fourth regiment assembled in this place to receive a flag. They were the very flower of our citizens from all parts of the county. The regiment has followed that flag on many a bloody field. At Gettysburg, fourteen different persons bore it aloft and guarded it, nine of whom were killed or mortally wounded on the field and two otherwise wounded. * * * I need follow no more these thinned ranks. Its old flag, begrimed and in tatters, has never been waved over cowards or been dimmed by the blight of disloyalty. We replace it to-day with another blazoned with the memorials of battle and destined we hope to return with greater glories. To you, sir, [turning to Colonel Morrow] I commit this flag. I know it will never be
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
dishonored, your gallant men have done too well to fail in the future. Bear to your command the hearty greetings of their fellow citizens, who will never forget the heroes of Gettysburg, the Iron Twenty-fourth.
The following poem by D. Bethune Duffield, Esq., was then read :
I. What tho' fair maids be sighing, and what tho' wives are crying, As they buckle on the belt ;
Our flag is up and flying, and soldier boys are dying,
Where the battle's blows are dealt.
CHORUS-So march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And o'er each hill and glade, where our noble boys are laid, We'll sing the priceless Worth of the Triple State Brigade, The Ironclad Brigade and the gallant Twenty-fourth.
2. You know the stormy waking when day was slowly breaking,
'Round Frederick's cloudy height ;
How like the thunder quaking, our guns the hills were shaking, And how bloody was the fight.
CHORUS- Then march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And on Frederick's Esplanade, where our noble boys are laid, etc.
3. At Fitzhugh's bloody crossing, how dark those waves were tossing, As our boats rushed on their way.
With oar and musket clashing, and bullets round us splashing, How we stormed on to the fray.
CHORUS- Then march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And along the river's shade, when the cannon on us played, etc.
4. Then through the midnight marching, our tongues all dry and parching, To Chancellorsville we prest ;
When, from the dead fast piling, the noblest souls were filing, To the soldier's final rest.
CHORUS - Then march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And through that dreary glade where those hero boys are laid, etc.
5. Next, thro' Gettysburg we trod ; and still trusting in our God, Thro' those Independence Days,
With our blood we soaked the sod, and o'er hundreds heaped the clod, Their holy mound of praise.
CHORUS-Then march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And when that grassy glade, by our blue coats was o'erlaid, etc.
6. Then Peck our colors grasping, tho' death his form was clasping, Still held them up in sight,
Till other hands were reaching, and other boys beseeching, To bear them thro' the fight.
CHORUS- So march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And where they all were laid, Grace, Dickey, Safford, Speed, etc.
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WINTER QUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER.
7. That flag now rent and tattered, by shell and bullet shattered, Is sacred in our eyes ;
For when the Captain found it, five brave ones were lying around it, Who fell to save the prize.
CHORUS- Then march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, Since by each broken blade, that on their breasts were laid, They won immortal birth, for the Triple State Brigade, For the Iron Clad Brigade and our gallant Twenty-fourth.
S. What tho' fair maids be sighing, and what tho' wives are crying. As they buckle on the belt,
Our flag is up and flying, and soldier boys are dying, Where the battle's blows are dealt.
CHORUS-So march, boys, march with the gallant Twenty-fourth, And if by hill or glade, in our blanket robes we're laid, Still our land shall see the worth of our Triple State Brigade, The Iron Clad Brigade and the gallant Twenty-fourth.
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