USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 21
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KILLED.
MORTALLY WOUNDED :
Elisha Wheeler, of B, on May 23.
Corporal Evan B. McClure, of K, May 23.
WOUNDED.
On May 23.
Mathew Myers, H.
. Richard Ladore, B.
Calvin Maxfield, C.
Wm. A. Ringgold (R) E.
John J. Larkins, H.
Charles E. Jenner, F.
CAPTURED.
On May 23.
Corporal Frederick Woods, E.
Sergeant Richard A. Riley, H.
Robert Gaunt, E.
Corporal Marshall Bills, H.
Summary :- Killed and died of wounds, 2; wounded, 8; prisoners, 4. Total, 14.
On May 25.
Corporal John Moody, arm amputated, D. Aldrich Townsend, D.
FIGHTING AT TOLOPOTOMOY (FIELD OF COLD HARBOR).
Grant's withdrawal across the North Anna, secretly begun on the night of May 26, was successfully accomplished and his army was headed eastward and southward to cross the Pamunky which is formed by the confluence of the North and South Anna. His new
253
GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
turning movement was met by a corresponding retrograde movement by Lee, who, not having half the distance to march, had his army well intrenched on the south side of that stream before Grant's arrival.
After re-crossing the North Anna, Thursday night, the Twenty- fourth with the Iron Brigade found itself at daylight near Bethany Church after an all night's march. On Friday the 27th, rations were issued before daylight and the column started south-eastward for Hanover Town, distant 33 miles. Showers had laid the dust and the marching was good. After a march of twenty miles, a halt was made for the night at Magnolia Church. On Saturday the 28th, the Iron Brigade moved at 5 A. M. and crossed the Pamunky on pontoons at Dabney's Ferry, before midday, and moving forward to Hanover Town about a mile, threw up breastworks which they occupied during the passage of the river by the army. The Twenty-fourth then moved in rear of the Sixteenth Michigan to let Battery B have its position.
The Confederates had posted themselves south of . the Tolopotomoy, a creek running nearly east and emptying into the Pamunky on its south side, two miles below Hanover Town. Each corps was ordered on Sunday morning, May 29, to make a reconnoissance in the front, Warren's Corps by the Shady Grove road. Griffin's Division led and soon found the enemy. Cutler's Division followed and then Crawford's. The enemy's infantry and skirmishers fell back, Griffin's following them until they entered a thickly wooded, swampy ground formed by several affluents of the Tolopotomoy which here crossed the road. Opposite this swampy ravine was Huntley's Corners, occupied by the enemy who made an attack upon Griffin's Division, which was repulsed. To support Griffin, the Iron Brigade was marched, by Hawes' store, about three miles, part of the way on the "double-quick." It was stationed on the right of that Division and threw up slight earthworks. Here it bivouacked all night in line of battle near the grave of Patrick Henry.
BATTLES OF BETHESDA CHURCH AND COLD HARBOR.
During the afternoon of Monday, May 30, General Early (Confederate) moved his forces out on Old Church Pike to Bethesda Church across Warren's left. Crawford's Division was sent to look after them and Cutler's Division (in which was the Iron Brigade) moved up to the support of Griffin. The Iron Brigade moved two miles to the front and constructed earthworks under a heavy shell fire
254
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
from the enemy's batteries. Rhode's Division of Early's Corps moved up to attack them, but Battery B (Captain Stewart) moved out and kept them at bay till Crawford was fully in line on the left of Cutler. Just before dark, Ewell's forces made a resolute attack upon the entire Fifth Corps but was repulsed with a loss of many prisoners, and several high officers killed. At night the enemy retired leaving his dead and wounded on the field. After the fight the Iron Brigade built a strong line of works in less than half an hour.
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ROUTE OF IRON BRIGADE TO BETHESDA CHURCH AND COLD HARBOR.
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255
GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
Tuesday, May 31, was spent in burying the dead and bringing in the enemy's wounded. Just before sundown, the Twenty-fourth Michigan, under Major A. M. Edwards, was detailed for picket in front of the Division, the line being formed after considerable difficulty, by reason of the density of the forest and thick underbrush. During the night sharp firing was indulged in at times by the pickets on both sides.
By another flank movement Grant planned to force a passage of the Chickahominy near Cold Harbor, and this night moved the Sixth Corps (Wright's) around to the left. Some parts of the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps had come up from the James River to help our army. They were commanded by General Smith.
On Wednesday morning, June 1, Lee having learned of this movement withdrew Longstreet on his left who secured a good position behind Cold Harbor. His withdrawal was discovered by Meade who sent Cutler's Division and another forward to attack him about 10 o'clock A. M. They moved forward and drove the enemy beyond the Mechanicsville Road. The supporting Division being delayed by the wooded swamps of the Tolopotomoy and Matadequin streams, Cutler's Division halted and fortified. The enemy shelled very hard and attempted to drive our forces away but failed. The Twenty-fourth Michigan was deployed on the skirmish line in front of Cutler. It advanced and drove the enemy's skirmishers back out of the woods and into their rifle pits but a short distance in front of their earthworks, and established a skirmish line in a piece of woods not forty rods from their works. The enemy's earthworks were already built for them, and all they had to do was to march in and occupy them. The regiment witnessed from this point the movement of large numbers of Lee's troops from his left to his right, to oppose the advance of our troops on our left.
The enemy tried to drive back the Twenty-fourth a number of times during the day, but failed. Then they tried what good their artillery would do, but that failed. Each man of the regiment was protected by a stout tree from which he kept up an incessant fire on the enemy. They forced back our skirmishers on the right and left but did not move the Twenty-fourth. Late in the afternoon when Major Edwards was told that the men were out of cartridges, he called out, " Then we will hold these woods at the point of the bayonet."
About 10 o'clock at night the Twenty-fourth was ordered in and found a new skirmish line had been formed a long distance in our rear. It found the Division about a mile in the rear of the advanced (17)
256
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
position they had occupied during the day. It joined its Brigade and a short time afterwards the Division moved forward more to the left of the point which the Twenty-fourth had held. It formed a line of battle and advanced to within a few rods of the edge of the woods and about three hundred yards from the enemy's line of earthworks, on the other side of the field where the line was established and a good line of works built by daylight of the 2d of June. On the left, during the afternoon of the Ist, there was hard fighting which resulted in our forces securing a firm grasp upon Cold Harbor.
The next morning, June 2, the Iron Brigade and its Division strongly intrenched its new line, south of the Mechanicsville road in the vicinity of Bethesda Church. In the afternoon, Burnside began to move to the left and the enemy fiercely attacked him, taking some prisoners. Then they struck Warren's flank and turned back Griffin's Division somewhat, capturing four hundred men. During the night the national forces were arranged in the following order from Bethesda Church past Cold Harbor to Elder Swamp Creek running into the Chickahominy. On the right, Warren; then the corps of Smith, Wright and Hancock. The rear of the left up to the Tolopotomoy was protected by Burnside. Lee's position in front of Hancock was naturally strong and well intrenched throughout, with open ground along his front.
The attack was ordered by Grant to follow the signal gun at 4.30 on the morning of Friday, June 3. A few minutes later the advance of the Federals to the attack was begun and immediately followed the bloodiest engagement of the war for a short time. In less than , twenty minutes 10,000 Union men lay dead and wounded on the field, while the Confederates, sheltered by their works, had lost not more than 1,000. It was emphatically "short, sharp and decisive." Warren's Corps was too extended over a three mile front to do more than hold his line intact. Some successes attended parts of our line, but they were altogether overbalanced by the general repulse. There was a deep consciousness in every soldier that further attacks would be useless. General Grant confessed in his memoirs, that this was a charge he wished he had not ordered. He certainly fought at a disadvantage and it confirmed the wisdom of his flank movement plan. It is to be regretted that he did not resort to another such movement before this fatal charge. Some hours later, Meade ordered each Corps to move at its option to another attack without regard to the other Corps, but the order was suspended upon a dispatch from Grant that the Corps commanders were not sanguine of success. This was about
257
GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
I o'clock P. M. and soon after, the enemy attacked the Union forces, and again at dark, but were repulsed each time. The battle was now ended each side holding its position firmly and neither being able to drive the other out.
The following were the losses of the Twenty-fourth Michigan in these battles :
KILLED:
WOUNDED JUNE I:
May 30. William Funke, (Battery) D.
Patrick Fury, E.
June 3. William Dusick, A. 66 William Scerle, G.
Lewis Hartman (R.), E.
Nicholas Hanning (R), E.
June 4. Jacob Eisele, H.
Peter Ford, leg, F.
MORTALLY WOUNDED, JUNE 3:
Stephen Jackson ( R. ), A.
Frank Tscham (R.), B.
George W. Velie, ( R.), C.
Ignace Haltar, A.
WOUNDED, JUNE I:
Corp. James R. Lewis, G.
Frank Picaud, hand, A.
Charles F. Allyn, twice, G.
Sergt. Andrew Strong, arm, D.
Amos Arnold ( R. ), H.
Sergeant Samuel F. Smith, wounded June 2, in both legs, K. Summary :- Killed and died of wounds, 7; wounded, 13. Total, 20.
BURYING THE DEAD-SHARPSHOOTERS-FORWARD AGAIN.
The week after the last battle was occupied by the two armies watching each other in very close proximity. It was dangerous and difficult to establish the picket lines. The enemy made occasional attacks but were repulsed each time. The Union dead and wounded lay between the lines and on the 5th of June, General Grant proposed an armistice for burying the dead and removing the wounded between the two armies, but General Lee refused such an arrangement until the 7th, by which time most of the wounded were dead.
The enemy's sharpshooters were possessed of superior arms with which they covered every portion of our lines. Not a man could expose his person above the earthworks without a dozen bullets "zipping" at him from the watchful foe. To obtain an estimate of clothing, it was necessary to go to the front amid incessant skirmish firing. Lying in trenches, behind stumps and trees, the men crouched, while the messenger must dodge from tree to tree and stump, crawl on hands and knees or roll even amid leaden death. As Sergeant Eaton was getting some requisitions signed by Major Edwards, a solid shot buried itself in the tree at the foot of which they were sitting. On June 3, two men in the Twenty-fourth were killed by the enemy's sharpshooters. One William Dusick, had gone out a few feet in front
Mark Hearn, body, I.
Jonathan Jamieson, K.
WOUNDED JUNE 3:
258
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
of the breastworks and just as he turned to come in, he was shot in the back and fell dead. There his body lay till nightfall, it being certain death to go for it before dark. The place was a veritable " Hell's Half Acre " as the boys called it.
At 9 o'clock on Sunday night, June 5, the Iron Brigade with its Corps began to withdraw to the left, and after an all night's march arrived at Cold Harbor at 4 o'clock in the morning. Here the baggage wagons came up for the first time in a month and some of the officers obtained a much needed change of clothing. On the movement of the Corps to the left, Major Edwards of the Twenty-fourth was left in command of the Division skirmishers. He was told that he would be ordered in before daylight, but the order to withdraw his men was not received by him until long after daylight. However, he withdrew his men without the loss of a man, though, as soon as they rose from the rifle pits they were exposed to the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters. A part of the enemy's skirmishers were in the earthworks before the detail of the Iron Brigade was three hundred feet away.
On Tuesday, the 7th, the Corps moved towards the left at 4 P. M. and continued the march to within a mile of Despatch Station on the York Railroad near the Chickahominy River. The next day a heavy picket detail was sent out from the Twenty-fourth for duty on the river. The enemy's pickets were very friendly. There was no firing on either side and many came over to trade tobacco for coffee.
On June 5, Adjutant Chilson was permanently detailed as Aide on General Cutler's staff at Division headquarters and Lieutenant E. B. Welton became acting Adjutant. On the 7th, Colonel Bragg of the Sixth Wisconsin took command of the Iron Brigade. Lieutenant-Colonel W. W. Wight having resigned, Major A. M. Edwards assumed command of the Twenty-fourth. Lieutenant- Colonel Wight had served long since he was scarcely able to endure the hardships of the field and he had to yield to poor health. He had with gallant coolness discharged every duty that devolved upon him. Only 125 men and five officers of the regiment were at this time present for duty, about forty being on detached service. The rest were absent from wounds and sickness or lay among the dead.
On June 10, Major Edwards divided the regiment into four companies for field duty, commanded as follows: (1) Lieutenant Dempsey. (2) Captain Hutchinson. (3) Captain Dodsley. (4) Captain Burchell.
GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
259
QUININE AND WHISKEY RATIONS-MARCH TO PETERSBURG.
During the past week the daily skirmishes were often sharp in front of some divisions. At night there was heavy artillery firing and often musketry. The labor of strengthening the intrenchments had been arduous. There was no water for the men in the trenches except of the worst kind. What with exposure to the heat of day and little sleep; the rudest facilities for cooking ; no vegetables for over a month, and beef from cattle exhausted by long marches and scanty forage; the effluvia from dead horses and mules, and offal scattered along the line of march as well as the unburied dead of both armies, while remaining near the field of carnage; and the general malaria
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260
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
incident to the low and marshy Chickahominy region, the wonder is that the whole army was not prostrated by causes more potent than fighting the foe. To counteract these unhealthful conditions rations of quinine and whiskey were issued to the men.
Having failed in the destruction of Lee's army by capture or dispersion, Grant resolved to transfer his army to the south of James River and interpose it between Richmond and the region from which that city and the Confederate army received its supplies. This movement began on Sunday, June 12. After a week of rest from fighting, the Iron Brigade with its Corps left camp at 9 o'clock that evening. It crossed the railroad near Despatch Station, marched several miles and bivouacked. At daylight of the 13th, the Iron Brigade leading the Fifth Corps, moved on. Crossing the Chickahominy at Long Bridge, it took the White Oak Swamp road towards Richmond as if pushing for that place. Lee withdrew his forces within the fortifications of the Confederate capital. After a march of two miles, the Brigade halted till 4 o'clock P. M. It then returned to Long Bridge where it waited till an hour and a half after all the other troops had passed, and at 8 o'clock followed as rear guard. At midnight it went into camp near St. Mary's Church.
On Tuesday morning, June 14, coffee was made about daylight and the column soon after started. Marching by a very crooked road via Salem Church and Westover Church, it reached Charles City Court House at II A. M., and passed on to near Wilcox's Landing on the James River, after a weary march of forty miles. The Twenty-fourth Michigan went into camp in a large field of oats on the plantation of ex-President Jolin Tyler. After resting a day, the men , were aroused early and were ready to move at sunrise on the 16th. They were marched down to the banks of the James River near Wilcox's Landing, and at 10 o'clock crossed the river on transports. They lay in the sun near the river till 5 P. M., when the line of march was resumed through Prince George Court House, halting at midnight before Petersburg. The rest of the army was also well on the south side of the James and taking positions around the latter city.
BATTLE OF PETERSBURG.
Petersburg is situated 22 miles south of Richmond and several railroads centering there from the South became feeders for the Confederate army and capital. It was coveted by both armies and when the Union army began to cross the James, Lee hastened his forces to occupy it.
à
261
GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
Friday morning, June 17, the Iron Brigade threw up breastworks in front of the enemy, but the Twenty-fourth Michigan was sent out on picket early in the morning on the left of the Division. They had been out but a short time when they were withdrawn and deployed as skirmishers in front of the Iron Brigade farther to the
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POSITION OF IRON BRIGADE IN BATTLE OF PETERSBURG, JUNE 18, 1864.
right. The left of the skirmish line rested on the Suffolk and Petersburg Railroad, three miles from Petersburg. The regiment, under Captain Burchell, after being deployed in a ravine that ran in front of the Brigade, received orders from a Brigade staff officer, to advance and relieve the skirmishers of a Pennsylvania regiment that were said to be out in front. When the order to advance was given, the men of the Twenty-fourth sprang forward with a will to relieve
262
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
our troops in front. None were found, but that did not stop the rush of the line as they went on until they drove the enemy out of his rifle pits not a hundred yards from his earthworks, and occupied and held them all the day until relieved about 9 o'clock at night. During the day the Second and Ninth Corps and Crawford's Division of the Fifth Corps (Warren's), charged the enemy's works which were penetrated some distance but not held, the only result being to establish a line nearer his works. After the assault, the enemy abandoned his outer temporary line for a more formable one nearer Petersburg. Believing that most of Lee's army had not yet come up from Richmond, Grant ordered a general assault on the enemy's works about Petersburg for the next morning.
.
At sunrise on Saturday morning, June 18, the Iron Brigade was formed in line of battle on the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac. The Seventh Wisconsin was on the right, the Sixth Wisconsin on the left, and the Twenty-fourth Michigan, Seventh and Nineteenth Indiana in the center. They advanced across the Norfolk Railroad through three lines of Confederate works and forced the enemy's skirmishers to their earthworks, a mile from Petersburg, when the skirmishers were called in as the other Corps were not all moving forward simultaneously. The Iron Brigade with the Fifth Corps made a halt until the general assault of mid-afternoon, when all the Corps advanced.
The Fifth Corps had over a mile to advance, and a deep ravine and intricate cut of the Norfolk Railroad interposed between it and the enemy's lines. This cut was deep and difficult to cross and was held by the enemy at its northern end. Its direction curved so as to hinder the advance of a line of battle. To the Fifth Corps was assigned the duty of clearing out the enemy from this cut, as a preliminary to the general attack. Its ground being thus difficult and chiefly in open field, was exposed to the enemy's artillery for a long distance. (See map on preceding page.)
Cutler's Division was formed for the charge in column by Brigades-the Iron Brigade in the second line. The formation of the column was made under cover of the woods and behind a slight hill midway between the woods and the enemy's works 500 yards away, over the fields without any protection from the enemy's fire, after exposing themselves on the hill. The order to advance was given and the men moved forward to the work assigned them, with a dash that would have been a victory, had not the order been given when the Brigade was under as deadly and withering a fire of artillery
-
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GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864.
and musketry as it ever encountered, to move by the right flank so as to bring them directly in rear of the first line, as General Cutler thought it would make the charging column stronger.
When the order to advance again was given, but a part of the Brigade obeyed the command -the balance falling back under cover of the hill. What few did obey advanced to a position within pistol shot of the enemy. Some of the men of the Twenty-fourth fell close up under the Confederate works. The men of the Division, finding themselves unable to carry the enemy's position, sought shelter in a ravine but a short distance from the works they had tried to carry, where most of them remained until after dark when they were all withdrawn and reformed under cover of the hill they had charged over during the afternoon.
Shortly afterwards, the Iron Brigade was sent down into the ravine to try to carry the enemy's works from that point, but General Bragg deciding that it was impossible to do so, withdrew the Brigade to its position on the hill where the Division soon had a good line of works completed not three hundred yards from the enemy.
The attack of each Corps was a terrible Union disaster, and there was a general repulse along the whole line with a loss of several thousand men. The only success or advantage was to gain positions very near the lines of the enemy which were intrenched, and the lines of the two armies remained about the same till the close of the war. During the next few days, there were some spirited skirmishes and sharp picket firing, by moonlight as well as by day, but no general attack. On the 19th, Major Hutchinson was wounded within fifteen minutes after his return from hospital, while drinking a cup of coffee with Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards.
The following were the losses of the Twenty-fourth Michigan in the battle of Petersburg and the few days following :
KILLED JUNE 18, 1864:
Adjutant SERIL CHILSON, Aide.
Sergeant William Maiers, G.
Jeremiah Sullivan, G.
Corporal Orville C. Simonson, G.
Charles Bills, scalp, H.
Richard Downing, D.
Edward L. Farrell, leg, H.
John B. Beyette (R), F.
John B. Cicotte, (R), F.
Timothy O. Webster, F.
MORTALLY WOUNDED, JUNE 18:
Sergt. Frederick A. Hanstine, A.
Ezra E. Derby, C.
John J. Duryea, B.
Elisha C. Reed, F.
Thomas Stackpole, E.
Nathaniel J. Moon, H.
Ferd. E. Welton, H.
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