USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, Volunteer Infantry in the rebellion war, 1861-1865, pt 1 > Part 25
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"Watchman ! tell us of the night, What its signs of promise are."
As there were no indications whatever of moving. at about half-past ten Colonel Harriman said to us, "Boys, lie down and sleep, but don't unroll your blank- ets ; and finally, I think you might as well sleep with one eye open. for there is no knowing what may hap- pen." We laid down upon the dewy grass with our knapsacks for pillows, and. as we were tired from the day's march were soon asleep.
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FROM THE RIDGE TO WILDERNESS TAVERN.
" All slept but those in watchful arms who stood, And those who sat tending the beacon's light."
It was the eve of battle, the eve of a great day which would forever live in history.
Before going to sleep we gave a thought to those at home .- how the candles were lit in the parlor, how the stars shone in the calm azure sky ; we thought of the good-nights that were said and repeated by the loving .ones who missed us. We said our good-nights and benedictions for them, hoping, should we fall in the strife. that ". Ile who noteth the fall of a sparrow, would note the fall of one of us." At half past twelve we were summoned to " Awake, awake, put on strength ; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generation of old." In the thick darkness Colonel Harriman's voice rang out as clear as a bugle. " Fall in, Eleventh " and as I sprang to my feet I heard the order at some little distance away. summoning other regiments in the brigade to do like- wise. This order, at that time and place, we well knew meant business in good earnest. " Well, boys, the time is near at hand; now for the fight," was the general remark, as equipments and knapsacks were hastily buckled on, and the silver-tipped stacks of muskets distributed in the darkness. The lightnings gleam- ing through the midnight gloom, the chance of life and death which closes round in that struggling hour, caused many a deep breathed prayer to the God of battles, that amid the coming flame no cloud might lower upon them, and that the glad smile of victory would at last dispel the gloom. Notwithstanding the fact that there was quite a large force in that immediate vicinity, so quiet were they that silence reigned supreme : it was ahnost oppressive. It was at the dead hour of night, while all the people throughout the land were sleeping, that we were marching forth to participate in one of the
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greatest battles of all the earth. The eventful night will never fade from my memory.
" Night of nights! who thy tale of woe shall tell."
With not a minute's delay, we rapidly and almost noise- lessly glided away in the darkness. Company E, of the Eleventh, was detailed as rear guard ; consequently we were the last to leave. When on the point of leaving. Lieutenant-Colonel Collins rode up, and gave us the order. " Allow no man to fall out of the ranks !" and, if I remem- ber correctly, it was the last order I ever heard him give. The march in that early morning was still upon the Ger- mania plank-road, over which we marched the evening , before. This road passes through the northern portion of the Wilderness region, thence on to Chancellorsville. and Fredericksburg. By the direction we were then marching, it was very evident that we were going to the centre or to the left of the line, as the point whence the noise of the battle was heard on the evening before was at some distance to our right.
Longstreet had encamped on the night of the 5th near Craig's meeting-house on the Catharpin road. about five miles directly south from where we lay. About mid- night, General Lee sent a message to him, informing him of the battle of the afternoon before, and directing him to move at once, and march directly to Parker's store, and there form his line of battle. Burnside and Longstreet were doing the forced marching for the open- ing of the campaign. The roads over which we were marching to reach the front were about the same length. By the dim light of pine knots and home-made lamps, which were rags soaked in grease, the dwellers along the Catharpin road likewise gazed upon an armed host for the last time. Only a few miles distant stood Hill and Ewell, and in the stillness of the night Longstreet was
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rapidly coming to their assistance. Lee, as generalis- simo of the Confederate army, was already on the ground planned for the onset. In the darkness that same voice, which urged the Federal army forward, must at that very time have whispered to them these words of warning : " O daughter, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thy- self in ashes, for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon thee." Our march down the plank-road in the quiet of the night was as rapid as it had been on the two preced- ing days. It was a night of sable darkness, so that we could not see the loose stones, broken planks, and the many pit-falls in the shape of wash-outs and gullies. Often did sparks of fire fly from the rolling stones, as they were struck by our tireless and well timed feet.
About three o'clock we reached Orange Grove, where the enemy was seen in force on the morning of May 5. It was near this place where General Sedgwick formed his line when he moved to the attack at about noon of that day. Orange Grove is a small clearing of a few farms only in that desolate region. We were then just entering the main portion of the Wilderness, a dark and heavy wood wrapped in absolute silence, where the two lines of battle were already formed. The scene was singularly oppressive. The trembling foliage seemed to whisper .. To-morrow !" while from afar shone on the line the morning star. That day, just dawning. would bring joy to the birds, the flocks. and the smiling face of nature, but to the thousands of armed men, then hidden in the thickets of that tangled wood. it was to be a day of extreme hardship and apprehension, a day of tumult and peril that would burn as an oven. Ah !
" Many a heart was beating, that dreamed not of retreating. Which, ere the sun was setting, lay still and cold in death."
The mighty wilderness was quiet. save the moving of
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troops. Not a gun had been fired announcing the coming conflict. I thought I could hear a mysterious voice sum- moning the Federal hosts to "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men ; let all the men of war draw near ; let them come up ; let the weak say, I am strong." A little farther on, where the roadway was narrow and the growth heavy, we heard the galloping of horses in our rear. In a minute more we heard the command given in a loud voice, " Give way to the left !" It was General Burnside and staff riding to the front. At a little distance we saw Federal pickets, just relieved from night duty, making coffee over a little fire in a clearing on the hillside, while at other points troops were moving with rapid steps toward the front. As we marched on and neared the field of strife, everything seemed more warlike ; every- thing upon which the eye rested told us very plainly that a day was dawning that would live long in history; it was a vivid reminder of what we enlisted for. In that exciting moment, we fervently hoped and prayed that if the coming day should usher in the noise and wrath of battle, it might also bring the victors' song and a wild hurrah for the old flag, even if many of us were left sleep- ing in death upon the bloody sod. Yes, it was indeed a day long to be remembered in that lonely region, with all the horrors of war staring us squarely in the face ; but we would not have missed it for the world. More than once on that memorable morning did the words of the old song ring in my ears .-
" We are living. we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time ; In an age on ages telling,- To be living is sublime."
Just in the gray of the morning we reached Wilderness tavern, which was General Grant's head-quarters, and our march was at an end. At a short distance only
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from that place, we crossed Wilderness run, a pretty woodland stream with alder-fringed banks, chanting its delicate treble amid the rocks and hollows of the his- toric ground. At our left, after crossing the stream, was the encampment of the Ambulance Corps, alinost screen- ed from sight by the dark green wood. I heard one of them say to his comrade, as he gazed upon the long line (Second Brigade), " I tell you what. Joe. there is going to be warm work on the left to-day." The ambulance driver was right. The Second Brigade was assigned to a position on the left that day, and long before sunset every man could testify to the truthfulness of. the state- ment. Upon reaching the Wilderness tavern we turned to the right and passed into an open field; then we marched up a slight elevation and entered a thick pine wood. In much less time than it takes to tell it, we formed our line of battle, and were ready to advance to the front, which was a zig-zag line through the dense wood, and not far away. It was then not quite five o'clock.
I will now give a summary of that forced march, and the others in which we participated. We left Bristoe at ten o'clock a. m., on the 4th day of May, and at five o'clock on the morning of the 6th we stood in line of battle in the Wilderness, having marched a distance of fifty miles. Had we not been halted to await orders on the evening of the 5th to half past twelve on the morn- ing of the 6th, we would have reached the Wilder- ness before ten o'clock on the evening of the 5th. Gen- eral Grant says in his report on that campaign, that " it was a march of rare occurrence."
Our poets have told us, in verse beautifully written, of the famous rides that were made in the days of the Rev- olution. Among them is the ride of Paul Revere and 22
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that of Mary Butters, while Sheridan's ride took place in the War of the Rebellion. Without boasting, I say that the march of the Ninth Corps from Bristoe to the Wilderness should rank with the famous rides. My comrades of the old Ninth Corps : Take a map of the United States, and look up the long roads over which we marched in order to suppress that wicked rebellion. Beginning in the fall of 1862, there was the long march through Virginia on the east side of the Blue Ridge from Pleasant Valley in Maryland to Falmouth ; then glance at Kentucky, and from county to county and from town to town you can easily trace the way where we once rapidly marched over those hard and smooth pikes. Turn then to Misissippi, and from near Vicks- burg to Jackson, and the return, made under a hot July sun with but little water and rations, was a killing march which disabled the corps for months. There was the long march from Camp Nelson, Kentucky, to Knoxville, and then the return. The spring of 1864 saw the corps in camp for a few weeks at Annapolis, Md., and from that place our tireless feet measured every foot of the way to Petersburg, Va. As your eyes follow these long roads, you will hardly believe that you ever did it, or, at least, you will wonder how you ever did it.
The name of .. Burnside's travelling menagerie" had long been applied to the corps, but had the one who thus gave it the name waited until the morning of May 6, 1864, before giving the corps that inappropriate name, he would have been at his wit's end for a name that would have been truly applicable. "Travelling menag- erie " would have been a very tame one. All the marches made by the Federal army in that great cam- paign, from the breaking up of the camp north of the Rapidan to the surrender of Lee, were done in the same rapid way I have described. In addition to the swift and
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terrible marches between the Wilderness and Peters- burg, every foot of the way was cut with ball and blade. All through that campaign it was fight all day and march all night, or vice versa. Marching was not done for the sake of giving the troops "exercise," as was done in the early part of the war, but to defeat the enemy.
O sons of veterans ! you have listened to war stories told by your worthy sires, which were truthful and inter- esting to hear, but may Heaven shield you from days like those away back in "the sixties." "Thus only may our sons conceive the scenes we saw."
CHAPTER XI.
BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS-J. W. JACKSON'S ACCOUNT-CAPTAIN SHEPARD'S ACCOUNT-COLONEL HARRIMAN'S STATEMENT-GEN- ERAL GRIFFIN'S PLEASURE-CAPTAIN TILTON'S ACCOUNT-LET- TER OF ADJUTANT MORRISON.
Wednesday morning. May 4, the regiment left Bristoe station, and marched eighteen miles to Bealton station on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, and bivouacked at night in a field of very tall green grass, which made a good bed for the weary men ; the next morning, Thurs- day, the march was resumed, and the Rappahannock was crossed on a pontoon bridge at Rappahannock station. The march was down the south-westerly side of the river, and at five o'clock the famous Rapidan was crossed at Germania ford, and a mile beyond the men rested on their arms upon a high ridge of land, where the inces- sant roll of musketry of the first day's battle in the Wil- derness could be heard. Tired and weary the men lay down, and were lulled to sleep for a few minutes at a time by that music, which continued far into the night. The men were under orders to be ready to move at any moment.
At two o'clock, on the morning of Friday, May 6, the regiment marched to the battle-field, and, just as the day was dawning, took its place in the line of battle, in a dense, heavy wood where the trees were so near together that it was difficult for men to pass between them. The regiment was at the right of the plank road from Fred- ericksburg to Orange Court House. The Sixth Corps (Sedgwick's) held the extreme right of the Union line ; then came the Fifth ( Warren's) : then the Second ( Han-
Convence G. Morgan.
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cock's ). The Ninth Corps had its position with the Second, and, occupying the left centre, confronted its old antagonists, Longstreet's Corps, pitted against it at Knoxville. The regiment held its position until about eleven o'clock, when an order was received from Grant to move all the available force to the left to relieve Han- cock who was being hard pressed.
The Eleventh had the advance of the brigade, and when the centre was reached a line of battle was formed, and an advance was made until the Third Division was reached, the men of which were lying upon the ground, hesitating to advance. The order came for the Sec- ond Brigade to advance, which it did in the face of a ter- rible, murderous fire, the bullets raining upon the men like hailstones. Just as the order came, "Charge !" Lieutenant-Colonel Collins was shot through the head, a bullet entering his forehead, and he fell dead.1 On went the brave boys with such an impetuosity that the first intrenchments were carried, and many prisoners cap- tured. The woods were on fire, the smoke was dense, the work of no other regiment could be seen, yet on rushed the gallant, glorious Eleventh. and another and second line of works was carried; and still the men, flushed with success, moved on, until ascertaining them- selves to be far in advance of any other regiment. Colonel Harriman called a halt. He then, wishing to find where the rest of his brigade was, as well as to report his own success, sent back Captain Edgerly of the brigade staff, who was with the Eleventh, and who was captured and shot : then Corporal Franklin was sent, and he also was captured. Captain Tilton was next dispatched, and barely escaped capture. Finally Lieutenant Frost was dispatched, and received this message from General
I Was standing by my side, and fell against my left shoulder, turning me par about .- AUTHOR.
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Griffin : "Tell Colonel Harriman to hold the line, if he can." Before this order was received a line of rebels was seen coming upon our left flank, and Colonel Harri- man said, " To the rear. and form a new line to the foe !" and when the second line of the enemy which had been carried was reached, the colonel ordered a halt. "We can hold them here." he said. but with rebels in the rear, on both flanks. and, in fact, all about them, the men. see- ing that resistance was useless, fell back as best they could; and in this retreat some were killed and some were captured, among the latter being Colonel Harriman.
There was no truer, or more efficient officer in this battle than was Colonel Harriman, and when the order to charge the enemy's works was given, and he, waving his sword, exclaimed "Follow me, New Hampshire Eleventh !" the effect was electrical. Some one had said, " The Eleventh New Hampshire are d-d independent, but they would follow their colonel to hell, " and it was fully proven true on this occasion. The only wonder is that more of the men were not captured. Sergeant Ed- munds, of Company D. and the writer of this were the last men who saw Colonel Harriman before his capture. Every man was making good his escape, if possible. Just after the log entrenchments were reached. where Colonel Harriman had hoped to make another stand, the smoke lifted enough to disclose the fact that the rebels were close upon us and on both flanks. and all making substan- tially for the same point. When Colonel Harriman was captured. the distance on a parallel line between him and the writer, who was trying to make good his escape, could not have been over three rods, for many bullets whizzed about his head as he was seen when the smoke lifted, but immediately shut down again.
Colonel Harriman could not help falling into the hands of the enemy,-as many another one did,-for at this point
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THE CHARGE IN THE WILDERNESS.
the rebels fairly swarmed, and had the Eleventh Regi- ment not commenced to fall back when it did, hardly a man could have escaped capture. He was not captured by a concealed picket because he stepped a few paces in front of his regiment, but because the flank supports had given way and left the Eleventh Regiment to extricate itself as best it could. The colors of the Eleventh had halted within some forty rods of where the colonel was captured, and there the line was held. Not more than a dozen men. among whom was Adjutant Morrison, were with them when the writer of this came upon them out of the blinding, almost suffocating smoke through which he escaped capture.
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ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
Another trustworthy account we extract from the " Life of Walter Harriman," written by one who was a partici- pant in the Wilderness fight :
"Of the charge in the Wilderness, led by Colonel Harriman, which is among the many unrecorded inci- dents of those battle-heated years, we are impelled to write : The 6th of May broke clear and warm. The fate of the Battle of the Wilderness, begun on the 5th, hung in an even balance. The Eleventh was early in line. ' What are the orders?' said Colonel Harriman to General Griffin, who was then in command of the Second Brigade. The reply was, . Push the enemy.' Colonel Harriman, inquiring if he was to be supported, and receiving the answer that he would be, in a clear, ringing voice, that nerved every man to the conflict, shouted, · Eleventh New Hampshire, forward " Every man was at his post, and braver men never fought. They ad- vanced and steadily forced the Confederates back through
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the underbrush and stunted trees, amid the incessant roar of musketry. Colonel Harriman soon found his command (which had been increased by a large number of Western troops without officers, whom the Eleventh had found lying snug to the ground) far in advance of the main line, with no support.
"Sending back several times to explain the situation, he still ' pushed the enemy.' A halt was made; there was a lull in the roar of battle, and Colonel Harriman saw that he was confronted by a strong line of intrenchments, over which were levelled the guns of the enemy, ready to hurl death at any further advance. 'Fix bayonets !' shouted the gallant colonel, and stepping to the front of his men, his face blackened with powder, with sword in one hand and revolver in the other, he gave the word to charge. With a deep Northern cheer, and with the force of a whirlwind, the column rushed on. The works are reached. They scale the reddened battlements ; the banners are bent over the heads of the valiant. Bravely the Confederates fight, but are overpowered and routed, and fall back to a second line. 'Forward !' Again the same heroic struggle, the same shouts of victory, and the second line is won.
"Reader, peace has come. Can you comprehend the situation. and can you see the carnage of that day? Lieutenant-Colonel Collins is lying dead at the foot of a pine tree : Captain Dudley is wounded ; while Captain Clark, of Manchester, with the color of death upon him. says, . I am badly shot. colonel, but cannot tell where.' Colonel Harriman goes to him and discovers that his arm is shattered. The ground over which the assault was made is covered with gallant men, wounded. dead, and dying. But the assaulting column faces to the front. It advances still farther ; it has passed nearly through the dense forest to an opening and higher ground.
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A CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT.
" A flag of truce is raised by the enemy, but Colonel Harriman, suspecting their motives, orders his men to fix bayonets. This has scarcely been done when a fresh brigade pounces down upon Colonel Harriman's shat- tered ranks, and he is compelled to fall back. The enemy had gained his rear. Where was Colonel Harri- man's support? He never knew. He would not sur- render; and, in steadying his men and stubbornly con- testing every inch of ground, he found himself sur- rounded by a dozen or fifteen Confederates whose guns were levelled at him, and who called upon him to give up his revolver. But he threw it over their heads, when he was immediately seized and marched to the rear. There Confederate officers and men gathered around him, and a lieutenant said to him : 'You observe my men are curious to see you. You were a conspicuous figure when you led your men against our works, and I ordered them to pick you off, but here you are, un- harmed.' When he was asked to surrender his sword, the rebel officers found he had fooled them by slyly drop- ping it on the field of battle after being captured, where it was picked up by one of the men of his regiment and returned safely to his home in Warner."
JOHN W. JACKSON'S ACCOUNT.
In this connection I also give the following from the pen of John W. Jackson, of Columbia, Va., who was an officer in a battalion of scouts. guides, and couriers, attached to General Lee's head-quarters. The statement here given was written in March. ISS5. nearly one year after General Harriman's death, as a portion of a review of his book "In the Orient," and was sent by him to the general's family :
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"In May of 1864, the armies of Lee and Grant, as known to all, met each other in 'The Wilderness,' in Virginia, a section of country about ten miles square, equidistant from Orange Court House and Fredericks- burg, from which the good and enterprising old colonial governor Spottis wode (Spotswood) had cleared the orig- inal growth for fuel wherewith to make iron, 'muche goode store of whiche'-in the quaint phrase of that day -was to be found there. This denudation, letting in the air and sunlight upon a thin, gravelly soil, 'born poor,' there sprang up a strangely dense and stunted growth of chincapin, hickory, and dogwood, through which a man on foot can with difficulty grope his way. John Esten Cooke, one of Virginia's post bellum novelists, in his book 'Surry of Eagle's Nest,' takes his hero through this sad and weird locality, and succeeds in giv- ing him a severe catch of 'the blues.' At best it is a gloomy locality.
"Such was the Wilderness in 1864, where the two armies met, with a shock terrific indeed, and most sangui- nary in results from the fact that from the nature of the ground no artillery could be used and that the fighting was with musketry at short range. So dense was the under- brush, that frequently opposing lines of battle got within fifty paces of each other before being discovered. It was in the thickest of this tangle that for two days the sullen roar of musketry, unrelieved by the deep diapason of the big guns which ordinarily lends variety to the death song of battle, had risen and fallen with its dread monotony .- here, in this Aceldama, on the second day. that, stepping a few paces in front of his regiment of New Hampshire men. Colonel (later on General) Wal- ter Harriman ·· was taken in " by a Confederate picket- guard, which was lying concealed within twenty steps of his regiment. This writer, then an officer in General
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Lee's body-guard, or rather the battalion of scouts, guides, and couriers attached to General Lee's head-quarters, was one of the guard which escorted the Federal prison- ers taken in the two days fight (about 1200 in all, officers and men) back to Orange Court House.
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