USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, Volunteer Infantry in the rebellion war, 1861-1865, pt 1 > Part 4
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General Franklin wished " to impress as firmly upon the committee as it was impressed upon his own " mind
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
the fact " that the whole disaster had resulted from the delay in the arrival of the pontoon bridges. Whoever is responsible for that delay is responsible for all the dis- asters which have followed."
General Hooker asserts that . he heard General Hal- leck or General Meigs assure Burnside that the pontoons would be at Falmouth in three days." and further said, " I think it [the responsibility of having the pontoons at Falmouth in season] necessarily rested upon Gen- eral Halleck and General Meigs, because it was beyond the control of General Burnside, who was not where he could control it."
It is a matter of history now who was responsible for the non-arrival of the pontoons at the proper time.1 They were not there when the head of the army arrived, and the Eleventh Regiment, not being able to go over into Fredericksburg as it had fondly hoped to do when it broke camp on the morning of November 19, about six o'clock at night of that day went into camp upon a high plateau below Fredericksburg, on the left bank of the Rappahannock; so that the march, which, when the army left Pleasant Valley nearly one month before, was expected to end at Richmond, ended on the Rappa- hannock, whose deep, dark waters lay between it and Lee's apparently invincible hosts resting in perfect secu- rity in their impregnable quarters. Here the men of the · regiment made themselves as comfortable as was possi- ble, doing guard and picket duty, and living largely upon the exciting rumors that daily, and at times hourly, filled the camp. A great army was lying about. drums were beating, fifes were screaming. bugles were sending out their clear notes calling to duty. and all were waiting and wondering what would be the next move, or whether there would be one at all : no one knew what was ahead.
1 The Committee on the Conduct of the War.
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GENERAL ORDERS.
Shortly after leaving Pleasant Valley, an order regu- lating the march was issued by General Mcclellan, which was, as a whole, very offensive to the army, especially to those who did not believe in fighting the enemy and feeding him at the same time. The purport of this order was, that if the provost guards caught any soldier straggling with the evident intention of foraging upon the country through which the army passed, he was to be arrested, and, if detected in the act of foraging. he was to be shot, and this order was car- ried into execution upon many a soldier. The march of the Ninth Corps to Fredericksburg was made under the following order, which order was read upon each regi- mental dress-parade before the march was commenced :
HEAD-QUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
PLEASANT VALLEY, MID., OCTOBER 23, 1862.
GENERAL ORDERS,
No. 7.
The attention of the division commanders is hereby called to General Orders, No. 155, Army of the Potomac, on the subject of straggiing. A copy of these orders will be furnished to every company in their commands, and a strict compliance therewith enforced, together with the following Standing Orders for March :
1. All troops will be habitually marched in good order, in silence, with their arms properly carried on leaving camp. and until the com- mand "Route step!" or "Arms at will!" is given. This applies to small detachments as well as regiments.
2. All officers are to remain constantly at their station during the march. The lieutenant-colonels and majors, or officers acting as such, will march in rear of their respective wings. If there is only one act- ing field officer beside the commanding officer of the regiment, his post is in the rear of the regiment.
3. One company officer will march at the rear of each company. Commanding officers of brigades and regiments, assisted by their staff, will move from one point to another as occasion requires their presence for the preservation of order, and particularly for the prevention of unnecessary defiling and straggling.
4. When marching at ease, files may be loosened, but each route,
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
section, platoon, or company must be kept perfectly distinct, and every man must remain exactly in his place. The inattention of file closers must be promptly rebuked. The officer commanding the leading regi- ment will halt his regiment half an hour after the column marches, unless it should interfere with the movement of the column from camp. and if so, as soon thereafter as practicable. At this halt fifteen min- utes will be allowed for the men to ease themselves, the men stacking arms. The column will halt five minutes at the end of each hour thereafter. If a longer halt is thought necessary, the commanding officer will direct it.
5. As often as the width of the road admits, each regiment and detachment will march with company platoon or section front.
6. No regiment, company, or section is at any time to defile or diminish its front. or attempt in any way to avoid any bad spot in the road, unless the preceding regiment or company has done so.
7. Whenever defiling or undoubling is necessary, it must be exe- cuted with order and precision, as in manœuvring at drill, by the proper word of command preceded by the word "Attention !"
8. When a regiment or company comes to a bad place in the road where the. men will be likely to detile individually, the officers must be on the alert and call out to the men to keep their ranks.
9. When a bad place is to be passed, the field officers will go to the head of their respective wings to see it regularly done. They will remain at the spot till the whole of their wings have passed, and then resume their stations in the rear.
10. Whenever a stream, ditch, or bank, or other obstacle is to be crossed, it will be found generally that instead of defiling, or diminish- ing front, the very contrary should be done, not only by causing the files of each section to extend gradually before they arrive at the ditch or obstacle, but even by forming platoons or companies.
11. It is proved that the defiling of one regiment on the march, even if done with as much prompitude as is practicable on such occa- sions, will cause a delay of ten minutes. One such obstacle, if not passed without defiling, would therefore delay a brigade, consisting of three regiments, half an hour, and in the winter, when obstacles of this kind are frequent, and the days are short, a column which is constantly defiling without cause will arrive at its quarters in the dark; whereas. if it had performed the march regularly, it would have got in by good time.
12. After passing an obstacle or ascending a hill, the leading com- pany of each regiment will stop short until the last company of the
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THANKSGIVING IN CAMP.
regiment has passed and closed up, although a large interval should be thereby occasioned between it and the preceding regiment.
13. If the head of a regiment cannot keep up with the preceding regiment, the commanding officer will forward the notice to the head of the column, detaching files at the same time to preserve the commu- nication with the preceding regiment.
14. This order respecting defiling is, therefore, as much calculated to provide for the personal ease and comfort of the men, as it is essential for the due performance of the movement of the army.
15. On arriving at camp, each division commander will send a staff officer, or orderly. to the head-quarters of the corps; division com- manders will also at once make themselves acquainted with all the roads and topographical features in the neighborhood, so as to be able to expedite the marches by day, or by night, and obtain favorable ground for attack, defence, advance, or retreat, as well as facilitate the movement and security of their trains.
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16. The division commanders are directed to take particular precau- tions against surprise. They will also give such precise instructions to the officers of the medical department, pioneers, ordnance, ambulances, and baggage-wagons as will enable those officers to furnish needed labor and supplies at the required point with the utmost promptness.
17. It is important, for the sake of concert of action and to ensure success in the field, that communication should be constantly main- tained between the troops ; the division commanders will therefore take measures to communicate with the head-quarters of the corps, and, as far as practicable, with each other on the march.
A copy of the above will be furnished and read to every company.
By command of Brigadier-General Willcox,
[Signed] ROBERT A. HUTCHINS, Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. Official :
G. H. MCKIBBEN, Assistant Adjutant-General.
November 24 the regiment moved its camp one mile farther up the heights upon which it was encamped, and on to drier ground. Thursday, November 27, was the first Thanksgiving Day spent by the boys in the service. The chaplains of the brigade held a union. service with the Eleventh boys, and the band enlivened the services
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
by playing several selections, including? "Auld Lang Syne," " Hail, Columbia," and "Yankee Doodle." The turkeys and other fixings usually had at home were . sadly missing. And so the days sped on,-each bring- ing its duties, and each one finding more and more of the boys ill. The cold, wet weather told fearfully upon the men in their little shelter tents, and the surgeon's call in the morning was usually well attended. In some regiments there were large numbers ailing. The Eleventh had its full share, and several men died in spite of all efforts to save them. Following the brigade were several ladies from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, with large supplies for the soldiers of the brigade belonging to those states, and to care for the sick and dying. New Hampshire had none in the field at that time to administer these kind offices to the boys of the Eleventh, and if they secured anything of the kind, they had to ask for it, which requests, in all honor to the ladies be it said, were never refused by them when the solicitor was found worthy and stood in need.
December 1, 1862, the boys of the regiment were made happy by the appearance of Major Sherman, of New Jersey, an old pupil of Colonel Harriman's when he was a teacher in that state. The regiment was paid to October I preceding, and right glad were they to see some of the " needful" once more. The sutler was well . patronized for a time, and whenever there was anything to be had for the comfort of the inner or outer man, it was forthcoming if money would purchase it. Others. still, remembered the loved ones at home, and a good share of what they had received was sent by express, or by letter, to those at home who were continuously in their mind.
Meantime Burnside was busying himself with the alternative, Shall I put my army into winter quarters, or
43
IN FRONT OF FREDERICKSBURG.
shall I press the enemy with all the means at my dis- posal? It was indeed a question of great moment, and it was decided by him with a view to fulfilling his promise made when placed in command of the Army of the Poto- mac,-"I'll try, sir." The advantages of crossing the river at various points were well considered, as were also the probabilities of success. He concluded to throw his pontoons across the river, and march his troops directly across into Fredericksburg and deliver battle with one portion of his army, another portion crossing the river farther down-a distance of two miles-to attack the enemy on his flank while the battle was delivered upon his front.
And this, too, in the face of the difficulties so viv- idly portrayed by Rev. Mr. Woodbury in his "Ninth Army Corps :" .. Beyond the town lay the slope up which the army was to march in order to reach the enemy's lines. Above the slope frowned the enemy's batteries. The main task was to carry these heights, bristling with bayonets and dark with cannon. It was a perilous undertaking. For the first time in its history the Army of the Potomac was to move on the enemy's works' for a determined assault. It had shown itself unequalled for defensive warfare. Could it successfully take the aggressive? The answer to that momentous question was soon to be given in fire and blood." Behind . these works rested General Lee, with an army So,000 strong, of his best troops, eager for the advance of Burn- side.
On the morning of December 10, 1862, there was in front of the enemy at Fredericksburg an effective force, as shown by the morning reports of that day. of III.834 officers and men of all arms of the service. There were three grand divisions : The one on the left, commanded by General Franklin, consisting of the First and Sixth
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
corps ; the centre, commanded by General Hooker, con- sisting of the Third and Fifth corps ; and the right, com -. manded by General Sumner, consisting of the Ninth and Second corps. A large number of men from each of these grand divisions were occupied in guarding the railroad and doing picket duty, while the cavalry was held in reserve. This great army lay along the river waiting for the order to advance: our duty is with the New Hampshire Eleventh and its brave deeds.
The night of December 9 was a busy one. Troops were marching in all directions, accompanied by bat- teries and wagons : drums were rolling the entire night. Early on the morning of the 10th, the men of the Eleventh were furnished with three days' cooked rations and sixty rounds of ammunition, with orders to be ready to march at a moment's notice. During the night the artillery was posted along the river from Falmouth to the Mattapony, and early on the morning of the 11th iron hail belched from hundreds of iron throats upon the enemy's ranks on Fredericksburg heights. While this bombarding fire was going on. the engineers under Gen- eral Woodbury were attempting to lay a bridge across the river for the passage of troops, and one was nearly completed before the work was discovered by Barksdale's Mississippi sharpshooters, who were posted in the houses in the city, and the men were driven from their work.
Burnside then ordered the guns to open on the city, which order was responded to in a terrific manner. More than one hundred pieces of artillery kept up a ter- rible fire until the buildings. many of them, were com- pletely riddled, and the city set on fire in several places ; but still the enemy clung to their positions and had per- fect control of the river. General Woodbury reported to Burnside that the bridges .. could not be built.". "They must be built," replied Burnside ; and again the engi-
,
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IN FREDERICKSBURG.
neers went bravely to their work, but were soon obliged to desist. Burnside then called for volunteers to cross the river in boats and dislodge the sharpshooters, which was bravely done by men from the Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts, with men from the Fiftieth New York as oarsmen. A number of men from the Eighty-ninth New York crossed at another point. In half an hour Fredericksburg was ours. the bridges were soon completed, and troops began to cross.
During the terrific firing on the morning of the 11th, "Fall in, New Hampshire Eleventh !" .came in the clear, ringing tones of Colonel Harriman, and in a few minutes the regiment was on the march towards the river, and, when near it, halted and remained all day,- but just at dusk went back to its old camp-ground for the night.
Early on the morning of the 12th the regiment left its camp, crossed the river into Fredericksburg, and filed under the bank of the river, where it remained during the day and the night following. Troops were everywhere. and the day was very busily spent by them in looking for articles " rare and antique." Some of the boys found some flour and lard, and turned many an honest penny by selling fried doughnuts ; and the writer of this had nothing for rations from the 12th until the 14th, save doughnuts from a well stored haversack.
But there was hard, dangerous work ahead. Early on the morning of the 13th the regiment moved down Caroline street-the main street of the city-to the lower part of the town, where it rested on its arms. Artillery from both sides were firing briskly. and shells and bricks were filling the air at times. At 11 : 30 Colonel Harriman received orders to move his regiment to the attack. The regiment. being the first of the brigade to
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
advance, filed into Princess Charlotte street, and the men lay upon the sidewalks waiting for the order to advance. Presently it came, and the regiment went down the street, past the brick 'kilns behind which stood the com- mander of the brigade, General Ferrero, who in a short speech to the Eleventh New Hampshire a few hours before had said, -.. Men of the New Hampshire Eleventh : I expect every man to do his duty in the coming fight. I will not ask you to go anywhere that I will not lead you : Follow me !- and that was the last seen of him by the regiment until the battle was over. It filed to the right, and, crossing the Fredericksburg & Richmond Railroad, formed a line of battle in front of the rebel works : the men were ordered to lie down and await the order to join. The firing from the enemy was severe : precious time was being wasted, and the men exposed to a murderous fire. After what seemed an age, almost, an aide from somebody came cringing along in a cow- ardly manner to the left of the regiment and said, " Tell your colonel to advance by the front," and onward it went, men continually falling dead or wounded. Part way up the slope a Pennsylvania regiment was encoun- tered, running to the rear as fast as their cowardly legs would take them, but on the Eleventh pressed, in the midst of a terrific fire from the enemy's works, which belched forth " sheeted damnation " in a terrible manner. The men wavered not. but soon gained an elevation look- ing down into the enemy's works.
The regiment was now with their detachment, Colonel Harriman at the right wing, Companies D and F in the centre, and Major Farr with the remainder of the left wing farther to the left. all fighting bravely. Men fell dead and wounded in large numbers. Soon rein- forcements began to arrive, and their coming was her- alded by an increased firing from the enemy.
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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
All this time the Union artillery posted across the river was silent, their shot doing more harm to the Union troops than to the enemy. Some regiments came to the rear of the line where the fighting was going on, and there in their fright would rise up and fire at random, and had to be silenced by the men in front. Most of the regiments that came, went into the fight bravely, at dusk the whole line being crowded with men without much regard to formation in some parts of it. The enemy's front seemed alive with men preparing to repulse the Union charge, which was made with a terrible rush. Hundreds of pieces of artillery from the. rebel works rained their fierce defiance of grape, canister, shells, and solid shot, and thousands of muskets filled the air with leaden hail. The heavens were lurid with a fiery flame ; peal on peal, crash on crash, benumbing the hear- ing and almost bewildering the senses, raged the fearful charge, but it was as bravely met ;- the stone-wall was ours, and a portion of the enemy's rifle-pits, and it seemed at one time as though the crest would be carried; but " thus far and no farther" was still said in earnest behind those breastworks-and the battle was over. Still the firing was fearful at different points.
After this desperate charge, the regiment, gathering up its wounded as best it could, went back to the city, having earned for itself a proud name for its bravery, for . at no point was the fighting more severe than upon that part of the line where the Eleventh New Hampshire was engaged, and where it had been fighting for six long hours. During this time the men of the Eleventh quailed not, fully meriting this compliment from its division com- mander, General Sturgis, himself one of the best fight- ers in the Army of the Potomac. While urging forward some of his old troops during that terrible afternoon, he said, "See the men of the Eleventh New Hampshire,
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
standing on that crest, like so many stone posts imbedded in the ground."
During this fearful afternoon fourteen brigades of Union troops charged in front of Marye's hill. General Longstreet says that in his opinion " the Federal army fought more desperately at Fredericksburg than in any other battle of the war," and certainly there could be no better authority.
Sunday afternoon, the 14th, the Eleventh Regiment was ordered to be ready for picket duty. and. just after dusk, went out of the city and picketed a portion of the battle-field of the day before. There was continuous firing, but little damage was done. At dark the next night, the 15th, an order was received for the regiment. as soon as relieved from picket duty, to march back to the city and prepare to defend it to the last. No relief came, however, and Col. Harriman, getting impatient, went back to the line of pickets in the rear and found them gone ; then to the next line. and they too were gone ; and so on, to the right and left in all directions, no troops were to be found. After a hurried consultation with Lieutenant-Colonel Collins and Major Farr, both of whom advised an immediate retreat. the regiment took up its march. and went down into the city to find nearly the whole army across the river once more. While the men were resting on their arms. General Ferrero made his appearance, and said, " All right. Colonel. I was just going to relieve you !" and the regiment. together with the rest of its brigade, went back to its old camp, which it had left on the morning of the 12th, tired, worn, and hungry. but not disheartened. They had won for them- selves a name for brave. heroic deeds that could not be taken from them. General Willcox, commanding the corps. said of the men of the Second Brigade, of which the Eleventh Regiment was a part, -.. All these troops
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AFTER THE BATTLE.
behaved well, and marched under a heavy fire across the broken plain, pressed up to the field at the foot of the enemy's sloping crest, and maintained every inch of their ground with great obstinacy until after night-fall. But the position could not be carried." Rev. Mr. Wood- bury, in his " Ninth Army Corps," says of the Eleventh New Hampshire and the Seventh Rhode Island,-" Both were new regiments, and both received at Fredericks- burg their initiation of blood. They stood at their posts with the steadiness of veterans ; they advanced with the enthusiasm of genuine soldiers ; they won the encomiums of all who witnessed their valor on this their first day of battle."
Details were made from the regiment to assist at the hospital, and also to cross the river and aid in burying the dead. Upon one acre of ground, where the Eleventh with other regiments fought, 620 dead men were found and buried. The details from the enemy who assisted in this sad task were very friendly and social. They were especially anxious to know the name of the regiment that had fought so determinedly upon the crest almost unaid- ed for so long a time, and when informed that it was the Eleventh New Hampshire, replied,-" You fought like devils, and if we ever meet on picket, we will not attempt to shoot you if you will not us." At the hospital were witnessed scenes sad enough to appall the stoutest heart. Poor fellows with an arm or other limb gone, shot through the head, the lungs, the mouth, the throat, their bodies mangled with shot and shell, crying piteously for water, for anything that would relieve or that would end their misery,-all being cared for as rapidly as the force at command could attend to them.
4
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ELEVENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE.
COLONEL HARRIMAN'S ACCOUNT.
Wednesday, November 19. Broke camp at 6 o'clock in the morning and marched, we hoped and believed, for Fredericksburg. The distance made to-day, eight or nine miles. On coming to the bank of the Rap- pahannock below Falmouth, and directly opposite to Fredericksburg and in full view of that city, the officers of the Eleventh, while the column was at a halt, came together under the branches of an oak tree, and grew eloquent over the prospect of the easy capture of that city. " No rebels of any account are now there, the river can be forded without difficulty, and the men are ready for it. But remarkable counsels prevail : we must wait, wait for pontoons to cross on, which will be simply wait- ing for the rebel army to arrive and intrench itself!" After tedious waiting this afternoon we got into camp at 6 o'clock, on a high plateau a little below Fredericks- burg, but on the left bank of the Rappahannock. From Warrenton Junction to this point we have presented a magnificent spectacle. An immense army, feeling that it was engaged in a holy cause and marching on to glorious victory, could not feel otherwise than elated at the prospect before it. We have marched from that point in three lines abreast. To explain it, it may be said that three roads running parallel to each other and very near together were occupied by our army during these last three days. There were in reality no roads at all, or next to none ; only such as we made through forest and field as we moved upon the Confederacy. In this grand advance we have had six army corps, amounting in all to 100.000 men.
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