USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion > Part 12
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Two days later, on the afternoon of September 3d, Heintzel- man's corps arrived at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, and became a part of General Banks' command, occupying the defences of Washington, while the army was engaged in the campaign which culminated at Antietam.
OFFICIAL REPORT OF CAPTAIN JOAB N. PATTERSON.
HEADQUARTERS SECOND N. H. VOLS., FIRST BRIG., GROVER'S DIV., September 14, 1862.
SIR: In accordance with instructions I have to report the following as the proceedings of this regiment from the date of its arrival at Alexandria, Va., from the vicinity of Harrison's Land- ing, Va .:
The regiment left Alexandria, Va., by railroad on Monday, August 25, 1862, and arrived at Warrenton Junction during the night ; from thence went into camp about one mile from the point of debarkation. Subsequently we were engaged in marches and battling with the enemy until our arrival in the vicinity of Fort Lyon, Va., September 3, 1862.
I have here to say that I possess no data from which to compile an adequate summary of the proceedings of the regiment from the date of its march from Alexandria, but know that Colonel Marston, now absent with leave at Washington, is possessed of the required information, and desires to make the report thereon.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. N. PATTERSON,
Captain, Commanding Second New Hampshire Volunteers.
Lieut. C. H. LAWRENCE,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
CHAPTER IX.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1, 1862, TO FEBRUARY 25, 1863 .- ON DUTY IN THE DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON-THE DIVISION AGAIN MARCHES TO THE FRONT-THE SECOND ON CENTREVILLE HEIGHTS-REJOINS THE ARMY BEFORE FREDERICKSBURG-BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG- THE SECOND GUARDS PONTOON BRIDGES-A DAY OF SKIRMISHING- DAVE. STEELE ON SNAKES-SERGEANT VICKERY PAYS FOR HIS FUN -INCIDENTS OF A TRUCE-ARMY RETIRES ACROSS THE RAPPAHAN- NOCK-THE " MUD MARCH "-RECONNAISSANCE TO UNITED STATES FORD.
S OON after arriving at Alexandria both Hooker and Grover were assigned to more important commands, Sickles succeeding Hooker in com- mand of the division. After remaining a few days near Fort Lyon, the First Brigade moved over to near Fairfax Seminary, going into camp to the rear of Fort Ward. Work enough was found to keep the men out of mischief. A strong picket was maintained, about two miles out, and large details were made almost every day for work on the fortifications. The brigade built a line of rifle pits between Forts Ward and Worth, and picket and fatigue duties combined became so excessive as to cause much dissatisfac- tion among the men; especially as much of the work in both directions was more a matter of furbelows than of utility. A picket tour generally meant an absence from camp from morning until well into the night of the next day, often in a cold fall rain storm, and with a prohibition against fires more exacting than was the rule in face of the enemy. And the men did not take kindly to the work of trimming the forts-adding a few inches here, and shaving off a few inches there, to please the critical eye and fancy of the engineer officer who rode over from Washington in a carriage to lay out the work.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
This discontent made it easy for a number of the Second to transfer their allegiance to the regular cavalry under a recent order permitting men in the volunteer service to serve out their terms in the regular cavalry or artillery. Colonel Marston was terribly exer- cised, one late October morning, on learning that a squad of the best men of Company I-some of the original members-after a forty hours' picket turn in the rain and without fires, had gone down to Alexandria and enlisted into the Second U. S. Cavalry ; and when, the next day, they packed their knapsacks and marched off, he sent a sergeant's squad to bring them back. It was of no use, however. The squad were ordered away from the rendezvous by Colonel Starr, the officer in charge, in a very peremptory man- ner. The Second lost nearly thirty men, whom it could illy spare, by this crusade. .
Us
But so far as the quartermas- master's department could provide, the troops were made very com- fortable. September 19th, the men received their knapsacks, which had been placed on barges at Harrison's Landing. Soon after, Sibley tents, with stoves and fuel, were supplied, and there was food, clothing and blankets in abundance.
Still it was with unalloyed Jonas Forristall, Co. A. pleasure that, on the first day of Died of disease, at Fairfax Sem'y Gen'l Hospital, October 26, 1862. He was from Fitzwilliam. November, the division broke camp and again set its face toward the foe. That day the First Brigade marched eight or nine miles in the direction of Fairfax Court House, and the next day to within three miles of Manassas Junc- tion, camping by the side of Bull Run Creek. On the 3d, the larger part of Sickles' division was assembled at the Junction, and was at once distributed to cover the Orange and Alexandria Railroad as far as Warrenton Junction, relieving the various detachments of Sigel's corps.
143
ON CENTREVILLE HEIGHTS.
November 5th, the Second Regiment was sent to occupy Centreville Heights, relieving the One Hundred and Twentieth New York, a new regiment of the Second Brigade. A very strong defensive position was taken up, on an area inclosed by three of the old rebel redoubts, in each of which a section of artillery was posted, after a few days. The log barracks occupied by the rebels the previous winter were a mine of wealth, afford- ing an abundance of well seasoned firewood ready to hand, and from which were quarried boards enough to erect a veritable " Slab City " on the hill. The busy men of the Second knocked this together in a few days; and although not quite up to the highest architectural stand- ard, yet comfort and content Edward I. Mitchell, Musician, Co. D. found an abiding place The above picture is from a wartime portrait. He now holds a responsible position in the Gen'l Office of the I. C. R. R., at Chicago. therein. Every shanty was fitted with a stone fireplace and chimney, often topped out with a few courses of brick ; and one householder in that city-then a boy, but now a gray-haired man-in retrospective mood often snuggles again with his partner (long since dead) in their little six-by-seven castle, with its deep four-foot fireplace heaped with blazing logs.
November 9th, the regiment sent six companies as guard for a wagon train going out to McClellan, who were absent three days.
The first snow storm of the season came on the 7th-a veritable blizzard, with very low temperature. But fine weather followed, and some of the men made trips to the Bull Run battle field. One of these parties brought in the sword scabbard of Lieutenant Moore, which they had picked up near the spot where he fell. Time passed very pleasantly, on the whole, until the 18th, when
I44
SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
camp was broken, the division having been ordered to rejoin the army, then on the line of the Rappahannock and under command of Burnside, who had recently superseded Mcclellan.
The Second was relieved by one of Sigel's regiments, which was ready to march into the shanties as soon as the men who built them marched out into the rain. Some crossgrained fellows swore that although they had spent a good part of their time digging trenches for others to fight behind, they 'd be blanketyblanked if they 'd build barracks for the rear guard to live in. The result was a miniature Moscow when 2 the Second evacuated the position. The swearing would have been appalling to the well brought up and sensitive John Kenney, Co. G. Resides in Milford. [See page 85.] New Hampshire boys, if so much of it had not been in strange tongues ; but if those fellows were really in earnest about wanting shanties, there was no known objection to their building some, as the Second had done.
It rained continuously for several days, with attendant discom- forts and difficulties of moving. The second day's march brought the brigade to Wolf Run Shoals, a ford of Occoquan Creek, not far from its entrance into the Potomac. The entire division remained in camp at and near this point until the morning of November 25th, when it marched to Dumfries; 26th, marched to Acquia Creek ; 27th, to Potomac Creek ; 28th, joined the army in front of Fredericksburg.
Under Burnside, the army was organized into three "Grand Divisions"-the Right, Left, and Centre, commanded by Sumner, Franklin, and Hooker, respectively. The Centre Grand Division comprised the Third and Fifth Corps. General George Stoneman was assigned to the command of the Third Corps, to which was
145
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
added a third division under General Whipple. Grover's old brigade was strengthened by the addition of the Eleventh New Jersey, and received General Joseph B. Carr as its commander.
For a fortnight the Second Regiment lay inactive in its camp about two miles below Falmouth. Although the weather was, just then, bitter cold, and snow and rain frequent, it was well under- stood the army would not go into winter quarters until it had once more tried conclusions with the enemy. From the steep bluffs upon the Falmouth side of the river (known as Stafford Heights) the army could look over into the city of Fredericksburg, and sight- seers gathered daily to watch the rebels in the town and on the fields and hills beyond.
On the 11th of December was commenced the battle of Fred- ericksburg. The Second was out at early dawn, and moved with the division toward Falmouth, to a position where it remained, awaiting developements, through that day and the following night. The Union artillery, posted on the flats along the river, kept up a tremendous fire, the reverberations from height to height making a din that was truly infernal. Under its cover attempts were made to lay the pontoon bridges ; but, time and again, the workmen were driven from their labors by rebel sharpshooters concealed in the houses near the river bank. These obstinately held their ground, until a forlorn hope of brave men ferried themselves across the river in some of the pontoon floats, and cleared the right bank of the waspish riflemen, when the bridges were completed and a sufficient force crossed to render them secure.
During the forenoon of December 12th the long columns of the Right and Left Grand Divisions were crossing in a seemingly endless procession-Sumner into the city, and Franklin a mile and a half below. The Centre Grand Division was, most of it, held in reserve on the Falmouth side. The Third Corps was massed near the head of Sumner's bridges, ready to cross to his assistance should occasion require. Whipple's division did cross into the city ; but the First and Second Divisions moved down the river to a position near Franklin's crossing : and during the night four regiments from Carr's brigade (including the Second) were sent to guard Frank- lin's two bridges-the Second being posted at the Fredericksburg
10
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Charles F. Holt, Co. G. The Soldier of '61.
to the extensive plain beyond the river a partial view was obtained of the desperate fighting of the 13th. A mile or more to the right, above the orchard trees and the buildings of the city, the crest of Marye's Heights was in plain view, ablaze with the mus- ketry and artillery fire which was scourging Sumner's columns, on the plain below.
To the left, Franklin sent forward Meade's division, sup- ported by Gibbon's, which, after a considerable success, were at last driven back upon Birney's and Sickles' divisions of the Third Corps, which meantime
end of the upper one, where it remained on duty through the entire day of the 13th. No person, ex- cept he was wounded or had a pass from a general officer, was permitted to pass to the Falmouth side ; but the skulkers and skedaddlers taxed human ingenuity with their devices for getting to the rear. It was a unique experience for the Second, whose training had taught them more of the ways of the battle line than of the rear.
By climbing the bank
Charles F. Holt, The Boniface of '95. Proprietor of the Lake House, at Antrim.
147
UP AT THE FRONT.
had crossed the river to their support. In this affair a considerable number of rebels were made prisoners, including one North Caro- lina regiment almost entire. They were sent back under guard of a detachment of Rush's Lancers, and corralled for a time under the river bank, near the bridges. The Second men were much amused by the unsuccessful efforts of the lieutenant-colonel-the maddest man, just then, in either army-to ferret out the conscienceless traitor who shouted, " Don't fire, they are our own men !" when the Yankees ran over his men in the brush.
At midnight of the 13th the Second and the Eleventh Massachu- setts were relieved at the bridges by the Second New York, and marching up to the front, joined the First and Twenty-sixth-the only regiments of the brigade then up. The position was in a corn field, which had been trampled and cut up until the mud was ankle deep, and those who were fastidious about going to bed in such quarters whiled away the rest of the night in conversation with the A Wounded "Coffee Cooler." men in the first line, a proportion At Bull Run, August 29, Charles F. Holt, whose portraits appear on the opposite page, received a musket ball in the face, tearing away a good part of the upper jaw, with six teeth at- tached, and at the same moment the faithful servant hanging by his side was disabled in the manner shown in above picture. of whom were under arms. The two regiments, although not actively engaged during the day, had lost twenty or twenty-five men each from rebel sharpshooters. The rebel camp fires gleamed along the low hills to the front; and an occasional bullet, whistling over the brigade and striking in the fields far to the rear, showed the prox- imity of the rebel pickets.
As the morning gradually broke the firing of the pickets became brisker. The inability of the Twenty-sixth men on the outposts to keep down the rebel fire was soon woefully apparent. There was no cover, all the troops in this part of the field being upon an open plain, where the rebels could count them, if they cared to, man by
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
man. The great slugs fired from the long-range Mississippi rifles were bad enough and plenty enough ; but when, as the mists lifted, a battery back on the hills began to shell the brigade, General Carr seemed to lose all patience. He did what the Second's brigade commanders had a habit of doing-put the Second to work to keep the enemy down. Riding over to the regiment, he directed Colonel Marston to " send out twenty or thirty riflemen to stop that battery." Company B was at once sent forward to that duty. Deploying as skirmish- ers, they advanced rapidly, and soon their Sharp's rifles were heard barking on the picket line. In a very few minutes . the rebel gunners had got all they wanted of it, and fled from their pieces, which were not manned again during the day.
Attention was then paid to the rebel pickets, and the skirmish was kept up until Quartermaster John S. Godfrey. near night, the Second keep- The original Quartermaster of the Second. He was appointed Captain and A. Q. M. Oct. 31, 1861; under Burnside, was Cbief Quarter- master of the Centre Grand Division; and was brevetted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. He was from Hampton Falls. ing out one company at a time, relieving as fast as ammunition was exhausted. The advanced position, when once reached, afforded many advantages for cover. A plantation road ran, diagonally, into the rebel lines, with a ditch, an embank- ment and a post-and-rail fence along the side toward the rebels. There were two or three piles of lumber in the vicinity, two great plantation gate posts flanking the road, and a burnt chimney a little in advance.
Each company, as it went forward, was deployed as skirmishers, the men, as soon as the enemy's fire was felt, throwing themselves upon the ground and creeping to position. The crawling movement
149
A DAY OF SKIRMISHING.
was too much for Dave. Steele. When he led Company G out, everything was harmonious until they shifted from the perpendicu- lar to a horizontal. "Say, boys," he roared in a voice which could have been heard far within the rebel lines, "are you going to crawl out there on your bellies like a mess of d-d snakes? Attention, Company G !" Every man was on his feet. " For- ward, double quick !" and there was a race for the front, where every man arrived in safety.
The casualties of the regiment during the day were remarkably few, being officially reported as only five wounded. Including the slightly wounded, how- ever-men who stuck right to their business and made Capt. David Steele, Co. G. no fuss about it-nearly a The original First Sergeant of Co. G. Big, brawny, large hearted, and of dauntless courage. He was among the pioneers in California, and a fillibuster with Walker in Nicaragua. It was just like him, after serving a term with distinc- tion in the Second and rising to the rank of cap- tain, to enlist and serve as a private in the Eighteenth N. H. After the war he went back to California, and died at Colusa County Hospi- tal, October 8, 1890. dozen men were hit. Two of Company B's men died of their wounds : William E. Morse on the 17th, and Daniel S. Martin one day later. Sergeant Charles Vickery, of Company I, was wounded under exceptional circumstances. His position as " left general guide " would have excused him from the fight when the whole regiment was not engaged ; but when he saw his company deploy- ing he decided to take his share of the fun, and followed it out. Taking shelter behind a pile of lumber, he was taking a preliminary peep at the front, when a rifleman's bullet struck his "eagle plate," crumpling it up like a piece of paper, and deflecting the bullet into Vickery's neck.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
About four o'clock in the afternoon a rebel officer came out with a white flag, and the firing ceased immediately. A truce had been arranged by Franklin, upon the left, for the purpose of remov- ing the wounded and burying the dead left by Meade the previous day ; but though his skirmishers had been shouting themselves hoarse to "Cease firing on the right !" the Second men industri- ously pegged away until the flag showed up.
At once the men on both sides straightened up out of their holes, laid down their arms, and mingled together between the lines in the most fraternal manner. There was an exchange of courtesies, and notes were compared as to the results of the firing. A rebel colonel had had a close call from, and conceived a great admiration for, the man behind the burnt chimney, and wanted to meet him. The captain of the battery frankly acknowledged that he had been roughly handled in the morning by that company of sharpshooters, and wanted to know who they were. When told they were from New Hampshire, he said one of his men killed in the affair was from that State. There was no end of sharp but good-natured chaffing, and before the two lines separated again, having got acquainted and mutually found out what good fellows the other side were, come to know them, it was agreed that there should be no more picket shooting ; a compact which was religiously kept by both parties on that part of the lines.
Sunday and Monday, the 14th and 15th, the troops remained in position upon the plain, and Monday night the army was withdrawn across the river, in perfect order, and leaving no material for the enemy. The night was favorable for the movement, being rainy and dark and with a high wind blowing, which drowned the noise of rumbling wheels and tramping feet, and the first intimation the rebels had of the retreat was when the morning sun revealed to them the unoccupied plains on their front and the long blue lines disappearing over the Stafford Hills.
On the 3d of January the Second, with the rest of the brigade, went into winter quarters about a mile east of the Fitzhugh house, at which, later, General Sickles established his headquarters. The monotony of January was relieved by participation in Burnside's " mud march." On the 20th the division left camp and marched
151
THE " MUD MARCH."
about two miles in the direction of Falmouth, but after shivering for hours in the cold rain, the troops, at nine o'clock in the even- ing, were marched back to their camps and re-habili- tated the dismantled quar- ters for a few hours of rest. The following morning they were off again, and by night were near Banks Ford,above Fredericksburg, about six miles from the starting point. It rained incessantly, and the entire country was a quagmire. The infantry, by scattering and picking routes, were able to get along after a Surgeon James M. Merrow. fashion, but everything on He was from Rollinsford, and the original Assistant- Surgeon; appointed Surgeon to succeed Dr. Hubbard, and was mustered out with the old men, June 21, 1864. He died at Newfield, Maine, in 1870. wheels was inextricably bogged and mired. Light field pieces, with a dozen horses attached, were stuck fast in the mud, and the unwieldy wagons of the pontoon train were immovably anchored, here and there. Burnside had lost his opportunity to cross the river by a surprise. On the 22d details from the division were busy corduroying roads, and on the 23d the troops returned to camp. The sun, which had been hidden from sight for days, shone warm and clear as soon as the retrogade movement began.
February 5th, the division marched to Hartwood Church to guard the fords near there, while a force of cavalry advanced to Rappahannock Station and destroyed a bridge which the rebels had recently constructed. The First Brigade and a battery were posted near Richards and United States Fords, and upon the return of the cavalry, on the 7th, the division marched back to camp.
CHAPTER X.
FEBRUARY 26 TO JULY 1, 1863 .- SECOND REGIMENT ORDERED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE-"SPECIAL ORDERS, NO. 13"-THE JOURNEY HOME- OVATIONS IN BOSTON AND MANCHESTER-GALA DAY RECEPTION IN CONCORD-THE SEVENTEENTH INCORPORATED WITH THE SECOND- RETURN TO WASHINGTON-IN CAMP ON EAST CAPITOL HILL-REJOIN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-A NIGHT STAMPEDE-THE TOW PATH MARCH-DIARY ACCOUNT OF THE MARCH TO GETTYSBURG.
OR two weeks after its return from Hartwood Church the Second performed the customary routine of duty in a winter camp. Important changes were made in the high commands of the army. Hooker replaced Burnside, and Sickles succeeded Stoneman in command of the Third Corps. Berry took command of the division. But a change was impending which concerned the Second more vitally than any of these.
For months rumors had been flying that the Second Regiment was to be ordered to New Hampshire, until the men had entirely lost faith, and treated each new story as sim- ply a camp canard. It transpired in time, however, that the reports were well founded. The movement had been discussed in inner circles in New Hamp- shire, although no efforts appear to have been made to bring the matter to a head until after Hooker's appointment to the command of the army. Then (as he once related it to the writer) Colonel Marston went to see the Secretary of War; but Stanton said Hooker had just been appointed to the command, and the War Department would not feel justified in taking the regiment from him at that time. Marston thereupon set out to get Hooker's
153
STIRRING "SPECIAL ORDERS."
consent. " I do not want to lose that regiment," said Hooker, "but if the President should order it I would, of course, send the whole army away." Marston went to see the President. In the waiting room of the executive mansion he encountered General Hooker, and was fearful he was in for it then, sure enough. But when Hooker came out from his interview with Lincoln, he said to Marston, " I will issue the order." It was evident Hooker had attended to the matter himself, and in a manner to please Marston, who accordingly retired without troubling the President.
There was but the thinnest concealment of the fact that political considerations were at the bottom of the transfer. A sharply contested political campaign was on in New Hampshire, the loss of which by the supporters of the administration, would have been considered almost as serious a disaster as the loss of a battle in the field. The arrival in New Hampshire of the Second Regiment --- almost solidly Republican-was, in fact, the turning point of the campaign.
On Wednesday, February 25th, the regiment was directed to be ready for a movement on the morrow, orders having been issued for it to report to General Wool, commanding the Department of the East. It is not necessary to read between the lines of the following Special Orders, to catch the spirit of the hour :
HEADQUARTERS THIRD ARMY CORPS,' 25th February, 1863.
SPECIAL ORDERS, { NO. 13.
The General commanding cannot sever, even temporarily, his relations with the Second New Hampshire Volunteers, without expressing his regret that this gallant regiment no longer belongs to his command. Entering the service at the beginning of the war, this regiment has participated with distinction in the combats which have made the campaigns of this army illustrious. Unchallenged in loyalty as in valor, the devotion of the Second New Hampshire to our sacred cause is today as unyielding as when the fall of Sumter inflamed the Union. Sol- diers! your patriotic State will soon fill up your ranks. You will be greeted at home with affectionate welcome by those who appreciate your worth and share your unselfish love of country. You will, perhaps, encounter not a few who find everything to deplore in the means employed to suppress this rebellion, and nothing to commend, except their own exertions to confer authority upon those who apologize for treason, and sue for peace with the traitors who spurn them. You have offered your own lives for the Union. You have buried many brave comrades on the bloody fields of the rebellion. Von will know how to repel the approach of renegades who would betray the cause for which your flag has been proudly borne in battle. To your commanding officer, Colonel Gilman Marston-twice wounded at the head of his regi- ment, distinguished for gallantry in the field and for signal ability in the national councils-I desire to acknowledge my obligations for his able and zealous co-operation as an officer of this command.
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