USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion > Part 17
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
asked assistance in forcing them to return to their quarters on his plantation. General Marston treated him courteously, but gave him no encouragement. The shrewd negroes had left the plantation in the night, crossed to the Virginia side, and come into camp in the
Star Spangled Banner Masonic Lodge, Point Lookout.
Drawn by J. Warren Thyng, from Sketch by Sergt. James E. Saunders.
morning, claiming that they were from the neighborhood of Richmond. One of his old hands was accosted by the planter while at work on the wharf discharging a transport : "Why, Sam, how came you here?" "'Scuse me, sar, but I nebber seed you afo'. I's from Ole V'ginny !" The planter could get none of his former slaves to recognize him, and he retired discomfitted.
The negroes were not the only refugees from Dixie. August 23d, there were fifteen white men under guard at headquarters who had fled to escape conscription into the rebel army. They would have been sent north upon simply taking the oath of allegiance ; but some of them refused to do so, and were accordingly sent back across the river and landed on the soil of their beloved Dixie.
209
RAID INTO VIRGINIA.
January 12, 1864, General Marston led a raiding party across the river, into what is known as the Northern Neck, under the following instructions :
HEADQRS. DEPT. VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, Fort Monroe, January 6, 1864.
Brig. Gen. G. MARSTON,
Commanding District of St. Mary's.
GENERAL: Information having been received here that a small cavalry force of the enemy is roaming about the counties of Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster, Va., collecting conscripts, deserters, horses, mules, neat stock, and grain, and sending the same to Richmond and the rebel army, the major general commanding this department commands that you cross the Potomac with such force as you may deem necessary and as can be spared from other service, and with the aid of the gunboats at your command effect a landing in the above- named counties, capture or disperse any hostile force you may find there, seize and fetch away the negroes, live-stock, tobacco, and grain of rebel owners, and also the boats used in carrying men and supplies across the Rappahannock. The grain and boats and other property which you cannot fetch away you are authorized to destroy. It is to be hoped that large quantities of wood and cattle for the use of the prisoners may be thus obtained.
Respectfully yours,
R. S. DAVIS, Assistant Adjutant-General.
Marston's raiding party consisted of three hundred infantry- picked men from the Second and Twelfth-one hundred and fifty cavalry, and a section of a Rhode Island battery. The expedition left the wharf early in the morning, convoyed by gunboats, landed on the Virginia shore, and for three days created quite a commotion among the rebels, of whom there was a small irregular force in the neighborhood. Considerable property of value to the enemy was destroyed, a few rebel officers and soldiers home on furlough were captured, and some live-stock picked up. The expedition arrived back at the point on the afternoon of the 15th, having lost one man accidentally killed and about a dozen missing. The rebel report of the raid was as follows :
CENTRE CROSS, January 18, 1864.
SIR: The enemy made a raid through the Northern Neck, landing at Kinsale, Westmoreland county, on the Potomac, on last Tuesday at 4 p. m. The force consisted of about 100 cavalry and the same of infantry, and passed directly through the county of Richmond into Lancaster and Northumberland, and embarked again on Thursday from a wharf on the Great Wicomoco river, Northumberland county. The force came to Point Lookout from Norfolk a few days previous. They are increasing their force there (Point Lookout), I think, with a view to guard our prisoners, which have greatly increased at that point. The raid was a very small one, and I think indicates nothing of importance. No other movement on the Potomac. I am, &c.,
JNO. BRAXTON, Capt. and Asst. Adjt .- Gen.
Major-General ELZEY.
It was on this expedition that one of the officers ran up against the rugged side of "the old man." The troops were embarking
14
HENRY H. EVERETT, Co. C.
2II
A BUILDING BOOM.
with their plunder at the Wicomoco wharf when the officer told Marston he had captured a fine blooded horse, which he asked the general to accept as a present. Marston looked at him a moment in amazement, then thundered out, " Who asked you to go 'round stealing horses for me? Turn him over to the quartermaster."
January witnessed a great " building boom" in the camp of the Second. First, Sibley tents were furnished to take the place of the A tents, with a plentiful supply of logs cut to the right length for stockading to a height of five or six feet. The setting of the stockades and the pitching of the new tents, was a tedious job, but there was full compensation in the increased room and comfort.
Then a pot of about six hundred dollars was raised by good old Chaplain Adams for the erection of a chapel. The Twelfth had built one at a cost of three hundred dollars, and the Second saw them and went three hundred better. It would be interesting to know just how much of this was contributed by the godless subs, who were rolling in the wealth of their big bounties, and ready to chip in for anything from a jack-pot to a chapel.
About this time a hall was erected for the Star Spangled Banner Lodge of Masons, which was working under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.
On the 23d of February the Thirty-sixth U. S. Colored Troops arrived upon the point to assist in doing guard duty, as four
HENRY H. EVERETT was born in Wilmington, N. C., November 6, 1841. While yet a child his parents returned to their former home in New Hampshire, locating in Manchester in 1846. He left the public schools at thirteen to serve an apprentice- ship on the Granite Farmer and l'isitor. On the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the Rifle Rangers, which became Company C of the Second Regiment. His superior clerical abilities led to his appointment as regimental, or adjutant's, clerk, in which position he proved invaluable to successive adjutants. Returning to Manchester at the expiration of his three years' term of service, he again engaged at his trade, for some years in the employ of C. F. Livingston. In 1875 he purchased an interest in the Saturday Night Dispatch, which he disposed of three years later, and in company with Levi L. Aldrich started the Weekly Times, a paper especially devoted to the interests of the soldiers. In the spring of 1883 this venture came to an end, and he entered the employ of the Manchester Union, on the editorial staff of which he served until his death. Over the signature " The Rambler" he conducted a department which will stand as his literary monument. He died at Manchester March 24, 1895, of pneumonia, after an illness of only a week.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Corpl. Hiram F. Gerrish, Co. B.
hundred and fifty men were to leave the next day for New Hampshire on furloughs of twenty days. It was not a mere accidental coincidence that all the men who went were legal voters, and that their furloughs brought them home at the date of the annual state election.
The furloughed men were transported to Boston on the "Admiral Dupont," formerly the blockade-runner "Tubal Cain," which was lost at sea in the summer of 1865. Re- turning, they left Boston on the 15th of March, upon the steamer " Enid," arrived at Fort Monroe on the morning of March 18, where they were transferred to the steamer " Louisiana," which landed them at Point Lookout about midnight.
The above portrait of " Hi.," as wagon-mas- ter, is from a tintype taken by the wayside during the Gettysburg campaign. He was subsequently promoted to a lieutenancy in the Thirty-seventh U. S. C. T., and served as quartermaster on division and corps staffs, was promoted to be Captain and A. Q. M., and rounded out his military career as brevet major and chief quartermaster of the District of North Eastern Virginia. He resides in Concord, and has been Deputy State Treasurer for many years. On the 24th of March occurred the famous snowball battle between the Second and Twelfth. A phenomenal snow storm had piled up drifts in some places five or six feet deep. Three or four men from each regiment got to pitching snow at each other in play ; others joined in, and in a little while a battle royal was on. Tents were wrecked, bones broken, eyes blacked, and teeth knocked out -all in fun. As a truthful historian, we cannot deny that the Twelfth had some reason to crow over general results ; but we must
213
THE SNOWBALL BATTLE.
claim for the Second the credit for the two most brilliant plays of the game. The first was the heroic defence of the regiment's garrison flag by the colonel's gallant little wife, who sallied forth with a broom and put to rout a force of the enemy who had reached the flagstaff and were about to lower the national emblem. Second only to this sortie was the destruction of the Twelfth's ammunition train by Adjutant Cooper, who by a wild charge, ending in a flying leap, sat down on a wheelbarrow load of nice hard snowballs which had been brought up to the front, and wrecked the whole outfit. He was taken prisoner, and released on terms known only to him- self and his captors.
On the 4th of April General Marston was relieved by General Hinks, having been assigned to command of the First Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps. Three days later the Second embarked on the steamer "Escort," and headed, as two years before from the same point, for Yorktown.
Major Hiram F. Gerrish,
CHAPTER XIV.
APRIL 8 TO MAY 28, 1864 .- BUTLER'S CAMPAIGN ON THE JAMES -- EXECUTION OF DESERTERS-THE ARMY OF THE JAMES LANDS AT BERMUDA HUNDRED AND CITY POINT-DESTRUCTION OF REBEL RAILROAD COMMUNICATIONS-BATTLE OF SWIFT CREEK-ADVANCE ON FORT DARLING-BATTLE OF DREWRY'S BLUFF-A WIRE MAN- TRAP-THE "FOG FIGHT "-SORTIE BY LIEUTS. SAUNDERS AND LEES-DEATH OF CAPTAIN PLATT-ARMY RETIRES TO BERMUDA HUNDRED-EIGHTEENTH CORPS SENT TO REINFORCE GRANT.
A
T an early hour on the morning of the 8th of April the Second landed at Yorktown, marched up through the little town, and went into camp on the plain outside the encircling fortifications. The post was under command of General Wistar, with a garrison consisting of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York and a brigade of colored troops. On the 11th the Twelfth New Hampshire came down from Point Lookout, one of the colored regiments being sent up to take their place.
The regiment was hardly in camp before the bounty jumpers began to jump. Within three days over a hundred men deserted from the Second. But very few got clear away. Some made their way toward the rebel lines, but the greater part struck down the Peninsula toward Fort Monroe, and were gathered in like rats in a bag. At Point Lookout they had been reasonably sure of escape if they could but once get outside the camp limits ; but here the conditions were reversed-their troubles commenced where they had formerly ended. The old men cursed each successive squad as they were brought in, and felt more homesick than ever.
It was a military necessity that an example should be made of
215
EXECUTION OF DESERTERS.
some of these, and a court martial was convened for the trial of the most flagrant cases. John Egin, of Company A, was tried on the 12th, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot to death between the hours of 5 and 6 p. m. on the 13th. Egin was picked up while making his way toward the rebel lines by a Union scout in rebel uniform. Preparations were made for carrying out the sentence. The Second marched to the place selected for the execution, and Egin was on his way when a reprieve arrived and arrested the proceedings. Egin threw his cap in the air and danced for joy. He probably thought the whole affair was only "a bluff." But his reprieve was only temporary. On the 15th he rode forth again, seated upon his coffin, this time with a comrade in mis ery and to his death. His companion was from Company F, and had enlisted under the name of Henry Holt; but the night before his death he divulged that his Capt. Hugh R. Richardson, Co. C. name was McGuire, and that he was from Yorkshire, England, where he had a wife and two children.
Familiarly known as "Ren- nie." Was the first volunteer from Coos County, enlisting from Lancaster, and was mus- tered in as a sergeant of Co. F. Was severely wounded at Get- tysburg. Has for many years made his home at Littleton.
The place of execution was about a The mile below the fort, upon the bluff overlooking the river. regulation formalities and arrangements for a military execution were fully observed. The condemned men's own regiment was drawn up in line, with unloaded muskets, facing the spot where the deserters were to die. A section of artillery was upon the left of the regiment, trained to rake it. The One Hundred and Forty- eighth New York, in line to its rear, and two colored regiments on the right, all with loaded muskets, hedged the Second round about. No words can tell how keenly the proud old men of the proud old Second felt the disgrace of the position.
The condemned men rode to the spot seated upon their coffins, and accompanied by a priest. The carts stopped directly in front of the Second, where the men alighted, and their coffins were placed upon the ground, end to end, a few rods from the edge of
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
the river bluff. The provost marshal read the findings of the court and the sentence, when the firing party of twelve men advanced and took position a few feet in front of the coffins. The prisoners removed their coats, and knelt upon the grass while the priest per- formed the holy offices of the church. Arising, they shook hands with the provost marshal and the priest. Their eyes were bandaged and their wrists tied with white handkerchiefs. Then they were led to and seated upon their coffins, facing the execu- tioners. The marshal raised his hand, and his men brought their pieces to a "ready ;" again, and the guns sprang to the shoulder ; a third time, and the volley rang out. Two or three bullets were heard singing out over the river, and Egin and Holt fell back across their cof- fins. After a short time the bodies were examined by surgeons, who declared life extinct, when all the troops were filed past the bodies and back to their camps.
Corpl. John J. Moore, Co. G. Present residence, Meadville, Pa. [See page 156.]
But vengeance was not yet satisfied. James Scott, of Company G, and Owen Mc- Donald, of Company K, had been picked up by the gunboat " Mystic," while paddling up Chesapeake Bay in a small boat, outside the Union lines. From memoranda found on their persons relative to the military preparations at Yorktown, it appeared that they were prepared to furnish valuable information to the enemy. They were tried for desertion, found guilty, and paid the penalty upon the plain in front of Fort Magruder, at Williamsburg, on the 29th of April.
217
ARMY OF THE JAMES.
These drastic measures had a most salutary effect, the desertions by wholesale being immediately checked. Fred Phisterer, sometime Adjutant General of New York, states in his statistical record that twelve men who were soldiers were executed by sentence of court martial during the war. If his figures are correct, the Second
Regiment certainly furnished an undue proportion of this disgraceful roll.
Butler's Army of the James was now assembling at York- town and Gloucester. It was to comprise two Army Corps -the Eighteenth, commanded by General William F. (Baldy) Smith, and General Gillmore's Tenth Corps, the latter coming up from South Carolina on transports. This gave Butler an effective force of over thirty thousand men, with which he was to move against Richmond from the south simultaneous with the advance of the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan. Butler, by assem- Albert F. Baxter, Co. G. bling his army on the banks of the York, and by sending a brigade to West Point, at the head of that river, to begin the construction of wharves, completely misled the rebels as to his intentions. They believed he would follow Mcclellan's route of 1862, and made their arrangements accordingly. But his plan was, by a sudden move- ment up the James, on transports, to land his army on the south side of that river, as near Richmond as possible, and destroy the rebel communications south before they could organize an effective opposition.
The Eighteenth Corps comprised three divisions, General Brooks commanding the First, and General Weitzel the Second. The Third Division was composed of two small brigades of colored
218
SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
troops, under General Hinks. The Second Regiment was assigned to the Second Brigade of the Second Division, commanded by General Wistar, and consisting of the Eleventh Connecticut, Second and Twelfth New Hampshire, and One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York.
On the 22d of April the brigade moved to Williamsburg, near which city it remained in camp until the 4th of May, on the after- noon of which day it marched over to Grove Landing, on the James, and embarked on steamboats from an old wharf which had been newly planked for the occasion. The boats anchored in the stream until morning, when, with the first rays of the sun, the great fleet carrying the Army of the James came steaming up the river, having passed during the night from the York around into the James. There were about fifty transports loaded with troops, with a squadron of war vessels comprising four monitors, the rebel- built ironclad "Atlanta," and ten gunboats. In this majestic procession the boats bearing Wistar's brigade took their position.
The afternoon was well advanced Michael C. Minor, Co. I. Resides at Cambridgeborough, Pa. when the fleet approached the mouth of the Appomattox. Troops from the colored division were landed at Wil- son's Landing and Fort Powhatan and occupied those important positions, and the remainder of Hinks' division disembarked at City Point without opposition. The white troops were landed at Bermuda Hundred, just across the mouth of the Appomattox from City Point, and went into camp near the landing.
The movement had, thus far, been a complete surprise to the rebels. With a large, well-officered and finely-disciplined army, Butler had leaped to within fifteen miles of Richmond and eight miles of Petersburg. In the light of our present knowledge it seems certain that he could, by a rapid advance, have captured
219
AT BERMUDA HUNDRED.
Nathaniel W. Adams, Co, B.
threatened, General gathered from the with which to meet terms.
On the morning on the north side advanced-the along the Port the river, and the farther north. The were full of the is a commander's work by his troops. Their intuitive appreciation of the rebel dilemma was not clouded by the heavy responsibility which rested on their leaders. They expected that before another morning they would be charging over the para- pets of Fort Darling, and the next day, perhaps, into Richmond.
The body of the army, however, advanced only about three miles, to the neck of the Bermuda Hundred penin- sula. Here the distance from river to
Orrin Brock, Co. E.
Petersburg almost without a struggle, and it is quite probable that Richmond could have been taken as well. The greatest consternation prevailed in the rebel capital. Pickett had but about six hundred men at Petersburg on the morning of the 6th, and there were but very few troops in Richmond. But the rebel weakness was not known to But- ler, and he moved with a caution which lost him the golden opportunity. Before Petersburg or Richmond were seriously Beauregard had Carolinas a force Butler on equal
of the 6th the troops of the Appomattox Eighteenth Corps Walthal road, near Tenth upon roads. men in the ranks enthusiasm which guaranty of good
John Eaton, Co. E.
NOTE. The plates used in this page are from H. L. Robinson's "Pittsfield, N. H., in the Great Rebellion."
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
river was only about two miles, and the work of fortifying was at once commenced. With the gunboats patrolling both rivers, and the fortified line completing the inclosure, Butler had an almost impregnable base of operations.
About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Heckman's brigade of Weitzel's division, with a battery, was thrown forward to make a reconnoissance toward the Petersburg and Richmond railroad. They had nearly reached Port Walthal Junction (where a short spur road from Port Walthal, the head of navigation on the Appomattox, connects with the main line), when they encountered a rebel force and engaged in a sharp skirmish which cost them sixty men. The rebels were the first arrival of Beaure- gard's hurrying reinforcements-a portion of Hagood's brigade, from North Carolina. Heckman sent for reinforcements, but instead came an order to retire, and at 7 o'clock he retraced his steps and rejoined the division.
The next day (7th) a heavier demonstration was made. General Brooks advanced to Port Walthal Corpl. Michael McManus, Co. A. Junction with three brigades from Was from Fitzwilliam, Wounded at Gettysburg. He died many years since, and is buried at Fitchburg, Mass. the Tenth Corps and one from the Eighteenth. More of Beauregard's troops had arrived, and Brooks had some lively fighting, with a loss of three hundred men. He did some damage to the railroad, and retired at night. During this day the Second Regiment were engaged in tearing down a house near their camp, preparatory to the building of a redoubt. In the evening the waving torch of a rebel signal station was observed just across the Appomattox from the position of the Second. Two rifled guns were brought up, whose practice was so good that the rebel lights were shortly extinguished.
221
BATTLE OF SWIFT CREEK.
Sunday, the 8th, there was no demonstration to the front, but the army was busily engaged in fortifying. The position of the Eight- eenth Corps was on a plateau of considerable elevation, from which there was an extended view up the Appo- mattox, which here makes a sharp bend to the south, toward Petersburg. The spires of the city, about five miles distant, could be seen across the succession of low islands which for much of the distance divide the river into many channels.
On the morning of the George W. Pickup, Co. C. 9th the third advance was Now a prosperous manufacturer of tin, copper, brass and sheet-iron' work, at Worcester, Mass. The above portrait is from a picture taken shortly after the war. made against the railroad, by the entire force north of the Appomattox. Reaching the road at Port Walthal Junction without opposition, the Tenth Corps commenced its destruction north of that point, while the Eighteenth swept south, toward Petersburg ; Brooks' division following the railroad, and Weitzel's the Petersburg and Richmond pike, a short distance to the right (or west) of, and parallel with, the railroad.
Heckman's brigade led the advance along the pike, with Wis- tar's closely following. The column had advanced about a mile, when, at Arrowfield Church-just beyond which the road crosses Swift Creek, an affluent of the Appomattox-the enemy was found in position with infantry and artillery. Heckman's brigade at once deployed in line across the pike, making connection with Brooks' division on the left. Wistar's brigade moved up on Heckman's right, and the skirmishers were withdrawn preparatory to an attack on the enemy's position. But the rebels could not wait. As the
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
skirmishers fell back, Hagood's brigade of five regiments dashed upon Heckman with the shrill rebel yell, but were stubbornly met and speedily whirled back in confusion upon their reserve of three Tennessee regiments, posted just north of the bridge.
Quartermaster Charles H. Shute.
As Weitzel approached Swift Creek his line came un- der the fire of artillery posted in a field work on the opposite side. A section of Follett's battery was brought up to engage these guns, but was worsted and forced to retire. There was considerable desul- tory firing, continuing until after dark, and Weitzel's troops, after throwing out a heavy picket line, went into bivouac for the night in the positions they then held.
The Second Regiment had Entered the service from Concord as a corporal of Company B. On being mustered out he went to New Orleans, where he held important posi- tions in customs and internal revenue services, and for nearly four years was Cashier and Acting Asst. U. S. Treasurer. Resigned in 1873 to ac- cept position as Payer in New Orleans National Bank, which he still holds. He is prominent in educational and charitable movements. Was elected Junior Vice Commander-in-Chief of the G. A. R. in 1894. six men wounded in this little battle of Swift Creek, among the number being Lieutenants Lord and Swain. It was also reported at the time, and re- corded not only in the author's diary, but in one other which he has examined, that one man was killed in the Second ; but the official records do not now designate any such casualty. Perhaps the poor fellow buried in the fence corner belonged to some other regiment.
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