USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion > Part 24
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The route from Concord, Manchester, Lowell, and Boston, with full particulars, will be given hereafter by postal card to those who signify to the secretary their intention of going.
J. N. PATTERSON, Chairman of Committee on Monument. FRANK C. WASLEY, Com. 3d Corps Gettysburg Reunion, 168 BRIDGE STREET, LOWELL, MASS.
THOMAS B. LITTLE, Com. 3d Corps Gettysburg Reunion, and Secretary 2d N. H. Veterans' Association, CONCORD, N. H.
As the monuments of the Fifth regiment and the Sharpshooters were also completed and their dedication fixed for the same date, the occasion was one of unusual interest to New Hampshire people generally, and not only did a large number of veterans improve the opportunity to revisit the scenes of their great struggle, in many instances accompanied by their wives and children, but there was a large and distinguished body of civilians as well, in the New Hamp- shire party.
The dedication of the Second's monument was set for three o'clock on the afternoon of July 2. At that hour a large audience had assembled about the monument, among them being Generals Sickles and Graham and men from almost every regiment of the Third Corps. The rain, which had interfered somewhat with the exercises earlier in the day, had by this time partially suspended. It should be noted, also, that the peach orchard did not then con- tain any of the trees which stood in it on that fateful July day in 1863, but a larger lot of thrifty young trees.
General Patterson presided, and first called upon Chaplain Adams to offer prayer ; after which Martin A. Haynes delivered the dedicatory address, as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT, AND COMRADES OF THE OLD SECOND:
I have a feeling that this is one of the spots sanctified by human sacrifice and human endeavor, where words for the mere sake of words, however cunningly arranged, however brilliant and effective, are still inadequate and inappropriate. It was in the line of this senti- ment that Abraham Lincoln pronounced that wonderful five-minutes eulogy which has become one of the classics of oratory-simple words simply spoken, the eloquence of the heart, rather than of the tongue, grand in the suggestions of what was unsaid-the acknowledgment that he stood in the presence of mighty deeds, to which naught that could be said might add, and naught detract. Nothing can be more eloquent than the simple story of Gettysburg, told, if you will, with official directness and brevity. It is the plain narrative of the guide that strangers come to this spot to listen to, and not to wordy tricks of oratory.
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GETTYSBURG MONUMENT.
It is hard to realize, comrades, that almost a quarter of a century has elapsed since last we stood at Gettysburg. In that period wondrous changes have been wrought. Time's healing power is everywhere displayed, and long ago may have done its perfect work. The dead rest in solemn phalanx in consecrated ground; and from right to left, from flank to flank along the line, monuments have been set to mark historic portions of the field. In such a designation New Hampshire well earned her right to be represented. Not that she was conspicuous for the number of troops she had engaged, but she sent men worthy of her ancient military renown. Five points, widely separated, mark their position upon this great battle line. Far away to the right, the Manchester battery-and a famous battery it was-stood to their guns. To the left, two companies of New Hampshire sharpshooters, picked riflemen, bore their full share in the achievements of Berdan's sharpshooters. Again, to our right, the Twelfth New Hampshire sustained the assault, changing front under a severe cross-fire, with a coolness and precision that called for the unstinted praises of the commanding general. About the same distance to the leit, the Fifth New Hampshire fought as it always fought, and there the gallant Cross closed in death a long and illustrious career as a soldier. And here, in the center, the very key- stone of that mighty arch of battle of July 2, the old Second fought the greatest of its many battles, and helped to render Sherfy's peach orchard immortal. And it is a matter of record, that of the three infantry regiments New Hampshire sent to Gettysbuurg, nearly fifty per cent. of the entire force was killed or wounded. Not that they were surrounded, demoralized, and shot down like sheep, but in every instance in square, stand-up fight of line to line, face to face with the enemy. What state can set her monuments here with prouder consciousness of the heroism they commemorate !
Standing upon this spot once more, how vividly we recall the memories of our participation in that great event ! the night march of our brigade from Emmitsburg! We had some sort of information that there had been a collision the day before, and that our march indicated urgen- cy; but it was well, perhaps, that we did not know what we were marching to. Could it have been foreseen that in our next night's bivouac not half our little band would be there to answer to their names, many a light jest and careless word of that night march would have remained unspoken.
We came upon the field early in the forenoon of that fateful day. Since Creation's dawn, earth and air and sky never presented the aspect of more perfect peace. We remember how joyously the birds twittered and sang that July morn. Not a breath was in the air, not a rustle in tree or grass. It was the calm before the storm.
Little by little we men in the ranks gleaned our information as to the situation. We saw a line of skirmishers in the fields there to the right, extending to cover the road up which we had just advanced. From the picket, weary with his night's vigil, we learned of Reynolds' fight, and the certainty that the enemy were in heavy force, "over there." From troops which, like ourselves, had reached the field by forced marches from various points, it was evident that the scattered corps of the Army of the Potomac were being here concentrated with all haste.
Away across the fields, we saw spires and clustered buildings, but it took a great many inquiries to develop the information that that village was called Gettysburg. How strange it seems, in the light of present fame, that such a name as Gettysburg could ever have been anything but grand and impressive !
Leaving the pike, we leisurely, and apparently aimlessly, made our way up across the fields toward the north. Then came the countermarch, this time with no uncertain movement, and the rapid deployment of brigades and batteries told us, as plainly as though written in a book, that the old Third Corps was again moving to battle. How our hearts thrilled as this conscious- ness came, and yet with the instinctive shrinking of men who stand in the face of death-that piteous, unspoken inquiry, as comrade looked in comrade's eye, " Who will it be?"
Down to the left. toward the Round Top, we received the first fire. Massed in column by battalions, the brigade was moved forward into an exposed position, apparently to draw the enemy's fire and develop his position. The movement succeeded admirably. How suddenly it came-that storm of shells! And one, bursting squarely in the faces of our color-guard, wounded several men, and broke the staff in fragments. We saw that some of the enemy's guns were by the pike where not long before we had passed unchallenged and unobstructed.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Back went the brigade to cover, under which the line was to be deployed. The sharp voice of Colonel Burling, brigade commander, gave the cautionary announcement of the movement, to be executed at the double-quick. But that was not to be the, scene of the Second's sacrifice. Having, by temporary absence from the army, lost our position as a member of the old " Hooker Brigade," we had become a wanderer among regiments, with no settled place among all the brigades of the Third Corps. At this time we were attached to the second New Jersey brigade -the Third Brigade of the Second Division. But it was willed that the Second Regiment should make its greatest fight as a castaway among strangers-brigaded for that occasion only. Ordered to report to General Graham, we marched away, up the slope, to the position indicated. When we reached the spot-the spot where once again we have stood after many years, at the northern edge of the peach orchard-the practised eye began to read the magnitude of the field. The rapidly developing fire left no doubt that the Army of the Potomac and the Army of North- ern Virginia were again face to face in one of their titanic struggles.
Here, in and about the peach orchard, was the " bloody angle" of the battle of July 2, and at its very apex was the position of the Second Regiment-the iron buckler upon which the first blow fell, and we may well believe selected for this position because of its metal, battle- tested. As we lay up there, hugging the ground to the rear of the battery we supported, how they scourged us with shell and with shrapnel! A single battery can make it hot for a regiment, but when that battery is multiplied to forty guns, well served and at easy range, it is a condi- tion that calls for all the nerve the bravest can muster and all the discipline long campaigning can give. How the air blazed and hissed with deadly missiles! And there lay the old Second, sullen and chafing, watching the good work of its heroic battery, and from its commanding position noting the progress of the battle down toward the Round Top. Men with ragged shell wounds were staggering to the rear. The dead, torn and mutilated, lay in the line by the side of the living.
But do you remember how, even in such a furnace of war, the devil-may-care spirit of the veteran soldier asserted itself, when, clear and full, arose the chorus of the old doggerel song, of which I remember just one verse:
" When this cruel war is over, We'll be happy and be gay, We'll get drunk and we'll get sober, If it takes three weeks and a day. Chorus-Hurrah! Hurrah! for Southern rights hurrah! Hurrah for the bonny blue flag that bears a single star!"
It was the old Second's note of defiance, and must have been heard within the enemy's lines. I will warrant that Lee's veterans knowingly nodded their heads and said: "Those are no green militia fellows."
But the end of our inaction came at last. The artillery fire increased to a perfect storm. Every gun of the enemy was being worked to the utmost. Under this cover an infantry column was thrown forward upon the peach orchard. The leafy screen obscured in a measure our view to the front; but when there came a crackle of musketry in front of the battery, and the skir- mishers of the Third Maine came running in, we saw from the confusion among the men at the guns that they needed their supports.
" Yes, for God's sake, go forward!" said General Graham to Colonel Bailey, in response to the latter's suggestion that the Second should charge. At the word, to its feet came the regi- ment with a great sigh of relief. Of the entire force borne upon the rolls for duty, only eight men were absent from the ranks, and they footsore stragglers from the night march, just then skirmishing across country in rear of the enemy's lines. The old Second might straggle some- times on the march, but never on the battle line.
The endurance of the regiment had been tested to the utmost by its terrible punishment under enforced inaction, but now it was to have an opportunity to pay up the score and to give blow for blow. A few seconds for alinement, and then away went the old Second, roaring and screaming, a mighty javelin, steel pointed and irresistible, hurled out from the defiant front of the old Third Corps. Down hy the guns of the battery, into and through the peach orchard-O,
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GETTYSBURG MONUMENT.
James Bresnehan, Co. F.
what a charge! The advancing enemy halted just long enough to determine that they had either a bayonet fight or a foot race on their hands, and quickly choosing the latter, they turned and fled. It was New Hampshire pluck and courage at its best, and that means a great deal.
Here, by the Emmitsburg pike, the halt was sounded, and position taken along the line of this rail fence. It was a more difficult matter to stop that charge than it had been to set it in motion. Soon the Third Maine came up and formed upon our left; then the Sixty-eighth Penn- sylvania upon our right, extending their line up the pike. Here, away to the front, stood three little regiments, and it was a terrible vortex into which they had been precipitated. From the great semi-circle which encompassed them, sixty-two pieces of artillery opened fire, clearing the way for a renewal of the attack which had been so rudely disrupted by the countercharge of the Second. The air was alive with shells crossing each other at many angles. The Sixty-eighth withdrew up the slope, also the Third; but the old Second held on with bulldog tenacity until the advance of the enemy's infantry upon our uncovered right rendered a retreat and change of front necessary.
As the charge of the Second had been dashing and plucky, so its retreat was an exhibition of consummate, nervy discipline. With probably very nearly a third of its men down at that time, it closed up the ranks and changed front to oppose the column that had overtopped it on the right. There, half-way up the slope, it halted to have it out with the enemy, but again over- topped, again it changed front and fell back, this last movement bringing it in line over the crest. Here the Third and Sixty-eighth came once more to our support, gallantly charging up into the withering fire in which the Second was enveloped. It is no disparagement to their gallantry that they again fell back; and then it was that the Second gave up the unequal and hopeless struggle. Not in panic-stricken confusion or headlong rout, but coolly perfecting its alinement, it about-faced and marched steadily but rapidly to the rear, leaving the line of its last stand marked by the bodies of many of its bravest and its best. Passing the batteries which were taking position on yonder low ridge to the north-east, it received one of the proudest com- pliments of its entire career-ovations of cheers from the battery men.
310
SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The Second had made its record at Gettysburg, The plain figures chiseled upon that block of granite are the eloquent record of the deed. One hundred and ninety-three men, stricken, not from a division, not from a brigade, but from one little skeleton regiment, numbering but three hundred and fifty-five officers and men. Do those who have never stood in the battle line understand what such figures mean? Why, battles have been fought which were pivotal events in history and are quoted as monuments of valor, with less aggregate loss than that of the Sec- ond New Hampshire upon this spot. Our fathers won Bennington, and bravely won it, with a loss of but seventy killed and wounded. Trenton and Princeton combined cost Washington only about one-half the men that Gettysburg cost our single regiment. And Yorktown was won and American independence assured with less than half the loss to the American army that our regiment here sustained; while the total loss of our Freneh allies fell seven below our figures, amounting to but one hundred and eighty-six men. "Tippecanoe" became the rallying cry of a great political party, upon which its hero was elevated to the presidency; but Tippecanoe, stubborn fight as it was, cost Harrison's army only one hundred and eighty-eight men. There is a world of suggestion in such figures as these.
It was a veteran regiment that fought here, and it can be safely assumed that none but a veteran regiment could have stood such a test and done such a work. There were men who fought at Bull Run, who followed Hooker in the battles of the Peninsula, who charged with Grover over the railroad bank at Groveton. But not all who stood with us at Gettysburg had such a record. The number in line at the peach orchard was probably less than the recruits which the regiment had from time to time received. Our brave old Colonel Marston wore the well earned stars of a general, in another command, and he who had been the ninth captain in the line had risen by regular promotion to the command of the regiment. Such had been the changes incident to the service. But that the regiment was a veteran regiment by no means carries the assumption that the regiment was composed exclusively of veterans. In fact, there were in our ranks nearly a hundred men who here for the first time heard the roar of hostile guns. It was a rough initiation, but of all who fought here there were none braver or better than our raw recruits-the men of the dismantled Seventeenth.
Such was the regiment; such was its deed. Our state has indicated its pride in both by setting here this memorial stone. We are not many, we who stood at Gettysburg. Some escaped the iron hail here, only to meet their fate on other fields, and our number is rapidly growing less. For us, the living, this monument stands as a memorial to our comrades, our brothers, who here gave up their lives. Our recompense while living is ample in the proud privilege of saying, " I was with the Second New Hampshire at Gettysburg!" And when we are all gone- and that day will not be long in coming-generations of New Hampshire men will point to the record there inscribed with an honest pride in the achievements of their ancestors who lived in an age which they will recognize as heroic.
The address was followed by a poem by Chaplain John W. Adams, which he did not read in full, owing to the inclemency of the weather. A few of the closing stanzas are here inserted :
Ye martyred braves, in whom the flame Of fervent patriotism glowed; Who to avert your Nation's shame, Sincerity by valor showed;
If it is given you to see The deeds that here transpire; if from The heights of immortality, To join our ranks, once more you've come ;
As guests unseen, but ne'er forgot, Chief honors we accord to you ; And bid you welcome to this spot, To join in mem'ry's grand review.
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GETTYSBURG MONUMENT.
If still a comrade's mundane voice May vibrate on the spirit's ear, Y'e host invisible rejoice : The cause you died for triumphed here.
The Nation's verdict is " Well done!" The Union, treason sought to sever, Binds fifty millions into one, And one that shall remain forever.
Your grateful country watches o'er Your mould'ring forms which round us lie; And bids each patriot heartjadore The names that were not born to die.
Among New Hampshire's 'rugged hills, The old and young your deeds rehearse; Your memory like dew distils, And poets praise you in their verse.
In our enduring granite we Have symbolized your worthy fame; And we shall teach posterity To love and honor you the same.
A part of the old Granite State We bring this day and rear to you ; This comely shaft we dedicate To those who died so brave and true.
Long as this monument shall stand, And cold and heat and storm defy, May it tell where your honored band, The heroes of the Second lie.
And now, ye braves, once more adieu ! Sleep on, ye torn and weary ones! We'll meet you at the grandjreview ; Sleep on, New Hampshire's honored sons!
Y'e sun, watch o'er them, day by day ! Keep guard, ye moon and stars, by night! Ye breath of morn and even, play Sweet requiems where they won the fight!
Not for yourselves, ye lived and died ; Devotion so unselfish still Inspires us with a patriot's pride, Our own great mission to fulfill.
Once more, O Gettysburg, to thee We bid a long and sad adieu ; Thou wast our great Thermopyla- Thou wast our bloody Waterloo.
We sigh o'er what the victory cost; But since the oblation was to be, We count the life and treasure lost As naught to Union, Liberty.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The poem was followed by the reading of the following letter from Colonel Edward L. Bailey :
COMRADES: While you are gathering in commemoration of the day which is to be marked in the annals of the nation as the acme of its throes in the bloody struggle for preservation out of the greatest civil war the world has yet witnessed; while you stand upon that spot that shall eternally mark the site of your heroie deeds,-what though vagrant historians have failed, in the immense scope of their subject, to point out to an admiring world the individual acts by which your organization illustrated its valor and devotion! You are about to set up your Eben- ezer, as did they of olden time, which shall serve, while unmistakably denoting the place of your endeavors, to enlighten the future as to the name of the regiment that occupied the very salient of exposure and sacrifice on that memorable day.
While you walk above that ground, hallowed by the blood of your fallen comrades, the scene of calm and peace by which you are surrounded must seem unreal. Ghostlike, the ghastly memories come crowding upon you, and out of the past shall come the rage of volcanic furies beating upon that distracted orchard knoll. You see the powder-begrimed faces, or the bleeding forms of loved companions, stricken from your side, their requiem sounding in the shriek of shells, the minnie's song, or the roar of canister, and your minds are illuminated by the remem- brance of deeds which made you heroes on that fateful field.
Twenty-three years have been garnered in the sheaf of Time, and it is you who now gather upon that spot, sacred to memory as the scene of devotion unsurpassed, who can estimate how grandly the impress of acts is being manifested this day, in the placid and benignant prosperity throughout our whole country which you then willingly offered your lives to establish.
The simple shaft you now erect will mark the site which shall occupy conspicuous mention in the narrative of the future historian of perhaps the greatest decisive battle of the war, and future generations may learn to give due value to the valorous sacrifices made at that spot, and cherish with becoming pride the fame you have attached to it.
It is fitting we should think of our glorious dead,-but not in sorrow, for they fell asleep there, where the sun of immortality shall ever shine. No prouder entombment can mortal man attain. Their meeds shall be uttered from the grateful heart of posterity.
You who are spared to reap the reward of your labors, in viewing the harmony prevailing throughout our once disunited country, may well rejoice that your blood has cemented this union of states, and that the blessing of prosperity which is now enjoyed flows directly from your achievements on that day.
Circumstances I cannot control render it impossible for me to be with you in person, but in spirit I am in your midst, and my heart beats in unison with yours, as the glorious memories of other days are recalled. And, as you'rear the shaft which is to perpetuate them and mark our place on the field of battle, I feel with you it is our proudest boast that we are linked with the name and fame of " The Gallant Second." Always yours, ED. L. BAILEY.
General Patterson then briefly addressed Colonel John C. Line- han, and through him turned over the monument to the custody of the Battlefield Monument Association, to which Colonel Linehan responded as follows :
GENERAL PATTERSON, COMRADES, AND FRIENDS: Standing in the historic Peach Orchard, how vividly comes to my mind the departure of our first three-years regiment for the war. How eagerly we watched for its record in its first engagement ; how proud we who were then at home felt when the news came of its part in the first Bull Run; and with what eagerness we of the Third, the Fourth, and the Fifth, on our arrival at Washington, hurried to Bladensburg to grasp the hands of the veterans of the Second New Hampshire, and how sadly we gazed on its deci- mated ranks on its return from the front at the close of the war. Your record is a proud one, and while memories of the Peach Orchard exist, the Second New Hampshire cannot be forgot- ten. Comrades, on behalf of the Association I receive this beautiful monument, emblematic in its material of the rocky hills of our native state, as well as of the bravery of her sons, and assure you that it will receive all the care and attention it deserves.
CHAPTER XXI.
REGIMENTAL REUNIONS .- FIRST REUNION AT MANCHESTER-THE OLD "HOOKER BRIGADE" AT DEDICATION OF THE BOSTON SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT-HEADQUARTERS AT WEIRS.
W HILE many regiments, almost immediately upon their dis- bandment, formed regimental associations, and assembled in reunion at stated periods, still it was not until nineteen years had elapsed after the final muster out at Concord that the Second came together for the first time in regimental reunion. Unlike many of those that followed it to the field, it was gathered from all parts of the state, and not from a limited section, and while there had been an occasional company gathering, still no general reunion was attempted until as late as 1884. Then it was that the survivors of Companies C and I, residing in Manchester, conceived and execu- ted the idea of bringing the old men together once more, in that city.
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