USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion > Part 5
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MARSTON BUILDS A DUNGEON. 49
terrific (in noise) that everybody in Hooker's camps turned out to see what it was all about. Hooker reported to the authorities at Washington that a vessel had about as much chance of being hit by the rebels as of being struck by lightning ; and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, then the rebel commander, gave it as his opinion, a short time before the evacuation, that " the guns on the Potomac have very little effect," and stated that two or three of those on Cockpit Point had been burst.
February 2Ist, Gen. Henry M. Naglee assumed command of the First Brigade, and in him it struck a Tartar. The very next day he had the officers of the day and of the guard of every regiment in the brigade under arrest on techni- cal charges. Everybody, from highest to lowest, was soon arrayed against him. He met his match in Colonel Marston. One day, in inspecting the regiment, he visited the guard house, a very comfortable log David G. Dickey, Co. B. building used in common by Was from Lyndeborough, and still resides there. Had a hand in building Naglee's dun- geon, concerning which he writes: "I was one of the men detailed from my company to help build it. During the work I went to Colonel Marston to get an order on the Quartermaster for a saw to make the door. The old Colonel said, ' Tut! tut! who told you to cut a door?' I caught on, went back, and helped sling on the mud where the door should have been, wonder- ing what Gen. Naglee would say when he saw it." the camp guard and the pris- oners. He decided at once that it was altogether too palatial for prisoners, and ordered Col. Marston to have a dungeon built of logs. " Build it," he directed, " without a crack or an opening, so that it will be perfectly dark." His orders were obeyed to the letter. Within a day or two he was over again, and his eyes beamed with satisfaction as they rested on the gloomy structure. But after walking around it, he halted with a puzzled look and inquired of Marston where the
4
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
entrance was and how he expected to get anybody into it. "Oh," replied the colonel, complacently, " that's not my lookout. I have obeyed orders strictly. How does it suit you?" The general went his way, and " Naglee's dungeon " was still standing when the regiment left Budd's Ferry for the Peninsula.
Gen. Naglee's connection with this, his first command, lasted only about two months, and that his reputation was well maintained in subsequent commands is shown by the following correspondence given to the world by Gen. Keyes in his " Fifty Years' Observation of Men and Events :"
" HEADQUARTERS NAGLEE'S DIVISION, Nerburn, June 12, 1863.
GENERAL: I am most happy to advise you that I have been transferred with my brigade into the Department of North Carolina. It may be equally agreeable and satisfactory to you, as it certainly is to myself, to be assured that the separation will be a permanent one.
H. M. NAGLEE.
To MAJ .- GEN. E. D. KEYES."
" HEADQUARTERS 4th CORPS, Yorktown, June 25, 1863.
GENERAL: Your letter of the 12th instant has been received. The happiness you express in your announcement of a permanent separation is, I assure you, most cordially reciprocated. I will add, with the risk of being thought to exaggerate, that I do not believe any one of your previous commanding officers was made more happy at parting with you than I was. Very respectfully, etc., E. D. KEYES.
BRIG .- GEN. H. M. NAGLEE, U. S. Volunteers."
Soon after the war a jilted woman took her revenge on Naglee by publishing in a book the letters he had written her, and the spiciest parts of the whole were his comments on public men and measures. Two or three samples will be sufficient to illustrate the vanity and egotism of the man :
March 3, 1862 .- " I have an excellent brigade-two regiments of Massachusetts, one New Hampshire, and one Pennsylvania-and have great confidence they will do great credit to themselves. * *
* I am very agreeably surprised to find that my duties come very naturally to me, and so have had no difficulty; on the contrary, although but two weeks here, I have succeeded in completely capturing the confidence and respect of all my officers, and am received in the most flattering manner by all."
March 15, 1862 .- " Confidentially, that is, for your ear and that of your mother, one of my troubles comes from the fact that Hooker is inefficient ; he is slow, and not capable. I came a long ways, and for the purpose of doing something. I come in contact with him often. I am too strong for him. My opinions receive favor at Washington, and to the condemnation of his plans. He is envious of me, but is afraid to oppose me. * * Vet he dare not say I am * not a superior officer, and that if I have a chance I will not make a mark."
September 29, 1863 .- " I am again the mark of the especial spite of the War Department, and am now on my way to Vicksburg to report to Gen. Grant. I enclose you the parting fare-
5I
MARSTON'S PULL AT WASHINGTON.
well at Norfolk, by which you will see that I have made many friends. Indeed, that was the cause of the order. I was becoming too well liked; too much influence."
May 20, 1864 .- " You will have heard before this of my being no longer in the army. With- out a word of explanation, withfout any justification, I have been dropped from the rolls of the army, and all because, despite all threats or offers of reward, I would not abandon my principles -I would not be abolitionized."
November 15, 1864 .-- " The coming two years will try the country, and this people, and there will be an awful crisis. I shall only be too happy to be out of the way. If I cannot be permitted to save, I will not be a party to assist in the destruction."
It was about the first of December before Col. Marston was sufficiently recovered from his wound to assume command of the regiment. Lieut .- Colonel Fiske had been in com- mand until about the first of November, when he was detailed to court martial duty, and subsequently to the temporary command of the Twenty -sixth Pennsylvania. So Major Stevens was much of the time in command, during the absence of Colonel Marston.
After the assembling of Congress, the colonel divided his time between the camp and the House of Representatives. His " pull " at Washington was Orren S. Adams, Co. A. of great service to the One of the first lot of recruits, joining at Blad- ensburg, and serving until May, 1863, when he was discharged for disability. Now resides in Marlboro. regiment, more times than one. On one occasion he took the captain of Company B up with him to get some cartridges for their Sharp's rifles. McClellan's ordnance officer refused to issue the requisition, saying the general did not desire, and would not have, two kinds of ammunition in one regiment. Marston was quite as decided in his determination to hold on to his breech- loaders. " You probably think you are bigger than General
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McClellan," the badgered officer at last said, testily. "No, sir ! " thundered the equally mad colonel, " but I will show you there is somebody in Washington that is !" He went at once to see the Secretary of War, and laid the case before him. "Send that man to me," said Stanton to a messenger. In a short time the officer appeared, and as he emerged from the secretary's office a few minutes later, he said to Marston, with a sickly smile, "I have
Guard House of the Second Regiment, Budd's Ferry.
Drawn by J. Warren Thyng, from Sketch by Sergt. }. E. Saunders.
signed your requisition." The men of Company B, to mark their appreciation of the colonel's victory over the major-general, which saved to them their beloved rifles, procured an elegant sword, which was duly and formally presented to Marston March 11th.
December 15th, while sitting in his tent, Colonel Marston was severely wounded in the left hip by the accidental discharge of a revolver with which a boy was toying in an adjacent tent.
The same day a large number of New Hampshire people came down on the boat from Washington to visit the camp. In the party were John P. Hale, E. H. Rollins, Daniel Clark, Waterman Smith, E. A. Straw, B. F. Martin, and a bevy of New Hampshire ladies. How the boys cheered that apparition of New Hampshire grace
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THE POTOMAC BLOCKADE.
and beauty, at dress parade that afternoon ! The regiment being formed in hollow square, with the guests in the inclosure, Major Stevens stepped forward and addressed the regiment as follows : " Fellow soldiers, we have something new in this square today. We are honored by the presence of four ladies from New Hampshire, who are heart and soul with us in this great struggle. The least we can do is to give them three cheers. Are you all ready?" The men were all ready.
January 12th the rebels seemed to be trying their long range guns on Hooker's camps. One 30-pound rifle shell passed directly over the Second's camp and struck on the parade ground without exploding. It was gathered in by Damon of Company I. and was sold to Maj. Stevens, who deposited it in the col- lection of war relics in the Adjutant General's office at Concord.
In February the ground got into such condition that drill was resumed-six hours a day. Much attention was paid to bayonet and skirmish drill, and the musicians were Corpl. John Chandler, Co. F. exercised in the ambulance From a picture taken in 1860. Present resi- dence, Plymouth. drill. The men were expect- ing to cross the river and attack the rebel batteries. In fact, Hooker was contemplating and arranging for such a move, but it was suspended by orders from General Mcclellan the latter part of February.
Sunday, March 9th, was a memorable day. The rebels evacu- ated their entire line of batteries, setting fire to their camps and the steamer " George Page" and several schooners in Quantico Creek.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The commanding sites on the Maryland shore were covered with interested spectators from Hooker's divison. It was an impressive scene, the Virginia shore being enveloped in dense masses of smoke for a distance of five miles. The little black gunboat " Anacosta," of the upper flotilla, cau- tiously steamed down the river, throwing shells into the upper battery. Upon arriving opposite the bluff, a boat was seen pulling from her to the shore, and soon the Stars and Stripes broke from the towering staff which for months had flaunted the banner with a strange device. A large party of New Hampshire men and women had arrived in camp the day before, just in season to witness such a sight as comes to but few persons more than once in a life- time.
Capt. William O. Sides, Co. K.
Had been an officer in the state militia, and on the breaking out of the war was Commissary-General of the state. He is said to have been the first man in the state to enlist, being sworn in at Concord by Adjt .- Gen. J. C. Abbott, and receiving commission as recruiting officer. He enlisted a company at Portsmouth, which he led at the first Bull Run. While crossing Cub Run, on the retreat, he received injuries which led to his resignation. He was commissioned Captain in the Veteran Reserve Corps, with which he served until the closing days of 1865. Since the war he has been editor, custom house inspector, postmaster of Portsmouth, and the most irrepressible politician in the state.
Detachments were sent over from the division to reconnoiter and take pos- session. The guns were rolled down to the river bank, where they could be loaded upon barges ; and soon almost every man in
camp had some little souvenir which "our friends the enemy " had left behind. April 2, while on this service, Luther W. Fassett, of Company E, was killed by rebel scouts or guerrillas. His company had located the grave of a rebel gun, and he, with a companion, was sent back to the landing for shovels. On the way, three men
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OFF FOR THE PENINSULA.
in citizen's clothes suddenly confronted them. Fassett immediately surrendered, notwithstanding which he was shot down in his tracks, whereupon his companion took leg bail and escaped. Fassett had a brother in the same company, and a wife and child in New Hampshire.
Signs of an early movement now multiplied. The superfluous baggage was shipped to Washington; "shelter" tents were issued to the men ; temporary piers were erected for the embarkation of the division ; and steamers loaded with troops were passing down the river-a fleet of thirty large boats at one time. McClellan was transferring the Army of the Potomac to the Peninsula for an advance on Richmond by that route.
The division broke camp and embarked April 5th, but the boats bearing the First Brigade remained at anchor in the river until the morning of the 7th. The Second, with three companies of the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, were crowded upon the "South America," a crazy old river boat. When the boat arrived at the mouth of the Potomac, a wild spring gale was blowing up Chesa- peake Bay, and Colonel Marston would not permit the shaky and overcrowded boat to proceed. "I brought my men out here to fight," he said, " not to be drowned like rats." So the boat ran in to the pier at Point Lookout, and most of the men were landed.
The Point had been quite a summer resort, and the vacant hotel and cottages were appropriated for quarters. But while the men were comfortably housed, they were by no means overfed, the three days' rations with which they had started from Budd's Ferry being about exhausted. The rain poured, the wind howled, and the men went hungry for nearly three days, when a relief expedition reached them from Washington, and on the afternoon of April roth the "South America" pulled out from "Camp Starvation" and proceeded down the bay.
CHAPTER IV.
APRIL II TO MAY 4, 1862 .- THE SECOND ARRIVES AT FORT MONROE- A SIGHT AT THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMACK"-DISEMBARKS AT CHEESEMAN'S CREEK-THE SEIGE OF YORKTOWN-PROF. LOWE'S BALLOON-FATIGUE DUTY IN THE TRENCHES-ROAD BUILDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES-GEN. GROVER RELIEVES NAGLEE-REBELS EVACUATE YORKTOWN-THE PURSUIT TOWARD WILLIAMSBURG.
T CHE "South America" arrived at Fort Monroe on the morning of April 11th, and tied up to the wharf for coal. Coming in, she passed close to the " Monitor," whose fight with the " Merrimack " had been announced to the Second as they were going on board the transport at Budd's Ferry. And as if it had been specially arranged to give the regiment a view of the whole outfit, it was not long before the " Merrimack " was seen coming down from Norfolk, accompanied by two large steamers and a swarm of tugs. It
was her first appearance since the famous combat in Hampton Roads, and all was excitement in anticipation of another big fight. Every vessel that could not fight struck out into Chesapeake Bay, while the war ships came in and took position to contest the passage of the rebel fleet. As the "South America " went out, she passed the frigate " Minnesota," coming in-a gallant show, with her men at the guns and her decks cleared for action ; yet, alone, she was no match for the rebel monster, and the hope of successful battle rested with that uncanny little raft and turret, which had once sent the " Merrimack," crippled, back to her den. A half- dozen shots, perhaps, were exchanged at long range between the " Merrimack " and the Riprap battery, when the rebel procession headed back for Norfolk and disappeared behind Sewall's Point.
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BEFORE YORKTOWN.
Late in the afternoon the "South America" arrived at Cheese- man's Creek, about six miles below Yorktown, and the troops were landed at Ship Point. The shores of the creek were lined with vessels discharging their cargoes of war materials. Seige guns, mortars, shells, and piles of army supplies of every description were on every hand, and thousands of soldiers were camped about, wait- ing for orders to proceed to the front. The Second soon joined the brigade, going into camp on a flooded meadow, where the problems demanding immediate attention were : first, how to keep out of the swim ; second, how to splice the shelter tents-this being the first time the regiment had used them. On the 12th the Adjt. Centre H. Lawrence. brigade moved up three or four miles, to near the head of Cheese- man's Creek, and on the 16th marched still further to the front, to its permanent position in the beseiging lines before Yorktown,
Original 5th Sergt. of Co. A, and the first color bearer of the regiment. Sergt .- Maj., August, 1861. First Lieut. and Adjt., in Oct., 1861, and during the Peninsular cam- paign. Asst. Adjt .- Gen. of Volunteers in Oct., 1862. Severely wounded by gunshot in left thigh at battle of Petersburg Heights, in July, 1864, and still carries the ball in his body. Brevetted Major in 1865. At pres- ent practicing law in Washington, D. C., with residence at Linden, Montgomery Co., Maryland.
The Army of the Potomac had recently been organized into army corps, designated by numbers. The Third Corps was commanded by Gen. Heintzelman, and at the seige comprised the divisions of Generals Fitz-John Porter, Joseph Hooker and Charles S. Hamilton. Hamilton was, however, relieved by Gen. Phil. Kearney, before the seige was ended ; and Porter's division was taken from the corps soon after. The Third Corps held the extreme right of the beseiging lines, having upon its front the main rebel defences, extending from the York river, in front of Yorktown, to the headwaters of the Warwick river, which inter- posed as a barrier between the two armies from that point to the James.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Heintzelman's camps were at an average distance of a mile and a half from the rebel works, and so placed as to be masked from rebel observation. The Second's camp was immediately to the right of the Williamsburg road, upon the opposite side of which were the headquarters of Heintzelman and Hooker, and also Howe's steam sawmill, which was manned by the Yankees and kept
J. WAR
Howe's Sawmill, near Yorktown.
Drawn by J. Warren Thyng, from a Wartime Sketch.
The point of view of the above sketch was within the camp limits of the Second Regiment. The tents in the background belonged to the headquarters of Heintzelman and Hooker.
humming night and day, preparing dimension lumber for the engineers. Professor Lowe's balloon apparatus was also one of the Second's near neighbors, being located by the side of the road a few rods from the regiment's camp. Ascensions were made almost every day for a peep into the rebel works and camps. The balloon would no sooner show its swaying globe above the tree tops, than a spiteful fire would be opened upon it from some of the rebel guns
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SEIGE OF YORKTOWN.
that seemed to be detailed to this especial duty. But for the constant movement of the men who held it captive by the drag- rope, thus distracting the aim of the rebel gunners, its chances of escape would have been small. Fragments of shell were scattered about the camps in a delightfully careless manner. But the men of
the Second were quick to learn, and when Lowe was seen preparing to go up they were very liable to have business in a deep ravine a few rods from camp. It was truly remark- able that not a man of the Second was ever injured in these little flurries, and the most serious loss recorded was a haversack of hard- tack and a shelter tent. The proprietor was "abed," sleeping off a night's debauch with a shovel in the trenches, with his haversack for a pillow. A frolicsome piece of shell George G. Whitney, Co. G. happened along, kicked Resides at Antrim. the pillow from under his head, and scattered his reserve supplies in every direction. He tumbled out ready for a fight with the man who did it.
The Third Corps bore its full share of the labors of the seige. A most elaborate system of works was laid out-redoubts, batteries, parallels-at a distance of twelve hundred yards or more from the rebel fortifications. Much of the work upon the trenches was done by night, and the Second fairly astounded the engineer in charge, on its first essay. Every man dug as if the fate of the army rested on his individual shovel. But they soon learned to work with a moderation more in consonance with the spirit of the campaign.
All the Second's trench digging was on the parallels across the
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
head of the little peninsula of a few hundred acres between York River and Wormley Creek. It threw its last shovelfuls of dirt, as a regiment, some days before the evacuation, in widening and elaborating the extreme right of this line, on the bluff overlook- ing York River ; although a detail from the regiment was engaged, as late as May 2, on the great mortar battery (No. 4,) where ten pieces were being mounted to toss 13-inch shells into the rebel works.
While other parts of the lines, and especially the batteries and redoubts, were screened by trees, the trenches on the right were in plain view Levi H. Sleeper, Co. l. of the rebel bluff batteries, One of the original "Abbott Guard," who enlisted from Manchester, and still resides there. which kept up quite a steady fire to annoy the working par- ties. It was rarely, however, that a man was hit, and in time familiarity bred contempt. Many a time a party would climb out of the trench, spread a blanket on the ground to the rear, and have a sociable game of cards in spite of the rebel shells. One of these sittings was rudely broken up by a big shell which just grazed the top of the parapet and exploding over the party, showered it with a peck of unburned powder, more or less. The players simply dove -all but " Crackie," who never lost his nerve, (in a game.) He gathered up the collateral, put " the pack " in his pocket, carefully folded the blanket, and then got under cover.
An immense amount of work was also done in the construction of roads leading up to and connecting the batteries. One was built along the shores of Wormley's Creek, the steep, high banks of which afforded protection from the rebel fire. Not far below the surface of this part of the Peninsula is a geological formation composed almost solely of fossil shells, compacted into a solid
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IN THE TRENCHES.
mass, and very difficult to work with picks and shovels. Thousands of tons of this material were tumbled down to make the roadbed along the creek, and this work of McClellan's army will doubtless remain substantially as they left it, long after every other mark of the works connected with the seige shall have been obliterated.
A round of duty in the trenches did not always mean work with the spade. The completed parallels were occupied by a competent force, and sometimes were literally packed with troops ready to defend the beseiging lines against a sortie. One night the Second lay to the rear of, and outside, the trenches near Battery No. 2, under cover of the depression where a little finger of Wormley's Creek came up. It kept well under cover, and wide Alfred Woodman, Co. B. awake, as the rebels maintained a Resides in Plainfield. very well directed and sometimes rapid fire upon that particular portion of the lines. One shell swept through a line of muskets stacked just to the rear of a trench, scattering them in every direction. Several shells struck in the opposite bank of the narrow ravine, and exploded there. It was lively enough any way ; but the worst was to come. About mid- night a commotion was heard to the rear, in the direction of the camps, as if some mule teams were stampeding over rough ground, and this was the signal for an infernal fire from every rebel gun that could be brought to bear. It was the noisiest night of the seige, excepting, possibly, the night of the evacuation.
Another night (April 26) lives in the annals of the Second as the occasion when " Old Gil." lost half his regiment for an hour. The regiment entered the trenches after dark-and it was very dark -and poked off toward the left. The trench was narrow in places,
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and crowded with troops, and by some mistake the left wing was halted, while Marston went on to his designated position with the right. In time he came back, hunting for his lost companies, and got the regiment together again. Their position was near what was popularly termed the "Hungarian battery." There were reasons for anticipating an attempt by the rebels to surprise this part of the lines, and every man was on the alert. Sometime after midnight the sound of rushing feet was heard out at the front, and the men cocked their pieces and crowded up behind the parapet. The cool nerve which always characterized the regiment was well applied here, for although every man was ready and with his finger on the trigger, not a gun was fired. The pickets (from another regiment) came tumbling over the breastworks. But after waiting a reasonable time, and no rebels following, Marston concluded they had stampeded from nothing, and ordered them to their posts, with some very pointed directions not to come rushing back on him again unless they had some- thing to come for.
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