USA > New Hampshire > A history of the Second regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry, in the war of the rebellion > Part 6
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For a short time after its arrival at the front the brigade was afflicted by Gen. Naglee's ambition to appear "always ready." Every morning, before Charles H. Warren, Co. K. sunrise, his regiments in camp In business in Boston, engaged in the manu- facture of shoe buttons. were formed in line and held in readiness to march at a moment's notice. This was a great hardship for men who were seeking a night's rest after twenty-four hours in the trenches ; and as soon as these buncombe morning parades came to the notice of Gen. Hooker, he ordered them discontinued. And soon after- about the 20th-Naglee was sent to afflict some other command
63
YORKTOWN EVACUATED.
and Brig .- Gen. Cuvier Grover, a competent and popular officer, took command of the First Brigade.
By the opening of May Mcclellan's seige guns and mortars were in position, and but little remained to do further than to cut down the screens of trees on the front of the batteries and wipe Yorktown from the face of the earth. This, it is said, was to have been done on the morning of the 6th. But Magruder had no idea of waiting to be shelled out. He had "held up " the Army of the Potomac a whole month, and knew when it was time for him to be off. He evacuated Yorktown on the night of the 3d, and retreated up the Peninsula toward Rich- mond. During the first half of the night he used up a great deal of ammunition, the fire of his guns being rapid and con- Luther P. Hubbard, Co. I. tinuous. But as this unusual He went west, soon after the war, to grow up with Minneapolis, and has long been con- nected with the business management of the great milling establishment of the Pillsburys. activity was suspended soon after midnight, a suspicion of what had happened ran through the Union lines. It was this suspicion that assembled many men of the Second around Lowe's balloon, as he was seen getting ready to ascend with the first break of day. The balloon was let up a few hundred feet, Gen. Heint- zelman being with Lowe in the basket, and almost instantly a voice called to the signal officer below : " Telegraph to headquarters that there are no men to be seen in the enemy's works, and that a body of our troops are advancing on them as skirmishers."
The news spread like wildfire, causing the greatest excitement. It was not long before orders were received to strike tents and pack up for a march. There was no time to draw and cook rations, and the men started with only such fragments as they happened to
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
have in their haversacks. One of Hooker's regiments was back at Cheeseman's Landing, and there were large detachments in the trenches. As these had to be gathered in, it was nearly one o'clock before the impatient Hooker was ready to march. Even then, Company F of the Second, on duty at Cheeseman's Creek, had not rejoined the regiment, and were left behind ; but as soon as they were relieved, Captain Snow and his men set out on a night march, and reported to Colonel Marston on the battlefield of Williamsburg, the following day.
The division marched up through the rebel works, and pushed forward on the Williamsburg road. In a spirit of barbarous warfare, the rebels had planted torpedoes in places liable to be passed over by their pursuers, and several soldiers of the troops which preceded Hooker had been blown up by these infernal contrivances. But by this time many of the unexploded mines had been located, and were marked by little red flags or guarded by sentries stationed to warn men from them. There was but little straggling from the ranks, as safety lay in following the path where others had gone uninjured.
Late in the afternoon, when about seven miles from Yorktown, a half-dozen wounded cavalrymen were met going to the rear. Hooker pushed on with the intention of supporting Stoneman's cavalry, which had struck the rebel line of defences before Wiliams- burg, but found the road in advance crowded with the troops of Smith's division of Keyes' corps. Hooker, the incarnation of vigor in the face of the enemy, grew impatient of delay, and entering a cross-road at Cheesecake Church, passed over to the Hampton road, a mile to the left, which intersected the Yorktown road, on ahead, near the place of the cavalry's engagement. The cross and side roads were in an execrable condition ; and to add to the difficulties and discomforts of the march, it began to rain, and a night of inky darkness came on. Hooker's men waded quagmires, and stumbled over stumps and roots, until nearly eleven o'clock, when they went into a most cheerless bivouac by the side of the road.
CHAPTER V.
MAY 5, 1862 .- THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG-GROVER'S BRIGADE OPENS THE FIGHT-THE SECOND IN FRONT OF FORT MAGRUDER- A CONTEST OF SHARPSHOOTERS-THOMPSON'S DEAD SHOT-FORT MAGRUDER SILENCED-THE SECOND AND THIRD BRIGADES OVER- WHELMED-THE SECOND REGIMENT DEPLOYED AS SKIRMISHERS-A SAVAGE BUSH-FIGHT-LITTLE DICKEY'S PRISONER-DAVE. STEELE'S CHARGE-"YOUR OWN ADAMS"-A DESPERATE CRISIS-HEINTZEL- MAN AT A WHITE HEAT-KEARNEY'S ARRIVAL-THE FINAL RUSH- COLONEL MARSTON'S REPORT.
A T daylight on the morning of the 5th Grover's brigade, with the First Massachusetts in the advance, resumed its march through the mud and in the rain, the road traversing a forest of large trees with dense underbrush. It had proceeded about a mile and a half when the head of the column encountered rebel pickets and Hooker at once made his dispositions for a fight. Gen. Grover came riding back to the Second. "I want that New Hampshire company with patent rifles ; where are they?" he inquired. The company called for (B), and also Company E, were sent forward as skirmishers. The remaining companies filed to the right of the road and formed line of battle, while the First Massachusetts formed similarly on the left, and in this order, with the Eleventh and Twenty-sixth in reserve, pushed forward. Soon an almost impenetrable abatis of felled trees was encountered, through and over which the skirmishers wormed their way, driving back the rebel riflemen who contested the advance, until they reached the open ground beyond.
The regiment halted in line near the edge of the standing timber while the skirmishers were clearing the slashing, and here
5
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
met its first serious casualty of the day, Uriah W. Cole, of Company H, being crushed as he stood in the ranks by a solid shot from Fort Magruder. His cries of agony during the few moments he lived were heartrending. The line of battle, in due time, followed its skirmishers up through the abatis to the edge of the clearing beyond ; which being accomplished, the Eleventh and Twenty-sixth
George C. Emerson, Co. B.
Was taken prisoner in his first battle, at Bull Run, July 21, 1861. Was exchanged in season to start with the regiment for the Peninsula, and was killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. He was from Candia.
were thrown to the right in skirmish formation to make connection with the Yorktown road and open up communication with Sumner, who was known to be well advanced in that direction and with a large force at his disposal.
Directly in front of the Second, at a distance of six or seven hundred yards, the Hampton and Yorktown roads came together, and there, commanding both approaches, the rebels had erected a powerful earthwork called Fort Magruder-the largest of a line of
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BEFORE FORT MAGRUDER.
thirteen redoubts extending from the York to the James. Several field pieces were in this fort, which was embrasured for cannon, and the plain on its front was dotted with rifle pits each holding one or two sharpshooters. Facing this combination, the Second had all the essentials for a lively time, and the men distributed themselves behind stumps and logs, and did some very effective work upon the rebel gunners and riflemen. Col. Jenkins, who was in command at the fort, testified to the quality of the shooting, in his official report : "The enemy's sharpshooters, with superior range of guns, commanded the fort, and one after one the gallant men were shot down, until I was compelled to supply their want with infantry from the Palmetto Sharpshooters."
An individual example of the fine work done at this point was furnished by Thompson of Company I. He was one of the charac- ters of the regiment. One of his brothers was killed with John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and another was the husband of one of "Old Ossawattomie's " daughters, and he was naturally an abolitionist of the most pronounced and radical type. He was also a very handy man with the rifle. Thompson was observed to lie for several minutes, motionless, his eye ranged along the sights of his piece ; and then it " spoke." "There," he grunted, " I plugged that fellow's head, and he was black enough to be a nigger !" The possibility that he had missed his mark never entered into his calculations. The next day, led by curiosity, one of the men went to the pit pointed out by Thompson, and found, curled up at the bottom, a swarthy man in gray, drilled through the forehead by the unerring bullet of the keen-eyed New Hampshire soldier. Among the dead man's effects was a newspaper printed partly in the Cherokee alphabet and language.
The Second had been engaged nearly an hour, when, in the woods to the rear, a bugle was heard sounding a call, and in a few minutes Webber's regular battery came up the road and went into position in the open to the front of the Second. The guns in Fort Magruder at once directed their fire upon it; and before it had fired a shot most of the men abandoned their pieces and stampeded to the rear. Many of them came back upon the Second, and were not welcomed as heroes of the first water. But soon another body
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Capt. Evarts W. Farr, Co. G.
Lost right arm at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. The following September he was commissioned Major of the Eleventh N. H. After the war he practiced law in Littleton and attained prominence in public affairs. Was elected to 46th Con- gress, and died at Littleton November 30, 1880, from the results of a cold contracted in conducting a successful canvass for re-election.
of artillerymen were seen coming. These were volunteers from Os- born's New York battery, who at once took possession of the guns and opened fire. Bramhall's New York battery also came up and went bumping over stumps and dragging through the mire to position on the right of Webber. Within half an hour Fort Magruder was completely silenced ; but in one of the redoubts far away to the left, beyond the reach of muskets, there were two or three rebel guns which kept up an annoying fire on the Second as long as it remained in this position.
The New Jersey brigade arrived on the field about eight o'clock, and the Excelsiors an hour later. The Fifth New Jersey was at once sent forward to assist the Second in support of the artillery, while the other three regiments went off to the left, where, several hundred yards from the road, a projection of the woods marked the end of the slashing in that direction. Soon the rattle of a lively skirmish fire indicated that they had found something. But with the fire of Fort Magruder completely silenced, and the sharpshooters on their front in a very subdued mood, the Second now enjoyed for hours a season of comparative tranquility. There was some shooting, to be sure, and from that redoubt beyond Fort Magruder there came, every little while, a shell or solid shot, smashing and crashing through the abatis. But this did not deter the men from spreading their pieces of shelter tent over limbs and branches as a protection from the beating rain ; and some even nursed up little fires over which to cook a cup of coffee-raw coffee being about the only ration any of them had left after the morning's meal.
69
BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.
Gen. Hooker and staff rode up and out into the field toward the fort, apparently to get a better view of the plain beyond the point of woods to the left. A sharpshooter's bullet struck Hooker's horse, and he at once dismounted and examined the animal's wound. He came back to the artillery, and a change was made in its disposition, some of the pieces being advanced to a point where they would have a wider range to the left. Already there were
N
No. 5.
No. 4
FT. MAGRUDER
No.3 0
REBEL
UNION'
FELLED
TREES.
No. 2
SEGOND N.H.
No 1 0
AS SKIRMISHERS
Hampton Road
Yorktown Road-
O.O.D.S
- Battle of Williamsburg. -
Nos. 2, 3 and 4, the Redoubts from and under cover of which the Rebels advanced ..
indications of a concentration of rebel troops upon that flank A large force, apparently a brigade, came out from under cover of Fort Magruder, and moving rapidly by the flank across the plain, were soon hid from the Second by intervening woods.
As time passed, the fire away to the left increased in intensity and volume. Longstreet, in command of the rebel forces, having
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
determined to assume the offensive, sent forward into the woods from the cover of the redoubts, first Wilcox's brigade, then in succession the brigades of Hill, Pryor, and Pickett. The last of these troops were in position by eleven o'clock, and from that time the musketry was tremendous-a succession of crashing volleys with hardly any intermission. The First Massachusetts, and then the Excelsior brigade, regiment by regiment, had been sent in to the support of the Jerseys, and Hooker, finding himself hard pressed, sent word of his condition to Heintzelman, who was supposed to be with Sumner on the Yorktown road. The cavalry- man carrying the note was gone but twenty minutes. Finding that Heintzelman had already started to join Hooker (but not by the short route used by the messenger), he delivered the note to Sumner. There was much feeling, afterwards, over what Hooker considered Sumner's Richard A. Walker, Co. E. failure to properly support him at Wounded at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, and died of wounds July 20. His venerable mother, Eliza A. Walker, now, at the age of 77 years, living in Greenland, N. H., writes: "He was my only son, and the best boy that ever blest a mother. When he died, his father went to Fortress Monroe and brought his body home. The journey and his grief were too much. He never was well after that, but lived, an invalid, thirty years." this critical time. For three hours and more the two brigades stubbornly held their own against Longstreet's four. D. H. Hill's rebel division had been hurried back to Longstreet's assistance, and Johnston, the rebel commander-in-chief, was also upon the field ; but it looked as if Hooker's division was to be left alone to work out its own salvation. The crisis became so acute that Hooker ordered the Eleventh and Twenty-sixth to the left, but through some misunderstanding the latter regiment remained in position near the Yorktown road until the following morning.
About three o'clock it became apparent to the anxious men of the Second that the left was being driven back. The Fifth New Jersey, anticipating the coming storm, was seen to change front by
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HOOKER'S LEFT DRIVEN BACK.
getting into line, in some manner, in the road, near the left of the Second. The firing steadily advanced-out into the felled timber at length. Bullets came in upon the Second thicker and faster. The Fifth New Jersey fired two or three volleys, then disappeared down the road in the woods. The Second held on until the few men of its left who could get into position were hotly engaged, at close quarters, with the Ninth Alabama and other rebel troops. Not only was that network of felled trees swarming with the enemy, but a regiment (the Twenty-eighth Virginia) came up along the edge of the field, crouching under cover of the abatis. The artille- rymen were driven from their guns, and the Second was in this advanced position, alone, unsupported, and flanked. It had two military alternatives-either to change front so as to present a fighting face to the enemy, or to get out. Entangled as it was, the first movement was utterly impossible ; so the men were directed to get back to the edge of the woods and there re-form the regimental line. This meant the abandon- ment of the artillery, but there was no help for it. In fact, the guns were so badly mired, and so many horses killed, that the rebels were able to carry off but four of the twelve pieces. William H. Morrill, Co. E. It is also claimed, and is prob- One of Col. Marston's little squad of towns- men in the Second, being from Exeter. He was killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. able, that the fire from Peck's brigade of Keyes' corps, which came into position far to the right, near the Yorktown road, interfered with the removal of the guns.
As soon as the regiment was re-formed it was marched to the left, across the road, and with its right resting thereon, deployed as skirmishers ; the purpose being to flank the flank movement of the enemy. Away it went by the left flank, stretching out like a great elastic band, until Hooker had a long, thin skirmish line facing the
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
enemy. It was not a parade ground deployment, men dropping off at irregular intervals, sometimes singly, and quite as often in little bunches ; but it covered a great deal of ground, and was as full of fight as a swarm of hornets.
Ordered to advance and keep covered as much as possible, the line went forward and was soon engaged in a fierce bushwhacking fight. For two hours there was maintained over that ground one of the most remarkable contests in the whole history of the war. The line established by the Second was reinforced by men from the broken regiments of the division, and such volunteers were bound to be the very best of fighting material. It comprised the self-assorted pick from several regiments, after all who had got enough of it had been sifted to the rear, and it may well be questioned whether another line was ever formed during the war with so large a pro- portion of desperate, hangdog fighters as was there brought together.
There could be but little Nathaniel F. Lane, Co. A. Killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. concert of movement along such a line. Every man was fighting on his own hook, dodging from tree to tree through the thick underbrush. Little parties got together and pushed forward in quest of adventure. Squads of Union and rebel soldiers sometimes passed in the thick brush before discovering each other's presence. Hand-to-hand encounters were frequent. Quite a number of prisoners were harvested. Little Dickey, the shortest man of Company I, gath- ered one in. He told how he did it, that night, over the camp fire : " I had drifted over toward the left, and got behind a big tree. I peeked around it, first one side, then the other, but couldn't see
73
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING.
anything, so I started for another about two rods ahead, and just as I jumped, out came a Johnny Reb. from behind that very tree, on his way to mine. I guess it was a surprise party all 'round, and I know my heart was in my mouth, I was so scared. I had just strength enough to get my gun up to my shoulder and holler, ' Drop that gun, you - - - - -, and come in !' and he dropped it and came."
Lieutenant Dave. Steele, of Company G, was out with a little squad of men, when he suddenly ran up against a bunch of rebels of twice his own number. Dave. was of that class so often heard of, but so rarely met, a man absolutely fear- less, and who actually enjoyed a fight. Without a moment's hesitation he dashed right in among the rebels, swinging his sword and shouting with stentorian voice, “ Surrender, you d-d cusses, or I'll blow you to h-1!" Dave.'s sword was not loaded, but they were sufficiently impressed by his great stature, his flow- ing red mustache, and his reckless self-reliance, and surrendered on the instant. Alexander Lyle, Co. G.
Killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. Was from Peterborough. Born in Scotland.
More tragic than this encounter was the one in which Corporal John A. Hartshorn, of Company G, lost his life. Encountering three rebels in the thick brush, he shot one, bayo- netted another, and was himself shot dead by the third, the whole tragedy being enacted in but a few seconds. The only eyewitness, so far as the writer has information, was Colonel Cowdin, of the First Massachusets, although there may have been others. The next day the three brave men were found lying together, as they fell. This was Hartshorn's first, as well as last, battle, he having
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
been detained in hospital, against his vigorous protests, when the regiment marched to Bull Run.
Sergeant Enoch G. Adams, of Company D, caught a bullet in the neck, and started to carry it to the rear. With his hands to his head, and covered with blood, he ran up against Captain Sayles, who did not recognize him. " Who is this?" inquired the captain. " It's I !" came the sputtering reply. " But who is I?" persisted the captain. The sergeant was indignant at this refusal o know him. He did not appreciate the change the gushing tide had wrought in his general appearance. " It's I!" he roared with renewed emphasis-"I!'- Adams !- Sergeant Adams ! - -hang it, Cap'n, don't you know your own Adams ?"
The rebels made several determined attempts to Corp !. John A. Hartshorn, Co. G. crush with a solid line of Killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, in hand- to-hand encounter with three rebels. Son of Dea. John and Susannah P. Hartshorn, and was born in Lyndeborough, July 14, 1840. His great-grand- fathers on both sides were soldiers in the Revolu- tion, and a grandfather in the War of 1812. Devout, conscientious, and fearless, he was of the type of the old Cromwellian " Ironsides." battle the front which was so tenaciously holding them at bay. Then there was music, and the old woods rang with the steady roar of musketry. The only effect of these sallies was to push back the protuberances, straighten up the line for the time, and weld the whole mass together. There was a well defined zone in those woods, beyond which the men would not be pushed. When they reached that point they held on with grim tenacity and refused to be crowded farther.
Towards five o'clock the pressure was terrible. Longstreet had just put in Colston's brigade and two regiments of Early's, from
75
THE CRISIS OF BATTLE.
Hill's corps, and perhaps other troops. Fort Magruder had again opened fire, and was sweeping the road with its shells. Smith's New York battery had got up and was posted near the right of the line-two of its guns in the road with their wheels sunk deep in the mud - and was giving the enemy canister in return for the rifle bullets with which they were show- ering it. Many of the men had exhausted their ammunition, and none had more than a few rounds left. It was a crisis, and everything depended upon holding that line just a little longer. Hooker, Grover and Heintzelman were hurrying from point to point, cheering and Lieut. Enoch George Adams, Co. D. encouraging the men. Entered the service from Durham as private in Co. D. Promoted sergeant; severely wounded at Williamsburg; promoted second lieutenant August 1; 1862. April 30, 1864, he was commissioned captain First U. S. Vols., and was mustered out of the service at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Nov. 27, 1865. Brevetted major for gallantry. From May to September, 1865, was in command at Fort Rice, Dakota, as ranking officer of the three regiments comprising its garrison. After leaving the service he spent many years on the Pacific coast, being Register of Lands, under appointment of President Grant, at Vancouver, and publishing a newspaper there. Has now settled quietly upon a farm in Berwick, Maine. Hooker was coated with mud from head to foot, having been thrown from the sec- ond horse shot under him that day. Old Heintzelman was at a white heat. He rode furiously here and there. "Give it to 'em ! Pile 'em up !" he shouted. Some of the men told him they were out of ammunition. " If you have n't got any powder, shout, hooray, make a noise, do something !" he replied. A little knot of musicians got together and were brought well up towards the line. "Go to tooting on your old trumpets-
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Yankee Doodle-Dixie-anything-blow away !" shouted Heint- zelman. Then he was back with the men : " Hooray ! Richmond taken ! Reinforcements are close at hand-be here in fifteen minutes ! Give it to 'em !" The band struck up with a discordant energy never equalled outside a Salvation Army parade ; the men who had no ammunition cheered themselves hoarse; and the old general's reckless spirit took possession of everybody.
Reinforcements were, in fact, close at hand. Kearney's gallant division, following Hooker's route, was pushing up the Hampton road with all the energy bone and muscle is capable of sustaining. Kearney arrived with Berry's brigade just in the nick of time. Hooker met him close by the road, and with a sweep of his arm was apparently pointing out posi- tions. Bullets were whistling like mad. A man, going back with his gun at a "carry," had arm and musket swept away by a cannon ball from Fort Magruder just as he passed the two generals.
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