USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 2
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T HE first regiment, as has been said, was enlisted for three months and gathered at "Camp Union," Concord. No boun- ties were then offered, though this inducement had to be offered later to persuade men to enlist. The colonel of the regiment was Mason W. Tappan, the lieutenant-colonel was Thomas J. Whipple of La- conia, and the major was Aaron F. Stevens of Nashua. Colonel Tappan served as representative to congress and was offered the command of the fourth regiment, but refused it. See sketch of him in the chapter on Congressmen.
The journey of the regiment to Washington was one continued ovation. Crowds assembled at the railroad stations along the route to cheer them on. At Worcester a banquet was served; at New York a silk flag was presented by natives of New Hampshire living
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in that city, and patriotic speeches were made. The flag was paid for by small subscriptions. Accompanying the troops were one hundred and sixteen horses, sixteen baggage wagons, containing tents and provisions for thirty days, and one hospital wagon. Six- teen nurses were in attendance, who dined at the Astor House. The regiment marched through the streets of Baltimore, headed by the Manchester Cornet Band playing "Yankee Doodle," and they received no molestation other than derisive remarks, mingled with some cheers and waving of the stars and stripes. One riot was enough for Baltimore. The regiment arrived at Washington May 28th, passed up Pennsylvania Avenue and by the White House. The historian says that President Lincoln sent a message to Colonel Tappan that his was the best appointed regiment that had come to Washington, and doubtless some similarly pleasing message was sent to every regiment that was reviewed. The Presi- dent knew a good thing when he saw it, and he could see it in every regiment that arrived. In fact nothing else looked so good to him at that perilous time, when the rebels were planning to capture the capitol, if possible.
The regiment encamped about two miles from the city and remained there till June tenth, when they joined a brigade com- manded by Colonel Charles P. Stone and marched to Rockville, distant nineteen miles. Some were overcome by heat on the march and were helped along by wagons and the horses of officers who dismounted for the relief of the exhausted. Their march was thereafter on the northerly side of the Potomac to Harper's Ferry, where they crossed into Virginia and made a circuit of Charles- town, Bunkers Hill, Martinsburg, and back into Maryland at Williamsport. There was slight skirmishing, in which nobody of the regiment was hurt. Some shots were fired across the river at Conrad Ferry, killing and wounding a few of the enemy, but the rebels were oftener seen at close quarters when the men from both armies fraternized while bathing in the river. They had no enmity and all wanted to go home. A few leaders stirred up the rebellion and set the masses a fighting as though their liberties were at stake. The masses never would have dreamed it, if left to their own thoughts and wishes. Not one out of a thousand cared a fig about State Rights, and only those greedy for wealth cared about the extension of slavery.
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The first regiment returned to Concord and were mustered out on the twelfth of August. Their total losses were only thirty- five, of whom only four died, seven deserted and thirteen were discharged for disability. Concord gave them a warm reception and the soldier boys warmed up the office of the Democratic Standard, a newspaper published by John B. Palmer and edited by Edmund Burke, in which Jefferson Davis had been extolled as a "patriot" and the soldiers of Lincoln's army were blackguarded as "Lincoln's mob, robbers and murderers." This was too much for outraged patience. An assault was made; pistol shots were fired through the door into the hall, wounding two; the printing office was gutted and a bonfire was made in the street ; the Palmers were lodged some days in the State Prison to protect them from harm.
Although the first regiment engaged in no battle, they served well by standing and waiting. They got experience and discipline, and many of them re-enlisted. Especially the officers were willing to be promoted and serve their country longer. Lieutenant-Colonel Whipple was made Colonel of the fourth regiment. Major Stevens was Colonel of the thirteenth; Adjutant Fellows was Colonel of the third, and also of the ninth; Captain Bell was Colonel of the fourth on the resignation of Colonel Whipple; Captain Burton was Lieutenant Colonel of the heavy artillery ; Quartermaster Batchelder served in the army of the Potomac as Brigade and Division Quarter- master ; Captain Sturtevant was Major of the fifth regiment and was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg; Captain Drew was Lieu- tenant-Colonel of the fourth; Lieutenant Sawyer was Major of the fourth; Lieutenant Fuller was Adjutant of the fourth; Captain Kelley, who, some say, was the first man in New Hampshire to enlist, was afterward Brigade Quartermaster; Captains Greenleaf and Sleeper and Lieutenants Clough and Wallace were Captains in the fourth; Lieutenant Israel L. Drew was First Lieutenant in the fourth and died at Annapolis; Fife Major Pike was Principal Musician in the fourth. Doubtless these promotions were well deserved.
The second regiment of volunteer infantry from New Hamp- shire had their rendezvous at Camp Constitution, Portsmouth. They enlisted for three months and were commanded by Colonel Thomas P. Pierce of Manchester. Then an order came from the War
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Department to send no more men for three months' service. It was becoming plain that there was to be a war and probably a long one. The President asked for three hundred thousand men for three years. About half the men at Portsmouth re-enlisted. Colonel Pierce resigned on the fourth of June, and Hon. Gilman Marston, then a member of Congress, was commissioned Colonel. He was wounded at the battle of Bull Run and was promoted later to Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers. Edward L. Bailey of Manchester became Colonel of this regiment April 18, 1863, having been Lieutenant-Colonel, and was slightly wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. Joab N. Patterson, a native of Hopkinton and a graduate of Dartmouth, enlisted in this regiment as a private and recruited a company at Contoocookville. He served four and a half years in the Union army, passing through the various grades of promotion, and was mustered out, December 19, 1865, as Colonel of the regiment in which he enlisted. He was made Brevet Briga- dier-General, March 13, 1865, "for bravery in battle and good con- duct throughout the war." He was afterwards United States Marshal of the District of New Hampshire.
The second regiment left Portsmouth by cars, June 20, 1861. At Boston and New York the sons of New Hampshire gave them a warm reception with processions and banquets and speeches. Old Music Hall in Boston was filled, the troops being at dinner on the floor and guests and natives of New Hampshire being in the galleries. The regiment arrived at Washington June twenty-third and became a part of a brigade commanded by Colonel Ambrose E. Burnside, who afterward was Major-General commanding the army of the Potomac. The first battle the regiment engaged in was the disastrous one at Bull Run, where Colonel Marston was wounded in the shoulder by a rifle ball, but returned to his regiment as soon as the wound could be dressed. In this battle the regiment was reported to have lost seven killed, fifty-six wounded and forty-six prisoners. Of those reported killed two afterwards returned from rebel prisons. Of the prisoners some died on the battlefield and some in prisons.
Limited space forbids that we follow each regiment through the vicissitudes of the years of war. The second regiment was longer in the field than any other. Its ranks were thinned and recruited again and again. Its whole history is an honorable one.
HARRIET P. DAME
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More than three thousand names were enrolled. "Every regiment but two from New Hampshire was supplied, in part, with officers from its ranks, and more than thirty regiments had upon their rosters names of men that were once members of the Second New Hampshire. It marched more than six thousand miles, participated in more than twenty pitched battles and lost in action upwards of one thousand men." Its principal engagements were Bull Run, Siege of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Oak Grove, Peach Orchard, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Kettle Run, second Bull Run, Chantilly, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Swift Creek, Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Port Walthall, Petersburg, Williamsburg and occupation of Richmond.
Lieutenant-Colonel John D. Cooper died of disease at Balti- more, October 30, 1865. He enlisted as a private and rose by merit to his rank, one of the bravest and most respected of his regi- ment. The remains of the regiment reached Concord on the twenty- third of December, 1865, and a formal reception was given on the twenty-fifth at which the governor and men of distinction made addresses of welcome.
Any account of the second regiment would be incomplete with- out mention of the army nurse, Harriet Patience Dame, the bravest soldier of them all. When the war broke out she was running a boarding-house at Concord, and some of her boarders from the Methodist Theological Institute went into the Union army and some into the Confederate army. She served throughout the war, shunning no danger upon the battlefield, nor labor within the camp and hospital. Her tent was a center from which radiated medicines, delicacies, food, clothing, shoes and whatever was needed and could be obtained. Twice she was taken prisoner and speedily released, when her occupation was learned. The last release was by command of General Stonewall Jackson. At Fair Oakes a twelve-pound shot went through her tent. Many of the wounded and sick owed their lives to her tender care, and the private soldier was as distinguished in her eyes as the officer. At the suggestion of Governor Jordan her portrait hangs in the corridor of the State House among the soldiers of distinction. Her funeral April 28, 1900, was attended by a host of old soldiers with their wives, children and friends, and she was buried with military honors. For some years she held a position in the Currency Division of the
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United States Treasury. She was born in Concord, January 5, 1815.
To the second regiment belonged Corporal Thomas E. Barker, afterwards colonel of the twelfth regiment; Adjutant S. G. Lang- ley, lieutenant-colonel of the fourth; Captain T. A. Barker, lieu- tenant-colonel of the fourteenth; Captain S. G. Griffin, brevet major-general; Lieutenant A. B. Thompson, captain in the United States army and secretary of state of New Hampshire; Sergeant Welcome A. Crafts, colonel of the fifth; Private Martin A. Haynes, member of Congress; and Chaplain Henry E. Parker, professor in Dartmouth College for many years. Before the war he had been pastor of the South Congregational church in Concord.
The third regiment was recruited throughout the State, although Manchester furnished three companies. The governor offered a bounty of ten dollars to every man enlisted. The men were en- camped at Concord and mustered into service between the 22nd and 25th of August, 1861. There were ten hundred and forty- seven men and officers, including a regimental band of twenty-four pieces.
The colonel was Enoch Q. Fellows of Sandwich. He had spent two years as a student at West Point and had been a brigadier- general in the militia of New Hampshire. He had also served as inspector in the United States custom house, Boston. In the first regiment he had been a private, lieutenant, drill master and adjutant. His commission as colonel of the third regiment was dated the day after he was mustered out of the first. He served less than a year, came north on a furlough, resigned and was appointed colonel of the ninth regiment, which office he resigned on account of sickness. Increasing deafness may have helped the decision. He returned to Sandwich and later represented that town more than once in the state legislature.
Lieutenant Colonel John H. Jackson was promoted to be colonel. He was once wounded but remained to be honorably discharged February 4, 1864. Before the rebellion he had seen military service as captain in the Mexican War and had been colonel in the state militia. After the Civil War he served several years as inspector in the Boston custom house, being reappointed to a position he had held before the war. He was born at Portsmouth, October 20, 1814, and died at Boston April 10, 1890. There was a Masonic funeral service at Portsmouth, where he was buried.
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John Bedel of Bath enlisted as Major, was promoted a year later to lieutenant-colonel, was wounded July 10, 1863, captured eight days later at Fort Wagner, was in rebel prisons over a year, five months of the time in solitary confinement for lack of proper docility under harsh treatment and was promoted to colonel while he was a prisoner, April 6, 1864. He was brevetted brigadier- general of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services. After his return to Bath he represented that town twice in the state legis- lature. He died at his home in Bath, February 26, 1875. He was son of General Moody Bedel of Indian Strean, or Pittsburg, where he was born July 8, 1822. He was educated at Newbury Academy, Vermont, studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was Demo- cratic candidate for governor in 1869-1870.
The third regiment left Concord in September, 1861, and took part in the expedition against Port Royal, South Carolina. Many men were lost by sickness. Months were spent in skirmishing and doing garrison duty. The first real battle was at Secessionville, June 16, 1862. Out of twenty-six officers and five hundred and ninety-seven men who went into battle one hundred and four were killed or wounded. Here fell Captain Ralph Carlton and Lieut. D. K. Stratton was mortally wounded. The sacrifice accomplished nothing by reason of poor generalship. At Morris Island and in the assault on Fort Wagner more blundering cost many lives, poor recompense for gallantry displayed. When private soldiers reck- lessly throw away their lives under incompetent leadership, the glory of war is not so easily seen. In the Civil War the great majority of commissioned officers had never studied military strategy and the arts of war. It was thought that bravery was all that was needed. After many losses the mistake was discovered, yet the old error persists. The only thing that saved the northern armies from annihilation was, that the southerners knew almost as little about war as the North did.
Some substitutes filled up the regiment, and horses were fur- nished. The regiment was then known as the Third New Hamp- shire Mounted Infantry. Some of the substitutes deserted, and one caught in the act was court-martialed and shot. After a short time spent at Jacksonville, Florida, the regiment became a part of the army of the James, in Virginia, where they engaged in the siege of Petersburg and the battle of Drury's Bluff. In this last battle
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two hundred New Hampshire men fell in twenty minutes, and there were no machine guns then. Among the dead was Captain Richard Ela. At Flussell's Mills the regiment lost ten officers and eighty- three men, among them Lieutenant Colonel Plimpton, shot through the heart.
This regiment was mustered out of service July 20, 1865. It had participated in thirty engagements during its four years of serv- ice in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia and North Caro- lina. It had on its rolls one thousand seven hundred and seventeen men and one hundred and one officers. Of these one hundred and ninety were killed in battle or died of wounds; one hundred and ninety-six, nearly all paid substitutes, deserted; one hundred and thirty-seven died of disease; seven hundred and forty were dis- charged, three hundred by expiration of time and four hundred and forty by reason of disability. Two hundred and seventy of this regiment re-enlisted in January and February, 1864. Four hundred and eighty-seven were wounded and ninety-one were captured and sent to rebel prisons, where most of them died of starvation. "The prisoners were in close confinement, robbed, starved, exposed to cold without fuel, shot at and shot into for attempting to escape, and then put in irons and solitary confinement for months as a punishment." So says history. In these days of good will should such events be entirely forgotten and unmentioned ?
The nucleus of the fourth regiment enlisted for the third, the surplus when that regiment was full. They were sent to Manchester, where companies joined them from Dover, Nashua, Laconia, Great Falls, and Salem, besides several companies raised in Manchester. They were mustered into service September 18, 1861, and a few days later departed for Washington, receiving the usual cheers and greetings along the route. The Manchester Cornet Band accompanied them. One writer records that revolvers, dirks and Bibles were presented in great quantities, and the Bibles were more effective than the revolvers and dirks. The rifle and bayonet were the main weapons. Governor Berry presented a stand of colors in behalf of the State. Ten hundred and thirty went to the front.
The first Colonel of the fourth regiment was Thomas J. Whip- ple of Laconia. He' was born in Wentworth, January 30, 1816, educated at Norwich Military Academy, studied law and settled at
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A HISTORY
Laconia. He had seen service as a lieutenant and adjutant in the Mexican War. After acting as Lieutenant-Colonel in the first regi- ment, eleven days after he was mustered out he was appointed Colonel of the fourth. He resigned March 18, 1862, and resumed the practice of law at Laconia. Here he died December 21, 1889.
Louis Bell succeeded him in command of the regiment. He was born in Chester, March 8, 1837, youngest son of Governor Samuel Bell, graduated at Brown University at the age of eighteen and began the practice of law in Farmington in 1857. Within a few years he was solicitor of Strafford county. He entered military service as captain in the first regiment and after his term of enlist- ment had expired was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the fourth. All testimony concurs in declaring him to have been a model officer, beloved and respected by all under his command, fearless in danger, solicitous for the welfare of the sick and wounded, gentle and sympathetic, devoid of the roughness of the mock officer. In 1864 he had command of a brigade. He was killed at the charge upon Fort Fisher, January 15, 1865, and was brevetted brigadier-general from the date of his death. No life was a more costly sacrifice than his among New Hampshire's slain.
The fourth regiment took part in the expedition against Port Royal, whence they proceeded to St. Augustine and then to Beau- fort. In the spring of 1863 they participated in the unsuccessful attack on Charleston, South Carolina, and in the siege of Fort Wagner. Three hundred and eighty-five men re-enlisted when their three years had expired, and the regiment was partially filled up with substitutes who had been paid bounties of three hundred dol- lars. A large number of the substitutes or "bounty-jumpers," de- serted. The historian of this regiment says of the substitutes, "A few of them did their duty and returned home honorably; but taken as a whole they were a useless, burdensome crowd." While the regiment was being reorganized the men who first enlisted were allowed a furlough of thirty days, to visit their homes. Afterwards they served in Virginia and chased the defeated army of the South to Wilmington and Raleigh, North Carolina. This regiment saw a good deal of severe fighting, but the long sieges, where men in the trenches were continually under fire and exposed to sun and rain, took off more men than the pitched battles. At Fort Wagner, Drury's Bluff, Petersburg and Fort Fisher the losses were severe.
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At Drury's Bluff Major Charles W. Sawyer of Dover received a fatal wound. The regiment in this action lost one hundred and forty-two men. At Malvern Hill forty-five more were killed and wounded. The regiment was so reduced that at the attack on Fort Gilmore, September 29, 1864, only forty men could be mustered for the fight. After the capture of Fort Fisher what was left of the fourth New Hampshire regiment slept over the magazine, which suddenly exploded, adding frightful casualities.
The regiment arrived home at Manchester, August 27, 1865. Only one hundred and forty veterans returned. Fifty were must- ered out in hospitals. During their four years of service, 1,756 men were enrolled. Of these 282 were killed in action or died of disease; 340 were discharged for disability occasioned by wounds or disease, and fifty-seven died in rebel prisons. Governor Smyth welcomed the survivors home at Manchester.
Other men of prominence in this regiment were Major Jeremiah D. Drew, who had been Captain in the first regiment and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the fourth. His son was a musician and his brother a lieutenant in the same regiment. He afterwards made his home in Lawrence, Mass. Lieutenant Charles H. Carlton rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was brevetted Brigadier-General. Lieut .- Col. Gilman E. Sleeper lost his health in the army and returned to his home in Salem to die of consump- tion, October 12, 1864. Captain William Badger was commissioned as colonel but could not be mustered in because there were not men enough left in the regiment. He afterwards served as captain in the regular army. Frank W. Parker was a lieutenant in the first regiment and was promoted to be captain and lieutenant-colonel in the fourth. After the war he resumed his former occupation as a teacher and became superintendent of Cook County Normal School, Chicago, and the author of several educational works and a promi- nent lecturer. Many other men were as heroic, able and faithful, but their names are recorded elsewhere.
Nearly twelve hundred of this regiment were residents of New Hampshire when they enlisted, and two hundred and seventy-five of them lived in Manchester. Their average age at enlistment was twenty-six years.
The fifth regiment of New Hampshire volunteers became known as the "Fighting Fifth" and it well earned the name. It
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A HISTORY
was mustered into service in October, 1861, the muster being com- pleted on the 26th, at Concord. After three days of furlough it left for the seat of war, ten hundred and ten in number, including a band and a corps of buglers. It was commanded by Colonel Edward E. Cross of Lancaster, of whom more will be said in sub- sequent pages. All its field officers had seen military service and had practical knowledge of their duties. Therefore the regiment was admirably drilled and disciplined. Because they were so well fitted for service and could be relied upon they were put in critical positions and sustained terrible losses.
The regiment first became a part of General Oliver O. Howard's brigade in Maryland, whence they crossed into Virginia and went into Camp California at Alexandria for winter quarters. Schools were organized and the winter was spent in study, drill, guard duty and occasionally building roads and bridges. In the spring they were conveyed to the Peninsula and took part in the siege of Yorktown and the advance on Williamsburg, built the "Grape- Vine Bridge" through the Chickahominy swamp and river, and fought at Fair Oaks, where one hundred and eighty-six of their number were killed and wounded. In the seven days' battle in the Wilderness and retreat to Harrison's Landing the fifth lost over one hundred officers and men. Of the three hundred and nineteen officers and men of the fifth, that went into the battle of Antietam, one hundred and eight were killed or wounded. At the battle of Fredericksburgh one hundred and eighty more fell. Here was killed Major Edward E. Sturtevant, who had been on the police force of Concord, and was appointed a captain in the first regiment. His burial place is unknown. No officer was truer and braver.
It is not possible here to trace the march of the regiment through Gettysburg back into Virginia and on to the capture of Richmond and to the end of the war. The regiment was recruited and its ranks thinned again in many a battle. During its three years and nine months of service it had about twenty-six hundred men enrolled. It lost about thirteen hundred in action. Sixteen of its officers were killed or mortally wounded in battle. The last fight, at Appomattox, was one of the most disastrous for the fifth, for here were lost six officers and one hundred and four men killed and wounded, and four officers and sixty-three men taken prisoners. The prisoners were recovered a few days later.
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