USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 4
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Lieutenant-Colonel Moses N. Collins was born at Brentwood, April, 1820. He was educated at Gilmanton and Hampton Acad- emies and taught school several years in Maryland. He began the practice of law in Exeter in 1857 and was successful. He repre- sented Brentwood and later Exeter in the State legislature. First he was appointed Major in the eleventh regiment and was pro- moted to be Lieutenant-Colonel before the regiment left the State. A musket ball pierced his head in the battle of the wilderness, May 4, 1864. Thus his all was given in patriotic devotion.
Major Evarts W. Farr, who has been named in the roll of congressmen, served in the eleventh regiment. He enlisted in April, 1861 and on the fourth of the following June received a commission as First Lieutenant in the second regiment. In the following January he was promoted Captain. At the battle of Williamsburg his right arm was shattered by a ball. He was conveyed to Fortress Monroe; here his arm was amputated and he returned home. In six weeks he was back to the front and September 4th he was commissioned Major in the eleventh regiment and com- manded its left wing at the battle of Fredericksburg. After being with his regiment in Kentucky and Mississippi he was detached to act as judge advocate on court-martial duty. His subsequent career has been already noted.
Adjutant Charles R. Morrison, a native of Bath, was practicing law when the rebellion began. He took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, East Tennessee, Jackson, Wilderness,
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MAJOR EVARTS W. FARR
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and Spottsylvania. He was twice wounded at Fredericksburg and again at Spottsylvania. After the war he resumed the practice of law in Manchester and later in Concord. He was the author of several legal works, as well as of "Proofs of Christ's Resurrection from a Lawyer's Standpoint." His brother, James S. Morrison, living in the South, became a Lieutenant in the Confederate army.
Major James F. Briggs, Quartermaster of the eleventh, after- wards became a member of the United States congress.
Captain Leander W. Cogswell was commissioned as Lieuten- ant-Colonel but was never mustered, for lack of numbers in the regiment. After the war he represented his native town, Henniker, several times in the State legislature, and was State Treasurer and savings bank commissioner.
The twelfth regiment was recruited mainly in Belknap and Carroll counties within ten days in August, 1862, and was mustered at Concord the following month. It was made up of men of character and good standing and they made for themselves an honorable record. Its first pitched battle was Chancellorsville, where three commissioned officers were killed and fifteen wounded out of twenty-eight, and out of five hundred and forty-nine enlisted men forty-two were killed, two hundred and twelve were wounded, and fifty-one were captured. The aggregate loss included consid- ably more than half their number. Again at Gettysburg this regi- ment fought valliantly and lost ninety-four men in killed and wounded.
In the rapid and prolonged marching before and after the battle of Gettysburg many became sick from fatigue and exposure. "More than half the regiment were without shoes or stockings, their feet raw from exposure to the sand and sun, and their clothing was literally in rags." In this condition it marched through Washington and guarded rebel prisoners at Point Lookout. While here three hundred and fifty recruits joined the regiment, and one hundred more recruits deserted on the way. At the battle of Drury's Bluff the twelfth was four days and four nights in the front line without any relief. At Cold Harbor it lost one hundred and sixty-five men out of less than three hundred engaged. The opposing lines of works were about seventy-five yards apart, and many of the wounded were left upon the field for three days, before they could be removed. "Twenty of the dead of the regiment were
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found within five yards of the enemy's works." The regiment served seventy-two days in the trenches at the siege of Peters- burg, where some were wounded and more were lost from sickness caused by burning heat of the sun by day and dampness by night. This regiment was only half an hour behind the Fourth Massachu- setts Cavalry in marching into Richmond and they helped to ex- tinguish the fires which had been kindled in various places by the retreating foe. It encamped across the James river from Rich- mond, at Manchester, where it was mustered out June 21, 1865, and arrived at Concord on the 27th.
Colonel Joseph H. Potter commanded the twelfth. He was born at Concord, October 12, 1821, attended school in Portsmouth, graduated at West Point in 1843, served in the Mexican War and thereafter in the United States army as Captain and Adjutant. At the battle of Chancellorsville he was severely wounded and taken prisoner. Five months later he was exchanged and ordered to Columbus, Ohio, as Provost Marshal. Later he was in com- mand of a brigade and appointed Brigadier-General of volunteers, May 1, 1865. He was present at the surrender of General Lee and thereafter was an officer in the regular army. Died in Colum- bus, Ohio, December 1, 1892.
The thirteen regiment was organized at Concord in Sep- tember, 1862. It was composed of two companies each from Rockingham, Hillsborough and Strafford counties and one each from Merrimack, Carroll, Grafton, and Coos counties. The volunteers were largely farmers and mechanics. They left Con- cord on the sixth of October for Washington and encamped at Fort Albany, on the south side of the Potomac. It took part in the battle of Fredericksburg, losing three officers and thirty-nine men. During 1863 it operated in the vicinity of Suffolk and Norfolk, Virginia, and worked on the fortifications of Ports- mouth. In 1864 it participated in the battles of Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburg. After sharing in fifteen engagements the regiment marched into Richmond among the first. It was finally discharged at Concord, July I, 1865. Its bravery and devotion are attested by its losses, which were proportionally great, in some engagements half of the fighting force falling. Theirs was the first Union flag hoisted in Richmond. The report of the Adjutant-General of New Hamp-
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A HISTORY
shire says, "It has captured five pieces of artillery in one charge, and with its Division taken sixteen pieces more; has captured three battle flags, and taken more prisoners from the enemy than the number in its own ranks; and has never been driven from the field, or from its position by the enemy." But equally praiseworthy regiments did not have so good fortune.
The thirteenth was commanded by Colonel Aaron F. Stevens, who was born at Derry, August 9, 1819. He was educated in the schools of Derry, Hillsborough and Nashua and began the practice of law in Nashua in 1845. He was appointed solicitor of Hillsborough county in 1856. He represented Nashua as a Whig several times in the State legislature and was one of the leading Republicans when that party was formed. Hav- ing served as Major in the first regiment and demonstrated his fitness, the command of the thirteenth was offered him, which he accepted. "He distinguished himself for gallantry, courage, coolness and skill as an officer on many bloody fields, and was often commended by his superior officers." In the assault on Fort Harrison he was severely wounded within a few yards of the fort, and for this and other meritorious acts was appointed Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers, by brevet, December 8, 1864. See list of congressmen for subsequent career.
Person C. Cheney, afterwards governor of the State, was Quartermaster in the Thirteenth.
The fourteenth regiment was mustered in at Concord in September, 1862, the last of the three years regiments, and was raised principally in the western parts of the State, four com- panies coming from Cheshire county. For some time it did guard duty in Washington and vicinity. Early in 1864 it was ordered to the Department of the Gulf, but malarial diseases sent it back to Virginia, where it were active in the valley of the Shenandoah, in General Sheridan's army. At the battle of Winchester the regiment lost thirteen officers and one hun- dred and thirty men were killed, wounded and missing. New Hampshire afterwards erected a suitable monument near Win- chester to those who fell in that battle, members of the four- teenth, September 19, 1864. The regiment joined in chasing the rebels up the valley, capturing many cannons and prisoners, and changing defeat into victory at Cedar Creek and Fisher's
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Hill. In January, 1865, it was ordered to Savannah and arrived just as Sherman's army was leaving. Thence it moved to Augusta and was on guard when Jefferson Davis went through the place in a carriage as a prisoner, receiving the jeers of Confederate soldiers as he was driven through their midst. This regiment lost in all above two hundred men by death, seventy of them falling in battle. It was discharged the last of July, 1865.
The Colonel of the Fourteenth was Robert Wilson, born in Peterborough, September 24, 1811, son of Hon. James Wilson. He graduated at Amherst College in 1832 and took rank as an officer in the State militia. His regiment had no arms, and he picked out a lot of old flint lock guns, altered into percus- sions, and with these went to Washington, where he had to wait for months before Springfield rifles could be furnished. On ac- count of ill health Colonel Wilson was obliged to resign and was honorably discharged, September 6, 1864. He was suc- ceeded by Colonel Alexander Gardner, who was a native of New York State, educated at Kimball Union Academy, had been admitted to the bar in New York, had edited a paper and fought in the border war in Kansas, and was practicing law in Claremont, N. H., in 1862, when he was commissioned Adjutant of the fourteenth regiment. He was promoted Major and was often in command of the regiment in the absence of Colonel Wilson. Again he was promoted, and this time he became Col- onel the day before he was mortally wounded at Opequan Creek, near Winchester, Va., September 19, 1864. He was buried at Claremont with Masonic honors. Samuel A. Duncan was the first Major of the fourteenth. He was born at Plain- field, June 19, 1836, prepared for college at Kimball Union Academy and graduated at Dartmouth in 1858 with the highest honors. After teaching in the High School at Quincy, Mass., two years he was called to be a tutor at Dartmouth, and from there he entered the army. After passing an examination with two hundred others, in which he ranked first, he was appointed Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of United States Colored In- fantry, organized in Baltimore in 1863. In February, 1864, he was placed in command of a colored brigade. At Petersburg his command made a notable charge after being exposed six hours in line, and captured six pieces of artillery. He was
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wounded on the 29th of September, 1864, but continued in com- mand and was brevetted Brigadier-General for gallantry at New Market Heights and subsequently was brevetted Major General of Volunteers. After the war he was special agent in the War Department and later principal Examiner in the United States Pension office.
Carroll D. Wright, who has been previously sketched, en- listed as Adjutant of the fourteenth and was promoted to be Colonel, December 6, 1864.
The fifteenth regiment was composed of men enlisted for nine months. It was organized at Concord in the fall of 1862. John W. Kingman was its Colonel, a native of Barrington and a graduate of Harvard College in the class of '43. At the time of his enlistment he was practicing law with his father-in-law, the Hon. Daniel M. Christie, in Dover. Every officer, by his urging, signed a temperance or total abstinence pledge, before leaving Concord and kept it throughout their time of service. This regiment took part in the first attack on Port Hudson and in the siege which led to its surrender. The fighting at Port Hudson and still more the climate of Louisiana thinned the ranks of the regiment, and not much more than half its num- bers were fit for duty, when it was discharged at Concord. All testimonials agree that nine months volunteers fought as bravely as more thoroughly seasoned troops, but it can not be claimed that they were as effective. It takes discipline, drill, hardship, experience and fighting to make a first class soldier, and this is truer now than then. Henry W. Blair, afterwards United States Senator, enlisted as Major in this regiment and was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel. He was twice wounded at Port Hudson.
The sixteenth regiment was mustered into service for nine months in November, 1862. Its Colonel was a graduate of Wesleyan University and a Methodist minister, Rev. James Pike, who had also been a member of congress. The Adjutant, Luther T. Townsend, graduate of Dartmouth, was also a Meth- odist minister, and was afterward for many years a Professor in the Theological School of Boston University and author of many books. The Lieutenant-Colonel was Henry W. Fuller of Concord, a graduate of Dartmouth and a lawyer, who en- listed as Major and was promoted. The regiment joined the
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expedition commanded by General Banks and saw service in Louisiana and in the siege of Port Hudson, losing many men by sickness and in battle. Its men were sacrificed by incompe- tent leadership.
The seventeenth regiment was composed of men from the western and northern parts of the State and the enlistments numbered seven hundred and ninety-one. The Colonel was Henry O. Kent of Lancaster, a graduate of Norwich University and a lawyer. The Lieutenant-Colonel was Charles H. Long of Claremont, and the Major was George H. Bellows of Walpole. The regiment encamped at Concord and were furloughed till the first of April, 1863. Then orders were received from the Secretary of War to consolidate the seventeenth regiment with the second, which was done in time to have them take part in the battle of Gettysburg. The original officers were mustered out at the time the transfer of the men took place. The men enlisted for nine months. Their military record is found in the history of the second regiment.
The eighteenth regiment was recruited in the latter part of 1864 in answer to the call for five hundred thousand volunteers. Charles H. Bell of Exeter was commissioned Colonel and James W. Carr of Manchester, Lieutenant-Colonel. Both resigned, and Thomas L. Livermore of Milford was appointed Colonel, who had been Major in the fifth regiment. He remained with the regiment till he was mustered out, June 23, 1865. Joseph M. Clough of New London was commissioned Lieutenant-Col- onel, who was wounded at Fort Steadman and was in actual command of the regiment at the last. The eighteenth had com- paratively a brief term of service, but it experienced severe fight- ing at Fort Steadman, and in the attack on Petersburg and its capture. It was mustered out on the 29th of July. Of the 961 members of this regiment 375 were farmers, 343 mechanics and craftsmen, and only 78 were laborers. Sixty-seven per cent. were natives of New Hampshire. The average age was 25.59 years. One hundred and sixty-seven were eighteen and under. Major William I. Brown was killed in the battle of Fort Steadman, March 29, 1865. He had been Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Ninth regiment.
Chapter III MISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONS
Chapter III MISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONS
The First New England Cavalry-The First New Hampshire Cavalry- Col. John L. Thompson-First N. H. Battery of Light Artillery- Graphic Description of its Battles-Heavy Artillery at Fort Constitu- tion-Three Companies of Sharpshooters-Brigade Band-The Strafford Guards-Dartmouth Cavalry-New Hampshire Men in the Marine Corps-Total of New Hampshire Soldiers in the Civil War.
T HE governors of the six New England states were author- ized by the War Department, in the fall of 1861, to raise a regiment, to be called the First New England Cavalry. Each State was to raise two companies. All the States except Rhode Island and New Hampshire raised a full regiment. Rhode Island raised eight companies and New Hampshire four, and these were united to form the New England Cavalry. The four companies from New Hampshire formed a battalion, com- manded by David B. Nelson of Manchester. He resigned June 4, 1862, and Captain John L. Thompson of Plymouth was pro- moted to fill his place. The battalion was mustered into service at Concord and on the 22nd of December, 1861, was ordered to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where it encamped with the rest of the regiment. On the 14th of the following March the regi- ment was ordered to Washington, where the name was changed to the First Rhode Island Cavalry, which did not please the men from New Hampshire, and the governor refused afterwards to send recruits to fill up the regiment. In May the four New Hampshire companies were ordered to Fredericksburg, and there they had their first encounter with the enemy. Captain Ains- worth and seven men were killed and ten men were wounded, but the battalion captured one hundred and fifty officers and men, besides horses, wagons and military stores. The rest of the regiment joined the battalion on the first of June.
Their next fight was in the second battle of Bull Run, August 29, 1862, when the cavalry guarded the rear in the retreat. They participated in the battle of Chantilly, September
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I, and had almost daily skirmishes. A picket post at Mount- ville, composed of parts of two companies was attacked by a whole brigade commanded by General Stuart, and Captain Loranzo D. Gove of Hanover was killed, and Lieutenant Joseph F. Andrews and about twenty-five men were captured.
The regiment became reduced to about three hundred, of which the New Hampshire battalion numbered one hundred, when they were surrounded, while encamped at Middleburg. They resolved to cut their way through. More than half their number were killed, wounded or captured. After the recovery of the sick and the return of those on detached service the regi- ment numbered only two hundred and fifty, and Lieutenant- Colonel Thompson had command. During the autumn it was engaged in the battle of Auburn and Bristoe Station and fol- lowed the fortunes of the army of the Potomac.
In January, 1864, the New Hampshire battalion was de- tached from the First Rhode Island Cavalry, to form the nucleus of a regiment made up wholly of men from the Granite State. Nearly all the men re-enlisted. The old companies were filled up, and three new companies were added. John L. Thompson was promoted to be Colonel. Benjamin T. Hutchins of Concord was Lieutenant-Colonel. The regiment was attached to the Third Division of the cavalry corps, commanded by General Wilson, who made a raid into the enemy's country and was met by superior numbers, commanded by General Fitz Hugh Lee. Abandoning wagons and guns they fought their way back to City Point, the regiment losing one officer and seventy men killed, wounded and missing. In this raid eighty miles of rail- road track were destroyed, besides two locomotives, two trains of cars and large quantities of tobacco and cotton. Many horses and mules were brought into the union lines and twenty-five hundred negroes as contraband of war.
The First New Hampshire Cavalry took part in Sheridan's raid which ended in Richmond. At Waynesborough the enemy were found strongly posted in rifle-pits, with guns in position behind earthworks. Colonel Thompson's men lead the charge. "The men rode up to the rifle-pits, leaped their horses over the works, and with their sabers alone captured about fifteen hundred prisoners, all the artillery, wagons, other property, and the colors of every regiment and detachment engaged."
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Five other companies left the State in March, 1865, com- posed of substitutes to a large extent, many of whom deserted. They had been paid large bounties, and so verily they had their reward. Those who remained did detached duties and never saw any fighting. The regiment was mustered out on the 29th of June and arrived at Concord on the 16th of July, 1865. Accord- ing to the Adjutant-General's report three hundred and eighty- five of this regiment deserted, mostly of the late recruits and substitutes. The rest of the regiment did their duty manfully.
John Leverett Thompson was a dashing cavalry officer, dear to the heart of General Sheridan. He was born at Ply- mouth, February 2, 1835, son of William C. Thompson (Dart- mouth, 1820) and grandson of Senator Thomas W. Thompson (Harvard, 1786). He fitted for college at Kimball Union Acad- emy and spent two years at Dartmouth and a year at Williams College. Both institutions afterward gave him the degree of Master of Arts. After graduating at the Harvard Law School in 1858 he studied at the universities of Berlin, Munich and Paris. He at once enlisted as private in the First Illinois Light Artillery and was made a sergeant. In poor health he returned to Plymouth and was commissioned First Lieutenant in the First New England Cavalry and rose through the grades to be Colonel of his regiment. He was brevetted brigadier-general, March 13, 1864 "for distinguished and meritorious service." Resuming law practice in Chicago he made a deep and lasting impression upon the social and professional ranks of that city. At the time of his death, January 31, 1888, he was president of the Union League and of the Dartmouth College Alumni Asso- ciation of Chicago. As a commander in action he was fearless prompt, tactful, far-seeing; in character he was upright, con- scientious, firm and sympathetic, an ornament to his State and profession.
The First New Hampshire Battery of Light Artillery was recruited at Manchester in August, 1861. It numbered one hun- dred and fifty-five men. The Captain was George A. Gerrish of Manchester, who was wounded at Fredericksburg, resigned because of disability, and died at Portsmouth, September I, 1866. Frederick M. Edgell of Orford was promoted from First Lieutenant to fill Captain Gerrish's place and later was pro- moted to Major in the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery from
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New Hampshire. George K. Dakin then became Captain, who afterwards became a Lieutenant in the United States regular army.
This battery, with six bronze guns and fine equipment, proceeded to Washington in November and encamped. There was no projectile to fit their guns, and after two exchanges they received six twelve-pound howitzers. All the winter was spent at Munson's Hill, seven miles from Washington. Then came marching and retreating, skirmishing and fighting, camping in winter quarters and drilling, for three long years. This battery took part in twenty-seven battles, including second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilder- ness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Deep Bottom and siege of Petersburg, and ended with Lee's Surrender, April 9, 1865. At the expiration of the three years term of enlistment, September 25, 1864, four officers and fifty-nine men were mustered out, and forty-two re-enlisted. These were transferred to the First Regiment of New Hampshire Heavy Artillery and became Bat- tery M of that organization. They were at the grand review in Washington and were mustered out at Concord, June 9, 1865.
Some unknown artist in the use of easy words has given a graphic sketch of the military history of this battery. A few quotations may serve as a vivid picture of what war was before the days of machine guns and high explosives. At Antietam "passing through a small piece of woods we came out into an open ploughed field. Here an awful sight met our gaze. In the center of the field stood part of a caisson and parts of one or two gun carriages belonging to a Massachusetts battery, and the poor boys in blue who had worked their guns till there were neither men to fire them nor horses to draw them off lay around in the rough ploughed land all round their carriages dead or dying. Not ten yards in front of where this battery had stood was a rail fence, and behind that the rebels had marched up their line of battle many times, for their dead actually lay corded up behind that fence to such a degree that when we were ordered to pass through we tore down the fence and at- tempted to pass, but had to move away many dead bodies before the horses could be made to go through. Horses will never step upon a man's body if they can find room for their
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feet without, but here they lay so thick that the restive animals could not be forced through."
On another occasion "by means of trees and fence-posts the writer was able to trace out the line of one shot made by the battery during the fight. Starting from the known position of his own gun and walking off in the line of fire, he first found a dead rebel whose left shoulder and arm were gone. Six or eight yards in the rear of him another poor fellow lay with a large part of his body and thigh shot away; and again, at an- other six yards, lay a third, with the loss of a foot and half a leg,-indicating at least one shot from the N. H. Battery had done its fearful work in literal earnest."
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