USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Washington > History of Washington, New Hampshire, from the first settlement to the present time, 1768-1886 > Part 13
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Daniel L. Monroe moved to accept the resolution. A motion was made by Martin Chase to strike out the word two and insert the word one. The motion was carried,- forty-seven in its favor and forty-six against it.
Another motion was made by Martin Chase to raise $1000. Voted not to accept the motion,-sixty-three yeas, sixty-four nays. A motion was then made by Mar- tin Chase to pay $ 975 to volunteers for one year's service. The motion was by him amended to $ 999, and it was again amended by L. A. Mellen to read $999.99, and the motion was then accepted. But the good people were ev- idently frightened at what they had done, for another meeting was called on the 12th of September (the previous one having been held on the 5th) and the same article which had so often perplexed them appears again, viz .:
To see what sum of money the town will vote to raise by loan or taxation and pay to each person who has been an inhabitant of said Washington for three months, who has heretofore enlisted or who may hereafter enlist and be mustered into the service of the United States to fill the quota of said Washington under the last call of the President of the United States for 500,000 more troops.
The following action was taken on the second article :
On motion of S. W. Healy for the town to pay $300 for one year's volunteers and $500 for three years' vol- unteers, an amendment was offered to pay one year's volunteers $ 1000, but was lost, fifty-seven to eight. The original motion of Mr. Healy was then carried with the
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following amendment : "And that all prior votes for pay- ing bounties by the town be abrogated." Yeas, seventy- eight, nays, six.
We next find upon the record the following entry :
Office of the Secretary of State, Concord, N. H., November 16, 1864.
To the Town Clerk of Washington :-
The list of the names of soldiers in the field having their residence in your town whose ballots have been re- turned to me as provided by the law approved Aug. 30, 1864, George W. Peaslea, 14th regiment, company I, Free- man S. Stowell, 14th regiment, company I, Joseph A. Powers, H. A., company H.
I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct list.
ALLEN TENNEY, Secretary of State.
Here endeth the records of war legislation for the town of Washington. If they prove as interesting to the read- ers of this chapter as they were perplexing to town au- thorities I am content.
$
Soldiers' Monument and Town House,
CHAPTER XXV.
WASHINGTON'S FIRST VOLUNTEER.
Washington's First Volunteer. Second New Hampshire Volunteers. Seventh New Hampshire Volunteers.
HE call of President Lincoln for troops in the spring and early summer of 1861 found the town of Washington fully aroused to the events which were transpiring in the national capital and in the south- ern or seceded states, and she was in no way behind her sister towns in sustaining the honor of the Granite State in her endeavor to sustain the integrity of the nation's honor and preserve intact the Union of the States.
Although her people were sometimes perplexed as to how a thing had better be done, there was never manifest a disposition to leave undone anything which could ad- vance the cause which all so readily espoused. The spirit of loyalty which moved Sturtevant, New Hampshire's first volunteer at Concord, soon pervaded the most remote towns of the state, and the first volunteer from each town was deemed a hero of no little importance. And Wash- ington, as well as Concord, may ever refer with honest pride to James L. Mellen, or as he was familiarly known to Langdon Mellen. So quiet and unassuming was he that his most intimate friends could hardly understand what induced him to enlist.
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But the war of '61 revealed the true character of many a noble youth. It revealed them as true followers of their great but now silent commander, men of acts and deeds rather than words, although their feelings some- times found utterance through the silent medium of the pen in glowing tributes of patriotism and unselfish de- votion.
Young Mellen first enlisted for three months, but the organization of the Ist regiment New Hampshire volun- teers found itself encumbered with a surplus of several hundred men who were organized under Thomas P. Pierce of Manchester, as the 2d New Hampshire regiment, when Governor Berry received orders to send no more three months men. In consequence of this Colonel Pierce re- signed and Hon. Gilman Marston was commissioned col- onel. A large majority of the men, among them the hero of our sketch, re-enlisted and were mustered for three years, and immediately entered the field of duty.
On the 20th of June, 1861, the regiment marched with full ranks to Washington, D. C., led by its gallant com- mander, where it arrived about noon on the 23d of June. From this time until January, 1863, the history of Lang- don Mellen is the history of the 2d New Hampshire reg- iment. Bull Run, with its chilling disaster, was his first active experience in the bloody realities of war; and of the battle he writes : "The battle was ours until two o'clock, when the rebels were heavily reinforced. The 2d New Hampshire made the last charge ; Colonel Mars- ton, though severely wounded, led us on. Old soldiers, who fought in the Mexican war, said it was a harder bat- tle than any fought there. Ellsworth's zouaves fought like tigers. Our retreat was in good order and the loss to our regiment about fifty."
In the extreme front of the army before Yorktown, un- der Hooker, at Williamsburg, amid the miseries of Fair Oaks, the terrific battles before Richmond, at the over-
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whelming repulse of the enemy at Malvern Hill, in the second Bull Run campaign, where the regiment met and routed successive lines of the enemy with the bayonet, at the attack on Fredericksburg, under Burnside, he ever acquitted himself with unflinching bravery, and won the respect of his comrades and the confidence and esteem of his commanding officers. He had risen steadily and deservedly in the ranks to the first sergeantcy of his company. He was ever impatient at delay, and all the fault he found with military movements they were too slow, and he says: "They should at once proceed on that gigantic scale which wisdom and humanity alike dictate as the only means of bringing the conflict to a speedy termination. To let it drag along is only to prolong the suffering it inflicts upon both armies. We must grapple with the enemy with our whole force, and if we sink let us sink her with us, and in the language of a patriotic sailor on board the Cumberland, 'Thank God the flag still waves.'"
He had unbounded confidence in his regiment and in the ultimate success of the Union arms, and when an al- lusion was made to anticipated trouble with England, he said : "Let them come ! The harder the conflict the more glorious the victory." Again he says : "I am glad old Washington is doing something for the cause. I do not believe the country is lost. The old flag will yet wave from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
Would to God that he might have lived to have realized his fondest anticipations, but the Supreme Commander of all had otherwise ordered. His last battle was Freder- icksburg. Sick and exhausted, he was advised to leave the regiment, but his reply was : "I came out with the 2d New Hampshire regiment, and I mean to die with them." Sick and almost dying, he was carried to Washington, D. C., and placed in the hospital where he was tenderly cared
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for by Miss Harriet P. Dame .* But care and skill were of no avail. His disease was typhoid fever, which re- lentlessly claimed its victim. He continued to fail until he exclaimed : "Happy, happy are the sleepers who on earth shall never waken," and Jan. 19, 1863, sank into that peaceful rest from which the tumult of battle shall never wake him.
Henry L. Jones enlisted with J. L. Mellen in company G of the 2d New Hampshire volunteers. Young Jones was one of those unfortunate boys who had a place to stay, but never had a home in the true sense of the word. Exposure and harsh treatment had so preyed upon his constitution as to render him unfit for the duties upon which he entered, and after a few months of suffering he sank into a soldier's grave, and was buried with military honors by his comrades in arms, undoubtedly the kindest friends he had ever known. He died of disease at Hill- top, Maryland, Nov. 14, 1861.
As Millen and Jones were the only men who enlisted from Washington in the 2d regiment, we have given in- dividual accounts of their service rather than a detailed account of the regiment in the case of the 7th, 8th, Ioth and 14th regiments.
SEVENTH REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEERS.
The 7th regiment New Hampshire volunteers en- camped at Manchester, New Hampshire, which place it left on the morning of Jan. 14, 1862, and arrived in
* Miss Harriet P. Dame was connected with the 2d New Hampshire regiment during its whole term of service. Wherever the wounded, siek and suffering were, Miss Dame was always found, cheerfully doing her utmost for their relief. Many of the officers and enlisted men owe their lives to her faithful care. New Hampshire soldiers will ever remember her with kindly feelings and speak her name with reverence, and the members of "her own regiment" regard her as a mother or sister.
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
New York the following morning, and went into camp quarters at the White street barracks, where it remained until Feb. 13, when it embarked for Dry Tortugas, which was reached about March I, two men dying of yellow fe- ver en route. They were stationed in Fort Jefferson, Col- onel Putnam in command. Good quarters were arranged and every preparation made for the comfort of officers and men, the duty consisting of garrison and fatigue duty and drill in both infantry and heavy artillery, in which, like all New Hampshire soldiers, they made commendable prog- ress.
On the 16th of June the regiment sailed for Port Royal, where it arrived the 22d, and was ordered into camp at Beaufort, where it remained till Sept. 15, when it was or- dered to St. Augustine, Florida, for the purpose of rest and to regain the health of the men, the number of effect- ive men being reduced more than two hundred by death, disease and discharge.
May 10, 1863, they went to Fernandina, and after a stay of one month went to Hilton Head. On the Ist of June the regiment received one hundred recruits, and then numbered five hundred and thirty-three men for duty, having lost from various causes four hundred men, and had never been under fire. On the 18th of June the reg- iment left behind all superfluous baggage and sailed from Hilton Head to Folly Island, entered Stone Inlet during a heavy sea, but by the aid of scows effected a landing about midnight, marched to the north end of the island and went into camp within range of the enemy's guns. From this time until the Ioth of July the Seventh was constant- ly at work erecting the batteries, which covered the landing of troops, and filling the city of Charleston with conster- nation.
On the morning of the ioth of July the Union batteries on Folly Island opened upon the enemy's works on Mor- ris Island. The Seventh passed over in the second col-
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umn, moved to the northern part of the island, relieved the troops already there, and under cover of the darkness threw up slight earthworks. On the morning of the 11th an unsuccessful attempt was made upon Fort Wagner, and that evening the Seventh moved still nearer the work and commenced what was known as the second parallel in that memorable siege. On the 18th of July a second assault was made upon Wagner. Colonel Putnam being in com- mand of the second brigade ; the command of the regiment devolved upon Lieut. Col. Abbott. The regiment ad- vanced under a most galling fire and held its position for more than an hour, when it became obvious that the at- tempt was a failure, and they were withdrawn, although some of the officers and men had gained a position with- in the enemy's works. The loss to the regiment in this action was two hundred and twelve in killed, wounded and missing,-Colonel Putnam being among the killed. The capture of the fort by direct assault was abandoned, and the Seventh lay in the trenches and on picket and fa- tigue duty through five months of intense hot weather. On the 20th of December the regiment left Morris Island and the next day landed at St. Helena Island, opposite Hilton Head. It was with many sad memories that they recrossed the inlet, which months before they had crossed with full ranks and the buoyant hopes of victory. As they looked back, the white smoke puffed from the em- brasures of Fort Putnam, which, as battery Gregg, had hurled death and destruction into their ranks, sweeping their comrades into eternity by scores. Once more they pass the dismounted batteries and stand upon the landing where the gallant Colonel Strong, of the 48th New York, moved his boats as their brigade commander, and landed upon Morris Island, while flash and fiery arch in the sky, from the ruins of Sumter, remind them of those who had answered their last roll call.
At St. Helena the Seventh was assigned to the brigade
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of Col. J. R. Hawley. Upward of three hundred recruits had been received up to this time, and Enfield muskets had been exchanged for seven-shooter Spencer carbines, and on the 4th of February, 1864, the Seventh numbered six hundred and fifty men fit for duty.
At this date the regiment joined Seymour's expedition, and landed at Jacksonville, Florida, on the 8th of the same month. It then marched with the whole force to Sanderson, a small station fifty miles from Jacksonville. On the 12th they marched from Lake City to support a mounted regiment which had been sent in that direction, and which was being sorely pressed. After a march of about ten miles they encountered the enemy, who retired after a light skirmish, and the Seventh having accom- plished their purpose, returned to Sanderson the same night. On the 20th, Seymour's force moved again toward Lake City. After a march of fourteen miles the enemy's skirmishers were met and driven back two miles, when they were heavily reinforced near Olustre. A fierce bat- tle ensued which lasted until night, resulting in the defeat
of the Union forces. The 7th New Hampshire was in advance, and was led within six hundred feet of the ene- my's line by flank "left in front," "closed in column," and "massed." The enemy opened with a severe fire of ar- tillery and musketry ; the column faltered and were thrown into momentary confusion, from which they soon rallied and did good service. Their loss in this engage- ment was two hundred and nine killed, wounded and miss- ing. In this engagement, James Culkeene, the last of the Washington men in the regiment, was killed, and our local interest in the regiment ceases, and we will only add that the regiment soon after joined the army of the James and did good service, and was mustered out at Concord, New Hampshire, July 20, 1865, with three hundred and forty-two men and officers, less than one hundred of them being men who left the state in January, 1862.
CHAPTER XXVI.
. EIGHTH NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEERS.
O "Town History" is considered complete which does not contain the names of her citizens who have seen military service. Of such importance is this considered that the State, during recent years, has pored through its musty tomes and crumbling papers and rescued from oblivion the names of all those who fought in wars prior to the Rebellion, and has published them in permanent form.
Those who served their country served also their town, and the town history is the proper repository of the record of their heroism. The "wear of ages and gathering moss" may obliterate their names from marble and granite, but the town history, preserved in library vaults, will carry their names and deeds down the tide of time to remote ages. How necessary it becomes then to have a proper record transcribed while the actors are still alive and within reach of the historian.
I cannot give the genealogy of the men about whom I am to write, but can only pay them the tribute of record- ing their deeds and saying that I am proud to have been associated with them in the best work of their lives, in putting down the most gigantic rebellion of which history makes any mention.
The 8th New Hampshire regiment volunteer infantry was mustered into the United States service at Manches-
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ter, a portion Oct. 25, 1861, and the remainder later in the autumn. Among the men mustered at the first- named date were Mark G. Wilson, Hamilton Wilkins, Henry J. Mellen, George C. Crane, Henry N. Chapman, and John C. Philbric. Benjamin Eaton also enlisted, but in consequence of sickness was not mustered, and died at home soon after.
These men were residents of Washington and were often spoken of as the "Washington Squad." The move- ments of the regiment must be recorded in brief in order to show the service performed by each.
Fates decided that it should become a part of "Butler's expedition" against New Orleans, and it departed from the snows of New Hampshire on the 25th of January, 1862, stopping temporarily. at Fort Independence, where company A, in which Washington's men served, with three other companies, embarked on the ship "Eliza and Ella" for Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico, in February following.
The discomforts of a sea voyage of forty days began the trials to be endured for three long and weary years ; but after hardships made these appear holidays by com- parison.
Louisiana and Mississippi, in which the regiment was destined to serve, were distinctively the "black belt" of the South, the number of slaves here being in greater ratio than in any other portion, and in passing it may be well to say, that probably no men in the service saw so many negroes at the supreme moment when they caught the first glimpse of freedom as these men of the 8th New Hampshire and other regiments associated with them.
Life on Ship Island passed dolefully enough until Far- ragut assailed the forts below New Orleans, when com- pany A, with others, ascended the "Rigolets" and took possession of Forts Pike and Macomb, the enemy hastily moving out. A few weeks were spent in the latter fort,
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preparing it for defence, when a movement was made to Camp Parapet, eight miles above New Orleans, on the east bank of the river. Drilling and garrison duty was performed here until October, when the command was placed under General Weitzel, and made part of the forces employed to open up the La Fourche country, a rich sugar growing region in western Louisiana. This resulted in finding the enemy, Oct. 26, and the battle of Georgia Landing occurred on the following day.
No description of this or of other battles will be at- tempted, but the fact stated that here as in all after fights, Washington's men did the bravest of duty.
Corporal Henry J. Mellen here lost his life during a charge on the enemy's line ; he was shot through the neck and probably died instantly. He had a premonition of his fate, as his comrades well knew. I plainly remember his conversation the night before the battle, while gathering cornstalks for a bed, in a field hard by our night's bivouac. "We shall come up with the rebs to-morrow and I shall be the first man killed," he said. How near the truth did his monitor come? His prediction was not literally ful- filled, as Captain Warren was the first to fall with a bullet through the heart, but he was one of the early victims and died a brave death, unflinchingly with his face to the foe. Poor Mellen ! I can see him yet, with his sturdy form, the ideal soldier, pressing forward to the carnage that before its end was to lay low three hundred thousand sons of the brave and loyal Northland. His burial place was in front of an adjacent plantation house, near which was the "pit" into which the enemy's dead were gathered at sun-down. Prayers were said by the chaplain over the many graves, and at sunrise the next morning our hacks were turned on our martyr mounds and we were again in pursuit of the enemy.
The next and only other fatality of Washington's sons was Hamilton Wilkins, son of Colonel Judson Wilkins,
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now a venerable and honorable citizen, who himself did patriotic service in the 16th regiment, as an officer of the line, and to whom the loss of his "only boy" was a crush- ing blow.
Hamilton Wilkins, promoted corporal, dicd at Carroll- ton, Louisiana, Dec. 15, 1862. This is the brief record of a brave young life, as recorded in the report of the ad- jutant general of the state. I can add but little to the story except to testify that no braver or better soldier than he went out from our state. No duty, however irk- some or dangerous, was ever shirked by him, and he cer- tainly would have risen in rank had he not succumbed to disease. He died at the hospital at Camp Kearney, six miles above New Orleans, Dec. 15, 1862, and was buried in the camp cemetery located in a grove of live oaks near by. His remains, as probably also those of Mellen, have since been exhumed and reinterred in a national cemetery at Chalmette, eight miles below New Orleans, being the site of General Jackson's famous victory over the British, in the war of 1812.
Mark G. Wilson, George C. Crane, Henry N. Chap- man and John C. Philbric are the remaining men to be "accounted for." Each did his full duty, and bore brave and honorable parts in the many battles in which the Eighth was engaged.
Crane was mustered out Jan. 18, 1865, after four years and three months service, reflecting credit on himself and his town.
Chapman re-enlisted and was promoted to Hospital Steward, May 1, 1864, doing efficient service in the posi- tion. He was mustered out Jan. 18, 1865, becoming su- pernumerary on the consolidation of the regiment into the "veteran battalion."
Philbric served creditably until his transfer to the vet- eran reserve corps, April 22, 1864, his discharge occurring
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.
Oct. 25, of the same year, and rounding out exactly the three years of service.
Honorable veterans all. Let Washington honor them while living and revere them when dead.
Lieutenant Mark G. Wilson probably saw more varied service than any other soldier from the town. He was mustered into service Oct. 25, 1861, and served as ser- geant in company A, through all of its campaigns up to and through the seige of Port Hudson. This in itself was a record of which any man might well feel proud, but stir- ring service was still in store for him.
On the 2d of September, 1863, he was mustered out, by order of the War Department, to receive promotion, hav- ing been commissioned a first lieutenant in company H, 99th U. S. C. T., a colored regiment of engineers, belong- ing to General Banks' celebrated "Corps d'Afrique," raised by him in Louisiana to test the much mooted question, "Will the negroes fight ?" It is well, perhaps, to say here that the question was handsomely answered in the affirmative. Colonel Hanks commanded the 99th nominally, though the actual command devolved on Lieut. Col. Piersall, at this writing, mayor of Fort Scott, Kansas.
The regiment was mustered into service at New Or- leans, in the autumn of 1863, and soon moved to Brashear City, sixty miles to the northwest, where the winter was spent in drilling, preparatory to the disastrous expedition up Red river, under General Banks. The regiment was armed as infantry, but took charge of the pontoon train, and did immense service with this, besides building miles of corderoy road, and bridges without number.
The command was at the battle of Pleasant Hill, the westernmost battle of the expedition except Sabine Cross Roads. After this battle, though victorious, our army was ordered to retreat to Grand Ecore, within supporting distance of the gunboats on Red river. Then commenced the famous retreat, "fight and fall back " being the order
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day after day, until Alexandria was reached. The hard- ships of this retrograde will never be told, fighting by day and marching by night, with scant supplies of food and often of water; the sufferings taxed the fortitude of men as few campaigns ever taxed them.
Piersall's men won much distinction on this retreat, to be added to at Alexandria, where the famous "Baily dam," to rescue the fleet from their environment in Red river, was built.
The 99th was one of the active regiments in this prod- igy of engineering skill, and Lieutenant Wilson was one of the officers most relied on in this dangerous service, and acquitted himself in such a manner as to win high encomium from the commander-in-chief.
After the fleet was rescued, the retreat was continued down the river, across the Atchafalaya, to Monganzia Bend on the banks of the Mississippi, where the 99th erected a handsome fort. On completion of this work the regiment was sent to Tortugas, in the Gulf of Mexico, thence to Key West, where they joined the expedition of General Newton, destined to attack Tallahassee. Landing on the coast of the main land, the expedition proceeded toward their destination, and fought the battle of "Natural Bridge," Florida.
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