USA > New Hampshire > History of the Second Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers: its camps, marches and battles > Part 7
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carried several rods, when in answer to our words of encouragement, "Cheer up, ROGERS, we will carry you safely out of this," he uttered a faint moan, gasped, his head fell forward upon his breast, -he was dead! We laid his lifeless form upon the ground, and left it where rebel bullets were singing the patriot officer's requiem.
The rebel artillery, which had remained silent while the opposing forces were mingled together, now opened fire, and vigorously shelled the woods through which we were retreating ; but so scattered were our men that no damage was done, except to the tree tops through which the missiles screamed and crashed.
Shattered and bleeding the brigade emerged into the field where the line had formed for the charge. Here the flight ended, the men rallying around the colors of their respective regiments with shouts which showed how little daunted they were by the ordeal through which they had passed. A line was hastily formed in the open field, about two hundred yards from the edge of the woods, where the men, lying behind the shelter of a slight ridge of land, awaited the attack which GROVER, with a true soldier's intuitive foresight, knew might be expected.
The brigade in which was the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment arrived at this time, and disappeared in the woods just to the right of where we had entered. We heard a roll of musketry, lasting but a few moments, and then the scattered squads came pouring back into the field, the brigade not having been able to penetrate even so far as the railroad.
This repulse was followed up by an immediate advance on the part of the rebels, although the officers of the regiments which encountered our brigade in its furious
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charge were obliged in many cases to drive their men forward with their swords, they not relishing the rough manner in which HOOKER's men had handled them in the former encounter.
The rebel line appeared in the edge of the woods, and the fight was renewed by a well - directed volley which we delivered into their dense ranks. There was sharp work for a few minutes, but what could the bravery of our decimated brigade avail against the overwhelming numbers opposed to it? Officers and men were falling upon either hand, and we commenced to fall back toward the hill upon which our batteries were posted under the direction of HOOKER. Exultant yells arose from the rebel lines, which, however, were of short duration, for one of our batteries came tearing down the hill, went into position, and hurled round after round of deadly can- ister into the rebel ranks, which created such slaughter that they disappeared as suddenly as if the ground had opened and swallowed them into its depths.
During this affair many of our best men fell, among the bravest of whom was Lieut. NORTON R. MOORE, of Company F, who for his daring at Fair Oaks on the twenty- fifth of June had been promoted from the rank of sergeant major, and whose hand at the time of his death bore the unhealed wound he had received on that oc- casion.
The remnants of the brigade were now collected to- gether beneath a little clump of trees by the side of Bull Run Creek, and the rolls called that we might estimate the loss we had sustained. The Second Regiment went into that fight with three hundred and thirty - two men, and of these sixteen were reported killed, eighty - seven
5
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wounded, and twenty - nine missing. Of those reported missing, the greater part have never been heard from. Shot down in the dense woods through which we had charged they had fallen and died unobserved by any of their comrades; and the only record which can ever be made of their fate is, that they were "missing in action."
Twenty - one commissioned officers went into the fight with the Second, and of these ten were killed or wounded. Lieutenants ROGERS and MOORE were killed, and Captain LITTLEFIELD was mortally wounded; Lieutenant HOL- MAN received a terrible wound in the thigh, which inca- pacitated him from ever performing duty in the field; Lieutenant COOPER, shot through the right lung, was at first reported mortally wounded, but finally recovered ; and Lieutenants BALLARD, ROBERTS, STEELE, YOUNG and GORDON were all slightly wounded.
The habitual smile for once vanished from GROVER's face. MARSTON could hardly restrain the tears when he visited the hospital where so many of his men were lying mutilated and bleeding ; and HOOKER, when he saw the fate of his old brigade, murmured sadly, "Too bad! too bad! My brave men !"
That night our entire division slept just to the rear of our line of batteries, upon the identical spot where the Second Regiment had formed its first line of battle in the fight of 1861. Our batteries were exchanging shots with the rebel guns until late into the evening, when darkness closed the first day's work of the Second Bull Run Battle.
The forenoon of the thirtieth passed very quietly, but about two o'clock in the afternoon the battle was renewed, upon the ridge to the south, where McDOWELL's Corps was formed in line of battle. LEE, descending through
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the gaps in the Blue Ridge, had arrived upon the field with his entire army, and was directing his battalions against this portion of our line. A long line of forest, which we could see in the distance, screened the move- ments of his troops from our observation, while the whole extent and formation of McDOWELL's line could be easily observed from elevated points within his lines. A few shells from a rebel battery, which suddenly appeared in the edge of these woods, created an immense commotion among McDOWELL's men, and they streamed to the rear in numbers which suggested to our minds either that there must have been an extraordinary proportion of camp fol- lowers, cooks, waiters and other non-combatants, or that those whose business it was to do the fighting were deserting their posts upon the approach of danger. McDOWELL, ever unfortunate, did not possess the confi- dence of his men, and hundreds and thousands deserted their posts without a show of fighting, most of them only too glad to excuse their shameful cowardice by declaring that it was of no use to fight where McDOWELL led, for the day was sure to go against them. So much the more credit to those who stood and maintained the battle bravely, even though they may not have had the fullest confidence in the abilities of their general.
By four o'clock the engagement had extended along the whole line, and the thunder of battle shook the earth. HOOKER's division watched the progress of the conflict with intense interest. Regiment after regiment marched up the slope to reinforce the battling line, with ranks splendidly formed, bayonets glistening in the sun, and banners floating proudly on the summer air. The Old Flag was gallantly sustained, and at times our hopes were
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bright that the results of the battle might be a brilliant victory. Officers mentioned the names of PORTER, SUM- NER and FRANKLIN, and spoke of the thousands of men they would shortly bring into the fight; but most of these troops were nearer Washington than the battle field, and PORTER, upon whom more depended than upon almost any other man, was committing that unpardonable crime which his friends can neither excuse nor palliate.
Suddenly the orders rang out for our division to " fall in," for the rebels were advancing upon our immediate front from a point near the village of Groveton. Our batteries rapidly replied to a rebel battery which opened upon them, and the division hastened forward to repel the threatened attack, which proved to have been only a feint, as the rebel force quickly disappeared back into the woods from which it had emerged.
This affair was hardly over before an aide of Gen. HOOKER dashed up with orders for the entire division to report upon "the other hill" immediately. Batteries were limbered up in a hurry, and we moved rapidly in the direction indicated.
In the movements of the troops we could now read the sad fact that the day was against us, -that POPE, de- serted by those upon whom he had too implicitly relied, was withdrawing his forces rapidly from the unequal fight. Moving from one point to another the brigade formed several lines of battle, and, as a curious coincidence, it may be mentioned that the last line formed by the Sec- ond Regiment in this fight was upon the identical spot where in the first battle of Bull Run it had paid its fare- well compliments to the enemy, in the deep - gullied road where Companies B and I had maintained themselves
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until forced from their position by JOHNSTON's arrival upon the field.
That night the army fell back to Centreville. We forded Bull Run Creek where the water was waist deep, and traveled rapidly in this second retreat from the ill - fated battle ground; but although the road was crowded with troops, with wagons and batteries of artillery, all pressing forward as fast as possible, there was but little. confusion, and not a sign of the panic which had ani- mated the former retreat.
The army occupied the old rebel works upon Centre- ville Heights and invited an attack, which the rebels were wise enough to decline. But on the first day of October they attempted to get possession of the road between Centreville and Fairfax Court House, and the divisions of HOOKER, KEARNEY and STEVENS were sent to the threat- ened point. The battle of Chantilly ensued, and the rebels were driven back, but not until two of the division generals had been killed, STEVENS and KEARNEY. But few men could have been more sincerely mourned by our division than was the latter of these. Brave and chiv- alric, his soul a brand of patriotic fire, no brighter model of northern chivalry can be named than one - armed PHIL. KEARNEY. Commanding the twin division of HEINTZEL- MAN's Corps, his name and HOOKER's had been indis- solubly bound together in the history of many a hard - fought battle, and his form was familiar to the men of our division, as with his reins in his teeth and his lone arm swinging his sword in air, he led his men into battle. Farthest from the scene of action when HOOKER opened the ball at Williamsburg, and yet the first to come to his assistance, the same spirit which actuated him then cost
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him his life at Chantilly. It is reported that STEVENS, when he became aware of the numbers opposed to him, sent to other generals for assistance. His appeal was put off successively by one general after another, until it came to KEARNEY, but there it met a hearty response. "Yes," exclaimed the general; "I wont refuse to stand by STEVENS." And not an hour had passed before he lay dead within the rebel lines. The next morning his body was sent into our lines, to be mourned over by the brave men of his division, by the army, and by the entire loyal North.
This battle was fought in the midst of a cold drizzling rain, which soaked to the skin and rendered our condition as uncomfortable as could well be imagined. The brigade was in a position covering the road over which our trains were crowding towards Washington, and with pickets thrown out into the woods upon our front, we stood in line, cold and shivering, while the battle was being fought upon the right. Numbers of the wounded passed us on their way to Centreville to find hospitals, and also many demoralized skulkers, who could tell much more about the fight than those who had been "facing the music" of the rebel bullets. A mounted officer, a lieutenant, claiming to have been the adjutant of one of the regiments en- gaged, furnished an immense fund of amusement for our boys to enliven their cheerless position. His regiment had been " all cut to pieces," and hardly a man had es- caped to tell the tale, - so he informed us, -and while he made great efforts to appear wholly unconcerned, the men quickly realized the true state of his mind, and went to work to harrow up his already over - tasked feelings. He made particular inquiries as to the roads in the vi-
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cinity, where they led to, whether there were any rebels on them, and so on, and the men were very communica- tive, in fact much more so than usual on these points. The poor fellow's eyes distended wider and wider with fear as the appalling dangers of the situation were nar- rated to him, and, to tell the truth, had half the stories he swallowed so readily been true, no earthly power could have saved us from annihilation.
The fighting was kept up long after the darkness of night had come, but when the firing had ceased and the rebels, thwarted and beaten, had retired from the field, we were withdrawn from the position we had held, and marched to a point near the scene of the battle, where was spent a cheerless and uncomfortable night, one - third of the men remaining under arms,.while the remainder sought rest and sleep, although exposed to a pelting rain.
Two days later, on the afternoon of the third, the di- vision arrived at Alexandria, where for a time it formed a portion of Gen. BANKS' Corps, occupying Washington and its defences, while the army was engaged in the cam- paign which at the great battle of Antietam, so gloriously turned back the tide of rebel invasion from northern soil.
CHAPTER XII.
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FROM ALEXANDRIA TO FALMOUTH.
EN. HOOKER having been appointed to the command of McDOWELL's old corps, the command of our division devolved upon Gen. SICKLES; but though our new commander was de- servedly popular with his men, yet the division still proudly bore the name of "HOOKER's Division," al- lowing no other name to usurp the place of his who, taking it in its in- fancy, had trained and reared it in the art of war, and led it forth a giant in strength to glo- rious victory. At the same time the brigade lost its gen- eral, GROVER, he being appointed to a more important command in another department.
Our duty was by no means light while we remained in Alexandria. After camping for a few days near Fort Lyon, we removed to Fairfax Seminary, and then com- menced an almost uninterrupted round of duty. With
ALEXANDRIA' TO FALMOUTHI. 113
our small number of men we were obliged to maintain a very long picket line, about two miles out from camp, and large details were made daily from the division to dig upon the forts and other works in the vicinity. So we were not sorry when, on the first day of November, the division broke camp and took up its line of march in the direction of Manassas, which place we occupied on the third, while SIGEL's Corps was pushed forward to take possession of the important passes in the Blue Ridge. Our duty now consisted of guarding the line of the rail- road to Alexandria, and for this purpose the division was scattered in detachments at the most important points. The Second Regiment, with a battery, was sent to occupy the heights of Centreville. A section of artillery was placed in each of three redoubts, which, forming the points of a triangle of works, supported each other, and commanded the country about, and upon the area inclosed by this great triangle the regiment was encamped.
The log barracks built and formerly occupied by the rebels, were still standing, and from the doors, shelves, tables and other articles containing boards we soon erected comfortable quarters-little huts, warm and dry, accommodating from one to a half dozen persons, with fireplaces of stone or brick, and with wood enough close at hand to have supplied the whole army, in the old bar- racks of the enemy.
On the seventh came the first snow - storm of the sea- son, and the sentinels who from the three redoubts sur- veyed the country beneath, its hills and valleys and roads and fields, to detect the first sign of any hostile approach, were by no means to be envied in their exposed position. At night the men in camp kept close within their snug 5₭
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shanties, listened to the dismal howling of the wind out- side, and basked in the genial warmth of the fires which blazed in their rude fireplaces, and above all thanked their lucky stars that they were not detailed for guard that night.
We furnished a provost guard for the village of Centre- ville, and occasionally an escort for a wagon train going to MCCLELLAN or SIGEL, and all in all, our duties, though well performed, were light, and the time passed very pleasantly. Many of the men visited the battle field of Bull Run, either to gratify their curiosity or to identify the remains of comrades who had fallen in the two bat- tles. A few bodies were identified, among which was that of Orderly Sergeant FRANK O. ROBINSON, which was first recognized by the teeth, and then, after a re- moval of dirt from the breast, by his name marked upon the shirt. The sword scabbard of Licut. NORTON R. MOORE was also found near the spot where he fell.
We remained at Centreville until the eighteenth, when we marched to join the main army at Falmouth, then under command of Gen. BURNSIDE, who had superseded Gen. MCCLELLAN. One of SIGEL's regiments was to garrison the heights and occupy the little huts we had erected, which arrangement was not to the liking of some of our men, who declared that if they had been contin- ually engaged in digging trenches for other troops to fight behind, they were not willing also to build barracks for them to live in. This was, of course, a foolish spirit, but when we consider that some of the men had but just completed their houses after a great deal of labor, it will be seen that it was also a very natural one. So many of these cross - grained fellows applied the torch to the dry
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boards of which the huts were composed, and we left Centreville amidst clouds of smoke, and followed by the curses of a half dozen Dutch officers, who were running around briskly among the burning buildings and pouring forth in broken English their maledictions upon the "tam rascals who had purned up their men's shanties."
During the first halt after leaving Centreville, one of those laughable incidents occurred which furnish such a fund of amusement to 'enliven the dull passages of sol- dier life. Newspapers had been a rarity in our regiment for some time, and we were almost entirely in the dark as to the movements of the outside world. One of the men, espying a piece of newspaper near where he was resting, picked it up and glanced at it. "Halloo!" he exclaimed, " if here aren't a paper with the latest news from the seat of war. Let me see-dated the thirteenth; well, that's not very old, is it!" and while the men clustered around he began to read an article which from the liberal display of headings promised to be of unusual importance. "SHERMAN'S EXPEDITION," was the opening, and the sage remark passed around the circle without dissent, that " they knew BURNSIDE would get up some kind of an expedition as soon as they heard he had command of the army." The "sub-headings" were gone through with, and the man was busy reading the dispatches, when one of the listeners remarked that it sounded most amaz- ingly like something he had read before. " What did you say the date of that paper was?" inquired another, over whose face a broad grin was beginning to creep. "The thirteenth -November thirteenth!" "Yes-but the year?" "The year !- why this year of course-here it is-18- what! hang me if it aren't 1861; and here
.
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I've been reading all about 'SHERMAN's expedition' to Port Royal just one year ago." "Fall in!" shouted the colonel at this moment; and the column was formed amid shouts of laughter and loud calls for the latest news from "SHERMAN's expedition."
The second day's march brought the division to Wolf Run Shoals, a ford upon Occoquan Creek, not far from where it empties into the Potomac. This place, present- ing the greatest natural advantages as a.defensive position had been occupied and fortified by the rebels the winter previous. The ereck here rushed down through the rocky gorges and clefts of the precipitous hills, which upon either side were covered with dense forests, forming as wild a scene as could well be imagined, and it was well · deserving of its name, " Wolf Run." Upon the hill com- manding the ford from the south the rebels had erceted two rough redoubts, and between these and the creek a line of rifle pits extended through an abatis of slashed timber. So precipitous were the hills that in many places their ascent was next to impossible, and at night the men of our brigade, eamped below the redoubts, beheld the eamp- fires of the remainder of the division, upon the hill, as if they had been huge torches suspended in mid air almost directly overhead.
We remained at Wolf Run Shoals four days, when we continued our march on through Dumfries, which was directly opposite our camp at Budd's Ferry, the preceding winter, and had then been the goal of our desires, and on the twenty - eighth we joined the army at Falmouth.
CHAPTER XIII.
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THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
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KOR a fortnight we lay inactive in our camp about two miles below Falmouth, although daily expecting a movement, as it was not thought BURNSIDE would put his army into winter quarters, even if the delay in the arrival of his pontoons had enabled the enemy to possess the heights of Fredericksburg, which he had contem- plated occupying when his rapid move- ment was made from Warrenton.
From the steep bluffs upon the Fal- mouth side of the river we could look down upon the city of Fredericksburg, and with a glass could even read the names upon the signs in the business streets. Groups of sight - seers collected daily upon these commanding posi- tions and watched the rebels moving about the town or across the fields which afterwards became so memorable as the scene of SUMNER's furious assault.
Under Gen. BURNSIDE the army was organized into
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three Grand Divisions, SUMNER commanding the right, HOOKER the centre, and FRANKLIN the left. Our corps, commanded by. Gen. STONEMAN, and consisting of the two divisions of HEINTZELMAN's old corps, with the ad- dition of a new division under Gen. WHIPPLE, was attached to the Centre Grand Division.
On the eleventh of December, 1862, commenced the battle of Fredericksburg. At early dawn we were up, and with everything packed in readiness for a movement, when the roar of guns in the direction of Fredericksburg greeted our cars, the sounds reverberating along the Falmouth bluffs in a thousand echoes at every discharge. We moved to within about a mile of the river, there to await our turn at crossing as soon as the pontoon bridges should have been laid. The incidents of the day are well known. The engineer corps made repeated attempts to lay the pontoons but were repeatedly driven from their work by the rebel sharpshooters upon the opposite bank. A furious cannonade was opened upon the rebels from a hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, from which the city was set on fire in many places, and the rebel riflemen forced to keep under cover until the fire slackened and the engineers again resumed their work, when they would emerge from their hiding places and drive the pontoniers from their labors. This was repeated again and again, until a forlorn hope of brave men, seized with a sudden inspiration, leaped into the pontoon boats, pushed across the river, and charging up the steep bank drove the rebel riflemen from their position. The bridges were soon completed, and troops enough pushed across to maintain the foothold so much time had been wasted to gain.
The next day was a busy one. Our army pressed
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across the river in long columns, SUMNER crossing upon the right near the city, and FRANKLIN some two miles farther down the river, while HOOKER's Grand Division was held in reserve upon the Falmouth side. Our di- vision was for a time massed upon the bluffs directly opposite the town, from which point all the movements of SUMNER'S Division could be distinctly observed, while at the same time we were in full view of the rebels upon the opposite heights. Their artillery shelled the pontoons upon which SUMNER was crossing, and occasionally one of their shots would strike near where we lay, but we were at too great a distance for them to shell us with any effect from their field-pieces.
In the afternoon we were marched toward the lower pontoons, which we crossed during the night, after having waded through the oceans of mud to reach them.
On Thursday, the thirteenth, the grand attack was made to carry the heights. The Second was left to guard the bridges, and thus while doing our duty, we had a chance to watch the progress of the fight without sharing its dangers. From the river's bank we could plainly see the forces engaged upon the left, but upon the right we could only see the crest from which the rebel batteries were pouring death into the ranks of SUMNER's brave division, the movements of our troops being hidden from view by the trees upon the plain and by the shattered buildings of Fredericksburg. But from the incessant vol- leys of musketry, and from the lively way in which the rebel guns were working, we knew that a desperate effort was being made to carry the heights. Rebel signal flags waved at various points along the ridge, and some of our heavy guns, planted upon the Falmouth heights, threw
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