History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion, Part 12

Author: Bartlett, Asa W., 1839-
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Concord, N.H. : I. C. Evans
Number of Pages: 878


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From about 8 o'clock until near midnight the regiment stood in line, under a drizzling rain, ready to march, with strict orders for no man to leave the ranks. This delay was because of the swollen condition of the river, making it almost impossible for the pontonniers to keep the bridge from being swept away. But bridge or no bridge to retreat over, sleep the men must have, for they were falling asleep and into the mud at the same time. The men were therefore allowed to lie down, in place, and sleep in the bed of mud and water until between one and two in the morning, when they were aroused from their water-soaked and mud-stuck rubber blankets, and started at last for the crossing. It was all daylight before the regiment recrossed the river, on the safe side of which were found some of its officers and men pleading sickness or slight wounds as an ex- cuse for not being in the fight at all or leaving the regiment and field before their comrades who stuck by the colors, and whom they now seemed very glad to see and join on their homeward march back to camp. field hospital had been established here which the rebels a day or two before had shelled. A squad of rebel prisoners near by complained for being exposed to the fire of their own guns. "I reckon youans can stand it if weuns can" was the mimicking response of one of the wounded lying helpless on the ground.


It was a long, hard march, through mud beneath and rain above, from United States Ford back to the old camping-ground at Falmouth.


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Not even the glad thought that they were still alive. and marching toward safety and rest in their old quarters, was enough to sustain many of those who had not half recovered from the shock and strain of battle, and they were obliged to fall out all along the march, some within sight of their own company grounds. their wearied limbs being unable to sus- tain them further without rest.


It was late in the afternoon before the wet and wearied few who were strong enough to keep along with the colors, ended their slow and toil- some march; and sad and solemn indeed was the scene of their late happy encampment, now silent. tentless, and disconsolate.


As the shades of evening gathered around, and no sound of fife or bugle reached the ear, it seemed like the silent, solemn gloom of the grave.


But the men were too tired even for serious reflections, and as soon as their shelter-tents could be spread as a roof over their water-soaked quarters, they lay down in their wet blankets to steam and dream away their first full night's rest since the last they spent there.


For the following two days the usual routine of camp duties were en- tirely suspended, and rest alone was all that was required of officers or men.


But what a solemn, death-like silence reigned. The camp seemed like a graveyard, and every tenantless and dismantled quarter, with its walls and chimney standing as left. like a tombstone.


Who that was there ever did or ever will forget the first roll-call in that camp after its reoccupancy ?


With tearful eyes and choked utterances the living present respond as their names are called, for the occasion too sadly reminds them of the brave and loved comrades and tent-mates among the absent wounded and the dead. And when at the close of the same day the drum-corps, for the first time after its return. played the " retreat"; it sounded like a funeral dirge.


The following memoranda are copied from the author's diary :


May 7. 1863. - Rained last night, cloudy and sombre like to-day. Tremen- dous cold storm ; everything drenched and covered with water and mud. It is sad and gloomy, like a funeral, as indeed to us it is, of many brave and cherished comrades. The many vacant quarters in the company lines tell but too plainly of the terrible havoc of war.


May S. 1863. - Rain again in the night, and another dull and cloudy day. It seems as if the heavens weep by night and put on the veil of mourning by day in sorrow for the fallen heroes; who but yesterday were here, but to-day sleep beneath the blood-soaked sod where they fell.


On Saturday news came that Chaplain Ambrose was killed near the Chancellor House, where he had been last seen. assisting the wounded off the field.


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The next day the chaplain of Berdan's Sharpshooters kindly volun- teered to preach a sermon of sympathy and consolation to the sorrow- stricken remnant of the once large and happy family of the Twelfth ; and the skeleton squads, marching out of the company grounds to form a regimental line, for the first time since the retreat from Chancellorsville, was a sight too sad for eyes undimmed with tears.


The day following, the whole division was called out to listen to the announcement of General Jackson's death.


On the 15th the camp was joyfully surprised by the arrival of Colonel Potter and Chaplain Ambrose from the battle-field ; the former a paroled prisoner and badly wounded, on his way to Washington, and the latter safe and sound, though believed to be dead, to continue his work of mercy and kindness in hospital and camp.


The loss of the colonel to the regiment was deeply felt, but the loss of the chaplain would have been much more lamented.


" It seemed good to hear his voice again " wrote one of his little flock after listening to his first sermon to them after returning to camp.


From the 18th to the 24th the men were busy tearing down and clear- ing away the old quarters, mostly unoccupied since the battle, and erect- ing new and smaller ones, to accommodate the few left for duty.


About this time a petition to Governor Berry was circulated and signed by most all of the officers and men, asking that the regiment be sent home to recruit.


This, as understood, was favorably received, and but for the early move of the army in the chase after General Lee toward Washington, efforts would have been made through the War Department for that purpose.


A letter was received from Governor Berry stating that he would try and get permission for the regiment to go home and recruit, or a place for it in some fort. There was some fear that the regiment would be broken up and the men put into other organizations. This, as the reader will remember, would have been a violation of the original compact, and the venerable and patriotic Samuel Berry, of Barnstead, N. H., wrote a let- ter to the Governor, earnestly remonstrating against such a course and eloquently pleading that its record, though brief, was too glorious to end until the war ended.


May 27th, there were only one hundred and twenty-seven men for duty. Three days later the whole regiment - one hundred and twenty-six men and five officers - went out on picket for the same length of time. It was fine weather and some of the younger ones amused themselves, when not on duty, in building miniature dams across a creek, and erecting rude mill structures thereon with improvised gates, water-wheels, etc.


Colonel Berdan, noticing the playwork while riding by, stopped and curiously inspected the same, and then remarked, "None but New England boys could do that," and expressed the hope that he should see them building real mills on a larger scale some day. Though a matter


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of little or no importance, it is alluded to here because it illustrates how little things are noticed by great men, and especially if they happen to tangent upon or come within the circle of their own genius.


Colonel Berdan was a New England boy himself and had passed some of the happiest of his youthful days in constructing water-wheels of different kinds and sizes and seeing them revolve in the little brook that ran close by his father's house. It was the first indication of that inventive and creative power that afterward produced the Berdan rifle, which was adopted by the Government, and many other useful inventions that gave him a national reputation. In the battle of Chancellorsville he com- manded the Third Brigade of Whipple's division. This brigade was composed of the First and Second United States Sharpshooters, and were armed with Sharpe's breech-loading rifles. The men wore a dark green uniform, as least likely to betray their presence and position to the enemy when lying in the grass or skirmishing through the woods. Selected, as they were, from among the best shots in the army, and armed with the best small arm then in general use in the service, with a chaplain who sometimes went with them to the front, carrying a telescope rifle with which he could dismount a general field officer a mile or more away, it is no wonder that they were greatly feared by the rebels who called them " Green Coated Devils," or "Snakes in the Grass."


They were chiefly employed as skirmishers and flankers, for which places they were especially fitted, but sometimes, as in Chancellorsville, presented themselves in solid line of battle. It is hazarding but little to say that no body of troops of twice their number did more effective service.


June came in with a hurricane wind that filled the tents with dust and sand and blew over many of the chimneys. The tent ropes of the offi- cers' quarters had to be tightened by driving the stakes more securely into the ground, and extra efforts were necessary to keep the regimental hospital tent from blowing down.


It had been warm and dry for some time, with a few days exceedingly hot for May, and the dust, which had been getting daily more and more unpleasant and annoying, filling the air at every movement and slight breeze, was now up and out in full force, as if on a holiday march, and sweeping down the parade-ground in solid, cloud-like battalions at every recurring gust. Of course such violent exercise of the aerial element soon produced perspiration, and the next day it rained.


The regiment was called into line at the first dawn of light on the morning of the 4th, and stood to arms ready to march at a moment's notice for two hours or more. This was because of a reported movement of the rebel cavalry.


June 5th, heavy firing was heard in the afternoon in the direction of Fredericksburg, and it was soon correctly reported in camp that a part of our forces had again crossed the river at or near that place.


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It was now quite evident to General Hooker that the Confederate army was on the move, and this reconnaissance across the river was to ascertain if anything more than a strong picket show had been left at Fredericks- burg. Finding the enemy still there in force, General Hooker, though satisfied that a part of Lee's army had been withdrawn, decided to wait and watch until he could get more definite information of his movements. Ile soon became convinced that the army of Northern Virginia with Lee at its head was moving rapidly northward. It could mean but one thing, and that, another bold raid into the North.


The next day occasional firing was heard at or near Fredericksburg, and the sick in camp were removed to the division hospital. It was use- less to dispute, for indications and reports all pointed toward that conclu- sion, that another campaign was about to open and that there was more hard marching and fighting soon to come for the Army of the Potomac.


LETTER FROM COLONEL HALI ..


The following is from a letter written March 21, 1892, by Col. Daniel Hall, late Department Commander of New Hampshire, G. A. R., who was captain on General Whipple's staff at the battle of Chancellorsville :


1 well remember the Twelfth Regiment and when it was posted in the edge of the woods below the Chancellor Ilouse. It got separated, by some chance, pretty essentially from the rest of the division. I rather think its separation was brought about by its fighting better and more doggedly maintaining its position. Part of the division was on the right and part on the left of the plank road, and not closely connected. The Pennsylvania regiments (very small ones) brigaded with the Twelfth were not ranged with it on the line of battle, but, as I now remember, were posted in reserve or to guard its flanks and were dispersed or driven back before the Twelfth was .*


General Whipple and his staff were attending rather more to the rest of the division, because, as 1 remember perfectly well, he had full confidence in the Twelfth and its commander, Colonel Potter, and believed it would hold its ground as long as possible.


After our line was broken almost everywhere and the army was practically driven from its position, and a retreat or rout was imminent, this regiment was still maintaining itself and had not given up its ground. Then, when about the whole line had retreated toward the Chancellor House, the situation of the Twelfth began to be a matter of inquiry, and steps were taken by General Whip- ple to save whatever might be left of it. I cannot say that I carried any order to the regiment, for it was fighting alone and not under the orders of any imme- diate superior - Colonel Bowman, commanding the brigade, had lost connection with it - but I remember finding the remnant left of it after it had got back as far as the Chancellor House, and of taking it off' the field. My impression is that I was then acting under orders of General Whipple to find and save the regiment, if I could, and get it to the rear where we were trying to gather up the fragments of the division.


* See Colonel Bowman's report.


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This was toward or about noon. At 2 o'clock, or thereabouts, the whole army fell back into a new line of intrenchments toward the river.


Of the remarkable gallantry and stubbornness of the New Hampshire Twelfth that day there is no question. It was matter of common talk among us, and General Whipple was proud of the conduct of the regiment; and after he was wounded the next morning by a rebel sharpshooter, and knew that his wound was mortal, he spoke in warmest terms of praise of the regiment and of Colonel Potter, wishing that he might live long enough to do him and his brave men justice.


Though not a field officer was left, and scarcely a line officer, and nearly three fifths of its entire number were killed or wounded, the regiment came up the slope to the Chancellor House in fair order amid the fire and shouts of the exultant rebels swarming out of the woods but just behind them.


Colonel Bowman really gave no direction to the Twelfth that day, after the first formation in the early morning, and it was not under his eye at any time after, during the battle. I also remember what a magnificently large regiment of stal- wart men it was when it first came to the front, and what a splendid body of men - nearly six hundred - that went into the fight, and came out with less than two hundred effectives left. * I wish I might help by my testimony to * do that justice to the gallant Twelfth New Hampshire which my lamented friend, General Whipple, did not live to do.


The foregoing letter, though written nearly thirty years after the battle, and almost wholly from memory, is remarkable for its correct outline of the situation and its general accuracy. In the absence of any official report of the important part taken by the regiment in that battle, except so far as incidentally referred to, it supplies a great want, and is espe- cially valuable to the author of this history to confirm many statements of his concerning the Twelfth at Chancellorsville, that otherwise might be considered as written with more regard for the credit and good name of the regiment than for the simple truth.


Indeed, so nearly do these statements and the letter agree, in several essential particulars, that one might think that the same person had written both, or that one had been written to correspond with the other : although the fact is, that the author of each wrote in entire ignorance of what the other was going to write or had written.


With the exception of the correction of one date, and a slight change in one or two minor particulars, the letter, as originally written at the solici- tation of the author, and as here published with his sincere thanks to Colonel Hall, in behalf of every surviving member of the regiment, is the same.


OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE BATTLE.


The following extracts from the official reports of the corps and brigade commanders, together with a brief extract from the report of the assistant adjutant-general of the division, will be found useful, as well as interest- ing, in assisting the reader to a better understanding of what has already been written in this and the preceding chapter.


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It is extremely to be regretted that no official report, further than found in the following extracts, was ever made of the heroic part the Twelfth bore in the battle of Chancellorsville.


General Whipple, who knew better than any other general officer of the difficult and almost impossible task that stern necessity imposed upon it, when, in want of any other troops present, he was obliged to order it in to do the part and hold the ground of a whole brigade, did not live long enough, though it was his dying wish that he might, "to do justice to Colonel Potter and his brave men."


Colonel Bowman, commanding the brigade, knew little or nothing of what the regiment did, or even of its position after he left it at the brook in the early morning, and therefore could make no satisfactory report of it. Colonel Potter was severely wounded and sent to Washington ; but for his not making a report and giving his brave men the credit that belonged to them, after he had sufficiently recovered from his wound to do so, there seems to have been no excuse and the wrongful neglect can neither be explained nor justified.


General Sickles in his report, after giving the movements of his corps from the time of its breaking camp at Falmouth to the forenoon of Satur- day at Chancellorsville, says :


My attention was now withdrawn from Chancellorsville, where Berry and Whipple remained in reserve, by several reports in quick succession from Gen- eral Birney, that a column of the enemy was moving along his front toward our right. This column I found, on going to the spot, to be within easy range of Clarke's battery (about 1,600 yards), and Clarke so effectually annoyed the enemy by his excellent practice that the infantry sought cover in the woods or some other road more to the south, while the artillery and trains hurried past in great confusion, endeavoring to escape our well directed and destructive fire.


This continuous column - infantry, artillery trains, and ambulances - was observed for three hours, moving apparently in a southerly direction toward Orange Court House on the Orange and Alexandria railroad, or Louisa Court House on the Virginia Central. The movement indicated a retreat on Gordons- ville or an attack on our right flank, perhaps both; for if the attack failed the retreat could be continued. The unbroken mass of forest on our right favored the concealment of the enemy's real design. * * *


At noon I received orders to advance cautiously toward the road followed by the enemy, and harass the movement as much as possible. * *


I then directed Whipple to come up within supporting distance. Reaching the iron foundry, about a mile from his first position, Birney's advance was checked by a twelve-pounder battery of the enemy, which, at short range, from Welford's house near the road, poured in a destructive fire. * *


The considerable intervale on the left between Birney's and Williams's divisions of Slocum's corps yet remaining unoccupied, I was compelled to draw largely from my reserves (Whipple) to enable me to connect on the left with Slocum.


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Referring to the attack of Jackson, he continues :


Returning to the front, I found every indication that looked to a complete success as soon as my advance could be supported. * * *


Regarding the movement opportune for the advance of General Pleasanton with his cavalry and horse battery, I was about to dispatch a staff officer to bring him forward, when it was reported to me that the Eleventh Corps had yielded the right wing of the army to the enemy, who was advancing rapidly, and, indeed, was already in my rear.


I confess I did not credit this statement until an aide-de-camp of General War- ren of General Hooker's staff confirmed the report, and asked for a regiment of cavalry to check the movement. The Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry was imme- diately sent by General Pleasanton, and brilliantly was the service performed, although with fearful loss. I had only time to dispatch staff officers to recall Birney and Whipple, when the enemy's scouts and some dragoons disclosed themselves as I rode toward the bridge across Scott's Run for the purpose of making dispositions to meet and arrest this disaster. Meeting General Pleasan- ton, we hastened to make the best available disposition to attack Jackson's columns on their right flank. I confided to General Pleasanton the direction of the artillery - three batteries of my reserve, Clarke's, Lewis's, and Turnbull's, and his one-horse battery.


The only supports at hand comprised two small regiments of cavalry - Sixth New York and Seventeenth Pennsylvania -and one regiment of infantry - One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania-of Whipple's division .*


Time was everything. The fugitives of the Eleventh Corps swarmed from the woods and swept frantically over the cleared fields in which my artillery was parked. The exulting enemy at their heels mingled yells and volleys, and in the confusion which followed it seemed as if cannon, caissons, dragoons, cannoneers, and infantry could never be disentangled from the mass in which they were sud- denly thrown. Fortunately there was only one obvious outlet for these panic- stricken hordes, after rushing between and over our guns, and this was through a ravine crossed in one or two places by Scott's Run. This was made impassable by the reckless crowd choking up the way.


A few moments was enough to restore comparative order and get our artillery in position. The enemy showing himself on the plain, Pleasanton met the shock at short range with the well directed fire of twenty-two pieces, double shotted with canister. The rebels pressed by the plank road rapidly, and as General Pleasanton justly observes in his report -


" They advanced in silence and with that skill and adroitness they often display to gain their object. The only color visible was an American flag with the centre battalion. To clear up this doubt my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Thomp- son, First New York Cavalry, rode to within one hundred yards of them, when they called out to him, 'We are friends; come on!' and he was induced to go fifty yards closer, when the whole line in a most dastardly manner opened on him with musketry, dropped the American colors, and displayed eight or ten rebel battle flags."


Lieutenant Thompson escaped unhurt, and our batteries opened on the advanc- ing columns with crushing power. The heads of columns were swept away to the


* See mention of in preceding chapter.


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woods, from which opened a furious but ineffectual fire of musketry. Twice they attempted a flank movement; but the first was checked by our guns, and the second and most formidable was baffled by the advance of Whipple and Birney, who were coming up rapidly but in perfect order. and forming in lines of brigades in rear of the artillery and on the flanks.


My position was now secure in the adequate infantry support which had arrived, and the loud cheers of our men, as twilight closed the combat, vainly challenged the enemy to renew the encounter.


Of the midnight attack made by his forces he says :


It is difficult to do justice to the brilliant execution of this movement by Birney and his splendid command. Wood's brigade formed the first line, Haymen's second, about one hundred yards in the rear, pieces all uncapped, and strict orders not to fire a gun until the plank road and earthworks were reached; the movement to be by the right of companies. On the left a wide road led through the woods perpendicular to the plank road on which the Fortieth New York, Seventeenth Maine, and Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers were pushed forward by column of companies at full distance.


The night was very clear and still; the moon, nearly full, threw enough light into the woods to facilitate the advance, and against a terrific fire of musketry and artillery- some twenty pieces of which the enemy had massed in the opening, where General Howard's headquarters had been established-the advance was successfully executed, the line of the plank road gained, and our breastworks reoccupied. * * *


All our guns and caissons, and a portion of Whipple's mule train were recovered, besides two pieces of the enemy's artillery and three caissons captured.


As the following, in reference to the next day's fight, will be instructively interesting to most of the readers of this book, and of special interest to all the survivors of the Twelfth, particularly to those of them who fought there, it will be given in full :




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