USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 24
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* rear. * * Only one gun was saved.
[This was the gun that was hauled to the rear by the men of the Twelfth. ]
Col. R. H. Keeble, commanding the Seventeenth and Twenty-third Tennessee regiments, in his report to Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson, brigade commander, refers to the capturing of the guns on the turnpike, just to the left of the Twelfth, and the telegraph wire, as follows :
When the battle on the 16th commenced, my orders from General Johnson were to move down the turnpike by the left flank until I reached the outer line of fortifications, when I would halt. front, and move forward in connection with General Ransom's division. Long before I reached the outer line of intrench- ments I discovered that the enemy were still occupying our works with a battery of seven pieces (Parrott guns) planted in the centre of the turnpike, a little beyond the fortifications.
We, however, continued to move forward under a perfect shower of grape. canister, and minie-balls, which swept up the turnpike. Reaching the trenches. a line was immediately formed, confronting the enemy, and here commenced and raged for two hours, or two and a half, one of the most desperate actions in which I have ever been engaged. The enemy were in strong force under our trenches, and his battery, above alluded to, played upon us most furiously.
He here claims for his men the chief credit for " silencing and captur- ing their (our) battery of seven pieces, one of which was brought to the rear by a detail from my own regiment."
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While it is evident that his claims are somewhat too extravagant to be readily granted, as shown by his count of the guns captured and his own reference to a counter claim of * some other brigade that passed over the ground" ( ?). still it is probable, from time and incidents referred to. that his command of Tennesseeans - than whom no better marksman could have been found in the whole rebel army upon the field -did more, by picking off the gunners with their brave and persistent close-ground skir- mishers, toward capturing the battery referred to, than Hoke's whole division of four brigades, one regiment. and three batteries. had or could have done by charging upon our supporting lines.
Colonel Keeble, continuing his report. says :
The enemy, to impede our progress and advance upon them, had obstructed the road with telegraph wire in order to trip up the men. The trick (emphati- cally a Yankee one) was, however, soon discovered and surmounted. While the fire was thickest and hottest, some stragglers from another command. who had sought refuge in a ditch at our rear. raised a shirt in lieu of a white flag. This gave the enemy great encouragement, but on being discovered by the men of my regiment, every one called out : " Tear it down ; tear it down !"
Lieutenant Waggoner, of my regiment. immediately rushed to the recreant and pulled it down, being wounded in the attempt.
It will be noticed that he refers to his command as a " regiment," in- stead of a battalion, and speaks of " obstructing the road " with the wire, thinking, evidently, when he wrote, that the wire had only been stretched in front of the batteries to protect them from being captured by a charge.
The signal of surrender that he refers to explains, if he is correct, why it was raised, and gives a far different reason than that supposed by some of the Union troops who saw it. It had long been believed by them that it was but a ruse of the rebels. attempting. as they had done before. to gain by strategem what they could not easily accomplish by honorable fighting.
But the most amusing part of the colonel's report - as it must appear to every ex-Federal soldier then and there present -is the quick and easy way his men seem to have " discovered and surmounted " the Yan- kee wire trick to trip them up. That they soon discovered and at the same instant surmounted it - giving to the latter word its derivative meaning - will not be seriously questioned : for, although something, in effect, like a mountain in their way, they very quickly went over and about their length beyond it.
They " surmounted " this novel trick of war about as successfully as a green boy rider would the old trick of a vicious broncho that had learned to " buck " and kick at the same time -mount upon the animal's back, and go over his head in one time and two motions.
Radically defined, then, according to its compound derivation from the Latin original, the word surmounted was very aptly applied : but quite a
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different meaning was clearly intended, though not so truthful, for the wire was in no place cut, broken, or passed for any distance until after our troops had fallen back.
Of the brave and timely action of Captain Bedee and Lieutenant San- ders, and some of the men of Companies C and G, in manning one of the deserted guns on the turnpike that belonged to Belger's battery, and in trying to save one of the heavier twenty-pounders of Ashby's battery, General Weitzel, commanding the division, takes notice in his report by copying from General Wistar's, as follows :
Capt. Edwin E. Bedee and Lieut. James W. Sanders, both of the Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, with some men from the same regiment, for some time loaded and fired one of the guns abandoned by Battery F. First Rhode Island Artillery. They report one of the officers of the battery as lying concealed in a ditch during the time. The same officers limbered up a twenty-pound Parrott gun of Ashby's battery, deserted by its gunners, and moved it by hand some distance to the rear on the turnpike, where they turned it over to some men of the battery with instructions to take it to the rear, which was neglected, and the piece aban- doned without spiking. Captain Barker, commanding the Twelfth New Hamp- shire Volunteers, had previously thrown forward sharpshooters, who dispersed and drove away the enemy's sharpshooters who attacked these guns.
In a letter published in the " Boston Record," Captain Barker, in refer- ring to this laudable effort of some of his officers and men to have artillery practice on the field of battle, relates the following amusing incident and the official notice of the valiant act to which it relates :
While directing the management of one of the abandoned field-pieces, Cap- tain Bedee, unfamiliar with that branch of the service and anxious to have it worked as rapidly as possible, was greatly surprised and not a little annoyed at its recoiling so far every time it was fired; and, with an expression more em- phatic than pious, ordered it placed against a stump to prevent it from backing out of the fight. He was reminded by one of his men, who knew more about the science of gunnery than he did, that if he wanted .to disable the gun, that would be about the quickest way to do it.
For their distinguished services at the battery on that day, both Captain Bedee and Lieutenant Sanders were complimented in general orders.
Another incident mentioned in the same letter. and referring to the same officer we will here give.
While the regiment was falling back from the front line, that it had so easily held, General Butler, with his full staff and several orderlies, came riding along, and, either for the joke of it or to make a show of his self- composure, spoke to the men and said : " Oh, don't be frightened : don't be frightened, boys !"
Without waiting to hear any more which the general was seemingly intending to say, Captain Bedee, who had already heard enough of that
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kind of talk, in the ill-tempered mood that he was in. for retreating, as he believed, without cause. quickly replied :
" Who in h-1. sir, i's frightened? I don't know of anybody, unless it's some of our commanding generals."
" What are you falling back for, then?"
" Under orders, sir, of course ; and if you did not give them, you had better find out who did."
General Butler probably thought so, too, for he put spurs to his horse and rode on.
Supplementary to the letter above referred to, which would be given here in full but for repetition - its most essential part having been already written - we find these lines :
Recent conversation with a Confederate officer who participated in the charge on our front at the battle of Drury's Bluff, fully corroborates my estimate of the situation. and his admission as to the damage inflicted to their charging column even exceeds my own conclusions; but. he added, " We got even with you at Cold Harbor."
On the 26th of May occurred the wasp-nest affair at Port Walthall. General Wistar's brigade was called up about 3 o'clock in the morning. and started out to make a reconnoissance in force toward Petersburg. the real object of which, as supposed, was to ascertain the position and strength of the enemy in that direction, General Butler, as it seems, hav- ing decided to make one more effort to capture that place. Crossing a branch of the Appomatox. a skirmish line was sent out, and the Twelfth advanced in line of battle. Captain Barker thinking it time enough to halt and load when the skirmish line should find the enemy. While thus moving carelessly forward there came, all at once and with startling suddenness. a shower of hissing minie-balls, followed by the roar of musketry. Company B. the right company of the regiment, had just reached the crest of a little hill, within plain view and close range of the enemy, when the volley struck them. Every man of the company went down, and all killed or wounded as then supposed by their commander, judging from the way the bullets pinged the air around his own head. Seeing that some of the men were beginning to get up, he ordered them to lie flat, and was just getting down himself when a German recruit by the name of Lindner, who was mortally wounded, exclaimed : " Oh ! For God's sake. help me, Lieutenant!" That dying cry -once heard, never forgotten - pierced the heart of the officer. and for once he cared no more for rebel bullets than for drops of rain. To stand erect, where perhaps a hundred men or more were watching for the show of a head as a target for their rifles, was, to say the least, not a very enviable atti- tude to aspire to; but with scarcely a thought or care for anything but the dying man, he jumps to his feet, and with the air hot around his head by friction from flying lead, he starts for and reaches him untouched.
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No sooner do the rebels see, as they plainly could, what the officer was doing, than their firing stopped almost as suddenly as it commenced : and the officer, after easing the position, and comforting, as best he could. the wounded men (another recruit by the name of Furguson being also dangerously wounded) went back over the brow of the hill, hallooed to Captain Barker, in command of the regiment, to send up the'stretcher bearers, they having fallen back out of range at the first volley. It was five or ten minutes before they brought up the stretchers, upon which the suffering and helpless men were placed and borne away to an ambulance.
During all this time, except when over the brow of the hill after the stretchers, the lieutenant was standing or walking about within speaking distance of the enemy : but not another shot was fired at him, who now laid down with his men and awaited the order, that soon came, to fall back. Knowing that the first sign of any movement would bring upon his men another shower of lead, he ordered them to imitate the crawfish in manner as well as direction of going, and crawl backward until over the crest of the hill and below the line of the enemy's fire.
The question will naturally arise, where was the skirmish line? As it is not well for the historian to write more than he knows, however strongly, at times, he may be tempted, the answer must be, that he has never yet found out. It was then said that the regiment had run over it, while the men were hiding in the bushes : but it is more probable that none was ever sent forward. The only casualties were the two before mentioned, and two or three more slightly wounded, all in Company B. Had the waiting enemy not been so quick to act, but withheld his fire until other companies had come into range, the loss must have been many times greater. Having found the enemy sooner than expected, the search then and there ended, and before dark the regiment was again back behind the breastworks.
While the men of Company B, as well as the rest of the regiment, were lying flat on the ground upon the hill above referred to, a lone horseman was seen riding up a narrow ravine on the right and directly toward the position of the enemy. He would have been quickly warned of his danger and motioned back by the observers, but they were powerless to do so. On he rode, seemingly unconscious of all danger, each step of his horse conveying him nearer to the head of the ravine, where he could not escape being seen and shot at by the vigilant foe but a short distance beyond. He was watched. of course, with constantly increasing fears for his safety as he advanced toward the danger line. A moment more and both rider and horse go down, just as two or three almost simulta- neous musket reports came from the rebel line. Both man and beast are supposed to be killed or severly wounded, but no-only one, and that the horse, has been disabled. for the rider, so quickly dismounted, is seen to rise to his feet, and after first looking at his horse and then toward the enemy, who could no longer see him, drew his revolver, put
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an end to the suffering of his struggling mute companion, and with a sad good bye, doubtless felt in his heart if not expressed by his lips, turned back down the ravine, and was soon lost to view.
This little incident, while it may not seem to an old soldier worth the time and ink required to write it, is given here as but one of the many similar ones that might be related as interestingly illustrative of army life to those who then were but children, or had not been born.
The camp of the Twelfth at this time was in a pleasant pine grove that so nicely shaded the men from the rays of the sun, that when, on the following day, orders came to pack up and move at once in heavy march- ing order, there was much wishing that war was something more than narrow chances and sudden changes.
General Butler, having now failed to capture or assist in capturing Richmond, and feeling sore at his discomforture at Drury's Bluff decided to make another move against Petersburg. hoping by taking advantage of the departure of rebel troops that were being sent to reinforce Lee against Grant, he would capture the city and thus retrieve himself for all the public would naturally blame him for since he took command of the army.
But while he was diligently watching for his opportunity and studiously planning how best to take advantage of it, his rising hopes of effecting his ardently desired purpose were all nipped in the bud by Grant's unex- pected call for sixteen thousand of his best troops as will be seen in the following chapter.
It certainly did seem as if the very fates were against him.
CHAPTER XI.
COLD HARBOR.
May 28, 1864, in compliance with orders received through General Halleck from Lieutenant-General Grant, the Eighteenth Corps marched to City Point, where, reinforced by Ames's and Devens's divisions of the Tenth Corps, it embarked the next morning for White House Landing, on the Pamunkey river, for the purpose of joining the Army of the Potomac, that was then crossing the Pamunkey near Hanovertown. The whole force consisted of sixteen thousand infantry, sixteen pieces of artillery, and a detachment of about one hundred cavalry, all under the command of the Eighteenth Corps commander. Gen. W. F. Smith.
About 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 27th the Twelfth Regiment broke camp and marched about four miles to Point of Rocks, where it crossed the Appomattox about dark, and arrived at City Point between 9 and 10 o'clock that night. It rained hard during the night, and this. with deep mud and deeper darkness, made the march anything but pleasant, and the night's bivouac was even more disagreeable than the march.
Early the next morning the regiment embarked on the transport steamer . G. A. Deveny," and soon the whole command was on its way down the James, bound for some place to the rank and file unknown. But speculation was of course rife, and conjectures plenty as to their desti- nation and the cause of their leaving. Some thought it meant a change of base for the whole army that had so signally failed to accomplish its mission, and that Bermuda Hundred and City Point were to be evacuated. Others thought that Washington was again threatened by another rebel raid, and that the Eighteenth Corps was on its way to the rescue : while others still guessed rightly and exclaimed, "Once more for the Army of the Potomac, boys ! We are going up to help Grant finish up the job with Lee."
They little thought how worse than useless their efforts to help would prove, and that they, instead of Lee's forces, would be the ones to be finished up. But among the things, much thought and talked about, was the wide difference between what was expected and what had been effected since they were last afloat upon the same river, less than a month before. The one was up, and the other was down, in more senses than one.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
About 5 P. M. the little fleet of transports lay off Fortress Monroe, and. after an hour or two on the bay, rounded into the mouth of the York river. During the night's voyage up the river the men slept on board the boat, as best they could, and the rising sun greeted them at West Point. One brigade under General Ames, convoyed by one or two gun-boats com- manded by Captain Babcock of the United States Navy, had been sent ahead to this place to cover the landing here, or at White House, as might become necessary. The tortuous course and frequent shoal waters of the Pamunkey made the passage up this river difficult at times even for a mud-scow, to say nothing about a small fleet of barges, schooners, and steamboats, many of which were more or less impeded in their progress. Some got hung up on snags or stuck in the mud, and had to back out, side off. lighten up, or be pulled along by tugs and other boats until they got into deep water again. Yet nothing very dangerous or damaging occurred, as no torpedo was struck, and the soldiers, not being used to either salt or fresh water navigation, were both interested and amused in the ways and means employed to overcome all obstacles that the river was so well supplied with.
One incident, which was especially amusing to some of the Twelfth boys who saw and heard, was the way that Surgeon Fowler got one of the hospital boats that he was in charge of pulled out of the mud in which it had stuck, by assuming dictatorial authority, and actually scar- ing the commander of another boat, loaded with troops, to do what he had just refused to, which was to heave to. throw a tow line, and pull him out. One would have thought, to have seen the doctor straighten up and to have heard him talk. that he was Medical Director of both the armies of the James and the Potomac, and that a refusal to obey his orders by any officer of the army or navy, of lower rank than a major- general or a commodore, would cost him his commission.
The brigade arrived at White House about noon, and the Twelfth dis- embarked about two hours later. The men were glad to be on shore again, for it was very hot, and they had been very uncomfortable, crowded together between decks, where they were driven by the stifling stench below and the scorching rays of the sun above. After landing, the brigade, now under the command of Col. Griffin A. Steadman. Jr ..* moved a short distance across and east of the railroad, where it remained. to the wonder of all the troops, not only until dark, when they feared they would have a hard night's march instead of a quiet and refreshing sleep, and the next morning, when they expected to march sure. but until 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the next day. This delay, though not understood then, was because the corps commander was awaiting his ammunition and baggage train, still on transports and not yet arrived. During the night several more of the substitutes, thinking doubtless that they were farther North than likely to be again very soon. if they
* Assumed command May 18.
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remained longer in the army, decided to detach themselves therefrom by " leave of absence" of their own granting.
After waiting impatiently until 3 o'clock, as above stated, General Smith, who had during the night and morning received three copies by as many different couriers to march to New Castle, concluded to wait no longer, either for his ammunition or further instructions that he had sent for, and moved his command forward as rapidly as possible on the hot and dusty road to that place. The march was continued until 10 o'clock that night, when the Twelfth bivouacked with its brigade at or near Cross Roads and three miles from New Castle, on the south side of the Pamunkey river. It was fortunate, on account of the extreme heat, that the march did not commence sooner in the day, unless the troops had started at 3 o'clock in the morning instead of that hour in the afternoon, and thus saved in time what they were obliged to make up in speed. The distance marched was about fifteen miles, but many of the men. judging from their fatigue, thought it nearer twenty-five.
The further orders that General Smith had been instructed to await at this place came at daylight the next morning, directing him to proceed at once to New Castle Ferry, and there place his command between the Fifth and Sixth Corps. Because of the urgency of this order the troops, most of them, moved without breakfast on the morning of June I, but the Twelfth and its brigade had just time to wash down a bite of hard- tack with a sip of coffee before the " fall in" order came to them. After reaching the Ferry, where, instead of finding the Fifth and Sixth corps, no troops were to be seen, it was ascertained that there had been a big blunder by somebody in using the words " New Castle" instead of Cold Harbor in the last order of march, and the whole command had to "right about" and march back several miles to where it started from in the morning, and then set out again on another road. The mistake was a bad as well as a big one for the Eighteenth Corps, for it not only lost to the troops time and distance enough to have nearly reached Cold Harbor, but obliged them to march in the hottest part of the day, and in the rear of the Sixth Corps, which they otherwise would have preceded ; and to march behind a large body of troops on such a day as that, is something more than the reader, unless a veteran, can fully understand. The memory of that day's march will exist so long as any man, who was in it, continues to live. During the middle of the day the temperature, even in the shade, must have been close up to, if not above, blood heat : and following much of the time, as the troops had to, directly in the rear of the baggage train of the Sixth Corps, the dust was worse, if possible, than the heat.
Captain Barker wrote on the 2d :
Marched and countermarched nearly all day, yesterday, to get here (Cold Harbor), and through the densest clouds of dust that I ever saw. I could not see the length of a single company.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
General Smith says :
The day was intensely hot, the dust stifling, and the progress slow, as the head of the column was behind the trains of the Sixth Corps. The ranks were con- sequently much thinned by the falling out of exhausted men.
Doctor Sanborn, of the Twelfth, reports that the surgeons were kept busy in attending and passing to the rear . the poor fellows who, over- come by heat, were constantly falling out, some of whom dropped down and died from sunstroke."
It was nearly 4 o'clock before the corps arrived at Cold Harbor and joined with the Army of the Potomac, a part of which was already engaged with the enemy. In a short time Brooks's and Devens's divisions advanced and became heavily engaged with the intrenched forces in their front, forcing them back into ulterior and stronger lines of defense. Martindale's division * was held in reserve on the right, but the Second Brigade was deployed, and the Twelfth anxiously waited, not to be led forward as they expected to be, but for some change of position that would cover them from the severe fire of the rebel batteries to which they were exposed. Twenty solid shot or shells, by actual count, passed between the Twelfth and the One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York, beside many others that passed over or fell short ; yet no one of either regiment, so far as known, was injured. It seemed as if the enemy was practicing to see how near he could come and not hit anybody. A little later the brigade advanced a short distance into the woods, where it remained all night, the men sleeping on their arms, ready to resist an attack that might be made upon them at any moment.
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