USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 26
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nobler impulses of humanity, were pleading for immediate action for their relief. And more than this, what ground was there for doubting that General Lee would have respected a flag of truce to care for the wounded and bury the dead ?
General Smith, while more than willing, as we have seen, to throw the responsibility and odium upon Meade or Grant, seems to have forgotten that he could only blame them by condemning himself. For what more could have been both his privilege and duty than to have reported the condition and situation of his wounded men to his superiors in command, and requested permission for their immediate removal under a flag of truce. Had he done this, which he nowhere even intimates that he did, then words of express as well as implied censure might have come in good grace from him, and could not have been too severe.
Seeing that nothing had been done through that long, sad day for their comrades, the men of the Twelfth welcomed night as they scarcely ever had before, even for the relief of their own toils and sufferings, that they might go themselves to the rescue. To have attempted anything of the kind during the day would have been at the cost of more than six for one and practically impossible ; for even under the cover of the night it was a very dangerous undertaking, and only the greatest caution and the most persistent efforts made it even partially successful. But if night was gladly welcomed by those who were only intent upon the work of saving, how much more so by those whom they were trying to save, the reader, from what has already been written, can have only a slight con- ception. To them it was like the shadow of angel's wing. It not only brought cooling dews in place of burning sun, but gave those who were able a chance of showing signs of life without inviting death, and strengthened the hope, which was not a vain one, that their comrades would attempt their rescue as soon as dark enough. And then, scarcely less to the seeker than the sought, was the tearful gladness of their meet- ing on that night-screened field of awful carnage. To those even who were nearly under the dark shadow of death, it was no small consolation to know that their companions in arms were mindful of them and periling their own lives to save theirs ; to have the privilege of once more grasp- ing their hands and listening to their tender words of sympathy in that solemn, life-parting hour ; and to send by them a last, loving message to the dearly cherished in their far distant homes, so soon to be gloomed in sadness and sorrow for another brave soldier dead. Some lived but a few moments after being found or brought into our lines, others expired that night or the next day at field hospital : while others, among whom were Lieutenant Emery, of Company F, and Joseph Hill and Albert Mckenzie, of Company B, were sent to Washington, where they soon after died. But there were a few, more fortunate in receiving less dangerous wounds in the charge, and in getting the cover of a rock, stump, or rebel vedette hole to protect them from the bullets of fiendish
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sharpshooters, who not only lived to get to some general hospital in the North, but after long suffering recovered so as to reach their homes, where one at least-B. W. Clarke, of Company F- is still living.
During the afternoon two or three companies, some twenty-five or thirty men from the left of the regiment and under the command of Captain Bedee, had been deployed as skirmishers and advanced a few yards over a low piece of ground, just to the left and rear of where the charge was made. In a few moments every man was under ground ! Not dead and buried quite so quickly as that, but they had sunk themselves into the earth in real gopher style assisted by a most vigorous use of jack-knives and bayonets for axes and picks, and tin dippers and plates for spades and shovels. It is amusing, even to the men themselves, to see how sur- prisingly quick one will cover himself from the view of the keen-eyed rebel sharpshooters, when every second is likely to be his last until his work is accomplished.
After dark the men were relieved from their cramped positions in their gopher holes, and notwithstanding the extra hazardous service they had performed, it was found that only three had been wounded and none seri- ously. Fortunately no other detail was made from the Twelfth that night, and so forty men - as many as Captain Barker dared to let go, be- ing nearly half the regiment - went out with Captain Fernal and Lieu- tenant Sanders on their mission of mercy and love above referred to. Making as little noise as possible they break into little squads of double files as they approach the centre of the field, where most of the dead and wounded lie. The work of searching for the living was their first and main object, for the dead needed not their aid, though their bodies soon received attention. This, under the circumstances was more dif- ficult and dangerous than might become apparent without a word or two of explanation. The night though dark was not so much so but what a man standing erect could be seen for some little distance. For this rea- son the rescuers as they neared the enemy's line had to crawl upon their hands and knees, and in this position could plainly see the strong line of rebel pickets outlined against the sky, but a short distance from them.
Thus in silent darkness, for none but whispered words could be spoken, they crept around among the still more silent dead listening, for they could make no call, for some deep sigh or low moan that would tell them where amid the surrounding gloom of night and death they might find one in whose veins the vital fluid still continued to circulate. And when by some such sound or mere accident a comrade at last was found, with whispered caution to make if possible no cry of distress or groan of agony, he was carefully lifted up, a blanket or stretcher put under him, and borne away with noiseless steps to where they would receive all the comfort and care that kind hearts and willing hands could render. And thus the noble work of rescuing suffering humanity went on, not only for that night, but the next and even the third, until all of the living and most
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of the dead were removed, leaving but comparatively few to be buried, on the field where they fell, under a flag of truce, which was not until just before dark on the 7th, or five days after the battle.
Sergeants Gordon, of Company C, and Gray, of Company F, found and brought in Lieutenant Emery : Captain Fernal and Sergeant Place, of Company A, secured the body of Lieutenant Dunn : and Sergeant Clarke and others of Company G succeeded in getting the sword and watch of Lieutenant Whittier, but were fired upon while trying to remove his body and had to leave it. Sergeant Cheney, of Company E, though seen alive between the lines during the day, could not be found and his body was never recovered. His brother. Daniel P., of the same company, long sought in vain for him or his body, inspecting the faces of the dead by the carefully secured light of a match, when he found one in form and height resembling him, that he might know that it was not the body of his brother. During this and the succeeding night many of the dead as well as the living were taken off the field. Sergeant Clarke above referred to says : " Twenty-eight of our dead were brought in and buried in one trench on the night of the fourth, making fifty already brought into our lines and buried." This would make twenty that were recovered and buried on the night of the charge. How many of the living were rescued there is no means of knowing : nor is it known how many of the dead were brought in on the night of the 5th.
On the morning of the 4th Captain Bedee was wounded in the head by a musket ball. and was so badly injured that he was rendered insane for a while and had to be sent to the hospital. A little later in the day Sergeant George K. Hughes, of Company E, was killed by a shell from one of our own guns. It was a percussion shell that striking a tree near by exploded, and a piece of it buried itself in the sergeant's back, causing his death in a few moments. Gustave Newman of the same company was wounded by the same shell. Sergeant Hughes had just before been helping mend the flag-staff that had been partly cut off by a bullet or piece of shell, and at the time he was struck he was looking at the enemy's line through a field glass that Corporal Cox had taken from the body of a rebel officer at the battle of Swift Creek. Sergeant Gray, of Company F. was sent back to the battery to tell them the danger of our men from their shots.
That night the brigade was advanced several yards nearer the rebel line and there threw up a new line of intrenchments which the Twelfth and other regiments occupied the next day. It was within easy musket range of the rebel pickets, who no sooner discovered it by the first light of day than they fell back in great haste. They evidently had no desire for so close an acquaintance with the Yankees.
" The boys are amusing themselves by firing through loop holes at every rebel that shows his head," wrote Captain Barker while sitting in the same ditch where his men were thus employed. But the enemy in
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their front was by no means idle. His men were returning bullet for bullet and his artillery gave the new redoubt a severe shelling several times during the day. Nathaniel Briggs, of Company C, was mortally wounded by a rebel sharpshooter while carrying water to the boys in the trenches, he lived about three weeks.
The regiment remained in the same line of trenches until dark the next day, when part of it was advanced as skirmishers in front of the position held by the Twelfth and Second, while the men quickly threw up another line of works a short distance in front of the line thrown up a night or two before.
This was done so close upon the rebel pickets that serious trouble was expected, but the work was done so quickly and quietly, not a word being spoken above a whisper, that only two men of the Second Regiment and one of the Twelfth were wounded. This was thought to be rare good luck considering the dangerous situation. It seemed as if Grant, having failed to drive the enemy out of his lines was now trying to crowd him out. It was thought by the rebels, that the design of daily moving their lines, by regular approaches every night, was to get as near as possible, and then over-run them by a grand rush. It is doubtful, however, if General Grant ever seriously entertained such an idea : although there was much reason. from his persistent crowding, and from what they had already learned of his natural disinclination to give up what he had once undertaken, for such a belief to have been entertained by them.
Later in the night, after the firing caused by the picket advance had died away, another and last effort was made to recover the bodies of the Twelfth men still left upon the field. The searching party was fired upon, but succeeded in getting several more of the dead, among which was found one man that was still living. His name is not known, but he was prob- ably one of the recruits. How long he had remained conscious after he fell, or how much he had suffered during the three days and nights he had lain on the field, none can tell. The 7th found the regiment in the same trenches, but now, for a wonder, in the second line, the one thrown up the night before being occupied by the Eighth Maine. Between the hours of six and eight in the afternoon there was a two hours' truce for burying the dead still left between the lines. On the 9th, Lieutenant Joseph N. Shepard, of the Sixth New Hampshire, was killed by a sharp- shooter while talking with some of the Twelfth. His regiment was, at that time, in General Griffin's brigade of the Ninth Corps, and he had come over to see some of the boys in the regiment who had been his neighbors and schoolmates in Gilmanton, N. H., before the war. He was cautioned by them to keep covered and not expose himself, as he could only do so with extreme hazard : but, having gone safely through Spott- sylvania and the Wilderness, he seemed to think himself proof against bullets, and heeded not the earnest admonitions of his friends. Though his death was the result, somewhat, of his own folly, it was nevertheless
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sad, and as his would-be preservers looked upon his lifeless form, that but a moment before stood erect and defiant in the face of the enemy, they blamed themselves for not having made him heed their warnings. He was carried to the rear by the friends with whom he had been talking, three of whom were C. S. Gilman, G. W. Andrews, and E. W. Shannon, all of Company G. The same day, John Smith, a recruit of Company B. was severly wounded in the head.
The situation was now fast becoming a serious one in respect to the exposure of the men to disease as well as danger. The lines were so close together in some places, that pickets could not be sent out by either side without running into each other, making a continuous skirmish fight between the pickets by night, and constant rifle and artillery prac- tice by the opposing lines through the day. This great strain upon the nervous system, together with lack of food and water, want of sleep and rest, and exposure to the extreme heat and noxious vapors, were already beginning to have their baneful effect upon the men, and without some change, would soon become more dangerous to the Federal army than rebel bullets.
Gen. A. A. Humphreys, who was at this time General Mead's chief of staff, writes in his " Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865" as follows :
Although the lines were advanced by regular approaches (they were so close to the enemy's intrenchments, and the ground was so open, that they could not be advanced in any other way) yet an assault gave no promise of success. The army remained in position here until the night of the 12th, when it withdrew to cross the James river. The daily skirmishing during that time was sharp. and caused severe loss in some divisions. During the night there was heavy artillery firing, and sometimes heavy musketry. The labor of making the approaches and strengthening the intrenchments was hard. The men in the advanced part of the lines, which were some miles in length, had to lie close in narrow trenches, with no water, except a little to drink, and that the worst kind, being from sur- face drainage ; they were exposed to great heat during the day, and they had but little sleep. Their cooking was of the rudest character. *
* Dead * * horses and mules were scattered over the country, and between the lines were many dead bodies of both sides lying unburied in a burning sun. The country was low and marshy in character. The exhaustive effect of all this began to show itself, and sickness of malarial character increased largely. .
On the day of the truce for burying the dead, Captain Sanborn paced off the distance between the lines in front of the regiment and found it but seventy paces or yards. Among other incidents, that have not already been referred to, are the following :
A rebel sharpshooter, who had perched himself in a tree, had killed and wounded several of our officers and men, and one of Berdan's best shots was sent for to silence the rebel's one-ounce battery that was being used by him with such deadly effect. Soon the desired man, armed with a telescope rifle, appeared, and reported for duty. . After learning the
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location of the man he was hunting for, he chose the trench then occupied by the Twelfth as his headquarters, and commenced operations. It was a fight between two at long range, but the " Green Coat" had the advan- tage of both aim and reach, as well as weight of metal : and after a few exchanges of their leaden messengers, he turned to the boys, who had been intently watching him, and smilingly said, "There, I don't believe that Johnny will trouble you any more," and he didn't.
Lieutenant Clark informs the writer, that the next shot, after that which killed Shepard, and fired, as he thinks, by the same sharpshooter, passed between his gun-strap and stock, knocking a piece out of the latter. com- ing very close to his head, and burying itself in the ground under a hard- tack box that it penetrated.
Sergeant A. G. Sanborn, of Company G, says that on the same day of the charge, June 3, he and John Arnett, of the same company, went to get their canteens filled with water, and on; their way back they saw a shell coming which burst near them, killing his companion by his side. When the order was given to uncap pieces and fix bayonets, .. I shall never forget," says Colonel Barker, "that while some of the men turned pale, and all looked sternly sober, one there was, a mere boy in years, of Company D. who quickly grabbed the cap from his gun-tube and threw it upon the ground with no more signs of fear, and about as much of excitement and impatience as if he had just snapped at a squirrel, and his gun had missed fire." This was James F. Marshall.
After the brigade had fallen back to the first line of intrenchments, the officer in command of the provost line came up from the rear, and re- ported that most of one of the regiments were back in the ravine, referring to those who had escaped unharmed from the charge. In reply to an inquiry if there were many of the Twelfth boys back there, he replied : " Yes, lots of them, but all severely wounded."
Lieutenant-Colonel Murry, of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth New York, in conversation with some other officers about the perilous position of the Twelfth in leading the charge, and whose regiment, it will be remembered, did not advance beyond the outer line of intrenchments, up to which they had skirmished, made this remark : " My God ! I never expected to see a regiment march into the jaws of death, without flinch- ing, as that regiment did."
Alvin Mitchell, of Company K, was the first man hit in the regiment after the charge was ordered, being wounded in the arm just as the line left the woods. Several of the men had their muskets shattered in their hands, or knocked out of them, and one had his gun barrel cut entirely off. Many of the companies had less than a dozen men left in the ranks after the charge, and some of them less than half that number. " Company A," says Sergeant Lawler, " came out of the charge with only five whole men." It advanced a few moments before with one officer and twenty- one men. Lieutenant Dunn and ten men were killed, and six were severely wounded.
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Company B, according to the record of Orderly Sergeant Paige, went in with the same number of men and came out with but four left. and those, like the five saved from Company A, had their clothes and equip- ments perforated or torn by bullets or pieces of shells. In this com- pany three were killed and fourteen wounded, but not all of the latter were reported because not seriously injured. Company H, though not suffering so severely as those in the first division, was so reduced in officers, that Corporal Daniel M. Huntoon was the only man of any rank left to command the company. While the skirmishers from the Twelfth, al- ready referred to, were digging holes for their protection, on the after- noon of the 3d. Captain Heath reported as having counted twelve bullets that struck, in as many minutes, a tree over the boys' heads. The reader will not wonder, from this little incident alone, at what the author has said about the anxiety of the men to get their heads below the surface of the ground. George W. Pitman, a drummer of Company B, relates, that he saw two men wounded by a bullet, at the same time, while dipping coffee out of a camp kettle.
One day a staff officer came up to the line of intrenchments where the regiment was lying, and was about to look through his field glass at the rebel works when he was told by Sergeant Tilton, of Company F, in his dry, joking way, that he had better look out for . Johnny Sharp" while he was looking. The officer only cast a reproachful glance at the speaker in return for the timely advice, and commenced to take his visual survey of things in front. The Sergeant said to himself, as he resents my advice I will say no more, but I will have that glass in a minute, and he did, as the officer had no further use for it, having taken his last look'.
On the afternoon of the 11th, after being in the front line of trenches for ten days and nights the Twelfth was relieved, and marched back about half a mile and remained there for the remainder of the day and the following night. What this short move back from the enemy's fire meant. no one of the regiment knew, but when it was continued at 10 o'clock the next day in the direction of the White House, the hope already enter- tained, was strengthened, that they were on the return route to the Army of the James.
And such proved to be the fact, the long line of ambulances, loaded with the wounded, having passed over the road several days before. Among the many of the Twelfth that had been sent back to the provisional hospital at the White House was Captain Shackford, the old commander of Company E, and William B. Welch, one of the original members of the same company.
Special mention is made of them here, because both received more dangerous wounds in the charge than any other man in the regiment who survived. and because of the suffering that each endured in his ambu- lance ride over that long and rough road. Welch was wounded seven times, and Shackford was so many times and badly wounded, that Lieut.
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A. St. Clair Smith, who was also wounded, and rode in the same ambu- lance with him, thought he would not live to get to the river.
The regiment arrived at the landing a little before dark, thoroughly exhausted, for they were so worn down when they started that their march of seventeen miles, even toward home, was more than all could endure, and the weaker ones had to fall out on the way. That even- ing part of the regiment embarked on the same boat that brought them, and steamed down to West Point, remaining there until daylight the next day. The remainder of the regiment boarded the " Daniel Webster " which remained at anchor near the wharf all night. The first named boat proceeded on its backward trip to near Harrison's Landing on the James, where it anchored for the night at about 8.30 P. M. the next day ; but the .. Webster " reached Bermuda Hundred the same even- ing where the men landed at once and marched four miles to Point of Rocks on the Appomattox, after a few hours' rest, resumed their march toward Petersburg.
The other boat left its anchorage on the James about light in the morn- ing, and being of light draft, steamed up the Appomattox to Point of Rocks, landing its troops there a few hours after the rest of the regiment. with most of the brigade, had left. It was nearly 4 o'clock in the after- noon of the 15th, before the different parts of the regiment and brigade united near Petersburg, to which place the whole Eighteenth Corps was now pushing as rapidly as possible, so as to capture it before the Con- federate forces could reoccupy it, for it had been left nearly defenseless after Beauregard's troops had joined Lee. Becoming satisfied of this, General Butler had sent General Gillmore, with several thousand men, to capture it, while Grant was fighting Lee at Cold Harbor ; and according to his account, it could very easily have been done if Gillmore had half done his duty. And even now it was not too late, if only General Smith had been as quick and vigorous in his movements as Grant designed, Butler urged, and duty demanded. But again, Petersburg was saved to the Confederacy by the needless, if not willful delay of one of our own generals.
It is sad, even now, to reflect how many times our armies were defeated from the want of our leading commanders having any practical appre- ciation of the value of time. General Lee truly said, though his words were figurative, that he lost his right arm when " Stonewall" Jackson fell : but it was legs more than arms that made Jackson so valuable to his chief. When the occasion demanded his presence, he was there; while simi- lar demands upon our leaders were either entirely disregarded or tardily obeyed.
CHAPTER XII.
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.
The Siege of Petersburg, as it is usually called, includes the whole period between the transfer of the Army of the Potomac across the James. after the battle of Cold Harbor, and the capture of that city and the evac- uation of Richmond ; or from the middle of June, 1864, to the first of April, 1865.
For nearly a year, therefore, after the sledge hammer blows received at Spottsylvania and the Wilderness, and in spite of the best efforts of his great antagonist, who continued to strike him at every favorable time and place, did Lee and his army successfully defend both Petersburg and Richmond. Grant's line, during many months of this time, extended from Fort Harrison on the north of the James to the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg, a distance of at least twenty miles. But it is only of that part of this line, lying southwest of the Appomattox and which more immedi- ately invested the city, that can be properly referred to in this history as the Siege of Petersburg. Here the lines were drawn close and the approaches regularly made under the enemy's constant fire.
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