USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 30
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" And this victory," in the words of an able writer, "snatched from the jaws of defeat, affords one of the very few instances in which an army, thoroughly beaten in the morning, is even more thoroughly victo- rious in the evening, though it has meantime been reinforced by but a single man." He might have said the only instance.
But to come down and back to where we belong, and shun the danger- ous example of the great Grecian mathematician, Thales, who came near breaking his neck by having " his head among the stars while his feet were on the earth," let us continue to record a few more of the most in- teresting items that belong in this chapter of the history of the " New Hampshire Mountaineers."
And to put the reader in good humor again, the author will recommence his narration of historic events with an amusing anecdote connected with the firing of the salute above referred to.
After the artillery guns and mortars of all kinds and sizes had stopped their roaring upon both sides-for the salute was a shotted one to which the enemy replied - a musket fusilade was heard in Colonel Potter's brigade just to the left of the Twelfth. In a few moments a staff officer went dashing by, and as he rode up to the commander of the Two Hun- dred and Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, which had joined the army for the first time but a few days before, and from which the noise seemed to come, he saw the whole regiment, of about a thousand men, blazing away at their very best over the earthworks.
"What in h-l are you doing here," yelled out the staff officer, as soon as he got within speaking distance of the colonel, who was encouraging his men to fire as rapidly as possible.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
" Firing a salute, sir, and I have had no orders to stop yet."
The headquarters official saw it all at a glance, and answered at first with a long, loud laugh which made the green commander turn red in the face, for he began to mistrust that he had made a big mistake somehow, and immediately ordered his men to cease firing. When he found out that his was the only regiment that was " firing a salute " along the line, so far as he could see or hear, and that even the artillery was silent, the blood receded somewhat from his head, and a shade of paleness passed over his countenance, as he began to apologize and excuse himself by re- peating that he had received no orders to stop and in his earnestness had not noticed that the other regiments had done so. At this the staff officer had another hearty laugh at seeing that the colonel was still in ignorance of his mistake, and then kindly explained to him that the order for a shotted salute was meant for the artillery alone, and not for the infantry, and that no other regiment, except his, could claim historic honors for having taken such an active part. " Firing a salute," was the joking re- ply to many foolish inquiries among the boys after that.
October 27 another attempt was made by General Grant to get posses- sion of the South Side Railroad on the extreme right of the enemy's line of defense : and to assist in this General Butler was ordered to make a dem- onstration, with the troops under his command, against Richmond on the north side of the James.
On the same day, either as a part of the general plan, or simply to get the new troops used to " war's alarms," Potter received orders to make a feint of attacking the enemy in front of him on the Bermuda line.
The troops were ordered out in light marching order, lines of attack formed with the Twelfth in front, deployed as skirmishers at half distance, and supported by the new regiments.
After dark the brigade was ordered forward over the works, and the Twelfth, with only sixty men - a few being out on picket - advanced to about half way between the lines, where it was halted, as the men supposed to rectify the supporting lines, preparatory to a charge. But after waiting there for what seemed a long time in silence and dark- ness, except as a few scattering shots from the enemy's pickets just in front gave warning that they were on the alert, the order came to fall back over the intrenchments again.
Some of the " hundred-days men" were so badly frightened that they broke away from the ranks, when they found they were to go outside of the front line of works, and ran for the rear.
About this time some of the southern families who had remained inside our lines on pretense of being Union people were arrested upon suspicion of giving information to the enemy, and the ladies brought in ambulances before Colonel Potter, who after questioning them awhile, ordered them reconveyed to their homes. Evidence, of any weight, against them was wanting, and their own statements were neither contradictory nor incon-
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
sistent with their assured innocence. And yet these very women, as be- lieved by many, were in daily communication, by signs, with the enemy. It seems that Potter himself was far from satisfied that they were as loyal to the flag as they ought to be, for a few days later Captain Johnson, of his staff, conveyed orders to one of these families by the name of Barr, to remove from Port Walthall, where they then resided, to some other local- ity not so plainly seen from the enemy's lines.
November 4 the national colors, received by the regiment on the first day of September, 1863, at Point Lookout, were sent home ; and four days later the soldiers, who were old enough, as well as the legal voters of all the States not in rebellion against the government, exercised their right of choice as to who should be president of the United or Disunited States of America for four years from March 4, 1865.
It was probably the most important presidential election ever held in this country. It was for the people of the loyal states to decide at the ballot- box whether the war was a failure, as had been formally and solemnly de- clared in the platform of one of the two political parties, and the demand for an " immediate cessation of hostilities " was to be obeyed by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan in the field, and already fast driving the enemy into their last ditch, or whether the precious blood shed, and the priceless lives sacrificed on the altars of constitutional liberty and Christian free- dom should not be in vain, but the flag of our fathers, so long the symbol of the free on every land and every sea, should continue to wave in undis- puted sovereignty long after the causeless rebellion of their patricidal sons should be crushed out by the loyal legions of the North, and no memory or mark of it remain except upon the darkest page of our country's history.
A large majority of the North believed, as the result showed, that upon the ballot-box, even more than the cartridge-box depended the fate of the Nation : and the Confederate officials at the South not only felt, but thoroughly well knew, that their only hope would disappear forever upon the reelection of Abraham Lincoln.
McClellan had been slow and easy with them when at the head of the Army of the Potomac, and they hoped " to be let alone," as Jefferson Davis had before requested, if he should become commander-in-chief of the army and navy.
** It is too good news to be true," said a rebel officer when told that McClellan had been nominated at Chicago. He seemed to think if he had been selected as the Democratic standard bearer, he would carry both the conservative and ultra or copper-head elements of the party, and be almost certain of being elected. "And suppose he should be?" in- quired the Union officer, who had met the other between the lines for the purpose of exchanging newspapers. " Why then this war would end," replied the hopeful Confederate, and what he meant by that was too well understood to need further inquiry.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
A few weeks before election, an intelligent rebel sergeant who had come into our lines was asked, what effect the reelection of Lincoln would have upon the rank and file of the southern army. " It would leave more rank than file," was the quick and witty response, meaning that there would soon be few but officers left.
Some of the leading anti-war Democrats of New Hampshire, and other states bitterly opposed giving the soldiers a right to vote in the field, for they well knew that they would " vote as they shot." against the enemy, and they feared the result in the general count.
The vote in the Twelfth stood 86 for Lincoln and 39 for McClellan. In other New Hampshire regiments the vote was as follows : Eleventh, 157 to 63: Thirteenth, 104 to 41 ; Sixth, 100 to IS; and in the Second out of sixty-nine present and voting in the field, only four voted for Mc- Clellan. The Tenth alone voted for " Little Mack."
The Provisional Brigade at this time consisted of the Twelfth New Hampshire, two small detachments- one each from the the Ninth Ver- mont and the Thirteenth New Hampshire-and five Pennsylvania (new) regiments. The vote, as officially returned by Colonel Potter, was 28 for Lincoln and I for McClellan in the two detachments, and a majority of 937 for Lincoln in the whole brigade ; the new regiments averaging about six hundred men each, and their vote standing nearly two to one for the prosecution of the war.
The vote in the Army of the Potomac, as reported by states to the Secretary of War, by General Grant, is here given :
Maine, total vote, 1,677; Lincoln's majority, 1, 143. New Hampshire, 515; Lincoln's majority, 279. Vermont, 102; Lincoln's majority, 42. Rhode Island, 190; Lincoln's majority. 134. Pennsylvania (seven regiments to hear from). 11, 122 : Lincoln's majority, 3,494. West Virginia, S2 ; Lincoln's majority, 70. Ohio. 684; Lincoln's majority, 306. Wisconsin, 1,065 ; Lincoln's majority, 633. Michigan, 1,917; Lincoln's majority, 745. Maryland, 1,428; Lincoln's majority, 1,160. United States Sharpshooters, 124; Lincoln's majority, S9. New York, 305; Lincoln's majority, 113. Majority for Lincoln, S, 20S.
In one officer's diary, under date of the 9th, is the following entry : " Great cheering all along the line, for the news comes to-day that the Union is safe." The rebels heard it, well understanding its meaning, and their bands commenced playing . Dixie "; to which ours responded with " Yankee Doodle." " Red, White and Blue," and " Rally Round the Flag.'
It is said that the president of the Southern Confederacy considered his fate sealed from the moment he first learned of the result of the election. If so, he reasoned wisely.
One thing that caused considerable grumbling among the soldiers dur- ing their tarry at Bermuda front, was being roused up every morning at + o'clock and obliged to stand to arms shivering in the cold rain or frosty
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
air until light enough to no longer fear an attack of the enemy. Aside from this their duties were not hard for the old soldiers, and they had more reason to be thankful than otherwise for their situation.
For more than a month, or from the 14th of October, when the regiment returned to the south side of the James, until the 17th of November, nothing of historic interest, not already referred to, occurred, unless men- tion be made of the return of the regimental baggage from Norfolk where it had been so long stored, and the arrival of several loads of sanitary supplies and boxes for the boys sent them from home.
But their short and swift run of good luck was about to receive a sudden and serious check.
About 8 o'clock on the evening of the 17th of November the enemy made a stealthy attack upon our picket line, breaking through and cap- turing seventy-five or more prisoners, among whom were thirty-seven belonging to the Twelfth. It was a most unfortunate affair for the regi- ment, for it left it with but a few more men than enough to form a good- sized sergeant's squad.
The attack was made at the " gate-way," as it was called, it being the only place along the whole line between the rivers where the enemy could have made an assault with any reasonable chance of success. It was the mouth or neck of the " bottle " into which Butler was driven after the battle of Drury's Bluff, and which was made historic from General Grant's reference thereto in his final report after the war. In fact, the shape of the line at this place, bulging out as it did toward the enemy, more resembled the top of a bottle with the neck knocked off.
At this only available point of attack for the enemy, because of a deep ravine that ran along the rest of the line, old and reliable troops had always been posted, and, at this time, it was picketed by men from the Twelfth. The regiment was so reduced in numbers that its detail for picket duty that day was too small to reach across the whole exposed space without leaving the line too weak, and so enough men from the new regiments, stationed upon either flank, were deployed in right and left connection with the Twelfth to cover the full distance.
The enemy, being well aware that our troops were up and early on the alert every morning, as before mentioned, concluded to test our vigilance at the other end of the day; and so they made their attack just after dark, instead of just before light. Although the rebels made quite a vigorous assault, the Twelfth men were not inclined to think it anything more than a lively " corn-popping " entertainment for the evening, as fre- quently had occurred between the lines when they were in front of Peters- burg, until, to their great surprise, they found the rebels in their rear as well as their front, and loudly demanding their surrender.
The new troops, fresh from fields of peaceful husbandry, instead of those " sown with shot and bladed thick with steel," concluded -
" When the bullets began to fly, That they must either run or die; "
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
and, being much more willing to use their legs than lose their lives, they struck out briskly for the rear ; some of them not stopping, it was said, until they reached City Point.
Lieut. Charles F. Towle, in command of the detail from the Twelfth, thinking, from all he could learn by sounds coming to him from the right and left, that the rebels were flanking him, ordered his men to fall back ; but hearing nothing to confirm his belief, as he brought them to a halt a few yards to the rear (the flight of the new troops leaving nothing for the enemy to do but to silently circle around his command), he ordered them to advance again. Both orders were plainly heard by the attack- ing rebels, who were close upon the flanks of the Twelfth line when it fell back, and who were glad to hear the order for our men to advance, for its only effect was to give them more prisoners, and of a kind that they would much rather guard than fight.
Before some of the men had regained their posts they were entirely surrounded, and most of them captured. A few, by dropping flat into the ploughed furrows of a field that had been cultivated, until the rebels passed over them from their rear, and then rolling from one furrow to another until far enough away to risk a run in the darkness, managed to escape.
In the mean time officers and men from the new regiments came back to the reserve, then under the command of Captain Fernal, with all sorts of stories, but nothing could be heard from the Twelfth men, none for some time making their appearance, and what the exact situa- tion at the front was, no one could tell. That there had been a serious break and a regular, or rather irregular, stampede of the " raw recruits " was only too evident. But what had become of the fifty or more officers and men from the Twelfth, was the question that Colonel Potter was getting momentarily more impatient to have answered by someone more reliable than any of the badly frightened hundred-days men whom he had seen ; for not only was he anxious for the fate of his old regimental boys themselves, but still more so, because he well knew that upon their safety depended the security of the line.
" Where are the Twelfth boys?" he would ask, as he walked up and down in front of his quarters. " If the line is broken, as all these cow- ardly run-aways are telling, why don't we hear something from the Twelfth?" " We shall before long, if it is true," replied Colonel Barker, who, with Captain Bedee and one or two other staff officers, was waiting and listening, " and the very fact that we don't," added Captain Bedee, " is evidence enough for me that it's all a d-d lie." " So I say." continued Barker.
But Potter was still fearful of what the situation might be, and was about to send a competent officer forward to investigate, when news came from the " Mountaineers," as written by the messenger himself, Sergt. Charles A. Place, and here copied :
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
At Bermuda Hundred, on the night of the 17th of November, IS64, the rebels thought they would straighten their picket line; for in so doing it would bring a portion of their line where ours then was, and that portion was then occupied by a detail from our regiment.
The enemy charged both right and left, and their intention was to capture us all, which, through the unreliance of green troops upon our flanks, they nearly accomplished. C. F. Towle, officer of our picket detail, ordered us, after a while, to fall back, which we did, with the exception of the killed and wounded.
We had retreated but a short distance when the order was given to advance, every man to his post. I took my former position and commenced firing, when I was ordered to surrender, the Johnnies being all around us; but I had no notion of going to Richmond as prisoner, so I turned and ran from them, and heard one say, "shoot the son of a b-h," and a volley of bullets came whiz- zing about me. I kept on and came in over the works without injury, and reported to Captain Fernal.
I think I was the only man that escaped capture, that advanced to our former position after having retreated.
I told Captain Fernal the result, and we made our way to Colonel Potter's headquarters and told him that our pickets were all captured, and that the enemy occupied our line ; but he did not credit my story, and told the captain to put me under arrest. The captain did not, however, but sent me into his tent, and told me all would be right, for he knew full well, that I was telling what I believed to be true, whether it was or not.
Colonel Potter then sent out Captain Bedee, who took along with him Ser- geant Bachelor, of Company E, to learn the truth of the matter; but they did not return to report, being captured like the rest. After this he sent ont the regiment, or what was left of it, but their reconnoissance only proved that the enemy held our line, as I had reported, and that to retake it would require a severe contest.
When Captain Bedee left headquarters for the picket line, he said, in reply to some remark of caution made to him : " I'll look out for myself, never fear ; and I'll soon let you know what's up and where the Twelfth is, unless I have to go to Richmond or Hell to find out." After his exchange and return to the regiment, he was asked which place he had been to. "Both," was his quick and emphatic reply, and it was full of meaning ; but no one can have a realizing sense of its full significance who has never been a visitor at the first named place, and supplied with free board and lodging there at " Libby's Hotel," as the boys used to call it.
Colonel Potter no sooner learned that his line, with many of his old regiment, had been captured by the enemy, by the cowardly action of the new levies from Pennsylvania, than he resolved that they should be made, if possible, to retake it. How well they succeeded will be seen from the following account of the capture of our line, and the first attempt to retake it, from the pen of the late Capt. J. H. Prescott :
When Colonel Potter returned, and was placed in charge of a provisional brigade which held a part or the whole of the Bermuda front, I was detailed as an aide to him, and remained with him for some time.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
While here, there were a great many hundred-days' men, from Pennsylvania, sent out, and three or four regiments of them to Colonel Potter's command. They were not used much, except for drill and fatigue, and knew nothing of service in the field.
About in the centre of Potter's line was an open field, running all the way from our line to that of the enemy, and our picket posts on this field formed nearly a half-circle in our line, the advance part of the arch reaching into the woods or underbrush. One night the "rebs" took it into their heads to straighten this line, and they did it, coming in as they did, from both sides of the circle where the new troops had been stationed. The circle part being the most exposed, old and tried troops were stationed upon it, and this night it was held by the Twelfth boys, nearly all of whom were captured, almost before they knew it.
A new, temporary line was formed in the night quite close in front of our breast- works, and some of these new troops had to be called into service to man the new line. When it came daylight Colonel Potter sent me out to advance this new picket line so that it should become straight with the rest of our line, as it now bent back instead of forward, as before the break. I went out and found a . heavy picket line with strong reserves, and every man flat upon the ground. I went to the right, and walked the whole length of the line, and gave my orders, letting them know what was to be done. 1 then returned to the centre of the line, and gave the command and signal to move forward. The men got up and started pretty well. The enemy, at this, of course opened fire, and at the very first shot every man fell flat again upon the ground. But this was not the worst, for as the firing from the rebel line increased, the men became more frightened and the line began to break, some crowding to the rear, and some getting up and running in the same direction.
No sooner did they see one coward run than others, who dared to rise up, thought it a good example to imitate, and commenced to flee also. I had to yell and rush along the line, and drive back those making for the rear. Officers were as bad as the men. First a sergeant, then a corporal, and then half a dozen privates would break from the line, and soon a lieutenant came rushing along, half scared to death. I caught him by the collar, and drew my sword as if to run him through. What I said to him any old soldier can easily imagine. IIc begged of me not to kill him; and I told him I would not if he would return to his place and do his duty. This he promised to do, for he was evidently more afraid of me than rebel bullets, that by this time were flying thick and fast.
In this way I saved a general panic. 1 finally got the men in line again upon their bellies, picking them out of the hollows and bushes where they had hid and sought shelter like chickens frightened by a hawk.
I thought it best not to attempt trying it again with that line; so, as soon as 1 had restored confidence enough in the officers and men to dare to leave them, I went in and reported to Colonel Potter.
Ile had been on the breastworks, and saw all that had happened, and had already sent for some experienced troops. He told me that I had done all 1 could, and that we would wait for troops that were good for something.
The boys joked me for a long time about my danger of a court-martial for drawing my sword on an officer. It was only fate, as it seems to me, that pre-
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
served me on this occasion, as at other times. For several minutes I was the only target for the whole rebel line. This was my last dangerous experience while in the service.
The loss of the regiment in this unfortunate affair was: three com- missioned officers - one wounded and two captured ; one enlisted man killed, six wounded, and thirty-five captured.
Sergt. Albert W. Bachelor, of Company E, and Benjamin B. Thomp- son, of Company K, who were among those taken prisoners, escaped from Libby prison December 12, and after eight days and nights of perilous adventure, succeeded in reaching the Union lines.
Their return to the regiment was an occasion of general congratulation by their comrades, who feared they would never see them again until the end of the war, if ever.
The Confederates continued to hold the new line that they had so easily established against us at our own expense for several days, and until the division of colored troops relieved the Provisional Brigade on the Bermuda front, and retook the old line we had lost.
Whoever else may question the courage and efficiency of the negro soldiers, it will never be the rebel whites who met them there or elsewhere on the field of battle : but last of all should it ever come from the " Penn- sylvania Dutch."
Although " the Dutch have taken Holland" many times, if editors' pens are never dipped in lying ink ; yet, if any of their blood still runs in the veins of some of their American descendants, they could never have been a very warlike people.
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