USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 34
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The Confederate authorities, fearing civil resistance to the execution of their " barbarous.work " had guarded against that by holding back " two large battalions of Southern troops, every man of whom hated Virginia and Virginians and longed for nothing more than to see the last house in the city a ruin."
Two divisions - Kershaw's and Curtis Lee's -with several small batteries were holding the lines below the city. Gradually during the night, these troops were withdrawn by brigades.
The first movements were orderly enough, but toward morning the retreat be- came a wild flight. It was one of the ghastliest sights of that awful night to see long lines of men flitting like unholy shades through the crowded streets, their forms made hideous by the glare of the incendiary fires that already began to glow.
The train of fugitives poured on unbroken up Main street, down Fourteenth street, until broad daylight broke upon the scene before the last one passed over the bridge already in flames. *
Here nearly half a column of the paper is filled with an account of the firing of the city in many places beside the tobacco houses, and a brief description of the conflagration, ending with these words: "By 7 o'clock A. M. nearly the whole of the city south of Main street, between Eighth and Fifteenth streets, and Tenth and Twenty-third streets was one great sea of flames."
It was part of the programme that Gary's cavalry should be the last Confeder- ate troops to leave the lines below Richmond. They were to come stealthily upon the city about daylight, catch up all stragglers and citizens they could lay hold on, and hurry them off with the army. This part of the plan was frus- trated by the rapid advance of the Union forces.
Gary passed up Main street not five minutes ahead of the Union column, and so far from dragging off others he barely saved himself. Mayo's bridge and the Danville were then all of a blaze. Gary crossed the dock by the bridge at the southern terminus of Seventeenth street, and then set fire to the structure.
Two citizens, William J. Brown and Robert Allen, chancing to be in the neighborhood, rushed to the bridge and extinguished the flames before they had gained headway. While so engaged, they were fired upon by Gary's men, but fortunately neither of them was struck. Gary then sped away over Mayo's bridge which was burning from end to end, and almost on the point of falling in.
The editor then refers to the approach, entry, and good work of our troops in putting out the fires and restoring order and confidence, and concludes as follows :
Truly the ways of Providence are inscrutable.
The burning of our goodly city would seem at first glance an unmitigated evil. But there is another view to be taken of it. It has had one good effect. If
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there lingered in the hearts of any of our people one spark of affection for the Davis dynasty, their ruthless, useless, wanton handing over to the flames their fair city, their homes and altars, has extinguished it forever.
There has been much written, and a long dispute upon the question of what troops first entered the city of Richmond after its evacuation by the rebel forces.
The historian of the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers devotes several pages in answer to this question, claiming a large share of the credit and honor for that regiment. Now, while we would much quicker add as many pages more in praise of its brave record, than detract one single sentence from its just deserts, the stern demand of duty made upon everyone who assumes the grave responsibility of truthfully representing the past for the instruction and guidance of the future, without fear or favor of the living, and in full justice to the dead, requires us to kindly suggest to the author of that very well written and interesting work, that in his very laudable desire to give his regiment full credit for everything that can in any way ennoble its record, he may have assumed some things as facts because stated to him as such, without sufficiently examining the evidence pro and con.
Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel, who was then in command of all the Union forces around Richmond, north of the James, in a letter written by him and published in the " Philadelphia Weekly Times " of August 27, 1881, says :
At the same time I directed my senior aide-de-camp, Maj. Emmons E. Graves, and my provost marshal, Maj. Atherton H. Stevens, Jr., to take a detachment of about forty men from two companies of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, attached to my headquarters, and as soon as they could possibly get through the rebel lines to advance toward Richmond on a reconnoissance. I then telegraphed the state of affairs north of the James to Generals Grant and Hortsuff. As soon as I could see, I passed through Kautz's lines and the rebel lines in his front with my staff and orderlies. We then rode along the Osborne pike, and when we arrived at its junction with the New Market road we saw Devens's division coming up, marching rapidly. Upon looking to the rear we saw Kautz's division coming up the pike at a similar gait. I afterward understood that the two columns met here, and that Devens claimed the pike by virtue of seniority in rank, and that Kautz yielded it on that account, but struck out straight across the fields. When we entered Richmond we found ourselves in a perfect pandemonium. Fires and explosions in all directions, whites and blacks either drunk or in the highest state of excitement, running to and fro on the streets, apparently engaged in pillage, or in saving some of their scanty effects from the fire. It was a yelling, howling mob. Major Graves had reconnoitered up to the Capitol square in the city. Outside the city he had been met by Mayor Mayo and others of Richmond, and received its surrender.
When the mob saw my staff and myself, they rushed around us, hugged and kissed our legs and horses, shouting " Hallelujah !" and "Glory !" I escaped
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considerable of this disagreeable infliction by an amusing circumstance. Maj. William V. Hutchings, of Roxbury, Mass., rode by my side. He was dressed in full uniform, except epaulettes, and had the regulation equipments, etc., on his horse. He had quite a venerable and handsome appearance. I was in un- dress uniform. The mob naturally supposed Hutchings to be the general, and he received the bulk of kisses and attentions. Colonel Adams asked, as a special favor, to be allowed to march his regiment through the city, and I granted it. I was told that this fine regiment of colored men made a very great impression on those citizens who saw it. * * *
There was some dispute as to which troops first entered Richmond, white or colored. Majors Graves and Stevens, with the forty or more men of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, were the first to enter. Then there was some dispute as to the first flag hoisted over Richmond after its capture. This detachment of Massachusetts cavalry had two guidons with it. These guidons were raised first -one at each end of the Capitol building - and were, therefore, the first United States colors raised. General Shepley had the first flag raised in New Orleans after its capture with him, and an aide-de-camp on his staff, Lieutenant DePeyster, carried it into Richmond, under his uniform, and hoisted it over the Capitol, upon the large flag-staff. This was, therefore, the first real American flag which was displayed.
Supplementary to the foregoing statement of General Weitzel, is the testimony of Thomas Thatcher Graves, of Danielsonville, Conn., who was also an aide-de-camp to General Weitzel at that time. In a letter to the " Boston Globe," dated April 26. 1885, after referring to and quoting from Weitzel's letter, he very pertinently adds :
This testimony from the general commanding the forces at the fall of Rich- mond ought to forever settle the question as to what troops first entered the city and who first raised the flag.
Upon arriving at the Capitol grounds I saw the guidons upon the top of the roof of the State Capitol, and Messrs. Graves and Stevens reported to General Weitzel that they were fired upon from a distance by the mob when they went out upon the roof to plant the guidons. It was a bold and plucky thing to do ; and never has been sufficiently recognized. These two men, guarded by only forty cavalrymen, went alone out onto the top of the Capitol, hauled down the rebel flag, and hoisted those flags in the face of a drunken, howling mob of soldiers, in the heart of a city, around which a million of men had fought for the posses- sion for four years.
Lieutenant Peyster did not go upon the roof until our troops had been in pos- session for some time and the guidons of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry had floated in full view for a number of hours. If the regiment has those guidons now in their possession, they ought to be framed in gold.
Cumulative evidence from many might be adduced, if necessary, in cor- roboration of what has already been given, but we will only refer to that of the celebrated war correspondent, C. C. Coffin, who, over the signa- ture of " Carleton," wrote so vividly and accurately of what he saw and
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heard as to make himself famous on both sides of the Atlantic. In his correspondence for the " Boston Journal " will be found a substantial con- firmation of what has just been written upon the subject.
The next troops and first infantry to enter the city were doubtlessly the picket line of the Second Division of the Twenty-fourth Corps, com- manded by General Devens : but whether the First or Second Brigade had the lead is not so certain.
Until the publication of the history of the Thirteenth Regiment it had been understood and generally conceded that the pickets of the Second Brigade were first in the city after the cavalry. But it is claimed by the author of that work that not only was the First Brigade, with that regi- ment at the head of the column, foremost on the march toward and into the rebel capital, but that their pickets were ahead in the chase for the same coveted goal, and the first to reach the Capitol itself, before any Union flag or guidon had been raised thereon.
Allowing all this to be correct would be to ignore the protests and remonstrances of hundreds, living and dead, many of whom were wit- nesses to, or actual participants in, those exciting scenes, including the chief actor, General Weitzel himself.
Capt. Warren M. Kelley, of the Tenth New Hampshire Regiment, who is now living at Martin's Ferry, N. H., was in command of the picket- line of the Second Brigade on that eventful day ; and from his statement, taken in connection with that of Lieut. Royal B. Prescott, of the Thir- teenth New Hampshire, who was at that time senior officer, as he claims, in charge of the picket line of the First Brigade, and whose statement at large is given in the history of his regiment, as the principal authority for the claim of priority therein set up, it appears quite evident that the former must have led the first infantry troops of the Union army into the capital of the Southern Confederacy.
If this conclusion be correct, as, viewed in the light of many other reliable sources, it seems to be, then should Captain Kelley, and the offi- cers and men under him, have all the honor that belongs to them.
In reply to a letter written him by the author a few years ago, Captain Kelly responded as follows :
At your request I submit the following, not from memory alone. but from his- tory made at the time, and printed in the Richmond daily papers.
April 2, 1865, I was in command of the Tenth New Hampshire Volunteers, then encamped on Chapin's Farm, near Fort Harrison, Va. On this date I was detailed to command the picket-line of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps ; and while on duty as such, at or near midnight, I received an order from General Devens, commanding the division, to advance my line of pickets at early daylight against the rebel works.
I immediately rode along the picket-line and gave the order as I received it. Early daylight was near 4 o'clock at that time of year in Virginia. We had seen the rebel picket fires during the night, showing them still at their posts, but the boys, all old veterans, were ready to obey the order.
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We held nearly one half-mile of line along the rebel front, and as we advanced toward the enemy's pickets, we saw in the direction of Richmond, a light, and heard a rumbling sound. As we came near the rebel line, their fires were still burning, but no soldiers could be seen around or near them. We soon came to their breastworks, and Fort Gilmer, which was near the centre of our line, but found all vacated by the rebels, who had left their tents and cannon behind them, and everything indicated a hasty retreat.
From here we marched rapidly on, the boys all eager to gain the rebel capital, about seven miles distant, as soon as possible. We met with no opposition nor received any orders from any one. The first soldiers I saw were a colored guard coming up in our rear, that belonged to General Weitzel's command. At this point we entered the main road, and I called my men from skirmish line to col- umn of fours. We soon neared the outskirts of the city, and entered it near where two roads crossed, marching through what was called " The Rocketts," which seemed to be a kind of landing place for rebel gun-boats and other craft. From this place we saw in the distance some negroes unrolling something. As we neared them, we saw it was an old United States flag. I brought my com- mand to a halt, which was the first I had made since we started.
I had about two hundred men when I gave the order to advance, but nearly fifty had fallen out, as we marched nearly half the way on a " double-quick." I re- quested the negroes to go upon the top of the building, which had a flat roof, and raise the old flag, which they immediately did. I then commanded my men to give the flag three cheers, which being done with a will, we marched on, going up Main street, passing the State House and grounds.
During our march into Richmond we saw no Union soldiers, except two or three cavalrymen, riding at will, and under no command ; and we saw no rebel soldiers, except non-combatants, in rebel uniform, but narmed.
While marching up Main street. I enquired where Jeff. Davis lived, and was told by some of the colored population, who thronged our way, that " Marsa Davis" lived quite a distance beyond the State House. Upon arriving in front of his residence, I at once detailed an officer and men to enter the house, and make a report of what they found there. After a quick inspection, they reported that no valuables could be found, but that everything else remained seemingly just as he had hurriedly left them. I then, in company with some of the officers of the line, entered the building, and found the report true. A few servants had been left there in charge.
While my command was standing there in line, I received orders from Devens to patrol the streets of the city until relieved by other troops.
To the question that may arise about the time my line entered Richmond, you can judge something by the distance and rapid march thither. I do not propose to rob any other soldiers of the honor of entering the rebel capital before the picket-line that I happened to command, if they can establish their claim against us upon any evidence that will bear investigation.
The regiments represented in my command were the Tenth and Twelfth New Hampshire, Ninety-sixth and One Hundred and Eighteenth New York, Fifth Maryland, and Ninth Vermont; and the different states from which these soldiers enlisted can all claim an equal share of whatever credit and honor that belongs to them for being the first troops, except a few cavalrymen, to enter the city of Richmond after its evacuation.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
I have written this statement at the request of a historian, and I subscribe to it as only a brief part of what may be truthfully recorded concerning the subject to which it especially refers.
Lieutenant Prescott, of the Thirteenth Regiment, already referred to, who claims that he was in command of the picket line of the First Brigade ; that his men were the first Union troops to enter Richmond ; and whose statement the historian of his regiment seems to accept as true, is very evidently mistaken ; first in the extent of his command, and second in supposing that his men were in advance of all others, not ex- cepting even the cavalry. He might have been, and probably was in command of the picket detail from his own regiment, instead of the whole brigade line. And this is the only reasonable view that can be taken when we consider that an officer of no higher rank than a lieuten- ant would not have been selected as commanding officer of a brigade picket line, and especially where so much was pending, and the picket force such an important factor in the great and difficult problem to be solved ; for it was a thing very seldom done, even when there was noth- ing of any special interest or importance likely to occur. And this view becomes clearer and more satisfactory when it appears from the editorial statement of Henry A. Pollard in the " Richmond Times," of April 28, 1865, as quoted in support of his claim * that Lieutenant Prescott, from whom the editor most unmistakably got his information, had only about thirty men in his command.
Pollard's exact words are here given :
Lieutenant Keener with about thirty men here [just before entering the city] joined Lieutenant Prescott's squad, which numbered about the same.
Prescott himself says in his statement that :
Soon after halting here we were joined by Lieut. David S. Keener, of the Fifth Maryland, and a small squad of his men. They had come up from some point still further to the left than we had been, between my picket line and the James. His men joined mine, making in all a company of about sixty or seventy men.
Now, to put the most favorable construction upon the foregoing state- ments that they will admit of, it leaves less than fifty men as the whole number of pickets belonging to the First Brigade !
To every old soldier this alone would be conclusive evidence of a grave mistake somewhere, and fatal to any claim that might rest to any consid- erable extent upon it.
But the windows of light and truth open still wider when it becomes known that Lieutenant Keener was an officer of the picket line of the Second Brigade, and his squad falling in the rear, because, being on the extreme right, it had further to go, he was ordered by Captain Kelly, in
* See History of the Thirteenth Regiment, page 564.
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command of the picket line of that brigade, to bring up the rear as fast as possible and pick up any stragglers he might come across who had been obliged to fall out because of the rapid advance.
Captain Kelly, in refutation of Lieutenant Prescott's claim of leading the first organized troops into Richmond, in a statement written for and published in the " Manchester Union" a few years ago, says :
Lieutenant Keener belonged to the Fifth Maryland Volunteers, and was de- tailed for the skirmish line * of the Second Brigade, and was left behind to pick up stragglers from that command; so it is very evident that Lieutenant Prescott was in the rear of the Second Brigade skirmishers * when he joined the skirmish- ers * of the First Brigade.
It also appears in the Captain's statement that the pickets of the Second Brigade whom he commanded, and which was about the same size of the First Brigade, numbered nearly or quite two hundred men from which he concludes as every old soldier must, " that Lieutenant Prescott's men must have been the detail of his regiment, instead of the First Brigade in full."
Now when it is considered that the pickets of the Second Brigade were nearer Richmond than those of the First Brigade, and that the for- mer moved first, acting upon the orders of the night before, while the latter awaited the orders of Colonel Bamberger, division officer of the day, which were not given, according to Lieutenant Prescott's account, until after 4.30 in the morning ; that the picket line of the First Brigade halted two or three times and waited for some time en route, and yet saw nothing of the picket line of the Second Brigade, except a small squad left behind, and that the main line of this brigade picket never halted at all until it entered the city, there is no ground left for any other con- clusion, than that the pickets of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Corps were the first infantry troops of the Union army to enter the city of Richmond after its evacuation. And the correctness of this conclusion is supported by statements made in the " Richmond Whig," including both the daily issues of the 4th and 5th of April, 1865, from one of which is taken the following :
Captain Warren M. Kelley, Tenth New Hampshire Volunteers, was in com- mand of the skirmish linet of the Second Brigade, commanded by Gen. M. T. Donohoe, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, which was the first organized body of troops to enter the city, under the direction of Lieutenant-Col- onel Bamberger, Fifth Maryland Volunteers, division officer of the day. * * Capt. H. Q. Sargent, Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, was in com- mand of the left wing of the skirmish line.t * *
Captain Kelley advanced his line of skirmishers * through several streets of the city, and halted in front of Jeff. Davis's mansion, and by the direction of the staff officers, above mentioned, divided his command into squads and patroled the city until relieved by other troops.
* Pickets are the troops referred to.
+ Picket line is meant.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
And to put the matter beyond all reasonable doubt it need only be mentioned that Lieutenant Prescott acknowledges that "upon the crest of the high land known as 'Tree Hill'-very near Richmond - we rested a few minutes "; that " soon after halting here we were joined by Lieutenant Keener"; and that he halted again at "Gillie's Creek, stacked arms and the tired men threw themselves down upon the ground to rest," and remained there, because stopped by three cavalrymen, as he says, until General Weitzel came up, which must have been for nearly half an hour or more ; and yet he makes no mention of having seen any- thing of the pickets of the Second Brigade, except the " small squad " under Lieutenant Keener, either upon his flank or in his rear. In fact he says he did not see any other Union soldiers except General Weitzel and staff and the three cavalrymen.
Where, during all this time, were the other pickets of the Second Brigade? If behind, is it possible that they could be so far in the rear as not to be in sight. even from " Free Hill " that gave a clear view of both the Newmarket and Osburn roads, which unite near there, for a long distance back? This, as a reductio ad absurdum, seems to settle the whole matter.
In this connection the morning experience and exercise of some of the Twelfth boys in the grand race for " Dixie Town " may give a relish to this historic hash, as it may be called, for the reader will surely think it a mixed up mess as it really was at that time, still is, and will always remain.
And from Prescott, the " Royal," of the Thirteenth, we will now turn our attention for a while to Capt. John H. Prescott, of the Twelfth.
He was at that time - but we will let him tell his own story.
On the night Richmond fell I was brigade officer of the day. As such I was making my "grand round " about 3.30 in the morning, and, upon arriving at that portion of the brigade picket line held by the Twelfth, boom ! boom ! boom ! came the sounds from up toward Richmond. There were three loud explo- sions. We knew the rebels were blowing up something, and that it probably meant evacuation. I at once ordered the pickets, not on post, to be up and ready to march at once. Capt. Il. Q. Sargent was in charge of the Twelfth boys there, and he with alacrity went to work, while I rode along the rest of the brigade line and gave the same orders and returned to our regiment front. Just as I got there, up rode an aide from division headquarters, and gave the order to move forward at once. Our pickets had been going on picket for some time with knapsacks all ready for a move, and now they were quickly slung and the boys started out. I put spurs to my horse, and in a twinkling was at brigade headquarters. I told General Donohoe that the pickets had started, and asked leave to return and go along with them. This was refused.
The troops got off as soon as possible. They found no enemy in front any- where. Just as fast as abatis lines could be cleared away, ditches crossed, and parapets cleared, they went on. Our brigade, after passing over the inner line of works, struck a road leading to Richmond, and pushed forward. As we
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