USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 36
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Victory at last, and the flag of our fathers triumphant over Secession and Rebellion, but at what a frightful cost! Thousands of millions of that which may be estimated upon the Governmental ledger, and hundreds of thousands of lives, priceless and inestimable !
Four years of such carnage and sacrifice can nowhere else be found on the calendar of time, and yet nearly nineteen hundred years have rolled away since the " Lamb of Love and Peace" was slain as an atone- ment for the sins of the world, and America the most enlightened and christianized nation on the face of the earth. Oh ! what a picture for the Christian philosopher to look upon is this !
CHAPTER XV.
MANCHESTER AND DANVILLE.
The regiment remained in Richmond, doing provost and guard duty, until the 14th, when it moved across the river into Manchester, a smaller city on the southern side of the James, which separates it from Richmond. And as the men, save those on guard, slept soundly in their new encamp- ment in the suburbs, who among them dreamed of the terrible tragedy being enacted in Washington? And who of them, and all the soldiers who had neither seen, hoped for, nor expected anything after Lee's sur- render, but peace and safety for the nation, awoke the next morning to a consciousness of the sad and solemn fact that President Lincoln was dead, or was just breathing his last? Yet, before 8 o'clock, the lightning had flashed the awe-inspiring news to the four corners of the globe, and all Christendom soon knelt in tearful apprehension at the altar of prayer.
President Lincoln dead ! And by the hand of an assassin !! No won- der the civilized world stood aghast : that Christian Freedom in tearful silence wept : nor that Liberty sat pale and trembling on her mountain throne !
Just as the Nation breathed and smiled in its new birth, he, who had been chief to encourage, support, and protect, and without whose strong, yet gentle hand, the old had perished before the new was brought forth, was struck down by the revengeful dagger of the same power that had so long sought, and so nearly destroyed, the life of the Nation itself. It is not strange, therefore, that fearful foreboding for a time filled the public heart.
General Meade received the astounding intelligence from General Grant, then in Washington, early on the morning of the 15th : but so fearful were both of its effect upon the army, that it was given out by piecemeal, and the whole truth was not known, even to some of the staff officers, until two or three days afterward. Captain Prescott, then aide- de-camp to General Weitzel, in referring to this, says :
If that army had been told the whole story at once, not a stone in all Virginia would have been left unturned. So the powers judged wisely that kept the news back ; but it was humiliating to the soldiers to think that they had been deceived from fear of their commanders that they could not be trusted.
But though a Moses had fallen, and like his great prototype within sight of the promised greatness of his people, there were many Joshuas
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left ; for God in his wisdom had decreed what Lincoln himself, standing amid the graves of patriot heroes upon Gettysburg heights, had asked his countrymen to highly resolve. " That this nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
And true it was, as spoken at the time, by one of those Joshuas whose similar death, a few years later, caused the whole land to be again draped in mourning. " God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives ! " For the Nation, though long bleeding from almost every vein, was still strong enough to survive the loss of still more of its vital fluid, though it came from the sinking heart of her greatest benefactor ; for he had already led her through the crisis of her peril, and nobly earned the exalted title that posterity will freely accord to him, -the Savior of his Country. Abraham Lincoln, -
" One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die."
and highest among them all, save only Washington, on Freedom's monu- mental adamant of imperishable fame-how weak the power of words to do justice to thy memory ! Even should the light of the nineteenth cen- tury be put out, and the world relapse again into barbarism, yet, from out the dark night of the ages, thy dimless star would shine as a bright cyno- sure to all those who might still hope for the final emancipation and re- demption of mankind.
It may not be known, even to some of the surviving members of the regiment, that one of their number was present at Ford's theatre on the night of the assassination of President Lincoln, and was the first man to reach, and the second one to enter, the President's box, after the fatal shot was fired. Yet such seems to be the fact, and the full particulars, as received by the writer from the lips of Captain Bedee himself - for he is the one referred to - are substantially as the reader will find them here related.
Major Bedee. then captain. was at that time in Washington on special leave, and was one of the many hundreds who attended the theatre, as above stated, on that woeful night of April 14, 1865. He had procured a seat in the second row on the left, back of the orchestra, where he had a full view of the President's box and its occupants ; and, hearing the re- port of a pistol, his quick eye caught sight of Booth, as he leaped from the box upon the stage. In an instant the terrible truth flashed through his mind. His first impulse was to make a rush for the stage, as soon as the murderer struck it. But, waiting until the tragic words and action there confirmed his suspicions, he jumped from his chair over the row of seats in front of him, and with a rush and a bound was past the orchestra and over the footlights, before the assassin had hardly disappeared behind the scenes.
Following him across the stage and to the rear of the same until he heard
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some one beyond cry out. " They've got him !" (which he has always be- lieved was done by some one of the actors or an accomplice to stop pursuit ) he immediately returned to the front of the stage beneath the President's box, - Mrs. Lincoln then screaming, " My husband is shot!" and others calling for a doctor - and was just mounting the railing of the stage box to climb into the President's above, when a person claiming to be a physi- cian rushed up, and, with the assistance of Captain Bedee and two or three others who had followed him up, was lifted into the box, closely followed by Bedee who, but for stopping midway to assist the doctor, would have been the first man from the outside to enter the President's box, the door at the rear, leading to the dress circle through which Booth had entered, being locked by him, as supposed, before he leaped upon the stage, as the key was found afterward upon the floor.
There were no others who entered by climbing up in front, but soon the door to the box was broken in and several others entered, and among them another physician.
When Captain Bedee and the physician entered the box, the President was reclining in his chair, with his head far back, much as if he were asleep. The doctor immediately commenced searching for the wound, stripping back the President's coat and unbuttoning his vest for that pur- pose. Nothing could be seen of any blood or any place where the bullet had entered the head or body. While the doctor was thus searching vainly for the wound, Captain Bedee, who was at the same time support- ing the President's head, felt something warm trickling into his hand, and quickly guessing the cause, exclaimed : " Here is the wound, doctor," at the same instant that he put one of his fingers into the hole in the back part of the head where the ball had entered, and from which the precious blood of the great martyr had just commenced to ooze out.
In pulling back the President's coat to find where he was hit, some papers fell from one of the pockets, and Mrs. Lincoln, who, under the circumstances, was remarkably calm and self-possessed, seeing the papers fall upon the floor, picked them up and handed them, with others about to fall from the same pocket, to Captain Bedee, saying to him as she did so, " You are an officer, and won't you take charge of these papers?"
The captain took the papers as requested, putting them carefully into his own pocket.
He next assisted in removing the unconscious President from the the- ater and conveying him across the street into the house, where he died at 7.20 the next morning.
Captain Bedee remained in the room with the dying great and good man, while Vice-President Johnson, Secretaries Stanton and Chase, Senator Sumner, and several others arrived, and until between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. He then, at the request of Stanton, went to the War De- partment to carry some message for the secretary, and thence with orders to the officer in command at Chain Bridge in relation to preventing the escape of the assassin into Virginia.
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Having executed his orders and reported back to Stanton, to whom he had delivered up the papers given him by Mrs. Lincoln before starting. he received from the secretary thanks for all he had done and was told that he could then report to his place or post of duty.
The next night found Captain Bedee with his regiment in Manchester, Va. But hardly had he so far recovered himself as to think calmly upon the tragic scene in which he had taken so prominent a part. before the provost marshal received an order from Washington for his arrest.
When that officer showed his order to Bedee. there was such a forcible and temper-toned expression of indignation from the captain for the bungling attempt to connect him, as he then thought, in some way with the crime of murdering the President, that the officer began to strongly suspect that someone at Washington was more guilty of a big blunder than his prisoner was of any crime. and so telegraphed to General Hardie who had sent the order of arrest.
In a short time came a telegram for his release. But this did not sat- isfy Captain Bedee, who wanted, as he had a right to, such an explana- tion as would entirely exonerate him from all blame and remove from the minds of his comrades every suspicion that the order for his arrest had thrown upon him.
The following correspondence will tell the rest of the story :
HEAD QUARTERS 2D BRIG., 3 DIv., 24 A. C. IN THE FIELD, VA., April 26, 1865.
SIR. - I have the honor to report that on the evening of the ISth an order from Washington was received by telegraph at Gen'l Ord's head quarters for the arrest of Capt. Bedee. 12th N. H .. to the effect that Capt. Bedee had failed to deliver the President's papers, saying : " He will be arrested. the papers taken from him. sealed and forwarded to Washington."
By Order of SECRETARY OF WAR. (Signed ) JAMES A. HARDIE. But. Brig. General, etc.
In compliance with the above I was arrested and remained under arrest until the evening of the 20th.
When arrested and taken before Gen. Devens on the morning of the 19th, I stated to him that I delivered the papers of the late President to your Honor on the morning of the President's death. April 15th. at the house opposite Ford's Theatre, where the President was then lying, which you will probably remember as your Honor at the time of my delivering said papers noted my name. regiment. and corps upon the wrapper which you placed around said papers.
On the evening of the 20th the following telegram was received at General Patrick's head quarters :
U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH, April 20th. 1865.
By telegraph from Washington to Gen. Patrick :
I have seen the Secretary who now says that Capt. Bedee did give him cer-
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tain papers. Major Hay was not aware that the papers were so disposed of by Capt. Bedee.
Please release the Captain from arrest.
(Signed) JAMES A. HARDIE, But. Brig. General, etc.
Doubting that your Honor approve, of the public disgrace of an officer who has endeavoured for the past three years to earn an honorable name in the defense of his country, I take the liberty of laying this case before you, hoping your Honor's sense of justice will induce you to set the matter right with the command with which I am connected. I am Sir, Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant,
E. E. BEDEE, Capt. 12th N. H. V's and A. D. C. 2d Brig., 3d Div., 24 A. C.
To The Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, May 5, 1865.
CAPTAIN,- On the ISth of April last, word came to me from Maj. John Hay, Assistant Private Secretary to the late President, that certain papers taken from the person of Mr. Lincoln on the night of his assassination, which had on that occasion come into your possession, had not been delivered by you as promised ; and, further, that you could not be found in this city, and that upon inquiry it was learned that you had left town for the army. } then telegraphed, believing the matter required immediate action, to General Patrick, in the name of the Secretary of War, an order for your arrest, and that the papers in question should be taken from you, sealed up, and forwarded to Washington. Upon this order you were arrested. Ascertaining subsequently that you had delivered the papers to the Secretary of War upon the same night on which you became possessed of them, 1 telegraphed an order for your release, and you were released.
In view of your entirely honorable conduct with regard to the papers in question, and of the mortifying position in which you were placed by the accu- sation and the arrest, I desire to express my serious regret at my action ; and cheerfully make you the reparation of a full and free acknowledgement of my mistake, which is conceded in the light of my present knowledge of the circum- stances of the case to have been an act of serious though unintentional injustice to yourself.
In conclusion I beg that you will please make such use of this letter as may in your opinion be necessary to repair as far as possible the evil occasioned by my action of the 1Sth of April. I remain, captain,
Very respectfully. Your obedient servant,
JAS. A. HARDIE, But. Brig. Genl. and Inspector Genl., U. S. A.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
WASHINGTON. D. C., May 5, 9.20 P. M.
CAPT. E. E. BEDEE, 12th N. HI. Vols., 2d Brig., 3d Div .. 24 Army Corps, Care of Maj. Gen. Devens :
Your note of April 26 has just reached me, and I hasten to reply by telegraph. The order for your arrest issued by General Hardie was without my knowledge or authority, and was unjust to you. The papers found on the person of the late President were delivered by you to me on the morning of his death and immedi- ately sealed up, your name and address endorsed thereon. and placed by my clerk in the safe of the War Department where they remained until delivered to Judge Davis and opened in his presence.
When informed by General Hardie that he had issued an order for your arrest, I immediately directed the order to be revoked, and an acknowledgement made of the injustice done you. Your conduct in the matter was in every respect becoming your rank and personal character, and I deeply regret that the hasty and unauthorized act of General Hardie should have subjected you to a moment's pain or reproach. If he had informed me before using my name, the error could not have happened. You are at liberty to use this explanation in any way you may deem useful to yourself.
General Hardie has been directed to make a proper acknowledgement to you, which he will no doubt take pleasure in doing, in order to relieve you as far as possible from the pain you have innocently suffered.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
Thus was Major Bedee completely exonerated from all blame and suspicion which the arrest alone and unexplained might have rested upon him : and the very fact of General Hardie's unauthorized action was indirectly the means of establishing. by as high authority as Secretary Stanton himself, the truth, in the main. of Major Bedee's whole story, which otherwise might and probably would have been questioned by some who do not always judge others as they would like to be judged themselves.
It seems, from information furnished by Colonel Bachelder, historian of the battle of Gettysburg, that the names of the two physicians referred to by Major Bedee were Charles A. Leale and Charles S. Taft. both assistant surgeons of United States Volunteers, and that the latter claims to have been the one that was lifted into the box from the stage.
His statement, however, does not agree in some particulars with Major Bedee's. the doctor saying that when he entered the box " the President was lying upon the floor stripped to his shirt," while Bedee in reply thereto avers that .. Lincoln was not on the floor at all : neither was his coat off, but only thrown back." There is also a difference in their statements in regard to the time that Doctor Leale entered the box from the dress circle.
But that both of these statements were made over twenty-three years after the occurrence to which they relate, goes far toward reconciling the discrepancy between them, with an honest intention of both.
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The regiment while in Manchester had little but police and provost duty to do : and, encamped most of the time in a pleasant grove, between two and three miles from the business centre of the city, there was very little to complain of and much to be thankful for.
Rations and water being good and plenty, with enough spare time to rest and care for themselves, the sick and weak grew better and stronger : but more than all else to give to their cheeks the ruddy glow of health was the soul-cheering and life-inspiring thought that the war was over, and that they would soon be at home.
There is no medicine like a cheerful heart, and as Addison says : " Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other."
April the 19th Colonel Marsh came down from Washington, where he had been on detached duty ever since. recovering from his wound re- ceived at Chancellorsville, and made a visit to the regiment. He found a few more of the boys to greet him than when he last saw the regiment in that city on its return from the Gettysburg campaign, and in as much better spirits as they were condition, although they were then feeling much better than they looked, for they had just been released from the Army of the Potomac.
On the 25th the regiment, with its division, marched into Richmond to receive the First and Second divisions of the Twenty-fourth Corps on their return from the extreme left where they had marched and fought night and day in helping to capture Lee's army : while the Third Division, to which the Twelfth belonged, was left behind to capture Richmond.
May 6 the regiment again crossed the river into the capital city to receive the Second and Fifth Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac : and on the 11th the trip was repeated to exchange cheers and congratula- tions with the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps of Sherman's army on their way to Washington. And for several days there was almost a con- stant tramp of different corps of both armies into and through Manchester and Richmond, all returning from fields of conquest and victory. Sher- man's army had " beat the bush." while Grant's had " bagged the game."
On the 19th day of May, by orders from General Ord, then com- manding the Department of Virginia, the Twelfth Regiment proceeded by rail from Manchester to Danville, Va., a distance of nearly 150 miles. It arrived at Danville late in the evening, and the men remained in the cars until the next morning when temporary quarters were found in an old tobacco building near the depot.
The same day Colonel Barker issued the following orders :
HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, DANVILLE. VA., May 20. 1865.
GENERAL ORDER NO. 1.
In obedience to instructions from Headquarters, Department of Virginia, the undersigned hereby assumes command of Danville, Va., and vicinity.
It is expected that the inhabitants will render their willing and cheerful sup-
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port to preserve order. Any act of violence on the part of any person will be promptly punished. Officers and enlisted men of this command will be careful to avoid all unnecessary interference with the inhabitants.
Private property will be protected; and it is hoped that the men who have exhibited so much bravery on the field will readily recognize the necessity of pro- tecting the private rights of peaceful citizens: and that in the discharge of all their duties they will be firm and courteous.
THOMAS E. BARKER.
Lieut. Col. 12th N. H. Vols., Commanding.
Here Colonel Barker, with his brave and trusted few (for the recruits still remaining in the regiment had proved themselves worthy of confi- dence). showed that they could wisely rule. as well as bravely fight. Drill, trench, and picket duties were now no longer required, and the rigid rules of war were so far relaxed that the men felt almost like citizens again.
The officers selected by Colonel Barker for his staff. and their official positions will be found in the following roster :
Roster of Staff Officers at Headquarters U. S. Forces. Danville, Va .. under the command of Lieut. Col. Thomas E. Barker, Twelfth New Hampshire Vols.
Capt. E. W. Ricker, Act. Asst. Adjt. General.
Lieut. A. W. Jewett, Act. Asst. Quartermaster.
Lieut. G. E. Worthen, Act. Post Commissary.
Asst. Surgeon S. C. Carbee, Act. Post Surgeon.
Maj. Natt. Shackford, Act. Provost Marhsal.
Capt. D. W. Bohonon, Asst. Provost Marshal.
Capt. E. W. Ricker, Asst. Provost Marshal.
Capt. A. St. Clair Smith, Asst. Provost Marshal.
In the absence of Captain Ricker, when acting as assistant provost marshal in Patrick county. Adjt. R. E. Gale, took his place as acting assistant adjutant-general.
Danville was at this time a city in southern Virginia of between three and four thousand inhabitants, and was before the war an important busi- ness centre on the Richmond & Danville Railroad, running through Petersburg, Danville, Weldon, and Goldsborough, to Wilmington, N. C. It is situated on the Dan river. and near the head of navigation.
It was here, as will be remembered, that Davis and his cabinet made their first step to re-establish the headquarters of the dying Confederacy after being driven out of Richmond ; and it was from this place that the fugitive chief. - as he might then have been properly called, as a few days later he actually was, - still defiant and determined, issued his last proclamation.
In the light of coming events. already so near as to plainly show his perilous situation, it was an appeal so vainly bold and confident in its tone as to excite more ridicule than enthusiasm. even among his own people.
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It created no little amusement at the North where a few days later it was published, while its author was hastening " to leave his country for his country's good," and his boasted Confederacy had lost both the Con- and the fed, and the erac-ing process of General Grant had left nothing but the sad tail-ending y !
As an interesting literary relic of the war, and as illustrating the resolute tenacity of the ex-rebel chief when all was lost to him and his Confed- cracy but a forlorn hope, we here give a portion of his final and fruitless appeal :
We have now entered upon a new phase of the struggle. Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to move from point to point, and to strike the enemy in detail far from his base.
Let us but will it, and we are frec. Animated by that confidence in your spirit and fortitude which never yet failed me, I announce to you, fellow country- men, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul ; and I will never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any of the states of the Confederacy ; that Virginia - noble state, whose ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still more glorious recent history, whose bosom has been bared to receive the main shock of the war, whose sons and daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her illustrious in all time to come - that Virginia with the help of the people and by the blessing of Providence. shall be held and defended, and no peace ever be made with the infamous in- vaders of our territory.
If, by the stress of numbers, we should be compelled to a temporary with- drawal from her limits, or those of any other border state, we will return until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impos- sible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free.
Let us then not despond, my countrymen. but, relying on God, meet the foe with fresh defiance, and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts.
On the 24th of May Brig. Gen. J. J. Gregg was. by order of General Ord, assigned to that section of Virginia which included the counties of Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Campbell. Appomattox, Pittsylvania, Henry, Patrick, and Franklin, which together were to constitute the District of Lynchburg ; and on the same day Colonel Barker received by telegraph the following order from General Ord in Richmond :
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