USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 41
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" Woodbury Sanborn Memorial Stone."
The cost of casting and erecting the fence, amounting to about one hundred and fifty dollars, was paid for mainly by the widows, wives, and daughters of the original members of the Twelfth Regiment.
The boulder, which has been called by some the " Record Rock," was formally dedicated by the Twelfth members at their reunion at The Weirs, where it is located, September 27, 1882. Hon. Charles H. Bell, then governor of the State, standing upon the rock as he spoke, delivered the dedicatory address, which, but for his recent death, would have been printed herewith.
After the decease of Mr. Sanborn, which occurred a few years later, the Twelfth Regiment Association, wishing to erect some kind of a memorial to his memory, appointed a committee of three of its members -Captain Lang, Lieutenant Lane, and Corporal Farrar - to consider and report at their next meeting what, within the means of the association, would be most appropriate. Their report was unanimously adopted, and they were chosen to execute and complete the work necessary to consummate their own recommendation. This, everything considered, was uniquely appropriate, and the most satisfactory thing that could have been done.
It consists, as seen to-day, of a bronze tablet suspended a few feet above the stone by means of an iron rod overarching the same. On one side of this tablet is inscribed the following :
WOODBURY SANBORN
a devoted friend and honorary member of the 12th N. H. Regiment Association, caused this stone to be engraved, and secured the funds of this emble- matic fence from the members of 12th Regiment and their lady friends.
Dedicated as a Memorial to the soldiers of New Hampshire by Gov. Bell Sept. 27, 1SS2, at a reunion of the regiment.
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On the opposite side of the tablet this very appropriate sentiment is written :
As of old, when Moses smote the rock and it poured forth water that the people might drink, so may this boukdler, dedicated as a Memorial to New Hampshire valor, give forth a stream of patriotic inspiration that shall continue its flow down the centuries, ever stimulating heroic devotion to Home, Country, and Free Institutions.
At the same reunion of the Twelfth veterans that this rock was dedi- cated the beautiful new flag bought for them by the citizens of Belknap county, as already referred to, was formally presented ; Governor Bell making the presentation speech, and Capt. A. W. Bartlett, as president of the reunion association, accepting it in behalf of the regiment.
The interleaf copy of the invitation circular and programme of this occasion is here presented as a fair sample of those issued at all the other reunions. The " memorial service," adopted soon after the war, consists of a dirge by the band or drum corps, followed by a eulogy upon those who have died during the year. The "presentation of badges " refers to a practice that obtained for awhile of giving gold badges, of the same shape and style as the silver ones, to some of the favorite officers. The canteens sold at auction were miniature tin ones, with straps attached, of the same size as the printed picture disk seen upon the pro- gramme and copies of which were pasted on to them. The "guess prizes " were those given to a few of those who came nearest to guessing the correct number of articles contained in a mammoth canteen, made especially for that reunion, and holding several gallons; the canteen and contents being then sold at auction with the little ones. Lafayette Newell, the veteran war photographer, a brother of Arthur C. and Albert M., of Company B, took a picture of the beautifully decorated grand stand and all those upon and close around it .* It was from his camera that came many of the original pictures of the boys as represented in this history.
* See engraving.
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PRESENTIMENTS AND VISIONS.
" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Notwithstanding all the light and knowledge that the world has received both from revelation and science since the human race began, and the fact that we are now living in the bright blaze of the last decade of the nineteenth century, still we are enveloped in mystery and filled with doubts concerning the nature and extent of those occult powers of our spiritual being, the existence of which - since every effect must have a cause-is placed beyond dispute by their many strange and varied, yet none the less unmistakable, manifestations.
However reason, without what some would call the safety anchor of Christian faith, may be inelined, if left alone, to drift out into the dark waters of materialism, yet despite the premises or principles of all purely mental elaborations, and regardless even of many religious claims and creeds, there seems to be something both within and around us that is a part of, and has an inseparable connection with, that electro-etherial and all pervading essence that fills the mystic realm of our spiritual existence.
Although still groping in comparative darkness as regards our future destiny " when we have shuffled off this mortal coil," and especially in respect to our individual consciousness and identity remaining the same, yet no well informed and unprejudiced person will deny that through this surrounding darkness many strange and startling gleams of light have been seen, that no prism or spectroscope of science can dissolve or analyze by any philosophical or chemical tests, or explain from any known physical laws.
And however much or little of unalloyed truth there may be in the fast spreading belief that these gleams of light are faint glimpses that come to us from the spirit world, one thing can be safely asserted, that the time has passed when the high priests of either science or religion can establish or long maintain a reputation for wisdom who are at once ready to reject everything that they cannot explain or understand.
Motion, so far as can be ascertained, seems to be one of the great, governing laws of universal existence, and applies alike to the material and immaterial entity.
Without motion there would be neither life nor light, and though we read that light was commanded ere the problem of life was solved, yet before there was either light or life " the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
He, therefore, who forgets or fails to recognize the fact that " the world moves," will soon find himself far behind, and so tangled up and fettered by his prejudices and predilections as to be obliged to fall in with
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the grumbling stragglers who are picked up by the rear guard of that noble army of brave and progressive thinkers and actors that will ever proudly lead the advancing column of humanity down the great and grand march of the ages.
The necromancy of the past has already changed into the theosophy of the present, and what was once universally attributed to the " Prince of Darkness " is now ascribed by many to the " Father of all Good."
There seems to be now but little doubt in the minds of the ablest psychologists of to-day but that invisible and immaterial something that we call electricity - with which so much is being done, and of which so much is said, but so little known -is the connecting link between mind and matter. And there are many who believe that the world is about to awake in the morning light of the greatest scientific development that ever interested or affected humanity.
It is already quite apparent that the age of steam is fast passing by, as insufficient for the demands of the hour, and a hidden force, compared with which steam is but an infant, is fast taking its place. How little could Franklin have thought, when he succeeded in capturing a small bottle full of the wild lightning of heaven, that it ever could be so far tamed as not only to become earth's universal messenger, chief source of power, and grand illuminator, but that within less than a hundred years from his simple but world-revolutionizing experiment with kite and key it would become instrumental in healing the sick, and even of comforting the mourner, by lighting up "the dark valley of death," and giving, through mediumistic visions, a clearer and brighter view of the * delect- able mountains " on the other side.
Though the inspirational voice that came to Luther when he was crawl- ing up " Pilate's staircase," telling him that " the just shall live by faith," will be heard and heeded by multiplied millions who have not yet lived and moved upon this mundane sphere, yet that this strong and supporting faith is to be made and kept so by an elimination therefrom of many of the religious dogmas and superstitions of the present as well as the past, there can scarcely be a doubt in any unprejudiced and educated mind.
And the time may come in the future, As we half believe that it will, When science alone from the electric zone The world with a new light will fill,
That shall scatter the darkness of ages, Like dew-mist before the sun ; And men will learn more of mystical lore, Than yet since the world begun.
Then faith will be founded in reason, And skeptics can question no more ;
For no one will doubt, when life's tide goes out That 't will reach to the other shore.
.
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However others may ridicule the idea of there being anything in presentiments, except what comes from imagination's illusive fantasies, it is all the same to him who has once felt their strange and mysterious power, for
" What we see we believe, though the eye may sometimes deceive, But what we feel we know, whether it be the sting or the blow."
And you might as well try to convince one who is suffering from an attack of acute sciatica that he really has no pain, but only imagines that he has, as to satisfy him who has once been under the strong influence of that strange impression that speaks to us so plainly, and yet unheard, of danger and death to come, that there is nothing to it. History, sacred and profane, is thickly sprinkled with remarkable and well authenticated instances of prophetic visions, dreams, and premonitions ; and " death warnings " have been prevalent among savage and civilized nations so far back as we have any authentic record of the human race.
What and whence these wonderful phenomena can only be answered by offering one mystical theory to solve or explain another, and thus on into "endless mazes lost"; and yet we have no doubt, as already expressed, that we are fast approaching the daybreak of a new and marvelous era in physchological research which, were it to burst upon us all at once, would astonish and astound the world.
But whether ever better understood than now or not, the fact changeth not that many a poor soldier in our late war, as well as some of their near relatives at home, had presentiments, visions, and dreams ; and that those cases, properly coming under the first named class, were so common that almost every old veteran can refer to one or more instances that came under his own observation.
And though we shall only speak of such individual instances occurring in the Twelfth as were made known to their brother comrades by those who felt the fatal impression, there were doubtless others whom fate con- signed to gory graves, who knew equally well what their fate would be, but nursed the dread secret in sorrowful silence which their acts and looks would only too soon betray.
With some this strange premonition ante-dated their departure from Concord .* Who is there of Company F who does not remember how often the Christian-hearted " Charlie" Mason used to speak of his death as a foregone conclusion, even almost as early as entering camp after enlistment, saying he should never return ; and when chided for talking so, and for allowing himself to look so much upon the dark side, would reply that he talked it because he felt it, and knew it, and that it was not a dark side to him, for he deemed it a happy privilege to die for his country, since he felt sure of his reward in heaven.
He seemed to be proud of falling, as he believed he should, on the field of battle, and his bones now moulder and mingle with the soil beneath the
* See page 16.
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leaves that yearly spread their soft vesture over the blood-soaked field of Chancellorsville, as if to cover up forever the last trace of that terrible conflict.
And there, too, is the dust of John B. Merrill, of the same company, who always before jokingly jovial, even under the enemy's fire. awoke one morning from bivouac, on the march to that battlefield, so sober and thoughtful in appearance, that the boys, finding that he was not sick as they first thought, began to joke him, and one of them said : " I guess John's afraid he'll be killed by the Johnnies, but he ought not to be fright- ened before we get up near enough to hear the music of their minies."
" Well, boys, you can make light of it if you want to, but I shall be killed and shall be the first man to fall in the company in the next battle," and his words proved true. He fired his first and last shot at the enemy and fell dead where he stood.
The widow of Merrill, who is still living in Lynn, Mass., says that for three years before his enlistment she had repeatedly dreamed of seeing her husband in the midst of or surrounded with blood : and so often had she dreamed the same thing over and over, that she used to be afraid to have her husband go away from home on the cars, or to go to work where there was any danger of his getting hurt. After he went to war she had no more such dreams about him, but something seemed to tell her that this was what her dreams had meant, and she felt that he would be killed on the field of battle.
Charles H. Marden, of Company B, who fell at Cold Harbor, gave his watch to Sergeant Piper before going into the battle, and told him that he should be killed.
Ilorace Prescott. of Company H. had an apprehension even from the time of his enlistment that he should be killed in the war. He had a dream before he entered the service that he went to war, and that when in battle he went into an old barn through which the bullets were flying so thickly that he expected every moment to be killed ; and as he did not dream of getting out of the barn alive, he thought it meant that he should be killed if he went to war. But feeling it his duty to go, and expecting a draft, he enlisted.
After going to the front he expressed. in several letters to his wife, his fears of the fate that awaited him, and when at home on a furlough soon after the battle of Fredericksburg. he told her that he had great fears of the next battle ; and in the next letter after going back to the regiment he wrote that he had thought of it ever since his return. In a previous letter he had written as if he would be killed, and said : " May we live together in heaven, I am not afraid to die."
But though always before he had talked and written in a despondent tone and style, in his last letter, as strange as it may seem. he seemed to have for the first time a new hope. This letter was dated on the banks of the Rappahannock and contains the following : "Yesterday and this
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morning I feel brighter and more cheerful, and it now seems to me that I shall come out all right," and ended his last earthly missive with the words : " The drum is now beating for us to ' fall in,' and my sheet is nearly full, two reasons why I must close," and then sends to his wife his last farewell.
Shortly before his last battle he had given his watch and some other things to Woodbury Sanborn in trust for his wife, saying, as he did so, that he should be killed in the next conflict. This was, however, a day or two before his last letter above mentioned. The revival of his hopes, just before their extinguishment, seemed like the last rally of the vital forces of the declining invalid, indicating to the experienced physician's mind that the fatal and final hour is close at hand.
Lieut. George S. Cram, of Company I, had a presentiment that he should be killed at Chancellorsville, and talked with Captain Lang about it. The sense of his impending fate was so deeply felt by him, that it seemed to affect him from the time the battle commenced until his death. He had just stepped from behind a tree to assist one of his men to force down a cartridge when the fatal bullet struck him.
Reuben P. Willard, Charles Cotton, George A. Swain, and John C. Sweatt, all of Company II, tented together at Falmouth and bivouacked together on the march to Chancellorsville. " On the morning of the bat- tle," as Willard relates, " Cotton spoke as soon as he awoke and said : ' One of us is going to be killed. I don't know which one of us it will be, but it will be one I know, for I feel it.'" It was his last morning on earth.
Lieut. Gorham P. Dunn, who was in the writer's mind when referring to the parting of officers and their wives at Point Lookout, * was another one of the many in the Twelfth who long carried with them the impres- sion that they would not live to the end of their term of enlistment. He constantly carried in his pocket a piece of paper by which his body might be identified, gave his wife to understand, at the time and place above mentioned, that they would never see each other again, and in a solemn talk with Lieutenant Hall, on the night before the battle of Cold Harbor, stated, in substance, that all his hopes and expectations for this life would end on the morrow. Lieutenant Hall, speaking of the above, says : " And Captain Keyes talked to me in about the same strain at one time when we were on picket together a few days before the battle of Chancellorsville."
Captain Keyes also told George D. Cross, of his company, while form- ing line of battle on Saturday night, that he should not survive the battle.
Sergt. Ilenry C. Buzzell, of Company D, who was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, had a clear presentiment of his death. Andrew J. Small, of the same company, says of him in this connection : " Ile said to me one day after we landed at the White House, 'I can tell you one thing sure, we are going to have another big battle.' I told him that I expected that we should. He then said, . Yes, we shall, and it will be my last bat- tle. I shall not be killed on the field, but shall be wounded and die.'"
* See page 164.
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Ile lived nearly a month after receiving his mortal wound, and thus was proved his solemn prediction.
Frank Knowlton, of the same company, who yielded up his life at Gettysburg, said to one of his comrades, while forming a line of battle on the morning of the day he was killed: " If the regiment is engaged to- day, I shall fall to rise no more, unless at the resurrection."
Gustavus Emmons, of Company C, said to Dr. Fowler and several others that he should be killed in the first battle. He told Timothy Tilton he should be killed just as soon as he got into the fight, that he should n't live three minutes, and exclaimed " Oh, my children ! my children !" " He was killed," as Tilton says, " at the first volley."
Concerning the presentiment of James M. Jones, of Company A, killed at Chancellorsville, Sergt. O. F. Davis contributes the following : " Jones had told me that he should be killed in this battle, and while we were lying by the brook a bullet struck between him and me, and I said, ' guess they mean us,' to which Jones replied, 'How can you speak so heedlessly in the face of death? You could n't, I know, if you felt as I do. I expect every bullet will be my death messenger, for I shall never see the end of this battle.'"
John S. S. Doloff, of Company I, killed at Cold Harbor, is another one who had the mysterious warning, as testified to by both Nathan G. Plum- mer and Jeremiah F. Davis, who were his comrades. The former says : " The evening before the charge, early the next morning, he felt so bad he could not eat, and he did not sleep any all night. I pitied him with all my heart, for I had learned before then that when a poor fellow got it into his head he was going to be killed, the sad event seemed a certainty to him and was always sure to come."
More properly here than in the following chapter, for which it was first written, belongs the following incident :
Andrew P. Gilman, of Company D, was so severely wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville that he was unable to get off the field, and lay down by the butt of a large oak tree to save himself from being hit again in the terrible storm of iron and lead pouring upon our lines from the enemy.
" While lying there," to use very nearly his own words, " as close to the ground and the tree as I, in my wounded condition, could well get, something told me all at once to get 'round upon the opposite side of the tree. Although it was painfully difficult for me to move, and it was ap- parently moving into danger, instead of out of it, yet so strongly impres- sive was the thought, that as soon as possible I changed my position as directed. But scarcely had I done so, when a shell from one of our own guns struck and exploded so close to the spot I had just left, its pieces striking the tree, that I shall always think that my quick obedience to the silent command saved my life. The same shell wounded Joseph Young, of my company, who, like myself, had been previously disabled and was lying close by."
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" Did you have any presentiment of his death ?" was the question asked by the writer of the widow of Lieut. Charles S. Emery who received his death wounds at the battle of Cold Harbor. With a quick and frightened look, accompanied by a sudden movement that startled the questioner, came the quick inquiry, " Why do you ask ?" and then, after mutual expla- nation which brought out the reason of her surprise at being so unexpectedly asked a question concerning so strange and thrilling an experience that no mortal being ever knew or heard of but herself, she related for the first time in her life the following remarkable and mysterious chapter in her sad history, which is here given very nearly in her own words :
It was the night before the battle of Gettysburg, a night never to be forgotten by me, that I had the strange dream, or vision, for it did not seem like a dream, that told me plainer than tongue or pen, and as unmistakably as my own eyes, the fate that awaited my husband and his brother comrade, Lientenant French. They were, as perhaps you know, schoolmates together, and enlisted from the same neighborhood. I was then stopping here in Loudon with my own folks, and though expecting from newspaper reports that a battle would be fought in a few days, did not know that the two great armies were rapidly concentrating at Gettysburg, and that advanced forces were already engaged on that historic field. I therefore retired that night with nothing more than usual to worry or excite me.
Here the narrator gives a general description of the house, the arrange- ment of the hallway and rooms on the first floor, as well as the chambers, in one of which she alone slept.
Sometime during the night I heard, as I thought, three or four plain and distinct raps on the outside of the front door. Changing my first impulse to arouse the other inmates of the house, I decided not to disturb them, as they gave no sound of being awake, but to answer the summons myself. Hastily dressing, I took the lamp I had lighted in my hand, and descending the front stairs unlocked and opened the door.
There, sad, solemn, and silent. but in perfect lifelike form, countenance, and attitude, and in full dress uniform, stood Lieut. Henry French !
I spoke and extended my hand, but without heeding either, he passed in by me through the hallway into the sitting-room, the door of which he opened and closed after him. For the first time a feeling of dread chilled through my veins, and I hesitated to follow. But something stronger than my fears impelled me forward, and opening the door just closed, I entered the room after him.
Here, in the middle of the room, I saw two coffins, both open and empty, as I first thought, but upon approaching nearer I noticed that only one was empty, while the other held what now seemed the pale face and lifeless form of him who but a minute before stood and moved in life and strength before me. As I gazed upon the empty coffin, a small stream of blood ran out of the foot of it, and fell upon the floor, and something seemed to say : "This is for Charles who, too, must give his life's blood for his country, but his time has not come yet."
Was I afraid, do you ask, and terror-stricken at the sight as I would have been if all had been as real as it seemed? No; the vague feeling of dread and
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apprehension that I remember to have possessed me before entering the sitting- room, prepared me for the scene within, and changed to sadness and grief as the meaning of the vision was made known to me.
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