USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 46
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The foregoing has been written to correct an error of belief quite com- mon among the old veterans, and one which General Butler himself seemingly entertained, in relation to the Whitworth gun and its projectile, the "terrific shriek " or "unearthly screech" of the latter being so frequently heard spoken of by them; when the actual fact is, that no such frightful sounds were ever made by any projectile fitted for and com- ing from a Whitworth gun. The sound made by the swift passage of one of these bolts through the air was peculiarly different from that of other artillery projectiles of similar size and weight, but neither louder nor more frightful.
Many of those that were thrown at the tower here represented, buried themselves in a hillside beyond, and were dug out by visiting parties from the North and carried home.
General Butler's story of being in this tower when the enemy saluted him with a couple of these shots materially differs from that of the signal officer then in charge of the station ; but the general acknowledges that he was " considerably frightened " and says : " If one of the projectiles had hit either of the corner posts of the tower it would have undoubt- edly come down, and myself with it, faster than would have been agreeable." Yet the Crow's Nest tower of the same height and build withstood the concentrated fire of five guns - three of them 200-pounder Brooks's rifled guns - from 9 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon : and though its platforms, ladders, and braces were more or less stove up, it still stood sufficiently firm and erect to allow the signal officer and his flagman to receive and send messages upon and from its top. It was estimated that not less than one hundred and sixty-five shots were fired at the tower within the time mentioned, one hundred and thirty-seven of which were verified by actual count, commenced at the suggestion of the lieutenant in charge of " Water Battery," near by, after he had been watching for more than an hour to see it go down.
383
New Hampshire Volunteers.
A soldier who visited the tower soon afterward said : " I don't believe there was a whole stick left in the structure ; all were either splintered or broken. Even the boards of the platform on which the officer and his flag- man stood were broken by pieces of shell that had burst below them."
Though this is slightly exaggerative, it is so true substantially that had General Butler been obliged to stand there he would have been convinced, if not too badly frightened to calmly consider the subject, that something more powerfully destructive than a Whitworth bolt would be necessary to demolish a signal tower.
The author of the book from which the above quotation was taken, * in referring to the trying experience of the officer upon the tower at this time, says :
At the battle of Chapin's Farm he found that two cannon had been planted the night before just across the river on purpose to knock him out of the tower while the heavier guns of Howlett's battery were trying to knock it down.
No wonder that when the " ball " opened on that eventful day he turned to his flagman and remarked : " We might as well make our peace with God, for we shall never get out of this alive." Yet, strange to say, and impossible as it seems, though platforms. posts. ladders, and braces were rent, splintered, and broken, yet the tower stood, and they did get out of it not only alive but unhurt !
He has informed the writer that, though it was " a mighty uncertain balance of chances," he has once or twice stood in a place of greater danger, but never where it required greater nerve power to control himself. ". To keep your eye," said he, " steadily at the glass, and keep cool enough to catch and interpret every switch of the distant flag through the smoke of battle, while a 200-pound shell explodes within the tower directly beneath you, and spiteful percus- sion 10-pounders are flying around your head, is not, as you can imagine, a very easy thing to do. There is an almost irresistible impulse to let the message, how- ever important, go to the d-1, and look around to see if you are not going in the same direction yourself."
The top of that tower was a very busy as well as dangerous place at that time, as the officer and his flagmen - for there were three or four different ones of the latter during the day -were almost constantly engaged in taking, answering, and transmitting messages, some of which were between Grant and Butler, and in giving the latter and General Ord information about the rebel troops, their strength, position, and reinforce- ments, that were opposed to them. t It was because of the commanding view of their lines and movements given to us from this tower that the rebels were so intent upon destroying it.
Signal messages were sent by means of flags by day and torches by night. The flags used varied in size and color according to the distance and the location of the sender. The smallest - called " action flags," because used in battle and for short distances- were eighteen by twenty- four inches, while the largest, used for long distance signaling, were either
. Robinson's history of Pittsfield, N. H., in the Great Rebellion.
t See page 241.
384
History of the Twelfth Regiment
six feet square or six by eight, and the staffs or poles to which they were attached were from twelve to sixteen feet long. With flags of this size messages could be sent in a clear day from one mountain top to another though separated by a distance of thirty and forty miles, as was several times the case in keeping up communication between the two wings of Sherman's army on his famous march " from Atlanta to the sea." In such a campaign as his through the enemy's country, the signal code practice was of great advantage. The colors of the flags were white with red centre, where the background was dark like the woods ; black, with white or red centre, where the background was light like the top of a tower or woodless hill ; and red with white centre, when signaling on the water : the intention being, as will be seen, to use a flag, the color of which would make such a contrast with the shade of the background of the sender of the message as to be the most distinctly seen by the observer who receives it.
To signal at night, two torches made by setting fire to balls of cotton roping soaked in spirits of turpentine and attached to poles were used : one of these torches was swung to the right, left, or front the same as a flag and the other placed upon the ground or floor just in front of the flagman's feet. The use of the foot torch will be better understood when the reader learns the meaning of the motions which will be now briefly explained, so that the reader may know how messages are sent. Every motion of the flag or torch to the right or left symbolized a letter or part of a letter, not over four motions being made for any one letter ; but the numerals required five motions for each figure. The number and direction of the motions are indicated to the flagman who makes them by numbers called off to him by the officer who sends the message. Even numerals meant motions to the right and odd ones to the left, and the figure five was used when the officer wanted a motion to the front, a single motion in that direc- tion denoting the end of a word, two motions the end of a sentence, and three the end of the message. The foot-torch helps to distinguish the side from the front motions of the one held in the hands.
The officers were required to make oath that they would not divulge any part or secrets of the code, but as the old code is no longer used, and the object of its secrecy not now existing, it is here given, so far as the simple alphabet went, as used in 1864.
A
II
2
B
1423
2231
C
234
1434
D
II.4
E
23
2314
F
III4
22
G
II.12
14
H
231
K L M N O P I J
2343
385
New Hampshire Volunteers.
Q
2342
V W
· 23II
R
142
2234
S
143
Y
1431
T
I
Yʼ
222
U
223
Z
. IIII
If the officer wanted to signal the letter A, he would call out cleven, and his flagman would immediately make two motions of his flag or torch to the left : if the letter B was to be signaled, he would call fourteen twenty three, and the flagman would make one motion to the left, two motions to the right, and another motion to the left ; and so on through the whole alphabet, the even figures of any number calling for motions to the right, and odd ones to the left.
Beside the letters there were numerous abbreviations which, together with numbers for the common ending of many words like tion, able, ing, etc., very much aided in sending a message. But as a still greater aid in the matter of time, which was sometimes of great importance in battle, a few letters, made by a few quick switches of the flag, would be suffi- cient to send an order or dispatch from the commanding general to one of his grand division or corps commanders, as : " A. R. L .- Advance and reinforce our line :" "E. A. L .- Enemy advancing on our left;" "L. O. R .- Keep sharp lookout on your right :" " F. O .- Fire over us," etc.
The phonetic method of spelling was practiced in the signal service and found very necessary to a quick and easy working of the code. A word, unless a person's name,* was very seldom spelled out in full, the vowels being left out, and it would have surprised a novice to see how rapidly two old signal officers could communicate with each other.
From the foregoing the reader cannot fail to understand something about that of which even the old veterans know but little, viz. : the modus operandi of army signaling.
During the first part of the war the signal codes used in the Union and Confederate armies were so similar, that messages sent on either side were frequently intercepted by the other ; and this continued, much to the annoyance of the signal officers and the detriment of the service in both armies, notwithstanding several changes in the codes, until some ingen- ious Yankee invented the " cypher-disk " method of signaling, which was too hard a puzzle for the rebel signal officers to solve, and the language of our flags and torches was ever after an unknown tongue to them ; while we continued to read theirs, intercepting several messages more or less important, to the end of the war.
On the day after the battle of the "Mine" or Cemetery Hill, the following rebel message was read by one of our officers as it was flagged from one of their signal stations to one of their ironclads on the James river.
* See anecdote.
386
History of the Twelfth Regiment
July 31, 1864.
To Flag Officer Mitchel:
Grant sprung a mine at Petersburg at 5 A. M. yesterday ; charged and took our line. Mahone, with his own and Wright's brigade, recaptured the works and captured General Bartlett and staff, 75 commissioned officers, 900 prisoners, and 12 stands of colors; and also recaptured the party that was taken. Five hundred Yankee dead are in the trenches. This is official.
( Signed.) SMITII, Major.
The next and last to be written upon the subject of signaling is a mes- sage sent from "Cobb Hill" tower to General Butler through his chief signal officer on the morning that the rebel works, above referred to, were blown up, and referring to the same explosion :
COBB'S HILL, July 30, 1864, 6 A. M.
Captain Norton :
South, 5 degrees west, cannonading for the last half-hour about 5 miles distant. Also a line of smoke indicating musketry fire. Our shells bursting over and beyond the enemy's lines. South 30 degrees west, about 12 miles distant, a house burning.
( Signed. ) BARTLETT, Signal Officer.
The following is from a poem by Capt. Daniel W. Bohonon, which was written for, and read at, the reunion of the regiment upon Diamond Island, July 4, 1866 :
Once more we meet, my comrades dear : The past has claimed another year, Since each one clasped the friendly hand, In welcome greeting to our band.
The years fly on with rapid wing, Change, joy, and sorrow still they bring ; The earnest hope, the task begun, The patient toil, the victory won, The cares of life engross us still, To test the heart and try the will. For not alone in days of war Should we be true to duty's law, But, without thought of toil or cost, Life should be one grand holocaust, Burning on honor's altar bright, With patriot zeal, with radiant light. Yet haply, from our earthly lot, Something survives that changes not ; Something by love and trial made Nobler than produce, stocks, and trade, That in our varied, checkered lives Like holy incense still survives. 'T is affection's boon, to mortals given, Received on earth, bestowed from heaven ! That man retains, strong proof of all, Something possessed before the fall !
We that survive, alas ! how few ! Remember eighteen sixty-two, When from the farm and college hall The TWELFTHI was borne from duty's call, How with sad hearts, and yet elate, We left the noble Granite State, Not knowing then, as now we see, How death was immortality ; For not a life for country given, Is ever lost in sight of heaven, And the meanest gift for that high cause Will win the angels' sure applause. * * *
And now, my comrades, ere you part, As holy zeal pervades the heart, fn Life's Great Book a page turn back. And see the march and bivouac ; Scan the long list of names " relieved From duty," called to a higher field. Their earthly cares ceased with this life, Who will befriend the child and wife? Be it ours to act a father's part, Relieve the want. console the heart. And cherish well with heart and head, The memory of our noble dead.
387
New Hampshire Volunteers.
THE UNION VOLUNTEER.
As an additional tribute *- for too much cannot be said in their praise - to those to whose united efforts, standing shoulder to shoulder, we are so largely indebted for our national existence. the following extract from an oration, delivered upon the occasion of the reunion mentioned on the pre- ceding page, and referring to them and their great leaders, will be here given :
It is not in vain that we contemplate the transcendant genius of a Washington, who like Fabius could " save a nation by delay. " and so govern the vicissitudes of fortune by the foresight of philosophy as to secure victory from defeat, until, like Cæsar, the eagle of his conquests could soar above proud Albion's crest and cause the British lion to couch beneath the shadow of its conquering pinions ; for we learn, thereby, the better to appreciate the goodness and greatness of our own beloved Lincoln, who, imitating the virtues of Washington, will live in the undy- ing praise of ages yet to come. As the savior of his country and the great emancipator of a long-oppressed and down-trodden race, his name shall be inscribed, with that of his illustrious predecessor, high up on the monumental adamant of imperishable glory.
Washington and Lincoln! Exemplar of Christian heroes! Prince of free- dom's martyrs! The father of his country, and the savior of the same! In what favored age or nation shall the pen of the historian be able to record the existence of characters so greatly good and gloriously sublime ! Greece could once boast of her Aristides and Leonidas, her Socrates, Solon, and Epaminondas ; while Rome could vote the golden purple and laurel wreath to her Cæsars and her Scipios, and point with pride to a Cicero, a Fabius, Cato, and Cincinnatus ; but where among all those illustrious heroes, philosophers, and statesmen shall we look for the immortal fame of a Washington or the deathless name of a Lin- coln ! Commissioned of lleaven to perform, like Moses, a great and important part in the grand drama of events -to accomplish the work of ages in the sub- lime revolution of an hour - they have nobly fulfilled their mission and gone to surrender up their credentials into the hands of their great Sovereign and Com- mander. Had we nothing else to bequeath to posterity but the examples of such exalted merit, as is exhibited in the single life of Abraham Lincoln alone, it would be a patrimony more valuable to the rising generations of our blood- washed and freedom-dedicated land, than all the wealth that ever grew from soil enriched by the bondman's sweat, or watered by the slave mother's tears. Though he fell with his armor on, as the great chief of a martyred host of fallen patriots, and has, like them, sealed his mission with his blood, yet Lincoln survives, and with " malice towards none, but charity for all," his spirit -
Invisibly shatt beckon on - A leader and a chieftain born But never born to die.
· See page 350 et seq.
388
History of the Twelfth Regiment
But the greatest of men are but humble instruments in the hands of the Great Master Workman, and as such no more deserving of praise than the poorest sub- ject or weakest private beneath their rule or under their command. The Ameri- can citizen, however humble or obscure, who obeying the dictates of conscience shouldered his musket in defense of the liberties of his native land, and fought the red-handed and black-hearted traitors face to face until the viper-headed mon- ster of armed Treason could no longer strike its deadly fangs at the nation's vitals, is deserving of as high a tribute of praise as can be bestowed upon any man, for any achievement in any age or time. But for the brave heroes that composed the rank and file of the Union army, where now would be the declaration of freedom and equality that you have listened to with glowing countenances to-day ?
When at half past four o'clock on the 12th day of April, 1861, the first gun . was fired upon Fort Sumter, and the thunders of the great American rebellion struck their first notes to sound the march of a hell-born despotism upon the ears of a startled and astonished world, who was it that, forgetful of all but his coun- try's peril, waited not for a father's benediction, a mother's prayer, or a sister's parting kiss, but rushed boldly to the rescue and threw his body as a living sac- rifice upon the altar of his country? The Union volunteer ! And tell me, when the rebel hordes swarmed upon Arlington Heights and their glistening bayonets filled the streets of Alexandria; when the dark and threatening clouds of disso- lution and ruin, rolling up from the southern horizon, spread their muttering thunders over these northern skies, and hissed their forked lightnings around the dome of our National Capitol; who was it, that true to his country and his God, rallied around that glorious old standard of Yorktown and Saratoga, and drove the dark minions of sedition back till the shades of Mount Vernon were no longer desecrated by their presence? The Union volunteer ! He it was who, three years ago to-day, planted the stars and stripes upon the fortified heights of Vicksburg, and bore them triumphantly over the rebel dead upon the decisive and ever to be remembered field of Gettysburg. And, fellow comrades, you will bear me witness to the truth of the assertion, that had it been left to a vote of the rank and file of the surviving heroes of the terrible struggle upon that his- toric field instead of the decision of your ostensible leader, one of the greatest blunders of the war would have been avoided, and Williamsport instead of Appo- mattox would now be known as the Yorktown of the rebellion. And, sir, if the soldier citizens of the loyal States were to compose the jury that is to try the arch-traitor of Fortress Monroe next November, I should have no fears but that they would render a verdict worthy the honor and justice of a country, which he has drenched in fraternal blood to destroy, but which they, by their unexampled sacrifice and valor, have saved from his traitorous grasp.
Let it not be forgotten, then, that to him who has carried the cartridge box and the musket, belongs no small share of the nation's gratitude and thanks for the high privileges and invaluable blessings which, through the mercy of an over- ruling Providence, have been vouchsafed to thirty millions of American freemen.
389
New Hampshire Volunteers.
THE CHANCES AND CHANGES OF WAR.
" The smaller the chances the greater the changes," is certainly true in war. No better illustration of this could well be given than a careful inspection of the Twelfth Regiment when it left Washington, October 17, 1862, for the front, and again upon its return to that city after the Gettysburg campaign, July 27, 1863, but little more than nine months afterward .*
When Colonel Barker took command of a brigade near Fort Harrison, in the Fall of '64, t one of his regiments was the Second New Hampshire in which he was serving as corporal when captured by the enemy at the first battle of Bull Run ; and this was his first connection with the regi- ment afterward.
Thus one of the members of the "Gallant Second," from the ranks of which so many officers had been promoted before the close of the war, had arisen from the rank of a corporal to the position of an acting briga- dier-general, and the change in the regiment itself was scarcely less remarkable.
Lieutenant Dunn, who after the battle of Chancellorsville was one of only four officers out of twenty-eight left able to do duty, wrote a letter home in which he said : " Who would have thought a few months ago, when I enlisted as private, that I should have command of the remnants of two companies of the regiment now?"
Of the ten hundred and nineteen original members of the regiment mustered into the service in the Fall of '62, only two hundred and forty- two were mustered out at the end of the war; and of the eighteen officers who came home with the regiment, only four held commissions when they left the State, and but one of them, Surgeon Fowler, bore the same rank as when he started. The other fourteen, including major, adjutant, acting quartermaster, and assistant surgeon, all arose from the ranks; four of them being sergeants, two corporals, and eight privates, when they went to the front.
Closely connected with the foregoing is the significant fact, not often considered, that in " the mighty task performed," of crushing out the " Great Rebellion " of 1861 -'65, the harder and greater part was done by a comparatively small part of those who enlisted to do it.
Doubtful as this statement may at first seem a little reflection will show its correctness. The record of the Twelfth will sufficiently illustrate. No regiment of stouter and more rugged men went into the war from the whole North, perhaps, and yet it took but about two months of comparatively easy service to reduce its rank and file to less than eight hundred effective men to enter its first battlefield. Four months and a half more, all except the " Mud March" in winter quarters, left only five hundred and forty- nine men to carry muskets from Falmouth to Chancellorsville, from
* See page 143.
t See page 242.
390
History of the Twelfth Regiment
whom not less than five per cent should be deducted to get nearest the number of those who actually fought the enemy on the day of that terrible carnage. Less by one than sixty days later, and but two hundred and twenty-four officers and men were present and ready to confront their country's foes on the field of Gettysburg ; and when the regiment arrived in Washington about three weeks afterwards, as above referred to, only sixty-nine musket bearers answered to the roll-call, being all then left for active duty in the ranks out of nearly ten hundred that left Concord just ten months before.
But how do you account for the rest? is the question that will naturally arise in the mind of the reader, and the answer to which is here given with approximate correctness as follows :
25 per cent in the grave ; about one half killed in battle.
/20
45%
15 discharged. 66 IO .. 5 5 66 siek and wounded in hospital. ٠٠ on furlough.
IO 66 on detached service or special duty. at " Parole Camp," Annapolis, or in Southern prisons.
.. at " Distribution Camp," Alexandria, awaiting orders.
5 5 in Canada or elsewhere, as deserters.
otherwise or not accounted for.
It will be seen from the above that about fifty per cent of the whole regiment were out of the service entirely before they had been in a year : and of the remainder, most of whom were in hospital or on furlough, not more than one third ever returned to the regiment for regular duty, those surviving and not discharged for disability being transferred into the Inva- lid Corps, or allowed to do light duty elsewhere, as nurses, clerks, etc. Many who returned to the regiment at Point Lookout were discharged or again sent to the hospital before the Spring campaign opened. From that time to the end of the war, through all the hardship and fighting of Bermuda Front. Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, the long and severe siege of Petersburg and the hard and trying service of the Fall and Winter fol- lowing, the number of the original members who stood by the flag would scarcely average one hundred, counting both officers and men.
It is true that few regiments of the war on either side suffered so severely and lost so heavily for the time it served as the Twelfth New Hampshire ; but its record will all the better convince anyone who will study it that it was the heroic few who fought the battles for the many. And all this, not that a large majority of those who did little were any the less willing and brave, but because they had not the iron constitution and good luck to sustain them on the march and save them from wounds or death upon the field, that their more fortunate comrades had, and with- out which the bravest heart and noblest soul had but to yield, as so many did, to the stern decree of fate, for such are the chances and changes of war.
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