USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 53
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" Halloo there, Yank ! What ye hunting for ?"
The voice came so unexpectedly that it startled the lone representative of the Twelfth New Hampshire, and he, for the moment, did not know what to say, or whether to reply at all. But not wishing to be outdone in picket-line socialistics any more than tactics, he responded :
"O, I'm not hunting ; only watching to see what you're hunting for."
" Well, I was hunting for the Yankee pickets, and I've found one, I reckon."
" You're right for once, I guess, 'Johnny,' but what do you want of them?"
" I wanted to find out if the d - d niggers were still on your picket-line, but as they are not I reckon that you'uns and we'uns might as well be friendly as to shoot each other for nothing. What do you say to that, Yank ? "
"All right. . Johnny,' if you mean what you talk."
" Well, see if I don't," was the quick reply of the Confederate scout - for such he proved to be-as, leaving his gun, he stepped boldly out from the tree, "and I am ready to meet you half way and shake hands as a pledge of good faith."
This was putting our hero in the most scary place of all, for how did he know but the man carried a revolver or dirk knife, neither of which he possessed himself, and had taken that way of getting the advantage of him. But not wish- ing to show less courage or manliness than the rebel had, he was about to follow his example, when, to his great relief, there appeared two of his comrades, attracted to the place by the loud conversation.
Upon seeing the new comers the Southerner again put himself in an attitude of defense, but being reassured that he should not be hurt or captured, if he would come forward as he had proposed, he soon had the privilege of shaking hands with three Yankees instead of one, and having quite a long chat with them. He said that he had volunteered to go out in advance of their linc to ascertain whether the colored troops were still in their front. He said, also, that " we'uns are all plumb down on nigger soldiers," and if he had found one of them, as he expected to, he should probably have shot him.
With promises that they would not forget the lesson of the occasion, should they ever meet again, they parted, each to his post of duty, and all with stronger impulses of brotherly kindness than they had felt before for years.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
A SOLDIER'S PRAYER.
Asa Witham, of Company D, now a minister, had one evening as usual offered up a fervent petition to " the God of battles," before retiring.
A member of Company H, of Celtic descent, who had very attentively listened in his own tent close by, concluded he could improve the effect as well as profit by the example, and immediately followed in a serio-comic style, his voice rising higher and higher as he proceeded in his true Irish strain of eloquence until all the occupants of the adjoining tents were eagerly listening, hardly knowing whether a good or a bad spirit had taken possession of him whose voice had never before been heard among the morning or evening orisons of camp. But they had not long to wait, for the following conclusion of his prayer, which came unexpectedly as the climax of a most earnest and patriotic appeal for vic- tory and peace, must have convinced them all that his Democratic, if not his Christian faith was Simon-pure : " And, O Lord, what we most desire and must have is ' the Union as it was, and the constitution as it is'; we ask no more, and we'll take no less. Amen."
DIDN'T WAIT FOR ANOTHER.
This brief incident shows of how much value to the service were some of the new regiments sent out to the front just before the close of the war.
At Chapin's Farm, after the capture of the fort, a big shell came over into our lines, cut off' quite a large tree, and striking the ground scooped out a cartfil or more of dirt, but did not explode. The " hundred-days' men," lying near by. jumped up and started to run ; but seeing veteran troops close advancing - the Twelfth New Hampshire being among them - were shamed from continuing their flight.
Soon another shell came along very nearly in the track of the first, struck a big pine log and exploded, filling the air with chunks and splinters of wood, and pieces of iron. This was too much for the " Doughty Dutchmen," and they scattered in haste, the old soldiers jeering and hooting at them as they ran.
CONCLUDED TO TRY HIM.
One day while the regiment was encamped at Williamsburg, Va .. there came an order for its commanding officer to send a lawyer, if he had one, to brigade headquarters, to act as judge advocate of a general court-martial about to be convened for the trial of several deserters and other offenders.
Now the regiment never had but two or three full fledged members of the legal profession, and those had " played out" long before there was any chance to advocate their country's cause on the field of battle.
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But the reputation of the "New Hampshire Mountaineers" was at stake. Nothing had ever before been required of or from them that they could not per- form or supply, and their proud commander was determined that they should not be found wanting now. So he sends for a lieutenant in one of the companies, and shows him the order. Taking in the situation at a glance, the lieutenant began to protest against the colonel's evident intention, and plead his ignorance and inability ; but he was cut short by the earnest and emphatic remark : " This regiment shall never be called upon for an officer or man to fill any place or position, however responsible, that it cannot supply, so long as I have the honor to command it; and, as you come nearest to filling the bill at this time, you must go."
This settled the matter, so far as the lieutenant's duty was concerned, and soon, with the order in his pocket, he was on his way to General Wistar's headquarters. With commingled feelings of fun and fear at the ludicrous position he was being pushed into, and the probable result, he presented himself and the order to the adjutant-general of the brigade, who with a smile, that had something more than affability in it, took him before the commanding general, and introduced him as " the officer sent up from the Twelfth New Hampshire for general judge advo- cate."
There was evidently a slight touch of irony in the peculiar inflection given to the last three words; nor would the reader wonder could he have seen the comi- cal looking candidate for so responsible a position. Standing there, a mere strip- ling, but one half-inch above the army standard, and weight correspondingly light, with an indescribable grin upon his flushed and beardless face, he looked more like a half grown schoolboy than he really was, or the result would, doubt- less, have been less favorable.
The General, looking up from the table upon which he was writing, gazed quizzically at the lieutenant for what seemed to him full sixty seconds, and then with a furtive glance at his adjutant-general, and with more sternness in his voice than countenance, made inquisition of his new acquaintance as follows :
" Are you a lawyer, sir? "
" No, sir."
" Have you ever acted as judge advocate ?"
"' No, sir."
" Have you ever been a member of a general court-martial?"
"No, sir."
These three questions had followed each other in quick succession ; but now came a pause, the General thinking, probably, that there had been some mistake. But remembering that he had sent for a lawyer the General again inquires :
" Have you ever studied law?"
Here the unwilling witness was touched in a tender spot, for the truth com- pelled him to answer :
" Yes, sir, a little, before I got into " Uncle Sam's " employ, but I guess I have forgotten it all before now."
" Sit down here, sir," pointing to a chair near him, " and let me see."
The result of the examination, which was short but sharp, being quite satis- factory, the young judge advocate, after receiving full authority and all necessary instruction for opening and conducting his court the next day, returned to his
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
regiment feeling much better satisfied with himself than when he went. It is but justice to this officer, who is still living, and a practicing member of the bar, to say that such was his success in his new position, that he was promised by General Wistar a recommendation for the position of a post judge advocate until the end of the war, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
SAVED HIS HEAD.
Sergeant Stockbridge. of Company B, who was one deserving the hon- ors of the " old guard," always used to be picking into every unexploded shell he could find, and his comrades, who used to call him " Stodgum," had often told him that his curiosity would cost him his head some day, if he didn't look out.
That day came while encamped at Chapin's Farm, but he looked out just in time to save his head. A big fuse shell from the enemy struck in the camp and rolled down the company street. In a minute Stockbridge was on its track, but when within ten or fifteen feet of it he noticed a little puff of smoke just in time to drop upon his face before the shell exploded.
His LAST GAME OF CARDS.
There were few, if any, better soldiers in the Twelfth or any other regiment than E. G. C., of Company D ; but he was always full of his fun, and no one liked to play euchre better than he did.
One day, when the regiment was near Fort Harrison, he and three others - two from the Ninth Vermont, and one from the Fifth Maryland - were playing a four-handed game, using a rubber blanket spread upon the ground as a table.
Soon a shell came over from the enemy's line and exploded so close to them that it left only a shapeless mass of mangled flesh in the place where but an instant before sat his partner of the Fifth Maryland, in the full form and vigor of life.
Though none of the others were seriously injured, yet the poor fellow thus sadly and suddenly summoned hence was not the only one of the four who had played his last game of cards.
How HE GOT OUT OF IT.
George E. Place, of Company B, who was detailed from the regiment to act as one of the provost guard of Whipple's division, a few weeks before Chancellorsville, here gives his experience of the evening before the main battle, when Jackson's forces scattered the Eleventh Corps and struck a staggering blow to Hooker's whole army.
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About 4 o'clock in the afternoon of May 2, 1863, a day I shall never forget, we were standing in a field somewhere near the plank road. A squad of ten or fifteen rebel prisoners, captured by Berdan's sharpshooters, passed us, in charge of a guard, each one with a uniform different from the others. We learned from the guard that they were a portion of a Georgia regiment. A squad of cavalry men stood near us, and one of them began to berate the passing squad. " We'll have every mother's son of you," he exclaimed, " before we go away from here."
One of the rebs, a man of about fifty, hunch-backed, and with, I think, the largest nose I every saw on a person's face, with an ominous shake of the head, replied : " You'll catch h-1 before night."
It was not long after the squad had passed, before, away off on our right, out on the still air of that bright afternoon, like the eruption of a volcano, burst that thunderous roll of artillery that heralded " Stonewall" Jackson's attack upon the Eleventh Corps. A few minutes afterwards we advanced a short distance towards the Chancellor House, and took position just within the edge of some pine woods. Everything in our vicinity was as yet very quiet, no intimation having reached us of the disaster that had occurred. Presently, a few stragglers began to make their appearance, coming through the woods from the direction where the firing had been heard. In conformity with our duty as provost guards, we ordered them to fall in on the left of our company, which each one quietly did as he came along.
The stragglers continued to increase, and it was not long before the number exceeded our own company. As yet, no one had given any account of them- selves as to how they came to be there. Probably their silence was owing to the fact that they were skulkers, and felt ashamed of their conduct. More and more numerous they appeared, coming through the woods. I began to suspect that something was wrong. } turned and looked at our captain. A troubled, inquir- ing look rested on his face. Looking at the increasing stream of soldiers, he finally exclaimed : " What does this mean?"
A soldier, evidently a German, excitedly replied : " You had better get out of dis as quick as you can. De rebs are right on our heels !" The next instant, one dense mass of men came pouring through the woods upon us.
"Forward, march !" shouted our captain. On we started, just in advance of the retreating stream, soon reaching an open field, where a German battery was busily preparing either for action or retreat. They were directly in our path, and we passed between their guns. We passed on a few rods further, when a scene of the wildest confusion and panic ensued. The main body of the retreat- ing force had struck us. I immediately became conscious that I was in a dense crowd; a crowd that was surging along as fast as legs could carry them. Sev- eral times I was literally lifted from my feet, and it required the greatest exertion on my part to avoid being thrown down. The boys in my company began throwing away their knapsacks. I was urged to do the same. I had sixty rounds of cartridges and five days' rations, besides other physical comforts in my knapsack, yet I did not, as yet, feel like parting with it. I passed a horse lying upon the ground, struggling to regain his feet, with a hole in his flank as large as an orange, from which the blood was issuing in jets. It is a mystery to me how that horse could have received its wound, for no firing on that part of the field had then occurred.
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
Presently, I became conscious that I was alone. Burdened with my knapsack, I could not make as fast time as the others, and so was left in the rear. It was now dusk. I came to a small brook, and was just going to leap over it, when a shell- ing suddenly began, coming from the field where we had passed the German battery. The shells had scarcely left the guns, when bang! bang ! from one or more batteries posted on a bank not more than ten rods ahead of me. I won- dered if the battery we had passed had been captured by the rebels and turned upon us, or if it had fallen back, and was among those who were now returning the rebel fire. The volley from our guns was the first intimation I had that I was running into the mouth of batteries, as it was now quite dark, and it would hardly be necessary to say that I was very much excited. ( I have noticed that soldiers don't like to use the word " frightened " to express a peculiar emotion, and so it becomes convenient to use the word " excited.") For a few moments after the fire had opened, I felt sure that my last hour was at hand ; but I soon noticed that the danger was not so very imminent, as the shells passed a safe dis- tance above my head.
It was a grand pyrotechnic display. The air seemed to be full of fiery ser- pents, formed by the burning fuse, passing each other in opposite directions. and every one hissing like a demon. There seemed to be many more guns on our side than the rebel's, and the firing soon ceased, lasting about ten minutes. It was a grand display, but I did not feel particularly anxious to stop and witness it. I thought it about time to part with my knapsack, which I proceeded to unstrap as quickly as possible. It seemed as if never before it had taken so long to unstrap it. As soon as I got free, I changed my order of march " by the left flank," and marched (?) up the ravine. I soon reached a road, and had a purpose to cross it and go on a little further so as to be sure of getting safely past the flank of the batteries ; but just as I stepped into the road. a rebel gun, planted in the road to my left, on the opposite bank from our batteries, threw a shell which passed but a short distance above my head. My eyes instinctively fol- lowed its course. It passed on but a short distance and exploded. The glare revealed the fact that it had exploded directly over one of our guns, and but a few feet above it. I thought to myself, " if that shell didn't kill or injure some of those gunners, it is remarkable." I learned afterwards that one man was killed, and two wounded by it. That shell caused me to change my purpose in regard to crossing the road. and I turned, intending to keep it, but I had scarcely turned when a shell from one of our guns, right in front of me, came whizzing over my head, so near that the wind of its motion staggered me ; indeed, I could compare the force with which that wind struck me. no better than by saying that it was like a big barn door being stood up in front of me, and then, by some mighty force, dashed to the ground in an instant. That shell changed the order of my march again, and I turned out of the road and into some woods which stood close to the road, and ran on about twenty rods, when I sank to the ground, completely out of breath.
The firing soon ceased, and all was quiet. I lay there about an hour, and began to get quite rested. I thought of my knapsack, and concluded I would go back and see if I could recover it. I soon found it, but it had been rifled of everything except my shelter tent. I picked it up and sadly strapped it to my back. I had scarcely done so, when they got into a row on the picket-line, and
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a shower of bullets came whistling around me. One passed so near my neck that I felt its wind stir my hair ; but I had already grown to be quite a veteran, and went leisurely on my way. I soon found our captain and some half-dozen of the boys. All night long the boys kept dropping in, and by morning all but two had come.
GENERAL WEITZEL TO DOCTOR FOWLER.
On the evening before the last " on to Richmond " was sounded, Doc- tor Fowler, then in charge of Point of Rocks hospital, received the fol- lowing order from General Weitzel, commanding on the north side of the James :
HEAD QRS., &C., &C., April 2, 1865. Dr. H. B. FOWLER, Surg. in charge Point of Rocks Hospital:
SIR,- You will prepare your hospital to receive one thousand wounded, at once. We start for Richmond to-morrow by light. Hell is to pay and no pitch hot.
By order. &c., G. WEITZEL, Maj. Gen. Com'd'g.
STILL PATRIOTIC.
On the day of the capture of Richmond, all of the Union soldiers, of course, were in good spirits, and some had foolishly tried to excel their comrades in the exuberance of their feelings by the aid of spirits of another kind.
Daniel Cheney, while passing along a street, saw one of his comrades of Com- pany E sitting on the steps of a store building, looking and acting as if he had been celebrating at the expense of his usual soldier-like appearance and deport- ment, as well as his manly dignity.
" Why,-, what are you doing here?" interrogated Cheney.
"O Dan, is that you? I'm so glad (hic) to find you. I've been hun-hunting (hic) and 'unting for the bo-bo-boys till I can't s-s-stand any longer."
"So I am sorry to see. You are evidently in a bad condition."
" Yes, the condi-d-dition is (hic) is very bad, but the s-s-sit-situation is glorious."
He evidently had gotten the status of himself and the army slightly mixed up.
THEY TROUBLED HIS DREAMS.
Anyone who has journeyed through some parts of the South will appre- ciate the following, from the true and tried Thomas Lawler while in charge of the jail at Danville, Va. :
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New Hampshire Volunteers.
I had the present of a nice cot bedstead, and so after getting through my duties at the jail I put on my new straw bed that I had prepared for it. put my cartridge- box and boots under my head, using a newspaper for my pillow-slip, and, con- gratulating myself on having so rare a chance for a good night's rest. went to bed, and was soon fast asleep. By and by I partly awoke, and attributing my disturb- ance to the actions of the jail birds that I had charge of, said : " Quit your fooling there or you will get locked up."
"Pretty soon I was aroused again, this time to a full consciousness of my situa- tion, and jumping up I found my cartridge-box on my head, the newspaper and blanket at my feet, and could hear my boots going across the floor. As soon as possible I struck a match and what a sight did I see! There was a whole army of all ranks and grades. from major-generals to privates, with a vast array of the latter, all out on skirmish drill, except a strong detail of pioneers who were clearing the field of all obstructions. Securing from the latter my cartridge-box and boots. I shook my blanket and threw my bed out of the window. and found quiet repose for the rest of the night upon the floor.
" THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND A COW."
He had marvellously escaped unscratched from the woods where the regiment had fought at Chancellorsville, and had just begun to congrat- ulate himself on his good luck, when up jumped half a dozen or more of rebel soldiers. from some bushes that had concealed them, and very earnestly invited him to join their company. Not wishing to offend the sensitive spirit of Southern chivalry by any seeming discourtesy, and being too near to make any successful pretension that he did not hear, . having already looked them in the face over the barrels of their leveled muskets, he concluded to accept of their invitation, whatever might be his reception. He was at once sent to the rear, and the next day started with many more " blue coats " for Richmond.
Now this young but plucky member of Company E, as said of "' Bully Brooks" of ante-bellum days, was " a good fighter but a poor traveler," and he neither liked the journey nor the destination.
He had been used to tramping over the green-pasture hills of his native town of Ifolderness, and catching the bright-speckled inmates of her clear-running streams; but being caught himself was another thing. and far less enjoyable. He did not. moreover, quite like the prospect of marching with blistered feet through forty or fifty miles of Virginia mud, to find rest at last within the walls of a rebel prison ; and so he went up to a man with long gray hair and beard. who was pointed out to him by the guard as the surgeon, and, showing him the large blisters upon his feet, asked that he might be allowed to remain with the wounded and disabled prisoners that were to be left in the rebel lines upon the field. But all the aid or sympathy he got for his pains was, " I'll risk ye," the doctor thinking, no doubt. that -
Willing feet to come must be made to go.
No matter if blistered from heel to toe.
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With an angry grind of the teeth he turns away, and immediately commences to do a little thinking for himself; and about the first thing that presented itself to his mind was the not very consoling old saw-toothed rhyme,
". What can't be cured must be endured."
Quick as the clap follows the flash, when the lightning " strikes," a bright idea struck him. Why not supplement the somber-hued old adage and leave, at least, a tail-end margin of hope by adding, " unless you can dodge it."
"Nothing risked, nothing gained," kind memory at once brought up to reinforce his resolution, already formed, and while the guard makes another halt to take in a new squad of prisoners, he drops, unobserved, into a bunch of bushes, and soon the officer in charge marched his captives, amounting, now, to several hundred, down the plank road en route for Richmond, leaving the lucky dodger still safely hidden, like Moses, in the bush.
The following night he crawled out of his leafy covert, and, finding an old negro hut, climbed up into the loft and was soon fast asleep. When he awoke it was nearly 10 o'clock in the morning, and although greatly rested by so good a dose of " tired nature's sweet restorer," the demands of an empty stomach were becoming persistently urgent, while he had not so much as the crumbs of an empty haversack with which to furnish a supply, all having been taken from him by the " Johnnies." Here was something that could be neither quickly cured nor long endured ; but to dodge the rebel pickets and across the Rappa- hannock river, where he could get food without fear of recapture, was altogether of a different size and kind from the bush-drop dodge that had served him so well the day before. But it was foolish, he thought, to give himself up to despair or the rebels without trying his luck a little longer, and so he was about to go down and walk out onto the field and play the lame duck dodge, when he heard someone moving about below.
The noise he had made, not thinking anyone else was in the house, had been heard by the rebel citizen, as he proved to be, who, after listening for a few moments in vain for some other sound from above, started to go up the ladder. Fearing worse treatment from him than the rebel soldiers, and having nothing to defend himself with, our hero made a bold leap through the hole, pushing the man off the ladder by hitting him with his shoulder as he jumped, both landing with a crash upon the floor below, one upon his heels, which he so quickly took to that he could never tell whether the other struck upon his head or back. Whether the citizen or soldier was the more frightened or hurt will never be known; but whatever of evil the former had intended, the latter, as the would-be- lame duck, had escaped by the use of his wings, and such free and rapid motion of his legs, until he reached the woods, as to prove him more of a land than a water fowl, and having the locomotive powers of an ostrich.
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