USA > New Hampshire > History of the Twelfth regiment, New Hampshire volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 57
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Graduating in 1843 from West Point, where he stood in class rank next below General Grant, he was first engaged in garrison duty and then in the military occupation of Texas and the war with Mexico. Ile was engaged in the defense of Fort Brown and slightly wounded at Monterey. Subsequently, being promoted to first lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry. he served ou garrison duty again at several southern and western frontier posts until 1847, when he was promoted to captain in the same regiment. A year or two later he accompanied the {'tah expedition. and when the war broke out between the states, was on duty in Texas. where he was captured by the Confederates July 27, 1861. Soon after his exchange in August, 1862. he was appointed colonel of the Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, and commanded the regiment until severely wounded by musket ball through the left leg at Chancellorsville, where he was taken prisoner. He was exchanged October, 1863, and was assistant provost-marshal-general of Ohio until September. IS64. when he was assigned a brigade in the Eighteenth Corps of the Army of the James, having. for a time, the full command of the Bermuda front. It was here that the " Old Twelfth " came again under his command as one of the regiments of his brigade. Later he was assigned to the command of a brigade in the Twenty-fourth Corps, of which he soon became chief of staff, serving as such to the end of the war.
During the war he was appointed major, brevetted lieutenant-colonel, colonel. and brigadier-general in the regular army, and promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. A few months after his discharge from the volunteer service he was commissioned lieutenant- colonel in the Thirtieth United States Infantry, and was promoted to full rank as colonel December 11. 1873. Hle did not, however, receive the commission of brigadier-general, to which he was long before justly entitled, until 1886 or IST, when he was appointed to that rank by President Cleveland.
For four years before this he was governor of the soldiers' home at Washington, D. C., and afterward he held command of the Department of Missouri until his retirement from the service, hy reason of age, in 1x86.
He was married to Alice G., daughter of Hon. Lincoln Kilbourne. of Columbus, Ohio. September 12. 1865, and had by her four children - Alice F .. Jane K .. Joseph D .. and Francis D., who are still living. and others who died in infancy. Jane K. is now the wife of Lieutenant Hill in the regular army.
General Potter's connection with the Twelfth as its colonel was brief, but it was long enough to overcome a strong prejudice against him when he took command. and build up in its place a feeling of confidence and respect.
le. like his great classmate. was a man of few words; and this, with his natural reserve and regular army habit of official dignity, made him appear more austere and apathetic than he really was. But we forbear eulogy. however deserving. except to say that. while he had not the fecund brain or facund tongue of a Whipple or a Harriman, nor the daring energy of a Cross. it will, nevertheless, be hard to make some of the survivors of his regiment, who followed him safely through the terrible " slaughter-pen " of Fredericks. burg. and into the more terrible carnage of Chancellorsville. believe that he did not know his business as well as any colonel that ever led a New Hampshire regiment into battle.
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
BVT. COL. JOHN F. MARSH.
This brave and energetic officer, son of Fitch P. and Mary Jane ( Emery ) Marsh, was born in Hudson, February 1, 1828. He is of the seventh generation from George Marsh, who came from England with his family in 1635 and settled in llingham, Mass.
The son of a farmer, his educational advantages were of the district school and village academy.
Failing to obtain an expected appointment as cadet at West Point, young Marsh shouldered a musket in the spring of 1847, and, in the Ninth United States Infantry. joined the army under Scott to serve during the war with Mexico. The battles of Con- treras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, The Garitas, and city of Mexico, in most or all of which he participated with his regiment, gave him a practical military training, which proved of great use to him in the War of the Rebellion.
The discovery of gold in California next attracted his attention, and he sailed from New York in January, 1849, for Galveston, Tex .. where he organized a company, of which he was captain, and conducted it across the mountains and desert wastes of northern Mexico, enlivened by an occasional skirmish with hostile Indians, to the "New El Dorado," where he first encamped in June of the same year.
In 1855-'56 he was special agent in the post-office department, New York to San Fran- cisco. in the last year settling in Hastings, Min., where he was postmaster five years and also mayor of the city.
Colonel Marsh entered the military service again June 17, 1861. as first lieutenant in · the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. afterwards a part of the famous " Iron Brigade," and was soon promoted to a captaincy. Wounded in leg at the battle of Gainesville, August 28. 1862. and while at his home. then in New Hampshire, was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Twelfth Regiment.
In battles of Fredericksburg * and Chancellorsville,* and severely wounded at Chancel- lorsville, and never in active service in the field afterwards. Ile did most or all of the drilling of the regiment from the time it went into camp at Concord until he left it, and brought the regiment, for the short time he had, to military discipline before it faced the enemy at Fredericksburg. While in the Veteran Reserve Corps (see roster) he acted for a time on General Casey's board to examine candidates for commissions to command colored troops, and performed special duty in the inspector general's department, visiting and reporting upon the condition of the military prisons for Confederate prisoners of war in the West. He was commissioned colonel of the Twenty-fourth United States Colored Infantry, but doubting the expediency of employing the freed slaves as soldiers, declined to accept the position. March 13, 1865, he was brevetted colonel "for gallant and meritorions conduct at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va.," and resigned August 16, 1865.
After the war he was appointed United States pension agent for New Hampshire, and for the last twenty years or more has been engaged in the manufacture of surface-coated paper, and is one of the most successful business men of Springfield, Mass., where he now resides.
December 22, 1818, he married Harriet L. Warren, of Hudson, and his second wife was Ida M. Phillips, of Springfield, Mass,, whom he married August 1, 1878.
Although of a fiery and impulsive temperament, which in the enforcement of that strict discipline which he at all times exacted, would sometimes require of him such severity in reprimanding some of the line officers for their carelessness or stupidity in their line of duty as to provoke their ill feelings, yet they soon learned that his heart was as tender as his temper was quick, and that he was as watchful of their rights and wants as he was of their wrongful aets and blunders.
Having native elements of success in himself. as his record shows, he was quick to recognize them in others, and he believed in making colonels of corporals, regardless of intermediate ranks, if the latter were the better fitted and more deserving.
· See pages 49-50 and 73-74.
479
New Hampshire Volunteers.
CHAPLAIN THOMAS L. AMBROSE.
Chaplain Ambrose of the Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, son of Nathaniel and Hannah ( Roberts) Ambrose. was born in Ossipee, June 16, 1829. From early youth he evinced a kind and forgiving disposition, which won the respect and good will of his asso- ciates, and gave promise of the noble character of the man. It was this, probably, together with his early mental development, that made the remark common in the neighborhood that "he was born to be a minister"; and at the age of twenty-three he entered Bowdoin College with this intention and graduated with distinction in the elass of 1856. After two years of theological study at New York and Andover, Mass., he was ordained in his native town as a minister of the gospel on the twenty-first day of July. 1858, and in August fol- lowing he sailed from Boston, under the auspices of the American Board of Foreign Missions, as a missionary to Persia, where for nearly three years he labored with great zeal and success. While there, on one of his tours through the mountains, he had a providen- tial escape from a band of Koardish robbers, who were lying in ambush to waylay him.
In 1861. his health becoming greatly impaired from the effects of a severe sickness, he was reluctantly persuaded to return home for a while and recruit. Again on his native hills, he soon recovered. but his intention of returning soon changed into a strong desire to enter the service of his own beloved but now imperilled country ; and when the Twelfth Regiment was raised. he gladly accepted the position of its chaplaincy offered him by Governor Berry, being commissioned as such September 17, 1862. and immediately went into camp with the regiment at Coneord. From this time until struck down by the fatal bullet from a rebel sharpshooter in front of Petersburg on the twenty-fourth of July, 1861, while on his way from the regiment in the trenches to a field hospital in the rear - where for some time. in addition to his other duties, he had been laboring - he was searcely absent a single day from his post of duty. He was taken prisoner with Colonel Potter at Chancellorsville, where for many days after the battle he proved a ministering angel to our wounded and dying left upon the field.
At Gettysburg and Cold Harbor his care and labor for suffering humanity were sleepless and unremitting. When wounded he was at once sent to Chesapeake General Hospital, Fortress Monroe, where after a careful examination and dressing of his wound he seemed so strong and cheerful that hopes were entertained of his recovery. But no · more that greeting smile was to cheer and gladden the few war-worn veterans of his regi- ment that were still left, and who had learned to love him so well.
Secondary hemorrhage necessitated an operation to take up the severed artery in the groin, but his weakened condition from the effects of the wound and loss of blood was not sufficient to withstand the shock. and on the nineteenth of Angust. 1864. with an angel's smile upon his countenance, he broke the seal of life and passed beyond the veil.
lle was eminently a man of deeds. rather than words ; yet his sermons, like himself, were solid in sense and full of love and goodness. The purity of the source more than the foree of the current tended to eleanse the hearts of his hearers, and hence his preaching was most effective to those who knew him best. His every-day life was an eloquent sermon, for his every act was a Christian pattern. An intimate friend, who, perhaps as much as any other member of the regiment. shared his love and confidence. says : " I never knew of a sermon from him while in the service that did not bear fruits of repent- anee. and many men were radically changed and hopefully converted."
His last Sabbath on earth found him still Jaboring for the great cause of his heart and life, preaching his last farewell sermon to the patients and attendants around him, while lying prostrate on " the waiting couch of death."
Wherever lives a veteran survivor of the Twelfth, there can be found oue who, in some way, has been the recipient of his kindness and care, and many will remember him with tears of gratitude, as they read this pour tribute to his memory. And could the silent lips of the lamented dead, whose last lingering gaze rested upon him but speak, what a grand acclamation of commingled praise and blessing would rise to consecrate and immortalize his na ne! The regiment was his home, and all the boys, as he used to call them, respected
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
and loved him as a father. With and for them he liked to be and labor, and it gladdened his great and oftentimes sorrow-laden heart to know that his paternal care and love were felt and reciprocated. As said of him by Captain lleath, who has since joined him on the other shore. " A braver man never lived, a truer man never wore the garb of Christianity."
Briglit burns his light in memory's hall, Sweet in our hearts his treasured name ; With smile of Christian love for all, He lived for Heaven, and died the same.
LIEUT. COL. GEORGE D. SAVAGE.
This highly respected officer was the oldest of the eleven children of Capt. Benjamin and Lois (Davis) Savage, and was born in New Durham, March 7. 1818. Married Hannah H., daughter of Reuben Lang, of Brookfield. December 22, 1842. Children, Mary L., Jennie E., George F., Charles R., Henrietta. and Jessie.
In Fredericksburg, and wounded so severely by musket ball in lower jaw at Chan- cellorsville that he was never with the regiment, except a short time at Point Lookout. afterward.
IJe moved from his native town, where he had spent the years of his early manhood in cultivating the soil. to Alton in 1849, and soon after opened a hotel there, which he con- tinned the proprietor of until his death.
lle was for many years one of the best known and most prominent men in his town and county, representing his town for two years in the legislature, holding the office of railroad commissioner for the same time, and being deputy sheriff for fifteen years or more.
lle had in early life taken considerable interest in military affairs, and was a major in the old state militia years before he was appointed to the same rank as a volunteer officer of the Twelfth Regiment, and " Major Savage " was the name and rank by which he was so well known, regardless of his promotion, so long as he lived.
Major Savage - for we must still call him so - as an officer honored his rank, and as a man deserves great praise. Beneath a rough exterior there beat in him a great and tender heart. Though towering head and shoulders above many of his fellow men, for he was six feet and two inches tall. he never forgot that he stood upon the same ground level with them all. nor failed, while in the army or out, to recognize the fact, so often ignored in the army, that
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that."
Though his manly altitude was such that he could look down with indignant contempt upon any officer, whatever his rank, who was unmindful of the wants and rights of his men, yet he was never too high to stoop and listen to the grievances of the poorest and simplest private of his regimeut, and be his advocate, if his cause was worthy of defense.
Once, when one of his brother field officers was speaking harshly of the conduct of some of the musket-bearers, he was heard by the writer to administer this truthful and well deserved rebuke : " Tut. tut, my friend ! don't be too severe. Remember we have the honor of commanding scores of men in this regiment, without as much as a corporal's stripe upon their arms, who are better men than you or I dare be."
It was this feeling of kindness toward, and appreciation of his men, acted as well as expressed whenever occasion required, that endeared him to the rank and file, even in the short time he was with them, and that makes his memory cherished in the heart of every survivor to-day.
Elder Capt. J. M. Durgin, in compliance with his request, preached his funeral sermon, delivering an eloquent enlogy upon him as a citizen and a soldier, and his old war horse followed him to the grave .*
* See page 369.
481
New Hampshire Volunteers.
QUARTERMASTER ISMIALI WINCIL.
This officer, whose record was as good as it is here, for want of data, short, was born in Newton, Mass., in 1820.
Ile was twice married. Ilis first wife, whose maiden name was Farley, died in Laconia about 1854, and left one son, Charles F. Winch, who engaged in business in the city of New York. Lieutenant Winch (see roster) moved to Meredith in 1856, and went into trade there with Col. E. Stevens and E. Winch, a brother of his. In April, 1857. he married Livonia D. Watson, a niece of Doctor Mason, of Moultonborough, by whom he had one daughter. Anna Mason, who married a Mr. Lawrence, of Dayton, Ohio, where she and her mother now reside. A son died in infancy.
After the war he moved to Fernandina, Fla .. and engaged in trade there with J. Il. Prescott. his former quartermaster sergeant in the army, and remained there until his death (see roster).
lle deserves much praise for the faithfulness, efficiency, and honesty in which he per- formed his important part of supplying the men with quartermaster stores, and properly accounting for everything that came into his hands.
Ile seemed to be the right man in the right place, a man who did his work so quietly and silently that it seemed to run itself with little or no friction. lle appeared to have no military ambition except to do his whole duty, and that he did without show of authority or ostentation. Ile was a good man and officer.
SURG. HADLEY B. FOWLER,
Whose death occurred at Bristol, in this state, January 11. 1893. was the son of Captain Blake and Ruth (Sleeper) Fowler, and was born in Bridgewater, March 22, 1825.
Receiving a high school education he studied medicine and graduated at Dart- mouth Medical College in 1850. He practiced his profession in Alexandria and Bristol until he entered the service of his country and was commissioned as surgeon of the Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, being the first officer to receive a commission in this regiment. His father and son went with him to the front; the former as captain of Company C though nearly three score years of age, and the latter as his father's private orderly though scarcely in his teens. Moreover his grandfather, David Fowler, who was a soldier of the Revolution, hired a substitute to take the place that he himself was too old to fill in the ranks of the same regimeut, thereby making four generations present in person or by rep- resentative in one single regiment of the U'nion army.
He helped his father in recruiting and organizing Company C, and was the first to receive a commission, so he could examine, as he did, ail the companies but one as they came into camp at Concord. Ilis father, himself, and son (see sketch) were all taken prisoners near Warrington while marching to Falmouth, Va., where he rejoined his regi- ment by exchange in February following.
Ile was present, as believed, and acted as surgeon in every battle of the regiment except Fredericksburg, when he was a prisoner of war. At Chancellorsville he had charge of brigade field hospital, and at Gettysburg was operating surgeon of Second Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps, where he was the hero of the amputation table, few, if any. severing more limbs and saving more lives by his courage, alertness, and skill. After this he was always recognized as a leader in his profession, and he was placed in many positions of honor and great responsibility. At Drury's Bluff he was made chief operator of the Eighteenth Corps, and on the day of the battle of Cold Harbor was ordered to take charge of the Eighteenth Army Corps Ilospital, which position he held until he was sent west by the War Department, as one of a board of examiners, to inspect the sick and wounded soldiers of Ohio in the Fall of 1861. On his return, two months later, he was ordered by Major-General B. F. Butler to build a hospital for the Army of the flames at Point of Rocks, Va. When completed, Doctor Fowler was put in charge and also given command of the post, which position he held until the close of the war. In this position Doctor Fowler's executive capacity was heavily taxed, as the reader may better see by the following words and figures :
31
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History of the Twelfth Regiment
Number of beds for patients, 3,500; for officers and attendants, nearly 500; 34 sur- geons, 3 chaplains, a quartermaster and commissary, 5 stewards, 31 ward masters, 25 matrons, 300 nurses, 75 cooks, with 85 men and officers constantly on guard, and all the necessary paraphernalia to arrange for and look after.
In May, 1865, he received an appointment by the War Department to remain in the Freedman's Bureau under Major-General Howard, but owing to impaired health and solicitations of relatives and friends, he returned home with his regiment.
Thus very briefly is sketched his army record, for a small volume would be necessary to give it in detail, and from some peus would be interesting reading. A few characteristic anecdotes will be found related of him elsewhere in this history and many more might be told all indicative of the man. He was not one of those who was " all things unto all men," but his likes and dislikes for friend and foe were too strongly marked and well defined to be easily misunderstood. ITis intimate friends were few though respected by all, and those few were near and dear to him. Yet, such at times were his strange odd ways and moods that they surprised even those who knew him best. But he has left us at the command of Him who made him such, and he will long be remembered for his noble record for his country, and for his many good and rare qualities of head and heart. lle was first married, November 25. 1847, to Caroline L. Smith, of Nashua, and had by her three children, George H. (see sketch), Charles E., and Edgar O. Mother and children all dead but George. February 19, 1884. he was again married to Sarah, daughter of Orrin Lock, of Bristol, who now lives there with her mother.
ASST. SURG. CHARLES W. HUNT
Was a son of Thomas J. and Julia A. ( Blaisdell ) Hunt, a grandson of the late Rev. William Blaisdell, and great grandson of Enoch Hunt, who fought on many of the battle-fields of the Revolution. He was born in Gilford, December 8, 1832, and died of typhoid fever at Point Lookout, Md., August 24, 1863.
Receiving a liberal education he commenced the study of medicine, and graduated as a physician at llanover, in 1856. Ile practiced his profession in his native town until he enlisted. As a soldier and physician he was brave and faithful. I think it may be truth- fully said of him, that no soldier ever suffered because of his indifference or neglect. " If needs be I am willing to die for my country," he said, and his words were verified by his fearless devotion on the field of Chancellorsville, where, regardless of the shot and shell of the advancing foe, he stood maufully at his post of duty ; and when the crumbling walls and kindling flames of the Chancellor House - then crowded with suffering humanity - added new terror and agony to the scene, his heroic efforts to rescue and save his wounded comrades, even after he was taken prisoner, deserved and received the highest praise of his commander, Colonel Potter, who lay a helpless eye-witness to his brave and noble deeds.
In a letter, written home soon after the battle, he says: "But soon the alarm was given that the house was on fire. Then I made up my mind to meet death for I could see no possible way to avoid it. Still I was calm. I thought of my quiet home, my dear friends, and the last letter I wrote before leaving camp in which I asked my dear mother to remember me in her prayers in the coming struggle."
After the battle of Gettysburg, when he again was on the field of death, he remained two or three weeks laboring in the field hospital, where, following his exhausted condition from the days and nights on the field, he contracted, it is thought, the disease of which he soon after died, lamented by all who knew him.
ASST. SURG. JOHN II. SANBORN.
This, the only survivor of the original three surgeons, appointed to look after the physi- cal welfare of the Twelfth Regiment, was born in Meredith, September 23, 1830, and is the son of Dr. John and Susan ( Hubbard ) Sanborn.
With well-earned academic honors, but neither enlarged nor embellished by a regular college course, he commenced the study of medicine with his father, in Meredith, and afterward studied with his brother, Dr. J. A. Sauborn, of Plymouth, and Prof. B. R.
483
New Hampshire Volunteers.
B. B. L. 6-0. SURG. HADLEY B. FOWLER.
DB. B. L. 6-0. ASST. SURG. CHARLES W. HUNT.
B. B. L. 5-33. ASST. SURG. JOIIN H. SANBORN.
II. DB. L. 6-11. ASST. SURG. SAMUEL P. CARBEE.
484
History of the Twelfth Regiment
Palner, of the Vermont Medical College, Woodstock, Vt. lle graduated at the Berkshire Medical Institute, at Pittsfield, Mass., November 23, 1852. He practiced his profession in Alstead until December, 1855, and in Meredith until his enlistment. , ( See roster.)
Married to Elizabeth II., daughter of Rev. Giles Leach, and sister of Levi Leach (see sketch), May 16, 1854. Children, Giles L., Harriet L., Susan L., and Bettie F., all of whom are dead, but Harriet L., who married Edgar A. Jones, and lives with her father. His grandfather, Jeremiah Sanborn, and his great-grandfather, John Sanborn, were both in the Revolution, the latter being an officer. Dr. Sanborn (see sketch) was present at the battles of Fredericksburg. Gettysburg, Drury's Bluff, Siege of Petersburg, and Cold Har- bor, but was on detached service from Jannary 1 to July 14, 1863, at Brigade Hospital at Falınouth, Va.
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