USA > New Jersey > New Jersey and the rebellion : a history of the service of the troops and people of New Jersey in aid of the Union cause, Pt. 1 > Part 46
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10 " Apart from the rest, behind a log to which he had crawled, lay the body of Color. Sergeant John L. Young. His hands were clasped and uplifted, as though he had expired in the aet of prayer. A handsome boy of eighteen years, he lay there in all the beauty of his young manhood, with Testament in his bosom and his blue eye, opened towards heaven. A few weeks before, he had made a profession of religion. and had given pleasing evidence of being a child of God. Close by him lay James D. Baylor, a young disciple of Christ, brave in life, and still manly and noble in deati :. Shot through the heart, the warm blood that flowed from his bosom besmeared th ... Testament and hymn book which he carried wherever he went. There, too, lay Geor .. D. Foulds, an orphan boy, whose loving spirit found the Saviour he had served from: amid that seenc of conflict and death. Orderly-Sergeant Paul Kuhl lay elose unde? the rebel works. He had been shot through the thigh, and wound his handkerch !! around the limb and twisted it with his ramrod to stop the bleeding. It would see ::: as though his giving signs of life had made him the mark for rebel bullets, with whi". his body was riddled. He had early in his military life given his heart to the Savios :. and was loved and respected for his piety by all who knew him. The brave, U." generous and the good lay slaughtered around, the most precious gifts which os: State has ever given to the sacred cause of the country. Some of the dead have the. " removed, but the most sleep there in ground which their own blood has consecra! ! and their deeds made memorable. The spot is now as quiet as any graveyard, ...: ) nature has thrown her pall of rieliest green over the soil that holds their bones." Diary of Chaplain Haines.
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THE FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.
Sixth Corps charged, and twenty-five of the Fifteenth were killed and wounded -Sergeant-Major A. V. Wyckoff being among the former. In the charge, the Fifteenth and Tenth Regiments reached a position on a hillock which they held when the line was broken on either side of them, and which they began to entrench upon at sundown. On this little hillock they remained for the greater part of the next ten days, and from it many never came alive. The firing from the enemy was almost constant, and whenever a man raised his head above the surface he was almost certain to be struck. The men, in fact, were obliged to burrow in the ground, and communication was kept up with the rear through a long ditch dug to hide those passing from sight of the enemy. The dust, the great heat, the confined space and the dead bodies buried just under the surface, soon rendered the place most offensive. Day after day passed, line after line of works were constructed, the number of dead and wounded increased, but still the regiment was not taken from this horrible place, till, on the night of the 12th, it marched for the James River.
On the 19th it reached the outer-defences of Petersburg, where it remained, with the exception of a march to Ream's Station, until the night of July 9th, when it proceeded to the James River and took steamer for Washington, going thence to the Shenandoah Valley. Nothing of particular importance occurred until August 15th, when it was assaulted at Strasburg, on the Shenandoah, and lost nine men. On the 17th, it skirmished all day through Newtown and Winchester, the brigade forming the rear-guard of the army. At six o'clock, p. m., one mile and a half south of Winchester, the enemy assaulted with vigor, the brigade of nine hundred men and one regiment of cavalry, the Third New Jersey, sustaining the shock of an overwhelming force, estimated at five thousand. In this action, the Fifteenth lost sixty-one men in killed and missing. On the 21st, the enemy assaulted our lines at Charlestown, whither our troops had retired, and a number of men were lost. At mid- night, the Fifteenth (and other regiments) fell back to a position near Bolivar Heights, where it was stationed for several days.
On the morning of the 19th of September, the regiment broke
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camp before day, and after marching eight miles, halted at eleven o'clock within two miles of Winchester, in a ravine covered by the fire of the enemy. About noon the brigade, under Colonel Camp- bell, moved out and the action became general. Soon the Third Division of the Sixth Corps was thrown into confusion, and at this moment the greatest disasters of the day occurred. General David A. Russell, commanding the First Division, was killed while rally- ing the broken line. The Fifteenth suffered severely, losing nearly fifty in killed and wounded. Orderly-Sergeant Charles H. Mulli- gan, of Chester, was shot through the head. He had been absent wounded, and returned just a week previous. Only the night before his voice had been heard in the Sunday evening prayer- meeting. His readiness for every duty, his gentle manners, his cheerful face had endeared him to all who knew him, and though used to scenes of slaughter, his comrades wept as they laid him in the hastily-prepared grave. In the general advance, later in the day, the Fifteenth acquitted itself bravely, and in the pursuit of the flying enemy, shared with the brigade the elation which the victory everywhere occasioned. On the 21st, the regiment had a skirmish with the enemy, in which two men were killed and fifteen wounded. On the 22d, Sheridan again delivering battle at Fisher's Hill, whither Early had retreated, the brigade (with other troops) moved to the right and at four o'clock, p. m., assaulted and cap- tured the rebel works, the Fifteenth (under Captain Cornish) dis- playing great gallantry. The enemy again retreating, our forces pushed forward in pursuit as far as .Staunton, whence, having laid waste the country, they retired across Cedar Creek, north of Stras- burg, Sheridan going to Washington and leaving General Wright in command of the army.
The night of October 18th was intensely cold, and in consequence many men of the Fifteenth, as well as of other regiments, were astir at an earlier hour than usual on the morning of the 19th. The night previous there had been some firing on the right, but now it came from the opposite direction. At five o'clock, a. m., picket firing was heard far away to the left, but attracted no great attention at the point occupied by the First Brigade. Presently an order came
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THE FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.
down from Brigade Headquarters for the men to get breakfast : this, however, was soon followed by the command to stand to arms. And now the sounds of approaching conflict showed that the enemy was advancing in force. The order came, "move out at once." Colonel Campbell at once led out the regiment, bullets meanwhile flying into the very camp, and the confusion on all sides increasing. With difficulty the tents were packed and the baggage got off in the wagons. The Eighth Corps, as it now appeared, had been sur- prised and the rebels were thronging their camps, bayonetting the men before they were awake. The Nineteenth Corps soon gave way before the assault on their flank, and the Sixth was called to bear the burden of the terrible onset. The volleys of musketry were terrific, and to add to the perils of the situation, our artillery, as soon as captured, was turned upon our forming ranks. The Fifteenth, with the First Brigade, after the first shock, bravely maintained its reputation for steadiness and courage. Major Lam- bert Boeman was killed, and many of the best men of the regi- ment fell. The color-guard were all killed with three exceptions. Peter Gunderman, Color-Sergeant, who bore the National Colors, was struck by a fragment of shell which first broke the staff and then striking him in the side, bore him to the ground. Corporal John Mowder fell dead with the State Colors, and the enemy seized them as they came up. This was the only flag the Fifteenth ever lost ; but it was retaken that night and returned next day-General Torbert and Custer visiting the regiment to restore it, and saying in short speeches, not only that the flag was not lost by any fault of its own, but that the Fifteenth had ever done its duty. During the action, Colonel Campbell was struck by a bullet which shattered his left arm, but he kept command until the greatest danger was over, when, weak from the loss of blood, he was forced to mount an orderly's horse and leave the field. The word flew along the line, "Colonel Campbell is wounded," and even in the excitement of the hour the men turned from the observation of the enemy to follow him with their eyes. As he rode away he lifted his unin- jured hand and motioned to them, which they interpreted to mean, "hold on."
1
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NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
After falling back a mile and a half, at eight o'clock the advance of the enemy had been checked by the Sixth Corps, which held some ridges of ground from which it was difficult to dislodge it. But the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps were disorganized masses. The Eighth had lost all its artillery, most of its camp property and wagon train. The Nineteenth lost heavily, but not all. Thirty-one pieces of artillery were gone, being as many, within two, as had been captured in the Valley during the operations herein recorded. But the end was not yet. At ten o'clock, General Sheridan came in sight, a little man on a large black horse, riding at full gallop ahead of his staff. The road for several miles was filled with stragglers from the broken corps, but when Sheridan came in view, they waved their hats, (the men of the Sixth wore caps, and the others hats,) and a prolonged shout arose along the road. The great mass of men hurrying to the rear, turned about and moved the other way as rapidly as they had been flying before. But their enthusiasm was nothing compared with what it was when the brave commander dashed in front of our lines, waving his hat and shout- ing, " We shall be in our old camps to-night." Then what peals of cheering rolled along the ranks !
Now all became quiet except a slow cannonading. Early's men were gathering their plunder and drinking whiskey from the captured trains till four o'clock, p. m., when the army having regained its composure, a general advance was made, resulting in the utter discomfiture of the rebels, who were driven at all points, until they had crossed the creek, crowding in haste to get away. and our infantry re-occupied their old camps. Then, finally. Custer, with his cavalry, rushed upon them in the streets and the narrow defile south of Strasburg and gave them a more complete overthrow than was ever experienced in the Valley. In this grand assault, we captured nearly two thousand prisoners and forty-five pieces of cannon-fourteen more than we had lost. Some of these were abandoned in the creek, or became immovably wedged in the streets of the town.
At nine o'clock at night the body of Major Boeman was brought in, and was shortly after sent to Flemington for burial. He was
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THE FIFTEENTH REGIMENT.
at the time of his death in command of the Tenth New Jersey Volunteers. A deep sorrow at his loss filled the hearts of all, the men grieving as for a personal friend. His influence as a Christian had been very happy upon the command, and did not cease with his death. The brigade had suffered heavily, and not a field officer was left. In the Fifteenth there were hardly any non-commissioned officers, and the number of those who belonged to the regiment at the time of its formation was dwindled to a mere handful. Most of the dead were stripped of their clothing, and the wounded robbed of shoes and outer garments. In general the wounded were treated with much inhumanity, though some instances are known where they received kindly treatment.
This battle closed the fighting of the year in. the Valley. On the 1st of December, the Sixth Corps rejoined the Army of the Potomac, and the Fifteenth settled down before Petersburg for the winter. It was never again heavily engaged. In the final assault upon the enemy's works, in April, 1865, it carried itself with con-
spicuous courage, but suffered only trifling loss. Upon Lee's sur- render, it was sent to Danville, whence, late in May, it proceeded to Washington, and subsequently to Trenton, where it was finally disbanded. In all the qualities of courage, endurance and devotion to duty, this was among the foremost of New Jersey regiments ; to have fought in its ranks on the ghastly fields where it won celebrity, may well be counted an honor at once lustrous and imperishable.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SIXTEENTH REGIMENT-(First Cavalry).
ON the 4th of August, 1861, the President of the United States issued an order authorizing Honorable William Halsted, of Tren- ton, to raise a regiment of volunteer cavalry from the State of New Jersey. The order limited the time for recruiting to ten days, but there was afterwards an extension of ten days additional. Mr. Halsted had been for many years a prominent member of the bar of the State, and, having attained considerable political eminence, had been at one time a member of Congress, but now, approaching his seventieth year, scarcely possessed the activity and physical strength requisite for the cavalry service. Governor Olden, for this and other reasons, declined to recognize the regiment as part of the State contingent of volunteers, and it was consequently recruited under wholly independent auspices. But whatever judg- ment may be pronounced upon the capacity of the Colonel to com. mand, he certainly proved that he possessed the ability to raise the . regiment. On the 24th of August, the first four companies, under command of Major M. H. Beaumont, arrived in Washington, and only a week after six other companies were brought in by Colonel Halsted himself-the whole going into camp on Meridian Hill.1
1 The original roster of the regiment was as follows : Colonel, William Halsted ; Lieutenant-Colonel, J. H. Alexander ; First Major, Myron HI. Beaumont; Second Major, Henry O. Halsted; Surgeon, William W. L. Phillips : Assistant-Surgeon, Ferdinand V. L. Dayton ; Acting Adjutant, W. E. Morford : Chaplain, Henry R. Pyne; Quartermaster, Benjamin B. Halsted. Company 1- Captain, John H. Shelmire; First Lientenant, Jacob R. Sackett; Second Lientenant, James H. Hart. Company B-Captain, Richard C. Lewis; First Lieutenant, William Frampton; Second Lieutenant, James Tompkinson. Company C-Captain, Ivins D. Jones; First Lieutenant, John S. Tash ; Second Lieutenant, William W. Gray. Com- pany D-Captain, Robert N. Boyd; First Lieutenant, John Worsley; Second Lieu- tenant, Henry W. Sawyer. Company E-Captain, Jolm W. Kester; First Lieu-
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THE SIXTEENTH REGIMENT-(FIRST CAVALRY).
From the first, this camp was a scene of tumult and disorder. Drills were scarcely thought of; the most ordinary precautions of sanitary police were neglected; and, withal, there was no authori- tative announcement of duties, no promptly enforced penalty for disobedience. Officers who sought for some advantage or indul- gence, applied to the Colonel with no consideration whether the favor ought properly to be asked by a subordinate or granted by a commander. If in his endeavors to administer his government faithfully, the Colonel refused their petition, they persisted even to angry remonstrance ; finally overpowering his objections at the cost of all respect for authority. Two Lieutenant-Colonels were con- tending for the position to which both had been appointed, and the officers were divided into cliques, supporting one or the other. When officers who knew something of their duty tried to do it, their men drew invidious comparisons between them and other easy-going company commanders; and without any energetic supe- rior authority to support them, the officers found themselves forced to succumb to the tide of popular opinion. For the regimental commander, in the midst of the throng of duties, all strange and peculiar in their character, found himself unable to concentrate his attention upon any one. Called to labor constantly beyond his strength, harassed by responsibilities for which he was unpre- pared by military experience, and to bear which he was untrained in military habits, he found the confusion around him defying all his efforts and regulations, and could only by slow degrees begin to grapple with the difficulties of his situation. Still, in one way or another, things dragged along. The regiment passed from camp to camp; and at length crossing the river was placed in a
tenant, Patton J. Yorke; Second Lieutenant, Francis B. Allibone. Company F- Captain, John H. Lucas ; First Lieutenant, Moses W. Malsbury; Second Lieuten- ant, Aaron S. Robbins. Company G-Captain, Jolin H. Smith; First Lieutenant, George W. Wardell; Second Lieutenant, Peter A. Bertholf. Company H-Captain, H. C. Perley ; First Lieutenant, William T. Inman; Second Lieutenant, Myer Asch. Company I-Captain, Benjamin W. Jones; First Lieutenant, James Hunt; Second Lieutenant, Edward Field. Company K-Captain, Virgil Broderick ; First Lieu- tenant, Thomas R. Haines; Second Lientenant, John Fowler. Company L-Captain, William W. Taylor; First Lieutenant, Ingh H. Janeway; Second Lieutenant, Peter HI. Langstaff. Company M-Captain, Jolin P. Fowler; First Lieutenant, Horace W. Bristol; Second Lieutenant, Samuel Warbag.
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NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
brigade. Here the difficulty as to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy was terminated, and Joseph Karge, formerly an officer in the Prussian service, though for many years a naturalized citizen of the United States, was permanently established in that rank. When this result was accomplished, the Colonel, weary with the labor which had been imposed upon him, and becoming ill from the effect of camp life, took a sick-leave and retired for a time to Washington.
For an officer who had been trained to regard a despotic disci- pline as the only principle of military authority, and to force the body rather than to inform the intelligence as the only possible system of drill, the command of twelve hundred men who had always previously had their own way, and who had been used to learn with the mind before acquiring the habits of physical skill, was a burden of unanticipated difficulty. He could not understand the spirit which animated the men, and he could recognize even less easily the sentiments which made many of his officers some- times sympathize with the soldiers rather than with himself. Men who had not learned to obey, who of late had been accustomed to an almost impunity of insubordination, might, perhaps, have been led to obedience by a calm, firm spirit of unwavering discipline, but that discipline must have been unaccompanied by blows or words as punishments which would arouse their anger from a sense that they were not justly proportioned to the offence. When authority and unreasoning severity were associated together, the spirit which rebelled against the latter confounded with it the disci- pline with which it was combined ; while the Lieutenant-Colonel interpreted the reluctance to submit to these, as a spirit of mutiny against his efforts to establish order. Thus the whole camp was a scene of misunderstanding, threatening frequently to break out into riot and rebellion, when, unfortunately, another element of discord intervened to aggravate the whole. As the Lieutenant-Colonel was bending all his energies to the performance of his duty in perfect- ing the military character of the regiment, a result, the details of whose accomplishment he clearly understood, he encountered a dif. ficulty in procuring those supplies which were essential not only to efficiency, but even to continued existence. The last raised company
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THE SIXTEENTH REGIMENT-(FIRST CAVALRY).
had just reported to camp without uniforms, without blankets and without tents to shelter them ; and the number of horses inefficiently supplied with forage, and the appliances for the preservation of their health, strength and equipments was constantly increasing. As these things occurred within sight of the immense granaries and overflowing storehouses of Washington, Lieutenant-Colonel Karge promptly called the Regimental Quartermaster to account, without obtaining any satisfactory explanation ; and though that officer was warned to perform this duty, the supplies were still unprovided. The matter was reported to the brigade commander, who, finding on investigation that the Quartermaster had been irregularly mus- tered in, had his name without further ceremony removed from the rolls of the regiment ; and his place having been supplied by another officer, the needed rations, forage, arms and clothing werc without difficulty obtained. The Colonel who was in Washington, felt that as he was the ranking officer of the regiment, he should have been consulted before such a change had been effected ; and he naturally interpreted the removal of the Quartermaster as an in- fringement of his prerogative, and an attack upon himself; he, con- sequently, hurried back to camp in indignation and signalized his resumption of command by an unseemly altercation with the Lieutenant-Colonel. Confusion now was worse confounded. The Colonel naturally took the part of the men in their complaints against the late executive ; and the reforms in drill, discipline and camp routine, at once fell into abeyance. At the same time the officers of ability and zeal, though they might question the pro- priety of the Lieutenant Colonel's manner, could not but perceive that his course tended to the improvement of the regiment, while the present state of things must result in its dissolution. They, therefore, began to draw towards the side of Lieutenant-Colonel Karge, and were on that account regarded as hostile by Colonel Halsted. Hence there were two prominent parties in the camp, besides numerous petty sub-divisions, varying continually, accord- ing to the impulses of personal pique and the demand of indi- vidual interest; and this state of affairs by distracting attention and zeal from the good of the regiment, left it still unprepared for
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service. During the month of November the regiment was assigned to the Division of General Heintzelman, and in the beginning of December another change of command took place. Owing to mis- construction of certain regulations, Colonel Halsted became in- volved in difficulty with the War Department, which resulted in his arrest, and the command devolved in consequence upon the Lieutenant-Colonel. There was a sudden resumption of energy and discipline. Well seconded by the senior Major, who, though young, was familiar with the routine of the cavalry service, Karge set to work to make soldiers of the officers and men. As a first step he sent the most inefficient officers and men before the Exam- ining Board in Washington, thus starting the rest into activity. Wherever there was any duty to be done, either he or the Major was to be seen ready to pour forth vials of wrath upon the heads of the delinquents. Officers grumbled and soldiers swore, but still the routine was inexorably carried on, and before long all awoke to a consciousness that they had never been so comfortable since their first enlistment ; still they were unable to perceive that this good came to them through the man whose abuse rankled in their hearts, and hatred of the Lieutenant-Colonel continued with but little diminution.
In the five weeks of this regime a soldierly spirit was implanted in the men, which preserved its vitality through all the ensuing trouble. Colonel Halsted, by the middle of January, settled his difficulty with the War Department, and was restored to the com- mand of his regiment, which was thereupon removed from General Heintzelman's jurisdiction. This transfer occurring in the midst of a dismal storm, was undertaken without due preparation; and for two nights the men and horses bivouacked in the streets of Washington exposed to the inclemency of the weather. A new camp was then laid out near the road leading out of Seventh street towards Rockville, and in a contracted space the troops were crowded into quarters. Knee-deep in the mud, with no provision for their comfort, no duty to employ them except the harassing work of furnishing a double camp-guard, the men began to sieken and desert by scores. Rumors began to float around that in the
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THE SIXTEENTH REGIMENT-(FIRST CAVALRY).
proposed reduction of the cavalry the regiment was to be disbanded, and the men began to calculate that it was better to hurry home at once than to linger in discomfort for no purpose. The Lieutenant- Colonel and Major were in arrest. Many of the best officers were in disgrace, and many of the poor ones gave themselves up to intoxication. The Colonel's time was engrossed by pursuing the cases of his officers before the Examining Board; and no one seemed to have a hope or a care for the well-being of the regiment. So the month of February came in and wore half away. Suddenly other rumors were whispered through the camp. The regiment had been recognized by the State, and the soldiers' families were to receive State pay. Colonel Halsted had been mustered out, and Percy Wyndham, an Englishman by descent, Colonel in the Sardinian service, a soldier of Garibaldi, and chevalier of the Military Order of Savoy, had been commissioned Colonel by the Governor. The regiment was safe and its prospects brilliant. On the heels of the rumor came its confirmation. Colonel Halsted one morning left the camp and never returned. That evening, an officer, young, dashing, handsome, every inch a soldier, quietly walked in and introduced himself as Colonel." The regiment was transferred to better ground and the mud was dried up by clear,
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