USA > New Jersey > Reminiscences of the war, comprising a detailed account of the experiences of the Thirteenth regiment New Jersey volunteers in camp, on the march, and in battle > Part 5
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the lives of those who disregarded their commands. but the panie-stricken corps rushed madly on. A new line of bat- tle was at once formed. Sickles, who had moved out with Birney's Division to attack the enemy, was ordered to re- turn with his whole force. Gen. Pleasanton. who had been sent to reinforce Sickles, was riding leisurely back. when he was informed of the giving way of the Eleventh Corps. He ordered his horsemen to charge into the woods, and bringing his battery of horse artillery into position he double-shotted the guns with canister. and successfully re- sisted the advance of the enemy. Berry's Division of the Third Corps was ordered into the fight by Hooker. and with fixed bayonets they pressed through the flying mass of fugitives, and took up position on a ridge beyond the forest. which bounded the clearing of Chancellorsville. Night was now closing in. Jackson, flushed with success, ordered Hill's Division to the front, and then accompanied by his staff. moved forward to examine the position. Berry's pickets fired upon them and Jackson then turned toward his own lines. Hill's troops mistook the squad of horse- men for Federal cavalry and fired upon them. mortally wounding Jackson. and killing and wounding half his es- cort. About midnight Birner's Division of Sickles' Corps made a grand moonlight charge upon the enemy. It was this engagement that startled us as we lay in the edge of the woods. and in some manner. still unexplained to me. we became inextricably mixed up with them. Regiments from half a dozen States were broken up, and became mixed with our Brigade. For a time all was dire con- fusion. Excited Aids and Orderlies were moving hither and thither with contradictory orders. The Thirteenth Regi- ment wasthrown into confusion and it was nearly an hour before the line was re-formed. This episode over. we lay down with our ritles and awaited the advance of the enemy which was momentarily expected. Soon after daylight the enemy moved around to our front, and the battle at once opened. The Second Massachusetts and Third Wisconsin
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Regiments, who were in the front line . of battle, advanced and became hotly engaged. While the fight was raging most fiercely. rations were brought down to us and we were supplied with hard tack. Before we could secure either coffee or sugar, the order was given by Capt. Beards- ley, "Fall in Thirteenth : forward, march." The Regiment moved promptly forward and relieved the Second Massa chusetts. The Twenty-seventh Indiana moved into action with us. The first sensation on coming under fire was one of timidity, but that soon passed away. and the men became as cool and collected as though no danger con- fronted them. We had a good view of both lines of bat- tle, and for about an hour contested the advance of the enemy. Troops were constantly deploving into line on our left. and they moved with such regularity and precision. under a fierce fire. as to command undisguised admira- tion. A Zouave regiment which moved into action at that point attracted general attention. As the regiment advanced, in column closed in mass, di- vision front. and deployed into line. it presented a beautiful sight : but the enemy concentrated their fire in that direction and the line which a moment be- fore was moving into position so beautifully. melted away like a snow-bank under a hot sun. The battle
grew fiercer each moment. Above the unceasing rolls of musketry and the steady booming of cannon. the vells of the enemy and the cheering of our troops broke out at intervals. the frequency or volume of which. betokened the progress of the battle. Our ammunition becoming exhausted. a new line of troops moved up to our relief-a part of Geary's Division of the Twelfth Corps. The movement was effected so quietly that a num- ber of the men remainel fighting with them, and did not know the Regiment had been relieved until they saw the White Star badges around them. The Thirteenth moved back in good order. and emerged upon the open field un- der a fierce artillery fire of the enemy. As we moved up
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to the road the shells from the enemy's batteries bursted all around us, and several men were wounded. The Chancellors- ville House seemed to be a special object of their wrath, and a battery stationed near there lost a large num- ber of horses. One shell struck a horse in the field to the right of us as we marched, blowing the animal to pieces and throwing its rider violently to the earth. As we moved from place to place we saw that new lines of battle were forming in the rear and soon the troops in the woods fell back and the enemy, yelling and firing, quickly came in sight. The Regiment changed position several times during the day, and finally, towards night, moved down to Scott's Dam on the extreme left of the line, where we took up position on the side of a steep hill and rested from our labors. So far the fighting had all been done by part of the Second, Third and Twelfth Corps, and as we knew that Meade and Reynolds, commanding the Fifth and First Corps, had not been engaged, a renewal of hostilities the next day was looked forward to with confidence. But Monday morning came and no indications of a battle appeared. We remained quiet all day wondering why Lee did not make an ad- vance. Tuesday we occupied the same position, nothing oc- curring to disturb our repose except a severe thunder show- er which flooded the rifle pits occupied by the Regiment. Early on Wednesday morning, May 6th, we left Scott's Dam and marched to United States Ford. to which point the whole army was moving, preparatory to crossing the river and going back to its old camping ground.
The failure of Lee to attack our new line was occasioned by the advance of Sedgwick. with the Sixth Corps, upon Fredericksburg. After a fierce and desperate battle he had carried Mary's Heights, and was inflicting serious injury upon the Confederates. Lee. informed of this, at once abandoned his contemplated attack upon Hooker, and on Sunday night moved the great bulk of his army to the sup- port of Early at Fredericksburg, leaving but one Di- vision to keep Hooker in check. Sedgwick was com-
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pelled to withdraw from the superior numbers of the ene- my, and he re-crossed the Rappahannock at Bank's Ford on Monday night. Lee at once prepared to renew the attack on Hooker's line, and gave orders to that effect on Wednesday morning. But we had fallen back to the river and were safely across before the enemy's skirmishers came in sight of us. The losses in the battle are stated as follows : Confederates. 13.030: Union. 17.197. Hooker left behind a large number of wounded, 14 pieces of artillery. and 20.000 stand of arms. The killed were left to be buried by the enemy. The Confederates suffered an irreparable loss in the death of " Stonewall " Jackson. who was mortally wounded on the night of May 2d. General Hooker was stunned by a shell on Sunday, the 3d. and for a time there was no responsible head to the army.
When we had crossed to the north side of the Rappa- hannock, orders were given to report to our old camp at Stafford Court House. The distance was about twenty miles. The severe rain of Tuesday had swollen the streams and mired the roads, but that mattered little now. A large number of the men of all the regiments in the Bri- gude took their own route to camp, and after a severe march reached Stafford about eight o'clock that night.
Fortunately, I am able to state with some degree of accu- raey the loss sustained by the Regiment in this battle. A very full list of the killed, wounded and missing. prepared by Capt. Beardsley, was printed in one of the Newark pa- pers on the 11th of May. From this record. my own let- ters written at the time, and the State Records, the fol- lowing list has been prepared :
Field and Staff- Wounded-Major John Grimes. Adju- tant Thomas B. Smith.
Co. A-Aid-Thomas Doyle. Wounded-Second Lieutenant George G. Whittiekl, (died May 6th. ) Sergt. William A. Nicholson. Corporals-William H. Smith. John Demarest. John R. Williams. Privates-Frank W. .
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Dennis, Cornelius Van Arsdale, Thomas Bishop, Augustus Combs, Henry C. Oakes.
Co. B-Killed-Corporal William Moffat. Privates- Thomas Isdell. William St. Clair. Wounded-Corporal Peter H. Slover. Privates-George C. Woolhopter, Thom- as Ferris. J. Howard Titsworth.
Co. C-Missing (supposed killed)-Jolm Deachant. John Hammer. Wounded-Orderly Sergeant George Baitzel. Corporals-Freeborn Garrison. Charles B. Burris. Privates -David Burris, Amzi Brown, George H. Comer. John C. Crawford. Andrew Leise. R. B. Manning. Jacob Mickler. William Parker. Gilbert Smith.
Co. D-Killed-William Bartlett. Jr., William Vickery. Andrew R. Whetsell. Wounded-William Taylor (died May 1Sth), George J. Van Arsdale (died May 8th). Moses Edgar. James Love. Anthony C. Rindell and Washington B. Russell were wounded slightly.
Co. E-Killed-Orderly Sergeant John B. Munn. Private Samuel P. Taylor. Wounded-Corporals-De Witt C. Allen. William W. Jacobus. Privates-Amzi W. Baldwin. Wil- liam Jordan, Bennet Livingston. William Sanderson, Joseph Trott, Thomas H. Williams, George Allerton. Har- mon S. Blue.
Co. F-Killed-Moses Nugent. Stephen Schmidt. Wounded-Irenius P. Howell (died May 22d). John Wil- son. Michael Dickerman. Gottleib Hanly. James McGrain. and Corporal George Morehouse.
Co. G-Killed-Patrick Monaghan. Wounded-First Lieutenant James F. Layton. Sergeant Ogden Foxcroft. Corporal Samuel J. Harmon. Privates-Jacob White, Daniel Christy, George W. Cherry, Joseph Baldwin, Charles B. Hemmingway.
Co. H-Kill-Corp. Charles H. Lathrop. Wounded -Captain Charles. H. Bliven. Privates --- George C. Haas, Henry Mallen. Thomas Hogan. Peter Conners, Augustus Ademar. John Burbage. James Catford.
Co. I-Killed-Charles Stout. Jacob Rentzler. Wounded
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-Captain Ambrose M. Matthews. Orderly Sergeant Ar- thur R. Edgarton. Privates-James Behan, Jacob Hoff- man, Louis Kahler, John Roach, Reuben Samson, Alfred Sharp, George W. Lee, Cornelius Petty.
Co. K-Killed-Llewellyn J. T. Probst. Wounded- Lieutenant Heber Wells. Sergeant Cornelius Mersereau (died July 19th), Corporal Henry Speer. Privates-Silas Abbott (died May 28th), Isaac Clark, Joseph B. Crowell. William Freeland, Alexander Kidd, Francis Moore, John J. Nield, William J. Post, James W. Vanderbeck, Stephen Carlough, William Lambert.
The number of casualties foot up as follows : Killed, 18 ; wounded 89, including 7 commissioned officers. That the number of wounded was greater than the above is more than probable. Chaplain T. Romeyn Beck, who was at the Twelfth Corps Hospital for some days after the battle, mentions in one of his printed letters, dated May 15th. 1863, that over one hundred wounded men belonging to the Thirteenth were under treatment there at that time. Dr. Freeman, Assistant-Surgeon of the Regiment, was on duty at the hospital assisting Dr. Goodman, who was in charge. A large number of our wounded fell into the hands of the enemy, but they were afterwards paroled and brought inside of our lines. Twenty-two men were re- ported missing immediately after the battle. Of these John H. Ball of Co. A, Charles N. Ritchie of Co D, and Stephen L. Ward of Co. F. were taken prisoners, and Michael McLaughlin, Michael Daly. James Ryan and Dan- iel Ridgway of Co. B, deserted. The others soon after- ward returned to the Regiment.
CHAPTER VII.
After the Battle-A Regimental Order and What was Thought of It- Flag Presentation by Gen. A. S. Williams-Change of Camp- Lee's Movement Northward and the Pursuit-Forced Marches- At Leesburg-Execution of Three Deserters.
U ntil we came in sight of the Army of the Potomac resting upon the south bank of the Rappahannock at United States Ford, none of us thought of a retreat, and it was a matter of surprise when we learned that such was indeed the fact. The march back to Stafford Court House, full twenty miles. was made through a driv- ing rain storm. and when we reached our old camp, about eight o'clock that night. we were in a deplorable condition. With neither tents. blankets or overcoats-which had been lost on the battle-field-we had no shelter from the storm, and nothing remained for us to do except to build immense fires and rest our wearied limbs as best we could. It may be a mystery to some readers of these Reminis- cences how we were able to build fires when everything we possessed was soaked through by the rain. Generally some one was thoughtful enough to protect his matches, and after one fire was started the difficulty of building others was overcome. But it sometimes happened that there were no matches in the party. A fire was then ob- tained by putting into a rifle the powder of a couple of cartridges. ramming loosely upon it a piece of flannel. or woolen cloth, and then discharging the gun upon the
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ground. The flannel becomes ignited and with the aid of a few dry twigs a fire is easily started.
Requisitions for clothing, &c., were made out the day af- ter our arrival. and they were speedily filled. The camp soon wore its accustomed appearance and we naturally fell into the ordinary routine of duty. A day or so after the battle the Regiment was called out for Dress Parade. when the following order was read :
"List of officers and men worthy of favorable mention for their coolness and efficiency on the battle field of Chan cellorsville, May 3d. 1863:
"1st. Captains-Harris. Matthews, Bliven and Guver.
"2d. First Lieutenants-Miller, Johnson. Carman. Can- field. Beardsley (Samuel R.). and Rverson.
"3d. Second Lieutenants-Whitfield. Wells and Wilson. " 4th. Enlisted Men-Sergt .- Major Boggs. Color Sergt. Kilroy, First Sergeant John P. Decker. First Sergeant A. Edgarton, Sergeant Cramer, Corporal P. H. Slover. Pri- vates-J. Howatt. William Swaim, William Lambert, Wil- liam Griffith and Corporal Finican.
(Signed)
.. G. A. BEARDSLEY.
" Capt. Commanding 13th Regt. N. J. Vols."
That the officers and men above named did their whole duty, and were cool and efficient under fire, admits of no doubt. But they were not the only ones deserving that distinction. Among the officers of the Regiment who were in the battle. none were braver than Captains Arey or Hopkins, and the absence of Captain Ryerson's name. and Lieutenants E. D. Pierson and Layton (the latter being severely wounded). indicates that the order went either too far in its reflections or did not go far enough in its cotamendations. It created wide-spread dissatisfaction at the time. Captain Beardsley was no doubt actuated by the most praiseworthy motives in issuing it. but it was a mistake. nevertheless. It was too sweeping in the reflections it cast upon the Regiment. If any
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man or officer was guilty of cowardice, neglect of duty or disobedience of orders, he or they should have been publicly censured, or, in some other way, made an example of ; but to select a few for favorable mention out of so many who did their duty nobly and well, was unjust. Of the enlisted men, there is but one each from companies A. B. E. G (Color Sergeant), I and H. and five (including the Sergeant Major) from Co. D. Companies C. F and K are not represented in the list. This, I learn, was no fault of Captain Beardsley, who requested the Captain of each Com- pany to send him the names of all enlisted men worthy of favorable mention. It was a delicate thing to do, un- der the circumstances. The Captains of those companies who failed to submit the names of any of their commands no doubt felt that none of the men did any more than their duty, and that it would be wrong to particularize where so many did all that was required of them. There was no duty of an extraordinary character assigned to the Regiment during the battle. Deprived of its Field Officers before ordered into the fight. the Regiment was for a time with- ont a head, and the men became timid and wavering. When Captain Beardsley assumed command, he restored confidence by the coolness and courage with which he di- rected every movement. The men at once felt that some one had command in whom they couldl place perfect re- liance. and the result was that when the time for action came. the Regiment went into battle a perfectly organized. confident body of men. No Regiment in the army fought better or behaved with more coolness and self-possession during the fight of Sunday, May 3d. than the Thir- teenth, and every man who went with the Regiment into that battle, officer or private, is entitled to the same share of praise. Especially is this true of the men who were killed .- they gave up their lives and could do lo more. Corporals James Clark and Irenius P. Howell, and Private Thomas Gorman of Co. F, distinguished themselves,-Clark and Gorman by going into the battle
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with the Second Massachusetts in disobedience of orders, fighting with it until the Thirteenth went to its relief, when they remained and fought with the Reg iment until we were relieved by the troops of Geary's Division-and Howell by his bravery after being se- verely wounded. The plucky little fellow persisted in being permitted to remain as long as he was able to load and fire, and had to be forcibly taken from the field and conducted to the hospital, where he died a few days afterward. If any deserved favorable mention, these men certainly should have been named with them.
A number of the non-commissioned officers of Co. H, were reduced to the ranks for absenting themselves from the Regiment during the battle. their places being filled as follows : First Sergeant Peter Snyder. Sergeants-Thomas J. Finican, William Henry, Charles Edmonson. Corporal -William Douglass. The justice of this order was never disputed though a good deal of sympathy was felt for Or- derly Sergeant Brownley, who was reduced. He proved himself a good and faithful soldier afterward, but he was never restored to his place.
Before the Regiment started on the Chancellorsville campaign, a thorough system of drill had been inaugurated. Major Grimes was an excellent drill-master and to him more than any other one man is due the proficiency the Regi- ment attained in field movements. He also introduced the Bayonet exercise-a very pretty drill, but we never had oc- casion to put it to a practical test. Gen. Ruger. command- ing the Brigade, instituted a series of Brigade drills. which took place about two miles from camp, and these, in addi- tion to the regular picket, camp guard and fatigue duties. kept us busily employed. The absence of Major Grimes. caused by the wound he received on Saturday, May 2d. put an end to the Bayonet exercise, which was never again re- sumed. Brigade, battalion and skirmish drills, however. became part of the daily routine of camp life after our re- turn to Stafford.
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On the 11th of May a Review of the Corps was held by General Slocum which passed off very creditably. On the 23d a new stand of colors arrived in camp, and on Fri- day, the 29th, they were formally presented to the Regi- ment by Gen. A. S. Williams, commanding the Division. Captain Beardsley received them on behalf of the Regiment in a short speech. The Brigade Band was present in camp and gave some fine music. After the Dress Parade the officers sat down to a feast of good things prepared by the Sutler, Mr. Green. The colors, which were very hand- some, were sent to us by the State. It would have added greatly to the interest of the occasion had they came to us in charge of some one from home.
We were very much favored at this time in the matter of passes, and every day men were permitted to visit friends in other regiments. One of the most enjoyable of my army experiences was the privilege of two day's absence, which I spent, in company with a comrade, at Falmouth and vicinity, visiting friends in the Eighth New Jersey Regiment and Beam's Battery. We had to walk the entire distance there and back, and while going through the camps of the Sixth Corps we came upon the Twenty- sixth New Jersey Regiment then encamped. I believe, near White Oak Church. We found many friends and passed a delightful time. The Eighth Regiment had a severe en- gagement at Chancellorsville and lost heavily. The Twen- ty-sixth was with Sedgwick below Fredericksburg.
The approach of warm weather necessitated a change of camp, the stockades having become rather close and un- healthy from long usage. On the 5th of June we accord- ingly moved out to an open hill, a little nearer Stafford Court House, where a new camp ground had been selected. Our tents were pitched in " Summer style," affording plenty of ventilation, and more than the proverbial allow- ance of dust to each man. This mode of erecting a tent required less heavy labor than the old stockade plan. In pitching the tent after this fashion, a couple of uprights
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about six feet in height, and a cross-pole the length of two pieces of tent, were first put in position. Then four or six crotches of stout saplings, for the sides and corners of the tent, were driven into the ground so that the tent, when pitched, should be raised a couple of feet from the earth. In these crotches two long poles-one for each side-were laid and strapped down, to which the sides of the tent were fastened. This makes a very roomy comfortable tent for four. On each side of the tent, with a narrow passage way between them, were the bunks, raised from the ground by means of small crotches. The beds were made of the branches of trees and covered with pine boughs, the same as in the stockades. Some of the tents were arranged different from this. The bunk was placed in the back of the tent, an extra piece of shel- ter being buttoned across the opening, and extending the full width of the tent. Four men slept together in the beds thus arranged. The wind had full sweep under every tent in camp, and for days we were almost blinded with the dust. This became such a nuisance that some of the boys named the location "Camp Dust," and so speak of it to this day.
On Friday, the 12th of June, the welcome intelligence was brought to us that we were to change camp to Brook's Station, on the Falmouth and Aquia Creek Railroad. The next morning early we packed up and started for our new destination, which we reached about ten o'clock. A new camp ground was selected in a thick piece of woods, and we went eagerly to work erecting new quarters. From the old camps in the vicinity many useful articles were ob- tained. and by persistent labor we had our tents almost ready for occupaney by five o'clock. A number of the tents were up by that time, and the men had ceased from labor to indulge in a little refreshment before putting on the finishing touches. All were more or less fatigued and looked forward hopefully to the time when they could lie down and rest their tired bodies. While some of the boys
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were away for water and wood, and others were prowling around the deserted camps in search of useful odds and ends, an Orderly from Brigade headquarters brought the unwelcome order, "Prepare to move at a moment's notice." That camp was a complete wreck in the shortest possible time. Half an hour later we were on the road toward Staf- ford Court House. We passed through it and went on, and on. The night was intensely dark, the men stumbled along the road half-asleep, and whenever the column halted for a few minutes they would throw themselves down wherever they happened to be, unable to shake off the drow- siness which came over them. The light of the burning build- ings at Aquia Creek Landing illuminated the sky behind us, while in front our road seemed to lay through a cimmerian darkness. But all things have an end some time, and when. about 7 o'clock Sunday morning, we reached Dumfries, the column filed into a large field, stacked arms and rested for the day. That was the first and only all-night's march we were ever called upon to make.
This movement, so mysterious to us at the time, was oc- ensioned by the following important events: The Confed- erates, elated with their success at Chancellorsville, at once prepared for an offensive campaign. Public opinion at the South was strengthened in the belief that by a vigorous prosecution of the war-the transferring of the field of strife to Northern soil-the Confederacy would become an acknowledged fact. During the first week in June, Lee concentrated his whole army near Culpepper. leaving A. P. Hill's Division at Fredericksburg to mask the move- ment. Hooker, suspicious of a movement of some kind, sent a part of the Sixth Corps on a reconnoissance across the Rappahannock. but Hill made so strong a display of his troops that Hooker was led to believe that the force in his front had not been seriously diminished. Satisfied. however, that something extraordinary was taking place he sent Pleasanton's cavalry, with two picked brigades of in- fantry, to Culpepper, to break up the enemy's cavalry
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camp which Hooker learned was located there. A severe conflict took place between the cavalry of both armies near Brandy Station, which resulted in about equal loss to the contestants, and compelled Pleasanton to retreat. Hooker, when informed of the result of the reconnaissance. advanced the Third Corps to Rappahannock Station and Beverley, for the purpose of guarding the Rappahannock .. which he supposed the enemy would attempt to cross in force. While thus engaged, Lee was advancing rapidly toward the Shenandoah Valley. His army was divided into three parts, Hill being at Fredericksburg, Longstreet at Culpepper and Ewell's Corps designed for the Valley. On the 10th of June, Ewell passed through the Blue Ridge at Chester Gap. then pushed on to Front Royal where he crossed the Shenandoah River, and by rapid marching up the Valley reached Winchester on the evening of the 13th, making seventy miles in three days. Lee's line of bat- tle thus stretched over an interval of a hundred miles- from Fredericksburg to Winchester.
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