USA > New York > A brief history of the Twenty-Eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers, First Brigade, First Division, Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac, from the author's diary and official reports. With the muster-roll of the regiment, and many pictures, articles and letters > Part 9
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made on byroads to elude the cavalry, for fear the captured men would be re- taken. On the Sth they were pushed on eighteen miles, crossing the Pamumky and North Anna rivers, to near Hanover Station. May 9th, the balance of the trip to Rich- mond was made. After the crossing of the Chickahominy River, the first fortifications were passed some five miles out from the city, reaching Libby Prison about sundown, marching through the principal streets amid the jeers of the crowds on all sides. The following account of their arrival was pub- lished in the Richmond Sentinel. The more severe language is cut out ; sufficient only is used to show its character. By such in- temperate articles as this the minds of the Southern people were embittered against the Union soldiers and the sectional spirit aroused and kept alive. It is a cause for thankfulness that this spirit has passed away, and both the North and South are in favor of a more perfect union between the citizens of this united country :
"Saturday, the 9th of May, 1863, will long be remembered by the citizens of Richmond. Late in the afternoon, the head of a long column of Yankees, said to be one thousand strong, appeared on the upper part of Main Street. These were clad in the uniform of the United States service. They had no arms. For two years they had been trying, by dint of bayonet and ball, to reach this place ; but not until they had laid down their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were they enabled to accomplish their object. # * # # The procession, though not unusual, of late, was a strange one. A thousand captured, but not humil- iated warriors of the North, walking sternly down the principal thoroughfare of a Southern city, guarded by less than one-third their number of Confederate soldiers, is no ordinary spectacle, Here were the men, who, night after night, and day after day, during many months, had gloated over the fancied prizes of gold, silver, household stuffs, which were to be theirs, when they had con- quered the city, through which they were now pass- ing as captives. * * *
"Silently the Yankees marched along, watched by the countless throng of lookers-on. They stared back at the crowds that gazed from the side- walks, and showed no shame, no remorse, nothing but impudence - brutish, cold, hard and brazen im- pudence. So many mean faces we never saw before."
The men were searched on entering the prison, and valuables of all kinds, even writing paper and other articles, were taken from them. Everything except their clothes was taken, with the assurance they would be returned on their release, but this was never done
The men of the Twenty-eighth were put in a large room on the second floor, with about four hundred other prisoners, and
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT' N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
lay so crowded on the floors that it was impossible to move without stepping on a comrade. The windows were barred, and none were allowed to go near them. The day before their arrival a prisoner had been shot through the head by a guard outside the building while he was looking from the windows. The food was bread and meat, with bean soup occasionally. The severe privations that prisoners later had to endure were not then general.
Daily papers were bought by the men who had money, and were read with great interest.
Stonewall Jackson's funeral occurred on the 12th of May, while the men were con- fined in Libby Prison, and the Sentinel gave the following account of the funeral procession :
" The long procession passed up Main Street, consisting of artillery. cavalry, infantry and bands of music. The arms of the soldiers were reversed, their banners were draped in mourning. The drums were muffled, and the notes of trumpet and horns were funeral. The tolling bell and the cannon booming at long intervals, told a mournful story. "The war worn veterans of Pickett's division, led the soldiers, Ewell, brave. modest and maimed, rode close to the hearse of his great commander. The President of the Confederate States, pale and sorrowful, was there. The good Governor of Virginia, stricken with grief for the loss of his noble townsman, was there. The heads of depart- ments, the State and Metropolitan authorities, and many citizens, walked humbly and sadly behind the coffin, decked with spring flowers and enveloped in the folds of a flag which the nations of the earth have never beheld. A great multitude of all ages. classes and conditions, stood by to see this procession pass. All was hushed while the mortal remains of the best, and best beloved chieftain, in all the land passed onward to the capitol of the State and the Confederacy, which he had so heroically defended and died to save from pollution. The body of Stonewall Jackson was in the hearse, and this great procession was in his honor.'
Often in the middle of the night, when any loud talking or laughing was heard, the guards would come to the top of the stairs, and order the men to be quiet. To annoy them in return by a prearranged plan, a score or more of voices would awaken their sleeping comrades by singing " Yankee Doodle " or " The Star Spangled Banner." The rush of the guard up the stairs would find all apparently sleeping soundly.
May 11th, all were paroled and told they would soon regain their liberty. On the 13th they left Libby Prison, marching across the long bridge to Manchester and started for Petersburgh. A heavy rain and darkness came on before many miles
had been made and a halt was ordered in the woods.
Early on the 14th the march was con- tinued through Petersburgh on to City Point. Long before this place was reached the men commenced to break away from the column and double quicked to the river's bank to get a view of the fleet of transports laying anchored wait- ing to take the prisoners to Annapolis. The boats nearly all had the stars and stripes floating from their masts, and at the first sight of "Old Glory " the men shouted until they could cheer no more. The river has a high bank here and the released prisoners, as they reached the top, would roll over and over to the water's edge in their great joy at being released from prison and seeing the old flag again.
Soon the arrangements for the embarka- tion of the men were made, and one by one they were counted off as they walked the single plank to the vessels that started down the James River at noon bound for Fortress Monroe, which was passed on the 15th, arriving at Annapolis on the 16th.
Here new clothing was provided and the shore of the bay, near the parole camp where the men were quartered, was turned into a mammoth bath. The diary, from which these dates have been taken, con- tains the very significant word " cleaned," which is underscored. Whatever that may mean, it is still in the memory of all that fires were built along the shore on which all the clothing brought from Libby was care- fully burned. On the 19th the start for home was made, the men reached Lock- port the evening of the same day the regi- ment arrived, and all were mustered out together.
We will now return to the battlefield at Chancellorsville.
The few who escaped from the woods when the Twenty-eighth was surrounded and captured formed on the hill in the rear and joined the brigade in line of battle. Being so few in numbers, they were soon ordered to join companies A and G of the regiment, which were act- ing as provost guard. They were not again called into action, and, with the rest of the brigade, recrossed the river on May 5th.
The Twelfth Corps was the last to cross the Rappahannock, as it had been the first to cross the Rapidan at the beginning of the
57
FAREWELL VISIT TO THE OLD FIRST BRIGADE.
campaign. This corps, with the Third, had borne the heaviest fighting of the bat- tle. These two corps lost more men killed, wounded and missing than the other four corps combined. The Twelfth Corps sus- tained a loss of two thousand eight hun- dred and twenty-two, of the less than ten thousand men in line. The First Division, General Williams, the "best, sturdiest .
and toughest in the army," lost one thousand six hundred and twelve. It is
said that many prisoners taken in front of this division asked, "Who were those fel- lows with red stars on their caps that fought like devils ?"
The Twenty-eighth Regiment returned to its old camp, near Stafford Court- House, on the 6th, and on the 7th, the " Present for duty " numbered two bun- dred and twenty-seven men. During the week that followed preparations were made for the journey home.
CHAPTER XI.
HOMEWARD-MUSTERED OUT.
MAY IITH TO JUNE 2D, 1863.
AY rith the Twenty- eighth made its farewell visit to the corps, divis- ion, and brigade head- quarters, and to the other regiments of the brigade. Generals Slo- cum, Williams, and Knipe, each addressed the regiment, congratulating the men on their good record in the service, and on the prospect of soon seeing their homes again.
In the camps of the several regiments of the Brigade speeches were made by the commanding officers, all of which were congratulatory and eulogistic ; and were responded to by officers of the Twenty- eighth. The regiment was everywhere received with cheers, and the occasion showed the kind feeling and interest exist- ing among the men of the old brigade.
It was a joyous time, yet tinged with a feeling of sadness at parting with comrades who the men had learned to regard with a brotherly feeling. They had faced death together on many fields of battle, endured the long weary marches, in summer's heat and winter's storm, and literally had "drank from the same canteen." But the thought of again seeing loved ones at home outweighed all other feelings, and after hand-shakings and good-byes, the regiment returned to its tents, and passed its last night in camp.
On the morning of May 12th, ainid the cheers of the old First division -" first of the Twelfth Corps, and second to none,"_
the Twenty-eighth left Stafford Court House, and started for HOME.
Arriving at Aquia Creek landing. the regiment took the steamer for Washington,
WHAT WAS LEFT AT STAFFORD COURT HOUSE.
which place was reached on the 13th, New York on the 14th, and Albany on the even- ing of the 15th. Here it was met with an enthusiastic reception, and escorted through the streets by the fire department to the Delavan House, where a bountiful supper was furnished by the Common Council, after which a fine torchlight pro- cession, by the entire fire department of the city, was given in honor of its return.
The next day, again escorted by the fire department, the Twenty-eighth marched to the State House, and was received by the Governor. He addressed the men in a very complimentary manner, referring to their brilliant services in the army, and welcomed them back to the Capitol of the state. Colonel Brown responded, returning the thanks of the regiment. Three days were spent here before the final start for home was made. The time was employed
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
by the men in visiting the city, the barracks, Camp Morgan, even the Adams House, and other places familiar to them in the first days of their soldier life.
Many members, whose term of enlist- ment was not ended, having joined as re- cruits, subsequent to the muster of the regiment, had to be turned over to other organizations to serve the balance of their time. Nearly all of these chose to return to the battalion which had been formed from the men of the Tenth Maine regi- ment, who were also serving unexpired terms, after that fine organization had been mustered out. This battalion was assigned to General Slocum's headquarters as guard, and remained with the Twentieth corps during its eventful campaign to Atlanta, and the march to the sea. By this choice the men exhibited their attach- ment to the old brigade, and continued in this battalion the many pleasant asso- ciations they had formed in the old regi- ments.
May 19th, the Twenty-eighth left Albany for Lockport, where it arrived on the 20th, and was received with great rejoicings, shouts and cheers, from the thousands that thronged the streets. The pupils of the union school, from their grounds near the depot, sang a hymn of welcome, the chorus of which was :
" Welcome, welcome, gallant brothers, High and low estate,
Join us in the cheerful welcome ; Gallant Twenty-eighth."
The procession to the Fair Ground was one of immense proportions, under com- mand of Benjamin H. Fletcher, marshal of the day. It consisted of the Fire De- partments from Lockport, Medina and Albion, the Masonic Order, Temperance Society, Home Guards, thirty-four young ladies in carriages, representing the States of the Union, the Board of Trustees, and the Twenty-eighth Regiment, numbering about three hundred and fifty men, under the command of Colonel Brown.
Arriving at the Fair Grounds, the re- turned Veterans, after passing in review, were formally welcomed by the President of the Board of Trustees, James Jackson, Jr., in an eloquent address. He was re- sponded to by Colonel Brown with an admirable speech. The regiment then sat down and enjoyed an elaborate dinner.
furnished and served by the ladies of Lockport.
After the dinner a poem, prepared for the occasion, was read by Mr. C. H. Squires. The first stanza will indicate its character :
" Welcome, gallant soldiers ; Heroes, true and tried, Patriots. brave and fearless, Old Niagara's pride.'
Too late to participate in these rejoic- ings, the released prisoners of the regi- ment arrived by the evening train. They were in charge of Colonel Cook, and num- bered about seventy men. The greetings of these paroled comrades were hearty indeed. All were furloughed to go to their homes until the day of the final dis- charge of the regiment, which was on June 2d, when all were mustered out of the United States service by Captain Shel- don Sturgeon.
Each man received his discharge on parchment, which certified that he was " Mustered out of service on the expiration of his term," and "no objection to his re-enlisting is known to exist.'
This ended the history of the Twenty- eighth New York, but not the service in the army of the majority of its members .. Very soon many of them again enlisted in the cause for which they had imperiled their lives during the past two years.
They re-enlisted in various organiza- tions, and in all branches of the service. Honor was reflected on the old regiment by the men carrying to the new commands the fine experience as veterans they had gained in the Twenty-eighth New York. They always referred to their first service with especial pride and satisfaction.
To know the subsequent history of all the men mustered out at Lockport would be very interesting. How many in the new commands lost their lives in battle or in prison, and how many have since died, is not known. It is only known that two hundred and fifty-two were alive in 1896.
With the list of the dead increasing each year, soon the last survivor will have joined his comrades gone before, and the Twenty eighth New York will exist only in the memory of its friends, and in the archives of the government for which it fought, and did its humble part to main- tain and defend.
1
59
. THE PEACE WE FOUGHT FOR.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
PREPARED FOR THE History of the Twenty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers.
THE PEACE WE FOUGHT FOR.
CONTRIBUTED BY A COMRADE.
I CAN contribute nothing to the history of the Twenty-eighth New York Vol- unteers which, as history, will enlighten my surviving comrades or interest the general public. The regiment made its own his- tory, and it is fresh yet in the memory of its still living members, although thirty-three years have passed. Its history was in no respect different from that of the majority of other regiments of our citizen soldiery. It marched and countermarched, advanced and retreated, won victories and suffered defeat, camped, and waited the word of command. Its soldiers suffered and en- joyed as- soldiers always have and always will. They had their hours of relaxation, they had their hours of awful bitterness. There was sickness and death in camp, there was danger and death upon the bat- tlefield. There were longings for home and loved ones that with some were never to be realized. Emotions of every sort swept over the soldiers, not only of the Twenty- eighth, but also over the soldiers of every regiment in the field. There were songs and tears and prayers and fears and hopes, and, underlying all, the stern, never shaken resolution to see our nation preserved un- broken ; one united, liberty-loving people. When the two years' service for which the regiments of our period were called out had been rendered, and the men were free, some went back to home and duty, as it appeared to them, and others re-enlisted in other regiments for the remainder of the war : and when the war was over, they returned,. "all that was left of them," to the quiet life out of which they had been called.
But though I can say nothing new or fresh as to the history of the regiment of which I was'a part, the years have brought to me, as to us all, time for reflection as to
the nature of the struggle through which we passed. It was a great struggle. No other such a war was ever fought. The history of the advance of mankind in civ- ilization has been a history of war. But of all the wars of the world this one was unique. It was not the longest, it was not the most cruel, it was not the severest, but it was wholly and absolutely different from any other. Its object was different, that was, to maintain the perpetuity of the American Union ; to answer to the world the question, can a voluntary compact be- tween individual States be a bond of union so strong that once made it can never be broken? to answer the question to the world, can a government of the people, by the people and for the people stand strong and centralized against internal sedition and sectional differences ? These questions this war answered. It said in thunder tones, Yes ; this confederation of States is a nation, and not an aggregation. It said, practically, there is power enough in that portion of individual rights which each State that became a party to the compact surrendered to hold when consolidated into one general government, each State firmly, closely, indissolubly in one power- ful union. That for which we fought was the doctrine of an indissoluble union ; and that for which we fought we achieved. The armies of this war were different from any other armies which the world has ever seen. The soldiers were citizen soldiers. There were no hirelings. The men who made the armies at least in its early years were the best men of the nation. Young men out of every rank of life, from shop and store, and college, and seminary, from farm and field, from plow and pulpit, answered the calls for volunteers. . Every family had its representative. The men of 1861 and
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
1862 were men who went at their country's call, because they loved their country. There has never been a sublimer example of pure patriotism than these men fur- nished. They were not forced into war by stern, hard military power. They were vol- unteers. They made of themselves a free- will offering There was no hope or thought of fame. They knew nothing of war and its promotions. But they did know they loved the flag of stars and stripes, and they made such a display of their love as this world had never seen made by any other people, for any other flag. It was patriotism pure and simple that made the soldiers of the armies of the Republic. I have read of the wonderful fidelity of the soldiers and officers of the Swiss guard who perished to a man at the palace of the Tuilleries in Paris on August 10, 1792, vainly trying to defend Louis XVI. against the mob of the city. Thor- waldsen has left as a monument to these heroic soldiers a thought embalmed in stone, in the colossal figure of the Lion of Lucerne, carved into the solid rock in the grotto back of the town. The dying lion is the Swiss soldiery ; the lily of France lies under his protecting paw ; not till he was dead did his power to defend it cease. It is a wonderful statute. The world ad- mires it, and admires the valor it commem- orates. But these soldiers were not patriots. Their stern fidelity to duty in no sense aided Switzerland. Native land was not the sentiment that actuated them. They were sold to war, and they died as soldiers die. But the soldiers of 1861 and 1862 were patriots. The most intelligent men of the world. Editors, teachers, printers, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, professors, preachers, farmers, merchants, laborers, and men of leisure, all alike put on the uniform of the private soldier, and marched to the dread front of battle, simply and only to maintain inviolate the integrity of the country which they called their own. The men who made the Twenty-eighth Regi- ment of New York Volunteers were of this character. Some of them died ; some of them lived ; some of them have died since the war closed ; some of them still live. But all alike, living and dead, were actu- ated by the same great patriotic purpose.
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There was never such another war. Its battles were the greatest battles that have ever been fought in the world. Think of Cedar Mountain and Antietam ; think of the awful battles that marked Grant's
movement toward Richmond ; think of Chancellorsville ; but, above all, think of Gettysburg ! The writer of universal history says he can record no other such a single battle as that one of Gettysburg- greatest battle of all time. It was a battle not only in which vast forces were engaged on either side, but it was. the battle of all the ages for valor. Such charges, such re- pulses, such onsets, such retreats; where has the eye of man ever seen such except at Gettysburg. It was a battle of the citi- zen soldiers of the North against the citizen soldiers of the South. The generals were there, major-generals and brigadiers, but it was the citizen soldier who was chieny there. No general planned the conduct of Gettysburg. It planned itself. As Sheri- dan's soldiers went over Lookout Mountain because they could not be restrained, so the soldiers of the Republic won Gettys- burg. It was the greatest battle of the world because the largest amount of in- tellectual force was there actively dis- played that has ever been displayed in a battle, and that came from the character and intelligence of the individual soldier. And Gettysburg does not stand alone. It was a whole war after 1861 of great battles, great marches, great defeats, great victories. It developed a great na- tion, it plunged it into great debt, it created great measures of public policy and finance, it made great generals out of common soldiers, and saw great statesmen developed in our national congress at Washington. It was an era productive of greatness, and the world wonders at it still.
Its results also have been as wonderful as it was itself. Look at them from any standpoint, they were wonderful. We are perhaps now even yet too near the events to rightly estimate the greatness of these results. Who would have supposed that the outcome of such a war would have been to utterly extinguish the war spirit in the nation, and to make us in thirty-five years the champion among the nations of the world for the settlement of all variances by appeal, not to battle, but to fair adjudi- cation after testimony in high courts of arbitration ? But, that that is one result, and one most beneficient result, cannot be questioned. The peace for which we fought has become a doctrine of peace for all the world. Who for a moment thought that the tremendous debt into which, almost without warning, the nation was
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GENERAL A. S. WILLIAMS.
plunged, and which appalled the men who stood at the front of affairs, was to be the means of creating financial policies which should carry our credit to the highest point credit ever attained among the nations, and unify our national monetary system to such an extent that National Bank bills should become the stable medium of exchange of a whole continent, and give the nation a better currency than it had known in all its history? Yet that this has been the result is beyond all question. There were doubtless some dreamers in the ranks of the Abolition and Free Soil element in the North who thought that the first gun fired on Fort Sumter was the first stroke of the bell sounding the death knell of slavery. But the rank and file of the men at the North did not think so. And when the act came that set the slave in the rebellious States free, it waked the hostility of so large a portion of our people as to make it seem to many a dangerous expedient. Who then for one instant entertained the hope that three de- cades would see the South itself foremost and heartiest in rejoicing over the death of the institution for which it sacrificed the choicest of its sons. Yet that is one happy result of this fearful struggle. Look at the Negro. Who would have dared in 1865 to prophesy the facts of 1896 ? What are they? In 1865 there were not fifty college bred negro preachers in America ; to-day there are more than one thousand. In 1865 there were two negro attorneys ; now there are two hundred and fifty. In 1865 there were three negro physicians : in 1895 there were regularly practicing seven hundred and forty-nine. There are two hundred and fifty black American students in the Universities of Europe. In 1865 you might as well have searched for
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