USA > New York > Camp and field life of the Fifth New York volunteer infantry. (Duryee zouaves.) > Part 27
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On the March to Fredericksburg.
and assigned to Company G; A. S. Chase to Captain of Company D ; Sergeant Kitson to Ensign of Company C; Sergeant T. E. Fish to Ensign, and Commissary E. M. Earle, appointed Quartermaster, vice A. L. Thomas, promoted to Brigade Quartermaster.
These were the preliminaries and the preparation for the impending struggle, which we were in ardent hope would see the duration of war cease, and that the Union with its benedictions of peace would once more be restored. But our hopes as to the issue of the coming conflict were to be dashed to the ground, and it wis destined to form a dark event in the history of the Union cause.
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CHAPTER XIV.
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
IN SIGHT OF FREDERICKSBURG --- THE PONTOON-THE BURNING CITY-THE Post- TION-ACROSS THE RIVER-MARYE'S HILL-A DESCRIPTION BY THE PHILADEL- PHIA Times-THE ATTACK-THE ENEMY'S BATTERIES-THE SLAUGHTER PATH -FRENCH'S DIVISION-HOOKER'S CHARGE-HOWARD AT THE FRONT-HUM- PHREY'S DIVISION-SYKES' DIVISION-THE DEAD AND. WOUNDED-WARREN'S BRIGADE-THE BRIGADE OF DEATH-THE COMPTE DE PARIS-THE FIFTH IN A GARDEN-OUR REGULARS SEVERELY PLACED-THE GLOOM PALL-FORLORN
HOPE - STRATEGY - INTRENCHMENTS AT NIGHT - COVERING THE RETREAT- THE LAST MAN CROSSED-THE PONTOON LIFTED-INCIDENTS-HENRY HOUSE -GENERAL SYKES' GENERAL ORDER.
AT half-past 2 o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the IIth day of December, 1862, the regiment was aroused from its slumbers, by the sound of the bugle ringing out the reveille on the clear, cold air. The men immediately turned out and formed in line for roll call. After answering to their names, they commenced their slight preparations for the march. They formed in line and at about six o'clock took the road, already blocked up, as far as the eye could scan, with moving troops, artillery, and ambulances. The sound of a heavy gun in the distance announced that the fiat for battle had gone forth, which, ere it closed, was to send weep- ing and mourning into many a happy Northern home, and throw a mantle of gloom over every patriot heart throughout the land. Soon other guns sent forth their deep-toned notes, and the roar of artillery became incessant. After many halts, and a march of about three miles, the division was turned into a wood to await further orders. They were finally marched from the wood to a position behind some earthworks on high ground, near the banks of the Rappa- hannock, from which they could distinctly see the ill-fated
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
city of Fredericksburg, lying about two miles to their left, on the other side of the river, and along on their side of the river, and stretching far off in the distance, huge balls of smoke arose from the guns which were playing on the opposite bank.
The men of the 50th New York Regiment, Engineer Corps, were engaged all day in trying to lay the pontoon bridge across the river, but were prevented by the enemy's riflemen, who were posted in the houses along the streets adjacent to the river. This compelled the General com- manding to order the guns to be turned upon the city and shell the place. Soon thirty-five batteries, numbering one hundred and seventy-nine guns, were hurling their shell into the city ; they continued the bombardment for an hour, each picce discharging about fifty shots ; the reverberations of the guns were like long rolls of thunder, and soon the high banks of the river were enveloped in smoke. The city was set on fire by the shell in several places, and continued to burn all day and through the succeeding night. It was a splendid spectacle in the darkness, as the flames burst forth from the burning houses. On Friday, the 12th, detachments of the 7th Michigan, followed by the 19th and 20th Massa- chusetts, about four hundred men in all, dashed across the river in pontoon boats and routed the enemy's riflemen, lying behind the brick walls of the ruined houses along the river front, but they suffered some loss in their heroic enter- prise.
The engineers were now able to lay their bridges without molestation. The enemy's works on the heights to the rear of the city could be plainly seen, as they were built on steep hills ninety and one hundred feet in height ; concern- ing which, wrote the London Times correspondent after the battle : "This crest of hills constitutes one of the strongest positions in the world-impregnable to any attack in the front." The Confederates scarcely deigned to reply to the
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Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry.
fire of the batteries, and it looked ominous ; it seemed as if they were saving their ammunition and biding their time, being sure of their prey when the troops crossed over into the city.
On Saturday, the 13th, by two o'clock in the afternoon, the troops were all across the river, with the exception of Sykes' division, which was held as a reserve, being com- posed of two brigades of regulars and Warren's brigade, consisting at that time of the Fifth, 140th, and 146th New York, the Fifth being regarded the same in point of steadi- ness and discipline as the regulars. The two other regiments had not yet been under fire, having been recently recruited.
Since noon the rattle of musketry intermingled with the roar of artillery had been incessant, and told the story of the fierce conflict raging.
We will now halt for a moment and see what is going on in front of Marye's Hill, through the eyes of one who must have been present, or he could not have described the scene so faithfully or so well.
The following was published in the New York Sunday Sun of August 5, 1877, credited to the Philadelphia Times, and its perusal will bring home to the thoughts of all those who were present on that bloody field, the truthfulness of the scenes described :
" Marye's Hill was the focus of the strife. It rises in the rear of Fredericksburg, a stone's throw beyond the canal which runs along the western border of the city. The ascent is not very ab- rupt. A brick house stands on the hillside, whence you may overlook Fredericksburg and all the circumjacent country. The Orange plank-road ascends the hill on the right-hand side of the house, the telegraph road on the left. Above Marye's Hill is an elevated plateau which commands it. The hill is part of a long, bold ridge on which the declivity leans, stretching from Falmouth to Massoponax Creek, six miles. Its summit was shaggy and rough with the earthworks of the Confederates, and was crowned by their artillery. The stone wall on Marye's Height was their
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
'coign of vantage,' held by the brigades of Cobb and Kershaw, of McLaw's division. On the semicircular crest above, and stretching far on either hand, was Longstreet's corps, forming the left of the Confederate line. His advance position was the stone wall and rifle trenches along the telegraph road above the house. The guns of the enemy commanded and swept the streets which led out to the heights. Sometimes you might see a regiment marching down those streets in single file, keeping close to the houses, one file on the right-hand side, another on the left.
" Between a canal and the foot of the ridge was a level plat of flat, even ground, a few hundred yards in width. This restricted space afforded what opportunity there was to form in order of battle. A division massed on this narrow plain was a target for Lee's artillery, which cut fearful swaths in the dense and compact ranks.
" Below and to the right were fences which impeded the ad- vance of the charging lines. Whatever division was assigned the task of carrying Marye's Hill, debouched from the town, crossed the canal, traversed the narrow level and formed under cover of a sharp rise of ground at the foot of the heights.
" At the word, suddenly ascending this bank, they pressed for- ward up the hill for the stone wall and the crest beyond, into the jaws of death.
" From noon to dark Burnside continued to hurl one division after another against that volcano-like eminence, belching forth fire and smoke and iron hail. French's division was the first to rush to the assault. When it emerged from cover and burst out on the open, in full view of the enemy, it was greeted with a frightful fiery reception from all his batteries on the circling summit.
"The ridge concentrated upon it the convergent fire of all its enginery of war. You might see at a mile the lanes made by the cannon balls in the ranks. You might see a bursting shell throw up into the air a cloud of earth and dust, mingled with the limbs of men. The batteries in front of the devoted division thundered against it. To the right, to the left, cannon were answering to each other in a tremendous deafening battle chorus, the burden of which was :
"" Welcome to these madmen about to die.'
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Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry.
" The advancing column was a focus, the point of concentration of an arc-almost a semicircle-of destruction. It was a center of attraction of all deadly missiles. At that moment that single division was going up alone in battle against the Southern Con- federacy, and was being pounded to pieces. It continued to go up, nevertheless, toward the stone wall, toward the crest above. With lips more firmly pressed together, the men closed up their ranks and pushed forward. The storm of battle increased its fury upon them ; the crash of musketry mingled with the roar of ordnance from the peaks. The stone wall and the rifle-pits added their terrible treble to the deep base of the bellowing ridge. The rapid discharge of small arms poured a continuous rain of bullets in their faces ; they fell down by tens, by scores, by hundreds.
" When they had gained a large part of the distance, the storm developed into a hurricane of ruin. The division was blown back as if by a breath of hell's door suddenly opened, shattered, dis- ordered, pell-mell, down the declivities, amid the shouts and yells of the enemy, which made the horrid din demoniac. Until then the division seemed to be contending with the wrath of brute and material forces bent on its annihilation.
"This shout recalled the human agency in all the turbulence and fury of the scene. The division of French fell back ; that is to say, one-half of it. It suffered a loss of near half its numbers. Hancock immediately charged with five thousand men, veteran regiments, led by tried commanders. They saw what had hap- pened ; they knew what would befall them. They advanced up the hill ; the bravest were found dead within twenty-five paces of the stone wall ; it was slaughter, havoc, carnage. In fifteen minutes they were thrown back with a loss of two thousand- unprecedented severity of loss. Hancock and French, repulsed from the stone wall, would not quit the hill altogether. Their divisions, lying down on the earth, literally clung to the ground they had won. These valiant men, who could not go forward, would not go back. All the while the batteries on the heights raged and stormed at them.
" Howard's division came to their aid. Two divisions of the 9th corps to their left attacked repeatedly in their support.
" It was then that Burnside rode from the Phillips House, on
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
the other side of the Rappahannock, and standing on the bluff at the river, staring at those formidable heights, exclaimed : 'That crest must be carried to-night.' Hooker remonstrated, begged, obeyed. In the army to hear is to obey. He prepared to charge with Humphrey's division ; he brought up every available battery in the city. 'I proceeded,' he said, 'against their barriers as I would against a fortification, and endeavored to breach a hole sufficiently large for a forlorn hope to enter.' He continued the cannonading on the selected spot until sunset. He made no im- pression upon their works, 'no more than you could make upon the side of a mountain of rock.'
" Humphrey's division formed under shelter of the rise, in col- umn, for assault. They were directed to make the attack with empty muskets ; there was no time then to load and fire. The officers were put in front to lead. At the command they moved forward with great impetuosity ; they charged at a run, hurrah- ing. The foremost of them advanced to within fifteen or twenty yards of the stone wall. Hooker afterward said : 'No campaign in the world ever saw a more gallant advance than Humphrey's men made there. But they were to do a work that no men could do.' In a moment they were hurled back with enormous loss. It was now just dark; the attack was suspended. Three times from noon to dark the cannon on the crest, the musketry at the stone wall, had prostrated division after division on Marye's Hill. And now the sun had set; twilight had stolen out of the west and spread her veil of dusk ; the town, the flat, the hill, the ridge, lay under the ' circling canopy of night's extended shade.' Darkness and- gloom had settled down upon the Phillips House, over on the Stafford Heights, where Burnside would after a while hold his council of war."
About three o'clock Sykes' division was ordered to move toward the bridge leading direct to the city ; it being one of five built of pontoons by the engineers. the other four lying further to the left, three of which led to the open country. As they approached in its vicinity, they met the enemy's shell, who was aiming his guns so as to reach the slope of the hill running down to the foot of the bridge and the plains
344
Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry.
beyond. They saw numerous sights that reminded them of what was going on in the front ; pale-looking men limping to the rear, and long lines of ambulances carrying their bur- dens of suffering humanity, and here and there a surgeon and assistants, with implements in hand performing their duties, with the wounded and the dying lying about them ; terrified-looking stragglers skulking behind trees, where they thought themselves safe from flying shell.
Before crossing the river they met General Burnside, who appeared to look anxious and not well satisfied as to how the battle was progressing. Who could realize the fearful re- sponsibility then resting on him alone? His last troops were going into action ; the desperate assaults against an impregnable position had been disastrous failures, and this was the decisive moment. The division crossed the bridge and hurried through a business street, where whole blocks of stores had been destroyed by fire ; desolation and destruc- tion were visible on all sides. They turned into Caroline Street, which was lined by the residences of the wealthy, and as they passed up this street on a run, they saw many corpses lying about in the street and on the sidewalks, and met wounded men coming from the battle, reeling like drunken men. Once in a while one of them would fall from weak- ness occasioned by loss of blood. Two soldiers came out of a drug-store with ashy pale countenances, having been poisoned in their search for whisky.
The din of battle was now terrifying, as nearly all of Gen- eral Hooker's command, the 3d and 5th corps, were en- gaged, and for two miles along the f.ont it was one sheet of flame, but the result was uncertain. On the outside of the city was a plain about one-third of a mile in widthi, on the other side of which were the enemy, covered by a stone wall, which was banked with earth, rifle-pits, and batteries on the heights, with another line of earthworks on high ground to the rear of them ; all these must be overcome at
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
that point, to insure a victory. The division continued up the street on a double-quick, the regulars being in advance ; they came to the end of it, which debouched on the out- skirts of the city, on the border of the open plain before mentioned, and the "regulars " went into the battle now raging fiercely, relieving Humphrey's division. The Con- federates knew who were facing them at the first volley. Warren's brigade formed a second line in their rear. It was now dark, and the heavy firing ceased ; occasional volleys from companies or battalions lit up the darkness for a mo- ment, but it soon dropped off to a heavy picket firing.
The assaulting troops, as we have seen, had succeeded in getting near the stone wall, but they were met with such a withering fire from the Confederates, who were repeatedly reinforced, and from the nature of their defenses could mass their men four files deep and fire, that our forces were so decimated they could advance no further, and were obliged to fall back.
The position of the Fifth happened to be in a garden, the soil being wet and muddy, from the heat of the sun dur- ing the day, which had melted the frost in the ground. But there they were compelled to wait, being the next in turn for the trying ordeal. The men pulled down a picket fence and portioned what there was of it among themselves to lie on, and keep part of their bodies from the damp, cold earth, each man's share consisting of a space about two and one- half feet long by one and a half broad, and curled them- selves up to keep warm. The bullets whizzed over their heads from the firing just in front of them, and some of them were hit ; occasionally the shrieking of shell was heard, a little over their heads. Few there were that closed their eyes that long December night, which seemed as if it would never end. As they lay, they thought of the morrow-how many of them would live to come out of the conflict-of home- of eternity.
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Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry.
But worse than all were the cries of the wounded, lying helpless between the lines and on that bloody slope, without any one to help them. They could hear them cry, "Water ! water ! water ! O God ! help !" Some of them called out their names and regiment, and sometimes a chorus of shrieks and groans went up on the chill midnight air, telling of human agony beyond the power of endurance. But to quote again from the same writer :
" The dead would not remain unnoticed. The dying cried out in the darkness, and demanded succor of the world. Was there nothing in the universe to save ? Tens of thousands within ear- shot, and no footstep of friend or foe drew near during all the hours. Sometimes they drew near and passed by, which was an aggravation of the agony. The subdued sound of wheels rolling slowly along, and ever and anon stopping ; the murmur of voices and a cry of pain told of the ambulance on its mission. It went off in another direction. The cries were borne through the haze. Now a single lament ; again voices intermingled and as if in chorus ; from every direction, in front, behind, to right, to left, some near, some distant and faint. Some, doubtless, were faint and were not distant-the departing breath of one about to ex- pire. They expressed every degree and shade of suffering, of pain, of agony ; a sigh, a groan, a piteous appeal, a shriek, a succession of shrieks, a call of despair, a prayer to God, a demand for water, for the ambulance, a death-rattle, a horrid scream, a voice as of the body when the soul tore itself away and aban- doned it to the enemy, to the night, and to dissolution. The voices were various. This the tongue of a German ; that wail in the Celtic brogue of a poor Irishman. The accent of New England was distinguishable in the cry of that boy. From a different quarter came utterances in the dialect of a far-off Western State. The appeals of the Irish were the most pathetic. They put them into every form-denunciation, remonstrance, a pitiful prayer, a peremptory demand. The German was more patient, less demonstrative, withdrawing into himself. One man raised his body on his left arm, and extending his right arm up- ward, cried out to the heavens and fell back. Most of them lay moaning, with the fitful movement of unrest and pain.
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
" It was on the ground over which the successive charges had been made that there appeared to be a thin line of soldiers sleep- ing on the ground. They seemed to make a sort of row or rank ; they were perfectly motionless ; their sleep was profound. Not one of them awoke and got up. They were not relieved either. Had the fatigue of the day completely overpowered all of them, officers and privates alike? They were nearest the enemy, within call of him. They were the advance line of the Union army. Was it thus that they kept their watch, on which the safety of the whole army depended, pent up between the ridge and the river? The enemy might come within ten steps of them without being seen. The fog was a veil. No one knew what lay, or moved, or crept, a little distance off. Still they did not waken. If you looked closely at the face of any of them, in the mist and dimness, it was pallid, the eyes closed, the mouth open, the hair was disheveled ; besides, the attitude was often painful. There were blood-marks also. These men were all dead."
Thus the night wore through. Toward morning a thick mist hung over the ground, which made the situation more gloomy, if possible, than ever. The men fully expected to face the Confederate hosts in battle array as soon as day- light should appear. Each inan felt as if he was passing his last night on earth ; but each brave heart had inwardly resolved to obey orders unflinchingly, and preserve the reputation of their regiment in whatever position it might be placed ; and if it was the fortune of war that they were to die, they would meet their fate like men.
"In the meantime the troops that had been in the front were withdrawn into the streets of the town, and rested on their arms. Some sat on the curbstones, meditating, looking gloomily at the ground ; others lay on the pavement, trying to forget the events of the day in sleep. There was little said ; deep dejection bur- dened the spirits of all. The incidents of the battle were not re- hearsed except now and then. Always when any one spoke, it was of a slain comrade-of his virtues or of the manner of his death ; or of one missing, with many conjectures respecting hin.
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Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry.
Some of them, it was said, had premonitions, and went into the battle not expecting to survive the day. Thus they lay or sat. The conversation was with bowed head, and in a low manner, ending in a sigh.
" It was December, and cold. There was no camp-fire. But no one mentioned the cold ; it was not noticed. Steadily the wounded were carried by to the hospitals near the river. The hospitals were a harrowing sight ; full, crowded, nevertheless patients were brought in constantly. Down-stairs, up-stairs, every room full. Surgeons, with their coats off and sleeves rolled up above their elbows, sawed off limbs or administered anæs- thetics. They took off a leg or an arm in a twinkling, after brief consultation. It seemed to be, in case of doubt-off with his limb. But the sights and scenes in a field-hospital are not to be described."
The Compte de Paris says, in his " History of the Civil War in America" (pp. 596-7) :
" This night of December 13th-14th was probably the most painful ever experienced by the Army of the Potomac during its whole existence ; its losses amounted to 12,500 killed and wound- ed, and over 2,000 prisoners, sacrificed uselessly to carry out an idea ; 6,300 lay killed or wounded on the slope of Marye's Hill, but there was not a soldier in the ranks who did not believe that their blood had been shed entirely in vain.
" The Confederates, secure in their Gibraltar, had only lost at this point 952 in killed and wounded, and in all parts of the field less than one-half of the Union losses."
At daylight the men were ordered to fall in ; they had no sooner done so than the enemy opened on them from their rifle-pits. The bullets flew around them thick, and began to tell ; one long line of flashes told where the Confederates were posted, for it was yet quite dark. The regiment was hurried off, and went up the same street they had come down the night before, and closed up en masse in a garden partially covered by a dwelling-house and fences, which somewhat
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Battle of Fredericksburg.
screened them from observation ; but they were still under easy rifle range. Some of the Fifth were wounded, and a piece of a shell broke the leg of a member of the 146th New York, after crushing the wheel of a caisson. Three men of the 140th New York were also wounded. The regiment had not been long in this spot before some of the wild spirits, whom nothing seemed to tame or overawe, strayed off through the fence toward the enemy, although the bullets were whistling about them. They soon returned with various articles of luxurious diet and clothing. It was a ludicrous profanation of the terrible drama to witness the grotesque appearance of some of the men. But this by-play soon came to an abrupt termination by the interference of the officers.
It was sad to reflect how desolate these happy and com- fortable homes were made through the terrible consequences of a war brought about by the treasonable acts of a few am- bitious leaders, the majority of whom did not care to hazard their own lives on the battle-field, but were willing that their deluded followers should stand as a bulwark between them and physical danger and hardships. It was surely not strange that it was so difficult to conquer such people, when they were willing to sacrifice everything, the houses and homes in which they were born and brought up, and per- chance their parents before them, rather than surrender them willingly and ask protection of a forgiving invader, who had been forced to lay aside the arts of peace, to take up arms to preserve the unity of the States, under one confederation and one flag.
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