USA > New York > Cayuga in the field : a record of the 19th N. Y. Volunteers, all the batteries of the 3d New York Artillery, and 75th New York Volunteers > Part 11
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As fast as they were mounted, the light
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MOUNTING THE LIGHT BATTERIES.
batteries separated from the main body of the regiment, and en- camped by themselves near the Neuse.
The third detail from the regiment for special service was on the 28th of May. Battery G, under Capt. Wall, left that day for · Washington, N. C., on the river Tar, to garrison the fort at that point. It had an abundance of adventure there, a recital of which is postponed to another chapter.
June roth, Battery K was organized into a light battery and sent across the Trent to report to Gen. Reno, commanding the forces in camp there, with whom it also encamped.
June 28th, Battery M, Capt. James M. White, a splendid body of men, went, by order of Col. Ledlie, to Roanoke Island, to garrison Fort Reno on the north end of the Island. The battery remained there several weeks and then went to Hatteras Inlet and garrisoned Fort Hatteras.
By the Ist of July, Batteries B and F had received their full armament. Both had a mixed lot of guns. B had two twenty- four pound howitzers (brass,) two twelve pound howitzers (brass,) and two twelve pound Wiards (iron and rifled). F had two iron six pounders, two iron twelve pounders, and two howitzers. Horses were obtained principally from the Massachusetts regi- ments' baggage wagons. The old Bay State sent her regiments into the field with everything complete. A large number of her troops were in Burnside's army and their splendid teams were appropriated, as the emergency arose for them, to the use of the · 3d Artillery.
While on the subject of the mounting light batteries, it may not be amiss to speak of the other additions to the field artillery of the 3d during the year 1862. Battery E was mounted with four howitzers, two twelve pounders, two twenty-four pounders, partly in August, partly in November. H received its full equip- ment of six guns about the Ist of December. K gave up its old pieces and on December 4th received six brand new Rodmans, three inch rifled guns, iron, throwing an elongated or "cucum- ber " shell. I was provided with four twenty-pounder Parrots, about the rst of December, at which time F received six twelve pound Wiards and B six twelve pound brass "Napoleons."
The summer and fall of 1862 was spent in drilling the several companies in their respective roles as light and heavy artillery, in the perfection of the line of fortifications and in the ordinary routine of camp duties.
In the month of June, a second fort was begun by the contra- bands, on the west side of Newbern, north of the principal work. It received the name of Fort Rowan. It was small, but
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
handsome and stout, and received for its armament four 20 1b. and 30 lb. Parrots and a 12-inch mortar. Battery A, Capt. Charles White, mounted its guns, constructed its magazines, sodded the parapets, built comfortable quarters, and became its garrison.
June 4th, 2,000 cartridges exploded in the orderly's tent of Battery G. Sherwood, Mowers, Goodrich, Bush and Quick were present at the time. Some of the party were smoking. The explosion tore the tent to tatters, and the party found itself sud- denly standing in the open air. Sherwood and Mowers were considerably burnt.
On the 2d of June, Burnside reviewed the Coast Division at Newbern. Fifteen thousand men, including the 3d New York, comprising every arm of the service, were present on one field. During the review a sword was presented to Burnside, in behalf of the State of Rhode Island. Salutes by the drum corps, the pealing of artillery, the waving of flags and cheers of the troops attended the ceremony.
It was a favorite policy of our Government during the war to order simultaneous movements against the enemy in several de- partments at once, so as to prevent him from concentrating to resist any specific attack. In accordance with this idea, Burn- side, being duly instructed thereon from Washington, prepared to make demonstrations in North Carolina, while Mcclellan in Virginia was advancing up the peninsula on Richmond. The rebels had withdrawn a portion of their troops from North Car- olina to oppose Mcclellan, and Burnside was sanguine that he could cut his way far into the interior and completely isolate Virginia from the rest of the rebellion. July Ist, he issued orders for the army at Newbern to advance at daybreak of the 2d, in the direction of Kingston. All the brigade commanders issued stirring proclamations, liberally sprinkled with such or- thodox phrases as "fresh laurels," "new victories," "glorious old flag," "proud confidence," and "traitorous enemy," and the troops prepared for a long expedition, Batteries B and F, 3d New York, amongst the rest. Battery K was unable to go on account of a lack of transportation. A telegram from Wash- ington, however, arrested the movement, and no one went. Disaster had overtaken the Union arms in Virginia. McClellan, the "little Napoleon," had fled from the face of a badly beaten enemy, and the North was in a state of horror and alarm. Car- olina was now to be robbed of 10,000 good Union muskets to reinforce him and restore confidence at the North. Burnside promptly abandoned the projected expedition. He embarked
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STEWART CHIEF ENGINEER.
the brigades of Reno and Parke, and impelled them with all speed to Fortress Monroe, himself going thither July 4th. All the regiments at Newbern paid the General a marching salute before his departure, the 3d New York, after the parade, giving itself up to Independence day festivities.
Gen. Foster took command of North Carolina by order of Burnside, having left him only 3,000 men to hold the numerous cities and forts in possession of the Federal forces.
On the roth of August, Lieut .- Col. Stewart became Chief Engineer of the department on Foster's staff, Capt. Williamson having been relieved from duty. To the new Engineer, Foster committed more especially the work of completing the fortifica- tions of Newbern, which now, on the withdrawal of so large a part of the army, acquired a fresh importance. Stewart applied himself to the task with accustomed energy and success. He remained in the discharge of the duties of the new position till the latter part of January, 1863, by which time he had made Newbern impregnable on the west and had done much to make it secure on the south side of the Trent. Fort Totten and Rowan were finished. A strong redoubt was built on the lines between them. A swamp in front of the lines and south of the railroad was ingeniously utilized for defense by damming up the outlet of its waters through a culvert in the railroad embankment, thus creating a large and impassable pond in front of our defenses. A strong breastwork was constructed from the Trent to Fort Totten, and thence to the swamp near Fort Rowan, a ditch pro- tecting it in front, in some places thirty feet deep. Fort Gaston, south of the Trent, guarding a wagon bridge half a mile from the city, was finished. Fort Spinola, south of the Trent, near the Neuse, was also built, with block houses and various other works at different places on the lines.
In Fort Totten the amount of work done was immense. First, the parapets had to be revetted. Commencing at the bottom of the outer slope, in the ditch, the revetment was made with sods piled one on the other, eighteen inches thick. At the top of the ditch the sods were then laid in the usual manner, in one layer. The inner face of the parapet received a similar re- vetment to the ditch wall. When completed, this gave to the fort a strong turf over every foot of surface of its walls, and the grass being kept nicely cut not only gave it a superb appearance but made it proof against the elements and bombardment. The embrasures were revetted with gabions, or wicker baskets, filled with sand. In October, Lieut .- Col. Stewart founded the great traverse of the fort, a huge parapet of earth and logs on the
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terra pleine of the work, 400 feet long, 35 high and 28 through at the base, to shelter the garrison behind against cannon shot during a bombardment. The construction of this was a task of enormous difficulty and consumed many months. It was not quite finished when Stewart resigned the engineership. Once, during its construction, in November, an attack being appre- hended, Stewart impressed every cart and cartman in Newbern, over thirty in number, to haul dirt into the traverse and kept them hard at work for nearly ten days.
The contrabands performed all the manual labor on these de- fensive works. Newbern was thronged with these hardy plebes. They had fled from the interior, bringing in their wives and children, and two immense camps had been created by the au- thorities of the post for their accommodation. One camp stood near Fort Totten. One was south of the Neuse. Six hundred of the stoutest of the men in their camps were sorted out to do this labor on the forts, and, being divided into gangs averaging sixty each, overseers and superintendents were appointed from the 3d Artillery to supervise their operations. These officials were the following :
Superintendents-Sidney W. Palmer, Battery G; Wm. Fergu- son, Wm. Hurd, Battery A.
Overseers-Chester D. Barnes, Charles Brokaw, Wm. H. Hopping, Thomas E. Post, David Ray, Richard White, Battery A ; Geo. W. Hall, W. W. Siddons, Battery C ; Wm. H. John- son, Charles Rynders, Robert .Riby, John Shea, Elisha Stanton, Vincent F. Story, Battery E; Laughlin McCarthy, John Ratti- gan, John Tearney, Battery D.
Overseers from other regiments had other gangs.
These negroes were very ignorant and needed these overseers to look after their interests, for they were being constantly im- posed upon, especially by the United States paymasters. The darkies did not know the value of the money that the paymasters passed out to them on pay day, and for several months they were deliberately swindled. If the man's bill was fifteen dollars, the purveyor of greenbacks would hand him a handful of frac- tional notes, probably not amounting to more than five dollars, which, as he could not count, he supposed was all right. Every man would be served that way. The overseers, reporting the condition of affairs, at length put a stop to the disgraceful practice.
The health of the 3d Artillery suffered somewhat during the first summer at Newbern, owing to the peculiarities of the cli- mate. The lack of pure spring water was a prolific source of
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HEALTH OF THE REGIMENT.
trouble. It was obtained for camp and culinary purposes from wells dug in the sand and marl. Much of it was of a milky hue. The people said it was unhealthy, but it had to be often used as there was no other. The soldiers drank whisky as copiously as camp regulations allowed, "to counteract the effect " The remedy was not so effectual but that, combined with the warmth and malarial influences of the swamp region, the bad water brought upon the hands of Dr. Dimon and his assistants scores of patients with dysentery. Malarial and congestive fevers also abounded, and several deaths occurred from maladies of that character. But the former was the more frequent complaint, and required care and powerful medicines in its treatment, as, until cold weather came on, it became more obstinate in its chai- acter every day. Dr. Dimon traces part of these difficulties in a measure to the food. The potato ration was not issued, the tuber in North Carolina being a coarse and watery article. Pickles were almost unattainable, as part of the ration, nor was the vinegar the genuine article made from cider. Often, too, the men were imprudent in the use of fruit and vegetables, the soldiers' failing, which in that climate was very conducive to sickness. In short, during the summer of '62, very few in the regiment did not have occasion to swallow several doses of Dr. Dimon's jalap, rhei, calomel, quinine, cornus Florida (gathered in bark from the woods by the Doctor's assistants and boiled down), and opium, and would perhaps have taken down more of some of them had the department been better stocked with medical supplies. The regiment did not, however, suffer from any severity of sickness. On the contrary, its general health was excellent, and it enjoyed a comparative exemption from se- rious disorders.
And now let us turn to speak of the battles and expeditions of 1862 in North Carolina, in which our regiment bore a part.
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
VII.
FORT MACON, WASHINGTON AND RAWLES' MILLS.
Battery I Goes to Fort Macon-The Fort-Incidents of the Siege-Death of Dart-Macon Surrenders-Testimonials to Battery I-Battery G Goes to Washington, North Carolina-Prevalence of Malaria-The Rebels Surprise the Town-Desperate Fight-Sudden Advent of Battery H-Our Victory --- The Losses-The Tarboro Expedition-Rawles Mills-A Grand Scene.
After the capture of Hatteras Inlet and Newbern, the only seaports left to the Confederates on the North Carolina coast were Beaufort and Wilmington harbors. Burnside's successes in March having isolated the former, guarded by Fort Macon, from the rebel army of central North Carolina, the General sent Gen. Parke down with several brave Rhode Island and Connec- ticut regiments to capture it and the Fort before the garrison of the latter could be reinforced from Wilmington. In the enter- prise against the fort, Battery I of the 3d New York bore a prominent part.
The little steamer, Alice Price, Foster's flag ship, bore the blue-clad warriors of Battery I, eighty-five in number, Capt. Ammon commanding, armed with muskets, away from Newbern April 10th, 1862. It landed them eighteen miles below the city on the south bank of the Neuse, at the mouth of Slocum's creek. This was the spot where Burnside's Coast Division landed for the victorious advance against Newbern in March. The men bivouacked on shore for the night, in company with a detach- ment of infantry which they found here guarding a deserted rebel cavalry camp and some munitions of war. Sleeping on
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FORT MACON.
their arms, as a precaution in case of an attack from bush- whackers who prowled the extensive swamps surrounding the locality, they rose early in the morning and began their solitary march to Carolina City. Striking through the swamps they came out on the railroad, running from Newbern down to the harbor. They followed that a distance and then took to the roads, passing deep forests of fragrant pine and fir, dotted with verdant glades full of the delicious perfume of wild flowers, with straggling cottages and bits of cultivated soil here and there along the route, and coming out into the level and open country as they approached the coast. The march of twenty miles was made in four hours. The Battery encamped, while Capt. Ammon reported his arrival to Gen. Parke. The General was waiting for artillerymen, and ordered him to cross Bogue Sound next day, and join the troops operating against the Fort.
The men could see Fort Macon across the water, two miles away, its flag plainly visible. It was one of the most important and costly of the great Atlantic sea coast defenses of our country, which the rebels had appropriated in the early days of treason. Not one of these defenses had on April roth been re- captured by the Federal arms. To wrest this important prize from the rebels, and present it and its captured garrison to our Government, first of all the reclaimed forts, was the ambition of Gen. Parke. When taken possession of in January, 1861, at the command of Gov. Ellis, of North Carolina, Macon was in poor repair. It had, however, since then been placed in a state of complete efficiency for aggressive resistance, its armament especially having been reinforced. Its walls now bristled with sixty 10-inch Columbiads and other monster ordnance. Always rated as a work second only in strength and importance to For- tress Monroe and Fort Sumpter, it was now a work almost impregnable, if properly garrisoned and defended. It was a large, low, pentagonal, casemated structure of brick masonry, roofed with a heavy, bomb-proof embankment of earth, well sodded, forming a central peep, the guns being mounted on it en barbette. Encircling the central work, and with a space be- tween forming a broad passage way, was a huge rampart of earth, half as high as the main fort, with a broad, gentle glacis, or slope towards the outside country. This formed an exterior battery, and from its parapet frowned another tier of barbette guns. It was called the water battery, and its office was also to act as a shield and protection during bombardment, to the soft, though immensely thick brick walls of the central work.
The Fort was situated at the entrance to the beautiful and ca-
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY
pacious harbor of Beaufort, on a sand hummock occupying the north end of Bogue Island, a long, low, narrow outlying sand spit, nearly barren, peculiar to this coast, diversified with sand hills and lagoons, running parallel to the main land for twenty miles. The fire of the Fort commanded the entrance, which was known as Old Topsail Inlet, three-quarters of a mile wide, its garrison at that time being Col. Moses J. White, of Missis- sippi, with a company of " Atlantic" Artillery ; Battery B, ten Artillery "Woodpecks," and Company H, Old Topsail rifles, and two other infantry companies, 450 in all.
Gen. Parke decided to assail in the rear by establishing bat- teries on Bogue Island, to either bombard it into submission, or get down its fire by dismounting its guns so that it might be carried by storm. The blockading squadron was to co-operate. . April 13th, Capt. Ammon, with Battery I, poled slowly across Bogue Sound on flat boats, and encamped on the beach of the Island. The Fort discharged sixty shells at the company, while crossing, and during the day, the only result of which, however, was to inure the men to the din of war. Gen. Parke, with his infantry, was on the Island, skirmishing with the enemy's pickets, and waiting for the arrival of the Battery. On the night of the 14th, Battery I fell into line and marched through the sand hills across to the other side of the Island. Moving silent- ly up along the ocean beach, it then struck again into the Island, and chose a spot in the edge of the sand hills, 1,400 yards from Fort Macon, just in rear of the crest of a sand knoll, for an earthwork for a ten inch mortar battery. Throwing off all im- pediments, the men went at once to work. The loose crumbling sand of the Island was miserable stuff to construct a reliable rampart of, but the boys set themselves resolutely at it, knowing that in the coming bombardment, the strength of their work was to be a matter of considerable personal importance. They made the parapet straight, without embrasures, mortars being fired into the air and not requiring them. It was eight feet high, and re- vetted and kept in place on the inside by bags of carpet, packed with sand and securely wired together. On the 18th, Lieuts. Kelsey and Thomas took twenty men and began the erection of a breastwork, 100 yards to the right and front, for an eight inch mortar battery. The men toiled at this work ten days and seven nights, building their works and placing in position their mor- tars, four in each battery. They had to bring these up at night with the assistance of teams from the rear. The days were warm and the work excessively tiresome, and exposed the men somewhat to danger from the occasional shots from the Fort.
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ASSAULT ON FORT MACON.
Magazines had also to be built to shield the ammunition from danger while in action, and shot, shell and powder had to be brought up to stock them. The men spared no exertion in this work, stopping only now and then to snatch a brief repose, sleep- ing on the ground in the soft sand in their blankets, until the 24th, when all was in readiness for assailing the Fort. Mean- while a third battery had been made 300 yards in front of the ten inch mortar battery, mounting four Parrot cannon in em- brasures. The putting of the armament into these works was a task of great magnitude and was performed in a spirit that evoked a testimonial from Burnside, who came to the Island and inspected the operations. He said, (in March, 1863,) " At the siege of Fort Macon, the hardships and difficulties which the troops had to undergo in the transportation of the guns, mortars, ammunitions and provisions, through the intricate channels and over the sand hills, exceeded everything that I have ever known in the way of land service. It was all performed by the men without a murmur."
The enemy did not, of course, permit these operations to go on unnoticed. He constantly annoyed the growing earthworks with shot and shell, though without stopping operations. The men soon learnt to listen for the report of the rebel cannon and watch for the coming shot and dodge it.
The Fort being summoned to surrender very naturally refused. Gen. Parke, therefore, ordered the attack for the next day, it being arranged that Capt. Morris should have the honor of firing the first gun, and that our blockading fleet outside the harbor should steam in to shore and co-operate.
The men of Battery I quietly took their places around their mortars in the two breastworks before daylight of the 25th. The monster pieces, mounted on strong wooden platforms, were loaded with shells and all things held in readiness for the bom- bardment, every man being assigned his specific duty to perform during the day in serving the mortars and bringing powder and shells from the magazines. Meanwhile Capt. Morris's men stood to their guns, and Gen. Parke sent out a regiment to rein- force the picket line, lodged away out in front among the sand hummocks for the purpose of repelling any sorties from the fort upon the redoubts, or of assaulting if ordered so to do. Pre- cisely at 5 A. M. the Parrot Battery spoke. The thunder of a gun boomed to Fort Macon an angry jostling of its garrison from slumber. Capt. Ammon stood watching over the parapet of the ten-inch mortar battery. In his hand he held the lanyard attached to the friction fuse of a shotted mortar. When he saw
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
Capt. Morris, with a quick jerk, evoke the music of one of the Parrot guns, he sprang down and pulled the lanyard of the mor- tar, firing the second gun in the bombardment of the devoted fortress. Then from every redoubt, with a concussion that shook the earth, there leaped into the air jets of spurting flame and huge columns of thick, gray smoke that, rolling down a moment after, enfolded and hid from sight every battery, while twelve monster shells well aimed carried devastation into the fort. At the first gun, the sentinel, in his usual perch upon the cross-tree of the flag-staff at Macon, dropped to the ground with the celerity of light and vanished behind the rampart. Cannon and mortar, the one with horizontal, the other with curved fire, began, after the first salvo, a steady, persistent, rapid bombard- ment. For full twenty mintues the Fort was mute, the only smoke curling from its walls being that made by the explosion of our shells. The mortar firing was at first a little wild-many shells going clear over the fort ; but this was soon corrected. One of the very first of the ten-inch mortar shells, however, which Ammon saw fired in person, landed plumb in the water bat- tery of the fort. Rolling up the brick walk, it lay there whizzing furiously. A sentinel on duty close by, paralyzed with terror, stood rooted to the spot, gazing at the unwelcome missile till it burst, when a fragment of it blew his head off. The eight-inch mortars under Lieuts. Thomas and Kelsey were gallantly served and were now pouring in a furious rain of shells. At length, the deep boom of a thirty-two-pounder from the Fort gave out an answer to the bombardment, and the heavy missile came bounding in among the sand hills, throwing up great clouds of dust. Other guns then opened, and in a short time Columbiad and Parrot thundered defiance from the rebel ramparts. By eight o'clock, eighteen guns, pointing up the Spit, were at work at us and kept up a heavy and continuous discharge, sending a furious storm of shot and shell, roaring and bursting over and into the redoubts to the great destruction of their parapets. They were aimed at first, principally, at the Parrot battery, which, being most exposed, was assailed first. Later both mor- tar batteries came in for a heavy direct fire. The ten-inch bat- tery was imperiled by the fire on the Parrot gun redoubt, how- ever, quite as much as that redoubt was ; for the rebel shot hurled at it, bounding, generally landed in or around the ten- inch battery behind it.
The service of mortars is a laborious and begriming occupa- tion, and the men of the 3d Artillery were soon blackened with powder and dust, till, seen through distorting smoke, toiling at their fierce engines of destruction, they looked like infernals.
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