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 18
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
latter been aware of the situation and been in possession of a company of cavalry, Battery F would not have taken back its guns to Folly Island. Capt. Day instantly ordered Titus's sec- tion to limber up and go to the rear with all speed. Clark's section was sent off a few minutes later, the colored section still firing rapidly. Then the prolonges were attached to these latter guns. They retired slowly, firing as they went, till they reached the road, and they too went on a gallop in pursuit of Schimmel- fennig. As they left the field, they saw in a ditch two Union soldiers, sitting side by side, with muskets over their shoulders, but headless, from a cannon shot. They had not moved. Two other Union infantry men were also killed in the fight.
Our troops were now en route for Folly Island. They were not molested, but, being fearful of a rear attack, they marched rapidly, leaving the Seabrook House in flames, and reached Stono Inlet by the same route on which they had come up, on the 12th, about noon.
Battery F on this reconnoissance manifested excellent cour- age, endurance, and good discipline, and was warmly eulogized by the brigade commander.
After the expedition, the Battery remained quietly on Folly · Island till April 22d, when it embarked on the steamer Dictator for transportation to Beaufort, S. C. Gen. Gilmore's corps was at this time preparing to go North to join Gen. Butler in an at- tack on Richmond. So many troops were withdrawn from Port Royal that others had to be sent to hold the posts there. At Beaufort, F encamped, west of the town, on grounds which Capt. Hamilton's artillery had just left. F took his stables and pitched its own tents. At this place the Battery drew new cloth- ing, and was thoroughly drilled and trained. Inspections, re- views, scouts, target firing and firing salutes in honor of National victories, were frequent.
May 30th, Gen. Foster took command of the department. June 30th, at a review before Gen. Saxton, Conway, Fancher and Thyson were presented with medals for soldierly conduct at the siege of Fort Wagner.
John's Island was again invaded by the Union soldiery of the sea islands in July, 1864. This second expedition was made under the direction of Gen. Foster, then commanding the. de -. partment. It was made in strong force, with the brigades of Hatch from Hilton Head, Davis from Folly Island, Saxton from Beaufort, S. C., and Birney from Florida. A brigade was sim- ultaneously sent up the North Edisto. to White Point on the
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SECOND JOHN'S ISLAND EXPEDITION
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main land to make a flank attack ; while Schimmelfennig, with a section of Battery B, 3d Artillery, under Sergt. Fisher, made a dash at James Island and the rebel fortifications there. Foster hoped to bewilder the enemy and divide his forces, and then push the central column on John's Islandt hrough to the Savan- nah & Charleston railroad. If not to accomplish this, then at least to alarm the enemy and compel him to withdraw troops from Savannah and other points, menaced at the time by our army.
Saxton's brigade reached Seabrook's Island upon this expedi- tion, July Ist, whither it was followed next day by Battery F of the, 3d Artillery, Capt. Day commanding, with Lieuts. Titus and Clark and four Wiard guns, in the steamer Wyoming. The Battery debarked and lay on the beach all night, tormented by musquitoes. At day break of the 3d, it marched with Saxton's brigade to John's Island, camping on the battle ground of the previous February. The day was sunny and intensely hot. Dense thickets, overspreading much of the Island, were too low for shade, yet too high to admit a free circulation of air ; and the troops found marching very far from being a gala day affair. Gen. Hatch came up that day with his brigade and took com -. mand. The troops from Folly Island also joined here, having landed on John's Island just below Legareville and made a forced march. With them was a section of Battery B, 3d Artillery, un- der Lieuts. Wildt and Crocker.
On the 4th, the expedition moved forward along the road run- ning north-westerly through the center of the Island, leading in the direction of Charleston on the main land. Our advance . kept beating back a small force of rebels who skirmished per- sistently in the front. It was so hot and dusty that the troops could go no farther than five or six miles. Many were sun- struck. A halt was ordered on a large plantation. Faint with thirst, the soldiers made a rush for the well, which, when the artillery came up, had been pumped dry. Battery F could not even get enough water for coffee. Some dismay was felt at the prospect, when relief came from the heavens. Clouds rolled up and a drenching shower descended on the Island. Battery F happened to possess some new, clean, white, water-tight canvas paulins for their guns, in size 16 feet by 12. Capt. Day caused these to be hung on heavy stakes driven in the ground in such a manner that they sagged in the middle, forming impromptu tanks. Water was caught in these by the hogsheads. The artillery men stood guard around them with drawn sabres to keep off the infantry. They watered their horses, filled can-
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
teens and coffee pots, gave some to the Surgeons for wounded skirmishers, and then turned a large quantity over to the infan- try who scooped the paulins dry. This water was a welcome · refreshment, for the troops were ready to perish for want of it.
On the morning of the 5th, about six miles more were made. Battery F had got nicely into camp, when word came that part of a colored regiment, the 26th, which had been left behind near the camp of the night before, where a road ran down to a creek on the left, had been attacked. The rebels brought a battery down to the creek and opened fire, killing and wounding several. Battery F was sent back with speed to reinforce them, but the rebels had fled. A breastwork was then built in the road lead- ing to the creek and a gun placed there to command it.
Next day, the 6th, the Battery rejoined the column, which had paused to feel of a considerable force of the enemy that had gathered from Charleston and was now in its front. Col. Davis, 104th Pennsylvania, held the advance with Lieut. Wildt's sec- tion of Battery B. There was considerable skirmishing.
The head of the column had now reached a creek, with low, swampy, wooded banks, crossed by an open plank bridge, be- yond which, a short distance, on a little eminence, the rebels had planted a battery of four guns in a redoubt. The road after crossing the creek ran through low woods and then forked and curved to the right and left to avoid the hill. To the edge of these woods, on the 7th, the 26th colored regiment, Col. Silli- man, was brought to charge the rebel guns. Battery B's two cannon were ordered up and stationed on the left fork of the .road to deal with them, while the 26th was forming for the charge. Battery B opened fire with all the fury possible and then Silliman, emerging from the thicket on its left, charged. He was repulsed, but formed again and charged fiercely no less than five times. Upon his brave regiment the rebels turned all their guns and poured a withering fire. They sent it back every time, and it finally drew off with a loss of ninety-seven killed and wounded. . It was a useless slaughter, for the assault should have been made in force. . When too late, Battery F was ordered up to support it, but the fight was over before it could be brought into action. Our men called this affair "The Battle of Bloody Bridge."
Next morning, Battery F was sent to the front early with dis- cretionary orders to engage the redoubt and keep the enemy and his guns quiet. They took the position occupied by B the day before, and opened a brisk fire. The enemy was silenced. One of their guns was overthrown by a shot from our battery's left
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BLOODY BRIDGE.
piece. This little action had additional interest from the fact that it was in full view of Charleston, whose spires could be seen by our men. At night, Battery F was withdrawn across the bridge, which was covered with moss to muffle the sound. It took up a position in a cotton field on the right hand side of the road, bordering the creek. B's guns were placed in the road and trained upon the bridge to cover and guard it. Close up to the creek, a line of breastworks was thrown up, with regiments of infantry lying on the ground behind to defend them. The 56th New York, Col. VanWyck, manned that portion of them directly in front of Battery F.
There was not much sleep among the troops at the lines along the creek that night. The 3d Artillery officers were par- ticularly wakeful. That bloody business was on hand for the morrow, few doubted, and many believed it would come in the night. Another source of sleeplessness was the shelling of our position by the rebel Forts Pringle and Pemberton, two or three miles to the eastward on the Stono. They knew about where the Union forces were and all night long, our men, sleeping on their blankets in the field, could see the fiery track of shells come over them and hear them explode here and there.
The whole camp was suddenly awakened, about half-past five next morning, by a loud rattle of musketry in the woods across the creek, where the 144th New York had been stationed the night before on picket. The rebels were attacking under cover of a dense fog. On they came, yelling and firing, driving the 144th in confusion, taking many prisoners. It needed neither drum nor bugle to tell the camp what was the matter. The first volley brought every regiment and battery to its feet. The men sprang to their guns, and the infantry showed a bristling array of musket barrels over the breastworks, and all stood peering through the gray light of the dawn, which straggled through the fog, to catch the first glimpse of the tide of battle, which was filling the woods yonder with discordant din. In a few moments a throng of men in blue, many minus hats and muskets, some without coats, nearly all without knapsacks, came running down the road and poured over the bridge pell mell. And after they had crossed, a dusky mass of rebels filled the roads and woods. charging to secure the bridge. Then Battery B's guns opened with double cannister, and sent into them blast after blast of the deadly hail, which Battery F, in the field on the right of the bridge, supplemented with solid shot and percussion shell, and the infantry with a hot fire of musketry. The rebels were stag- gered, and fled before the terrible fire, leaving the ground strewn
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
with dead. They were reinforced, and again they charged. Under the fire of infantry and artillery again were they driven back, and Bloody Bridge was bloodier than when it received its horrid christening two days before.
Foiled in their attempts to take the bridge by storm, the rebels now tried to drive us from it by their old game of posting sharp- shooters in trees, to pick off the men working our guns and the men in the breastworks. Battery B then elevated the muzzles of its guns and fired cannister at the tops of the trees, turn- ing the guns here and there. The sharpshooters were silenced very soon. In a short time they tried another method. They brought a piece of artillery to the top of the bank across the creek, and opened fire at three hundred yards distance, but fired too high. Our artillery was now trained upon it, and it was finally toppled over and dismounted by a solid shot from a gun of Battery B, sighted by Lieut. Crocker. Ricochetting, the ball struck the gun on the upward bound, the fog lifting enough so that a clear sight could be had at it.
After this, the rebels persisted in a heavy attack only a short time, drawing off and leaving only a few sharpshooters to main- tain appearances while they reformed their battalions. Their loss in the engagement was 250 killed and wounded. Our loss was 82. The artillery escaped almost unscatched from the fight. None were killed and but few wounded.
Our Generals now decided to withdraw from John's Island. When the battle had ceased, they began to send off the troops, and by night fall the last regiment was retracing the roads to the Stono and the North Edisto. It was an unpopular move with the soldiers, who could not bear to turn back, when the steeples of Charleston were in sight, and the army defending it had just been bloodily repulsed. The artillery marched to the Stono at night, having a very difficult time of it, Battery F going with the 144th New York. On reaching the landing, Gen. Foster, who was there on crutches, having been obliged to direct this movement from the deck of a gun .boat, on account of wounds, sent for some of the 3d Artillery officers and compli- mented the batteries highly. He said they had done terrible execution. Capt. Day, by the way, confidentially remarked to the General, that he thought " Hatch and Saxton were d- fools," and as he was not very sharply reprimanded therefor, it is fair to infer that Foster was not himself oversatisfied with the results of the expedition.
Battery B returned to Folly Island ; Battery F to Beaufort, South Carolina.
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GEN. HATCH'S PARTING ORDERS.
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July roth, Gen. Hatch, at Beaufort, issued the following General Order :-
"The Brigadier-General commanding, in parting with the troops engaged in the late reconnoissance so successfully accom- plished, desires most heartily to thank all, both officers and men, for the fine soldierly conduct displayed by them on that occa- sion. The most exhausting marches under an intense heat, the necessarily limited supply of rations, and lately fierce attacks of the enemy, have been met with such spirit, cheerful determina- tion and unflinching gallantry, as to secure the appreciation and sincere gratitude of their Commander, and deserve the emula- tion of all who desire the reputation of good and true soldiers."
The two batteries of the 3d Artillery eminently deserved the good things said in this Order. They certainly saved the army at Bloody Bridge.
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTII LERY.
XI.
NORTH CAROLINA AGAIN.
North Carolina has Thoughts of Returning to the Old Ways-Jeff. Davis Proposes to Crush that Spirit Out-Gen. Peck's Alarm-Attack on Newbern of February, 1864-Mercereau in the Fight-Capture of the Underwriter- Kirby in a Tight Place-Fate of the Bay Section-To Virginia-Hoke Turns Up Again-The Union Cause Suffers-The Yellow Fever-Death of Lieut .- Col. Stone-Capture of Major Jenny-Arrival of Recruits-Battery A Goes to Plymouth-The Night March-How a Prize was Lost-Battery I Joins Frankle-Chicken Raid-Other Raids.
North Carolina in 1863 was on the very verge of returning to the Union. The Raleigh Standard openly pronounced in favor of going to Washington and making terms for a restoration of the original relations to the General Government. The Confed- eracy was startled and alarmed. As Gov. Vance said, in a public speech, Gen. Lee depended on North Carolina for the support of his army. Should "that State, or its railroads, fail him, he could not remain in Virginia forty-eight hours." The Richmond papers called on Jeff Davis to immediately suppress the Raleigh Standard, while Confederate leaders demanded the adoption of such measures as would crush out this rising Union sentiment, which now threatened to paralyze the whole rebellion if not speedily checked. Jeff. Davis consented.
September 3d, 1863, Gen. John J. Peck, who had been as- signed by Gen. Foster to the 18th Corps, assumed command of the army and district of North Carolina. During that month he made an inspection of the department and advised Gen.
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DANGER THREATENING NORTH CAROLINA.
Butler and Gen. Foster of an iron-clad ram the rebels were building on the Roanoke River below Halifax. He applied for authority to destroy it. A regiment of cavalry could easily have done this. In November, he again called the attention of Butler to this new vessel and other threatening preparations at various points in the State. It was evident to Gen. Peck that a combined land and water attack was being planned to drive the Federals in disgrace from the department. He was able, how- ever, to effect nothing further than to elicit from Butler a tour of inspection to North Carolina. That General, with Rear-Admiral Lee, was at Newbern November 20th, and with Gens. Peck and Palmer and no end of colonels and staff officers, visited the camps and defenses.
Gen. Peck was disturbed. Our fortifications were in great part dependent on our gunboats maintaining possession of the rivers. But these boats were old, wooden, unsuited to the ser- vice, and extemporized from New York ferry boats and other steamers in the greatest haste. There was not a Union iron-clad in North Carolina waters. There was ground in this for serious ap- prehension. Gen. Peck accordingly remodeled the system of de- fenses. At Newbern he built Fort Chase, north of the Neuse ; Fort Stevenson, on the city side of the river and near the river's edge, and two works south of the Trent, adding new faces to some old forts, and, as far as practicable, to the armaments of all. In short, he knew the rebels were going to attack, and, like an approved soldier, he industriously and intelligently pre- pared for it.
The bolt fell in the spring of 1864. A "convention move- ment" among repentant rebels, to call a convention to decide upon returning to the Union, was gaining ground in the State. The uncompromising rebels determined to quell it, and brought in a large force of troops to overawe it by their presence and operations.
Just before daybreak of February Ist, 1864, Gen. Palmer, commanding the Post at Newbern, was informed by telegram from the outpost on the Neuse road, west of the city, of an at- tack upon it. It was at first supposed to be a conflict of pickets, but specific information was soon received that the rebels were coming down from Kinston in considerable strength. "Boots and saddles" rang out from the bugles in the artillery camps, while the long roll roused the infantry to meet impending dan- ger. There was mustering of regiments, and hitching of horses, and standing to guns. In less than ten minutes, Newbern was
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
under arms. Two brigades of infantry then constituted her gar- rison, with Light Batteries C, (the new C, Capt. Mercer, which joined October 1, 1863,) E, K and I, of the 3d Artillery, the 5th R. I. Heavy Artillery and 2d Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, supported by a fleet of wooden gunboats in the river.
The outpost attacked was situated on Bachelor's Creek, about nine miles from the city, where the Neuse road crosses it, de- fended by a block house and heavy line of works. The forces there were the 132d New York, the 12th Cavalry and some com- panies of the 99th New York and Ist North Carolina, 1,500 in all, under command of Col. Classon of the 132d. Taking ad- vantage of a foggy morning, Gen. Pickett, with the brigades of Clingman and Hoke and two batteries of artillery, made a furi- ous assault. Though surprised, the troops at the outpost fought desperately until a railroad train in the rear was loaded with the officer's wives and such baggage as could be saved, when they fell slowly back contesting the way inch by inch.
In response to Col. Classon's telegrams for aid, Gen. I. B. Palmer, commanding at Newbern, hurried out to him at 3 1-2 A. M. the 17th Massachusetts Volunteers and a section of Battery K, 3d Artillery, Lieut. Mercereau. The detachment pushed out on a trot to within a mile of the outpost, when it met the 132d New York falling back in some confusion across the fields, closely followed by long ranks of men in gray, reaching as far as the woods would permit one to see to the right and left. Mer- cereau was precipitated into the fight at once. He opened hotly with shot and shell. For a moment he staggered the rebels, but they were in strong force, and they swept forward again, like a tidal wave, loading and firing and cheering, and rolled everything back before them. Mercereau resisted gallantly, re- tiring slowly. Every little way he wheeled around and opened a rapid fire, and at the place where the railroad crosses the turn- pike, he held them in check till the train came down from the outpost and got safely past. The rebels were then swarming all around him and having given them in all seventy-five rounds of good Union iron, he limbered up and fell back to the fortifica- tions at Newbern, arriving at noon. He was the last to leave the field. He served his guns gallantly in the action and all ad- mitted that he saved our troops a total capture.
Early in the day another section of K went to the front. Lieut. McVey came to Col. Stewart with a telegram to Gen. Palmer, saying Col. Classon wanted a section sent to Beech Grove. This was another outpost on Bachelor's creek, a mile and a half north of the one attacked, held by one company of
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ATTACK ON NEWBERN.
the 99th New York, Capt. Bailey, and one company of the Ist North Carolina. Stewart hesitated. McVey reiterated Gen. Palmer's verbal orders that two guns should be sent at once, with the assurance that they would be supported. Col. Stewart then ordered Capt. Angel to send out a section, and he detailed that of Lieut. Kirby for the purpose. This was one of the very finest sections in the regiment, with its handsome steel guns and magnificent bay horses. A common toast was to "Kirby and his bay section." The order was obeyed with alacrity. Kirby was speedily on the road. He followed Mercereau out to a place where the road forked. Turning to the right, he moved rapidly to Beech Grove. A few moments later, the tide of battle rolled by on his left, and up to the forks of the road, and he was entirely cut off from Newbern.
The outpost at Deep Gully was driven in simultaneously with that at Bachelor's Creek. The rebels followed it in until they came within the range of the guns of Fort Totten. They then came to a halt, and Pickett threw out a line of pickets from the Trent to the Neuse.
An attack was also made south of the Trent. Our outpost in that quarter was at Brice's creek, a little tributary of the Trent. Col. Amory, of the 17th Massachusetts, was in command. A rebel brigade under Gen. Barton appearing in front of the out- post, a section of Battery I, 3d Artillery, which was in camp south of the Trent, was sent out with some of the 19th Wiscon- sin, to meet it near our blockhouse. The section was under Lieut. Kelsey. It had been in position but twenty minutes when the Johnnies opened fire with two or three cannon, strongly sup- ported by infantry. Kelsey used case shot and shell, knocked over one of their pieces, and so cut up the infantry that the rebel advance was arrested. The other sections of I coming up, there was desultory firing during the day, but no particular incident. The rebels had no stomach for charging on those un- erring guns.
As soon as the heavy firing broke out at the outposts, New- bern, as related, was all excitement. All the troops were at their posts. Expecting momentarily an impetuous attack on the city, Batteries C and E of the 3d Artillery, and K's remaining section, and, after its return, Mercereau's section, with all the infantry available, were stationed at the earthworks defending the city on the west. At intervals they fired a shot'at the rebel regiments in the distant woods. It was a gallant sight to see the gay flags, the myriad muskets, the blue battalions, and the grim, quiet cannon, awaiting the enemy behind the earthern
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ramparts in proud confidence. To the crowds of officers, field glasses in hand, who viewed the scene from the big traverse of Fort Totten, on the lines, it was a spectacle in a thousand. The gunboats in the river, with their great cannon trained to point up stream, in readiness for a possible rebel ram, added to the confidence, which all felt, that should a heavy combined attack be made the enemy would be almost annihilated.
Pickett, wisely, did not assault. Content with driving in our outposts, he sat down before the city and only gazed longingly at the grand prize he coveted, but did not dare to attempt to gain by honest, straightforward work.
The rebels grew more valiant as night veiled the scene, and a hard rain rendered the darkness Tartarean. They rowed a number of small boats down the Neuse and surprised one of the vessels of our too heedless Navy, the Underwriter, which lay moored within a stone's throw of the Newbern shore, under the very muzzles of the guns of Fort Stephenson. She was aground and had no steam up. They set her on fire. The musketry firing at the first onset called our watchful army instantaneously to arms. A short pause, and then a bright glow was seen to light up the murky air on the river. It expanded and in a few moments a writhing, crackling, rolling column of brilliant flame rose from the doomed boat, bearing aloft a torrent of burning sparks and clouds of dense black smoke. It was a magnificent fire. It illuminated the city and country for miles around. Brave hearts beat faster with the joy of battle, as the impressive spectacle suggested that in the natural order of things an assault must now be immediately delivered on the lines. But Pickett refrained and that was the only adventure of the night. One section of Battery E, Lieut. Fuller, was sent to the right of Fort Stephenson to sink the gunboat if possible and save her from the flames. The section perforated her at the water line with solid shot ; but she was aground, and of course could not sink. At 4 A. M. she blew up with a tremendous and beautiful explo- sion. Burning beams, cannon, hundreds of bursting shells and an eruption of embers, leaped high up and flashed brilliantly in the air, dropping sullenly as they spent their impetus, one by one, into the river, when darkness closed down again on the besieged city.
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