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 22
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The roth Corps arrived on steamers May 3d, brown as Be- douins from exposure to a Southern sun. The 18th Corps straightway fell to packing up for the expedition.
On the 4th, the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan, 100,000 strong, for the advance on Richmond. Simultaneously, the Army of the James, 25,000 strong, embarked at Yorktown and Newport News, Batteries E and M of the 3d Artillery in- cluded. Battery H remained behind as the reserve artillery of the army till an emergency should require it to come to the front. Battery K marched to Newport News, but did not get aboard in time to go with the advance.
A portion of the fleet at first sailed up the York river, to de-
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ceive the enemy as to its real destination, while the rest ren- dezvoused at Newport News. It lay there on the broad bosom of the harbor till night fall, a thunder cloud of war, dark, threat- ening and portentous, its great black ocean steamers and smaller coasting vessels, ferry boats, barges and sloops, crowded with masses of soldiery-its armored gunboats and fine staunch iron monitors, boding ill things for the enemies of our country.
During the day, Gen. Kautz with 3,000 cavalry marched from Suffolk on a raid against the Weldon railroad, which he event- ually struck and broke. Concurrently a smaller cavalry force moved up the Peninsula, on an ostensible expedition against Richmond by that route. This movement gave the enemy the greatest alarm ; for twice before, that year, in February, Butler had pushed heavy forces of infantry up the Peninsula on real expeditions, one of them almost reaching the rebel capital. The enemy hurried his forces on the James to meet the . threatening column. This was just what Butler wanted.
At night fall, the armored vessels of the fleet rushed up the James.
Next day, the rest of the fleet followed rapidly, having on board the artillery. Passing up the historic stream, at all the points commanding bends the bright parti-colored flag of the Union floated gladiy on the banks, conspicuous against the dark green of the trees, showing where a detachment had landed to fortify the captured position. At Fort Powhatan, an old rebel work, a few miles below City Point on the. south bank, Battery M landed with a few companies of infantry to become its gar- rison.
The vessel bearing Battery E pushed straight for the broad, sprangly peninsula between the James and Appomattox, known as Bermuda Hundreds, reaching it at night. Butler was there with 10,000 men. The Battery got its guns ashore as soon as possible and went into bivouac for the night.
While the last of the troops were landing that evening, Butler called a consultation of war of his corps and division command- ers, around a camp fire. He proposed to them to go right on to Richmond. Gilmore and Smith, commanding the two corps, opposed it, urging that if the Army of the James went on and received a defeat, it would break up the whole grand campaign. Weitzel favored it, and said if they would give him 10,000 men, he would take the advance and go on. The more cautious counsels prevailed and Smith was ordered to move out next day for the railroad and destroy that first.
Smith marched as ordered and reached the road on the 7th,
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which he began to tear up, having meanwhile to fight the rebel Gen. Hill, who attacked him with a small force.
The morning after Battery E landed, it was directed to report to Gen. Weitzel as the reserve artillery of the 18th Corps-its 20-pound Parrots being rather heavy for field service. By Weitzel's order the Battery moved out during the forenoon tc Cobb's Hill, on the Appomattox, an eminence which after. wards constituted the extreme left of the Bermuda Hundreds intrenchments. It was half a mile north-east of Port Walthal, where the railroad came down to some heavy coal trestles on the river.
On the high west bank of the river, visible three miles to the southward over the broad, low lying, wooded islands, was a faint brown line on the verdant green. It was the celebrated rebel Fort Clifton, facing the stream, with a heavy battery of guns to dispute the passage of our gunboats up to Petersburg, seven miles away. The gunboats were even now firing at the Fort and Battery E was ordered to supplement their efforts. Giving its guns the requisite elevation, the Battery opened fire and soon its carefully calculated shots were dropping in and around the hostile work. Having received orders to that effect, Capt Ashby indicated to his enemy that he had come to stay, by going into camp. Here the Battery remained three days, having constant target practice at Fort Clifton, and once saving a Union gunboat that was aground in the river by the rapid fire of its guns.
The army meanwhile was making wild work on the line of the railroad, tearing it up for miles and burning bridges while al large force of reserve troops threw up intrenchments across the throat or narrow part of the pennisula, from river to river, along high ground, a distance of six miles.
On the 10th, Butler had to fight Beauregard, who came all the way from Charleston to oppose him, but drove that . General to Swift's Creek, within three miles of Petersburg. Then, turning northward, he made for Richmond, (working gradually up to Proctor's Creek, within three miles of Drury's Bluff.
May 12th, Battery E joined in the movement. It left Cobb's Hill at daybreak and marched with Weitzel's division towards Richmond, but only got as far as the Petersburg and Richmond turnpike. The roads were obstructed in the advance, so a return to camp for the night became necessary.
A mile beyond Proctor's Creek the army had encountered the southernmost of the defenses of Richmond. A crooked line of. intrenchments stretched across the turnpike, extending a mile westward to the railroad, and beyond. Half a mile beyond there
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ADVANCING TOWARDS RICHMOND.
was a second and stronger line, bristling with cannon, connected by rifle pits with the powerful fortification on Drury's Bluff, called Fort Darling, a mile to the eastward and rear.
Next morning, the 13th, the army, deployed in line of battle, the 18th Corps on the right, the roth away off to the left among ravines and woods, prepared to attack the works. Battery E was ordered up, arriving about noon at a hill just beyond Proctor's Creek, on which, east of the road, stood an old tavern styled the Half-Way House. It had been pretty well rum- maged by our men, and was now Butler's headquarters and subsequently Capt. Ashby's. The region was abundantly sup- plied with woodland, but just north of the hill there was an open space, cleared of trees, the stumps still standing. The rebel works, three-quarters of a mile in advance, were visible where they crossed the road. East of the road a dark grove in their front hid them. Weitzel's regiments were in line in the open ground engaged in a hot skirmish with a heavy force of Confederate infantry.
Battery E halted on the hill, where it lay idle till 3 P. M., though burning to get into the fight, while a stream of wounded constantly poured by to the rear. Orders came at length. The Battery was to shell the rebel redoubt in the road. Lieut. Fuller planted his section in the turnpike, Lieut. Mowers his in the field at the side of the old tavern, the guns being placed just back of the brow of the hill, so that the recoil would carry them down where they could be reloaded without exposing the men. Then the volleying thunder of heavy guns rolled over the field and our shells flew screaming over both armies at the hostile work. The rebels returned the compliment with two 12-pound rifled guns, and shot pretty close, their shot and shell falling all around our guns, though luckily without damage. Their sharp- shooters plied the Battery hard with musketry also, but with equally poor success. One man only received a wound, that brave soldier, Sergt. Howe, and he was shot before we began . firing. A rifle ball entered his lungs. He was taken to the rear and never rejoined the Battery. The rebel guns fired but a short time. Battery E soon made it so dangerous for them that they ceased firing and were soon hauled off. Under cover of our cannonade, Weitzel's skirmishers advanced to the woods and cleared them of the enemy.
The battle ceased at night fall. The army had gained ground and reposed that night on well earned laurels.
Battery E bivouacked at the Half-Way House, with the horses harnessed, the men sleeping on the ground around the guns.
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In accordance with a practice that lasted through the whole of this expedition, the troops rose next morning before sunrise and got under arms without drum or bugle, to foil any attempt at surprise.
At day break, our pickets discovered that the enemy had evacuated their first line of works and fallen back to the second. Our army advanced and took possession. Battery E followed the movement. When near the woods on the right of the road, that have been spoken of, a halt was made to shell the second rebel line. Capt. Horace Fitch, Weitzel's aid, shortly after came down from the extreme front with word that the General wished to see Capt. Ashby. Ashby went forward. Weitzel had been up in a tree reconnoitering the second line with a field glass. He told the Captain to bring his guns up and place them near a little blacksmith shop, on the right hand side of the road, just back of the first line of rebel works. Limbering up, Ashby sent the guns forward on a run, Lieut. Fuller's section first, taking position in the road behind a breastwork of logs and earth. Belger's battery took position on his left and a third battery beyond Belger.
Half a mile in front, confronting us, were the Confederate in- trenchments, and ugly looking ones they were with their massive parapets and yawning embrasures. Just to the right of the road, on the line, rose up to view the strong point of their works, a massive bastion, or redoubt, mounting five guns, while over it waved three rebel battle flags. The ground rose toward the fort so that it seemed to look down on us. An open space in front, filled with underbrush, felled trees and stumps, was the lair of thousands of sharpshooters.
Immediately on coming into position, the rebel fort subjected Battery E to a heavy fire of shot, shell and bolts. These heavy missiles tore the ground in all directions, and filled the air with a continual roar. One shell struck the ground in the Battery and exploded. Sergt. Havens was wounded with a fragment, while Capt. Ashby and Simpson were knocked flat by the con- cussion. By another shell, Patrick Hickey's left leg was shot off and carried thirty feet, the same missile taking off a horse's foot, also. The firing was rapid and hot, and threatened every moment to destroy the Battery, but scientific gunnery proved not to be the rebels' forte, a fact that proved our salvation ; though doubtless the superior marksmanship of Battery E had something to do with the wildness of their firing, for we battered their works so well as to greatly interfere with the working of their. guns, and finally to shut them up entirely. The large
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BEFORE DRURY'S BLUFF.
rebel flag was. shot away three times. During the duel, Lieut. Fuller acted with especial coolness and bravery.
The enemy's sharpshooters also devoted much attention to Battery E, and expended an untold quantity of cold lead in an attempt to pick off the gunners. The sharp hiss of their bullets became familiar music before the day was out, but the veterans of the Battery worked on undismayed by them. Capt. Ashby puffed away as composedly at his big pipe amidst the hottest fire, as though there was not a gray-jacket within a hundred miles. Sergt. Ercanbrack's head was grazed by a rifle ball, but this was about the extent of the chivalry's achievements in that direction. Our sharpshooters had better luck. During the day they got so near the rebel lines as to be of material assistance in keeping the guns in it mute. The rebels could only load their guns then by pulling them away from the embrasures. Once they drew a gun back and put a mule in front of it, to conceal it while they loaded. Our skirmishers pierced the unlucky animal as full of holes as a skimmer. That experiment was not tried again.
The tumult of battle subsided towards nightfall into scatter- ing, desultory firing, and ceased as the sun withdrew its beams from the field. On account of the hazard of leaving heavy guns in a position so exposed to assault, Battery E at night withdrew from the lines and bivouacked a safe distance in the rear.
Next day, the 15th, the Battery went to the front early, to the old position, but lay idle all day, under a terrible fire of musket- ry. The men all lay flat on the ground. The firing was fearful and many narrow escapes occurred. During the day, a wounded rebel, a boy, in front of the lines, was brought in by several of the men, who, with Capt. Horace Fitch, went out and got him. The men cut his buttons off for curiosities.
The army merely held its own that day. Butler not having men enought to assault, deferred it till next morning.
At night the artillery again went to the rear.
The infantry slept on its arms on the lines. Wistar's bri- gade of Weitzel's Division held the woods on the right of the turnpike, being in the edge of the timber, behind a log and earth breastwork. Weitzel's headquarters were in the woods. Hickman's brigade was on Wistar's right, and beyond, in open ground, a line of cavalry videttes extended to the river, over a mile away. Brooks's Division lay in line of battle west of the turnpike, with Gilmore's Corps on its left.
During the 15th, Beauregard, by a circuitous flank march, came up from Petersburg and reinforced the enemy in our front.
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Weitzel expected an attack from him next morning, and made preparations to receive it. By his orders the telegraph on the turnpike was dismantled, and Wistar strung a quantity of the wire across the road and in front of his line, stretching it from stump to stump, about eighteen inches from the ground. Hick- man did not do this. He says he never received the order.
Battery E repaired to its breastwork near the blacksmith shop just before daylight. A dense fog shrouded everything in gloom, so that the drivers had to feel their way along carefully. The guns being placed in position, while Belger, as usual, came up and went into battery on the left, the men kindled little camp fires and sat down to fortify themselves for a hard day's work with their morning ration of hot coffee, hard tack and meat. Wistar's men, on the right of the road, engaged in the same agreeable employment.
Suddenly there was a terrible crash of artillery and musketry from the rebel lines. A huge shell tumbled on the ground un- derneath the limber of the gun of Belger's battery, nearest to Battery E, and bursting, hoisted the chest heavenward, shearing off the tails of the wheel horses attached to it, and wounding some of the men. The affrighted team of the limber swung around and dashed right amongst Capt. Ashby's teams, creating the utmost confusion. One of our teams ran away down the road with its limbers, leaving our left piece without ammunition, while the other horses reared and kicked in consternation. Meanwhile, shells and bullets clove the air in a perfect hurri- cane, the whole rebel line having opened a heavy fire.
At the first gun the cannoneers of Battery E scrambled to their pieces, regardless of overturned coffee pots and abandoned breakfast, and while the drivers restored order amongst the horses, they opened a rapid fire through the fog in the direction of the enemy. As Weitzel had anticipated, the rebels had re- sorted to a break of day attack, a favorite plan of theirs, to beat back our lines. Inspired by the presence of President Davis in person, they poured masses of infantry down upon our whole front, though attacking first and heaviest on our right flank, where Hickman was posted. They surprised Hickman and routed him almost at once and then swung around, so as to get in our rear.
Although the rattle of musketry beyond the woods betokened something of this sort to the mind of Capt. Ashby, Battery E kept steadily at work, firing as well as it could in the fog. Pres- ently the artillery fire on our position slackened and to the din of battle that raged along the line was added the unearthly
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Confederate yell. An officer cried, "My God, they are charging on us." The guns, loaded with shell, were emptied once more in the direction of the sound, and then double shotted with can- nister. Ashby fell to the ground. The fog had lifted a little. He could see along the ground and caught sight of a heavy column of the enemy sweeping down the road in a mad charge to capture the guns. It came on like an avalanche. It reached the telegraph wire. It tripped over the unlooked-for obstruction and fell into disorder. Then shouted Ashby, " Fire," and round after round of hissing cannister hurtled into the ranks of the traitorous column, cutting it all to pieces and piling dead and wounded men on the ground in heaps. In less than two min- utes the rebels ran in a disordered drove to the rear, while our men swung their hats and cheered in wild enthusiasm.
But the enemy had only retired to his old first line of works, a few rods away, from which, concealed in the thick fog, rendered more impenetrable than ever by the smoke of our pieces, he now sent in heavy and murderous vollies, showing his great numbers.
The attack on the right of the army was only too successful. Hickman's brigade, driven back in confusion, had fled across the country and towards the turnpike ; himself had been taken prisoner. The rebels had pressed forward nearly to the turn- pike and a little more needed only to be gained to put them in possession of the chief avenue of our escape. At this juncture, the 112th New York and 9th Maine made a successful stand against them, like the Boetian allies in Demosthenes, night attack on Syracuse, 413 B. C., while Weitzel and his staff officers all tried to rally the 9th New Jersey and other routed Federals and check the retreat. One regular officer ran around with a lath in his hand and used it freely in recalling demoralized soldiers to a sense of their duty.
The sound of heavy firing, in the rear of Battery E and its companion artillery of the 18th Corps, inspired the rebels in its front to attempt a second charge, in the expectation of a sure capture of the guns. This time they were aided by a fearful cross fire from the right, which did no little damage to horses and men. Weitzel's entire division had drawn back, leaving the enemy free to concentrate his fire upon the devoted batteries. Terrible vollies were poured in from front and right, and it was due to nothing in the world but its obscuration in the fog that saved Battery E from instant extermination. The whole vicinity of the blacksmith shop was a perfect hell.
The second charge was delivered with even greater fury than the first. The Battery never quailed a moment. The gunners
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worked with all their might, never stopping to sponge the pieces, but firing as fast as they could throw in the ammunition. The demand for ammunition was very great. One limber would be emptied very quickly. Sergeant Miller would take limbers down the road to the rear as fast as emptied and bring them back full. This service exposed him to extreme danger, for the rebels raked the road with projectiles continually. He was faithful to the last moment and did splendid cool work. The Battery again re- pulsed the charge and sent the broken line flying for earthwork shelter.
Beauregard meanwhile reinforced his left and ordered charges along the whole line.
The artillery at this time was in a most critical situation. Without infantry support, every Union regiment having been driven away from its right, and no effective ones being visible on its left, in the next Confederate advance it was sure to be swooped up. Sergt. Miller was bringing up a fresh limber of am- munition for Battery E, when he heard some one say that the Battery had been ordered to retire, but the orderly charged with a message to that effect to Capt. Ashby was afraid to take it up. Seeing Gen. Smith with his staff in a group in the field, on the left of the road, Miller rode up to him, learned that the Battery had been ordered to retire, and was commissioned by the Gen- eral to inform Ashby of the fact. He put spurs to his horse and galloped swiftly towards the front, but it was then too late.
The third charge upon the artillery on the turnpike was made . with determined fury. All sorts of ammunition was fired at the advancing column. Nothing sufficed this time to check it for a moment. The telegraph wire had evidently been removed and . the rebels came right on, resistless and unswerving as an ocean breaker. Battery E had had no orders to retire and fought like heroes as long as there was a cartridge in the limbers. A solid shot only remained. Ashby cried, "Fire that shot, boys, and then get out of this ; we can't stand it any longer." As he said this a rebel ball struck him on the head, and he reeled and fell. The rebels were then right on the Battery. A hurried effort was made to draw off the guns. Sergt. Ercanbrack managed to lim- ber up the right piece and escape with it. But the rebels were springing over the breastworks, and shooting down the horses, and the word was to save himself who could. A second gun was limbered up, but the horses were shot in their tracks, and the other guns were so mired by concussion in firing, being so heavy, that they could not have been stirred without the greatest difficulty, even had there been plenty of time. Ashby was helped
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RETREAT OF THE ARMY.
upon the limber of one of Belger's guns and carried off in safety, and then the men scattered and ran in the direction of Half-Way House, down the road and across lots, whichever way seemed the most clear, carrying off the rammers and other implements of the guns. The enemy came into the Battery simultaneously on every side. The friendly fog alone prevented the capturing a large number. Lieut. Mowers very narrowly escaped capture, while private Loveland was actually collared by a stout rebel but got away by slipping out of his overcoat.
The whole line fell back in disorder as far as the Half-Way House, where, through the superhuman efforts of the officers the two corps showed a new line of battle. Weitzel drew his sword while forming his regiments, a very unusual thing for him. Some of the commands that were badly cut up were sent to the Ber- muda intrenchments at once, Battery E being among the number. The whole army withdrew to the intrenchments at nightfall.
In this sanguinary battle the Army of the James lost 4,000 men, largely prisoners. The Confederates lost 3,000 killed and wounded. It was to them one of the bloodiest combats of the war.
The superb conduct of Battery E in the battle was the theme of admiration of the whole 18th Corps. The unflinching fidelity, with which it maintained its ground till the last moment against the most powerful attacks, was, beyond question, the means of saving the army from a ruinous disaster. Had the rebels gained the turnpike, they could have cut the army to pieces. Gen. Smith said to Ashby, after the fight, " Your Battery fought splen- didly, Captain. It did everything that could be asked of it." In his official report to Col. Stewart, Capt. Ashby expresses "satisfaction at the steadiness and determination with which the men of my command stood to their guns until ordered to retire. My thanks are due to Lieuts. Mowers and Fuller, for the effi- cient manner in which they handled their sections."
Several casualties occurred in the Battery. Frank Reed was shot dead. He was sitting on the trail of his gun, after repuls- ing a charge, when he was pierced through the head by a Minie ball. Jeff Portingale was wounded and taken prisoner ; after- wards exchanged. Nichols received a severe wound in the hip, and was left on the field, and subsequently died. Lieut. Fuller received wounds in the arm and leg. Ashby's wound, at first feared to be fatal, proved to be severe, but not dangerous. A few weeks in hospital in Fortress Munroe restored him to per- fect health.
The other losses of the Battery were three guns, two limbers,
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and forty-four horses, the latter shot and left on the field. The Richmond newspapers pretended that the Confederates turned these guns on our own men after their capture. This is an utter absurdity. The guns were indeed not spiked, but by Lieut. Fuller's direction, the men trampled the fuses remaining at the time of the retreat into the mire. There was not a cartridge of ammunition left in the Battery, and the rammers were carried off in the retreat.
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