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 23
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On the subject of the responsibility for the loss of the guns, the following from a private letter of Gen. Weitzel to the authors will show at least where it does not rest. The General says : " Ashby's Battery was not to blame for the loss of its guns. It was suddenly left without any infantry support, when I in person was checking the enemy's assault on my right with the 9th Maine and 112th New York. Who ordered the infantry to fall back I do not know and never could ascertain. I remember, after I had accomplished what I had intended on my right, meeting Capt. Ashby on the turnpike. He was wounded. I immediately moved my infantry forward again, but it was too late to save Ashby's pieces. It was reported that some staff officer had or- dered the infantry to fall back so wrongfully."
The rebels won those three guns at a tremendous sacrifice. Ashby fired during the action 419 rounds and one of the regiments that charged on him nearly suffered annihilation. Several hundred met their death in the mad attempt. They were buried on the west side of the turnpike where they fell. A little en- closure to-day marks the spot.
Battery E received guns to replace those lost, May 21st. They were navy Parrot guns, with holes for a cable, in the cascable, but army guns were finally obtained.
Lieut. Mowers, Lieut. Rider and Sergt. Miller commanded the Battery till Ashby and Fuller recovered from their wounds.
Beauregard, following our army sharply down to Bermuda Hundreds, after the withdrawal from Half Way House, appeared before our intrenchments next day, and brought with him an ad- ditional division under Gen. Whiting. Whiting was at Peters- burg, the day of Drury's Bluff fight, and had been ordered to at- tack our rear, but the god of battles fought for Butler that day and Whiting was stupefied with drink and lagged on the road. It was a lucky escape for us. Fighting now ensued on our front for a fortnight. Beauregard was exasperated at the scare Butler had given all rebeldom by his bold advance, and in a spirit of re- taliation tried vigorously to expel him from the peninsula. Nearly every day, his troops charged our lines ; but they were
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LOSSES AT DRURY'S BLUFF.
routed with slaughter every time they tried it, till it dawned upon them that Butler had come to stay, and they then intrenched strongly, from river to river, in a line parallel to that of the Army of the James, and about a mile distant. The Army of the James meanwhile, working day and night, perfected its defenses and in ten days had a line that could be held by a single corps, reaching from Cobb's Hill on the Appomattox to the James op- posite Farrar's Island.
Finding his field of operations circumscribed by the rebel works, Butler wrote rather ruefully to Grant that he was " bottled up" on the peninsula. His advance, however, had been of great service to the Army of the Potomac and its effect was seen and appreciated.
May 30th, the 18th Corps was sent to Grant to take part in the bloody battles at Cold Harbor on the Chickahominy.
On the 31st, Battery E; having received its new guns, moved to the extreme right of the Bermuda lines and occupied a re- doubt on the bank of the James, to co-operate with our navy in an expected fight with the rebel rams and fire ships. The preparation we made to receive them kept them from coming, but the Battery remained on the bank of the river.
Our men lay quiet now for several days, listening to the boom- ing of Grant's guns on the Chickahominy, where destructive combats were in progress.
Let us now turn to the doings of Batteries K and M.
Attached to the colored division of Gen. Hinks, Battery M had landed to garrison Fort Powhatan, the day of the ascent of the James, in company with a strong detachment of the divi- sion. A few days later, the Battery went with an expedition to Spring Hill, an important and commanding eminence on the left bank of the Appomattox, opposite Port Walthal, and took part · in an engagement, which resulted in the capture of the position.
The 2 Ist found the Battery again at Fort Powhatan. On that day, the rebel cavalry from Petersburg swooped down upon the Fort, and the garrison was put to its mettle to drive them off. After a brief but earnest fight, the rebels retired with loss. Battery M received the warmest encomiums of the commandant of the post and enthusiastic cheers from the infantry.
About this time one section of the Battery moved across the river to reinforce two negro regiments under Gen. Wilde, which were defending Wilson's Landing. On the 24th, Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee, of the Confederate forces, made a desperate attack with 2,000 cavalry on that post. Lee had unquestionably been tempted to this enterprise by the prospect of cutting off the
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
loyal blacks, and earning for himself the same bloody distinction as that acquired by Forrest at Fort Pillow, six weeks before. He summoned Wilde to surrender, intimating, at the same time, if the latter refused that he would not be responsible for the consequences. The force of that threat was perfectly under- stood. But Wilde bid the rebel bloodhound defiance. Lee in- stantly charged. The conduct of the negroes was superb. Reserving their fire until it could be delivered point blank, they then poured in a withering volley, emptying a hundred saddles at the first fire. The rebels pressed desperately on, and, though at first repulsed, returned again and again to the attack, and came near overpowering our defense. But the blacks fought them gallantly, and the artillery ploughed their ranks with shot and shell, and finally, after two hours fighting, they drew off their forces and beat a hasty retreat. They lost in this attack 300 men. We lost but 40. The section of Battery M did excellent service throughout the fight, and its fire was most effective.
A few weeks later, Battery M marched to the front before the city of Petersburg. Thereafter, till the 3d of April, 1865, when it entered the city of Richmond, it was constantly on the move or occupying with honor some prominent position exposed to the enemy's fire in the lines of siege of both Richmond and Pe- tersburg.
Battery K came to the front May 16th, by boat from Newport News.
Landing at City Point, a small collection of houses around some docks, where the railroad from Petersburg came down to the river, the Battery joined the colored division of Hinks. In three or four days it moved to Spring Hill, where three regi- ments of Hink's colored infantry, a six gun negro battery and some cavalry had camped, and were throwing up a fort, facing southwards. The object of this fort was to hold the ground. it occupied for future movements of the army. The Hill stood opposite to Cobb's Hill and Point of Rocks, on the north bank, and it was the intention of Butler to connect it with the latter immediately by a pontoon bridge. The engineers built the bridge to. Spring Hill very soon afterwards, the highway thus created crossing two small islands in the river on the way.
· When the fort had been put in a state of defense, Capt. An- gel placed K's guns in it, and hauled up from the landing a 24 and 32-pounder to arm it in addition.
One morning the enemy came up in heavy force with a bat- tery of artillery from Petersburg, and attacked the fort. Plant- ing his guns a mile away, he indulged in the pastime of
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BATTERY K AT SPRING HILL.
bombarding it for a while, his shots bounding all over the fort. But Battery K opened fire and forced him to shift his position several times, and finally drove the guns off the field. The rebel infantry coming to the edge of a belt of timber, on the left of the turnpike that ran straight out southwards from the fort en route to Petersburg, simultaneously with the opening of the ar . tillery, had a hot engagement with our infantry and cavalry, which lasted nearly all day. Battery K shelled every detachment of the enemy that came in view, and did efficient service in beat- ing the enemy off. During the day the rebels extended their right to Broadway landing, a short distance below Spring Hill, and forced our men there to take up a pontoon bridge to save it. They also, planted a battery under the bank of the river on their left, and tried to riddle one of our gun boats, but the boat sent them back to higher ground with celerity, and they did not dare to face the music of her 50-pounders again. In the course of the action, Battery K entertained a welcome guest, in the person of the brave and beautiful wife of the captain of the gun boat Gazelle. She wanted to see the rebels, and came up to the fort to gratify that desire. Capt. Angel pointed out some of their cavalry to her, and had a gun loaded for her, and she fired a shot at them, scattering them in all directions. The presence of a lady in the smoke of battle was an unusual sight, and Battery K's boys were very enthusiastic over it; the beauty and plucky bearing of the one who honored them by a visit on this occasion formed the theme of admiring comment.
The enemy retired at night fall. During the day, Battery K fired 900 rounds of ammunition. No casualties.
June roth, Butler resolved to capture Petersburg, in order to cut off the great Lynchburg and Weldon railroads, which brought the rebel army in Virginia the bulk of its supplies, and he sent Gen. Gilmore to attack it on the north-east with 3.500 men, while 1,500 cavalry under the dashing Kautz should charge in from the south. Simultaneously, to distract attention, two gun- boats and Battery K were to bombard Fort Clifton defending the approaches up the river. The attack failed. Kautz did his share of the work well, driving straight into the city, but Gilmore strangely halted two miles from the prize, and then fell back, when Kautz was obliged to do the same.
But now, Grant, after bloody battles at Cold Harbor, resolved . to transfer the whole scene of conflict to Petersburg and bring over the James his whole Army of the Potomac. He returned the 18th Corps to Butler and ordered an immediate renewal of the attack on the Cockade City in force.
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
June 14th, Battery K at Spring Hill received orders to take four guns and march at daylight with three regiments of Hinks's division. Sergt. Gibbs was left in the fort in command of two guns. Leaving Spring Hill, Capt. Angel, with the other four, marched that night to the road from Broadway landing, and lay in the road till daylight, the horses standing to the guns, the men sleeping on the ground and in the corners of the fences.
About 3 A. M., troops began to cross the pontoon bridge. They belonged to the 18th Corps, which had been directed by Butler to go up and take the city. The crossing was made noiselessly on the hay carpeting of the pontoons. Martindale's division led the advance. After it had passed, Hinks's division fell into column, Battery K accompanying, and took up the march. Brook's division came after. A few miles out, at Friend's fields, we met a small force of the enemy intrenched. K rapidly shelled the opposing works, firing 62 rounds, and Hinks charged. The enemy fled. In the works, we found an abandoned 12-pounder, which the negroes fairly fondled and kissed in their delight. Pressing on, delayed on some roads by trees felled since Gilmore's advance on the roth, passing the City Point railroad, at mid day the corps faced the outer line of the defenses of Petersburg, a chain of formidable redoubts, connected by rifle pits, two miles and a half from the city, ex- tending from the river in a curving line southward several miles in length. It was built along a crest on the eastern side of Harrison's creek.
The corps formed line of battle-Martindale on the right, Hinks in the center, Brooks on the left.
Battery K halted on Ruffin's farm, in the door-yard of the comely house, while this disposition was being made. The in- fantry lay in the turnpike. Time passed away and the day began to. decline. Kautz had been sent with his cavalry to charge on the extreme left and Smith waited, from hour to hour, hoping every moment for some indication that he had attacked. At length, Battery K received orders to open the ball. Back of the farm house there was a belt of woodland a few rods through, which hid from our view the rebel works. Leaving behind the caissons, the Battery marched through the woods to a wheat field beyond and came out opposite a strong redoubt, built on high ground just south of the railroad track, denominated Bat- tery No. 5. Capt. Angel was directed to train his pieces south- ward, without regard to the work in his front, and shell two other redoubts on the line almost a mile away, known as Bat- teries No. 11 and No. 12. The General commanding sought by
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SMITH'S ATTACK ON PETERSBURG.
this means to draw the enemy's fire from troops in front of those redoubts and ultimately to silence them. K opened fire-the guns in echelon. The first shot brought down upon it the atten- tions of a dozen guns. In two minutes there was firing along the whole line, and a perfect torrent of iron swept over the erst peaceful wheat field, tearing up the soil, bounding into, over and around the Battery, under the horses, and amongst the limbers and guns, threatening every moment to destroy the gal- lant little band that had provoked the outburst. It was one of the hottest places it ever was in. The rebels had altogether too good a range upon us. When he had emptied his limbers, Capt. Angel ordered "Limber to the rear," and retired from the field. Getting a fresh supply of ammunition, he again marched to the wheat field, and, in a little different position, re-opened fire. A colored battery sent two guns to aid in these operations, and they did good service. After a short time, K returned to the farm house and stayed there till sunset.
Smith, as evening advanced, grew desperate. Nothing yet was heard of Kautz, but the far less welcome sound of railroad trains rushing into Petersburg, did come to his ears, freighted with ill omen. He ordered a general advance along the whole front of the corps. To support it, Battery K went down to within 150 yards of Batteries Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12. Gen. Smith came along on horseback, with one pantaloon leg in his boot, and wearing a straw hat, and showed Capt. Angel where to go. Evening had come on, and the works in front were then engaged in firing on their own Battery, No. 5, which Mar- tindale's men had just carried at the point of the bayonet. Our guns were planted in position without being discovered, and sighted through the gloom by the aid of the flash of the rebel guns. Presently, a deep murmur in the rear betokened the ad- vance of Brooks's infantry from the woods. Capt. Angel opened with every gun at once, and kept up a perfect rattle on the works. We drove every rebel from the parapets instantly, and silenced their fire on Battery No. 5. For five minutes they seemed para- lyzed. Then, two guns flashed angrily at us ; but their shells soared screaming overhead, and neither affected us nor the in- fantry, which now swept on rapidly to the works. A cheer broke out as the line drew near the redoubts, upon which Battery K ceased firing, and the next moment our regiments charged tu- multuously in amongst the rebels and drove them out in the greatest confusion. The whole line was ours, and the cheering was tremendous. We had captured 300 prisoners and 16 valu- able guns.
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
Battery K limbered up and went out to the turnpike, and ad- vanced to Battery No. 9, a large redoubt, open in the rear, on the left hand side of the pike, where it rested for a short time to indulge in the general congratulations.
While there, a four mule team attached to a rebel wagon full of ammunition dashed upon the scene. Capt. Angel asked the darkey driver who that was for. "You'se fellows, massa." "Who sent you up?" "Those fellows, massa, "he said ; "they tole me to hurry right up." Upon realizing the situation, the amazed contraband grinned and danced about in a transport of delight. Next day he drove a team for Uncle Sam.
Late in the evening, Battery K was ordered back to Ruffin's barn to bivouac for the night. Having fed the horses, it started. On the way it met a reinforcement of troops coming down from City Point. It passed regiment after regiment, until, finally, the men somewhat astonished at the interminable length of the pro- cession, asked what troops those were. The reply came, "Han- cock's, the 2d Corps." That was the first our men knew of the movement of the Army of the Potomac. The Battery reached Ruffin's farm, and encamped. Just then a fresh column came along, passing right through our park. It was the 9th Corps, under Burnside. All night long, infantry and cavalry and bat teries of artillery and trains of wagons passed by the bivouac, and our men all knew that a new and great campaign had been inaugurated, and they were on the threshhold of great and his- toric events.
Gen. Smith should have pushed on to Petersburg that night. He could have gone into the city almost unresisted. Wise's brigade only held the town. His failure to make that advance made the taking of Petersburg to depend not on a battle, but a siege. It was a lamentable mistake.
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THE 18TH CORPS REINFORCED.
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XIV.
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SIEGE OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.
The 18th Corps Reinforced by the Army of the Potomac-E and K Shelling the River Batteries-The Walthal House-The Siege Begins-E Throws Shell into Petersburg-Continued Shelling-E and K Fire in Concert-K Moves at Night to the Page House-Arrival of Battery H-E sends a Section to the Hare House-The Daily Battles-The Mine-K Fires the City-M on the Lines-The Batteries Sent Back to Rest-Again at the Front-The Works- The Countermine-Various Bombardments-Capture of Fort Harrison - Rebels Attempt to Retake. It-K Saves the Fort-On the Richmond Lines- E's Fight with the Iron Clads-Events of the Winter-The End Near at Hand-Evacuation of Richmond-K's Race- Occupation of Richmond.
There are in every war decisive campaigns, campaigns which if lost would turn the scale irremediably, and perhaps alter the course of empire. In history many such campaigns have oc- curred. Those culminating in the battles of Marathon, Water- loo, Saratoga, and Sedan, are among the number. The decisive campaign of the war for the preservation of the American Union was now about to occur. Napoleon, in one of his campaigns, is reported to have said to his staff, pointing to St. Jean d'Acre, that the capture of that town would decide the destiny of the world. The progress of events gave to the city of Petersburg in 1864, a similar importance in deciding the destiny of the United States.
June 16th, 1864, the day after the advance of the 18th Corps upon Petersburg, recorded in the last chapter, that corps was
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
joined by the larger part of the Army of the Potomac. Line of battle was formed during the day, the right of the 18th Corps resting on the Appomattox, Hancock's Corps next on the left, then Burnside's and Warren's and Kautz's cavalry. Meanwhile nearly the whole of the rebel Army of Virginia had come up and confronted us, posted behind a line of intrenchments in rear of the one, from which Smith had expelled a strong rebel force the day before. At 6 P. M., our army assaulted and carried -
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part of the works.
Batteries E and K, 3d Artillery, participated in the fight. E, then in the 10th Corps, as masked battery on the bank of the James, marched at 8 A M. of the 16th. After traveling eighteen miles, it reported to Gen. Brooks, before Petersburg, and went into position on a hill, where the 18th Corps had pitched its headquarters. Towards evening it opened fire on a rebel work across the Appomattox. The enemy threw one single 20-pound shot in reply, when we knocked over his gun, and he had nothing more to say. The section of Battery K, under Sergt. Gibbs, at Spring Hill, advanced a mile and a half up the river to a point on the bluff nearly opposite Fort Clifton, and engaged that work furiously for two hours, firing 180 rounds. Troops were moving down past Spring Hill, along the river road, which ran just in rear of the brow of the bluff, on which the section ' was posted, and Fort Clifton. shelled them. But Sergt. Gibb's guns at once dismounted one of the enemy's and silenced the rest. They were praised therefor, in General Orders.
The four guns of Battery K, under Capt. Angel, left Ruffin's farm at daylight, with Hinks's division, and came to the bluff on the Appomattox at the Walthal house. The reader will refer to a map of Virginia. The channel of the Appomattox, from Port Walthal, runs due south nearly three miles ; then west a mile to Fort Clifton ; thence directly south again to Petersburg. From Spring Hill, opposite Port Walthal, a bluff extends along the bank of the river to the point where it bends west. The bluff thence continues directly on south, but the river leaving it, there is, between it and the river, a broad low flat, a mile wide, both bluff and flat extending to where the river channel again turns west to go to Petersburg. About three miles from the city, there is a ravine or depression in the bluff, through which the railroad from City Point comes down. Half a mile north of this ravine is the celebrated Walthal house, a fine resi- dence built near the brow of the bluff, on a pleasant but then deserted plantation. The turnpike from Spring Hill is east of · it a quarter of a mile. Regiments, brigades and army corps
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ON THE WALTHAL FARM.
continually passed up and down this road, and it became essen- tial as the very initial of operations against Petersburg to range · batteries along the bluff to keep the batteries the rebels erected across the river quiet, so as not to harass our passing columns. Battery K reached Walthal farm at 9 A. M. It immediately began to throw up a breastwork, which by sunset would resist the impact of heavy balls. Along in the afternoon the Battery . flung a few shot into a rebel work on a verdant eminence, called
Archer's Hill, across the river, distant a mile and a half, firing over the heads of our infantry pickets down on the flat.
On the 17th, Battery E changed position to a fortification captured from the enemy, and during that and the 18th, both E and K shot hard at the transfluvial forts, keeping them com- paratively silent.
With desperate fighting and great mutual slaughter, the Fed- eral army drove the Confederates steadily back both days, and by nightfall of the 18th the latter had retreated to their last line of intrenchments covering Petersburg on the east. It was a pow- erful line and from it our army failed to dislodge them. Grant then ordered the army to intrench and the siege of Petersburg began.
June 19th, the 18th Corps withdrew temporarily from the lines and marched to Bermuda Hundreds. It had lost heavily in the battles of the last four days and took advantage of a lull in the fighting to reorganize. Battery E, on the 18th, and K, (the whole Battery,) on the 19th, also withdrew and joined the corps on the peninsula.
On the 21st, the corps again took its place on the right of the Petersburg lines, its presence being required to enable Grant to extend his left wing to the Jerusalem plank road. The two bat- teries attended the movement. E crossed the river at Point of Rocks pontoon bridge, (the regular crossing place,) at sunrise. By command of Gen. Stannard, the Battery went to the Wal- thal plantation, and at 2 P. M. turned the fire of its long Parrots on the rebel work on Archer's Hill, which was shelling our lines in front of Petersburg.
That work, popularly known as the Chesterfield Battery, stood nearly at right angles to the river, facing southward. Its posi- tion enabled it to enfilade our lines of siege adjoining the Ap- pomattox terribly, they being only a mile and a half away, and it was a matter of vital importance to the security of the troops holding them to keep the fire of that battery down to the ex- treme minimum. Batteries E and K were chosen a large part of the time to do this work, and they did it well. They were
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
not expected to batter down the target of their attentions, but silence its guns ; and though they did at times considerably dam- age its beauty with the quantities of iron they cast at it, they effected their design more by rapid shelling and quick dis- charges of solid shot, dismounting thereby the rebel guns and driving the artillerists out of the work. Their position on the Walthal farm enabled them to rake the rebel battery, which was a great help.
But as we were saying, at 2 P. M., Battery E opened fire. Sergt. Miller's section engaged the Chesterfield Battery for two hours. Gen. Smith, who was present, wanted to see if we could fire a shell into the city from this point. So Sergt. Good- rich's section scooped away the earth so as to let down the trails of the guns to get the right elevation ; then, 24-pound shells sped through the air on a three mile flight toward the plainly visi- ble spires of the town. Four shells were sent in, dropping in the lower part of the town, being among the first thrown into Petersburg ; a few by another battery the day before were their only predecessors. Gen. Smith stood watching the firing, to see what Battery E could do. The gunners did their best and landed their missiles just where they were wanted. The General was highly pleased, and when the rebels across the river, who opened with 10-pounders had been shut up, he ordered the Bat- tery to intrench. A detail of negroes performed this work for it.
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