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 26
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
the Colonel to hand to Secretary Stanton. The slip was pre; sented the same day. The Secretary looked a little black, and gave the Colonel a look like that of a raging lion, as he discovered that the President had ordered the mounting of the two batteries. After satisfying himself that there were guns to be had in Washington, he then issued an order for their transfer to Col. Stewart, who took it in triumph to the proper authorities, and soon had the precious cannon loaded upon a vessel and on their way to Newbern. Horses were obtained for the batteries . then without much difficulty.
As the time approached for Sherman to begin his march from Savannah, the importance of securing Goldsboro as a new base of operations, became more and more apparent. "If Lee lets us get that position," wrote Sherman to Grant, "he is gone up."
Grant now determined to send reinforcements to the army in North Carolina, so that when a demonstration was made, it might be of such magnitude as to put its failure out of question. The 23d Army Corps, known as the Army of the Ohio, 21,000 strong, commanded by Maj. Gen. J. M. Schofield, was selected for the purpose. It was a splendid body of men, had never known defeat, and had served with Sherman before. In con- junction with the Armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland, it had, under that General, aided in the capture of Atlanta, the previous summer. It was now brought around from Tennessee, and, on the 9th of February, Schofield arrived in North Caro- lina with his advance by boats from Annapolis, Md. He landed at Fort Fisher, and the same day issued an order assuming com- mand of the State. His first object was to capture Wilmington, which lay some twenty miles up from the fort. He entered that city on the 22d. Leaving Terry, with his roth Corps, in occu- pation there, he then sent around Gen. J. D. Cox's division of the 23d Corps by boats to Beaufort, and thence by rail to New- bern, preparatory to an advance from that point on Goldsboro.
Meanwhile, Sherman had, on February Ist, started from Savannah and Pocotaligo and was now marching through South Carolina, leaving a track of devastation behind him ten miles in width.
One of his last orders, previous to marching, was directed to Gen. McCallum, chief of his construction and railroad building corps, under date of January 29th. It directed the General to " transport Col. W. W. Wright (second in command to Mc- Callum) and his operators to Newbern, and to prepare timber, iron, cars and locomotives adapted to the road of North Carolina, enough to build out to Goldsboro, when
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267
STUDYING UP THE BRIDGE QUESTION.
you can get possession of the road." The order was obeyed, and in due time the General arrived in Newbern with his en- gineers. Rightly anticipating that the rebels would burn the bridges and destroy the railroad leading up from Newbern to Goldsboro, the one we valued most, as soon as they discovered our intention to advance along the line of it on Goldsboro, he at once applied himself assiduously to gain all information possi- ble, relative to the road, so that, when our army advanced, he might be in a position to restore it as fast as the rebels tore it up. In this, Col. Stewart, who had formerly been Chief En- gineer of the Army of North Carolina, and accompanied the grand Foster expedition of '62 in that capacity, had the pleasure of rendering an important service. Stewart had had the rare good fortune to find an engineering treasure, when the 3d Ar- tillery first arrived at Newbern in April, 1862. In a house in the town he discovered the map of a rebel engineer, delineating the whole river country from Morehead city to Raleigh, laying down every bridge in the entire distance. The length of each bridge was given, with its name and exact location. The Col- onel laid it carefully aside at the time, knowing that it would be of use some day, and had afterwards established its accuracy, at least in part, by measuring the long railroad bridge over the Trent at Newbern and others toward Morehead city. Measure- ments in all cases agreed exactly with those stated on the map. It was fair to infer that the figures in relation to bridges to- wards Goldsboro and Raleigh must also be exact. And this afterwards proved to be the case. The map was of great service on the Foster expedition, but more so now. When McCallum arrived at Newbern, he invited Stewart, as former Engineer, to a private consultation. The Colonel of course complied, and took his map with him. McCallum was delighted with it beyond measure, and said "it was the best thing they had found yet." After a long interview, the results of which one of the General's staff took down in short-hand, the General saw his way perfectly clear and was able to lay out his work for the campaign at once. He accordingly sent men into the woods, and had not only a sufficient quantity of ties cut to rebuild the road, but had timber got out for the bridges and piled up by the side of the road. Then, when we advanced, his men put the timber on railroad trains and sent it to the front, and whenever a bridge was burnt he was able to put it up again with a celerity that perfectly as- tounded the retreating rebels. It enabled us to keep up a sharp pursuit. After Johnston was captured, he inquired among our officers for "the man who could build bridges faster than he could burn them."
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
The last days of February were enlivened at Newbern by the sudden advent of a number of rough-looking, weather-beaten, western regiments, with tattered battle flags, from Wilmington, composing the advance brigades of Cox's division of the 23d Army Corps. Cox assumed command at Newbern, and en- camped his men just outside the town, to snatch a little rest, preparatory to the grand forward movement, which was now near at hand. There was of course a great deal of fraterniza- tion between Palmer's regiments and Cox's, in the meanwhile, and the men visited each other's camps. Attention seems to have been particularly attracted at this time to the natty appear- ance of the 3d New York. It was a part of the thorough and splendid discipline, infused into that regiment, peculiarly by Col. Stewart and afterwards adopted and maintained by officers of all ranks, to require the utmost attainable neatness throughout: in uniforms, arms and equipments. Buttons, buckles, and the iron and brass work of the gun carriages and caissons were. always polished, the guns shone like mirrors, the harness was always blacked, and slouchiness in uniforms while on duty was not endured for a moment. The Western men showed a pro- pensity to ridicule this, and considerable was heard at this time. about " the band-box artillery." Our men took it good natured- ly, and their superb conduct in the field, a few days later, entirely altered the ideas of the Western men ; the popular phrase was then "Well, well, these band-box boys can fight, after all."
March Ist, the troops, assembled at Newbern, were organized by Gen. Cox for the expedition. He formed them into two Dis- trict of Beaufort divisions, each about 6,000 strong, and en- trusted them to the command of Gen. I. N. Palmer and Gen. S. P. Carter, respectively. To the Ist Division he assigned the following artillery: Battery C, 3d New York, Capt. Mercer commanding, six guns, Rodmans ; Battery D, 3d New York, Capt. Van Husen commanding, six guns, Rodmans ; a Michigan battery, four guns. To the 2d Division he assigned the follow- ing: Battery A, 3d New York, Capt. Russell, serving as heavy artillery, armed with muskets ; Battery G, 3d New York, Capt. Wm. H. Kelsey, six 12-pound Napoleons ; Battery I, 3d New York, Lieut. Richardson, four 12-pound Napoleons.
Two guns of Battery I were left at Newbern. Also, the 24th New York Independent Battery, which, by the way, on the 6th of March, became incorporated as one of the companies of the 3d Artillery, receiving the designation of Battery L. This Bat- tery was raised in the fall of 1861, in Monroe and Wyoming
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269
THE FORWARD MOVEMENT BEGINS.
counties, N. Y., under the captaincy of Jay E. Lee, mustering in December 6th, as Company B of the Rocket battalion. The bat- talion being soon after broken up, the company became the 24th New York Battery. Going to North Carolina in 1862, it had done excellently there since, and won distinguished laurels at "Kinston," "Whitehall," and "Goldsboro." " Newbern" and "Plymouth" were also inscribed on its flag. Entering the 3d Artillery at this time, it now filled the place, which, up to this date, had been nominally occupied on the rolls of the regiment by the Ist New York Battery, the latter being now dropped by direction of the War Department.
The forward movement from Newbern began on the 3d of March in obedience to the orders of Gen. Schofield. Several regiments marched at daylight, Battery A being among the first organizations on the road. They went out by the Neuse turn- pike and pushed rapidly on to Core Creek, eighteen miles from Newbern, and a little beyond. Various regiments and batteries followed, all rendezvousing at Core Creek at sunset, after a hard, wet march, the roads being so boggy that the men sometimes waded in mud and slush to their knees. By orders of Gen. Cox all were in the lightest marching order possible. No baggage was taken save shelter tents, blankets and extra rations. The troops encamped for the night at Core Creek, and along the sides of the road forking to the left at this point and running diagonally across the upper end of Dover Swamp on its way to an intersection with a highway, leaving the Trent road in a sim- ilar manner and running in a direct line to Kinston. Our ad- vance camped near the railroad, about midway between the Neuse and Trent roads.
The day of this advance, Col. Stewart was assigned to duty by Gen. Cox as Chief of Artillery of North Carolina at Newbern.
Troops of all descriptions continued to arrive at Core Creek every hour during the 4th, 5th and 6th, until Palmer's and Car- ter's divisions had all come up. The 4th was rainy, increasing the bogginess of the roads, and everybody was wet and uncom- fortable, the shelter tents of the infantry and the paulins of the artillery affording only a partial protection against the elements. The 5th was a better day and quite endurable.
The army broke camp at daylight of the 6th and moved slowly ahead towards Kinston. The country here was almost a dead level, and so heavily shaded with thick pine woods that the drainage was poor and the roads, which were mere gloomy forest avenues, were muddy beyond description. Besides the
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
impediment of mud the army encountered in its march a block- ade of the roads for miles by trees, which the rebels had not failed to cut down so as to fall across them. Every axe in the army was pressed into the service and men were sent to the front from every regiment and nearly every battery to wield them, constituting a large pioneer brigade, which, moving in the ad- vance, cleared away the trees with all the speed possible. The army made only about six miles, however, during the day, and then encamped in the mud for the night. Heavy picket firing took place after dark at the front.
Next day, the 7th, the two divisions again advanced, meeting with the same experiences of muddy and blockaded roads, and driving back strong parties of the enemy, who skirmished sharp- ly in their front. A few miles out they approached South West creek, a goodly-sized tributary of the Neuse, which ran across our route at right angles. This stream, taking its way through the forest, was, in this part of its course, bridged at two points, about two miles apart, viz: where it was intersected by the . Neuse road and the road before referred as coming from the Trent river. Here we found the rebels, prepared to dispute the crossing of both bridges, with infantry and artillery in strong · force. Our skirmishers, advancing to the edge of an opening along the side of the creek we were on, engaged the enemy to draw him out, while Lieut. Stevenson's section of Battery D came up to within range of the bridge on the left, and shelled a rebel redoubt thrown up on the other bank. The enemy re- plied with artillery, with unexpected animation, though without doing any damage beyond breaking the trail of one of Stevenson's pieces, and wounding a horse. The skirmish hav- ing developed the strength of the enemy, our army was de- ployed into line of battle, Palmer on the right, covering the Neuse road and the railroad a mile to the left, our extreme left flank being opposite to the bridge, whose defenders were shelled by the section of Battery D. The locality was known variously by the name of Wise's forks, or British cross roads, deriving its name from two roads that ran across between the Neuse road and the turnpike on our left, crossing each other in so doing like an X. At sundown, Stevenson was recalled from the front, and, having fired a hundred good shots at the enemy, marched through the woods, which covered this whole region, and in which our line of battle was formed, to the extreme right of the line. He then made a new trail ; by morning, Battery D had six effective guns again. Upon Stevenson's recall, Battery I 'supplied his place on the turnpike, but some distance in rear of
271
INTRENCHING AT SOUTH-WEST CREEK.
the position he had occupied, being supported there by Col. Up- ham's regiment, the 15th Connecticut, a new and large command, and by Col. Bartholomew's, the 27th Massachusetts, which were posted each side of it in the woods.
Previous to the advance from Newbern, Gen. Sherman had made known to Schofield his wish that this column should ad- vance cautiously and take no great risks. In deference to these instructions, Gen. Cox forebore to attack the rebel intrench- ments at South West creek, and instead of that ordered the army to intrench, to await the arrival of Couch, with the 2d Di- vision of the 23d Corps, who was now coming up across the country towards Wise's forks, from Wilmington. At nightfall the work began. A line of works was traced out through the woods, parallel to the creek and a mile or so from it. Every regiment and battery having an axe then sent a stout volunteer with it to the front, and, as the night deepened, the forest rang with the sturdy blows of the woodchoppers along the whole line. The trees at first were all cut so as to be just ready to fall. Those on the extreme right were then toppled over. Falling against their next neighbors, they pushed them down, and so it went along the entire line. Trees were falling for as much as ten minutes. The pioneers then attacked the prostrate trunks, cut them up, and formed a barricade of logs along our whole front, as a foundation for the works. Infantry and artillery then called into requisition spades, tin plates, and bayonets, and cov- ered the barricades with earth three or four feet high. The axe men meanwhile advanced and made a wide slashing, cutting down the timber in front for 200 yards. A clear space was thus created, which could be swept by our fire with telling effect, while the fallen trees made an abattis sure to derange and demoralize any column that might attempt to charge through it. Battery A had twenty or twenty-five axes at work all through the night. Other batteries had a few. By morning the works were done, and the infantry and artillery all either posted in them or in camp at such convenient places in the rear as to be able to reach them on a moment's notice.
The construction of these works, so energetically pushed, was admirably timed. Hard fighting took place on the 8th. Hoke, who had been expelled from Wilmington by Schofield, had now been reinforced by part of Cheatham's Corps from Tennessee, and attacked our position in strong force. The works did ex- cellent service in the battle.
Hearing nothing especial from the enemy on the morning of the 8th, early in the day Gen. Carter sent out the 15th Connec-
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
ticut, 27th Massachusetts, a squad of the 12th Cavalry, and Lieut. Seymour's section of Battery I, from the breastworks, under command · of Col. Upham, to see if the rebels were still at the bridge. Advancing a mile or more, till within 1,000 yards of the bridge, the guns unlimbered and shelled the rebel position and some buildings near by it, called Jack- son's mills. Our shots failed to provoke the least reply. Sey- mour continued firing at intervals for about three hours. Then, without the slightest warning, the din of battle broke out on every side of him in the woods, in the rear, with all the fury of a tropical tornado, and swept rapidly down towards the spot where he was posted. Hoke had brought around three entire brigades of rebels, and interposed them between Col. Upham's little force and our works. Seymour realized the situation the moment he heard the chorus of those unmistakable short, sharp,. rebel yells and the sputtering fire of musketry. He instantly limbered up the guns and made a rush to get to the rear. One piece, being in the road, got a good start. It met the rebels coming on down the road and through the woods; in a heavy line, yelling and shooting, and thundered right through their midst, they very discreetly taking themselves out of the way of his unceremonious charge. The piece was saluted with a shower of bullets, however, as it sped through the line, and one of the drivers, named John Bennett, was shot through the body. He retained his seat till the gun reached the works in safety, when, being helped down from his horse, he died instantly. The other piece met with a less fortunate fate. Being out of the road, in a deep thicket, some moments elapsed before it could start, and it had hardly gone twenty yards before the gray coats came pouring through the forest all around it. A hundred rifles emptied their lead upon the horses, and several of the gallant animals bit the dust under that withering fire. The drivers instantly jumped down from the horses' backs, and the cannoneers from the limbers, and ran into the woods. Some escaped ; but John Hart, James Hart, John C. Langham, Addison J. Hawks, and Anthony Kellaborn were captured, and soon found themselves presided over by a rebel guard. Our handsome gun was also taken, there being no possible rescue after the shooting of the horses.
Though flanked and surprised, Col. Upham's infantry made a desperate fight. The 27th Massachusetts plied the bayonet and made a resolute and partially successful attempt to break its way out through the rebel line. But the enemy was too strong, and 700 men of that regiment and 15th Connecticut, and 12th
273
HOKE ATTACKS OUR WORKS.
Cavalry were captured. The rest found their way back to the works singly or in squads.
Immediately after the discomfiture of Col. Upham, Hoke made a strong attack on the left and center of our works, occu- pying the right at different times by demonstrations in some force in that direction. Aware that we expected the arrival of Couch in a few days, he attempted to crush Cox before Couch should come up, in imitation of the strategy of Napoleon. Filling the woods in our front with infantry, he poured a steady fire of musketry into our position, and ever and anon tried to charge with heavy columns through the slashing and abattis of felled trees that strewed its surface upon us. He found every one of our regiments in position, however, and our works crested with gleaming rifle barrels, angrily spitting lead upon his advances, and cannon, vomiting shot, shell, and cannister. The batteries - of the 3d New York were at the works, with nearly all their guns, and whenever, amongst the trees across the opening, the gray lines appeared, the thunderous reverberations with which they filled those gloomy woods. were not more awful than the carnage inflicted by the storm of iron hurled upon the advanc- ing rebels, whose assaults they invariably checked. The hardest fighting occurred in the center of our long line. We were weakest in that place, and Hoke made a persistent effort to pierce us there. He carried a skirmish line of rifle pits, and pressed the main works hard. Battery C and Battery D, the latter with four guns, were at this point, and the enemy subjected them to a galling fire both of musketry and cannon shot, and at one time it seemed as though we must be driven from our posi- tion. But the men behaved in splendid style, and stood to their posts in the hottest of the fray, without faltering for a moment. At the critical juncture, an opportune reinforcement arrived from Newbern, in the shape of Gen. Ruger with a division of in- fantry from Schofield. Coming up on the turnpike on our left, the new regiments stacked knapsacks hastily by the roadside, and bustled off, one after another, to the threatened center. Their arrival put new strength into our army, and we wreaked ample vengeance on the rebels for the capture of the men of Col. Upham. After a short interval of heavy firing, the enemy desisted from the attack, and soon retired, leaving the slashing and the woods beyond strewn thick with hundreds of his dead and dying men. As he began to yield, Col. Malloy's brigade of Carter's division charged out and retook the lost rifle pits.
Our loss in this affair was slight, owing to the efficient protec- tion afforded by the breastworks. That of the rebels was severe
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3D NEW-YORK VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY.
and amounted to several hundred killed and wouuded. Battery C, of. the 3d New York, had Wm. A. Foster killed, and Patrick Quagley, Edgar Kane, DeKalb Hummel, Thomas Welch and John Ackerman wounded ; also two horses disabled. Battery D lost five horses.
Battery A, 3d New York, was briskly engaged at various times through the day in the center of our lines. Battery G came into action on the left and silenced two rebel guns at 1,800 yards distance. One of them was possibly the captured gun of Battery I, which the rebels shelled us with at times during the day.
Scattered firing took place through the night of the 8th. The troops slept on their arms in their little shelter tents close be- hind the works. On the 9th, it rained nearly all day. It was dismal enough for our men in the dripping woods, but they en- dured all discomforts without a murmur and remained ceaselessly on the alert and were instantly at their posts whenever the rebels showed a disposition to assault. Hoke skirmished sharply from dawn to sunset and towards evening assaulted on the right, but was repulsed. Part of Battery A did picket duty in front of the works to-day and James Griffin was severely wounded in the arm with a bullet while so engaged. On the left of our lines, the rebels limited their attentions to a vigorous shelling. Our artillery was not allowed to reply. We had three batteries there-G and I, of the 3d New York, and the Michigan battery, and Lieut. Richardson, commanding I, ventured to suggest to Gen. Carter, who, with a group of officers, sat on a knoll near by in the rear, in conversation, that our guns could shut the rebels up in short order if he would grant permission. A splendid looking elderly officer in the group spoke up in reply, " You'll all have business enough to-morrow." It was Gen. Schofield, who had just arrived from Newbern. The General was quite correct in his prediction.
Hoke spent the 9th in arranging a little piece of strategy by which he yet hoped to compass the defeat cf our forces at South West Creek before the arrival of Couch. The character of it was unfolded in the early forenoon of the 10th.
The breastworks which extended along the front of our posi- tion, after crossing the Kinston turnpike on our left flank, turned at a right angle and ran to the rear, parallel to and cover- ing the pike, extending through thick woods a distance of half a mile or more to a road running out westward, on which Couch was expected to come up. For the defense of this part of the li ne, Batteries G and I and the 6th Michigan were stationed.
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HOKE TRIES AGAIN.
Battery I made its own breastwork here, using logs for a founda- tion and throwing up the dirt with their all-useful tin plates. The front of the work was protected by the same sort of a slashing as in other parts of the position.
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Up the westward-running cross road, spoken of above, our officers were beginning to turn anxious eyes hoping to discover the advent of Couch. In his stead, however, on the morning of the roth, there suddenly and unexpectedly appeared the unwel- come apparition of a whole corps of butternut-coated rebels under the command of Hoke. Under cover of the woods they had managed to creep up almost within easy musket range of us without betraying the magnitude of their movement. They had a dense, deep column on the road, and in the woods on their right a perfect cloud of regiments and brigades. And now, pouring in heavy vollies of musketry, they made a desper- ate rush at our lines. The peculiar circumstances of our situa- tion, buried as we were in the heart of the forest, from the con- cealment of whose thickets an enemy was liable to burst at any moment, had, however, prepared our men for just this very con- tingency. They had been from the first in momentary readiness for action, and scarce had the rebel charge fairly begun before we met it with a withering and demoralizing fire of cannon shot and musketry. One of I's guns was in the pike commanding the cross road. The moment the rebel column came in sight, it opened upon it with every variety of missiles in the calendar. Shot after shot tore its way through the butternut ranks, ploughing them in the direction of their greatest depth with deadly execution, while the infantry plied them hotly with musketry. Under the influence of its own momentum, the column still came on, but more slowly and still more slowly, while the gun kept steadily and pitilessly at work upon it, and great gaps and lanes opened in it, and finally within a few rods of our position it halted. A moment later, it lost all formation and order and ran in every direction in confusion for shelter in the woods. In the road were left scores of prostrate forms, stiffening in death or writhing in pain, and arms and equip- ments in profusion.
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