Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 22

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

days which "made ambition virtue," when captains of a year before had been made colonels and brigadiers, and were commanding brigades and even divisions. I remember that a staff officer of General Patrick told me before a gun had been fired at Chancellorsville that Hooker would be defeated. Perhaps the wish was father to the prophecy, and I pon- dered at the time whether that officer did not reflect the views of his chief, who was origin- ally from Jefferson county, and had been a major in the old army when Hooker was only a captain.

It is not my purpose to describe in detail the Chancellorsville fight. Those who wish to fully understand it will find all the moves ably described in the Comte de Paris' " Civil War in America," as well as in the admirable arti- cles published during 1890 and '91 in the Century Magazine. Two general impressions, however, were left upon my mind by what I saw and understood at the time. One was that our serious inisfortunes began when Hooker himself was stunned by an exploding shell almost at the beginning of the conflict; and, what was almost as fatal, the widely ex- tended line of the Union forces-nearly 7 miles in length-gave Lee an opportunity to break through at any weak point, and this all the more readily as Hooker appeared unable, after his mishap, to give intelligent oversight to the carrying out of his general plan. The individual corps commanders did not act in concert-indeed, so dense were the woods and so intricate the roads that it was difficult to manœuver large bodies of troops. True, this was as much of an impediment to the Con- federate as to the Union forces, but the Confederates had a better knowledge of the country, a fact which gave them an advantage then, as well as afterwards, when Grant him- self was entangled in that same Wilderness country, which really begins at Chancellors- ville.

It is now plainly comprehended that Hooker was too slow in attacking, for if he had made a vigorous onslaught upon Lee's army the next day after he crossed the Rappahannock, he could have cut Lee's command into two sections and defeated each of them at his con- venience, for Lee's left wing would have been " bottled up" in Fredericksburg, where it would not be possible to handle a large force.

While it is not my purpose to describe the general engagement, there were many less im- portant matters which became fixed indelibly upon my recollection. It is well to remark that no one person ever sees the whole of a great battle. The observer is necessarily limited in his opportunities for observation. But if each observer truthfully and intelli- gently writes of what he saw and participated in, the historian, by collation and comparison. is enabled to forin a reasonable conception of every detail.

The 35th New York Infantry, in which I commanded a company, did not participate in the advance to Chancellorsville. Its duties at that time consisted in guarding and patroling the 14 miles of railroad from Aquia Creek to

Falmouth, and in running the trains upon that road. We had therefore good opportun- ities for observing whatever transpired around Falmouth, which was the central point of Hooker's advance, though his main crossing of the river was at Banks', Kelly's and the United States fords, 4, 6 and 10 miles above. When, on the 27th of April, 1863, Hooker had crossed at these fords with his whole army, excepting Sedgwick and Reynolds' corps, Fredericksburg, right in front of his winter headquarters, and plainly in sight, was still held by Lee. To drive him out and follow up that episode by an attack upon the Confederate right flank was delegated to these two corps, considered the best in the army, and never, up to that time, seriously defeated. Reynolds having been ordered to join the main force on the 28th, the carrying out of this work was left to the sixth corps alone, comprising nearly 22,000 men. When the order came on the 29th of April for this gallant corps to advance to its appointed task, the men eagerly obeyed, crossing the Rappahannock on two pontoon bridges, 2 and 4 miles below the city. I witnessed the preparatory work which was necessary before floating the pontoons, serv- ing as temporary aid upon the staff of General Benham, the chief of engineers. The move- ment was at night, and expected to be conducted in strict silence, for a formidable resistance was expected on attempting to land upon the south bank of the river. The heavy pontoons were carried for miles by relays of men, brought down the steep bank of the river, where they were quietly launched and silently filled with a quota of the troops. While being paddled slowly across, and when in mid stream, a volley of musketry was fired upon them, which opened a wall of fire that could only be likened to a " street in hell," and seemed to tear up the ground from under the very feet of those who were upon the north shore. Luckily the storm of lead hurtled over the heads of the men in the boats, but inflicted considerable loss upon their comrades who were waiting to cross over. The resolute fellows in the boats kept right on with their paddling, however, and soon made a landing, driving back the Confederates at that point, and thus opening the way for building the bridge of boats. The artillery was moving over that bridge before 8 o'clock the next morning.

Some two miles further down the stream another crossing was attempted, but dragged along until the early hour of the next morn- ing, April 30. It was there I witnessed the most conspicuous act of daring on the part of a general officer that ever came under my per- sonal observation. New York's beloved Gen- eral James S. Wadsworth (destined, like Sedgwick, to lose his life the next year in the Wilderness campaign), was in command of the sixth corps ordered to cross at that point. There had been more or less firing across the river, and a little after sunrise the movement appeared to halt. We had lost quite a num- ber of men in the desultory conflict, without making any apparent progress. Impatient at

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the delay, and at a moment when there were only a few loaded pontoons afloat, Wads- worth, accompanied by his son and faithful aide, Craig, sprang into one of the boats ; two orderlies led their horses into the water ; Craig seized their bridles and constrained the animals to swim at the stern of the boat as it was pushed away from the shore. The men bent to their paddles, while the grey-haired Gen- eral stood straight up in the open boat, a fair mark for any Confederate bullet. Thus they crossed. Reaching the south shore the several boats that were ahead of and following these heroes quickly vomited out their cheering loads ; the General and Craig managed some way to get their horses up the bank, and instantly forming the men, they rushed upon the demoralized Confederates, who were soon upon the run, and then the way was open for laying the other bridge. There were many dead soldiers lying there when I got over, some of the Confederates falling right in their rifle pits, where a few shovelsful of the ejected earth buried them from the sight of those who, in faraway Southern homes, would mourn for their dead.

Both of the bridges being laid, on the 30th the sixth corps moved cautiously up the val- ley towards Fredericksburg with no very serious opposition, though they supposed themselves confronted by the greater part of Lee's armny. But Lee by this time had learned of Hooker's attempt to get between him and Richmond, and he slipped away up the plank road to confront the Union forces, leaving only about 10,000 men, under Early, to hold the town. It was not until the evening of May 2nd, however, that Sedwick received his order from Hooker to make his attack, and to follow up his victory, if possible, by a move- ment upon Lee's right wing. The morning of the 3rd (Sunday) found Sedgwick in complete possession of the lower city, and in the rear of its abandoned streets his men tightened their belts for that desperate encounter which was to pass into history as the "Second Battle of Fredricksburg." `With the veteran two-year men in front, at 11 o'clock of a beautiful Sab- bath morning, in light marching order, without firing a gun, the assaulting force advanced at double quick. The enemy kept up a con- tinual artillery fire, and the Union seige guns upon Falmouth Heights were by no means idle, doing great damage to the Confederate artillery, which held conspicuous positions. Their infantry, behind the famous stone wall, reserved their fire until our men were within easy range. The noise was deafening, the fire incessant. the loss becoming serious, but the veteran Union men were not to be stayed. The hitherto invincible stone wall was gained; our men were soon over it and at work with their bayonets. Perhaps all this had taken place within ten minutes, but it seemed hours to those who were observing the fight. Immediately after the Heights were carried, the Confederates became panic stricken, and throwing away their guns and knapsacks, sought safety in flight. Sedgwick captured a thousand prisoners, nearly the whole of the

survivors of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade.

As officer of the day upon the Falmouth side, I had unchallenged passage over the pontoon bridge which had been laid opposite the center of the town. Crossing over as soon as the heights were carried, I was surprised to meet my old friend, Captain George Parker, quartermaster in the sixth corps, a great favorite with Gen. Sedgwick. He was a Watertown boy, son of Alexander Parker, that sturdy old Democrat, so well remembered as a successful farmer and father of a numer- ous and most worthy family. The captain was in tears. I demanded the cause of his emotion. "Oh, captain," he burst out, " they put my old regiment right in front, and my poor men lay scattered all up through 'Sandy Bottom,' when their full two years' service was up six weeks ago, and they ought to have been mustered out and at home to-day, instead of lying up there dead." The captain would

GENERAL SEDGWICK.

not be comforted. I pressed on and soon found ample verification of what he had said. The ambulance corps were gathering the dead into hideous "windrows" for burial in pits, while the wounded were being carried away into hospitals. The loss had been heavy upon both sides, (especially among the two-year veteran regiments), but much less than when the previous assault had failed under Burn- side. The officers, in particular, had suffered. The field officers of the 6th Maine were all dead, and several companies of that gallant regiment had gone on with Sedgwick, com- manded by sergeants.

Leaving its dead and wounded to the care of its ambulance attendants, the sixth corps halted for only half an hour, and then re-

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formed its column, and pressed resolutely for- ward to join Hooker. I do not know what Sedgwick anticipated, but the fact was that Lee had got Hooker into such a position on the previous day that he felt able to send four fresh brigades to assail Sedgwick, and these, with the six or seven thousand men who had fled from Fredericksburg, concentrated and made a stand at the little Salem church, and were in readiness for battle when the sixth corps came up. A severe struggle at once began, and when darkness came on Sedgwick had not only failed to open the way to his chief, but was obliged to take steps to with- stand an attack from the whole Confederate army if perchance they were let loose upon him. His losses were heavy, and again the two-year regiments had suffered severely. That night his men slept on their arms, and in the early morning began to entrench. All that day (May 4th) they plied the spade, and at night felt safe. Before morning Sedgwick was directed by a staff officer from General Hooker to take care of himself as best he could, and advised him to recross the river at Banks' ford. I ought here to state that when Sedgwick was fighting at Salem church a brigade of Confederates swept down the plank road, and before sundown had again taken possession of Fredericksburg, capturing what- ever was left there, and threatening our stores and camps at Falmouth.

It will readily be believed that all day of the 4th of May we were nervous and extremely anxious upon the Falmouth side. We feared that Lee would crush the sixth corps, and he might have done so had he not spent nearly all of the 4th in intrenching at Salem church instead of attacking. The knowledge he had of Sedgwick, as a most resolute and deter- mined fighter, may also have induced Lee to be very careful how he attacked such a com- mander, for it was not his first acquaintance with this sixth corps, and he had known Sedg- wick in the old army. As night drew on and no further orders were being received, I laid down and tried to sleep, but in the early morning I was up and intent upon getting the latest news. About the first thing I observed, through the low-lying mist that hung over the river, was that a signal officer, located on a high building within Sedgwick's lines, was frantically waving his white flag right and left. This I knew meant a call for "talk." A thick woods intervening made him invis- ible to our signal station at the Phillips house on Falmouth heights; so I sent Sergeant Can- non on a dead run for the station. In a few minutes, and almost before I thought my man could have got there, a signal officer with flag in hand, and his pony on a keen gallop, came in sight. In a minute he was whirling his flag in reply and receiving a message to General Benham, requesting an extra bridge to be immediately put down at Banks' ford. And then I knew that it was a general defeat, for Sedgwick was not a man to be ordering bridges to be built in his rear if there was any fighting to be done in front.

As is usual after a great battle, a heavy rain

soon came on, and the wounded had to be cared for in a cold storm. The disabled men from the eleventh corps began to arrive at Falmouth, to be sent north by rail. The long line of ambulances bore evidence of the severity of the engagement. We were hold- ing some empty box cars at the station, but they were without seats, and to pile poor wounded soldiers into them seemed almost barbarous. These sufferers had been on the road several hours, were wet and cold, some of them speechless. They had no surplus blankets, and to lay them upon the car floor where horses and cattle had been carried, seemed an indignity and a cruelty. But go by rail they must. There was at the station a tent full of new blankets. The quartermaster declined to issue them upon his own author- ity, but would readily do so if I would sign a requisition. This seemed the only way to get the blankets ; so we covered the car floors with them and began to tenderly lift the poor fellows out of the ambulances. I remember one affecting scene. There came a colonel who had lost his right arm at the shoulder, besides having two or three ribs crushed in. Him we removed in a blanket. " Colonel," I said, " do you suffer much ?" "No," he re- plied, "not much now. I wish you would be careful with our major in that next ambu- lance-he's hurt pretty bad." It seemed sad, indeed, that the body which held so noble a soul should be so cruelly battered. I learned afterwards that he died the next day.

There have been some unfavorable criti- cisms upon General Hooker's management of the Chancellorsville campaign. On the whole I do not see how any other officer, then available, could have done much better. It is now clear that he was out-generaled. There was a time when, by a rapid march upon Fredericksburg from the southwest, he could easily have cut Lee's army in two ; but he found, when too late, that such were the very tactics Lee was working upon him. At the close of the fight, Lee was in front of Sedg- wick instead of paying any attention to Hooker. He had got between the stubborn sixth corps and the main army, and there was then only one thing for Hooker to do.

As we now look back upon that conflict it is easy to be seen that the " very stars in their courses" fought against the Union cause at Chancellorsville-which is another way of saying that an over-ruling Providence foresaw that the time for a decisive victory had not yet come. Had we been victorious there, and Lee's army been driven back to Richmond, and that capital taken, and a peace thus secured, it would not have been a lasting peace, such as the country has enjoyed so long. The Confederates had not then suffered enough to convince them that further struggle was a useless waste of blood. A man was yet to "come out of the west" who was to give them battle to their heart's content, and then, broken in spirit and with depleted numbers, they were ready to lay down their arms, and to say, with Grant, "let us have peace." J. A. H.

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THE WATERTOWN MONUMENT.

THE WATERTOWN SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.

AT Watertown, through the commendable generosity and devoted patriotism of Mr. and Mrs. George Cook, of that city, a beautiful and artistic granite monument has been erected upon the public square in loving com- memoration of the soldiers and sailors from Jefferson county who fought or fell in the Union service. The corner stone was laid on Memorial Day, 1890, with appropriate and impressive ceremonies, participated in by the various G. A. R organizations and citizens generally.

(INSCRIPTION) EAST FRONT.

" This monument to witness that these dead have not died in vain, and that, through them, under God, this Nation has a new birth of freedom."

WEST FRONT.

"Mr. and Mrs. George Cook's memorial, in grateful memory of the soldiers and sailors of Jefferson county who fought or fell in defense of the Union and the Freedom of Man."

On the occasion of laying the corner stone, Gen. Slocum, now dead, delivered a fine ad- dress, and was followed by our native orator, Col. A. D. Shaw, whose patriotic remarks we have fortunately obtained, and from which we are permitted to make extracts. He said:

Mr. Mayor, Comrades, Ladies and Gentle- men: - In compliance with a custom that is almost immemorial, we assemble this day to lay the corner stone of a monument a gener- ous philanthropy will provide in honor of the heroic soldiers and sailors of our county. This sacred Memorial Day is a fitting time for such a service. When the graves of our citizen soldiers are rich with the sweet flowers of spring it is indeed inspiring to take part in such a ceremony as this at this place, where a more enduring sign of a free peoples' love and affection will greet generations to come.

All through the ages of the past, the deeds of warriors have inspired poets, historians and statesmen to commemorate on monuments and in undying numbers the lofty and worthy achievements of patriots who were ready to die rather than see their liberties destroyed.

The proudest age of Athens was marked by the tenderest regard for the bones of her heroes who fell in her defense. Pericles epi- tomized the noblest sentiment that can stir the human heart when, on an occasion similar to this, he said:

"I would have you day by day fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens, until you become filled with the love of her ; and when you are impressed by that spectacle of glory, reflect that this empire has been acquired by men who knew their duty and had the courage to do it, who in the hour of conflict had the fear of dishonor always present to them, and who, if they ever failed in an enterprise, would not allow their virtues to be lost to their country, but freely gave their lives to her as the fairest offering which they could present at her feast."

The American Revolution was an age of national formation, and our last great struggle marked a second and even more perilous age of national preservation. In both eras, volun- teers were the heroes of the hour. The volun- teer of the Revolution was a new type of patriot in our new world. The pent-up love of liberty that led our puritan forefathers to seek a new home on the far away shores of an unknown continent, furnished inspirations to duty and sacrifices as noble as they were manly and lofty. The sentiment of duty that finally made the Revolution a success, proved that the moral forces of our ancestors were pure and strong, and that the blood of ages of manly hopes and deeds had found a home on

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our soil. The second age of our national preservation brought out in large measure the commanding wealth of our national patriot- ism. Again the American volunteer hastened to the front to protect and defend the great inheritance that had come down to him, hallowed by so many holy memories. and consecrated by the blood of immortal patriots. In both periods of supreme trial the American volunteer faced the battle line with a courage as undaunted, a spirit as heroic, and a patriot- ism as pure as ever filled the breasts of Hampden or of Richard of the Lion Heart in the old world.

The heritage of ages of unselfish sacrifices in resisting the tyranny of the privileged few, transplanted to our shores, produced a race of men whose deeds have become famous where- ever valor is known and true manhood is honored, in the wide sweep of the globe. The study of the moral forces that evolved such a new power in the government of a great people is at once fascinating and profound. A care- ful review of the causes that produced the American volunteer leads back through many generations, and finds expression in Magna Charta and in the spirit that caused the head of Charles the I. to fall from the block. In our Union. from the first, in periods of peace our standing army has been a mere police force. 'The spirit of war is foreign to our tastes and aspirations. Not one in a thousand of our more than a million of volunteers had ever seen a soldier in uniform before the war began. Our paths are the paths of peace and industrial development-unrivalled in any age of the world.

For a little more than a hundred years our flag has had a place among national emblems. The age of Washington was an epoch in our history that will stand out forever on the records of time as one in which the real reign of the common people began, and where man- hood won its own. With the age of Lincoln came the life and death struggle for the preser- vation of the "more perfect Union " our Revolutionary heroes handed down to us. In this era our fortunate lot has been cast, and the touching ceremonies of this day center round the great events of this period.

The volunteers we are met to honor, went forth from our country at the call. of the President, between 1861-65, to uphold his authority and help execute the laws of the land. Remonstrances and appeals, almost pathetic, failed to restrain the mad frenzy of our countrymen in the Southern States. War came because they defied the power of the ex- ecutive, and fired upon the flag of the Union.

The long and fierce conflict that followed, rocked the nation in the billows of a bloody civil war. For years our splendid national in- heritance trembled between the balance of slavery and freedom. The bayonets of our volunteers guarded our Temple of Liberty in a shining line of steel, as fixed and certain as the north star. Year followed year, as thous- ands marched to their doom on the battlefields of the war, or died in hospitals, or fell help- less in the line of duty. The sacrifices made

during these terrible years-years big with mighty events-no tongue can tell, and yet the spirit of victory was never stronger in the hearts of the North than it was when the rebel flag was furled at Appomattox, and the rebellion received its death blow under Sheri- dan and Grant, and their victorious volun- teers.

History will make clear the fact that the volunteers under Washington founded our nation, and that the volunteers under Lin- coln gloriously preserved and perpetuated it.

In this connection two facts worthy of mention stand out clearly on the record of our national life. Our Revolutionary struggle was one in which divided judgments raised conflicting views at home and grave doubts abroad as to whether the independence of the colonies would result in good to our people and humanity at large. The experiment first shocked the old world, but fifty years later, doubts had largely changed to praise, and our place in the family of nations was secure and high. Again, in 1861, there were conflicting and bewildering judgments among ourselves in almost every community all over the North, as

well as among foreign states, as to whether our war was just and necessary. Who does not recall the pain of those honest but distressing doubts. But in the end, when peace came, and with it a clear title to free- dom to every man on our soil, together with the wiping out of sectional dangers, the uni- versal acclaim of inankind was, "behold the greatness and glory of the American nation."

Our two great wars were waged solely in behalf of self-government and freedom, and ** by the people, for the people." Blending in one purpose, our earlier and our later conflicts for equal rights before the law have won for humanity one of the proudest victories in the world's history. Every government pays generous tribute to our matchless civilization ; people from all lands seek homes on our soil, because they believe it to be best suited to their success and happiness. And more: so just and perfect has been the settlement of our domestic struggles that those who fought us as worthy foes, were our Union now to be assailed from without, would rush to its defense with equal valor with the victors in that war.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 22

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094