USA > New York > History and personal sketches of Company I, 103 N.Y.S.V., 1862-1864 > Part 4
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This picket duty continued until December 20th. Again marching orders came and we packed up everything. pickets and safeguards called in, next day marched to Summit Point, Pa., where we took the cars and came to Washington, D. C. The orders were to proceed to Ber- muda Hundred by boat but on account of the ice in the river and the red tape necessary to bring anything about we were on the boat two different times and again land. ed. We finally got off on our way down the Potomac River on the 28th, and on the 31st came to Jones land-
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ing on the north side of the James River. The next day we crossed the James on a pontoon bridge and marched up past Gen. Ferrero's headquarters to the breastwork and encamped. That same night, (and it was a cold one) we went on the outposts on picket duty in the bomb proofs near the rebel line, so near we could hear them talk. Another military execution at which the 103rd regiment was paraded, two men of the 58th Regt. Pa. Vols., Sergeant Foster and Private Johnson were shot for desertion. The duty here was very much the same from day to day. Every alternate night on picket in the bomb proofs, and the next in camp. The night in camp was not rest however, we had to get out toward morning and stand under arms until daylight in the breastworks to be ready for an attack. Almost every night rebel deserters would come to our lines from three to thirty together and sometimes much more. This de- serting came to be regular and we expected it. During January and February 1865, the period of enlistment of many of the men of Company I expired. The first of those that were present with the company was corporal Alfred H Cummins who enlisted January 10, 1862. Then came Milton T. Tyrrell, and Lucius L. Flower, James H. Stoughton, Daniel M. Dickerson, Charles T. Ostrander, etc.
These men very naturally wanted to go home, having faithfully performed the contract on their part, and so final statements were made by the Orderly Sergeant for these men as the dates came. On January 25th the pa- pers first sent came back with the statement that none could be discharged until March 19th (three years from the date of the last enlistment at Elmira. N. Y.) This of course was not satisfactory to those directly concern- el and they soon refused to do duty; were put under ar- rest and shortly after were sent to the guard house. At o ie time some of them would agree to do camp duty and
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were released, then all would bolt again and go back to the guard house. This continued with little variation until March 13th, when the three years men in the regi- ment who had not re-enlisted whose time had expired were ordered to New York and mustered out of the ser- vice.
April 3rd. 1865, the 103rd Regiment with others was ordered to advance to the rebel works in our front and on the railroad between Petersburg and Richmond which was destroyed, and returned to camp the next afternoon. On April 5th we marched around inside the Union line to Petersburg and came into the city next day, camping on the opposite side. The few succeeding days witnessed the surrender of the rebel Army of Northern Virginia un- der Gen. Lee to Gen. Grant at Appomattox, and the con- sequent collapse of the so-called Southern Confederacy. One after another the Generals of other commands sur- rendered, until the last rebel laid down his arms and the great Civil War of four years sanguinary strife was ended. Here we lay in camp, and as the general con- dition assumed a peaceful attitude, saw the troops on the march for Washington to join the grand review and final muster out.
The 103rd Regiment was consolidated into a battalion of three companies-A. B, and C, Captain William Rad- lisch commanding, company I boys being in company B. On May 15th, we marched from Petersburg and on the 17th went into camp among the live oaks at Surry Court House, Va., four miles south of James river, oppo- site Jamestown landing. The duty here was provost duty acting under the reconstruction orders of the Pres- ident Lieut. Col. B. F. Winger of the 2nd Pa. Heavy Artillery was provost Marshad at this point. Oaths of Allegiance to the United States Government were admin- istered.
Every voter in order to have full right to citizenship
mast take this obligation of fealty to the flag of the I'nion. June 14th the battalion was ordered to Peters. burg again, being relieved by Company C 2nd Pa. H. A. A detachment commanded by Lieut. Taylor was sent to Chesterfield Court House. Late in autumn the battalion was sent to Amelia Court House where they remained until they were ordered to City Point, Va., for final muster out. This was accomplished Dec, 7th and final pay was secured at Harts Island, New York Harbor, on the 14th.
AN OFFICER'S EXPERIENCE
In Obtaining Recruits for the 103d N. Y. Volunteers in the Fall of 1862, and How They Fared Afterwards.
In most all organizations it is considered to be a special privilege to be an original or charter member. The mili- tary bodies which composed the volunteer army in the early Rebellion days were no exception to this sentimental rule. Thus recruiting officers of that period of the war were compelled to urge the applicants for Uncle Sam's irmy, as a salesman of to-day would solicit orders, giv- ing many true, some questionable, reasons why the pro- "pective soldier-boy should join a regiment then at the Cont, and let him find out by experience, how much truth as in its advance agent.
Patriotism was near to the high-water mark, moneyed dacement was not vet needed to cause the youth to
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enlist; to get him to join your regiment was the rub, of which the recruit knew no more than of the moon, and as in civil life, the recruiting officer had competitors add- ing to his difficulties of success. Stories, too, had reached home of what field-service-as in 1898-really was; the Copperhead (man) was also ever present, trying to counteract the desire to uphold the Union, in some cases asking men to even join the Southern army; especially was this so in parts of New York and Indiana, and did at least succeed in keeping some few from donning the blue uniform.
A three months' tour, in New York City, soliciting ad- ditions to the ranks of the 103d regiment, by the writer. gave him the foundation for the statements just inade. The question of pay, pension or other emoluments was seldom asked by the recruit, a speedy sending-off to join the regiment being about the only desire expressed, and when that time came all were as joyous as in earlier life, when school vacation had been announced.
When once in uniform all were happy in the knowledge that they would soon be where the enemies of the coun- try were, inwardly hoping to give a good account of their actions, and wishing to make themselves the equals of their fellow-soldiers whom they were about to join; to share in the trials of the march, bivouac, picket and camp life, commencing, of course, with frequent drills in the recruit-squad; who the instructor was had much to do with early impressions of a soldier life, also the hap- hazard selection of tent-mates.
Generally when it became known a squad of recruits was approaching the camp, about all not on duty would line up towards the entrance "to give them a reception." which quite often took form in an out-ery of "fresh fish." "where did you get that knapsack," because of its size: "take off that collar," "buuk with me, if you got any ski." and in fact most any expressions were used; mean-
while the future comrades were "sized up" and nick-names given to some of them which occasionally were retained throughout their service. These doings might be styled the military hazing of the recruit class, though seldom carried to extremes. Later in the war, when the large bounties were given, many additions to the recruits' "initiation" were added, such as "have you a thousand to loan," "take off that diamond ring," and the like.
To sum up, the difference in time of enlistment was soon forgotten, especially if the soldier-boy was found out to be of the true metal needed for active service. At the time of their enlistment they were generally told "you will re- turn with the regiment, if spared from disease and the bullet," "the oath to serve three years is merely a form." Such the recruiting officers believed to be the truth when their promises were thus made. The highest authority knew enlistments were so agreed to, but how sadly were all disappointed in the matter when the muster-out time came. A transfer to some other regiment to serve bal- ance of time the only way to receive an honorable dis- charge; quite a few deserting the service in consequence, and suffering to this day for their action, in the belief they were right, and certainly there was some warrant in their so thinking.
Long life and prosperity to the survivors of Co. I, 103d Regt. N. Y. Vols., are the sincere wishes of one who came to you as a stranger and parted company in the tented held, regretfully.
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Night Attack on Hatteras.
At midnight two boys on guard duty stood communing together on a little bridge across a narrow stream, a ribbon of silver in a bed of sand, that lost itself at the base of an old fort, all seamed by gaping sods, in the wide waters of Pamlico Sound. They, kindred in soul and thought, but not of blood, were looking northward Over a vast stretch of sea beach and sand dunes, watch- ing the intermittent flashes, one visible from their view point every three minutes, that Cape Hatteras Light sent with warning glare to the mariners of the deep.
As the period of sentry-go is 120 minutes, forty of these flashes were accounted a trick of duty, when out of the deep night a vigorous voice, eager for relief from duty, would call, "Corporal of the guard, turn out the relief." To the sentinels on the bridge the allotted number of flashes not yet having appeared, they, as in duty bound, were peering with eager eves into the shadows of the night in search of a possible foe, that they might warn their sleeping comrades of the approach of an enemy, whom they are taught to believe " Never rests and never tires."
Out to the front, eastward, not many rods away, is the deep, unresting sea, its swells, slow moving, roll up the moon-lit beach, unwinding the feathery scrolls bearing the rythmic records of old ocean's lighter moods.
To the right, southward, miles adown a beach, fringed with the wreckage of many a craft, stand Forts Clark and Hatteras, mute sentinels, guarding the inlet con- necting the Atlantic and Pamlico.
To the left and northward are beach and sand hills. clustering clumps of habitations, fisher huts, and the world-famous Cape Hatteras Light House and its beacon sending into the night their penetrating rays, like a warn- ing voice, to warn the sailor of a current flowing along
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whore, that carries to certain death all who get within its terrific swirl.
Rearward and westward lies the camp, with its half hundred sleepers, barracks in long lines with capacity for thousands, for here encamped Burnside's victorious bat- talions after the capture of the island and its forts. Be- Fond, like a sheet of silver, is Pamlico Sound, along whose indented shore stand with set arms, like dragons, the wind mills, where the primitive denizens of this nar- row strip of land 'twixt Ocean and Sound grind the sta- ple that makes their pone and hoe cake.
On this night the clouds, in columns across the heavens, moved like embattled battalions, to be torn and shredded by the swift assaults of the hurtling winds. Beyond was the moon, "Pale Empress of the night, whose beams il- lumine our earth, how many varied fantasies to thee have owed their birth." Oft the scattering clouds would scurry across the face of the moon, shutting out the light and throwing ragged shadows on the earth. In these moments the mind, strained by expectancy and losing the guidance of the eve, would give to stump and log, old timbers and stunted brush, the shape and actions of inen. Thus, objects, in a moment, would be carried far- ther along the evolutionary line than even Darwin ere dreamed of.
During the interval of light, the sentinels on the bridge Centered their gaze upon a moving mass, coming towards them in orderly numbers down the island in its narrow- est part, with its line close flanked by sea and sound. Surely. now, what the eye has sought, the brain expected ind the sentinel awaited in fear and doubt, has come at List-the enemy.
A soldier, when ou duty, must as guard or picket see w determine before challenging and firing. True to their education as soldiers they scrutinized and scanned, estimated, and then guessed the number and arm of the
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advancing foe. One said, "'Tis infantry"; the other, "No, its cavalry." Both in chorus, "With artillery!" No arm of the enemy's service, by those thoughtful senti- nels, was left out of their quick conception. "Cavalry with flying artillery," their united judgment.
Before the formidable array they became silent. On a mere breath of time how much may hang; the lives of the camp, its stores and barracks, the safety of the Light House and our comrades there doing duty, and these, miles away, and a valiant foe between us. The forts far on our other flank, not expecting a land attack from the north, perhaps, are not vigilant, and too long in unvexed- repose have lessened the tension of discipline. How with themselves. lone sentinels, 'mid this dreary waste of sand? Would they be killed in the defense of comrades, camp and flag, or captured and carried away to some noisome den of Rebeldom? These thoughts, hurled by solicitude across the mind, took but a pinch of time, and did not deter the eye from holding its attention, firm fixed, upon the uncertain and ominous mass. As cer- tainty seemed to grow into conviction, and doubt was being fast swept away, the moon, saucy mistress of the sky, woald flash her silvery robes behind the flying cloud banks and leave again the world in darkness and in doubt. 1
Thus held in restless suspense the unguided mind would give " To trial nothings, a local habitation and a name," and " Reason on a frenzied sea would toss." Another rush of the wind among the fickle clouds and they would dissolve, and the moon, brighter than before, would burst in resplendent brilliancy, and the eve, stronger from its rest caught all the landscape. The sentinels quickly discovered the enemy moving steadily across the beach toward the bridge, lone barrier between them and the sleeping camp. Now lingers in these sentinels' minds
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not a tatter of a doubt, for they see them, scan them, and know them as the advancing foe.
They challenge! The voice rings out, its echo lost amid the resounding breakers, "Halt! Halt! Halt!" Then the oft fatal query, "Who comes there?" Silent and sullen, onward they come, "In the pride of their numbers they staked on the game." Sternly two sharp rifle cracks go out into the solemn night, arousing the alert and ter- rifying the timid. 'Tis the company's first call to arms vince leaving their homes in the North.
The guns firing in quick and distinct succession, told to the commander no careless guard had suffered his prema- turely to discharge. It had the ominous ring of danger. The Captain, not full clad, with uncovered head, bearing in hand a sword, with neither scabbard nor belt, came quickly to the bridge. Inquiring the cause of the alarm and sighting the enemy's movements, for now among them there seemed a halt, as though counting the cost of the sentinels' fire, sternly ordered the younger of the two sentinels, the older being retained to aid in repelling the mupending charge, to proceed forthwith to the barracks and insist that every man, even cook and teainster, should fall in, rally to the bridge, and help the guards to drive back the assaulting troops.
On this errand he sped to Barrack No. 1, wildly plung- ing into the midst of the snoring humanity, his voice high pitched by excitement, yelled, "Fall in! Fall in! Quick ! The Rebs are coming! Come quickly, for even now they are forming on the beach, quick: Don't wait; lest all the guard be killed." So stern a summons, carrying with it, as many of the slow-moving sleepers thought. was, per- haps, a knell that would, ere the morrow, summon them to heaven or to hell.
Sergeant Chase came prompty to the call. Then Stoughten the poet corporal, with a strain of some love- lorn ballad oft sung amid the hills of Schuyler, still trem-
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bling on his lips awoke, and putting away the gentle, sprang like Minerva, 'Full armed for the conflict." The clatter of Stoughten's armor awoke the sage of Schuyler -famed McFlipp, who with deep deliberation, unclad and unarmed, strode the barrack with fine histrionic grace. High resolution firm marking his soldier face. when with the frowning inien of a Von Egglofstein, act- ing-corporal Paine aided in forming the line.
Many and anxious were the queries as to the number, character, size and identity of the enemy, as some quick- ly and others slowly came down, up and out of their re- spective bunks. There was putting on of pants, clamor for caps and blouses, feeling for shoes, not always with the greatest alacrity, a ery for a gun, a demand for a cartridge box, a chorused yell for a canteen around which yet lingered the fumes not always found at the com- panies' spring, and an insistence for a bayonet detached the day previous to do duty as a stabber of crabs from the planks of the very bridge soon, perhaps, to become ruddy and sodden with the blood of these same startled comrades.
The troops in this barrack moved out on to the drill ground, led by Sergeant Chase well to the fore, and on either flank came those oft times tried sons of Mars. Corporal Stoughten and Acting-Corporal Paine. As No. 1 was fully conscious of and prepared for the attack, on rushed the sentinel-courier to the cook's barrack, where slept in unfeigned sleep, the flowers of the hills of Hec- tor. Here were Bullard, Sherman, Jackson and Stage. immortal on their country's page, when with a louder voice they were called to "Fall in!" as the enemy was about attacking the camp and the orders from the Cap- tain were, "none should falter, none remain behind for all such as did would on the morrow be taken out on the beach and be shot for cowardice." There was no di- plomacy in the delivery, it was dircet, and to its response
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the soldiers of the cook's barrack arose as one man to protest against being awakened from slumbers never be- fore disturbed in such ungentle tones. Doubt found ex- pression in defiance. Hesitaney faltered in performance, lest the attack was the concoction of the youthful alarm- ist. Cowardice, with blouse in hand striving to have it serve as trousers, vehemently excoriating the air with the wildest profanity and in its paroxysm, calling down the direst malediction on him who carried the order, should it not have originated with the Captain, but only found coinage beneath the chapeau of the youthful guard.
Soon these with fear and trembling, in wild confusion struggling, growling and cursing, with laggard steps, came straggling along to the bridge. Some armed others less sanguinary, unarmed, falling into line which Lieu- tenant Dudley was endeavoring to form. Thrusting aside that useless appendage of war, the sword, and armed with an empty "pepper-box" revolver, the Lieu- tenant succeeded in aligning the reserve, while Captain Crosby with the assaulting column moved across the bridge to anticipate an enemy that had now seen the force and fury that clearly shone on the unwrinkled front of the youngest company of the war.
While hurrying to join the command, turning as he passed the guard house, the courier saw:
Adown the shelly sand way, Out in the starry night,
A solitary horsemen speeding On the urgent wings of flight.
Out from the barrack's shadows deep,
Till the curling waves met the horse's feet; Turning on his unsaddled steed.
Looking back over brush and weed,
At our gallant band acrossing the bridge
To drive the stubborn troopers off the ridge- And the moon sailing on in stately grace,
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Shone full on the teamster's pallid face, His eyes so wildly gleaming, Hair disordered streaming, Haunted by the uncanny night, Lashed by fear to furious flight, Held in grasp of terror's might, -
Flying from the impending fight, Madly he rode, ever from our sight.
As the command moved across the broad sweep of sand, the Captain in advance, on whose still uncovered head shone the silver fringe of time, turned and facing the company, gave the command, "Scatter! my men! scat- ter, lest the fire of the enemy, you being huddled together, lay many of you low." With promptness, the men de- ployed to a proper distance, and guiding right, they moved to meet a silent and unyielding foe.
The young courier, having joined the assaulting column. taking a position next to the other sentinel, there was soon imparted to their tread that steadiness with which the veteran alone ean inspire the reernit. The moon to show her appreciation of the courage of the men, bespoke the winds to open wide the gates of light and send her grandest sheen strong down upon the silvered sands. unfolding tothe Argonseve of this youthful command, the enemy to full and certain view.
There they stood! a serried troop of riderless steeds! Natives of the Isle, with heads thrown over the others necks, giving to their number in the night, the resembl- ance of massed troopers. It was these ponies wont, at night, to wander in a body over the Island during the months when the mosquitoes were most numerous. Short, sturdy, strong, shaggy, silent little fellows, mov- ing in squads about the Island, living upon the brushand sea weeds found along the coast. Oft in the day, their mottled coats shining in the sun, could they be seen standing high upon some towering sand dune, eating the
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scant herbage and looking out their soft eyes, inquiring for the strolling band farther up the beach, with the wind and spray from the ocean, swinging and tossing in wild abandon, their abundant manes and tails.
The shots fired by the two sentinels from the bridge, has caused them to halt, undoubtedly, and evince re- Instance against continued movement on the same line. As the command swung intrepidly up to the front line of the astonished ponies, one of the men gave a shout and a thrust of his bayonet towards them, when the nimble creatures wheeled swiftly about, kicking their tiny feet high in the air and throwing their sharp noses well for- ward, galloped quickly down to the beach and when last seen the moon was casting shadow pictures of their clus- tering groups on the high sand ridges that line the shore at that point.
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If those little fellows had a sense of the humorous and could laugh-and who can say they hadn't ?- they must, when safe from armed intrusion, have indulged them- wives in a good hearty horse laugh, as, in memory, they -aw the half clad array, in long stretched line, more in ragged step, armed with the deadly weapons of war and bayonets fixed. coming sternly towards them with our Serve and venerable Captain leading the van.
Wirit'he nen discovered the cause of the night attack had a bloodless victory was ours, a shout of triumph went out that rolled over the sands to the bridge where tremblingly stood the anxious reserve, and was by them caught up and when last heard its reverberations were thundering through the cook's barrack to be lost amid Bbe pails, pans, and unused muskets of those fearless - ms of Hector.
When in after years, returning from the great conflict roar northern homes, amid all the scenes, incidents and seats of that mighty epoch; its trophies of triumphs, its :irs of strife, its dreadful wreckage of life and limb, its
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score of battles, none of these so stirred our hearts as when we looked up to our shot torn banner and saw, in its moving folds, in golden grandeur, this legend, "The Night Attack on Hatteras."
Thus on Hatteras came, famed Island of the Sea. Our company's first night attack through genial White and me.
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G. C. HIBBARD.
A Picket Captured.
DAN M. DICKERSON.
Near Charleston, Va., while on guard along the rail- road, I was on the last Infantry post next to town (Charlestown, Va.,) and next the 12th Regt. Pa. Cavalry picket. Mosby's men came on their post near town; cap- tured their horses and killed part of their men. They tried it again and again; the cavalry boys always ran away.
One night Comrade Whitney, who was on the same post with me, went down to the cavalry post, stole along the railroad and when opposite the guard raised up and as the guard challenged him answered "I am a rebel. get off that horse and lay down your arms." Whitney came back to outpost with his prisoner in his shirt sleeves. shivering and begging for life, supposing he was in Mos- by's hands. "Oh," he said, "let me go; I never hurt any of you, and I wouldn't have come down here only I had to." After we had laughed and had what fun we wanted. Whitney told him what a coward he was and sent him back to his post with this charge: "Next time you see an enemy coming do you fire." The guard was thankful and promised he would do his duty next time if it cost him his life.
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