USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 21
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115
IN AND ABOUT NEW BERNE.
found he had as prisoners, President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, and General McClellan who, having sufficiently assured themselves of the vigilance of the watch, retired, proceeding to General Porter's headquarters.
The cruel and blundering heartlessness with which men in authority sometimes treated our soldiers, was exemplified at Fort Corcoran. Doc- tor Lyman, medical director of Porter's division, ordered all the sick to report to Surgeon Dimon without previous notice, and for whose comfort no proper accommodations existed. In a few days five hundred invalids were thrust upon his care without any reports of their previous treat- ment, without nurses, sufficient medicines, or any suitable place for them, and this in the inclement month of March, with good hospitals one and a half miles distant. As soon as possible tents were erected in which to shelter the sick, and all the aid administered which was possible by the daily and nightly attendance of the Surgeon. Here the suffering men remained until the 24th of March, notwithstanding the continued efforts of the Surgeon to secure their transfer to hospi- tals. They were then transferred to the hospital at Georgetown.
The regiment was now to be changed to light artillery, for which purpose, on the 22d of March, they drew new uniforms, and on the 24th re- ceived marching orders. They had been selected as one of four regiments destined to reinforce General Burnside, then successfully operating on the coast of North Carolina. On the 25th they broke camp at Arlington and proceeded to An- napolis, whence, with three other artillery regi- ments, they embarked in transports for Hatteras Inlet, on the 28th. They were accompanied by the 2d Maryland, 17th Massachusetts, and 3d New York, the whole under command of Col. T. C. Amory, of the 17th Massachusetts. The entire 3d Artillery Regiment with its 1,300 men, its 700 horses, and several companies of the 103d New York, were stowed away in the capacious steamer Fulton, which proceeded with its con- sorts bearing the other regiments to the place of destination. After an experience of sea-sick- ness rarely equalled, the expedition arrived at Hatteras Inlet on the 30th of March. They were here transferred to lighter vessels and as- cended the river Neuse about one hundred miles to New Berne, which had on March 14th, been 20
captured by General Burnside, and which lies above the confluence of the rivers Trent and Neuse and contains about 8,000 inhabitants. Camp was formed on the western bounds of the city, where they were visited by General Burn- side, who was very much delighted with the fine personnel of the regiment and its complete equip- ment, which he highly complimented. Burn- side arranged to fortify New Berne strongly on its western side by the erection of forts ; the strongest was named Fort Totten, and became identified afterwards with the heroic achieve- ments of the regiment.
Captain Ammon, at his own request, was per- mitted with his company armed as infantry, to participate in the siege of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor, then proceeding under General Parke. His company was landed eighteen miles below New Berne, whence they marched to their destination and joined the forces operating against the fort. Fort Macon was a very strong fortress and had been early occupied by the rebels. It mounted sixty ten-inch columbiads and was garrisoned by a force of four hundred and fifty men.
Captain Ammon, with Company I, were now to put into practice some of the lessons in the use of heavy artillery which they had learned at Fort Corcoran. They proceeded to Bogue Is- land opposite the fort, under fire of its batteries, but fortunately, owing to the imperfections of their range, no casualties occurred. At night they moved over to the side of the island nearest the fort, and began the erection of a battery within four hundred yards of it, an earthwork on which to mount ten-inch mortars. They raised the loose sand eight feet high and kept it in place on the inside by sand bags wired together. Lieutenants Kelsey and Thomas erected another battery in the vicinity and there was erected in front and in advance of the others another earthwork on which were mounted four parrot guns. Nearly two weeks were spent in the erection of these works and mounting the guns and mortars; eight mortars and four parrot guns. The latter were brought up and placed in posi- tion at night ; a fusilade of shot and shell was kept up from the fort while the work was pro- ceeding, yet the men learned to listen to the re- ports of the enemy's guns and to watch and dodge the approaching missiles.
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CAYUGA COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
The fort was summoned to surrender on the 24th, and our batteries opened upon it the 25th, the blockading fleet cooperating. General Parke had posted a strong picket line to protect the . batteries from assault. At five o'clock A. M., the parrot battery opened on the fort followed instantly by all the eight mortars. After about twenty minutes the fort responded vigorously with eighteen guns, one of them a 128 pounder columbiad.
Such an armament industriously handled would hurl an immense amount of metal at the works of the besiegers, and it did so, casting up im- mense clouds of sand, which would sometimes nearly bury the men without materially inter- fering with the operation of the batteries, which soon obtained an accurate range and maintained a very destructive fire. About nine o'clock four of our gunboats steamed up and commenced an enfilading fire ; but the water was too rough for effective work and they were compelled to re- tire.
The effect of the fire upon Captain Ammon's works finally began to tell, and, pending repairs, it was for a short time silent; but the mortars were soon again at work with their former accu- racy of range and destructive effect, manifest in the growing weakness of the fire from the fort, whose guns, one after another, had been dis- mounted until at three o'clock, P. M., all but one had been disabled and silenced. The end was close at hand.
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At four o'clock a white flag was displayed from the fort and after a parley, an armistice was agreed upon until the following day, when the fort sur- rendered with all it contained. In the fort eight men were killed and twenty wounded, and four hundred and thirty prisoners were captured, also four hundred stands of arms, twenty horses, and one ton of powder. One man only of the be- siegers was killed, William Dart, of Ammon's Battery, who had imprudently exposed himself and was struck by a solid shot.
The success of the siege and the freedom of our men from casualties was certainly marvelous. The fort was reputed second in strength only to Fort Sumter, was heavily armed and sufficiently garrisoned, while it was assailed and carried by hastily erected sand batteries, made under the direct fire of the fort. That men in such a posi- tion, under the fire of such a fort, should escape
with a single fatal casualty and yet capture the fortress, was so signal an instance of military success as to crown the participants in it with deserved renown. General Burnside gratefully acknowledged the service in a special order, and Captain Ammon received from the field and staff of his regiment a rich and beautiful flag, in- scribed " Fort Macon, April 16, 1862," with a very complimentary note.
During April, work on Fort Totten was con- tinned and several acres were enclosed by a sand wall eight feet high and from 12 to 15 feet thick, in which 28 heavy guns were mounted, compris- ing 32, 60 and 100 pounders. These were all in position and the fort in a good defensive state by the first of June.
The 3d Artillery hitherto had been unsupplied with field guns. General Burnside had with him but one other field battery, the First Rhode Is- land, and was therefore anxious to complete the armament of the 3rd Artillery at the earliest possible moment. Major Kennedy had come on from the Army of the Potomac and been placed in command of one of the three battalions into which the regiment was now divided, the other commanders being Majors Giles and Stone. The batteries were but slowly supplied, and, at first, with guns of various calibres, entailing much trouble to supply them with the requisite ammu- nition, as they ranged from 12 to 24-pounders. The full complement of a battery is six guns, six limbers, six caissons, forge, baggage-wagon and one hundred horses. In the work of sup- plying and drilling the several batteries both in light and heavy artillery practice, the summer and autumn of 1862 was mainly spent. Several details were made however. Battery G, Captain Wall, on the 28th of May, was sent to garrison the fort at Washington, North Garolina ; Battery K was sent to General Reno ; and Battery M, Captain White, was sent to garrison Fort Reno, on Roanoke Island, but was soon transferred to Fort Hatteras.
General Burnside's Coast Division, aggregating nearly 15,000 men, was now in a condition, it was believed, to strike effective blows by advancing into the interior of North Carolina and cutting the rebel communications between that State and Virginia, supplementing the advance of the Army of the Potomac under General Mcclellan. Orders were accordingly given on July Ist for an
117
AT WASHINGTON, N. C.
advance in the direction of Kinston, for which full preparations were made, but the disas- ters which had befallen the Northern army in the Chickahominy caused a sudden change of plan. The advance was arrested by tele- graph from Washington, and orders given to General Burnside to forward the brigades of Generals Parke and Reno to Fortress Monroe, to provide against threatened disaster from that quarter. They were speedily sent, General Burnside following on the 4th of July. Thus was withdrawn fully two-thirds of the forces operating in North Carolina, and the small force left to hold our various positions there was put on the defensive. General Foster was entrusted with the command of the Department. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Stewart was made Chief-Engi- neer of the Department on General Foster's Staff, on the 10th of August, and was especially entrusted with the defenses of New Berne, which, with its diminished garrison and the offensive demonstrations of the rebels, required close and intelligent care. Strong defensive works were be- ing erected about the town, which in January, had been so far completed as, it was believed, to se- cure the place from capture. The work was mainly done by contrabands, hundreds of whom were employed.
As illustrating one of the thousand forms of swindling to which the temptations of the war gave birth, it should here be noticed that these contrabands knew nothing of the value of the money in which they were paid and a trifling part only of what was their due was paid to them, while their marks were affixed to vouchers for the full aggregate, the balance going to enrich the miserable swindlers. This practice was con- tinued for months, before it became known and was arrested.
On June 27th, Capt. John Wall, of the 3d Artil- lery, with ninety men, had been sent, armed as infantry, to strengthen the garrison of Washing- ton, North Carolina, a town of three thousand inhabitants, situated on the north bank of the Tar River. Here they were employed in per- fecting, through the months of July and August, the defenses of the place, and in drilling. The swamps surrounding them produced so much sickness in August, as to bring into the hospital, an old academy building in the town, nearly two- thirds of Captain Wall's men.
At four A. M., August 6th, a cavalry force of four companies and a battery of four guns of the 3d New York Artillery, Captain William J. Riggs, marched through Washington, on a re- connoitering expedition to Rainbow Bluff. At this time a dense fog prevented the rebels from discovering this movement. Just at this time a raiding party of the enemy, five hundred strong, and two companies of cavalry, came suddenly . into the town through a corn-field, the fog ob- scuring all observation, capturing our sentinels. Two regiments from their barracks were prompt- ly on hand, and, hearing the firing, Captain Riggs and the four cavalry companies returned and joined in the defense of the town. The rebels, with dogged obstinacy maintained a street fight for hours, the obscurity of the dense fog aiding their operations. The four guns of battery G, stored in the hospital grounds, the men being too sick to use them, were the first object of attack and capture, showing that the party was posted as to the enfeebled condition of the garrison. They had horses ready harnessed to hitch to the captured guns, which were speedily turned upon our men. The gun-boats Picket and Louisiana steamed up and rendered what aid they could ; but the former exploded her magazine and retired, an accident by which nineteen men were killed. The assailants, after a loss in killed and wounded of nearly one-fourth their number, fled the town pursued by the cavalry. The 3d Artillery lost four killed, eight wounded, nine prisoners and four guns.
Both batteries engaged in this affair, B and H, inscribed "Washington, North Carolina, Sep- tember 6th, 1862," upon their flags.
Captain Kennedy, with four batteries and twenty guns, was sent with an expedition ten thousand strong, designed to cut the Weldon Railroad. It started on the 3d day of Novem- ber, but on reaching Tarboro, so strong a force of the enemy was found concentrated in their front, that the expedition returned, leaving the batteries at Plymouth to protect the town.
The next important movement in which the 3d Artillery participated was the expedition to Goldsboro, twelve thousand strong, intended to engage the enemy in that quarter and prevent his concentrating against General Burnside, who was then moving upon Fredericksburgh, Va. Lieut .. Colonel Stewart accompanied the expedi-
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CAYUGA COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
tion, with several contrabands, ready for rough engineering, and they found ample employment in removing fallen trees and other obstructions from the path of the army. On the 12th, slight skirmishes with the enemy took place with no damage to us. On the 13th, at the passage of South West Creek. opposition was met, but it was speedily dispersed. On the 14th the army had neared Kinston, and, two miles in advance of the town, the enemy six thousand strong was encountered, strongly fortified, holding the route of our advance. The position was assaulted and a severe action followed, in which the 3d Artillery played a conspicuous part. After a persistent defense in which they received and inflicted severe losses, the enemy fell back to Kinston, which was abandoned as our forces proceeded. Our loss was thirty-eight killed and one hundred and eighty-five wounded. The 3d Artillery had no killed and only ten wounded. The rebel loss was 250 killed and wounded, 400 prisoners, 500 small arms, II cannon and other stores. Burn- side's defeat at Fredericksburgh left a large rebel force free to resist Foster's contemplated advance to Goldsboro. He decided, nevertheless to pro- ceed, and at Whitehall next day he met a force of the enemy, 10,000 strong with ten pieces of artillery. A brisk artillery and infantry fight ensued. Our batteries of thirty guns were brought to bear on the enemy's position for over two hours, by which his guns were silenced. General Foster had no time to lose, and has- tened on his march to Goldsboro. Our loss in this engagement was 75 killed and wounded. The 3d Artillery had but two killed and thir- teen wounded.
That day the army came within two miles of the railroad bridge, over the Neuse, to destroy which was one of the objects of the expedition. The bridge was sharply defended, but fired and burned, and the railroad torn up, thus severing the main line of rebel communication in this quarter. The purpose of the expedition being accomplished, a return march began. The rebels had already massed a large force in the vicinity, and the army was, at first, threatened with an attack, but it safely returned to New Berne.
Colonel Ledlie was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on December 24th, and the command of the regiment devolved upon Lieut .- Colonel Stewart, who, in 1863, was promoted to
the Colonelcy. Major Stone was made Lieuten- ant-Colonel and Captain Jenney became Major. The forces in North Carolina were increased to an army corps and Major-General Foster placed in command.
The Confederate government was greatly an- noyed by General Fosters's energetic move- ments, and resolved to drive him from the State, sending for this purpose General D. H. Hill with fully 20,000 men. The first demonstrations of this force were against New Berne, on March 13th, at three different points ; an actual attack being made only on Fort Anderson, an unfinished earth- work. This was vigorously assailed by General Pettigrew, but was so resolutely and skillfully de- fended that the assailants retired. They could not capture the weakest of our defenses and therefore abandoned the hope of capturing New- Berne.
But Washington was less strongly fortified, and that town, General Hill believed, could be regained. He proceeded thither, planted his bat- teries, and bombarded it for ten consecutive days, wasting an immense amount of Confederate ammunition.
The Tar river, on which the town is situated, is three-fourths of a mile wide and navigable. The enemy erected heavy batteries below the town on the river, intended to prevent communication with New Berne ; but General Foster neverthe- less cast himself into the fort and directed its defense. As ammunition or provisions grew short they were supplied by running the batteries at night. In the fort were 2,200 men, assailed by 20,000 commanded by an able General, well sup- plied with artillery and every means of offense. The persistence of the siege, induced General Foster to raise it, and running the batteries, he proceeded to New Berne to prepare for it ; but General Hill, anticipating his purpose, retired, abandoning the siege.
In May the two years' limit of the enlistment of the members of the old 19th would expire, and on the 20th of that month they sailed for home, reaching Auburn on the 26th. They were received at the depot by military and civic escort, conducted to the Western Exchange, where they were welcomed by a patriotic address by John N. Knapp, the provost-marshal, and supplied with a bountiful collation. They were mustered out the 2d of June and paid off on the 6th.
119
RETURN OF THE TWO YEARS' MEN.
The companies that returned and the number in each were as follows :
Battery A-Captain White, and Lieutenants Tomlinson and Potter ; 75 men.
Battery C-Lieutenant Randolph ; 83 men. Battery D-Captain Gavigan and Lieutenants Boyle, Brannick and Dwyer ; 63 men.
Battery E-Lieutenant Dennis ; 80 men.
Battery G-Captain Wall and Lieutenant Thompson ; 56 men. Battery I-78 men.
Battery K-78 men.
A total of 524 men. Surgeon Dimon return- ed with this section of the regiment. On the withdrawal of these two years' men, the 3d Ar- tillery was reduced to 889 men, comprising the following companies :
Battery B-Captain Ashcroft ; 142 men.
Battery E-Captain Schenck ; 105 men.
Battery F-Captain Taylor ; 133 men.
Battery H-Captain Riggs ; 133 men.
Battery I-Captain Ammon ; 113 men.
Battery M-Captain Howell ; 131 men.
Colonel Stewart's request to recruit for the regiment was granted, being cordially endorsed by General Foster, who added that from the 3d Artillery had been drawn "all the excellent light artillery batteries we have formed in this depart- ment, * * nine in number." *
The enlistments added about 300 recruits to the regiment. The two departments of Virginia and North Carolina were, on July 18th, placed in command of General Foster, with headquarters at Fortress Monroe, General John J. Peck com- manding the District of North Carolina. Gen- eral Peck made a careful inspection of his effec- tive forces, and of the difficulties and dangers of his position, and became fully convinced that it was the resolute purpose of the enemy to drive him from North Carolina and rescue the State from Federal control. He therefore diligently strengthened his defenses, and prepared for the expected attack, which came on February Ist, 1864, when, about two o'clock A. M., in a thick fog, the rebels, 12,000 strong, attacked one of the outposts of New Berne, nine miles from the city. The garrison defended themselves bravely, and fell back in good order, reinforcements being sent to their support. Beach Grove, another outpost, one and a half miles distant from the position first attacked, was occupied by Lieutenant Kirby and a strong force of the enemy was interposed between him and our main works, rendering his
position untenable, and obliging the garrison to surrender. The officers were sent to Libby Prison and the men to Belle Isle, where the latter nearly all died. The former were successively transferred to Macon, Charleston and Columbia. While engaged in cutting wood at the latter place Lieutenant Kirby, Colonel Sidney Meade and Lieutenant Oliphant made their escape and safely reached our lines at Knoxville, Tennessee.
The assailants, after two days' vigorous efforts, became convinced that New Berne was too strong- ly fortified for successful assault, and retired, having lost 35 killed, 100 wounded and 1,000 de- serters. Our loss was 100 killed and wounded, and 280 prisoners.
This raid upon New Berne was a warning which led General Peck to immediately erect more and stronger defensive works. The enemy remained in the vicinity, threatening every assailable point, inciting constant alarm, and compelling unceas- ing vigilance.
The rebel iron-clad Albermarle was at length ready and came forth to aid in the rescue of the State. It drove our wooden vessels out of the Roanoke, and, acting in concert with General Hoke with 7,000 men, on April 20th captured Plymouth and 2,000 prisoners.
General C. N. Palmer succeeded General Peck on April 25th, the latter being called to Virginia. Washington was evacuated, fearing that the fate of Plymouth would, otherwise, befall it, as we had then at this point, no vessels which could resist the formidable Albermarle.
On the 4th of May, New Berne was assailed by the rebel General Hoke, who drove in our pickets toward night, and demonstrated strongly the next day, waiting for his formidable ally, the Albermarle; but that craft was so severely handled by our war vessels at the entrance of the sound that she withdrew altogether from the fight, and in October was sunk by a torpedo. General Hoke, relying upon that vessel, sum- moned the city to surrender on the 6th, but was sternly refused, and, learning the fate of the Albermarle, retired from New Berne.
The Confederate necessities at this time in Virginia caused the withdrawal from North Caro- lina of its forces, and left it open to new inroads by our troops, which were frequently made.
The forces which General Foster had collected for a contemplated attack upon Wilmington were
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CAYUGA COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
diverted to aid in the reduction of Charleston, and sailed for Hilton Head, arriving there at dif- ferent dates during the first week in February, 1864. They numbered about 11,000 men. Ac- companying the force was a brigade of light and heavy artillery, commanded by Brigadier-Gen- eral Ledlie, a large battalion of which, from the 3d Artillery, was commanded by Major Ken- nedy, comprising 400 men, 22 guns, and 400 horses.
On the 9th of February, the artillery had en- camped on the Island of St. Helena, on the north side of Port Royal harbor. General Hun- ter was then in command at Charleston, and to him General Foster reported. The latter was coldly received, and, on communicating with Commo- dore Dupont, found him not ready to cooperate, and that there was an evident " hitch " in the plan of operations. General Foster left for Fortress Monroe ostensibly for siege guns, but he did not return. General Hunter embodied the entire corps as as reinforcements, against which many of its officers protested. General Ledlie, at his request, was permitted to return to New Berne. Major Kennedy's battalion of the 3rd Artil- lery was retained and lay in comparative idle- ness for nearly two months ; but on April 3d set sail with the fleet, bearing the troops from St. Helena, destined for Stono Inlet, to aid in the contemplated attack upon Charleston.
During the attack of the fleet upon Fort Sum- ter on the 7th, Batteries B and F of the 3rd Ar- tillery and 4,000 troops, were landed on Folly Island, commanded by General Seymour, ready at the proper time with pontoons, 10 sieze Mor- ris Island.
The attack upon Charleston failed of success, and on the 12th of April the fleet, with the 10th Army Corps, returned to Port Royal. The 3rd Artillery, excepting Batteries B and F, was re- tained at Beaufort and St. Helena until near the end of May, when it was ordered to New Berne. Batteries Band F were retained by General Hun- ter, and by his successor in command, General Gilmore. These two batteries participated act- ively in the several operations of the army on Folly Island, in the capture of Morris Island and Fort Wagner and Fort Gregg, and in the long continued bombardment of Fort Sumter. The batteries led the advance of the army, supporting the pickets, and were much exposed in the erec-
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