USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 25
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 25
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Casey immediately ordered his division to drop its spades and axes and take the implements of war. Not long after twelve the batteries and regiments were under arms and in their designated places. Naglee's brigade at the right of the main road, Wessel's at the left, in the redoubt and behind the breastworks, and Palmer's brigade stretched from the left of Wessel's along the front edge of a wood to near the White Oak Swamp. The 98th was next to Wessel's, but near one o'clock it was ordered to support the picket, and moved by Gen. Naglee, under directions from Casey, and posted in front of the breastworks and redoubt some twenty rods bchind a pile of cordwood, with the slashing before it, through which the enemy was coming, and with the Williamsburg road about ten rods to its right.
To support a battery which was moved forward on a line with us, the 104th Pennsylvania Volunteers was given a similar position on the right of the road. At the sanie time the 93d New York was taken from Palmer and as- signed to Naglee for the day.
Soon after one o'clock our pickets begin to come in sight, retiring through the woods and slashing before the enemy. The skirmish line of the enemy pursued them. We could see both parties jumping over the logs and making their way through the brush and bushes, and hear at intervals the sharp report of their rifles.
A little later a dense mass of men, about two rods wide, headed by half a dozen horsemen, is seen marching towards us on the Williamsburg road. They move in quick time, carry their arms on their shoulders, have flags and banners, and drummers to beat the step.
Our three batteries open simultaneously with all their power. Our regiment pours its volleys into the slashing and into the column as fast as it can load and fire. The 104th Pennsylvania Volunteers aim at the column, and at the skirmishers approaching its right-front and flank. Un- like us, that regiment has no slashing in its front. The cleared field allowed the enemy to concentrate his fire upon it ; too near the approaching column of attack, it interfered with the range and efficiency of our batterics behind. Its position was unfortunate. As the light troops presscd upon it, Col. Davis ordered it to charge them at the double-quick. The regiment rushed forward with spirit, jumped over a rail-fence in its front, with a shout and yell ; but it was met so resolutely and with such a galling fire by the foe, that it fell back in disorder, and did not appear on the field as an organization again during the day. Col. Davis was wounded, and his " Ringgold Regiment" fought its first battle as we have seen.
The 104th falling back, cleared the field opposite the ad- vancing column, and gave the 98th better opportunity to fire upon it as it moved deliberately on.
The charging mass staggers, stops, resumes its march again, breaks in two, fills up its gaps, but sure and steady, with its flags and banners, it moves like the tramp of fate. Thinned, scattered, broken, it passes our right, and presses for the batteries. As it advances and passes, we pour our
volleys into it with no uncertain aim, no random fire. The gaps we make, the swaths we mow, can be seen in the column; for we are only ten or fifteen rods away. The men behind press on those before. The head finally reaches the redoubt. One of the mounted leaders ascends the para- pet and is shot with a pistol by an artillery officer. The whole column, from the fort back, severcd, broken, staggers, sinks into the earth. The rifle-pits, breastworks, and the 98th have cleared the road.
To this time the 98th has not lost a man by the enemy ; but our batteries behind have killed and wounded of it half a score. There is a lull in the battle ; the coast looks clear, the foe may not appear again. We look at the main road ; it is one gray swath of men. Down along the railroad by Fair Oaks Station we hear but a few reports. Smith has had farther to march along the Nine-Mile road, and has not struck our right flank yet ; on our left Palmer has not been attacked ; Huger is not on time. Casey's division has driven back those of Longstreet and Hill.
" In vain, alas in vain, ye gallant few,
From rank to rank your vollied thunder flew."
Soon our left, in from the Charles City road, the division of Huger comes pouring in, pressing on the 81st, 85th, and 92d New York Volunteers of Palmer, gaining well his rear ; suddenly, the Williamsburg road and the slashing are full of scattered troops again. On our right, towards Fair Oaks Station, Smith is engaging Naglee and Abercrombie. The roar of cannon and the rattle of rifles are incessant ; and the yells and shouts of charging regiments rise at intervals above the din of battle. Dire was the noise of conflict. We perceive the broken regiments of Naglee and Aber- crombie slowly driven back. It is nearly four o'clock, and we rally round the flag.
Our batteries open ; the air becomes full of lead and iron. High over our heads, around us, behind us, the lead is whistling, and the iron is whizzing, hissing, whirling. Every moment has a new terror, every instant a new horror. Our men are falling fast. We leave the dead and the dying, and send the wounded to the rear. Palmer's regiments have all fallen back ; the enemy is on our left and rear. Col. Durkee tries to move the regiment by the left flank back to the rifle-pits ; a part only receive the order. The enemy is getting so near, our experience in battle is so limited, our drill is so imperfect, that many of us will not, cannot, stand upon the order of our going. Durkee passcs the rifle-pits with what follows him, and goes to our old camp. The writer rallies a part of the regiment around the flag at the half-deserted intrenchments. There we use, officers and men, the sharpshooter's practice against the encmy. We can mark the effect of our fire; no rifle was discharged in vain. Many of the men could pick a squir- rel from the tallest trees of Wayne and Franklin ; and they load and fire with infinite merriment and good nature.
We perccived Huger's second line of battle run across the field on our left towards the rear to engage the brigade of Peck, which lay beyond Palmer's.
This advance of the enemy compels us to abandon our intrenchments. We retire with our portion of the regiment to our camp and find it deserted. With the assistance of
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Lieuts. Adams, Williams, Stanton, Wood, and others, we form a line of battle on our regimental color line, and wait the enemy there.
It is after four o'clock ; Huger has driven Palmer upon Peek on onr left, and Smith coming up the Nine-Mile Road has defeated and broken up Naglce's brigade, at Fair Oaks, and pressed it back in disorder on Abercombie, of Couch's division. In our front the enemy's line of battle occupies the position, in the edge of the slashing, first taken by our regiment. All but a few of Wessel's men, who maintain a desultory fire, have left the redoubt and breastworks. When the Ninety-Eighth left its first position the batteries retired with what guns they were able to move. We have not seen Casey or any other general officer sinee one o'clock. He has been with Naglee at the right, and we have been fighting on our own hook, rallying round the flag. We have had no orders to fight or retreat; nor do we know otherwise than as we observe how the battle is going.
Couch's division lies in its intrenchments behind us ; and, out of range behind Couch, lies all of Heintzelman's corps. Hundreds of Casey's men are behind stumps, logs, and trees, fighting single-handed with deliberate aim.
The air above our heads is full of balls and screaming shells ; but few, however, come so low as to be effective, for the battle is not on our centre, but on our flanks. We have our regiment in line, nearly two hundred men; and in the ranks are officers, file-closers, and privates. Ours is the only regiment of Cascy's division that stands in line or assumes the form or shape of an organization. Coming down the Nine-Mile road wounded, from the field of his fame, fresh and gory, that general's eareful eye observes us. He dispatches an aide-de-camp with orders to the 98th. The aid rushes over logs and brush, through mud and water, fast as his horse can run. Near our camp the animal, wounded, sinks to the ground, and the officer brings the order on foot. Approaching, he says, "Gen. Casey commands me to inform you that Gen. Heintzelman is just behind with five thousand troops, and that if you can hold the ground for fifteen or twenty minutes he will be here with reinforcements." All who hear him shout and yell, " Tell Casey we'll hold the ground !" The echo- ing aisles of the deep wood ring.
We soon after perceive the enemy marching by the flank, from the left towards our front, carrying the Confederate flag, the flag of the State of Georgia, and that of the 81st New York Volunteers, which he had just captured. The men carried their rifles on their shoulders ; some wore the gray dress-coat of the Confederate service; others long white overcoats of wool undyed.
When opposite us the Georgia regiment halts and faces towards us, not more than fifteen rods away. " How bold they come out there ! They have got our flag. See, they must be our men," said several of our officers. Our bat- talion had but time to fire a few rounds at the Georgians in front, when another portion of the enemy, approaching our left through the wood, poured a volley upon us, which cut every leaf and twig and bush just above our heads. We then faced thie regiment about, and directed it to pass the thicket and morass behind our eamp and rally in the rear of Couch.
The firing ceased again ; but a few shots still came to us from the left and front. Some fifty of the 98th were still on the ground unwilling to leave. To prevent their being killed or taken prisoners, the writer stayed behind and en- deavored to collect them together, and have them go to the rear with him. Ten or fifteen went as far as the rail-fence which ran along the rear of the camp and stopped, unwill- ing to be driven from their camp ; unwilling to be beaten, they were determined to see the battle out. Standing there, we again requested and commanded all those whom we still saw behind to follow. The enemy began to straggle in through the woods from the left. Here we witnessed several single-handed combats, hand-to-hand encounters between our men and those of the foe, who ventured from their organizations, either as skirmishers or plunderers upon our ground. We recall a few ; the reader will search au- thentie history in vain for their parallels. They remind us of the combats in Homer and " The Niebelungen Lied."
A little after five P.M. we collected the survivors of the regiment whom we could find behind Couch and marched a half-mile farther to the rear,* where we learned that Col. Farnam, 96th New York Volunteers, then in command of the fragments of Casey's division, was colleeting the regi- ments together. We reported to him soon after seven P.M. Col. Farnam marched the battered and broken division, organized as well as could be, back to Savage Station, where it passed the night. Col. Durkee, with about twenty others, mostly officers, rejoined us in the morning.
The 98th lost that day, eighty-five enlisted men and three officers, killed and wounded, out of three hundred and eighty-five taken into aetion.
The battle of Fair Oaks ended about five P.M. on the 31st of May, and was fought on Casey's ground ; the battle of the Seven Pines followed, and terminated between nine and ten o'clock, when Couch and his reinforcements were driven from his camps and intrenehments. Couch waited for the enemy in his own position ; and the troops of Heintzelman and Sumner arrived too late to drive them back. The regiment lost its army equipage, its clothing not worn that day, its rations, and its regimental books and papers.
About six A.M., June 1st, the division was marched across the Williamsburg road, then advaneed half a mile to the farther edge of the wood through which Col. Davis skirmished, May 24th, and there placed behind a breast- work made by Couch while Casey was at Seven Pines. Before us was a field sixty rods wide, and which extended on the left to the White Oak Swamp, and on the right, nearly to the York River Railroad ; at the farther side of the field, in the edge of another continuous wood, lay the troops of Hooker, forming our front line, and holding from the White Oak Swamp to the railroad. From seven to nine A.M. the enemy renewed the battle, but without success. His charges were repulsed ; his right was pushed back, and he was finally driven from the field.
# The regiment, after returning to Couch's position, supported a battery. These charged under command of Gen. Kearney back to the rail-fence in rear and at the left of our old position, when a num - ber of men were wounded, myself among them, at abont 5.30 r.v .- Adjt. D. H1. Stanton,
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HISTORY OF CLINTON AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES, NEW YORK.
The solid fighting of this day lasted about two hours ; the conflict was not so sanguinary and general, nor was the loss so great. The Confederates retired during the day, and left, at night, in front of their picket line, the battle- field of Saturday.
The division remained in support of Hooker until the morning of the 4th, when it marched to his old camp in the rear, at the crossing of the White Oak Swamp, a mile above its confluence with the Chickahominy.
August 19th finds the 98tli bivouacked four miles, having marched twenty-one miles that day, the severest march it ever made. On the 22d it arrived at Yorktown, and the following day went into camp at Gloucester Point. Here they rested, had the necessaries, and even the lux- uries of life.
While in camp at this place many changes were made in the field and line. Capt. C. W. Crary resigned, and was re- commissioned assistant engineer in the 98th; Surgeon David resigned, and John J. Van Rensselaer, a relative of the Patroon of Albany, was commissioned to fill the va- cancy ; Lieut .- Col. Charles Durkee was promoted colonel ; Lieut. F. F. Wead, 16th New York Volunteers, was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel ; and George H. Clark, quarter- master, was elevated to the rank of major ; Sergts. Wmn. B. Rudd, Wm. H. Rogers, and a number of others, were promoted lieutenants, and various changes were made among the rank and file.
Dec. 27, 1862, the regiment embarked, and on the fol- lowing day was steaming out to sea with sealed orders. They landed at Morehead City, Beaufort harbor, Jan. 1, 1863, where they embarked, and marching up the Atlantic and South Carolina Railroad, went into camp at Carolina City. Here the regiment remained until January 21st, when it again embarked under sealed orders. February 9th they touched St. Helena Island, and soon after went into camp.
On March 1, 1863, the 98th had on its rolls six hundred and eight men ; seventy of these were absent without leave, in the State of New York ; eighty were detached from the regiment, sick or on duty, in various places from St. Helena to Albany ; and the remainder, four hundred and fifty-eight, were present.
May, 1863, finds the regiment at Beaufort Green. It subsequently participated in Gillmore's campaign before Charleston.
May 31st it was consolidated into a battalion, and the following officers discharged ; Capts. Barney, Willard, An- drews, Williams, Adams; Lieuts. Austin, Hobbs, Doty, Mullholland, and Second Lieut. Russell.
The 98th remained along the railroad until October 18th, when it embarked at Morehead and proceeded to Fortress Monroe. Gen. Heckman was then organizing a flying division at Newport News, and we were directed to report to him at that place. Landing there and going into camp, we spent the time drilling and refitting until November 17th, when we embarked again, and landed the same day at Norfolk. Bivouacking that night in a lumber-yard in the city of Norfolk, we marched the next day to Great Bridge, on the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal. On the evening of the 18th we went on barges, and were towed up the canal to Pungo Landing, in Princess Ann County.
There we landed and went into camp the following day, and began to construct winter quarters. The government had erected North Carolina and southeastern Virginia into one department. It designed to keep the canal open, and maintain inside communication between the two States. Our business was to govern, watch, and guard the surround- ing country, and protect the canal from the raids and depre- dations of guerrilla parties.
The regiment went into winter quarters, and passed the time hunting guerrillas and furloughing rebel soldiers. During December, 1863, and January, 1864, the greater part of the regiment re-enlisted. April 20th finds the 98th at Norfolk.
The following promotions were made from January to April, 1864 : Lieut .- Col. Wead to be colonel, March 4, 1864 ; Lieuts. Hildreth, L. A. Rogers, Davis, Gile, Allen, to be captains ; Second Lieuts. Hickok, Boothe, Mott, Downing, Angevine, Harris, Copps were raised to first lieutenants; and from civilians Isaac Smith, Capius Ransom, and Joseph Snead were appointed second lieutenants.
During the month of April, the President and Gen. Grant had made arrangements for the simultaneous advance on the 5th of May of the armies of the republic.
While the Army of the Potomac marched from the Rapidan, Sigel advanced his forces in two columns up the Kanawha and Shenandoah Valleys; Butler moved from Fortress Monroe and established himself at City Point, and Gen. Sherman, succeeding Grant in the command of the military division of the Mississippi, marched from Chat- tanooga into Northern Georgia with a hundred thousand men.
On the 2d of May, 1864, the Army of the James, at Yorktown, received orders to be ready to embark at a inoment's notice. During the forenoon of the 4th it broke camp and marched to the landing. The day was warm, hazy, and pleasant; the overarching sky showed not a cloud to obscure its deep sercne; the slumbering bay mir- rored far from its shores the surrounding fields, and a score of transports with slowly fluttering pennons took their turn at the wharf, shipped their cargocs, and steamed down the channel. Everything was beautiful, joyful, pleasant, prom- ising, bright. For six months but few of that army had seen any dangerous service. Well paid, well clothed, well fed, they had rollicked away the winter in ease and plenty .. None observes better than the soldier the maxim, " While we breathe let us live." But few anticipated the severity of the coming campaign ; none thought of its toils, suffer- ings, wounds, and deaths.
Neaf three P.M., six companies of the 98th were placed on the screw-steamer " Prometheus," and four on the pro- peller " Perit ;" Col. Wead commanded the former ; the writer the latter. We arrived at Fortress Monroe at ten P.M., cast anchor and remained till morning.
The expedition was ordered to rendezvous, at sunrise, up the river at Newport News. There the transports were arranged according to divisions and brigades; the 18th Corps taking the lead. Hampton Roads were full of ves- sels, loaded down with troops and stores. The transports were preceded or accompanied by a squadron of war-vessels, . consisting of four monitors and seventeen gunboats. Gen.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Graham led the advance with three army gunboats, and Admiral Lee from his flag-ship, the " Malvern," commanded the navy. Simultaneously Gen. Kautz, with three thousand cavalry, moved out from Suffolk, scattered the enemy's forces at the crossing of the Blackwater, and, hastening rapidly westward, struck the Weldon road south of Peters- burg at Stony Creek, and burned the bridge. Col. R. M. West, with about eighteen hundred colored cavalry, ad- vanced from Williamsburg up the north bank of the James, and, with equal pace, moved along with, and often in sight of, the transports.
The morning was clear and beautiful ; the sun rose over the ocean like an immense globe of fire; but little wind was stirring, and the yellow waters of the James, like a golden mirror, glanced off the slanting rays. At five A.M. the ex- pedition began to move; banners and flags and pennons floated wide, and a hundred bands played our national airs : " Hail Columbia," "The Star-Spangled Banner," and " The Girl I left behind Me." The bright, smooth waters of the lordly James, the songs of the birds on the shores and over the river, the deep forest, the green fields, the neat, white farm-houses glancing through the groves, and over thirty transports loaded with armed veterans, careless and happy, formed a picture not often seen and not readily forgotten. The soldiers hung upon the railing, lounged upon the decks, ascended the pilot- and wheel-houses, smoked and talked, laughed and sung, and all went " merry as a mar- riage-bell."
Swiftly in our course, and in succession, we passed the landing for Williamsburg, the site of old Jamestown, the mouth of the Chickahominy, Fort Powhatan, Wilson's Landing, Harrison's Bar, City Point, and arriving at Ber- muda Hundred, we stopped. On our way Wilde's negro brigade was divided and left for garrison at Fort Powhatan and Wilson's Wharf, and Hink's colored division landed without opposition at City Point. Thus the James was seized, secured, and held for navigation as a base. The enemy was thunderstruck ; he had not suspected such a move. On the evening of the 4th, Butler threatened his capital from Yorktown and Williamsburg ; on the evening of the 5th he landed at Bermuda Hundred, and approach ed his capital on the south side of the James with thirty-five thousand men.
It was after sunset when he began to land, and Brooks' division took the lead.
Bermuda Hundred is an irregular, triangular piece of land, lying between the James and the Appomattox. The rear and flanks were covered by the rivers ; the front looked towards the west, the open country, and the enemy. Our division has the front, Marston's brigade in advance. We move through wheat-fields, corn-fields, meadows, along the edge of a deep tangled wood, which extends on our right to the bottom-lands of the James. No enemy appears. About ten o'clock we halt, throw our pickets out a hundred rods on the right flank and front, stack arms, and lie down on the ground to sleep. Early on the morning of the 6th we shook out our blankets, dried the heavy dew from our gar- ments, ate our frugal meal, ranged our files and ranked our lines, and waited the order to advance in line of battle. Near six o'clock the march began towards Point of Rocks,
six miles from the landing. At an old church, two miles out, the 10th Army Corps took the right-hand road leading to- wards the James, and the 18th continued directly towards Walthall's Landing and the Appomattox. No troops of the enemy were seen. Near Point of Rocks all went into camp, halting for camp equipage, artillery, ammunition, and stores. During this day, Heckman's brigade, of the 18th Corps, had the advance, and furnished the skirmish line. In the afternoon we constructed a breastwork of rails, logs, trees, and dirt ; and, by night, this extemporized line ex- tended from the James to the Appomattox. Supplies came up; the weather was fine; the morale of the army excel- lent. Butler and Smith were often seen riding along the lines over the fields. Both received our chcers whenever near. On the 7th, Brooks' division advanced to the rail- road which runs from Walthall's to the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad: His troops destroyed the bridges, burned the ties and bent the rails for a few hundred yards. Later in the day a strong Confederate force, under D. H. Hill, appeared in front. Heckman's brigade from the 2d Division came to our support. Heavy skirmishing followed. We gained some advantages, but were compelled to retire, with the loss of nearly three hundred men. Gen. Heck- man was slightly wounded, and his horse killed. This day the 25th Massachusetts confronted the 25th South Carolina Regiment.
Petersburg, at present our objective point, lies on an angle of Dinwiddie County, on the south bank of the Ap- pomattox, twenty-two miles from Richmond and nine from City Point. Vessels requiring six feet of water ascend to the city, but Walthall's Landing, six miles below, is the harbor for Petersburg. Railroads conncet it with City Point, Richmond, Norfolk, and the South. A short rail- road runs from Walthall's to the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. The two cities are also connected by an old turn- pike or State road, wide, generally level, and without fences at the sides, or bridges over the streams. The population of Dinwiddie County, in 1860, was thirty thousand one hundred and ninety-eight, of whom over half lived in Petersburg.
Early on the morning of the 9th the whole command started for the doomed city, the 18th Corps on the left, the 10th on the right. " Baldy" Smith commanded the former, and Gen. Gillmore the latter.
Smith skirmished with the enemy from the junction of the railroads, and drove him back, with little loss, beyond Swift's Creek. The stream is but a small tributary of the Appomattox, and at that point, about three miles from the city, runs nearly parallel with the river. The creek has high banks, covered by thick, primitive forests ; behind it the enemy retired. On the night of the 9th, after dark, our forces took their position, divided by the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, along the left bank of this sylvan stream. Brooks' division was on the right of the railroad, and the rest of the 18th Corps on the left. Brooks con- nected with the 10th Corps. During the day, in this ad- vance, we had skirmished with the enemy, wounded a few, killed a few, and captured a few.
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