USA > New York > History of the Ninth Regiment N.Y.S.M. -- N.G.S.N.Y. (Eighty-third N. Y. Volunteers.) 1845-1888 > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
In the afternoon of the 3rd, the column moved towards the Gap, and Snickersville was reached shortly after dark; then the column turned south, and, after marching a few miles more, the tired soldiers bivouacked near Bloomfield. The wagon train on this road was two miles long. At noon of the 4th the troops were again in motion, and, after an eight-mile march, a halt was ordered, and the wagon train allowed to pass. General McClellan and staff also passed during the halt, and the Gen- eral was loudly cheered. After marching some two miles further the column halted for the night near Salem. While here some members of the Twelfth Massachusetts and Six- teenth Maine made a discovery.
Halted near the residence of a rebel, Colonel Dulany, and, before the usual order to guard property was published, some of the boys discovered supplies. In spite of threats and muskets, arms were stacked and a rush made for the out-build- ings, boards were torn off, and out poured corn, potatoes, and salt in abundance. As well try to stem the Mississippi as the torrent of hungry men, who, regardless of discipline and rank, went through the buildings, bringing to light, not only food, but ammunition, and hogsheads of salt, stored for the rebels." (History of Sixteenth Maine, p. 51.)
The record does not state whether any of the NINTH shared in the plunder, if they didn't it was because they did not hear of it in time.
On the 5th, the march was a short one, only some six miles being covered. The wagon train ahead blocked the road, Fourteen miles were travelled on the 6th, and at night the command halted within ten miles of Warrenton. A snow- storm greeted the men when they awoke on the 7th, but the march was resumed ; Warrenton was passed, a short distance to the right of the column, and about two miles beyond the town the NixTu halted.
213
1862
ON FAMILIAR GROUND ONCE MORE.
Since the 3rd of the month General John Gibbon had been in command of the division, General Ricketts having been relieved and ordered to other duty. The men regretted very much the loss of General Ricketts, who, by his manly and soldierly qualities, had endeared himself to all. He had been in command of the division since June 7th of the present year ; he was an accomplished and brave soldier, and always alive to the needs of the men in the ranks. General Gibbon was well received, and in his selection to succeed Ricketts, the division was most fortunate.
On the morning of the 8th, the brigade was detached from the division, and ordered to proceed to Rappahannock Station. Owing to a blundering guide the wrong road was taken, at the expense of an eight-mile extra march. About one o'clock the next morning-9th-amid a disagreeable storm of sleet, hail and snow, the brigade reached the designated point. The un- military reader is left to imagine how the tired and hungry soldiers-after a twenty-mile march-passed the remainder of the night, A diary says that "at three o'clock the NINTH was sent forward to assist the cavalry in picketing the river bank, on the opposite side of which the watchful enemy were posted. What a dreary dismal experience that was !" When daylight enabled the NINTHI to realize their surroundings, it was found that the brigade was in support of Bayard's cavalry. The regiment was permitted to retire a short distance from the river, out of gun-shot of the enemy's pickets, where, in a piece of woods, the men managed to start fires and cook their coffee.
During the day and night of the roth, the regiment was on picket along the river bank. Friendly relations were estab- lished with the enemy, and exchanges of coffee and tobacco freely made. The night was quite cold. At dress-parade on the 11th it was officially announced that General Burnside had relieved McClellan of the command of the army. In "General Orders, No 1," of that date, Burnside assumed command.
The following instructions had been sent to him :
214
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
November
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. Washington, D. C., November 5, 1862.
Major-General BURNSIDE, Commanding :
GENERAL-Immediately on assuming command of the Army of the Potomac, you will report the position of your troops, and what you purpose doing with them.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.
General McClellan issued the following address upon re- linquishing command.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Camp near Rectortown, Va., November 7, 1862.
Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac :
An order of the President devolves upon Major-General Burnside the command of this army.
In parting from you I cannot express the love and gratitude I bear to you. As an army you have grown up under my care. In you I have never found doubt or cold- ness. The battles you have fought under my command will proudly live in our Nation's history. The glory you have achieved. our mutual perils and fatigues, the graves of our comrades fallen in battle and by disease, the broken forms of those whom wounds and sickness have disabled-the strongest association which can exist among men-unite us by an indissoluble tie. We shall ever be comrades in supporting the Constitution of our country and the nationality of its people.
GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General, U. S. Army.
" Thus ended the career of Mcclellan as head of the Army of the Potomac -- an. army which he had first fashioned, and then led in its checkered maidenly experience, till it became a mighty host, formed to war, and baptized in fierce battles and re- nowned campaigns. * * The moment chosen was an inopportune one ; for never had McClellan acted with such vigor and rapidity-never had he shown so much con- fidence in himself or the army in him." (Swinton's Army of the Potomac.)
There is little doubt that a mistake was made in the removal of McClellan at this time. No one opposed the measure more than Burnside himself.
McClellan says, in his Report and Campaigns, pp. 438, ct seq .:
Late on the night of the 7th I received an order relieving me from the command of the Army of the Potomac. *** I had already given orders for the movements of the 8th and 9th ; these orders were carried into effect without changes.
The position in which I left the army, as a result of the orders I had given, was as follows :
The First, Second and Fifth corps, reserve artillery, and general headquarters at War- renton ; the Ninth corps on the line of the Rappahannock, in the vicinity of Waterloo; the Sixth corps at New Baltimore ; the Eleventh at New Baltimore, Gainesville and Thorough-
1862
215
BURNSIDE RELIEVES MCCLELLAN.
fare Gap ; Sickles' division of the Third corps on the Orange and Alexandria railroad. from Manassas Junction to Warrenton Junction ; Pleasanton across the Rappahannock, at Amisville, Jefferson, etc., with his pickets on Hazel River, facing Longstreet's, six miles from Culpeper Court House ; Bayard near Rappahannock Station.
The army was thus massed near Warrenton, ready to act in any required direction, perfectly in hand, and in admirable condition and spirits. I doubt whether, during the whole period that I had the honor to command the Army of the Potomac, it was in such excellent condition to fight a great battle.
When i gave up the command to General Burnside, the best information in our possession indicated that Longstreet was immediately in our front near Culpeper ; Jackson with one, perhaps both, of the Hills near Chester and Thornton's Gaps, with the mass of their forces west of the Blue Ridge. The reports from General Pleas- onton, (cavalry leader) in the advance, indicated the probability of separating the two wings of the enemy's forces, and either beating Longstreet separately, or forcing him to fall back, at least upon Gordonsville, to effect his junction with the rest of the army.
With the order for Burnside to assume command of the army came a letter from the President outlining a campaign that seemed feasible to the administration. Burnside subse- quently submitted his plan, which conformed to the wishes of the President. Instead of moving on the Confederate army, the troops were to march to Fredericksburg. Some changes were made in the composition of the Grand divisions of the army. The right, under General Sumner, consisted of the Second corps, General Darius N. Couch, and the Ninth corps, General Orlando B. Willcox ; the Center, under Hooker, of the Third corps, General George Stoneman, and the Fifth corps, General Daniel Butterfield ; the Left under General William B. Franklin, of the First corps, General Reynolds, and the Sixth corps, General William F. Smith. On the 10th of the month the army numbered about one hundred and twenty-seven thousand, of all grades.
The Sixteenth Maine-owing to the lack of proper cloth- ing, the regimental baggage being still in the rear, somewhere in Maryland-reported a large number of men on the sick list, so many in fact, that General Gibbon sent Surgeon Nordquist (of the NINTH), the division Medical Inspector, to investigate the matter. The day before the surgeon's visit some of the Sixteenth had been observed by General Gibbon and staff conveying a couple of bee-hives, and some other plunder, to
216
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
November
their camp, and the General had sent an orderly after the squad, with orders that the honey should be sent to the division hospital. Before the order could be officially promul- gated, however, the honey had disappeared. Major Small, then Adjutant, in the History of the Sixteenth, thus describes the doctor's visit :
A well-fed and sheltered division commander and staff could not appreciate our destitute condition, and gratuitously insulted us by censuring the colonel and quarter- master. *
* Doctor Nordquist added insult to injury by remarking to Colonel Tilden : "Your regiment are poor soldiers, but tam good foragers." Calling me out he said : " Ad-ju-tant, py Got, your men tey all pe det pefore night unless you dake dose honeys dose tam tiefs got mit 'em. You shust dake some names of dose and send me, or I reports you to te Sheneral." " All right, Surgeon, your order shall be obeyed. Boys, I am going for paper, and expect the names of every man who stole honey." So in obedience to orders, names were demanded, but I failed to find the " tam tiefs" (as I expected and desired). On returning to my tent I passed some Company E boys, whose smiles shone through streaks of grease and honey, as they courteously touched their hats. On a rubber in my tent I found about ten pounds of as delicious honey as Virginia could afford.
Orders to move were now of daily occurrence, but the NINTH remained at Rappahannock Station until the evening of the 18th. On the 16th the Twelfth Massachusetts and Sixteenth Maine were transferred to other brigades, the Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania and Ninety-seventh New York taking their places. The NINTH parted with the Massachusetts regiment-with which it had been brigaded for eight months and a half-with great regret. The men had become mutually attached, and the battles in which they had fought side by side had cemented a friendship, that, in many individual cases, lasted long after the war closed. The Maine regiment was a new one-it had yet to fight a first battle -- composed of good material, and on a longer acquaintance the same friendly feelings would doubtless have been engendered.
Many of the men, thinking that the regiment would remain stationary for the winter, began the erection of log huts, and a number were completed about the time the next move was made. It is said that people who are inclined towards litera- ture develope that talent whenever ease and affluence afford
1862
AS WE USED TO SING IT.
217
an opportunity. During the few days of comparative quiet enjoyed by the NINTH, one of them, Samuel G. Van Norden, of Company L, delivered himself of the following :
SONG OF THE NINTH N. Y. S. M.
Air-" The Gum-Trce Canoe."
Come, gather 'round, comrades, and list to my song, And join in the chorus both loudly and long ;
For we are as merry, light-hearted a crew As for Union e'er fought 'neath the Red, White and Blue.
Then sing away, sing, for the NINTH boys are true To the Star Spangled Banner of Red, White and Blue.
Chorus, to be repeated.
From the Empire City our regiment came, To fight 'gainst Secession and win us a name ; And with Hartsuff and Hooker, and " Little Mac," too, Will conquer or die by the Red, White and Blue.
On the field of Antietam for hours we fought,
And dearly for us was the victory bought ; There a score of our best to this life bade adieu,
Striking bold to the last for the Red, White and Blue.
With the Twelfth and the Thirteenth from the Old Bay State, And the Keystone Eleventh, we'll brave every fate ; We're the " Hartsuff brigade," and we fight to subdue The traitors who plot 'gainst the Red White and Blue.
And Hartsuff, our gallant and brave Brigadier, 0
Who has taught us to love him, respect and revere, May he wear the two stars so justly his due, And shed a new light on the Red, White and Blue.
For our brave dead in battle we let fall a tear ; For the cowards who've left us we have but a sneer ;
While we who are present, the pledge here renew, 4 To conquer or die by the Red, White and Blue.
1
218
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
November
CHAPTER XII.
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
The NINTH Leaves Rappahannock Station .- Stafford Court House .- Brook's Station. -Resignation of Lieut .- Colonel Rutherford .- Thanksgiving Day .- Moving Towards the Rappahannock .- The Enemy on Marye's Heights .- Crossing the River .- Situation on the Morning of the Thirteenth .- Burnside's Order to Franklin .- The Battle on the Left of the Union line .- The NINTH Engaged .- Major Hendrickson Wounded and the Regiment Under Command of Capt. Moesch .- Sergeant Henderson's Account of the Battle .- Accounts by other Mem- bers of the Regiment .- Battle on the Right of Marye's Heights .- The Failure There .- Regimental Reports .- Extracts from Brigade and Division Reports .- General Palfrey Quoted .- Burnside Assumes the Responsibility .- List of Casu- alties in the Regiment .- Fletcher's Chapel.
TI HE arrival of several cavalry regiments near Rappahan-
nock Station, during the 18th of November, indicated that something was up. About dark, the NINTH was ordered into line, and the column moved slowly towards the east. It was raining hard at the time, the roads were soft and miry, and the wagons and artillery frequently became stalled in the mud. Midnight found the regiment little more than four miles from the starting point ; ashalt was ordered, and the men made their beds as best they could on the wet ground. Early in the dark and dreary morning of the 19th, the column was again in motion. Morrisville, a small village seven or eight miles from Rappahannock Station, was found deserted, and, after passing Scott's Mills and crossing a creek, the troops bivouacked on a hillside near the stream. It was still raining on the morn- ing of the 20th, but the men were obliged to wade through the mud and slush, and towards evening halted in a piece of woods within two miles of Stafford Court House, where the brigade remained for two days.
Sumner's command had reached Fredericksburg on the 17th, and on the 19th Hooker's was at Hartwood, ten miles
1862
THE ARMY MOVES.
219
northwest of that point. Stafford Court House is about the same distance northeast of Fredericksburg. Burnside had ex- pected to cross the river and occupy the town as soon as his Grand divisions were within supporting distance, but the pon- toons, which should have been on the ground by the 18th, had not arrived, and he was compelled to wait. This delay gave the enemy plenty of time to discover Burnside's intentions, and to fortify the range of hills back of the town.
At eight o'clock in the morning of the 23rd, weather clear and cold, the NINTHI marched with the rest of the corps. An- other blunder on the part of a guide sent the brigade eight or ten miles out on the wrong road, and the countermarch was enlivened by the usual "cussin " and grumbling, by those who were obliged to walk. At nightfall the column halted near Brook's Station, on the Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg rail- road. Wood and water were scarce, but a pile of railroad ties was discovered which answered admirably for fires. Powder was plenty, and some was expended in firing a salute in honor of the new Commander of the army.
On the 25th Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford resigned. His commission did not arrive in time for him to be mustered in that rank, in the NINTH. He was the last of the original cap- tains who left New York with the regiment in May, 1861.
Thanksgiving Day, the 27th, was celebrated by a division review under General Gibbon. The men returned to camp with sharpened appetites, but the poverty of the neighborhood could not supply as much as a chicken, and the men were obliged to give such thanks as their individual consciences prompted over the coarse army rations-salt-junk, mess-pork, hard-tack and black coffee.
On the 3d of December. the regiment moved camp about a mile, to where wood and good water were plenty. On the afternoon of the 5th, three inches of snow fell ; which was fol- lowed by colder weather, and a number of men were frost bitten while on picket duty. On the 9th, the division marched about four miles towards the Rappahannock and bivouacked in the woods. The next day the command moved to within three miles
.
220
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
December
of the river, and, from the movements of other bodies of troops, it was evident that a battle was impending.
General Burnside had decided to cross the river and attack the Confederate army in its strongly intrenched position. The left of the Confederate line rested on the high bluffs touching the river at a point a mile and a half above Freder- icksburg; thence the line ran almost south, along the ridge known as Marye's Heights, which, opposite the town, is nearly a mile back from the river ; thence along high ground, follow- ing the general course of the river, and about a mile and a half distant, till the right rested at Hamilton's Crossing, a point on the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad, where the track is crossed by the old Richmond stage road, about four miles be- low the town. Longstreet commanded the left wing and Jackson the right, while Lee's headquarters were established about midway of the line. For three weeks the enemy had been working like beavers, and on Marye's Heights, especially, had erected works which, ably defended, were almost impreg- nable. On the right less work had been accomplished, but the position was a commanding one, so that an inferior force could easily hold a superior one at bay. Lee had between sev- enty-eight and eighty thousand men waiting for the advance of the one hundred and twelve thousand of the Union army who were now marching to the battle.
Burnside had decided to cross his army at three points- at the upper end of the town, at the lower end, and at a point about a mile and a half below the town. The pontoon bridges were to be thrown over early in the morning of the IIth, the operation supported by artillery posted all along Stafford Heights, as the ridge on the north side of the river was called. Long before daylight the engineer corps was at work, and for some time after sunrise the thick mist which hung over the river screened the pontooniers; but as soon as the fog lifted, the enemy's sharpshooters, from the houses in the lower end of the town along the river bank, opened and maintained so destructive a fire that the men were driven from the boats and the work suspended.
1862
LAYING THE PONTOONS.
221
At six o'clock General Franklin had one of his three bridges laid below the town, General Sumner one of his two at the upper end, while the middle bridge was only half com- pleted for the reasons just stated. Then the guns on Staf- ford Heights opened on the town in an endeavor to dislodge the enemy, but General William Barksdale's Mississippi Sharpshooters, from their secure positions, only laughed at the cannonade, and when it ceased, and the bridge builders again attempted to complete their task, they were as active as before. Sumner succeeded in finishing his upper bridges dur- ing the day and Franklin, being but little bothered by the en- emy, completed his. The middle bridge, just below the ruins of the railroad bridge, was the most difficult to complete, and it was not until some of the brave men of the Seventh Michi- gan, under Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Baxter, and the Nine- teenth and Twentieth Massachussetts, of the Second corps, crossed the river in boats-amid a storm of bullets-and drove the enemy's sharpshooters out of their strongholds, that the bridge was finished. It was then too late to cross more than men enough to hold the town and the bridge-heads. How- ard's division of the Second corps was sent into the town, while a brigade from Franklin's command crossed and held a tete-de-pont covering their bridge heads.
Gibbon's division had marched to within a short distance of the river early in the morning, where it halted and pre- pared a frugal breakfast. The men passed the time quietly, listening to the cannonade and speculating upon the impend- ing battle. Nothing of importance occurred during the night.
.
The fog was so heavy on the morning of the 12th, that nothing could be seen on the opposite bank of the river until after ten o'clock. It was then noticed that buildings in sev- eral parts of the town were on fire, caused by exploding shells of the day before. At half-past six o'clock the NINTH had moved to the river with the rest of the division, and at nine o'clock crossed on the pontoon and marched to a point near the turnpike-the old Richmond stage road.
ยท
222
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
December
This position was held, with but slight change, during the day and night. All of Summer's and Franklin's troops had crossed during the day and over a hundred guns had accom- panied each of these commands.
On the morning of the 13th Doubleday's division of the First corps held the extreme left of the Union line, his left flank resting on the river, the line facing almost south ; then came Meade's division, facing nearly west ; next Gibbon's division, its right connecting with the left of the Sixth corps ; to the right of the Sixth was the Ninth corps, while the Second corps formed the right of the line, facing Marye's Heights. Hooker's two corps were still on the north bank of the river, but ready to reinforce either wing as occasion might require.
The Thirteenth Massachusetts was deployed as skirm- ishers a few rods in advance of the brigade line of battle, while the enemy's skirmishers were some two hundred yards distant, in a plowed field.
At half-past seven o'clock the following order was received by General Franklin :
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, December 13, 1862 .- 5:55 A. M.
Major-General FRANKLIN, Commanding Left Grand Division, Army of Potomac :
General Hardie will carry this dispatch to you, and remain with you during the day. The General commanding directs that you keep your whole command in posi- tion for a rapid movement down the old Richmond road, and you will send out at once a division, at least, to below Smithfield to seize, if possible, the heights near Captain Hamilton's on this side of the Massaponax, taking care to keep it well sup- ported and its line of retreat open. He has ordered another column of a division or more to be moved from General Sumner's command up the plank road, to its inter- section with the telegraph road, where they will divide, with a view to seizing the heights on both of those roads. Holding those two heights, with the heights near Captain Hamilton's will, he hopes, compel the enemy to evacuate the whole ridge be- tween these points. I make these moves by columns distinct from each other, with a view of avoiding the possibility of a collision of our own forces, which might occur in a general movement during the fog.
Two of General Hooker's divisions are in your rear, at the bridges, and will remain there as supports.
Copies of instructions given to Generals Sumner and Hooker will be forwarded to you by orderly very soon.
1862
vi inte How Vork Work! LIBRARY,
THE TROOPS FORM FOR THE FRAY. 223
You will keep your whole command ready to move at once, as soon as the fog lifts. The watch word, which, if possible, should be given to every company, will be "Scott."
I have the honor to be, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant. JNO. G. PARKE,
Chief of Staff.
Upon the interpretation of this order, which he construed as directing merely a reconnoissance in force, with one or two divisions, hung the success of Franklin's movements.
At about nine o'clock General Meade's division was ordered to advance, while Gibbon's division was to follow in support. As Meade pushed forward, his left was exposed to the fire of the Confederate artillery, but this was soon silenced by Doubleday's guns. Meade's leading brigade sprang into the strip of woods which here masked the railroad, crossed the road itself and then pushed the enemy through another strip of woods into some open ground beyond, thereby piercing and throwing A. P. Hill's line into confusion. The brigade follow- ing did not quite reach the point gained by the leaders, owing to a destructive fire which, passing mostly over the heads of the line in front, cut the second line up badly. The third of Meade's brigades to enter the contest was badly broken up by artillery fire on its left flank, and was compelled to retire be- fore it reached the railroad.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.