USA > New York > History of the One hundred and twenty-fourth regiment, N. Y. S. V. > Part 11
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On the right, the captain of Company A having been slightly wounded in the head early in the action, had become so weak and pale from loss of blood, that one of his men, private Joseph Gardner, forgetting that dead men did not continue to walk about, was heard to shout, " My God ! my God ! our captain 's dead ! our captain 's dead." Lieutenant Daniel Sayer, of D, had been wounded in the hand, and ordered from the field, and Lieutenant Quick, of F, who had lead Company I into the fight, had, in consequence of a wound in the face, given place to young Crissey of Company A.
In the centre, Captain Crist, of H, unmindful of the fact that his course up and down in rear of his company was marked by blood which continually trickled from a wound in his chin, was cheering his little company of twenty-four men-all that remained, able to handle a musket, of the fifty who, half an hour before, had constituted its rank and file. Of the thirty-four men with which Company C had opened fire. only eighteen could now be counted in front of the tall, lauk form of Captain Silliman, who yet towered unscathed above them. Of the nine brave non- commissioned officers, who constituted our color guard, which, under the immediate command of Lieutenant James A. Grier, stood between C and H and marked the centre of our regimental line, five had fallen ; two of them while holding aloft the flag they loved so well. Lieutenant-Colonel Cummins was moving rapidly about in rear of the right wing. now shaking his sword and shouting. " Give them thunder, boys, give them thunder," and now ordering some excited wounded man to cease making a fool of himself and get to the rear, while he had strength to take him
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there. In rear of the left wing walked Major Cromwell, with sword at a shoulder, saying little but looking much. About twenty feet behind the colors stood Colonel Ellis, with folded arms and cap front turned up. His eagle eye had just discovered that ours were the only Union colors remaining on all that portion of what had been the Federal front which came within his view. Not a Union soldier was to be seen on our right; the long line on our left had fallen back out of sight; even the batteries which had been in our rear were gone, and the enemy's solid lines were moving past both our flanks.
To have remained longer would have resulted in certain cap- ture and Ellis reluctantly, and for the first time when actually engaged with the enemy, issued to his regiment the order, " Fall back; " at which Private James Bovell-a gray-haired man of Company I, who had already received three wounds, but yet remained in the ranks-cried out, " For shame, for shame, don't let's play the coward now. I'll stay and fight it out alone."
Over a hundred of our disabled comrades had already stag- gered off, or been borne bleeding to the rear, and nearly as many more lay dead, dying, or helpless, along the line we were leaving. Steadily the regiment fell back, carrying as many as they could of their badly wounded with them. The air now seemed filled with messengers of death. As we crossed a little stream which ran a few rods in rear of where our line had been, I saw Corporal Joseph Davey, of A, who a few moments before had started for the rear wounded in the leg, fall headlong from the effect of a shell which passed near him. As some friend grasped him by the left arm I took hold of his right, and we assisted him to his feet again, but before he had taken a single step a shell burst just above our heads, apparently jerking him from our hands, just as a bullet hit him in the face, causing him to turn a complete somerset ; I supposed he was dead, but the next moment saw him crawling off on his hands and knees. In the meantime Lieuten- ant Henry Gowdy, of H, who had been commanding Company E, fell mortally wounded.
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
The regiment was now moving back quite rapidly, but their day's work was not yet completed. Coming to a road they met the disorganized fragments of two or three regiments, which one of our corps staff officers was endeavoring to rally for a charge. Seeing the 124th, this officer called on it, in the name of General Sickles, to retake the works from which one of our batteries, having fired its last round of ammunition, had just been driven. Ellis, with no other reply than " Hi, hi, my Orange Blossoms," gave the order ; at which our wounded were dropped in the road, and our gallant Major Cromwell, springing to the front, took position ten paces ahead of the colors to lead the charge. Hastily fixing bayonets the regiment once more, with a wild hurrah ! rushed forward at their foes; driving them pell-mell over the works, capturing some, and opening a deadly fire on those who fled.
And here, in the works they had regained, the sons of Orange County remained until, like the battery which had stood there before them, their last round of ammunition was exhausted- until everything in their rear was gone, and once more the flag presented to them at Goshen, by the Ladies of Orange County, and which Ellis promised the donors should never be disgraced, was the only emblem of liberty in sight ; while the stars and bars of the Confederates waved in front and on either side of them. Then was Ellis again forced to repeat the order "Fall back," and the regiment retired toward the new Union line which was being rapidly reformed a quarter of a mile further to the rear, leaving their route over the plain marked by the blood and bodies of yet another score of Orange County's bravest sons.
"Just before the regiment reached this new line, it came upon Meagher's Irish brigade, which, it was said, had been directed to prepare for a bayonet charge. They were lying down, and the 124th was ordered to form in their rear and support them. .. A few moments later one of Sickles' batteries, having been resupplied with ammunition, took position but a short distance away. The enemy's artillery fire was now most terrific, and ere long another bursting caisson shook the earth, and filled the air
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with fragments of wood and iron, many of which fell among Meagher's men and some of them along the line of the 124th.
The enemy had halted beyond the range of our infantry, and after an hour or so the artillery firing on both sides almost entirely ceased. But we remained on the open plain until nearly four P. M., when Meagher's brigade was withdrawn and the 124th moved through, and took position behind a long line of artillery which composed the apex, or centre and most advanced portion of the new main line. At dusk the enemy made a feeble attempt, with an inconsiderable force, to reach these guns, but was speedily hurled back ; and the bloody battle of Chancellorsville-so far as that portion of the Union army immediately under Hooker was concerned-was virtually at au end. Just after dark that night, the 124th was ordered out on picket in front of our batteries, relieving Berdan's sharp-shooters ; and there-while thousands of fresh troops who had not fired a shot, lay quietly in the woods in our rear-we passed another sleepless night.
At daybreak Monday morning, we were relieved, and on moving behind the batteries again, were forthwith set to work digging rifle-pits. Here we were harassed continually by rebel sharp-shooters. Every few moments we could hear a ball whistle past, and occasionally a thud, which told that some one was hit.
About ten A. M. Andrew M. Boyd, of Company C, while at work in the pits was severely wounded ; and before noon three more of our number had been picked off. About two o'clock I met General Whipple, who, on seeing me, inquired as to how seriously I was wounded, and congratulated me on my fortunate escape from the picket line on Sunday morning. He then walked on a few yards and entered into conversation with a lieutenant of the S6th New York, who was leaning against a large tree with his arm in a sling. Presently I heard another thud, and hastily turning round to learn if any of the 124th had been struck, saw the general, who was not more than five rods away, reel and fall in the arms of a soldier who sprang for-
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
ward to catch him, and before I could reach the spot he was being borne away. ITis hurt was mortal, and but few of the officers or men of his division-many of whom had learned not only to respect but to love him-ever saw his face again. A few moments after the fall of our general, Colonel Berdan went out with a small squad of picked men, and soon cleared the woods in our front of the enemy's dreaded marksmen, whom they found posted in the tops of several high trees. Berdan's men on their return brought with them, as trophies, three telescopic rifles, one of which surpassed in point of workmanship anything of the kind I had ever seen.
Monday night we were permitted to sleep, but not undis- turbed. Several times before morning dawned the firing on the picket line in front of us became so severe that we were called up and ordered to prepare for action. But on each occasion, after we had stood under arms a few moments, the unusual racket died away and we were permitted to lie down again. Tuesday we worked at our rifle-pits, cleared up the grounds behind them, and pitched our tents. During the morning and middle of the day, the sun shone warm and bright, but about four o'clock a heavy storm set in. At eight that evening we were ordered to strike tents, and for six hours we stood under arms in a drenching rain, waiting for the order "Forward." At two o'clock it came, and we moved about ten rods to a road which led toward the river, but it was jammed so full of troops that for an hour or more we could get but a few feet at a time. After that the road became cleared, and we moved off at a brisk gait, which was soon increased to a double-quick, and ere long to a run-if it be possible for a column of troops to maintain for five miles a gait which can be called a run, through mud ten inches deep. Arriving at the ford, we found there a multitude of troops. Two bridges spanned the river, across each of which two columns were hurrying. Hooker's grand army was in full retreat, and at two r. M. the 124th was back at its old camp near Falmouth.
Having, since the commencement of the Sunday morning's
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engagement, confined our narrative to individual experiences and some of the most striking events which came within range of our personal sight and hearing, we will now, in order to a better understanding of just where the 124th was, and what it accomplished at Chancellorsville, devote a few pages to the more general features of that-on the part of General Hooker- superbly planned but wretchedly fought battle.
When, at early dawn on the 3d, General Sickles had with- drawn to the new position assigned him, Hooker's defensive line, composed of not less than seventy thousand men, was over eight miles in extent, with its flanks resting on the Rappahan- nock, and about three miles apart. Our pontoon bridges remained stretched across the river at United States Ford, about midway of the points on the river bank where these flanks rested. The Fifth corps, under Meade, held the left, and had thrown up a light line of earthworks along a portion of its front. The First corps, the largest on the field, commanded by Reynolds, held the right, with all of Howard's Eleventh corps that Jackson had not dis- posed of the day before, massed in its rear. The line of the Fifth corps extended two and a half miles; that of the First corps about three and a half miles. The right of the Fifth corps and the left of the First corps rested within half a mile of each other. They were in form of a letter V with the point cut off, thus w. About half a mile in front of the smaller opening stood the Chancellor House. The centre-composed of the Third corps under Sickles, the Twelfth corps under Slocum, and Han- cock's and French's divisions of Couch's Second corps-was thrust out around the Chancellor House nearly in the form of three sides of a square. The left of the Second corps connected with the right of the Fifth, and was faced toward the east. The left of the Twelfth corps connected with the right of the Second, and was faced toward the south. The left of the Third corps con- nected with the right of the Twelfth, faced toward the west, and was evidently regarded by Hooker as virtually the right of his main line. Sickles' extreme right flank rested about one mile in
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
advance and west of the left flank of the First corps, which was considered in reserve.
The battle consisted technically in Lec's driving this extended three-sided centre back, through, and into the opening between the First and Fifth corps. For the accomplishing of this object the Confederate attacking line was, during the latter part of the night, disposed in front of the Union centre as follows : Drawn up in a single line, and facing the Second and Twelfth corps, were the divisions of MeLaws and Anderson. These two divis- ions were about equal in numbers to the Federal corps they confronted.
Fifteen brigades-composed of seventy powerful regiments of Jackson's corps, numbering upward of thirty thousand men, now commanded by General Stuart-were formed in three lines for an attack in force, in the woods in front of the Third corps, which consisted of less than fifteen thousand men. Sickles' front, which it will be remembered was not fully formed until after Stuart had begun to advance, was composed of the divisions of Birney and Berry, and one brigade of Whipple's division. Whipple's second brigade, which was composed of Berdan's two small regiments of sharp-shooters, numbering all told less than five hundred men, was deployed in a skirmish line which con- nected with the right flank of Sickles' battle line, and ran toward the left flank of the First corps. Whipple's remaining brigade, to which the 124th belonged, was drawn up as a reserve.
The battle opened with the impetuous advance of Jackson's corps at four A. M. As soon as his triple line arrived in Sickles' immediate front, Stuart discovered the break in the Union line, which left the right flank of the Third corps exposed ; and forthwith, while pressing the attack in front, hurried Iverson's brigade forward from his roar Hue, and hurling it against this exposed flank, forced back with considerable loss a portion of " Sickles' extreme right brigade. It was at this juncture, and to meet this flank attack, that our brigade was hurried forward, and formed in line of battle at right angles with, and thrown
·
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back from Sickles' front; and the 124th became engaged with the two regiments of Iverson's brigade, under command of Colo- nel David H. Christie.
The first duty to be performed by Stuart's column, was the forcing of Sickles from his strong position-which would render that portion of the line held by the Second and Twelfth corps untenable. This, with the assistance of several brigades from in front of Couch and Slocum, he finally accomplished, after a most desperate four hours' struggle, in which, according to reliable Southern accounts, Jackson's corps alone lost seven thousand men. Throughout this desperate struggle, though three corps remained inactive and Sickles repeatedly called for help, not a man was sent to his assistance. And at last, when half his regiments and nearly every one of his batteries had run out of ammunition, his shattered line gave way, and the Second and Twelfth corps were speedily forced, with heavy loss, to follow it.
" At dawn," writes Colonel Allen, Jackson's chief of ord- nance, " Archer and McGowen were ordered to move forward They became almost immediately engaged, and General Stuart, without waiting further, ordered the whole corps to attack. Soon the battle became general along the whole line. . . Sickles extended to the creek, and held the elevated plateau at Hazel Grove." And then, after detailing at length the tide of battle on Sickles' left and centre, and referring to the first suc- cesses of Colonels HIall and Christie, with portions of Rhodes and Iverson's brigades on the Federal right, continues : " The Union troops now quickly concentrated their fire. and
Hall and Christie were forced back with heavy loss. The flower of Sickles' corps long and stoutly resisted the Confederate advance. The batteries at Fairview poured a ceaseless storm of shell and case into the attacking column."
Professor Dabney, in his Life of Jackson, writes, " When the general onset was ordered by Stuart, the Stonewall brigade advanced, with the cry, ' Charge ; and remember Jackson.' Even as they moved from their position, their general, Paxton, was
126 HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
struck dead where he stood. In three hours seven thou- 'sand men were killed and wounded from the corps."
It is conceded by all historians, that the severest and princi- pal part of the fighting at Chancellorsville, on Sunday, was done by Jackson's corps under Stuart, on the one side, and the Third corps, under Sickles, on the other. The loss of the Third corps in killed and wounded on Saturday and Sunday, was a trifle over four thousand men. It lost no prisoners, except some of its severely wounded, who are included in the above four thousand. It lost no battle flags and brought off every piece of its artillery. It inflicted on the enemy a much heavier loss in killed and wounded than it received. It captured seven of his battle flags, over a thousand of his able-bodied prisoners, and recovered at least two of the guns lost by the Eleventh corps.
After the Sunday morning's battle had ended, Hooker had drawn up in an almost faultless line nearly sixty thousand troops, half of whom had not been called upon to fire a shot ; while Lee could not have mustered in front of him thirty thousand able- bodied men, and yet Hooker remained inactive for two days, and allowed Lee to move off to Fredericksburg with the bulk of his shattered army, and assist the troops which had been left there in dealing a staggering blow to Sedgwick's detached Sixth corps. Strangely conducted battle! With seventy thousand troops about Chancellorsville not over twenty-five thousand engaged, and these drawn out in a single line, and not relieved or reinforced from the beginning of the battle until its close. The enemy allowed to outnumber us in the fight two to one while we in reality had double his numbers in the field.
Surely, taking the Third corps with its civilian general as a sample, Hooker told the truth when he said he had under him the finest army on the planet. But what shall that army say of its general ? Simply what was said of Burnside ? Shall we say of Hooker that he had waded beyond his depth-could command a corps but not an army ? Yes ! if you will; let it go at that. The result must ever remain the same, let the cause be what it may. A hundred thousand whipped by fifty thousand was it ?
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No ! no ! Rather say twenty-five thousand holding off, beating back with terrible slaughter, fifty thousand, hour after hour; until at last their ammunition gives out and they are compelled to retire to their inner lines to replenish, while forty-five thou- sand stand idly looking on-not of their own accord, but simply because he who commands them will not order them forward. The Army of the Potomac, defeated by the Army of Northern Vir- ginia was it? No ! Hooker whipped by Lee, shall we say ? Yes !
There will be found recorded elsewhere in this work, such interesting facts as I have been able to collect, concerning the wounding, suffering, death, or personal experiences of each indi- vidual whose name appears in the following
LIST OF KILLED, WOUNDED, AND MISSING OF THE 124TH AT THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.
ADJUTANT WILLIAM BRONSON, wounded.
Killed.
James G. Ciles.
CORP. Joseph Davey.
CORP. John W. Taylor.
CORP. Abram Bellows.
Richard Rollings.
Henry Arcularius.
John H. Warford. Nesvton Gotchieus. Robert Potter.
Missing.
John Lewis.
COMPANY F.
John G. Ogg.
Woundeil
LIEUT. T. J. QUICK.
CORP. Charles Peters.
C. B. Anderson. H. R. Broadhead. J. Cunningham.
COMPANY D.
Jesseniah Dolson. John M. Garrison. William L. Becraft. George W. Decker. William HI. Tomar. Norman L. Dill. John K. Clark.
Joel McCann.
J. F. Quackenbush.
Coleman Morris.
Olander A. Humphrey.
William Medarrah.
Carl G. Hoffman.
Daniel P. Dugan.
Killed.
CORP. F. A. Benedict. Zopher Wilson. Joseph Brooks. Wounded.
LIEUT. DANIEL SAYER.
COMPANY A. SERGT. S. T. Rollings. SERGT. Peter Rose.
John H. Judson. William Odell.
Wounded. CAPT. C. H. WEYGANT.
Killed.
CORP. A. S. Barkley. William V. C. Carmer. P. A. F. Hanaka. Barney F. Kean. A. J. McCarty. Ira Wilcox. T. H. Jefrey.
Reuben Doty. Jacob Garrison. Job M. Snell.
Charles P. Kirk.
John T. Fisher.
I. G. Gillson. G. W. Adams.
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
COMPANY I.
Killed.
CORP. William Wallace.
Cortland Bodine.
J. P. Wightinan. George Weygant. William Hamilton.
James Cooper.
Wounded.
SERGT. Charles Stewart.
CORP. Samuel McQuaid. CORP. A. P. Millspaugh. James C. Haggerty.
Joseplı Hanna.
William Milligan.
John Hamil.
Jeduthan Millspaugh.
Rensalaer D. Baird. James Bovell.
Robert Wilson.
James S. Barrett. David Storms. Patrick Ryan.
David Loughridge. J. H. McCallister. Anson Hamilton.
COMPANY C.
Killed.
COLOR SERGT. T. Foley.
CORP. Charles Chatfield.
James H. Barnes.
Robert Rush.
Samuel Dodge.
William Bodenstein.
Frederick Dezendorf. Peter Conklin.
Ephraim Tompkins.
Andrew M. Boyd. - Albert Wise.
John Thompson.
Daniel S. Gardner.
James E. Daniels.
John W. Foley.
Missing.
Clark Smith, Jr.
COMPANY H.
Wounded.
CAPT. DAVID CRIST.
SERGT. William H. Cox.
CORP. Theron Bodine. CORP. Benjamin Dutcher. CORP. John R. Post. Noah Kimbark. David D. Post.
S. S. Youngblood. Henry Mathews. William Brown.
Charles Seaman. Charles A. McGregor.
Josiah Dawson.
Thomas H. Baker. Grandison Judson. James Crist. John McCann. Abram Hawley. Andrew Bowman. Daniel Carman.
:
Killed.
CORP. Wm. J. Daley. Josiahı Harris. Charles Newell. John C. Staples.
COMPANY E.
Wounded.
1ST SERGT. T. M. Robinson. SERGT. William Price. CORP. Hiram Ketchum. CORP. Adam W. Miller. CORP. Moses Crist.
Abrahamı Rogers. Edward Glenn. William L. Dougherty. Charles M. Everett Adam W. Beakes. Judson Kelley.
Killed.
LIEUT. HENRY GOWDY. SEGT. John Rowland. SERGT. A. R. Rhinehart. CORP. W. L. Fairchild. CORP. David Mould. George O. Fuller. Charles A. Foster. Joseph W. Delamater. Van Keuren Crist.
James A. Ward. Wounded.
CORP. Charles Knapp.
CORP. Daniel O'Hara. . Thomas Rodman.
Charles H. Goodsall. James D. Tilton. David L. Westcott.
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CHANCELLORSVILLE
COMPANY K.
Killed.
LIEUT. JACOB DENTON. Gordon B. Cox. N. B. Mullen. A. W. Miller.
Wounded.
1ST SERGT. L. S. Wisner. SERGT. W. T. Ogden. CORP. D. Carpenter. CORP. G. Van Sciver.
CORP. S. W. Smith. Alonzo Price. Jacob E. Smith.
David U. Quick.
Egbert S. Puff.
Stephen B. Kerr. Samuel Malcomb. Cornelius Crans. Daniel E. Webb.
Jolin O'Brien. Missing.
R. McCartney.
Cornelius Herron. W. W. Bailey. Sylvanus Grier. N. J. Conklin.
Wm. H. H. Wood.
Paul Holliday. John W. Pitts.
John W. Parks.
COMPANY G.
Wounded.
SERGT. H. J. Estabrook.
CORP. Daniel S. White.
CORP. George W. Odell.
CORP. Lewis P. Miller.
CORP. Alexander Jones .*
Patrick Touhey.
Abram Stalter. William Fosbury.
John M. Calyer. Cyrenius Giles. William E. Cannon.
Alexander Trainer.
Joseph Miller.
Hector Finney. Missing.
CORP. S. T. Estabrook. Grant B. Benjamin.
COMPANY B.
Killed. SERGT. Wm. Valentine.
CORP. Henry O. Smith. George Shawcross. William Snyder. E. N. Laine.
-
Wounded. CAPT. H. S. MURRAY. SERGT. R. R. Murray. SERGT. Coe L. Reevs R. J. Holland.
Ezra F. Tuthill. Hugh McShane.
George Culver. Herman Crans. A. J. Messenger. J. J. Messenger. D. McCormick. Missing.
CORP. Francis Lee.
Not more than three-fourths of the number whose names appear under the heading " Killed," expired while the battle was raging. Several lingered, entirely helpless, on the field for days without food or drink. Two or three died in the hands of their enemies ; and yet others, after undergoing untold sufferings, and submitting unmurmuringly to the torture of probe and knife and saw, breathed their last, after their mangled bodies had been " carried to our division hospital at Aquia Creek.
* The names of Corporal Alexander Jones, of Company G, and private John W. Foley, of Company C, were unintentionally omitted from the list of present for duty on pages 98 and 100
Killed.
SERGT. F. F. Wood.
George W. Coleman. Eli Hughes. William Rake. William Hauxhurst. Peter Higgins
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
Colonel Ellis, in his official report of the part taken by the 124th in this battle, refrains from special mention of any one, but speaks in the following general terms of the behavior of those under him : "Our men fought like tigers, cheering loudly, but falling fast. The officers without exception standing up to their duty and encouraging their commands." But in the following extract from a letter written by him to the Hon. C. H. Winfield, a day or two after the battle, and which went the rounds of our local press at the time, he is more specific.
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