USA > New York > History of the One hundred and twenty-fourth regiment, N. Y. S. V. > Part 31
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On the 21st the brigade, starting at nine A. M., moved slowly toward the left, and after several halts took a new position about three P. M. on the left side of the Jerusalem Plank Road. After remaining there about two hours they advanced to the front line and relieved a brigade there posted.
" On the morning of the 22st,"-says John E. Kidd of Co. H .- " I was one of the detail for picket taken from the 124th. Every thing was quiet along our picket line until about noon, when we were ordered to advance. A battle line followed us. The enemy's pickets fell back as we advanced for a short dis- tance, when suddenly a heavy body of Confederate infantry ap- peared charging at a double-quick around our flank. They soon routed our battle line taking a large number of prisoners. The only 124th man captured was John Tompkins. of Co. C."
From the 23d to the 29th of June the brigade was moved almost daily, but did not become actively engaged. On the 30th the 124th received orders to lay out a camp and put up tents in a piece of woods a few yards in rear of the main line of newly constructed Union works.
The casualties of the regiment from the day it moved out of the main line at Spottsylvania, until it settled down on the main line in front of Petersburg, were as follows :
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
CASUALTIES OF THE 124TH, IN KILLED, WOUNDED AND CAPTURED FROM MAY 18 TO JUNE 22, 1864.
AT SPOTTSYLVANIA, MAY, 18 AND 19.
Private D. F. Raymond, Co. D Wounded.
J. Vradenburgh, G.
AT NORTH ANNA, MAY 23 AND 24.
SERGT. James A. Smith, Co. I.
Wounded.
CORP. Henry R. Mayette,
K
Private Gabriel Colby,
K
" Joseph Point, K.
Samuel Potter, A.
Killed.
Daniel Ackerman, "
A.
Wounded.
.
" Daniel Smith, G
AT TALAPOTTOMY CREEK, MAY 30 AND JUNE 1.
CAPT. DAVID CRIST,
Co. H Killed.
LIEUT. CHARLES STEWART, I. Captured.
SERGT. Duncan W. Boyd,
C. Wounded and Captured.
James Sisco, F 66
Private Matthew Babcock, B Wounded. 66
Frederick Dezendorf, C. Captured.
James Crist, H. ..
Patrick Cuneen, "
K. ..
Samuel V. Tidd, K.
AT COLD HARBOR, JUNE 4.
CORP. G. R. Fitzgerald, Co. G Wounded.
Private William J. Miles, D.
.
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG, JUNE 16 TO 22.
CAPT. WILLIAM A. JACKSON, Co. K Killed.
LIEUT. WILLIAM H. BENJAMIN, " Ǥ
Wounded.
SERGT. Peter Rose, A.
SERGT. Watson W. Ritch, K.
CORP. Andrew Jones, G.
CORP. H. H. Montross,
B
Private John Tompkins, C Captured.
" Thomas P. Powell, 66
D.
Wounded.
W. A. Lamereaux, E.
". James Merritt, B. "
John Eckert,
B.
H.
Edward Hunter,
Judson B. Lupton, H
Patrick Kean, I
Musician, Charles W. Bodle,
A.
CHAPTER XVIII.
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG-STRAWBERRY PLAINS-DEEP BOTTOM.
O N the 20th day of June, 1864, I had recovered from my wounds so far as to be able to throw aside my crutches, and on the first day of July following left Newburgh for the front. My journal shows that my baggage, on this return trip, consisted of a regulation sabre, a contraband, a valise and an overcoat ; and that at seven o'clock on the morning of "The ever glorious Fourth," I was wandering about an indescribable place called City Point, searching for some sort-any sort-of a conveyance to take me to the regiment, which I had learned was lying some- where in front of Petersburg, twelve miles distant.
I had been on my feet more than I ought during the previous twenty-four hours, and consequently found my locomoting ap- paratus somewhat unreliable, and good for but a few rods at a time. Once at the hospital it would, I imagined, be a very easy matter to procure an ambulance; but unfortunately the hospitals were two miles away, and how to get that distance was a question I was for a time unable to answer satisfactorily.
Presently a terrible clattering, coming from the midst of an immense and approaching cloud of pulverized Virginia mud, con- veyed intelligence that the advance wagons of a long train, after supplies, had arrived. Now, thought I, this weighty matter of transportation is as good as solved ; and directing the contraband to take my valise to the side of the road -- for the dust was so thick I could see but a short distance-I sat down on it, to watch for a wagon marked with a diamond or a clover-leaf, (diamonds and clover-leaves were the shapes of the badges worn by the men, and painted on the wagons of our division,) but none passed. At length I was informed that the depot from which
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IHISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
the Second Corps drew its supplies, was several miles from City Point.
Half an hour later a canvas covered wagon belonging to the Sanitary Commission drove past, from the opposite direction, and on hailing the driver I learned that he was bound to the City Point general hospitals, and from there to within a short distance of Second Corps headquarters. A moment later I was under the canvas, seated on a bale of blankets, and had my baggage- negro included-stowed away directly in front of me.
This conveyance, like the regular army wagons, had no springs, and was drawn by four mules. As soon as we were fairly seated, the driver whipped up his team, and off we started. The road was quite rough, but we got along very nicely for a short distance, when all of a sudden down went the forward wheels of the wagon into a deep hole, and away went I head fore- most over the negro against the front boards-" WHO-O-O, GIT, "- shouted the mule lout, from the side of the road, and the next in- stant out went the forward wheels and down went the hind ones, and away I went back again, with the blankets on top of me, instead of my being on top of them. Fortunately I received no other injury from my tumblings than a slight strain of my recently wounded limb.
The contraband was less fortunate than myself, for the valise had in some manner come in contact with his nose, with such force as to completely flatten it -- his nose I mean. But he was a rather plucky individual, and after righting himself up, and snorting and spitting blood a few moments, gave vent to his wounded feelings with the exclamation, " Golly ! golly ! massa, as true as de good Lord lubs us dat was wus nor a secesh cabry charge."
The heat was intense, and the farther we went the deeper the dust became. I had often heard of very dusty roads and could call to mind many a dusty march, but had no recollection of hav- ing heard of or seen any thing worth mentioning, compared with what we that day experienced. A mile from the Point it lay on the road so deep, that the mules seemed to be swimming in it.
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IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
How the driver managed to find his way was a mystery to me, for the air was so heavily freighted with it that I frequently found it difficult to determine by the use of my eyes whether my darkey had been jounced out of the wagon, or was yet there with me.
In about an hour (it seemed twenty-four hours) we turned from the road into the fields, where the dust was only three or four inches deep, and presently halted. The driver now informed me that we were at the General Hospitals, and that as soon as his mules could eat their oats he would be ready to resume his jour- ney-adding very significantly, " If you don't find a more agreea- ble coach, I would be glad of your company the rest of the way out." I had not been able to determine whether he was old or young but supposed all along that he was a colored man, but now his language and accent satisfied me that he was white. His remarks, however, seemed to be directed to the darkey, by which I am inclined to think he took the darkey to be me, and must of course have taken me to be the darkey.
-
For several minutes after we alighted I was unable to dis- cover anything that looked like hospital tents, but after proceed- ing a short distance in a direction the driver had indicated, we emerged from the most dense part of the cloud, and presently saw stretching out before us a vast city of tents, with numerous squares and long broad streets, at the head of nearly every one of which floated a yellow flag. In the centre of each of these flags was a badge, telling the passing soldiers to what corps and division the inmates of the tents on that street belonged. The flag also indicated that the particular tent in front of which it was planted was the headquarters of the surgeon in charge.
I was but a few moments finding the wards containing the men from our division, and after spending a short time with such members of the 124th as I saw there, made my way to the quarters of the surgeon in chief, and applied for an ambulance. The surgeon, to my surprise, informed me that he had not seen or heard of an ambulance for two days, and that the sick during that time had been brought back in army wagons. We returned
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
very reluctantly to the sanitary commission wagon, and found the accommodating driver just ready to start.
About two miles beyond the hospitals, we had the good for- tune to overtake an empty ambulance belonging to our brigade, on its way to camp. Bidding the sanitary driver good day I hur- riedly transferred myself and traps to this ambulance, in which we rode very comfortably for about three miles, when we came upon our brigade baggage train which was filing from the road and going into park in a strip of woods about a quarter of a mile away. We drove over to the woods and there found Quartermas- ter Ellis Post, and his assistants-also my horses and hostler.
The Quartermaster had a tent pitched for me, and after re- moving all I could of the dust, partaking of a soldier's meal, and enjoying a short rest, I procured a guide, and continued my jour- ney on horseback. On the way we passed the grave of Captain Jackson, and a little farther on came to our division field hospital, in which I found several members of the 124th. Among this number was Major Murray, who had been there several days, under treatment for fever. There, too, I found Lieutenant Crissey of my old company, who had recently been relieved from detached service at Hart's Island, and returned to duty with the regiment. But his term of active service was about to close, for he was very near death's door. His face was bloated and his eyes swollen shut. I had not seen him previous to that time for nearly a year, and never saw him afterward.
At five p. M. we reached our brigade camps and found the 124th quite pleasantly situated in the shade of a grove of pines, where they had been lying for several days. On approaching near enough to see the dingy shelter tents in among the trees, I heard the shrill notes of a fife, accompanied by the tappings of a single drum ; and galloping forward my eyes rested on a sight I shall never forget. Captain Travis, who of the officers present for duty, at the commencement of the campaign stood the seventh in rank, was now in command, and was holding, in honor of the day, what was intended to be a dress parade. The regi- ment had not been assembled for that purpose during the cam-
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IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
paign ; the last previous dress parade having been held at Cul- pepper just two months and two days before, on which occasion the line consisted of upwards of three hundred and fifty cleanly clad and fresh looking men. Now there stood, drawn up before me, less than a hundred ragged, dirty, tired looking veterans, that was my regiment-all that was left fit for duty of the fighting men of the Orange Blossoms. In the centre of their line floated the new and pretty flag which had been sent them from the ladies of Orange, just before the campaign opened. Yes, it was new and beautiful still, though its stripes were rent with shell, its field riddled with bullets, and its splintered staff wound with twine. Every star was there and it was yet borne aloft by a noble son of Orange County whose proud face spoke volumes as, lowering and then lifting it again, at my approach, and watching my questioning look as I glanced up and down the line, he mur- mured louder than he thought-" gone-gone, but the old flag yet floats over what is left of us." Yes, the men were ragged, and dirty too, but they were a band of battle-tried veterans than which the armies of the United States contained none more noble or brave.
From the 4th to the 24th of July, the men of the 124th spent every third day on the picket lines, and were kept busy more than half of the remaining time tearing down the old and building new earthworks. During this period there were no engagements or even serious skirmishes along our immediate front, but the un- pleasant sound of a passing shell or the whistle of a stray bullet frequently greeted our ears, and every little while, day and night, a lifeless body or a wounded man would be carried through our camp, from the picket trenches, main line, or fatigue parties at work in front.
A few extracts from the diary of an enlisted man of the regi- ment will perhaps give the reader some interesting facts regard- ing soldier life during that period, in front of Petersburg.
" July 5 .- This morning the regiment broke camp and moved out to the main breastworks, in which we have spent the day, under arms.
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
" July 6 .- Returned to our old camp this morning and rested until four o'clock when an inspection was held.
" July 7 .- A day of rest.
" July 8 .- I went on picket at four P. M .- a large detail from the regiment went on fatigue this morning.
" July 9 .- Returned from picket at four P. M .--- Capt. Bell of the 20th Indiana, who had charge of a portion of our brigade fatigue party last night, was killed by a piece of shell while super- intending work on a fort a short distance from our camp.
" July 10 .- At eleven o'clock last night we were all routed up and ordered to prepare for a march, and just before midnight started off. At daybreak we brought up in the deserted camp- of the Sixth Corps which, rumor says, has been sent to Washing- ton. We pitched our tents there, in rear of the main line of works. But about noon, just as we had finished cleaning up our new camp, orders came to strike tents and return to our old camp, which we reached about three o'clock P. M.
" July 11 .- On our return to this camp we found, that during our absence, all our tent poles had been carried off, and we have spent the day hunting up new ones, and once more putting our camp in order.
" July 12 .- We spent all last night tearing down old carth- works, and this morning moved back a short distance from where we had been working and have spent the day in the open fields.
" July 13 .- Moved to the right about a mile and a half this morning, and have spent the day laying out a new camp in another piece of woods.
"July 14. - Spent last night on fatigue duty.
" July 15 .- On fatigue duty again last night.
" July 16 .- In camp.
" July 17 .- Sunday. This has been the most quiet day we have experienced since we left Culpepper-our Chaplain and the . Chaplain of the 86th held a union service which was well at- tended.
" July 18 .- On picket.
" July 19 .- Returned from picket at four P. M. It had rained
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359
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
hard all day. About two-thirds of the boys are on fatigue duty.
" July 20 .- About half the regiment is on picket-the rest in camp.
" July 21 .- Boys returned from picket at four p. M. and in the evening had another dress parade.
" July 22 .- All hands on fatigue.
" July 23 .- All hands in camp.
" .July 24 .- We all went on fatigue at half past four o'clock this morning and did not get back until eight in the evening. We are getting very tired of the pick and shovel business. It is said that since we came here Hancock's men have torn down over twenty miles of old works. And we have built the Lord only knows how many miles of new. During the past month, our old division commander Major General D. B. Birney has been assigned to the command of the Tenth Corps. The veterans of the " Old Third " have been consolidated into one division under General Mott, and our brigade which has lost the 3d Maine, and 141st Pa., but to which the 73d N. Y. and 17th Me. have been added, has received a new and permanent commander in the person of General de Trobriand."
On the 25th of June the 4Sth Penn. of Burnside's corps-a regiment which had been recruited in the mining districts, began a secret mining operation, the ultimate object of which was the destruction of one of the most powerful of the enemy's forts. On the 23d day of Jaly the officer in charge of this work reported that the mine was ready for use. It was hoped that the Union troops might be able to make their way through the opening to be made in the enemy's line by the destruction of this fort, and either capture Petersburg or take and hold such a commanding position near the city, as would render its speedy evacuation an absolute necessity.
As a diversion in favor of this enterprise, Hancock's command was ordered to proceed to Deep Bottom, and co-operate there with Foster and Sheridan in a demonstration against the Confederate lines in that vicinity. At five o'clock r. M. on the 26th, Han- cook's column was under way. We marched down the City Point
360
HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
road until within two or three miles of the landing, when we moved from the highway over the fields to the left, and were soon crossing the Appomattox. At eleven P. M., we halted just beyond the river, for a half hour's rest, and then pushed on again.
The night was very dark, but from the Appomattox forward our line of march was plainly marked out by small fires, which we found burning at regular intervals. At four o'clock, on the morning of the 27th, we reached the James river at Turkey Bend, and forthwith crossed on a pontoon bridge to Deep Bott. ...
About half a mile beyond the bridge, our advance came upon the enemy's pickets, and a brisk skirmish ensued. Presently a battle line, composed of a part of Barlow's division and three regiments from our brigade, advanced and drove the Confederate pickets in on their reserves, and then pushed the whole body back · a mile and a half, through the woods and over an open strip of country called Strawberry Plains, into a strong line of earth- works-capturing during the advance four guns and a considera- ble number of prisoners.
There was more or less fighting going on about us all through the day. The 124th however was not sent into action, but at night was detailed for picket duty. At daybreak on the 28th we were withdrawn to the main body. But an hour later, were again ordered out on the same duty, and took up a line about one mile to the left of that on which we had spent the night. This time we remained out, without exchanging a shot with the foe, until eight o'clock that evening, when we were relieved by Barlow's men, and received orders to hasten back to the lines in front of Petersburg.
At five o'clock the next morning we bivouacked in rear of that portion of the Petersburg line held by the 18th corps, near the Appomattox. That evening our brigade moved forward to the main line of works, and relieved Turner's division-the 124th occupying the rifle pits on the picket line in front, with its "left resting at a point about a quarter of a mile to the right of the doomed Confederate fort.
During the day and evening nothing unusual transpired, but
361
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
about midnight a company of artillerymen brought out several cohorn mortars, and planted them in positions along our line of rifle pits, which had evidently been prepared for their reception. Then all was quiet again until nearly five o'clock, when from the left there came a dull heavy boom, and "a solid mass of earth through which the exploding powder blazed like lightning play- ing in a bank of clouds, arose slowly some two hundred feet into the air; and hanging visible for a few seconds it subsided, and a heavy cloud of black smoke floated off" from the crater and shapeless piles of crumbling earth beneath which the crushed bodies of three hundred Confederates lay buried.
This explosion was the signal for a simultaneous outburst from every piece of artillery along that portion of the Union line, and for four hours their thunderings were terrific. At first the suddenly demoralized Confederates did not reply, but after a few moments their shells began to fall among us, and ere long their bullets, too, filled the air with familiar sounds. One of their mor- tar shells exploded within twenty feet of where I was standing, and tore off the right foot of Giles Curran of Co. I. A little later Thomas Kincaid of Co. K. was wounded in the face, and soon a bullet passed through both cheeks of Corp. James H. Taylor of Co. F.
The bombardment continued unintermittingly until about nine o'clock when the artillerymen were ordered to slacken their fire. Meantime, the events transpiring about the demolished fort were far from creditable to the Union forces there engaged, " some one had blundered," and at night Burnside's command reoccupied the works it had been withdrawn from for the assault-but with over four thousand less men for duty than it had mustered in the morn- ing, while the enemy's losses in men including the three hundred blown up in the fort did not exceed one thousand. The details of this affair (known as the Burnside Fiasco) which had, to the Unionists, such an auspicious opening, but fearfully disastrous ending, have no closer connection with the 124th, than has already been stated, and we will therefore pass on to other more perti- ent, if less interesting events.
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
We were relieved from duty in Burnside's picket pits at nine o'clock P. M. on the 30th, by troops of the same division we had relieved when we came there; and on reaching the main line. found the brigade formed in column awaiting our arrival. Falling in with it, we moved leisurely off to the camp we had started from on the 26th.
An official report of our brigade covering the period commen- cing with the battle of the Wilderness and ending July 31st, contains the following paragraph. " This brigade has lost since May 4th, in killed, wounded and missing, 126 officers and 2,543 men."
During July and the first ten days of the month of August, several of our men who had been on detached service, and a con- siderable number of convalescents from the hospitals, returned to duty with the regiment. Our morning report of August 11th showed that there were four hundred and twenty names remain- ing on the rolls of the regiment, and twelve officers, and one hun- dred and forty-two enlisted men present for duty.
On the 12th of August General Grant, undismayed by what he fitly characterized as the " miserable affair " of the 30th of July, resolved to again assume the offensive. Hancock was ordered to return to Deep Bottom, where his depleted corps would be strengthened by Birney's command and Grigg's division of cavalry, and once more engage the enemy's forces at that point.
Hancock's troops were relieved from the works in front of Petersburg at four o'clock P. M. on the 12th and at eight o'clock that evening, our brigade bivouacked for the night at City Point. This movement having been made in the day-time was of course seen by the enemy. But to deceive the Confederate leaders as to our destination, it had been given out several days previously that Hancock's Corps had been ordered to Washington. And to carry out the deception a fleet of transports had been sent up the James to City Point.
We found the fleet lying there with steam up and bows point- ing down the stream, and at twelve M. on the 13th began to embark. As fast as the vessels were loaded they steamed
363
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
ahead about a mile and there remained until midnight, when at a given signal they swung around and started up the river.
The vessels having on board Gen. de Trobriand's brigade moved first, and that particular steamboat on which the 124th, together with the 73d and 86th New York, had taken passage had the lead. This fleet was made up of all kinds of craft from trim Hudson River steamboats which could make at least twenty miles an hour, to old turtle shape and scow-bottom ferry-boats that could hardly make eight.
The vessel we were on happened to be one of the first men- tioned kind, and after we had proceeded about two miles its cap- tain, a crusty old chap, came to the upper deck where I stood talking with Colonel Burns of the 73d, and asked me for instruc- tions, to which I frankly replied that I had received none and referred him to Burns, who in his rough way made known that he was as ignorant as myself as to where the vessel was expected to take us ; whereupon the captain gave vent to his feelings in true sailor language and style ; the purport of his remarks being, that his pilot had never been up that creek before, that he had ex- pected to follow in the wake of some other boat, but had been started off without instructions under full head of steam ; and that unless he received orders to the contrary he would follow the middle of the stream as well as he could, and keep going until he ran aground or brought up against the wharf's of h-1, " or Rich- mond," put in Burns, adding "I say, Weygant, I would like to have that old cuss in my regiment, he's a regular"-I won't write it. Any one who ever knew Col. Burns will be able to fill out the sentence correctly, and to those who never had that pleasure it is of no consequence.
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