USA > New York > History of the One hundred and twenty-fourth regiment, N. Y. S. V. > Part 36
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
412
HISTORY OF THE 124TOI NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
plosion repeated with the parts reversed. For when our soldiers had recovered from their astonishment, and the Ninth Corps was rallied to drive the foe out-Hartranft's division making the counter assault-the rebels were too few to hold their perilous position ; while the ground over which they had reached it was so swept by our guns from either side, that 2,000 pre- ferred to surrender, rather than follow their fleeing comrades through that terrible fire. Aside from this, the loss of either army was some 2,500.
"Nor was this the extent of the enemy's mishap. General . Meade, convinced that their lines generally must have been depleted to strengthen this assault, ordered an advance along the front of the Sixth and Second Corps, holding our works before Petersburg to the left of Fort Steedman; and this was made with such spirit that the thinned line of the enemy recoiled before it, and their strongly intrenched picket line was wrested from them and permanently held by their antagonists. Thus, instead of shaking himself from Grant's grip, Lee had only tight- ened it by this bold stroke." *
Now all we of the 124th knew at the time of the capture and recapture of Fort Steadman, consisted in our being awakened at half past three o'clock on the morning of the 25th by the distant thunder of battle. Neither did we take any active part in the capture of the enemy's strong line of picket pits along our front. The 25th day of March 1865, will nevertheless ever be to us one of the most glorious days of our existence as a regiment.
On hearing the sound of heavy and prolonged artillery firing. in and about Fort Steadman, the troops of de Trobriand's brigade. arose from their rough bunks, folded their blankets and buckled on their accoutrements. Soon orders came to strike tents, and about five A. M. the various regiments formed in battle line and manned the works in front of their respective camps. A little later the First division of our corps moved over the works at our right, and advancing rapidly over the cleared space in front reached and engaged the enemy's piekets, driving them from their
* The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, p. 728. ₹
413
IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG.
pits, which were soon manned with Union troops. While this was taking place our brigade remained behind its powerful line of works, out of harm's way quietly looking on. Abont noon the Confederates attempted to regain the line they had been driven from in the morning, and soon made it so uncomfortable for our troops in front that reinforcements were called for. Several regiments moved out from the other brigades of our division, and at one o'clock an orderly rode into the camp of the 124th, and handed me an order which directed that I proceed forth- with with my regiment to a certain house on the picket line almost in front of our camp, and there report for duty to General -, the corps officer of the day.
Without a moment's delay we sprang over the works and were soon at the point designated, but the corps officer of the day had gone to some other portion his line and I halted my command near this house, where we lay down on the ground to await his return. On a little knoll just in front of us lay the 5th New Hampshire, almost unengaged, but a short distance to our right a brisk fight was in progress which lasted half an hour or more; and occasionally a stray bullet from that direction went whistling over our heads. Presently an aide rode up and led the 5th New Hampshire off to our right at a double-quick, leaving a considerable number of unoccupied pits on the picket line in front, for their videttes were withdrawn and hastened off after the main body. We were lying at the foot of the slope, in a very unfavorable position to receive an attack, and as the officer of the day had not yet appeared I concluded to move up and occupy temporarily at least the commanding position from which the New Hampshire regiment had been withdrawn, and to advance a line of videttes to the unoccupied picket pits.
There was considerable firing at irregular intervals on either side of us, and not knowing how soon we might be assailed or how long we might remain, I concluded to strengthen our now most favorable position by throwing up a light line of breastworks. We did not have a shovel with us, but when Igave the order there stood near at hand two or three frame ontbuildings, which twenty
1
1
414
HISTORY OF THE 194TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
minutes later, were among the things that had been, and the ma- terial which had composed them was piled up along our front as a basis for a barricade which was ere long covered with dirt shoveled on with pieces of boards and tin plates.
As soon as these works were bullet-proof, I ordered my men to lie down behind them, and walked out to the picket pits in front to view the country beyond. The position we occupied was on the crest of a slight barren hill which from the picket pits ran gently down to an apparently swampy flat covered with a dense growth of bushes from six to eight feet high. Beyond this thicket and about half a mile away, ran another cleared ridge parallel with the one we were occupying, the crest of which was covered with a most formidable line of works.
These works, for aught I could tell, may have been heavily manned or wholly unoccupied ; but just as the sun went down and its last bright rays rested upon them there came from one particular spot continuous flashes of light ; and by the aid of my glass I was soon convinced that a column of troops with bayonets fixed, were moving through an opening in the line, and march- ing out over an old road on which I was standing and across which my regiment was lying. That we would soon have a serious job on hand was exceedingly probable. Bidding my videttes if at- tacked in force to reserve their fire until the enemy was within fifty yards of them, and then empty their pieces as deliberately · as possible and hasten back, I made my way to the main body and after notifying my officers what they might expect, took position a few feet in front of the extreme right of our line to watch further developments. At first I could see nothing of the enemy's advancing forces, but presently as I had expected, they emerged from the thicket, on the road at the foot of the slope just in front of us. They were yet moving in column but the next moment their advance, about five hundred strong, rushed forward into battle line with as much precision as if they had been on drill ; and, without deigning to notice the straggling volley which at this juncture my videttes poured into them, lowered their bayonets and started up the slope on a charge. It was a grand
.
415
FALL OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.
sight, but somehow I pitied them, feeling sure they had wit- nessed the departure of the 5th New Hamshire, but knew noth- ing of our having in the interval moved up and intrenched ourselves there.
Our closely followed videttes no sooner reached the main line, than I shouted the order " commence firing," at which my men nothing loth sprang up from behind their works, and opened the most telling and terrific fire I have ever witnessed, instantly break- ing and completely demoralizing the charging line, the troops of which either threw themselves flat on the ground or rushed pell mell for shelter into the picket pits until they were literally piled on top of each other. A grand opportunity had now arrived and we did not let it pass unimproved, but before the order " charge " had fairly escaped my lips, right forward rushed my gallant regiment. The brave Confederate commander Colonel D. S. Troy of the 49th Alabama grasped from its bearer the battle flag of his regiment, and waved it frantically, in vain efforts to reform his lines; but ere twenty of his followers responded to his appeals we were close upon them, and a bullet from the rifle of Private George W. Tompkins passed through his breast. As he fell Tompkins grasped from him the standard of the 49th which was trailed beneath our own as sweeping on we gathered in as prisoners six of his officers and one hundred and sixty-four of his men, and then hurled volley after volley into the remainder as they fled in wild disorder toward whence they came.
Not one of my command was killed, wounded or even scratched-a circumstance which I believe to be without a parallel in the annals of war. An account of this affair written by Captain Taft of Company C. on the morning of the 26th. while everything was yet fresh in his mind, contains some additional details, and differs in some minor particulars from the account given above. Lest some of my readers should feel that I have overdrawn the picture, I will quote the Captain's account. It reads,
" We remained in the works until about ten o'clock when we
416
HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
were ordered to the front. We advanced and formed a line of battle in rear of the 5th New Hampshire, and remained there until about half past four o'clock when the 5th N. II. moved to the right and we advanced to the front. As soon as our line was established we all went to work with a will and soon had a tem- porary line of works on the ground that a few hours before had been occupied by the rebel pickets. There were two small build- ings and a barn in the rear of the line. These were soon torn down and the material piled up in front of the regiment. Then with tin plates and pieces of boards and anything that could be used as a substitute, for we had no shovels, we soon had protec- tion enough to call it a breastwork. We had hardly got it com- pleted when the Johnnies came down on us driving in our skir- mishers, and advancing in two lines on a double-quick. bayonets fixed, and with a yell that would have made your hair stand on end. As soon as our pickets got in so that our front was clear we opened on them with such a terrific fire that it was impossi- ble for them to face it. Some sought shelter from our murderous fire in the picket pits, others by lying flat on the ground behind stumps ; some with a faint hope of saving their lives, crawled behind little bushes not larger than house plants, as a drowning man would clutch at a straw. In two little picket pits in front of our regiment, dug for four men and a corporal, there were . from fifty to sixty Johnnies, crawled in on top of each other, so · that very few of them could use their guns. While they were in this condition we charged on them taking nearly the whole of them prisoners. The most of those who made an attempt to escape were shot; some of them attempted to rally while others shook their hats and handkerchiefs and shouted us for God's sake to stop firing before we killed all of them. The regiments that advanced in front of us were the 45th, 47th and 49th Alabama. Of these our regiment captured about two hundred officers and men, a colonel and a battle-flag. The colonel was shot through the breast. We carried back a great many wounded, and buried two officers and four men last night; and this morning fourteen more were buried."
417
FALL OF PETERSBURG AND. RICHMOND.
After it was all over and my men had given vent to their feelings in three rousing cheers, I dispatched a guard to the rear with the prisoners and a messenger for Surgeon Montfort ; after which we with the utmost care and tenderness gathered up the wounded and conveyed them to the only building left standing in our immediate rear, and gave them water, and staunched the best we could the flow of blood from their wounds, my men in several instances holding their thumbs pressed against the severed arteries of their late foes until Surgeon Montfort with his assistants arrived and relieved them.
Colonel Troy had been shot through the lungs and was suffer- ing intense bodily pain, but it was scarcely equal to his agony of mind over the disaster that had befallen his command. He spoke with difficulty, but when I approached him as he lay upon the floor in the house, to arrange a blanket which one of my men had folded as a pillow for him, but which was slipping from under his head, he, after thanking me for the unexpected kindness which had been showered upon him, complained bitterly of what he termed the cowardly conduct of his command. He said, it was not composed exclusively of his own regiment, which he was sure would have behaved better, but of parts of several regiments. I am almost certain that he told me his regiment was the 59th Alabama, but those who questioned the prisoners sent to the rear say it was the 49th, and I have consequently so written it.
Just after the engagement ended, Major General Mott heard that we had a Confederate battle-flag and sent an aid after it. During the evening we picked up over two hundred stand of arms which had been dropped by our prisoners. the killed, and those who had made good their escape. About midnight : heavy picket force came out and relieved us, and we received orders to return to camp. Early the next morning General de Trobriand rode into our camp and after congratulating us on what he termed the wonderfully favorable result of our encounter on the picket line, took me to do in rather severe terms for not sending the captured battle flag to his headquarters before General Mott had time to send for it.
418
HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
To say that I was exceedingly proud of the success which had attended the efforts of my gallant regiment, but feebly ex- presses my feelings, but judge if you can of our chagrin when a few days later we read an account of the affair in the New York papers giving all the glory to the 124th Pennsylvania, a regiment we had never heard of. Subsequently however I received a medal of honor from the Secretary of War for private Tompkins, and was personally tendered the thanks of congress in the shape of a brevet commission signed by both the President and Secre- tary of War.
General Lee's attempt to break through the Union lines at Fort Steadman, on the 25th, may have caused General Grant to alter somewhat his plans of procedure ; but no change was made as regards the time fixed upon for our commencement of offensive operations against Petersburg. And just before daybreak on the morning of the 29th, Sheridan's cavalry, and the Second and Fifth Corps, broke camp and marched once more toward the Union left. The established line of works covering the city from the Appomattox river on the northeast to the point where Hatch- er's Run is crossed by the Vaughan road on the south-west, were left in charge of the Sixth Corps and three divisions from the army of the James under General Ord, which had crossed over from the north side of the James river for that purpose on the 27th.
The Second Corps pivoting on the extreme left of Grant's intrenched position, swung around in an extended line, over a densely wooded region, without encountering any considerable opposition, and at night rested in the woods in front, but yet a full mile distant from the refused right of the enemy's intrenched line. The Fifth Corps which moved on the left of the Second, met with more serious opposition but after considerable fighting, and a loss of nearly four hundred in killed and wounded, bivou- acked in front of the Confederate breastworks covering the White Oak road ; while Sheridan's cavalry moving still farther to the left, reached and spent the night at Dinwiddie C. II. ; the net results of the day's doings, being the capture of about two hun-
419
FALL OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.
dred prisoners and the planting of a formidable body of troops, in a threatening attitude, in front of the enemy's extended right. Nothing of special interest transpired during the day in the ranks of the 124th, and we spent the night in reserve near the centre of our corps line.
This movement of course jeopardized Lee's communication by the Southside railroad, and his dispositions to meet it are thus described by Pollard. "To secure the defence of his right against this powerful column which Grant had thrust out by his left, was the immediate necessity that stared Gen. Lee in the face, for it was vitally important to secure the lines whereon his troops depended for their daily food ; but it was at the same time indis- pensable that he should maintain the long intrenched line that covered Petersburg and Richmond. There was no resource but the desperate one of stripping his entrenchments to secure his menaced right and contest the prize of the Southside railroad. On the night of the 29th, General Lee, having perceived Grant's manœuvre, dispatched Pickett's and Bushrod Johnson's divisions. Wise's and Ransom's brigade, Huger's battalion of infantry, and Fitzhugh Lee's division, in all about seventeen thousand men, to encounter the turning column of the enemy. The right of the Confederate intrenched line crossed Hatcher's Run at the Boyd- ton plank road, and extended some distance along the White Oak road. Four miles beyond the termination of this line there was a point where several roads from the north and south emerged on the White Oak road, forming what is known as the Five Forks. It was an isolated position, but one of great value, as it held the strategic key that opened up the whole region which Lee was now seeking to cover."
That night a heavy rain storm set in which lasted eighteen hours and left the streams so swollen, and the roads so bad, that nothing of importance was undertaken by our infantry on the 30th. Sheridan however, advanced a portion of his force under General Devins and Davies against Five Forks ; but they found that place so strongly held that they returned without making any serious attempt to take it.
420
HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
On the morning of the 31st active operations were resumed. and Sheridan advanced with his entire force and carried Five Forks, but in the afternoon was routed and driven back full four miles. Warren's corps (the Fifth) was meantime attacked in flank and so badly handled, that Humphrey was ordered to send Miles' division from our corps to his assistance. After the arrival of Miles at the scene of Warren's disaster a counter assault was made and the Confederates driven back behind their intrenchments. on the White Oak road, with heavy loss mainly in prisoners.
While all this was taking place on our left, Humphrey, with portions of his two remaining divisions, made several unsuccess- ful attempts to carry the enemy's works along his front. Our brigade being in reserve was marched from point to point in readi- ness to support any portion of the line where its assistance might be required. About two o'clock, P. M., I received orders detach- ing the 124th and ordering me to hasten with it to the front and occupy a strip of breastworks which since the departure of the troops sent to help Warren had been occupied by a light line of skirmishers ; but in front of which a Confederate battery, sup- ported by a line of infantry, had just appeared.
These works which had been erected the day before by Miles' men, were about a third of a mile distant from where our brigade was then standing; and springing to my saddle I led the regi- ment off in column, on a run, toward the point designated. When within three hundred feet of the works, and just as we were emerging from a piece of woods, General Grant and a portion of his staff went galloping slowly past, drawing the fire of the Con- federate battery; and almost the first shell, which passed very near the General's head without causing him to dodge or quicken his speed in the least, exploded directly in front of our column, severely wounding Adjutant King, who was riding by my side. I had just shouted the order " Forward into line," and as company A. came up another shell exploded right along side of me; lit- erally disemboweling and tearing to pieces Private James L. Johnson of that company. We soon reached the works without further loss, and were not long quieting the enemy's guns, and
421
FALL OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.
putting to flight their unprotected line, with no inconsiderable loss, while our only casualty at the works was the wounding of Private Charles Pullman, one of our sharpshooters in company H. About nine o'clock that evening we were withdrawn and moved with the brigade to a new position about a mile to the left. There we threw up a new line of works behind which we spent the night.
Lieutenant King was a brave officer and made a most efficient Adjutant. When he was wounded I heard a heavy thud and at first supposed his horse only had been struck, but the moment my eyes rested on the Lieutenant's face, I knew that he was seriously injured. A piece of the exploding shell had struck his leg, tearing the flesh from his ankle, so that the joint lay open. The surgeons told him that the amputation of his foot was an absolute necessity but he thought differently, and with character- istic firmness refused to allow them to perform the operation. He was right, for though lamed for life he is now able to walk about on his " condemned " foot without the use of a cane, though that article comes very handy at times, and he usually carries it.
When we awoke on the morning of April 1st, we found that Warren's entire corps had been withdrawn from Humphrey's left, and moved off to the assistance of Sheridan, whose command had since its repulse from Five Forks on the afternoon of the 31st, become entirely isolated from the rest of the army. During the day Sheridan again drove the enemy back to the shelter of his earthworks and with the assistance of Warren's infantry fought a most desperate and decisive battle with heavy loss to both sides in killed and wounded, but which resulted in Sheridan's final capture of the place together with over five thousand Con- federate prisoners, and a complete repulse of the enemy's right ; for the remaining troops, in the words of Pollard, " fled westward from Five Forks routed, demoralized, and past control; and .. General Lee found that his right, rested from his centre, was turned almost without a battle."
The Second Corps remained comparatively inactive through- out the day, our brigade having been withdrawn from the front
422
HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
-
at daylight and massed in the woods to the rear, where it rested until dark when it again advanced and reoccupied the works from which it had in the morning been withdrawn.
That evening the Union commander ordered the guns in posi- tion in front of Petersburg to open fire on the doomed city ; for a short and graphic account of which event let us again refer to Pollard. "Grant celebrated the victory of Five Forks, and per- formed the prelude of what was yet to come by a fierce and con- tinuous bombardment along his lines in front of Petersburg. Every piece of artillery in the thickly studded forts. batteries and mortar beds joined in the prodigious clamor ; reports savagely, terrifically crashing through the narrow streets and lanes of Petersburg, echoed upwards ; it appeared as if fiends of the air were engaged in the sulphurous conflict."
At a quarter of twelve that night I was ordered by Major- General Mott, through General de Trobriand, to advance with the 124th up to within two hundred and fifty feet of the enemy's works in our immediate front, and open a vigorous fire and main- tain my position there for half an hour, if possible, but not to assault their lines. Just what the object of this strange and apparently suicidal movement was I did not stop to inquire, nor was I asked the question by a single member of my gallant regi- ment, which our commanders knew full well would be found ready, in response to orders, to undertake any duty, no matter how hazardous it might seem. Five minutes after the order was re- ceived we had passed our earthworks and were moving cau- tiously but steadily forward through the black darkness. for the heavens above us were shrouded with dense clouds. For about two hundred yards all went well. Then just as we entered a piece of woods and the darkness if possible began to grow more dense, unseen briars tore our clothes and flesh, tangled vines tripped us up, the earth beneath our feet grew spongy, and at .. every step we sank deeper and yet deeper into the mud and water. And our further advance in that direction was ren- dered impossible by a swale or swamp which, though of no great width was under existing circumstances absolutely impass-
423
FALL OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND.
able. At this juncture bullets from the enemy's piekets began to whistle among us. But this fire we returned with such prompt- ness and effect that their thin line fled for protection to their main works, which were near at hand. Then their artillery, posted on a high ridge some two hundred yards away, opened a terrific fire, and presently a battle line added a continuous shower of hissing leaden bullets to the thundering storm of iron shot and shell.
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.