USA > New York > History of the One hundred and twenty-fourth regiment, N. Y. S. V. > Part 6
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We were routed up on the 17th at three o'clock in the morn- ing, and ordered to get breakfast and be ready to move at a moment's notice. And at half-past five, in a heavy storm and amid almost total darkness, we resumed our onward march. At two p. M. we bivouacked in an open field, near a cluster of buildings called Liberty, or Libertyville, where we spent the remainder of that day and the following night.
On our arrival at this place, Captain Clark, whose company was yet on duty as provost-guard for our division, took possession of a large stack of straw, and detailed a squad of his men to guard it. During the afternoon all of this straw that was required at General Whipple's head-quarters was carried thither, and yet by far the greater part remained in charge of the guard, who had received explicit orders not to allow any one to take an armful who * did not present a written order for the same, signed by the captain.
The rain did not for a moment cease falling, and darkness set in at an unusually early hour. About seven o'clock a small body of men from the Ist New York made a raid on this straw stack ; but the captain happened to be there at the time and they were soon driven off. An hour later they returned in greater numbers, and undertook to overpower the guard, when Captain Clark drew his revolver and shot one of their number, inflicting a severe wound ; whereupon the whole party, swearing vengeance, rushed at the captain, and compelled him to flee for his life. Favored by the darkness he managed to elude his pursuers, and succeeded in escaping to division head-quarters, where he was concealed for the night. The following morning charges were preferred against
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
him, and he was placed under arrest. A few days later he was tried and acquitted. Captain Clark subsequently informed me he had been instructed by General Whipple to place a strong guard over this straw, and to issue it only to the sick, who were hourly arriving at our division field hospital which had been established near by.
On the 18th we pushed on again through the mud and rain, making about twelve miles, and halting, just before dark, near Hartwood church. This was in many respects the severest march we had made-all were exhausted and as wet as the rain could make us. At nearly every halt those who wore boots pulled them off and poured the water out of them, and the moment the order " break ranks " was given, the men threw themselves on the wet ground, and had they been permitted most of them would have laid there until morning without putting up tents, building fires, or cooking any food, and not a few of them did lay in that condition until daylight. So far as my own company was con- cerned, by coaxing some and driving others, I succeeded in get- ting all our tents up, good fires burning and coffee boiling. After which I threw myself down on some pine twigs, under a little shelter tent, to await the preparation of my supper. Before it was ready an order came for Company A to strike tents and get ready for picket. It was hard, but there was no alternative. Hastily swallowing their half-boiled coffee, and eating a little hard bread. the poor fellows wrung all the weight of water they could from their blankets, pulled down and rolled their tents, and huddled around the fires, waiting for the order to fall in. After standing in the rain two long hours, the order was countermanded, and we were again permitted to unpack and put up our tents.
A hundred thousand Union soldiers lay on the wet ground, in their wet clothes, under their wet blankets, and shivered the dark · hours away. There are no records which show the number of men lost to our army by that night's exposure, but many a battle, called severe. cost not half the number.
On the 19th we succeeded in making our way, through the rain and hourly deepening mud, a distance of about six miles,
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FROM MINERS' HILL TO FALMOUTH.
when the bottom seemed to drop entirely out of the roads, and the artillery and wagon trains sank' so deep they could be moved no further, and we were ordered to pitch our tents for the night. The storm continued with unabated fury throughout the 20th and 21st, but the roads were in the meantime corduroyed, and at nine o'clock ou the 22d we struck tents, and again waded forward through the mud. At seven p. M. we had made five miles. On the 23d we waded yet another five miles, and were halted about two miles from Falmouth, and within four miles of Fredericks- burg. On the following morning we moved a few rods to some high ground. where, after clearing away some brush, we laid out a color line and company streets ; and, for the first time since leav- ing Miner's Hill, went regularly into camp.
At noon that day our tents were all up in regulation style, and everything about camp was in order; but how slight was the resemblance it bore to our pleasant little city at Camp Cromwell. There the surrounding fields were carpeted with grass ; here they were covered with a thick coating of slimy, sticky mud. There all the officers were in convenient wall tents, and the shelter tents of the men were clean and white; here line officers and private soldiers crawled under the same kind of dirty shelters. There was not a tent in the regiment, save the three or four occupied by our field and staff, in which a man could stand erect.
On the 25th our corps-the 3d, which, since the reorganization of the army by General Burnside had been commanded by Gen- eral Stoneman-was reviewed by General Hooker, whose com- mand consisted of it and the 5th corps.
On the following morning we resumed our usual camp duties. the routine differing but little from what it had been at Miners Hill, except that our drills were less severe, and that our picket tours were of three days' instead of twenty-four hours' duration.
During the following two weeks the regiment changed camp "several times, but did not get half a mile away from the spot where we pitched our tents on the 24th. Those little wedge-shaped shelters, only four feet high from the ground to ridge pole, did very well for summer, but made most miserable dwellings for winter
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
weather. Personally, however, I had little to complain of, on that score, having been detailed, immediately on our arrival there, as Brigade Provost-marshal, and ordered to report at General Piatt's head-quarters, where I was furnished with a new wall tent, in which I spent most of my leisure time until the army went into winter quarters.
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AT FREDERICKSBURG.
CHAPTER IV.
AT FREDERICKSBURG.
THE plan of operations against the Confederate capital, adopted by General Burnside on his taking command of the Army of the Potomac, was evidently based on the belief that, by pushing his forces rapidly down the north-east bank of the Rappahannock, he would be able to cross that river at Fredericksburg, and get well on his way toward, if he did actually reach Richmond before General Lee would be able to concentrate in front of him a sufficient force with which to offer any very serious resistance.
And this might perhaps have been accomplished, notwith- standing the muddy roads and the inclemency of the weather, but for the inexplicable delay of our pontoon trains, which did not arrive until the 10th of December.
. This delay of nearly three weeks gave General Lee ample time to thoroughly intrench and fortify a hitherto almost unten- able position on the bluff's in rear of Fredericksburg; and . enabled him to concentrate behind and around those works a force of at least eighty thousand of the very best troops in the Confed- eracy, by far the greater part of which, when Burnside's advance appeared on the heights in front of Fredericksburg, were from eight to twelve days' march away-Stonewall Jackson and his thirty odd thousand being at Winchester, nearly a hundred miles distant.
Considering the changed circumstances of the enemy. and the lateness of the season, when at length the pontoons did arrive, it would seem the Army of the Potomac should have been allowed to settle quietly down in winter quarters, and all further demon- strations in that quarter deferred until the opening of spring.
But the "powers that were " thought differently, or rather,
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I perhaps should say, were unable to resist the cry of " Onward to Richmond," which came up with great persisteney from a host of' unprincipled politicians and capitalists of the North-a body of men who, though actually becoming richer as the necessities of their country increased. with great pouq and ceremony claimed to be furnishing the Goverment from their own private pockets with what they termed the very she's of war : a noble work which they to this day would have the people believe was a grander thing than the taking of one's Ffe in his own hands and deliberately laying it on the altar of his country.
But let the cause and responsibility of that inauspicious move- ment be what. and rest where. it may. it is certain that, imme- diately on the arrival of the pontoons, orders preliminary to a general movement were issuedl : and. about eight o'clock A. M. on the 11th of December. our brigade. having that morning piled their knapsacks in tents left standing for that purpose at their camp near Falmouth, marched off to, and halted behind. a long line of bluffs called Stafford Heights, which, a little further on. formed the northern bank of the Rappahannock and overlooked the city of Fredericksburg.
Here they stacked arms and lay down to await the completion of a pontoon bridge which our engineers had, during the night. pushed two-thirds of the way across the river, and were that morning, assisted by the 7th Michigan and some Massachusetts regiments. endeavoring to finish. under at most destructive fire from the rebel General Barksdale's Mississippi sharp-shooters, who were posted on the opposite shore. This fire ever and anon became so terrific as to drive our brifly -builders from their work, and they would come rushing up over the edge of the bluff, dragging their wounded and dying with them. but only to reform and be reinforced : when they would dash down again, grasping the timbers as they went ; phile out another boat : with- stand again, for a few moments, the cordless shower of bullets; lay a few more planks, which as they fell were frequently just in time to catch the bleeding, staggering forms of the men who had borne them.
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FREDERICKSBURG.
And thus this floating blood-stained bridge was pushed out toward the hostile shore, bringing its resolute builders nearer and yet nearer their hidden foes ; until at last, about noon, it became impossible to gain another foot. It was in vain they grasped the timbers and rushed forward, they could no longer reach the unfinished end; before they were half across, timbers and men went down in a heap together on the planks already laid, or staggering to the edge, toppled over into the stream.
Along the entire front of the city-from behind every fence and out of every window and door-way-came the powder flash that hurled death's messengers among them.
At length forbearance ceased to be a virtue, even where a city was at stake. All of a sudden the earth trembled and the air was rent with a noise that cannot be described.
The long line of a hundred and twenty huge guns, which covered Stafford Heights, as of one accord shot forth their tongues of fire, and raised their horrid voices in protest of this wanton slaughter ; and for hours these terrible thundering monsters belched forth their fire and smoke, and hurled their whizzing shot and screech- ing shell right into the doomed city, crushing down their hiding- places on the heads of the concealed foe.
The bluffs disappeared ; and in their stead was a long line of puffing, curling smoke, filled with weird-looking forms of moving men, and lit up continually by ever changing flashes of shooting flame. The river, too, faded from our sight, and the crumbling city. gradually disappeared under thick black clouds of powder smoke; from beneath which could be heard, amid the ceaseless roar of cannon, the irregular rattle of musketry, the boom of falling timbers, the crash of shot and shell, and the shouts and yells of contending troops.
At length the cannonade ceased, the smoke raised a little, and lo! two bridges spanned the river, filled with columns of Union troops, who were hurrying across into the battered city, which was not yet entirely cleared of the enemy, though our infantry crossing in boats under cover of the smoke, had suo- cessfully, driven them from the river front. Away up the streets
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
little clouds of white curling smoke could be seen puffing from behind buildings and out of door-ways ; while the rattle of mus- ketry seemed to increase as the heavier noises died away.
But steadily, though slowly, our heavy, broken lines of skir- mishers pushed on from street to street, until at eight p. M. the last of the stubborn foe were driven beyond its limits ; when the firing gradually ceased, and soon the two vast armies slept. It is said we lost over three hundred men laying that double bridge, and as many more in driving the foe from the city. This, however, was but a side show. The main battle had not yet commenced.
Friday morning a dense fog, thicker than Thursday's smoke, . hid the landscape from view ; and not far away and all around us we could hear the clattering of unseen artillery and the mingling of numerous voices directing the movements of unseen troops. While still nearer, dim outlines of moving columns could be seen through the mist. Occasionally this dense fog would lift a little, but never enough to admit of our discovering what was taking place beyond the river.
About ten o'clock we fell in with the moving mass, and crept along the road and down the side of the bluff to the bridge, halt- ing a short time on the shore; then, moving a few inches at a time, we began to cross. But before half the regiment was on the bridge, the passage-way on the opposite shore became so com- pletely blocked that we could move no farther, and were standing there, quietly talking with one another, when the fog lifted a little, and uncovered us to the view of the enemy's artillerists, who forth- with opened on us one of their batteries. Fortunately the range was at first a little high, and the whizzing, hissing shells passed harmlessly over our heads and plunged into the water beyond.
But they had no idea of wasting their ammunition, and imme- diately began correcting their range. Then the shells fell in the water above us, but very near the bridge, which was becoming decidedly uncomfortable. " The next time, they will fetch us," cried a voice just ahead of me ; and sure enough the next shell struck in the regiment in front of us, very near where the voice came from, and I did not hear any one shout, " I told you so."
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FREDERICKSBURG.
Then came the order to "right about," and we were hurried to the shore, where we threw ourselves on the ground ; but after a moment or two fell in line again and moved out of range.
The regiment which stood on the bridge ahead of us had two men killed and several wounded, but fortunately none of the 124th were injured. This was the first time our regiment had actually been under fire, and with but one or two exceptions, there was no cause for censure of officer or man. When a shell passed very near the tops of our heads, we may have stooped a little, that was all-brave old soldiers did the same. But some of our contrabands behaved badly-very badly indeed.
When the regiment left Goshen, I took with me as servant a colored man from Newburgh, named James Sailor. A short time before the army reached Falmouth, Jim left my employ, and hired with Major Cromwell. When the order to lie down was given, after we came off the bridge, the major dismounted, and called for Jim to take his horse ; but Jim did not respond, nor could he be found. Several saw him go on, but no one had seen
him come off. It appears Jim went on the bridge in company with the contrabands of the regiment which preceded us, and when that shell struck among them, he become totally demoralized, and, unable to get off the bridge, got under it -- that is, he slipped off the planks in the end of one of the pontoons, and finding it half full of water, stretched out and braced his hands and feet against the sides of the boat, so as to keep himself above the water, and crawled under the planking.
As the major stood holding his horse, wondering what had become of Jim, an old man, who lay on the shore-one of the 86th, I think-sprang to his feet, grasping as he did so a good-sized stone, and regardless of bursting shells, which were yet raining around the bridge, rushed forward and " tiptoed " out to over where Jim was, when he raised the stone above his head, dashed it down on the planks, and hurried back to the shore. As the stone struck the bridge, there was a splash in the water, and the next minute out crawled Jim, shaking like a leaf, his teeth chat- tering, the cold water dripping from every part of him-the
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
worst frightened and most sorry-looking colored gent I had ever seen.
Company A's officers had with them a little black, shining, faced fellow named Jack Smith. Now Jack was a rather proud and very logical chap, made the very best biscuits, said he had seen some service, and claimed to possess a large share of that admirable soldierly quality called bravery.
As we stood on the bridge just before the shelling commenced, I called Jack to me and asked for my canteen and haversack, for I mistrusted that if we should get into any trouble, Jack might not be on hand when I needed him ; but the little fellow seemed so hurt by my apparent distrust, and protested so strongly, say- ing, "I'se bin in fights afore, and don't want to see massa cap- tain toteing his own grub, and dis little nigger loafin' 'long doin' noffin ; s'pose you done gone get wounded, don't you 'spec' me dar to took care on you ? You needn't gone git afeerd I'se gwine to runn'd away from you; no sah, massa captain, I'll stay wid you." So I left my haversack with Jack; taking only one of the three canteens he had strung about his shoulder. But the moment the shells began to fall, Jack disappeared; and as we about faced, I caught a glimpse of the little scamp just straightening himself up on the top of the bank, and the next' instant he bounded off like a deer, the haversack and canteens seeming to stand right out behind him. It is needless to say I never tasted the contents of that haversack. No other troops attempted to cross the river at that point during the day, and toward evening we moved off to a damp, muddy flat, where we shivered the night away.
At six o'clock next morning we returned to the river, and. unmolested, crossed the bridge and lay down on a level strip of ground a few rods up from the southern shore, and under cover of a steep bank. Here we remained two or three hours, watching through the mist the quiet crossing of unbroken columns of our troops. The crackling of musketry had ceased ; the artillery was quiet, and the only unusual noise that reached us was the distant rumbling of moving trains. But this quiet was that which pre- cedes the storm.
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FREDERICKSBURG.
About ten o'clock the sun broke through, dispelling the mist, which seemed to be a preconcerted signal for the opening of the battle. As the sky cleared, the guns on the opposing heights opened with terrible fury : while from the left came the crackling of musketry, which increased suddenly to heavy prolonged volleys, and ere long settled into a continuous roar that spread along the front and soon seemed to come from every direction, telling that the work of death had begun in earnest. igain the long line of guns on Stafford Heights, now in our rear, and at first in full view, disappeared beneath clouds of fire-lit smoke, while the air above seemed filled with shot and shell.
About two p. M. orders came for our brigade to storm a bat- tery on the heights beyond us. The 86th and 122d were ordered to move on the flanks, and the 124th to attack in front. In a few moments we were hurrying over the flats to a posi- tion where we had been ordered to form for the charge; but before we reached it, our brigadier, in attempting to force his horse over a ditch, fell in, and was so badly injured that he had to be carried to the rear.
Arriving at the point designated, and forming line as directed, we lay down awaiting the order to charge. But. fortunately for the Orange Blossoms, it never came. . Our time was not yet. Other fields were to test our valor and drink our blood ; but this time other troops were to do and die while we lay looking on.
All day the battle raged and the deafening roar continued ; but as night came on it gradually slackened, and finally almost entirely ceased. At dusk we were yet lying on the ground in front of the enemy's batteries. As soon as it was dark, we threw out pickets, and then again shivered the night away ; but no one complained.
At daybreak we moved back a short distance, behind some old buildings, where we quietly spent the Sabbath until four P. M., when we returned to the river bank, and were halted near an old miH, in which we found some flour. Starting up little fires. we cooked some coffee and baked some cakes. Not far off, a street ran through the village to the river near the bridge, down which
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HISTORY OF THE 124TH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
there poured a continuous stream of troops. They were not fresh men, moving into the city in close'column with banners flying, but a vast procession of wounded, bleeding, dying men-in ambulances, on litters, in the arms of comrades, and some staggering along alone on foot, all hurrying away from the field.
Sunday evening came, the conflict had not been renewed, and just after dark we were ordered out on picket, and again moved over the plain to within four hundred yards of the enemy's works, where we once more threw ourselves down on the wet, muddy ground. All night we could hear the peculiar noise of moving artillery, which seemed to be coming up from the river and going into position all around us.
Just after midnight the moon came out, but the air was thick with smoke. At two o'clock our line was driven back a short distance. About four o'clock it clouded up again, and rain began to fall. A little later Colonel Cummings came to me, evidently somewhat excited, and whispered the order, " Hurry in your vedettes without making any noise." That done, we were started off at a double quick for the river.
As we neared the bridge, the light of dawning day revealed to us the opposite shore and heights, packed as far as the eye could penetrate with one living mass of moving troops ; while hurrying over the straw-covered bridge were the last regiments of Burnside's army.
All that rattling of artillery which we who were on picket supposed to be new batteries going into position, preparatory to a renewal of the conflict in the morning, was made by a few empty caissons sent over to deceive the enemy, and drown by their clatter the unavoidable noise of our retiring troops. The ruse was entirely successful ; and before the enemy mistrusted that Burnside was withdrawing, his entire army-piekets and all-had recrossed the river, taken up their pontoons, and were marching " leisurely back to their camping grounds about Falmouth.
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SOMETHING MORE ABOUT FREDERICKSBURG.
CHAPTER V.
SOMETHING MORE ABOUT FREDERICKSBURG.
A S our regiment did not become actively engaged at Fred- ericksburg, I attempted to crowd in the preceding short chapter all I thought necessary to narrate, in this connection, concerning that disastrous battle. But in reading the same after it had come back to me from the press, and the time for making corrections had passed, I discovered that the events of one entire day had been unwittingly left out, and that I had stated as occurring on Sunday night that which did not take place until Monday night. In order, therefore, to straighten the links already joined, and-by picking up and welding in the missing ones-to mend the break in the chain of principal experiences of the 124th which I am endeavoring to forge, it seems necessary to countermarch, and take a new start from the opening scene of the principal act in that bloody drama.
When at ten A. M. on Saturday, the mighty king of day approached, and majestically lifted the heavy fog curtain, under cover of which the Union generals had formed their battle lines and attacking columns within easy range of the enemy's guns, there appeared facing each other in hostile array upon that ver- dureless stage, which was soon to become a gory battlefield, two hundred thousand troops, equipped with all the modern enginery of war. This was undoubtedly as terribly grand a sight as had ever been witnessed on this continent. Never before had the vast proportions of the two grand armies appeared with such vivid dis- tinctness. Stretching along the high grounds and covering every hill-top beyond the smouldering city, were long lines of massive earthworks, fromover the parapets and through the embrasures of
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