USA > New York > History of the Tenth regiment of cavalry New York state volunteers, August, 1861, to August, 1865, pt 1 > Part 28
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238
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
1864
ments later he reeled in his saddle and was assisted to dismount. He had invited and had evidently received a Yankee bullet. As soon as our boys came into sight, the rebels opened with two guns. The first shot from their guns demolished an old chimney just across the road. A colored man, who had taken refuge behind the chimney, scattered in several directions when his tower of refuge came tum- bling down.
When near Jarrett's Station, the Tenth leading, with Companies A and L, under Captain Perry, as advance-guard, we encountered the rebels, who retired through the woods on a road running at right angles with the railroad. Colonel Avery sent for Captain White to bring up his squadron, Companies E and K. On the Captain's reporting, the Colonel said : "Captain White, I have a mighty fine thing for you. There are a few Johnnies about twenty rods up that road. I want you to charge them with the saber." General Davies with his staff was present. He said to Colonel Avery, " Careful, Colonel." White formed his men, and with sabers drawn led them up the road, the Confederates disappearing around a bend. When the charging squadron reached the bend they were met by a heavy fire from behind logs, etc., on each side of the road, while two cannon in their immediate front contributed to make the visit embarrassing. White fell back and deployed his men on each side of the road, and held the enemy in check until the Regiment got up. The only casualties in Captain White's squad- ron was the wounding of two men, brothers, belonging to Company K, one being shot in the right and the other in the left arm by the same bullet. Captain Hart- well had been sent with his squadron up another road to get on the enemy's flank, but the underbrush was so dense he found it impossible. The Tenth held the entire rebel force until the column had passed, and then resumed the march. There was a drizzling rain all day .*
After leaving Jarrett's Station a horseman, with a United States blanket wrapped about him, rode alongside the column until suspicion was aroused as to his real character. A couple of the boys made a dash for him, when he lit out for the rebel lines. He was a rebel scout. His horse was a good one. To its fleet- ness he owed his escape.
On the 11th the march was continued. Through Sussex Court-House, and crossing the Nottoway in advance of the infantry the column passed, and back to winter quarters at 1 A. M. on the 12th, men and horses nearly frozen.
* In this engagement the horse of Sergeant E. D. Morse received three wounds, all at nearly the same instant, but the faithful animal carried the ser- geant safely through and out of the action, and then fell dead. A bullet passed through the canteen of Sergeant Morse, producing an ugly contusion on his leg.
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1865
, CLOSING CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR.
239
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CHAPTER XI.
CLOSING CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR-FROM DINWIDDIE COURT- HOUSE TO MUSTER OUT OF SERVICE.
HE Union lines had been gradually ex- tended south and west, turning the Confed- erate right, until the South Side Railroad was the only one left by which General Lee could obtain supplies from the South with any degree of reliability. The Shenandoah Valley - the Valley of Humiliation - had been gloriously redeemed by General Sheri- ' dan. Early had been sent " whirling up the Valley," while a large portion of his army and material whirled into the possession of the Union army. In the destruction of Early's army, "Sheridan's cav- alry " played a prominent part. They were in at the beginning, and it was they who administered the finishing touches to the remark- ably successful campaign that destroyed an army that was by many thought to be invincible, and deprived the Confederates of their richest granary. It is recorded that General Early was in constant dread of the Yankee cavalry getting on his flanks. And they did get on his flanks most effectively. Custer and Merritt and Torbert and Devin were omnipresent. They were constantly feeling the old man Early's pulse. The trembling cry, on the march or in camp, that set the rebels in a panic, was "The Yankee cavalry !" No sleep, no rest, while these dread wielders of the blade were on their path.
Some supplies came to the Army of Northern Virginia by the Weldon Railroad. These were brought to a point as near as it was considered safe, and were transported thence by the precarious use of wagons, to Petersburg. General Grant determined to cut off this source, by a movement of a sufficient force to Dinwiddie Court-House, to overcome any opposition which might be encountered, to destroy the railroad, capture the trains, and do such other damage to the enemy as was possible. Gregg's cavalry division was selected for
240
1865
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
this work, to be supported by the Fifth Corps under General War- ren.
The wagons of the brigade, under charge of Quartermaster Graves, were ordered to City Point. Lieutenant Farnsworth, who had been detailed as Acting Quartermaster of the Tenth, was placed in charge of part of the train. During the march Lieutenant Farnsworth came upon that portion of the train in charge of Lieutenant James, who had caused a large amount of the stores under his keeping to be thrown together, and, filled with his own importance and commissary cordial, had set fire to them. Lieutenant Farnsworth promptly went to work to save the Government property. After driving the Lieu- tenant away, he put out the fire, had the material loaded in his own wagons, and proceeded on his way. . Lieutenant James was afterward court-martialed.
At three o'clock on the morning of the 5th of February the Tenth moved out of camp, and following the Jerusalem plank-road reached Ream's Station at 8 A. M. ; thence to Dinwiddie Court-House, passing deserted Confederate camps en route, where the fires, like the Con- federacy, were still burning, but very low. Arriving at the Court- House at one o'clock, the enemy were surprised, and forty men, in- cluding a colonel, together with a number of wagons, were captured. Then returning toward Ream's Station, Malone's bridge, over Rowanty Creek, was found to have been destroyed by the enemy. Another was built, upon which the cavalry crossed and encamped on the east side. Snow and rain came with the halt-an unsavory admixture and an unwelcome visitation. This day's action by the cavalry has been re- corded as Rowanty Creek, and by some of the participants has been called the first Dinwiddie fight. During the night connection was made with the infantry on the right.
Then followed the Hatcher's Run fight, next day, February 6th. Gregg's division and Warren's Fifth Corps were ordered to the Vaughn road, where the Second and parts of the Sixth and Ninth . Corps were in position. The Tenth was reported in readiness to move at 2 A. M., and a few moments later the march was taken up, the Rowanta recrossed, and the march northward resumed, until Hatcher's Run was reached and crossed. Here the Regiment halted for the purpose of preparing breakfast. Hardly had the horses been relieved of their burdens when the pickets in the rear were driven in, and the reserve attacked. The Tenth was speedily formed, dismount- ed, and followed the Twenty-fourth New York Cavalry skirmishers. The Confederates were driven back, and our troops hastily threw up
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FOUTLAUNST, PRINT.
CAVALRY GENERALS OF AUGUST, 1864.
BRIG. GEN. DAVIES, BRIG. GEN. GREGO,
Com'dg Ist Brig. Gregg's Division.
Com'dg zd Div. Cavalry.
LT. COL. FORSYTH,
Chief Staff Gen. Sheridan.
· BRIG. GEN. MERRITT, Com'dg Reserve Brig. Tor bert's Div.
BRIG. GEN. WILSON,
BRIG. GEN. TORBERT,
MAJ. GEN. SHERIDAN,
Com'dg 3d Div. Cavalry.
Com'dg Ist Div. Cavalry.
Com'dg Cavalry Corps A. P.
241
ENGAGEMENT AT HATCHER'S RUN.
1865
light breastworks, the fighting continuing meantime. The infantry on the right were heavily engaged, and the conflict became desper- ate along the entire line, the cavalry engaging Pegram's division of Gordon's corps. At 1 p. M. the brigade was relieved by the infantry,
and after an hour's respite the cavalrymen in turn relieved the in- fantry boys, and the fight was continued with increased vigor on both sides. The Tenth made a charge, capturing some prisoners and driv- ing the enemy. About this time General Davies was wounded, and the command of the brigade devolved on Colonel Avery, who dis- patched a mounted officer to notify Lieutenant-Colonel Tremain to take command of the Regiment.
At 2 P. M., just at the moment when he was about to lead a por- tion of the Regiment on the skirmish-line, the young Lieutenant- Colonel turned to receive the message, and was struck in the hip by a minié-ball. He was at once lifted tenderly up and carried to an ambulance, and thence conveyed to the field hospital. Majors Beau- mont and Janeway, of the First New Jersey Cavalry, were also wounded in this engagement. At dusk the Tenth fell back a short distance with the brigade and bivouacked. A cold night, with rain, freezing as it fell, offered little opportunity for comfort or rest to the weary and hungry men.
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242
1865
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
Of this engagement Captain John J. Van Tuyl writes :
The entire Regiment with the exception of my squadron was engaged in the Vaughn road fight. We were in reserve, mounted, and I was thinking that for once I was going to escape a fight, when Major Avery came back and said to me, " Dismount your squadron and prepare to fight on foot." I was then ordered to retake some buildings on the skirmish-line which were occupied by the enemy. The boys charged and drove the rebs out. There was a log-house, a barn, and a pole corn-house. With nine men I took position behind the latter. The bullets came through like water through a sieve, and all my men but one were killed or wounded. I received a bullet in my knee, and Mart Youngs, of Company G, helped me to get back as far as General Gregg's headquarters, where I obtained a horse and rode to the old barn used as a hospital. The doctors said the leg must come off, but I insisted that it must not, and they finally gave up. I was sent to City Point Hospital two days after, and ten days later went home on leave. I was back again in six weeks.
In reference to this engagement David T. Field writes :
We lay behind some rails, and when the rebs came on a charge we emptied our seven-shooters and they went back ; but they reformed and came on again. Will Hutchings, of Company H, shot a rebel captain, and jumped over the breast- works and pulled off his knee-boots and put them on.
W. W. Williams, of Company D, relates the following incidents connected with this fight :
I remember at the fight at Hatcher's Run, February 6, 1865, General Gregg heard a newsboy back in the rear calling out his papers. He sent another orderly to get him one of each of the papers. He got the papers and folded them, then put them inside of his jacket. I received some orders, and on my way to General Warren to deliver them met this orderly on his way back. When I had got within two or three rods of him I heard a bullet pass my left ear and saw him fall from his horse. I got to him as soon as possible. I saw where the bullet had entered, and my conclusion was, "Shot through the heart." I unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out the papers, and the bullet dropped out, and right over his heart was a black spot the size of a silver dollar.
The night of February 6th was a terrible one. The rain froze as it fell, and the men were compelled to keep in line nearly all night. About midnight the horses were brought up and the Regiment mounted and moved back about a mile and a half and bivouacked ; but the boys were compelled to keep moving to avoid freezing. The fighting on the main line of the army had been very severe during the night. In the darkness, Captain Fobes, the popular division Commissary of Subsistence, was thrown violently from his horse and received injuries from which he died on the 9th.
The Regiment fell back to the Weldon Railroad and bivouacked on the 7th, a snow-storm prevailing meantime. Here the boys were
243
RESIGNATION OF GENERAL GREGG.
1865
compelled to shiver it out in the sleet and snow until the morning of the Sth, when they marched back to their old quarters. At 5 P. M. Lieutenant-Colonel Tremain died at City Point Hospital.
General Gregg having tendered his resignation on the 3d of Feb- ruary, took his leave of the Second Cavalry Division one week later. His departure was keenly felt by the men whom he had so long and successfully led. He had shared with them all the privations and pleasures, disappointments and enjoyments, successes and reverses, since the organization of the Cavalry Corps, and they had learned to love and trust him implicitly. It is safe to say that no commander in the army enjoyed the respect and confidence of his men more uni- versally than the commander of the Second Cavalry Division. He took his leave on the 9th, Colonel Gregg taking command of the division.
Captain A. T. Bliss, of Company D, who was captured by the enemy in July and had been confined in rebel prisons, rejoined the Regiment on the 10th.
The following day Colonel Avery left for Albany, N. Y., with the remains of Lieutenant-Colonel Tremain.
The usual routine of picket duty, etc., continued during the re- mainder of February.
Major Blynn returned from leave of absence on the 20th and re- lieved Captain J. M. Reynolds, who had been in command of the Regiment since the 6th.
Lieutenant Morey, of Company E, who had escaped from rebel prisons, rejoined the Regiment on the 21st for the purpose of being mustered out of service.
The Tenth celebrated Washington's birthday by a march to Yel- low Tavern and back again.
Two hundred recruits arrived on the 25th. The same day Gen- eral Davies returned from leave of absence and assumed command of the Second Division, which had been commanded by Colonel Gregg since General Gregg's departure.
Captain George L. Brinkerhoff, of Company B, who had been serving on General Gregg's staff, on returning from his home in Cuba, whither he had been on leave of absence, was found dead in his bed at a Philadelphia hotel. The following brief announcement of the sad event appeared in the associated press dispatches :
PHILADELPHIA, March 10, 1865 .- Captain George L. Brinkerhoff, of the Tenth New York Cavalry, aide to General Gregg, was found dead in his bed at the Con- tinental Hotel this morning.
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244
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
1865
Colonel Avery returned from leave of absence on the 11th, and on the 13th Surgeon Clarke and Assistant-Surgeon Catlin arrived.
On the 27th of March the Cavalry Corps was reunited. General Sheridan, after thoroughly renovating the Shenandoah Valley, took the First and Third Cavalry Divisions and marched overland to the Army of the Potomac.
A "staff-officer " writes of the event as follows :
Next morning, March 27th, we were off bright and early for the left flank of the Army of the Potomac, where we found our old friends of Gregg's cavalry division, from whom we had parted when ordered to the Shenandoah Valley with the other two divisions of the corps; but we missed the golden beard of the im- perturbable General Gregg, who had so admirably commanded this superb division, and who, for some pressing private reasons, had now resigned from the army. On the day of our arrival General Crook assumed command of the division and reported to General Sheridan, thus reuniting the old Cavalry Corps under its most famous commander .*
In anticipation of a successful termination of the campaign about to be opened by General Grant, President Lincoln had established himself at City Point, that he might the more readily receive informa- tion from the front.
General Grant had felt some apprehensions lest General Lee should quietly slip away from his front, and by forced marches unite with General Johnston to try and overcome General Sherman before assistance could reach him. The instructions to General Sheridan were to proceed with the cavalry to Dinwiddie Court-House, to be in readiness to strike the enemy in flank and rear, in which he was to be supported by a corps of infantry. Sheridan was further instructed, in certain contingencies, to march southward and co-operate with General Sherman. This plan was so distasteful to General Sheridan, that he made but a sorry attempt to conceal his disapprobation of it, and General Grant so modified the instructions as to render them practically null and void. Sheridan appears to have been imbued with a desire to repeat his tactics in the Shenanhoah Valley and " end matters up " at once. General Horace Porter, of General Grant's staff, says that General Sheridan, in warming up on the subject of an immediate attack, said, "I tell you I'm ready to strike out to-mor- row and go to smashing things !" +
Reveillé at 3 A. M. on the 20th was evidence that Sheridan was not " twenty miles away." The Tenth was in line, and commenced
* With General Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign, p. 36.
t Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. ii, p. 710.
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245
HARD FIGHTING.
1865
the march with the cavalry at 5 A. M., going via Ream's Station again to Dinwiddie Court-House, where it bivouacked. There was some- thing suggestive in the closing sentence of the order of march from brigade headquarters for this day :
It is not expected that the command will return to the present camp.
It rained hard on the evening of the 30th and all day on the 31st, making it impossible to move artillery. In the afternoon of the 30th the Tenth marched toward Hicks Ford's Station, and bivouacked.
General Fitzhugh Lee, with his division, was on the extreme left of the Confederate army on the 28th. He was hurriedly sent by General Lee to meet the threatened movement against his right, with instruc- tions to assume command of all the cavalry, and such infantry sup- ports as would be sent. But on the evening of the 30th General Pickett assumed command of all the troops to move against Sheridan next morning.
General Sheridan was made aware about dark that not only was the entire Confederate cavalry in his front, but that a large force of infantry as well were in position to dispute his further progress. The whole number has been put down at 5,760 cavalry and 6,600 infantry .*
The brigade of brevet Brigadier-General Charles H. Smith (Colo- nel of the First Maine Cavalry) occupied the extreme left of General. Sheridan's line, and this brigade received the first shock of the Con- federates' desperate assault. On the right of Smith was Gregg's brigade | posted along the low ground, with Davies's brigade joined to their right. The rebels, in greatly superior numbers, swept from the woods and forced General Davies's brigade back toward the right of our line, and then bore down upon Gregg's right flank. But at the same time General Gregg had left his position, and was hastening with his brigade, mounted, to strike the rebels in the rear. After some stubborn fighting Davies's brigade was forced back. The Tenth marched to Dinwiddie Court-House at dark, where the led horses were in waiting.
Captain John P. White writes concerning this fight :
Our brigade faced Pickett's division of the rebel army in a little clearing in the dense woods. They got upon both our flanks, and fired into our led horses, in rear, before attacking us in front. We were compelled to move across the opening and up a hill to attack them. They were behind a fence and in the
* Campaigns of the Civil War, vol. xii, p. 328.
t Colonel Gregg had been recently brevetted a brigadier-general.
246
1805
HISTORY OF THE TENTH REGIMENT OF CAVALRY.
woods. They poured a hot fire into us, and we were compelled to get out of there lively, and there wasn't much order in our going, either. Some of the boys came out of the woods where our infantry line was, away to the. right. Custer, who had been back with the trains, came up in the evening, and joined us in the charge. He repeated his old band-on-the-line tactics, and while they played we cheered. We then held our own.
Next morning I was sent to communicate with our infantry. It was raining hard, and the creek was much swollen. I was compelled to swim across, where I found the Fifth Corps.
Sergeant L. A. Colburn, of Company A, writes, in regard to the Dinwiddie fight:
Our Regiment was sent in dismounted at Dinwiddie Court-House on the 31st of March, and early in the fight occupied the extreme left. We were fighting superior numbers, and the rebels soon got on our flanks. We fell back without much regard for formation. At this time I was struck by a minié-ball, which stretched me upon the ground. I tried to get up, but could not. The rebels were following close upon us, and I expected to fall into their hands. While in this helpless condition Sergeant John P. McWethy, of Company A, passed, not recog- nizing me at first. Turning to take a second look he exclaimed, " My God, Lew ! is this you ?" I tried to persuade him to go on and make his escape and leave me to my fate. I told him I was badly wounded and he could not get me away, and that he would be killed or captured if he tried. He replied that he would share my fate then, as he would not leave me, but would get me off if possible. He loosened my belt and lifted me to my feet, but I'could help myself but little. Jack trudged slowly along with his heavy burden, while the bullets whistled past and were striking the trees all around us. He stuck to nie till he got me into an ambulance and then bade me good-by. I never returned to the Regiment. The conflict had ceased and peace had been restored before I was able to leave the hospital.
Edward Adams (Albert E. A. Engle), of Company I, says, in re- gard to the Dinwiddie fight :
We were in a field, with woods on every side. When the command came to dismount and prepare to fight on foot I was given the horses of three of my com- rades to hold besides my own. Just as our boys scaled a fence the Confederates opened a hot fire on them, and back they came, every man grabbing a horse irre- spective of ownership ; but the three comrades whose horses I was holding each secured his own horse in the scramble. Here Captain Charles E. Pratt was wounded. The order having been given to fall back, I was compelled to ride be- tween the fence and a large tree. The three horses I had been holding were hitched to each other by the bridles, and as part of them went on one side of the tree and part on the other, the passage of the troops in the retreat was stopped. I pulled the ones between the fence and tree back, thus freeing them, just as a rebel made his appearance on the opposite side of the fence. In the rain of bul- lets which followed I was wounded in the right foot, but, the horses being now free, we continued to fall back and I escaped.
1865 DISSOLUTION OF THE HOUSE OF DAVIS NEAR AT HAND. 247
The dissolution of the rebel Army of Northern Virginia began with the arrival of Sheridan and spring. With the desire to " finish up the job," which was a striking characteristic of the man, Sheridan had wasted no time after uniting his forces-cavaliers fresh from scenes of glorious victories-with the Army of the Potomac. The second day after his arrival he was leading these veterans, reunited with their tried and trusted associates of Gregg's division, against the doomed battalions of Lee with an impetuosity and boldness that struck terror to the hearts of the Confederate leaders, who had seen Early's fine army vanish before his irresistible onslaughts.
Dinwiddie was the skirmish or "feeler" that preceded the im- pending storm. The Confederates had met the first advance with becoming gallantry, and now, after Sheridan's troopers had got their second wind-for it can hardly be denied that they got a little the worst of it at Dinwiddie-they were prepared to take the initiative under the inspiration of their leader that would insure "handsome results " in the near future.
The morning of April 1st was foggy. General Warren had been ordered to Sheridan's assistance the night before, and was expected to open the ball on the flank and rear of the Confederates. But time passed, and no attack. Meantime Merritt's and Custer's troops were " feeling " the enemy and doing some fighting until evening, when, the Fifth Corps having arrived, it was in conjunction with the cavalry moved against the enemy at Five Forks. The fighting be- came very heavy and was continued through the night. Prisoners in sufficient numbers to start a fair-sized if not a respectable Con- federacy were brought in. Sheridan had evidently struck a soft spot in the rebel line and was pushing things in his characteristic manner.
Ten o'clock, Sunday morning, April 2d, found the Tenth en route for the South Side Railroad. The night had been a tumultuous one. The cannonading, at times, fairly shock the earth. General Grant had ordered a general assault of the Confederate lines at 2 A. M., but as some of the commanding officers were not ready, a delay of two hours was granted, during which the artillery were ordered to con- tinue a heavy cannonading.
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