USA > New York > Services of the Tenth New York Volunteers (National Zouaves,) in the War of the Rebellion > Part 12
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161
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
Early on the morning of December 11th, the sound of heavy artillery aroused the army. Gen. Burnside had opened fire upon the city and the defences behind it with 163 guns. The continuous booming of heavy pieces reverberated to the camp of French's division, which was located between one and two miles from Falmouth, and orders were received by the Tenth to be in readiness for what was generally expected to be severe work. Nearly all day the siege artillery in position opposite Fredericksburg belched forth its thunders, shelling the houses and streets, in order to drive from their concealment the Rebel sharpshooters who covered the river with their rifles. Under cover of this storm of shot and shell the construction of pontoon bridges was begun directly fronting the city and also about three miles below. The next morning (Friday), after some perilous work and most daring bravery on the part of several hundred men of the 7th Michigan and 19th and 20th Massachusetts, a foothold was gained on the Fred- ericksburg side, and the advance force drove the remain- ing Rebel skirmishers from the houses. Couch's Second Corps immediately crossed, and skirmishers were ad- vaneed to and beyond the outskirts, while the regiments bivouacked in the streets, remaining inactive during the remainder of the day.
The weather grew colder towards night. Nearly all the officers of the National Zouaves were quartered to- gether in a comfortable and nicely-furnished house, and made themselves at home during the hours when they could be spared from duty with their command. The house seemed to have been hastily deserted, and catables were plentiful, while books were strewn around in the
11
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
various rooms, and the articles of luxury and knick- nacks, which were plentifully abundant, proved that the former occupants of the house were anything but needy. As little damage as possible was done by the temporary tenants, and, if the owner had dropped in and taken possession on the next day, he would, undoubtedly, have concluded that the Yankee officers were hardly as bar- barous in their ways as he had suspected, although books were perhaps on the floors, where they had been hastily dropped, and mattresses had been dragged from the bedsteads to make extempore resting places in the halls and other unusual places.
The regiment bivouacked in open air. Fires were built and around these clusters of the men congregated, using an unprecedented amount of flour in making slap- jacks, and commenting upon the events of the day and what might take place on the morrow. "Skirmishing" for apple-jack and tobacco had been going on during the afternoon and evening, and the latter luxury was more plentiful in the Tenth than it had ever been before. Many filled the breasts of their blouses with the hard pressed cakes, and in several cases severe wounds were prevented, during the action of the following day, in consequence of bullets striking the plugs, and grazing them, or being imbedded in the tobacco, causing the bearer nothing worse than a severe knock down or tem- porary stunning.
Sumner's and Franklin's grand divisions had both crossed the river and were in position (the latter below the city), but a heavy fog had obscured the view a great part of the day and movements of troops were made with uncertainty. It was not until evening (12th) that a general council of war was held, and Gen. Burnside
163
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
submitted his plan for the general attack. It comprised a simultaneous advance of our whole line upon the strong positions on the hills in front of the right and left grand divisions-assaulting the works suddenly with select bodies of troops. The necessary instructions were given to the corps commanders to commence the movement with daylight of the next day.
Saturday morning (13th) came. and the dense fog still hovered around the city and adjacent country. Gen. Sumner had selected French's division for the advance · of the attacking column on the right ; but it was nearly or quite noon before the fog had cleared away and the necessary preparations were completed. Then Kimball's brigade (the First) advanced, followed by the Third Bri- gade, commanded by Col. J. W. Andrews, in which was the Tenth New York. This was in turn followed by the Second Brigade, under Col. Palmer, of the 108th New York Volunteers.
The division. in its passage through the city, was necessarily obliged to march in columns through paral- lel streets, partly in view of the enemy, whose batteries opened upon the regiments immediately. Col. Bendix, in command of the Tenth, was here wounded in the throat by a splinter or fragment of a shell. Lieut .- Col. Marshall and Maj. Missing were absent-the former being in command of the brigade pioneers, who were employed in constructing roads-and the command of the regiment devolved upon Capt. Winchester, the next ranking officer. Upon reaching open ground, orders were given to deploy by brigades, and although fences and other obstacles prevented as speedy an execution of the order as was desirable, the brigades formed and advanced
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
up the slope, while a direct and enfilading fire was doing great execution in the ranks. *
The ascent of Marye's Hill was not very abrupt, but, before going a great way, it was possible to overlook the adjacent country for some distance. A writer says : "Above Marye's Hill is an elevated plateau, which com- mands it. The hill is part of a long, bold ridge on which the declivity leans, stretching from Falmouth to Massa- ponax Creek, six miles. Its summit was shaggy and rough with the earthworks of the Confederates, and was crowned by their artillery. The stone wall on Marye's . height was their coign of vantage, held by the brigades of Cobb and Kershaw, of MeLaw's division. On the semi- circular crest above, and stretching far on either hand, was Longstreet's corps, forming the left of the Confede- rate line. The guns of the enemy commanded and swept the streets which led out to the heights." The deployment and advance of the National Zouaves was very much impeded by a canal and other obstructions, and, while endeavoring to retain connection with the brigade, they were particularly subjected to a severe flank fire from a battery of the enemy, but gained a posi- tion on the rising ground which was retained for some time-artillery and musketry from the enemy's works meanwhile playing havoc in the ranks. Capt. Winchester here fell, mortally wounded by a shell. At a moment when the main portion of the regiment were lying flat upon the ground, in order to shield themselves as much as possible from the enemy's fierce cannonade, Winches-
* " Our artillery being in position, opened fire as the masses became dense enough to warrant it. This fire was very destructive and Jemoralizing in its effects. and frequently made gaps in the enemy's ranks that could be seen at the distance of a mile."-Longstreet's Report of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
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STORMING OF MARYE'S HEIGHTS,
ter daringly remained upon his feet, insisting that while in command of the regiment he "would stand until he was knocked down."
The command now fell to Capt. Geo. F. Hopper, of Company H, a cool and determined officer. Minutes passed which seemed hours to our harassed and com- paratively helpless regiment, and then another forward movement of the brigade was made to the ground where Gen. Kimball's regiments had been struggling to advance. Here there was opportunity to reach the enemy with musketry, and, although it was impossible to gain their works, our men busily used their pieces, in defiance of the storm of iron which smote them from the front and triangularly from the right and left. Capt. Newburgh was badly wounded, as was First-Lient. Morrell. Capt. Chamberlain and First-Lieuts. Tait and Cunningham were also disabled, and Second-Lient. Yardley was killed.
The Second Brigade, after a time, came up in its turn to the support of the First and Third, but the increasing number of devoted regiments sent towards the crest of the battle-swept hill, merely added their quota to the hundreds of dead and dying. There seemed still no earthly chance of capturing the Rebel position, against which our brigades had advanced with heads bent to the fiery rain which came from the concealed regiments of Confederate troops. About an hour had passed, and now Ilancock's division advanced, with cheering regiments and waving colors, and French's entire division was gradually withdrawn-its brigades being reformed in or near the city.
We have made the following extracts from a graphic sketch of the battle, originally contributed to the Phila-
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
delphia Weekly Times by Judge D. Watson Rowe, of Chambersburg, Pa., who served with distinction in the engagement, as lieutenant-colonel of the 126th Pennsyl- vania. Regiment. The extracts are particularly vivid, and directly relate to the forlorn hope advance of the divi- sion of Gen. French :
" Between a canal and the foot of the ridge was a level plot of flat even ground, a few hundred yards in width. This restricted space afforded what opportunity there was to form in order of battle. A division massed on this narrow plain was a target for Lee's artillery, which eut fearful swaths in the dense and compact ranks. Below and to the right were fences, which impeded the advance of the charging lines. Whatever division was assigned the task of carrying Marye's Hill, debouched from the town. crossed the canal, traversed the narrow level, and formed under cover of a sharp rise of ground at the foot of the heights.
"At the word, suddenly ascending this bank, they pressed for- ward up the hill for the stone wall and the crest beyond. * +
French's division was the first to rush to the assault. When it emerged from cover and burst out on the open, in full view of the enemy, it was greeted with a frightful fiery eruption from all his batteries on the circling summit. The ridge concen- trated upon it the convergent fire of all its enginery of war. You might see at a mile the lanes made by the cannon balls in the ranks. You might see a bursting shell throw up into the air a cloud of earth and dust, mingled with the limbs of men. The batteries in front of the devoted division thundered against it. To the right, to the left, cannon were answering each other in a tremendous battle chorus, the burden of which was-
** Welcome to these madmen about to die !'
"The advancing column was a focus, the point of cencentra- tion of an are-almost a semi-circle-of destruction. It was a centre of attraction of all deadly missiles. At that moment, that single division was going up alone in battle against the Southern Confederacy, and was being pounded to pieces. It continued to go up, nevertheless, towards the stone wall, towards the crest above.
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STORMING OF MARYE'S HEIGHTS.
With lips more firmly pressed together, the men closed up their ranks and pushed forward. The storm of battle increased its fury upon them ; the crash of musketry mingled with the roar of ord- nance from the peaks. The stone wall and the rifle pits added their terrible treble to the deep bass of the bellowing ridge. The rapid discharge of small arms poured a continuous rain of bullets in their faces ; they fell down by tens, by scores, by hundreds.
" When they had gained a large part of the distance, the storni developed into a hurricane of ruin. The division was blown back as if by a breath of hell's door suddenly opened, shattered, disor- dered, pell mell, down the declivities, amid the shouts and yells of the enemy, which made the horrid din demoniac. Until then the division seemed to be contending with the wrath of brute and material forces bent on its annihilation. This shout recalled the human agency in all the turbulence and fury of the scene. The division of French fell back ; that is to say, one-half of it. It suf- fered a loss of nearly half its numbers.
"Hancock immediately charged with five thousand men, vete- ran regiments, led by tried commanders. They saw what had happened ; they knew what would befall them. They advanced up the hill ; the bravest were found dead within twenty-five paces of the stone wall ; it was slaughter, havoc, carnage. In fifteen minutes they were thrown back, with a loss of two thousand- unprecedented severity of loss. Hancock and French, repulsed from the stone wall, would not quit the hill altogether. Their divisions lying down on the earth, literally clung to the ground they had won. These valiant men, who could not go forward, would not go back. All the while the batteries on the heights raged and stormed at them. * **
"And now the sun had set; twilight had stolen out of the west and spread her veil of dusk; the town, the flat, the hill, the ridge, lay under the ' cireling canopy of night's extended shade.' Dark- ness and gloom had settled down upon the Phillips House, over on the Stafford Heights, where Burnside would after a while hold his council of war."
Howard's division had been sent to the support of French and Hancock, and Sturgis' and Getty's divisions,
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
of the Ninth Corps, advanced on the left of the Second Corps, making attacks but gaining no ground. Hum- phrey's division, of Gen. Hooker's command, made the final attack towards dusk with unloaded muskets. They advanced, however, no further than the troops that pre- ceded them, and were thrown swiftly back with the loss of nearly half of their number.
After dark the last brigades of the Second Corps were withdrawn to the city. The ambulance corps was now busy in its sad occupation of succoring the wounded, and burial parties were detailed to hide from sight the bodies of the hundreds who had fallen in death. Portions of the Fifth and Ninth Corps had relieved the Second, and they prepared to face a long night's vigil. The constant picket firing and occasional cannonading proved that the enemy were awake and inclined to follow up their success as closely as possible.
The writer above quoted describes the scenes in the city, after the Second Corps had been ordered back from the extreme front, as follows :
"The troops were withdrawn from the front, and rosted on their arms in the streets. Some sat on the curbstones, meditating, looking gloomily at the ground ; others lay on the pavement, try- ing to forget the events of the day in sleep. There was little said ; deep dejection burdened the spirits of all. The incidents of the battle were not rehearsed, except now and then. Always when any- one spoke, it was of a slain comrade-of his virtues, or of the manner of his death ; or of one missing, with many conjectures respecting him. Some of them, it was said, had premonitions, and went into the battle not expecting to survive the day. This they lay or sat. The conversation was with bowel head and in a low manner, ending in a sigh. * * * * *
" It was December and cold. There were no camp fires, but no one mentioned the cold : it was not noticed. Steadily the wounded
·
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LOSSES OF THE TENTH.
were carried by to the hospitals near the river. The hospitals were a harrowing sight ; full, crowded, nevertheless patients were brought in constantly. Down stairs, up-stairs, every room full. Surgeons, with their coats off and sleeves rolled up above, their elbows; sawed off limbs or administered anæesthetics. They took off a leg or an arm in a twinkling, after a brief consultation. It seemed to be, in case of doubt-off with his limb. But the sights and scenes in a field hospital are not to be minutely described."
The Tenth Regiment had taken less than two hundred officers and men into action. The two companies (Band D) on provost duty, and a number of men left in camp for want of shoes and clothing, made heavy inroads in its fighting strength.
Capt. Geo. F. Hopper, still in command of the regi- ment on the 18th, reported officially on that date to the Adjutant-General, at Washington, that " Twelve officers went into action, only three of whom escaped uninjured," and that the total loss of the regiment, in killed, wounded and missing, was 67.
Owing to Capt. Hopper's care in preserving in the regimental letter-book a copy of his report, we are en- abled to insert a complete list of the wounded in the Appendix, where will also be found the names of the missing (not heard from).
The following are the names of the killed and of those who died of wounds received :
Company A: Corp. Wm. C. Burger; Private Thomas J. Dwyer.
Company F: Capt. Salmon Winchester ; Privates George A. G. Thompson, Thomas Flanagan.
Company G : Second-Lieut. James M. Yardley : Pri- vates Napoleon B. Mead, William H. MeGce.
Company H : Corp. John Morris.
.
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
Company I : Private Phillip Reetner (or Rightner).
Company K : First-Lieut. Francis A. Morrell ; Pri- vate Dominick Plunkett.
Total, 12.
Corp. Dick Webb, of Company A, was one of those "missing in action." Ile enlisted with the writer of this volume, and was an earnest soldier and a staunch friend. Odd and eccentric at times, he had a never-failing supply of humor and a keen sense of the ludicrous side of human nature. Although his resting place is unknown and un- marked, he lives in the remembrance of those surviving comrades who knew him best.
First-Sergt. William A. MacNulty, of the same com- pany, was terribly wounded by a fragment of shell, the missile tearing his right arm almost entirely from the shoulder. He had always been a marvelous bundle of nerves and courage, and, upon receiving his wound, he displayed his characteristics to a wonderful extent, coolly walking through the hail of projectiles to the rear, with his arm hanging by the torn muscles, and reaching the field hospital with no additional injury. Amputation was immediately resorted to, and the surgeons gave him little encouragement. He, however, maintained the stoicism which he had already exhibited in such a marked degree, and ultimately recovered from the wound. *
Lieut. Theodore HI. Rogers had been detailed to the staff of Col. Andrews, commanding the Third Brigade, and was severely wounded while in the discharge of his duty in that positiou.
* Sergt. MacNulty was afterwards (May oth. 19 41 commisioned as second- lieutenant Veteran Reserve Corps, and breveted first-hentenant and captain, serv- ing after the war and until January, 1808, as agent and superintendent of Freed- men's affairs in Virginia.
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LOSSES OF THE TENTH.
Color-Sergt. Geo. W. Petit, of Company I, who bore the regimental flag, eseaped uninjured, although he had some close colls. His color did not escape so easily, showing unmistakable marks of the conflict through which it had passed. *
Capt. Salmon Winchester, mortally wounded in this battle, was a brave officer and a man of good heart and clear head. He was born in New Hampshire, in 1829, being thirty-three years of age at his death, and had been prominent before the war in temperance move- ments and also in masonry. In 1861 he was eager and enthusiastic to enter the service, assisting in recruiting his company for the National Zouaves ; and subsequent- ly, as an officer, was prompt to perform every duty re- quired-respectful to his superiors and generous to his subordinates. He was, in addition, extremely modest and retiring in his manner, and gained the esteem of all who came in contact with him. At the request of Capt. Hopper, made to headquarters, on the 17th (the day after Capt. Winchester's death), Sergt. Wm. J. Chin and Private Adolph Clavell, of Company F, were de- tailed to accompany the body of their captain to Brook- lyn, N. Y., and the remains now rest in Greenwood.
* Correspondence of the New York World. December 24th, 1862: " The well- known Tenth Regiment N. Y. S. Volunteers, commanded by Col. John E. Bendix and attached to French's division, encountered hard fighting and severe loss in the fight of December 13th. Col. Bendix was wounded at the commencement of the action and the regiment was taken into the field by Capt. Winchester. They were in the second line, as a support to Kimball's brigade. * *
* * The Rebels had a splendid raking fire upon them from a heavy battery on a hill to the right. Capt. Winchester was mortally wounded, and the regiment was badly cut up before they were ordered to the front. They were finally moved to the extreme front, under command of ( apt. Hopper, where they fought the enemy for an hour,
until relieved by Howard's and Hancock's troops, * * * * Gen. French said of thein : * The T'enth New York were magnificent to-day: no troops ever stood fire better or longer than they.'"
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
By the death of Lieut. James M. Yardley, the regi- ment lost another brave officer, hardly more than twenty- one years of age; recently promoted from the ranks, and the support of his widowed mother.
First-Lieut. Francis A. Morrell died at Seminary Hospital, Georgetown, on the 14th day of February, from the wound he had received. Lieut. Morrell was transferred to the Tenth in the fall of 1861, and was soon afterwards made second-lientenant by Col. Bendix. He was subsequently promoted to the grade he filled when wounded.
Gen. Franklin's Grand Division on the left, compris- ing some 40,000 men, was much delayed in its movements on account of the morning mist ; and also, it has been alleged, by the late reception of necessary orders. Gen. Franklin was reinforced by a portion of Gen. Ilooker's command, his force aggregating altogether about one- half of the entire army. It was about nine, A. M., when Gen. Reynolds' corps advanced. Gen. Meade's division then gallantly pushed ahead, supported in time by Birney's and Gibbon's divisions ; but no definite result was attained until at about one o'clock-Meade then crushing the Confederate brigades of Archer and Lane and taking some two hundred prisoners. Later, reinfore- ing divisions arrived for the enemy, and our forces were driven back with heavy loss. Reynolds was assisted in the afternoon by Sickles' division, of Gen. Hooker's command, but Gen. W. F. Smith's corps (about 21,000 strong) was not sent in, remaining nearer to Fredericks- burg, and becoming but slightly engaged. Endeavors were again made, during the afternoon, to force the enemy's lines, but were unsuccessful. The strong Rebel position on Marye's Heights called for comparatively
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LOSSES OF THE ARMY.
few troops for defence, and allowed Gen. Lee to con- centrate a heavy force against Franklin. Thus Gen. Burnside was repulsed from right to left of his line.
Lieut .- Col. Marshall, of the Tenth, assumed com- mand of the Third Brigade after the battle, he then being the ranking field officer. Col. Andrews, of the 1st Delaware Volunteers, in command at the commence- ment of the action, had been disabled. On Sunday night, the 14th, the Second Corps was withdrawn across the pontoons to the Falmouth side of the river, and, within a day or two, the entire army had left the Fredericksburg side and returned to its former camps along and to the rear of Stafford Heights.
The loss of the Army of the Potomac had been very severe. Official returns stated it to be as follows: Gen. Hooker, 3,548; Gen. Franklin, 4,679 (of which 1,531 were prisoners) ; Gen. Sumner, 5,494 ; Engineers, 50. The total amounting to 13,771. The enemy's loss was said to be only half that number. The Confederate positions were strongly intrenched from right to left, and lavishly supplied with artillery, while our own field batteries were fought at great disadvantage.
Gen. Burnside, in his official dispatch to Maj .- Gen. Halleck, said : "For the failure in the attack I am responsible, as the extreme gallantry, courage and en- durance shown by them (the officers and soldiers) were never exceeded, and would have carried the points had it been possible. To the families and friends of the dead I can only offer my heartfelt sympathy; but for the wounded I can offer my earnest prayers for their comfortable and final recovery."
The following is the official report of Col. Andrews, commanding the Third Brigade of French's division :
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THE NATIONAL ZOUAVES.
WILMINGTON, DEL., December 27th, 1862.
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