USA > New York > Dutchess County > The "Dutchess county regiment" (150th regiment of New York state volunteer infantry) in the Civil War; > Part 11
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Of course in the morning it found itself lying under the guns of one of our batteries, and was obliged to im- mediately surrender.
We also got large quantities of oysters and fish from the river near the city, which helped out the army rations beautifully, and the regiment was once more in fine mettle for another campaign, which was soon to begin.
CHAPTER XIV. FROM SAVANNAH TO GOLDSBOROUGH.
By SAMUEL H. PAULDING.
"Obey Orders"-Enemy Retreats-Surrender of City-Pursuit of Enemy-Cold and Wet -Dry Inside !- Destruction of Railroads-Flooded Swamps-Corduroyed Roads-Foraging-Battle of Averasborough-Death of Lieuten- ant Sleight-Battle of Bentonville-A New Base.
One of the first things a soldier has to learn is to "obey orders." I have practically been " ordered " to write a chapter for the forthcoming volume of the his- tory of our old regiment, and I will " obey " to the best of my ability.
By the aforesaid order, I am to take up the story "From Savannah to Goldsborough." By December 17, 1864, General Sherman had the City of Savannah so far invested that he made a demand upon General Hardee to surrender, which was promptly declined. Find- ing that there was still one avenue of escape open to Hardee he visited Hilton Head to secure the services of General Foster and his command, and to throw his forces across the Charleston road and thus close the last avenue of escape for General Hardee and his forces, leaving an order that no attack should be made during his absence. From this distance this order was one of the few mistakes General Sherman made as a military leader.
During the night of December 20 (1864), the move- ment of troops and wagons across a pontoon bridge from
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Savannah to the South Carolina side were distinctly heard by the troops nearest this bridge, and it was instinctively known that General Hardee was evacuating Savannah. After the rumbling of wagons had ceased General Geary, Commander of the 3rd Division of the 20th Corps, ordered his pickets forward along "the Augusta road in the darkness of a moonless night and entered Savannah at four-thirty (4:30) A. M., December 21st. On reach- ing the city limits they were met by the Mayor and a delegation of citizens bearing a flag of truce," and the city was formally surrendered to the Union forces.
During the four weeks (more or less) that we re- mained near Savannah, our regiment was never camped within the city limits, but the distance was so short and passes were so freely given, that whether encamped within the city or without made but little difference to us. Especially as we had been allowed to build very com- fortable houses 10 feet long, 8 feet wide and 5 feet high at the sides, with the materials found in an adjacent and well-stored brickyard, and from the boards of de- serted buildings.
We remained in these comfortable quarters until Jan- uary 17 (1865), when we marched through the City of Savannah and crossed the Savannah River at 10 A. M. to the South Carolina side as a beginning to the new campaign to the North.
We marched some six or seven miles and camped near Hardeeville, on the Savannah and Charleston R. R. About this time Major Smith received his commission as lieutenant-colonel. With the exception of a few days he had been in command of the regiment since it left At- lanta. Colonel Ketcham was on his way North in con-
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sequence of the severe wound he had received on Argyle Island.
During January 19th and 20th it rained incessantly, and as we were without shelter, our clothing and blankets were continually saturated for nearly forty-eight (48) hours. Notwithstanding we were suffering from the cold and wet on the outside, our throats were very dry and hot.
I remember that during the second day of the rain, our adjutant, Captain Cruger, came to see me. Like the rest of us he was saturated with the rain and shivering with the cold. He had not fully regained his strength from the terrible wound he had received at Resaca. He told me he felt very badly and asked me if I had any " commissary " (a name given to the whiskey supplied by the Government), or knew where he could get a little. I told him I had none of it with me and the only thing of the kind I knew of was a little peach brandy I had in my grip in the headquarters wagon, but I didn't know where that was.
I gave him my key and told him if he could find it he would be welcome to it. He took the key and started on a voyage of discovery. The next day he returned the key, and said be believed the drink he obtained had saved his life.
Quite a long time afterwards, I think it was near Golds- borough, I found that there was just enough left in the flask to save another life, that of your humble servant.
With one other incident in this connection I will close the subject and leave the question to scientists as to whether " Alcohol is a food," or simply a stimulant and intoxicant.
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It happened the day of our march to Averasborough. We all remember that march in the rain and cold, high wind, until some time after midnight. I had a working squad called a " detail " under my command making corduroy roads. It was March 15 (1865), and I was wet, cold and feeling pretty blue, when a brigadier-gen- eral, commanding one of the brigades in our division, came out to inspect the work, and complimented me for doing so well on such a bad day. I thanked him for this expression of his opinion, and told him I had had a pretty hard day of it. He told me if I would go back with him to his quarters he would furnish me with that which in his opinion I most needed. Well! I do not suppose any old soldier would have thought of arguing against such a proposition coming from such a source. It is needless to say I went with him and my life was saved again.
For thirty or forty miles up the northerly side of the Savannah River our line of march was nearly parallel to it and transports, convoyed by gunboats, constituted our base of supplies.
Thus far it had been made to appear that our corps (the 20th) was making Augusta its objective point, while the 17th Corps was pointing towards Charleston, at both of which places the Confederates had gathered all the forces they could to defend them. But this was a ruse of " Uncle Billy's " to keep the way clear over the course he really had selected.
We left Robertsville on February 2nd and until February I Ith we worked our way slowly towards Augusta, tearing up and destroying the railroads leading to that place. This was done by a file of men, perhaps a hundred (per- haps five hundred) in number, lining up beside the road
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and turning over a section of the road as long as the file of men. The rails were then separated from the ties, the latter set on fire, and the rails piled on and heated until they became red-hot, and then taken and wound around the nearest tree or telegraph pole, and given a peculiar twist which renders them useless forever after.
According to the best of my memory we destroyed over thirty miles of this railroad, and until we were within about fifty miles of Augusta. Right here I will say that the course pursued to this railroad was adopted to all those we crossed between Savannah and Golds- borough, thus making railroad communications between the extreme east and the middle west impossible.
The last village I can remember in or near which we encamped while destroying the railroad was named Branchville, from which on February 1Ith we started across the country for Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, distant " As the crow flies " about seventy-five miles and near which we arrived on February 17th. Our regiment did not pass through the city, but a mile or two to the right of it, therefore whoever was re- sponsible for starting the fire that nearly destroyed it, no one may accuse the 150th of doing it.
There are numerous small rivers between the Savannah and the City of Columbia. Owing to its being the rainy season, they were all too deep to be forded, and as all the bridges had been destroyed in our advance we had to cross them on pontoons.
The marshes or swamps were also very numerous, and retarded our progress much more than the rivers did. Some of them were several miles in length (or breadth) with the mire in places so soft that a fox would have
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had hard work to have crossed them without getting stuck in the mud.
In order that our regiment (and Corps) could traverse these the route had to be corduroyed. A corduroy road is made by felling trees, cutting them into suitable lengths (usually about 12 feet, as I remember), laying them side by side across the proposed route, thus forming a very rough roadway. Over this the cavalry and infantry marched and the ambulances, baggage wagons, artillery wagons with their heavy caissons, and all other vehicles attached to a great army, were drawn, almost exclusively by mules. From my experience and observation, I be- lieve the mule is the surest footed animal living.
A team of six mules (driven with one line) would take any one of these heavily laden vehicles (averaging at least two tons each) across these corduroys, stepping from log to log with accuracy, seldom making a mistake.
It seems hardly worth while to follow the daily course of the regiment in its march to Columbia. One day was as much like another as " two peas in the same pod;" all stormy, cold and disagreeable, although, if I remember rightly, we did have one or two fair days out of the seven.
February 18th we lay in camp all day in the vicinity of Columbia, but at dark took up our line of march again. Our next objective point proved to be Fayetteville, N. C., about eighty miles above Wilmington, N. C., at the head of steamboat navigation, on the Cape Fear River.
As Fort Fisher, the key to Wilmington, had been captured several weeks before we expected to find there a new base of supplies. In this we were not disappointed. In our march from Savannah thus far our principal sub-
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sistence was from our foragers. When we started from Savannah we had twenty days' rations, and seven days' forage in our wagon trains. As it had taken us nearly two months to make the journey we had to live off the country, if we lived at all, and we did and lived fairly well too. The distance from Columbia to Fayetteville in a straight line is about one hundred and fifty miles, and by the route we took was probably over two hundred miles.
The obstacles we encountered on this long march were very similar to those we encountered between Savannah and Columbia; rivers to pontoon, marshes to corduroy, cold spring rains to soak us, and cold winds to dry us again. The nights as I remember them were worse than the days, sleeping or trying to sleep on the wet ground was not pleasant. We thought ourselves in luck when we could recline against a big tree and thus pass the night. As I look back to this march I sometimes wonder that any of us lived through it, but as I remember, there was but very little severe sickness. Several times on the march the rebels attempted to check our advance, but we brushed them aside, usually very easily.
We reached Fayetteville on the 11th of March at 9 P. M. and remained in camp all the next day, during which we heard the whistle of a steamboat down the river, and as it was the first Union vessel to arrive since the fall of Fort Fisher, the sound was very pleasant. It was the occasion of much cheering. It brought us among other things, letters from home, the first we had received since leaving Savannah, nearly two months before.
We did not tarry long at Fayetteville. We broke camp on the 13th, crossed the Cape Fear River and
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started for Goldsborough. The swamps and rivers in our course to this place were fully as difficult to cross as they had been since we left the Savannah River. Besides these, several times before reaching Averasborough, we were confronted by the Confederate forces in quite formidable numbers. General "Joe " Johnston, who opposed us from Chattanooga to Atlanta, had been rein- stated and had gathered considerable remnants of the army he formerly commanded, and which had been so nearly exterminated under General Hood by General Thomas at Nashville, had united his force with that of General Hardee and together they opposed our progress toward our destination in every conceivable way.
It is hard work to whip an enemy when you have to pontoon a river and corduroy a road that leads up to the fortifications, but we did it without any serious loss until we came to Averasborough. Here the enemy had chosen a very strong position between two rivers to prevent being flanked, and had thoroughly fortified it and which had to be taken before we could proceed.
The first intimation we had of this was on March 15th, when an orderly came riding back and informed us that General Kilpatrick's cavalry had met the enemy in force a few miles in advance, and was being sorely pressed. Our corps had orders to go to his relief. This was about 8 P. M., and we started again but did not reach General Kilpatrick's lines until long after midnight.
By 6 A. M. on the 16th we were in line of battle and fought nearly all day. It was the longest, and in some respects, the hardest engagement our regiment was ever in. It lasted from just after daylight until three or four
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o'clock in the afternoon, some nine or ten hours of steady fighting.
It was during this battle that Lieutenant Sleight was killed. He was one of the most loved, respected and best liked officers in the regiment and his death was mourned by everyone who knew him. We buried him the next morning in a garden attached to a house used as a hospital, from which in due course of time he was removed and buried in a cemetery near his birthplace in Dutchess County.
During the night of the 16th the enemy "skedaddled" and the battle of Averasborough was over. In history, it will not go down as a very important one, but it was a very important one to Sherman's army. General Grant in his memoirs does not mention it at all, but General Sherman in his, gives it three or four pages.
The conditions were these :- the rations for the men and the forage for the animals were very nearly ex- hausted, and there was no time to be lost in getting to a new base of supplies, the nearest being Goldsborough. An army without rations or forage is of very little ac- count.
On March 18th we started again for Goldsborough. Heretofore our course lay almost due north, but now it was due east.
On the 19th the enemy attempted to stop the 14th Corps in our advance at Bentonville, and our regiment was among the number that helped to dislodge them and brush them out of our way. By the orders of General Sherman our fight was mostly on the defensive, as he was very anxious that Johnston's army should be held
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at this point until some of the other corps of his com- mand should capture Goldsborough.
On the morning of March 20th we found the enemy had deserted Bentonville and we started again for Golds- borough, which we entered on the 24th, after heavy skirmishing a considerable portion of the way.
Colonel Fox in his history of "Slocum and his Men " says, "From Savannah to Goldsborough the trains of the 20th Corps moved four hundred and fifty-six miles, as recorded by the odometers, three-fifths of which miles had to be corduroyed. In addition to this arduous task, and the labor of lifting wagons that were mired or over- turned, the men in the 20th destroyed thirty-two miles of railroad along their route."
He also gives the names of the towns the Corps passed through. "From Robertsville by way of Lawtonville, Blackville, Allendale, Buford's Bridge, Big and Little Salkehatchie Rivers, Graham's Station, Duncan's Bridge, South and North Forks of Edisto River, Jones' Cross Roads, Columbia Cross Roads, Lexington, Saluda River, Oakville, Broad and Little Rivers, Winnsborough, Catawha River, Hanging Rock, Chesterfield Court House, Great Pedee River, and Cheraw in South Carolina;" and by way of Fayetteville, Cape Fear River, Averasbor- ough, Black River, Bentonville, Neuse River to Golds- borough.
Nearly all of these names will sound very familiar to the ears of the surviving members of the old regiment.
CHAPTER XV. FROM GOLDSBOROUGH HOME.
By MILES K. LEWIS.
Close of the "Hardest Campaign"-"Pop" Williams-Assassination of the President- Surrender of Lee and Johnston-End of the War-March to Washington- Over Old Battlefields-Grand Review-Home Reception-Enthusi- astic Rejoicing-Pathetic Scenes-"Good Bye."
The war was now practically at an end as far as the Dutchess County Regiment was concerned, though we did not know it at the time. The long winter campaign, without access to any base of supplies, had given us a worn and ragged appearance, but our physical condition, though somewhat reduced by the hardships endured, was better at this time than our clothing, as we had fed on the best that the Carolinas afforded ;- though that was none too good.
In the sixteen or eighteen days of camp which followed we received the supplies of clothing, etc., and enjoyed a much-needed rest from what has been called " The longest and hardest campaign in the entire history of the war." We were then in communication with Newbern, N. C., quite an army being there assembled, including the 14th, 15th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, and 25th Army Corps.
It was here that Captain Woodin, and others that left us at Atlanta, joined us again. It was here also that our Corps, the 20th, hitherto a part of the left wing in Sherman's army, was, under a new adjustment, placed
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in that which was now designated as the "Army of Georgia," with General Joseph A. Mower in command; its Ist Division, whose emblem was the Red Star, being placed under command of General A. S. Williams ;- "Pop" Williams, as he was affectionately referred to in the ranks.
Some one has said, "It is difficult to reconcile this treatment of General Williams with any sense of fairness, honesty, or justice." He had commanded the 20th Army Corps from Atlanta to the sea, and from Savannah to Goldsborough, as well as at Antietam and Gettysburg, with signal ability. As a brigadier-general he outranked every officer in that army, and his commission as briga- dier bore even date with that of General Sherman himself.
He had never missed a battle, or been absent from the army on any campaign, and on every battlefield where his troops were engaged he had displayed striking ability and had achieved marked success. Never was a mistake laid to his charge. But he entered no word of complaint, nor made a sign of dissatisfaction, but cheerfully assumed command of his old division, with which his name had been so long honorably associated.
Referring to my diary again I find the following entry :
"April 9th-The greater part of this army expects to leave this base to-morrow morning at daylight. The orders are to have in haversack ten days' rations of coffee and sugar, three of hardtack, five of salt, and three of salt meat, with fifteen days' rations in the wagons."
On April 12th, when near Smithfield, North Carolina, we received the news of Lee's surrender to General Grant's army. Our army was frantic with joy, and one
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would have supposed from its actions there had been a general order issued to "Do as you please." It cer- tainly was a day of rejoicing, for we felt that the cruel war was near its end, and we were the victors. But what a change soon after! Joy turned to sorrow by the sad news of the assassination of our noble President! During this day we marched about fifteen miles.
April 13th the bugle sounded the "Fall-in" call about four in the morning. This was followed by rapid march- ing, and we reached Raleigh, North Carolina, about two o'clock in the afternoon, finding the U. S. Cavalry in possession of the city. Through several days following this the weather was very sultry, and we were kept con- stantly on the qui vive by flying rumors about flags of truce, and negotiations for the surrender of the enemy's forces under Johnston.
April 15th we moved at 7 A. M., but were soon ordered back to camp again. After many rumors and counter-rumors, and the rejection at Washington of the first articles of surrender, it at last became definitely known that Johnston had actually surrendered, having accepted the same terms from General Sherman that Gen- eral Grant had accorded to Robert E. Lee.
April 29th a general order was read at dress parade that the 14th, 15th, 17th, and 20th Army Corps should proceed to Washington to be mustered out of the service. Soon after this we left Raleigh for Richmond, a distance of 170 miles, which we marched in nine days, making camp near the latter city. May IIth we crossed the James River, passed Libby Prison, Castle Thunder, and other places, all of which we viewed with a far different interest than many of our boys did in days gone by. We
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halted about five miles from Richmond after passing through it, and this camp was visited by a terrific thunder storm.
We soon continued our march towards Washington, stopping betimes at some of the old battlefields so noted in Virginia. On the battlefield of Spottsylvania Court- house we saw thousands of skeletons of the unburied soldiers who fell in that battle a year before. Then we marched over the battlefield of Chancellorsville, where we halted a few hours, giving those of our troops who had fought there in 1863 an opportunity to go over the ground again. May 19th we arrived near Alexandria, Virginia, having marched twelve hundred miles since leaving Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Now the whole army was busy preparing for the grand and final review. May 23rd the Army of the Potomac occupied in marching past the reviewing stand, and on the following morning we crossed the Potomac on the famous long bridge and formed near the Capitol, and at a given signal moved forward for review.
Who were the men who were now to be reviewed, and for the last time? They were the men who had escaped the shot and shell; they were the men who had not suc- cumbed to sickness; they were the men who had defied fatigue. They were the survivors of war's terrible sift- ing. What an army that was!
Charles E. Benton, in his book entitled, "As Seen From the Ranks," refers to that review in the following passage :
"Column after column passed the reviewing stand, not with the quick and mincing steps of militia, but with that far-reaching, swinging stride which had carried its
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men around and through and over the Confederacy, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and northward to Wash- ington again.
"As the artillery rolled along Pennsylvania Avenue its rumbling seemed the long-drawn echoes of the innumerable conflicts of the years gone by. The cavalry, with horses' manes clipped to the crest, rode stirrup to stirrup with an alignment as perfect as that of infantry, and many a nicked and stained sabre was carried proudly to shoulder that day.
"Then followed the ambulances, with the old blood- stained stretchers hanging on their sides, and the rumbling of their wheels seemed like a vast, ghostly procession of the shrieks and groans of that great host of suffering ones, representatives of the nation's blood sacrifice, who had ridden in them, many of them to their last resting- places."
After the army had passed in review we went into camp about five miles north of the city, and some descrip- tion of our life in that camp is given in the following letter of Captain William R. Woodin to the Pough- keepsie Daily Eagle, and published in the issue of June 6, 1865, of that paper :
Camp 150th, Near Washington, D. C., June 1, 1865.
Editors, The Eagle :- The distinguished heroes who make up the military organization known as the 150th New York State Volunteers were in a sadly demoralized condition a few days ago, and to see the mournful countenances of officers and men would have melted a heart of stone; all because the order for muster-out of "Uncle Samuel's " service failed to put in an appearance.
They had read the announcements in your papers of preparations for their reception at home, and the idea that these delightful matters were to be missed was enough to break the heart of every man.
Saturday evening, when glad tidings of great joy came into camp,-
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that the necessary order for muster-out had arrived,-the 150th was herself again. What hilarity! What cheers! ! Our neighbors, the 3rd Wisconsin, and 2nd Massachusetts, must have thought that the usually sedate boys from the Empire State were indulging in a spree of the first magnitude.
We were intoxicated with the thought of being allowed to return to the homes and to the friends we left three weary years ago, and when the men wrapped themselves in their old blankets under their shelter tents that night and listened to "Home, Sweet Home," from the band, while the stars twinkled and danced above them as if they too were glad the war was finished and the soldiers were going home, many a rough and perhaps hardened man honestly thanked God for His goodness, while happy tears crept down his cheeks as he dreamed, with his eyes wide open, of the loved ones waiting for him under the old roof.
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