USA > New York > The Ninth New York heavy artillery : a history of its organization, services in the defe battles, and muster-out, with accounts of life in a rebel prison, personal experiences, names and addresses of surviving members, personal sketches and a complete roster, pt 1 > Part 10
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Headquarters Army of the Potomac,
June 1st, 1864. Major General Wright:
Please give my thanks to Brigadier General Ricketts and his gallant command for the very handsome manner in which they have conducted themselves to-day. The success attained by them is of great importance, and if followed up will materially advance our operations.
GEORGE G. MEADE. Major General Commanding.
In the Ninth, with less than half the regiment engaged. thirteen men were killed, and one officer, Captain Gregory of Company B, fatally wounded; fully a hundred men were wounded, more or less severely, nine fatally. It is claimed that Egbert Cady of Company A was the first one killed, a South Butler boy .*
Henry A. Dudley of the same company was early shot in the arm, and went to the rear. Private D-, though a north- ern man, was in Texas when the war began and was forced into the rebel service. Later, having been captured he was held a prisoner in Camp Chase, Illinois. Having communicated with Wolcott relatives, he was by them gotten out, after taking the oath of allegiance. To still further prove his devotion to the
*Of Cady, his former captain, now Major Snyder, wrote to a Wayne county paper: "It grieves me much to hear of the death of Egbert Cady; a more frank, open-hearted and brave boy never lived. He fills a patriot's grave; the soil of Cold Harbor never received a braver heart, though buried by stranger hands. He sleeps in peace, and I would say to his bereaved parents, ' You have given a noble sacrifice to your country, and he will meet you at the final muster day when the noble Army of the Potomac shall all fall in.' John Blakely, too, has gone; his quiet, unassuming face we never shall see again below, but his memory will be cherished as one more victim of this accursed Rebellion."
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flag, he enlisted and suffered as above. He did not rejoin the regiment, but was discharged, and later served the people of Wolcott as postmaster.
The 3d of June witnessed the charge that General Grant, in his memoirs, says he would not order again had he the work to do over. Colonel John W. Horn of the 6th Maryland is in temporary command, owing to the illness of Colonel Smith. Again we form the second and third lines, and, in the midst of a drizzling rain, which almost always followed a battle, and at an early hour, we advanced, possibly 200 yards, when we intrenched, improvising all sorts of implements for this purpose, bayonets, tin cups and plates, and even spoons. We are in plain sight of the enemy's works, which seem specially formid- able, but luckily for us we are not ordered to assault thiem. Four men of the regiment are killed and several wounded.
At nightfall. we withdrew a short distance and threw up breastworks, in which business we claimed to be experts. Our position, however, is so exposed that we are obliged to make shorter lines, at right angles to the main ones, that we may, in a degree, protect ourselves from the cross-fire to which we are constantly subjected. Perhaps the four years did not afford an instance when sharpshooters, on both sides, did so much service as at Cold Harbor. They were in trees and behind earthworks in a way to sweep the entire space, and no man showed his head without danger of being a target. As in everything else, "familiarity breeds contempt." and men learned to take their chances. If one were hit it was his ill luck. If he escaped it was his good fortune. Of course there were foolhardy soldiers who would take no pains to protect themselves. and oftentimes they went scot-free. Sometimes however, they tempted fortune too often. One man in his temerity, while leveling the top of the works, finding himself in range, made believe he was "at the bat" in baseball, and with his shovel played hitting the ball, all the time cursing the rebels, and saying they couldn't hit him. On the contrary. when the artillery firing was heavy, and the air was full of shrieking missiles, Jimmy - - threw himself into the trench saying, "I'll never see Biddy and the little chicks again."
There was a marked difference in the endurance of men. One receiving a shot in the wrist made thrice the outery that an officer did when his shoulder was crushed. "Frank
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Orterlipp, whose legs were taken off by a cannonball, gave no token of his injury except a groan. lapsing soon into uncon- sciousness, and so bleeding to death. Till the 12th day of June. there was little variation in our work. We were under fire all the time, day and night. When we were in front, of course we were more exposed than when further back. To get to the front line, we had to follow sunken paths to keep as far as pos- sible out of sight. The advance that we made on the first day placed us where we were liable to shots from front, left and right. and there were very few hours of the twenty-four when we did not receive some indication of rebel proximity. Ball. shell and bullet were constantly speeding, sometimes in volleys, more often in a way which seemed to say, "We have not for- gotten you." The trees must have become filled with lead and iron, to plague the wood-chopper of subsequent years.
Sergeant E. was standing back of a tree, half as large through as his body, when a shell from the right cut the tree off so squarely and perfectly as not to distrub its equilibrium, but it was lifted off its stump and for some time stood erect by its side. The sergeant's face was a study as he thus lost his sup- port. Evidently he thought a tree a vain thing for safety. Tom C- and a party of dare-devil comrades are having a game of poker on what seemed to be the safe side of a big tree. Whether seen or not they suddenly found themselves the storm centre of musketry, and the tree responds actively to the peculiar "pit" of bullets stopped. The boys vow they will finish that game anyway, and swear incessantly at the rebs for disturbing them, and with no perceptible acceleration they complete the game, and then defer to the firing, only to the extent of moving to the other side of the tree. From far-away Wisconsin, M. L. Vandervoort sends this description of the death of 1st Sergeant A. H. Follett of Company C: "It was on the 5th day of June and of the fight that Jeremiah Skinner and I were frying hard- tack when Sergeant Follett came up and wanted to borrow our spider. As soon as we had turned out our food, we passed it over to him, and he put it between his knees to break up his crackers in it. Apparently we were in sight of sharpshooters. and we tried to locate them. but while doing so we heard a slight sound. and turned to find the sergeant's head fallen for- ward into his frying-pan, having been instantly killed.
"She odor from dead bodies had become very offensive. Early
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in the engagement General Grant had proposed a system to care for stricken ones of both sides, but no agreement was reached with General Lee till the seventh day. Meanwhile, those wounded men who had not been rescued at imminent peril by their comrades had died. Under the hot sun of June the stench was intolerable, and when an hour's respite was had the work was done indifferently. A lieutenant, writing home, said, "I went half way across the field and met several of the rebels, some officers. They were very friendly, well fed and well clothed. When time was up, flag went down, and firing began again. Our men are building forts and getting heavy guns in place. Rebs told me yesterday they had 300,000 men." Evidently, bluff was a favorite game with warriors on both sides. Night added to the interest of the scene, for then we had noise and a 4th of July display of fireworks as hissing shells de- scribed all sorts of curves over or through our lines. Then would come the familiar "ki-yi-yi-yi" of the rebels as they charged upon our works, to be answered by the equally clear "hurrah" of our own side. Still, rations were drawn and cooked just as though we were miles away from the enemy. Sometimes the tents are crowded, but the occupants can only growl their displeasure. Mails come and go, just as if we were not almost in h-1 itself. One man records that he read one of H. W. Beecher's sermons in the New York Independent as he held his place behind the works.
The whole Potomac Army did not contain a gaver, freer heart than that of "Jim" Horner of the 111th New York. He was personally known to many in the Ninth, for, in the muster- ing and disbursing office in Auburn, he had served with them. Accordingly, when in one of the lulls of the Cold Harbor storm. Horner came over to see his old friends, he received the warm- est welcome the boys could give him. While there was no great fighting going on, the sharpshooters were at it, and the zip of bullets was as common as conversation. "Then you ain't killed yet, Jim," says one old acquaintance. "No siree," was the ready reply, "The bullet isn't run that can kill me." This item not only illustrates the familiarity that we felt towards these messengers of death, but also how vain is boasting, for though he left us all right and returned to his regiment unharmed, he was shot dead the next day in a charge made upon the lines of the 2d Corps. The bullet had been run, and
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when the soldier spoke was less than twenty-four hours from its awful mission.
During this battle-halt at Cold Harbor a soldier received a pass to visit the 9th_ Corps, and thus to look up certain school friends in the 24th New York Cavalry, not yet mounted. He found his acquaintances with their carbines and yellow stripes doing infantry duty, and in the best of spirits. Just where they were the front was specially exposed, and the pick- ets, in plain view, were keeping themselves busy with like par- ties on the other side. To see a wounded man walk or be helped back out of range was a common affair, yet the friends talked on as though they were again in school days, upon the ball- field, or arranging for a swimming-trip to the river. Old Colonel Richards and Major Taylor of the 24th were in evidence, and everybody who had a duty to perform was attending to it, but the air of perfect indifference, as now recalled, seems strange enough. Sometimes it appeared as though the soldiers had fallen into the Mahometan's notion of Kismet. If it was to be, it would be, and if not, then not. The visit over, the Ninth boy returned to his own company to find the work of war pro- gressing just as he left it, and he had had a few hours off, though not for a moment out of range.
By the night of the 10th it became apparent that we are to make some sort of a move, since a deal of marching and halt- ing are done. The 11th, rations are drawn, but we don't stay long enough in one place to cook the beans. It requires several efforts to reduce them to an edible condition. Evidently we are more remote from the enemy, for we are no longer targets, but strategy or some other military necessity demands long lines of earthworks; the strongest and best we had as yet con- structed. Large trees are felled. and upon skids are carried to the works and laid up: picks and shovels in the hands of lusty men and boys do the rest. To the untaught soldier, it occasionally seemed that he was doing a deal of useless work. yet he had found such fortifications exceedingly handy, on occasion, so he toiled on. and just grumbled.
Companies F, G, I and L, constituting the 3d Battalion, having been detached May 31 to serve in the artillery brigade under Colonel Tompkins,* it is proper to now follow them to
*Col. Charles H. Tompkins, born in Orange Co., N. Y., May 15, 1834, commanded the 1st R. I. Light Artillery, three batteries of which, C,
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Cold Harbor. Though separated from the rest of the regiment, the duties of this battalion were not unlike those of the others, unless there was a little more digging among them. They were on picket, on reserve, supporting batteries, guarding am- munition trains, and in all soldierly ways making themselves useful. They were in reserve on the 1st of June when the rest of the regiment was in the fight, but their work came at night, when with picks and shovels as well as guns they moved up to make new or to strengthen old earthworks. Occasionally they worked out between foe and friend, and when the ball opened over them, as it did occasionally, it was necessary for them to lie very low. A home letter of this period says: "There are twelve four-gun batteries, forty-eight pieces in all. We go out at night to the first line of battle about forty rods from the rebel lines and work, building earthworks to mount heavy siege-guns and mortars. We are hoping to drive the rebs out of their strong works, which are surrounded with abatis. Sharp- shooters make the work dangerous. We leave at 3 A. M. to escape the daylight fire. We are subject at times to heavy firing, but little harm has been done."
A captain in this battalion writes thus to his wife June 9: "I am getting very unsteady, for I am out all night, every night, and lie in bed till noon. Am just up to write to you. 12 M. Lying in my little tent, about four feet high, I pass the most of the day. I can give you no idea of my home better than for you to take two small sheets, fasten together an edge of each and lay them over a pole, sustained four feet from the ground; spread out the corners and stake them down; throw in several boughs for carpet and bed, and it is done. Front and back doors open at all times. We went out yesterday after- noon to work under flag of truce. Just got to work when it was withdrawn, and our batteries opened briskly. It made the men stare to see how near to the rebs we had been at work at night. We had built a fort twelve feet high, mounted four guns, run out flanks and parallels, and are ready to open fire at any time. Our company gets great praise for its work, and
E and G, were in the brigade. He was by the side of General Sedge- wick on the 9th of May, '64, when the latter was killed at Spottsyl- vania, and his arms received the general as he fell. Col. Tompkins won distinguished honors in the valley, and was mustered out as brigadier general in 1865.
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I know that it deserves it. There is not so much chance for glory in our duties as in charges, assaults, etc., but it is a satis- faction to know that what is given us to do, we do well, and though the shovel is slow it is sure, and saves life and limb. The rebel works are very strong, and no assault can be made without great loss. There was a battery in our front which a week ago annoyed us very much. It could not be assaulted and carried, nor silenced by our batteries, so we took our shovels and picks, and in two nights put our sharpshooters into a posi- tion from which the rebs could not drive them, nor could they use their own guns, and so had to evacuate. I tell you, 'spades are trumps' here."
Sometimes their digging unearthed the dead of the early days of the fight, and the stench therefrom was horrible. One officer narrates his experience in taking a drink from his can- teen. "A rebel bullet went clean through it, when Michael , with rare presence of mind, put his hands over both holes and poured the precious contents into an empty canteen." June Sth a newspaper correspondent was marched around the lines with placards on back and breast narrating his besetting sins. It was a sorry occasion for him. Though not in the midst of the heaviest fighting, every day brought some mis- chief to the men of these companies so that they, too, were glad to see indications of withdrawal. for the same orders were obeyed at nearly the same time.
The official data from our own officers concerning Cold Har- bor are very meagre. Major Charles Burgess, then command- ing the regiment. under date Sept. 8, 1864, thus reports to A. A., adjutant general of the brigade: "On the night of the 27th and the 28th the regiment marehed with the division to the Pa- munkey, and on the 29th toward Cold Harbor. This day we were in charge of and covered the wagon-train. Being in the rear on the night of the 29th we were ordered to report to Colonel Edwards,* who detailed two companies for picket-duty with his command. On the 30th Companies D and M, with part of E under Major Charles Burgess, were detailed for picket-duty in the front, and did not join the regiment until the 2d of JJune. On the 31st Companies F. G. I and L, under command of Major James W. Snyder, were detached from the regiment. and were placed in the artillery brigade. On the night of the 31st the two companies, under Colonel Edwards,
*Colonel Oliver Edwards, 37th Massachusetts, commanding the 3d Brigade, 1st Division.
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being relieved from picket, joined the regiment, which joined the brigade and arrived at Cold Harbor at noon. The regi- ment proper. Companies A, B, C, H, K, and part of E, partici- pated in the action on the Ist of June, being posted one-half in the front line and the remainder in the second line of battle, charging the works of the enemy in that position. On the morning of the 2d of June the command under Major Charles Burgess joined the regiment, and participated in the action of June 3d."
On the 3d of June Colonel John W. Horn assumed temporary command of the brigade on account of the illness of Colonel B. F. Smith. The latter resumed command June 12. It will be remembered that General Kiefer was absent at this time, having been wounded in the Wilderness May 5.
General Thomas W. Hyde in his "Following the Greek Cross" says, page 211: "This battle was a series of attacks all along the line, which was five or six miles long. Its management would have shamed a cadet in his first year at West Point. Seldom could we gain a foothold even for a moment.
That we lost 15,000 men and the enemy 1,500, is commentary enough on the generalship of the commanding general at this stage of his career. . It is very interesting to revisit the battlefields of the war, but I have never heard anyone who was engaged there express a wish to seek Cold Harbor again. Its vast upheaval of earth in fort and rifle-pit, in transverse and covered way. may now have yielded to the sun. the rain, and the plow, but it remains in memory the 'Golgotha of American History.'"
CHAPTER XIII.
FROM COLD HARBOR TO PETERSBURG.
Having thrown up fortifications that the enemy could by no means overcome, and not caring to waste more lives in endeav- oring to capture them, at the same time keeping up such a show of aggressiveness that the Confederates all thought us still in position. General Grant resumed his flank movement, and on the night of June 12th we noiselessly withdrew, and the 13th revealed to General Lee only our empty trenches, while their late occupants were getting down towards the
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James river. The roads had become deep with dust, the sun was like a ball of fire, but we toil on with a southerly trend, crossing the Chickahominy at Jones' bridge. The name of the stream recalls all that we had read in 1862 of the tiresome campaign along its banks. The appearance of the country improves as we advance-grassy plains, fields of standing grain, lovely flowers, all cheer us after the desolation of Cold Harbor. On the 14th we approach the James river, through Charles City Court House, and pitch our tents on ground that had its gloss of history before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, for we are told that a tree surrounded by a brick wall marked the place where Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith. Just a few miles below us is all that is left of James- town, and near by is the roomy mansion of John Tyler, the first accidental president of the United States. Some irre- pressible soldiers visit the place, partake of food within its historic walls, and bring away teacups as relics. Others have been there before, as the floors strewn with books and sheet music amply testify.
But even here we must work. The 15th a corduroy road must be laid as an approach to the long pontoon bridge which here spans the river. More than 200 boats were thus employed, and as the current was strong and the tide had a movement of four feet, it was necessary to attach the boats to anchored vessels above and below. A drove of cattle driven across the bridge afforded us no little fun, showing us how four-footed animals look in an intoxicated gait. The river was filled with shipping, and on the shore was a small hamlet, where some of the boys interviewed an aged colored man who claimed to be 108 years old, and yet sighed for liberty. Foraging is common, and there are few soldiers who do not get a taste of fresh meat grown on this sacred soil. We are at Wilcox's Landing, said to be two miles below the more noted Harrison's. Sutler's stores could be had for cash, though lemons cost ten cents apiece and tobacco two dollars a plug. Late in the afternoon of the 16th. we cross the James upon a transport. and after a short march camp for the night. Drew three days' rations on the 17th, and went aboard transports again and steamed up the river to City Point, where we stopped briefly, and some were fortunate enough to get a supply of pickles from the Sanitary Commis- sion. Landed at Point of Rocks and marched to Bermuda
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Hundred. made famous in connection with the name of B. F. Butler. Hard by was the tallest framework erected for a sig- nal-stand that we had ever seen. It stood on Cobb's hill, and was 200 feet high, having a platform nine feet square at the top. Observers were generally raised by a windlass and in a basket, though they could climb by ladders if they preferred. The 2d Division of our corps had gone on to Petersburg, while we of the 1st and 3d were up here to help Butler in some way. After usual marching and detours, we go into camp. The works constructed under the direction of General Q. A. Gilmore seemed to be strength itself. Evidently we are off here for a purpose, but as "heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate," so to the rank and file the future is wholly inscrutable, and what that purpose is we do not know. Years later we learned that our divisions were directed to charge the rebel fortifications, but to General Wright's practiced eye the project was not feasible. It is said that General Butler sent to him one of his peculiar messages to this effect: "I send you an order to fight; you send me an argument." In Butler's book it ap- pears that Wright's corps was not the one he wanted. He was very particular. We suited Sheridan. Some of us will recall the stories told of telegraph wire interlacing the stumps and trees, thus to entrap the unwary Union soldiers should they undertake the assault.
However, on the 18th we do go out through our works, and form a long line in front of them. Here Colonel Seward ad- dresses us and tells us what we are expected to do; his first speech to us since taking command of the regiment. But we are not to contribute to the battle record this day, for soon an elderly officer, apparently one in authority, appears, and we are ordered back. So out we go, the rebels giving us some parting though ineffectual reminders of their proximity. It was amusing to note the haste that some men manifested as they were getting out of this wilderness. To some of us the whole business seemed like marching up the hill and then marching down again. Many will remember the hopper or machine cannon, an early Gatling, which had given the enemy no little trouble. In assaulting our lines. they had tested its efficiency; indeed, they were reported to have said that the Yanks had a gun that they just wound up and it ran all night. We are northeast of Petersburg and less than ten miles away from it. Our gunboats do not go above this point.
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The 19th of June we spent largely in the trenches, and in the afternoon we retrace our steps, crossing the Appomattox near Point of Rock on a long pontoon bridge overspread with hay, we think, to deaden the sound of our footsteps. Our di- rection is that of Petersburg, in whose vicinity we camp late at night:
The morning of the 20th revealed us near the rebel intrench- ments, so near that their shells rendered the drawing of rations uncomfortable, and we politely withdrew a respectful distance, and a considerable part of the day was restfully spent in the woods. A careful chronicler states that a negro was hanged this day for rape. He does not state by whom the deed was done nor where, but merely enters it as an act of signal justice; a forerunner, it would seem, of the hundreds of lynchings of later years. The 20th may be given as the date of reaching what we called Petersburg. Of course the city was many miles away, but we were as near it as we were likely to be for many a long and weary month. We are south of the city, and we lose no time in proceeding to breastwork making; we take to it naturally. By this time, we had become expert cooks of what was given us or of what we could draw from the enemy, of course it being assumed that all natives were such. Also what Albert D. Richardson called entomological researches had becomea sad necessity, and every man to cleanliness inclined had to thoroughly inspect his garments for the Corporis pediculus,
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