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 5
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CAMP MORRIS AND THE NINTH HEAVY ARTILLERY.
Changes in military colors speedily followed, blue giving place to red in chevrons, stripes and shoulder-straps, but the new artillery coats did not come till December 30th. This becoming an artillery regiment had been so thoroughly forestalled that it occasioned very little remark. On the same date the 113th and the 129th New York Infantry became the 7th and the 8th Heavy Artillery, respectively. At this time the several com- panies were stationed as follows: at Fort Gains, C and K; at Mansfield, B, G, E and H; at Reno, I, D, F and A; Colonel Welling was near Reno, Seward at Mansfield and Major Taft at Gains.
The condition of the weather may be inferred from the fact that the ground was frozen some of the time to the depth of six inches, and that snow four inches deep did not occasion surprise; at the same time, thousands of men washed garments in a stream not a stone's throw from the reservoir. For a variety in camp-life, the sergeant of the guard picks up a pri- vate's gun in the guard quarters and playfully shoots away two or three of said private's fingers. Of course he didn't know that the gun was loaded. This type of ignorance is of a very ancient lineage. A letter, dated this month by a Company E man to his wife, says, "Every Sunday morning there is com- pany inspection of arms, knapsacks, clothing, etc. The last day of every month comes general inspection, and every second month a muster for pay, as December, February, etc. Our guns weigh 16 lbs .; balls, 1} oz .; cartridges, 2 oz. The fort guns are mostly 40-pound Parrotts, some heavy howitzers and occa- sionally a 100-pound cannon; lots of heavy practice."
If the boys fared slimly at Thanksgiving, experience taught them to make ready for Christmas. They couldn't hang up their stockings, for they had no faith in Santa Claus on the Potomac. The saint would never trust himself and steeds on such roofs as they possessed. To the natives the day it- self was much more like a 4th of July celebration than the observance of the Savior's birth, but it must not be sup- jised that these soldier boys were disposed to give the day a particularly religious tone; they were determined, however, on having just as good a dinner as the circumstances would allow. On the 24th one man records paying a dollar for a gallon of oysters in Washington for his own dinner and buying a chicken and celery for his captain's. Young men who could make buck-
"
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NINTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
wheat cakes in camp and serve them with maple syrup were equal to getting up a Christmas dinner. Fifteen men in Com- pany K forgot dall care as they discussed the following bill of fare at 8 o'clock P. M .: "Cold roast pork, cold roast duck, bread and butter, pickles, cheese, preserves, apples, pies (the writer modestly observes that they were the first he ever made), and four kinds of cake." After encompassing such a layout the soldiers ought to have been in condition to enjoy the stories that followed. Twenty good men of Company -- ran the guard just for a supper in a neighboring house. Unluckily sixteen of them were caught and had to spend the remainder of their Xmas in the guard-house,- an excellent opportunity to moral- ize on the mutability of things sublunary and on the exceeding nearness of sadness to pleasure .* It should be said that the day, though a world-wide holiday, did not excuse the men from three hours' company drill.
On the last Sunday of the year, the 28th, Secretary Seward visited camp and the chaplain preached. Somehow or other he does not seem to fit the feelings of all the boys, some of whom remark that he is more interested in rabbit and quail hunting than in the performance of his ministerial functions; but when was there a time that the fault-finder was not in evidence? The great majority of our soldiers in camp had very little ap- preciation for that which became especially dear when death. in the active campaign, stared them in the face. By the end of the month officers and men were fairly well fixed for the new year, though they had not gotten into barracks.
Being thus happily placed, it was not strange that certain officers should send for their respective helpmeets, and before the end of December the camp was gladdened with the presence, among others, of Mrs. Lieutenant Colonel Seward, Mrs. Major Taft, Mrs. Captain Lyon, Mrs. Quartermaster Knowles, and Mrs. Lieutenant Wood. Mrs. Colonel Welling and daugh- ter have been mentioned already.
*Two years later a favorite bit of doggerel, sung to an unwritten tune, ran thus:
"Oh, it's young men skedaddlers, I'd have you all beware, Leave off your bounty-jumping and go live upon the square, For provost guards are plenty and governor's isle is nigh,
They'll leave you there in solitude to pine away and die."
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CAMP MORRIS AND THE NINTH HEAVY ARTILLERY.
1863.
January comes in on Thursday, and is indicated by a cessa- tion of drill, a New York custom of setting more store by the first day of the year than by Christmas, though the Knicker- bocker habit of calling is not appreciably observed. The per- manent barracks that had been building for some time were occupied as early as the 18th of the month, though some com- panies had entered much earlier, as A on the 11th; B, the 13th and 14th; D, the 16th, and G, the 18th. Many of the boys prefer their old tents, complaining of leaky roofs and lack of light. for there was no lavish display of windows. Meanwhile dur- ing the month more work was done on Forts Mansfield, Reno and Gains, at which latter place was the regimental hospital. where, on the 26th, died Jonathan Baldwin of Company C, from Cato, having taken an overdose of opium. Many men are inducted into the nicety of artillery drill, though that of in- fantry is not neglected, there being five hours a day of the latter. On the Sth Messrs. Moore and McCall of Lyons buy out Sutler Davidson. The wife of Lieutenant Flynn comes to the camp on the 10th, and on the 15th Mrs. Captain Gregory and boy. Fort Mansfield barracks were occupied by the 1st Bat- talion, comprising Companies B, D. E and G, under Lieutenant Colonel Seward. On the 23d Captain Crane of Company H takes twenty men, and goes out to find the secret of certain lights which at night have alarmed the guards. He finds. not will-o'-the-wisps, but necessary illuminations for negro wood- choppers three-fourths of a mile away; in such prosaic manner do all the Ninth's troubles terminate.
As the regiment had been converted into a heavy artillery body, it must be recruited to the latter's standard, and Lieu- Tenant Bacon of Company D opened an office in Lyons on the #3d. and Lieutenant A. S. Wood of the same company is made adjutant, vice W. R. Wasson. promoted major, since the new organization allowed three majors among the field officers and four lientenants in each company; also there were to be twelve companies instead of ten, as in the infantry. Captain James W. Snyder of Company A was the first major under this change, though his commission and that of Major Wasson were both dated Dec. 31. 1862. Next to the last day of January witnesses a brigade review conducted by Colonel L. O. Morris, in which 4
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NINTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
was displayed the proficiency acquired by months of honest drill, and which months later was to bear rich fruit when these same regiments of heavy artillery were to leave the forts of their making and were to follow General Grant into the tangled undergrowth of the Wilderness and up to the breastworks of Cold Harbor.
CHAPTER VII.
LIFE IN THE FORTS.
The most important regimental event of the month of Feb- ruary was the accession of Company M. It had been raised in Genesee county as the 22d Independent Battery, and had been mustered into the service of the United States Oct. 28th, 1862. The order for this union was dated February 5th, but the company did not appear in regimental line till the very last day of the month.
The regiment is getting pretty well used to routine duty, and of work there is no lack. Forts, roads, huts, barracks, there is ample employment for every one, and no end of drill besides. The news of the day comes from Washington in the shape of the Chronicle, Colonel John W. Forney's paper, whose pages few soldiers of the Potomac army will ever forget. The alert newsboy made a good business by furnishing his papers to reg- ular customers for twenty-five cents per week. Rules as to the care of ammunition magazines were especially stringent, and one of the best men in the regiment was sent to the guard- house because he did not detect a lighted pipe in the possession of an ordnance sergeant who tried to play smart with the senti- nel. His captain, however, got him released speedily and he went back to his post. The next time this sergeant (he didn't belong to the Ninth) tried this trick he was himself arrested.
On the 15th a vigorous temperance movement was made by the captain of Company B. who with a squad of men went out and broke up a liquor hole, where men had been drinking them- selves into trouble. There were few regiments staying any length of time near Washington that did not have similar ex- periences. For drunkenness all sorts of penalties were inflicted. such as standing on a barrel, wearing said barrel, or another
51
LIFE IN THE FORTS.
with only the man's head peering through, called a wooden overcoat; lashed to a cannon's wheel, or doomed to keep up a weary march for many long hours with a knapsack filled with stones or solid shot, fifty pounds sometimes; and yet they would drink if opportunity offered, i. e., some of the men, not by any means those who detected fossiliferous limestones in their digging, or made up the regular Bible-class. Temper sometimes got the better of men who hardly wished to render the military deference to the officers with whom they had been reared and whom they thought no better than themselves. Court-martials were not unknown, and very severe penalties were at times inflicted. One man for threatening to strike his captain was sentenced to serve his term of enlistment at hard labor, one week in each month to have only a bread and water diet, and to forfeit all pay. The place for the infliction of such punishment was usually the Rip Raps, near Fortress Monroe. As this particular soldier was discharged in 1865 in good re- pute, it must be that industry and repentance had worked re- mission. The first battalion drill was had on the 21st of Feb- ruary. The 22d was properly observed by a salute from all the forts. About this time there is excitement in camp be- cause of an effort to enforce protection as against free trade in pies. The men claimed that this particularly American variety of pastry offered by outside parties was much better than that sold by the sutler, but the edict went forth that it must be the sutler's pies or none. As an immediate result. smuggling of the most heinous character followed, for what freeman could endure having restrictions imposed on pie? Had not Ralph Waldo Emerson said that he rated the intellectual- ity of a people in accordance as they did or did not appreciate pie? When it came to intellect the Ninth played second to no one. The 28th saw the inspection of the regiment between Forts Reno and Bayard on the grounds lately occupied by the 117th New York, which was about joining Burnside's corps. Major Snyder is now in command in Fort Gains.
Among the Latins there were calendar days known as dies non, or no days, and in our northern clime the month of all others most eligible to the appellation mensis non is March. Disa- grecable in every way, everywhere, infinitely worse than the English November, which Tom Hood so unmercifully lam- pwoned, what wonder that the campers by Potomac's shore
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NINTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
found life almost a burden during its continuance? It was the reign of slush, yet duty of all kind had to be performed, just the same as though May blossoms were there. On the 3d of the month a most distressing accident happened in Company F, where a man carelessly discharged a gun, killing his wife, the mother of two children. It was another instance of not knowing that it was loaded. The horror of it was greater than that of the battlefield.
The men had been in camp long enough to pretty thoroughly indicate their dispositions and habits. Those that were filthy by nature began to be obnoxious to their more cleanly neigh- bors, and crusades were waged against those who would not keep themselves clear from body vermin. Then, too, the natural shirk made himself evident. If he could get others to do the work. he was perfectly content. Nothing inspired promptness in him but meal-time. In Company G, out of a shanty's complement, Private L. was notorious for waiting at reveille till the very last moment, and then barefooted, clad in drawers and shirt only, he would rush out to roll-call. Thence going back he would crawl in till his tent-mates had built a fire and prepared breakfast. There is a limit to all endurance, and this was Comrade T.'s thought as he took a hot musket ball, in some way left near the fire, and dropped it down the back part of L.'s drawers conveniently exposed. There was no hesitation in his resurrection. He came out quickly, effect- ually, and it is said blasphemously. The lesson was not lost.
There were still rifle-pits to be made, and probably would have been if the regiment had remained in the defenses to the end of its term of enlistment. There were advantages, how- ever, in this proximity to Washington and in having perma- nent quarters. Dentists came up from the Capital, and a bar- ber made a living, more or less, at his vocation. All did not patronize the company cook, some preferring to boil, bake and stew for themselves. and in this the highest degree of liberty obtained. During these March nights the officers had military schools, in which, as one of them said, they had to recite like school-boys, page after page, all about the ranges of the guns, charges of powder, elevation, etc. It was a good thing for them, too.
April was a distinct advance on its predecessor, but even it was not faultless, since on the 5th April showers degenerated into snow a foot deep.
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LIFE IN THE FORTS.
With its new name and character, the regiment now pos- sessed a brass band, under the leadership of Jacob Sager of Clyde. If he was more generally known in the 9th as "Jake." it was because of his ever ready and genial nature. The first public appearance of this body was April 6, 1863. But a more extended sketch of the band and its personnel will be given in a later chapter. Georgetown is not so far away that men can not go thither to church if they desire, and some of them do, though anything so constrained as a church pew almost gives them cramps.
May brings blossoms and better spirits to the boys, though two men are injured in Fort Bayard through foolish tinkering with a shell. The man who brought it into the camp deserted. and thus escaped punishment. The weather is fine, and activ- ity along the lines of the Potomac army has its effect in the defenses, for somehow rumors of rebel raids are constantly in the air. Hooker's advance tends to magnify every bit of al- leged news. Pickets were reported driven in on the Virginia side of the Chain Bridge the 11th, and the next day Lieutenant Colonel Seward was hurt by a fall from his horse. During the next week every cloud of dust indicated an attack of rebel cavalry. Could the latter have been half as ubiquitous as our men's fancy made them, they would have overrun the whole North long before. On the 21st the long roll was responded to by a grand rush to the forts and rifle-pits without order or officers. Secretary Seward and family witness the dress- parade on the 24th. In these days the officers are trying to se- cure better rifles for the men, but reforms are slow.
The forts. all made and armed, must now be decorated, and consequently by the early part of June, they are completely sodded. Anything to keep the boys busy! At 11 P. M. the 28th, another scare calls the men into the rifle-pits, and there they remain till morn. Excitement is at fever heat. Soldiers are making the discovery, sure to come to all sooner or later, that those in authority who are the most lenient in matters of discipline are not necessarily the best officers. Stories of this sort are as old as the tale of the Retreat of the Ten Thou- sand under Xenophon.
June, 1863, is a busy month in Virgina. Hooker and Lee are preparing for Gettysburg, and naturally the forts are hives of apprehension. Diligence is not lacking, and shots enough
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NINTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
are fired at targets to enable the cannoneers to become excel- lent marksmen, if the need should arise. On the very first day of the month, General Heintzelman said, "No more passes;" but boys did leave the camp in citizen's clothing, just for the fun of it, running the risk of severe punishment if caught. On the 3d all women save those doing company work are ordered from camp. Quite a number of officers and men had set up a sort of primitive housekeeping. Possibly two or three soldiers' wives. in each company. had been designated to do laundry work, mending, etc.
Pickets are sent out each day, five from each company. The 7th New York Artillery is with us and the cavalry beyond. It is early in this month that we have our first skirmish drill. The regiment was in line on the parade-ground of Camp Morris, near Fort Simmons, Company B at the right, Colonel Welling, Lieutenant Colonel Seward and the other staff officers being in front of the centre. After a brief consultation with his staff officers, Colonel Welling gave the following order to the first sergeant of Company B: "Orderly Fish, I direct you to organize a skirmish line from this battalion." Sergeant Fish promptly called the battalion to attention and directed to count in fives, which numbers (fives) he marched three paces to the front, and the left guide sergeants of the respective companies one pace to the front. After dressing the line, Sergeant Fish reported to Colonel Welling that the skirmish line was organized. Here was begun the drill in which the regiment soon became pro- ficient, as was shown later in field service.
Tuesday, the 9th of June, Secretaries Seward and Salmon P. Chase of the treasury favor us with a call. Two days later, in the night, the men again rallied to the forts; the next night the long roll brought on another scare. The wonder is that so many false cries of "wolf" did not produce a condition of indifference. The Harper's Ferry road is thoroughly picketed. Each day brings its reports, each more startling than its pred- ecessor. Lieutenant Colonel Seward had been away in Auburn. but these rumors of rebel attack bring him back on the 16th. that he may be on hand if needed. Again the long roll in the night of the 18th resulted in keeping the men out in the rain, and all because an over-cautious sentinel had fired his gun at a horse. The 21st cannonading is heard seemingly at Thoroughfare Gap [it really is at Upperville]. The 23d Companies D and G,
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COMPANY A STREET, FORT SIMMONS.
HEADQUARTERS 9TH BATTALION, 2D N. Y. H. A. FORT C. F. SMITH.
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LIFE IN THE FORTS.
with two from the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery, march ten miles to a point near Fort Thayer on the Baltimore & Washington railroad to work on rifle-pits and batteries, three miles from Washington and two from Bladensburg. On the same day tents followed. the entire detachment being under the com- mand of Major Shepard* of the 1st Maine. The men dig ten hours a day, all on account of fear of rebel cavalry that are reported prowling about. These companies remained here till July Sth, when they returned to their quarters.
The efforts to secure a better gun succeeded in part, and on the 24th of June some of the companies were supplied with Springfield muskets. The 28th brought a scare pretty near the forts, since on that day, between Tennallytown and Rockville, the rebels captured and destroyed a large wagon-train. This was bringing the sound of arms right home, and as a consequence excitement ran high.t Cavalry pickets were driven in, and it did seem for a while as though the boys might have some fighting to do.
July, the memorable month of 1863, finds the Ninth at em- ployment no more warlike than the handling of pick and shovel, and filling in the chinks with drilling. The consciousness that some one must do such work was consoling to certain ones, but more were restive under the routine, and many grumbling letters were written home. "Gettysburg" is on every lip, and the boys remark on their having all the hard work and none of the glory, though they did think there was some chance for them when Stuart came so near. The women and the sick were sent to Washington. and every preparation was made to withstand an attack. The band was ordered upon the breast- works, and bade play "Yankee Doodle" for all that they were worth. The boys had lots of wind, and they pumped it into
*Major Russell B. Shepard subsequently became colonel of the regi- ment and brevet brigadier general. When, the next year, the regi- ment went to the front, it was soon in the thickest of the fight, and its death record in battle was the largest of all the 2,047 regiments that made up the Union army.
This was another of J. E. B. Stuart's phenomenal attacks. It was a part of the campaign which ended at Gettysburg. He actually came within less than five miles of the District line. There were 125 wagons in the train, whose subsequent keeping, it is claimed, hindered Stuart's progress and so contributed to Lee's defeat; really, then, a blessing in disguise.
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NINTH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
their horns till some prisoners who were brought in later de- clared they thought the sound came from a brigade aggrega- tion. It was the colonel's idea that music might encourage soldiers as well as charm the savage ear.
On the very first day of July, a part of Company C goes to Battery Vermont, and later twenty-five men from each company go daily to Fort Simmons for fatigue duty. Seemingly the regiment was having an opportunity to turn over, at least once, the soil of the entire District, with some of Maryland's besides. It was in this month that Colonel Welling had some passages at verbal arms with Colonel Morris, commanding the brigade. Our colonel intimated that his men were having more than their share of the digging to do, and that he would like to see other organizations equally pressed. In such a contest, one need not be told where the sympathies of his soldiers were. In another bout with the colonel of the 7th, in a fort directly under the latter's command, Colonel Welling saw one of his men doing police duty wearing ball and chain. He at once asked Colonel Morris why the man should be thus punished without his own knowledge. Morris flew into a passion at once and challenged Welling, saying, "Choose your weapons." Our officer replied that all the weapons he wanted were those that God had given him, but a pugilistic encounter did not appear to be to the older officer's taste, and the two colonels. separated. Welling going back to his camp. While a fight with the weapons furnished by nature might have been exciting. and whose details might enliven these pages, we can not help rejoicing that both men had good substrata of common sense. Before sunset, the 9th Heavy man was released and sent back to his own quarters.
Of course the warm weather warranted more out-of-doors living and an accompanying change of fare. The boys who had made griddle-cakes and pies in the winter now tried their hands at custards and Dutch cheese, but even these did not save some of them from the grip of nostalgia, or homesickness. There are men living to-day who would have died as soldiers had not their discharges been given, yet the most careful diagnosis could discover nothing wrong with bodily functions. Their troubles were of the head and heart. and Shakespeare discovered that it was impossible to administer to minds dis- eased. The homesick man had not much sympathy from his
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FORT FOOTE.
comrades; he may even have received their ridicule, but he was not cured, and while other reasons may have been as- signed for the discharge, the real one was an irresistible desire to see the old home and the loved ones.
In the regular chapter of accidents, James Allen of Company K unfortunately shoots himself on the 27th, and dies in just one week, his wife arriving on the morning of his death. His comrades paid the expenses incident to sending his body home to the town of Galen, where, in the cemetery at Furguson's Corners, it was laid away for the eternal sleep.
August arrives with its blistering heat. and still the routine is little varied. On the 6th was observed the day of thanks- giving, praise and prayer, proclaimed by the president in tokeu of the signal victories won at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. One private who had a pass to Washington on this day remarked on the closing of all places of business. He might just as well have stayed in camp, so far as benefit from his trip was con- cerned. On Sunday, however, he fared better. for then he went into the country and dined with a citizen, who quite won his heart through refusing to take pay for his hospitality. Many firm friendships were established in this way.
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