USA > New York > The Ninth regiment, New York volunteers (Hawkins' zouaves); being a history of the regiment and veteran association from 1860 to 1900 > Part 17
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288 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
We ended our forward movement right at the edge of the bluff, the creek being below some distance, and the face of the bluff being very steep. The ground was high enough to give us an extensive view of a stretch of country toward our front and right, including much of the battlefield. I could see no lines or masses of troops anywhere; some of the rebel batteries, however, were in full view in front of us and on our right. Farther toward our right, above the bushes and over the cornfields, we could see the light musketry smoke drifting, which seemed to indicate heavy infantry fighting there. The air was very still, and great piles of white smoke, like clouds, hung over and around the batteries, both the enemy's and our own. WVe occasionally saw groups of men, officers we took them to be, both mounted and on foot, moving about on the other side of the creek. Once a skirmish line appeared moving directly toward the stream, our battery fired one shot at them and they disappeared-into the earth, it seemed, as I did not see them afterward.
General Rodman joined us here.
I had a glass and noted everything carefully which took place within my circle of vision. While we stood here the movement on the bridge was made, I think by our second divi-
289
THE CHARGE ON THE BRIDGE.
sion. I could not see it all, as the country was timbered in places, which hid the move- ments of the troops. I don't remember seeing the bridge at all. I saw the troops moving down the hill; saw them once or twice break up and scatter and reform again and advance but did not know just what was going on until I noticed that some of the figures on the ground, who did not scatter with the rest, were lying with their heads down hill. I then realized that they were dead, and that the movements which I had been watching were charges. All this time, while we were standing on the bluff, we were not disturbed. We stood up in line of battle; there was no hostile demonstration whatever made against us; not a shot of any kind was fired at us; there were "none to molest us or make us afraid."
Then came the crossing of the creek. We marched by the left flank down what appeared to be an old wood-road, and filed to the right at the edge of the stream. I do not remember how deep it was, but it was quite an effort to stem the current. When partly across we re- ceived the fire of a detachment which was stationed behind a wall at the head of a ravine which opened up from the water towards our left front. I judge there were about two com- panies of infantry of them. Their fire was not
290 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
very heavy, rather scattering, and we did not answer it. One reason was that we would have to stop in the stream while firing, and any of our men who might be wounded would be ยท in great danger of drowning, so we urged the men forward and passed the order not to fire. I had two men hit here.
We filed to the right when we reached the bank, and were at once out of the fire in the shelter of the hills or bluffs. We then faced to the left, which brought us by the rear rank into line, and marched, or rather climbed, directly up the bluff ; the ground in front of my com- pany was very rough and difficult and also very steep. Rodman appeared here again on foot and went up with the regiment. At the top of the hill we again came in sight of the gentlemen who disputed our crossing the ford, but they were not having things so much their own way as they had then. A party of our troops- I got the impression that they were Rhode Island men - were advancing rapidly up the ravine, firing as they went. They were led by a mounted officer, whom I recognized as " Happy" Tom Lyon, a major of a defunct rocket battery. He was then serving on Burn- side's staff. While our men were advancing determinedly and rapidly the Johnnies did not seem to keep up as good a fire as they should
291
COMPLETING THE MOVEMENT.
have done; in fact, as I looked at them, just for the moment, Burn's lines came into my mind :
"Their boldest thought 's a hankerin' swither To stan' or rin."
Lyon was doing the military picture act in the most approved fashion. I concluded that his horse had been wounded, it was plunging so.
We lay down here and waited for the new formation to be completed. The bridge had evidently been carried by this time, as the troops were pouring across, some of them passing along our rear and extending the line to the left. We changed position once or twice as the movement approached completion, the fire of the enemy's batteries becoming heavier and heavier, until finally we had to lie very close.
The general level of the fields from the bank of the creek was reached by a succession of terraces or benches - say two or three. The first rise from the stream might have been fifty feet or more; then, on my part of the line, came a level space a few yards wide ; then a rise of a few feet, not over ten ; then a wide level space, a hundred paces at least ; then another rise, quite steep in places, and high enough to elevate us as we lay in line far above the heads of the mounted officers who were grouped on the next level below us. We lay
292 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
as near the top of the slope as we could with- out actually being. on the level ground. On our line, between us and the 103d, a battery was in action. It was reported along the line, though I do not know on what authority, that it was Clark's Battery "E," of the 4th U. S. Artillery. They did not appear to be able to do much in the way of firing, as it seemed to me that every time they would get fairly at work the rebels would concentrate such a fire on them as to silence them; and the men would be obliged to lie down in such shelter as they could get until the weight of the enemy's fire was directed to another part of the line. Their "park" was on this lower level before mentioned, and almost in line with, and in rear of, the guns, and it caught a good deal of the fire that missed the battery. The practice of the rebel artillerymen was something wonderful in its accuracy; they dropped shot and shell right into our line re- peatedly. They kept the air fairly filled with missiles of almost every variety, from shrapnel to railroad iron. The shrapnel or canister was very much in evidence. I saw one of our men in hospital afterward who had nine gunshot wounds in his right arm. I watched solid shot -round shot -- strike in front of the guns with what sounded like an innocent thud, and,
293
A HEAVY FIRE.
bounding over battery and park, fly through the tree tops, cutting some of them off so sud- denly that it seemed to me they lingered for an instant undecided which way to fall. These round shot did not appear to be in a hurry. They came along slowly and deliberately, ap- parently, and there appeared no harm in them until they hit something.
As soon as our line was established Colonel Kimball ordered Company I out as skirmishers. They seemed to be pretty busy for a time, judging from the amount of shouting and firing in the field in front of the regiment where they deployed. This, however, died away gradually as the boys pushed farther out and drove the enemy's skirmishers before them.
I was lying on my back, supported on my elbows, watching the shells explode overhead and speculating as to how long I could hold up my finger before it would be shot off, for the very air seemed full of bullets, when the order to get up was given. I turned over quickly to look at Colonel Kimball, who had given the order, thinking he had become sud- denly insane ; never dreaming that he intended to advance in that fire, and firmly believing that the regiment would not last one minute after the men had got fairly on their feet. Sure enough, there was Kimball, looking all right.
294 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
He repeated the order: "Get up the Ninth !" and, I thought, looked directly at me. We got up and went forward, passing at once into a cornfield. The fence over which my men were swarming was at that moment knocked down by a shell. From the cornfield we crossed over a meadow, then over a strip of plowed land, and then another piece of grass or stubble. We halted twice, I think, to rest and dress the line, although dressing was not necessary as every man was in his place. The loss was frightful. I could see the regiment - the line -shortening perceptibly as we advanced. We could hear the crash of the missiles through the ranks, and strange as it may seem, that sound brought like a flash to my mind a saying of Lannes, when describing the Battle of Auster- litz : " I could hear the bones crash in my div- ision like glass in a hailstorm."
The whole regiment behaved magnificently throughout. Nothing could be better. The advance was over sharp ridges and through the intervening hollows for a long way. Although just then I was not conscious of either the lapse of time or of the distance we were covering, I now know that we advanced altogether about a mile, and we lost men at almost every step. In two or three of the sheltered places, where we were partly protected from the enemy's
295
KIMBALL'S PRIDE IN THE REGIMENT.
fire by the ground in front, Colonel Kimball, as I said before, halted the regiment just for a moment to give the men a chance to get their breath. During these halts he always remained erect, moving up and down the line uttering words of encouragement for everybody. To the shouts of some of the men of "Get down, Colonel !" "Don't expose yourself that way!" " Wait 'till we're ready to advance!" etc., he would reply : "Don't mind me, boys, I'm all right," or, "If you want a safe place stick close to me," or some such remark. Meantime he was pacing up and down the line rubbing his palms together, and clapping his hands at intervals to express satisfaction, exclaiming repeatedly : " Bully Ninth! Bully Ninth! Boys, I'm proud of you! every one of you !" During one of these momentary halts I glanced back at the field we had just crossed and saw it sprink- eled all over with our dead and wounded, all lying with their heads toward the enemy, presenting the appearance of a thin field of cornstalks I had seen some place, all rolled down to lie in the same direction for conve- nience in plowing them under.
The charge ended, so far as I was concerned, in what appeared to be a grand finale. We had been advancing over what I remember as rolling, but at the same time, rising ground ;
i
298 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
we had reached what looked like the summit of this particular ridge when we were met by what I remember as a crashing volley of mus- ketry. We all went down together, although I was hit not with a bullet but with a grapeshot. The fronts of the companies had by that time become so narrow that I found myself right at the colors. They did not average, I think, above twelve or fifteen men each at that stage. When I recovered myself after I fell -that is, got into position to see about me, and after the men had passed over me, some stumbling over and others stepping on me, which occupied but a moment, nearly everybody was down on the ground. The whole color guard lay prone, the colors on the ground. One or two of the men staggered to their feet and reached for the flags, but were shot down at once. Then there was what seemed a spontaneous rush for them by a dozen or more men from several companies, who were shot down in succession as each one raised his flag. One of these whom I noticed was Lieutenant Myers, who was hit just as he picked up one of them. The flags were up and down, up and down, several times in a minute. Libaire at last seized one of them, and swing- ing it around his head was profane for the first and only time, I think, shouting to his com- pany, "Up, damm you, and forward !" I could
297
NOT ANXIOUS TO ADVANCE.
see only toward the right of the line as I lay. I saw four commissioned officers in front of the line. Kimball, Horner, Libaire and McKechnie, all shouting forward as the men sprang to their feet. McKechnie was on the stone wall with his fez on the point of his sword waving his men on.
All this took place in a flash, as it seems to me now, and the next minute the regiment was gone ; over the wall and out of sight. At that time only one non-commissioned officer was left in my company-Sergeant Salisbury, who assumed command. He also was wounded shortly afterward. I was picked up in a few moments and carried to the rear by the ambu- . lance corps men, who happened to be of our own regiment.
I have never known in what formation we went forward on that charge; whether only our single brigade in line or a column of brigades ; but after going to the rear a short distance we met a line of troops, a brigade apparently, in a hollow of the ground, but not advancing. I learned or guessed, or got the information in some way-as one gets it on the field-that they were part of Cox's men, Ohio troops. Our Adjutant General, Captain Shephard (Official John Shephard), was with them. He had one of their colors and was trying to
298 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
induce them to advance. I tried to reinforce his efforts with a word or two. I told them the fighting was all over; that we had carried everything ; that they had only to go forward and show themselves if they wished to be participants in the greatest victory of the war. I believed what I said, and I pretended to be cheerful, but from the way they looked at me I knew they didn't believe a word of it.
While the general direction in which the men carried me was to the rear, still we kept bear- ing off toward the left, our left-our backs you will remember were now turned to the enemy- then following the low ground to keep out of the fire. WVe had gone but a short distance when all signs of battle disappeared, except the occasional singing of a minnie bullet overhead ; we followed down the lowland and came out on the road near the head of the bridge with- out being aware that we had gone down any sensibly steep place or places. After leaving the ground which the regiment had gone over, we saw no dead or wounded. I spoke to Captain Barnett, who was tying up his hand, where he had been slightly wounded. 'I also saw " Jennie" the drummer, sitting on the old bobtailed sorrel, about half way between the place where I was wounded and the bridge. On the road near the bridge everything was as
299
CONFUSION AT THE BRIDGE.
quiet and serene as a Sabbath morning. Only two or three soldiers were in sight; one of them a 79th man, was sauntering along, eating an apple and carrying a stretcher on his shoulder. He was interviewed at once by my bandits and robbed of the stretcher, for my benefit.
This quiet scene into which we entered, on the road near the bridge was suddenly and without any apparent reason changed into a pandemonium. Two or three baggage wagons and more than one battery of artillery appeared around a turn of the road retreating toward the bridge. At the same time the rebels opened fire with as much vim and energy as they had shown earlier in the day. There was a rush to cross, each driver trying to get ahead of all the others. They became jammed on the bridge. We had to stand aside, of course. Every shell seemed to plunge right into the struggling mass; confusion reigned supreme for a few moments and, taken all in all, and the fact of the batteries being in retreat (although their ammunition chests may have been empty) it was the most discouraging sight I had seen during the day.
When we got an opportunity we crossed. I had suggested-not unselfishly, altogether-to the men who were carrying me that they lay
300 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
me in the ditch and get under cover until the fire slackened a little. They declined, in forcible language and with much profanity. We found that Dr. Humphreys had established his hospital within a few paces of the head of the bridge. Here was a good deal of con- fusion; shell were falling or exploding con- stantly ; the wounded were being hit and some of them killed every moment. The doctor was sending them to the rear as fast as he could get ambulances or wagons to carry them. The shells and bullets did not seem to enter into the doctor's calculations only so far as they were injuring his wounded. Personally he seemed to treat them with the calmest in- difference. He examined my wound and de- ciding it would never need any dressing, sent me and my stretcher to the rear. We turned to the left up the stream, and after a little time arrived at Miller's house, where, very much to my astonishment then, although I understand it now, I found the whole place, house, out- houses, orchard, and enclosures of all kinds, filled with wounded, and it seemed to me that most of them were our own men. I could not understand where they came from or how they got there.
Now, Colonel, these are some of the prin- cipal things which I remember about the battle
301
POSSIBLE ERRORS OF MEMORY.
of Antietam. I know that the principal thing you wished was a topographical description of our part of the field. I have done as well as I could in that respect. I can see it all very plainly, but cannot describe it as I would wish. I have been careful in giving the directions in which we moved that day. I have taken care to state only what I know, or what I think I saw. I only mention the names of officers and men whom I was forced to notice. It does not follow that those who escaped iny notice were not present and in the thickest of it. For example, I do not remember seeing Larry Leahy at all after he was sent out with the skirmishers, just after we climbed the hill; but no testimony is needed from any one to satisfy those who knew him, that he was where duty called him.
It is possible, as I mentioned at the begin- ning, that I may be wrong in many of these statements ; some of them may have gotten out of their proper positions, or become confused with other battles or some other movement, but I have done the best I could.
Very truly yours, M. J. GRAHAM.
About the time the first brigade was ordered to charge, the Confederate General, A. P. Hill,
302 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
arrived on the field from Harper's Ferry with a body of several thousand troops, who had made a forced march from that place after its sur- render to "Stonewall " Jackson. These troops came by the Sheperdstown road and arrived on the Union left flank while the charge was in progress.
Their attack compelled first the 89th and later the 103d New York to halt and change front to oppose them, but the Ninth being in ignorance of the attack, kept straight forward, officers and men concentrating their attention on the rebel line of battle in their immediate front, which was delivering a steady fire upon them. When the enemy broke and ran from their stone wall breastwork leaving a battery in possession of the regiment (supposed to be McIntosh's, which A. P. Hill had sent forward in advance of his infantry), the Ninth found themselves alone and entirely unsupported on the hill overlook- ing the village of Sharpsburg. The other regiments of the brigade being faced toward the new attack from the left, had checked the rebel advance, and were holding them at bay. Owing to the great losses sustained during the charge, and especially by the last volleys of the enemy, the regimental formation of the Ninth had become badly broken. Many of the men flushed with enthusiasm and the intense, almost
303
CHECKING THE IMPETUOUS ONES.
savage desire for vengeance on those who had slain so many of their comrades, continued in pursuit of the fleeing enemy down the hill toward the village. Even after the regiment was halted and the readjustment of the line ordered, some of the officers were obliged to follow and command these men individually to return to the line. The acting adjutant, Lieu- tenant Horner, only succeeded in driving Ser- geant Searing of Company D (who was among the foremost in the pursuit) back to the com- pany by threatening him with a revolver.
Searing had been wounded during the charge but not severely enough to disable him. He was not inclined to submit, even when so threatened by the officer. All the latent tiger in his nature had been awakened and aroused by the sights and sounds of the last quarter of an hour, and it required decidedly pointed demonstrations on the part of the acting adju- tant to recall him to the condition of the obedient and well-disciplined non-com. of ordinary times. One of these enthusiasts had pursued the enemy into the village, at least his dead body was afterward found in the village street.
After having passed through that dreadful storm of death and wounds there was still about one hundred men of the Ninth left to
304 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
rally around their colors on that bloody hilltop. These Kimball formed into a company on the ground which had been occupied by the enemy's line of battle, and while still exchanging shots with the scattered groups of the enemy, waited anxiously for the reinforcements which were momentarily expected to appear.
The greater part of the enemy against whom the charge had been made had fallen back in confusion into the village of Sharpsburg, where they were striving to reform their scattered and apparently demoralized men. Others had re- treated across the deep ravine through which runs the road from the village to and across Burnside's bridge, and had joined the force of infantry and artillery which occupied the hill where the National cemetery is now located. The Ninth Corps is said to have numbered about 15,000 men, only part of which had been heavily engaged, while the entire Fifth Corps had not yet pulled a trigger in the entire battle. While the Ninth was holding the position easily and was so far as could be seen in no immediate danger of dislodgment, Major L. C. Brackett, of General Wilcox's staff, rode up and informed Kimball of the situation on the left and rear, and directed him to retire his regiment. Kim- ball objected to this and Brackett did not feel that he was in a position where he could right-
305
KIMBALL DECLINES TO RETIRE.
fully exercise his authority as staff officer and order him to do so. Wilcox's division, which was also of the Ninth Corps, had moved for- ward, whether in support of Rodman's division or as part of the general movement cannot now be satisfactorily determined. They had, how- ever, arrived at a point comparatively near the position then occupied by the Zouaves, when Brackett rode forward to inform Kimball of the dangerous position in which his regiment was placed.
While he (Brackett) knew that the situation of the Ninth, with Hill's rebel troops attacking its flank, was a very much exposed and extremely dangerous one, he hesitated to give an absolute order to fall back. Kimball declined to retire unless he was peremptorily ordered to do so. He was not disturbed or confused in the least by the information that his flank was being attacked. He was sure that the other regi- ments of the brigade were still on his left, and he knew that within a short distance of his position there was ample force to not only capture Sharpsburg and turn Lee's right, but also to encompass the destruction of the now thoroughly exhausted and partly demoral- ized rebel army. He felt no necessity for retreat- ing, and he so informed Major Brackett, assur- ing him that he was in no difficulties, but was
306 NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS.
well able to maintain his position. He pointed out the evidences of demoralization among the enemy in sight, and demonstrated that the order should be to advance instead of retreat, and requested the Major to impress upon the generals as strongly as possible the exact con- dition of affairs and the urgent necessity of quickly sending reinforcements to finish the work which his brigade had thus far so suc- cessfully prosecuted.
When one or more of his own officers sug- gested that Major Brackett's contention was correct, and that they should retire, inasmuch as there were not cartridges enough left in the boxes of the men to enable them to hold their ground very long, Kimball replied : "We have the bayonets. What are they given to us for ? " etc.
Before the discussion ended Wilcox and the rest of his staff rode up and the General directed Kimball to retire. Before the regi- ment was put in motion to carry out the order there was noticed what appeared to be a fresh brigade of the enemy preparing for a charge on the Zouaves. Wilcox feared the effect of a charge on the troops already attacked in flank. There was no time to bring up reinforcements or to send for ammunition. There were just then no troops at hand to meet the impending
307
"THEY ARE NOT DRIVEN OFF."
attack but the badly shattered Ninth, alone and unsupported, and whose cartridge boxes he knew were nearly empty. But desperate as the situation was he determined to meet it in the only way possible and try to prevent the dis- aster that would almost surely follow if the rebels were successful. He called Kimball aside and said: " Ask your command if they will receive the charge at the point of the bayo- net if we stick to them?" Their answer was given in cheers and the fixing of bayonets.
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