USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The heroes of Albany. A memorial of the patriot-martyrs of the city and county of Albany, who sacrificed their lives during the late war in defense of our nation 1861-1865 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
150
COL. JOHN WILSON.
are said to have made a stand on the Chickahominy river; another, that we shall go to Richmond, to be garrisoned there, after it is taken; and still another, that Norfolk will be our destination. I think the former the most probably true one; but am no way concerned about our movements, as long as I keep well and our men are in as good spirits as at present. It must be very demoralizing to the rebels to be forced to fall back with defeat from such strong works as those of Yorktown and Williams- burg, especially after having employed six thousand negroes for over six months on each of these lines of forts.
I should not be surprised if the report of MAGRUDER's surren- der would prove true in a few days, and if this happens, the Old Dominion may be counted one of the Union. I forgot to tell you that on our advance from the forts at Yorktown, we dug up many shells and torpedoes, buried in the roads, and fixed so that the least pressure upon the fuse would explode them, but they were discovered too soon to do any damage; and all along our march we had a squad of picked men precede us to examine the roads we had to march over. Such an operation on the part of the enemy is the best proof of their cowardice we could have, and holds them up in their true light. I saw quite a mimber of prisoners yesterday, whom we had taken at the last battle. They were, with few exceptions, poor specimens of the creature, man, and had all of them a downeast, sorrowful expression, which, added to their variety of coarse clothes, gave them the appearance of a lot of thieves or jail inhabitants. They are well treated by our men, however, and will, no doubt, be thankful that they have escaped to such merciful captors.
Your affectionate son, JOHN.
CAMP NO. 12, IN THE FIELD, NEAR WEST POINT, VA., (SAID TO BE) 35 MILES FROM RICHMOND, May 11, 1862. Sunday afternoon.
My Dear Sister-Your welcome letter of May 2d was received by me this morning. I do not know when I may have a chance to send a letter again, so as the mail eloses this evening I send this, written this afternoon. We have been making severe
151
COL. JOHN WILSON.
marches the last few days, in hopes of overhauling the enemy; but to-day, after having been " reveilled " at three and a half A. M., the hour when we intended to march, and being all ready, by five A. M., down came an order from Gen. MAC., who has his head-quar- ters directly in our rear, countermanding the orders to move for- ward to-day, and advising an observance of the Sabbath as strict as possible. The men of all the regiments of our brigade and divi- sion are overjoyed at resting to-day, and MCCLELLAN thus wins the hearts of all the men by his kindness, and also the favor of Heaven by his observance of its laws. With such a General, vic- tory must be ours. SMITH's Division, and especially HANCOCK'S Brigade, is a favorite with Gen. MAC., and has been ever since the battle of Williamsburg, and he sticks close to us on the march. You should see the army of the Potomac on this peninsula, under his immediate command, if you would see soldiers; and if you could only stand a few hours by some roadside, as the troops file down it on the march, you could have some idea of " the soldier."
We have frequent skirmishes with the enemy nearly every day, as we are in hot pursuit of him to prevent him from fortifying further this side of Richmond. Gen. MCCLELLAN anticipates being there on Thursday, I believe, if all goes well. It may be longer before we reach that devoted city, as the weather is very warm and marching very fatiguing. Our troops stand it well, having been pretty well inured to it, but the effect on new recruits would be very " sensible." Gen. MCCLELLAN seems to be " wrapt up" in his troops, and well may he be proud of them, and of their victorious march. I have at last got a little contraband, about twelve or thirteen years old. He is jet black, a good look- ing little " dark," and answers to the name of " CARTER." I will bring him home, if I can, and he will stay with me. I wish I had my box, as our fare is hard, very hard, and it is almost im- possible to get anything but hard crackers, coffee and sugar; and salt meat, seldom fresh, is served to us; but I do not complain at all of our fare, as long as I keep well, and our arms are victo- rious and old rebeldom overcome. I do not know how soon we shall engage them in conflict again, but I trust Heaven may grant us the victory in all our contests, and soon peace be restored to
152
COL. JOHN WILSON.
our beloved country. You should see the negroes here. We meet any quantity of them, and each house on our journey is decorated with a large white flag. whether the occupants are white or black. We do not touch anything belonging to the inhabitants on our march, but, of course, we return no slaves coming to and with us, as we do not believe in slavery, and do not intend to pollute the old flag with any more " negro slavery protection." I have held many conversations with negroes about their opinion of us and their former masters. I went over to Williamsburg the other day, and through some of the log cabins of the once slaves. I asked one very nice looking colored woman what she thought of our soldiers in comparison with the rebel troops. She said: "Your men look so very bold-don't hang down their heads as our soldiers do. Your troops frighted the life out of our men; and then the good clothes-oh, my! they look like soldiers." An old man, in another cabin, said of our troops firing, on the day of the battle of Williamsburg: "I notice that when our men fire, your men don't fall; but when your men fire, our men come down very fast." They all tell of the ridicu- lous stories of their masters and " missus;" that the Yankees would cut off their ears, sell them off north, burn them up, and what not; but they find it is all lies, and they are in the best of spirits, and rejoice beyond measure at our successful progress. We are in the finest country I ever saw, but most too warm for comfortable marching in the day time. Water is plentiful, and woods are abundant, so we march a great deal of the time in the shade. But I must close. My love to all, and many respects to all my friends. I send your letter and mother's in the same en- velope, as this is the first chance I have had to write for a long time. Write soon, and tell all to do so too.
Your affectionate brother, JOHN.
CAMP NEAR CITY POINT, VA., ON JAMES RIVER, July 4th, 1862. 5
My Dear Sister MARY-Your letter reached me to-day, at four P. M., and to-night, the night of the glorious Fourth, I sit down on the top of my little mess chest, made out of a cracker box,
153
COL. JOHN WILSON.
to write an answer to you. It is now a week or more, since I had an opportunity of handling a pen, and I have almost forgotten how to write a letter. I have so much to write, concerning our movements since last Saturday morning, that I do not know where to commence. I will therefore begin with June 27th, last Friday, a week ago to-day; the day before PORTER'S Division of the army, in front of Richmond, had pressed the rebels severely in the centre of our lines, and had gained on them a mile or more, after severe fighting and considerable loss. All the bands in our army, in front of Richmond, were playing our national airs, all the evening. I did not go to bed till one A. M. the next evening; and the next morning early, 5 A. M., our entire regi- ment went on picket. I had command of the right half (or wing) of our picket line, of the Forty-third New York. Our picket line was in close proximity to that of the rebels; so close, that each could converse with the other, in one or two different places. The part of which I had charge, ran through a wood; the other half, of the Forty-third picket, was posted in a wheat field, and were in full view of the rebel picket. The day was a lovely, warm one, and I enjoyed the picket duty very much. although I had heard that " shoulder straps" were the aim or mark of the rebel riflemen, they having made an agreement with our pickets, not to shoot each other, except officers. Our forces had thrown up, during the night before, quite a fort (six hundred men working all night upon it) near the picket line of the Second Brigade, immediately on our left, and at an early hour in the morning, this fort was the object of an attack by a rebel bat- tery. One could plainly hear, from where we were lying on picket, the artillery of the rebels, coming down towards their picket line. They commenced with a full battery volley, six pieces discharged at once, throwing shells; I should judge ten or twelve pounders; and their first volley was answered by one from our battery in said fort, and by a battery of thirty-two pounders a short distance in the rear. This exercise was kept up for about half an hour, when the artillery of the enemy with- drew. All was quiet till three p. M., when the rebel sharpshoot- ers endeavored to turn our right wing, of which I had command.
15
COL. JOHN WILSON.
Our support on that wing was immediately thrown forward on the line, doubling it, and old secesh fell back repulsed. We lost none, killed or wounded. Quite a large reserve was then thrown to the rear of the line, and were greatly needed before night fell. The part of our picket line, running through the wheat field, was strengthened to six times its former strength. So matters stood till seven P. M., when all of a sudden, just before we should have been relieved, a volley along the entire picket line of the rebels greeted us. Of course, the suddenness of the thing surprised us somewhat, but our men stood to their posts, to a man, and fired quick and surely, as you may well suppose. It was a strange sight in the woods, where I was stationed. I was on the picket line at the time, talking to one of my men about being relieved, when, all along the line in front of us (it seemed not more than ten yards off'), a bright flashing greeted my gaze, and bullets whistled close around us. My first excla- mation was: "Every man stand on his post, and give them all you can!" I rushed down the line to the reserve, and hurried it out on the line, and then the work commenced in good earnest. In a few minutes we could not see three feet from us, on account of the smoke. We kept up the firing until the enemy in front of us were completely silenced, which did not happen till our men had fired over fifty rounds each, of ammunition, and the guns were so hot I could not lay my hand on them. I then gave the order to my part of the line, to cease firing. It was kept up for some time on our left, as there the rebels had advanced a brigade or two, while we, on the right, were apparently opposed by a picket line. Our side had an entire brigade opposed to theirs, as soon as the firing commenced, in front of the fort, and the enemy were repulsed with a loss of two hundred and eighty killed and wounded (from an account furnished by a prisoner taken two days afterwards); while we lost but twenty-eight, killed and wounded, out of the Forty-third, and four or five more in the brigade. There were two in my company-JAMES F. HOGAN and HENRY S. LONG, both privates; the former wounded in the stomach. the latter in the hand. Young HOGAN died on Sunday morning, June 29th, in the hospital at Fair Oaks, or
155
COL. JOHN WILSON.
Savage's Station; I was unable to find out which. On account of our quick movements, I had only time to see him once on Saturday morning, at our regimental hospital, where I gave him a few lemons, which he seemed to like very much. He told me he could not live; he knew, he said, he would die. I endea- vored to cheer him up, but in vain. A few minutes after, he and the rest of the wounded were placed in ambulances, and taken away to the hospital I have mentioned before. He was a fine young man, and a good soldier, and I regret, exceedingly, his loss to the company. But his time had come-and I trust he was ready. You mention that your heart bled for the wounded, carried up to the Albany barracks. Could you see some of the wounded soldiers here, brought from a battle field, you would sicken at the sight. After the battle of Fair Oaks, some of the rebel wounded lay two days in the sun, on the field, and in the woods, before being brought in. Many of their wounds had commenced to mortify and decay. I have given you an idea of our picket skirmish on Friday night. We were relieved at nine P. M., by the Vermont Brigade, and right glad were we, to go home. I will, in my letter to ELIZA, tell about the retreat (or driving back, or retiring) of PORTER, the same day; and will close, with much love to all.
From your brother, JOHN.
CAMP IN THE FIELD, NEAR CITY POINT, VA., ? ON JAMES RIVER, July 5th, 1862.
My Dear Sister ELIZA-Your letter of June 23d came to hand yesterday, while our regiment was lying out in the woods, watch- ing for an attack from the enemy. It afforded me great pleasure to read the two letters, from yourself and MARY. I am very glad to hear of your efforts in behalf of the sick and wounded soldiers at the Albany barracks. How much gratification it must afford to them, to know that some one cares for them; and how delightful to them must seem the fresh fragrance of flowers, and the flavor of ripe strawberries. It must be a delightful task for you to carry them such little delicacies; and rest assured, that I am proud to know that I have sisters who can do such deeds of
156
COL. JOHN WILSON.
kindness to soldiers, voluntarily and without compensation. You may rest assured, that any such deed of charity you at home do, is fully appreciated by me: as much, almost, as though I was the happy recipient myself. Be sure a Heavenly Father will reward all such good deeds. My advice to all at home is, to do so, as much as you possibly can, knowing that you have a brother who is a soldier, and can appreciate such deeds when shown to the sick and wounded.
I gave MARY quite an account of a picket skirmish, on the evening of the 27th. Next morning (Saturday, June 28th), we were called to form line of battle at three A. M., and after await- ing an attack of the enemy, half an hour, retired to our tents. At half past five, heavy firing on our left and front called us out again. We stacked our arms on the color line, and broke ranks, ready to fall in, to move camp. At 8 A. M. our hospital and bag- gage train moved off, and proceeded in the direction of James River. At ten A. M. the order came to fall in, and we moved to our left, about one-fourth of a mile, and formed line of battle, composed of our whole division, and laid down on our arms, and awaited an attack from the enemy. PORTER'S Division, who were on our right, had retired the day before, and had recrossed the Chickahominy, followed by 75,000 or 100,000 rebels. All the day before, we could hear the heavy cannonading across the river, and two of our batteries, near our fort, were playing on the rebels as they crossed, and created great havoc among them. After we had left camp about an hour, the picket linc of our division was driven into the rifle pits, and we were held there all day (the Forty-ninth Pennsylvania doing picket duty that day), and the shells began to fall in our old camps thick and fast around us. We lay there all day and all night, waiting for the rebels to come out and charge on our old camps and follow us up, as they would reasonably expect us to cross the Chickahominy, as PORTER had done, and follow straight to the rear. We would then have given them an awful enfilade fire, as we had battery after battery planted, ready to receive them should they follow us. But they refused to do it, and at three A. M., Sunday, we moved to the left, towards James river,
157
COL. JOHN WILSON.
and marched some six or seven miles to a place near Savage's Station, on the railroad to Richmond. About three P. M. we moved to the station (Savage's), and commenced to destroy the property there. Vast quantities of hard bread, ammunition, coffee, sugar, salt, rifles and muskets were smashed, and burned in great heaps. I felt almost like crying when I saw the rifles broken across large pieces of railroad iron, and the more so when I remembered how long we had carried the old muskets, and would have given almost anything to have had such arms. At seven P. M., Sunday, the rebels came down, some 10,000 strong, by the railroad, and commenced an attack, which was repulsed with an enormous loss on their side. They had but one gun, mounted on a platform car, but it was charged on by the Irish Brigade, and taken. Their troops were soaked with " gunpowdered whiskey," and came up right to the mouths of our cannon, and were mowed down by grape and cannister by the score. At about nine A. M. they retired, completely repulsed, and our forces began to march again towards the James.
We marched, I should judge, some seven miles, and halted at one A. M., Monday, and laid on the side of the road, and fell asleep as soon as we rested. It rained slightly during the night, and at seven or eight A. M. we moved back to a wood, and formed line of battle, and waited for the rebels to come up in pursuit, which they did about twelve M., and opened with full battery on one of our batteries. They did not dare to attack us with infantry, but kept off at artillery range. This was kept up all the afternoon as long as the daylight lasted, and near evening some of the brigades of SUMNER's Division made a charge on them, and took some two hundred prosoners. The enemy lost, last Sunday night, at Savage's Station, some four thousand killed and wounded-our loss a mere trifle; on Monday they lost about two thousand-we as many hundred. As soon as it was dark, Monday night, we moved to concentrate our forces at the divi- sion head-quarters, and at ten p. M. moved off towards the James again, and marched some fifteen or twenty miles all night till broad daylight, about four A. M., and lay down to rest on our arms; slept till eight A. M., when we of the Forty-third went on picket,
158
COL. JOHN WILSON.
and remained all day by a beautiful mill pond. and at ton P. M. were called in to join our brigade. We were on the side of the road, watching the troops pass by. Regiment after regiment, battery after battery, wagon after wagon, hurried on. I watched them some two hours, and got so weary looking at them that I fell asleep, and when I awoke, at four A. M., Wednesday, they were still passing. So many troops, so many batteries, so many wagons, I never saw at one time before in my life. We moved off' at six A. M., being the rear guard, and then the rain com- meneed to pour down. Before we had marched six miles (the extent of our journey), City Point being that distance from us, and on the James river, the mud was awful-full eighteen inches deep. We trudged on, and at ten A. M. we eneamped in a corn- field near City Point landing, in mud full two feet deep. The whole plain, for miles near the landing, was covered with troops, but such looking ones-mud from their shoes to their knees, and drenched with rain. We encamped here all night, and, at eight A. M. next morning, moved back two miles from the river, and encamped in an oat field, where we remained till this morning, when we moved forward to a wood, in which place we are now encamped. The marching from City Point, on Thursday morning, those two miles, was the most severe I ever experienced. Mud almost knee deep, small men having to be pulled out many times; shoes drawn off, and buried out of sight. We got through it safely, however, and spent our Fourth of July lying in a place near the woods full of blackberries, in line of battle, and at seven p. M. returned to camp. But I must close. I will give mother an account of some of the incidents by the way, in answer to her letter I received to-day. Much love to all.
From your brother, JOHN.
All the flowers I send to you and Mary to-day, are from the pieket line, in front of Richmond, five miles from the city.
CAMP NEAR BERKLEY LANDING, JAMES RIVER, VA., July 7, 1862.
Dear KATE-Your welcome letter reached me, together with ANNA'S, yesterday morning. As I have informed ELIZA and
159
COL. JOHN WILSON.
MARY, in my last letters to them, we have just undergone the most severe duty and fatiguing marches the army of the Potomac has yet experienced. We had a week of it, and during the most of it we were either on the march or on the " qui rire" for the enemy. Of course, we obtained but little sleep, and that but an hour or two at a time. I stood it well, never falling out from my company, but doing all in my power to encourage the men to do their duty and keep up with the marching columns. I think the excitement did more than anything else to keep me up to my duty, for now, when we have arrived at a " stand still," I do not feel so well as I did on the march, but am by no means sick. I am doing my regular camp and picket duty. I am sorry to hear of mother's sickness, and hope that by this time she may have entirely recovered from her indisposition. We are having very fine weather for the month of July, the days being very warm and the sun powerful, but the nights cool and accom- panied by a heavy dew. Moonlight nights are prevalent now, and it is a magnificent sight to stand on an eminence, near a new fort just built by our troops, and look on the camps, as still as death (at twelve o'clock at night), except when the tread of a neighboring sentinel on his beat, or the whippowill on some oak or pine tree, breaks the silence. Only think of over fifty thou- sand men lying encamped in a vast plain, to be seen, at a few glances, in different directions. I do not know how far the rebels are from us; we see or hear nothing of them at present.
We have been moving our camp every day since we reached the James river, and are now about two miles from it. We may have to stay here some time, and we may move on to Richmond, up the James, under cover of our gunboats, and clear the place out. I am ready for anything, move or rest, it makes no differ- ence. Our troops of the army of the Potomac have implicit con- fidence in MCCLELLAN, and all seem satisfied that his movement to the left, has been the salvation of his army. Many rumors concerning him are current here, but I presume they are all unfounded, some to the effect that MCCLELLAN and STANTON will both be superseded-HALLECK to be placed in command of the army, Scorr to be made Secretary of War, &c., &c. They had
160
COL. JOHN WILSON.
better reinforce MCCLELLAN sufficiently, and then let him try it again. He is by no means beaten, but has made a movement to the left and towards the James, in order to save his army, the only course he could pursue; besides, we have whipped the enemy at every battle, and killed and wounded two of them for one of us. I am glad to hear of the comfortable quarters pro- vided for the sick and wounded at Albany. It must be pleasant at the Albany Barracks Hospital for the soldiers taken there.
I am right glad mother " does as she does," sending the soldiers delicacies, and I ean somewhat appreciate the feeling such gifts must inspire in the bosoms of the recipients of them. It is gratifying to us here in active service to know that our comrades are so well cared for in their time of trouble, an I I can assure you that it is a great incentive to us to renewed exertions in the field. Those who remember the sick and wounded soldier, and administer consolation and comfort to him in his distress, must feel that they are doing their duty and serv- ing their country full as much as those who face the foe in the grim battle, amid screeching shells and whistling bullets; and so surely as the God of Nations exists, so surely must a blessing from Him be the reward of their labors of love. I was much shocked to hear of MELVILLE MARBLE'S death, but all must die, and an early death saves one from much toil and anguish. Was he prepared? If so, all is well. I sympathize deeply with his family, but many family circles mourn the loss of some who have fallen within one short week; and some, the only one that that circle contained. Who can tell the mourning that the contest which has continued since the 27th of June has occasioned. Forty-five thousand reported to have been killed and wounded; fifteen thousand of that number accredited to the Federals.
I might tell you of awful sights I have witnessed; of human forms mangled in every conceivable manner; of straggling soldiers shot dead by the dragoons in our forced march, because they would not join their regiments; of the marches by day, and the marches by night; of the destruction of arms and equipments for which we could not provide transportation, although our train of army wagons was over twenty miles long; but you would sicken at the
161
COL. JOHN WILSON.
recital of them, and they being now over and gone, the memory and recital of them would do no good. Our regiment, although under hot fire, has been very fortunate, having lost but forty-one in killed, wounded and missing. I myself have escaped any injury whatever, and trust I may come safely through all the contests yet to be endured. My trust is on high, and faithfulness to my duty is my firm intention, leaving consequences with Him who " notes even a sparrow's fall." I send my love to all. Good bye. From your brother, JOHN.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.