USA > New York > The history of the Forty-eighth regiment New York state volunteers, in the war for the union. 1861-1865 > Part 14
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Tlre battle of Cold Harbor was the fiercest of that series of desperate encounters between Grant and Lee which began in the Wilderness. At Cold Harbor alone the National loss was reported as 13.153 ; the Confederate losses were much less, since they constantly fought behind intrenchments. Grant's entire losses from the time he started upon that can-
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paign (May 4th) up to his crossing of the James River (June 12th) are estimated at the enormous figure of 60,000.
Grant's great object had been the destruction or the dis- persion of Lee's army at points north of Richmond. This, despite the terrible battles he had fought, he had failed to do. Yet he was not dismayed. He now conceived the bold project of throwing his army to the south side of the James by a grand flank movement, and in that manner cut off the chief sources of supply of Lee's army from the south and southwest, and thus compel its surrender. It is well known to history how he accomplished it. The withdrawal of a great army from the very front of an enemy is a most diffi- cult task. It depends largely for its success upon the fidelity of the thin lines who are assigned to hold the rifle-pits to the last ; and that is the precise work which we did at Cold Har- bor, and so successfully, that the flank movement of the Army of the Potomac across the James is conceded to have been one of the most brilliant military achievements in his- tory.
At one o'clock in the morning of June 13th the men of the Forty-eighth in the advanced rifle-pits received orders to finally evacuate their works. Word was passed in whispers from man to man, and seven companies were safely with- drawn to the rear. There yet remained, however, three companies of the regiment, who were posted in the very ad- vanced rifle-pits, and to withdraw them from the very front was a work of the greatest difficulty. Yet it was success- fully accomplished that early morning, with the loss of but a few men, who were necessarily left behind and sacrificed for the safety of the rest, and the forces retired in good order to White House, where their transports awaited them. Nothing in the history of the war was finer than the hold- ing of the lines at Cold Harbor during the change of base by Grant's army. It only could have been accomplished by veteran soldiers in the highest stages of discipline.
On June 14th the regiment sailed from White House down the Pamunky River and up the James, and late in the
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afternoon of the 15th reached again its old intrenchments at Bermuda Hundred.
It was early the next morning, while the boys were yet asleep on the ground, that the writer found himself once more in the midst of his old regiment. It was within one month and one day of a year since he had been separated from them-that fiery night on the banks of Wagner. The change that had come to the regiment was better realized by him because of his long absence than by those who had been constantly present with it. The clean uniforms, the burnished guns, the shining buttons, the white gloves, and all the fineries of war that had signalized our long stay at Fort Pulaski, and that the regiment had carried with it up to the very guns at Wagner, were now entirely gone. Hard usage, terrible campaigns, fatal battles, and tiresome marches had thinned its ranks and tarnished buttons and " scales," and destroyed their fine uniforms, but had not broken their loyal spirits. Such had been the changes in the personnel of the regiment, that I found myself well-nigh a stranger. In the former days the "Colonel's orderly" had known everybody, and the amateur actors of the Barton Dramatic Association had been known by all. Only a little group of those with whom I had been intimate remained. Very many of the men who had formerly been privates, like my- self, had been promoted to commissioned officers. William J. Carlton, for instance, who had been third sergeant, was now captain of Company D, and John M. Tantum, who had been orderly sergeant, was now first lieutenant, and com- manded the company. Similar changes had occurred no. doubt in every other company of the regiment.
Great and important military movements now rapidly succeeded each other in our vicinity. On June 17th and ISth the Sixth and Eighteenth Corps were near us, while the Second. Fifth, and Ninth were on our left. In company with the whole army we marched toward Petersburg. The knowledge which the private soldier possessed of the move- ments of a great army was vague and indefinite. Many
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mistakes were made, and opportunities were allowed to pass unimproved, which cost the Republic dear, but of which we then had little knowledge, and which it is no part of a merely regimental historian to chronicle.
. On the afternoon of June 22d President Lincoln, accom- panied by General Butler and a glittering cavalcade, rode by our intrenchments. We greeted the immortal President with enthusiastic cheers.
On June 23d we finally reached the position in the forti- fications in front of Petersburg which we were destined to occupy for weeks; that position was in the immediate neighborhood of the Jerusalem Plank Road, and just to the left of where the fortifications crossed it. We were immedi- ately on the right of Burnside's Ninth Corps. We were now confronted by Lee's entire army, behind formidable lines of redans, redoubts, and infantry parapets, with skil- fully contrived outer defences of abatis, stakes, and chevaux- de-frise. The lines extended nearly forty miles in length, from the left bank of the Appomattox, around to the western side of Petersburg, also to and across the James to the eastern side of Richmond. To menace that extended line required equally long and strong intrenchments, and these were immediately constructed.
There was now a comparative lull in the sanguinary struggle which had signalized the preceding months. Was it not true that the temper of the Union armies had become inferior to what it formerly had been ? It is true that many veterans remained ; and yet the majority of our forces now consisted of raw troops, of inferior discipline and of a less exalted spirit than those who at the first outbreak of the war had volunteered for the defence of the Republic. Con- scription and vast bounties had been resorted to to replen- ish the thinned ranks of the loyal armies. The temper of the men, therefore, whom Grant commanded during the last year of the war, in the east, was not to be compared with that of those who had marched under Mcclellan two years before. Gillmore had been succeeded in the command of
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the Tenth Corps by Brigadier-General W. H. T. Brooks ; he also retired from its command on July 15th. and on July 22d Major-General David B. Birney became our corps commander.
General Turner still commanded the Second Division, which came to be known as the " Flying Division," because it was continually detached from its corps and sent here and there as the exigencies of the service required. Colo- nel Barton continued to command the Second Brigade, and Lieutenant-Colonel Coan the Forty-eighth Regiment. Lieu-
FORT STEADMAN.
tenant-Colonel Dudley W. Strickland had resigned ; Captain Lockwood also had returned to civil life. As finally ad- justed, Barton's brigade consisted of the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth New York, Seventy-sixth and Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, and later the Two Hundred and Third Penn- sylvania was added to it. Thus brigaded for ensuing months, the regiment was destined still to do noble service for the country.
The fortifications in our immediate front at Petersburg were of the most formidable character, Forts Steadman and Sedgwick being particularly hot places: to the latter our men gave the name of " Fort Hell," when, not to be outdone,
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ARMY OF THE JAMMES.
the rebels called the former " Fort Damnation." Perhaps they were not over-elegant names; neither were they mild and quiet places.
On June 30th an advance was ordered upon the Confed- erate works on Cemetery Hill in our front. Barton's brigade was directed to assault the hill upon the right. So formidable were the rebel works, that it seemed like court- ing certain death to attempt to carry them by assault ; nevertheless we were ordered out, and formed our lines in the woods in front of our fortifications. Delays, however, occurred, and finally, greatly to our relief, the order was re- called. Colonel Barton was subjected to some blame for the failure of the assault. His action was subjected to a criti- cal examination, but upon his stating his reasons he was thoroughly exonerated from all blame, and his course in the matter approved. Beyond a doubt his regard for the lives of his soldiers that day saved many of us from death. The fortifications which it was intended we should assault were subsequently proven to have been so powerful, that if we had ventured to advance against them we would un- doubtedly have been destroyed.
At that time our pickets were posted in lines of little rifle-pits, hastily dug among the trees in the woods in front of our works. But two men at a time were placed in these little holes, and so hot was the fire, that the reliefs were only made at night. Whoever ventured to stand up a moment in the sight of the enemy, either in the rifle-pits or upon the fortifications, was sure to be picked off by sharp-shooters. Sometimes the boys would rig up a dummy upon a pole and lift it to the top of the parapet : it was sure to be riddled with bullets in a moment. The two personal friends with whom the writer shared a shelter tent in those days (Graham and Richman) were thus killed by sharp-shooters: Graham on June the 29th, while trying to run to the rifle-pits with some coffee for the men ; George W. Richman, the very next morning, while we were together and alone in a rifle-pit on picket. That terrible day, from the early morning till it grew
.
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dark at night, which the writer spent by the side of his dead friend in that rifle-pit, is still unforgotten.
Throughout the hot month of July we continued to oc- cupy our line of fortifications before Petersburg, alternat- ing forty-eight hours of duty at the front and forty-eight hours at the rear. But the rest in the rear was hardly less perilous than duty at the front. Our casualties in the Peters- burg trenches were one officer and twenty men killed and wounded.
About eight o'clock on the evening of July 29th the Second Division of the Tenth Corps was relieved from duty in its intrenchments by a part of the Eighteenth Corps, and ordered to join the forces of General Burnside in front of the position of the Ninth Corps, for the purpose of mak- ing the anticipated assault upon the enemy's works, upon the explosion of the famous Petersburg mine. At a point immediately in Burnside's front, within one hundred and fifty yards of his line, a Confederate fort, mounting six guns, projected beyond their average line; four hundred yards in its rear was Cemetery Hill, crowned by a battery which commanded the city of Petersburg and indeed the most important of the Confederate works. In order to seize that crest, and thus at one blow capture Petersburg and command the rebel position, a most ingenious device had been resorted to.
The Forty-eighth Pennsylvania of Burnside's corps was a regiment which had been enlisted from the mining regions of that State, and almost to a man they were practical miners. They undertook and successfully accomplished the mining of that rebel fort. At noon. on June 25th, without proper tools and with but few of the materials deemed requisite for such work, they commenced their gallery. They ob- tained planks by tearing down a rebel bridge; the dirt was carried away upon hand barrels constructed out of cracker- boxes ; many difficulties were overcome : and on July 17th the main gallery 5017, feet in length, was completed. The enemy had been warned that their works were being mined,
ARMY OF THE JAMMIES. 161
and they began countermining. However, the work went on. The Forty-eighth Pennsylvania had sunk their galleries so deep that they were not discovered. Yet the men at work far underground plainly heard the enemy over their heads in the fort.
They excavated two lateral galleries, one to the right, the other to the left, a little beyond and in rear of the rebel fort. The right lateral gallery was thirty-eight feet long, the left nearly as long. They were drained and timbered, and eight magazines were placed in position within them. The mine was charged on July 27th. The charge consisted of three hundred and twenty kegs of powder, each containing twenty-five pounds-eight thousand pounds in all. That delicate work was accomplished between four o'clock in the afternoon and ten at night : the tamping was finished by six o'clock the next day. Great hopes were entertained of this remarkable device. It was believed that if that mine could be successfully exploded, and our forces could rush at once through the crater, they would find the enemy so demoralized that they could successfully capture Cemetery Hill, and that Lee's army would be at their mercy.
On the night of the 29th a vast array of troops was assem- bled in Burnside's front as noiselessly as possible, ready for the assault in the early morning. Ledlie's division of the Ninth Corps was unfortunately chosen by lot for the perilous duty of leading the assault ; other divisions formed in its rear. Our division moved to the position assigned to it during the night. It was in its place at 3.30 A.M., at which time it was expected that the explosion would occur, but the fuse failed. Lieutenant Jacob Douty of Company K. Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, and Sergeant Henry Reese of the same regiment, ventured into the gallery, detecting and removing the cause of its failure. At 4.45 A.M. they reapplied the match, and slowly but surely the fuse burned its way to the mine. The whole army massed there together, n.omentarily expecting the explosion in their front, waited. They were moments of intense anxiety. The rebellion might
II
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be ended with this day if this explosion and assault were but successful.
Suddenly the very earth on which we stood seemed to tremble : the fire had reached the magazines, and, with a mighty shock, followed by a rumbling like that of thunder, the whole Confederate fort in our front was lifted into the air. A dense mass of smoke covered it, and flying fragments flew everywhere. The entire work was demolished, and its garri- son of three hundred men buried in its ruins. . In a moment, as the smoke cleared away, we saw a vast crater where the for- tification had been, one hundred and thirty-five feet in length, and some ninety-seven feet in width and thirty feet in depth. Instantly the Federal guns opened a heavy cannonade and bombardment for miles all along our lines. The dismayed Confederates only made a feeble response. The way was open to us-the enemy was at our mercy.
And now occurred the most lamentable failure and the most inexcusable of the whole war. Ledlie's division, which its commander should have led in person straight through the crater and on to the crest, went no further than the site of the ruined fort. Ledlie himself is said to have taken refuge in a bomb-proof. He was disgraced, and retired from . the army from that day. The divisions of Potter and Wilcox followed him, but their way was blocked by Ledlie's halted columns. So great was the confusion of the enemy that even this was not yet fatal. The day could still have been redeemed by an immediate and general advance, but every moment was priceless. It was now determined to bring for- ward from the rear Ferrero's division of colored soldiers, and send them forward to storm the hill. The delay that oc- curred before they could be brought to the front was fatal.
It was the old blunder of Fort Wagner repeated at Petersburg: not that the colored soldiers did not come for- ward bravely enough : but they were not in position at the proper moment, and the delay was fatal. The enemy were in a state of panic : aroused from their sleep in the trenches by the terrible explosion, it was a long time before their officers
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ARMY OF THE JAMES.
succeeded in rallying them. Beauregard claims ridiculously that it was done in less than five minutes, but even that should have been five minutes too late. The mine had exploded at fifteen minutes before five ; it was half-past seven when Fer- rero's colored division advanced to the breach. They were met by a deadly fire from the Confederates, who had now rallied and were back in their places behind their para- pets, and they quickly broke and fled to the rear in confu- sion. A terrible fight now ensued among the struggling and disorganized masses of men in and about the crater : some of them forced their way into the ditch of the gorge-line, where they fought with the enemy hand to hand ; others crept along the glacis of the exterior line and climbed over the parapet into the main trench. The rebels fought be- hind their traverses. But it was useless : the priceless mo- ments had been wasted ; the only hope of that day was a sudden, simultaneous, and overwhelming advance upon the demoralized enemy instantly after the explosion.
The opportunity had now passed. At half-past nine General Grant in person rode up to the line, dismounted, " walked across the front, under a heavy fire, to a point where Burnside was watching the battle. He took in the situation at a glance, and perceiving that every chance of suc- cess was lost, at once exclaimed, ' These troops must be imme- diately withdrawn ; it is slaughter to leave them there.'" * They were withdrawn with great difficulty, and under a most terrific fire, during the next few hours. The whole affair was most wretchedly managed throughout ; only the explo- sion itself was a success. Our losses were estimated at 4400: the Confederate loss at not more than a thousand. including those who had been blown up with the fort.
It was a most disastrous failure, for which somebody was responsible. Though Turner's division did not move. strictly speaking, into the crater itself, it was so placed that it suffered from a most terrible fire through those hours.
* Badeau's Military History of U. S. Grant, vol. ii. p. 482.
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The loss of the Forty-eighth was two officers and twenty- seven men. Major Swartwout was killed ; so were Lieuten- ant O'Brien and Orderly Sergeant MacDougall. Turner's division sustained a loss of over four hundred : for more than three hours they had stood firmly under a severe fire of musketry and artillery, in an isolated and perilous position.
On July 31st Turner's " Flying Division" was relieved from duty with the Eighteenth Corps, and ordered to rejoin the Tenth Corps again at Bermuda Hundred. For thirty- eight days the regiment had been continuously under fire be- fore Petersburg, and a return to its old quarters north of the
GRANT'S HEADQUARTERS AT CITY POINT.
Appomattox was greatly welcomed. Here the details of men for duty in the trenches and on picket were much re- duced, and, in a manner, the regiment rested at Bermuda Hundred from July 31st to August 13th. By mutual con- sent the pickets in front of the opposing lines had ceased the murderous practice of desultory firing upon one another, and comparative quiet ensued. Indeed, frequently the pickets could be seen reclining upon their respective em- bankments in plain view of one another, and often inter- changed papers, tobacco, coffee, and the like. Frequently interesting conversations occurred between them; it was a tacit truce which they maintained, but both sides respected it.
Early in August General Butler conceived the design of constructing his famous Dutch Gap Canal, and volunteers
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ARMY OF THE JAMES.
were called for from the various regiments to do the work. The writer's impression was that not many of the Forty- eighth responded: volunteering to dig ditches under the blazing August sun was not a particularly coveted occupa- tion.
But we were not destined to rest long at Bermuda Hundred. It had been determined to attempt a movement against Richmond on the north side of the James River,
PONTOON BRIDGE AT JONES' LANDING ON JAMES RIVER.
and the Second and Tenth Corps were assigned to the task. General Turner, with the first brigade of his division, was left at Bermuda Hundred ; the Third and Second brigades of Turner's division were now temporarily attached to what was known as " Birney's provisional division." The march from Bermuda Hundred to and across the James River at Jones' Landing, on a pontoon bridge, and on to Deep Bottom, was a trying one ; many fell from the ranks, over- come by the excessive heat. On the morning of August
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16th we were at Strawberry Plains. To the writer this was a memorable day : three years before, on August 16th, he had been mustered into the service with Company H ; his term therefore expired with that day. Many others of the regiment had also completed their term of service and felt that they should now be sent home ; yet they were on the threshold of another desperate battle, and though they might by right have refused to participate in it, not a single man did so.
Fighting was constant all about us throughout those days of August ; Lieutenants Tantum and Sears were killed at Strawberry Plains on the 16th. Tantum's term of service also expired on that very day; it was remembered that he had said, " The day my three years expire, I shall resign my commission." But when the day really came, he took his place at the head of his company and led them in a fearful charge. As they rushed forward he leaped upon a stump and shouted, " Give them a Jersey tiger, boys!" and turning to the front again, fell dead with a bullet in his brain. He had served his country " for three years" and forever. Cap- tain D'Arcy was also killed in this series of engagements, and Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Seaward were wounded. The charge at Strawberry Plains was immediately success- ful, but the reinforcement of the enemy ultimately com- pelled a retreat, with a severe loss, to our intrenched lines.
The position of the Forty-eighth was one of extreme peril. The first intimation that Birney's provisional divi- sion received that our forces were retiring was the sudden appearance of a large body of the enemy in front of their line of works, extending far beyond our flanks, and advanc- ing rapidly upon us. They met them with a galling fire until retreat or capture became inevitable ; then they re- treated, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground. keeping at bay their pursuers, fighting from tree to tree. doing great damage to the enemy, but suffering severe losses themselves. The entire casualties of the Federal forces during this move- ment were about five thousand, of these the Forty-eighth
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lost on August 14th one officer and three men ; on August 16th, four officers and fifty men. The battlesat Strawberry Plains and Deep Bottom occupy no very conspicuous place in the history of the war, since ultimately they accomplished no great purpose, but they were on the part of those partici- pating in them a protracted series of battles, in which they suffered greatly.
After the engagements at Deep Bottom and Strawberry Plains, the brigades of the Second Division of the Tenth Corps were found to be sadly worn and shattered, the regi-
BULLET-PROOF IN THE WOODS.
ments being but the skeletons of their former selves; the condition of the men also was one of almost utter exhaus- tion. Days of continual marching and fighting in the intense heat had taxed their powers of endurance to the utmost ten- sion. There was desultory firing on our front August 17th and ISth, by which we did not particularly suffer, and we returned to the intrenchments at Deep Bottom for a respite of rest. Captain Nichols had commanded the regiment in this engagement, as at Cold Harbor. On August 20th we again left Deep Bottom to do picket-duty at Strawberry Plains, and on the 21st returned to our old intrenchments at Bermuda Hundred.
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