USA > New York > The history of the Forty-eighth regiment New York state volunteers, in the war for the union. 1861-1865 > Part 16
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FORTY-EIGHTII REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
There was one incident of striking valor witnessed that day on the sands in front of Fort Fisher that should be mentioned. The color-sergeant of the Forty-eighth was Thomas Van Tassel. As the brigade rushed forward on the grand assault the color-sergeants of the Forty-eighth New York and the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania ran ahead in the advance. The flag of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania was a beautiful new one, but that of the Forty-eighth New York could hardly be called a flag ; there was little left of it but the staff and a few ribbons, for it had been borne before on many a fiery field. There was a peculiar contrast, there- fore, between the colors of the two regiments, whose color- sergeants were running side by side towards the banks of Fort Fisher, and they planted their banners almost simul- taneously upon the captured parapets. It was a struggle as to which would get there first, and it incited the men to a wild enthusiasm to follow their flags to victory. From mound to mound they fought through the whole afternoon till the darkness of the night.
After the capture of the fort a fire was built to aid the `sailors on the ships in directing their fire. About ten o'clock orders were received for a further advance. The famous old regiment-the Sixth Connecticut-which had been with us in the hottest fire at Wagner, but which had not up to this point been engaged in the fight at Fort Fisher, was now sent for and put in advance. The rest followed them, but with much irregularity, as the fighting of the day had some- what broken the formation of the regiments ; every regi- ment, however, clustered about its own flag, and in the darkness of the night went forward. They entered the fort, crossed it, but met no opposition. The Sixth Connecticut then made an advance toward Fort Buchanan, and there they found the enemy, making prisoners of them all.
Meanwhile the Forty-eighth had built a fire and cooked some coffee in a small kettle they had found in the fort. But let no one suppose that the regiment at this time was a long line of one thousand men, as it once had been. So
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
had its ranks been thinned by the casualties of four years of fighting and many deadly battles, that when the roll was called there in the darkness within Fort Fisher, only eight officers and seventeen enlisted men answered to their names. The noble regiment had melted away to that.
Later in the night the Second Brigade was sent to the rear to guard the prisoners who had been captured upon the beach. They remained there till the prisoners were transferred to the ships and sent to the North. The Forty- eighth Regiment went into the fight at Fort Fisher few in numbers, but they were in the very front, and in the thickest of the fray ; and there is creditable record that a little handful of them, with a few others of their brigade, were further in the advance than any other of the Union soldiers on that day. They had a peculiarly desperate fight about one of the sand-mounds, the contingencies of which brought them so far to the front. They made a gallant dash at one of the parapets of the fort, but were beaten back by overwhelm- ing numbers, some going into the fort and others down the land-face over into the moat. By standing sheltered in the ditch, and keeping up a fire on the parapets just above them, they compelled the evacuation of two of the mounds, protected the men bringing up ammunition from the rear, and finally advancing on their own account, took possession of a rebel battery they found unoccupied on the very top of the fort.
Individual instances of valor on that day were many, and the loss of the regiment at Fort Fisher was more than one fourth of its officers and more than one third of its enlisted men. Yet so few were they in number that the loss was only three officers and eleven enlisted men. Captain James H. Dunn was killed. Some of the Forty-eighth also were lost at the explosion of the magazine of the fort the next morning.
I cannot forbear quoting the noble tribute to the valor of the troops by Admiral Porter in his report to the Secretary of the Navy. He says :
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
" It will not be amiss for me to remark here, that I never saw any- thing like the fearless gallantry and endurance displayed by our troops. They fought like lions, and knew no such word as fail. They finally fought and chased the rebels from traverse to traverse, until they reached Battery Lamb at the mound, a face of the work extending about one thousand four hundred yards in length. At this point the rebels broke, and fled to the end of Federal Point. Our troops fol- lowed them up, and they surrendered at discretion. I have visited Fort Fisher and its adjacent work, and found their strength greatly beyond what I had conceived. An engineer might be excusable in saying that they could not be captured except by regular siege. I wonder even now how it was done. The works are tremendous. I was in the Malakoff Tower a few days after its surrender to the French and British. The combined armies of those two nations were many months capturing that stronghold, and it will not compare either in size or strength to Fort Fisher. and yet the latter was captured by a handful of men under fire of the guns of the fort, and in seven hours after the attack commenced in earnest. The world never saw such fighting as our soldiers did."
That gallant tribute by a brave sailor to brave soldiers was as handsome as it was deserved.
The capture of Fort Fisher thrilled the whole country as did the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. It won a great fame for General Terry and the troops that fought un- der him. At last the Forty-eighth Regiment had partici- pated in a great battle which was not a reverse or a doubt- ful victory, but a decided and overwhelming triumph. Con- gratulatory addresses came from everywhere. The Secre- tary of War, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, wrote a letter concern- ing it to President Lincoln, highly complimentary to " the column of 3000 troops of the old Tenth Corps." Beaure- gard a few days before had pronounced the fortification impregnable. It was another Fort Wagner, though not nearly so fatal a spot nor so desperately defended.
Our old enemy at Olustee, General A. H. Colquitt, was an hour too late at Fort Fisher to meet us again, but he came very near being captured by us there that night. He ventured to make a little reconnoissance in a row-boat to see how matters stood ; he escaped " by the skin of his teeth."
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
The Confederate General Whiting, writing from the hospi- tal at Goat Island on March 2d, paid this tribute to the fire of the Federal fleet :
"It was beyond description; no language can describe that terrific bombardment : 143 shots a minute for twenty-four hours! My tra- verses stood it nobly, but by the direct fire the enemy were able to bring upon the land-front they succeeded in knocking down my guns there."
If Fort Fisher had been garrisoned and defended as Bat- tery Wagner was, the Union columns would have rushed upon its flaming parapets in vain ; but the long years of the war had broken the spirit of the Confederate soldiers, and they were destined never to display their former valor again. The National loss in the attack was only 681 men, of whom 88 were killed, 501 wounded, and 92 missing. At the acci- dental explosion of the magazine within the fort next morn- ing 200 were killed, and 100 more wounded. The losses of the fleet were about three hundred men : it had expended 50,000 shells in the bombardment. The fort was so slightly damaged by the pounding it had received, that it could easily have been repaired ; but our forces had no use for it.
The minor fortifications upon the Cape Fear River were at once evacuated by the enemy ; the port of Wilmington was now firmly closed to blockade-runners, and the town itself was soon destined to be occupied by our troops. General Terry posted his men behind an intrenched line across the peninsula, some two or three miles above Fort Fisher, as it was not deemed prudent for such a small army to attempt a further advance. Fort Anderson was still oc- cupied by the enemy at a point on the river about half-way between Fort Fisher and Wilmington, and they had also thrown up a line of intrenchments in Terry's front. The fort was an extensive earthwork, that mounted a large num- ber of guns and commanded the approach both by land and water : even its capture was not deemed practicable by General Terry with his present force.
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
But the final campaign of the war was now at hand. The magnificent devices of General Grant by which he hemmed in the Confederacy on every side, were drawing to their cul- mination. Sherman had made his march successfully to the sea; Thomas had overwhelmed the rebel army at the battle of Nashville; Lee's hold on his vast trenches in front of Petersburg was shaken : the entire Confederacy was on the eve of collapse. Grant determined to open a way through North Carolina to Goldsboro' in readiness for Sherman's march northward to that point. With that object in view, he ordered General Schofield, with the Twenty-third Army Corps, from Tennessee to the coast of North Carolina ; and that noble corps from the Army of the Ohio, which had done famous service in the great battles of the West, was trans- ferred by steamers down the Tennessee and up the Ohio to Cincinnati, with all its horses and artillery, leaving only the wagons behind it, and thence by railroad to Washington and Alexandria. They reached the coast of North Carolina in the early part of February, one division (Cox's) landing near Fort Fisher, and others at New Berne. Soon Terry's army of 8000 had become 20,000 men.
The Department of North Carolina was created, and Major- General J. M. Schofield assigned to its command. The Forty-eighth Regiment, with the brigades of Ames' division of the old Tenth Corps, was now merged into this new army. They had served in the Department of the South, in the Army of the James, in the Army of the Potomac, and now were merged into the Army of the Ohio in the Department of North Carolina ; and they were yet destined, in the final days of the war, to be united with Sherman's great army, that had tramped its way from Atlanta to the sea, and from the sea northward straight through the Confederacy, to that point in North Carolina where the rebellion finally and for- ever came to its end.
On February 7th the Forty-eighth Regiment received a reinforcement of two hundred and ten men under the com- mand of Major Barrett, from their old camp at Chapin's Farm.
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
Then began the march into the interior of North Carolina. which was destined to be the last of their many campaigns. General Schofield commanded the army, General Terry the corps. On February 15th Coxe's division of the Twenty-third Corps and Ames' of the Tenth Corps crossed over to Smith- field, and advancing along the main road to Wilmington, skirmished with the rebel pickets in advance lines until they met their main body at the works adjacent to Fort Ander- son. Coxe's division intrenched itself to occupy the enemy, and Ames' division moved around the swamps which covered their right, a distance of about fifteen miles, in order to strike the Wilmington road in the rear and to the north of the fort. Once more the Forty-eighth participated in an important movement, although the enemy did not give them battle ; for finding himself in danger of being flanked, he hastily abandoned his works on the night of February 19th, and Fort Anderson, with its adjacent defences, fell into our hands. The army continued to move forward without any particular opposition until they reached the outskirts of Wilmington on February 2Ist.
Here occurred a battle which is not so memorable as an engagement, but which was a formidable affairto the Forty- eighth. In approaching the city, our brigade received orders to march to the left through a narrow road along which only four men could walk abreast ; and suddenly, when the pres- ence of an enemy was unsuspected, every bush and stump in front of us seemed to be alive with men, who opened a terri- ble fire at short range immediately upon us. Instantly the left wing of the regiment was deployed as skirmishers, the right wing supporting them, and a sharp battle ensued. It was a constant series of little flank movements : the men would run ahead and with wonderful ingenuity throw up a few handfuls of dirt in front of them, lying down behind it. firing at the retreating enemy, then advance again and repeat the movement, then they would try flanking them ; and the little battle continued for hours. Bullets fell thick and fast among us : and not until midnight, when the place was evacu-
ISS
FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
ated by our division, did we march back inside of the intrench- ments, stack arms, and go to sleep on the ground. The Forty-eighth Regiment was nearly, if not entirely, the only one hotly engaged in that little fight ; its losses were one officer and fifteen men. And Major Barrett assures the writer that he was never more proud of the regiment in all its history than that day in front of Wilmington.
It was there that Major Elfwing was struck by a minie- ball in the cap of his knee, requiring the amputation of his
PICKETS.
leg. When the surgeon told him that his leg must be cut off, the brave fellow replied. "Well, one pair of boots will last me now as long as two pair will you."
The next day, February 22d. Wilmington was occupied, and the flag of the Republic floated in the breeze above it. Learning that the rebel general. Johnston, was in full retreat. but that his march was impeded by a large number of Union prisoners whom he had with him, our forces started on a herce march in pursuit. Skirmishing with the rear of his columns was continuous, until at night our armies reached
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
La little river which Johnson had just crossed and burned the bridge behind him. He sent a flag of truce, offering to surrender the prisoners in his possession. We received them gladly into our lines, and their joy was great at seeing the old flag again. There were 10,000 of them, among whom were some who had been captured from our own regiment at Olustee and Cold Harbor, and all of them were naked and well-nigh starved to death. Major Barrett says they " look- ed like living skeletons." The men gladly shared with them their rations, and the childish glee of the poor, emaciated fellows, who had suffered untold privations in the rebel prison-pens, at finding themselves among friends again, and at the prospect of seeing their homes once more, can never be forgotten.
Our forces returned to Wilmington with the prisoners, and went into camp in a peanut field. There was great sport at night when the men built their fires and the pea-nuts began to crack. Digging for pea-nuts became the rage, as digging for "yams " had been long before at Dawfuskie. One of the prisoners was a member of Company B of the Forty-eighth. He had been wounded and captured at Olustee. Fla., on the 20th of February, 1864, and when he found himself, after a whole year's imprisonment, in the midst of his old regiment, he was so overjoyed that he burst into tears and wept like a little child.
The writer has not included in this sketch of the history of the regiment any record of the experiences of many of its members in rebel prisons. He could do so with ease. Nothing that has yet been written has adequately described the sufferings that were there endured. What with freezing and starvation, strong and robust men were soon reduced to gaunt and famished skeletons. Idiocy followed, and after that death. At the most moderate estimate, 40,000 Union soldiers died in the rebel prisons, amid atrocities that will remain forever untold. Names of members of the Forty. eighth New York can still be found on the wooden slabs that mark their graves in the prison cemeteries at Richmond and
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
Andersonville, and every man of them might have lived to reach his home again if he would have consented to betray his country, and take the oath of allegiance to the Confed- erate Government ; but they chose to die rather than to turn traitors. They loved their honor more than they loved their lives, and they did die in silence and humility, the saddest victims and the supreme heroes of the war.
On March 12th General Schofield received orders from General W. T. Sherman at Fayetteville to march at once for Goldsboro', and to direct General Terry to do the same. Then began the last long and weary march. Starting
ARMY SIGNAL TELEGRAPH.
from Wilmington on March 15th, the regiment made twenty-five miles a day, and on the 21st caught their first glimpse of Sherman'sarmy. The end was now near at hand. and the Forty-eighth Regiment was destined to be "in at the finish." Rations had become scarce, and the army sub- sisted by foraging upon the country ; coffee and tea were luxuries that had well-nigh been forgotten. On March 29th Grant was ready for his final movement against Lee, and on April 2d advanced upon his works. On April 3d Lee's army was in full retreat. Our forces under General Weitzel entered the rebel capital, and Richmond, after four years of cruel fighting, was finally taken.
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
But Grant's army did not stop to occupy the city ; the major portion of it pushed on after Lee, and Sheridan suc- ceeded on the 9th in intercepting Lee's retreat. The sur- render of Lee to Grant at Appomattox followed.
During this time General Sherman was resting his army at Goldsboro', N. C., but on April 11th orders came from Grant to move forward at once against Johnston, and the only remaining organized forces of the rebellion. The news that Petersburg had fallen, Richmond been taken, and Lee's
MCLEAN'S HOUSE, PLACE OF LEE'S SURRENDER.
army had capitulated, fired the enthusiasm of the Union soldiers in those last days of the war, On April 10th two divisions of our corps started on their march toward Raleigh. our brigade being in advance. Johnston's army had destroyed the bridges in their track, which greatly retarded our march : the roads also at some points were hilly, and at others passed through low swamps, where the men were obliged to wade ; and at night they slept on the ground, with the sky for their only covering. They reached the neighborhood of Raleigh on April 14th, and
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
went into camp a short distance outside of the city. Sher- man pressed on after Johnston, and finally met him at a place called Durham Station, about twenty-five miles beyond Raleigh. There Johnston sent out a flag of truce, and asked for terms of surrender for his army. Sherman agreed to certain terms, as is well known ; but they were not approved at Washington : indeed, they were highly disapproved, and Grant was sent to supersede Sherman, and arrange in per- son for the capitulation of Johnston.
The assassination of President Lincoln on April 14th had exasperated the North, and especially the now victorious
PLACE OF JOHNSTON'S SURRENDER.
Union armies. General Grant reached Raleigh on the 24th of April, and with a delicacy that has perhaps not been ap- preciated, refused to supersede Sherman in the immediate command of his army, and pretended to act as a sort of ad- viser to him. The same terms were finally offered to John- ston that Grant had already made with Lee, and Johnston surrendered to Sherman, who had pursued him so relent- lessly for more than a thousand miles. Grant's considera- tion for Sherman on this occasion will be remembered in history as one of many magnanimous things that immortal soldier did.
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
After Johnston's surrender the Forty-eighth remained in North Carolina, until it was finally sent home and dis- charged. At Raleigh many of our officers were detailed to special duty ; for instance, Colonel Coan, who had been mustered Colonel of the regiment, commanded the brigade at first and subsequently the division, Quartermaster Pad- dock was brigade quartermaster, Adjutant Seaward was mustering officer, Captain Hilliard ordnance officer, and Major Barrett provost-marshal. The duties were mainly such as the exigencies of the situation and the condition of the people in their new relations demanded.
On June 10th the remnant of the One Hundred and Seventeenth New York Volunteers was consolidated with the Forty-eighth.
It was while the regiment was in camp at Raleigh that the unpleasant incident occurred which chilled the admiration of the men for their corps commander. A review was or- dered by General Sherman, who said he wanted to see " the heroes of Fort Fisher." Our forces were ragged and footsore from their long march, and they had shared their clothing and rations with the prisoners they had rescued at Coxe's Bridge. They had received many recruits also after Fort Fisher, and there had been no opportunity to drill them ; therefore the regiment did not present as soldierly an appearance as it might have done : but Major Barrett (to whose account we are indebted for this incident ) says, " Bad as we looked, Sherman's men looked far worse, and General Sherman himself seemed well satisfied, but General Terry was mortified and ashamed of the men who had won his laurels for him. Next day he issued a scathing order, de- nouncing us in unmeasured terms, and ordering that we all be put to drill in the ' school of the soldier.' Fancy if you can our indignation-old veterans who had fought the war through to be subjected to this indignity !"
Now that the war was over, military duty at Raleigh. N. C., and along the railroads was not particularly interest- ing, and the men were greatly anxious to get home; but
13
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
they were destined to spend the long summer in the South. Finally, on Sunday, September 3d, they took the cars to City Point, then on to Baltimore by steamer, and home by rail. They reached New York City on the 5th of Sep- tember, were sent to Hart's Island for some days, and final- ly, on September 12, 1865, the pay-rolls were signed for the last time, and the little handful of veteran heroes that com- posed the last of the brave and noble regiment at its final hour of life were mustered out.
And now that we have come to the end of this history, and look back at the four- long years through which it has been traced thus imperfectly, shall we not all feel proud of the noble part our dear old regiment bore! It has made the poor chronicler of its deeds love it more than ever. What battles it fought, what marches it made, what sufferings it endured for the Republic ! Its career has been traced for you, comrades (and for your children), amid many difficul- ties, all the way from its organization at Fort Hamilton in the summer of 1861, to Washington and Annapolis, in the expedition to Port Royal, at Port Royal Ferry, on Dawfus- kie, building the batteries on the mud islands on the Savan- nah River, in Fort Pulaski, and on Tybee ; at Coosawhatchie and Bluffton, to St. Helena and Folly Islands, at the storm- ing of Morris Island, at the assault on Fort Wagner, at Olustee : then in the Army of the James at Chester Heights, Drewry's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg mine explosion, Deep Bottom, Strawberry Plains, Chapin's Farm, New Mar- ket Heights, Fort Gilmer, Fort Fisher, Wilmington, Raleigh, and back to New York again. It went to the field in 1861 with 964 men ; and during the four years about 1250 recruits and transfers were added to it. Its losses in battle were nine hundred and forty-seven, and one hundred and twenty-seven deaths from disease. Let us not claim for it honors super rior to those of many other regiments in the army ; but its career lasted through the whole four years, and whatever work was assigned to it, that it did faithfully.
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FORT FISHER TO THE END.
May this chapter close with a few words concerning cer- tain officers of the regiment of whom too little has been said ?
The Forty-eighth had two chaplains and several surgeons and assistant-surgeons. A note has been received from the Rev. William Howell Taylor, dated St. Augustine, Fla., which gives a brief account of how he came to be the second chaplain of the regiment. He says:
"In 1863, being pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Clifton, S. I., I took the superior work of the Christian Commission in the De- partment of the South for six months. my congregation being unwilling to release me, and giving me leave of absence for that period. I accompanied the expedition to Florida. On returning to my congre- gation I received a request from the commanding officers of the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, and One Hundred and Fifteenth New York regiments and a formal invitation from the Forty-eighth to be- come chaplain. I finally brought the matter before my people, re- signed. accepted the commission, and was mustered in. I served with ยท the regiment in Virginia and on the expedition to Fort Fisher, etc. Then was ordered to Point of Rocks Hospital, where I was when Rich- mond was evacuated, and entered the city the day it fell. Mustered out in June; elected chaplain of the Army of the James, but failing health compelled me to give up my church in Brooklyn and all official positions, and travel. I have now been an invalid for eight years, most of the time South."
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