USA > New York > To sacrifice, to suffer, and if need be, to die : a history of the thirty-fourth New York Regiment > Part 5
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On the march to Charlestown, where John Brown was hanged, the regimental bands played the tune, to which is set "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and the mighty host, marching in columns miles in length, sang the familiar :
"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on;"
MOVING AT LAST
and when the chorus, "Glory, glory, Hallelujah,"was reached the volume of the thousands of voices was most impressive. As foreshadowing the final doom of slavery, it was very significant. The rebel sym- pathizers, in return for this expression of sentiment (for we could now and then hear them, although we couldn't see them), sang in reply :
"'Twas in Harper's Ferry section They had an insurrection; John Brown thought the niggers would sustain him; But old Gov'nor Wise, Dropped the specs from off his eyes,
And he sent him to the happy land of Canaan."
COL. BYRON LAFLIN-1863
This little town of Berryville boasted a newspaper called The Con- servator. Its editor was dead set against anything like progress, but managed to get a move on, when the Yanks showed up; and some of our boys thought it too bad for the subscribers to be without their accustomed home paper for even one day. So some of them turned in, and resumed the publication. The first number issued by the new man- agement was a model in its way. There were short stories, poems, and lots of good news, right down to date, from the seat of war. A great many new subscribers were added to the list. But the manage- ment concluded that Winchester would be a better field for an enter- prise of that kind, and accordingly, on the 13th, started out, with Win- chester only ten miles away.
But it is monotonous always marching in one direction, and, accord- ingly, when within only two miles of that much desired haven, the order came to about face, and night found us again back in Berryville, a little the worse for wear. The publication of The Conservator is discon- tinued on account of a pressure of other duties. There was a good deal of pressure on our columns at that time .* Hon. A. C. Brundage furnishes us with the following account of a little incident which occurred in Company I at this time :
"Soon after reaching camp at Berryville, on the advance southward, Com- pany I was detailed to go out on picket on the Millwood road. The next morn- ing the army, including Gorman's brigade, went on toward Winchester without calling in Company I, which had provisioned only for that night and the morning. After noon, Lieutenant Brundage sent the writer, with four men, back to Berry- ville, for provisions. Imagine our surprise, on reaching there, to find the regi- ment and the army gone, and no show for rations in sight. While looking over the situation, and speculating on our forlorn prospects, we were relieved by seeing Captain Brown, then Brigade Quartermaster, and an escort, coming from the direction of Winchester, the army having been ordered to retrace its steps the same day. The army and all stores were some miles away, except two or three wagons that he had brought on in advance; and from these Captain Brown
*The Fifteenth Massachusetts and the First Minnesota have each always claimed the honor of having furnished the editor of The Conservator; but there is equally good evidence that the editor was none other than Sanford Helmer of Co. F. We have found it impossible to get hold of a copy of this paper. We suppose when this history is published, and it is everlastingly too late, half a dozen comrades will send us copies .- ED.
COLONEL BYRON LAFLIN-1884
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
gave us a small stock of rations, and impressed, for their transportation out to our picket post, a man with a team and wagon. Captain Brown informed us that the army would be back to Berryville that night.'
On Friday, March 14, we are again back at Charlestown, and on the following day are on the top of old Bolivar. This most remarkable excursion into eastern Virginia is known in very profane annals as " The Opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad." The movement also had another effect, that of drawing together widely separated organizations that properly belonged together ; and accordingly, for the first time, Sedgwick's Division was all together ; and at this time, March 13, according to the testimony of so good an authority as General Francis A. Walker, the historian of the Second Corps, that forever to be famous organization, the Second Corps, which, under a series of famous generals, beginning with Sumner, and ending with Hancock, the Superb, had its birth. And so the Thirty-fourth found itself in the First Brigade, of the Second Division, of the Second Corps. And Edwin V. Sumner was the great corps' first commander. Later on every one of the many corps in the army, had its distinctive badge, or symbol. Thus, the symbol of the Second Corps, was a trefoil, or clover leaf. And each division of this corps had a different color. Every soldier and officer in the army was required to wear this badge on his hat, or cap, the color corresponding to his division. Thus, meeting a soldier anywhere with a white clover leaf on his hat, you would know, at once that he belonged to the Second Division of the Second Corps. The First Division in our corps, was Richardson's, and, of course, his men all wore the red trefoil. These symbols have everywhere been maintained, in veteran organizations, since the war, and are constantly seen.
Another important event occurred during this brief expedition, and that was the resignation of Colonel Ladew. He had returned to the regiment from New York State on February 20, as stated ; but was never in good health with the army; and being again prostrated with sickness, he at this time, gave up for good. His resignation was dated March 20, 1862 : and Lieutenant-Colonel James A. Suiter, who, so much of the time, had been in active command of the regiment, immediately succeeded to the vacancy. This sent all the under staff officers up a notch; in fact, caused an upward movement from the very bottom; Laflin becoming lieutenant-colonel, and Captain Charles L. Brown, of Company G, becoming major.
Well, we left the Thirty-fourth on old Bolivar ; but not for long did they remain there. Some colossal move was pending. Such a great army must be doing something, and, strangely enough, our next move was on Washington. On the 22d we marched to Sandy Hook, on the Maryland side, where we trained, and the next morning, by three o'clock, we were in Washington, where we went into camp right in front of the Capitol building. Some of the boys immediately went to Congress.
CHAPTER V
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN
M ARCH 29, 1862, finds the Thirty-fourth Regiment, with nearly all the rest of the First Brigade, on board steamer R. Wil- liams, anchored for a little time directly in front of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River, having shipped from Alexandria same day. But this stay is only brief, and incidental. Two days later the same regiment finds itself on the same good ship, anchored within a stone's throw of the famous Fortress Monroe, and Old Point Com- fort. Near by were many other ships, crowded with men, who had come down the river on the same expedition as ourselves, what- . ever that may be. Likewise you might have seen a little boat that presently is to revolutionize all modern naval warfare, and all the navies of the world; albeit, it was the most unpretentious object in the whole aggregation. It was the little Monitor, resting after her conflict with the Merrimac, March 9. The sail down the river, except for a heavy snowstorm just at the start, had been uneventful, al- though, for a portion of the voyage, it was pretty rough sailing. The next day, April 1, the vessel proceeded to Hampton, where the troops were landed. The condition of Hampton at this time was that of a perfect ruin. By order of the Confederate authorities every building in the place had been burned. The inhabitants were turned out, destitute, forlorn, forsaken. This destruction was probably about as wanton and cruel, and uncalled-for as any act in the whole history of the rebellion. The story is told by the good Chaplain, Rev. J. J. Marks, attached to Kearney's Division, and who wrote a little book on the Peninsular campaign, that after the rebels had evacuated the town, a detachment of soldiers was sent back to attend to this burning business ; and that one of the officers stayed at night with his uncle. After he had had a good visit with his uncle's family, and they had talked about old times in a very tender fashion, and breakfast being over, and family prayers being said, the officer informed his astonished uncle that he had been sent back to burn the town, and that, as a matter of conscience, he considered it his duty to begin with that house, which he did.
The morning of April 4th finds the regiment advancing toward Yorktown, and that night the stop is made at Big Bethel, which had been the scene of one of the earlier conflicts, when Theodore Winthrop, the author of two of the brightest books ever published, fell for the honor of his country, April 5 at Yorktown. The passing traveler, along that "thoroughfare," would have been astonished at the magni- tude of the task accomplished in the construction, within so short a time, of that road through the wilderness, to Yorktown. The march is over miles, and miles, of corduroy road. Now a corduroy road is built by laying one little log beside another, and sometimes covering them with
36
HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
dirt. How many little logs in a mile? how many in ten miles? every log a tree, that had to be cut down, stripped of limbs, and laid in its place, making a military road, that horses could travel over safely, and haul heavy loads over ; and through swamps at that.
All the way up to Yorktown there were most formidable fortifica- tions. At Big Bethel, and again at a place called Harrison's Mill, there were works that would have withstood a long siege. Why were they so quickly abandoned? The answer to this conundrum was fur- nished by a young lady of color, who was found, with many other people of her persuasion, eagerly appropriating what the rebels had abandoned : "Oh," said she, " de booms dugged 'em out." Now, at Yorktown, we find the same formidable works; and evidently the rebs have no idea of leaving them in a hurry. "De booms " don't seem to worry 'em, and they give back as good as we send.
The siege of Yorktown lasted just a month, and it was a period of hard work. Every soldier became a digger. Picks and shovels are the weapons now. Heavy details every day, to dig trenches, and throw up earthworks. And dangerous picket duty, too, in front of the enemy. Pickets had to be changed at night ; for no movement of that kind could be made by daylight, we were so close. And the weather ! Don't speak of it. Rain it could, and rain it did. Said one soldier, writing home on April 9: " We passed another terrible night last night. The rain fell in torrents and we were completely soaked. To stand out anywhere, last night, and hear the coughing, and the ' Oh dears,' which told the actual suffering, was almost as bad as to pass through the hos- pitals after a battle. Yet," adds this philosopher, " it is not well to complain of the weather." Another man, writing home at this time, says he had made up his mind not to turn in at all that night, the pros- pect of getting any sleep was so slim. Typhoid fever, that inevitable accompaniment of swamp ground, and wet weather, was quite preva- lent. Out on picket there was continual snipping. You mustn't show your head, if you didn't want it perforated. Every day the earthworks rose and rose, and presently black-throated guns began to peer over them. It seemed like it was to be a siege; while every day there was. talk about an assault. What that Great Procrastinator, General McClel- lan, intended to do, it would be hard to say. Now balloons, in war time, are supposed to be a great help. You can see over into the enemy's country, and see all he is doing. That must make him feel very uncom- fortable. And seeing just what he is doing, you know just what to do yourself. Of course. Now the Union balloon was up most every day, and sharp-eyed men in it were peering over into the rebel lines. We were not to be caught napping. If they were doing anything, we should know it as soon as they did. Clearly enough, a balloon is a great thing in war time. May 3, and the writer of this was out on the front line, digging with the rest. Some one said, "There is the balloon." And sure enough there it was, taking a good look, just as it had every day. But there was nothing to be seen, and we kept on digging. The next morning what should we hear but that the rebels had left, bag and bag-
37
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN
gage; and they had been leaving, bag and baggage, for days before- hand. And we had never known a thing of what they were up to. Surely a balloon, in time of war, is a great thing. It contains a great deal of gas; but not much solid information. Of course "Little Mack" could have known what the rebs were up to; but that wasn't his busi- ness. His business was to howl for reinforcements. One man can't do everything.
The writer of this sketch wrote a series of letters to a home paper, (the Mohawk Courier) during the whole period of the regiment's service, letters which now have helped him out on many a name and date. And we find that he wrote, at this time, Sunday morning, May 4, the following : "At the time of the announcement of the evacuation, we were lying on picket, scarcely half a mile from the nearest point of the rebel works ; and it seemed almost incredible that these towering battle- ments, from which the enemy had been thundering all night long, had ·been forsaken." But they had.
At once the news ran, like a fire, along the lines, and without a moment's delay the men began to swarm over into the rebel works. With what interest did they prowl about, exploring every nook. It would consume a great deal of valuable space, if we should try to describe the works. They were certainly very extensive. The enemy had left no stone unturned. After a while we learned that the streets were paved with danger. Bombs would explode under the feet of the swarming soldiers. The wonder is that no more were hurt. Why should the rebels abandon such formidable works? It was a clear case. It was because of the terror that the name of Little Mack inspired.
On Monday afternoon following our brigade began to move for- ward. But that afternoon and night were a time long to be remem- bered. We thought we had heard of its raining before, and all during the siege; but it never rained till the night of May 5, 1862. Reader, you have heard of its raining pitchforks. But this was every whit as bad; for there was a reign of terror. It was bitterly cold, blowing great guns, and raining torrents. We pretended to be on the march : we were hot after the fleeing rebs ; we were threshing the ground just in their rear ; but to tell the naked truth we must have advanced about ten rods, all night ; we would not like to overstate the distance. There was no road ; but there was a river of mud. The men built such fires as they could, and sang, and joked, and told stories of people at home in com- fortable beds, and nagged each other, with "Soldier, will you work?" " No, I'll sell my shirt first ;" and all that sort of tirade, which showed the dreadful depravity of the situation. Along toward morning we were ordered back to our old camp. O, McClellan is a hustler when he gets after a fleeing enemy.
But the next day, as it wore on, out came the sun, the sky became blue, the noisy winds blew themselves away; and all the discomforts of the past night were cheerfully forgiven. That day we took the little steamer, Daniel S. Williams, and went thirty miles up the river to West Point. We reached it just a little too late to take part in the
HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
bloody battle of Wil-
liamsburg. But some of the men went over the field, and the sights they saw were bloody. The woods were thickly strewn with the dead and wounded, and the buildings in the town were filled with the same. The rebels had fled so precipitately that they had been com- pelled to leave all their wounded be- hind, and their dead unburied. The inhabitants of the town had become terror-stricken, and fled from the ap- proach of the terrible Yankees. The roads 1862-CAPTAIN IRVING D. CLARK-1903 leading away from town were strewn with property thrown away by the inhabitants, in their flight. And farther away the roads were choked with fleeing women, and children, and servants. Surely, war sweeps with a harsh broom.
The next stage in our advance brings us to New Kent Court House. Here we arrive Saturday, May 10, having left West Point the day before. During the march we halt for a few hours, along with the entire division of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, about 11,000 men, on a splen- did farm, owned by a man by the name of Eltham. " There were more guests at table than the host invited." And there were others. For just now the army is attacked in front, rear, and flank, by armies of mosquitoes. Their onslaught was sudden and vigorous, and victorious. They carried the day, leaving the field covered with the bodies of their victims. The weather, also, was an enemy in itself ; for it was blistering hot, and the men were completely whipped out with the march. Scores fell out ; but at New Kent Court House they had a chance to catch up, and the whole army again got its wind. The reports at that time showed that there were 15,000 sick men in the Army of the Potomac.
Thursday, the 15th, we are on the road again, and come to a little place called Austin's Church. This march to Austin's Church was a tough one. The mud was over shoetops; the soil was a sticky clay,
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN
which held the feet like a bootjack, or else slipped and threw you down. On the 18th we broke camp at Austin's Church, and came on to a place which we called Camp Cumberland, where we remained until the 21st. That day, Wednesday, May 21, was also a day long to be remembered. You see we are getting our mem- ories pretty full of these
. long-to-be remembered days. We broke camp at 6 o'clock in the morn- ing, and marched four- teen miles. People at home often read in the papers about long, forced marches of twen- ty-five or thirty-five or more miles a day. Stories like these are generally to be dis- counted, the same as stories about men "itch- ing for a fight." With all a soldier has to carry, and the circumstances 1900-CAPTAIN WILLIAM S. WALTON-1863 under which he does his traveling, being usually in a crowded road, with frequent and tedious halts-for what, nobody knows, we called this march of fourteen miles, under a burning sun, a record breaker. All day long we were pushed on unmercifully. The mud had now changed to dry sand, and the men suffered greatly from thirst. As one officer wrote home: "As a gen- eral thing water was scarce and precious as molten gold ; while the little that could be obtained after a rush and push and a general squabble, was too foul to drink." Men and officers as well, fell out of the ranks by the dozens. It is said three poor fellows died from heat and ex- haustion. But there is no doubt about the beauty of that country. We passed many fine old mansions on the way, bowered in trees, overlooking broad acres, and surrounded by orchards and fields of growing corn. Always near these old mansions, the darkies were very much in evi- dence, and greatly excited at the coming of the Yanks. At one point we passed Roper's Church, the place where Washington was married
THI
40
HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
to the beautiful Mrs. Martha Custis. Late in the afternoon we arrived within two miles of Bottom's Bridge, and encamped in an open field near the Richmond & York River Railroad. We then learned that we were fourteen miles from Richmond, and twenty-six miles from West Point. The men were greatly elated to learn that the Eighty-first and Ninety-second New York Regiments and Bates' Artillery, were en- camped near by, and there was a great deal of visiting back and forth.
The 22d was a day of rest. On Friday, the 23d, began the issue of the famous whiskey ration. Half a gill was doled out to every man twice a day. There was some debate among the men in regard to the propriety of this whiskey business. It wasn't very likely to keep men from getting sick, and it was pretty certain to make mischief. The temperance men, not wanting the stuff themselves, had compunctions about giving it to others.
Monday, May 26th, found us at the Tyler House, an old-time slave plantation, the home of the President Tyler family. Here we remained until May 31, a date that will always stand as a marked one in Ameri- can history.
The following is the program prescribed for us in General Order No. 4, dated August 8, 1861, at Camp Jackson and which had been followed ever since, with few variations: Reveille, (all up,) 5 a. m. Company Drill, (no excuses accepted, ) 5.30. Surgeon's Call, (the very sick ordered to the hospital,) 5.30. Breakfast, (you got your own,) 7. Morning Roll Call, (hurry up, and get in line,) 8. Guard Mount- ing, (unlucky Tommy Atkins, who has to go on,) 9. Discharge of foul guns, (not much to that,) 10-II. Dinner, (bean soup to-day; good,) 12. Company Drill, ("Captain, can't I be excused? I don't feel very well." "No excuses, sir ; get your gun, and fall in.") 4 p. m. Battal- ion Drill, (what new knot is that blankety blank officer going to tie us up in to-day?) 6. Dress Parade, (a dozen or more new orders for one thing and another, ) 7. Company Roll Call, (stentorian voice of Talcott, "Sir, all are present, or accounted for,") 8. Retreat, ( far up and down the valley, and across the hills, gleam the pale lights through the white tents, ) 9. Tattoo, (Get Phil Will and Johnny Johnson, and come around to my tent, and we'll have a game on the quiet.") 9. Lights out, (and the great camp sleeps, while the faithful sentries, down at the river, and hovering about the camp, pace their lonely beats, dreaming of the loved ones far away, and of the comrades who will never wake to greet the morning light ; calling, calling, through the night: "Ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, and all is well.") 9.30.
CHAPTER VI
THE BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS
O N the morning of the 31st of May, we began to hear heavy firing ahead, and knew that something serious was brewing. We found out later what it was. It appears that Mcclellan's army at this time was divided. The Chickahominy River extends nearly east and west in this region, and the Third and Fourth Corps of the army were on the south side; while the Second, Fifth and Sixth were on the north side. Two bridges had been thrown over the river by General Sumner. The Confederates were sharp enough to perceive that they had a great opportunity. A severe storm, which broke on Friday caused the river to overflow these bridges, and ren- dered the situation of the divided army perilous. A disaster might befall at any time these two isolated corps of the Federal army, and it did.
We are not going to undertake to describe the Battle of Fair Oaks in detail, for we are chiefly concerned with the part taken in the battle by the Thirty-fourth Regiment. General Johnston, of the rebel army, perceived his advantage, and attacked Casey's and Couch's Divisions of the Fourth Corps with disastrous results. Along in the afternoon, we were pushed rapidly forward from the Tyler House toward the sound of heavy firing. We reached the banks of the Chickahominy River, but were halted at the river's brink .* The grapevine bridge, on which we were supposed to cross, was floating on the water. After a long wait, we did get over ; and the writer of these lines, now, after forty years' interval, does not remember that the passage was particularly hazardous. But General Francis A. Walker says: " The long corduroy approaches
* In the history of the Fifth New Hampshire Regiment, Colonel Edward E. Cross commanding, we find the following description of this bridge:
"Grapevine bridge was built across the Chickahominy River, some six miles above the cross- ing of the Williamsburg and Richmond stage-road at Bottom's Bridge, for the passage of Sedgwick's Division of Sumner's Corps of the Army of the Potomac from the north to the south side. It was built in two days, May 27 and 28, 1862, by the Fifth Regiment, directed by Colonel Edward E. Cross, aided by a detail of two hundred and fifty men from the Sixty-fourth Regiment, New York Volunteers, and one hundred and fifty men from Meagher's Irish Brigade. More than one thousand men were employed in its construction, working constantly and vigorously in the water and mud. It was built wholly of logs, unsawn and unhewn, cut from the forest as required, being rolled or floated into position by men wading or swimming. The channels and deeper parts of the swamp were bridged by felling or floating large trees across and fixing them upon piers made of logs, to stumps, or to the firm earth upon either bank. Other stringers were placed upon the bottom of the shallows, all being about the same level. Thus a continuous support for a roadway was laid for a distance of seventy rods. Then, upon these stringers, were laid, transversely, as planks might be, other logs, as long as the bridge was wide. These were arranged closely, side by side, and served as flooring. Over these, upon either side of the bridge, directly over the outer stringers, were placed still other logs, end to end. All were made firm by interweaving grapevines. Not a pin, dowel, bolt or nail entered into its construction. It was fifteen feet wide, rising just above the surface of the water through the swamp and only two or three feet above the current of the channels. It was sufficiently firm and substantial to furnish safe and ready crossing to an army of men, with horses, wagons and field artillery. The approach upon the north side was cut through an embankment ten feet in height; upon the south side, after leaving the corduroy, the road was deplorable for half a mile before reaching the higher land. The bridge withstood the greatest flood ever known upon that river and swamp, served all its intended purposes, and remained after the waters had subsided. On May 31 it was crossed by Sedgwick's Division at about 2 o'clock P. M., which was thus enabled to arrive on the battlefield of Fair Oaks just in time to arrest the triumphant advance of the Con- federate army, which was pursuing the Federal troops to a disastrous rout."
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