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Gc 973.74 P38ba 1755362
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GO
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 4187
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A BRIEF HISTORY
100th OF THE ONE HURDREDTH REGIMENT,
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BY HONORABLE SAMUEL P. BATES, STATE HISTORIAN,
TO WHICH IS ADDED SHORT SKETCHES OF
COLONEL LEASURE, AND CHAPLAIN BROWNE.
WITH A FEW POEMS BY
H. B. DURANT,
OF COMPANY A,
COMPOSED WHILE IN THE SERVICE.
NEW CASTLE. P.L .: B. THOMAS. BOOK AND JOR PRINTER.
1755062
Colonel Daniel Leasure.
3349 .863
Bates, Samuel Pienniman] 1827-
A brief history of the One hundredth regiment, (Roundheads.) by Honorable Samuel P. Bates ... to which is (h added short sketches of Colonel Leasure, and Chaplain Browne, with a few poems by II. B. Durant ... composed while in the service. New Castle, Pa., W. B. Thomas, book and job printer, 1884.
32 p. 2 port. (incl. front.) 19cm. On cover: Published by Jas. C. Stevenson.
Reprinted, with additions from S. P. Bates' History of Pennsylvania SHELF CARD volunteers, 1861-5, v. 3 (1870) p. 15531-563.
1. U. S. - Hist. - Civil war - Regimental histories - Pa. inf. - 100th. 2. Pennsylvania infantry. 100th regt., 1861-1865.
1 1 KG
185753 1 6-18880
Library of Congress £527.5.100th
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0CC
THE
One Hundredth Regiment,
PENNSYLVANIA
>
teran
=
Volunteer
AROUND HEADS,"
Presented by Member of Company To his
JAS. C. STEVENSON, BOX 984, NEW CASTLE, PA.
PRICE :--- SINGLE COPIES, 25cts ; 3 COPIES, 50cts ; 7 COPIES, $1.00.
A LARGE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
OF THE.
100th REGIMENT. P.V. V.
(ROUND HEADS,)
Will be published as soon as we get the pictures and personal incidents necessary to make the book attractive.
Comrades will please send me accounts of per- sonal bravery, special duties performed, incidents of camp. guard or battle, with short biographical sketches. etc., etc.
John H. Stevenson,
No. 100 FIFTH AVENUE,
PITTSBURG, PA.
The Society One Hundredth !
An account of its organization. Its pleasant re- unions. With the present post office address of over 500 survivors. 48 pages. handsomely gotten up. Mailed to any address on receipt of 30 cents,
By the Secretary.
JAS. C. STEVENSON,
Box 984. New Castle, Pa.
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PREFACE.
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A T our 17th Reunion, held at Sharon, Pa., on the 30th of August, 1882, Prof. Bates delivered a very interesting address, which was ordered to be published.
As it was not received in time for publication with the report of the meeting, it was laid aside until a more ap- propriate time.
Thinking his History of the Regiment, published by authority of the State, would be instructive to the younger generation, I concluded to publish it with a sample of biographical sketches, and an incident of Battle-field experience-such as the compiler of the story of the Round Heads would be glad to have from members of the Regiment in order to make our History what it should be.
The perusal of this brief History may cause each one to recall some of the spice of camp life with which to sea- son the bare recital of facts, and thus make the reading of the book a pleasure to the children and grand-children of those who carried the swords and muskets on so many battle-fields.
JAS. C. STEVENSON,
Secretary Society of the 100th P. V. V
ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
T HE One Hundredth, or as it was more commonly known, the Round Head Regiment, was recruited in the south-western counties of the State, originally settled by the Round Heads of the English Revolution, and by Scotch Irish Covenanters. Daniel Leasure, a citizen of New Castle, who had since 1832 been connected either as private or an officer with the State militia, and who. during the three months' campaign, had served as Captain and Adjutant of the Twelfth Regiment, received authority from the Secretary of War, under date of August 6, 1861. to recruit a regiment of infantry from among the descend- ants of the Covenanters and of the men who had followed Cromwell, whose leading characteristics had been a devo- tion to the principles of liberty of person and of con- science.
On the 28th of August the twelve different companies recruited for this regiment assembled at Camp Wilkins. in Pittsburgh. On the 31st were sworn into the U. S. service. and on the 2d of September was ordered to Wash- ington, whither it at once proceeded, and upon its arrival 'encamped on Kalorama heights. A formal organization was soon after effected, and the following field officers were selected and commissioned: Daniel Leasure, Colonel: Captain James Armstrong, Lieutenant Colonel ; Captain David A. Leckey. Major. Just previous to the organiza- tion, General Casey. in command of provisional brigades at Washington, issued an order transferring companies L. and M to the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment. Com- pany L was accordingly thus transferred, and Captain Dick, its commander, became Major of that regiment ; but upon the representation of Captain Leckey that his men
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
had been specially recruited for the Round Head Regi- ment, company MI was permitted to remain. It was brig- aded on the 7th of October with the Eighth Michigan, Colonel Fenton, and the Fiftieth Pennsylvania, Colonel Christ. As the ranking officer, Colonel Leasure was placed in command of the brigade, and was ordered to proceed with it to Annapolis, there to join the command of General T. W. Sherman, destined to the coast of South Carolina. Soon after its arrival, Colonel Leasure sent a request to the Secretary of War, in behalf of the Round Heads, that the Highlanders, Seventy. Ninth New York, might be associated with them in the same brigade. This request was granted, and on the 12th General Isaac I. Stevens was assigned to its command. On the 19th the fleet sailed from Annapolis and rendezvoused at Fortress Monroe, whence on the 20th it set sail with sealed orders.
The Round Head Regiment and five companies of the Fiftieth Pennsylvania were embarked together on the Ocean Queen. On the second day out the fleet was over- taken by a violent storm, which raged with unabated fury for thirty six hours. On the morning of the 3d of Nov- ember, all the other vessels of the fleet being out of sight, Colonel Leasure opened his orders and read, "Sail for Port Royal Entrance," which was the first intimation to any one on board of its destination. On the 5th of November the fleet arrived off Port Royal Entrance, and the gun- boats proceeded to make soundings of the channel. On the morning of the 7th the transports stood in for the en- trance, and the gun-boats advanced to the attack of Forts Walker and Beauregard, on the opposite points of Hilton Head and Lady's islands. The troops, meantime, were held in readiness to debark and attack by land; but at three o'clock P. M. the enemy was driven from his works by the terrible broadsides of Dupont's powerful vessels. and fled to the main land or adjacent islands. On the same evening the troops landed and took possession of
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
the forts and islands. Strong fortifications were at once begun, for which heavy details were made on the troops of General Stevens' Brigade, who soon experienced much sickness from fatigue, and the process of acclimation to the delightful but malarious climate of a southern coast. One month later General Sherman resolved to occupy a point farther inland, upon the net work of islands which the capture of Port Royal Entrance, on the 7th of Nov- ember. had made accessible to the Union gun-boats. General Stevens was detailed with his brigade for this purpose. The pleasant town of Beaufort was taken pos- session of, and occupied as headquarters. The chief mili- tary duty of the troops, for the next five or six months. consisting in picketing Barnwell's and Port Royal islands. on the Coosaw. across which on the main land. upon the "Shell Road" leading to Charleston, a Rebel force was stationed, covering the approaches to the railroad con- necting Charleston and Savannah. The town of Beaufort. with Port Royal and all the adjacent islands, had been deserted by the white population since the battle of Nov- ember 7th. To repress the boldness of the enemy in his hostile demonstrations at Port Royal Ferry. on the morn- ing of the 1st of January, 1862, General Stevens, with a force of infantry and artillery. acting in conjunction with two gun boats, crossed the Coosaw, drove the enemy fron his unfinished earthworks, and returned on the following day to the ferry without loss. During the occupancy of Beaufort and while at Hilton Head. many sickened. and some died. among them Lieutenant James L. Banks, of company F, and Orderly Sergeant McMillin, of company K.
General Hunter. who had now relieved General Sher- man in command of the Department, undertook the reduction of Charleston. On the 1st of June General Stevens, with the Round Heads, Highlanders, and the Eighth Michigan, proceeded through Stono Inlet to James Island, effecting a landing near Legareville. Five com-
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
panies, A, F, D, I, and H, of the Round Heads, were on the advance vessel with General Stevens, the six remain- ing companies, under Colonel Leasure, followed immedi- ately after. Companies D and H seized the village, while the remaining forces moved up the island. The enemy was driven from his works and all his shore batteries cap- tured. Two heavy guns were subsequently taken in the interior of the island by companies A, F, and I, and brought in. The regiment lost in this engagement about twenty killed and wounded. Captain Cline, of company F, and fifteen men, were captured while skirmishing without proper supports. Until the 15th, the regiment was engaged in erecting forts and in performing guard duty, and was almost constantly under fire from the enemy's forts, lying in the meanwhile under shelter tents in a low marsh, barely above tide water, and in constant expectation of being attacked.
At evening on the 15th of June, the troops upon the island were ordered to be in readiness early on the fol- lowing morning to attack the enemy's works at the Tower Fort, near Secessionville, a strong earthwork held by the Rebel Colonel Lamar with a strong force, and com- manding the approaches to Charleston by the James Island causeway. General Stevens was to attack, and General Wright to support on the left, and if need be. assault the work on the north. Colonel Leasure was placed in command of a brigade composed of his own. the Seventy-ninth and Forty-sixth New York. At two o'clock on the morning of the 16th the troops moved out for the attack. An unaccountable delay occurred, and the attacking party was not formed until broad daylight. Colonel Fenton's Brigade, which lead the assaulting column, was swept and broken by a destructive fire, and Colonel Leasure's, which supported it, was soon in the forefront. After a severe contest, lasting nearly an hour. during which a number of both the Highlander and the
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
Round Head regiments forced their way into the fort, Colonel Benham, in chief command, ordered a retreat. The narrow neck of ground over which the troops must advance was barely sufficient to deploy one regiment, and this was swept by the guns of the fort and from the rifle- pits and defences in the rear. Of the four hundred and twenty-one officers and men of the regiment who went into the fight, one officer, Lieutenant Samuel J. Morrow, and eight enlisted men were killed, two officers and thirty men wounded, and six missing. General Stevens, in his official report, says: "Colonel Fenton, in command of the First Brigade, used every exertion to throw the Eighth Michigan as far to the right as possible, and to bring on, in support, the Seventh Connecticut, and the Twenty- eighth Massachusetts; but the terrible fire of grape and musketry from the enemy's works cut the two former regiments in two, the right going to the right and the left to the left, whither, finally, the whole of the Twenty- eighth Massachusetts took its position, and where they were joined, with scarcely an interval of time, by the One Hundredth Pennsylvania and the Forty-sixth New York, of Leasure's Brigade. These regiments had been brought up with great promptness and energy by Colonel Leasure, and the right of the One Hundredth had pushed up to, and joined the Seventy-ninth in the charge. It was dur- ing this brief period, of less than one-half hour-from five to half-past five o'clock-that the greater portion of the causalties occurred.
I must express my profound sense of the intrepid bearing and soldierly conduct of my brigade commanders, Col- onels Leasure and Fenton, who did everything that com- manders could do to lead their respective brigades to the attack; and it is mainly due to their exertions that their lines of battle were maintained throughout the action."* Lieutenant Jefferson Justice, serving upon the staff of
* Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. V, p. 212, Does.
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
General Stevens, and Lieutenant S. G. Leasure, Assistant Adjutant General to the brigade, were commended for their gallantry. After the battle, the hospitals, crowded with the wounded, stood in urgent need of immediate surgical aid. Colonel Leasure, whose profession was that of medicine and surgery, at once volunteered, and ren- dered most valuable assistance to the young surgeons in charge.
Operations against Charleston having been suspended, an evacuation of the island was ordered, and on the 4th of July the brigade returned to Hilton Head, where. among the accumulated mails, were the commissions for the officers, from Governor Curtin, and an order declar- ing the Round Head Regiment the One Hundredth of the line. Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong, who had been in a feeble state of health from disease contracted in the ser- vice in Mexico, aggravated by a semi-tropical climate. was forced to resign, and was succeeded by Major Leckey. Captain Matthew A. Dawson being promoted to Major. On the 13th. the brigade returned to Beaufort, and soon after its arriva! there was ordered to Virginia, whither it proceeded on the ocean steamer Merrimac, then on her trial trip. It went into camp at Newport News, where it was visited by a messenger from Governor Curtin. bearing the State colors, which were presented to the reg- iment by General Stevens, and were received in a patriotic speech by Colonel Leasure. On the 4th of August, the regiment was moved by transport to Acquia Creek. and thence by rail to Fredericksburg, where the troops under General Stevens from South Carolina, and those from North Carolina, under General Burnside, were united, and were placed under the command of General Reno. subsequently known as the Ninth Corps. Pope's army of Northern Virginia, consisting of the corps of Banks. Sigel, and M'Dowell, holding the left bank of the Rapidan. was threatened by the concentrated rebel army. and all avail-
11
ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
able forces were being pushed on to his assistance. On the 13th, Stevens moved forward, and at Raccoon Ford was brought to a stand to dispute the passage of the enemy. After holding the position for three days, Gen- eral Reno, who had now come up with the balance of his corps, having discovered that the enemy, in greatly supe- rior numbers, was in his front, decided to withdraw, and at mid-night of the 19th, leaving the ford heavily pick- eted, retired to the line of the Rappahannock, crossing at Ely's Ford.
Then commenced a series of marches and counter- marches, disputing the passage of the fords of the Rappahannock, which continued until Stonewall Jackson made his famous move to Manassas Junction, in the rear of the Union army, when Reno's Corps started in pursuit, being joined on the way by the division of Kearny. From Greenwich the command followed to the old Bull Run battle ground, where it encamped on the evening of the 28th. At four o'clock on the following morning it moved forward, and after passing through rocky and wooded by-ways, forded Bull Run and debouched into the open ground to the south of Centreville. Here, about two hundred Union soldiers, captured and paroled by Jackson, were met, who gave information of the prox- imity of the rebel force. At eight o'clock, Stevens' Divi- sion was divided, one brigade, under Colonel Christ, being sent to the support of Kearny, one under Colonel Farns- worth, to support Milroy, and the third, under Colonel
Leasure, to the assistance of Sigel. General Stevens re- mained with Colonel Leasure, remarking that "it would be the fighting brigade that day." It was composed of the One Hundredth, under Colonel Leckey, and four companies of the Forty-sixth New York. under Colonel Rosa, the remaining five companies of this regiment being detached for train guards.
At half-past ten A. M., when Sigel, who had borne the
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
brunt of battle since early morn, was nearly outflanked. and the enemy was preparing a new attack against his centre, Kearny's and Stevens' divisions came to his aid. By direction of General Stevens, Lieutenant Benjamin's Battery of twenty-pounder Parrott's relieved Captain Dilger's Battery, on the crest of a hill, immediately on the left of the Warrenton Turnpike, and simultane- ously Colonel Leasure's two regiments were deployed in line of battle for its support. The enemy was checked, and companies A, F, D, I, and M, of the One Hundredth were sent forward as skirmishers, taking position in the valley a quarter of a mile in advance, and keeping up a galling fire, Benjamin's guns in the meantime throwing shot and shell over their heads. The enemy seemed de- termined to carry that position, and at one time five batteries were concentrating their fire upon it. But Ben- jamin steadily held his ground until his ammunition
began to fail him. In taking position, one of his caissons, well filled, had been accidentally overturned and aban- doned, at a point about two hundred yards to the left and front of his present position, much exposed to the enemy's fire. Company G, Captain S. H. Brown, was ordered to bring it up. With intrepid daring it was led under the ene- my's fire and brought the heavily laded caisson, now sorely needed, safely off. Benjamin now increased his fire, and soon silenced a number of the enemy's guns. But one of his own had been struck by a solid shot and rendered useless, and another, by the premature explosion of a shell, had been disabled, and still another had lost nearly all its men. But until his ammunition was all spent, the remaining guns were kept in play. They were then with- drawn, and soon after the only remaining division of Sigel, on the left, fell back. Stevens was then ordered to retire. In the face of a terrible fire, now redoubled, it was with difficulty that the skirmishers could be with- drawn, but was successfully accomplished under the di-
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
rection of Lieutenant Gilliland. The enemy, now no longer deterred by the battery's fire, moved heavy masses of infantry obliquely in front of its late position, across the Warrenton Turnpike, and gained a most important position in a piece of wood, where the heaviest fighting occurred in the after part of the day, in which, with other troops, the One Hundredth suffered fearful loss. Leasure's Brigade had not retired a quarter of a mile, when it was ordered to the support of Roemer's Battery, on the north side of the turnpike, in an orchard somewhat to the rear of the former position. It was now nearly night, and the troops had suffered severely. They had scarcely reached their position, when an order came from Reno directing Stevens to support Kearny, who was enveloped in the woods to the right, on the line of the abandoned track of the Gap Railroad. Stevens had but this small brigade, the rest of his division having been ordered from him early in the day ; but no time was to be lost, and moving off by the right flank at double quick, Colonel Leasure put his command in position for a charge. At that in- stant General Kearny came dashing up and demanded of Stevens where his troops were. Stevens pointed to the barely five hundred that stood about him. In his abrupt way, Kearny asked if they would fight. "Yes," said Stevens, with an oath, "these are my Round Heads." Dropping his bridle rein, with an impetuous gesture, in the direction of the enemy, with his only arm, he said to Colonel Leasure, "Sweep everything before you." Com- panies A and B of the One Hundredth were thrown for- ward as skirmishers, and the line quickly put in motion towards the low wooded ground where the enemy lay concealed. As they advanced. artillery and infantry were opened upon them, which told fearfully on their already shattered ranks. As the line approached, a well directed fire was poured upon the enemy, before which he recoiled. At this juncture an aid from General Kearny
.
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
came up, and informed Colone Lleasure that the enemy was occupying a cut in the old Gap Road a short distance to the front, and to the left of the position he then held. Obliquing to the left, the line charged, and as the enemy scrambled up the opposite bank of the cut, it poured in a destructive fire and seized the abandoned position. Soon the enemy opened a heavy fire. General Stevens' horse and that of his orderly were both killed. Seeing that it was useless to attempt to hold the position against the overwhelming force that was bearing down upon him. he ordered Colonel Leasure to fall back before the way was completely cut off. The order was accordingly given. and as he was moving, the Colonel had his horse shot under him, and himself received a painful wound. Of the four hundred and fifty who had joined in this last charge, but one hundred and ninety-eight came back un- hurt. Captains William F. Templeton, Simeon H. Brown, James S. Van Gorden, and Lieutenants Philo P. Rvan and E. J. R. Spencer were killed or mortally wounded, and Lieutenants John P. Blair and Thomas H. Curt were severely wounded.
Taking up a new line, the command was soon after joined by the other brigades of the division, and rested on its arms during the night. Colonel Leasure and Major Dawson having both been wounded and sent to hospital. the command of the brigade devolved on Lieutenant Colonel Leckey, that of the regiment on Captain James E Cornelius. Early on the morning of the 30th, the battle was renewed. and continued, with varying success. during the day ; but the Union army was finally forced to retire before the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and at night fell back to Centreville.
The following day was the Sabbath. The fight was not renewed. Lee was too cautious to attack Pope on the heights of Centreville, but ordered Jackson, with his corps, to pass around the Union army, and attempt to
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
cut its communications with Washington. The objective
point of the movement was Fairfax Court House, but Jackson's advance was met and hurled back at Ox Hill. near Chantilly, while yet several miles distant from that place. Pope, aware of Jackson's movement, had on Mon- day. September 1st, massed several corps in the vicinity of Fairfax Court House, and pushed Reno northward, to- ward Chantilly, in the direction of Jackson's advance. The One Hundredth had been hastily marched out of bivouac, and now at five o'clock formed, advancing in column through a meadow, then a wood, the Forty-sixth New York following, and the Seventy ninth New York skirmishing in advance. Emerging from the wood into a field but partially cleared, the column encountered a rapid fire of musketry from the enemy. General Stevens, dismounting, hastily formed his lines of battle in person. and promptly drove the enemy back beyond the partially cleared ground, and into the edge of a field of corn. In these two fields the battle was fought. Jackson's entire corps was in line of battle in front, Reno's Corps, now re- duced to two slender divisions, being much inferior in numbers. General Kearny, however, with a part of his division. was in the rear. In fifteen minutes after the action began. General Stevens, while forming the Seventy- ninth New York in line of battle, was instantly killed by a musket ball in the head. Shortly after, a furious rain began to fall, accompanied with thunder and light- ning. By this time General Birney, with four regiments of Kearny's Division. had been ordered in, and the enemy was driven back still farther through the corn. General Kearny, riding up to the One Hundredth. now without ammunition, asked support for a battery. The men re- sponded with a cheer. The battery (Randolph's) was placed in position and brought to bear over the heads of Birney's men, though the darkness prevented any accuracy of aim. A few minutes later General Kearny, while
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ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT.
reconnoitering, rode into the enemy's lines, and asking, "What troops are these," discovered his mistake, but re- ceived a fatal bullet after he had turned his horse's head and was galloping away. As he did not return, General Birney, presuming he had been captured, assumed com- mand and gallantly maintained the action, pushing for- ward two fresh regiments, the Thirty-eighth New York and Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania. Our troops remained in possession of the field and kindled fires, which the cold rain had rendered especially necessary. The action was now over. Before day the field was evacuated by our victorious regiments, which with the entire army fell back upon Washington. Captain Cornelius, in command of the regiment, was severely wounded, and after suffering for a long time was discharged on account thereof. Cap- tain R. J. Ross and Lieutenant Samuel R. Grace were wounded. The loss was two killed and thirty-four wounded.
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