USA > Pennsylvania > A sketch of the 126th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers > Part 2
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The men were ordered to rely solely upon the bayonet and cautioned not to fire; the command: "Officers, twelve paces to the front!" was given; the bugles sounded the charge,
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THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
and then, with cheer upon cheer, the hill which covered the formation was ascended and the charge began. The ranks were well kept; the men ran steadily and in line. The brick house on Marye's Hill was already reached. The even- ing was fine; it was just beginning to grow dark. This was the fourth charge made that day over this same ground. Hancock had followed French, and then Howard had gone up the hill. Each charge was repulsed after fifteen immor- tal minutes. When the third charge failed, Burnside, riding down to the Rappahannock, (the men of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth saw him pass,) gazing over at those heights, exclaimed, "That crest must be carried to- night!" Humphreys had been at once ordered across. So far he had done his work well. "No prettier sight was ever seen," said Hooker, as he turned to leave the field after the failure of the assault, "than the charge of that Division." General Humphreys himself, a stern judge, who, brave to a fault, exacted much of the soldiers under him and was lit- tle given to compliment, spoke highly of the conduct of his command. General Tyler in his report extols their gallant- ry. Harpers' Pictorial, a week after the charge, contained a large wood-cut illustration of it. But it was unsuccessful.
In front of the brick house at the foot of the crest, and along the raised ground to its right and left, lay a body of men in line prone on the earth. They were the men of the last preceding charge. Whether they did not wish to be run over by the men and the officers on horseback, or from whatever cause, they raised partly up, cried halt, remon- strated with violent gesticulations as the charging line came upon them, and thereby very greatly disarranged the ranks and broke the force of the charge. But the column passed over them like a storm. Colonel Elder led the right wing of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth to the right of the brick house. Lieutenant Colonel Rowe sent part of the left wing, placed in his charge, also to the right, and led 2
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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
the two left companies, HI and K, around on the other side. These latter companies having a clear field pressed rapidly beyond the house and quite near the stone wall, blazing now in the evening with the enemy's fire. Colo- nel Elder, with those who went to the right of the house, was greatly obstructed by fences in the way, which had to be broken down. Nevertheless he pushed vigorously beyond the house and approached the stone wall. As the house was passed on either side, the fire of musketry, which was severe before, grew terrific. The long line of stone wall was a sheet of flame. From every eminence, in front, to right, to left, the rebel cannon were turned on the charging column.
Whatever was to be done must be done quickly. In one moment more the wall could be gained. How it came about is not known, but certain it is that the men lying in front of the house, who had been passed over, began to fire at the enemy through our advancing lines. Immediately there was a stop. The fire in the front, the fire in the rear, every flash visible in the twilight, astounded the soldiers. Be- wildered, they stood for a moment irresolute; then in their excitement began to fire at the rebel line. This was fatal. The charge was over. All its momentum was lost. It was folly to think of leading men leisurely up to that blazing fence; it was more hopeless still to expect them to stand still and remain enduring that fire. The officers urged. Colo- nel Elder, gallantly pushing forward, fell badly wounded. General Tyler was struck on the breast with a piece of shell. General Humphreys already had two horses killed under him, and was raving in front of the lines -urging the men on whilst pulling his holsters from under his dead horse. Among the line officers of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth, Dobler, Pott, Wharton, Walker, Fletcher, and Mackey, had been carried from the field. Men were falling rapidly. Their feeble fire against the stone wall was futile. It was growing dark. Lieutenant Colonel Rowe
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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
was on the left of the regiment, on the other side of the house, ignorant that Colonel Elder had fallen. The regiment was without a Major. It fell back with the rest of the brigade to the protection of the house, and descending the acclivity up which the charge had been made, re-formed under the cover of the hill whence the charge began.
Of the character of the work which this division was put to do, and of the behavior of the men who followed Humph- reys up those heights on that December evening, Gene- ral Hooker speaks thus, under oath a week afterward, before the Committee on the Conduct of the War; and he who won on many a bloody field the sobriquet of "Fighting Joe," must be supposed no mean judge of a brilliant charge:
Major General JOSEPH HOOKER, sworn and examined .*
"About 2 o'clock, on that day, [December 13th,] I received orders to send another of my divisions to support General Sturgis, and about the same time I received an order from General Burnside to cross over my other two divisions and attack the enemy on the Tele- graph road-the same position we had been butting against all day long. As soon as I received the order my divisions commenced crossing.
"I rode forward to see what I could learn from the officers-French, Wilcox, Couch, and Hancock-who had been engaged in the attack. Their opinion, with one exception, was that the attack should not be made on that point. After conferring with them I went to exam- ine the position to see whether or not it could be turned. Discover- ing no weak point, and seeing that many of the troops that had al- ready been engaged in the attack were considerably demoralized, and fearing that should the enemy make an advance, even of but a small column, nothing but disaster would follow, I sent, my Aid- de-camp to General Burnside to say that I advised him not to attack at that place. He returned, saying that the attack must be made. I had the matter so much at heart that I put spurs to my horse and rode over here,'[the Lacy House, where the committee were sitting,] and tried to dissuade General Burnside from making the attack. He insisted on its being made.
"I then returned and brought up every available battery in the city, with a view to break away their barriers by the use of artillery. I proceeded against the barriers as I would against a fortification and
*See Report on the Conduct of the War, Part 1, pp. 667; 671.
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HOOKER'S TESTIMONY.
endeavored to breach a hole sufficiently large for a "forlorn hope" to enter. Before that, the attack along the line, it seemed to me, had been too general-not sufficiently concentrated. I had two batteries posted on the left of the road, within four hundred yards of the po- sition upon which the attack was to be made, and I had other parts of batteries posted on the right of the road at the distance of five or six hundred yards. I had all these batteries playing with great vigor until sunset upon that point, but with no apparent effect upon the rebels or upon their works.
During the last part of the cannonading I had given directions to General Humphreys' division to form, under the shelter which a small hill afforded, in column for assault. When the fire of the ar- tillery ceased I gave directions for the enemy's works to be assaulted. General Humphreys' men took off their knapsacks, overcoats and haversacks. They were directed to make the assault with empty muskets, for there was no time there to load and fire. When the word was given the men moved forward with great impetuosity. They ran and hurrahed, and I was encouraged by the great good feel- ing that pervaded them. The head of General Humphreys' column advanced to within, perhaps, fifteen or twenty yards of the stone wall, which was the advanced position which the rebels held-and then they were thrown back as quickly as they had advanced. Pro- bably the whole of the advance and the retiring did not occupy fif- teen minutes. They left behind, as was reported, seventeen hun- dred and sixty of their number, out of about four thousand.
"I may as well state here that Sykes' division was drawn up to support Humphreys, so that in case he should sueceed, I could throw forward all the force that I had left-Sykes' division, about four thousand men-to hold the position in face of thirty thousand who were massed behind that wall. That was why I did not like to make the attack, because even if successful, I could not hold the po- sition. It was now just dark. Finding that I had lost as many men as my orders required me to lose, I suspended the attack, and direct- ed that the men should hold, for the advance line between Frede- rieksburg and the enemy, a ditch that runs along about midway be- tween the enemy's lines and the city, which would afford a shelter for the men.
"I will say that, in addition to the musketry fire that my men were exposed to, the crests of the hills surrounding Fredericksburg form almost a semi-circle, and these were filled with artillery, and the focus was the column that moved up to this assault. That focus was within good canister range, though I do not think any canister was thrown on my men that day. All these difficulties were appa- rent and perfectly well known to me before I went into this assault.
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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. .
They were known also to other officers. General French said to me that the whole army could not take that point." * * *
Question .- Had you made any impression upon their works?
Answer .- Not the slightest; no more than you could make upon the side of a mountain of rock. * * * *
Question .- How did the men behave during the attack?
Answer .- They behaved well. There never was anything more glorious than the behavior of the men. NO CAMPAIGN IN THE WORLD EVER SAW A MORE GALLANT ADVANCE THAN HUMPH- REYS' MEN MADE THERE. But they were put to do a work that no men could do."
Colonel Elder was carried from the spot where he fell to the brick house, and after a while into Fredericksburg to the hospital, where he was placed in charge of Doctor Nugent. His left leg near the thigh was fearfully shattered, and his life for a time was despaired of. He was subsequently con- veyed to Washington, where he remained until the regiment was mustered out, the command of it devolving, thenceforth, on the Lieutenant Colonel. The wounds of Captain Dob- ler also prevented his return, and Lieutenant Welsh was in charge of Company A from this time. During the charge the color-bearer of the One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth regiment was shot, and the colors of that regiment were rescued and safely brought off by George E. Jones, of com- pany H, One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth, and returned by Lieutenant Colonel Rowe to the regiment. The brigade went into action two thousand strong, and lost in the few minutes of the charge, thirty-three officers and four hun- dred and twenty-three men.
· About 9 o'clock at night the brigade was withdrawn from the field and rested in the streets of the town. At 3 A. M., however, it was again taken under Colonel Gregory to the scene of the evening's charge. Everything now was perfect- ly quiet, not a gun broke the stillness of the night. The groans of the wounded rang out clear in the night air. The ground was strewed with the dead and dying, and the ambu- lances and stretcher-bearers flitted quickly and quietly over
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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
the field. A deep mist obscured everything. Lieutenant Walker was out with a party detailed for the purpose, seek- ing all night long the wounded and dead of the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Sixth. Until daylight the regiment lay on the ascent below the brick house. In the morning the brigade was relieved and taken by General Tyler into Fred- ericksburg, the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth being quar- tered in a graveyard opposite the office of G. H. C. Rowe, Esq., which was used as regimental headquarters. The 14th was Sunday. On the evening of the 15th, the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Sixth was posted as a strong picket along one of the streets in the suburbs. From this duty it was subsequently taken, toward midnight, and hurriedly con- ducted across the city and out to the left beyond the limits of the town, across a stream and up a road to a small brick house. Here four companies were held in reserve, and the remainder were posted on the edge of a precipitous hill running in a semi-circle round to the railroad. The ene- my's pickets could be heard talking. The men crawled quietly to their places and lay flat down, their guns point- ing through the fence. Arrived at the block-house, Lieu- tenant Colonel Rowe placed therein Captain Brownson, with a dozen of his men, and sent Captain Walker with six of company E's men across to the railroad. Just at this time the moon shone out brightly for a little while, throwing long shadows down the hill, rendering what was doing ob- servable to the enemy. But fortunately the changing of the pickets was now accomplished. Soon, however, it grew dark again and towards morning rained very hard. All night long the army of Burnside had been busy seeking the Northı bank of the Rappahannock, yet so quietly that not the re- bels only but this regiment (except one or two officers) knew nothing of it.
Toward daylight an order came to withdraw the command as speedily and cautiously as possible. Colonel Rowe had
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LENTZ IN THE BLOCK-HOUSE.
hardly begun to put this order in execution before it was countermanded, and the men had to be put back. Then part of a company of the Ninety-First under Captain Lentz, and also a body of Berdan's sharpshooters were sent to him. Again the order came to withdraw, and again it was coun- termanded by fast-riding aids-de-camp. The army was not yet quite over the river. The Lieutenant Colonel was ex- ceedingly fearful these movements among the pickets would draw the attention of the enemy. It was a long time grow- ing light, but now at length it was broad-day, when, not too soon, the order came to hasten to the bridges. The regi- ment was hastily collected together. Lentz, with his men and the sharp-shooters, were to remain until the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Sixth should begin to move down the road to town and then fall in as skirmishers on the flank and rear. All this was happily executed (with one oversight), and the regiment, double-quicking, entered the town, found the low- er bridge taken away, hastened to the upper bridge, without stopping for the knapsacks which had been stored when about to proceed to the charge. This bridge had also been swung out into the river, but was now put back, and the regi- ment crossed over to the other side. Then the bridge was again cut loose and Fredericksburg was abandoned by the Union army. The One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth was the last regiment to cross.
But Captain Lentz with six of his men was in the block- house. Lieutenant Bonsall, of F, the officer sent to with- draw the pickets and convey the orders to Lentz, had mistaken his lieutenant for him, and he was in utter ig- norance of what was doing. Here he remained some time alone (he and his six men) of all the army, in front of the enemy. A rebel soldier, approaching cautiously, found six guns suddenly thrust out at him, and surren- dered. Brought into the block-house he surprised Lentz with the news of the evacuation of Fredericksburg. Look-
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BACK IN CAMP.
ing out he saw the Union line deserted and the rebels gathering towards the block-house. He left suddenly with his prisoner, down the steep hill, across the canal, through the edge of the town, the other end of which was swarm- ing with rebels, hid behind the abutment of the destroyed bridge, until a gallant little fellow, a drummer, swam across for a skiff, which, brought back, saved most of Lentz's party. The morning of the 16th the regiment breakfasted in the pine woods where it had bivouacked the night of the 12th, and after noon settled down in the former camp. It left camp with twenty-six officers and six hundred and six men, but company I, having been detached as hospital guard, did not participate in the action.
A few days after the battle of Fredericksburg, the Rev. John Ault joined the regiment as Chaplain. He remained with it, however, only until the 18th of January, when the mud-march was begun, at which time, being sick, he went home on leave, and did not rejoin the command again until it arrived at Harrisburg for muster-out. Until the mud- march the life in camp was monotonous and devoid of ex- citement. The courts-martial of Lieutenants Cook and Hornbaker, of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth, and af- terwards of Colonels Frick and Armstrong, of the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Ninth, which grew out of the dress-coat difficulty, alone gave any zest to it. Lieutenants Cook and Hornbaker left the regiment at Antietam after the battle, when the regiment was under orders to move, and went home, sick, with the Surgeon's leave-but there was want of for- mality in procuring the leaves of absence. Though both un- doubtedly sick and wholly unfit for duty in the field, they failed to send to the headquarters of the regiment the cer- tificates required by regulations and orders. They were ac- cordingly found guilty and dismissed, and left as the com- mand started on the mud-march. The dismissal of Lieuten- ant Cook, upon a full presentation of his case, was after-
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DRESS-COATS.
wards, and after the muster out of the regiment, justly re- voked by order of the President. It is to his credit, that being under arrest at the time of the battle of Fredericks- burg, he asked permission to have his sword and command restored in order to his taking part in the battle, which was refused. Lieutenant Hornbaker made no effort to have his sentence reversed, but subsequently entered the army as a private and effaced whatever stain there was upon his re- cord, if any, by his death on the field of battle.
The difficulty about the dress-coats, which was quite an episode in the life of the regiment, was succinctly this: About the 10th of January, 1863, General Humphreys issued an order that all the men should draw dress-coats. Now, whatever clothing the men drew above a prescribed quantity, they were charged with, and they were alrea- dy amply provided with blouses and warm under-cloth- ing. Dress-coats were superfluous for comfort. This was represented to the Division General, but he clung to his caprice, and the men refused to take the coats. The regi- mental and company commanders were placed in an awk- ward position. The order was arbitrary, but it was imper- ative. They finally refused to compel their men, and were placed in arrest. They were, in the end, forced to yield and made the necessary requisitions, and the men took the coats off their hands, but threw them away, and the only effect of the order was to subtract several dollars from each man's pay. The Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel of the One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth remained contumacious, were placed in arrest, tried and dismissed the service, but were restored again by the President, and wrote in their vindica- tion a book called "Red Tape and Pigeon Hole Generals."
But now the time had come for Burnside to move again. At 2} o'clock, P. M., of Tuesday, the 20th of January, the brigade to which the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth was attached (Tyler's) marched out of camp and journeyed two
or
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THE MUD-MARCH.
miles on the famous mud-march. Towards evening it be- gan to rain and continued to rain all night, sometimes with much violence. The men were drenched; the roads were made dreadful. It rained the next day, during which the command made some four miles. On the 22nd, the brigade lay in a woods where it had encamped the night before. This day there was no forward movement. The afternoon was employed in making corduroy road. There was no thought of going ahead; how to get back was the question. Pontoon trains, wagons, guns, ammunition trains, encumber- ed the roads. Horses and mules were everywhere flounder- ing in the mud. The soil, though tenacious, was with- out bottom. The supply trains could not be brought up. The whole army, therefore, was put to corduroying. Regi- ments could be seen coming across the country like moving groves, every man carrying a tree top. So Birnam Wood once came to Dunsinane.
"Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear 't before him."
Behind came others bearing the rails of rifled fences. The
. branches thrown into the mud made a bed for the rails. Whole woods were cut down and thrown into the road. On Friday, whiskey rations . were issued to the command, and the same work was continued. At length, on Saturday, the 24th, the brigade marched back over the road it had helped to make to the former camp, and so the mud-march ended. Burnside after this resigned, and Hooker became command- er of the Army of the Potomac. General Meade was assigned to the command of the Fifth Corps.
For three months all grand military operations ceased. In this interval, however, the troops were constantly and en- ergetically drilled and disciplined. The ranks were filled up. Clothing was furnished, and excellent food in abun- dance. A system of furloughs was instituted. From the 1st of February till the 1st of May, the regiment daily grew better in physique and morale.
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A NEW CAMP.
On Monday, the 2d of February, Tyler's brigade was transferred from the camp it had hitherto occupied, near Falmouth, to another a mile or two further West, where were greater conveniences of wood and water. The new location was a very beautiful as well as advantageous one. The 're- giments were in the woods, on the sides of gently sloping hills, at the foot of which ran a stream of clear water. The One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth and One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth were placed side by side and over against the Ninety-First and One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth, on the other side of the stream. Brigade head-quarters were near by, on a bluff, amidst cedars. This camp was the home of the regiment during the remainder of its term of service. Three quiet months were passed here in picket and drill, and in- spection and parade; in eating, sleeping, smoking; in going to camps, and hurdle-races and home (as to some); in draw- ing rations and washing, and writing love-letters; in roll- calls and reviews; in camp and hospital guard, and burials of the dead with muffled drum.
Among the occurrences of this time which excited a lively interest in the men of the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth regiment, was the presentation to General Tyler, by the men and officers of his brigade, of a magnificent young horse, named "Young Salem," of "Grey Eagle" stock, pure white, and superbly beautiful,-bought in Ohio for a large sum,- together with the necessary trappings and housings, and a splendidly mounted sword and spurs. The visit, also, of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, în March, and the subsequent review by General Polardi, a Swiss officer of rank, served to relieve the tedium of the days.
About the 25th of February, Stuart pressed back our ca- valry out-posts, which created some excitement in camp. The regiment was hastily forwarded to the picket line, and kept under arms all night-a night which will remain long in the memories of the men on duty. "It snowed and
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LIFE IN CAMP.
blowed," said they upon their return, "and we marched in a circle all night long through the snow and mud to keep warm."
.The 22d of February was duly observed by the firing of cannon in the morning, which, naturally enough, was mis- taken at first for a fierce attack by the enemy. But the re- pose at head-quarters, and the absence of gay Aids hurrying with sharp messages, quieted all such apprehensions. On this anniversary of the birth of Washington, celebrated by the Army of the Potomac, in the midst of a great war for the Union which he founded, an echo in every soldier's breast responded to the loud acclaims of the deep-mouthed cannon.
At Head-Quarters of the Regiment: On the 25th of Feb- ruary, Lieutenant Colonel Rowe was made President of a court-martial and military commission which sat at the head-quarters of Allabach's brigade, and remained on this special duty until the 17th of March, when he took com- mand of the brigade for ten days. During this period, Cap- tain Andrew R. Davison, the senior captain present, com- manded the regiment. On the 31st of March, Captain Rob- ert S. Brownson, of Company C, was mustered in as Ma- jor, and assumed command as such. Adjutant John Stew- art was appointed by General Humphreys, on the 11th of April, Commissary of Musters for the Third Division, Fifth Corps, and Lieutenant George F. Platt acted as Adjutant thereafter. In April, Assistant Surgeon Grube was trans- ferred to the Sixth Corps. B. B. Henshey, the Hospital Steward, having been discharged on account of disability, on the 1st of the same month, Lewis Keyser was appointed to fill his place. Nugent, resting from the amputations and dressings of Fredericksburg, and the Assistant Surgeon, Swift, dealt out, at the hour of the Surgeon's call, the daily portions of quinine and calomel; while Nill, the Quarter- master, and his aids, Allison and Kinsler, (what time the
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