USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 16
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The night after this fight they retired to Malvern Hill, where they were sharply engaged next day, standing for over four hours under an incessant fire of musketry and artillery, with no protection but a rail fence. Each man was supplied with one hundred and fifty cartridges, and not a man left his post while he had a cartridge left. At times the Confederates came so close that our men could almost touch them with their bayonets, and they fought with desperation. Colonel C. A. Craig, in writing of this battle, says: "We are not a blowing regiment, or a blowing division, but if men can fight better than Kearney's Division, it will be more than I have imagined in the art of war."
On August 23 the regiment embarked upon truck cars for Manassas Junc- tion, the different companies being detailed to do guard duty at Manassas, Catletts, Bristow, and the high bridge at Turkey Run. Companies E and K were relieved at Bristow on the 29th by part of the Eighty-seventh New York, and by sundown started down the railroad towards Catletts, picking up the men stationcd on the road as they went along. This saved them from cap- ture, as Stonewall Jackson's column, 30,000 strong, struck Bristow a few min- utes after they were relieved. They had barely reached the switch, when, hear- ing firing in the direction of Bristow, they started back, but finding the enemy in force, Captain Greenawalt, commanding the detachment, retired to Kettle Run
THE 105TH REGIMENT.
bridge, which they were preparing to defend, when a detachment from Sickles's Excelsior Brigade was sent to their relief. The officer in command ordered them to board a train coming north, which was ordered back towards Bristow. When they reached the brow of the hill overlooking Bristow, they beheld spread out before them the rebel camp. They moved back to Kettle Run, where they made a stand to save the brigade, but a battery and a large force of rebel in- fantry was sent after them, and not being able to cope with so large a force, they were again put aboard the train and run back to Catletts, to find their regiment in line, having been ordred to join Hooker, who, with the Third Corps, was moving back to meet Jackson. They found the bridge at Kettle Run de- stroyed, and had a brisk engagement. The One Hundred and Fifth supported a battery on the left of Hooker's line, on the hill overlooking Bristow, and the Confederates made furious attempts to take it. General Hooker rode up and turned one of the guns upon the enemy himself. The next morning they marched to Manassas Junction, from which the enemy had retired during the night. Here Companies B and G had been left under command of Captain S. A. Craig, who had in addition about thirty-five men of the Eighty- seventh New York, and four or five pieces of artillery in charge of Lieutenant James. The heroic little force tried gallantly to defend and hold the place, but after a short resistance were obliged to yield to the large force opposed to them. This force was composed of the " Louisiana Tigers" and a North Carolina- Georgia battalion, and was commanded by the late General Gordon. About half of Captain Craig's command was captured, the rest escaping in the dark- ness. Captain Craig was wounded and taken prisoner. Three men of Com- pany B were killed.
On August 29 the regiment started for Bull Run, meeting on the way those of their comrades captured at Bristow and Manassas, whom Jackson, not wish- ing to be hampered with prisoners, had paroled. On reaching the battle-field the First Brigade was placed on the extreme right, facing Bull Run. Here they lay all day under a heavy artillery fire, but being protected by a rail fence and the woods in their front no casualties occurred in the One Hundred and Fifth. It was a great relief, however, when about five o'clock, P. M. General Kearney formed his column for attack, and led them into the fight. This col- umn was formed of the Twentieth Indiana on the right, the Sixty-third Penn- sylvania Volunteers on the left, the Third Michigan on the right, and the One Hundred and Fifth the left center. They charged through the woods, and drove the enemy from the embankment and some distance beyond, but he ral- lied in force, and, though they again and again repulsed him, they were at last obliged to give way, and lost all the ground they had gained. The One Hun- dred and Fifth was the last to leave the railroad, and held their position for some time after the balance of the brigade had left them. The Confederates, having crept up under cover of the embankment of the old railroad, suddenly
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
delivered a heavy fire straight in their faces, causing the old regiment to reel and stagger like a drunken man. Captains Kirk and Thompson finding them- selves in a crowd from all companies, at once began to form their lines as on dress parade, and soon had the regiment in order again. It was here that the regiment sustained its heaviest loss. Captain C. A. Craig, in command of the regiment, was shot through the ankle and his horse killed. Captains Hastings and Thompson were both severely wounded, and Lieutenant Gilbert, it is sup- posed, killed, as no trace was ever had of the brave young officer afterwards. Captain Duff and Lieutenant Clyde brought the regiment off the field. The loss sustained was twelve killed, forty-three wounded, and three missing. When the retreat began, the regiment was ordered to cover the road from Centre- ville, which they did, lying perfectly still until the army had all passed safely, when the brigade was ordered to march off the field without noise.
On the Ist of September the regiment was in the battle of Chantilly. Here they lost their beloved leader, the gallant Kearney, who, as he rode un- wittingly to meet his death, received his last cheer from the One Hundred and Fifth as he passed their lines. In his report of the battle of Bull Run, made the day he fell, General Kearney says : "The One Hundred and Fifth Penn- sylvania Volunteers was not wanting. They are Pennsylvanians-mountain men. Again have they been fearfully decimated. The desperate charges of these regiments sustain the past history of this division."
Colonel McKnight having regained his health, on the 20th of September was again commissioned colonel of the regiment. The government in thus keeping the position for him showed its appreciation of his value as an officer. The regiment remained quietly in camp until the IIth of October, when it was ordered to cross the Potomac to watch some Confederate cavalry raiding in Maryland. On the 28th they returned to Virginia, and were engaged in guard and picket duty and bridge building until Burnside began his movement against Fredericksburg, where they supported Randolph's Battery in the fight of the 13th and 14th of December, losing three men killed, and Captain Hamilton, Lieutenants Clyde and Patterson, and eleven men wounded. General Charles K. Graham, on taking charge of the First Brigade, noticed the proficiency of the One Hundred and Fifth in drill and discipline, and to satisfy himself that he was not mistaken in his estimate of it, with General D. B. Birney, com- manding the division, selected the regiment acknowledged to be the best drilled in the division, the Thirty-eighth New York, to compete with the One Hun- dred and Fifth for the championship, General Birney to be the judge, who, after witnessing the drill, pronounced the One Hundred and Fifth the victor in the contest. General Sickles, who came over on the invitation of General Bir- ney to see the One Hundred and Fifth on dress parade, also warmly eulogized them on their excellence in drill, and complimented Colonel McKnight for the pains he had taken in drilling and disciplining them.
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THE 105TH REGIMENT.
On the 28th of April the gallant Third Corps commenced its march to- wards Chancellorsville. On the 2d of May the brigade was moved to the cen- ter near the Chancellorsville brick house, the One Hundred and Fifth being deployed as skirmishers and to make a road across a swamp. Just as the work was finished several of the men were wounded by a heavy artillery fire from the enemy. On the morning of the third their line was formed in the rear of the house, the One Hundred and Fourteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers on the right and the One Hundred and Fifth on the extreme left of the brigade. The regiment charged through the woods immediately in front of the Confederate batteries, where they were hotly engaged for two hours. Colonel McKnight and Lieutenant-Colonel Craig were continually passing along the line, encour- aging the men by their example and coolness. Just as the regiment was gain- ing position at the entrance of the woods, Colonel McKnight was shot through the head and killed. With his hat in his hand he had just given the command, " Forward, double quick, march !" With shouts his men pressed on to fulfill his last command, and advancing on a double quick drove the enemy from the breast-works that they had taken from the Eleventh Corps the day before.
Upon the fall of Colonel Mcknight, the command of the regiment devolved upon Colonel Craig, who drove the enemy from the first line of entrenchments, which they held until, their ammunition being exhausted, the regiment, with the rest of the brigade, fell back, the enemy following to the brow of the hill, when the One Hundred and Fifth made a stand and would have charged had the enemy continued to advance. A new line being formed, the regiment re- tired again to the rear of the Chancellor house. While here Colonel Craig rode up to General Graham and asked him whether he was aware that the regiment was without ammunition. The general turned his horse and coolly surveying them, replied that it was all right, for said he: "They have their bayonets yet." They had fired every cartridge before falling back, even searching the dead and wounded for them. The One Hundred and Fifth took into this fight twenty-seven officers and three hundred and twenty men, and lost Colonel McKnight, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Powers and eight men killed, and Captain Clyde, Lieutenants Shipley, Platt, Hewett, McHenry, and sixty enlisted men wounded and seven missing.
On May 2Ist Lieutenant-Colonel Craig was commissioned colonel ; Major J. W. Greenawalt, lieutenant colonel; Captain Levi B. Duff, major. On the 27th those non-commissioned officers and privates, who, by their bravery and good conduct as soldiers, had merited the gift, were presented by General Sickles with the Kearney badge of honor. The following mem- bers of the One Hundred and Fifth received the cross: Sergeants A. H. Mitchel, A. D. McPherson, Samuel T. Hadden, Company A; Sergeants Joseph C. Kelso, George Heiges, Charles C. McCauley, B; Corporal A. A. Harley, Privates Charles C. Weaver, Samuel H. Mays, C; Sergeant James Sylvis, 15°
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Corporal Milton Craven, D; Sergeant Joseph E. Geiger, Corporals George Weddell, James M. Shoaf, E; Sergeant Robert Doty, Corporal Henry Mc- Killip, Private Perry Cupler, F; Sergeant George W. Hawthorn, Private Will- iam D. Kane, G; Privates Thomas M. Rea, Robert Feverly, H ; Sergeant Oliver C. Redic, Joseph Kinnear, 1; Sergeants James Miller, George S. Reed, K.
It was a very difficult matter to thus select out particular individuals, where all had been so brave, and had on so many hard fought battle fields shown their valor, and it was a double honor to be thus singled out to receive this mark of distinction-this memento of their brave old commander, the la- mented Kearney. In his order announcing the names of those entitled to receive the " cross," General Birney says :
" Many deserving soldiers may have escaped the notice of their command- ing officers, but in the selection after the next battle they will doubtless receive the honorable distinction. The cross is in honor of our old leader, and the wearers of it will always remember the high standard of a true and brave soldier, and will never disgrace it."
Nobly did those brave fellows deserve the honor bestowed, as their subse- quent history shows. Miller was promoted colonel and Redic lieutenant- colonel of the regiment, Mitchel and Kelso to captain, Sylvis, Shoaf, and Mc- Killip to lieutenants ; Hadden, McCauley, Doty, Hawthorn, and Kinnear were killed ; Heiges and Reed died of wounds; Craven lost his right arm in the Wilderness; McPherson, a leg at Gettysburg, while every one of the others received one or more wounds ere their term of service expired.
From the battle of Chancellorsville until the march into Pennsylvania be- gan the One Hundred and Fifth did picket and guard duty along the Potomac. Monday, June 29, the regiment marched through Taneytown and encamped for the night within five miles of the Pennsylvania State line. Tuesday they marched to the Emmittsburg road, the Third Corps being ordered to hold Emmittsburg. General Sickles, in response to General Reynolds's order, hur- ried his corps, which was ten miles away, to Gettysburg. The roads were ex- ceedingly heavy, as it had been raining hard, and the long march of the preced- ing days had told upon the troops, so that it was after 5 P. M. on Wednesday when they reached Gettysburg. Birney's division'came up on the Emmittsburg road, passed Sherfy's house, where it turned to the right and halted just north of Little Round Top, where they lay all night. The next morning at daybreak they formed in line of battle, Ward's Brigade on the left, with his left resting on the Devil's Den ; De Trobriand in the center, and Graham on the right in the peach orchard, with his right resting on the Emmittsburg road. This line was gradually moved forward until the left of the division rested on Little Round Top and the right at Sherfy's house, where the One Hundred and Fifth was moved to the right of the road, and a little before noon was marched to the front, where Companies A, C, F, and I were deployed as skirmishers to
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THE 105TH REGIMENT.
support the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, already engaged in their front and keeping up a brisk fire upon the skirmishers of the enemy, who could be seen watching them through the trees. Soon after these companies were called in and the regiment took its place on the extreme right of the brigade, where it remained quiet until 3 P. M., when the battle opened in earnest, and the One Hundred and Fifth was moved up to the brow of the hill along the Emmittsburg road. Here, for an hour, they stood unflinchingly under a heavy fire of shot and shell from front and flank, losing some ten or twelve men.
Just at this juncture, the enemy moving up in force, the regiment advanced to receive them, and formed in the road a little in advance of our batteries. The fighting was now desperate, the enemy steadily advancing, but the brig- ade held its ground until the line on its left giving way, the enemy poured into its flank and rear a most murderous fire, forcing it to fall back for an instant. . But they rallied again and again and drove the enemy back to Sherfy's house, but the force opposed to them was too heavy and they were forced to retire. It was when engaged in this hand-to-hand conflict, with an overwhelming force of the enemy, and just as the shattered line of Graham was yielding to the overwhelming force of Barksdale's Mississippians, that the gallant troops of the First Division of the Second Corps, in which was the One Hudred and Forty- eighth Pennsylvania, came rushing to their relief. The regiment then took position with the new line that had been formed in the rear, connecting Ceme- tery Ridge with Round Top, where they remained until the close of the day's fighting. During the 3d and 4th they lay quiet on the second line, doing no further fighting. The regiment took into the battle of Gettysburg two hun- dred and forty-seven men, and lost Lieutenant George W. Crossly, and four- teen men killed, thirteen officers and one hundred and eleven men wounded and nine missing. Lieutenant Isaac A. Dunston, who was mortally wounded, died soon after. Out of the seventeen officers who went into the fight only four escaped uninjured. Colonel Craig lost three horses and Adjutant Joseph Craig two.
On the 5th the regiment left Gettysburg, and July 24 went into camp at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. In this beautiful place they remained until September 15th, recruiting their exhausted strength and depleted ranks. On the 15th they left the Springs. The regiment leading the advance encountered the skirmishers of the enemy at Auburn, who opened a heavy fire upon them, but the One Hundred and Fifth steadily advanced, loading and firing, until the First Division formed in line, and General Birney ordered a charge to pro- tect them. In this fight the regiment lost one killed and five wounded. The next morning they were again on the move, and until the 27th, when they were engaged at Kelly's Ford, where they sustained no loss, the regiment acted for the most part as advance guard for the division. It had become a great favorite with General Birney, who frequently selected it for important
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
positions, and on one occasion, when the enemy was reported near, he ordered General Collis, who since the wounding of General Graham at Gettysburg commanded the brigade, to send the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment as an advance guard, as he " wanted a regiment he could depend upon." From here they went into camp at Brandy Station, remaining there until November 27, when they took part in the battle of Locust Grove, where seven men were wounded. The next day, after remaining in line of battle all night, they marched through mud almost knee deep to a point near Mine Run, and that night supported a battery, having one man wounded. On the Ist of Decem- ber, 1863, they returned to their old camp at Brandy Station and on the 28th, the regiment was re-enlisted by Colonel Craig, according to orders from the War Department. Two hundred and forty men-almost the entire force of the regiment-re-enlisted and went home on veteran furlough, where, after being feted and feasted by their friends, they returned to their old quarters at Brandy Station, on the 21st of February, 1864, bringing with them some fifty recruits.
On the 26th of March, 1864, the Third Corps was consolidated with the Second Corps, and the remnants of Kearney's famous Red Diamond Division was consolidated into two brigades. The old First Brigade, now known as the Third Brigade, Third Division of the Second Corps, was put under com- mand of the brave Alexander Hays, the dashing colonel of the Sixty-third Pennsylvania. This brigade was composed of the Fifty-seventh, Sixty-third, Sixty-eighth and One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania, Third and Fifth Mich- igan, Fourth and Seventeenth Maine, and First Regiment U. S. Sharpshooters.
It was a sad day for the men who had followed Kearney, Hooker and Sickles on many hotly contested fields to see their beloved Third Corps oblit- erated from the Army of the Potomac. The wound yet rankles in the breasts of many who wore the diamond ; and their hearts are yet sore over this dis- memberment of the organization they held so sacred. But as the fiat had gone forth that was the death knell of the old Third, the brave men of the Dia- mond Division could not have been assigned to any other organization where they would have been so cordially received, or with whom they could so easily assimilate as with the gallant Second Corps. General Walker, in his excellent history of the Second Corps, says of this transferring of the Third Corps :
" Hereafter the names of Birney and Mott, Egan and McCallister, Pierce and Madill, Brewster and De Trobriand, were to be borne on the rolls of the Second Corps in equal honor with Barlow and Gibbon, Hays and Miles, Car- roll and Brooke, Webb and Smyth ; the deeds of these new-comers were to be an undistinguishable part of the common glory; their sufferings and losses were to be felt in every nerve of the common frame; the blood of the men of Hooker and Kearney, the men of Richardson and Sedgwick, was to drench the same fields from the Rapidan to the Appomattox."
On the night of May 3d the One Hundred and Fifth encamped on the
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THE 105TH REGIMENT.
battle-field of Chancellorsville, the anniversary of their hard-fought fight the year before, where they found the bones of their gallant comrades bleaching on the field. On the next day Birney's Division was selected to make the attack or receive that of the enemy, as the case might be, in the Wilderness. The One Hundred and Fifth advanced about half a mile through the dense wood, when they suddenly came upon the enemy, and were at once fiercely engaged. They at first took position in the rear of the Sixty-third Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, which occupied the front line. Here several were wounded. About four P. M. they relieved the Sixty-third and then their hardest fighting began. Every step of ground was hotly contested, neither side giving an inch. The dead was piled up in rows. Here Captain Hamilton was killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel Greenawalt mortally wounded ; Lieutenants Kimple, Sylvis, Redic and Miller were all severely wounded, and fully one-half of the men killed and wounded. Colonel Craig, while riding near the right of the regiment, about dark, was shot in the head and seriously wounded. Their colonel badly wounded, their brave liutenant-colonel borne from the field dying, the command devolved upon Major Duff, who gallantly led them through the balance of the fight, which still raged hotly.
Here, while holding his ground against heavy odds, the gallant Hays was killed. When night closed upon the fearful scene the One Hundred and Fifth held its original position, but during the night it was relieved and went to the rear. The next morning, however, Birney's Division again took the initiative, charging the enemy's lines and forcing him back almost a mile, until their am- munition being exhausted they had to fall back to a temporary line of breast- works, which the enemy tried several times to take, but were repulsed each time. The One Hundred and Fifth here charged forward and occupied a posi- tion on the front line. Captain Clyde, who, with several others, mounted the front line of breastworks, urging the men forward, fell dead, almost touching the enemy. On the 10th the brigade marched up the Po River to support the First Division, engaged with the enemy on the south side of the river. Colo- nel Crocker, who was temporarily commanding the brigade, marched it up almost against a Confederate battery, which opened fire at short range. The regiment suffered terribly for a few minutes. The first shot struck Private Enos Shirts, of Company I, and blew him literally to pieces, the men near him being sprinkled with his blood and flesh. The regiment held its ground until ordered to fall back into a little ravine, where they held position until the First Division had crossed the river, when they retired to the rear of the Fifth Corps. Here the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers was added to Major Duff's com- mand, and the two regiments reduced to five companies. At dawn on the 12th they were at Spottsylvania, where Major Duff's gallant little command struck the Confederate line at the angle near the Sandrum house, where, before the enemy had time to fire a gun, our boys, with loud cheers, were leaping over his
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entrenchments. They captured a large number of prisoners, among them Brigadier-General Stewart. On the left of the point where Major Duff struck the enemy's line was a battery, which was immediately brought to bear upon them, but our men rushed upon and captured it, some of the enemy standing to their guns until killed on the spot. They then crossed the swamp, captur- ing two rifled guns and the Eighteenth North Carolina Regiment, which was in support of these guns. Lieutenant A. H. Mitchell, of the One Hundred and Fifth, captured the flag of this regiment, and Corporal John Kendig, of the Sixty-third, that of the Twenty-fourth North Carolina. Lieutenant Mitchell was wounded, and Lieutenant Hewitt wounded and taken prisoner. The Con- federates, rallying in force, drove them across the swamp, where they made a stand. They lay for the balance of the day and night under a severe fire, forming the left support of the "death angle." This was one of the regiment's hardest fights, and the loss from the 5th to the 15th, inclusive was three officers and forty-six men killed, ten officers and one hundred and thirty men wounded, one officer and eight men missing, a total of two hundred and four.
On the 20th the regiments started on the march to the North Anna River, one of the hardest marches they ever made, yet at roll-call only one man from the One Hundred and Fifth and two from the Sixty-third failed to answer to their names. On this march Lieutenant Kelso was severely wounded on the shoulder by a rebel sharpshooter. On the 23d the regiments halted on the north bank of the North Anna, the Confederates being on the other side. They were formed in the thick woods and ordered to charge without firing a gun, which was done, driving the enemy from his fortifications. They held this position until after dark. In this charge Captain Daniel Dougherty, a brave officer of the Sixty-third, was killed. On June 2d they were slightly engaged at Cold Harbor. The 15th found them in front of Petersburg, where in the various engagements they lost eleven men killed, and three officers and eighteen men wounded, among the number being Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, who lost a leg while gallantly leading his small force in the " Hare's House slaughter." On the 16th of July the regiment, with the balance of the brigade, which was under command of Colonel Craig, drove the enemy into his works at Deep Bottom and then charged and captured them, with two commissioned officers and seventy-five men ; but while flushed with victory and driving the enemy before them, a heavy force fell upon the left flank of the brigade with such fury that it was compelled to fall back. Here a heavy loss fell on the One Hundred and Fifth, for while leading the charge, their beloved young leader, Colonel C. A. Craig, was mortally wounded, dying the next day, and no one whom death claimed from their ranks was ever mourned more sin- cerely. Seventeen men were killed, and Captain Barr and twenty-three men wounded. The regiment remained in front of Petersburg doing picket and fatigue duty until September Ist, when those who had not re-enlisted were mus-
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