USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Fifty-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry > Part 4
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days of the battle, most of the division at one time or other being hotly engaged. The 57th, however, escaped, though frequently under fire. Along the left and center the battle raged fiercely. The issue hung upon the ability of Pope to crush his antagonist, the redoubtable "Stonewall," before assistance could come to him from his chief beyond the mountains. But alas for our fondest expectations! Longstreet pressed his way through the insecurely guarded mountain pass, Thoroughfare Gap, and late in the afternoon of the 30th, when victory seemed about to perch on our banners, threw himself with irresistible force against our left. The onset was so fierce and unexpected that it did not lie in human power to re- sist, and in a few brief moments, all hope vanished, rout followed, and an almost fac simile of the dis- aster of the preceding summer was the consequence, except that our legions were veterans now, the army retained its morale and (especially the right wing) fell back in good order upon Centerville, the enemy, either from being sorely crippled, or satisfied with his success, giving little annoyance. The army in this encounter could not be said to have been defeated. Fully one-third of its efficient force had not been en- gaged. A general impression prevailed in the ranks that we either had been outgeneraled or that some stupendous blunder had been made.
Rumors of disobedience of orders by officers high in rank filled the air, and mortification and chagrin the breasts of all. We were not whipped; that would have been satisfying. The story was that in the game
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of war our adversary, in playing his winning card, had been aided by the petty strifes and jealousies among our own leaders. Happily history has done much to remove this feeling and as well the clouds that overcast the fair name and fame of at least one of our corps commanders, whose bravery and ability none doubted. But then it was different, and pro- voked by defeat, slight evidence was sufficient to call down maledictions loud and bitter.
During August 3Ist and September Ist the regi- ment camped near Centerville, but in the afternoon of the Ist received marching orders and filed out on the road leading to Fairfax Court House. Marching leisurely along, all unconscious of the near presence of an enemy, we were suddenly startled by the sound of skirmish firing to our left. A moment later Gen- eral Kearny and staff rode past at a gallop. The desultory firing of the skirmishers increased rapidly to volleys and soon we were advancing to the front at a double quick. Wheeling to the left of the road on which we were marching we were deployed in line of battle; part of the division immediately advanced and soon was hotly engaged. In the midst of the roar of battle a fierce electric storm burst upon the con- tending forces, and the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder mingled with the crash of musketry and booming of cannon, while rain descended in torrents. While the regiments of the division were being advanced General Kearny sat on his horse but a few paces from the 57th. Some of his staff suggested that the regiment be assigned to the advance column.
E
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"No," replied the general, "place the 57th in reserve. If these men have to retreat I want them to fall back upon men that won't run!" These were the last words he ever uttered in our presence. Within a brief hour he lay cold in death within the enemy's lines, the victim of that spirit within him so often manifested on the field of battle and at the post of danger, never to send another where he himself would not willingly go.
To the 57th was accorded the honor of receiving from the Confederates under a flag of truce the fol- lowing morning the remains of their fallen leader, the five right companies, A, B, C, D and E, with the colors subsequently acting as special escort of the body to Washington, D. C.
The day following the short, but sanguinary engagement at Chantilly, the remaining companies of the regiment, not detached for the above mentioned sad duty, marched to Alexandria and encamped near the regiment's old quarters of the preceding winter. While in camp an incident occurred that came near breaking up the regimental organization. During the Peninsula and Bull Run campaigns the regiment had become reduced in numbers to scarcely one-fourth of its original strength, and as a consequence an order was issued directing the consolidation of the regiment with the 99th Pennsylvania Volunteers, which was a comparatively new organization, had seen but little field service and had but recently been assigned to the brigade. The news of this order caused the most in- tense feeling, the men declaring that "having received
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from Governor Curtin their colors when they were returned to the state capital they would return with them." Major Birney was still absent, having ac- companied the remains of General Kearny to Newark, New Jersey. Chaplain McAdam immediately visited Washington, interviewed the Secretary of War, put himself in communication with Governor Curtin and soon brought to us the good news that the order had been countermanded. Chaplain McAdam's success in this important undertaking gave him great popularity in the regiment, if, indeed, his popularity could be increased, for from the first organization of the regi- ment the chaplain had a warm place in the esteem and confidence of the men, irrespective of rank or condition.
The regiment had not been visited by its pay- master since some time before the Seven Days' battle. As a consequence few if any were the possessors of a "greenback." This alone was aggravating, but when our proximity to Alexandria brought us daily visits by numerous hucksters of fruit and gingerbread. not to mention real and toothsome pie, the aggravation was intensified to a degree unbearable. This reached the climax when on a certain occasion a wagon load of watermelons was deliberately driven into camp and displayed on the parade ground. The vender of this luxury, however, demanded a price that no sixteen dollar soldier of "Uncle Sam" could think of paying. The temptation to enjoy the luscious fruit was too great. One of the boys, disregarding the admonitions of a home-cultured conscience which he still cher- 5
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ished, picked up a melon and walked off with it to his quarters. The huckster followed to collect pay or to recover his property, but alas! his efforts to reclaim the lost melon left the remainder unguarded, and he returned to his wagon only to find the last one gone and his wagon empty. Gone, doubtless, in the way of all good melons in an army camp.
During the Antietam campaign the 3d corps re- mained in the defences about Washington, south of the Potomac. From Arlington Heights the low mutter from the distant battlefield could be heard and although no tidings came to us of an engagement all felt that a desperate battle was in progress.
On September 12 we received marching orders for Poolsville, Md., and on the 15th pitched our tents (dog kennel style) near Conrad's Ferry on the Poto- mac, where we did picket duty until Mcclellan again crossed the river and resumed his march on Rich- mond. Our sojourn at Conrad's Ferry was very rest- ful after the summer of hard campaigning; two inci- dents, however, occurred to add a touch of excite- ment to our otherwise monotonous camp life .* The first was a raid across the river to the ancient town of Leesburg, the county seat of Loudon county, Va., where we had a glimpse, and only that, of the enemy's cavalry pickets and received a thorough wetting going and returning while fording the river. The second was a bootless attempt to head off that bold raider, J. E. B. Stewart, in his hazardous ride around our
* Companies D and G were disbanded at Conrad's Ferry, Md., Sept. 25. 1862, and the men assigned to other companies of the regiment.
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army. We marched and countermarched all day long up and down the river between Conrad's Ferry and Monocacy creek, but notwithstanding our vigilance the wily fox slipped us and gained the Virginia shore without so much as giving us a chance shot at him.
Early in October Colonel Campbell returned and resumed command of the regiment, although he still carried his arm in a sling. We were indeed glad to see his face again, but sorry to bid farewell to Major Birney, who had won a warm place in the regimental affections.
One of the sad incidents of camp life occurred just before the colonel's return. A member of the regi- ment had been found guilty of the theft of a pistol from one of the cavalry orderlies at brigade head- quarters. His sentence was to stand so many hours daily on the head of a barrel on the parade ground and to march by the front of the line at dress parade under guard to the music of the "Rogue's march." with the word "thief" in large letters on a placard strapped across his back. The punishment, while not severe, was indeed humiliating. Punishments for such offenses were often severe and always of a char- acter to expose to ridicule and invite contempt, while those of foraging among farmers, which often bore more of the character of theft and robbery than the legitimate right of confiscation for justifiable use, were winked at. On one occasion Colonel Campbel!, while walking along the towing path of the canal that ran near our camp, espied the recently removed integument of a porker. In an apparently towering
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rage, he returned to camp and announced his dis- covery, asserting with not a few expletives, more forcible than polite, that "any man who would steal a pig and didn't know enough to hide its skin de- served to be drummed out of camp!"
A neighboring farmer made complaint to General Hobart Ward, commading the brigade, that his hogs were missing and that some of the 57th were the cul- prits. The general promised to institute a thorough search for evidence of fresh pork in our camp and carried out his promise to the letter. Through courtesy (presumably) he sent word to Colonel Campbell of this proposed inspection. The colonel felt it his duty to acquaint the company commanders of the facts; these, in turn, informed the sergeants and they, following their superior's example, told the rank and file. The general came at the hour ap- pointed, and that the farmer might know the sin- cerity of his promise, brought him with him. The search was thorough, but no evidence of the theft could be obtained. Some other command must have appropriated the hogs! Of course the farmer was convinced. Perhaps, if pressed, would have apolo- gized for his porcine imputation upon our honor. Perhaps !
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CHAPTER VI.
BY J. M. MARTIN.
On to Richmond Once More-Foragers Captured -- General McClellan Superseded by General Burnside-The Marc'h to the Rappahannock-Battle of Fredericksburg.
The closing days of October found us again on the march, swinging down the Virginia valley with the grand Army of the Potomac, fully recovered and equipped for another measuring of strength with our wily foe, the Army of Northern Virginia.
On November 12th, while we were encamped near Waterloo bridge, six men of Company K, Corporal Theodore Barber, Privates William Murray, A. L. Marsh, J. W. Hummer, Adam Wert and F. E. Hin- man, were captured while returning from a foraging expedition. When captured they had several sheep they had gobbled. For some days it was rumored that they had been taken by Mosby's guerrillas and hung, but after a short sojourn in Libby prison, they were sent to Camp Parole at Annapolis, Md., were ex- changed, and rejoined the regiment in the following February.
No other incident of moment occurred until we reached the vicinity of Warrenton, Va. There the morale of the army received a shock from which it required months for recovery. It was the unexpected relieving of Gen. George B. McClellan from com- mand, and the assignment of Gen. Ambrose E. Burn-
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side to that high position. That General McClellan was the idol of the Army of the Potomac cannot be gainsaid. In him the mass of the troops had un- bounded confidence. He had organized, equipped and drilled them. On his shoulders that did not rest the blame of their discomfiture on the Peninsula. Instead they praised him for his masterly "change of base" from the swamps of the Chickahominy to the James. He had from the jaws of defeat at Bull Run wrested victory from their elated and confident enemy at South Mountain and Antietam, and now, when on the forward movement again, hopeful of final victory, he was unceremoniously discharged, and one substi- tuted of whom they knew little, and who with pro- testations of unfitness accepted the command !
At Warrenton the army encountered the first snowfall of the winter, the morning reveille waking the sleeping host covered with an extra blanket of purest whiteness. Our march to the Rappahannock was without further incident of note. On November 25th we arrived upon the heights overlooking the ancient city of Fredericksburg sleeping in the river valley, beyond which rose Marye's heights and the range of wooded hills, on whose slopes was mar- shaled our old foe, interrupting our further advance upon the Confederate capital. Here the army pitched its winter camp. Many of the quarters were built quite substantial and comfortable. The messes of five and six, cut and split the soft pine indigenous to that region, constructing therewith log cabins roofed with their shelter tents. Many of these cabins were
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fitted up quite tastefully, having open fire places and bunks erected aganist the walls which were supplied with pillows and matresses of the resinous pine needles covered with army blankets, making very comfortable beds, at least quite luxurious to men who had enjoyed nothing better than the ground, or the soft side of a plank, for a year past. But from this dream of peace and comfort we were soon to be rudely wakened. In the early twilight of the morning of December 1Ith, the guards that paced their lonely beats about the silent camps were startled by the sud- den boom of a signal gun, its deep reverberations up and down the river valley giving warning to friend and foe that a strife for the possession of yonder steeps was soon to begin. For a moment silence fol- lowed this signal and then from the hundred brazen throats of the batteries that lined the crest of the hills on the north side flashed sheets of flame amid deafening roar and scream of shot and shell, that brought every sleeper to his feet. The deep notes of the heavier ordnance, mingled with the rifle crack of the lighter parrotts; the whizzing of shot and screani- ing shells, the path of the latter marked by burning fuse, presented a scene grand and awe-inspiring be- yond description. It was war's magnificent prelude to the fiercer music of the clash of a hundred thou- sand muskets to follow. By daylight. camps were broken, knapsacks packed, and marching columns were pouring forward toward the river where the batteries continued to play and pile their smoke in thick banks along the crest of the hills. All day long
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we sat about our campfires in our dismantled quar- ters waiting the order to move, but none came and darkness found us replacing our shelters for another night's rest in our accustomed berths. During the afternoon of the 12th our corps, the 3d, marched to the extreme left of the line and bivouacked for the night in a piece of woodland overlooking the river. The next day, the 13th, we retraced our steps, halt- ing just before noon at a point where we had a mag- nificent panoramic view of the river, town and field, and down into the valley, where could dimly be seen through the river mists the long lines of blue with flying colors waiting the command to storm the wooded heights beyond. Judged by the character of our movements it looked as though we were to be spectators of the struggle about to open. In the line of battle our place properly would be with Hooker's grand division, which occupied the center, but instead we were on the extreme left in support of Franklin. In this, however, we were mistaken. About 12 o'clock the bugles sounded and the order to fall in passed along the line, and without further delay the long line of the 3d corps wound down the hill, crossed the river on the lower pontoon bridge and from thence marched directly out upon the plain to the front line of battle. That the hour to strike for the possession of yonder wooded slopes, occupied by the veterans of Jackson, had come was evident to all. From our right came the crash and long roll of musketry, tell- ing us that Hooker was crowding the enemy in his front and we should not long be idle. Soon Ran-
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dolph's and other batteries in our front and on our flanks began to feel for the enemy in the woods to our front. As we stood intently watching the effect of the bursting shells a stream of smoke shot out from a clump of trees and brush to our left center, and an instant later a shell whizzed wickedly over our heads. The enemy's cover was now revealed and on this piece of woodland the fire of every gun in our batteries were concentrated. For a time he replied with vigor, sending shot for shot. The voice of Colonel Campbell rang out above the din: "Lie down." We waited not a second order, but quickly and closely embraced our mother earth. Soon explo- sion followed explosion in quick succession within the enemy's lines. A shot from one of our guns had penetrated one of their caissons and now their own exploding ammunition was doing its deadly work, and silencing their only battery in position to do us immediate harm. Now is the time to charge the heights! The Pennsylvania Reserves are chosen for the hazardous task. In three linees, with arms at a right shoulder shift, they advanced at a quick step. What a magnificent spectacle! Not a man falters, but shoulder to shoulder they move across the plain in perfect alignment. At the railroad in the edge of the woods they encounter the enemy, who pour into their ranks a withering fire. With a cheer they spring forward and press back the foe. Soon they are lost to view amid the scrub pine, their location only known by the curling smoke from their pieces and their cheers as they ascend the hill. Over half way to the
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summit the second line of the enemy is encountered. Again a galling fire is poured into their faces, but still they cheer and press on. Down in the valley we stand anxiously, but idly watching the now desperate and unequal contest our comrades of the Old Key- stone are waging. They are brothers, friends and neighbors to many, if not all of us. A half mile intervenes between them and us. We know we are not in supporting distance. Our impatience over- comes our discipline to wait the word to advance. Shouts are being heard all along the line: "Why are not the Reserves being supported?" We know too keenly that they must yield to the overpowering odds against them unless reinforced at once !
"Battalion, right face, forward, file left, march!" rings out clear from the colonel's lips. The men are quick to obey, and we move more rapidly to the front. "By company, half wheel! Forward into line on first company !" The movement was executed with alacrity. "Forward, guide right." We pressed forward with quick step toward the woods from which was now emerging the broken lines of the Reserves, not in panic, but resolutely disputing, as best they could, every step. A drainage ditch from three to four feet deep, grown up in many places with a tangle of briers, extended along our front and parallel with the rail- road at the foot of the hills. Into this we were ordered in the hope that by its protection we could stay the enemy's countercharge. The Reserves were still in our front and to deliver an effective fire was impossible. Orders to fall back were given, but in
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the din of battle were unheard or unheeded, and many who attempted the retreat were left dead or wounded on the field. The enemy swarmed out of the woods in our front without order or alignment, giving but little heed to the ditch, springing over the heads of its occupants in their mad rush for our bat- teries. There was not time for the gunners to debate the question of the safety of their comrades in their front if they would save their batteries, and possibly the day to our cause. They poured volley after vol- ley of grape and cannister into the advancing enemy. each discharge mowing great swathes in their ranks. It was more than human flesh could bear and soon they were in full retreat for the cover of the woods, and thus ended, so far as the 57th was concerned, the battle of Fredericksburg. In this short encounter, possibly lasting ten minutes, the losses of the regi- ment were fearful, considering the number engaged. Out of 316 men in line, 21 were killed, 76 wounded and 78 missing, 54 of whom were prisoners, 55.38 per cent of the whole force engaged! Among the wounded was Colonel Campbell, who fell pierced with three balls; Captain Strohecker*, and Surgeon Ken- nedy. During the 14th the remnant of the regiment acted as provost guard to gather up stragglers until evening, when we were again placed in the front line, where we remained until the night of the 15th. During the 15th a truce was declared for the burial of the dead, and removal of the wounded; the ghastly
* Captain Strohecker was afterward commissioned lieutenant-colonel. but did not rejoin the regiment for active service. He was honorably dis- charged on March 12, 1863.
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sequel of the battle that robs it of its glory and drowns the acclaims of the victors in the tears of the widowed and sobs of the orphans. During the night of the 15th our army withdrew to the north side of the river, leaving the Confederates the practical victors on the fiercely contested field. The 57th, with shat- tered ranks, reoccupied its old quarters, the empty tents and broken messes being sad reminders of the horrors of war, and the uncertainty of the soldier's term of life. Thus closed the second year of the war, and the first of service of the 57th regiment for the preservation of the Union, amid scenes of dis- comfiture, defeat and gloom.
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CHAPTER VII.
BY E. C. STROUSS.
Camp Pitcher-The "Mud March"-General Hooker in Com- mand of the Army-Resolutions Adopted by the Fifty- Seventh -- Re-assignment to the First Brigade-Anecdote of Colonel Campbell-Drill and Inspection-Adoption of Corps Badges-The Chancellorsville Campaign-Jackson Routs the Eleventh Corps-A "Flying Dutchman"-In a Tight Place-General Hooker Disabled-General Sedg- wick's Movements-A New Line Established-Strength of the Fifty-Seventh and Its Losses.
The old camp to which we returned after the bat- tle was now, by order of General Birney, called Camp Pitcher, in honor of Major William Pitcher, a brave and gallant officer of the 4th Maine, who was killed in the battle of Fredericksburg. The camp was located near Falmouth on the west side of the Richmond & Potomac railroad.
Drill and the regular routine of camp life was resumed. The paymaster soon made his appearance, and the humiliation of our defeat in the recent battle, and our sorrow for comrades lost there, had about vanished, when an order from army headquarters announced another advance against the enemy.
The weather for a week or more had been bright and clear, the roads frozen and in good order for the movement of the artillery and trains, therefore Gen- eral Burnside thought the time propitious for an assault on the enemy. This time an attempt was to
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be made to turn the enemy's left, and get in the rear of their position at Fredericksburg.
Accordingly on the 20th of January, 1863, we broke camp at daylight and our army was once more on the move. This expedition is known to the old soldiers of the Army of the Potomac as "Burnside's Mud March."
After a march of ten or fifteen miles up the Rap- pahannock we reached the vicinity of Bank's Ford about dark, with the intention of crossing there and driving the enemy from their works on the south side of the river. About midnight a warm wind set in from the south, the rain began to fall, and con- tinued to fall with more or less violence for the next three days. After two days of this kind of weather the project of attacking the enemy was abandoned and we got ready to go back to our old camps. The return march was a great trial for the men. With the rain beating pitilessly, the roads and fields soon became a vast sea of mud. Heavy details were made from all the regiments to build corduroy roads in order to bring along our trains and artillery. Finally we reached our old camp, where our huts were still stand- ing, and these were soon roofed with our shelter tents and we were once more tolerably comfortable.
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