USA > Pennsylvania > History of the One hundred & sixth regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, 2d brigade, 2d division, 2d corps, 1861-1865 > Part 26
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all prisoners. Several Rebels sprang for the colors in the hands of Corporal John Houghton, of Company F, acting Color Ser- geant, who, seeing there was no chance of getting away with them, assisted by Private Henry Weinert of Company C, tore them from the staff and endeavored to hide them in their bosoms, but were detected, and immediately a scuffle began for the pos- session of them; two or three other members of the Regiment rushed to their assistance, and together they tore the colors to pieces before the Rebs had time to get possession of them, hid the pieces, and the staff was broken in two by others and thrown over the works. The enemy had come down from the left flank and rushed upon our men in the rifle-pits, who were steadily loading and firing to the front. Major Anderson, of the Forty- Seventh Georgia, stepped up to Captain Tyler, whom he took to be in command of the Regiment, and said: "Colonel, I thank you for your sword", and Captain Tyler surrendered his equipments and at once gave the order to "cease firing". The Major then directed him to get his men to the rear as soon as possible to avoid further loss. This onslaught was so sudden that only a short time before, orders were passed along the line "to hold their posi- tion at all hazards", and a few minutes before, Captain Whitaker, of the Seventy-Second Pennsylvania Brigade "Officer-of-the- day", passed along the line and said: "Keep it up, boys, we're driving them", and before he had time to get far, found himself a prisoner. Our loss was almost the entire command, including Privates Lukens, of Company A; Webster of Company B; Arm- strong, of Company D; and Anderson and Smith, of Company H, killed. Twelve were wounded, and three officers and seventy-two men were captured, but one officer and eleven men escaping ; so that there was but one officer and twenty-eight men in the Regi- ment reported present the next morning. A majority of these were non-combatants, and so were not in the rifle-pits.
General Humphreys describes the movement of the 22d as follows :
In order that the enveloping line should be at a suitable distance from the enemy's works, General Birney, commanding the Second Corps, was further directed, on the 22d, to swing forward its left, the right of Gibbon's Division which connected with the Fifth
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Corps being the pivot, and intrench. . General Wright was directed to move to and get possession of the Weldon Railroad and intrench, connecting with Birney. . The two Corps were moving chiefly through densely wooded thickets. . . . It was late in the afternoon before General Gibbon had intrenched his part of the new line. General Mott was still at work upon his. General Barlow was only partially in position, but General Birney had not taken the requisite precaution to secure his left in swinging forward. (Italics ours.)
General A. P. Hill had been sent down the Weldon Railroad to meet Meade. . He passed through the opening between Birney and Wright, and the first intimation Birney had of his presence was a fire upon the flank and rear of Barlow's Division, which sent it back in some confusion to the position it had in the morning, and with the loss of many prisoners. Mott's Division, partly seeing what had occurred, went back precipitately also to the position from which it had advanced, and by doing so, lost much fewer prisoners than Barlow's Division, but left Gibbon's Division, without any warning, to receive a fire in the rear of its left Brigade, which at once followed the example of the troops on its left, and abandoned a battery of four guns on its right to the enemy, who quickly turned it on them. So sudden and unexpected was the at- tack on Gibbon's left, that the greater part of several regiments were captured with their colors. An immediate attempt was made by General Gibbon to recover his line, but without success. He lost about as many prisoners as the First Division; the total loss of the whole Corps being about 1700 prisoners, four guns and several colors.
General Humphreys makes no mention of the heroic efforts of the Philadelphia Brigade, the left of Gibbon's Division, to hold their position repulsing the three different assaults in their front; and at the time of their capture, the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania, the extreme left of Gibbon's line, were steadily firing to their front, even while the enemy was in their rear; and ceased firing, upon order from Captain Tyler, after he had sur- rendered his sword to Major Anderson ; and there was no chance for them to "follow the example of the troops on their left". General Humphreys is in error, when he states that "the greatest part of several regiments were captured with their colors", as only the one regiment was captured, and that almost entire; but their colors did not fall into the enemy's hands. The other regiments lost but few members each.
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The Sixty-Ninth and Seventy-Second Regiments being on our right and seeing the fate that befell our regiment, moved off rapid- · ly to the right and rear, saving their colors though losing some of their officers and men. A Brigade of the First Division of the Fifth Corps was quickly advanced, and checked the further ad- vance of the enemy, and together with the remnants of our Divi- sion, endeavored to recover our works and the lost ground ; but the enemy occupying our works refused to yield, turned upon us our own guns, repulsed our attempts to drive them back, and the conflict closed for the day. Early on the morning of the 23d our skirmishers advanced only to find that the enemy had vacated the works during the night, and being unable to remove the guns, spiked and left them. We found all of our dead stripped to the skin.
This was the last engagement of the "Philadelphia Brigade", in fact, the Brigade may be said to have ceased to exist, the Seventy- First Regiment having been mustered out. The remnants of the other three regiments gathered together would not make a regi- ment ; and what a strange coincidence in its life, that its first and last battles, "Ball's Bluff and Petersburg", should both result so disastrously, not only in killed and wounded and the capture of many of its members, but in the loss of one of its colors in each fight, that of the senior Regiment, the "Seventy-First", at Ball's Bluff, and that of the junior Regiment, the "One Hundred and Sixth", at Petersburg. Yet neither fell into the hands of the enemy.
Finally the Brigade was officially disbanded on June 28th, by the transfer of the Sixty-Ninth, Seventy-Second and One Hun- dred and Sixth Regiments to the Third Brigade, and the One Hundred and Fifty-Second New York and One Hundred and Eighty-Fourth Pennsylvania to the First Brigade, and the Fourth Brigade designated as the Second, thus taking from us our name and Brigade flag that we had fought under so long, in so many hard-fought battles, in which the flag was pierced by thirty-nine bullets, and giving both to a new Brigade that had seen but a month's active service, making them the Second Brigade of the Second Division of the Second Corps, that had such a brilliant record won by the three years' service and bitter fighting of the
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Philadelphia regiments. This was a severe blow to our officers and men, one that they keenly felt; and they did not hesitate at all times to give expression to their feelings whenever General . Gibbon was around, under whose order the change was made, which the men attributed to his antagonism to General Owen, whom he succeeded in removing from the command of this Bri- gade, and now robbed them of their good name and battle-scarred standard, which might have been left to them a few months longer, when their term of service would have expired.
Our Division lost heavily in this unfortunate engagement-over 1,700; 1,600 of them being prisoners of war; and our Regiment's loss was 92 in killed, wounded and prisoners, including Captains Tyler, Farr and Lieutenant Rose among those captured, leaving but one officer, Captain Britenbach, who commanded the Regi- ment, and twenty-eight men, many of the latter being non-com- batants. We also lost the four guns of McKnight's Battery.
This may be said to be the saddest day in the history of the Corps. Nearly three thousand of its best men, that had with- stood the many dangers and fatigues of this, the most severe campaign of the war, now prisoners in the hands of the enemy, through the blunder of some one failing to properly execute the orders of our brave and efficient commander Hancock, then lying on his couch suffering from wounds that prevented his presence and guiding hand. And then the loss of four guns, the first and only guns lost in action by that grand old fighting corps, the Second, that had so successfully followed the lead of Sumner, Couch, Sedgwick, Warren and Hancock. On whom the respon- sibility for this blunder rested, or who was made to suffer, the writer is unable to tell; sufficient to say that Hancock at once assumed command of the Corps, and such a breeze as was raised at his headquarters, when all the general officers were assembled there by his orders, the writer was seldom called upon to witness or hear, being principally directed against General Birney. On June 27th our Division was withdrawn from the front and sent back towards Prince George Court House, to protect the rear against the rebel cavalry scouting in our rear. On the 29th, the Division was recalled to the front, and placed in the works, re- lieving a portion of the Sixth Corps, who were sent to the relief
SERGEANT ISAAC N. HARVEY.
Feb. 2, 1862.
June 30, 1865.
Re-enlisted, Dec. 29, 1863. Veteran. Promoted to Corporal, Sept. 1, 1864. Promoted to Sergeant, March 26, 1865. Wounded at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. Mustered out with Company, June 30, 1865.
COMPANY K.
GILES R. HALLEM. Nov. 1, 1861. Nov. 1, 1864. Discharged, Nov. 1, 1864.
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of the cavalry, hotly engaged at the Weldon Railroad. On July 2d, we moved to the right, relieving a brigade of the First Divi- sion, and making room for the Sixth Corps to occupy their form- er position on our left.
On July 5th, General Gibbon gave a dinner at his headquarters to his brother officers, in honor of his promotion to Major-Gen- eral. Generals Meade, Hancock, Burnside and Birney, were present ; also a band of music ; and had a gay time.
On July 12th, the men were set to work leveling the works to the ground, preparatory to another movement to the left, which was made that afternoon ; and put into a new position at the cross roads, near the Williams House. On that day, the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment, whose term of service had expired, left for home. On the 13th, made another move near to the White House. Thus continually moving, skirmishing, and placed in such position as to keep the men under constant strain of excite- ment, submitted to continual danger, which rendered the men al- most unfit for duty, and they lost that enthusiasm necessary for successful campaigning.
Bryant, speaking of the condition of the armies, at this time, says :
After all its losses it (the Confederate) was nearly as strong as it was when it moved upon Grant in the Wilderness, foiled him at Spottsylvania, held him in check upon the North Anna, and defeated him upon the Chickahominy. The efficiency of the Federal army had in the meanwhile been greatly impaired. Its numbers had been kept up, but it had lost well-nigh half of its best officers and men. Not a few recruits brought in by enormous bounties, were poor material for soldiers. Even the tried veterans lacked much of their old determination. Now when, in the Weldon movement, the Second Corps, which had been recognized as the best in the army, fell back, losing more in missing than in killed and wounded, it became clear that there must be a pause for reorganization and recuperation. (Italics ours.)
General Gibbon, in his report of the services of his Division, from May 3d, to July 3Ist, states :
That when the Division left its camp on May 3d, it consisted of three Brigades with 6,799 officers and men; that it had been re- inforced by 4,263, making a total of 11,062, divided into four Bri-
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gades; that it lost 77 officers and 971 men killed, 202 officers and 3,825 men wounded ; a total of 5,075. The Brigades had seventeen different commanders, of whom three were killed and six wound- ed. Of the 279 officers killed and wounded, forty were regimental commanders; that many of the bravest and most efficient officers and men were among those who fell. The effect upon the troops of the loss of such leaders as Tyler, Webb, Carroll, Connor, Baxter, McKeen, Ramsey, Coons, Haskell, Porter, Murphy, McMahon, Curry, Macy, Pierce, Abbott, Davis Curtis, and a host of others, can be truly estimated only by one who has witnessed their conduct in the different battles.
And Humphreys says :
The names he mentions are those of General officers and regi- mental commanders, nearly all of whom I knew personally; they were soldiers in every meaning of the word, gallant, skilful, and full of zeal and energy.
The following extracts, from the private letters of an accom- plished officer of a Connecticut regiment, which were afterwards published in his biography, as he was subsequently killed in front of Richmond, and of whom his regimental commander wrote, that
He was one of the brightest ornaments of the Volunteer service. A soldier without fear and without reproach,
will give a good idea of our life in the trenches at Petersburg.
A sharp cry at dead of night, more than once gave indication that some one had been wounded while asleep in his tent; and casual- ties came to be so frequent that officers and men moved about with an ever-present consciousness that they might fall the next minute, and every nerve was kept on tension by this sense of personal peril, during the waking hours-hardly quieted even in sleep, when the patter of bullets gave shape to troubled dreams.
Pickets were relieved only after nightfall, and there were times when no man at the advance posts, or even at the main works, could show himself by daylight save at the imminent risk of his life, so vigilant and accurate were the rebel sharpshooters.
One evening the vedettes coming in when relieved, brought with them one of their number who had been mortally wounded at ten o'clock in the morning. He was still living, though his brain was oozing out of a bullet hole through the head. So sharp had been the fire, so positive the certainty of being hit with the slightest ex- posure, that it was impossible to move him. His companion would have done for him anything that man could do, but it was no use
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to make an attempt. Think of him spending the day in that rifle- pit with his dying friend, helpless, unable to lift his head without bringing certain death upon himself!
One of our men this morning, had his hair lifted by a bullet, fired, like many others, through one of the apertures of the para- pet ; another's face was grazed. As Colonel and I, were standing close to the parapet, a bullet struck it just in front of us, so near the top as to throw the dirt over us. As I was coming up the hill towards our bomb-proof, another passed before my face so close, that I involuntarily threw back my head, feeling the wind of it.
Speaking of the mortars he says:
Mortar shelling at night is a beautiful sight. The burning fuse of each projectile marks its course for the whole distance of its flight. It rises like a rocket, sometimes a mile above the earth, at the highest point of its enormous curve, and descending one would think at a distance, as gently as a snow flake; but it strikes the earth with a concussion which shakes the ground for many yards on every side, and explodes with a report like that of the mortar from which it came. One man who was killed, was sitting near the breastworks watching the shells. One came directly towards him; those who stood near scattered, and called to him to hurry away; but he gazed at it as if fascinated; a moment more, and the shell tore him to fragments.
The strain of excitement and of anxiety, the wear and tear of such work as ours began to tell upon me. Not that I am breaking down under it, or ready to abandon the task which must be ac- complished, but I am beginning to long for the end on personal as well as patriotic grounds.
General Humphreys thus describes the effect of that continual marching, fighting and exposure:
The incessant movements, day and night, for so long a period, the constant close contact with the enemy during all that time, the almost daily assaults upon entrenchments having entanglements in front, and defended by artillery and musketry in front and flank, exhausted officers and men. The larger part of the officers, who literally led their commands, were killed or wounded, and a large number of those that filled the ranks at the beginning of the campaign were absent.
This well describes the experiences and feelings of our Brigade not only at Petersburg, but equally as well at Cold Harbor, North Anna and Spottsylvania, and there was need of a rest and re- cuperation.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
HOME AGAIN.
A N order was issued that regiments having only about thirty days to serve, were to be relieved from the front, and sent to garrison the fortifications around Washington, for the balance of their time. In accordance with that order, our Regi- ment and the Seventy-Second, received orders on July 20th to proceed at once to Washington to report to General Halleck. Companies F, H and K, of the One Hundred and Sixth Penn- sylvania, were organized into a Battalion, to be known as the One Hundred and Sixth Battalion, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and all the re-enlisted men and the recruits that had recently join- ed the Regiment, and those whose time did not expire for a few months, were transferred to these three companies, and the Bat- talion assigned for field service, to the Sixty-Ninth Pennsylvania, then under the command of Colonel William Davis. And the re-enlisted men and recruits of the Seventy-Second Regiment, were transferred to the One Hundred and Eighty-Third Penn- sylvania, now commanded by Colonel James C. Lynch, who had been recently promoted from Captain of Company B, One Hun- dred and Sixth Pennsylvania, for gallant and efficient services, while serving on the staff of General Gibbon.
Early on the morning of July 21st, the two regiments bade farewell to their comrades, Petersburg, and the surroundings of active field service, and marched to City Point, where they were placed on transports, and in the afternoon started down the river, and after three days' journey down the James river, around Fort Monroe, and up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac river, arrived at Washington, D. C., on the 24th, and were assigned to General De Russey's Division and sent to Arlington Heights for guard and picket duty.
Here the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania remained until August 28th, receiving additions from hospitals of those con-
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valescent from wounds or sickness, when we left for home; marched over the Long Bridge to Washington, thence to the "Soldiers' Retreat", where we remained until 5 o'clock, receiving our dinner and supper ; boarded the train, and at 6 o'clock moved out on the track a short distance, and after dark started for Phil- adelphia; arrived at Baltimore about 10 o'clock, formed and marched to the Philadelphia Depot via Pratt and President Streets, and at half past II o'clock started north ; about 6 o'clock the next morning arrived at Wilmington, Del., and at 8 o'clock steamed into the depot at Philadelphia. We were marched to the Cooper- shop Refreshment Saloon, where we cleaned up and sat down to breakfast. This was the first full and decent meal that was ever served to us, during our whole three years' service, and we ap- preciated it and did it full justice. ' God bless the noble-hearted men and women who gave their time and their means, and labor- ed so hard, and treated our comrades so well. Their praise has been sung throughout our whole land. Go where you will and tell an old soldier that you are from Philadelphia, and he will shake you by the hand and say, "I remember that good city, and how they fed and treated us, as we passed through during the war, or attended us when in the hospitals. It was the only city that treated us like men".
In the afternoon, we were escorted through the streets of the city by the Seventy-Second Regiment, who returned home August IIth, and the "Henry Guards". We were then dismissed, with orders to hold ourselves in readiness to report for muster out and pay. After many delays, we were finally mustered out of the United States' service September 10th, 1864, and the One Hun- dred and Sixth Pennsylvania became one of the things of the past ; leaving behind it a record to be proud of, and unsurpassed.
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CHAPTER XXV.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH BATTALION.
T HE writer having been mustered out with the Regiment, and therefore leaving the front with it on July 20th, 1864, cannot from personal observation give an account of the services of the Battalion, from that time until the war closed and their final muster out on June 30, 1865. Some few of the facts herein presented were obtained from private letters from those who remained with the Battalion. As it is impossible to give all the movements of so small a body of troops, the writer will merely give a brief outline of the movements of the Division to which it was attached, for which he is mostly indebted to Gen- eral Humphreys' book, "The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865", as the Battalion accompanied it in all its movements and participated with it in all its engagements.
As has been stated the three Companies, F, H and K, were con- solidated into a Battalion, under the command of Captain Frank Wessels, but he being on staff duty, Lieutenant John Irwin was placed in command, and assigned for field service, to the Sixty- Ninth Pennsylvania, commanded by Colonel William Davis, and constituted part of the Third Brigade of the Second Division of the Second Corps, and participated in all the marches and actions of that Division until the close of the Rebellion.
Before daylight on July 27th, the Corps crossed the James river on the lower pontoon bridge at Deep Bottom, followed by the cavalry, for the purpose of making a direct attack on Rich- mond, if a sudden dash of the cavalry could demonstrate it was practicable. As soon as it was light, an assault was made on the enemy's advance lines at Bailey's Creek by Barlow's Division (First), and the works carried by a Brigade commanded by Col- onel James C. Lynch of the One Hundred and Eighty-Third Pennsylvania, formerly of the One Hundred and Sixth, capturing
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a four-gun battery of 20-pounder Parrott on the New Market road. The whole line was actively engaged during the day ; but the cavalry on the right were so overpowered by the large force of infantry thrown against them, that they were thrown back, so that no other advantage was gained, and that night Mott's Division recrossed, and the next night, July 29th, the remainder of the Corps and Cavalry recrossed, and was placed in position on the right of Burnside's Corps (near the position first occupied by the Second Division upon its first arrival in front of Peters- burg on the night of June 15th), as support to them upon the explosion of the mine, which was to take place at daylight the next morning. ·
The mine was built upon the proposition of Lieutenant-Colonel Pleasants, commanding the Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, a regi- ment composed chiefly of miners from Schuylkill County, Pa., Colonel Pleasants being a skillful and experienced mining engin- eer. It consisted of a "main gallery 511 feet long, and two lateral galleries, 37 and 38 feet. There were eight magazines, each of which was charged with one thousand pounds of powder". The work was commenced the latter part of June and finished ready for charging by July 23d.
About half-past four in the morning of July 30th, the mine was exploded and Burnside advanced one of his Divisions, under General Ledlie, but their failure to properly execute the orders given them, resulted in very little good, as by the time they made the assault, which was very poorly attempted, the enemy had re- covered from their surprise and alarm, and hurried reinforce- ments forward and repulsed all attempts to carry their lines. So apparent was the failure to execute the orders given them by General Meade, that a Court of Inquiry was held, and General Burnside, his two Division commanders, Generals Ledlie and Ferrero, and Colonel Z. R. Bliss, commanding Brigade, were severely censured, and General Wilcox, commanding the remain- ing Division, for lack of energy. On these accounts, instead of the mine proving a great benefit by which great results could be accomplished, it was a hopeless failure, incurring a loss of 4,500 men, of whom about 400 were killed, in addition to the expense and labor of constructing it.
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