USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 20
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DAVID McM. GREGG.
authorities fifty-one guns and caissons. At this place, nearly a month later, the enemy's cavalry, after having routed one of the brigades of the division moving on a parallel road, came in upon the other unawares, and by a sudden dash succeeded in capturing Major Phillips and a small squadron of his men. He was taken to Richmond and was confined for a period of over three months in a cell of Libby Prison. After his release he rejoined his regi- ment, having in the meantime been promoted to Lieutenant- Colonel, and participated in the battles at Staunton and Bridge- water, where Early's forces were captured. This substantially ended the war in the Valley, and the hard fighting of the reginient.
After leaving the army Colonel Phillips returned to his old home in Tennessee, and commenced the practice of his profession. He was elected Judge of the Seventh Judicial circuit of the State in 1868, in which capacity he served a period of three years. In the summer of 1873 he removed to the city of St. Louis, where he at present resides. He was married on the 20th of September, 1862, to Miss Hannorall A. Pickett, of Andover, Ohio. In person he is five feet ten inches in height, broad-shouldered, but of slender build, with more of the air of the scholar than the soldier. But the testimony of all who knew him while in the army unites in attributing to him the very highest qualities of an officer-considerate of his men, cool in the most trying posi- tions, and brave to a fault.
AVID MOM. GREGG, Colonel of the Eighth cavalry, and Brevet Major-General, was born on the 10th of April, 1833, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He was educated at West Point, graduating in 1855. He entered the service in the First dragoons, in which he served in the campaigns against the Indians in Washington and Oregon in 1858-'60. On the 14th of May, 1861, he was promoted to Captain in the Sixth United States cavalry, and in January, 1862, to Colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry. His thorough training and active experi- ence in Indian warfare had prepared him for the work of disciplining the regiment which fell under his charge. He went with Mcclellan to the Peninsula, and was constantly at the
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front, always ready to meet the foe, and frequently engaging him as the army neared Richmond. When the retreat to the James commenced he was left upon the Chickahominy to dispute the passage, and delay the advance of the rebels. During the Mary- land campaign he was kept upon the right flank of the army, and made a reconnoissance to Gettysburg. After the battle of Antietam, he crossed the Potomac, and at Philomont had a sharp engagement on the Ist of November, which lasted the whole day.
At the passes of the Blue Ridge the cavalry had frequent encounters, beating back the enemy and confining his way of retreat to the Shenandoah Valley. When General Bayard fell at Fredericksburg, Gregg was designated to succeed him in com- mand of the division. In the battle of Brandy Station the cavalry was more than matched by the rebel forces until Gregg advanced from Kelly's Ford, and, striking Stuart upon his left flank, saved the day, and turned what would have otherwise resulted in disaster into victory. In the Gettysburg campaign he again had the advance, and at Aldie and Middleburg executed fine strategy, charging by regiments, pushing Stuart from hill to hill-occupying with his batteries the positions which had been held by Stuart's artillery only a few moments before-and driving him behind his infantry reserves into Ashby's Gap, in a brilliant running fight. At Hanover, on the 30th of June, he again met and drove Stuart, preventing his joining Lee in the battle of Gettysburg, which opened on the following day. In that great battle it was given Gregg to guard the right flank, and with a master hand was the duty performed. The enemy made vigorous and persistent efforts to turn that flank and come in upon the Union rear ; but in every attempt he was foiled and routed. "If once during that day," says Pyne in his First New Jersey, " the frequent charges of the rebel cavalry had broken through the line formed by our men-if those five thousand troopers had swept around the rear of our position, and taken our infantry in reverse-the furious attack of Longstreet would have surged like a wave over the crest of Cemetery Hill, and the Army of the Potomac existed but as a memory. To the moral courage of that calm and unostentatious soldier, General Gregg,
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DAVID McM. GREGG.
and to the enthusiastic bravery of the men of his command, is due a share of the honor in that day's victory."
The fight at Bristoe Station, on the 14th of October, which , won for General Warren his name, was opened by General Gregg at Auburn, two or three miles distant, where he hotly contested Lee's advance for several hours, before the infantry of Warren had fired 'a gun. In Warren's front and upon his flank and rear, the horse of Gregg were engaged during the whole day, and until the enemy could only be distinguished by the flash of his guns. In his report of the battle Warren failed to mention Gregg, a mistake into which General Meade was led, but which he corrected in a supplemental order. Upon the opening of the spring campaign of 1864, Gregg led his division in the advance across the Rapidan, and pushed on towards Rich- mond, being engaged at Todd's Tavern, Meadow Bridge, and upon his return at Hawes' shop, where the enemy attacked with cavalry and mounted infantry ; but here, as in every other place where great difficulties surrounded him, he displayed rare cour- age and unyielding tenacity, beating back the foe in every assault. In the sanguinary battle at Cold Harbor, on the 1st of June, the left flank of the army was protected by the cavalry under Gregg, averting the blow which was aimed at its vital part. In the raid upon Lynchburg, which terminated at Trevilian Sta- tion, he was warmly engaged. Upon his return he was given the lead in the march from White House to the James, the cavalry being charged with the care of the wagon train of the whole army in its passage thither. At St. Mary's Church, on the 24th of June, the enemy was met in heavy force in the act of fortifying. Supposing that Sheridan's whole corps was before him, the foe was wary, intent on achieving a victory, and capturing the whole immense train. Gregg knew his inability to hold his own in a fair fight, where the odds were so great against him. He instantly sent couriers to Sheridan for aid. But they all fell into the enemy's hands, the despatches disclosing the weakness of Gregg's column. Emboldened by this knowl- edge, Hampton, who commanded the enemy, came out from his intrenchments and assumed the offensive. With a stubbornness rarely equalled Gregg contested the ground, falling back slowly,
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every moment in anticipation of receiving reinforcements; but none came, and during that whole fearful day he was left to combat with thrice his numbers. Finally, towards evening, he took a strong position which he held, having saved all his material and brought off his command unbroken. "His manage- ment of the fight at St. Mary's Church," says an officer who is no less a soldier than a critic, "was the perfection of art in his profession." For his gallantry here he was brevetted Major- General of volunteers.
After Sheridan went to the Shenandoah Valley, General Gregg was placed in chief command of all the cavalry in the Army of the Potomac. At Deep Bottom, the Darbytown road, Boydton Plank Road, and Ream's Station, Gregg wielded the cavalry arm with that skill and vigor which had won for him from the first the title of a consummate leader. In the latter engagement his troops held their ground and were reported to General Hancock as ready for an advance, when Miles and Gibbon, who had been subjected to the same attack, had been driven to the rear with the loss of a battery. On the 3d of February, 1865, he resigned, and since the war has been engaged in the delightful occupation of horticulture in Delaware. Major J. Edward Carpenter, himself a fearless soldier, who made the ever memorable charge at Chancellorsville with the gallant Keenan, says of General Gregg : "To him the regiment owed everything. His modesty kept him from the notoriety that many gained through the newspapers; but in the army the testimony of all officers who knew him was the same. Brave, prudent, dashing when occasion required dash, and firm as a rock, he was looked upon, both as a regimental commander and afterwards as Major- General, as a man in whose hands any troops were safe."
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CHAPTER XI.
AMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN, Major-General of volunteers, and Brevet Major-General in the regu- lar army, was born on the 30th of September, 1805, in Manheim, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Peter and Elizabeth (Grubb) Heint- zelman. Of a family of seven children, himself and a younger sister alone survive. His paternal grand- father Huronimus, a native of Augsburg, Germany, came to this country about the time of Braddock's campaign in the French and Indian war, and was the first white settler in Manheim. He was edu- cated in his native place and at Marietta, and the Military Academy at West Point, to which he was appointed upon the recommendation of James Buchanan, and graduated in 1826, seventeenth in a class of forty-two. He entered the service in the Third infantry as Brevet Second Lieu- tenant, and was on duty at various frontier posts in the west and northwest until 1832, when he was detached for special duty in surveying for the improvement of the navigation of the Tennessee River. At the end of two years he was ordered south, and was engaged against the Cherokee and Seminole Indians in Georgia and Florida, eventually being transferred to the Quartermaster's Department, displaying superior executive ability, and having, in the meantime, risen to the rank of Captain. In 1843 he was ordered to Buffalo, where, on the 5th of December, 1844, he was married to Miss Margaret Stuard, of Albany, New York. He went with the army to Mexico in 1847, and was engaged in the arduous duty of convoying the trains from Vera Cruz. In the actions of Paso las Ovijas, Atlixo, and Huamantla, he was con- spicuous, receiving the brevet rank of Major for gallant and meritorious conduct in the latter. After a brief period of duty
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at Fort Hamilton, New York harbor, he was ordered in command of troops to California, sailing thither by Cape Horn. On his arrival he was placed over the Southern District, with head- quarters at San Diego. He was here involved in arduous cam- paigning, and in 1850-'51 headed an expedition against the Coyote and Yuma Indians, subduing them and ending hostilities. At the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers he established Fort Yuma, a most important post, capable of being reached by steamer with supplies, and forming a secure base for future operations. Ile was commended by General Hitchcock in com- mand of the department, for his skill and daring in this cam- paign, and brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel.
On his return from California in 1854, he was ordered to recruiting service, and in 1857 was granted leave of absence, devoting himself to mining enterprises, being President of a com- pany formed in 1856, and in 1858-'59 director of the company's mines in Arizona. In 1859 he was again put upon active duty in Texas, where he distinguished himself by an expedition against Cortinas, a Mexican marauder, whom he severely pun- ished. He was also engaged near Fort Brown, and again near Ringgold Barracks. Premonitions of rebellion now became rife, and discovering that his superior, Twiggs, meditated treason, Heintzelman procured leave of absence and returned north.
. He was cordially welcomed by his old army friends, outside : of whom being then little known, though he had given twenty- five years of faithful service to his country. General Scott found in him a powerful ally, and at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln he, assisted in guarding the city against a threatened outbreak. A month later he was made general superintendent of recruiting : at New York. But as complications thickened, his executive talent and ability were demanded on a broader arena, and on the 1st of May, he was recalled and made Acting Inspector-General of the Department of Washington. He was shortly afterwards made Brigadier-General of volunteers, and Colonel of the Seven- teenth infantry. In the advance into Virginia he led the column, „commanding the centre of Mansfield's force, and by the action at Fairfax Court House on the 17th of July, inaugurated McDowell's campaign. In the battle of Bull Run, a few days thereafter, he
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SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN.
won for himself a national reputation. He was severely wounded in the right arm. He refused to leave the field or even to dis- mount; but Surgeon William S. King, of the regular army, riding to his side, cut out the bullet and dressed the mangled limb, when Heintzelman put spurs to his horse, and was soon in the midst of his heroic division, leading it to the last with un- abated courage, verifying the aptness of the sobriquet by which he was known at West Point and in the army, of "Grim Old Heintzelman." "When," says his biographer, "on that gloom- iest of rainy Mondays, he dismounted at his door at Washington, he had been twenty-seven hours on the back of his horse, wounded, worn, and wet." His arm was permanently crippled. On his return to duty at the beginning of August, he was given a division in the Grand Army under Mcclellan, and occupied the left of the defences at Washington, with head-quarters at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, where he remained till the opening of the Peninsula campaign.
Here Heintzelman had command of the Third corps, with Kearny, Hooker, and Porter as division officers. He was in advance at Yorktown, and was about to storm the works, when arrested, and siege operations were resorted to. With his corps he moved upon Williamsburg, where he promptly attacked, and after a bloody battle gained a complete victory, though leading raw troops against an enemy fortified. His commission of Major- General of volunteers dated from this battle. A division of the Fourth corps, Keyes', under General Casey, was assailed by superior numbers at Fair Oaks. Heintzelman, in command of the Third and Fourth corps, went to his assistance, and by hard fight- ing saved Casey from destruction. On the following day at Seven Pines he renewed the battle, and with the aid of other troops brought to his assistance was driving the foe, having arrived within four miles of Richmond, and aided by the consternation which prevailed was hopeful of carrying the rebel capital, when he was again arrested and ordered back. For this action he was made a Brevet Brigadier-General in the regular service. A month later came the Seven Days' battle, in which Heintzelman fought at Peach Orchard, Savage Station, and Charles City Cross Roads where he came to the assistance of the Pennsylvania Reserves
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at a critical moment in the battle, and where he received a severe .contusion. He also participated in the battle of Malvern Hill.
After leaving the Peninsula he hastened to the assistance of Pope, and was engaged at the Second Bull Run, and Chantilly. The Union cause knew no more gloomy period during the struggle than that immediately succeeding this campaign. Fears were entertained lest Washington itself would have to succumb. In looking about for some tried soldier to take command upon the exposed side, the choice fell upon "grim Heintzelman," and from the 9th of September, 1862, to February 2d, 1863, he was entrusted with the defences south of the Potomac. At the end of that time, so vigilantly had he executed the trust assigned him, that he was placed at the head of the Twenty-second corps and given the Department of Washington, which he retained until the 13th of October, 1863, having in addition charge of the vast throng of recruits and convalescents continually passing through. The battle of Gettysburg had been fought and won, and the Capital was regarded secure. But now a greater peril threatened. It came from disaffected persons throughout the Northwest who had organized a society known as the "Sons of Liberty," in the interest of the insurgent cause. To thwart their evil designs without an outbreak required nerve and discretion. Again was Heintzelman selected for the difficult duty, and given command of the Northern Department, consisting of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, with head-quarters at Columbus. His firm hand was soon felt, and anticipated trouble was averted. It was during his duty here that the militia of Ohio were called out for a brief period. In an incredibly short time 40,000 men were put in the field; and to accomplish it he lent his powerful aid. At the conclusion of his service here, in October, 1864, he was for some time on court-martial duty and awaiting orders. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on the 24th of August, 1865, but still held his commission in the regular army. Early in the year 1866 he was sent to Texas, where a lawless population could only be restrained by the exercise of power, and given first the middle district, and finally the entire State. He subsequently had command of the Port of Galveston, and of the Fifth military district, with head-quarters
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ISAAC J. WISTAR.
at New Orleans. In 1867 he sat in a Board to examine candi- dates for admission to the army, and one to retire disabled officers. In 1869 Congress passed a joint resolution retiring him from active service with the full rank of Major-General. Says the authority above quoted : "He never shirked a hardship himself, and never inflicted one, except when the exigencies of the service demanded it. Happy in his refined social and domestic relations, his moral influence was always pure, as his charity for the faults of others was broad. Impatient of inaction, hot and impetuous when the battle was on, yet never reckless nor careless of the lives of his men, he had at once the coolness, the determined bravery, the unselfishness, and the esprit which go to make the true soldier, and his career must be regarded as one of the most distinguished and successful in the army of the Union. Let his record speak. Eulogy is idle."
SAAC JONES WISTAR, Colonel of the Seventy-first regiment, and Brigadier-General, was born on the 14th of November, 1827, in the city of Philadelphia. His father, Caspar Wistar, M. D., born in Philadelphia in 1801, was a lineal descendant of Caspar Wistar, of Heidelberg, Hesse Cassel, who came to this country in 1696, and bought large tracts of land in Philadelphia county and throughout the province of Pennsylvania. His mother was Lydia Jones, a native of Philadelphia. He was educated at the Westtown boarding-school, Chester county, and at Haverford College. From early youth he was fond of manly sports, especially of hunting, shooting, and fishing, and at the age of sixteen went to the Pacific coast, where he remained until near the breaking out of the Rebellion. During part of this period he was a trapper in the territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the Arctic regions, and in the Rocky Mountains. In 1850-'51 he commanded a body of Indian rangers, and fought the hostile tribes during the period of the early settlement of the far western country.
Soon after the fall of Sumter, he was called to the staff of General Cadwalader in Philadelphia, and for two weeks was busily employed in organizing troops for the three months' cam- paign. Colonel Edward D. Baker, having received authority to
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raise a regiment, called about him a number of men of daring and enterprise, who had been with him on the Pacific, to assist in recruiting. Wistar was among these, and to him he gave the first place, that of Lieutenant-Colonel, and for the most part the duty of acting Colonel. Though called the California regiment, it was, with the exception of Company C, exclusively recruited in the city of Philadelphia and its immediate vicinity.
: At Fortress Monroe and at Munson's Hill, Virginia, the regiment was engaged in field service ; but at Ball's Bluff, on Monday, the 21st of October, it had its first baptism of blood. At midnight of the 20th, Colonel Wistar was ordered to have a battalion of his regiment, consisting of eight companies, at a point on the Maryland side of the Potomac, opposite the scene of the battle, by daylight of the following morning, Colonel Baker, who was then in command of the brigade, having been ordered across to assume command of all the troops on the Virginia shore, and to conduct the operations. There were parts of the Fifteenth and Twen- tieth Massachusetts, Forty-second New York, three pieces of artillery, and this battalion of the Seventy-first Pennsylvania, sixteen hundred and five men, engaged. At a little past two o'clock in the afternoon, Colonel Baker, who had drawn up his men in the open ground upon the bluff, found himself attacked by a superior force concealed from view by a forest extending from river bank above to river bank below. Colonel Wistar was posted on the left of the line, where the attacks of the enemy were the most determined, and where the heroic Baker himself finally fell. The first fighting on Colonel Wistar's front was precipitated by the advance of two companies under Captain Markoe, accompanied by Wistar in person, as skirmishers; for they had no sooner reached the wood and advanced a little in it than they were confronted by a whole regiment, the Eighth Virginia, which was lying concealed upon the ground, and the fighting at once became desperate along the whole front. With determined valor the skirmishers held their ground, and inflicted great slaughter; but they were too few to cope with such vast odds, and were finally forced to fall back, after having lost all their officers, and two-thirds of their whole force. For four long hours the battle raged with unabated fury, the enemy
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ISAAC J. WISTAR.
coming on in great numbers-since ascertained to have been full five thousand men. Early in the fight, rebel sharpshooters had climbed into the tree tops, and taking deliberate aim . were endeavoring to pick off the officers. By skilful manœuvres Colonel Wistar managed with his small force to hold the enemy at bay, repelling whole regiments as they advanced. In the pro- gress of the battle he received two wounds; but refused to leave the field, and continued to direct the fight, sweeping the enemy with terrible effect. Finally, just at dark, and as the enemy was making his final, decisive charge, he received a third wound which completely disabled him, and he was borne insensible from the field. In his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War Colonel Wistar said : "Just as I stepped out I got my third wound, which disabled, me entirely, and I was carried off. But the moment after I received the wound, and while I. was still sensible, I staggered against Colonel Baker. He asked me where I was hit, and I told him. I said, 'There is not an instant to lose; there is a heavy column deployed behind that hill; you must see if you can repel that attack, for it is serious.'"- Almost immediately after, it came on in full force. Colonel Baker was killed, and the Union line, weakened by severe losses, was forced down the bluff. Sharp fighting in the twilight continued, but the day was irretrievably lost.
For many weeks Colonel Wistar was in a precarious situation, his life having been despaired of. Upon his recovery he was promoted to the full rank of Colonel, and when Mcclellan advanced to the Peninsula, Wistar led his regiment in the opera- tions before Yorktown and Williamsburg. At Antietam he was brought into action at about ten o'clock on the morning of the 17th of September, on the right of the line, in the neighborhood of the Dunkard Church, where the harvest of death was most plentiful. While leading a charge upon heavy masses of the foe he was severely wounded and left helpless upon the field. For hours the battle raged with varying fortune, Colonel Wistar being at three different times in the enemy's hands; but he was finally rescued, as the Union forces advanced, and was carried off. The wound proved very severe, permanently crippling both arms. For his gallantry in this battle he was promoted to the rank of
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Brigadier-General. In the operations before Petersburg he led a brigade, and in the bloody battle at Drury's Bluff his brigade was the only part of Butler's line, consisting of the Tenth and Eighteenth corps, which held its ground against Beauregard's sorties, and when finally it retired, it did so under orders, and leisurely, with all its guns and colors. In all the operations of his corps, down to and including the capture of the capital of the Confederacy, General Wistar was at the post of duty. Few officers during the war showed more skill and determined bravery, and few suffered more by wounds. But they were wounds received with his face to the foe.
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