USA > Rhode Island > Battery F, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery in the Civil War, 1861-1865 > Part 11
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CHAPTER X.
FROM PETERSBURG TO CHAFFIN'S FARM .- MUSTER- OUT OF ORIGINAL MEN.
O N the return from Petersburg to the Bermuda Hundred lines, August 27th and 28th, the battery went into camp at Cobb's Hill. For two or three days orders were expected placing the guns in position on the front lines, and not until August 30th was the information received that the battery was in the reserve; and with this information came also the orders that in case of an alarm one gun was to be placed in battery eight and one in the lines immediately in front of the camp.
This position gave the much-needed opportunity for rest and recuperation. From the 17th of August to the 31st but one commissioned officer was on duty with the battery at a time. During that time the
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commissioned officers were accounted for as follows : Captain Belger, a prisoner of war; Senior First Lieutenant Simpson, sick in hospital from August 22d to 31st; Junior First Lieutenant Smith, absent sick or sick in camp all the time; Second Lieutenant Chase, sick in camp at the rear from August 17th to 22d ; thus leaving Lieutenant Simpson the only officer on duty from August 17th to 22d, and Lieu- tenant Chase from August 22d to 31st. The men were also worn out with the constant strain and watchfulness of the two months on the Petersburg lines, and the few weeks' comparative quiet at Cobb's Hill was acceptable and much appreciated.
The time from September Ist to 28th was occu- pied in drills and inspections ; the large number of "temporarily attached" men making it necessary to drill twice every pleasant day. These attached men had not previously received instruction sufficient to produce efficiency owing to lack of opportunity, be- cause of the fact that the battery had been most of the time since they were attached on the front line, and "foot drill," "drivers drill," "mounted drill " and "manual of the piece" was practiced regularly. The regular Sunday morning inspections were re-
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sumed, attention given to clothing and quarters of the men, and, in fact, the routine of camp taken up where it had been dropped on the 3d of May.
On the 27th of September the battery was in- spected for immediate service and everything in the vicinity indicated a movement. During the evening of the next day orders were received to march at two o'clock on the morning of the 29th with two days' rations. Crossing the James River to the north side, just below Dutch Gap, the command marched toward Richmond, and, of course, did not go far before reaching the enemy.
On the 25th of September Sheridan had driven Early down the Shenandoah Valley to Harrisonburg, under orders from General Grant to gather in crops, cattle and everything in the upper part of the valley, and destroy what he could not take away, so that the enemy would not be invited to come back there.
General Sheridan moved so far that the authori- ties in Washington became alarmed, fearing the enemy might send a force to menace that city, and General Grant informed the President that he had taken steps to prevent Lee sending reinforcements to Early. This movement to the north of the James
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River was one of the steps taken, and General Grant writes of it as follows (page 333, Vol. II., Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant) :
"On the 28th of September, to retain Lee in his position, I sent Ord with the Eighteenth Corps and Birney with the Tenth Corps, to make an advance on Richmond, to threaten it. Ord moved with the left wing up to Chaffin's Bluff; Birney with the Tenth Corps took a road further north, while Kautz with the cavalry took the Darby road, still further to the north. They got across the river by the next morning, and made an effort to surprise the enemy. In that, however, they were unsuccessful.
"The enemy's lines were very strong and very intricate. Stannard's division of the Eighteenth Corps with General Burnham's brigade leading, tried an assault against Fort Harrison and captured it with sixteen guns and a good many prisoners. Burn- ham was killed in the assault. Colonel Stevens who succeeded him was badly wounded, and his successor also fell in the same way. Some works to the right and left were also carried with the guns in them - six in number -and a few more prisoners. Birney's troops to the right captured the enemy's intrenched
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picket lines, but were unsuccessful in their efforts upon the main lines."
Battery F stood in the road in full view of Fort · Harrison, unable to take position because of thick woods on either side during the charge made by Stannard's division. After the capture of the fort the battery was moved to the front and right, took position at about eight o'clock in the morning at the intrenchments captured from the enemy, and until about noon was engaged in shelling the works of the enemy in its front. The loss in the battery during the day was six men wounded, viz .: Privates Perez A. Hopkins, James Wild, Charles Whitman, Michael Golden, Henry C. Wilkie and James R. Price tem- Three porarily attached, and six horses killed. wheels were disabled by shells from the enemy. Corp. Clovis Stone had a very narrow escape during this day. While sighting his gun a ball from the enemy passed through his cap, ripping the top open and passing out of the back without injuring his head. The battery remained on the field that night and also the next day, September 30th, when the enemy made desperate but unsuccessful attempts to retake the positions. During the fighting on the
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30th one man in the battery was wounded and two horses killed. The night of the 30th was also spent on the field under orders to be ready to move at day- light, but no movement was made until afternoon of October Ist, when Captain Angell's Battery K, Third New York Artillery, which occupied the captured fort, Harrison, was relieved and Battery F moved into the position.
The enemy were able, by the use of gunboats in the James River, to cause much annoyance to the troops in and around this fort, which had been named Battery Burnham in honor of General Burn- ham, who commanded the brigade leading in the assault which resulted in its capture on the 29th of September. Many shells were thrown over, some of large calibre, but no one in the battery was injured by them. On the 2d of October the battery was engaged with the enemy both morning and after- noon, and was also considerably troubled by sharp- shooters who were protected by the large trees, ren- dering it impossible to dislodge them by direct fire. This work of the sharpshooters continued and was very brisk on the 3d of October, causing the men to remain under cover of the work, as the least expos-
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ure would draw their fire ; an experience similar to that gained on the Petersburg line, therefore not new or novel.
Sergt. William J. Bastian.
During the evening of the 3d of October Battery A, First Pennsylvania Artillery, relieved Battery F, which returned to and bivouacked with the reserve, where it remained until the evening of the 5th when it again went to the front and occupied its old posi- tion, relieving the above-mentioned battery. It did
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not remain long in the position, as at night a portion of Captain Riggs's Battery H, Third New York Ar- tillery, came to the front under orders to occupy the work and Battery F returned to the reserve. On the morning of the 7th orders were received to cross the James River and go into camp at Jones's Land- ing, which were immediately complied with, arriving at about nine o'clock.
The battery remained at this camp until the 26th of October, when to get rid of the nuisance of dust from the road it moved a short distance to opposite Aiken's Landing on the James River, and on the same day the camp at Cobb's Hill, which the battery left when it crossed the James River and advanced to Chaffin's Bluff on the 29th of September, was abandoned and the property brought to this spot.
The date assigned as the expiration of service of the original men of the battery, October 28th, was near at hand, and on the 27th Lieutenant Simpson with his orderly, Private Charles T. King, started for headquarters of the Eighteenth Corps to arrange the preliminaries for the muster-out. They were not seen again in the battery until April, 1865. Lieu- tenant Simpson wrote an account of his prison expe-
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rience some years after, from which is taken the following relating to his capture on that morning.
"Arriving at the ground where the troops had been massed the day previous, I found they had started at daybreak, and, learning about the direction they had gone, I followed, hoping to overtake them by noon. Riding some five miles we came to a brigade of our cavalry drawn up in line at a cross- road, a squadron or two of which were evidently ready to charge down one of the roads. I halted here a few moments talking with some acquaintances in the First New York Mounted Rifles, and after making some inquiries as to the whereabouts of corps headquarters, without getting anything defi- nite, except that it was ahead, rode on. Some five hundred yards from these troops the road branched to the left, and as it seemed to have been traveled most recently in that direction, I concluded it was the one taken by the corps I was in pursuit of and turned down, having inquired of stragglers whom we overtook on the road as to how far the corps was ahead, etc., with rather poor success. Seeing two mounted men approaching, and supposing them to be orderlies from some headquarters, I thought at last
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we should learn something definite; and we did. When within a pace or two, and just about to speak to them, you can imagine I was somewhat astonished at receiving the order, 'Halt ! Surrender!' backed by a double-barreled shot gun and a Spencer rifle. The road at this point was quite narrow, fenced on each side, and although within easy gunshot of our cavalry, it was completely hidden from them by a narrow strip of woods and a bend in the road. To turn back was to be shot, unless a miracle should save us ; to go ahead I knew was to Richmond and a rebel prison. However, I had little time to weigh the chances, which I thought then, as I do now, were in favor of the latter.
"Ordering us to ride on in front at a canter, our captors followed at the same gait for perhaps a quar- ter of a mile, when one of them, riding alongside, requested me to show him my watch ; this I declined to do and he dropped back without a word. After riding a short distance further, we turned down a cart-path in the woods, and in a little while met two more of those scouts, as they called themselves. Here the individual anxious to possess my watch, again came alongside, ordered me to halt, and delib-
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erately cocking and presenting a pistol to my head, remarked, 'Now I'll take that watch.' Of course I was unable to resist such persuasion as this, so hand- ing him the watch I remarked that it was a valuable one, and asked him to take good care of it. He as- sured me that he would, and he has-such good care that I have not seen it since. These other two had several prisoners whom they had captured, among others the orderly of the medical director of our corps, who told me that the medical director had been captured on the very road on which I had been taken, while looking for a place to park his ambu- lances. Although I wished no harm to the 'doctor,' yet I felt a little better on finding that others had gone before on the same road as myself."
Lieutenant Simpson was lodged in Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., at about sundown the next day, where he remained until early on the morning of the 3d of November, 1864, when he, with others, was taken to Danville, Va. He remained in Danville Prison until Feb. 17, 1855, when he was returned to Libby Prison to be paroled. On the 22d of Feb- ruary, having previously signed a parole, he was taken on a flag of truce boat at Rocket's Landing,
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James River, to Bulwer's Landing, where he was allowed to disembark and march to Aiken's Landing, about two miles further down the river, where the Union flag of truce boats lay. On one of these boats he was taken to Annapolis, Md., and granted leave of absence, March 2d, for thirty days.
The capture of Lieutenant Simpson left Lieuten- ant Chase in command of the battery, and the duty of arranging for the muster-out of the men whose term of enlistment would so soon expire fell to his lot.
The fifty-three original members of the battery who had not re-enlisted were actually mustered out of service October 29th, although the muster-out roll gives the date as the 28th. The delay was caused by the capture of Lieutenant Simpson, which was not known in the battery until the night of the. 28th, consequently nothing was done on that day, waiting for him to return to attend to the duty.
The muster-out roll contains the names of three privates absent on detached service, viz. : Allen Austin, on extra duty, Ordnance Department, New Berne, N. C., since Sept. 25, 1862; Isaac N. Gage, at hospital Eighteenth Corps as nurse since Aug. 29,
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1864, and Matthew Sweet at Norfolk, Va, since Dec. 9, 1863, as clerk ; also one corporal and seven pri- vates absent sick, viz. : Corp. Joseph Church, in hos- pital since May 16, 1864, on account of wounds received in action ; Privates Nathan H. Baten, sick in hospital since May 4, 1864; Ephraim R. Eddy, sick in hospital since Jan. 16, 1864; Albert Grinnell, sick in hospital since June 20, 1864; Frederic D. Macomber, in hospital since May 12, 1864, on ac- count of wounds received in action ; Thomas Morris, sick in hospital since Sept. 13, 1864 ; Daniel L. Ran- . dall, sick in hospital since May 4, 1864, and Daniel G. Rogers, in hospital since May 16, 1864, on ac- count of wounds received in action.
There were, therefore, forty two men present who had given three years' service to their country, some at great personal sacrifice, who were paraded on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1864, and formally mus- tered out of the service of the United States, at Chaffin's Farm, Va., the muster-out roll being signed by "Daniel F. Wells, Lt. and Mustering Officer, 18th A. C."
For convenience of reference the names of the forty-two men are here given, viz. :
FIRST R. I. LIGHT ARTILLERY.
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First Sergt. SIMEON GALLUP, Sergt. ISAAC LILLY,
GARDNER N. WEST,
ALBERT R. WALKER,
HALEY, MARK
Corp. ISAAC GRAHAM,
HARRISON, JOSEPH R.
GILBERT W. ABBOTT,
EDWARD WILCOX,
JOHN O. WINSOR,
KEACH, CHARLES
FREDERICK WILCOX,
CLOVIS STONE,
JOHN WHITTAKER,
ALBERT C. LEACH,
MCCARTY, MICHAEL
MILLER, SETH B.
PARKER, GEORGE W.
PERRY, VALORUS N.
PIERCE, JAMES M. SAUNDERS, WILLIAM R.
ALMY, OTIS H.
BAKER, CHARLES H.
BOYD, WILLIAM A.
CUNNINGHAM, JAMES
WHITE, CHARLES E.
DANFORTH, OZIAS C., JR.,
DUFFY, HUGH
DUFFY, PETER
GRINNELL, BENJAMIN H.
HOLLOWAY, BENJAMIN A.
KAVANAGH, MICHAEL,
KING, JAMES M. LOVE, HENRY A.
MANCHESTER, GEORGE C.
Bugler THOMAS W. LOCKE,
WILLAM H. YOUNG,
Wagoner DARIUS W. SYKES.
Privates.
SHELDON, GEORGE H.
SMITH, JAMES H.
WALTON, HENRY
WILKIE, HENRY C.
These men remained in camp until the morning of the 30th of October, when they marched to Bermuda Hundred and took steamer for Fort Monroe. They remained at Fort. Monroe until the 3d of November, four days; waiting to receive their pay, when the
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paymaster settled with them and they were given transportation to Baltimore. The story of their re- turn home is brief and of little public interest. It is told by one of their number as follows :
"On leaving Bermuda Hundred for Fortress Mon- roe, where we were to be paid off, various subter- fuges were resorted to by the men to enable them to bring with them any small arms or accoutrements that they had acquired and wished to preserve ; as there had been a general order forbidding the bring- ing away of any military equipments. I should have prized highly a sabre that I carried a long time, but could not bring it even if I bought it. It was said that some of the men had arms captured on the bat- tlefield which they threw into the river when they found they could not take them home.
"At Fortress Monroe we waited four days to be paid off, remaining in quarters outside the fort. On the fourth day, November 3d, we received our pay and were given transportation to Baltimore, Md., per the " Bay Line of Steamers," leaving Fortress Mon- roe late in the afternoon and arriving at Baltimore the next morning. A well-remembered and disa- greeable experience in connection with that trip, to
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some of us who were somewhat elated with the thought of returning to civilization and the privileges of citizens, after the deprivations to which the com- mon soldier is subject in army life, was the fact that we were accorded no privileges as the other passen- gers were, but were kept aloof like so many cattle, and shunned as though we were condemned crim- inals."
The men kept together with some exceptions until reaching New York, and quite a party continued on to Providence, but at New York a number fell out, and what organization had been kept may be consid- ered to have ended on arrival there. Transportation was furnished from Baltimore to Rhode Island by rail.
CHAPTER XI.
FROM OCT. 30, 1864, TO MUSTER-OUT, JUNE, 1865.
T HE discharge of the original three years' men left the battery in an almost unserviceable con- dition ; but for the attached men it would have been quite so. The muster-roll Oct. 31, 1864, contains the names of twenty-seven re-enlisted men and forty- four members whose term of service would expire at various times during the spring and summer of 1865. It also shows as "temporarily attached" forty men from the Fifth Maryland Infantry and one from the Sixteenth New York Battery.
It became necessary by reason of the discharge of so many non-commissioned officers to reorganize the battery, and, on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1864, the following letter was sent to the headquar- ters of the regiment :
10 היה שם
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HEADQUARTERS BATTERY F, IST R. I. LT. AT'Y, IN THE FIELD, VA., Oct. 29, 1864.
Adjutant ist R. I. Lt. Arty.
Headquarters Sixth Army Corps.
SIR: I have the honor to inform you that I have this day made the following promotions and appointments in Battery F, Ist R. I. Lt. Artillery, subject to the approval of the regimental commander :
Sergt. Charles E. Guild to be first sergeant, vice Gallup discharged.
Corp. Patrick Martin to be sergeant, vice Lilly dis- charged.
Corp. William J. Bastian to be sergeant, vice West dis- charged.
Private James Wilson to be sergeant, vice Walker dis- charged.
Private Calvin C. Burr to be corporal, vice Graham dis- charged.
Private James Vincent to be corporal, vice Abbott dis- charged.
Private James P. Clark to be corporal, vice E. Wilcox dis- charged.
Private William M. Smith to be corporal, vice Whittaker discharged.
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BATTERY F.
Private Jesse B. Bicknell to be corporal, vice F. Wilcox discharged.
Private Henry E. Nye to be corporal, vice Stone dis- charged.
Private John B. F. Wilbur to be corporal, vice Leach discharged.
Private Albert S. Wood to be bugler, vice Locke dis- charged.
Private Chandler N. Handell to be wagoner, vice Sykes discharged.
I am, Sir, very respectfully, PHIL. S. CHASE, 2d Lieut. Ist Regt. R. I. Lt. Arty, Comdg. Battery F.
On the second day of November, 1864, Lieuts. Peter C. Smith and Philip S. Chase were mustered out of service, and the next day Second Lieut. Robert B. Smith, Sixteenth New York Battery, was tempo- rarily attached. Captain Belger and Lieutenant Simpson, the only remaining officers, were still pris- oners of war, therefore Lieutenant Smith was in command and the only officer on duty until the twen- tieth day of November, when First Sergt. Charles E. Guild was commissioned second lieutenant.
Capt. Thomas Simpson.
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BATTERY F,
The battery remained in camp on the south side of the James River, opposite Aiken's Landing, until November 8th, on which date, in the evening, it crossed the James River, marched to Chaffin's Farm and occupied batteries three and four on the line of works at that place. It continued on the line at Chaffin's Farm, occupying various positions, until April 3, 1865, but did not become engaged with the enemy, the entire winter of 1864-5 passing quietly without important operations.
In December, 1864, two guns with horses and all equipments complete were received, and, on the 24th . of December, twenty-seven additional men from the Fifth Maryland Infantry were temporarily attached, thus bringing the command once more to a full six- gun battery, although only about one-half of the men were from Rhode Island or credited to that State. The monthly return for December, 1864, shows pres- ent one commissioned officer and sixty-seven men as belonging to the battery, and one commissioned officer and sixty-four men as "temporarily attached."
Dec. 30, 1864, Capt. James Belger was discharged, having escaped from the Southern prisons, by virtue of the following order :
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1
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 30, 1864.
Special Orders, No. 474.
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10. Under the provisions of General Orders No. 108, .April 28, 1863, from this office, Captain James Belger, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, an escaped prisoner of war, is hereby mustered out and honorably discharged the service of the United States.
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By order of the Secretary of War,
E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.
The vacancy caused by the muster out of Captain Belger was not filled until April, 1865, when First Lieut. Thomas Simpson, having been exchanged, was promoted, his commission dating from April 12th.
Lieut. Robert B. Smith, Sixteenth New York Bat- tery, temporarily attached, and commanding battery since Nov. 3, 1864, was mustered out of service, on expiration of term, Jan. 26, 1865, and Second Lieut. Charles E. Guild assumed command, continuing
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BATTERY F,
until Captain Simpson's arrival on the thirteenth day of April, 1865. Second Lieut. Lorenzo Ercambrack, Battery K, Third New York Artillery, was temporarily attached Jan. 27, 1865, remaining until May 11, 1865,
Lieut. Gideon Spencer.
when he was discharged from the service of the United States on tender of his resignation.
The spring campaign which was to bring the war to a close was opened by General Sheridan on the twenty-ninth day of March, 1865. The greater part
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of the Army of the James, or the force in front of Richmond and at Bermuda Hundred, had been sent under General Ord to the left, leaving General Weit- zel in command north of the Appomattox, with in- structions to watch the enemy and take advantage of his weakening of the lines or promptly enter Rich- ·mond upon his withdrawal of the troops. The suc- cess attending the movements on the left of Peters- burg on the first and second days of April caused the enemy to evacuate Richmond, and at two o'clock on the morning of the 3d of April General Weitzel began to advance his lines towards that city which had for nearly four long years bid defiance to all attempts of the Union forces. The city of Richmond was taken possession of by General Weitzel's com- mand on that morning, without opposition. Battery F accompanied the troops entering the city and encamped in the suburbs where it remained until muster out.
Thereafter until the end of the service, the time was occupied in drills, parades, reviews, and other duties incident to camp life. In May, 1865, seventy- seven recruits arrived from recruiting depots. Much time was of necessity given to instructing these
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recruits in their duties. Although the war was over and all believed there would be no more fighting, the recruits were drilled with the same diligence and attention to detail as at the commencement of the troubles.
On the 5th of June the battery was on review with the batteries of the artillery brigade, Eighteenth Army Corps, the order for the same directing it to report at four o'clock P. M. " on the open space north of the race course out Twenty-fifth street." Again on the 10th of June, it was ordered "to the open space west side of the race course, near the brick , house, at the end of Twenty-fifth street, at four o'clock P. M.," the occasion being a review of the artillery brigade, Eighteenth Army Corps, by Major- General Ord. The brigade at that time comprised ten light batteries, viz. :
B, First United States Artillery, Capt. Samuel Elder.
H, Third New York Artillery, Capt. Enoch Jones. M, Third New York Artillery, Capt. John H. Howell. A, Fifth United States Artillery, Lieut. George W. Crabb. Seventh New York Independent Battery, Capt. P. C. Regan.
L, Fourth United States Artillery, Lieut. H. C. Has- brouck.
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