USA > Rhode Island > Memoirs of Rhode Island officers who were engaged in the service of their country during the great rebellion of the South. Illustrated with thirty-four portraits > Part 16
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JAMES Y. SMITH.
proclaimed to the people that he had filled this quota also. On December 19th, 1864, still another requisition was made, for three hundred thousand men, Rhode Island's share of which Governor Smith announced, on the 23d of January, 1865, as filled. On the next day, however, a communication was received from the War Department, showing the state to be still in debt to the government for men, although an excess, sufficient to have met any previous call for double the number of men, had been raised. Believing an injustice to have been done the state, he at once despatched his military secretary to Washington, and found that, owing to the large excess furnished by some of the states, the system of assigning quotas had been changed by the provost-marshal-general so as to make the demand upon Rhode Island as large as it would have been upon a call for one million four hundred thon- sand men. This change of plan was adopted the day after the issue of the proclamation of the Governor.
From this new and unjust demand Governor Smith did not for a moment shrink, although it caused great confusion and alarm throughout the state; but, becoming convinced that he could not rednee the number of men required, bent every energy to the work of filling the requisition, with- out resorting to a compulsory draft. He laid the matter promptly before the General Assembly, which was then in session, and invited the cooperation of that body. The Governor's efforts were successful. By constant personal attention and the aid of liberal bounties, the quota was filled by volunteers, leaving the state at the close of the war, which soon after took place, a record of patriotism that few could equal, and none excel.
ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS.
SAAC INGALLS STEVENS was born in North Andover, Massachusetts, on the 15th of March, 1818, and sprang from the family of that name which originally founded the town in 1639. His childhood and youth were remarkable for studious habits. He received an excellent elementary educa- tion, in both classical and mathematical studies, at the schools and academies of his native town, and in 1835, at the age of seventeen, he entered the military academy at West Point. Here he distinguished himself, and in 1839, he graduated at the head of his class. His course at the academy is remembered as remarkable for industry, scholarship and high personal char- acter. General Halleck was his classmate, and stood next but one to him at their graduation. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the corps of engineers in the United States army, and promoted to a first lieutenant July 1st, 1840.
From August, 1839, to September, 1841, Lieutenant Stevens was employed as an assistant at Fort Adams, Newport harbor. While here, he became acquainted with and married Margaret L., daughter of the late Benjamin Hazard, Esquire, of Newport. From September, 1841, to March, 1843, he had charge of the government works at New Bedford. In March, 1843, he was placed in charge of those at Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in October of that year, of the new work, Fort Knox, at the narrows of Penobscot river. Of these several works he continued in charge till December, 1846, when he was ordered to join General Scott's army at the Brazos, and with that army he served on the staff of General Scott, from the investment of Vera Cruz, to the capture of the City of Mexico. Ile
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was at the siege of Vera Cruz, and at the battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, Chepultepec, and the capture of the city of Mexico. At the San Cosmo gate, lie was severely wounded. For his gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, he was breveted captain, and for the battle of Chepultepec, which resulted in the taking of the city, he was breveted major. Having been disabled by his wound, he returned to the United States in January, 1848, and resumed charge of his old works in Maine and New Hampshire.
In September, 1849, Major Stevens accepted the position of assistant in charge of the office of the United States Coast Survey, in Washington city, and there continued on duty until March, 1853. Here he developed execu- tive and administrative talent of the highest order. He was a warm political and personal friend of President Pierce, and was by him, soon after his inaugu- ration, appointed governor of the new territory of Washington. As governor of that territory, he was ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs; and at the same time, having volunteered for the service, he was placed in charge of the exploration and survey of the northern route for a Pacific railroad.
In the organization of his party in Washington, preparatory to his departure for his field of service in the far west, he displayed great knowledge of every thing necessary for the undertaking, sound judgment and discrimi- nation in the selection of men and means, and is said to have devoted himself personally to the work with an energy and perseverance rarely equalled.
Governor Stevens found his hands well occupied with these several responsibilities. His survey was the most comprehensive, and embraced the largest area of any of the Pacific railroad surveys. The field was almost entirely new. IIe was, however, first in the field of any of the parties, and his report the first submitted to congress. He determined the entire feasi- bility of the route for a railroad, and, by his surveys, established the practi- cability of navigating the upper Missouri and Columbia rivers by steamers.
As Indian superintendent his labors were very successful. From Decem- ber, 1854, to July, 1855, he negotiated treaties of cession of lands with some twenty-two out of the twenty-five thousand Indians of the territory, and extinguished the Indian title to more than one hundred thousand square miles of territory. His Indian policy was one of great beneficence to the Indians. He guarded most carefully their rights, provided for their civiliza- tion, and guaranteed to them homesteads on their assuming the habits and adopting the usages of civilized life. ITis treaties were confirmed and his poliey adopted by the government, and with the most benign results.
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Governor Stevens also, in October of the same year, (1855,) negotiated a treaty of amity and friendship with the Blackfeet Indians, on the upper Missouri, and also as between them and the hunting Indians of Washington and Oregon. This was the largest council which had assembled for many years. Some eight thousand Indians were actually present. They repre- sented, in themselves and those absent, twenty thousand souls. It was a complete success. There was present no military escort. For weeks, tribes which for centuries had been enemies met together in peace. No discord marred the harmony of the council. A peace was made which has continued unbroken to this day ; and, in November, the Governor set out on his return from his peaceful and beneficent mission, full of hope for the future of the aborigines committed to his care.
On the second day, however, of his return trip, a messenger, weary with his rapid journey, staggered into his camp, with news that the Indians of his territory had broken out into hostilities, and that the path home was through numerous bands of hostile Indians. The Governor determined at once to push on the straight road for home; to conciliate such tribes as had not committed acts of war; and, though his party numbered but twenty-five men, to force his way through the rest. By great vigilance and care, with the help of friendly Indians, and at times by forced marches, he succeeded in dropping upon the first two tribes before they were aware of his approach and had time to organize resistance, and, by conciliation and kindness, he strengthened their former friendship. His way now became clear, and, in January, amid the rejoicings of the people, he reached Olympia, the capital of the territory. .
To the suppression of this war, the governor now devoted his energies. He raised troops for six months. He recognized no offers except those for the general service. He exacted obedience and subordination on the part of both officers and men. Ile prohibited all cruelty to the Indians taken in arms. With a firm and vigorous hand he protected the Indians not in arms, from the fears and suspicions of the white race; collected them in reservations, and supplied them with food and clothing. Nearly all the inhabitants of the territory were living in block-houses, and general fear and alarm prevailed. The fact that during a period of twelve months of alarm and exasperation, only some six cases of unauthorized killing of Indians by white men occurred, is the best evidence of the vigor and success of Governor Stevens's action. After two campaigns against the Indians, one waged west and the other cast
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of the Cascade mountains, and both eminently successful, the war was brought to a close, and the Indians were reduced to subjection. During this war, Governor Stevens proclaimed martial-law in two of the counties of the territory, and it is not a little remarkable that in his printed vindication, he places his justification on the very grounds, and in much the same language of the justification of martial-law during the late rebellion.
Governor Stevens's term of office expired in March, 1857, but he served till August, when he resigned, having been elected delegate to congress from Washington territory. As delegate, he served two terins, which he devoted diligently to attending to the varied interests of his territory, and to such general subjects as had attracted his attention. No man on the floor of congress, brought with him more varied and valuable information upon all topics relating to our vast interests in our territories and possessions on the whole Pacific coast. No man used it more effectually. He was not himself a debater. He was emphatically a worker, and was capable of more hours of continued, effective mental labor, than any man we ever knew.
On the railroad question, he was the advocate of three roads to the Pacific, one being the route he had himself surveyed.
General Stevens's politics were Democratic. He was a member of the last famous national convention which met at Charleston, and by adjourn- ment to Baltimore. He represented the Breckenridge interest in that body, and was considered one of its most efficient members. During the presiden- tial contest that followed, he was chairman of the Breckenridge executive committee at Washington, but, according to the Philadelphia Press, (Mr. Forney,) he did not falter in his patriotism. The Press says:
" He urged upon the President the prompt dismissal of Floyd and Thompson from the cabinet, and pressed him to trust to the counsels of Gen- eral Scott. Ile was, during the winter, in daily consultation with the officers of the army in relation to the defences of Washington, and exercised a con- trolling influence over them. For these acts he deserved the gratitude of the country, no less than those other noble Democrats, Holt and Stanton. He was, fortunately, stimulated in his loyalty by his admirable wife and her sister, daughters of one of the most eminent lawyers of Rhode Island."
When Congress adjourned, Governor Stevens proceeded to Washington territory. On the fall of Fort Sumter, he offered a carte-blanche to the gov- ernment, came in person as soon as possible, accepted the colonelcy of the seventy-ninth Highlanders, New York volunteers, and steadily devoted himself
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to the duties of the field. The corps afterwards demonstrated the value of his discipline, and the soldiers of the regiment testified their appreciation of his services and love of his person, by presenting him with a magnificent sword and accoutrements.
In September, 1861, in command of a force of eighteen hundred men, he made the reconnoissance of Lewinsville, where he handled his troops with acknowledged skill, and rapidly and easily withdrew them from the attack of a superior force. September 29th, he was made a brigadier-general. In October, he was ordered on the expedition against the coasts of Carolina, Georgia and Florida. On the 1st day of January, 1862, he attacked, and, with the aid of the gun-boats, carried the enemy's batteries on the Coosaw, and, in command at Beaufort, he held possession of the site, until ordered to the Stono, in June. Placed then in command of a division, he landed on James Island, forming the right wing of the army under General Benham; and, whilst his force was landing, drove in the advance of the enemy, cap- tured a battery of five guns, and established his permanent picket line.
On the 16th of that month, he attacked, with his entire division, the enemy's intrenched position at Secessionville, but, though his advance gained the very parapet of the work, the fire was so terrible and the slaughter of his troops so great, that he was obliged to withdraw them. General Benham went into this operation against General Stevens's advice and remonstrance. The troops of General Stevens behaved on this occasion with extraordinary heroism, and never retired from the unequal contest till ordered to do so by the general.
In July, General Stevens with his division was ordered to Virginia, and reported to General Burnside, at Newport News, who was then forming the ninth corps, of which General Stevens's command was styled the first division. The following month he was ordered to Fredericksburg, and thence marched up the Rappahannock, and joined Pope's army at Culpepper Court House. From this time, General Stevens participated in the scenes of that disastrous campaign. At the second battle of Bull Run, he was almost incessantly engaged for two days; his troops suffered terribly, and his own horse was shot dead beneath him. Among the last to leave the field, he was placed in charge of the rear, the day after the battle, with a force of two divisions of infantry, a brigade of cavalry, and several batteries of artillery. On the following day, September 1st, 1862, General Stevens, in conjunction with the second division, ninth corps, was sent to arrest the advance of a force of the
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enemy, threatening the road to Washington by which the army was retiring. This force, consisting of Stonewall Jackson's troops, was advancing with great resolution and rapidity, and was already within sight of the road when met by General Stevens. Forming his division into a column of brigades with the greatest rapidity, he charged the enemy with the bayonet, knowing full well that the safety of the army depended upon their repulse. The enemy, meanwhile, had taken position behind a fence in the edge of a wood, and opened a deadly volley upon our advancing troops. General Stevens, seeing the head of the column waver and hold back, rushed forward, seized the colors of the seventy-ninth Highlanders from the hands of the wounded color-bearer, and calling on his troops to follow him, led them in a resistless charge, which swept back the enemy like chaff, and gained the position,-a position dearly bought, for, in the very moment of success, he fell, pierced through the brain by a rebel bullet. Owing to their numerical superiority, the rebels were enabled to renew the contest, but the second division and Kearney's division, which came up soon after, finally and effectually repulsed them.
In recognition of his services, General Stevens was made a major-general, to date from July, 1862.
His remains were brought off the field and buried in Newport, Rhode Island, where a plain granite obelisk perpetuates his memory in the following inscription :
IN MEMORY OF MAJOR-GENERAL ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS, Born in Andover, Massachusetts, March 25th, 1818 :
Who gave to the Service of his Country a quick and far-reaching mind, a warm and generous heart, a firm will and a strong arm ;
And who fell, while rallying his command, with the Flag of the Republic in his dying grasp, at the battle of Chantilly, Virginia, Septemper 1st, 1862.
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRING GRATITUDE BY THE CITY OF NEWPORT.
PETER HUNT.
LIEUTENANT PETER HUNT, son of Daniel I. and Nancy W. Hunt, was born in Seekonk, Massachusetts, May 15th, 1843. Ile inherited his grandfather's name, Peter Hunt, of honored memory. Before completing his fifth year, the rod of affliction removed from the family of five children a most kind and tender father. The following year, Peter's mother removed to Warren, Rhode Island, in order that her children might enjoy educational privileges. Three years later, the family were settled in Providence, that, as the young sons became ready for business, they might obtain suitable employment.
At the early age of sixteen, having made creditable improvement in the grammar and high schools, Peter reluctantly left his studies to accept an offered situation. Before his second year in business had expired, the notes of war rang through the country, and the first Rhode Island regiment was prepared for the field. His youthful mind was at once kindled with the idea of fighting for the stars and stripes, but his mother counselled him to wait until there was a greater scarcity of volunteers, and a more urgent call for the boys of seventeen to go forth to battle. Her advice prevailed, but he continued firm in his determination to give himself to his country's service whenever the need should appear more pressing. After the disastrous battle of Bull Run, in which one of his dearest associates laid down his life, he replied to the question, "Do you feel quite as much like going as before ?" with but one word, "More."
Being assured that if needed he should not be withheld, he at once devoted himself to preparatory exercises, and soon joined battery C, first
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Rhode Island light artillery, in the position of sergeant-major. The battery left their camp in Rhode Island, August 31st, 1861. Every comfort that the affection of home could devise was provided for him, and, like thousands of others, he went forth followed by the blessings and prayers of loving hearts. Then came his first letters home, filled with joyous anticipations of the future, impatient to be at the front, to prove the military discipline to which his battery had attained.
In October, Sergeant Hunt left Camp Sprague, crossing the Potomac with his battery, and encamped near Fort Corcoran. With a fresh enthusi- asm for the cause in which he was engaged, he wrote home of his delight at being at last in the enemy's country. Fond of adventure, he frequently made excursions into the neighborhood, which were scarcely characterized by the caution of more mature years, and his captain had frequently to warn him against the danger which he incurred.
The tedious winter of 1861 was passed, by battery C, at Miner's Hill, with but little of interest to relieve the monotony of camp life. Sergeant Hunt wrote home: "Sometimes I think I am tired of being a soldier, it is so dull. Nothing but drill, drill, drill, all the time. I would like to be out west, for there is more action going on there than anywhere in the army." He was learning, however, one of the most important lessons of a soldier's experience, that of patience. The first fight in which battery C took part occurred on the 5th of April, 1862, in front of the defences of Yorktown. Sergeant Hunt was at this time just recovering from a threatened attack of fever. He had not fully regained his strength, but sufficiently to fulfill all his duties.
The guns of his battery were the first to open on the enemy's works, and were engaged nearly the whole day, firing very handsomely and eliciting high praise from General Porter. For the next few days great preparations were made for the anticipated siege of Yorktown. All available troops were concentrated in front of the defences, and a terrible artillery battle was expected. The rebels, however, evacuated the city and the Union forces obtained easy possession. At the battle of Hanover Court House, May 27th, 1862, battery C was present, but did not participate. It was here that Ser- geant Hunt saw, for the first time, the carnage of a battle-field. He went over the ground the day after the engagement, and thus writes of its appear- ance:
« * * Such scenes I never expected to see. The secesh lay all night just where they fell. They were in all sorts of positions. Some sitting up,
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some just getting up, some on their knees, etc. They were mostly in the edge of a piece of woods, and the big trees were well peppered with big bullets, while the tops of the shrubs were all shot off, and the fence-stakes full of bullets. The dead lay motionless, as thousands of Union soldiers walked around them and viewed the kind of men they were fighting with. Some were old men, and some quite young. I noticed one young man, about seventeen years old, who fell between two trees with his head upon a stump. He looked just as natural as life. His eyes were open, his lips closed, his legs straight, and his hand placed over his fatally-wounded breast. His shirt was white and fine, and his appearance better than that of his dead comrades. He was placed in a deep hole with twenty-four more, and covered up, with nothing to mark the spot. Blood lay in the road in puddles. *
* The enemy fought behind a fence about four feet high, and behind it the scene was terrible to look upon. The men fell in rows, some on their faces, but most sideways, with awful expressions of countenance."
On the 27th of June following, the battery fought with great bravery at Gaines's Mills. In this action, the infantry being overwhelmed with superior forces, fell back on the batteries, which were stationed about seventy-five yards from the edge of the woods. The rebels pressing closely upon the heels of our men, they were ordered to lie down, when the batteries opened a deafening storm of grape upon the enemy, who were slaughtered in great numbers. Sergeant Hunt's gun was stationed at the right of the line, and when the command was given to withdraw the battery, he did not hear the order, and consequently kept on firing after the rest had withdrawn. The rebels then made a charge upon his gun, but, "limbering up" in double-quick time, he succeeded in getting the piece off the field, only to have it captured soon after, the saddle-horses of the foe proving themselves more than a match in speed for the team-horses of the gun. Sergeant Hunt narrowly escaped capture on his faithful steed.
In the battle of Malvern Hill, which followed but a few days after, the subject of our sketch fought with distinguished bravery and coolness. As the action began, it was his good fortune to witness one of the grandest scenes of the war. For more than a mile, he could distinctly see the long dark line of the Union forces stretching far into the distance, composed of infantry and artillery, and dotted at occasional intervals by the bright and triumphantly waving flags of the Union. But the scene, for a few moments so peaceful, soon assumed a solemn reality, as the engagement opened with the roar of
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the murderous cannon and the crack of the deadly rifle. Sergeant Hunt had some narrow escapes. His horse was killed by a forty-two pound shell, which exploded within twenty feet of him, bursting so near as to send the powder into his face and neck, tearing off the whole of one leg and part of the head of his faithful animal. A fragment of the shell cut the sole of the sergeant's boot. Later in the day, four men were shot dead at his side while working the gun, and still he remained untouched. He had the pleasure of putting into the gun with his own hands a double-shotted canister, which told among the enemy with terrible effect, and which, he wrote, compensated him some- what for the loss of his gun at Gaines's Mills. The following is an extract of a letter written by an officer in battery C, and published in the Providence Journal at the time: "Sergeant Hunt behaved with distinguished bravery after his horse had been shot dead under him, serving his gun as a private, and supplying the place of three men who were killed or wounded."
In the severe battle of the second Bull Run, Sergeant Hunt was knocked from his horse by the concussion from a cannon ball, but he soon recovered from the blow, the only evil effect being a lame shoulder for a few days.
On the 1st of October, 1862, came a promotion to a second-lieutenantcy, and with it a transfer to battery A. With this battery Lieutenant Hunt was thenceforth associated, and through victory and defeat he followed its fortunes. In November, he was promoted again, and assumed the duties and dignities of a first-lieutenant.
The first battle in which Lieutenant Hunt participated after joining battery A, was that of Fredericksburg, December 13th, 1862, in which his section fired two hundred and eighty-five rounds, with the loss of but one man. In the battle at Chancellorsville, May 1st, 1863, battery A was ordered to open on a large mass of men, to feel their strength. Lieutenant Hunt was directed to fire the first gun. In a letter, describing his part in the action, he wrote that he felt fearful about firing, for three generals were waiting for the effect of the shot, and had he made a poor estimate it would have been very conspicuous. With beating heart, he calculated the distance at twenty- five hundred yards, with six degrees' elevation, and let fly a percussion shell. After a lapse of several seconds, the shell exploded in the midst of the rebel column. It was a splendid shot, and quite a feather in the hat of the young lieutenant.
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