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 22
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On the 16th of May, Colonel Rodman heard of his confirmation as brigadier, and he promptly nominated Lieutenant Curtis as his adjutant. The lieutenant was commissioned assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, on the 9th of June, 1862, and reported by letter to General Rodman, then in Rhode Island. The captain, meanwhile, served upon General Parke's staff, at the general's request. General Burnside's army remained in North Carolina and southern, Virginia, until the misfortunes of July, 1862, upon the Peninsula, and General Mcclellan's retreat to Harrison's Landing. Burnside was then ordered to Fredericksburg, in Virginia.
But, meanwhile, serious changes had occurred in the fourth Rhode Island. The promotion of Colonel Rodman left the colonelcy vacant. Gov- ernor Sprague appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Steere, of the second Rhode Island. The appointment displeased many of the officers, and fifteen of them sent their resignations to General Burnside for approval. He returned them. They were again sent, and again returned. For the third time they were offered, and the general asked the governor to come to head-quarters, which were then at Newport News, and compose the difficulty. The gover- 30
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nor arrived, and consulted with General Burnside. The next morning, every officer who wished it, received his discharge ; and, at dress parade in the even- ing, the division and regimental orders announcing the new officers were read. Colonel Steere was confirmed, and Captain Curtis, at the request of General Burnside, was announced as lieutenant-colonel.
In conversation with his friends, the resigning officers of the fourth, Captain Curtis spoke very plainly and frankly, although with the utmost regard for men whom he so highly respected. "If you feel wronged," he said, "it is still your soldierly duty to submit to your superior officers; and why, to revenge your own griefs, should you wrong the country by unofficer- ing the regiment, and making it more inefficient than a new one, by leaving in it heart-burnings and jealousies ?" When he spoke, he hoped that his friends would reconsider their determination. But they were resolved, and persisted. . The regiment was reofficered. On the 12th of August, the lieutenant-colonel could truly write, what he supposed none but maternal eyes would ever read : "In. eleven months, by simply keeping my own counsels, doing my duty, and minding my business, I have risen from second- lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel; and that in a regiment which has been ranked, in a list of the best, as sixth in the whole volunteer army of the United States. Moreover, I was nominated by the general commanding my army corps. I am satisfied."
So was the regiment. Whatever they thought of the circumstances which had preceded his appointment, the man was dear to them. "In justice to Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis, our late adjutant," wrote one who had sympa- thized with the resigning officers, "I must say that no more popular man, or one better fitted to fill the vacancy, could have been selected. Every man in the regiment respects and loves him." "Mr. Curtis is beloved and respected by the regiment," wrote another. The truth was that they had proved him, and he them. As adjutant, he had been always a strict officer, but neither vain nor despotic. "I am popular," he wrote. "I made myself so when adjutant. How, I don't know, for I never yielded an inch to the men, but always listened to what they had to say. I suppose that is it."
At midnight of the 31st of August, 1862, the fourth Rhode Island, still part of General Parke's division, left Fredericksburg, acting as infantry rear- guard to the division, which had been ordered to the neighborhood of Wash- ington; "where," writes the lieutenant-colonel, "they must need troops badly, if this small force is to make any difference." But, in truth, every man was
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wanted. Virginia was full of disaster. General Pope's army was rapidly falling back from the Rappahannock. The rebel Stonewall Jackson, by a stern and masterly march through the Shenandoah valley, fell upon Pope's wearied flank, and the blow of the previous year was repeated at Bull Run.
On the 2d of September, General MeClellan was placed in command of the fortifications of Washington. But the rebel General Lee skillfully avoid- ing a battle, pushed a heavy column across the Potomac into Maryland, and General Mcclellan moved westward to confront him. The fourth Rhode Island had arrived at their camp on Meridian Hill, near Washington, on the evening of the 5th of September. They were at once under marching orders, and moved out and bivouacked upon the Rockville road on the 7th. It was just a year and three months since Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis had marched with the ninth New York volunteers, along the same road upon his first service. On the 10th, the march was resumed. On the 14th, General Burnside won the sharp action at South Mountain; and, on the 17th, the battle of Antietam was fought.
The fourth Rhode Island was in the left wing, under Burnside, throughout the tremendous day, and, as the bridge over Antietam Creek, which he held, was the key of the position, the fourth was in the mid-fury of the battle. " In the final part of the engagement," writes Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis, on the 2d of September, "we were moved over a ploughed field which was swept by a tremendous fire of shell, grape, canister, shrapnell, and bits of railroad iron; then into a corn-field which descended into a gully, and rose again on the other side, at the top of which were the rebels. We were ordered into the gully to support a perfectly green regiment which twice before, in the earlier part of the day, had crowded through our regiment and stampeded. No sooner were we in the gully, and before the colonel and I could form a good line, (a difficult matter in a high corn-field,) than the green regiment, giving way before the tremendous fire of the rebel infantry, crowded back upon our right. We moved our line to the left and formed. The rebels showed our flag, and as we had seen one of our brigades charge as we descended the corn-field, we thought our own men were firing upon us. Our men were ordered to squat in the gully, until we could discover who were firing upon us. I called for a lieutenant to volunteer to go up the hill and see who they were. Lieutenant Curtis [not related to the lieutenant-colonel] and Watts stepped forward and placed themselves, sword and pistol in hand, on either side of the color-bearer, Corporal Tanner. These three carried the flag
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to the hill top and waved it. They were within five feet of the rebels, who fired and killed Corporal Tanner, [Thomas B. Tanner, a heroic youth, from Newport, Rhode Island.] Lieutenant Curtis [George E.] seized the colors and brought them back, and Lieutenant Watts came back the next moment. Then we up and fired. I asked the colonel to let us charge. He said he would if the green regiment would support us. I ran to them, and asked if they would help us charge up the hill. At the very idea they crowded back, and some almost ran over me. I struck at them with my sabre, cursed them, and called them cowards. I told the colonel they would not help us. But our men cried out to charge the rebels. The order to fix bayonets was given. Just then, a whole brigade of rebels burst out upon our left flank, one regiment firing over the other as they descended, while the front fire steadily continued. The green regiment broke in wild confusion, running again through our men. Our colonel told me that we must march in retreat, and gave the order. I ran down the line and repeated it. As we moved through the corn, the men broke. I begged them to keep in the ranks. I tried to keep them back with my sword. It was no use. I waited till the last com- pany passed me, trying to rally them; then I walked back after them up toward the lines, amid such a storm of bullets, shell and grape, as I never conceived of. The men fell all around me, and I stepped over them as they dropped at my fect.
" When I got out of the corn-field, I saw some troops advancing to our support. I faced about, and cried out: 'I go back no further! Whatever is left of the fourth Rhode Island forms here.' Three or four men joined me. I picked up a musket, and, falling in on the left of the fifty-first Pennsylvania, began firing. I had fired but once, when Captain Buffum (senior captain) joined me. The fifty-first lay down behind the crest of the hill and fired. But I felt so awfully to think the fourth was broken, although I do not wonder at it, that I wished they would hit me, and loaded and fired twenty times, standing up in full view. Captain Buffum stood up with me. When our ammunition was gone, I marched our little squad through the same storm of grape we had advanced through, and forded the Antietam Creek, which we had crossed, under fire, in the morning, looking for the regiment. I found what was left of it, and was hailed as one risen from the dead. I reported to Colonel Harland, acting brigadier, who assigned me camping-ground for the regiment.
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" I then mounted my horse, (I had been dismounted all day,) rode two miles baek to the wagons, and ordered up rations for the men. Hearing, on my return, that three of my men were lying wounded not far off, I went to them, and succeeded in having their wounds dressed by applying to the surgeon of another regiment, who was attending his own men ; (our surgeons were at different hospitals by this time, not knowing that these men had been brought here.) I helped dress the wounds, and those of one or two others. All the food our men had on the day of battle, was what they obtained from some abandoned eamps. All I had was a slice of raw pork, two crackers and a cup of coffee. On this meal we fought, and were under fire almost all the time from six, A. M., when the enemy shelled us out from behind a hill, until half-past five, P. M., when we were broken in the eorn-field. General Rodman is, I fear, mortally wounded .* Our colonel, Steere,t is severely wounded-a ball in the thigh; and Lieutenant Ivest has an ugly grape-wound. We lost a third of our regiment in the eorn-field. Some of our wounded lay thirty- six hours, and the rebels would not give them water, calling them damned Yankees, and firing at those who went into the corn after them. I ean arm their slaves now."
The newspaper correspondents generously praised the conspicuous valor of Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis and Captain Buffum. The lieutenant-colonel wrote : "All the papers you sent, make a row about a very natural thing done by Captain Buffum and "myself. If Miss - thinks every man who fires at the rebels a splendid one, she will have to adore a multitude." On the 19th of October, he writes: "I am happy to say that Captain Buffum has been appointed major of the regiment." Again, on the 9th of November : " The chief trouble in this regiment is the capability of the officers. Major Buffum has been taken from it to act as provost-marshal of this division."
After the battle of Antietam, the army lay encamped along the Potomac for thirty miles, until the end of October. On the 7th of November, General McClellan was relieved of the command, and was succeeded by General Burnside, a soldier whose ability detraction ean not permanently obscure,
* This brave and beloved officer died on the 29th of September, 1862.
+ Colonel Steere, after long suffering, happily roeovered.
# Robert Hale Ives, Jr., volunteer aide of General Rodman, a youth of singular promise, and of the loveliest and most endearing qualities, was wounded at the same time with his chief, and died two days beforo him, on the 27th of September, 1862. The day of his burial was just a month from that of his departure from home.
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and a man whose purity of patriotism and noble simplicity of character will always be an affectionate tradition.
The fourth Rhode Island, which, since the colonel's wound at Antietam, was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis, lay at Gaskins Mills, Virginia, in a snow storm, when the change was announced. Their hearts responded to the words of the commanding general: "To the ninth army corps, so long and intimately associated with me, I need say nothing. Our histories are identical." The army moved, and the fourth Rhode Island arrived before Fredericksburg on the 19th of November. It had marched for five days, from the eamp near Waterloo, through a chill, wintry storm. The new camp was pitched in the rain, upon the banks of the Rappahannock. "Every thing soaked through," writes the lieutenant-colonel, "the men hungry, no dry wood to kindle fires with, and the mud up to your ankle." The regiment was in the right grand division, under command of General E. V. Sumner. " The reduction of eamp equipage is very great. Three wagons are all that are allowed to a small regiment, like the fourth. 'Tis the only way to render our army efficient. Our long trains have always ruined us heretofore, by destroying the mobility of the army. I hope to winter in Richmond after a few fights." The camp was presently moved to higher, drier ground, nearer woods, and warm. On the 6th of December, he writes: "Why the army remains so quiet I do not know. We are, however, constantly prepared with rations and ammunition to move any time, day or night." It was dreary weather, but nothing could queneh the ardor of the young soldier. He speaks of a friend, who, from the time of his entering the army, had been on garrison duty : " I have often thought of -. I am glad I have always been on active service, and have seen some good old fights, with the prospect of more."
One more only, those brave brown eyes were to see. With the dawn of Thursday, the 11th of December, 1862, the battle of Fredericksburg began, by a tremendous bombardment of the town from General Burnside's batteries. At half-past ten in the morning, Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis, awaiting orders to move, but always tenderly thoughtful of the hearts that must ache with suspense at the first rumor of a battle, wrote to his mother for the last time: " The battle of Fredericksburg has been raging for five hours. We were ordered under arms in our camp at half-past seven, and we are now waiting orders, arms stacked in company streets, and men with equipments and blankets, and haversacks on. We do not take our tents; officers' servants
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are left, and every officer and man carries his blankets and three days' rations; mounted officers with their horse forage on their horses. What the result so far is, I do not know. Of course I can not leave my command, and none of the regiment are allowed out of camp, so listening to the music of artillery is the only occupation. Now it is perfectly silent; the next moment the roar is tremendous. General Sumner's grand division is first to eross here. Franklin erosses below, I believe. The pontoon bridges are more than half- way over. The enemy in the town, fire at the bridge builders, and we shell the town. 'Tis a fine, warm winter day, clear as a bell. The snow-birds twitter in the bushes near my tent, and the shells burst and howl about a mile from here, at the front, near our old camp ground of last summer. The contrast is strange. Go round as much as possible, and comfort your- self with your friends as much as you can. * The wise, who, you say, think Fredericksburg is not the road to Richmond, had better be here. They would change their minds. Remember me to all friends. I will finish this in Fredericksburg, or after the fight."
Saturday, the 13th of December, 1862, dawned obscurely, through a heavy fog. It was a still morning, soft with the lingering haze of the Indian sum- mer. General Franklin, with the left wing of the army, was at the extreme outskirts of the town, down the river. His part in the battle was to turn the rebel right flank. General Sumner, with the right wing, was in and beyond the town, and his duty was to attack the rebel works in front. These works were a triple line, upon terraced, wooded heights, and between the town and the foot of the hill, stretched a plain a third of a mile wide, upon which, for ten hours, the fierce fight raged. The battle began in the fog. From the first shot, it was plain that it would be a desperate struggle, for the army was upon the south bank of the river, with but four pontoon bridges behind it. The crossing had not been very seriously disputed, except by the rifle- men. The rebels were formidably intrenched, but the soldier who dares nothing, wins little. The cannon thundered, the bugles rang. To an inflexi- ble purpose, to hearty cooperation, to tried and devoted heroism, victory seemed as practicable as at Roanoke.
The fourth Rhode Island lay in the city near the river, partly sheltered by a bank, over which the shell and bullets shrieked and sang. All day long it waited. The assaulting columns of Sumner charged up the fiery slope, recoiled and charged again, to recoil once more, withered by the deadly rebel blasts. Far at the left, Meade pierced the rebel flank, and, could lie
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have been amply supported, would have inflicted a mortal wound upon the rebellion. And still the fourth Rhode Island waited, ready to move. Across the river, if the soldiers turned to look, they saw the long low lines of the landscape shaded softly away in the dim gray haze. Virginia hid her desola- tion in the kindly mist, and lay before the eyes eager for battle, like a vision of peace. But still, while the soldiers waited and gazed, the ground shook and the air throbbed with the awful shock of the contest. The roar neither advanced, nor receded, nor died away, and they knew that the event was undecided. Toward sunset, the order came to advance. The long struggle was ending. The winter day was closing, and the exhausted army had fought in vain.
Whoever knew the young lieutenant-colonel, whose soul was fire and whose heart was dew, knows that he had waited at the head of his regiment all that terrible day, ardent yet serene, his sensitive face flushed with emotion, his pulse as calmly beating as if he idly lay in an autumn reverie in the peaceful fields beyond the river. As the order comes, his clear voice rings steadily out : "Forward !" Through ruined streets, over stones and timber, over ditches and fences and wild confusion, toward the thunder and fire of the front, he leads the way, followed by soldiers who loved him. Forming his line in the outskirts of the town, he sees a regiment near him supporting a battery. It is the New York ninth, with which, an unrecognized volunteer, he had seen his first service in the Shenandoah valley, seventeen months before. "What regiment is this ?" he earnestly asks. He is sitting quietly upon his horse at the head of his own regiment, and, as he speaks, a bullet strikes him in the left cheek just below the eye, and pierces the brain. Pain- lessly, as if sleeping, he sinks gently from the saddle into the arms of his comrades, while the soft, sweet smile of his earliest childhood steals over his face.
He was brought to the home in New York, in which all his love had centered, and there a solemn and tender burial service was performed. But Rhode Island, whose son he was, wished to honor his memory, and his body lay in state at the state house, in Providence. The General Assembly passed resolutions of grateful respect, and a thousand touching private tributes showed how truly he was beloved. On the 20th of December, 1862, a wild, wintry day, his body was taken by his family from the honorable custody of the state, and laid, with prayers and tears, and happy remembrance of a spotless, earnest, and completed life, by the side of his father and grand parents, in the North Burial Ground, in Providence.
Pr- limits
NOTE TO SKETCH OF COLONEL AMES .- Since the sketch of Colonel Ames has been printed, he has received from the President an appointment as brevet brigadier-general of United States volunteers, for gallant and meritorious ser- vices during the war.
WILLIAM AMES.
ILLIAM AMES, second son of the Honorable Samuel Ames, late chief justice of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, May 15th, 1842. After the usual preliminary studies, he entered Brown University, as a freshman, September, 1858, and pursued the collegiate course during nearly three years. At the outbreak of the rebellion, he received (June 6th, 1861,) a commission as a second-lieutenant in the second Rhode Island volun- teers. This was an infantry regiment, and the first which was enlisted in Rhode Island for the whole war.
Lieutenant Ames was in active and efficient service during the short campaign of Bull Run, in which the gallant conduct of the second Rhode Island reflected honor upon the state. On the 25th of October, 1861, he received a first-lieutenancy in the same regiment. During the ensuing spring and summer, he shared its fortunes throughout Mcclellan's disastrous attempt upon Richmond. It was conspicuously engaged in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg and Malvern Hill; was the rear guard during the retreat, and was engaged during many days in encounters with the enemy, until the safety of the United States army was secured. On the 24th of July, 1862, Lieutenant Ames was promoted to a captaincy, in recognition of efficient and gallant conduct. Captain Ames continued in active service with the second Rhode Island, until the 28th of January, 1863, when he was again promoted to the majority of the third Rhode Island heavy artillery, then on duty in South Carolina. With the third Rhode Island he was actively engaged in the siege of Fort Sumter. During five months, he was commandant of Fort Pulaski, on the Savannah river. On the 22d of March, 1864, he succeeded
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Lieutenant-Colonel Charles R. Brayton, as lientenant-colonel of the third Rhode Island; and, with his regiment, bore the chief part in the bombardment of Charleston, Fort Sumter and Morris Island, and in the subsequent occupa- tion of the city. In consequence of this vigilant and efficient service, he was appointed chief of artillery of the department of the south, on the 27th of September, 1864.
On the 10th of October, he became colonel of his regiment. In this capacity he served under Major-General Quincy A. Gillmore and General John G. Foster, and was engaged in many detached skirmishes and expedi- tions. He commanded the artillery brigade at the battles of Honey Hill and of Deveaux Neck, South Carolina, in the spring of 1865, and in many less important encounters ; and remained in active duty, in the same depart- ment, until the close of the war. The third Rhode Island was mustered out of service, September 14th, 1865, when Colonel Ames received from the War Department the highest testimonial of its appreciation of his uninterrupted and efficient services during the entire period of our national calamity.
MARTIN P. BUFFUM.
ŻARTIN PAGE BUFFUM, son of Horace Buffum, and grandson of the venerable Captain Martin Page, was born in Providence on the 10th of November, 1830.
IIe enlisted as a private, in April, 1861, in the first regiment of Rhode Island volunteers, and took part with it in the first battle at Bull Run. On the 7th of September, 1861, he was commissioned as first-lieutenant in the fourth regiment Rhode Island volunteers, which regiment embarked from Providence for the seat of war, near Washington, on the 2d of October. Shortly after its arrival, Colonel McCarty was superseded, and the command of the regiment given to Colonel Rodman. On the 11th of October, Lieu- tenant Buffum was promoted to a captaincy. In January following, the fourth was selected as one of the regiments for the North Carolina campaign. under General Burnside, and embarked at Annapolis for its field of opera- tions. It took a prominent part in the successful battle of Roanoke Island, February 7th and 8th, 1862, and had the honor of planting the Union flag on Fort Bartow, which first announced to the fleet our victory. In the more important battle on the 14th of March, which resulted in the taking of New- bern, the fourth was still more conspicuous, for, by its bayonet charge, led by the gallant Rodman, the fate of the day was decided. On the 25th of April, Fort Macon was invested, and surrendered after an engagement of ten hours. Captain Buffum's company was one of the two ordered to take formal posses- sion of the town of Beaufort, and, subsequently, was appointed provost-mar- shal. In April, Colonel Rodman was promoted to a brigadier-general, when the command of the regiment was assumed by Lieutenant-Colonel Tew. The
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regiment left North Carolina with the ninth army corps, under General Burn- side, to cooperate with General Mcclellan, on the Peninsula. On reaching Newport News, July 8th, the command was taken by Colonel William H. P. Steere, who had been transferred and promoted from the second Rhode Island volunteers. Thence it proceeded to Fredericksburg, and, after the second action at Bull Run, marched to Maryland, and took a prominent part in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. The latter day closed with a loss of ninety-eight killed and wounded in the fourth; Colonel Steere being among the latter.
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