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 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
After the arrival of General Mitchell to assume the command of the department of the south, an attempt was made to destroy a bridge on the Charleston and Savannah railroad across Coosawhatchie river, and thus inter-
309
HORATIO ROGERS, JR.
rupt communication between those two cities. Accordingly a foree under Generals Braman and A. H. Terry was embarked to proceed up Broad river in the night, and surprise the rebel guard at dawn of day, October 24th. Major Rogers with four companies formed a part of the force, Colonel Brown of the same regiment acting as chief of artillery. The affair failed of success, and, after a hard fight at Pocotaligo Bridge, our forees withdrew. Major Rogers with his battalion did not arrive until dusk, when the battle was con- eluded, as the gun-boat Marblehead on which he was embarked grounded on a sand bar and stuck fast all day. In bringing off the wounded and as com- mander of the pieket through the night, he did good service. Then followed the gloomy autumn of 1862, when the yellow fever raged at Hilton Head, sweeping off many gallant officers and men, among whom were Major-General Mitchell, Colonel N. W. Brown, of the third Rhode Island, and Quarter-Master Walter B. Manton.
While in the department of the south, Major Rogers served on courts- martial about half the time, frequently as judge advocate. On the 7th of July, 1863, he received a commission as colonel of the eleventh Rhode Island volunteers, a nine months' regiment, dated December 27th, 1862. He had scarcely joined this regiment a few weeks later at Alexandria, when he was made colonel of the second Rhode Island volunteers. He immediately joined his new command then lying at Falmouth, Virginia, succeeding Colonel Viall.
In his official report, Colonel Rogers thus describes the participation of his regiment in the series of engagements that made up in part the great battle of Chancellorsville :
"Tuesday, April 28th, the regiment broke camp, and, about three, P. M., marched with the brigade nearly to the bank of the Rappahannock, bivonack- ing for the night in a ravine concealed from the view of the enemy. Wednes- day morning, soon after daylight, the regiment, accompanying the brigade, wound down the road nearest the river, a little above and opposite the ruins of the Bernard House. We lay here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and a part of Saturday. Saturday morning we were detailed on pieket duty below the lower pontoon bridge,-the sixty-second New York and the eighty-second Pennsylvania being also under my command. Just before dusk of that day, (the rebel pieket across the river having been withdrawn in the most hasty and precipitate manner,) by order of General Wheaton, then commanding division, our piekets were withdrawn, the regiments joining their brigades; this regiment erossing the bridge about half-past nine o'clock, P. M., May 2d.
310
RHODE ISLAND OFFICERS.
Resting on the banks of the river till near midnight, we marched to Freder- icksburg, halting for some time on the outskirts of the town. Remaining in the streets of the town till about eleven, A. M., Sunday, May 3d, General Newton sent for me and ordered me to report to General Gibbon on the extreme right, where the regiment was assigned the duty of supporting battery B, first Rhode Island light artillery, which was playing on the heights above the town. Battery G, same regiment, soon came into battery on the right of battery B, and we supported that also.
* " The heights having been carried, we were ordered to join in the pur- suit, and we supported a regiment of General Gibbon's division in carrying a height on the extreme right. When the rebels fled from that hill, we were ordered by Captain Smith, of General Newton's staff, to join our brigade, which we reached about one, P. M. In this affair, which is known as the second battle of Fredericksburg, we had two men slightly wounded, but as it did not take them off duty, they have not been reported. Halting on the right of the plank road leading to Chancellorsville, the rest of the brigade being on the left, we rested here till about three, P. M., when we advanced three or four miles up the road, frequently halting, and being shelled much of the way. Resting on the right of the road, some fifteen minutes after the fight had become general, we were ordered to form line of battle on both sides of the road, facing toward the enemy. Before this order could be exe- cuted, General Newton rode down the road, and inquired what regiment we were. Answering him, he said -'Colonel, form here, and go to the right of that house, close to the woods,'-pointing to the one used as a hospital, and by which we lay Monday night, on the extreme right. "We are being badly driven ; hurry up, and help them.' Advancing across the wide, open field, at an angle so as to clear the house, we came up just behind it in good order, on the right of the tenth Massachusetts. At this point, a regiment broke through us, utterly panic-stricken, throwing our line into slight disorder; the three left companies swinging up to the left of the house, and opening fire towards the left; so that the left rested on the right of the house, and the right obliquely down the hill. As my right could not see the rebels, owing to the low ground, and seeing some of our uniforms on the hill, to the right of the house and in front of it, I pushed the regiment over a brook and up on to the next hill; forming on the left of a part of the fifteenth New Jersey, the regiment on their left having broken and run. Opening fire here, I sent back for the three left companies, and also to caution all to fire to the left,
311
HORATIO ROGERS, JR.
and not to the right. At our advance the enemy retreated obliquely down the hill, having been flanked by us, as the portion of the fifteenth New Jersey were too few to hold them in check. Just after we had opened fire briskly, American colors were spied on the other side of the field in front of us; the rebels having been sandwiched between them and us, and at the edge of the woods. An officer came running across the open field, the enemy having retreated to our left, and said that those colors belonged to a New Jersey regiment, the regiment supporting it having retreated and left them in the woods; begging us to advance across the fields, or they would be cut off. We advanced firmly, taking the part of the regiment on our right, the men not firing until after we had entered the woods, where we found a New Jersey regiment (the number I cannot recall) hotly pursued, and just getting out of ammunition. Forming directly behind them, we let them fall through our ranks, opening fire as they passed. As the rebels retired from our right, we formed towards the left, the fire from that direction being very severe, and I sent the lieutenant-colonel back for our three left companies and for support. The rebels were behind a wicker fence, and their fire was galling in the extreme. Maintaining this position for some time, losing heavily, till I thought support must have arrived, I ordered the regiment back to the edge of the woods; forming there, the men cheering as they cleared the wood. Here we found our three left companies and the tenth Massachusetts.
" When well out of the woods, Colonel Eustis, commanding brigade, Colonel Brown having been wounded, ordered us to fall back to the other side of the field, where were the seventh Massachusetts and the one hundred and thirty-ninth New York,-the fifteenth New Jersey being still on our right. Halting here a few moments, we were all ordered across the brook on to the next hill by the house where we rested for the night, and the next day in the front line of battle, ammunition being served to us there. Monday, at dusk, we started on our retreat to Banks's ford which we reached in good order, the enemy shelling us the last part of the way. We recrossed the Rappahannock there about two, A. M., Tuesday, May 5th. We performed picket duty at the ford and guarded the pontoon train till Friday, May 8th, when we marched to our old camp, or rather to the neighborhood of it, the army having preceded us. In eleven days' campaigning the regiment did four and a half days' picket duty and fought two battles. The battle of Sunday afternoon, May 3d, is known as that of Salem Heights.
"The list of casualties I transmit herewith. The regiment did splendidly. Nothing could have surpassed the determination with which they advanced
312
RHODE ISLAND OFFICERS.
to the extreme front when a regiment was flying panic-stricken through their ranks, the gallantry with which they drove the rebels back, the pertinacity with which they held their ground until support could come up, and the excellent order and spirits with which they retired when ordered back. The regiment as much, or more than any other, contributed towards checking the enemy when our forces were being driven on the right. It saved the New Jersey regiment in the woods from annihilation and probable capture.
" Where all did so well, both officers and men, it is impossible to particu- larize ; but I cannot fail to acknowledge the gallantry of Lieutenant-Colonel S. B. M. Read and Major H. C. Jenckes, who rendered efficient service. The regiment, what there is of it, is now in fine health and spirits."
Of about four hundred men taken into that action, seven were killed, sixty-eight wounded, and eight missing who have never since been heard from. Captain William G. Turner and Lieutenant Bates were wounded, the latter mortally. For eleven days Colonel Rogers did not take off his clothes, not even his boots. A correspondent of the Providence Journal from the second, thus speaks of its colonel, and the part the regiment took in the action of May 3d : " Many of the regiments, unable to withstand the heavy fire, broke, and fled in confusion to the rear. Then came our turn to advance. Every eye was on our colonel, for he had never been under fire with us, and we knew him only by reputation. 'Forward second Rhode Island!' was the word, and away we went in line of battle to the brow of the hill, to stop the advance of the enemy who were everywhere driving our brave boys. Gaining the erest of the hill, we gave them a volley and received their fire in return. ' Forward!' again shouts our gallant colonel, and we charged down the hill with loud cheers for our starry banner and the anchor which we bear on our state flag, and which we have sworn never to desert or dishonor. The rebels, unable to withstand our fierce assault, turned and fled to the cover of the woods. We were soon in the woods and hotly engaged with them. When we wavered, Colonel Rogers seized our flag and waving it over his head called for three cheers, which were given with a will. Three times he carried the colors to the front, and, aided by the officers, rallied the regiment to renew the battle. After the firing ceased, we retired to the hill and waited for the rebels to appear, but they declined to renew the combat. This was the first general engagement in which we have fired as a regiment, since the first battle of Bull Run, although present and under fire at all the battles fought by the army of the Potomac."
313
HORATIO ROGERS, JR.
In a letter to Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, under date of June 6th, Major-General Newton, commanding the third division of the sixth corps, in which was the second Rhode Island, states that the tenth and seventh Massachusetts and second Rhode Island regiments actually saved the right wing of our army from destruction at the battle of Salem Heights; adding, that " the behavior of the three regiments could not be surpassed in any quality by that of veterans." The General Assembly of Rhode Island passed a resolution of thanks to Colonel Rogers and the officers and men of the second regiment, for the gallantry and bravery which they displayed at this battle.
The second remained encamped near Falmouth about a month. June 5th, it again packed up and crossed the Rappahannock at the same place as before. This was only intended as a feint, to prevent Lee from detaching troops, as it began to be rumored that he intended to make another grand northern raid. Although our force was often shelled, the second fortunately met with no loss.
This movement signally failed, for, at that very time, Lee's legions were forming up towards the fertile farms and thrifty villages of Maryland and Pennsylvania, to burn and destroy. Under cover of a heavy thunder storm, on the night of June 13th, the sixth corps, being the rear guard of our army, withdrew across the river and followed on in search of Lee.
The following extract from a private letter of Colonel Rogers, gives a view of the events which followed, including the great battle of Gettysburg :
" Since the second Fredericksburg and Salem Heights campaign, which ended about May 9th, we have lain in eamp but a month, for, on June 6th, we crossed the Rappahannock, and took part in a demonstration below Fred- ericksburg. Recrossing, a week later, we began to march northward, and it has been march, march, march, ever since; stopping a day here and there, and two or three days at Fairfax Court House, till now we have tramped nearly if not quite three hundred miles in all. Abont nine o'clock of the evening of July 1st, as we lay in bivouac near Manchester, we were hurriedly got into line, and away we went, marching all night and all the next day up to four o'clock in the afternoon, till we arrived near Gettysburg, a distance of about thirty miles. As we approached, the thunder of artillery and the rattling of musketry seemed nearer and nearer, and then came the stream of wounded and stragglers, some signs of a battle going on somewhere close by. The whole corps was bivouacked for two or three hours to rest after our long
40
314
RHODE ISLAND OFFICERS.
tramp, and we were put into position on the field of battle on the extreme left, where we lay on our arms all night, being drawn up in three lines, our brigade forming a part of the middle one.
" During the night many wounded, in blue uniforms and in gray, were brought in promiscuously, and the groans of the wounded and the firing of the pickets struck sadly on the ear. The next day, the day of the great battle, was a busy one for us; as, at early dawn we were up and moving, and wherever the fighting was thickest, there the second brigade was sure to be sent to reënforce when hard pressed; but, though we had to traverse that bloody, fatal field, through shot and shell, time and time again-first to the centre, then back again, then retrace our steps, then to the right, and so on- we were not called on to fire a shot. In Lee's grand attack, it rained shell, and the field fairly justified the cheap prints of battle-fields, where bursting shell fill the air, men are running to and fro, dead and wounded are literally piled up, riderless horses dashing off in every direction, and wounded animals are tearing along at full speed. It was fearful. But after the storm came a lull, and rebel prisoners came streaming in by thousands, and rebel flags were borne along in triumph.
" The sight amply repaid the danger. No one who was on that field will ever forget it. The killed and wounded were piled up. In some places it was difficult to keep from stepping on them. There were hundreds and thousands of dead horses and dead men-blue uniforms and gray intermixed. There were batteries apparently with all the horses and men shot down, and the horses lay in their harnesses attached to limbers or caissons, and the cannon- iers were stretched out stiff and cold, still grasping a lanyard or a rammer. Death seemed to be holding a carnival As for wounded, their names were legion. They were strewn everywhere. The barns and houses were filled with them, and the field was covered. There were men maimed and man- gled in every possible manner, lying in every conceivable position, convulsed in every cortortion of agony. The day after the battle, my regiment was on picket on the further edge of the battle-field, and as it rained and the sun shone by turns, the stench was insufferable. Although the enemy's sharp- shooters were banging at us all day, I could not but think of every one of those mangled and lifeless forms being the centre round whom the affections of a wife, children, mother or sisters clustered-a reflection which no sane man allows himself to indulge in when going into battle, unless he means to disgrace himself by cowardice. The enemy retreated that night, and we
315
HORATIO ROGERS, JR.
followed them next day, finding thousands of their wounded in houses, barns and tents as we went along. We skirmished with them continually, and at Williamsport we fancied they would fight, but they got across the river, and we have come to this place to cross, the pontoons having been laid last night. We expect to be on the 'sacred soil' to-morrow. We lost one man killed and five wounded at Gettysburg."
The army of the Potomac followed Lee down to Warrenton, where it stayed for two months.
After various marches in the months of October and November, in which the regiment had some skirmishing with the enemy, it relaspsed into its old quarters at Brandy Station, where it spent the winter.
When it became evident that the army would be mud-bound until May, the usual time of beginning a spring campaign in Virginia, Colonel Rogers resigned his commission, as his regiment's term of service would expire early the next June, and as a long and dangerous attack of malarial fever, each severer than the last, and each well nigh fatal, had prostrated him every spring during his military life, an annual occurrence of which was predicted by the physicians while he remained in a southern climate.
A correspondent from the second to the Providence Journal, thus writes : " Colonel Horatio Rogers, Jr., who has commanded our regiment since Febru- ary 9th, 1863, has tendered his resignation, and the same has been accepted. He took command under circumstances peculiarly trying and discouraging. He leaves after well nigh a year of trial, in which he has been by no means and in no respect found wanting. Barring personal prejudice on the part of a very few, which must have been the lot of any one assuming the command at the time and under the circumstances of Colonel Rogers's coming, he leaves in possession of the fullest confidence and esteem of the entire regiment, as well as of his superiors in command. His reasons for resigning are at home and with himself entirely, and in no wisc influenced by any person or thing here. Having served as lieutenant, captain and major in the third, colonel in the eleventh, and now for almost a year as colonel of the gallant and honored second, he now feels it his duty to return to his home and his pro- fession, which he left from the same high motive, August 27th, 1861. He is one of the few whose moral character has passed untarnished through all the corrupting influences of two and a half years of military life. As he retires to private life, he carries with him the affections and prayers of this command, with the hearty wish that his success and prosperity there, may be
316
RHODE ISLAND OFFICERS.
as complete as they have been here. His farewell address to the regiment, is no less characteristic of his constant interest in all that interests them, than it is terse and beautiful. It is as follows :
"' HEAD-QUARTERS SECOND RHODE ISLAND VOLUNTEERS, BRANDY STATION, VIRGINIA, January 14th, 1864. S
"' COMRADES :- The colonel commanding, having resigned, is about to leave you. He parts from you with regret. During the year he has had the honor to command the second, he has been proud of the regiment. He trusts and believes that your reputation has not suffered at his hands. He regards with pride and pleasure your heroic conduct at Salem Heights and Gettysburg, and the other engagements in which together we have partici- pated, and holds in grateful remembrance those gallant heroes who have poured out their life's blood on those fatal fields.
"'Comrades : If it be possible, may your fame grow brighter still, and may the same Divine Providence protect you in the future that has so merci- fully preserved you in the past.
"' H. ROGERS, JR., "' Late Colonel Second Rhode Island Volunteers.'"
"In the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel S. B. M. Read, the command devolves upon Major H. C. Jenckes, who is fully capable of preserving the present high discipline and morale of the regiment, and who will command their utmost confidence and esteem."
Bravery was Colonel Rogers's distinguishing characteristic. His own self-exposure at times bordered on recklessness, but he was serupulously careful of the safety and welfare of his men. He left Rhode Island in 1861 a lieutenant, and did not enter the state again till 1863, after an absence of sixteen months, when he returned a colonel.
A few weeks after Colonel Rogers's return home, he was elected attorney general of Rhode Island, to which office he has been twice reelected.
Sadamo
FRANCIS GARDNER ADAMS.
RANCIS GARDNER ADAMS, the fourth son of Seth Adams, Jr., was born in Providence, on the 8th day of February, 1839. His mother was Sarah, daughter of the Honorable Abijah Bigelow, of Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his education at the schools in his native city, and, when sixteen years of age, entered his father's counting-room there. He continued in the mercantile business until the breaking out of the rebellion, when, with other young men, he determined to offer his services to his country. Having a taste for the sea, he applied for a place in the navy ; was appointed a master's mate on the 29th of August, 1861, and reported immediately for duty at the Washington Navy Yard. Here he applied himself to the study of gunnery and small-arms drill. On the 15th of October, he received orders to join the steam frigate Susquehanna, then lying at Hampton Roads. He took passage at the Washington Navy Yard, on the United States steamer Pawnee, to join his vessel. On their passage down the Potomac, when passing Budd's Ferry, the rebels opened on them from a masked battery with shot and shell. The vessel was struck a number of times, but received no serious injury.
The Susquehanna having left Hampton Roads before the arrival of the Pawnee, the latter proceeded with the expedition destined for Port Royal, South Carolina, under the command of Flag Officer Samuel F. Dupont and General Thomas W. Sherman. This fleet consisted of eighty-four vessels, including transports. On their passage down the coast they encountered a heavy gale, in which five vessels were lost. The fleet arrived off Port Royal harbor on the 5th of November.
318
RHODE ISLAND OFFICERS.
The order of battle having been arranged on the morning of the 7th, Flag Officer Dupont in his flag-ship, the Wabash, leading the line, steamed in toward Fort Beauregard and opened the engagement, passing within eight hundred yards of the fort. Each vessel was assigned a particular place in the line, which she kept during the fight. The fleet sailed in a cirele between Fort Beauregard and Fort Walker, on the opposite island of Hilton Head. Three circuits were made, the second and third nearer the forts. On the third circuit the whole fleet came to anchor opposite Fort Walker, and con- centrated their fire upon it, which, after a very short time, was abandoned by the rebels. Fort Beauregard followed the example set them, the men hastily taking to the swamp in the rear. About forty men were killed on board the fleet, two of whom were on board the Pawnee. Two days after, Mr. Adams joined the Susquehanna, which had also participated in the engagement.
This ship was now ordered on blockade duty on the coast of Florida. In the month of February, she participated in the capture of Fort Clinch and Fernandina. Soon after, she proceeded to Hampton Roads and joined the North Atlantic squadron under Rear Admiral Goldsborough. She was one of the ships detailed to attack the rebel ram Merrimae. On the 11th of May, 1862, Norfolk surrendered to the Union forces under General Wool, which event was immediately followed by the destruction of the Merrimac and other ships of the rebels, by themselves.
On the 28th of May, the Susquehanna sailed for the Gulf of Mexico, where she joined Admiral Farragut's squadron. She remained with this squadron nearly a year, doing blockade duty off Mobile. On the 5th of May, 1863, she arrived in New York, and, on the 9th, was put out of com- mission, having been constantly employed since the spring of 1861.
After being detached from the Susquehanna, Mr. Adams was ordered to the school-ship Savannah. While here, having been recommended by his commanding officer for meritorious services, he was promoted to the rank of ensign ; and, on the 10th of August, ordered to the gun-boat Aries, then at the New York Navy Yard. This vessel joined the blockading fleet off Charleston, when Mr. Adams was ordered, on the 29th of August, to the iron- clad Wehawken. During the few days he was attached to this vessel she was constantly engaged with the rebel batteries. He was next ordered to the rebel ram Atlanta, which had been captured a short time before by Commodore John Rogers with the Weehawken. The Atlanta was taken to Philadelphia, and, on the 10th of October, Mr. Adams was ordered to the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.