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 34
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PELEG E. PECKIIAM.
ELEG E. PECKHAM was the son of Rowland and Mary Peckham, natives of Charlestown, Rhode Island. His father was a farmer. The son mani- fested a strong desire in early life to obtain an education, and applied himself so industriously to work and study, that, at the age of sixteen, he was enabled to commence teaching. He showed his perseverance and energy of character, by working at his trade (a carpenter's) during the summer months, and teaching school in the winter. On the Ist of August, 1862, Mr. Peckham enlisted as a private in the seventh Rhode Island volunteers, and, on the 7th of September following, was made a sergeant. On the 13th of December, at the battle of Fredericksburg, he brought himself to the notice of his regimental commander, Colonel Bliss, by carrying orders under a very heavy fire to the general commanding the brigade. For his promptness in obeying these orders, he was promoted to a second-lieutenant, and, on the Ist of March following, to a first-lieutenant. IIe shared with his regiment its hardships and battles in all its campaigns; and, on the 30th of July, 1864, was promoted to the captaincy of a company, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Spottsyl- vania Court House, and in the operations before Petersburg. On the 30th of the same month, he was breveted major. Major Peckham acted as assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General John I. Curtin, ninth corps, in the attack on Petersburg, on the 2d of April, 1865; in which action he was mor- tally wounded. He was highly esteemed by all who knew him, and, as an officer, proved himself both gallant and brave in the hour of danger.
Richard Arnold
RICHARD ARNOLD.
ENERAL RICHARD ARNOLD was born in Providence, Rhode Island, April 12th, 1828, and was the second son of the Honorable Lemuel H. Arnold. His paternal grandfather, Doctor Jonathan Arnold, was quite conspicuous in a civil capacity during the American revolution. At the commencement of our troubles with the mother country, being a member of the General Assembly of the colony of Rhode Island, he introduced the famous resolution of inde- pendence, which was passed, severing the connection between the colony and the crown, and which is claimed by Rhode Island to have been the first act of the kind passed in the country. Doctor Arnold was also for many years an influential member of the Continental Congress. Lemuel H. Arnold, the father of the general, was governor of the state of Rhode Island. He was a man of truly Roman mould of character, and endeared himself to his state by his wise prudence, exalted patriotism and stern sense of justice. Subsequently he was a member of congress.
General Richard Arnold, the subject of this sketch, was a graduate of West Point, of the date of 1850, ranking number seven in his class. His first service, as a brevet second-lieutenant first artillery, was in Florida. He was then promoted a full second-lieutenant, and transferred to Major Robert Anderson's company, stationed at Fort Preble, Maine. His service there was of the most agreeable nature, and Major Anderson frequently spoke of the young lieutenant as one of the finest subalterns in the army. ITis next ser- vice was at Fort Presidio, California. On the 17th of March, 1854, he was promoted first-lieutenant, third artillery. About this time, he was selected by General Wool as an aide-de-camp on his staff, and remained in that capacity
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six or seven years, during which time he rendered many important services to the government. His training as an officer, while a member of the military family of General Wool, was of the most thorough nature, and he acquired that insight and mastery of all the varied business connected with the differ- ent departments and arms of the service which has since rendered him so efficient as an officer. During this period of service we were threatened with much trouble by the Indians in Washington and Oregon territories. As a young officer, Arnold was detailed and took a prominent part in settling those difficulties, having met and conferred in person with seventy different tribes. While on the Pacific coast, he was detailed to construct a road from the mouth of Clark's fork via Fort Colville, the Grand Conlee, and the mouth of Snake river to Wallah-Wallah, the report of which is contained in the first volume of " Explorations and surveys for a railroad route from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean." This work had been begun by General (then captain) George B. McClellan, and, at his special request, Lieutenant Arnold was designated to finish it. He returned east with General Wool, and remain- ed with him as an aide.
It will be remembered that, after the firing upon Fort Sumter, the rebels cut off telegraphic communications between the capital and the northern states, whereupon, General Wool repaired to New York city and made his head-quarters there, ready to assist the government in every possible manner. It is no departure from the truth, to say that Lieutenant Arnold was greatly instrumental in prevailing upon General Wool to take this step, and, while there, was his most efficient and reliable counsellor and support; indeed, the relations between the two were of the most unreserved and confidential character. To his services in that city, the union defence committee, who worked in perfeet harmony with General Wool, testified in the most hand- some and unsolicited manner, by joining in a letter to the War Department, setting forth Arnold's great zeal and industry in those trying times. The struggle once fairly commenced and a prospect of actual warfare appearing, Lieutenant Arnold became very eager for active service, which step would, of course, necessitate his leaving the staff of General Wool, which the old hero would not listen to. But a way was opened. Receiving in June, 1861, a captainey in the fifth artillery, he was, upon the application of General McDowell, who was then organizing the army of the Potomac, ordered to report to that officer for duty. He was assigned to the command of fort company D, second artillery, and ordered to transform it into a light battery
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for immediate field service. The rapidity with which he accomplished this task, can only be appreciated by an artillery officer. Suffice it to say, that when called upon for field service, not four weeks later, he was found ready with a well-organized and drilled command. He played a prominent part in the first battle of Bull Run, being distinguished for great gallantry and cool- ness, and by the admirable precision and well-sustained firing of his battery, greatly contributed to whatever of glory was won in the earlier part of the day. His command was one of the very few to leave the field in order, and, with General Sykes's regulars, was instrumental in covering the retirement of the Union army. For his services, he was handsomely mentioned in the official reports. He had the misfortune, later in the day, to lose his pieces at Cub Run Bridge, which had been broken down and destroyed by our panic-stricken troops. He, however, brought off the greater portion of his men, and with them, retired to the defences of Washington. He remained here with his command during the season of inactivity which was consequent upon the reorganization of the army by General Mcclellan, and was made chief of artillery of Franklin's division. He accompanied this commander to the Peninsula, and was instrumental in gaining our success at West Point, by the rapid debarkation of four light batteries from the transports. The landing of that artillery in time, was essential to the safety of Franklin's command; and for this, as well as for his handsome behavior in the battle which followed, he was recommended for a brevet-majority.
He remained with General Franklin during the Peninsular campaign, having been assigned as inspector-general of the sixth provisional army corps, commanded by that officer. He shared all its dangers and privations and performed every duty with alacrity and marked success; but when the army reached Harrison's Landing, he was so thoroughly exhausted as to be unable to mount his horse, and was compelled, entirely against his inclination, to accept a sick leave, and typhoid fever setting in, he was an unwilling invalid for the next three months. Partially restored to health, he applied for and was granted permission to organize his own battery, then at Fort Ilamilton, and in a few weeks he had prepared another handsomely organized command for the field. In November, 1862, he was, upon the application of General Banks, appointed chief of artillery of the expedition then fitting out in New York. Throwing his whole soul into his work he was speedily ready with his branch of the service. On November 29th, 1862, Arnold was appointed a brigadier-general of United States volunteers. Arriving in New Orleans
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in December, 1862, he was appointed chief of artillery, department of the Gulf. Ile quickly infused his own energetic spirit into the batteries already in the department, and in an incredibly short space of time, had mounted, drilled and equipped about a dozen raw volunteer commands, that formed a part of General Banks's expedition, and who had probably never before seen a piece of artillery. He accompanied the army under General Banks in the campaign in the Téche country, which was only ended to enter upon the siege of Port Hudson. During this tedious and severe campaign of some forty days' duration, General Arnold bent his whole talents and indomitable perseverance to its successful accomplishment. It was his skillful handling of artillery that most of all led to the fall of this stronghold ; the infantry, twice driven back with frightful slaughter in their attempts to storm the place, became disheartened. The artillery now became, as in truth it ever was, their only salvation. General Arnold was untiring in his devotion to his duties. Batteries were constructed at every judicious point, and four nine-inch Dahlgrens were landed from the sloop-of-war Brooklyn, and placed in position about four hundred yards from the rebel line, doing great damage to the enemy's works. In the course of the siege the general was frequently in the saddle twenty hours out of the twenty-four, and superintended every preparation with his own eye, and such was the accuracy of the artillery firing that, when the rebels capitulated, July 8th, 1863, not a gun above the calibre of a twelve-pounder was found uninjured on their whole land front. Their light guns would also have received the same punishment, but the rebels judiciously kept them covered ; for, as the rebel commander, General Frank Gardner, expressed it on surrendering: "What was the good of exposing our light guns only to have them knocked over also." The cam- paign finished, General Arnold repaired to New Orleans and busied himself in restoring his hard-worn commands to their normal condition, preparatory to fall and spring operations. Such was his success in this undertaking, that the adjutant-general of the army, (L. Thomas,) after reviewing his artillery, both light and heavy, declared that it was unsurpassed by that of any of our armies. During the winter he inspected and put in complete condition the coast defences of the department.
The Red river campaign opened late in March, 1864. General Arnold accompanied the army as chief of artillery on the staff of the commanding general. The army was defeated in action by the rebels at Sabine Cross Roads, April 8th, 1864. General Arnold was in no way to blame that twenty-
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one pieces of artillery were lost on that day, for artillery when deprived of its supports or deserted by them is entirely helpless ; and such was the eon- dition of most of his batteries during that action. The battle of Pleasant Hills was fought the next day, in which a number of pieces of artillery were recaptured. After the return of the army to Grand Leore, General A. L. Lee being relieved from his position as chief of cavalry, General Arnold, in addition to his duties as chief of artillery, was assigned to that command. This was the most difficult task ever set the subject of this sketch; without a moment's notice and with but little practical knowledge of the cavalry arm, he found himself at the head of a division of cavalry that had been com- pletely whipped and was thoroughly demoralized. The command had lost confidenee in itself, was poorly mounted and but indifferently drilled, many of the regiments never having been mounted until a few weeks before the commencement of operations. But the new commander went heartily to his work, and almost at once gained two essential points for his command, viz., confidenee in its leader and confidence in itself; and from that time until the close of the campaign the cavalry was never worsted in a single collision with the enemy. Arnold's cavalry guarded the army on all sides during its retirement to Alexandria ; and at the engagement at Cane river crossing, amused the enemy in front while they were drawn from their strongholds by a flank movement. During the month's delay at Alexandria, General Arnold held all the outposts, keeping the enemy in cheek and otherwise performing much valuable service. He brought his eommand safely through the cam- paign, and put it into eamp not only stronger in numbers and more efficient in discipline, but his horses even were in much better condition than when he received them, and that after an exhausting march of over four hundred miles.
To no single officer during that campaign, is more eredit due than to General Arnold, holding as he did for a long time, two of the most responsible positions in the command; to one of which he brought no experience, and but comparatively little study sinee his graduation.
We quote from the letter of General C. T. Stone, dated April 16th, 1864, who was at that time chief of staff for General Banks :
" I am about to leave the department, and do not wish to do so without expressing to you my high appreciation of your services as chief of artillery during my service with you. I then noticed, and have since observed, the discipline, condition and management of the field artillery of the nineteenth army corps, organized under your eye, and in a great measure by your per-
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sonal exertions ; and I now only repeat what I have frequently stated, that I have been astonished at the successful results of your labors. The country, and especially this military department, owe you a deep debt of gratitude for your services in this respect. I think that no army has ever been so rapidly and so perfectly furnished with a well-organized and efficient artillery force, with the means which you had at your disposal, as the nineteenth army corps."
General Banks thus speaks of General Arnold's services, in a letter dated September 20th, 1864 :
"Brigadier-General Richard Arnold, chief of artillery, has been in service in this department since December, 1862. He organized and superintended the artillery in the campaign which commenced at Baton Rouge, in March, 1863; was continued through the Teche country, and ended by the siege and surrender of Port Hudson, in July, 1863. He had charge of artillery in the Red river campaign, and of the cavalry during the latter part of the move- ments of the army, until its return to New Orleans. In all positions, General Arnold has discharged his duties with patriotic fidelity and with remarkable success. He is entitled to the highest commendation for the private as well public devotion which he has shown to the interests of his country."
On the return of the army to New Orleans, General Arnold, being unable properly to perform the duties of chief of both cavalry and artillery, requested General Canby, the new commander, to name which arm of the service in view of future operations he desired him to retain. General Canby naming the artillery, Arnold was relieved from duty as chief of cavalry of the department of the gulf.
About this time the campaign in Mobile Bay had been inaugurated. At General Canby's request, General Arnold accompanied him to the scene of operations, then being conducted by General Granger, who was exceedingly anxious to have Arnold ordered for duty with him, and made personal appli- cation to that effect, in which he was successful. General Arnold at once started for New Orleans for heavy artillery, and returning with a well-organ- ized siege-train and material of every available kind, repaired to the vicinity of Fort Morgan and was assigned to duty as second in command, August 17th, 1864. Landing his ordnance and ammunition at Pilot Town, three miles in rear of Fort Morgan, he that night transported the whole by water and placed it under cover, some eight hundred yards in rear of Fort Morgan. By Saturday, all the heavy guns, thirty-four in number, were in position, and every arrangement made for opening the bombardment. Sunday the general devoted to instruction and drill with the mortars, with the handling of which many of the men were unfamiliar, and upon which weapon the general mostly
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relied to do serious damage to the enemy's works; and the sequel proves the correctness of his views. The bombardment opened at daylight, on Monday morning, and was continued almost without cessation on the part of the army until next morning, when the rebel commander capitulated. On the fall of the place, General Arnold was appointed one of the commissioners to arrange the terms of the surrender. During this brief but satisfactory campaign, General Arnold was the master-spirit that pushed forward the work to a successful termination; nearly everything seemed to go wrong till he arrived, but with his presence, matters on shore at once assumed a proper shape, and in less than a week from the date of his arrival this stronghold was in our hands. General Granger, in his official report, says: "To the efforts of those excellent soldiers, Brigadier-General Richard Arnold and * * * much of what was accomplished is rightfully due. The one, in distributing and directing the fire of the artillery and getting it into position, marked himself master of his profession." Admiral Farragut thus speaks of General Arnold's services, in a letter to him : " Both at Port Hudson and Fort Morgan, those officers who were in charge of naval batteries on shore, were loud in your praise for the gallant manner in which you conducted your branch of the service, as well for the assistance you rendered ours." *
In the following month, General Arnold was granted forty days' leave of absence, the first, except for sickness contracted during the Peninsular cam- paign, since the breaking out of the war. In November of the same year, he was assigned to duty as a member of the army retiring board, convened at Wilmington, Delaware. August 24th, 1865, he was mustered out as a brigadier-general of volunteers, receiving the brevet of colonel in the regular army. In October of this year, he was breveted major-general of United States volunteers, to date from August 22d, 1865, for gallant conduct and meritorious services at Port Hudson and Fort Morgan. A tardy recognition of his claims as an efficient and meritorious officer. In November of this year, he was ordered to assume command of his battery, light company G, fifth United States artillery, stationed at Little Rock, Arkansas; at which post he has since remained, filling several important positions at the same time, viz., inspector of ordinance, president of general court-martial, and post com- mander. In August, 1866, he received the brevet of major-general of the regular army for gallant conduct and faithful services during the war, upon the recommendation of a board of officers, which commission was confirmed by the senate.
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HOWARD GREENE.
LTHOUGH CAPTAIN HOWARD GREENE was a resident of a distant state, and was serving in a western regiment at the time of his death, yet as he was born, brought up and educated in Rhode Island, his memory will always be cherished by his native state as one of her own sons. He was born in Providence on the 21st of March, 1841, and was the son of Welcome A. Greene, of that city. His early boyhood was characterized by an activity which ripened, later in life, into a persevering energy. His education was obtained at the public schools of Providence. On leaving the high school in 1855, he entered upon his preparatory course for a commercial life by enter- ing the employ of a firm in his native city, but the following year he was induced to remove to Milwaukie, Wisconsin, where an older brother was already engaged in business. During the progress of the war, Howard Greene felt that of all the brothers who had reached the age of manhood, he was the one most called upon to offer himself for the cause of his country. He had no love for military glory. His education, habits, feelings were all averse to war. The roughness and harshness of army life were utterly repug- nant to his disposition and tastes, and the night previous to his last battle, in which he sealed his devotion to the Union with his blood, he wrote to his mother : "I long for the good old days when war is not heard or thought of and peace reigns supreme. I feel to-day like exclaiming, 'How long, O Lord, how long!"" But from the beginning of the war he had a strong conviction of its justice and that he ought to engage in it; that the army was the place for him while the nation was in need of men to defend her honor.
In the autumn of 1862, he accepted the lieutenantey of a company enlisted in Milwaukie, in the twenty-fourth Wisconsin volunteers, a position for which he had been preparing himself for a year previous. The first
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battle in which he took part was at Chaplain Hills, Kentucky, where his regiment came off with flying colors. He followed the fortunes of his regi- ment in its various marches through Kentucky and Tennessee, until the famous battle of Murfreesboro, which took place on the 30th of December, 1862. The history of this warmly contested battle, in which General Rose- crans gained so much glory, need not be told here. It is sufficient to say that the twenty-fourth Wisconsin bore a conspicuous part in it, and that Lieutenant Greene's company, which went into action with forty-seven men, came out with but sixteen. Lieutenant Greene was in the thickest of the fight, and his escape was remarkable. A bullet passed through his boot without injury to his per- son. IIe was cool and courageous throughout the battle, and distinguished himself by his presence of mind and intrepidity. Ilis brother officers were warm in their eulogiums upon his conduct.
In February, 1863, he was prostrated with typhoid fever, on his recovery from which, he was married at Nashville, before he returned to his regiment. In the rapid march which his regiment made, with the rest of the army, from Murfreesboro to Chickamauga, Captain Greene, owing to a severe lameness, was obliged to seek refuge in an ambulance; and, on the first day of the battle of Chickamauga, still suffering great pain, he fell more than once while leading his men into action. On the second day, he was ordered to the rear as disabled. He now borrowed a horse and offered his services to General Lytle, who accepted him as an aide-de-camp. In the desperate and sanguin- ary battles which followed, General Lytle fell wounded from his horse in the hottest of the fight, and was caught by Captain Greene before he reached the ground. While life remained, Captain Greene made an effort to remove him, with the assistance of two orderlies, from the field. They had gone but a few yards, when one of the men was killed and the other ran, while Greene's own horse was struck by a shot and darted off. Just at this moment, General Lytle's spirit passed from this world. Thus, at dusk, Captain Greene found himself alone and disabled in the midst of the enemy. He succeeded in reach- ing our lines, but his lameness had so much increased as to render him unfit for duty, and obliged him to take a furlough. While resting from his illness, he was called upon to serve as judge advocate on a court-martial, then sitting at division head-quarters. When the campaign at Chattanooga opened, he hastened to join his regiment.
On Wednesday, the 25th of November, the twenty-fourth Wisconsin, with other regiments, was ordered to charge the enemy's works on Missionary Ridge. The task was indeed a perilous one, and the effort seemed almost
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fool-hardy. But the men were animated by a determination which knew of no failure-a settled purpose to take that Ridge at all hazards. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the discharge of six guns from Fort Wood signalled that the time had come to advance. With heroic hearts and faces to the foe, those brave men advanced to the charge. Through a quarter of a mile of woods they passed, and emerged on a broad, open field, exposed to the fire of all the batteries on the Ridge. Without halting, the "double quick" was ordered, and away they went-all order at an end-over and through ditches and up to the very mouths of the first line of rifle-pits, at the foot of the hill. Jumping these pits, in which the discomfited rebels lay, the men began to climb the steep sides of the Ridge, to storm the rebel works at the top. It was here that the hard work began in earnest. One incessant storm of shell, shrapnell, grape, canister and bullets rained down upon the men from the heights above, but still on they went through it all, until the vieto- rious banner of the Union was planted triumphantly on the top. But all did not live to see the hour of triumph. Such a gain could not be purchased but at a great sacrifice. The life blood of brave young men, poured out on that golden autumn day, was to make Missionary Ridge holy ground.
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