Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 3

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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purchased by the United States government, and the Fourteenth Rhode Island Regiment was assigned to temporary quarters there, while it constructed forts and mounted eight heavy guns.

LINCOLN ADMINISTRATION INDORSED -- The Governor, in his message to the General Assembly in January, 1864, urged continued measures to promote enlistments. The bounty legislation of June, 1863, had been of a temporary nature, to encourage enlistments because of an emergency ; on the fifty-fifth birthday of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1864, the Assem- bly passed a bounty act, which with another measure enacted a day earlier, placed at the dis- position of the Governor $150,000 from which to pay "bounty, subsistence and transportation" additional to a standard bounty of $300 for enlistment for three years. Later at the same session the benefits of the bounty legislation were extended to men drafted in the preceding year. In anticipation of the presidential election the Assembly adopted resolutions recom- mending the reëlection of Abraham Lincoln, thus :

Abraham Lincoln . . . . in the midst of the great trials of a gigantic civil war- begun for no other purpose but the extension and perpetuation of domestic slavery-has administered the national government with a wisdom, a patriotism and an integrity which have commanded the highest confidence of the American people ; and in the present unhappy condition of the country the election of a President ought so far as practicable, to be divorced from party strifes and passions, and to be conducted with paramount reference to the speedy suppression of the rebellion and restoration of the national union; . . . regarding, as we do, the administration of President Lincoln as reflecting to an unusual degree the sentiments of the American people ; and believing its leading measures to have been eminently wise and demanded by the necessities of the coun- try ; and especially being sincerely desirous to discourage all party animosities and contentions in this time of our national perils, we earnestly recommend to the loyal people of the United States that, disregarding all secondary issues and looking only to the ultimate triumph of the union and the Constitution, they unite with one accord in reelecting Abraham Lincoln for the coming presidential term.

In the popular election Lincoln carried 'Rhode Island, 13,692-8470, by 5222 majority over General George B. McClellan, the Democratic candidate. In the spring election Gov- ernor Smith's majority was reduced from 2773 in 1863 to 132. Amos C. Barstow, who ran as an Independent Republican, polled 1348 votes and nearly prevented an election by the people. In 1865 Governor Smith was reelected with only nominal opposition by 9321 major- ity in a total vote of 10,985; the Democrats refrained from voting.

The General Assembly, at the January session, 1864, proposed three amendments to the Constitution of Rhode Island: (1) to permit electors absent from the state and actually in the military service to the United States to vote for presidential electors, Representatives in Congress and general state officers; (2) enfranchising naturalized citizens, who had been honorably discharged after military service during the rebellion, on the same terms as native citizens ; (3) substituting an assessed poll tax for the voluntary registry tax. The proposed amendments were approved by the next General Assembly at the May session, 1864, and sub- mitted to the people on the third Monday of August. Only the first proposition was approved by the constitutional majority, becoming Article IV of Amendments to the Constitution. Under its provision 265 qualified electors cast 225 ballots for Lincoln and forty for McClel- lan. In addition, 620 soldiers, who were not qualified electors and who assumed that the new amendment extended suffrage, cast 407 ballots for Lincoln and 213 for McClellan. The Assembly authorized a bond issue of $1,000,000 at six per cent. for thirty years, at the May session, 1864; and ordered a state tax of twenty-five cents, of which nineteen cents was for war purposes.

Twice during 1864, on March 16 and on August 5, the Governor by proclamation announced that the people might be relieved of apprehension of a draft, because voluntary enlistments had been sufficient to supply the state's quotas in the President's call for troops. During the year men enlisted for the Second Infantry, First Light Artillery and Third Heavy

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Artillery, who had completed three years of service, returned home, 1118 to reenlist as vet- erans. Other enlistments for the year totalled 1001 for three years and 391 for one year. No new regimental organizations were undertaken; recruiting was to complete regiments and to fill up the ranks of regiments depleted by losses in battle, wounds, sickness, and otherwise. The Adjutant General reported 13,207 three-year volunteers, 160 three-year draftees, 678 substitutes for drafted men, 2224 nine months' volunteers, 3147 three months' volunteers, all in state organizations; and approximately 2900 men enlisted from Rhode Island for military and naval service otherwise. The Adjutant General estimated that Rhode Island had an accumulated credit of men enlisted in excess of all quotas amounting to 933, with one out- standing requisition, that of December 20, 1864, to be filled, and the Rhode Island quota not assigned, but probably 1600. He added: "Rhode Island has at no time faltered in her devo- tion to the union. Generous bounties to the recruits have been voted by the General Assembly, and every means taken to encourage enlistments. She has her reward in the consciousness of having fully performed her duty, and justly occupies a position second to no other state. The records of the several regiments are in every respect creditable-their flags, without a stain, bear many honorable scars won in defence of this glorious union." In his message to the General Assembly in January, 1865, Governor Smith attributed success in obtaining fresh recruits to "employing a corps of the most energetic and capable agents to make direct personal application to every available man." Of the special fund of $150,000, additional to bounties, placed at his disposal, $62,368 had been expended "for agents, extra bounty, transportation, and sundry items." The Governor agreed with the Adjutant General in the assumption that the call issued late in 1864 to be filled before February 15, 1865, could be met readily without recourse to drafting. Both were in error, however, as to the nature of the requisition, which was for 300,000 men additional to all other calls, with credit for excess of quotas but without reduction in the number of men. The difference lay in computing the call as gross 300,000 less credits, instead of net 300,000, which meant 300,000 plus credits total, with allowance for credits in such manner as not to reduce the net 300,000. In other words, the requisition was practically for many more than 300,000, and the Governor and Adjutant General had counted on only 300,000.

Governor Smith, on January 23, issued a proclamation, "to relieve the anxiety which rested in so many households and hearts," to the effect that recourse to drafting would not be necessary, because of accumulated credits for enlistments in excess of quotas. Two days later he was advised by the Provost Master General that Rhode Island must furnish 1459 men; he immediately sent a special message to the General Assembly, which was in session, asking "such action to meet the sudden demands made upon us as the honor of our state and the interests of its citizens demand," and that the Assembly appoint a joint committee to work with him. The Assembly ( I) designated Senators W. B. Lawton and B. Lapham, and Rep- resentatives William Binney, William Sheldon and Amasa Sprague "to procure the voluntary enlistment of recruits into the service of the United States"; (2) ordered a bounty of $300 per recruit for three years and payment of "such amount of premium or hand money to the person or persons who present recruits for enlistment as the Governor and said committee may, in their discretion, deem necessary and proper," the aggregate not to exceed $200,000; (3) authorized the issuing of bonds to an amount not exceeding $1,000,000 for thirty years at six per cent .; (4) offered a bounty of $300 to each person liable to draft who procured an acceptable substitute ; (5) decreed a penalty of fine and imprisonment for persons procuring enlistments for credit to the quota of any other state; (6) ordered free tuition in all public schools and in the Rhode Island Normal School for children of officers and soldiers ; (7) established a preference for such children as beneficiaries of the free state scholarships at Brown University under the Morrill Act; (8) increased the annual state tax to fifty cents, thirty-four cents to be applied to military expenses. Thus the General Assembly undertook

THE NEW SKY LINE, PROVIDENCE

POST OFFICE, PROVIDENCE

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measures to meet the emergency. The Governor sent Colonel Charles E. Bailey to Washing- ton, who interviewed various officials and returned with an explanation of the "new mathe- matics" in use in Washington, but otherwise without success. Senator Laban C. Wade and Representatives Benjamin F. Thurston and Amasa Sprague visited Washington as a joint committee of the General Assembly, and on February II, with Senators Anthony and Sprague, met the President, seeking on behalf of Rhode Island an extension of time. The com- mittee's report of its interview with President Lincoln reflected the latter's characteristic appeal to justice in the face of difficulties. President Lincoln called attention to the fact that "aggregate of credits due to all the states exceeded very considerably the number of men called for, and that men and not an adjustment of balances was the object of the call." To the committee's request for an extension of time, to permit enlistment instead of a draft, President Lincoln replied "that he was ready to admit Rhode Island had invariably been among the very foremost of the states in the performance of her duty, and that she was still actuated by the same patriotic impulses, but that the country could better afford, in considera- tion of her merit, to relinquish her quota altogether than to grant a postponement of the draft for a single day. "The moral effect," said he, "of furnishing the men called for promptly and without hestitation will be as great a power as the men themselves, and I believe," he added, "that the opinion which General Hancock expressed to me yesterday, is entirely well- founded, that if the army could be presently increased by 400,000 men, not one of them would ever be required to fire a musket at the enemy." President Lincoln and his military advisers knew that the Confederacy was cracking; they did not know, however, in February that Appomattox was so near at hand. The President added that a report of extension granted to Rhode Island would encourage an irresistible demand by other states for similar "partiality." The President did promise, nevertheless, that while no postponement would be granted, a draft would not be ordered in Rhode Island "so long as the business of recruiting should be pursued with results satisfactory to the Department" of War. The draft was not ordered ; recruiting proceeded briskly under the liberal offers of bounty and hand money made possible by the appropriation of $200,000 plus bounties. The annual reports of the Adjutant General for 1865 and of the Adjutant General for 1866, different officers and not friendly to each other,* are in conflict as to actual accomplishment in recruiting in the last year of the war, the variation being too emphatic to suggest imperfect records as the reason for an assertion made by one and a denial by the other. The War Department records credit Rhode Island with recruiting 1563 men in 1865 to supply a quota of 1459. For the five years of the war Rhode Island's quotas aggregated 18,898; the War Department records credit Rhode Island with furnishing 23,699 men, an excess of twenty-five per cent. over the quotas.

THE LAST ROMANTIC WAR-The five years of civil war from the firing on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, to Lee's surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, and Johnston's surrender, April 26, 1865, had been years of varying emotion and stirring action in Rhode Island. The seriousness of the conflict was understood by few until the battle of Bull Run dashed union hopes of a short, decisive struggle, and brought to Rhode Island realization of the sorrow as well as the glory of war, with the news of deaths among those who had gone forth valiantly to fall on southern battlefields, and the courageous coolness of the Rhode Island regiments in battle and in retreat. The telegraph made this war different from other wars; for the first time Rhode Islanders at home were almost in contact with Rhode Islanders on the battlefields, as the news was flashed in dispatches and made public through newspapers and on bulletin boards. The "Providence Evening Bulletin"; was issued for the first time, January 26, 1863, because the new editor, George W. Danielson, sensed a period too long between morning editions of the "Daily Journal." The recruiting of new regiments, the mustering of troops, the departure

*Vide inpra.

¡Not the first evening paper. Chapter XXXVIII.

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of batteries, squadrons, battalions and regiments for the front were all of frequent occur- rence. If Rhode Islanders could not watch from the housetops the Peninsula campaign, or the siege of Vicksburg, or the three-day battle at Gettysburg, or Grant's grim, unceasing, irresistible drive toward his objectives, they could follow the fortunes of war from the fire- side as they read the dispatches in the newspapers. Besides, there were greetings for return- ing heroes, and tales of dashing action, to be told and listened to, of this last romantic war, fought before trench warfare and long distance fighting had been introduced. There were socks and mittens to knit, lint to be scraped, boxes to be packed, plenty of work for women and girls, to help the soldiers.

Rhode Island carried on with wonderful spirit-the Rhode Island spirit of old wars, in which no sacrifice for country ever had been considered too great to make. The state had entered the war practically without a public debt ; it incurred a bonded indebtedness of approxi- mately $4,000,000 for war expenditures, bounties, hand money and other items not reimburs- able from the federal treasury. It had advanced for the federal government $1,250,000 in equipping soldiers. Additional to state expenditures the several towns and cities had incurred expenditures, in excess of bounty payments reimbursable from the general treasury, amount- ing to $1,156,599. These debts, with the interest upon them, remained to be paid, along with the burden of federal taxation.

The approaching end of the war was reflected in resolutions adopted at the January ses- sion, 1865 : The Assembly commended to "the favorable action of the Congress of the United States the constitutional amendment pending before that body to abolish and forever prohibit the existence of slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime," and, on February 2, 1865, ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.

The Assembly thanked Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant "for the strategical skill with which the vast and complicated movements of the armies of the Union have been pro- jected during the year which has just closed, resulting everywhere, as they have, in the most glorious successes to our armies"; the armies of the Potomac and the James "for the bravery and pertinacity with which they have devoted themselves to the reduction of the stronghold of the rebellion"; Vice-Admiral David G. Farragut, "for the gallant achievements of our naval forces in Mobile Bay"; Major William T. Sherman, "for the series of brilliant victories cul- minating in the capture of Atlanta, and for the skillfully executed march from the mountains to the sea, which challenge the admiration of the world"; Major General Philip H. Sheridan, for "gallant exploits in the valley of the Shenandoah, in achieving a series of victories which will shine resplendent in our military annals with a lustre as enduring as history"; Major General George H. Thomas, "for the skillful manner in which his army was conducted to the line of the Cumberland"; Commodore John A. Winslow, "for the bravery and skill with which the action with the rebel armed ship 'Alabama' was fought"; Major General Alfred U. Terry, and Rear Admiral David D. Porter. Thanks were also expressed to several Rhode Island naval officers who had rendered distinguished service. The Adjutant General was directed to procure from the several Rhode Island regiments, upon their being disbanded, the regimental flags belonging to them, to be deposited with the flags borne by the Rhode Island Brigade in the War of the Revolution. The flags are now preserved in sealed cases in the vestibules of the State House at Providence. It remains to follow briefly the fortunes of Rhode Island troops in the war :

First Regiment, Rhode Island Detached Militia-Mustered in May 2, 1861, at Washing- ton. Held in reserve at battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861 ; gallantly advanced to support of Second Rhode Island. Flag pierced by eleven bullets at Bull Run. Losses at battle of Bull Run-One officer and nine men killed in action, four mortally wounded, thirty-two wounded, two missing without further record, probably killed. As part of Burnside's brigade the First

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Rhode Island was in the rearguard after the battle of Bull Run. It reached Washington with unbroken ranks. June 10-20, regiment marched to and returned from Williamsport, Mary- land, supporting Patterson at Harper's Ferry; on this movement the First Regiment marched thirty-three miles in one day and "in half an hour from the time the head of the column arrived at the encampment, every straggler had found his proper place in his company bivouac." Mustered out, August 1, 1861, upon the completion of the service for which it had been enlisted.

Second Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers --- Left Rhode Island, June 19, 1861. Opened battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, and held position forty-five minutes without support ; flag riddled with bullets; losses twenty-eight killed, fifty-six wounded. With Burnside's brigade fought rearguard action in retreat, and reached Washington with unbroken ranks. The Second Regiment passed the winter of 1861-1862 in and about Washington, meanwhile building Fort Slocum as part of the city defences. In the Peninsula campaign the Second participated in the siege of Yorktown, the capture of Fort Magruder near Williamsburg, the battles of Mechanicsville and Seven Pines, and covered the rear as McClellan's army moved to its new base at Harrison's Landing after the battle of Malvern Hill. Governor Sprague was with the army at the beginning of the Peninsula campaign, serving on the staff of General Barry, Chief of Artillery. The Governor joined General Stoneman in the pursuit of Magruder after the latter evacuated Yorktown; the Second was in Stoneman's column. Stoneman sent Sprague to hurry forward the infantry when the cavalry established contact with the retreating Confederates. The rearguard action precipitated the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, a hard-fought contest in which the losses on both sides aggregated 5000 men. At noon Governor Sprague rode from the battlefield to Yorktown with dispatches for McClellan, and the latter joined Stoneman and assumed command. The Second Regiment was ordered to relieve a regiment, moved forward and remained under fire several hours. Colonel Wheaton narrowly escaped being wounded, and Colonel Tristam Burges, serving as a volunteer aide, was shot in the leg. Brigadier General Devens complimented the Second Rhode Island for coolness and fidelity. The Second continued with the column pursuing the Confederates when the latter abandoned Fort Magruder. At Seven Pines the Second "stood a galling fire of shot and shell" ; five men were killed and twenty wounded. The Second held an important position in the battle at Gaines' Mills. Withdrawn from the Peninsula, the Second Regiment was in the line of battle at Antietam, but not actually engaged in the fighting. In Burnside's movement against Fredericksburg the Second led Devens' brigade of Newton's division across the pontoon bridge which had been built in the Rappahannock. Three companies, I, B and K, moved to the bridge at double quick, rushed across with a cheer, though exposed to accurate fire by Confederate sharpshooters, who earlier had delayed and almost prevented the building of the bridge by picking off the engineers. Across the bridge the Rhode Islanders deployed as skirmishers and drove back the sharpshooters into the woods. The bridgehead won, the regiment crossed, executing the movement and a march on the further side exposed to fire from lingering sharpshooters "with the coolness and precision of a regimental drill." Besides the Second, the Fourth, Seventh and Twelfth Rhode Island Regiments, and Batteries A, B, C, D, E and G were at Fredericksburg. When Burnside withdrew his army from the bat- tlefield, the Second, guarding the crossing, was the last but one over the Rappahannock. In the spring of 1863 the Second was attached to the Sixth Army Corps, General Sedgwick, and engaged, on May 3, in the assault on Salem Heights. In the battle the Second rescued a New Jersey regiment that was hard-pressed and Colonel Horatio Rogers, himself taking the colors, rallied his soldiers several times in the height of a desperate struggle. The Second, with the Seventh, Tenth and Thirty-seventh Massachusetts Regiments, was ordered to meet a Confederate attack which had broken the federal line. "The rebels broke from the woods, charging upon the fleeing New Jersey brigade, cheering as they came. The second brigade

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was quickly formed, and, on the double quick, passed the battery the rebels aimed at-down hill and up." The Second, Seventh and Tenth "halted by a house on top of the hill and poured a withering fire of Minies upon the elated line of rebels, swiftly advancing from the woods. Such firing, men say that heard it, and that have known what heavy firing is, they never heard before. The rebels halted, crouched, hesitated, yielded, turned and fled, every man for himself, seeking the cover of the woods. It was hot work. Every man fought as if all depended on his individual action." General Wheaton praised the Second Regiment. "He said they had saved the corps and prevented another Bull Run. It looked so. The rebels had fled. That was well. But again we went on. General Wheaton had ordered Colonel Rogers to take his regiment to the woods and save the corps, as all depended on this effort, and to the woods we went-down hill on the double quick and the run, across a little brook and up the opposite slope-halting to form, and advancing to the woods under a heavy front and flank fire from the enemy. . . . Seven companies of the Second Rhode Island, led by Colonel Rogers in person, who thrice seized the colors and cheered on and rallied his men, entered the woods. At last firing ceased. .... Under a tree, directly in the rear of the regiment, the dead were buried. Our loss was seven killed, seventy wounded and six missing. . . .. That night we slept on the field. It was raining and cold." The General Assembly, in resolutions adopted at the May session, 1863, thanked Colonel Rogers and the Second Rhode Island "for the gallantry and bravery which they displayed at the battle of Salem Heights, in Virginia, May 3, 1863, and for their soldierly conduct while retiring from the field of battle and recross- ing the Rappahannock River." The Second Regiment marched all night of July I and all day of July 2 to reach the field at Gettysburg, where, though not directly engaged, it was "led by Colonel Rogers, under a storm of shells, to different parts of the field, in support of points hardly pressed." One man was killed and five were wounded. After passing the winter of 1863-1864 at Brandy Station, the Second moved as part of the Sixth Army Corps in Grant's campaign against Richmond. After gallant service in the Wilderness, where Captain Joseph McIntyre was killed, at Spottsylvania Court House and at Cold Harbor, the three-year men who had not reenlisted returned to Rhode Island and were mustered out. The remaining veterans and new recruits were consolidated into three companies, and five new companies were enlisted in Rhode Island and sent forward, the purpose being to maintain the historic regiment. The Second moved to the defence of Washington when the capital was threatened by General Early ; it lost nine men wounded, one mortally, in desperate fighting at the battle of Opequan near Winchester. In the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley Captain Henry H. Young, by successful scouting, won the approbation of General Sheridan and was appointed chief of scouts with the rank of Major. A monument to Major Young stands in the park fronting the railway station in Providence. Another Rhode Islander who won glory with Sheridan was Major General Frank Wheaton, who had been Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel of the Second Rhode Island. He was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, November 29, 1862; Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. A., for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of the Wilderness; Brevet Major General of Volunteers, for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Middletown; Brevet Brigadier General, U. S. A., for gallant and meritorious services in the capture of Petersburg; Brevet Major General, U. S. A., for gallant and meritorious services on the field during the war. The Gen- eral Assembly voted General Wheaton a sword "for gallant and meritorious services during the war, and particularly, for his services in the battles of Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Middle- town, under Major General Sheridan." The Second Regiment returned to the Army of the Potomac after Sheridan had cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Confederates, and participated in the siege of Petersburg. It was the first regiment, on April 2, to reach the Confederate works in the final assault. At Fisher's Creek, April 6, the Second lost its colors in a battle with the Confederate Naval Brigade, but regained the colors by a gallant counter-attack, and

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 3

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716