USA > Vermont > A history of the Tenth Regiment, Vermont Volunteers, with biographical sketches of the officers who fell in battle. And a complete roster of all the officers and men connected with it--showing all changes by promotion, death or resignation, during the military existence of the regiment > Part 1
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A 84.960 HISTORY
OF THE
TENTH REGIMENT,
VERMONT VOLUNTEERS,
WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL . SKETCHES
OF THE OFFICERS WHO FELL IN BA'. E. AND
A COMPLETE ROSTER
OF ALL THE OFFICERS AND MEN CONNECTED WITH IT-SHOWING ALL CHANGES BY PROMOTION, DEATH OR RESIGNATION, DURING THE MILITARY EXISTENCE OF THE REGIMENT.
BY CHAPLAIN E. M. HAYNES.
CITY OF
1
T
PUBLISHED BY THE .
TENTH VERMONT REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION.
1870. 11
.
Cop
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year IS70, by
E. M. HAYNES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Vermont.
New York State Library.
-
DUPLICATE EXCHANGED.
53=
.5
JOURNAL STEAM PRESS, LEWISTON, ME.
7
TO THE READER.
THIS work, such as it is, now committed to the citizens o' ermont, and, so far as it may concern them, to the general public, adl espec-+ ially to the friends and surviving members of the tenth Regiment, was authoritatively assigned to the hands that have performed it.
It was the great good fortune of Vermont to have such Executives as Governor FAIRBANKS to put the State into line, Governor HOL- BROOK to bear up the standard during his terms of official service, and Governor SMITH to close up the struggle and bridge the chasm to returning peace; and that during all of this trying period, her exchequer was under the experienced care of Hon. JOHN B. PAGE, as State Treasurer, since an honored Governor of the State. These men performed distinguished service for the State and the Nation, in the faithful discharge of their civil offices, and to their acknowledged ability and patriotic endeavors, with the universal sympathy and coop- eration of all loyal citizens, those in the field were vastly indebted. We trust that we may ever hold them in grateful remembrance for their valuable services.
. The author has apprehended the difficulties to be encountered in undertaking to present the history of a single Regiment, where all of its military operations, its victories and defeats, have been shared by similar and larger organizations, but they have not been mastered. No attempt has been made to give undue prominence to this organ- ization to the disparagement of others from the same or other States; still the TENTH REGIMENT and its operations have been the particular subjects of the following pages. Hence the descriptions of battles,
iv
where we were but a fraction compared with the whole engaged - a grain in the vast weight that crushed the Rebellion - the somewhat detailed account of marches and of time, the careful references to movements and position, and also to commanders, have been more to present these subjeets than from any judgment that he was com- petent to deal skillfully with the vast material that lies waiting for the real historian of the war to gather up and embody in a form which shall tell,
"When many a vanished age hath flown,"
, how the Nation was assailed, how it struggled and was saved.
The author claims none of the honors that he has so freely, and it is hoped, justly, accorded to those who bore muskets and girded themselves with the sword; his the pleasant task to record these honors and brave deeds for those whom it is feared would suffer them to be forgotten. He is aware that he repeats the earnest recommend- ation of others when he here expresses the conviction that a similar service should be done for every military organization that went from the State and served in the War of the Rebellion. Each should have its own particular history. Something of this kind, worthy of the name, has been done. Lieutenant BENEDICT has given to the State "Termont at Gettysburg," embracing, as its title indicates, a brilliant record of the Vermont troops during that brief though important period of their experience. But Colonel A. F. WALKER has performed a more laborious and worthy task in his admirable account of " The Termont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley," which is all that it pur- ports to be, and thoroughly exhausts the material furnished by that brilliant campaign. Major WAITE has published a book entitled "Vermont in the Rebellion," in which he has made allusion to all of the organizations from the State. But that his book is made up of mere allusions, brief sketches and outlines-all that he intended to do, doubtless-it is feared will render it somewhat unsatisfactory. Personal histories are wanted, perhaps not of men nor of regiments - but something similar to Colonel WALKER's and Lieutenant BENE- DICT's, which would tell us of Vermont in the Peninsular Campaign
V
and of the campaigns of 1864 and 1865 with the Army of the Poto- mac, and an account of the noble service of her sons in the far South ; then our duty towards the men who suffered and the men who perished for our beloved country will have been, in one measure, accomplished.
As it will be seen that the roster of non-commissioned officers and enlisted men is imperfect in some respects and incomplete in others, it may be well to state that it was impossible to make it entirely perfect, on account of the lack of information. As, for instance, a great many more men were twice wounded than are so reported, because dates of their wounds are oftentimes wanting. It is incom- plete in regard to some instances of transfer, and in regard to every ease of discharge during or at the close of the service, because these things were deemed to be of minor importance; but it is believed that the name of every man who was ever connected with the regi- ment will be found in this list, and had it been practicable much more would have been said of them and of their gallant service. Those names with the officers' roster, showing simply the changes in rank and the time when their service ceased, have been taken from the published Reports of the Adjutant-General for 1864, 1865 and 1866. The record of wounds, not found in the body of the work, have been taken from unpublished official reports kindly furnished from the office of Brevet Major-General WILLIAM WELLS, Adjutant and Inspector- General of Vermont.
The author is indebted to the friends of Adjutant JAMES READ for the use of a diary kept by that officer from May to September, 1864, which has been employed to verify, and sometimes correct, his own, covering the same dates; and to Captain GEORGE E. DAVIS for notes furnished for a part of the seventh chapter. To the friends of officers who were killed in the service, he returns brief biographies from the reminiscences which they so promptly supplied. The biography of Lieutenant B. B. CLARK, a brave soldier who was mortally wounded at Cedar Creek, has not been prepared because material for the same could not be obtained.
There are some mistakes, which the reader will please correct by reading on page 49, fourteenth line from the bottom, "enemy " for
vi
"army"; on page 63, " straggler" for " struggle," and "Brock road" for " brook road"; on page 95, seven lines from the top, "ten" for " three "; and in every case "Ramseur" for " Ransom," in the account · of the Battle of Winchester,
APRIL, 1870.
E, M. H.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
1
PAGE
9-18
Organization- To Camp Chase.
CHAPTER II.
. 19-32
In the Defences of Washington.
CHAPTER III. .
33-54
In the Army of the Potomac - Campaign of 1863.
CHAPTER IV. .
.
55-87
From the Rapidan to Petersburg.
Brandy Station,
55
The Wilderness, 62
Spottsylvania, 69
Between the Annas, 74
Cold Harbor, 78
Swinging across the James, to Petersburg,
83
.
.
CHAPTER V.
.
88-101
Battle of the Monocacy.
CHAPTER VI.
€ . 102-137
In the Shenandoah Valley.
Sheridan's Battle of Winchester,
108
Fisher's Hill,
115
Cedar Creek,
122
.
viii
CHAPTER VII. .
PAGE . 138-156
Again at Petersburg.
Battle of the Twenty-fifth of March, .
138
Battle of the Second of April,
143
The Fall of Petersburg and Richmond, 147
CHAPTER VIII.
. 157-203
Conclusion.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES -
Major Dillingham, . 169
Captain Frost, . 175
Captain Thompson, 180
Captain Darrah, 183
Lieutenant Stetson, 185
Lieutenant Newton,
187
Lieutenant Hill, 190
Adjutant Read,
193
APPENDIX,
205-244
Roll and Roster of the Regiment.
INDEX, .
.
245-249
THE
TENTH VERMONT.
CHAPTER I.
T HE Tenth and Eleventh Regiments Vermont Volun- teers were recruited simultaneously.
On the eighteenth of June, 1862, the following despatch from the Adjutant-General of the Army was received by the Governor of Vermont :
"We are in pressing need of troops. How many can you forward immediately ?"
The Governor replied to the Secretary of War :
" The Ninth Regiment is nearly full, and will be ready for marching orders in some ten days. Probably the Tenth could be recruited in some forty or fifty days from this date (June 25). If the Government needs the Tenth Regiment, and you make direct requisition for it, we will raise it."
The War Office thundered back :
" Organize your Tenth Regiment." 2
IO
On the first of July the President issued his call for three hundred thousand more troops, and both the Tenth and Eleventh were to be reckoned as a part of Vermont's quota in this call. A few hundred men were already enlisted, but recruiting stations and principal recruiting officers were ap- pointed for this regiment as follows : On the tenth of July, at Burlington, Reed Bascom ; at Waterbury, Edwin Dilling- ham; eleventh, at Rutland, John A. Sheldon ; twelfth, at Swanton, Hiram Platt; at St. Albans, Charles G. Chand- ler ; fourteenth, Derby Line, Hiram R. Steel.
The companies were all organized according to the fol- lowing dates, and with the following named officers as cap- tains :
Co. A, St. Johnsbury, July 11. 1862, Capt. Edwin B. Frost.
" B, Waterbury, Aug. 4, 1862, Capt. Edwin Dillingham.
" C, Rutland, Aug. 5, 1862, Capt. John A. Sheldon.
" D, Burlington, Aug. 5, 1862, Capt. Giles F. Appleton.
E, Bennington, Aug. 7, 1862, Capt. Madison E. Winslow.
" F, Swanton, Aug. 6, 1862, Capt. Hiram Platt.
" G, Bradford, Aug. 12, 1862, Capt. Geo. B. Damon.
H, Ludlow, Aug. 8, 1862, Capt. Lucius T. Hunt.
" I, St. Albans, Aug. 11, 1862, Capt. Chas. G. Chandler.
K, Derby Line, Aug. 12, 1862, Capt. Hiram R. Steel.
FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.
Colonel -A. B. JEWETT. Lieutenant-Colonel -John H. Edson. Major-W. W. Henry.
Adjutant-Wyllys Lyman. Quarter-Master-A. B. Valentine.
Surgeon-Willard A. Childe.
Assistant Surgeon-J. C. Rutherford. 66 - Almon Clark.
Chaplain-E. M. Haynes.
II
The regiment went into camp at Brattleboro', Vt., on the fifteenth of August, and was mustered into the United States service on the first day of September, with one thousand and sixteen officers and men.
During the time intervening between our going into camp and the date of leaving the State, the regiment was practiced in company drill almost daily. The men were supplied with old Belgium muskets, which they used while gaining some knowledge of the evolutions in infantry tactics. These they also carried to the seat of war. They were old rusty pieces, heavy and not fit for the most unimportant service of the soldier. Some of the men tried to scour them up, and others looked upon them with too much indiffer- ence to bestow a moment's labor upon them. It is doubted whether one-half of them could have been discharged under any circumstances ; and yet it is well remembered that the Adjutant and Inspector-General took occasion to reprimand some of the men because their old " fusees," as they con- temptuously called them, were not in good order.
These days were also occupied in otherwise equipping the troops, and supplying them with a complete outfit for a camp and campaign in the field.
Looking back through the years of experience that fol- lowed these brief days of preparation in the peaceful camp at Brattleboro', we must be amazed at the amount of imped- imenta that each officer and enlisted man called his own, and no doubt expected to take with him to the field and carry to the end.
The Quarter-Master's supplies and the ordnance stores were such as were usually issued. Calling to mind now the loaded form of a soldier of that day, how enormous he seems ! How could we suppress the exclamation, " Equip- ments, where are you going with that man?" Their heavy square knapsacks, haversacks, cartridge-boxes, canteens, and huge rolls of woolen and india-rubber blankets, and these
12
all strapped over their forms, made to look ungainly by loose-fitting coats and baggy trowsers, presented them rather as caricatures than the well-shaped men that most of them were.
But each man had much more in his possession than could be reasonably embraced in quarter-master's and ord- nance stores. There were few who did not have a writing- case of some description, with a good supply of stationery ; many had several books, the works of favorite poets, a hymn book, prayer-book, and the Testament. They had finger brushes, tooth brushes, hair brushes, and combs-which last-named article they hardly needed, unless it was to scratch their heads, for their hair was cropped too short to do much at combing it. Each man had his fancy bag- many were tri-color, red, white and blue, with various com- partments for thread, yarn, needles, pins and buttons. Many of them had bottles and packages of patent medi- cines, which were industriously circulated by quacks who came into camp, or furnished by careful, prudent mothers who lived away among the hills, who had always treated the ailments of their boys with root-and-herb drinks. These, however, were used " on the sly," against the "mild" pro- test of the surgeons, for the fatal malaria and contagion of strange climates and the camp.
Other things they had also, which were neither books nor medicines- but the inventory is already too large. Where all these articles were stored, and how transported, would be difficult for the argus-eyed Quarter-Master to determine.
There was an irrepressible desire to accumulate " lug- gage," and it was not subdued through months and years of service-only afterwards the articles accumulated in the en- emy's country or elsewhere were said to be " confiscated." This penchant was no less observable in the officers than in the men. They had more privileges, were allowed more
13
transportation. In fact, an enlisted man had no transporta- tion except his strong, willing back. Each captain, at the start, was entitled to a chest in which to transport the tools and books belonging to his company. Other officers also had these chests. There were fifteen or twenty of these large boxes, about the size of a respectable carpenter's tool- chest, all iron-bound and painted blue, bearing in front the respective company's letter, under which was painted in black, " Tenth Vt. Vols."
Each officer had a trunk or large valise, usually a trunk, weighing from forty to a hundred and fifty pounds. Many of them had tables, mess kits and mess chests, camp-stools, fancy cots, and patent water-proof mattresses. Each com- pany had twenty A tents, the company officers two wall tents, and the field and staff officers one wall tent each, making in all several cords of tent-poles, and unestimated bales of canvas.
All this, we knew, was destined for the field, and we thought for long campaigns and distant camps. How woe- fully we were mistaken! What havoc and ravages were made by the Quarter-Master ! What ever became of nine- tenths of this splendid outfit no mortal can tell. The regi- ment had a library of two hundred volumes, presented by Captain E. B. Frost, which was kept, through some diffi- culties, for nearly a year ; but it was at last reluctantly abandoned, and is probably now stored with the Chaplain's camp-cot, chairs, table, et cetera, with many pleasant mem- ories of the officers of this regiment, at the house of a good old Quaker in Maryland, near Pooleville. And so all along the marches of three years of service - some of them sad and dreary, if not hasty, and many of them grand and tri- umphant, those things collected at Brattleboro', and carried from home, bestowed by kind friends, became scattered through ten States of the Union, just as the energies and
14
strength of many a noble man, wasted away forever, in the hour of his country's need.
There were other scenes at the camp in Brattleboro', that all of us who are living will long remember-among them, perhaps, the preliminary steps of a regiment in the art of war, the service incident to this experience, guard and police duty, discipline, and all that might tend to a good military organization of volunteers.
While here, the men were allowed brief " furloughs," and the officers a day or two " leave of absence," to ar- range matters of business, to revisit friends, and bid them a sad or cheerful farewell. We took in turn their blessings and pledges of devotion for years to come, if stern war would spare them the opportunity. Wives and children, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, came to cheer the dear boy, and kiss him, and bless him, before he went away to meet the fate of the battle-field, the rebel prison, or the more universal destroyer, disease. Maidens came to meet lovers and renew, now less slyly, the holy vow whis- pered months ago, among the mountains, that death would soon dissolve forever.
This is something of what pertained to our brief days of camp life at Brattleboro', very much, it is presumed, like the routine and incidents of other camps. It is possible that some of them have not been recorded, but all will be best identified in the remembrance of the living.
While we were uttering these farewells, the Govern- ment, whose laws we had just sworn to obey and defend, summoned us to a broader experience and to sterner duties. The regiment left the State on the sixth of September, filling eighteen long passenger cars, and nearly as many freight cars with baggage and camp equipage. We left the railroad station about two o'clock P. M., going via Spring- field, Mass., to New Haven, Conn., where we arrived about
15
ten o'clock in the evening, thence by steamboat Conti- nental, to New York, where we arrived at daylight Sun- day morning, the seventh. We were met by Colonel Howe, of General Dix's staff; the officers were taken to the Astor House to breakfast, and the men were sumptuously fed at the barracks at City Hall Park. Here one man deserted. We reëmbarked at New York about ten o'clock, and after a beautiful sail down the harbor to Perth Amboy, went by rail over the Camden and Amboy Railroad to Philadelphia, and so on to Baltimore and Washington, where we arrived on the evening of the eighth. Left Washington next morn- ing ; crossed Long Bridge and arrived at Camp Chase same day. It was an old camp, near or upon Arlington Heights, where a hundred regiments had been encamped before.
We did not like the place assigned us, nor the odor about it, peculiar to such places. Colonel Jewett begged the privilege of selecting another, so we went on beyond, to new ground that had not been occupied by those who had come and gone before us. We cut down the small trees, uprooted stumps and cleared away the " slash," and before night, our tents having been brought along in the meantime, were in comfortable quarters.
Now we supposed that we were in the great army of patriots- perhaps the Army of the Potomac, of which we had heard so much, and of which the nation was expecting so much. The grand river from which this army took its name, and whose waters had more than once been tinged with the blood of our brothers, rolled calmly on a few hun- dred yards before us. Beyond it we saw the Nation's Cap- ital, and upon and along on either side were the Nation's Defenders, stationed in the chain of forts that belted it and bristled from every highland around it.
New regiments, like ourselves, were constantly arriving and going into camp around us. By and past us rode orderlies ; and companies of troopers browned in the serv-
16
ice, old soldiers of the infantry, grim and greasy, stalked by, looking half contemptuously and half pityingly upon us "raw recruits," as they called us ; the clean and gaily-dressed artillerymen passing down to the city, and horrible looking Zouaves, with their red Turkish trousers, yellow-trimmed jackets and scarlet skull-caps with long tassels hanging down their backs- some of them wore enormous nubias twisted ingeniously several times around their heads, for a covering to that part of their bodies. Who ever thought of putting men into this gear? They looked more like trained monkeys than they did like Uncle Sam's brave boys, as they were.
These scenes going on around us, led us to picture, though imperfectly, as after experience taught, the work that was before. Our courage then rose to and mastered difficulties and won victories of which veterans had never dreamed. Men talked of being led to battle. Under the fresh ardor of patriotism which then wrought noble resolu- tions-and which, thank God! never wholly ceased - under the inspiration of incidents new and strange to most of us, the letters written home to friends spoke of deeds of daring, and high hopes that were never, and never could be realized.
But it would be vain to undertake to tell of the emotions that struggled under the uniforms of these " boys in blue " at this time. Many of them were boys indeed, just from homes they had never left before - peaceful and happy homes among the mountains, whose sides they had climbed in childish glee, and that was the roughest experience they had ever met with. The sweet remembrance of a mother's kiss yet burned on their lips. Why should they rightly judge of what was before them? It was well they could not. It is well that Infinite Mercy curtains all the future from His creatures, in mysterious silence, and yet in hopeful invisibility.
I7
But there are two other incidents which properly belong to this first chapter of our history and experience as sol- diers. They came, indeed, before we were fairly initiated, the first at Philadelphia. It was in the generous welcome and hearty kindness of the citizens of that place.
It was midnight when we reached Camden, opposite the city, yet the signal gun announced our arrival, and by the time we were ferried across the river the streets were filled with men, women and children, hastening to welcome us, and give us the cheer of their warm hearts and boun- teous hands. The Soldiers' Home, so well known to every soldier, sick or well, who passed through the Quaker City during the years of the Rebellion, was lighted up, and an acre of tables were groaning beneath the weight of pro- visions, of all wholesome varieties, which were just suited to the wants of rugged, healthy men, besides an abundance of tea and coffee, steaming hot. To all this we were freely invited and most cheerfully partook of the same. This place, we learned, was furnished and supplied constantly with this kind of entertainment for soldiers passing to and from the army, by the ladies and citizens of Philadelphia. Their munificence was wonderful. Few people have any idea how much food a thousand hungry men will consume at one meal, yet we were all abundantly supplied, and there was enough left for as many more ; besides, we were told that ours was the twenty-eighth regiment that had partaken of this hospitality within one week.
Their words of encouragement, also, were profuse and heartfelt, equalling other expressions of kindness. Too much cannot be said in praise of this noble charity, unceas- ing while there was one left to whom it could offer its sub- lime ministry. Noble women, it seemed to us, some of them too old, and others too delicate, to brave the chilly air of a September night, crowded around to receive us and assure us of their sympathy and prayers. This spirit was
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