USA > Vermont > A history of Vermont : with geological and geographical notes, bibliography, chronology, maps, and illustrations > Part 15
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HISTORY OF VERMONT
the treasury of the state, to say nothing of the other expenses of the war.
Commissions for the recruiting troops were issued by the governor on the 7th of May, and three days later the services of fifty full companies were offered to the government, - more than twice as many as it was then ready to accept.
VERMONT TROOPS IN SERVICE
The Civil War practically involved the conquest of the South. In point of military tactics, therefore, it had to be an offensive war on the part of the Union forces, and was, conversely, defensive on the part of the South- ern army, with the exception of Lee's projected invasion of the North.
The Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River cut the field of action into three great sections. The Mississippi and its tributaries made important naval operations possible in the West, and there the Federal forces were almost uniformly successful. Not so in the East. The scene of conflict was here mainly in Vir- ginia, which was for four years the battle ground of two armies : one -the Army of the Potomac -trying to defend Washington, conquer Virginia, and capture Richmond ; the other --- the Army of Northern Virginia - trying to defend Richmond and Virginia, attack Washington, and invade Maryland and Pennsylvania.
It was on this ground, in the region around and between the two capitals, Washington and Richmond, where the fighting came thick and fast, that the
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Vermont troops rendered the heaviest part of their service in the Army of the Potomac.
The First Regiment was ordered at once into service ; for, said General Scott, "I want your Vermont regi- ments, all of them. I have not forgotten the Vermont men on the Niagara frontier." So they went forward. Their term of enlistment expired in August of the same year, for it was not anticipated that the war would be of long duration, and the President's call was for only three months' service. But their service did not end ; for when the period of this regiment's enlistment expired five out of every six of its rank and file reenlisted ; the field, staff, and line officers returned to the serv- ice almost to a man ; and no less than one hundred and sixty-one of its members became officers in Ver- mont regiments and batteries which were afterward organized.
In the fall of 1861 the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth regiments were formed into the Vermont Brigade, as it was then called ; and later, when a second brigade was formed of regiments subsequently enlisted, it was known as the First Vermont Brigade, or the " Old Brigade." It will be absolutely impossible to follow the history of these troops in all their service. Indeed it would tax our limits to tell the history of any one regiment. For instance, Benedict, in his history, l'er- mont in the Civil War, which is our authority for this period, says of the Second Regiment :
" It had a share in almost every battle fought by the Army of the Potomac, from the first Bull Run to the surrender of Lee; and its quality as a fighting regiment is indicated by the fact that
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its list of killed and wounded in action numbered no less than seven hundred and fifty-one, or forty per cent of its aggregate of eighteen hundred and fifty-eight officers and men ; while its ratio of killed and mortally wounded was more than eight times the general ratio of killed and mortally wounded in the Union army.
In March, 1862, Mcclellan, then in command of the Army of the Potomac, began what is known as the Peninsular campaign, a plan to advance on Richmond, the Confederate capital, from the cast. He was slow in moving, and found the Confederates ready for him, fortified at every point. By the end of May he had succeeded in getting within ten miles of Richmond ; but Lee and "Stonewall " Jackson attacked him so per- sistently that he decided to withdraw, and then they continued hammering away at him during the seven days' retreat. This campaign gave the Vermont troops plenty of service. They took part in engagements at Lee's Mill, Williamsburg, Golding's Farm, Savage's Station, and White Oak Swamp.
The battle of Lee's Mill was one of the bloodiest in proportion to numbers in which our troops took part during the war. The first assault on the enemy's works was made by the Third Vermont Regiment, four com- panies of which, led by Captain Samuel E. Pingree (later a governor of the state), made a daring dash across War- wick Creek, assaulting and carrying the riffe pits of the enemy.
After McClellan had decided to abandon the siege of Richmond and to retreat, the Vermont troops once more rendered brilliant service in the battle of Savage's Sta- tion. The importance of this action becomes apparent
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when we learn that the success of Mcclellan's retreat depended first of all on getting an army of one hundred and fifteen thousand men, with an immense army train of five thousand wagons, through the White Oak Swamp. This great natural barrier stretched half way across the peninsula south of Richmond, squarely across his line of retreat, and was passable only through one narrow way. The stand of the rear guard, therefore, at Savage's Station was, as Benedict says, "a notable passage in the history of the Peninsular campaign, and the battle will ever be memorable to Vermonters as that in which . one of our regiments, the Fifth, suffered the greatest loss in killed and wounded ever sustained by a Vermont regiment in action."
The Fifth Regiment had orders to advance through the woods in front of them. A regiment of Union troops recently recruited had thrown themselves on the ground in the woods and refused to advance. They were under fire for the first time. The men of the Fifth Vermont walked over them and marched on. "I remember as if it were yesterday," said one of the sergeants, " the way we tramped over that line of cringing men, cursing them roundly for their cowardice." The enemy's battery was raking the woods with a terrible fire, but the regi- ment went on into the open field. They kept on till they met the enemy, made a bayonet charge; then halted and opened fire on the infantry line across the hollow in front of them.
Meanwhile they were themselves exposed to the fire of two regiments, a battery of grape and canister, and a raking cross fire of musketry from the edge of the woods
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to their left. In twenty minutes every other man in line had been killed or wounded. And yet the regiment held its position, silenced the enemy in front, and did not go back until hours afterward, when it was ordered to the rear with the brigade. The men had sixty rounds of cartridges and used them all, taking the guns of their fallen comrades when their own became heated. The surgeon who visited the field the next day said in a letter : " Thirty men of the Fifth Vermont were found lying side by side, dressed in as perfect a line as for a dress parade, who were all stricken down by one dis- charge of grape and canister from the enemy's battery." One company had three commissioned officers and fifty- six men in line ; seven came out unharmed. Of the rest, twenty-five were killed or died of their wounds.
The second eastern campaign of 1862 -- the second Bull Run campaign - resulted in the Union army being driven back toward Washington and the Confederates being emboldened to carry the war into the North. Then came the storming of Crampton's Gap and the battle of Antietam, and more good work by the Vermont troops.
The Fourth Regiment especially distinguished itself at the storming of Crampton's Gap, where on Sep- tember 14 it captured, on the crest of the mountain, a Confederate major, five line officers, one hundred and fifteen men, and the colors of the Sixteenth Virginia. These colors are preserved among the trophies of the War Department at Washington.
A war correspondent of the New York Tribune reported the following from Antietam :
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Smith was ordered to retake the cornfields and woods which had been so hotly contested. It was done in the handsomest style. His Maine and Vermont regiments and the rest went forward on the run, and, cheering as they went, swept like an avalanche through the cornfield, fell upon the woods, cleared them in ten minutes, and held them. They were not again retaken. The field and its ghastly harvest remained with us. Four times it had been lost and won. The dead are strewn so thickly that as you ride over it you cannot guide your horse's steps too carefully.
After the bloody battle of Antietam McClellan was superseded in command by General Burnside. The Con- federates fortified Marye's Heights, behind Fredericks- burg, on the south side of the Rappahannock. The position was almost impregnable, but Burnside attacked it, only to be repulsed with a terrible loss. " Fighting Joe " Hooker was then placed in command of the Army of the Potomac.
From the middle of December, 1862, to the end of the following April the Army of the Potomac remained quietly in camp opposite Fredericksburg, and the Con- federates retained their strong position on Marye's Heights. At length Hooker began to operate. In the storming of Marye's Heights, May 3, 1863, at the second battle of Fredericksburg, the Vermont brigade accom- plished more than ever before to establish its reputation as a fighting brigade. A New Jersey officer describes the taking of Marye's Heights as follows :
As we approached the foot of the hills, we could see the rebel gunners limbering up their pieces. The Second Vermont, which had got a little ahead of us, were now moving up the steep slope on our right, in beautiful line ; and presently we also commenced the ascent. A terrible volley thinned the ranks of the Vermonters ;
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but they pressed on, and the enemy began to give way. As we reached the top of the hill we could see the flying foe, crossing through a gully and ascending the rise of ground opposite. The terrible Fredericksburg Heights had been captured.
The heights were carried so rapidly that the Con- federate general, Jubal Early, who had the greater part of his division within supporting distance, could not reënforce his lines in time to save them. Benedict says : "No similar assault on the Southern side during the war equaled this in brilliancy and success; and in these respects it was surpassed on the Northern side, if at all, only by Lookout Mountain and the final storming of Lee's lines at Petersburg." The regiments moved with the precision of ordinary drill, none rushing, none lagging. Nevertheless Lee outgeneraled Hooker at Chancellors- ville and in four days dealt the Army of the Potomac a terrible blow.
Ile again decided to invade the North. Then came the campaign which led to Gettysburg. Lee crossed the Potomac and entered Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac kept between him and Washington. Hooker was succeeded by General Meade. On July I, 1863, the armies came together at the little village of Gettysburg, and the Union troops being driven back in a bloody battle to a strong position known as Cem- etery Ridge, Meade determined to fight the decisive battle there.
On the next day the Confederates attacked vigorously, drove back the Union left, and secured a position which threatened the whole line. Meantime the Sixth Corps, which had been lying quietly at Manchester, some thirty
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miles from the scene of battle, was rushed over the Baltimore and Gettysburg turnpike in the most rapid and exciting march in its history. The fate of the army and indeed the outcome of the whole war might depend on the presence of these troops. It was then that General Sedgwick gave his famous order : "Put the Vermonters ahead and keep the column well closed up." They had a reputation for marching as well as for fighting.
At General Mcade's headquarters, about six o'clock that evening, there stood an anxious group of officers. The Confederates had been forcing back the Union left, and the sound of battle grew louder and nearer. Presently a cloud of dust appeared down the Baltimore pike. What did that cloud hide ? Had the enemy gained the rear? As the officers stood looking through their field glasses, one said : " It is not cavalry, but infantry. There is the flag. It is the Sixth Corps."
During the next day and the final day of the battle the Second Vermont Brigade won laurels on the left center. The Confederates were driven out of one posi- tion on the extreme right of the Union lines, and every attack was repelled. Lee determined to make one more assault, and sent Pickett with fifteen thousand men against the Union center. They were repulsed with awful loss. The fate of the charge was sealed by the flank attack of Stannard's brigade. Veazey and the Sixteenth Vermont Regiment charged upon and dis- persed two Confederate brigades under Wilcox. This action closed the battle of Gettysburg. Lee's invasion of the North was ended.
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General Grant, who had been winning brilliant suc- cesses in the Western campaign, was now placed in entire charge of the Union armies; Sherman began his famous march to the sea; Thomas destroyed Hood's army; and Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, took up again in May, 1864, the task of destroying Lee's army and taking Richmond.
Then followed the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsyl- vania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. A thousand Ver- monters were killed or wounded in the first day's fight- ing of the Wilderness campaign. Two hundred fell the second day. The Third Regiment went into the first day's fight with about five hundred muskets, and in the next month's fighting lost two out of every three men.
The Fourth Regiment fought at Spottsylvania in the front line. At Cold Harbor it was again engaged. In the movement to Petersburg it suffered the greatest loss by capture that it ever experienced. Out of two hun- dred men taken to the skirmish line, but sixty-seven answered to the roll call the next morning, with three commissioned officers. Nearly one half of the captured men died in Confederate prisons. The colors were saved. Although it was only one of thirty-two infantry brigades, the Vermont brigade suffered one tenth of the entire loss of Grant's army in killed and wounded in the Wilderness campaign.
Lee forestalled Grant and occupied Petersburg. Grant sat down to a nine months' siege before it. Lee stood the pressure until it became intolerable; then he sent one of his ablest generals, Jubal Early, with a detach- ment to penetrate the Shenandoah Valley and seize
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Washington, thinking that this might divert Grant. Grant gave Sheridan forty thousand men and sent him after Early. Early reached Washington, but was just a little too late to seize it; while Sheridan on this Shen- andoah campaign drove the Confederates back, destroyed everything eatable that could be found to support an army, and rejoined Grant at Petersburg in November, 1864.
In this campaign of the Shenandoah Valley, Vermont troops did good service; they shared in the engagements at Charlestown, the Opequan, Winchester, Fishers Hill, and Cedar Creek. The battle of the Opequan restored the lower valley to Union control, put an end to invasions in Maryland and to raids against the national capital. At Cedar Creek what looked like a Confederate victory was turned into a complete rout, upon Sheridan's appear- ance after his famous ride of twenty miles from Winches- ter. Out of a total of forty-eight guns captured, the First Vermont Cavalry brought in twenty-three.
Then back to Petersburg. As soon as it was possi- ble to move in the following spring the Northern soldiers began the final campaign of the war. The South was a mere shell. Sherman had moved at will; and not an important seaport remained in Southern hands. Grant, rejoined by Sheridan, made it impossible for Lee to hold Richmond any longer. The South had put every fight- ing man and every dollar she had into the war. Lee's army dwindled as his men began to despair of their cause. When Sheridan on his way to Jetersville asked, " Where are the rebels?" an old colored patriarch, lean- ing on the fence, replied, " Siftin' souf, sah; siftin' souf," with a smile and wave of his hand. The Union army
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outnumbered the Confederate two to one. Lee tried to escape by the valley of the Appomattox to the mountains, hoping possibly to unite with Johnston's forces. But at last the Northern soldiers were too quick for him. He was caught and cornered with the van of his starving army at the Appomattox Courthouse. He surrendered, and the war came to an end.
In the operations which led to the end Vermont troops again had their share. The Second Regiment once more distinguished itself in the final assault on the defenses of Petersburg, with many instances of individ- ual gallantry. A portion of the Ninth Regiment was the first to carry a Union flag into the rebel capital. After the fall of Richmond the Second Regiment joined in the pursuit of Lee, and in a skirmish with the rear guard on the evening of April 6 fired the last shot discharged in action by the Sixth Corps. The Third Regiment did its last fighting in the final assault on Petersburg. This regiment lost two hundred officers and men who were killed or died of wounds received in action, and many more died of disease or starvation while prisoners in the enemy's hands. The Fifth Regi- ment led the storming column when the Sixth Corps broke through the enemy's lines in front of Petersburg on the 2d of April, and first planted the colors of the Sixth Corps on the enemy's works. The final state- ment of the regiment shows that of all the Vermont regiments it lost the largest percentage of men killed and mortally wounded in action.
The old brigade was engaged in thirty battles. Not one of its colors fell into hostile hands. General McMahon
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said: " No body of troops in or out of the Army of the Potomac made their record more gallantly, sustained it more heroically, or wore their honors more modestly. The Vermont brigade were the model and type of the volunteer soldier."
Besides the seventeen infantry regiments which Ver- mont sent from first to last into the war, she sent also three batteries of light artillery, one regiment of cavalry,
TATE
THE VERMONT SOLDIERS' HOME AT BENNINGTON
and a larger proportion of sharpshooters than any other state, not to speak of the Vermont men who served as staff officers, soldiers in the regular army, and as privates and commissioned officers in other'states.
Her cavalry regiment was raised in the fall of 1861, and was the first full regiment of mounted men raised in New England. It was the largest regiment but one sent from Vermont, comprising from first to last twenty- two hundred and ninety-seven officers and men. It had
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a notable history. Previous Vermont regiments had been raised by state authority; the cavalry was raised under the direct authority of the United States. The regiment served in the Shenandoah Valley, at Gettysburg, in the Wilderness campaign, and under Sheridan.
The organization of United States sharpshooters was an attempt to meet the marksmen of the Confederates with equally skilled shots armed with long-range rifles. They were a distinct branch of the service. There were two such regiments raised in the first year of the war, of whose total num- ber this state fur- nished over one sixth. They shared in almost THE ST. ALBANS RAID Demanding Funds at the Bank every battle fought by the Army of the Potomac, and made a brilliant record, sec- ond to that of no other equal number of enlisted men.
Some of Vermont's sons occupied important positions as staff officers. To them fell the duties of keeping the troops supplied, of giving the soldiers medical and sur- gical care, of keeping regimental and brigade and corps accounts and records, of preparing and transmitting orders in camp and field.
Vermont had a higher percentage of men killed in action than any other state, while the percentage of the
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old brigade was higher even than that of the state. The five original regiments of this brigade gave 4747 officers and men to the service of the government ; 4070 more were added to these during the war, making an aggre- gate of 8817 officers and men. The total wounded was 2328; 774 died in Union hospitals; 578 were killed in action; 395 died of wounds; 135 died in Confederate prisons.
Vermont sent to the war ten men out of every hun- dred of her popu- lation. She was credited with nearly thirty- four thousand volunteers, out of a total enroll- ment of thirty- seven thousand men liable to do militia duty. THE ST. ALBANS RAID Seizing Horses on Main Street None of her colors were ever yielded in action, while in proportion to total numbers her troops took more rebel colors than those of any other state. In 1867 General Sheri- dan, in the State House at Montpelier, said: "When I saw these old flags I thought I ought to say as much as this: I have never commanded troops in whom I had more confidence than I had in Vermont troops, and I do not know but I can say that I never commanded troops in whom I had as much confidence as those of this gallant state."
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With one more incident we will close the story of the war. On the 19th of October, 1864, a party of strangers came into the village of St. Albans in small squads, scattered about the place, and made a secret and simultaneous entrance at the three banks. They closed the doors of the banks, made the inmates prison- ers, relieved the institutions of their available assets, and made their escape, firing pistols promiscuously. They also attempted to set fire to some of the buildings. Excitement was intense; it was feared that the party was but an advance guard of a larger invading host. At Mont- pelier, where the legislature was in session, members THE ST. ALBANS RAID The Burning of Sheldon Bridge gallantly volun- teered to serve in military capacity to repel the invaders. But no invasion came. A party was hastily formed, and started after the raiders, following them into Canada. Two hundred thou- sand dollars had been taken from the banks. Fourteen of the men were taken, and eighty-six thousand dollars were recovered. After this affair two companies of cavalry were raised to protect the northern frontier from further similar invasion. The companies were stationed at St. Albans, and did guard duty for about six months.
CHAPTER XII
FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE SPANISHI WAR
EFFECTS OF THE WAR
Vermont shared in the general disturbances caused by the war, and it was many years before the direct traces of the great national calamity disappeared. Busi- ness cannot cease when war is in progress, because the same number of people have to be provided for, whether they are fighting or working. They must eat, be clothed and sheltered. Since the armies took so many able- bodied men from the field of industry, it naturally fol- lowed that the products of labor grew scarcer and the prices of it rose. And as prices of merchandise rose the correspondingly greater value of the labor of the workers became apparent and wages rose.
Farm values went up along with the general rise in prices, for the products of the farms are among the first necessities of life. Stock, cereals, wool, and other farm,produce went rapidly up to nearly or quite double the former prices. Some farmers took advantage of the unusual conditions and held their products till they reaped large profits; others tried the same experiment and held them too long, until prices went tumbling down again. The wages paid to farm laborers advanced, and eventually the prices of farms themselves.
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Along with the derangement of values went financial derangement. The paper money which was issued to tide the government along depreciated, and there was as high a premium on gold as on anything else. The high scale of prices could not be maintained from the very nature of the case, because it was due to causes which were not going to operate continuously. The war ended, and in the years which followed, until prices had reached their normal level, there was a decline of values which operated with hardship on many. Men who thought that war brought them wealth found that peace brought them poverty. Young men returning from the war, and buying farms at the inflated prices which prevailed, soon found that they must pay for them with the proceeds of labor, farm animals, and crops which were steadily falling, and that when paid for the farm itself would be worth only a fraction of the purchase price. Such men often lost everything they had.
Many of the returning veterans sought fortunes in the West rather than attempt to take up life again in the old communities. Little had been saved from their pay during the war ; many had families at home to be supported. Middle-aged men found themselves forced to begin life anew. Some were too shattered in health to be equal to the task. Some took up soldiers' rights in western lands and adapted their agricultural knowledge to new conditions. Others went back to the old farms. Still others engaged in manufacturing and business.
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