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 10
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It will be remembered that the Army of Western Vir- ginia was on the left, facing south and east, with Kitching's division, amounting to no more than a brigade, on Crook's left and rear, also facing east. The rebel line of assault was formed with Gordon's division stretched diagonally across Kitching's left. Ransom's and Pegram's divisions confronted the single brigade of Crook's corps, then turned off to the left of the main line of defence, and therefore stood opposed to the flank and rear of this line, at the same time reaching around so as to connect with Wharton's division in Crook's immediate front, while Kenshaw's larger division confronted the Nineteenth Corps, though not yet within striking distance.
Soon after the small demonstration on the right, the enemy fell upon Kitching's force and scattered it, as leaves
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are scattered before a November blast. At the same time they dashed upon Crook's men, sprang with hideous yells into their breastworks, and shot them down, all unprepared for resistance, or swept them within their advancing col- umns. The surprise was complete, and though the fiery storm lasted seemingly but for a moment, yet in that moment Crook's corps and Kitching's division had melted away. It seems almost incredible that these gallant men, who had charged so splendidly at Winchester and at Fisher's Hill, should now so speedily become fugitives, flying for safety. It would have been impossible under other circumstances. The enemy came upon them as a wave of the sea comes upon the beach, licking up the dry sticks and rubbish that have been lodged near the water's edge, carrying some far- ther away, but bearing most of it back on its refluent tide. Next, the conflict fell upon the Nineteenth Corps. Gor- don, Ransom and Pegram came up unopposed and fell upon its rear ; Kenshaw charged in front, and in less than an hour nothing except the deserted tents and baggage, lost artillery and the brave dead, remained to mark the site of their former occupation. But single brigades and divisions had fought nobly in this brief hour. That morning a recon- noisance, by a part of this corps, had been ordered, and a force was nearly ready to move out ; therefore, when the conflict broke so suddenly upon the left, these troops were in a movable condition. Colonel Stephen H. Thomas, the veteran commander of the Eighth Vermont Regiment, and the officer who did so much to mend the broken lines of his corps at Winchester, on the nineteenth of September, now in command of McMillian's brigade, immediately threw it across the pike and plunged with it into the woods, where he tried to arrest the fugitives from the Eighth Corps, and attempted to beat back the rebel host that was then pressing unopposed in pursuit. But he was soon over- whelmed and obliged to retire, leaving fully one-third of
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his men dead and wounded on the ground, although two other brigades came to his assistance. Meantime Gordon pushed on his flanking column, extending it around to the rear of the position still clung to by Emery, until he was squarely between him and Middletown, in possession of the pike. Emery now formed his remaining division upon the reverse side of his own breastworks, and endeavored for a moment to check the advance of the rebels ; but he could no more effect that than he could have stayed the torrent of a mighty river by dumping into it a cart load of sawdust. He was left alone with one division ; Grover had been overwhelmed in detail, himself wounded, and was retiring as best he could. The rest of the corps soon followed.
General Emery fought his corps with great bravery, and for some time faced the enemy with an organized front. His division and brigade commanders also are entitled to great praise for their conspicuous gallantry. It is impos- sible to see how men could have done better, situated as they were. The Sixth Corps, hearing the roar of the conflict through the darkness, had " packed up" and were prepared to move promptly when ordered. General Ricketts, in command of the corps, was not long in order- ing it into line of battle. The Third Division was formed into line at right angles, to our original position, facing east, the First Division formed on our left, a little to the rear, the Second came next ; and still farther to the left and rear, in order to brace the whole line, the cavalry was posted. Early's army had now become concentrated on a line running nearly parallel with and on the west side of the pike covering our whole front and extending far beyond either flank. He had five large divisions, it will be remem- bered, well supplied with artillery, which he commanded in person ; and there was now nothing left except the Sixth Corps and Torbert's Cavalry to match him. They at once opened a severe fire of artillery and musketry upon our
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division, from a commanding crest in front of the line we had newly taken up, sweeping all the ground before us. This fire continued for half an hour, pouring into our front ; it was then increased by an enfilading fire of artillery on our right, and the division fell back to a line parallel with that of the First Division. The rebels immediately advanced their line of battle to the crest we had left, and it seemed as if they were determined to force us still farther back. Now it happened when we fell back that three guns of Battery M, Fifth United States (Captain McKnight's), had been left in position. The rebels at once took posses- sion of them and were in the act of turning them upon us, whereupon a charge was ordered to recover them. We had retreated four hundred yards, and every inch must now be retraced ; the regiment advanced swiftly over the space, through a terrific storm of lead and iron, drove the enemy in confusion from the crest, recaptured the guns and dragged them off by hand.
Sergeant William Mahony, color bearer of the regi- ment, was the first to reach these guns, he immediately sprung upon one of them, flag in hand, saying, " They is taken, Kurnel." We maintained this position too long. The enemy coming up in heavier force, striking the troops that were on our left, and pouring in a destructive fire from the right, we were swept back to the second ridge above mentioned. We should have gone back at once, and moved quickly, instead of holding on until flanked on the right and left as we did, and then stubbornly yielding, fighting as we gave ground. We had suffered terribly in this adventure. But the enemy had met with his first repulse, and the manifest lack of confidence with which he fought afterwards, until his whole force hesitated and recoiled before one of our divisions, began to show itself at this point. We endeavored to make a stand upon this second line, but it was of no avail. The enemy were now reaching around our right,
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and after repulsing a determined assault in front, the First Division withdrew and the Third followed suit, swinging around far to the right, and somewhat to the rear of the Second, which, with Merritt's and Custar's divisions of cavalry, still struggled against complete disaster. General Sheridan, in his report of this battle, affirms that these troops, Getty's Division and Torbert's Cavalry, were the only "troops that confronted the enemy from the first attack in the morning until the battle was decided." But they had retreated four miles during the day. The Vermont Brigade distinguished itself above all praise in this action, and the heroism of officers and men was sublime.
At ten A. M., the rebels ceased to vex us. Either they thought themselves checkmated, or they were glutted with success. Both propositions may be true, for although they had driven us from the field and utterly routed most of the army, they had not conquered us ; there was a remnant left that steadily confronted them. General Getty, in command of the corps from early morning, General Ricketts having been severely wounded, had looked up a line of defence, and had there formed his own division. General Wright had brought the First and Third and the Nineteenth Corps into this formation, and had the rebels continued their advance he would surely have made the most stubborn fight of the day, thus far. It is true, also, that they loved well-alas ! too well for their safety-the spoils that had fallen into their hands. They delayed nearly three hours, at a time when a moment to them was worth assured victory. They were golden hours to us, for their mysterious silence was the unseen herald of the magnificent triumph that so speedidly followed. During that time Sheridan had arrived from Winchester. He immediately assumed command, carrying out the orders of General Wright, for this new defensive line. It is certain that the presence of Sheridan inspired confidence ; his every tone and gesture had something of reassurance in them.
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The men greeted him with vociferous cheering, the cowed and beaten in spirit hailed him with joy, stragglers hastened back at his heels, and the dying breathed out the last spark of life, rekindled it seemed but for an instant, to welcome his return. General Custar received him, les larmes aux yeux, and embraced him tenderly. He was everywhere in a mo- ment. Sending his staff in every direction, he would often- times gallop after them and then do himself the very thing he had directed them to do. But it is very doubtful whether the army thought of success, at least such a success as was achieved, even with Sheridan to command. They doubt- less thought of resistance, and determined not to be driven another inch. But Sheridan's plan was much more compre- hensive, and he frequently assured his men, energetically saying, "We'll have our camps before night."
At one o'clock P. M., he was ready to meet the enemy, who had been some time preparing to advance, and his skirmishers had been once driven back on the right. On the left of the pike were posted Merritt's and Custar's Cavalry, under Torbert, and what there was left of Crook's command; to their right the Sixth corps, Second Division on the left, Third in the centre, and the First on the right ; the Nineteenth Corps prolonged the line on the right, and subsequently Custar's division of cavalry was transferred to the right, to operate with the Nineteenth Corps. It was Sheridan's plan to turn the enemy's left with a heavy force, ยท while he occupied his front with just strength enough to keep all his troops there well engaged, consequently he placed the Sixth Corps in a single line, so as to cover his right and centre, and the Nineteenth in two lines, at the point determined upon for the heaviest work. The prepara- tion was not made a moment too soon ; the rebels immedi- ately advanced upon the left, hoping to succeed as they had hitherto upon the right. They came on with force enough, but lacked the spirit and dash of the morning, and they
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were handsomely repulsed. Now followed some readjust- ing of the lines, and a new disposing of troops ; and two hours later our whole line emerging to the left was moving steadily back over the ground we had lost, in a most deter- mined attack upon our whilom victorious foes. At first it met with as determined resistance, and it seemed as if our light line must succumb before the heavy columns of our adversaries, but Emery and Custar were hard at work on the right and soon overcome the resistance in that quarter. The attack was successful at last. The enemy's left gave way, and a part of it was cut off and captured by the terrible Custar. The other part of our line then sprang forward and his centre broke in confusion and fled a la Winchester and Fisher's Hill. Here as there, also, we pursued with avenging haste, cheering as we ran, so loud that the voice of cannon mingling with the clattering of musketry, seemed only the distant echo of our tumultuous joy, pushing rapidly over the four miles they had driven us, without an instant's relief, with no thought of their further resistance-they a flying mob, we a shouting aud exulting host, pursuing. We chased them to Cedar Creek, over which, after one look of mock defiance, expressed by the angry zips of a thousand bullets, those who could, escaped.
This scene was magnificent. The field was hilly, striped with ravines and dotted with woods, but occasionally the whole long curving line could be seen with its twice eighty flags, all in front, all tossed in the breeze that speed lent the air, floating their bright stars and gilded insignia of States along the triumphant way, and foremost, in the centre, was Sheridan, himself flashing, leading his army to victory.
The infantry halted on the banks of the creek; then came the smoking steeds of Custar. He forded the stream and pursued the routed foe until darkness afforded him shelter. Sheridan's promise was redeemed. We had our camps, and each man occupied the quarters that night,
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which he had left in the morning, save those who slept the long sleep of the brave. It was a gory gateway through which we passed to victory. The lost in killed, was nearly three thousand. Two general officers were killed and five wounded, one mortally. Our division commander, General Ricketts, was severely wounded, and at one time during the battle little hope was entertained for his life. Most of those made prisoners by the enemy in the morning were recap- tured at night, with fifteen hundred "Johnnies." We cap- tured fifty-three pieces of artillery, including twenty-four we had lost, fifteen hundred small arms, beside large quantities of war materiel. Pollard gloomily records as a joke a cus- tom of the ordnance officers in Richmond. When forward- ing artillery to this Confederate commander, they ticketed them "General Sheridan, care of General Jubal Early." There were nine Vermont regiments engaged in this battle, the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eleventh, Eighth, Tenth, and First Cavalry, all suffering more or less loss, but no organization from the State more than the Tenth. We lost one third of our command. Twenty enlisted men were killed, and two officers, Captain L. D. Thompson and Lieutenant B. B. Clark. Eight other officers were wound- ed, Adjutant Lyman, Captains Nye and Davis, Lieutenants White, Wheeler, Welch, Read and Fuller. The regiment enjoyed the benefit of a succession of commanders in this battle, if such changes can be beneficial to a regimental command during an engagement. . Colonel Henry was present at the commencement of the action, and bore himself with great coolness and bravery in the first charge that was made upon the enemy that morning. When the order came to secure McKnight's guns, the Colonel promptly led his regiment in the charge, and when he saw the guns safely to the rear, as the enemy were on three sides of him, ordered a retreat. This retreat commenced orderly enough, but as the rebels pressed up to the crest just occupied by the guns,
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and as they had a meadow to cross about a mile wide be- fore any sort of shelter presented itself, it became disorderly and hasty. The Colonel kept up with his command for about a quarter of the way, but then, as he was suffering from the effects of a severe attack of bilious fever, gave out and would have been left in the hands of the enemy had not Lieutenant Greer and Corporal Crown, of Company D, come to his assistance, each taking him by an arm, and so, turning to the left, to escape a portion of the rebel fire, bore him off' the field. As it was, the Colonel had four bullet holes in his clothes, Lieutenant Greer, then a Sergeant, had his knapsack on his back shot all to pieces, and Corporal Crown was twice hit, yet blood was not drawn on either of them. Meanwhile Captain Salisbury had halted and re- formed the regiment on the west side of the meadow, and gallantly repulsed the second charge of the enemy, when Colonel Henry came up.
Shortly after this, Captain Salisbury was detailed to command the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania, a small veteran regiment in the same brigade, and at that time without an officer with the rank of captain. In the final charge of the day the regiment was commanded by Captain H. H. Dewey, of Company A, an exceeding brave officer. Cap- tain Salisbury did good service with the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, of which he continued in command until the first of December, when he was relieved by the officer commanding the First Brigade, with the following complimentary order :
"The Brigade Commander desires to express his entire satisfaction with the able manner in which Captain Salisbury has discharged his duties as commander of this regiment."
He was also recommended for a brevet, for gallantry in this action. As these Pennsylvanians were under the com- mand of one of our best officers, it may not be inappropriate
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in this connection to speak of their valiant behavior at this battle. In the final charge they captured Ransom's division flag, one of their men taking it from its brave bearer, who, having been shot down, had torn it from its staff, and was in the act of hiding it in his bosom. The captain immedi- ately promoted him to a sergeant, and permitted him to take his prize to General Sheridan's headquarters. The general ordered his pay up to date, and gave him thirty days furlough.
But little more remains to be said of our part in the Shenandoah Campaign. The army remained at Cedar Creek and in the vicinity of Strasburg twenty days, and then moved north to a small hamlet near Winchester, where it was little further annoyed by General Early. A skirmish or two, resulting in defeat, finished the long chapter of Confederate disasters in the Shenandoah Valley. The First Vermont Cavalry, or a part of that command, on picket near this point, was attacked by a superior force of rebel cavalry, under Rosser, and its outposts were driven in. Major Salisbury, with the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania, and a part of the One Hundred and Twenty-Second "O. V. I.s," was ordered to drive them back, which he did after a brisk skirmish, under the immediate eye of General Sheri- dan. This is all that the Tenth Vermont had to do with the fight at Kearnstown.
On the eighth of November, the regiment held a Presi- dential election, casting one hundred and ninety-five votes for Lincoln and twelve for McClellan. On the twenty-first, the Sixth Corps was reviewed by General Sheridan. The twenty-fourth was Thanksgiving Day, and each soldier in the army was supplied with three-quarters of a pound of poultry -turkey or chicken-a Thanksgiving gift from loyal citizens of New York City, which made the occasion a very pleasant one. For the rest, quiet and monotony were the principal features of our stay in the Valley. The
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men built substantial quarters, thinking they were to winter there, and officers began to think of sending for their wives. But they did not, and the "Fates of War" soon shifted the scene.
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CHAPTER VII.
T N the Valley we had lived on mutton and honey. When we were not having the best of a time, we had the worst. Army experience ever afforded these two extremes. We now go back to become once more identified with the operations around Petersburg and Richmond, and to per- form duties more disagreeable than those we had dis- charged during the last forty days, and to live on a soldier's common fare-the lambs and honey of the Confederacy had become exhausted in this quarter.
On the third of December, we moved to Stevenson's Station, and took cars for Harper's Ferry en route for Washington, via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Arriv- ing at the station, there followed the usual disestablishment that falls to the lot of armies moved by railroad and water transportation-that is, all unauthorized horses, a large number of which are generally accumulated in a campaign through an enemy's country, were turned over to Quarter- Masters. There are also, at such times, a great many personal effects, such as tables, chairs, ofttimes a stool, and not unfrequently a bed-quilt, that have mysteriously made their way into camp and ministered wonderfully to the soldier's comfort, which must, on the eve of a march, be abandoned. We often parted with these articles with great reluctance ; they become to the soldier things of vertu. No one can tell how much he becomes attached to an old chair, or a table, or that which served the purpose of a table, until he has known the inconvenience of trying to get along with- out them. The man who invented a camp-chair was a great
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civilizer, he deserves a monument crowned with his own collossal figure in bronze.
We arrived at Washington at eight o'clock on the morn- ing of the fourth, and immediately took ship on the steamer Matilda, for City Point, where we arrived at eleven A. M., on the fifth. After some delay we got ashore, and after a great deal more detention reached the front sometime during the night. When the morning broke we found that we had slept among the half-buried bones of those slain six months before, and upon a battlefield we had ourselves contested. Next day we moved into a position on the left of the Weldon Railroad, formerly occupied by the Fifth Corps. It was.
a dreary place. The heel of the soldier had crushed all the verdure from the soil-the timber for miles around had been cut away and converted into fortifications, cabins and. fuel. Still, all this region was many times enriched by the blood of our countrymen, and now doubtless yields luxuri- ant harvests of grass and grain from the costly fertilizing. Our division moved to Hatcher's Run, on the ninth, in a terrible storm of snow and rain, as a supporting column to Warren and Mott, who had gone still further to the left, in order to destroy the Weldon Railroad, south of our position, which the enemy was using to transport supplies from North Carolina, nearly up to a point whence he could wagon them around our left to his own depots. On the tenth, after standing in -line of battle, in half-frozen mud and water six inches deep, from eight o'clock in the morning until two in the afternoon, we moved back to the old camp. Barely arriving there, our regiment was ordered away to Fort Du- shane, a position in the rear line of defences on the Weldon Railroad. Here we remained until the twenty-third, through terrible cold weather, much exposed, and it required a great deal of grumbling to while away and vary the monotony of our stay. Through great tribulation the men had contrived to build cabins, though much inferior to any they had con-
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structed before, on account of the great scarcity of material. But there was no rest yet; just as these additions to our comfort had been secured, General Seymour, now in com- mand of our division, ordered us up to the first line of defences. There we remained in comparative quiet until the twenty-ninth of March, with the exception of an engage- ment on the twenty-fifth, which is reported as a battle. It was indeed a battle, in which Lieutenant-Colonel George B. Damon, then in command of the Tenth, distinguished himself. It was a battle of the picket line, although intended as a feeler of the main line of the enemy, which General Meade apprehended had been weakened in order to swell the force which had been impelled against Fort Steadman on the morning of the twenty-fifth. Of course that attack, being upon the east of Petersburg, did not fall upon the Sixth Corps, nor did we sustain any part of the temporary defeat at that point, neither share the subsequent success there attained-all of that belongs to the Ninth Corps. As soon as this affair was over, however, General Meade sup- posing that some of the enemy's supporting troops in this assault had been concentrated at that point from our immediate front on the left of Fort Steadman, ordered a counter attack, which engaged nearly all of our division, and involved, in one way and another, the whole of both corps. Colonel Damon had under his command about four hundred men from the Tenth Vermont and Fourteenth New Jersey, besides the One Hundred and Tenth and One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Regiments. With these forces he was ordered to advance to the picket line in front of Forts Fisher and Welch, and if possible carry it. He reached this line, which was about three hundred yards distant, and penetrated it at several points, but on account of the strength of the position and the vigor of its defence, he was compelled to retire to the original line.
General Seymour made immediate preparation to renew
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the charge. General Kifer, commanding our Second Bri- gade, with the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Ohio, the Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania, the Sixth Maryland and the Ninth New York Heavy Artillery Regiments, as a support to Damon's detachments from the First Brigade, now directed the assault. The advance commenced at four P. M., Colonel Damon now commanding his own regiment. The first line moved rapidly forward, the supports closely following, and captured the enemy's entire intrenched picket line, and held it, forcing them back five hundred yards. The enemy's fiasco upon Fort Steadman, in the early morning, finally resulted in the loss of his fortified line at this point, together with the loss of two thousand prisoners at all points. Of these, the Tenth captured one hundred and sixty men. Thus ended the operations of the day, so far as we were concerned. Previous to this movement, the Third Division had been in camp near the Weldon Railroad, south of Petersburg, as above stated, nearly three months, doing police, fatigue and picket duty. These duties were quite severe, as we were so near the enemy, and it required so much time and attention to keep the slippery clay soil, upon which our camp was located, in a good sanitary condition. The two picket lines, at this point, were near enough together to afford free and easy communication between the sentinels on opposite posts. They daily exchanged Rich- mond for Washington and New York papers. "Yank" and "Johnny" chopped wood from the same felled tree, at the same time, between the lines, and conversed about the aspects of the struggle. Why should they not ? Each was then engaged in a peaceful pursuit, and it seemed as reason- able as the practice of firing upon each other regularly, night and morning, from their respective posts of military duty.
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