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 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
No details for picket duty, at this time, were allowed to sleep when not on their posts, during the twenty-four hours,
.
140
which was the usual limit of their assignment to this task. There was little or no time for drill while in these winter quarters, and perhaps no need of more than was furnished by the usual evening dress parade. This gave the men exercise in the manual of arms, and was now performed in our division by brigades. On the whole, this was altogether the hardest winter we had seen in our military existence. Our exposure to the storm, and our experience in the mud, were greater than ever before. The pitiless blast frequently uncovered the frail shelters of the soldier, and sometimes
blew down our heavily corded wall tents. One March wind wrenched Surgeon Clark's tent from its fastenings, and hurled the ridge beam upon the head of Captain Davis, who happened to be sitting inside, with such violence as to render that officer senseless for twenty-four hours, and disable him for a month. Our proximity to the Confederate lines was such as to render almost every movement of ours visible to them, and constant vigilance was the price of our safety from surprise by a coup d'etat.
We had a sutler but a small part of the time, and we had to rely upon the government for all of our supplies. To be sure the Commissary Department usually furnished the substantials in this line, but never luxuries. I do not remember that the government ever issued fresh salmon and green peas. With all this exposure, privation and severe military service, the troops of our division were never in a more healthy condition. The men of the Tenth Regiment were complimented in special orders by Colonel Scriver, Medical Inspector of the Army, for cleanliness of person and quarters, also for the healthy and orderly arrangements of their camp. The Division Hospital, in charge of Surgeon Childe, of the Tenth, was admirably located, well fitted up, and in its routine and details of management as conducive to the comfort of the sick as any of those vast military infirmaries around Washington. With all this, too, our
14I
troops were contented. There was no murmuring, but each man seemed to be waiting calmly to do his part in the final movements of the approaching spring campaign, which all intelligent minds believed would determine the fate of the rebellion. Our discipline was perfect, and desertion from among the veterans unknown, although there were some from recruits and substitutes who had recently been sent to the front. In these particulars there was a remarkable contrast between the two opposing armies. While the patriots were well fed, warmly clad and abundantly sup- plied with medicines and hospital accommodations, firmly believing in the justice and righteousness of their cause, with many of their comrades returning recovered from the inju- ries of the late campaigns, and contented now to do and die in further efforts to suppress the rebellion, a large majority of the Confederates lacked all these conditions and qualities. They were discontented, weary and heart-sick of the strug- gle ; many were constantly seeking the opportunity to desert. Scores and hundreds came into our lines nightly. A load of them, driving a six-mule team, entered our camps on the twenty-third of February, in open day. Many of the officers came in with their men, delivering themselves from further participation in a struggle which had become hope- less. Thus, much of the vitality of the Confederacy oozed out ; its forces were dropping away all winter, and the time usually employed to recruit the health and spirits of an army for vigorous operations in the spring, was seized upon by the Confederate soldiers to free themselves from the toils and the consequences of the uncertain contest. This showed something of the state of demoralization existing in the rebel army; but when soldiers, set to guard its outposts and various fortifications against the approaches of an enemy without, were compelled to guard still more vigilantly against their own companions in arms, lest they should desert, and were oftentimes ordered to fire upon
.
142
large squads fleeing to the enemy, there is positive proof of great disorder. Meanwhile Grant was strangling the Army of Northern Virginia. It had been able to do little more than hold a defensive position around Richmond for the past eight months. Sheridan had destroyed an army that the Confederate chief sent into the Shenandoah Valley for the purpose of loosing the toils that he felt tightening around him.
Sherman and Thomas had kept all of the Confederate armies south and southwest of Virginia remarkably busy for nearly a year, ever defeating and steadily driving them, and now, united, were heading towards Richmond. Surely that nation, which misguided men had attempted to rear upon a foundation which had for its corner stone the black man, was beginning to totter. Perhaps it would have stood firmer had not its founders cast four millions of intelligent beings, whose blood boiled for freedom, into the trenches of its substructure.
We must now describe something of the operations of both armies henceforward, to the close of the contest between them; and though other corps and regiments shared equally in the final movements here successfully undertaken, the part taken by the Sixth Corps will be given most in detail.
Lee must free himself from this vice-like grip of the Army of the Potomac or perish. Grant had planned a movement to commence on the twenty-ninth of March, which was to strike once more the enemy's right flank, against whch we had been so often hurled with varying success, while vigorous demonstrations were to be made upon his left. Lee anticipated this contemplated movement by four days. On the twenty-fifth, he made his famous strike at Forts Steadman and Haskell, referred to near the beginning of this chapter, and better known in histories of the war. Had this design succeeded, it certainly would
I43
have prolonged the contest, for it would have divided our army and endangered our depot of supplies at City Point. But the result was far otherwise. Lee lost three thousand men, was compelled to give ground at several points along his line, and on the whole, shook himself more firmly into the toils from which he was endeavoring to free himself. Thus the memorable second of April, 1865, found him.
No doubt a full and impartial account of the final movements of the Army of the Potomac, henceforth from this date, would be acceptable to most of the small circle of readers whom this volume will reach. But they are fairly recorded elsewhere. Therefore the remarkable operations of Sheridan, on the three days preceding and on the same date, on the right of the enemy, with the cavalry corps, Warren's and a part of Hancock's Corps, the latter under Humphreys, although thrilling, and the initiation of that strategy which intercepted the successful flight, and finally wrought disaster to the Confederate forces around Rich- mond, cannot be recorded. And as the briefest possible account of the part taken by the Tenth Vermont in the action of the second of April, the report of Lieutenant- Colonel George B. Damon is given, nearly complete.
"General :- I have the honor to submit the following as a report of the operations of this regiment, in the attack upon the main line of works of the enemy, on the left of Petersburg, on the second of this month.
" In compliance with orders from the headquarters of the brigade, the regiment, in light marching order, leaving all knapsacks and camp equipage behind, in order to facilitate its movements, moved at twelve o'clock, midnight, on the first of April, and went into position some four hundred yards in front of Fort Welch, and twenty paces in rear of our intrenched picket line .. The brigade, which was the
-
144
extreme left of the corps, was formed in three lines of battle, the Tenth Vermont occupying the right of the front line. The picket line of the enemy was also behind strong earthworks, about one hundred and fifty yards from us, their main works being some two hundred yards farther to their rear.
"Soon after we were in position, at half past twelve o'clock, and again at three o'clock in the morning, a very severe picket fire was opened on both sides, commencing at a considerable distance to our right, and extending to our front and left, and continuing each time for about one half hour.
" The regiment is entitled to great credit for the silence which was maintained during this terrible musketry, both officers and men keeping a perfect line and displaying great coolness and courage. The darkness prevented a large list of casualties, some five or six men only being wounded.
" At about four o'clock in the morning, at the firing of a signal gun from Fort Fisher, the regiment advanced at a double quick under a terrific fire of musketry and artillery, passing our own picket line and that of the enemy, pressing through such openings as we could find in the double line of abatis, and did not halt until the colors of the regiment were planted inside the fortified line of the enemy.
" We first struck their works immediately to the left of a fort mounting six guns, which was evacuated on our approach. These defenses consisted of heavy field works, at least six feet high, with a ditch in front eight feet wide and six or seven feet deep, -and forts and redoubts at intervals of from three hundred to four hundred yards, all mounted with field artillery. A portion of the men passed through narrow openings in the works and many jumped into the ditch and scaled the intrenchments. Many prisoners delivered themselves up here, and were imme- diately sent to the rear, but without guard, as our own
I45
safety required the presence of every man. As my regi- ment was in advance of the other regiments of the division, and had become somewhat broken by the obstructions through which we had passed, I caused the line to be reformed, which occupied some five minutes, during which time we were joined by portions of the other regiments of the brigade.
"As soon as my command was reorganized, we moved rapidly to the left, in line of battle, within and parallel to the captured works, in the direction of a second fort, some three hundred yards distant, doubling up the enemy as we advanced, and capturing many prisoners. This fort, mounting two guns, was taken without serious opposition. Here we halted for a moment to reorganize the line, and again advanced, over swampy, uneven ground, upon a third fort, distant some four hundred yards, from which we received a severe artillery fire. We were also subjected to quite a severe musketry fire from this position, which was obstinately contested by a large force of the enemy assembled there. The position was, however, carried, and the fort fell into our hands, the enemy retiring a few hundred yards to the left into the edge of a piece of woods, from which they kept up so severe a musketry fire as to check our advance. Adjutant James M. Read was here wounded, while nobly performing his duty, the ball entering the heel and coming out at the instep, necessitating an amputation of the foot, from which he died on the sixth instant. So rapid had been our advance from the time of first reaching the enemy's line, that the regiment was considerably broken up, while the other regiments of the brigade were without organization, though many of the men were with us. We were able, however, to hold our advanced position for about twenty minutes, when the enemy advanced upon us in strong force, moving parallel with their intrenchments and upon both sides. We were compelled reluctantly to fall
146
back to the second fort, heretofore mentioned. Some of the captured guns of the enemy, and one of our own batteries, were now put into position and opened upon the enemy.
"The different regiments of the brigade were, in the meantime, reorganized, as were some of the regiments of the Second Brigade, of the division, which now came up, and in a short time we again advanced, recapturing the fort and carrying everything before us. The enemy made no further resistance, but great numbers delivered themselves up as prisoners, and many escaped to the rear. Still moving on about a half mile, we met the Twenty-fourth Corps, which had just entered the works without opposition, further to the left. After halting here for about half an hour, the regiment countermarched and moved in the direction of Petersburg, together with the rest of the division. Passing outside the rebel fortifications a little to the north of the point where we entered in the morning, the division was formed in line of battle at right angles to their works, forming a part of a line which extended far to the left, and moved forward slowly, towards Petersburg, and until within about two miles of that city, where we halted until about sundown. We were then moved a short dis- tance and went into position on the ground previously occupied as a picket line of the enemy, my command being the extreme right of the division and resting on the Vaughn road. Here we intrenched and bivouacked for the night.
"I am happy to be able to state that the Tenth Vermont was the first regiment in the division to plant a stand of colors within the enemy's works,-that it bravely performed its entire duty throughout the day, and kept up so perfect an organization as to elicit the highest commendation of the brigade and division commanders.
"GEORGE B. DAMON,
" LIEUTENANT-COLONEL COMMANDING.
"Brigadier-General P. T. WASHBURN, " ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL."
147
In this action, each officer of the regiment bore himself gallantly, and every man behaved as if the success of the day depended upon his individual efforts. Leaving the Vaughn road, the division, with the corps, crossed the Appomattox River, via bridge wrested from the flames by which the retreating rebels had endeavored to destroy it, and entered Petersburg a little after sunrise, Monday, April third, which the enemy had evacuated the preceding night. There was nothing strange about the appearance of this city, except its remarkable silence. Stores, shops and all public buildings were closed ; nearly all the male inhab- itants had fled with the army, save old men and negroes. The place was formally surrendered by the municipal authorities, but it was not to be expected that they would cheerfully welcome the new masters of the situation. It
seemed then, almost a privilege to be a black man - he alone, of those born and wedded to the south could be happy. His color and condition precluded him from being a traitor, and fortunately neither prevented him from being a man and humane. He alone could shout till hoarse, and be glad with a great joy.
Richmond and Petersburg fell in the same hour. Gen- eral Weitzel, since the twenty-ninth of March, had held the works on the north side of the James River opposite Rich- mond, with one division of the Twenty-fourth and two divisions of the Twenty-fifth Corps, and had kept up a tremendous show of fight all the time. While Wright, Parke and Ord were advancing and sweeping all before them on the south and east of Petersburg, Weitzel was producing a huge military satire below Richmond, with the noise and flame of his ponderous guns. He reproduced another part of the same play at night with brass bands, and did not once dream that the auditors for whom he had brought out all this comedy were silently stealing away under cover of darkness. At two o'clock on the morning
148
of the third, however, he was awakened by the sharp sound of explosions, and very soon began to suspect the cause. Efforts were made to verify the conjecture. Soon a deserter came in and gave it as his opinion that the Confederates were evacuating the city. At four o'clock a negro drove into camp and reported that they had been doing so all night. Weitzel immediately put his troops in motion, and started with his staff to occupy the place, and at six o'clock in the morning entered the beautiful metropolis of Old Vir- ginia, crackling in the flames which General Ewell had ordered put to the storehouses, and which had spread over the whole business portions of the city, and amid the thun- der of oxploding shells which had come in contact with the ยท elements. Very soon the American flag-one which had belonged to the Twelth Maine Regiment, then in the pos- session of General George F. Shepley, Weitzel's Chief of Staff, floated over the Confederate Capital, the ensign, not of captivity, but of LIBERTY ! Liberty, even to the sullen inhabitants and the half-starved, ragged soldiers of the Con- federate States ! An emblem of freedom to the thousands of dark-visaged, intelligent beings who greeted it, and to their race ! and a glorious promise of speedy deliverance to a myriad of patriots delirious with hunger and cruelty, and in bonds, who could not see it but knew it was there !
The troops entering Petersburg in the early morning on the third, were all in motion again at eight the same fore- noon, in pursuit of Lee's retreating army. He had stopped at Amelia Court House. Sheridan, pursuing on his flank with the cavalry and the Fifth Corps, from Five Forks, had constantly annoyed him, and had now, on the morning of the fifth, concentrated at Jettersville, and planted himself across the Richmond and Danville Railroad, over which Lee was expecting to receive supplies for his hungry army ; but during the evening of the fifth, the Sixth Corps came up from Mount Pleasant Church, and also the Second, both
149
joining Sheridan, who was holding the railroad from that point down to Burkesville Junction. All hope of getting a single ration to his troops over this route was now cut off. Therefore that night Lee crept around Sheridan's left and moved southeast towards Farmville, where he would, if unmolested, strike the Petersburg and Lynchburg Railroad, and perhaps obtain his coveted and much needed supplies, and there also be able to cross the Appomattox, and so escape. But he was intercepted at Paine's Cross Roads by Davis's, Smith's, and Gregg's brigades of cavalry, where he lost nearly two hundred wagons and a number of pieces of artillery. Lee now turned west, but was pursued by Sheri- dan's cavalry, which had done all the fighting since the third. and attacked at Detonsville. This attack was re- pulsed, but it delayed the Confederate advance, and enabled Custar to throw his division across their pathway at Sailor's Creek ; then Crook's division hastening to his aid, Sheridan hurled his whole force against the marching column, and broke it in twain, capturing an immense wagon train and fifteen pieces of artillery. Ewell, following the train, was cut off, and hardly knew what to do. But he was soon aroused by Gen Seymour, who, coming down from Jetters- ville with our Third Division, fell upon his rear. He imme- diately about faced and began fighting desperately. At this moment Wheaton's division, also of Wright's corps, coming up, joined in the attack. Sheridan, after his success upon the enemy's right flank, wheeled to the left and fell violently upon Ewell's new formed rear. The action was sharp and bloody, and for a while the stubbornness of Ewell's men threatened to retard our advance, but the veterans of the Sixth Corps, though, marched fiercely to join in the fight, at Sheridan's earnest and oft-repeated entreaties, for the men he had commanded in the Valley, and had so triumphantly led against Early, must surely triumph here. "Tell the Sixth Corps to hurry up," said Sheridan, "and I'll lead
150
'em." He did; and thus cut off and half surrounded, Ewell surrendered. The results of the victory were: Six General officers, Ewell, Pegram, Barton, De Boise, Corse, and Fitz Hugh Lee, several thousand prisoners, many small arms, and fourteen pieces of artillery.
The balance of Lee's army crossed the Appomattox at Farmville at dusk, on the sixth, and during the night moved on to Appomattox Court House. To this point he was pursued, next day, and hotly assailed in several engagments, on the seventh, eighth and ninth, participated in by all the cavalry and most of the infantry corps. On the eighth, the Sixth Corps, followed by the Second, crossed the river at Farmville, and moved directly in the line of Lee's retreat, while Sheridan, Ord and Griffin swung around to Prospect Station, and thence twenty-five miles southwest, to Appomattox Station, where they destroyed several supply trains laden with provisions and forage which had been sent out from Lynchburg for Lee's exhausted army. There, also, they were squarely athwart his intended line of retreat. Thus the great chieftain, who had so long guarded the northern frontiers of the Confederacy, and so successfully baffled the Union commanders who had been arrayed against him, if the term success can apply to a bad cause, was brought to bay, and the way already having been opened, made to sue for terms of capitulation. The Sixth and Second Corps were close in his rear; the cavalry and the Fifth and parts of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty- fifth Corps of Infantry were in his front. Thousands of his men had thrown away their arms and all that would impede their way of progress ; these and many others disheartened and sore, were constantly falling out by the way and giving themselves up as prisoners of war; guns, hospital and sup- ply trains were hourly falling into our hands. There was but one thing left for him to do, by which he could expect to receive the meed of praise that the world is ready to
151
bestow upon a brave warrior, though the cause that his sword has defended is infamous-that was surrender ! This he did on Sunday, the ninth day of April, 1865.
The details of this final triumphant scene it does not fall to my lot to give. They are all familiar, even to the apple tree which stands conspicuously in the foreground of the great historical picture-of which there may be a few cords left for sale-and under which the staff officers of the two commanders chatted, while their chiefs arranged the terms of capitulation in McLean's house. The Fifth Corps and Mckenzie's Division of Cavalry remained at Appomattox Court House to attend to the paroling of the late Army of Northern Virginia, while the balance of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James returned to Burkesville, and ere long to Washington. Here, at Appomattox, the awful contest first openly initiated in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, April twelfth, 1861, was virtually closed, and the long cherished dream of a Southern Confederacy vanished forever !
Still there were rebels yet in arms ; some in the far south, and a large army, under General J. E. Johnston, in North Carolina. General Sherman, who had just reduced the rebellion in three States of the Union, was now quietly wait- ing at Goldsboro', confronting Johnston with forty thousand men at Smithfield. On the fourteenth, upon hearing of Grant's operations+ around Richmond, and of the result at Appomattox, he immediately took the offensive, hoping to bring his antagonist to a decisive battle or a capitulation. General Sherman was not disappointed. Johnston at once asked for a suspension of hostilities, and for a meeting for consultation looking to and considering terms for the sur- render of the forces under his command. Terms were finally agreed upon between the two commanders, on the seventeenth, and at once despatched to Washington. In the meantime President Lincoln had been assassinated, which
152
horrible deed had produced a temper in all Union-loving hearts unfavorable to the acceptance of any disposition of the supporters of the rebellion that had about it the least color of leniency. In this state of mind the stipulations between Sherman and Johnston were thought to be remark- ably favorable to the latter ; and as they were made subject to the approval of the United States Government, they found that Government in a spirit which must inevitably disap- prove them. Accordingly, General Grant was hastily ordered to North Carolina and directed at once to renew hostilities. Consequently the Sixth Corps, yet in camp at Burkesville, and Sheridan's cavalry, were ordered to move on to Johnston's rear. We started for Danville, Virginia, one hundred and twenty miles distant, on the twenty-fourth, arriving there on the twenty-eighth. The First Division quietly took possession, the other troops immediately follow- ing. The same day, orders were issued for another advance, to commence on the twenty-ninth, and had there been a necessity for it we should have been striking heavily upon Johnston's rear within thirty-six hours. But while prepar- ing to move, General Wright received intelligence of John- ston's surrender upon the same terms that had been accorded to Lee, and we were spared participation in a victory that belonged solely to the noble armies of the Southwest.
The corps remained at Danville until the sixteenth of May, then took cars for Richmond. Arriving on the morn- ing of the seventeenth, we went into camp near Manches- ter, where we remained until the twenty-fourth. While at Danville we published a daily paper, which we issued from the office of the Danville Register, called The Sixth Corps.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.