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 13
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But Spring passed on and Summer eame, Our life from day to day the same, Till with the final days of June It rose to a more martial tune, And knapsaeks strapped upon our baek, We joined the Army of the Potomac. With weary marches through the mud, With many a ford through swollen flood, Thus passed the tedious months away, Till Autumn came with skies so gray - Then came the order front to move, And then the fight of Locust Grove ; Here first our brave boys meet the foe And first that matchless courage show Which placed them ever in the van, To Sailor's Creek, from Rapidan ! Here many a noble fellow fell, And many an empty sleeve doth tell We have preserved inviolate The honor of our grand old State.
This finishing the year's campaign, We Brandy Station sought again ; 'T were vain to speak of Winter Quarters, Flirtations with Virginia's daughters, Of drills by " Morris's rules of dancing ;" Of Morris's staff so gaily prancing ; Of how that staff oft " made Rome howl" When gathered round the festive bowl; Of dances in the chapel tent, Tho' 't was from the Commission lent, And Bro. Rose, he tried in vain To get it taken back again ! But March brought with it General Grant, .
Henceforth the war-ery en arant ! To Winter's joys we bade adieu ; Such joys that many a comrade knew. Here, friends, must close the poet's part,
The rest is written on each heart ; He lacks the power to tell the story Aright of all the Old Tenth's glory. To nobler pens that tasks belongs ; His are but simple camp-fire songs.
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Yet must a few fond words be said Of those not here - our noble dead - They fell while fighting for the right, Their names for aye inseribed in light ! Their memories shrined within our breasts While each in silent slumber rests.
STETSON ! the bold, the frank, the free ! NEWTON ! the quiet, scholarly, On the same field with gallant FROST, So dearly loved, so sadly lost ! DARRAII! so young, so fair, so brave, Untimely stricken to his grave. Our comrades fell on every field, Each sleeping 'neath his " blue cross " shield ! Monocacy's clear silent wave Flows gently past PEABODY's grave; While onee the Opequan's fair stream Saw "Major NED'S " bright sabre gleam. Bitter to us that victory's cost, When DILLINGHAM and HILL were lost, And sad the hearts on all that night. We saw NED's face, at morn so bright Beneath the evening breezes' breath, Pallid, yet beautiful in death ! THOMPSON and CLARK at Cedar Run ; REED at Lee's Lines -and every one Of all our comrades who in strife For freedom yielded up his life ; We honor with a holy pride All who thus bravely, nobly died ! So many fell on holy ground That time and space could not be found E'en were your Poet adequate Their virtues to commemorate ; We honor ALL - alike the word Of praise for rifle or for sword. Alike should be their epitaph, Who fell in glory's star-gemmed path, Whether from rank or file they sprung ; Whether the staff or line among -- They died for Country - died for duty, Their lives were truth - their deaths were beauty.
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MAJOR DILLINGHAM.
EDWIN DILLINGHAM was born at Waterbury, Vermont, on the thirteenth day of May, 1839. He was the second son of Hon. Paul Dillingham and Julia C. Carpenter. The first years of his life were passed at the home of his parents, amidst some of the most delightful natural scenery in the State. Here the mountains are ever green in their towering magnificence to the sky. Almost every field is laced and ribboned by tireless, sparkling streams; the soil, rich and stubborn in its fertility, yields its fruits only to the steady persistence of a hardy race ; and here, almost in sight of the State Capitol and within the immediate circle of its legis .. lative and social influences, and always under the more refining elements of a Christian home, the years of boyhood and youth were numbered. Like other boys, we presume he passed them quietly, not varying much from the round of sports and duties of New England's revered manual for the training of her sons, although other homes have not been so richly endowed by Christian example. His oppor- tunities for an education, we are informed, were respectable and diligently improved. Always found at his task, he won the admiration of his teachers; ever kind and of a happy spirit, he was loved by his fellow students. Enjoying the highest advantages afforded by the common schools and academies of his native State, he here received all the instruction deemed absolutely essential to entering success- fully upon his professional studies. He chose the profession of the law, and commenced his preparation for the bar, in 1858, in the office of his brother-in-law, the Hon. Matthew H. Carpenter, now a Senator in Congress, in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where, however, he remained but a few months. Upon leaving the office of Mr. Carpenter,
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he entered the Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he graduated with honor, in the autumn of 1859. He finally finished his studies, preparatory to the practice of the law, in the office of Dillingham and Durant, in his native town, his father being the senior member of the firm, and then Lieutenant-Governor and afterwards Governor of the State. In September, 1860, he was admitted to practice at the Washington County bar ; and it is said, "though the youngest," was considered "one of its most promising members." Subsequently he became the law partner of his father ; and thus established in his profession, and thus associated, he continued until July, 1862. We have often heard him speak of this arrangement as one most suited to his tastes, and doubt not that it was one of great promise and profit. It may be that he had expected to reap much from the great ability, experience and wide reputation of his father as an advocate and statesman, and so enrich his own mind for the largest duties of his calling, either in its immediate sphere, or else fit himself for the demands of a wider field, and prepare to win the honor to which the young ambition may justly aspire. But whatever schemes of this kind he might have entertained, they were not destined to be realized ; even if they did float dimly, yet with golden wings, before his mind, his nature was not one to remain undisturbed by the dark war-cloud that had for two terrible years stretched from the Gulf to the northern boundaries of his native State. Its mutterings, mingling with the cries of the slain of his own kinsmen and companions in peace, were notes of sum- mons. Though the silver lining of other dark clouds had betokened promise, this had turned to blood, and he would go and do battle for his country. Forgetting party affinities and severing dearer and sweeter ties, he, with thousands more, would make the sacrifice of his young life upon the Nation's altar. But to write all that was noble of this officer would be but to repeat what has been in a thousand instances
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already made historic, and for him, we his compatriots, and subordinates in rank, because he has taken a higher commis- sion, have but to record the epitaphs of the brave !
Upon the President's call for three hundred thousand troops, issued in July, 1862, he actively engaged in recruit- ing a company in the western part of Washington County, of which he was unanimously chosen Captain. These recruits finally became Company B, of the Tenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers, and were really the first raised for that regiment, but in consequence of a company organiza- tion then existing, though formerly designed for the Ninth Regiment, he was obliged to take this position in the Tenth. Soon after the regiment was fairly in the field, he was detailed as Assistant Inspector-General on the staff of Brigadier-General Morris, then commanding the First Brigade, Third Division, Third Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. He acted in the capacity of aide-de-camp to this officer during the battle of Locust Grove, November twenty- seventh, 1863, and while carrying an order to his own regiment his horse was shot under him and he was taken prisoner. Then he was marched most of the way to Rich- mond and incarcerated in Libby prison, where he was kept for four long months in durance vilest. In March following, he was paroled and soon exchanged, when he immediately returned to the field and to his old command. General Grant was at this time making his celebrated campaign from the Rapidan to Petersburg, and consequently rendered approach to the immediate scene of operations extremely difficult. Still, troops of every arm of the service were being hurried forward, and Captain Dillingham was put in com- mand of a battalion of exchanged prisoners and enlisted men, which he led to the front, fighting some of the way. He dismissed his men to their respective commands, and reported for duty at Cold Harbor, June third, 1864.
Colonel Jewett had resigned. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry
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and Major Chandler had been promoted respectively to the first ranks in the command. Captain Frost, the ranking line officer, was breathing his last the hour he arrived ; one-third of the regiment were lying dead on the field and wounded in the hospital, and the rest, begrimed with dirt and powder, within close range of the enemy, were looking down into the Chickahominy Swamp, within steeple view of Richmond. Colonel Henry had been wounded on the first instant, and Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler soon afterwards became sick, and Captain Dillingham took command of the regiment, although he held it but a short time, Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler returning to duty. The remaining awful days until the twelfth, was his second battle with his regiment. On the seventeenth of June, 1864, he was commissioned Major, and went with the troops to James River and Ber- muda Hundreds, where, with a large part of the corps, they were ordered into action by General Butler. But General Wright delayed obedience to the order, and his corps was finally extricated by General Meade, after remaining under a most distressing artillery fire from the enemy's battery for several hours. From this time until his death he was con- stantly with the regiment, and some of the time in command.
On the sixth of July, 1864, the Third Division of the Sixth Corps was detached from the Army of the Potomac, and the two remaining divisions soon afterwards, and were sent into the Shenandoah Valley, under General Sheridan. Arriving at Frederick City, Maryland, on the eighth, he was second in command at the battle of Monocacy, fought on the ninth, Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler being detailed to command the skirmish line, and Colonel Henry in command of the regiment. After marching untold leagues from Fred- erick to the Relay House, to Washington, up the Potomac to Leesburg, over into the Shenandoah Valley, through Snicker's Gap, where we had a skirmish with the enemy over and in the river on the eighteenth, back to George-
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town by way of Chain Bridge, again up the Potomac as far as the mouth of the Monocacy, thence to Frederick, Har- per's Ferry, Winchester and Strasburg, back to Harper's Ferry, by way of Charleston-over six hundred miles since we had set foot in Maryland on the eighth of July. It was now the twenty-second of August. On the twenty-first, the whole corps was attacked vigorously by the enemy, drawing in the pickets in front of the Second Division, while the troops were lying quietly in camp or preparing for Sunday morning inspection. Here, for the first time, young Dilling- ham was ordered to lead his command to battle. The regi- ment, however, was not prominently engaged, and he had no opportunity to distinguish himself. When asked how he felt, invested with the full command at such a time, he replied : "I felt as if we should make a good fight, but I rather wished that Henry had been there." From this time he commanded the regiment until he fell at the glorious field of Winchester on the nineteenth of September, 1864.
We may not here describe that battle. It was a decisive victory for our arms and the country. 'T was a golden victory. It lifted higher the national banner than any other battle of the year north of Atlanta. But the eye of prescience could have discerned a thousand emblems of mourning stretched beneath its starry folds, and seen the tears of as many northern homes falling for their dead, yet re-consecrating the flag ! One was mourned in Waterbury ! Major Dillingham had fallen !
Washington County Court was in session, and attorneys were contending by peaceful process for the civil rights of a few clients. In Virginia, its youngest and most promising member, who had thrown his sword into the vaster scale of justice, was contending for the civil rights of the Nation. Under orders to charge the enemy, whose front was ablaze with cannon and abatised with fixed bayonets, he was firmly pacing back and forth along his battle line, steadying its for-
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mation and awaiting the final signal to advance. Those who saw him say that he heeded not the missiles of death that fell thick around him and his brave men. Keenly he eyed the foe-anxiously he awaited the onset. To him it never came. About noon, while in this position, he was struck by a solid twelve-pound shot on the left thigh, and borne bleeding and dying to the rear. In two hours he was no more. The regiment charged and nobly avenged the death of its Major, but he had gone another way. Though he never recovered from the nervous shock produced by this wound, he did not lose consciousness until his noble spirit departed. He conversed occasionally with those around him. Among his last words, was the utterance: "I have fallen for my country. I am not afraid to die." The first were inspired by patriotism, the last by Christianity ! His remains were borne to Waterbury and interred, where the spirit of honor watches over the treasured dust ; and when the history of Vermont's noble men is written, the names of her heroes fairly recorded, we shall read high upon the scroll the name of Major Edwin Dillingham.
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CAPTAIN FROST.
EDWIN BRANT FROST was born in Sullivan, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, December thirtieth, 1832. In 1837 his father's family moved to Thetford, Vermont, where his boyhood was spent, and at whose academy he fitted for college.
He entered Dartmouth College in 1854, and graduated with honor in 1858. For a short time after graduating, young Frost taught school in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, and in Royalston, Massachusetts. He then commenced the study of law, which he pursued but a few months, when he entered the office of his brother, Dr. C. P. Frost, then engaged in an extensive practice at St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It seems that he changed his course of study because he believed himself better adapted to the practice of medicine than that of the legal profession.
Here he remained until May, 1862, when his ardent and patriotic nature could withstand no longer the imperative call of his imperiled country. The student shut up his books, and, like the heroes of his college memories and classic studies-like the companions of his youth and asso- ciates of later years, now veterans in the field, put off the toga and donned the armor to meet the foes of Freedom and Constitutional Liberty.
He was commissioned to raise a company, and went to work in the face of many obstacles, with the enthusiasm which characterized his sanguine temperament ; soon suc- ceeded, and was chosen its Captain. This Company was designed for the Ninth Regiment, and was only one click of the telegraph too late for such an assignment. For this disappointment, however, he was given the right company of a new organization. This also accounts for the fact that
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his commission dates nearly a month earlier than any other officer's in the Tenth Regiment. So, he went to the scenes with which we are all familiar, and which terminated his earthly career, leaving a proud record upon the field of battle, and many friends to lament his untimely death. In the service he was noted for his extensive acquaintance and numerous friendships. It is doubted if there was an officer in the army who was personally so widely known. He had friends in every regiment from the State, and many from other States ; besides, he was a man who could make new friends wherever he went. Colonel Merrill, of St. Johns- bury, now of Rutland, a man eminently qualified to judge, thus speaks of him: "No mental peculiarity was more strongly marked than a playfulness of fancy that seemed a well-spring of perpetual pleasantry. The ludicrous com- parison, the witty repartee, seemed as much a part of him- self as the spray is a part of a cascade."
This, added to his marked personal appearance, won him hosts of friends, and rendered it impossible for those who had once seen him to ever forget him. Many a camp scene has he enlivened with his jovial songs, and his happy faculty of making the best of everything and everybody. He was a man of great refinement and considerable culture, freely quoting passages from Homer and Virgil, as well as modern literature, whenever it suited his convenience ; of the most generous impulses, kind and full of good nature, and a "prince of good fellows." "Old Time" we called him, a sobriquet suggested by his long flaxen beard and golden hair. He was slow to take offence, if, indeed, any were disposed to give it. When aroused his strongest expression would be " By Harry !" or " By Jupiter !" His familiar manners gave him a ready passport to any man's confidence, while many of his companions in arms tenderly loved him. As expressive of his own attachment, and a sincere tribute of manly love, General Henry says of him :
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"In a two years' acquaintance I have found him the fast friend, the courteous gentlemen, and I had come to love him as a brother." It may be doubted if that officer did weep more sincerely over the death of his own brother, who fell in the terrible breach at Petersburg, than by the mangled body of Frost.
But he possessed other qualities which entitle him to a loftier commendation. Underneath all this playfulness, underlying the buoyant spirit, was a professed reverence for, and devout dependence upon, God. I think that he always cherished a Christian spirit. This, at least, was his testimony at the beginning and end of his martial life. When elected Captain of his company, his words breathe this spirit: "Soldiers, we have chosen the profession of arms, and with this choice the stern responsibilities of war ; and under God, we will do our duty." Again, when the last sands were running out, or to be less fictitious, the last drop of his life's blood was ebbing away, with a feeble voice he exclaimed : "I have fallen in the foremost rank for my country and my God. I am happy!"
He was also a brave and capable officer. In half a score of battles his commanding officers ever speak of him as bearing himself nobly, and as exhibiting the best type of bravery and efficiency. General Henry writes of him after his death, to his friend, Colonel Merrill, as one of Ver- mont's "bravest and best."
Knowing all this, his friends have asked, and will ask again, "Why was he not promoted? Why was he cheated of the rank rightfully due him as commander of Company A, and this, too, in a regiment where promotions were supposed to come rapidly ?" Perhaps this supposition was a mistake. Still, there are several probable answers to the question. There really was but one opportutunity to confer this advancement, previous to Colonel Jewett's resignation, while he lived. This occurred upon the res-
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ignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Edson, October sixteenth, 1862. General Henry, then Major, was promoted, justly, to fill the vacancy, and Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, then Captain of Company I, was promoted to the Majority. According to the customs of the service, sought to be enforced, but which were never strictly observed in this regiment, Captain Frost should have been raised to a field officer's rank. He and his friends expected it, and were sore under the disappointment. But Captain Chandler, as an officer late of the Fourth Regiment, who had seen serv- ice and had experience in the Peninsular Campaign, it was said would be a more valuable acquisition to the field staff at that time than any other subaltern in the regiment. Were there any political considerations in this ?- no mili- tary policy meant to guard against possible contingencies ? There was something said at the time about unredeemed pledges of officers, both civil and military, but none of which were publicly declared. Still, no injustice should appear in this record ; and if there was injustice, it may be added, Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler was innocent of it.
The next opportunity that occurred for promotion to a field rank was upon the resignation of Colonel Jewett, on the twenty-fifth of April, 1864. Then there was a studied conspiracy to prevent his promotion, and its authors and abettors, it is feared, though alleging various plausible pre- texts, used unsoldierly and ungenerous means to prejudice his otherwise possible chances. They succeeded. But many of those who were thus identified, it is just to observe, sincerely repented of the opposition ; others obliterated it in deeds of valor, while some of them washed out the stain with their own blood. But we must forget all this, as he forgave it all. With his dying breath he said: "You are all my friends, and I forgive all who have tried to injure me, and I shall die with a heart void of offence toward all men." This answer must satisfy his friends. Two ghastly
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wounds, either mortal, finished his strife with men, without a stain upon his military record.
These wounds were received about nine o'clock on the morning of the third of June, 1864, at Cold Harbor, a time when the regiment suffered more severely in the loss of men than in any other engagement during its period of serv- ice. He endured five hours of extreme agony, and then, as if lying down to sleep, slept in death. Conscious to the last, with the "ruling passion strong in death," he disposed of his effects, sometimes with playful allusion to those who would receive them. Though no more to the friends who stood around him, and those distant from the scene, "he left, in language emphasized and marked by his rich blood, that which speaks more in his silence-the assurance of a patriot ennobled by a Christian's death."
He was buried rudely but tenderly, amid the falling tears of the few friends who gathered around him, and the shock of battle, that a few hours before had swept Stetson, New- ton, and the gallant Townsend, of the One Hundred and Sixth New York, with many of their brave comrades, beneath the blood-stained turf-that then drove Blodgett and Hunt crippled forever from the field, and the latter by the same ball that passed through his body, and the storm which rolled on until Darrah, Dillingham, Hill, Thompson and Clark, and a hundred more, were counted with its victims.
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CAPTAIN THOMPSON.
LUCIAN D. THOMPSON Was born at Waterbury, Vermont, in 1831. Of his early life nothing has been definitely ascer- tained except that by occupation he was a farmer, and previous to 1860 he had spent some time in California as a miner. He entered the service in 1862, on the twelfth of July, and assisted Major Dillingham and Lieutenant Stetson in raising Company B, for the Tenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant of this Company, on the fourth of August following. But his excellent qualities and soldierly deportment soon marked him for advancement, even before he had been tried by the test of battle. Within four months he was promoted to a First-Lieutenancy in Company G, made vacant by the pro- motion of Captain Blodgett. Again, after abundant tests of his mettle in a dozen battles, he was promoted to be Captain of Company D, June seventeenth, 1864. But he never sought these promotions. His modesty forbade him ever seeking any but a place of danger or duty, and his generous nature often led him to perform a friend's duty when he, by the customs of the service, was temporarily relieved of responsibility.
He even hesitated to accept his first promotion. He said that he did not like to part with his company associates, and he did not want promotion until he had earned it. At last his manhood earned him all the titles that were ever conferred upon him. His friendship was perpetual ; those to whom he was attached could not be maligned in his presence. He never boasted of what he would do, but did all in camp, campaign and battle that fell to his lot. He was brave but never reckless, cautious and never timid. He questioned no authority-"never reasoned why." In the execution of
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the vast labors of a good company commander, and in bearing those large responsibilities, he only doubted his own fitness.
By his modesty, frankness, stern integrity and ingen- uous friendship, he won the confidence of all, by his faith- fulness and patriotism, their respect, and was well deserving of his country. He participated in all the battles and skirmishes of the regiment up to the time of his death, and among them the following : Locust Grove, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Monocacy, Win- chester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. At this last-named battle, on the morning of the nineteenth of October, 1864, he was instantly killed. The army lying on the north bank of the Creek, behind slight intrenchments, was surprised on the extreme left of the line before daybreak, attacked and driven from its position. This at once compelled a change in the position of the right, of which our command formed a part, and we were formed in line of battle exactly at right angles to the original position ; thus we were brought squarely in front of the enemy. Here the broken columns of the left passed us, and the enemy pressing on in force, we were obliged to fall back, and this line was soon occupied by him. But his exultation was brief. We charged and retook the position, recovering three pieces of Captain McKnight's Battery which had been abandoned upon our first advance movement, and drove the rebels in confusion across the valley and over the ridge beyond. They soon rallied, however, in front and on the right and left, and the troops on the left of us falling back, both flanks were exposed, and again we fell back. It was in this action that Captain Thompson was killed, after two hours of desperate fighting. He was hit in the head, the ball passing through from ear to ear. Here, also, Lieutenant B. B. Clark was mortally wounded. Many other officers were
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