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 14
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wounded, and one-third of the entire command was placed hors du combat.
Company D had now lost two Captains. Perhaps it is remarkable that both were shot through the head, and both "died and made no sign." But more remarkable that Washington County here lost the last of the three gallant officers whom it sent out with Company B, in the summer of 1862. Each had fallen fighting nobly with the brave men they commanded. In the subsequent operations of the day, through which defeat was turned into glorious victory, Thompson's body was recovered, and it now reposes near the home that his death shadowed, and which his patriotic memories must ever help to sanctify.
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CAPTAIN DARRAH.
SAMUEL DARRAH was born in Poultney, Vermont, in 1840. Of his boyhood, early education, and personal expe- rience with the world, we know nothing. Some years pre- vious to his entering the service he was chief clerk in Stan- ford's dry goods house, Burlington, Vermont. This fact is sufficient to warrant the inference that he was a young man of excellent business tact, trusted integrity, and of high moral standing. As a soldier, his military record more than justifies this inference. He became a brave and trusty officer, and well merited the praise bestowed upon him by his commanders. He entered the service in July, 1862, and was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company D, August fifth following. Soon after, upon the resignation of Captain G. F. Appleton, he was promoted Captain of Company D, in which capacity he served God's time, and deserved the awards of highest valor for the great sacrifice he made. Probably no record which could be made would do him exact justice. Indeed it may be said for those who desire such a record, the reminiscences of friendly alliance and companionship, of trials and dangers borne together, of hopes mutually cherished, -these will abundantly supply it.
Captain Darrah was complimented for bravery and coolness in action, in Colonel Jewett's official report of the battle of Locust Grove, November 27, 1863. In Colonel Henry's official report of his death he speaks of him as an "active, intelligent, and exceedingly brave and efficient young officer." Also Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, in an official report to General Washburne of the engagement of the third of June, made on the sixth, speaks of him in terms of brotherly commendation. Quick to learn the duties of a soldier, faithful and energetic in their performance, he was
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one of our most popular company commanders. No doubt his kind and genial spirit, his generous nature, and his ready adaptation to the customs of more experienced sol- diers, won for him many warm friends, and made his death, in addition to his loss to the service, the more lamentable.
The following are some of the general engagements in which he participated: Locust Grove, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Tolopotamy Creek, and Cold Harbor on the first and third of June. He was killed on the sixth of June, at Cold Harbor, in front of regimental headquarters, while in command of his company, by a rebel sharpshooter, the ball entering the back part of his head and coming out just above his left eye. It is said that this fatal ball first passed through the butt of a Springfield rifle stock, did its work of death, and then cut off a small sapling beyond. He lived five hours, though probably unconscious of pain. This at least was the opinion of Surgeon Childe, who was present at his death, and sincerely mourned his loss. His remains were immediately conveyed to Vermont, and in his native town rests all that mother earth may claim of Captain Samuel Darrah.
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LIEUTENANT STETSON.
EZRA STETSON was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 1825, and was about forty years old when he died. June first, 1864. His ancestors, on his father's side, were among the early generations of Plymouth Colony. His great-grandfather, Robert Stetson, was a man of some dis- tinction in old colonial times, having been a cornet in the first "troop of horse" in the Colony. He was a soldier in the war against King Philip, an officer and commissioner of the General Court, and a member of the Council of War for many years during the earlier Indian disturbances. Ezra's father was the seventh son of Cornet Stetson. A short time after he was born, his parents moved to the northern part of Vermont and settled in Troy. They were highly respectable people, and his father was a deacon in the Baptist Church.
Like his ancestors, the subject of this sketch seems to have been a man of considerable enterprise. When a boy, fourteen years old, he journeyed from his northern home in Vermont to his birthplace in Boston, and returned all the way on foot. Eight years afterwards we find him, having in the meantime been bred a mechanic. established in Bur- lington as a millwright, where he worked at his trade until IS50. In the spring of this year he started for California, and sailed from New York in the steamship Georgia. He was, however, detained on the Isthmus with the whole ship's company for several weeks. During his stay there occurred what has been called the "Great Riot" of 1850, in which many Americans lost their lives, and Stetson him- self very narrowly escaped Spanish vengeance. In Cali- fornia he engaged in various enterprises, none of which, though diligently pursued, seemed to bring him much profit. He tried mining for a year, at the same time ven-
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tured in several kinds of speculation. He was caught in the Gold Bluff excitement ; but finally got out of it and returned to San Francisco. He then successfully under- took to publish and bring out a "Directory" of that city for 1851-2. Here also he engaged in manufacturing concen- trated milk, and afterwards was permanently employed in the construction of the San Francisco Water Works. In 1853, he again engaged in mining, and in the construction of machinery for mining purposes, until 1858. He then returned to Vermont and subsequently went into mercantile business at Montpelier.
In 1862, he enlisted and recruited a number of men, who finally joined Captain Dillingham's Company, of which he was made First Lieutenant and placed in Company B, Tenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers. Most of the time in the field he commanded this company, his captain having been detailed on staff duty, and otherwise separated from his command. He was with his regiment and at his post while the troops were in the defences of Washington doing guard duty in the winter of 1862-3, and all their campaigns and battles in 1863-4 until the first of June, 1864. On this day, fatal to so many of the Vermont men, and especially to this regiment, he fell, while bravely charging the enemy at the head of his company at the battle of Cold Harbor. He was struck by a minie ball just below his left eye and was instantly killed. Our troops retiring, he was left between the lines several days, but his body was finally recovered and buried on the field where he fell. He was the first commissioned officer who was killed from this regi- ment. Lieutenant Stetson was a brave and capable officer, more than deserving the rank he enjoyed. He fairly won a Captain's commission, and, doubtless, he would have received it had he survived this battle. But in the list with many others we cannot estimate his patriotic service by the rank he bore. His sacrifice will be its true, full measure.
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LIEUTENANT NEWTON.
CHARLES G. NEWTON was born in Rochester, Vermont. on the eighth day of August, 1837, and at the time of his death, June first, 1864, was twenty-three years of age. His early life was one of toil, and something of personal sacri- fice, although he was blest with a pleasant Christian home, that was by no means destitute of those elements of refine- ment and piety which educate sons to be noble men, and daughters to be true women. Yet his father did not possess the means to give him the extended opportunities for a lib- eral education, which he was ambitious to acquire. Thus he was compelled to struggle for himself to obtain what did not fall to him by inheritance. He was able to attend school two terms in the year by teaching in the winter and working on the farm in the summer. Pursuing this course, by the utmost diligence and economy, he finally fitted for college at the Barre Academy, and was entered at Middle- bury, in 1861. Here he remained for one year, until July, 1862, when the President's call for more troops awoke him from his student life and called him forth to higher duties. He immediately left college and commenced recruiting for the Tenth Regiment, and was chosen Second Lieutenant of Company G, August twelfth, 1862. In the command he was known as a quiet, honorable Christian gentleman. An intimate family friend speaks of him in civil life, as "dis- tinguished for close application, and some good common sense, rather than for any dazzling brightness." So was he faithful and diligent in the discharge of his military duties. He never was heard to complain of the hardest lots, shar- ing them equally with his men. Trusted and respected by all who knew him, he was loved by those who knew him best. He seldom asked to be excused from duty ; if you
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found the regimental camp, you usually found him. He was entrusted with responsible and even difficult tasks by his superior officers. At Mine Run, Colonel Jewett entrusted to him such a part. We all remember the night of De- cember first, 1863, or rather it was the morning of Decem- ber second, when General Meade withdrew his army from Mine Run, and recrossed the Rapidan to Brandy Station. The whole regiment was on picket, and was among the last troops to be withdrawn. The order which General Carr whispered into the ear of Colonel Jewett, was to move noiselessly at three o'clock A. M. We waited through the cold night silently, or spoke in whispers of the dangers of getting off-waited patiently for the telling of the hour, then a few moments more for Lieutenant Newton to bring in our advanced picket from a dangerous post. Then we went with as little noise as possible, but went lively.
He was in every battle of the regiment until he was killed. The first of June, 1864, found him in his place at the battle of Cold Harbor. While the column was charging the enemy, by brigades, the Tenth Regiment, in advance of its proper position, halted a moment for its supports, he was seen bending forward, looking towards one of the exposed flanks, and heard to say: "I see the scamps ! I see them !" and in that instant, in the attitude described, his throat was cut by a minie ball. It was instantaneously fatal. We gave him the rites of Christian burial, amid the thunders of the next day's battle, a short distance from the place where he fell, beneath a mulberry and a sassafras tree, which grew up strangely into a common trunk. It was a patriot's and a Christian's grave ; but it has been disturbed, and his dust gathered to his native town, and afflicted parents and loving sisters keep the vigils of his grave.
Lieutenant Newton never received promotion, although not because he was not thought to deserve it. Few of our officers had been promoted at that time, no vacancies occur-
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ring except by resignation, and they had not been frequent. Had he lived he surely would have been honored with higher rank.
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LIEUTENANT HILL.
DANIEL GILBERT HILL was born in Hubberton, Rut- land County, Vermont, in the year 1844, and at the time of his death was about twenty years old. Some years pre- vious to the breaking out of the rebellion his parents settled in Wallingford, a town in the southern part of the county, where his father, Arnold Hill, now a merchant of that place, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Gilbert was reared upon the farm tilled by his father. His home was situated in one of the pleasantest and most romantic villages in the State. The place is nestled down between the hills which flank it on the east and west, in the valley and upon the banks of the Otter Creek, where every inch of soil is equal to just what the tiller may demand of it. In the centre of the valley flows the clear but somewhat sluggish stream. Its course is so regularly crooked that it is with great diffi- culty that one following its course can determine upon which bank he is. However, its general course is thought to be north, and it empties into Lake Champlain, a hundred miles to the north of the place where its headwaters sepa- rate with those of the Battenkill, which flow south.
On this creek are some of the best farms in New Eng- land, and upon one of them Gilbert was bred to that mus- cular toil which gave him such an admirable physique and his robust constitution, that could endure everything. At the beginning of the war he was in the employ of Messrs. Lewis and Fox, druggists, in Rutland. Here, it may be supposed, he cultivated, under the excellent tuition of Doc- tor Lewis, habits of carefulness and method so necessary to success in the business, and so often required in the details of military life. Under the call of the President for three hundred thousand men, in July, 1862, young Hill enlisted .
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in the company of which Captain John A. Sheldon was chosen commander and Major Salisbury First Lieutenant, and actively engaged in the recruiting service until the com- pany was full. Upon the organization of the Tenth Regi- ment he was made Commissary Sergeant. But his desire that the service which he rendered to the country should be more intensely soldierly, and his ability really seconding this ambition, recommended him to the notice of Captain L. T. Hunt, who, upon a vacancy occurring in his command, sought him to fill it. He was, therefore, commissioned Second Lieutenant in Company H, January nineteenth, 1863, after he had been barely three months in the service. June seventeenth, 1864, he was promoted a First Lieutenant in Company G. During the year 1863 he was aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General W. H. Morris, and served on his staff in the battles of Kelley's Ford and Locust Grove. In the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac, under General Grant, Hill returned to his company, where he became a very efficient officer, who was greatly respected for his sol- dierly and gentlemanly qualities. He fought bravely in all the battles where his regiment was engaged, until he fell seriously wounded at Winchester, September nineteenth, 1 864.
A description of this battle, with this and all the casu- alties in the Tenth, has been heretofore given and need not be repeated. He was wounded in the early part of the action, while leading a charge upon one of the enemy's bat- teries, and received a part of the contents of a case-shot in his thigh, one of the small iron balls of the missile splinter- ing the bone and necessitating amputation. The limb was taken off at the upper third of the thigh, and he was placed in the hospital at Winchester, where, under the most dili- gent nursing, he began to recover. He rallied so speedily, and apparently so surely, that his friends thought him out of danger a week before he died. But his wound, after all,
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which had the appearance of healing rapidly was only deceiv- ing us. He was obliged to submit to a second amputation, which, in such cases, frequently had to be done after the most skillful operations in the first instance, and it so reduced his only partially recovered vitality that he very soon died. His body was borne to Wallingford, Vermont, where it now rests in his grave within sight of the home of his childhood.
Rev. Dr. Walker, Pastor of the Congregational Church, preached an able discourse on the sad occasion, and a large concourse of people assembled to join in the solemn honors justly paid to the memory of the brave young sol- dier ! This officer possessed many qualities to be admired. Under age, he might have escaped military service ; but he was eager to forego the comforts of home and fair business prospects, to encounter the exposures of the camp, the trials of the march and the deadly shock of arms-thus to give up all and himself a victim upon his country's altar ! Such is the stuff that makes good soldiers. He never shrank from any kind of military service. Always cheerful and eager to be foremost in positions trying to men of larger experience, he never thought himself unequal to any task assigned him. Ever kind and considerate of the lives of his men, when no sacrifice was called for, he asked them to do no more, nor venture where he did not lead. So he fell in the fore front of the battle that cost the best offerings of the brave. His comrades will recall the erect form and the gallant bearing of this young soldier, and think of the sacrifice that he so cheerfully made, with tearful memories, while emotions of patriotic pride will swell the heart, when they remember that with their struggles, his was one of the lives that the Nation sought for its redemption.
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ADJUTANT READ.
The following excellent biographical sketch of Adjutant Read was written by Chaplain John B. Perry, and first published in The Vermont Record of June tenth and seventeenth, 1865.
Adjutant Read, who fell in the late fight before Petersburg, having been highly esteemed as an officer, and much beloved by the regiment to which he belonged, is thought deserving of more than a passing notice. In view of these considerations, and at the suggestions of several of his surviving comrades in arms, the following commemorative notice has been prepared as a token of kindly remembrance, and is respectfully dedicated to the mourning friends of the deceased.
JAMES MARSH READ, son of Hon. David Read, was born in St. Albans, Vermont, November nineteenth, 1833. Having passed his earlier years in his native place, he removed with his father's family to Burling- ton, in November, 1839. When very young, he imbibed a taste for read- ing, which he never afterwards lost. He was fitted for college partly at the High School in his adopted town, and in part at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Doctor Taylor, the able Principal of the latter Institution, always gave a flattering report of James's deportment and scholarship, while under his tuition.
In August, 1849, being then in his sixteenth year, he entered the Uni- versity of Vermont, from which he was in due course graduated in 1853. While in college he stood high as a scholar ; especially was he regarded by his classmates as a fine linguist, and an able and accomplished writer. Soon after his graduation, he went to Canton, Madison County, Missis- sippi, where he was engaged as a teacher in a private family. He eon- tinued to live in the South for about a year, fulfilling during this time the duties of an instructor.
On his return North, he was engaged for a short period in the office of the New York Courier and Enquirer. While connected with this paper, he became intimately acquainted with a son of the commercial editor. Young Mr. Homans, who had previously accompanied Major-General Pope, at that time Captain of the Engineer Corps, in his expedition aeross the plains of Western Texas and New Mexico, was about starting on a second expedition, which was then fitting out. Being under government employ, and having charge both of the Barometrical and the Astronom- ical Department of the expedition, he invited his friend Read to go out with him, and offered to him a position as an assistant in these Depart- ments. Having duly considered the matter, and decided to go, Mr. Read
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accepted the offer and joined the expedition, leaving New York, February second, 1855. On the passage out the company stopped for a few days in Havana, Cuba, also New Orleans, finally disembarking at Indianola, Texas. From the latter place they marched, under an escort of United States troops, to San Antonio, and thence onward to the upper waters of the Rio Peros. They finally encamped near the stream in the south- easterly angle of New Mexico, which they made their headquarters for about three years and a half.
After the lapse of some twelve months, Mr. Homans receiving a lucrative appointment in New York, returned to that city. Mr. Read was at once appointed his successor, all eyes turning to him as adapted to fill the vacancy. His mathematical attainments, and acquaintance with the physical sciences, fitted him well for the position, and made his services an invaluable help to the expedition. During their stay in this region, the experiment of sinking artesian wells was tried upon the La Lano Estuado, or staked plains ; though according to my present recollection, with indif- ferent success.
Various expeditions were also frequently planned, and detachments sent out, for exploration in Central New Mexico, upon the Guadaloupe Mountains, and the extended desert plains lying to the east of their encampment. These exploring expeditions were usually joined by young Read. While they offered him a fine opportunity for observation, and the study of the Natural History of the country, he no doubt rendered efficient aid to the parties he accompanied, by his own contributions. That he made excellent use of these means for improvement, is evident to the writer, from an essay which he heard him read some years later, on the Botany of New Mexico as compared with that of Colchester Plains. His powers of observation were unusually good ; they were increased in strength and aptitude by the habit which he then formed of noting con- tinually what fell under his eye, especially if it related to the physical features of the regions through which he passed.
These exploring expeditions were often attended with extreme hard- ships and peril ; and sometimes they were checked with a bit of romance. This was particularly the case in one instance recounted by Mr. Read. Striking eastwardly across the desert, the party, consisting of four besides himself, all mounted on mules, came near perishing for want of drink. One man and his mule gave out. Leaving him, the rest pressed on in search of water. Having at length come to some pools in the desert, men and animals plunged into them indiscriminately, and slaked their thirst. Then, filling their canteens, they hastened back with a view to rescue their perishing comrade, who had been left about twenty-five miles in the rear. They soon met his mule on the way, and at last reached the man himself before life was extinct. Having given him water and food they took him safely back to the just discovered pools.
Mr. Read passed the winter of 1857 in Washington. While there, he was busily engaged assisting in the preparation of the Report of the Expe-
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dition for the Secretary of War. Sometime during the following spring he returned to the plains of New Mexico, and continued his labors in that region until the close of the expedition. Not far from this time - I believe it was while he was at work in Washington on the report already referred to-with a view to the more accurate presentation of the results of the explorations, as well as to the better prosecution of future investigations, he was sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Captain Pope, to consult Professor Bond of Harvard University, on some intricate questions relat- ing to the scientific observations of the expedition. He was about the same time in correspondence with Professor, afterwards General, O. M. Mitchell of Cincinnati Observatory, and Professor Young of Dartmonth College ; also, on other occasions, with Professors at West Point, and gentlemen connected with the Smithsonian Institute. He was likewise applied to from time to time, as appears from letters which he left on file, for information on a variety of scientifie subjects.
After the close of the expedition, he maintained for several years a friendly correspondence with General Pope, who, it seems, had a generous appreciation of his services, and entertained a high opinion of his ability, and towards whom the subject of this notice ever after cherished a warm friendship and great kindliness of feeling. The expedition having come to a close in the autumn of 1858, Mr. Read returned to his father's. For the greater part of the next two years he remained at home. At this time he was for the most part engaged in study and in collecting specimens in Natural History. He was also, as I am informed, more or less occupied in writing for the journals of the day.
During the autumn of 1860 and the following winter he was employed by E. M. Smalley, Esq., as an assistant in the editorial department of the Burlington Sentinel. It is said that the readers of that paper were indebted for some of its best contributions, during this period, to Mr. Read. The time which Mr. Read thus spent at home and in writing, was perhaps one of the richest in the fruits of culture which it bore of his life. Having leisure both for meditation and intercourse with refined society, he probably made great improvement, as well intellectually as in the cultiva- tion of his social powers. As his memory was very retentive, he no doubt at this time laid up a vast amount of useful knowledge. He seemed to grasp and keep whatever he read. But this was not all ; he seized hold of principles with more readiness than most. That he thus improved is evident from the fact that those persons who engaged in conversation with him, were often surprised at the readiness with which he would recall what he had previously learned, or the contents of the books he had perused. And to this we should add that he was not merely conversant with a few topics, but was found to be unusually well informed for one of his age, on almost every subject.
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