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 4
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Not yet quite sure, it seems, that the rebel army was all in pursuit, the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps were sent back across the Rappahannock that very day, as far as Brandy Station, and Buford's Cavalry as far as Culpepper, to watch its movements. That very day, also, Lee crossed in heavy force at Sulphur Springs, and headed his columns towards Warrenton and Manassas. Both retreat and pursuit became a little more earnest. On the fourteenth, after marching from Greenwich to within four or five miles of Centreville, just across Broad Run, which the men waded waist deep, about four o'clock, as we supposed we were going into camp for the night, we were startled by heavy firing in the rear. It was from A. P. Hill's corps, as we afterwards learned, that had that morning marched from Warrenton, and had fallen into the rear of the Third Corps, and thus summoned us to about face. But General Warren's Second Corps cov- ering the retreat that day, and being considerably behind upon a road leading obliquely into the one we were pursuing, at that moment came upon Hill's rear. Hill had got between the Second and Third Corps, but as soon as he discovered Warren behind him immediately turned about to pay his
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compliments to that gentleman. Of course everybody was surprised, and there was a spirited engagement for two hours. We were at once about faced and moved back at a double quick towards the scene of action. But the gallant Warren did not need our help. Hill was badly worsted, and the battle of Bristow Station was fought and won before we reached the field.
The pursuit of the enemy was at an end. Though he claimed to have occupied Fairfax Court House, he did not come an inch beyond his slaughtered hundreds at Bristow, nor did he stop there to bury them. We saw nothing more of him this side of the Rappahannock until we moved back again, except a brigade of Stuart's Cavalry that looked at us, a little way south of Union Mills, and burst a dozen shells or so in front of our brigade lines.
Lee at once retreated, and on the nineteenth it became our turn to pursue. He took the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and destroyed every foot of it from Bristow to the Rappahannock. Stonewall Jackson had taught him and us how to make this work of destruction complete. A regiment or brigade, sometimes, perhaps, a division, would take their stand along one side of the track, hand to hand, and then, with one strong pull altogether, they would turn a mile of the track up side down at once. They would then knock off the sleepers, pile them up cob- house fashion, balance the rails across them and set fire to the wood. The rails thus becoming heated in the middle, would bend of their own accord, and render themselves useless. The rebels amused themselves by twisting some of the iron around trees, fairly hooping them with it, where we found it when the advance was made.
This road was immediately put in repair. Heavy details were made from the Tenth, as from other regiments, to cut sleepers, put them down, and re-lay the track. Officers without much experience in railroad building superintended
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the work. To do this the army was moved frequently, and short distances at a time. The weather was cold, and no quarters could be made comfortable before we were obliged to leave them. It was doubtless all necessary, and, as the men used to say, "all in the three years."
In nineteen days we had built thirty miles of railroad, and on the seventh of November again faced the rebel army, strongly posted and fortified on the right and left banks of the Rappahannock. He was soon driven across and away. The Second and Third Corps, under command of General French, advanced to Kelly's Ford and put down a pontoon bridge under the fire of our own guns. De Trobriand's brigade, preceded by Colonel Homer R. Stoughton's Sharp- shooters, was thrown over, and at once dashing into the enemy's rifle-pits, captured a regiment. At the same time a larger force posted in the woods beyond were dispersed by our guns shelling right over the heads of the advancing column. Our brigade supported these batteries on the left bank of the river, our regiment lying behind a battery of Rodman guns, belonging to the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. The whole corps crossed over after dark, and slept on the field we had won, tumbling over the rebel dead as in the darkness we sought a place to rest.
Next morning we advanced up the river towards the railroad, when we learned that the Fifth and Sixth Corps. the day before, at the same time of our movement below, had advanced at Rappahannock Station, where the enemy held two redoubts with as many brigades, and at the same time covered a pontoon bridge in their rear. Parts of the Sixth Corps moved to the flank of the works, while the First Brigade of the First Division assaulted in front, supported by a part of the Second. They captured with the works six- teen hundred prisoners, seven stands of colors, four heavy guns and three thousand small arms, besides the pontoon bridge.
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It is well remembered with what heroic daring the Sixth Maine regiment led the assault upon this position. Twenty- three veteran officers and three hundred and fifty men went to the attack, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, who was killed, and all but seven of these officers fell, with one hun- dred and twenty-three of their men. The Fifth Maine worked as heroically and paid a sacrifice as costly. The same night that we crossed over we heard Lee's locomotives whistling and puffing out of Brandy Station and Culpepper all night, whither we pursued next day, meeting with little opposition. So close was the pursuit that we saw his rear guard going out of sight in a manner that the soldiers called "dusting." A stubborn battery would now and then throw a shell at us as we pushed up too close. Some of them burst with ringing vengeance over our ranks, or settled down with an angry thud at our feet ; but all was not enough to interrupt the shouts we sent after them. On the night of the eighth, Lee's army slept beyond the Rapidan ; we at Brandy Station and beyond, almost down to the Fords. Here and about here we stayed until the twenty-third. Meade was building the bridge over the Rappahannock and establishing a depot of supplies.
While here, our brigade had what we called a mud cam- paign. It was a movement out four miles towards Cul- pepper, or about half way across John Minor Botts's farm. We started on a dark, rainy night and marched twelve miles to get four, over almost impassable corduroy roads that had been half torn up. The night was intensely dark, and seemed darker by occasional blinding, almost bewildering, flashes of lightning. Men fell down and were in danger of being trampled out of sight in the mud ; horses floundered and threw their riders. With such sliding and tumbling it seemed, while bending over the slippery earth to brace against the vigor of the storm, that we should be smothered in the mud. Arriving at our destination we lay down upon
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the wet leaves of the woods, supperless and drenched to the skin. We came here on the fourteenth, and stayed a week in the vicinity, changing camp three times in the meantime, not seeing why, nor could we know the cause.
On the twenty-sixth, the whole army advanced once more. Our brigade started at seven o'clock in the morning and crossed the Rapidan on a pontoon bridge at sundown, near Jacob's Mill. We halted on the high steep bank of the river and slept soundly till morning. But many a soldier would rest lower, and colder be his bed and deeper be his slumbers when the next night should fall. Now wrapped in his blanket, the stars looked down through the cold night upon him, and he might think of wife and child, and see them as they came to him in dreams, but sightless all when the stars come again, and he is wrapped in the gory mantle that the battle furnishes the brave. This was Thanksgiving Day at the North, and the loyal people feasted and fasted, while the army marched and fought that they might have something to do both for. We were ordered to Robertson's Tavern, but the Second Division, General Prince, led and misled the corps. General Meade meant to surprise the army, but the Third Corps went wrong, some others did not go altogether right, and thus destroyed his plan. Next day French was ordered to report at Robertson's Tavern, where the Second Corps was fighting, and needed him. He started to obey the order,but Ewell's Corps was right in his path and interfered with our progress all day. About two o'clock P. M., French attacked him with all his might with his Second and Third Divisions, the first being held in re- serve. Of our division, now commanded by General Carr, General Morris's brigade was on the right, Colonel Kifer's in the centre, and Colonel Smith's on the left. Of our bri- gade, the One Hundred and Fifty-first New York Regiment was on the right, Tenth Vermont in the centre, and the Fourteenth New Jersey on the left, reaching out to the
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One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio, of Kifer's brigade. Company D, Captain Darrah's, were deployed as skirmish- ers in front of our regimental line. The rebels had chosen a good position behind a fence, on the crest of rising ground ; this, also they had otherwise fortified. But strong as this position was, our men charged them out of it, under a most destructive fire from their heavy lines. With a dash they went up to the fence and over it. They had gone too far- so far as to lose their supports on either flank. They were only ordered to go to the fence, where the other regiment halted, but the Vermonters had gone over it. They had to come back the best they could, through a terrible cross-fire from the right and left, and many a poor fellow never got back. Over the fence, Colonel Jewett, by a misunderstand- ing of orders, fell back to the original position, but he soon re-formed and advanced to the fence, where we remained fighting till relieved.
This was really the first pitched battle of the regiment, fought in a tangled forest, against heavy odds and advantage in position, but it was highly creditable to the officers and men. They were personally complimented by Generals French, Carr, and Morris. General Morris published com- plimentary orders to his brigade. The following extract speaks of our regiment :
" The enemy was holding a fence on the crest of a hill in our front. I ordered the Tenth Vermont to charge and take it, and the regiment advanced in gallant style and took the crest. The left wing in its enthusiasm having advanced too far beyond the fence, it was necessary to recall it. I cannot speak of the conduct of the officers and men with too much praise. It was necessary to form the line of bat- tle in a thick woods, at the base of a hill, whose summit the enemy held, fortified with a breastwork. Though the regi- ment had never before been under sharp fire, they behaved with the determined bravery and steadiness of veterans."
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At the close he says :
"I take pleasure in mentioning the following officers whose courage and efficiency I personally observed : Colonel A. B. Jewett, Major Charles G. Chandler, and Captain Samuel Darrah, Tenth Vermont Volunteers."
The following officers of this regiment on the General's staff are mentioned in the same terms; Lieutenants Gale, Hicks and Hill. Other officers of this command certainly were deserving of the same praise, but General Morris speaks only of those whom he observed, and it is not usual that all the officers of a brigade are under the immediate eye of the General. The regiment's losses were, thirteen killed and fifty-seven wounded. Captain, afterwards Major, Dillingham, acting on General Morris's staff, had his horse shot under him while executing an order, and was taken prisoner. Lieutenant, afterwards Captain, H. W. Kingsley, was severely wounded, and had a narrow escape in getting from the field. As his men were bearing him away on a stretcher, a shell burst near by, wounding one of the stretcher-bearers, and they let the Captain fall to the ground. After dark, and the rebels had been driven from the field, we went over it, searching from among the dead, dying, and wounded, our comrades. In due time we buried the dead, wrapped in blankets, the only coffins we could give them, and tenderly marked their graves, soon to be blotted out, but not forgotten. The wounded were taken to the oper- ating table of the surgeon, whose knife it often required more courage to encounter than it did the enemy's bullets.
Next morning at two o'clock the corps advanced by way of Robertson's Tavern to Mine Run, behind which Lee had retired, and was then fortifying himself. His position was a commanding crest just beyond the Run. Meade at once formed his lines to attack him. His lines stretched from Antioch Court House on the left to Baitley's Mill on the
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right, facing west, six miles long. Our corps was in the centre of this long line. The Tenth Regiment was sent to support Captain Robinson's Fourth Maine Battery, where in plain sight of the Johnnies, we saw them digging like beav- ers, throwing up epaulements and strengthening their works against our anticipated attack. Skirmishers were thrown out and we were put in readiness, and ordered to charge at precisely four o'clock ; but for some reason we did not, and were finally withdrawn, with the whole division, and sent during the night over to the second corps, on the left of the line, to support General Warren in a contemplated attack at that point. But instead of supporting, we were put in the front line, close up under the enemy's guns, where he could have blown us all to pieces in a moment. The troops ex- pected to move up and assault a fortified hill. The summit of this hill was bristling with artillery, and its steep sides were covered by abatis and fallen timber. Nothing was done, however, except a little skirmishing. The battle of Mine Run, which we have heard something about, was never fought, nor any other battle, within four miles of there. The Third Corps fought at Orange Grove, on the twenty- seventh, and the same day the Second Corps, at Robertson's Tavern, both sharp fights, but of which little has ever been said.
From all that can be learned, it seems that after our army was in position at Mine Run, General Meade ordered a battle, the first attack to be made at four o'clock on Sunday, the twenty-ninth of November. The ball was to be opened by General Warren, who was posted on the extreme left, and his guns were to be the signal for a general attack along the whole line. But he did not give this signal, and of course other parts of the plan failed. The order of attack was then slightly changed. Our division and the Second Divi- sion were sent to Warren during the night of the twenty- ninth, and the signal of attack was to be given by General
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Sedgwick, who was to open with all his guns next morning at eight o'clock. To this the other corps commanders were to immediately respond, and so make the attack general from right to left. Sedgwick blazed away for half an hour, formed his lines to assault, and did do a little skirmishing. The other commanders, Sykes, Newton and French, who had remained in the centre with one division, took up the thundering message and bore it along towards the left. But Warren now deemed the attack too hazardous to be made in his front. Thus the affair ended.
That night the army was headed towards the Rapidan. Our regiment was sent on picket far to the front, close up under the rebel works. We were right on an angle of his fortifications, shaped like a grindstone crank, lying on the ground, with the horizontal parts pointing east and west. We were in the long angle that broke back into his main line. We could distinctly hear his reveille, their ribald songs and their loud conversation. It was curious to see their sharpshooters come out with spade and rifle, dig a hole about four feet by two, and a foot in depth, throwing up the dirt in front ; he then had a rifle pit, in which he was completely protected. Sometimes, on both sides, these armed gophers would lay their caps upon these miniature lunettes, or raise them on the handles of their spades, in order to draw the fire and so discover their antagonist.
We lay here until two o'clock on the morning of Decem- ber second, and then silently crept out-so cautiously that our steps seemed muffled, so softly we trod the danger- ous ground. Orders were whispered to the men or given in pantomime. The usual rattle of canteens and tin cups was mysteriously hushed. We were a ghost of silence. Our horses caught the spirit, and trod lightly along the wooded road. We passed the spot where we had supported Robin- son's battery two days before, which had now given place to Quaker guns, that looked very like the "dogs of war" in
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the pale light of the declining moon. On we moved to Germania Ford, the last detachment of the army to cross the river.
The same day we reached Brandy Station, having marched twenty-three miles. The campaign was at an end. It had already been prolonged into the edge of winter, and the cold weather required that it should stop. We went into winter quarters near the house of John Minor Botts, our regiment occupying a site which a few weeks before had been selected by the rebels for their winter quarters, and some of the men went into cantonments built by them before we crossed the Rappahannock.
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CHAPTER IV.
V ISIONS of a few months' rest now dawned upon us, and the prospect of winter quarters-pleasing change to the tired soldier-was thought to be close at hand. But the vision and the hope soon vanished, as similar prospects had so often done before.
At eight o'clock on the evening of the third, the ringing notes of the bugle sounded from every camp. Corps, divi- sions and brigades sprang to arms. We, with the rest of the troops, hastily turned out, struck tents, packed up, and within twenty minutes were ready to move whithersoever the emergency demanded. We stood on our arms for hours, waiting for further orders, not knowing what they might develop, although we sullenly conjectured "Retreat" still farther away. It was rumored that the enemy had closely followed our retreating column, and were eagerly pressing forward to chastise us. But the report turned out to be false, and at midnight the marching orders were counter- manded and the troops turned in, many sleeping upon the ground beneath the clear, cold sky, rather than again pitch their tents.
On the fourth we began to fit up our quarters in the camp referred to at the close of the last chapter. The posi- tion on the left of our brigade, assigned to the Tenth, was pleasantly chosen. It was a comparatively smooth piece of ground, sloping to the south, and backed up by a grove of heavy oaks, which, however, the men were not allowed to cut down, both on account of the protection they afforded from the north wind, and the sturdy loyalty of their owner.
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Along our front was the railroad upon which the cars were constantly plying between Brandy Station and Culpepper, only a few miles apart. Still nearer the camp, just below the company quarters, was a brook, more properly a ditch, . . which supplied the camp with water. This stream was not so clear and pure as we had seen, yet the mixture was not more than two parts mud to three of water, and when it was further diluted with coffee it became a very decent beverage. This fact will appear, no doubt, when it is further stated that the whole vast plain, which was in part drained by this stream, had been the theatre of thirteen battles and skirmishes, most of them cavalry engagements, after which the combatants had not always taken the trouble to drag off the carcasses of their dead horses, though it may be they had slightly buried the bodies of their fallen com- rades. In order to drink this water with a relish we were obliged to wait until quite thirsty ; then by closing our eyes, shutting our teeth firmly together, we could strain a little of it down. There were just a few, a very few, in our regi- ment who were too fastidious in their tastes to use it at all, for drinking purposes, only as they mixed small quanti- ties with a certain qui purgat, the English of which is Commissary Whiskey.
We stayed at this place from December till March. It was commonly reported that the army encamped at Brandy Station, but it was scattered over the ground in this vicinity for six miles or more around. The line nominally extended from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan, occupying Cul- pepper, and stretching back to the Hazel and Hedgman rivers. The rebel army was in the vicinity of Madison Court House, and Lee's head-quarters could be distinctly seen from our signal station on Bear Mountain. The army here, probably, was as pleasantly located as during any winter of the war. There were few things that the soldier needed which he could not purchase. There were suttles
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for each regiment, and "purveyors" for corps, divisions and brigade head-quarters. Some of them opened clothing stores, and nearly all tried to keep on sale whatever there was a demand for, and through them anything that was kept in the markets of Washington and New York could be procured upon short notice at small (?) profits, -in fact they were the express messengers between us and the merchants and manufacturers of the world.
The occupations of the men during these winter months were various-they were Yankee. Their quarters were all comfortably arranged ; some of them were ingeniously fitted up and fancifully adorned. Harper's and Leslie's Il- lustrated Weeklies furnished many a soldier's hut with tasty decorations, after he had profitably read them. The battle cuts, views of camps and landscapes, were often carefully preserved and pinned or pasted to their cabin-walls ; added to them were the brilliant pictures and daubs of novel covers, and all these often interspersed with their own rude pencil- ings. Some of their tents were turned into cobbler's shops. and tailoring establishments, where the occupant, with true. Yankee enterprise, would repair the clothes and shoes of" his neighbor; some of them, besides all the other pur -. poses they served, were converted into jeweler's shops, and watches were actually well cleaned and repaired in the camp. All kinds of craftsmen were found among the vol- unteers of our army, and details were easily made for the telegraph office, the forges, and all the workshops of the Quartermaster-General, for printing establishments when found abandoned, who were capable of managing the edi -. torial and mechanical departments ; these men were good for all work, from the tinkering of a tin cup and the digging of a ditch to the building and running of a railroad. All pro- fessions were also represented in the ranks. There were men of the rank and file in the Tenth Regiment who had served honorably in the Legislature of Vermont, lawyers
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who had won some local distinction, ministers of the gospel who carried knapsacks and bore hardships uncomplain- ingly, fought bravely and died nobly. Our military duties at this time were light, details, only, once in two or three weeks, being required for picket duty.
About the middle of December, orders were received allowing furloughs to enlisted men, and leaves of absence to officers ; a great many availed themselves of the oppor- tunity thus afforded, to revisit home and friends. Many ladies, also, wives of officers, came to the regiment and spent the winter with their husbands. At one time there were a dozen whom we used to say in homely and friendly phrase " belonged " to the Tenth. They ranked as follows : Mrs. Colonel Jewett, Mrs. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry, Mrs. Major Chandler, Mrs. Surgeon Child, Mrs. Captain Platt, Mrs. Captain Hunt, Mrs. Captain Salisbury, Mrs. Captain Damon, Mrs. Quarter-Master Valentine, Mrs. Lieutenant Davis, Mrs. Lieutenant Stetson. There were also others visiting with the above, who did not "belong" to the regiment. Certainly a military camp, likely to be deserted, even in the winter, for two or three days at a time, and liable at any moment to be disturbed, if not assailed by the enemy, is not the most delightful place for ladies to sojourn for any length of time, yet those who visited us, though they did not become enamored with the customs of the soldiers, adapted themselves very readily to the exigencies of their situations, and while they did not, it will be remembered, contemplate our hard tack and hash, without grimaces, probably they did not experience any of those horrid visions with which imagination had so often filled the camp.
Christmas and New Year's were very pleasantly. remem- bered in this winter camp, though observed somewhat differently than they had been on former occasions and in other places. Still the American will ever remember his holidays, and, if possible, celebrate them with such ceremo-
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