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 5
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nies as his ingenuity may suggest or his means and condition enable him to improve. We had "select" dinner parties, with rare entertainment; music by our excellent band, speeches, and minor festivities of a more general character. One of the incidents of Christmas day was a procession formed by all who were permitted to be festive, headed by a donkey, the gravest ass of the company, mounted by an impersonation of Old Nicholas. This procession moved about the camp to the music of fife and drum, much to the amusement of both the participants and the lookers-on. Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler nominally commanded this . merry expedition, but the donkey, being a little obstinate and difficult to ride in a straight line, really became the solemn chief of the occasion. There were other far more brilliant exhibitions with and around us, but probably none where the participants became more innocently jolly.
On the night of the twenty-fifth of January, 1864, the officers of the old Third Corps had a general reunion and ball at General Carr's head-quarters. The affair has been thus described :
"A spacious hall, ninety-six by thirty-six feet, covered with tarpaulins and tent flies, had been erected by details of men from Carr's Division, and profusely decorated with ever- greens and flags. Three bands were in attendance, and the whole scene was brilliantly illuminated. Tickets of admis- sion were ten dollars each; the entertainment cost more than two thousand dollars ; and there was the strange specta- cle of sentinels guarding the entrance and standing at differ- ent posts around the room, with fixed bayonets, at a ball."
February sixth, our brigade received marching orders, with three days' rations. It moved out, leaving only a camp guard, at five o'clock P. M., as a part of a reconnoi- tering force, via Culpepper, towards the Rapidan, halting about seven miles from camp, at ten o'clock at night. Next
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morning they moved down towards Raccoon Ford; re- mained in line of battle till night, and then returned, having seen no enemy and fired not a gun. The First Corps, how- ever, had a sharp skirmish at the Ford, losing a hundred men in killed and wounded, and capturing some prisoners.
On the twenty-seventh, the Governor of Vermont, John Gregory Smith, with his staff, visited the regiment and dined with the Colonel's mess. His Excellency spent several days at the front, paying a visit to all the State troops. Other distinguished gentlemen, also from Vermont, were our guests for a few days at a time, among them Rev. Dr. Parker, now of Gorham, Me., the Hon. Henry Hall and wife, of Bennington, Vt., and others from other parts of the State.
During the month of March the army was undergoing a reorganization. The old First and Third Corps were broken up as organizations, and the troops of these commands ab- sorbed in the Sixth, Fifth and Second Corps.
About the middle of March, General Grant visited the Army of the Potomac for the first time. He had just been ·created Lieutenant-General, and placed in command of all the land forces of the United States. He hastily reviewed the various corps, and then followed the consolidation.
Some complaint followed the breaking up of the Third Army Corps. It was the first organized at the beginning of the Rebellion, and such distinguished Generals as Hooker, Kearney, Heintzelman, Sickles, Howard, Barry and Birney, and several others, had been identified with it, and had helped to render its name immortal. But as the Tenth was to join the Sixth Corps, and become associated, although in another division, with the glorious old " Vermont Brigade," there were no heart-burnings with us. Two of the old regi- ments from other States were added to our brigade, the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania and the One Hundred and Sixth New York. The old division, consisting of three
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brigades, was now formed into two, and attached to the Sixth Corps as its Third Division, and was much the small- est division in the corps.
The following named regiments composed the First Bri- gade : the One Hundred and Fifty-first and One Hundred and Sixth New York, the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania, the Fourteenth New Jersey and the Tenth Vermont. The Second Brigade was constituted by the One Hundred and Tenth, One Hundred and Twenty-second, and One Hundred and Twen- ty-sixth Ohio Regiments, the only Western troops in the Army of the Potomac, and the Sixth Maryland. At the organization our General commanders were Brevet Major- General James B. Ricketts, of the division ; Brigadier-Gen- eral W. H. Morris, of the First Brigade ; and Colonel, afterwards General, Kifer, of the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio, of the Second Brigade. The First Division, General Birney's, of the old Third Corps, became the Third Division of the Second Corps; and the Second Division, General Prince's, joined the Fifth Corps.
We were encamped on the left of the old organization, and near the right of the Second Corps, and were therefore obliged to exchange camps with Birney's Division. It seemed hard, at this season of the year, when we needed something more than canvas protection, to leave our neat, pleasant quarters, for the filthy mud-hole into which we were put, and the low, dirty cabins which contrasted so dis- mally with our clean and airy ones. We did not occupy them, however, only while we were laying out and building decent quarters three hundred yards away, which we were permitted to enjoy barely a month.
On the twenty-fifth of April, Colonel Jewett resigned, and on the evening previous to his departure most of the field, staff and line officers assembled in his quarters to take leave of their commander. In reflecting upon the incidents of that occasion, it is impossible to recall, with accuracy,
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those features which at this distance of time would afford the pleasantest recollections. The Colonel briefly expressed his regrets at leaving the gallant regiment, and hoped that all would prove themselves worthy of the good name Ver- mont troops had already won on a score of battle-fields, and bear bravely their own glorious standard to the end. Ear- nest responsive speeches were made by Major Chandler, Surgeon Child, and Captains Sheldon and Blodgett.
But the days for merry meetings were coming rapidly to a close. Nearly five months had passed away since the Mine Run campaign, and the prospect of taking the field again was nearing every hour. The sick, and surplus bag- gage, had been sent to the rear. Sutlers, visitors and citi- zens, had been ordered off on the twenty-ninth of March, and now, the last days of April, active preparations for an advance upon the enemy were everywhere going on. The monotony of camp life was sternly broken ; orderlies were hastily riding about from corps to division head-quarters, and brigades and regiments received detailed instructions of the proposed campaign through their respective command- ers. Corps and divisions were hastily reviewed and care- fully inspected ; the music of bands ceased, drum corps and bugles became silent, and orders were issued forbidding their use in the approaching campaign except by special permission. Yet it was not known by other than corps commanders whither the campaign would lead. Strangely reticent was the one new and great head of the army.
The Wilderness.
Early on the morning of May fourth, the movement silently and earnestly commenced ; and when the sun rose it shone, never brighter, upon the deserted camps of the Union Army, and revealed to the rebel commander, no doubt, from his signal station on Clark's Mountain, a scene
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that plainly said, " We are coming-coming to finish up the tragedy." Long before night the cavalry and three corps were over the river without opposition, the Fifth and Sixth crossing at Germania Ford, and the Second at Ely's Ford.
Somehow it seemed to every man, all of whom had crossed that same stream several times before to fight the enemy and then retreat, that we had now come to stay. The whole army, with its immense supply and ammunition trains, its baggage wagons, long lines of ambulances and parks of artillery, all plainly said we had come to stay. Here is a note made on the evening of the fourth, in the diary from which this book is compiled :
" Over the river ! We are all here, and Mr. Lee, though he did not formally invite us, has not yet objected to our staying. Cheerily have the men pushed on to-day-fifteen miles and not a sore foot, not a struggle-the column came in solid !
" What next we do not know ; but we shall sleep sound- ly to-night, right under the shadow of Grant's battle-flag, charmed by the music of the Rapidan. Sleep soldier ! May God bless thy numbered slumbers !"
Generals Grant and Meade both made their head-quar- ters with the Sixth Corps. Next morning two divisions of the corps moved at sunrise. Our division remained at and near the ford, where we had crossed, until General Burn- side, with the Ninth Corps, arriving from Warrenton, appeared on the opposite bank of the river. The division was then ordered to move by the plank road, to the old Wilderness Tavern, whither the other two divisions had gone, and where, on that afternoon, a little to the left, at the junction of the Orange Court House, and what was known as the "brook road," the "Old Brigade," with two other brigades of the Second Division, had a terrible encounter
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with the enemy. These troops were sent to the assistance of the Second Corps, but they fought a succession of san- guinary battles while that corps was forming its line for an attack. Our division did not go to the Old Wilderness Tav- ern, but filed off to the right of the plank road just before we reached the Old Wilderness Run, and went into position north of the Orange pike ; the Second Brigade was sent to reënforce the First Division, and the First Brigade was or- dered to the support of the Second Division. But we were not put into close action during the afternoon, though con- stantly under fire after we reached the field. On reaching the Orange pike, however, moving to the position assigned, and along which the brigade essayed to move, it encountered a perfect tornado of shell, that burst above and in the midst of the men, faster, it seemed, than they could be counted. They sprang across the pike at a bound, but in doing so a score were killed and wounded. A shell struck near Gen- eral Ricketts, killing three horses mounted by officers of his staff, and at the same time wounded an officer on General Griffin's staff. Our brigade at dark occupied a position on the south of the pike, two hundred yards beyond, where we stayed in line of battle all night.
We had suffered but little in this first day's battle of the Wilderness. The "Old Brigade" had suffered terribly, hav- ing borne the brunt of the battle from noon till dark. The number of men slaughtered was shockingly great ; many valuable officers were killed and wounded. The Second Brigade of our Division suffered much worse than the First. Three officers and thirty-eight enlisted men were killed, and one hundred and seventy-four were wounded. A large pro- portion of these casualties was in the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Regiment. Colonel Kifer, its gallant com- mander, who had just been relieved from the command of the brigade, on account of the arrival of General Seymour, was severely wounded. His appearance at the Third Divis-
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ion hospital will not be easily forgotten. He came in hat- less and pantless. He had nothing on except a pair of heavy army shoes, a pair of indescribable colored socks, such as were issued by the Quartermaster, a shirt bloody from top to bottom, and a vest buttoned close around him. His right arm was terribly shattered, hanging at his side, while in his left hand he held his good sword. All this, with his long, tangled hair-for he was a Nazarite, sworn not to cut his hair or beard until Richmond fell-gave him a most weird appearance. When or how he came no one knew; and when the surgeon kindly asked him if he would have his wound dressed, he replied, with an expression of mingled wrath and grief: "I should not care for myself if the ras- cals had not cut my poor men to pieces."
On the morning of the sixth, the First Brigade moved over on to the north side of the pike, where we remained idle until six o'clock in the evening. It seemed that this was a reserved brigade, kept at a point from which it would be easy to move to the place most needed. But during the entire day they were kept in this position, right in the range of the enemy's artillery, their shell bursting in front and around them, but more frequently going over their heads. Sometimes they were brought within musket range by the advance of the rebels. One officer and six men were killed, and twenty-one taken prisoners, and we did not fire a gun nor were we permitted to move away. Captain Judson, of the One Hundred and Sixth New York, acting on General Morris's staff, was also taken prisoner. A position of this kind affords one of the severest tests of courage. A " square fight" did not cause one-half of the pitiless anxiety that this expectant, dubious state enforced.
At the time the brigade was moving from the south to the north side of the pike in the morning, the enemy made a sudden dash upon the right of our corps, probably designed to mask a determined assault made at the same
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time farther to the left upon the Second and Ninth Corps. After three or four desperate charges made on this part of our line during the day, and as many counter charges by Warren, Hancock and Burnside, in which the rebels were successively defeated, simply because they did not defeat us, they again renewed the attack upon the extreme right of the Sixth Corps, where they had made a feint in the morn- ing. This came nearer being a success. An eye-witness thus describes it :
"About sunset the rebels attacked the extreme left of the Sixth Corps, composed of Shaler's Brigade of the First Division, and Seymour's Brigade of the Third Division, Shaler's Brigade broke in confusion, and the Second Bri- gade being flanked, also broke, and the men crossed a ravine, and some of them in great disorder retreated to a breast- work just behind the ravine, in front of which they were posted, and many even went back to the plank road, where they caused a momentary panic among the teamsters and in the Hospital Department stationed there."
In this break General Seymour was captured. The rebels made a right wheel, and were pouring in between the broken and disordered lines, crumbling them off, and press- ing up to the rear of our right centre, where General Griffin promptly brought the troops stopped in the breastwork above referred to, reënforcing them with a battery which immediately opened fire upon the flank and rear of the Con- federates. At the same time the First Brigade was ordered to the rescue. General Morris immediately gave the order for his brigade to change front, and the Tenth Vermont and the One Hundred and Sixth New York, the only regiments that he had in hand, sprang to their feet, and changing direc- tion by the right flank, on the double quick formed a line facing north across the path of the retreating Second Bri- gade, and as they came to a front, Colonel Henry shouted to
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Lieutenant-Colonel Townsend, of the One Hundred and Sixth, to join him in giving three cheers, which were given as only soldiers can give them. At this the Second Brigade immediately began to rally in our rear. General Morris, thus hastening from the position that he had held all day, seemingly to no purpose, fairly checked the rebel advance. Seeing this movement, they fell back beyond the ravine to the position from which they had just driven Shaler's and Seymour's Brigades. Our line was now put in order, look- ing northward, whereas it had faced to the southwest. The work of intrenching the line was a matter of but a few mo- ments, and the Battle of the Wilderness was virtually over.
On the seventh there was some artillery firing and some skirmishing, but the enemy had given up the contest and withdrawn behind his strong intrenchments. The awful numbers of the wounded were cared for as best they could be, the dead were buried, detached regiments and brigades rejoined their commands, and all things were put in readi- ness to move and flank the enemy out of his works as soon as night covered us.
It is remarkable that the Tenth Regiment, although constantly under fire, moving to the support of other troops and into threatened positions during the successive engage- ments of these three days, lost only three men killed and nine wounded.
Mr. Greeley, in his "American Conflict," states that General Grant " intended to go through this miserable chap- arral as quickly as possible, and it was Lee's business not to let him." This may be true ; certain it is that the rebel General so disposed his corps and formed his lines as to strike each of Grant's columns and bruise them all he could before they got fairly into position.
Some have undertaken to condemn, and others have labored to approve, the course of the Union commander in this affair of the Wilderness. Its justification -if it is not
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too late to say so-is easy. There was but one thing to do at this stage of the war. The loyal American people had no choice but to fight the disloyal and rebellious, and fight them out. There could be no more "backing and fill- ing," but the work must now go straight on to the end. And it is exceedingly questionable whether or not they had the power to choose the advantages of any battle-field that might have been selected for the first encounter. The strength and discipline of the rebel army would have secured them this at any point between Washington and Richmond. Why, then, was it not well for General Grant to pursue the tactics embodied in instructions to Sheridan when he went up the Shenandoah Valley, and which all the world ap- plauded : "Pursue the enemy and attack them wherever found."
On the night of the seventh, about half-past eleven o'clock, the whole army was on the move towards the right of the enemy's position. Our division moved by the Chan- cellorsville pike towards Spottsylvania Court House. In crossing the battle-field of Chancellorsville we saw many signs of the desperate conflict that raged there just a year before. The place where Stonewall Jackson was wounded, and the house in which he died, were pointed out to us. The field was a sepulchre, silent, and full of dead men's bones. It seemed worse even than the one which we had just left. all slippery with the best blood of fifty thousand men. Here was all the débris of battle, white and mouldy ; splintered gun-carriages, torn saddles, broken muskets, battered can- teens, shriveled cartridge boxes and knapsacks, blankets stripped into shreds and hanging upon the bushes, skeletons of horses and men scattered about the field and mingling in a common dust. Around them were cannon balls and frag- ments of shell. Every tree and rock bore the marks of the terrible fray. Here were stout frames of men, with the blue uniforms of the patriot soldier still clinging to the unsightly
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masses, just where they were hurled down in the awful rage of battle. Scores of human skulls were kicked over and went rolling away from the path we were treading to other scenes of carnage. How could men march away from these ghastly realities of war, with its bony relics all before them, and immediately become unflinching actors in other parts of the awful, bloody drama, with possible results precisely the same? Simply because they were deemed only possible and not certain.
Spottsylvania.
WVe left the Chancellorsville pike at Aldrich's house, and after a few hours' march in a south-easterly direction on the old Tod's Tavern road, went into position a mile or so east of Alsop's farm. The Third Division occupied the crest of a hill on the right of the corps, their line extending down into a valley. The enemy were in position both in front and on the right, where their infantry had opposed Han- cock's advance for several hours. It was supposed that he had driven them back, so that our position might be tenable and be made an easy point from which to advance. The order to attack, therefore, was given. But at this time it was discovered that a rebel battery, posted just across a little stream called the river Ny, on rising ground, would completely enfilade the line the moment it should advance ; troops, also, were moving rapidly in that direction, evidently preparing for a stubborn resistance, with many advantages in their favor. Consequently the order of attack delivered to the Third Division was suspended, and the troops were drawn back towards the left, nearly to an angle with the line first taken up. During all this time Robinson's Divis- ion, of Hancock's Corps, was fighting desperately on our right, and when nearly exhausted and falling back, Griffin's Division of the Fifth Corps was sent to his assistance. Both divisions immediately charged, capturing two thousand
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prisoners, losing probably one thousand. Our division only lost sixteen men in the inferior part it had taken in the oper- ations of the day. After dark the division was moved half- a-mile to the left, down the hill, and three hundred yards to the front, up to the edge of an open field, beyond which the enemy were intrenched, but deemed it too hazardous to re- main here after daylight, and we again fell back undisturbed and threw up intrenchments.
Next day these works were strengthened. Batteries were placed in position, and the division got a terrific shell- ing in reply to their own batteries, besides being constantly annoyed by the enemy's sharpshooters. Those who had the opportunity sought the best covert they could from this close and deadly fire; both officers and men hugged the ground with an affection that was truly touching, and that could have been inspired only by the childish instinct of security in a mother's embrace. At such times each man feels that he weighs a ton, so far down does he imbed him- self in the earth. It was with the utmost risk that the cooks prepared coffee, for the moment that a column of smoke arose above the woods, the rebel artillerists would train their guns and blaze away at the spot they supposed to be somewhere near its base. By this practice they spoiled several batches of coffee, designed for the men, destroying the kettles and scattering the firebrands around. Some were half buried beneath the furrows ploughed by bursting shells, and many were wounded - among them our brigade com- mander, General W. H. Morris. General Sedgwick was killed here. He was superintending the work of placing a battery in position and he was struck in the face just under the left eye, by a rebel sharpshooter, and instantly killed. Five minutes before, he was jesting with the men who were flinching and dodging the bullets : "Poh, men," he says, " they could not hit an elephant at this distance." He was a brave and noble officer-the idol of the men he com-
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manded. "Uncle John" the men called him. His name and the glory of the old Sixth Corps are forever identical. Major-General H. G. Wright succeeded to the command of the corps.
Our position remained unchanged during the next day and the day following, except on the eleventh, the Tenth Regiment was thrown out on the skirmish line. On the twelfth, the division, with the corps, was moved to the left, into the works of the Second Corps, in order to support General Hancock in his famous assault, made that day on the rebel works in his front. It was rather a continuous assault ; the attack was made in the grey dawn, and contin- ued into the darkness of the evening with unabated fury. Charge followed charge in quick succession ; the roar of artillery was incessant, and the musketry did not merely rattle ; it sounded like the tearing of some monstrous web into a million shreds with the same motion. It belched forth one solid sheet of flame. On the first dash Hancock pushed the rebels out of their works, capturing General Bushrod Johnson and General G. E. Stuart, with over five thousand prisoners and between thirty and forty guns. These works were never retaken, although they were held at a terrible cost. Five times the rebels hurled their heavy assaulting columns upon Hancock's men and those of the Sixth Corps who had come to his aid, and five times they were sent staggering back with fearful loss. There were few battles of the war where men fought hand to hand, and this was one of them. Few bayoncts were ever stained in the blood of the foe, but if one hundred wounds were inflicted by the bayonet in all the fighting of the Rebel- lion, which is doubtful, three-fifths of them were received here, so fiercely did men fight and so closely did the com- batants approach to each other. Troops from both armies clung to the same breastwork at the same time, and planted their flags upon it together, to be swept down by the same
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