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 6
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volley. To say that both sides were equally determined, desperate, mad with a purpose, and that to conquer, would be stating the exact truth. Hancock gained an advantage when he burst from the thick curtain of fog in the early dawn, and he firmly held this advantage-that was all. Perhaps it was enough, even for the sacrifice it cost. There was something gained; the foe who was supposed to be sleepless had been caught napping, we had advanced a mile, secured the trophies above referred to-it was a victory !
But the mutual carnage was frightful. Here it may be said without exaggeration that the dead " lay in heaps" and the soil was "miry with blood." The slain were piled upon each other-packed up so as to form defences for those who prolonged the battle, and the whole field was covered with a mass of quivering flesh. When all, and more than lived to tell the story of the conflict, were borne away, and the battle was over-when the still night came down covering with dark, damp silence those who had struggled and earned the tribute of a nation's gratitude and tears, or the just rewards of treason, there were packed into five square acres fifteen hundred dead men. But by far the largest number were the gray. Hancock has the glory of this victory ; let his men share it with the veterans of the Sixth Corps.
We had struck them at an angle of their works, which was a key-point to both armies, and whoever held this angle commanded the whole line of works. Hence their struggle to retake it and their awful punishment. The First and Second Divisions of the Sixth Corps were hotly engaged in this action and suffered severely, but the Third Division was held in reserve and as a supporting column, and lost during the entire action only twenty-three men killed and one hundred and thirty-three wounded ; enough, perhaps, to show that they participated in the battle. Among the wounded were three officers.
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On the morning of the thirteenth, the division moved back across this field to its old position on the right. On the fourteenth, we moved with the corps six miles, around the Second, Fifth, and Ninth Corps, crossing the Fred- ericksburg pike to the extreme left of the army. Freder- icksburg was now our new base of supplies, and via this point large reinforcements were arriving from Washington. The Eleventh Vermont, a regiment of Heavy Artillery, fifteen hundred strong, which had been in the fortifications at Washington nineteen months, now for the first time in the field, joined the " Old Brigade " of our Second Division. The Ninth New York, a regiment of the same arm of the service, and also from the defences of Washington, was attached to the Second Brigade of our division. Other commands of course received reinforcements, and the places of forty thousand men who had fallen out of the contest, since we crossed the Rapidan, were partly made good. Our division going into position just at dusk on the fifteenth, charged across the Ny River and relieved a brigade of the First Division, which had been vainly endeavoring to carry the crest of a hill held by the enemy just beyond. This brigade had been badly cut up, but refused to be driven off. Our men charged through the stream where the water was up to their armpits. Swinging their car- tridge-boxes over their shoulders, they gained the hill with a shout. Then filing to the right, and drawing back the left, so that it rested on the river, they threw up intrench- ments and remained in this position until the afternoon of the seventeenth. The army remained in this vicinity until the twenty-first, the troops by corps and divisions moving from right to left, now massing and combining before some supposed weak point in the enemy's line, and then quietly withdrawing to old positions to await the enemy's attack. But he made none. The Third Division was not brought into serious collision with the enemy since the night of the
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fourteenth, until the twenty-first. While withdrawing from the works just before dusk, in order to move across the North Anna river, towards which the bulk of the army had gone, we were spitefully attacked in the rear. The First and Second Divisions had already moved out, but when the rebels rushed over our deserted works and were endeavoring to intercept our line of march, a part of these troops hurry- ing back, came with a crash upon their flank, and captured a number of prisoners, whereupon the rest made haste to retreat, badly punished for their pains.
General Grant was not further molested in the execution of his flank movement from Spottsylvania Court House to the North Anna.
Between the Annas.
We had crossed a medley of small streams, which the inhabitants and the map-makers called rivers. These fur- nished the waters and the syllables for the name of a larger stream below. They were named respectively as follows : Mat, Ta, Po, and Ny. Running a short distance to the south, they formed geographically, as well as literally, the Matta- pony River. This certainly must have taxed some one's ingenuity for a name.
On the twenty-second, we received our mails from the North, from whence we had not heard for nineteen days. The event was a joyful one, and yet that there were thou- sands of unclaimed letters - never could be claimed by those to whom they were addressed-was the sad mixture of that joy. When the names borne upon these letters, the very writing of which inspired a prayer as the pen traced the familiar superscriptions, were called, the responses to one-half of them, that silently and solemnly impressed them- selves upon the understanding, were, " wounded," " dead," " prisoners." But the emergencies of war forbade a long contemplation of those scenes.
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On the twenty-fourth, the Third Division, with the corps. crossed the North Anna at Jericho Mills, about eight o'clock in the morning. The Fifth Corps had fought its way over here the evening before. We lay on the bank of the river till six o'clock in the afternoon, when we moved off towards the South Anna, marching by General Grant's headquarters while the General and his staff were "taking tea." The newspapers had told us a great deal about the " tooth-brush baggage," and the paucity of our commander-in-chief's commissariat. The delusions disappeared when we saw the large, airy tents, the splendid outfit of these head-quar- ters, and cast our hungry looks upon the well supplied tables where officers were eating from real crockery plates with genuine knives and forks. This of course was all as it should be, and no man who knew the duties of a soldier could complain of it; but we did not like the newspaper fraud, and did not afterwards commiserate the General of the Army, as we had done before, as he had been repre- sented riding about with the tooth-brush in his vest pocket, living upon hard tack and sleeping at night on the damp ground, with his saddle for a pillow, and with nothing but the deep starry heavens for a shelter.
We marched through a terrific rain storm to Quarles Mills, where at eight o'clock we run into the enemy's picket lines. After some skirmishing we withdrew, and during the night we took a position and fortified it. Next morning we marched to Nolan's Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, which we burned; we also destroyed the track for eight miles beyond. At night the Tenth went "on picket" below the railroad, south of the station ; our post was at a place so wet that those who were allowed the privilege were obliged to pile up fence rails, in order to sleep above water. Our corps did not become engaged, except in slight skirmishes, during the ten days we con- fronted the army at this point, although the Fifth and
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Second had to fight for positions, and fight to maintain them. On the twenty-sixth, another flank movement was commenced, led by the Sixth Corps, recrossing at Jericho Mills, and still bearing down upon Richmond, arriving at Chesterfield Station at midnight. The Tenth did not leave the picket line until three o'clock in the morning of the twenty-seventh. We rejoined the division at seven, the same morning, and at sundown were in sight of the Pamunkey River.
The country along the North Anna is barren and desti- tute of interest, the inhabitants sparse and poor. But as we approached the Pamunkey the soil is rich, well cleared, and cultivated. The valley is wide and fertile, and large wheat and corn fields just springing up, gave indication of far more thrift and enterprise than we had seen elsewhere. But the main reason for it, we were told, was that the Con- federate chief had exhorted the farmers in this vicinity to devote all their energies to agricultural pursuits, as it would be impossible for the Yankees to molest them, so near their capital ; besides the hungry markets at Richmond needed the utmost kernel they could produce. But this assurance that he would hold back the " ruthless invader " was poorly kept, and before the promise of harvest was fairly budded, the heavy tramp of the Union Army came thundering over their fields, and left wide paths, beaten as smooth as a sum- mer threshing floor. Besides, we found large quantities of corn, hoarded doubtless for the use of the Confederacy, on the plantation of Mr. George Tyler, which was appropriated to our use. We crossed the river at noon on the twenty- eighth, at "Widow Nolan's Bridge." That lady's bridge was gone, but we crossed on pontoons which answered as well. The whole corps immediately took position on the high ground beyond, and threw up breastworks in order to cover the bridge while the rest of the army crossed. Here the cavalry, having preceded the infantry, aided by the
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Second Division, captured a couple of guns from the enemy and a number of prisoners. Our own brigade occupied a position south and east of one Dr. Pollard's house, the works running through an orchard and across a cotton field, where the young plants were about six inches high when we entered it. Pollard's estate was the finest we had seen. He had a splendid plantation, rich in broad agricul- tural fields, and thrifty orchards; adorned with shade and ornamental trees, and supplied with every domestic con- venience. We approached this place through long avenues. shaded by the magnolia and catalpa ; and the large egg- shaped flowers of the former, and the clusters of smaller trumpet-shaped blossoms of the other, variegated with yel- low and purple, loaded the air with delicious fragrance. and filled the scene with the most tranquil beauty, strangely contrasting with the smell of powder, the tumult, and the gory exhibition of battle. Hancock immediately followed Wright, and went into position on the left. Next morning Warren and Burnside were both over the river.
On the twenty-ninth, our First Division went out on a reconnoissance, and the First Brigade of the Third Division followed to support. Early on the thirtieth we moved from Pollard's farm, in a westerly direction, crossing Crump's Creek, towards Hanover Court House. When approaching Atler's Station, about twelve o'clock, we were ordered back to support the Second Corps, then hotly engaged with the enemy near Tolopotomy Creek. We were hurried along through pathless woods and fields, making a shorter cut to the Hanover pike, which we had left at nine o'clock in the morning, and which we soon left again, crossing a swamp. toiling through a dense oaken forest, where the pioneers were clearing a road for artillery, and went into line of bat- tle on the left of Birney's Division at three o'clock in the afternoon. Skirmishes were immediately thrown out, and at dark the order to advance along the whole line was given.
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The enemy held a line running nearly north and south, with his left resting on the creek which ran around behind him, and into which he must have been pushed had he been vigorously attacked. But no advance was made, although it seemed that this was precisely what he feared, for he kept up a sharp skirmish fire till midnight. In the morning it was found that his main force had been withdrawn, and this line of skirmishers had been popping away in the dark- ness to keep their courage up. The Second and Sixth Corps were swung around to the right, and formed a new line of battle facing to the south, where the enemy took up a much stronger position on the opposite side of the Tolopotomy, although he came near losing the opportunity to take it, from having resisted us so stubbornly on less advantageous ground.
Cold Harbor.
At one o'clock A. M., the Sixth Corps was withdrawn from this position, and moved around fifteen miles to Cold Harbor, relieving the cavalry at ten o'clock same morning. These troopers received us with wild demonstrations of joy ; they had been hard pushed, fighting dismounted all the morn- ing, yet they were led by officers who often held on a good while after they were well whipped, and not unfrequently plucked victory from defeat. General Custer had his brigade band out on the skirmish line playing " Hail Columbia." As we approached it was thought that these gay troopers were celebrating a victory, but on the contrary they had been roughly handled, and did not mean to let the enemy know it, even if they themselves were aware of it.
Here we saw a sight which made the blood curdle, and at every thought of which the soul sickens and turns away. We had heard of the occurrence, but never had been so unfortunate as to behold it before. Right over the field where the battle had done its fiercest work, the fire had
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swept, and many a brave fellow, wounded and dying, unable to move from the place where he had fallen, had the little remaining life drawn out of him by the flames, and his body burned to a crisp. Horrible sight! Can the imag- ination picture a single woe that the sword and its fearful allies do not write out in bloody and ghastly characters?
The division went into position a little to the west of the old tavern, at Cold Harbor Cross Roads, in an open field behind a narrow belt of woods. The troops were formed in four lines of battle, by regiments. The Second Division was on the left, the First in the centre and the Third on the right, and the Eighteenth Corps, having just arrived from Petersburg, to the right of the Sixth Corps. About half-past six o'clock the order to advance was given, the Third Division to guide on the First. But for some reason our guides did not move while the Eighteenth Corps did, which caused some confusion and was in danger of becoming fatal, as we were under a heavy fire pouring in from the right. At this juncture, General Ricketts, sending for further orders, was directed to "move forward when the line on either flank moved, and to keep up the connection as far as possible." This of course was not a possibility of long duration under the then present formation. When the Third Division advanced, keeping up with the Eighteenth Corps on the right, our own First Division on the left not advancing, it had to be reformed and brought into a direc- tion corresponding with the main advancing line. This movement somewhat retarded the advance of the First Brigade, which was on the left of the division, and caused an angle in the division front, at the point of intersection between the First and Second Brigades. As the whole division, therefore, advanced, the Second Brigade directly ahead, and the First, necessarily, in order to keep up this connection, somewhat obliquely, soon made this angle acute. This angle in the front of the division was subsequently
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the most advanced part of the line, where works were finally constructed.
The advance was made through this belt of pine woods before mentioned, over a ploughed field, where the rebel skirmishers had erected temporary breastworks of fence rails, through a shallow ravine and swamp, and into a thick woods where the rebel intrenchments were forced and car- ried. Sergeant, afterwards Captain, S. H. Lewis, of the Tenth, sprang over the works, capturing single-handed a major, a lieutenant, and several men. The left of this line extended out of the woods into an open field, and was much annoyed by an enfilading fire from the rebel batteries to which the men were exposed by the failure of the First Divi- sion, and besides being weakened by the lengthening of the line caused by keeping up the connection, were unable to carry the whole line of rebel works, nor did they take the battery that caused them most annoyance ; still they nobly stood their ground. It was now nine o'clock, and nearly dark, and there was a lull in the storm of battle. The cap- tured works were strengthened, and others thrown up. This business was not attended to a moment too soon, for an hour afterwards the rebels made a desperate attempt to regain their lost works and capture ours. In this attempt they were fearfully repulsed ; repeating it several times dur- ing the night, they met with the same ill success.
The Tenth Regiment, in this advance, captured the Fifty-first North Carolina Regiment, and its commanding officer surrendered his sword to Captain E. B. Frost, at that time acting Major of the regiment. These prisoners were never credited to us, for the reason that they were allowed to go through our ranks, and not a man was sent to guard them to the rear, and they fell into the hands of other troops who took pains to properly guard and report them. When this regiment surrendered, Colonel Henry jumped upon a log and called for three cheers, which were given
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with a will, and this was the first exultant voice that broke the noise of the conflict since it commenced. The losses of our brigade were- officers killed, seven ; wounded, ten ; prisoners, four. Enlisted men killed, seventy ; wounded, two hundred and twenty-five; prisoners, twenty-eight. Among the killed was Colonel Townsend of the One Hun- dred and Sixth New York, a brave officer and a refined gentleman. Lieutenants Stetson and Newton, of the Tenth Vermont, both excellent officers, were killed. Major McDonald of the One Hundred and Sixth, and Lieutenant Thompson of the Tenth, were taken prisoners. Colonel Billy Truax of the Fourteenth New Jersey, commanding the brigade, was wounded; also Colonel Henry of the Tenth Vermont, and Colonel Shawl of the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania. The Tenth lost more heavily in officers and men than any other regiment in the division, on account of the cross fire that came in upon them from the break between the First Division and its own left.
Without detailing the account of other actions in which the regiment was engaged at Cold Harbor, it may be stated that there was a continuous battle here, lasting from the first to the twelfth of June. Scarcely a day passed that it did not lose blood. On the third, in a general assault upon the whole rebel line, we lost quite as heavily as on the first. Captain E. B. Frost was killed, an officer widely known in the army, and loved for his many excellent qualities of head and heart. Captains P. D. Blodgett and L. T. Hunt were severely wounded, besides a large number of men. The command was constantly under fire, and we were every day losing men. On the sixth, Captain Darrah was killed by a rebel sharpshooter. No man could show his head above the breastworks, or go twenty yards from them to the rear, without exposing himself to the same fate.
On the seventh, there was a flag of truce, from eleven to twelve o'clock, and many officers of these contending armies
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sprang over the high intrenchments to witness the bloody work they had done. Enemies met as friends. There was no boasting, no bandying of words-the event was too solemn for jokes between those who had fought with such stern bravery so long. No one can adequately describe the scene here presented. Hundreds of dead men, and many wounded and helpless, before beyond the reach of friends, by night or day, lay stretched along between these lines, that were, in some places, not more than one hundred and twenty yards apart, reaching from Tolopotomy Creek to the Chickahominy river. Some had lain here dead since they fell, six days before, but now swollen and torn by the leaden and iron tempest, that had swept over and beaten around them, thicker than the flakes of a blinding snow storm, so as to be scarcely recognizable by friends who eagerly sought them. There were some wounded, who yet survived all the shocks that meted death to so many others, sheltered in some sunken part of the ground, to be brought off now and saved. The dead were hastily buried or taken away ; then this sublime hour -holy for its brief lease of life, an hour of peace, when the earth was calm, and the air so still that the gods of war slept-was at an end, friends were enemies again, and they hurried back to renew the carnage.
On the ninth, the enemy made an assault upon our lines, and were bloodily repulsed. On the eleventh, the division moved to the left, into some works vacated by the Second Corps, which were very high, and so close up to the enemy's line that "Yank" and "Johnny" could easily con- verse with each other, - so near indeed
" That the fixed sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's watch."
Behind these works were vast excavations, covered with logs, in which officers burrowed; they served the double purpose of shelter from the shells of the rebel mortar
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batteries, and protection from the burning heat of the sun. But this movement of troops was only temporary and pre- paratory for operations from a different base.
Swinging Across the Fames.
The Tenth now began to appear like a veteran regiment. Scores of the men who had fought through the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania unhurt, had fallen at these fatal cross roads, and as the command filed silently out of their works on the night of the twelfth, their thinned ranks plainly told the sad brave story of their last twelve days' work. Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, then in command of the regiment, and since the first, reporting to the Adjutant- General of Vermont, said :
"I have the honor to report that this regiment has been actively engaged in the late field operations of the cam- paign, and acquitted itself with honor, acknowledgment of which has been received in orders ; officers and men have discharged their whole duty. The effective force of the regiment is twelve officers and three hundred and fifty-two men."
We were withdrawn from these advanced works at nine o'clock P. M., and formed a second line, five hundred yards to the rear ; but this was soon abandoned, and at sundown, on the thirteenth, we crossed the Chickahominy at Jones Bridge. We moved via Charles City Court House, and on the fifteenth reached the James River at Wilcox Landing, where works were thrown up, and the Sixth Corps covered the crossing of the army. About sundown we embarked on transports for City Point, but without disembarking on our arrival at this point, immediately sailed away to Ber- muda Hundreds, where we arrived at midnight, sixteenth. Landing without delay, we marched to a position just in the rear of General Butler's fortified line. It was daylight
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(seventeenth) when we reached this point, about midway between the James and Appomattox Rivers. During the forenoon our position was changed, and just before dark, orders were received to attack the strong works of the enemy, and the troops formed for the assault, outside of Butler's line. There was current, at this time, an incident, but which now there are no means at hand for authen- ticating, that was so characteristic of the commander at Bermuda Hundreds, there is a strong temptation to relate it as it was then understood. General Wright protested against this order to attack, as extremely hazardous, and thought it ought not to be attempted. Butler's terse reply, more soldierly than considerate, was : "I send you an order to fight, you send me an argument." But General Wright, seeing, it is presumed, nothing to be gained in comply- ing with this order, except a display of courage, delayed its execution. It was subsequently countermanded, and the troops returned to the Army of the Potomac, but not until they had suffered considerably from the enemy's batteries.
On the nineteenth, we crossed the Appomattox, at Point of Rocks, on pontoons, and moved around to the rear of Petersburg, going into a field south of City Point Railroad. On the twenty-first, the Sixth Corps moved out to the Jerusalem plank road, where the cavalry were skirmishing with the enemy, on the very ground we were to occupy. Although it was dark when the column formed into line of battle, yet skirmishers were thrown out, and the line advanced, until it connected with the left of the Second Corps, pushing the enemy back and capturing a number of prisoners, and at nine o'clock P. M., began to throw up intrenchments. This corps now constituted the extreme left of the army investing Petersburg, formed with the First Division, connecting with the Second Corps; the Third Division, left of the First, and the Second, left of the Third, with one brigade facing to the left and rear. On the
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