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 8
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Governor of Vermont, in command of our Eighth Regiment, doing guard duty in the town. He was a sort of military Governor, and the people were very quiet under the firm, vigilant rule of the General, who knew how to govern in a civil capacity as well as he understood the performance of daring manœuvres on the battle field. Passing through this place, a nest of guerrillas during the war, we rejoined the Sixth Corps on the evening of the seventeenth. General Wright now had an army of probably twenty-five thousand men of all arms, consisting of his own corps, the Nineteenth, under General Emery, and Crook's command, a body of troops numbering from five to eight thousand, more or less, that had always operated in Western Virginia and the lower part of the Shenandoah Valley. In the movements now under consideration, however, this command turned out to be little more than an army of observation in the field, if such a term is allowable. In explanation, it may be added, we were now only to watch and not fight the enemy, unless compelled to do so.
On the eighteenth, this army marched through Snickers- ville, and the Gap from which the straggling village takes it name, slowly moved down the rough, winding road of the mountain-side into the valley, and reached the Shenandoah River at Island Ford at six o'clock P. M. On the opposite shore, Early, now having safely gained the line of his communication with Richmond, confronted us, and was guarding all the fords between Harper's Ferry on the north, and Berryville on the south. This one seemed to be more feebly defended than the rest, and in order to know precisely what the strength and purpose of the enemy were, Crook's command was thrown over the river, but his advance was furiously attacked and the whole command hurled back in confusion, just as the Third Division had taken a position to support him. Many of his men were drowned while hastening through the stream from the
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enemy's fire. The scene closed for the night with an artillery duel, conducted from two commanding ridges on opposite banks of the river, very much to the annoyance of our infantry, which had been dropped into an open field stretching back behind the ridge occupied by our batteries. In this position we lay during the nineteenth. On the twentieth, the enemy having entirely disappeared, this army crossed the river at two points-Island Ford and Snicker's Ferry-and moved half way up to Berryville, say three miles from the river, finding no sign of an enemy. It was supposed that he had retreated south. That night, at ten o'clock, the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps started back reforded the river, reclimbed the mountain, and sped on, wet, hungry and sore, towards Washington, under orders, since learned, for Petersburg. We returned via Leesburg, Drainsville, Lewinsville and Chain Bridge, arriving and halting just outside of its northern defences, on the twenty- third. Here ordnance stores, clothing, etc., were issued, the trains refitted, and most of the troops paid off.
But Early did not go far south after withdrawing from Wright's front at Snicker's Ferry, probably not above Win- chester, and when Crook advanced, on the twenty-third, he was attacked and driven back upon Martinsburg with haste and loss. The next day he retreated across the Potomac, and left that part of Maryland opposite and down to the Monoc- acy, and Southern Pennsylvania, open to Early's merciless raiders. They barbarously improved their opportunity, and went forth into the defenceless country, laying large contri- butions of gold upon the cities and towns, and giving them to the torch when it was impossible to respond to their immense demands. They robbed the panic-stricken inhab- itants of cattle, horses, provisions and grain, in a manner that never can be justified, since the inhabitants made no hostile sign against them.
These demonstrations developed the necessity for a larger
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force upon the Upper Potomac than had been left there on the twenty-first. Consequently the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps, on the twenty-sixth, were moving on the Rockville pike, en route for Harper's Ferry. The twenth-eighth found us at Monocacy Junction. Crossing the battle-field so long and so bravely contested by the Third Division on the ninth of July, now and forever anointed in our memories, we dis- covered several of our own and of the enemy's dead still unburied. These were all carefully interred.
We also visited the hospital at Frederick, where three hundred of our severely wounded had been placed by the rebels after the battle, and a larger number of their own, which they were compelled to leave behind. In the hospital there were Sisters of Charity, kindly caring for all the wounded alike. We were struck with the remarkable devo- tion of these most amiable ladies, as they moved with noise- less steps, with mercy in their very looks, speaking warm, sympathizing words of cheerful encouragment and Christian love, while in both hands each bore the ministry of nour- ishing food and soothing cordials. They appeared perfectly unconscious of all those circumstances from which delicate and sensitive natures are supposed to shrink, and we saw them bending tenderly over patient sufferers, to speak words of comfort, to loose or adjust a bandage, to replace a com- press, or bathe a fevered limb, and, in fact, to do the work of men, for men, with woman's gentleness. Many of our men had died of their wounds, and among them was Willie Peabody, a noble fellow, First Sergeant of Company C, from Pitsford, Vermont. They told us how they "loved the boy," and how sad it seemed to see his bright face pale in death.
At four o'clock P. M., we hurried away on the Harper's Ferry pike, and reached that place at noon the twenty- ninth, halting at Halltown Heights, just north of the ruins of the United States Armory. The next day the
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army started back, recrossing the Potomac at the Ferry. Although the column was in motion long before noon of the thirtieth, yet the Sixth Corps did not reach Petersville, sixteen miles distant, until sunrise the next morning, so great was the jam of artillery, trains and troops, in the nar- row pass at Sandy Hook. Five hours later, we were again on the march, sweltering along the pike to Frederick. The weather was now so oppressively hot, and our marches so fatiguing, that, notwithstanding the men had been so long and so well inured to hardships, many of them died from sunstroke. We remained in the vicinity of Frederick, and at Monocacy Mill, near Buckeystown, five days. While here, several officers of the Tenth Vermont took occasion to visit old friends at the mouth of the Monocacy, ten or twelve miles distant, whom we had known in the early part of our military existence, and we saw how wofully the farmers in Frederick and Montgomery Counties had suffered in the sweeping raids of Early's and Mosby's men. Neither foe nor friend escaped ; if in sympathy with the rebellion, they paid tribute with what they had, and if enemies, all was , taken and deemed a just reprisal.
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CHAPTER VI.
In the Shenandoah Valley.
O N the fifth of August, we moved up to Monocacy Junc- tion, where the memorable campaign that swept out the Shenandoah Valley and locked its southern door against the traitor, was inaugurated. On the fifth, also, General Grant arrived ; he was instantly recognized by the old Poto- mac soldiers, and greeted with rounds of hearty cheers. His visit, we doubted not, was something more than com- plimentary. The following order soon appeared :
" MONOCACY BRIDGE, MD., August 5, 1864.
" General -
"Concentrate all your force without delay, in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, leaving only such railroad guards and garrisons for public property as may be necessary. Use, in this concentration, railroads, if by so doing time can be saved ; if it is found that the enemy has moved north of the Potomac in large force, push north, follow them, and attack them wherever found ; follow them, if driven south of the Potomac, as long as it is safe to do so.
"If it is ascertained that the enemy has but a small force north of the Potomac, then push south with the main force, detaching under a competent commander a sufficient force to look after the raiders, and drive them to their homes. In detaching such a force, the brigade of cavalry now en route from Washington via Rockville, may be taken into the account.
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" There are now on the way to join you, three other brigades of cavalry, numbering at least five thousand men and horses. These will be instructed, in absence of further orders, to join you on the south side of the Potomac ; one brigade will start to-morrow.
"In pushing up the Shenandoah Valley, where it is expected you will have to go first or last, it is desirable that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return. Take all provisions, forage and stock, wanted for your command, and such as can not be consumed destroy. It is not desir- able that the buildings should be destroyed ; they should rather be protected, but the people should be informed that as long as an army can subsist among them, recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards.
"Bear in mind that the object is to drive the enemy south, and to do this, you want to keep the enemy always in sight. Be guarded in this course by the course they take. Make arrangements for supplies of all kinds, giving regu- lar vouchers for such as may be taken from loyal citizens in the country through which you march.
"U. S. GRANT,
" LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. ARMIES.
" Major-General DAVID HUNTER."
These instructions were issued to General Hunter, but were very soon turned over to his successor. The concen- tration of the troops took place the next day, moving by rail to Harper's Ferry. On the eighth appeared an order assign- ing Major-General P. H. Sheridan to the command of a new Middle Department, comprising the departments of Wash- ington, West Virginia and the Susquehanna. Including the cavalry, which had now arrived, the army ready to oper- ate in the Shenandoah Valley numbered, probably, thirty
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thousand men, well equipped every way. According to all estimates the rebel force did not vary much from these figures.
We remained in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry four days. The enemy were in the neighborhood of Winchester, thresh- ing wheat, as ascertained by a reconnoisance by the cavalry. At five A. M., on the tenth, the whole army moved out and pressed vigorously up the Valley, every foot of which we were destined to become familiar with, in the three succeed- ing months, from Harper's Ferry to Mount Crawford, by an experience at once weary, sad and triumphant. At eight o'clock we reached Charlestown, the place made famous as the scene of the imprisonment, trial and execution of John Brown. The soldiers had not forgotten this thrilling page of history-perhaps the introductory chapter to the annals of the rebellion ; and as they marched through the town, everywhere decaying, everywhere seared by what seemed to be more the work of retributive justice than acts of vengeful retaliation, for the injustice and mockery it had heaped upon an old man who, maddened by the wrongs he and his coun_ trymen and his kindred had endured, and inspired by a devotional sense of right, had dared to defy a line of the statute book, under whose license the people of the Slave States had usurped human rights for a hundred years-as they marched through these streets, it seemed as if every soul was touched with the memory of the old hero, and ten thousand voices broke forth into singing -
"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the ground."
A dozen bands played the air to which these words were set ; and what with the music, the singing, and the measured tread of thirty thousand men, with their very muscles, as well as their vocal organs, in time and tune, afforded a spec- tacle that time cannot erase from the memory of the partici- pant or the beholder. Surely, his soul is "marching on."
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This was one of the real Battle Hymns of the Republic, and its ringing chorus had a mysterious inspiration, that ever brought rest and quickened pace to weary feet, and awakened fresh zeal in desponding hearts.
We pursued a course through forests, and across fields, whose shade and soft matting of leaves afforded a delightful shield to our heads from the rays of the sun and a relief to our feet from the hard road-ways of the usual routes. Between Berryville and Winchester, we camped at night, in line of battle facing west at Clifton's farm. Early the next morning the army was again moving forward, this day the Tenth Vermont guarding the wagon train. On the twelfth, we passed Newton and Middleton, arriving at Cedar Creek at six P. M., where we found the enemy posted on the opposite bank, having retreated from Winchester on the tenth. Some of Crook's men were sent over, and a brisk skirmish immediately ensued, which lasted until dark. The next morning, Early was well posted on Fisher's Hill, and our line was consequently advanced, the army follow- ing to a ridge, just north of Strasburg, with the picket line extending through and east of the town along the railroad. It may not have been General Sheridan's purpose to attack the enemy at this time, even had he been found in a less difficult position. Whether it was or not, certainly it was a wise judgment that forebore. That night he withdrew to the opposite or northern bank of Cedar Creek, where he manœuvred for a day or two, inviting a battle, on the ground he had chosen. But the enemy only amused him just enough to keep him in his position while they were maturing plans, which, had they been successful, would have crushed him, and might have deceived a less vigilant commander. On the sixteenth, Torbert's cavalry was attacked at Front Royal, by a strong force of cavalry and infantry, under the rebel General Kenshaw. Torbert held his ground, and captured some prisoners, but the fact that
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this large force was in the Luray Valley, just at its mouth, showed that Early had designed it as a part of a combined movement, from this point and his own position on Fisher's Hill, to strike Sheridan upon his right and left and destroy him. The only counter-movement that could now defeat this well devised scheme was an advance backwards, and its execution was not long delayed. That night found us making commendable speed towards Winchester, nor did we tarry long by the way, until we reached Summit Point, near Charlestown, on the evening of the eighteenth. The enemy followed closely and overtook our rear guard at Winchester, where they captured a part of the First New Jersey Brigade. Otherwise the retreat was conducted with- out loss.
At Charlestown our trains came up ; rations were issued, but not too soon, for three days' rations had already been stretched out to five. Here also we began to establish, somewhat, a regular camp, and lay very quietly, and we supposed securely, until the morning of the twenty-first, when the picket line of the Second Division was driven in, while the troops were making preparations for Sunday morning inspection. So rapid was this movement of the enemy, that their bullets whistling through the camp was almost the first warning of their approach. The Vermont Brigade was immediately sent out to reestablish the line, which they did ; and they did it with so much show of mettle they became involved in a smart little fight which lasted all day, and came very near bringing on a general engage- ment. Our Third Division was promptly put into line of battle, works were thrown up, and an irregular fusilade kept up at our end of the line all day. On our part this affair could hardly be called a fight ; only two men in the division were killed, and eleven wounded in our brigade. But the losses of the day fell far heavier upon the Vermont Brigade, and quite severely upon the Sixth and Eleventh Reg-
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iments. Lieutenant-Colonel Chamberlain, of the Eleventh, was mortally wounded in the early part of the action, and died a few hours after. He is spoken of as an exceedingly brave, accomplished, and pure minded officer, worthily beloved by all who knew him.
At dark the army withdrew to its old position at Hall- town, Sheridan himself, it was said, constituting its rear guard. We remained at Halltown six days, in comparative quiet, although the cavalry kept a close watch upon the enemy, often tempting him to fight by dashing saucily through his lines, capturing his videttes, and now and then, from a respectful distance, hurling a score of shell into his camp. Finally, after making an unsuccessful endeavor- the last he ever made -to cross the river again at Williams- port, he fell back behind Charlestown, scattering his forces · across the country from Smithfield to Berryville. On the twenty-eighth, Sheridan followed, pursuing so closely with Torbert's Cavalry and our Third Division pushed up on to his left flank, that Early was compelled to show his strength. On the third of September, Crook assailed his right on the Berryville pike, near Opequan Creek, in which he severely handled and drove him back. Sheridan now sat down at and in the vicinity of Clifton, for fifteen days, with his army compact and well in hand. Early was just beyond the Opequan, with his army stretched across the country, so that his front presented the short side of an acute angle, facing east, with the Berryville pike on his right, and the Martinsburg pike on his left, forming the two long sides ; its apex lay behind him at Winchester, where the two roads intersect.
The two armies were, perhaps, three miles apart, vigi- lantly watching each other. And yet so quiet were our camps that it would have been difficult for an outside observer to have guessed that a foe, foiled in a dozen pur- poses, strong and watchful, lay so near.
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On the sixth, the men of the Tenth Regiment, as legal voters in the State of Vermont, held a town meeting, or rather an election, town-meeting fashion, and did what they could toward electing John Gregory Smith, Governor of the State. On the fifteenth, the Second Division, with a brigade of cav- alry, made a reconnoissance towards the Opequan ; a part of the Vermont Brigade, deployed as skirmishers, crossed the creek, exchanged a few shots with the enemy, and then retired, having accomplished, as was usual with that organ- ization, all that was expected or desired of them.
Thus a fortnight passed. No other hostile operation was undertaken by the infantry, although the cavalry were exceedingly active, most of the time, visiting vengeance upon the guerrillas, and making reprisals of forage and supplies upon the disloyal inhabitants. This rest was needed, and most gratefully welcomed. A careful estimate at this time, shows that our division had marched seven hundred miles since landing at Baltimore on the eighth of July, and the result had told heavily upon the troops. Most of our men were sick, and several officers were absent on sick leave ; among the latter, Colonel Henry, Lieutenant-Colonel Chand- ler, and Captain, since Major, Salsbury. Most of the other divisions had performed nearly the same distances. But the hour had come when all must march again-this time to victory.
Sheridan's Battle of Winchester.
The respective positions of the two armies have been heretofore described. No variation of numbers has taken place, other than to equalize them. On the seventeenth, General Grant met Sheridan at Charlestown, and after a brief conference, delivered to his lieutenant that famous order "Go in," which finally resulted in a Go out to the rebel army in the Valley. Mr. Pollard, formerly editor of the
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Richmond Examiner, who has attempted to perpetuate the memory of the great crime of the South, in a fulsome work entitled The Lost Cause, describes this order as "inelegant" and much in accordance "with that taste for slang which seems to characterize the military literature of the North." Doubtless these "two words of instruction" were not eminently classical, still they will stand a very fair compar- ison with that miserable patois of which "you uns," "we uns," "right smart distance", "whar yer at," etc., are samples, peculiar it is true, to the lower classes, but by no means ignored in conversation by the upper class of the South.
On the eighteenth, at four o'clock P. M., orders reached our brigade, directing that we be ready to march at a moment's notice. The men of our command were waiting for the church call, but at the hour designated for the service, the bugle in clear shrill notes sounded the "fall in." Tents were struck and the men, with equipments on, were immediately in line. Probably this call was premature, for definite instructions soon reached us, directing us to be ready to move at twelve o'clock, midnight. Ordnance stores and five days' rations were issued, the sick were sent off and all felt that a movement of more than usual importance was on the tapis. Thoughts of an impending battle forced themselves upon us. The soldiers instinctively felt that the hour had arrived when Early's army, that had twice invaded the North within the past two months, and constantly threatened Washington during this period of time -who had so often and so haughtily thrown down the gage of battle, should receive the chastisement it deserved. Although the line of march had not been indicated to the troops, none entertained a doubt in regard to the direction we would take-a contest was certain. Officers at the mess table spoke in subdued voices of what the issue might
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be to them. The conversation of men, gathered here and there in groups, around the smoldering camp-fires, was of that serious and solemn nature which in experienced minds marks the eve of great events.
Twelve o'clock came, and we were ready to move, but we did not start until three hours later. The Sixth Corps struck off across the fields, and by cross roads reached the Berryville and Winchester pike at sunrise. The cavalry under Torbert, with Sheridan, had preceded us, the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps following after. We passed rapidly on, the Second Division taking the lead, the First following the Second, and the Third in the rear of the corps, crossed the Opequan, moved up through a narrow ravine, wooded on either flank, and deployed at ten o'clock, A. M., on the right and left of the pike, just at the mouth of the ravine. We never could have passed this defile, had not the cavalry first cleared the way by a surprise upon the enemy there, earlier in the day, and held it at a terrible cost, until the infantry came up.
The cavalry was now relieved, and a line of battle was formed under a murderous fire from the enemy's batteries, with the Second Division on the left of the pike, the Third resting on the right, and the First reserved in the rear of the Third, lapping by our left behind one brigade of the Second. Skirmishers were thrown out, and immediately engaged. The main line stood its ground, and did not move for two dis- mal hours, the rebel shells plunging right over and through the ranks all the time. At twelve o'clock the Nineteenth Corps came up, having been delayed by some cause on the east bank of the Opequan until now, and went into position on the right of our division. Early had lost a splendid opportunity. Had he attacked with all his force at hand, instead of waiting for the return of detachments, which he had the day before sent off to Bunker Hill, he must have
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crushed his antagonist, and hurled him in fragments into the gorge and through the woods behind him. This oppor- tunity had slipped away.
At last the signal for the advance was given, and the line quickly emerged from the woods, which had partially sheltered the troops, into the open field. Right before them, not more than six hundred yards distant, in plain sight, the rebels were waiting to "welcome them with bloody hands to inhospitable graves." Most of the ground over which the troops were to pass, was hard, sloping away without bush or mound to break the vision or stop a bullet, terminating its declivity in a narrow, winding ravine, out of which arose sharp, jutting bluffs, forming a high, irregular crest. On this crest, commanding a view of every inch of ground before them to the woods, both with artillery and musketry, the enemy was fortified. The ground before the Third Division was a somewhat sharper descent, to a wider, marshy level, or what seemed to be a branch of the ravine extending along the pike ; but, though not commanded by all of the enemy's line, yet exposed to enough to sweep its entire breadth.
When the men saw with one glance the terrible fate that awaited them, they halted, with or without orders, and lay down. This position is customary with old soldiers, when inevitable destruction stares them in the face, and there is no other escape. It will be borne in mind that our division was on the right of the pike, and that the troops connecting with our left, was the left of the line. The original order was to guide from right to left, hence the right must lead the advance. But no troops on the right of the pike could be prevailed upon to move for some time; they seemed frozen to the earth. It was the business of the Nineteenth Corps to lead in the movement, as the design was in advancing to swing around to the left. Consequently our division did not move.
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