USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Morristown > History of Morristown, Vermont > Part 13
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Company H, of the Ninth Vermont, and was promoted to the rank of captain in it. This regiment had been cap- tured at Harper's Ferry, but as Stonewall Jackson could not hold or transport so large a number to Richmond, they were sent to a parole camp at Chicago to wait until exchanged. Later, much to their disgust, they were detailed to guard a body of Confederate prisoners sent to that city, and this no doubt led to Guyer's resignation. In
February, 1863, he re-enlisted in Company C, Seventeenth Vermont, and fell early in the charge at Petersburg, shot through the left breast. Had he remained with the Ninth Regiment, he would undoubtedly have become its colonel.
On July 30, in the Battle of the Mine at Petersburg, Captain Kenfield, with others, was captured and the entire regiment suffered terribly, only one line officer and a few more than half the men surviving. In the final assault on that city and the lesser battles following this company was a credit to their state.
The men who enlisted in the other regiments and other branches of the service did their work as honorably as did they whose record has been given.
As the share of Morristown in the struggle was not unlike that of hundreds of other places, so the experiences of the following citizens from the town were typical of many others, but they are narrated because they were of local interest and they befell men whose families were long and favorably known here and give an idea of what participation in that conflict really involved.
One of the most varied experiences which befell a citizen of Morristown came to Frank Kenfield. Captain Kenfield, as he was always called in later years, was born in Morristown in 1838, the son of Asaph Kenfield, the first male child born in the town. After completing his educa- tion, Mr. Kenfield taught school for a year in Massachusetts, and then traveled through the South and West with the idea of locating there. He returned to his native town, however, where he engaged in the lumber business at the Corners. In response to the call for service, he enlisted in Company E, Thirteenth Vermont, one of the nine months regiments which formed the Second Brigade. In the repulse of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Mr. Ken- field was wounded and later in the month he was mustered out by reason of the expiration of his term of enlistment. Like many others of his company, he did not leave his
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country in its time of need, and was soon active in recruit- ing Company C of the Seventeenth Vermont, of which he was made captain.
The company left the state on the eighteenth of April, and in less than three weeks were in action at the Battle of the Wilderness, one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. Captain Kenfield, with two other Morristown men, was wounded and taken to the Georgetown Hospital. When able, he came home on a furlough, but returned to his regiment in time to participate in the ill-fated mine disaster near Petersburg. It was proposed to run a mine or gallery, blow up the works, and pave the way for a gen- eral assault on the city, but these plans miscarried and after the explosion the northern troops found themselves in the huge crater made by the explosion, unable to advance and the target for the murderous fire of the enemy. When the order to retreat finally came, Captain Kenfield was one of many captured by an Alabama regiment.
Colored troops had been used in the Northern Army in this engagement, and the story was current in Peters- burg that, if the Union assault had been successful, the city would have been given over to the negroes for plunder. This enraged the Southerners so that these prisoners were treated a little worse than was the average captive. The officers were marched through the streets of the city the next day in a column formed of white officers and negro privates in alternate ranks amid the jeers and jibes of the enemy. "Birds of a feather flock together" greeted their ears, and some were . even wounded by their guards. All their valuables were taken from them, but Captain Kenfield saved his gold watch and chain by concealing them in his boot.
He and one other officer were taken to Danville, Va., and later to Columbia, S. C., where they were confined in the Richford County jail. Here their lot was pitiable. Their rations consisted for the most part of corn meal and sorghum, and as Captain Kenfield could not eat the latter he would probably have starved had he not met a Southern officer who was a brother Mason. This friend in need pawned the gold watch and chain of his adversary for $700 Confederate money, and with that Captain Kenfield managed to secure food until seven months later, on March 1, 1865, he was exchanged and six weeks later was mustered out.
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Following the war Captain Kenfield engaged in farm- ing and stock and produce raising and buying. For four years he was president of the Vermont Sugar Makers' .. Association, and represented the town in 1884 at Mont- pelier, where he was active in securing an appropriation for the Soldiers' Home at Bennington, of which he was a trustee at the time of his death, in 1914. He served as Senator from Lamoille County in 1894, besides filling a variety of local offices, but he was never too busy to be a loyal and active member of the local G. A. R. Post.
Another son of Morristown who reflected honor upon himself and his community was Darius J. Safford, whose family was long and favorably known in this section of the state. Mr. Safford enlisted as a private in Company D, of the Eleventh Vermont, in response to the call issued by Governor Holbrook in July, 1862. The government was at that time in special need of heavy artillery to gar- rison the forts, and by order of the Secretary of War this regiment was made a heavy artillery regiment, its official designation being First Artillery, Eleventh Vermont Volunteers, with orders to increase the companies from ten to twelve. On the eleventh of July following, Company L was mustered in at Brattleboro, with D. J. Safford as its captain.
The first serious fighting in which it engaged was in the Wilderness campaign, in 1864. At Spottsylvania one of its number, Stephen R. Wilson, was fatally wounded, and a few days later at Cold Harbor this company, with others, suffered heavily, and Captain Safford was men- tioned in the official report as conspicuous for gallantry and good conduct. A few days later on, June 23, 1864, occurred the affair of the Weldon Road, the saddest day in the history of the regiment. In the attempt to cut the railroad at this point the troops were supported and guarded by certain companies of the Eleventh. Captain Safford was in charge of one section of the skirmish line and his account of the affair is quoted from Benedict's "Vermont in the Civil War":
"About one hundred and fifty yards before I reached the line, I found Major Fleming in a hollow surrounded on three sides by some rails. His orders to me were 'Extend the line to the left till you connect with the Fourth Vermont, and hold the line at all hazards, reporting to me every half hour'. I found the men busy covering them-
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selves with rails, logs or whatever they could find. I extended the line until I made it as thin as I dared, but found no connection with any troops on the left. I did find a much stronger line, of the enemy, than our own, a ' short distance in front of us, and quite a brisk firing was kept up. I returned leaving Lieut. J. H. Macomber in charge of the left, and reported to Major Fleming, and about that time. the Fourth Vermont, under Major Pratt, came up on our rear, instead of on the left of our line, and there remained so far as I know until the surrender. Finding there was to be no connection on the left I then drew in the line somewhat to strengthen it. About this time Captain Beattie came in from the front with the division of sharpshooters. He said: 'Captain, if you don't get out of this you will catch h-l', adding that the enemy were in force at the front. Soon after this I met Lieut .- Colonel Pingree, division officer of the day, on or near the left of our line and suggested that the line be drawn back nearer to supports; he replied, 'The orders are to hold the line at all hazards'. I think previous to my seeing Colonel Pingree one attack had been made upon us and after a while another was made, but the men being well covered, we suffered little from either. Soon after the second attack I became aware that a force was working around our left flank. Upon stating these facts to Major Fleming, and that we must retreat or be captured, he said he was ordered to hold that position and must be captured
rather than abandon it.
At five o'clock P. M., our ammu- nition was almost exhausted, and we were covered by the enemy in front, on our left flank and partly in our left rear. The enemy then began to cover our right flank, and when at last. about sundown, the Major gave me permission to see if I could find a place where I could take the command out, I personally saw the circle completed and the enemy's left and right unite in rear of our right flank."
Gen. L. A. Grant afterwards stated he did not know why this small force was kept at the front or if kept there why it was not supported, but, through no fault of their own, the regiment sustained the greatest loss of any Ver- mont regiment in one action. Nine men were killed, thirty-one wounded and 261 missing. Among the missing was Captain Safford, who, with seventeen other officers, was taken prisoner. They were carried to Petersburg, and the day following were sent to Richmond, where they
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were confined in Libby Prison until June 30, when they were sent by railroad to Macon, Georgia.
The men were naturally on the alert to escape before they were carried still farther into the enemy's country. At a point near Lynchburg, Va., the railroad track had been torn up in a Union raid so the prisoners were marched to the Roanoke station, and halted under guard for the night on the banks of the Roanoke River. Here Major Safford and two associates made their escape by dodging into a clump of willows, and crawling off through the bushes. After swimming the river, they lay in the woods until dark and then started to the northwest, travel- ing by night and resting by day. They were fed and directed by negroes. At one point they were hunted by a provost guard with bloodhounds, and one man was cap- tured and taken back to Libby Prison. The other two, by separate ways, traversed the Alleghany Mountains and reached the Union lines at Beverly, West Virginia, within twelve hours of each other, having traveled on foot about 350 miles.
Both men were granted furloughs to visit their homes, but returned to their regiment in time to participate in the Battle of the Opequon, where both were wounded. Captain Safford recovered sufficiently to have an honor- able part in the final assault at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, being in command of one of the battalions. As a reward for his bravery he was appointed major.
In June, 1865, the original members of the regiment and the recruits whose term of service would expire before October first were mustered out, and the remainder were consolidated into a battalion of four companies of heavy artillery under the command of Major Safford, who was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and stationed at Fort Foote, Md., for the defense of Washington. The following August these troops were mustered out and Lieut .- Colonel Safford returned home to his duties in con- nection with his father's gristmill, which he had dropped upon enlisting.
About 1883 he entered the government employ in the pension department, and was stationed at Augusta, Me., and later in Concord, N. H., Washington, D. C., and Minne- apolis, Minn. When obliged to give up active work, he came back home to die after a painful lingering illness from cancer. He testified to his love for the place by
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remembering the First Congregational Church and the Morristown Centennial Library with legacies.
Another incident in many respects typical of hundreds, but in one feature unique, was that of William Preston Gates, who received his discharge by direct order of Presi- dent Lincoln.
Mr. Gates was the grandson of Lieut. Nathan Gates, one of the pioneers of Cadys Falls, and at the outbreak of the Civil War had recently passed his fourteenth birthday. Like other boys he was swept away by the martial spirit of the period, and finally persuaded his reluctant mother to permit him to enlist. When Company D, of the Fifth Vermont, left for the front in September, 1861, he was in its ranks as a fifer. .. The year following, his widowed mother lost her only other child, a daughter. Thus bereaved, she began to think of securing his discharge, basing her appeal upon the ground of her lonely condition, his extreme youth, and the fact that he had already served more than two years. She left for Washington and attempted to see Secretary Stanton, but being only one of a large group there for that purpose and without influential friends, she was unsuccessful. She then decided to appeal to the President himself and to her surprise soon gained admittance to him.
She told her story which, after all, differed only in details from the many he was hearing daily. But it struck a sympathetic chord in Lincoln's great heart, and he told her if she would go before the Secretary of War and take oath to the facts she had told him, he would order her son's discharge. So he wrote his order addressed to Secretary Stanton and when she told him of her fruitless attempt to obtain an audience with that official, Mr. Lin- coln wrote on the lower left hand corner of the envelope which is now a prized possession in the Gates family, "Please see this lady. A. Lincoln."
Thus armed, Mrs. Gates was soon able to see the Sec- retary, secure her son's discharge, and start for home. In January, 1865, Mr. Gates re-enlisted in the Frontier Cavalry, and served until the end of the war. In after years he went to the Middle West, and his death occurred at Wakefield, Kans.
Back of the men at the front there must always be the united support of the citizenry at home if successful
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war is to be waged. Let us now turn to this phase of Morristown's war record.
It is a matter of history that Vermont's response to the call of President Lincoln was prompt and generous. At the special session of the Legislature, convened on April 25, 1861, eleven days after the fall of Fort Sumpter was known and the first call for volunteers reached the state, that body appropriated one million dollars for war expenses and provided for the organizing and equipping of six more regiments in addition to the one already called, for two years' service. Each private was to receive seven dollars per month of state pay in addition to the thirteen dollars offered by the United States government, and the. relief . of the families of volunteers was provided for in cases of destitution.
But the townspeople who had just given twenty-one of the best of their youth to the Third Vermont were not content to let the pecuniary side of the transaction rest there. At a special town meeting, called on September 2, 1862, they voted to pay fifty dollars as a special bounty to each volunteer who served in the armies of the United States for nine months, one-half payable when he was mustered in and the rest when mustered out and "extra pay of seven dollars per month if the present law did not secure the same or the state pay it."
It will be remembered that following the victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg the recruiting for the Seven- teenth Vermont lagged somewhat, due in part to the hope that the war was nearing its end and partly to the action of the government in offering larger bounties to the men who re-enlisted in the old regiments. To stimulate enlist- ment, at a special town meeting, called in December, 1863, the town voted to pay a bounty of $300 to all recruits in order to fill the quota of the town, and a tax of fifty cents on a dollar of the Grand List was raised to meet this addi- tional expense.
Once again after the terrible Wilderness Campaign had depleted the ranks of the men at the front and sapped the courage of the non-combatants at home, a meeting was held on July 2, 1864, and it was voted to pay a bounty of $500 to each recruit and the following resolution was passed : "In view of the coming call for soldiers and to the end that a draft may be avoided in this town we earnestly desire and request the selectmen to use all and
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every effort to raise a sufficient number of men to fill the quota of the town for the next requisition that may be made." A tax of eighty cents on a dollar of the Grand List was voted to meet this demand. Thus loyally the town aligned itself with others throughout the state and nation to care for her sons at the front and to support the government.
Women played a much less prominent part in the Civil War than in the World War, and there was no such care- fully organized activity as that of the Red Cross. Yet an Auxiliary to the Sanitary Commission was formed which met to prepare bandages, to knit socks, and to make those little toilet articles which testified to the continuing love and interest of the dear ones at home.
Among other contributions of the town to the war may well be mentioned the services of Dr. Horace Powers, to whom fell the happier task of saving human life than of taking it. Following the terrible Wilderness Campaign in May, 1864, the wounded were taken to Fred- ericksburg, which was soon taxed to its utmost by the influx. Its churches, public buildings, and larger dwelling houses were filled to their limits with thousands of victims of the struggle. The regular surgical force was entirely inadequate, and Governor Smith and Surgeon-General Thayer went there in person to see what could be done for the welfare of the Vermont troops. As a result of their personal investigation, fifteen or twenty of the best sur- geons and physicians in the state were sent to assist, and among this number was Dr. Powers. Later the wounded were brought home to army hospitals at Burlington, Brat- tleboro, and Montpelier, where more than 2,500 were cared for.
MORRISVILLE HOME GUARDS
In the fall of 1864, about the time of the Fenian Raid, military feeling rode high and a company known as the Morrisville Home Guards was organized, with George W. Doty, just returned from splendid service at the front, as its captain ; P. K. Gleed, first lieutenant, and D. K. Hickok, second lieutenant, but this martial spirit soon died down, and was dormant for more than a half century until once more aroused by the exigencies of the World War.
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THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Although a Vermonter, Senator Redfield Proctor, by his speech in the Senate crystallized public opinion in favor of intervention in Cuba, and two other sons of the state, Admiral Dewey and Capt. Charles Clark, were among the most popular heroes of the Spanish-American War, that conflict aroused little enthusiasm in Morristown. Accord- ing to the official records none enlisted, although Glenn .W. Raymond, a native of the town but then residing in John- son, served in the ranks. On the whole this struggle left the town untouched and not until two decades later did its citizens once more feel the urge to take up arms again.
THE WORLD WAR.
When the World War broke out, the interest of the citizens of Morristown was the general concern with which any intelligent people follow an event of such tremendous significance as this promised to be. Their most direct contact with it came through the letters printed in the local papers from George W. Drown, Jr., whose family resided in Morrisville .. This young man, though not a native of the place, had visited here and was known locally. While working in Alberta, he enlisted in August, 1914, and saw five years' service under the Canadian colors and his letters home conveyed more intimately than news- paper accounts could what life at the front was like.
As the months passed and America's relations with Germany grew more critical, it became evident that we were being drawn into the whirlpool of war. The same spirit which had animated their forefathers led at least fifty-six young men to volunteer for active military service. With the advent of April, that month so fateful in America's history, and the formal declaration of war on April sixth, the number who went to Fort Ethan Allen to enlist increased, since many hoped thus to form a part of the First Vermont Infantry Regiment, an organization which might exist as a distinct unit and represent Ver- mont in this gigantic conflict as the various state regi- ments did in the Civil War. Their disappointment can well be imagined when on August 18 orders came from the Northeastern Department to transfer about 350 men and officers from the First Vermont Infantry Regiment to the
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newly formed Twenty-Sixth Division, and in less than a week's time they entrained at Fort Ethan Allen for Camp Bartlett. With similar groups from the northeastern states they combined to form the famous "Yankee . Division," the pride of all New England. Later in the season still others joined the various units of this organi- zation, and as a result this division contained more men from Morristown than did any other. But it is significant of the magnitude and complexity of the war machine and the strain upon the morale of the men. that these twenty- two soldiers served in seven different branches of the division. Thus that comradeship which would have meant so much in a distant land amid the hardships of war was largely lacking. The sixty-three men who served over- seas were connected with twelve different branches, viz .: Infantry Regiments, Field Artillery, Machine Gun Bat- talions, Pioneer Infantry, Depot Brigade, Coast Artillery Corps, Motor Transport Corps, Engineers, Sanitary Squad- ron, Ammunition Train, Ordnance Department, Repair Unit of the Motor Transport Corps, and Supply Company, to say nothing of the different phases of the work in the navy. War had become a complex and terrible thing.
According to the official records, the first Morristown lad to go overseas was Perley Laird, who had enlisted at Fort Ethan Allen in June and arrived in Europe on Sep- tember 16, 1917. A week later, on September 23, Eugene Burroughs, Edward Emmons, and Percy Sweetser landed, the vanguard of that larger group which found their way across the submarine infested Atlantic and took their places beside the Allies.
It is not possible to tell in detail the story of the Twenty-Sixth Division, which has an honorable place in the history of the World War. It may be said in brief that in October these troops were assigned to a winter training area in the vicinity of Neufchateau, in the Province of the Vosges. Here, through the bitter winter of 1917- 1918, the boys became proficient in target practice, bayonet drill, trench digging, trench warfare and the other forms of modern combat. In January, 1918, the training became more intensive, for the division was soon to go to the front. Early in February it was sent to the Chemin-des-Dames sector, where for six weeks they became acquainted with the horrors of battle. Scarcely had they returned to their former training ground when they were sent to occupy the
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Toul sector, where they remained until called to participate in the Champagne-Marne defensive, the Aisne-Marne. offen- sive, and at last in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, where up to eleven o'clock of November 11 they were in action. It is a matter of record that the Twenty-Sixth was chosen to form a part of the Army of Occupation and march into- Germany, but it was so weakened by the rigorous service of the last three weeks that the honor had to be declined.
The story of the Twenty-Sixth has been given more fully than that of any other division since it contained the largest percent of local men, but the record of the other units is no less worthy. Of the three men killed in action, the first, Smith Warren, who was killed in the Aisne-Marne offensive, belonged to the Fourth Division; the second, Ernest Ward, was in the Twenty-Sixth; the third, Morton Stiles, was in the Seventy-Eighth. A fourth, Eugene Burroughs, who was wounded in the Muese-Argonne offen- sive and died from the effects, belonged to the Twenty- Sixth.
It will be remembered that almost as deadly as the shells and poisonous gas was the influenza. While it took heavy toll from the civilians in their homes, it was especially fatal to the men in the crowded training camps, and it was here that three others from Morristown were vanquished by disease. The first was Claude Chaplin, who was credited to Rochester, N. H. He had been a resident here; his grandfather, Joseph Chaplin, had a fine record in the Civil War. While living here, he had tried to enlist at Fort Ethan Allen, but was rejected. About a year later the family moved to New Hampshire and he tried again, was accepted, and sent to Camp Greene, Char- lotte, N. C., where he died of pneumonia. The remains were brought to Morristown for interment in the family lot at Mountain View Cemetery. The second victim of disease was Karl Kramer, who was stationed at Camp Colt in Pennsylvania. He had been assigned to the Medical Corps of the Tank Service. When the epidemic of influ- enza broke out, he volunteered to care for the sick, con- tracted the disease, and died on October 5, 1918. His remains were brought home and interred in Riverside Cemetery. Four months later Herbert Wright, who is officially accredited to the Town of Cambridge, but had been for a considerable time a clerk in the Rexall Drug Store, died of disease at Staten Island.
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