First SergeantSilas N. Grosvenor, Company C.Color SergeantJohn A. Tighe, Company K.Sergeant and Acting Sergeant-MajorWilliam F. Willisand CorporalRichard Gurney, Company H.PrivatesJohn C. StewartandMartin Minton, Company B.
First SergeantSilas N. Grosvenor, Company C.
Color SergeantJohn A. Tighe, Company K.
Sergeant and Acting Sergeant-MajorWilliam F. Willisand CorporalRichard Gurney, Company H.
PrivatesJohn C. StewartandMartin Minton, Company B.
First LieutenantGeorge W. Pope, Company G, mortally.First LieutenantCharles A. Carpenter, Company H.First SergeantJohn Lucas, Company B, badly in wrist.SergeantH. B. Titus, Company G.SergeantJohn H. Hancock, Company H, arm shot off.CorporalJohn M. Thompson, Company B, both legs broken, and afterwards died.CorporalWilliam H. Tindaland MusicianJames Liffin,50Company F.PrivatesThomas W. Cashman, Company A;Emery Hodgkins, Company B;William H. Burns,Joseph W. Glass,Napoleon Mason,John Harvey,Timothy Hayes, andGeorge F. Browne, Company F;Daniel Whitmore,Richard Owen,Philip A. Lawall,Warren Crowell, andEdward Carney, Company G;William Jones, Company H; andWilliam H. Howe, Company K.
First LieutenantGeorge W. Pope, Company G, mortally.
First LieutenantCharles A. Carpenter, Company H.
First SergeantJohn Lucas, Company B, badly in wrist.
SergeantH. B. Titus, Company G.
SergeantJohn H. Hancock, Company H, arm shot off.
CorporalJohn M. Thompson, Company B, both legs broken, and afterwards died.
CorporalWilliam H. Tindaland MusicianJames Liffin,50Company F.
PrivatesThomas W. Cashman, Company A;Emery Hodgkins, Company B;William H. Burns,Joseph W. Glass,Napoleon Mason,John Harvey,Timothy Hayes, andGeorge F. Browne, Company F;Daniel Whitmore,Richard Owen,Philip A. Lawall,Warren Crowell, andEdward Carney, Company G;William Jones, Company H; andWilliam H. Howe, Company K.
It is said on good authority, that every third man in the attacking column was either killed or wounded, a fact that shows how sanguinary was the battle.
Movements After the Battle of June 17—Battle of the Mine—A List of Killed and Wounded—Various Movements of the Regiment—Death of Major Chipman—Battle of Blick’s House—Poplar Grove Church—A Reconnoissance—Colonel Barnes Leaves the Army.
On the day following the 17th of June, the regiment, with the other troops of the First Division, retired a short distance to the rear to rest, and overcome as much as possible the bewildering and disorganizing influences of the battle. It was usual to grant this poor privilege to troops that had been severely engaged, the amount of rest given them depending upon the severity of their losses and the strength of the reserve forces, or, in other words, the means of the commanding general to supply their places at the front with fresh troops. The extended nature of our lines in front of Petersburg, and the activity of the enemy, required the presence of a vast army there, and the strength of our army at that time did not afford a large reserve, hence the regiment enjoyed but a brief respite from duty.
During the night of the 20th, the division moved forward to the front line, relieving a division of the Second Corps.
June 21. Same place, skirmishing.
June 22. The enemy made a sortie on the division skirmish line, but were repulsed.
June 23. Severe skirmishing in the night; the weather very warm and oppressive.
June 24. Same place; the Brigade moved to the extreme front line.
June 25. Severe skirmishing all night; the regiment was in line of battle till near daylight.
June 26 and 27. Same place.
June 28. This day the regiment was ordered to deploy near General Ledlie’s headquarters, and advance through thewoods to drive up stragglers. About three hundred of these faithless soldiers were found hiding in the forest, fifty of whom were arrested by our men, the rest making their escape. The Tenth Corps advanced their picket line at night, which caused considerable skirmishing, but after awhile everything became quiet; the regiment moved to the rear during the night.
July 1. The enemy threw several mortar-shell directly into the regimental camp, but no one was injured.
July 2. The regiment had orders to move to the vicinity of brigade headquarters, to act as provost guard of the division. Major Charles Chipman was detached from the regiment and assigned to the command of the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery. This was a large regiment, then acting as infantry; its Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel, and three Majors were absent, the first two officers by reason of wounds. It was regarded as a great compliment to Major Chipman, that he should have been selected from among the many able officers of the corps and division to take the command of this excellent regiment; but it was a well-deserved mark of respect. The men were kept busy nearly all day throwing up a line of works to protect them from the enemy’s bullets; the weather was extremely warm, and the earth hard and difficult to work with the shovel.
July 3. The men were kept at work on the entrenchments nearly all day, which was equally as warm as the preceding one. During the day a patrol was sent out from the regiment, and arrested seventy Federal soldiers, who were found without proper passes; toward night the enemy opened a severe artillery and musketry fire upon our whole line, making it dangerous for a man to show his head above the breastworks.
July 4. A part of the regiment were at work shovelling, while a detail was made for patrol duty; eighty-nine more stragglers were apprehended and sent back to their respective regiments. The enemy seemed to be engaged in observing the anniversary of American Independence, and allowed our army to do the same. The officers of the Twenty-ninth had a modest little celebration of the day on their own account.
We have given enough of the daily experiences of the soldierson the front line to enable the general reader to understand the nature of the life which troops thus situated, led. But we have another purpose in occasionally adopting the diary form of narrative. These dates form so many initial points in the history of the regiment, and lead its members on to the recollection of a great variety of incidents, not of sufficient importance to chronicle, but of peculiar importance to them personally.
On the 21st, there were some indications of a battle; the Second Brigade, of which the Twenty-ninth was a member, was ordered up during the night to the support of General Willcox’s division. On the following day, the Brigade, Colonel Barnes in temporary command, was reviewed, and highly complimented. General William F. Bartlett arrived and assumed command of the First Brigade, and Colonel Marshall of the Fourteenth New York (H. A. Vols.) having also reported for duty, was assigned to the command of the Second Brigade. The regiment was transferred to the First Brigade.
July 24. The regiment again went to the front line.
July 26. Ordered to the rear.
July 27. Orders were received to be in readiness to move at any moment.
July 28. The entire First Brigade moved to the front line.
It seems necessary to pause here and state certain facts closely associated with the thrilling events of which we must directly speak. In the various assaults made upon the enemy’s lines on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, the Ninth Corps obtained an advanced position, “beyond a deep cut in the railroad, within about one hundred and twenty-five yards of the enemy’s lines. Just in rear of that advanced position was a deep hollow,” ... where any work could be carried on without the knowledge of the enemy. In the course of a few days after this ground had been taken by the corps, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pleasants of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers waited on General Potter, who commanded one of the divisions of the Ninth Corps, and suggested to him, that in his opinion a mine could be run under one of the enemy’s batteries, by which means it could be blown up,and a breach thus made in the enemy’s lines. General Potter seems to have thought favorably of the plan, and in turn suggested it to General Burnside, by whom it was fully approved.
On the 25th of June, Colonel Pleasants commenced the work of excavation, employing none but members of his own command, which then numbered about four hundred. This project was not looked upon with any favor by General Meade, and nearly every application made to headquarters for the tools and materials necessary for the carrying on of the work was wholly disregarded. Colonel Pleasants says in his testimony before the Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War, “Whenever I made application, I could not get anything, although General Burnside was very favorable to it. The most important thing was to ascertain how far I had to mine, because if I went short of or went beyond the proper place, the explosion would have no practical effect. Therefore, I wanted an accurate instrument with which to make the necessary triangulations. I had to make them on the farthest front line, where the enemy’s sharpshooters could reach me. I could not get the instrument I wanted, although there was one at army headquarters; and General Burnside had to send to Washington and get an old-fashioned theodolite, which was given to me.” Not having been supplied with wheelbarrows with which to remove the earth, he was compelled to use common cracker-boxes, with pieces of hickory nailed on them for handles. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, the worthy and energetic Colonel and his no less worthy officers and men kept at their work night and day. To remove all chance of discovery by the enemy of what was going on in his camp, Colonel Pleasants had the fresh earth brought from the mine covered with bushes and the boughs of trees. The mine was completed July 23, and consisted of one main gallery 510-9/10 feet in length, with two lateral galleries, the left being thirty-seven feet long, and the right thirty-eight feet. The two galleries ran directly under the enemy’s works, a part of which consisted of a six-gun battery, with a garrison of about two hundred men. As this work had been carried on within the lines of the Ninth Corps, General Burnside had naturally enough assumed not only the responsibility of it,but had matured plans for the explosion of the mine and the assault upon the enemy’s works, that was immediately to follow. The plan that had been adopted by Burnside, was to explode the mine just before daylight in the morning, “or at about five o’clock in the afternoon; mass the two brigades of the colored division in rear of my first line in columns of division, ‘double columns closed in mass,’ the head of each brigade resting on the front line; and as soon as the explosion has taken place, move them forward, with instructions for the division to take half distance as soon as the leading regiment of the two brigades passes through the gap in the enemy’s line by the right companies ‘on the right into line wheel,’ the left companies ‘on the right into line,’ and proceed at once down the enemy’s works as rapidly as possible; and the leading regiment of the left brigade to execute the reverse movement to the left, running up the enemy’s line; the remainder of the columns to move directly towards the crest in front as rapidly as possible, diverging in such a way as to enable them to deploy into column of regiments, the right column making as nearly as possible for Cemetery Hill; these columns to be followed by the other divisions of the corps as soon as they can be thrown in.”51
The reasons given for the selection of the colored division to lead the assault, were, that they had been less exposed to the hardships of the campaign than any of the white divisions, the latter having been kept on the front line ever since the commencement of the campaign. Beside this, the colored division had for several weeks been drilled with great care for this special duty.
When the time came to put into execution this novel plan of dislodging the enemy from his works, General Meade, as he had a right to do, by reason of his rank, assumed the entire direction of the movement, wholly changing several of Burnside’s plans, and directed, among other things, that one of the white divisions, instead of the colored, should lead the assault; “and the order of assault was also changed, in respect to sweeping down the enemy’s lines to the right and left of the crater by the leading regiments of the assaulting column.”These instructions were not communicated to General Burnside till the afternoon of the 29th of July, at which time General Meade issued his battle order. There were reasons equally strong for assigning each one of the three white divisions of the Ninth Corps to the important service of leading the assault; and to leave no ground of complaint, and avoid the appearance of being needlessly arbitrary, General Burnside determined to decide this question by the drawing of lots. Accordingly, on the afternoon of the 29th of July, the several division commanders were summoned to headquarters for the purpose above indicated. The lot fell upon General Ledlie’s division, of which the Twenty-ninth Regiment was a member.
The mine was charged, and by the order of Meade, it was to be sprung at half-past three in the morning of the 30th; and as soon as this was done, the assaulting column was “to move rapidly upon the breach, seize the crest in the rear, and effect a lodgment there.” Major-General Ord was to support the right of this column, and Major-General Warren the left.
During the night of the 29th, the division moved into position at the extreme front, so as to be ready to make a rapid and sudden movement towards the enemy’s lines. At a little before five o’clock in the morning of the 30th, the mine exploded; and the regiment was in a position to witness the whole of this memorable scene. First, there was heard a deep, prolonged rumble, like the sound of distant thunder, then the whole surface of the ground for many yards in the immediate vicinity of the galleries of the mine began suddenly to heave and swell, like the troubled waters of the sea. The Confederate line, which up to this moment had been silent, was now thoroughly aroused; and their men lining the breastworks, were seen peering over the parapets, filled with wonder and alarm at the terrible sounds that were issuing from the earth. In front of Ledlie’s division, directly under a Confederate work, the ground seemed to swell into a little hill, and presently there burst from its summit a huge volume of smoke and flame. Eight tons of powder had exploded directly under a six-gun battery of the enemy and its garrison of two hundred men. Large masses of earth, guns, caissons, tents, and human bodies filled the air. The first explosionwas quickly followed by others of lesser magnitude, but it was all over in a few minutes. As soon as the explosion occurred, a heavy cannonading began on our side, which has been said by some to exceed in intensity that at Malvern Hill or Gettysburg. It will be observed from the foregoing statement, that the mine was not fired at the time designated in the order of General Meade. The match was applied promptly at the hour named, but owing to a defective fuse, the process of firing was not then accomplished; the fuse was in short pieces, spliced together, and “ceased to burn at one of the points of junction. The additional precaution had been taken to lay the fuse in a train of powder, but the powder had become damp by being so long laid, some thirty or more hours, and that also failed to ignite.” For awhile it was supposed by our officers that the experiment was destined to be a failure; but after waiting nearly an hour, Lieutenant Jacob Doubty of Company K, and Sergeant Henry Rees of Company F, Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, volunteered to enter the mine and determine by actual inspection the cause of the failure; and while in the mine, relighted the fuse, producing its final explosion at 4.42,A. M.The great bravery of this deed secured for Sergeant Rees a promotion to second lieutenant, and both were prominently mentioned in the report of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War.
In the course of ten minutes after the final explosion, the division of General Ledlie charged. The explosion produced a crater from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in length, about sixty feet in width, and thirty feet deep; the bottom and sides of which were covered with a loose, light sand, furnishing scarcely a foothold, and for this reason, as well as that of the narrowness of the place, it was with great difficulty that the troops could pass through it. From these causes, as might well be supposed, the division lost its organization as soon as it entered the narrow gorge, and the confusion which ensued was soon heightened by the enemy opening fire upon them from a battery upon the right, and another upon the left, and before long from a battery directly in their front, upon Cemetery Hill. Another division was thrown forward with the same results as the first; the men taking“shelter in the crater of the mine and the lines of the enemy adjacent thereto.” The Third Division followed in the same hopeless task, and finally the Fourth (colored) Division, under a very heavy fire, passing in confusion the white troops already in the crater, and then re-forming, charging the hill in front, but without success, breaking in great disorder to the rear.
This was the state of things about four hours after the explosion; namely, 8.45,A. M.At half-past nine o’clock in the forenoon, General Burnside received orders from General Meade to immediately withdraw his troops, and informing him that he had likewise ordered the cessation of all offensive movements on the right and left. As the order could not be executed at once without exposing the troops to even greater losses than those which they had already suffered, the order to withdraw was so far modified as to allow General Burnside to exercise his judgment as to the time when it should be attempted. Here the troops remained till nearly three o’clock in the afternoon, under a galling fire, shielding themselves as best they could, but suffering intensely in the meantime from the heat of the sun and choking thirst. At about this time, Generals Hartranft and Griffin directed their men to withdraw; and almost simultaneously with this movement, the enemy again charged, capturing nearly all the wounded lying in the crater, and some who were not. Those who escaped were obliged to run a race with balls and bayonets, and many who attempted it, fell dead or wounded before reaching our entrenchments. The loss sustained by our army during that day’s operations amounted to between four and five thousand in killed, wounded, and missing. This loss included twenty-three commanders of regiments,—four killed, fifteen wounded, and four missing; and two commanders of brigades,—General William F. Bartlett, who was disabled by the destruction of his artificial leg, and Colonel E. G. Marshall, were taken prisoners.
The losses sustained by the regiment were as follows:—
SergeantEbenezer Fisk, Company G.CorporalPreston O. Smith, Company F.PrivateWilliam S. Collins, Company B.
SergeantEbenezer Fisk, Company G.
CorporalPreston O. Smith, Company F.
PrivateWilliam S. Collins, Company B.
CaptainCharles D. Browne, Company C.SergeantsGeorge Townsend, Company F, andHenry Campbell, Company G.CorporalSamuel C. Wright, Company E (very badly in the head, and reported as dead).PrivatesCharles F. Bosworth, Company F;Lemuel Chapin, Company G; andJacob H. Dow, Company H.
CaptainCharles D. Browne, Company C.
SergeantsGeorge Townsend, Company F, andHenry Campbell, Company G.
CorporalSamuel C. Wright, Company E (very badly in the head, and reported as dead).
PrivatesCharles F. Bosworth, Company F;Lemuel Chapin, Company G; andJacob H. Dow, Company H.
First SergeantJohn Shannon, Company E.CorporalThomas W. D. Deane, Company G.PrivatesGeorge Thomas, Company A;Benjamin B. Brown, Company B;Daniel Whitmore, Company G; andJohn Moore, Jr., Company K.
First SergeantJohn Shannon, Company E.
CorporalThomas W. D. Deane, Company G.
PrivatesGeorge Thomas, Company A;Benjamin B. Brown, Company B;Daniel Whitmore, Company G; andJohn Moore, Jr., Company K.
Corporal Wright was promoted to Sergeant after this battle for his brave and meritorious conduct manifested during the engagement. Probably no event of the war excited so much discussion, and called forth so much bitterness of feeling among the officers of our army, as did this. The conduct of the First Division and its commander has been made the subject of the severest criticism. Henry Coppee, A. M., who wrote a book entitled “General Grant and his Campaigns,” in giving an account of this affair, uses this language: “But the attack must be instantaneous. What delays it? Ten minutes pass before Ledlie’s division, which had been selected by lot to lead the charge, has moved; when it does, led by the gallant General Bartlett, instead of complying with the order, it halts in the crater.” In another part of his book, he says: “The storming party was then thus organized. Ledlie’s division of white troops was to lead the assault, charge through the crater, and then seize the enemy’s works on Cemetery Hill.” As these and other statements, to which reference will be made, reflect great discredit upon the division, the author has deemed it important to quote from a carefully-written paper in his possession, prepared by one of the field-officers of the division, who took an active part in the battle.
“It will be seen that Coppee states that Ledlie’s division was ‘to charge through the crater and seize the rebel works on Cemetery Hill,’ but that, instead of complying with the order, the division ‘halts in the crater.’Ledlie’s division had no such order. It was not a part of the plan of the battle for that division to advance after reaching the crater. The orders issued to the division were distinctly, ‘not to advance.’ General Bartlett’s First Brigade consisted of seven regiments. On the afternoon of the 29th of July, the seven regimental commanders assembled at brigade headquarters by direction of the General, and were then informed by him that the mine was to be fired the next morning; that Ledlie’s division had been selected by lot to lead the assault; that the division was to move forward immediately after the explosion and occupy the enemy’s front line of works; that the division would be promptly followed by another division of the corps, which would move beyond, ‘over the heads of Ledlie’s division, to be followed by the remaining divisions of the corps.’”
“It will be seen that Coppee states that Ledlie’s division was ‘to charge through the crater and seize the rebel works on Cemetery Hill,’ but that, instead of complying with the order, the division ‘halts in the crater.’Ledlie’s division had no such order. It was not a part of the plan of the battle for that division to advance after reaching the crater. The orders issued to the division were distinctly, ‘not to advance.’ General Bartlett’s First Brigade consisted of seven regiments. On the afternoon of the 29th of July, the seven regimental commanders assembled at brigade headquarters by direction of the General, and were then informed by him that the mine was to be fired the next morning; that Ledlie’s division had been selected by lot to lead the assault; that the division was to move forward immediately after the explosion and occupy the enemy’s front line of works; that the division would be promptly followed by another division of the corps, which would move beyond, ‘over the heads of Ledlie’s division, to be followed by the remaining divisions of the corps.’”
This statement comes, not only from a reliable source, but is very reasonable upon its face. In the nature of things, the leading division would necessarily be badly cut up in carrying out its part of the work; and after having secured the front line, it was reasonable to suppose—and, under the circumstances, its regimental officers were justified in supposing—that the other divisions in the corps would follow and finish the work. The other divisions, with the exception of the Fourth, followed, but they did not advance beyond the lines of the First Division. Remaining in the crater, they added to the confusion, and finally rendered any movement impossible.
Another historian, if such he may be called, has said that the assault upon the enemy’s lines “failed because it was led by the worst division in the army.” This writer could not have been familiar with the record of the brave men whose courage he thus flippantly assails. Among the troops of this division were the Twenty-first, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts regiments, Third Maryland, an old and excellent regiment, and the One Hundredth Pennsylvania. The Twenty-first regiment entered the service as early as August, 1861. It fought with Burnside in North Carolina, was engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, Chantilly, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, and afterwards in East Tennessee. Its record is a very bright one. The Twenty-ninth regiment had served in nearly every department, and contained the oldest three years’ troops from New England. The Thirty-fifth regiment had been in the service since August, 1862, and was engaged at South Mountainand Antietam before it had been a month in the service, in both of which actions it had behaved with signal bravery. The Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-ninth regiments, though they had not been long in the service, were composed chiefly of veteran soldiers. The many silent mounds scattered all the way from the Wilderness to the James, beneath which repose their dead, tell more eloquently the story of their bravery and devotion, than can any words of praise. The One Hundredth Pennsylvania was a most superior regiment, and was the equal of any in the army. Many of the field-officers of the division were most gallant soldiers, while General Bartlett was without his superior in our army for courage and daring. To speak of such regiments and such officers as these as beingthe worst in our army, is wholly unjustifiable, and not susceptible of palliation or excuse.
The Committee of Congress, which made a patient examination into this unfortunate affair, closed their report with these words:—
“... Your Committee must say, that, in their opinion, the cause of the disastrous result of the assault of the 30th of July last, is mainly attributable to the fact, that the plans and suggestions of the general who had devoted his attention for so long a time to the subject, who had carried out to a successful completion the project of mining the enemy’s works, and who had carefully selected and drilled his troops for the purpose of securing whatever advantages might be attainable from the explosion of the mine, should have been so entirely disregarded by a general who had evinced no faith in the successful prosecution of the work, had aided it by no countenance or open approval, and had assumed the entire direction and control only when it was completed, and the time had come for reaping any advantages that might be derived from it.”52
“... Your Committee must say, that, in their opinion, the cause of the disastrous result of the assault of the 30th of July last, is mainly attributable to the fact, that the plans and suggestions of the general who had devoted his attention for so long a time to the subject, who had carried out to a successful completion the project of mining the enemy’s works, and who had carefully selected and drilled his troops for the purpose of securing whatever advantages might be attainable from the explosion of the mine, should have been so entirely disregarded by a general who had evinced no faith in the successful prosecution of the work, had aided it by no countenance or open approval, and had assumed the entire direction and control only when it was completed, and the time had come for reaping any advantages that might be derived from it.”52
The Committee, in the same report, pay a most deserved tribute to the white troops of the Ninth Corps, and speak as follows:—
“They are not behind any troops in the service in those qualities which have placed our volunteer troops before the world as equal, if not superior, to any known to modern warfare. The services performed by the Ninth Corps on many a well-fought battle-field, not only in this campaign, but in others, have been such as to prove that they are second to none in the service. Your Committee believe that any other troopsexposed to the same influences, under the same circumstances, and for the same length of time, would have been similarly affected. No one, upon a careful consideration of all the circumstances, can be surprised that those influences should have produced the effects they did upon them.”53
“They are not behind any troops in the service in those qualities which have placed our volunteer troops before the world as equal, if not superior, to any known to modern warfare. The services performed by the Ninth Corps on many a well-fought battle-field, not only in this campaign, but in others, have been such as to prove that they are second to none in the service. Your Committee believe that any other troopsexposed to the same influences, under the same circumstances, and for the same length of time, would have been similarly affected. No one, upon a careful consideration of all the circumstances, can be surprised that those influences should have produced the effects they did upon them.”53
If loss of life is any evidence of the bravery of a corps in battle, that of the Ninth on this occasion would seem to speak most eloquently in this regard. Its entire loss in killed was 52 officers and 376 men; wounded, 105 officers, 1,556 men; missing, many of whom were killed, 87 officers, 1,652 men.
On the evening after the mine affair, Colonel Barnes took command of the First Brigade, General Bartlett having been captured; and on the following day, the regiment moved to the rear, taking up its former position, Captain Willard D. Tripp being assigned to the command, and retaining it till the 14th of September.
The regiment was greatly reduced in numbers at this time, having scarcely men enough to form a full company; yet, during a large part of the time that followed, it was required to perform the same kind and amount of duty as other and larger regiments, being one day at the front in the rifle-pits, exposed to the deadly fire of the enemy’s sharpshooters, and the next in the rear, doing fatigue duty, and both night and day, whether at the rear or the front, under almost constant fire from the enemy’s lines.
Late in the afternoon of the 7th of August, the enemy opened a furious fire upon our entrenchments. The fire was particularly heavy on that part of our lines occupied by the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery, which was still commanded by Major Chipman. Great confusion ensued, and the troops were ordered to form in line of battle. The faithful Major, who was never missing in time of peril, hastened from his quarters to attend personally to the formation of his regiment; but while engaged in the performance of this duty, he was mortally wounded by the fragment of a large mortar-shell which exploded near him. From this time till eleven o’clock the next forenoon, he lingered, apparently unconscious,when life became extinct. His body was carefully embalmed and sent to his home in Sandwich, Mass., for burial, where it was received by a heart-broken wife and children, and many sorrowing neighbors and friends.
Major Charles Chipman was a true man and most gallant soldier. He possessed some advantage over the most of his fellow-officers in the Twenty-ninth Regiment, at the outset, by having had, during his earlier life, the benefits of the strict discipline and thorough training of the regular army, in which he had served as a Sergeant; at one time under Colonel Gardner, who, during the war, commanded the Confederate forces at Port Hudson. The esteem in which Major Chipman was held by his comrades found a fitting expression at a reunion of the survivors of the regiment, held at Plymouth, Mass., on the 14th of May, 1873, when the fine oil-portrait of this officer, which had constituted a part of the collection in the “Gallery of Fallen Heroes,” having been purchased by Sergeant Samuel C. Wright, was re-purchased by the Association, and by it presented to his widow and children, together with a kind and highly-appropriate letter from the President of the Association, as a token of the love and regard of his comrades.
During the night of the 14th of August, 1864, the Ninth Corps was relieved by the Eighteenth, and on the 15th, the Ninth moved to the left and relieved the Fifth Corps, the latter having moved out towards the Weldon Railroad. While remaining here (some five days), the regiment with its brigade was placed on the front line as skirmishers. There were no trenches or works of any kind, and the men were considerably exposed.
On the 19th, the whole division moved to the left to connect with the Fifth Corps, which was in position on the Weldon road. While the division was on the march, in the midst of a blinding rain-storm, the enemy dashed out of the woods at a place called Blick’s House, and began a fierce assault upon the right flank. For a short time it looked as though all would be lost. The fierceness of the assault, and the unfavorable situation of our troops, threatened a serious disaster. But our men had been too long accustomed to such scenes to be disconcerted or alarmed. The line was quickly formed,though under a terrible fire, and the enemy routed at every point. It was a great victory, apart from the good fighting of the men. The enemy were engaged in a secret, well-planned movement to cut off the Fifth Corps from the main body of our army; but the division, by its gallantry, wholly frustrated their plans.
Great praise was awarded the division for its conduct on this occasion. General Julius White, a fine officer, was in command, and manifested great skill in handling his troops. Colonel Joseph H. Barnes, who commanded the First Brigade in this battle, by his good conduct, earned promotion to Brevet Brigadier-General.54
An incident of the battle worthy of mention, is, the regiment captured one of the enemy’s captains, who fought the battalion at Great Bethel, June 10, 1861.
The regiment did not escape this battle without some loss. Sergeant Curtis S. Rand, Company A; Privates John B. Smithers, Company B; David A. Hoxie, Company D; William McGill and Edwin C. Bemis, Company H; and First Lieutenant George D. Williams, Company F, were wounded. Sergeant Rand had been a wagon-master during the most of his term; just before this battle, he requested permission to go into the ranks, saying that he was desirous of performing active service. Poor fellow! his wounds proved mortal, and he died a few days after the battle.
From this time till the 21st, everything remained in the same condition as at the close of the battle, except that our troops had entrenched themselves, the Ninth Corps “occupyingthe line extending from the Fifth Corps on the Weldon Railroad to the left of the Second Corps, near the Jerusalem plank road.”
The enemy had manifested great uneasiness ever since this ground had been occupied by our troops, and had more than once threatened an attack. On the 21st, he made a spirited assault upon our works, charging up to the breastworks several times in quick succession, but was repulsed with great slaughter. The regiment, though exposed to a severe enfilading fire, was not actively engaged in this battle.
The great losses sustained by the First Division, in the various battles in which it had engaged, rendered a reorganization of the corps necessary. The troops of this division were accordingly, on the first of September, merged with those of the Second and Third. The Twenty-ninth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiments, Third Maryland, One Hundredth Pennsylvania, and Fourteenth New York composed the Third Brigade of the First Division.
On the 10th of September, eighty-three recruits from Massachusetts reached our regiment.
On the 14th, Colonel Barnes was relieved from the command of the Brigade by the arrival of Colonel McLaughlin of the Fifty-seventh Regiment, and again assumed command of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, relieving Captain Willard D. Tripp, who had been in command since the battle of July 30.
On the 24th of September, an order was issued from the headquarters of the Ninth Corps, directing Brigadier-General Hartranft, commanding First Division, to garrison Fort Howard with one hundred and fifty men. On the same day, General Hartranft designated the “Twenty-ninth Regiment Massachusetts Veteran Volunteer Infantry ... as a permanent garrison to be placed in Fort Howard,” and Colonel N. B. McLaughlin, commanding the Third Brigade, was directed to “see that the camp of the regiment is placed in the immediate vicinity of the fort.”
For a period of nearly two weeks, the regiment was happily exempt from the hardships of the field; but the necessities of the service finally required its presence at the front, and onthe 5th of October, it was ordered out of the fort, and on the same day rejoined its brigade on the front line at Poplar Grove Church.
On the 8th of October, there was a reconnoissance in force on the left of the army by the First Division, but the regiment, though engaged in the movement, was not under fire.
On the 9th, Colonel Barnes was mustered out of the service, very much against the wishes of his superior officers, who had learned to appreciate his many excellent soldierly qualities. But his motives for leaving the army were of the most honorable character. His commission as Captain bore date of the 27th of April, 1861. He had been in the service of the United States since the 18th of May, 1861. During a large part of this time, he had had the actual and responsible command of the regiment, and for much of the time that of a brigade.
In taking leave of this excellent officer, who was so long and so honorably connected with the regiment, we deem it but an act of simple justice to him and his comrades as well, to quote some of the kind words spoken of him by several officers of the Ninth Corps. In 1864, General N. B. McLaughlin said of him: “During his term of service, Lieutenant-Colonel Barnes commanded his regiment nearby two-thirds of the time, and commanded a brigade for nearly two months in the present campaign. I consider him a cool, reliable officer, courageous, and of good judgment and conduct, both in action and in camp, a fine disciplinarian, and capable of commanding either a regiment or brigade.”
Major-General Orlando B. Willcox said: “I consider Colonel Barnes a man of great coolness and gallantry, of considerable experience as a regimental and brigade commander, and every way qualified.” Major-General Parke, commanding the corps, also expressed his high appreciation of this officer in the following language: “I consider Colonel Barnes a most excellent soldier, and a very efficient commander. He is eminently qualified for command.”
The soldiers of the Twenty-ninth, though they sometimes fretted over the stern discipline of this officer, both lovedand respected him. The same qualities that made him a good soldier have made him a good and useful citizen, and in the important civil office which he now holds, he displays the same good judgment and strong sense of duty which marked his career in the army.
Movement to Wells’s Farm—The Camp at Pegram’s Farm—Building of Winter Quarters—Ordered Back to Petersburg—Disappointment of the Men—The Regiment Occupies Battery No. 11—Friendly Relations Between the Pickets—Battle of Fort Stedman—The Regiment Makes a Gallant Fight—The Prisoners Sent to Libby—Closing Scenes Before Petersburg—The Regiment Enters the City—Duties Performed After the Battle—Death of Abraham Lincoln—Ordered to Alexandria, and from Thence to Georgetown—Provost Guard—The Grand Review—Regiment Goes to Tenallytown, Md.—Soldiers of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Assigned to the Twenty-ninth Regiment—Ordered to Massachusetts—Parade in New York—In Camp at Readville, Mass.—The Last Order—Discharged the Service—Closing Remarks.
The last chapter left the regiment at Poplar Grove Church. Here it remained till the 27th of October, when, very early in the morning, the Brigade advanced in line of battle to and a little beyond Wells’s Farm, halted for the night, and the next morning fell back to Pegram’s Farm, between the Squirrel Level and Vaughan roads, the regiment covering the latter movement as skirmishers.
It was supposed that the corps was to pass the winter at this place, and the regimental commanders were ordered to prepare winter quarters for their men. No duty which the soldier is required to perform is so pleasant as that of erecting a house to live in. Such orders after a fatiguing campaign, promising both comfort and rest, are peculiarly welcome, and always cheerfully obeyed. In this, as in every other similar instance, the soldiers worked with great zeal, manifesting much ingenuity in the construction and arrangement of their houses. The rude idea of the negroes of building a chimney with sticks and clay, was adopted by the men, with some improvements of their own, while each hutwas provided with comfortable bunks, spacious fire-places, and shelves for their guns and clothing.
This was the first time in nearly two years that the regiment had even seen the prospect of winter quarters, and was the first time in many months that it had been out of the range of the enemy’s sharpshooters and picket-firing. The camp was very unlike the ones it had occupied in front of Richmond, or in Tennessee, but was upon a dry, sandy knoll, well supplied with good water, and in full sight of Fort Sampson, a strong redoubt, named after the brave Captain Sampson of the Twenty-first Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, who fell there in the battle of September 20, with the colors of his regiment in his own hands, gallantly leading his men in a charge. Though the camp was very pleasantly located, yet winter was near at hand, the trees had already lost their foliage, and the cool autumn winds found their way through the cracks and crevices of the humble huts of the soldiers, often reminding them of the necessity of applying a little more of the “sacred soil” of Virginia, if they would be wholly comfortable. Thus quartered, it was natural that they should compare their present lot with that which fell to them the winter before in East Tennessee, where cold, hunger, nakedness, and danger were daily experienced for a dreary succession of weeks and months. But the soldier’s fondest dreams of comfort are often rudely dispelled, and so these anticipations of ease and quiet were never fully realized; the men were scarcely ensconced in their winter homes, before they were ordered to leave them. Any one who has heard a soldier grumble, and has noted some of his expressions, can understand what was said by the men about this change of location. Captain Taylor, who was of a positive temperament, rose to the sublimity of the occasion by swearing that “he would never lift another handful of dirt as long as he remained in the army”; while some of the soldiers declared that the officers were “a mean set,” and were bent on ruining the health and destroying the comfort of the men as a mere pastime.
As usual, all this rage was utterly impotent, and indulged in as a sacred privilege. It operated something like a cushion, however, lessening the severity of impact with a hard surface;to use less elegant language, it “let them down easily.” The lesson of implicit obedience to orders—not unquestioning, for volunteer soldiers were never without their mental reservations as to the propriety of every military movement—had already, and long since, been thoroughly learned. On the 29th of November, when the weather was quite cold and cheerless, the Ninth Corps was ordered to march. The men little dreamed that they were going back to the old blood-stained trenches in front of Petersburg, where they had borne the heat of the summer, and faced the shells of a hundred mortars and as many cannon. Here, however, they soon found themselves, and as they moved along over the battle-field of the 17th of June, and among the graves of their brothers who died for their country there, more than one eye was wet with the tears of manly sorrow. The regiment was ordered to do duty as the garrison of Battery No. 11, a smallravelincovering about three-fourths of an acre, having embrasures for two guns, but no guns being mounted. About two hundred yards from this work was Battery No. 12, a large redoubt mounting four cohorns, garrisoned by a portion of the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery. On the right of Battery No. 11, one hundred and twenty-five yards distant, was Fort Stedman, held by the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery; and a little to the rear and left of Battery No. 11 was the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Volunteers: while to the left of Battery No. 12, and between it and Fort Haskell, was the One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteers; and at the right of Fort Stedman, the Fifty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment.
The pickets of both armies were stationed in rifle-pits large enough to hold several men, midway between the respective lines, and these were approached by covered ways.
Though under fire much of the time, the men found opportunity to build quarters, and so far as protection from the cold was concerned, were quite comfortable during the winter. As in the winter of 1863, while the regiment was before Fredericksburg, the pickets of the two armies became friendly; but as these familiarities were strictly forbidden, they were never indulged in except at night.
The members of our regiment performed their full share ofpicket service, and, like all the rest of our troops, had frequent parleys with the Confederates. A member of the regiment has furnished the writer with a detailed statement of several of the interviews which took place on the picket line, from which it appears that this service was a source of more amusement than danger.
When everything was quiet, one of our men would call out, “Johnnies, have you got any tobacco?” “Yes Yanks; have you got any hard-tack?” was the common answer. “Meet you half-way,” says the Confederate. “All right; come on!” say our men. Then three or four men from each side would leave the pits, crawl out over the space between the two lines, shake hands, have an exchange of tobacco, hard-tack, and talk, crack jokes, and separate with the understanding, that, as soon as each party got back to the pits, they should commence firing, for the purpose of misleading their respective officers.
This state of things was finally discovered by the Confederate and Federal officers, and was terminated by strict orders forbidding the practice under severe penalties. But the practice, though not worthy to be encouraged, resulted in bringing about numerous desertions from the enemy’s camp.
The proclamation of General Grant, encouraging desertions among the Confederates, was, by means of these forbidden interviews, extensively circulated, and scarcely a night passed, during the months of January and February, which did not witness more or less of these desertions.
The Twenty-ninth had been very much reduced in numbers, having less than two hundred muskets; and yet, because of its long and conspicuous service, General Parke, commanding the corps, refused to consolidate it with some other larger Massachusetts regiment, and allowed it to retain a full list of field-officers, only one of whom, under the then existing rules of the War Department, could be mustered. Captain Willard D. Tripp, who had been commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel, October 12, 1864, had been mustered out on the 13th of December, 1864, his term of service having expired. Captain Charles D. Browne was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, October 14, 1864; Captain Charles T. Richardson commissioned as Major, August 9, 1864, and mustered as such;and Captain Thomas William Clarke commissioned as Colonel, November 8, 1864. During the winter, Colonel Clarke was assigned to duty upon the staff of General Hartranft, commanding the division; Lieutenant-Colonel Browne made Inspector of the division; and Major Richardson had command of the regiment.
No event of particular significance occurred till the 25th of March, 1865. Long before daylight in the morning of this day, a large force of the enemy—afterwards learned to be the corps of General Gordon, supported by the division of General Bushrod Johnson—crossed the level plain between Fort Stedman and the Appomattox River, fully a quarter of a mile to the right of Battery No. 11, and the entire storming party effected a wide breach in the works, and moved directly upon Fort Stedman, entering the rear sally-port almost undiscovered. So complete was the surprise, that the fort was captured at once. Slight firing was heard from this direction by the garrison in Battery Eleven; whereupon Major Richardson caused the men to be aroused, but the firing was so slight, that when the regiment was ordered to “fall in,” the sentinel stationed on the top of the parapet called out that there was “no attack.” The men were not dismissed, however, and stood silently in line for some time, peering into the gray, frosty air of the morning, the Major taking a position on the top of the works, listening intently, and looking down into the ravine below, where he saw his trusty pickets standing quietly by their fires, apparently unaware of any disturbance on the main line. But the commanding officer soon became satisfied that there was an attack in the direction of Fort Stedman; the right curtain of Battery Eleven was re-enforced, and the bugler Pond having sounded the alarm, the garrison was wholly prepared to repel any attack. Up to this time, no general alarm had been sounded along the line, and no word from any source, indicating an attack, had been received by Major Richardson; much less that the line had been broken, or that any danger lurked in his rear. The regiment had remained in line of battle nearly thirty minutes, when suddenly the men in the right curtain commenced firing; they were ordered to cease, lest they should shoot our own pickets, who had begun to come in. The latterorder had hardly been given, when some of our soldiers cried out, “The Johnnies are coming in at the rear sally-port!” This was the first positive information that the garrison had received of an attack; but the worst was revealed now,—the enemy had actually captured Fort Stedman, and though our pickets under Lieutenant Josselyn had not been disturbed, yet at least five hundred of Gordon’s and Johnson’s troops had suddenly appeared in our rear. These veteran soldiers of the Confederacy were destined, however, to meet with a stubborn resistance; a hand-to-hand encounter at once began; a Massachusetts battery stationed at the left joined in the desperate conflict, which, in the course of fifteen minutes, ended in the capture by our regiment of three hundred and fifty of the storming party, at least one hundred and fifty more than the whole number of the Twenty-ninth, and the temporary closing of the gap in this part of our lines.
During this encounter, the officers and men behaved with signal bravery. Captain Taylor was especially conspicuous, using a musket, and dealing powerful blows with its breech. Major Richardson, mingling with his men, was in the thickest of the fight, and received a terrible blow on the head from an enemy’s musket, sufficient to overcome an ordinary man; but he was not an ordinary man, and so far from quitting the fight, he kept on in the desperate struggle, cheering his men, and assuring them that the day was theirs.
The enemy now disappeared, the fort was cleared of the prisoners, and word sent to brigade headquarters of the state of affairs at the camp of the Twenty-ninth Regiment. General McLaughlin, commander of the Brigade, soon came up, with the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment as a re-enforcement, and was greatly surprised at the sight of so large a number of prisoners as he found standing in the rear of the fort. The General gave Major Gould, commanding the Fifty-ninth, imperative orders to assist the Twenty-ninth in holding the fort, and then, with his staff, rode over towards Fort Stedman; he had, probably, not been gone five minutes, before he and all his staff fell into the hands of the enemy. The best possible disposition was now made of what remained of the garrison (for it is true that some had been captured in the first assault and others had been killed and wounded) toresist the attack of the enemy, which he was now preparing to make, having collected his main assaulting column in a ravine in the rear of the battery. Major Gould was offered the command of the forces here, being the ranking officer, but declined; Major Richardson concluded to establish a strong picket line in the rear of the battery, and, with Captain Taylor, went personally to superintend the work. The enemy were already in sight, and firing soon began; on returning to the fort, to their great surprise these officers found the work nearly deserted, and saw in the dim light of the morning the command of Major Gould, and some of their own regiment, moving away down the ditch towards Fort Haskell, which was still held by our troops. During the brief absence of Major Richardson, Major Gould, who had discovered the approach of the enemy in his rear, gave orders to his men to “Leap the breastworks, and retreat between the rebel works and our own to Fort Haskell.”55No resistance was now possible; in a few moments the enemy swarmed into the battery, and Major Richardson, Captain Taylor, and a number of their faithful men were captured. This was a cruel fate for these brave soldiers, who had striven so zealously to beat back the enemy; and had their example been followed by others who held equally responsible positions, the little fort would probably have not been lost.
By this time the alarm had spread far and near, and though it was scarcely light, yet the entire corps was under arms and in motion.
The left column of the enemy, passing down the line to Battery No. 9, drove the Fifty-seventh Massachusetts from the works. It next encountered the Second Michigan, and though the regiment was surprised, and some confusion followed, yet it soon rallied, and held its ground against the most determined efforts of the enemy. Re-enforcements arriving at this point, the enemy were repulsed, and fell back towards Fort Stedman, in which their right column was now huddled, having been checked in its further movements by our troops on that part of the line.
The Twenty-ninth rallied about this time, near brigade headquarters, where a regiment of General Hartranft’s command arrived; and the two regiments at once charged and occupied a line of works about one hundred yards in the rear of Battery Eleven, thus completely stopping the opening in that part of the line.
At about seven o’clock, an advance was ordered upon the enemy, in all directions. Battery Eleven was soon retaken by our men, Conrad Homan, the color-bearer of the Twenty-ninth, being the first man who entered the works; and for his distinguished gallantry on this occasion, was promoted to be First Lieutenant, and received one of the medals of honor voted by Congress. The only works now held by the enemy were Fort Stedman and Battery No. 10, which, shortly after eight o’clock, General Hartranft’s division was ordered to attack. The Two Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania, though composed wholly of raw troops, was chosen to lead the assault. A finer display of bravery was never witnessed in the army, than that of these untrained soldiers. With great impetuosity, they rushed upon the fort in the face of a blaze of musketry, and in a few minutes were masters of the situation. At the same instant other troops of the division stormed Battery No. 10, and captured it.
The retreat of the enemy was now cut off by the fire from our other works, and one thousand nine hundred and forty-nine of their number, of whom seventy-one were officers, nine stands of colors, and a large number of small arms, fell into our hands. And thus ended this brilliant and well-conceived movement of the enemy. It was, to a great extent, a fair offset to the mine affair, but the disadvantages under which our troops labored could never have been overcome, except by hard fighting and good generalship, which characterized our movements from the beginning.
The events of this terrible battle were mostly sad and distressing; but the affair was not without its ludicrous features. A soldier of Company C,56who was captured in the early morning, made an involuntary exchange of hats with a Confederate officer. The soldier’s hat was nearly new, whilethat which he received from the officer was exceedingly shabby. The soldier broke away from the guard and ran into our lines, taking a gallant part in the charge just mentioned. While circulating among the captured enemy after the battle, he discovered the identical officer who had taken his hat from him. The soldier, in a very droll manner, approached the officer and said: “Well, Mister, if you please, I’ll take my hat now, and here’s yours back again, just as good, and no better, than when I took it about three hours ago.” The two again exchanged hats, and shaking hands “on it,” indulged in a hearty laugh.
The following-named soldiers of the regiment were killed in this action, which is known as the “Battle of Fort Stedman”: Company B, Edward J. O’Brien (he was terribly bayoneted in the breast and killed by one of the enemy, after he had been badly wounded, and was found in this mutilated condition after the battle); Company C, Sergeant C. Francis Harlow; Company E, First Lieutenant Nathaniel Burgess, Sergeant Orrin D. Holmes, William Klinker, and Ruter Moritz; Company F, Preserved Westgate; Company G, Nelson Cook, George E. Snow, and John Cronin.
Lieutenant Burgess of Plymouth had been promoted for his great bravery on the 17th of June. Orderly Sergeant Harlow was overpowered, and ordered to surrender; he replied with spirit that he would not, fired, and shot his antagonist; but another Confederate, standing near, seized his gun, and shot the courageous Harlow through the head. After the battle, the dead body of Harlow was found in the fort, lying upon that of a dead Confederate officer, from which fact it was inferred that Harlow shot the officer, and upon being himself killed, fell in the position in which he was found. One of the comrades, who witnessed this sad affair, states that the officer was one Captain Gordon, who led the assaulting party. The death of Burgess causes us to remark, inasmuch as he was the last officer in the regiment killed during its term of service, that the first and last officer in the regiment who fell in battle, were citizens of the historic old town of Plymouth.
Note.—The chief facts concerning this battle are somewhat in dispute; two or three distinct and conflicting accounts of it having been published. The version here given, so far as it relates to Battery Eleven, was furnished the writer by Major Chas. T. Richardson of Pawtucket, R. I.; the comments upon that officer, and Captain Taylor, being those of the author, based upon the statements of reliable persons.—Author.]
Note.—The chief facts concerning this battle are somewhat in dispute; two or three distinct and conflicting accounts of it having been published. The version here given, so far as it relates to Battery Eleven, was furnished the writer by Major Chas. T. Richardson of Pawtucket, R. I.; the comments upon that officer, and Captain Taylor, being those of the author, based upon the statements of reliable persons.—Author.]
The real mettle of the officers and men of the regiment was fairly tested in this battle, and the result shows that they were among the bravest soldiers in the army. In the depressing adversities of the early morning, as well as in the success which followed later in the day, their courage was equally conspicuous. Stubborn and unflinching when the enemy burst upon them in greatly superior numbers, they were impetuous and daring while on the charge.
Captain Clarke, as Adjutant-General of the Brigade, led a large body of re-enforcements on the charge at six o’clock. Lieutenant-Colonel Browne, while carrying an order from the commander of the division, dashed on horseback directly through the lines of a Confederate regiment. Captain Pizer, Lieutenant Josselyn, Lieutenant McQuillan, and Lieutenant Scully, who were captured, all escaped, and fought with great gallantry in the latter part of the battle, and for their bravery were afterwards brevetted.
The captured of the regiment, who did not manage to escape, were carried to Petersburg, and confined in a small room till nine o’clock in the morning. They were then transferred to a large hall in the village, where they were all searched, and their overcoats taken from them. Towards noon they were marched from the hall, together with a number of other prisoners, to an open field on the outskirts of the town, and were kept there under guard till night, when they took the cars for Richmond. During the day it rained and snowed by turns, and the wind was cold and piercing, the poor soldiers, stripped of their overcoats, suffering intensely. No food was given them till about noon of the following day; and then nothing but a small quantity of bean soup, without any seasoning, brought to them in dirty iron kettles. The men were confined together in one room at the notorious Libby Prison; and, as further illustrating the barbarous nature of their treatment, it should be stated, that crowded into the same apartment, which was filthy in the extreme, alive with vermin, and poorly ventilated, were nearly two hundred other prisoners. The quantity and quality of thefood dealt out to them was such as hardly to sustain life: the breakfast consisted of a small ration of smoked pork; for dinner they had bean soup; and at night a small loaf of bread, with water. All the food was of the most inferior quality; the meat especially, which frequently emitted a nauseating odor.
Happily, these men were not compelled to endure such privations for many days; but they were days of anxiety and suffering, as the author well knows from his own experience. The life of the wicked Rebellion was fast ebbing away; a few days before Lee’s surrender the men were released, and sent to the prison depot at Annapolis, Maryland, afterwards joining the regiment at Georgetown, District of Columbia.
After the repulse of the enemy on the 25th of March, and the recapture of our works, the regiment again occupied Battery No. 11, supported by the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts regiments. The final movements of our army, which resulted in the surrender of General Lee, were close at hand. A state of feverish excitement prevailed among both armies in front of Petersburg. The enemy were disposed to be belligerent, and for nearly a week kept up a constant fire upon our lines.
On the 27th of March, General Sheridan began his grand movement on the left, and the whole army had orders to be ready to march at a moment’s notice.
On the 30th, General Parke, commanding the corps, was ordered to assault the enemy’s works in his front at four o’clock the next morning, but the order was subsequently countermanded by General Meade.
On the 1st of April, the order for an assault was renewed. At ten o’clock that night our artillery opened all along our line, and at the same time a heavy force of skirmishers was sent forward. General Griffin’s brigade captured the enemy’s picket line, opposite Forts Howard and Hayes, and a number of prisoners. During these movements our whole line was forming for the assault, which was made at about four o’clock in the morning of the 2d. The contest was a bloody one, but was very successful.
At the close of the day, during which the enemy maderepeated attacks, General Parke was in possession of several hundred yards of the enemy’s lines, on each side of the Jerusalem Plank Road, including several formidable works. In the meantime a determined attack on the left had been made by the Sixth, Second, and parts of the Twenty-fifth corps, capturing a considerable number of prisoners.
During the battle on this part of the line, General A. P. Hill of the Confederate army was killed. He was one of the most distinguished officers of the long list of able and brilliant Southern Generals. The tragic account of his death, given by E. A. Pollard in his “Lost Cause,”57is probably incorrect, and is of the same sensational character as much else that this pseudo historian has written.
The night of the 2d of April was passed by the Ninth Corps on its advanced line with heavy skirmishing, continuing till near midnight. The regiment did not become seriously engaged during the 1st and 2d of April, though it took part in the demonstrations which were made in front of Port Stedman.
At four o’clock in the morning of the 3d of April, all our troops were put in motion, no opposition was encountered, the enemy having deserted their lines. The Brigade was among the first to pass the Confederate works; the Third Maryland Regiment having the honor of being the first to enter the city of Petersburg. The Twenty-ninth, with other troops, soon followed, but at once passed out on the Richmond Stage and Chesterfield roads, where it was placed on picket.
From this time till the 5th, the regiment had its headquarters at a place called Violet Bank, a fine old Virginia plantation, the house of which had been long occupied by General Lee. “There were two pianos in the house, and for two days one would have thought that some impresario had his troupe there, in rehearsal of all the known, and some unknown, operas.” The regiment recrossed the Appomattox on the 5th, and, with its brigade, “was deployed across the country, from the river to the Boydton Road,” with headquarters at Roger A. Pryor’s, “preparing to advance and coverthe reconstruction of the railroad, and to guard that and the Cox Road, as the army advanced.”
In the afternoon of the 6th, the regiment marched to Sutherlands, remaining there till midnight, and then moving out on the Cox Road to Beazeley’s. By short marches, made at different times, it finally proceeded to Wilson’s Station, “about twenty miles from Sutherlands, and at the junction of the Grubby and Cox roads.”
While remaining here, the men received the sad news of the death of Abraham Lincoln. Every soldier felt that he had lost a dear friend in the lamented chief magistrate, whose heart always beat with joy at their successes in the field, and sorrowed with the truest sorrow over their reverses and misfortunes. Of all the many true men who stood at the helm of the nation during the stormy days of the war, Abraham Lincoln was pre-eminently the soldier’s friend; he always frowned upon the harsh punishments inflicted by military law, and by his sympathy for the erring, saved from death many who had been thus doomed by the inexorable decrees of courts-martial.
On the 21st of April, the Ninth Corps was ordered to Washington, and the men bid good-by forever to these scenes of their strifes and sufferings. The regiment reached Alexandria on the 28th, and on the next day was ordered to Georgetown, where it was detached from the division and made provost guard at this place, and furnished all the details for General Willcox’s district headquarters.
On the 23d of May occurred the grand review in Washington. The Twenty-ninth was not permitted to participate in this triumphal march of our noble army, but as provost guard, was assigned to the duty, on this memorable day, of keeping the streets of Georgetown clear of obstructions, and of guarding the various “approaches to the route of the procession.” Several of the officers of the regiment, however, who were on staff duty, were in the column, and Colonel Clarke was intrusted with the formation of the First Division line, a duty that he performed with great ability and credit to himself and the State.
On the 7th of June, Colonel Clarke was relieved fromduty as Assistant Adjutant-General of the division, and assumed the command of the regiment.
On the 9th, a large portion of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment was transferred to the Twenty-ninth. These men were mostly Germans and Belgians, whose term of service did not expire before October 1, 1865. They were asked by their commanding general to which regiment they desired to be transferred. Much attached to their officers, they replied, that “they preferred to go where their officers could go with them.” By an arrangement made with the War Department, eleven officers were transferred with these men, and it speaks well for the regiment that these officers chose to be transferred to the Twenty-ninth. Both officers and men were superior soldiers, and the commanding officer of the Twenty-ninth, in his last report to the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, speaks of them in terms of high praise.
On this day, the regiment marched to Tenallytown, Md., remaining here till the 29th of July. The formalities of mustering the regiment out of the service were completed on the 29th of July, and on the same day it started for Massachusetts.
Upon its arrival in New York, it became the guest of the New England Association, as also did the Fifty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment, which left Washington at the same time. The Association asked the regiments to parade in the city. The request was granted, and Brevet Brigadier-General McLaughlin (Colonel of the Fifty-seventh) assuming command, marched the troops through Broadway, from the Battery to Union Square, and from the Square again to the Battery. The veterans were greeted with cheers everywhere on the line of their march, and at the close were met by General Burnside, who addressed them in a cordial manner.
At the conclusion of the parade, the Association invited the soldiers to partake of a dinner, at which were present, Major-General Joseph Hooker, the patriotic Colonel Howe, President of the Association, and the Rev. M. H. Smith (Burleigh). It has been said that this was the last parade of Union troops in New York City.
Taking the cars on the Connecticut Shore road, the regimentreached Massachusetts the next morning; but not having been paid or discharged the service, still further delay became necessary, and it was for this purpose ordered into camp at Readville.
It was wholly natural for soldiers who had been so long in the service as had the members of the Twenty-ninth, and were now, at the close of their protracted term, almost within sight and sound of their homes, to feel a disagreeable sense of restraint at being thus detained. They found some fault with this state of things, which they characterized as “the last crop of red tape”; but their soldierly instincts and self-respect kept them from the commission of any act which they or their friends will ever have occasion to regret. Their conduct was so exemplary under these perplexing circumstances, and this event in their career in every sense so historical, that their commanding officer was moved to address them upon the subject. This address was termed, “General Orders. No. 12,” and was the last order issued to the regiment from any source, or by any officer. As it is a well-written paper, alike touching and soldierly in its tone, and altogether a pleasing feature of the record of the regiment, we here give space for it:—
“General Orders, No. 12.“Headquarters Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers,}“Readville, Mass., August 3, 1865.}“You hold the musket for the last time. From May, 1861, to August, 1865, we are a part of the history of the Republic. The very number of the regiment was prophetic; for twenty-nine battles will be inscribed on the flag which we carry.“To be soldiers who have never lost a color, have never left the field without orders, have always cheerfully performed the requirements of the service, is indeed a cause for pride. But of one thing we should be prouder yet! Few regiments have had so few desertions, so few dishonorable discharges, so little punishment, of all who have served the Republic in the last four years.“During the past three days, your conduct has been deserving of all praise. In receiving their welcome home, no men could have proved themselves more worthy of the honors paid them. Trying as the delay has been, anxious as you all were to return to the Commonwealth, no single thing was done unbecoming the good soldier.“Around you cluster the memories of the two great armies of the Republic: that which fought four long years for Richmond, and that which opened the Mississippi to the commerce of the Northwest.“You hold in your hands the last muskets of the army of the Potomac,—the last muskets of the army of Sherman. Remember, then, the brilliant record which is yours; and remember hereafter not to tarnish it.”58
“General Orders, No. 12.
“Headquarters Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers,}“Readville, Mass., August 3, 1865.}
“You hold the musket for the last time. From May, 1861, to August, 1865, we are a part of the history of the Republic. The very number of the regiment was prophetic; for twenty-nine battles will be inscribed on the flag which we carry.
“To be soldiers who have never lost a color, have never left the field without orders, have always cheerfully performed the requirements of the service, is indeed a cause for pride. But of one thing we should be prouder yet! Few regiments have had so few desertions, so few dishonorable discharges, so little punishment, of all who have served the Republic in the last four years.
“During the past three days, your conduct has been deserving of all praise. In receiving their welcome home, no men could have proved themselves more worthy of the honors paid them. Trying as the delay has been, anxious as you all were to return to the Commonwealth, no single thing was done unbecoming the good soldier.
“Around you cluster the memories of the two great armies of the Republic: that which fought four long years for Richmond, and that which opened the Mississippi to the commerce of the Northwest.
“You hold in your hands the last muskets of the army of the Potomac,—the last muskets of the army of Sherman. Remember, then, the brilliant record which is yours; and remember hereafter not to tarnish it.”58
In concluding this narrative, which the writer fears has already been extended beyond the point which, in the estimation of a purely disinterested person, might be regarded as its proper limit, it seems essential to allude briefly, in review, to certain prominent and remarkable features of the record given in the foregoing pages. The seven companies of Captains Clarke, Wilson, Leach, Chipman, Doten, Chamberlain, and Barnes, were among the first in the country to enter the service for three years; while the regiment was among the last of all the volunteer forces to disband: serving, including the term of these original companies, a period of four years, two months, and twenty days, which is rather more than the whole period of the active hostilities of the war. During this time it served under thirty-one general officers, of more or less distinction, in three army corps, namely, the Second, Fifth, and Ninth; did duty in the States of Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and in the District of Columbia: while it carried its flags into fifteen States of the Union, travelling, in the course of fourteen months, a distance of four thousand two hundred and seventy-seven miles. Two of the companies participated in the first pitched battle of the Rebellion; and the regiment was engaged in one of the last battles of the war, which took place just seven days before the surrender of General Lee and his army. The regiment was, therefore, practically, present at the birth—it was also present at the death and funeral—of the Rebellion. It took part in the four great sieges of the war, namely, Richmond, 1862; Vicksburg, 1863; Knoxville, 1863; and Petersburg, 1864-5; was engaged in twenty-nine pitched battles, beside a large number of skirmishes, picket fights, and artillery duels. It is chiefly in connection with the battle record of the Twenty-ninth,that its surviving members have the greatest cause for feelings of profound gratitude; the comparatively small losses sustained by it in all these numerous encounters with the enemy forming, perhaps, the most remarkable feature of its entire career as a regiment. And what seems most singular, is the fact that this good fortune attended the regiment, with two or three exceptions, from the beginning to the close of its term. The time of its arrival at Gaines’ Mill, though it did not operate to prevent it from performing valuable service,—a service that aided in rescuing from destruction Porter’s troops,—alone saved it from the slaughter that covered that sanguinary field with several thousand wounded and dead.