the fortifications, continues to-day, and all day and all night, too,
for that matter, since the stronghold must be one in fact as well as
name, men being so detailed as to keep the dirt flying; a writer in
the story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Infantry says it took eight
men to get one shovelful of dirt from the bottom of the ditch to the
top of the work, the men standing in little nitches cut in the side
of the bank and passing the earth from one to another. This day also
marks the transferral of recruits and re-enlisted men of the Thirteenth
Regiment, the time of this staunch companion on many a march and hard
fought field having expired and the original members being about to
withdraw for their joyful journey home, though the actual union of the
one hundred remaining men of the Thirteenth and the Thirty-ninth does
not take place till the 14th of July, the only noteworthy event of
the day, unless mention is made of the withdrawal of the Second Corps
from its western position and its encampment south of the Fifth Corps,
thus leaving the Fifth at the extreme Union left. On the Fifteenth the
camp ground is thoroughly policed and General Warren superintends the
laying out of a camp for the men and pitching our tents, regular living
seems probable for a time at least. It is related that, reviewing some
of the work as already laid out, General Warren, who had been Meade's
chief engineer, asked who had projected certain lines and, when a
division commander was named, he sharply remarked, "General ---- had
better stick to his pills," and seizing a shovel worked off some of his
indignation by making the dirt fly with his major general hands. The
Masonic Lodge held its first meeting for many a day and voted to pay
for the embalming of Colonel Davis' body, and the expenses incident to
sending it home, also appointing a committee to look after the families
of brother Masons killed in the campaign.
The passion or appetite for drink is well illustrated on the 17th
in Lieut. Dusseault's effort to properly distribute eight canteens
(twelve quarts) of whiskey among one hundred men, on police duty, the
ration being one gill for each one but, for fear that the quantity
might intoxicate them, he discreetly gave out one half a gill per
man, thus retaining four canteens for a subsequent occasion. When he
lay down at night he put the canteens under his head, but despite his
care the canteens were stolen with no clue to the thieves, save the
maudlin condition in which several men were found. There seemed to be
no risk that men would not take to secure that which was worse than
useless for them, an enemy to steal away their brains. Several days
of continued routine of police, picket, drill and other features of
camp life follow, but entirely agreeable after the exactions of May
and June. Thursday, the 21st, the enemy varied the monotony by making
an artillery demonstration against Fort Sedgwick, possibly lest its
occupants should forget its nick name, "Hell." The cordial relations
existing on picket are well illustrated by an incident related of the
period where a Union soldier, crawling out carefully to reach his
station, was more than surprised to hear in unmistakable Southern
speech, the words, "Say, you Yank don't belong thar'; that's we uns
place; you uns place's over thar," a bit of information that the
Yank did not hesitate to avail himself of. Deserters are in constant
evidence, all coming in ragged and hungry.
[Sidenote: JULY 21, '64]
It was at Fort Davis that Corporal Dow of Company C got one of his
first experiences on horseback. Captain Hutchins sent him to Colonel
Peirson, one morning, in answer to the latter's request for a messenger
to City Point. On the Colonel's telling Dow that he was to ride a
horse to City Point, ten miles away, the poor Corporal stood aghast and
avowed his utter ignorance of an equine, his vocation being that of
a ship carpenter, saying, "I can tell you all about a boat, Colonel,
but I know absolutely nothing about a horse." "Oh! That's nothing,"
replied the officer, "you can stick on and the horse you will ride is
like a rocking chair." The animal that Colonel Peirson named was an
exceedingly easy riding beast but, unfortunately, the same had been
appropriated by an officer and ridden off on a somewhat questionable
errand; to make a fuss about it would be to give the officer away, so
Dow submitted to the caprice of the man in charge of the stable and
went off mounted on the Adjutant's steed, notoriously the worst riding
brute in the entire equine outfit. John Gilpin's condition after his
ride to Ware and back was nothing compared to that of the Corporal when
he returned; as he expressed it, if he had ridden a rail the entire
twenty miles, with sledge hammers pounding the ends of the same, he
could not have been more jolted and galled than he was at the end
of his twenty miles. A whiskey ration was being distributed when he
reached camp, and Dow remarked that he needed extensive application,
both within and without. "I guess I've killed your horse or he has
me," he remarked to the Adjutant as, walking very wide, he passed that
officer. "I hope you have," said the officer, "for then I can get a
better one." The steed really did die from the trip, and when the
Colonel called for Dow again, luckily for him, the easy going beast was
ready.
[Sidenote: JULY 29, '64]
Lest we should forget that we are in a state of war with our Southern
brethren, we are favored on the 24th and the 25th, late in the
afternoon, with certain iron compliments, the rebels even shelling the
picket line, a very unusual procedure, one shell entering the fort; as
many of their missiles fail to explode, we conclude that they must be
using a very poor grade of powder. The cannon opposite to us are manned
by the Washington Artillery, that crack New Orleans organization
whose batteries were found in all the great Confederate armies, east
and west. Towards the end of the month, a greater degree of activity
is apparent; the Second Corps moves out on the 26th and then returns
the next day; on this same 27th, loads of ammunition are bought up
and picket relations are less amicable than hitherto. We turn in July
29th, with orders to turn out at 2.30 the next morning; this we do on
the 30th and the Fifth Corps moves a half mile or so to our right into
trenches back of the Ninth, with the Second Corps similarly disposed at
our right. As yet we do not know what a large part of the country is
to learn soon, viz., that this 30th of July is to go down the annals
of time as the day of the "Crater." For weeks, under the direction of
Colonel Pleasants of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, his men have been
digging an underground way, in front of Burnside's advanced lines, to
a point beneath Elliott's or Pegrams' Salient, more than five hundred
feet distant. It was finished on the 23rd and in it were soon placed
8,000 lbs. of powder. To divert the attention of the enemy, lest he
might discover the undermining project, the Second Corps had been sent
across the James, to assist the troops already there in a demonstration
against Richmond, but when the mine was ready for exploding the corps
was hastily called back. Pages have been written of the event, of the
explosion, of the advance of troops, white and black, into the abyss
caused by the eruption and of their sorry fate beneath the concentrated
fire of the Confederates, under Mahone and his artillery, and the
unkind words that for many a year were uttered concerning Burnside
and his part in the well conceived though unfortunately consummated
project. Many of our Bay State regiments are in the Ninth Corps and
they perform with credit whatever duty falls to their lot. We are not
called upon for any part in the fight, though we have our share of
earache at the terrific explosion and the artillery firing afterwards.
July ends with the Fifth Corps back in the same position as that held
before the "Crater" episode, one of whose principal features was the
practical demonstration that negro troops are much like those of other
complexion and may be depended upon in an emergency.
Although August, 1864, is written deep in the hearts and memories of
members of the Thirty-ninth, up to and beyond the middle of the month
there is little to record except the regular round of camp life close
to the enemy's lines, and the rumors that are ever afloat where many
are assembled. The sending away of the Sixth Corps to the defense of
Washington and the inauguration of the Shenandoah Valley campaign
under Sheridan, whose only instructions, imparted to him by Grant at
Monocacy, in that meeting of August 6th, are "Go in," making matters
in the Petersburg Zone much more quiet than they would be otherwise.
A southside view of the situation is not amiss and the words of T. N.
Page, in his life of Lee, are appended:--
"Jefferson Davis has declared that the remainder of the Petersburg
campaign is 'too sad to be patiently considered.' Locked in his
fortifications, with Richmond hung like a millstone about his neck,
while the South was cut off piecemeal from possibility of contributing
to his support, Lee, faithful to his trust, and obedient to the laws,
put aside whatever personal views he might have held and continued
to handle the situation with supreme skill. Before that army had
succumbed it had added to Grant's casualty list, from the time he
crossed the James, another sixty-odd thousand men, thus doubling the
ghastly record of his losses.... Grant seems to be the one firm,
clear-headed, practical man in all of the muddle of conflicting
ambitions and confused orders. 'This man Grant grows on me,' Mr.
Lincoln had said a year or two before--'He fights.' It was the one
solution of the problem--to fight and keep on, no matter at what cost,
till the other side should be exhausted. Grant recognized it and acted
on it. Happily for the Union cause, Grant was the commanding general
of all of the armies of the Union. Unhappily for the Confederate
cause, Lee had not been given similar power. As dependent as was the
South on his genius, the military command was still reserved in the
hands of the civil authorities. He could not even appoint his chief of
staff."
Of the period between the Mine and the month of March, 1865, General
Humphreys, in his story of the campaign, remarks on the movements of
the Army of the Potomac and that of the James to the right and the
left, resulting in the extension of our line of entrenchment in both
directions, and causing a corresponding extension of the Confederate
entrenchments on our left, and their occupation in stronger force
of their entrenchments on the north bank of the James. Very likely
these blazing, hot August days would have been blazing with gunpowder
in the furthering of the investment of the Cockade City had not the
departure of the Sixth Corps compelled the temporary suspension of the
western project and a continuance of the strengthening of the works
already built. So far, however, as anything akin to comfort beneath
the midsummer sun, in the exposed earthworks was concerned, nothing of
the sort was possible. Only when the king of day hid his shining face,
during the hours of night, could the intensity of his heat be forgotten.
[Sidenote: AUG. 4, '64]
Still, time was passing, and every day marked the approach of the
wind-up, so long and so devoutly prayed for. Regimental note takers
were observing everything out of the ordinary, and Horton of "E"
remarks, August 1st on a visit to the scene of the explosion, July
30, saying, "It is opposite the old brick house, where we were before
coming here" and he also comments on the burial of the dead, while a
flag of truce is up. Another, writing on the 2d, says, "Walked along
the front of our Corps, everything is under ground, covered ways for
teams and troops to pass out if the enemy is near, showing a vast
amount of labor." Thursday, the 4th, was a Fast Day, appointed by
the President, which was observed in Fort Davis by a suspension of
fatigue duty and religious services at 6.30 conducted by the chaplains
of the Sixteenth Maine, the One hundred and Fourth New York and the
One Hundred and Seventh Pennsylvania. The day was not observed by
all organizations, and along the line of the Ninth Corps there was
considerable firing. The versatile accomplishments of Union soldiers
are indicated in that on the 5th of August a member of Company H,
suffering from toothache, sought out an ex-dentist in the One Hundred
and Seventh Pennsylvania and had his aching molars filled; and the
scarcity of proper material is also shown in that the substance, used
for filling, was just ordinary lead, but it did the business. Who would
suppose that, through all of the ups-and-downs of an exacting campaign
the instruments, essential to such work would have been, carried and
what a substitute for a dentist's chair, with its varied attachments,
must have been the end of a log or an empty cracker box!
Almost every day brings one or more deserters from the rebel ranks, men
who are convinced that the game is really lost and can see no pleasure
or profit in the "last ditch" idea. They are invariably hungry, ragged
and dirty. On the 9th, Fred. Glines of "E," a Somerville boy, visits
the hospital of the Ninth Corps and there meets Professor John P.
Marshall, a respected instructor in Tufts College, a most pleasant
meeting for both parties. He also records the blowing up of an ordnance
boat, lying at the wharf in City Point, receiving fixed ammunition.
The incident is an item in the history of the war, whereby there were
a great loss of life and destruction of property. All told, the value
of property destroyed mounted into the millions and the number of
lives lost was between sixty and seventy; one hundred and thirty were
wounded; some battles had a smaller record. At the time the explosion
was ascribed to the careless handling of the ammunition cases.[O]
In the night of the 10th-11th there was a little artillery play in the
direction of Fort Davis, but it proved to be harmless. The 12th marks
the second anniversary of the muster-in of Company E, the first one
in the Regiment. This day also saw a new movement of the Second Corps
across the James River, another blow to be struck at Deep Bottom, if
practicable. Evidently Generals Grant and Meade thought the quiet
period had lasted long enough, besides the Lieutenant General thought
that the rebels had sent off three of their divisions to reinforce
Early in the valley. The truth was that only Kershaw's had gone, and
all the others were right on the spot, ready to receive callers or
boarders, it was all the same thing, and the expedition was not as
productive of results as the projectors had desired.
[Sidenote: AUG. 13, '64]
One scribe, on the 13th, writes, "Got paid off," and elsewhere mention
is made of the proximity of sutlers who are ready to settle old scores
and also to sell for cash. Rumors of coming activity are current on
the 14th and the next day, Monday, the Brigade marched out of the fort
giving place to the First Division of the Ninth Corps, negro troops,
and going back about two miles, we pitch camp and are evidently in
reserve for some project. The heavens also are active and the long
delayed rain comes in torrents for two hours in the afternoon. The
troops which relieved us were the colored division of the Ninth Corps,
under General Edward Ferrero, and of their appearance as we marched
out, Beck of Company C remarks, "Who of the Thirty-ninth will ever
forget the appearance of the colored troops sent to relieve us, as they
lay about outside, half buried in yellow mud and water, as we filed out
of the fort on that rainy morning? They had been marching all night in
the darkness, rain and mud, and were so completely exhausted that sleep
to them was the one great necessity, position and bed being secondary.
We carefully stepped over their bodies and soon were beyond the sound
of their snoring." A heavy detail is made on the 16th for work on Fort
Sedgwick, but day work is impossible there on account of the nearness
of Fort Mahone, or "Damnation," whose sharpshooters are regularly
gunning for the "blues." The detail had hardly more than begun to work
at 10 p. m. when the command came to cease from labors and to report
to the Regiment at once. There the information is imparted that the
corps will move at 3 p. m. of the coming day. On this next day, the
17th, when in line awaiting the expected "Forward" there comes the
order to break ranks and encamp for the night. Concerning the movement
against the Weldon Railroad, whole volumes have been written. It was a
part of Grant's effort to cripple the resources of the rebel army that
was being hemmed in gradually by the Union forces. The necessity of
the move had been recognized from the first and it had been delayed,
as already stated, principally by the departure of Sheridan and the
Sixth Corps to the Shenandoah Valley. We have noted the activity of
Hancock and his Second Corps, north of the James, made in the hope that
it might cause the return of some of the Confederates who had gone to
Early's relief, thereby enabling Sheridan to strike a heavier blow in
his present command.
Incidentally, it seemed that troops had been withdrawn from the
rebel right to strengthen those fighting Hancock and others, at the
Confederate left, and Grant saw his opportunity to strike again for the
Weldon track, and this is what he says in his Memoirs:--
"From our left, near the old line, it was about three miles to
the Weldon Railroad. A division was ordered from the right of the
Petersburg line to reinforce Warren, while a division was brought back
from the north side of the James River to take its place. The road
was very important to the enemy. The limits from which his supplies
had been drawn were already very much contracted, and I knew that he
must fight desperately to protect it. Warren carried the road though
with heavy loss on both sides. He fortified his new position, and our
trenches were then extended from the left of our main line to connect
with his new one. Lee made repeated attempts to dislodge Warren's
Corps, but without success and with heavy loss. As soon as Warren was
fortified and reinforcement reached him, troops were sent south to
destroy the bridges on the Weldon Railroad, and with such success that
the enemy had to draw in wagons for a distance of about thirty miles
all the supplies they thereafter got from that source. It was on the
21st that Lee seemed to have given up the Weldon Railroad as having
been lost to him; but along about the 24th or 25th he made renewed
attempts to recapture it. Again he failed, and with very heavy losses
to him as compared with ours. On the night of the 20th, our troops
on the north side of the James were withdrawn, and Hancock and Gregg
were sent south to destroy the Weldon Railroad. They were attacked on
the 25th, at Reams Station, and after desperate fighting a part of
our line gave way, losing five pieces of artillery. But the Weldon
Railroad never went out of our possession from the 18th of August to
the close of the war."
The foregoing extract from the memoirs of the Lieutenant General has
been made as an indication of his opinion of the magnitude of the work
of August 18th in the progress of the war. The Army and Navy Journal of
August 27th, after noting the extraordinary storm of the 15th, "Which
swept away many tents and sutler's booths and filled the trenches with
water" and the fierce cannonading on the 16th, also that of 1 a. m. of
the 18th, lasting for two hours, has this to offer concerning the event
which figures so largely in the annals of our Regiment:--
[Sidenote: AUG. 18, '64]
"At four o'clock, on the morning of Thursday, the 18th, and shortly
after the heavy cannonading ceased, the Fifth Corps started from its
camp (which was rather in reserve) with four days' rations, towards
the Weldon Railroad. It took some time to get across the ground
formerly held by the Second and Sixth Corps. Then the column marched
towards Ream's Station, driving in easily the enemy's skirmishers,
of whom a part were captured. Between seven and eight o'clock, the
advance arrived at Six Mile Station, and busily setting to work, a
mile of the track was torn up and burned, and the rails destroyed in
the usual manner. The skirmishing up to this time had been very light,
the enemy having obviously withdrawn to his left, and the whole move
being made with hardly a show of opposition. While the First Division
was tearing up the track, the others passed on towards Petersburg and
after advancing two or three miles, took position so as to repel an
expected attack from the enemy. They did not have long to wait. About
noon, Walker's Virginia and Davis' Mississippi brigades came hurrying
down the railroad. Ayres' Second Division was stationed at this point;
the Third and Fourth Divisions, at his right; and the First on his
left. The battle opened very promptly on the arrival of the enemy with
sharp artillery firing. The enemy, a part of Hill's Corps, then rushed
in with great impetuosity, falling with most force upon Hayes', Lyle's
and Cutler's brigades, and succeeding in flanking a portion of our
force, including Lyle's First Brigade, Crawford's Third Division, the
latter brigade being brought forward under a severe enfilading fire.
For two hours the firing was very hot, and as it was an open fight the
losses were heavy. The main battle lasted till about three o'clock;
but the skirmishing and cannonading continued till night, when both
forces went to entrenching, the possession of the railroad still being
left to our troops. Our loss is still somewhat uncertain, but it is
somewhere from five hundred to one thousand. The Second and Third
Divisions suffered most and the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts and the
Fifteenth New York Heavy Artillery lost heavily. The enemy claims to
have captured eight officers and one hundred and fifty men from us in
this fight. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded was probably nearly
equal to ours, but he lost few prisoners.
Headquarters at night were at the Six Mile House, so called from its
distance from Petersburg. That night and all the next day our forces
were busily engaged in strengthening our lines, and in endeavoring
to connect the right of the new position with the left of our old
line. But towards the evening of Friday the enemy came out in force
and pushed in between the new entrenchment and the old ones, flanking
the Fifth Corps and sweeping off about fifteen hundred prisoners. The
Ninth Corps arriving on the field of battle, checked the enemy. Our
loss was about three thousand men. Saturday was comparatively quiet,
but on Sunday the enemy again furiously attacked us, and was repulsed
with heavy loss. On Monday and Tuesday, there was occasional firing
along the centre, but our lines were otherwise undisturbed. Our forces
still hold the Weldon railroad, the capture and retention of which
have cost a week of the hardest fighting of the campaign."
General Humphreys, in his "Virginia, Campaign of '64 and '65," has the
following version of the story that specially touches our Division and
Brigade:--
"General A. P. Hill, with Davis' and Walker's brigades under General
Heth, and Weisiger's, Colquitt's and Clingman's under General Mahone,
with Lee's cavalry and Pegram's batteries, moved to the Vaughan
Road intersection. Heth was to attack Ayers, while Mahone, familiar
with the woods, was to move concealed by it some distance beyond
Crawford's right, break through Bragg's skirmish line, and take Bragg
and Crawford in rear. About half past four in the afternoon, General
Mahone with his command formed in columns of fours, broke through
Bragg's skirmish line, faced to the right, and swept rapidly down
toward General Warren's right flank, taking all Crawford's skirmish
line and part of his line of battle in rear. His skirmish line fell
back in the greatest confusion, and in doing so, masked the fire of
his line of battle, and forced it to fall back, together with a part
of General Ayres' division. Heth at the same time opened on Ayres'
centre and left. General Warren, reforming the parts of Ayers' and
Crawford's divisions that were broken, brought them forward again and
regained the ground temporarily lost, taking some prisoners and two
flags. General Willcox was ordered up to attack; and White's division
(Ninth Corps) was formed facing to the right, and engaging Colquitt's
brigade drove it back, and captured some prisoners. Mahone's command
fell back rapidly in great confusion to their intrenchments, carrying
with them the parts of Warren's command disorganized by the attack on
their rear in the woods, and a large portion of the pickets."