THE 79TH HIGHLANDERS.--THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
For many years the Highland Guard was a crack New York city militia
battalion, composed of Scots, or men of Scottish lineage. They wore the
kilt as their uniform, and, for fatigue or undress, a blue jacket with
red facings, and trousers of Cameronian tartan. At the breaking out of
the rebellion, the battalion was raised to a full regiment by the
addition of two companies and filling up the ranks, and on May 13, 1861,
entered the United States service for three years as the 79th
Highlanders, New York volunteers.
Few regiments even in those patriotic days contained a finer, braver, or
more intelligent body of men. Nearly every walk of life was represented
among them except common laborers; but business men, clerks, and
mechanics, with some sailors and even a few veteran British soldiers,
filled the ranks. One company contained so many bookkeepers and clerks
that it was known as the clerks' company. If a skilled man was wanted at
headquarters for any purpose, from clerk to mule-driver, from manning a
light battery to rowing a boat, the Highlanders were always called upon
to furnish the detail, and their successive commanders had all they
could do to prevent the regiment from being depleted by such calls.
At the battle of Bull Run the Highlanders were terribly cut up, losing
one hundred and ninety-eight killed, wounded, and missing, including
eleven officers. The colonel, James Cameron, brother to the Secretary of
War, was killed gallantly leading his regiment, which was considerably
scattered after the battle. It was collected together in a few days, and
moved to a camp on Meridian Hill, at the head of Tenth Street, north of
Washington, named Camp Ewen. The officers and non-commissioned officers
now petitioned the secretary to order the regiment home to recruit and
recuperate. The secretary, visiting the camps, repeatedly expressed
great regard for the regiment, and promised to do anything in his power
for it. When the petition reached him, he indorsed it as follows:--
The Secretary of War believes that in consideration of the gallant
services of the 79th regiment, New York volunteers, and of their
losses in battle, they are entitled to the special consideration of
their country; and he also orders that the regiment be sent to some
one of the forts in the bay of New York to fill up the regiment by
recruits, as soon as Colonel Stevens returns to the command.
SIMON CAMERON,
_Secretary of War_.
The men were informed of the secretary's order, and notified to prepare
for the homeward trip, to which they looked forward with eager
anticipations and longing. But the military authorities remonstrated so
strenuously against the order, on the ground of the bad effect on other
troops of allowing one regiment to go home, that the secretary allowed
it to be set aside, yet no notice of the revocation was given the
Highlanders. As day by day went by without the much-desired homeward
orders, they became more and more dissatisfied; the officers, as much in
the dark as the men, could not satisfy their doubts and misgivings, and
the spirit of insubordination grew daily.
On August 7 Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel M. Elliott was directed from
Headquarters First Division, New York State Militia, to convene the
commissioned officers, after five days' notice, for the purpose of
electing a colonel, and accordingly notified them to meet on the 13th at
four P.M. for such purpose. Apparently the state authorities ignored the
action of the War Department in appointing a new colonel, and it does
not appear that the appointment of Colonel Stevens was announced to the
regiment, except by his own order assuming command.
On August 10 Colonel Stevens arrived at the camp, and at dress parade
that evening the following order was read:--
The undersigned, in pursuance of orders from the War Department,
hereby assumes command of the 79th regiment, New York State Militia.
He will devote himself earnestly to the regiment, and trusts that
its high reputation, gained by honorable service in the face of the
enemy, will not suffer at his hands. He doubts not that zeal,
fidelity, and soldierly bearing will continue to characterize every
member of the regiment.
ISAAC I. STEVENS,
_Colonel_.
The new colonel spent the next day in simply observing the officers and
men and inspecting the camp, taking no active steps. On the following
day, however, he summoned the major and several other officers to his
tent, and demanded and exacted their resignations. On the 13th, the
third day of his command, he issued an order at dress parade that the
regiment should move camp on the morrow.
This brought matters to a climax. The men plainly saw that they were not
to go to New York, and felt that they had been trifled with and
deceived. They gathered in knots like angry bees to discuss their
wrongs. Many of them went into the city that night and returned late,
more or less intoxicated. Whiskey was smuggled into the camp, and some
of the forced-to-resign officers had a hand in this, and by the
eventful morning of the 14th the regiment was ripe for mutiny.
When, after an early breakfast, the order was given to strike tents, all
flatly refused except two companies,--I and K,--which remained faithful
and obedient during the trouble. These were the new companies recently
organized, and probably were less infected with militia notions than the
others. Colonel Stevens visited the refractory companies in turn, but
the men, deaf to orders and expostulations, stubbornly refused
obedience, and told how they had been deceived and disappointed.
Lieutenant-Colonel Elliott attempted to explain his action, but without
satisfying the colonel, who gave him half an hour in which to resign, on
penalty of court-martial. Elliott resigned.
Colonel Stevens continued going freely and fearlessly among the men,
remonstrating with them and urging them not to bring disgrace upon the
regiment, but in vain. When the officers attempted to strike the tents
themselves, they were forcibly prevented, and several of them roughly
handled. Colonel Stevens, coming to a group where some officers had just
been thus repulsed, the armed and angry mutineers threatening to shoot
any one who touched a tent, at once exclaimed, "Then I will take it down
myself," and, disregarding threatening words and looks, laid hold of the
tent to strike it. At this the men, struck with admiration at his
intrepidity, exclaimed, "Dinna mind, colonel; we'll take it doon for ye
this ance."
At length, finding all efforts to restore obedience fruitless, Colonel
Stevens felt obliged to report the mutiny, and ask for troops to
suppress it. In response the camp was surrounded late in the afternoon
by an overpowering force of regular infantry, artillery, and cavalry,
which, in presence of the refractory regiment, ostentatiously loaded
muskets, drew sabres, and charged the guns with canister and trained
them on the camp. Colonel Stevens then addressed them, standing in the
midst of the camp:--
"I know you have been deceived. You have been told you were to go to
your homes, when no such orders had been given. But you are
soldiers, and your duty is to obey. I am your colonel, and your
obedience is due to me. I am a soldier of the regular army. I have
spent many years on the frontier fighting the Indians. I have been
surrounded by the red devils, fighting for my scalp. I have been a
soldier in the war with Mexico, and bear honorable wounds received
in battle, and have been in far greater danger than that surrounding
me now. All the morning I have begged you to do your duty. Now I
shall order you; and if you hesitate to obey instantly, my next
order will be to those troops to fire upon you. Soldiers of the 79th
Highlanders, fall in!"
His voice rang out like a trumpet. The men, thoroughly cowed, made haste
to fall into the ranks.
The regiment, guarded on both flanks by the regulars, was then marched
into Fourteenth Street, the colors were taken away by order of General
McClellan, and thirty-five men, reported by the officer of the guard as
active in the disturbance, were marched off to prison. The regiment
resumed its march for the Eastern Branch, crossed that stream, and
bivouacked for the night near the Maryland Insane Asylum,--a suggestive
coincidence, remarks the historian of the regiment. Soon after daylight
the next morning the new camp was reached, named Camp Causten, after a
resident of Washington, who had shown the Highlanders many kind
attentions after Bull Run, tents were pitched, and the routine of camp
life established.
Fourteen of the so-called ringleaders were soon afterwards released and
returned to the regiment, and the remainder were sent to the Dry
Tortugas on the Florida coast, where they were kept on fatigue duty
until the 16th of the following February, when they were also released,
and rejoined the regiment at Beaufort, S.C.
Colonel Stevens commanded his regiment with a firm and severe hand. He
enforced early roll-calls, hard drilling, and strict cleanliness in
person and camp. There were some men so demoralized, by homesickness or
otherwise, that they could not be induced to keep themselves decent, or
attend to their duties, and he made the guard take them daily to the
river, and strip and scrub them with soap and brooms. Under such drastic
treatment they speedily recovered their tone. He promptly and severely
punished every neglect of duty. He selected a number of bright,
efficient young sergeants, and promoted them to be officers of the
companies. He daily sent out detachments on scouting expeditions, or
marches of ten or twelve miles, and had sketches and measurements made
for a topographical map. By these means he varied the monotony of camp
life, and infused hope and spirit into the command. He obtained
furloughs for a limited number of men, those with families having the
preference, and thus assisted some forty to visit their homes for
fifteen days each. He was especially strict with the officers, taught
them to assert their authority, and broke up the time-honored habit, the
curse of militia organizations, of deferring to, and hobnobbing with,
the rank and file.
On the 26th the regiment broke camp, marched through Washington, the
band playing the dead march, by order of the colonel, in token of their
disgraced condition and loss of the colors, and went into camp on
Kalorama Hill, beyond Georgetown, a mile from the Chain Bridge. Colonel
Stevens named the new location Camp Hope, and in a brief address to the
regiment bade them hope, and declared that together they would win back
the colors and achieve a glorious career. With all his matter-of-fact
judgment, he had a pronounced vein of enthusiasm and poetic feeling, and
had a singular power of arousing them in others, and of appealing to the
higher motives. It was Napoleon who declared that in war the moral is to
the physical as three to one.
At this camp Colonel Stevens dispensed entirely with camp guards, which
in all the new regiments were deemed indispensable, and appealed to the
sense of honor and discipline of the Highlanders to refrain from
wandering from camp, and from annoying, or pilfering from, the country
people. The men responded nobly to this appeal, and took great pride in
scrupulously obeying these orders, and in the confidence reposed in
them. The inhabitants felt safe when they saw the uniform of the
Highlanders, and frequently spoke of the difference between them and
other troops. The Highlanders still wore the blue jacket with red
facings, but the regulation uniform as to the remainder. Later, when the
jackets were worn out, they were uniformed like other troops.
On the evening of the 6th of September a large force, including the
Highlanders, crossed Chain Bridge to the southern side of the Potomac,
and took up positions in front and extending to the left, connecting
with troops from Arlington. At midnight, as the regiment was drawn up in
line, Colonel Stevens addressed them as follows:--
"'Soldiers of the 79th! You have been censured, and I have been
censured with you. You are now going to fight the battles of your
country without your colors. I pray God you may soon have an
opportunity of meeting the enemy, that you may return victorious
with your colors gloriously won.'
"As cheering was prohibited," says the historian, "the men listened
in silence, but with a determination to do all in our power to
recover our lost honors."
It was an impressive scene,--the long line of silent soldiers dimly seen
in the gloom of night, as they gained new courage and determination from
the brief, brave, and soldierly words of their leader.
The troops in front of Chain Bridge constituted a division under General
W.F. Smith (Baldy Smith), of the Army of the Potomac, forming under
General George B. McClellan, and Colonel Stevens was placed in charge of
the First Brigade, consisting of the 2d and 3d Vermont, the 6th Maine,
and his own regiment, and was intrusted with building Fort Ethan Allen,
a strong and extensive earthwork on the left of the Leesburg turnpike,
and of felling the woods in the vicinity. The Maine men, all expert
woodsmen, armed with axes and deployed in a long line at the foot of a
wooded slope, worked upwards, chopping every tree nearly through, so
that it stood by only a narrow chip, until they reached the top of the
slope; then at the signal of the bugle the last few quick strokes of the
axe resounded against the top row of trees, which fell crashing on those
below, and they on the next lower, and so on, until the whole forest
crashed down together in thundering ruin.
The troops were kept hard at work, thus felling forests and digging
forts, and also in outpost duty, for a strong picket line to cover the
front, posted nearly a mile in advance, had to be maintained. Alarms
from this line were frequent, and on one occasion the enemy were
reported as advancing in heavy force, and the troops were hastily gotten
under arms. Every one expected to take post in the fort, but Colonel
Stevens led his brigade out nearly to the picket line, deployed them on
a commanding position on both sides of the road, and coolly awaited the
attack. This movement, so promptly but deliberately made, visibly raised
the confidence and _morale_ of the troops; and when, the alarm proving
unfounded, they marched back to camp, they felt able and eager to
encounter the enemy on equal ground.
On the 11th, under orders from General Smith, but with strictest
injunction not to bring on a general engagement under any circumstances,
Colonel Stevens, with two thousand troops, made a reconnoissance in
force of Lewinsville, a hamlet six miles in advance of Chain Bridge. His
force comprised the Highlanders; the 3d Vermont, under Colonel Breed N.
Hyde; two companies of the 2d Vermont, under Lieutenant-Colonel George
J. Stannard; four companies of the 1st Chasseurs or 65th New York, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Shaler; five companies of the 19th Indiana,
under Colonel Solomon Meredith; four guns of Griffin's battery, 5th
United States artillery, Captain Charles Griffin; a detachment of fifty
of the 5th regular cavalry, under Lieutenant William McLean; and one of
forty volunteer cavalry, under Captain Robinson.
With skirmishers in advance, and exploring the ground on both flanks to
the distance of a mile, the command advanced steadily to Lewinsville,
the enemy's cavalry pickets falling back without resistance, and
occupied the village at ten A.M. Cavalry pickets were thrown out on all
the roads; three guns and some five hundred skirmishers were posted well
out to command the approaches on all sides; and the position was held
for five hours, during which Lieutenant Orlando M. Poe, of the engineers
(afterwards General Poe), and Mr. West, of the Coast Survey, made a
topographical map and sketch of the place and vicinity. Colonel Stevens,
with Captain Griffin and Lieutenant Poe, thoroughly examined the whole
position of Lewinsville, of which he reported, "It has great natural
advantages, is easily defensible, and should be occupied without delay."
During this time small bodies of the enemy were seen observing the Union
force at a safe distance, and a cavalry picket, or reconnoitring party
of fifty men, was driven off by Lieutenant McLean.
The accompanying sketch shows the roads and dispositions of the force to
cover the reconnoissance. Colonel Meredith, with three companies of his
regiment and one gun, held the road leading north to the Leesburg pike.
The same road, running south of the village to Falls Church, was guarded
by one company of the same regiment with one gun. Colonel Hyde, with the
3d Vermont and one gun, held the road leading westward to Vienna, and
also the new road to Vienna, which fell into the Falls Church road half
a mile south of the hamlet. The remaining gun, with the two companies of
the 2d Vermont, was kept in reserve at the cross-roads; while the
Highlanders and Chasseurs were held in reserve a third of a mile back
from the village, and two companies of the former were thrown out as
skirmishers to cover the left flank and rear, and connected with the
Indiana skirmishers on the Falls Church road.
About three in the afternoon the skirmishers were called in, and the
column formed for the return march. Just as the bugle sounded "Forward!"
a section of artillery, which the enemy, stealing up under cover of the
woods as the Highlanders' skirmishers retired, had adroitly planted on
the left rear, opened a brisk fire of shells over the head of the column
as it marched back; and simultaneously a considerable force of their
skirmishers from the Vienna and Falls Church roads advanced on the
village and commenced firing on the withdrawing troops, but were
directly repulsed, and gave no further trouble. For a few minutes there
was some flurry in the column under the shell fire at a turn in the road
where it was most exposed. Some of the officers and men threw themselves
flat on the ground at every missile that burst or hurtled overhead, and
once twenty men ranged themselves in line behind a tree barely a foot
in diameter. But this confusion was over in a few minutes; the excitable
ones, under the jeers and laughter of their comrades, resumed their
places in the ranks, and the column was not broken or delayed.
[Illustration: RECONNOISSANCE OF LEWINSVILLE, SEPTEMBER 11, 1862]
Colonel Stevens posted Griffin's battery in a good position on the
right, or north of the road, which opened a rapid and well-sustained
fire on the enemy's guns, and in half an hour silenced them. The column
continued its march meantime in admirable order, and Lieutenant McLean
brought up the rear unmolested. Colonel Stevens, having thus withdrawn
his column from the village and well past the annoying battery, selected
other positions for the guns, a section on each side of the road, and
disposed his troops to meet the enemy's attack, or to attack him if
opportunity offered. The troops were in fine spirits, and obeyed every
order with alacrity. But the enemy having ceased his artillery fire, and
making no demonstration, showing glimpses only of cavalry and infantry
at a distance, the return march was continued, and the troops reached
their camps without further incident.
The Union loss in this affair was two killed and thirteen wounded,
besides three captured, the latter having, in their eagerness to get a
shot at the enemy, ventured too far in front of the skirmish line of the
19th Indiana, to which they belonged.
The enemy's force consisted of the 13th Virginia, a section of Rosser's
battery of the Washington artillery, and a detachment of the 1st
Virginia cavalry, all under command of Colonel J.E.B. Stuart, of the
latter. Colonel Stuart made a most exaggerated and magniloquent report
of the action, and was actually promoted to brigadier-general for it.
The action was over, and the Union troops were calmly marching down the
road, when General Baldy Smith came galloping up it in hot haste,
followed by his staff and a section of Mott's battery, and manifesting
considerable anxiety, for the artillery firing had been brisk and noisy
while it lasted, and his orders from McClellan--the same he had
impressed on Colonel Stevens--charged him not to bring on a general
engagement. But perceiving the fine order and undaunted bearing of the
troops, and learning how well they had all behaved, and that the enemy
was keeping his distance, he resumed his wonted coolness, and heartily
congratulated Colonel Stevens and his command on the well-conducted and
successful reconnoissance. Half an hour later General McClellan, with a
large following of staff and escort, came tearing up the road to the
returning column, showing even greater excitement and anxiety. He, too,
calmed down on learning that the affair was all over, congratulated
General Smith, ostentatiously visited and commiserated the wounded, and
returned to Washington without noticing Colonel Stevens.
A few days later the colors were restored to the Highlanders by General
McClellan in person, in recognition of their soldierly conduct since
recrossing the Potomac, especially in the affair at Lewinsville.
Colonel Stevens took great pains in disciplining and training the
regiments under his command, one of which, the 6th Maine, was raised at
Bucksport and vicinity, and some of whose officers he knew when building
Fort Knox, and he looked forward with confidence and pride to forming
and commanding in them a fine body of soldiers. They, too, were
responding to and appreciating his efforts, and strong feelings of
mutual esteem and devotion were fast growing up between the commander
and command. Before moving from Camp Hope, President Lincoln had assured
him of his appointment as brigadier-general within a week, and he was
daily expecting it. He never doubted that the troops he was so
carefully instructing would form his brigade when he became a general,
nor did they. His surprise and chagrin, therefore, were great when the
Maine and Vermont regiments were summarily taken from him to make up a
brigade for General W.S. Hancock, who, a new brigadier, had just
reported to Smith, and three newer and greener regiments were sent to
replace them. They were the 33d and 49th New York and 47th Pennsylvania.
Colonel Stevens was deeply hurt and disappointed at this action. With
the unexplained delay in his promised appointment, and McClellan's
significant and averted demeanor, it seemed to indicate a fixed
intention on the part of the authorities to deny him promotion, and to
keep him down to his colonelcy indefinitely. But he uttered no word of
remonstrance or repining at this unworthy treatment, and took the new
regiments in hand with unabated care and vigor. He declared to his son,
in strict confidence, that, if his appointment as general was not soon
made, he would relinquish the command of a brigade and devote himself to
the Highlanders; that he would make them the best-disciplined and the
best-drilled regiment in the army, and would so infuse them with the
spirit of devotion to the country and the cause that, like Cromwell's
Ironsides, nothing could resist their onset. He dwelt much at this time
on Cromwell, and how he had formed and trained his invincible soldiers.
Before embracing the contemplated course, however, Colonel Stevens sent
his son to see the President and deliver a brief message to the effect
that, although several weeks had elapsed since the assurance was given
of his appointment as a general officer within a week, he had heard
nothing of it, and feared that the President, under the great weight of
care and responsibilities, might have forgotten it. The young man
accordingly rode into the city and presented himself at the White
House. His card was taken; the ante-rooms were crowded with anxious
applicants and callers, and among them he waited for hours, unable to
get access to the President, or secure any attention. At last he
accosted a colored messenger, who from time to time entered the
President's room with cards, and begged his assistance in obtaining an
interview, stating that he had a message of great importance from his
father, Colonel Isaac I. Stevens, who had sent him expressly to deliver
it to the President. The messenger would scarcely listen, indeed, had to
be almost forcibly detained, until the name struck his ear, when his
whole manner changed. "Do you mean Governor Stevens?" he exclaimed. "Is
Governor Stevens your father? I used to see him here often in Mr.
Buchanan's time, and I am glad to do anything in the world I can for
him. I'll take your name in the next time, and you shall see the
President, if I can fix it." He was as good as his word, and soon
ushered the youth into the inner office.
Mr. Lincoln received him in a kindly and fatherly manner that at once
placed him at ease, listened to the message, and said: "Tell your father
that I have not forgotten my promise, nor him; that I should have had
his appointment made before this, if it had not been for General
McClellan; that General McClellan said Colonel Stevens had better remain
in command of the Highlanders some time longer; that they were not yet
reduced to proper discipline, and it would be unsafe to take away their
colonel at present. But tell your father," he added, "that it shall be
no longer delayed." He then took a small blank card and wrote a line
upon it, directing that Colonel Stevens's appointment as
brigadier-general be made out, and handed it to his visitor, bidding him
take it over to the War Department and deliver it to the
adjutant-general. This was soon done, and the young man, plying the
spur, joyfully galloped back to camp with the gratifying news.
Any military man knows perfectly well that as brigadier-general he could
have as much oversight and control over a regiment in his brigade as
though he remained its colonel. In fact, General Stevens retained
personal and immediate command of the Highlanders, although he commanded
a brigade, and long after he became a general.
On the 25th General Smith advanced to Lewinsville with five thousand
troops on a foraging expedition. Colonel Stevens, with the Highlanders
and the 2d Vermont, led the advance, and the skirmishers of the former
captured an officer of Stuart's regiment with his horse. The enemy made
no resistance, and after loading ninety wagons with corn and grain, the
expedition returned.
CAMP ADVANCE, September 27, 1861.
MY DEAR WIFE,--I appointed Hazard adjutant of the Highlanders
yesterday. He has been with the regiment under fire three times,
acting as my aide on two occasions, and the aide of Captain Ireland
on the third. The appointment is very acceptable to the regiment.
Hazard will make an excellent adjutant. It will be easy for him to
learn the technical part. His general experience will make
everything easy.
I am looking somewhat for my brigadier's commission this week.
The young man joined the regiment immediately after it crossed the
Potomac, and had borne a musket in some of its skirmishes, and was
appointed adjutant on the advancement of the former adjutant, David
Ireland, to a captaincy in the regular army.
General Stevens's appointment as brigadier was made on the 28th, and on
the following day he was formally assigned to the command of the third
brigade of Smith's division, consisting of the four regiments already
under his charge, viz., the Highlanders, 33d and 49th New York, and
47th Pennsylvania. He retained the immediate command of the Highlanders
in addition to that of the brigade.
A few days afterwards Smith's division and other troops of the right
wing were advanced some four miles permanently, without encountering the
enemy. About noon, soon after the troops had come to a halt, General
McClellan, escorted as usual by a numerous staff, appeared on the scene,
and, after visiting different points, dismounted, and sat down to a
lunch which his attendants spread for him. He invited General Smith and
some other officers to partake of the repast, but ignored the presence
of General Stevens, who was quite near. The latter may have been unduly
sensitive, but he regarded the omission as an intentional slight, and
remarked that he actually pitied McClellan.
General Stevens named the new position occupied by his brigade, which
was not far from Falls Church, the Camp of the Big Chestnut, from a huge
sylvan monarch near by. A train of one hundred and forty-four wagons
came over from Washington to move the tents and baggage of the
command,--what a contrast to later campaign days, when four wagons only,
or even less, were allowed to a brigade!--but even this number proved
inadequate to bring everything at one trip. The new adjutant of the
Highlanders directed the wagon-master to send some wagons back for what
was left behind, but that functionary flatly refused, alleging that he
was under orders to make but one trip, and then return to the city. The
adjutant thereupon applied to the general for instructions in the
premises, but his reception was hotter than he bargained for. "Have you
a thousand men at your disposal, and suffer yourself to be set at
defiance by a wagon-master? If you are not man enough to make your
authority respected, you are not fit to be an officer. Go back to your
regiment and attend to your duty."
Smarting under this unexpected rebuke, the young officer again summoned
the wagon-master and reiterated the order, and, on his second refusal to
obey it, had him lashed fast to a neighboring tree. Four of his
wagoners, equally contumacious, shared the same fate; and a sergeant and
four soldiers of the ever ready and capable Highlanders were soon
driving the teams back to the old camp, and in a few hours safely
returned with the left-behind goods. The bound wagon-master and
teamsters were then set free and ordered to mount their wagons and drive
off instantly, an order which they obeyed with alacrity, and returned to
Washington doubtless madder if not wiser men. Although at times a severe
and exacting man, General Stevens always encouraged his subordinates to
self-reliance, to do things, "to take the responsibility," in Jackson's
phrase, and was sure to back them up if they acted in this spirit.
Drilling, picketing, and tree-felling fully employed the troops, at Camp
of the Big Chestnut. By McClellan's orders the woods, which covered a
good part of the country, were slashed, the roads blocked, and the whole
front obstructed by felled trees. The troops were ordered to get under
arms and stand in line for half an hour before daylight every morning in
anticipation of an attack which never came. This was an especially
disagreeable and unhealthy task, for the Potomac fog shrouded the
country at that hour, the autumnal mornings were damp and chilly, and
the men would stand coughing all along the line. Many a poor fellow owed
his death or disablement to this useless exposure. Strict orders were
issued to avoid any movement which might lead to a collision with the
enemy, and especially to shun everything which might bring on a general
engagement. The orders frequently repeated these cautions, and seemed to
be filled with a nervous apprehension of fighting. General Stevens
thought this passive-defensive attitude all wrong. He took great pains
to inculcate and develop a bold and enterprising spirit in his own
brigade, especially charging his pickets to hold their ground in case of
attack, and was delighted when a detachment of the 49th New York stood
firm, and handsomely repulsed a dash of the enemy.
At breakfast on October 16 General Stevens unexpectedly received orders
to turn over the command of his brigade to the senior colonel, and
report in person to General Thomas W. Sherman at Annapolis, Md., by
daylight the next morning. By eleven o'clock A.M. he had written
farewell orders to the brigade and to the Highlanders, devolved the
command upon Colonel Taylor, of the 33d New York, had all his belongings
packed up, and mounted his horse to ride to Washington.
To avoid anything like a scene, the general was about to ride away
without visiting the regiment and bidding them farewell, but Captain
David Morrison, the senior officer, came and begged him to say good-by
in person, saying that the regiment was formed and was most anxious to
see him. He rode in front of the line, and in a few feeling words
expressed his regards and hopes for them and bade them farewell. As he
wheeled and rode off, a spontaneous and universal cry of "Tak' us wi'
ye! Tak' us wi' ye!" burst from end to end of the line, and tears stood
in many a manly eye.
Stopping only two hours in Washington, during which he called at the War
Department and secured the appointment of his son as captain and
assistant adjutant-general of United States volunteers, and to make
necessary purchases, he took the cars in the afternoon for Annapolis.
As they rolled along through the pleasant rural scenery of Maryland,
General Stevens threw off all traces of care and became as cheerful and
light-hearted as a boy. He fell to talking about the recent experiences
in the Army of the Potomac in a most interesting and instructive way,
exposing and condemning the mistakes and evil effects of McClellan's
passive-defensive management, and pointing out what he deemed to be the
right course. Instead of obstructing the entire front with blocked roads
and tracts of slashed woods, which would impede the enemy's attack
indeed, but would also confine the Union troops to the strict defensive,
making it impossible to manoeuvre them offensively outside the works,
the front should have been kept clear and unobstructed, and the ground
carefully studied and understood by subordinate commanders, with the
view of throwing a heavy force upon the enemy's flank, or any weak point
he might offer, in case he attacked. Instead of restraining the natural
enterprise and ardor of the troops, prohibiting and deprecating all
hostile contact with the enemy, as if they were no match for the rebels,
thus keeping them under the cowing of Bull Run, and aggravating the awe
of the enemy's prowess inspired by that defeat, they should have been
continually brought face to face with the foe, scouts and
reconnoissances kept afoot and boldly pushed, and parties of picked men
under picked officers sent to fall upon the enemy's pickets and exposed
detachments at every favorable opportunity. Such a course, he declared,
would most speedily give the troops confidence and restore their
_morale_, would foster and develop their natural enterprise and bravery,
and would most effectively and quickly make them reliable soldiers. He
had none of that distrust of volunteers often felt by regular officers,
and which undoubtedly influenced McClellan, for he knew how quickly such
splendid material as the brave young volunteers then flocking to the
country's defense would become soldiers, if well officered and under a
bold and skillful commander. He discussed, also, McClellan's character
without the least trace of animosity, admitting his ability and
patriotism, but lamenting his fatal lack of boldness and decision,
which, he said, rendered his failure inevitable, and finally he
exclaimed, with great feeling and conviction, "I am glad to leave
McClellan's army. I am rejoiced to get out of that army. I tell you that
army under McClellan is doomed to disaster."
They reached Annapolis that evening, and were most cordially received by
General Sherman, and by Colonel Daniel Leasure, of the 100th
Pennsylvania, known as the "Roundheads," which was to form part of
General Stevens's new brigade. His first act on reaching Annapolis was
to apply by telegraph to the Secretary of War, in conjunction with
General Sherman, for the Highlanders. He also personally telegraphed the
President to that effect. Colonel Leasure, too, telegraphed the
Secretary that his regiment was largely composed of the descendants of
Scotch Covenanters and Cromwell's soldiers, and were anxious to be
joined by the Highlanders. Both the President and secretary were
desirous of granting the request, but it was first referred to General
McClellan, and properly, as the regiment was in his army. He strenuously
objected to it, protesting that he could not possibly spare one of his
best veteran regiments. But Mr. Lincoln again overruled the "Young
Napoleon," and ordered the Highlanders to Annapolis to rejoin their
beloved commander.
[Illustration: Hazard Stevens,
Capt. & Asst. Adj. Gen'l.]