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BATTERY D,
FIRST RHODE ISLAND LIGHT ARTILLERY,
IN
THE CIVIL WAR,
1861-1865.
BY
Dr. GEORGE C. SUMNER,
A MEMBER OF THE BATTERY.
Rhode Island Printing Company, Providence.
1897.
[Illustration: MEMBERS OF BATTERY D, FIRST RHODE ISLAND LIGHT
ARTILLERY, VETERAN ASSOCIATION.
AT ROGER WILLIAMS PARK, JUNE, 1891.]
1 John S. Gorton.
2 John Rathbone.
3 John Brod.
4 Joseph W. Corey.
5 Charles Gallagher.
6 Charles E. May.
7 Ezra K. Parker.
8 Charles W. Cornell.
9 John J. Busby.
10 Samuel Jenkins.[1]
11 William H. Fisk.
12 Stephen Ballou.
13 James S. Hayward.
14 John J. Hopkins.
15 William Stalker.
16 Willett A. Johnson.
17 Daniel W. Elliott.
18 Lyman Nicholas.[1]
19 James Tanner.
20 Joseph F. Means.
21 Henry W. Smith.
22 Jeremiah D. Hopkins.
23 Frank M. Tucker.
24 John McKenna.
25 Erich P. Botter.
26 George Rathbone.
27 Clark Walker.
28 Halsey A. Aldrich.
29 Rice A. Wickes.[1]
30 George C. Sumner.[1]
31 Otis G. Handy.
32 Isaac D. Russell.
33 Joseph B. French.
34 Charles C. Gray.
35 George N. Hawkins.
36 Joseph B. Kenyon.
37 Edwin R. Knight.
38 Moses Budlong.
39 Capt. J. Albert Monroe.[1]
40 George E. Arnold.
41 Olney Arnold.[1]
42 Henry C. Whitaker.
43 Charles E. Bonn.[1]
44 Gideon Spencer.
45 Christopher H. Carpenter.
[Footnote 1: _Deceased._]
PREFACE.
At a meeting of Battery D Association, held at Roger Williams Park,
June 6th, 1891, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
RESOLVED, That George C. Sumner is hereby appointed Historian of the
Association, and earnestly requested to write and publish a History of
Battery D, First Rhode Island Light Artillery.
Comrade Sumner accepted the position, and at once commenced to look
up material for the work. He soon found that he had quite a task to
perform. At the battle of Cedar Creek, late in the war, all the books
and papers of the battery were captured by the enemy, it thus became
rather a tedious undertaking to hunt up facts and dates. Artificer
Clark Walker and Corporal Knight had diaries of some parts of their
service, which was about all the material on hand to start with.
The Adjutant General's Office furnished considerable information. The
Roster of the Battery was taken entirely from that office. The "War
Records" was another source from which facts and dates were collected.
Comrade Sumner took a great deal of interest in this history and had a
large part of it written when he was "called away to join his comrades
who had gone before." The death of our comrade made it necessary for
some one to take up the work. It was impossible to fill his place, and
when the writer agreed to take up the history and complete it, it was
with a great deal of hesitation, knowing his inability to carry on
the work, and not having time to devote to the proper carrying out of
Comrade Sumner's ideas.
Comrade Sumner had a great many marginal notes attached to his
manuscript which he was familiar with, but to another person they were
not very plain. Without doubt he intended to add considerable to his
manuscript, but on taking up the work I found it almost impossible
to follow out what he had evidently intended to do, and came to the
conclusion that it was best to publish it as he left it. I hope the
comrades of the Battery and whoever else that reads this work, will
remember that the author was called away before he had time to even
revise his original manuscript.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
A Comrade of the Battery.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Organization--Camp Sprague, Washington, D.C.--Winter Quarters
at Munson's Hill, Va. 1
CHAPTER II.
Campaign to Centreville--Falmouth--Fredericksburg--Thoroughfare
Gap--Rapidan River 6
CHAPTER III.
Rappahannock Station--Groveton--Bull Run (or Manassas) 13
CHAPTER IV.
South Mountain and Antietam 28
CHAPTER V.
Fredericksburg--Bell's Landing--Hampton--and Trip to the
West 40
CHAPTER VI.
The Campaign in East Tennessee 62
CHAPTER VII.
The Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee 98
CHAPTER VIII.
Battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania--The Campaign in
the Shenandoah Valley 125
Roster 157
Commissioned Officers 181
Enlisted Men Commissioned 181
Temporarily Attached Men 182
CHAPTER I.
Organization--Camp Sprague, Washington, D.C.--Winter Quarters at
Munson's Hill, Va.
At the commencement of the Civil War, in April, 1861, there was in the
city of Providence, among other excellent military organizations, one
of light artillery, known as the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery,
which for years had been interesting and instructing the young men of
the city and vicinity in the manoeuvres of this branch of military
service. A natural sequence of the presence of this company was to draw
attention to this arm, and led Gov. Sprague to offer the government
a fully equipped light battery, in addition to the First Regiment of
Infantry. The offer being accepted, a battery was speedily organized
for three months service, and on the 18th of April, six days after
the firing upon Fort Sumter, it left Providence, fully equipped, for
Washington. When it became evident that more troops and a longer term
of service would be needed, Gov. Sprague at once began the organization
of a regiment of light artillery. The second battery (or A, in
regimental orders) was mustered into service June 6th, 1861, for three
years or the war, and left home for Washington June 19th. After which,
at intervals of less than a month, a battery left Providence for the
seat of war, until eight had been sent, which completed the First
Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery.
Battery D was the fifth in number, but fourth in the regimental
formation, that was recruited, its organization commencing immediately
upon the mustering of Battery C (Aug. 25th). Its quota was filled
perhaps the most rapidly of any of the batteries, for by the 2d of
Sept. it had its complement of men, and was sent to Camp Ames, on the
Warwick road, just beyond Pawtuxet, where, on the 4th of Sept., it was
mustered into the service of the United States.
On Sept. 10th, the battery moved to Camp Greene, near the Stonington
Railroad. While in this camp the men were uniformed, divided into gun
detachments, and drilled in the manual of the piece, marching, etc.
On the 13th the battery left Camp Greene on the steamboat train for
Stonington, under command of First Lieut. Geo. C. Harkness, the other
officers being First Lieut. Henry R. Gladding, Second Lieuts. Stephen
W. Fisk, and Ezra K. Parker. From Stonington it proceeded by boat to
Elizabeth City, N.J., from which place it continued on by cars to
Washington via Harrisburg, reaching its destination shortly after noon
on the 15th, and marched immediately to Camp Sprague, where Capt. J.
Albert Monroe, who had just been promoted from First Lieutenant to
Captain, and transferred from Battery A to Battery D, took command.
The personnel of the company was particularly well adapted for the
especially active work appertaining to the successful manoeuvering
of light artillery. Its members were young; scarcely one in ten had
reached his majority; most of them had left good homes, where they
had received the advantages of a fair education, and except in rare
instances their physiques were such that camp life and the exercise
of the drill speedily developed endurance and suppleness. To no one
was the possibilities of this command more apparent than to Captain
Monroe. His experience in the home company, and three months of
practical service with Battery A, convinced him that here was material
from which, by persistent hard work, and by a proper and judicially
administered discipline, there could be evolved a battery of light
artillery which would honor itself and the State from which it came;
and he immediately proceeded to work for the accomplishment of that
idea. Requisitions were speedily obtained for horses and guns, and the
battery was soon fully equipped, the battery consisting of four ten
pound Parrotts and two twelve pound howitzers. Drilling was commenced
immediately, both field and the manual of the piece, and continued
without cessation from the 18th of Sept. to Oct. 11th, and such was
the progress made by the company that at a review held on the 9th of
Oct., on the grounds back of the Capitol, of all the artillery in the
vicinity, at which Gen. Scott was reviewing officer, the battery was
complimented for the excellence of its movements.
Oct. 12th Capt. Monroe received orders to report with his battery to
Gen. Fitz John Porter, near Hall's Hill, Va., and as soon as possible
the company commenced its first march, passing through Washington via
Pennsylvania avenue, thence through Georgetown to the Potomac River,
crossing at Aqueduct Bridge. Hall's Hill was reached about 7 P.M., and
the battery went into camp. Having no tents, the men were obliged to
spread their blankets on the ground, and had their first taste of a
field camp in Virginia.
Oct. 14th orders were received to report to Gen. McDowell, and the
battery moved about three miles, to Upton's Hill. While here they were
given their first impressions of war. It was intimated that the enemy
was in the immediate vicinity, and were liable to make an attack at any
time. Each night one section of the battery was sent out on picket.
At no time in their service did they feel the responsibility of their
situation more keenly than on these occasions, and not a rebel soldier
within twenty miles. The two sections which were to remain in camp
were obliged to work upon the earthworks with picks and shovels, an
occupation they did not relish.
Oct. 29th camp was moved just over Munson's Hill, on the north slope,
and a camp laid out, under the direction of Capt. John Gibbon, who had
assumed command of the artillery in our division. His own, Battery B,
Fourth U. S., was placed upon the left (instead of the right, as it
should have been according to strict military etiquette, presumably
because the ground was higher and drier). Our battery came next, then
the First New Hampshire, Capt. Gerrish, and the Pennsylvania battery,
Capt. Durrell, on the right. Tents of the Sibley pattern were now
issued in place of the small A tents. These were circular in form,
and large enough to accommodate ten or twelve men comfortably. When
the weather became cold enough to require them, stoves were issued,
and when the tents were properly ditched, the bunks built and filled
a foot deep with straw, they became very comfortable homes, even in
the coldest of weather. We soon had orders to prepare this camp for
a winter's sojourn. Details were made each morning to work upon the
stables for the horses, and in the course of a few days the finest camp
in the history of Battery D was completed, and named Camp Dupont.
The battery was parked in regular style, pieces in front, caissons
in the rear; on the right and left of them the stables were built.
The tents for the men were pitched in the rear of the stables. The
officers' tents were in the rear of the battery, the Captain's being
in a line with the centre of the guns, and two others, one on each
side of the Captain's, a little in advance, for the four Lieutenants.
The cook-house was at the upper end of the right tents, and the
guard-house was placed quite a distance in front of the battery.
In this camp the battery remained from Oct. 29th, 1861, to March 10th,
1862, occupying its time in drill, inspections, sham fights, target
practice, etc. Everything calculated to increase its efficiency was
indulged in. Days were spent in perfecting the men in horsemanship.
Heroic measures were used; no saddles or bridles were allowed; men were
expected to learn to manage their horses successfully bareback, and
with only the halter, and they did it, but there were many laughable
and some serious incidents occurred before they thoroughly mastered the
art.
The sham-fights were particularly exhilarating and entertaining to us,
the whole corps, numbering fifteen or twenty thousand, participating in
them, and blank cartridges were used without stint. A change of front
would sometimes necessitate a long run for the battery, and if over
open ground, was participated in with a relish; but if, as it sometimes
happened, the route lay through what had been woods, but had been
freshly cut off by the soldiers, leaving stumps of irregular height,
it sometimes became very annoying to the cannoniers, as the carriages
struck first one stump and then another, throwing them about, making it
very difficult to retain their places on the boxes.