VERMONT IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
The dreariness of the long Northern winter was past. The soft air of
spring again breathed through the peaceful valleys, wafting the songs of
returning birds, the voice of unfettered streams, and the sound of
reawakened husbandry. Though far off in the Southern horizon the cloud
of rebellion lowered and threatened, men went about their ordinary
affairs, still hoping for peace, till the tranquillity of those April
days was broken by the bursting storm of civil war.
With the echo of its first thunder came President Lincoln's call for
troops, and Vermont responded with a regiment of her sons, as brave,
though their lives had been lapped in peace, as the war-nurtured Green
Mountain Boys of old. The military spirit had been but feebly nursed
during many tranquil years, yet, at the first breath of this storm, it
blazed up in a fervor of patriotic fire such as never before had been
witnessed.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion, no Northern State was less prepared
for war than Vermont. Except in the feeble existence of four skeleton
regiments, her militia was unorganized, the men subject to military
service not being even enrolled. Some of the uniformed companies were
without guns, others drilled with ancient flintlocks; and the State
possessed but five hundred serviceable percussion muskets, and no tents
nor camp equipage; while the Champlain arsenal at Vergennes, like other
United States arsenals in the North, had been stripped by Floyd, the
Secretary of War, of everything but a few superannuated muskets and
useless cannon. The continual outflow of emigration had drawn great
numbers of the stalwart young men of the rural population to the Western
States, in whose regiments many of them were already enlisting, and she
had not the large towns nor floating population which in most other
States contributed so largely the material for armies.
The governor, Erastus Fairbanks, immediately issued a proclamation,
announcing the outbreak of rebellion, and the President's call for
volunteers, and summoning the legislature to assemble on the 25th of
April. His proclamation bore even date with that of the President, and
is believed to have antedated by at least a day the like proclamation of
any other governor.[111]
In the brief interval between the summoning and the assembling of the
legislature, in all parts of the State men were drilling and
volunteering. Banks and individuals tendered their money, railroad and
steamboat companies offered free transportation for troops and munitions
of war, and patriotic women were making uniforms of "Vermont gray" for
the ten companies of militia chosen on the 19th of April to form the 1st
regiment.
The train which brought the legislators to the capital was welcomed by a
national salute from the two cannon captured at Bennington. Without
distinction of party, senators and representatives met the imperative
demands of the time with such resolute purpose that in forty-eight hours
they had accomplished the business for which they were assembled, and
had adjourned. A bill was unanimously passed appropriating one million
dollars for war expenses. Provision was made for raising six more
regiments for two years' service, for it was forecast by the legislature
that the war was not likely to be confined to one campaign, nor an
insignificant expenditure of money. Each private was to be paid by the
State seven dollars a month in addition to the thirteen dollars offered
by the United States. If his aged parents or wife and children should
come to want while he was fighting his country's battles, they were not
to become town paupers, but the wards of the commonwealth.
The ten companies were rapidly filled, their equipment was completed,
and they assembled at Rutland on the 2d of May, with John W. Phelps as
colonel, a native of Vermont, who had served with distinction in the
Mexican War as lieutenant, and captain in the regular army. No fitter
choice could have been made of a commander for the regiment than this
brave and conscientious soldier, who, though a strict disciplinarian,
exercised such fatherly care over his men that he won their love and
respect.
After some delay the regiment was mustered into the United States
service on the 8th. It was the opinion of the Adjutant-General that
there were troops enough already at Washington for its defense, and that
the 1st Vermont might better be held in its own State for a while. But
when General Scott learned that a regiment of Green Mountain Boys,
commanded by Phelps, was awaiting marching orders, he wished them sent
on at once. "I want your Vermont regiments, all of them. I remember the
Vermont men on the Niagara frontier," and he remembered Captain Phelps
at Contreras and Cherubusco. A special messenger was dispatched to
Rutland with orders to march, and on the 9th of May, the eighty-sixth
anniversary of the mustering of Allen's mountaineers for the attack of
Ticonderoga, this regiment of worthy inheritors of their home and name
set forth for Fortress Monroe. There were heavy hearts in the cheering
throng that bade them Godspeed and farewell,--heavier than they bore,
for to them was appointed action: to those they left behind, only
waiting in hope and fear and prayer for the return of their beloved. On
its passage through New York, the regiment attracted much admiration for
the stature and soldierly bearing of its members, each of whom wore in
his gray cap, as proudly as a knight his plume, the evergreen badge of
his State.
Each succeeding regiment bore this emblem to the front, to be drenched
in blood, to be scathed in the fire of war, to wither in the
pestilential air of Southern prisons, but never to be dishonored.
"Who is that tall Vermont colonel?" one spectator asked, pointing to the
towering form of Colonel Phelps.
"That," answered another, "is old Ethan Allen resurrected!"
The 1st was stationed at Fortress Monroe, and remained there and in the
vicinity during its term of service. At Big Bethel, in the first
engagement of the war worthy the name of a battle, it bore bravely its
part, though the ill-planned attack resulted in failure. The throngs of
fugitive slaves who sought refuge with Colonel Phelps were not returned
to their masters, but allowed to come and go as they pleased, and
thereafter were safe when they had found their way into the camps of
Vermonters, though they were given up by the officers of other
volunteers and of the regulars. General Butler, in command at Fortress
Monroe, assuming that they were contraband of war, refused to return
them to slavery, and put them to efficient service in the construction
of fortifications. The regiment returned to Vermont early in August, and
was mustered out, but of its members five out of every six reentered the
service in regiments subsequently raised, and two hundred and fifty held
commissions. Their colonel, now appointed brigadier-general, remaining
at Fortress Monroe, greatly regretted their departure. "A regiment the
like of which will not soon be seen again," he said to Colonel Washburn.
Yet, before the leaves had fallen that were greening the Vermont hills
when the 1st regiment left them, five other regiments in no wise
inferior had gone to the front, to a more active service and bloodier
fields.
The 2d Vermont, its ten companies selected from over 5,600 men who
offered themselves, went to the front in time to take part in the first
great battle of the war at Bull Run. Thenceforth till the close of the
war this splendid regiment took part in almost every battle in which the
Army of the Potomac was engaged. Its ratio of killed and mortally
wounded was eight times greater than was the average in the Union army.
The 3d regiment followed in July, the 4th and 5th were rapidly filled
and sent forward in September, the 6th in October. These five regiments
formed the First Brigade of the Sixth Corps. The heroic service[112] of
this brigade is interwoven with the history of the Army of the Potomac.
The estimation in which it was held is shown by the responsible and
dangerous positions to which it was so often assigned, and in the praise
bestowed upon it by distinguished generals under which it served. When
the Sixth Corps was to be hurried with all speed to the imperiled field
of Gettysburg, Sedgwick's order was, "Put the Vermonters in front, and
keep the column well closed up." "No body of troops in or out of the
Army of the Potomac made their record more gallantly, sustained it more
heroically, or wore their honors more modestly."[113]
At the time of the draft riots in New York, in July, 1863, the First
Vermont Brigade, with other most reliable troops to the number of twelve
thousand, were sent thither to preserve order during the continuance of
the draft. It was a strange turn of time that brought Vermont regiments
to protect the city whose colonial rulers had set the ban of outlawry
upon the leaders of the old Green Mountain Boys. These later bearers of
the name performed their duty faithfully and without arrogance, and
received warm praise of all good citizens for their orderly behavior
during what was holiday service to such veterans.
Vermont horses had won a national reputation as well as Vermont men, and
it seemed desirable that the government should avail itself of the
services of both. Accordingly, in the fall of 1861, a regiment of
cavalry was recruited under direct authority of the Secretary of War;
and in forty-two days after the order was issued, the men and their
horses were in "Camp Ethan Allen" at Burlington. But one larger
regiment, the 11th, went from the State, and none saw more constant or
harder service. It brought home its flag inscribed with the names of
seventy-five battles and skirmishes.
The 7th and 8th regiments of infantry and two companies of light
artillery were raised early in 1862, and were assigned to service in the
Gulf States, in the department commanded by General Butler. Arrived at
Ship Island, much to their gratification, they were placed under the
immediate command of their own general, Phelps. Faithful to the spirit
of his State and his own convictions of justice, he had issued[114] a
proclamation to the loyal citizens of the Southwest, declaring that
slavery was incompatible with free government, and the aim of the
government to be its overthrow. Fugitive slaves found a safe refuge in
his camp here, as in Virginia, and in May, 1862, he began drilling and
organizing three regiments of blacks. But upon his requisition for
muskets to arm them, he was peremptorily ordered by General Butler to
desist from organizing colored troops, and he resigned his commission.
"The government," says Benedict in "Vermont in the Civil War," "which
before the war closed had 175,000 colored men under arms, thus lost the
services of as brave, faithful, and patriotic an officer as it had in
its army, one whose only fault as a soldier was that he was a little in
advance of his superiors in willingness to accept the aid of all loyal
citizens, white or black, in the overthrow of rebellion."
In July, 1862, the 9th regiment, commanded by Colonel Stannard, went to
the front, being the first under the recent call for three hundred
thousand men. Its initial service was at Harper's Ferry, where it
presently suffered the humiliation of surrender with the rest of Miles's
force. In the little fighting that occurred, the raw regiment bore
itself bravely. Colonel Stannard begged Miles to let him storm London
Heights with his command alone, and then to cut his way out of the
beleaguered post, but both requests were refused. The 9th passed several
months under parole at Chicago, was exchanged, and at length took its
place in the Army of the Potomac. A portion of this regiment was the
first of the Union infantry to carry the national flag into the rebel
capital.
The 10th and 11th regiments were speedily forwarded in the fall of 1862.
The former joined the army in Virginia. The latter, recruited as heavy
artillery, spent two years in garrison duty in the defenses of
Washington. When Grant began the campaign of the Wilderness, it joined
the First Vermont Brigade as an infantry regiment, and its fifteen
hundred men outnumbered the five other thinned regiments of the brigade
that had so often been winnowed in the blasts of war, which soon swept
its own ranks with deadly effect.
Before these two regiments were organized came the President's call for
three hundred thousand militia to serve nine months, under which
Vermont's quota was nearly five thousand. The five regiments were
quickly raised and sent forward, and to three of them, just before their
term of enlistment expired, fell a full share of the glories of
Gettysburg, under the intrepid leader, General Stannard. The charge of
his Vermont Brigade beat back Pickett's furious assault, and decided the
fate of the day.[115] Once more the brave little commonwealth was called
on to furnish a regiment, and the 17th was sent to the front with ranks
yet unfilled. Its third battalion drill was held on the battlefield of
the Wilderness. The untried troops were hurled at once into the thick of
the fight and suffered fearful loss, and henceforth were almost
continually engaged with the enemy till the fall of Richmond.
Besides these seventeen regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, the
State furnished for the defense of the Union three light batteries and
three companies of sharpshooters, who well sustained the ancient renown
of the marksmen whom Stark and Warner led, and at the close of the war
Vermont stood credited with nearly thirty-four thousand men. Thus
unstintingly did she devote her strength to the preservation of the
Union to which she had been so reluctantly admitted. What manner of men
they were, Sheridan testified when, two years after the war, standing
beneath their tattered banners in Representatives' Hall at Montpelier,
he said: "I have never commanded troops in whom I had more confidence
than I had in the Vermont troops, and I do not know but I can say that I
never commanded troops in whom I had as much confidence as those of this
gallant State," and the torn and faded battle-flags under which he stood
told more eloquently than words how bravely they had been borne through
the peril of many battles, and honorably returned to the State that gave
them.
When, after four weary years, the war came to its successful close, the
decimated regiments of Green Mountain Boys returned to their State,
received a joyful but sad welcome, and then, with all the embattled host
of Union volunteers, dissolved into the even, uneventful flow of
ordinary life. Notwithstanding the remoteness of the State from the
arena of war, Vermont suffered a rebel raid from a quarter whence of old
her enemies had often come, though of right none should come now. A
majority of the people of Canada were in warm sympathy with the
rebellion, their government was indifferent, and the Dominion swarmed
with disloyal Americans, who were continually plotting to aid their
brethren at the front by covert attacks in the rear. The federal
government was on its guard, but a blow fell suddenly at an unexpected
point.
On the 19th of October, 1864, while Vermont troops under Sheridan were
routing the rebels at Cedar Creek, a rather unusual number of strangers
appeared in the village of St. Albans, a few miles from the Canadian
border. Moving about singly or in small groups, and clad in citizen's
dress, they attracted no particular attention, till, at a preconcerted
signal, three small parties of them entered the banks, and with cocked
and leveled pistols forced the officials to deliver up all the moneys in
their keeping. Other armed men in the streets at once seized and placed
under guard every citizen found astir, while some attempted to fire the
town by throwing vials of so-called Greek fire into some of the
principal buildings. Having possessed themselves of the treasure in the
banks, amounting to two hundred thousand dollars, in specie, bills, and
bonds, the party took horses from the livery stables, and rode out of
town, firing as they went a wanton fusillade which wounded several
persons, but happily killed only a recreant New Englander who was in
sympathy with their cause. They proved to be a band of rebel soldiers,
commanded by a Lieutenant Young, who held a commission in the
Confederate army. They beat a hurried retreat with their booty beyond
the line, whither they were pursued by a hastily gathered party of
mounted men under the lead of Captain Conger, who had served in the
Union army. None of the raiders were taken, but later fourteen were
captured in Canada, with $87,000 of the booty, by Captain Conger's men,
acting under orders of General Dix, and aided by Canadian officials.
During their brief imprisonment they were entertained as honored guests
in the Montreal jail, and, after undergoing the farce of a trial in a
Canadian court of justice, they were set at liberty amid cheers, which
evinced the warm sympathy of the neutral Canadians. It appeared in the
testimony of a detective that Colonel Armitinger, second in command of
the Montreal militia, was aware of the contemplated raid, but took no
measures to prevent it. "Let them go on," he said, "and have a fight on
the frontier; it is none of our business; we can lose nothing by it."
The affair formed an important point of consideration in the Geneva
arbitration, and Secretary Stanton declared it one of the important
events of the war,--"not so much as transferring in part the scenes and
horrors of war to a peaceful, loyal State, but as leading to serious and
dangerous complications with Great Britain, through the desires and
efforts of the Southern people to involve Canada, and through her
Britain, in a war on behalf of their Southern friends."[116] The
unfriendly attitude which the Canadians held toward our government,
throughout the struggle for its maintenance, might be profitably
considered whenever the frequently arising project of annexation comes
to the surface.
The Fenian irruptions of 1866 and 1870, abortive except for the panic
which they created in Canada, with more than the ordinary certainty of
poetic justice, formed their base of operations at St. Albans, the point
of rebel attack in Vermont.
Impelled by the military spirit which the war had aroused, the
legislature made provision for the organization of a uniformed volunteer
militia, to which every township furnished its quota. Under the
instruction of veterans of the war, the militia made commendable
progress in drill and discipline. But after a few years it was
disbanded, and the commonwealth has drifted back into almost the
condition of unpreparation which existed at the beginning of the war.
For the most part, the young men who have become of military age since
those troublous days are more unlearned than their mothers in the school
of the soldier.
FOOTNOTES:
[111] G. G. Benedict, _Vermont in the Civil War_.
[112] The limits of this work preclude detailed account of the noble
services of Vermont troops, which are fully and graphically related in
G. G. Benedict's valuable work, _Vermont in the Civil War_. Of many
noble examples of heroic self-devotion where Vermonters unflinchingly
endured the storm of fire, the record of the 5th regiment at Savage's
Station is memorable,--in the space of twenty minutes, every other man
in the line was killed or wounded. Company E went into the fight with 59
officers and privates, of whom only seven came out unhurt and 25 were
killed or mortally wounded. Five brothers named Cummings, a cousin of
the same name, and a brother-in-law, all recruited on one street of the
historic town of Manchester, were members of this company. All but one
were killed or mortally wounded in this action, and he received a wound
so severe that he was discharged by special order of the Secretary of
War.
[113] Adjutant-General McMahon of the Sixth Corps.
[114] December, 1861.
[115] On this historic field Vermont has marked with monuments the
position held by her troops. Where the war-worn First Brigade stood
waiting but uncalled to stem the tide of battle, a crouching lion, alert
for the onslaught, rears his majestic front, like the lion couchant of
the Green Mountains. Another monument stands where the Second Brigade
beat back the impetuous fury of the rebel charges; another where the
Vermont cavalry dashed like a billow of fire and steel upon the foe; and
two where, at the Hornet's Nest and the Peach Orchard, the unerring
rifles of Vermont's three companies of sharpshooters rained their
constant fire upon the enemy.
[116] _History of the St. Albans Raid_, p. 48, by E. A. Sowles.