IN GRANT'S CAMPAIGN, 1864.
A few days before the breaking up of our winter camp on the Orange and
Alexandria railroad an order was issued from corps headquarters to
discontinue our brigade commissary department and turn over all
property to the commissary of subsistence of the First Division, Fifth
Corps. Lieutenant Sinclair was ordered to rejoin his regiment as soon
as the transfers were completed, and I expected to be sent back to my
company to shoulder a musket among my comrades once more. I was busy
for a couple of days in making out the transfer papers. When they were
completed Lieutenant Sinclair sent me to Captain M. R. Came, the
division commissary officer, to obtain the necessary receipts and
acknowledgements. Captain Came was an elderly man and very peculiar.
He glanced at the papers and in a drawling voice with a strong
"down-East" accent asked me if I had made them out and if I understood
them, to which I replied in the affirmative. He then slowly and
carefully put on a huge pair of spectacles and taking another short
look at the papers, turned to me and said. "Young man, your threes and
your fives, your sevens and your nines I can tell apart, which is of
great importance; but I have seen better writing."
Then without further examination he signed the receipts on his camp
table and I saluted and departed.
On my arrival at camp I made preparations for my return to my company
on the following day, and was greatly surprised when that evening I
was ordered to report to Captain Came the next day as acting division
commissary sergeant. When I reported for duty the following day he
seemed to be pleased to see me. He asked me to sit down in his tent
and talked with me about the duties I was to perform, telling me to
keep a daily journal for his private use of the marches we made, when
and where we drew supplies or issued them, and of all incidents worthy
of note. Then he told me to go and make myself comfortable and become
acquainted with his "boys," as he called his assistants, of whom, he
said, I was to be the "boss." I kept the journal for the Captain
during the time I served with him and also a copy of it for myself.
When I left him to serve elsewhere I continued the journal as long as
I remained with the Army of the Potomac and I still possess it. I have
often regretted not having kept a diary all through my war service,
which would have made the task of writing this book much easier than
relying upon my memory, after the lapse of half a century.
The Captain's "boys" consisted of a civilian clerk, a relative of his,
to whom the Government paid seventy-five dollars per month and the
allowance of one ration. He was a genial, careless young man, who
hated work and passed his on to an assistant, a soldier of a
Pennsylvania regiment, who was a bright, smart fellow, detailed as a
clerk, and very efficient when he could not get any whiskey. Between
the two they kept the "old man," as he was called, in trouble on
account of delays in rendering reports and accounts to headquarters,
and in having them returned for correction, with which the Captain
himself was not very familiar.
Fortunately my duties did not include the keeping of accounts; I was
to attend to the drawing of supplies from the depots and the issuing
of them at the front and I was also to have a general supervision of
the supply train, under the orders of Captain Came. There were also
four or five soldiers detailed to do the heavy work, and a cook. All
of these men were volunteers; I was the only regular. The "boys"
showed very little respect for the "old man," who familiarly addressed
them by their Christian names. They seldom saluted him and never stood
at attention when he gave them his orders, unless some strange officer
was present. The cook was a good one. He belonged to a Massachusetts
regiment and was an artist on baked beans. He would dig a hole in the
ground and keep up a fire in it all day, and at night put in an army
camp-kettle filled with salt pork and beans, cover it over with earth,
and next morning dig it up with every bean just done to a turn and
none of them burnt.
Captain Came was a native of the State of Maine. He had joined the
volunteer army as a commissary of subsistence and had not served with
any regiment. He was a man over fifty, of medium stature and heavy
build. He wore a grizzled, ill-kept beard and had long gray hair,
which together with his carelessness in dress, gave him the appearance
of a hard-working old farmer. When in camp he wore a soldier's blouse
without any shoulder straps to indicate his rank which, along with an
old felt hat, caused him to be mistaken at times for one of the
teamsters and to be addressed as such by soldiers who did not know
him.
He was an eccentric man, stubborn, but still kind and good-hearted,
especially to negroes in distress, for whom he seemed to have a
special tenderness. He always spoke of them as "colored boys," and
would not tolerate having them called "niggers." On the march we were
sometimes pestered by "contrabands"--negro men, women and
children--slaves--who had run away and followed the supply trains.
These he would care for and feed for days, instead of turning them
over to the provost-marshal. One day I saw the Captain almost shed
tears while listening to a tale told by a sleek, fat wench, who seemed
to be the spokesman for a large party to whom he gave permission to
ride in the heavily loaded wagons, and from which they were presently
ejected, to the Captain's great regret, by Captain Thomas, the
division quartermaster.
He had a negro servant, a lazy, worthless, lying rascal, who imposed
on his kind master shamefully. Often when called, though close by, he
paid no attention; then the Captain left his tent to go in search of
him, calling out "Aleck! Aleck! Alexander Tyler, I want knowledge!"
which was one of the peculiar expressions he used when he wanted
information about anything. If he found "Aleck," and sometimes gave
him a mild reproof, the rascal always had a lying excuse and only
grinned at the old man. We wondered sometimes whether the Captain
bossed the negro or the servant bossed the Captain, for he slept in
his tent and helped to drink his whiskey.
The Captain was rather fond of a little whiskey himself and always
kept it in his tent and carried a flask in the holster of his saddle
when on the march. He was very free with it when officers visited him
and on those convivial occasions he sometimes had me called to his
tent on some pretext of wanting "knowledge," and when he dismissed me
I could overhear him say, "This is my regular." He seemed to be
pleased to have a regular sergeant as one of his assistants. The
Captain was an early riser and on fine warm mornings stepped out of
his tent dressed only in his undershirt and slippers. In one hand he
carried a tin cup containing his "toddy"--whiskey, some sugar and a
little water--which Aleck prepared for him every morning; in the other
hand he held a stick with which he stirred the toddy, while gravely
walking about the camp in his bare shanks and talking to us until
Aleck had his breakfast ready. I never saw the Captain unfit for duty;
he was always attentive to that. The principal effect that drink had
on him was that it made him cranky and ill-tempered at times. The
laxity of discipline in Captain Came's department was to me
astonishing with the training I had had, and I so expressed myself to
my comrades, who cared little about it and were always somewhat
jealous of me.
The supply train, heavily loaded with ten days' rations, in addition
to the five days' rations issued to the troops just before starting on
their march, crossed the Rapidan at Culpeper Mine Ford on a pontoon
bridge on the afternoon of May fourth and proceeded a few miles on the
other side, where we encamped for the night. The train was guarded by
a greater number of cavalry and infantry than I had ever seen employed
for that purpose.
The next morning we marched in the direction of the Wilderness until
well along in the forenoon, when we halted and remained in that
spot for two days; then we made a night march in the direction of
Spottsylvania Court House. From our position we plainly heard the
firing which opened the battle of the Wilderness of May fifth and
sixth, which was the beginning of a series of battles, marching, and
almost continuous fighting which lasted for forty-two days, until
we had arrived at the James river. General Grant, regardless of
tremendous losses, had sent a despatch to Washington in which he used
the noted phrase, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes
all summer." He continued his movements to the left to outflank Lee,
who met him on ground of his own choosing and fought a defensive
battle.
Of the great battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna,
Cold Harbor and the historical minor engagements I saw but little, for
my issues of rations at the front were sometimes made at night or
during a lull in a battle, if in daytime. I was always hurried away
quickly, for the white covers of the wagons, if noticed, drew the fire
of the enemy's artillery and on a couple of occasions caused the loss
of some of the wagons and the wounding of some teamsters. Only at
Spottsylvania and at Cold Harbor, while waiting for darkness before
returning, was I enabled to see my regiment in the breast-works and
something of the battle-field and to hear my comrades' stories of the
fight. After the battle of the Wilderness the Army of the Potomac was
reinforced by General Burnside's Ninth Army Corps, numbering about
twenty-two thousand men, mostly newly raised troops, of whom but a
third had ever been in the field.
While the troops were at Spottsylvania the supply train was parked on
Stafford Heights, overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, near a large
spring of fine water which supplied the town; but there was no
fire-wood to be had except by tearing down old and unoccupied houses.
From this place, about midway between the front and Belle Plain on the
Potomac, the new supply depot where we drew rations, we supplied the
troops until they advanced to Cold Harbor. Captain Came was very
energetic in trying to keep up his supplies. He nearly always
accompanied the train to the depot, of which fact I was very glad, as
he could obtain better attention from the officers in charge than I.
The depots were busy places. The rule of "first come, first served"
was not always observed; favoritism was shown, and sometimes when
alone I was unjustly detained for many hours, or an entire day, before
I succeeded in getting my wagons loaded. When rations were to be
issued at the front the Captain remained in camp with the main part of
the train, which sometimes moved before I returned and I had to follow
it up--with great trouble at times.
On our first trip to the depot at Belle Plain the Captain and I rode
ahead so as to arrive early and get our requisition on file. The
Captain rode a large horse named "Ned," to whom he gave commands in a
voice loud enough for a squadron of cavalry: "Halt! Forward! Trot!"
etc., which caused much laughter as we passed through the streets of
Fredericksburg, among the soldiers and citizens, who vainly looked for
a squadron to follow him.
Belle Plain was crowded with shipping, arriving troops and wounded
soldiers, awaiting transportation, as well as prisoners. A long dock,
only wide enough for a single line of wagons, led out to a small
wharf, where there was room for but two boats at a time and little
room to unload; beef cattle were made to jump overboard and swim
ashore. It was after midnight when our last wagon was loaded and we
drove off a short distance and rested until daylight. On this occasion
we lost two lead-mules, who fell off the narrow dock in the darkness
and were drowned.
Reinforcements for the army were being forwarded rapidly. On the way
to Belle Plain we passed the First Massachusetts, First Vermont,
Second and Eighth New York, all heavy artillery, serving as infantry,
and the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, full regiments on their way
to the front.
Late on the afternoon of May nineteenth the Rebel General Ewell passed
around the right wing of our army and made a dash for the supply
trains. He captured twenty-seven wagons on the Fredericksburg road,
but they were all re-taken. General Ewell was repulsed and his entire
command came near being cut off from Lee's army, when darkness
afforded him a chance to escape.
Our next supplies were drawn from Port Royal on the Rappahannock
river. On May twenty-second the train was at Bowling Green, a fine
village, almost deserted except for slaves, who were mostly women. We
were now out of the Wilderness in a fine part of the country
containing large plantations, which had not been visited by the
ravages of war. From Bowling Green we went by way of Milford Station
to Chesterfield, crossing the Mattapony river on the way. This river
takes its name and is formed by four small rivers, named the Ma, Ta,
Po and the Ny.
From Chesterfield I was sent with a part of the train to supply
rations to the division at Mount Carmel Church, which the Fifth Army
Corps was to pass during the night of the twenty-sixth. It had rained
most of the day; the roads were bad, but I reached the place and
waited for hours before the division arrived near midnight and halted
until rations were issued, when they resumed their night march. The
mules were fed but not unhitched, for at daylight I started on the
return march. When I arrived at Chesterfield, where I had left the
supply trains, I found that they had been ordered away, and I had to
make a march of thirty miles that day over bad roads to catch up with
them that evening near New Town.
I was kept exceedingly busy during this campaign; every three or four
days the troops had to be supplied and six days' rations had to be
kept in the wagons. This kept me on the go all the time, to the front
or to the depots, which were often far apart. Much of the marching was
done in the night-time, and often the only sleep I got was dozing in
the saddle or snatching a few hours in an empty wagon when almost
exhausted from fatigue.
We had much rain during the month of May and the early part of June.
The roads--some of them bad enough in dry weather--were in a horrible
state. At Spottsylvania I lost two loads of hard bread--the wagons
upset in a deep puddle and one of them we were unable to extricate and
had to abandon. The horses and mules, ill-fed, hard-worked night and
day, and often suffering for water, sometimes succumbed. There were
times when we did not dare to lose time to let them drink while
fording a stream, no matter how they suffered. Often they were hitched
up for forty-eight hours at a time and my horse did not have his
saddle removed.
When the army reached Cold Harbor, the base of supplies was changed to
the White House Landing on the Pamunkey river, a locality familiar to
us in McClellan's time. On our march we passed through Dunkirk,
Aylets, Newcastle and Old Church, a fertile region with many
plantations. In passing through this section many contrabands
abandoned the plantations and joined our train. A few times we took
down fences and parked the train in a great clover-field, which was a
rare treat for our hungry animals.
On our route we encountered General W. F. Smith's four divisions of
sixteen thousand men, of the Eighteenth Army Corps, from General
Butler's Army of the James, whence they had come to the White House in
transports and were marching to reinforce Grant's army at Cold Harbor.
We also met strong regiments of heavy artillery, withdrawn from the
defenses of Washington, marching to the front. The authorities at
Washington had given General Grant a free hand, which no former
commander had had, to recruit his great losses in this campaign.
While the opposing armies faced each other at Cold Harbor for a period
of twelve days, I made frequent trips with supplies from the White
House depot to the front, and on my return journeys, which generally
took place at night, we drove to the field hospitals and filled the
empty wagons with the less seriously wounded and took them to the
White House depot. This was also done at the Wilderness and at
Spottsylvania, the supply of ambulances being inadequate to remove the
great numbers of wounded men. The roads being bad during rainy
weather, and the army wagons having no springs to lessen the hard
jolts, the poor fellows suffered intense pain and I often heard them
cry out in agony as I rode past the wagons. It was pitiful to hear
them. When I was in charge of the train I made frequent halts to rest
them, but this was all that could be done. Sometimes one or two of the
unfortunates died during the night, the body remaining in the wagon
among the living until we reached our destination. Upon arriving at
the White House, the wounded were delivered at the general hospital,
where thousands of wounded soldiers were cared for and rested for a
few days in large hospital tents, before being shipped in especially
adapted transport vessels to Northern hospitals or convalescent camps.
The great depot at the White House was a busy place. The narrow river
was congested with vessels of all kinds, including some gun-boats.
Great quantities of stores for the army were discharged and newly
arrived troops came ashore. Departing vessels carried away wounded
soldiers and Rebel prisoners, many of whom seemed pleased at the
prospect of getting enough to eat; for they had been ill-supplied all
through this campaign, as they informed us.
On June ninth we learned that a change of base to the James river was
to take place. On the following day we loaded the wagons with all the
supplies they would carry and by way of Tunstall's Station proceeded
to the vicinity of Cold Harbor, over ground familiar to us. Some of
the conflict at Cold Harbor took place on the battlefield of Gaines's
Mill, only the position of the two armies was now reversed. After
supplying the division the train left camp at three P.M. June twelfth,
an exceedingly hot day, for the James river.
After dark on the same day the Army of the Potomac was withdrawn from
the trenches at Cold Harbor, where they had such a deplorable
experience that General Grant himself in his Memoirs says: "I have
always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made;
no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we
sustained."
On the fifteenth of June the Army of the Potomac crossed the James on
a pontoon bridge at Wilcox's Landing, just six weeks after crossing
the Rapidan. It had failed to capture Richmond or to destroy Lee's
army, and the campaign ended at the James, as in 1862, but with an
immensely greater sacrifice. Conservative historians compute our
losses at 7,289 killed, 37,406 wounded and 9,856 missing; a total of
54,551. Others claim that these figures do not include the losses in
Burnside's Ninth Army Corps and make the grand total upwards of sixty
thousand,--a loss on our side nearly as great as General Lee's entire
army at the opening of the campaign. None of the authorities place the
Confederate losses over twenty thousand, or about one to three. This
sanguine campaign, its awful sacrifices without any advantages, caused
mutterings of discontent and had a gloomy and depressing effect, not
only in the army but throughout the North. The army had lost thousands
of its most capable officers and veteran soldiers, who could not be
replaced, and it no longer seemed to be the same army.
When Generals Grant and Meade, whom I encountered a few times,
appeared among the troops there was but feeble applause, and the
hearty cheers received by some of our former commanders were no longer
heard. At this period of the war the only bright spot was the masterly
strategy and successful campaign of General Sherman against the
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson in the West from Chattanooga to
Atlanta. In the Histories of the Wilderness,--Cold Harbor campaign,
written after the conclusion of the Civil War by officers still in the
service or on the retired list--histories most carefully
written--there is an absence of criticism of the military strategy in
this campaign. When all participants have passed away, some future
historian will write an unbiased story of the war and its strategy.
Anxiety as to the safe withdrawal of the supply trains was felt, but
they were well protected. So skillfully was the withdrawal of the army
and its trains accomplished that General Lee was unable to determine
for two days whether the objective point of the Army of the Potomac
was the investment of Richmond or a movement to the James river.
Except for some cavalry skirmishes, the march was unmolested.
The train arrived at the Chickahominy on the morning of the fourteenth
and encamped at Wilcox's farm until the following day, waiting for the
pontoon bridge and approaches to be completed, for an insufficient
number of boats had been provided, causing twenty-four hours' delay.
The river is wide and deep at that point. We crossed on the afternoon
of the fifteenth. I counted forty-four large wooden pontoons and
sixteen smaller canvas pontoons, all of which appeared to be spaced at
greater distances apart than usual.
We halted at some distance on the opposite side and resumed our march
at seven P.M., reaching the vicinity of the pontoon bridge over the
James at Wilcox's Point before midnight. We were halted there to allow
the Ninth Army Corps to cross before us. The train commenced crossing
about two o'clock on the morning of the sixteenth of June. It was a
beautiful, clear, moonlight night and I had no difficulty in counting
the one hundred and one pontoons composing the bridge over the James,
more than two thousand feet wide at this point. It was daylight when
we parked in a cornfield on the other side, and men and animals were
glad to get some rest. The teams were not unhitched, for we were
liable to be ordered forward at any moment.
All day long the road was crowded with marching troops and trains
coming across the bridge, and by midnight of the sixteenth the entire
army with all its artillery and trains had reached the right bank of
the James. After sun-down our train was ordered to pull out on the
road, and after proceeding a few hundred yards it was halted and did
not go on again until eleven P.M. After that we moved by fits and
starts and at daylight had accomplished only about three miles on the
congested road.
After daylight on the seventeenth we made better progress; we passed
through Prince George Court House and halted after noon-time in an
oat-field a mile square, which was destroyed in a few hours. There we
fed the animals, after a twenty-four-hour fast, and unhitched them for
a few hours--they had not had their harnesses off for two days. I also
issued two days' rations to our division, which was halted close by.
We plainly heard cannonading in the direction of Petersburg during the
afternoon.
About six P.M. we resumed our march and for the third night in
succession we were on the road until daylight. On the morning of the
eighteenth we encamped within about two and a half miles from City
Point on the road to Petersburg. All the supply trains of the army,
commissary, quartermaster and reserve ammunition were encamped in this
vicinity about six miles from the front at Petersburg; all except what
was called the "Fighting Train," composed of ammunition wagons, which
always followed the troops and supplied ammunition when required, in
camp or during a battle. The supply trains were destined to remain in
this camp for many months, while the long and tedious operations of
the siege of Petersburg went on.
But I was not to remain in camp. A short time previous some further
changes and consolidations had been made and my regiment was again
placed in the Second Division of the Fifth Corps, and three days after
our arrival I was ordered to report at the front as acting ordnance
sergeant. The regulars formed the First Brigade, along with the Fifth,
One Hundred and Fortieth and One Hundred and Forty-sixth New York
Volunteers, under the command of Brigadier-General Joseph Hayes. When
I learned of this change I knew that I would have to leave my detail
in the First Division and expected to be ordered to join my company;
being appointed ordnance sergeant was a complete surprise to me and I
never learned to whom I owed the appointment. I left Captain Came on
the morning of June twenty-first and I think he was not well pleased
at losing his only "regular." He told me to come and see him when I
could, and to call on him for anything I needed in the commissary
line. For my part I was glad to leave the kindly old man, for during
my stay of eight weeks I always felt annoyed at the manner in which my
assistants performed their duties.
First Lieutenant Richard H. Pond, of the Twelfth United States
Infantry, was the acting ordnance officer of the Second Division,
Fifth Corps, to whom I reported at the front. Lieutenant Pond had been
appointed from the ranks in May, 1862, and he understood and performed
his duties very well. He was a pleasant man, with a taste for
literature and spent much of his time in writing.
The ammunition train was encamped close to General Warren's
headquarters, in rear of some of the captured redoubts and
breast-works, and near the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. With this
train was a permanent detail of a sergeant, a corporal and eighteen
privates, whose duties were to guard the train and to assist me in
caring for, receiving and distributing the infantry arms and
ammunition for the Second Division. There was also a soldier named
Ballard, detailed as ordnance clerk, a very staid, pious man, much
older than I, who read his Bible when not otherwise occupied. Ballard
and I had a wall tent for our use; the ammunition guard had shelter
tents, and the wagonmaster and teamsters slept in the wagons on the
ammunition boxes. I was provided with a riding horse and
accoutrements. I did not like the horse and soon swapped him for a
better one at the corral where extra horses were kept.
My duties, while the siege went on, were much easier than in the
commissary department, and the reports and accounts, which dealt only
with arms, accoutrements and ammunition for infantry, were more
simple. Every morning I sent a wagon loaded with twenty thousand
rounds of cartridges to the front, a short distance away, accompanied
by a file of the guard and sometimes I went with them. This wagon
remained at the front until dark, supplying ammunition when needed;
and when returning to camp, left a supply for the night.
Artillery firing was going on at some part of the long line all day,
sometimes furiously. Picket firing was almost constant along the line
in the rifle pits, and at night when the pickets were being relieved,
the firing occasionally was increased by the men behind the
breast-works on both sides, also by the artillery, until it sounded
like a battle. This sometimes kept up for more than a half hour, when
it suddenly ceased and only pickets' shot were heard. There were some
mortars along our line, firing shells into Petersburg. I watched them
at night, when I could distinguish the burning fuses in their curved
course through the sky like rockets and could hear the shells burst.
After a while I became so accustomed to artillery firing at night that
it no longer awakened me, even if close to our camp. The enemy's
longer range guns sometimes fired a few shells over our camp,
invisible to them, and over General Warren's headquarters close by,
without doing any damage.
The troops manned the breast-works and constructed redoubts,
bomb-proofs and covered ways by brigades and were relieved by other
brigades every few days. When relieved, they retired some distance to
the rear, near division headquarters, a short distance in advance of
the ordnance train's camp. Lieutenant Pond had his tent with the
division staff, where I reported to him every evening about sun-down
for orders, unless absent on other duty.
The weather had become intensely hot, and no rain had fallen since
June fifth. The heavy cannonading failed to bring it on, as it
generally did; with the exception of a few drops from a cloud early in
July, there was no rain until July nineteenth--a period of forty-three
days. At first we got water from a small stream a long distance from
camp, but it soon dried up. We then resorted to wells, as the troops
had to do from the beginning of the siege. Five or six feet below the
porous surface soil, there was clay containing water. We dug pits and
put down barrels with the heads knocked out. As the drought was
prolonged, we were obliged to deepen our wells, digging ten to twelve
feet or more in depth to get a sufficient amount of water for men and
animals. The dust was many inches thick on the roads where, ground
into a fine powder by passing troops and trains, it hung in great
clouds so dense that often a teamster was unable to see his leading
mules. This, and the absence of water along the roads, caused much
suffering to man and beast.
The old Petersburg and City Point railroad was repaired for the
required distance and a new road, called the United States Military
railroad, was connected with it and finally extended south as far as
the Weldon and Petersburg railroad. Very imperfect grading and
ballasting was done in the hasty building of this road. The soldiers
declared that it made them sea-sick to ride on its cars; nevertheless,
it proved to be of great service to the investing army.
Once or twice a week I had to go to City Point, about ten miles away,
to the ordnance depot with some wagons to replenish the supply of
ammunition for our division. By starting early I was generally able to
make this trip in a day, if no great delay occurred at the depot,
returning in the evening, thickly covered with dust.
We presumed that General Grant would order a bombardment and assault
on the enemy's works at Petersburg on July fourth but with the
exception of firing a national salute at his headquarters at City
Point, the day passed without special incident.
A few days later it was discovered that the Rebel General Jubal A.
Early had slipped away and was marching up the Shenandoah Valley, well
on his way to Maryland. The Sixth Corps was hastily embarked on
transports for Washington and arrived there on the eleventh of July in
the nick of time to save the city. General Early had arrived before
the northern defenses of the city at an earlier hour on the same day
and, finding the works but feebly defended, contemplated an assault on
the following day which was frustrated by the timely arrival of the
Sixth Corps, which forced him to withdraw.
Shortly after the arrival of the army at Petersburg, City Point
assumed the appearance of a large and busy town. Great store-houses
and other temporary frame buildings were erected and the wharf
extended. General Grant's headquarters were there, the commissary,
quartermaster, ordnance and medical depots; the general hospital
with its many large tents near the banks of the Appomattox river;
undertaking and embalming establishments, conducted by enterprising
civilians; and a rapidly increasing graveyard for the many sick and
wounded soldiers, who died in the general hospital. The sanitary and
the Christian commissions, sustained by the generosity of the Northern
people, had large establishments. The two commissions were of
incalculable benefit in helping the Government in the care of sick and
wounded soldiers and saved many lives. Many sutlers had tents or
booths near the bank of the James, which looked like a market-place.
It was not until some time later that regimental sutlers were
permitted at the front. The river was so full of vessels that it
resembled a great shipping port.
One day, after loading my wagons, I went to one of the sutler's booths
to buy some crackers and cheese for a lunch before my ride back to
camp. As I stood among a crowd of soldiers, waiting to be served, I
heard one of them demanding something in a voice that sounded familiar
to me. I soon discovered that he was a former drummer of my regiment,
in fact one of the two boys who had accompanied me from Governor's
Island to Carlisle. He was now a bugler in Captain Haxamer's New
Jersey Battery. I was glad to see him again. We conversed a while and
then rode together towards the front, his battery being stationed
about a mile to the right of the main road to Petersburg. He told me
he had a fine flute which he had found in a knapsack on the field of
Cold Harbor, which he desired to present to me, having no use for it
himself. At the parting of our ways he requested me to wait, while he
rode to his camp to get it. He soon returned and handed me a package
which I found, when opened, contained the first two joints of a flute
and a music book. The third joint, usually made in two sections, was
missing. He thought he must have dropped it out of the carelessly
wrapped package, when he mounted his horse in camp to return to me. He
promised to make diligent search for it, and did find the upper
section of the third joint, where he thought he had lost it, and
brought it to me. More than a month later, I met him again. He had
recovered the last section of the third joint and the flute was
finally complete. It appeared that a soldier of his battery had found
this part in camp and kept it for weeks in his haversack as a
curiosity, until one day my friend recovered it. I have treasured this
flute which came to me so curiously in installments; the key on the
last joint shows plainly the imprint of a horse's hoof.
Captain Came's camp was close to the City Point road. I called on him
a few times, when he invited me to his tent and asked me to take a
"little mite," as he expressed it. He seemed pleased to see me, or was
pleased at the excuse I afforded for an extra drink. We chatted, and
he urged me to stay and have dinner with his "boys." On one of my
trips, I fortunately missed by a few hours the explosion of a boat
with a cargo of ordnance stores, at the wharf where I loaded my
wagons. It killed and wounded about a hundred of the negro stevedores
and other persons near-by, demolished some ordnance wagons, and did
great damage to the wharf and adjoining vessels. The cause of the
explosion remained unknown, but it was surmised that Rebel spies were
to blame for it.
Some change in the position of our division caused the removal of our
camp nearer to the Jerusalem Plank road. This caused the digging of
more and deeper wells to obtain a sufficient supply of water, during
the great heat and drought. General Burnside's Ninth Army Corps was on
the right of the Fifth and there I saw the first colored troops join
the Army of the Potomac, observing the arrival of a new regiment of
negroes with their white officers on the road from City Point. Many of
them had taken off their shoes and carried them slung on their
bayonets while trudging bare-footed along the hot dusty road. In the
evening I went to their camp and heard the roll-call of one of the
companies. There were so many Jacksons and Johnstons, that the first
sergeant numbered them as high as "Johnston number five." They
appeared to be very proud of being soldiers and serving with white
troops.
There were rumors, late in July, that a mine was being dug at a point
in front of the Ninth Army Corps, where the field fortifications of
both armies approached the closest. On the night of July twenty-ninth,
I was awakened by an orderly who brought me an order from Lieutenant
Pond to have the ordnance train ready to move at three o'clock next
morning. An hour later the order was changed to have forty thousand
rounds of ammunition at the front at daylight. I supposed that the
mine was to be blown up under the enemy's works and that a general
bombardment would take place.
It was just daylight, when I arrived at the front with one wagon
containing the ammunition. I waited, expecting to hear an explosion at
any moment. It was a beautiful morning and all was quiet. I must have
waited for an hour, when suddenly I felt the earth tremble as the mine
was fired, and I heard a dull heavy thud in front of the Ninth Corps
close by. The report had not yet died away when our batteries, mortars
and great guns opened a tremendous fire on the Rebel works which shook
the earth.
An intervening strip of woods prevented me from seeing anything except
the great cloud of smoke which arose over the batteries. The teamster
and two guards were busy trying to keep the mules from running away,
while I endeavored to quiet my horse, which was trying to break the
halter by which I had tied him to a tree. I think it was ten minutes
or more before there was any reply from the Rebel batteries and longer
than that before their fire became general. Occasional shells now
began to fly over us and one of them--a twenty-pounder--landed within
a few yards of me, kicked around and scattered dirt over me, as I
threw myself prone to the ground; but fortunately it failed to
explode. The artillery fire was kept up for more than an hour when it
slackened, but was vigorously resumed for a time about nine o'clock.
By noon it had ceased and I was ordered to return to camp.
We learned later that the springing of the mine was a success,
although it took place an hour later than intended, owing to a damp
fuse which failed about half way into the mine and had to be replaced.
The explosion blew a small Rebel fort, with all its inmates and guns,
about two hundred feet up into the air and made a crater in the ground
about one hundred and fifty, by sixty feet and twenty-five feet deep,
which caused consternation and surprise among the enemy.
It has been conceded that General Meade's plan for a general assault
on Petersburg was skillful and should have been a success, had his
orders been fully obeyed. General Hancock's Second Army Corps had been
sent across the James on the twenty-seventh to make a diversion, which
resulted in General Lee's weakening his defenses by several divisions;
while the Second Corps was to return on the night of the twenty-ninth
to take part in the general assault on Petersburg, which failed to
take place. Owing to deplorable delay and mismanagement of the
division of the Ninth Corps, which advanced after the explosion of the
mine and became huddled in the crater, the attack was doomed to
lamentable failure, which caused the loss of nearly four thousand men.
Some historians have termed this event "the mine fiasco." A week later
General Meade ordered a court of inquiry to investigate the cause of
the failure. This court, after the conclusion of its sessions,
promulgated its opinion as follows:
That General Burnside had failed to prepare his parapets and abatis
for the passage of the assaulting columns and had not given them
proper formation; that he had neglected General Meade's order for the
prompt advance to the crest and had not provided engineers, working
materials and tools, etc., etc. As General Burnside remained at his
headquarters, more than a mile away, during the assault, he had no
personal knowledge of what was taking place. Brigadier-Generals J. H.
Ledlie, commanding the white, and Edward Ferrero, commanding the
colored troops of the assaulting columns, were found not to have
pushed their divisions forward promptly, according to orders; nor did
they accompany them, but remained in the rear in bomb-proofs most of
the time and did not know the position of their troops. Two other
brigade commanders were less unfavorably commented up. Six months
later the congressional committee on the conduct of the war made a
more searching and exhaustive inquiry into the "mine fiasco."
Unremitting picket firing and occasional cannonading went on during
the sweltering first half of the month of August. On the night of the
fifteenth, the Fifth Corps was relieved from duty in the trenches by
the extension of the Ninth Corps to the left. General Grant had
decided to destroy the Weldon railroad, an important means of supply
for Lee's army, some miles to our west, and, if possible, to make a
lodgment there and extend our investing lines to that point. The
Fifth Army Corps was selected for this movement and was to march on
the morning of the Seventeenth, but a torrential rain-storm on the
night of the sixteenth had put the roads into such a condition that it
was impossible to move artillery the next morning.
Just before midnight on the seventeenth some Rebel batteries opened
fire on the Union lines and soon all the guns and mortars on both
sides seemed to be engaged. It was the most furious midnight
cannonading since the beginning of the siege. All the mortars were
firing shells, which made the sky look as though there were a display
of fireworks. It lasted for an hour and a half, when the firing
slackened and then suddenly ceased on both sides, as if by an
agreement.
A few hours later, at four o'clock in the morning on the eighteenth,
General Warren started the Fifth Corps on the march to the Weldon
railroad. At daylight we broke camp, loaded the wagons and were soon
ready to follow the troops, but remained stationary awaiting orders.
About noon we heard firing from the direction which General Warren had
taken, and by two o'clock the firing had increased enough to indicate
a considerable engagement. The day was very hot, although a heavy rain
was falling. At five o'clock in the afternoon Lieutenant Pond ordered
me to start immediately with nine wagons, loaded with ammunition, for
the Weldon railroad and report to Colonel Fred T. Locke, the
Adjutant-General of the Corps. I started promptly, taking along half
of the guard, mine being the first ordnance train on the road and
keeping in the lead all the way. The roads were in a bad condition
from recent heavy rains. One of the teamsters broke a wagon tongue but
there was no time to improvise a substitute and, as the stalled wagon
could be passed, I left it sticking in the deep mud and hastened on.
I arrived at the Weldon railroad at nine P.M., where I halted the
train and reported to the adjutant-general at the Globe Tavern on the
Halifax road, which runs parallel to the railroad. A lieutenant was
ordered to guide me. He directed me to follow him with three of the
wagons and led me up the road, nearly a mile, to a point between our
line of battle and our pickets. There I supplied the picket reserve
with ammunition. Sharp picket firing from the Rebel side began, as
they heard the noise of my wagons, but it was raining and the night
was pitch-dark and we escaped without damage. I next supplied the
different regiments of the division and at daylight was ordered to
retire and park the wagons half a mile to the rear and to be in
readiness to move at any minute. I sent my empty wagons back to the
old camp; and during the afternoon the remainder of the ammunition
train joined me, also the wagon I had abandoned in the mud. Lieutenant
Pond had remained behind, sick. I did not see him again for nearly a
week.
Attempts to break our line were made soon after daylight on the
nineteenth and at intervals during the day. About five o'clock in the
afternoon the enemy turned our right flank and enveloped a part of our
division, capturing Brigadier-General Joseph Hayes and some hundreds
of prisoners. I saw much of this engagement, but when the enemy got in
rear of our division, I was ordered to fall back hurriedly to save the
train from capture. Reinforcements arrived at this part of the line
and at dark the enemy had been repulsed.
It had rained nearly all day, the roads were now impassable for
wagons, but ammunition had to be supplied. I was furnished with a
large detail of men and, with much trouble, made three trips to the
front during the night with pack-mules loaded with ammunition. About
three o'clock in the morning, I took the saddle off my horse for the
first time in two days and nights, and lay down in a wagon in my
clothing, soaked for two days with rain. I was exhausted, and
succeeded in getting two hours' sleep.
All day on the twentieth we were kept on the alert. The troops on both
sides held the positions they occupied, after the close of the two
days' fighting. The mules had not been unharnessed since we had left
camp three days before and the horses were kept saddled. It had
stopped raining, and our troops were busy strengthening their
breast-works, while the pickets kept up firing. I made one trip to the
lines with pack-mules after dark, and about eleven o'clock reported at
General Ayres's headquarters for orders.
The division headquarters were in a small farm-house. Some officers'
and orderlies' horses were tied to the picket fence in front of the
house. When I had tied my horse and was stepping aside, one of the
other horses landed a kick on my right thigh which sent me sprawling
into the muddy road. Strange to say, I was very little hurt by this
kick, which must have been delivered at too short, or too long, a
range. I considered myself fortunate to escape so easily. Only a week
before one of the teamsters was kicked by a mule and died on the same
day. When I picked myself up and looked around for some means to clean
my hands and clothing, I noticed a kitchen extension behind the house
with a light in it. There I found the general's soldier-cook, who knew
me. Besides being dirty, I was half famished; and he fed me
substantially and gave me hot coffee, which I had been without for
three days. A drink of the general's whiskey and one of his cigars
concluded the most satisfactory and enjoyable feast I think I ever
had, and I still remember the general's cook most gratefully.
The loss of the Weldon railroad was of such importance to the enemy
that General Lee largely reinforced his line of troops, while to our
force was added the Ninth Army Corps, which took position on our
right, closing up a gap towards the Jerusalem Plank road. On the
morning of August twenty-first, a bright sun-shiny day, the enemy made
an attack on our right and center and were repulsed, mainly by our
well-served artillery. At a later hour in the morning, a more vigorous
attempt was made on our left near the Globe Tavern, of which I had a
close view, my train being parked at the edge of the same woods,
beside the tavern. A part of the enemy charged through a gap in our
lines, but were almost surrounded and more than five hundred men and
six flags were captured. The Rebels, repulsed at all points, retreated
to their lines and the battle was over at noontime.
When the firing had nearly ceased, I was ordered out with two loads of
ammunition. My division was stationed behind breast-works, which were
at right angles to and across the Halifax road, nearly half a mile
north of the tavern. As I neared the breast-works, the white covers of
my two wagons were perceived and the enemy's pickets concentrated a
lively fire on the wagons, although they could only hit the tops and
not the mules, owing to the height of the log breast-works. The
teamster of the leading team jumped off his saddle, dropped his lines
and threw himself flat on the side of the road. I seized the bridle of
one of the lead-mules and guided the team off the road to some
depressed ground, followed by the other wagon. There the ammunition
was issued, and I was preparing to depart when the teamster returned,
somewhat shamefaced, saying he was a citizen employee and did not want
to be shot. On our return to camp, we ran the gauntlet of the pickets
at a gallop and were quickly out of range.
The losses in the Fifth Corps, during the three days' battle, were
about thirty-six hundred in killed, wounded and captured. On the night
of this day I got a fair amount of sleep and felt much refreshed the
next morning. The enemy had retired for some distance and our pickets
were advanced a mile beyond our breast-works, leaving us in possession
of nearly all the ground they had occupied.
Lieutenant Pond, who had reported for duty, ordered me outside of the
breast-works during the afternoon of this day with wagons and a large
detail of men to collect the abandoned arms on the battle-field. The
wounded had been removed and the dead buried; only dead horses
remained. After dark I was sent out again to the picket line on the
ground of the first day's battle. There we collected a large number of
arms, remaining until approaching daylight warned us to depart and
avoid drawing the enemy's picket fire. On the following night this was
repeated under a heavy, soaking rain. I collected upwards of fifteen
hundred fire-arms, of which more than half were those of the Rebels.
There were rifles, muskets and carbines; also bayonets, swords, belts
and cartridge boxes. The arms were rusty from having lain on the field
during several days' rain.
It was necessary to classify these arms, make a report of them and
turn them over to the ordnance depot at City Point. This work kept me,
with the assistance of the ammunition guard, occupied for several
days. Arms that were charged had to be fired, or the charges
withdrawn, which was difficult in their rusty state. This work proved
interesting to me and coincided with my own observations when in the
ranks with my company in battle. I found that the ram-rods were
missing from a considerable number of discharged guns, and a greater
number had failed to be discharged on account of defective caps, or a
befouled nipple. Some were doubly charged, and an occasional one had
three, or even four, cartridges in the barrel, indicating that the
soldier continued to load without noticing that his piece had not been
discharged. Others were bursted at the muzzle, showing that the
tompion had not been removed before firing. There were some with
stocks broken by violence, probably by cool-headed men taken
prisoners, who thoughtfully rendered their arms unserviceable. Such of
the guns as had more than one charge in the barrel were fastened to a
tree and, after fresh priming, we pulled the trigger with the aid of a
string, at a safe distance. A few that could neither be drawn nor
discharged, we buried in the ground. It has been said that it takes a
man's weight in lead for every soldier killed in battle. I am inclined
to almost believe that, from my own observations and from the amount
of ammunition I knew to be expended on the battle-field of the Weldon
Railroad, where I noticed innumerable bullet marks on trees standing
on level ground, at height that could only endanger birds.
For the next few days the troops were occupied in further
strengthening their positions and in destroying the railroad north and
south, as far as our picket lines. This was accomplished in sections,
by stationing a few hundred men close together on one side of the
track and lifting the rails at the word of command, some with fence
rails for levers, others with their hands, and tossing them over with
the sleepers clinging to them. Huge fires were then made with the
sleepers and the rails were laid over them. When the rails were
sufficiently heated in the middle they were bent by their own weight.
When there were trees near-by, the heated rails were twisted around
them to make the rails still more unserviceable.
Although we had made a successful and firm lodgment on the Weldon
railroad, the enemy could still use the road beyond our left as a line
of supply and reach Petersburg in one day's hauling by wagons. General
Meade ordered General Hancock with two divisions of the Second Corps
and some cavalry to extend the destruction of the road as far as
Ream's Station, or further. At Ream's Station General Hancock was met
by a superior force of the enemy on the twenty-fifth, and after a
disastrous engagement, in which he lost about twenty-four hundred men,
was obliged to retire.
Next day some shifting of troops took place to secure our left and
rear; the ordnance camp was shifted about half a mile away from the
Globe Tavern. After the middle of August the long drought of midsummer
was replaced by a rainy season, which lasted until the end of the
first week in September and made life miserable in the breast-works
and in camp.
As the result of recent drafts, many recruits now joined the army;
they came uninstructed and without being disciplined. A few of them
were volunteers, but the greater part were drafted or substitutes. All
had received bounties--some of them a thousand dollars or more. This
had a bad effect on the veteran volunteer regiments. In many cases the
recruits out-numbered the veterans of high reputation, and changed the
character of the regiment, to its disadvantage. Many of these recruits
intended to escape at the first opportunity and some deserted to the
enemy.
August thirty-first was muster day; six months' pay was due us, and
though the army was not very far from Washington and the United States
Treasury, payment to the soldiers at this period of the war was very
infrequent.
Throughout the month of September nothing occurred in front of the
Fifth Corps except picket firing, and but little cannonading. I made
some trips to City Point for ammunition and arms, until the extension
of the United States Military railroad to the Globe Tavern on the
Weldon railroad made that no longer necessary. On the night of the
twenty-ninth, after midnight, I issued ammunition at the division
headquarters, so as to furnish every man with sixty rounds, forty of
which could be carried in his cartridge box, the remaining twenty
rounds in his knapsack or in his pockets. The ordnance train was
ordered a short distance further to the rear, near the Gurley house,
to be in readiness to move at a moment's notice. An attempt to gain
possession of the Southside railroad on our left was to be made. Our
works were largely stripped of troops for this purpose and, for
safety, nearly all other supply trains, except ammunition, were sent
to City Point.
We remained hitched up all day and all night. During the night it
rained and turned cold and continued to rain next day. I turned into
one of the wagons, together with the teamster, to get some sleep.
During the night I was awakened by the mules starting off with the
wagon, and the voice of the teamster who, with his head out of the
back of the wagon, was calling to the wagonmaster, "Oh, Charley! I'm
damned if my mules with tongue and all ain't gone." It appeared he had
neglected to lock the wheels and, in his confused state, mistook the
back of the wagon for the front.
The next morning, October first, I was ordered away with three loads
of ammunition for the division. I passed Poplar Spring Church on the
way and went on to the Squirrel Level road, where General Ayres had
his head-quarters in a house near a redoubt and breast-works, which
the division had taken from the enemy the preceding day. I arrived
there about noon and was ordered to leave two of my wagons at
head-quarters and proceed with the other to the front line about a
mile in advance. There I began to serve out ammunition to the details
sent for it. I had selected a position which I thought would screen
the wagon from the enemy's picket line, but presently an occasional
bullet struck the wagon cover, fired probably by sharp-shooters,
posted in high trees. A man of the detail received a serious wound in
the shoulder and I withdrew to a less exposed position, where I was
able to complete my task unmolested and then returned to
head-quarters.
Next morning early there was some firing at the front where our troops
were driving the Rebel pickets further back. A large house, fired by
our skirmishers, was burning; it had harboured Rebel sharp-shooters,
who had done much damage the preceding day.
I was sent out to the lines again at noon and remained there until
evening. My station was next to one of our batteries, which fired an
occasional shell into the enemy's lines without provoking any reply. A
wagon-load of muskets were picked up on the field, which I took back
to head-quarters.
The losses in the Fifth Corps, in what was known as the battle of
Poplar Spring Church, amounted to upwards of six hundred. After a
feeble attempt by the enemy to assault our position on the evening of
October first, the two opposing lines held their position for about
three weeks. Our men strengthened their breast-works and the engineers
built some redoubts. The balance of the ordnance train arrived and we
established a camp. My tent was put up and our duties went on, as they
had at the Globe Tavern. During the latter part of September and the
first week in October, we again had an inordinate quantity of rain
after the long summer drought, which made camp life miserable, the
more so as the nights were getting cold.
In compliance with General Grant's order to extend the left of our
army and gain possession of the Southside railroad, another important
means of supply for the enemy, preparations for the movement were
begun on the twenty-fifth of October. On that day I issued ammunition
to the division; also arms to some newly arrived soldiers. On the
morning of the twenty-seventh the movement commenced; the ordnance and
other supply trains were ordered back to the Globe Tavern, there to
await orders. As the troops marched off at daylight, a heavy rain fell
which bade fair to continue. For nearly three weeks we had enjoyed
beautiful weather and the roads were dry and dusty, until this
movement started. The enemy's right was encountered about nine A.M.
and spirited engagements took place during the day, but the attempt to
gain the Southside railroad was a failure at this time. During the
night of the twenty-seventh, and the morning of the twenty-eighth, the
divisions of the Second and Fifth Corps, engaged in this attempt, were
withdrawn to their former lines at Poplar Spring Church. The losses in
the Second Corps were more than fourteen hundred, while those in the
Fifth were two hundred and seventy-nine.
On the same day I was ordered to return to our camp at division
head-quarters. While at this camp, I saw much of my company which was
doing duty as provost guard at General Ayres's head-quarters. After
the arrival of the army at Petersburg, the six skeleton companies of
my regiment were consolidated into two. Company D, in which I had
served for more than nine years, ceased to exist, and I became a
member of Company C. These two companies, together with the remnant of
the band, then did duty at division head-quarters.
On the thirty-first of October, General Grant ordered that all of the
regular infantry, serving in the Fifth Army Corps, proceed at once to
New York City and there report for orders to Major General Dix. This
was cheering news for us. We presumed that we were to go there to keep
the peace at the coming presidential election, for which Lincoln and
McClellan were the candidates, and that we might be detained there for
a while before returning to the field. I was kept busy for two days in
transferring ordnance stores and making out the necessary papers, then
I rejoined my company. Next morning, November second, 1864, at an
early hour, all the regular infantry boarded a train composed of box
and flat cars, waiting for us on the United States Military railroad,
which conveyed us to City Point. Transports were ready for us, and by
noon-time we were under way down the James river on the voyage to New
York.