WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND
The Barbara Fretchie Incident. The Battle of South Mountain. Death of
General Reno. The Battle of Antietam. Clara Barton. President Lincoln
visits the army. Visited a farmhouse very near a Confederate Camp.
On September 4th, we left our camp near Alexandria, marched to Washington,
passed through the city and out into the northwest suburb, and went into
camp.
We remained there until the 7th, when we started through Maryland,
marching leisurely along making only a few miles a day through as
beautiful a country as one could wish to see. The evening of the 12th at
early dusk we filed into a great pasture on the east side of the Monocacy
River and went into camp. Lights were beginning to glimmer across the
river and we were told they were in the city of Frederick. Camp refuse
lying about indicated that the field had been used as a camp ground for
troops in the immediate past, and inquiry brought out the fact that some
of Stonewall Jackson's troops had camped on the identical field the night
before. This was enough to set the brains of the wags in motion and one
asked immediately what the result would be of mixing northern and southern
gray-backs? Soon, however, coffee was served and drank and we lay down to
sleep under a most beautiful Maryland sky.
The next morning we started and marched leisurely down to the river,
crossed over it on an old wooden bridge and marched up into the city.
There a halt was called and we lay in the street an hour or two. We had
been there but a few minutes when the report was passed down the line that
a loyal old woman lived on the street, who had a Union flag flying from a
window and when ordered to take it down by the Rebels the day before, had
refused to do so and it was shot down. Indeed, right opposite where
Company K was resting, was the house, the flag still flying.
Soon after we learned of this incident, General Reno, accompanied by an
aide, rode down. He stopped before the house, dismounted, and went in. He
remained inside only a few minutes. As he came out an old lady accompanied
him to the door. At the door they stopped for a moment, then, as he came
away, she shut the door. General Reno mounted his horse and rode away.
Directly the order was given to move on; we marched through the town and
headed toward the Shenandoah mountains, which in Maryland are no more than
a high range of hills.
This account is what I remember of the Barbara Fretchie incident. Since
the war I have learned that General Reno's visit to Barbara Fretchie's
house was made for the purpose of purchasing the flag that had been shot
down the day before. He did not receive it, however, Barbara being
unwilling to part with the flag which had then become doubly sacred to
her. She gave him another, however, which has since found its way to the
Museum of the Loyal Legion in Boston.
As we marched along that afternoon we saw two Johnnies hanging from the
branch of a tree in a pasture a few rods from the road. They had been
executed for foraging by Stonewall Jackson's orders. Toward night we went
into camp near Middletown.
September 14. We remained in camp until afternoon. Artillery firing was
heard off on the mountain late in the forenoon. About two o'clock we
started for the front. As we approached the active part of the field we
had an opportunity to see what a field hospital was like during an
engagement. We were almost up to the firing line going in, when we came to
a little elevation. Behind that hill a field hospital had been
established. The wounded were lying there in large numbers and others were
being constantly brought in. The surgeons were at work taking care of the
wounded, examining, binding up, operating, etc. Near the tables I saw a
pile of arms, hands, legs, feet, etc., which had been amputated. The
bullets were coming over there pretty thick but they were nothing compared
to the sights and sounds seen and heard in that field hospital. It was the
first field hospital I had ever seen; I never saw one afterwards, and I
thank God for that. We were halted there beside it for a minute or two,
otherwise we should not have had so good a view of it. When the order came
to go forward, I for one, was glad, and I think every man in the company
was glad. Every man in the company I think, preferred to face bullets at
the front and at short range, rather than stay back there, partially
covered, under those conditions. During the one or two minutes we halted
there, a little Michigan drummer boy was brought in. He was a manly little
fellow, a little chap not more than fourteen or fifteen years old. One of
his legs had been badly wounded. One of the boys asked him how it was
going out at the front. He raised himself up on one elbow and said: "Well,
the 17th is behaving very well." The 17th (17th Michigan) made its
reputation that day as a fighting regiment.
When we got up to the fighting line the Johnnies were falling back and we
simply followed them up clear to the top of the range, and by six o'clock
they had apparently withdrawn from our front. The fight in our part of the
field was then over and our brigade was resting in a field at the top of
the range in Foxes' Gap. The road we were following over the range passed
along on the right side of the field in which the brigade was resting. At
the lower right corner the road made a right angle, turning to the left,
passed along behind an old stone wall directly in front of us, at the
lower edge of the field for a few rods, then turned to the right and went
off down the west side of the mountain.
We had been resting there only a few minutes when we were opened fire on
by some Johnnies from behind the wall in front of us. They were evidently
a company of sharpshooters, who in their retreat had turned back,
determined to look for an opportunity to get a crack at us. They had
evidently come up that road until they reached the turn, there they formed
themselves along behind the wall at the lower edge of the field, and
opened fire. General Reno, his staff, and two or three other officers were
sitting on their horses just to the rear of the brigade, which was massed
there by regiment. General Reno was hit at that time and in that way, and
died about eleven o'clock that night. There were not more than thirty or
forty shots fired. A regiment back to the rear in a place where it could
be handled better than we could in our massed state, moved around on to
the Johnnies' right flank and opened fire on them, killing and wounding a
number, and the rest retreated.
About nine o'clock the morning of September 15th, we started down the west
side of the mountain range, heading in the direction of Sharpsburg. As we
clambered along down the hill, an incident occurred that amused us quite a
little, we were meeting little bunches of prisoners that were being taken
to the rear from time to time, they were in the main, stragglers that had
been picked up by our cavalry. Glancing down a little side road we saw a
squad of Johnnies approaching us, they were being followed by a mounted
officer wearing the blue. We were soon able to see it was one of General
Ferrero's staff. This officer, we learned later, was an inveterate forager
and as the general and his staff passed along down the hill a little while
before us, the officer saw some distance from the main road a rather
prosperous looking bunch of farm buildings, and thinking there was a good
opportunity to do some foraging, rode over there. The piazza was on the
back side of the house and as he rode around the house, there sat seven
Johnnies on the piazza, their guns were all standing in one corner a
little distance from them. He was tremendously startled as well as they,
but he got his senses first, got his revolver out and got the drop on them
before one of them moved. He then ordered them into line and marched them
over to the main road, arriving there as our regiment was passing along.
As we wended our way down the side of the mountain, the view we had below
of the valley of the Antietam was of surpassing beauty; Sharpsburg across
the valley was barely distinguishable; then to the right and to the left,
up and down the valley as far as the eye could penetrate, stretched one of
the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen. The next day we lay in camp a
mile or two from the Antietam River all day. The morning of the 17th, the
battle opened on the right in good earnest, but not until well into the
forenoon did it begin in our front, we being on the extreme left. Then we
were ordered forward to support a battery. As we lay there behind the hill
on which the battery was located, I had an interesting adventure. A shell
fired at the battery on the hill in front of us struck the ground, bounded
and struck the ground just back of me, I being seated on my knapsack
facing the rear; it plowed a hole under me from back to front and came
out between my feet. The ground settled down into the trench, my knapsack
and I going down with it. Well, that shell was given room as quickly as
possible. I rolled over three or four times and the other boys who were
sitting near did the same, but fortunately it did not burst and no one got
more than a good start. A little later my brother Vertulan, assistant
surgeon of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, gave me a call.
About noon we were ordered in to take the Stone Bridge. Other troops had
been hammering away at it for some hours but without success. We were
moved down toward the river and opened fire on the Johnnies across a
narrow valley on the other side. As we moved forward we came in sight of
the bridge and the stream just below us. We stayed there in the open on
the side hill sloping down toward the river quite a while, firing away.
After a while we saw the fire of the Johnnies was slackening. Then we
heard some troops down to our left cheering. From their position they
could see the Johnnies were retreating better than we could. But as soon
as we saw they were starting, we started too, and being much nearer we
were easily the first to reach it. We crossed the bridge, turned to the
right and marched up a little way and halted to wait for ammunition, we
having only a few rounds left. For a while troops came across the bridge
and poured past us by the thousand. After a while we moved up on to the
high ground opposite the bridge. A dead Johnny, a sergeant was lying there
on the ground. Harry Aldrich turned him over and got his portemonnaie out
of his pocket. He opened it and found done up in a little piece of paper a
number of five dollar gold pieces. A little later I came upon a man lying
dead holding in his hand a photograph of a group of children. He had
evidently found himself mortally wounded, had thought of his family at
home and had taken that picture from his pocket to take a last look at the
likeness of those he loved so dearly and had died with the picture in his
hand. Toward night we advanced toward Sharpsburg and took a position on
the brow of a ridge facing the high hill where Lee had his reserve
artillery massed, and there we stayed until well into the evening. We soon
fired away all but one of our cartridges, retaining that one against an
emergency. The Confederate infantry was behind a stone wall part way down
the hill from the artillery. One of the Johnnies killed behind that wall
had my knapsack on his back. He had found it in the little grove beside
the road near the Henry House Hill on the Bull Run battlefield, and
carried it into Maryland.
The knapsack was found and identified by the man who painted the initials
of my name, company, regiment and state on the side of it. He was a
Company K man who was detailed in the hospital department. He found it in
going over the field gathering up the wounded and burying the dead after
the battle. It was there on that ridge that Lieutenant Holbrook was
killed. He was knocked all to pieces by a cannon ball fired from one of
the guns on the top of the hill. He lay about eight or ten feet to my
right at the time.
A regiment came up during the afternoon and took up a position on our left
and stayed there until they had fired away all their ammunition and then,
without regard to us or to holding the line, retired. We had been ordered
to hold that position until dark, ammunition or no ammunition, and we
stayed there until well into the evening. We lost forty-five of the one
hundred and fifty men of the regiment in that fight. After nightfall we
withdrew, went down to the vicinity of the bridge, had coffee, and were
supplied with ammunition.
During the evening an incident occurred, the effect of which was to last a
long time. It was after we had drank our coffee and had received our
ammunition late in the evening. An army nurse asked some of the boys to go
with her and assist in getting some wounded men who were near some houses
outside our picket line up along the Sharpsburg Road. The boys went,
brought in the wounded men and took them to a hospital nearby, no one
getting hit, although they did draw the Rebel fire. The work being
finished and having been done in so fine a spirit, the nurse wished to
know who the men were, and where they came from. Learning they were
Massachusetts men and from her own Worcester County, she was quite
affected and revealed her own identity--Clara Barton of Oxford. A few
moments of friendly handshaking and this first meeting ended, only for a
time, however, for later on she visited us at Pleasant Valley and vowed
eternal friendship. After the war she became a member of the regimental
association, was a regular attendant at the annual reunions and ever
declared herself a comrade of the boys of the regiment.
We remained in camp over night not far from the bridge.
September 18. Early in the forenoon we were moved to our extreme left,
were deployed and did outpost duty. At night we were marched back to the
other side of the Antietam and went into camp in an apple orchard.
September 19. It was reported early in the morning that the Rebels had
retreated. We soon formed line, crossed the river and moved over across
the battlefield where there were a good many of our dead lying about. We
moved along down to the Potomac where the Antietam empties into it. A few
Johnnies were in sight on the other bank of the Potomac but disappeared
when we opened fire on them.
During the next forenoon who should appear in camp unannounced, but
General Burnside. He had ridden over from his headquarters, wherever they
were, with a single orderly, and in his cardigan jacket; he "had selected
a fine place for us to go into camp," he said. We were ordered into line
and followed him to our new camp ground. He stayed there a half an hour or
an hour talking with the officers and men. He told us we could stay there
a while and get rested, then rode away.
The reason for this act of kindness toward the old regiment by General
Burnside I have never been able to fully account for. He may have known
that General Reno regarded it with special favor and General Reno had just
been killed at South Mountain. Brigade after brigade had been sent in to
take the bridge at Antietam but it remained for the old 2d Brigade to
accomplish the work. The 21st was the only New England regiment in the 2d
Brigade, and he being a Rhode Island man, may have had something to do
with it. At any rate, it made the boys feel mighty good to have the old
general come over and show a personal interest in the regiment. The
capture of the Stone Bridge by the old 2d Brigade deserves special mention
for more reasons than one. One reason is the following: Charles Carlton
Coffin, war correspondent of the Boston Journal, was an eye witness of the
affair. He wrote home to his paper an account of the battle. In that
account he spoke in such enthusiastic terms of the charge of the old 2d
Brigade at the capture of the bridge that a special edition of the paper
appeared a few days later containing it. In that article he declared, "The
heroism of the assault upon the bridge by the three regiments was
unsurpassed either on the Rebel or Union side, in the annals of the war."
October 1. We moved down into Pleasant Valley and went into camp. We
remained there until the 27th, resting, drilling, and being supplied with
clothing, shoes, shelter tents, etc.
The 3d. President Lincoln visited the army and there was a grand review. A
review at that time of the Army of the Potomac, just at the end of
McClellan's service with it, showing his great organizing ability at its
best, was a spectacle of exceptional interest. The Army of the Potomac
numbered at that time about 145,000 men. It moved in formation by company
front, double quick time, regiment after regiment, brigade after brigade,
division after division, army corps after army corps, infantry, cavalry
and artillery, tramped, surged and poured past the reviewing party, at the
head of which sat the President. It was a formidable spectacle and must
have pleased Mr. Lincoln. The President, it must be conceded, made a
peculiar impression as he sat on his horse, his long legs almost dangling
on the ground, or curled up and locked under the horse's body, his tall
hat tipped back, among a lot of military men (every one a soldier from the
ground up, and every one as trim a type as could be wished for) and
sitting his horse as if a part of it. But when the troops had all marched
past and the reviewing party rode away, they could not get away from him.
Awkward as Mr. Lincoln looked, he was at home on his horse. He had a good
horse and he stayed right with them to the end.
A few days later Clara Barton made us a visit. She brought her knitting
with her and stayed all the afternoon. She hunted up the boys who had
assisted her the evening after the battle. She went around among the
officers and men chatting with them in the pleasantest way. Toward night
we had a dress parade. She was made daughter of the regiment. She made a
little speech and there was cemented a friendship begun under fire which
was destined to last to the end of the lives of all participants.
October 27. Crossing the Potomac at Berlin we again entered Virginia
marching as far as Lovettsville. The next day we were informed that the
9th Army Corps had become a part of the Army of the Potomac. In the middle
of the afternoon of the 29th we left camp and marched until about sundown.
As we passed a farmhouse late in the afternoon I noticed some boys from
companies ahead of us jumping over the wall and getting cabbages from a
patch right beside the road. I followed suit and got a good one. Later on
as the head of the column turned into the field where we were to camp for
the night, I noticed the major was demanding the cabbages from the boys
ahead of us. I did not like the idea of being cheated out of mine, so I
out with my big knife, halved it and gave one piece to Billy. We had no
trouble in each of us concealing his half, but some one had to have some
fun out of it, and as we passed, the major piped up, "I say, Tom, what
are cabbages worth a pound?" The major, I think, took it as a slap at him
instead of being a little fun among ourselves, for he looked as ugly as a
meat axe at us, but he did not see any cabbages and we did have cabbage
for supper. The next morning we broke camp early and marched along the
east side of the Blue Ridge mountains as far as Vestal Gap. The following
day, November 2d, we moved along up the valley as far as Snickers Gap,
where we stayed two days.
November 4. Reports were flying around camp early in the morning that the
Johnnies were pouring through Ashby's Gap in force and that they meant
fight. At nine o'clock we started for Ashby's Gap, but on our arrival
there, there was not a Johnnie in sight--another of those old-fashioned
false reports. We moved on as far as Manassas Gap the 5th. All the way
along as we approached we could hear the artillery at the gap. Our men
occupied the east end and the Confederates the west end. Some one said the
artillerymen were paying their respects to each other.
November 6. We moved back from the mountain range about ten miles to the
town of Orleans. The next morning we started out and marched a few miles,
then filed left, crossed a narrow field into a piece of woods and stacked
arms. After sitting around a little while I started out to see if I could
find a house and get something to eat a little out of the ordinary, for to
be constantly eating hardtack and salt horse became a little monotonous
after being indulged in month after month.
I passed along through a series of fields on high ground, then bearing a
little to the right passed through a strip of wood from the farther side
of which a ridge appeared a few rods out in the field. When I reached the
top of the ridge, the looked-for-house appeared in sight a few rods down
the other slope, and down to it I went. When I got within five or six rods
of the house, a Johnnie came out and walked off down towards some wood on
the farther side of the field. This opened my eyes, and then I saw for the
first time that that wood down there was alive with Johnnies--not an
ordinary picket post but a regiment, or a brigade was there. There were
tents and camp-fires in large numbers. I must have been five or six rods
from the house, and the wood where the Johnnies were, some eight or ten
rods beyond, when I made this discovery, but this was no time to hesitate.
I walked down to the house and asked the woman if she had any corn-bread
to sell. She said, "No, I have just sold the last I had to one of our
men." That "our men" showed me at once that she knew who I was. I stepped
out into the yard, took a look around and sauntered back up over the hill
again. When I got out of sight of the house I quickened my steps until I
was a good distance from that camp.
November 8. A change of great importance has taken place in the army.
General McClellan has been relieved of command of the "Army of the
Potomac," and General Burnside, the old commander of the 9th Army Corps,
has been put in his place.
Here ends the Maryland campaign. We shall soon start on a campaign that
will be known as the Fredericksburg campaign under General Burnside.