WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA
The Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse.
Johnnies caught undressed. The Battle of Bethseda Church. The Johnny who
wanted to see the sun rise. Life in the trenches during the siege of
Petersburg. Wounded.
On the 23d day of April, 1864, we again started for the front, leaving
Annapolis with the rest of the 9th Army Corps. We passed through
Washington on the 25th, and were reviewed by President Lincoln and General
Burnside. That night we camped near Alexandria. On the 27th we marched to
Fairfax Court House; the 28th to Bristow Station. The 29th took us to near
Warrenton Junction. The 30th we moved on a little and camped near Bealton
Station. Here we remained until the 4th of May, when we moved forward to
Brandy Station. We were then getting into the immediate vicinity of the
Army of the Potomac and the report was circulated during the evening that
that army had crossed the Rapidan.
May 5. The report that the Army of the Potomac was in motion and had
crossed the Rapidan was confirmed early in the morning, and we pressed
forward as rapidly as possible to join it. We reached the Rapidan in the
evening, crossed over at Germania Ford and went into camp.
May 6. We started before daylight and at eight o'clock reported to General
Hancock, who had just been pushing Lee's right flank back. We were placed
on the left of Hancock's corps. About ten o'clock, the 21st was sent to
make a reconnaissance. We formed a line at right angles to Hancock's line
of battle, well out in front of it, and swept clear along past the whole
front. This was a hazardous and mighty unpleasant thing to do and we lost
some men in doing it. When we got back, we took a position on Hancock's
right and were there when Longstreet's corps made the advance in the
afternoon. That was a pretty tough reception, the Johnnies got in the part
of the line where we were. We had three solid lines of battle to meet
them, drawn up on land sloping toward the enemy. At the foot of the slope
was the first line of battle; far enough back to shoot over the heads of
the men forming line number one was line number two. The 21st was in the
second line. Then far enough back to shoot over our heads was line number
three. We were all lying flat on the ground. Two or three minutes before
the Confederate line of battle came into view, in our immediate front, two
or three little gray rabbits came jumping along towards us; at the same
time we got glimpses of the Confederate line of battle as it advanced off
to our left, the wood being less dense there, we saw the lines cross
little openings.
The Johnnies came up with terrific force--three lines of battle deep. They
forced back our first line a little, but the second and third lines never
moved, but kept pouring the shot into them unmercifully. They stayed there
about twenty minutes to half an hour and retreated. After they had fallen
back many of us went down to our front earthwork, from which our first
line retreated and where the Johnnies formed and where they stayed the few
minutes they were in our immediate front. There were a lot of dead and
wounded men lying all about there. As I looked about I saw a middle-aged
man looking around. He was examining the dead men in a most earnest way, I
could not take my eyes off of him. Directly, he found the one he was
searching for, it was a young boy, his son. He took hold of the boy's
hand, he spoke to him, but his son was cold in death. He sat down beside
him and sat there sobbing but motionless for a long time--the tears
streaming from his eyes. One of our boys ventured up to him after a while
and inquired if he knew the boy; "yes," said he, "that is my Charley, that
is my cub; but he is silent now, once so full of life and so active."
May 7. There was no fighting done. We lay quietly near the place where
the last fighting was done the day before. Early in the morning of May
8th, we started on the march toward Spottsylvania Court House. We passed
Chancellorsville during the night and camped a little to the rear of
Fredericksburg during the afternoon. We moved forward a little the 9th,
and in the afternoon dug intrenchments along beside a small stream,--I
think it was the Ny. It was all quiet along our front when we reached that
position, but later there was a good deal of sharpshooting. We were within
a few hundred yards of Spottsylvania Court House at that time, but neither
Burnside or Grant knew it until we had been moved away to the right, and
it was too late to profit by the advantage we had gained. We had got clear
around on Lee's right flank. The 10th, during the early morning, we moved
around to the right into a large pasture partly grown up. Sharpshooters
were very active all along our front. General Stevenson was killed by a
sharpshooter at that time.
About daylight in the early morning of the 12th we were awakened by the
bursting out of a fearful roar of infantry fire just to our right where
the second corps was. We were moved along a little nearer to it, to the
upper edge of a pasture next to some wood. While we were there a shell
burst right among a half dozen of us, a piece of which struck Lawriston
Barnes in the side, mortally wounding him. Augustus, his brother, stood
near and caught him as he reeled to fall. Volunteers were called for to go
up into the wood and make a reconnaissance. Tom Winn offered to go and
went, and in a few minutes he returned, bringing with him a Johnny. A
little later we moved up through the wood and made an attack on some
Johnnies in an entrenched position in an open field, but we did not drive
them out; they had the advantage of a strong position and our force was
too small to make such an attack with any prospect of success. As we went
up through the wood we passed a Johnny who was killed while aiming his
gun. He was lying flat on the ground behind a stump. His head had dropped
forward a little, but otherwise he was in the exact position of aiming his
gun; he had been shot through the head and killed instantly. He was
evidently one of the sharpshooters who had been annoying us that morning
when we were in the edge of the pasture where Lawriston Barnes was killed.
That engagement of Hancock's corps at the salient, called also the "bloody
angle" has gone into history as one of the most desperate engagements of
the Civil War. We remained in the immediate vicinity until the 19th, when
we were moved away to the left, to the extreme left of the army, I think,
and threw up a lot of earthworks. We lay quietly near our earthworks all
day the 20th. The next day about the middle of the afternoon we started
for the North Anna River, marching all night and all the next day through
a most beautiful section of the country and camping at night near Bowling
Green. The 23d we approached the North Anna River in the afternoon. The
roar of the artillery just ahead of us steadily increased until it became
perfectly terrific. It was the first time during the campaign the
artillery of either army had had an opportunity to make itself heard.
Again, the artillery of the two armies was separated from each other by a
good-sized river; each thus felt perfectly safe, and they barked away to
their hearts' content. Just before we turned into the field to camp for
the night, a cannon ball fired by the Johnnies at our artillery on the
hill ahead of us, struck the hill, then bounded along down and finally
rolled along the road among the feet of the horses of a regiment of
cavalry that was passing us--we having moved to the side of the road to
let them pass. The way those horses jumped around there indicated
distinctly that they knew what it was, and that they did not like the
looks of it a bit.
May 24. During the middle of the forenoon we were moved down on to an
island in the river with another regiment, expecting to make a charge
across that part of the river on the Johnnies' works on the other side. We
stayed there a few hours, then returned without attempting any advance. In
the middle of the afternoon we moved up the river a little way and crossed
at Quarles Ford.
May 25. On picket duty out on the bank of a small stream. Captured two
Johnnies. I was on the picket line. We were placed quite a distance apart,
so I was entirely alone. The bank of the stream was quite high, I being
some twenty feet higher than the river and about ten or twelve yards from
it. I saw the Johnnies approaching me on the other side of the river when
some thirty or forty yards away. They were sauntering along, their right
hands holding a number of canteens, their left hands their guns. I was
lying behind the trunk of a fallen tree. I kept perfectly quiet until they
were about twenty or thirty feet from the other side of the river, when I
ordered them to throw down their guns. They dropped them instantly. Then I
ordered them to come in, which they did without hesitation. They forded
the stream, clambered up the bank, and as they reached the top, stood
still and apparently took in the situation. They were men about thirty
years old, one a medium-sized man, the other a large man, five feet, ten
inches or six feet tall. I think they felt a little awkward as they
discovered they had surrendered to a mere boy. The larger one took a fancy
to my gun and stepped forward as if expecting me to hand it to him for
examination. I brought my gun down to the charge, cocked it, and told him
to keep his distance or I should shoot. The smaller man took hold of the
other, pulled him back and said to him, "Don't go near him, he'll shoot
you." "You may be sure I shall," said I. Then I started them to the rear,
keeping about a rod and a half behind them. When I reached headquarters
the colonel came out of his tent and came up to me and said, "What have
you been up to, Mad?" An officer stuck his head out of a nearby tent and
shouted, "Why didn't you bring in the whole regiment while you were about
it?" Another called out, "Tell us how you did it, Mad." Another answered
back, "Ah, he surrounded them." And so they had quite a bit of
good-natured fun at my expense. Well, a corporal and guard came and took
charge of the Rebs and I went back to my place on the picket line again.
May 26. We recrossed to the north side of the river and went back to near
Oxford and went into bivouac. The army was on the move and we were doing
picket duty. I was way off in the wood, apparently all alone and there was
not another picket within fifteen rods of me. I was lying down behind the
trunk of a tree some twenty to twenty-four inches through at the base. All
at once I saw a Johnny coming down through the wood. He was coming
directly toward me, coming along quietly, glancing now to the right, then
to the left. I let him approach to within about three or four rods of me
when I ordered him to drop his gun. He dropped it and came in. He was a
big six-footer with a big, black beard eight or ten inches long. I took
him back to headquarters, turned him over to the officer of the day and
went back to my post again. This was great luck for me. In two consecutive
days I had, entirely alone and unaided, captured three Johnnies,--two at
one time and one at the other; and they were the only men I captured
unaided during the whole war.
May 27. Some of our boys had a little fun with some Johnnies that morning.
The Johnnies shot across the river and killed a cow that belonged to a
farmer living nearby. Then they stripped off their clothes and swam the
river, intending to have a good cut of beef for dinner. As soon as they
were over the river our boys appeared, took them prisoners and marched
them off to headquarters just as they were. The armies had both gone. We
were the pickets of the rear guard. We had been keeping very quiet in the
wood, and the Johnnies probably thought we had all gone. Well, they did
not have meat for dinner and we did. About noon we left the North Anna and
followed on after the army. The 28th we marched all day and most of the
night, but during the night the marching was less steady, the artillery
that was ahead of us was obliged to repair the roads in two or three
places which caused delays. During those halts the boys would, every one
of them in two minutes after the halt was made, be lying beside the road
fast asleep. On a long, hard march there is always more or less straggling
and those fellows once behind may have quite a little trouble in finding
their regiments again; but they go straggling along inquiring for their
regiments, brigades or perhaps their army corps, etc. Well, that night as
we were lying beside the road asleep, an officer came along--a very
important and very arrogant fellow--he woke up Tom and asked what regiment
that was. Tom rubbed his eyes, looked about and shouted loud enough to be
heard a quarter of a mile, "The 279th Rhode Island." A little way off
another fellow piped up, "That is a blasted lie, this is the 119th
Ireland;" the officer made no reply but moved on.
In this campaign there is firing going on somewhere along the line most of
the time. For any one who has not been in a real hard campaign, it is
impossible to imagine what life is like there--especially nights. If near
the enemy thus being unable to have any fire with which to cook a cup of
coffee, having nothing to drink but cold water and nothing to eat but
hardtack with perhaps a slice of salt pork. A roar of musket fire along
the picket line giving one a start and waking him up, stragglers tumbling
over you or waking you up to inquire for their regiments, sleeping on the
ground perhaps in a rain-storm are all in the regular order of experience.
On the 30th of May we reached Cold Harbor, we were advanced into a
position near Shady Grove and told to throw up some earthworks. The
pickets seemed only a few steps in front of us and were firing away like
mad; the bullets coming over where we were altogether too thick for
comfort. May 31. We stayed in that position all day and that night I was
detailed on picket. About midnight I went on duty, we went down across a
large field and clear down on the farther side, relieved the pickets in
little holes they had dug to conceal themselves in. There were spades
there and before daylight we had increased the size of the holes so they
were fair-sized rifle pits. When that line was established it was done
just about as badly as it could be. It was placed clear on the farther
edge of a large field about four or six rods from the edge of the wood,
the Johnnies' line of pickets being in the edge of the wood. About ten
o'clock the officer of the day appeared about thirty or forty rods to the
rear and signaled for me to go back and get orders. I was acting sergeant
at the time and had command of the pickets of that part of the line. I
went back to him, got my orders and returned to my post again. That was
the most perilous duty that fell to me to perform all alone during my
whole service. As I went back I was a single mark for from a dozen to
fifteen Rebs for a run of fifteen rods, and on my return just the same
again, and that time I was running directly toward them.
It was a common thing in those days to hear the bullets zip past one, but
a thing occurred then that was new to me. It was a plowed field I was
crossing and as the bullets struck the ground they would kick up a little
dust. I remember distinctly seeing those miniature clouds of dust three or
four times on those runs.
As near as I can judge I was fired at about twelve or fifteen times each
way, but I escaped without a scratch. Had they had some decent shots there
I would have been shot into mincemeat and why I was not is a thing I have
never been able to understand. Some of our boys in the rifle pits declared
they heard the Johnnies clap as I jumped down into the rifle pit on my
return. Well, in the middle of the afternoon when I received the signal to
fall back I gave the order, but not more than half the men struck
out,--the remainder preferring to remain there and be taken prisoners
rather than take the risk of that run across the field. When I got back
fifteen or twenty rods I turned and looked back. The Rebs were taking
those of our boys that remained, out of the rifle pits. We now formed a
skirmish line and fell slowly back. The Confederates formed their skirmish
line and began to follow us up. The retreat down to Bethseda Church, a
distance of about three or four miles, was most exciting, the Johnnies
following us up pretty closely. But once in a while we would make a stand.
Then they would bring up their artillery, and lines of infantry would
swing into place. Then we would quietly drop back again. When we reached
the vicinity of Bethseda Church there were lines of battle everywhere. We
were ordered back to the rear of the lines and were then sent to our
regiments. The 21st was quite a little way off to the left. Emmons had
just been killed when I found the regiment. Marcus Emmons was a Hardwick
boy. He was an awkward, unsoldierly appearing man, but he was a man of
considerable intellectual ability and a man of splendid character; and, so
far as I ever saw, he was as brave as the bravest, without any show or
parade, but always did his duty faithfully. Had he been possessed of a
fine soldierly figure and bearing, he could just as well have held a
commission as lieutenant-colonel or colonel as to have been a sergeant.
That night we camped right near the battlefield, and early the next
morning I got up and started to take a walk over the field out near the
Confederate battery where so many horses were killed. I found a live
Johnny; there were a number of dead men lying about among the caissons and
dead horses, but one I saw moved. I went up to him and greeted him and
asked him if he was badly wounded. "Yes," said he, "I guess it is all up
with me." He was lying flat on his back and appeared to be unable to move,
gazing up into the sky, his eyes were restless and rolling. He had been
shot through the body and his spinal column had been injured, I think. All
but his hands seemed paralyzed, those he could use a little. I inquired
if I could do anything for him. "Yes," said he, "I wish you would turn me
over on to my side so I can see the sun rise." The sun was just about to
appear over the eastern horizon. I turned him over on to his side, then I
found a canteen and went to get a canteen of water for him. When I got
back fifteen minutes later the poor fellow was dead. He had fallen asleep
to awake, I trust, to a more glorious sunrise than that early sunrise of
June 3d, 1864.
From the 2d to the 12th of June the 21st was not seriously engaged. There
was more or less fighting along the line, but it was not our fortune to be
in it.
In the evening of June 12th, we left Cold Harbor and in the evening of
June 14th we were at Charles City on the James. We crossed the river on a
pontoon bridge about midnight of the 15th and started for Petersburg as
fast as we could go, arriving there late in the afternoon. It was on this
march I fell out, the first and only time I every fell out on a march. My
shoes were worn so badly they hardly protected my feet at all and they
galled me murderously. I fell out beside a brook, gave my feet a good
bath, made a cup of coffee, took a little rest and then went on, coming up
with the regiment during the evening. The boys were engaged at about six
o'clock when the 9th and 2d Corps made the first attack on Petersburg. Our
boys drove the Johnnies from the first line of works, and the next morning
when we moved forward we found the next line abandoned. During the night
we moved to the right and forward preparing for another advance at
daybreak. When we advanced the morning of the 17th, I was on the picket
line; as we passed a deserted line of earthworks I saw a dead Johnny lying
in one of the trenches. He had an open letter in his hand, I took the
letter from his lifeless fingers folded it and put it in my pocket, when I
had a chance to read it I discovered it was from his sweetheart at home in
Georgia. He had evidently thought of her when he found himself mortally
wounded, had taken the letter from his pocket and died while reading it.
There were two more incomplete lines of works in our front. We hoped to
take both these lines, but being unsupported we succeeded in taking only
one. During the day some reinforcements arrived and a regiment was put
right in front of us; we thus had two lines of battle with which to
advance, they going ahead. In the early evening the order came to advance.
The regiment in front of us that was to take the lead never moved a peg,
and we were obliged to charge right over them. On each of our flanks
there were good strong lines, so being well supported on both sides we
captured both lines. Some distance to our right our men were less
successful, they did not take the last line, and soon began to draw
regiment after regiment from our force, until we were so spread out to
cover the line, we did not have more than one man to each six feet. A
continuous fight was kept up until about midnight, when our ammunition
running low, our firing became slack. The Johnnies doubtless noticed that,
made an advance and we were forced back to the second line again. As we
left those works two things occurred that are worth mentioning. In front
of us was a wood, directly in front the wood came up to within fifteen or
twenty feet of our works. To the left the space between the breastworks
and the wood was much greater. So as the Johnnies advanced they came in
sight in the open space to the left first, and I fired at them there. Then
I set to work to load my gun; but before it was finished they were coming
out of the wood and across the narrow space right in front of me. I put on
a cap and fired at a man only a few feet away with my ramrod still in my
gun. The Johnny was doubled up. I think my ramrod hit him right in the
stomach. Then I skipped for the rear. The regimental colors were a little
way to my right. Captain Sampson was right near them. Three Rebs started
for our colors about the time I shot my ramrod into the Johnny. Captain
Sampson jumped up on to our works and cut one of them down with his sword.
The other two retreated. Then Captain Sampson and the few men there were
remaining with the colors also fell back. I hunted about and got me a
complete gun and I found a dead man with some cartridges in his cartridge
box. These I appropriated. So I was all right again.
In the early morning of the 18th preparations were made for another
advance; but when the pickets went forward they found the works we had
captured and lost the night before were deserted. The Johnnies had fallen
back about a mile to a shorter line of works nearer the city. The next
night we moved up to a desirable position at an average distance of one
hundred and fifty yards from their works, and commenced putting up
earthworks for siege purposes. During the next ten days it was remarkable
to see how the fortifications appeared. They sprung into existence as if
by magic. The 9th Army Corps was the second from the Appomattox River;
Hancock with his corps being on our right. And thus we came into position
in front of Cemetery Hill. As we lay there about four hundred feet from
the crest of the ridge, there was a little to our left a slight
elevation, a little knoll. On this prominence the Confederates located a
six-gun battery, which was known as Elliott's salient. It was this battery
that was destined later to be undermined and blown up.
Two nearly parallel lines of intrenchments were laid out for the infantry,
varying from 150 to 300 yards apart. At first most of the work had to be
done at night under the cover of darkness. But later on after the works
were under way and we had got our bearings we could plan to work during
the day. The top of the intrenchments were finished in such a way as to
cover one's head when firing. We were furnished with bags. These we filled
with dirt and piled up on top in such a way as to make loopholes through
which to fire. Fortifications for the artillery had also to be built. They
were located on the more elevated parts of the field and on a line with,
or to the rear of, the second line of intrenchments of the infantry. It
was soon arranged so the troops in the two lines alternated each other,
each taking his turn for three days in the front line and then having
three days in the second line. But in the matter of danger the difference
was slight. The lines were so near together and both so near the
Confederate works, the men in either were within easy range of the
enemies' sharpshooters. The men in the second line, however, had some
advantages. They could have a little covering over their heads to keep off
the blazing rays of the sun. They could also take off their accoutrements
and unloosen their clothes at night and so get a little better rest. While
in the front line no covering as a protection against the sun could be
used. One must keep his accoutrements on, and his musket, if he laid it
down, must be within his reach.
In addition to the regular intrenchments for the infantry and forts for
the artillery, there were, just to the rear of the first line of
breastworks, passages connecting the different intrenchments and
batteries. These were about six feet deep and eight or ten feet wide; they
ran everywhere. With these and the regular breastworks the ground was
completely honeycombed. In front of our breastwork was a ditch, an abatis
and a line of barbed wire entanglement. The Confederate and our lines were
so near together that every possible thing was resorted to, to prevent
being surprised or to check an advancing line of battle. A view across the
field was peculiar, not a man could be seen. Lines of abatis, barbed-wire
fences, piles of earth with the black noses of cannon projecting out
between them, was about all one could see. In the course of ten days
after our lines were established we were pretty well dug in, so the
ordinary rifle of the infantry, the field artillery and even the siege
guns, did not disturb us much. The mortars, however, we did not like; the
shells from them, we had not, at the time I was wounded, learned to avoid.
Later on, bomb proofs were built back of the second line; these the boys
could get into when off duty and be protected. Life in the trenches was
dreary and trying, although in ways interesting. The Johnnies did not keep
up a continuous fire, but once in a while they would throw over a dozen or
twenty shells, apparently to stir us up to see how we liked it.
One day, four of the boys in the second line were sitting on a blanket
playing pitch, when, with a terrific whiz and shriek, down came a mortar
shell and buried itself in the earth within three feet of one of them. The
way those boys rolled and tumbled over each other to get out of the way of
that shell, was interesting to see, but it only gave them a start; it did
not burst and no one was hurt.
Weren't we indignant one noon? The cook had just brought up from the rear
a kettle full of fine smoking hot baked beans. He had just set them down
and stepped back a pace or two, the boys were all skurrying around
getting their plates so no one was very near, a shell came down and burst
right beside that kettle of beans and knocked it all to atoms. One boy who
was some ten or twelve feet away was hit in the side by a piece of the
shell. It cut a groove out of his side as clean as a gouge cuts a groove
from a piece of wood. An amusing thing happened the other night over a
little way to our left where they were using pack mules for working
squads. A mule loaded and bristling with shovels, picks and axes, broke
loose from his company and, with fearful clatter, went charging fearless
and alone. The Rebs, believing they were being charged upon by our
cavalry, were for an instant in confusion, but got into their works and
opened fire on our friend with long ears. The mule not liking that kind of
a reception whirled about and came cantering back to his comrades again.
As the mule came prancing back, it dawned upon the Johnnies what had
really happened and they began to laugh, our boys hearing them joined in
and for an instant a perfect roar of laughter and shouts rang along both
lines. In that way, under those conditions the siege went on; under those
conditions we lived. To stay in those trenches in that terrific heat, with
not a breath of fresh air, in the dirt--for every spear of grass had early
disappeared--was a thing only the most hardy could endure. I early formed
the habit when we were in the second line, of rising a little while before
daylight in the morning and going down to a little stream in our rear and
taking a bath. And it was while returning from one of those trips, the
morning having got a little advanced, I was hit by a sharpshooter. The
ball passed through my left thigh about half way from my hip to my knee,
passing just behind the bone from the right side to the left. I crawled
back to a place of cover. Then some of the boys came with a stretcher and
carried me back to the place where the ambulances were kept. From there I
was taken in an ambulance back to the hospital, in the rear of the
fighting line some mile and a half or two miles away.
Along most of the line there was little picket firing. Men moved about
exposing themselves to considerable extent. But in front of the 9th Army
Corps there was continuous firing from the beginning. The third division
of the 9th Army Corps was a division of negro troops. The Confederates
knew this and resented it and in this way took their revenge, although the
negro division was not present until after the mine explosion.