CAPTAINS LEACH’S AND WILSON’S COMPANIES LEAVE THE
RIP-RAPS--ORDERED TO NEWPORT NEWS--GENERAL MANSFIELD RELIEVES
GENERAL PHELPS--THE DRILLS CONTINUED--TARGET PRACTICE--WINTER
QUARTERS AND BUILDING OF BARRACKS--THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
TWENTY-NINTH REGIMENT--DISSATISFACTION ABOUT THE APPOINTMENT OF
NEW OFFICERS--COURT-MARTIAL OF COLONEL PIERCE--BURSTING OF THE
SAWYER GUN AND DEATH OF TWO OF THE MEN.
On the 3d of November, 1861, the companies commanded by Captains Leach
and Wilson were ordered to join the Battalion at Newport News, and were
relieved at the Rip-Raps by two companies of the Union Coast Guard
under Major Halliday.
Upon arriving at Newport News, these commands were assigned
camping-grounds inside of the breastworks, and with the Battalion.
This was the first time that all the companies had been together; the
uniting of them made an increased membership of nearly two hundred, and
a total membership of between five and six hundred, which, at a later
period in the war, would have far exceeded the numerical strength of
even our largest regiments.
Toward the last of November, General Phelps was ordered to the
department of the Gulf, and Brigadier-General Joseph K. F. Mansfield
was assigned to the command of Camp Butler. General Mansfield was
a native of Connecticut. He graduated at West Point, at the age of
eighteen, second in a class of forty members. In the Cadet Battalion,
he had served in every grade, and, on graduation, was appointed to the
Engineers. From that time till the Mexican war, he was on sea-coast
fortifications, and was principal constructing officer of Fort Pulaski,
an experience that enabled him to give very valuable advice to
General Gilmore, in his approaches to that place. In 1838, Mansfield
was a captain, and in 1846 was assigned to General Taylor as chief
engineer, when he directed the fortifications of Fort Brown, opposite
Matamoras, and afterward assisting in its defence, won his major’s
brevet for gallant conduct. In September, 1846, he was in charge of
the reconnoissance of Monterey, and the battles which ensued around
that place scarred him with seven severe wounds, and brevetted him a
lieutenant-colonel. In the battle of Buena Vista, he was conspicuously
engaged; so much so, that his services were rewarded by the brevet rank
of colonel.
In 1853, he became Colonel and Inspector-General of the army. At
the time of the inauguration of President Lincoln, he was stationed
in Washington, and on the increase of the army in 1861, was made
Brigadier-General, and assigned to duty about the city, supervising
the construction of the fortifications there with his great skill as
an engineer, and after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, contributing
to the reorganization of the volunteers. Upon the appointment of
General Wool to the command of Fortress Monroe, General Mansfield
was sent thither, and after commanding for a short time the district
of Hatteras, and subsequently Camp Hamilton, was ordered, late in
November, to relieve General Phelps at Newport News. Here he remained
till May, 1862, participated in the expedition against Norfolk,
afterwards commanded at Suffolk, and, in September, was ordered to
Washington on the McDowell Court of Inquiry, and while there was
promoted to be Major-General of Volunteers, and assigned to the command
of the Twelfth Corps, reaching his command just before the battle of
Antietam. As we shall have occasion to speak of him in connection with
that battle, we will not at this time follow his history further in
that direction.
The same stern sense of duty which the General manifested while in the
field was daily impressed by him upon the men under his command at
Newport News. He was not a preacher nor a martinet; he was a plain,
shrewd, well-educated gentleman, with a fine sense of humor, great
practical talent, inexhaustible tact, and had an intimate knowledge of
human nature. He was familiar with the men, always had a kind word for
the sentinel at headquarters, and when the sentinel had once properly
saluted him, he would say, “You will oblige me by not saluting me again
to-day, as I have to be constantly going out and coming in, and I
don’t care for it.”
One of the first orders issued by him, after taking command of this
post, was to institute target practice, at ranges of 200, 400, 600,
and 1,000 yards. By this order, a record of shots was to be kept; each
company was to shoot three times a week, and the ten best marksmen
of the regiment, every week, were to be selected and allowed a day’s
liberty at Fortress Monroe; and as this included a sail on the
steamer of some twenty miles (both ways) and a visit to one of the
most interesting places in the department, being, as it were, a sort
of metropolis, the reward thus offered was highly prized and eagerly
sought for by all the men. By the same order, officers were encouraged
to compete with the men in this exercise. No man was to fire less
than ten shots each week; guards, on relief, were to discharge their
pieces at a target, and be marked for it; and the best marksman in the
guard got a day’s liberty. The targets used were pieces of old tents,
stretched on frames six feet high and two feet wide, with a black cross
four inches wide on them, the horizontal arm at a height of four and a
half feet.
Volley firing was also practiced, by which means an excellent knowledge
of the capacity of the musket was acquired, a knowledge that served all
the regiments at Newport News in good stead, at a later period in the
war. The officers always afterward knew their marksmen, and could at
any time detail a few sharpshooters for special work when needed.
One of General Mansfield’s drills was a march in campaign order, and he
was very particular to describe what things a soldier should carry in
campaign, permitting what was forbidden in the army of the Potomac at
one time,--photographs and letters,--and not encouraging a superfluity
of blacking brushes. Upon the first marching drill, the staff-officers
were sent round to say, that at route-step it was usual to allow the
men to smoke and talk in campaign; and he desired the officers to
encourage it then, as it would be necessary to allow it in the future.
The drills thus inaugurated were continued as long as the weather would
permit, and were all chosen with special reference to active service in
the field.
The following anecdote shows the dry humor of General Mansfield, and
his efficient tact in the management of citizen-soldiery. One day a man
neglected to salute him. He stopped his horse, and said, “My man, did
you know it was my duty, by the army regulations, to touch my hat to
you every time I meet you?” “No, sir; I am sure I never thought of such
a thing.” “Yes; but it is yours to touch your hat to me first. I hope
you will never allow me again to fail in my duty to you.” Civility at
Newport News, after that, was not so often forgotten.
When the cold weather approached, early in December, a general order
was issued, directing the erection of barracks for winter quarters.
Each regiment, and each company of a regiment, were required to build
their own houses. All who could be spared from duty were provided
with axes, and, under the charge of an officer, marched daily into
the neighboring pine forest, where they cut the tall trees, and
fashioned them into proper shapes for building purposes; the logs were
hauled into camp by the mules and horses; and as each company had its
complement of carpenters and other mechanics, a village of comfortable
log-houses soon covered the plain, promising the troops ample
protection from the biting blasts and drenching rains of the coming
winter storms.
About this time, an effort was being made in Massachusetts to raise
three companies of infantry, which were to be united with the
Battalion, and thus form a full regiment.
Sometime in October, 1861, Dr. Henry B. Wheelwright of Taunton received
permission from Governor Andrew to raise a company of infantry, and
succeeded in enlisting a number of men. On the 2d of November, 1861,
the Governor issued an order, that the men raised by Dr. Wheelwright,
which were then in charge of Willard D. Tripp of Taunton, a corporal
of the Fourth Regiment, be sent to camp at Assonet, a village of
Freetown, to report to Brigadier-General E. W. Pierce, and be there
merged, so as to form a company, with the men recruited by General
Pierce. By the same order, Dr. Wheelwright was authorized to raise
another company “immediately, ten days being allowed for that purpose,”
from the 4th of November, and directing that all men recruited by him
be sent to Assonet, and be under the command of General Pierce. The
Quartermaster-General and Commissary-General were ordered to “furnish
clothing, transportation, and rations” for the men, upon requisitions
made upon them by General Pierce.
During the time the men were at Assonet, they were quartered in an
ancient building known as the “Old Post-office”; they were lodged in
that part of it called “Pierce’s Hall,” while their food was cooked in
the basement. This old house was erected about the year 1745, and at
the commencement of the Revolution, was owned and occupied by Colonel
Thomas Gilbert, a captain at the siege of Louisburg. Gilbert was a Tory
at the breaking out of the Revolution, and this house was confiscated
and sold, he having gone into the English army. In April, 1775, a large
body of Whigs assembled to tear down the house, but for some reason
refrained from doing so.
The recruits remained in Assonet till the middle of November, and were
then ordered to Pawtucket, where was established a rendezvous for
recruits, under Captain Milo M. Williams of the Fourth Regiment. By the
middle of December, ninety-eight enlisted men had been secured for this
company, representing nearly every county in Eastern Massachusetts,
and on the 13th of December, Tripp was commissioned Captain, and the
following order issued:--
“COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
“HEADQUARTERS, BOSTON, December 13, 1861.
“SPECIAL ORDER, No. 627.
“Willard D. Tripp of Taunton, having been commissioned
as Captain in the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts
Volunteers, will forthwith assume command of recruits stationed
at ‘Camp Pierce,’ in Pawtucket.
“Captain Tripp will make daily reports to the Adjutant-General
of the number and condition of recruits under his command.
“By order of His Excellency John A. Andrew, Governor and
Commander-in-Chief.
“WILLIAM SCHOULER, _Adj. Gen._”
The lieutenants of this company, whose commissions bear date of
December 13, 1861, were First Lieutenant Alfred O. Brooks and Second
Lieutenant Thomas H. Husband, both of Boston.
Two other companies were raised about this time,--one by Charles
T. Richardson of Pawtucket, and the other by Henry R. Sibley of
Charlestown. Richardson’s company was recruited mostly in Pawtucket and
neighboring towns in Rhode Island. He secured a good class of men, who
afterward became excellent soldiers, and, what was better, none were
bounty men, nor secured by promise of additional pay.
On the 16th of December, Richardson was commissioned Captain, and this
order issued:--
“COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
“HEADQUARTERS, BOSTON, December 17, 1861.
“Charles T. Richardson of Pawtucket, having been commissioned
as Captain in the Twenty-ninth Regiment of the Massachusetts
Volunteers, will report forthwith for orders to Colonel
Ebenezer W. Pierce, commander of said regiment, at Freetown,
Mass.[21]
“By command of His Excellency John A. Andrew, Governor and
Commander-in-Chief.
“WILLIAM SCHOULER, _Adj. Gen._”
The lieutenants of Captain Richardson’s company were William Pray, a
sergeant of Captain Barnes’s company, promoted to be First Lieutenant,
and Charles D. Browne of Boston, commissioned Second Lieutenant January
1, 1862 (formerly a private in Co. B, Thirteenth Mass. Regt.).
As early as October 31, 1861, Henry R. Sibley of Charlestown was
authorized by a special order from the Adjutant-General’s office, “to
raise a company of infantry, to be mustered into the United States
service for three years or during the war, and to form a part of the
Massachusetts Volunteers.” The order further provided, if the company
was recruited within ten days, it “would be accepted as a part of a
regiment to be formed of the Massachusetts companies now at Fortress
Monroe.” If not recruited within ten days, the enlisted men were to be
put into such other companies and regiments as the Commander-in-Chief
might direct.
The mention of ten days in this order as the limit of time allowed
for the formation of this company seems to have been prompted by a
purpose to stimulate the energies of those to whom the recruitment was
confided; for while the time was materially exceeded, yet the company
was unhesitatingly accepted as a part of the regiment referred to;
namely, the Twenty-ninth.
The men who formed this command represented nearly every section
of the Commonwealth, though, as no one nor half-dozen other towns
contributed so large a quota as Charlestown, and as its Captain
and First Lieutenant were citizens of that city, it has always,
and with propriety, been spoken of as the “Charlestown company of
the Twenty-ninth Regiment.” The men were all volunteers: some were
recruited by Sibley, others by D. W. Lee (First Lieutenant), and a
few by the State recruiting officers. No bounties beyond the United
States bounty of $100, promised after two years’ service, were held
out as an inducement to enlist; and though there was not that amount
of enthusiasm, exhibited in rapid enlistments, which characterized the
raising of troops in April and May, yet there was an utter absence of
any of the fallacious ideas about the cowardly character of the enemy,
and every man who placed his name upon the roll fully realized all the
grave consequences that might follow. The material thus secured was
most excellent, and the “Bay State Guards,” the proud name adopted by
this company, proved a worthy member of the regiment, and an honor to
the “Old Bay State.” Something of the touching and revered spirit of
the 19th of April was manifested by the people of Charlestown toward
this company of volunteers. The Bunker Hill Soldiers’ Relief Society of
that city, an organization composed entirely of ladies, early sought to
express their sympathy, by providing each soldier with many articles of
comfort; while the men contributed money, reimbursing Captain Sibley
for the expenses he had incurred, and presenting the officers with
uniforms and side-arms.
The militia system of the election of officers by the enlisted men was
permitted in this case, and not abused. Henry R. Sibley was elected
Captain; Daniel W. Lee, First Lieutenant; and William R. Corlew (of
Somerville), Second Lieutenant.
In view of the fact that the company was soon to leave for the seat of
war, appropriate services were held on the afternoon of Christmas Day,
at the First Baptist Church in Charlestown, where addresses were made
by several distinguished clergymen. The company attended in a body,
and the occasion was one of much solemnity, “and also of gratification
to the many friends of the company who thronged the house....In the
evening of this day, the Guards were the recipients of an ovation at
the City Hall, a collation being provided for them by the city, at
which the Hon. Richard Frothingham presided.”[22] On this occasion was
a presentation, with appropriate speeches, of two beautiful swords,
with sashes and belts, to Captain Sibley and Lieutenant Lee, together
with a revolver each to Sergeants Pippey and Kellam; and the Rev. Dr.
George E. Ellis, who was present, stated that he would give to the
enlisted man of the company, who at the end of the term of service
should be adjudged by the Captain to have been the best soldier, a
hundred-dollar United States bond.[23]
Shortly after this, the company was ordered to Camp Cameron (Mass.),
where it was under the general command, for the most of the time, of
the Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, there recruiting for the
field; and after that regiment left, guarded the public property, of
which there was a large amount, and for the faithful care of which the
company was publicly thanked by the Governor.
It is apparent, from what has already been written, that Governor
Andrew was endeavoring to carry out the long-neglected plan of erecting
the Battalion into a regiment; but the official order, which we here
give in full, was not issued till the 13th of December.
“COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
“HEADQUARTERS, BOSTON, Dec. 13, 1861.
“SPECIAL ORDER, No. 626.
“The companies of Massachusetts Volunteers, commanded by
Captains William D. Chamberlain of Lynn, Thomas W. Clarke
of Boston, Joseph H. Barnes of Boston, Charles Chipman of
Sandwich, Samuel H. Doten of Plymouth, Lebbeus Leach of East
Bridgewater, Israel N. Wilson of Billerica, now in the service
at Fortress Monroe and vicinity, together with the company now
in camp at Pawtucket, commanded by Captain Willard D. Tripp
of Taunton, will constitute the Twenty-ninth Regiment of the
Massachusetts Volunteers. Two other companies will be added to
the regiment as soon as organized.
“By command of His Excellency John A. Andrew, Governor and
Commander-in-Chief.
“WILLIAM SCHOULER, _Adj. Gen._”
We have not pursued this subject strictly in the order of dates, as
the above order really ante-dated the formation of Richardson’s and
Sibley’s companies; but they were in process of formation before this
order was issued, and, to prevent confusion in the narrative, we have
chosen to complete the story of each company before treating of the
organization of the regiment, of which there is much to be said.
On the same day of the foregoing order, Brigadier-General[24] Ebenezer
W. Pierce of Freetown was appointed by Governor Andrew Colonel of
the Twenty-ninth Regiment; on the same day, also, Captain Joseph
H. Barnes was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and Captain Charles
Chipman Major. The staff and non-commissioned staff were as follows:
Orlando Brown of Wrentham, Surgeon; George B. Cogswell of Easton,
Assistant Surgeon; Lieutenant Joshua Norton, 3d, of Captain Clarke’s
company, Quartermaster; Lieutenant John B. Collingwood of Captain
Doten’s company, Adjutant; Sergeant Henry S. Braden of Captain Barnes’s
company, Sergeant-Major; Sergeant William W. Davis of Clarke’s
company, Quartermaster-Sergeant; John B. Pizer, of Tripp’s company,
Commissary-Sergeant; John Hardy of Clarke’s company, Hospital Steward.
Rev. Henry E. Hempstead of Watertown was chosen Chaplain in January,
1862.
On the 4th of January (1862), there were several promotions among the
officers and men of the Battalion. First Lieutenant James H. Osgood,
Jr., was made Captain of his company, in place of Barnes, promoted;
First Lieutenant Charles Brady, Captain, in place of Chipman, promoted;
Second Lieutenant William T. Keen of Captain Barnes’s company, First
Lieutenant, vice Osgood, promoted; Sergeant William Pray of Barnes’s
company, First Lieutenant, and assigned to duty in Captain Richardson’s
company; Second Lieutenant Henry A. Kern of Chipman’s company, First
Lieutenant, vice Brady, promoted; Sergeant John P. Burbeck of Barnes’s
company, Second Lieutenant, vice Kern, promoted.
The lettering of the several companies, by no means an unimportant part
of the work of organizing a regiment, was determined by the following
order:--
“COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
“HEADQUARTERS, BOSTON, Jan. 2, 1862.
“SPECIAL ORDER, No. 2.
“The companies comprising the Twenty-ninth Regiment of the
Massachusetts Volunteers will be lettered as follows:--
“The company commanded by Captain Clarke, ‘A’; by Captain
Wilson, ‘B’; by Captain Leach, ‘C’; by Lieutenant Brady,
‘D’; by Captain Doten, ‘E’; by Captain Tripp, ‘F’; by
Captain Richardson, ‘G’; by Captain Sibley, ‘H’; by Captain
Chamberlain, ‘I’; by Lieutenant Osgood (Barnes’s company), ‘K.’
“Colonel Pierce, commanding Twenty-ninth Regiment, will
promulgate this order.
“By command of His Excellency John A. Andrew,
Commander-in-Chief.
“WILLIAM BROWN, _Asst. Adj. Gen._”
The companies of Captains Richardson, Sibley, and Tripp, together with
Colonel Pierce, Surgeon Brown, and Assistant-Surgeon Cogswell, taking
with them the colors of the regiment, left Boston for Newport News
on the 13th of January, 1862, by the Stonington line to New York. At
Philadelphia, they received the same bounty which the ladies of that
noble city were giving to all the volunteers who passed through it.
From Philadelphia, the command proceeded to Baltimore, and from thence
by steamer to Fortress Monroe, reaching Camp Butler on the 17th of the
month, and joining the Battalion there stationed.
Beside the proper officers of the three new companies, there were
commissioned about this time, and assigned to the regiment, Second
Lieutenant Augustus D. Ayling, First Lieutenant Freeman A. Taber, and
First Lieutenant John A. Sayles. None of these officers had ever been
connected with the Battalion, nor, with the exception of Ayling, had
any of them seen service. The case of Company E of Plymouth gave rise
to the most complaint. The lieutenants of this company were (First)
John B. Collingwood and (Second) Thomas A. Mayo. Collingwood was
made Adjutant of the regiment; but instead of promoting Lieutenant
Mayo, who was a deserving and efficient officer of mature age, First
Lieutenant Freeman A. Taber, a beardless boy, possessing very slight
qualifications for his office, was placed over, and outranked, Mayo.
The fact that this company was composed of a superior class of men,
and contained not a few who were even capable of commanding a company,
causes the wrong and slight thus put upon it to be still more apparent.
Second Lieutenant Henry A. Kern of Company D was promoted to be First
Lieutenant to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of First
Lieutenant Brady to the captaincy of that company, and Augustus D.
Ayling, a most excellent soldier, formerly of Captain P. A. Davis’s
company of Lowell, was assigned to the position of Second Lieutenant.
The claims of Second Lieutenant George H. Taylor of Clarke’s company
were overlooked, and Sayles, a gentleman of no military training or
experience, was allowed to outrank Taylor in his own company, with
which he had served since July, 1861.
It would be useless to attempt to conceal the fact that the appointment
of the colonel of the regiment was exceedingly distasteful to the
officers and men of the Battalion. No fault was found with the
manner of organizing the three new companies, and the appointment
of officers of these companies, for the good reasons that these
officers had been active in the recruitment of their commands, and
were doubtless acceptable to their men. The chief cause of grievance
of the members of the Battalion, therefore, was, first, the colonelcy
of the regiment, and, secondly, the action of Governor Andrew in
filling the vacant offices in the seven old companies with new men,
and ignoring the just claims to promotion of the old officers and
enlisted men of those companies. The well-nigh unanimous sentiment of
the Battalion would have dictated a very different election of the
chief field-officer, and of several of the new officers of the line.
All the new appointments would have been made from among the officers
and men of the Battalion, of which there was abundant good material
to select from; and on the score of actual service of nearly a year’s
duration,--a service beginning at a very early period in the war, when
all was darkness and doubt,--it cannot be denied that this sentiment
was founded upon the plainest principles of equity. All the bickerings
and heart-burnings which subsequently arose in the regiment can be
directly traced to this action of our State officials; and to those who
are familiar with the facts concerning this matter, it is cause of no
little surprise, that the feeling of dissatisfaction thus produced did
not result in far graver consequences.
During the winter of 1862, charges of improper conduct were preferred
against Colonel Pierce. A court-martial convened,[25] and, upon trial,
he was found guilty, and sentenced to dismissal from the service.
General Mansfield approved of the findings of the court-martial; but
General Wool, his superior, disapproved them, and Colonel Pierce was
reinstated in his command of the regiment. With the feeling of a
faithful historian, to record the facts as he finds them, the author,
in telling the story of the regiment, has found it necessary to present
this state of affairs, the responsibility for which would seem to rest
upon the appointing power.
Some reference has been made to the Sawyer rifle at Camp Butler, in the
course of this narrative, and now we are called upon to record a very
serious accident in connection with this gun, which occurred on the
11th of February. The guns, of which there were two in the department,
were the invention of a man named Sawyer. “His system consisted of
cutting in the bore of the gun six radial twisted grooves half an inch
deep and rather more than an inch wide from muzzle to breech. The
twist was uniform, but the grooves were perhaps a trifle deeper near
the breech than at the muzzle.” The shot was a cast-iron projectile,
cylindro-conoidal in shape, and plated with lead. Both this gun and the
one at the Rip-Raps had been frequently fired during the summer and
autumn, and were found to possess great range and power. On the day
referred to, a very distinguished party were visiting Newport News,
consisting, among others, of the Secretary of War, Hon. Simon Cameron,
Senator Henry Wilson, and Secretary Seward. For the entertainment of
these visitors, the Sawyer gun, of which so much had been said, must
of course be fired. It was for the last time, however, and the shot
was to be a test one for extraordinary range. The gun was given its
extreme elevation, 30°. This almost nullified the recoil, and caused
the greatest possible strain on the walls of the gun. Officers,
soldiers, and civilians had clustered around the bastion where the gun
was mounted, with field-glasses in hand, to watch the opposite shore,
in the expectation of seeing the shell burst there. The explosion was
terrific. A portion of the breech, weighing several hundred pounds, was
sent high into the air, but so slowly as to be visible in its ascent;
and still another piece, weighing nearly three hundred and fifty
pounds, which, in falling, struck Private James W. Sheppard of Company
B, who but the day before had returned from his wedding furlough, and
crushed him to the earth, killing him instantly. Smaller fragments of
the gun struck and severely wounded Lieutenant Smith of Company I, and
Privates John F. Hall and Seth W. Paty of Company E. Private Charles
E. Jones of Company D, who was one of the gunners, was also instantly
killed. Others still were injured by the concussion caused by the
explosion, and made temporarily deaf. Captains Wilson and Clarke were
standing at the time upon the parapet, about ten yards off, and a piece
of the gun, weighing as much as a thousand pounds, flew over them,
knocking off the hat of one of them, and striking the earth some twenty
yards from the battery, partially buried itself in the ground.
Two morals were drawn from this sad affair by two of the officers
of the regiment, the one mechanical and the other military. The
mechanical moral was, that rifled cast-iron guns, on the Sawyer plan,
were a failure, and that, everything considered, it was fortunate that
the gun burst at the time it did, for, had this accident occurred in
battle, the calamity would have been far more dreadful. The military
moral was, that it is a piece of extreme folly to shoot for the
amusement of visitors.