From Cold Harbor to Petersburg.
The field in the front at Cold Harbor where those deadly assaults
had been made beggars description. Men lay in places like hogs in a
pen--some side by side, across each other, some two deep, while others
with their legs lying across the head and body of their dead comrades.
Calls all night long could be heard coming from the wounded and dying,
and one could not sleep for the sickening sound "W--a--t--e--r" ever
sounding and echoing in his ears. Ever and anon a heart-rending wail
as coming from some lost spirit disturbed the hushed stillness of the
night. There were always incentives for some of the bolder spirits,
whose love of adventure or love of gain impelled them, to visit the
battlefield before the burial detail had reached it, as many crisp
five-dollar greenbacks or even hundred-dollar interest-bearing United
States bonds could be found in the pockets of the fallen Federal
either as a part of his wages or the proceeds of his bounty. The
Federal Government was very lavish in giving recruits this bounty as
an inducement to fill the depleted ranks of "Grant the Butcher." Tom
Paysinger, of the Third, who had been detailed as a scout to General
Longstreet, was a master hand at foraging upon the battlefield.
Whether to gain information or to replenish his purse is not known,
but be that as it may, the night after the battle he crept quietly
through our lines and in the stillness and darkness he made his way
among the dead and wounded, searching the pockets of those he found.
He came upon one who was lying face downward and whom he took to be
beyond the pale of resistance, and proceeded to rifle his pockets.
After gathering a few trifles he began crawling on his hands and
knees towards another victim. When about ten steps distant the wounded
Federal, for such it proved to be, raised himself on his elbow,
grasped the gun that was lying beside him, but unknown to Paysinger,
and called out, "You d----n grave robber, take that," and bang! went
a shot at his retreating form. He then quietly resumed his recumbent
position. The bullet struck Paysinger in the thigh and ranging upwards
lodged in his hip, causing him to be a cripple for several long
months. It is needless to say Paysinger left the field. He said
afterwards he "would have turned and cut the rascal's throat, but he
was afraid he was only 'possuming' and might brain him with the butt
of his gun."
We remained in our position for several days and were greatly annoyed
by the shells thrown by mortars or cannon mounted as such, which
were continually bursting overhead or dropping in our works. The
sharpshooters with globe-sighted rifles would watch through the brush
in front of their rifle pits and as soon as a head was thoughtlessly
raised either from our pits, which were now not more than fifty yards
apart, or our breastwork, "crack!" went a rifle, a dull thud, and
one of our men lay dead. It is astonishing how apt soldiers are
in avoiding danger or warding it off, and what obstacles they can
overcome, what work they can accomplish and with so few and ill
assortment of tools when the necessity arises. To guard against the
shells that were continually dropping in our midst or outside of
our works, the soldiers began burrowing like rabbits in rear of our
earthworks and building covered ways from their breastwork to the
ground below. In a few days men could go the length of a regiment
without being exposed in the least, crawling along the tunnels all
dug with bayonets, knives, and a few wornout shovels. At some of these
angles the passer-by would be exposed, and in going from one opening
to another, only taking the fraction of a second to accomplish, a
bullet would come whizzing from some unseen source, either to the
right or left. As soon as one of these openings under a covered
way would be darkened by some one passing, away a bullet would come
singing in the aperture, generally striking the soldier passing
through. So annoying and dangerous had the practice become of shooting
in our works from an unseen source that a detail of ten or twenty men
was sent out under Lieutenant D.J. Griffith, of the Fifteenth, to
see if the concealed enemy might not be located and an end put to
the annoyance. Griffith and his men crept along cautiously in the
underbrush, while some of our men would wave a blanket across the
exposed places in the breastwork to draw the Federal fire, while
Griffith and his detail kept a sharp lookout. It was not long before
they discovered the hidden "Yank" perched in the top of a tall gum
tree, his rifle resting in the fork of a limb. Griffith got as close
as he well could without danger of being detected by some one under
the tree. When all was ready they sighted their rifles at the fellow
up the tree and waited his next fire. When it did come I expect
that Yankee and his comrades below were the worst surprised of any
throughout the war; for no sooner had his gun flashed than ten rifles
rang out in answer and the fellow fell headlong to the ground, a
distance of fifty feet or more. Beating the air with his hands and
feet, grasping at everything within sight or reach, his body rolling
and tumbling among the limbs of the tree, his head at times up, at
others down, till at last he strikes the earth, and with a terrible
rebound in the soft spongy needles Mr. "Yank" lies still, while
Griffith and his men take to their heels. It was not known positively
whether he was killed or not, but one thing Lieutenant Griffith and
his men were sure of--one Yankee, at least, had been given a long ride
in midair.
After Grant's repulse at Cold Harbor he gave up all hopes of reaching
Richmond by direct assault and began his memorable change of base.
Crossing the James River at night he undertook the capture of
Petersburg by surprise. It appears from contemporaneous history that
owing to some inexcusable blunders on our part Grant came very near
accomplishing his designs.
To better understand the campaign around Petersburg it is necessary to
take the reader back a little way. Simultaneous with Grant's advance
on the Rapidan an army of thirty thousand under the Union General
B.F. Butler was making its way up the James River and threatening
Petersburg. It was well known that Richmond would be no longer tenable
should the latter place fall. Beauregard was commanding all of North
Carolina and Virginia on the south side of the James River, but his
forces were so small and so widely scattered that they promised little
protection. When Lee and his veterans were holding back Grant and the
Union Army at the Wilderness, Brocks Cross Roads, and Spottsylvania
C.H., Beauregard with a handful of veterans and a few State troops was
"bottling up Butler" on the James. What Kershaw had been to Lee at the
Wilderness, McGowan at Spottsylvania, General Hagood was to General
Beauregard on the south side around Petersburg. General Beauregard
does not hesitate to acknowledge what obligations he was under to the
brave General Hagood and his gallant band of South Carolinians at the
most critical moments during the campaign, and it is unquestioned that
had not General Hagood come up at this opportune moment, Petersburg
would have fallen a year before it did.
General Beauregard fought some splendid battles on the south side, and
if they had not been overshadowed by the magnitude of Lee's from the
Wilderness to the James, they would have ranked in all probability
as among the greatest of the war. But from one cause and then another
during the whole campaign Beauregard was robbed of his legitimate
fruits of battle.
The low, swampy nature of the country below Richmond, especially
between the James and the Chickahominy, prevented Lee's scouts from
detecting the movements of Grant's Army for some days after the
movement began. Grant had established his headquarters at Wilcox's
Landing, on the James, and had all his forces in motion on the south
of the river by the 13th of June, while Lee was yet north of the
Chickahominy.
General Beauregard and the gallant troops under him deserve the
highest praise for their conduct in successfully giving Butler battle,
while Petersburg was in such imminent peril, and Lee still miles and
miles away. It is scarcely credible to believe with what small force
the plucky little Creole held back such an overwhelming army.
When Grant made his first crossing of the James and began the movement
against Petersburg, General Beauregard had only Wise's Brigade of
infantry, twenty-two pieces of artillery, two regiments of cavalry
under General Bearing, and a few regiments of local militia.
Grant had ordered the Eighteenth Corps (Smith's) by way of the White
House to Bermuda Hundreds, and this corps had crossed the narrow neck
of land between the James and the Appomattox, crossing the latter
river on a pontoon bridge, and was at the moment firing on Petersburg
with a force under his command of twenty-two thousand, with nothing
between General Smith and Petersburg but Beauregard's two thousand men
of all arms. Kant's Cavalry and one division of negro troops, under
Hinks, had joined their forces with Smith after coming to the south
side. Hancock's and Warren's Corps crossed the Chickahominy at Long
Bridge and the James at Wilcox's Landing, and with Grant at the head,
all were pushing on to Petersburg. Wright (Sixth) and Burnside (Ninth)
crossed by way of Jones' Bridge and the James and Appomattox on
pontoon bridges, pushing their way rapidly, as the nature of the
ground permitted, in the direction of Petersburg. Beauregard in the
meantime had been reinforced by his own troops, they having been
transferred temporarily to Lee, at Spottsylvania Court House.
Hoke's Division reached Petersburg at twelve o'clock, on the 15th of
June. Hagood's Brigade, of that division, being transported by rail
from the little town of Chester, reached the city about night. Bushrod
Johnson's Brigade was ordered up from Bermuda on the 16th. Beauregard
being thus reinforced, had ten thousand troops of all arms on the
morning of the 16th, with which to face Meade's Army, consisting
of Hancock's, Smith's, and Burnside's Corps, aggregating sixty-six
thousand men. Meade made desperate and continuous efforts to break
through this weak line of gray, but without effect Only one division
of Federals gained any permanent advantage. Warren, with four
divisions, now reinforced Meade, bringing the Federal Army up to
ninety thousand, with no help for Beauregard yet in sight. From noon
until late at night of the 17th the force of this entire column
was hurled against the Confederate lines, without any appreciable
advantage, with the exception of one division before alluded to. Lee
was still north of the James with his entire army, and undecided as
to Grant's future movements. He was yet in doubt whether Grant had
designs directly against the Capital, or was endeavoring to cut his
communications by the capture of Petersburg. Beauregard had kept
General Lee and the war department thoroughly advised of his peril
and of the overwhelming numbers in his front, but it was not until
midnight of the 17th that the Confederate commander determined to
change his base and cross to the south side of the James. It was at
that hour that Kershaw's Brigade received its orders to move at once.
For the last few days the army had been gradually working its way
towards the James River, and was now encamped near Rice's Station.
From the manner in which we were urged forward, it was evident that
our troops somewhere were in imminent peril. The march started as a
forced one, but before daylight it had gotten almost to a run. All the
regiments stood the great strain without flinching, with the exception
of the Twentieth. The "Old Twentieth Army Corps," as that regiment was
now called, could not stand what the old veterans did, and fell by the
way side. It was not for want of patriotism or courage, but simply a
want of seasoning. Fully half of the "Corps" fell out. When we reached
Petersburg, about sunrise, we found only Wise's Brigade and several
regiments of old men and boys, hastily gotten together to defend their
city, until the regulars came up. They had been fighting in the ranks,
these gray-beards and half-grown boys, for three days, and to their
credit be it said, "they weathered the storm" like their kinsmen in
Wise's Brigade, and showed as much courage and endurance as the best
of veterans. On the streets were ladies of every walk in life, some
waving banners and handkerchiefs, some clapping their hands and giving
words of cheer as the soldiers came by with their swinging step, their
clothes looking as if they had just swum the river. Were the ladies
refugeeing--getting out of harm's way? Not a bit of it. They looked
equally as determined and defiant as their brothers and fathers in
ranks--each and all seemed to envy the soldier his rifle. If Richmond
had become famous through the courage and loyalty of her daughters,
Petersburg was equally entitled to share the glories of her older
sister, Richmond.
Kershaw's Brigade relieved that of General Wise, taking position on
extreme right, resting its right on the Jerusalem plank road, and
extending towards the left over the hill and across open fields. Wise
had some hastily constructed works, with rifle pits in front. These
later had to be relieved under a heavy fire from the enemy's battle
line. As the other brigades of the division came up, they took
position on the left. Fields' Division and R.H. Anderson's, now of
this corps, did not come up for some hours yet. General Anderson, in
the absence of General Longstreet, commanded the corps as senior Major
General. Before our division lines were properly adjusted, Warren's
whole corps made a mad rush upon the works, now manned by a
thin skirmish line, and seemed determined to drive us from our
entrenchments by sheer weight of numbers. But Kershaw displayed no
inclination to yield, until the other portions of our corps came
upon the field. After some hours of stubborn fighting, and failing
to dislodge us, the enemy withdrew to strengthen and straighten their
lines and bring them more in harmony with ours. About four o'clock in
the afternoon Meade organized a strong column of assault, composed of
the Second, Fifth, and the Ninth Army Corps, and commanded in person,
holding one corps in reserve. The artillery of the four corps was put
in position, and a destructive fire was opened upon us by fifty pieces
of the best field artillery. The infantry then commenced the storming
of our works, but Field's Division had come up and was on the line.
General Lee had given strength to our position by his presence, coming
upon the field about eleven o'clock, and gave personal direction
to the movements of the troops. The battle raged furiously until
nightfall, but with no better results on the enemy's side than had
attended him for the last three days--a total repulse at every point.
By noon the next day Lee's whole force south of the James was within
the entrenched lines of the city, and all felt perfectly safe and
secure. Our casualties were light in comparison to the fighting
done during the day, but the enemy was not only defeated, but badly
demoralized.
Kershaw and Fields, of Lee's Army, with ten thousand under General
Beauregard, making a total of twenty thousand, successfully combatted
Grant's whole army, estimated by the Federals themselves as being
ninety thousand. These are some figures that might well be taken
in consideration when deeds of prowess and Southern valor are being
summed up.
Grant seemed determined to completely invest Petersburg on the south
side by continually pushing his lines farther to the left, lengthening
our lines and thereby weakening them. On the 21st of June the Second
and Sixth Corps of the Federal Army moved on to the west of the
Jerusalem plank road, while the Fifth was to take up position on the
east side. In the manoeuver, or by some misunderstanding, the Fifth
Corps became separated from those of the other divisions, thereby
leaving a gap of about a division intervening. General Lee seeing
this opportunity to strike the enemy a blow, and as A.P. Hill was then
coming up, he ordered him to push his force forward and attack the
enemy in flank. Moving his troops forward with that despatch that ever
attended the Third Corps of our army, it struck the enemy a stunning
blow in the flank and rear, driving them back in great disorder,
capturing several thousand prisoners and a battery or two of
artillery. The enemy continued to give way until they came upon their
strong entrenched position; then Hill retired and took his place on
the line. Again Grant started his cavalry out on raids to capture and
destroy the railroads leading into Petersburg and Richmond, the route
by which the entire army of Lee had to look for supplies. But at
Reams' Station Hampton met the larger body of the enemy's cavalry and
after a hard fought battle, in which he utterly routed the enemy, he
captured his entire wagon train and all his artillery. A short time
after this Grant sent Hancock, one of the ablest Generals in the
Federal Army, (a true, thorough gentleman, and as brave as the
bravest, and one whom the South in after years had the pleasure of
showing its gratitude and admiration for those qualities so rare in
many of the Federal commanders, by voting for him for President of
the United States) with a large body of cavalry to destroy the Weldon
Road at all hazard and to so possess it that its use to our army
would be at an end. After another hard battle, in which the enemy
lost five thousand men, Hancock succeeded in his mission and captured
and retained the road. The only link now between the capital and
the other sections of the South on which the subsistence of the army
depended was that by Danville, Va. This was a military road completed
by the government in anticipation of those very events that had now
transpired. Another road on which the government was bending all its
energies to complete, but failed for want of time, was a road running
from Columbia to Augusta, Ga. This was to be one of the main arteries
of the South in case Charleston should fail to hold out and the
junction of the roads at Branchville fall in the hands of the enemy.
Our lines of transportation, already somewhat circumscribed, were
beginning to grow less and less. Only one road leading South by way
of Danville, and should the road to Augusta, Ga., via Columbia and
Branchville, be cut the South or the Armies of the West and that of
the East would be isolated. As gloomy as our situation looked, there
was no want of confidence in the officers and the troops. The rank and
file of the South had never considered a condition of failure. They
felt their cause to be sacred, that they were fighting for rights and
principles for which all brave people will make every sacrifice to
maintain, that the bravery of a people like that which the South had
shown to the world, the spirits that animated them, the undaunted
courage by which the greatest battles had been fought and
victories gained against unprecedented numbers, all this under such
circumstances and under such leadership--the South could not fail.
Momentary losses, temporary reverses might prolong the struggle, but
to change the ultimate results, never. And at the North there
were loud and widespread murmurings, no longer confined to the
anti-abolitionist and pro slavery party, but it came from statesmen
the highest in the land, it came from the fathers and mothers whose
sons had fallen like autumn leaves from the Rapidan to the Appomattox.
The cries and wails of the thousands of orphans went up to high Heaven
pleading for those fathers who had left them to fill the unsatiate
maw of cruel, relentless war. The tears of thousands and thousands
of widows throughout the length and breadth of the Union fell like
scalding waters upon the souls of the men who were responsible for
this holocaust. Their voices and murmuring, though like Rachael's
"weeping for her children and would not be comforted," all this to
appease the Moloch of war and to gratify the ambition of fanatics.
The people, too, of the North, who had to bear all this burden, were
sorely pressed and afflicted at seeing their hard earned treasures or
hoarded wealth, the fruits of their labor, the result of their toil
of a lifetime, going to feed this army of over two millions of men, to
pay the bounties of thousands of mercenaries of the old countries and
the unwilling freedmen soldiers of the South. All this only to humble
a proud people and rob them of their inherent rights, bequeathed
to them by the ancestry of the North and South. How was it with
the South? Not a tear, not a murmur. The mothers, with that Spartan
spirit, buckled on the armor of their sons with pride and courage, and
with the Spartan injunction, bade them "come home with your shield, or
on it." The fathers, like the Scottish Chieftain, if he lost his first
born, would put forward his next, and say, "Another one for Hector."
Their storehouses, their barns, and graneries were thrown open,
and with lavish hands bade the soldiers come and take--come and buy
without money and without price. Even the poor docile slave, for whom
some would pretend these billions of treasure were given and oceans of
blood spilled, toiled on in peace and contentment, willing to make
any and every sacrifice, and toil day and night, for the interest and
advancement of his master's welfare. He was as proud of his master's
achievements, of our victories, and was even as willing to throw his
body in this bloody vortex as if the cause had been his own. The women
of the South, from the old and bending grandmothers, who sat in the
corner, with their needles flying steady and fast, to the aristocratic
and pampered daughter of wealth, toiled early and toiled late with
hands and bodies that never before knew or felt the effects of
work--all this that the soldier in the trenches might be clothed and
fed--not alone for members of their families, but for the soldiers
all, especially those who were strangers among us--those who had left
their homes beyond the Potomac and the Tennessee. The good housewife
stripped her household to send blankets and bedding to the needy
soldiers. The wheel and loom could be heard in almost every household
from the early morn until late at night going to give not comforts,
but necessities of life, to the boys in the trenches. All ranks were
leveled, and the South was as one band of brothers and sisters. All
formality and restraint were laid aside, and no such thing as stranger
known. The doors were thrown open to the soldiers wherever and
whenever they chose to enter; the board was always spread, and a ready
welcome extended. On the march, when homes were to be passed, or along
the sidewalks in cities, the ladies set the bread to baking and would
stand for hours in the doorway or at some convenient window to cut and
hand out slice after slice to the hungry soldiers as long as a loaf
was left or a soldier found.
With such a people to contend, with such heroes to face in the field,
was it any wonder that the North began to despair of ever conquering
the South? There was but one way by which the Northern leaders saw
possible to defeat such a nation of "hereditary madmen in war." It was
by continually wearing them away by attrition. Every man killed in the
South was one man nearer the end. It mattered not what the cost might
be--if two or a dozen soldiers fell, if a dozen households were put in
mourning, and widows and orphans were made by the score--the sacrifice
must be made and endured. The North had found in Grant a fit weapon
by which to give the blow--a man who could calmly see the slaughter
of thousands to gain an end, if by so doing the end in view could be
expedited. The absence of all feelings of humanity, the coolness
and indifference with which he looked upon his dead, his calmness
in viewing the slaughter as it was going on, gained for him the
appellation of "Grant, the Butcher." Grant saw, too, the odds and
obstacles with which he had to contend and overcome when he wrote
these memorable words, "Lee has robbed the cradle and the grave." Not
odds in numbers and materials, but in courage, in endurance, in the
sublime sacrifice the South was making in men and treasure. Scarcely
an able-bodied man in the South--nay, not one who could be of
service--who was not either in the trenches, in the ranks of the
soldiers, or working in some manner for the service. All from sixteen
to fifty were now in actual service, while all between fourteen and
sixteen and from fifty to sixty were guarding forts, railroads, or
Federal prisoners. These prisoners had been scattered all over the
South, and began to be unwieldy. The Federals under the policy of
beating the South by depleting their ranks without battle in the field
had long since refused the exchange of prisoners. They had, by offers
of enticing bounties, called from the shores of the Old Country
thousands of poor emigrants, who would enlist merely for the money
there was in it. Thousands and thousands of prisoners captured could
not speak a word of English. They had whole brigades of Irish and
Dutch, while the Swedes, Poles, Austrians, as well as Italians, were
scattered in the ranks throughout the army. In the capturing of a
batch of prisoners, to a stranger who would question them, it would
seem more like we were fighting the armies of Europe than our kinsmen
of the North. In fact, I believe if the real truth of it was known,
the greater part of the Federal Army in the closing days of the
Confederacy was either foreigners or sons of foreigners.
Were there ever before such people as those of the Southland? Were
there ever such patriotic fathers, such Christian mothers, such brave
and heroic sons and daughters? Does it look possible at this late day
that a cause so just and righteous could fail, with such men and women
to defend it? It is enough to cause the skeptic to smile at the faith
of those who believe in God's interference in human affairs and in the
efficacy of prayers. The cause of the South was just and right, and
no brave men would have submitted without first staking their all upon
the issue of cruel, bloody war. Impartial history will thus record the
verdict.
* * * * *