In my memories of the Civil War I shall confine myself as closely
as possible to events which I saw, and in an humble way, a part of
which I was. When on the 18th of April, 1861, the train bearing the
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment to Washington, halted at the Trenton
station in New Jersey, the Governor of that state walking in a
thoughtful mood up and down the platform, was asked by a friend,
what he was thinking about. He replied, “I am thinking about that
damned little state of Massachusetts. Here she is two days after the
call for troops, with seven states between her and Washington, half
way to that city with a full regiment armed and equipped, bearing
the first relief to our beleaguered capital. How could she do it?”
My answer to the Governor’s question is that Massachusetts had an
executive who knew how to do things, and a people accustomed to take
the initiative in important emergencies. Governor John A. Andrew was
inaugurated on the 5th of January, 1861, and before he slept that
night he despatched confidential messages to the Governors of the
other New England states urging preparations for the crisis, which
he believed to be impending. Realizing also that the 8th of January
would be the anniversary of Andrew Jackson’s victory in the battle
of New Orleans, though Massachusetts had not been in the habit of
celebrating that day, he seized the opportunity to arouse the spirit
of patriotism among the people and ordered a hundred guns to be
fired on the noon of the 8th on Boston Common, and national salutes
to be fired in Charlestown, Lexington, Concord, Waltham, Roxbury,
Marblehead, Newburyport, Salem, Groton, Lynn, Worcester, Greenfield,
Northampton, Fall River and Lowell. The guns fired on that day were
the first guns of the war, and, as a note of defiance to South
Carolina, which had voted itself out of the Union, they sent a thrill
through every loyal heart, and turned the minds of the people into
channels to be gradually familiarized with thoughts of war. On the
16th of January, eleven days after the inauguration, he directed the
promulgation of an order requiring the commanders of all volunteer
militia companies to take immediate steps to fill their ranks
with men ready to respond to the call of the commander-in-chief,
discharging any who were not so ready, and supplying their places
with those who were. At a later date the Governor by contracts
afterwards confirmed by the legislature, ordered six thousand yards
of cloth, a yard and a half wide at $1.37 per yard, two thousand
military overcoats at $2.15 each, two thousand knapsacks of the army
pattern at $1.88 each, one thousand pairs of blankets at $3.75 a
pair, two thousand haversacks at 75 cents each, coat buttons costing
$740, two hundred thousand ball cartridges at $14 a thousand, and
three hundred thousand percussion caps. The legislature adjourned on
the 11th of April, having appropriated one hundred thousand dollars
as an emergency fund, twenty-five thousand dollars for overcoats and
equipage, and having so far amended the existing militia law which
limited the active militia to five thousand men, as to give the
Governor authority to organize as many companies and regiments as the
public exigency might require. Such, your Excellency, the Governor of
New Jersey, was the condition of Massachusetts, when the first call
for troops was made on the 15th of April, and thus is your question
answered. Massachusetts was ready with her toe on the line when the
call to arms was sounded.
On the 15th of April, Company B, 3rd Regiment, the Standish Guards of
Plymouth, was without a captain. Charles C. Doten, 1st Lieutenant in
command, was at that time in charge of the telegraph office, in the
rooms now occupied by Mr. Loring’s watchmaker’s-shop on Main street.
In the early evening of that day he received a despatch from David
W. Wardrop of New Bedford, Colonel of the Third Regiment, ordering
him to report with his company to him on Boston Common the next
forenoon. A messenger bearing an official order reached Plymouth
during the night. The news of the order spread like the wind through
every street, and into every house and home. The excitement was
intense. Every store was vacated by its loungers, every meeting was
dissolved, and every family circle gathered around the evening lamp
was broken up, and the armory of the Guards in Union Building on the
corner of Main and Middle streets, became at once the meeting place
of the citizens. One after another of the members of the company
who were accessible, reported himself, every man ready to respond
to the call. As chairman of the Board of Selectmen I gave the men
assurances, which were reinforced by prominent citizens, that their
families would be provided for during their absence, and ready hands
were offered to take up and finish any work which they might leave
uncompleted. The call was for three months’ service, and at nine
o’clock the next morning nineteen members of the Company marched to
the station, escorted by a large procession of citizens, and embarked
for Boston. With the addition of two members joining at Abington,
and two others joining in Boston, the company was quartered that
night in the hall over the Old Colony Railroad station, and Wednesday
morning received nineteen recruits from Plymouth. In the afternoon of
that day the Company embarked on the steamer S. R. Spaulding, which
hauled into the stream, and anchored for the night. After the steamer
had left the wharf, seventeen additional recruits reached Boston,
and quartering in Faneuil Hall, joined their comrades aboard ship
on Thursday morning. On Thursday the 18th, the steamer sailed for
Fortress Monroe with sixty men in the ranks of the company.
I do not propose at this stage of my memories to follow the Plymouth
soldiers to the front, but shall at a later point in my narrative
include a list of their names, and as far as possible an account
of their services in the field. While in Boston with the Plymouth
Company, I offered to the Governor on Wednesday in behalf of the
Plymouth bank, of which I was President, the use of twenty thousand
dollars as a contribution to an emergency fund to meet expenditures
which must at once be made. I have every reason to believe that this
was the first contribution made by the banks of Massachusetts to a
fund, which when an extra session of the legislature convened on
the 14th of May, had reached the sum of thirty-six hundred thousand
dollars. This fund was necessary, as when the extra session met the
amount of the emergency fund provided for at the regular session,
had been exceeded by expenditures and liabilities by the sum of four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. On my return home the Selectmen
called an informal meeting of the citizens to meet on the afternoon
of Saturday the 20th to consider ways and means to provide for the
families of the soldiers. At that meeting it was voted, “That the
Selectmen be requested to apply and distribute at their discretion a
sum not exceeding $2,000 towards the assistance of those families who
by the sudden departure of the troops are left in need of pecuniary
aid—such sum to be raised in the name of the town, or in such other
way as the Selectmen shall deem expedient.”
On Wednesday, April 24th, I was in Philadelphia, and after concluding
the business which had called me there, I made up my mind that if
possible I would run on to Washington. General Butler had left
Philadelphia on Saturday the 20th, and at Perryville on the north
bank of the Susquehanna River, had with the 8th Massachusetts
Regiment embarked on board the ferry boat Maryland for Annapolis, as
the railroad between the river and Baltimore had been obstructed, and
the bridges burned. The 7th New York Regiment, at the same time took
the steamer Boston at Philadelphia and started for Annapolis by the
way of the Delaware river and the sea. Going to the Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore station in Broad street, I asked Mr.
Felton, the President of the road, if it were possible to reach
Washington. He told me that there was no communication by rail or
wire with any point south of the Susquehanna, and that nothing was
known of the movements of the Maryland since she left Perryville on
the previous Saturday. He said that Major T. W. Sherman’s Battery
was at Elkton on the line of the road awaiting an opportunity to go
to Washington, and that when the Maryland returned from Annapolis
he should despatch a train, with the view of following in the wake
of Gen. Butler. After waiting in his office an hour or two, he told
me that the boat had arrived, and that he should start a train for
Perryville at four o’clock. At that hour the train started, made up
of a single passenger car, a combination car, and a platform car,
carrying two guns protected by a portholed sheet iron casemate. There
were only three or four on board, and not wishing to be discommoded
by impedimenta on a somewhat doubtful excursion, I left my valise
at the hotel. Arriving at Perryville in the early evening with
the Battery which we found waiting at Elkton, we embarked on the
Maryland for the trip down the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay
outside of Baltimore to Annapolis, which we reached about midnight.
On our way we passed over the anchorage ground where Francis Scott
Key, while a prisoner on board of a British man of war in the war
of 1812, witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry, and wrote the
“Star Spangled Banner.” As we sailed over the spot the Battery men
gathered on deck and sang the song with the very scene in view which
had originally inspired it. Lying at the entrance of Annapolis harbor
until we had communicated by rockets with the town, we finally
reached the wharf, passing the frigate Constitution on the way,
which with sails bent by members of the Marblehead companies in the
eighth regiment was about to be taken for safety to New York, manned
with the Marblehead men. At Annapolis we learned that when General
Butler arrived with the 8th Massachusetts, the rebels had torn up the
track of the branch road connecting Annapolis with the Baltimore and
Washington railroad, and disabled the locomotives. But the General
was equal to the emergency, and with mechanics in his command he
relaid the track, with machinists also in the ranks he repaired the
locomotives, and also with his Marblehead soldiers he bent sails on
the Constitution. The day before he had marched on to the junction,
and was then with the 7th New York artillery at the junction, or in
Washington.
We arrived in Washington about daylight on Thursday morning, the
25th, and while registering my name at Willard’s hotel, I heard the
cry of fire, and going out found a fire well started in a building
on the avenue next to the hotel. The efforts of the firemen seemed
to be unavailing, with ladders too short, and no means of reaching
the roof of the building. Directly cheers and the rattle of wheels
were heard up the avenue, and the Ellsworth Zouaves appeared on the
scene. They were quartered in the Capitol, and hearing the alarm had
jumped out of the windows, and breaking open an unused engine house
in which was stored an old engine, they dragged the machine down the
avenue at a double quick, and were at once the chief actors in the
scene. They were nearly all New York firemen, and hence were called
the Fire Zouaves, and shinning up the water spouts they were soon on
the roof, where I saw two of them hang a comrade by his legs over
the eaves so that he could reach the hose held by a ladderman, and be
pulled up with it to the flat roof above. What was mere play for them
was done in the presence of a cheering crowd, and the fire was soon
extinguished.
There were then four Regiments in Washington, the Sixth
Massachusetts, the Ellsworth Fire Zouaves, the Seventh Regiment of
New York and the First Rhode Island commanded by Colonel Ambrose
E. Burnside. The two first were in the capitol, the Rhode Island
Regiment was quartered in one of the public buildings, and the
Seventh Regiment was encamped. All of these Regiments, except the
6th Massachusetts, had reached Annapolis by the sea, and the 8th
Massachusetts Regiment was still encamped between Annapolis Junction
and Washington. I called on Col. Jones of the Sixth, and visited
the quarters of the other regiments. The tale told by Col. Jones
of his passage through Baltimore, and his reception in Washington,
was pathetic, indeed, and aroused a feeling of pride in my state,
which I had never so completely experienced before. This feeling
was intensified by the tales told me by men of Washington who with
tears in their eyes described the march up the avenue of the regiment
on the nineteenth, and the sudden transformation from despair to
hope, from despondency to joy, from the fear of the capture of the
city to an assurance of its safety, the tale always ending with the
exclamation, “God Bless old Massachusetts.” Wherever it was known,
whence and how I came to Washington, I found everything wide open. In
the evening I returned to Annapolis, and so on to Philadelphia, and
reached home on Saturday.
After my return the Selectmen issued a warrant for a town meeting
to be held on the 11th of May to further provide for soldiers’
families, and to appropriate money for uniforms and equipments. At
that meeting it was voted to confirm the vote passed at the informal
meeting on the 20th of April, and in addition it was voted to pay six
dollars per month to each soldier with a family, who shall enlist
for the war, and four dollars per month to each unmarried soldier
during the term of one year from the first of May. It was also voted
to appropriate $1,500 for equipping volunteers for three years’
service, who might be citizens of Plymouth. At the special session of
the legislature convened on the 14th of May, the state adopted the
monthly pay to the soldiers, and it became henceforth what was called
state aid. Before the 6th of May Samuel H. Doten had been authorized
to recruit a company for three years’ service, and had promptly
enrolled sixty-seven men, including himself, whose enlistment papers
bore the above date. By authority of the Selectmen, acting under
the vote of the town, passed on the 11th of May, the ladies of the
town at once bought materials, and in Leyden Hall, met daily for the
purpose of making uniforms. The company was equipped at an expense
of $1,025.49, and on the 18th of May left for Boston. They marched
directly to the State House, where they were drawn up in Mt. Vernon
street some hours awaiting acceptance, and a supply of muskets and
equipments, including overcoats, blankets, knapsacks, and haversacks.
The acceptance of the company was delayed by the interference of Hon.
Henry Wilson, who had arrived that morning from Washington, and was
urging upon the Governor a stoppage of enlistments. When I went to
the Governor’s room to report the arrival of the company, I met Mr.
Wilson at the door, and he said, “Davis, carry your company home, we
have got all the men we want, and more, too;” but notwithstanding he
was chairman of the committee on Military Affairs on the part of the
United States Senate, Governor Andrew disregarded his opinion, and
finally in due form accepted the company and ordered the necessary
arms and equipments. On the 1st of January, 1861, the state owned
ten thousand serviceable muskets and twenty-five hundred Springfield
rifles, and after ineffectual efforts of myself and Capt. Doten,
to secure the rifles, the company was obliged to take up with the
inferior arms. On that afternoon, the 18th of May, the company went
on board the steamer Cambridge, and sailed for Fortress Monroe, where
it was attached to the Third Regiment during that Regiment’s three
months’ service.
After the departure of the Standish Guards, Plymouth was left without
a military company, and to meet any possible emergency it was thought
advisable to organize a Home Guard. Its ranks were at once filled,
and meetings were held for drill in Davis Hall, which continued for
several months. Nathaniel Brown, who in earlier days was skilled
as a drill master in the volunteer militia, was chosen captain, and
I held the position of 1st Lieutenant. As chairman of the Board of
Selectmen I urged the formation of the company, believing that it
would serve as a preparatory school for military instruction; which
would in due time develop a military spirit, and promote enlistments.
Such proved to be the effect of the organization as of those who were
at various times its members, nearly all joined the army.
At the time of which I am speaking wage earners in Plymouth found
little to do, and the monthly pay to soldiers’ families was proving
inadequate to meet their necessities. The wives and mothers of the
soldiers were anxious to add to their means of support if work
could be furnished them. In order to do what I could to help them I
made arrangements with a clothing house in Boston to send me such
quantities of cut out clothing as they were able, which was eagerly
taken and made up, and sent back to Boston. For some weeks my house
looked like a clothing store, with cases packing and unpacking, and
applicants for work coming and going with bundles of garments either
cut out or made up.
In the last week of May, Governor Andrew asked me to visit the
Massachusetts soldiers at their various camps, and report to him in
writing concerning their condition and needs, and any complaints they
might make of their treatment in the service. These troops consisted
of the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th Massachusetts Regiments, already
referred to, to which the 5th Regiment, Cook’s Battery and the Third
Battalion of Rifles had been added.
On the 4th of March, 1861, the day of the inauguration of President
Lincoln, the government was without money and without credit. Howell
Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the treasury, under Buchanan, had
before resigning looted the treasury, and placing about six millions
where it could be used by the projected Confederacy, had left the
government chest with not enough money to pay for a single day’s
supply of stationery. John B. Floyd of Virginia, secretary of war,
had before resigning, disarmed as far as possible the free states,
transferring from the arsenals at Springfield, Mass., and Watervliet,
New York, to arsenals in the slave states, one hundred and fifteen
thousand arms, and a large amount of cannon, mortars, balls, powder
and shells. Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, secretary of the navy, a
northern man with southern principles, had performed his part of
the great conspiracy, by so dispersing the national war vessels as
to render them ineffective in the hands of the government. Of a
fleet of ninety vessels, carrying 2,415 guns, five were sent to the
East Indies; three to Brazil; seven to the Pacific; three to the
Mediterranean, and seven to the coast of Africa, leaving, besides
dismantled ships, only two, the steamer Brooklyn, 25 guns, and the
storeship Relief, two guns, in northern ports. These men should not
have been permitted to escape punishment, not because they became
secessionists, but because, while holding office under a government
which they had sworn to support, they had been guilty of treason.
The well laid plan of the Confederates was to first weaken the hands
of the government while strengthening their own, and then as soon as
Sumter fell to seize Harper’s Ferry, Washington and Fortress Monroe,
the three outposts of the slave states, and to hold them against
any forces which the north might be able to raise in time for their
recovery. But they calculated without their host. They failed to take
into account the rapidity with which Yankees act in an emergency, and
they believed that before the militia of the north could be prepared
to move, their own initiatory steps would have been successfully
taken. They little thought that within five days after the fall of
Sumter the state of Massachusetts would occupy Fortress Monroe with
two regiments, and Washington with two more.
In the early movements of the government the depleted state of the
treasury made it necessary to seek the aid of the states in carrying
on the war. The first attempt to raise money by a loan resulted in
bids from bankers running from 85 to 40 for six per cent. bonds, all
of which were rejected. In this emergency Massachusetts as usual
came to the front, and buying two steamboats, the Cambridge and
Pembroke, kept them busy for many weeks in transporting from Boston
to Annapolis, Fortress Monroe and Washington soldiers, provisions and
camp equipage. As the rebel batteries on the Potomac rendered for
some time a passage to Washington by the river impracticable, at
first the trips of these steamers were chiefly confined to Fortress
Monroe. As the Cambridge was to sail on Friday, May 31, for the
Fortress, Governor Andrew asked me to go out in her and visit the
Massachusetts troops there, and if practicable in the neighborhood
of Washington, also, and as already stated, report to him their
condition, sanitary and otherwise, with the view of allaying the
anxieties of soldiers’ families from whom he had received earnest
inquiries. With Hon. John Morissey as a companion, I left Boston at 4
o’clock, Friday afternoon, having also as fellow passengers, General
Ebenezer W. Pierce, with the members of his staff, one of whom was
Col. Wm. C. Lovering, our present member of Congress. There were on
board twenty carpenters and twenty-nine sappers and miners, and our
cargo consisted of lumber, provisions and camp equipage of various
kinds. During the trip I spent much of my time in the pilot house,
and having kept a pretty close run of our courses and distances, by
a sort of instinct, I guessed from time to time our position. About
eight o’clock on Sunday evening, while smoking my cigar in the pilot
house, I said to Capt. Matthews, “You, of course, know your own
business better than a landsman, but it seems to me that if you keep
on this course much longer you will go ashore.” His smile indicated
that he did not think much of a landsman’s reckoning, and not long
after I went below and turned in. I was soon awakened by the stoppage
of the engine, and directly a steward rapped at my door and said that
the steamer was ashore, and the captain wanted all hands on deck.
On reaching the deck I found the propeller churning the water with
a full back, without any movement of the vessel. The two howitzers,
which had been on the forward deck, had been moved aft, and all hands
were jumping. It was fortunately a dead calm, with scarcely a ripple
on the shore, and after a while we succeeded in backing into deep
water. We had crossed a sand bar just rubbing it, as we went, and
had gone onto Hog Island twenty-five or thirty miles north of Cape
Charles. After sending out a boat to sound a passage for recrossing
the bar, we reached about daylight the open sea, and were on our way
to the Fortress which we reached about ten o’clock Monday forenoon.
Some excuse may be found for the blunder of the captain, in the
fact that all the lights from Maryland to Texas, except those at Key
West, Tortugas and Rosas Island, had been put out by the rebels,
and possibly there may have been a current setting to the north at
that time. I believe, however, that in navigation, as in many other
matters, there is something in instinct, or what you feel in your
bones, as old women say, which should not be disregarded.
When we landed at the Fortress, some of the Plymouth boys were on the
wharf expecting boxes from home, and they were, of course, glad to
see us. We loaded them down with packages, of which a box of tea was
the most prized, as tea was not included in the regular rations. The
Fortress is surrounded by a moat, which is crossed by four bridges.
Entering the main gate after crossing the bridge leading to it, I
found myself in an area about seventy acres in extent, with casemates
on the right, barracks on the left, a parade ground of about seven
acres in the centre, and in the distance a two story brick building,
the headquarters of General B. F. Butler, who was the commander at
the post. Calling at once on the General, with whom I was intimate,
having been with him in the senate two years before, he received us
with courtesy, and invited us to make his house our home as long as
we remained at the Fortress. He introduced us to his nephew, Capt.
John Butler, and Major Haggerty, members of his staff, and to his
military secretary, Major Theodore Winthrop, the last of whom was our
constant companion during our visit. He and I seemed to have found
our affinities, and I do not think on so short an acquaintance I ever
formed so strong an attachment. When at the end of the week we left
for Washington, he came down to the steamboat to bid us good-bye,
and I little thought that on the next Monday, the 10th, he would
meet his death on the battlefield of Big Bethel. He was born in New
Haven, September 22, 1828, and in 1848 graduated at Yale. He began
the practice of law in St. Louis, but removed to New York, where he
acquired reputation as the author of Cecil Dreeme, John Brent and
other popular books. He went to Washington with the New York seventh
regiment, and was selected by General Butler as a member of his staff.
There were thirteen Massachusetts companies in the Fortress: The
Halifax Company, Captain Harlow; Plymouth Standish Guards, Capt.
Charles C. Doten; Plymouth Rock Guards, Capt. Samuel H. Doten;
Freetown Company, Capt. Marble; Plympton Company, Capt. Perkins;
Carver Company, Capt. McFarlin; New Bedford Company, Capt. Ingraham;
Cambridge Company, Capt. Richardson; Sandwich Company, Capt.
Chipman; East Bridgewater Company, Capt. Leach; Lynn Company, Capt.
Chamberlin; Boston Company, Capt. Tyler; and Lowell Company, Capt.
Davis. Of these companies two, the Boston and Lynn, belonged to the
4th Regiment, which was encamped at Newport News, and the Lowell
company was attached to the post, the remaining ten forming the 3d
regiment. The officers were quartered in the casemates, and the
privates in various buildings, the Cambridge and Halifax companies
in the carriage shop, the Plympton company in a room overhead, the
two Plymouth companies in the forge, which had been floored over, the
East Bridgewater, New Bedford, Sandwich and Lowell companies in other
buildings, and the remainder of the Massachusetts companies in tents.
The health of the men was good, only ten being in the hospital, and
twenty off duty all told in the thirteen companies. I made a note
of the rations for eleven days allowed to a company of seventy men,
which included 352½ pounds of pork; 352½ pounds of salt beef; 45
quarts of beans; 47 quarts of rice, 103½ pounds of coffee; 155 pounds
of sugar; 10½ gallons of vinegar; 12¾ pounds of candles; 41 pounds of
soap; 20½ quarts of salt; 352 pounds of fresh beef, a fresh supply of
bread every day, and an allowance of potatoes and chocolate. The East
Bridgewater Company had not received the new uniforms, the Plympton
Company was without overcoats, and none of the companies had canteens
or rubber blankets, all of which, however, were supplied later. On
the Hampton camping ground outside of the Fortress, there were five
New York regiments, commanded by Colonels Duryea, Allen, Townsend,
Carr and McChesny, and General Pierce had his headquarters in the
Hampton female seminary. The troops I have mentioned, with a few
regulars made up the force at and about the Fortress during my visit,
which extended from the third to the seventh of June.
On Tuesday, June 4th, we went seven miles or more up the bay to
Newport News at the mouth of James River, where the 4th Massachusetts
Regiment was in camp. We went up in the Steamer “Cataline,” a
spelling of the name of the old Roman, for which the author may have
had the excuse of Major Ben Russell, the editor of the _Columbian
Centinel_ who, when printing his first number, having no capital S,
substituted C, and having begun with that letter, always continued
its use. At Newport News there were encamped all of the Fourth
Massachusetts Regiment except the two companies, which were at the
Fortress, the Steuben Rifles of New York under Col. Bendix, and a
Vermont regiment under Col. Washburn, the whole under the command of
Colonel Phelps of Vermont. Newport News is a peninsula, bounded on
one side by the bay and on the other by James River, and an earthwork
had been constructed a half mile long, extending across it. Three
hundred and thirty of the Fourth were without tents, and occupying
huts made of rails covered with branches. For several days tents
had been lying piled up on the wharf at the Fortress, but owing to
inefficiency, or red tape, they were not delivered until the sixth
of June. The hospital was in charge of F. A. Saville of Quincy, and
from the three regiments it had only three inmates. Henry Walker, now
a lawyer in Boston and the Commander of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company on its late visit to England, was Adjutant of the
Fourth, and a friend whom I was glad to see.
On Monday, the tenth of June, the next week after our visit, General
Pierce was ordered by General Butler to take five companies of the
Fourth, the Steuben Rifles, and Col. Washburn’s New York Regiment,
and go up the peninsula from twelve to twenty miles and dislodge
a force of rebels at Little and Big Bethel. By a sad blunder Col.
Washburn’s Regiment was fired upon by the Steuben Rifles and eleven
men were killed, thus breaking up the expedition in which before its
retreat Major Winthrop and three of the Fourth Massachusetts were
killed.
The Sloop of War Roanoke under the command of Commodore John Marston,
the Steamer Vanderbilt, which had been given to the government
by Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane
temporarily attached to the navy, were anchored between the Fortress
and Newport News. Commodore Marston was well known in Plymouth by the
Watson family, to whom he was related, and during a winter spent in
Philadelphia, where he lived, I was intimate with him and his family.
Both as an old friend and as a Plymouth man, he extended to me every
courtesy. The Harriet Lane was commanded by Capt. John Faunce, a
Plymouth man, first cousin of our townsman, Richard W. Bagnell, their
mothers having been sisters, and daughters of Ebenezer Sampson. John
was one of the boys, as fearless as Paul Jones or Farragut, and would
have enjoyed nothing better than to have a good ripping sea fight for
our entertainment. While we were at Newport News he ran across the
mouth of the James and banged away at a battery on Pig Point until he
was called off by the Commodore. He was glad enough to see a Plymouth
boy and while I was on his vessel I was given the “freedom of the
ship.”
General Ebenezer W. Pierce who went to the Fortress with me in the
Cambridge and who had command at Big Bethel, had been detailed to
command the three months’ men in Southern Virginia. He was born in
Freetown, Mass., April 5, 1822, and in the Massachusetts militia,
before the war, had occupied various positions from Captain to
Brigadier General. After he was mustered out July 22, 1861, at the
expiration of three months’ service, he again entered the army and
December 31, 1861, he was mustered in as Colonel of the Massachusetts
29th Regiment, serving until his resignation November 8, 1864. He was
an eccentric man but patriotic and brave. At the battle of White Oak
Swamp June 30, 1862, I have been told that when he was ordered to
take his regiment into the fight his order was—“by the right flank up
the hill; God damn you, forward march.” Within five minutes a ball
from a rebel battery took off his right arm at the shoulder. After
the wound had been partially dressed under fire he was left on the
field within the rebel lines until night, when he crept to cover
and found his way to a union camp. Within thirty days he reported
for service again and continued in commission until his resignation
November 8, 1864. He died in Freetown, August 14, 1902.
On Friday, the 7th of June, the despatch boat Mt. Vernon arrived from
Washington, and General Butler gave us passes for her return trip
that night. The boat, besides her captain, had two river pilots, and
as the lights on the Potomac had been extinguished by the rebels
we were guided through its tortuous channels entirely by the lead.
Besides the bearer of despatches there was on board a guard of ten
men of the 71st New York Regiment, and under deck there was a half
a ton of powder. All but one of the rebel batteries on the river
were passed in the night, and as we approached them we slowed down
so as to make little noise and put out all the lights on board. One
battery remained to be passed after daylight, but as we rounded a
point and brought it in sight we saw the gunboat Powhattan anchored
in the stream, having silenced it since the down trip of the despatch
boat. The bearer of despatches was one of those fellows which war
would be likely to bring to the surface, apparently a German Jew,
about twenty-five years of age, bragging of his exploits as secret
messenger from Gen. Butler at Annapolis to Gen. Scott in Washington,
and distrusted by the guard, who called him the mysterious cuss.
Every step he took and every movement he made was carefully watched,
lest he might by a match or some other signal inform the batteries of
our passage. I learned on a later visit to Washington that he came to
grief as a suspected rebel spy.
Arriving at the Navy Yard at Washington about ten o’clock, after
breakfast at the hotel we visited the 5th Massachusetts Regiment,
of which my friend, George H. Brastow was Major. They were encamped
near Alexandria, and with the 5th Pennsylvania, 1st Michigan and
the Ellsworth Zouaves formed the Union outpost near Shooter’s Hill,
between Alexandria and the Fairfax seminary. The next day, Sunday, I
went out to the Relay House at the junction of the Harper’s Ferry and
the Baltimore and Washington Railroads, where were encamped the 6th
and 8th Massachusetts Regiments and Cook’s Massachusetts Battery. I
spent the night with Col. Hincks of the 8th, whose commissary of the
post was Dexter F. Parker of Worcester. The Colonel was a clerk in
the office of the Secretary of State when I was in the Senate in 1858
and 1859, and Commissary Parker was a brother Senator in 1859. Their
camp was delightfully situated on the grounds of Dr. Hall overlooking
the Valley of the Patapsco River. On Monday I went down to Baltimore
and rode round to Fort McHenry, where the 3d Massachusetts Battalion
of Rifles, under Major Charles Devens was quartered. This Battalion
consisted of the Worcester City Guards and the Holden Rifles, to
which were attached the Emmet Guards of Worcester and a Boston
Company, raised after the call for troops was issued. I found General
Banks at the Fort, and on our way back to Baltimore together he
criticised the limitation of the President’s call to 75,000 men,
feeling assured that the war was to be a long one. He was wise in his
anticipation of a long war, but I think he was mistaken as to the
call. The delay in raising a larger number of three months’ men would
have disheartened the North and encouraged the South, and a larger
call for short service would have interfered with enlistments for a
long one. On the whole it seems to me that the early war measures
were conceived and executed by wise, far-seeing men. From Baltimore I
returned home and made a report to the Governor.