While the Eleventh regiment was in service only nine months, and was never
in action as a full regiment, yet it lost in that time two colonels. A
certain fatality appeared to await those who were sent to take command of
the regiment during the early part of its term of service. It seemed at
one time as if the regiment was raised for the sole purpose of giving
those who were to become colonels of other Rhode Island regiments an
opportunity to perfect themselves in battalion drill and other military
movements before assuming command elsewhere--a sort of stepping-stone, as
it were, to something which was considered more desirable. There was, for
instance, Colonel Edwin Metcalf, who went out with us and who left us to
take command of the Third Rhode Island. Then there was Colonel Horatio
Rogers, who came to us from the Third regiment and remained less than two
weeks, leaving us to take command of the Second Rhode Island. The next to
put in an appearance was Colonel George E. Church, who had previously
served as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Rhode Island. He remained
with us until the expiration of our term of enlistment.
It is not within the province of a private soldier--more especially a "raw
recruit"--to criticise his superiors, and consequently I will not attempt
it, notwithstanding this is the "piping time of peace," and all fear of
the guard-house has forever vanished. I will say, however, that all of the
officers named had their peculiarities, and that our lieutenant-colonel
was peculiarly peculiar; and yet I believe him to have been every inch a
soldier--at any rate, there was no such word as fear in his dictionary. He
was in command when the regiment came the nearest to being in an
engagement, and I fancy I see him now, mounted on his horse and riding at
the head of the column, wearing a moth-eaten blouse and an exceedingly
dilapidated straw hat, with a very black "T. D." clay pipe stuck in his
mouth, the bowl downwards. He looked more like the "cowboy" of modern
times than the pictures of military heroes which I used to see in my
school-books when a boy. This was our lieutenant-colonel--John Talbot
Pitman. He had good "staying qualities." He never threw up his commission,
nor did he die. He remained with us to the last, and rose considerably in
the estimation of the men after his appearance at the head of the regiment
at the time I have just mentioned. Men everywhere--especially
soldiers--admire pluck. Our lieutenant-colonel had pluck, even though at
times his heart seemed somewhat lacking in tenderness. He never winked at
any breach of discipline on the part of an officer or a private while he
was in command of the regiment. If at times he appeared to have too little
consideration for his men, he never failed to exact the fullest measure of
consideration for them from all others.
Colonel Metcalf, as I have stated, came to us first, and was the first to
leave us. Universal regret on the part of officers and men was felt when
he took his departure for Hilton Head.
Colonel Rogers did not remain with us long enough for us to learn to like
him or dislike him. He came to us "sp'ilin' for a fight," his heart's
desire all the time he was with us was to fight, and when he found that he
couldn't fight the rebels with us, he began to fight the War Department
for a "change of base;" and in order to have peace within our own borders,
and in response to a very general demand on the part of the loyal North
for a vigorous prosecution of the war, coupled with a declaration on the
part of certain northern newspapers that no further delay in pushing "On
to Richmond" would be tolerated without a satisfactory reason being given
therefor, the authorities at Washington compromised matters by sending the
plucky colonel to the Second Rhode Island regiment, where he "honored his
regiment, his State and himself by his gallant deeds." It is, however, but
simple justice to the Eleventh regiment to say that the men were hopeful
that Colonel Rogers' vigorous and persistent efforts with the War
Department to relieve them from the disagreeable duty which they were
performing at the Convalescent Camp would be crowned with success. Service
in the field was coveted.
Colonel Rogers was a strict disciplinarian. The surgeon of the regiment
was a great lover of horses. It was said of him, before he entered the
service, that if he was sent for in a case of expected immediate death,
and he had an opportunity while on the road to trade a good horse for a
better one, he would always let his patient take the chances.--I do not
wish to be considered as authority for the truthfulness of this
assertion.--One Sunday morning our company was ordered to report in front
of the colonel's "markee" for inspection. While the inspection was going
on, the colonel stood in front of us, and just a little to his left the
surgeon and quartermaster, it being just before divine service, were
driving a horse trade. Naturally enough this attracted the attention of
the men, and it being noticed by Colonel Rogers, he exclaimed in that
melodious tone of voice so characteristic of him: "_Eyes to the front; you
wa'n't ordered down here to inspect the quartermaster's department!_"
Colonel Rogers was, indeed, peculiar.
In an excellent paper which was read by Captain Charles H. Parkhurst, of
Company C, at a recent reunion of the Eleventh regiment, he thus
contrasted Colonel Metcalf and Colonel Rogers:
"Colonel Metcalf, as a rule, commanded without saying anything about it.
When Colonel Rogers commanded he couldn't help saying something about it.
No one seeing Colonel Metcalf off duty, or un-uniformed, would have
suspected that he had any command, while the most casual observer looking
at Colonel Rogers, even when asleep, would instinctively know that even
then the colonel, at least, thought that he was in the exercise of
authority."
Our last commanding officer, Colonel Church, was a thorough soldier and,
like Colonel Rogers, whom he succeeded, a strict disciplinarian. He was,
apparently, a favorite with the officers of the regiment, but his ways
smacked too much of the regular army to have ever made him popular with
volunteer soldiers. It is, however, due Colonel Church to say that while
under his command the regiment attained a high degree of proficiency in
all that characterizes good soldiership, and won for itself much praise
from those who were even superior in rank to its colonel.
Speaking of the peculiarities of Colonel Church, for he had them too,
perhaps nothing created a greater dislike for him on the part of his men
than the severity of his discipline in regard to very small matters. To
illustrate: The sending of a man to the guard-house because in his
exasperation he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand to brush a fly
off of his nose when on dress parade, was not relished. It might have done
for a holiday, but not in time of war. At any rate, that is the way the
boys looked at it.