BATTLES OF SALEM HEIGHTS.
After resting for a brief period on the summit of the Heights, the Corps
pushed rapidly up the turnpike leading to Chancellorsville, no effort
being made to take possession of the still higher ridge at the left,
to which a portion of the enemy had retreated, and were now tossing an
occasional shell at us. The country presented a beautiful appearance,
with its green meadows and vast fields of cereals stretching out in
every direction. Gen. Brooks’ Division, which now took the advance,
moved rapidly forward, but instead of meeting with Hooker’s pickets,
encountered a heavy force of the enemy, about four miles ahead, near
Salem. They were concealed in a forest, into which our infantry were
imprudently advanced before it was shelled. The rebels immediately rose
from their masked position, and delivered a murderous fire. Gen. Brooks
quickly formed his men in line, and soon became hotly engaged. While the
conflict was at its height, a body of the enemy suddenly opened upon him
from the left, and he changed front to meet them. The battle now became
very sanguinary, the rebels rapidly thinning our ranks with their cross
fire. Darkness came to our relief and the fighting ceased, not, however,
before we had lost twelve hundred men. Seven hundred of this number
belonged to Bartlett’s Brigade—consisting of the Twenty-seventh New
York, among other Regiments,—who fell in twenty minutes time. The woods
afterwards took fire from our shells, and many of the wounded belonging
to both parties perished in the flames.
The little army slept soundly that night after the arduous duties of
the day. But there were many officers as well as men who lay down to
rest with serious apprehensions of the morrow. No troops had been thrown
forward to occupy the higher ridge at our left. What should prevent
the enemy from circling round under cover of night to this crest, and
descending get between us and the captured but now abandoned Heights in
the rear?
The dawn of Monday proved how well grounded had been these fears. At
eight o’clock a heavy rebel column was observed streaming down the
mountain side, and pushing rapidly for Marye’s Heights. Not a picket
had been thrown out to give warning of their approach, or a single gun
to sweep the gully through which they had to pass. A scene of utmost
confusion now ensued. The road leading from the city out to the army was
crowded with straggling soldiers, going on to rejoin their Regiments,
supply wagons, ammunition trains and ambulances filled with wounded from
the previous evening’s fight. The soldiers scattered through the fields
in all directions. The teamsters and ambulance drivers dashed furiously
into the city, or turned back to the army, thereby escaping. A few,
losing presence of mind, cut their horses loose from the wagons, and,
mounting them, rode away, in hot haste. Gen. Gibbon, in charge of the
city, sent up one or two Regiments left with him as a patrol, to check
the enemy. But it was useless for them to attempt doing so, and after
firing three or four rounds, they fled out to the army. The rebels now
pressed forward and re-occupied the Heights, delivering as they did so,
one of their characteristic yells, so much resembling a wolf howl.
After resting for a moment they were deployed out to the right of the
Heights, and forming an extended line, swept rapidly up after the Sixth
Corps. A Union battery, planted on a bluff up the river, one mile from
the city, immediately opened a hot fire on their backs, and so interfered
with his plans that the commanding officer was content to draw in his
forces and mass them around the Heights.
Fredericksburg, as well as Falmouth, was now perfectly defenceless,
all the troops not with Sedgwick having been sent up to the support of
Hooker, and a few siege guns planted on Stafford Heights, comprising
almost our only artillery. The enemy, had they known it, could have
passed down into the city with impunity, paroled our fifteen hundred
wounded, and then, seizing our pontoon-boats, pushed over the river
and captured Gen. Hooker’s headquarters and the immense supplies at
the Falmouth depot. Why they did not at least descend to the city
still remains a mystery. Perhaps they were intimidated by the show of
resistance made by a few stragglers, whom some wounded officers collected
about the streets and posted along the edge of the city. Capts. Root
and Cole, and other officers in the hospital, sent their swords and
equipments over the river, expecting to be made prisoners. As the day
advanced, however, and the enemy did not come down, preparations were
made for transferring the wounded to the opposite bank, and before night
they were all taken over, together with the materiel of war, which had
collected there.
The Sixth Corps was now placed in a most critical position by this
coup-de-main of Gen. Lee, having the enemy in front, left and rear,
and an unfordable river on the right. No wonder that Gen. Butterfield,
Chief-of-Staff, when he rode down to the Falmouth side of the river and
comprehended the situation, remarked to Gen. Fogliardi, the Swiss General
who accompanied him, “Sedgwick has gone up.” That indomitable hero,
however, had no idea of “going up,” but immediately set about rescuing
his command from the dilemma in which Hooker and his Chief-of-Staff
had placed it. Hooker and his Chief-of-Staff, we say, for it was in
accordance with their orders that the Sixth Corps had been pushed on,
regardless of the higher ridge at the left.
The diagram on the opposite page represents the positions of the
different forces of both armies as they then were.
[Illustration]
First on the west our main army, then Lee’s main army, then the Sixth
Corps, then a rebel Corps, and then our siege guns, planted on the east
side of the river—a most extraordinary sandwiching of opposing forces
together.
Instead of attempting to cut his way through to Hooker in front, or
Fredericksburg in the rear, Gen. Sedgwick drew back Brook’s Division,
still in the advance, and arranging his army in the form of an arc,
fronting towards the enemy, gradually contracted the lines until the
wings extended nearly to the river. By this movement the rebels were
thrown out of the rear to his left front. The lines continued to stretch
out towards the river, until they enclosed Banks’ Ford, six miles above
the city, over which communication was immediately established with
Falmouth, and Gen. Sedgwick sent for supplies. The announcement of this
fact dispelled much of the gloom prevailing at headquarters, for it was
then known that if the Corps could hold out until night it would be able
to draw back to the ford, under cover of darkness, and escape.
At daybreak, the Thirty-third, together with three other Regiments of
Gen. Neill’s Brigade, had been sent out to attack a body of rebels who
appeared on the higher ridge, some distance further on from the point
where they finally descended. After a spirited fight, the enemy were
put to flight. The Regiment had now returned, and was posted on the
left curvature of the arc formed by Sedgwick, about one mile from the
Heights, and near the road leading from the city. Occupying a commanding
position, and being so near, they could perceive all the operations of
the flanking force, which numbered twenty-five thousand. The reader
can imagine their feelings at seeing the Heights which they had so
gallantly stormed on the day previous, now reöccupied by the enemy. After
being arranged in line of battle, the men amused themselves by firing
at the rebel skirmishers, who crept up behind the trees and fences to
reconnoitre our position. Several were killed in this manner. Lieutenant
Carter, seizing a musket from the hands of one of his men, brought down a
general officer, who persisted in recklessly riding out in front of the
line.
As the morning advanced, members of the Regiment proceeded out on the
road, and brought in one of the wagons abandoned by the teamsters, which
proved to be well stocked with delicacies for a General and his Staff.
This was a rich prize for the men, who, now having subsisted for six days
on the scanty contents of their haversacks, were as eager for food as the
famished Arab in the desert, who, discovering a bag of gold, mourned that
it did not contain dates.
Towards noon a Brigade of rebels charged upon the earthworks thrown up in
front of the Brigade, but were handsomely repulsed, and two hundred of
them made prisoners, by a counter charge.
Our forces remained in two lines of battle, expecting every moment a
fierce onslaught from various points. But the day wore away without an
attack, and the men were beginning to think that none would be made,
when suddenly, about four o’clock, a heavy column of reinforcements for
the enemy were observed descending the upper ridge. This meant battle.
Imagine a semi-circle within a semi-circle, and you have the relative
positions of the opposing forces at that time.
An hour later, the rebel hordes rose quickly from the Heights where they
had lain all day, and rushing forward with cheers and yells, precipitated
themselves upon our line. At the same moment the siege guns at Falmouth
opened a fire on their rear. Gen. Neill’s Brigade, being the nearest to
them, bore the brunt of the attack, and though assaulted by overpowering
numbers, maintained its position and repulsed the enemy. One Regiment,
the same which broke at White-Oak Swamp, gave way, thereby bringing a
destructive cross fire upon the Thirty-third. As the rebels fell back in
disorder through the fields, it was only by the greatest exertions that
Col. Taylor could restrain his men from following. A few squads did rush
forward and secured several prisoners.
But unmindful of the havoc made in their ranks, the enemy again pressed
on, determined to crush the Brigade. At the same time they attacked
other points in the extended arc, and Gen. Neill, seeing that there was
imminent danger of his position being turned, fell back, not, however,
before having incurred a loss of one thousand men. Gen. Sedgwick now gave
instructions for the entire lines to recede, in accordance with the plan
which he had previously decided upon, viz: to slowly fall back fighting
to the river, until darkness should come on. As the lines drew back,
the enemy steadily pursued, a vigorous fire of musketry and artillery
being kept up on both sides. Our batteries literally mowed the pursuers
down, as they repeatedly charged upon them in solid columns. The gunners
reserved their fire until the charging forces came within a few rods, and
then poured the grape and cannister into them at a fearful rate. Having
broken the columns, they would fall back to new positions, and again
resist their approach.
In this manner the retreat was conducted most successfully, though not
without great loss. The Thirty-third, which suffered severely at the
outset, likewise lost many men in falling back, including Lieuts. Porter
and Rossiter. While scaling a fence at one time, which through some
culpable negligence had been left standing, several were killed and
wounded. Gen. Neill being stunned by the falling of his wounded horse,
Col. Taylor temporarily took command of the Brigade.
To assume command of a Brigade in the confusion of a retreat, when the
enemy was pressing on all sides, was a most hazardous undertaking. Col.
Taylor, however, did not shrink from the responsibility, and with the
assistance of the Major of the Seventh Maine, who stepped forward when he
called for volunteer Aids, soon arranged the Regiments in proper line.
[Illustration: SALEM HEIGHTS.
Charge of the Thirty-third.]
Darkness closed upon the combatants and prevented further pursuit by the
enemy, though skirmishing continued for hours afterwards. Never had men
watched more eagerly for the going down of the sun, and now that night
had spread her sable mantle over the scene, great was the sense of relief
experienced.
But the joy at their deliverance is suddenly dispelled by a report that
the bridges thrown over the river at Banks’ Ford have been destroyed, and
thus the way of retreat cut off. During the afternoon the enemy between
us and Hooker had succeeded in planting several guns near the ford, and
kept pounding away at the bridges for hours. One of them was seriously
injured, but before they could complete its destruction, batteries were
got into position on the opposite side of the river, and drove them away.
Happily, then, this rumor was without foundation.
The scenes of that night vividly recalled the memories of the seven
days’ retreat on the Peninsula. Though no panic prevailed, there was the
utmost confusion. Owing to the darkness and the large number of wounded,
and immense amount of war _materiel_ which had to be conveyed over, many
of the wounded were left where they fell during the battle, it being
impossible to bring them away. This was the case with most of those
belonging to the Thirty-third. Lieut. Rossiter died in the hands of the
enemy. By morning the entire Corps was safely over, and encamped along
the flats on the opposite side. The Thirty-third crossed the bridge
about 8 o’clock, A. M.
The next morning the rebels commenced shelling the troops from the
west bank, which caused them to draw back immediately from the river.
Brooks’ and Newton’s Divisions moved a few miles to the northward, Howe’s
remaining in the vicinity. During the following night the main army
re-crossed above, under cover of a fierce storm. Wednesday and Thursday
were spent in getting back to Falmouth. Howe’s Division returned to
White-Oak Church during Friday, now for the third time.
The Thirty-third encamped in a field about three-quarters of a mile from
its former position. It was a sad sight, those thin and decimated ranks;
of five hundred and fifty brave men, who two weeks before marched out to
meet the enemy, less than three hundred now returned.