W. H. LOWDERMILK & CO.,
Standard. Choice and Rare Law and
Miscellaneous Books,
Government Publications
Washington, D. C.
HISTORY
THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS,
1 862- 1 86 j.
WITH A ROSTER.
A COMMITTEE OF THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION.
BOSTON:
MILLS, KNIGHT & Co., PRINTERS, 115 CONGRESS STREET.
1884.
E
INTRODUCTION.
r I ^HIS narrative was prepared by the committee
whose names are undersigned, to gratify the wish
of the surviving members for some connected account
of the services of the regiment, to exhibit to relatives
and friends, and to provide a book of handy reference
for their own convenience.
All the descriptions are by members who were present
at the scenes described ; imagination has no part in the
account.
Criticisms of generalship have been avoided except
where it was necessary to allude to the matter to explain
the spirit prevailing among the men. Lists of wounded in
action have not been given in the body of the narrative ;
to obtain accurate lists would call for more time than the
Committee could devote to the work.
The whole story of Reno s Brigade is told in the
M198517
iv INTRODUCTION.
" History of the Twenty-First Massachusetts Regiment,"
by General Charles F. Walcott, whose book appeared from
the press while this was in preparation. Upon the issue
of that work, it seemed, at first, hardly worth while to
proceed with this ; but, as the Twenty-First was not with
us in Mississippi, and General Walcott, although admirably
full in the brigade history, does not, of course, cover the
internal history of the Thirty-Fifth, it was thought best to
go on with this, omitting herein most of the general orders,
etc., given in that book. Of course every member of the
Thirty-Fifth will wish to possess, if he have not already, a
copy of the history of the Twenty-First, to fill up the story
of the old brigade, and a copy of Rev. Augustus Wood-
bury s " History of the Ninth Army Corps " to explain
the wider movements.
In place of maps and illustrations, material for which, of
merit superior to any we could obtain without great ex
pense, is within reach of all, we have inserted between the
chapters blank pages, upon which the owner can attach
such photographs, etc., as may be in his possession, and
thus add a personal character to the volume.
A regimental history must lack the general interest of
that of an army, while it misses much of the intense
sympathy called forth by a personal narrative ; on this
account it may appear, after all, that "the half has not
INTRODUCTION.
been told. 7 The committee will feel satisfied if the mem
bers agree that even a quarter part has found its way into
the pages of this book..
COMMITTEE:
SUMNER <Z^K9X^^ for the Field and Staff.
THOMAS E. CUTTER " " "
EDMUND F. SNOW, of Company A.
GEORGE W. CREASEV, " " B.
EDMUND A. CAPEN, " " C.
JOHN N. MORSE, " " D.
HENRY A. MONK, " " E.
SOLOMON D. GRIMES. " " F.
CHRIS. METZGER, " " F.
JOSEPH C. HARDY, " " G.
WALDO TURNER, " " H.
JOHN D. COBB, " " /.
L GEORGE H. NASON, " " A".
BOSTON, January i, 1884.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
LYNNFIELD AND ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, 1862, . i
CHAPTER II.
MARYLAND AND BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN, 1862, . . 20
CHAPTER III.
ANTIETAM, 1862, . . .35
CHAPTER IV.
FALL CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA SKIRMISH AT FAUQUIER
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, 1862, 60
CHAPTER V.
FREDERICKSBURG, AND WINTER NEAR FALMOUTH, 1862-1863, 79
CHAPTER VI.
NEWPORT NEWS, VA., AND SPRING IN KENTUCKY, 1863, . 104
CHAPTER VII.
MIDSUMMER IN MISSISSIPPI VICKSBURG AND JACKSON, 1863, 129
v iii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
WINTER IN EAST TENNESSEE CAMPBELL S STATION AND
KNOXVILLE, 1863-1864,
CHAPTER IX.
VIRGINIA AGAIN WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN, 1864, 217
CHAPTER X.
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG THE MINE, 1864,
CHAPTER XL
WELDON RAILROAD AND POPLAR SPRING CHURCH, 1864, . 283
CHAPTER XII.
WINTER QUARTERS, 1864-1865 " FORT HELL," 3 10
CHAPTER XIII.
LIFE IN THE PRISON-PENS, 1864-1865, . . 3 2 9
CHAPTER XIV.
THE END OF THE WAR, 1865, .
ROSTER.
CHAPTER I.
LYNNFIELD AND ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, 1862.
THE famous Seven Days fighting of the Army of the
Potomac under General McClellan, before Rich
mond, ended July i, 1862. During the hot days of that
long summer, the stayers-at-home read with the deepest
interest of the " Change of Base " to the James River, or
listened to the living story from the lips of some wounded
hero. Whether the movement was to be considered a
success or a defeat, this at least was clear, that the army
must be heavily reenforced ; and, accordingly, President
Lincoln called for three hundred thousand volunteers for
three years. Governor Andrew issued an official address,
dated July 2, stating the pressing need for more troops and
the terms of enlistment, and ending with these words :
"Massachusetts, which has never slumbered nor slept,
must now arise to still higher efforts, and pledge to all
the duties of patriotism, with renewed devotion, the indi
vidual efforts, the united hearts, heads and hands of all
her people." To many hearts this summons came with a
solemn power that could not be resisted.
Among the regiments formed of the men who enlisted
in answer to this call was the Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts
Volunteer Infantry.
The first mention of the regiment which we have found
is contained in the following advertisement, which appeared
in the Boston Journal, under date of the fourth of July :
:!": \ :-*HIS*ifRYtQVTH.E THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
" Attention, Recruits I A few more good men are wanted
to fill up Captain Andrews Company, Fort Warren Bat
talion. Under the last urgent call of the President, this
battalion will probably be increased and make the Thirty-
Fifth Regiment, so that there will be a chance for actual
service. The following inducements are offered to all
wishing to enlist :
" $25 bounty in advance ; also,
" $13, one month s pay in advance ;
" $12 per month State aid ; and
" $75 bounty at close of war.
"Men of Massachusetts, citizens, patriots, rally under
the glorious flag of our country. Let the Old Bay State
lead the van. Let our people rush forth in their might.
Let us swell the Union ranks, and maintain our proud
position, that Massachusetts is ever foremost when duty
calls.
"Apply at once to the Recruiting Offices, No. 71 Union
Street, Boston, or corner of Park and School Streets,
Chelsea."
Another notice, dated the fifth, began as follows : " Fall
in, Recruits I Captain Dolan, Lieutenants Baldwin and
Hudson are rapidly filling their company with first-class
recruits for duty at Fort Warren ; " and, after giving the
terms as above, it adds : " Our country s call must be
obeyed ; her necessities must be our first and only con
sideration now ; she needs every one of her sons to defend
her holy cause, and the sooner you are ready to aid her
the sooner will her cause be gained. This battalion will
probably be recruited to the Thirty-Fifth Regiment, and
go to the seat of war." Thus, by the system of general
recruiting, was begun the formation of companies A and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 3
D of the Thirty-Fifth ; but the organization of the regi
ment did not begin until a month later.
The Government apportioned the number of men called
for among the loyal States according to population, and
the State divided its quota among the cities and towns
according to the last annual return of men liable to do
military duty under the laws of the Commonwealth. As
soon as the quotas were announced, each municipality
devoted its energies to finding, enlisting and forwarding
the men to camp. Every motive was appealed to, and all
sorts of inducements offered to the able-bodied men of the
community to enlist. Patriotism was aroused by eloquent
orators ; emotions were stirred by music, banners, pro
cessions and grand rallies of the people ; and thus excite
ment was kept constantly ablaze. In many places bounties
were offered in addition to those above mentioned, and
promises of private aid to families were frequent. This
continued through July, and about the first of August most
of the three years volunteers were ready for camp.
In the cities and larger towns full companies were formed
from the quotas, and fellow citizens were selected for offi
cers. The companies of the Thirty-Fifth formed in this way
were : B, from Newburyport ; C, from Chelsea ; G, from
Haverhill ; H, from Weymouth ; and K from Roxbury.
The quotas of smaller places united and formed com
panies under officers of their preference ; thus were made
up companies : E, from Randolph, Stoughton, etc. ; F,
from Rockport, Danvers, North Andover, etc. ; and I from
Dedham, Weston, Needham, etc. The following extract
from the " Memorial of Major Park " will serve as an ex
ample of the superior class of men obtained at this time :
"The permit to recruit the company, K, was accom
panied with a condition, provided it could be done in six
4 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
days. In five days they had enrolled one hundred and
fifty names, from whom to select the one hundred and
one. Eighty of those who finally composed the company
were between twenty and thirty-five years of age, and but
two were over forty. About one-half of the company were
married men. All signed their names in clear, legible
handwriting. More than forty of them had been graduates
of the Washington Public School at Roxbury. Thirteen
were teachers in a Sunday School."
The camp for recruits in the eastern part of the State
was located at Lynnfield, in Essex County, on the north
side of the railroad, and bordering on Humphrey s Pond,
now called Suntaug Lake, and was named Camp Stanton
after the Secretary of War. The steep slope towards the
water was shaded by a heavy growth of pine trees, and
the pond offered facilities for bathing and washing. Two
companies of the Thirty-Second Regiment and the Thirty-
Third Regiment occupied the east part of the field, and a
battery the west end. Men enlisted for the Thirty-Fifth
were at first quartered about the middle, near the cottage,
used as a surgeon s office, etc., and the barn used for a
guard-house. They occupied wall tents, "A" tents, or old
militia tents, and in consideration of their delicacy were
furnished with straw to lie upon, but no blankets until
accepted for service. Food was served from cook-houses,
under direction of Mr. Haines, then of the Thirty-Second
Regiment, subsequently quartermaster of the Thirty-Fifth ;
but as the ration, though ample, seemed to most of the men
coarse and unpalatable, they procured additional eatables
from home or outside the camp. Squads for companies
A, D and the combination companies were the first upon
the ground, towards the end of July. The full companies
arrived nearly together : Company C on the fourth of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 5
August, G and K on the fifth, B and H on the eighth.
Camp guards around the field were maintained from the
first, and passes were required to get in or out of the
rather crowded enclosure.
The enlisted men before going to Lynnfield passed a
preliminary examination of their physical qualifications, to
prevent loss of expenses upon rejected men. Upon arrival
in camp they were again, and more thoroughly, inspected
by the surgeons. It was amusing afterwards to recall how
much the men dreaded rejection and the loss of the chance
for actual service promised in the advertisement above.
The recruit was stripped, pounded on the chest, made to
walk and hop, had his ears pulled, eyes and teeth exam
ined, and was otherwise tortured, until he had shown his
paces, and was then accepted or rejected summarily. Few
were rejected. If accepted, the next thing in order was
his uniform. He went to the quartermaster s office ; a
gray, woollen blanket, marked U. S., was spread upon the
floor, into which were tossed a light-blue overcoat, rubber
blanket, cap, dress coat, blouse, trousers, shoes, socks,
drawers, shirts, knapsack, haversack, canteen, tin dipper,
plate and knife and fork. The four corners of the blanket
were brought together, and the man was ordered to shoulder
the bundle and betake himself to his tent, shed his citizen s
dress, and assume the appearance of a soldier. The mate
rials of the articles were good, but of a very coarse texture,
suited to the rough usage of the field. There were four
sizes of most of the clothing, and he whom none of these
fitted was obliged to fit himself to the size. Some of the
companies last to arrive fell short of a full uniform, and
were not supplied until after their arrival at the front.
A few of the men had experience as soldiers, in the
militia or in actual service ; these were the heroes of the
hour. Most of the recruits were somewhat acquainted
6 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
with the manual of arms and company drill, acquired in
the many drill companies which the excitement of the war
had originated. As soon as sergeants and corporals of
companies were appointed, these exercises were practised
as opportunity offered. There were several dress parades
and guard mountings by portions of the regiment, and one
battalion drill under Adjutant Wales, on the twentieth, in
marching in line of battle.
The commissioned officers had little time to attend to
these matters. They were fully occupied in filling up their
companies, settling their private affairs, and making need
ful preparations; and, in addition, they were burdened
with an amount of clerical work the red tape system of
a time of peace sufficient to last a month. A person
inexperienced in military affairs has little notion of the
amount of writing to be done in the formation and man
agement of a regiment. There are reports and rolls of
all sorts daily, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly and annu
ally relating to the men, their descriptions, bounties,
pay, rations, ordnance, clothing, camp and garrison equi
page, muster-in, muster-out, furloughs, etc., ad infinitum,
to the Government, State and town authorities: all to be
studied out and prepared in good style and with unfailing
accuracy. The school of the army is a school of much
penmanship, as well as other learning. Their care also
was that their best men did not become impatient and
enlist in some other organization, to get sooner to the
front, or that their worst men did not run the guards to
secure another bounty. For no sooner was the call for
three years men nearly filled than another call was issued
for men for nine months service, and, in addition to the
shorter term, there was the attraction of a double bounty.
The mercenary class at once saw the advantage and tried
to exchange ; the patriot class, especially those having
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 7
families, grimly endured, while they felt the inequality of
treatment ; among the survivors it needs but little rubbing
to find a sore spot there still. The men were generally
allowed a short furlough, to close up their home affairs
and take leave of relatives and friends ; so that, upon the
whole, it is remarkable that so much information concern
ing the new sphere of life was acquired in so short a time ;
but all were eager to learn, and worked laboriously day
and night.
On the fourteenth of August the Thirty-Third Regiment
left for the seat of war, and, after the ground had been
swept, the Thirty-Fifth moved into the Sibley tents thus
vacated. Companies took their places in regular order
according to the army regulations and seniority of captains,
from right to left, as follows :
Right, A, D, E, F, B, G, C, H, I, K, Left,
and the regiment assumed an organized appearance. The
members began to get acquainted with each other and
their officers, and learned the lettering of the companies.
It will be noticed that, as far as possible, the letters of the
companies correspond with the initial letter of the surname
of the captain commanding, as follows :
Co. A, Capt. Andrews, Lieuts. Hood and Stickney.
" B, " Bartlett, " Hodges " Collins.
" C, " Cheever, " Blanchard " Mirick.
" D, " Dolan, " Baldwin " Hudson.
" E, " Niles, " Palmer " Ingell.
" F, " Oliver, " Preston " Williams.
" G, " Gibson, " Brooks " Washburn.
" H, t " Pratt, " Lyon " Burrell.
" I, " Willard, " Lathrop " Hill.
" K, " King, " Park " Blake.
8 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
In this list, and in other cases hereafter, when, to avoid
repetition, the names of members of the regiment are not
given in full, they may be found by reference to the roster.
The field and staff officers were : Colonel, Edward A.
Wild, of Brookline ; Major, Sumner Carruth, of Chelsea ;
Adjutant, Nathaniel Wales, of Dorchester ; Surgeon, Fran
cis M. Lincoln, of Boston ; Assistant Surgeons, George
N. Munsell, of Harwich, and Albert W. Clark, of Woburn ;
Chaplain, Henry F. H. Miller, of Norton ; Quartermaster,
Samuel W. Haines, of Newburyport; Sergeant -Major,
Augustus Hatch, of Boston ; Quartermaster - Sergeant,
Albert F. Upton, of Boston ; Commissary-Sergeant, Edwin
N. Merrill, of Haverhill ; Hospital Steward, George F.
Wood, of Plymouth ; Principal Musician, Daniel Vining,
of Weymouth. The regiment never had a band attached,
although an attempt to recruit one was made at Lynnfield ;
it depended for music upon brigade bands, its own drum
corps, or Company K s Glee Club, which furnished excel
lent vocal music, associated with many scenes both of the
solemn and of the festive kind.
Colonel Wild had served as captain of Company A of
the First Massachusetts Regiment, in Hooker s Division,
at Blackburn s Ford, Bull Run, in Lower Maryland, and
on the Peninsula. He had been wounded before Rich
mond, and was assigned at first to the Thirty-Second Reg
iment as major, then to the command of Camp Stanton,
and afterwards to the Thirty-Fifth. He started with us
for the front carrying his arm in a sling.
Major Carruth, previously Captain of Company H, First
Massachusetts, had the same military experience with our
colonel, and had also returned home wounded (his arm
shattered at Fair Oakes), to be promoted to our regiment.
After Colonel Wild s promotion, he continued to be our
permanent commander to the end of the war. No lieutenant-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 9
colonel was appointed at Lynnfield. Adjutant Wales had
served in the Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment,
under Colonel Stevenson.
Of the line officers, Captain Andrews had seen service
in the West ; Captain Bartlett had been Captain of Com
pany A, Eighth Massachusetts, with Lieutenants Hodges
and Collins among his lieutenants ; Captain Niles had
held the same rank in Company D, Fourth Massachusetts,
with Lieutenant Palmer among his corporals ; Captain
Gibson had been first sergeant of Company A, First
Massachusetts, and Lieutenant Washburn had been a
member of the same company ; Captain Oliver had expe
rience in the Fourteenth Massachusetts, and Lieutenant
Lyon in Company H of the Twelfth Massachusetts ; Ser
geant-Major Hatch had. been a sergeant of Company B,
First Massachusetts, and afterwards a second-lieutenant
in a New York regiment. Experienced soldiers were few
in the Thirty-Fifth, and no member had received a West
Point education.
The men being assembled and clothed, the next duty
was the " muster-in " of the companies. This ceremony
was performed in detail, from the ninth to the nineteenth
of August, by Lieutenant Elder of the United States Army.
Standing in line the roll was called, each man responding
to his name, then the oath was administered : " You do
solemnly swear that you will bear true allegiance to the
United States of America, and that you will serve them
faithfully and honestly against all their enemies or opposers
whomsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the Pres
ident of the United States, and the orders of the officers
appointed over yoft, according to the rules and articles for
the government of armies of the United States. So help
you God."
Few of the officers and men had ever seen the blue
JO HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
book containing the United States army regulations, and
most never acquired more than a cursory knowledge of its
contents ; but they took the oath, trusting to be able to
comply with the intention, if not the letter of it. The term
of service was "for three years or during the war" lan
guage open to misconstruction ; the Government claiming
the words to include an enlistment for the whole war, the
men that it was for three years if the war should last so
long. The war ended during the third year of the regi
ment s term of service.
On the twentieth the arms were distributed. These
were nine hundred and sixty Enfield rifles of English
make. They were somewhat defective, the cones being
too much case-hardened and quite brittle, so that a large
number were turned into the Washington Arsenal within
three weeks ; nevertheless, so great was the scarcity of
weapons at the time, the regiment was thought very for
tunate to get them. The different belts, plates and boxes,
constituting the accoutrements, were given out at the same
time, or upon the following day. Some twenty thousand
rounds of ammunition were drawn in Boston, but none
were distributed ; nor were any experiments tried to test
the power of the rifles.
Being now fully armed and equipped, it was supposed
that a few days at least of camp duty and drill would be
allowed before active service ; the demand, however, for
more troops at Washington was so imperative no delay
could be permitted, and, much to the disappointment of
the men and grief of their friends, orders were received to
proceed immediately to the front, and the regiment started
accordingly on the twenty-second of August Friday.
There had been little sleep the previous night ; it was a
rainy morning, and falling into regimental line in the mud
was not pleasant. In addition to the burden of clothing,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. II
equipments, arms and rations furnished by the Govern
ment, each man had tried to include in his pack a private
assortment of writing cases, revolvers, toilet articles, water
filters, Bibles and other books, and a general assortment
of such medicines or comforts as he or his friends could
suggest ; and now, having by the aid of his companions
slung the mass upon his back, was deliberating upon the
question how far it would be possible to struggle along un
der it all. But patience and endurance are the first lessons
of a soldier ; so, while waiting for the cars, the men, dread
ing the task of reslinging and hooking their knapsacks, and
having no dry spot to drop them upon, amused themselves
chaffing each other s loads, and devising ways of propping
them up with their rifles to relieve their shoulders. That
regimental line of one thousand and thirteen men looked
a mile long ; it was our " Old Thirty-Fifth."
One o clock came before the long train filled with blue
coats started for Boston, by way of Salem. Arrived in
the city, the regiment marched by the right flank through
Blackstone and North Streets, Merchants Row, State, Court,
Tremont and Beacon Streets to the State House, cheered
and cheering as we went another regiment off to the war!
At the State House all looked for Governor Andrew no
departure without his consecrating words seemed in due
form but he was otherwise engaged ; so hurriedly receiv
ing a blue silk regimental flag and the small, white, State
flag the march was resumed. The blue flag bore the arms
of the United States, with the motto E pluribus unum, in
token that we were to bear it in the cause of the Union,
one and indivisible. The white flag was emblazoned with
the State arms, the uplifted sword, and the motto Ense
petit placidam sub libertate quietetn, signifying that we drew
the sword to gain enduring peace in a free land. They
were good words to fight under. A national flag, the stars
12 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and stripes, was not received until many months after
wards.
Relatives and friends crowded the way for parting words,
as we hastened on to the Old Colony Railway Station. It
was an exciting time. Into the cars we jammed, some
sick, some pale with sorrow, some roaring with laughter,
others shouting a last farewell to friends a perfect pan
demonium as the engine fastened on and the heavy
train moved slowly out of the station.
" Swift as the summons came they left
The plow mid-furrow standing still,
The half ground corn-grist in the mill,
The spade in earth, the axe in cleft ;
They went where duty seemed to call,
.... They only knew they could but die,
And death was not the worst of all."
We left Boston about five in the afternoon, and reaching
Fall River about ten o clock went on board the steamboat
Bay State. Every carpet had been taken up, all furniture
removed, and there were no beds in the berths. Men
turned in on the slats in the main and in the ladies cabin ;
that is, those who could get there. The officers had state
rooms, with beds but no blankets, and only one sheet.
The rest found space upon the decks to spread blankets,
although some hesitated to unroll the packs put together
so carefully ; but most were soon drowning their cares in
sleep. One Walsh, an old marine, with wits enlivened by
whiskey, gave to the wakeful ones a spirited free exhibition
of the bayonet drill, dancing about and whirling his rifle,
bayonet fixed, over the sleepers. The boat arrived at
Jersey City at ten in the morning, and by noon we were
on the way across New Jersey to Philadelphia, reaching
there about six in the evening.
Our reception in Philadelphia was most cordial ; greater
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 13
hospitality was never experienced. The regiment was
entertained at the far-famed Cooper s Shop. All Eastern
soldiers remember with gratitude this welcome oasis be
tween their homes and the front ; a little of the accustomed
properly cooked food, spread upon neatly arranged tables,
was relished exceedingly; and with the Thirty -Fifth the
saying, " As nice as the Philadelphia Cooper s Shop,"
long endured as a standard of superlative comparison.
Summary justice was dealt out by the colonel s orders
to the stealthy venders of whiskey. Company K, with
details from other companies, was ordered to clean out
rum shops, kept open to soldiers contrary to orders;
bottles, demijohns, etc., were soon emptied of their con
tents. The colonel thus describes the affair :
" In the immediate neighborhood of the Union Volunteer
Refreshment Saloon, where we were supplied with a meal
by the hospitality of the citizens, there is a large number
of drinking shops, which have been a pest to every regi
ment passing through. I personally ordered the proprietor
of each establishment to sell no liquor to my men, warning
him of consequences, and at the same time setting a guard
at his door. Soon after, detecting them enticing men in
at back doors to drink and fill canteens, I ordered the
stock to be cleaned out at two places, a hotel and a saloon.
The order was summarily and thoroughly carried out by
my men. No serious personal violence was committed,
although we had occasion to overawe a large party of
zouaves and other bullies. The police followed me with
two writs of arrest, which I declined to accede to, but
warned them that if they caused us any delay I should be
obliged to take aldermen and all with me to Washington.
All this not from any wanton disrespect for municipal law,
but on the ground that in time of armed rebellion the exi-
14 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
gencies of the military service .must take precedence of
all else."
Marching through the city to take the cars for Baltimore,
about nine in the evening, Company K brought up the
rear with fixed bayonets. The people along the route
turned out to a man, woman and baby. " Good bye ! "
"God bless you ! " "Come back safe ! " were the constant
exclamations. Women brought out water, and did all they
could to make the men comfortable ; in fact, it was quite
an ovation. Before getting into the cars all canteens were
examined, and drinks stronger than water were emptied
into the gutter.
Packed in the cars the men tried to sleep sitting erect
amid the racket, but it was a restless effort. The riotous
reception of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in Balti
more a year before was still fresh in our thoughts, and
in the excited state of the popular mind we looked for
some active demonstrations of unfriendly feeling; but, on
the contrary, the regiment marched quietly through the
city before the people had fairly awakened from their
Sunday morning naps. Now and then a small flag would
be waved ; but generally the people whom we met stared
with indifference, or, at the worst, with sinister looks only :
we had had our row with the roughs of Philadelphia. After
a breakfast at the Soldier s Rest, box cars with rough, pine
benches were filled inside and upon the roofs, about eleven
o clock ; and now, as Uncle Sam s cattle, we jolted on
towards Washington, through hot and dusty Maryland.
At Baltimore things had first taken a noticeably foreign
look ; the windows about the station were crowded with
woolly heads and black faces, with wondering eyes, while
some of the dark hued, Indian-looking whites who strolled
among us we deemed to be spies in the enemy s service.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 15
We reached Washington about two in the afternoon,
August 24, and went at first to the barracks near the
Capitol, where another meal was offered a feed this
time, not a collation, and further proof that we were now
to be classed as Government live stock the slop-coffee
in wooden buckets, and old boiled horse, could not be
stomached ; some, however, worried down a crust of sour
bread buttered with patriotic words : it went down hard,
nevertheless. But when at five o clock the regiment formed
column, platoon front, with full ranks, and marched down
the grand Pennsylvania Avenue, drums beating and colors
flying, the soldier s pride in his regiment awakened, and
we stepped off cheerily, and did our best to keep the lines
exact and distances correct. Nevertheless, when the avenue
was passed and the drums stopped it seemed as if our
legs would stop also.
The Thirty-Fifth was assigned to the command of Brig
adier-General Casey, and ordered to camp beyond Arlington
Heights. We kept on by the White House, and crossed
the Potomac River above at Georgetown, on the Aqueduct
Bridge, and came down again on the further bank. As we
stepped off the bridge upon the "sacred soil " of Old Vir
ginia, some one struck up the song of "Old John Brown,"
in which the whole column joined ; then, mindful that it
was Sunday evening, they followed with psalm tunes, and
the Arlington Hills echoed to the old Puritan music.
Darkness and dust together swallowed us up, and still the
column kept on. Some of the officers continued the reg
ular orders, "Right shoulder shift! Left shoulder
shift! " but the weary men carried their guns anyhow, and
darkness concealed the delinquency. The heat and fatigue
began to tell, and some stragglers appeared ; the column
began to lose shape. We struck the road from the Long
Bridge to Hunter s Chapel, and turning sharply to the
1 6 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
right pushed along, encouraged by the words, " Only half
a mile more, boys ! " repeated ad nauseam. At Hunter s
Chapel the regiment turned into a field on the left, and
got orders to stack arms and rest for the night ; the
suddenness with which knapsacks were unslung was very
observable. A few gathered rails for fires and roasted
green corn, but most, worn out, wrapped themselves in
blankets and slept with the ashes-like soil of the Old
Dominion for a bed and a knapsack or cartridge box for
a pillow.
Such a looking set as we were on awakening ! stiff and
sore, daubed with dust, the newness gone from the uni
forms, a sorry sight indeed. Ah ! pity the sorrows of
the raw recruit while being broken in yet a dry bed, a
warm night, and sleep undisturbed are three of the soldier s
luxuries. We found our bivouac to be nearly opposite
Hunter s Chapel, in advance of Forts Craig and Rich
ardson, on the Columbia Turnpike, and upon ground
occupied the previous winter by Blenker s Division of the
Army of the Potomac. The men lay about resting and
cleaning up all the morning of the twenty-fifth, and
receiving a lot of "A" tents, by the energetic efforts of
Quartermaster Haines, pitched them in regular camp
further to the south of the road, calling the spot Camp
Casey. A few cartridges were distributed and instruction
given in loading with the minie ball, a new thing then,
calibre .577,
Next day the Thirty-Fifth was transferred to the command
of General Whipple, and by him (on the thirtieth) assigned
to Van Volkenburg s Brigade ; drill was commenced, and
an order of camp duty issued. At leisure moments the
pedlers carts drew swarms, eager to obtain watermelons
and peaches in exchange for sticky postage-stamps, of
which every one carried a wad in his pocket, for gold and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 17
silver money had disappeared when the greenbacks were
issued. Others wandered off to see the neighboring forts,
or bathe in the creek in front, or inspect the corduroy
roads or mud huts of last winter, now covered with rank
grass ; and some mused over the white railing of the little
cemetery, and read the strange German names of those of
Blenker s men who, thus early in the war, had found rest
here.
On the same day (twenty-sixth) we broke camp and
retired about half a mile to within the line of the forts.
Tents were again pitched between the Turnpike and Fort
Craig, the officers tents being among peach trees, and the
place designated Camp Whipple. There was hardly room
for dress parade, which we here learned to go through
decently ; and Colonel Wild gave the regiment an after
noon of drill in inarching at double-quick in line of battle
with the bayonet. These last days of August were full of
great events occurring in front of our camps, so quietly
occupied, for out at Manassas and Centreville "Stonewall"
Jackson and his men were for several days between Wash
ington and the army of General Pope. Fitz Hugh Lee,
on the twenty-seventh, captured stores at Burke s Station,
within twelve miles of Alexandria. If Old Stonewall had
been in sufficient force to turn towards Washington our
position would have been more lively. It became suffi
ciently exciting very soon. Sixty rounds of cartridges per
man were distributed, and night alarms, with beating of
the long roll, practised.
Distant cannonade was heard daily, and pickets were
posted along the turnpike to the front. Company I had a
tour of duty, August 29, on guard at Fort Runion and the
Long Bridge, where they saw the cavalrymen who had been
stampeded at Manassas and the droves of cattle hurried
over the Potomac to Washington ; evidently " something
1 8 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
was up " in front, which did not look like victory. The
regiment was set to work digging intrenchments of regular
profile, flanking the forts; but the connection with the
commissary department was not well established, or army
rations too coarse, consequently our diet was poor, and
digging came hard ; men declared they had come out to
fight and not to handle the pick and shovel.
The liveliest incident was the narrow escape of Lieu
tenant Hood. He says : " I was lieutenant of the pickets
around Arlington Heights, and received, August 29, a
despatch from General McClellan directing me to detail
twenty-five extra men and march to Hunter s Chapel, and
await one of his staff. I did so, and we extended the
picket line to Ball s Cross Roads ; then McClellan made
his headquarters at Lee s mansion, the Arlington House.
At midnight the pickets were heard, and * boots to saddle
sounded ; I went to the Cross Roads, and finding troops
going into camp I assisted their officer in posting pickets.
On my return one of my pickets took me for a reb, never
made me dismount, but kept his gun and bayonet in my
face as we walked along ; he stumbled and pricked my
horse, and let me have it in face and eyes ; then ran and
cocked his gun again without loading, but it wouldn t shoot
worth a cent ; then the other picket came for me ; I dis
mounted, sung out that I was their officer and gave the
countersign. My men promised, if I would let them off,
to do better next time. I understood better picket duty,
but they may have meant shoot straighten When I got to
camp I found my face blackened with powder."
The lieutenant was afterwards very severely wounded at
Antietam.
At Camp Whipple, Major Carruth, now promoted to
lieutenant-colonel, arrived about the fifth of September,
bringing commissions for Captain Willard to be major,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 19
First-Lieutenant Lathrop to be a captain, and Second-
Lieutenant Hill to be a first-lieutenant ; also Lieutenant
Pope joined the regiment about the same time. Six four-
horse army wagons were issued to Quartermaster Haines
for transportation of baggage.
Ambulance trains from the front moved towards Wash
ington, with the slow motion which betokened wounded
men within ; and stragglers and portions of the Army of
the Potomac passed through camp, notably Meagher s
Brigade, of Sumner s Corps, sun-browned heroes of the
Peninsula, their clothes weather-stained and worn, flags
tattered and ranks thin, telling a tale of hard service, and
presenting an appearance which quite shocked us ; there
were even some wounded men among them. Soon after
these came visitors from General Pope s Army of Virginia,
with tales of narrow escapes and death of friends in the
battles about Groveton, called Second Bull Run. Surely
the crisis had now come, all the armies were about us, and
we were in good position to participate. We gazed over
to the city upon the half-finished dome of the Capitol, and
wondered if it would ever be completed it looked doubt
ful. But our short time for preparation was spent ; ready
or not ready it was time for the Thirty-Fifth to take the
field, to keep it until the end.
CHAPTER II.
MARYLAND AND THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN, 1862.
/^ENERAL LEE, with the Confederate army, bore
VJT away from Washington in a north-west direction,
and crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, between
September 4 and 7, at the fords near Leesburg, and
encamped in the vicinity of Frederick City. His where
abouts were to us a subject of conjecture for several days.
General Pope was relieved from the command of our
army by General McClellan, who devoted himself to the
task of reorganizing the force, while moving it towards
Frederick to meet General Lee and protect Washington
and Baltimore. The Thirty-Fifth was now transferred to
the command of General Burnside, already north of the
Potomac, and orders were received in the morning of the
sixth of September to be ready to march in light order,
knapsacks and sick men to be left behind, and tents left
standing. Between five and six in the evening the regi
ment fell in and moved down to the Long Bridge, crossed,
and passed through the streets of Washington. At that
hour the people were at leisure, and doors and windows
were crowded with spectators. Expectation of battle was
vivid, and cheers followed the troops as they hurried
through the darkening streets, accompanied by the rumble
of heavy wagons and tramp of many feet. A part of the
regiment turned off to the arsenal to exchange muskets ;
the rest marched up Seventh Street, due north, into the
21 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
dust and pale moonlight of the country roads, the night
air hot, but excitement cooling as the city was left behind.
On we pushed until past midnight, tramp, tramp, by quiet
farms and sleeping countrymen. Men began to express
fatigue in emphatic words, then straggling began, and
rebukes were of no avail. The rear had almost mingled
with the head of the column when, at half-past one o clock,
the order came to halt for the night; and, footsore and
weary, the men sought shelter in an oak grove beside the
road, and, gathering a few dried leaves, rolled themselves
in such coverings as they had and slept.
At sunrise (seventh), after a wash in the horse-trough
opposite, men scattered around among the neighboring
houses in search of a breakfast ; we had not yet learned
to subsist upon army rations. He was a lucky fellow who
found a cook not already overcrowded with applicants.
A move of about four miles only was made this day ; it
was Sunday, and excessively hot. We turned into some
woods on the left of the road near Leesboro, and waited
for the stragglers to come up. One of these poor fellows
having slept under a wayside hedge, striking into the road
in the morning, came face to face with General Burnside ;
making his best salute the man boldly inquired whether
the general had seen the Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts any
where. " Oh, yes," replied the urbane general dryly,
" you ll find them all the way from here to Washington ! "
Such are the effects of a night march upon new troops.
It should be said, however, that the other regiments upon
the road straggled as badly as our boys ; but ours were
more noticeable because we were so full in numbers.
At this camp Colonel W T ild instructed us in the duties of
a soldier on the march ; condemning straggling, permitting
foraging only when the commissary had forgotten us, and
then only for needful food; forbidding extravagance in
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 22
burning rail fences, and adding directions in regard to the
care of the wounded in battle, the enemy to be whipped
first and the disabled to be cared for afterward, they
were words of experience and were well heeded. Thence
forward the rear company marching with fixed bayonets
made straggling unprofitable.
On the eighth the regiment moved only a mile and
joined the brigade, of which we were for the next year
and a half to form a part. It was the Second Brigade
Reno s own of the Second Division (General Sturgis s)
of the Ninth Army Corps (General Burnside s), now com
manded by our proper brigadier, General Jesse L. Reno.
General Burnside was in command of the right wing of the
army, including General Hooker s First Corps with his
own. Our brigade, now under the leadership of Colonel
Ferrero, was composed of the Twenty-First Massachusetts,
Fifty-First New York and Fifty-First Pennsylvania regi
ments. We were carefully informed by the older members
that it was called " The Bloody Second Brigade," and it
was certain death to belong to if. With mouths open with
amazement we swallowed the startling information; but
the old veterans were not very far beside the truth after
all. They had served in North Carolina and in General
Pope s battles in Virginia, with great distinction and with
heavy losses.
The brigade marched about twelve miles on the ninth
to Brookville, a pretty Maryland village, headquarters of
General Burnside. From here Major Willard and Chaplain
Miller were sent back with one of the wagons to Arlington,
to strike the tents and care for the sick, many of whom
afterwards found their way into the dismal Convalescent
Camp at Alexandria. No movement of the brigade was
made on the tenth, but immense bodies of troops passed
our camp.
23 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The small supply of pork and hard bread, which fastid
ious appetites had placed in our haversacks at Arlington,
was now exhausted. Coffee without milk or sugar, so
bitter at first, had become pleasant ; raw salt pork was a
luxury, with a fine nutty flavor ; and hard bread took the
place it never afterwards gave up, as the first essential of
a soldier s life. The trees along the road were loaded
with green apples, and many of the men experimented
with a diet of sour apple sauce. Stray fowls were thrown
into the pot and devoured almost before they could utter
their last expiring clack. We began to understand the
saying, that an army moves upon its stomach.
After this, for a couple of days, the regiment plodded
along with the brigade. Hot days, dusty roads and bruised
feet make the bivouac on the ground at night a welcome
rest. The discomfort of marching in close ranks, with
perhaps a train of wagons or artillery in the middle of the
road, and another column of troops on the other side, all
hurrying forward, sometimes at double-quick, must be tried
for a few days to be duly appreciated. Experience was
gained daily. Lazy fellows found that a pound weight or
so of water in a canteen was a heavy lug, and learned to
beg their drink of neighbors and go light themselves.
The never ended discussion was begun whether, if in light
marching order, a choice must lie between an overcoat or
a blanket, which should be carried along. Also the boys
discovered that, in view of unexpected orders to move, it
was advisable to heat their pots of water first, then put in
the precious coffee, and woe to him who mixed his coffee
in the cold water, hoping for time to boil it ; if he did not
get an order to march, or detail for picket, some stumbler
would be sure to kick the burning rails and upset the mag
nificent array of blackening tin dippers but then was not
the air blue with maledictions !
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 24
The left and centre of the army took the shorter course
through Rockville and nearer the Potomac. We of the
right wing struck off north along the Patuxent, through
Unity, then, on the eleventh, north-westward to Damascus.
Here Fred. F. Blakely, of Company C, lost the forefinger
of his right hand, by the accidental discharge of his gun
while on duty ; our first wounded man. As the infantry
moved on, sounds of cannon were heard and sometimes
the cavalry in advance came into view, or we passed a
field-piece unlimbered by the roadside, ready to open fire ;
but all conflict seemed to keep just ahead. On the twelfth,
halting at noon at New Market, to allow another division
to precede us on the turnpike from Baltimore to Frederick,
we heard that the enemy s cavalry had left the town that
morning. Following on, we reached the neighborhood of
Frederick at night, the last part of the way between the
hills solemnized by the heavy booming of cannon in front.
These old turnpikes in Maryland are the best of roads,
well macadamized with broken limestone ; and the stone
bridge over the Monocacy River, which the Confederates
tried to blow up, is striking for its solidity and foreign
appearance. The regiment turned into the fields north
of the road, on the west bank of the river, and finding
abundant straw the men made a comfortable bivouac.
There had been a skirmish at the bridge that day, and
several of our cavalry were killed and wounded.
On the following morning, the thirteenth, while awaiting
orders, the rise of ground west of us was covered with
men, perched upon the rail fence, watching the distant
fight between our cavalry and the retiring enemy. The
prospect from the hill, including the city and the distant
Catoctin Hills, was worth viewing, without its exciting
incidents. By companies, the regiment filed out to the
river bank and fired the new Enfields for the first time,
25 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
not much to our satisfaction ; the cones of some snapped
off at the base, rendering such arms useless, for we had no
tools to extract the stumps ; and the ammunition seemed
to fit loosely, so that some were disgusted when their
bullets dropped into the water a few rods from the muzzle.
Several men were found who had never fired a gun.
By the middle of the afternoon the skirmish in front
had abated, and orders came to move forward. Who that
was present will ever forget the cheerful welcome received
as the heavy columns of troops passed through Frederick
City, flags and handkerchiefs waving, and friendly faces
greeting the soldiers from all sides !
" Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town."
At a corner of the streets General McClellan with his
staff reviewed the troops, and cheer after cheer rent the
air as the regiments passed. This welcome from patriotic
Marylanders made the soldiers feel as if they were to fight
upon their own soil, and greatly inspirited the army unused
to such moral support. The song of " Maryland, My
Maryland," was ever after a Union song. Our regiment
sang together " Marching Along " and " Old John Brown,"
with grand effect, as we swung through the streets ; but
when we halted for a few moments in the outskirts, some
of the cynical elders of the brigade suggested : " Save
your breath, boys ; you ll need it ahead there ! " Too
true ! for we never sang together on the march afterwards,
we had no heart for it, it seemed like tempting evil
fortune.
Darkness gathered, but the march was continued. The
road was ascending, passing over the Catoctin range of
hills, outliers of the Blue Ridge. The scenery from these
by day-light is described as surpassingly fine ; but, as we
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 26
stumbled along at a quick pace over the heaps of broken
stone, dropped there for road mending some of the men
so tired as to be walking in their sleep we minded little
of the charm about us. The waning moon rose and was
reaching the zenith, when, late at night, descending the
hills we found ourselves in the valley near Middletown.
Here a halt was called, arms stacked, packs unslung, and
a few moments found the tired men wrapped in sleep.
Company D had the ill luck to be detailed for picket on
this the night before our first battle.
Waking stiff and sore to a beautiful Sunday morning
(September 14), the first thought was breakfast. Some
cattle were driven up and killed in the neighboring field,
and we tried broiling collops of steaming fresh beef upon
our ramrods. Some of the men visited the houses in the
town in search of eatables, but with little success. The
irrepressible Walsh returned with a tea-kettle and cabbage
of course he was a tailor as well as a marine and set
to work boiling the vegetable. While this was passing
artillery firing commenced, and white puffs of smoke
began to rise between us and the range of blue hills,
called the South Mountain, about one thousand feet high,
bounding our view on the west ; to which, however, we
gave little attention. Two o clock in the afternoon came,
and with it the order to "fall-in." The regiment was
about eight hundred strong, with Colonel Wild in com
mand. Walsh had not time to cook his cabbage ; so he
slung it, kettle and all, to his belt, in hopes of a chance
to finish it.
We passed through the quiet town, houses and churches
ominously silent and deserted, and out into the country,
meeting the Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts Regi
ments, with other troops, resting by the roadside ; they
laughed at our announcement that we, such raw troops,
27 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
were going into battle. The wooden bridge over a small
stream was destroyed, the timbers still smoking, but we
found no difficulty in fording. We stopped there a moment
to load our guns. As we proceeded ambulances met us,
returning with wounded men. The sound of firing in front
grew louder, and we could distinguish the rattle of mus
ketry and see a line of smoke rising half way up the hills.
" Now, men, forward ! right shoulder shift ! quick
time ! double quick ! " came the orders. We left the road,
crossed the fields, jumping brooks, and were soon close
upon our batteries, which were fuming like furnaces, and
sending shells into Turner s Pass on the right and up into
the woods on the left.
A brief halt was made at the battery ; then the order
came to hurry up the old Sharpsburg road, at Fox s Gap,
to the left. Away we went to the foot of the hills ; the
rear companies with difficulty closing up, so swift the
advance. It was about half past three o clock. The
cheering and rattle of musketry were lively above us, and
evidently our movement meant work. Half way up the
hill we met a wounded man borne in a stretcher upon the
shoulders of his friends. He shouted to us, as we breath
lessly hurried by : " Forward, boys, forward ! We re driving
them ! Don t let this scare you ; give em hell ! They
can t stand cold steel ! " We passed a low weather-stained,
house, and came into line of battle in its little cornfield,
to the left, facing the woods just below the summit of the
hill.
" Throw off your packs ! " Away go our bundles, never
to be seen again. " Fix bayonets ! " The rattle of the steel
replies. " Right face ! Forward by file left ! Double
quick ! Charge ! " And Company A led off gallantly up
into the thick woods in front, and through them into the
open field upon the summit, the proper scene of the action.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 28
Again we came into line, then forward across the field to
the wall on the west side fronting a log-house and more
woods, the right of the regiment resting, as it advanced,
upon a sunken road in which lay many dead and wounded
Confederates. A few scattering shots from the forest in
front saluted our appearance in the field. The momentary
halt gave Walsh an opportunity to deposit his precious
kettle in the corner of the wall, he now looking for warmer
work.
Immediately we started by the right flank and passed
on the double-quick the cross-roads made by the sunken
road, passing over the hill, meeting the road following the
ridge and leading to Rohrersville. Here stood Colonel
Wild, full of the fire of battle, urging us on with the most
vehement words. As we passed the colonel we saw several
dead and wounded of the enemy, lying by a pile of their
abandoned knapsacks, and either one of these wounded
men, or some one in the shrubbery behind them, fired a
shot which took effect in our ranks. Our boys rushed
fiercely at them with the bayonet ; but at the call of mercy,
11 Hold, men, don t strike a wounded man ! " they threw up
the steel. That little scene among the trees, with the
dead and wounded, their cadaverous faces and pale gray
clothing, arms thrown up for mercy, and the little cloud of
smoke dissipating above, left a vivid impression.
We kept along the ridge road to the north a little way,
then faced the forest, and, with bayonets at a charge, tried
to push through the tangled mass of vines and brambles,
in line of battle, on down the west side of the mountain.
The thicket was so close that only here and there could a
passage be forced through, and, as a consequence, the regi
ment, instead of advancing in line, broke into sections or
smaller parties, which moved forward by flank, dressing
on any point was impracticable. With bayonets forward,
29 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
watching the front, anticipating momentarily a crossing of
steel with the foe, but meeting no one, down we went.
Some ways down we halted ; the movement had been so-
quick most were glad to rest a moment and recover breath.
The sun in the west shone brightly among the trees, the
bee hummed among the grasses, all sounds of battle near
us had ceased. We had penetrated far within the original
Confederate line, and the foe in this front had fled down
the road to the left. If any remained in position we were
well within their left flank. Knowing nothing of positions,
however, and in doubt what to do, the sections, coming
more together, marched back up the hill into the ridge
road again.
Here was a scene of unavoidable confusion, as the dif
ferent parties came out of the woods and sought to recover
their positions in the line. Such a shouting of company
letters, " Company A ! " " Company B ! " " Company C ! "
etc., was never heard before nor since. Soon, having
settled into something like a line, so as to be under com
mand, the column, consisting of about half the regiment,
the rest going back by another route, moved back by flank
to and across the sunken road,, and then south upon the
field on the summit. There the rest of our brigade
appeared, drawn up in two lines, Fifty-First New York
and Fifty-First Pennsylvania in front, Twenty-First Massa
chusetts in rear, and our left companies commenced
forming in rear of the line of the Twenty-First, and extend
ing to the right, about twenty feet in front of the easterly
boundary of the field. The sun was just down.
While this position was being taken, suddenly a sharp
fire of musketry burst upon us from the wood to our front
and right, out of which we had just come. The surprise
was complete. The darkening forest was lined with flashes
of the hostile guns, and their bullets cut the earth about
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 30
our feet ; the ground descending towards the enemy. In
stantly some of the men threw forward their rifles and
returned the fire, aiming over the heads of the line in
front. Orders were confused, some shouting, " Fire !
fire ! " Others, more calm, " Cease firing ! " The latter
quickly prevailed, although, after a momentary interval,
while they were reloading or a new line coining up, the
enemy s musketry was continued, and men of our regiment
were being hit; and our line was drawn back into the edge
of the forest, east of the field, so as to be less exposed.
It was in this sudden attack that General Reno received a
mortal wound, and our colonel lost his arm.
When word spread that Colonel Wild was hit, there was
some hesitation as to who should succeed him, the lieu
tenant-colonel not being found at first. Captain Andrews
took command and led the regiment still further back into
the woods, so as to be protected while lying down by the
crest of the hill. It was quite dark ; the rest of the brigade
in our front and left kept up a steady, rattling fire of mus
ketry ; and so did the Confederates in our front, but they
did not advance, being content to expend their ammunition
on the trees over our heads ; so we lay and listened to the
steady whizzing of the bullets above us.
Had the enemy come out into the open field on our
right in force they would have flanked our position, and
recovered the ground they had lost in the afternoon ; but
they hesitated to advance in the darkness, and kept blazing
away without effecting anything until, having used up their
powder, their fire slackened and they retired. Meanwhile
our leader, fearing such a movement upon our right, drew
out the regiment from the woods into the sunken road,
which we found encumbered with dead and wounded Con
federates. Here, while the enemy s musketry was dying
away, we lay with bayonets fixed, peering into the darkness
31 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
over the stone wall, which bounded the road on the north
side, awaiting the flank attack which did not come. Some
of the poor fellows in the road had strength enough to
speak, arid beg for water or a change of position, which
was willingly rendered them. When the contest-had ceased
General Sturgis sent up a section of artillery ; and, to let
the guns pass, our men moved the wounded and dead from
the road upon the bank, sometimes in the darkness placing
several bodies together, which lead observers in the morning
to report to the newspapers that " the rebels were piled in
heaps as high as the wall." We then marched into the field
north of the sunken road and stacked arms, with orders to
rest behind the stacks, but be ready for action at any mo
ment ; videttes were sent forward to the rail fence fronting
the western wood. It was about nine o clock in the evening,
and quite cold upon the hill top. The men were bathed
in perspiration from the exertion and excitement of battle,
but a renewal of the attack being feared few were per
mitted to return down the hill to the cornfield in search of
the blankets and coats thrown off before the first charge ;
some returned and reported nothing there friends in the
rear had made way with the goods. No fires were allowed,
so we tried to keep warm walking about, and by turns
endeavoring to catch a little sleep, lying four across four,
until the welcome sun arose. The fatigues of the day and
of the previous night s march made even these naps a
precious relief.
In the morning some made a breakfast upon the small
round biscuit with which the haversacks of the dead Con
federates about us were filled ; others preferred to go
hungry rather than do anything which seemed like robbing
the dead. Whether Walsh recovered his kettle of cabbage
was never reported. Down the east side of the hill, in our
rear, where the Confederate line of battle had lain the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 32
day before, along a stone wall, the ground was gray with
the knapsacks and blankets they had thrown off in the
fight and left behind in their hasty departure. From these,
with a good deal of fastidious examination for those little
creatures which love to lodge in the clothing of veteran
armies, we selected blankets to supply those we had lost.
The dead lay with faces upturned, already black with dis
solution, and objected not to the necessary appropriation.
Those who went over the field said that the Confederate
dead lay thicker to the left in the woods, but the horrors
beside us sufficed.
We noticed here and there a tall fellow in blue, with the
regulation Kossuth hat, betokening Western troops, for the
soldiers of the Army of the Potomac always wore the cloth
cap. They were the dead of the Seventeenth Michigan,
who, with the Seventy-Ninth New York (Highlanders), had
preceded us in the charge the afternoon before and had
broken the line of the enemy at the sunken road, thus
accounting for our so undisputed advance over the field.
The wounded man we had met on the hill-side was one
of theirs, and his words of cheer were a true statement of
the condition of the action at the moment. General Cox s
Kanawha Division had secured and held a place of vantage,
from which these two regiments had made their gallant
and successful charge.
General McClellan and staff passed up over the field,
and were received with cheers and every demonstration of
victory. Then our satisfaction was chilled by news that
our noble General Reno was dead, an irreparable loss
to the Ninth Corps, an officer whose name cannot be
repeated without a pang of sorrow !
Colonel Wild s arm was amputated at the shoulder, and
the loss unfitted him for severe field service, though he
afterwards won additional honor as general in command
33 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
of the well-known Wild s African Brigade. The Thirty-
Fifth was fated to lose its commanding officer in successive
actions ; he was the first to fall. The other officers wounded
were Captain B. F. Pratt, Second-Lieutenant Charles F.
Williams, Jr. (mortally), and First-Lieutenant William Hill.
Of the enlisted men, there were five killed or who died
of their wounds soon after : Addison Tarr, of Company A
(the first man killed in battle in the Thirty-Fifth) ; Andrew
J. Nash, of B ; George S. Sloan, of E ; George F. Whiting,
of I ; and Joseph W. Cobb, of K. There were some dozen
to twenty others wounded.
The men of the regiment who fired at the time of the
sudden attack were rightly blamed for doing so without
the colonel s orders, but such occurrences are not easily
avoided ; even veteran troops, when unexpectedly assaulted
in a wooded country, will, if they think they see an opening
for a shot, return the fire without orders, for the noise of
the attack drowns the commander s voice, it can never be
known how far the enemy will advance, and the ball or the
bayonet is the only thing to stop them. The marvel was
not that our raw men blazed away, but that they could be
stopped, and remain steady while the enemy s fire con
tinued.
The troops of Generals Hooker and Meacle had fought
the enemy bravely and successfully on the hills north of
Turner s Pass, and General Gibbon in the Pass itself.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes, of the Twenty-Third Ohio, late
President Hayes, was wounded somewhere on the ridge
south of our point of attack. The Confederates had now
retired from the whole front to behind Antietam Creek.
Colonel Taylor, in his book, " Four Years with General
Lee," gives the forces engaged on the Confederate side at
South Mountain as follows : D. H. Hill had the brigades
of Rhodes, Garland, Colquitt, Anderson and Ripley, num-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 34
bering in all less than five thousand. About 3 P. M. he was
reenforced by the brigades of Drayton and Anderson, num
bering nineteen hundred, and late in the day was joined
by Longstreet, with the brigades of Evans, Pickett, Kem-
per, Jenkins, Hood and Whiting ; only four of these, how
ever, numbering three thousand, became seriously engaged,
and they not until dark. The troops of Garland, G. B.
Anderson, Ripley, Drayton and G. T. Anderson are else
where stated to have been engaged at Fox s Gap, and of
these the Twenty-Third North Carolina claimed to have
killed General Reno. The brigades of G. T. Anderson
and Drayton appear to have been the ones which left their
dead and wounded in the sunken road and their knapsacks
behind the walls, and Longstreet s men to have made the
attack at dark.
Captain Phisterer, in his " Statistical Record," gives the
total losses at South Mountain : Union, 2,325 ; Confederate,
4,343-
The importance to the National cause of this victory at
South Mountain, won by clash and courage from an enemy
strongly posted and elated with recent successes, can with
difficulty be estimated now. It was our first important
advantage after a series of disastrous battles. The effect
in restoring to the army confidence in its powers, and in
encouraging a disappointed people, was visible at once in
the spirit and disposition of the men and in the tone of the
newspapers and letters from home.
CHAPTER III.
ANTIETAM.
ON the fifteenth of September the Confederate army
was divided: General Lee with Longstreet s and
other divisions, including the troops of D. H. Hill just
driven from South Mountain, had withdrawn into the angle
formed by the Potomac River and the Antietam Creek,
and lay upon the gently swelling hills in front of the
village of Sharpsburg, waiting to concentrate his army and
for his trains to cross the river into Virginia ; General
Jackson was distant from Lee about seventeen miles, at
Harper s Ferry, gathering in his prisoners and spoils ; for,
at eight o clock this morning, the garrison of Harpers
Ferry, some ten thousand men, with abundant stores, had
surrendered to Old Stonewall, who, by a masterly surround
and occupation of the commanding heights, had compelled
a surrender sooner than was thought possible. The officer
who succeeded General Miles, who was killed at the mo
ment of capitulation, was our afterwards friend and division
commander, General Julius White, of Indiana. The news
of this loss reached us next day, and caused almost as
much depression as our victory had given elation.
The weather was fine and favorable for the movements
of the armies ; but the men of our regiment, after the two
nights of broken rest and fatigues of battle, were happy to
lie upon the field during the morning and let the warm sun
thaw out limbs stiffened by the frosts of the previous night.
36 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
General J. D. Cox, of the Kanawha Division, took com
mand of the Ninth Corps. Lieutenant Hudson had been
detailed upon the staff of Colonel Ferrero before the battle.
He says he had forty minutes chase after the Thirty-Fifth
the afternoon before, and was unable to catch up with it;
which shows the swiftness of our march from Middletown.
Having gathered up the stragglers, and looked after the
dead and wounded, the regiment formed, about two in the
afternoon, and took the road down the west slope of the
mountain. The sun seemed to brighten as we left that
scene of horror. It is said by those now living upon the
spot that a portion of the dead were buried by throwing
them into the well near the log-house at the cross roads.
The valley we entered was green and fertile, and dotted
with comfortable houses, many having a Dutch look, like
their owners names. One of our men, Greenleaf F. Jel-
lison, of Company C, accidentally shot himself in the foot
soon after we started. In a field by the road-side two young
bulls, a black and a red, seized with a desire to ape the
folly of their betters, or taking advantage of broken fences
to clear off old scores, were having a pitched battle. Our
boys named one " Mac," the other " Bob Lee," and de
clared that the former got the better of the contest. So
the auspices were propitious.
Approaching the banks of the Antietam at dark, a line
of batteries appeared, posted along the ridge in front ;
they were warmly engaged, sending shot and shell across
the stream at the enemy, whom the rise of ground con
cealed from us. The regiment, at first, turned in on the
right of the road and stacked arms ; then resumed them
and, moving further along the road, turned into a cornfield
on the left, where, with other troops massed there, we re
mained in bivouac all night and the following day. The
sixteenth was a beautiful day, and sitting upon a bundle,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 37
leaning one s back against a stack of arms and reading old
papers, would have been quite comfortable had it not been
for the shells and solid shot which our friends on the fur
ther side of the creek kept dropping into the field, generally
without effect other than noise and dust, but occasionally
maiming some poor fellow, causing a pause in the reading-
During the day Generals McClellan and Burnside passed
with numerous staffs, reconnoitring the front and drawing
the enemy s fire effectually.
At sundown we moved forward to the south and over
the ridge. The brigade formed en masse, and with the
straw from a large stack near by the men made a luxurious
bivouac. The scene from this position was very fine. In
front was the valley through which the Antietam ran to
join the Potomac somewhere to our south-east. Beyond
the creek the hills rose to a considerable elevation, crowned
with hay-stacks and the houses of Sharpsburg, among which
rested the Confederate army, with its batteries frowning
along the front. The country upon our right was hidden
from view by hills on our side of the creek. Behind us
were the batteries of Benjamin, Durell, and others on the
ridge. It was a clear evening ; all seemed to breathe
awhile and rest for the dread contest of the morrow.
Artillery was fired for some time from the enemy s line,
a few shots towards us, but most of them to the south
east, where the trains of light and bursting shells looked
like signals towards Harper s Ferry. We had a peaceful
night s rest. At midnight much needed rations were
brought up from the trains by the exertions of our after
wards quartermaster, Cutter.
Before the men had turned out on the morning of the
seventeenth the roar of battle came swelling down from
the right, and men exclaimed : " Boys, listen to the music !
They have gone in on the right ! " Beyond the Antietam,
33
above us, the corps of Generals Hooker, Mansfield, Sum-
ner and Franklin successively assailed the Confederate
left wing about Dunker Church, suffering and inflicting
losses in killed and wounded unprecedented at that period
of the war. The localities, times of entering the action
by different divisions, and work done by each are much
disputed ; and it does not belong to this story to try to
explain them. The high ground between shut of! the
scene from our view ; we heard only the thunder of the
mingled artillery and small arms as the tide of contest
rose and fell. Let it suffice here to say that the fight in
that direction lasted from daylight to noon, that the field
was a sea of blood, and the results indecisive.
In our front there was quiet in the early morning, except
an occasional picket shot down in the misty bed of the
creek. Directions were issued to have all canteens filled,
as the day was likely to be warm ; and men scattered with
back loads of canteens in search of wells. The crowding
about these and constant plying of the buckets muddied
the water, and yet he was fortunate who filled up with that
mixture. Firing began near us, and the word spread that
the regiment was falling in ; there was a rush from all
directions to the ranks. When formed, about ten o clock,
we marched by the left flank through the fields and clumps
of wood to the southward, Lieutenant-Colonel Carruth at
the head, Lieutenant Hudson, an aide of Colonel Ferrero,
acting as guide, coming out on the wooded bluff imme
diately overlooking the valley of the Antietam. Here one
of our batteries was engaged in a duel with a Confederate
battery upon the opposite hills. The enemy s shell flew
about us, at our feet and among the trees, but harmlessly ;
our experience of yesterday had familiarized us somewhat
with this long bowling. When, however, one of our shot
struck and exploded a caisson on the other side our cheers
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 39
were loud and long, and were replied to by a rather feeble
yell from our antagonists.
It was near eleven o clock, and a brisk contest had been
going on for some time upon the creek below us ; but the
trees and smoke concealed all from view. We could hear
our men shouting and their foes yelling, amid the rattle of
small arms ; it seemed hot work down there. These were
the unsuccessful movements to secure the bridge-crossing,
first by General Crook s brigade of the Kanawha Division,
afterwards by the Sixth New Hampshire and Second Mary
land of the First Brigade (General Nagle s) of our division.
At length the order came for us to move forward. We
descended the hill by the left flank, and passed between
the stalks of tall corn on the level, meeting several men
holding an arm or some member from which the red blood
was dripping. The air was close and stifling. While this
was being done, the following interesting conversation took
place between General Sturgis and Lieutenant Hudson,
aide : " Colonel Ferrero wishes to know what to do with
the regiments." Sturgis replied : " Have him move those
regiments (the three older ones) clown to the stream imme
diately, and take the bridge ! " " And what with this new
Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts ? " " Tell him to move it across
the bridge and up the hill in line of battle. There must
be no delay ; General Burnsicle is waiting for this to be
done now ! " ""Isn t that artillery aimed at the position ? "
"Yes ; but that shall be stopped."
. We reached the bank of the stream near a large spread
ing tree, where the water flowed dark and cool under the
overhanging foliage. At this point the creek ran nearly
from west to east. The opposite bank was high with an
abrupt rocky ascent, studded with trees, and completely
commanding the side upon which we were. Here the reg
iment halted awhile ; bundles were thrown off and piled,
40 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and a guard set over them ; and bayonets were fixed. Not
a shot was fired at us from the other bank, the enemy s
attention being drawn to the fight above us, where the
sounds of battle still continued, seeming to increase as we
came nearer.
The country road ran up stream, close to the north bank
of the creek, and was bounded on the northerly side by a
fence and ploughed field, in which stood an old barn.
Beyond the field and a fence, which formed its west
boundary, was a wooded knoll, or two little knolls, facing
the opening of the bridge, and behind these Nagle s men
were posted. Colonel Ferrero ordered the Fifty-First
Pennsylvania to move forward by the right flank to Nagle s
position, then down with a yell and rush over the bridge.
The Twenty-First Massachusetts was placed in the ploughed
field along the fence bounding the road, and ordered to
open fire at the enemy across the creek ; which they did
warmly. Company A of our regiment was detailed to
take position on the left of the Twenty-First, and com
mence firing in the same manner. The Fifty-First New
York was posted on the right of the Twenty-First, but at
right angles to it, facing up stream towards the bridge.
The Fifty-First Pennsylvania proceeded as ordered, made
a dash from the knoll to the opening of the bridge, stopped
there and commenced firing. Our artillery was aimed at
the further end of the bridge, and had to be quieted before
the Fifty-First could proceed.
Colonel Ferrero moved diagonally across the ploughed
field to behind the knolls, and the Thirty-Fifth followed.
Colonel Ferrero sent Lieutenant Hudson from the knolls
to Colonel Hartranft, commanding the Fifty-First Penn
sylvania, to ask why he did not cross the bridge at once.
Colonel Hartranft was found at the right parapet with his
colors. When the order was communicated to him, he
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 41
said: "Does he wish it?" " Yes, sir." "Very well."
The Fifty-First Pennsylvania then started, the men firing
upwards and setting up a yell as a signal for our artillery
to cease firing on the bridge. Lieutenant Hudson then
asked Lieutenant-Colonel Potter, commanding the Fifty-
First New York, to follow. He assented, and his regiment
hurried after the Pennsylvanians. Most of our regiment,
Company D being now the head of the column, had passed
the fence near the knolls, when the shouting and din of
the conflict, now close at hand to our left, was redoubled.
It was the charge of the two regiments in accordance Math
the above orders. Colonel Ferrero said to Lieutenant
Hudson : " Hudson, tell your colonel to cross the bridge
immediately, move along the road to the right, form in
line and advance up the hill ! " The lieutenant did so.
" Forward ! " came the order to us. " Double quick ! "
And we rushed around between the little knolls and out of
the little grove, Lieutenant-Colonel Carruth leading, into
an open space facing the entrance to a stone bridge, with
parapets, crossing the creek. Here was a startling scene
of battle ; clouds of smoke overhung ; along the creek,
below the bridge, the Twenty-First Massachusetts and our
Company A were actively engaged with the enemy posted
behind trees, rails and stones, upon the rocky acclivity
across the stream ; dead and wounded men in blue lay
.about, some still tossing and writhing in their agony ; the
bridge was filled with men of the Fifty-First Pennsylvania
and Fifty-First New York, who had preceded us, some
kneeling behind the parapets of the bridge and firing up
at the gray coats, others crowding forward to the further
end of the bridge and also firing upward.
Our regiment came partly into line, as if to open fire
along the bank at the bridge ; then, by the colonel s com
mands, swung by the right again and joined the throng
42 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
hurrying on to the further bank, the third regiment to
cross. Confederate sharpshooters dropped or slid from
the overhanging trees in which they had been hidden
one clinging to a branch the moment before he fell. It is
said that Colonel Ferrero seized a musket and fired among
them. In a shorter time than it takes to tell it we had
crowded across the bridge and filed into the road to the
right, where the two regiments which had preceded us were
halted. The line of the regiment was formed quickly
and steadily, facing the hill, which here rose more gently
than below the bridge. Men in gray came down the hill,
holding up both hands, or waving a dirty white rag, and
were sent to the rear as prisoners. They belonged to
Georgia regiments, of Toombs s Brigade, of General D.
R. Jones s Division.
The halt here was but for a few moments; then the
Thirty-Fifth was ordered forward up the hill, with a
promise that other regiments should follow in support.
Accordingly we advanced up the steep, climbing with
difficulty the high rail fences, at first in line of battle, then
swinging into column and moving by the right flank as we
neared the top. The regiment reached the bare brow of
the hill the first to appear there and moved some
distance by the right flank to the higher part of the rise.
Before us, towards Sharpsburg, the enemy were scattering
back to their artillery upon the hills on the hither side of
the town. The hostile battery, which we had been watch
ing an hour before, now, close at hand, opened upon us at
once, and sent the iron whizzing around us, shells taking
effect in Companies D and H, cutting Luther F. Read in
two, killing David W. Gushing, and severely wounding
Lieutenant Baldwin.*
*The commander of that battery, Moody, was subsequently a prisoner under
charge of Lieut. Baldwin, at Fort Warren.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 43
It was but high noon. If supports had been up, as
promised, the whole could have gone forward, kept the
already started enemy upon the go, and, as the zouaves
did at a later hour, driven the exposed gunners from their
artillery with less loss than afterwards befel, for we, at
least, were green enough to go anywhere without hes
itation ; and the subsequent Confederate reinforcements
from Harper s Ferry might have come too late. But we
knew nothing of the importance of prompt action at. that
hour; to stand still upon the exposed hill-top would be
murder ; moreover, General Sturgis had orders to hold
back his division most of the regiments being out of
ammunition and let the rear pass in front of him.
Accordingly our colonel, seeing no supports behind him,
ordered the regiment to retire under the brow of the hill
and -lie down. The shells hurtled around us as we climbed
the fence in retreat ; yet many, indignant at the notion of
falling back, and fearing more the bayonets of their com
patriots while getting over the fence than the missiles of
the enemy, waited a bit, until the line had crossed, before
following. The Confederate General D. H. Hill says he
caused his guns to open upon an " imposing force of Yan
kees " at twelve hundred yards distance, and routed them
by artillery fire alone, unaided by musketry. It is possible
that this imposing force was the Thirty-Fifth going up and
retiring as above. But they were neither routed nor flur
ried, and would have gone forward as readily then, when
they saw the enemy running, as afterwards when our men
fell back. As we thus came back over the fence our bat
teries, mistaking us for the enemy, commenced firing into
us. Colonel Carruth waved his hat, without effect j then
his voice rang out, " Unfurl those colors and wave them !
Steady not too high ! " We had only the blue and the
white flags, no stars and stripes. No more shots came
44 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
from the rear. Just under the crest of the hill we halted
and lay down upon the dried grass of the field.
Behind us was the deep valley of the bed of the creek r
into which the Confederate shells, passing over us, went
crashing among the trees about the bridge, almost making;
the crossing there impracticable. On our left regiments
were soon seen coming up, the Twenty-First Massachusetts
among the first, followed by our Company A, which now
rejoined the regiment ; its position in rear of the Twenty-
First having given the men of that regiment grounds for
their subsequent belief that they crossed before the Thirty-
Fifth. In front we, except the few videttes thrown forward,
could see nothing, the hill concealing all in that direction ;
but to our right the view was quite unobstructed, the land
being lower for some distance, then rising gently to the
haystacks and houses of the town. This space was un
occupied at first ; it was the interval in the centre of the
battle-field which separated the right and left wings of the
army. The sounds of battle had subsided in the direction
of the right wing. We learned afterwards that their fight
was for the most part over, thus early in the day. A shell,
skimming the crest of the hill, stole a haversack from a
man s back as he lay upon the ground, and sent it flying
towards the stream below, exciting merriment in spite of
the gravity of the situation. The whirring of the shells
above us had a drowsing effect, and some of our men
dozed ; others munched hard bread and conversed in low
tones ; some went for water by detail, filling canteens
from the warm, soft water of the creek. At such a time
men s characters reveal themselves : the religiously dis
posed bends his thoughts on Heaven; the less devout
watches the ants busy as usual at their never-ending
labors, and wishes he could be as small as they for a few
hours; while the more thoughtless cuts his tobacco and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 45
enjoys its soothing influence. We lay thus several hours
while the troops were coming over. It was slow work
passing Wilcox s Division and Hawkins s Brigade through
the narrow defile of the stone bridge, only twelve feet
wide, and under cross fire of artillery. No fords were
used near the bridge, if any practicable ones existed
there ; even the name of the stream was unknown at
first. Colonel Ferrero had offered to try to ford below
the bridge in the morning, but the attempt was dis
couraged.
Regiments moved over the hill to the left, and some
from behind passed steadily over us through our ranks,
some of the men seeming to prefer to join us for awhile,
but their officers preventing. On the right we saw for the
first time a line of skirmishers go forward in good style,
firing and loading. It was a pretty sight. They reached
the haystacks, and presently these burst into flame ; cheer
ing was heard in front, and it began to look like victory.
A Confederate battery was captured by the Ninth New
York (Hawkins s Zouaves) and held a short time. It
was the crisis of the battle ; at this hour the Confederate
line was badly broken as we learn from writers who
were present on that side their men had scattered
into the town and could not be rallied. Orders had
been issued for our brigade to be relieved, and sent
down to the road by the bridge. Lieutenant Hudson,
aide, was on the way to transmit them to Colonel Carruth-
but the order from General Cox, corps commander,
mentioned below, arrived first, to quite a contrary pur
port. For now came a turn in affairs. It was between
four and five o clock. The light troops of A. P. Hill,
Confederate general, which had left Harper s Ferry in the
morning, marching in haste, had arrived at the nick of
time for them ; and, catching our left, General Rodman s
46 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Division, somewhat disorganized by its successful advance,
took them upon the flank and pressed them back irresist
ibly. Back came our line as swiftly as it had advanced,
but more scattered, the Zouaves badly cut up. There
was danger that the enemy would follow and overtake the
whole in a mass at the bridge head ; they must be stopped
at any cost. Colonel Ferrero had ordered our colonel to
form a line across the ravine, below and on our right, and
stop all stragglers, which had been obeyed.
One of our batteries had come over the bridge and
opened fire in front of us. Now, out of ammunition, one
section of it limbered up hurriedly, and prepared to fall
back. General Cox, seeing the danger of panic, gave the
order, " Send that big regiment over the hill ! " Lieutenant
Hudson told the general of Colonel Ferrero s order. Gen
eral Cox replied : " Yes, I know that, but the regiment
must move at once ; you see the need of haste." A line
of skirmishers along the brow of the next hill were shoot
ing minies uncomfortably our way. As soon as the order
was passed, Colonel Carruth started up : " Attention !
Thirty-Fifth." We rose up at once and faced the front,
forming forward a little, the companies moving to their
positions. " Left face ! Forward march ! " Hardly
had the regiment faced and moved a little distance when
the battery came dashing full speed into us, breaking our
line for a moment, but the men undismayed closed up
immediately. A little way to the left, then facing to the
front, with a hurrah, the regiment went at a double quick,
in line of battle, over the hill and down the slope into
the valley towards Sharpsburg.
We passed the remnants of the first line and kept on
to a rail fence, partly broken down, enclosing a lane, into
which some of the men climbed. Here we halted, and,
laying our rifles upon the rails, opened fire at will upon
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 47
the enemy coming on to follow up their success. On our
left the other regiments of our brigade said, to be almost
out of ammunition were also engaged or lying down
waiting to repel the foe with the bayonet ; but the line in
that direction bent back exposing our flank. Behind us
was the slope of the hill down which we had come ; in
front was a ploughed field, sloping up to a wall of the
most solid construction, about two hundred yards off;
on the left front, cornfields with the high stalks and
waving blades uncut. Beyond these the hill rose more
steeply to the summit, upon which were the enemy s bat
teries. Behind the wall and in the cornfield was the Con
federate infantry ; their right overlapping our left, making
a cross fire upon our left companies.
Our first fire was a rattling volley ; then came the mo
mentary interval occupied in loading. The rifles were, of
course, muzzle loaders, with iron ramrods ; the cartridges
were new and the brown paper of the toughest description,
so that strong fingers were required to tear out the conical
ball and the little paper cup of gunpowder. Emptying
these into the muzzle and ramming home and capping the
piece took time seemingly a long time in the hurry of
action and to discharge sixty rounds in this way occupies
an hour or more of intense exertion. The men finding
this difficulty settled down to the work steadily, loading
and firing, aiming now to the wall, then to the cornfield,
and then elevating the sight pieces and trying for the can
noneers about the hostile guns. It was a steady roll of
musketry. The officers directed the aim of the men,
Captain Cheever s quaint phrase being, " Pop away ! boys,
Pop away ! " the file closers refraining from firing at first,
but watching their men as Colonel Wild in his instructions
had directed.
The enemy had not been idle, our men being hit behind
48 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
our battery where N. I. Sweeney, of Company C, fell
and while we were advancing, and now at the fence. The
force of a minie ball or piece of shell striking any solid por
tion of the person is astonishing ; it comes like a blow from
a sledge hammer, and the recipient finds himself sprawling
on the ground before he is conscious of being hit ; then
he feels about for the wound, the benumbing blow dead
ening sensation for a few moments. Unless struck in the
head or about the heart men mortally wounded live some
time, often in great pain, and toss about upon the ground.
So now, while we were firing, men began to fall headlong,
or drop their guns and seize some portion of their bodies ;
arms dripping with blood were held up to be stanched,
and ghastly faces were turned to a friend for a last word.
The dropping shot and pieces of shell from the enemy
raised the dust in little puffs in the ploughed land before
and on the slope behind us. Now and then our men or
the Confederates raised a shout or yell at some well-aimed
missile, a flag was waved or the enemy s field pieces
changed position. It was work in dead earnest and
intensely exciting. The rising white smoke was quickly
wafted away. One spoke to his comrade, turned aside
and, looking back, saw him weltering upon the ground ;
but there was no time for thought then load and fire!
load and fire !
Our regiment being so large and so steadily engaged
drew special attention from the Confederate batteries and
line. The bullets, zip ! zip ! close to the ear, shells burst
with sulphurous smoke, and pieces flew in every direction.
Our wounded accumulated rapidly, and the motionless
bodies of the dead, upon the back or face, with pallid
faces and arms thrown out. Some men repeated as they
fired a set phrase or oath, expressive of their feelings.
The color guard especially suffered. Color-Sergeant Moses
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 49
C. Bartlett was wounded and sent to the rear. Lieutenant-
Colonel Carruth was disabled by a wound in the side of
the neck, near the jugular vein, and obliged to leave the
field. Captain King, acting major, walked along the line
directing the aim of the men to the cornfield, in which the
enemy were apparently forming for a charge, their flags
waving in the setting sun, he even took a gun and fired
it. Cheers were raised, but all were too busy to waste
much breath. The rifles with repeated discharges began
to get too hot to hold. Many of them became clogged by
the dirt from the powder, and the ball could not be forced
home ; but there were serviceable ones left upon the
ground, dropped by the dead and wounded. Thus a
man used two or three guns before his ammunition was
expended.
While this was going on Colonel Ferrero s aides, Lieu
tenants Walcott and Hudson, were with General Sturgis
at the bridge. Lieutenant Walcott said : " General, our
regiments can t hold that position any longer ; to my
certain knowledge they are mostly out of ammunition,
and some have been quite so for nearly an hour." To
which the general replied : "By - , they must hold it ;
we ve nothing else to hold it with ! " About the same time
General Burnside was calling upon General McClellan for
reinforcements, but without success.
As the sun went down the weight of fire of the Con
federate infantry increased rather than slackened, showing
additional troops for them; but none came for us. Word
was passed that we were to be relieved by some Con
necticut regiments, and glances were cast behind to see
if they were advancing. Ammunition was failing us, and
Captains Andrews (acting lieutenant-colonel), King and
Lathrop passed along the line, opening the boxes of the
fallen and distributing the cartridges found. A steady,
50 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
but much weaker fire was continued, for our line had
grown wofully thin, and the disabled seemed as numerous
as the fighting men. It grew dark apace, and the flashes
of the guns of the Confederate line twinkled like a display
of fireworks.
No relief came. Our line had dwindled to a skirmish
line. Captain King, struck in seven places, was helped
off the field with the colors. The last cartridge was
expended. No communication from the rear had been
received for some time we seemed to be facing the
enemy alone it could be endured no longer. Word
was passed in an undertone, " Fall back to the hill ! "
and the relics of the regiment, amid a perfect storm of
bullets, retreated to the hill. Officers and men had done
all that could be asked of them.
The enemy did not follow. The object of the advance
of our brigade had been secured, his forward movement
stopped, and the position gained on the west bank saved.
General McClellan had sent word to Burnside, " Hold
the bridge at all hazards ; if that is lost all is lost." The
bridge was held. It was twilight. Behind the hill regi
ments were drawn up in solid lines the relief that did
not come to us. Seeing their steady appearance, our men
stopped and came together. Most of them went down to
the creek to drink and wash the powder and blood stains
from their hands and faces, which were a sight to behold ;
then formed in remnants of companies and marched up
the road, ascending the precipitous cliff to the left. At a
bend in the road some thoughtful commissary blessed
be his name had placed a barrel partly filled with
chunks of boiled fresh beef. Each man as he passed
dipped into this and moved on, munching a huge piece
for his late dinner. Arrived at the top of the hill, an
ammunition wagon was found and cartridge boxes replen-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 51
ishetl. It was too dark for further contest, and the conflict
had died away ; the enemy also had got all of fighting they
wanted for the day. Arms were stacked, and the men
rested. Captain Cheever lay here upon a blanket, injured
by some missile at the time the regiment retired behind
the brow of the hill, when first we ascended it after cross
ing; but he had, nevertheless, continued in command of
his company until now. Inquiries for friends passed
around ; hands were shaken when chums met, as if after
a long absence ; and low talk was busy about the events of
the day. It had been an afternoon in the valley of death.
In the evening Captain Lathrop and Lieutenant Hudson,
receiving information of wounded men within reach from
Corporal Whitman* (for he and several of Company G
appear to have been the last fighting men to leave the
rail fence), tried, with a squad of men, to make their way
in the intense darkness down to the fence to care for the
wounded ; but the party was stopped by a line of pickets
from the Fifty-First Pennsylvania, who had orders to per
mit no movement to be made which could possibly renew
the action. The officers were permitted to go beyond the
pickets, but were cautioned not to go far, and they did not
reach the fence. However, several of the wounded were
found who had crawled up to the pickets, and these were
placed in blankets, men holding the corners, and slowly
and painfully carried down the hill and across the bridge
to the temporary hospitals in the barns thereabouts. Re
turning to the regiment, so overcome with fatigue as
scarcely to be able to drag one foot after the other, they
found the men asleep behind their stacks of arms ; and,
rolling such covers as could be found about them, they
* Corporal Frank M. Whitman received, February 21, 1874, from the Secretary of
War, one of the bronze "Medals of Honor" conferred upon enlisted men only in
cases of distinguished gallantry, in accordance with an Act of Congress.
52 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
also dropped at once into the sleep of utter exhaustion
only the guards, and those kept awake by the pain of
wounds, noticed the showers during the night.
The next morning was quiet for some time. We had
now in the daylight an opportunity to note the losses of
the regiment : Companies B, G and K were each repre
sented only by a small group of men, their three or four
stacks of arms seeming incredibly small. No field or
staff officer appeared except Adjutant Wales, who had
been struck by a ball but not wounded. He had left the
hospital to join the regiment, with an Enfield rifle in hand,
"to get a lick at the rebs," as he told Lieutenant Hudson.
Assistant Surgeon Munsell had been wounded at the field
hospital by a piece of shell. Of the line officers, Captains
Bartlett and Niles were killed or mortally wounded at the
rail fence ; Captains King, Cheever and Oliver were dis
abled by wounds ; Lieutenant Palmer was killed, and
Lieutenants Hood, Hodges, Baldwin, Ingell, Brooks, Park
and Blake were in the list of wounded. We had lost Cap
tain Pratt and Lieutenants Williams and Hill at South
Mountain. Only Captains Andrews and Lathrop and
some half dozen lieutenants remained for duty with the
regiment that morning.
Of the enlisted men the following were killed outright,
or died of their wounds soon afterwards : .
Company A Sergeant Edward Peggren ; Corporal
Robert L. Lincoln.
Company B Corporal William C. Colby; musician,
Benjamin H. Rogers ; privates, Joseph Cossar, David
R. Hinckley, George W. Hodgdon, Jeremiah Long, Jr.,
Caleb C. Pike and Alphonso P. Reed.
Company C Sergeant Henry Bowen; privates, George
W. Alden, Joseph M. Goulding, John A. Lane, Joseph T.
Pratt, Nathaniel I. Sweeney and Charles E. Dam.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 53
Company D Luther F. Read.
Company E Privates, George Henry, Loren R. Brack-
ett, Levi A. Brandage, Richard H. Cox, Philip Donnehoe,
Joseph V. Sloan and James T. F. Smith.
Company F Corporal Thomas Clay; privates, Am
brose Hinds, Charles E. M. Welch and Joseph Wood.
Company G Privates, Stephen C. Adams, Herbert M.
Drew, George W. Ellis, Henry O. George, Andrew J. Gile,
William Hackett, Henry A. Hoyt, Harrison W. Sargent,
Charles H. Tarbox, Watson S. Williams, Clarence H.
Woodman, George A. Young and Augustus W. Dresser.
Company H Privates, David W. Gushing, William
Pike, Charles H. Robbins, William W. Smith and Nathan
F. Winslow.
Company I Corporal Edmund E. Hatton ; privates,
Ralph A. Jones, Charles Sulkoski, Nathan C. Treadwell,
Patrick Walsh and Joseph P. White.
Company K Sergeant Alfred C. Earle ; Corporal
Roscoe Bradley; privates, Dearborn S. Blake, Francis D.
Brown, Henry H. Cleveland, Tappan S. Eaton, Leander
W. Faunce, Horace Goodwin, Horatio B. Hackett, Charles
Inhof, Joseph Lambert, James Rust, Ivori R. Stillings,
Charles T. Wenborn, Ai B. Smith and Byley Lyford.
These were the sixty-nine heroes who laid down their
lives for that terrible day s work. Company B was the
color company. Companies G and K were subjected to a
cross fire, which accounts for their great loss. There were
also some one hundred and fifty men wounded, and some
missing ; making in all, at South Mountain and Antietam,
of the officers and men seventy-eight dead and about one
hundred and seventy-five wounded. Between two hundred
and fifty and three hundred men only were for duty behind
the stacks of arms on the eighteenth of September.
At first the regiment seemed wiped out, but many re-
54 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
joined in course of the day who had gone off with the
wounded or on detail duty. Men found their clothing
and equipments bored by bullets in every conceivable
way. He was the exception who had not some curiosity
of the kind to exhibit. One man found a bullet hole
through the flesh of his thigh, which he was not aware of
in the excitement until he went to the creek to wash.
Thrilling accounts were given of the deaths of the fallen,
or of adventures in the fight. Walsh, the man with the
tea kettle, lay dead by the rail fence with the other noble
fellows.
The troops were withdrawn a little under the crest of
the hill, after the Confederates had observed us and sent
several shells about our ears, without harm, as a morning
greeting. It was showery, and the soil became slippery
mud at once. The order of last night was continued, to
do nothing likely to renew the action. If our generals
had all they wanted of fighting we were content, we also
had a sufficiency ; and, although the regiment would have
done its duty, the men had no present hunger for battle.
There was little movement upon either side ; both parties
were repairing damages.
The losses to the armies had been, according to Captain
Phisterer, Union: killed, 2.010; wounded, 9,416; miss
ing, 1,043; total, 12,469. Confederate total, 25,899.
At evening our brigade was at length relieved by fresh
troops, and we marched back over the bridge to get rations
and our packs, which had been left on the east side, as
above mentioned, before the bridge was taken. That
night we slept in an apple orchard near the crossing.
Next day it was found that General Lee had withdrawn
his army to the south side of the Potomac. Our brigade
was formed, and marched over the bridge again and across
the battle-field. On the field Colonel Ferrero read his
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 55
commission as a brigadier-general, just received. It was
accepted as a recognition of the services of the brigade
in the battle, and the announcement was greeted by loud
cheering and congratulations, especially among the older
regiments. We then passed the rail fence, where the
dead still lay, the stone wall and the cornfield, where
the enemy had been, and the station of their batteries
on the hill, marked by the bodies of the horses killed
in the action. We then turned to the left, away from
Sharpsburg, and, after a few miles, came out upon the
high land overlooking the Antietam, near the Iron-works,
and here made our bivouac. We staid upon these hills
until the twenty-sixth, looking out upon the beautiful
amphitheatre of hills through which ran the placid
Antietam.
On Sunday, the twenty-first, by direction of General
Burnside, special services were held in memory of the
dead, with prayers, addresses and sacred hymns, which
were very impressive and affecting.
The regiment was for a day or two under command of
Captain J. G. Wright, Acting Major of the Fifty-First New
York ; afterwards, for several days, Captain Andrews com
manded. Chaplain Miller arrived on the twenty-second ;
and, on the following day, Major Willard returned from
Washington, quite troubled in mind because he had no
share in our first battles. The first mail of letters for two
weeks, except a few on the twenty-first, was opened, and
late newspapers reached camp. We learned of the great
slaughter done and suffered by our right wing, the death
of General Mansfield, wound of General Hooker, and the
other losses. Also some of the Fifth Corps came into
camp and told of the disastrous reconnoissance by a
division of that corps across the Potomac, a short dis
tance from our station.
56 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
We now began to think seriously and estimate the task
in hand. We numbered eight or nine officers and three
hundred and forty-eight men with the regiment. It was
but one month since we had left Lynnfield, and two-thirds
of our number were gone ; at this rate how many would
be left at the end of the three years? The patriotic fervor
which had sustained us did not effervesce so noticeably,
but began to weaken somewhat in the presence of such
stern realities. As one man expressed it, " patriotism was
played out," meaning that the hurrah-boys spirit had evap
orated. We had seen the slain of the Confederates on
South Mountain and our own dead at Antietam, and the
grave fact that we had engaged to be, and had become,
slayers of our fellowmen stared us in the face, without the
glamour of flash oratory and colored lights about it. The
thoughtful ones compared this fact with the religious
teachings of New England, and found it hard to reconcile
their duty with the gospel of the peaceful Jesus. Truly,
one should not be nurtured among the doves if he is fated
to contend with the eagles. The depression which usually
affects the mind for a time after the excitement of severe
battle was upon us.
The less easily impressed found amusement in bathing
in the creek, hunting for paw-paws, and even horse-racing
was tried, until the quartermaster objected to it as dele
terious to Government property. Some found relief by visit
ing the hospitals and caring for friends. Our hearts were
not yet hardened to the battle, nor had we learned to sub
mit patiently to the long delays in camp. We were cheered
by the calls of visitors from home. In this camp Mayor Fay,
of Chelsea, and Miss Gilson were introduced to the regi
ment. They were ministering angels to our wounded on
this and many subsequent occasions. Rev. J. G. Barthol
omew and Messrs. A. Josselyn and William Barton, of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 57
Roxbury, visited camp about the first of October and
tasted life in the bivouac. Mrs. N. A. Moulton and
Eben Manson, of Newburyport, left home immediately
after the battle of Antietam, taking with them two trunks
filled with lint, bandages, and delicacies for the sick and
wounded. They visited all the hospitals where men of
the Thirty-Fifth could be found ; and, while they were
searching^ for wounded men from Company B, they did
not overlook those from other companies. They visited
the field hospitals at Antietam, and came to the regiment
when we were at the Iron-works.
The Kanawha Division and General J. D. Cox, our
corps commander, left the Ninth Corps to return to their
department west of the mountains. They were of good
fighting material, and are entitled to the first honors of
South Mountain. It was General Cox and his men who,
early in the day, turning a reconnoissance into a battle,
gained and held the south side of the pass until support
arrived to secure the victory.
On the twenty-sixth we moved by way of the Iron-works
to the more level ground on the east side of the Antietam,
and went, into regular camp near a brick house, making
shelters of rails and corn stalks. Camp duty, with all the
formalities, sick call, orderlie s call, morning company drill,
and afternoon battalion movements and dress parade, was
undertaken in earnest under Major Willard. Our first
grand review of the Ninth Army Corps was held October
3, in the fields north of our camp ground, the President,
Lincoln himself, riding past, accompanied by Generals
McClellan, Burnside and others all smiling and appar
ently on the best of terms with each other.
The nights were growing cold and frosty, and the thin
Confederate blankets, which many had not been able to
exchange, were a poor protection from the weather. We
58 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
were pleased, therefore, to receive, on the fifth, wall tents
for the officers and shelter tents for the men, the latter
being the first of the kind we had possessed. They were
pieces of stout drilling or light duck cloth, about five feet
and a half square, with buttons and holes along three of
the edges. By joining two, four, or six of these, and laying
them over a ridge pole supported by two crotched stakes,
a low tent was made, much more comfortable aa an abode
than one would imagine. Each man carried his piece
upon his pack on the inarch, and every night the little
shelters sprang up like mushrooms, almost as soon as the
halt was ordered. These were the only roofs over our
heads until the end of our service, with brief exceptions ;
and many a soldier will remember, almost with affection,
his little square of weather-stained, scorched or patched
shelter tent, which protected him from the cold rains and
snows of winter and the burning suns of summer.
On the seventh of October the regiment again broke
camp and climbed the mountains, eastward, over roads
rough and full of obstacles, descending into Pleasant
Valley a spot fittingly named and camped near the
opening of the valley, under Maryland Heights, three or
four miles from Harper s Ferry. The rough life in our
rude huts of rails had the natural effect upon the personal
appearance of our men, and at the inspection held imme
diately after our arrival we were honored with the infor
mation that ours was the dirtiest regiment in the brigade.
To think that we could have so soon rivalled, even sur
passed the veterans in their most noticeable characteristic !
The major felt hurt, and worked incessantly and effectually
to remedy the deformity.
Our ranks gradually swelled by the return of conva
lescents. A lot of knapsacks five hundred selected at
random from the one thousand which the regiment left at
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 59
Arlington were sent up from Washington, and some
lucky men found their own among them. A change of
underclothing had become extremely desirable. On the
tenth the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, afterwards
our fast friends, joined the brigade. They were remark
able for their colonel the cordial Walter Harriman
for their dark-blue overcoats, handsome new Springfield
rifles, and, last but not least, their brass band. Lieutenant-
Colonel Carruth returned on the thirteenth of October and
took command, his wound being sufficiently healed. The
most earnest efforts were now made by him to improve the
regiment in field movements, especially the drill in forma
tions against cavalry, by fours, by platoons, etc. Our first
brigade drill under General Ferrero was held on the twen
tieth of the month.
The spirit of the men improved ; strength returned with
the cooling air, better food and constant exercise ; and the
army was ready for the field again. The health of the
men of the regiment was remarkably good ; there was no
case of dangerous disease in the hospital of the regiment.
There had been no death by disease in the regiment since
its organization.
Meanwhile General Lee s army lay in the Shenandoah
Valley, along the banks of the Opequan, waiting for the
Union forces to cross the Potomac.
CHAPTER IV.
FALL CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA SKIRMISH AT FAUQUIER
SULPHUR SPRINGS, 1862.
SINCE leaving Arlington the weather had been dry,
with occasional showers, which had caused no special
discomfort ; but, on the twenty-sixth of October, a heavy
rain storm prevailed, swelling the brooks and softening
the roads. Fortunately for us we now had shelter tents.
Orders were received in the rain to be ready to move,
and, at noon of the twenty-seventh, the brigade fell into
column and left the Pleasant Valley now dreary after
the autumnal rain. We marched directly to the Potomac,
passing under the canal by a stone culvert, through which
a swollen brook also found a passage. A short distance
down the river, at Berlin, a pontoon-bridge had been thrown
across, composed of the very boats afterwards so famous
for not being at Fredericksburg at the time they were
wanted. They were the first we had seen, and, with the
usual precautionary order to break step, we passed the
famous river and trod again upon Virginia soil ; this time
no jubilant song announced the fact, but the step was
steadier and more soldierly. The Maryland campaign
had left but about four hundred men for duty with the
regiment.
Our brigade was among the first to cross, the Ninth
Corps, now under General Wilcox, going over this bridge,
followed by the First Corps. The Second and Fifth Corps
passed through Harper s Ferry and Snicker s Gap, and the
6 1 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Sixth Corps crossed at another point. Moving slowly
along through Lovettsville and the fine country there
abouts, we halted several days near Wheatland at the end
of the month, to make out our first pay-rolls ; a difficult
task, so many had been the changes since leaving Lynn-
field.
There was a charm in those autumnal days along the
Blue Ridge which it is pleasant to recall ; the purple hills
lying upon our right, the foliage blazing forth in ruddy
hues, the soft sunlight, the hazy air, and the picturesque
columns of cavalry, infantry and artillery, in glittering
array, filling the roads all pleased or soothed the senses.
The evening camp-fires shone out cheerily, while the boys
gathered around and told stories, cracked jokes, or dis
cussed the movements in progress. Some will remember
the acrid smoke from the wood fires thereabouts, making
the eyelids sore and causing much manoeuvring to get to
windward of the blaze. General Pleasanton s cavalry pre
ceded the infantry, and occupied the different passes, called
gaps, in the mountains as the army advanced. Thus we
came opposite and passed successively Snicker s Gap,
Ashby s Gap, Manassas Gap and Chester Gap famous
scenes of cavalry fights and of Stuart s and Mosby s
raids and by the eighth of November had reached the
country in front of Thornton s Gap.
The itinerary of each day s march is as follows : Octo
ber 27, crossed at Berlin and camped near Lovettsville.
October 28, remained in same place and laid out camp
with company streets. October 29, knapsack drill at
ip A. M. ; marched in afternoon through Lovettsville, about
eight miles, bivouac j Companies G, I and K in woods, in
support of a battery. October 30, reveille at 3 A. M. ;
marched at 7 A. M., for two hours, about four miles, to
Wheatland ; making out pay-rolls rest of day and night.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 62
October 31, at Wheatland all day; picket duty; muster
for pay; order to pack up at 10 P.M.; did not march.
November i, brigade drill in the afternoon; the Ninth
Corps under Burnside again, with Second and Twelfth
Corps. November 2 (Sunday), marched at 10 A. M., and
until 5.30 P.M., fifteen miles; cannonade ahead all day;
bivouac in field by side of wood near Bloomfield, called
Cornstalk Camp ; General Hancock, in Snicker s Gap,
repulsed the enemy. November 3, pitched tents at n
A. M. ; began a forced march a little before 3 p. M. of
seven miles ; stopped in woods to load rifles ; passed
through Bloomfield, and camped at 5.30 P. M. November
4, marched at 9 A. M., about six miles, and camped near
Upperville ; firing heard all day. November 5, reveille at
4.30 A. M. ; marched from 8 A.M. to 12 M. ; passed through
Upperville, crossed Manassas Railroad at Piedmont and
camped near there ; firing heard all day ; many stone
walls by the road. November 6, left camp at 9 A. M., but
waited in the road until 11.15 A - M * > tnen marched fifteen
miles in five hours ; camped near Orleans ; cold and
windy. November 7, snow all day ; marched from 4 p. M.
until 6 P. M., halted in mud hole, then marched back five
miles to the right road ; water froze in canteens ; cavalry
pickets left ground as we came up to bivouac in woods.
By day the artillery of the cavalry would be heard ahead,
while we hurried forward to give support if needed, or
waited until they had reconnoitred the country in front.
By night some details would lie out on picket towards the
Blue Ridge, in the moonlight ; the baaing of a calf or
squealing of a captured pig would be smothered with
difficulty ; the rattling of sabres upon stirrups and clatter
of hoofs of an approaching squadron would be heard, the
vidette s challenge, the reply, the whispered countersign, and
" Pass, friends ! " all the romantic accompaniments of cam-
63 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
paigning. But it was not all brightness, for on the seventh,,
near Orleans, the clouds hung gray with flurries of snow
all day, and at night it increased to a driving snow storm.
The scene was dismal and wintry as the darkness gath
ered around the column plodding along over the whitened
ground amid the falling snow-flakes picturesque, indeed,
but foretokening future hardship. The spirits of the men
were not enlivened when, after halting and jerking along
until late in the evening down a muddy cut towards Hedge-
man s River, or some such branch of the North Fork of
the Rappahannock, word was received from ahead that we
were upon the wrong road, the bridge was down, and the
rough track of five miles must be retraced. On such
occasions soldiers are apt to indulge in language more
strong than choice ; the right to grumble is reserved in
the terms of enlistment. The mud hole was nicknamed
on the spot Ferrero s Gap. Recovering the right road,
the brigade went into bivouac along it beside bright fires
of oak rails.
During this campaign the war was waged "with the
gloves on," and orders were very strict against depre
dation. On this night a staff officer rode among the
groups of shivering men about the wagons, repeating,
" Take the top rail only, men ; the top rail only ! " Ac
cordingly each man took his turn in going for a top ran\
the fires did not lack for fuel, and, strange to relate, in
the morning few even of the bottom rails were left in
course of the night even these had become top rails. It
would be a sad sight to a land owner, but a comical one
to the disinterested spectator to see, the moment a regi
ment went into camp and ranks were broken, with what
speed the men rushed to the nearest rail fence, and how
the rails, like Birnam wood, seemed to take legs and the
whole fence come marching back to the stacks of arms.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 64
But on this night other events were occurring of greater
importance to the future of the army and ourselves. By
orders from Washington General McClellan was relieved
of the command of the army, and General Burnside was
directed to succeed him. The news of this change took
the troops by surprise, and was almost as great a shock
to the men as if the general commanding had been assas
sinated. General McClellan seemed as much a constituent
part of the Army of the Potomac as General Lee formed
of his army, and the affection for him, both among the
officers and the rank and file, was grievously wounded.
Of General Burnside we new troops knew little; all we
did know was to his advantage as a man and an officer,
and we were proud of him as our corps commander, hith
erto always successful ; but soldiers in our army saw their
general seldom and never intimately. There was a feeling
in the Ninth Corps that we, in spite of ourselves, were
partakers in the guilt of this unpopular change, since our
favorite general had taken precedence by it, and that it
would create a coldness between the men of the other
corps of the army and our own, which had not been a
sharer in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
but until this event was being rapidly assimilated with it.
The change was important to us personally, because if
General Burnside had remained a corps commander only
we, probably, should always have remained in the Army
of the Potomac.
On the eighth the vanguard of the army seemed to
have outmarched the supply trains ; rations were insuffi
cient, and cattle were killed, and beef, broiled upon the
coals and eaten without bread, was the only food obtain
able to stay the sharp hunger of the men. The mountains
bend away to the west near Chester Gap, so that our
southerly course lay further away from them. Passing
65 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Waterloo we crossed the Upper Rappahannock at Mill-
ville, where the bridge was broken, and the Fifty-First
Pennsylvania and Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts kept on,
west, to the further end of the village of Amissville, con
spicuous for several painted houses with green blinds and
trailing roses still in bloom, while the rest of the brigade
turned more southerly to Jefferson. At this time two
divisions of Stonewall Jackson s Corps were yet in the
Shenandoah Valley, while Lee and Longstreet were about
Culpeper. General McClellan, writing of his intentions
in this campaign, says :
"I did expect that by striking in between Culpeper
Court House and Little Washington I could either sep
arate their army and beat them in detail, or else force
them to concentrate as far back as Gordonsville, and thus
place the Army of the Potomac in position either to adopt
the Fredericksburg line of advance upon Richmond or be
removed to the Peninsula, etc."
The cavalry, with our division in support, was apparently
in execution of this scheme, and we were now practically
between the widely separated wings of the Confederate
army and far in advance of our base. All was quiet about
us, however, on Sunday the ninth, although the inhabitants
seemed to view us askance, as if anticipating our early
departure, if not capture. Service was held in the little
wayside church, without steeple, near our camp ground, by
our chaplain, assisted by others. A private of the Fifty-
First died suddenly here ; he was said to have been poi
soned, a common report in the early days of the war. At
dress-parade the official order changing the commander of
the army was read. About dark that evening our First
Brigade relieved the two regiments at Amissville, and we
made a quick march over a rough road to Jefferson and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 66
took position with our brigade on some rising ground
overlooking the country to the westward.
In the morning heavy firing was heard in our front, and
orders were received to pack up and be ready to move
at a moment s notice. The Twenty-First Massachusetts,
Fifty-First New York and Eleventh New Hampshire
marched off in the direction of the noise, the Fifty-First
Pennsylvania and Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts remaining
in camp waiting further orders. A little before noon the
three regiments came back, reporting that the enemy had
"skedaddled." Distant firing continued during the day.
The affair was probably a reconnoissance of the Con
federates to ascertain our position and strength. They
were working down opposite us through the highlands.
We could see the Blue Ridge Mountains from camp, their
tops covered with snow. Rations continued scanty, and
the men tried to quiet the pangs of hunger with unripe
persimmons, a puckery diet, not suited to make "living
off the country" a favorite system with us. The place
was memorable for the immense flock of crows which
darkened the air in their flight out and returning to their
roosts.
After the Confederates retired, our brigade staff seemed
well assured of the security of our position ; not so, some
of the regimental commanders, who of their own accord
kept pickets out along their fronts. At 1 1 P. M. of the
eleventh there was a stir in rear of our brigade, caused
by the arrival of a reconnoitring party, sent from our
rear to find out who we were. We having crossed above
and come down the west side of the North Fork of the
Rappahannock, our presence in their front was unknown
to the division of our army posted on the river, and the
sound of our firing was quite unaccountable to them.
Word was sent to General Burnsicle, and orders came for
67 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
us to return to the north bank of the river. We were
roused quietly at kalf-past one in the morning of the
twelfth, and at 4 A. M. stole off in the darkness upon the
road to the rear, recrossing the Rappahannock at Fauquier
White Sulphur Springs by climbing over trees felled into
the river, the bridge having been destroyed during General
Pope s campaign of the previous summer. We had had a
narrow escape from a serious and unprepared-for attack,
if not surprise, by General Stuart, whose adjutant-general
informed our lieutenant-colonel his unwilling guest a few
nights afterwards that Stuart s troops had prepared to
give us a lively time at daylight with their whole force, and
would very likely have captured most of our brigade.
At the Springs we were entirely out of rations for a day,
but there was corn for the animals, and we watched them
crunching it, and tried cracking the grains with our teeth ;
we had not yet learned how to satisfactorily appease our
appetite if we could lay hands upon an ear of corn. Lieu
tenant-Colonel Carruth and Adjutant Wales, enticed by
hunger, next day recrossed the river to Miller s house
not the white mansion-house visible from camp, but beyond
it about half a mile distant, where three men of the
Fifty-First Pennsylvania were posted ; our outer pickets
and cavalry being nearly half a mile further out. While
they were eating, a Confederate major, with a squad of
cavalry, coming in through a gap in our line of posts,
surrounded the house, captured our officers and the three
PennsylvanianSj and marched them off to Richmond, not
to return until the following spring. As they passed out
they saw our pickets, and the major said to our officers,
" If they fire on us we may be your prisoners " ; but our
men did not fire. Our officers were exonerated from
blame in the matter by a letter from General Sturgis.
The disturbance caused upon the opposite bank by this
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 68
capture was noticed from our camp, but its cause was not
immediately comprehended. As soon as the alarm was
given our battery opened upon the houses, and the regi
ments were ordered to fall in. The Thirty-Fifth, under
Major Willard, crossed to the west bank and skirmished
up to the houses where our officers had been waylaid ;
lines were formed and parties sent out, but nothing was
discovered of the missing ones or their captors. The
regiment remained on the spot all night. No fires were
permitted, and as, in the hurry, many had brought no
overcoats, there was much suffering from cold until a
detail of men was sent to camp for them. The boys
remember this as one of the nights when Jack Frost had
unobstructed sway. There was no alarm during the night,
and in the morning the regiment returned to camp, feeling
rather lonesome without their trusted Carruth and frolic
some Wales.
The retirement of the brigade from Jefferson may have
given the Confederates a hint that with a change of com
manders a change of plan of campaign might occur. In
fact, on the fourteenth, while we were returning from our
reconnoissance, General Halleck was telegraphing to Gen
eral Burnside the President s consent to the plan of advance
upon Richmond by way of Fredericksburg, adding the
words, " He thinks it will succeed if you move rapidly,
otherwise not."
Early in the morning of November 15 we received orders
to march, and broke camp ; but, it being the turn of the
Thirty-Fifth to march in rear, we waited until the whole
Second Division had passed before moving. There were
two roads down the river towards Fayetteville, one of
which led back from the Rappahannock, the other passed
the Springs and ruined hotels and, as it approached the
river, turned to the left, in full view from the opposite
6g HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
bank. No secrecy was attempted in the movement, as
one would naturally expect. The whole division took the
road nearest to the river, followed by the ambulances and
train of wagons. The high canvas covers of the wagons
shone out conspicuously as they traversed the hills border
ing the lowlands of the river-bed. As we came near the
river we saw our cavalry pickets rushing down the hill on
the opposite side, and suspected danger. The Confederate
force on the west bank, said to be part of Stuart s cavalry,
was tempted by the display of our flank march to further
the President s recommendation with a shower of shells
from a battery planted near Hoffman s house. A more
rapid movement of trains was never seen, in fact it
was quite a stampede, as the bursting missiles came
whizzing about the ears of the teamsters, who never
were fond of the picket line. We also would have
been content to follow the brigade at a lively pace
in pursuance of the President s advice. But two of
the wagons got overturned at the brook or mud hole
east of the Springs and were destroyed; the rear of
the train had to be turned back upon the other
road, and our general began to think that Stuart was
having all the fun to himself. So he posted Durell s
battery and two guns of Roemer s along the ridge, with
orders to silence their opponents across the river, and
ordered the Thirty-Fifth back towards the Springs to
support the guns. Then ensued a brilliant display of
artillery practice, the positions on both sides being excel
lent, and the cannoneers working their pieces with a fury
that darkened the sky with smoke and made the air quiver
with the explosions.
There was a little hut upon the hill exposed to the
enemy s fire, and during the shelling the door was flung
open and a man rushed out carrying a child, followed by
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 70
a woman bearing another. The fright had so overcome
the poor woman that she fell headlong in the road before
her door it was a pitiful sight. She was raised imme
diately and escaped to the woods unhurt. At the same
time the ambulances were passing, in one of which, upon
the front seat, was Miss Gilson, of Chelsea, riding calmly
along amid the bursting shells not the only time the
regiment saw this lady present under fire.
After the wagons had passed the regiment was posted
under the ridge occupied by the artillery, and ordered to
lie down. Lieutenant Mcllvaine, of DurelPs Battery, was
mortally wounded, and carried by us, and one of the
gunners had his arm torn off. Only one of our regiment
was struck by a shell and he was not badly hurt, which
was wonderful, so many shells struck around, about and,
apparently, even among the men. It was said that the
enemy also fired pieces of railroad iron, but they may
have been oblong or percussion shells which had acquired
an end-over-end motion after first striking the ground.
Some mounted men appeared towards the ford of the
river, as if attempting to cross ; a company of the Seventh
Rhode Island was on picket there. The Thirty-Fifth was
now ordered back to the Springs, and lay down at the
opening of the road. Lieutenants Stickney and Hudson
were sent forward to dispute the crossing. Chaplain
Miller showed himself quite cool in danger while observ
ing the enemy from this position, so the day was notable
also as the only occasion when we saw a chaplain in action.
General Burns s Division came up on our right, and Lieu
tenant Benjamin planted his twenty-pounders upon the
hill near the Springs. When he opened, the enemy felt a
sudden call in the direction of Culpeper, the cross fire was
too much for them, they decamped and we saw no more
of Stuart or his battery. During this skirmish Major
71 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Willard commanded, Captain Andrews acted as lieutenant-
colonel, Lieutenant Blanchard commanding Company A,
and Captain Lathrop acted as major.*
We started after the brigade, but had not gone far when
the regiment was halted, then sent to the right into the
woods, on picket at Lawson s Ford. There we spent an
uncomfortable night, without fires, on account of the near
ness of the enemy. To the soldier lack of fire means lack
of his pot of coffee by the cheerful blaze after a hard day s
work, and is not willingly endured whatever the danger.
There was at least one flame alight down by the brook
that night, over which some chops of a young pig were
sizzling with dry corn parching in the fat. During the
night Quartermaster Haines, with Upton and Cutter, came
up to the regiment, bringing needed rations from the com
missary wagons.
On the following day (Sunday, the sixteenth) we resumed
the march, joined the brigade at Fayetteville and kept on
to camp near Warrenton Junction, on the railroad, passing
through masses of the infantry of the other divisions of
the army of which we had seen but little for some time.
This was one of the hardest marches of the campaign,
and, by a singular coincidence, it happened upon the very
day upon which President Lincoln issued his famous order
in regard to the observance of Sunday in the army. At
the Junction the morning of the seventeenth opened with
rain, which, with intervals of drizzle, continued for several
days. Rations had been so scanty that an order of Major
Willard for one hard bread apiece, extra, was received with
cheers. We started again in the afternoon towards Fred-
ericksburg, and pushed along rapidly through the fields
beside the road, which was left for the passage of the
artillery and wagons, and, in the same way, through the
* An account of this skirmish is printed in 6 Rebellion Record, 195.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 72
mud and drizzle on the eighteenth, leaving camp about
7 A. M. and marching until noon. Many troops were in
motion. General Burnside passed, on the way to Falmouth.
On the nineteenth, in a down-pour of rain, the brigade
reached Falmouth, and marched through its one street
with the band playing "Yankee Doodle," and so came out
upon the open plateau near the Rappahannock, opposite
the upper part of the city of Fredericksburg. General
Sumner with the Second Corps had preceded us, and we
were probably the last of his Grand Division to arrive.
The plain was blue with lines of troops between us and
the river ; the waters of which ran turbid with the recent
rains, and foaming among the rocks, where had been an
easy ford in the drier seasons.
At that time there was but a small Confederate force in
Fredericksburg ; the movement, so far as concerned their
unpreparedness here, seeming to have been successful,
notwithstanding the hint of motion this way which we had
given them at the Sulphur Springs. As we approached
Falmouth the report was circulated that the army would
cross the river at once, keep on direct to Richmond, and
be there at Christmas. Something of the sort was our
general s intention, but, on arrival at the point of passage,
the pontoons were not in readiness, and no means were at
hand for crossing the trains. We waited near the railroad
some time, the boys occupying the moments so decisive of
the campaign in plucking up wild garlic, which grew abun
dantly there and was a novelty to us. The brigade then
marched to the plateau above the railroad, and went into
camp in the wide fields south of the Phillips House, a
handsome mansion in the modern style and a prominent
landmark, afterwards the headquarters of General Sumner
and chief signal station of the army, where the powerful tel
escopes and observation balloons were objects of interest.
73 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Everything was wet ; it continued to rain all day the
twentieth and twenty-first, and, in pitching camp in com
pany streets, some dried a spot to lie upon by first building
fires upon the ground for the tent. Fences disappeared at
once, and our fuel henceforth was the green pitch pine,
with some beech wood near the river where the pickets
were. We lay until the twenty-fourth in this uncomfortable,
ill-drained location, the weather at last turning cold and
freezing the rough ground. The only memorable event
there was that, after the usual inspection and service on
Sunday the twenty-third, the regiment formed by divisions-
in-mass on centre division, and, after the chaplain had
read the Thanksgiving proclamation of Governor Andrew,
Major Willard required the whole regiment to repeat in
unison the final words, " God save the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts ! " We did so, but felt all the time that the
Old Commonwealth was safe enough at home, and what
most needed saving, or a little Thanksgiving comfort, was
the Thirty-Fifth Regiment.
The day after this ceremony (the twenty-fourth) the
brigade moved to a drier position, north-east of the
Phillips House, and formed camp in a hollow square, the
Fifty-First New York and Fifty-First Pennsylvania being
on the west side, the Twenty-First Massachusetts on the
south, we on the east and the Eleventh New Hampshire
on the north. The space in the centre was used for drills
and dress-parade. The Eleventh had a brass band which
played for evening parades, each regiment facing inward
in front of its camp and all going through the form
together. In the absence of Adjutant Wales, Lieutenants
Blanchard and Stickney, successively, performed the duties
of that office. The brigade was reviewed by General
Sumner on the twenty-sixth. About the same date First
Sergeant Oscar R. Livingstone was promoted to the rank
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 74
of second lieutenant, Sergeant-Major Hatch was promoted
to second lieutenant, and Sergeant S. G. Berry succeeded
him as sergeant-major of the regiment.
On the twenty-seventh (Thanksgiving Day) a brigade
service was held at 10 A. M. The chaplain of the Eleventh
New Hampshire read the proclamation of that State and
made appropriate remarks, the band played a few pieces,
and three hymns were sung. The services were quite
interesting.
From the Phillips House a wide view could be had of
the city of Fredericksburg opposite. The streets of the
city were regularly laid out, running parallel with the
river and at right angles to it, making blocks, most of the
buildings being of wood, except upon the principal streets
where brick was generally used. Rumors came to us of
a cavalry charge through the town, and a good deal was
said about flags of truce and agreements not to fire upon
the city and its evacuation by the inhabitants. Behind
the buildings of the city, upon the hills, earthworks and
batteries began to appear, and General Lee and his army
were plainly preparing to receive us, when, if ever, our
time to cross here should come.
Details were made for picket along the river bank
the tour of duty being twenty-four hours and no firing
allowed at the men in gray opposite. On the thirtieth the
regiment had one hundred and sixty men on this duty.
Fatigue parties were also sent to the rear, road making,
where they learned how to lay corduroy, with a foundation
of logs and cross pieces of smaller timber, the only means
of keeping the wagons above ground in that bottomless
country. These workers reported about the first of
December that they had seen the pontoon boats a little
way to the rear of our camp, in the hollow ; accordingly
we began to look for a move, which we did not relish just
75 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
then for we were anticipating a first visit from the pay
master money having been among the things lost to
sight but to memory dear for some time past.
A ration of potatoes was issued an article we had
nearly forgotten the use of and company streets were
ordered swept in the morning of December 4 ; and, as a
matter of course after such preparation to stay, orders
came, while we were on battalion drill in the afternoon,
to move at half-past four, and we packed up in a bad
humor. The march was but a short distance, only about
three miles south, down the river to the rear of a battery,
which we were sent to guard and had some difficulty in
rinding. It was Battery B, Second Battalion, New York
Artillery ; the guns, four Parrott twenty-pounders. Camp
was located and tents pitched in a storm of rain, with hail
and snow.
Thenceforward for a week, sentries were kept constantly
on duty pacing the parapet of the little earthwork of the
battery, overlooking the level ground below, the river
flowing in its deep bed, and the lower part of the city and
the plain over which General Franklin s left wing of the
army afterwards made its advance. The officer of the
battery said he had been in that position since November
20, entirely without support. Next day Captain Lathrop,
sent out by the major to see if there were any troops near
us, met pickets some ways back from our camp, who said
that they were the outer pickets, and they knew nothing
of our regiment and the battery being outside of them.
On the sixth three inches of snow fell ; it was freezing
in true New England style, and the weather was as genuine
an importation from Massachusetts as the regiment itself.
The men not on guard duty employed themselves in cutting
wood, a constant labor in a winter camp, arid some engaged
in logging up their tents, orders or permission to do so
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 76
having been given about the eighth of December. The
slang word in that camp was " promptly," everything had
to be done promptly, from turning out at dress-parade to
dealing out the messes of baked beans. In the " Memoir
of Major Willard " there are given at length interesting
letters from him, describing the night duty at the battery,
the watch fires of the enemy, the logging up, and the worn
out shoes and almost bare feet of some of the men from
their rough tramp along the Blue Ridge. Members of the
regiment received new boots by mail, which was then con
sidered a novel use for the postal service. The sutler
came on the ninth, a certain forerunner of the paymaster,
who arrived next day, paying off the companies at different
hours from the tenth to the twelfth.
Meanwhile General Burnside had been endeavoring to
devise a way to get at the Confederates on something like
an equal footing, if possible. He concluded to try to
seize the heights behind the city by surprise, success to
depend upon the " promptness " of execution. Where we
were, the river was bordered by plains or table-lands rising
like terraces, one above another. The highest plateau
approached the river nearest on the east bank, giving our
artillery full command of the city and the plain below it.
Down stream the hills were further back, and General Lee
anticipated our crossing at Port Royal rather than in the
face of his batteries at the city, and sent Stonewall Jackson
down there. Our general made feints in that direction,
hoping to make General Lee carelessly secure at the city,
to the extent of diminishing his force there and rendering
the opposition to be met back of the city easy to be over
come.
On the ninth and tenth the woods behind our camp
became filled with infantry and artillery of Franklin s
Grand Division the First and Sixth Corps among
77 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
whom we again recognized the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Massachusetts Regiments. The whole army was massing
at the river, the infantry under cover of the trees ; but, as
soon as it was dark on the tenth, three batteries took
positions along the heights where our battery was. The
night was very cold and the ground frozen ; the rumbling
of the gun carriages and cries of the drivers to their
horses made a great noise, and must have been heard by
the enemy.
The paymaster was busy at Major Willard s headquarters
until midnight of the tenth distributing the crisp green
backs, some of the boys said to put us in good humor for
the fight, as if a soldier could possibly be in a mind for a
death struggle with his pockets full of cash. It was whis
pered that the pontoons had been run down to the bank
in the darkness, and the crossing would be attempted at
three o clock in the morning.
The opinion prevalent in an army, its morale, powerfully
influences the success of its campaigns, and commanders
of armies composed of "thinking bayonets" are specially
solicitous to bring this opinion to concert with their plans ;
failing in this they hesitate before perilous action. The
past year s experience in the conduct of war in Virginia
had convinced many of the thinking men in the service
that it was expecting too much of the army to suppose it
would be able by direct assault to force back General Lee
from his position upon the Rappahannock, and the suc
cessive lines of the Mattapony, North and South Annas,
Pamunkey and Chickahominy, to Richmond, amid the
storms, snows and mud of winter, with rivers and swamps
swollen by rains ; the season seemed to forbid undertaking
such a campaign, if ever advisable. General Burnside was
more sanguine of success, for he, with subordinate armies
at Roanoke Island, Newberne, South Mountain and An-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 78
tietam Bridge, had given the Confederates the odds of
position and had uniformly won. He naturally reasoned
that what had been done on a small scale could be done
on a larger, if equal energy were displayed ; moreover, he
hoped to effect a surprise. The general, therefore, with
an army more or less disaffected towards his purpose, was
about to attempt the first step in this herculean labor.
CHAPTER V.
FREDERICKSBURG, AND WINTER NEAR FALMOUTH, 1862-63.
THE opening of the contest at Fredericksburg was as
impressive as it was unfortunate. All the companies
except K had been paid before midnight, and the men had
been asleep in their little shelters a few hours when there
arose from the darkness and fog of the river the heavy
boom of signal guns, continued with occasional shots,
volleys and shouts of combatants. At last a crossing was
being attempted, and the engineers were trying to lay the
pontoon bridges. Many a man s heart beat faster at the
dread sound. More than one soldier bent his knee upon
the pine boughs of his rough bed and prayed for strength
to do his duty manfully, and that God would give the vic
tory to the cause which seemed so righteous. And yet
could it be right to attack, with fire and shells, a city filled
with homes only partly abandoned? how could a victory
follow, when the best of our men were shocked by a devas
tation so opposed to their principles ; when the meanest
spirit among our opponents could not but be made a hero
by the sight of his own city laid waste ? thus, morally
also, we were placed in a wrong position at the very
beginning.
The regiment was awakened at three in the morning. At
dawn, orders were received for us to join the brigade at
the Phillips House. By count, we had seventeen officers
and three hundred and fifty-three men in line. They were
So HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
to take blankets and shelter tents only, in a roll across the
shoulders, and two days rations. The ground was frozen
and slippery in damp places, the morning bright overhead,
foggy in the river-bed. The lower bridges for Franklin s
crossing had been successfully laid, but the upper ones,
opposite the city, were not the fire of the enemy s sharp
shooters had been too hot for the engineers to work under.
We learned of this delay on our arrival at the brigade,
which had intended to cross upon the upper bridge ;
pending its completion, therefore, we had nothing to do
but wait, sitting upon boards or tufts of grass near the
Phillips House. Many of the members improved the
opportunity to drop a few lines home, and send off the
surplus of greenbacks, just received, by our ever-to-be-
remembered friend, Mayor Fay, of Chelsea.
Our artillery some one hundred and fifty guns of
various calibre opened all along our lines upon the
unfortunate city, for the purpose, as was said, of driving
out the Mississippi sharpshooters hidden in the houses
opposite the bridges ; and, if noise could compel them,
they would have left in a hurry, for of all the thunder of
artillery heard by the regiment during the war this seemed
the loudest. It was a constant, booming roar, rising and
falling in a peculiar way, occasioned, some said, by the
echoes from the city, or along the river headlands; gun
boats were mentioned at the time, but there were no
vessels so near to the city. Only houses were injured ;
the sharpshooters, though silenced for awhile, remained
until volunteers from the Seventh Michigan, Nineteenth
and Twentieth Massachusetts and Eighty-Ninth New York
crossed in boats and gallantly drove them out of the city.
All this was invisible to us, on account of the lowness of
the river-bed ; only the rattle of the musketry and sounds
of the contest were audible to us.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 8 1
It was early dark in the afternoon when the bridges
were completed, too late for any important further action.
The regiment was ordered back to the battery, and plodded
along through the now soft mud, to find their quarters laid
waste and the camp ground cut up by passing artillery and
wagons. Hardly were arms stacked when the order came
for the regiment to return to the Phillips House, with a
view to crossing the river that night. In an ill humor the
men fell in and retraced the heavy track across the sea of
mud. The glow of burning buildings in the opposite city
could be seen through the fog. It was quite dark; changes
of positions of troops had been made ; the head of the
column got bewildered and wandered around over the
open plain, with frequent halts to discuss localities, in a
way to distract tired men carrying abundant luggage. At
last our station was reached, only to find the order coun
termanded, with direction to return again to the battery
could the English language furnish words to express our
emotions ! It was a wearisome tramp back to camp, and,
when arrived there, it was difficult to find a dry spot large
enough to spread a blanket. One man noticed the long
hole in the ground, which had been dug and used for an
oven to bake some company s beans, and, raking out the
ashes, he made a luxurious bed, remarking, "There d be
many a poor fellow over there to-morrow night would be
glad of such a nice, comfortable grave to bury himself
in!"
Next morning (the twelfth) the regiment, under Major
Willard Captain Andrews having been appointed acting
lieutenant-colonel and Captain Lathrop acting major
taking the road by the river side, instead of upon the high
land, reached the upper pontoons and crossed to join the
brigade, which was found massed on the bank above the
bridges, sheltered from the enemy s artillery by the river
82 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
bank and the houses of the city. As we passed over we
noted the holes in the pontoon boats made by the bullets
of the enemy the day before. Arms were stacked,
packs unslung and piled, and the men, a few at a time,
wandered up into the city to see the sights, while the
remainder devoted themselves to gazing between the
houses at the enemy s earthworks beyond the plain back
of the town, or sat upon the bank watching the dropping
of the shot into the river, aimed by guess at the pontoons,
and passing over our heads to plunge their cold hearts into
the frigid waters of the Rappahannock. The bottom of
that river must be iron-clad. We had hardly been in
Fredericksburg an hour when we saw Mayor Fay and
Miss Gilson coming on foot over the pontoon bridge.
As regiments came down the east bank to cross, their
flags and glistening steel would attract the eyes of the
Confederate gunners, and well-aimed shots would cause
a ducking of heads and swaying from side to side in the
ranks, quite amusing to see when the missile did not take
effect, but serious when it did. The visitors to the main
streets returned, generally bringing some useless article
which the inhabitants had not removed, and which had
attracted the soldier s fancy, but which he was not allowed
to retain by the provost-guard. Tobacco was discovered
in great abundance, in various shapes of pig, plug and
twist. Several had found old-fashioned calico dresses
and bonnets and came back dressed in them, cutting a
swell appearance and exciting much mirth. It was a
sickening mixture of death and frivolity.
Lieutenant Hudson and members of Company D from
Wayland happened upon the body of Reverend Arthur
B. Fuller, former Chaplain of the Sixteenth Massachusetts
Regiment, which they at once identified and cared for.
This noble spirit, while on his way the day before to take
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 83
passage for Washington, had been caught in the enthu
siasm at the moment of the crossing in boats, joined as
a volunteer in the assault, rifle in hand, and was killed
in the streets of the city. His body had lain among the
unrecognized dead until discovered by the members of our
regiment. The watches and valuable parcels entrusted to
him for conveyance home had been rifled from his body
by the plundering followers of the army.
Darkness and fog settled down ; another night of un
certainty for us and of preparation for the enemy was
coming on, and, with the soldiers wise thought for the
comfort of the present moment, the men gathered boards
and old doors from the houses and fences, and laid them
in lines behind the stacks of arms, for dry but rather
hard beds, and slept. No fires were permitted during
the darkness.
The morning of the thirteenth was foggy, as usual. In
other wars, and on several occasions during this, fog and
darkness were taken advantage of, to enable an assaulting
force to approach the enemy s works. In this case, as the
individual courage of the men was to be relied upon, and
not leadership, and the purpose was so obvious to every
one, it is possible that the Union loss would have be"en
less, and chance of success greater, had the troops been
massed under cover of this mysterious obscurity, near
enough for a charge upon the works at a run. On the
left of the army a brilliant dash was made during the
morning, with success at first ; a movement very like the
many left-flank moves at Petersburg, with similar results :
confusion by advancing in a wooded country, an exposed
flank, and a return discomfited to the starting point.
General Meade took a prominent part in the movement,
and the chivalrous Bayard was killed.
During the morning our brigade moved up into the
84 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
principal street, and, with halts, southerly to near the
railroad track and station. Here, towards noon, there
was a rest for an hour or so in the street under cover of
the houses. Rations of raw salt pork were distributed.
The artillery of the enemy, distant about half a mile, had
a complete rake of the streets running at right angles to
the river ; and we watched their shots, the puffs of smoke
from the guns, the bursting of the shells near at hand,
and the showers of pieces clattering along the streets and
upon the sides of the houses, at which last part of the
performance we drew back our heads and relied upon our
ears. From our position we could see no movement of
their infantry ; but there was no appearance of our general
having effected his purpose of catching General Lee asleep.
Occasionally a solid shot or percussion shell would come
smashing through the buildings in front, scattering the
plaster and clouds of lime dust. Such pounding was as
harmless to us as our bombardment of two days before
had been to them. We saw a brigade, or division, in
good order come from near the railway station and
move to our right among the houses, as if to make an
assault, which we could not see ; they had green in their
caps, and were said to be General Meagher s men. The
ground, over which we looked, westward to the enemy s
lines was a rolling plain, cut just at our left by the railroad
running south-west, then south, its cutting deepening as it
neared their position. Houses, trees and fences were
scattered over the plain. The sun shone brightly upon
the scene.
About one o clock the major called, "Attention! " The
men fell in with compressed lips the time had come.
We marched by the right flank across the railroad, a
grade crossing, moved a block south of it, then turning
sharp to the west towards the enemy came again to the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 85
railroad beyond the station house, and recrossed to the
north side. We passed several dead men, one entirely
disembowelled and horribly mangled. Here we faced to
the front; General Ferrero appeared for a moment, and
gave the word to our commander. Major Willard, starting
in front and drawing up his powerful frame to its full
height, waving his huge cavalry sabre, gave the order in
his sonorous voice, " Forward Thirty-Fifth! On centre
dress! Remember Antietam ! " and set the example
himself by leading on. The regiment kept a good line,
and, at a double-quick, rapidly neared the Confederates.
Their shells struck all about; some would burst directly
in front ; there was time to see the explosion, and expect
the fragments before they came ; the dirt thrown up made
the ground seem travelling backward ; a man had time to
wonder why he was not hit by the whizzing pieces. The
sharp hiss of the more dangerous rifle-ball soon became
more noticeable. In advancing, the left of the regiment
kept along the railroad ; and, as that bent to the south,
the course was upon a road running directly to the south
end of Marye s Heights.
Major Willard, thus leading and encouraging us, doing
all that a heroic man could to further our general s plan,
was struck by a bullet in the body, and fell upon the field,
mortally wounded. The regiment, with the impetus he had
given it, passed on, getting breathless with the run and
their burdens, men dropping by the enemy s fire all along.
We reached a wire fence, enclosing the yard of a white
washed cottage. This fence broke the formation of the
line, the wires catching a man by some of his many bags
and bundles, and persisting in holding him until he un-
slung the impedimenta, or was extricated ; the right of the
regiment had to break through a board fence. Getting
through these obstructions, and passing to the side of the
86 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
house towards the enemy, we found a little ridge a
hardly noticeable swell in the plain on the hither side
of which the men stopped and lay down to recover breath
and reform. Then, advancing to the crest, we found it
occupied by men of the Fifty-First Pennsylvania on the
left, and the Twenty-First Massachusetts and Eleventh
New Hampshire, and troops of the Second Corps, on the
right. They were firing at the enemy, and called to us to
open also, which we did at once, mingling with them for
the purpose.
The Confederates were distant about two hundred and
fifty yards. The ground sank down into a considerable
hollow from our ridge, then rose to their position, which
was at the foot of and upon a steep bank, where the upper
plateau, upon which Mr. Marye s house stood, meets the
lower. In our front was the south portion of Marye s
Heights, so called, and we fired directly towards the spot
now occupied by the National Cemetery. We could not
distinguish their men well, the color of their clothes and
hats being so like the soil of the bank, but aimed at the
line of puffs of white smoke from their rifles or the battery
behind them. Their infantry was in the sunken road which
ran along the base of the bank, covered by the stone bank-
wall, since partly or wholly removed, to build, it is said, the
porter s lodge at the cemetery.
On our left there were, at first, no troops ; our regiment
appeared to be the extreme left of our assaulting line
thereabouts. A board fence, running at right angles to
the front, separated the left from the right of the regiment.
Through this fence a heavy shot from the right occasion
ally tore a hole, one of them striking a poor fellow in the
bowels cut him nearly in two, tore off the leg of another
man and dashed it against the fence, then passed on its
way, spattering the men near by with blood and fragments
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 87
of flesh. The reports of the enemy s guns and the burst
ing of their shells seemed almost together, we were so
near them ; and the difficulty they found in depressing
their guns was our safety. Sergeant William H. Allen
was color-bearer ; the regimental flag was torn by bullets,
and the staff, cut half through by a ball, broke in two.
We received no orders to advance beyond this ridge,
nor was any attempt made to do so, in this part of the
line, until nearly dark. No general officer came near the
troops for a long time. To all appearances we could have
gone considerably nearer the heights, with some such a
rush into the hollow as at Antietam, and with similar loss,
but the exigency of the battle did not force us to it ; our
line, at first, would have been too thin to take the works,
and the men wisely preferred the ridge to such another
valley of death. It was reported at the time along the
line that a canal ran in the depression in front, which was
not the fact ; the real canal was to the right, and nearer
the city. The men loaded and fired deliberately, aiming
and calculating every shot but this was not the way to
take Marye s Heights. Most of the shots fired at us went
too high ; but there were sufficient lower down to keep up
the excitement, men of our regiment and of the others
falling all the time. Soon other lines of regiments
General Nagle s brigade of our corps and General Car
roll s brigade of the Third Corps came up behind us,
the men stopping as we had done, breathless, and remain
ing there, kneeling or lying down, in good lines, but
massed closely.
After firing an hour or so our ammunition was expended,
and our men drew back from the ridge, inviting the troops
behind to move up and continue the firing, which they did.
Lying on the hither side of the now muddy slope, we had
nothing to do but watch the enemy s missiles and our
88 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
troops coming up to reenforce, when we had too many
men already, if no further advance was to be made. The
cottage behind us caught the enemy s bullets in a manner
remarkable to witness ; one could tell the height of the
thickest of the shower by a glance at the peppered wall.
A west chimney seemed to catch everything going, and
brick dust flew from it continually ; at last, it had crum
bled so, the upper part came rattling down amid the
shouts of the beholders. The declining sun behind the
Confederate lines illuminated the field towards the city,
and it was a splendid sight to see the admirably kept lines
of battle of our reinforcements, as they came towards us,
wavering a little to close up gaps, which the enemy s shells,
passing over heads, ploughed in their ranks. One full
regiment, or brigade, came on with drum corps beating
the charge in superb style. But they all stopped on
reaching our position, and lay or stooped down. Columns
in mass might have had momentum sufficient to pass the
ridge and go down into the hollow, but regiments in line
seemed powerless to get past us when once they had
stopped for breath after their long run.
A general rode up on horseback to the cottage fence,
and waved his hat to the men. It was General Griffin of
the Fifth Corps. The cheers with which he was received
drowned the sounds of battle. His division had been sent
to relieve ours. The Twenty-Second Massachusetts was
part of that division ; and, taking position along the ridge
at our left, they fired by volleys at the word of command,
as if upon drill, in an admirable manner. It was near sun
set when the Confederate line was relieved or reenforced,
for we could see the forms of their men dark against the
red western sky. The musketry from our lines redoubled
at the sight. The Twenty-Second or Eighteenth Massa
chusetts, also of Colonel Barnes s brigade it was impos-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 89
sible to distinguish the regiments there, unless acquainted
with the officers (corps badges had not come into use)
was forming column with the leading files over the ridge
at this time ; they made a charge to the front, but had to
come back, leaving their dead in the hollow. Captain
Andrews had taken command of our regiment, and, the
brigade being relieved, he formed such of the men as
could be got together in the mass of troops now gathered
behind the ridge, and waiting for darkness lead us back
to the city. We had been six hours in line of battle. The
field over which we retired was strown with the dead and
wounded, and equipments and equipage of all sorts ; any
thing picked up in the darkness, to replace goods lost,
was, more likely than not, found dabbled with blood when
brought to the light.
The losses in General Sturgis s division had been about
one thousand. In General Ferrero s brigade, eighty-three
killed and four hundred and thirty wounded ; of whom the
Eleventh New Hampshire (their first battle) lost thirty killed
and one hundred and seventy wounded. The casualties
in our regiment were ten killed and about sixty wounded.
The slaughter upon our right where the troops are said
to have been more exposed and to have approached nearer
the enemy was greater, General Hancock s division los
ing two thousand men, General French s twelve hundred
of General Couch s Second Corps and others in pro
portion. The total loss in the Union army was 12,353 ;
in the Confederate army, 4,576; as computed by Captain
Phisterer.
The names of the killed in the Thirty-Fifth were : Major
Sidney Willard ; First Lieutenant William Hill, then com
manding Company K (both originally officers of Company
I) ; John W. Hodges, of Company C ; Avery A. Capen
and Isaiah Hunt, of Company E ; First Sergeant Daniel
90 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Lamson, of Company H ; Corporal John E. McKew and
George C. Bunker, of Company I ; Oliver S. Currier and
Oliver P. Robinson, of Company K.
Lieutenant Hill was a young man from mercantile life,
who had been wounded at South Mountain, and was not
very generally known in the regiment. Lieutenant Hatch
was wounded in the knee, apparently his only vulnerable
spot.
Our great and irreparable loss was in Major Willard, an
officer who lacked only the experience he was so solicitous
to obtain, to have made as fine a soldier, in appearance or
acquirements, as the army could produce. Intellectually,
morally and physically, he was the beau ideal of a com
mander of men. It is one of the compensations of the
service that it acquaints us with such men, who elevate
our conceptions of humanity, yet, too often, leave us only
their examples and not their living presence to admire.
He died in Fredericksburg the next day ; his last words
being, "Tell them I tried to do my duty to my country and
the regiment." No words can do fit honor to such sacrifice.
The motto of the Independent Cadets, with whom he re
ceived his military instruction, is " Monstrat viam"
The night, fortunately for the wounded upon the field,
was quite warm for the season. We spent it, as before, by
the river bank. Some of the officers and men gathered
in a house, where services were held. Lieutenant Mirick
read from the Bible, and a private soldier offered prayer.
In the morning the stragglers were collected, and ammu
nition was distributed. Small rations of whiskey were
dealt out, whether to counteract the fatigue and depression
of the defeat or to prepare us for another attempt is not
known ; for it was during this day that General Burnside,
bitterly disappointed at the failure of the assault, which
he at first attributed to slackness in his subordinate gen-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 9 1
erals resolved to form the Ninth Corps, consisting of
some eighteen old regiments and some new ones, and,
placing himself at their head, march to death or victory ;
but the cooler heads of Generals Sumner, Franklin, Hooker
and others dissuaded him. The chance for important re
sults from such an attempt was small ; the men were glad
to be spared a second trial of such a kind. A mail was
received, and the home letters were read during the sus
pense of waiting. At noon men had found flour in the
city, and, as the movement appeared to be abandoned,
all who could find utensils busied themselves frying batter
cakes for dinner. In such close contact lie, in war, the
sublimities of death in the grand assault and the meaner
duties by which the life of the soldier is sustained.
It came on very dark at night; orders to "fall-in" were
received, and the brigade marched back through the city,
as before, to the railway station, where the streets were
crowded with moving troops changing positions. Thence,
under cover of the darkness, we moved silently out to the
position of the day before along the ridge near the two
houses, and lay down upon the frozen mud, or, if one were
lucky, upon a board from the fence, and, rifle in hand,
waited in suspense for any movement from our foes. A
counter assault was dreaded in the bad position and rather
discouraged condition of the army. We felt how much
depended upon our holding the ridge to the death, and
the uncertainty of the result of a night attack upon our
single line made the situation one of terrible anxiety.
The Confederates tried the line, but, finding us ready,
desisted. Their generals discussed a plan of attack upon
the city, but abandoned it information which would have
been welcome to us that night. The men threw up a little
parapet of earth and rubbish, particularly upon the left
of the regiment, which was most exposed, which did good
92 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
service as a shelter from the sharpshooters when daylight
came again.
During the day the situation remained the same, both
sides hesitating to take the initiative. Their marksmen
were very watchful and quick to fire at any part of the
person exposed above the ridge, while our men were for
bidden to use their rifles unless attacked. Few moved
more than once or twice during the whole day, but some,
with the dare-devil recklessness of their kind, would jump
up and run a few steps to enjoy the excitement of drawing
fire. Another terrible night came on, and it was getting
quite past longer endurance when, at midnight, after twenty-
eight hours of as trying picket duty as the regiment ever
endured, the brigade was relieved, and the men, stiff and
unnerved from their enforced quiet, fell in and marched
through the now deserted streets of the desolate city to
the pontoon bridges, where they crossed at once, much to
their astonishment, for it was the first intimation they had
received that the city was to be evacuated by our army.
After crossing the river the regiment marched to its barren
but welcome camp near the battery, reaching it about three
o clock in the rainy morning of the sixteenth of December.
At that time we supposed ourselves to have been among
the last to leave the city, but General Hooker testifies that
" it was late when I got the order to withdraw my com
mand, between three and four o clock in the morning, and
it was between eight and nine o clock when the last troops
were withdrawn. The enemy did not seem to realize but
that there were troops in the houses. I withdrew my
exterior lines of pickets last of all, and they were not
followed by the enemy."
The great event was over, and success had not perched
upon our standards. Our opponents at Marye s Heights
had been of Longstreet s Corps, as previously at South
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 93
Mountain and Antietam Bridge, and this time they got
the better of us. The enterprise had been carried out
with less energy than General Burnside had intended,
owing, apparently, to lack of explicit orders on the left
wing and lack of commanders with the men on the right ;
but the losses had been sufficient to excuse to the country
all further movement of the army that winter. The gen
eral, however, eager for results, declined to go into winter
quarters, and continued his plans for action ; as a conse
quence, keeping the men in a state of constant uneasiness,
and hindering them from trying to improve their temporary
camps and quarters. The winter months were, therefore,
full of discouragement and discomfort.
On the seventeenth of December, at 8 A. M., the regiment
left the camp in rear of the battery and returned to its
position in the square with the brigade, described in the
last chapter. On joining the brigade, Captain Lathrop
was sent, under a flag of truce, in command of a detail
of fifty men of the brigade (ten from the Thirty-Fifth) to
assist in burying the dead on the battle-field of Fredericks-
burg. The detail was allowed to approach the stone wall
as near as there were any bodies found lying. They buried
one hundred and eight men that afternoon, nearly all of
them stark naked, their clothing stripped off by the enemy.
The regiment found the locality of the camp cleared of
every kind of material for camp making rails gone, trees
cut down, even the roots dug for fuel, the whole place a
waste of loamy undulating field land. The low shelter
tents were pitched in company streets, and beds were
made of grass, pine-needles and pieces of cracker boxes.
Green pitch-pine wood was brought by wagons and fatigue
parties from a distance for the cooks smoky fires. If any
one would indulge in the luxury of a fire for himself he
had to bring his fuel upon his back a mile or so.
94 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The food was abundant but coarse : fat salt-pork, fresh
beef, beans, hard bread old and weevilly, baked for
McClellan s campaign, each box marked " White House "
and, occasionally, potatoes or rice, with, of course,
coffee and brown sugar. We had learned to make little
bags to hold the rations of ground coffee, sugar and salt.
The cooking utensils were the three or four iron pots of
the cook and our fire-blackened tin dippers, one of which
each man carried slung to his greasy haversack ; there
were also two or three small frying-pans to a company,
which some provident men had acquired on the route
hither or in the opposite city. The beans would be
cooked by stewing or baking in the iron pots ; these par
tially cleansed and then the coffee boiled in them. The
beans were eaten out of the tin dippers, and afterwards
the coffee was drunk from them ; if there were no beans
it was beef soup ; what the coffee tasted like one may
hardly imagine it was called coffee from habit rather
than from any resemblance to it in smell or taste. It
required a day s manoeuvring to get the utensils and hot
water to wash a woollen shirt the washerwoman never
called at the back door there ; the man who owned more
than one whole shirt was a fop. Sutlers were few at first,
being kept back by orders or the rough roads ; in their
absence we had to depend upon the cookies of our friends
of the Eleventh New Hampshire. Active games or sports
were hardly attempted ; the mud was a hindrance, even if
there had been spirit for them among the men.
We were too lately from home to take these things as
a matter of course and make the best of them, as old
soldiers do ; it takes a year s service to make a veteran.
December and January are hard months for human nature
to endure even in comfortable circumstances around the
domestic hearth ; our condition upon that Falmouth plain,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 95
in the situation we have described, could not but be mis
erable. Turn which way one would, it was cold comfort
everywhere for body or mind, and all tended to dejection.
The wind swept across the open fields and searched our
very marrow. The newspapers and letters from home, if
cheery, made the contrast of our position more gloomy ;
if they were depressed, so were we, and we threw them
aside. It was not pleasant to review the battles of the
past, or anticipate similar ones in the future. The country
was struggling through the great division of parties upon
the question of Emancipation, and party spirit and abuse
added to the darkness of the surroundings. At night,
sleep was happy release from care, but even then cold
compelled most of the men to turn out once or twice to
the fire to warm up.
The best relief was work to keep at something all the
time. Those who did so became veteran soldiers. Those
who lay about the cooks fires listlessly, or coiled up in
blankets in their little tents, soon found the way to the
surgeon s tent, the hospital and, often, to their graves.
The lying upon cold ground, indigestible food and low
spirits soon affected the health of the men, and the " sick-
call" of the surgeon was attended by a motley throng with
woe-begone faces, most of them really ill, but some of them
under suspicions of their first sergeants and the doctors as
chronic hospital " bummers/ as they were called. The
word "bummer " was used in this sense in the Army of the
Potomac long before Sherman s foragers adopted it and
made it famous. The bugler s sick-call was interpreted
as follows : " To the doc-tor ! To the doc-tor ! Come get
your pills for aches and ills! Come get your pills of
the doc-tor ! " If there was a pause out of place, or a false
note, it was because the bugler had a hair in his mouth and
had stopped to swear a bit at which the boys jeered.
96 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Camp duty was carried out according to the usual pro
gramme, when the weather permitted, with regular morning
and afternoon drills and evening parades, with music from
the Eleventh New Hampshire Band. A tour of picket duty
for twenty-four hours took the regiment, or heavy details
from it, to the Rappahannock about once a week. Near
the river, below Falmouth, are deep curving gullies or
canyons, in which the reserves lay, while the videttes
paced the road along the river. In these ravines grew
quantities of laurel bush, and all who could whittle tried
carving laurel-wood pipes and ornaments ; some of the
results were quite elaborate and valuable. The men in
gray upon the opposite bank seemed to be busy very
much as we were, enduring as philosophically as possible
the winter months and keeping a watchful eye upon our
movements. Some attempts were made at trading with little
rafts freighted with coffee for tobacco, until the commerce
was declared contraband by orders from headquarters.
December 23, General Sumner reviewed the Right Grand
Division ; most of the Thirty-Fifth were excused, having
just come off picket ; the band of the Thirty-Third Mas
sachusetts played very finely. December 24, one hundred
men from the regiment on picket ; Captain Andrews had a
battalion drill with only sixty-four men present. December
25 (Christmas Day), baked beans for breakfast; no drills;
only duty was dress-parade ; pies, forty cents each ! De
cember 26, brigade drill in the afternoon. December 29,
orders to have three days rations on hand, but counter
manded; the Signal Corps balloon was up. December
30, Quartermaster Haines, having received his discharge,
started for home; Quartermaster- Sergeant Upton was
commissioned quartermaster of the regiment, and Ser
geant Cutter was appointed quartermaster-sergeant, with
Jesse Holmes as clerk.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 97
On New Year s Eve the band visited the headquarters
of each regiment of the brigade, and, while the hilarity of
the occasion was at full tide, some of the unsanctified
tried to tempt our chaplain from his steadfast ways ; but,
although there was some boisterous fun, they did not
succeed. Speaking of this gentleman reminds us of the
prayers which it was his duty to extemporize, bareheaded
in the freezing air, in front of the regiment, as part of the
exercises of evening parade. Doubtless each man receives
much or little good from such services, according to his
nature ; to some of us it seemed that so much petitioning
for the souls of such as should perish in the coming
" battel " did not tend to encourage the weak-kneed, and
might have been abbreviated. The creed of the soldiers
at the front was very simple ; they felt that our cause was
as near the cause of good and of God as it could well be
the Confederates probably thought the same of theirs
and each felt an entire confidence that it would be well
with those who lost their lives. " Poor fellow, it s all right
with him now," they said of the fallen, and they believed
it. Most of them despised anything like whining; they
preferred to turn their thoughts from the event of their
own death, and dwell upon their purpose and the means
of accomplishing it, leaving personal results to the Dis
penser of all. So our chaplain found his situation rather
a cold one his duty as postmaster of the regiment was
also unpleasant to him and he did not remain long with
us, but chose rather to enter actively into service as captain
in a colored regiment, where he served with credit through
the war. After he left we had no chaplain, and seldom
heard a religious service ; but the men were kept so con
stantly sobered by events that additional restraint was not
often needed. Why ask for a chaplain when we had a Pope
constantly present with us, for example and edification ?
98 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
For some time Christmas boxes were delayed in Wash
ington, pending our movements, until they accumulated in
piles as big as the pyramids, and almost as old. Their
contents, mostly eatables, perished or acquired a strong
musty flavor, rather disappointing to the receiver when
they reached camp. One must be a new recruit, in such
a place, on such a diet, to fully appreciate and enjoy home
goodies. It is almost laughable now to think how much
the boys prized their boxes from home.
Furloughs were not granted to the men, for the reason
that we were not in winter quarters another source of
vexation ; for what was the use of winning honors if we
were not to be permitted, once in a while, to display our
heroic selves before the eyes of admiring relatives and
friends.
January 6, 1863, there was a grand review of the Ninth
Corps, at 2 P. M., before Generals Burnside, Sumner and
Wilcox. January 14, E. Jernagan, of Company E, died;
our first death by disease in camp since we had been in
service. January 15, the regiment was under command
of Captain Andrews, with Captain Pratt acting lieutenant-
colonel and Captain Lathrop acting major; Lieutenant
C. A. Blanchard was acting adjutant. There were two
captains in command of companies ; three companies were
commanded by first lieutenants, three by second lieuten
ants, and two by first sergeants. There were two hundred
and seventy-five non-commissioned officers and privates for
duty, sixty-eight men on extra duty, away from the regiment,
fifty on daily duty with the regiment ; total for duty, three
hundred and ninety-three. There were still eight hundred
and six names borne on the rolls as belonging to the regi
ment. The few officers present, however, received full
credit, for when the Adjutant-General s Report (Massa
chusetts) was printed it was found to contain the following
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 99
eulogium : "Among the many good regiments that Massa
chusetts has sent forward, few, if any, surpass the Thirty-
Fifth, especially in its officers," which, it is hoped, was
fully deserved. At all events the men learned how to
take care of themselves in a way which was always after
wards noticeable ; so that, at a subsequent time, when a
field officer of ours on staff duty informed the general of
the division that he felt it his duty to quit the staff and
return to the regiment then almost without officers
the general remarked, " Oh, don t bother yourself on that
account, your regiment runs itself ! "
On the sixteenth of January Shepard G. Wiggin, of
Company A, died of lung fever in the regimental hospital.
On the same day we were under orders to move, with three
days rations ; also on the seventeenth, eighteenth, nine
teenth, and on the twentieth the orders were to march at
four o clock next morning ; but these were countermanded
at ten o clock the same evening. This was the occasion
of the famous attempt to effect a lodgment on Lee s left
flank by a crossing at Banks s Ford above us, which was
frustrated by the severe storm, and got the name of the
" Mud-march." Sumner s Grand Division, being in sight
of the Confederate look-outs opposite, remained undis
turbed, as a mask for the rest of the army as it moved
up to the ford, and consequently did not get word to start
before the weather vetoed the movement; for which we
were duly thankful, for our quarters, wretched as they
were, would have been much worse had we, by a move,
lost the little store of comforts we had collected. The
Confederates, well informed of the predicament of our
army caught in the storm abroad in the fields of miry
clay and impassable roads, posted up a sign: "Burnside
stuck in the mud ! " in derision of our helplessness.
The pickets, however, had a share in the bad weather
100 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
on the river bank on the twenty-first; those who were
present will remember the miseries of the situation. The
rain was mingled with sleet ; the pine-bough shelters in
the ravines were soaked with moisture, and made such
cold shower-baths the men preferred to stand or walk
about in the mud on the banks of the brook which drained
the gully. There was absolutely no place to sit which was
not soaked with the wet, nor dry fuel there for fires. The
troops present seemed to be in greater numbers than usual,
and more gray-coats were opposite ; each anticipating that
the other might try to cross at Falmouth. In the road
below the hill was an immense cannon, stalled in the mud,
and abandoned until fair weather should enable it to be
extricated. We wandered upon the hill above the little
town, and found there passing the Twentieth Massachu
setts, with whom we discussed the situation ; among them
was the lamented Lieutenant Ropes, afterwards killed at
Gettysburg.
At night the reserve guard was assembled in a little
dilapidated church on the hill, from which all the pews
and furniture had been removed ; and for light and warmth
the men, after placing beds of plaster five or six inches
deep here and there upon the floor for fireplaces, built
fires upon them with fuel from the neighboring fences.
In course of the night these fires burned round holes
through the flooring, but did not ignite the building fur
ther; the mud was tracked in to quite a depth and helped
to prevent the fires spreading. The enemy opposite, by
accident or intention perhaps fearing our immediate
crossing, and wishing to light up the scene or remove an
obstacle to their artillery range burned a long brick
factory for our amusement ; and the fire, the rain, the
turbid river, and gathered troops made an impressive
spectacle. In the morning the men waded through a sea
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS.
of mud to camp. After such a tour of duty, even the
poorest camp quarters seemed comfortable.
In the obscurity of that stormy night, Albert W. Daven
port, of Company B, on his way with the relief guard to
his vidette post, slipped, unseen by his comrades, from the
path along the verge of the cliff, and was drowned in the
river below, his cries being unheard in the tempest. His
absence was not discovered until the sergeant reached his
last posts and found his squad one man short. It was a
sad, lonely ending to life. His body was found by men of
the Second Maryland, a few days afterwards, and brought
to the regiment. A little enclosed lot in rear of camp was
used as a place of interment.
While Jacob G. Clarkson, of Company A, was drawing
his gun by the muzzle from under the eaves of his shelter
tent the charge exploded, injuring his thumb ; chloroform
was administered to him at the hospital tent, and he died
under its influence.
January 23, Franklin s men were straggling back from
the mud-march ; many of them stopped a few moments in
camp as they passed. On the same day there was a row
between some of the men of our brigade and the sutler,
whom they undertook to " clean out ; " two shots were
fired, and the crowd scattered. The roll was called to
discover absentees from quarters, but none of our men
appeared to have had an active part in the business.
There were several severe storms of rain and snow in
January, and, after the return from the mud-march, orders
for winter quarters were issued, and the men set about
making their camps as comfortable as possible. Pine logs
were brought from long distances, the tents raised and
banked up, and little chimneys built of sticks and clayey
mud, surmounted by a barrel. Sutlers and boxes from
home came in greater abundance.
o? THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
January 26, General Burnside was relieved of the com
mand of the army, and General Hooker succeeded to his
place. January 28 and 29, snow fell to quite a depth and
lay drifted in the company streets, nearly covering some
of the low tents; the snow-flakes blew in between the
seams of the tent cloth and spread upon the blankets of
the sleepers, but comrades were found all right when dug
out in the morning; Lieutenant Park, wounded at An-
tietam, returned to duty with the regiment ; Lieutenant
Burrell left us, and was unable afterwards to rejoin the
regiment on account of physical disability. February 4,
James T. Andrews, of Company A, the captain s cousin,
died in camp. February 7, Sergeant William H. Mat
thews, of Company C, Sergeant of the Ambulance Corps,
fell a victim to the hardships of the campaign and died
of fever.
Other members of the regiment were transferred to
general hospitals about Washington, and died there from
diseases acquired in camp. Among them were : Francis
J. Nash, of Company B ; Henry Keiley, of Company E ;
James Rowe, of Company H ; Frederick A. Hews, of
Company I. Charles B. Blanchard, of Company H, who
was taken prisoner near Wheatland, Virginia, died in
Richmond.
With the assumption of command by General Hooker,
General Sedgwick afterwards the famous chief of the
Sixth Corps was assigned, for a few days, to the com
mand of the Ninth Corps. After him, for a short time,
General William F. Smith commanded the corps. He
was afterwards at the head of the Eighteenth Corps, at
Petersburg, and, it is said, was at one time urged by
General Grant for chief of the Army of the Potomac, in
place of General Meade ; but this was before the attack
on Petersburg. On the third of February, General Hooker
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 103
wanted to have General Smith appointed permanent com
mander of our corps. Halleck replied : " Major-General
Burnside is the permanent commander of the Ninth Army
Corps ; but make such temporary changes as you may
deem proper." General Smith was relieved, at Newport
News, by General Parke.
About the first of February the weather became milder
for several days ; the influence of spring was soon felt,
hope revived with the season, and the memory of the dark
days of December grew less oppressive. New supplies of
food, even soft bread once, and more vegetables, appeared
from the commissary s ; and General Hooker, dropping all
thoughts of present action, devoted his whole attention to
the improvement of his command. But we were not to
share his defeat at Chancellorsville, or the hard-won vic
tory of General Meade at Gettysburg. General Burnside
had expressed to the Government a wish that the Ninth
Corps might be sent to the department to which it was
intended to assign htm ; and General Hooker, under the
advices quoted above, was not loath to part with a body
of troops belonging so exclusively to his predecessor.
Rumor of change, as usual, had been busy for some time,
but was little credited ; when, therefore, we broke camp on
the ninth of February, and marched to the box-cars for
transfer to Acquia Creek, a smile lighted up many a face,
which had been clouded for weeks. Any change, especially
from scenes connected with defeat, is pleasant to the sol
dier ; and, as the plains of Falmouth and the steeples of
Fredericksburg passed out of view, we seemed to ourselves
new men. We little thought that when, next year, we should
again see those spires it would be from- the heights where
now the enemy s lines were so securely established.
CHAPTER VI.
NEWPORT NEWS, AND SPRING IN KENTUCKY, 1863.
THE Ninth Corps had been formed, in July, 1862, of
troops which had taken part in the Sherman Expe
dition to South Carolina and the Burnside Expedition to
North Carolina, and, after the successful occupation of
parts of the seaboard of those states, had held the country
gained. They had been called thence to reenforce General
McClellan upon the Peninsula, stopped at Newport News,
and ordered to Acquia Creek. From there two divisions
were sent to join General Pope, the third remaining until
the first days of September with General Burnside ; and,
afterwards, they had followed the fortunes of the Army of
the Potomac in the course we have thus far traced. The
fate of the Corps was to be sent about wherever there was
a call for assistance ; and it soon, very naturally, acquired
the name of " The Big Class in Geography. 7 Appear
ances were now in favor of its return to North Carolina,
and the first movement was in that direction.
From the wharf at Acquia Creek the Fifty-First Penn
sylvania, Twenty -First Massachusetts and Thirty-Fifth
went on board the steamer Louisiana, which lay in the
stream all day (February 9), receiving baggage, etc. At
five o clock next morning we were steaming steadily
down the Potomac, amid the jarring of machinery and
the swashing of water alongside a change of circum
stances so complete as to be quite bewildering. The
105 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
steamer had in tow two schooners, containing the Fifty-
First New York and Eleventh New Hampshire. Head
lands of red earth or sand, crowned with dark pitch-pines,
appeared ahead and were passed, successively ; and, at
night, the broad waters of Chesapeake Bay opened out :
thence, the course was directly south to Fortress Monroe.
On the morning of the eleventh the famous fortress lay
upon our beam ; the noted Union gun, an immense cannon
of which great things were expected, conspicuous upon
the beach. Upon our other side the tide water rushed
and foamed among the rocks of the ill-reputed Rip Raps.
All around us the ships of war were riding at anchor, in
pleasant contrast with the scenery to which we had of late
been accustomed. Our crowded quarters upon the straw
between decks had, by this time, been sufficiently exam
ined, and the orders from General Dix were received with
satisfaction, to proceed to the entrance of James River
and land at Newport News.
At first view, Newport News had the appearance of a
place where nothing new ever occurred or was likely to
happen. A sandy plain, fifteen or twenty feet above the
river, with a few old barracks, and some earthworks and
ditches, constructed by General Butler s troops ; a gray sky,
with spits of rain, made up the desolate picture. Beyond
the plain was a swamp, with immense southern pitch-pines
the only striking feature of the scenery scattered
through it, and crossings leading out to Big Bethel and
Hampton, in which direction the pickets were posted while
we remained here. And yet, lonely as the spot seemed, it
had been the scene of stirring events ; for, on the ninth of
March, less than a year before, had occurred here the
naval battle between the iron-clad Merrimac and consorts
of the Confederate Navy and the Union wooden frigates
Cumberland and Congress, which revolutionized the system
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. Io6
of naval warfare throughout the world. The topmasts of
the Cumberland and the charred timbers of the hull of the
Congress still marked the spot, a warning to all who would
accept it of the danger of being behind the age in the art
of war.
The Third Division occupied the barracks ; the rest of
the corps encamped outside the entrenchments. Our
camp was formed in brigade line, facing the river, with
the swamp in rear; the older regiments upon the right,
the Eleventh New Hampshire upon our left. At first we
had our low shelter tents only, but, on the nineteenth,
" A " tents were distributed, one to every five of the men,
which made extremely close quarters. Some of these tents,
owing to the increasing scarcity of cotton, were made en
tirely of hemp cloth, and were about as useful as sieves
for keeping out rain ; the fibre did not swell with moisture
sufficiently to make the cloth water-tight, as canvas does.
At the same time changes were made in the position of
some of the companies in the regimental line : K, left
flank company, was transferred to the right wing, and H,
from the right wing, was made left flank company.
Here for six weeks we enjoyed what seemed, after Fal-
mouth, the fat of the land. Soft bread was issued in large
loaves a luxury never elsewhere so plentifully enjoyed
by the regiment. The locality is famous for fish and
oysters, and our men, bred within view of salt water,
relished these luxuries with appetites sharpened by the
sea breezes. The colored pedlers from the back country
opened a market at the east end of camp, and those boys
who were in funds lived high, while the penniless majority
were permitted to enjoy a free view of the tantalizing dis
play. There were shops on the most extensive scale at the
landing wharf, and these, with the other attractions, soon
cleaned out the last scraps of postal currency in the regiment.
107 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
On the twenty-First of February, Lieutenant-Colonel
Carruth and Adjutant Wales returned to us from Parole
Camp, Annapolis, having been exchanged. They received
a rousing welcome, and were serenaded by the Glee Club
of Company K ; all were glad to greet them personally,
and to feel that the Thirty-Fifth was made whole again.
Captains commanding cannot secure the respect which the
men readily yield to a field officer ; and, in various ways,
in dealing with brigade headquarters and the department,
a regiment with full field and staff gets more attention.
Promotions had occurred : Captain King was commissioned
major of the regiment ; First Lieutenants Baldwin, Preston,
Hood and Blanchard had become captains ; Second Lieu
tenants Hudson, Stickney, Ingell, Blake and Burrell had
become first lieutenants ; Sergeants Gottlieb, Wilkins, Dean,
Atkinson, Floyd, T. D. Hodges, Dunbar, Hawes and Mor-
rill were commissioned second lieutenants; but these latter,
from various causes, did not remain long on duty with the
regiment, so that the number of officers present continued
limited. Berry was sergeant-major; Cutter, quartermaster-
sergeant; and Plummer, commissary-sergeant, with Rice
as assistant. Promotions among the non-commissioned
officers were also very numerous. On the first of March
Chaplain Miller preached his farewell sermon to the regi
ment, he having tendered his resignation. Captains An
drews, Pratt and Adjutant Wales, successively, acted as
major or lieutenant-colonel.
The colonel and adjutant at once commenced work upon
the drill and discipline of the command. The officers were
schooled by the colonel in tactics and battalion movements.
The sergeants were thoroughly drilled in the manual of
arms by the adjutant; and they, in squads, set up the
men of their companies with an effect at once noticeable
at dress-parade. The regiment became so expert that
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. Io8
General Ferrero rode over at evening to witness the per
formance, which was as well timed and correct as the
motion of a perfect machine. Any superiority of this
kind flatters the pride of the men in their regiment ; we
had been so hardly used hitherto, there was danger of
losing the esprit de corps which unites soldiers to their
colors with affection superior to death. Some complained
of wasted labor, saying that no rebel force was ever known
to be frightened by such an exhibition, however excellent ;
but the effect above stated was worth the trouble. To
offset the show, the officers, notably Lieutenant Pope,
drilled their companies as skirmishers, with the bugle-
calls, and in the bayonet exercise. Had it been allowable
to expend some of the abundant ammunition in target
practice, for which the regiment was never better situated,
the employment of time could not have been more advan
tageous. But, although the Government had adopted rifled
arms, target practice was never encouraged ; men learned
the use of their weapons in battle or by stealth ; the usual
reason given for the interdict was, that so much firing
would occasion an alarm, which was generally true with
us, but not at Newport News.
February 25, there was a grand review in presence of
General Dix and many ladies from Fortress Monroe.
The column included thirty -five regiments and eight
batteries.
The temperature was milder than at Falmouth we had
but two cold snaps with snow but the location proved
unhealthy, owing to the stirring of the malarious swamp
in rear, when cutting the wood for camp purposes. The
embalming agents visited camp, and set up their machin
ery ; but we preferred to be excused their well-intentioned
manipulations. The Eleventh New Hampshire, robust
looking men, but who had not in childhood been through
109 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
the diseases of that age, suffered seriously from what was
called black measles. Typhoid fever took from among
us : Zachariah Damon, of Company D ; Charles W. Cole,
of Company F; Sergeant David K. Hall and Corporal
John G. Dymond, of Company I. Thus this ground, like
most of the spots upon which the regiment staid any length
of time, was marked by the graves of some of our number.
The funeral ceremonies, if time permitted, were in military
form, with beat of drum, reversed arms, reading of scrip
ture and the parting volley. The little enclosing fences
and head-boards must long ago have gone to decay, and
the rain levelled the raised earth ; but there they rest,
along the line, from the ocean to the Mississippi. Of our
dead, also, Longfellow s lines now read truly :
" A soldier of the Union mustered out
Is the inscription on an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt sea wave,
Nameless and dateless,
Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea
In thy forgotten grave ! with secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn
When I remember, thou hast given for me
All that thou hadst, thy life, thy very name,
And I can give thee nothing in return."
It is permitted us to linger over these memories now, but
in those days the stern duties before us demanded quick
forgetfulness of the past.
On the thirteenth of March the Third Division, Getty s,
formerly Rodman s, was transferred across the river, and
never rejoined the corps. General Longstreet came down
to see what was going on, and, in April, Getty s Division
had hard fighting at Suffolk, under General Peck. Our
movement to the mouth of the James was thought by
General Lee to be the beginning of a transfer of the Army
of the Potomac to the Peninsula. The Ninth New York,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. IIO
Hawkins s Zouaves, remained behind as a provost-guard,
and formed a conspicuous object on drill in front of our
camp, at all hours of the day, their jaunty uniforms, full
ranks and accurate movements exciting our admiration.
The Fifty-First Pennsylvania and Fifty-First New York
moved into the barracks vacated by the Third Division.
From time to time we had brigade drills, with more or
less rather less success.
On the same day Captain Lathrop, who had been dan
gerously ill with malarial fever, in camp, since the second,
was conveyed to the steamboat for transfer to Philadelphia;
he recovered, but with health so much impaired that he
was obliged to resign, and he never rejoined the regiment.
Captain Cheever, who had rejoined after Antietam, found
himself unable to sustain the hardships of the winter
campaign, and did not again serve actively with the
regiment.
There was a brigade ball, on the fourteenth, on board
the steamboat City of Hudson, in commemoration of the
victory at Newbern, N. C., with ladies present from For
tress Monroe, the only festivity of the kind in which our
officers participated while in the service.
On Sunday, the fifteenth of March, Dr. MunselFs father
conducted a religious service with the regiment, and
preached a sermon from the text, " What I do now, ye
know not ; but shall know hereafter " ; the musical club
furnished the psalmody.
The weeks flew swiftly by. Occasional cannonading
was heard across the river, and hints were thrown out
that our future might lie in that direction. We were
sitting, as it were, upon the very door-step of Richmond,
and not even the wildest imagination could suggest that,
before we should enter that city, we must make an excur
sion to the far West.
Ill HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
After an easterly storm, with snow, on the twentieth,
rumor took the incredible shape that the Ninth Corps was
to be sent to the Department of the Ohio, to the command
of which General Burnside had been assigned. It seemed
such a travesty of Greeley s Go West, young man!" we
doubted. But, on the twenty-fifth, the brigade got march
ing orders, and on the twenty-sixth we were off, after a
day of saturnalia, while waiting amid the ruins of camp,
after the tents had been struck. Many will remember
Card s antics with the distracted pedler s tip-cart, and the
mock dress parade with the big jug for colonel and the
little demijohnnie for adjutant. We embarked on the
steamer John Brooks, and were soon on the way up Ches
apeake Bay, leaving the grim fortress and the Peninsula
behind, with faces turned to distant scenes and adventures.
Captain Dolan resigned just before departure, and Lieu
tenant Collins was so much injured by a blow from a
musket, in a fracas on the boat, as to necessitate leaving
him in Baltimore for treatment ; he never rejoined the
regiment.
Landing at Baltimore, about noon of the twenty-seventh,
the brigade marched across the city to the north-west rail
road station. So much had we changed since our first
passage through these streets that appearances, which had
seemed foreign and almost hostile then, appeared now
homelike and friendly; the service had converted us, at
least, from provincials to true Union men. Our usual
luxurious conveyances box-cars were filled, some forty
men to each. Even straw was provided in some, to prevent
their bones wearing holes in the clothes of such as found
room to stretch out at length ; packing sardines was noth
ing to it. The train did not get fairly started until mid
night ; and, when moving, any uncommonly heavy jolt
would be followed by a chorus of dashes and exclamation
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 112
points. In the morning the men found that riding upon
the car-tops was as comfortable as within, barring the
cinders and tunnels, and certainly better for viewing the
scenery, for cattle do not require windows in their cars.
Those were merry times, passing through the towns, the
boys on top shouting and waving caps and flags, the
citizens rushing to doors and windows to respond, small
children astonished out of their wits, dogs barking, horses
frightened, and a lively time generally. Travellers upon
the country roads laughed at the chaff of the men, and
thought the train bore the liveliest freight that had passed
for many a day. Bound for the Great West, what cared
we ? It was all in the three years enlistment !
The route lay, on the twenty-eighth, through York, Har-
risburg so near the yet unheard of fields of Gettysburg
and on, by the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, through
Altoona and the picturesque mountain scenery of Western
Pennsylvania, to Pittsburg on the twenty-ninth. There
was snow in the hill country, and everything was bleak
and cold compared with the mild climate of South-eastern
Virginia we had just left. At some of the towns rye coffee
was handed in, which was warming, but an unpleasant
substitute for real coffee, which we had no opportunity
to prepare. At Pittsburg a collation was generously fur
nished by the citizens, in a hall adorned with flags and
mottoes. We became sensible of our terrible appearance,
when some of the ladies of the city, being informed that
the men were not so rough in manners as in looks, sum
moned courage to attend upon us. As we had not seen
ourselves in a mirror for six months, a first view was com
ically surprising was it possible that the reflections were
correct images of the former delicate youths, now browned
and smoke stained, hirsute and thread-bare? Yea, verily;
and yet, after all, there is a great deal of comfort to human
113 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
nature in feeling that one can lie in the dusty road, and
get as begrimed as he pleases, without shocking the pro
prieties of his associates. Common joys and common
sorrows made us one, and the customs and costumes of
the world had become as strange to us as we to them.
Leaving Pittsburg, we passed across the State of Ohio,
through Columbus and Xenia, to Cincinnati. The snow
was left behind, ploughed fields appeared, the air became
more spring-like ; we rapidly moved into a warmer climate.
Arriving at the latter city at 7.30 P. M. of the thirtieth, the
troops marched to the Union Market, Fifth Street, and
enjoyed an excellent collation furnished by the ladies.
Many eastern people were living there and came about,
examining the ranks for friends, and the greetings and
meetings were very interesting and cordial, though the
soldiers, perhaps, considered it fortunate that the darkness
of evening made their travel stains picturesque rather than
offensive. After lunch, the brigade crossed the Ohio River
to Covington in Kentucky, and stacked arms in the street
for the night. The boys, finding the night air chill, tore
down a side fence and soon had a blaze upon the pave
ment, rather to the astonishment of the citizens. Unroll
ing blankets the men lay down upon the sidewalks, with
heads to the wall and feet to the gutter, and found the
new quarters, at least, not so cramped as the box-cars.
Next morning (March 31) Lieutenant Ingell, opening
his eyes long after sunrise, found himself the observed
of all observers among the market women and people
passing to the ferry over the small strip of the sidewalk
that was left between his big feet and the curbstone.
" What ! " he exclaimed, " is it the custom in this great
and enlightened West for ladies to promenade thus through
a gentleman s bed-chamber before he is up in the morn
ing ? " Whereupon he roused out, and made his toilet by
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 114
combing his moustache. At night, quarters were provided
in halls and market places.
We found that General Burnside s Department included
not only Ohio, but also several other States north of the
Ohio River and parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. After
a day s waiting for orders, our division, the Second, was
assigned to Eastern Kentucky ; the First Division went
further to the west, into Central Kentucky, about Middle-
burg and Columbia. During the autumn before while
we were in Pleasant Valley Central Kentucky had been
the scene of an active campaign between the armies of
Generals Buell and Bragg. General Kirby Smith had
come in from the south-east by way of Cumberland Gap,
and Bragg had entered from the south near Columbia.
The movements had culminated at Perryville, south-west
of Camp Nelson, where the Confederates were worsted,
and they then left the State. While we were at Falmouth,
General Rosecrans, succeeding Buell, had fought with
Bragg s army the sanguinary battle of Stone s River, near
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and he was now waiting there
until the railroads could be completed in his rear before
advancing upon Chattanooga. Our duty was to be, to
help block the road to any repetition of the operations of
the previous autumn, and to assist in covering the railroad
communications of Rosecrans. We were also to discourage
guerillas and prepare for a campaign, on our own account,
into East Tennessee, with the assistance of the Twenty-
Third Corps, then in process of formation.
Our first movement was by rail, on April i, to Paris, in
Bourbon County suggestive name where camp was
located on the fair grounds. The commissary began to
issue hard bread of the Cincinnati brand, an important
event to us whose chief article of food it was ; for this
bread was so superior in size, flavor and edible qualities
115 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
that its appearance must be reckoned one of the pleasant
incidents upon our arrival in the West. It was substantial
evidence that the war was here conducted upon business
principles rather than by routine. Bacon-sides were issued
in place of pork, but were not quite so much to our taste.
The people about us were found to be about evenly
divided between Union and Confederate sympathies, the
same family furnishing members to both causes. Political
contests were bitter, and often not confined to words alone.
The officers of the regiment enjoyed flirtation with the fair
Kentucky belles, and many a gilt button was exchanged
for a smile from some fair one, who wanted this memento
from a hero s breast to pin upon her own. The handsome
captain of Company G lost nearly all his buttons in this way.
The Kentucky turnpikes are thoroughly macadamized
with broken limestone, and are as hard as rock, which we
discovered upon our first march, on the third, from Paris
to Mount Sterling, twenty-two miles. The feet of the men,
accustomed to the soft mud or sand of our late camp
grounds, were now subjected to a pounding which made
them swell so as to be almost disabled ; it was hard work
for the sergeants to get their details for picket that night.
Next morning, passing through the town, the regiment
went into camp with the brigade upon one of those admi
rable sites which can hardly be equalled outside of that
beautiful State. The blue-grass sward under foot was thick
and close as a lawn, and starred with spring flowers ; the
trees were lofty, symmetrical and overarching, and not a
particle of brush or undergrowth was there to mar the
park-like appearance. The rail fences enclosing the
grounds seemed sacred without the order forbidding their
use for firewood ; the rails were often of handsome black
walnut. The Twenty-First Massachusetts was, after a few
days in camp, moved into the town of Mount Sterling to
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. Il6
act as provost-guard ; and the members so won the com
mendation of the townspeople that the regiment remained
there several months, while the rest of the brigade was
upon its travels. The business part of the town had been
raided and burned a short time before our arrival.
Hitherto, the Thirty-Fifth had been without a national
color, the stars and stripes. While at this camp, April 8,
Major William S. King joined, from home, bringing a fine
silk flag ; he received a cordial welcome, and was serenaded
by the glee club and brigade band. It was remarkable
that when we had last seen him he was being carried
from the field at Antietam with our blue silk flag in
charge ; now he reappeared, unable yet from wounds to
take the field, but still flag in hand. The new color was
sent from Boston by Colonel Wild, and was his last
memento to the regiment. Major King, soon afterwards
promoted to lieutenant-colonel, was made chief-of-staff of
the Second Division until July i, when he was appointed
Provost-Marshal General of Kentucky, and, subsequently,
in August, Military Commandant of the District of Lex
ington. From the last duty he was relieved, April 5, 1864,
and ordered to Boston, as superintendent of recruiting
service in Massachusetts, which position he held until
commissioned colonel of the Fourth Massachusetts Heavy
Artillery Regiment. On account of his disability after
Antietam, the men in the ranks of the regiment saw little
of him ; but no officer took a deeper interest in the Thirty-
Fifth or its men, wherever he met them, than Colonel
King. At the close of the war he was brevetted brigadier-
general.
Reports reached headquarters of suspicious characters
lurking about the neighborhood, and Adjutant Wales, with
Lieutenant Hatch and twenty-five volunteers, went in pur
suit, on the twelfth, capturing two men belonging to Hum-
1 17 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
phrey Marshall s cavalry, whom they turned over to the
provost-marshal. A raid, on a larger scale, was made
(thirteenth and fourteenth) by the Fifty-First New York
and Twenty-First Massachusetts to a place called Sharps-
burg, about sixteen miles out, after guerillas. They were
gone a day, and returned with twenty citizens and thirty
horses.
One of the vexations of the service was the long delay,
after orders to march, before the actual start. In excep
tional cases, the order to "pack up and be ready to march
in half an hour" was fulfilled according to the programme,
but more often the order came for preparation at some
unseasonable time, at evening or midnight; there would
be half an hour of haste, all would be ready, then would
follow hours or days of waiting for the momentarily ex
pected command to "fall in." It was the uncomfortable
result of the transmission of orders through the corps,
division and brigade headquarters to the regiment. The
lesson of patience is thus well learned by the soldier ;
high resolve and self-sacrificing spirit sustain him at the
start, but, after experiencing the countless irritations of
army discipline, it all settles down finally into a dogged
determination to hang on and endure all things. So on
the sixteenth the regiment was packed up all night, in
order to get off at the hour of four the next morning 1
Such things are easily borne in the presence of the enemy,
but in such a place as we then were the unnecessary loss
of sleep made the men angry.
The march of eighteen miles was westward to Winchester,
a pretty village, where we camped upon another of those
charming park- like grounds, remaining two weeks. The
paymaster made his welcome visit on the eighteenth, and,
in his wake, gathered shoals of pedlers, with country
produce, chicken and squirrel pies, fancy biscuits and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. Il8
roasted geese, the best of Old Kentucky viands ; the boys
did not go hungry. A new sutler appeared, one Gostoffer,
a careful man, but one not wise to attach his fortunes to
such a peripatetic organization. He did not get all that
the paymaster left, for the colonel rode over to Lexington
and expressed home, to the families of the members of
the regiment, the goodly sum of $12,000 of their pay.
Allotment rolls were prepared and sent to Massachusetts,
by which a portion of the pay of the men was made over
directly to families from the paymaster there, and risk of
loss by mail or express avoided.
The trim surroundings affected the men, and their per
sonal appearance received extra care ; even the paper
collar appeared, a certain indication of soft times, and
Sunday church-going became quite a matter of course.
General Sturgis reviewed the Second Brigade, and, as
part of the ceremony, marched us through the town,
battery and all, making a fine pageant. Tableaux were
presented in town, for the benefit of the hospitals, in
which the glee club took part, singing "Joys that we ve
tasted," "Lovely Night," and other airs, with frequent
applause. Evening dress-parades and Sunday inspections
were executed with the "snap" and punctiliousness our
late drill had taught. It was the first camp in which the
Thirty-Fifth enacted the part of a " crack " regiment, in
the presence of admiring spectators and lady friends. On
the twenty-seventh of April, Major King, Adjutant Wales,
Lieutenant Hatch and twenty-five men went upon a scout,
but returned unsuccessful the birds had flown.
Pickets and guards were distributed through the country
about camp, for Morgan s cavalry was a quickly moving
body, and a certain amount of watchfulness had to be
maintained even in these peaceful scenes. A pleasing
trick of the men to secure some of the coveted whiskey
119 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
with which that district of Kentucky abounded was
for the picket to arrange with some colored brother to
fetch a jug of the corn-juice to an appointed place, where
the greenbacks would be present and the officers absent,
carefully warning him to beware of the provost-guard ;
thereupon a volunteer provost, of duly informed friends
from camp, were, by a remarkable coincidence, sure to
pounce upon the victim at the appointed spot, and, with
hearts as hard as adamant, sure to confiscate the ardent,
to the countryman s dismay. The jug would be borne to
camp in an innocent looking sack, to await the return of
the pickets ; but, alas ! sometimes the jug mysteriously
leaked, while waiting, and the thirsty pickets found them
selves as badly gulled as their sable friend. It used to be
said that certain old lovers of whiskey, as soon as tents
were pitched upon new ground, could strike a bee-line for
the nearest supply with unfailing certainty.
Colonel Wild was promoted to the grade of brigadier-
general, to date April 25 ; Lieutenant-Colonel Carruth
succeeded to the vacancy. Captain Andrews resigned,
after constant service with the regiment, having succeeded
to command, as senior captain, in two battles, and, also,
during several months in camp, in the unavoidable absence
of his superiors. Adjutant Wales sent in his resignation
on the twenty-fourth; but, at the colonel s solicitation,
withdrew it. First Lieutenant Park was, soon after,
commissioned captain, Second Lieutenant Pope, first
lieutenant, and Sergeants Meserve and Tobey, second
lieutenants. The medical staff suffered an entire change:
Surgeon Lincoln and Assistant Surgeons Munsell and
Clark resigning, and Surgeon Snow, who joined here, suc
ceeding, with Assistant Surgeon Roche in July. Alfred
Williams became our ever -faithful hospital steward.
There was a little fun at regimental headquarters over
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. I2O
this appointment of a steward. The future wearer of
the golden "caduceus," as unassuming a man as could
be found in the regiment, was summoned to the colonel s
tent, unwarned of what was in store for him ; there he
found the colonel and Surgeon Snow, with grave faces,
in deep cogitation over a sealed envelope, which, in fact,
contained the warrant of appointment. After some words
from the officers upon the sternness of the requirements
of discipline, the victim, whose countenance the while
expressed every degree of astonishment and mortification,
was informed that the envelope, which was handed to him,
contained certain charges against him, and that he might
retire to his quarters and prepare his defence. Somewhat
dazed he departed, but soon returned, having discovered
the point of the joke upon tearing the cover, and with
beaming face, amid a general laugh, expressed his will
ingness to answer the charge, and do honor to the
appointment, by the exercise of his utmost skill, then
and thereafter, upon any of the group who might desire
an amputation, blue pill or dose of castor oil.
Quartermaster Upton suffered a broken arm by a fall
from a strange horse, and, while he was laid up, Lieu
tenant Hawes was appointed to act in his place. An
order assigning the officers, present and absent, was issued
as follows :
Company A Captain, S. H. Andrews, succeeded by
Captain E. G. Park ; first lieutenant, J. W. Ingell ; second
lieutenant, Joseph Gottlieb.
Company B Captain, C. A. Blanchard; first lieutenant,
Gamaliel Hodges ; second lieutenant, N. W. Collins.
Company C Captain, T. P. Cheever ; first lieutenant,
F. B. Mirick ; second lieutenant, J. S. Tobey.
Company D Captain ; first lieutenant, John
W. Hudson ; second lieutenant, T. D. Hodges.
121 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Company E Captain, D. J. Preston; first lieutenant,
J. B. Stickney ; second lieutenant, M. B. Hawes.
Company F Captain, S. C. Oliver; first lieutenant,
A. Hatch ; second lieutenant, A. Floyd.
Company G Captain, William Gibson ; first lieutenant,
William Washburn, Jr. ; second lieutenant, .
Company H Captain, B. F. Pratt ; first lieutenant,
George P. Lyons ; second lieutenant, J. W. Dean.
Company I Captain, John Lathrop ; first lieutenant,
Oliver Burrell ; second lieutenant, .
Company K Captain, E. G. Hood; first lieutenant,
A. A. Pope ; second lieutenant, W. N. Meserve.
Some of these officers temporarily served in different
companies from the above, in the absence of the per
manent officers. The brigade at this time was commanded
by Colonel Hartranft, of the Fifty-First Pennsylvania.
On the fourth of May the command began the march
to the south side of the Kentucky River, averaging about
fifteen miles travel each day. The following is a brief
itinerary : May 4, inarched at 8 A. M. to within seven miles
of Lexington ; wet day ; camp near a brook. May 5,
marched at 7 A. M. through Lexington and five miles
beyond ; showers ; camped near a brick church on the
left of the road. May 6, marched at 7 A. M. through
Nicholasville, by the site of the future Camp Nelson,
across the Kentucky River at Hickman s Bridge sur
rounded by fine, almost sublime scenery and went into
camp in the mud upon a hill near some log cabins ; rained
all night. May 7, roads muddy; through Camp Dick
Robinson to Lancaster, and camped on a hill side. May
8, cloudy ; marched at 8 A. M. ; road, hilly and rough ;
camp at Paint Lick Creek, near a fine spring ; the place
is also called Lowell. May 9, cleaning up and inspection.
May 10, reveille at 5 A. M. ; marched at eight back to Lan-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 122
caster. We always camped in the south or south-east
suburbs of the places near which we were posted ; that
being the direction from which raids were anticipated.
Our way on this journey lay through the paradise of
nature about Lexington, in the month of flowers, and the
hot sun and heavy knapsacks were forgotten in admiration of
that charming rural country. When passing through towns
column was formed, company or platoon front, and, with
drums beating and colors displayed, we did our best to
impress upon the natives our soldierly character and war
like disposition to defend the defenceless and carry woe
to the foeman. What a gallant show our heroes made on
such occasions ! At the crossing of the Kentucky River
the weather was rainy, the dust upon the hard road became
a thin skim of mud, which penetrated the shoes, worn by
the grinding rock, and cut and galled the feet badly. An
army brogan, made in imitation of a moccasin for use on
soft prairie land, was not stiff enough in the sole for such
work, and gave out after a few days wear. The quarter
master, however, found such easy hauling for the teams
that, contrary to his usual gentle negative, when offered a
foot-sore man s pack to carry he even smiled upon such
applicants, and answered, " Oh yes, pile them on ; if they
will stick, the mules will pull them all ! "
This reminds us that we have not yet mentioned that
useful masked battery, the army mule, for whom all men
in the ranks had a fellow feeling his treatment and that
of the common soldier were so much alike ; each was
expected to have endless endurance, and to be willing to
take any amount of punishment without flinching. His
cheerful voice was the accompaniment of our dreams,
"haw-he! haw-he! haw-he!" a sound, when first heard,
so strange as to strike the hearer dumb with terror. But
the boys soon learned that it was the signal of trains with
123 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
supplies, and welcomed it as the most melodious of voices.
If the doctrine of the transmigration of souls were true,
what sinners those mules must have been in the former
stages of their existence !
At Lancaster the colonel was, if possible, more exacting
than ever; nothing could suit him which was not done on
time or at the double-quick. Coming back from Paint
Lick special stress was laid upon falling out; the men kept
the ranks and files perfectly, and the ten miles were paced
off at a rate by the watch, which gave even him satisfaction.
Drills were in quick time or the double-quick. Shelter
tents were struck, knapsacks packed, line formed, the
regiment countermarched, company streets laid out anew
and tents up again all in the space of twenty minutes.
In truth, and without exaggeration, the Thirty-Fifth had
at this time, under efficient tutelage, become a model
regiment in drill, discipline, dress, and arrangement of
camp. General Sturgis, accompanied by his staff, after
viewing one of the parades of the regiment, remarked,
"That beats the regulars!" The thorough instruction
then received was never forgotten ; but, through whatever
hardships the men passed, when better times came around
a few days of favorable surroundings quickly retored the
regiment to its high standard.
Kentucky, being loyal, was not affected by the Eman
cipation Proclamation, and still continued to be a slave
State ; naturally, the runaway slaves sought service in the
army as attendants upon officers. General Burnside issued
an order, forbidding officers or men "to impede the service
of civil process having in view the recovery of slaves of
citizens of the State, to abet their escape, or employ them
against the consent of owners." This was an offset to his
famous order, containing the words, " It must be distinctly
understood that treason, expressed or implied, will not be
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 124
tolerated in this department." A negro boy, called "Mace,"
had attached himself to our regiment, and a frequent call
from the officers tents was, " Mace ! Mace ! where is, that
d d Mace ! " One day a person, claiming to be his owner,
came upon the ground, and at headquarters was invited to
inspect the camp in quest of his delinquent chattel. Of
course, Mace was as scarce as usual ; the trembling wretch,
knowing where the softest heart beat, albeit under the
roughest exterior, lay hid under Lieutenant IngelPs bed,
upon which reposed the massive frame of its owner. In
due course, the claimant lifted the flap of the tent and
looked in ; no negro was visible, but Ingell reclined there,
revolver in hand, with all the ferocity of expression he
could summon flashing from his eyes, one glance of which
was sufficient to satisfy the hunter that, whether the prey
was there or not, it would be better not to disturb such a
couchant lion ; and he retired without discovering the
ebony. Ingell subjected himself to the danger of arrest
and punishment, but when did the dear old boy ever
estimate personal consequences when his sympathies were
appealed to by any one ! He is said to have remarked
that " no one, whether from heaven or hell, could search
that tent ! " It is to be remembered, also, that this was
in the heart of Old Kentucky, the home of Mrs. Stowe s
"Uncle Tom," and every dark skin in distress seemed
entitled to claim kinship with that old hero.
At Lancaster the turnpike divides. The road to the
south-east passes through Crab Orchard to Cumberland
Gap, becoming rougher and wilder as it proceeds. The
road to the south leads to Stanford and Somerset, near
Mill Springs the scene of General Thomas s victory over
Zollicoffer and traverses a more settled country upon
the Cumberland River; both roads, however, terminate
in East Tennessee. It was to be our fortune in the future
125 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
to go to Tennessee by the first route and return by the
second ; at present, however, we took but a step upon
each^
On the twenty-third of May, the brigade left Lancaster
for Crab Orchard, some twelve miles, over very dusty
roads, stopping over Sunday upon the banks of Dick s
River, a bright, clear stream, in which the boys enjoyed
a welcome bath. Camp had hardly been laid out on
Monday evening, at Crab Orchard, when an unexpected
summons came to proceed at once to Stanford. The
distance was only a dozen miles, but the cross-road was
deep with dust, which rose in suffocating clouds, making
the night darker and marching irksome, so that the men
reached Stanford in a charming state of ill temper. Camps
were passed all along, rather to our surprise, for up to this
time we had met no troops other than the Ninth Corps.
Preparations were making at Stanford for a grand advance
of all the forces into East Tennessee, by this road through
Somerset. Meanwhile, we camped quietly on one of those
charming lawns, this time almost under the eaves of a
mansion house, in which the officers messes obtained lux
urious fare, with even an imp of darkness to keep the flies
from their elevated noses with a peacock-feather brush.
The enlisted men, whom the increasing warmth of summer
affected with a desire for something lighter than the stand
ard bacon sides and hard bread, sought a change of food
at the tables of hospitable citizens for a modest consider
ation. In short, it began to be evident that we were
waxing fat enough to kill. Take a sample from Company
H : " Ho, there, James ! " called the sergeant, " you are
detailed for picket ! " " Picket, sergeant, picket ! why, I
ca-a-n t go, sergeant ; I ca-a-n t go ! " " Ca-a-n t go ; why
not ? " " Why, I ca-a-n t go, sergeant, I haven t had my
coffee ! "
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 126
While here a slave auction occurred in town ; a woman
and twin boys of eleven years were sold. The woman
brought four hundred and five dollars ; the boys were bid
off for three hundred and fifty and three hundred and five
dollars. This took place while the provost-guard in the
place was Company C, under Lieutenant Tobey, from the
patriotic city of Chelsea, from directly under the shadow
of the State House of that abolition State, Massachusetts,
and not a word or act of remonstrance ! Clearly the habit
of obedience to orders without question was becoming
deeply impressed, and, perhaps, upon a nearer view of the
" institution " it appeared less repulsive, especially when
compared with the condition of an enlisted man in the
ranks.
While the regiment was out on skirmish drill one after
noon, General Ferrero came riding by in his usual dashing,
McClellan style, and announced that his commission as
brigadier- general had been confirmed. He seemed highly
pleased to return to the brigade, and the men received
him with loud hurrahs, for it was always pleasant to see
accustomed faces back in their old places. Lieutenant
T. D. Hodges left the regiment to accept promotion in
General Wild s African Brigade.
Orders were received to have eight days rations con
stantly on hand five in knapsack, three in haversack
and all overcoats and superfluous clothing to be sent back
to Camp Nelson, in view of a forced march into East
Tennessee ; but, here again, fate had other things in store
for us before we should cross the Cumberland. The cus
tomary command, " Pack up and be ready to march imme
diately," reached us late in the afternoon of June 3, while
the regiment was on battalion drill ; and, as if there was
an attack somewhere in the neighborhood, we seized our
luggage, fell in and moved out upon the road at a quick
127 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
pace the attack to be met was only about nine hundred
miles away by the route to be travelled. The head of column
turned north instead of south, and then curiosity was highly
excited to know "where we were bound " ; the only reply
was " The Army of the Potomac or Vicksburg, it is not
known which " ; and it was not until next day that word
was passed along the line that we were bound for Vicks
burg Vicksburg! Hades rather! the place, the cli
mate, and the warfare thereabouts had at that time the
reputation associated with the fiery pit of Gehenna. Gen
eral Grant was besieging Vicksburg and needed more force ;
we were to be lent to him for a time.
We kept on the road until one in the morning; then
turned into a church-yard for a short nap upon the un-
mown grass. At sunrise we were up and on again, and
all day until four in the afternoon, when we reached Nich-
olasville, thirty-four miles in twenty-two hours, including
halts for rest no joke to a soldier marching in close
ranks, under a hot sun, weighted with arms and knapsack.
It seemed as if the spirit of Grant had seized us at the
very start, to show how inarches were to be made when
he should grasp the reins. At Nicholasville, while the
baggage was being loaded, a locomotive exploded. Among
the men injured was John Leverett, of Company C, who
was so severely scalded that he died next day.
Crowding into the box cars at 9 P. M., foot-sore and dusty,
we selected the least uncomfortable position attainable,
and, speeding all night along the rails, were crossing the
river into Cincinnati at ten o clock next morning. Arms
were stacked in the street near the Sanitary Commission
Rooms, while waiting for food and transportation, and the
men were plied with attentions by the hospitable citizens.
Hot dinners were offered ; oranges were distributed ; small
boys were started at a run with pails of foaming beer to
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 128
try how far they could get among the men before their
cargo was captured ; altogether it was a festive time.
Mirth and fun grew fast and furious, for we were bound
for Vicksburg ; and the soldier drowns care of the future
in present joy. At night we were again packed in the box
cars upon the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and were
traversing the broad cornfields of Indiana, passing through
Seymour and Mitchell, and over the bridge across the
Wabash at Vincennes.
CHAPTER VII.
MIDSUMMER IN MISSISSIPPI VICKSBURG AND JACKSON, 1863.
ON the sixth of June we were crossing the State of
Illinois, the level country stretching out like an
ocean to the horizon. Men on the car-tops practised
shooting on the wing at the pigs in the groves beside the
track, until it was found that the sport was growing into a
general fusillade and had to be stopped. Warm greetings
were extended to the troops by the inhabitants all along
the route. At one station the ladies were more than
usually attractive and very demonstrative in waving their
white handkerchiefs. Attracted by a flutter in the rear
of the officers car, the colonel found Lieutenants Hatch
and Washburn vigorously shaking in the air a gray blanket
of the largest size. "What s this, what s this, gentlemen?"
"Oh," replied Hatch, "don t you comprehend? there are
the ladies ; here are we ; this is the regimental pocket-
handkerchief long may it wave ! "
At Sandoval we changed direction from due west to
south, taking the Illinois Central Railroad. While waiting
for the train in the afternoon, the colonel to take the
cramps out of us and keep all hands from mischief
ordered a battalion drill. Perhaps the smooth, seemingly
limitless prairie offered a field for the exercise too oppor
tune to be neglected. The men groaned, but were soon
at work, changing direction, forming in mass, etc., on the
broadest parade-ground ever occupied. At Centralia, in the
130 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
evening, pans of hot beef-steaks were passed into the cars,
and devoured as ravenously as by the animals in a men
agerie a name, by the way, which the Richmond papers
adopted in mentioning the Ninth Corps, " Burnside s Trav
elling Menagerie."
In the morning of June 7 we were at the jumping-off
place Cairo disembarking from the cars upon the
levee, at the mouth of the Ohio. This town, like the
land of Egypt from which it derives its name, is subject
to overflows, against which the citizens guard their lands
by broad dykes, upon which the streets are laid out, giving
the place a unique appearance, and, at least at the time
we saw it, entitling it to the name of the biggest mud-hole
we had met with up to date. The cooks built fires upon
the river bank and put the salt-pork on to boil, while the
men bathed in the tepid waters of the Ohio, diving off the
great coal barges. Tents were pitched for one night along
the muddy levee. The immense steamboat Imperial, with
decks tier above tier, was assigned to transport General
Ferrero and staff, the Eleventh New Hampshire, Ben
jamin s Battery, " E," Second United States Artillery and
our regiment, and late in the afternoon of the eighth we
were on board, with a mass of freight, and swung with the
current out of the Ohio upon the broad Mississippi, whose
winding course we were to follow for some five hundred
miles.
The great river, the Father of Waters, is impressive
only when we consider its volume, the great distance it
flows, and the vast extent of country which its branches
water. Like many other marvels, a partial view is tame
and ineffective. The banks are but little elevated above
the water, arid stretch off interminably, for the most part
still clothed with forest, the soil of blue clay or sand, with
occasional banks of red or yellow earth. The stream
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 131
meanders about so that in some of its windings it is
difficult to tell whether a steamboat, of which the smoke
may be visible over the trees, is coming up or following
down. But as we keep on day after day, and think that,
after all, we are traversing but a small portion of its course,
we begin to appreciate the majesty of the great river :
" Far down the beautiful river,
Past the Ohio shore, and past the mouth of the Wabash,
Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Mississippi ;
Onward o er sunken sands, through a wilderness sombre with forest,
Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river ;
Now through rushing chutes, among green islands, .where plume-like
Cotton woods nodded their shadowy crests, they swept with the
current,
Then emerged into broad lagoons, where silvery sand bars
Lay in the stream."
The names of places, then familiar to readers of the
war news, served as mile-posts to mark our descent :
Columbus, with General Folk s old fortifications, where
we ran aground and stuck all night ; Belmont, opposite,
where General Grant made his first essay in the war;
Island Number 10, which we passed on the ninth, the
scene of General Pope s victory ; Memphis, reached on
the tenth, famous for its gun-boat fight; Helena, where
we hitched up to the bank on the twelfth, which was,
within a few weeks after our visit, to be attacked and
bravely defended ; Milliken s Bend, on the thirteenth, and
other places at first, the states of Missouri and Arkansas
on the west, Kentucky and Tennessee on the east, and
now, as we approach our goal, Louisiana on the west and
Mississippi on the east.
Events on board were few, and card playing was resorted
to by many for amusement. The paymaster entertained
us one evening at Memphis with a greenback reception,
132 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and next day our sutler, Gostoffer, who at such times
clung closer than a brother, having us cornered on board,
exacted his dues for past luxuries. At Memphis we stopped
for coal, and at evening the levee was bright with twinkling
fires of the cooks preparing the rations. A certain degree
of reckless feeling seemed to inspire all on board ; the
body of a drowned soldier, who had probably fallen in
while intoxicated, was rolling in the water, between the
boats and the shore, and no one seemed to feel moved
to give it burial.
After leaving Memphis, the eleven crowded steamboats
kept within sight of each other for protection. General
Parke commanded on the Silver Moon, which occasionally
sounded its calliope. Details were made to picket the
hurricane deck, and these guards lay, rifle in hand, to
return with a volley any shot from the wooded shore which
lurking bushwhackers might send us. Our loaded boat
drew eight feet of water, and as there was but nine in the
channel the pilot was afraid to run in the night below
Helena, so the bows of the boat were run upon the bank
and pickets were sent ashore to prevent surprise. The
lead was thrown for soundings, and the boys caught the
lingo, "A quarter less three," "And a half six," etc., which
on many a rainy night afterwards, in bivouac or plodding
in the mud, served as a call which never failed to raise a
laugh. The water in the stream was of a gray color, and
when allowed to settle deposited fine sand, leaving the
upper part clear and palatable for drinking.
We reached Sherman s Landing, below Young s Point, on
the fourteenth of June, and disembarked upon the forest-
covered western bank, at the north end of the great ditch
or cut-off, which, commenced by General Williams in 1862,
and worked upon by the army of General Grant in the
February preceding our landing, was intended to turn the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 133
river and afford a passage to the fleet, harmlessly, past
Vicksburg. The soil was clayey and hard to dig through,
the dams broke unexpectedly and drove out the workmen,
and the river still ran undisturbed in its own channel.
Since the war the river has worn a channel through this
peninsula, at a point between this wrongly located ditch
and the city front. Down stream, looking south-east, lay
in plain view the buildings of the city of Vicksburg, situ
ated upon the high east bank, the court-house towering
conspicuously. Below us, under the right bank, were our
mortar-boats, enclosed rafts, each carrying a mortar of the
largest size, from which was thrown every few minutes a
shell into the doomed city. While the siege lasted these
ugly fellows kept up an incessant knocking at the front
door, while Grant and Sherman thundered at the rear.
Almost directly opposite our landing-place was the mouth
of the Yazoo River.
General Grant, having tried ineffectually as had Gen
eral Sherman previously to gain the rear of the city by
movements up the Yazoo, and failing in the cut-offs and
other schemes for getting by, had conceived the admirable
plan of taking the city in rear from the south. Gun-boats
and transports had run the gauntlet of Confederate bat
teries at the city and below, and were then used to ferry
the army across at Bruinsburg, below Bayou Pierre and
the mouth of the Big Black River, which flow in from the
north-east below the city, as the Yazoo does above. The
general then led his forces up the Big Black, making a
detour to Jackson, to turn back the Confederate army of
General Johnston the Fifty-Ninth Indiana being first in
the city and then coming back upon General Pemberton
enclosed him with his forces in Vicksburg. The fighting
had been sanguinary at Port Gibson, Raymond, Champion s
Hill and Big Black Bridge, but always in favor of the Union
134 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
cause, and greatly to the honor of the Thirteenth, Fifteenth
and Seventeenth Corps, the troops engafed. Upon arriv
ing behind the city Grant had ordered the usual grand
assault, on the twenty-second of May, which, as usual, was
a failure ; and since then regular approaches had been
made and a complete state of siege maintained. We were
not wanted to aid in the operations upon the lines facing
the city, there was sufficient force present for that purpose ;
our assistance was needed upon the reverse face, looking
to the east, where General Johnston threatened an advance
upon the rear of the troops fronting the city. General
Sherman had command of the left wing of the army
including the force fronting Johnston and to him our
two divisions were assigned.
Our landing below Young s Point was made in accord
ance with a first intention of placing our divisions at the
extreme south end of the city, which was the weakest part
of the circle of investment ; accordingly, on the fifteenth
of June, we crossed the Vicksburg and Shreveport Rail
road, on the Louisiana shore, through the swamp, south,
to the river bank below the city, at a point opposite War-
renton. The landing-place was crowded with negroes of
both sexes, who had attached themselves to the army, the
men enlisting in the loyal Louisiana and Mississippi regi
ments then forming ; they were a ragged and forlorn-
looking crowd. We, with the Seventh-Ninth New York
and Eighth Michigan, had boarded the steamboat Forest
Queen, and were examining the shot-holes and damages
she had sustained while running the batteries, when orders
came to disembark and camp in a cotton-wood grove on
the river bank. No sooner were tents pitched than a
command arrived to return to Sherman s Landing, which
was done, part of the way after dark, and very dark it was.
The men did not object to the trip, as they had a good
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 135
look at a Louisiana swamp, going and returning, and
another view of the city from below. The most noticeable
thing in the swamp was the trailing moss upon the trees,
which gave them the appearance of being hung in mourn
ing, and added a gloom to the forest which affected the
wayfarer. Vines with flaming trumpet flowers somewhat
relieved the sombre obscurity.
At noon, next day, we went aboard the Omaha, and, in
a heavy thunder storm, paddled up the Yazoo to Haines s
Bluff. The boat was crowded with men, and as no landing
was permitted until morning it was difficult to find space
to sit down, not to mention the luxury of lying at full
length. The heavy cannon, which had made the approach
to this point impracticable to our gun-boats, were still
resting in the earthworks, where the Confederates had so
hastily abandoned them when Grant came in their rear.
In the morning, the Western troops, who had occupied this
point, marching away as we landed, we proceeded inland,
about five miles, to Milldale, where camp was formed as
well as the narrow vale in which we were located would
permit, near a fine spring of water. The first days were
given to examining the country and eating blackberries,
until the lines could be laid out which we were to con
struct and defend if need be. One morning, while the
morning report books were under discussion, a heavy
explosion was heard in the direction of the city, followed
by heavier firing than ordinary, said to have been the
explosion of a mine under one of the enemy s forts. Upon
another morning General Grant visited our encampment,
and called upon General Parke, who commanded our
corps, to which a division of the Sixteenth Corps had been
temporarily added. General Potter led our division and
General Ferrero our brigade.
The district back of Vicksburg, called Walnut Hills, is
136 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
cut by deep dells or ravines, like immense furrows, in all
directions. One goes up, then down, repeatedly, unless
following a ridge. Even the city itself is located upon
the same system, and the cuttings of the streets to grade,
through the ridges, served the citizens for convenient
banks, in which they dug the caves which sheltered them
from the mortar-firing above mentioned. Where we were
it was only necessary to throw up a breastwork upon
the ridge selected, cut down the trees, which grew thickly
upon the outer side, for a slashing or abatis; plant the
artillery at commanding angles, and a line was established
which was impregnable. General Johnston knew the diffi
culties of the approach and kept a respectful distance, near
Birdsong s Ferry, inclining rather to the south, down the
Big Black which ran across our front in hopes of suc
coring Pemberton, whose sortie, if made, would aim natu
rally in that direction. As soon as the work of digging
this line was commenced, we moved a mile nearer the
Yazoo landing, and pitched tents upon a side hill, in order
to be near the scene of our labors. The heat of the sun
was excessive ; fortunately, we were able to keep in shade
except when on the ridge handling the pick and spade in
the trenches then the labor was very arduous.
The luxuries of the place were blackberries and wild
plums ; later on, peaches, figs and paw-paws. None of us
ever saw these fruits in greater abundance so, in the
intervals of digging and camp duty, the boys feasted upon
these, while the constant booming in the direction of the
city warned the berry-pickers that they were only playing
at peace. And even among the bushes one had to keep
his eyes open for bees and hornets, which also love sweets,
and the snakes, which were of prodigious size and fatness.
Several new insect torments here introduced themselves,
peculiar to the climate, but the mosquitoes were not so
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 137
troublesome as sometimes further north. The colonel
commenced instructing the sergeants in tactics, and, there
being no level ground for battalion manoeuvres, to employ
the time usefully turned his critical eye upon the officers
company books and accounts. This course of clerical drill
produced valuable fruits, when at the end of their service
the officers came to settle with the auditor at Washington
for the losses and mishaps of such varied campaigns. Cap
tain Blanchard left for home, having resigned ; but he was
afterwards restored to his rank and returned to the regiment.
On the twenty-ninth we moved still further south-east,
about eight miles a hot march to McCalls, or Oak
Ridge ; and a sandy waterless ridge it was. In the deep
dells barrels were sunk ; these slowly collected from the
soil our drinking water, which was cool, though one often
had to wait a long while for a canteen-full. In the bright
moonlight nights the heavy masses of foliage and dark
shadows gave these ravines a very charming appearance.
Here we relieved some of Sherman s men, tall and straight
fellows, with their imposing felt hats, some armed with
Henry repeating rifles. They were full of stories about
the fights at Champion s Hill and other places, and we
Jistened with interest. To be sure the losses at Fred-
ericksburg alone in one day had been many more than
theirs during their whole campaign, but Eastern soldiers
were not inclined to boast of that day, and the Western
vim and self-confidence were so different from the tone of
the Eastern army it was a pleasure to listen to their talk.
We accepted in silence the epithets of "Holiday Soldiers,"
etc., trusting to the course of events, rather than our
tongues, to prove our mettle. They had served well in
a magnificent campaign, and they were right to feel proud
of their share in it. At Oak Ridge we adopted from these
Western men the custom of raising beds and tents some
138 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
two feet from the ground for the sake of coolness. The
usual bi-monthly muster for pay to compare the number
of men with the number on the rolls took place here,
and digging was resumed.
On the fourth of July we were enlivened by the arrival
of mails and rations, which kept us so busy we scarcely
noticed that the sounds of cannonading towards the city
had ceased. In course of the day, however, the rumor
was circulated that General Pemberton had surrendered,
and in the afternoon the news was officially confirmed
amid great rejoicing. The total losses to the Confederates
had been over 40,000 men, of whom 31,000 were the gar
rison of Vicksburg, and one hundred and seventy-two
pieces of artillery, with arms and munitions for 60,000
men ; altogether, the most damaging single blow the Con
federate cause suffered during the war. There was no
attempt at a triumph, and no troops, except General
Logan s division for a guard, marched into the city ; on
the contrary, the orders confirming the news also directed
an immediate march eastward to meet Johnston ; and,
before we could fairly realize the victory, we were upon
the road, leaving camp about six that evening, the men
feeling eager for a more active share in such achievements,
and, if ever such words are true, spoiling for a fight.
However, the excitement had time to cool a little during
the following two days while the corps lay massed by the
road side, waiting for the construction of a bridge over the
Big Black, at Birdsong s Ferry, by the leading brigade, of
which the Thirty-Sixth Massachusetts formed a part. Here
Assistant Surgeons Roche and Coburn joined, but the
latter was never mustered in, the regiment had become
too reduced in numbers to be entitled to two assistants.
Quartermaster Upton also returned, his arm having healed,
and took position on the division staff.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 139
General Sherman s plan of action is briefly stated in the
following order, circulated here :
"GENERAL ORDERS, No. 52.
" HEADQUARTERS OF THE EXPEDITION,
"CAMP AT FLOX, July 6, 1863.
" IV. The movement (of this division) will begin at four
o clock P. M. of July 6 (to-day). VI. All commanders will
hold their troops in perfect order for battle at all times,
and on encountering the enemy will engage him at once.
VII. Private pillage and plunder must cease; our sup
plies are now ample ; the people of the country
should be protected as far as possible against wanton acts
of irresponsible parties, etc.
" By order of MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN,
" R. M. SAWYER, A. A. G.
"Official: G. H. McKiBBEN, A. A. 6V
Drinking water became an item of chief interest at once,
and continued to be during the march. The soil was
porous and quickly absorbed rain, the rivers were swampy,
and the water said to be poisonous or malarious. Small
streams or springs there were none ; the people stored
their drinking water in huge brick cisterns under ground.
There were occasional clayey pond-holes where the rain
collected, which were our source of supply ; and the water
from them was sufficiently muddy and vile without the
flavoring extracted from the dead mule, which usually lay
stewing in the sun in the middle of the hole. The story
was that the retreating enemy had placed them there pur
posely; but this, like many similar tales, was crediting
them with too thoughtful a malignity. As the troops
passed, cotton presses, stored with bales of dbtton, then
of almost priceless value at the North, were seen waste-
fully burning, from lack of means of transportation. The
140 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
old cotton-fields were planted with corn, now almost fit
for roasting, which formed an important part of our sus
tenance upon the trip. The people have a way, there
abouts, of girdling the immense trees instead of cutting
them down, and, thereafter, the slowly decaying trunks
barkless and for the most part branchless stand, like
ghosts, among the corn, forming a melancholy feature of
the scenery.
About two in the afternoon of July 7 the bridge was
ready and W 7 e crossed the river. In the bottom lands
some cotton-fields the sun beat down with power untem-
pered by the slightest breath of air. The effect was over
powering ; stout men dropped in the ranks as if shot, and
even the toughest gasped for breath and staggered on to
the upland, where there was some shade. The men affirm
that they never, before nor since, experienced such torrid
heat. The afterpiece was a thunder storm of great fury,
the flashing of the lightning and rolling of the thunder
being continuous instead of in explosions in the normal
way. Nevertheless, we kept upon the road, the grateful
rain pouring upon our soaked caps and down our backs in
bucketfuls. The mud in the road was unfathomable. At
midnight a halt was called, and, the storm having passed
over, we turned off the road in the pitchy darkness, and,
perched upon rails or brush, slept who could. Next morn
ing we had to wait for the road to dry, to be passable for
the artillery, and the start came again at mid-day ; where
upon the heat was so great as to compel a halt until the
sun should sink sufficiently to be borne, and thus the
march again drew out until midnight ; this time the air
being so warm and close as to induce drowsiness, so that
after every halt the men who had insensibly dropped asleep
had to be roused altogether, marching in such devitalized
air was trying work.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 14!
During the night of the tempest Lieutenant M. B. Hawes,
acting quartermaster, with the wagon train, was accident
ally killed. The following account of the storm and of the
lieutenant s death was written a few days after by one who
was near him at the time :
" It now became so dark I could not see my mare Sallie s
head. By this time the wind increased to a gale and it
never rained faster. Such vivid flashes of lightning and
such peals of thunder I never saw or heard. I found it
impossible to control Sallie on her back, so dismounted,
and then I had my hands full. The lightning struck all
around us, and boughs were falling in all directions. The
storm, or rather tempest, lasted about two hours, and,
more or less, all night. During the storm a bough fell
and struck Lieutenant Hawes, killing him instantly. He
was sitting in his wagon, only two or three wagons in rear
of ours. Lieutenant Hawes was a splendid fellow, pro
moted from the ranks, and was one of the most promising
officers in the regiment, and would, no doubt, soon have
been again promoted. I spoke with him only about an
hour before he was dead. He was always cheerful, with a
pleasant word for everybody. I understood the quarter
master of an Ohio regiment was also killed. Lieutenant
Hawes was buried next morning under a tree near the
place where he was killed."
We plodded along, during the eighth and ninth, towards
Jackson, through the cornfields and by-roads, the artillery
and trains occupying the best track, the forces of General
Johnston retiring as the Federals advanced. Sherman s
army of about 50,000 men marched in three columns, of
which our corps formed the left and most northerly. Our
route was by rough side roads ; but, thereby, we escaped
the worst of the dust. We passed the plantation of Joe
142 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and Jefferson Davis, but hurried by so fast no opportunity
was given for an examination of a place where the Pres
ident of the Confederacy had plotted rebellion long before
the war began. It was said that stragglers opened Jeff s
library to free circulation, with no penalty for books not
returned. As we approached Jackson, the Confederate
cavalry was encountered, and the artillery began shelling
them, while the troops were massed in an opening to await
the result. A large house was in flames near by, and some
of the men who strolled in that direction returned with
small articles they had picked up, rather to the disgust of
others who were not yet hardened even by the scenes in
Fredericksburg to approve useless plundering. Generals
Sherman and Parke issued rigorous orders, forbidding
everything of the kind we had been accustomed to keep
even the apple trees under guard in Virginia. As the war
progressed, however, and especially under Sherman and
Sheridan and certain Confederate raiders, this leniency
towards private property was less regarded it is a diffi
cult thing to manage in civil war. The afternoon was to
us a specimen scene from Sherman s future " March to
the Sea."
On the tenth, crossing the wide ocean it was like
nothing else of cornfields west of the city, we struck the
road leading north to Canton, and at evening were in line
of battle, facing the city lying south of us, and in this
position lay upon our arms all night. The right (Ord s
Corps) and centre (Steele s Corps) of the army enclosed
the south and west sides of the town ; to the east was
Pearl River, which the cavalry was expected to watch.
General Johnston had about 30,000 men for duty.
At dawn our troops were in line, advancing, the First
Division in front with skirmishers deployed. While mov
ing up, an officer in a uniform coat, faded from blue to
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 143
bottle green, rode quietly by, attended by one or two
others. He was General Sherman even then an object
of curiosity ; but where was the immense staff, the flash
and glitter, which we were accustomed to associate with
the chief of a great army ? Evidently our present com
mander had come out to see and not to be seen.
Reaching and passing the buildings of the State Asylum
for the Insane and the grove near it which served for
our hospital and where Company K was detailed for guard
we traversed the grounds and sweet-potato patches, and
halted upon a wooded hill-side. The Second Michigan
was skirmishing in front upon a ridge facing the enemy s
intrenchments, and our duty for the day was simply to be
ready in case they should need support. The heat was
intense and, added to their previous exertions, overpowered
some dozen of the men, and so affected even the colonel
that he was obliged to retire to the hospital. During the
day an occasional chance bullet visited us, one hitting
Folsom, of Company I who was noted for catching stray
balls but they did not come often enough to prevent the
men from falling asleep. In the absence of field officers
Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, of the Fifty-First New York,
was assigned to command the regiment. He proved to
be an able officer, of pleasant manners, and so won our
regard that he never afterwards could approach the quar
ters of the Thirty-Fifth without being cheered by the men.^
Before daybreak of the twelfth, the Thirty-Fifth moved
forward noiselessly, and at sunrise relieved the Seventeenth
Michigan upon the skirmish line. The right of the regi
ment rested upon a ridge close to the Canton road; .here
Adjutant Wales, inspecting our skirmish line, discovered a
gap of about two hundred yards between our right which
was the right of the Ninth Corps and the left of the
* Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell died at Aurora, Indiana, on January 16, 1884.
144 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Western troops ; reporting the fact to Lieutenant-Colonel
Mitchell, the adjutant was ordered to report to General
Ferrero, who, finding that we had one company (K) not
on the skirmish line, ordered him to put it in the interval,
which he did by deploying it as skirmishers behind the hill
and then advancing. The Confederates made it warm
for K s men when they appeared on the crest of the hill.
General Ferrero and Captain McKibben were present at
the time. At this point the Canton road there was a
Confederate battery in a covering work made of earth and
bales of cotton ; the space between the opposing lines was
low ground cleared of trees and underbush, except what
had been left for abatis. The enemy s lines of entrench
ment retired on both sides of the battery, sweeping back
to enclose the town, and were occupied by his infantry
(Loring s division, mostly Mississippi troops), with pickets
and sharpshooters lying in the woods in their front. In
short, it was such a line as we had been making at Mill-
dale to receive them, and which they had declined to attack.
The centre and left of the regiment was stretched out
as skirmishers for some quarter of a mile to the left, all
but the right companies being in thick woods with much
underbrush. As this was our first experience in such
bushwhacking business, the day s operations were very
interesting as well as exciting. The men lay low or kept
behind trees, exchanging shots with their opponents
who lurked under cover in the same way and watched
the artillery duel. Lieutenant Benjamin, with his favorite
twenty-pounders, opened upon the enemy ; once or twice,
while getting the range, dropping a shell short into our
line, in the pleasant way the gunners had of letting the
infantry know that they had artillery support. The Con
federates who manned the cotton battery were the noisiest
lot we ever listened to,; we were so close as to easily hear
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 145
everything, their words of command, the discharges, and
the yells which they gave every time, with the compliments
they sent with the shot. The noise they made seemed to
keep up their courage, and as for their missiles they went
whirring overheard in search of the lunatics in the asylum.
General Sherman posted about one hundred guns in good
positions, which commanded the city in every part, but,
as ammunition was short, delayed opening fire until the
supply trains should come up. At night the men were
ordered to fix bayonets and receive any sallying party
with cold steel. The only event was the missing of our
lines by men returning from the rear in the darkness ;
Sergeant Luther S. Bailey, of Company G, in this way
wandered over to the Confederates and was taken pris
oner.
At daylight, July 13, we were, in turn, relieved by the
Seventh Rhode Island. In coming forward for the pur
pose, they made what seemed to us rather too much racket
with orders and tin pots rattling upon bayonets. The
enemy thought it an advance of our lines, and commenced
shooting in a brisk manner at once, keeping up a more
steady firing all day, to the damage of the Seventh, who
lost some fifteen killed and wounded. As they had started
the game we were content to let them play it out, and
retired into the reserve line to cook the longed-for coffee.
The following is a sample of the events which were
happening along the line in such work : One of our ser
geants, having in his usual systematic way done up his
morning "chores," which consisted of carefully combing
his hair, shaking and folding his rubber blanket, reading
his morning chapter in the Bible, and disposing of a bit
of hard bread and a sip of water all the time moving
about without regard to shelter, as if there was not a
sharpshooter within a thousand miles at length, ready
146 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
to be relieved, received the salutations of the sergeant of
the Seventh, who had come to take his place, and, holding
his rifle across his breast in his left hand, with his right
pointed out the localities where the Confederate pickets
were hidden ; a shot came at the instant, passed through
the body of the sergeant of the Seventh, killing him, and
smashed the lower band of the rifle of our sergeant, doing
him no harm. The marvel was that our man was not fired
at before, when he was shaking his blanket.
The enemy continued very uneasy all day; the Thirty-
Fifth lay in support as upon the first day, this time in rear
of the Sixth New Hampshire ; but the rumpus in front was
so continuous as to prevent catching much of the precious
sleep which the men now needed extremely. At one time
during the day the efforts of the enemy were so violent as
to appear like an attempt to break our front line; the
humming of the bullets was quite lively, and the regiment
formed, moved into position, and even charged forward a
little way ; but, finally, the Confederates desisted and the
lines quieted down. It is possible that the capture of
Bailey, informing them that they had Massachusetts men
in their front, had excited their spite. By the next morn
ing (fourteenth) the men were so used up, from lack of
rest and food and the heat, a day was given for a respite,
and the regiment marched to the rear of the Asylum.
Many of the boys took a plunge in a mud-hole near by,
which was more cooling than cleansing. It was so dry
and warm the men slept anywhere upon the ground with
out covering; few carried more luggage than a shelter
tent or piece of rubber blanket for protection in case of
rain. On the fifteenth, Captain Pratt and fifty men went
on a scout south-eastward towards Pearl River, in support
of the engineers, who were investigating that weak point
in our investment.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 147
At half-past one in the morning of the sixteenth we
moved up to the reserve post, relieved the Twenty-Seventh
Michigan in support of skirmishers, and lay in the road
running under the ridge the whole day, reading old papers,
etc., with an occasional chance shot or shell from the
enemy, or an order to fall in, fix bayonets, etc., to relieve
the dullness of waiting. During the day our skirmishers
were advanced and the enemy were driven into their
intrenchments, where they appeared to be in full force,
quieting the suspicions entertained by our generals that
an evacuation was in progress. At night we got about
two hours sleep, and then crept forward quietly and
relieved the Forty-Sixth New York (Germans) on the
skirmish line. The position was nearly the same as on
the twelfth, and therefore the broken Dutch instructions
of our predecessors were little needed. It was about two
o clock, quite dark, and some care was required to post
the men without noise. Having selected cover and a hard
bread to munch we waited patiently for dawn, or for some
venturesome foeman to expose himself. A bright light
appeared over the city, the bells rang for fire, and there
was a great stir; then the glow died out, and all was quiet.
The cocks began to crow and the birds commenced to
sing. There was an alarm about the centre of the regi
ment and the musketry was brisk for a few moments, but
nothing came of it.
Soon it was gray dawn, but still no shots from the
enemy ; it began to look suspicious. Lieutenant Ingell
was eager for an advance, and sent back to ask permission
to go forward. General Ferrero was on the alert, and the
order was passed along the line to send out a few men to
try and draw the enemy s fire. They went out, discharged
their pieces and returned, and no hostile shot replied. At
the battery something was seen waving like a signal, and,
148 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
as light increased, it was found to be a white flag displayed
by a colored man, who asked if he could come over, and
was answered in the affirmative. He was met half way
by Sergeant-Major Berry and an officer of the Forty-Sixth
New York, each bearing a white flag; they learned that
the city was being evacuated. The information spread
quickly; the order was given to move upon the works.
The right companies, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell,
with the flags, at once dashed up the road to the cotton
battery, sending word along the line to rally on the colors.
They found the battery almost deserted, waved the colors
in token of success, and hastened forward through the
city to the State Capitol, upon which the Confederate flag
still floated. Adjutant Wales, Sergeant-Major Berry and
Color-Sergeant A. J. White hurried in front; in haste they
climbed to the top of the stately edifice, and the rising
sun saluted the national flag, which Colonel Wild had so
lately sent from home, surmounting the stars and bars
upon the Capitol ! Adjutant Wales secured the Con
federate flag. Meanwhile the left companies advanced in
skirmish line through the woods and up to the works in
their front, also meeting no opposition from the enemy.
At their point of entrance there remained in position a
thirty-two pounder cannon, with shells beside it. They
made directly to the Capitol the Eleventh New Hamp
shire coming on in a handsome line upon the left and
found the rest of the regiment there, with our glorious
banner floating above in the morning light.
Our men had many adventures that morning in the
capture of prisoners, etc., which served to amuse the
circles about the camp-fires in after days. The regiment
collected one hundred and fifty-seven prisoners, including
one officer. The last of the retreating enemy were hurry
ing off, over Pearl River, to Eastern Mississippi. It was
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 149
a happy moment ! One may imagine the pleasurable feel
ings which comes over a poor, half-starved devil who
has laid out, in prospect, a day of hard picket duty, with,
perhaps, wounds or death to find all this passed away,
the enemy gone, and himself standing upon the earthworks
which have cost them so much labor, and the victory gained
with so little loss. The Thirty-Fifth was the first regiment
of the army to enter the city ; the first men over the Con
federate works were Sergeant Joseph E. Hood, Corporal
Newell Davis, Dennison Hooper, Jonathan Whitehouse
and one other, all belonging to our company F.
The centre and right wing of the army entered the town,
marching up the broad main avenue to the Capitol in tri
umphal columns. Our men, who were scattered about for
a few hours two companies to collect stragglers of the
enemy, and Companies D, G, H and I as safeguards upon
the property of citizens secured, most of them, at least
one good meal of broiled chicken and corn bread from
the breakfast tables of the people they were protecting.
We were soon relieved and returned over the scene of our
past labors, to the neighborhood of the Insane Asylum,
and given time to rest.
The casualties in the regiment, by the enemy, had been
Corporal Stephen R. Willis and Private Henry S. Hollis,
both of Company H, died of wounds, and eight others
wounded. The loss to the army was chiefly in General
Lauman s division, which through some misunderstanding
made an assault not intended by the general, and lost some
three hundred killed and wounded and two hundred pris
oners, with the colors of the Twenty-Eighth, Forty-First
and Fifty-Third Illinois regiments a bloody mistake !
Of our share of the glory Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell,
Adjutant Wales, Sergeant-Major Berry and Color-Sergeant
White secured the greater part, of whom the last two after-
150 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
wards lost their lives at Petersburg, Va., as did also Ser
geant Fiske, the bearer of the regimental flag. But we
must not forget that the alertness shown to improve the
moment was the result of Colonel Carruth s thorough drill
during the past months, of which he, unfortunately, did
not here gather the reward. The members of the regi
ment thought it rather a hard joke upon them when the
Northern papers gave the honors to the Thirty-Fifth Mis
souri, the editors thinking, probably, that it was not pos
sible for a Massachusetts regiment to have been present
here the armies of Grant and Sherman were well known
to be composed originally of Western troops.
The victory was, however, rather a barren one. General
Johnston retreated into a district whither it was not pos
sible for us to follow him in the heats of midsummer, and
the fruits were through the increase of demoralization in
his ranks and the clearing of the country rather than in
substantial trophies. General Sherman proceeded to make
Jackson as useless as possible to the Confederate cause,
by destroying all public property and tearing up the rails
on the roads out of the city for miles in every direction.
Our First Division devoted a couple of days to the track
north to Canton; and by watching their operations we
learned the method of making the rails worthless, by
bending them when heated in a fire made of the ties
which had supported them.
The occasion having now passed for which the Ninth
Corps had been sent south, a return to Kentucky was
directed forthwith, and we began to retrace our steps to
the banks of the Yazoo. The distance by the road is only
some fifty miles, but, owing to the burning sun, the dust, and
the haste with which the first days marches were pushed,
it proved the most exhausting journey in the experience
of the regiment. Rations were in short quantity, and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 151
were supplemented with green corn, unripe peaches and ,
apples. The day s march would begin at daylight, a halt
would be made at noon, and the march continued until
after dark. The first day (July 20) we made twenty miles,
and went into bivouac in a large field with the First Divis
ion, near Clinton. The second day we rose at half-past
three o clock, and accomplished fifteen miles with great
difficulty. It was the hottest day of the season, dust rose
in suffocating clouds so that one could hardly see his
file leader and the fever and thirst were unendurable.
Weak men, overcome, threw themselves down by the road
side in desperation ; strong men fell, and lay struggling
and frothing at the mouth ; the ambulances and wagons
were filled with the helpless. Those days cost the regi
ment more good men than a battle.
On the twenty-second but seven miles were made, most
of the day being spent in a grove beside the road to enable
the column to close up. That evening the Big Black was
recrossed by a lower bridge, and, as before, we got a thorough
sousing from one of the tropical thunder storms, which for
opening the flood-gates of heaven and displaying its artil
lery are unexcelled. A good shower bath all around did
not come amiss, but its cleansing effects were lost by the
following night s bivouac in the mud of an old cotton-field.
A short march of eight miles in the morning brought the
" never-fell-outs " into the old camp at Milldale on the hill
side. Some stragglers were stopped by guerillas and lost
their watches, but were themselves released. The rest
came along in squads, and a ragged, mud-bespattered lot
they were, but right glad to ground arms at the spring and
quench a thirst made insatiable by past deprivation. Who
ever would learn to appreciate good water should make a
a forced march in that country in July, and the thought
thereof will make him thirsty forevermore.
152 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
, Different reasons were given to account for the hurry of
the return. Some said it was done upon a wager; others
declared it was the scarcity of water, ".the distance between
drinks," and not their frequency, which induced haste ;
and another suggestion was, the wish to catch the first
boats up-river; so many troops were being shifted or
returned to their posts transportation was hard to obtain
the first to get back to Vicksburg would be the first
sent North. We did not gain anything by it, for we had
to wait for steamboats until the sixth of August, with
nothing to do but a little picket duty up the Yazoo.
The following communication was read at Milldale, rel
ative to the division of the Sixteenth Corps, which had
been serving with us :
"HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, i6TH A. C.
"JACKSON, Miss., July 20, 1863.
" MAJOR-GENERAL J. G. PARKE, Com d g gth A. C. :
"Sir, Your order transferring our division to the Fif
teenth Army Corps is just received. Permit me, in behalf
of the division I command, to tender to you our thanks
for your uniform kindness to us and for the interest you
have manifested in our welfare during our temporary
assignment to duty with your corps. I am happy to
assure you that the opportunity offered us to witness the
conduct of the Eastern troops of your command has con
vinced us that they possess valor and discipline which we
may well emulate. Longer association would, we doubt
not, have matured and strengthened the friendship so aus
piciously begun. Our best wishes for your welfare and
success will constantly attend you.
"Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
"WM. S. SMITH,
" Brig. -Gen. Com d g First Division"
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 153
Those days at Milldale were too warm for any but the
most moderate exertion ; usually, about four in the after
noon, there would be a shower of more or less violence,
everything remaining wet and steaming until morning.
The deep trench we had dug for a rifle-pit on the summit
of our hill collected such a body of water that finally it
burst forth, came rushing down the steep, and swept away
several tents, scattering the contents all abroad, to the no
small discomfort of the inmates and amusement of their
comrades.
Many of the regiment were ill, prostrated by the climate,
but those who retained health enjoyed themselves in a
quiet way. From the cane-brakes near at hand long,
thick canes were collected and dragged to camp ; these
were cut into proper lengths, wattled together and sup
ported upon crotched stakes, making an elastic bedstead.
Upon this were spread rolls of the trailing moss from the
trees, and, high above all, the shelter tent, or a fly, was
spread for a canopy, making a luxurious resting-place.
The magnolia trees were in blossom, and the mocking
bird occasionally favored us with his song. The contents
of the mails from home were devoured with interest, and
ample leisure for discussion of the news from Port Hudson,
Gettysburg, the draft with lists of exempts, for disability,
which excited no little merriment and the return home
and festive receptions of the nine months men. After
reading the latter, the boys adopted a saying, often repeated
in times of special hardship, " We ll make this all right
when we get on to Boston Common," to which the em
phatic rejoinder would be, " That s so ! "
One of the companies received a box from home, which,
intended to reach them in the past winter at Falmouth,
had lain buried in some express ofiice, and when unearthed
had followed us down here. Considerable curiosity was
154 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,*
manifested to see its contents. When opened it displayed
a lot of woollen mittens ! a splendid pair for every man in
the company, from the good ladies at home. How the boys
roared could fortune have timed a gift more inopportunely !
The insatiable ramblers, who are found in every company,
explored the neighborhood for figs and peaches, now ripe
and plentiful. Some, even, got an opportunity to visit
Vicksburg, and examine the captured works and spoils
of victory. Boats, crowded with paroled Confederates,
moved up the Yazoo, looking as gray as so many cargoes
of millers good natured, for the most part, and ready for
a stop to be put to the fighting. It appeared near the end
to us, for the Mississippi ran unfettered to the sea. Gen
eral Lee had again returned discomfitted to Virginia, and
our armies were in good condition and better spirits than
at any time since the war began. It seemed as though a
general forward movement would crush in the sides of the
sham edifice.
The worst effect of the situation with us was the malaria
and fever. Rations of quinine and whiskey were dealt out
as regularly as roll-call. Among the victims to disease at
Milldale were : Henry Kiley, of Company D ; Sergeant
Charles E. Gannett, of Company H ; Corporal John F.
Spofford, of Company F, and David Phalan, of Company
I. These found graves in the cathedral shades of the
Southern forest, where the drooping moss waves its ban
ners above, and the magnolia casts its pure petals upon
their resting places. Others: George H. Bacon, of Com
pany A ; John H. Birch and Samuel G. Wright, of Com
pany I, died on the passage up river, or at the hospitals
along the return route.
The small number of officers present was lessened by
the departure of Captains Pratt and Preston, who had
accepted promotions the former to lieutenant-colonel,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 155
the latter to major in General Wild s African Brigade
in North Carolina. With them went Corporal Francis A.
Bicknell, of Company H, William M. Titcomb, of Company
I, and Amory O. Balch, of Company K, who had received
commissions in the same corps. Doctor Snow was brigade
surgeon, and Quartermaster Upton was on the staff at
corps headquarters. Quartermaster-Sergeant Cutter was
acting regimental quartermaster. Adjutant Wales received
a commission as major of the regiment.
Before our departure General Grant issued an order
containing the following : " In returning the Ninth Corps
to its former command, it is with pleasure that the general
commanding acknowledges its valuable services in the
campaign just closed. Arriving at Vicksburg opportunely,
taking a position to hold at bay Johnston s army, then
threatening the forces investing the city, it was ready and
eager to assume the offensive at any moment. After the
fall of Vicksburg, it formed a part of the army which
drove Johnston from his position near the Big Black
River into his intrenchments at Jackson, and, after a
siege of eight days, compelled him to fly in disorder from
the Mississippi Valley. The endurance, valor and general
good conduct of the Ninth Corps are admired by all, and
its valuable cooperation in achieving the final triumph of
the campaign is gratefully acknowledged by the Army of
the Tennessee. Major-General Parke will cause the dif
ferent regiments and batteries of his command to inscribe
upon their banners and guidons Vicksburg and Jack
son. " It is not surprising that our men felt grateful to
General Grant, and rejoiced, with a sort of fellow-feeling,
in the subsequent brilliant campaigns of Grant and Sher
man and their gallant armies.
On the -sixth of August the regiment marched down to
Haines s Bluff and on board the steamboat Planet, which
156 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
was already crowded with the Eleventh New Hampshire,
Fifty-First and Seventy-Ninth New York, and a company
of the Forty-Fifth Pennsylvania. General Welsh, com
manding the First Division, and staff were also on board."
The general, who had entered the service as colonel of
the Forty-Fifth Pennsylvania, was now ill with a disease
incurred in the campaign which proved fatal.
The progress up the river was similar to the journey
down, but slower, and the depth of water less, requiring
careful pilotage. The Planet was very much inferior to
the old Imperial, and our quarters were uncomfortably
crowded. When all the deck space, outside and in, was
occupied there was hardly room for each man to lie down,
and when a man had appropriated his six feet of plank, by
depositing his pack or spreading his shelter tent over it,
he kept it all the way, rain or shine. We stopped at
Helena and, on the ninth, at Memphis to coal-up. The
very sick were sent ashore to Overtoil Hospital. The
able-bodied were given a few hours ashore to stretch their
legs ; it is sad to relate that some, having discovered
"tangle-foot" whiskey, returned to the boat with legs less
steady from the stretching. The boys brought back all the
soft bread they could carry, and the decks were stacked
with loaves. The bread alone no one thought of butter
it was so long since any had been seen was a welcome
change from hard-tack and bacon-sides. Excellent coffee
was made by turning the steam from the boiler of the
steamboat into the mixture of ground coffee and cold
water. There was a pretty little green park, or square,
in Memphis, with a monument to General Jackson, bearing
the motto, " The Federal Union it must and shall be pre
served." Some Secessionist had chiselled off the word
" Federal," with which attempted improvement the face of
Jackson did not appear well pleased.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 157
We reached Cairo at daybreak on the morning of the
twelfth, and at 6 P. M. took the box cars for Cincinnati,
passing over the former route through Centralia, Sandoval
and Vincennes. If we were a hard-looking set when we
first passed this way, we were a deal rougher returning;
but our welcome along the road was more hearty than
ever; even the coarsest food of every-clay life, offered
along the way, was luxury after such a campaign. Arrived
at Cincinnati, August 14, the boys said they felt as if they
had got home. The regiment created a sensation in the
streets by displaying the Confederate flag taken at Jackson,
upside clown on our flag-staff, and the jest was received
with unbounded applause. With the victories, East and
West, the people were feeling quite happy.
We crossed immediately to Covington, and went into
camp near the One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Ohio, a
six months regiment, with whom we at once fraternized.
From them the boys caught several Western phrases, which
were constantly repeated, and, no doubt, they did the same
with our odd sayings. They were new troops, and were
astonished to see the dispatch with which our men levelled
a board fence, cut stakes and poles, pitched their shelters,
made fires, and had coffee boiling and all comfortable in
a few moments. Pedlers flocked about camp, but as our
pocket-books were empty their show of cakes and fruits
was more tantalizing than gratifying. To save fences, the
quartermaster drew wood for fuel from Government for
the first time sipce leaving Massachusetts.
On the fifteenth a detail of men was sent to assist the
officers of a battery, who, by the disabling of their men,
had been left helpless with their guns, caissons and horses
upon the Cincinnati side. Florian Matz, of Company I,
a veteran hostler, proved himself a useful man in this
movement.
158 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Our stay near the great city was brief. A guard was
required to accompany a train of two hundred wagons
to Hickman s Bridge, and the general, to our vexation,
selected the Thirty-Fifth for the duty. All who were
unable to make a quick march some seven of the officers
and eighty of the men were sent to Camp Dennison, or
forwarded by rail to Nicholasville. When the "invincibles"
were drawn up in line they were found to number but six
officers and two hundred and twenty-five men truly, the
climate of Mississippi had done its work thoroughly! The
six officers were Adjutant Wales, Assistant Surgeon Roche,
Lieutenants Ingell, Pope, Tobey and Meserve. Captain
Sims, of the Fifty-First New York, was detailed to com
mand, but relieved next day by Captain Stuart, whose style
of. discipline was not favorably received by the boys.
The first day s march (August 18) was to Snow s Pond,
fifteen miles, where we met the train ; after that, the men
were given the privilege of riding or walking as they chose,
and they took turns at each the army wagon has no
springs, and riding in it is little better than walking.
Many took a lesson in mule driving, and improved their
acquaintance with that near relation of ours. The day s
march on the nineteenth was but eleven miles to Crit-
tenden, there being no watering-place for some distance
ahead. The afternoon was spent in boiling corn and
bacon, and devouring as much as each man could stuff;
as good an antidote for malaria, perhaps, as the doctor
could furnish. The location of camp was upon the edge
of a large cornfield, and the owner seemed to have no
objection to contributing a part of his crop to the Union
cause.
On the twentieth, thirty-one miles to Big Eagle Creek.
On the twenty-first Captain Stuart, Sergeant Hodgdon
and a detail of men captured two supposed guerillas, of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 159
whose hiding place they were informed by a colored man ;
these prisoners were carried to Georgetown and delivered
to the authorities ; we marched eleven miles to Dry Run,
and camped on the Osborne estate, Scott County ; one
of the drivers insulted Captain Stuart, who fired his pistol
over the man s head, and tied him up under guard until
morning. On the twenty-second we went twenty-one miles
out of our way, through Georgetown and its rural surround
ings,, to Paris, to load the wagons with forage. Sunday,
the twenty-third, we rested ; the day was saddened by the
funeral of John Davis, of Company H, who died the night
before, and was buried at Paris. The men will always
remember the kindness of Dr. Griffith, of Paris, who
replenished their stock of tobacco on credit, trusting to
obtain payment at our future camp, when the regiment
should be paid off.
On the twenty-fourth we made twenty miles to the ponds
beyond Lexington, Adjutant Wales stopping in the city to
get mustered in as major. On the twenty-fifth the train
passed through Nicholasville, and the regiment parted
from it, three miles beyond, at a place afterwards called
Camp Parke, where Lieutenant Mirick, acting assistant
quartermaster on General Fry s staff, located our camp
ground. It was a pleasant thing to again pitch our shelter
tents in correct regimental form in the groves of Old Ken
tucky. At evening our new major Wales came into
camp ; there was a cry, " Fall in, Thirty-Fifth ! " The
men rallied and gave him three hearty cheers. Some
unfortunates were almost immediately detailed to return
to Covington, under Captain Rapelji, for another train.
We were in danger of earning more honors as mule drivers
than we coveted.
The Thirty-Fifth was the first of our brigade to arrive
upon the ground. The First Division was in camp south
l6o HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
of us, and was suffering extremely from the debilitating
results of the Southern campaign ; more even than our
division. Our trip hither with the train and constant
activity had set up our regiment well, and the arrival of
the paymaster, Major Walker, with greenbacks and the
quartermaster s supplies of new clothing, changed the
appearance of things wonderfully in a few days. The
rust of the Mississippi rains was scraped from the gun
barrels and sword-scabbards, blacking brushes made their
appearance, belt-plates got a polishing, and when inspection
day came around on the thirtieth our major complimented
the men for their trim appearance ; and, if he approved,
the regiment must have deserved the commendation.
Lieutenant Meserve was adjutant, and Lieutenants
Mirick and Tobey, successively, quartermaster in this
camp. Colonel Carruth visited camp, but was too ill
to assume command ; and, indeed, he never seemed quite
to recover his old energetic ways after the Vicksburg trip.
His health, thereafter, was so broken that the hardships of
subsequent campaigns were too great, generally, for him
to endure. An elegant sword and belt, which had been
subscribed for by the non-commissioned officers at the
time of his promotion to the colonelcy, was exhibited and
presented to him at Camp Parke. Lieutenant Colonel
King called at our camp, and commanded at dress-parade
on the evening of September i ; he was on detached ser
vice at Lexington at this time. As for the "invincibles,"
having now only the lightest camp duty to attend while
the sick and convalescent were recuperating, they led a
merry life, as who would not in such a country with money
in pocket. Big dinners of pork and cabbage or boiled
fowl, or even citizen hospitality, were enjoyed with keen
appetites, well knowing that the time for such things would
soon end if past experience was to be consulted.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. l6l
Men who had been left in Kentucky sick or detailed
now rejoined, full of accounts of John Morgan s raid north
of the Ohio, between July 8 and July 27 the days of our
trip out to Jackson and back. Morgan came to heavy
grief, and was captured with most of his men after a
spirited chase by our cavalry, which, under able leaders,
was now picking up in a way which soon made it more
than a match for the Confederate horse. We learned,
also, that General Burnside, finding the summer slipping
away and our return to duty with him delayed, had started
for East Tennessee, with cavalry and mounted infantry
and the Twenty-Third Corps, we to follow as soon as men
enough recovered to make it worth while.
Looking back over the campaign in Mississippi, it forms,
to those who were not attacked by the diseases of the cli
mate, one of the pleasantest chapters of the war. It was
laid among scenes where everything was novel and inter
esting; and, while upon it, we enjoyed a share of the
success which accompanied Grant and Sherman from that
time forward. We had a taste of the wine of victory, and
began to see the dawning of a successful end of the war,
of which, in the neighborhood of the political strife and
inefficiency about Washington, it was hard to continue
hopeful.
CHAPTER VIII.
WINTER IN EAST TENNESSEE CAMPBELL S STATION AND
KNOXVILLE, 1863-64.
HE who breathes the air of mountains imbibes the
love of freedom with every inspiration. The people
inhabiting the hills and valleys of East Tennessee had
been distinguished from the beginning of the war for their
intelligent understanding of its causes and for their strong
attachment to the Union. For two long years they had
been subject to the odious rule of the Confederacy, and,
though constantly and cruelly harried, their young men
conscripted or driven across the mountains, their old men
imprisoned and shamefully abused, they had never given
up hope. The persecutions of the Scottish Covenanters
were not more severe nor more full of heart-rending inci
dent. President Lincoln had long been solicitous for their
relief. It was the good fortune of General Burnside and
the Twenty-Third Corps to carry the old flag back to East
Tennessee, there to remain, and it was our happiness to
assist in making its presence there permanently secure.
The general left Crab Orchard August 21 a body of
cavalry only making a feint upon the Cumberland Gap
road while the main army, largely mounted infantry,
bore away south through Montgomery, Tenn., passing
into the valley of East Tennessee by way of Kingston,
and so upon Knoxville from the south, September 3, and
taking Cumberland Gap in rear ; whereupon General Fra-
zier, the Confederate commander, surrendered with about
163 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
twenty-five hundred men and eleven pieces of artillery.
Upon the appearance of the Union army near Kingston
the enemy s general Buckner had fled, burning the
high railroad bridge at Loudon.
While Burnside was making this advance, General Rose-
crans occupied Chattanooga, September 9, and was con
centrating in the valley of Chickamauga Creek, in front of
General Bragg. The Confederate authorities had sent
General Longstreet s Corps south to assist Bragg, fore
seeing that if Rosecrans were thoroughly beaten Burnside
must fly also. General Halleck, at Washington, became
frightened at Rosecrans s danger, and telegraphed to Burn-
side, September 13 received by him on the sixteenth
" It is important that all the available force of your com
mand be pushed forward into East Tennessee. So long
as you hold Tennessee, Kentucky is perfectly safe," etc.,
and ordering him to connect with Rosecrans. General
Burnsicle s troops were over one hundred and twenty- five
miles from Chattanooga, but were started down the valley
on the eighteenth. On the nineteenth and twentieth, how
ever, Rosecrans was attacked, the sanguinary battle of
Chickamauga was fought, and but for General Thomas the
Union army would have been completely routed ; as it
was, Chattanooga was held, though almost in a state of
siege.
All these movements were of interest to us, because
they decided our whereabouts for the winter ; had Chicka
mauga been a Union victory we, probably, should have
lain in winter quarters in Kentucky. The First Division
started for Tennessee about the tenth of September. On
the seventh we, also, had orders; but General Grifrin, com
manding the division, protested that only two thousand
men were yet fit for duty in the whole Second Division,
and the order was countermanded. The regiments were
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 164
assigned to different posts in Kentucky : the Fifty-First
New York at Camp Nelson, the Fifty-First Pennsylvania
and Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts to Crab Orchard, and the
Eleventh New Hampshire to London on the road to Cum
berland Gap. The Twenty-First Massachusetts, not having
been in the Mississippi campaign, left Crab Orchard for
Tennessee about the sixteenth, with the Forty-Eighth Penn
sylvania and Second Maryland as the First Brigade of our
division.
We left Camp Parke and marched for our post at Crab
Orchard on the ninth of September, Captain Gibson in
command Major Wales and Quartermaster Upton being
away on leave. The men, for thirty cents each, hired a
farmer to carry their knapsacks the first afternoon, eleven
miles, to Camp Dick Robinson, passing Camp Nelson and
the picturesque scenery about Hickman s Bridge and the
Kentucky River for the third time. The major overtook
the icgiment next day on the road to Lancaster, where we
camped on a hill-side beyond the town, after a dusty march.
On the eleventh we again reached the Springs beyond Crab
Orchard. This town is a noted spa or mineral springs,
much resorted to by invalids and pleasure seekers in peace
times ; while we were there we had the use of the waters
pretty much to ourselves.
Here a lot of promotions was announced : First Lieu
tenants Lyon, Hudson, Mirick and Stickney became cap
tains ; Second Lieutenants Meserve, Tobey, Washburn and
Gottlieb became first lieutenants the first named lieu
tenant acting as adjutant, the second as quartermaster.
Also Sergeant-Major Berry and Sergeant Creasey became
first lieutenants; Austin J. White became sergeant-major.
At this time Doctor Snow was surgeon and Upton quarter
master of the Second Division.
On the fifteenth of September we were again under
165 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
orders for Knoxville, again countermanded, and, instead,
we moved to the elevated fields of the Fair Grounds, east
of the town, at first camping near the covered arena, after
wards within the circle of the race-track, upon broad, level
grounds the track, just one mile around, tempting the
men to all kinds of trials of speed. This was called Camp
Carruth. After orders had been thus twice countermanded
the men made up their minds that Crab Orchard would be
our winter quarters, and began to build huts, for which the
ruinous fencing of the enclosure furnished inviting mate
rials. Some were doubters, and shook their heads at the
notion of winter quarters ; they pegged their tents close
to the ground to keep out the winds stole what hay
and straw they could for warm bedding, and kept their
knapsacks always packed. During the whole winter a
great source of amusement was the sanguine hopes of the
hut-builders, always disappointed, and the cynical com
ments of the doubters. The former, sometimes, out of
mere bravado, kept on logging-up, when the advance troops
were already falling back, saying, no one knows how long
we shall stop here, and plain signs are not to be trusted
in our case at least.
Captain Gibson was appointed provost-marshal in the
town, and Lieutenant Berry had command of the provost-
guard. On the eighteenth the twenty-five hundred pris
oners from the Gap passed through town on their way
North ; they were broad-faced, sturdy-looking fellows. In
the town there was some waving of handkerchiefs from
upper windows, and the prisoners cheered ; but there was
no violent demonstration of feeling. They were in charge
of the Eighty-Sixth and, our old friends, the One Hundred
and Twenty-Ninth Ohio. We had seen so many gray-coats
under guard during the summer, a few thousand more
seemed a matter of course the Confederacy was caving
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 1 66
in rapidly ; then came the news of Chickamauga, exagger
ated into a crushing disaster, and we felt blue ; the doubt
ers chuckled, they foresaw now that the comfortable huts
would soon be vacated.
While at this camp Adjutant Meserve had a narrow
escape while racing with Major Wales and Assistant
Surgeon Roche, his horse becoming unmanageable at the
sight of a dead mule, and throwing the rider, who was
dragged some distance, fortunately without other injuries
than severe bruises. Naaman Torrey, of Company H,
died at the post hospital, and his remains were buried in
the village cemetery, with military honors, the whole regi
ment attending ; he will be better remembered as " Father
Torrey."
The Fifty-First Pennsylvania and Thirty-Fifth received
the anticipated order for " over the mountains " on the
thirtieth of September, eight days rations to be carried
by each man in knapsack and haversack, which certainly
looked like preparation for a hungry land. Captain Gibson
was ill in town, and, consequently, had to be left behind ;
Captain Blanchard, next senior, now recommissioned, joined
the regiment and took command. The number of guns,
including provost-guard, was only about one hundred and
fifty at the start, so many men were sick or detailed.
The march over the mountains was worth making for
the pleasure of it alone. The road led through a wild
country abounding in natural beauties and wonders. The
month was October, the harvest season of the year, and,
like our tramp along the Blue Ridge the autumn previous,
the route was among hills glowing with resplendent foliage
or empurpled by distance. The way was enlivened by the
drum and fife, or the bugle echoing from the sides of the
hills, calling the halt, or the more unwelcome signal for
forward movement. Just before the start there was an
167 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
alarm in camp, while the regiment was upon fatigue duty,
mending the road towards Mount Vernon, and Companies
G and I were hurried back to quarters ; but the expected
scrimmage with guerillas did not come off.
The column left Crab Orchard on the second of October,
passing over what appeared at that time the roughest road
we had ever seen. One of our wagons and one of the
Fifty-First got capsized during the afternoon ; others stuck
in the mud; the work of the teamsters was harder than
that of the foot soldiers ; the march was twelve miles
nearly to Mount Vernon. The second day we made but
five miles, passing through the town and over a moun
tain, and going into camp near a big spring a full stream,
or brook, issuing from the mouth of a cavern in the hill
side. Many of the men went into this cave without finding
the end; but, being without guides or proper lanterns, it
was rather a hazardous exploration. The following day
(the fourth) was a hard one for the teams, climbing over
Wild Cat Mountain the scene of several conflicts early
in the war, the lines of earthworks still visible. For the
sake of the draught animals we went into camp early, at
Little Rockcastle River, and the men spent the afternoon
hunting for pigs and persimmons. On the fifth there was
continued heavy work for teams, at one place a steep ascent
for a mile required the use of ten mules to haul each wagon.
The boys, however, felt frisky, and the mountain air was
so bracing that, a mile or so before getting into camp at
Pitman s, near London, they must needs have a race with
the artillery. The men set up a shout, the drivers whipped
up their horses, and away we went on the run, " Hi ! hi!
hi!" through the pitch-pine woods and over the sandy
road into the camp of the Eleventh New Hampshire, in a
way to scare off whatever of malaria still hung about us
that was a jolly race ! The men of the Eleventh were glad
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 1 68
to see the old brigade in such high spirits. We passed on
the road seventy-five Confederate prisoners for Camp Nel
son, under guards from the Eighty-Sixth Ohio.
The regiments had a rest of several days here while
waiting for batteries to come up; they were Benjamin s,
"E," Second United States Artillery, and Edwards, "L"
and "M," Third United States Artillery both old friends.
Major Wales and Lieutenant Washburn joined, the latter
being appointed permanent adjutant, a position which he
held to the end of our service, though absent on staff duty
or otherwise most of the time ; while he was away Lieu
tenant Meserve acted as adjutant until promoted captain.
Rations were all consumed, and the men were glad to fill
up their haversacks from the accumulated surplus of the
Eleventh, who had been here for some time. The Eleventh
was left at London to follow on with a supply train ; the
Fifty-First and Thirty-Fifth proceeded on the tenth to
Laurel Creek. This was the day of the battle of the First
Division and the Twenty-First Massachusetts of our old
brigade at Blue Springs near Bull Gap, of which there was
a good deal said when we first reached Knoxville. The
day following the roads improved, and we made twenty
miles, to beyond Barboursville on the Cumberland River,
here a wide, clear stream, with banks overhung with
foliage.
On the twelfth of October our march was sixteen miles
to the ford of the Cumberland, situated in the midst of
scenery worthy of an artist s pencil. The beautiful river,
enclosed by wooded mountains, affected the senses with an
indescribable charm. But the interest with us was more
practical ; there was, of course, no bridge, and this was
our first experience in fording a wide river ; the question
was, whether it would be better to try to cross barefoot
and bruise still more, upon the rough stones, the feet
169 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
already raw with marching, or wear shoes and have wet feet
for twenty-four hours afterwards. It is a sufficient answer
to say that, whichever method was tried, the experimenter
wished afterwards that he had adopted the other. A regi
ment fording a river offers a picturesque foreground to fine
scenery, and if any of the men slip into holes the picture
becomes very lively. We camped beyond the ford, and
had an opportunity to dry clothes. Mountaineers came
in with chestnuts, and when we complained of the high
price declared the nuts worth it, for they had to cut down
the trees to pick them, whereupon we asked, with inquiring
minds, if that was the usual way of gathering fruit in that
country. The next day s tramp over Three Log Mountains
will be remembered for the down-pour of rain and the slip
pery roads ; the wet clay offered so little foothold that the
ordinary exertion of marching was doubled. That night
we pitched tents in a cold rain turning to snow, but within
sight of Cumberland Gap.
On the fourteenth of October the long train of infantry,
artillery and trains climbed the winding ascent to the
famous Gap a depression in the mountain range through
which the road found a passage. These Cumberland
Mountains are a continuation of the Virginia mountain
system, but on a grander scale, and the country about
them is wilder and more difficult by far. The summits
above the pass were fortified, and appeared impregnable
to the assaults of every foe but starvation. To give eclat
to our passage Parson Brownlow appeared, on the way to
his home in Knoxville, in company with his daughter, in a
carriage the only vehicle of the kind we met on the
journey. He was an old hero in our eyes, and when he
got out and walked up through the pass the regiment
cheered, while the band played patriotic tunes it was a
triumphal welcome home to the redoubtable patriot. The
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 1 70
boundary lines of three States Kentucky, Tennessee and
Virginia meet in the centre of an immense marking-
stone, upon which many of the boys took a seat, to be
able to say that they had been in all three States at once.
The view from the top was over an endless sea of billowy,
wooded hills, with few signs of human culture or habi
tation.
Coming down the south of the Gap we crossed Powell s
River a fine stream, tributary to the Clinch River upon
a bridge, just beyond which one of the men, stepping into
a log-house for a coal of fire to light his pipe, came flying
out, pursued by an old hag, in appearance a very witch of
the mountains probably an insane person her long
white hair streaming behind her. At Tazewell we halted
over for a day, the road being very difficult for the teams.
Apples and fresh pork were abundant ; the camp was
adorned with piles of the rosy fruit, which the boys
brought in for the pleasure of looking at them, for they
could not all be eaten nor carried along. The branches
of the trees about the camp-fires were hung with quarters
of unlucky pigs, who had died of blue-pill or the prod of
a soldier s bayonet, and were now seasoning for a savory
roast. Those of the regiment who were disposed towards
mild drinks made the acquaintance of the mellifluous sor
ghum molasses, while those who claimed to be iron-clads
tested their capacity with raw apple-jack just from the
still.
On the sixteenth, in a heavy rain,, we forded Clinch
River, a branch of the Tennessee, the water clear and
ice-cold, knee-deep. It was a pretty scene to watch
Captain Ingell leading across the wide stream, the rain
drops dripping from his hat and rubber coat, the water
gurgling around his massive legs, his steaming puffs for
breath, and pointed remarks upon the situation adding
171 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
force to the whole. On the further bank the regiments
went into camp upon the hills in an upland cotton-field
the cotton still hanging in the bolls where blazing fires
restored the circulation to benumbed members. Next day
we plodded along with difficulty over a rough road, where
the brook, which usually accompanies the mountain roads,
was not satisfied with either side of the valley, but crossed
and recrossed the track continually, much to the discom
fiture of shoe leather and army socks, and so on through
Maynardsville, where the Union flag was flying. Passing
the village of Gravestown on the eighteenth, over a road
deep with soft, sticky mud, the rail fences before the houses
were gay with little red flags signs of small-pox within;
their hospitalities were, therefore, not sought, in spite of
the drizzle and dreariness without doors. At night we
camped within four miles of Knoxville and received letters
from home, which had preceded us by another route. On
the following morning (October 19) we reached the suburbs
of the city, and pitched our shelter tents south of Second
Creek, near the engine-house of the East Tennessee and
Kentucky Railroad, upon a field afterwards occupied by
the Confederate picket line.
The inarch of one hundred and forty miles over such
rough roads had given the boys troublesome appetites,
which they were destined to keep keen during the winter.
Captain Rapelji, brigade quartermaster, happening to pass
the camp, was saluted with such loud cries of "Hard-tack!
hard-tack ! " that he took offence and complained of the
insult, whereupon the major ordered a moonlight inspec
tion, not of stomachs, but of equipments, as a punishment
the preparation for inspection after a long march, pol
ishing guns, brasses, etc., is no light matter and he also
improved the occasion to censure the shouters for their
bad manners. On the twentieth, the cavalry of the depart-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 172
ment, both up and down the valley, met with such severe
handling that it was drawn nearer to Knoxville; so we
appeared to have arrived just in time for the fun ahead.
During the following two days an opportunity was given
to most of the men to visit the town, which they found
much better built and more city-like than they anticipated.
There were large railroad stations and freight houses,
hotels, markets, a university, asylum for deaf and dumb,
numerous churches and schools, and street lamps for gas ;
but the gasworks had been destroyed by the Confederates.
The town was not fortified, but situated upon hills com
manding the surrounding country to the north, and pro
tected by the Holston River and high hills on the south.
The higher powers seemed to be uncertain of the future,
to judge from their conduct towards us, for we got daily
orders to pack up and be ready to march, countermanded
again as often, until the repetition became vexatious.
Finally, at dark on the twenty-second, the regiment started
for the city, only to enjoy a comfortable sleep upon the
platform of the freight-house at the station. It rained in
the morning, and the troops crowded into the station,
where fires were built between the railroad ties, and the
men gathered about with steaming overcoats. Mingled
with us was a lot of East Tennessee cavalry, wild-looking
fellows, like Texas Rangers ; they had their saddles with
them and were waiting for remounts. A cooky-shop stood
open for trade in gingerbread and apples ; the first and last
time we saw a huckster s stand in that country. The weather
was dull and autumnal, and with the rather dilapidated
surroundings of the place oppressed the spirits. Chicka-
mauga still weighed upon the mind ; the rails we were
sitting upon ran directly to it, distant some one hundred
miles south-west, down the great valley of East Tennessee.
In the afternoon the box cars we were waiting for arrived,
173 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and in a pouring rain we ran slowly down to the Tennessee
River, opposite Loudon, some thirty miles, getting out at
the abutment of the high railroad bridge, the stone piers
still standing but superstructure destroyed as above men
tioned. It was dark, and scrambling through the mud to
the hills south of the railroad we received the usual sar
castic order, "Make yourselves comfortable for the night!"
and with fence-rails soaking wet, and with difficulty ignited,
we boiled the indispensable coffee, rigged some sort of
shelter, and sank to sleep in soft beds of mire.
After one day of full rations a roll of soft bread the
next day but half the quantity appeared, and we were
informed that in future half-rations only would be issued,
which meant an ever-present craving sense of hunger for
the rest of the campaign. As there was no occupation for
a day or two, and as it was of no use sitting about the fires
guessing what movements were afoot, the men started out
hunting for "belly-timber." One device was to make bread
of the shorts, bran or middlings, which could be obtained
in Loudon, although flour or bread could not. As to the
success of this, we advise any one who wishes to enjoy a
stunning headache to try bread made of pure shorts. The
cavalry, supported by infantry, were somewhere on the
south side of the Tennessee, towards a place called Phil
adelphia, and rumors of the defeat of Wolford s Cavalry,
alluded to above, found their way into camp. Distant
cannonading could be heard, but what it meant was none
of our business, at least so we were told ; it was slow work
for inquisitive Yankees to learn to leave to the general the
planning and management of the campaign. So complex
are extended field movements and so narrow the field of
view of each soldier, that what seems to him confusion
may be well-arranged combination, apparent defeat may
be success, or vice versa; consequently, the old soldier
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 174
learns to distrust first appearances and wait for orders,-
which constitutes his "steadiness" as compared with the
new recruit.
However, on the twenty-eighth the mystery was solved,
the infantry followed by the cavalry came back to the
north bank of the river, and four regiments, including
ours, were detailed to take up the pontoon-bridge, which
was a home-made affair of box boats. The further end of
the bridge was cut loose, and the boats were swung to our
side, dragged out by mules, and, with much heavy lifting,
the materials were loaded upon flat cars and sent towards
Knoxville. A locomotive and cars had been taken, piece
meal, to the south bank, and put together in running order;
there was not time to bring them back, and they must be
destroyed. A full head of steam was gathered in the
engine, the cars hitched on, and started for the brink of
the abyss where the bridge had been the driver jumping
off and leaving the train to its fate. We were busy upon
the river bank when the train was heard approaching the
abutment high above us ; all looked up and watched for
the catastrophe. On came the engine, roaring like a wild
bull ; it reached the abutment, leaped into the air, and
with its cars plunged headlong into the river; the agitated
waters foamed and raged, then flowed on calmly as before.
It seemed as if we had witnessed the drowning of a friend.
Soon after, a few mounted men in gray appeared upon
the southern bank, bearing a flag of truce. Captain
McKibben with some companions crossed in a boat and
returned with despatches for General Burnside, of which
we did not learn the contents ; but it was apparent that
the Confederates were gradually narrowing our field of
operations. They were, however, in no immediate haste
to cross the Tennessee, for next day we retired quietly
about six miles to the plain about Lenoir s Station, and
175 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
went into camp, with the information that we might re
main there all winter, or not ; it would depend upon the
movements of the enemy. A large oven for a government
bakery was commenced at the station, an undertaking
which implied permanency, and the hut-builders were en
couraged to commence again, drawing lumber from a ruined
mill on the Kingston road. General Burnside stopped a
few clays in camp, and all things quieting down he re
turned to Knoxville. The little Army of the Ohio for
that was the proper name of Burnside s command was
posted with White s division of the Twenty-Third Corps at
London, our two divisions of the Ninth Corps at Lenoir s,
and the cavalry at the outposts.
The situation of Lenoir s was excellent for cantonments.
Wooded hills surrounded the level ground through which
the railroad ran. To the south was the clear-flowing
Holston, at this point joined by the Little Tennessee,
coming in from its sources among the North Carolina
mountains to form the Tennessee ; the three streams
dividing the country into three great triangles, from either
of which, by our pontoon-bridge, we could draw forage.
There was direct railroad connection with Knoxville, and,
by way of Kingston, communication was open with the
main army at Chattanooga, now under General Grant ;
for he, also, had come eastward from the Mississippi to
this central point of interest for the winter, and had super
seded General Rosecrans. The open ground between our
color-line and the railroad afforded a good field for evolu
tions, and morning and afternoon the Thirty-Fifth was busy
practising the skirmish drill under the direction of Major
Wales. The men soon became proficient in the movements
in obedience to the notes of Gardner s bugle : " Forward,"
" In retreat," " Lie clown," " Rise up," " Commence firing,"
V Cease firing," "Rally," etc. A foraging expedition
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 176
under command of Lieutenant Meserve, to the country
towards Kingston, was very successful.
Lieutenant Dunbar, Commissary-Sergeant Plummer and
a squad of convalescents joined on the fourth and fifth of
November, and on the ninth Captains Lyon and Hudson
returned ; the former took command of Company D, the
latter of Company H. Surgeon Snow left for Crab
Orchard, and Lieutenant Creasey was detailed on the staff
of Colonel Leasure, to collect men of the Ninth Corps in
Kentucky and Ohio.
Several alarms were occasioned by wandering Confed
erate scouts feeling the pickets. A light pontoon-bridge
was thrown across the Holston, south of our camp, to make
a connection with our mounted infantry on the Little Ten
nessee. The Thirty-Fifth spent the night of the eleventh on
the south bank on picket in the woods, without disturbance ;
several pigs met with a, to us, timely end, and persimmon
trees got a good whacking.
The Confederates, having failed in their efforts to pre
vent Grant and Thomas from opening railroad connection
between Chattanooga and the base of supplies at Nashville,
now turned their attention to freeing their own direct
communication with Lee s army and Virginia, which our
position severed. General Longstreet was given, by re
port, some 20,000 men for this purpose, General Bragg
thinking himself able to hold Grant in Chattanooga with
the remainder of his divided army ; an error in judgment
for which he had to pay dearly soon after at Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
At three o clock in the morning of the fourteenth of No
vember, in the darkness and rain, the regiment was awakened
and ordered to " turn out without noise and stack arms on
the color line." The builders had their huts and mud
chimneys almost done and were anxious to learn "what
177 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
was up," but the cynics were ready with their " I told you
so." After waiting some two hours, further orders came :
"Pack up and be ready to strike tents at a moment s
warning," the tents were left till the last moment on
account of the severity of the weather. Soon after, " Strike
tents ! " and when this was done, down came the rain in a
deluge. At daylight the trains began moving towards
Knoxville, and things began to look decidedly lively on
the road northward as the forenoon wore away wagons,
ambulances, artillery and troops, all on the move in the
road and alongside. No one appeared to be going towards
Loudon. This was the scene before us as we sat upon
our knapsacks among the ruins of camp, reading Parson
Brownlow s " Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator," first
copies of which had just been issued arid were selling at
fifteen cents each. During the forenoon our pontoon-
bridge over the Holston, in rear of camp, was destroyed.
About two in the afternoon a locomotive came down
from Knoxville and stopped in front of us, a few rods dis
tant. From the tender jumped Generals Burnside and
Ferrero, and in less than fifteen minutes affairs took a
different turn ; the fighting portion of the army was faced
about, and soon the First Division, Ferrero s, was on the
way south towards Loudon. All this time the wildest
rumors were circulated, but no sounds of fighting reached
us until near sunset, when a few cannon-shots were heard.
It was announced that Longstreet was crossing the Tennes
see by a pontoon-bridge at Hough s Ferry below Loudon,
opposite General Julius White s division of the Twenty-
Third Corps, to whose aid our First Division had marched.
It was obvious to us that the enemy must be delayed as much
as possible to enable our trains to reach Knoxville and the
city to be fortified. He had about three men to our one,
so hindering rather than fighting him was our only prudent
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 178
course. It has since been stated that, by an understand
ing between Generals Grant and Burnside, our little army
was fronted close to Longstreet to bait him on and draw
him so far from Bragg that a return would be impracticable,
when the grand battles about Chattanooga should be de
livered. Finally the day passed, and we were still on the
same ground ; but, as most of the tents were down, there
was little chance for rest, even if the order for movement
at a moment s notice had not been continued. Some,
nevertheless, with the indifference to the future acquired
by experience, wisely improved the present by getting
three or four hours sleep.
We were routed out again at half-past one in the morn
ing of the fifteenth rather early for Sunday morning
and this time there was no delay ; in twenty minutes we
were upon the road south, towards Loudon, and a most
disagreeable march it proved. To say that the road was
rough and muddy that night is but a feeble description of
it ; men stumbled upon each other in the darkness, rapping
their file leaders over the head with their muskets, or
slipped and sat in the mud, then started on again, guided
by the exclamations of comrades rather than by sight, and
in the morning found themselves dabbled with mud to the
waist. At daylight we reached the high land about half a
mile below Loudon, and got a chance to cook coffee and
dry our clothes a little.
With the dawn the clouds cleared away for awhile and
it was colder, then November s gray sky settled down
over the scene. On first reaching the Tennessee no
enemy appeared ; about ten o clock the Twenty-First Mas
sachusetts was deployed as skirmishers and moved down
the river until they struck the foe, who, however, did not
attack us, being intent upon his crossing and seeking to
pass by our right-flank to get the start in a race for Knox-
179 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
ville, which he knew to lie open to him. General Burnside
had about 6,000 men in hand ; General Potter command
ing the Ninth Corps, Colonel Sigfried our division, and
Colonel Schall our brigade. The Thirty-Fifth was drawn
back out of sight, and lay in a deep wooded valley, near
some deserted log huts of the Twenty-Third Corps, listen
ing to the light skirmishing in front ; our men poking over
the cast-off shoes about the premises, seeking to supply
deficiences in shoe-leather.
Meanwhile General White s Division of the Twenty-
Third Corps and our First Division had retired to Lenoir s,
leaving our division, in its turn, to cover the rear. About
the middle of the afternoon the Twenty-First came off the
skirmish line, column was formed,, and we started for Le
noir s at quick time with flankers out on the left. Reach
ing the neighborhood of the station at dusk, our regiment
was deployed as skirmishers, faced to the rear, across the
road we had just come over and the railroad. The position
was taken by order communicated through Captain Davis
of the brigade staff, and, as it was known that the enemy
was at least abreast of us on the road from Kingston to
Lenoir s, the arrangement was looked upon as a sacrifice
of the Thirty-Fifth. It was remarked to the Captain :
"This means that this regiment is to be killed, wounded
or taken prisoners ; " he replied, " It looks very much like
it, good bye," and rode off.
As the men took positions behind rocks and trees, peer
ing into the darkness, the last of the rear guard (cavalry)
rode past, and silence fell on all ; the chirp of an insect
sounded like the rebel yell, and every foot-fall was the
tramp of the advancing enemy. It was uncertain from
which direction the gray-coats might first appear, front,
flank or rear. Color-Sergeant Patch was posted down the
road with the colors, with instructions what to do with the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. l8o
flags should the regiment be overpowered. Such moments
are trying at the time, but, if the result be happy, are not
unpleasant to remember. But a sacrifice was not required ;
in a little while a galloping horse was heard in rear and
another staff officer appeared with orders to withdraw the
regiment, and, rallying the battalion, we marched in quick
time to Lenoir s and the open field in front of our old
camp ground. Here all the huts were burning with some
much-needed clothing and shoes, which there had been no
time to distribute in due form. A roll of bread two
day s half rations was given to each man for food until
Knoxville should be reached, twenty-four miles away.
Colonel Hartranft met us here and took command of our
division. The First Division and White s Division lay in
the woods on the north-west, side of the station, facing the
enemy on the Kingston road, and as we passed slowly
across the plain now ruddy with the flames, their skir
mishers kept up a pretty steady volley of musketry, sug
gestive of our fate had the regiment been left upon the
Loudon road. The night scene was thrillingly picturesque.
While Ferrero s and White s divisions thus maintained
their position at Lenoir s, again in their turn covering the
rear, Hartranft s Division, with mounted infantry, was sent
forward to occupy the junction of our road with another
road from Kingston coming in from the south-west some
eight miles nearer Knoxville at Campbell s Station, the
next point for which it was supposed Longstreet would
strike. The Thirty-Fifth was detailed to help forward
Benjamin s battery. The condition of the roads for the
movement of trains and artillery was execrable ; where the
wheels did not sink in the mud they were blocked by
rough rocks ; the horses had been overworked for the past
twenty-four hours and were now so balky as to be almost
useless for hauling ; so the column hitched along out of
l8l HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Lenoir s at a snail s pace, the men not knowing at first the
cause of the delay. At last, patience became exhausted,
ranks were broken and the men caught hold of the muddy
rims of wheels or parts of gun-carriages, wherever a hand
could seize them, and pushed and shoved to assist the
animals. The fences along the way were burning to light
the work. In this way we were eight hours making the
first three miles. Towards morning Lieutenant Ben
jamin, finding that unless there were greater speed his
guns would fall into the hands of the enemy, ordered a
part of the ammunition and the rear caisson destroyed ;
in the latter, however, he failed, being unable to procure
an axe. He labored hard all night, and, notwithstanding
the perplexities of the situation, kept his temper through
out, talking very calmly to his men as if all was progress
ing favorably. The rope prolonges were brought out and
attached, and the guns were slowly dragged through the
mire by hand ; finally the horses of the mounted infantry
were used to haul them.
At daylight of the sixteenth, flankers were thrown out
upon our left, and much better progress was made. As we
approached the junction at Campbell s Station, the country
on our right was mostly open, cleared land ; on the left it
was heavily wooded, excepting a field of about six acres at
the meeting of the roads. The Thirty-Fifth formed line in
this field, north of the road, and advanced across it to the
woods on the further side. At this time the musketry was
quite brisk to our right, as we then faced, a little further
down the Kingston road, where Longstreet s advance had
engaged the mounted infantry and Morrison s brigade of
Ferrero s Division. Here several of our men were wounded
by shots from the right, but no enemy appeared in our
front, and as soon as the last of our wagons had passed,
we were marched to the line of battle north of the village.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 182
A commanding position had been selected by Generals
Burnside and Potter, and the artillery having been posted
all the troops were withdrawn from the junction, and
drawn up in line of battle from side to side of the open
country. We had five batteries on the Union side ; while
the Confederates were slow in getting up their artillery,
on account of the bad roads. With both our flanks rest
ing upon wooded hills, and the guns in position defended
by veteran soldiers, the narrow front of about a mile be
came a formidable barrier to Longstreet s progress. As
we faced to the rear, the Fifty-First Pennsylvania was upon
the left of this line, the Thirty-Fifth next, with a skirmish
line, composed of Companies C, D and K, in front. In
this left wing were the guns of Roemer s battery, which
did excellent service. To attack us the enemy must come
out of the woods and expose themselves to our artillery.
From our position we could see both armies, and it was a
grand sight. The Confederates came out in line with
colors flying, fully expecting, apparently, that as soon as
they got close to us we would retreat as before ; but they
were mistaken, for no sooner were they in sight than our
batteries poured shells and shrapnel into their ranks with
terrible effect ; we could see the shells burst among them,
and they would break and run for the woods.
At the opening of the engagement in this second posi
tion, about noon, we could see their batteries take position
in a field near the road we had passed over, and send
shells in our direction, which burst in too close proximity
to be pleasant; but their guns were soon silenced by our
batteries. We could also see their infantry marching
across from the Kingston road to the woods upon our left.
Their attack commenced upon the right of the line,
Ferrero s Division, and, being repulsed, worked towards
our front, avoiding a direct assault upon the centre,
183 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
White s Division. After awhile, our artillery continuing
to shell them whenever they could be seen, we discovered
a force coming over the crest of the hill through the woods
on our left; Roemer immediately changed front and gave
them a few shot so well placed that they sought cover on
the double-quick, scattering "like nine-pins," as an ob
server expressed it.
They kept on, however, working around in the \voods
on the left, and to prevent being flanked it became neces
sary to withdraw the whole line of battle, between three
and four o clock, to a new position in rear, upon the top
of the hill we were occupying. This movement to the rear
was executed with perfect regularity, and we took up a
position similar to the former, but commanding it so that
the Confederates must still further stretch out their flank
to reach ours. The evolutions upon this battle-field were
like the moves upon a chess-board, and were executed
with a precision and regard for military art seldom dis
played in active field service in our thickly wooded country.
One of our batteries was stationed in an orchard near the
centre of the line of battle and a little in advance of this
last position ; beside it General Burnside remained most
of the time, carefully scanning the whole field.
Late in the afternoon the Confederates were observed
again working upon our flank, and we gave them the same
warm reception as before and with the same discomfitting
result. But this time their halt was only temporary, and
soon after, when most of our army, filing off by the right,
had taken the road towards Knoxville, and we were pre
paring to follow, the enemy again appeared coming on.
Our skirmishers, under command of Lieutenant Meserve,
opened a brisk fire and stood their ground without waver
ing. Word was sent to Roemer s battery, then limbering
up, the guns were again sighted and a round of shells sent
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 184
among the gray-coats which chilled their enthusiasm. It
was now late, and so dark it had become difficult to dis
tinguish friend from foe, even at short distance, and the
obscurity concealed the Confederates from our view. The
skirmishers were ordered to rally on the regiment, which
they did with a will, and the column turned into the road
and left the field to Longstreet and the darkness of night.
The purpose of delaying him for twenty-four hours longer
had been attained and our trains secured.
As we passed a wagon by the roadside, ammunition was
distributed, and then the men summoned resolution for an
other night march of sixteen miles. Skirmishing was heard
behind us all the first part of the night, General White s
Division of the Twenty-Third Corps and the cavalry now
covering the rear ; but towards morning this ceased. The
engineers felled trees across the road to retard the enemy,
who were easily distanced. The day s work on both sides
at Campbell s Station had been worthy of troops who had
come from Gettysburg and Vicksburg to test each other s
skill and courage in this far-away corner of the mountains.
The casualties in our regiment had been several slightly
wounded and one missing, Charles H. Ellis, of Company
I, adjutant s clerk, who was taken prisoner and died at
Belle Isle near Richmond.
This was, to most of the men, the third night without
sleep, so that their condition was pitiable. Night march
ing in close ranks is hard, under the most favorable cir
cumstances ; these last few hours before reaching Knox-
ville were spent as in a dream, many declaring that they
slept while marching ; officers dozed in the saddle ; tired
human nature could endure no more and insisted upon its
right to rest. After halting, numbers who had dropped
asleep had to be awakened with the warnings that to
rest now was a sure preliminary to Libby Prison ; a few,
185 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
happily, continued wide awake and spurred on the rest.
The column entered Knoxville early in the morning of
November 17 ; a rest of a couple of hours was given, and the
half-starved men received rations of beef and hard bread.
General Ferrero s Division had reached the town first,
and was now posted on the high lands facing to the south
west and west and extending from the Holston River
around Fort Sanders, the salient, to Second Creek, which
was the stream running by our first camp ground near
Knoxville. Our division, arriving in town second, was
extended from Second Creek to First Creek and faced
north-west and north. The Twenty-Third Corps, coming
along in rear, now occupied Temperance Hill and the
north-east side of the town, also the high fortified hills on
the south side of the Holston, which were connected with
the city by a pontoon-bridge. Our First Brigade held the
left of our division line, our brigade the right, and our
regiment held the extreme right of all, next to the mill and
dam on First Creek.
Marching through the town to our position, we halted
and stacked arms in the open field upon the hill overlook
ing First Creek, the East Tennessee and Virginia Rail
road, and the rolling, cleared ground beyond, gently rising
from us to the pitch-pine woods through which was cut,
directly in our front, the road to Cumberland Gap ; to the
left was the road to Jacksboro. There were no buildings
of importance between us and the Gap road, but on the
left there were well-built houses with gardens extending
out upon the way to Jacksboro. On the outer slope of our
hill a line of intrenchments was drawn, and all hands went
busily to work to make cover. A large part of the labor
was done by citizens, especially colored volunteers from
the city, and in a surprisingly short time a trench sufficient
for our purpose was dug along the whole front. The
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. l86
Fifty-First Pennsylvania was in line upon our left"; then
the line was cut by the steep descent of the street to the
railroad station, and beyond was located the rest of our
brigade upon the high bluff overhanging the station. The
Fifteenth Indiana battery was posted on the highest part
of our hill, behind an earthwork and bales of cotton
sheathed with raw-hides. This work was called Battery
Billingsley, after an officer killed during the siege.
It was a strange sight to see citizens clothed in gray or
butternut, with long rifle in hand, come down and take
places by our side in the trenches for the defence of their
homes. We had been so long accustomed to look upon
that color as hostile, its appearance in our ranks was very
cheering to the men. Our shelter-tents were pitched in
regular order in rear of the battery and beside the city
street ; but most of the regiment passed the first night in the
trenches, sleeping upon their arms the first sleep to most
of them for seventy hours. Time for this work and rest
was gained by the heroic conduct of our cavalry, south of
the city, under General Sanders, in which action that gal
lant leader was mortally wounded. As the enemy closed
around pickets were sent out ; the detail of sixty men from
our regiment being under Captain Mirick. They con
structed a line of low rifle-pits about half a mile to the front,
and extending from the Gap road south to near Second
Creek, a line which was held by our brigade pickets during
the siege, connecting, of course, at both ends with the
pickets of the other divisions. During his tour of duty
Captain Mirick was wounded by a bullet from the enemy
through his wrist. As Longstreet had not sufficient force
to entirely invest the city, his main force was concentrated
around the south-west and west sides, where he had better
positions for his artillery and at the same time interposed
between us and Grant s army.
187 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Central Burnside issued an order stating that there was
to be no further retreat, and Knoxville was to be held at
all hazards and to the last man. The question of food
supply seemed to be the most difficult to meet ; only half
or even quarter rations were issued, the bread sometimes
having the appearance of being made of a mixture of rye
and refuse grains and quite black in color; but the men
echoed the spirit of their beloved leader and stood up to
their share of the work unflinchingly. The following diary
of the siege, kept by Captain Nason, then First Sergeant of
Company K, sets forth the daily life of the enlisted men
during those trying days better than any description which
we can now give :
"Wednesday, November i8th. We were relieved from
the trenches in the morning by the Eleventh New Hamp
shire. Every preparation is being made to hold the city ;
the Fifty-First Pennsylvania and Thirty-Fifth were busy
most of the clay in stopping a run of water (First Creek)
by making a dam, filling up with dirt, stones and brush, in
order to overflow the space between the fortifications and
the railroad, which would be a great hindrance to the
enemy in making an assault. The citizens living outside
of our intrenchments were ordered to vacate their dwell
ings. Another detail from the regiment relieved the picket
at six P. M.
"Thursday, igth. A part of the regiment is ordered to
remain in the trenches, the rest to be ready to fall in at a
moment s notice. There was considerable picket firing
during the day. A rebel battery, with white horses, made
its appearance from the woods and fired three shots ; one
of them passed through a tent in Company E, without in
juring the occupant, who was eating his dinner ; one went
through the door of a building in rear of the right of the
regiment, and the other passed near General Burnside,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 1 88
who was inside the parapet looking through a glass. He
showed his white teeth, and sighting one of the guns,
quickly sent the white horses flying ; they were soon out
of sight with the rebel battery. At night every man for
detail was put at work digging. Slept in the trenches all
night ; I was awakened from sleep by the playing of Web
ster s March at the funeral of General Sanders ; the effect
in the stillness of night was solemn and impressive.
"Friday, 2oth. Foggy morning. In trenches all day ;
made a fire-place by digging into the bank. Picket firing
all day ; several shots from rebel batteries at five P. M. ;
no one injured. Drew half a day s rations of bread from
the commissary. The parapet covering the battery in rear
of our company was strengthened by placing cotton-bales
on the top and filling in with dirt ; a detail of the regiment
kept at work all night.
" Saturday, 2ist. Sergeant Worcester and seven men left
for picket at four A. M. Ripley, our cook, went to the picket
line with their breakfast, seven A. M. ; on returning, he
stopped and milked four quarts of milk from a stray cow.
It rained steadily until three p. M. The dam gave way
during the heavy rain, and men were immediately set at
work repairing it. A few shots were fired from the fort on
our left, the only firing from batteries during the clay.
"Sunday, 22cl. Two corporals and one private for picket
at four A. M.* Clear and pleasant. Less firing than usual.
Regiment ordered to discharge muskets and to police
camp. Lewis Morse obtained some meal and flour, with
which I made some bread and pancakes. At five P. M.,
four or five shells came over to our right from a rebel
battery, exploding some distance to our rear ; a few shots
fired from the forts on our right silenced it ; also ours fired
again at eight P. M., without any reply.
* K was a small company for two years after Antietam.
189 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
"Monday, 230!. Lieutenant Meserve and six men of K
on picket. I went into town and called on Mr. Locke, a
baker, from Massachusetts. Most of the stores were
closed, and prices very high : coffee, one dollar a pound ;
sugar, fifty cents ; molasses, two dollars per gallon. Sev
eral citizens, out of employment, were put to work on the
dam with a detail of troops, who worked all day and night.
A volley of musketry aroused the camp at eight P. M., and
we rallied to the trenches. The line of pickets occupied
by the Second Maryland was attacked and the men driven
from their posts, the rebels occupying the pits until day
light, when the Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania and Twenty-
First Massachusetts, with a detachment of thirty-six men
from the Thirty-Fifth on their right, charged on the picket
line, driving the enemy, and reestablished the line. Dur
ing the skirmish twenty-five houses were fired by men
detailed for that purpose, to prevent their occupation
by the enemy s sharpshooters. Many of them were val
uable, with grounds handsomely laid out. The scene
of the conflagration from the trenches was grand and
thrilling.*
* Major Wales was officer of the day. When, in the evening, the enemy made
their attack as above he came to the Thirty-Fifth and called for volunteers the
whole regiment at once sprang out of the trenches and over the works to the front ;
but only the thirty-six men were taken. The detachment was during the night under
the immediate command of Lieutenant Pope, who was officer of the picket. Our
pickets had been flanked by the break on the left, and obliged to abandon their pits
along our whole front ; falling back they set fire to the inflammables prepared in the
houses, and then formed line behind stumps and other cover in the open ground about
half way back to the railroad, and at such an angle as to cover the flank of our line
to the right. On the left were the burning buildings, casting a brilliant red glare over
the whole ground and into the woods in front. Occasionally a man could be seen
among the buildings carrying combustibles or a torch from one to the other. Our pits
in front were occupied by the enemy ; but they kept close, the slightest exposure above
the brink catching the light and revealing itself to our riflemen at once. They fired
at our men who were much more exposed. Great masses of flame, smoke and cinders
rolled overhead with imposing effect.
At daybreak Major Wales gave orders that, as soon as cheering should be heard
on our left the charge of the Twenty-First and Forty-Eighth we should jump up
I
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. IQO
"Tuesday, 24th. Rain most of the day. Very little picket
firing. Our loss in the charge, Monday night, was one
killed Private Henzy. The Eleventh New Happshire
and Fifty-First Pennsylvania each lost one man killed.
The Twenty-First and Forty- Eighth lost more. The Sec
ond Michigan lost eighty killed, wounded and missing,
leaving the major and adjutant on the field. A flag of
truce to bury their dead was fired upon by the enemy.
"Wednesday, 25th. Clear and pleasant. Washed
clothes. An alarm at 2 P. M., and we rallied in the trenches
expecting an attack, but only the usual picket firing oc
curred during the day. At 5 P. M. returned to our tents,
leaving one man from each company on guard. The band
played, morning, noon and night, in front of camp.*
"Thursday, November 26, National Thanksgiving Day.
Clear and frosty. Picket line strengthened on the left by
falling back into new pits to avoid the cross-fire from the
left, and six or eight buildings were destroyed at 5.30 A. M.,
to prevent their occupation by the enemy s sharpshooters.
For my Thanksgiving dinner I had bean soup and bread
with a shout and dash with all speed for the rifle pits in front. The cheers were heard,
up sprang the men and charged forward recklessly, each trying to outrun the others
and get first to the line. The men in gray, startled by the attack on their right, left
in haste all but one, a fine fellow from a South Carolina regiment Palmetto Sharp
shooters who was found shot through the body in one of the pits. A man of our
detachment Henzy, of Company I stooped down to examine him ; at the same
moment a few bullets from the retreating foe came pattering among us, one of them
seeming to hit a stump with the peculiar sharp " chick ! " so well remembered by all
soldiers. Major Wales ordered the men to stand up, and walked afong the line ; com
ing to Henzy and seeing him still bending over the Confederate, he asked, " What is
that man down there for? " A comrade placing his hand on Henzy found him lifeless,
the ball which seemed to strike the stump had passed through his head. For the dash
exhibited in this charge this detail of thirty-six men from the regiment received due
credit from headquarters.
* This was the last day of the battles at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge,
which proved such glorious Union victories and decided our fate, although as yet
unknown to us. The days, 26th to 28th, were those of the Mine Run affair in the
Army of the Potomac; so there was fighting at both ends of the great mountain range
and we in the middle.
19 1 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and molasses, using about all my next day s ration of
bread. Ordered to be ready to fall in at any moment.
Private Smith, of Company C, detailed as adjutant s clerk
at regimental headquarters in place of Ellis, missing since
the fifteenth.*
"Friday, 27th. Half of the men are ordered to remain
in the trenches day and night. Major Wales was officer of
the day. Made up daily report book since the thirteenth.
A quiet day. The houses on the north side of the creek
have been loop-holed in front and occupied by detailed
men as sharpshooters, which is more comfortable than
lying in the trenches.
" Saturday, 28th. Cloudy and wet; rained 8 A. M. Clark
of our company went to purchase some bread of a baker
who commenced selling, having been permitted by the
authorities to open his shop ; but Clark was unable to get
near, the crowd was so great the supply was unequal to
the demand. Batteries on our left commenced shelling,
which continued through the night. The enemy made an
assault on Fort Sanders about daylight, but were repulsed
by the First Division, with the loss (to the Confederates) of
* Our position was a singular one for thanksgiving, but half starved, exhausted
with watching and environed by enemies, we still had cause for gratitude. General
Burnside issued the following order:
"GENERAL FIELD ORDERS, No. 32.
"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,
" KNOXVILLE, TENN., Nov. 26, 1863.
"In accordance with the proclamation of the President of the United States,
Thursday, the twenty-sixth instant, will, so far as military operations permit, be ob
served by this army as a day of thanksgiving for the countless blessings vouchsafed
the country, and the fruitful successes granted to our armies during the past year.
Especially has this army cause for thankfulness for the Divine protection which has
so signally shielded us, and let us with grateful hearts offer prayer for its continuance,
and with a firm reliance on the God of Battles.
"By command of MAJ. GEN. BURNSIDE,
"LEWIS RICHMOND, A. A. G."
Within a day or two afterwards General Sherman started from Chattanooga, by
forced marches up the valley, to our relief.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 1 92
over eight hundred killed and wounded and four hundred
prisoners,* while our loss did not exceed fifty. After mid
night the picket line had been attacked for a mile, extending
to our regiment. The Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania pickets
were outflanked, the enemy getting into their rear, when a
scene of confusion followed, friend and foe being mixed
together. Houses were fired as before, and the same lurid
heavens canopied the scene. Our pickets were obliged to
retire, getting behind the stumps and fences, where they
remained until daylight, when Sunday, 29th, the Second
Brigade made a charge and drove out the enemy, thus
regaining our pits after twice being flanked out of them.
The boys charged forward with a will and determination
that would have driven twice their number, Major Wales
leading the Thirty-Fifth and calling upon us to yell our
loudest. We remained in the pits until the pickets were
relieved and had returned to camp. The Eleventh New
Hampshire lay in support in rear. The Thirty-Fifth lost
one man killed and one taken prisoner.! Corporal Solon
E. Morse, of Company K, was deceived by the enemy, who
told him not to fire on his own men, at the same time ask
ing him what regiment he belonged to ; he told them, and
was taken prisoner before he could escape. Before he was
undeceived he was heard urging our men not to run but
to come back to the pits, which if they had done they
would, no doubt, have been also captured. Morse died
at Belle Isle, near Richmond, in March following.
*Woodbury says eleven hundred killed and wounded, and three hundred un-
wounded prisoners.
t Frank A. Porter and E. P. Kelly, of Company G, were together in a rifle-pit,
when, about three o clock in the morning, they suddenly found themselves flanked on
the left and the enemy getting in their rear. They at once moved off to the right
when the Confederates ordered them to halt, but they paid no attention to the com
mand; they next heard the order " Fire ! " and received a volley, killing Porter, the
bullet entering his right side. Porter s body was left on the disputed ground until
daylight, when it was recovered by the charge of our men above mentioned.
193 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
"An armistice was agreed on from 10 A. M. to 8 P. M. to
bury the dead and care for the wounded. I went to the
corps hospital. The ambulances were busy all day bring
ing in the wounded, mostly rebels. I saw a number of
prisoners belonging to Georgia and South Carolina regi
ments. The carnage before Fort Sanders and Benjamin s
battery was awful. A wire netting extended around the
stumps in front of the fort, which broke their line as they
came up. Some succeeded in reaching the breastwork
only to be shot. They crowded into the deep ditch outside
the fort, into which Lieutenant Benjamin threw shells
lighting them, it was said, with his cigar causing a fearful
slaughter. The enemy having many times our number,
too much praise cannot be awarded to Lieutenant Benja
min, who was as cool as he was brave.*
" Monday, 3oth. Very cold; ice half an inch thick.
Fixed up quarters in the trenches, making three fire-places
and room for ten members of the company. Made the pit
two feet wider to allow room to lie down.
"Tuesday, December i st. Cool and pleasant. An order
from General Burnside was read to the regiment by Adju
tant Meserve, complimenting the troops for their heroism
during the past seventeen days of trying experience ; also
mentioning the regiments which repulsed the attack on
Fort Sanders Seventy-Ninth New York (Highlanders),
Seventeenth Michigan and others, with Benjamin s and
Buckley s batteries. It was a glorious defence. He also
announced the great victory of our army under General
* For a detailed account of this attack on Fort Sanders, we refer to " Woodbury s
History of the Ninth Corps " and Captain Barrage s narrative in the Atlantic Monthly
for July, 1866. The scene of action was too far to our left for us to describe it as eye
witnesses, only the smoke and din of battle and the turmoil of the assault were dis
cernible by us; and, indeed, we were so busy in rectifying affairs in our front that
many were not certain until afterwards of the exact hour of the grand assault and
repulse. We were all kept in the trenches for the rest of the siege.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 194
Grant, with the loss to Bragg of six thousand prisoners
and fifty-one [forty] pieces of artillery and many stands
of colors. At the conclusion Major Wales proposed nine
cheers, which were given with a will. The whole line of
the army stood up on the works and cheered and waved
the colors, while the bands played, to inform Longstreet s
men that we had received the good news. Our battery on
the right opened at 5 P. M., throwing the shot further to
the right than usual ; no reply from the enemy. Drew
rations of coarse corn-meal. Made out monthly returns.
A quiet night.
"Wednesday, December 2d. Pleasant and warm. Gen
eral Potter issued an order, read to the regiment, honoring
the corps for good conduct during the late encounter with
the rebels.
"Thursday, 3d. Usual picket firing during the day.
Reports are current that the rebels are leaving.
"Friday, 4th. Very quiet. A number of cows are roam
ing between the lines ; some of them were brought in by
the pickets, and we were treated to fresh beef. A rebel
battery fired a few shots from our left, but Benjamin and
the Fifteenth Indiana soon made them skedaddle. More
picket firing towards night, but none during the night. An
officer of General Sherman s staff arrived in the city with
information that Sherman was only twenty-four hours away.
" Saturday, 5th. Very quiet. The rebs have left. Our
pickets advanced after daylight without finding an enemy,
but picked up one hundred and sixty stragglers for pris
oners, who made no resistance. They were an inferior-
looking lot from Georgia and South Carolina ; they were
tired of fighting and wished Bragg and Longstreet were
hung. Our brigade marched out about four miles on the
Gap road about 10 A.M., but found no enemy; they left
last night, our pickets heard them moving. Their pickets
195 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
were withdrawn at 2 A. M. ; fires were left burning to deceive
us. Went to work on the pay-rolls and requisitions for
clothing. Men ordered to clean their guns."
General Sherman arrived in the city and surveyed the
defences, visiting our battery, where he was warmly wel
comed. The success of the whole campaign from Chat
tanooga up was almost too overwhelming to be true.
General Longstreet s army, disheartened by defeat and
by Sherman s arrival, had retired towards Virginia on the
Rogersville road. Knoxville had proved a Fredericksburg
to them.
On the seventh our two divisions and part of the
Twenty -Third Corps started north-eastward, upon the
track of the enemy, in light marching order, without tents.
Captain Lyon took command of the regiment for the
remainder of the winter. Major Wales, Lieutenant Berry,
Sergeant-Major White, Sergeants Bent and Castle, with
privates Wellington and Matz, started for the North by
way of Big Creek Gap, most of them upon recruiting
service.
Our first day s march was over good roads, making rap
idly thirteen miles, and going into bivouac in the same line
of battle as at Campbell s Station First Division on the
right, Twenty-Third Corps in the centre and Second Divis
ion on the left. Next day we made but seven miles on the
Rogersville road. Rations were scanty ; each man drew
one-half ration of pork, one-quarter ration of flour, and to
eke out the need picked up corn left by the horses and ate
it raw or parched.
On the ninth we made thirteen miles over muddy roads,
with the Clinch Mountains on the left, and went into biv
ouac in a bare, open valley, within two miles of Rutledge
Longstreet said to be twelve miles ahead, somewhere
about Bean s Station. The position we had was good for
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 196
defence; and, as the enemy were too strong for us to
attack, we awaited Longstreet s movements here until the
fifteenth, employing the days in devising ways and means
to fill our stomachs, which the short rations and winter
weather caused to be loud in their appeals for more food.
Here the coffee mills came to the rescue gallantly. In the
Western armies the coffee berry, to prevent fraud, was
issued burned but not ground, sometimes even unbrowned.
It was soon found that crushing it in a tin cup with a bay
onet was too slow, and the company cooks acquired at
least one old coffee mill to a company. As the coffee
ration fell short and the sugar ration ceased, these mills
were turned to grinding grain, corn or wheat, which was
generally first parched, or partly broken by pounding. A
good part of a man s time would be taken up grinding in
his turn such corn as he might have found, begged or
appropriated. The product was cooked in our battered
tin dippers, or fried into " flippers " upon half a canteen
stuck upon a split stick.
The nights were often cold and rainy. In these valleys
the air draws through with great force, as in a tunnel, and
sometimes whirls around suddenly to the opposite quarter,
so that the nicely-constructed shelter of rails, backed to
the cold rain from the north, would be found at midnight
open to a driving storm from the south, whereupon the
inmates had their choice of a shower bath or rousing out
to change front. Thus there was employment for day and
night. For amusement, after we had been without a change
of clothing for a fortnight, individuals could be seen retired
apart, in dishabille, examining their shirts with fixed atten
tion for gray-backs of the six-legged species, which were
said to be about camp.
The Twenty-Third Corps passed to the rear at midnight
of the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth we heard of a skir-
IQ7 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
mish at Bean s Station and ninety prisoners were brought
in. About noon we moved a little way and formed line of
battle, remaining in position until evening, when we marched
back six miles and went into bivouac at one in the morn
ing. The day s ration had been flour, and some of the
wise ones had prepared for the emergency by frying it into
griddle cakes or flippers, while others had their whole ration
mixed in their dippers, but uncooked ; these gravely took
up the line of retreat, tin dippers in hand, and stumbling
by night over a muddy road full of holes was perilous to
the precious contents of those dippers.
On the sixteenth we got back to Blain s Cross Roads,
where a halt was ordered for coffee ; and, cannon being
heard in rear, division line of battle was formed, and a
barricade of rails and savin bushes was thrown up across
the valley. The most conspicuous person at times of
excitement during these harassing days was Captain Mc-
Kibben of the staff dashing about, the cape of his coat
thrown back, showing its scarlet lining, attended by order
lies who were the oracles to be consulted by us when
seeking to know what our movements portended. The
mounted infantry came in from the front, and an imme
diate attack was expected. The rain poured down at
midnight, but we managed to catch a few hours sleep.
On the seventeenth the muskets were put in order after
the rain, and the regiment formed in one rank, taking
ground to the left. There was light skirmishing in front
at noon, and our battery shelled the woods. The four left
companies under Lieutenant Pope were thrown out into
the woods, where they spent the night, with low fires, much
more snugly than the rest of the line, who suffered from
an intensely cold wind sweeping down the valley. Next
day the skirmish line was advanced a mile, but no enemy
was encountered in force, and it was announced that he
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 198
had left our front. That evening the paymaster, Major
Haggerty, paid off the regiment in a little hut in front of
the lines.
On the nineteenth we moved into the woods on the west
side of the valley, near a fine stream of water, and camp
was laid out in company streets; but, as the shelter tents
were still in Knoxville, the bough huts were pitched in
rather an irregular fashion, wtych characterized that camp
afterwards. The nights became bitter cold, but the wood
pile was unlimited, and the fires blazed up bright and
cheery. On the twenty-first and twenty-second our knap
sacks and the headquarter s baggage arrived with Quarter
master Tobey, and were gladly welcomed, for our clothing
was badly demoralized. Many of the men were ragged
and almost bare-foot, no clothing having been drawn since
we left Crab Orchard. Lieutenant Tobey brought news
of General Burnside s departure for the North, and the
arrival of General John G. Foster, of North Carolina
memory, to command the department. The mail came
along, and we learned with what deep interest the siege
of Knoxville had been watched by the Government and
the people of the North. President Lincoln, in particular,
was now elated and thankful over the result, and issued a
proclamation, stating that the enemy had left Knoxville
"under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union
forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important
post," and advising that " all loyal people do, on receipt
of the information, assemble at their places of worship
and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God
for the great advancement of the national cause." Another
foothold had been gained, from which, as upon the Missis
sippi, a column could be driven through the Confederacy,
to separate another large territory from the Richmond
Government. The success was as depressing to the Con-
199 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
federate leaders as it was cheering to the upholders of the
Union.
On the twenty-third there was an alarm, and the Fifty-
First New York, Eleventh New Hampshire and Thirty-
Fifth made a reconnoissance, with a section of Edward s
battery, two miles out, the First Brigade going still further;
but the foe had left. Returning to camp, we commenced
to log up the tents and bui!4 chimneys of sticks and mud
in the old Falmouth fashion, but now with ample materials
at our very doors ; wood-chopping and hauling employed
much of the time. Short rations continued ; on Christmas
Day there was no bread all day, and no other food but
fresh beef, issued at evening, for a Christmas dinner; even
salt to season it was a luxury. Pickets we kept posted up
the valley and towards the Holston, which lay to the east
ward, and, as the men upon this duty had advantages for
foraging, the position was rather sought than avoided, ex
cept by the shoeless.
The year 1864 opened w r ith rain, turning to snow, and
the weather very cold. The wind was high, and dodging
the smoke of the camp fires was an unending amusement.
On the third of January there was no bread nor materials
for it in camp, and two ears of corn on the cob were issued
to each man in place of the bread ration ; the grinders at
the mills thought it a good substitute, but some, consider
ing it rather mulish treatment, inquired how long it would
be before the order would come to fall in for rations of
hay whereupon " Fall in for your hay ! " became a camp
by-word. Captain Ingell, being asked how he liked so
much meal diet, replied, " It is very fattening to bipeds ;
besides, it tickles one s throat all the way down ! " The
Twenty-Third Corps and the First Division had been longer
in Tennessee than we, and were even worse off for shoes
and clothing.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2OO
The older regiments of the Ninth Corps, which had
enlisted in 1861, were now approaching the expiration of
their three years term of service. Recruiting at home for
old regiments had little success, and, to prevent the loss to
the service of so many old soldiers, great exertions were
made to secure their reenlistment; among the inducements,
they were offered a thirty days furlough to their homes.
On the twenty-fifth of December the proposal to reenlist
was made to the veteran Twenty-First Massachusetts, and
within thirty-six hours two-thirds of the men had reenlisted
a brilliant page in the record of that heroic regiment.
Finally, all but about thirty of the Twenty-First reenlisted ;
these were transferred for a time to our regiment on the
seventh, and the same afternoon the reenlisted Twenty-
First started for home, in charge of one hundred and fifty
prisoners from Longstreet s forces, which, judging from
the men coming over to us, were in even more straitened
circumstances than we, if possible.
On the eighth of January the whole country was clothed
in a mantle of snow two inches deep. Small-pox was pre
vailing in the district, and all the men were vaccinated.
We had read in our youth of Valley Forge and the dark
days of the Revolution, and, outwardly, the scenes about
us were a renewal of history. We were probably more
stinted for food but rather better clothed than the Con
tinental army, although rags and tatters were conspicuous
with us ; certainly we were not better shod, and necessity
the mother of invention suggested that moccasins
would be better than bare feet upon the snow; accordingly,
squares of green hide were issued in couples, which the
same old mother was to teach each man how to make into
foot-wear. They were laughable affairs when made, and
put one in mind of the foot of an elephant. The boys
called these moccasins " thanks-of-Congress-shoes," and
201 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
their ragged pantaloons " stars-and-stripes trousers." The
meat rations were eked out by purchasing livers, hearts
and tails; and tripe became fashionable. The poor beef-
on-the-hoof, starved for days, when slaughtered was found
to be almost without tallow even the kidney fat frizzling
away to nothing in the frying-pan. Nearly every other day
a half-ration of hard bread was issued ; but the rough jour
ney over the mountains had broken the crackers into such
small bits it was difficult to divide them fairly. A common
way was for the company cook to arrange the pieces upon
a board, as many piles as there were men in the company,
each pile containing what seemed to him enough fragments
to make a cracker. The men of the company then filed
by, and each one pointed out the pile which seemed to him
largest, and received it for his ration. It was fair play,
but slow work ; but time just then was not valuable in the
cook-house the fires were not overworked. The surgeon
had no patients ; all present were as healthy as they were
tough.
Rev. T. B. Fox, of Boston, visited camp at this time to
give us a word of encouragement, although he had no
special errand to us, we not being old enough as a regi
ment to reenlist. Those of the men who wished to hear
were drawn up in a half circle to listen ; and, out of mis
chief, the most ragged trousers and moccasin men were
put in front, while the rear rank thrust their tattered
elbows over the shoulders of their file leaders. A photo
graph of the scene would be worth having. The kind
gentleman hardly knew what to say to such a beggarly-
looking crowd ; but the boys were fat in spite of slim diet,
and their eyes twinkled with merriment, which proved how
little the present hardships penetrated. Those were tough
times, but not of discouragement ; in this, the inward spirit,
our men differed from the heroes of Valley Forge the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2O2
prospect before us was brighter and more promising of
success.
Two men from each company, daily, were given passes
to go outside the pickets upon foraging excursions, to
wheedle from the needy inhabitants some portion of their
little store of food or seed corn in exchange for coffee,
salt, or least available greenbacks. The limestone hills
about us contained deep, half-explored caverns, adorned
with fairy grottos and glistening stalactites, undisturbed
by tourists, and fascinating for exploration ; and the view
from the uplands of a fine day towards the Great Smoky
Mountains upon the North Carolina line, rising tier above
tier in purple majesty, was a rich experience to the wan
dering forager, even if he found no food to satisfy bodily
hunger.
A few pairs of shoes were distributed soon after the
moccasin day, and were received as prophetic of marching
orders, which came on the sixteenth of January. The
Fourth Corps, under General Gordon Granger, had come
in contact with Longstreet in the country south of the
Holston, and it became necessary for our army to con
centrate. In the early morning the frozen ground made
decent roads, but when the sun had risen and penetrated
an inch or two the surface came off from the frozen sub
stratum with every step, and the feet became clogged with
huge lumps of sticky mud, which made marching desperate
work and often very laughable. The short-legged fellows
got the worst of it, for they had most footprints to make
and less power to sling their hoofs. Adjutant Meserve s
horse slipped suddenly upon the uncertain footing, and
came down upon his haunches in a way to endanger his
rider, but fortunately without harming him. This happened
after we had passed south through the isolated hills called
the Knobs, and approached the Holston at the Strawberry
203 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Plains crossing. The brigade moved up over the hills over
looking the river, which wound around from north-east
to south-west, and was crossed in a bend by the railroad
bridge, successor to the one destroyed by General Sanders
in the raid of the previous June. We went into bivouac in
the woods upon the hill ; afterwards we moved over into
the dell behind it. General Longstreet had unexpectedly
marched southward to Dandridge, on the French Broad
River, as if to flank us towards Knoxville ; hence our
movement hither in support of the Fourth Corps.
Our Second Division headquarters were now broken up.
So many regiments had reenlisted, the only regiments left
in the division were the Second- Maryland, Eleventh New
Hampshire and Thirty-Fifth. Quartermaster Upton re
turned, and Captain Gibson joined from Kentucky ; they
did not stay long with the regiment, but resigned, and about
the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth left for the North. Gibson
was the last of the original captains of the regiment.
Appearances in front began to look squally; the infantry
on foot and mounted came slowly back over the railroad
bridge, and General Ferrero made preparations to burn
the structure when the enemy should appear. We had
several light snow storms, and smoky fires caused sore
eyes. While waiting the men began to log up again, but
work was stopped on the twenty-first, when orders came to
strike tents and pack up. A lively duel began across the
river between the opposing batteries; but from our position
in the woods little could be seen a few solid shot came
over doing no harm. Details of men were sent to the
station for fresh pork, left behind by some commissary,
and about midnight the brigade moved up to the station.
Two cannon had been left for lack of horses to draw them ;
one of them was taken in charge by the Eleventh New
Hampshire, and the Second Maryland and Thirty-Fifth
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 204
took the other. The rope prolonges were hitched on, and
the men taking hold as upon the rope of a fire-engine we
started on the road to Knoxville. It was a repetition of
the night before the battle at Campbell s Station, but not
so dark ; the deep mud was partly frozen, and tugging
away, each man his pound, the guns made slow but sure
progress. At daybreak the column reached the railroad
bridge over Flat Creek, and the cannon were handed over
to other troops, who hauled them to a place where they
were loaded upon cars and started south. While making
coffee, a few cavalry overcoats were distributed gratis, to
save them from the enemy ; but the demand was greater
than the supply.
Keeping along slowly towards Knoxville, we turned off
to the left, south from the railroad, into the Knoxville road
near Knave s farm, and, loading muskets, prepared to meet
the advancing enemy. They, however, appeared to be in
weak force, and, after engaging our skirmishers and finding
us ready, declined to come on a few spent bullets came
over and that was all. The Twenty-Seventh Michigan
advanced and drove them off. We were out of rations
and very tired ; our sleep was undisturbed. Early on the
twenty-third General Ferrero came along and gave infor
mation that the foe had retired ; Longstreet was not con
templating another siege of Knoxville. The troops were
ordered into camp on the ground. The quartermaster
reported that we should have plenty of rations before
night, and there was need, for we had received no bread
for three days and only half a ration of flour a diet of
fresh pork alone is not inviting. In the evening there was
an issue of four days half-rations of hard bread and flour,
and quarter-rations of coffee and sugar, and a fair supply
of clothes said to have come up river in a steamboat.
The roads over the mountains had become impassable ;
205 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
our supplies, if they can be called such, came from Nash
ville by way of Chattanooga, Grant s army having the first
pick. Living off the country, when that country has been
already skinned by a Confederate army, is sucking a very
dry bone indeed.
On the twenty-fourth of January we kept on south,
passing through the city and five miles beyond, to Erin s
Station or Lyon s Mill. Here, upon a sunny, wooded slope,
inclining to the south into a dell, where the road and a
clear brook crossed the front, the brigade laid out a reg
ular camp, with regimental headquarters up the hill, com
pany streets leading down. This was the pleasantest camp
ground that winter. The weather became milder and like
early spring the boys even bathed in the creek and,
had the food question been less pressing, the situation for
winter could hardly have been improved ; but the half and
quarter rations were continued so long as we remained in
Tennessee. On one occasion in this camp sick-wheat flour
was issued. Foraging was absolutely necessary for sub
sistence ; but the people, though friendly, had already
parted with whatever they could reasonably be asked to
spare.
All sorts of rumors floated into camp about the Ninth
Corps being ordered to the North. It was plain that, if
the organization of the corps was to be maintained, it
would be cheaper for the Government to transport North
the few regiments still in Tennessee than to bring back
the reenlisted veterans. With this reasonable ground for
expectation, we listened to every story, however absurd,
with interest ; Captain Rapelji seemed to be the oracle,
at least he was always referred to as the authority and
source of rumor. There was also some talk about filling
up the regiments with East Tennesseeans ; but this
amounted to nothing.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 206
On the twenty-eighth Captain Hudson returned from
hospital at Knoxville. Forage had become so limited in
supply that most of the horses and mules were sent over
the mountains. On the first of February a hurried move
was made to Knoxville, where we crossed the pontoons to
the south side and climbed through the mud to Housetop
Mountain, and spent the night there, returning to camp
next day. It appears to have been a movement in support
of General Sturgis, who was up the French Broad River
with cavalry and had captured two steel guns and one
hundred prisoners, finally falling back towards Maryville.
Company drills and dress-parades were resumed, but
the display was small, at one time eight companies march
ing out under sergeants. The officers in camp were :
Captain Lyon, commanding ; Captains Ingell, Hudson
and Blanchard ; Assistant-Surgeon Roche ; Lieutenants
Pope, Meserve (adjutant), Tobey (quartermaster) and
Dunbar. There were about one hundred and fifty enlisted
men present for duty, armed. A common camp cry during
these months of frequent alarms was, " I hear a gun ! "
" I hear another ! " but the shout peculiar to this camp
was to cry out when a rider passed, "There he goes
stop him ! " which often quite disconcerted the wayfarer,
the object of such uncalled-for attention, and not seldom
thoroughly angered him. The band of the Eleventh New
Hampshire furnished music for dress-parades, as at Fal-
mouth.
The vendetta waged between loyal and disloyal Ten-
nesseeans found a victim close by our camp a citizen
of Secesh proclivities, while at work upon the roof of his
cabin, was shot by another from an ambush a dangerous
wound, but not fatal, in Dr. Roche s opinion.
Hunger pressed us closely, and, as often noticed in like
circumstances, the mind turned of itself to this theme at
207 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
leisure moments, and the fancy painted the delights of the
well-spread tables of the past. In the dark, mild evenings
the boys would gather around the glorious camp-fires
one of our luxuries, the other being abundant good water
and one man after another, in turn, would relate some
past events of his life, dwelling long upon the eatables
portion. One old wanderer, who had been cook on board
a mackerel schooner, set forth the ample provender he
furnished brown bread and beans, plum duff, dumplings
and molasses, etc., all of the most substantial kinds, until
the stomachs of his auditors fairly ached, and they shouted,
" Enough of that; lets go and get a drink of water ! " On
the tenth of February, one diary states, "I have eaten
nothing for twenty-four hours except some flour cooked "
the cooking being simply boiling in water with a little salt.
Under these circumstances, news came into camp of a
vote of thanks passed by Congress, January 28, 1864:
"The thanks of Congress are hereby presented to Major-
General Ambrose E. Burnside, and through him to the
officers and men who have fought under his command, for
their gallantry, good conduct and soldier-like endurance."
So the boys felt that they were not so far buried in the
mountains as to be entirely forgotten.
General Foster s health failing an old wound reopening
he was relieved by General Schofield about the middle
of February. A change of commanders brought also a
change of our camp. On the sixth of February General
Grant had telegraphed to General Thomas, "Two divisions
have gone to Longstreet ; he is reenforced by troops from
the East. This makes it evident the enemy intend to
secure East Tennessee if they can," etc. On the fourteenth
Genera] Schofield telegraphed to General Thomas, " Long-
street has advanced to Strawberry Plains with pontoon-
boats," and asked for reinforcements.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2o8
In a pouring rain, on the fifteenth, we moved a few miles,
through the mud and over swollen brooks, to the west side
of the railroad and nearer the city. The Fourth Corps
also passed us, going towards the town. Next day there
was an inspection with knapsacks, but the wood-choppers
kept busy logging up again; they had hardly got their
trees down when orders came for a change of camp to
a better location, about a mile west from town. Here
logging-up proceeded again, and made better progress.
The regiment was inspected by a lieutenant-colonel of
General Grant s staff. It was colder, and on the twenty-
first snow fell.
On the twenty-second the band played " Washington s
March" and "Yankee Doodle." Details of men were at
work upon the forts about the city, that everything might
be in readiness in case Longstreet should come on. At
evening the regiment was agreeably surprised by the infor
mation that Colonel Carruth had arrived at brigade head
quarters. The boys got together to go down and welcome
him; but, he being tired, they. gave it up for the night.
Next morning the colonel came into camp ; the men rallied,
and gave him nine rousing cheers. At dress-parade, the
regiment forming three sides of a square, the colonel ad
dressed them. He thanked them for their good behavior,
while he had been gone, in face of the enemy and in
camp. He had watched for all the news he could hear
from them while he was at home, and had heard nothing
but praise. He was very sorry that it so happened he
could not have shared their privations, hardships and
dangers during the East Tennessee campaign, and was in
hopes that their future campaigns would be less arduous
and that all might be spared to see their homes once more.
All he could ask of them in the future was to conduct
themselves as they had done. In conclusion, he hoped
209 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
that his health would be spared him, so that he might not
leave them again until he led them home at the expiration
of their service. At evening he was serenaded by the
brigade band the first piece being "Home Again." The
colonel took command of the brigade.
At midnight the sergeant-major went the rounds, with
orders to be ready to march at daylight. Accordingly, on
the twenty-fourth, reveille sounded at half-past four ; tents
were struck, and we started with knapsacks, and camped
again at Strawberry Plains, after a march of nineteen
miles, which, as we moved rapidly and long distances
without the customary halts, made a hard day s work.
General Schofield passed twice, and Generals Parke,
Wilcox and Ferrero were with the troops. It began to
appear that Schofield was a driver. The Fourth and
Twenty-Third Corps were on the move as well as our
corps.
Next day, resting on the hill overlooking the river and
ruins of the bridge, we got a mail, which contained infor
mation that the Ninth Corps was expected North by way
of Chattanooga. On the contrary, we received orders,
February 26, to prepare for a fifteen days march, with
shelter tent and blanket roll only, one hundred rounds of
cartridges per man, and five days rations. It had the
appearance of a raid on the Virginia salt works, following
retiring Longstreet. The bridge being gone, a double
ferry was rigged of pontoon-boats, three boats to each
rope, each boat transporting twenty-five men at a time.
The regiment after crossing marched to the high ground
beside a ploughed field and camped. Company K, detailed
to guard the train, which crossed at a ford above, had a
hard march that day. On the twenty-eighth we proceeded
to Mossy Creek Confederate cavalry retiring as we ap
proached and, on the morrow, to Morristown and a mile
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2IO
beyond. Many will remember the rainy time we had at
this place ; the whole country was flooded ; it was like the
old north-easters at home, and turned freezing cold at night.
A heavy and watchful picket was thrown out, for we were
close to the enemy in force.
Morristown had been General Longstreet s winter quar
ters ; the citizens appeared very neutral, and wisely so, for
with the armies of the Union and of the Confederacy
dancing to and fro, forward and back, over them, it was
best not to be too demonstrative. Our movements were
but a repetition of the famous campaigns in the Shenandoah
Valley, with points of compass reversed. We visited these
people unexpectedly, and on the second of March we as
suddenly took an early departure on the back track as far
as Mossy Creek. This may have been, however, not a
retreat, for the other corps did not share it, but simply a
precautionary change to protect the right flank to the east
ward along the Nolichucky River. Our front was quiet
except in the direction of the bends of the Chucky, whence
frequent alarms came in of East Tennessee or North Car
olina refugees cutting their way into the Union lines, or
of Confederate cavalry lurking about that front. But,
upon the whole, the camp at Mossy Creek was very quiet,
except some noisy debates among the men upon questions
of politics and theology, gotten up for amusement, but
too vociferous for headquarters to endure without re
monstrance. The penmen were, as usual, busy upon
pay-rolls and returns to the departments. Colonel Har-
riman came up with recruits for the Eleventh New
Hampshire, and Sergeants Farrington and Chamberlin and
a squad of detailed men arrived from Kentucky. March
5, Schofield telegraphed to Thomas, "Longstreet is slowly
moving towards Virginia."
On the twelfth we moved east again, this time upon the
211 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Chucky road, with little halting, an advance guard under
Lieutenant Pope marching some distance in front. Thir
teen miles were covered before the two hours rest for
dinner ; then the Second Maryland and Thirty-Fifth went
in advance, scouting six miles out, much of the way at the
double-quick to keep up with our cavalry. It was fun to
see the colonel dashing ahead on his white horse, and the
men hurrying along so rapidly made the chase quite en
livening. Our packs were left at the halting place under
guard. The cavalry overtook the enemy, killing one and
capturing two. The prisoners were delivered to us and
escorted back to the resting place ; one of them, a butter
nut clad youngster, enacted the hero, and certainly bestrode
his horse in gallant fashion. Companies C and K were
left at the halting place, while the rest of the regiment
marched one or two miles on the cross-road towards Mor-
ristown, and went into bivouac among a lot of knobby hills,
making twenty-five miles for the day s run. Next morning
we marched into Morristown. This was our last duty at
the front in East Tennessee.
There was a large force about Morristown, judging from
the spread of tent cloth Fourth and Twenty-Third Corps
troops. Knapsacks came up from Knoxville, and we pitched
a regular camp. Quite unexpectedly, Lieutenant Pope,
Sergeant Worcester, Corporal Hague and several others
were detailed to proceed North on recruiting service, by
order of the War Department ; they left on the fourteenth
of March. On the seventeenth, what remained of the
Ninth Corps fell in at half-past five in the morning, the
adjutant, before moving, reading an order about straggling;
and, by the way, straggling was almost unknown in this
campaign. The teamsters were ordered to tell the citizens
that we were bound for Chucky Bend; but the band struck
up " Saint Patrick s Day in the Morning " and " Home
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 212
Again," and the report quickly circulated that we were
bound for Annapolis in Maryland. With light hearts the
boys stepped off that morning. Thus we parted from the
Fourth and Twenty-Third Corps, our tried companions of
that winter of hardship ; they remained to follow Long-
street towards the Virginia line, then to join General
Sherman in the campaign to Atlanta; we, by the long
route over the mountains, marched to face Longstreet
again in the Wilderness campaign.
We were beyond New Market at evening, and, next day,
passed Strawberry Plains, the pontoons over the Holston
and Flat Creek, to within seven miles of Knoxville, re
viewing the old camp grounds for the last time. Reaching
Knoxville in the morning, we had a spell of "bone-shaking"
winds, piercing chills from the mountains, which made it
almost impossible to get warm, however closely one crept
to the fire. All extra luggage and the regimental baggage
were sent around through Chattanooga, Nashville and
Louisville, with the sick or disabled men, by rail. The
Second Division was divided into two brigades Colonel
Titus, of the Ninth New Hampshire, taking the first, and
Colonel Carruth commanding the second. We were to
march to Kentucky by way of Jacksboro Gap and Point
Burnside.
W T e took the road at 9.30 A. M. on the twenty-first of
March and reached Clinton at dark, camping on the bank
of Clinch River opposite the town. On the twenty-second,
crossed the Clinch on flat boats, and marched in the snow
over swollen brooks sometimes crossed by a slippery
log -to camp not far from Jacksboro. March 23d, halted
at Jacksboro and drew full rations of everything : bacon
sides, pork, hard bread, coffee and sugar; the first full
rations since leaving Crab Orchard last October. If to
remember Mississippi makes one thirsty, one needs but
213 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
recall Tennessee to feel hungry as well. Pack mules were
received to carry officers luggage, in place of wagons.
On leaving Jacksboro the way led directly up the side of
Elk Mountain, a tough climb ; but when the summit was
attained and, looking back, we saw the lovely valleys and
mountains of East Tennessee spread beneath us, a pang
of regret and ingratitude struck us that we could leave so
picturesque and interesting a country with cheerful smiles.
Before the ascent, a wretched style of joke was perpe
trated by putting large stones into a victim s knapsack, for
him to "tote " to the top full rations with a vengeance I
At night, camp was located near a tannery.
March 24th, passed through grand mountain scenery,
log houses and cornfields, to bivouac on a hill-side ; a
frosty night.
March 25th, marched through Chitwoods and crossed
the line between Kentucky and Tennessee. The band
struck up " Farewell to Old Tennessee " and " Arn t
you glad to get out of the Wilderness ; " the boys gave
three cheers for the appropriate selections. Camped in
a grove.
March 26th, we plodded on over steep hills and roads
deep with mud, halting at Beaver Creek, in a pine grove, to
draw rations ; here we met wagons from Burnside s Point,
to carry the knapsacks of disabled men. We passed that
day more than two hundred dead mules : these sharp hills
and heavy roads were killing to them. Poor creatures !
they had died in the effort to keep us supplied with food
during the past winter ; but their remains were more
odorous than lovely, and it was not pleasant when passing
a deep hole to spring for a seeming rock and have the foot
slide upon the carcass of a defunct mule. The mountains
were full of holly bush, with red berries, and clumps of
trailing arbutus.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 214
March 2yth, reached Burnside s Point at the forks of the
Cumberland River, a depot of supplies at the head of
steamboat navigation. Halting there from eight in the
morning until noon, we enjoyed some of the sights of
civilization ; among them a table with a white cloth, knives
and forks, and a napkin ! but our boys were too barbarous
for the sutlers the penniless troops were inclined to ap
propriate the eatables without pay, and doors had to be
closed. The Seventh Rhode Island had been posted here
for three months past. Here Weston F. Hutchins joined
the regiment ; the first recruit to join the Thirty-Fifth
since the regiment had entered the service. He had tried
to enlist at Lynnfield, but was rejected then on account of
his minority. In the afternoon we crossed the Cumber
land on a pontoon-bridge, and passed through Somerset,
bands playing and colors flying.
March 28th, through Waynesborough to camp in the
woods.
March 29th, the Thirty-Fifth in its turn led the column.
We passed through Hall s Gap, an interesting place, well
fortified, the road winding along the hill-sides, enabling the
column to see and admire the romantic appearance of the
long train of marching troops. Camped at last upon the
blue-grass lands again.
March 3oth, the Thirty-Fifth in rear of all. Passed
through Stanford at eight in the morning and reached Old
Lancaster at noon, marching fast. Here we began to
meet our detailed men, who had passed the winter in
Kentucky, looking sleek and clean. " Ah," they remarked,
"you look rather tough !" we should think so ! The cli
mate was sensibly colder, and many had coughs, barking
all night in bivouac.
March 3ist, without a halt, passed Hickman s Bridge
and Camp Nelson, and pitched tents at old Camp Parke,
215 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
now under leafless trees, desolate and soaked in rain ; a
stormy night. Clothing distributed in the evening.
On this march from Knoxville the division had tramped
one hundred and seventy miles in eleven successive days,
averaging over fifteen miles a day, over the roughest and
muddiest of mountain roads.
April ist, we marched to the railroad station at Nicholas-
ville and slept in a storehouse, and next day, taking cars,
reached Covington at three in the morning of the third,
and stacked arms near the barracks. Crossing to Cincin
nati in the afternoon, we left by rail at dark, over the same
route we had traversed in coming West, just a year before.
In Pittsburg, on the fifth, we were served with a bountiful
collation ; mottoes were displayed, " Welcome to our
Country s Defenders ! " " Welcome the Ninth ! "
April 6th, Harrisburg and coffee at the Soldier s Rest.
Baltimore in the evening, and quarters in a building on
South Eutaw Street ; a few were entertained at the Sol
diers Home, where, one diary notes, the soldier "slept in
a bed for the first time since leaving home, almost two
years ago." On the seventh, by steamboat Columbia, to
Annapolis.
As we passed thus swiftly through the cities of the pros
perous North, we seemed strangers and alien to the soil.
These people had ample food and warm places to sleep at
night, undisturbed by the constant watchfulness of the
front. How different was our daily life ! Yet hard as our
experience had been that winter, who that endured it all
would now change the remembrance for as many months
of inglorious ease at home ? Much as we suffered in Ten
nessee, not a few declared that when peace should come
they would like nothing better than to return there
few have done so. One member of the regiment who
revisited those scenes in 1870, says that the earthworks
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2l6
were then standing about Knoxville much as we left them ;
the wood in front of our picket line had been cut down,
and in the open country beyond the city cemetery was
the National Cemetery. Examining the books of the
superintendent, the name of Ezra Currier, of Company B,
was the only one of the Thirty-Fifth whose grave was
marked with his name ; the other dead were removed
from the city lot where first interred, and their head-boards
marked "unknown."
After the war, Major Wales received the brevet rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, for conspicuous gallantry
in command of the Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts Infantry at
Knoxville, Tennessee.
CHAPTER IX.
VIRGINIA AGAIN WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN, 1864.
LANDING, April yth, at Annapolis where Burnside s
Expedition had been organized for the North Caro
lina campaign in December, 1861 the regiment marched
out by the brick buildings and grounds of the United
States Naval . Academy, through streets deep with yellow
mud, to camp beyond the railroad station ; moving further
out next day to a sandy plain about two miles from the
town and opposite the Parole Camp. We learned that
there were some twenty thousand troops about us intended
for the Ninth Corps, to be formed into four divisions, the
Fourth Division to be composed of colored troops, under
command of General Ferrero. The destination of the re-
. organized Ninth Corps was not disclosed, but several
things were pointed out to indicate an expedition on the
Southern coast : General Burnside was to command he
had hitherto generally held an independent position, and
probably would not be placed in the Potomac Army under
his junior, General Meade ; the location of the camp upon
a salt water harbor looked as if shipping was to be em
ployed ; the colored troops could hardly be intended for
the aristocratic Army of the Potomac, and the newspapers
and officers of the new regiments favored the expedition
theory. This served for camp and mess-table talk ; but
all were very busy preparing for an active campaign wher
ever it might be undertaken.
2l8 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
It was almost pathetic to view our little camp ; the low
shelter tents, regularly pitched in company streets to be
sure, but mildewed and smoke-stained, and our two or
three old wall tents for headquarters and the officers,
without camp guards or any of the glitter of martial life
visible, and compare it with the quarters of the new troops,
where ample tent cloth sheltered officers and men in
bright uniforms, bands played, guards paced to and fro,
and such strict attention was given to form and ceremony
we hardly dared to go near them ; our recent life in the
backwoods made us shy of such grandeur. The officers
with the regiment were : Colonel Carruth, Captains Lyon,
Blanchard, Hudson and Ingell, Assistant Surgeon Roche
and Lieutenants Tobey and Meserve. The, last two were
now commissioned captains, and First Sergeants Farring-
ton and Wright, Sergeant-Major White, Quartermaster-
Sergeant Cutter, First Sergeants Cobb and Mason were
promoted to first lieutenants, most of them having com
manded companies or acted as officers for some time. Of
these, Cutter was appointed quartermaster, and Cobb
acting adjutant. Surgeon Snow came to the regiment
soon after its arrival, and Lieutenant Hatch joined from
detached service in the West. Major Wales returned on
the twenty-first, and Captains Stickney and Pope visited
us, the former having resigned. Sergeant Nason acted for
a time as sergeant-major, but the position was afterwards
given to Sergeant Hagan. There were about two hundred
and fifty enlisted men present, numbers having increased
by the return of the men detailed in Kentucky. In gen
eral, furloughs were denied, which caused some grumbling,
considering the long time we had been away from our
families, but betokened a short stop at Annapolis.
The clerical work of the regiment and companies was
pressed busily, and drills and dress-parades were resumed.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 2 19
Seventy-five new Springfield rifled muskets arrived to re
place worn-out arms. Friends came to see us ; Hon.
Charles Hudson father of the Captain of Company H
and our old friends, Mayor Fay and Miss Gilson, called.
A supply of " A" tents was received and pitched on the
twelfth, and struck again on the twenty-first more than
nine days of such luxury would be enervating. Generals
Grant and Burnside reviewed the troops drawn up in line
in front of their camps, and hearty cheers were given as
they passed the regiment.
Our old brigade, "Reno s Own," was broken up a
better brigade never faced the foe and parting with the
old regiments was like sundering family ties. The Thirty-
Fifth was assigned to the First Brigade of the First Di
vision, with other Massachusetts regiments, the Fifty-
Sixth, Fifty-Seventh and Fifty-Ninth, called "Veterans,"
because to a considerable extent composed of men who
had seen a previous term of service ; and, in addition, the
Fourth, Eighth and Tenth United States Infantry regi
ments, of whom the Eighth never joined. General Thomas
G. Stevenson, formerly colonel of the Twenty-Fourth Mas
sachusetts, was to command the division. Colonel Carruth,
senior colonel, commanded the brigade, with Surgeon
Snow and Captain Tobey upon his staff. A conspicuous
addition to the corps was a regiment of cavalry with
hussar jackets overloaded with yellow braid, which quickly
earned them the nickname of "the Butterflies."
Great movements were impending, that was plain to
every one. How did we then look forward to the coming
campaign ? Rather wearily, it must be confessed ; to again
turn our backs upon home and the blessings of civilization
before time had dulled the dreary reminiscences of the
past winter was hard. Physically, however, the men con
stituting the remnant of the regiment were prepared for
220 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
any hardship. Soldiering was no longer an enthusiasm,
nor a consciously difficult endurance, it had become ordi
nary every-day life ; the men went about every duty quietly,
but with assured confidence. We remarked among the
new troops a harsher discipline than prevailed in the army
of 1862.
On the twenty-third of April, after the usual scenes of
frolic when camp was broken, the Thirty Fifth took the
lead upon the road towards Washington and lightly covered
the dozen miles of level sandy Maryland before camp was
reached. At evening, the boys had their shelter tents
well up and coffee boiling before the new troops had
stacked arms and marched off by companies for water,
with an amount of ceremony which quite astounded our
men. Our officers, also, were surprised when some of
their friends of the brigade came over to complain of
being marched so fast we had forgotten our own days
of breaking in. Next day, however, we in turn followed in
rear, and had the fun of it. It rained and the roads were
heavy; the knapsacks of the regiments ahead became un
bearable, and their contents were thrown out along the
way in confusion. Our men improved the opportunity to
exchange old for new without cost. Books, stationery,
toilet articles and clothing of all kinds strewed the road
side ; new blankets were shed in such quantities that a
citizen was seen collecting them in, a farm wagon ; we had
not seen such a wholesale throwing off of baggage since
the Confederates abandoned their luggage at South Moun
tain. Just before going into camp in the mud and rain
we forded, knee deep, a branch of the Patuxent River;
General Stevenson, who happened to witness the crossing,
laughing and seeming to approve the way in which the
men unhesitatingly dashed into the stream, not delaying
the column, and setting the rear an example.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 221
On the twenty-fifth, after more fording of branches, we
reached the outskirts of Washington and halted some time
for the Eleventh Massachusetts battery to join. It cleared
off bright and sunny. Major Wales riding at the head of
the regiment, in column with the Ninth Corps, we passed,
company front, through the city to Fourteenth Street, and
by that thoroughfare to the Long Bridge. The sidewalks,
and even the streets, were thronged with people, great
interest being manifested to see the troops pass. The torn
colors of the old regiments were continually applauded.
It was amusing to us in the ranks to overhear the com
ments. At Willard s, President Lincoln and General
Burnside reviewed the column, and here the cheering and
enthusiasm were vehement, some of the boys even threw
up their caps. Yet there was a deeper feeling under it
all, as we passed the streets full of well-fed and well-
clothed statesmen, politicians, clerks and civil employes,
yes, morituri salutamus !
" O Ceesar, we who are about to die
Salute you ! was the gladiator s cry
In the arena, standing face to face
With death, and with the Roman populace."
The overshadowing future solemnized the triumphal hour ;
we oldsters knew what was to come after.
Passing the familiar scenes about the Long Bridge, the
brigade turned to the left towards Alexandria, and went
into camp in a valley near some whitewashed barracks.
The Fifty-Sixth Massachusetts had an excellent band, and
for the first time we heard them play the soldiers chorus
from Faust, which afterwards became so familiar, com
mencing with the words :
" Glory to those who in battle fall
Their bright deeds we can with pride recall."
222 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The expectation of a naval expedition faded away.
Some of the veteran officers inquired if we did not feel a
sinking of the heart when treading again the soil of Vir
ginia; yes, and a rising of the heart, too, for Grant was to
lead us. Doubtless there would have been more shrink
ing if we had known that our indomitable leader s system
of campaign was to be attrition, with Lee s intrenched
army as the grindstone upon which we were to be ground.
For this the general has been censured, but his critics
should bear in mind that his great fear, during the whole
following year, was that Lee would escape him and con
centrate upon Sherman ; writing to the latter, April 19,
1864, from Culpeper, Grant says : " My directions then
would be, if the enemy in your front shows signs of joining
Lee, follow him up to the full extent of your ability. I
will prevent the concentration of Lee upon your front, if
it is in the power of this army to do it." No thought of
facing Lee for a day or two was in his brain when he
penned those lines. Our view of the field was too narrow.
The grasp upon Lee s army was to be constant he was to
be fought in the open field, if he would ; if not, he was to
be hammered. After the first battle, Lee remained within
his intrenchments, and pounding and grinding were our
general s only alternatives. But the position of the hammer
in the hands of Thor cannot be enviable.
We left Alexandria on the twenty-seventh, and marched
rapidly to near Fairfax Court House ; on the twenty-
eighth, through Centreville and Manassas to Bristoe ;
on the twenty-ninth, through Catlett s to Warrenton Junc
tion ; and on the thirtieth, to Bealton Station. The whole
country was one great unfenced plain, with occasional
woods ne ar streams the tramping ground of armies for
the past three years. The Thirty-Fifth and Ninth New
Hampshire, as guards, accompanied an endless train of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 223
wagons. Near Centreville, the colonel rode back and
pointed out the localities of note about the town, Black
burn s Ford and Bull Run, his mind occupied with mem
ories of the old First Massachusetts Regiment and 1861.
At Warrenton Junction we recalled Major Willard and the
extra hard bread on the march across to Fredericksburg.
At Bealton, tents were pitched in the open plain west of
the railroad, camp duties resumed, and all were busy upon
the pay-rolls. It was said that the Ninth Corps was to be
located for some time along the railroad to protect it
from raiders. May ist, Lieutenant Creasey arrived and
took position on the brigade staff, as acting assistant
adjutant-general. The Tenth Regiment, United States
Infantry, with a good band, was encamped near us,
and, with the Fourth United States Infantry, was now
attached to our brigade, making it, we hoped, a crack
corps ; but we were too soon in action to gain proper
coherence as a brigade, or even to make their acquain
tance. The cars upon the railroad were rushing the
surplus baggage and supplies towards Washington,
one train wrecking seven cars in front of our camps,
and injuring six soldiers of their freight, besides scat
tering sugar and commissary stores broadcast for the
benefit of our boys. This was early in the morning of
May 4th, at the time the men were turning out to strike
tents and prepare for the inarch. After assisting to remove
the wreck, the regiment took the line of march towards
the Rappahannock, much to the disappointment of those
who looked for a resting spell guarding the railway. We
crossed the river on the pontoons near Rappahannock
Station, where the earthworks so gallantly captured by
General Russell of the Sixth Corps, in November pre
ceding, were still undisturbed. Following the railroad to
Brandy Station, situated in a wide, treeless waste, we halted
224
HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
about noon for several hours, to allow the teams to come
up. The railroad was then left and a course taken south
easterly across Mountain Run towards the Rapidan,
marching until late at night, and finally lying uncomfort
ably by the road in constant expectation of movement.
The strength of the brigade, by the morning report of
May 3d, was :
REGIMENTS.
PRESENT.
ABSENT.
Totals
Officers.
Men.
Officers.
Men.
Fourth United States Infantry . . .
Tenth United States Infantry . . .
Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts Infantry .
Fifty-Sixth Massachusetts Infantry
Fifty-Seventh Massachusetts Infantry.
Fifty-Ninth Massachusetts Infantry .
6
4
13
3
30
29
287
233
285
689
763
79
24
25
14
7
5
7
5
65
172
87
129
121
367
327
484
813
927
947
Aggregate
112
3,47
82
624
3,86s
The march with the wagons was resumed on the fifth,
and it was announced that the Thirty-Fifth was separated
for the present from the brigade and detailed to guard
the division supply train. The weather was clear and
warm. General Burnside and staff passed to the front
early in the morning. In the afternoon, as we approached
the Rapidan, the continuous roar of battle could be heard
rising from the forests on the south bank; the sound was
impressive, not only in itself, but from the momentous
consequences which were at stake. At Ely s Ford the
water was about three feet deep, the bottom stony and
current strong; the men waded across with difficulty, and
went into camp on the south bank. Company D, under
Lieutenant Hatch Captain Lyon having resigned
being detailed to guard the ammunition train, had to re-
cross, and became separated from the regiment until the
twenty-fifth of June.
The sounds of battle were renewed at daybreak, and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 225
lasted through this day, sixth, and, with the exception of
two or three days, were continued in some direction within
our hearing for three months and a half afterwards, until
habit made the sound so customary that the dead silence
of its cessation seemed irregular. We proceeded towards
the field of battle, coming out upon the bare hills near
the Old Wilderness Tavern, where the train went into park
in the large green pasture, with the twelve hundred wagons
of the Army of the Potomac. Major Wales had a tent
pitched, for shade, upon the hill, and we waited the result
of the conflict. Right, left and front were apparently un
broken forests, purple with the opening foliage. Through
these, from left to right, was visible a line of whitish-gray
smoke rising through the tree tops, marking the lines
of battle, from which the rattling sound of musketry pro
ceeded. No artillery was to be seen excepting the one
gun, without gunners, unlimbered, and left upon the brow
of our hill. All clay the volume of sound and clouds of
smoke sank and swelled, but scarcely a man could we see ;
only now and then a wounded soldier came to our tent,
thinking it a hospital, and received the attentions of Sur
geon Roche.
Our brigade was in front of us, in the left centre of the
O
army, between the Second and Fifth Corps. The Fifth
Corps formed the centre of the army, the Second Corps
the left wing; between the two corps was a gap, near the
intersection of the Brock Road and Plank Road. Steven
son s division reported at that point about eight in the
morning. The Second Brigade was sent to the left of the
Second Corps, where it did famous service. Our brigade
was turned off by Colonel Carruth to the front into the
unoccupied ground, and formed in four lines, the right
resting on some troops said to be of the Fifth Corps, but
still leaving a small gap on the left, at the road, beyond
226 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
which was the First Massachusetts, of the Second Corps.
In this gap, in extension of our first line, we should have
been placed had we been present. In the first line were
the Fourth and Tenth United States Infantry, then the
Fifty-Sixth, Fifty-ninth next, and Fifty-Seventh in rear.
They had hardly got into position and lain down when a
tremendous musketry fire was opened upon them, which
lasted, with greater or less fury, until late in the afternoon.
Twice the enemy tried to break the lines by assault, but
failed ; late in the day they tried again, in great force,
rushing on with yells, but the brigade held on with the
steadiness of veterans, poured in volleys with telling effect,
and drove them back into the obscurity of the woods, end
ing the battle for the day on the left centre. The slaughter
was terrible : Colonel Griswold, of the Fifty-Sixth, was
killed; Colonel Bartlett, of the Fifty- Seventh, was wounded.
Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, of the Eleventh New Hamp
shire, for some months our brigade commander in Ten
nessee, fell in another part of the field, and Colonel
Harriman was captured by the enemy. General Long-
street was among the wounded of the enemy.
Towards evening we observed a decided increase of
firing on the extreme right of the army, and, after dark,
the news came that the line of the Sixth Corps had been
broken. The question was asked whether a repetition of
Chancellorsville was impending; and the immense trains
whose position was exposed if the break should be a
bad one were set in motion, and continued through the
night, taking the road to the left of the army ; but disaster
was averted by the exertions of General Sedgwick, com
manding the Sixth Corps. The regiment lay in bivouac be
hind the stacks of arms, at one time being roused out to
corduroy, with boards and rails, a part of the road which
a small brook made difficult of passage for the wagons.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 22 7
On the seventh, the army commenced the move to the
left, towards Spottsylvania. The wagon trains kept as
near the rear of the centre as possible, moving a few miles
only over dusty roads. Our old friends, the Eleventh
New Hampshire, passed us with a cheerful morning greet
ing. At night the men got no sleep, the wagons being in
the road and expecting to move at any moment. The
same slow march to the left was continued next day, halt
ing about noon for coffee. A train of ambulances and
army wagons passed with the wounded from the front, who
were furnished with water by our men. Also some hundreds
of captured Confederates marched by under guard. The
locality we had reached was the ground over which Stone
wall Jackson advanced to turn Hooker s right at Chan-
cellorsville, a year before. The leaves of last autumn had
covered most of the relics of that unfortunate affair, but
groping among the rubbish by the road-side, a human skull
was uncovered ; a fit text for one disposed to moralize in
the midst of the great events transpiring. At dark we
kept on, the train went into park near the old Chancel-
lorsville House, and we got the first sound sleep for
several nights. We passed the junction of the roads at
Chancellorsville next morning, ninth, the whole area about
the mansion crowded with wagons and artillery and
columns of troops passing towards Spottsylvania. For
several succeeding days the trains remained in park along
the road towards Fredericksburg, the men patiently await
ing events and listening to the sounds of battle in front.
Part of the Fifty-Eighth Massachusetts passed to join the
Second Division.
This trifling at the rear had its irksome side. There
was a feeling among the officers and men that we were
playing truant ; the constant music of battle kept calling
calling and yet we dawdled beside the wagons, a
228 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
necessary duty, but seeming unsoldierly at the beginning
of the campaign ; we did not appreciate, at that time r
General Grant s anxiety about the trains. At the front
one sees what is going on, knows his place and feels as if
he were doing his whole duty ; with the rear, he hears
the concentrated din of the fighting of the whole army,
knows nothing but what the exaggerated tales of stragglers
bring him, sees all the wounded congregated in the horrors
of the field hospital so that our losses appear like an army
of themselves and, if at all susceptible, he quickly gets
the blues. Much of such duty must be demoralizing ; but
it is well enough to lie in reserve occasionally, and some
times to visit the hospitals, to see what the thing is like.
Captain Blanchard expressed his views to the effect that
it was a duty unworthy of our regiment. The reply to him
was, not to worry his heroic soul, the duty would not be
likely to last long !
On the tenth, there was sanguinary fighting, and our
division commander, General Thomas G. Stevenson, was
killed by a sharpshooter. He was succeeded by General
Thomas L. Crittenden, a son of Hon. John J. Crittenden r
and previously a commander of the left wing of the Army
of the Cumberland, under General Rosecrans. Major
Wales, having sent in his resignation at Alexandria, re
ceived his discharge, and returned to Massachusetts with
the body of General Stevenson, his former colonel in the
Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts. Captain Lyon also de
parted at the same time, leaving Captain Blanchard senior
officer and in command until the fifteenth.
Next day, we had rain in the afternoon, and the regi
ment moved a little way into the woods and tents were
pitched. At daylight of the twelfth heavy firing was heard
at the front, which continued with great rapidity until
three in the afternoon, then ceased, except a solitary can-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 229
non heard at intervals. This was the noise of battle
attendant upon General Hancock s successful assault with
the Second Corps upon the Confederate salient, in which
he captured Major-General Edward Johnson, Brigadier-
General Geo. H. Stewart, and some three thousand pris
oners and twenty cannon. After the prisoners were taken
to the rear, it is related that Hancock seeing Stewart, a
former friend, extended his hand, saying " How are you,
Stewart ? " The latter haughtily replied, " I am General
Stewart of the Confederate Army, and, under the circum
stances, I decline to take your hand." " And under any
other circumstances, General, I should not have offered
it," was Hancock s response. No anecdote could better
illustrate the disposition in which the two armies fought ;
the officers of the Confederate army bitterly vindictive and
making the war a personal affair, the Union army lenient
and without ill-will. Indeed this dissimilarity helps to
account for much of the difference in fighting spirit, which
some writers state was possessed in greater degree by the
Confederate soldier. Shakespeare wrote long ago :
" To be tender-minded does not become a sword ; "
but it was part of the task of the Union army to overcome
hostile hearts as well as hostile hands.
We halted in the drizzle near Salem Church, the scene
of General Sedgwick s battle of May 4th, 1863, and saw
these prisoners pass under guard ; their officers appeared
in no wise discouraged, but the men, as is usual with
prisoners, rather a bedraggled looking set. The regiment
spent the afternoon upon a by-road, repairing a bridge for
the wagons to pass. There was a pleasant house near by,
with greenhouses and exotic plants, among which the men
wandered during the halt. At night we reached the turn
pike and slept under some pine trees dripping with mois-
230 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
ture. On the thirteenth, the trains and guards moved
rapidly over the pike to within three miles of Fredericks-
burg, where, in an open field, the wagons went into park ;
tents were pitched over the fourteenth and rations issued,
A military band wandered disconsolately about, like wet
fowls, in the rain and mud, their instruments bruised and
clothing much the worse for the ten days south of the
Rapidan.
We were surprised and cheered, on the fifteenth, by the
arrival of two officers, Captain Park and Adjutant Wash-
burn, from detached service at Lexington, Kentucky.
Captain Park took command of the regiment. Next day
the train moved towards the city and joined the immense
park of wagons near the old battle -field ; the regiment
turned to the south and went into camp upon a wooded
hill-side overlooking Hazel Run. The men improved the
opportunity to visit the scene of the battle of December
i3th, 1862, so memorable to us, searching for old land
marks. The ridge and sunken road with the stone wall
were so well defined as to be easily recognized, but the
plain below, where we had advanced, was now so changed
in appearance by the destruction of houses, fences, etc.,
as to render locating any point quite difficult ; the small
house with the battered chimney was, however, recognized.
In the course of the day orders came from the front for
the regiment to join the brigade. Captain Blanchard drew
a breath of relief ; his wish, " to take a thousand before
breakfast," might now be gratified.
Early in the morning of May lyth, the regiment was on
the way south-westerly by the telegraph road towards
Spottsylvania. After some ten miles of easy marching,
we struck into a military road cut through the pine woods
and came out upon a rise of land overlooking the valley
of the Ny River. The lines of our army could be seen
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 231
extending far to the left, posted close up to the pine woods,
which separated them from the Confederate intrenchments
about Spottsylvania Court House. Turning off to the
right we met some of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regi
ment, as before at South Mountain and . Fredericksburg r
and crossing the little Ny River upon a temporary bridge
found our brigade.
Our division was behind hastily constructed low in
trenchments upon the hither slope of a little elevation,
beyond a small brook, an affluent of the Ny, in which
some of the men were bathing as we approached. In front
of our lines was an open space for a few rods, then pine
woods with thick undergrowth ; upon our right were pine
woods, which concealed our troops in that direction ; but
in front of this forest, between it and the enemy, was an
open field, in which, at some distance from us, could be
seen the bodies of several soldiers, who had fallen in the
attack of the twelfth, still unburied. The scene of Gen
eral Hancock s surprise and capture of the Confederates,
mentioned above, was beyond these woods and fields.
We were shocked at the appearance of the men of the
brigade, so thoroughly had the struggles of the past few
days worn off their polish and newness ; their numbers
also were wofully diminished ; they looked, it was re
marked, as if they had just arrived from Blain s Cross
Roads by way of Big Creek Gap. A little picket firing was
going on in the forest in front ; one bullet intended for Lieu
tenant Farrington, passing through his shelter tent close
by his head. We learned that General J. H. Ledlie, an
officer entirely unknown to us, was in command of the
brigade, our colonel having gone to hospital. Lieu
tenant Creasey was upon his staff. At evening, orders
were received to be ready to assault the enemy s works in
front at an early hour next morning. There was a little
232 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
moon throwing its soft light over the martial scene; the
men conversed quietly, in the subdued way so marked
when under orders to attack, then slept, rolled in their gray
blankets, and quiet reigned over the bivouac.
Awakened without noise, at half after three in the morn
ing, a double line was formed in front of our works ; the
front line was to advance and feel the enemy, we were to
support it. About five in the morning, the signal sounds
of attack were heard from our right, and our lines advanced
in good style into the woods. The enemy were awake,
and, conscious of our approach, opened upon us with
spherical case-shot ; the bursting missiles tearing through
the shrubbery and laying low several of our men. The
first line reached the opening before the Confederate
works, halted upon a ridge and commenced firing; the
Thirty-Fifth moving up, came close upon the rear of the
troops in front. Hardly had we attained this position,
when the Confederates fired a volley, and some person
whether authorized or not in the front line shouted
loudly " Retreat ! " Very likely it was done by some
bounty jumper, who, trusting to be undiscovered in the
confusion of an engagement, took this method of getting
out of an unpleasant situation. This danger of false
orders is one to which all troops, in which unwilling men
are serving, are constantly exposed, and it was our first
experience with that class. At all events, whoever
started it, the word was repeated, and the troops went
back in a decidedly hasty manner, the first line running
over our men, who thinking it was an overwhelming
counter attack and that the order to fall back was by
authority went to the rear with equal celerity.
On getting to the open space in front of our intrench-
ments, no pursuers being seen, the men stopped and
immediately formed into line again, those who had reached
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 233
the works coming out without hesitation. At this time a
natty-looking officer, apparently a lieutenant, appeared
and began to address the men in a rather excited manner,
" Fall in, Thirty-Fifth ! Steady, Thirty-Fifth ! " etc., while
our men looked at him calmly and wondering who he was.
One of our officers spoke to him, saying : " Don t trouble
yourself ; you attend to your business and we 11 attend to
ours !" to which, if he heard it which, fortunately for all
concerned, he probably did not he made no reply; our
officer was abashed to learn afterwards that the animated
gentleman was our new general, Ledlie. The Fifty-
Seventh Massachusetts, under the gallant Lieutenant-
Colonel Chandler, now went forward in admirably kept
ranks, but, singularly enough, by flank, to the front, and
the Thirty-Fifth again advanced in line of battle on their
right. The Fourth and Tenth United States Infantry
were on the right of the Thirty-Fifth. We passed through
the woods, reached the opening nearest the enemy, and,
at about one hundred yards from their intrenchments, the
whole line lay down, without firing a shot, and in this
position calmly sustained the fire of the enemy two or
three hours, with little loss to us, as the shells and bullets
of the Confederates passed over our heads. The order
was simply " to feel the enemy," and as it was plain they
were ready to receive us, no final assault was ordered. The
good conduct of Sergeant Alfred W. Tirrell (afterwards
lieutenant), while scouting on our left, was commended
by Captain Hudson.
While lying thus, a man in the uniform of a staff officer
came along the line with a solid shot in hand inquiring for
a certain battery; turning to the front he disappeared
through the line, which let him pass, not suspecting his
intention, until he pulled out a white handkerchief and
sprang lightly into the Confederate intrenchment, much to
234 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
the chagrin of those who witnessed the performance.
That fellow has always been known in the regiment as the
" mysterious stranger," and guesses of all sorts have been
made about him : spy, deserter, or Confederate officer
accidentally caught in our lines, ghost or real flesh and
blood, he was of a most intrepid spirit. This was the
second instance of mistake in persons that morning, owing
to lack of mutual acquaintance in our brand-new brigade.
The line received orders to return to our intrenchments,
and the regiment retired by right of divisions to the rear,
as if on drill. One hundred men of the Thirty-Fifth were
detailed under command of Captain Meserve to occupy
the picket line during the rest of the day and the follow
ing night.
Our loss was : two officers wounded, Adjutant Wash-
burn and Lieutenant Wright, and twenty enlisted men
killed and wounded. The killed or mortally wounded
were : Corporal Alfred E. Waldo, of Company E, Corporal
John F. Cole and George Clark, of Company F, Sergeant
L. T. Holmes, of Company H, and Sergeant Wm. R,
Wright, of Company K. The fallen men were, of course,
well known ; no man dropped out of our ranks in this
campaign but it was like the loss of a brother to all the
rest. Of Sergeant Wright, a comrade preserved these
lines in a diary : " He bore his sufferings like a true hero,
being torn by canister in the left arm and right leg near
the hip, and did not fear to die, only feeling sorry for his
family, which he spoke kindly of, requesting me to tell
them that he died happy."
The day passed quietly, and was spent in resting or
in making the acquaintance of our comrades in the other
regiments of the brigade. On the nineteenth, before day
break, the whole division was withdrawn from the works,
the picket line covering the rear, and marched to the left
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 235
of the army, past General Burnside s headquarters near
which we stopped to make coffee and came out upon a
more open and level tract of country than we had seen for
some time. The movement was conducted in good order,
without appearance of the enemy, who were heard chopping
trees in our front as we left.
Reaching the extreme left, the Thirty-Fifth was ordered
forward as skirmishers to discover the enemy. The open
country offered a fine opportunity for a display of the
skirmish line, and the manoeuvre was neatly executed ; the
regiment moving up in line and deploying to the right and
left, then advancing as if on drill, General Ledlie and the
brigade looking on. After going forward about half a
mile, the left of the line being in oak woods, a position
was reached near a pine grove from which the Confederate
lines could be inspected ; their rifle-pits extending along
the further bank of the Po River or a branch of it. Here
the regiment remained until relieved by a detail for picket,
when we moved to the right and formed on the brigade
line at Queesenberry s ; the Fourth United States Infantry
coming up on our left. The usual line of intrenchments
covering our front was then thrown up, and the men slept
the sleep of the very weary, soon broken, however, by an
order to occupy the trenches, as an attack was expected,
but which did not occur.
The following day was spent in quiet; two lines of earth
works were built in our rear, and batteries placed at inter
vals, making a formidable defence. At evening the bands
played to cheer up the men. While we had been with the
trains no attack was made upon them, but on the nine
teenth we could hear behind us the music of battle from
General Ewell s attempt in imitation of Stonewall Jack
son to sweep upon our rear, which was repulsed by the
heavy-artillery regiments and some of our cavalry.
236 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The army commenced, on the twenty-first, another move
to the left ; the Second Corps had already started. It was
intended that the Ninth Corps should move eastward,
down the Po River to Stannard s Mill, cross there and ad
vance south upon the west side of the river. When General
Curtin, with his brigade of the Second Division, arrived at
the Mill, the Confederates appeared in such force that this
line of march could only be secured by a battle, which was
not advisable ; Curtin, therefore, held the position while
the rest of the corps passed in his rear to Guinea Station,
on the east side of the Frederick sburg and Richmond
Railroad.
We started about five in the afternoon. The pickets
under Lieutenant Farrington were left out, and had a hot
time that night before they were relieved. The Sixth
Corps occupied the works abandoned by us, and we had
gone but a short distance when the enemy, for whose
attack we had constantly watched, made an assault upon
that corps and suffered a severe repulse. While we
marched, the thunders of this battle in our rear filled our
ears and was then quite inexplicable, all had seemed so
quiet at our starting. All the night we kept on, with
flankers out upon the right, until we reached the Fred-
ericksburg turnpike, then northward upon this well worn
road until we met the cross road running east again to
Guinea s. We crossed the railroad early in the morning,
overtook at the station the rear of the corps which had
preceded us, and came to a halt near several houses for
coffee. Some will remember that as we passed a house
upon the left a window was thrown up, a head appeared,
and a volley of maledictions was hurled at us, much to the
amusement of the passing troops.
From Guinea Station we turned south again, falling in
left in front, and marched near the railroad, passing Gen-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 237
eral Grant s headquarters where General Burnside re
viewed the corps keeping on slowly all day, crossing
the railroad and several bridges, and halted for the night
in a ploughed field near the Mattapony River, where Lieu
tenant Farrington and the pickets caught up with the
regiment.
On the twenty-third we made slow progress southward,
over hot and dusty roads, while the Second Corps was
pushing forward to effect a crossing of the bridge over the
North Anna River. During the day a sergeant of some
regiment ahead passed us, while we halted, and attracted
attention by the excessive profanity with which he ad
dressed his men, who were tugging large quarters of fresh
beef. All at once General Burnside and staff came riding
through the woods ; the general overheard the sergeant s
blasphemy, stopped short, his eyes flashing with indigna-
tion 5 demanded the man s name and regiment, ordered
him reduced to the ranks, and his chevrons and stripes
torn off on the spot; an act of summary justice which
seemed quite to the satisfaction of the perspiring privates.
At twilight heavy musketry was heard ahead, and the
brigade stacked arms in a ploughed field on the right of
the road, got rations and slept, within a mile or two of the
North Anna. The country along the railroad was open
and inhabited, but as we approached the river we again
struck the pitch-pine forests, with roads much travelled
and deep with dust. The firing heard was the successful
assault of the Second Corps upon the bridge-head at
Chesterfield Bridge.
While we were making this long circuit, General Lee
had ample time to prepare his defence on the North Anna.
He formed his army in a V shape, the point resting upon
the river. The Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed above at
Jericho Mills and enveloped the west side of the angle, and
238 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
tore up the Virginia Central Railroad ; the Second Corps
and part of the Ninth crossed at Chesterfield Bridge and
attacked the east side. We had reached the river at Ox
Ford, where the point of the V rested, and the plan was
for us to cross, crush in this angle, and become the centre
of the army connecting the Second and Fifth Corps.
On the sunny afternoon of the twenty-fourth of May, the
brigade started across the fields directly for a ford above
Ox Ford, coming out upon the high bank of the river,
which here runs in a deep cutting. The descent to the
stream was so abrupt that one of our officers, seeing Major
Putnam of the Fifty-Sixth going down on horse-back, re
marked to him, in allusion to " Old Put " of Revolutionary
fame, that " it was not quite so steep as Horse s Neck,
but would do for practice," at which he laughed ; but the
major was not so lucky as his ancestor, for he received a
mortal wound upon the opposite bank.
The North Anna was not very wide, but deep for ford
ing and full of rocks, consequently the crossing was slow
work. It was a picturesque spot and an interesting scene,
enlivened by a few rattling shots which echoed in the woods
above, but without other signs of an enemy near. General
Crittenden s intention had been to attack with the Sec
ond Brigade, but, as ours arrived first, as soon as we were
assembled upon the south bank, he commenced operations.
The Thirty-Fifth was again ordered forward as skirmishers,
to beat the thick woods in front. The men wished to
leave their knapsacks, but, as we did not expect to return
to the spot, they were obliged to lug them along. Form
ing in line of battle facing the south-east, Captain Hudson
was placed in charge of the left ; Captain Meserve, of the
right; while Captain Park, with Company G as reserve,
took the centre. The deployment was quickly made, the
line fronted, then, at the command, "Forward, guide
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 239
centre march!" the boys dashed ahead in the spirited
way an old soldier loves to see. The reserve had hard
work to keep up with the line, which, passing some pickets
on the right, wearing bucktails in their caps Pennsyl
vania Reserves of the Fifth Corps crossed several
ravines, and advancing some half a mile, driving back the
Confederate pickets, came out into an open field in full
view of the enemy s intrenchments. After exchanging
shots, forward again went the line over the open field,
driving the gray-coats from their pits and for the moment
clearing the field ; but they returned in force, too heavy
for a skirmish line to withstand, and compelled our men
to fall back across the field to the woods, where they took
position partly sheltered and held on. The right of our
line, companies A, E and F, though less close than the
left to the enemy s works, was more exposed upon the
flank, which the Confederates took advantage of, issued
from their intrenchments to the right, and coming behind
our line swept off four or five men, including Sergeant
Lunt, and compelled the right to retire also to the woods.
Meanwhile, the rest of the brigade had been formed in
two lines of battle, and came forward through the woods
with that swaying from side to side so noticeable in a close
line of battle advancing over rough wooded ground. They
bore to the left, coming up in rear of our line in the edge
of the woods behind companies H and I, and commenced
firing by volleys upon the enemy, who now opened a rapid
fire of artillery, and the action was hot for an hour or two,
without material change on either side, until ammunition
was pretty well used up. The right of the line of battle
was well covered by our skirmishers, but on the left the
most dangerous position, as it was nearest the Confederate
line the skirmishers, owing to the brigade coming up
behind our left companies, extended but a little way.
240 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
This the enemy discovered after a time, and coming out
of their works upon our left, charged into them with their
well-known yells, which, added to the effect of a smart
shower driving in the faces of our men, broke the forma
tion, and the regiments fell back towards the river into a
line of works which the troops in our rear had constructed.
The left of our skirmish line went back with the rest, ex
cept several unfortunates who were surprised and captured;
the reserve and right under Captain Park remained out
until Captain Hudson came from the left with the news,
when they also were drawn back some distance and finally
into the works.
It had been a lively afternoon s work, and the advance
of the line as skirmishers was never better done by the
regiment ; the men, although obliged finally to retire, felt
proud of the performance and strengthened confidence in
the old Thirty-Fifth, and with justice, for General Crit-
tenden, speaking of its swift advance, said, "He had never
seen the like before." The losses of the regiments in the
line of battle were heavy. The much-admired Lieutenant-
Colonel Chandler, of the Fifty-Seventh, fell, mortally
wounded, and had to be abandoned to the enemy. The
loss of our regiment was small, as the men took advantage
of all shelter, six wounded and eight prisoners picked off
the flank, viz. : Sergeant J. W. Lunt, of Company A ;
Robert Steele, F. Sweeney and James A. Lord, of Com
pany C; Israel Roach and another, of Company F; Corporal
B. F. Pratt, of Company H ; and Sergeant Henry W. Tis-
dale, of Company I. Also Lieutenant Creasey, of General
Ledlie s staff, had the misfortune to be swept in by the
Confederate line, and was forced to spend the remainder
of his term of service as a prisoner of war.
The position of the enemy was found to be too strong
and too easily reenforced upon either flank to justify the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 241
cost of crushing it in, and our army remained astride of
the river, bridges being built or pontoons laid at all need
ful points.
On the twenty-sixth, unexpectedly to us, the regiment
was appointed the engineer corps for the First Division,
and ordered to report to Major Morton, chief engineer of
the Ninth Corps. The order came through General
Ledlie, who was directed to detail an old and reliable
regiment for the duty, and honored the Thirty-Fifth by the
selection. The detail of line regiments for engineer duty
was a novelty to us, and was introduced by Major Morton,
an officer whose service with the Army of the Potomac was
brief, but who was the most capable and zealous soldier our
regiment ever had intimate relation with. He was born
in Philadelphia in 1829, graduated at West Point in 1851,
and was appointed to the engineers. After serving as
assistant professor of engineering at the Academy, and
taking charge of various works, he went to Central
America at the head of the Chiriqui expedition in 1860.
In the spring of 1862 he was chief engineer of the Army
of the Ohio, and in the following October received the
same rank in the Army of the Cumberland, under Rose-
crans, and, soon after, he was made a brevet brigadier-
general. He built the intrenchments at Murfreesboro and
o
was engineer of the works at Chattanooga. At the time
the Thirty-Fifth was placed under his orders he was a
total stranger to us by name and reputation, and much as
we looked up to him, we never fully appreciated his worth
until we lost him.
The detail duty as engineers continued until about the
first of September following, and had its advantages, al
though the work was hard and often perilous. The com
manding officer of the regiment was placed in a difficult
position between two superiors, his brigadier and Major
242 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Morton, both issuing orders, with a resulting double allow
ance of duty. Interference with his engineers was resented
by Major Morton, and whom to obey was sometimes a
vexatious question. This trouble could have been avoided
by bringing the engineer regiments of the corps under a
brigadier of their own, and this would have been best for
instruction and division of work ; but a withdrawal from
the line would have weakened it to that extent against
attack, therefore it was not attempted. The result was
that in addition to their severe extra labors, the men of
the regiment took part in all the battles of the First Di
vision with one exception which occurred during the
detail, although regular engineer regiments are exempted
from line duty in consideration of their other exertions.
General Grant, having decided that Lee s position on
the North Anna could not be carried without a loss dis-
proportioned to its value, determined to move to the
Pamunkey River. The base of supplies was transferred
from Fredericksburg to the White House, and the army,
undisturbed, executed another bold flank march in the face
of the enemy. Late on the twenty-sixth, the regiment was
withdrawn to the north side of the river and stacked arms
upon the bank, watching the returning troops ; the knap
sacks were put in wagons and each man given some tool,
pick, shovel or axe to carry. At daylight the Confederate
pickets approached the south bank and opened a scatter
ing but harmless fire, to which no reply was made. We
marched south-easterly, following the Fifth Corps, travelling
almost at a run when on the road, but stopping frequently
to fill up mud holes and places difficult for the artillery
and wagons. At night we built a temporary bridge over
a small stream, the regiment bein divided into three
reliefs and working all night.
On the twenty-eighth, we pushed along in the same way,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 243
passing King William s Church, the weather hot and roads
dusty, yet accomplishing twenty miles, and reaching the
Parnunkey at Hanovertown at six in the evening. We
crossed on the canvas pontoons and slept on the south bank.
South of the Pamunkey the country continued well
covered with woods, with occasional open tracts or old farm
lots ; the loose soil was cut into deep swampy ravines along
the numerous winding branches of Totopotomoy Creek;
a difficult country for offensive operations. The roads all
converged to the south-west, crossing the Chickahominy
River to Richmond, now not more than a dozen miles or
so distant. The Fifth Corps advanced to the front of
Shady Grove and skirmishing commenced; Near Hawes s
Shop we built a line of intrenchments in the woods on the
left of a church ; it was Sunday, and this was the nearest
we got to a religious observance of the day in this cam
paign. The line was hardly finished when the troops had
advanced so far as to render the works needless. General
Lee with his army held the north bank of the Chicka
hominy, covering the approaches to Richmond, and it was
anticipated that he would now yield ground only inch by
inch. Our corps approached his lines at Shady Grove,
and then with the Fifth Corps shifted along his front to
Bethesda Church and Cold Harbor; while the Second
and Sixth Corps were transferred from the right to the left
of the army.
The work for the whole army along this line was severe
to the limit of human endurance ; the weather hot, with
occasional showers, and very enervating. To most who
were there the memory of those days is probably a tangle
of confused incidents, which the following extract from
Captain then first sergeant Nason s diary will help to
unravel, and also exhibit the variety of duty performed by
the regiment as engineers :
244 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
" Monday, May 3oth. Marched nine A. M., proceeding:
very cautiously, and having made only one and a half miles
at noon, halted for two hours and made coffee ; then again
moved on slowly half a mile and stacked arms in woods
on the right of our brigade. Soon after, moved by left
flank to the front about a mile, and took position in an
open field near the edge of woods at nine P. M. and threw
up breastworks (near Huntley s Corner) ; picket firing con
tinued through the night, at times quite lively, which twice
called us up, expecting an attack, but our pickets held
their ground ; slept an hour. Drew rations at midnight.
Our position is with left resting on the Shady Grove Road.
"Tuesday, May 3 1 st. Called up early. Regiment ordered
to cut road through woods for artillery to pass, which was
speedily done; meantime our position in the breast
works was filled by a portion of the Fourteenth Massachu
setts Artillery. After completing the road, returned to
our position in the works. Advanced with our brigade
half a mile at noon, by left flank, and formed line of battle
in woods, when we quickly commenced a breastwork.
Half an hour later the order came to retire to our old
position, a flank movement being anticipated. Several
men of the brigade were wounded before reaching the
works, two of the Thirty-Fifth slightly. The Fourteenth
Massachusetts and Second Maine batteries took position
in front of our intrenchments P. M., and earthworks to cover
them were thrown up by the Thirty-Fifth ; while at work
the rest of the brigade advanced, when biisk firing began,
but they held their position. Some picket firing during
the night, which passed quietly, obtaining considerable
sleep.
"Wednesday, June ist. Left intrenchments at eleven
and a half A. M., with tools, etc., and moved, by left flank, a
few rods in front of our outer line of breastworks. Stacked
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 245
arms and commenced, by order, to throw up a new line of
works at right angle with the old line* Worked steadily
till five P. M., when heavy volleys of musketry were heard
to our left, and a yell of the enemy ; we put on equipments
and resumed work. An hour later an attack was made in
our front, at right angles with the line we had partly
finished, which, of course, furnished us no protection, and,
our skirmishers being driven in, a rush was made for the
stacks of arms, which caused considerable confusion. As
we had no support outside of the intrenchments, we made
our way back to our old position, and, as soon as our
skirmishers arrived, opened a brisk fire, which, together
with shots from our artillery which was most ably served
.this day had the effect to drive back the enemy. Our
skirmishers again advanced to near their former position
and no further trouble occurred during the night. The
regiment escaped with only two wounded : Sergeant
William White of Company H, and H. C. Green of Com
pany I. Three recruits arrived for Company K, one an
old soldier.
"June 2d. Quiet morning. Left breastworks at three
p. M., moved by left flank slowly along eastward. Had
proceeded a mile and a half when our pickets in rear were
attacked. We had just passed a line of battle, which was
soon wheeled to the right and marched forward on the
double-quick towards the enemy. Our batteries got into
position and a brisk fire commenced on both sides, which
continued after dark. The enemy was held in check.
Our brigade was not engaged, but, while lying down in
readiness in the open field, our regiment had three men
wounded by our own shells. Retired a short distance in
rear of the Gibson House said to be eight miles from
Richmond in an air line and threw up breastworks, com-
*An odd piece of engineering never explained to us.
246 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
pleting them at dark. A very heavy shower before the
attack wet us through, and made ,the roads in bad con
dition for awhile, but they soon dried up. Passed the
night quietly near the Gibson House (near Bethesda
Church).
"June 3d. Skirmishing commenced at daylight on our
right front, which terminated in an engagement, six and
half A. M. ; the Second and Third Divisions being engaged.
Several charges were made by the enemy, who were repulsed
each time ; losses heavy on both sides, but, we having the
best position for batteries, our loss said to be less than the
enemy s. They planted a battery quite near our skirmish
line, but were prevented from using it by our skirmishers.
Hard fighting during the day with ground gained by our;
side, also some prisoners. The regiment proceeded to the
second rear line of intrenchments at three P. M., and at
five commenced to build quite an extensive fort, shaped
like a square : eight feet high, twenty-eight feet through at
base, from which extends a platform six feet wide, termi
nating at the ditch, eight feet deep and fifteen feet wide.
The regiment was divided into two reliefs and continued
work through the night. The troops behaved well. The
rest of the brigade moved forward ; had a few wounded.*
" June 4th. No firing heard till seven A. M., which proved
to be our troops discharging their muskets. The enemy
left our front at four A. M. Those who visited the battle
field pronounced it equal in severity to anything ever wit
nessed. Horses covered the ground, and forty were
counted in the space of an acre. Trees were full of holes,
and many rebels lay where they fell ; their battery-men
suffered terribly. Orders at seven and a half A. M. to stop
work on the fort, which would have taken three days to
complete. Three cheers heard at our left at eleven
* Colonel Schall, of Fifty-First Pennsylvania, was killed this day.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 247
o clock predicted good news. We moved about half a
mile and stacked arms. Troops on the move. Moved
again at seven P. M., two miles south-eastward, and stacked
arms near division headquarters and put up shelter tents,
the first time for several days. A rainy night ; some picket
firing.
" Sunday, June 5th. Marched, five and a half A. M., a
short distance, and stacked arms in rear of the first line of
breastworks, left equipments, etc., and proceeded in front
of breastworks to make a passage to a fort being built
by the Fifty-First New York ; after which worked on
fort. Three privates of our regiment wounded while at
work. Heavy fighting on our left, nine p. M., and, soon
after, skirmishing in our front, which prevented the men
from working. We retired to our stacks, remaining be
hind the breastworks until midnight ; then moved one mile
to rear, working on a road upon a side hill until two and
a half A. M., when we lay down to rest.
"June 6th. Resumed work at four A.M. on road, and made
bridge near General Burnside s headquarters. Heavy
shelling by the enemy in the afternoon, several shots
falling near the regiment, but no one injured. Very warm
day. A shower at dark. Several recruits arrived for the
regiment. Henry Card found a box of hard bread, left by
some cook during the shelling, which replenished our
empty haversacks. Finished work on the bridge at ten
p. M. and turned in for the night.
"June yth. Moved at five A. M. to the fort and resumed
work, after disposing of our coffee. The regiment worked
by wings undisturbed till ten A. M. ; when our pickets in
front were attacked ; stopped work until our line was re
established, when the firing ceased, and work was again
resumed on the fort. While watching the progress of
work on the stockade a minie-ball passed spitefully
248 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
through the left leg of my pants, just above the knee, the
only damage done. Heavy shelling by the enemy in the
afternoon, which continued one and a half hours ; the shots
passing over us to the rear. Heavy musketry on our right.
The Fifty-First New York, while at work on intrenchments
at the front, was attacked and several men taken prisoners.
A flag of truce appeared to our left, seven p. M., from the
enemy, to bury the dead, and there was no firing for two
hours in that quarter. Considerable picket firing during
the night. Relieved from work at nine P. M., retired to
woods outside of breastworks and bivouac for the night,
being relieved by the Eighth Michigan regiment.
" June 8th. Resumed work on, the fort, six A. M., relieving
in turn the Eighth Michigan, and commenced a traverse
from right front corner to centre of the rear. Dimensions
of fort : rear, one hundred and sixty feet ; right side,
eighty-three feet ; front, seventy-two feet ; left, one hun
dred and three feet. Were relieved at nine P. M. and
passed the night quietly in same position as before. One of
Company A was wounded slightly in the head while at work
on the fort. A quiet day in front, only light picket firing.
"June Qth. Returned to the fort at six and a half A. M.,
finding three guns of Roemer s battery placed there during
the night. Captain Park being unwell, Captain Blanchard
took command. Finished the traverse and made a maga
zine, six feet deep, twelve feet long, covered with five feet
of earth. A slight shower in the afternoon. Finished
work at ten P. M. and retired to our usual position for the
night. Quiet night, moonlight evening ; the boys in the
best of spirits.
"June icth. A pleasant day. Captain Blanchard in
command. Remained quiet all day. Made out company
report from June ist to date. Roemer s battery opened
from the fort at noon, continuing till eight P. M., at
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 249
intervals of five minutes. One shot from the enemy
wounded three men in our front, bursting over the rifle
pits. Passed a night of undisturbed rest."
Such was life in the trenches on the Cold Harbor front.
Two members of the regiment died of wounds received
during these movements : James W. Bartlett, of Company
A, and George F. Sargent, of Company G. The diet upon
which these severe labors were prosecuted was hard bread,
coffee, salt pork, and, occasionally, fresh beef ; no vege
tables or change of any kind was made, yet few com
plained of illness. The endurance of the men was
wonderful, and their zeal was constantly commended by
Major Morton, who was superintending the work, visiting
it from time to time day and night, so that he seemed not
to require sleep to support his energetic life. The labors
of the officers were lighter than those of the men simply
to oversee the workers yet even they speak of the
severity of the constant mental and physical strain. Cap-
lain Hudson showed special ability in executing the plans
of Major Morton upon the fort. This earthwork when
completed was called Fort Fletcher, or the Red Fort, from
the color of the soil thrown up. Heavy oblong shells
were found in digging, relics of the siege artillery used in
McClellan s campaign, for in our front were Gaines s Mill,
Mechanicsville, New Cold Harbor, and other fields of
McClellan s operations. The movements during the days
above detailed were always to the left, General Burnside
covering the right of the army, and withdrawing from
Shady Grove to Bethesda Church and then to Cold
Harbor. The whole district became a maze of lines of
-earthworks, running in all directions, and difficult to thread
even to us who saw it grow. The owners of plantations
thereabouts must have been astonished when they came to
examine their premises after our departure.
250 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The losses of the opposing armies to this date had been
enormous, that of the Union the heaviest by far, as it was
generally the attacking party. The men who had fallen
could not be replaced, they were the bravest and most ex
perienced of the army, and the recruits and soldiers from
the fortifications were not equal to them in the steadiness
which only long service in action at the front can give.
Yet the pluck of the men, as stated in the diary above,
continued good ; they had learned to dread making assaults
upon fortified lines, for hitherto, cases of surprise excepted,.
they had found such defences impregnable ; but they
shared the confidence of their indomitable leader, Grant,
that somewhere, by manoeuvring and constant pressure,
he would find the weak spot in General Lee s armor.
Towards the end of May, the Ninth Corps, which had
hitherto received orders directly from General Grant, on
account of General Burnside s seniority in rank to General
Meade, was, by Burnside s waiver of superior rank, perma
nently joined to the Army of the Potomac. This ended
all talk about independent expeditions, expectations of
which had been kept alive among the men by unfounded
rumors. The number of men in the Thirty-Fifth at this
time was : for duty, two hundred and fifty-one, absent,
one hundred and thirty-five, total, three hundred and
eighty-six. Quartermaster Cutter joined the regiment for
a few days from the trains, all the quartermasters being
ordered to their regiments to oversee the commissary
department, which needed supervision among the new
troops. Lieutenant Berry joined from recruiting service,
and was received with a warm welcome ; he was a bright
soldierly spirit and a general favorite.
The strength of Lee s position along the Chickahominy
was so formidable that Grant, having delivered the grand
assault unsuccessfully on the third of June, now turned to
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 251
the left again ; this time, as at Vicksburg, by a sweep
to the south upon the enemy s communication so grand in
conception that even Lee did not mistrust it, and remained
north of the James River until our attack upon Petersburg
was actually begun. So quietly was our army withdrawn
from Cold Harbor that the artillery of the enemy could be
heard by our retiring pickets firing upon our forts for an
hour after the garrisons had left them. The Fifth Corps
and cavalry crossed the Chickahominy to our left of Lee s
position, and then facing Richmond at the White Oak
swamp, served as a shield, behind which the rest of the
army passed undisturbed to the James River.
We started on the twelfth of June, repairing the road to
Tunstall s Station on the White House Railroad, which
we reached at evening ; Companies B and K staying behind
to repair a bridge, then following in rear. The cooks had
drawn the rations, and, unfortunately for them, had no time
to distribute them before the start ; they will, doubtless,
remember the " toting " of their burdens over the eleven
miles to the station that warm day. The day following,
slow progress was made, some ten miles south-easterly
towards the lower Chickahominy, stopping occasionally to
assist the wagons, which blocked the roads. Captain Park
was in command again. In the evening we were enter
tained with a road-side concert, in which Captains Blanchard
and Ingell and Sergeant Nason, with others, joined. On the
fourteenth we were at work at daylight repairing the road
through a swamp hole ; then moved on, crossing Black Creek
at Forge Mills, and passed to the south side of the Chicka
hominy soon after at Jones s Bridge. Here an island divided
the stream, requiring but one pontoon upon one side, two
upon the other, to bridge the river ; not a wide stream, surely,
for one so famous ; but the swamps upon either side were
extensive and wild and intricate beyond description.
252 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Pushing along the road, in advance of everything, towards
the James River, we were told that Wild s African Brigade
was in the neighborhood, but we did not have the good
fortune to meet our former colonel, or the officers trans
ferred from the Thirty-Fifth to his command. The country
soon became open and cultivated. The road was shaded
by cherry and mulberry trees, which, when we halted,
became alive with blue jackets, gathering their fill of the
pleasant fruits. As we approached the James the masts
of transports could be seen above the trees upon the right,
enlivening the hearts of the men who were tired of the
endless pine forests we had been traversing. In the after
noon the regiment constructed a small bridge for the
artillery, then moved into the open country upon the
north bank of the river, at first halting among the other
corps near Charles City Court House, but keeping on
again, and in the evening reaching General Burnside s
headquarters at Wilcox s Landing. It was pleasant to
.again view a wide stretch of open water and homelike-
looking farms and fields.
In the morning, June i5th, the scene was surpassingly
fine as we marched down to the river bank. It was a
bright clear day, and the blue waters of the James danced
and sparkled in the sunlight, enlivened by white-winged
fleets of transports, with gunboats here and there, and
steam tugs moving busily about. On shore the masses of
troops, with bright gun barrels and brilliant flags, covered
the hills, waiting to cross. The Second and Sixth Corps
crossed by ferry at Westover Landing, above us. The
Fifth and Ninth Corps and trains of wagons passed over
the remarkable pontoon-bridge, half a mile long, from bank
to bank of the wide stream. During the day the regiment was
at work building rafts and repairing a pier, the latter under
direction of Captain Hudson. At eight in the evening
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 253
the approaches to the pontoon-bridge were completed, and
we crossed to the opposite bank, among the first troops
to arrive south of the river. We waited several hours in
the darkness upon the bank for the First Division to over
take us, enabling the unlucky cooks, again behind with
rations, to catch up.
The memorable campaign north of the James was ended.
The regiments which had crossed the Rapidan with such
full ranks were now shockingly reduced in numbers ; the
flower of the army had perished. It was impossible that
men should pass through such trials and labors so
incessantly prosecuted without injury to their morale as
combatants ; they were weary of the strife and longed for
rest, yet they were not disheartened ; ranks and files were
as well kept as ever, but, so tired were they, it was only
dogged determination that kept the men moving. Our
generals had not achieved the impossible in carrying by
assault Lee s impregnable intrenchments, but they had
tamed the spirit of the Confederate army from self-confident
pugnacity to a waning and discouraging defensive. It
recognized the hand of the conquerer impelling it into
"the last ditch."
CHAPTER X.
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG THE MINE, 1864.
THE Second Corps having taken the advance towards
Petersburg, the march of our division was resumed,
and continued with scarcely a halt through the rest of the
warm night. At daylight, June 16, the woods beside the
road were full of stragglers from the troops ahead who
had stopped to breakfast, and General Ledlie, who had on
the ninth of June succeeded General Crittenden in the
command of the First Division, complained in strong
language of the "coffee boilers." We kept on until nine
in the morning, and then halted ourselves for the indis
pensable pot of coffee. About five in the afternoon, after
a march of eighteen miles, we reached the open undulating
country within two miles of the City of Petersburg, ap
proaching it from the north-east. Other troops had pre
ceded us, and had carried by assault part of the outer
line of strong detached earthworks, built long before for
the protection of the city. By the road-side lay the first
dead negro soldier we had seen in the campaign. The
regiment halted by Major Morton s direction at some old
log: huts or Confederate barracks, and remained there over
o
night, listening to the heavy skirmishing fire of the Eigh
teenth and Second Corps in front, and expecting moment
arily to be called upon for work.
The First Division was not actively engaged until the
following afternoon, June 17, when they made a dashing
255 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
charge from one of the deep ravines and captured a line
of works, but were unable to hold them on account of a
failure of ammunition, as appears in the record of the
Twenty- First Massachusetts in the Adjutant- General s
Report for 1864. Major Morton, our too intrepid chief
tain, was killed while retiring with Hartranft s brigade from
an advanced position, which they had taken but were too
weak to hold, near the Norfolk Railroad cut on the left.
He fell somewhere near the spot afterwards occupied by
Fort Morton. His loss at any time would have been
inestimable, but happening at that time, just at the begin
ning of siege operations, it was peculiarly heavy, and deeply
affected all who knew him and recognized his value to the
army. Our old friend, Major McKibben, so conspicuous
on General Ferrero s staff in East Tennessee, was also-
severely wounded in the same affair.
At dark the regiment moved to the left, and worked
most of the night turning the face of a Confederate lunette,
which had been captured, it was said, by the Seventh
Rhode Island, Thirty Sixth Massachusetts and others of
General Potter s division. There was an uncountable
number of muskets lying about, which had belonged to
the Confederates who had been captured or had fled,
leaving their arms behind them. We filled the ditch on
the north front of the work sufficiently to form platforms
for artillery, and cut embrasures through the parapet
opening towards the enemy, who still occupied a line of
works on the hither side of the pine woods afterwards
our camp ground and from that elevation spitefully threw
over an occasional shell, the gunners, probably, being at
tracted by the gleam or glint of our shovels. When the work
was completed, it was occupied by the Fourteenth Massa
chusetts battery. Our men retired to the woods in rear and
got such sleep as they could behind their stacks of arms.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 256
In the morning (eighteenth) the Confederates had with
drawn from the front of the pine woods, mentioned above,
to the ridge beyond the railroad and the brooks forming
Harrison s Creek, and had established permanent lines
upon the north and east sides of the elevation called
Cemetery Hill, which lay between them and Petersburg.
Details of men were sent out from the regiment for bridge
building, road cutting, and even to bury or burn the bodies
of the artillery horses killed in the action. At night we
camped in the grove near General Burnside s headquarters.
The tool wagons arrived bringing our knapsacks, which we
had not seen since leaving Cold Harbor.
On the twentieth of June the regiment moved camp to
the pine woods spoken of above, and located near Genera!
Ledlie s headquarters, where we remained for nearly two
months, during the rest of June, July and part of August.
During these hot, dry months of summer, the siege was
carried on with great zeal and the defence was equally
persistent. The Ninth Corps extended from the locality
of Fort Haskell and the left of the Second Corps, near
the hill upon which Fort Steadman was afterwards con
structed, through the deep valley under Cemetery Hill
and between Fort Morton and the Crater, towards the
position of Fort Rice and the right of the Fifth Corps.
The distance between the hostile lines was greater in front
of our division than in front of the other divisions, the
brook valley being wider arid flatter ; but all our advanced
infantry lines were commanded by the higher position of
the enemy. Our infantry lay in two lines of trenches,
those of the front line called the pickets being relieved
every three days by the rear line. The difference between
them was not material, the most important item being that
the rear had more shade from the pine woods and more
.undisturbed rest.
257 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
During the whole two months a steady firing of mus
ketry was maintained between the advanced lines day and
night, and as soon as the artillery could be placed in posi
tion under suitable cover this arm also joined in the horrid
din. Not only field guns and siege cannon were used, but
also, when a siege was decided upon, mortars of various
calibre were hauled to the front and a perpendicular fire
of bomb-shells opened, in which proceeding the Con
federates also took part, at first with small coehorns,
afterwards with the largest mortars. Death stalked abroad
in that valley in the most varied form ; the air was filled
with lead and iron missiles of every shape. Sharpshooters
watched the opposing lines with quick eyes for an exposed
head or limb, and wherever men were supposed to be con
gregated the bomb-shells were dropped with fatal accuracy.
Hair-breadth escapes were the order of the day, and of
every day and night.
At first our camp was pitched as usual, with shelters of
green boughs for additional shade, but casualties and nar
row escapes became so frequent that bullet-proof shelters
or stockades had to be thrown up upon the exposed side
of the tents, which allowed sleep with a sense of security.
The dead and wounded of the battles of the seventeenth
had been removed, except the body of one Confederate
who had crawled into the bushes to die, and remained
undiscovered until the odor of decomposition disclosed
such an unwelcome guest upon* our camp ground. There
was some water to be had at first from springs, but the
burning sun soon shrunk them, and the men resorted to
well digging, sinking as many as four barrels in depth to
reach the water, which, when obtained, was sweet and cool.
Morning, noon and evening the bands of the Fifty-Sixth
Massachusetts and other regiments played at General
Ledlie s headquarters to cheer the men, with good effect ;
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 258
but we got extremely well acquainted with their collection
of music, patriotic, operatic or other, during that summer.
We staid so long in this camp it began to seem quite like
a home, and its incidents were family events. On the
twenty-fifth of June, Lieutenant Hatch and Company D
returned to the regiment from detached service, having
been absent since the fifth of May.
The duties of the regiment were too various to mention
in detail; they followed naturally the progress of a siege.
At first there was road cutting and bridge building, to get
the artillery forward ; then the infantry lines were strength
ened, cover thrown up to protect the cannoneers, and abatis
of felled trees laid in front of these, the day work being
the stockading of General Ledlie s headquarters, and bower
building for shade. The infantry line well settled and
secure, strong redoubts or forts, with thick parapets, were
begun at prominent points, and the labor upon them pushed
forward day and night by reliefs. The principal works of
the kind near us were a mortar battery and Fort Morton.
After the enclosures of these were completed came the
cutting of the embrasures, digging magazines, bomb proofs
and traverses, opening of covered ways of approach from
rear to front, and protecting the outer sides with obstacles,
ditches and entanglements. We lead the same busy life
as at Cold Harbor, detailed in the last chapter, excepting
that the work was now much heavier, the cuttings and
covered ways were deeper, and the exposure while at work
greater.
Labor at the front occupied most of the night time.
The men were frequently employed digging ditches or
planting abatis between the lines, exposed to the enemy s
fire, their only cover being the darkness, and it took a cool
head and steady hand to stand upon the parapet of our
earthworks, unsheltered from the cross fire, and cut em-
259 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
brasures for guns, drive the poles and make the necessary
hurdle work or wattling to support the earth at the sides.
It would be pleasant to mention the names of some yet
living who were conspicuous for steadiness in such work,
but as they might object we forbear. Among others, Ser
geant Oakman, of Company C, who afterwards died of
wounds received in action, seemed to linger over such a
task as if he had a partiality for it, and would not quit
until his critical eye was satisfied. Captain Hudson took
such interest, in his always earnest way, as to be appointed
engineer officer of the division. After the main lines were
thus established, the regiment, for days in succession, was
taken to the rear into the woods, and taught by the regulars
to construct gabions, fascines, and other siege materials.
From the eighth to the twentieth of July the regiment
averaged about one hundred and fifty gabions a day, and
became very expert.
Now and then a small squad of recruits would arrive
from Boston, usually bringing a long roll of enlisted men
who never put in an appearance having secured the
heavy bounties, for which they had enlisted, they had
jumped the service on the way to the front. Those who
came through were the men who had intended honest
service, and they generally made respectable soldiers.
These new men were kept under drill, but the old mem
bers were so busy as not to admit even of dress-parade at
evening; an occasional inspection was the only manoeuvre.
Our labors at the front were not performed without loss.
Among the men were many slight wounds or injuries not
of record. On the twenty-sixth of June, Corporal Charles
P. Merrill, of Company B, had an arm broken by a falling
tree ; Samuel L. Knight, of Company F, was wounded in
camp while preparing supper. On the night of July 4,
while at work at the front, Charles G. Bates, of Company
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 260.
C, was mortally wounded in the bowels ; Sergeant Oakman
was also wounded ; George T. Tucker, of Company I, was
shot in the body and died. On the sixth, William H.
Amerige, of Company F, was wounded in the chin by a
piece of a shell which burst immediately after leaving the
gun of one of our batteries, in front of which we were at
work; and there were others of a like nature. At night
the camp was so raked by bullets coming over from the
lines, chicking in the tree trunks and logs, it seemed more
dangerous to go about than it really was ; frequently a
comrade in passing out to the mail bag would say, " Good
bye, boys, I m going to post a letter/ by way of joke upon
the dangers of the locality.
Our greatest loss here was in our commanding officer
Captain Edward G. Park on the first day of July. The
woods had become so thinned by cutting in our front that
in the afternoon, when the western sun shone in brightly,
our regimental headquarters were quite visible to the sharp
shooters in the Confederate lines ; but all had become so
accustomed to the place that the stray bullets were little
noticed, except to point a jest when any one was startled
by the sudden hiss of a passing ball. The captain was hit
by one of these shots, while close to headquarters, at this
favorite hour for sharpshooting, near the spot where
Knight had been struck a few days before. His excla
mation called several to him, who assisted him to his
camp bed, upon which he reclined with expressions of
intense pain. His coat was removed, and it was found
that a minie-ball had struck the elbow and passed under
the muscles of the right forearm, some six inches, where
it could be plainly distinguished. The group about him
tried to make light of the affair to the captain in our
jocular way, calling it a furlough, and congratulating him
upon his good luck. In truth those present envied him
26 1 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
the wound. An ambulance was brought and the captain
was transferred to it, and left for the field hospital as
we suppose for a brief excursion home after his wound
was dressed ; but it was his last parting from the regiment
he loved so well. He received the furlough as suggested,
but, owing to the debilitated state of his system from the
campaign in Mississippi and the current year, the flesh
refused to heal, gangrene set in, and he died at his home
in Roxbury, August 14, 1864. His father writes: "With
out opening his eyes, and in a voice clear as a clarion, he
broke the solemn stillness of that beautiful Sabbath morn
ing by the command, Stack Arms ! " then sank into the
sleep of death ; the march of life for him was ended.
He had been wounded in the left arm at Antietam, as
First Lieutenant of Company K ; returned to the regiment
at Falmouth ; went with us to Vicksburg, where he, with
so many others, nearly died of disease, which prevented
his participation in the East Tennessee campaign. Before
his death he received the commission of major in the regi
ment, upon the recommendation, among others, of General
Burnside, in the following letter, which is reproduced as a
tribute to the major s memory, and also as showing our
general s estimate of the services of the Thirty-Fifth, as
engineers :
" HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
" BEFORE PETERSBURG, VA., July 20, 1864.
"To His EXCELLENCY JOHN A. ANDREW,
" Governor of Massachusetts :
"Sir, I have pleasure in recommending to your favor
able consideration, for the vacant majority of the Thirty-
Fifth Massachusetts Volunteers Infantry, Captain Edward
G. Park, senior captain. His wounds at Antietam and
before Petersburg, his disease after the Mississippi cam-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 262
paign entitled him to consideration ; still more so does
the praise which Major Morton, late chief engineer in my
staff, has always bestowed on the zeal and ability shown
in the government and direction of the Thirty-Fifth, which
during the greater part of the present campaign has been
detailed as an engineer corps under his orders. I advocate
the captain s claim to promotion with sincerity and con
fidence. I have the honor to be, sir,
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"A. E. BURNSIDE,
" Major- General U. S. Vols"
A " Memorial of Major Park " has been published, but
is now out of print, which contains many interesting par
ticulars of his life and the great sacrifice which he made
for the country. From lines therein by W. R. E. we pluck
this flower to place upon his grave :
" Death were no terror to his soul, but only sweet release,
If so the war-torn land might taste the earlier fruit of peace."
The officers with the regiment at this time were Captains
Blanchard, Ingell and Hudson, Lieutenants Hatch, Berry,
Farrington, White, Wright, Cobb (acting adjutant) and
Mason ; Captain Meserve being on duty at corps head
quarters. In so small a group the loss of Major Park
made a deep impression.
Captain Blanchard took command after Major Park
left, and did his best to sustain the dignity he esteemed
so highly during the following month. The adjutant
jokingly told him to be careful of himself, for to take
command of the Thirty-Fifth was to receive a death
warrant; it would be his turn next. But the Captain of
"bully" B considered himself as invulnerable in body as
he certainly was in spirit.
263 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Those were laborious days, and trying to the soul and
body of man. After the tremendous exertions of the
campaign we seemed to be little nearer the end. It is
always darkest just before day, and that hot summer under
fire was the murkiest of all. The political excitement at
the North was at fever heat. The peace party declared
the war a failure, and newspapers containing such doctrine
and the most discouraging views were freely circulated in
the army, giving to the men in the ranks, who had little
other means of forming a judgment, false impressions of
the strength of our opponents and of the spirit of the North.
It was not until the atmosphere was cleared by Sherman s
and Sheridan s victories and the November presidential
election that the country was sure of its position ; mean
time partisan politicians did all they could to blacken
character and discourage patriotism. It is wonderful that
men could be got on any terms to enlist in our armies, or
that those who had enlisted remained steadfast under such
showers of bullets from the front and of invectives from
the rear.
Among the enlisted men there was little inclination for
fun, an occasional sing together was about all the circum
stances admitted. To rest out the weariness of labors,
which were double severe in that Southern climate in mid
summer, was about all they longed for. Captain Ingell,
however, here as everywhere, was irrepressible in spirit,
and must get up a dinner party. The service of plate was
such an assortment of battered tin plates and cups as had
survived, in the mess chest, the many journeys of the
regiment ; the food the best the commissary s stores
supplied, which were better than ordinary from our near
ness to our base of supplies at City Point. These, with
sundry sutler s goods, garnished with IngelPs smiling
welcome, made a feast not to be despised, as Captain
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 264
Meserve indicates in the following witty lines, which breathe
the spirit of the occasion :
" I 11 ne er forget a table set
At Captain Ingell s tent,
A merchant prince could scarce evince
Such airs grandiloquent.
He sent behests to numerous guests
And courtly was his phrase ;
With welcome hand and greeting bland
He asked us in4o graze.
The narrow board was richly stored
With commissary fare,
And O, my eyes ! a rich surprise,
Tomatoes too were there.
But better still, a right good-will
Was very manifest ;
A merrier set was never met
A soldier s lunch to test."
Captain Ingell s genius for fun shone most resplendent
at such times. He had all the wit and humor of old Jack
Falstaff, but added thereto the courage of a soldier and
the kindest of hearts.
A badge for the Ninth Corps was adopted, and required
to be worn conspicuously upon the cap. It was a shield
bearing a crossed anchor and cannon, with a cable fouled
about the anchor in the form of the figure 9, emblematic
of the early history of the corps, as the Coast Division of
the Army of the Potomac. General W. F. Bartlett took
command of the brigade on the twenty-third of July, and
thoughtfully sent to the men of the regiment a package of
home newspapers, as a notice of his arrival and kind
intentions towards us."*
At the sutler s, several men had been met from the
Second Division whose clothing was so deeply stained
with the yellow clay of the soil as to excite question how
*See page no of General F. W. Palfrey s Memoir of General Wm. F. Bartlett.
19
265 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
it happened. In this way the secret leaked out that the
Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, old coal miners, under Lieu
tenant-Colonel Henry Pleasants, were digging a mine in
front of General Potter s division, extending under the
enemy s fort. Towards the end of July, Adjutant Wash-
burn, who had been serving, since Spottsylvania, on the
staff of General Sigfried, in Ferrero s Fourth Division,
colored troops, happened into camp and informed us that
the mine was nearly completed, and that his division was
under daily drill, practising the manoeuvres to be executed
when the mine should be exploded and the division should
head the charge into the Confederate lines. Small pieces
of the stiff marl, dug through in cutting the shaft, were
handed about among the men as curiosities. A great
event was approaching. During all this time the regiment
was at work, day times, upon the gabions, which at night
they placed at the front and filled with earth, to strengthen
the parapet or top the breastworks at exposed places.
Observations had been taken by Captain Blanchard of
the covered way leading to the locality of the mine, and it
was the intention that our men should work all night of
the twenty-ninth, placing gabions in position. Companies
A, B and K were detailed in the afternoon to get out
stakes to pin the gabions in place. In the evening,
however, orders were received to pack knapsacks and be
ready to fall in with haversacks and canteens, guns, equip
ments, intrenching tools and extra ammunition. It was
whispered that the mine was to be blown up, and that we
should take some part in the general movement, but we
did not anticipate any important share, as no special in
structions were given us ; in fact, when we were leaving
t camp, so little information had been given to Captain
Blanchard, commanding the regiment, that he expressed
doubt whether we should get in at all. There were but six
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 266
officers accompanying the regiment, including Blanchard.
Lieutenant Berry remarked to the men of his company, G,
that they should have an officer present to lead them that
day, if he knew himself.
About two o clock in the morning of the thirtieth, the
regiment had assembled, leaving knapsacks in camp and
carrying tools, and joined the brigade outside the woods
near camp. From thence the column moved very slowly
and silently to the left, along the rear of Fort Morton to
the widest covered way, and, through it, forward to the
Norfolk Railroad cut and the extreme front of General
Potter s lines, a locality with which we were little ac
quainted. A brook ran in the lowest part of the valley
from which the land rose front and rear. Behind us was
Fort Morton; in front were our advance breastworks;
before them, a gradually rising hill upon which was the
enemy s fort to be blown up. We followed in rear of the
First Division, the provisional brigade, composed mostly
of regiments of heavy artillery which had joined after the
Wilderness, taking the position at the head and nearest the
enemy. The night was not very dark, a waning moon
hung phantom-like in the north-east, over our pine woods.
The column was closely massed in regimental lines of
battle, but without noise, fearing to alarm the enemy, whose
sharpshooters were alert and kept up the usual dropping
fire, a bullet now and then falling near the regiment. We
saw no other troops save our own division, and not a word
was said in explanation of the intended movement or the
work to be accomplished. We were formed for an assault,
that was all we knew.
After awhile a report came that the affair was a failure,
the fuses had been fired, but were damp and had gone out.
It was getting to be daylight fast, about five o clock, and the
sky was ruddy with the dawn. In this position of affairs,
267 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
suddenly and unexpectedly the ground was felt to tremble
beneath our feet, a mysterious rumbling was heard, and
before us, where the morning light was revealing the Con
federate fort, there rose high into the air an immense
column of earth mingled with parts of artillery carriages,
bodies of men, and other wreck, the red explosions of the
burning powder still glowing in the mass. Clouds of thick
smoke and dust rolled from the summit, presenting an
appearance as if the earth thrown up would spread out and
partially cover our front line; it did not, however, its
material was too heavy, but sank down into the form of an
immense ant-hill with the crater in the centre, some one
hundred and fifty feet long by sixty wide and twenty-five
feet deep, the interior rough with boulders of clay. Awe
struck and astounded our front lines recoiled involuntarily,
human nature was unbalanced by the terrible spectacle,
but it was only momentarily, then, recovering presence of
mind, the men raised a cheer and charged forward over
our lines, across the interval and into the still smoking
crater. At the same instant our artillery of eighteen siege
guns, eighteen large mortars, twenty-eight coehorns, and
eighty field pieces, opened all along the front, the passing
missiles sounding like railroad trains above our heads and
apparently exploding in the very works we were assaulting.
As seen from our position in rear, it was a grand sight as
the heavy column of men went up over our parapet,
recalling the assaults into the deadly breach so famous in
history.
As soon as the last regiment was out of the works, the
Thirty-Fifth moved up to the front in battalion line. The
rear of the parapet had been levelled up so that the right
and centre of the regiment had free passage out ; the two
left companies were cut off by a traverse and Captain
Blanchard sent his adjutant to have them right face and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 268
file left in rear of the regiment. While this was doing,
General Ledlie, who stood on our left close to the front
line, gave the captain some orders, which, unfortunately,
no other officer heard. Immediately the regiment went
forward over our works and up across the open field, some
one hundred and twenty-five yards, to the crater. As we
moved across this clear space there was time to look about
a bit. Overhead hung the cloud of dust and smoke, now
orange red in the first rays of the rising sun. On the right
the ground sank away into a deep ravine, across which the
opposing forces could be seen exchanging shots. On the
left, the whole more level tract lay open far to the south,
crossed and recrossed by the discharge of guns from either
side. No other troops seemed in motion, or in position
to move ; on the contrary, right and left, the battle seemed
an artillery duel only, instead of the sweeping assault
which would imply a grand attack ; the inference was that
our division was the only force engaged ; such hasty judg
ments often affect results. It was not until after the fight
that we learned that others beside the colored troops and
ours were in the assault the other divisions went up in
the hollows to the right and left.
Captain Blanchard, in writing of the affair a few weeks
after, says : " It being intended to carry the works and
heights, the Thirty-Fifth was to follow closely our brigade,
and, as soon as the works were carried, to throw up breast
works. We reached and carried the enemy s first line and
the regiment with their tools soon changed its face to the
rear. Having given my orders and the men well at work,
I was hit in the left shoulder, so disabling me that I was
obliged to leave the field." Others say that the regiment
had not commenced work when the captain was wounded,
but was waiting at the crater for his directions. The ad
jutant says that from the right of the battalion he saw
269 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Captain Blanchard looking about, examining the works, or
looking for him, as he has since thought, when the above-
mentioned wound was received ; that First Sergeant Moses
Bartlett of Company B sprang forward to support the
captain and was shot dead ; that the order had probably
been given to turn the works, for, at the same instant, the
men advanced and went to work energetically upon the
face of the crater nearest our lines. The incident occupied
but a moment. The adjutant then inquired for the next
senior officer, Lieutenant Hatch, and was told that he had
been shot across both legs, while coming over our works,
and been taken to the rear. He then asked for the next
senior, Lieutenant Berry, and was informed that Berry
had fallen dead within a rod from our lines. Thus three
out of the six officers were gone in the first fifteen minutes
after the blow-up. The three juniors came together and
consulted upon what was to be done.
In front was the immense mound of the crater, of gentle
slope perhaps fifteen feet high, formed of loose earth, in
which were half-buried bodies of dead Confederates, broken
gun carriages, tools and platform timbers in great confusion.
Within the crater our troops were cheering loudly and cel
ebrating the success of their assault, but making no motion
in a body to secure the ridge of the hill. Our officers,
therefore, hastily decided to keep the men at the work
they were upon, turn the face of the line secured and
connect it with our intrenchments. Lieutenant A. J.
White took charge of the left of the regiment, Lieutenant
Farrington the centre, and Acting Adjutant Cobb the right,
and superintended the labors of the men.
At first there was little firing from the enemy, only a few
sharpshooters to right and left, whose aim, however, as
we have seen, was with deadly accuracy. In a few minutes
a gun on the left opened from a position where our artillery
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 270
could not silence it, and a detail of men was made to occupy
the crest of the crater and try to keep down its fire, which
enfiladed the line. Squads of Confederate prisoners came
to the rear, with many of our wounded, some of the latter
lying down under cover of the excavation we were making.
Our wounded were sent off the field, and Lieutenant Far-
rington, by advice of the other officers, went back also, to
collect the men who had gone to help the disabled, get
orders, and, if approved, commence a narrow trench, or
sap, from our lines towards the crater, to connect with one
which we now had a few men engaged upon.
Thus the first half hour, while the enemy were confused
by the surprise, and when alone success was possible,
slipped away; the Confederates concentrated infantry and
artillery around the crater, which at once became a death
trap to those who were in it. Staff officers, among them
Captain Hudson, came from our lines with orders to " push
forward to the crest of the hill in front," but as it seemed
useless to try to get through the mass of men in the crater
we kept on digging, expecting that when the orders reached
the head of the column the whole would go forward to
gether, if possible ; but the troops did not move, and we
supposed there was some obstacle in the way.
The enemy s fire from right and left grew more deadly;
wounded men crowded upon us ; as fast as our men opened
the bank these poor fellows crept into it, some refusing to
budge even when partially covered with earth, and our
officers would say, " Bury them if they wont move ! "
Some stragglers came with -them, and more white troops
moved up to mingle with the crowd in the crater and add
to the confusion. After awhile the excitement and severity
of their exertions exhausted our men, and they stopped
for rest. At this time the head of the column of the
Fourth Division (colored) was seen coming over our
271 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
intrenchments. They were gallantly led by their officers,
Colonel Sigfried s brigade, upon whose staff we saw Adju
tant Washburn, charging forward upon our left into the
crater. What they could do now it was not easy to see,
but they came up as spiritedly as could be wished, yet
stringing out by the flank. Their color bearers, fine mus
cular fellows, some of them stripped to the waist, shouted
and displayed their flags most manfully, but, alas, most
vainly it was too late !
After they had passed "to the front their appearance
seemed to add greater fury to the enemy, and the carnage
became terrible past description. Wounded and stragglers
accumulated so that no more work could be done, except
that the sap to the rear was continued, but the soil was so
hard baked it could with difficulty be broken by the pick
axe. All were more or less disabled for labor by nervous
prostration, after their violent exertions at first and by the
scenes of horror about them. We supposed that the as
sault upon the second line had failed, but that the position
secured would be held till night, when, in the darkness, it
could be connected and made part of our intrenchments.
The scene grew, if possible, more terrible as the cross fire
of the Confederate artillery and mortars was concentrated
upon the crater and the space between it and our lines.
Spherical case shot burst continually over and among the
crowd of wounded and stragglers, who would send up
groans of agony. Our boys did what they could to help
the disabled, and declared that they had not been under
such a hot fire since Antietam ; in fact, few expected to
survive until night or get back to our lines, so completely
was the space swept by the shower of missiles.
About nine o clock in the morning the colored division,
with some white troops, broke and came to the rear, many
of the men retiring slowly and, apparently, reluctantly ;
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 272
but they were so confused that there was no command
over them. Lieutenant White dashed among them, waving
his sword and shouting, " Rally ! Rally ! " but the adjutant
suggested to him that it would be better to let them go to
the rear and clear the field, and White desisted, having
received a flesh wound in the shoulder in the melee.
After this, it had become so evident that nothing more
could be done by daylight, while exposed to such a mur
derous fire, it was decided to take what remained of the
regiment back to our intrenchments. Word was passed
among the men to retire in small parties so as to attract
no special attention from the enemy, which was obeyed as
opportunity offered, a few not getting off until afternoon,
but all bringing their guns and tools with them ; only two
or three, too severely wounded to be hastily moved, pre
ferred to take their chances of getting off quietly at night,
and so remained to be taken prisoners. In this way, by
running the gauntlet, most of the men got back within our
lines by eleven o clock.
There they found the rest of the regiment drawn up
under Lieutenant Farrington, and, by direction of Captain
Hudson, details were sent back through the narrow covered
way under the railroad to bring up ammunition. It was
noticeable that even in this work strong men were still so
nervously affected as to be physically unable to lift between
them the boxes, each containing one thousand cartridges,
and the boxes had to be broken open and the packages
carried te the front in shelter tents, as many as each man
could lug. Going to the rear for this purpose, we passed part
of the Eighteenth Corps moving up with difficulty through
the narrow passage. We told them that the affair was
ended. Shortly after noon the regiment was marched
back to camp under Lieutenant Farrington, and Captain
Ingell took command.
273 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The order to retire the troops was issued by General
Meade about nine o clock, and by General Burnside
between eleven and twelve. All who could, or who pre
ferred risking death rather than Libby Prison, escaped as
we had done in small parties; but some nine hundred men
and seventy-five officers were captured, with General Bart-
lett, who, wearing an artificial leg which had been crushed
in the action, could not escape if he would. Our adjutant,
Washburn, was taken prisoner with others of the brigade
staff, and suffered semi-starvation within the Confederacy
until the end of the war. The total loss of the army was
placed at 4,400; of this, the Ninth Corps had 3,828 in
killed, wounded and prisoners. General Humphreys puts
the total at 3,500.
The loss of the Thirty-Fifth had been : one officer and
eleven men killed or died of wounds, and some thirty-four
others wounded, out of about one hundred and sixty pres
ent for duty. The names of the fallen were : Lieutenant
Samuel K. Berry; First Sergeant Moses C. Bartlett, of
Company B ; Sergeant Robert C. Davidson, of Company
C ; John H. Gill and Cornelius Kalaher, of Company E ;
Solomon Richardson, of Company F ; Patrick Grealish,
of Company G ; Sergeant John Q. Hunt and Corporal
Leonard Pratt, of Company H ; Michael Colbert and
Perez F. Fearing, of Company I ; George A. Greenwood,
of Company K. How much of grief and severed friend
ship this list expresses to those who remember them well !
Lieutenant Berry was the darling of the regiment. His
youthful figure and earnest face, lighted by those dark
eyes aflame with the fire of battle, his long black hair and
waving sword, as he led Company G over our intrench-
ments, will never be forgotten. The words of Lowell
seem written for him :
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 274
1 Brave, good and true,
I see him stand before me now,
And read again on that young brow
Where every hope was new,
Ifow sweet were life ! Yet, by the mouth firm set
And look made up for Duty s utmost debt,
I could divine he knew
That death within the sulphurous hostile lines,
In the mere wreck of nobly-pitched designs,
Plucks heart s ease and not rue.
Right in the van,
On the red rampart s slippery swell,
With heart that beat a charge, he fell
Foeward, as fits a man."
Ah, that was a terrible day, and as exasperating as ter
rible ! Would that it and its horrible scenes were buried
in oblivion to haunt our dreams no more !
At evening, visiting the wounded at the field hospital,
where Doctors Snow and Roche and the other surgeons
were worn out with the severity of their labors, where the
bodies of the men who had died under the surgeon s knife
still lay undisturbed and ghastly upon the tables, it was
pleasant to find Captain Blanchard, Lieutenant Hatch and
the other wounded comfortably stretched upon white bed
spreads under snowy tent cloth, discussing, under clouds
of smoke from their pipes, the events of the day.
The causes of the failure were pretty evenly divided
there was a bad place chosen for the assault, bad or inju
dicious generalship and overtasked troops.
Of the position it is sufficient to say that the charge was
made into a reentering angle, or into the mouth of a pocket,
the sides representing the enemy s undisturbed lines; the
further the column advanced the more subject it became
to cross fire. This difficulty had been pointed out before-
275 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
hand to General Meade, and he was opposed to the assault,
from his own observations and the following letter :
i HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
"OFFICE OF CHIEF ENGINEER, July 24, 1864.
" General, In reply to your communication of this
date, I have the honor to say that the line of the enemy s
works in front of General Burnsicle is not situated on the
crest of the ridge separating us from Petersburg that
the enemy have undoubtedly occupied the ridge as a sec
ond line. Should General Burnsicle succeed in exploding
his mine he would probably be able to take the enemy s
first line, which is about one hundred yards in advance of
his approach. Beyond this I do not think he could advance
until the works in front of the Fifth Corps are carried, as
the Ninth Corps columns would be taken in flank by a
heavy artillery fire from works in front of the centre of the
Fifth Corps, and in front from the works on the crest near
Cemetery Hill. I do not believe that the works in front
of the Fifth Corps can be carried until our lines can be
extended to the left so as to envelope the enemy s line.
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"J. C. DUANE, Major of Engineers.
"MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE."
The ridge referred to in the above was not then actually
occupied, but the delay of our advance enabled the enemy
to seize and use it in the way mentioned during the action.
It was hoped that the explosion would so shake the enemy
as to frighten them from their lines ; they did vacate near
the crater, but the flank fire was still severe as evinced by
the above losses of the Thirty-Fifth in getting out of our
works. It was known to the generals, but not to the men
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 276
in the column, that the Petersburg lines were held by a
weaker Confederate force than usual ; a little instruction
on that point would have been encouraging. Something
was said, at the moment of the blow-up, about some of the
loaded chambers not having exploded; if the men had
been forewarned of this danger they would have kept out
of the crater, and the confusion would have been avoided
to a considerable extent.
As for the subordinate generals nothing need be said ;
they were condemned by a court of inquiry. And not a
little blame rests with the superior officers of the army for
interfering at the last moment with the plans of General
Burnside, substituting for the troops he had chosen and
drilled for the assault others who were neither in proper
spirit nor fully informed for the work. General Grant s
words upon this point are : " General Burnside wanted to
put his colored troops in advance, and I believe if he had
done so it would have been a success." For a coup-de-
main, fresh troops, who have been little under fire, are
sometimes to be preferred to older soldiers whose expe
rience of such attacks has been unfortunate.
Of the troops, no one who has followed this story thus
far can hesitate to believe that the men were worn out ;
still capable of great endurance, but retaining little of the
"devilment" which springs forward to an assault as to a
marriage feast. They would have followed able leaders,
but these failed them. It was well known that the men
of the heavy artillery regiments and dismounted cavalry
were dissatisfied upon being taken from the employment
proper to their branches of the service and used as infantry
in such work as this ; they had not enlisted for it. Yet
these men were placed in the front of the column, and no
one had a right to be disappointed if they proved a " for
lorn hope " indeed. It was easy to foresee that there would
277 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
be confusion and disorder there always is after a charge
yet no pains were taken to inform each individual man
of the plan of attack, and that success would depend upon
the work of the first fifteen minutes. It was a well estab
lished custom in the army that the troops carrying a line
of works should reform and hold the captured line, while
fresh and unbroken battalions should come up in their
rear, pass over and assault any second line; this rule was
to be disregarded in this plan, and the men who secured
the first were to keep on, necessarily in disorder, and occupy
interior positions.
The final preparations were too hurried. In view of our
regiment s part in it and lack of special orders it is amus
ing to read the following evidence of Lieutenant Beauyard,
U. S. Engineers, before the Board of Inquiry. He says :
" I was sent by Major Duane to report to General Burn-
side for duty as an engineer." Question. "Were there
working parties for the assaulting columns and engineer
officers to lead them ? " A?iswer. " Not that I know of."
Quest. " No arrangement had been made with you by Gen
eral Burnside for anything of that sort ? " A/is. " No,
sir ; not previous to the assault." Quest. " Had you
been placed in charge of a proper working party, suitably
equipped, could you not, immediately after the explosion
of the mine, have levelled the enemy s parapets, so as to
allow troops in line of battle to have passed through ? "
Ans. " I think I could. When the enemy afterwards had
a flank fire between the enemy s lines and ours, I offered
General Burnside to run a covered way from our line to
the enemy s line on the right and left of the crater."
Quest. " Would any advantage have ensued from simply
holding the crater without advancing further ? " Ans.
" No, sir ; I do not think so." Quest. " Were there any
preparations made in the way of collecting gabions and so
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 278
forth, so that if the troops had been successful we could
have crowned the crest ? " Ans. " No, sir ; not that I
know of. 7 Quest. " Were tools collected or used picks,
shovels, axes, etc. ? " Ans. " I did not see any."
Had such a general as Reno or St. Clair Morton been
present, bad though the position and the spirit of the
troops, the crest of Cemetery Hill might have been
gained, but could it have been held? when we remember
the slowness of the generals in supporting each other, the
obstacles in the way and the impossibility of crossing the
artillery, it may be doubtful. Perhaps the wretched affair
ended for the best after all, and it was well that the death-
hug of Grant upon Lee should continue until the active
Sheridan arrived to close the rear.
If our regiment was to have part in the assault as engi
neers, it would seem that the proper place for us was near
the head of the column rather than in the rear. Bat,
strangely enough, it appears not to have been General
Burnside s intention that the Thirty-Fifth should take part
in the charge ; the other engineer regiments did not. One
of our musicians, writing from the field hospital of the
First Division, August 5, 1864, relates the following:
"General Burnside visited the hospital, yesterda}^ and
went through the different wards, in which were a number
of our wounded. As he came to Sergeant Davidson of
Company C, leg amputated (mortal), he asked him what
regiment he belonged to. The sergeant replied, The
Thirty-Fifth. The general said, * Were they in the fight ?
and asked, Who ordered them to go in ? He said he
gave no orders for the Thirty-Fifth to go in for they were
engineers, but he would inquire into it." The writer adds,
"Captain Ingell commands the regiment and the boys are
in the best of spirits, ready and willing to shovel or fight.
But the story that the regiment was put in without orders
279 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
spread among the men, and they blamed their officers for
suffering the imposition.
The only ones who came out of the affair with unques
tioned glory were Lieutenant-Colonel Pleasants and the
two others, Lieutenant Jacob Douty and Sergeant Henry
Rees, who volunteered to relight the fuse, and the Forty-
Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment. But there were other
instances of noble conduct by individuals, which this is
not the place for recording.
Next day an armistice was requested of the Confederate
commander, but denied. The regiment fell in to bury the
dead, but, upon reception of the above news, was dis
missed. Captain Ingell and several others visited our
front and Fort Morton, from which by the aid of a glass
our wounded lying between the lines could be seen ; they
were under fire from the Confederates and could not be
reached. They had sticks with rags upon the end, which
they waved as signals and as fans to drive away the swarms
of flies. The rays of the sun poured down upon them with
broiling heat, and their situation, having lain there now
twenty-four hours, was heart-rending to witness how much
more horrible to endure ! At last several surgeons were
allowed to go upon the field and distribute water and
stimulants.
It was not until the following day (August i) that the
flag of truce was answered favorably and an armistice
declared from five to nine in the morning. The Thirty-
Fifth went upon the field about six o clock and engaged
in- the burial of the dead. It was a scene long to be
remembered with loathing. The soldiers of the two armies
stood up in the opposing lines, arms laid aside, and curi
ously examined each other; the Confederates, in their
earth-colored brown, hardly distinguishable from the soil
upon which they stood ; our men in blue, strikingly con-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 280
trasted in appearance and equipment. Half way to the
crater were the flags of truce Generals Potter, Ferrero
and others upon our side, General Johnson upon the
other; they conversed amicably about the situation. The
Thirty-Fifth, aided by one of the regiments from the
Fourth Division and other troops, dug long trenches, while
search was made upon the bodies of the dead for marks
of identification. If the name was discovered it was
written upon paper, and pinned upon the breast of the
corpse. The bodies were then taken to the trench, the
names copied off, the remains wrapped in a blanket, if one
were at hand, and hastily covered with earth. Some three
hundred were thus buried, a large portion of them colored
men. The scorching heat of the sun had so hastened
decomposition that the faces of all were black and shriv
elled ; a white man could be distinguished only by his
hair, or by turning down his clothing. Wherever a limb
had been shot off, or a skull broken down, or in the hollows
of the eyes, the flies had alighted, and now amid the fester
ing flesh the maggots revelled, moving over and over. The
stench was sickening, and so penetrated the clothing and
, impressed the senses that it remained in the nostrils for
days afterward. It was, for the small space of ground
covered, the concentration of horrors, and the effects of
the burning sun, one of the most revolting scenes of death
during the war. Some four or five only of the wounded
were found alive after those long hours of anguish, and
they were emaciated to skeletons and could hardly have
survived.
The bodies of the dead of the Thirty-Fifth were iden
tified by clothing or articles in the pocket, for there was
scarcely a trace of resemblance left, except in case of
Lieutenant Berry, whose bonny black hair was so distin
guishing a mark. Tenderly his remains were wrapped in
28 1 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
a covering and laid to rest in that field upon which he had
fallen so heroically.
Returning to camp the men dejectedly sought their
quarters, feeling that the Old Ninth Corps was defunct,
body and soul. It was several days before the men
engaged in this "needlessly miserable affair," as General
Grant called it, recovered the ordinary tone of spirits.
Details were made to repair the forts, and night work was
resumed, while days were spent in trying to sleep, tor
mented by swarms of flies which now infested camp unen-
durably. Gifts of fresh vegetables, tomatoes and cabbages,
were received from the Sanitary Commission, but they had
been so levied upon on their way to the front that when
they reached us little was left but the expression of good
will. Occasionally, when the lines were quiet, some black-
coated member of the Christian Commission passed along
the front distributing religious literature; but the efforts
of both of these benevolent societies were principally con
fined to the hospitals, which, it was thought, they sometimes
made too attractive for the prompt return of convalescents
to their regiments.
Captain Tobey, writing from the brigade-quartermaster s
office, says of the First Brigade, which had started with
such full ranks from Annapolis three months before: "The
brigade, who are all except the Thirty- Fifth in the front
line six days and out one, are having a hard time of it.
Some of the regiments are losing from six to ten men a
day; the Fifty-Seventh Massachusetts is considered the
most unlucky, and most of their officers have been killed
in the trenches or during the last fight. There is a rumor
afloat that the Ninth Corps is going to leave this place,
and, God knows, I hope it is true, for if they don t take
them out soon there will be no one left ! " So thought
old "Jack" Tobey, the very sound of whose voice would
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 282
"snake" a stalled team out of the worst mud hole in all
Virginia.
The siege went on as before the mine " scrape," as the
boys aptly termed it, putting a name and a judgment upon
it in one word, and the pickets and artillery weaned the
air with their constant din. There were frequent alarms
of attacks, but the Confederates never came out; they
blew up part of our intrenchment in retaliation, but it was
immediately reoccupiecl by our troops, and the "Johnnies"
could only stand and laugh at their failure.
A new fort was commenced by the regiment, under
direction of Captain Hudson (staff engineer officer), using
narrow bandages for a tape line to measure by ; so inad
equately provided with equipment for engineering were
the troops at the front, while extravagance ran riot at
Washington. Captain Ingell was threatened with fever ;
more pieces of bone began to prick through the flesh of
his arm, which had been shattered by a bullet at Antietam,
and he was obliged to go to the field hospital. Lieutenant
White being still upon the sick list from his wound, Lieu
tenant Farrington commanded the regiment.
CHAPTER XI.
WELDON RAILROAD, AND POPLAR SPRING CHURCH, 1864.
ON the fourteenth of August our regiment was at the
front, digging, until eleven at night, then received
orders to return to camp, pack up, and be ready to march.
Moving out of the pine grove our abode so long we
joined the brigade and marched about four miles to the
left, leaving the thunder of the siege behind, and halted
in the woods, somewhere beyond the spot afterwards called
Hancock Station. At daylight the regiments were strung
along, at intervals, upon some old intrenchments, relieving
troops of the Fifth Corps. Our division was now under
command of our old friend, General Julius White, first
heard of at Harper s Ferry, and later of the Twenty-Third
Corps and East Tennessee memory ; the brigade was com
manded by the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel Barnes, of the
Twenty-Ninth Massachusetts. Pickets were advanced to
the front in a drenching shower, and then, huts having
been built, the boys had a night s sound sleep, out of
range of Confederate bullets for the first time for two
months. All were very weary, many having had no sleep
for two days, yet some waked to wonder at the stillness
of our new location.
Captain Ingell, hearing of the movement and anxious
about "his boys," left his sick bed and joined us, after we
had moved camp back beyond a swamp and repitched in
company streets. From this spot he sent an interesting
284 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
letter, probably the last he ever wrote, concerning a new
danger which threatened the Thirty-Fifth ; he had heard
that the regiment was to be filled up with German and
French substitutes. He says : " I have been in hospital
by advice of Dr. Snow for rest and quiet, to prevent a
fever with which I was threatened, and my arm troubles
me at times. I returned to the regiment last evening,
they having during my absence moved about four miles to
the extreme left of our lines, and being now encamped in a
fine grove, doing picket duty with thirty men out, and cavalry
pickets outside of us. There are no rebels in front of us,
and the never-ceasing fire from artillery and pickets, to
which we have been for months subjected, has entirely
ceased, and we can hardly sleep, all is so quiet ; but the
enemy have been moving to their right, yesterday and
during the night, and we are expecting an attack on this
line, and are held in readiness to move at any moment. I
have received news of the recruits, German and French.
I hardly expected that this regiment would go into the
importing of German and French goods, and cannot see
what use they are to make of them ; however, if they
come properly consigned, and with proper invoices and
descriptive lists, with duties paid and properly avouched
for, I suppose I shall have to receive them ; if they do not,
I shall tell them, in the best German at my command, to
go to the devil. Officers and men are sorry these men are
to come among us." He ends with these words, so touch-
ingly pathetic in view of his near future, "Having I believe
told you all I think of now, I await events." While at the
hospital he had been passed by the examining board for
the Invalid Reserve Corps, on account of his old wound ;
but he was bent upon seeing the Thirty-Fifth through one
more fight. At this camp, Captain Ingell appointed Jesse
Holmes quartermaster-sergeant.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 285
For several days we had very heavy showers, which made
the roads heavy and the fields soaked with moisture. On
the eighteenth the Fifth Corps moved to the left, and
reaching the Weldon Railroad near the Globe Tavern, or
Yellow House as we called it, moved up the railroad
towards Petersburg; but being met in force they intrenched
themselves and held the position, but with exposed flanks.
The divisions of the Ninth Corps were ordered up to con
nect the right of the Fifth with the lines about Petersburg,
The nineteenth was a day of drizzle, the mud deep and
slippery in the fields. The regiment marched to brigade
headquarters, and, as soon as the troops were assembled
and pickets drawn in, started, left in front, with the First
Division, in a south-west direction, towards the supposed
right of the Fifth Corps, guided by the sound of cannon
ading. The Third Division preceded, and the Second
Division followed ours.
After two or three miles we came out into wide corn
fields with woods to the north-west and south-east, and,
hearing musketry, the double-quick step was taken, and a
series of hurried but well executed field movements ensued.
We came by flank into line of battle and went forward over
fences towards the western woods, the regiments keeping
their lines remarkably well, then halted and wheeled about
in retreat a few rods, then fronting moved more to the left
and again forward, all in accordance with orders from
General White, who appeared on horseback in front of the
regiment, waving his light felt hat and calling upon the
men to remember Campbell s Station and Knoxville, at
which the boys cheered vociferously. It was the most
inspiriting scene for many a day. Forward we went close
up to the woods bordering the railroad, then again to the
left and immediately back to the right, just in time ; the
Confederates Colquitt s brigade of Mahone s division
286 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
were coming through the woods upon the charge. Kneel
ing in the mud, the word was, "Fire, and give them
hell ! " and at it we went, firing and loading as rapidly
as nimble fingers could. The only command of the
officers was, " Fire low, men, fire low ! " and the carnage
was deadly.
As soon as our line of fire became distinct, the artillery
in rear opened, throwing the shells so closely to our heads
that the boys asserted they cut the tops of the corn-stalks.
A steady fire was maintained for over half an hour, officers
taking the guns of the wounded and adding their shots to
the storm of bullets, when the enemy retired in confusion,
leaving their dead and wounded and some prisoners who
came in through our line when the firing stopped. Two
men of one of our companies carried thirteen prisoners to
the rear. The woods were full of their fallen men, and it
took the whole of the next morning to remove them. We
had reached the ground in the nick of time to cover the
flank of the Third Division and the Fifth Corps ; and our
division and regiment never did better or more timely
service than upon that day. General Warren, command
ing the Fifth Corps, recognized the service and kindly sent
his thanks to the division ; and yet these were the men
who, a few days before, had failed at the Mine evidently
leadership is everything in war.
But our loss was cruel. Of the four officers with the
regiment in the action, two, Captain Ingell and Lieutenant
A. J. White, received wounds which proved mortal. Of
the enlisted men the killed or mortally wounded were :
Sergeant Albert G. Drake, William Dunbar and James
Gay, of Company A ; George F. Cossett, of Company C ;
and Frank Williams, of Company K ; there were about
twenty-five others wounded, and five men taken prisoners
from the picket line. Lieutenant Farrington was on duty
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 287
as brigade officer of the day ; Captains Hudson and Me-
serve and Lieutenant Wright on the division staff; so
that, at the end of the action, there were but the two
junior lieutenants and a little over one hundred men left
for duty, the smallest number during the regiment s term
of service. The whole First Division numbered probably
less than one thousand men, so many had been the casual
ties in that sanguinary campaign.
Darkness shut down upon the scene almost before the
smoke had lifted through the misty air. A renewal of the
attack was apprehended, and the line was moved to the
left into a bow in the woods, where, upon corn-stalk beds,
the men got such sleep as the care of watching and the
dripping rain allowed. During the night all was still
except the groans and cries of the Confederate wounded
in the dark forest, who had to wait until daylight before
they could be moved.
In the morning, after waiting some hours for the attack
which did not come, pickets were thrown out, the dead
buried, the wounded sent to the field hospitals, and the
whole line was drawn back to the east side of the open
field, and a line of intrenchments thrown up in extension
of the right of the Fifth Corps and our Third Division.
Here some of the men learned that the other engineer
regiments, as at the " mine-scrape," had not been in the
battle, but were engaged in the duties of their detail. At
first this was exceedingly irritating to our officers, who felt
again accused of want of care of their men, and led to a
remonstrance being sent to headquarters; but the vexation
soon subsided when the other side of the question the
absolute need of every man of the division at the front
was considered.
On the twenty-first, the lines were completely intrenched,
the left of the Fifth Corps placed en echelon and the Ninth
288 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Corps extended north-eastward towards Petersburg, where
connection was made with our fortified lines, now held by
the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. The railroad track was
torn up, but prisoners said the Confederates would recover
the Weldon Railroad if it took every man they had. They
came around on the left of the Fifth Corps in the morning
of that day, and about noon, having posted their artillery
so as to enfilade our earthworks, they commenced pitching
over round shot in the most lively manner. The men of
the Third Division, to our left, were obliged to get over
on the outside of their intrenchments for cover. Had the
enemy thrown shell their bombardment would have been
murderous ; as it was, it proved a game of long bowling
in a style which was quite amusing to the regiment. The
shot would strike the ground once, usually, before reaching
us, then rebound, skim our line, or rebound again, before
or behind us, sometimes in the midst of us. One of the pecu
liarities was that the ball could be seen before it reached
us, its line of flight calculated with accuracy, and by step
ping forward or back the missile avoided, as one would a
wild base-ball or foot-ball. Some remarkable dodging was
done, and more than one roar of laughter rose at some
quick movement on the part of officer or man to escnpe
the cold iron. We had two or three hit and badly bruised.
The Confederates, having as they supposed sufficiently
shaken our line, charged upon the seemingly exposed left
flank of the Fifth Corps, got so far forward as to be them
selves flanked by the foremost lines, and were surrounded
and captured in large numbers, to the great satisfaction of
General Warren and his men, who, in the confusion of the
first occupancy of the place, had also lost prisoners. No
attack was made by infantry on our front; the Thirty-Fifth
was never attacked in line of battle behind earthworks
our luck always was to assault, not defend, them. We
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 289
built heavy traverses to meet a repetition of the cross
fire, should it be with shell instead of shot, but it never
came.
The Second Corps had gone further south to Ream s
Station, but was not so successful in holding the ground.
Tremendous uproar of battle came from that direction,
and we were several times drawn out to march to their
assistance, but the general hesitated to weaken the lines,
so it was a scene of pitching and repitching tents and
shifting about for a dav or two, all within a few hundred
O J
yards, in a thoroughly uncomfortable way. Lieutenant
Farrington commanded the regiment. A noteworthy event
of those days was the promotion of First Sergeant Nason
to the rank of first lieutenant, a most efficient addition to
our list of but three officers. The new lieutenant went on
duty at once upon the picket line.
As soon as our line of intrenchment was secured by
traverses and abatis, we received the usual orders to leave
it, August 27, and proceeded nearly a mile to the right,
where we relieved colored troops at the angle where Fort
Howard was subsequently constructed, at that time occu
pied by the Eleventh Massachusetts battery. The ground
was so moist that when the heel was pressed into it the
hole would fill with water : raised beds, therefore, became
the order of the day, with leafy bowers overhead. These
shelters extended along the works, with a road between for
the passage of troops. We now faced northward, having
so far environed the city ; the sounds of the siege guns
came from our front. It was a quiet spot; the pickets
lying in the woods in front were seldom disturbed ; but, as
our angle was an exposed point, early rising was required.
The men were roused out before daylight and formed in
the trenches, where, after inspection and drill, to awaken
the sleepy ones, arms were stacked until broad daylight.
290 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
The system of detailing regiments for engineer duty was
discontinued about the first of September.
On the thirty-first of August Captain Ingell died of his
wound at the division field hospital. He was visited before
his death by several members of the regiment. His trusty
sword was taken down and laid by his side upon the bed,
to his manifest pleasure. The fatal bullet had so injured
his spine as to cause paralysis of the lower part of the
body, but his mind was as active, wit as bright, and smile
as ready as ever. His talk was of a return to wife and
home ; but there was a cast of sadness upon his face, an
appeal for sympathy in his eyes, which spoke the soul s
consciousness of his end, and cannot be recalled without
a tear. " The dear old boy " is the way in which the
members of the regiment speak of him.
Now a great change took place in the corps and in the
regiment. The regiments of the First Division had become
so reduced in numbers that the organization was broken
up, and the troops composing it were transferred to the
other divisions. The Thirty-Fifth was assigned to the
First Brigade General Curtin s of the Second Division
General Potter s composed of the Fifty-First New
York, Forty-Fifth and Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, Fourth
and Seventh Rhode Island, and Twenty-First, Thirty-Fifth,
Thirty-Sixth and Fifty-Eighth Massachusetts regiments ;
an excellent body of troops, of which we were at once,
without our own fault, rendered unfit to form part. The
breaking up of the First Division returned to duty with
the regiment all the detached officers, whose presence was
now made indispensable by the arrival of three hundred
and eighty-five German and French substitutes. Captain
Hudson, now promoted to major, took command, and
the additional company officers were Captain Pope
returned from recruiting service Captains Meserve and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 291
Tobey, Lieutenant Wright and a new lieutenant, Mac
kenzie, who came with the recruits and could speak their
language.
The presence of so many of the officers encouraged the
men, but the inundation of foreigners was as objectionable
to them as Captain Ingell had stated in the letter quoted
at the beginning of this chapter ; they wrote home that
the Thirty-Fifth had "gone up," and to direct letters in
future to the " First Hamburghers." They had heard of
the Hessians hired by the British in the Revolution, but
had never anticipated being associated with them as rep
resentatives of Massachusetts valor. Not that the men
were not good fellows enough many of them were fine
fellows but they could not speak English. This prevented
communication except through an interpreter any little
difficulty could only be got over by long round-about expla
nations and translations, and the bother was a constant
one. It is very strange that the Government accepted
these men for service in an English-speaking regiment at
the front, in contravention of the paragraph of the army
regulations which requires in the recruit a competent
knowledge of English.
The recruits themselves were dissatisfied, claiming to
have been enlisted for manual labor and not as soldiers.
One of them wrote to Major Hudson, as follows, translated
from the German : " I am one of the people brought from
Germany upon some kind of deceitful agreement that we
should all have good wages, every man at his own business.
When we had arrived the police took us and kept us to
gether for soldiers, and they gave us one hundred dollars in
paper money, not worth thirty dollars in gold, and we hear
that we are all volunteers, and then we hear afterwards
that we are substitutes Is that what you call
an oath when a man in a white coat and straw hat talks
292 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
some words of English which only one man Kiihler
understands?" etc.
The agreement referred to may be found in print in the
Government Diplomatic Correspondence, 1864, part 3,
page 191. The words "soldier" and " military service "
are studiously avoided, either to deceive the German Gov
ernment or the men who signed it.
On the other hand, Surgeon B. J. Jeffries, an officer of
high character, who spoke French and English, says : " I
acted as interpreter for the provost-marshal when the men
were sworn into the service both in French and English.
By conversation with the men I ascertained
that they came to be soldiers, although, as they told me
themselves, this could not of course be expressed in the
contract which they all signed before embarking from
Europe, for fear of international difficulty. The men
knew that they were making another contract with the
United States when they were sworn in, which was in no
way compulsory and not connected with the other."
Our lieutenant-colonel, William S. King, in a letter to
Governor Andrew, explanatory of the matter, writes :
"That in no case was compulsion used, nor could any
single person there doubt the purpose for which the papers
were submitted for their signatures. Our officers were in
uniform, the general conversation was of their destination,
the very camp at Galloup s Island to which they were to
be conveyed was in plain sight, and was shown to them,
dotted with its white tents and barracks, and upon the
departure of the first squad of about one hundred for
camp, the others, thinking that they had been rejected as
recruits, broke out into violent demonstrations of disap
pointment and anger, and were only appeased by assuV-
ances given them that they, too, would go to camp as soon
as the formalities of enlistment could be completed."
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 293
It was unavoidable that, upon the cessation of enlist
ments from patriotic motives, the usual mercenary induce
ments of trade should not be resorted to; the mistake was
in sending these men directly to the front, within a few
rods of the picket line, where they, at first, so far as abil
ity for service was concerned, were simply of the value of
a lot of dummies before whom their officers were tongue-
tied. They were distributed to companies by Major Hud
son, who was of a most friendly disposition towards them,
and did all he could to smooth over the difficulties of the
situation. The recruits, after some murmuring, accepted
the inevitable and endeavored, with good success, to catch
the words of command, and get acquainted with the man
ual of arms and some of the common battalion movements.
In the course of the month of September such progress
had been made in their education that an observer would
hardly have suspected that the men before him understood
no English but the brief orders as laid down in the tactics,
which had been drilled into their memories by constant
repetition. Our own officers and men knew the hollowness
of appearances, and hoped that our first battle with them
would be in line or behind breastworks, and not where
complicated manoeuvres might be required. As it fell
out, however, in the next action we got into the worst
possible situation for troops so difficult to handle in
an emergency.
In other respects the spirit of the regiment was excel
lent. The return of our officers, renewal of camp disci
pline, drills and parades, light picket duty, pleasant camp,
and the news of General Sherman s victory at Atlanta, all
combined to enliven and renew expectation of final success.
Quartermaster Cutter pitched his tent at the front with the
regiment, and rations and supplies were regular and suffi
cient. In the moonlight evenings the bands played, and
294 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
our new men, of whom many were skilful singers, joined
in admirable choruses, which made the woods ring and
attracted much attention from the other regiments about
us. Our position had been changed a short distance to
the left when newly brigaded. The rough temporary
breastworks were torn down and a new and handsome
line built. There was an open space in front, an old field ;
beyond this the forest trees had been slashed or felled,
their tops falling outward, making an almost impenetrable
abatis; and beyond this, in the woods, lay our pickets,
within calling distance of our camp. Videttes would be
sent out occasionally through the forest to feel the enemy,
and the latter would try our line in the same way to ascer
tain if any change had o ccurred ; but this spying business,
though it occasioned alarms, never amounted to anything.
General Grant and staff rode along the front, returning
after a few hours, and were cheered uproarously ; the men
still retained perfect confidence in his success, although
the victory was so slow in coming. Daily brigade guard-
mountings took place in front of the intrenchments, and
our dress-parades were performed there ; but the space
was too limited for drills, which were generally held in the
open fields in rear of our woods, near army headquarters.
The first dress-parade since leaving Bealton was held on
the nineteenth of September, and General Potter reviewed
the brigade on the twenty-first of the month.
The increase in rank and file brought with it many pro
motions, mostly from among the old members : Sergeants
Patch, Bent, Worcester, J. N. Morse and Lloyd received
commissions as first lieutenants ; Sergeants Hardy, Calder,
Alfred Blanchard, Jr., Von Echstadt, Mackenzie, William
White, Riggs, Angier and Ireland received second lieu
tenancies. Of these Von Echstadt, a new man, never
joined, and Mackenzie, the interpreter, soon left. The
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 295
others were mustered as opportunity offered, some of them
not until after a winter spent in the Confederate prison at
Salisbury, North Carolina, and one, at least, on that ac
count was never mustered ; Sergeant Charles A. Merrill,
of Company H, was promoted to a first lieutenancy in the
Fourth Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.
We learned of the death, at his home, of Lieutenant
Austin J. White (commissioned captain before he died), of
the wound received at the Weldon Railroad. Mention
has already been made of his gallant deeds at Jackson,
Miss., and in the mine affair. His injury was not supposed
to be of a mortal nature, and the news of his death gave a
severe shock to his many friends in the regiment. This
had been a summer of costly sacrifices, and when we recall
the noble self-forgetfulness of men like Captain White we
cannot but wonder at the mystery of life, that such as he
should die and we yet live.
On Sunday, the twenty-fifth of September, another two-
handed movement was begun by General Grant. General
Butler marched out upon the right at Deep Bottom in
front of Richmond, and carried by assault a part of the
.Confederate line at Chapin s Bluff. We were to engage
in a similar movement to our left towards the Boydton
plank road; this time the Fifth Corps to be the pivot and
the Ninth Corps to swing around upon their left. At first
our division marched ostentatiously to the right several
miles, and went into camp for two days in the woods in
rear of Fort Sedgwick, not far from Hancock Station.
This was intended for a blind to make Lee suppose we
were concentrating in Butler s front. While waiting, the
companies were rearranged and took position, according to
rank of commanding officers, in battalion lines as follows :
right C, F, G, E, I, D, K, H, A, B left. Up to this
date Company B had been color company since we left
296 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Lynnfield. Sergeant Thomas Castle continued to be the
bearer of the national color.
On the twenty-eighth we all moved back to the woods
near the Gurley House, behind the camp we had lately
occupied, and remained in bivouac concealed in the forest.
The weather was of that sombre gray aspect which portends
rain and October gales, and pretty well typified the rather
grave feeling of some of the old Thirty-Fifth at the pros
pect of going into action in the woods with the regiment
in such an unmanageable condition. Captain Sampson,
of the Twenty-First Massachusetts, was the choice spirit
of the occasion, and his ardent soul did much to relieve
the tedium of the slowly moving hours of waiting before
battle.
Towards noon of the thirtieth, after news had been
received of General Butler s success, the column was
formed, left in front, and marched westward, taking a
wood road, called Poplar Spring Church Road, to Peebles
Farm, a part of the Fifth Corps having preceded. As the
regiment was passing in the valley just before reaching the
farm, the enemy, who had constructed a redoubt, with one
gun commanding this road, fired a solid shot which raked
the whole length of the regiment, passing just over the
men, and causing a laughable bobbing of heads. That
was the gun s last shot, for, in a few moments afterward,
Griffin s and Ayres divisions of the Fifth Corps, which had
been drawn up fronting the Confederate works at the farm,
charged with ringing cheers across the open field and car
ried them in brilliant style, taking a number of prisoners
and the gun which had so narrowly missed us.
We were at once ordered forward at the double-quick,
and, coming out into the fields and fronting, followed the
other lines of battle across the open and up to the cap
tured works, which were quite strong, especially the redoubt,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 297
which had a deep ditch. Thereupon ensued an hour or
so of what seemed to us unaccountable delay. The only
Confederates in that vicinity had been captured or had fled
towards Petersburg, and, to all appearances, a quick dash
forward at once would place us upon the Boydton Road.
What seemed hesitation to us was probably the time occu
pied in moving the Fifth Corps into line, connecting their
right with the works at the Weldon Railroad, and placing
on the left of that corps the two divisions of our corps.
As it was the intention to place our regiment upon the
extreme left of this extended line, we were, of course, the
last to be brought into position, hence the long waiting
until late in the afternoon.
At last we were ordered forward and marched north
westward, across the Church Road to the Pegram House
then standing near the spot where Fort Welch was
afterwards built and alorig a ridge of the cornfield,
beyond the house, towards the Boydton Road. It was
very quiet excepting a few solid shot or shell which,
coming from the direction of Petersburg, whizzed over
head or struck in the pine woods on our right, which now
concealed everything cityward. On this ridge the regiment
was faced north, and Major Hudson skirmishing in front
led on down to the high rail fence, separating the field we
were in from the woods. Jumping the fence and finding
no enemy there the major ordered the regiment over to
the north side, also, and up to the northerly edge of the
grove overlooking open ground towards Petersburg, and
in plain view of the Confederate lines covering the Boyd
ton Road near the B. H. Jones House. This movement
was effected slowly but in good order, and the men lay
down in line pending further action, a few bullets from a
line of the enemy in front chicking in the tree tops.
An aide came riding from the right, the direction of the
298 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Church Road and the rest of our division, and directed
the major to throw forward the right of the regiment by a
half wheel probably to conform to some general line
which was done, an unfortunate move as it happened, and
the men lay down again. The adjutant asked the staff
officer what there was upon our immediate right, and got
for a reply, " Nothing but a few pickets." We knew there
was nothing but skirmishers upon our left. It seemed a
queer position to be in, thus cast loose at night-fall upon
the extreme left of the army.
While we were thus situated and quietly watching a line
of battle approaching in front, upon whom we expected
immediate orders to charge or open fire, a battalion, said
to be bounty jumpers, came up behind us, appearing to be
forming, when suddenly they left for the rear with a haste
truly amazing what could it mean? In a moment the
mystery was explained, a column of Confederates charged
upon our right-rear from the direction of the Church Road,
coming upon us through the underbrush before we discov
ered their approach. It would have been impossible to
devise a worse plight for our regiment as then constituted.
It was worse than the surprise at South Mountain, for then
the attack was in front and we could at least understand
orders. For change of direction there was no time.
Defence was out of the question ; we should have shot our
own men. In front was the line we had been watching,
on our right and rear were the new enemies, already seiz
ing men from the right companies as they broke towards
the left. The only thing to do was to collar our recruits,
shout "Git!" in the best German at our command, as
Captain Ingell would have done, and then takes ourselves
off over the fence to the left into a field of sorghum, many
of the men, however, getting in a shot before crossing the
fence, which hindered the enemy a little, their foremost
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 299
men also stopping to gather in those of our regiment who
still clung to earth too much surprised to rise.
Crossing the fence, the little Twenty-First battalion,
under Captain Sampson, deployed as skirmishers, covered
our flight of a few rods to the ridge in the open field,
spoken of above, situated west of the Pegram House.
Here Sergeant Thomas Castle took position with the
colors, and the men began to rally in a good position for
defence, except that it was open to the left. Our recruits
were full of fight, and some of them began firing recklessly
from behind the ridge through our forming line, one shot
killing First Sergeant Young, of Company E, a noble
fellow. This back fire discouraged the formation, and now,
to our surprise for we had hitherto supposed that the
surround affected only our regiment on looking to the
right we saw the whole of our brigade coming rapidly to
the rear in line of battle, they also having been outflanked.
This gave the impression of a worse state of affairs than
we had supposed ; it also left our position again unsup
ported upon the flanks, and " Fall back ! " was again the
word, this time with the expectation of resting our left
upon the Confederate line of works and redoubt captured
in the early afternoon.
In effecting this second movement to the rear, as it was
now twilight, great confusion resulted. A part of the regi
ment under Lieutenant Patch succeeded in getting in with
the left v flank of the brigade, and did some service there.
Another part was with Captain Pope and the regimental
colors. The major, adjutant and several other officers
and another part of the regiment got lost in the darkness
and strange locality, and went wandering to the westward,
where they came upon a Confederate line of intrenchments
newly dug. The major sprang over them, revolver in hand,
but they were entirely vacant, their men having been drawn
300 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
to their left. By taking a direction at right angles to these
works, this part of the regiment also succeeded in getting
into our left, where our cavalry was posted, and reached
Poplar Spring Church, from whence they rejoined the other
men in the morning. When the whole left had been swung
back some distance, the Confederate assailants struck the
angle of Wilcox s division and the Fifth Corps, who were
securely established, and were repulsed with heavy loss.
On October i the division was in position behind the
intrenchments near the redoubt above mentioned, and
here the regiment was assembled about daylight. To say
that there was a general feeling of shame and disgust over
the events of the night before would weakly characterize
the expressions used. And yet it was hard to see what
else could have happened under the circumstances. If we
had never crossed the rail fence, but had remained in line
upon it, we should have been fronted just right to open
upon the enemy, who had surrounded us in our advanced
position, and we could then have done as good service as
at the Weldon Railroad ; but even then, the line of the
brigade retiring would have left us with flanks exposed
and subject to capture in toto, very much as the Fifty-
Eighth was, which delayed too long to retreat.
The casualties in the regiment were killed or died of
wounds, ten : Sergeant W. B. D. Andrews and Francis
Gentsch, of Company A ; John Vandervende, of Company
B ; Sergeant William C. Oakman, of Company C ; Michael
Neil, of Company D; Sergeant George I. Young and Nich
olas Schnecker, of Company E ; Corporal Charles A.
Crocker, of Company H ; Corporal William C. Stimpson,
Jr., and Frederick Metzger, of Company I. Lieutenant
John W. Fiske, formerly our color bearer, promoted to
the Fifty-Eighth Massachusetts, was among the killed.
About fifteen were known to be wounded ; among them,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS, 301
First Lieutenants Farrington and John N. Morse, and
Second Lieutenant Angier ; but among the one hundred
and sixty-three who were missing, some never afterwards
heard from were supposed to be among the dead. Among
the captured were Lieutenants Alfred Blanchard, Jr., then
orderly sergeant, and Alfred Ireland. Of the prisoners
Lieutenant Blanchard reports that there were in the pen
at Salisbury, North Carolina, in February following, one
hundred and twenty men belonging to the Thirty-Fifth.
Some of the recruits took the oath to serve the Con
federacy, but most did not, remaining true to the stars
and stripes, in spite of their first dissatisfaction and the
sufferings of prison life.
There were several amusing incidents ; indeed the whole
affair after it was over was a laughable one, we were so
completely surprised and skedaddled. Captain Tobey,
who was a short, thick set, pugilist of a man, was calmly
surveying the front, when he was grabbed from behind by
two Confederates ; taking in the situation at a glance he
threw up both arms with such force as to clear the grip
of his captors, then, ducking his head, he bolted for the
nearest cover, and escaped into our lines, much to the
merriment of his boon companions.
Lieutenant Farrington, regimental commander after the
Weldon Railroad battle, received a very dangerous wound,
the bone of the left upper arm being broken by a bullet.
Lying in the woods after our men had left, the victors
insisted upon his joining the squad of prisoners for Peters
burg; he refused, feeling unable to move, and informed
them that if they wanted him in Petersburg they must
carry him. He was left for awhile, and recovering some
strength got off unobserved in the darkness and reached
our pickets. His arm was successfully treated in the
hospital at City Point, the bone being resected.
302 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Captain Sampson, of the Twenty-First Massachusetts,
planted his flag on the ridge and rallying his men, who
showed the same heroic spirit as upon many another field,
hung to the spot until he fell. He was entitled to his dis
charge, but had remained with his battalion to lead them
in one more action. The honor of the old Twenty-First
was worthily sustained by him that day. The earthwork
next on the left of Fort Welch was named, after him,
Fort Sampson.
The first of October was drizzling and dull, and there was
nothing to do but to sit about in the dripping rain waiting
for something to turn up, and discussing the particulars of
the battle and where the fault lay, a by no means cheerful
amusement. It was said afterwards by Major Hudson,
who was well informed, to have miscarried through the
oversight of some general officer j but, of course, the
unwieldiness of our regiment made the mischance worse
than it should have been to us.
That night another saddening event happened. Sergeant
McCulloch, of Company C, chief of pioneers, was killed
by a falling tree, which struck him while sitting upon a
log superintending the slashing of the forest along the
front. A grave was dug upon the ground which the regi
ment occupied and his remains were laid away, while a
group of sorrowing comrades assisted in the interment.
Next day (October 2) the sun came out, and a recon-
noisance in force was made by a part of the Second Corps,
while the Ninth Corps moved up into position in line with
the Pegram House (position of Fort Welch) and threw up
intrenchments, which continued to be the line of the army
until the end of the siege. There was no interruption
except a few shells thrown with remarkable accuracy by
the Confederates from our left and enfilading the line,
killing or wounding some in the Thirty-Sixth Massachusetts
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 303
on our left, and wounding several of our men. Pickets
under Captain Meserve occupied nearly the ground of our
furthest advance on the thirtieth, and recovered most of
the dead, whose bodies had been stripped ; the needs of
the Confederates requiring the clothing, but not requiring
the mangling and ill usage which some of the bodies had
received, as if stabbed or bayonetted in mere wantonness
of hatred.
The enemy s pickets called out to send over to them
the rest of the Fifty-Eighth Massachusetts ; as they had
most of that regiment, they would like to have the spec
imen complete. Also, referring to the Thirty-Fifth, they
said, " We have caught some real live Yankees this time,
they can t speak a word of English ! " The picket posts
of the opposing armies were close together here, but by
agreement no firing was permitted without previous warn
ing, so that the conversation on the lines was quite social,
and so much trading was begun that stringent orders had
to be passed to stop it. Captain Burrage, of the Thirty-
Sixth, went out for a Richmond newspaper, and the Con
federate officer craftily claimed that he had advanced too
far within their posts, and retained him a prisoner, much
to his chagrin.
The memories connected with this camp are mostly of
a pleasant character. The intrenchments were strength
ened and forts built ; a strong redoubt, called Fort Fisher,
was constructed on the right of our regimental line, which
rested on the Church Road ; another, larger one, called
Fort Welch, was made on the left where the Pegram
House had stood. The batteries of the enemy on the
Boydton Road, which enfiladed our line, occasionally sent
us a few compliments, which necessitated building trav
erses, but did us no harm. The trees about camp were
full of bullets, the relics of the storm of lead on the thir-
304 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
tieth, and a number of the slain were buried with a very
light covering of earth upon the ground of our camp. As
decomposition proceeded, more earth was needed, and
beside one grave there was a shovel placed, to add from
time to time additional loam to the expanding heap.
These bodies were removed as soon as the weather per
mitted to the corps cemetery, and properly interred, not
however without incident. The arm of one of the bodies,
carried upon a stretcher, slipped off, and swung with each
movement of the bearers as if desirous of shaking hands ;
one of the recruits seized it to replace it, when the limb
separated from the body and remained in his grasp, much
to his horror, for he was very superstitious.
Dr. Carr, our new assistant surgeon, joined on the
seventh of October, and proved an excellent doctor and
pleasant companion. On the eighth, to the great delight
of the old members, Colonel Carruth arrived in camp, but
did not take command, having duties on court martial.
He had for some months contemplated resigning on
account of ill health, but was persuaded out of it by his
friends in the regiment, who, remembering his zealous
ways, thought his name alone at the head of the Thirty-
Fifth would be stronger than the presence of any other
officer. Drills and instruction were resumed under the
vigorous direction of Major Hudson, and great improve
ment was soon apparent in the recruits in their knowledge
of our language and ways, and in soldierly duties ; a lively
scrimmage consolidated most of them with the regiment
in feeling and interest.
On the fourteenth of October occurred the first military
execution witnessed by the regiment. The efforts of the
peace party and the mercantile prosperity, caused and
maintained largely by the extravagant expenditure of the
Government, had almost put an end to recruiting, Boun-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 305
ties of one thousand dollars and upwards the estimated
value of life to the common man were paid to men to
enlist, who then had at least an even chance of escaping
service at the front by getting into hospital or slipping off
on their way from the recruiting stations. If they reached
the front, the worst of them did as little duty as possible
and deserted to the enemy when able. These men were
called bounty-jumpers. The Government determined to
stop the desertion, and if any were caught of those who
went over to the enemy they were shot or hung, according
to sentence, without reprieve. The scene of a military
execution has been often described, but to witness one is
always impressive. In this instance the division was
drawn up to form three sides of a square ; the condemned
man marched into the enclosure, preceded by the band
playing the woful miserere, and followed by the firing party
a squad of men from the provost-guard. The plain
pine-board coffin was laid upon the ground and the culprit
seated upon its end, while the officer of the provost read
the warrant of execution. The prisoner was then blind
folded, that his pleading eyes might not disturb the aim of
his executioners ; the officer, by motion of his hands, not
by words, gave the commands, " Ready ! Aim ! Fire ! " a
burst of flame followed from the muzzles of the rifles, and
the victim fell back with a heavy thud upon the hollow
box prepared for his burial ; the smoke was wafted away
he was a moment before alive, in the vigor of health,
now he was dead! the surgeon walked to his side and
examined the lifeless clay. This affair was conducted
with such order and solemnity as to prove very affecting.
The prisoner was at least as calm as the spectators, for he
leaned down to pick up a straw while the warrant was being
read. It is a rule that the musket of one of the firing
party shall be loaded with a blank cartridge, so that no
306 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
one can be certain that he fired a fatal shot ; but all are
bidden, sometimes by the condemned himself, to aim with
care that the man may be killed at once. Such executions
were quite common in the army during the winter of 1864-
1865. In this connection we may add that no one of the
original members of the Thirty-Fifth is known to have
deserted to the enemy. The men who are reported in the
roster as deserters were generally, in the first case, strag
glers who were ashamed to rejoin, and then tempted to stay
away permanently ; and no one of them, if returned, was
ever punished by more than the ordinary camp discipline of
tying-up, or extra police duty, or some disgrace of that kind.
At this camp, the Thirty-Ninth New Jersey and One
Hundred and Seventy-Ninth New York joined the brigade.
On the twenty-fifth, another left flank move was com
menced, this time the Ninth Corps to be the pivot and
the Second and Fifth Corps to swing out to Hatcher s
Run, and the regiment was under orders over the twenty-
sixth. On the twenty-seventh the march began, Colonel
Carruth in command of the regiment. The division moved
out several miles to Wells s Farm, threw up a line of works,
which, of course, was not attacked, and remained over
night. There was some skirmishing, and a very heavy
and, at the time, unaccountable musketry fire was kept up
a little way to our left. This was explained afterwards by
a statement that the swinging corps had become so much
confused in the thick woods and swamps as to have lost
all points of direction, and this din of arms was ordered
to give them the direction of the point as a guide. Next
day the troops all came back to their old camps, having
found the enemy very strongly posted, and General Grant
not wishing to do anything which by any exaggeration of
the newspapers could be made to appear like a defeat of
our armies just before election.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 307
For now the great crisis was at hand, the November
election of 1864, which was to decide whether the people
of the North were so tired of the war as to be willing to
give the Government to the peace party, for the sake of an
end on any terms, or whether, now, with Sherman s and
Sheridan s victories and Grant s masterly supervision, the
end of the long sacrifice was to be won in one final effort
of all the moral and physical forces of the Union. None
of the Massachusetts soldiers voted, many from the other
states did, and the result was throughout country and army
one tremendous verdict in favor of the continuance of the
war, cost what it might.
As soon as this decision was announced in the Confed
erate army in our front, desertions from it to us and to
their rear commenced, and increased in numbers as the
winter progressed, and the result became plainly inevitable.
Those who came into our lines announced that the result
of the election had furthered the work of disheartening
their army, and that only the most insensible fire-eaters
had now any expectation of final success but many of
Lee s army would stick to the ranks from love of him, in
stubborn determination to abide the end. We therefore
looked for severe and sanguinary fighting yet to come ;
another campaign with perhaps long marches into the
interior in pursuit of the concentrated armies of the
Confederacy.
The other event in November was Thanksgiving, which
was appointed for the twenty-fourth, but the turkey feast
was celebrated by us on the twenty-sixth, because the
express boxes were two days behind time. On the twenty-
fifth, a lot of apples, onions and cooked turkeys, sent by
kind friends in New York, was received and issued to the
men; and on the twenty-sixth, besides the many boxes for
individuals, there came an ample gift from Boston mer-
308 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
chants, especially to our recruits, of apples, bolognas, pies
and cooked turkeys, so that for once every man in the reg
iment had plenty of good things to eat. The pies had
been neatly packed in casks, but by rough handling they
had become broken into pieces, and, when opened, were a
mass of crumbs, which, nevertheless, retained the honest
pie flavor, and were scooped up and measured out by the
dipper full, a way of eating pie which caused a good deal
of fun among the men. Here we were with an excellent
dinner spread, where, by leaning the head to one side, the
Confederate pickets could be seen and almost spoken to j
and yet we ate this feast in peace and quietness, and with
thankful hearts, and not a few reminiscences of our last
two celebrations of the day, at Falmouth and while besieged
in Knoxville, and with heartily cheered toasts and proph
ecies that our next year s feast would be kept with our
dear ones at home.
Quartermaster Cutter had again returned to the regi
ment for the winter, and tented with Assistant Surgeon
Carr. We gained Captain Mirick from detached service,
but lost Captain Meserve, who received the commission of
major in Colonel King s new regiment, the Fourth Massa
chusetts Heavy Artillery. We doubt if the major found
the promotion adequate compensation for the loss of sev
eral months of companionship with his old chums and
comrades in the Thirty-Fifth, at any rate they sadly missed
him. News of Captain Blanchard s discharge reached
camp, his wound received at the mine proved so disabling
as to compel his retirement from active service, and finally
led him gently down to the grave. May the gallant captain
rest in peace ! The Thirty-Fifth was his pride, and he
spurned with indignation anything but the severest duty
for the regiment.
We had occasional alarms, but nothing resulted except
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 309
watchfulness. We had now been away from the imme
diate front of Petersburg over three months, and the other
corps, who had held our old intrenchments and endured
the pounding these long weeks, began to think it was time
for them to have a respite. So, on the twenty-ninth of
November, we left this pleasant camp on the extreme left,
which we had such an unfortunate experience in acquiring,
and, being relieved by the Second Corps, marched again
to the right to the Jones House and Hancock s Station, in
rear of Fort Sedgwick.
CHAPTER XII.
WINTER QUARTERS, 1864-65 "FORT HELL."
THE Ninth Corps was now posted in the intrenchments
and forts along a line of about seven miles, from
Fort McGilvery on the Appomattox around to Fort How
ard the redoubt built at the angle of the works we had
occupied in August, after the battles upon the Weldon
Railroad. The First Division, under General Wilcox, was
stationed nearest the Appomattox ; our division, General
Potter s, extended from Fort Meikle, next south of Fort
Morton, to the left, including Forts Rice, Sedgwick, Davis,
etc. Fort Sedgwick was garrisoned by the Seventh Rhode
Island and Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania regiments, with bat
teries. The military railroad, which had been constructed
while we were at the left of the army, extended along the
whole rear of this line. The Fourth Division (colored
troops) had been transferred to the Twenty-Fifth Corps;
their presence with us, while it added little to our strength
so unwilling were our generals to trust in them had,
owing to the prejudice of color, affected the standing of
the corps, and thereby injured its esprit. In place of
them we now had a new Third Division, composed of six
Pennsylvania regiments, numbered Two Hundredth, Two
Hundred and Fifth, Two Hundred and Seventh, Two
Hundred and Eighth, Two Hundred and Ninth and Two
Hundred and Eleventh, which were encamped along the
railroad and proved to be composed of good soldiers.
311 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT
West of the railroad and the Jones House there was a
tract of low, swampy land, covered with pine forest. The
camp of the Thirty-Fifth was located on the west of this
swamp, upon the open upland, from which the forest had
been stripped, leaving the stumps everywhere prominent,
and about four hundred yards in rear of Fort Sedgwick.
It was announced that we should probably remain upon
this spot all winter ; and, after a few days study of the
locality, a regular camp was laid out, in company streets,
with regimental headquarters and officers tents upon the
left, on account of the wet land in rear. The color line
was the highest ground, from which the land fell off gently
to the rear, making a good drainage. Pitch-pine logs were
abundant for the cutting, and the men were skilful in
handling the axes ; accordingly hut building was indus
triously pursued, with a resulting success never equalled
by the regiment. Colonel Carruth superintended the con
struction. Each hut was made long enough for what was
called a double-tent roof, formed of four pieces of shelter
tent, about eleven feet long and six feet wide, the sides
high enough for a gun to stand upright under the eaves.
Chimneys of sticks, mud and barrels were placed at the
ends, and beds, shelving, flooring and such conveniences
added within, according to the ingenuity of the occupants.
In a short time the men were sheltered more comfortably
than ever before in the service ; they took great pride in
policing the grounds, and the camp was pronounced by
the medical inspector to be the best on the line.
From our color line to the front extended the open
stumpage land, which served as a place of deposit for
Confederate projectiles, mortar shells and spent bullets
in great numbers. Beyond this plain was a ravine, from
which the land rose to our main line of breastworks, sup
ported by Fort Sedgwick, called "Fort Hell," on the left,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 312
and Fort Rice some distance to the right. From the left
of Fort Sedgwick our lines fell back to Fort Davis, which
was some ways off and about on a line with our camp. In
front of our intrenchments were planted obstructions of all
kinds, abatis of limbs of trees, pikes pointing outward and
chevaux defrise. Beyond these was our picket line, a low
earthwork, with rifle pits at intervals, raised higher, and,
in some instances, strengthened with gabions and head
logs with loop holes. Some three hundred yards off was
the Confederate picket line, behind that their main line,
supported by forts the one opposite us called Fort
Mahone, or " Damnation " by the soldiers ; they also had
an interior line of great strength. Right and left the lines
extended in the same manner, except that to the right the
opposing lines gradually came close together, while to the
left the space between widened out rapidly. Half way
between Forts Sedgwick and Rice was a mortar battery,
under command of Lieutenant Loomis, of the First Con
necticut Heavy Artillery, an officer of remarkable nerve
and contempt of danger.
The duty of the regiment was light simply to be ready
at all times, night or day, to rush to the breastworks con
necting the forts, in case of an attack, and to furnish a
daily detail of officers and men for the picket line and an
alarm guard on the breastworks. The length of our brigade
picket line in December was about fifteen hundred and
eighty-one paces, with eighty-five posts, guarded by from
four to eight commissioned officers and three hundred and
thirty-three men ; the lines were shifted and posts changed
from time to time, also the number of men. There was
no firing of musketry during the day, and horizontal artil
lery fire was so infrequent as to be always noticeable ; but
there was a constant fusillade of small arms at night and
duels of the noisiest kind in the daytime between the
313 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
mortar batteries called the perpendicular fire which
threw nine-inch shells, sometimes even into the swamp
behind our camp ; generally, however, they exploded in
the air over our forts, or scattered their fragments in
front of our color line, but with all their noise and terrific
appearance seldom injured anybody. The weather during
the winter was changeable cold snaps, with snow and
hail and all the discomforts of a Northern winter, alter
nated with intervals of mild, sunny days, when it was a
delight to be abroad.
Lieutenant-Colonel King having been promoted to a
colonelcy, as before mentioned, Mr. Burr Porter, a stranger
to the regiment, was named for the vacancy by Governor
Andrew over Major Hudson, who had earned the promo
tion. A remonstrance was made against this slight to the
major, and the matter was arranged by the appointment
of Mr. Porter to a cavalry regiment, and Major Hudson
became lieutenant-colonel in January.
The events during the winter were not very exciting, but
were sufficient to constantly stimulate expectation of an
early breaking up of the Confederacy. On the eighth of
December cautionary orders were received to be ready to
move at any moment ; they were repeated on the ninth,
and the men were directed to sleep with equipments on.
The occasion of this excitement was that the Fifth Corps
and a division of the Second Corps had gone on a raid
due south to the North Carolina state line to destroy the
railroad, and a counter move was looked for from the
Confederates upon our lines weakened by the absence of
those troops.
On the tenth, a double execution, by hanging, of two
deserters took place in the fields near Hancock Station,
at which the division was required to be present. The
effect upon the men was less impressive than death by
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 314
shooting ; the incidents of a hanging scene are more vile
and less blood curdling. One of the spectators, who had
probably been at work fixing up some officers accounts,
wanted to know whether the ropes and slip-nooses would
be charged to the condemned men s camp and garrison
equipage accounts !
With this grim event for the morning s entertainment,
at four in the afternoon a provisional division, composed
of troops not in the forts, was massed at the Jones House,
and started south, at dark, down the Jerusalem plank road
to Nottaway River, some twenty miles, marching all night
in mud ankle deep, the footing made worse by the broken
remnants of the planks of which the road had been con
structed. The purpose of the expedition was to discover
the whereabouts of the Fifth Corps, which had been off
on the raid above mentioned for several days, and, if
needed, to give assistance.
In the morning, reaching the Nottaway, the raiders were
found to be all right and coming back in high spirits, after
destroying the railroad and trying their hands a little at
foraging, of which they had read so much in connection
with Sherman s marches, but had so little in their own
experience of late. After a rest from nine until afternoon,
our presence being superfluous, while our absence from the
Petersburg line might be discovered, we started back,
footsore and weary, but braced up by a change to cold
freezing weather, and made the return trip in seven hours,
over roads now stiff and extremely rough for night march
ing. The return journey was the hardest of the year, and
will long be remembered by those whose foot gear gave
out, and who found themselves obliged to hop along with
feet exposed to the frozen ground. We had lain so long in
camp that our walking powers had suffered, and next morn
ing found us as stiff and sore a lot of heroes as was ever
315 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
collected within our cognizance. The colonel had thought
fully sent forward to camp and ordered hot coffee prepared,
which was issued immediately upon arrival, and did much,
aided by the comfortable quarters, to banish the fatigues
of a winter march of nearly forty miles in twenty-four
hours. The orders to be in readiness were renewed, but
the Confederates respected our condition and allowed the
weary to rest undisturbed.
On the sixteenth there was a tremendous bombardment,
and some one hundred bomb shells burst in front of our
camp. This was followed on the seventeenth by good
news from General Sherman.
Bullets came over at night from the picket line, and
could be heard "chicking" in the trees, but seldom hurt
ing any one. Folsom, of Company I, whose name it was
always quite safe to place on the list of wounded before
the roll was called after an action, was struck in his tent
by a spent ball, for the fifth time on as many separate
occasions. His record was equalled by Sergeant Haskell,
of Company C, who, in March following, was wounded for
the sixth time. It was a mystery that while some men
seemed invulnerable through every exposure, others could
never come under fire but they were found by some kind
of missile at once ; the men used to remark of such unfor
tunates that the bullets did not know them ; absentees
returning to the regiment were apt to be treated in this
unfriendly way by the leaden messengers. An officer
writing in his tent at evening was startled by the sharp
" thud ! " of a bullet in the logs of his hovel, " Come in ;
don t stop to knock ! " said he, and went on with his work.
He was, we believe, the one who entered in his diary,
" Captain and I spend our evenings studying rhetoric (!)
and playing checkers, then I read a sermon, after which
we turn in."
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 316
The old regimental flags having become worn to rags
and tatters, a requisition was made upon the quarter
master s department for a new stand, and upon the twen
tieth of December a handsome national flag and a blue
regimental color were received and planted for exhibition
upon the color line, where they were much admired for
brilliancy of dye. The old as well as these new colors
were afterwards marked with inscriptions and the names
of battles in which the Thirty-Fifth had taken part, and are
deposited in the Doric Hall of the State House in Boston,
with the flags of the other Massachusetts regiments.
Our sutler, Mr. Williams, who had been with us a part
of the summer and at the camp near Poplar Spring Church,
made a change of business, and was succeeded by Mr. A.
G. Merrill, a native of Maine, who proved an excellent
caterer, and remained with the regiment until the end of
its term of service.
Desertions from the enemy were constant. On the
twenty-first six men came over from the Forty-Fifth or
Forty-Sixth Virginia, saying that they had been conscripted
and forced into the ranks, and that their whole company
would follow them in a few days. One declared that the
end of the war was very near; he hoped that we would
"hang Jeff Davis, but let Bob Lee off, for he was a good
fellow " ; there were other expressions which showed a
feeling of deep hatred in the Confederate rank and file
towards their President. They spoke of their short rations
a small piece of bacon and a corn pone, each, for the
twenty-four hours. Afterwards we saw strewed about their
winter quarters English preserved meat cans, showing that
in part their subsistence came through the blockade. These
deserters devoured the crackers, coffee and sutler s stores
which were offered them with the appetite of half-famished
men, which we, with our last winter s experience in East
317 HISTORV OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Tennessee, could fully appreciate. To get across to us
they would take advantage of darkness and stormy nights,
and run the risk of being shot by their own men, as well
as by our pickets, but none were known to have been
killed between the lines ; comrades probably fired high in
such cases, and were even known to cheer and wave their
hats when some conspicuously bold escape by daylight
was successfully effected.
Watching through a field glass the movements among
the Confederate pickets or within their interior lines, their
artillery drill, effect of our shots, etc., was an amusement
of our idle hours during the winter. They seemed to be
busied most of the time with carrying and splitting wood
for their fires, or sitting over the smoking embers in a
rather disconsolate way, suggestive of anything but a
brilliant future for their cause ; the meditations of those
hours, if recorded, must now be interesting reading.
Among our men, on the contrary, the prospect for the
future continually brightened ; the desertions were ocular
proof of the failing Confederacy ; to these were added, on
the twenty-fourth, news of Sherman s capture of Savan
nah, and, in January, of General Thomas s victory at
Nashville and the storming of the forts at Wilmington;
in February, the fall of Charleston and Columbia, and
Sherman s progress northward ; the thermometer of hope
rose steadily. With finger upon the heart at Richmond,
we seemed to feel the ebbing of the pulse as thus the
limbs were successively lopped off. There were occasional
events, however, near us, which prevented this feeling
that the war was over making too rapid progress, and
indicated a bitterly hostile spirit still alive in some, at
least, of our opponents. It was our custom to relieve the
pickets in the afternoon, that the men might be fresh and
alert during the night, and that the Confederates might
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 318
see by daylight that the movement in our lines was simply
the relief. On the twenty-seventh of December some
black-hearted artillery man in their main line treacherously
fired two spherical-case shells at our returning picket detail,
one only of which took effect, killing Corporal Charles W.
Oilman, of Company C an excellent man and wound
ing three others, two of Company C and one of Company
E the latter, Henry Lenkorf, died of his wounds soon
after in the field hospital. This act was loudly condemned
on both sides as a breach of the tacit agreement not to
fire during the day, but the author of the deed would
probably reply that the understanding had reference only
to the pickets, and not to the artillery and mortars, which
opened whenever they saw game worth the powder.
The eventful year (1864) closed cold and blustering, and
New Year s Day opened revealing the country white with
a light fall of snow, which, however, was gone before night.
Colonel Carruth was absent at brigade headquarters in
command of the brigade, from time to time, during the
winter, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson commanded the
regiment on such occasions. Captain Mirick had returned
from detached service the last of October, and upon the
third of January was detailed acting assistant inspector-
general of the Third Brigade of the First Division, com
posed of many of the regiments which had constituted our
old First Division. Our commissary, William H. P. Plum-
mer, had continued along with the same troops as brigade
commissary since the breaking up of the division. Sergeant
William P. Rice and Samuel Pray did commissary duty
with the regiment. On the fourth of January First Lieu
tenant Nason was mustered in as captain, and Second
Lieutenant Bent as first lieutenant.
On the eighth a new lot of white flannel for corps badges
was cut up and distributed, the color for our division re-
319 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
quiring more frequent renewal than the red and blue. On
the tenth a storm of rain was so severe as to flood the
rifle pits along the picket lines ; and, upon both the Con
federate side and ours, the guards stacked arms on the
bank and paced their beats, fully exposed, with hostilities
suspended for the time by the elements.
On the twenty-sixth of January news was received of the
promotion of Major Hudson to lieutenant-colonel. We
had not since South Mountain gone into action with a
colonel and lieutenant-colonel present at the same time,
and never with a full list of field officers present ; now that
we had them with us, we were anticipating what it would
be like to be so well commanded in battle.
On the last day of January the Confederate Vice-
President, Alexander H. Stephens, and Messrs. Campbell
and Hunter, as peace commissioners, passed through the
lines to City Point under a flag of truce, and had an inter
view with President Lincoln and officers of the National
Government. Expectation was a-tip-toe in both armies,
and the wearied rank and file hoped the result would be a
peace with honor to both parties with, of course, the
Union saved. Next day the Confederates opposite us
commenced cheering loudly, and our boys replied as
vigorously ; the shouting ran along the lines and died
away. What it was all about no one knew ; probably an
explosion of pent-up emotion. But the commission had
no result other than to reveal the growing apprehensions
of the Confederate leaders.
During February many furloughs were granted, and
some men of the regiment who had not been away from
their companies since the departure from Lynnfield were
now rewarded by a visit to their homes. A leave of
absence was a pleasant thing to anticipate and enjoy, but
the pain of again parting from loved ones more than
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 32O
equalled the pleasures ; several declared upon returning
that they wanted no more furloughs until the fighting
business was ended. Visitors came to camp from the
North ; among them Hon. Charles Hudson, father of our
lieutenant-colonel, and Mr. Nathan Carruth, uncle of our
colonel.
More military executions and noisy bombardments were
the only exciting events during February. Occasional
orders to be ready to march, to make an attack or to meet
one, were received, and a vigilant watch was kept for signs
of an evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, but no
active results followed on our part. Our former major
Wales sent us a foot-ball, which was hailed with delight
by the boys, and athletic exercises were practised to keep
the men in condition, or long equestrian trips made to the
right or left, with such Government nags and dilapidated
harness as could be found or borrowed.
On the twenty-fourth another list of promotions was an
nounced : Captain Mirick to be major; First Lieutenants
Wright and Mason to be captains ; Second Lieutenants
Hardy and Worcester to be first lieutenants ; Sergeants
Ellis, Chamberlin and Bagley to be second lieutenants.
On the same day a tremendous shotted salute was fired
along the lines, by order of General Grant in honor of
the capture of the Wilmington forts to the amazement
of the Confederates, who did not relish such a method of
demonstrating joy at their defeat.
On the third of March Major Haviland paid off the
regiment. On the seventh, at dusk, we received orders to
relieve the Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, to whom we gave
up our comfortable huts, and received in exchange their
damp bomb-proofs and hovels in the northerly and more
exposed part of Fort Sedgwick, where we were quartered
during the rest of the month. The fort was not regularly
321 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
planned, but was an irregular enclosure, as if the accidental
line of breastworks first thrown up by the skirmishers of
the Fifth Corps, when they effected a lodgment across the
Jerusalem plank road in June previous, had been taken
for the outline, upon which heavy parapets and deep
ditches had been constructed by the troops during the
summer and autumn. The result was, nevertheless, so
strong that the Confederates, having at one time decided
to make an assault here, upon consideration, changed the
scene to Fort Steadman, as mentioned hereafter. They
also began a mine from their works to blow us up and
made some progress, but did not complete it the entrance
was to be seen long afterwards. The interior of our fort
was divided into two quite distinct parts, of which the
southerly was more properly called Fort Sedgwick and
contained the best engineering work (that part continued
to be garrisoned by the Seventh Rhode Island), while our
half was nick-named "Fort Hell." The general incli
nation of- the land was to the rear, making a considerable
cover of itself. This slope was burrowed into and dug
out in the construction of bomb-proofs, covered ways,
drains, wells, magazines and shelters, in a way to puzzle
a stranger to get about by daylight ; much more was it a
labyrinth in the night-time. The armament of the fort
and its outworks was twelve cannon and eight mortars.
The parapet nearest to the enemy was formed of a double
tier of gabions, with cross-ties and stamped earth, ten to
fifteen feet thick, cut by embrasures, from which a cross
fire from the batteries at either end was obtained over
most of the ground in front. In the rear the parapet was
but one gabion in height, for infantry defence only. The
deep ditch in front was partly filled with rain water and
was a bad place to get past, even if the long range of
half-buried pikes, abatis and chevaux de frise did not stop
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 322
the assailants. Within easy speaking distance in front was
our picket line. The Confederates exhibited good sense
in not assaulting these defences. The order of companies
in the regimental line was rearranged as follows: right
I, E, K, D, F, H, B, A, C, G left.
The first days in the fort were wet and wretchedly un
comfortable ; it took some time to learn the capabilities of
the place. The quarters of the men were in long, barrack-
like bomb-proofs, or, rather, bullet-proofs, for they would not
stop an unexploded shell. They were low structures of
logs opening to the rear, with frequent doors for easy exit
in case of alarm, and chimneys here and there for warmth
and cooking. The roofs were made of logs and earth, in
rainy weather moist and dripping, and making the interior
at all times dark and dismal. The officers, at first, occu
pied the bomb-proofs which their predecessors had made,
by digging a deep cellar, roofing with cross layers of the
largest logs, and covering all with great piles of earth,
making mounds of considerable size. Entrance to these
underground quarters was obtained by cutting steps down
to the floor, and chimneys were built up from them, making
upon the whole about as chill and gloomy a tomb as one
could well wish to be buried in. Rain turned these rat
holes into dripping baths, which continued to drip long
after the weather above ground had cleared. After a few
days trial of underground life most of the officers pitched
tents in rear of the mounds of their bomb-proofs, and occu
pied them, except when an uncommonly severe mortar
shelling made the security from flying pieces compensate
for the descent into Avernus.
The days were getting soft and spring-like, and it was
pleasant loitering about the banquette, watching the Con
federates, or engaged under a fly tent in the endless work
of company and regimental accounts and letter writing.
323 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Our view to the rear was quite open, including a long
stretch of the military railroad. While we were at work
the Confederates would occasionally open with artillery,
firing over our heads at the trains, the car-tops crowded
with blue coats, moving slowly along the track to the left
or back to City Point, but their aim was so inaccurate they
never seemed to succeed in hitting the mark.
Their mortar shelling would commence after dinner or
at tea time, seldom in the morning, and would be carried
on for an hour or two with commendable industry. At
such times, most of our garrison would find the occasion
sufficiently exciting to abandon other employment and
witness the performance ; but there were exceptions, such
as Smith of Company C, the adjutant s clerk, who kept on
with his writing, as if nothing less than a nine-inch shell
exploding between his feet could disconcert him. The
best place to see, and the most secure place, was as near
to the picket line as possible, because the shells were
intended for the interior of the fort; the men in rear,
therefore, crowded to the front. In the daytime the burst
of smoke from the Confederate mortars could be seen ; a
black speck would dart into the sky, a mile high, it was
said though none of us took pains to measure it with a
tape line there the speck seemed to hang a moment,
increasing in size, rolling over and over lazily, and the
revolving fuse beginning to whisper audibly, as it darted
down towards us, at first, softly, "I m a-coming, I m a-
coming " ; then louder and more angrily, " I m coming !
I m coming ! " and, at last, with an explosion to crack
the drum of the ear, " I m HERE ! " and the ragged chunks
of iron, hot with the explosion and smelling strongly of
sulphur, would fly in all directions.
All we asked for was a few at a time, but when the
mortars, both to left and right, began, the cross-fire practice
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 324
was infernal ; the shells came too fast to be watched, and
the spectators losing their reckoning would be startled by
explosions so near and unexpected as to be astounding.
On the twentieth the enemy threw into our fort one hundred
shells, and as many outside ; nine of the largest bombs
burst or buried themselves in the earth within fifty square
yards in one minute of time. One would suppose that this
could not be done without great slaughter ; but on that
day, owing to precaution, not a man was hurt, yet the
interior of the fort was burrowed by great holes, where the
bombs had exploded after burying themselves in the ground.
The mortar practice at night was more terrible in ap
pearance, but less dreaded, because the brightly burning
fuses could be more easily distinguished and the shells
avoided. This perpendicular fire was more irksome, be
cause the infantry could only stand and take it without
reply ; there was nothing to vent one s anger upon. Lieu
tenant Loomis, with his mortar battery, was the only person
so happily situated as to be able to return shot for shot in
kind. One of our men declared it to be a kind of warfare
too mean for decent men, anyhow, and that if he ever
got a chance he would give those "blarsted" Confederate
mortars a kick all round ; and, amusing to relate, he after
wards actually carried out his threat, and administered the
indignity, at which such F. F. V. mortars doubtless felt
excessively mortified.
There was so much correspondence between the pickets
that advantage of it was taken by both parties to spread
information which would encourage desertions. Our gen
erals offered the price of a stand of arms to all deserters
from the Confederate army who brought their muskets
with them. On the other hand the enemy opened com
munication by letter with bounty-jumpers and substitutes
in our ranks, among them with our Germans, offering them
325 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
an open road to Europe by way of Mexico. The temp
tation was too strong for some of the dissatisfied ones, and
on the night of the twenty-first four of them deserted to
the enemy from their picket post, an offence for which
hanging would be too mild a punishment, but they were
never captured.
Every night the pickets in front and on the flanks kept
up a dropping fire of musketry. They were restrained by
order from firing recklessly or rapidly, except, of course,
in case of attack ; each man, therefore, expended his shots
only upon suspicious looking objects, in his front; but,
nevertheless, the amount of ammunition expended was
excessive, and more guns were burst than at any other
time in the experience of the regiment. The Confederates
fired in a similar manner, partly to prevent desertions j
their bullets came singing or whizzing or caterwauling over
our heads, in every musical tone or pitch, all night, as we
slept. So accustomed did our ears become to these scat
tering shots that while, ordinarily, the noise was not ob
served, any increase or diminution would excite attention,
and a party at cards would drop the pasteboards, snatch
up the guns or swords, which always lay close at hand, and
hurry to the front, to return and resume the game when
the ordinary pop-popping was renewed. The proximity of
the lines, and consequent danger of surprise, demanded,
when attack threatened, the presence of every man at the
parapets instantaneously and with a celerity of movement
not laid down in the tactics. Rushing out in this way,
among the thousand pit-falls of our honey-comb of a fort,
amid the singing bullets, was a common excitement. The
situation was a remarkable one for the labors of a reformer,
nevertheless one of the officers found time to prepare and
deliver to an appreciative audience a lecture on temperance,
the Confederate bullets furnishing the cat-calls.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 326
About three o clock in the morning of the twenty-fifth,
the lieutenant-colonel being away on furlough, the colonel
and adjutant were sleeping quietly in the headquarters
hut, when, with a start, both sprang up, broad awake;
"What is it?" asked the colonel. "Don t know, sir,"
was the reply, " but there s something up." In a moment
they had slipped on boots, buckled sword belts, and were
in the open air. In front our pickets were firing not more
rapidly than usually, but the dull boom of a gun, subdued
cries and musket shots came over the lines from far to
the right. "An attack upon the right," said the colonel.
" Rally the men!" and in a few seconds the regiment
was under arms along the front parapet. The noise of
fighting continued, and the field guns opened from the
forts along the line ; but it was not until daylight that we
learned that the Confederate attack, which had been
threatened upon our front, had been delivered and re
pulsed at Fort Steadman.
The enemy had during the night sent over men pre
tending to be deserters bringing in their arms ; these out
numbered and captured the pickets in front of Fort
Steadman then followed heavy columns of infantry, who
easily occupied the fort and the adjacent works, making
prisoners of many of the sleeping garrisons. In doing
this, in the darkness, their troops became disordered, failed
to advance and secure their victory, and were completely
defeated when our artillery waked up, and General Hart-
ranft and his gallant Pennsylvanians charged upon their
front, with the troops belonging to that part of our line
upon the flanks, and captured two thousand prisoners and
a number of regimental flags. It was the mine affair
again with sides reversed, and the Confederate failure to
move forward promptly was even less excusable than ours
had been, for the ground before them for some distance
23
327 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
was lower instead of higher than the works they had
occupied. But the same confusion, after the first charge,
led to the same inability of the assaulting party to secure
the intended results. It was a desperate attempt, with
hardly a chance of final success, and if planned by General
Lee was the worst specimen of generalship he exhibited
within our ken during the war.
Fort Steadman was about two miles, by the curvature of
the lines, to our right, and a few of the members of the
regiment were allowed to visit the scene, while the flag of
truce was flying for burial of the Confederate dead, which
in this case was granted at once, not after forty-eight hours
delay as after the mine affair. Major Mirick was found
all right, after doing deeds of valor in defence of Fort
Haskell, next on the left of Fort Steadman. Commissary-
Sergeant Plummer was also safe and sound, but his stores
of beef, pork and hard bread had been almost captured.
The garrison of the fort had been the Fourteenth New
York Heavy Artillery, which had been among the first to
enter the crater; the adjacent works were occupied by
regiments formerly of our old First Division, so that the
troops, as well as the character of the combat, were about
the same as in that affair, and the result of this helped
to countervail the unpleasant memories of that misfortune.
This brilliant recovery of Fort Steadman has always been
considered by the army as the happy beginning of the
triumphant ending of the war.
A division of the Sixth Corps moved down from the left
and passed along the railroad in our rear, but was not
needed to complete the success, and after awhile returned,
followed soon after by the long column of prisoners in
gray marching to army headquarters, before and in plain
sight of their late comrades in Fort Mahone, who must
have thought the spectacle bitterly discouraging.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 328
To make a diversion, the Second and Sixth Corps, dur
ing the morning, moved out from our old position near
Fort Welch Poplar Spring Church on the left, and
captured the Confederate picket line in front, at Dr. Bois-
seu s house (we called it Bosworth s), where we had been
" skedaddled " on the thirtieth of September. This line
continued to be held by our army, and its proximity to the
Boydton Road enabled the Sixth Corps to make their
assault from it on the second of April following so grandly
successful.
CHAPTER XIII.
LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE PRISONS.
WHILE the regiment was passing the months of
winter in the comfortable quarters and with the
hopeful anticipations described in the last chapter, many of
our comrades were enduring privation and dejection be
yond the power of language to describe within the prisons,
or pens, as they were called, scattered through the seaboard
states of the Confederacy. Before, therefore, we enter
upon the last days of the grand drama, let us leave the
Thirty-Fifth in Fort Sedgwick, and turn our attention for
a time to those who were so unhappily separated from us.
Until the Wilderness campaign but five names of enlisted
men of the Thirty-Fifth had been inscribed upon the prison
rolls of the Confederacy.
The first man captured in 1864 was Seth H. Manson, of
Company B, on the eighteenth of May.
It was not until May 24, 1864, that men were snatched
out of the skirmish line of the regiment in battle. The
manner of it has been described in the account of the
battle on the North Anna River. Among the men taken
that day was Sergeant Henry W. Tisdale, who, by request,
has furnished a narrative of the prison life of the men then
captured. Our greatest loss in prisoners occurred on the
thirtieth of September, 1864, as related in Chapter XI ;
for these Lieutenant Alfred Blanchard, Jr., has consented
330 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
to speak, in a description of Salisbury, N. C., and Dan
ville, Va., prisons.
Sergeant Tisdale writes as follows :
" I was captured at the battle of North Anna River, Va.,
May 24, 1864. The brigade was in hasty retreat Stopping
to give a wounded man some water I became separated
from my company, and in the woods, mist and rain got out
of the right line of retreat. Coming to an open field, I
was startled by seeing some men spring from the tall grass
with the yell, * Drop that gun ! } Don t fire on your own
men ! I called in reply, only to call forth a second yell,
Drop that gun ! ! and then the humiliating conviction
came over me that I was a prisoner. A few seconds more
and you would have been a dead man, was the greeting of
the reb, as he took my rifle. I was loath to give it up,
for it bore the scar of a rebel bullet, received at Jackson,
Miss., and I hoped to carry it home as a relic of the war.
" I was mortified at finding myself apparently the only
prisoner from the Thirty-Fifth, but soon others were
brought in, and in all nine of us were captured. We
were taken to Anderson s Station, where we were relieved
of all government property, as the rebs claimed it to be,
viz., tents, knapsacks and rubber blankets. The Confed
erate soldiers were in the main good looking men, but were
poorly uniformed, in a variety of colors and styles, with not
a little of the blue. Though poorly clothed they prided
themselves upon their skill in the use of the rifle, saying
that nearly all of their camp drill for the past winter had
been at target practice.
"On the twenty-fifth of May we were marched south,
about five miles, to Taylorsville. Desolation was about
us on every hand. We remained there till dark, and then
a ten-mile march brought us to Ashland, where neither
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 331
cold nor rain could keep us from sleeping soundly upon
a grassy plat of mother earth. We woke to find ourselves
under a guard of citizens, and were permitted to converse
with them freely. We learned that all able-bodied men
were in the service, directly in the ranks or as nurses,
teamsters, etc. They professed to have the fullest confi
dence in the success of their cause, and were full of ire at
the enlistment of negroes by our government, but admitted
that they also used the blacks in fort building, etc. In the
afternoon we were on the cars on for Richmond, and at
night were within the walls of the second story of Libby
Prison.
"A roster of our names, regiments, rank, etc., was made ;
we were searched and all United States money was taken,
with the promise that it would be refunded at the end of
the war; those who had time adopted ways of concealment,
such as hiding it under the tongue, between the soles of
the shoes, etc. Men fortunate enough to have saved blan
kets and coats were allowed to keep them. We were four
days in Libby ; the first two passed quite comfortably, the
last two overcrowded with new arrivals. Our rations of
one-half pound of corn bread, one-quarter pound of pork
and one-half pint of rice were easily disposed of. Two
lots of prisoners came up from Belle Isle ; they confirmed
the reports of hard treatment there, that they were obliged
to splice out their rations with dogs, rats, etc., and that
boxes of supplies sent by the U. S. S. Commission and by
friends were for the most part confiscated by the rebs.
"May3ist. We bade good-bye to Libby, and eleven
hundred of us were packed in box cars, sixty to a car, en
route for Andersonville, Ga. Four of us had formed a
mess, offensive and defensive, agreeing to share our united
possessions, future gains and fortunes. Three were from
the Thirty-Fifth : B. F. Pratt, 3d, of Company H, J. A.
332 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Lord, of Company C, and your humble servant ; the fourth
was Emery Smith, Third New York Cavalry, formerly a
member of the Eighteenth Massachusetts. One of us
having some Confederate money invested in biscuit at one
dollar each. After a ride of twenty hours we were landed
at Danville, for rations ; a small allowance of coarse corn
bread and fat bacon was given us. Again we moved on,
at almost funeral pace, and, June 2d, we were landed in a
fine grove at Charlotte, N. C. Here again our mess invested
in biscuit, two dozen for five dollars and a half, with which,
and the rations, we were enabled to sleep with our hunger
tolerably satisfied. At midnight a heavy shower awoke
us to the fact that we had none of Uncle Sam s shelter
tents over us, and we agreed that if ever we were permitted
to use them again we would do so without grumbling.
"June 3d. Again in box cars, sixty-five men to a car.
A ride of two hundred and sixty-eight miles brought us to
Augusta, Ga. For a portion of the way we were permitted
to ride upon the tops of the cars, where we swarmed like
bees. The sight of fields of strawberries and other fruits
made our mouths water. We saw also gangs of slaves at
work, women at the plow, etc. At Augusta we were placed
in some cotton sheds, under a guard of citizens, whose
courteous treatment was in pleasant contrast with the un
feeling guard we had upon the train. They were quite
willing to exchange money one greenback dollar for ten
Confederate and to buy all watches and jewelry offered.
Pratt sold his watch for one hundred dollars (Confederate),
which we laid aside as a reserve fund.
"June 6th. Again on the move for Andersonville. As
we neared our journey s end an increasing soberness came
over us, and there was but little disposition to joke with
each other or with the rebel guard ; this partly from weari
ness, but more from an increasing conviction that the hor-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 333
rors of Andersonville were but too true. After a ride of
two hundred and fifty miles, at noon, June 7, we were
drawn up in line just outside the prison. Soon a grim-
visaged, wiry-looking man came riding down the line, and
when nearly opposite our position yelled, with savage
oaths, to some gunboat men to dress up. This was our
first view of the commandant of the prison, Captain Wirz.*
"We were counted off into detachments, as the rebs
called them, of two hundred and seventy, and subdivided
into messes of ninety men each. Each mess was put in
charge of a sergeant, who was instructed to make a roster
of his men, and that his duties would be to draw and divide
their rations, report and look after the sick, etc. When
the call was made for sergeants to volunteer for this duty,
it flashed upon me that here was a chance to avoid what I
had felt would be the worst feature of prison life idleness
and with a bound I sprang to the front to secure the
position. I was accepted and put in charge of third mess,
Detachment 76. I found that, in addition to the blessing
of plenty to do, there were double rations as a perquisite
of office.
" Late in the afternoon we filed into our prison home,
begrimed with dust and dirt, weary, faint, and hungry. As
the heavy timber gates swung open for our entrance, more
than one of us felt, from what we had seen outside, like
saying, Abandon hope all ye who enter here ! Escorted
inside the gate we were dismissed by the rebel guard and
left to find quarters for ourselves as best we could. This
was no easy task so crowded was the place ; it was impos
sible to locate my ninety together, so bidding each to shift
for himself our mess turned its attention to finding a spot
large enough to squat upon without encroaching upon the
domain of our predecessors. We possessed for shelter
* Captain Wirz was condemned and hung at Washington after the war.
334 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and covering two woollen blankets and two overcoats, and
had been fortunate enough to gobble and bring in tent
poles, so that we soon had our blankets over us for a tent.
Our next thought was to get cleansed, but how to do this
without soap was our query as we betook ourselves to the
creek. We were told that there was a reb sutler on the
other side of the prison, and soon ten dollars of our
hoarded hundred were exchanged for a bar of soap about
an inch and a half square by twelve long.
" Perhaps the best idea of our prison life can be con
veyed by copying at intervals from my diary :
" * June 8th. I find the prison to contain fifteen acres,
surrounded by a double stockade of hewed pine logs,
twenty feet in height, and closely guarded by sentinels,
who stand in sentry boxes overlooking the camp. A bat
tery of six pieces commands the enclosure. Inside the
stockade and about fifteen feet from it is the dead line, a
narrow rail upon posts about three feet high outside this
railing we are not allowed to pass, nor- even to touch the
rail ; the guard have orders to shoot any one disobeying
these rules. Through the centre of the camp, from north
to south, runs a sluggish stream styled " the creek," about
four feet wide and half-knee deep. The upper portion, for
about fifteen feet, is for drinking purposes ; the rest, from
before daylight to late at night, is more or less crowded
with men bathing or washing clothes in the muddy fluid.
On either side of the stream is a strip of swampy land,
about two rods wide, the lower portion of which is used
for a sink, the balance as a place of deposit for the refuse
of the camp.
" Going over the enclosure and coming in contact with
its inmates, one s eyes fill with tears and the heart shrinks
in horror at the scenes around him men almost skeletons
from lack of food, from diarrhoea, and chills and fever;
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 335
others racked with rheumatic pains or bloated with scurvy ;
more than half of them clothed in rags, and all begrimed
with the pitch-pine smoke from the fires. Added to these
horrors, one finds a spirit of selfishness sad to witness
the strong oppressing the weak. Pratt of our mess found
by bitter experience to-day that there were those who
would deliberately rob a fellow prisoner. Going to bathe
he left his clothes upon the bank ; when he resumed them
he found, to his grief, that his pocket-book was gone, and
with it the balance of our reserve fund. " I do not care
for the money," he said, with tears streaming down his
cheeks, " but those pictures of my wife and child, if I only
had them they might have the money." Talking over the
matter with a prisoner who has been here quite a while,
he said there was an organized band, termed " raiders "
by their fellow prisoners, who were in league to rob and
plunder each new arrival.
" Most of the men have shelters of some kind tents
of blankets, overcoats, or rags patched together ; booths
of pine or oak boughs ; mud huts or caves in the hill-side.
The north side is honeycombed with burrows, some large
enough to contain twenty men.
" June i2th. For three days I have been very busy
organizing my ninety into squads to go for wood, for
rations, and to get out the sick at sick-call. No rations
are issued to any detachment of which the members are
not at roll-call, " all present or accounted for." The rations
are brought in the afternoon meal and rice in fifty
pound bags, corn bread in sheets about eighteen inches by
twenty four and two or three inches thick, sometimes half-
cooked or baked so hard as to endanger our teeth. Bacon
sides form the meat ration. Men sent out for wood go
under guard and take an oath not to attempt to escape.
I went to sick-call to-day ; disease is showing itself among
336 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
us already. The place for examination is near the south
western corner, between the two stockades. Nearly two
thousand were reported sick, to attend to whom were but
two or three surgeons. I saw the saddest sight I ever
witnessed men were brought out in blankets by scores
weak and emaciated from diarrhoea or bloated and loath
some from scurvy, begging to be taken to hospital or that
something might be done for them, at least a shelter from
the sun and rain. I find that some have been here nearly
a year.
" At the reb sutler s, fruit and vegetables can be bought :
eggs, one dollar (Confederate) per dozen ; potatoes, one
dollar and sixty cents per dozen ; beans, fifty cents per
quart ; cucumbers, sixty cents apiece ; onions, one dollar
per dozen ; salt, twenty-five cents per gill ; watermelon,
twenty-five cents a slice, etc. As each lot of prisoners
brings more or less money, the sutler finds them willing
and, too often, unwise purchasers of his stock.
" June i3th. Rainy most of last night, cold and drizzly
to-day. Hundreds of poor fellows are shivering about
camp. God pity and help them, for none of us can do
anything for them. It seems as if the officials had no
desire to promote our comfort in the least. Reports are
in circulation that a part of us are to be paroled soon.
" June i5th. To-day is the third of a cold rain, and it
is making sad havoc with the weak and shelterless ; the
number of sick and the death rate are on the increase.
We had to take down our blankets to keep warm, pre
ferring wetting to freezing. Further experience of the
prison makes it more sad and sickening. The commandant
seems to have but little executive ability, and to be totally
devoid of humanity.
" Planning and working to escape occupy the time of
thousands of the well and strong. Many make the attempt
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 337
when let out for wood, or from the hospital when detailed
as nurses or assistants. Inside the prison, tunnelling is
constantly going on ; eighteen men burrowed out last night.
Not one in a hundred succeeds in getting to the land of
freedom, for the daily circuit of the camp by the pack of
blood-hounds, kept for the purpose, soon discovers the
trail of the runaways, and a few hours find them back
again. Some return with bodies torn by the teeth of
these savage pursuers. Yesterday the rebs discovered an
unfinished tunnel, actually breaking into it just outside
the stockade, its makers having struck a little too near
the surface. The work of tunnelling is carried on in the
night; a number club together, keeping the matter to
themselves ; they select a spot as near to the dead-line as
possible, and sink a shaft from the inside of some " she
bang," cave or dug-out, maybe pretending to be digging
a well ; then they aim to reach the surface just outside the
stockade. Case knives, spoons, wooden shovels and tin
plates are the tools for digging, and the excavated earth is
carried away to the creek or covered with rubbish. Some
of the pretended wells are sunk thirty feet.
" June 1 6th. Foggy morning. I had a trying time
drawing rations last night, not getting them till after
dark, and drawing uncooked bacon and rice. The task
of distributing these in the darkness, relieved only by the
pitch-pine torches, to the impatient and half-starved men
crowding upon one another in their eagerness, was a hard
one. This makes two days we have received raw rations
without being allowed to go out for wood with which to
cook them. The despairing look with which some of
those who had no wood received their portions was sad
to witness. Some burrow in the earth for roots of the
pine forest which formerly occupied the ground. In fact
this digging for roots has become the daily occupation of
338 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
hundreds ; each scrap, even if no larger than a pipe-stem,
is eagerly seized, split, and stacked in the sun to dry.
This neglect to provide us or allow us to go out and get
wood seems utterly inexcusable, and one s blood boils as
he thinks of the piles of refuse tops and branches trimmed
from the timber and now lying outside the stockade. It
seems to most of us proof of a deliberate plan to weaken
us in all ways short of actual starvation.
" June i yth. Eleven hundred Yanks in to-day. They
bring all sorts of reports as to the progress of the war,
some encouraging and some discouraging.
" * June i8th. Heavy rain from four P. M. yesterday till
midnight; got well soaked drawing rations. Succeeded
in getting two of my ninety into hospital, and another has
developed scurvy badly.
" June iQth. Sun out to-day for the first time this
week. One poor fellow killed last night while attempting
to tunnel out, the earth caving in upon him. Two nearly
finished tunnels discovered by the rebs to-day. Search
ing for tunnels has become a daily task for the rebs ; they
go about the camp poking their heads into tents, etc., on
the hunt.
" June 2oth. My clothes are giving out and I am
obliged to do some mending to-day. Thank God for the
preservation of my sewing-case, with a good supply of
needles and thread ! the use of it excites pleasant thoughts
of home and dear ones, which help to relieve the surround
ing gloom. Heavy rain soaked us again ; these continued
rains are making sad work with the sick. Mud walls are
crumbling, and dug-outs are filled with water, while the
would-be occupants sit outside in mute despair. Felt ill
to-day.
" June 2 1 st. Passed a poor night and have felt weak
and lank to-day. Raiders were plenty about camp last
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 339
night ; the cry of " robbers ! thieves ! murder ! " testified
to some helpless one being their victim.
" June 22d. Weak and drowsy to-day. I made some
tea from white oak bark for medical relief.
" June 26th. The first day for a week that I have felt
well. Did some washing. Weather scalding hot. Report
circulated that we are to be paroled ; it sent a gleam of
hope over the camp. Got another man into the hospital.
More prisoners in to-day. Have drawn rations of fresh
meat the past three days, a pleasing change from hog and
hominy. It is generally well cooked, but here and there
a piece comes raw or burned to shoe leather.
" June 28th. Sent another man to the hospital. Eight
hundred more Yanks in to-day. Heavy thunder shower
just at night. It has been a busy week, I have had to
draw rations for the whole detachment ; but I thank God
for thus having plenty to do; I feel it a great aid in keep
ing cheerful amid so much that is depressing in our prison
life. I cannot be too thankful also for the extra rations
allowed to those of us in charge of detachments, for with
the increasing number of the sick, I have, on some days,
extras (beyond my own and tent mates needs) for distri
bution among the needy ones about us. I have made
some meal vinegar, by soaking meal in the sun until fer
mented, when quite a palatable drink is made, which is a
valuable preventive of scurvy.
" Stirring scenes in camp just at dark. A reb lieutenant
and guard came in, and proceeded with fixed bayonets to
arrest some of the raiders. Their doings of late have
become so heartless as to enlist the aid of the commandant
of the prison, and he now proposes to clear them out and
to punish the ringleaders. Frequently within the past week
they have carried on their operations in broad daylight, in
open defiance of the peacefully disposed. Noticing a
34 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
crowd gathered one day last week I pressed through it
and found a young cavalryman had just been robbed of
his pocket-book and watch ; he was begging with tears for
the watch, a present from his dead mother, but in vain ;
and more than one of us standing about him felt like
pitching in "to the rescue," but the ugly looks of the
dozen or more raiders, who encircled him, cowed us,
perhaps to our shame. But now, with the rebel guard
behind us, the tables were turned, and from one end to
the other of the camp rang the cries, " Here s one ! "
"Here s one ! " " Here they are ! " and soon about fifty
were taken to the guard-house. Of these, fifteen of the
most notorious were retained and the rest sent into
camp, but only to meet the long pent-up vengeance of
their fellow prisoners, who obliged them to run a gauntlet
of clubs and switches not over tenderly applied. Their
tents were confiscated ; in them were found dirk-knives,
billies and other murderous weapons, watches by dozens
and trinkets of various kinds, many of which were iden
tified and restored to their owners.
" June 3oth. The raiders were completely cleared out
to-day; near a hundred have been taken in all. After
their arrest Captain Wirz called us sergeants before him,
and addressed us concerning the disposal of them, advising
a drum-head court-martial, and promising that whatever
method of punishment should be decided upon he would
see it faithfully executed. As a result a jury, judge advo
cate, etc., were selected, and a regular military court (in
form) was organized, before which the statements of wit
nesses are to be taken in writing.
" July 3^. The past three days have witnessed an
agreeable change in our prison life. For some time past
the rebs have been making an addition to our domain on
the north side ; yesterday the news came that it was fin-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 341
ished and that all detachments above number 48 were to
be moved to the new ground; truly there was joy in the
camp. The removal was made in a bungling manner,
showing again lack of orderly and military system of
doing business among the officials ; for instead of having
a comfortable opening for our egress made in the old
stockade, we were required to crowd through a space
_ scarce wide enough for two abreast, to say nothing of our
loads of baggage, every scrap of which we clung to as a
miser to his gold. Then instead of having the new lots
properly staked off, and each detachment upon its pre
scribed lot, we were all ordered to move at once, and were
told that " unless we were upon the new ground in two
hours our blankets would be confiscated." And again,
instead of having the loppings from the trees, of which
the stockade was made, properly portioned out to each
detachment, each was allowed to gobble all it could ; so
that between the crowding to get through, rushing for the
best positions, and struggling to heap up piles of brush
wood, the scene was almost a pandemonium, and not a
few free fights were had over disputed ground or fire-wood.
I succeeded in getting most of my ninety together, fortu
nately upon a good spot. It was a pleasure to be able to
move about freely, and not have to watch lest you tread
upon somebody s shebang, or fall into some underground
lodging place.
"July 4th. Woke with thoughts of home, inspired by
"the day we celebrate." For the past two weeks I have
been saving up the extra rations allowed me of meal and
rice, we four having determined to have a Fourth of July
dinner, if possible. The extra rations have at times been
liberal, so that by scrimping a little we saved what, put
upon the market, brought us the sum of two dollars and
seventy cents. With this we concluded to have a bean
342 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
soup. We purchased of the reb sutler two onions for
sixty-five cents, six potatoes for eighty cents, a red pepper
for twenty-five cents, one and one-half pints of beans for
thirty-five cents, and pork for forty cents. We had a jolly
time cooking it, and smacked our lips as heartily in eating
it as ever at any Fourth of July in the Old Bay State.
" July icth. Another busy clay. I have from six to ten
hours work daily, in drawing rations and distributing them,
looking after the sick, etc., so that with the daily task of
"skirmishing" for vermin and keeping clean not many
idle moments remain. Have felt weak from the heat and
diarrhoea some of the time. Several new lots of prisoners
have come in. I have had sad and trying times with the
sick two more have died and ten others are in a bad way.
The surgeons have been without medicines for the past
five days. The hospital is crowded to overflowing, and
many sick are obliged to lie and waste away without any
thing being done for them. It is amazing to see the lack
of humanity on the part of the reb officials, for many of
us think that the " Dutch Captain " is not the only guilty
party. It seems to us that with a little energy on their
part shelter from the blazing sun could be provided from
the surrounding forests. Many a man comes in here hale
and hearty, but robbed of his tent and blanket soon gets
weak from exposure to the sun and chill night air, and
falls an easy victim to disease. Oh, how often does the
angel of death seem to be an angel of mercy to such
suffering ones !
" * Yesterday was the first time for five days that sick-
call has been sounded. It brought together, it seems to
me, the saddest sight I have yet seen in the prison. Be
tween four and five hundred crowded the streets and by
paths leading to the gate ; more than half of them assisted
by their comrades, and scores lugged in blankets exposed
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 343
to the blazing sun. Some died on the way, and many were
sunstruck. The process of inspection by the surgeons was
a slow one, and when about three-fourths were examined
word came that " no more can be attended to," and so
back to quarters under the noonday sun, hobbled, crawled
or were borne the balance, with their hopes of something
being done for their relief dashed from them.
" July i2th. Yesterday witnessed the strange, sad scene
of the hanging of six of the ringleaders of the raiders, found
guilty of murder and robbery, and condemned to death on
the gallows. From the moment of the appearance of the
rebel guard with lumber for the gallows till their bodies
swung cold in death and were removed, the camp presented
an unnatural and solemn quiet. Since their arrest a reg
ular police has been formed, made up of our own members.
Into their hands the six were consigned by Captain Wirz^
with a statement of the finding and sentence of the court-
martial, and that to their hands and their fellow prisoners
he committed the responsibility of its execution. The day
was one of the few when the sun seemed to abate its
intense heat and was clear and cool. The part of the
camp affording a view of the gallows was black with
humanity, and as the hour (half past four) drew near a
solemn stillness came over all. On the way to the gallows
one broke away and frantically rushed across the swamp
in an attempt to escape, but in vain. At the above hour
they were arranged upon the platform, with meal sacks
over their heads, and at the signal the drop fell and they
met their doom.
" Not a few debates have been had upon the justifiable-
ness of this affair, but, with a few exceptions made up of
their fellow conspirators, the universal judgment of the
camp has been that it was but their just deserts ; their
conduct here was probably but a continuation of a life of
344 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
blackness and crime entered upon before the war. The
police are doing good duty, and many abuses about the
camp are corrected. Sent two more of the ninety to the
hospital to-day. The remaining nine of the raiders have
been sentenced to the stocks for a season before being
allowed back to camp. These stocks have been most of
the time filled with those who have attempted to escape
while out with the wood squads, or for other misdemeanors.
" July lyth. Sunday. Up to our removal to our new
quarters no attempt has been made to note the Sabbath
from our week-day routine, but to-cfey, with the privilege
of open space, many gatherings for worship, prayer and
conference have been held about the camp. Very touching
have been the prayers offered, mainly for loved ones at
home. The only noteworthy event of the past week has
been the calling of the sergeants of detachments out before
Captain Wirz, who, in language anything but courteous,
informed us of an organized attempt to break out of the
stockade. He warned us against the attempt, saying that
if we tried it he should open fire with grape and canister,
and the slaughter of the sick and feeble would be terrible,
and would be laid to our charge. We think that no such
design has been contemplated, and that it is a ruse of the
" Dutch Captain" to frighten us from it. We now number
30,000, and as our guards are only raw recruits and con
scripts, many of us believe that, were it not for the sick
and feeble, our escape on a grand scale could be easily
effected. I feel like trying my hand at tunnelling, rather
than remain here for the winter.
" July 24th. Two years yesterday since I enlisted.
Little did I think that a part of my three years service
was to be spent as a prisoner of war. Two months of
prison life, and health and strength still remain to me.
The past week has brought many recruits to our numbers,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 345
so that the whole stockade is again crowded. The number
of the weak and sick is on the increase, and the rebs
report that they are kept on short allowance of medicines
needful for their relief. What medicines they do have
seem to afford but little aid against the diseases springing
from constant warfare with hunger, nakedness, bad water
and lack of vegetable food.
" August yth. I have been very busy with work incident
to the increasing number of sick in the ninety. Many of
the worst cases have been taken to the hospital. On the
morning of the fourth, word came that all the worst cases
in camp be brought to the gate, and that from them a
large number would be taken out to the hospital. On the
strength of this thousands crowded in a dense mass in the
streets and by-paths leading to the gate, some hobbling
there, some literally crawling on hands and knees, and
hundreds, too weak to hobble and crawl, were carried in
blankets by comrades. But all in vain, for at ten A. M.
came word that " no more would be taken out to-day."
The next morning came the word again, and those who
were able were again in waiting, many with glad and
expectant faces, feeling that, whatever the change in store
for them, at least it could bring them to no worse condition.
But again came word that no more would be taken out till
two P. M. At two it was announced that the sick from the
first eleven detachments only would be taken. Pencil
cannot picture the despairing faces nor words describe
the sad scenes incident to these two days gatherings of
the sick of Andersonville Prison, especially as this last
word came, and those who were able hobbled or were
borne back to their quarters. Many were sunstruck ; a
dozen or more died while waiting or on the way, among
them one of my ninety, while waiting the second day. He
had been wasting from diarrhoea, and had become a sad
346 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
and loathsome spectacle, of whom it might be said in truth
before death released him, "he was eaten of worms." The
Good Book says, " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,"
and truly might it be said of scores about the camp, who
have up to this day fought a good fight with hunger, naked
ness and disease ; they are now hopeless, heart-sick and
discouraged. The indignation in the camp at this need
less cruelty to the suffering is intense, and many of us feel
that were Captain Wirz to come into camp unattended he
would be torn limb from limb.
"August 1 4th. The number of sick still increases.
We have had heavy rains, which with the scorching sun
have brought increased suffering. None have been taken
to the hospital ; no medicines have been given out. Even
the supply of so simple an article as vinegar, of great ser
vice in scurvy, has ceased. The ravages of this disease
are terrible; many are going about the camp with bleeding
mouths and their teeth actually falling out. The death
rate has increased from fifty to seventy-five per day. Five
more have died of the ninety, making thirteen during our
nine weeks stay. I cannot be too thankful for having so
much to do to occupy my thoughts and time. I notice
that those prisoners who keep busy stand it the best.
Many are the devices to keep from idleness, such as
tearing clown and rebuilding their mud huts, digging for
roots for fuel, well digging, tunnelling, carving knicknacks
out of bones hoarded from their meat rations, patching
their clothing, etc. Not a few packs of cards have strag
gled into camp, and many checker-boards have been made.
These are freely lent, and from dawn till dark groups can
be seen all about the camp, and the merry laugh shows
that not all is dreary and dark. Many a well-worn Bible
and Testament can be seen in constant use going from one
to another. An occasional copy of some rebel newspaper
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 347
is thrown in by the guard, which is read till worn to shreds.
I was both glad and sorry to come across my old friend
and Christian brother, D. F. Nichols, from Dedham, a
member of the Eighteenth Massachusetts. I found he
had been here nearly a year, and, though somewhat weak,
is battling bravely for life. He has been a help to many
in the plying of his trade as a shoemaker, and has kindly
repaired my nearly worn-out shoes.
" I was surprised one morning to find Pratt absent
from his place; this was explained by his soon putting
in an appearance, covered from head to foot with red
clay, which plainly said " tunnelling." He has with others
started a tunnel from the inside of a neighboring hut ; they
have obtained boards, with which they bridge over the
opening during the day, covering them with earth and
pine boughs, so that the tunnel-hunting rebs will see
nothing should they poke their heads into the place.
" 4 August 2 1 st. The weather has been warm and very
trying to sick and well. The death rate holds its own ;
three out of the ninety have died. Among them Israel
Roach, of Company F, of our regiment. It was with
tearful eyes we of the Thirty-Fifth bore his remains to
the gate, pinned the scrap of paper denoting his name
and regiment upon his breast, and delivered them to the
stolid rebel guard. I have had many pleasant chats with
him during our prison days. He had, I think, typhoid
fever, and was delirious in his last hours. Two or three
times a day now can be seen the "dead-wagon " an old
army wagon rigged with stakes and railing, into which are
piled our dead comrades, as a farmer would pile a load of
wood drawn by four mules around the south-west corner
of the stockade to the final resting place. One cannot
but feel as he looks upon those about him struggling to
live, that no battle-field of the war or hospital scene can
348 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
show grander examples of patient, heroic endurance. One
at least of the reb surgeons has sympathy for us; he ex
pressed his indignation at the fact that so little vegetable
food was allowed us, and said that he begged of Captain
Wirz the use of an army wagon with which to go into the
adjacent country and get sweet potatoes, etc., for the pris
oners, and had been refused.
" In one thing Divine Providence has richly blessed
us ; it seems almost a miracle wrought for our comfort.
This is the opening of a copious spring just above the
marsh, and between the dead-line and the stockade. We
noticed it gushing forth, just after a very heavy shower ;
the attention of the reb officials was called to it, and many
of us think they must have forgotten themselves, for they
furnished some troughs and two half-barrels, into which
the water was conducted just clear of the dead-line. The
water flows clear and cool, and quite freely, so that the
barrels are kept full, though drawn upon as fast as in line
we fill our cups, tin pails, coffee pots, etc.
" We realize as weeks go by that our clothing will wear
out, and that we cannot make a requisition on the quarter
master. Some of us sergeants of nineties have found we
can do a little stealing from the Confederacy, Our rations
of meal and rice are brought to us in twilled cotton sacks,
delivered late in the afternoon, and we are required to
return the sacks when we draw rations the next day. We
have noticed that often, when late or in a pouring rain, the
reb commissary, as the sacks were thrown up to him on
the wagon, would not stop to count them. Watching
for our chances, we would keep back one or more. I
have succeeded in capturing some half dozen, from
which I undertook to make a shirt, but had to give it
up and content myself with patching my old ones.
The other sacks did excellent duty on needy comrades.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS, 349
We have not stopped to consider the morality of the
transaction.
" As each squad of Yanks comes in, they are portioned
out among the nineties, taking the place of the dead and
those who are transferred to the hospital. I find, on
looking over my roster, that I have men from every state
in the Union but two.
" The tunnel upon which Pratt and his comrades have
been laboring, and which they hoped to finish in a few
days, has come to an untimely end. To their dismay the
rebel tunnel-squad marched directly to the spot and poked
their heads into the "shebang," but were evidently discon
certed at finding no hole; but soon one of them said:
" This is the place, I know it is," and getting a club and
beating on the spot the hollow sound revealed the secret,
and then the order, " Pull down the hut ! " was obeyed,
and poor Pratt s toils were ended. Reports are current
that the rebs have spies about the camp night and day,
but Pratt thinks that some fellow has turned informer, for
it is asserted that the reward of a lot of tobacco, or a posi
tion as nurse in the hospital, is ready for any one who will
give notice of attempts at tunnelling.
" September i8th. Early in the month barracks were
erected on the north side of the prison. During the past
week numbers of prisoners have been taken out ; reports
are conflicting as to their destination ; at one time that an
exchange is going on, which causes hope, but which is
soon changed to gloom, as the report comes that we are
to be removed to a new stockade. Reports are flying
about that Sherman is near.
"Our detachment received orders, September 12, to be
in readiness to move the next morning. At daylight we
were packed and at the gate. Word came that we would
not be transferred until night, and soon again that an
350 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
accident had occurred by which seven of our men had
been killed and the track torn up j so, for a week, we
have been waiting patiently, hoping each new day would
let us out. The sick have been placed in the .barracks,
where they have good shelter from the sun and rain.
They suffer much from want of proper food, as their
rations are, in the main, the same as are given to the
rest of the camp. Occasionally they have a little flour
and cooked rice this latter often most miserably pre
pared, often mere slops, or, on the other hand, scorched
to a crisp.
" Our rations have been cut down a little, and the meal,
a good deal of the time, is of a miserable quality, nothing
but " cob-meal " we say, and, to devour it, not a little sput
tering has to be done to get rid of the bits of husk, silk
and cracked corn mixed with the better portion. Our
varying rations are bacon, meal, molasses and beans
the latter long harvested, and often flavored with the
bugs or insects which "have found them a good place for
tunnelling.
" October 2d. Two weeks more in the Pine Log Prison.
I succeeded, near the last of the month, in getting all of
the sick of the ninety into the barracks Steele and Taber
of our regiment among them ; both were sick with scurvy.
Patches of the latter have developed upon my legs ; but
so long as they do not swell I do not feel anxious. I have
felt lonesome and depressed at times during the past two
weeks. For nearly a month we have been waiting and are
ready to go anywhere ; to get to a worse place would be
scarcely possible.
" October nth. Nine days since writing in my diary.
We were ordered to be ready to move on the fifth, and
late in the afternoon the gates swung open and about one
thousand of us marched out into what we felt was God s
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 351
world again. How cheering was the sight of the green
grass ! I felt almost like kissing it for joy. We were two
nights and one day in crowded box cars, and on the morn
ing of the seventh landed outside the city of Savannah.
On the way we passed, drawn up on a siding, a train load
of returning rebel prisoners. The contrast between their
sleek faces and seemingly comfortable clothing and our
blackened faces and tattered rags, we at least could see.
Cheers we gave them as they generously tossed us some
of Uncle Sam s hard tack.
" * We were ushered into another stockade, and siven
o
rations of fresh beef and sweet potatoes. We have been
divided into detachments of one hundred, over one of
which I have been placed. Our mess is broken up by the
escape of Lord while en route. We think it a vain attempt,
and expect to see him back. Our stay here is evidently
to be but temporary, but the four days improved rations
are already having a marked effect for good. I was told
that eating raw fresh meat was goo d for scurvy, and have
accordingly eaten a good-sized piece each day, with good
effect upon my legs. Scores of citizens climb to the top
of the stockade and look down upon us, with evident, and
in many instances expressed, sympathy, in the shape of
second-hand clothing, tobacco, etc., thrown in to us.
"October iyth. Another change, and, thus far, an
agreeable one. As we prophesied, Lord was recaptured
and brought into Savannah, but, unfortunately, placed in a
different detachment. On the thirteenth we were moved
about eighty miles to a newly-built stockade, near Millen,
Ga. Thus far we can find no fault with our quarters and
but little with our rations, which are near double the
amount of those at Andersonville. We draw one pint of
meal, six ounces of uncooked beef, teaspoonful of salt, six
teaspoonfuls of rice, each day, also sweet potatoes two or
352 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
three times a week the rice some days changed for beans,
but the latter so buggy we get pretty hungry before we eat
them. Our prison lot contains forty-two acres, and as
there are present but about eight thousand of us, we have
a chance to spread out without hinderance. It is christened
Camp Lawton, has a fine stream running through it, several
rods of which are reserved for drinking purposes, another
section with a gravelly bottom for bathing, another section
for the washing of clothes, and the last section as a sewer.
Over this latter are built water-closet facilities, contrasting
favorably with the horribly filthy arrangements of Ander-
sonville.
" As we marched upon the ground we were divided into
thousands, subdivided into hundreds, and located in mili
tary order. Ten brick ovens have been built, ten large
iron kettles set in place, and the cooking for each thousand
is to be done independently. A large number of iron
kettles, holding two gallons, have been given us. The
officer in charge appears to be a gentleman as well as a
soldier, and does his duty for our comfort. We question,
why this change of rations and treatment from that of
Andersonville, and think that Jeff Davis or General Winder,
or somebody, has repented of evil deeds, and is now doing
works meet for repentance. Thirty of each hundred
have been permitted to go out for boughs for bedding.
Out of the debris remaining from the building of the stock
ade our mess are building quarters, ready for cold weather,
if need be. Our few axes are kept going from dawn
till dark.
" October 3Oth. We have had two busy weeks working
on our "prison-house," and have got up quite roomy and
comfortable quarters. Thanks to the fresh meat and sweet
potatoes many of us have been cured of scurvy. Medicines
are scarce and the cool weather is telling upon the feeble
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 353
and those who are poorly clad. The death rate has
increased to four or five per day. An unoccupied part of
camp is used for a ball ground, and many games are had
these sunny October days. We hear nothing of exchange,
and many bitter words against our government are spoken
as our rations decrease, and it looks like Andersonville
over again in that direction. Some two hundred and
seventy-five have taken the oath to serve the Confederacy,
doubtless from varying motives ; but, to most of us, no
motive can justify the transaction.
"November 2oth. Have had frosty nights, and the
autumn foliage of the surrounding forests makes one think
of his Northern home. Smith parted with a couple of his
rings for meal sacks, from which we obtained material for
patching. Truly can we say that not only have we coats
of many colors, but shirts and trousers ditto. On election
day the rebs proposed to us that we have an election, and
express our choice for Lincoln or McClellan. We Lincoln
men felt in doubt as to the result, as so many were bitter
against the government for not effecting an exchange.
Differently colored beans were used for ballots, and at
sunset the result was announced: 3014 for Lincoln, 1050
for McClellan. Not much comfort for the rebs, we thought.
An exchange has at last reached us, and two lots of the
sick have been sent away, this time indeed and in truth
en route to our own lines. It is touching to witness the
joy of the poor fellows as at last they could feel certain
that they were "going home." Some detestable business
was done by some of the reb surgeons and our own men in
the matter. The surgeon would examine a sick man and
pronounce him a fit subject for exchange, then go and sell
the poor man s chance to some perhaps nearly well man,
for money or other gift.
" November 28th. The past eight days have been
354 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
fruitful in change. For some days rumors crept into camp
that General Sherman was near. On the twenty-second,
long trains of box cars were in sight from the prison, and
word came to "pack up and be ready to move." Cold,
raw, and drizzly without, most of us were in our shelters,
and the order to turn out was no agreeable one to us in
our rags, and having no hope of exchange. Some tried to
hide in their quarters, burying themselves beneath their
bedding of pine boughs. This was soon discovered, and a
rebel bayonet thrust in their faces scattered their hopes of
staying behind to welcome Sherman. We were hastily
crowded into the box cars, almost at the point of the
bayonet, for upon some of us protesting that "this car is
full," we were made to see that there was room for more
by a bayonet charge. The cold increased, as a few scatter
ing snow-flakes plainly told us. All night and until ten
the next night getting over the eighty miles to Savannah
now waiting for hours at some siding, or backing and filling
at some rising grade, to get our heavily freighted train
along. Midnight of the twenty-third found us massed in
one of the vacant squares in the city of Savannah, chilled
to the bone with the cold, weak and faint from hunger.
" We lay down in heaps to keep warm. Those of us
from Massachusetts talked of the morrow (Thursday) as
probably Thanksgiving Day in the Old Bay State. I went
to sleep with mind and heart busy with thoughts of the glad
old Thanksgiving days of the past, and " Lo ! I dreamed a
dream." I was at home,, sitting at my mother s table,
alone, clothed in my prison rags, and before me a large
turkey, cranberry sauce, etc., I grasped the carving knife
to help myself and woke to find that the gray November
clouds had gone, the stars were glittering overhead, and I
was cold and hungry.
" We remained through the twenty-fourth at Savannah.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 355
Rations of hard tack were given us. A few friendly citizens
brought us extras in the shape of cold victuals. The guard
treated us well. One train load was sent off, destined, we
were told, for Florida. No exchange for us now, we felt.
Into box cars again on the twenty-fifth, and at nine P. M.
en route for Charleston, S. C. A tedious journey, most of
the way through pine forests and dismal swamps. The
towns and villages through which we passed spoke plainly
of desolation and poverty. We were given rations of
bread at Charleston, and the citizens treated us kindly.
Here we found that our final destination was Florence, S.
C., to another stockade prison. A ride of one hundred
and ten miles, tolerably comfortable by day, as a kindly
Providence favored us. with bright, mild weather, but chilly
and dreary at night, and at three A. M. this morning,
twenty-eighth, we were turned into a field, where we piled
together upon the frosty grass and, overcome by intense
weariness, forgot hunger and cold, and slept till the sun
was above the horizon. In the distance we could discern
our new prison-home the dim outlines of a stockade
overhung with a cloud of smoke, through which the morn
ing sun seemed hardly to penetrate. We were soon in our
new abode, with failing hearts, questioning ourselves and
each other, " Can we stand it through the winter ? " we
are determined to try.
" We find the prison to be on the same plan as at
Andersonville, of about fifteen acres, five of which are an
uninhabitable swamp ; through the centre runs a clear and
rapid stream ; thank God for this ! In building here the
rebs were wiser than at Andersonville, for outside the
stockade they have dug a deep trench, so that tunnelling
is scarcely possible. The men are divided into thousands,
sub-divided into hundreds. Our mess, now reduced to
Pratt and myself, is placed in the fourth hundred of the
356 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
fourth thousand ; Smith was so fortunate as to go out with
those at Millen for exchange. Rations of about one pint
of raw meal, one pint of flour, and one-half pint of black
beans, were given us, of which we made a grand stew,
speedily devoured, and " licked the platter clean," to make
sure that nothing was wasted. Report says that there are
about twelve thousand in camp. A squad of police is on
duty, made up of our own men, and good order seems to
reign. No shelter is provided by the rebs. Most of the
men have built some sort of mud huts ; building walls of
two or three feet and roofing with blankets, brushwood
and mud, with a fire-place and chimney at the front of
bricks made from the clay, which, providentially, abounds
in the prison.
" December 4. Winter has come by the calendar, but
not as yet in reality, for the weather has been delightful,
so that we have needed no fire for warmth. Wood squads
go out of the prison daily, mainly to cut wood for the camp ;
some, however, work for the reb officers, making tubs,
pails, birch-brooms, and building log cabins. These squads
give the " parole " that they will not try to run away or go
more than one mile from camp, and are allowed extra
rations. We miss the extra rations of Andersonville and
Millen (I not being a detachment sergeant here), and now
I find myself hungry and growing weak.
" We have taken a comrade, Hall, into our mess ; he
has a good blanket to add to our stock. We have nearly
finished a good mud hut, fire-place and chimney, roofed
with our blankets, so that we feel quite well prepared for
winter. A few sick have been paroled during the week.
There is a great rush to get out on the work squads, for,
in addition to extra rations, they have opportunity to trade
with the rebel guard and the negroes. The latter come to
our men, on the sly, as they are at work in the woods, and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 357
bring sweet potatoes, beans, etc., which they barter for
pens, knives, pocket-books, buttons especially U. S.
combs, and carved knick-knacks made by the prisoners.
From these extras brought into camp by the squads quite
a trade is carried on inside the stockade. I have deter
mined to try my hand at it, and have sold my quart cup,
tin plate and a small kettle for capital. Felt discouraged
to-day in trying to mend my ragged clothing shirt, pants
and blouse have become literally " rags and patches " ; I
counted fourteen different patches upon my pants. The
week closes with Hall out at work with one of the squads,
which gives us encouragement. I have tried to get out to
work, and also upon the police, but thus far in vain.
" December i8th. The past two weeks have brought win
ter weather, a new factor as a cause for suffering. In Ander-
sonville it was heat, now it is cold ; and the past week has
seen a dozen or more poor fellows numbered with the dead,
with the verdict, "frozen to death." The prisoners, as a
whole, are worse off for clothing than at Andersonville ;
scores are shoeless and hatless. The wood furnished for
fuel is mostly green, and almost defies our attempts to get
any heat from it. The smoke about the camp is suffocating,
and our men look more like negroes than white men. We
have have had some rations of fresh meat, which have
been a great blessing to those having scurvy. Hall has
been taken sick and sent to hospital. We made four
kettles of soup, Hall having got the materials for it from
outside, and sold three with good success. With the profit
we bought some pepper and salt. The fourth got sour and
was a total loss. The iron camp kettles given us at Millen
are of great service to us here. I found Sergeant Lunt
of Company A here the past week, and he has cast in his
lot with our mess. I borrowed from comrades a copy of
Harper s Monthly and Volume VI of " Hume s History of
25
358 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
England," which have helped to cheer some of the other
wise dull hours.
" December 26th. The week has brought an agreeable
change to our mess and myself. On the twenty-second, the
reb quartermaster came into camp calling for a boss car
penter and seven assistants. Lunt was selected, and I
was fortunate to get with him as a " striker." We have
now had three days outside, and never did fresh air, fields
and woods seem so rich a blessing. We have been set to
work to build a log cabin for one of the officials ; going
out at sunrise into the woods, and through the day cutting
logs and riving shingles. I had all I could do the first day
to swing the axe, and had the reb overseer been with us
much of the time, I fear I should have given out. Our
extras are liberal and our three days experience begins
to rake us feel like men again. Pratt acts as cook, and
as we come in at sunset, with our extras and bundles of
pine upon our shoulders, greets us with a smiling face, a
gallon of hot coffee (?) made from burnt corn meal, bean
soup and baked hoe cake, which by the light of a pitch
pine knot we gratefully devour.
" Every Sabbath forenoon we are counted off. The
guard comes in and we upon the west side are made to
pass the creek to the east side, and there wait, shivering
it may be in the rain and cold, while the guards go through
our quarters and take account of those who are too sick to
crawl out. Then the whole camp is required to cross the
bridge in order, by hundreds and by fours, between two
reb officers, who count us as we pass ; it often takes four
hours to complete the count. I was most of the day
patching my shirt with an old meal sack, which I had
foraged outside.
" January ist, 1865. No change for the better; no
signs of an exchange, and some of our poor fellows, weary
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 359
and heart sick, are taking the oath of allegiance to the
Southern Confederacy not many, although the rebs are
giving invitations freely, coupled with promises of clothing,
etc. The cold snaps multiply and little patches of ice
fringe the edges of the creek, and with each cold wave one
or more poor fellow gives up the fight, and, in prison
phraseology, is " exchanged."
" February, 1865. Our work squad has been out day
by day ; the last part of the time cutting wood for use in
the stockade. Our extras have been cut do\vn, and, from
what we can see, we have concluded that the rebel guard
are not abundantly supplied. Thanks to the negroes, who
have always something for us, as they slyly stray in upon
us in our wood-cutting expeditions handing us a few
sweet potatoes or a little bag of beans, and often refusing
all pay. Up to near the middle of January we were
allowed to take our foraging into the stockade without
hinderance. All at once came the word from the overseer
that no more would be allowed to go in ; we meekly
received the order, but mentally said "we would see."
And we did see, and for a few days, with well padded
bosoms and bulky trowser legs and caps with well stuffed
crowns, we bore in many a treasure to our comrades. But
this was soon ended ; the guard detailed to watch us began
to more than look at us, and a hand upon the hat crown or
pant leg ended the flank movement. Another plan was
successful for a season: each was allowed to take in a
stick of wood on his shoulder ; some men would split and
hollow out these logs, fill them with beans, and with the
sticks dowelled together march into camp. This also was
soon ended, for one night the overseer himself stood by
and with a club not over gently tapped each log, and, as
now and then one gave a hollow sound, he would distinctly
say, "Drop that ! " One day Lunt was given an ox-head
360 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
by the overseer, and for two days we revelled in beef soup.
In dressing it for cooking, Pratt threw the eyes outside,
and, to his surprise, saw a comrade pick them up and try
to cook them ; but he gave it up after boiling them for an
hour or more.
" With the entry for February i my diary closed, for
want of paper to write upon. The following closing
account is given from memory :
" As the month drew on, those of us working outside
made up our minds that if there was no exchange at hand
Sherman was, and also the doom of the Southern Con
federacy. A rebel paper or fragment of one would come
into our hands and from it we thought we could read that
perplexity and doubt were with the rebel leaders. Our
extra rations were again cut down ; but we noticed that
the rations of the rebel guard were also reduced. Often
to appease my hunger I would stroll about the rear of the
officers quarters, during the hour given for nooning, and
search for bones, sweet potato parings, bits of corn bread,
etc. Near the middle of the month rumors came thick
and fast that an exchange had been agreed upon, and they
gave hope and cheer to all. In the last week the work
began and soon reached our thousand, and we marched
out with hearts too full for utterance, feeling sure that we
had bidden good-bye to our last rebel prison.
" Many were too weak to walk even the few rods to the
now welcome box cars, and were supported or lugged in
blankets by comrades. We were crowded in at the point
of the bayonet, but we did not care, we were going home !
Soon after getting started Pratt was taken sick and grew
rapidly worse, so that on the second day he could scarcely
sit up. We were two nights and one day on the way to
Wilmington, N. C., where the exchange took place. At
the dawn of each day the officer in charge of the train
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 361
would come to each car with the question, * Any dead men
in this car ? and in nearly every car one, and in some two,
would be found to have given up the fight showing that
not even going home could overcome the effects of the
past weary months struggle with hunger, cold and disease.
" Near Wilmington we were taken out into a wood, where
in a log cabin we signed the parole papers. Poor Pratt
was too weak to sit up, so we fixed our blankets upon
poles for a stretcher and took him along with us ; every
movement hurt him, and he begged us to leave him. From
the wood we were taken to an open lot, where we squatted
in groups, weary and hungry. As the day wore on, the
sound of firing at no great distance caused a glow of ex
citement among us, and soon we were put upon the cars
again and started away from the city. What could it
mean, we queried, are we doomed to disappointment
again ? We were taken back to a wood near by, where
we were told to make ourselves comfortable. While
waiting for the train to move we tore open a bale of cotton
lying near the track, and soon had a downy bed in one
corner of the car, upon which we placed Pratt ; a smile of
peace passed over his face as we laid him down upon it.
" We had been in the woods but a little while, when, to
our surprise, a squad of reb cavalry straggled by followed
by some reb infantry, who were evidently in a hurry. An
occasional stray shot over our heads told us the cause of
their haste, and soon came the news that General Terry
had captured Wilmington ! We felt like cheering, but for
more than one reason did not. Soon after we were again
on the move, and landed in the outskirts of the city.
" On the morning of March 3d we were cheered by
the sight of a train of United States ambulances, into
which we crowded, scarce waiting for them to halt.
We laid Pratt upon the bottom of one of them, with
362 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
a pillow ; he seemed to be in a sort of stupor. Pen
cannot describe our emotions as we caught sight of
the old flag near Wilmington ; our cheers mingled with
tears of joy ; the thoughts rising in all our hearts of
* something to eat, something to wear, and home again !
Pratt was roused by the commotion, and when told its
cause he cried Let me see it, and we lifted him up;
joy shone upon his face as he gazed with us upon the
stars and stripes waving in the morning sun.
" Much might be said of our stay in Wilmington until
the next day ; memory recalls most vividly our first recep
tion of rations boiled fresh meat and soft bread ; almost
at the point of the bayonet did some have to be kept from
rushing to grasp the coveted food. In the afternoon we
were taken into the city and quartered in churches, school-
houses, etc., having to wait till next day for the steamer to
take us to Annapolis.
" Our mess clung together, taking Pratt with us, who
was in a raging fever. We were quartered in a small
chapel, where we passed a dreary night. Our hunger had
been somewhat appeased, but we were cold, we were
ragged, and scores of vermin, which had followed us from
our prison, so persistently reminded us of their friendship
that sleep was almost impossible. In the morning (March
4th) we were inspected by a surgeon, and those too weak
to stand the journey were taken to the hospitals. We
bade good-bye to Pratt, hardly daring to hope ever to
see him again. At noon we were upon the steamer for
Annapolis. Most of us soon became sea-sick, and as a
result were weak and trembling as, upon arrival there, we
were landed just at dark at the dock of the Naval Academy
grounds.
" With wise forethought for us the United States San
itary Commission was on board with a barrel of hot milk
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 363
punch, a mug of which was given to each of us as we filed
from the steamer. We were taken to a large bath-room,
treated to a warm bath, aided with soap and scrub brush,
our hair cropped, and given a suit of clothes. I felt like
holding on to my prison uniform, as a war relic, but
knew it would be useless to ask the privilege, for it con
tained too much life to admit, under the circumstances,
of being suitably prepared for preservation. From the
bath-room we were put into comfortable cots, where, with
varying emotions, we felt that our prison days were over.
On the morrow came the word Thirty days furlough as
soon as you are able to go home !
Lieutenant Blanchard s narrative is as follows :
"I was captured on the thirtieth of September, 1864.
" That day will be remembered as cloudy and dull, and
an altogether unpromising one for military operations ;
but, in compliance with orders, an early start was made,
and we began feeling for the enemy, little dreaming that
before nightfall the enemy would be feeling of some of us
in a manner entirely regardless of any preference we might
have as to the method of disposing of us or our effects.
" The day had been spent in skirmishing and in working
our way to the left in the direction of the South Side
Railroad, the only remaining line of rail communication
between Petersburg and the South.
" We were a comparatively short distance from this road
when our regiment passed out of a belt of woods across an
open field, in sight of the rebel earthworks forming a part
of the Petersburg line of defences. Under a light rifle
fire from the enemy we took refuge behind a rail fence,
and had exchanged a few shots, when, noticing an extra
ordinary commotion along the line to my right, I looked
in that direction and saw close upon us a body of rebel
364 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
cavalry galloping towards us and apparently meeting with
no opposition. Turning to the left I saw our men ( legging
it for the woods in the rear, and was about to follow them
myself, when I saw it was too late the Johnnies were
upon us, and had made prisoners of a dozen or more of
our German recruits and myself. Being a diffident sort of
person, and the only one of our men who could speak the
English language, I left it for the leader of the rebel host
to make such introductory remarks as might, to him, seem
best suited to the occasion. He was not long in taking in
the situation, and notably relieved my embarrassment by
alluding to us as a parcel of condemned Yankees (the
word condemned is a substitution), and inviting us in
words more emphatic than refined to get over to the other
side of the fence. We got over, and started towards the
enemy s lines, accompanied by a guard ; we had gone but
a short distance when we were met by a rebel line of skir
mishers a sorry-looking set and evidently as much
scared as we were.
" They were not long in making our acquaintance and
making the most of it. One cadaverous looking individual,
fully six feet and ten inches tall, addressed me with,
* Hello, Yank, got any coffee? I was about to ask him
if he took me for a green-grocer, when he deliberately
took hold of the strap to my haversack and, lifting bag and
all over my head, coolly threw it over his own shoulder
and marched off as complacently as though he had done
me an indescribable kindness. My reflections were soon
turned from the subject of groceries to that of dry goods,
by a genial-faced Southron, who thoughtfully suggested
that, as I would soon be going into warmer latitudes, the
heavy blanket I was carrying would be an encumbrance
that would make my journey truly miserable, and so, de
siring to add to my comfort, he generously relieved me of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 365
the aforesaid burden, and passed on with a smile upon his
face that, under any other circumstances, would have been
a positive benediction upon the one who beheld it. Another
kindly-disposed fellow had similar convictions regarding
the inconvenience I might suffer from lugging about the
overcoat that was strapped to my knapsack, and he, like
wise, in a truly self-sacrificing spirit, proceeded to assume
that part of my burden for me. I shall never forgive,
however, the chap who, on that occasion, borrowed my
jack-knife and other pocket fixings, such as go to make up
an important part of a soldier s outfit. Neither can I
forget the possibly well-meant kindness that prompted one
of my new-found acquaintances to remove my hat from
my head, and, placing it upon his chivalric brow, con
siderately replace it with his own a nasty, greasy old
tile that completely overshadowed me, and, I might add,
nearly suffocated me with its foul odor.
" After we had been thus put in light marching order,
our guards were instructed to conduct us into Petersburg
and turn us over to the provost marshal.
" Resuming our journey, we passed down a narrow
ravine that brought us to the foot of the hill, upon which
were thrown up several lines of earthworks, constructed in
terraces and in such a convenient rise as to render them
almost impregnable, even though defended by a mere
handful of men. We passed directly through these
terraces and found them occupied by a comparatively
small body of troops. As we passed through the rebel
lines we were the subject of much good-natured chaffing,
and fell into a friendly chat with our guards, from whom
we learned that the rank and file of the Confederate army
had practically given up their cause as hopeless, and had
lost faith in their leaders.
" Reaching the crest of the hill we obtained our first view
366 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
of the town of Petersburg, which lay some two or three
miles to the north. It was nearly dark, but we could
discern small squads of men travelling in the same direc
tion as ourselves, and, as we reached the main road, we
found them to be prisoners like ourselves. As we jour
neyed toward the town our ranks were continually aug
mented by these squads, until we began to think that the
1 rebs had * gobbled up the whole of Grant s left wing.
" It was nearly nine o clock before we entered the out
skirts of the town, but the news of our capture had preceded
us, and the people were out in force to get a peep at the
Yankees, of whom they had never seen so many. It
seemed as though we would never reach our destination,
and many of us verily believed that we were being marched
through the highways and byways of the town on exhibition.
As a rule there were no demonstrations, except occasion
ally a suggestive remark about our nativity or some
comment upon our personal appearance. One old crone
stepped up to us, and, shaking her unwashed forefinger,
exclaimed, Well, you uns has got into Petersburg, hain t
yer? No one stopped to dispute the point with her, there
being no uncertainty in our minds regarding the fact of
our being in the town, though we might have confessed to
some forebodings as to the probabilities of our getting out
of it. At length we were brought to a halt, and, after a
long delay, were turned into an open lot which had
evidently been used for a cattle yard. Here we were
ordered to make ourselves comfortable for the night. At
this moment it dawned upon my mind that my impromptu
friends of the afternoon had rather overdone the matter of
solicitation for my welfare, and I, uncharitably, perhaps,
began to feel that their benevolent acts might, after all,
have been born of mercenary motives ; for I realized, at
this juncture, that a blanket or an overcoat and well-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 367
filled haversack would be among the most acceptable and
useful things in the world.
" The night was dark and the sky was filled with heavy
clouds that poured an occasional shower of rain upon us.
I was tired, hungry and sleepy, yet it was past midnight
before I ventured to follow the lead of some of my more
reconciled companions and seek repose as best I might.
I wandered about, vainly hoping to stumble over a board
or some article that would protect me from the mud (into
which I knew I must lie unless I was equal to the emer
gency of sleeping horse fashion, standing upon my legs) ;
the latter seemed resolutely opposed to such an innovation,
and, as if by way of compromise, led me to a spot where
a man was snoring at the rate, I should judge, of a mile a
minute. I was not long in discovering that he was lying
upon a rubber blanket. Now I never knew of a rubber
blanket that was not big enough to accommodate two
persons, so without any apology to the proprietor of this
particular blanket, I laid my knapsack (the only remaining
memento by which I could identify myself as a * boy in
blue ) upon the ground for a pillow, stretched myself
by the side of my companion (by appropriation), and, cov
ering my head with the villainous old tile that adorned
me during the day, I was soon asleep and entirely un
mindful of houseless head and unfed sides.
" October ist. When I awoke this morning it was long
after daylight, and I found my head in the mud and my
knapsack and the " old tile " gone. My companion of the
night was sitting on the blanket by my side contentedly
pulling away at his pipe, apparently as unconcerned as
though he were waiting the morning call for breakfast. I
naturally expected a demand from him for a settlement
for my night s lodging, but, instead, he politely touched his
hat and saluted me as " Mr. Sergeant," when I recognized
368 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
him as one of the German recruits belonging to the Thirty-
Fifth Regiment. He had evidently been taking notes of
my condition, and though he could not express his sympathy
in words he manifested a noble and generous nature by
sharing with me some of his outfit that he had been for
tunate enough to preserve when he fell into rebel hands.
Finding that I was coatless and hatless he gave me the
cape to his overcoat and the glazed cover to his military
cap, and these articles were the only covering of this kind
that I had during my six months sojourn in rebeldom
these were my blanket and head-dress. Many times
during the cold winter nights, when I pulled the cape
about me, making it cover every possible inch of my body,
did my thoughts go out in gratitude to the kind-hearted
Teuton, who, at a time when most men think only of self-
preservation, found occasion for the exercise of that virtue
possessed by those who act under the injunction of the
Master : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This
man was afterwards sent to Salisbury prison-pen, and, to
escape its horrors, is said to have enlisted in the rebel
army. Whether he did or not I have for him only the
kindest sentiments and the warmest impulses of a grateful
heart. During the forenoon of this day large numbers
were added to our ranks, and the report circulated that
three thousand of our men had been taken by the rebels
as a result of yesterday s movements. A few hours before
my capture I received notification that I had been com
missioned a 2d lieutenant, and when to-day I came to be
registered I determined to report myself as such, notwith
standing the fact that I had not yet been mustered. This
proved a most fortunate decision for me, as by so doing I
was placed among the commissioned officers and received
better treatment than most of the enlisted men who were
captured with me.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 369
" Among the large number of our men, I have to-day,
October ist, found but few familiar faces, namely : Sergeant
Ireland and Corporal Taylor Dodge of Company B, and John
Jeffers of Company K. We were this afternoon removed
to a building where we were under cover, and which proved
quite comfortable in comparison with last night s quarters.
To-day we went through the " searching " ordeal. Being
called off in small squads, we were conducted into a room
where we were detained until one at a time we were called
into a separate apartment, stripped to the skin and searched,
under the comforting assurance that our effects would be
held until we might be exchanged, then to be returned to
us. It is due the intelligence of our men to say that none
of them " hoisted in " the lt return upon being exchanged "
part of this proceeding. I was sent into the first of the
above-mentioned rooms with about a dozen others, one of
whom had been ordered into the room of the " Inquisition,"
when another, who remained behind, began to sob and
manifested signs of deep emotion. Upon being questioned,
he stated that he had upon his person nearly eleven hundred
dollars, and the prospect of losing this sum had completely
broken him down. The money was in hundred dollar bills,
with the exception of about seventy dollars in notes of
smaller denominations. One of our number suggested
that he leave the small bills in his pocket and entrust the
remainder to the rest of the party, each one of whom
should fold a hundred dollar bill and place it in his mouth
while being searched. This plan was adopted and the
officer recovered every one of his bills after he returned to
his quarters.
" When I was ordered into the small room for exami
nation, the " committee " evidently thought it had not
struck much of a " bonanza " in me, for I was indeed a
sorry-looking object as I entered, wearing the overcoat
37 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
cape and glazed cap cover which fitted close to my head ;
my face and hands had been unwashed for nearly three
days, my clothing was bespattered with mud, my jaws
wagging vigorously as I chewed away at the hundred
dollar bill in my mouth. I could see that the call of " next "
would not be long delayed. Upon giving the presiding
" searcher" my name and rank, he ventured the flattering
suggestion that "I was a h-11 of a looking lieutenant,"
and wanted to know where my shoulder straps were.
To this I replied that I had distributed the most of
my clothing among men on the Confederate skirmish
line in front of Petersburg, and he could "reckon"
as well as I as to the probable whereabouts of my
straps. My dilapidated appearance proved fortunate
for me, as I received only a slight examination (not being
favored with the distinction of being stripped), by which I
preserved my watch, which I afterwards sold at a time
when I was nearly famished. Upon rejoining my com
rades I found myself possessed of the following inven
tory of this world s goods : one pair of boots (good ones),
one pair of socks (that would be greatly improved by darn
ing), one pair of pants (very thin and much worn), one
pair of drawers, one shirt, one blouse, an overcoat cape,
a glazed cap cover and my watch.
" * Sunday, October 2d. Drew rations of pork and hard
bread. In the afternoon we were marched to the railroad
station, where, after a delay of several hours, we were
packed into cattle cars and started for Richmond.
11 Monday, October 3d. Arrived in Richmond at day
light, and, with the commissioned officers, was incarcerated
in Libby prison. The enlisted men were sent to Belle
Isle. As we entered the room in which we were to be
confined we were greeted with cries of " fresh ! " " fresh ! "
from the dozen or more officers who had occupied the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 371
place as prisoners for some weeks. Among these were
General Hayes of New York and Colonel Hooper of
the Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers. We were
served with a ration of corn bread (so called) and meat
(the lungs and heads of beef cattle). We were drawn up
in line this morning and " reviewed " by the notorious
Dick Turner and his servile satellite, Lieutenant Ross,
together forming a brace of the most cowardly bullies that
ever went unhung.
" Tuesday, October 4th. Early this morning a squad
of Union officers arrived from Charleston, en route to be
exchanged. They tell hard stories of their treatment in
Southern prisons. The walls of this place are literally
covered with the names of men who have been prisoners.
After being counted to-day, Turner informed us that we
might write letters home (as a flag of truce boat was going
down the James River), and our communications would be
forwarded by her. We were cautioned to make our letters
short and strictly confined to personal matters. I took
advantage of the opportunity to pen the following epistle,
for the second clause of which I hope to be forgiven :
U i It
" "LiBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VA., Oct. 4, 1864.
Dear father: I was taken prisoner in front of
Petersburg, Sept. 3oth. Am comfortably situated and well
treated. I find the names of Frank Sweeney and Robert
Steele of Company C written on the walls of the room in
which I am confined. Please inform their friends. Hoping
soon to be with you, I am," etc.
" Wednesday, October 5th. Where all the lice in this
place came from is more than I can comprehend. Every
morning each inmate of the prison strips himself and pro
ceeds to dispatch the small army of vermin that has over
run him during the night; but each day one finds about
372 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
the same number of full-grown, rapacious creepers fat,
sleek and agile. The guard imparts to us the comforting
intelligence that we are soon to be sent South.
" Thursday, October 6th. Find that lying upon a floor
with neither mattress nor covering is not conducive to
refreshing sleep. Think I would prefer to take my chances
with the boys in front of Petersburg. Copies of Richmond
papers were brought in to-day. It is drawing it mildly to
say that the news they contain evidently lacks confirmation.
By them it appears that the Union cause is on its " last
legs." Thirteen hundred of our men started South this
afternoon. Notwithstanding the thorough searching to
which we were subjected at Petersburg, many of the officers
seem to have retained a portion of their greenbacks, and
succeed in purchasing bread and vegetables of the guards.
" ( Friday, October yth. Several officers went in the
truce boat and were exchanged. Can hear shells from our
artillery bursting near the city.
" * Saturday, October 8th. Last night it was very cold,
and to-day we are obliged to keep in motion in order to be
at all comfortable. No food until three P. M., when we
were served with three days rations of corn bread and
tainted meat, and started for the South via Danville, Va.
" Sunday, October gth. Weather still cold. Had a
hard night on the cars. About noon arrived at Greens
boro, N. C., where we left the cars and are waiting the
arrival of another train, not due until to-morrow.
" Monday, October loth. Passed the night upon the
ground without shelter, and at eight o clock A. M. resumed
our journey. As soon as the train had started we pro
ceeded to introduce light and ventilation by tearing off
the boards from the frame of the cars. Notwithstanding
great hunger I find it difficult to eat my rations, for the
bread is not bread and the meat is too vile for a human
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 373
being to use as food; yet my conscience will not allow
me to throw it away. As we stopped at a station this
afternoon we heard a noise as of some one climbing up
the side of the car, and presently a basket was passed
through an opening that had been made by the removal
of a board, and a voice (evidently that of a colored
woman) called out " Here, you uns, take dese, an God
bless yer!" at the same time the long black arm that held
the basket turned it upside down and scattered half a
peck or more of well-ripened apples among us. Cheers
were given for our unseen friend, whose generous act
told of the promptings of a grateful soul, and solaced us
with the thought that if we could but get beyond the
range of rebel rifles there were friends at command whose
loyal hearts and willing hands would be ready to speed us
on our way to " God s country ; " that, to the prisoner s
mind, lay north of Mason and Dixon s line. Arrived at
Salisbury at about dark. There was a notable absence of
gas lamps and lanterns. We were conducted to a building
said to be used as a hospital for the prisoners, and were
placed in an upper room, which we found in a most filthy
condition. A number of prisoners were already in the
room, and by them we were warned to look out for the
"raiders," a band of thieves and cut-throats who made it
their business to " go through " every newly-arrived con
signment of prisoners. These fiends had access to the
building from below, and would steal up at night, under
cover of the darkness, seize a prisoner and rob him of all
he possessed, resorting to murder if necessary to accom
plish these ends. These rascals made but one attempt
upon our company, which numbered nearly four hundred
men, who kept a vigil ant watch, and all attempts at plunder
were frustrated.
" Tuesday, October nth. Vermin and hunger brought
26
374 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
me to my feet early this morning, when I took a survey of
the place that for a time was to be my prison home. The
pen (for Salisbury was nothing else) was a triangular-
shaped parcel of ground about one-fifth as large as Boston
Common, and surrounded by a stockade about fifteen feet
high. On the outside of this, about four feet from the top,
was a raised walk upon which rebel guards patrolled,
breaking the monotony of their weary beat by occasionally
shooting, under one pretence or another, some helpless
" Yank." The brick building of which we were occupants
was situated in the south-west corner of the enclosure, and
at the opposite corner was a row of log cabins, usually
occupied by Union officers held as prisoners and separated
from the enlisted men by a " dead line " a narrow trench
about twelve inches wide and six inches deep, extending
entirely across the yard. Another dead line ran entirely
around the enclosure within about five feet of the stockade.
Among the prisoners confined in the brick building, we
met Albert D. Richardson, the far-famed correspondent of
the New York Tribune, who had been a long time in cap
tivity and who had been of late placed in charge of the
sick Union prisoners. Our rations for this day consisted
of half a loaf of bread. We were this afternoon transferred
to the log cabins, where we enjoyed the luxury of breath
ing fresh, pure air.
"Wednesday, October i2th. A glance across the dead
line presents a most heart-rending sight. Fully ten thousand
men are swarming the small plot of ground, all of them
suffering with hunger, and many of them bare-headed and
shoeless. Pneumonia is said to be very prevalent among
them, and that it is doing its fatal work is attested by the
presence of the dead cart, which every morning carries
away a load of uncoffined dead. As I was sitting near the
dead line this forenoon, "skirmishing" (hunting my
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 375
clothes for vermin a search, by the way, always attended
with the most abundant results), I saw Corporal Preston
Holbrook, of Company C, who was captured the same day
as myself. He informed me that Corporal Wm. P. Stone,
also of Company C, was somewhere in the pen.
"Thursday, October i3th. Had a ration of soup to
day. It was made by boiling the trimmings of beef cattle,
such as the head and pluck, in water, and adding a few
black or " hog " beans, as they were called. These beans
would not swell and thicken the liquor in which they were
boiled (as do the common white beans), but would become
soft inside, and the shell or hull not breaking they would
sink to the bottom of the kettle, leaving a watery broth
that took on the color of the bean and looked as much like
blue water, such as our mothers prepare for washing, as it
did like soup, and was just about as nutritious.
"Friday, October i4th. Saw Corporal Stone to-day.
He was captured August igth, in front of Petersburg, and,
with several others taken that day, was reported " missing "
on the company rolls. He had been a prisoner about two
months, and already showed signs of emaciation. It was
evident that the rigors of prison life were telling severely
upon him. He was barefooted. He bargained to sell his
shoes for bread, but in the negotiation only his part of the
trade was carried out ; the rebel guard getting possession
of the shoes failed to deliver the bread.
" Saturday, October i5th. Sold my watch to-day for
seventy dollars in Confederate money and a pair of second
hand shoes. Gave the latter to Corporal Stone, sending
them to him by one of our men who had been detailed
among others to bring a supply of water across the line to
the officers. The water we get is of fair quality, but the
supply is very scant.
" Sunday, October i6th. While I was "skirmishing"
376 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
this morning Captain Davis of the One Hundred and Fifty-
Fifth New York came out of the log hut of which we were
both occupants, and, addressing me with a cordial morning
salutation, passed to my right and stood against a tree
about fifteen feet from the stockade. I was suddenly
startled by the crack of a rifle, and turning saw Captain
Davis fall dead. Murdered by a half-grown boy, who was
performing the duty of sentinel. Davis had committed no
offence, and no possible apology could be offered for
the deed.
" Monday, October lyth. Had a ration of sorghum to
day, which we were told was in lieu of meat. Our men
are suffering much from cold, the most of them being with
out blankets or shelter. The hope for a speedy exchange
is all that sustains many of them.
" Tuesday, October i8th. Exciting rumors are current
to-day regarding Grant s operations in front of Petersburg.
It is also reported that a Union force is within forty miles
of this place, aiming at our release.
" Wednesday, October iQth. More prisoners arrived
to-day. At about four o clock all the commissioned officers
were ordered to prepare for removal to Danville. No
rations were served us. Believing that almost any change
would be preferable to the condition I was in, I said
"good-bye" to the men of the Thirty-Fifth Regiment,
though with a heavy heart, for I felt that I was leaving
them to a miserable fate, that for many of them must
certainly terminate in death. Took cars at about four
o clock and started for Danville.
" Thursday, October 2oth. We were so closely packed
in the cars last night that what sleep we got was obtained
in a sitting posture, and was far from refreshing. During
the night several officers made their escape from the train,
and others were shot in the attempt. We arrived at Dan-
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 377
ville at about ten o clock and were placed in military prison
No. 3, formerly a tobacco warehouse. Had rations of corn
bread and black bean soup, such as was served us at
Salisbury. The bread was composed of meal that was
made by grinding the whole ear of corn (including the cob).
This was mixed with water and "baked" in sheet-iron
pans about twenty inches square and three inches deep.
The material was such that it would not cook as does
ordinary meal, but came to us burned black on the top and
bottom, the inside being a mass of clammy, unpalatable
stuff, unfit to eat. We disposed of these rations by soak
ing or boiling (when we could) the crust in water, making
a kind of coffee, drinking the liquor and eating the
grounds. The inside portion of the bread was then ex
posed to the sun and dried ; afterwards it was grated over
a piece of perforated tin and eaten when hunger drove
us to it.
" Friday, October 2ist. One of the officers who escaped
from the train on the night of the nineteenth was returned
to prison to-day, having been recaptured. Several of our
number were sent to the hospital.
" Saturday, October 22d. Very cold day. No fuel in
the prison, though the country about us is densely wooded,
and an abundant supply could be had by permitting a
detail of prisoners to procure it. Had a ration of cabbage
soup to-day. Bought " two cents worth " of molasses for
five dollars in Confederate money.
" Sunday, October 23d. Had preaching by the chaplain
of a New Hampshire regiment, who is a fellow prisoner.
A wet, cold and very uncomfortable day.
" Monday, October 24th. Rumors are current that
Sheridan is making it lively for the rebels in the Shenan-
doah valley. Some of the officers are selling their clothing,
boots, etc., to the guards, for money with which to purchase
378 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
food. Salt is a great scarcity, none being put into the
food that is served to us.
" Tuesday, October 25th. One of the officers obtained
a copy of the Richmond Sentinel, which contained a
confirmation of the good news regarding Sheridan. The
" Star of Hope " rises high with us to-day, and enables us
to partially forget our misery. Very scanty rations of
bread and soup.
" Wednesday, October 26th. Had rations of sorghum
served out this morning. No meat has been given us for
several days. Had hoped that the advent of cold weather
would diminish the quantity of vermin with which we are
infested, but find it necessary to be eternally vigilant in
order to keep them under control. They hug close this
weather.
" Thursday, October 27th. Had rations of bread to
day made of half corn meal and half wheat flour ; found it
very good, but greatly lacking in quantity. Am obliged to
sleep on the bare floor, with no covering. For a pillow I
wrap my glazed cap cover around a brick. We are so
crowded we have to lie "spoon fashion," and when one
desires to turn he must wait for others to do so, as there
is not space for us to lie as we prefer.
" Friday, October 28th. Bought more molasses to-day
and managed to get a little salt ; the latter I sprinkled
upon the crust of my bread after soaking it, thus making
it more palatable. Begin to feel the effects of idleness.
Time drags heavily with nothing to occupy our thoughts
or hands. The one absorbing theme of conversation is
" exchange."
" Saturday, October 29th. Fifteen more officers were
added to our number to-day. They, with three hundred
of their men, having been held as hostages since August
last.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 379
" Sunday, October 3Oth. Preaching services were held
and nearly every one attended. No excuses can be framed
here for staying " at home " from church.
" Monday, October 3151. Had rations of wheat bread.
Have been in prison one month, and can see no prospect
of being paroled or exchanged.
" Tuesday, November ist. Rainy. We are thankful
to have a tight roof over our heads. Our boys in Salisbury
are without this boon. It is reported that hostages are to
be selected from our number to be held against two rebel
spies, held by the government and under sentence to be
executed.
" * Tuesday, November 8th. Election day at home.
We took a vote for president. Whole number of votes
cast, three hundred and ninety-seven ; Lincoln had a
majority of two hundred. This was my first vote. Have
had no meat for several days. Heavy frost last night ;
ice formed.
" Thursday, November loth. More rumors are current
that an exchange of prisoners will soon be made. My
money is getting low. Tried to borrow some from the
officer for whom I saved a hundred dollar bill at Peters
burg, but he refused my request, though I offered to pay
two dollars for one when we might be released.
" Sunday, November i3th. Last night was Very cold.
Preaching to-day by the chaplain. Our rations for the
past week have been more scanty than ever.
" Monday, November i4th. A dull day. No news or
rumors of any kind. Are entirely out of fuel, and our
rations of bread have again been reduced. Quite an ex
citement was created by the discovery that some one had
been stealing. It will be a sorry day for him who may be
caught at it.
" Tuesday, November i5th. News from the North
380 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
brings the report of Lincoln s election. Cheering. Good
humor pervades our ranks. My chum, Lieutenant Sims,
of the Fifty-First New York, borrowed ten dollars in
Confederate money, and we have spent the afternoon in
considering the most advisable method of using it. Finally
decided to invest it in salt and tobacco.
" * Saturday, November iQth. A protest was forwarded
to the commander of this post, complaining of the lack of
food and fuel. Hunger is telling severely on some of the
prisoners. Strong talk is indulged, on the part of many,
of an attempt to break jail. The project is not favored by
all, as it is regarded by the more cautious of our number
as almost impossible to get through to our lines during
this season of the year. Travelling could only be done at
night, and the cold weather would make sleeping in barns
and out of doors attended with such exposure as to be
unendurable. We are poorly clad, and, withal, the chances
are decidedly against success.
" Thursday, November 24th. A very cold day. No
fuel in the prison. Thanksgiving at home. How we
would like to clean out the plates that will be set aside,
half emptied, in Northern homes this noon. Our chaplain
started for Richmond to be exchanged.
"Friday, November 25th. News reached us of an
attempted outbreak by our men at Salisbury. This gives
impetus to the feeling in favor of a similar undertaking here.
" Monday, November 28th. Wrote a letter to an
acquaintance in the South, asking assistance, but doubt if
my appeal gets much further than the prison door. Had
a ration of wheat bread. Begged some turnip peelings
and a piece of an onion. Hunger makes one bold in his
attempts to satisfy it.
" Thursday, December ist. One of the guards fired at
an officer who was in the first story of the building, but
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 381
missed his mark, and the bullet passed through the floor
of the second story, striking another officer who was sitting
upon the floor playing cards. It is unsafe for one to
approach a window, as many of the guards shoot whenever
they can see a head.
" Friday, December 2d. The guards who have been
on detail here have been ordered to the front. Sold my
boots to one of them for forty dollars in Confederate
money and a second-hand pair of shoes. Sims and I are
happy in the possession of so much money, as it will keep
us in salt and tobacco for some time to come.
" Tuesday, December 6th. The old guards left last
night. It is reported that many of them have deserted
since it became known that they were going to the front.
The sentinels who now watch over us are conscripts. While
the reliefs were being changed to-day one of our officers
discovered his uncle as a rebel soldier. The meeting was
a surprise to both. The " reb " said he was sorry to see
his nephew defending such a cause and hoped his im
prisonment would afford him opportunity to repent the
error of his way.
" Wednesday, December yth. The barracks in which
our guards are quartered took fire last night ; our only
regret is that every soul of them had not been cremated.
Salt has advanced in price thirty cents per pound. One
of the prisoners received a box of clothing and food from
a friend in Richmond.
" Friday, December 9th. Storm of hail and snow. On
hearing that the guard had been removed and that the
citizens of the place were doing duty in their stead, some
of the prisoners attempted to break jail. The attempt was
led. by Colonel Rallston, of the Twenty-Fourth New York,
who, with others, seized the sentinels in the lower part of
the building and disarmed them ; but a shot from some
382 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
one outside brought reinforcements and caused a stampede
of our men up stairs. Finding himself unsupported,
Rallston attempted to reach the stairs, but received a
mortal wound before he could gain a place of safety.
<" Sunday, December nth. Fifty more prisoners
arrived ; thirty from Richmond and twenty from the
Cumberland Mountains, having been recaptured after
escaping from Columbia, S. C. The latter were in a
pitiable condition.
" Monday, December i2th. The recent addition to our
number makes the place so crowded that it is almost im
possible to find sleeping room. I am in the second story,
and when I lie down at night I suffer much with cold, as
the wind blows through the cracks in the floor and chills
me to the very bones. It is impossible to keep warm.
There is but one stove in the room, and when there is any
fire in it one finds it very difficult to get near it. Men
crowd about it early in the morning and hold their posi
tions until they get "wedged" out.
" Wednesday, December i4th. Boys are now guarding
us. One of them attempted to make a target of me as I
was trying to repair a crack in a window that admitted a
current of cold air.
" Thursday, December i5th. Colonel Rallston, who
was shot in the Attempted outbreak, died to-day. Rumors
are afloat that our troops have obtained possession of the
Weldon Railroad. There was great commotion in the
town during the night. We hear of General Sherman s
operations in the South, and are told that we shall have
him and his army for company before long. Another
prisoner was shot. It is reported that the poor people in
Danville are in a starving condition.
" Thursday, December 22d. The shortest day in the
year ; but long enough for us to get up an appetite for the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 383
miserable rations of bread that were served us late in
the afternoon.
" Saturday, December 24th. Have been quite unwell
to-day. Had an attack of fever and ague. It is a week
since any meat was served us. Had rations of unsavory
potatoes ; they had evidently been frost-bitten. This is
Christmas Eve, but not a very merry one for us. It is re
ported that there is clothing for us in Richmond, sent
through by the government.
" January 9th, 1865. Had rations of wheat bread and
a small piece of meat the first of the latter we have had
for nearly three weeks. How we long to be free !
" January i8th. Rebel papers make mention of the
meeting of the commissioners of exchange, and our hopes
run high. Lieutenant Whitbeck, of the Fifty-First New
York, died last night. Received news of the capture of
Fort Fisher by our forces. The traders in Danville are
closing their stores and refusing to sell goods for Confed
erate money ; a good omen to us.
" January igth. We can buy no more flour, as there is
none to be had. Those of our number who have money
cannot make use of it to any great extent.
" A silver dollar is reported to have been sold at auction
in Richmond for sixty-five dollars paper money. Rumor
has it that the white flag is flying over Richmond.
" January 2ist. Rainy day. Reports regarding a
speedy exchange are very encouraging. I was appointed
commissary of our mess (fourteen) ; my duties being to
draw the rations and distribute them among the members
of the mess.
" January 25th. General Hayes and Lieutenant Lucas
left for Richmond on parole, and are to have charge of
the distribution of supplies for the prisoners furnished by
the government. It is nearly four months since I was
384 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
taken prisoner, and during that time I have not been per
mitted to wash my clothes, though the river Dan flows
within sight of the prison.
" February ist. Colonel Hooper, of the Twenty-Fourth
Massachusetts, left for Richmond to assist General Hayes,
Lieutenant Lucas having been exchanged. The prospect
of receiving clothing and favorable reports concerning
exchange give buoyancy to our spirits, and we indulge in
speculations as to what we shall do and what we shall eat
when we get into a Christian land. I frequently dream of
feasting. Our rations to-day consisted of a pint of gruel
nothing else.
" February 3d. Lieutenant Quimby, of the One Hundred
and Fifty-Fifth New York, escaped last night. The rebels
do not know it yet. It is fifteen days since we tasted meat.
" February 5th. Have suffered much of late with pains
in my limbs. Find it difficult at times to walk. Two more
officers escaped last night. It is stated that between three
and five thousand of our men have died in Salisbury since
we left there.
" February i2th. During the past week have been so
sick with inflammatory rheumatism that I have been
unable to write. Am now in the hospital. I received,
yesterday, a letter from home with a bill of exchange on
London. Clothing has arrived from Washington and is
being distributed. The patients in the " hospital " get
only corn bread to eat ; not a delicacy of any kind is
provided. The rebels are evidently hard pushed to feed
themselves. Papers from Richmond say that an exchange
of prisoners will begin in a few days, and those patients
who are able are going back to the prison in order to
stand a chance of getting away among the first , it being
reported that one thousand men leave here to-morrow for
Richmond. This news acts as a tonic upon every inmate
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 385
of the hospital, and we entertain inspiring thoughts of
" Home, sweet home."
" February lyth. One thousand of our men, including
all the officers, left for Richmond to be exchanged. Lieu
tenant Willard, of the Ninth New York, died last night.
" February igih. This morning the announcement was
made that those who were able to walk to the station
might prepare themselves to start for Richmond. I had
hardly been able to stand upon my feet for a week, but I
needed no second invitation to make ready for my de
parture. Others made the attempt who were less able
than myself, some of them being sick with fever ; but the
desire for home and the meeting with loved ones far away
impelled them to undertake seeming impossibilities. A
dozen or more of us were soon ready, and, locking arms
in threes (the weakest in the centre), we started on our
way to the station. Our path, fortunately, lay mostly down
hill. We were obliged to pass over a piece of ploughed
ground, which rendered walking very slow and painful,
especially to one suffering with rheumatism. After reach
ing the main road, which led to the station, we were joined
by a number of our men, who assisted us to the depot, carry
ing some of the feebler ones in their arms. We left Dan
ville at about ten o clock in the morning in freight cars, the
sick having no special provision made for them. Five died
on the train before we reached Richmond. Late at night
we arrived at our destination and were placed in Libby
Prison, the invalids being sent to the "hospital" (so called).
" February 2oth. Had a good rest last night. Rumors
are current that the rebels have evacuated Charleston.
Received a box from home. Many a stout-hearted fellow
shed tears of joy as he unpacked his parcel, prepared by
loving hands, that had now reached him, over the ranks
of a rebellious foe and through prison walls.
386 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
" February 22d. Washington s Birthday. A more
charming one could not have been desired. We left Libby
Prison this morning, the sick being placed on board a canal
boat, and the others walking across the city to the flag of
truce steamer. The streets of Richmond never rang to
the tread of more joyous or more sympathy-deserving men
than these who were about to pass out of this land of
bondage into one "flowing with milk and honey."
" The scene on board the canal boat was calculated to
touch the heart of one who could be moved to compassion at
the sight of suffering. The most of the men had exhausted
nearly all their nervous power in their effort to get to
the point they had now reached, and seemed unable to
participate in the joy they had long looked for and which
was now so close at hand. Progress down the river was
slow, as the channel was obstructed with sunken torpedoes,
among which we were piloted with great caution. The
knowledge of our danger from this source kept us in a
state of apprehension until we were again on terra firma.
A sharp turn in the river brought us in sight of the landing
at which we were to be exchanged. The able-bodied of
our number had preceded us and we found an ambulance
train in waiting to transport us to the Union lines. On
the banks of the stream were a number of rebel prisoners,
who were to return to Richmond. Their appearance was
in great contrast with our own. Each of them was com
fortably clad and provided with a blanket and well-filled
haversack, while we were a horde of hungry, emaciated,
half-naked, half-starved beings, victims of the most bar
barous system that could be devised by perfidious and
abandoned men, and for the continuance of which high
officials in the national government were not without
blame. Once in the ambulances we began to realize some
of the blessings that pertain to civilization. The wagons
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 387
were models of neatness; every provision that could be
furnished "on wheels" for our comfort was there; even
the horses and drivers were good to look upon, and
the hitherto ugly appearing " U. S." that found its place
on every article we used in the army, seemed a thing
of beauty. Without any "long, lingering look behind,"
we were soon en route across the peninsula of disputed
territory that lay between the opposing forces. It was a
gala day. A suspension of hostilities had been agreed
upon, and for the first time in many months there was not
heard by either army the booming of cannon or the crack
of rifle. The air was calm and spring-like. We journeyed
along in silence until a rise in the land brought us suddenly
in sight of the Union lines on the opposite side of the
river, and there we saw, floating over the ramparts, the
glorious old flag. A shout of joy went up, as wagon after
wagon came in sight of the treasured emblem. " Lift
me up, lift me up and let me see it," said a fever-stricken
comrade at my side and big tears started down his-
cheeks as he gazed in silence upon its waving folds.
Simultaneously with the sight of the flag there reached
our ears the strains of martial music, and our hearts beat
quick as we listened to the air of
" " The Union forever ! Hurrah boys ! ! Hurrah ! ! "
" * Reaching Aiken s landing, we found the transport
City of New York in waiting for us, and being placed
on board, were soon steaming away for Annapolis, Md.,
where we arrived on the following morning, a happy throng
of men, rejoicing that we were once again denizens of
" THE LAND OF THE FREE." "
CHAPTER XIV.
THE END OF THE WAR, 1865.
TOWARDS the end of March, good news was re
ceived from General Sherman in the Carolinas, and
now victorious Sheridan, with his heavy columns of cav
alry, having arrived across country from the Shenandoah
Valley, lay for a day or two in rear of Fort Sedgwick, rest
ing and refitting. Our forces seemed to be closing in for
the last struggle. Every one was upon the alert. Our men
were ordered to sleep with shoes on, and the cannoneers
were required to sleep by their guns and keep them double-
shotted for the next three days. Lee s first move at Fort
Steadman had been checkmated; who would dare the next
move upon the chess-board of Fate ?
During the flurry of a spring shower one afternoon, a
man was seen to start from the Confederate side, and
clearing the interval at a run, get safely into our picket line.
He was dressed in gray, but was oddly decorated with
patches of blue and red flannel, in imitation of small
Confederate flags, etc., marking his intense rebel feeling;
his eyes had the anxious, watchful glance of a haunted
man, and he was at once seen to be something out of the
common run of deserters. When questioned, he answered,
to our surprise, that he was one of Sheridan s scouts, and
had come through the Confederate lines from the valley;
then lifting his boot he unscrewed the heel and exhibited
his papers. He was sent to the cavalry in rear with his
389 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
information. Such was the daring of the agents whom
Sheridan employed to obtain the knowledge indispensable
to his brilliant achievements ! One of his cavalrymen,
however, was not so fortunate, he came up to Lieutenant
Loomis s mortar-battery to visit a friend and staid during
the afternoon shelling ; being a stranger, the bombs did
not know him, and he was torn in pieces by one of those
ugly fellows, which did frightful execution when they
caught the unwary.
On the twenty-ninth of March, General Sheridan started,
and, at three o clock next morning, we were routed out
and formed to meet an assault from the Confederates,
looked for as a counter to Sheridan s attack far to the left ;
the troops in rear were brought up a brigade under
Colonel Carruth being under arms from eleven p. M. to
one A. M. between us and Fort Rice and, everything
being in readiness, of course the enemy did not show them
selves. In the evening long and detailed orders in writing
were received for an assault by our whole division upon
the enemy s lines at daylight of the thirty-first. Colonel
Carruth was to command the brigade, and Captain Pope
the regiment. We were in line of battle at the appointed
time, with minds made up for the charge into the deadly
breach, but, owing to the muddy condition of the ground
and heavy rains, together with the, as yet, uncertain success
of Sheridan s operations, the attack was deferred. Ser
geant Conant, of Company C, hardly back from hospital,
where he had been since his severe wound at the Mine,
was again badly hurt by a ball in the arm, while moving
about in the fort.
The first day of April was pleasant, with a brisk wind,
drying the ground considerably. About ten o clock in the
evening our Third Division, Hartranft s Pennsylvanians,
and part of the First Division, came up to the front and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 390
were massed on the right of our fort ; and the abattis and
obstructions in front were quietly removed in the darkness.
Several of the generals were in the fort examining local
ities. Our division, General Potter s, was massed on the
left ; but the garrisons of the forts were not placed in the
columns of attack. The pioneers, including those of
the Thirty-Fifth, were posted at the head of columns, to
break up the Confederate abattis, etc. ; one of ours,
McCarty, of Company K, was wounded in this duty.
During the evening the Confederate picket line had been
captured on our left opposite Fort Hays, and strong feints
were made around to our right near the Appomattox, to
keep the enemy occupied there, and, if possible, draw more
of them in that direction. The movements had the effect
to thoroughly waken up the whole line, and both sides
joined in an infernal combat, with all the guns and mortars
that could be brought to bear; the thunder of artillery
was continuous and the darkness of night lurid with ex
ploding shells. The regiment stood to arms during most
of the night upon the banquette of the fort. The mortar
practice upon Fort Sedgwick was especially severe ; but
most of the " old dinner pots," as the boys called them,
passed over into the interior of the works and tore up our
quarters, sparing the quondam occupants ; several, how
ever, struck among our men, one of these horribly mangling
two men of Company E.
It was four o clock in the morning, and still very dark,
when the columns of assault moved forward with the
trampling of many feet and orders passed in a low tone,
sounding like the rush of autumn winds among the leaves.
The Confederate pickets gave the alarm and their artillery
opened with canister and spherical case, depressing the
guns, but, to us, seemingly firing over the heads of the
charging troops. An eight-inch Columbiad and some
391 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH RE.GIMENT,
howitzers mounted in the enemy s interior line threw grape,
much of which passed over the right of the fort, and was
noticed by the marked difference in sound from the other
missiles to which our ears were accustomed. Very soon
after, loud cheering from the front announced the success
of the assault it was too dark to see anything but the
flashes of the guns. The Confederate main line, to the
right and left of the Jerusalem plank road, was seized ;
General Hartranft s division capturing about a dozen
cannon, with flags, and over six hundred prisoners. On
the left the work was more difficult, the point of attack
being Fort Mahone and the more heavily built earthworks ;
the gallant old Sixth New Hampshire took four guns and
a lodgment was effected at this point also. The Fifty-
Sixth Massachusetts and Fifth Massachusetts battery
distinguished themselves by heroic conduct. The guns
captured were, as far as possible, turned upon the enemy,
who had retired to a shorter interior line and cannoneers
were sent from the forts to handle them, which they did
with the most intrepid daring and persistence during the
following day.
At daylight we could see our blue-coats occupying the
earthworks they had taken, but unable to drive the Con
federates from their interior works, which had been pre
pared by them in anticipation of the loss of their outer
line. Not only were our men unable to proceed further,
but it soon began to be a question whether they could
retain the advantage they had gained. General Lee, present
in person near the great Columbiad, overlooking the whole
scene, now exerted every endeavor to recapture his works;
his men charging upon ours again and again, during the
day, but unsuccessfully, except that they reoccupied part
of the interior of Fort Mahone.
Our regiment, nominally in Fort Sedgwick, was really
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 392
scattered all over the field, carrying ammunition, each
man taking a couple of case shot for the artillery or a
quantity of cartridges, and crossing the bullet-swept space
between the lines, time after time, creeping into the most
exposed places to deliver their loads into the hands of the
gunners. In this work they were so useful and displayed
so much coolness and bravery as to draw marked attention
the German recruits entered into it zealously, and proved
themselves good soldiers that day beyond all question.
Spencer repeating rifles were used by some of our regi
ments in this action, for the first time in our experience,
and we delivered a large, supply of the ammunition to the
troops thus armed.
About two in the afternoon the pressure upon our troops
had become so heavy, reinforcements were sent up from
City Point and elsewhere ; among them the Sixty- First
Massachusetts regiment, under Colonel C. F. Walcott,
formerly of the Twenty-First Massachusetts, with whom
was Lieutenant Edw. H. Morrill, one of the original mem
bers of Company G of our regiment ; with them also was
a regiment of zouaves,, in a flaming red uniform, which was
soon spattered with the mud from the ditches in front of
Fort " Damnation." They made a successful assault and
occupied the parapet of Fort Mahone, holding it per
manently.
In the meantime the rest of the army was not idle.
Sheridan and the Fifth Corps were busy at Five Forks,
and the Sixth and Second Corps and parts of the Twenty-
Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Corps, nearer to us, had swept
around with splendid success, over the Boydton pike and
the Southside Railroad, to the Appomattox ; completing
the envelopment of Petersburg and cutting the Confeder
ate army in halves. General A. P. Hill was killed. General
Lee saw that his lines were broken irreparably and no
393 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
longer tenable, and informed President Davis that Rich
mond and Petersburg must be evacuated that night.
The hours of the night of April 2d were busily employed
by both sides, and little sleep was obtained by any one ;
the Confederates were silently withdrawing from the lines
they had held so long and so bravely, while our men were
turning the captured earthworks and reversing the abattis,
as yet uncertain of the morrow. Towards morning heavy
explosions echoed along the hills from the direction of
Richmond the blowing up of the Confederate gunboats
on James River and the red glow of fires shone through
the darkness. We remembered the night before Jackson,
Mississippi, and easily predicted that the enemy would be
gone in the morning. The skirmishers advanced before
daylight on the third, and occupied the now abandoned
interior line without resistance. Loud cheering announced
the fact to the lines of battle in rear, and the joyful news
was passed from mouth to mouth with hearty congratula
tions. The sun rose bright and clear and added to the
happiness of the moment.
A hurried examination of the captured fortifications was
permitted to most of the men, and the severity of the
action of the day before was apparent to the most cursory
view. The dead Union and Confederate soldiers lay as
they had fallen. There was something extremely pitiable
in the fate of these poor fellows who had lost their lives
in this our last battle ; they had so nearly survived to the
happiness in which we were now so secure.
In the assault General Potter had been severely wounded,
and General Griffin succeeded to the command of our
division. Assistant Adjutant-General Peckham was mor
tally wounded, Colonel Gowan of the Forty-Eighth Penn
sylvania was killed, and many of our old acquaintances
were in the list of wounded. The Thirty-Fifth had three
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 394
men killed and nine wounded. The dead were Max Riese
and Charles Schultz of Company E, and Oscar Becker of
Company K. The total loss in killed and wounded of the
Ninth Corps, from March 2Qth to April Qth, was 1,548, as
reckoned by General Humphreys ; of the army, 8,268.
During the affair an elongated shell swept across the
officers mess table and struck Dr. Carr s medicine chest,
knocking the phials, bottles and boxes into " smithereens,"
and mixing compounds not laid down in the prescription
book; intended evidently as a hint that such stuff would
be of little use hereafter, and the best medicine, a discharge
paper, would soon be forthcoming.
After a hurried breakfast, the division was assembled
for the first time since the previous December, and, quitting
the now useless bomb-proofs and burrows of Fort Hell, we
marched through the Confederate works upon the Jeru
salem plank road. Half way between these intrenchments
and the city, while at a halt, we were surprised by the
appearance of our beloved President Lincoln, Secretary
Seward and Admiral Porter, who came up on horseback
from City Point. They rode swiftly through the column
amid the enthusiastic cheering of the troops. It was a day
of compensations for the long-tried, much-enduring Lincoln,
and the last time our eyes rested upon his rugged face.
After this battle an innovation was introduced which we,
at first, thought must be a joke. A requisition was re
ceived from the higher authorities for the name of one
officer of the regiment who had distinguished himself in
the late action. The notion that meritorious conduct in
battle was to receive immediate recognition from head
quarters struck us as a new rule in the management of our
army. Nevertheless it was seriously answered, and the
name of Lieutenant Geo. F. Worcester was forwarded, as
by general consent conspicuously brave and useful in the
395 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
fight. Somebody was in earnest, for Worcester in due
time received honorary promotion to the brevet rank of
captain. The name of Colonel Carruth was sent in from
corps headquarters at the same time for promotion to
brevet brigadier-general, which was also conferred, to date
April 2d, 1865. Subsequently Captain Pope received the
brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel, to date March 13,
1865, for meritorious conduct before Petersburg. Captain
Tobey received the brevet of major ; Captain Gottlieb was
also brevetted major.
The announcement of the fall of Richmond added, if
possible, to the enthusiasm. In close column, with colors
displayed and drums beating, the Ninth Corps moved
down the hill and into the city of Petersburg, passing the
ruins, still smoking, of the warehouses burned by the
Confederates, and turned to the left and southwest; our
position upon the extreme right bringing us in rear of the
army now in pursuit of Lee in the direction of Lynchburg.
We marched out about ten miles and went into bivouac
near Sutherland Station on the Southside Railroad.
Thenceforward, distant cannonade could be heard from
day to day as we followed along the railroad, guarding the
track and the army trains ; but all signs of opposition to
the government had vanished with the retreating enemy.
On the fourth we marched about ten miles and reached the
railroad near Ford s Station. On the fifth, seventeen
miles were traversed, bringing our bivouac near Blacks
and Whites Station Jones House and on the sixth
passing Nottaway Court House, we reached by a march of
eighteen miles, prolonged until late in the evening, to near
Burkville, the junction of the railroad we were upon- with
the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and at that time the
headquarters of the army.
On the same sixth of April was fought the battle of
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 396
Sailor s Creek, between the Confederate rear and the pur
suing cavalry of Sheridan and the Second and Sixth Corps,
with the grand success of the capture of General Ewell
and seven other generals, with one hundred officers and
over five thousand men, Ewell s Division. On the seventh,
at noon, these prisoners arrived at Burkville and passed
our regiment, which had moved during the morning from
the east to the west side of the junction. One of the most
mirth-provoking scenes during the war was the appearance
of a train of artillery, six of the best steel guns, which,
with harness of russet leather mounted with silver, had
been presented to the Confederacy by sympathizers in
England. These were now dragged through the mire by
diminutive mules bestridden by the longest and lankest of
"Johnnies," their felt hats flapping over the sternest of
faces, their feet almost dragging in the mud, the splendid
harness now tarnished and dirty, the whole presenting a
contrast so striking as to make it difficult to restrain a
burst of laughter in the faces of the gaunt artillerists, who
seemed to be in any other mood than the mirthful one.
Naval officers and generals trudged through the execrable
roads in a companionship of misery quite abject. Our
boys shared their rations with the half-starved prisoners.
At night, we again moved back to the east side of the
station, to form part of the cordon surrounding the captured
division. Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson joined from fur
lough, in the happiest mood over the events that had
occurred during his absence.
In the morning we had an opportunity to talk with the
prisoners, and found most of them hopeless of success and
content that the end was near. Some, however, were
either really or pretendedly still full of fight, vowing they
would never give up, but would continue the contest as
guerillas in the mountains if not capable of other warfare.
397 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Many of them were fine appearing, well built men, fit to
be the flower of any army.
At noon, on the eighth, the prisoners were sent to the
rear, towards Petersburg, under guard of the Forty-Eighth
Pennsylvania and Thirty-Ninth New Jersey, and, on the
ninth, the regiment, with the rest of the brigade, resumed
the march westward, passing the scene of the battle at
Sailor s Creek the earthworks, newly-made graves and
torn up field. At night, the rail fences burning along the
road illuminated the march, which was difficult, owing to
the depth of the mud, and was continued to weariness
until late in the evening, past Rice s Station to the heights
overlooking the valley spanned by the famous High Bridge.
As we moved along during the day occassional cannon
could be heard far in advance, but it did not then occur to
us that these were the expiring throbs of the Confederacy;
we anticipated a long hunt in the mountains before the end
of all ; but the dilatory ways of the early days of the war
were no longer in fashion. Sheridan and Ord and the sev
eral corps of the army were well to the front and had Lee
surrounded before he was aware of it. On the tenth we
reached Farmville, the largest town we had seen since
Petersburg, with handsome brick houses, churches and
schools, situated in a rich tobacco country. Here rumors
of a surrender were whispered, and during the day con
firmed. General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia
had capitulated at four o clock in the afternoon of April
9th, at Appomattox Court House ! The regiment was
formed in a hollow square and Colonel Carruth read the
official announcement of the, to us, glorious event. The
boys were wild with joy, cheers followed cheers, and there
was a general hand-shaking and embracing, impromptu
dances, summersaults, caps thrown up, and every demon
stration of delight. It was difficult to take in at once the
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 398
momentous results : that this was quite certain to end the
war; that guards and pickets would henceforth be but
mere police regulations ; that the musket and sword might
rust among the useless lumber of the past ; and we soon
return to our homes free citizens again. To the soldiers
of the Army of the Potomac, who had faced the Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia so long, language could hardly
express more than was compressed in the three words :
" Lee has surrendered ! "
Our brigade remained at Farmville from the tenth to
the twentieth of April, our regimental camp being pitched
in regular form on the ridge west of the town. Company
H was detailed for picket at the fork of the roads about a
mile out, and remained there, from choice, during the stay
at this place. The paroled men of Lee s army were
making their way to their homes, by road or rail, on foot
or horseback, as they had means ; and the amusement of
our leisure was to chat with them about the events of the
war and their feelings and expectations ; they were glad
that peace was now assured. General s Grant and Ord
passed through Farmville ; also General Lee quietly re
turned from the scene of his misfortunes.
On the sixteenth there was a report of the assassination
of President Lincoln, which seemed too incredible for
belief ; but it was confirmed on the seventeenth, and the
indignation and horror of the army at such treachery were
unspeakable. There were fears that, in the first excite
ment, the soldiers would wreak their desire for vengeance
upon the unoffending citizens of the country about us, and
strict orders were issued to keep the regiments of the
brigade in camp, and under arms, to prevent any disorder
on the part of detachments returning from Appomattox ;
Colonel Carruth was notified that his regiment would be
called upon in case of disturbance. The people of the
399 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
vicinity showed feelings of deep regret, and, in the course
of a service held in one of the churches of the town, the
minister expressed the abhorrence of the people of the late
Confederacy towards such acts, and spoke in praise of
President Lincoln, declaring that the South had lost a
friend. At this time the people thereabouts, in conver
sation, said that they supposed there would be a general
confiscation of their property by the United States Gov
ernment, and they would not be convinced to the contrary
that the people of the North were so leniently disposed
that the authorities could not possibly have such intention,
at least in regard to the common people. On the nine
teenth, minute guns were fired in honor of the martyr
President at the hour of his funeral ; the bands played
solemn dirges, crape was draped upon the colors of the
regiments and worn upon the swords of the officers, and
grief was generally expressed among the troops.
While we were at Farmville several promotions were
announced : First Lieutenants Patch and Bent to be cap
tains ; Second Lieutenants Calder, Ellis, Chamberlin and
Alfred Blanchard, junior, and Sergeant-Major Hagan,
became first lieutenants ; and Sergeants Monk, Tirrell,
Kimball and Sherman were made second lieutenants.
Lieutenant Blanchard joined, having passed the winter in
prison at Salisbury and Danville. The vacancy made
by the promotion of Hagan was filled after he was mus
tered to his new rank by the appointment of First Sergeant
Bagley to be sergeant-major.
The return march was begun on the twentieth, and was
pushed rapidly, over good roads and with light hearts,
making eighteen miles the first day between Farmville and
Burkville Junction, and passing on the road several of our
late enemies, now fellow-citizens, at work ploughing their
fields, their families happy at the prospect of peace, and
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 400
hopeful of the future. On the twenty-first, eighteen miles
more to beyond Blacks and Whites Station, and on the
twenty-second, twenty-one miles to near Church Road.
On the twenty-third, we reached Petersburg early, and
went into camp for the rest of the day, Sunday, on Cemetery
Ridge, overlooking the city and the miles of siege-works
which had so long been our abiding place. Many spent
the afternoon examining the Confederate lines from Fort
Steadman around through the Crater to Fort Sedgwick.
Between the fortifications was lying the debris of the past
year s work, a collection of old iron and lead, in the shape
of shells and shot of all forms and sizes. At the Crater
the difficulties of the place for an assault were commented
upon. Lieutenant Berry s grave was pointed out, between
lines, and a head-board erected to mark the spot. The
Confederates had cut a new intrenchment through the
Crater, and fortified it with great art ; in doing so they had
necessarily thrown out the bones of the men buried in the
earth raised by the explosion, and these were now bleach
ing in the sun, with old caps, shoes and accoutrements,
relics of the battle. Away to the left, opposite Fort Sedg
wick, the complex structure of the defences was inspected
about Fort Mahone ; and in one bomb-proof was discovered
the body of a Confederate soldier still unburied, except
that cover, reposing as if asleep, where he had crawled
away to die on that eventful second of April he had
found the peace which hath no ending.
Next day, the twenty-fourth, the regiment passed through
Fort Steadman and proceeded to City Point, remaining
there two days waiting for transportation. A number of
released prisoners met the regiment at this place ; several
of them Germans, who, dressed in butternut clothing and
with long hair, could not be distinguished from the simon-
pure Johnnies until they opened their mouths to speak ;
401 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
they were eager to get on blue suits again. While thus
returning to salt water we had some expectations of visit
ing North Carolina and seeing Sherman again, but our desti
nation was now disclosed ; General Parke had been assigned
to the command of the District of Washington, as senior
corps commander, and we were to accompany him for a little
garrison duty the long promised "soft thing" at last!
On the twenty-sixth, at five in the afternoon, we em
barked on the steamer Nereus with the Seventh Rhode
Island, Thirty-Ninth New Jersey and Fifty-First New York,
crowding the boat most uncomfortably, and on the follow
ing day voyaged down the James, passing our old camp at
Newport News and Fortress Monroe about noon, and
lying at anchor all night off Point Lookout. Early on the
twenty-eighth we were on the way up the Potomac, landing
at noon at Alexandria, and marching through King Street
to camp outside of old Fort Ellsworth, in a green valley.
We moved on the twenty-ninth to the Mount Vernon road
beyond Forts Lyon and Farnsworth, and laid out a regular
camp, which we occupied for the remaining weeks of our
service. During the passage from City Point, one man, Con
rad Eggas, of Company F, was lost overboard and drowned ;
he was supposed to have fallen in the night through the
opening in the side railing left for the lowering of boats.
General Johnston had surrendered to General Sherman,
April 26th, near Raleigh, North Carolina, instead of at
Jackson, Mississippi, as we had hoped in 1863. The Con
federate forces made no further resistance, the war was
ended, and it only remained to keep the peace for awhile
until the country became settled, then to disband the
armies. Meanwhile, to keep the men out of mischief,
drills were resumed, and the old routine, but the exercises
had lost interest; the labor seemed too purposeless to be
gone through with much of the old " snap " and desire for
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 402
excellence. Colonel Carruth was in command of the
brigade during most of the time, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Hudson commanded the regiment. Wall tents and A tents
were isssued, and the camps presented a neat and attract
ive appearance to the throngs of visitors who came over
from Washington to have a look at the veterans. Brigade
dress-parades, with field officers mounted, were held daily,
and frequent division and brigade reviews. Detailed officers
and men came back, swelling the ranks quite noticeably.
On the twelfth of May, there was an impromptu torchlight
procession, started by some of the men of the Seventh
Rhode Island, but spreading from regiment to regiment.
The following account appeared in a Washington paper :
" A MAGNIFICENT SIGHT. Between eight and nine
o clock last night we witnessed one of the grandest and
most imposing spectacles it has ever been our good fortune
to look upon a dress-parade of two divisions of the Ninth
Corps by lamp light. This splendid corps is encamped on
the high ground in the vicinity of Fort Lyon, where it is
being daily joined by members of other corps belonging
to the old Army of the Potomac.
" Each soldier had a lamp or candle fastened in the
socket of his musket a good substitute for a candlestick.
The line formed was something over a mile in length, and,
as it performed the different evolutions incidental to
reviews, presented, at a distance, more the appearance of
a great sea of moving fire than anything else. The moving
and constantly shifting lights, the thousands of camp fires,
which dotted the hills for miles in every direction, and the
sweet music of several splendid bands, formed a scene
which is not often witnessed."
On the twentieth of May, Major Mirick returned from
detached service, also Captain Creasey from the Parole
403 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Camp at Annapolis, and our old comrade, Quartermaster
Upton, made a visit of a few days.
On the twenty-first of May news was received that all
regiments whose term of enlistment would expire before
October ist, 1865, were to be mustered out at once; this
included the Thirty-Fifth, and was heard with joy by the
boys, who were already weary of the monotony of camp
life ; the recruits were to be transferred to regiments not
included within the terms of the order.
Preparations were made, the same day, for participating
in the grand review of all the armies at Washington. On
the twenty-second the brigade marched by way of Alex
andria and the Long Bridge to the city of Washington, and
went into bivouac in the streets or open lots in the front,
or east side, of the capitol, with the rest of the Ninth
Corps ; the whole Army of the Potomac being at hand,
assembled to take part in the review.
The number of muskets in the ranks, next morning, was
three hundred and eighteen. Colonel Carruth commanded
the brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson the regiment.
Column was formed before ten o clock in the morning of
the twenty-third, and, at noon, with orders to keep closed
up very compactly which while it gave the appearance of
great solidity forfeited all freedom of motion the march in
review was commenced : by the imposing capito] where,
upon the east portico, the school children were gathered
and sang patriotic songs ; down the broad Pennsylvania
Avenue our thoughts wandering back the while to that
sunny afternoon in August, 1862, when, with full ranks
and unbounded enthusiasm, we took the first steps in the
rough march of years which was to end here ; on by the
Treasury Building, the throngs of happy faces and plaudits
of the people ; by the White House, where the President
and all the government officers, civil and military, were
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 404
looking on, and were saluted with cheers and shouldered
arms ; and so to Georgetown and across the Potomac by a
specially laid pontoon-bridge to the Virginia side again.
We returned to camp by way of Arlington, Freedmen s
Village, near our old Camp Whipple, and the Seminary.
The day following, those who were lucky enough to
obtain passes visited Washington and witnessed the review
of General Sherman s veterans, who had been marched all
the way from Chattanooga, by way of Atlanta, and the
" March to the Sea." All day they poured down the
avenue, a flood of blue surmounted by waves of glittering
steel. A finer host of men was never seen together; and
they were, probably, more purely American than the troops
which had passed in review the day before. The review
was the grandest military triumph which ever took place,
or will be likely to occur for years let us hope for ages
upon this continent; and it was a fitting termination of
the long strife just ended.
On the fifth of June we had a review of the First Brigade,
complimentary to our brigadier-general, John I. Curtin,
formerly Colonel of the Forty-Fifth Pennsylvania. For
days we were busy upon the muster-out rolls, of which
seven copies had to be made, and the transfer rolls of the
recruits, who were to go to the historic Twenty-Ninth
Massachusetts Regiment, There were for transfer about
two hundred and fifty men present, with whom went eleven
officers : Captains Tobey, Gottlieb, Mason, Bent and Patch,
Assistant Surgeon Carr, First Lieutenants Lloyd, Ellis and
Hagan, and Second Lieutenants Tirrell and Sherman. It
is pleasant to be able to add, as evidence that our German
recruits had been well treated by us, that they expressed
the wish to be transferred to the regiment to which their
officers could go with them. The officers who remained
to be mustered out with the Thirty-Fifth were Colonel
28
405 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
Carruth, Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson, Major Mirick,
Surgeon Snow, Assistant Surgeon Roche, Captains Pope,
Nason and Wright. First Lieutenants Cutter (quarter
master), Cobb (acting adjutant), Worcester, Hardy and
Calder, Second Lieutenants Riggs, Blanchard, White,
Kimball and Monk ; of these, the three first named,
Carruth, Hudson and Mirick, were all that remained of
officers who were with the regiment at Lynnfield. The
number of enlisted men, original members, to be mustered
out, was about three hundred, counting both the present
and absent. Several members of the regiment received
honorary commissions to rank in which they were never
mustered ; First Lieutenant Cobb to be captain, Second
Lieutenants Monk, Tirrell and Kimball to be first lieuten
ants, Commissary Sergeant Plummer, Sergeant W. S.
Conant, First Sergeants S. D. Grimes, W. J. Fitts, John L.
Smith and John A. Reynolds to be second lieutenants.*
On the ninth of June, about five o clock in the morning,
Lieutenant Rose, the mustering officer, mustered the
Thirty-Fifth Regiment out of the United States service.
At six o clock the transferred officers and men took up the
line of march for their new command, after much hand
shaking and many good wishes. Spending one more night
in the open air, we broke camp on the tenth for the last
time, for the journey home ; the Seventh Rhode Island
going with us. Colonel Pleasants, of the Forty-Eighth
Pennsylvania, addressed the men in words of which the
copy is now lost ; but they were to the effect that now the
old Army of the Potomac was being dissolved, we should
* Sergeant Marcus M. Haskell, of Company C, and Sergeant Henry W. Tisdale,
of Company I, were recommended to the Secretary of War by General Parke, in
1865, for Medals of Honor for distinguished bravery in action, as appears by the
records of the war department, but the medals were never received by them. The
medal conferred upon Sergeant F. M. Whitman, of Company G. has been referred to
in the account of the battle of Antietam.
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 406
strive to prove that good soldiers in war make the best of
citizens in peace, to remember the old corps, and our
comrades from other states. The Fifty-Eighth Massa
chusetts, Lieutenant Colonel Whiton, with the brigade
band, acted as escort as far as the wharf at Alexandria,
and with hearty cheers, reiterated again and again, we
parted from the brigade.
Conveyed to Washington by the Keyport, we waited
near the capitol all day for transportation, which was
difficult to obtain, so many troops were departing for the
North. We got off towards evening, marched across
Baltimore at midnight, and arrived in Philadelphia next
day at noon. Again we were entertained at the Cooper s
Shop Saloon, as kindly now our work was done as in years
before when it yet lay before us. A special order of thanks
was entered upon the books of the saloon by the colonel s
direction. Will any soldier ever forget the kindness mani
fested in that noble institution of the City of Brotherly Love !
Thence, by ferry and rail, we pursued our way to New
York. At all the large towns and cities, on the route
through New Jersey, the stations and streets were filled
with people, waving hats, handkerchiefs and bunting ; even
in the country the people ran out to wave a welcome to
the returning soldiers. The men of the regiments covered
the tops of the cars, displaying their flags and returning
the greetings with never-ending enthusiasm. That beautiful
June Sunday was a grand ovation all the way into New York.
The regiments marched down Broadway to the barracks
on the Battery and were provided for by Colonel Howe,
our gentlemanly State Agent in New York. There the
Seventh Rhode Island, mindful of Jackson, Miss., and our
common quarters in Fort Sedgwick, announced that they
were to receive a formal reception by the people of Provi
dence, and invited the Thirty-Fifth to participate ; the
407 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT,
invitation was repeated by the state authorities in Provi
dence and, it need hardly be said, was gladly accepted. The
steamboat Oceanus transported the regiments to Providence
by Tuesday morning, June 13, a bright day; but let Lieu
tenant-Colonel Hudson tell how magnificently the two regi
ments were greeted and treated there ; he wrote as follows :
" Disembarking from the steamer, we were escorted by
a regiment of militia through the principal streets, which
were beautified by throngs of the fairest ladies, and having
marched past the home of General Burnside (where our
beloved leader sat on the porch to welcome us), halted at
a commodious hall. Here we were welcomed in a brief
speech by Hon. Mr. Paine, in the presence of Governor
Smith and other officials of the state, and invited to an
abundant and elegant repast. A little more than half of
Mr. Paine s speech was addressed to the Seventh. He
then said, Soldiers of Massachusetts, we tender to you
the same kind welcome which we have prepared for our
own returning heroes. We cannot forget that while, in the
struggle for national existence, your gallant state has been
behind none other in the clash of arms, she has been con
fessedly the foremost in all those moral achievements
which convert the victory you have won over the enemy
in the field into a triumph of humanity everywhere over
cruelty and wrong. The Morris Brothers happening to
be the lessees of the hall at the time, drew the curtain and
sang a patriotic song as we feasted, and we left our old
commander and our entertainers with full hearts. The
demonstration in Providence was in all respects beautiful.
We should have appreciated it no less had it been within
the territorial limits of our own loved commonwealth. It
was the last time our drums ever beat together."
After this warm reception we took the cars upon the Bos
ton and Providence Railroad, Company G being left behind
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. 408
by an unexpected starting of the train, and after a quick
passage, got off at Readville, where A tents were issued
and pitched until the regiment could be paid off. This
stop at Readville disappointed the members of the regi
ment sorely, for they had expected to greet their friends,
as a regiment, in Boston ; but the old saying, " We will
make this all right when we get on to Boston Common,"
was not fulfilled the regiment never marched into that
sacred enclosure. It would have been a much pleasanter
ending of our career if the regiment could have marched
to the State House and surrendered their colors, even in
the most informal manner, into the hands of the state
authorities, upon the spot where they received them when
starting for the war. The various cities and towns gave
receptions to all their returned soldiers upon days
appointed for the purpose, in a hearty and generous man
ner, but accounts of these ceremonies belong rather to
company histories than to this narrative.
On the twenty-seventh of June the men were paid off
and received their certificates of discharge at Readville,
and the term of service of the Thirty-Fifth Regiment was
ended. With joyous alacrity we threw off the grinding
shackles of military discipline, and turned away from
scenes where the life so dear to every man was constantly
endangered ; yet not without a fond regret, for no one
can make a change from any course of life, however
humble, much less from one where great deeds, great
thoughts and noble friendships were constantly encoun
tered, without a softening of the heart towards the incidents
of those years of perilous duty.
" O, now, forever
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell !
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
409 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGT., MASS. VOLS.
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war !
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove s dread clamours counterfeit
Farewell ! "
After a few days of holiday we commenced anew the
peaceful labors of the life of a citizen, and cares of business
and family have gradually dimmed the memory of the
scenes we have endeavored to record, until they seem like
impossible dreams, save, perhaps, to those whose broken
frames or impaired health connect the present with the past.
To the surviving members of the old regiment, wherever
scattered and to whatever fortune called, we send our greet
ing and benediction : summoned to face the hazards of war
at a time of deep discouragement and peril to the nation r
they have lived to see that country, already the wonder of
the world, stepping forward unitedly toward a future which
we fondly hope will prove the brightest examplar yet seen
of the goodness of God and the nobility of man.
And for our country, for which so many sacrifices were
made, what more fitting words can we find than.these :
" O Beautiful ! My Country ! ours once more !
Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair
O er such sweet brows as never other wore
And letting thy set lips
Freed from wrath s pale eclipse,
The rosy edges of their smile lay bare,
What words divine of lover or of poet
Could tell our love and make thee know it,
Among the Nations bright beyond compare ?
What were our lives without thee ?
What all our lives to save thee ?
We reck not what we gave thee ;
We will not dare to doubt thee,
But ask whatever else, and we will dare ! *
ROSTER.
C-I
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TERMINATION OF SERVICE, REMARKS, ETC.
In every engagement the regiment participated in; C
63; Sergt. Oct., 63; Color Sergt. and First Sergt.
ex. of serv., June 9, 1865.
So. Mountain, Antietam, and injured by shell; dis. Nov
62, for disability.
So. Mountain, Antietam, and wounded in thigh ; dis.
17, 63, for wounds.
So. Mountain, Antietam; detailed in Ambulance Corps;
May 22, 63, for disability.
Fredericksburg, Knoxville, Cold Harbor and Petersbt
Corp. June, 64; bergt. Aug., 64; taken prisoner
confined in Castle Thunder; ex. of serv., June 9, 65.
So. Mountain, Antietam; drowned at Falmouth, Va.,
23, 63; buried at Nat l Cemetery, Fredericksburg, div
sect. 3, grave 140.
So. Mountain, Antietam, and wounded in hand; su
quently served in 4oth N. Y. l1Ht.
So. Mountain, Antietam ; dis. June 29, 65, at Washing
D. C. ; died Dec., 77; buried in Newburyport.
So. Mountain, Antietam; Corp. 63; died at Camp Nel
Ky., Dec. n, 63 ; buried at Newburyport.
So. Mountain, Antietam, and wounded; dis. Nov. 20, 62
So. Mountain, Antietam, Tennessee and Mississippi c
paigns ; Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg ;
of serv., June 9, 65.
So. Mountain ; Corp. 62 ; Fredericksburg, and wounc
transf. to Co. K, igth V. R. C.; dis. Aug. n, 65.
So. Mountain, Antietam; dis. Oct. 28, 63, for disability.
Clerk at Div Hd. Qtrs. Sept.. 62; taken prisoner Jan.,
exchanged May, 64; ex. of serv., June 9, 65.
Left at Arlington; dis. Dec. 21, 62, for disability.
Left at Arlington 62 ; dis. Nov. 15, 62, for disability.
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