Part 21

The veteran soldiers who are participating in this southward movement, though they may not know the details that are in the minds of Grant and Meade, are well aware that the grand purpose announced in the Wilderness is still being developed and, that the "summer-long line" is that which they are following. The Lieutenant General, having found the way too effectually blocked via Cold Harbor as early as the 5th of June, when Warren's men were withdrawn and sent towards the left of the Union line, had determined to change his base of operations and, after crossing the James, to lay siege to Petersburg, and thus to capture the Capital of the Confederacy. The pause of the Fifth Corps for several days had given the men the necessary rest and recuperation for the lead they were to take in the new flank movement and now, just before midnight of the 12th of June, they are awaiting the completion of a pontoon bridge over which they may pass to the south side and so hold the way open for the other troops to follow. General Warren refers to the locality as Long Bridge, but the map which accompanies Humphreys' "Campaign of '64 and '65" has it as "Long's Bridge," but in either case, whether called for its length or some family resident near, the structure had disappeared through the ravages of war, and a temporary bridge becomes a necessity.

The Journal of the Fifth Corps Commander for this 13th of June has the following entry:--

"Our cavalry drove back the enemy's to New Market Cross Roads. Crawford's (Third) Division went to White Oak Swamp bridge to cover passage of trains and Second Corps. At 8 a. m. began to withdraw, bothered by McIntosh's (union) cavalry brigade, and only got as far as St. Mary's Church, though traveling nearly all night. Enemy did not follow."

Lieut. John H. Dusseault says:--

[Sidenote: JUNE 13, '64]

"On June 13, we resumed our march at 1 a. m., and crossed the Chickahominy near Long Bridge, on pontoons, just before daylight. There was some slight skirmishing. At 6 a. m., we marched for two hours, covering about two miles only, and formed in line of battle. We were now in White Oak Swamp, between the James River and the Chickahominy, and the skirmishing was lively. We were marching on a straight road and we could see a fort nearly a mile in front of us. They opened upon us from the fort, and the first shell struck the road before it reached our column. The men opened to the right and left, and the shell ricocheted down between them. We then left the road and went into the fields and woods. If I remember correctly we went to the left of the road. Our Brigade advanced some ways in the direction of Richmond, which was perhaps seven or eight miles away, the balance of the division remaining in the rear as a support. We did some light skirmishing during the afternoon, and the enemy charged some dismounted cavalry, who were located upon our right, and drove them back some distance. Shortly after dark, somewhere between 8 and 9 p. m., all of the officers of the brigade were ordered up to Colonel Lyle's (the Brigade's) headquarters. The Colonel told us of the position which we were in, stating that we were nearly surrounded, and that an attempt would be made at about midnight to get out. He also told us to tell our men of our position, also that no orders above a whisper should be given, and, that if we heard so much as a tin dipper jingling upon a man's haversack, to cut it off. We were told to get what rest we could between then and midnight. At about midnight the line fell in, seemingly without orders, faced to the left, and marched through a field where some tall grain was growing, and the men, knowing our position and being anxious to get out, kept increasing their pace and rattling the grain, so that it was necessary to halt them and to start them again from time to time until we had cleared the grain field. The night was very dark and the darkness favored our escape. We started again at Charles City Court House, not far from the James. At this time the Second Corps was crossing the James. We then found that while we were making this demonstration toward the enemy and occupying their attention, Grant had been moving the chief part of the army across the peninsular, toward the James River, and Petersburg. In fact, when we arrived, the Ninth Corps had crossed and the Second Corps was crossing the James. We crossed the James on the 16th, on the transport General Howard and were landed upon the Petersburg side at 9 a. m. I was told by another officer that it was understood that it was necessary that some small portion of the army should make this demonstration and occupy the attention of the enemy while the chief part of it should be crossing to the Petersburg side of the James and it was thought to be our turn to take the risk which attended it. General Warren is said to have remarked that he never expected to see us again."

After dark, we were withdrawn and started on a march which involved the taking of a wrong road and the consequent loss of valuable time, passing St. Mary's Church and just before daybreak of the 14th halted on the road to Charles City Court House. Starting again at six, by ten o'clock we were near the place named for that unfortunate British King who lost both crown and head, the place showing plainly the effect of McClellan's presence two years before. Were it not for the Court House itself, a one-storied edifice with a porch, and a blacksmith shop the place would be scarcely more than a name, but some one remarks, "We must be getting somewhere for I can hear the steamers whistle on the James River." Had we been supplied with rations our pleasure at the prospect and the rest would have been greater, but our haversacks were quite empty. However, we could go to sleep, which we proceeded to do at the early hour of eight o'clock.

[Sidenote: JUNE 16, '64]

The 15th was not eventful save as it brought the long expected wagon train and rations galore. There was a complete filling of all receptacles with the necessities of army life, and after stuffing ourselves with hardtack and the other good things that those wagons carried we were in a mood to enjoy ourselves, though we couldn't help wishing that the mail would come, bringing news from the far-away homes in the North. With a sort of forewarning that exactions would be made upon our vigor and strength on the morrow, again we turned in early. Sure enough we were turned out at two o'clock in the morning of the 16th for a march of three miles to Wilcox's Wharf on the banks of the James and the sight of the glorious river and the banks, in many cases, crowned with the mansions of aristocratic Virginians. The entire country, robed in the brightest of green, was one to make an indelible impression on the memory. The Thirty-ninth crossed the river on the transports, "General Howard," "George Weems" and possibly others, and by 9 a. m. we were all on the southern side. Here we found the Seventh Massachusetts, an Old Colony regiment, just taking boat for home. A splendid fighting body of men, they had earned the long rest that was coming to them. The pause, when over the river, afforded an opportunity for a plunge into the waters of the classic James, a chance that thousands of the men embraced, the very first one since crossing the Rapidan, and many declared that in all their army experience they had found no place equal to it, certainly none that they enjoyed more.

Concerning this movement to the south of the James, a dispatch was sent from army headquarters to Washington as follows:--

"Our forces withdrew from within fifty yards of the enemy's entrenchments at Cold Harbor, made a flank movement of about fifty-five miles march, crossing the Chickahominy and James Rivers, the latter two thousand feet wide and eighty-four feet deep at the point of crossing, and surprised the enemy's rear at Petersburg."

PETERSBURG

The long-continued battle of Petersburg had already begun before we were in battle line. General Butler, on the other side of the Appomattox, on this Thursday morning through General Terry, had assaulted Port Walthall with the intention of interrupting the coming of rebel re-inforcements on the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad and, the night before, troops of the Eighteenth Corps, which had been with us at Cold Harbor, had attacked south of the river, and had there been a supporting force at hand, the second as well as the first line of works might have been carried. As troops of the Second Corps came up they were sent against the works and, during the night and the following day, the 16th, the contest continued along the line composed of the Eighteenth Corps on the right, the Second in the centre and the Ninth on the left. All this while we of the Fifth Corps were sporting in the waters of the James. Meanwhile other portions of the Fifth Corps had gone forward, and at four o'clock in the afternoon the Thirty-ninth with its neighbors started on the road to Petersburg. After covering some ten miles of the way, we halted at 10.30 p. m. for food and rest, the route having been over hills and through swamps, difficult at the best, all the more so at night.

It was early in the morning of the 17th when the march was resumed, and at 9 a. m. we halted in the rear of breastworks, our entire route having been enlivened by the sound of firing, more or less vigorous, indicating a resumption of the days at Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor. Moreover, Massachusetts men do not forget that it is the 17th of June, and noise they had grown to think a regular accompaniment of that illustrious date. We are at the Union left and massed in the rear of the Ninth Corps, under Burnside, and the duty of our Corps is to act as a support of the Ninth if needed. We are about two miles from Petersburg and from many points the city is plainly seen. The cupola of Dinwiddie County Court House will be a target for Union artillery during many coming months. Lying in the breastworks through the day and night, we were exposed to the missiles of the enemy; Lieut Wyman of "H" and Captain Willard Kinsley of "K" as well as others were wounded. Unless he could sleep in the direst confusion there was no closing of the eyelids during this first night in front of Petersburg. In this memorable siege, the 18th of June is a notable date, for then there was concerted action along the entire line, though not in such uniform time and order as General Meade desired. It was a bloody day in which a vigorous effort was made to force the rebel lines before the arrival of help from the Northward. This might have been done earlier in the day, but, before the advance could be made, re-inforcements had arrived to nearly, if not quite, equal the number of the Union soldiers, and General Meade's orders were to hold what had been gained and to fortify immediately. The casualties of the four days, 15th-18th, footed up nearly two thousand killed and more than eight thousand wounded, the charges of this 18th day ending assaults on intrenched positions. The work of the Fifth Corps is thus described by a war correspondent:

[Sidenote: JUNE 18, '64]

"On the left of the Ninth was the Fifth Corps, in the following order of divisions: from right to left--Crawford (3), Griffin (1), Cutler (4), Ayers (2). At early morning the advance was made and the enemy's withdrawal discovered. The Corps then prepared for a new advance, meanwhile keeping up a fierce fire of infantry and artillery. At noon, simultaneously with the attack of the Second Corps, a determined and vigorous advance was made. The ground to be crossed was generally open and cultivated, slightly rolling, and here and there artificially prepared with abatis, as well as naturally defended by undergrowth. The advance was against the south side of the Norfolk Railroad, and was partially, but not fully successful. In the evening again, at the time of Mott's attack in the centre (when the First Maine Heavy Artillery was so badly cut up) Griffin's and Cutler's divisions once more assaulted with great vigor. But here as before the labor was lost. The enemy foiled all our desperate endeavors."

The advance of the First Brigade, Third Division, is made at daybreak and we find the enemy missing. We are passing over surface which was fighting ground yesterday and last night; encountering the dead in both blue and gray, a most gruesome sight, at the same time driving back the rebel skirmishers until we come in sight of the Confederate earthworks, when we halt and throw up works for our own protection. Even danger and death can not wipe out human or, at least, boyish nature. Near the brief halting place are mulberry trees, fairly black with luscious, well ripened fruit, and not even rebel riflemen can keep Yankee berry-pickers out of those tempting branches. We soon advance, however, across a field and towards a railroad-cut some distance ahead of us, and to reach it we have to run the risk of the foe's rifles and cannon, snugly entrenched beyond the cut. We make a rush for this cut and the tumbles that some of the men take in entering it are funny even in battle's din. Colonel Davis's well known avoirdupois gained such momentum in the rapid rush that halting on the brink was quite impossible, and he rolled rapidly down the declivity. There is skirmishing all day and an artillery duel in the afternoon. Just at dark, a rapid movement is made across a ravine and orders are quietly passed that when the Colonel's hat is raised on the point of his sword, we are to rush forward to the edge of a bank, so near and yet so far below the rebel works that they cannot depress their cannon sufficiently to hit us. Officers are summoned later to brigade headquarters where they are informed that there will be a night attack, but, for some reason, changes come in the programme and in a new position we again throw up breastworks. In an exposed condition, we lie in them through the night and are saluted in the morning of Sunday, the 19th, by the enemy's fire at closer range.

[Sidenote: JUNE 19, '64]

The 19th falls on Sunday, though the particular day of the week gives these soldiers very little concern, since each successive twenty-four-hours is only one day more of "smoke and roar and powder-stench" and of this particular interval, General Warren has only the words, "Remained in position. Loss about three hundred." If remaining in position brought such a record as this, what would it have been had there been another effort to advance? The night before had seen very vigorous work in the trenches and men tried to strengthen them against possible attack, and so close were the workman to each other and so emphatic their strokes, George A. Farrar of "E" was wounded in the knee by a pickaxe and was obliged to go to the hospital. Nothing in the world finds more ready and willing workers than the throwing up of breastworks that may be used for defense and, under the spur of hostile missiles, the laziest become most industrious. At such times there are no suggestions that the other fellow ought to do it, but everyone is doing something, if it is no more than loosening earth with a bayonet or case-knife and throwing up the results with a cup or tin-plate, hoping thus to stop a vagrant bullet. Continuous rattle of musketry recalls the noise of the Wilderness and, with the evident skill of the sharpshooters, it behooves everyone to lie low. Writes one poor fellow, somewhat discouraged, "When shall we get through this terrible campaign?" Another says, "The Thirty-ninth is about five hundred yards (others put the distance as low as eighty yards) from the Confederate works and our skirmishers are on a hillside, across a ravine. At nightfall, we begin on the works again." This, doubtless, is the point referred to by Captain Porter, years afterward, when at a reunion of the Regiment, he said, "our skirmishers were among the first to establish the line at what was afterward the Crater, blown up on the 30th of July, 1864, and that line was pushed nearest to the rebel line, not excepting that of Fort Stedman and Fort McGilvery, by twenty yards."

Of the 20th, an officer records, "We worked till two o'clock last night, and turned out at four this morning. The rebel sharpshooters are on the lookout for a man careless enough to show himself. I am twenty-four years old to-day." Another scribe in the same company enters these words, "Wish I were at home to-day for it is our boy's birthday," so closely does the absent soldier keep in heart and mind to the loved ones at the hearthstone. While there is a trend towards the west, General Griffin's Division (First) reaching the Jerusalem plank-road and the Second Corps crossing it, our portion of the Fifth Corps, except as a part of the Brigade moves off to the left to help fill the gap made by the withdrawal of Griffin, remains as before. The 21st varies little from yesterday, men keeping pretty closely to their places, the least exposure bringing attention from the enemy, and men are wounded in spite of all care to the contrary. One of Burnside's colored regiments is digging a traverse out to the picket line. Extreme vigilance continues into the night, through fear of an assault by the enemy, and at about 9 p. m., the most of the Regiment goes on picket. Picket duty on the 22nd requires vigilance, "Yank" and "Reb" exchange compliments whenever opportunity offers and Jonas P. Barden, Company A, is killed. Quite late in the evening, the Regiment is relieved and retires to its former location, the same being not remote from the spot which in a few weeks would be known as the "Crater," and somewhat further to the Union left, opposite prominencies will be called Forts Sedgwick and Mahone, or in army parlance, Forts "Hell and Damnation." It is on this day that the Second Corps suffers one of the severest set backs in its entire history, the enemy succeeding in getting at its left flank, in a manner unprecedented, and in carrying off four cannon and more than two thousand prisoners.

[Sidenote: JUNE 24, '64]

Everyone is learning caution, but there are mortalities still, as with S. B. Harris of "H" who is hit in the head and killed on the 23rd. It is fair to suppose that Union sharpshooters are just as vigilant as their opponents, and that Death visits, with no show of partiality, both blue and gray. As the stay in these advanced trenches has not savored at all of rest, any change seems desirable, hence orders to move early in the morning of the 24th are heard with pleasure and, before daylight, we are off to the left to take the places of Second Corps men who had gone still further to the left, while the Ninth Corps moves into our vacated places. One very careful observer states that we lost our way and had to back and fill, as it were, at one time coming near running into the enemy, who kept up an almost constant shelling during the change. There seems to be less activity among the sharpshooters, for which the soldiers are duly grateful. To-day the original members of the Twelfth Massachusetts, the Fletcher Webster Regiment, long in the Second Brigade of our Division, draw out of line and start for home. The recruits, re-enlisted and drafted men of the Twelfth are to become a part of the Thirty-ninth. The coming into our ranks of one hundred and twenty-five men from the returning Twelfth, is the crowning incident of the 25th. One hundred and six more men are nominally transferred, but they are absent on sick leave, in rebel prisons or elsewhere, and those received to-day, represent about all the real additions to come from our friends who, after three years of arduous labor, are homeward bound. The new position of the Regiment is across the Petersburg & Norfolk Railroad and the depleted condition of the 39th, following the campaign, is evident from the fact that eighteen of the men from the Twelfth Regiment, added to those left in Company C of the Thirty-ninth, called for just forty three rations in the entire company.

It was not lack of excitement which prompted a certain Company A man to a prank which afforded him and his comrades a deal of pleasure, rather was it a desire for something out of the ordinary that, in the midst of this, the severest campaign in the progress of the war, suggested to him a variation. Taking pencil and paper, he wrote, "I should be happy to correspond with any young lady so disposed; address G. W. Cheney, Company A, 39th Regt., M. V. M., Second Brigade, Third Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac." Thinking the idea too good to be kept secret, he read it to the boys around the campfire who were delighted with the plan and he had to write another, couched thus, "I would be pleased to correspond with young ladies, 18 to 22, with view to matrimony." Both of the ads were sent to the Boston Herald and the writer thinks they were the first of the kind ever inserted there. Two weeks later, or after the ads had had time to circulate, the mail brought one hundred and six answers, representing every state then in the Union; long letters, short and pithy ones, some perfumed and embossed; no end of good advice, love, kisses, merry, sporting fun and blessings; it was understood that the Colonel's good wife was quite horrified at seeing the ad and there must have been some uxorious advice to Colonel Davis since, though the next mail had over two hundred letters for the advertisers, they were all destroyed on the pretext that there were no such persons in the Regiment as those addressed. This however did not prevent the enterprising young men doing extensive corresponding over their own names.