C.iV.
COL. DWIGHT MORRIS.
HISTORY
OF THE
FOURTEENTH REGIMENT,
CONNECTICUT VOL. INFANTRY.
BY
CHARLES D. PAGE.
ILLUSTRATED.
MERIDEX, COXX.:
THE HORTON PRINTING Co.
1906
COPYRIGHTED 1906.
Published under the auspices of CHARLKR LYMAN, ALBERT F. HALL and
JOHN MCCARTHY.
A Committee of the Society of the
Fourteenth Connecticut
Regiment.
To the members
of the
FOURTEENTH REGIMENT,
CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEER INFANTRY
who still remain to do service
in the battle of life, and to the memory of the
brave ones
mustered out,
these pages are
dedicated.
M12G9Z6
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.— THK BIRTH OF THE REGIMENT.
Designed for a " Camp of Instructions."— The President's Call for Troops. —Governor Buckingham's Appeal. — Revival of Enlistments. — Camp Foote. — Lack of Discipline.- -Mustered into U. S. Service. — Leave Hartford for the Front. — Towns Represented in the Regiment. — Dr. Jewett's Opinions and Memories.
CHAPTER II — FROM NK\V YORK TO ANT1ETAM.
Arrival in New York. —Reception. — Major Hinck's Description of the Journey to Washington. — An Accident at Easton, Penn. Arrival at Harrisburg. — At Baltimore. — At Washington. — Reviewed by the Pres ident. — General Wool's Opinion.— At Camp Chase. — At Fort Ethan Allen. — Become a part of the Second Corps. — The March to Antietam. South Mountain.— Camp on the Boonsboro Pike.
CHAPTER III.— THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.
Description of the Field.— The Confederate Forces. — Tho Union Forces. — The i4th Regiment Fords the Antietam— The Roulette Farm.— The Cornfield. — Bloody Lane. — Ordered to Support Brooke,— Death of General Richardson. — On the Plowed Field. — Captain Blinn- — Captain Willard. — List of Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Report of Lieut. - Colonel Sanford H. Perkins.
CHAPTER IV. — AFTER ANTIETAM AND BEFORE FREDERICKSBURG.
The Regiment Leaves Antietam. — March to Boliver Heights.— Fording the River. — Sickly Conditions of the Camp — The Routine of Camp Life. — Leave for Belle Plain.— The March Down the Loudon Valley. — The Story of the Bee Hives.— Reach Belle Plain.— The Condition of the Camp.— The Camp at Falmouth.
CHAPTER V. — THE BATTLE OF EREDERICKSBURG.
Description of the Field. — The Hopelessness of the Attack.— The Delay in Laying the Pontoons. — The Regiment Crosses. — Experiences of the Night.— The Attack.— The Part that the Regiment Played.— Lt. -Colonel Perkins Wounded.— Captain Gibbons.— Charles Lyman's experience. —List of Killed, Wounded and Missing.— Captain Davis' Report.
CHAPTER VI. — THE WINTER AT FALMOUTH.
Return of the Regiment to Camp. — The Demoralization of the Ranks. —Captain Samuel A. Moore Overcome. — Better Rations. — Men Refuse to Enthuse over the Toast :4 Across the Rappahanock," — Burial of Captain Gibbons. — Condition of the Hospital.— Promotions. — Fred Doten's Punches.— Surgeon Rockwell, Leaves the Regiment. — Sketch. —The Regiment Leaves for Chancellorsville.
CHAPTER VII. — THE AFFAIR AT CH ANCELLORSYII.LE.
Lieut. -Colonel Theodore G. Ellis in Command. — The Regiment Crosses the Rappahannock. — Description of the Battlefield.— Little for the Regiment to do. — The Break of the nth Corps. — Heroism of the Fourteenth Band. — Return to Camp near Falmouth. — List of Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Lieut. -Col. Ellis' Report.
CHAPTER VII. — THE MARCH FROM FALMOUTH TO GETTYSBURG.
Practical Joke on Chaplain Stevens. — Take up the March to Gettysburg. Company A Meets Old Friends. — Character of the March. — Cleaning Out a Sutler. — Meet a "Dandy" Regiment. — The Men Hear of a Change of Commanding General. — Reach Gettysburg.
CHAPTER IX.— GETTYSBURG.
Description of the Field.— Accident to Major Coit. — The Position of the Regiment During the Engagement. — Capture and Occupation of the Bliss Buildings. — Captured and Burned by the Fourteenth Regiment. A terrific Cannonading. Pickett's Magnificent Charge, — Its Repulse. — Major Hicks Captures a Flag. — A Day of Gallantry and Heroism. — Caring for Wounded Rebels. — Flags Captured. — (Dunn Brown) Capt. Samuel F. Fisk's Opinion of the Regiment in Action. — A Night of Terror. — Honors Conferred upon the Regiment by Col. Bacheldor. —List of Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Official Reports,
CHAPTER X. — THE SUMMER OF 1863.
The Regiment Leaves Gettysburg.— The Enemy had Flown. — A Colossal Blackberry Party. — Dunn Brown's Description. — Substitutes and Drafted Men.— Their Evanescent Nature. — Odd Characters. — The Chaplain Has Another Joke.— Death of Line Officers. — Band Con certs.
CHAPTER XI. — KRISTOW STATION AND MINE RUN.
Experience at Culpepper. — Deserters Shot.— A Set of Guidons Presented to the Regiment.— General Owen's Compliment.— Promotions.— Major Moore.— Quartermaster Dibble.— Auburn.— The Engagement at Bris- tow Station.— Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Mine Run.— An Anxious Hour. — Lieut.-Colonel Moore's Decision.— General Warren.— Colonel Ellis' Report.
CHAPTER XII. — STONY MOUNTAIN AND MORTON'S FORD. The Regiment Reach Stevensburg.— Disorder in Camp. —Prompt Action. — Camp at Stony Mountain.— Presence of Ladies.— Pierce Barren. — Neat Appearance of Camp.— Morton's Ford.— The Regiment move toward the Rapidan.— The Position of the Regiment.— A Cruel Order.— Conditino of the Commanding Generals.— Capture of Captain Doten.— The Killed, Wounded and Missing.— Lieut.-Colonel Moore's Report.— A New Commander. — Ladies Sent Out of Camp.
CHAPTER XIII.— THE WILDERNESS, A TANGLE OK HATTLES AND SKIRMISHES.
The Regiment Cross the Rapidan.— The Grandeur of the View. — The Old Battlefield of Chancellorsville. — Laurel Hill. — Battle of Spottsylvania. —A Voiceless Charge. — J. H. Stannard's Account. — Sergeant Wade's Record. — Milford Station. — Joseph Schlitcher's Experience. — Toto- potomy Creek. — A Southern Mule. — General Hay Killed, Captain Fisk (Dunn Brown) Mortally Wounded. — How the Regiment Missed its Rations. — The Flag. — Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Report of Captain Broatch. — Report of Colonel Ellis.
CHAPTER XIV — PETERSBURG AND REAM'S STATION.
The Regiment Shares Rations with the Colored Troops.— The Regiment Support General Barlow. — Battle of the "Fleeing Hen." — A Dress Par ade.— A Midnight Call.— A Hard March.— Killed, Wounded and Miss ing. — Captain John C. Broatch's Report Completed. — Colonel Ellis' Report. — Deep Bottom. — Lieut. -Colonel Moore's Report on Skirmish at Deep Bottom.— A Terrible Thunder Storm.— Assistant Sergeant Jew- ett's Recollections. — Killed, Wounded and Missing. — Lieut. -Colonel Moore's Report.
CHAPTER XV — FROM HATCHER'S RUN TO THE END.
The Men have a Glimpse of the End. — Sorrow in the Regiment. — A De tail Ordered to New Haven, Conn. — Lieut. -Colonel Moore's Report on Number of the Regiment. — Boydton Plank Road. — A New Chaplain. — Inactivity. — T he Men Live Underground. — Lieut. -Colonel Moore Ordered to Make a Demonstration. — Sergeant Blatchley's Account. — Virginia Mud. — High Bridge. — Funeral Services in Honor of President Lincoln. — Richmond Has Fallen. — Joy of the Men. — Homeward Bound- -The Review at Washington. — Return to Hartford. — Glad Re ception. — Impatient to Reach Home. — Scarcity of Money no Hinder- ance. — Return to Hartford. — Discharged.
Adjutant-General Summary.
APPENDIX.
Organization of the Society of the Fourteenth Regiment. — By-Laws. — Memorable Meetings. — -The Society Incorporated. — Monuments at Gettysburg. — Dedication.— Chaplain Stevens' Address. — The Annual Reunion at Antietam. — Monument. — Description. — Dedication. — J. W. Knowlton's Address.
Breveted Officers, Fox's Statistics and Record. Adjutant-General's Summary. Official Roster.
LIST OF PORTRAITS.
Colonel Dwight Morris (Frontispiece). Lieut. -Colonel Sanford H. Perkins, full page, 20
Colonel Theodore G. Ellis, 117
Lieut. -Colonel Samuel A. Moore, 183
Chaplain Emmons P. Bond, 297
Major John C. Broatch, 271
Major Cyrus C. Clark, 75
Major James B. Coit, 109
Quartermaster Charles F. Dibble, 188
Captain Fred S. Doten, 223
Assistant Surgeon Frederick A. Dudley, 245
Albert F. Hall, 372
Major William B. Hincks, 157
Sergeant Benjamin Hirst, 193
Assistant Surgeon Levi Jewett, 313
Q. M. S., J. W. Knowlton, 362
Charles Lyman, 372 John McCarthy, . 60, 372
Surgeon Philo G. Rockwell, . . 113
Corporal Joseph Pierce, 131
Assistant Surgeon Charles Tomlinson, 275
Rebel Girl, 161
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
The Famous Cornfield at Antietam 20
•Capitol at Washington 21
Bivouac of the Regiment on the Boonsboro Pike .... 28
A Glimpse from Cemetery Hill at Sharpsburg ..... 29
Dunkard Chureh ........... 30
Bloody Lane Since the War ........ 32
Cornfield and Mumma Buildings ....... 33
Antietam Creek Where the Regiment Forded 35
Wrest View of Roulette House, 1891 36
The Spring House .......... 37
Corner of Mumma's Orchard 38
Pence Corner Extreme Left of Regiment's Position ... 39
Roulette House, 1862 40
Another View of " Bloody Lane " . . . . . . . 41
Roulette Lane 42
Where the Regiment Supported Brooke ...... 43
Where General Richardson Fell 45
The Plowed Field 46
A Section of " Bloody Lane" 48
Burnside's Bridge, Antietam 57
Kimball's Hill, Antietam . . . 58
Where the Regiment Forded the River 59
Harper's Ferry ........... 63
A Street in Harper's Ferry 64
Jefferson Rock 66
Armory, Harpers's Ferry ......... 72
Burnside's Bridge. 18 u 74
Where the Pontoons Touched Fredericksburg 74
Major Lacy's Mansion . 78
Where the Regiment Crossed the Rapahannock .... 80
Caroline Street, Fredericksburg 81
Church and Signal Tower, Fredericksburg 82
The Old Depot, Fredericksburg 83
The Causeway, Fredericksburg 87
Division Hospital ...... 94
Fair Grounds Where the Regiment Charged 103
The Shore of the Rapahanock ........ 104
On Picket Making Coffee 106
•Chancellor House, 1891 120
Page.
Society of Fourteenth Regiment at Antietam . . . .125
Barn at General Mead's Headquarters 120
The Round Tops 13 5
Position of Second Corps at Gettysburg ... . . 138
Mead's Headquarters, Tan ey town Road . 139
Portion of Field, Gettysburg 140
General Hay's Headquarters ....... 141
Marker at Bliss Barn Site 143
Knowlton Marker at Bliss House Site .... .145
Monument at Gettysburg ... . 147
Ground on which Pickett charged . . 14$
Headquarters after the Battle . . ..... 153
Spangler's Spring ... .... 259
Mouth of Devil's Den .... 164
The Two Round Tops from the West . . .167
The Hagerstown Pike 173
National Cemetery, Antietam ... .189
Morton's Ford .... . . 209
Stony Mountain from Stevensburg . . . . 211
Brigade Camp, Stony Mountain . 213
Stony Mountain in Recent Years . . . . . .215
Morton's Ford from the South . . . . . . .216
Buckner House from a Distance . . . . . . .218
A Nearer View of Buckner House . . . . . .219
Headquarters of Picket, Morton's Ford . . 221
Morton House and Surroundings ....... 222
A Scene of Much Coffee Making ..... . 232
Brock Road Wilderness, Va. ..... .236
Society of Fourteenth Regiment at Gettysburg, 1891 . . . 239
Gettysburg Monument . . . . . . . . .258
Society of Fourteenth Regiment at Cemetery Hill . . .252
Roulette House • 258
Monument at Antietam . . . • . . . . .265
Orange Plank Road, Wilderness . 281
The White House . 359
Mt. Yernon ... . 360
PREFACE.
The history of the Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, Infan try, should have been written a generation ago. This would have been but justice to the brave men who have since passed away who earnestly and rightfully desired to see the record of their gallantry, sacrifice and heroism have a permanent form in print. It was also a patriotic duty to the State, the service of the Fourteenth Regiment being one of the illus trious chapters in the military history of the Commomvealth. A history written at that time would have been more complete in detail and richer in personal experience. As time has gone on, memory has become weaker, memoranda, diaries, and letters have become scattered and irrecoverably lost. It has been my aim to allow the men of the regiment to tell the story of its service, and have used my own language to serve only as a thread upon which to hang these jewels of memory. The responsibility of writ ing the history was increased when I found the earnestness and willing ness to assist so intense among the surviving members. To write a his tory that would satisfy the intelligence and enthusiasm of such men and to do justice to the character of the regiment was, indeed, no small task. The limited space of a preface will not allow me to enumerate and ac knowledge all those from whom I have drawn to make up this record. The presence of their names in the following pages must be taken as an acknowledgement of my gratitude and obligation.
A few of these sources of information must, however, be mentioned. I have been under great obligations to the Committee of the Society of the Fourteenth Regiment for their advice, assistance and interest in the progress and completion of the work. Mr. Charles Lyman, of Washington, D. C., chairman of the committee, has found time amid the multitudinous cares of a busy life, to read the chapters from time to time as they have been prepared, making such suggestions as his wide experience and good taste has deemed desirable. Mr. Albert F. Hall, of Meriden, the most active man of the committee, has been untiring in placing in my hands all the available material for the history that he could command. His prompt ness in all the details has been an incentive and an inspiration to faithful work, and to him more than to any man of the regiment is due the com pletion of the history at the present time. Mr. John McCarthy, of New Haven, the third member of the committee, has given valuable aid and suggestions as the work has progressed. To Mr. William T. Hincks, of Bridgeport, son of Major William B. Hincks, I am particularly indebted for the privilege of consulting and copying from his father's diary. This rec ord of Major Hincks wTas characteristic of his intelligence, and his reputa-
tion for accuracy and discernment which made it especially valuable. I am also under obligations to Sergeant Benj. Hirst and his brother John Hirst for the use of forty-four letters contributed to the Rockville (Conn.,) [on rnal for many details of experience on battlefield and march. Ex-Mayor A. R. Crittenden, of Middletown, Conn , has given many valuable narra tives and we have quoted liberally from Sergeant E. B. Tyler's bright and fascinating record. To Mrs. C. H. Wade, of Northampton, Mass., I am indebted for the loan of her husband's, Sergeant Wade's, history of the regiment as published in the Soldier 's Record. I desire also to acknowl edge my obligations and deep indebtedness to Miss Fayetta Warren of Watertown, N. Y. , for her assistance and aid in preparing and perfecting the history. Her painstaking care and reliable accuracy as stenographer and typewriter has done much toward bringing the history to completeness. And so this record goes forth to take its place among others that have been made of the valient deeds of those who went out to uphold the principles of union and liberty, in the war between the states. If the following pages succeed in portraying, even feebly, the many acts of valor and heroism, bravery and sacrifice performed by the men of the Fourteenth Regiment, then it may be said that the work has been faithfully done.
CHARLES D. PAGE. New Haven Connecticut, July, 1906.
HISTORY
OF THE
FOURTEENTH REGIMENT,
CONNECTICUT VOL. INFANTRY.
CHAPTER I.
The Birth of the Regiment.
To intelligently understand the beginnings of the Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. Infantry, it may be well to glance at the condition of the Union cause at the front and the spirit and temper of the loyal people of the Xorth, just previous to its formation.
During the early spring months of 1862. the Union forces were successful upon all the lines of their advance. From the West to the Atlantic and from the Potomac to the Gulf, the tide of Confederate progress had been checked and turned back.
General Thomas and Colonel Garfielcl had won victories in Kentucky, at Prestonburg and Mill Spring, General Grant and Commodore Foote had captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and with I Hill had reduced Fort Donelson on the Cumber land. General IHirnside had forced Xew P>erne to surrender, Furragut had passed the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, had victoriously entered Xew ( Means where the Union ;]ag had again been planted and was triumphantly Moating from many a stall" and public building.
The Union loving people were not oblivious to the onward pro- gress of the army, and there was a wide-spread feeling that the end of the conflict was at hand. This feeling was further strengthened by an order from the War Department April 3d.. 1862, discontinuing enlistments in all the states. April roth. President Lincoln, from his great heart, looking through the dark cloud then enveloping his own home by the death of his boy, (13)
1 4 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
called upon the people to observe a season of thanksgiving ''for the glorious successes of our armies at the front."
The action of the government and the wide-spread belief that the armies then in the field were sufficient to meet any emergency quickened business and revived industry. Those who had nocked to the recruiting offices to offer themselves to the service of the country, returned to their homes and found employment in their various occupations, and took their places in the peaceful on goings of society.
The call of the President in 1861 for five hundred thousand men had been filled, and the last of Connecticut's quota (13.037), the Thirteenth Regiment had left Xew Haven March i/th., and were doing duty at Ship Island.
These were the conditions when May 2ist the War Depart ment signified its willingness to accept from Connecticut one regiment as its part to form a contingent of fifty thousand men for a "Camp of Instruction" at Annapolis, Md.
The next day. May 22, the governor directed that "volun teers be received sufficient to form one regiment to be known as the Fourteenth Regiment of Infantry, to serve three years or during the war unless sooner discharged. The plan of the regi ment to be the same as those already in the field."
The regiment was ordered to rendezvous at Hartford. The camp was located on the Xew Haven turnpike about two miles from Hartford and \vas called Camp Foote in honor of Commo dore Foote, who had wron merited popularity and esteem in his native state for his gallant conduct at Forts Henry and Donelson.
May 22d Dwight Morris was appointed as Colonel. Colonel Morris of Bridgeport was well known throughout the state. He was born in Litchfield in 1817, and was therefore forty-five years of age. Colonel Morris had graduated from L nion College in 1832, and \vas a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut for six years from 1845, anc^ again in 1880. He had been a practicing lawyer in Bridgeport for several years, being Judge of Probate for the District of Bridgeport in 1851. After the war, Colonel Morris was appointed United States Consul to France from 1866 to 1869, and was Secretary of the State of Connecticut
The Birth of the Regiment. 1 5
in 1876. He died suddenly at his home in Bridgeport September 2f>th, 1895.
It was to he a regiment from the state at large. .Mainly for reasons we have mentioned, enlistments were slow and unsatisfactory. The feeling that the army was large enough to meet any emergency had permeated the minds of the people. Then again it may be supposed that the prospect of spending an indefinite period in a "Camp of Instruction" was not alluring to a true soldier, certainly not to that class of men that finally made up the Fourteenth Regiment.
Xo one at that time would have ventured the prophecy that this very regiment, conceived for the dull duties of a "Camp of Instruction," was destined to play an important part in some of the most sanguinary battles of modern times, and do valiant ser vice in some of the pivotal actions of the great conflict.
Assistant Surgeon Dr. Levi Jewett in his diary estimates there were about two hundred and fifty men enlisted when he joined the regiment, July I4th. This was nearly two months after the call had been made for volunteers.
Suddenly all these conditions changed. Reverse followed re verse with the Union army, and the tide of rebellion swept west ward and northward until the loyal people of the North wrere de pressed and alarmed.
( iovernor Buckingham joined with the governors of all of the loyal states requesting the President to "call out a sufficient number of men to garrison the cities and military posts that have been captured by our armies and to speedily put down the re bellion that now exists in several Southern states."
President Lincoln therefore issued an order for the enlisting of three hundred thousand more men. Connecticut's quota in this call was 7.145.
July ist Governor Buckingham issued a call for this number of men to form six more regiments. Immediately following the call the Governor issued an impassioned address and appeal for volunteers ; a single sentence of this address will serve to show its character and earnestness.
He says : — "Close your manufactories and workshops, turn
1 6 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
aside from your farms and your business, leave for awhile your families and your homes, meet face to face the enemies of your liberties !"
Meetings to promote enlistments were held in nearly all of the cities and larger towns of the state. These meetings were ad dressed by some of the best known men, and were characterized by the most intense patriotic enthusiasm and fervor. The effect of the Governor's appeal and the influence of these meetings were electrical. From one end of the state to the other, the stirring scenes of April, i8ni, were reenacted. Young men flocked to the recruiting offices eager and earnest to enlist in the service of their country. The "lonely squads" of the Fourteenth Regiment, that had passed up and down the dusty field of "Camp Foote" for weeks, felt the impulse of the new enthusiasm and every day brought new members to its ranks.
Dr. Jewett records the first tangible addition toward the last of July when Captain Burpee brought in "a fine company" (Company D) from Yernon. Soon followed Company B, Cap tain Gibbons, from Middletown, "who entered camp with band playing and flags flying and escorted by the firemen of Middle- town." "There w7as great rejoicing," says Dr. Jewett, "when this company came into cam]) and we formed a line and gave them three hearty cheers."
Company followed company in quick succession until the re quisite number necessary to make up the maximum strength of the regiment was reached. By August 22(1 the last man had en listed and the last commission had been signed. Then came the busy preparation, and the impatience to move to the front.
The regiment numbered 1,015 men and were to be armed with Springfield rifles, with the exception of Companies A and B, which were to be equipped with Sharp's rifles.
That rigid military discipline was not yet introduced into camp we may judge from a statement of Private, afterwards Corporal, Albert R. Crittenden, of Company B, who says:— "The first I recall after going into 'Camp Foote' at Hartford was the dearth of fire arms. The camp guard at our (the left) end of camp had onlv four old smooth-bore muskets, which had once been flint
The Birth of the Regiment. 1 7
locks, but were then without locks or bayonets. This serves to show how closely available arms had been hustled to the front. Of course guard duty under such conditions was a trifle lax, as with such equipment we could not stop men from passing over the lines if we tried, so, as perhaps it will be remembered by the boys, we let them go. I fear this was bad discipline, for when we reached the enemy's country and the boys suspected there was something good to eat outside the lines, we were quite willing to have our backs to them when they went and came. Some times we shared an extra bit of fresh pork, lamb or hoe cake, as a re sult of our blindness."
Touching the same point Xelson S. Bailey of Company B says: — "In cam]) at Hartford the minor details that have to do with the art of war were of interest. We noticed particularly that 'running the guard' was made a business as well as a diver sion. — by others of course."
Xo Connecticut regiment ever took to the front a more noble representation of the best elements of the state than did the Fourteenth. Many of the men had already become moving forces in the social, religious, commercial and industrial activities <>f the state. Dr. Jewett says of them : — "They are voting men of good character." It was indeed a regiment from the state at large, a regiment of the people. Xo less than eighty-six towns were represented upon the roster.
August 23d the regiment was mustered into the service of the I'nited States by Colonel Webb of the regular army.
The following was the representation of the towns in the make-up of the regiment.
Company A, Captain James D. Merritt. Bridgeport, 49 men; Putnam, 8; Stratford, Xorwalk, 6 each; Yliddletown, Trumbull, 4 each: Killingly, 3; Hartford, Brooklyn, Monroe, Berlin. 2 each; Waterbury, Madison, Huntington, Xewtown, Litchneld, Plain- neld, Wilton, Harrisville, R. I., Thompson, Easton, Sprague, Woodstock, Eairneld, East Haddam, Cornwall, i each.
Company B>, Captain Elijah W. Gibbons, Middletown, 93 men; Durham, 6; Waterbury 2; Bridgeport, X^ew Haven. X'orwich, Yernon, Haddam, i each.
1 8 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Company C, Captain Samuel XV. Carpenter, XX'aterbury, 88 men; Bridgeport, Naugatuck, 3 each; Middletown, 2; Xew Ha ven, Durham, Thompson, Milford, Ellington, Torrington, Wood- bury, X'ernon, East Windsor, East Haddam, i each.
Company D, Captain Thomas F. Burpee, Yernon, 75 men; Ellington, 10; Waterbury, 5; Coventry, XX'illington, 4 each; Mid dletown, 2 ; Bridgeport, Xew London, Tolland, South Windsor, Bolton, Rockville, Mansfield, Windsor, Hartford, Westport, I each.
Company E, Captain William H. Tul)bs, Xorwich, 21 men; Middletown, 18; Hartford, 15; Xew Haven, f> : Waterbury, Killingly, 4 each; (iriswold, Sprague, 3 each; Windham, East Windsor, Franklin, Putnam, Preston. Coventry, X'ernon, 2 each ; Bridgeport, Xew Britain, Lisbon, Marlbonmgh, Hampton, ("ilas- tonbury, Chaplin, Xorth Stonington, Madison, \Vethersfield, Plainfield, Thom])son, Meriden, Xew London, i each.
Coni])any F. Captain Jarvis F. Blinn, Xew Britain, 65 men; Bloomtield. 15: Berlin 13: XX'olcott, 3: \Vethersfield, 2; Bridge- ])ort. Hartford, Xorwich. Xew Haven, Xew London, Barkham- sted, X'ernon, i each.
Company (-, Captain Samuel F. Willard, Madison, 58 men1 Clinton, 12: Old Saybrook, 10; XX'estbrook, 9; (iuilford, 5; KilV ing\vortli, 3; Xew Haven, 2; Bridgeport, Hartford, Xorwich. Xew London, Franklin, Fast Lyme, Stratford, X'ernon, Haddam. i each.
Company H, Captain Samuel H. Davis. Xew London, 56 mer : XX'aterfonl, 21; East Lyme, 5: Xew Haven. 3: X'ernon, XX'ater- burv. 2 each ; Hartford, Middletown, Durham, XVillimantic, Ston ington, Islington, i each.
Company I, Ca])tain Isaac R. Bronson, (iuilford, 24 men; Xew Haven, 22; Hartford, 13; XX'aterbury, 7: ^[iddlebnry, 5: Coventry, 3; Xew London, Xew Britain, Wethersfield, Farming- ton, Bloomfield. 2 each; Middletown, Xorwich, Xew Milford, Windham, Avon, Madison, Xorwalk, XX'illington, X'ernon, Elling ton, XX'oodbury, X'augatuck, X'ew Fairfield, i each.
Com])any K, Ca])tain Robert H. Gillette, Xorwich, 21 men; Hartford, 18; Chatham, 14; Somers, 6; Middletown, 5; Bridge-
The Birth of the Regiment. 19
port. Ledyard, Griswold, 4 each; \\'aterburv, Coventry, 3 each; Madison, Stonington, Preston, Sprague, Farmington, 2 each; Suffield, Durham, \\'inchester, Woodbridge, Andover, Man chester, Stafford, VVallingford, Chaplin, Franklin, Bolton, Wind sor, Thompson, East Haddam, Haddam, i each.
\o member of the regiment will forget those closing days at "Cam]) Foote," the hurried bustle of preparation for departure, the throngs of people who came to say farewell to father, brother, husband, son and friend.
August 25th, the day for the regiment to break camp and start for Washington arrived. We will let Dr. Jewett, a partici pant, tell the story of the departure. He says: — "August 25111. we left camp with bands playing and flags flying, marching to the dock in a column of fours. As we moved the crowd increased and when we reached the corner of Main and State Streets, it became so dense that we could hardly make progress. Reaching the dock six companies boarded the steamer 'City of Hartford' arid four companies upon the transport 'Dudley P»uck.'
When we reached Middletown, it seemed as if the whole city had turned out to meet us. The dock and all the space about was black" with people. Manv came to the boats with baskets of fruit and food, which were greatly appreciated by the 'boys'. At Cobalt a great gun on the hill gave us a roaring ''God-speed' and there were heart}" greetings from a crowd of friends at Middle Haddam." Here Dr. Jewett leaves tis in his memory of the trip to Xew York.
Slowly the steamer and transport steamed out of the Connecti cut River into the broader waters of the Sound. At the right lay the old state dear to the hearts of those on board, their birth place, the scenes of their ambitions and hopes, and the homes of those they loved who were left behind. Slowly they passed the familiar hilltops, the rugged cliffs, the undulating shore and the broad fields that floated back to the western sky. So the twilight drifted into the shadow and the shadow into darkness, and the fair scene was hidden from view. Alas, how many were never permitted to look upon it again!
The famous Cornfield at Antietam.
CHAPTER II. From New York to Antietam.
\Ye left the regiment at the close of the last chapter with the soft curtain of night gathering about it as the heavily laden boats moved sluggishly down the Sound. Thev arrived in Xew York early the next morning, where they were refreshed with a bounti ful supply of food by the Soldiers' Relief Committee, but did not land, being transferred to a large transport, the "'Kill von Kull," and steamed down the harbor past Staten Island to the Elizabeth River, and up the river to Elizabethport, where the troops were again transferred to cars, and after some delay a long train in two sections steamed away toward Baltimore, by way of Har- risburg and York, Pcnna. The night had been long and tedious and, although not to be compared with the later experiences of the regiment, it must have been to many a slight foretaste of "he rigors of a soldier's life. The decks of the steamer were several degrees harder, even, than the ground of Cam]) Foote and were withal crowded, dirty and hot, so that there was very little sleep or rest.
On the way to Baltimore the entire journey during the daylight hours was characterized by the same outbursts of patriotic enthusiasm as that sent out from the shores of their own dear Connecticut.
Private \Yilliam B. Hincks of Company A, afterwards Major,
LT.-COL. SANFORD H. PERKINS.
From New York to Antietam. 21
"Our progress was a sort of triumphal journey. Steamers sounded a salute with their whistles, flags were unfurled and bells were rung. Farmers waved their hands and hats as a hurrah to us as we shot by. The day wore slowly away. We passed through the borders of Xew Jersey and along the mountains of Pennsylvania. The road wound around these mountains and we often crossed deep ravines spanned by lofty bridges, down whose sides one would tremble to look."
At Easton, Penna., occurred the first casualty to the regiment. When the train stopped, which was upon a trestle above the street, 2d Lieutenant Frederick E. Shalk of Company E left the train for a moment and in attempting to again step upon the car, lost his footing and fell some thirty feet to the street, striking upon his head. He was taken up insensible and was left behind for medical treatment, but recovered soon after and rejoined his regi ment, doing valiant service.
An occasional "hot box" varied the monotony of the journey to Harrisburg. In regard to the arrival there Corporal Crittenden says: — "We were side-tracked an hour or two at Harrisburg, Penna., by reason of an order to hold us as we might be ordered to Chambersburg. Lee's cavalry were in the Shenandoah Valley and the Pennsylvania border was threatened. Well that we were ordered on to Washington or we might have been gobbled up at Chambersburg and our history been entirely different."
During the tarry at Baltimore the regiment passed under view of General Wool, who said to Colonel Morris: — " A splendid regi ment, not one drunken man in the ranks : too good a regiment to be sent anywhere but to the front!"
We cannot do better than to allow Major Hincks to further tell the story of the journey. He says: — "We passed through Harrisburg, a fine old Quaker town, and in time reached Balti more. We marched across the city to the Washington depot. Call Baltimore a secession place if you will, but we were treated better here than in any other place on our route. When we halted before entering the city, ladies ran out with pails of water, bread and butter and melons for the soldiers. We marched into a Soldiers' Relief Building, provided not by the government,
22
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
but by the citizens of Baltimore, where long tables were spread for the regiment and all sat down to as much good bread and cheese, ham and coffee or ice water as we could take care of.
At about nine o'clock Thursday evening we started for Wash ington in an old cattle train, about forty men in a car. \Ye arrived in Washington about four o'clock in the morning and marched directly to the barracks. These barracks were very large and capable of accommodating one or more regiments. About eleven o'clock the next day we were formed into columns and with our ponderous knapsacks upon our backs passed up Penn sylvania Avenue to the Long Bridge over the Potomac. Here a long halt was made to allow a train of mules to pass. We crossed over the bridge and found ourselves upon the 'sacred soil' of Virginia, and very nasty soil it is ; thick yellow dust lax- three inches deep and we were surrounded by a dense cloud of it. Roads run through deep defiles overhung by forts. \Ye came
.,^1111
ill '; '-, •
The Capitol, which was in process of rebuilding when the Fourteenth Regiment passed through Washington.
From New York to Antietam. 23
upon a little spring and at least five hundred of our men attempted to reach it all at once and there was general confusion."
Dr. Jewett, in his memories, says: — "Daylight soon appeared and the great dome of the capitol became visible. I walked out to the foot of Capitol Hill and found everything in confusion, the building was not completed and the ground was covered with huge blocks of stone and marble, stone cutters' sheds and tools, derricks, mortar beds, etc."
Touching the passage through Washington, Corporal Crittenden recalls the following: — "As we passed through Washington, I recall the reviewing stand where President Lincoln, General Scott. Secretary Stanton and other dignitaries stood while we passed in review. Our staff-officers and captains entered the re viewing stand and were in turn introduced to the President and his staff of officials. When the head of 1> Company, the left of the regiment, reached the stand, President Lincoln was so busy we felt we were not to be noticed, so with one accord, \ve struck up loudly singing 'We are coming. Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more/ At once he faced us, straightened up his tall form, doffed his high silk hat and bowed and bowed until we were by. President Lincoln said of our regiment that we were the finest looking body of men that had passed through Washington. As we had the honor of being the first regiment of the second call for three hundred thousand men to pass through Washington, it is easv to conclude this was his mental reservation which made his statement a fact."
That night the regiment rested near Arlington Heights, calling it Cam]) Chase, and there was fond hope that a few days rest would be had. The journey from Connecticut had been hard and fatiguing. It was already three days since the regiment left Camp Foote and owing to wretched transportation arrangements, delays had been long and tedious, with little or no opportunity for sleep. Samuel Fisk ("Dunn lirowne") sums up the journey in the following words to the Springfield Republican: —
"Our boys 011 their way to the field slept on the dirty 'leeks of a steamer, lying together as thick as rows of pins on a paper ; were packed in dirty, close cars like sheep in a pen : and marched
24 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
through dust so thick and fine that, mixed in proper proportions with perspiration caused by the intense heat, it formed a good plaster cast of every man's face and form. Water is often too precious to use for ablutions ; linen gets dirty ; washerwomen are scarce ; clothing of every kind grows ragged and on the whole dirt steadily and surely prevails till a regiment of veterans ap pears to the uninitiated like a regiment of ragamuffins. Even our short experience also shows that a soldier's is a pretty thirsty and hungry life. For three day together, during this our first week, we had nothing to eat but a few hard crackers, and once a morsel of cheese, and once a slice of ham, apiece, served around ; and for one night and part of a day we had no water."
The fond hope that a few days if not weeks would be allowed the regiment for rest and recuperation ; that much needed sleep would be obtained and rations be more plenty and steady ; and that even if lying upon the ground there would be room to stretch the legs without being entangled with those of a comrade, were not realized. Withal we may imagine the men felt the necessity of instruction and discipline in the use of arms. The boxes of rifles that had come into Camp Foote were yet unopened. Before the morning light of August 29th had dawned upon Camp Chase, the long roll was sounded and the men sprung from their sleep to meet an impending danger which the call indicated. The boxes were hastily opened and the arms distributed, with the exception of A and B Companies, which had received their Sharp's rifles as they came off Long Bridge. After making coffee the regiment moved off in light marching order, leaving baggage behind and taking only their rubber blankets, toward Fort Ethan Allen near Chain Bridge, about ten miles above Washington. The threatened danger proved a false alarm. Nearer and nearer the regiment was approaching the great army and the real activities of war.
Nelson S. Bailey of Company B writes : — "No impressions of moment came to me during our journey to Washington, but when we had crossed the Potomac by way of Long Bridge and landed with both feet on Virginia soil, I remember clearly my impres sions We were in the enemv's front vard and he was there
From New York to Antietam. 25
with his lawn-mowers. I recollect the bivouac at South Mount ain. The lifeless bodies there told us the tale that we were marching shoulder to shoulder with death as they had marched. The enemy was not far ahead, for two days afterward we caught up with them and they 'caught on' to us by passing our way shells for which we had no present or prospective use."
Sunday, September 7th, the regiment, with the One Hundred and Thirtieth Pennsylvania and One Hundred and Eighth Xew ,York Volunteers, two new regiments, were as signed to form the Second Brigade of the Third Division, Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Colonel Dwight Morris was placed in command of the brigade and Lieu tenant-Colonel S. H. Perkins assumed command of the regiment. The destinies and fortunes of the Fourteenth Regiment were now linked with those of the Army of the Potomac.
Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins had perhaps by instinct and some training a larger share of military spirit than the average of the commissioned officers who left the state in 1862. Originally entering the service as a captain in the Fourth Connecticut Volun teers, he became one of the most efficient officers in that organi zation when connected with the First Connecticut Artillery. ''Upon the organization of the Fourteenth, Governor Bucking ham promoted him to the majority thereof and speedily there after to be Lieutenant-Colonel. In this capacity he left the state and (Colonel Morris having been assigned to a brigade) it was mainly due to his persistent zeal in drilling the men and instruct ing the offices, that when the green regiment was hurled into the battle of Antietam, within three weeks of muster in, that it there won for itself such honorable record. All the fall and early winter the Lieutenant-Colonel continued his earnest labors, until the second great battle, at Fredericksburg ; where he fell very badly wounded in the neck and shoulder. Borne off the field under a heavy fire, the regret was deep and general when his wounds forced his resignation. Later in the war he served as one of the State Allotment Commissioners, and from 1865 had been in mercantile pursuits until early in 1873, when insanity followed a series of epileptic fits and he was removed to the state
26 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
insane asylum where he died. His remains were buried in Xew Britain with military honors, December I2th, 1874, the bearers being officers of his old regiment. By a singular coincidence two of those who bore his dead body to the grave, were two of five who just twelve years before bore his living body from out the smoke and flame of Fredericksburg."
With the usual incidents of camp life, the regiment remained near Fort Ethan Allen until Sunday, September 7th, when it was ordered to be in readiness to move with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit of Lee. An exception to this routine was the acci dental shooting of Private Thomas P. Allen of Company B in the wrist, which disabled him for further service. The picket line of the regiment had overrun the picket line of the old regi ments near them and through some error a few shots were fired, with this result.
Under date of September 8th, Major Hinks writes: — "\Yoods near Rockville, Md. \Ye are in a magnificent oak grove and a better spot for a camp could hardly be imagined. In these same woods two or three other regiments which compose our brigade are bivouacked. \Yithin bugle call there may perhaps be 50 or 100,000 men."
Just as the regiment turned into company streets at the Rock ville camp, James McVay of Company K, an old man, died of exhaustion incident of the days march. lie had two sons i:i the same company, who wailed bitterly, touching the hearts of all who beheld their grief. Moth of the sons, however, went through the service and were mustered out with the regiment in 1865.
Day after day the regiment marched side by side with the Irish Brigade and well do the men of the Fourteenth remember how the}" were jeered and guyed by the Irish Brigade, who "called them blue-legged devils and assured them they could not be seen for the dust they would kick up getting away from Mobbie Lee when he once got after them." It may be recalled, however, that after the Fourteenth had been for nearly two hours in the thick of the battle of Antietam and had watched the Irish Brigade make their charge on the Sunken Road, saw them slaughtered and repulsed ; and the Fourteenth went over to support that part
From New York to Antietam. 27
of the line, then their tune changed and ever after that they recognized the Fourteenth as fighting men and were never hap pier than when they were alongside of them in battle, confident that the Fourteenth would hold its part of the line secure.
Four days marching brought the regiment to Clarksburg, Md. The following day, September i2th, they arrived at Hyattstown and encamped at White Oak Spring upon ground occupied by the Confederates two days previous. Step by step they saw the desolation and waste of war-ruined homes, dismantled gun-car riages, piles of muskets and the putrefying bodies of horses and mules. Saturday, the I3th, the march was continued toward Frederick City. The boys were in the best of spirits and sang with a will "John Brown's Body" etc. The men were well re ceived and as they passed up the main street were greeted with loyal cheers. As they passed an old engine-house in which were a number of Confederate prisoners, one called out "What regi ment is that?" "The i_j.th Wooden Xutmeg" was the reply, to which the audacious prisoner answered "You will soon get your heads grated."
The regiment then marched about two miles beyond the town and bivouacked in a field near the reservoir. The next morning, Sunday, the regiment was called at two o'clock and drew three days rations of hardtack, pork, sugar and coffee, and lav down again. At eight o'clock the regiment was again called and be gan the march toward Antietam, crossing a stream and march ing until two o'clock, with two short halts, and crossing a range of the Hlue Ridge Mountains. Here a halt was made in a field and coffee cooked and about five o'clock it moved off again, it is presumed, to take part in the battle of South Mountain. They were prevented from doing this bv difficulty in crossing a canal which delayed the regiment several hours. At twelve o'clock they were able to pass the canal and marched to the battle-field of South A fountain, which that da}- had been the scene of a bloody contest between McClellan and Lee. Here the men saw for the first time the dire effects of war. Sergeant Benjamin Hirst, under date of September I5th, says: — "I awoke about five o'clock on the battle-field of vesterdav and went out to see what war
28 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
was without romance. I cannot describe my feelings, but I hope to God never to see the like again."
About ten o'clock the march was resumed, crossing the moun tain at 'Turners Gap", proceeding to P>oonsboro, which place was reached about three o'clock. The column turned east, fac ing Sharpsburg. The enemy was close at hand.
The march was continued through Keedysville, which was passed about nine o'clock. On the line of march acres of soldiers were camped upon each side of the road. The scene was at once weird and impressive. Hundreds of camp-fires were blaz ing as far as the eye could reach. Some of the men were cook ing, some stretched upon the ground chatting cheerfully, while others were enjoying a few hours sleep that the rest afforded. About a mile beyond Keedysville the column of which our regi ment was a part bivouacked in a field on the Hoonsboro pike, a short distance in the rear of McClellan's headquarters.
The next day was passed upon these grounds, an occasional shell from the enemy breaking the monotony of the hours. There we must leave them to await the experience and horrors of the coming1 (lav.
.. _ ^jj _:..____ •.';.._;
Bivouac of the Fourteenth Regiment by the Boonsboro pike, September 15-17, 1862. McClellan's headquarters in center.
CHAPTER III.
The Battle of Antietam.
Wednesday, September i/th, 1862, the day of the battle of Antietam, called by the Confederates the battle of Sharpsburg. was in many respects the most memorable in the history of the regiment. Plunged within three weeks after leaving the peaceful scenes and avocations of their home state into one of the most tiercel}' fought and blood v battles of the war, with scant military drill and instruction in the use of arms ; linked in a brigade with two other regiments equally deficient in discipline: with a frightful loss of men in killed and wounded, leaves in the minds of those who participated in it memories that cannot be effaced.
A glimpse from "Cemetery Hi
If there was ever an ideal place on this fair earth where men should meet each other in battle that place may be said to be the environs of Antietam Creek. Standing for a moment on this eminence just east and outside the quaint village of Sharpsburg,.
(29)
30
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
we may gain an intelligent idea of the surrounding teiritory. The view from this point is at once enchanting and grand. On the north and east we see the South Mountain range of the Alleghanies, their rugged contour broken by several circuitous passes or gaps. On the west a hill rises gracefully to a crest and slopes back by easy stages to the Potomac, which is not in sight. Looking then toward the north, we see this great amphitheater of nature with plateau several miles wide and somewhat longer. This may be called a plateau by forbearance as there is scarcely a level acre in its whole extent, it being covered bv low billowy ridges. X early through the center of this semi level
The Dunkard Church.
plain runs Antietam Creek, the course of which can be noted by a rank growth of sedge, waterweeds and small trees which mark- its banks. It is a slow, sluggish stream with an utter disregard for straight lines, although its general course may be said to be from northeast to southwest. It is crossed by three bridges and three fords. Running from Sharpsburg in an easterly direction, slightly turning to the north, is the Hoonsboro pike and running
The Battle of Antietam. 31
north, slightly bearing to the east, is the Hagerstown pike. To the northwest on the Hagerstown pike stands the Dunkerd Church, a quaint brick building resembling an old fashioned Xew England school-house, which, as \Yhittier says: —
" Still sits the school-house by the road, A ragged beggar sunning."
Singularly enough this worshipping place of a non-combative sect was in the very forefront of this fierce battle and shows many marks of the conflict. The valley is dotted here and there by prosperous farm houses, surrounded by extensive orchards, and the barns and outbuildings show the thrifty character of the people. Nearly all of the ground is under cultivation which is divided into irregular golden patches of ripening corn and the dull htied fields of clover, with here and there the more somber brown of plowed fields. About midway, looking from the north, we see the Mumma buildings ( later burned) and the neat and tidy premises of the Roulette farm. Around these latter buildings was the center of the operations of the Fourteenth Regiment. About a mile to the north and east were the Smith buildings which were the Division Hospital. Looking from the northeast about two miles on the distant hill, we see the brick build'ngs on Fry's farm, the headquarters of ( leneral McClellan. From this high vantage ground McClellan could ride to and fro and watch the rise and fall of the tide of battle.
Skirting along the Hagerstown pike on the left hand side about a mile north of Sharpsburg is a woods which has a depth of about a quarter of a mile and several hundred yards long. Then there is a field which runs at right angles to the road for about two hundred yards, thus making an elbow in the woods. The field then turns to the right, and runs along the woods parallel to the Hagerstown road for a quarter of a mile, when the wood again turns square to the left and extends back about half a mile, mak ing at this point again an elbow with the strip of woods running along the road from the church. These woods are interspersed with outcropping ledges of limestone, making an excellent shield for the men. These were called the "Fast Woods" in distinction
32
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
from those on the west side. Another feature of this battle-field which must be noted is the Sunken Road, since known as "Bloody Lane,'' an outlet of the Alumina and Roulette farms, there being lanes from each of these farms intersecting it. This road was several feet below the surrounding- land and extended a short distance west of the church in a southerly direction from the Hagerstown turnpike, about three-fourths of a mile. Along the eastern edge of this Sunken Road was a low wall which assisted
Bloodv Lane " since the war.
in making it a natural and formidable rifle-pit from which the Confederates could not be seen by the Federal forces their presence only being detected by the puffs of smoke from their murderous rifle fire or the tops of their butternut hats. So fiercely did the battle rage in one section of this Sunken Road that for about a quarter of a mile it was called "Bloody Lane/'
On the right, bordering the crest of this western hill, was the Confederate Army under Lee. Its right on the l6th. being on a
The Battle of Antietam.
33
sharp bend of the Creek to the west below LUirnside Bridge, and running- northwest about one-half mile east of Sharpsburg, terminating a few miles south of Mercersburg on the Potomac, like a gigantic bow. with its convex side toward the Union forces on the east and northeast. On the i/th we find this line has been drawn back, its right several hundred yards south, passing through the town of Sharpsburg. then swinging to the northwest. its left about a mile from its point of the i6th, with its concave side toward the I'nion forces. Lee's headquarters were in the vicinity of Sharpsburg. All of the divisions of the Army of Xnrthern Virginia were now in position confronting the .Federal ft >rccs. excepting the Divisions of McLaws and Anderson which arrived verv early on the morning of the i/th. and A. P. Hill's which arrived after noon of that dav.
Cornfield and Mumma Building.
Pee claimed that he had less than 40,000 men. Colonel Taylor in his "Pour Years with General Pee" fixes the number at 35,255. McClellan set the Confederate Army at much more than this, but he always had oriental ideas of his enemy's numbers, reminding one of the somewhat extravagant remark of Secretary Stanton who said that "If McClellan had a million men, he would declare his enemy had two million, and sit down in the mud and yell till he had three million."
The Federal force at Antietam was the First Corps under
34 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
General Burnside, Second under General F. V. Snmner, Fifth under General Fitzjohn Porter, Sixth under General William B. Franklin and Twelfth under General Mansfield. The Federal troops which really fought at the battle of Antietam were the First, Second, Ninth and Twelfth Corps. This was proven by the report of losses, the corps mentioned lost over twenty per cent, of their number, as given by McClellan, while the Fifth and Sixth Corps and the Cavalry division lost only two per cent., showing that they were practically unused.
One who has participated in a battle knows how much and how little can be seen, the smoke, the trees and the varying formation of the ground limit the vision ; the deafening noise making orders hard to be understood : the ghastly work of shot and shell, the shrieking of some of the wounded and the calm fortitude of others ; the shrill whistle of shells and projectiles, all tend to limit the knowledge of the ongoings of the battle outside of a few yards on either side. Orderly advances of bodies of troops can be easily described and easily imagined, but the larger the force, the more difficult such a description becomes.
We left the regiment Monday night, September I5th, camped in a suburb of Keedysville on the Boonsboro turnpike, after the long and tedious march from Fort Ethan Allen, which they left September /th. The next day the men rested, if rest is possible under such circumstances. Occasional shot and shell and the sound of cannonading kept the men in mind of an approaching battle. General Sumner had ordered General French to have his division in readiness to move at daybreak. Army life knows no hours. At two o'clock Wednesday morning the regiment was aroused to prepare for the march, each man receiving ninety-six rounds of cartridges and forty-five caps. Before the mellowing dawn of that September morning had touched the surrounding hilltops, the regiment was marching toward the scene of the days conflict. They crossed the Boonsboro turnpike, turned to the right and around the hill and after marching about two miles over fields and through woods, and in some instances fences were pulled down that obstructed the column, the regiment forded Antietam Creek about eight o'clock at the third ford which was
The Battle of Antietam. 35
deep and slippery. Some of the men filled their canteens for prospective want while prudence suggested to others to take off their shoes and stockings. They were on the right of French's division with the i3Oth Pennsylvania next and the io8th New York on the left, marching that day with the Third Brigade (Max Weber's) in front, their own Brigade, the Second, under Colonel Morris next and the First Brigade, (General Kimball. in the rear.
S
M
\
Antietam Creek where the Fourteenth forded.
After marching about two miles by flank they entered the East Woods. The order was given to form line of battle, shells were bursting about them, tearing off huge branches of trees while shot were cutting the air with their sharp shriek. This order to form line of battle was perhaps the supreme moment of their experience, as there shot through the minds of the men the
36
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
A West view of Roulett's House since the war.
thought of the loved ones at home : the terrible possibilities of the engagement made vivid by the ghastly scenes through which they had already passed at South Mountain : some indeed would be wounded, some slain outright ; there must inevitably be suffer ing and death ; and as they looked at the familiar faces of their comrades, they wondered who it would be.
Coming to a fence, Max Weber's Brigade in front passed over first. As they came in sight the Confederate batteries opened a fierce fire and there was a storm of shot and shell. The column then passed down a slight hill terminating in low marshy ground between the houses of Air. Mumma and William Roulette. Company A passed through a corner of Mr. Alumina's orchard and serious as was the occasion. Major Hincks confesses that he and some of his companions picked apples and ate them. The same company also felt the scorching breath of Alumina's burn ing buildings. The line was turned a trifle to the right into a cornfield. The spring-house of William Roulette was occupied by some belligerent sharp-shooters who were captured by Com pany P), after which the company joined the regiment. At this time the ri«-ht extended to a meadow and the left covered the
The Battle of Antietam. 37
Roulette house and extended to about the left hand side of the garden, passing by the Roulette buildings to a fence dividing the meadow from the cornfield. Climbing this fence they entered the cornfield which was about thirty acres in extent and belonged jointly to Mumma and Roulette. The field had a vigorous growth of nearly ripe corn and for a time the men were partially
The Spring House where prisoners were captured by Company B.
hidden from view and suffered little from the shots of the enemy. Max Weber's Brigade, the front rank, reached the opposite fence several yards ahead of the Second Brigade and their emergence from the field drew at once a terrific fire from the enemy, from \\hich the men of the Fourteenth suffered from over shooting. When the Fourteenth had passed through the cornfield and stood on a little ridge on the side next the enemy, there burst upon them a perfect tempest of musketry. The line of troops in front had passed well into the open field. It seemed to melt under the enemy's fire and breaking many of the men ran through the ranks of the Fourteenth toward the rear. Xo enemy could be seen, only a thin cloud of smoke rose from what was afterwards
38 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
>f Mumma's Orchard. Cornfield position second fence beyond.
found to be their rifle-pits. As by one impulse the line halted on the edge of the cornfield and opened fire. Probably they did then but little damage as the enemy were well protected, but upon our side the bullets whistled past, cutting off the cornstalks, and even" moment some one of the men would fall.
This rifle-pit was the Sunken Road which at this time was plentifully filled with a quota of Confederate men while the line of troops skirted the crest of the hill above them, thus able to fire over their heads.
The conduct of the 5th Maryland affected the regiment seriously by breaking and rushing back through the line. Colonel Perkins says in his report that they threw his right wing into confusion, but although the right and center were broken twice, the men rallied on the colors and formed in good order.
Walker in his "Historv of the Second Army Corps" says on this point: — "The 5th Maryland, \vhose commanding officer. Major Blumenberg, was wounded, was thrown into disorder, carrying away temporarily a portion of the I4th Connecticut, but the line was handsomely rallied by Colonel Perkins. The brigade was then ordered to report to General Kimball : and first the 1 4th Connecticut and afterward the i^oth Pennsylvania were advanced to the front line, subsequently joined by the io8th New York. All these regiments came under a savage fire, which
The Battle of Antietam. 39
they bore with remarkable composure, considering- that it was their first action."
About a dozen of the men mistaking an order from the cap tain of Company I to charge rushed forward into the open field. Not being followed by the rest of the regiment, they fell back with the exceptions of William B. Hincks and William H. Hawley of Company A and Benjamin Hirst of Company D, the latter of these seeing the enemy was about to charge went back to his regiment ; the other two became so interested in pouring shot into the, enemy that they did not notice the withdrawal of their regiment, and only came to their senses when they sa\v a regiment of Confederates moving down upon them. They beat
Fence corner extreme left of Fourteenth in cornfield. Fence in front and trees at right indicate course of sunken road.
a hasty retreat while showers of bullets followed them. They were not able to locate their regiment immediately and had a thrilling experience in finding it, Hawley not returning until late at night.
This fence at the farthest side of the cornfield was the farthest advance in that direction and a monument has been erected to mark the line by the State of Connecticut. They remained in this field about three hours according to Colonel Perkin's report. The regiment fell back to and over the fence separating the cornfield from the meadow where it \vas reformed, an ordei
40 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
being given to support General Kimball of Richardson's division. The men were then marched back by the left flank to the Roulette house, passed between the house and the spring-house on the side of the garden, between the barn and the garden, round the barn to the lane known as the Roulette lane, coming from Bloody Lane to the Roulette buildings, extending in the same general direction through the Roulette fields ; to a position by a wall of the Roulette lane, which Colonel Morris was ordered to take and hold which he did "with the Fourteenth Connecticut- alone."
Roulette House, 1862.
Even in the horrors of battle, there may be some amusing incidents. Corporal Crittenden of Company B relates the fo1 low ing: — "Of course we were green and excited and one of our sergeants who was in his place in the rear of his section could not fire. He edged his way through the line and advanced a pace to the front and fired at an angle of about forty-five degrees in the air, dropped his piece to his hip, threw down the slide and shoved in a cartridge, capped and fired without lifting the rifle from his hip, and again he did the same. This was too ludicrous
The Battle of Antietam.
41
to escape notice even in battle and one of the boys sang out 'John f are you bombarding them ?' This called him to himself and he returned to his place in the line." Corporal Crittenden con tinues : — "After we had been in the thick of the battle at An tietam for about one and one-half hours, the Confederate fire in front of the left wing of the regiment slackened, and the left being on higher ground could look beyond the center and right of the regiment to Ricket's Battery, which was on high ground a little to the right of us. A line of Confederate skirmishers were seen creeping up toward the battery and meeting no opposition. Captain E. W. Gibbons saw the move and asked his men if they could see any of our troops supporting that battery. Several replied 'no.' He said 'they are going to capture that battery/ He stepped to the rear and called the attention of Lieutenant- Colonel Perkins, T think, to the situation, and returned with in structions to take some men over to the support of the battery, which he did. Some troops came from the right of the battery
Another view of ''Bloody Lane".
42 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
and they and the Fourteenth boys met at the rear of the guns, and the Confederate skirmish line fell back precipitately. The left wing" then moved back and joined the regiment at rear of Roulette barn."
We quote from Chaplain H. S. Stevens' Souvenir. "The tide of battle was moving beyond Kimball, Richardson's division coming in for a heavy pull. This division had crossed the An- tietam an hour later than the Fourteenth and by the same ford, and had at once moved down the stream, its course for a distance restrained on the left by the stream and the rough ground along it. \Yhen the bend at Xeikirk's was passed it could extend to the left and all the brigades advanced up the slope at rear and
Roulette Lane, leading to the Sunken Road
left of Kimball. the 'Irish Brigade' (Aleagher's) on the right. Soon the latter brigade was heavily engaged ( partly in support of Kimball), then Caldwell, then Brooke. The regiments on the extreme left, Brooke's men. advanced towards the Piper house, fighting hard and successfully, and others that had ad vanced beyond the line of the crooked lane faced to the right and charged upon the enemy in the cornfield and orchard be tween Piper's and our line, completing thus the capture or de-
The Battle of Antietam. 43
struction of all its remaining occupants. This advance move ment of Brooke on the far left made it necessary that his brigade should have support, so Kimhall was directed to send him aid. As he. naturally preferred to keep his own men, now flush with ammunition, he detached his temporary reinforcements, the 1-j.th Connecticut and io8th Xew York, and sent them, under com mand of Colonel Morris, to Brooke."
While taking this new position, the regiment moving from the wall but yet in the Roulette lane, it was. subjected to a terrible ordeal by the bursting of a shell in Company D, killing three men and wounding four. Those killed were Henry Tiley, \Y. P. Ramsdell and R. Griswold. Joseph Stafford and L. Griswold each lost an arm and George Colburn and Henry Talcott were seriouslv wounded.
Where the Regiment supported Brooke.
Sergeant Benjamin Hirst mentions the following incident: — "While we were lying in the rear of the stone wall. Sergeants Brigham. Stoughten and myself were talking over the events we had passed through in the morning, and W. P. Ramsdell quietly remarked that if he was going to be hit. he would prefer to have the top of his head blown off. When midway between the wall and the position assigned to us, I was about the center of the
44 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
company, urging' the boys to close up, when a rebel shell came whizzing by and struck about two files in my rear. As soon as I could turn I saw about a dozen men lying in a heap and the first man I recognized was W. P. Ramsdell with the top of his head blowni off."
A member of the regiment visiting the battle ground at Antie- tam a few years since found the heel of a shell on what he thought was the exact spot where the shell burst which made such havoc in Company D. It does not require much imagina tion to conclude that it was the same deadly missile.
Although the bursting of the shell was a great shock to the regiment, it closed up and moved on. The movement was con tinued to the left beyond Richardson's regular line to a point from ten to twenty rods beyond the fence. Here although not within musket range they were within shelling range and some were struck. One of these shells passed through the ground under Hiram H. Fox of Company P>. Tt produced a great shock, rendering him unconscious for several hours. Another shell struck and killed William H. Norton of Company A. Here a serious accident occurred, Robert Hubbard of Company B wa^ shot by the careless handling of a rifle by a member of his own company. And also Thaddeus Lewis of Company A came to his death in the same way. The regiment was then ordered to support a battery at the top of the hill. It was while superin tending the workings of this battery that General Richardson was mortally wounded, a detail of the Fourteenth Regiment carrying him from the field. The regiment was then moved to the top of the hill by orders of General Hancock, who had taken Richardson's place in command of the division. General Hancock says: — "Finding a considerable interval at a dangerous point between A leather's Brigade and Caldwell's Brigade, the Fourteenth Connecticut was placed here, and a detachment from the io8th Xew York on the extreme left." As soon as the regiment reached the summit of the hill they attracted the fire of some Confederates who had come out from Bloody Lane on to this plowed field of the Roulette farm. To escape this fire, the regiment was ordered to lie down which it did, but the enemy
The Battle of Antietam.
45
,0
Where General Richardson fell.
having the range harassed them until dark, principally with shells. The ground had recently been plowed and was covered with a layer of powdery earth. They longed lor night to come and were well-nigh exhausted, having had no water through the day and only a few hard crackers. They heard the distant firing far to the left, and expected any time to be called into further action. Soon night came and the firing ceased. During the night there was a severe rain which while refreshing did not add much to the personal beauty of the men. Here they lav all that night and the next day and night and until ten o'clock Friday morning.
Chaplain Stevens says : — "All that night through and the following day and night they heard the dreadful groans and cries of the wounded and dying wretches in Bloody Lane just over the hill calling for water or help, or to have taken off others who. dead, were lying across or upon their tortured and helpless bodies, or for death to release them from their anguish; but they were powerless to render the assistance their hearts longed to give."
Major Hincks gives some details of the trying experience of the regiment on the plowed field. In a letter to friends at home he says: — ""We had just moved to the top of the hill to the right of the battery and had commenced to form a line by throw ing out our guides as on parade, when one of General French's
46 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
aids ordered the Lieutenant-Colonel to make his men lie down at once. The action was needful for the enemy had seen us and at once commenced shelling us. It was very trying1 to have to lie inactive under fire and listen to the hideous howling of the shell varied only by their crash in exploding and occasionally the shriek of some one who was struck. I lay closer to the ground than ever before in mv life, although it was a plowed field and an exceedingly dirty place, and I never prayed more fervently for darkness than then. This was by far the most trying, though by no means the most dangerous part of the day.
The plowed field. "Bloody Lane" in rear.
Darkness at length came down and the enemy's fire slackened and then ceased altogether and the thunder of battle died away. We could once more raise our heads and the few of us who were fortunate enough to have any rations found an opportunity to eat something. I myself had a few crackers and a bit of pork which I had taken from a dead man's haversack before I had found the regiment. Ordinarily T should have had some scruples about partaking of such fare, but this was no time for squeamishness. We threw- out a fe\v vedettes in front of us
The Battle of Antietam. 47
and slept such sleep as we could get on the plowed ground, with neither overcoats, blankets or tents. A shower during the night wet our clothing through.
Kverv one anticipated that at dawn we should renew the con test, hut no such order came. The rebel sharp-shooters opened upon us as soon as it was davlight and our skirmishers replied. ( )ne could not raise his head from the ground without being ob served and having a shot come whistling river. In some cases the rebels, who seemed to be posted in an apple orchard, climbed trees to get a better view of us, but from there our skirmishers, who were posted behind dead horses, rails, rocks, trunks of trees or any other available shelter, soon dislodged them. William Hawlev joined us in .the night to our great joy, for we had mourned for him as dead, bred Doten in trying to clean his gun accidentally discharged it, to the great indignation of those who lay in front of him and did not care to be considered as rebels. The bullet went into the ground near my head. Upon our right we connected with a remnant of the Irish Brigade and a little farther on was a battery of brass guns. Upon the left \ do not know what troops were near us, if any. I am bound to say that tired, hungry, cold and dirty as we were, we did not personally have much of the 'On to Richmond' feel ing and personally were not anxious to renew the contest, but all day we expected the order and had it come no doubt would have done our duty.
The next night was about as uncomfortable as that which preceded it. Friday morning dawned and no enemy appeared in our front. Our skirmishers were advanced for over half a mile without meeting opposition. Xow we could stand upright and look around us. Just in front of us and but a very few rods distant was a rebel rifle-pit. Their dead bodies lay thick in it and just in front of it lay the dead body of one of our men apparently killed in the very moment that he was captured. About ten o'clock we were relieved and sent back to the rear where we joined the other regiments of the brigade and had ammunition, bread and pork issued to us. Thus ended our actual share in the battle."
48
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Samuel Fisk ("Dunn Hrowne") of Company G writes to the Springfield Republican under date of September i8th as follows: — "The battle itself was a scene of indescribable con fusion. Troops did not know what they were expected to do, and sometimes, in the excitement, fired at their own men. Hut in the main for green troops 1 think we behaved well ; the men firing with precision and deliberation, though some shut their eyes and fired into the air. Old officers said the musketry fire was
A section of "Bloodv Lane".
the hottest they ever heard. The excitement of battle comes in the day of it, but the horrors of it two or three days after. I have just passed over a part of the field, I suppose only a small part of it, and yet I have counted nearly a thousand dead bodies of rebels lying still unburied in groves and cornfields, on hillsides and in trenches. Three hundred and fifty I was told by one who helped bury them, were taken this morning from one long rifle- pit which lay just in front of where the Fourteenth (among
The Battle of Antietam. 49
other regiments) made their fight, and were buried in one trench." (This must have been the section of the Sunken Road known as i.loody Lane.) "The air grows terribly offensive from the tin- buried bodies ; and a pestilence will speedily be bred if they are not put under ground. The most of the Union soldiers are now buried, though some of them only slightly. Think, now, of the horrors of such a scene as lies all around us; for there are hundreds of horses too. all mangled and putrefving, scattered everywhere ! Then there are the broken gun-carriages and wagons, and thousands of muskets, and all sorts of equipments, the clothing all torn and bloody, and cartridges and cannon shot, and pieces of shell, the trees torn with shot and scarred with bullets, the farm houses and barns knocked to pieces and burned down, the crops trampled and wasted, the whole country forlorn and desolate."
Thursday night Commissary-Sergeant J. \Y. Knowlton crossed the creek with a light wagon load of provisions and refreshed the men as far as the limited supply would admit.
The regiment was relieved from its tedious and uncomfortable position on the plowed ground by General Hancock, to whose division they were temporarily attached, at ten o'clock Friday morning, going to the rear and joining their own brigade, and receiving rations, and bivouacked in the East Woods.
Thus ends the regiment's share in the battle of Antietam. It had indeed been a trying ordeal and its loss of men in killed and wounded was very great. The staff of the United States color was shot in two by a bullet, and the eagle's head knocked off by a piece of shell. The color bearer. Sergeant Thomas J. Mills of Xew London, who had been a lieutenant in the 1st C. H. A., was mortally wounded, when Sergeant George Augustus Foote, of ( iuilford, volunteered to take his place, and carried the flag the remainder of the day.
The report of the Adjutant-General of Connecticut states the loss in killed. 2 commissioned officers, 19 enlisted men ; wounded, 2 commissioned officers. 86 enlisted men ; missing. 28 enlisted men : total 137.
Acting Colonel Perkins submitted no report of the battle to
50 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
the Adjutant-General of Connecticut, but reported the killed, wounded and missing as follows:—
Company A. Killed, Privates, Thaddeus W. Lewis, Michael Maddegan, William H. Norton ; wounded, Corporals, Edward L. Humiston, \Yilliam E. Craig, Privates, Joseph Alix, Henry E. 1 Bachelor, Alfred Brown, Joel N. I Bradley, Francis Curtis, Edward Hill. Duncan McCann, Charles H. I Matt, Stephen D. Skidmore, Frederick 'fates, Edward A. \Vilcox, I;rederick Tay lor; missing. Privates, George P. Heck. Abner S. \Vhitcomb, Musicians, George H. Allen, Eucien YY. Hubbard.
Company 15. Killed, Private, Robert Hubbard; wounded. Cor porals. Frederick R. Beebe, David Maitland, Privates, Samuel G. Cam]), Charles C. Galpin, Joseph McClusky. Hugh Mc- Brayne. Benjamin C. \Yilcox: missing. Private, George Brown.
Company C. Killed, Corporals, David Mix, Henry Keeler, Privates, John H. Smith, Michael Keegan : missing. Private, Manfred M. Gibbud.
Company D. Killed, Privates, Henry Tiley, Russell (iris- wold, William P. Ramsdell, John Abby ; wounded. Privates, George Colburn, George \Y. Corbit, \\'illiam H. Corbit, Eoren S. Griswold, August Gross, Henry Hospodsky, James Henderson, Henry W. Orcutt, George F. Sloan, Jose])h Stafford, Henry Tal- cott, Samuel E. Talcott, Thomas \Yilkie. Christopher \Yaldo, Alfred A. Taft, Abner S. Bowers. Ansel D. Xewell ; missing, Privates, Frank D. Main, David 15. Crombie.
Company E. Wounded, Sergeant. Henry C. Miller, Corporal, George Smith, Private, Richard AYest : missing. Privates, Eucien B. Holmes, William F. Eovejoy.
Com])any F. Killed, Captain, Jarvis F,. P>linn, Sergeant, Frederick R. Eno ; wounded. Privates, Henry Alcott, Henry Beach, John E. Bartholomew, Martin D. Cowles, Peter Frazier, Victor Holcomb, — George H. Eewis, Eliphalet S. Packard, Hiland H. Parker, I. Frank Smith ; missing, Private. Francis Kavanagh.
Company G. Killed, Captain, Samuel V. Willard. Private. John \Y. Parks ; wounded. Sergeant, Henry A. Pendleton. Privates, George H. Done, Alfred H. Dibble, John A. Hurd ; missing, Private, Horace Stevens.
The Battle of Antietam. 5 1
Company H. Wounded, Sergeants, John A. Tibbits, Thomas J. Mills. Privates, — S. S. Fox, John Miner, — F. M. Ames; miss ing. Privates, John Lunger, John (loddard, Lewis L. Latour, Christopher Brown, Edward Mitchell.
Company I. Killed, Corporal, Richard L. Hull, Privates, Edmund I. Field, Raphael W. Benton ; wounded. Privates, Henry M. Rossiter, John Ryan, Valentine Arendholtz; missing, Corporal, Elbert Sperry. Privates, Sylvester J. Taylor, Augustus Flowers, Hiram Couch.
Company I\. Killed, Privates, Benjamin R. Fuller, Henry P. Yerrington : wounded. Lieutenants, James B. Coit, George H. Crosby, Corporals, John R. Webster, Edward Dorcey, Privates, George \\'. Uabcock, H. H. Brainard, Peter Divine, Jacob Dyetch, Xelson Bement, John Bayhan, William Carroll, Selden Fuller, John Harren, S. 1). Allyn, — A. T. Simonds ; missing. Corporal, X. P. Rockwood, Privates, Frederick Chaclwick, T. Farrell, E. \\"eeks, C. Risley, E. Maynarcl, O. Kibbe.
Captain Jarvis 1C. Blinn, of Company F, the first officer to head the list of those who were killed in the service of the Fourteenth Regiment, was born at Rocky Hill, Conn., July 28th, 1836. He resided there until 1853, when he removed to Xew Britain. August 8th, 1862, he enlisted in the company then organizing" in X'ew Britain for the Fourteenth Regiment. He was unani mously chosen captain and commissioned as such August I5th; left the state at the head of his company August 25th ; and was constanly at his post until the i/th of September, when, early in the day, just as his company was ordered to fall back from their somewhat advanced position on the battlefield, a bullet struck him, passing through the heart. He made the single exclamation "T am a dead man!" and died instantly. A friend says of him: — •"! know of no important incidents in his life. I only know that he was faithful and true in all the rela tions of life, winning his way by his own merit to the affection and confidence of all who knew him. With an earnest devotion
Note. The names marked with this sign — are not found in State Roster •of the Fourteenth Regiment published in 1889.
52 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
to his country, he gave himself 'willing to die if need be, for the good cause.' ' His remains were taken to Xew Britain for inter ment.
Captain Samuel F. Willard, of Company G, was born in Madison, Conn., November 22d, 1822. He passed his life in that quiet New England village in mercantile pursuits until his enlistment in the Fourteenth Regiment August 6th, 1862. He had some military experience, having commanded an independent militia company in his own town. Being impressed with his duty to his country at the second call for troops, he called upon his townsfolk to form a company for the war. The ranks were quickly filled with the best and bravest of the youth of the town and he was unanimously chosen captain. Farlv in the dav while gallantly leading his men into the thick of the fray, he fell uncon scious and later died. His body was taken to Madison where he was buried with military and masonic honors.
Second Lieutenant George H. I). Crosby, who was mortally wounded, died October 23(1, 1862. He was born at Barnstable, Mass., November 22(1, 1840. In 1850 he removed with his parents to Middle Haddam, Conn., where he resided until his enlistment. He made two unsuccessful attempts to get an ap pointment at West Point, entering \Yesleyan University in Mid- dletown in the fall of 1861. Having decided military predilec tions, he joined the Mansfield Guard and there studied the tactics. He marched with his regiment to Washington and was left with a large guard over the camp at Arlington, when the regiment marched to Fort Ethan Allen. The government not supplying sufficient rations, he purchased them for his men from his own limited means, declining to be repaid. When the regiment marched from Ethan Allen on the Maryland campaign, he rose from a sick bed in the hospital to join and march with his com pany. A letter written about this time from Sergeant Goodwin of his company (killed later in the war) to his friends, praises his coolness under fire and states that his men were growing very fond of him. During the battle Crosby was walking from one end of his company to the other, encouraging his men. when a bullet struck him in the side, passing through his lungs just in
The Battle of Antietam. 53
front of the spine, and lodging1 on the opposite side just under the skin. He was earried back to the hospital and a few days later sent home where he died, as we have above stated.
Before leaving the vicinity of Sharpsburg. the officers assembled and adopted the following resolution : —
"Resolved, That we, their fellow-officers, do but simple justice to the memory of these brave and devoted officers when we testifv in this public manner to their efficiency in every public and private duty, to their watchful kindness and care over the soldiers of their respective companies, to the fraternal courtesy ever manifested by them in their intercourse with others, and to their earnestness and zeal in the patriotic cause for which they drew their swords."
It only remains to record a few notices of recognition and praise by the several officers in command and in confirmation of what has been written, in addition to the full reports of the battle by Colonel Morris, Acting Brigadier-! General of the Second Brigade, and Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins to their superior officers.
General Hancock says: — "I found the troops occupying one line of battle in close proximity to the enemy, who was then again in position behind Piper's house. The Fourteenth Connecticut Regiment and a detachment from the One Hundred and Eighth Xew York Volunteers, both under command of Colonel Dwight Morris, were in reserve, the whole command numbering about 2, TOO men, with no artillery. Finding a considerable interval at a dangerous point between Meagher's Brigade, then commanded by Colonel Burke, of the Sixty-third Regiment Xew York Volun teers, and Caldwell's Brigade, the Fourteenth Connecticut was placed there, and the detachment from the One Hundred and Eighth Xew York Volunteers on the extreme left."
General French, Commander of the Division, says in his re port: — "Surgeon Grant organized his Division Hospital under fire. The division commissary. Lieutenant Schuffner. and Lieu tenant p-Tale. Fourteenth Connecticut, division ordnance officer, were strenuous in their exertions to supply the command. The conduct of the new regiments must take a prominent place in
54 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
the history of this great battle. I ndrilled, but admirably armed and equipped, every regiment, either in advance or reserve, dis tinguished itself, but according to the energy and ability of their respective commanders. The report of Colonel Morris, Four teenth Connecticut, commanding brigade, exhibits the services of his command. There never was such material in any army and in one month these splendid men will not be excelled by any."
Report of Colonel Dwight Morris, Fourteenth Connecticut Infantry, commanding Second Brigade, of the battle of Antietam :
"Headquarters Second Brigade, French's Division, September 19, 1862.
Sir: In obedience to orders, my brigade left camp at Keedys- ville on the morning of the i/th. After fording the Antietam, marching about two miles by the fiank, we formed line of battle, the Fourteenth Connecticut on the right, the ( )ne Hundred and Thirtieth Pennsylvania center, and One Hundred and Eighth Xew York on the extreme left. We marched forward, forming in front of William Roulette's house and farm, which was occupied by the enemy, and, having driven them from that position, the right rested in a cornfield and the center occupied a space in front of an orchard. We were here exposed to a galling cross-fire for three hours, but maintained the position. The Fifth Maryland Regiment fell back early in the action, passing through the right wing of the Fourteenth Connecticut. The right was immediately formed by Lieutenant-Colonel S. H. Perkins, and the regiment three times formed under a severe cross-fire. Major C. C. Clark also rendered great assistance in forming the line. Adjutant T. G. Ellis, who acted as my aide, constantly communi cated with General French, and in doing so was greatly exposed in conseciuence of the position taken by the general amid a very hot fire.
Having received orders to support General Kimball, vho was obtaining ammunition, I reported to him, and was ordered to take a position near a stone wall and to hold it. This 1 did with the Fourteenth Connecticut alone until ordered to advance the
The Battle of Antietam. 55
Fourteenth to support Colonel Brooke, commanding First Brigade, Richardson's Division. I took the position assigned, and was ordered by General Caldwell, temporarily in command of Richardson's Division, to remain until further orders. The Fourteenth was here shelled by the enemy, until ordered by ( leneral Hancock, who relieved ( ieneral Caldwell from the com mand, to the front which position the Fourteenth held for thirty- six hours, constantly harassed by the enemy. From the time I was ordered to support (ieneral Kimball I remained with the Fourteenth and ( )ne hundred and thirtieth Pennsylvania, now joined to the First I Brigade, and the One hundred and eighth Xew York. For details I refer you to the reports of the colonels of the regiments.
My brigade captured 2 stand of colors, 2 captains, 7 lieutenants, and about 400 privates, who were turned over to the provost- marshal at I >oonsborough, besides wounding many field officers of the enemy. We also took over 400 stand of arms, which were turned over to the ordnance officer. I attribute our success in a great measure to the constant communication with the command ing general through the day, as well as to the unsurpassed bravery of our men. The men in my brigade were all new troops, hastily raised, and without drill or experience, and although under fire for the first time, behaved with great gallantry. In front of the last position held bv the Fourteenth Connecticut more than 1,000 of the enemy lie slain.
My loss in killed, wounded, and missing is 529. Very respectfully yours,
Dwir.iiT MORRIS,
Colonel, Commanding Second Brigade, French's Division. Lieutenant J. W. PLUMI-:, Assistant Adjutant-! ieneral."
Report of Lieutenant-Colonel San ford H. Perkins, Fourteenth Connecticut Infantry, of the battle of Antietam:
"Headquarters Fourteenth Regiment Connecticut Yolunteers,
Sharpsburg, Md., September 19, 1862.
We broke bivouac at camp near Keedysville, Md., on the morn ing of the i/th of September, taking position on the right of
56 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
your command according to order, and inarched about two hours by flank, when we formed line of battle and moved forward a distance of about one-half mile, when we became engaged, our position being in a corn-field west of William Roulette's farm house, the enemy occupying a position on the summit of a hill to our front. The Fifth Maryland Regiment being slightly in our advance, I reserved my fire until they broke, which threw three companies of my right wing into confusion, when we opened fire from the left and proceeded to rally the right, which having been effected, we held our position under a severe cross-fire for nearly three hours, during which time, my horse being disabled, I was obliged to continue with my command on foot.
I cannot omit to say that during the time above mentioned my right and center were broken twice, but rallied on the colors and formed in good order and, when ordered to retire, moved from the field with precision, after which we accompanied you to sup port General Kimball, who was retiring for ammunition, and took a position near a stone wall east of the farm-house, holding the same until ordered to support Colonel Brooke.
During this movement, while marching by flank, a shell was thrown into our ranks, killing several of our men. The ranks were at once closed, the regiment moving forward at quick time and in good order. At this time and during the remaining thirty-six hours, being under your immediate command, requires no further details.
Where all behaved so well it may seem invidious to particu larize, but I feel bound to mention Captain Blinn, of Company F, and Captain Willard, of Company G, who fell at their posts gallantly cheering their commands. Also First Lieutenant Coit, commanding Company K, and Lieutenant Crosby, of the same company, were dangerously wounded, leaving that company without a commissioned officer. Acting Adjutant Lucas, Assist ant Adjutant-General Ellis, together with Major C. C. Clark, rendered great assistance in rallying the command under a gall ing fire, at which time the horse of Assistant Adjutant Ellis was disabled. Sergeant Mills, color-bearer, was severely, if not mortally, wounded while bearing and waving aloft our standard,
The Battle of Antietam.
57
and his place was filled by Lieutenant Comstock, Company H, who, with Sergeant Foote, of Company I, retained them until the close of the action. Our colors are riddled with shot and shell, and the staff broken. Captain Gibbons of Company B, deserves notice, who, finding the farm-house occupied by a large force of the enemy, ordered his company to advance and fire, scattering them and driving a portion of them into the cellar, where, by closing the door, a large number of them were cap tured.
As you are aware, our men, hastily raised and without drill, behaved like veterans, and fullv maintained the honor of the Union and our native State.
Total killed, wounded, and missing, 156.
1 have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
SAXFORD H. PKRKIXS,
Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Fourteenth Regiment Con necticut Volunteers. COLOXKL Dwir.irr MORRIS,
Commanding1 Second Brigade, General French's Division."
Burnside's Bridge.
Kimball's Hill. Antietam.
CHAPTER IV. After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg.
It was apparent Friday that Lee had moved his army across the Potomac at the Shepardstown ford and was now safely on Virginia soil. McClellan was one of the most courteous and generous of generals and, although a part of his army, the Fifth and Sixth Corps and cavalry, were practically unused in the battle of \Yednesday, did not attempt to further disturb the enemy. Then again he was probably aware that Lee had not completed arrangements to meet him. This delay in not finish ing the battle at Antietam gave his army opportunity for rest and recuperation. The army though jaded and worn by the terrible experiences of the week would, however, have responded to a call for a further attack cheerfully.
The men of the regiment went over the ground and viewed the havoc of the battle. In consideration for the regiment's service at the front, the men were relieved from the disagreeable duty of helping to bury the dead, though some of the men assisted. Saturday afternoon there was an inspection of the regiment in common with the entire army. On Sunday religious services were held in the beautiful oak grove where the regiment was bivouacked, with "flag-draped drums for a pulpit and the inspir ing music of the band serving as church bell and orchestra. ''
(58)
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg.
59
This was the first religious service in the field, few have been held under such circumstances, and none will forget that im pressive occasion. The horrible experiences of the week, the deaths of their comrades, many of them attached to each other bv the ties of boyhood clays, brothers and relatives, were very vivid to them in these hours of more quiet reflection.
In the vacancy made by the death of Captain IJiirin, \vho was killed early in the day of the battle, ist Lieutenant Samuel A. Moore of Company F was promoted to be captain.
During Sunday a ration of fresh beef was served which was the second since leaving Hartford. All the rations tl'e regiment had during the week since reaching Antietam had been four issues of hardtack, coffee, sugar and salt pork.
On September 2ist, Sergeant Benjamin Hirst states: — "Every man who had cut his body belt to a nice fit was charged
Where the Regiment forded the river.
60
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
with a new one. A few days before a man wearing1 his belt passing through the loops on his cartridge-box (as do nil old soldiers) was fined $4."
On Monday, the 22(1, the regiment started on its march to Harper's Ferry, fourteen miles distant, directly south, moving to the Hagerstown turnpike, passing the battered and shot riddled Dunkerd Church, and through Sharpsburg. The march was over a clustv road, the (lav was excessivelv hot and ir.anv of the men
JOHN MCCARTHY.
Chief Musician, who led the Band as the Regiment forded the river Sept. 22, 1862
felt it a hard task to keep up, and it was "Close up, Close up" all day. Officers and men were falling out every mile. About two o'clock they arrived opposite Harper's Ferry and found the bridges had been burned and it was necessary to ford the river. The river at that point was a wide brawling stream with a rapid current, but not more than two or three feet in depth. It was an animating scene, the band leading the way playing "Jordan is a
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg. 61
Hard Road to Travel," "\Yay Down South in Dixie," "Yankee Doodle" and "( )ld Virginia." Fverv now and then, some nn- fortnnate wight would be carried off his feet by the current or would slide on the slippery rocks that formed the bottom of the river and would go under the water, blowing like a porpoise and dripping wet, when he emerged, to the infinite amusement of his comrades. It was merry work crossing the stream and there was a feeling of exhilaration as they passed bv the ruins of the arsenal where John Brown had fought so stoutly, the band plaving "Glory Hallelujah."
\Ye copy on interesting passage from Colonel Frederick L. Hitchcock in his "War from the Inside," being some interesting sketches of the 1320! Pennsylvania Regiment. Speaking of this fording the river he says: — "( )ur division was headed by the Fourteenth Connecticut, and as we approached the river opposite Harper's Ferry its fine band struck up the then new and popular air, 'John Brown's Body/ and the whole division took up the song, and we forded the river singing it."
After leaving Harper's Ferry the column marched through the town of Bolivar until it reached Bolivar Heights where they encamped, about two miles from the town, which is nestled in a valley at the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers be tween three tremendous hills, or it might be said mountains for they form a part of the Blue Ridge Chain, — a most beautiful view. Away up on the right were McClellan's headquarters and occasionally on a clear day could be seen a balloon hovering in the air above to obtain a view of the enemy. The rebel camp- fires were in view about eight miles distant. The sight was a grand one as the great army was encamped over these hills and the view at night of thousands of camp-fires illuminated the hills from base to summit. The experiences of the week and the scanty supply of food, overcoats and blankets caused great suffering. In digging in an old breastwork which ran along the front some Sibley tents were found that had been secreted there the week before when our troops surrendered the place to the Confederates. Also dead bodies were found in this breastwork. These tents
62 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
were promptly made use of for shelter, they being particularly welcome owing to the wet condition of the men from fording the river.
September 2/th the sick men of the regiment, who were left at Fort Ethan Allen under the care of Dr. Jewett, joined the regiment.
Detachments from the regiment were assigned to duty here and there guarding government stores and doing picket duty. During the stay at Bolivar Heights there was much sickness in the camp, many times more than two hundred being under the doctor's care. This was owing to bad water, lack of proper food and no overcoats or blankets, and the nights were cold and frosty. A happy feature of the situation was its comparative nearness to the Shenandoah River, about a mile away, where the men could go to bathe.
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, with Bolivar Heights in the distance.
Comrade Albert F. Hall, of Company H, relates some experi ences which may represent that of many others. He says : — "The water here was so bad and with other conditions caused a great amount of sickness and eventually a large number of deaths. Chronic diarrhea was prevalent and I soon became the victim of typhoid fever, being carried on a stretcher to the little town of Bolivar below us. Here I was placed with others on
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg. 63
the floor of an unoccupied house. A I any around me died, but by such attention as my comrades and the surgeon could give me, F escaped death. One bright afternoon in October, utterly weak as I was. I tried to crawl out and up to the corner, a few rods distant. Xear the corner house, the lower part of which was occupied by sutlers, there was in the back-yard an old lady wash ing, who beckoned me to come in. I did so and dropped upon a bench, utterly exhausted and too weak to go farther. The name of this old lady was Cross, and she talked to me long and earnestly. I found her a good Union woman, with a son in the Maryland cavalry, living with her daughter in two rooms up stairs. 1 told her 1 would be so glad if 1 could get into a place where there was a fire. She finally said F should have a place on her floor near the stove. The following morning. Sunday, her daughter appeared, very plainly dressed in calico, but with bright black eves and a sympathetic heart, furnishing water, towel and soap I soon felt like a new man, which was completed by giving me a clean shirt of her brother's.
Later I discovered that this young lady. Sarah J. Cross, had a history, having been instumental in conveying information from the Confederate army to the I nion forces opposite, which fact the rebels ascertained and placed her under arrest, placing her in charge of her uncle, with the charge that if she escaped, it would mean death to him. Undaunted, however, this girl per- sauded her uncle to allow her to visit her sister at a point of rocks some distance away, opposite the L nion lines. She made her way there under cover of night, put out the light, and at dawn the following day went out upon the high point of rocks and. signalling with her handkerchief, a boat with Union soldiers at the oars was crossing. She jumped into a boat and started for the other side. Soon the Confederate cavalry dashed around the bend and began firing. Standing in the boat, she urged the brave men on while the Confederate bullets were flying about them. At last they got out of range and reached the Union •shore. This brave girl stepped ashore and, waving her handker chief, disappeared under the protection of the Union army. After the war she married a sergeant of Company P>. Cole's Cavalry."
64
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Here it may be well to state the routine of the regi ment's life. At rive thirty in the morning the men were aroused by the roll of the drums. They would beat only four or rive minutes and the man who was not in the ranks when they ceased, dressed, and ready for roll-call, was reported to headquarters for punishment. Calling die roll took only about five minutes when they were dismissed to get their own breakfasts as best they might. The main difficulty was the long distance and steep road over which they had to go for water and wood. At 7.30 the bugle sounded "Surgeon's Call" when all the invalids went down to have an interview with the M. D. The doctor felt the pulse of his patient and looked at his tongue and punched him in the ribs, and if he thought him not so
A street in Harper's Ferry.
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg. 65
sick as he represented himself to be swore at him and bade him be off. If, however, he thought him really unwell, he gave him a nauseous pill before dismissing him. This pill came to be known among the men as "Xo. 9" At 8 o'clock a. m. was guard mounting. Some thirty men were chosen from the various com panies to act as sentries for the ensuing twenty-four hours. They were marched out, paraded, clothing and equipment inspected, and inarched off to their posts to the sound of music. At 8.30 the regiment was drilled either by company or battalion, usually for about two hours. From about 11 o'clock until 3 the men did not have much to do except to get dinner. From 3 until 5.30 they were drilled again and wound up the duties of the day by dress- parade. At 8 in the evening was roll-call and at 9 the bugle was sounded to extinguish lights.
The retreat call at sundown was really enjoyed and oftentimes the fine band of the regiment would extend it into an evening concert. The almost universal time killer in camp was cards. Various games were played, but poker was king. A game of the latter could be found in almost every company street, officers as well as men taking a "twist at the tiger."
There was no question about the morals of the regiment, and it may be a joke, but has some significance when it is said that the Colonel offered a prize of $5 for any one that heard a man swear.
The regiment left "Bolivar Heights on the morning of October 3Oth crossing the Shenandoah on a pontoon bridge and taking a hilly road through the mountains a few miles, and then biv ouacked about eight miles from Harper's Ferry, between that place and Leesburg. When the regiment left Bolivar Heights several of the sick were sent back to the various hospitals.
There was something inspiring in the sight of the great army on the march. The long trains of wagons, the shining brass pieces of artillery, the horses with scarlet blankets, the long steadily moving column of men, the gleaming steel weapons and the echoing bugle calls rouse the martial spirit in a man if he has any. Then at night the camp-fires, shining through the dark ness over all the surrounding hills, make the landscape look like
66
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
"Jefferson Rock" overlooking the Shenandoah River.
a view of sonic great city in the evening : and the little groups of men around the fires, the stacks of arms, and the horses graz ing, make groups that a painter might well copy.
November ist the march was continued down the Louden Valley about three miles. On this day a very ludicrous incident occurred. While in camp here some of the men strayed out into a garden in search of vegetables and met with a queer interrup tion and reception. A red-headed daughter of the "sunny South" rushed out and overturned five or six beehives which stood at one end of the garden. While "our boys" could stand before a storm of shot and bullets, they were not disposed to face this musketry of nature and beat a hasty retreat before the infuriated insects, but later returned and secured the honey, which would not have been disturbed in the ordinary course of events. Cor poral Albert R. Crittenden writes of a further development of
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg. 67
this incident. He says : — "After the bees were subdued and the contents of the hives fell into our hands, to some of us it proved an 'apple of Sodom' for we got only bee bread. The red headed daughter of the South and an older female came into camp to identify some of the raiders. They lighted on us, not because they were sure it was us, but as the raiders had on dark blue trousers, we were taken to account. Some remnants of a honey box were found in one of the company streets and the captain was called on to explain. He said he did not know how the honey box came there, they had just moved into their position, and all his men were present or accounted for. Furthermore, he did not believe his men would be guilt}' of such actions as they were all pious men and good Baptists, indeed only about six weeks had passed since he had seen them all immersed in the Potomac. The captain was so positive in his statement of 'facts' and so honest about it that the maidens appeared satisfied and took leave of us."
November 2(1, Sunday, the march was continued in the direc tion of Snicker's Gap. The cavalry in advance kept up a run ning fire with the enemy's horse, cannonading all day. About 2 p. m. the regiment was formed in line of battle and skirmishers sent out to ascertain about a column of troops in front. Upon its being discovered that they were Union men, the march was resumed to Snicker's Gap, where they encamped for the night. Few of the regiment will forget that encampment. It was a bright moonlight night and the men had been sent to these heights to keep the Confederates from passing through the (jap. Picket-lines \vere thrown out. The view was a grand one as on the one side could be seen the Louden Valley along which the Union troops were camped and on the other side could be seen the Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley. The lights of the camp-fires of each army were plainly visible. Some of the men claim it was here that it was first discovered that the initials "B. C." \vere imprinted upon the hardtack.
November 2(1 the regiment went into bivouac at Uppersville There was evidence that the enemy's cavalry were close in front and were falling back upon the advance. Their camp-fires were
68 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
still smoking and it was apparent they had made a hasty retreat. Many of the men who had fallen out from various causes rejoined the regiment and at this time it numbered about 450 men, all told. A portion of the regiment was detached to guard an am munition train, the rest moving on and bivouacking about ten miles from the battle-field of Bull Run.
November /th the march was resumed and the regiment had their first experience of snow in the South. November 8th the march was through Warrenton, Ya., with colors living and band playing, General French at the head, and encamped on the out skirts of the town, the inhabitants looking surly enough. Ser geant Benjamin Hirst records under this date: — "Before the rebellion \Yarrenton must have been a very fine city, but every thing now seems deserted. Of inhabitants I saw none but a fe\v ladies peering at us through half-opened window blinds, arid most of them seemed to be weeping. As we marched by, our band played 'Yankee Doodle' without consoling them a bit."
An incident occurred while encamped near Warrenton of interest to members of the regiment, which may be here recorded.
"Headquarters i-ith Conn. Yols., Camp near Warrenton, Ya.,
November 12th, 1862. Captain S. H. Davis,
Sir : — You are hereby ordered to give in writing immediately the reason for the occasion of the noise in your quarters last night at or about one o'clock.
By order of S. H. Perkins, Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding 1 4th. Conn. Yols. George X. Moorehouse, Acting Adjutant."
Upon receipt of the foregoing order Captain Davis made the following reply : —
"Camp 1 4th Conn. Yols., near Warrenton, Ya.,
November I2th, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel S. H. Perkins,
Commanding I4th Conn. Yols.
Sir : — In response to your order of this date, I hereby respect- full v furnish 'the reason for the occasion of the noise in mv
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg. 69
quarters last night at or about one o'clock'. Late in the night — at precisely what hour T am unable to say — I was aroused from my peaceful slumbers by partial suffocation and also consider able disturbance in my quarters. Through the thick veil of smoke which clouded my vision I beheld the towering form of mv sable servant Philip — his countenance illuminated by the mingled light of burning brands — and his snowy teeth — and ghastly with an indescribable expression of confusion and horror, with one hand frantically, but fruitlessly, endeavoring to extin guish his burning pants — and the other upraised and swaying to and fro in the agony of despair, vainly striving to prevent the devouring element from wholly destroying the wretched remnant of a shelter tent which the said Philip is wont to use as a cover ing. A din of "laughter, coughing, curses and exhortations" saluted my affrighted ears. \Yhen T had sufficiently recovered my senses to realize the 'situation' the extreme ludicrousness of the whole scene caused me to join the peal of laughter. The terrified African finally succeeded in gaining the open air where he continued his incendiary work by unwittingly firing a woolen shirt, the property of Captain S. W. Carpenter's colored person, by name '(ieorge'. The friendly exchange of compliments be tween the two descendants of Ham which followed this breach of propriety, and the increased consternation of Philip (who now began to view himself in the light of the destroying angel com missioned to produce the final conflagration of this mundane sphere ) furnished new material for laughter — and finally the woe-begone expression of that dejected contraband as he sorrow fully sat surrounded by the ruin his hands (or feet rather) had wrought, his eyes bedewed with tears of mingled smoke and emotion — was too much for human risibles and then I laughed. At about this time the festivities of the occasion were interrupted by the voice of one I supposed to be yourself, forbidding the further continuance of the same which was the first intimation I had that I was engaged in disturbing camp. Asking your par don for this my prolixity yet feeling conscious that though neces sary it fails to do justice to the subject, I have the honor to sub scribe myself. Your obedient servant,
S. H. Davis, Captain 1-j.th Connecticut Volunteers."
70 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
It was while here that the regiment learned of the removal of McClellan, he being snpereeded by General IJurnside. A fare well review of the troops was given. Notwithstanding his ill success, very man}' of the men had confidence in him and were not altogether pleased with his retirement.
The regiment remained near \Yarrenton until the I5th, when after a hard march of about a dozen miles, they bivouacked with the rest of the division on a great plain not far from \Yarrenton Junction. On November i6th Company A was detached to guard a cross-road and spent the day there while the entire corps marched past and in the middle of the afternoon they started and overtook them, after marching about ten miles, and encamped about two miles in the rear of Falmouth. They remained here until three o'clock in the afternoon of the r8th when they took up the line of march for Belle Plain. General French was at the head of the column, and was saluted with cheers. He swung his hat and was cheered in return and really seemed sorry to see the regiment go. General French was familiarly known amon;;' the boys as "General Blinkie," a nickname applied to him from the peculiar blinking of his eyes which seemed to move all the muscles of his face, they moving up and down like the shutters of a blind.
The sutler's tent was often the object of attack and most com plete annihilation. Sergeant \Yade speaks of one occuring on the march from P>olivar Heights to Belle I 'lain when the Tenth New York tipped over a sutler's tent, stealing about two thous and loaves of bread for which the thrifty sutler had been charg ing the men fifteen cents a loaf. A member of Company F, Fourteenth Regiment, familiarly known as "Auty" was ever alert when there was anything to eat. It was while attempting to get his share of the plunder that he accidentally sprained his ankle and was taken to Surgeon Dudley's tent, where the ever ready surgeon gave him one of his famous No. 9 pills. These pills seemed equally efficient in restoring a sprained limb as in a case of chronic diarrhea. "Auty" reported himself for duty the next day.
The march was resumed about 7.30 on the morning of the I9th, the men in the best spirits, but their mood was changed
After Antietam and Before Fredencksburg. 7 1
before the day was over. Colonel Morris became bewildered and marched them round and round, through woods, across streams and through farmer's dooryards. Then the guide, who was a "secesh" farmer cleared out. The rain fell heavily and the regi ment crossed the same stream four times and every now and then would about face and take the back track, and were some five hours in marching a distance of four miles. On reaching Belle Plain the regiment was marched and countermarched several times over the ground and at length, the worst possible spot hav ing been selected, went into camp, the men wet, muddy and dispirited, about dark.
The condition of the regiment at Belle Plain was most un comfortable. Tt rained for nearly a week after the regiment reached there, the camp was situated amid swamps and mud Hats, their blankets and clothing were wet through and their fires could not be made to burn. Detachments from the regi ment as well as the brigade were sent out to unload barges and steamboats. Sergeant R. I '>. Tyler of Company B gives a vivid statement of the experiences of the regiment at this point. He says : — "The march through the Louden Valley and from thence to Falmouth ; the sickly, disagreeable, nonsoldier-like experiences of Belle Plain where our men. wholly unused to such work, were detailed to do duty as stevedores and longshoremen, some slight of frame and weakened in muscle by soldier fare, staggering from the barges under loads they could scarcely carry, while a big. fat. lazy negro stood by, sleepily mouthing out something that was supposed to be tally, although almost unintelligible to our men. This and the apparent inability of our surgeons to cope with the various diseases and ailments that were reducing our muster roll day by day : the full import of the differences in condition, as well as apparent importance in the esteem of the government between officers and men, especially those officers of high rank ; these were things that tried the metal and patience of our soldiers, so recently citizens, with all the rights and privi leges of American citizenship, more than facing Confederate musket and cannon."
Bv the first of December the conditions of the camp had some-
72
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
what improved. The band, which had so greatly helped to in spire and encourage the men during these hard days, serenaded Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins, playing "Auld Lang Syne" and na tional airs. December 6th the regiment was ordered to break camp at Belle Plain and join the army on the Rappahannock. The march was a wearisome and trying one. Dr. Levi Jewett records his impressions. He says: — "I well remember that march. It was a cold day, the mud deep and sticky and a cold rain fell nearly all day, toward night becoming mixed with snow and hail, and we had as unpleasant a time as I can remember during my whole army life. It was pitch dark when we reached our destination and we were told to go into the pine woods for the night. Heavy masses of snow were falling from the trees and there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground. It was a dismal place, — not much to eat and no way to make fires. There
The Armory at Harper's Ferry.
After Antietam and Before Fredericksburg.
73
was not much sleep that night. Colonel Morris with the aid of pioneers had a fire made at headquarters where some of us tried to get warm. It seemed as if half the boys would be dead before morning, but they all seemed to come out bright next day and went to cleaning up the ground and making a comfortable cam]).'1 Here they remained until the evening of December loth, where we may leave them to await the events of the coming day.
The Burnside Bridge in 1891.
Where the pontoon touched the Fredericksburg shore.
CHAPTER V. The Battle of Fredericksburg.
It chills the blood to follow the experiences of the Fourteenth Regiment during- the short time it has been in service. The long march from Fort Ethan Allen to Antietam, the terrible ex periences there, the tedious march to Bolivar Heights, the lack of proper food and clothing, the wearisome march to Belle Plain, the unsoldier-like and disorderly condition of the camp, and the heavy work as stevedores, make one wonder how any man could live to reach his native state.
\Ye come now to relate the bitterest of all these experiences in what might well be called the massacre of Fredericksburg. To understand the details of this horrible battle we may look for a moment at the situation. The regiment was encamped now at Falmouth, about three miles above Fredericksburg, on the north side of the Rappahannock. Fredericksburg, a sluggish South ern city, lies on what might be termed the south side of the river, the river at this point running from northwest to southeast. It had a few mills which were fed by a causeway running along in the rear of the town between the town and the Confederate for tifications. This causeway was from ten to fifteen feet wide, quite deep, and spanned by a number of little bridges, from which the planks were removed at the time of the battle. The
(74)
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 75
town rambles along the river front for about t\vo miles. A high ridge directly in rear of the town was called Alarye's Heights, which encircle the city back some five hundred yards, and are the termination of a plateau which rises from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in an abrupt terrace from the plain upon which the city stands. These heights form a half-circle
MAJOR CYRUS C. CLARK.
Wounded at Kredericksburg.
from the river above to a point below the city some little distance from the river, and are most admirably adapted for defensive purposes. The rebel batteries, numbering1 at least one hundred guns, were massed on these heights, and covered not onlv every street leading out from the city, but every square foot of ground of the plain below. A third of the way down the terrace was an earthwork filled with infantry while at its foot ran a stone wall
76 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
extending1 southward from the cemetery above the city and was continued by an earthwork around the whole circle. Behind this stone wall was massed a double line of Confederate infantry. To enter either street leading out to those heights was to face the concentrated fire of that mass of artillery and the deadly work of those three lines of infantry.
The concentration of the Federal forces on the north side di rectly in front, and the arrival of pontoon bridges to the edge of the river several weeks previous, were sufficient to give to so astute a military commander as Lee a key to Burnside's plans of operation. It is estimated that Lee had at this point about 85,000 men, the last of which had probably arrived there two weeks before the battle. The long delay in making any move to cross by the Federal forces gave the Confederates ample time to strengthen what was already an impregnable entrenchment. The semi-circular formation of the high ground enabled the Con federate artillery to enfilade the Federal army both at right and left. The town lay on the plain between this ridge and the river. This position selected by Lee was the strongest for military operations that could be imagined. F>om this point of writing it would seem apparent that the moving of the Federal forces was as much to the mind and pleasing of Lee as if he had given Burnside written orders, for it would appear as though lUirnside had no definite plan of his own as he abandoned the project which he entertained a few days previous of crossing at Skinker's Xeck, ten miles or so below the town. To march his army to Fredericksbnrg he proposed to throw over four pontoon bridges, one at the north and one at the center of the town, and two below. He ordered his grand division commanders to concen trate their troops near the proposed bridges, with Sumner near the upper and middle bridges and Franklin at the bridges below the town. "The laying of four or five pontoon bridges capable of bearing a great army is a work of some time, and the crossing of bridges is like passing a defile. To pass 100,000 men with a numerous artillery over four or five bridges is as far as pos sible from being a short or easy affair in a season of profound peace, and when there are scores of long range guns ready to
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 77
fire upon everv head of a column as it debouches from its bridge, a serious complication is brought into the affair, and it was as certain as anything future that as soon as it was announced that the engineers were at work on the bridges, the whole Confederate army would be on the alert, and that if the movement appeared to be serious, any troops that might be on the river below would be promptly called on to move to the scene of action as swiftly as their swift Southern legs could carry them, and it was alto gether probable that they would not arrive too late. And when it is remembered that the bridges were not thrown early on the iith., and that the attack was not made nor the army crossed that day, nor until more than forty-eight hours after work on the bridges was begun, it will be clear that all dreams of a surprise had vanished, and that the circumstances were well suited to filling the minds of Burnside's lieutenants with grave misgiving."
Many of Uurnside's generals advised against the attack, among whom was (General Simmer of the Second Corps. One wonders whether it was the obstinacy of Burnside or pressure from Wash ington impelled him to make this attack which resulted in such a fearful sacrifice. Certain if he was a military man of strength he must have known that it was impracticable and hopeless.
About three o'clock Thursday morning, December the nth. work was begun throwing over the bridges. The morning was foggy and the work continued until ten o'clock when the fog lifted and exposed the engineers to a fierce fusillade of sharp shooters secreted in rifle-pits and buildings that skirted the river side of the town. So determined was this firing that the work had to be discontinued, and the engineers were not successful in completing the bridges until about four o'clock in the afternoon,
We quote from Walker's ''History of the Second Corps" in regard to the laying of these bridges: — "So complete indeed v\as the Confederate's command of the situation, that when the work began at the Lacey House, on the morning of the nth., Barks- dale's Mississippians did not think it worth while to interfere, at first, with the detachment of Fiftieth Xew York engineers which had been charged with this duty, but allowed the bridge to be laid nearlv two-thirds across the stream, when, bv one vollev
78
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
the pontoons were swept clear of men. The position of the enemy, thus revealed, was, for an hour, pounded by our artillery, from right and left, until it was supposed that a sufficient effect had been produced, when the engineers were again ordered for ward, but to no better effect : then again and again the hopeless effort was renewed. 'They made,' says Lieutenant-Colonel Fiser, commanding the Seventeenth Mississippi, 'nine desperate at tempts to finish their bridges, but were severely punished and promptly repulsed at every attempt." '
Major Lacy's Mansion.
We left the regiment near Falmouth on the evening of De cember loth. About two o'clock Thursday morning in camp all was bustle and animation, fires were blazing, men were hurrying to and fro, for the sergeant-major had just been round with the order, "Strike tents, pack up and be ready at six o'clock for a march and a fight." The men hastened to obey and just as the day began to dawn, while they were finishing their breakfasts, the boom of heavy guns commenced, indicating that the ball had
The Battle of Frederickrburg. 79
opened. 13 ut little time was allowed for reflection for the clear ringing voice of the lieutenant-colonel was heard giving the order to fall in and in ten minutes the regiment was in motion. They took a circuitous route to avoid being seen by the enemy and at ten o'clock arrived at a place about one-half mile in the lear of the Major Lacey house, the headquarters of General Sumner. There the division halted as the pontoons were not yet laid. Among the sick left at Belle Plain was Colonel Morris, Com manding (icneral of the Second Brigade, which was now under command of Colonel Palmer of the loSth New York. The I32d Pennsylvania had been added to the brigade. The experiences had told heavily upon the ranks of the regiment according to Sergeant Hirst for while they took into the engagement at An- tietam 800 men only 300 muskets left Falmouth. Toward night fall there was a loud and long continued cheer as a signal that the bridges had been successfully laid. The order forward was given and the regiment passing through a narrow ravine moved toward the brink of the river, which they nearly reached when the order was countermanded and the regiment marched back and bi vouacked in the underbrush. This underbrush was green and wet and it was with great difficulty that fires were made to cook {.he coffee and rations.
Friday morning, the 12th, dawned clear, calm and beautiful,, and the regiment was early on the move toward the Rappahan- nock, passing over the bridge whose southern end was at the foot of Hawkes Street. There was a feeling of relief, and the band seeking to give expression to the joy of reaching the city struck up the tune "Dixie." They were immediately stopped by a staff-officer who either did not appreciate music just at that time or considered it indiscreet. From Hawkes Street the regi ment turned to the left into Sophia Street, the first street from the river and running parallel with it. Here they remained under arms the rest of the day, the roll being called as often as every hour to prevent the men from straying from the ranks. The houses appeared to have suffered considerably from the can nonading of the previous day, but not nearly as much as would have been supposed from listening to the bombardment. None
80
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Where the Regiment crossed the Rappahannock.
of the inhabitants were to be seen, they either having1 retreated within the rebel lines or were hidden in cellars to be out of harm's way. Some houses and stores were broken open by stragglers, but nothing like indiscriminate pillage took place. The queer appearance presented by some of these stragglers was very laughable. One would have on a woman's hat or would be decorated with a plume of peacock's feathers, another would be carrying a large gilt mirror and another still rejoiced in the possession of a pulpit bible. The feeling of joy and exaltation in reaching Fredericksburg and finding it practically abandoned, which even prompted the band to burst out with music, gradually wore away and there came over the regiment a gloomy and solemn frame of mind. There was something unnatural in the quiet of the enemy and it was no longer believed that they had retreated. The range of hills back of the town had a grim and threatening appearance ?ncl the suspense began to tell upon the
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 81
men. Before night the regiment was moved to Caroline Street, halting on the north side of the street, the right resting on Hawkes Street and the left on Faquier Street. Xight came on and the men were quartered in the houses in that vicinity, but were al lowed no fires. Some of the men went down cellar and, darken ing the windows, fried cakes made out of flour they found in the house, for supper. Some of these cakes were fearfully and wonderfully made, but they were an improvement upon hard tack and salt pork. At night many of the men rested in beds with one or two comrades, the first they had occupied since they left Connecticut.
, ttf i
ill]
Caroline Street, where the Fourteenth rested December 13, 1862.
The morning of the I3th was foggy and the position of the enemy could not be seen nor our own guns on the opposite side of the river. It was generally rumored in the regiment that it would be the Second Brigade that would first attack the strong hold of the Confederates. This was no mistake. About nine o'clock the regiment was suddenly ordered to fall in and obeyed, leaving their half cooked salt beef on the fire. They marched to Princess Anne Street and halted between the church and court house, the former of which was used as a hospital and the
82
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
latter as a signal station. The officer in charge of this signa1 station was Lieutenant Frederick Fuller of the I32cl Pennsyl vania Regiment, no\v of the Second Brigade. This was a con spicuous mark for the Confederate gunners, one of the upright posts that held the belfry having been knocked out already. It was gratifying to' see the faithfulness with which this officer did his duty in such perilous situation. Backward and forward, up
The Church and Signal Tower, Princess Anne Street, Fredericksburg.
and down, like a music master's baton did this red signal wave. The men of the regiment watching its movements in the quaint old belfry, sixty feet from the ground, with anxious interest, for they well knew that it would in time give in its own language the order, forward.
The regiment was here ordered to prime and fix bayonets. Shells came crashing down into the city, tearing down brick
The Battle of Fredericksburg.
83
walls and scattering death and destruction around. One would fall amid a group of men, burst with noise, and in a few moments pale and mangled forms with bloody garments would be carried by in silence. The regimental officers here dismounted and sent their horses back over the river. At noon "Forward Fourteenth" was again the word and they moved down the street, some times on the double quick, to the depot, turning square to the right on to one of the only two bridges bv which they could cross the canal and gain the plain in front of the enemy's position. The
Old Depot. Prussia Street.
firing of a dozen rebel guns came to a focus on each of these two points. Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins ran on foot at the head of the regiment cheering the men by his voice and example. The path was narrow and uneven and the ranks a little disordered. Across the causeway they filed and to the right near a stone wall, behind which a number of wounded lay. Some of the faces were already white with the strange pallor of death though it was but so lately that the fight had commenced. Still on and on, out into the open field under the full fire of the enemy's guns.
84 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Here the regimental line was reformed and the men ordered to lie down. While lying here several shells burst directly over the left wing of the regiment, causing much suffering in their ranks. By some mistake the regiment had formed in the rear of another regiment and accordingly the Fourteenth had to about face, march back a few rods, face to the front, and then lie down again. Some of the men of the other regiments jeered think ing the Fourteenth was in retreat, but they were simply obeying orders and the regiment showed much steadiness under such a heavy fire. Soon the order came to rise and move forward again on the double-quick. This brought the regiment to the very front just under the heights occupied by the enemy's ar tillery and very close to the sunken road in which were posted the rebel infantry.
Chaplain H. S. Stevens in his "Souvenir of the Fourteenth Regiment" says concerning this moment: — "Into a 'slaughter pen' indeed, were the men going, but with brave hearts they pushed forward, the officers cheering them on. Soon they filed to right by a half wheel, for this road was far to the left of the point to be charged, until the line came under the partial shelter of a slight mound, and formed on the left of Andrews. One or two changes having been made here to conform lines to posi tions, instructions were given the men to lie close until ordered up. The guns on Taylor's Hill fairly enfiladed the position do ing deadly work, particularly at the left of the regiment, as they did in the loth Xew York near. It was a moment when men's hearts are striken with a dreadful expectancy, for the outlook was horrible. Kimball's veterans were ordered on, and bracing for the fray, they made their straight, fierce rush at the stone wall, only to be hurled back by the leaden storm flung out at them by tiers of musketry as barks are beaten back by raging gales. Then Andrew's brave fellows were ordered up to the charge to meet a similar fate. There was a rush, a cheer, a crash of mus ketry with a tempest of bullets driven straight at their breasts, and the lines dissolved, stragglers or clusters firing here and there, but chiefly dropping upon the ground to be exposed as little as possible. Then the Second Brigade was ordered 'up
The Battle of Fredericksburg.
85
and at 'em'. Ah, that charge ! A few rods brought the line to the flat ground directly in front of the old 'Fair Grounds', in dicated at that time by some remaining tall posts and some high boards clinging here and there to the rails. Here Colonel Per kins shouted his last command to the Fourteenth. He dashed ahead and his brave boys followed. A few rods over ground every foot of which was lashed by artillery, and the leveled guns on the direful wall coolly waiting spoke out in unison terrific."
The Sunken Rond in front of the Confederate po
\Yho can depict the horrors of that scene? \Yhat language can adequately portray the awful carnage of that hour' The belching of two hundred pieces of artillery seemed to lift the earth from its foundation, shells screeched and burst in the air among the men as if possessed with demons and were seeking revenge, the shot from tens of thousands of musketry fell like rain drops in a summer shower, brother saw brother writhing in the agony of mortal wounds and could offer no succor, comrade saw comrade with whom he had marched shoulder to shoulder
86 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
in the wearisome marches or shared the meager food on their cheerless bivouac, still in death. Men fell like pins in an alley before the well aimed ball of a skillful bowler.
To still further quote from Chaplain Stevens: — "Down went Colonel Perkins, the leader, down went Major Clark, Captain Carpenter and Lieutenant Hawley. Captain ( h'bbons and Lieu tenants Stanley and Comes went down with mortal wounds and Lieutenant Canfield was killed outright. ( )ther officers were slightly wounded and Sergeants Fiske and Foot received fright ful wounds ; and so fell Color-bearer Dart and hosts of good men of the rank and file. ( )n pressed the rest as though thinking to encompass victory by their daring, reaching to within one hundred and fifty yards or less of the wall, when, hopeless of success, most dropped beside the huge fence posts or into little hollows for slight protection and to use their guns as best they might against the foe. While lying by one of these posts. Ser geant Dart and Corporal Symonds of Company D received fear ful face wounds. A shell struck the ground near them and ex ploded. A fragment tore ofl most of the face of Dart, fright fully disfiguring him for life, and the sharp sand was driven into the eyeballs of Symonds, quenching light there forever. Ser geant Lyman of the same company was lying close by these when they were hurt but strangely escaped harm, and with others put in some good work with the rifie. This was to our division the real end, and it practically dropped out of the fight for the day."
Major Hincks relates an incident in regard to Sergeant Foote of Company I. "A bullet, T am told, struck his cartridge-box spilling his cartridges, but he caught one as it fell and gaily ram med it home ; a second shot pierced his canteen when he raised it to his mouth and drank from the escaping water through the bullet hole ; a third time he was not so fortunate for a bullet struck his leg rendering amputation necessary and making him a cripple for life."
Major Hincks further says :— "Losing track of our regiment, Fred (Doten) and I went forward again, but found it harder work than the first time. Behind a mound nearly up to the front we found Colonel Palmer of the io8th Xew York, sitting, who
The Battle of Fredericksburg.
87
had been in command of the brigade. He could not tell us where to find either regiment or brigade, but pointed out to us a color on the ground near, which he thought had belonged to the Fourteenth. I partly unrolled it and on seeing the three grape-vines recognized it as ours and decided that it was best to confine our endeavors to bringing this safely off the field. We remained by this mound for several hours and watched line after line of our troops go up again to the attack only to be repulsed. Al length late in the afternoon we made for the rear, I carrying the color in one hand and my Sharp's rifle in the other. Xear
The Ca
which the Regiment passec
its \\ay to the charge.
the railroad track we were joined by Lieutenant Sherman of Company ( r. The enemy were throwing percussion caps at the causeway and seemed to have the range very well for they fre quently burst upon it with a hellish noise. At length we got safelv over, but it was nearly ten o'clock before we found the remains of our regiment. We spent the night as the previous one in one of the houses. Xext morning I handed the colors over to Captain Davis, the senior officer present."
88 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
The men of the regiment went back to the town either singly or by clusters and spent the night much as they did the previous one.
Samuel Fiske ("Dunn Browne") says: — "A few torn and black ened remnants of those fine regiments slowly retired to the city. The wounded were mainly brought off, though hundreds were killed in the benevolent task. The city is filled with the pieces of brave men who went whole into the conflict. Every basement and floor is covered with pools of blood. Limbs, in many houses, lie in heaps ; and surgeons are exhausted with their trying labors."
The days following, Sunday and Monday, the scattered mem bers of the regiment rallied together and remained with the rest of the division in line by the water's edge. On the evening of Monday, the I5th, the regiment was withdrawn under cover of darkness and after a weary march through the mud, reached their former camp above Falmouth late at night, under the command of Captain S. H. Davis of Company H, ranking captain of the regiment.
The following contribution was made by Major Hincks to the Minutes of the Regimental Society at its meeting at Hartford September 17, 1879:—
"The regiment was badly cut up in the charge upon Marye's Heights, and Sergeant Charles E. Dart, of Rockville, who carried the State flag, was mortally wounded. Sergeant George Augus tus Foote attempted to fill his place, but was shot in the leg and fell. His biographer, Captain Goddard, says : — 'After lying on the field a short time, he tried to rise, but was instantly fired upon again by the rebels, wounding him slightly in the head and in the hip. All the rest of that awful day, he lay still where lie had fallen. Three times our men charged over him, of course tramp ling on his wounded leg, while he, half delirious, begged them to kill him, to end his sufferings. But no one had time then to attend to one poor wounded fellow. That night he managed to crawl off to a little hut near the field, where some other wounded men had hung out a yellow flag. Here they lay with a little hardtack, and still less water, till the third day after the fight, when they were visited bv a rebel officer with a few men. He
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 89
spoke roughly to them, asking;, "what they were here for?" and two or three began whining and saying they 'did not want to right the South but were drafted and obliged to come, when Foote coolly lifted his head and said, "1 came to fight rebels, and J have fought them, and if ever I get well 1 will come back and fight them again." 'Bully for you' said the officer, 'you are a boy that 1 like,' and at once gave him some water out of his own canteen, sent one of his men for more water, washed his leg and foot and bound it up as well as he could, paroled him, and helped him across the river to the Lacey-house hospital. In fact, he and his men gave him a blanket, and cheered him as the wagon drove off.'
The State rlag was picked up, not far from the famous sunken road held by the rebel infantry, by William B. Hincks and Frederick 15. Doten of Bridgeport. Tt remained in their keeping through the day and they brought it safely from the field at the close of the engagement. Sergeant Dart died at St. .Mary's Hospital, Washington, I). C., January 6, 1863. The constitution of Sergeant ( afterward Lieutenant ) Foote was impaired by his wound, which was eventually the cause of his death."
Corporal, afterwards Second Lieutenant, Charles Lyman of Company K in "notes of experience in the battle of Fredericks- burg" gives some interesting personal incidents. He says : —
"Our regiment went upon the field by way of Caroline Street, the railroad depot and railroad causeway turning sharply to the right under a most galling fire, as soon as we were over the canal, which runs between the town and the plateau, which was the scene of conflict. After reaching our proper position in the line, we were ordered to lie down. On our way to this position, we passed three hay stacks, and I mention the fact here be cause they will figure prominently in my story later on. While oc cupying the position just mentioned, waiting our turn to 'charge,' we suffered much from the enfilading fire of a Confederate battery posted on the high ground far to our right. It was at this point that John Symonds and Oliver Dart received their serious wounds, and not at the far front, as stated by Chaplain Stevens in his souvenir volume. Svmonds and Dart and I were
90 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
lying side by side — Symonds on the right. Dart next, and i next, with a fence-post about four inches square between Dart's head and mine — not a huge fence-post as stated in Souvenir. A shell from the battery on our right burst near us, and an irregularly- shaped fragment, probably about three inches long and two inches wide, struck the ground in front of Symonds, throwing sand in his eyes and permanently destroying his sight ; lifting from its contact with the ground it tore a\vay part of Dart's upper jaw and nose and struck the post directly opposite my head. But for the post it would have struck me in the right side of my head and probably produced instant death.
When our time came to charge, and \ve moved forward, we had gone but a short distance when John Julian received his wound at my side. A little later Irving AI. Charter was also wounded at my side. These are the only ones I recall who were wounded while touching elbows with me after the wounding of Symonds and Dart.
\Yhen we had reached our farthest advance and our charge had spent its force, and the remnant was falling back, our fire, in my vicinity at least, having wholly ceased, I observed an officer come out of the Stevens house immediately in our front, which was the headquarters of General Cobb, who commanded the Confederate brigade occupying the road behind the stone wall against which we had charged, and apparently survey the field now covered with our dead and wounded. My rifle was loaded and I took aim and fired without apparent result. T immediately began reloading for a second shot, but before I was ready the man passed out of sight — either into or beside the house — but almost immediately reappeared. I was ready and fired a second shot, without effect. A sawed fence-post about four inches square at the top was standing immediately in front of me, and as I was firing my second shot a bullet from the enemy struck the corner of the post, knocked a splinter off it, was deflected, and just passed my right side. But for the post it would have struck me just about in the stomach. My man remained in sight and T loaded for a third shot. By this time a number of bullets came uncomfortably near me. To get a steady aim I
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 91
decided to rest my rifle on the top of the post, and as I Drought it to my shoulder a bullet struck the stock just back of the hammer, was deflected and passed over my right shoulder. Had the ball not been deflected it would have entered my breast. Not withstanding the incident 1 rested my rifle on the top of the post, took as deliberate aim as possible and fired. The man fell, and others immediately gathered about him. I turned and started to the rear, noticing as I did so that not a man was on his feet within many yards, probably two or three rods of me, and what was left of my regiment was at least a hundred yards away, llullets were flying very thick about me and T had no expectation of getting off the field alive, as it was fully three hundred yards to the nearest cover. I had not gone far when a bullet went through my haversack, which was hanging on my left hip, breaking up the few hard-tack I had and punching a hole through my coffee and sugar bags. I kept moving at a fast walk, but had gone but a few yards further when a shell burst over me and I felt a heavy blow between my shoulders on my blanket roll, (six or eight inches in diameter), which, I supposed, came from a fragment of the shell. A little further on T was conscious that a bullet passed between my legs about six inches above mv knees and a hole in the skirt of my overcoat was confirmation of the fact. Nothing further happened to me until I reached the edge of the plateau near the canal. Here I found an excavation into the side of a bank evidently intended for an ice house, which had not been finished, only one side, that toward the enemy, having been planked up. This excavation, as T recall it, was thirty or forty feet square and afforded a complete protection from the enemy's rifle fire. I had scarcely reached the place when I noticed Jerry (iracly, a large muscular Irishman of my company (D), crawling in on his hands and knees and noticing me at the same time, he said "Thank Clod, Charles, you are here." I said to him "Jerry, what's the matter." He replied "I've got it." "Where?," said I. "In my foot," said he. I removed his shoe and found in it a minnie ball, which had entered at the heel, passed through the entire length of the foot and come out be tween the toes. The wound was a severe one, the bones of the
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
foot, being badly broken and crushed. I bound it up A\ith his handkerchief as well as I could, and at his request filled his clay pipe with plug- tobacco and lighted it for him. While caring for Jerry, some one remarked to me "Your blanket saved your life." "How so," I said. "There is a hole in it," he replied. I removed it, and sure enough there was a hole, the extent of which I could not measure with my finger, so unrolled the blanket, and found in it a minnie ball, which had passed through fourteen folds of it. This then was the cause of the blow I had felt between my shoulders when coming off the field and evidently the ball had velocity enough to have carried it com pletely through my body but for the blanket. I put it in my pocket, and now have it, more than forty-three years after I "caught it on the fly."
During the remainder of the afternoon and until quite dark I remained in this excavation, rendering such assistance to the wounded — of whom there were probably a hundred before the day was over — as the extremely limited facilities at hand permitted. In binding up wounds and stopping the flow of blood I used handkerchiefs, pieces of blankets, which T cut up for the purpose, and even the shirts of the wounded. I have always looked back upon the time spent in that place with great satis faction, because of the comfort I was able to minister to the poor fellows who were wounded in all degrees, from simple scratches to the most ghastly lacerations. I may have saved the lives of some, — probably did. Though a boy of nineteen, I tried to do a man's and surgeon's wTork that day.
As the night came on and the fighting ceased, I determined to get Jerry Grady to a hospital in the city, if possible. I there fore got him on my back, with his arms around my neck, taking a leg under each of my arms, and started by way of the railroad station, the route by which we had come on the field. By the time I had reached the hay-stacks, I was so nearly exhausted that I was sure I would not be able to get him into town without help, and as there was no help to be had, decided to get up as near to a hay-stack as possible, placing it between us and the enemy, and make the night of it there. On reaching the place i found
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 93
the ground literally covered with corpses, with not a space among them large enough to accommodate two men, so I laid Jerry down and went within fifteen or twenty feet of the first stack and moved several bodies, making a clear space about six feet square, then went back on the field and picked up several blankets any number of which could be found scattered about, and made as comfortable a bed as possible in the space I had cleared. Into this bed I put Jerry, and then lay down beside him. Here we spent the night, and both slept some, I, more than he, because I was without pain, while he suffered intensely. Early in the morning I started for town by way of Hanover Street to get help, and as there was yet no truce for burying the dead, the sharp-shooters of the enemy gave me a pretty warm reception while exposed to their fire. Xone of them, however, made a hit. I first applied for help at a temporary hospital, located in a wagon shop, just in the edge of the town, but found no one there willing to go back on the field with me. Continuing the search further, for perhaps an hour, I finally found a man who was willing to take the risks involved and go with me. I felt then that this man had the true spirit of a soldier and comrade, and told him so, and thanked him as warmly as I could for his will ingness to render a service of humanity, which involved real danger from the sharp-shooters' fire. Through the protecting care of a kind Providence, or the bad markmanship of the sharp shooters, we went to the haystack and returned with our burden without harm, though many bullets came uncomfortably near us. We left Jerry in the wagon shop where I had first gone for help, and after he had been made as comfortable as possible, I started off in search of my regiment, which after some time, I found near where it was bivouacked the night before the battle, and was welcomed as one come back from the dead.
The next night I was detailed for service at our Division hospital, which had been established at a house on the street nearest the river, with large grounds about it, and several very large trees in the grounds back of and at the side of the house. The wounded officers were mostly cared for in the house, and the non-commissioned officers and privates in the grounds outside.
94
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
When I reached the hospital T found my friend Gracly there, and up to that time his wound had received absolutely no attention whatever since the very rude and inadequate dressing I had given it on the field. It was now my privilege to cleanse it with soap and water and aid the surgeon in giving it such attention as the circumstances permitted.
Of the many incidents connected with the night's service, T will mention only two. Sitting with his back leaning against one of the large trees was a rather frail but intelligent and refined
The Division Hospital.
looking boy, making no complaint, but waiting with infinite patience his turn for attention. I brought him a cup of warm broth, a part of which he took, and looked the gratitude which he could only faintly express. A half-hour later I went to him again and found that the muster-out had already come to him and through tearful eyes I looked into the most calm and beautifully peaceful face that I had ever, up to that time, or have ever since beheld. That face is still photographed in my memory and whenever recalled has been a benediction.
Well towards midnight a man was put upon the rude operating
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 95
table under a big" buttonball tree in the yard, back of the house, for an amputation of the leg" above the knee and I called to as sist. My function was to sit on a cracker box opposite the surgeon with a candle in each hand, and by the light of these two candles the amputation was made. As it was the first amputation I had witnessed it was to me intensely interesting and what I re member about it especially was the manner in which the surgeon handled the knife and the saw, and that it was a "flap" operation.
In this recital 1 have endeavored to confine myself to experi ences that were individual to me and were not common to others. What else I did during that dreadful day of December 13, 1862, and the two nights following is not here recorded. It is simply what everv other soldier did who went on to that field of carnage."
The loss to the regiment was killed, I commissioned officer, 9 enlisted men ; wounded, 10 commissioned officers, 82 enlisted men ; missing, 20 enlisted men ; total loss, 122.
The following is the official report of Sergeant-Major J. G. I'elton to the Adjutant-General of the State of Connecticut: —
"Headquarters I4th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, Xear Falmouth, Ya., December Kjth, 1862.
Adjutant-General J. D. \Yilliams,
Sir : — I have the honor of submitting to you the following list of casualties in the I4th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, dur ing the action at Fredericksburg, Ya., on the I3th of the present month : —
Lieutenant-Colonel, Sanford H. Perkins, wounded in neck, severely.
Major, Cyrus C. Clark, contusion in side.
Company A. Killed, Private, George Carlock ; wounded, Corporal, Frederick Standish, in hand, Privates, David B. Burr, in ankle, John Hannagan, in wrist, slightly, Richard \Yallace, in leg, slightly, Joseph Hart, in chest, slightly ; missing, Private, Henry Brown.
Company B. Killed, Lieutenant, David E. Canfield ; wounded, Captain, E. W. Gibbons, since died, Sergeants, Horatio X. Shaw,
96 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
in arm, severely, G. A. Hubbard, stunned by shell, slightly, Corporals, Henry A. Lloyd, in arm, severely, William H. John son, in arm and side, severely. Privates, David B. Lincoln, since died, Daniel H. Otis, since died, Charles S. Brooks, in leg, severely, James H. Marble, in leg, severely, John E. Vanderwort, in leg, slightly, Joseph H. Hilliker, in eye, seriously, William H. Johnson, seriously, missing; missing. Privates, Edwin Strand, Dwight Wolcott, Enoch Wilcox, William B. Hilliker.
Company C. Wounded, Captain, Samuel W. Carpenter, in foot, Sergeant, Henry L. Snagg, in leg, Private, John Mnlville, in shoulder; missing. Privates, Frank J. Percy, Thomas Farrell.
Company D. Killed, Private, Edward McMann ; wounded. Sergeant, Oliver Dart, in face, severely, Corporal, John Syrnonds, in face, severely. Privates, Charles E. Dart, in leg, Joseph Hirst, in legs, severely, Jeremiah Gready, in foot, severely, Solomon Richardson, in leg, Martin McShane, in hand, August Gross, in side, slightly, John Julian, in foot, slightly, Irving M. Charter, in thigh, slightly; missing, Privates, Martin V. B. Metcalf, Albert Town, John McPherson, Charles Fletcher.
Company E. Wounded, Captain, William H. Tubbs. in neck, slightly, Privates, Emerson X". Bailey, in foot, slightly, James Alaher. in hand, slightly, Henry R. Frisbie, in leg, slightly, Frederick Rappenheng, in arm and side, severely, Michael Cun ningham, in arm and side, severely, Franklin Dwight, in leg and side, severely, Edward Riley, in arm and head, severely, Harmon Farmer, through the breast, severely, James McCor- mick, in leg, severely, George Bull, in foot, slightly.
Company F. Killed, Corporals, Thomas Hart, Birdsey B. Beckley ; wounded, ist Lieutenant, Theodore A. Stanley, mortally, 2cl Lieutenant, William A. Comes, in thigh, severely, Sergeants, Wilbur D. Fiske, in breast, severely, Elisha B, Booth, legs and ribs, severely, Corporals, Trwin B. Spencer, in knee, severely, George H. Lewis, in knee, slightly, Privates, James Swain, in head, side and leg, severely, John Manderville, in heel, slightly, Charles M. Norton, in wrist, slightly, Chauncey T. Parks, in shoulder and leg, severely, William H. Scoville, in wrist, slightly, Frederick B. Thatcher, in knee, slightly, William
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 97
Ashwell, in knee, slightly, Daniel Steele, in knee, and missing, Sylvester Steele, wounded and missing ; missing, Privates, John Cogan, Thomas Keogh. Chester X. Weslan.
Company G. Wounded, 2(1 Lieutenant, Henry P. GoMard, in leg, slightly. Sergeant, Xathan B. Clemens, in head, slightly, Corporals, Frederick Ward, in side, severely, Flenry D. Knowles, in arm, Privates, William H. Morgan, in back and heel, slightly, George Stannard, in arm and side ; missing, Privates, Edson Spencer, Edward Wilcox.
Company H. Killed, Sergeant, Robert Barry, Corporal, John Calkins, Private, John Minor; wounded, Corporal, Erastus Per kins, in head, Privates, William Glossenger, in head, Robert Chadwick, leg and arm, Edward Mitchell, leg and knee; missing, Privates, William FT. Mills, Elias L. Jerome.
Company I. Killed, Privates, \Villiam E. Norton, Xelson Hodge ; wounded. Captain, Isaac R. Bronson, in bowels, slightly, ist Sergeant, Edward L. Fox, in hand and hip, severely. Ser geant, George A. Foote, Jr., in leg, severely, Corporals, William Douglass, in shoulder and hip, severely, William H. Seward, in leg, slightly, Francis S. Scranton, in breast, severely, Privates, William M. Cause, since died, Frederick Beardsley, in heel, Charles H. Derby, in foot, slightly, James Hearty, in leg, severely, Joseph Janot, in hand, slightly, James Langdon, in arm, severely, Andrew Murphy, in ear, slightly, Bernard Starkey, in shoulder, severely, Charles Simonds, in both legs, severely, Edison Scott, in hip, slightly ; missing, Private, William Mansfield.
Company K. Wounded, 2cl Lieutenant, Frederick B. Hawley, in foot, Sergeant, Junius E. Goodwin, in leg, slightly, Privates, William X. Carroll, in leg and arm, severely, Xelson J. Bement, in hand, slightly, Roland Rising, in hand, severely, Alfred T. Symonds, in leg, slightly, J. L. D. Otis, in head, severely ; missing, Private, Frank Laughlin.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. G. PKLTOX, Sergeant-Major, I4th C. V.
CAPTAIX SAMUEL H. DAVIS,
Commanding Regiment."
98 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Captain Elijah W. Gibbons, of Company B, was born in New York City November 9th, 1831. He resided in Middietown nearly all his life until his enlistment, his occupation that of a cabinet maker and painter. He enlisted in the first call for troops May 22(1, 1861, in the 4th Connecticut, which afterwards became the ist Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and was elected 2d Lieutenant Cocpany G. He held this position until A Fay 6th, 1862, when he resigned and returned to Middietown. \Yhen the new call for troops was made, he specdilv enlisted a full company of the young men of Middietown. Henry P. Goddard, after wards captain of Company 1>, says of him : — "A personal pride in dear old 'B' Company doubtless affects my judgment, but I think no survivor of the regiment but will agree with me that no company in the regiment, all things considered, ever looked or did much better. And this was owing to one man more than any other, and that man was Elijah W. Gibbons. He showed what could be done and what should should be done for men, and officers and men should alike bless his memory. Erom the time the regiment left Hartford until his mortal wound, he was n?ver absent from his company a day. He led them gallantly at Antie- tam, where, by a quick flank movement of his company, he en abled the regiment to capture a large posse of rebels in the famous Roulette house. At Fredericksburg he was advancing courageously with the regiment when a rebel ball shattered his thigh, and he fell. He was picked up by the men who loved him so dearly, and conveyed to the Falmouth side of the river, where he lingered in great suffering, but sweet resignation, for six days, until the njth of December, when he died." His body was in terred with military honors, but subsequently removed to Middle- town.
Second Lieutenant William A. Comes was born near Danbury, about 1836. He was a stone cutter in New Haven at the time of his enlistment, June T2th, 1862, as a quartermaster-sergeant of the Fourteenth and was commissioned a second lieutenant September i/th, 1862. and was assigned to Company F. He began to study enthusiastically the duties of his position which he had partially accomplished when he was terribly wounded in
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 99
the groin at the charge at Fredericksburg. Limping back to the hospital, unmindful of his own injuries, he met his nearest friend, Drum-Major John McCarthy, who called a surgeon and ad:, mis tered to him many comforts. All hopes by his friends for his recover}' were blasted by his death December 2ist. 1862. Cap tain Goddard said: — "I can testify that he was a pure and honest man. Xot brilliant or dashing, he was faithful and anxious to do well whatever was set him to do."
First Lieutenant Theodore A. Stanley was a native of New Britain, being born July 22, 1833. He went to Xew York to learn the mercantile business, remaining until he was 23, when he returned home to take charge of an important manufacturing business. He sacrificed all business interests and devoted his energy to the organization of Company R. He was chosen second lieutenant. Stanley distinguished himself at Antietam by his coolness in the discharge of his duties. Captain Btinn of that company being killed in the engagement. First Lieutenant Moore was chosen captain and Stanley was chosen first lieu tenant. Captain Godrlard says: — "At the battle of Fredericks- burg, he was in command of his company (the captain being on detached service at the time ) , and led his men in that grand charge on the rebel batteries on Marye's Heights, when the storm of shot and shell, grape and canister, blackened the air for hours. In this charge Lieutenant Stanley fell mortally wounded by a musket ball through the lungs. While being carried back- to the city, in expectation of immediate death, he told his com rades to leave him on the field and take care of themselves. But he survived to be removed across the river, and afterward to Armory Square Hospital, at \Yashington. where, after eighteen days of suffering, much of which was intense, yet which could not shake his faith in the Savior in whom he believed, his life ebbed out with the dying year, on the 3ist of December. 1862. His body was removed to Xew Britain and buried with military honors." Lieutenant Stanley was very quiet and reticent with strangers, and was not well known to many in the regiment, but his colonel truly said : — "He was always found to the front, and the officers and men of his own company testify to his uniform regard for their comfort and welfare."
1 00 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
Second Lieutenant David E. Canfield, of Company B, was a native of Xew Jersey and was twenty-three years of age at the time of his enlistment. He lived for several years in Middletown and then removed to Xew Haven, where the call for the Four teenth aroused his patriotism, when he went to Middletown and enlisted in Company K. Before the regiment left the state he was made ist sergeant of his company and November nth was promoted to be 2cl lieutenant of B Company. He was very much beloved by the company as he had been by the members of Com pany K before. Captain Goddard says in his "Memorial of De ceased Officers of the Fourteenth Regiment" : — "The night of December I2th, 1862, Lieutenant Canfield, Captain Gibbons, Captain (then Lieutenant) Sherman, and the writer, occupied the same quarters in a shot-ridden house in the then just captured city of Fredericksburg. Never shall I forget the scene as Cap tain Gibbons read us from an old Bible found in the house, till the flickering fire-light by which he read died out, and bidding us each good-night, he retired. Gibbons was in his sweetest mood that night, and Canfield made many anxious inquiries as to his views of life and death, and announcing his willingness to face the grim conqueror for the sake of his country and God, re lapsed into silence. That was our last night together."
The following are the reports of Colonel O. H. Palmer, Com manding General of the Second Brigade, and of Captain S. H. Davis, commanding the Fourteenth Regiment, the former to Lieutenant J. W. Plume, Acting Adjutant French's Division and the latter to Colonel Palmer, commanding Second Brig ade: —
"Headquarters Second Brigade, Camp near Falmouth, Va.,
December 18. 1862.
I have the honor to report that, pursuant to order, my com mand was put under arms at 7 o'clock on the morning of Decem ber 11, instant, and proceeded to a point on the railroad opposite the city of Fredericksburg, for the purpose of crossing the Rappahannock into Fredericksburg upon the completion of the pontoon bridges, then being laid for that object. By reason
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 101
of the delay in the completion of the bridges the command did not cross that day, but bivouacked, as directed, near the place of crossing.
On the morning of December 12, the command was again under arms at about 7 o'clock and, pursuant to order, crossed the river at about 8 o'clock in the morning into Fredericksburg. During the day the command remained under arms in the streets of the city, and were cantoned in the vacant houses and buildings during the night of the I2th. On the morning of the next day, the 13th, the command was again put under arms, and at about JO o'clock moved forward as directed, following the Third Brigade to the front, leaving the town by way of the railroad depot, and formed in line of battle in front of the enemy's in- trenchments, 150 yards in rear of the Third Brigade. After leaving the city, and upon filing to the right, to pass through the depot, the fire of the enemy was very severe. Their guns ap peared to have the exact range of this passage, and the prompt ness and firmness of the troops in making this passage, and forming in order under such a fire in front, and also a severe cross fire from the enemy's guns on the right, was highly credit able to their firmness and bravery. After forming in line of battle, the command remained in position about twenty minutes, and was then ordered to advance in line of battle upon the enemy's works, and the advance was made in order at double- quick in the face of a terrible fire ; but it was found impossible to dislodge the enemy from their position. In fact the fire of our troops could not be made effective, but that of the enemy was terribly effective. After sustaining this fire until their ammunition was exhausted, and until other troops were ordered forward to their relief, they were ordered to fall back. Part of the command, however, remained on the field until nearly dark.
The conduct of the officers and men was highly commendable. It pains me, however, to report that Colonel Henry I. Zinn, of the ( )ne Hundred and Thirtieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, a brave and gallant officer and a noble man, was killed early in the engagement by a musket-ball while fearlessly cheering on his men. I regret also to report that Lieutenant-Colonel Sanford
1 02 Fourteenth Regiment, LC. V. Infantry.
H. Perkins, in command of the Fourteenth Connecticut Volun teers, a brave and fearless officer, was severely wounded in the neck by a musket-ball while nobly discharging his duty at the head of his regiment, and had to be carried from the field. Major Cyrus C. Clark, of the Fourteenth Connecticut Volun teers, a brave officer, was also wounded in the side by a shell while making the passage to the field, but it is believed not seri ously.
In addition to the foregoing, 3 commissioned officers were killed and 13 wounded. Privates, killed, 10; wounded, 192; missing, not known whether killed or wounded, 64.
On the night of the 13th, my command was again cantoned in the city, and on the morning of December i_|.th, was marched to the rear of the town, on the west side of the river, and re mained there under arms and in bivouac until 8 o'clock on the evening of the I5th, at which time it was marched, as ordered, to its present camp near Falmouth.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
( ). 11. PALMER,
Colonel, Commanding Second Brigade. LIKUTKXAXT J. W. PLTMK, Acting-Assistant Adjutant-General, French's (Third) Division."
"Near Falmouth, Va., December 18, 1862
Colonel: I have the honor, in accordance with orders received today, to submit the following report of the participation of the Fourteenth Regiment in the events from the loth to the I5th of the present month.
We received marching orders on the night of the loth and the next morning at six o'clock marched to a position in front of Fredericksburg. Remained there under arms during the clay, bivouacked at night, and on the morning of the I2th, crossed the river and lay under the fire of the enemy that day in one of the streets of the city. About 10 A. M. on the I3th, the regiment was placed under arms, and, after some delays, moved at a double-quick out to the front as soon as practicable. We formed in line of battle, and lav down to wait for orders. We were ex-
The Battle of Fredericksburg. 103
posed here to a very severe cross-fire of artillery, which proved very destructive. After two or three efforts, we finally sue ceeded in gaining- the front of the fight — the men, cheered on b\ their officers, moving up in splendid style, and with the steadi ness of veterans. We remained under a terribly hot fire of in fantry and artillery until our division was relieved, when we marched off the field, bringing off most of our dead and wounded. r\\)o much praise cannot be bestowed upon our gallant Lieu tenant-Colonel, who led us, standing in the very front of the fight till he fell severely wounded, and inspiring all with new- courage and steadiness. The entire regiment, both officers and men, are worthy of all praise for their bearing in battle, and to single out special instances for enconium would be injustice to all. The report of the casualties in the command I have already for warded.
Respectfully your obedient servant,
S. H. DAVIS, Captain, commanding Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteers.
COLONEL O. 11. PAL.MKK,
Commanding Second Brigade."
The Fair Grounds," where the Fourteenth charged.
The Shore of the Rappahannock picketed by the Fourteenth during- the winter of 1862-3.
CHAPTER VI. The Winter at Falmouth.
Who can wonder that the torn and shattered little remnant of the regiment went hack to their camp near the dingy old town of Falmouth with bleeding hearts and depressed spirits? Five days before it had left camp, since which time how much had been lost ! The men had seen the cause for which they had taken their lives in their hands, left their homes with all their interests, to defend and reestablish, thrown back and repulsed. In these dark moments when the tension of the heart strings was so intense as to be nearly breaking, they felt that their lives were being made the playthings of high officers in command. That they were sacrificed and imperiled along the wandering banks of the Antietam, through the blunderings of incompetency, and thrown against the impregnable intrenchments that skirted Marye's Heights by obstinate stupidity. Those indeed were dark days for the regiment on the Falmouth plains. The men moved about in the duties of the camp with sad hearts and de jected mien. At every turn they missed many of the familiar faces of officers and comrades. Lieutentant-Colonel Perkins, the commander of the regiment most of the time since it left Con necticut, had fallen from wounds, from which he never recovered sufficiently to take command again. He was an efficient officer, always being at the head of the regiment to cheer and encourage,
(104)
The Winter at Falmouth. 105
and was dear to the hearts of the men. This was the shadow which overhung the whole regiment. Every company met with its own peculiar loss. Of one it was the captain who was loved for his sterling integrity, bravery and counsel, another had lost the genial comrade wdio gave life and zest to the camp by wit or song ; of others it was the trusted lieutenant or faithful sergeant. Such a fatality had there been among the officers of the regiment that there seemed to be little form of organization and many of the letters to friends remarked "we have practically no officers."
The men began immediately to finish the log huts which they had begun before leaving for Fredericksburg. There was no roll call or dress parade. There was much sickness and the general feeling of despondency continued. Along some lines there was an improvement as there were rations of onions and potatoes isued for almost the first time since leaving Hartford and new knapsacks were distributed to take the place of the ones left at Fort Ethan Allen. As the hospital accommodations were inadequate and meager, the wounded did not receive proper care and doubtless many lives wrere sacrificed on this acount. Of the condition of these hospitals Medical Inspector General Thomas F. Perley reports to Brigadier-General William A Ham mond, Surgeon-General of the United States Army. He says under date about this time: — "There is very general complaint of want of supplies necessary to the health of the soldiers and to the effective administration of the field hospitals. The supply table, substituted by the director of the Army of the Potomac for that authorized by regulation, is considered insufficient by regimental surgeons, some articles being in excess and others deficient. The regimental hospitals are very destitute of furni ture of all kinds, and the surgeons say they can get none. At this time of year bed-sacks are indispensable and should be fur nished. The surgeons say they can always get hay to fill them. The stoves provided for the tents are nearly worthless for the purpose. The supply of provisions for the sick and wounded is just the commissary's issue of government rations, and includes neither fresh bread nor fresh vegetables. There is no supply, or nearly none, of suitable articles of food from the medical pur-
106
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
vevors, as concentrated milk, farina, etc. The hospital clothing is very deficient. Many men, lying sick of typhoid fever at the time the army broke camp to cross the river to Fredericksburg, left in post hospitals, were frost-bitten.
I do not believe T have ever seen greater misery from sickness than exists now in our Army of the Potomac. In some regi ments which have been long in the field, from which the more feeble men have been weeded out, and the numbers reduced to
On Picket— Making Coffee.
two hundred or three hundred men by casualties and disease, where medical officers have acquired experience from long ser vice in the field, the regimental hospitals are tolerably comfort able in their appointments. In these regiments, however, there are few or no patients in hospital, and the surgeons say they have very few supplies, such as are needed by sick men, and can get them only with great difficulty."
Although Captain Gibbons of Company B was so seriously wounded at Fredericksburg as to make his recovery hopeless with the best hospital treatment, he survived in great suffering until
The Winter at Falmouth. 107
December iQth. Captain Gibbons was buried on a pleasant hill side looking toward the rising sun, just beyond the outskirts of the camp. Over this hill he had marched to battle, leading his command, six days before. It was a sad and impressive occa sion to the regiment as well as to the members of his own com pany by whom he was dearly loved as a soldier and a man. The men moving slowly with reversed arms behind the coffin, the weird and mournful dirge from the band and the volley of musketry over the grave all were different from the ceremonies the men were familiar with at home and yet seemed not inap propriate.
Captain Moore of Company F returned from Washington and took charge of his command. Sergeant E. H. Wade, speaking of Captain Moore's return has this to say: — "December I7th Captain Moore returned to the regiment. He had been sent to Washington a day or two before we moved over to Fredericks- burg, to get the camp kettles and other property belonging to us, and as luck had it was out of the last engagement,— for had he been with us, another noble officer would doubtless have been killed ; for all the regiment knows that there never was a fight yet, but what he always took the lead, and most generally quite a ways ahead. C )n arriving here and seeing only a little band of us left, — scarcely one hundred fit for duty, — his feelings over powered him, and for a while he was completely overcome."
On January i7th General Burnside reviewed the regiment in connection with the corps. The regiment numbered about two hundred effective men and eight commissioned officers, none of the latter of higher rank than captain at this time. Although Captain Davis of Company H marched the regiment back to Falmouth, Captain Bronson of Company 1, the ranking captain, assumed the command of the regiment upon its arrival.
January 2Oth Captain Bronson read a spirited address from General Burnside to the regiment assembled upon the parade ground and then called for three cheers for the other side of the Rappahannock. The response to this invitation was not volumi nous enough to have disturbed General Burnside if he had been asleep fifty feet away. It was a silent expression of the men's
1 08 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
lack of confidence in their commander, a silence so intense that it practically fell into one of contempt. Orders had been given that the regiment should he ready to move the day previous, January 1 9th, consequently preparations were made, extra rations were issued, and a great number of troops marched by the camp in the midst of heavy rain. It rained all day and all night until the little rivulets became brooks and the brooks became rivers, and the road for miles was choked with supply wagons, fast in the mud. There was mud everywhere, "trumpets sounded, drums beat, whips cracked, mules squealed and men swore." As the advance reached the brink of the river, they were met by the rebels on the opposite side with mock politeness, who offered to assist them in building the bridge and not to open fire upon them until they were fairly across, but as the artillery, pontoons, am munition and supply trains were back stuck in the mud, they were obliged to decline the hospitable invitation, whereupon the Confederates jeered at them and erected a large sign with the inscription "Burnside stuck in the mud."
Finding it impossible to move the army, it turned back, jaded and bedraggled, before the extreme front had moved. Tt was in tended the regiment should be the rear-guard and thus they escaped being participants in what has been known in the history o+~ the rebellion as the "Great Mud March."
Sergeant F. B. Tyler of Company B records the following of the experience of the regiment at this time: — "We had been spectators rather than active participants in the mud campaign, although we had dismantled our cam]) huts by taking off our shelter tent roofs, had our knapsacks packed and stood all day in the rain that deepened and rendered still stickier the mud that Burnside's army was floundering through until finally the ele ments conquered, the campaign suddenly and ingloriously ended, we reconstructed our camp again and passed the remainder of the winter in quietness as far as actual warfare was concerned. A new captain, Townsend, was sent to us with whom we always got along very well, although his prompt decisive way and some times rather abrupt manner often upset and disconcerted our first sergeant, Russell, whose manner was naturally slow and hesitat-
The Winter at Falmouth. 109
ing. Townsend was young, high spirited, cool and brave in battle, and had too many genuine good qualities as a military man and officer for the men to regard him with anything but esteem. That he could not fill the place in the hearts of the men that Gibbons held was hardly a fault of his. Probably no man in the regiment could. Broatch. Lucas and Galpin, who had been pro moted to the respective ranks of captain, first lieutenant and sec ond lieutenant of Company A, often took a stroll through our
MAJOR JAMES B. COIT.
company street, talking and chatting pleasantly with the boys, interchanging news from home and inquiring after our sick and absent ones, and while these officers remained with the regiment, they never lost interest in the old company in which they first obtained their commissions, and every promotion that sent Hroatch and Lucas upward in rank caused something akin to family pride in the hearts of our boys,"
1 10 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
A sad incident during' the encampment at Falmouth was the death of two brothers, Francis and Frederick J. Hollister, of Chatham, Company K, who died within half an hour of each other and were buried together. They lost their blankets at Antietam and for three months had to sleep out of doors or crouch scantily clad all night long over a smoky camp-fire, from which exposure they died.
January 3 ist the band of the regiment, always a favorite, being the best band in the corps, went down to army headquarters by invitation and serenaded General Hooker, who had meantime re placed General Rurnside in command of the Army of the Poto mac. The regiment soon saw a great change in rations and clothing, with fresh bread every other day and plenty of fresh meat, potatoes, beans, peas and other vegetables. These did away with the regulation "Xo. 9" and gave the surgeons a rest. This had a marked influence on the spirit and good feeling of the boys of the regiment.
About this time important promotions were made of several officers of the regiment, ist Lieutenant John C. Rroatch of Com pany R was promoted to be captain, ist Lieutenant Fisk of Com pany K was made captain of Company G, Acting Adjutant Town- send promoted from ist Lieutenant Company I to captain of Company R, Fred R. Doten of Company A to be adjutant, \Yill- iam H. Hawley of Companv A promoted to ist sergeant, William R. Hincks of the same company promoted to sergeant and Cor poral Charles Lyman of Company D to be 2cl lieutenant of Corn- pan} K. Sergeant Hirst says of this appointment: — "There have been a number of promotions in the regiment and some new officers made, but only one from our company. His name is Charles Lyman, of Rolton. He is a good man and will make a good officer. After promotion, the officer is put in another com pany, so as not to be too familiar with the men, which makes it unpleasant for both."
During February the regiment received four months pay. Much of this was sent to friends at home, while other parts of it were used lavishly by the men and, as usual, had disastrous effects. About this time there was a complaint of liquor being
The Winter at Falmouth. 1 1 1
smuggled into the regimental camp. The sutler was a safety valve through which the money was let loose. Sergeant Hirst under date of February 5th. says: — "The pa\-master came along yesterday and gave us four months pay. To-day army rations are not good enough for the boys, who are moving from one sutler's shop to another, buying wooden ginger cakes, brandy (vinegar) peaches, and castiron pies. They are bound to have a feast for once, even though the doctor with his Xo. <j is watching them."
Abotit this time Captain IJronson, commanding the regiment, was arrested because the regimental picket detail fell short some forty or fifty men one morning. Samuel Fiske. captain of Com pany (i. being the ranking captain, had command of the regiment.
Sergeant Hirst speaks of the exchange of coffee and tobacco between the boys of the Union and Confederate armies. He says: — "On a fine day in the sunshine it is rather pleasant picket ing the banks of the river and cracking jokes with the Johnnies on the other side. Some times we rig up a shingle for a boat, load it with coffee, set it adrift in the stream and watch it drift across to the opposite bank. How the Johnnies will watch it slowly drifting over and receive it like a long lost friend. They in turn will rig up a tobacco boat, and we take the same pleasure in receiving it. You can hardly realize that these are the same men who were shooting us down a few weeks ago, and ma}' be. will be doing the same a few weeks hence."
Captain Henrv P. ( ioddard. who saw the bright side, has this to sa\- of the winter at Falmouth : — -"What a winter it was that followed in camp at Falmouth with no field officers, and with Captains Davis and IJronson alternating in command of the regi ment, for the former could not hold command a week without getting into some scrape that usually led to his being put under arrest. I Jut it was no use to court martial him for his legal train ing and his habit of getting the whole court on a spree the night before the verdict, led the judge-advocate of the division to say that it was easier to catch a weasel asleep than to convict Captain Davis.
Ah, what punches Fred Doten used to mix that winter, as we
1 1 2 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
gathered in each other's Sibleys : 'When every officer seemed a friend, and ever}- friend a brother.' It was at some of these gatherings that Captain Lee used to give swan like imitations and that *G' officers used to trot out little 'I ncas.' the stuttering teamster, as a spiritual medium, who used to go into trances and therein deliver addresses on didactic subjects, but who got mad when Lieutenant Fred Seymour asked him to take a drink in his spiritual not material character. Quartermaster Dibble used to say that when Uncas got mad at his mules he could swear in the most unspiritual manner without stuttering at all."
The affairs of Falmouth camp moved on through February and early March without any unusual occurrence. The promo tions of the several officers we have mentioned had served to bring the regiment back to a more complete organization than when it returned from Fredericksburg.
An exception to this statement may be made in the serious loss to the regiment of the services of Surgeon Philo G. Rockwell, the first surgeon of the regiment. The care of the manv sick at Harper's Ferry, which has been noted, and the march down the Louden Valley to Falmouth and the stay at Belle Plain told very seriously upon his health and he was obliged to go home on a leave of absence January 5th, 1863. He was not able to return to the army and resigned March 8th, 1863.
From the time of his joining the regiment, he devoted himself to the physical welfare of the men. Dr. Rockwell was of an enthusiastic, ardent temperdment and was ceaseless in his efforts for the comfort of the men.
He was appointed Surgeon-General of Governor Hawley's staff in 1866. In 1869 he established a sanitarium at Aiken. S. C. Dr. Rockwell was a native of Connecticut, being born at Norfolk in 1820. He graduated with honor at the medical col lege at Pittsfield, Mass. He established a large practice in Waterbury, from which place he enlisted. He died in Aiken, S. C. February 4, 1887, his remains being taken to Waterbury for interment.
March 17 the members of the regiment attended the cele bration of St. Patrick's Da}' by the Irish Brigade. These festiv-
The Winter at Falmouth. I 1 3
ities in honor of the Irish patriot were unexpectedly broken into by the sound of rebel guns, causing ( ienerals Hooker, Sickles, French and other high officers, who were present to view the frolic, to ride oft to their commands in hot haste. At this time Captain Moore of Company F was in command of the regiment. The regiment became greatly interested in the annual election in Connecticut. Reports had been freely circulated in the Demo cratic papers in the interests of Thomas H. Seymour, their candi date for governor, that the Connecticut regiments, especially the
SURGEON PHILO (1. ROCKWELL.
Fourteenth, were sorry they had gone to war, were dissatisfied with the way it was being carried on. and would get out of it if they could. To offset these unfounded statements, the Four teenth at dress parade March 24th passed nearly unanimously a series of resolutions endorsing Governor Buckingham. There was general rejoicing upon receipt of the news that Governor Buckingham had been rcelected.
1 1 4 Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
April ist. was duly celebrated hv the regiment. At about half past two, while the men were sleeping quietly, they were aroused and marched to the parade ground, formed line of battle and awaited orders. It was intensely cold and after several hours they were marched back, reaching their tents about daylight.
( )n Sunday, April 5th, President Lincoln reviewed the Army of the Potomac on a broad plain about four miles from the camp. Although the occasion was one of great interest, moment and pride to the members of the regiment some of them were not able to put on dress suits for the occasion. AYe cannot forbear quoting from Sergeant Hirst upon this subject, lie says: — "The other day I was detailed with a squad to go on picket near the Lacy house, and arrived there at seven o'clock A. M. We were not relieved until ten o'clock the next day when we were marched about four miles out of our way to take part in a big review in honor of President Lincoln. I had seen him once before at Harper's Ferry and was rather pleased at the opportunity of see ing him again. There was some swearing at the long march before us after being on duty twenty-seven hours, part of the time in the cold and part over a smoky fire, but there was no help for it, to the review we must go at once. The whole Army of 'he Potomac was there, dressed in its best bib and tucker, with their arms shining like burnished silver, while we were dirty, sleepy and ragged. Just look at us with our overcoats and knapsacks on, our blankets in a coil around our shoulders, a canteen filled with water, a haversack containing bits of beef, crackers nnd pork, three or four cooking utensils, such as frying pans, tin cups, old tomato cans, etc., hitched to various parts of our body. Of course, we were all well armed and some of us had axes besides. We were made into a division by ourselves, and I, with a gun on one shoulder and an ax, a five pounder, on the other, was placed as right guide to the division. After nearly the whole army had marched past and we came into sight, it was no surprise for me to see the President step a little nearer and \\onder what damnation kind of men would come along next. However, if he, or his wife, or daughter asked any questions, I think they would have been surprised to learn that we were a fair sample of the army in light marching order, Just after we passed the President,
The Winter at Falmouth. 1 1 5
we were moved at double-quick time for a quarter of a mile, just to show what stamina there was in Old Hooker's soft tack. \Ye got back to camp just before sunset, thoroughly tired out with our two days exertions."
During April Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins visited the regiment in citizen's dress, having been honorably discharged from the service for wounds received at Fredericksburg. He was heartily greeted by the men, who rejoiced that his wounds had not proved fatal.
In Cieorge II. AYashburn's "History of the One Hundred and Eighth Xew York Volunteers" he records a peculiar service for which the Fourteenth Connecticut and ( )ne Hundred and Eighth Xew York were called. He says: — "A few days before the move for Chancellorsville an incident occurred in disobeying orders in our division, which had been ordered out for drill and parade. Two nine months Pennsylvania regiments refused to comply with the order as their time was nearly out. (leneral French. Division Commander, was constantly winking, and on account of this habit, was known as T>linky French.' On this occasion his eyes blinked as fiery as the twinkle of Mars, and the French of it was, that the One Hundred and Eighth Xew York and the Fourteenth Connecticut were to proceed with loaded guns to the camps of the recalcitrant regiments, and bring them out. or shoot. They came without further dallying."
On Monday morning, April 28th, orders were received to break camp and be in readiness to move. Tuesday morning the} moved to the \Yarrenton turnpike in the vicinity of Hank's Ford, where they camped for the night. Sergeant \Yilliam H. Hawley was left behind from illness with about twenty others, who were afterwards sent to the Potomac Creek Hospital.
In the afternoon of April 29th, the regiment hastilv packed up and marched, and instead of going direct to the river, marched about five miles further up, nearly opposite to United States Ford. The next morning they moved to the vicinity of I nited States Ford, where they halted for a few hours, making coffee, during \\hich time a pontoon was thrown across the river, and the regi ment passed over about sunset, without a shot being fired.
CHAPTER VII. The Affair at Chancellorsville.
We left the regiment on the evening- of Thursday, April 3Oth, after having crossed the Rappahannock on a pontoon near United States Ford, and bivouacked in the vicinity of the Chandler House, about three-quarters of a mile from Chancellorsville. This "ville" was simply a fine old brick mansion of Southern type surrounded by stately trees, amounting almost to a forest. It was about ten miles from Fredericksburg, with which it was connected by a turnpike, plank road and river road, the two former making a fork at Chancellorsville, and running nearly parallel toward Fredericksburg. The grounds about the Chancellor House, the scene of the battle, were low and swampy, and covered with patches of woods, with deep and thick underbrush, being almost impenetrable. There seemed to be little work for the regiment on this first day of the battle. About eleven o'clock it was called to arms and marched down the plank road to the Chancellor House, the headquarters of General Hooker and his staff. Heavy firing along the front indicated that the Confederate forces had opened an attack. The regiment then turned to the right through a young growth of pines. There were no skirmishers thrown out and at one time it was discovered the regiment was in dan gerous proximity to the enemy. After remaining here two hours the artillery fire seemed to slacken, and the regiment retraced its course, halted and stacked arms in an open lot adjoining the plank road on the west side, perhaps half a mile from the Chan cellor House. There were in this lot the brigade, which seemed to be held in reserve, and several batteries of artillery. For the remainder of the day they were under arms and frequently had to fall into line in readiness to move to the front as the cannonad ing grew sharper, but as often broke ranks again. In the even ing the regiment was formed in line of battle on the extreme right
arid threw out pickets for the night.
(116)
COL. THEO. G. ELLIS.
The Affair at Chancellorsville. 1 19
After the wounding of Lieutenant-Colonel Perkins at the battle of Fredericksburg, from which wound he was never able to re sume his position at the head of the regiment, the command fell upon Adjutant Theodore ( 1. Fllis, who was afterwards promoted to major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the Fourteenth and brevet brigadier-general. He died in Hartford Januarv 8th, 1883, aged fifty-two years. Previous to his enlistment he had been devoted to civil engineering, a profession for which he had special qualifications and in which he became eminent. He did much for the Fourteenth Regiment, being thoughtful, accurate and intelligent concerning his duties. His men never doubted his thorough devotion to all the positions which he was called upon to fill. His manner was genial and friendly toward those \\ith whom he had occasion to associate although his criticisms were often caustic, though just.
On the morning of the 2(1. the regiment was relieved and re turned to the cam]) previously occupied. Toward nightfall a seri ous charge bv Stonewall Jackson on the extreme right of our line, which was farthest from the river, and was occupied by the Fleventh Corps, caused a panic and disastrous route. It was under the command of ( leneral O. ( ). Howard. The generals had neglected to picket their front and the men of the division were busilv engaged in cooking supper in the dense thicket, hav ing previously stacked their guns, when they were surprised by the enemy.
Of the pandemonium which this panic caused General Ben jamin Morgan said: — "The stampede of the Fleventh Corps was something curious and wonderful to behold. I have seen horses and cattle stampeded on the plains, blinded, apparently, by fright, rush over wagons, rocks, streams, any obstacle in the way; but never before or since, saw I thousands of men actuated seemingly by the same unreasoning fear that takes possession of a herd of animals. As the crowd of fugitives swept by the Chancellor House, the greatest efforts were made to check them ; but those only stopped who were' knocked down by the swords of staff- ofricers or the sponge staffs of Kirby's batttery, which was drawn up across the road leading to the ford. Many of them ran right on
120
Fourteenth Regiment, C. V. Infantry.
clown the turnpike toward Fredericksburg, through our line of battle and picket line, and into the enemy's line. The onlv reply one could get to argument or entreaty was, 'All ist veloren ; vere ist der pontoon?' Although the appearance of thousands of fugitives from battle, with ambulances, wagons, cannons, and caissons, all in a wild stampede, is apt to be very disconcerting and demoralizing to a line of battle, the troops of the Second Corps did not appear in the smallest degree affected."
During this pandemonium caused by the fleeing Eleventh Corps, the attempt to resist it by the t nion troops and the
The Chancellor House at the present time.
demonstrations of the attacking enemy, the band of the Fourteenth Regiment, which was now considered the best in the Army of the Potomac, did its most heroic work". \Ye cannot resist copying Colonel Frederick L. Hitchcock, who gives a beautiful tribute to this band in his sketch of the One Hundred and Thirty-Second Pennsylvania Uegiment, entitled 'AYar from the Inside." He says: — "One of the most heroic deeds I saw done to help stem the fleeing tide of men and restore courage was not the work of a battery, nor a charge of cavalry, but the charge of a band of music ! The band of the Fourteenth Connecticut
The Affair at Chancellorsville. 121
went right out into that open space between our new line and the rebels, with shot and shell crashing all about them, and played 'The Star Spangled Banner', 'The Red, White and Blue' and 'Yankee Doodle' and repeated them for fully twenty minutes. Thev never played better. Did that require nerve? It was undoubtedly the first and only band concert ever given under such conditions. Xever was American grit more finely illustra ted. Its effect upon the men was magical. Imagine the strains of our grand national hymn, 'The Star Spangled Banner', sud denly bursting upon your ears out of that horrible pandemonium of panic-born yells, mingled with the roaring of musketry and the crashing of artillery. To what may it be likened? The carol of birds in the midst of the blackest thunder-storm ? Xo simile can be adequate. Its strains were clear and thrilling for a mo ment, then smothered by that fearful din, an instant later sounding bold and clear again, as if it would fearlessly emphasize the re frain, 'our Hag is still there.' It was a remarkable circumstance that none of them were killed. 1 think one or two of them were slightly wounded by pieces of exploding shells, and one or two of their instruments carried awav scars from that scene."
When this break of the Fleventh Corps occurred, the Second Brigade was hurried from its position in reserve to support the line, and leaving behind knapsacks and other impediments moved down the plank road at the double-quick, halting at the cross road near the Chancellor House, for the violence of the attack seemed to have abated. In a few moments, however, there was terrific tiring 011 the ( )range Court House road to the right, and the men were hurried in that direction for a quarter of a mile on the run and turning off 011 the right of the road, formed in line of battle in the woods facing the west. It was now dark and the enemy ceased firing. The position was changed several times through the night, the men resting on their arms. The Fourteenth was 011 the right of the brigade in the second line of battle and was unsupported on the right. At this