Chapter III

1862.

BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

On Wednesday, December 10th, clothing was issued to the regiment. Shoes were very much needed. In the evening a pontoon train went down towards the river, but no unusual notice or remarks were made about it, and both officers and men went to sleep that night without suspecting in the least that early on the morrow a heavy battle would be raging. The next morning the troops were early aroused by the tremendous discharge of two mortars, and simultaneously the opening of our batteries of nearly two hundred pieces. Nearly the entire day the batteries poured incessantly their deadly fire of shot and shell into the city with terrible rapidity. During the afternoon the firing gradually ceased, and at sundown victory rested on our banners. During the day three days rations and sixty rounds of cartridges were issued to the men. Towards the evening the Sixteenth was ordered down to the river, but before reaching there the order was countermanded, and they returned to camp for the night. The next day (Friday,) the Sixteenth advanced to the river again early in the morning, and lay on the banks all day, watching the fighting on the other side of the stream. In the evening they crossed the pontoon bridge, and went into the city. After stacking arms on Main street, most of the men went into houses to sleep. The effects of this short siege was awful to contemplate. Some portions of the city were completely battered down. Buildings in various parts of the city were burning, and during the night fresh fires were continually breaking out. Although the enemy had carried away most of their wounded and dead, still a few remained in the city. In a cellar was found by the Union troops, ten women and a child, all dead; they had gone there for protection from our shells, but one had struck there, and bursting, killed them all. While a member of the Sixteenth was searching for wood in the yard of a residence after dark, he stumbled over what he supposed to be soldiers asleep on the ground. Excusing himself he went on and after gathering an armful of wood, was returning when he stumbled over the same men again. Much to his disappointment they did not get up and damn him. Going into the house and getting a lighted brand, he came out and found that they were _three dead rebels_ who had been killed and lay there side by side. One of them was an officer. An amusing incident occurred on this same evening in Company H. Sergeant Spencer was around the yard looking after boards to sleep on. Finding one that was some twelve or fourteen feet long, he laid one end of it on what he supposed to be a stone, and was about to jump on it to break it in the center, when a soldier who lay there wanted to know "what he was trying to do?" In the darkness of the night he had laid the board on a man's head. The next day we were drawn up in line of battle, but being on the reserve had nothing to do but witness the contest raging in front, which was fearful. At dusk we moved to the front, where bullets came thick and fast until eight o'clock, when the firing ceased, and all was quiet during the night, except the howling of dogs, and the occasional discharge of artillery.

On Sunday morning, December 14th, we returned into the city, remaining there all day. The fighting continued hard in front. At sundown we again moved to the front, where we remained supporting a battery until the next night, when we returned to the city, crossed the river and marched to our old camp, being the last brigade to leave the city. Thus ended the battle without the Sixteenth being actively engaged with the enemy, and meeting with a loss of only one wounded and one missing. Drilling, inspections, grand reviews, picket duty, and frequent preparations for marching, constituted the chief occupation of the troops during the greater part of the winter months. The weather was extremely cold, quarters were poor, and constant exposure invited sickness and disease, and death creeping in boldly hurried away its defenceless victims with alarming rapidity. Many were discharged, and the ranks continued to decrease daily.

On December 24th, Lieutenant-Colonel Cheney, in consequence of the severity of his wound was compelled to resign, and two days after, Adjutant John H. Burnham was promoted to be Lieutenant Colonel, and took command, Colonel Beach being absent, sick. Colonel Burnham's promotion was the _making_ of the regiment. Being a man of promptness, and full of energy, and above all a perfect soldier, Colonel Burnham infused a new spirit into an organization which had been exhausted by arduous marches, a severe battle, and a weary campaign. It was about this time that another piece of good luck happened to the regiment, which was the appointment of Dr. Mayer, as Surgeon. He was a good physician, and as a surgeon could not be surpassed in the army of the Potomac. He commenced immediately to make improvements in and out of the hospital, and to look to the cleanliness of the tents, company streets, and the cooking utensils. He also saw that the food issued was properly prepared by the cooks; and when he gave cough syrup, it was not _stuff_ that men would use on their food for molasses.

NEWPORT NEWS AND SUFFOLK.

On the 6th of February, 1863, our connection with the Army of the Potomac was dissolved. We were ordered to Newport News, where the regeneration of the regiment steadily progressed. At three o'clock in the morning the regiment was ordered to _pack up_, and be ready to march in two hours. It was pitch dark and raining terribly, with mud six inches deep. It was some little time before the men could get bon-fires burning, so that we could see to pack up. The men dressed, took what rations they could get, and fell into line after repeated orders, leaving most of the tents standing, they being wet and too heavy to carry. Marching to the depot, the mud was not only deep but extremely slippery, and nearly every man slipped down, and those that did not, were completely spattered over from head to foot, and were covered with mud and completely drenched through to the skin by the rain, which was decidedly uncomfortable that cold morning. After shivering in the cold for two hours, we were allowed to get aboard the freight cars, and were taken to Acquia Creek. Here we went aboard the steamer John S. Brooks, as did also the 8th and 15th C.V. Most of the men had little or no water in their canteens, and all suffered terribly from thirst before we reached Newport News on the afternoon of the 8th. Whose fault this was I am unable to say, but it was a great piece of negligence to put troops aboard a vessel knowing that they were to remain there for over two days without seeing them provided with water. Newport News was a paradise by the side of Falmouth. There was no mud, rations were good, and the weather was beautiful. We were quartered in barracks, which made it very pleasant.

On landing, the first thing was a drink of water, and then two days rations of soft bread were issued to us, which, although being two loaves, was disposed of in less than two hours; the first one in something less than five minutes. Not having tasted any for over five months we appreciated it. The guard mounts, dress parades, and reviews at this place were the grandest and most imposing ever witnessed in this country. About five weeks were spent in drilling, recruiting, &c., at the end of which time the 3d Division was ordered to Suffolk to strengthen the force at that point.

It was the early part of March and bitter cold when the regiment left Newport News and by boat went to Norfolk, where they went aboard a train consisting of platform cars with a single baggage or passenger car in the rear for the officers. Everything being in readiness the train started and sped on its way to Suffolk, arriving there at midnight. The men jumped off the train and fell into line, when lo and behold only two officers were to be found. The car containing the officers had not been attached to the train. The two officers present had for some reason got upon the cars with their men, and therefore were with the regiment. But we had no orders, whether we were to go farther or stay there, and whom to report to we did not know. The train moved off, dark as a pocket, and some of the men nearly froze to death. Something had got to be done. After a little consultation, the two officers took command of the two wings respectively, and the First Sergeants the companies. The regiment moved off by the flank to cut their way through the darkness and encamp _somewhere_, until daylight. We first tumbled down a steep embankment, at least twelve feet, the men falling on all sides, then into a brook two feet deep and six feet wide, and finally brought up against a rail fence. Tearing this down we passed into a field and halted, not deeming it best to proceed farther. The men spread out in every direction in the darkness, each one bringing in what he could find in the shape of wood to build fires.

There was a house near by which we supposed to be vacant, and the men in the darkness had taken all the fence and wood, and had even pulled the clapboards from the house as high as they could be reached. When morning came, we found it to be an elegant wood house painted white, and the owner thereof at first made quite a fuss, but when he found so many of the men nearly frozen to death, he concluded _it was all for his country_. It was on that night that the Quartermaster-Sergeant found that one of the men had bored a hole into a barrel of coffee, which he had mistaken for whiskey, and was shaking it up good, wondering why it would not run. Daylight finally came and we found that we were on the outskirts of the city and within sixty rods of the 112th N.Y. Vols., whose generous Colonel hearing the noise in the night, reconnoitered and finding that we were Union troops, ordered all his cooks up to make us hot coffee. Kettle after kettle of hot coffee all sweetened, was brought to us, which we drank in large quantities before getting thoroughly warmed through. This was a perfect godsend to us, and a more thoughtful action could not have been done by the Colonel. We fully appreciated it, as was shown by the fast friendship between the two regiments thereafter. Some half dozen of the men nearly died, by being chilled through, being several days before they were able to do duty. The officers arrived next morning on the regular train.