Chapter VII: Part 7

The signing of pay-rolls on the 19th was a sure sign of the approach of the paymaster and the perfection of the weather gave light hearts to all, though a clergyman of the Methodist Church South, seized outside our lines for conducting certain of Stuart's men to the capture of one of our pickets may have had a leaden heart as he was dispatched on his way to Washington, there to account for his conduct; bearing the name of Garnett, he must have belonged to one of the best families of the Old Dominion. The 20th was Sunday, not usually a pay day, but were there signs of activity it was thus employed and, as the paymaster came on this date, the event was considered a pretty sure sign of a movement; so late did he begin, it was 8 p. m. before the last company was reached. Much to the disgust of all who had thought winter over and past, snow began to fall on the 22nd. By nightfall the ground was white with it, the wind blowing as in an old-fashioned "nor'-easter," so that the on 23rd there was a foot of snow lying around and all hands had to turn out and shovel the same out of the streets and from the parade ground, which was quite ready for the dress parade of the late afternoon.

To the Regiment, however, the most important event of the day was the rearrangement of the several corps constituting the Army of the Potomac, though this act had no immediate effect upon the regular life of the Thirty-ninth. The First Army Corps of the Potomac Army, commanded successively by Generals McDowell, Hooker, Reynolds and Newton, had left an excellent record through the nearly two years of its existence; the disk which, in red, white and blue, represented its several divisions, had ever been a badge of honor and now the advent of General Grant to the command of the army was to bring about various changes, among them the merging of the First Corps with the Fifth; its three divisions, reduced to two, became the Second and Fourth under Robinson and Crawford respectively while Warren, of late temporarily in command of the Second, was assigned to lead the Fifth Corps, and Newton[I] who had succeeded Reynolds at Gettysburg, was relieved. Under the same general orders, the Third Corps also was disbanded, its first and second divisions going to the Second Corps, its third division to the Sixth, and General Sykes, the Commander, to the command of the District of South Kansas. There were thus left the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps in the Potomac Army, to which in the campaign of 1864 the Ninth Corps, under General Burnside, was to be added.

This rearrangement of army relations was not accomplished without some heart-burning and many adverse remarks. John D. Billings in his story of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery says:

"Next to the attachment men feel for their own company or regiment, comes that which they feel for their corps. All the active services that we had seen was in the Third Corps, and its earlier history and traditions from the Peninsula to Gettysburg had become a part of our pride, and we did not care to identify ourselves with any other. If such was our feeling in the matter, how much more intense must have been that of the troops longer in its membership, whose very blood and sinew were incorporated with the imperishable name it won under General Sickles."

The farewell of General Newton to the men of the First Corps bears date of March 25, 1864, and is as follows:--

"Upon relinquishing command I take occasion to express the pride and pleasure I have experienced in my connection with you, and my profound regret at our separation. Identified by its services with the history of the war, the First Corps gave at Gettysburg a crowning proof of valor and endurance, in saving from the grasp of the enemy the strong position upon which the battle was fought. The terrible losses suffered by the Corps in that conflict attest its supreme devotion to the country. Though the Corps has lost its distinctive name by the present changes, history will not be silent upon the magnitude of its services."

[Sidenote: MAR. 26, '64]

Though the Thirty-ninth had borne no part in the battle-trials of the corps, save in the premonitions at Mine Run, yet its marchings and campings, during eight months of service, had done much towards impressing upon the Regiment the character of the corps and an appreciation of the corps and an appreciation of its excellent record.

Foundation facts for the coming summer are coming fast in these days for, on the 26th of March, General U. S. Grant established his headquarters at Culpeper, a little south of those of the Army of the Potomac. For just a month, the General's name has been heard in the public ear more than usual since, on the 26th of February, the bill restoring the grade of lieutenant-general became a law; on the 1st of March, General Grant's name was sent to Congress and it was confirmed March 2nd; on the 3rd, he was ordered to Washington to receive his commission and he started the day following. March 9th, in the White House, in the presence of the President's Cabinet, his staff or such as were with him and his son, Fred, General Grant received his commission from the hands of Lincoln, with the briefest possible exchange of compliments. The Thirty-ninth Regiment knew it not, but on the 10th, the Lieutenant-general was at Brandy Station viewing some of the scenes that were to be better known by him in approaching days; the next day he was in Washington again and in the evening started back to the west. Many plans were evolved by Grant and his lieutenants before his return to Washington on the 23rd, whence he went to Culpeper as before stated. Henceforth his military record will be a part of that of the Potomac Army.

While this is strictly a story of the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, of any happening in the camp of our near neighbors and good friends, the men of the Sixteenth Maine, passing mention is due here. Colonel Charles W. Tilden had been captured at Gettysburg and had been held prisoner in Richmond until the 10th of February, when with others he got away from Libby through General A. D. Streight's famous tunnel and on the 28th of March, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he was received by his old boys with a heartiness which only old soldiers can give to the tried and true; in the evening followed a feast in the regimental chapel, attended by the officers of the Sixteenth and the field officers of the brigade, all uniting in the most fervent expressions of respect and admiration; the history of the Sixteenth has this concerning the words of our esteemed Commander, "Colonel Davis, whose encampment is a paragon of neatness and comfort, replied in his calm and witty way to a toast complimentary to the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts." The next day several hundred men from other regiments in the brigade assembled at 9 a. m. to witness the presentation to Colonel Tilden by his regiment of a magnificent black stallion duly caparisoned; evidently the officer was greatly admired. The remainder of the day was one of diversion for the men of the Sixteenth and their friends.

[Sidenote: APR. 8, '64]

The One Hundred and Seventh Pennsylvania, a member of our brigade, whose Colonel, Thos. F. McCoy, at times commanded the brigade, pretty generally enlisted in the month of February, but its re-enlistment home-going did not begin until this day; surely no April Fool's occasion for the happy men who crowded aboard the train which was to carry them hence, all intent on the happiness in store for them; the "battle summer" will be well under way before the regiment rejoins us; a considerable part of the One Hundred and Fourth New York also started away on a similar errand. On the 3rd, the Ninetieth Pennsylvania came over from the Second Brigade and occupied the camp of the One Hundred and Seventh. The general harshness of the season marked early April, rain and snow, and not till the seventh day did the weather clear up effectually and, even then, as matters shaped themselves, there were those who claimed that there was an improvement, not so much on our account as that there might be a bright day for General Grant's inspection. It was Fast Day, too, at home, but we were eating all we could get. We were out early and active on the 8th, doing very thorough policing. We were in line at 11 a. m. and before noon, the hero of Vicksburg, accompanied by his staff and General Robinson, appeared, receiving three cheers from the men as he rode by us; he took a look at our camp and highly complimented its appearance. Evidently the General had heard of our camp for he went down through the company streets which were spick and span as usual. Then he went out to the picket-line and thence to the signal station on the hill, Colonel Davis going with him. Everyone was sizing him up and making some sort of a mental entry concerning him, and one man wrote this, "He has a good, resolute look." There seemed to be a general opinion that he was no great talker, but that, as a doer, he would probably be all right.

Stormy weather was resumed on the 9th and continued almost every day until the excess of water washed away bridges between us and Washington to the extent of stopping trains on the 11th, with consequent lack of mails and other inconveniences; so efficient, however, were the artificers of the army, the very next day trains resumed running and letters from home made glad the hearts of men. During these days we were packing all superfluous articles, preparatory to sending to Alexandria, at the same time all were enjoined from writing about this to the friends at home. The new management did not believe in the utmost publicity. Saddened reflections followed the departure of the sutler, on the 16th, since thereafter, it would be necessary to forego luxuries altogether. The 19th saw seven discouraged rebels come into our lines, saying that there were many more waiting a chance to get through. Notwithstanding this, we could see that the enemy was working hard on making breastworks, evidently expecting us to march directly upon them; nobody knows just what way we shall advance, but it probably will not be by the line surmised by the Confederates. Everyone felt better on account of the serenade that the band of the Sixteenth Maine favored us with in the evening of the 20th. The 21st marked the departure of thirteen men from the Thirty-ninth, transferred to the Navy, many of whom, being familiar with nautical duties, fancied that service afloat would be preferable to that ashore.

The Cavalry had been even more active, if possible, than the Infantry during the winter and General Sheridan commented on the lean and hungry look of the horses when he reached the army, but in spite of leanness, this branch was the first to move--some said it had not stopped moving,-and on the 23rd, one man wrote, "The Cavalry moved out to-day" and, could he have foreseen the service that the restless "Little Phil" was to exact from the horsemen, doubtless he had written more at length. He also entered in that same journal, "The covering of our chapel was taken off to-day, so I suppose our meetings are over." Dismantling was the order of Sunday, the 24th, and unroofed cabins lost their homelike look. The move of the 26th looked much like an abandonment of our long time camp and the beginning of active warfare, for the whole brigade, leaving the old camp behind, crossed Cedar Run and, at a point a mile away from the former stopping place, pitched its shelter tents in column by companies, the thirty-ninth Regiment being on the right. Some went back to their old quarters to bring thence boards to help out their sleeping facilities. By this change of camp, it was expected to free the men from all surplus stuff and, at the same time, to re-inure them to the hardships of active campaigning. The remaining days of April were uneventful, given to parades, inspections and drills, wherein knapsacks figured largely, thus testing the endurance of the soldiers and on the 30th, Saturday, the Regiment was mustered for two months' pay, March and April.

[Sidenote: APR. 30, '64]

No month in the year among dwellers in northern regions prompts to brighter, happier thoughts than May; in distant Massachusetts, children who had sought the fragrant arbutus through the daylight hours, were repining that Sunday made it impracticable for them to hang May-baskets when the evening shades appeared, a pleasure deferred however only till the following night. To the men and boys, afar from familiar scenes and cherished friends, the pleasures of peace were denied, and being on the eve of departure, much of regular camp life was omitted. Their neighbors, the Sixteenth Maine, formed in hollow square and had religious services, but letter writing was the most serious employment for the men of the Thirty-ninth. Could they have known the horrors through which they were to pass before another Lord's Day returned, with what eloquence had those messages teemed which carried simply the usual words of love and fealty. Hands that wrote tender words on this May day, ere another week had passed, were folded on soldierly breasts, asleep in battle-made graves. For nearly an entire year, with no long rest in winterquarters, no respite from the noise of combat, the men of the North and their brothers from the South are about to engage in a death grapple, and a baptism of blood awaits the tyros of the Lynnfield camp, the cadets of Edward's Ferry and Poolesville, the Capital guardians of Washington, and the admirably equipped soldiers of Colonel Davis' pride.

Though it is the 2d day of May and we are in the supposedly "Sunny South," snow is plainly visible on the tips of the Blue Ridge and where the mountains are high enough, anywhere snow may be found the whole year round. Company E, Somerville, is taking the least bit of pride to itself in that its Captain Kinsley, the senior officer of that rank, commands in the battalion-drill. Keen observers of signs are these soldier boys and, when they learn that the cars have come up for the last time, and when they hear, at dress parade, a letter of praise and patriotic prompting from General George G. Meade, all this on the 3rd, they know full well that the days of winterquarters are all but ended; certainty is added to surety when, at 10 p. m., three days' rations are issued with the not over cheerful information that they must last us six; at midnight, we are awakened and told to be ready to move in fifteen minutes. How many glances are cast towards the Rapidan, during the nearly three hours' wait before the start is made, not of apprehension but of wonder as to what the outcome will be when "brave Northmen shall the Southern meet in bold, defiant manner?" We know full well that our faces are soon to be set towards the south, that once more the stream, so often crossed and recrossed, will soon greet us again as we pass over or through it; remembering the mettle of the man who is now leading, one who never made provisions for retreat, because he never retreated, we realize that in our progress southward there will be no backward turning, that, while "few shall part where many meet," some of our numbers will survive to carry forward the Flag, and everyone had a perfect conviction of the righteousness of his cause and absolute confidence in its eventual triumph.

[Sidenote: MAY 4, '64]

The main incidents of these days in early May are writing themselves deep in the hearts of America; as long as he lives will every participant, whether in blue or gray, recall the impressions that were his as he realized the immensity of the struggle that is impending. Of it, Grant has said in his Memoirs, "The capture of the Confederate capital and the army defending it was not to be accomplished without as desperate fighting as the world has ever witnessed." Lee left no memoirs but his biographer wrote, "He divined Grant's plans, and cutting the latter from the object of his desires, threw himself upon him in a contest whose fury may be gauged by the fact that the musketry fire continued in one unbroken roar for seventeen hours, and trees were shorn down by the musket balls." The outlines of the movement which began with the start of the Second Corps, at 11 p. m. of the 3rd, crossing at Ely's Ford at six o'clock in the morning of the 4th, followed at Germanna's in turn by that of the Fifth and Sixth Corps in order, have been told in hundreds of places by both tongue and pen; they form the a, b, c of 1864 military history, so we must content ourselves with the fact that when, at three o'clock of the 4th of May, the Thirty-ninth hears that ever significant command, "Forward, March!" the Second Corps, under the lead of Hancock the Superb, is nearing Ely's Ford in its all night's march; and the ever-vigilant Sixth Corps, under glorious "Uncle John" Sedgwick, is only awaiting the advance of our Fifth Corps, led by Warren, around whose head must ever wreathe the halo of Little Round Top, before following to take position at our right in the forthcoming battle-line.

JOHN C. ROBINSON
B'v't Major-General
Second Div. Fifth Corps

GOVERNEUR K. WARREN
Major-General
Fifth Corps

PETER LYLE
B'v't Brig.-General
First Brig., Second Div. Fifth Corps]

FOOTNOTES:

[I] John Newton, like Winfield Scott and George H. Thomas, was a native of Virginia, and was appointed thence to West Point, where he was graduated in 1842, No. 2, in a class that included Rosecrans, Pope, Seth Williams, Doubleday, Sykes and other noted Federal leaders and Longstreet, D. H. Hill, Gustavus W. Smith, McLaws and Van Dorn of the Confederates. In continuous service in the Engineer Corps, he had attained the rank of captain when the war began. He was assistant engineer in the construction of the defenses of Washington; served through the Peninsular campaign; was at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg and followed Reynolds as commander of the First Corps. After leaving the Army of the Potomac, he commanded a division in the Fourth Corps, under O. O. Howard, in the army of the Cumberland having a part in the campaign which culminated in the capture of Atlanta, September 1864. Later he commanded various districts in Florida until his muster-out from the volunteer service, January 1866. His subsequent life was devoted to engineering, among his most notable deeds being the removal of obstructions in Hell Gate, the narrow passage of East River, between Long Island Sound and New York Harbor. Subsequent to his resignation from the army in 1884, he became Commissioner of Public Works in New York City; at the time of his death in his seventy-second year, May 1, 1895, he was president of the Panama Railroad and of the Panama and Columbian Steamship Companies.

THE WILDERNESS

At first our own course is northward, toward Culpeper, then we bear off to the right, passing the headquarters of the Sixth Corps, and those of the Army of the Potomac skirting the base of Pony Mountain and on to Germanna, remembered well in our Mine Run campaign. Though nominally, for several days a part of the Fifth Corps, we do not actually meet any part of the Corps itself till just before reaching the ford. We cross the river at about 11 a. m., nowhere encountering any opposition from the enemy, who evidently is endeavoring to ascertain what Grant's objective may be, catching up with the other portions of the Corps late in the afternoon. After an arduous march of considerably more than twenty miles, burdened by heavy knapsacks, filled in winter quarters, our division bivouaced near the Wilderness Tavern.[J] From this point the almost countless campfires of our army could be seen, always an impressive sight, and never were the soldiers of the Potomac Army in a more impressible mood than after their long period in winter quarters. Of the troop thus in bivouac, Lieut. Porter of Company A wrote, "The men were in the best of spirits. They believed that the supreme effort to bring the rebellion to a close was being made. There were enthusiasm and determination in the minds of everyone." A year ago the word "Wilderness" was frequently heard as the events of Chancellorsville were discussed and now it is to gain even wider mention; it seems a name quite out of place in the midst of the Old Dominion, not so far from the very first settlements in British North America.

General Morris Schaff in his story of the great battle says this of the section, "What is known as the Wilderness begins near Orange Court House on the west and extends almost to Fredericksburg, twenty-five or thirty miles to the east. Its northern bounds are the Rapidan and the Rappahannock and, owing to the winding channels, its width is somewhat irregular. At Spottsylvania, its extreme southern limit, it is some ten miles wide." Considerably more than a hundred years before, there were extensive iron mines worked in this region under the directions of Alexander Spottswood, then governor of Virginia. To feed the furnaces the section was quite denuded of trees and the irregular growth of subsequent years, upon the thin soil, of low-limbed and scraggy pines, stiff and bristling chinkapins, scrub-oaks and hazel bushes gave rise to the appellation so often applied. Hooker and Chancellorsville are already involved in memories of the region and coming days will give equal associations with Grant and Meade, while the Confederates, remembering that within its mazes their own shots killed their peerless leader, Jackson, ere many hours have passed will lament a similar misfortune to Longstreet.

[Sidenote: MAY 4, '64]

Within this tangled thicket, artillery will be of no avail and the vast array of thunderers will stand silent as artillerymen hear the roar of musketry; cavalry will be equally out of the question, but within firing distance more than two hundred thousand men will consume vast quantities of gunpowder in their efforts to destroy each other. It is generally understood that General Grant did not expect an encounter with Lee within the Wilderness itself, as is evident in Meade's orders to Hancock and the Second Corps; indeed on the 5th the latter was recalled from Chancellorsville to the Brock Road at the left of the Fifth Corps, the Confederates having displayed a disposition to attack much earlier than the Union Commanders had thought probable; how Sedgwick and the Sixth Corps held the Union right, Warren and his Fifth the centre and Hancock with the Second were at the left are figures from the past well remembered by participant and student. While every movement of the Union Army has a southern tendency, a disposition to get nearer to Richmond, yet in the Wilderness all of the fighting was along a north and south line, the enemy exhibiting an unwillingness to be outflanked as easily as the new leader of the Potomac Army had evidently expected.

In the morning of the 5th of May, General Richard S. Ewell commands the Confederate left with "Stonewall" Jackson's old army or what may be left of it; next to him, at his right, is A. P. Hill with the divisions of Wilcox, Heth, Scales and Lane; Longstreet has not arrived as yet, the morning finding him as far away as Gordonville, but he is making all the speed possible towards the scene of conflict, and when he arrives his station will be on the rebel right, his lieutenants being Anderson, Mahone, Wofford and Davis. The intricacies of this jungle-infested region are much better known to the Southern soldiers than to those from the North, and this knowledge is a full compensation for any disparity in numbers known to exist. Burnside and the Ninth Corps of the Federal forces are just crossing the Rapidan after a forced march from Rappahannock Station and when they reach the battle line, it will be to occupy some of the thinly covered interval between Warren and Hancock. All of the amenities of the long winter months are now forgotten, and war to the death is confronting every combatant, whether in blue or gray.

In coming days, these men will recount the events of May, 1864, and while the roar of musketry will play a veritable diapason of war for them, they will not forget how readily they dropped the musket and, grasping axe or shovel, felled the trees and, weaving them into earth-covered breastworks, interposed thus much protection from the cruel missiles of the enemy. If the survivors of the Potomac Army in the battle summer had chosen to wear subsequently as under-guards or supports of their respective Corps-badges, whether, trefoil, Greek or Maltese Cross or shield, the semblance of musket and shovel crossed, no one would have questioned its oppositeness. However averse men may have been to the regular use of pick and shovel, experience soon told them that an old fence rail, a small sapling or a shovelful of earth might ward off a hostile bullet and, lacking the intrenching tools, they were known to throw up, in an incredibly brief time, serviceable defenses, using no more effective utensils than their bayonets, case-knives and tin plates. Future archaeologists, in the Wilderness region, will have difficulty in distinguishing between the works of the Eighteenth century miners and their soldier successors more than a hundred years later. Deeply scarred was the battle-riven surface of the Old Dominion and, centuries hence, poets and historians will wax as eloquent over some of these fiercely contested places as did Charles Dickens over the bloody field of Shrewsbury where "the stream ran red, the trodden earth became a quagmire and fertile spots marked the places where heaps of men and horses lay buried indiscriminately, enriching the ground." Macaulay, too, never wrote with more brilliant pen than when he described the poppy-strewn plain of Neerwinden, "fertilized with twenty thousand corpses."

[Sidenote: MAY 5, '64]

If Grant had known as definitely the mind of Lee as the latter appeared to divine the intentions of the Union General, the story of the Wilderness might have been very different. The orders for the morning of the 5th were for Warren to move to Parker's store, towards the southwest; Sedgwick was to follow Warren, ranging up at his right; Hancock with the Second Corps was to advance, also towards the southwest, his left to reach to Shady Grove Church. The enemy was discovered before Warren reached Parker's store and he was ordered to attack; Getty and the Second Division of the Sixth Corps were sent to defend Warren's left flank and Wright with the First Division of the Sixth Corps was ordered up to Warren's right, and at nine o'clock Hancock was ordered to come to the support of Getty, all this happening where Grant had expected, at least had hoped for, an unopposed passage. Instead of a retreating enemy, Warren opened the great battle of the Wilderness by an attack upon a foe ready for the fray; but let the Fifth Corps Commander tell his own story:--

"Set out according to orders, 6. a. m., towards Parker's store--Crawford, Wadsworth, Robinson; enemy reported close at hand in force, and when Crawford had nearly reached Parker's, Generals Meade and Grant arrived and determined to attack the force on the road near Griffin (Warren's right division). Wadsworth was gotten into line immediately on the left of Griffin with one brigade of Crawford, Robinson in support. We attacked with this force impetuously, carried the enemy's line, but being flanked by a whole division of the enemy were compelled to fall back to our first position, leaving two guns on the road between the lines that had been advanced to take advantage of the first success. The horses were shot and the guns removed between our lines. The attack failed because Wright's (Third) division of the Sixth Corps was unable on account of the woods to get up on our right flank and meet the division (Johnson's Ewell's Corps) that had flanked us. Wright became engaged some time afterward. We lost heavily in this attack, and the thick woods caused much confusion in our lines. The enemy did not pursue us in the least. We had encountered the whole of Ewell's Corps. The enemy that moved on past Parker's along the Plank Road was Hill's corps. General Getty's division of the Sixth Corps was sent to the intersection of the Brock Road to check the column, which it did, and General Hancock was ordered up from Todd's tavern, and also engaged Hill's corps. At this time I sent Wadsworth with his division and Baxter's (Second) Brigade (Second Division) to attack Hill's left flank as he engaged Hancock. It was late when this was done, but the attack produced considerable impression. Wadsworth's men slept on their arms where night overtook them. During the night, I sent instructions to Wadsworth to form in line northeast and southwest, and go straight through, and orders were given to attack next morning at 4.30 with the whole army, Burnside being expected up by that time to take part. With the rest of my force I prepared to attack Ewell in conjunction with a part of the Sixth Corps."

During the day, General Alexander Hays, commanding a brigade in the Second Corps was killed, a contemporary of Grant at West Point, he was one of the bravest of the brave; Generals Getty and Carroll were wounded, but remained on the field. The report of General Robinson, commanding the division, does not add any essentials to the report of General Warren. Unfortunately no report of our Brigade nor of the regiments composing it are found. Comrade Beck of Company C has this to say of his observations during the day:--

"Turned out at three o'clock and started at about light; after some delay found the rebels in force; the advance forces of our Corps drove the enemy from his first line of works; we were in reserve till about 12 m., when we were ordered into line-of-battle on the right of the Plank Road; dead and wounded are in evidence and there is hot work ahead. The Rebs have a strong position across a ravine; our artillery could not be placed in position; volley after volley was fired all day from all along, both left and right; we had to lay low, the balls whistled thick around us; at six o'clock were ordered to charge but were ordered back; it would have been madness, since the enemy had a cross fire on us. We lay in line-of-battle all night; many of our wounded could not be reached, and it was awful to hear their cries; when the stretcher-bearers tried to get them, the Rebs opened a battery on them."

[Sidenote: MAY 5, '64]

Readers with memories will recall that, some time after Gettysburg, Longstreet was detached from the Army of Lee and sent to Georgia to help the Confederates whom Rosecrans was pressing hard; sometime before this, early in 1863, two divisions of the Ninth Corps had been withdrawn from the Potomac and dispatched to the Department of the Ohio to aid in the campaign Burnside was then projecting. Both Confederates and Federals had returned to the East; Longstreet, most remote of the rebel array, had been striving to reach the field where his chief was struggling with the Union Army and, by one of the most wonderful coincidences in all history, Burnside and his following, save two divisions, were swinging into position between Warren and Hancock, only a few minutes later than Longstreet when the latter came up to the help of Hill. Grant in his Memoirs says that Meade wished the hour of attack on the 6th to be set at 6 a. m., an hour and a half later than the orders of the night of the 5th. "Deferring to his wishes as far as I was willing, the order was modified and 5 was fixed as the hour to move." So then we come to the 6th of May and a resumption of Warren's report:--

"At precisely five o'clock the fighting began. General Wadsworth I re-enforced with Colonel Kitching, 2400 strong (an independent brigade of the Fourth Division). He fought his way entirely across the Second Corps' front to the south side of the Plank Road, and wheeling round commenced driving them up the Plank Road toward Orange Court House. The accumulating force of the enemy staggered his advance, and the line became confused in the dense woods. In the very van of the fight, General Wadsworth was killed by a bullet through his head, and General Baxter was wounded. On our right, the enemy was found to be intrenched and but little impressions could be made. I then sent another brigade to sustain General Hancock, who had now two of my divisions and one of the Sixth Corps, and was defending himself from both Hill and Longstreet. They charged and took possession of a part of his line but were driven out again. Late in the evening, the enemy turned General Sedgwick's right very unexpectedly, and threw most of his line into confusion. I sent General Crawford at double-quick, and the line was restored to him.... In most respects, the result of the day's fighting was a drawn battle."

The report of General Robinson of the Second Division repeats some of Warren's statements, at the same time mentioning the fact that he accompanied General Baxter with the Second Brigade, which went with Wadsworth of the First Division on the 5th, when all hastened to the relief of Hancock; he names Colonel Lyle, of the Ninetieth Pennsylvania as commanding the First Brigade. He also mentions the death of his Assistant Inspector General, Lieut. Colonel David Allen, Jr., of the Twelfth Massachusetts on the 5th, and mentions the charge of the First Brigade (ours) late on the 5th, when the Ninetieth Pennsylvania suffered so severely. In the afternoon of the 6th, he was ordered to send another brigade to the support of Hancock, and later still one more which he accompanied, ranging them on the right of the Second Corps. There he ordered the building of rifle-pits, while he rode to Hancock's headquarters; the latter telling him that he is ordered to attack, and requesting Robinson to join in the assault, our Division Commander returned to his command and made ready to advance, awaiting orders. Two hours later, heavy firing was heard on his left and he was visited by General D. B. Birney who stated that the enemy had broken through our lines and that Hancock was cut off. Robinson at once faced his second line about and made ready to receive attacks on his left and rear. Before any further change was effected, General Birney was summoned by Hancock, and Robinson learned that, instead of breaking through, the enemy had been repulsed. It seems a little strange that the General does not mention the death of General Wadsworth, his fellow division commander, nor the wounding of Baxter of his own command. The taking off of Wadsworth was a great calamity, representing, as he did, the vast array of citizen soldiery. Far past the age of military duty, one of the wealthiest men in the Empire State, he nevertheless threw in his services and, eventually, his life for the cause he loved.[K]

[Sidenote: MAY 6, '64]

Returning to the meager records of our own Regiment, we glean certain facts, as that the Brigade was advanced in the morning to nearly its former position and that it was shortly withdrawn and sent to the extreme left on the plank-road, where breastworks were thrown up under active skirmishing. Also on this day, in the various changes of position, the Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiments were met, all of them in the Ninth Army Corps, and all of them having officers largely drawn from the older organizations of the Bay State. Private Horton of "E" says, "We lay all night in the same place, the rebels keeping up the firing. We are relieved at 4 a. m. and go back and get breakfast. Travel around almost all day; go to the left where is heavy firing; throw up some rifle-pits." Beck of "C" in effect coincides with the foregoing, though he closes the day's account with the words, "Some of the hardest fighting on record; we build intrenchments on the side of the road and sleep in them through the night; troops were passing and repassing all of the evening; we are having nice warm weather for our operations." Lieutenant Dusseault of "H" relates the incident of a false alarm, while the men were lying along the road, between that and the breastworks:--"About midnight, while the boys were trying to get a little sleep, a great racket was heard not far away, and some in their alarm thought the whole rebel army was upon us. It proved to be a stampede of our own cattle, and they came bellowing down the space between the flanks and the works, and over the prostrate forms of our men. The choice language of the startled sleepers, when they came to understand the situation, added not a little to the tumult." During the day, in one of the several charges made upon us, "A rebel prisoner, apparently wounded and just able to crawl about, on hearing the shouts of his compatriots so near, and dreading to fall into their hands, much to our amusement, jumped up a well man and ran like a deer towards our rear."

Of the charge made in the afternoon of the 5th, this story is told in the history of the Ninetieth Pennsylvania whose Colonel, Peter Lyle, was in command of the Brigade, having succeeded Colonel Leonard of the Thirteenth Massachusetts:--

"The command was formed in line-of-battle and advanced until it reached the open ground, beyond which the enemy was intrenched. The line was established behind a slight rise of ground with small trees and bushes in front, the right of the Ninetieth being separated from the rest of the Brigade which it was impossible to occupy, being raked by the enemy's artillery. We lay in this position for some time when General Griffin,[L] in command of the First Division, rode up and commanded a charge. Colonel Lyle promptly led his regiment forward and, as soon as it had cleared the shrubbery in front, and emerged upon the open field rebel batteries opened upon it with grape and canister. The order was given to double-quick and with a shout it advanced within close range of the rebel lines. When Colonel Lyle discovered that he was unsupported, he gave the orders to about-face and what was left rallied around the colors and, under a fierce fire of infantry and artillery, returned to its original position.... Out of two hundred and fifty-one men, one hundred and twenty-four were killed, wounded or captured. From some misunderstanding or not having received the same peremptory orders from General Griffin that he gave the Ninetieth the rest of the brigade did not advance any distance, leaving the Regiment entirely alone in the charge.

[Sidenote: MAY 6, '64]

"In fairness to our Regiment, it should be stated that the left wing heard the orders which sent the Ninetieth forward and, responding, suffered with it. The wonder is that, in the confusion of numbers, noise and misunderstood commands, more errors rather than less, are not recorded. It is not to the discredit of Colonel Lyle that he is said to have shed tears over the calamity which befell his brave followers through no fault of his."

Colonel Peirson in a paper read before the Loyal Legion also has a fling at these same guns to the following effect:--

"We also left behind two guns which were on the turnpike in front of Warren's position, which were lost by Griffin on the 5th, and were between the two armies until we retired. A brigade of Robinson's division vainly attempted a charge to retake them, but the plain was swept by canister at 350 yards, and the brigade returned with heavy loss. It was understood that the sixth Corps was to join in this attempt but General Upton, whose brigade lay on the right of Robinson, refused to move, saying, 'It is madness.' So sensitive were the enemy about the matter, they fired on our stretcher-bearers, who advanced to bring in the wounded; and the wounded were not brought in, but lay all night calling for water and help, to the great distress of their comrades."

Two such days, as were the 5th and 6th of May in the Wilderness, evidently were as much as even Grant and Lee could endure. The former is said to have remarked to Meade on the 7th, "Joe Johnston would have retreated after two such days' punishment." The losses on both sides were frightful; there was little of the spectacular which will always characterize Gettysburg, but men, in all their mortal combats, never grappled in fiercer, more determined struggles than in those of the dense and tangled Wilderness. In his Memoirs, Grant says, "More desperate fighting has not been witnessed on this continent than that of the 5th and 6th of May," and he was at Shiloh and Chattanooga; evidently the great Westerner was changing his mind as to the fighting qualities of Eastern armies. The Union force had lost 2,265 killed, 10,220 wounded, and 2,902 missing; an aggregate of 15,387. While Confederate data as to numbers are frequently questioned, the Medical and Surgical History of the War makes the Southern losses, 2,000 killed, 6,000 wounded and 3,400 missing; a total of 11,400. The Confederates also had lost Brigadier Generals Micah Jenkins and John M. Jones, both gallant officers, but their greatest personal loss was that of General Longstreet, grievously wounded on the 6th and immediately carried from the field. Thomas Nelson Page refers to the event as the fourth similar incident where, seemingly, the loss of one man ended the hope of rebel victory, as the deaths of A. S. Johnston at Shiloh, "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville, the wounding of "Joe" Johnston at Seven Pines and of Longstreet, "at the critical moment when victory hovered over his arms."

FOOTNOTES:

[J] General Morris Schaff, who was a member of General Warren's Staff, says, "Robinson, who brought up the rear of the corps, camped on the Germanna Road, the middle of his division about where Caton's Run comes down through the woods from the west." P. 97

[K] Greeley in "The American Conflict" says, "Thousands of the unnamed and unknown have evinced as fervid and as pure a patriotism, but no one surrendered more for his country's sake, or gave his life more joyfully for her deliverance, than did James S. Wadsworth."

[L] In General Schaff's "Wilderness" we may read, "The victorious Confederates could not pursue beyond the guns, or even stand there, for Sweitzer's of Griffin's, and the First Brigade of Robinson's division, under my friend, Charles L. Peirson, a gentleman, together with our rallied men, now poured such a fire into them from the east side of the field, that they fled back to their lines on the edge of the woods.... In an effort to recapture the guns--whose loss, Griffin, the commander of our West Point battery in my day, felt deeply--the Ninth Massachusetts and the Ninetieth Pennsylvania suffered frightfully, adding to the thickly lying dead in the old field." (Page 163.)

THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS

BY CHANNING WHITTAKER

Most of the Infantry fighting of the Wilderness, as is well known, occurred on May 5th and 6th, 1864, in almost impenetrable thickets of tangled woodland growth, a growth facilitated by warmth of climate, by a multitude of streamlets and by areas of morass. The Infantry line of battle may have been from five to seven or eight miles in length. General Grant said in his "Personal Memoirs," written just before his death, "More desperate fighting has not been witnessed on this continent than that of the 5th and 6th of May, 1864." The bloodiest battlefields of those two days were those of Caton's Run of May 5th and of the thicket bordered by the Brock and the Orange Plank Roads on May 5th and 6th. During the battle I was pretty completely occupied with what was occurring close about me and I had little knowledge of what was occurring beyond my individual eyesight. Since the war I have been too completely occupied by daily duties to seriously search the records to ascertain the contribution which the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts made to the battle as a whole. Since I received your letter I have tried to ascertain where the Regiment was and what it did with relation to the battle as a whole on those two days. It participated in the Battle of Caton's Run on May 5th and in that of the Brock and Plank Roads on May 6th, but because I am not at leisure and my sources of information are limited, I shall attempt no account of either battle as a whole.

[Sidenote: MAY 5, '64]

It is only recently that I have learned of the trap which the Confederates had deliberately set for us on the morning of the 5th of May in the gully of the unwooded valley of Caton's Run, where, ambushed in the woods on the western edge, they awaited "with fingers on triggers" the initial charge of our brave men, under the orders of Grant and Meade and Warren, down the long unwooded slope, across the roughly shaped gully of a primeval forest stream and up the long and open slope beyond it; of the brutal and terrible carnage on the slopes and at and about the battery caught in the gully; and that here, where at about eight a. m. was killed Charles H. Wilson of Wrentham, Co. I, Eighteenth Massachusetts, the first Federal infantryman to fall in the campaign, were controlled and stayed the proud banners of 17,000 Confederates under Lee and Ewell, including those of Walker, commanding the famous Stonewall Brigade. The first assault in this murderous trap was made by Griffin's First Division of Warren's Fifth Corps, while our Brigade, the First of Robinson's Second Division of the Fifth Corps, was held in reserve in their rear.

What I remember of the Battle of the Wilderness after the lapse of almost fifty years is a story quickly told. Some of the things which I saw and experienced made an indelible impression upon my mind. Other events have been crowded out by intervening occurrences, and of them I have no memory.

I will now state all that I remember of what occurred within my own experience on the morning of May 5th, 1864. I suppose these things occurred during Griffin's assault through the gully, and while the Thirty-ninth was being held in reserve in Griffin's rear.

We were standing in line of battle in a grove of oaks, the largest of which were perhaps eight inches in diameter. I was in the front rank near the right of Company B. First Lieutenant Spear was in his usual place in the rear of the Company and a little to my left. Lieutenant Spear turned on his heel and momentarily vacated his place. Almost instantly a piece of a shell buried itself where he had stood. Occasional bullets passed over our heads and among the oaks. Captain W. W. Graham of Company B was at rest in front of the Company, leaning against an oak but not behind it. A raw recruit in the rear rank who had joined the Company at Mitchell's Station and who had not yet learned to await the word of command aimed his rifle at a venture and planted a bullet in Captain Graham's oak, close to his head. Orderly Sergeant Allison shook the recruit by the collar and threatened terrible things if he should fire again without orders.

I can not recall that I knew anything of Griffin's assault while it was in progress, or of the rout which followed it. I have since learned from General Robinson's report that at the close of Griffin's sanguinary assault, Griffin's Division was relieved by Robinson's First and Second Brigades, ours, the First, taking the line of battle.

[Sidenote: MAY 6, '64]

I remember that the Regiment moved to a new position and that later in the day we were lying, faces down, on the grass covered slope of a ridge. Small pines branching from near the ground broke its surface. Erect, and close behind us, Lieutenant Colonel Peirson walked back and forth like a sentinel upon his beat, but with his eyes never off of his ready but prostrate men. Absolutely alert, in quiet and calm tones, he said to each restless one who sought a dangerous relief from his unbearable immobility, "That man in ---- Company, lie down," or whatever would cause the man to safeguard himself. The minie balls continually showered the green pine needles and pitchy twigs upon us. No one was in such danger as the Lieutenant Colonel, but he ever walked back and forth, back and forth, speaking his words of friendly caution. Still later it was desired that we should lie nearer the top of the ridge. He said to Colonel Davis, "If you will stand here" (at the right of the line to be formed) "I will align the men on you." When we again stretched ourselves upon the slope our heads were close to its top. Later in the afternoon we were standing in line of battle on the top of the ridge. The line of battle of a Regiment on our left made an angle of less than 180 with our own. For a moment I had a clear, distinct view of its front brilliantly lighted by the rays of the declining sun. I saw Colonel "Dick" Coulter on his prancing horse in front of them. The vision though momentary was changeful, unsteady, as if the men were staggering, falling. Our Brigade charged down the western slope. A Battery was in the gully at the foot of the slope, and neither the Federals nor the Confederates could touch it. The Brigade did not reach the Battery but returned to the ridge. The cries of the wounded on the slope were heart breaking. They called for help, for water. I was told, "General Grant says, 'Let no well man risk himself for his companion. He will need the help of all well men to-morrow.'" There was a call for volunteers to act as skirmishers on the slope toward the battery. I volunteered without any personal request that I should do so. I was located some distance down the slope and walked back and forth upon a "beat," like a camp guard. Then I had a genuine surprise. While I walked and watched with fear in my heart, the sun not having yet gone down, Lieutenant Colonel Peirson came sauntering along the skirmish line as if he was enjoying a pleasurable stroll. He made some casual remark and, handing me his field glass, asked if I would enjoy seeking the battery through it. He left me after I had had abundant time to look, but all of the fear had gone and did not return. When I next saw the glass it had been ruined, smashed by a shell which had nearly taken the life of the Lieutenant Colonel at Spottsylvania. All night I walked back and forth on the slope.

When we took our position upon the Brock Road, volunteer skirmishers were again called for and I responded as before. I was placed perhaps three hundred feet in front of the Regiment in a typical Wilderness forest tangle. Here were hardwood trees several inches in diameter, and in an almost impenetrable mass between them were quickly grown hardwood saplings of the diameter of one's finger and perhaps twenty feet in height. These were in the beautiful, tender green, full foliage of May and often woven all through between their interlacing branches were strong, green, horse-briar vines in so high and dense a hedge that had a line of battle been in your front not twenty feet away you probably could not have seen it. My part was to watch the thicket in front of my post and to give warning of the first appearance of the enemy. My fear of the day before did not return. I had excellent opportunity to hear the rapidly detonating musketry on my left and front, varied by the deep bass of occasional artillery. As the firing quickened I could no longer distinguish intervals between the sounds. I heard only one clear, loud, inspiring, uplifting, musical sound punctuated by artillery.