Part 23

"At four o'clock, on the morning of Thursday, the 18th, and shortly after the heavy cannonading ceased, the Fifth Corps started from its camp (which was rather in reserve) with four days' rations, towards the Weldon Railroad. It took some time to get across the ground formerly held by the Second and Sixth Corps. Then the column marched towards Ream's Station, driving in easily the enemy's skirmishers, of whom a part were captured. Between seven and eight o'clock, the advance arrived at Six Mile Station, and busily setting to work, a mile of the track was torn up and burned, and the rails destroyed in the usual manner. The skirmishing up to this time had been very light, the enemy having obviously withdrawn to his left, and the whole move being made with hardly a show of opposition. While the First Division was tearing up the track, the others passed on towards Petersburg and after advancing two or three miles, took position so as to repel an expected attack from the enemy. They did not have long to wait. About noon, Walker's Virginia and Davis' Mississippi brigades came hurrying down the railroad. Ayres' Second Division was stationed at this point; the Third and Fourth Divisions, at his right; and the First on his left. The battle opened very promptly on the arrival of the enemy with sharp artillery firing. The enemy, a part of Hill's Corps, then rushed in with great impetuosity, falling with most force upon Hayes', Lyle's and Cutler's brigades, and succeeding in flanking a portion of our force, including Lyle's First Brigade, Crawford's Third Division, the latter brigade being brought forward under a severe enfilading fire. For two hours the firing was very hot, and as it was an open fight the losses were heavy. The main battle lasted till about three o'clock; but the skirmishing and cannonading continued till night, when both forces went to entrenching, the possession of the railroad still being left to our troops. Our loss is still somewhat uncertain, but it is somewhere from five hundred to one thousand. The Second and Third Divisions suffered most and the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts and the Fifteenth New York Heavy Artillery lost heavily. The enemy claims to have captured eight officers and one hundred and fifty men from us in this fight. The enemy's loss in killed and wounded was probably nearly equal to ours, but he lost few prisoners.

Headquarters at night were at the Six Mile House, so called from its distance from Petersburg. That night and all the next day our forces were busily engaged in strengthening our lines, and in endeavoring to connect the right of the new position with the left of our old line. But towards the evening of Friday the enemy came out in force and pushed in between the new entrenchment and the old ones, flanking the Fifth Corps and sweeping off about fifteen hundred prisoners. The Ninth Corps arriving on the field of battle, checked the enemy. Our loss was about three thousand men. Saturday was comparatively quiet, but on Sunday the enemy again furiously attacked us, and was repulsed with heavy loss. On Monday and Tuesday, there was occasional firing along the centre, but our lines were otherwise undisturbed. Our forces still hold the Weldon railroad, the capture and retention of which have cost a week of the hardest fighting of the campaign."

General Humphreys, in his "Virginia, Campaign of '64 and '65," has the following version of the story that specially touches our Division and Brigade:--

"General A. P. Hill, with Davis' and Walker's brigades under General Heth, and Weisiger's, Colquitt's and Clingman's under General Mahone, with Lee's cavalry and Pegram's batteries, moved to the Vaughan Road intersection. Heth was to attack Ayers, while Mahone, familiar with the woods, was to move concealed by it some distance beyond Crawford's right, break through Bragg's skirmish line, and take Bragg and Crawford in rear. About half past four in the afternoon, General Mahone with his command formed in columns of fours, broke through Bragg's skirmish line, faced to the right, and swept rapidly down toward General Warren's right flank, taking all Crawford's skirmish line and part of his line of battle in rear. His skirmish line fell back in the greatest confusion, and in doing so, masked the fire of his line of battle, and forced it to fall back, together with a part of General Ayres' division. Heth at the same time opened on Ayres' centre and left. General Warren, reforming the parts of Ayers' and Crawford's divisions that were broken, brought them forward again and regained the ground temporarily lost, taking some prisoners and two flags. General Willcox was ordered up to attack; and White's division (Ninth Corps) was formed facing to the right, and engaging Colquitt's brigade drove it back, and captured some prisoners. Mahone's command fell back rapidly in great confusion to their intrenchments, carrying with them the parts of Warren's command disorganized by the attack on their rear in the woods, and a large portion of the pickets."

As an illustration of one man's appreciation of a great battle, of what he sees, the following extract is taken from the journal of Lieutenant Dusseault:--

[Sidenote: AUG. 18, '64]

"We turned out at 3 a. m. This was the day of the 'Battle of Weldon Railroad,' sometimes called that of the 'Six Mile House' or the 'Globe Tavern,' also 'Yellow House.' We began our march at five o'clock towards the railroad, southwest and towards our left, a distance of five or six miles to the 'Six Mile House,' it being just that distance from Petersburg. Here we found the rebel pickets and drove them before us. General Crawford's Division (Third), to which our Regiment belonged, formed a line of battle on the right of the railroad, and General Ayers of our Second Division formed on the left of the road. General Griffin's First Division was in the rear, tearing up the tracks as we thus advanced towards Petersburg. We had proceeded about a mile and a half in dense woods, when Hill's Rebel Corps charged us. The 'Six Mile House' is now behind us, Ayers' Division gives way, letting the enemy in on our left flank. There is nothing for us to do but fall back or be captured. The rebel line in front of us is within forty feet. The order is given to fall back. All were lying down flat on the ground at the time, the enemy in the same position, but ready to shoot as fast as we stood up. Colonel C. L. Peirson was already badly wounded in the bowels by a minie ball. He was able to stand long enough to give the command and then he fell. Just as I rose, a bullet struck me in the right side, broke the eighth rib and entered the lower lobe of the lung. I was taken off the field, along with the Colonel, to the field hospital just back of us. Sergeant Bradshaw, afterwards second lieutenant, and Private Thomas, both of Company H, were leading me and while thus supporting me, the latter was shot in the wrist, in consequence of which, hesitating a moment, he was captured. For a time I occupied the next cot to the Colonel's. I heard the surgeon say that he could not live twenty-four hours. As I remember, he was placed outside in a tent by himself to die. Three or four hours later, when the surgeons looked in upon him they saw that he had revived somewhat, and he was taken to the division hospital. His life was long despaired of. Few men recovered from wounds of like character received during the Civil War. As Major Tremlett was still absent, the command devolved on Capt. F. R. Kingsley of Company E. Our side was beaten for a time but, after being driven about a quarter of a mile, the men reformed and held the foe."

Fred. Baker of Company H had joined the Regiment as a recruit in February, 1864; he was on the skirmish line on August 18th, and, the position being a pretty warm one, he had been digging a pit to get into for cover. About the time that the hole had become large enough for him to get into it, some rebel shot and killed him. He fell into the pit and some of the others covered him with the earth which he had removed. He had dug his own grave.

Dexter Gray of Company E, who had been a schoolmaster before the war, was shot in the head; he was so paralyzed that he could neither speak nor move. His comrades were preparing to bury him, thinking him dead. He knew everything that was being done but he could make no sign to them, neither could he help himself in the least. But just before they were ready to bury him, he recovered sufficiently to make them understand, and the burial was postponed for about twenty years.

Many years later, General Peirson, having been requested to give some personal reminiscences to the Salem Evening News, under what he calls his last battle, recites the story of his experience in the foregoing 18th of August. After some prefatory statements, the General proceeds:--

"General Grant's movements in that campaign were successively to the left, and the order soon came for us to move to the left until we crossed the Weldon Railroad, which was about the last remaining feeder for the secession troops around Petersburg and Richmond. Arriving there we began tearing up the rails for half a mile to pile up the dry sleepers and put the iron rails on top of the cobpile and then firing the sleepers, the rails by the heat and their own weight were rendered worthless."[P]

[Sidenote: AUG. 18, '64]

"Moving through small trees, we came upon the enemy, who immediately attacked. Our men were ordered to lie down, and to receive and return the fire from their position. The commander cannot avail himself of such protection, since the men are likely to be less homesick if they see him apparently indifferent. Notwithstanding these precautions, there were soon wounded men in plenty, the colonel being shot through the body, falling at once upon his knees from the shock. Just at that moment one of the lieutenants, Severand, from the left company of the Regiment came up and reported, 'Everything is swept away from the left.' He was ordered to go out to the left and investigate. He never returned. I went then to that company and sent out the captain to make the same investigation. He did not return. I then went out myself, and meeting a secession soldier, remarked with some force, 'Drop that gun and come in here.' He obeyed, not understanding that I had no strength to compel him, and I learned from him that his troops had got behind our left flank. This view was soon confirmed by the direction from which the bullets came. I then gave orders, something like this, 'Fours, right about, forward on the left company, March' or words to that effect, and the situation was saved.

"By that time, I was so much exhausted by the loss of blood that I was carried to the rear, where there was a field hospital. When I met the regimental surgeon who was my dear friend, I saw tears come into his previously cheerful face, and I then knew that something serious had happened. They gave me a little tent and some of the wounded officers came to bid me good-bye. The major general, commanding the division, hearing that one of his colonels had come to grief, sent an aide to inquire what could be done for my comfort. From him I obtained an ambulance. Our chaplain went with me, also a wounded soldier, who died on the way, and we started for City Point, where were the main hospitals of the army. In a few miles we came to a field hospital, where I hoped to be allowed to remain, but the surgeon declined, I thought brutally, to receive me, though I afterwards learned that any other course would have been fatal to me. So we proceeded on our long journey. Arriving at the splendidly equipped hospitals at City Point, my wound was examined, the ball probed for, and found, and by an operation extracted. Inflammation had by this time set in, and I remained in a very dangerous state for many days.

"While I thus lay on my cot, the hospital was visited by some well meaning but clumsy Christians, whose mission it was to supply the patients with testaments and tracts. They, seeing me, stopped to urge me, since I was so soon to meet my Creator, to turn from my evil ways while there was yet time, and to read the instructive words with which they burdened my couch. One of my friends afterwards said, though I cannot vouch for the truth of the story, that I had only strength enough to reply, 'Go to blazes.' However, I grew better slowly, was sent North on a stretcher, and put to bed in Barton Square, where my dear mother nursed me back to life. Some months after, when the war had closed, I went into business on Kilby street, Boston. One day there came into my office a well remembered soldier who proved to be the captain of the left company. He gave the military salute, and remarked, 'Colonel, I have come to report what I found on the left.' It seems that coming upon a secession picket, they had captured him, taken his weapons with most of his clothes, and persuaded him to go through a course of southern prisons from which he had only just returned."

Of the 19th, Lieutenant Dusseault has this to say, "The fight was resumed. The rebels found a gap on our right and came through, thus flanking us again. Our artillery opened on them as they were between us and artillery, and the shells did us as much harm as they did the enemy. The men of both sides were now pretty well mixed up in the woods. Whichever squad was the larger would capture the other. This day our Regiment was in the worst part of the line and suffered more than any other, unless it was the Sixteenth Maine, which was captured almost to a man."

In a paper read before the Massachusetts Military Historical Society, December 13, 1880, Captain Charles H. Porter says of this day:--

"The morning opened dull and rainy, with the troops in good spirits. No changes were made. The troops of their own accord strengthened the field works, making them quite strong. Nothing happened until about 3 a. m., when the enemy showed considerable activity, the pickets firing and showing quite a bold front. General Lee, determining to drive us from the road sends two divisions under Heth and Mahone. The former has four brigades with eight pieces of artillery from Pegram's battalion. Six of the pieces are west of the railroad and two are east of the same. Mahone has Weisiger's, Colquitt's and a part of Clingman's brigades. Mahone has discovered that the right of the Fifth Corps does not connect with anything. The Ninth Corps, which has been ordered to fill the gap, has not yet reached its destination though it is two o'clock p. m. Doubtless the extremely wet day prevented the prompt arrival of the reinforcement. Our troops, finding everything quiet and not expecting an attack, disposed of themselves in every way, trying to keep as dry as possible, little thinking of the fate in store for them. Four o'clock was the hour agreed upon by Heth and Mahone, as the time when the flanking column should be in position and almost to the minute, Mahone's troops reached our skirmish line and drove it in. Then turning in the thick woods to the west, they moved in column directly upon the exposed right flank of the Federals. This exposed flank had been a subject of anxiety to General Warren, and he had issued orders accordingly.

[Sidenote: AUG. 19, '64]

"While the Third Division was passing a quiet afternoon, the officers at headquarters were informed that Heth was attacking vigorously in front, this being principally against the Second Division. Our Third Division is still undisturbed. The butchers of the division are slaughtering cattle when the pickets of the Ninth Corps come tumbling in, saying that the enemy is advancing upon them. The woods are so very dense that nothing can be seen through them. Not even General Warren, himself, can discern anything. When, however, a line of men is discovered approaching, Warren is so sure that they are the delayed Ninth Corps contingent, he will not allow artillery to open on them, a very serious error on his part, for they are soon discovered to be a portion of the flanking Confederates, and that a considerable part of them is between our artillery and the Third Division. Our artillerists spring to their guns at once and open a rapid fire upon them. How does this act bear upon our Third Division, where the Thirty-ninth Regiment is? The very first intimation that Crawford's men have that all is not well with them, is the bursting of spherical case from the rear, in their midst. They are aware that the artillery is massed behind them, and they realize that something must have happened to bring such firing from their own comrades. Now, the firing in front from Heth and his men begins again, and our pickets are again attacked. It becomes necessary to seek protection from our own thirty guns. The men spring over the breastworks and hold them in reverse, thinking the pickets able to check the attack in front, and that their chief danger is from the rear. The suspense is soon broken when a line of confederate infantry comes rushing in upon them. All is now confusion. Without leaders, the men are completely demoralized. In the dark and dismal woods, dismayed by the fire from our own guns, the men make but a short resistance and this flanking column under Mahone captures nearly two brigades of the Third Division. The attack of Heth in front continues, adding to the confusion, but the rapid firing of our artillery convinces the enemy that there is nothing more for them in that direction, so they content themselves with the 2700 prisoners, whom they have swept almost entirely from the Third Division, and move up the Halifax road with more captives than they themselves number. As they thus move away the captured men narrowly escape the fire of Mahone's two cannon stationed on the east side of the railroad; the gunners think so large an array of men in blue must be an attacking party, but the condition is disclosed soon enough to prevent the possible slaughter.

"Such men of the Third Division as have not been captured, seek safety in every direction, each man for himself. Dodging behind trees, now east, now west, some of the wrecked body of men get the true direction and come out at the edge of the clearing, looking towards our artillery. Here they behold a welcome sight. It is an advancing line of the Ninth Corps, responding to the evident need. It is the First Division of the Ninth Corps, composed largely of Massachusetts men, and they are friends indeed. We know that, having the situation well in hand, the position will be regained and the railroad held. The remnants of the Third Division are finally rallied near the Dunlock House. Picture, if you can, one little knot gathered together, about twenty-five in number, all that, at this time, can be assembled of a regiment that yesterday carried three hundred and fifty muskets into the first day's fight, whose commander was most grievously wounded on that day. They are soon marshaled to occupy, as far as they can, their old line of works. Very few sleep any during the night, as the weary hours roll on, and it seems as though daylight would never come to bring relief to the dread hanging over the command through the night. Mahone and his men retire to their defenses with feelings quite the reverse of those of their opponents and the 'Little Gamecock of the Confederacy' fully merits his appellation as he turns over his plunder to General Lee."

An excellent personal story of the second day is told by Sergt. George E. Fowle, Company K, whose experience quite likely was similar to that of nearly all the men of the Regiment who succeeded in getting out of the confusion, free:

[Sidenote: AUG. 19. '64]

"I was acting First Sergeant of Company K. Corporal S. A. McFeeley was my bunkmate, and was one of the color guard. We were stationed in the woods on the right of the railroad, where the rebels made vigorous demonstrations on our front while a large force turned our right flank. Our artillery was firing solid shot over our heads when the enemy broke through and came between us and our cannon. The guns were immediately depressed to reach the confederates and the shots coming through them and reaching us were the first intimation we had of anything wrong. McFeeley was sent back to stop the artillery and was captured. The line was doubled up as the enemy came down on our flank. I started back with the rest and came across a canteen with the string cut; picking it up, I took a drink and filled my own canteen, but when this was done I found myself alone, but I followed along in the direction which the others had gone. I came to a cart path, where I saw some of our men with a few Johnnies on the other side of the path. The bushes separating us were so thick and low that I had to spread them apart with my hands to get through, and when I did and straightened up, with my gun in my hand, I found myself looking into a rebel gun barrel, held by a Johnnie who was standing by the side of an officer, whom I took to be a colonel. I was told to throw down the gun, which I did and walked across the road where the officer took me by the shoulder and turned me around, saying, 'Get into the ranks, and we'll take good care of you.' There were so many prisoners that we were in all sorts of position, one, two and three deep. The man nearest me wanted to know where the Maryland Brigade was located.

"I unhitched my knapsack and turned around to see if anybody was looking, and gave it a throw into the bushes. As I did so, I saw Joe Adams, the National color bearer, come out into the road, look up and down the same, and then he raised the colors over his head and threw them into the wheel-ruts, there happened to be a break in the guards near him. I threw off my scabbard and cut the strap which held my cartridge box. We were nearing the railroad tracks, where the rebels turned and marched up towards Petersburg. When I saw a good chance I jumped into the bushes and soon heard someone behind me, and turning saw Joe, Adams and another man. All this time we were getting more or less missiles from our own guns; the solid shot had been changed to shells and we were troubled quite as much as the confederates. We soon encountered a rebel with a gun in his hand, just as a shell exploded near our heads. To Adams' query as to where was the direction of the rebel rear, he replied, 'I'll be d--d if I know.' At this, I left them to see what I could do for myself in finding our own breastworks. In a short time I came across a lieutenant of the Sixteenth Maine, who was behind a tree, whereupon I found a tree also, but I didn't stop long, since I was not gaining ground. We could see the prisoners and the guard and occasionally a rebel would come our way.