Part 24

"I started back towards our works, but on arriving found no one there, so I sallied forth to where the right of the Regiment had been. Going some distance beyond where our right was, I saw some troops mount the breastworks. At first I couldn't make out who they were, blue or gray, but, stooping down, I found them to be our men, and I recognized Corporal Abijah Thompson, who beckoned me to come up his way. The ground was covered with muskets, which had been thrown down when the boys were captured. Colonel Wheelock of the Ninety-seventh New York, then commanding his brigade, was up on the right, and seeing the movement, he put his men in front of the works and charged out upon the enemy, capturing everything in sight, Yank and Reb, including the Colonel, who was going to take good care of me, a stand of confederate colors and, best of all, our own which Adams had thrown down.[Q] The state colors borne by Serg. William A. Mentzer of "A" were brought in safely by him, though by great effort.

"On getting out of the woods into the field, there stood the First Division of the Ninth Corps in line; I ran down and told General White that the rebels had got our Brigade, and that they were on the road in there, not ten rods from where he sat on his horse, and he could get them all if he went in. The General turned around and said to one of his staff, 'They have got the road we came down.' He was waiting for orders from General Warren. It had been raining and I didn't know whether the gun that I had picked up would go off or not, so I pointed the muzzle towards the ground and fired. Whereupon the General said, 'Don't you know any better than that?' I went back to the line, borrowed some cartridges and caps and loaded the gun, when Colonel Lyle and the remnant of the Brigade came out of the bushes. His command resembled a color guard. A staff officer soon ordered me back into the breastworks. I picked up a sergeant's knapsack and soon made a set of sergeant's chevrons. Our company made two stacks of guns that night, and I put my gun across the stacks, and was in command of the company. Lieutenant Tidd and twenty-seven men of Company K were taken prisoners. Our captain was sick and had been taken to the hospital."

[Sidenote: AUG. 20, '64]

Of Saturday, the 20th, Captain Porter remarks that it opened quite pleasantly and that the sunlight, struggling through the clouds, was cheering to the lonely feeling troops of the Third Division, those that remained in line. The Ninth Corps had made a complete connection with the right of our division and further danger in this direction was obviated. This day the engineers of the Fifth Corps marked out a new line of works to be occupied in the open, just in advance of the Dunlock House, about three hundred yards north from the Six Mile House. This line ran near the woods in which so great disaster had befallen our troops. Our Third division occupied ground to the right, east of the railroad, which still divided the forces of the Second Division. The breastworks were heavily made and were quite impracticable for an assault in front. The lines of the Fifth and Ninth Corps were continuations of each other. All lines in advance of this new one were abandoned in the afternoon and evening of the 20th. While there was hard work in the trenches there was no engagement with the enemy. The latter had by no means given up the recovery of the railroad and was making plans for the morrow. The juncture of the Fifth and Ninth Corps, leaving no aperture in that direction, his attention was necessarily drawn towards the left. It was said that General Roger A. Pryor of Virginia, conspicuous in ante-bellum days, by his altercation with John F. Potter, a fellow Congressman from Wisconsin, who named bowie knives as duelling weapons, having retired from active army service, in his capacity of independent scout, had climbed a tree and from this outlook discovered, as he thought, the vulnerableness of the Union left. Hastening to impart his discovery to General Mahone, the latter made plans for an attack on the 21st. With the details of this unsuccessful effort to repeat the tactics of the 19th, we have no especial concern, except to state that this time, Mahone carried back no prisoners and reported no victory. Ayers and his First Division were quite ready to receive callers.

Of this campaign of four days, General Warren says, "The heat of the first day (18th) was excessive, and on the march many fell out who are here reported among the missing, but who will soon rejoin us. About fifty were completely prostrated by sunstroke. The men were kept working night and day, and every day were wet through with the rains. The side roads and fields were almost impassable for artillery." However much the Confederates may have lamented the loss of the Weldon Railroad as a supply source, and to them it was a grievous one, the conditions brought about by these terrible battle days in August remained unchanged to the end. Grant was taking no backward steps and with the grip of a bulldog, whatever he grasped, he held.

[Sidenote: AUG. 22, '64]

The losses met by the Thirty-ninth were frightful. May 4th, when the Regiment crossed the Rapidan there were five hundred and thirty men in the ranks, fully twice the number in any other two regiments in the Brigade. Since then we had received from the Twelfth and Thirteenth Regiments two hundred and twenty-eight transfers, bringing the aggregate to nearly eight hundred men, yet so severe had been the tests of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and the attacks on Petersburg, including this most recent calamity on the Weldon Railroad, on the morning of August 22d only one hundred and two enlisted men and nine officers reported for duty. Of course, some would eventually report from the missing, which included not alone prisoners and wounded, but stragglers as well, still the fact remained that the swoop that Malone made upon the First Brigade on that August afternoon came near finishing it. Colonel Peirson was seriously wounded and in hospital; Major Tremlett was away on detached service; Captain F. R. Kinsley was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy and the command devolved upon Captain George S. Nelson of Company A. We have already seen that Company K stacked nine muskets, under command of a sergeant, the night of the 19th; ten men were reported left in Company C, and "E" Company had only seven or eight of the original number. Terrible are the ravages of war.

The several army corps along the southside of Petersburg are hereafter to gradually strengthen the lines already established, to build new forts and to place the Weldon Railroad in a condition that even its recovery would in no way profit the Confederacy, since the impoverished condition of the latter would be quite incapable of putting it into a running condition. Colonel T. F. McCoy of the Hundred and Seventh Pennsylvania, commanding the Brigade after the retirement of Colonel Lyle, accounts for the procedure of the First Brigade during these days. He says that the dead were buried on the 22d. On the 23rd the division under General Crawford engaged in destroying the railroad from the Yellow House in the direction of Petersburg, the First Brigade, however, acting as a reserve to protect the working parties. The 24th, what was left of the brigade rested quietly in camp. The 25th brought orders to change camps, in doing which, however, other orders were received to prepare for action, and the column immediately took up the line of march towards Reams' Station, where the Second Corps was heavily engaged with a large force of the enemy. It was at this point that Colonel Peter Lyle, Ninetieth Pennsylvania, who had commanded the Brigade so long, on account of severe illness, was obliged to relinquish his command. Colonel McCoy,[R] succeeding, marched the Brigade to the Yellow House, where he received orders from General Crawford to report with his command to General Bragg, which he did, and proceeded in the direction of Reams, but after marching about one mile he was ordered to countermarch and encamp for the night. Next day, 26th, camp was again changed and the men were ordered to throw up works, southeast of the Yellow House.

[Sidenote: SEPT. 2, '64]

The digging that the Fifth Corps did in the vicinity of the Yellow House became a part of the system of fortifications that were gradually extended to Fort Fisher, the extreme western fort, where there was a turn or refusal of the line to the southward, lest the favorite maneuver of the rebels might be tried on the Union left. Day and night, the work progressed, every day strengthening the coils which Grant and Meade were casting about the doomed city, and every one knew that the fall of Petersburg meant the end of Richmond also. A deal of ammunition was wasted in the bombardment of Petersburg, yet it had to be kept up, or the enemy would have thought the Yankees quite inefficient. They grew almost indifferent to the missiles from the Union guns and fifty years later they will tell of the tons of ammunition that were wasted upon them and their city. The "Petersburg Express"[S] located near the Friend House, and manned by the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, failed not in its two hundred pound compliments for weeks and months and in the Twentieth Century the mortar itself will form a principal part of the regimental monument in Hartford. Somehow there is more real fighting over on the other side of the James where the Tenth Corps is located and the enemy cannot dispossess themselves of the impression that the Yankees really mean to get into Richmond that way.

By the last of the month, matters have resolved themselves into a long steady round of fatigue and picket duty to the music of artillery along the entire line, the attitude of the opposing guardsmen on duty depending entirely on the agreements that they may have made with each other. September 2d, General D. McM. Gregg, supported by General Crawford's (Third) Division of the Fifth Corps started out on an errand of some sort up the Vaughn road, towards the Plank Road and Petersburg; in other words it was a case of marching up the hill and then marching down again, for finding the enemy strongly entrenched, the entire force returned to camp. This day also the foe forgot the tacit agreement of friendliness and opened up a fire of musketry along the entire line, killing a large number of men and effectually ending amicable relations for some time.

While the fact of the occupation of Atlanta by the Union forces had been understood as early as the 2d, no official notice of the success was taken until the 4th, Sunday, when one hundred shotted guns were fired from extreme right to the furthest left, the celebration lasting about an hour, the enemy thinking it so queer a way of observing the Lord's day that they, too, opened their batteries and added to the din, arising from their own misfortune. "Westward Ho!" is evidently still the watchword of our commander, for every effort is made to strengthen the extreme left, and both sides watch out with the utmost alertness. For the sake of rearranging a portion of our line of works it became necessary to gain possession of the rebel rifle pits at "The Chimneys," on the Jerusalem Plank Road, and General Mott, with a backing from the Second Corps, was directed to accomplish the task, this on the night of the 9th of September. The duty was done at the point of the bayonet and the works were immediately reversed, the same becoming of great advantage to the new possessors, General Walker of the Second Corps pronouncing the operation one of the most creditable in the entire siege. Of course, the foe did not let go without protest, and subsequent nights were rendered lurid by his efforts to regain the lost ground, but to no avail.

[Sidenote: SEPT. 16, '64]

The thoroughness with which the campaign is advancing appears on Sunday, the 11th, when an engine is run over the newly laid railroad from City Point to the Weldon road at Yellow House. The Confederates are running trains to Stony Creek, twelve miles south of Reams; and the remainder of the distance, around the Union left into Petersburg, is effected by wagon, pretty slow and vexatious work! The firing along the picket line, annoying and useless, had become very obnoxious to General Birney of the Tenth Corps at the Union right, and to give the enemy something to think about opened a heavy fire on the works in his front and on Petersburg itself. The enemy also played during the afternoon on certain signal towers along the front of the Eighteenth Corps. A very tranquil evening followed this ebulition. Perhaps no event of the week gave the Confederates so much pleasure as their success in surprising a couple of cavalry regiments in charge of a large number of beef cattle, some 2500 in number, near Coggin's Point on the James River and running the vast herd into their lines and taking with them the careless guards. While the rebels were thus supplying their commissariat, others of their number made an attack on the entire skirmish line of the Fifth Corps and capture nearly a hundred of the men. On the 16th, the Second Brigade was assigned to forts on the left of the line, the Thirty-ninth being ordered to Fort Duchesne. Camp was pitched just outside the fort, along with the One Hundred and Fourth New York the Eleventh, Forty-eighth and Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania, all under the command of Colonel Richard Coulter of the last named regiment. The 19th was enlivened by telegraphic news of Sheridan's victory near Winchester where Early was sent "Whirling up the Valley," followed by salvos of artillery in honor thereof. On the 28th, the paymaster left six months' pay.

Ten days later, Thursday, the 29th, was a counterpart to a deal of activity on the Union right, when business was actually suspended in Richmond through fear that an assault was imminent; a column consisting of Gregg's cavalry, supported by two infantry brigades, set out towards the Poplar Springs Church road, beyond the Vaughan turnpike, advancing about two miles. On their return, they were attacked by Hampton's cavalry, the force that had stolen the cattle-herd, and a brisk encounter followed. Friday, the 30th, extending into Saturday, took place the battle of Peebles' farm between certain portions of the Fifth and Ninth Corps and the Confederates, General Grant having in mind a movement towards the Southside Railroad, expecting thus to still further cripple the cities of Petersburg and Richmond, the result being a considerable advance westward of the Union left. While all of this commotion was taking place, the Thirty-ninth Regiment moved into the fort, remaining there until the 16th of October, when it came out and took a position on the Weldon Railroad half a mile in front of Fort Duchesne, and a mile from the Globe Tavern or Yellow House.

So far as our Regiment is concerned, affairs are very quiet, though the extended Union line towards the west affords opportunity for constant work, day and night, for every man, and the number in the Thirty-ninth is not very great, so large a portion of the survivors of the Regiment being involuntary boarders in the Confederacy. The fact that less than eleven months remain of the service for which the men enlisted causes not a few remarks as to the gradual approach of the day of release, though all must know that the future holds many possibilities of battles and other exposure. Ignorance in this case is surely bliss. The first third of October covers considerable activity on the Union right, where Darbytown Road wins a place in battle lists, and the cooler nights indicate the approach of another winter with its peculiar exactions. The first frost comes on the night of the 9th-10th. From the 8th to the 11th all sorts of firing have been common in the vicinity of Sedgwick or "Fort Hell" in local parlance, on the last named night the pyrotechny being especially brilliant, a Richmond paper stating that it was the heaviest mortar shelling of the siege, "The heavens being ablaze with brilliant meteors, ascending, descending and shooting athwart the horizon in almost countless numbers and unsurpassed beauty."

[Sidenote: OCT. 26, '64]

During these early October days, General S. W. Crawford is in command of the Fifth Corps and with it, accompanying the Ninth Corps, a reconnoisance in force is made on the 8th towards the Union left, possibly with an idea of extending our works even beyond Fort McRae. After a day of hard marching and constant skirmishing the troops returned, wearied enough, to their starting point; but General Grant is not satisfied, even yet, that he cannot reach the Southside Railroad. A little past the middle of the month, or on the 19th, comes the most unqualified report of victory in the Shenandoah Valley that the country has yet heard. It is the story of Cedar Creek, fought on the 19th, when differing from the dispatches after Winchester, just a month before, where Early was sent "whirling up the valley"; so nearly annihilated is the rebel army, it would be a very stiff breeze which could find anything left to whirl. The activities for this month, as far as the Fifth Corps is concerned, terminated with the joint move, on the 26th, of the Second, Fifth and Ninth Corps along with Gregg's Cavalry against the Southside Railroad, known as the Boydton Plank Road, some distance east of the railroad. Very full and explicit instructions had been issued to the designated troops, and the utmost care had been taken to insure the safety of the entrenchments during the movement. The Fifth Corps, or that part of it in the project, marched out on the Squirrel Level Road, in a southwesterly direction towards Hatcher's Run, a small stream rising near Sutherland Station on the Southside Road and flowing southeastwardly into Rowanty Creek, a tributary of the Nottoway River. The Lieutenant General was determined to leave no stone unturned to secure the longed-for source of Petersburg's supplies. The country itself revealed many of the Wilderness characteristics, there being no roads and no chances to move artillery. In this confusion, the right of the Second Corps, furthest west, was lost to the Fifth Corps, a fact which enabled the enemy to get in between the two corps and capture a considerable number of men, the Second Corps suffering more than the Fifth, one whole regiment being run in. The mix-up was not unlike that of the 18th of August, for rain set in and ammunition was scarce, our leaders were ignorant of the lay of the land which the enemy seemed to know perfectly; so the left flank movement ended with the return of the troops to their former positions. On this same 26th the Thirty-ninth moved to the left and garrisoned Fort Canahey.

A very good story of give and take is recorded of this week; at dusk in the evening of Thursday, the 27th, one hundred volunteers of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Pennsylvania attacked the fort of the enemy which succeeded that blown up on the 30th of July, climbed the parapet, drove the occupants out and, for a brief period, were masters of the situation, this being a plan to hold the attention of the Confederates while the assault was progressing further to left, but the enemy rallying quickly drove the Federal force back with considerable loss on both sides. In return, Sunday night, the 30th, at about ten o'clock, the rebels "relieved the pickets" in front of Fort Davis where the Sixty-ninth and One Hundred and Eleventh New York were on picket duty, and managed to capture nearly four hundred men. So delighted were the Confederates with their success they proceeded to throw a strong column against the works which had been uncovered by the capture of the pickets, but the alarm had been given and the triumphant men in gray were met with a fire of musketry that sent them back in a hurry and, for a time, there was a merry firing bee along the entire line. For the nonce, honors between blue and gray were easy and regular, expected shooting was resumed.

Another and the last November for the Thirty-ninth begins and finds the remnant of the Regiment doing garrison duty under the command of Captain Nelson of Company A, and comparative quiet reigning along the extended battle line, now reaching from the north side of the James more than twenty miles to Hatcher's Run. Lieutenant Colonel Tremlett, so long absent from the Regiment, returns on Friday, the 4th, relieving Captain Nelson, who has led the organization since the capture of Major F. R. Kinsley at the Weldon Railroad. Barring considerable excitement on the 5th, near "Fort Hell," where lines were captured by the enemy and reversed only to be re-taken and restored, day and night fully sustaining the reputation of the locality, and efforts of like nature in front of Fort Steadman on the 9th, the game of life and death was played without special emphasis--just the steady, constant watchfulness of thousands of men unwilling to allow any act of their adversary to pass unnoticed. Tuesday, the 8th of November, brings the presidential election, and the triumphant re-election of Lincoln, all soldiers having the privilege of voting, a singular illustration of ways in a republic where, in becoming a soldier the man does not lose his citizenship.

[Sidenote: NOV. 24, '64]