"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 Aug. 18, '64 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 The skirmishing up to this time had been very light, the enemy having obviously withdrawn to his left, and the whole move being made with hardly a show of opposition.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:—
"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 Aug. 18, '64 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]
"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 Aug. 18, '64 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.
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:
"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 Aug. 19. '64 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.
"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."
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.
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 Aug. 22, '64 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.
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 Sept. 2, '64 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.
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. Sept. 16, '64 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."
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, Oct. 26, '64 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.
The 24th was Thanksgiving Day in New England and many a prayer was offered for the men at the front and many expressions of love and recollection were speeded Nov. 24, '64 southward for the delectation of absent ones. Nearly thirty tons of turkeys were said to have been sent from the North to the armies, and this vast amount of food, accompanied by all sorts of other meats and luxuries, must have gone far towards furnishing forth at least one good old-fashioned dinner for many thousands of men. As a sort of godsend to the enemy, possibly that they, too, might be thankful, on the 19th, some forty or fifty head of cattle, escaping from our corrals, made for the Confederate works where they were received as enemies, yet later found a thoroughly warm reception. On the 26th, the Ninetieth Pennsylvania, having reached the end of its term of enlistment, started for Philadelphia. It had been in the same division with the Thirty-ninth from the time of our joining the First Corps and, for the larger part of the period, in the same brigade. Its good qualities we had learned to appreciate. An outgrowth of the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania militia, it had served, under Colonel Lyle,[T] in the Three Months' call and, again, for three years. Recruits and re-enlisted men were transferred to the Eleventh Pennsylvania and all that were left of the originals were off for home. Towards the end of the month summaries were prepared of the losses sustained by the Army of the Potomac in the campaign so relentlessly waged and, according to Surgeon Thos. A. McParlin, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, from May 3rd to October 31st, the number of wounded amounted to 57,496, exclusive of the Eighteenth Corps while serving in this army, and he does not include the Ninth Corps at the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania Court House. According to data prepared by General Warren the killed and wounded in the Fifth Corps, during this same period, amounted to more than eleven thousand. The precautions taken to preserve life, and at the same time offering readiness to receive as well as make attacks, taxed the highest talents and ingenuity of engineers and soldiers. To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, were earthworks of the strongest character, though few cared to take the risk of prolonged observations. There were corduroy roads underground and covered ways of heavy trunks of trees under four or five feet of earth to prevent shells from reaching those beneath. Few men cared to be for any considerable time in these safety holes, the monotony and closeness being terrible.
Though the Army of the Potomac is nominally in winter quarters, this in no way prevents changes of location, the organization of raids and a degree of activity hitherto unknown among the veterans of one or more winter's experience, who are carefully watching rebels while, at Dec. 1, '64 the same time, keeping a careful reckoning on the time intervening before their muster-out. December comes in with a salute to the effect that it is the last one the Regiment will see in the field. On Thursday, the 1st, General Gregg leads a cavalry raid down the Weldon Railroad, starting before daylight, riding as far as Stony Creek, twenty-two miles below Petersburg, for the sake of destroying whatever stores may be collected there and to destroy also whatever advance may have been made in a proposed railroad connection between Stony Creek, the present terminus of the Weldon Railroad, and the Southside Road through a new track, laid down by way of the Dinwiddie and the Boydton Roads. With considerable adventure, this was successfully done and with a forty mile's ride, not to mention the fighting, to their credit, the expedition was back again at 11 p. m.
The early part of the month saw the return of the Sixth Army Corps from its experiences in the valley, and with the garlands of victory fresh upon it, the corps took its place along the Petersburg line. In July, when the Sixth started for Baltimore and Washington, the Union front extended only a little further than the Jerusalem Plank Road; now it is prolonged to Hatcher's Run, and every foot of the prolongation has cost effort and blood; eight miles of new frontage dearly won. Into this battle line Sheridan's "Foot Cavalry" settles as naturally as though it has been away only a day or two on a casual raid. What is left of Early's force has been back with Lee several weeks. Not satisfied with the cavalry demonstration of the 1st, General Warren is ordered to conduct a more formidable array on the 7th to the same region. The troops, Fifth Corps, Mott's Division of the Second Corps and a division of cavalry under Gregg, above 20,000 in number with twenty-two pieces of artillery, have been massed on both sides of the Jerusalem Road and after a cold night, in the face of a severe rain, are off. On the Nottoway River, they come to where Freeman's Bridge was formerly, twenty miles from Petersburg, and they cross the stream on a pontoon bridge. Next day (8th) the march southward is continued and at Jarratt's Station where the Weldon Railroad crosses the Nottoway, thirty miles from Petersburg, they burn the bridge, two hundred feet long, crossing the river. The railroad track is torn up in the effectual manner characteristic of the times and Thursday night is spent here. Friday (9th) the work of destruction continues down to Bellfield, twelve miles further along. Of course there is skirmishing with the enemy constantly, but he is not here in sufficient force to offer substantial resistance. The troops bivouac for the night at Three Creek, three miles this side of Bellfield. All the time the weather has been wretched, the constant rain rendering the roads almost impassable and, to crown all, this night (Friday) come snow and hail to add to the general discomfort. Saturday (10th) the expedition faces towards Petersburg, burning on the way back the buildings at Sussex Court House in retaliation, so said, for the shooting of some of our stragglers and here the army bivouacs; resuming the backward route the Nottoway was reached in the evening of the 11th and, on the 12th, the old quarters are struck by a very tired body of men; the net results being a march fifty miles long, three railroad bridges destroyed, fifteen miles of railroad track torn up and bent out of shape and a county court house burned.
No mention is made in the official report of the quantity of apple-jack which the curiously inclined Yankees sought and found and, to their own harm, imbibed. The section had not been overrun before, and consequently better stored farm houses were found than the men had been seeing of late and, notwithstanding the rigors of the campaign, possibly on account of them, they made merry with the seductive liquids made from innocent cider. The story was long current that one man, outside of fully three fingers of the booze, and growing correspondingly free with the dignitaries, slapped General Warren familiarly Dec. 10, '64 on the back, calling him "The little Corporal," a term which ever afterwards clung to the soldier himself. Canteens of the fiery stuff were carried back to camp for the benefit (?) of those who did not go. Had the weather been more propitious, it is possible that the expedition would have gone on twenty miles further to Weldon, on the Roanoke.
In the foregoing episode, the Thirty-ninth bore its part, having moved back to the rear line on the 5th and, at the start, taking the advance of the infantry. Just before reaching Halifax Road, the 8th, on indications of trouble ahead the Regiment was deployed and sent forward as skirmishers to hold the road. Having established a line of pickets, the Thirty-ninth stood by to guard the road while the main column passed on. Shortly after dark we followed the troops, overtaking them near Jarratt's Station, and there we took a hand in destroying the railroad. On the 9th we had a place at the extreme left of the corps, and picketed the front of the brigade, which was doing its best to make the road a hard one for the rebels to travel. At 6 p. m. we were withdrawn to Cross Roads, above Bellfield, one half going on picket, the other half into camp with the Brigade. In the movement backward, beginning on the 10th, we fetched up the rear and thus enjoyed frequent tilts with the close following cavalry of the enemy who, in spite of our best efforts, managed to capture any who straggled, in the number, our Regiment losing four men. On the 11th, starting before daylight, we crossed the Nottaway at four o'clock in the afternoon and at nine halted for the night. On the 12th, we were back again before Petersburg, having marched twelve miles. Encamping near the Jerusalem Plank Road, we were ordered to build huts for the winter and, following a week's work, we moved into our new quarters where, for about a month, we had almost easy times. At any rate we were not right under the fire of the enemy all of the time. We had to turn out at intervals on account of real or fancied dangers; drill and fatigue duties had their part and there were the regular details for guard and picket. Once we served as guard for a wagon train which went outside for bricks and boards, securing the same from a deserted house some five miles away.
It must be understood that absolute quiet in front of Petersburg was out of the question. The extended works were like a mammoth keyboard for an organ, whose dimensions transcended imagination and, seated thereat, all the gods and goddesses of War played music that rivaled the thunderbolts of Jove, now the low mutterings of distant lightning, anon rising to the fierce reverberations of an equinoxial as when, on the 19th of December, doubly shotted guns told the joy of the Union that Thomas had annihilated Hood at Nashville or, on the 26th, when Mars himself seemed to press those keys in token of the termination of the March to The Sea and that Savannah had fallen. Always catching up the refrain, the unterrified rebels, aided by their own warlike deities, hurled it back upon us, sometimes like an echo, immeasurable augmented, till veritably it seemed that the opposing lines, stretching away beyond human sight, could not have evoked a greater riot of sound had they been exits of Aetna and Stromboli. A topmost gallery seat in this magnificent theatre of war afforded, in the very mildest passages of Freedom's Oratorio, all the sound, melodious or otherwise, that the average human ear could appreciate.
Christmas brought nothing more notable than a beautiful day, which in the midst of a cheerless winter was not unwelcomed, but there were none of the festivities which untold generations have developed as essential features of the coming of the Prince of Peace and, for that matter, what propriety could there be in observing the advent of the Christ Child in an army, yet the world is full of just such anomalies. As December nears its end and dies with the old year, careful observers scan the retrospect, and in the deeds of Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, Dec. 25, '64 behold the utmost encouragement. Grierson, with his cavalry marching from Tennessee to Louisiana, has discovered the Confederacy to be a "shell with nothing in it." With Grant holding Lee in his relentless clutches at Petersburg, Thomas looking about for the scattered remnants of Hood's Army, Price driven out of Missouri, Sheridan, at the head of his troopers, ready to vault into the saddle, and Sherman turning his face towards Augusta and Charleston, seemingly the "last ditch" is very, very near. Yet, that the enemy is not disposed to yield till forced to do so, on the very last day of the year, when "Happy New Year" is already ready for utterance by millions of happy voices, the Union picket line, in the region of Forts Wadsworth and Howard is surprised by a party of the enemy who charging furiously, yelling and firing rapidly, drive our men back into their main works with hardly a chance to exchange a shot. We lose two killed, three wounded and thirty-five captured, and the Johnnies took back with them the blankets, knapsacks and whatever other belongings they could find. So alert and swift were the rebels, so well had they planned their attack that they were out of range before the men in the forts could return their compliments. So ends the year.