1
12
37
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Drawings
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
pencil drawing
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image
1 drawing on brown paper : pencil ; 22.4 x 32.2 cm. (sheet).
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Title
A name given to the resource
Soldiers of Gen Augurs Brigade waiting for the cars to take them to Uptons Hill, Va. their old camp
Subject
The topic of the resource
United States.--Army.--New York Infantry Regiment, 24th (1861-1863)
- United States.--Army.--New York Infantry Regiment, 22nd (1861-1863)
- United States.--Army.--New York Infantry Regiment, 14th (1861-1863)
- United States.--Army.--New York Infantry Regiment, 30th (1861-1863)
- Augur, Christopher Colon--Military service
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Destruction & pillage
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military personnel
- Soldiers--Union--1860-1870
- Military uniforms--Union--1860-1870
- Railroad stations--1860-1870
- Drums--1860-1870
- United States--Virginia--Alexandria
Description
An account of the resource
Four full-length soldiers in foreground, sketchy images of soldiers in background, including a drummer. Many have sacks and boxes, pillaged from Virginia families.
Inscribed on verso: The brigade consists of the 24th, 22nd, 14th and 30th N.Y.V. the scene represents the variety in appearance [sic] of those soldiers after walking the day prevous [sic], 21 Miles, some distance beyond Fairfax Courthouse in a rain storm. The variety of costume is obvous [sic] - the[y] have all some token to remember the F.F.V. scene at the R.R. Station, Alexandria, Va. Sunday Eve.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lumley, Arthur, approximately 1837-1912, artist
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
ppmsca 20780 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.20780
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
https://lccn.loc.gov/2004661306
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1862 January - March]
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
No known restrictions on publication.
14th New York Regiment
22nd New York Regiment
24th New York Regiment
30th New York State Volunteers
Alexandria
New York Volunteers
railroad
Upton's Hill
-
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/2ccf0ed36c40be017451ffa4a367c31c.jpg
4c4e4814240eb070e531515557e4a33f
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Photographs
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
1 photograph : albumen print on card mount ; mount 92 x 74 mm (carte de visite format)
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image
1 photograph : albumen print on card mount ; mount 92 x 74 mm (carte de visite format)
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Title
A name given to the resource
Soldiers of 20th New York State Militia, reorganized as 80th New York Infantry Regiment at Upton's Hill, Virginia
Subject
The topic of the resource
United States.--Army.--New York Infantry Regiment, 80th (1861-1866)--People.
Soldiers--Union--1860-1870.
Military uniforms--Union--1860-1870.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military personnel--Union.
Description
An account of the resource
Unidentified soldiers of 20th New York State Militia, reorganized as 80th New York Infantry Regiment, in uniform with bayoneted rifles at Upton's Hill, Virginia
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, photographer
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/lilj/item/2021630250/
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1861-1865
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Liljenquist Family collection (Library of Congress)
Rights
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No known restrictions on publication.
Format
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1 photograph : albumen print on card mount ; mount 92 x 74 mm (carte de visite format)
Albumen prints--1860-1870.
Cartes de visite--1860-1870.
Portrait photographs--1860-1870.
20th New York Militia
bayoneted rifles
Union soldiers
Upton's Hill
-
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/da93a5f0f10da2e2d344efcf4a9445a0.jpg
b4a2397ba21cd36d4a45ad5e935f2fff
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Maps
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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Title
A name given to the resource
Map of Civil War Defenses in Virginia
Subject
The topic of the resource
Civil War Defenses of Washington
Description
An account of the resource
A map of Union forts in Virginia
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Engineers
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
National Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1865?
Rights
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Public Domain
Language
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English
Identifier
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“Environs of Washington.” Sheet 7. Original map series held in the National Archives and Records Service. Record
Group 77: Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1789 – 1999. (National Archives Identifier: 406).
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Northern Virginia
Civil War Defenses of Washington
Records of the Office of the Chief Engineer
Upton's Hill
-
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/31b756601429cb778c808d10a882fca4.tiff
fb7123f89a5eeb182fc525c7fc1bb995
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Drawings
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
photograph
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Drawing of Fort Ramsay
Subject
The topic of the resource
United States. Army--Military life
- Soldiers as artists
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Art and the war
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives
- Artists
- Soldiers
- United States. Army. Massachusetts Artillery Battery, 9th (1862-1865)
- Art
- Illustration of books
- Manuscripts
- United States
Description
An account of the resource
Charles Wellington Reed Papers: Sketchbooks, 1863-1887, undated; Nos. 1-10, leaves 1-415
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles Wellington Reed
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Reed, Charles Wellington. Charles Wellington Reed Papers: Sketchbooks, -1887, undated; Nos. 1-10, leaves 1-415. 1862. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mss374570301/.
mss37457, box: 3
https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss37457.0301/?sp=205&r=0.406,0.267,0.346,0.206,0
Publisher
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Library of Congress
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1862
Rights
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public domain
9th Massachusetts Artillery
artists
charles Reed
Fort Ramsay
Upton's Hill
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Augustus Hesse Letter
Subject
The topic of the resource
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from Augustus Hesse, Fort Ramsay at Upton's hill, Va., to Deborah Weston, December the 19th, 1862
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw35g
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Boston Public Library
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 19, 1862
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Format
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Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Letter from Augustus Hesse from Fort Ramsay to Deborah Weston
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/dd8732596e284cd917dd245bc562f981.tif
db5daf54bafa484006acd5721445e8bc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Augustus Hesse Letter
Subject
The topic of the resource
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from Augustus Hesse, Fort Ramsay at Upton's hill, Va., to Deborah Weston, December the 19th, 1862
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw35g
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Boston Public Library
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 19, 1862
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/e76ed91ab7bd0e9e540d9ddec9cc5f49.tif
a3ea3268926d7c0375cef996167c46c6
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Augustus Hesse Letter
Subject
The topic of the resource
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from Augustus Hesse, Fort Ramsay at Upton's hill, Va., to Deborah Weston, December the 19th, 1862
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw35g
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Boston Public Library
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 19, 1862
Rights
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No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Format
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Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Letter from Augustus Hesse from Fort Ramsay to Deborah Weston
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Augustus Hesse Letter
Subject
The topic of the resource
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from Augustus Hesse, Fort Ramsay at Upton's hill, Va., to Deborah Weston, December the 19th, 1862
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw35g
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 19, 1862
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Format
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Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Letter from Augustus Hesse from Fort Ramsay to Deborah Weston
Dublin Core
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Title
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Diaries and Letters
Text
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Text
Any textual data included in the document
Augustus Hesse has received the box sent to him by Miss Deborah Weston. He thanks Mrs. Weston for the tea and sugar. The weather has changed to winter. It snowed four inches, then cleared at the time of the eclipse of the moon, and became very cold. They have been busy building a stable for the horses and staking their tents. They have a fireplace in the tent, with a chimney in the rear, but not quite finished. Augustus Hesse was promoted to the rank of corporal.
In the postscript on page four of this manuscript, Augustus Hesse thanks Deborah Weston for enclosing a stamp. He said: "I can't buy none for it got not a cent of mony [sic] in my possession. We dit [did] not get our pay yet but the List is giving [given] in a month ago!
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
letter
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Augustus Hesse Letter
Subject
The topic of the resource
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Women abolitionists--Massachusetts--Boston--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States
Women abolitionists--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Weston, Deborah, b. 1814
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from Augustus Hesse, Fort Ramsay at Upton's hill, Va., to Deborah Weston, December the 19th, 1862
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hesse, Augustus, d. 1867
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qz20tw35g
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Boston Public Library
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
December 19, 1862
Rights
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No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Format
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Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Letter from Augustus Hesse from Fort Ramsay to Deborah Weston
Augustus Hesse
Deborah Weston
Fort Ramsay
Upton's Hill
-
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/27cffaae3275c507b493f6b0577b1aac.pdf
318b04cca3e254b721adfb25e8dd863f
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Books
Text
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Text
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Campfires of the 23rd
CHAPTER II. ARLINGTON.
On the 5th of August the regiment moved forward to Arlington Heights, and on the 7th established a line of pickets from the main road at Hunter's Chapel to the house of Air. Pearl, near Ball's Crossroads. At this time the line of pickets took almost a direct course from Chain Bridge to Alexandria. The camp at Arlington (in a grove of oaks) was soon laid open to daylight, streets were graded, and, from time to time, log-huts erected, as the want of room or comfort demanded, until the camp presented the appearance of a little village. It was situated about one half mile from the "Arlington House.'' the residence of Major (now General) Lee, of the rebel army. This house and the Heights are too well known to require description, but they have changed much since the occupation by our troops. The stately oak forest attached to the plantation as the pleasure grounds of the proud old aristocrat are hewn down, and his mansion is a military depot.
The month of August was oppressively hot and sultry. but September breezes came on and rendered the latter part of our stay here delightful. Toward the middle of August an attempt was made to brigade us, and after shuffling through the bands of several brigadiers, we were finally brigaded with the Twenty-first and Thirty-fifth New York State Volunteers, and
placed under command of Brigadier-General James S. Wadsworth.
During our stay at Arlington, which lasted from August 5th to September 28th, but few incidents of general interest occurred. Drill and reviews were a matter of course, and as much disliked as the schoolboy dislikes his task. Picket duty was the pride and delight of the regiment. There was excitement in it, but not unattended with danger. On the 14th, one of the pickets was wounded by a shot from a prowling enemy. About this time, also, Lieutenant Wilkinson, of Company F, had a brisk little affair with the enemy, while on a reconnaissance toward Falls Church. Another party, under Captain Chapman, crossed the railroad and went forward beyond Upton's Hill, when they were tired upon from behind trees and embankments and compelled to beat a retreat. At the same time, a small party, with Captain Fowler, had gone up the railroad, and were driven back in the same manner.
A fight occurred on the 27th between the pickets, in which the Twenty-third was the principal party engaged. A company of the Twelfth New York had a hand in this affair. The following extract from a letter written at the time, by Captain William W. Dingleday, will give the particulars more correctly than one could at this late date:
Arlington Heights, September 1st, 1861.
Friend Dumars:
Sufficient has transpired of late to furnish an item for the letter I promised yon. You have no doubt heard, ere this, of the skirmish which took place a few days ago, one mile west of Ball's Crossroads and about three miles from our camp.
On the 27th inst., Companies A, F. and D. of our regiment, in connection with three companies of the Fourteenth New York State Militia, were ordered out to form a reserve for our pickets, under command of our gallant Lieutenant-Colonel Crane. Company A was stationed one mile and a half to the right, on Hall's Hill. Companies D and F nearly opposite each other—the former near a fence at the edge of a piece of woods, the latter in the road, partly concealed in a ditch. Scouts were sent out beyond the line of pickets, as information had been received on our arrival that things looked rather suspicious in front. Between the hours of two and four P.M. the scouts and pickets came in double quick, with the intelligence that a large body of rebels were about to attack us. Shots had already been freely I exchanged.
Colonel Crane, having positive orders not to bring on an engagement west of the cross-roads, but to retire and hold the latter at all hazards, ordered us to retreat. The order was reluctantly obeyed, not, however, without causing some of the "gray backs,” who were too indiscreet, to repent of their folly. We fell back a few rods to the next fence, when it was discovered that the rebels were trying to outflank us. The firing then commenced in good earnest. The entertainment was brief but exceedingly interesting, and, after a short time, it was evident that the rebels were more anxious to retreat than our own men.
We have to lament the loss, in this engagement, of one who was very dear to and a great favorite with us all Thomas Carroll was shot through the heart. He enlisted as a private, but through his worth and exemplary conduct was promoted to corporal. Elias Algair received a bad wound in the neck, and also had a part of the middle finger of his left hand shot off. Several others were slightly wounded. Company A, being protected by the woods, sustained no injury.
In the evening, a section of a rifled battery was placed in position in the road, to give the rebs a warm reception should they pay us a visit after dark. All remained quiet until morning, when they commenced throwing shot and shell in the direction of Hall's Hill, where Company A was stationed. That company was also ordered to fall back. Occasionally, they would send a shell at us, without, however, doing any damage.
The occasion brought Generals McDowell, Keyes. and Wadsworth promptly to the spot, who, after learning the details of the affair, complimented Colonel Crane and his command very flatteringly. We learn today from a lady whose residence is near where the conflict took place, that the rebels acknowledge a loss of eleven killed and many wounded. From her statement, they outnumbered us two to one but were all under the influence of liquor, which proved a serious disadvantage to them. All is quiet now, however, and peace reigns again in Israel.
The health of the regiment was not good at this time. Camp diseases were numerous, and fever made serious inroads. Several deaths occurred, among them L. L. Bacon, Company K. Mr. Bacon was a young man of uncommon natural ability and great promise. He was a prompt and faithful soldier, and by his kind and gentlemanly bearing he had won the respect and good-will of his comrades, and they will remember with regret that inexorable fate took him so soon away. An accident occurred here, resulting in the death of James Pease, Company E. He was one of a working party which had been felling trees near Fort Tillinghast. Mr. Pease was by some means caught under the limb of a falling tree, and so badly injured that he died of the wounds.
CHAPTER III.
UPTON HILL AND DALE.
Though the enemy had retired across the railroad on driving in our pickets, they had retained possession of Upton's Hill, and it was ascertained by Professor Lowe, in his balloon ascensions, that they were fortifying Munson's Hill, directly in rear of Upton's. What appeared to be a formidable rifle-pit could also be distinctly seen stretching along the crest of Upton's Hill. Cannon also appeared in these fortifications, and the supposition was generally entertained that they intended to hold this position if possible. It was ascertained, however, on the 28th of September, that the rebels were evacuating, and accordingly a general advance of our lines determined upon. At five o'clock p.m. the long roll was sounded, creating quite a sensation in camp. Por a long time the boys had been ripe for a regular pitched fight with the graybacks, and now the opportunity had come. All was hurry and bustle. They were soon in line and set off, <; double quick," for the scene of action. The main road was crammed with infantry, artillery. and cavalry, which impeded progress somewhat; but before sundown our forces were posted in undisputed possession of Upton's Hill.
It was with some little chagrin and much laughter that the threatening cannon were discovered to be stovepipes mounted on wheels, and the formidable earth works and fortifications were mere farrows of earth that would hardly screen a man. Substantial cannon were planted in place of these “make-believes,” only the mouths were pointed the other way, and behind them lay masses of ardent soldiers who were willing to meet the foe in open field and fair fight. The night was bleak, and not being allowed to build fires, the men suffered much from cold. There was an injudicious haste in the advance, the men became heated, and had not taken clothing for the night, fearing to be incumbered by it.
The advance was permanent, and the camp moved to Upton Hill. Fortifications were immediately commenced, and the forest in front felled to give scope to cannon. Redoubts were also erected on the hills in front. This work occupied about one month, and the Twenty-third had its share in the labor. Sickness, which had commenced at Arlington, increased here to an alarming extent. A farmhouse nearby was given up by Colonel Hoffman, who had with his staff occupied it as quarters, and converted into a hospital. This was soon filled to overflowing, and many were compelled to lie in camp and be treated. It was not until the camp was moved to Upton Dale that the fever ceased its ravages.
On the sunny side of Upton's Hill is a copse of pine and cedar interspersed with numerous varieties of trees, and all tangled together with grapevines. Stretching away to the south-west from this beautiful wood a fine M plat of grass ground reaches off to the cultivated fields. A spring of pure water nearby, bubbling from the ground, is swamped in a bog and thicket before it has fairly escaped. This sunny spot, this wood and plat and spring, we called Upton's Dale, and here on the 9th of December the Twenty-third found itself busy in erecting a habitation for the winter.
Man has an indefinite adaptability to circumstances. Necessity drives the soldier into many things which hitherto looked impossible. He will even outstrip the fabled Yankee who could go into the forest and build a sawmill with nothing but an iron wedge and a cross-cut saw. The ax and spade were the tools in requisition here. The camp was soon completed, and the nicely graded streets and correct rows of log-cabins with white routs presented the appearance of a very cheerful little town. Some of these little cabins displayed much taste on the part of the men in the interior and exterior arrangements.
We had been in camp only two days when intelligence of the death of Lieutenant Rodney W, Steele, Company K, was received. This officer was respected and beloved not alone by his company, but by the entire regiment. He died of fever at the residence of his father in Elmira. He was an able and efficient commandant, a kind and agreeable companion, and a true gentleman. In him the regiment lost a most valuable officer. Though quite young he gave promise of superior military talent, and had he lived would probably have won bright laurels for his name. The following general order was issued from headquarters:
Headquarters 23d Regiment N. T. V., Upton Dale, December 11, 1861.
GENERAL ORDER No. 14.
In accordance with resolutions passed at a meeting of commissioned officers convened on hearing of the death of Lieutenant Rodney W. Steele, Company K, all commissioned officers in the command will wear upon the sword-hilt the. usual badge of mourning on all occasions until January 11, 1862. The regimental colors will be draped in mourning, and the camp and quarter- Hags will be at half-mast during this day.
By order. H. C. Hoffman, Colonel Commanding.
The three months, December, January, and February, that we remained in this pleasant encampment, soon sped away. The time was occupied almost invariably in drill, reviews, and picket. Division drills were superintended by General McDowell in person and occurred as often as the weather and condition of the troops would permit. Some of these drills were magnificent, embracing all the maneuvers of an army fighting a great battle, with all the noise of musketry, artillery, and a grand charge of cavalry. It is said that General McDowell subsequently carried out in actual battle the plans here practiced. His division was certainly rendered more proficient by them.
Two excursions were made during the winter by General Wadsworth's brigade, one after a large quantity of forage near Fairfax Court House, which was successful, the other in search of a large body of rebel cavalry to the north of the above place, which was unsuccessful. We did not find them. Nothing but this and picket duty occurred to disturb the monotony of the camp. The weather was for the most part mild, but sometimes very disagreeable owing to the rain and mud. The health of the regiment improved very rapidly during these three months and was good at the opening of the spring campaign.
We can give here but one incident of picket, though much that is worthy to be recorded occurred. During the month of November, while a part of the Twenty-third were on picket duty toward Fairfax, and near the residence of Mr. Doolin, two men from Company I were posted by Captain Chapman at the house of Mr. Brush, about half a mile in advance of our picket lines. This was done by request of Mr. Brush, who complained of being molested by the Union pickets. The men were Corporal L. S. Townsend and Private T. H. Wheeler, both of Company I. They endeavored to engage the old man Brush in conversation, but he was quite sullen, and finally made a feint of going to some work on the barn. He however managed to raise a signal, and on returning left the gates to the front and rear of the house open.
The boys suspected nothing, and were amusing themselves near the veranda, having placed their guns against the house. Captain Chapman had just returned to the picket reserve. At this moment a squadron of cavalry rode rapidly up to the house, coming through the open gate, and as they were dressed in Union garb, the boys supposed they were a reconnoitering party of our own cavalry. As they rode up, the boys inquired what cavalry they were. "Stewart's First Virginia Cavalry," answered the lieutenant addressed. They immediately sprang for their guns but were too late. The rebels dashed forward, and, presenting their revolvers, demanded immediate surrender. Seeing the utter futility of a struggle against such odds, they surrendered and gave up their pieces. The rebels seemed much pleased with the new Enfield rifles. Turning to the corporal, the rebel lieutenant then asked: " Where are the Union pickets?" "They are along the woods across the field yonder," said the corporal. " What force is there in reserve?" asked the rebel. '"Our regiment, ' said the corporal. “Is that the truth”, asked the rebel, while he fixed a piercing glance from his dark, fierce eyes upon his prisoner. There were but two companies there at the time, and it would not have been difficult for this squadron, by a sudden dash, to rout, if not capture, the whole party. Townsend knew this and knew also that he could save them by adhering to the falsehood he had already uttered, so he quickly replied — " Yes, sir." "Are there any pickets at Doolin's house?" asked the rebel. "Yes." “How many?" " Our company." This was also untrue, there being only two or three pickets there; but who shall condemn Corporal Townsend for saving his comrades, even at the sacrifice of truth?
Deeming it unsafe to attempt a raid on the pickets, the rebel cavalry started again for Fairfax. They attempted to compel their prisoners to double quick, but still hoping to be observed by their comrades and saved, they refused, and at last the lieutenant told two of his men to take them upon their horses. They bothered these men for some time in (getting on; as Townsend said: " I made about twenty attempts to mount, but could not, and finally compelled the reb to dismount and let me get on first; but no relief came, and we were taken to Fairfax." They were treated well by this cavalry. In a few days General Stewart sent for them to come to Centreville and attempted to get some information of the Union army from them. They were then sent to Richmond; from there to Tuscaloosa, then to Weldon. Salsbury, Tarborough. and Newbern, where they were exchanged. After a furlough home they rejoined the regiment.
Upton's Hill, VA.. February 2d, l862.
Mr. Advertiser:
After another week of lowering: skies, snow, rains, hail and frost, the sun glares as if in anger at the long defiant mud, and not because it is Sunday. If you ever saw a low prairie in Missouri or Illinois, after March rains, which had been mixed up and trodden by the male population of a great city for weeks, you can imagine the condition of our streets and parade grounds. Verily, are we " mudsills," or are we not?
On this day, by you allotted to rest and spiritual cultivation, the heavens invite to a tour of observation and the reading of a chapter in the great Book of Nature. But the vile earth forbids, and since a practical man should " be happy all ways he c in," your correspondent is pleasuring in the contemplation of our enemy's supposed sufferings from a scarcity of salt, stocking yarn, and Massachusetts mackerel. which will yet make them succumb, if the predictions of certain newspaper correspondents are true.
Our long friend, Duane Thompson, has been appointed second lieutenant of Company K, and Judd D. Burt succeeds | him as orderly.
Elder Crane took leave of his many friends here on Tuesday, and returned to home duties. He will be ever present, however, in the memory of many a warm-hearted soldier; and the recollection of his kind and obliging acts will still linger, though his cordial smile has ceased to greet us. Success to him and his earthly mission. The chaplaincy will, undoubtedly, be well filled by its present incumbent, Mr. Dubois, of Western New York. * The forces in our division consist as follows: the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin and the Nineteenth Indiana — General King—at Arlington. A few companies of them garrison the forts we built in August last. The New York Twenty-second. Twenty-fourth, Thirtieth, and Eighty-fourth, General Augur, are on the rear slope of this hill. The Eighty-fourth have formerly been known as the Fourteenth Militia, Brooklyn firemen. Wads north's brigade — Twenty-first, Twenty-third, Thirty-fifth, and Eightieth. New York. The Eightieth came here as the Twentieth Militia. The First New Hampshire, Fifth Rhode Island. Third Pennsylvania, and Battery B, Fourth United States—under Captain Gibbons, of the last named. The First New York Cavalry, known as the " Harris Light Cavalry”
We are thus far satisfied with General McClellan, and though not every officer was born a Wellington or a Charles the Twelfth, the world, which measures military ability by military success, will determine after the war who are our great generals by hunting the heroes. General McDowell is an accomplished officer and good tactician and very competent to maneuver his division, as is often demonstrated. The Twenty-first, Thirty-fifth, and Eightieth at last rejoice in the possession of the Austrian rifle, equally as effective as ours. Now we are a rifle brigade.
All are well and all are hoping for spring and busy life. Yours, etc., F. B.
Upton's Hill, Va., March 9th, 1862. Mr. Advertiser: The bright sun and cheerful sky to-day extended your humble servant an irresistible invitation to enjoy a ramble over the fenceless fields and destroyed forests of this vicinity, hinting significantly to my judgment that it would be for the last time.
Our party in its travels saw nothing sufficient to break the Sabbath or worthy of mention, except perhaps a few straggling sons* of Mars, styling themselves " Zouaves." If you never saw one of the class of warriors thus denominated, I will describe one as understood in the volunteer's dictionary. He consists of a human being surmounted by a cap of some style as uncomfortable and outlandish as can be devised, without regard to utility; clad in a coat, shirt, or blouse of similar unpracticable design or pattern, and pants drawn close to the person by plaids and gathers, and which must contain cloth enough to make at least one overcoat and a pair of horse blankets. All these, variously decorated according to taste, as Northern teamsters bedeck the headstalls of their harnesses, entitle him to be depicted in fashion plates or on the last page of Frank Leslie’s or Harper’s Weekly, and constitute him a " Zouave,” as known in the service of the United States.
The past week has been industriously spent by this rifle brigade, and particularly by the Twenty-third, in drilling exercises, both forenoon and afternoon, and by squads, companies, and battalions. The beneficial effects will, I trust, be felt and appreciated by all of us in future labors and results not distant. General Wadsworth, wishing to test the strength and endurance of the men of his command in the capacity of packhorses, marched all hands out on the Lewinsville Road last Thursday afternoon in " heavy marching order,” where knapsacks were unslung and the little traveling tent taken out and pitched. After each squad of three had crawled at least once under the little shelter which is to be its hotel each eight after leaving this city, the regiments returned to their respective camps.
Dress parade. Until next time, adieu.
Yours, etc., F. B.
P. S. —Eleven p.m.—The guard are just discharged, cooks are routed to cook three days' rations, and this battalion expects to hear the music of the drum-major to the time of “Yankee Doodle" ere daylight You may bet that one long-legged corporal is happy, and each fellow awake id jubilant.
Upton's Hill, VA., Tuesday, October 8th, 1861.
Editors Advertiser: Though items of a “thrilling'' order are somewhat scarce in this matter-of-fact community. who have undertaken the task of chopping their way to Richmond, the quill-pushing propensity of an idle corporal is prompted by the faint hope of some long-sought idea or event occurring between this and the end of this sheet which may be of common interest A fatigue party of us. two hundred strong, lately returned from a half-day's labor with pick and shovel in the trenches of a fort in course of construction nearby, with stomach and appetite well qualified and appreciative of an excellent afternoon's repast (collation. I think you editors and literary men call it). I will give you the bill of fare from memory. First in the course:
Soup —of pork, bean-flavored.
(No fish —sutler is out of herrings.)
Beans — a la mode—pork-sauce—nutritious and healthful.
Coffee—plain.
Water—per canteen.
Bread—baker's.
Butter—(of our good sutler) aromatic and odoriferous, and tasting much like " thirty-(s)cents" per pound.
Vegetables — potatoes —Virginian — by private forage train (not "Hawk-stricken," we presume).
Dessert—sugar, pepper, salt, vinegar.
Pastry—Baltimore pilot-bread.
Fruit—chestnuts, from the leveled rail timber hereabout.
Et cetera —cigars, pipes, tobacco, etc.
After doing justice to the hearty meal just served up to us, this company. I feel, are on a war footing, and need some exercise to keep the blood in circulation, for the winds which threaten to overthrow our humble habitations are cold to-day, and although pleasant and refreshing, are keenly felt now after the very warm weather of the past few days.
The heat had been a source of discomfort for about a week until last night, when a few thundershowers passed along the lines of the Federal Army. accompanied by high winds and pelting the poor sentinels I on duty with hailstones or sings of ice of almost fabulous size—some were found larger than goose eggs.
Chaplain Crane was aroused in the midst of the drenching rain about
two o'clock this morning by the downfall of his protecting canvas: "but, soldier-like, he submitted to the mishap with commendable stoicism until with the assistance of his boarder, William Robinson, the cotton walls of their residence were in position. The tent occupied by Lieutenant-Colonel Crane, our adjutant and sergeant-major, did not fall, but the friction and cohesion of sand and oak pins would not hold the cotton canvas back, and it went bodily, carrying the " regulation" 1 and fighting wardrobe of its occupants. Imagine, Mr. Editor, the flight — the night was very dark—the rain some.
The axmen have so leveled the forests that the view to the front from this point is much less obstructed than it was ten days ago: and while the routes open to the advance of an attacking force are lessened in numbers, our artillerists have now ample scope and range. General McClellan. in an order read at dress parade, complimented the men of the advance line hereabouts, and Wadsworth's brigade particularly, on the performance of more labor in the construction and establishment of the chain of works of defense than had ordinarily been accomplished by like numbers in double the time since the general advance, etc., etc.
A few Confederate pickets and horsemen are daily visible with the aid of the glass on the high grounds toward Fairfax Court House, at a distance of two or three miles, from which direction they fired a few cannonballs at the Thirty-fifth on Saturday evening at sunset. They were 4i promptly" answered by a round shot from one rifled gun here — a waste of powder on both sides, probably.
Everything is quiet in this vicinity but the wind, which sounds hoarse notes on tent-flaps and sings shrill songs on a high key with foolscap. New York papers still find their way into camp, their astute disquisitions and reports of plans of campaigns and military operations being taken at a discount. It is not true, as they state, that Smith's division first stationed pickets at Falls Church, a duty assigned to Company "D”of this regiment and a few scouts of United States cavalry. The advance sentinel of the enemy on that occasion was a gallant old contraband shivering on horseback.
The ruins of no less than seven dwellings with their outbuildings, destroyed by incendiary torches, besides fences and barns partially demolished, present themselves to the eye of the beholder from our parade ground within the circuit of a mile—a vandalism which order loving soldiers are happy to hear the people and the authorities discountenance and reprobate, though some extenuating circumstances ought to be promulgated in connection with the verdict of popular condemnation and abhorrence. It must be recollected that volunteers have for several weeks been detailed to guard the property and homes of supposed loyalists against the depredations of soldiery on the borders, which duty is of course attended -with some risk of personal safety, and in a majority of cases these same " Unionists" have, Breckenridge like
when no further benefits were needed, availed themselves of the earliest opportunity to remove within the lines of the Confederates with information, aid, and comfort for the enemy, and all they could steal from that government which sought their protection. It was the duty of an advancing force, on September 28th, to search houses for pirates and contraband articles, and if strychnine, hams, and pork had no? been found on the premises of Major Nutt, his house and furniture would to-day remain intact, although he is now in the Southern service, working for the overthrow of the nation which formerly fed him in office.
The weather has been too pleasant of late for mortal combat: but the present bracing and wholesome atmosphere stimulates the general desire of the rank and file to reduce a battalion drill to practice, and each philanthropist longs for that national millennium when this broad land shall be inhabited by a wise and virtuous " people whose God is the Lord," who will appreciate the blessings of free institutions, and have sense enough to know when they are well off.
F. B.
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Camp Fires of the Twenty-Third
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Camp life, marches, and battles of the 23rd Regiment, N.Y.V.
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Regimental history of the 23rd New York Volunteer Regiment
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Davies & Kent
No. 188 William Street, New York City, NY
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April 25, 1863
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23rd New York Regiment
Upton's Hill
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761b0c876edba859b890b7bc4b44c2c6
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CHAPTER IV UPTON'S HILL
The commission as brigadier-general of volunteers offered to Wadsworth he was at first inclined to refuse, for his brief military experience had made him less willing in August to accept a position of that rank than he had been in May to receive a major-generalship at the hands of Governor Morgan. But his friends on McDowell's staff, whose admiration he had won by zeal as a worker and by courage and leadership on the field of battle, were urgent that he should take the place, and he was assured that a graduate of West Point would be assigned to duty as adjutant-general of the brigade which he would command. With this understanding he accepted the offer, and a commission was issued to him bearing the date of August 9. He was presently assigned to a brigade composed of the Twelfth, Twenty-first. Twenty-third, and Thirty-fifth New York regiments, with headquarters at Arlington. In the organization of his staff, he was not able, after all, to obtain as adjutant-general the promised West Pointer, for the War Department had put a close restriction on details of officers away from their commands in the regular army; but when Lieutenant John A. Kress, who had been three years at the military academy, became one of his aides, he had no reason for regret on that score. He also found a place on his staff for his second son, Craig, who was twenty years old.
The fruits of the lesson of Bull Run were already beginning to appear; the cry of "On to Richmond!" had given place to the watchword of "organization," and with a submission almost pathetic the chastened North waited upon the word of McClellan, the young major general whose early successes and personal popularity were regarded as omens full of hope for the future. McDowell, accepting his defeat with the philosophy of a good soldier, had been willing to serve as division commander under his junior, and the assignment of Wadsworth's brigade to his division was a welcome arrangement to both men.
Drill now was the order of the day, though from all the commands large detachments were made for work on the defenses of Washington. Necessary as the construction of these fortifications was—for the outposts of the enemy were at Munson's and Upton's Hills, four miles from Arlington—the troops little relished what seemed to them preparations for a defensive campaign. In spite of all Wadsworth's efforts, the ardor of his pickets frequently got them into skirmishes with those of the enemy. That the "rebel flag" should be allowed to remain flying within six miles of Washington and in full view from the dome of the Capitol was an indignity under which not only the army, but the whole North chafed.
A letter from Craig to his mother gives a glimpse of camp life at Arlington late in September:
“I am safely installed in the office of aide to the General. I hold a Second Lieutenant's commission in Kerrigan's Irish regiment. I am to be transferred to the Thirty-Fifth regiment in a few days and expect to rank better. I sign my name with A. D. C. added about sixty times a day—^you have no idea how nice it looks. McClellan reviewed McDowell's division on Monday last. He said it was the most satisfactory review he had during the campaign. I suppose it was all owing to my military knowledge. Father is not as stout as when he was in New York, but notwithstanding I never saw him looking better. It is all bone and muscle now. We have the front this week, but there is nothing doing, there have been only two or three shots in the last forty-eight hours”.
The proximity of the enemy to Washington which had continued through September was at last brought to an end, though not by any effort of McClellan's. It was his opponent, Joseph E. Johnston, who, seeing that the Confederate army was not then and was not likely to be in condition to undertake offensive operations, gave the order for the outposts to retire from their advanced position. On September 28 Wadsworth's pickets reported that the force at Munson's Hill was withdrawing. Setting out at once with two companies on a reconnaissance, Wadsworth found Munson's Hill and also Upton's Hill, a little under a mile to the north, abandoned, except for a small detachment of cavalry which retired on his approach. The stovepipe on wheels and the pump-logs doing duty as cannon which were found there were probably indicative not so much of the poverty of the Confederates in artillery as of their love for a joke. In the evening of the same day Wadsworth was ordered to move his brigade thither; and here, where the Union line was farthest advanced toward the enemy, he and his men were stationed for the next five months. The well-built Virginia farmhouse on the hill, belonging to Charles H. Upton, Wadsworth occupied as his headquarters. Colonel Regis de Trobriand, commander of the New York Fifty-fifth, having ridden out to Upton's Hill the day after Wadsworth's command took possession, described the scene there as follows:
*Upton had remained loyal to the Federal government. He claimed election as representative from the Alexandria district to the existing Congress, but as the election had taken place in May 1861, after Virginia had seceded, the House refused to seat him.
I found General Wadsworth under the roof of the pillaged farmhouse. ... A few broken stools were all there was left of the furniture. Some doors taken off their hinges served for tables; some boards picked up in the garden answered for benches. The Confederates, who were still occupying the house the day before, had written their names with charcoal upon the defaced walls of all the rooms. They had added, after the manner of soldiers, rough sketches, among which the favorite was the hanging of Mr. Lincoln. An alteration in the explanatory legend was all that was needed to turn the picture into the hanging of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and this our soldiers did not fail to do.
The house was surmounted by a sort of observatory, from which one saw in all its details a scene of the most varied character. About the premises, stacks of arms, surrounded by soldiers lying on the ground or digging in the vegetable garden; regiments successively taking their positions in line; a dozen cannon in battery, the cannoneers at their guns watching the valley, the officers sweeping with their field glasses the wooded horizon, the caissons in the rear, the teams on the inner slopes of the hill. In front, the Leesburg Road, upon which galloped here and there staff officers followed by their orderlies, and the isolated hillock called Munson's Hill, from the top of which already floated the Federal flag.
To the task of making this post a secure point for defense Wadsworth at once devoted himself. Besides strengthening the works on the hill, he sent the axemen out to fell the trees along the front so that there would be less chance for the enemy to approach unseen and greater opportunity for the use of artillery. The management of such pioneer tasks was a matter of course to him, and the speed with which his men did their work elicited the public praise of McClellan. It was no less characteristic of Wadsworth that, though the needs of the camp required every stick of wood possible, he would not suffer the axe to be laid to any of the oaks and chestnuts that immediately surrounded the Upton house.
During the next weeks many other visitors followed Colonel de Trobriand to the house at Upton's. Before the brigade had been in camp a fortnight, Russell, in quest of copy for the Times, arrived, lunched with Wadsworth on camp fare, and then from the lookout surveyed the "fine view, this bright, cold, clear autumn day, of the wonderful expanse of undulating forest lands streaked by rows of tents which at last concentrated into vast white patches in the distance towards Alexandria."^ With an eye by no means friendly to the North, he noted that "the country is desolate but the camps are flourishing, and that is enough to satisfy most patriots bent on the subjugation of their enemies." Among the visitors was Mrs. Wadsworth, and as a result of her housewife's inspection of the premises there presently arrived sundry supplies contributing to the comfort of her husband and her son.
Early in November Wadsworth's brigade was strengthened by the arrival of the Ulster Guard. This regiment, which as the Twentieth New York State Militia he had in May vainly urged to enlist for two years, had now been reorganized as the Eightieth New York Volunteers, though it was familiarly known by its numerical designation in the State force. The story of its arrival at night at Upton's Hill, as told by the lieutenant-colonel, Theodore Gates, and his characterization of Wadsworth, give details that make vivid the camp life of these months:
“Officers and men were glad to hear the command "halt!" for the march had been a long and fatiguing one, and they were tired, hungry, and thirsty. Not one of us knew anything about the commander into whose hands we had just fallen, and the locality was a perfect terra incognita to all of us. We knew we had reached our destination, because we were halted by a guard drawn up across the road in front of us, and an officer directed us to file to the left, into an open field, and bivouac. We marched into the field and went to work in the darkness to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, but the command was by no means in an amiable mood. Each officer and man knew we had marched fifteen miles to reach a point less than eight from our starting place, and that there were two routes no more than half as far as the one we had been required to take, and the consequence was we had arrived at our destination too late to cook coffee or make any arrangements for a comfortable night's rest.”
But this feeling underwent a very sudden and unexpected change. Lanterns were seen approaching from what appeared to be a house, a few hundred feet west of us, and a kind, cheery voice called out, "Twentieth, where are you.'' ' ' The interlocutor was Brigadier-General James S. Wadsworth, who captured the affections of the entire command by his evident anxiety for their comfort and by the practical way in which he manifested it. He had the men supplied with fuel, and the whole regiment was furnished with an abundance of splendid hot coffee which he had had prepared for it as soon as its approach was announced at his headquarters. He did not turn this good work over to some of [his] subordinate officers and get back into his comfortable house, out of the chill November air, but he personally superintended it, and left only when he was assured the men were properly provided for; many a poor fellow went to sleep that night blessing General Wadsworth and congratulating himself that his regiment had been assigned to his brigade.
This example of consideration for the men over whom he was placed was by no means exceptional. He was the commander not only, but he was also the watchful friend of the officers and men in his brigade. There was no matter too trivial for his ready personal attention, if it concerned the health or comfort of his men. The guardhouse, the kitchens, the sinks, the stables: all were frequently subjected to his inspection and required to be kept in the cleanest and best possible condition. The writer of this has been aroused by General Wadsworth at four o'clock of a winter's morning and re- quested to accompany him in a tour of the camp to see if the men's huts were properly warmed and ventilated, and many a soldier of the Twentieth was surprised on being awakened in the short hours of the morning at seeing his gray-headed Brigade-Commander and his Lieutenant-Colonel inspecting his stove and chimney and sniffing the air of his hut, as though they suspected he had the choicest stores of the commissary and quartermaster's departments hidden away in the capacious recesses of his eight by ten palace. General Wadsworth would stand in the snow and mud for hours at a time instructing the men how to build rude fireplaces and chimneys, and he was especially exacting in regard to the stables. He was a lover of good horses, and he believed the brute deserved a good dwelling-place, and that he should be well fed and kindly treated.
Such a description indicates, as well as anything can, not only the responsibilities but also the opportunities of a general officer of volunteers at the beginning of the war. In view of the fact that there were many volunteer officers who to inexperience added incapacity, one is likely to dwell on the superior fitness of the trained officers of the regular army and, as is so often done, to condemn the Federal and State authorities for putting political ahead of military considerations in their appointments. This criticism, however, ignores the plain facts of the case. The number of men professionally trained for war—small at best and diminished by the withdrawal from the regular army of those who entered the Confederate service—was hopelessly inadequate to fill the positions required in the vast body of troops which the North was raising. Volunteer officers were therefore a plain necessity. But this was not the whole story. The Northern soldier who enlisted in 1861 and 1862 was a self-reliant, intelligent citizen and patriot. The only power to which he was accustomed to yield obedience was the law which he as a voter had had a chance in making. In this respect he resembled the patriot soldier of the early part of the French Revolution, who considered the title citoyen to confer every bit as much authority as the titles which his officers held. His attitude toward his commanders was one of friendly co-operation, and in this attitude, he expected them to acquiesce. On New Year's day, 1862, the celebration devised by one of Wadsworth's regiments consisted in the temporary abdication of the officers, their places being taken by men elected from the ranks, who made their superiors the camp Gibeonites, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the day.
Clearly, to win the reluctant footsteps of such "sovereigns in uniform" along the hard road of instinctive and instantaneous obedience - the first duty of a soldier - the skill of an officer of their own antecedents was often of more avail than that of a military precisian. Of course, not every officer from civil life possessed this skill; but wherever was found a man who had the gift of leadership, it usually proved that in camp, on the march, and on the field of battle his power of personal ascendancy formed the basis of the discipline which his men acquired. And if such an officer showed himself earnest in purpose and brave in fight there was no feat of endurance or courage to which he could not command them.
Such considerations by no means leave out of ac- count the fact that there were volunteer officers who were not only a weakness but a disgrace to the army, but it must be remembered that the chief cause of their inferiority was one that was common to a large number of the officers of the regular army. Jealousies, bickerings, insubordination, magnifying of self were human failings that distracted the Army of the Potomac for the first three years of the war. An officer could rise above such failings and sink self in service not by virtue of his previous military experience but by virtue of the stuff of manliness and patriotism that was in him. This fact the American volunteer, with his keen native wit, instantly recognized, and on this recognition, he based his conduct.
The bearing of all this in Wadsworth's case may be summed up in the words of one of his staff. He had, says General Kress, "a serious appreciation of his lack of education and training in the details of military affairs, a deficiency for which I claim his good judgment, energy, sound common sense, the esteem and regard of all under his command which he invariably acquired, his adaptability, and his quiet, matchless bravery were ample offsets; military details are not so diffi- cult to acquire; he would soon have mastered the essentials. I doubt if any more appropriate appointment to the grade had been made at that time."
Thus it was that Wadsworth from the first won regard and obedience from the men in his brigade. Moreover, the practical instinct which led him to have a supply of hot coffee ready for the cold and weary Twentieth is only one out of a hundred instances of the way in which the long habit of out-of-doors life and the traditions of pioneering had taught him the right thing to do for the comfort of man and beast exposed to the elements. Another case is that of his ordering at his own expense a large supply of gloves from Gloversville for the benefit of men on picket duty. The long habit of generosity, too, is of course accountable for this; but such favors carried with them no demoralization. The men took them in the spirit in which they were given, not as evidences of wealth or of a desire to curry favor, but as showing a generous solicitude to provide for his soldiers that degree of comfort necessary to their efficiency.
When the men of Wadsworth's brigade prided themselves on their good fortune in having as commander a man of means, they also did not fail to note that he was careful to make no ostentatious display in his own way of life. It was not uncommon for the commander of a regiment or brigade to show his sense of a recent rise in social importance by entertaining guests at his headquarters with champagne. The "camp fare" on which Russell dined at Upton's Hill and on the plain- ness of which he for once did not comment unfavorably, in his usual gourmand's fashion, was but an example of Wadsworth's gift for keeping in touch with his men by living with them the life of a soldier.
The current newspaper phrase of these months, "All quiet along the Potomac"—a watchword which came to have a sharp edge of irony as the season wore on — was by no means true of Wadsworth's command and the adjoining brigades along the line of the advance. The country between the Federal pickets stationed three miles in advance of Upton's Hill and the Confederate pickets at Fairfax Court House abounded in woodlands and offered many opportunities for the detachments of Stuart's cavalry which infested it to operate secretly against the Federals. The region had, of course, suffered from the devastations of both armies, and on many of the farms the buildings were either burnt to the ground or else abandoned; but where white inhabitants remained they were, with few exceptions, of Southern sympathies and, in effect, spies upon the movements of the Federals. As for the negroes, the instinct of loyalty to their masters still persisted in enough cases to render their childlike curiosity concerning the Northern troops a matter of decidedly ambiguous intention. All these advantages the dashing Stuart knew how to put to good use.
Another circumstance that contributed to make Wadsworth anxious about his picket line was the fact that as yet the Yankee volunteer approximated the condition of a soldier only in external aspect. In outpost duty the regiments took turns, marching from camp with a supply of "cooked rations," and serving for fortyeight hours. Although the men when on duty were no longer so green that they could be led by the tinkle of a cow-bell in search of fresh milk only to walk into a Confederate ambush, still the sight of one of the lean pigs that ran wild in the woods was often too great a temptation to a hungry man; and it was common knowledge that the picket-firing, strictly forbidden except in case of alarm, was likely to be directed at a four-legged rather than a two-legged victim. It is no wonder, therefore, that Wadsworth should have had very much on his mind the fortimes of whatever regiment was doing picket duty, or that he should have ridden nearly every day to Falls Church, just inside the Federal lines, to consult with its commanding officer and also, it must be admitted, to do a httle reconnoitring on his own ac- count. If in this practice he calls to mind Washington and Lafayette similarly occupied at Wilmington, it is only another point in the resemblance, already suggested, between Wadsworth and the fighters of the Revolutionary era.
A still further incentive to Wadsworth in making these reconnaissance was the hope of finding forage at some farm between the lines, for with navigation on the Potomac blocked by Confederate batteries and the single-track railroad between Washington and Baltimore taxed far beyond its powers of performance, the problem of providing fodder for the horses in the army was rapidly becoming critical.^ The zeal with which he set about scouring the country for provender brought him on one occasion into closer quarters with the enemy than he had bargained for. On the morning of November 8 he had set out on this quest, accompanied by two privates, and his search had carried him to a farm a mile or more beyond the hnes. Here, having dismounted at noon to eat his lunch, he suddenly spied a squad of Confederate cavalry rapidly approaching. He himself had time to get to horse and make good his es- cape; the two privates, .who had accepted an invitation to take their meal inside the house, were captured.^
Though after this incident Wadsworth restricted somewhat the range of his own reconnoitering, the warning of the adventure was lost on a foraging expedition that set forth a few days later from the other brigade stationed at Upton's Hill. A train of six wagons with teamsters and men to do the loading and an escort of fifty soldiers started on November 16 for Doolan's farm, which was some distance beyond the place where Wadsworth had had his narrow escape. While filling their wagons they kept due watch, but when at noon the negroes about the place offered them the unwonted delicacies of hoe-cake and milk the hungry and guileless soldiers, taking the bait, gathered about the house, intent on nothing but their dinners. Meanwhile a messenger betook himself to the next farm where some sixty cavalry of a Mississippi regiment were in hiding. Soon the care-free Northerners were disturbed in their hour of ease, and, after an interval during which the farm premises were the scene of what was more a scramble than a skirmish, the Mississippians retired from the field of action, having in their possession over thirty shamefaced New Yorkers and their muskets, five new army wagons, twenty valuable horses, and "one hundred and twenty bushels of excellent corn, ready shucked and in the wagons."^ Such was the happy-go-lucky volunteer of 1861.
The result of these two successes was to embolden the Confederates to a deed of greater daring. On November 15 Beauregard sent to Johnston a clipping from a Baltimore newspaper detailing the incident in which Wadsworth, for the first and only time in his life, showed a clean pair of heels to the enemy ;^ three days later, acting on the hint thus given, Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, with a detachment of the First Virginia Cavalry, set out in the direction of the Union line in front of Upton's Hill "for the purpose," as the Confederate commander said in his report, "of obtaining valuable information." His plan was probably to break through the pickets with a dash and push toward Falls Church at the hour at which Wadsworth was accustomed to make his afternoon round. Lee succeeded in getting three or four hundred yards within the Union lines; but, unfortunately for him and quite contrary to his expectation, the reserve companies of the regiment on picket,^ which happened to be close at hand and in command of an officer with a cool head, were marched forward and from the shelter of a thicket poured a sharp fire on the Confederates. For a few moments there was hot work, Lee's opponents, greatly to his surprise, fighting "with much more bravery than the Federal troops usually exhibit." Then, since there was no longer hope of catching the Yankee brigadier on that day, Lee, taking his wounded and his prisoners, retired slowly to camp.
Such brushes as these, though productive of greater watchfulness, did not cause Wadsworth to abandon his determination to obtain forage wherever it could be found outside the lines. In the course of the winter 1 108 W. R., p. 379. 2 The 84th New York, commonly known as the 14th Brooklyn. It was not at the time in Wadsworth's brigade, though in 1863 it formed a portion of his command. 2 See the reports of the respective commanders in each of which the object of the raid is hinted at (5 W. R., pp. 441, 442). W. M. Campbell, one of the captured, was brought the next day before Generals Johnston, Beauregard, G. W. Smith, and Stuart, and Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, and the in- quiries put to him by them disclosed the purpose of the raid.—(Letter of W. M. Campbell to J. W. Wadsworth.) 94 WADSWORTH OF GENESEO four or five expeditions, managed with circumspection and sufficient escort, were uniformly successful, and Wadsworth reported that on each occasion they brought in from fifty to a hundred wagon-loads of forage, whereby the needs of McDowell's division were greatly relieved. During the whole season the only loss suffered by his command at the hands of the enemy was that of the two unwary privates who put their faith in the hospitality of a Virginia farmer.
If this narrative of the unpretentious military exploits of a general of volunteers tend to provoke a smile, let it be remembered that the point of the story is not to make a hero out of a modest country gentleman but to show in what fashion a man of aptitude in affairs brought over into his new profession of arms the experience gained in civil life. In applying to himself the standard of duty to which he held up the enlisted men under him, Wadsworth showed a sense of dignity different at least from that of the general officers whose presence in force on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Via Sacra of the capital, was a subject of derisive jest. A stone, so one story ran, thrown at a dog there glanced from its intended victim and hit two brigadier-generals. From such dangers Wadsworth at Upton's Hill was exempt.
In still another respect the experience and convictions of Wadsworth's civil life came into play in this new field. It was quite a matter of course for him to regard the inhabitants of the region under his command much as he had always regarded the tenants on his estates, and to deem a concern for their welfare as within the scope of his duty. How naturally and how actively he carried out this conception was described some months later by Upton, who reoccupied his house after the Army of the Potomac had taken the field.
While in command at this post, where he [Wadsworth] had a most difficult and trying task to perform, he exhibited so much wisdom, and tempered the firm- ness of his command with so much kindness and forbearance, that he won the confidence and respect of the citizens of Fairfax, and I have heard some of them, who were among the bitterest rebels, express feelings of respect, and even affection, for him, which no subsequent events of this wretched rebellion are likely to efface. . .
When the rebels fell back there went with them a good many men from my neighborhood who were ignorant and deluded as to the cause of the war, and the true character of the "Yankees and Lincolnites," but who had never taken up arms; some of these left destitute families behind them, and there were then—as, alas! there will be this coming winter—many cases of sickness and destitution among women and children. These cases General Wadsworth inquired into and relieved so far as possible; to give two instances out of many which might be related: one man left a wife and ten children; the mother was taken sick and the children were starving; General Wadsworth sent flour and provisions from his own stores to this family and contrived to get word of invitation beyond our lines to the father to return home, which he did in time to soothe the last hours of his dying wife and parent; this man has been ever since at home and is a good, industrious farmer. Another case was that of a man who had been violent in denouncing all Yankees (but who speaks now in the warmest praise of General Wadsworth), who had fled without other cause than a conscious complicity with the rebels, and whose wife was near her confinement, while his aged mother was on her deathbed. General Wadsworth sent for him also in time to assuage the distress of his family. . . . Indeed, so thoroughly did he enter into the duties of his position, I verily believe he is better acquainted at this moment with the personnel of Fairfax County than I, who have lived there nearly thirty years. . . .
No less under his care did Wadsworth consider the slave population of the region, and his efforts at this time in their behalf proved an introduction to more important work that he was to do later. In many cases, where the negroes had been abandoned by their masters, their condition was peculiarly forlorn, and his sympathy was quick to respond to the plight of the poor wretches whose state, according to his conviction, was the cause of the war, and to do for them what little there was that could be done. "My dear Sumner," he wrote on December 31: "There are three or four families here of slaves—practically emancipated—which I wish to get to the North, at least as far as Philadelphia. They are mostly women and children. How can I get papers for them through Baltimore? Please make inquiries and advise me."
Another instance of Wadsworth's concern for the negroes is given in the story told by an officer whom he sent out to a house near the picket line, where, he had been informed, lay the body of an old man who had been the slave of an acquaintance of former days. "The house, on reaching it," wrote the officer, "I found occupied by a party of the Harris Light Cavalry, commanded by Major Gregory, who, on learning the General's wish, promptly furnished men for the requisite service. An old colored woman, the wife of the deceased, was the only person of her race present—a meek, subdued old soul—who, in answer to my questions about her family, said, in broken accents, that her three children, her only ones, had been sold into the Carolinas while yet very young, and that she had never seen or heard of them since. If these were alive they were her only living kin, and she was now alone in the world. We gave the old man a decorous Christian burial, and I stated what I had seen and heard to General Wadsworth on my return. The recital moved him deeply, and he expressed himself with indignant energy on the abominations of a system which laughs at the rights of parents, and by tearing apart families at pleasure and for gain violates the most sacred ties and affections."
Though such an instance is highly characteristic of the first contact of one type of Northerner with the system of slavery, there was many another officer in the Army of the Potomac whom the application of the touchstone showed to be of quite different quality. If negroes, seeking with the instinct of freedom what they deemed the refuge of the Union army, came within the lines at a point where one of these men held high command, they soon discovered their mistake. They were seized as fugitive slaves, and United States volunteers were used to return them to their masters, though when, as often happened, the owners also were fugitives, the attempt to do so was not attended with success. Negroes who made their way to the outposts in front of Upton's Hill received, it is needless to say, treatment of another sort. Every such case was, by Wadsworth's orders, brought directly to him, and before the interview was ended he had provided as best he could for the fugitive's wants, giving him work about the camp when possible, or sending him on to Washington. But first he plied him with questions as to what he knew of the number and position of the Confederate forces at Centreville and Manassas. In the information derived from repeated inquiries of this kind Wadsworth put considerable confidence, and though this confidence was not shared by many officers of higher rank, in the end, when the question of the size of the force that had been confronting the Army of the Potomac all winter was a matter of general concern, it was proved that Wadsworth's judgment was not mistaken.
The year 1861 drew to a close and the Army of the Potomac had still taken no advantage of the Indian summer which delayed so long amid the woodlands of Virginia. To Lincoln and the officers coming in contact with McClellan the reason why was beginning to be apparent, for they had already had cognizance of those qualities in the general-in-chief which made him so difficult either to command or to obey. "Surrounded for the most part by young officers," says the Comte de Paris, who was then serving on McClellan's staffs and who has been one of his most lenient critics, "he was himself the most youthful of us all, not only by reason of his physical vigor, the vivacity of his impressions, the noble candor of his character, and his glowing patriotism, but also, I may add, by his inexperience of men."2 Difficulties with a valetudinarian such as General Winfield Scott could perhaps be pardoned to the "inexperience of men" of any commander; but McClellan's persistent and contemptuous stand-off attitude toward "browsing presidents" showed this inexperience to consist in part of the Bourbonism which learns nothing and forgets nothing.
The tactlessness of a man who could thus deal with his superiors naturally displayed itself also in his handling of his division commanders, among whom the positive and able McDowell was soon in disfavor. Of these facts the Northern public was naturally ignorant; had it possessed them its murmurs would have been louder and more menacing than they were. Congress, however, assembling early in December, was quick both to sense the situation and to act, appointing a committee on the conduct of the war with powers for gaining information at first hand. "Endeavoring," in the words of its chairman, Senator Wade, "to see if there is any way in God's world to get rid of the capital besieged, while Europe is looking down upon us as almost a conquered people,"^ it summoned to its sessions as witnesses one general after another from the Army of the Potomac. Wadsworth, as it chanced, was the fifth person to appear before it, giving his testimony on December 26, 1861.
From McDowell, who preceded Wadsworth as a witness, the committee had obtained his views touching the importance of an advance toward the enemy at Manassas and Centreville. To Wadsworth they now put questions on the subjects as to which they were most concerned: whether McClellan had called his division commanders to council; whether the condition of the roads was favorable to a forward movement; whether the divisions of the army should not be organized into army corps; whether the cavalry was not in excessive proportion; whether he, Wadsworth, returned fugitive slaves to their owners. In fact, he was asked to answer any sort of military question that might suggest itself to the inconsequent and non-military mind of a congressman sitting in committee. Such of these queries as related to matters of fact he answered with frankness; to such as dealt with matters of opinion he re- plied with discretion. His testimony on two important points is here given. As to his ways of getting information concerning the strength of the enemy, he said:
“The sources of supply that were open to us, until within a very few days, were these: runaway negroes coming in our lines, deserters coming in, and prisoners taken from the enemy; likewise the information collected by scouts, who go out, but do not go exactly within the lines of the enemy—or not very much within their lines—very slightly. ... I have scouts who go out, for instance, to Fairfax Court House; there are a number of Union men near Fairfax Court House with whom these scouts communicate, and also some intelligent negroes. From these various sources a great deal of information is obtained. It is reliable as far as it goes, but it is not definite enough. The way in which we get at the numbers of the enemy from such sources is by endeavoring to ascertain the number of their camps, the number of their regiments, and then we multiply that by what we suppose to be the average force of their regiments. We have several times had parties come in who would tell us how many camps there were, 100 WADSWORTH OF GENESEO for instance, at Fairfax Court House; how many at Centreville; and, not so definitely, but approximately, the number at Manassas. In that way we have had some materials for getting an estimate of their strength. But latterly an order has been issued prohibiting the commanders in front from examining these parties as they came in. We are now obliged to send them to headquarters. That order took effect two or three weeks ago, and we now send them in without examination to any great extent. I know that General McDowell told me it would not be a breach of the order to examine them sufficiently for us to know whether the enemy were going to attack us at once. Then there have been re- strictions placed upon the movements of these scouts. There is difficulty in getting passes through the lines; so that within two or three weeks we have not had so much information as previously. I do not know the object of it”.
As to the effect on the men of inaction, he said:
The troops are still in very good spirits. They have not abandoned the idea of active service this winter; but I think if it should become generally understood in the army that we are not to have any active service this winter, it would be almost impossible to keep the volunteers here. The volunteers, as I know to be the case with those from New York, embrace a great many men of intelligence and property. Many have left their families under circumstances of a great deal of anxiety and have come here from patriotic motives. If it was understood that they were going into winter quarters, it would be almost impossible to keep them here at all. The applications for furloughs are now ten times what they were in the summer. The men want to go home and see their families, as they are doing nothing here. Our time is largely occupied by these applications, which are very pressing.
Question. I will ask you whether, in your judgment, your men would be improved by the experience they would obtain by remaining in camp during all winter?
Wadsworth. I do not think they would. The winter- is very unfavorable for drilling. ... I do not think the men would be better in the spring under any circumstances, even if they were in good spirits. The officers of the line might be improved if they had efficient working commanders who would compel them to study, and who would drill them themselves at officers' drill. . . .
Question. Is it your opinion that a movement should be made?
Wadsworth. It seems almost presumptuous for me to give an opinion upon that question. But as you ask me, I will answer you. It seems to me that there is no doubt about it: that we must, beyond all question, make a movement. I think we are largely superior to our enemies in numbers, and we have a vast superiority in artillery. . . . They are brave men, and ardent in their cause; they fight very well when we meet them. . . . From what I have seen of them, however, I am sure we are superior to them in discipline.
Question. How are they off for clothing, so far as you have been able to learn from their prisoners?
Wadsworth. Very badly off. We get very reliable accounts in that respect from negroes and from citizens who have seen them. There are citizens near Fairfax Court House who see their troops there, but are not allowed to go to Centreville or Manassas. The enemy takes very extraordinary precautions to prevent us from learning their numbers. And if any citizen goes to Centreville or Manassas he is kept there, and not allowed to return. But these citizens see detachments of their troops. A man by the name of Webster, living a little way out of Fairfax Court House, saw some regiments pass his house, and he gives a very reliable account of their condition as to clothing.^ The period when the committee of Congress was entering upon its labors, patriotic but nevertheless subversive of military propriety and discipline, marked also the beginning of one of the most poignantly distressing situations of the war in its exhibition of men at cross- purposes, of incompatibility of temperaments. A day or two before Christmas McClellan fell ill. Refusing to relinquish his command temporarily, he kept everything at a stand-still at precisely the moment when further inaction had become insupportable. Lincoln, expressing the wish to "borrow" the army for a while, called McDowell and Franklin, another of McClellan's division commanders, into council with some of the members of the cabinet, and the body thus casually constituted undertook first to inform itself as to the internal condition of the army and then to plan a campaign which should satisfy the impatience of the North for action. Nothing shows better the desperateness of the situation than the fact that men of sense should undertake to co- operate in this fatuous fashion. Though the conference seems to have wonderfully accelerated McClellan's recovery, the deadlock continued. Unfortunately for him, his inaction, combined with the ungracious treatment of his generals already referred to, had spread demoralization among them. The testimony of the officers, except Fitz-John Porter, called before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, goes far to prove this; if further evidence were needed it could be found in a letter written by Wadsworth to Sumner on January 10, the day of Lincoln's first conference with McDowell and Franklin.
Upton's Hill, January 10, 1862.
My Dear Sumner: I have just received your note. There are no signs of a fight or a move. The Adjutant-General of General McClellan told one of my staff that the country ought to be satisfied that the Capital had been protected, and that he did not think an onward move could be made. In my judgment the policy of sending expeditions to attack the enemy at unguarded points while he comes up and offers us battle in sight of our Capital which we decline is a pusillanimous, cowardly one. The army is as much depressed and discouraged as the monied interest. The despondency and disgust is almost universal. Starting with a prosperous and patriotic North we have reached bankruptcy and got seven miles into Virginia. I tell you confidentially but advisedly that the army has lost confidence in its commander. It never had any, nor had anyone else, in the Secretary of War. Our only hope now is in the Legislative branch. If you are competent to the crisis you may save the country; but you must do it soon or be too late. It is difficult for me to leave my command and come to Washington, though I have been in for a few hours at a time occasionally. I wish you would make up a party and come out and dine with me. Send me word if' you can by the Military Telegraph from [the] War Office and I will be at home. I should be very much gratified if I could have an hour's conversation with a few influential gentlemen in the Senate. I should like to meet Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Grimes. Can you manage this for me? You see that I write you with great frankness. My apology will be found in the desperate condition of our affairs. I do not aspire to discuss the great problems before you, but to let you know the condition and feeling of the army.
Very sincerely yours, JAS. S. WADSWORTH.
It was from the executive, nevertheless, that the first ray of hope came. Remove McClellan Lincoln could not, for there was no one commanding the confidence of the country who could be put in his place; but on the very day after Wadsworth's letter was written Cameron was displaced, and on January 13 Edwin M. Stanton was appointed to succeed him. This was almost the first act of Lincoln's to reveal the quality of leadership which the stern discipline of the national crisis was slowly developing within him. Conscious of the train of blunders into which his administrative inexperience ^The financial measures adopted by Congress in the summer of 1861 bad proved inadequate, and the United States Treasury was nearly empty. " Saturday night, December 28, 1861, the managers of the New York banks, after a meeting of six hours, decided that they must suspend special payments. Gold soon brought a slight premium and insecurity had led him, he had now, at the long last, turned into the upward path. His genius consisted not a little in his power to grow from weakness to strength, and with this deed of courage he fitly began the great year of Emancipation.
The appointment of Stanton, however, had little effect upon the immediate fortunes of the Army of the Potomac except to strengthen in the cabinet the hostility to McClellan. Meanwhile the unseemly tussle between the President and the commander of the armies went on. The long arguments between them as to the best route for the advance of the Army of the Potomac—whether it should be directly against the Confederate army at Manassas, or, by a change of base, against Richmond up one of the rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay—have no place here. With a point at issue, however, which later became acute, Wadsworth had a direct concern. It was one of McClellan's failings as a commander that his sense of fact was always at the mercy of his imagination. His faculty for "realizing hallucinations," ^ to use the phrase of Gurowski, the Thersites of Washington at this time, displayed itself nowhere more tryingly than in his estimate of the number of the enemy opposed to him in Virginia. He was convinced that his own army of over one hundred and fifty thousand was face to face with eighty thousand men at Manassas and Centreville, while the Confederate forces along the Potomac above and below Washington amounted to thirty-five thousand more.2 His belief, based on the reports of Allen Pinkerton, the chief of his secret service, was proof against any evidence which made his foes less formidable in point of numbers. Wadsworth, on the other hand, relying on the means of information which he had indicated to the Committee on the Conduct of the War, had reached the conviction that the force about Manassas was between forty thousand and fifty thousand men.^ Growing surer of his figures as the weeks of the winter wore on, he took his evidence to McDowell, to McClellan, and even to Stanton. Though McClellan rejected it with a rudeness, so the story goes, surpassing his usual treatment of subordinates, on the Secretary of War the effect was of a different sort. The soldier before him, so clear as to his facts and pressing them home with all the personal force of a man accustomed to make his ideas tell upon his auditors, struck Stanton as a man who might be of ser- vice for other work in the combinations to be made in the near future.
These new combinations, representing the effort of the administration to put vigor into the conduct of the war, were the outcome of the appointment of Stanton, who, having now been in office for nearly two months and feeling himself firmly established, was beginning to manifest that relentless and unreasoning love of authority for which he was to become famous. A man of far greater executive force than Lincoln, a "worker of workers," in the phrase of Nicolay and Hay, and also of far less personal tact and human understanding, he was soon at loggerheads with McClellan. Being both inexperienced and contemptuous as to military habits of thought and methods of procedure and having withal a consuming passion for action, he had come into the cabinet at just the moment when Lincoln was dallying with the idea of "borrowing" the Army of the Potomac. Impatient of all half-way measures, Stanton fell in readily with the President's scheme, which was in effect to ignore McClellan and to issue orders direct to the army, says that the estimate of General Wool at Fortress Monroe confirmed that of Wadsworth. It has been too often assumed that all the estimates given McClellan of the numbers of the Confederates were exaggerated. The truth is, he willfully shut his eyes to the evidence that, if accepted, would condemn his inaction. In defense of such a course, as green and artless as it was demoralizing and predestined to disaster, the only thing that can be urged is that no other was open. As has already been said, there was no available commander of sufficient achievement in whose favor McClellan could be relieved, and, this being the case, the way to make the best of a bad business seemed to be for the administration to assume such control as should prevent McClellan from having altogether his own willful way. A forlorn hope, this, as the events of the past winter had already shown; but there was no hope elsewhere. It was on Saturday, March 8, 1862, soon after McClellan had returned from the inglorious "lockjaw expedition" at Harper's Ferry,^ that effective steps toward this singular arrangement were taken. While McClellan was taking counsel of his general officers, mostly division commanders, called together at Lincoln's direction to discuss the still unsettled question of the route to be taken against the enemy, Lincoln was preparing the President's General War Orders, numbered two and three, and bearing this same date.^ By these orders McClellan was required to organize the part of the Army of the Potomac about to enter upon active operations into four corps, for the command of which the ranking division commanders, Major-General McDowell and Brigadier-Generals Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes, were designated. A fifth corps under Major-General N. P. Banks was to be formed of two divisions stationed near Harper's Ferry. At Washington was to be left a force sufficient in the estimation of McClellan and his corps ^ McClellan had assembled a large number of boats in the canal opposite Harper's Ferry, to be used in making a bridge across the river, and had ordered a large force to rendezvous there. When, however, it was attempted to pass the boats through the lift lock it was found that they were some six inches too wide. Chase's Ttiot, that the expedition died of lockjaw, spread rapidly in Washington. commanders for its defence, and to the command of this force Wadsworth was assigned with the title of Military Governor of the District of Washington. The work thus begun without consultation with McClellan was continued—but by no means completed—by the President's War Order, No. 3, published three days later.^ By its terms McClellan was relieved of his position of general-in-chief, his command being restricted to the Department of the Potomac; the troops in the West were constituted the Department of the Mississippi, under General Halleck; while the mountainous region of western Virginia, where there were almost no forces. Union or Confederate, was designated the Mountain Department, with Major-General John C. Fremont, recently returned in disgrace from Missouri, as its commander. All three commanders of departments were ordered to report directly to the Secretary of War.
This stripping of authority from McClellan, the prelude to a still more humiliating stripping of troops, he bore with fairly good grace, issuing without undue delay the necessary commands for the organization of his army into corps. Against the appointment of Wadsworth, however, he saw fit to protest. It was not strange that he should object to an arrangement by which a man wholly without technical training was to be put in command of the extensive fortifications about the city and of the troops necessary to man them. He must also have had some inkling of Wadsworth's personal hostility to him. But, on remonstrating with Stanton, he was told, as he declares, "that Wadsworth had been selected because it was necessary, for political reasons, to conciliate the agricultural interests of New York, and that it was useless to discuss the matter, because it would in no event be changed." ^ Whatever the rashness of Lincoln and Stanton in assigning Wadsworth to such a position, McClellan, as in the case of the corps commanders, had only his own dilatoriness to thank. His proposal that the place should be given to Brigadier-General W. B. Franklin, an excellent officer of the regular army, came too late and had the air of being merely an afterthought, a peg upon which he could hang his protest.
With regard to such appointments as those of Banks, Fremont, and Wadsworth, it must be remembered that, from one point of view, they represented for the month of March the balance of favors which Lincoln was continually trying to strike between the two wings of the Republican party. Throughout the winter the inactivity of the Army of the Potomac had been laid by the radical leaders to the conservative tendencies of McClellan and some of his generals. It was the men of anti-slavery sentiments who were spoiling for a fight, and their clamors kept the harassed President constantly between the devil and the deep sea. The coming of Stanton was a godsend to the party of action, and his falling out with McClellan a circumstance of which they made the most. The three military appointments in question were also read throughout the North as signs that the administration had set its steps resolutely forward, and the response desired by Lincoln came in renewed support from this section of the party.
It was considerations such as these, rather than the need of conciliating the agricultural interests in New York, that probably played a part in the choice of Wadsworth for the position of military governor of the capital. His inexperience as commander of an army of twenty-five thousand men within fortifications cannot be gainsaid; but Stanton, who was already expecting to bring to Washington Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, an army ofiicer of long service and high standing, was doubtless trusting to him to make good Wadsworth's professional deficiencies.^ In point of fact, the turn of circumstances, as will presently appear, ultimately reheved ' Fifty Years in Camp and Field, p. 437. 1862] MILITARY GOVERNORSHIP 109 the volunteer oflScer of this larger responsibility. The true justification for his appointment, therefore, over and above his qualifications of general capacity and executive force, is to be found in the fact that the position was quasi-civil. The man who was to govern a place that was half city, half camp must use his military authority in such fashion that it should not con- found the strength of the civil arm. In this respect the appointment of Wadsworth was as suitable in promise as it actually resulted in performance. The single instance in which, acting with Stanton's consent, he made his power paramount is the exception that proves the rule.
Saturday, March 8, the day on which Lincoln's two orders were issued, was the beginning of a week of memorable events, tumbling after one another in disordered sequence, kaleidoscopic in their bewildering combinations. To touch for a moment on things naval, it was the day when the iron-clad Merrimac dealt destruction among the wooden frigates at Hampton Roads. On the next day the iron-clad was checkmated by the Monitor in a combat which revolutionized warfare on sea for the whole world. On land, on this same Sunday, it became known that the Confederate pickets were being withdrawn from the lines which they had watched for five months. Wadsworth's outposts were among the first to make the discovery, and he telegraphed the fact to McClellan's headquarters. Later in the evening his brigade received marching orders. Although the day before lie had had word of Stanton's intention to appoint him military governor of Washington, the order assigning Mm to that duty had fortunately not been made out, and he was free to lead his men in the advance movement for which he had so long waited. An hour after midnight the sergeants went from tent to tent quietly arousing the men and bidding them prepare to start at five. "At four," according to the regimental narrative of the Twenty-first New York, "all were astir, bonfires were lighted in the streets with the straw of our bunks and the remnant of firewood, and in their glare men hurried to and fro, securing the safety of whatever must be left behind, filhng haversacks and canteens, and taking a last look at the old camp which had been the scene of so many long-to-be-remembered experiences.
"At five the bugle sounded, and the cry of 'Fall in!' echoed from street to street; the men hurried into their places, the line was formed, and just as daylight began to streak the east, we joyously took up the march. The morning was damp, and the hill was enveloped in an ashy canopy of smoke through which the smoldering fires showed dimly as we turned away, wondering if we should ever see it again. On the march at last."
That night Wadsworth's men, being the advance brigade of the army, encamped in a pine grove about two miles east of Centreville. There they tarried for five days, the men spending the time free from drill and camp duties in straying about the deserted Confederate camps and over the battlefield of Bull Run. There, too, Stanton's order of appointment reached Wadsworth, who made immediate preparation to return to Washington. The news of their loss spread rapidly among the regiments of the brigade, just returning from drill, and with the instinct of soldiers for an emotional moment they gathered about their commander to bid him farewell. The thronging adieus, inarticulate save for the repeated cries of "Good-by!" were gathered up for ex- pression in the "Auld Lang Syne" which the band of the Twenty-first New York struck up as he left the camp.2 His connection with the Army of the Potomac, beginning with its organization by McDowell, had lasted for nine months; another nine months was to pass before he saw service with it again.
Riding toward Washington over the same road that he had travelled alone after Bull Run, Wadsworth had opportunity to reflect upon the transition from the first to the second period of his military career. Keenly as he desired to lead his brigade in the coming campaign and there to justify his pride in its discipline, he was not insensible to the recognition by the administration of a greater power of service for him in another field. The very scope of opportunity in this command, the limits of which were still indeterminate in the minds of those who had created it, was an attraction to him. With no illusions as to his lack of military training for the command of a fortified city, and yet in true American fashion in no wise daunted thereby, he crossed the Potomac and entered the nation's capital, the governance of which was henceforth to be his care.
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James S. Wadsworth of Geneseo
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Biography of James S. Wadsworth
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The life of James S. Wadsworth - Brevet Major-General of United States Volunteers
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Henry Greenleaf Pearson
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Cornell University Library
https://archive.org/details/cu31924032774220
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John Murray, Albemarle Street 1913
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1913
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Public Domain
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pdf
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English
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James S. Wadsworth
Upton's Hill
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Severe Gale at the Camp
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Union camp at Upton's Hill
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A drawing of a Union camp located at Upton's Hill during a severe storm
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Harper's Weekly
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February 24, 1862
camp life
Harper's Weekly
Upton's Hill
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A Brilliant Small Fight
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Hall's Hill
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An account of a small fight that occurred on Hall's Hill
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A Trip on Picket - View of Washington
Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch
Near Fairfax Court House September 12, 1861
On Friday, the 5th of this month, our regiment was ordered to leave lts encampment mar Fairfax Court-House, and go up towards Washington on picket duty. The day upon which we set out waa pleasant., and although the roads were quite muddy from the recent rains, we had a much more agreeable march than we anticipated. Our officers were kind in in permitting us to avail ourselves of the sidewalks upon the turnpike, some of them walking for the weary to ride, and others administering to our comfort by passing up and down the line and treating us to peaches, pears and melons they had bought upon the way. Our captain is peculiarly good at this, and I think he has found out the true secret of governing his men. We passed Fairfax Court House with our spirits much more elated than when we retreated from that place at the approach of the "Grand Army" on Wednesday, the 17th of July. With "arms at will" and "route step," and many a joke and hearty laugh, we wended our way towards the "city of the Great King."
The country in front rises in beautiful undulations until the hill region of the Potomac forms a vast amphitheatre, in which are to be seen clusters of chestnut, skirts of cedar dispersed in various profusion, cultivated fields of corn and buckwheat in full bloom stately mansions, and orchards laden with delicious fruit. Near the road, we observed some few abandoned houses of noble souls who had left all for the sake of the Union, and are ready not only to sacrifice their property but their lives and sacred honor in defence of a political and military despotism, for which their fathers did not light. After stopping to rest several times and filling up our canteens with good cool water, we came in sight of Falls Church, distant about ten miles from our encampment. This is a neat village, containing about twelve families and four churches, at one of which it is said that Genera! Washington often attended service. The boundary line of the original District of Columbia runs just beyond Falls Church. After passing the line stones of this District, now called the County of Alexandria, we marched about three quarters of a mile and stretched our arms upon Brandymore Castle, near the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire railroad. The eagerness and anxiety of our soldiers here to see the Yankee Capital surpassed all bounds. It was almost impossible for the military authorities to keep their men in camp.
The nearest point from which a view of Washington could be had was from Upton's Hill, a place of much interest, as it is owned by the present Black-Republican Congressman from the disloyal portion of Virginia. Upton's residence, is pierced by two cannon balls, fired into it by the Washington Artillery, when they drove the enemy off the hill some ten days ago. The writer of this article, as he now stands upon this lofty eminence and facing the Potomac, can see the stupendous dome of the Federal Capitol far beyond and overlooking Arlington Heights. The colors of the stars and stripes floating droopingly over the doomed city, contrasts finely with the deep blueish green of the forests of the Maryland Heights that lie far beyond, looming up with magnificent grandeur above all surrounding objects.
On the Maryland side, below the Capitol, appears the Lunatic insane Asylum, a large, red, brick building, said to have been built by charitable contributions. Further back upon the heights is the residence of Mr. Seaton, the well known editor of the National Intelligencer. It is a magnificent palace, and in same respects resembles the Capitol at Washington. The breastworks of the enemy can be distinctly seen about three miles off, and sentinels standing upon post. With the aid of the telescope, an officer upon horseback appears far in the distance under the United States flag, brandishing his sword and giving orders to his men. Away he dashes off at full speed, swelling, no doubt, eternal vengeances upon the "rebels," and exhibiting at the same time his wonderful capabilities of making another glorious retreat. A sentinel of Abe appears to the naked eye to the left, walking upon the top of a large framed house. A very large schooner, with its sails in full blast, is seen lying quietly upon the bosom of the Potomac. The smoke from the steamers as they run up and down the stream, indicates their course by the cloud-like columns that hang heavily above the forests.
Upon the Georgetown Heights appears the Soldiers' Home", breaking the horizon on the left. Its elevation and the purity of the surrounding atmosphere renders it a favorite resort for distinguished individuals during the summer season. The lofty spire of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, near Alexandria, appears to the naked eye from almost every bill in this region of country, and when viewed with the telescope it shows itself to be a building of nice proportions and exquisite finish. The balloon of Professor Lowe can be seen regularly twice a day making observations upon our movements. The Washington Artillery shot at it a few clays ago, and it has been very cautious ever since in peeping over the trees at us. The drums of the enemy keep up almost an incessant beating day and night. There are various conjectures what it all means. It has been thought that every man who threw away his gun at Bull Run has been promoted to the office of drummer. We can hear the Yankees play "Dixie" upon their brass band, and occasionally they give us a touch ot "Yankee Doodle."' The town clock strikes within hearing of our pickets when everything is still at night.
Munson's and Mason's Hills are to the right of Upton's Hill. Both are occupied by our soldiers. The former is almost destitute of foliage-and undergrowth, while the latter is covered with large and sandy tree's. Between these hills and the entrenchments of the enemy is comparatively a level portion of land, bare in some places and in others covered with growing crops and original forests. The pickets of the two contending armies advance several hundred yards beyond their respective breastworks, and take every advantage possible of every stump, reek, ravine or hill to get a shot at each other. The distance is so great that it rarely happens that any one is injured by this useless kind of warfare. It is to be hoped that the officers on both sides will put a stop to this species of fighting, which resembles more the practice of the sneaking savage than the open hand-to-hand fight of civilised nations. The pickets have had many a skirmish over the peach orchards between their lines.
Our soldiers have had a feast of fat things which were intended for the Washington market, and they esteem it a frolic to go in sight of the enemy on picket. Yesterday, while on duty, Capt. Wall, of the Prospect Company, brought in two bipeds of General Scott. They hud the "sweet German accent." and as we could not understand their "musical lingo,"' we had to use an interpreter to learn from them, what we knew before, that they were fighting for pay. While we were looking over at the enemy, and lying carelessly about our posts, some six or eight cannon balls came over our heads and took us by surprise. Col. Withers gallantly came to our assistance with the balance of the regiment and a display of artillery, as if for battle, whereupon they kept remarkably quiet the rest of the day. Capt. Spencer, (Company K.) with ten men as a bodyguard, meantime performed a hazardous enterprise. Several female*, frightened by the firing of the artillery, passed out of our lines, and had gone through a skirt of woods, occupied partly by our men and partly by the enemy. For fear that they would give important intelligence to the enemy, the Captain determined, if possible, to bring them back. After advancing to a house in the open field, where he supposed them to be, several of our boys noticing a squad of men in Yankee garb making towards the Captain, with their guns ready to shoot, brought two to the ground and received their fire without effect. As the door was closed against the party, and as it was not known in what numbers the enemy might be on their own ground, it was thought best to retire. Enough at present. When we take Washington, I'll write again.
H*****, 18th Reg't, Co. K.
A Brilliant Small Fight.
Manassa, Sepi 16.—-On Friday last an engagement took place upon-the occasion of an attack upon and the burning of Hall's house, near Arlington. A detachment of the New Orleans Washington Artillery and a portion of Col. Winder's Regiment, made the attack, which was vigorously opposed for awhile by the Federals. The Impetuosity and daring of the attack, however, on the part of the Confederates, who went into the lines of the Federals to effect their purpose, struck terror to the enemy. After fighting their way to their object and the burning of the house, the Confederates returned to their camps without the loss of a man. The Federals In the engagement lost four killed and a number wounded, and some eight or ten were made prisoners. The above intelligence comes from quite a reliable source, and may be considered as authentic.
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A Trip on Picket - View of Washington
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Correspondent Report of the Richmond Dispatch near Fairfax Courthouse
Description
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A Confederate soldier's account of reaching Upton's Hill and the view of Washington. He describes "the black-republican congress man's house (Upton's) and noted it had two cannon ball holes from a recent attack driving Union soldiers out. Interesting description about the view of Washington and the eagerness of the rebels to attack the Capital. Author also describes a small military engagement.
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H*****, 18th Regiment, Co. K.
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Richmond Times Dispatch
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September 17, 1861
Brandymore Castle
Charles H. Upton
General Scott
Hall's Hill
Upton's Hill
-
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Oct. 17.
Fri. Very warm. Thirteenth is off in a hurry about 7 a. m., tents and all, for Upton's Hill. The men are heavily loaded with full knapsacks, haversacks, and their arms. We take a roundabout road, and make the distance, six or seven miles, at a dog trot, arriving at 11.30 a. m. The guide selected the wrong road. On the way we pass Ball's Cross Roads and Munson's Hill. There is a fort on almost every hill hereabout. We are, here, two miles from Falls Church (which is about eight miles from Alexandria on the Leesburg Pike) and fifteen miles from the Bull Run battlefield. A large detail from the Thirteenth go out on picket, our First Picket Duty, of 48 hours, beyond the earthworks of the outer defenses of Washington ; no shelter. Our line of pickets extends about three miles each way from Falls Church.
The portion of the Thirteenth remaining at Upton's Hill receive a few tents, but the most of them are delayed in coming, and so the men rough it, and bid high for chills and fever. Sleeping on the bare ground, in the open air, at this time of year, is a dangerous thing to do, especially for raw troops. One third of the army are continually used up by this ill-considered way of doing the business of war. The camp guard load their muskets for the first time to-night, at " Camp Corcoran," Upton's Hill — an act denounced by men who afterwards deserted !
We do not like the picket diet, principally boiled salt beef cold, and hard bread soaked in water and then fried with salt pork sliced thin, and coffee, made of surface water, and sweetened with cheap brown sugar.
Oct. 18. Sat.
Fine weather. Thirteenth fitting up camp at Up-ton's Hill. The fresh soldier arranges bis tent in a very fresh manner. Two companies, about 125 men, are out on the advance picket line near Falls Church, which is just within our picket lines. There is only one pew now left in it and it has been used as a stable for cavalry horses. The pickets have very poor shelter, mere booths made of boards and pine brush, and not enough, such as it is.
There has been a severe skirmish at Falls Church, and we can see, for the first time, how a real battlefield looks. The kinds of bullets and shells that have cut, battered and smashed these trees, buildings and fences, are just the kinds which our bodies must catch ! — however, we can give as well as take. Our pickets here are in a very dense growth of small pine-trees, and at night no man can see two rods.
Oct. 19. Sun.
Very warm at noon. The picket is relieved about noon, and returns to Upton's Hill. The Thirteenth is put through In- spection, Parade, Drill and Religious services, all to the same tune, nearly, by the new Band, and after a long, busy day, about 5 p. m. re- ceives orders to return at once to Camp Chase. Takes down its tents, packs up, is joined by the incoming picket, and, about 6 p. m., marches off at the top of its speed. Arrives at or near Camp Chase at 8 p. m., having marched the last five or six miles in an hour and a half. The men are too tired to pitch their tents, our old tents which arrive late, about 10 p. m., and make their camp for the night anywhere and anyhow. The night is very cold, raining in the evening and freezing toward morn- ing. About 100 men off duty, more or less sick. The night is enlivened by a magnificent mule-chorus, sung by the Division teams.
Oct. 20. Mon.
Very cold. Many men rose this morning very sick. (The writer, and several others, did not recover from the bad effects of last night's exposure until after the march to, and the battle of, Fredericksburg in December. Their discharge from the service was repeatedly offered them, but as often refused.) The Reg. moves this morning about a mile and stakes ground for a new camp, about half a mile from our first camping ground near Arlington Heights. By night our tents are up and we begin to be settled again, but upon an abominable camping ground. About the only fence we have seen standing in Virginia was a few rods of it near Fall's Church. Houses, groves, orchards, shade trees and fences have been destroyed or leveled for miles on miles around.
•• "We turned in late last night, and after a few hours' rest I was called out about 4 a. in., with all of Company F. and was hurried down with Lieuts. Hall and Dustin to guard the Virginia end of the Long Bridge. We had no rations, and when breakfast time came along, I went to a Sutler's tent near by to purchase something for myself and the men of the Company to eat, but found that I did not have a cent of money with me ; I had lost somewhere that morning my pocket-book containing over S8<>0, belonging in part to myself and the rest to the men of my Com- pany. I could not return to camp without a permit, so I hurried across the bridge to Gen. Casey's Hdqrs. in Washington, stated to him the circumstances and obtained permission to return to camp. I then went to our camp with Lieut. Hall, and we hunted for the lost pocket-book for a long time but without success. While we were talking about the matter, and devising plans to recover the money, it incidentally occurred to Lieut. Hall to see if his own money were safe. Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he drew forth not his own pocket-book, but the very one I had lost. We sat down then and there, counted the money and found it all right. Lieut. Hall was surprised beyond measure. While dressing in the morning, in the hurry and darkness, we had exchanged pantaloons. That exchange caused me several hours of worry, and a tramp of nearly ten miles done at the top of my speed. On the whole the hardest morning's work I ever did in my life before breakfast." Lieut. Young.
Oct. 21. Tues. Fair. Yesterday's work all for nothing, excepting practice ; and the Thirteenth moves half a mile nearer the Potomac, and pitches its tents again ; " A " tents, and six men crowded into each tent. The Upton's Hill expedition was very damaging to the health of the men. The experiment is tried to see how quickly the Reg. can assem- ble, pack and be ready to march ; it is accomplished inside of fifteen minutes. There is rarely a more stirring scene in the army ; men and officers are moving in every direction ; laughter, jokes, commands, in- quiries, are heard everywhere ; wagons loaded, rations distributed, knap- sacks packed. Every one hurries in perfect order, because every man knows exactly what work he has to do.
Oct. 22. Wed. Fair. Thirteenth drilling, seven hours a day. Many men off duty. Lieut. Penrose, Drill-master, is desirous of en- forcing a more strict discipline, and threatens to " recommend all officers for immediate resignation," who do not cease from all familiarity with their enlisted men. This caste system is regarded as necessary, and is compulsory. Reg. drawn up in close order and lectured most emphatically. John J. Whittemore is sick, and Royal B. Prescott is employed as Acting Hospital Steward.
Oct. 23. Thurs.
Fair. Everyone cautioned to be ready for an- other move. Officers' school in full figure ; they are compelled to study the Tactics very closely, also the Army Regulations, and to perform all to the letter. Assistant Surgeon John Sullivan joins the Reg. He has been in the service since June 1861, as a private in the 2d N. H., and Medical Cadet, U. S. A.
Oct. 24. Fri.
Warm. Thirteenth divided between picket, shovel- ing and camp duties. Officers' messes being organized. A cook stove and mess-chest costs about $35, and a good appetite costs eighteen hours of hard work per day.
Oct. 25. Sat.
Cool. About these days an enterprising Lieutenant, in the Thirteenth, discovers a lot of rebels near a neighboring outhouse, and prepares for their capture or annihilation. After creepings and cautions enough to take a city, wonderful generalship and unheard-of strategy, he, with his men, surrounds, surprises and captures them all — and they prove to be men of the Thirteenth making a night raid on a hencoop ! The moi'e it is mentioned, the less that Lieutenant is happy. The 13th ordered to furnish a guard for Fort Runyon and Long Bridge, consist- ing of two officers and 80 to 100 men in all.
Oct. 26. Sun.
Very rainy, cold and disagreeable. The Surgeon's tent is much frequented. During a severe shower of rain to-day a large, new regiment marches into camp with their colors flying, and their Band playing " The Campbells are Coming." They make a fine display. Enlistments are being made, among the volunteers, for the Regular Army, and the Navy. None but "No. 1 men" need apply. Inducements: 30 days furlough every year, $50 bounty, $17 per month in pay. The furlough to immediately follow enlistment, transportation free. We have thus far moved five times, and each succeeding move for the worse.
Oct. 27 Mon.
A hard rain storm. Cleared toward noon cold and blustering. Camp very wet and muddy. About 80 men sent on guard to Long Bridge, under Capt. Stoodley. An outrageously cold business. Rest of the Reg. in camp and doing nothing. Long Bridge is about 2\ miles from our camp, is about \\ miles long, and is the only bridge for the passage of teams across the Potomac into Virginia. Immense wagon trains are continually passing, often covering the whole bridge and its approaches as far as we can see. No person is allowed to cross either way without a pass, and the labor of the picket officer in examining these passes is very hard and trying.
Oct. 28. Tues.
Fair, very cold. Detachment returns from Long Bridge at evening. Thirteenth reviewed, with eight other regiments, by Gen. Casey. A storm blows tents over and bursts them open, and the rain pouring in makes the ground very wet and muddy. Half the Reg. are thoroughly drenched.
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Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865
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Regimental history
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Three year history of the 13th Regiment of the New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War
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S. Millet Thompson
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Houghton, Mifflin and Company
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The Riverside Press, Cambridge
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1888
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Public Domain
13th Regiment New Hampshire
Upton's Hill
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Gilbert Crocker's Civil War pg.66
The Twenty-fourth went into winter quarters at Upton's Hill where they built Fort Upton. Gilbert was not part of the construction
crew at Fort Upton but was detailed, instead, to stay back at Camp Keyes. He writes to his
sister from there in October saying: It is lonesum here now as the
boys are most all up on munsons
hill there is a few of us
left here to take care of things
i gess that they will be back in
a few days we 'that are left
here dont have any thing to do . .
i gess ithere is not much danger
of a fight very soon here the
boys are making a fort up most
to munsons hill i dont no what
made the rebles leave they had
the woods all round munsons hill
surounded with a brest work of
rails they had torn all the fens
down (60)
Two days later the regiment
moved to Upton's Hill where Gilbert
wrote to his mother that:
We moved up on uptons hill yesterday
it is near munsons hill
it is a pleasant place here I
had ruther soldier it than to pick
up stone but I should like to be
at (Orwell for a visit With you?
section of letter missing) (61)
He gives us a good glimpse of
camp life as he continues:
You want to now what we do for
lights we have candles half a
one a night they are made of
sperm and are so hard that the
sun wont melt them but they
give good light we have tea
twice a day but we have to by a
part of it there is cabeges and
potoes here that we can by - every
day if wa want to we had
some cabbages for super I
have got so I can cook most eny
thing we get a chicken once a
while beef steak once a week
we have a good deal more than
we oan eat but we can sell it
for the money we got a wash
bord and tub the other day I
washed a shirt and rubed the
hide off my fingers in five minets
but I got it clean after a while
and my fingers have got well a
gain (62)
Scouting was always a pathway
to adventure and a welcome relief
from camp boredom. In this
same letter he reports an expedition
made by five men from Co. G
and Captain Barney with seven of
his men from Co. K (Ellisburg
company) who
Went out a scouting and two
miles beyond falls curch they
saw six horse men a coming
they shot at them and they ran
but they got one of them and five
horses and six sadles 13 pistols
one sword and one over coat
bill semore mat samsons frank
baker bill moriey waliice outercark
from our company were
out bill semore got 3 pistols
they shot one of the horses ded
I guess (63)
While some soldiers wrote often
of affairs of the heart, both real
and imagined, Gilbert Crocker had
either a very Victorian sense of
propriety or he had found no opportunity
to meet the fairer sex.
The soldier in the ranks, it should
be realized, had much less opportunity
in these matters than the
commissioned officers. One of the
few references to a desire for
feminine association is found as
he tells his mother that "I have
not heard a woman's name in so
long (that) I dont know how it
would sound." (64)
Gilbert shows a very human nature
when he compares his lot
with the life he had known in Orwell.
He asks:
How much does milo get a
month I should think wages
would be high there is so many
a coming here I believe we
will make the most money this
winter
And then he adds -this crowning
touch, "And we shant have to
break roads in the snow neather"!
(65)
We find Gilbert referring to
some local boys who must have
enlisted in a cavalry unit during
the summer or fall. He writes:
The compney that the boys have
gone in have not got here yet I
heard they was in troy but was
a coming to Washington soon come in this compny it is not
so easy work to be a cavlaryman
as it is a privet they have
got to take care of there horses
and keep fcheim a looking good
(66)
The special interest here depends
on our ability to know what Gilbert
Crocker's future held. Little
did he know, as he wrote this, that
he would, himself, enlist in the
cavalry in 1864!
The shortage of money back
home, of which he had heard rumors,
and the cost of everything,
both at home and in camp, occupied
Gilbert's thoughts on many
occasions. From their winter quarters
at Upton's Hill he reported
that "There is plenty of money
here and every thing els that we
need only boots they ask from
five to seven dollars a pair and
they are sail (sail cloth or canvas
or sale?) boots at that." Little
wonder that he and many of the
others sent "to home burch to
have him make them boots." (67)
(Homer J. Burch of Orwell?)
One night the boys in Gilbert's
tent had a little sport:
The other night our tent blowed
down in the night when it was
so dark that we cold not see a
foot but we went and got a
light and I guess you would a
laughed if you had seen us put
it up in the rain we did not
stop to dress wink held one
part and I hild the other and
filo pines it down but we have
got it so now that it cant blow
down we want the only ones
that had a rain that night the
water was so deep in the river
that the long bridge was all under
water I dont know whether
it has gone down or not. (68)
Gilbert must have been a good
looking young man with perhaps
a touch of vanity if we are to
judge from his several references
to having his likeness taken and
then being dissatisfied with the
results! He writes to his parents
in November, saying, "You want
to see how I look I went and got
my picture took some time ago
but it looked so that I did not
mean to send it but William hoollis
was a going home so I sent it by
him I dont want you should let
any one see it I will get it took
a gain as they have got a house
built to take them in now." (69)
Gilbert wrote one letter to his
mother during ithe fall of 1861
which is a most complete description
of their "fare" and food management.
He reassures his mother
with:
You may know I dont have very
hard times as I never weighed
so much in my life as I do now
we have plenty to eat and that
What is good a nuff for any
body we have fresh beef twice
and three times a week besides
salt pork and beef and bacon
with beans peas rice homeny
coffe tea shugar molases we
draw our rations and cook
them all to gether only 'the shugar
and molasis we get a
pound of shugar for 8 days we
have the best kind of bread it
is mast Jenerly warm when we
get it every morning when the
bread wagon comes they all
start for there bread they have
a two horse wagon load for the
regement I wish you cold be
here and see how we live most
of the boys have got a fire place
in there tents we have not got
any in ours yet but we are a
going to have one (70)
A practice which is of interest
was the policy of allowing the men
so much money for rations on
the company level. If they didn't
require the entire amount for a
given period of time the cash residue
was turned back to the company.
Gilbert reports that Company
G received $45 for rations that
they had not drawn and he used
this as proof that they were eating
well.
Drill is always good for some
comment in soldierss' letters as
we see from Gilbert's correspondence.
The army life with its inconveniences
seems to agree with
him because he reports that they
carried their knap sacks four
hours, yet didn't feel very tired.
He adds that, "It is not half as
hard work to cary them as it was
at first we have a battalion or
a division drill a bout every day
but it is not very hard work to
drill now." (71)
Early in the summer they had five men to a tent but in Upton's
Hill they used the small shelters
very much like the present day
pup tents. Gilbert described his
accommodations for his mother in
a letter of December 19th. At that
time they had 101 men in Company
G and he wrote:
I guess we shall stay heire all
winter as the oficers are making
them log houses I am going to
make one and set my tent on it
it will be a bout 6 x 7 feet we
have got a floor in it now and a
straw bed to sleep on I have
got two woolen blankets one
of them is lined with bead tick
and a India rubber blanket that
I had give to me and the cither
that stays with me has got one
blanket and two bead quilts so
we can sleep just as warm as
though we ware in a bead the
boys have not all got straw
beads. (72)
His tent mate was a fellow referred
to as "ame" who took care
of the cooking for both of them,
according to Gilbert, "rather than
do anything else"! (73)
The last letter wrote in 1861
was to his sister in which he
said, "Tell mr peabody to rite me
a good long letter and I will send
him a little niger when I get down
south where we can catch one."
(74)
Gilbert had a great interest in
his younger brother "edy" and
sent messages to him on many
occasions. In one letter he sent
"edy" word that he didn't believe
he could send him a gun but he offered
him, instead, a pair of his
old pants which might be cut,
down to size! (75)
The men celebrated New Year's
Day, 1862 with special festivities.
They played ball most of the day
while in the afternoon they "had
a greased pig to catch but there
was so many that he cold not run
fur." (76)
Many of the horses diedduring
the winter, perhaps from overexposure
and reported "horse
distemper" as they had to stand
out doors. One driver lost a team
worth $300. It was apparently possible
to get a paid job as a teamster
on the supply wagons. Gilbert's
friend or relative known to
us only as "Wink" did this during
the winter of 1862. (76)
We are led to wonder whether
or not the humor is intended as
Uncle John (constantly referred to
in the letters and a Civil War version
of the Sgt. Bilko type) is reported
in one letter to have said
he was going to "by a watch and
a revolver he says a watch is
so handy when on gard"! (78)
We may be justified in feeling
critical of the limited drill and
the nearly complete disregard icr
rifle practice during the war. Certainly
the policy reported by Gilbert
Crocker would not be conducive
to producing expert marksmen.
While country boys would
have a good knowledge of firearms
at that time, many of the citybred
recruits would be either
wholly or partially lacking in this
skill. Writing from Camp McDowell,
Va., Gilbert relates:
I went and shot at a mark a few
times I shot 60 sixty roods
(rods) at a tree a foot through
the second time that I shot I hit
the tree we have to pay for our
catriges iff we shoot them at
marks so I dont shot much . . .
we have all got new catrige boxes
and belts. (79)
Gilbert wrote to his sister, asking
her to give his respects to
"all the school girls" (80) so we
feel that he is not entirely without
hope!
His mother sent him pictures of
the family and gloves; of the pictures,
he declared that he "would
not take $1000 for them" as they
all looked just as they had when
he left home. (81)
Uncle John shows a good Yankee
instinct for making money:
I suspose uncle John will have
between 30 and 40 dollars to
send home he makes lots of
money washing and doing chores
for the likeness man but you
must not say anything about it
to any one. (82)
The Civil War was not without
certain military practices which
are easily recognizable today. One
of these was sick call. Crocker
gives a good description of the
time-honored methods:
Our regement had to go out on
picket sunday and stay two day I had a cold so I went to the
old doctor and got excused
when we dont want to do anything
we go to the doctors and
get excused iff we make the
doctor belive we are sick it is
just as well sometimes there
is a dozen goes to him some
are lame some have a lame
shouldier we have lots of fun
when we go to the doctors. (83)
Wood always presented a problem
where there were so many
men in a close area (as in winter
quarters), burning large amounts
of fuel daily. In addition, the inefficient
fireplaces in the shelters
were not noted for getting the
most heat from a cord of wood;
therefore, the problem of a supply
Which was near the camp site
was one which was seldom solved.
Attempts could be made, however,
and this is the account of one such
attempt:
Sunday, after they the regement
had gone out on picket what
fewe off us ware left here
thought we would have some
wood without fetching it so far
so just after dark we got to
gether and while part watched
to see iff the gard ware a coming
the rest cut down a big oak
after it fell we went back to our
tents and in the morning we
went and cut it all up and caried
it to our quarters thinking
how lucky we ware not to get in
the gard house I went to work
and cut mine up and put it all
in my tent I had just got it in
when the officer off the gard
come a long and wanted to now
who cut all that wood Some off
the boys told him they cut it so
he told them to go to the gard
house but most off the boys did
not now who cut it so they did
not have to go to the gard house
after they had got all the boys
in the gard house they made
them fetch there wood to the
gard house so ended our geting
wood we have to fetch
most off our wood bout a hundred
rods there is a few trees
close by but the general wont let
them be cut but we get once in
a while one (84)
The orders came early for moving
out of camp in 1862. On February
28th, Gilbert wrote that they
had been ordered to pack up
everything and taking "one shirt
one pair off drawers one pair
socks one blanket wish (which) we
will put in our nap sacks," they
went out on picket duty. (85) This
led right into the march south as
a part of the general movement of
the Army of the Potomac under
General McClellan. The 24th advanced
to Bristoe Station and then
Catlett's Station and finally the
heavy march towards Fredericksburg.
Gilbert reports the scene which
they found at Manassas where the
rebels had "a lot off logs painted
for canon" (86) as well as the
quaker guns at Centerville. He
describes the march to Alexandria
in some detail. Upon their arrival
at Alexandria, they received instructions
to return to Upton's Hill
as "the boats had not come to take
us to richmond." (87) Gilbert continues
by saying:
I am geting pretty tuogh since
last Sunday we have marched to
days with our nap sacks and it
rained bouth days Wednesday
thursday and friday we had a
brigade drill and tuesday we
went to centerville I feel just
as well as i did before we started
only my feet are some sore
i dont feel any thing off that pain
in my side now (88)
The justifiable pride of a strong
body in good health .
From a camp near Falmouth
Gilbert wrote a long and descriptive
letter to his mother in which
he tells of their experiences on the
march to the Fredericksburg area
and reports conditions there:
We have not crossed the river
yet but I think we shall before
long they have got two bridges
a crosit the river one is a pontoon
bridge the other is built
off cannall boats I went down
to the river this forenoon some
off our cavaldry went a crost the
river last night and this morning
some off our wagons went a
crost and got some hay and corn
I went down the river three
miles the city runs down the
river two miles it is not very
wide it is a nice place most
Dublin Core
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Title
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Gilbert Crocker's Civil War
Subject
The topic of the resource
24th Regiment, New York Volunteers
Description
An account of the resource
A history of the 24th New York with a significant amount of detail regarding their stay at Upton's Hill
Creator
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Rodney E. Johnson
Publisher
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Oswego County Historical Society 24th Publication
Date
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1961
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Public Domain
24th New York Regiment
Gilbert Crocker
Upton's Hill
-
https://mtcwia.com/files/original/a476b3ac44d6a4b66a3dd770db600383.pdf
f5a82609ba1213173d513372903e04f7
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Camp Bliss pg. 68
The camp of the 144th on Upton's Hill, known as Camp Bliss
was pleasantly situated on the eastern slope with a very good water
supply near at hand. The wood supply at first quite convenient was
soon exhausted, compelling the men to make quite a journey for it,
not so far out, but a long way in when weighed down with a backload
of poles.
The Regiment had for neighbors, encamped near at hand, the
127th, i42d and 143d N. Y. Vol. The first regiment, the 127th was
recruited in New York City and in Brooklyn and nearby surroundings,
Col. William E. Gurney commanding it. The i42d was a St.
Lawrence county regiment, commanded by Col. Judson and the 143d
was a Sullivan county regiment, commanded by Col. DeWitt. By a
general order the four regiments, 127th, I42d, 143d and 144th, were
formed into a brigade, known as the Third Brigade, in Gen. J. J.
Abercrombie's Division.
General Abercrombie was a veteran of several wars
—
Black
Hawk, Seminole, Mexican and now of the Civil War. He was a
native of Tennessee, born in 1798, and graduated from West Point
in 1822. He was in the Shenandoah Campaign of '61 and in the Peninsular Campaign of '62. At the battle of Fair Oaks he was
wounded ; but was able to take part in battle of Malvern Hill. Afterwards
he was placed in command of troops before Washington. He
was retired in 1865 ar>d died January 3d, 1877.
The command of the Third Brigade in Abercrombie's Division
was given to Col. Gurney of the 127th N. Y. V., and since he was so
long and closely identified with the interests of the 144th, the following
brief biography will be of interest
:
General Gurney was a native of New York State, born at Flushing,
August 31st, 1 83 1. He entered business as a clerk in a wholesale
provision, store and later became a partner in same store and was doing
business there under the firm name of Gurney & Underhill at the
time of the breaking out of the Civil War. He was at this time First
Lieutenant in 4th Co. of 7th Regiment N. Y. N. G., and served
with the Regiment during the three months call and afterward served
as Captain in the 65th N. Y. V. In 1862 he was on Gov. Morgan's
staff as Asst. Inspt.-General. In the latter part of 1862 he recruited
the 127th and served through the war with it—a large part of the
time commanding the Brigade of which it was a part. In 1865 he
was promoted to Brigadier-General by brevet. After the war he returned
to Charleston, S. C, and established himself in business as a
wholesale grocer and commission merchant, changing later to the
business of cotton and rice selling. In 1870 he was made treasurer
of Charleston county and held this position for six years. In 1877
he came North, suffering from Bright's disease and died in Brooklyn,
N. Y., February 2d, 1878.
It was at Camp Bliss that the 144th, using the expressive words
of Kipling, began to "find itself." Every body of men organized for
a specific purpose has to adjust itself to its work. A regiment of men
has to find out the working relations of the men to the officers, to each
other and to their immediate work and surroundings. Up to this
time the Regiment had been simply a structural organization, the vessel
just off the stocks that had only made its trial trip in the quiet harbor.
Guard duty that had seemed so irksome and unnecessary when
no enemy was near now began to assume a new importance in the
minds of the men under these new conditions, with frequent alarms at picket outposts calling for vigilance and constant watchfulness to
prevent surprises from the enemy.
Even that, which seemed to so many to be a hardship and in some
way to interfere with the prerogatives of a free-born American citizen,
the saluting of officers, began to have a new meaning. Little
by little the relative importance of obedience, implicit obedience to
orders, in order to insure prompt results in the movements of the army
was seen to be necessary and to this end all the units must know their
place and give a ready and loyal recognition of each officer according
to his rank. Sometimes, indeed often, it might be found, was found,
that there were officers not at all equal in merit to their rank, entirely
unsuited to their place ; but all the more was there need that the office
itself should have full and prompt recognition in order to insure
something of power to it when in the movement of the great machine,
The Army, this cog was called upon for its ratio of force. With
some men there remained always a rankling feeling because of this requirement.
Some in the process of "the finding" of the Regiment, had
to learn this lesson in the guard house and through other military
processes. Happy the soldier who settled it at the outset with this
mental soliloquy : "When I cannot salute the man, I can salute the
office."
Then, there was the "finding" process by which knowledge was
acquired as to how the soldier could best be cared for in the sanitation
of the body, the tent and the camp. So much that had to be learned
by sad experience where there was no education or theories in advance,
so much that had to be learned as to a ready obedience to well-established
theories, but resented by the free-born American citizen, new to
the duties of a soldier. In some cases a scrubbing squad had to be
detailed to take down to the creek and initiate into body cleanliness,
with a horse brush, individual soldiers who had not learned that
"cleanliness was next to godliness."
The matter of the food ration and how best to use it was another
of the problems, and not the smallest in the "finding" of the Regiment.
Few have forgotten the first issue of the "hard-tack" ration in place
of soft bread. "Humph," sniffed one squad of soldiers, "just about
enough for one good meal," and forthwith they sat themselves down
and ate up at one sitting the entire day's ration of "hard-tack." The results recall the cynic's recipe for boarding school fare, "Feed them
dried apples for breakfast, give them water for dinner and let them
swell for supper." The problem of corned beef had to be solved, that
good ration, our stand-by in later experiences on the march, but at
Camp Bliss the much' abused, talked about, wrote about, traduced
"horse beef," all because we had not yet learned how to cook it properly.
More or less of these experiences came into the life of every volunteer
organization in the war of '61, and should have explained some
of the many stories that were current during the late Spanish War.
Another and a large factor in the "finding" of the Regiment came
through the experiences on the drill ground at Upton's Hill. The Enfield
rifle and equipment was not yet a part and parcel of the man, but
rather a cumbrous attachment and dangerous to every one but the
enemy. Casualties, the result of awkward handling of the guns, were
of frequent occurrence. The volunteer had not yet acquired that
"touch of elbow" and ready change of step which made him one with
his fellow in the dark as well as the light. How many awkward,
laughable mistakes were made by officers as well as men in the explanation
and execution of Hardee's and later Casey's tactics. They
furnish the occasion for many a hearty laugh in their recital about the
"camp-fire" of today, but it all had much to do in knitting together
officers and men and making them ready for their mutual work. That
old drill ground, just north of the camp, sloping off through the bushes
down to the creek, witnessed some very strange maneuvering both in
company and regimental drill ; but it all helped to make the soldier,
even if some lessons had to be unlearned. Hall's Hill and Bailey's
Cross Roads are points of special interest because associated with
brigade drills and reviews in which the soldiers came into touch with
the general officers and were made to realize something of the power
there is in masses of men working and moving in harmony under a
tried leader. Inspections of all kinds served like examinations in
school to quicken both officers and men to do better and more intelligent
service.
Thus far the Regiment had been quite free from sickness, except
that the mumps had a short run ; but after a few weeks at Camp Bliss
negligent sanitation on the part of companies and men, together with
changed conditions of living brought consequent result in long lines of men responding to sick call and a large number in tents not able to
respond in person. The shirking soldier very soon found the sick call
a very convenient way to evade duty. This fact gave some waggish
soldier occasion to compose this rhyming adaptation to sick call : "Ye
dead beats, ye dead beats; come and get your pills, your pills, pills,
pills." It proved a very healthful deterrent to any disposed thus to
evade duty. The surgeons also had some very effectual methods by
way of restraint. One day a soldier who was one of the "stand-bys"
in the sick line was detailed by his orderly sergeant for guard duty.
The man protested against this detail because he had such a lame back
he could not do duty. The Orderly insisted, and as a final resort the
soldier reported to Dr. Bryce at sick call and related his grievance as
to the cruelty of the Orderly. "Let me see your back," directed the
doctor, and at once the back was bared. "A very bad case," commented
the doctor, "I will treat you here, but you must report at
once to the Orderly and show him your back, no one else will do for
it demands special treatment." The doctor then took his iodine bottle
and with a brush painted across the back the words
:
"DEADBEAT."
With triumphant stride the patient reported to the Orderly and
bared his back again for the "special treatment." It is needless to add
that after examination the treatment consisted of a summary ordering
to duty. It should be added that in not a few cases, a very great injustice
was done to worthy men by the wholesale judgment rendered
in the rhyming of the sick call as given above, since it deterred some
really sick from reporting.
Another practical adaptation to the sick call, brings vividly to
mind the two standard "sick rations," so often dealt out : "Quinine,
quinine, and a blue pill too, and a blue pill too, and a blue pill too."
All this review of these too familiar memories recalls the name and
faces of three men who for three years served steadily at their posts
and by their skill and courage gave material strength to the Regiment.
Few men in the 144th, who cannot recall the patient, thoughtful care
of the three surgeons and their personal ministrations in the tent, or
hospital, at the dispensary or on the march and with it all cheery, helpful
words, often the best of tonics. November 17th was marked by the first death in the
144th, on southern soil. Curtis Fagan of Company B. died on that
date in Regimental Hospital after only a few days' illness. His disease
is one known to the physicians as purpura haemorrhagica, a very
rare disease. This was the only case known to our surgeons in all
their experience during the war. The next day the Regiment witnessed
and took part in that which has left such deep impress in the minds
of every soldier—a soldier's funeral. The army regulations prescribe
the forms to be observed. In case of a private the escort is to
consist of "eight rank and file," commanded by a Corporal. These
receive the body with a "Present Arms," and then with arms reversed,
follow the body, while the music with drums muffled and covered with
crepe, precede it playing in slow time appropriate airs. One which
the members of the 144th will recall as often used was Portuguese
Hymn, arranged as a march. When the grave is reached the escort
forms on one side, receiving the body again as it is brought to the opposite
side with a "Present Arms." When the coffin is at rest the
command, "Rest on Arms," is given and then each soldier places the
muzzle of his gun on the left foot, and both hands on the butt, then
with head bowed awaits the funeral service. When this is over and
the body is lowered in the grave the escort comes to "Attention," and
loading "at will," fires three volleys of blank cartridges over the grave.
Immediately after it wheels into line and at quick step, with music preceding,
leaves the grounds.
On the occasion of this first funeral the entire Regiment followed
the escort in the order of companies to Fall's Church, where the body
was buried. There came times and often, later in the history of the
144th, when only the regulation escort could be secured. This first
death was the occasion of the largest funeral procession in the history
of the Regiment. During the months of November and December
there were a great many sick and a number of deaths. Quite a number
of the sick were sent to the General Hospital in Washington and
at Fairfax Seminary. With improved sanitary surroundings that
came with a larger experience, there was an improvement in the health
of the men. Among these improved conditions was the stockading
and flooring of tents.
One of the things which characterized the U. S. Volunteer was his ready and ingenious adaptation to his environments. The actual
experience of one tent squad at Camp Bliss will stand as an illustration
of methods, only varied in form, practiced by other tent squads
in all the U. S. Volunteer forces. The government furnished an A
tent, seven feet by seven, and a tenting place for a temporary home,
but without bed or bedding or other furniture. The tent squad put
the tent in place and then began to l<x>k around for the things that may
bring comfort. One finds at an abandoned cavalry camp a number of
grain sacks which he brings to the tent and very soon they are transformed
into a straw tick large enough for five to sleep on. The straw
is found by cutting and curing some tall grass found in a swale nearby
Another one of the squad finds an old rusty ax. It is soon provided
with a helve. A grindstone is found and the rusty ax becomes a good
cutting instrument, almost invaluable in camp life, so valuable that
it has to be watched with care lest covetous eyes lead to covetous act.
One day an old water pail without bottom is found. A cracker box
furnishes the material out from which, with a jackknife, a new bottom
is made and another article of furniture is added to the tent house.
Later a cast-away camp kettle is picked up—true it has a hole in the
bottom, but an ingenious use of an old button makes it water tight
and then there is a washdish provided for. From time to time as they
have had opportunity in their trips outside of camp the tent mates have
brought in a brick or bricks as they have found them loose, with
pieces of sheet iron or old stovepipe. Out from this material a fireplace
was constructed, a most timely provision, for by this time one of
the members was taken clown with typhoid fever and in his care and
comfort, as well as final recovery the little fire-place had a large part.
When orders were given directing the stockading of tents the squad
proceeded at once to rive out material to raise the tent about four feet
from the ground. In the meantime they had procured by purchase a
quantity of lumber, boards and boxes, and when the tent was in place
there was enough of this material to make a floor and a drop table
with other conveniences. The new tent home with its added comfort
brings renewed health and strength to its occupants all of whom in
their turn have been off duty because of varied ailments, that came
with undue exposure and no ready means at hand to counteract.
An interesting chapter could be written describing the various expedients resorted to by the soldiers to bring comfort and to meet
soldier needs, where to the ordinary observer, not under the compulsion
of need which had quickened their "habits of observation," there
would not be a sign of material in sight which could be utilized.
One of the factors which was a material aid in supplying comforts
and sometimes luxuries to the soldier was the much abused regimental
sutler. It is true they sometimes used their opportunity to "fleece"
the soldiers, but large prices were not always evidence of this. The
sutler had to take large risks, for added to the chances of having his
property captured by the enemy there were large losses in expense and
waste of transportation by sudden and repeated removals. They
could "a tale unfold" in doing business under circumstances of which
the ordinary business man knows nothing. The business men who
served the 144th as sutlers were Delaware county men and brought to
this duty patriotism as well as business, and so served the Regiment
well—became an agency through which needed supplies were furnished
and also a line of communication, bearing messages and packages
to and from loved ones at home and often giving material assistance
to those in need.
While at Camp Bliss, S. B. Champion, the editor of the Bloomville
Mirror and now the veteran editor of Stamford Mirror, assisted
in the "sutler's shanty;" but true to the news instinct, born in him and
nurtured by years of experience, he started a newspaper, "The Soldier
Boy," a little regimental paper which was much sought after in
camp and at home. It was printed under difficulty in the tent of John
G. Griswold, Quartermaster Sergeant. Those who have access to files
of this little paper will find many interesting items of the Regiment's
experiences on Upton's Hill.
The special service aside from the regular drill and camp duty required
of the 144th during its stay on Upton's Hill was on the picket
line, in the defenses of Washington. The part of this line
which fell to our brigade to guard, extended from Fall's Church to
Rose Hill. Fall's Church, so often mentioned in connection with
movements of troops in the vicinity of Washington, was a little hamlet
some eight miles west from Washington and about one mile from
Camp Bliss. There were three churches in the place. One of these,
the Episcopal, was of special interest since at one time Washington was a pew holder in it and often attended services there. In the graveyard
attached to the church a great many Union soldiers were buried,
some of the 144th.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Back "In War Times": History of the 144th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry
Subject
The topic of the resource
Soldier's Life
Description
An account of the resource
History of the 144th regiment. Starting on page 66 great detail about life at Camp Bliss on Upton's Hill
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
James Harvey McKee
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Archive.org
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Horace E. Bailey
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1903
144th New York Regiment
Camp Bliss
camp life
Upton's Hill