History of the Nineteenth Army Corps Part 19

(5) This was probably the first sound heard that morning.

(6) According to the regimental history (p. 218) over 100 were lost out of 159 engaged; of 16 officers 13 were killed or wounded. The monument erected September 21, 1885, says 110 were killed and wounded out of 164 engaged. The revised official figures are 17 killed, 66 wounded-together 83 (including 12 officers); besides these there were 23 missing; in all, 106.

(7) The official map, accurate as it is in general, errs in some important particulars; for one, in representing Emory as retreating in a direct line toward the north from Red Hill to the Old Forge line. This would actually have carried his force through the ranks of the cavalry.

(8) "The Battle of Cedar Creek," by Col. Moses M. Granger, 122d Ohio, printed in the valuable collection of "Sketches of War History," published by the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, vol. iii., pp. 122-125. The author is likewise indebted to General Keifer for the opportunity to use in this ma.n.u.script his paper on Cedar Creek, prepared for the same series.

(9) Called Mill Creek in Sheridan's report and "Memoirs." There is a mill on the north bank.

(10) "Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan," vol. ii., pp. 75-83. The distance from Winchester to Getty's position is ten and three quarter miles.

(11) Vol. iv., pp. 524, 532. And see appendix for the valuable memorandum kindly prepared expressly for this work by General E. C. Dawes.

(12) Justly or unjustly; unjustly I think, being unable to see how any one could have done better.

CHAPTER x.x.xV. VICTORY AND HOME.

On the 7th of November, on the battle-field of Cedar Creek, Emory pa.s.sed his corps in review before Sheridan. Sheridan spoke freely and in the highest terms of the soldierly bearing and good conduct of the officers and men. On the same day the President broke up the organization of the remnant of the various detachments, still known as the Nineteenth Corps, left under the command of Canby in Louisiana and Mississippi, and appointed Emory to the permanent command of the Nineteenth Army Corps in the field in Virginia.

The corps staff, mainly composed of the same officers who with lower rank had been serving at the headquarters of the Detachment, so called, since quitting Louisiana, included Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan S. Walker, a.s.sistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Sizer, Acting-a.s.sistant Inspector-General; Captain O. O. Potter, Chief Quartermaster; Captain H. R. Sibley, Chief Commissary of Subsistence; Captain Robert F. Wilkinson, Judge Advocate; Surgeon W. R. Brownell, Medical Director; Captain Henry C. Inwood, Provost-Marshal; Major Peter French, Captain James C. Cooley, and Captain James W. De Forest, aides-de-camp.

On the 17th of November Emory adopted a corps badge and a new system of headquarters flags. The badge was to be a fan-leaved cross with an octagonal centre; for officers, of gold suspended from the left breast by a ribbon, the color red, white, and blue for the corps headquarters, red for the First division, blue for the Second. Enlisted men were to wear on the hat or cap a similar badge of cloth, two inches square, in colors like the ribbon. The flags were to have a similar cross, of white on a blue swallowtail for corps headquarters; for divisions, a white cross on a triangular flag, the ground red for the First division, blue for the Second; the brigade flags rectangular in various combinations of red, blue, and white cross and ground, the ground divided horizontally for the brigades of the First division, and perpendicularly for those of the Second division.

On the 9th of November Sheridan drew back to Kernstown, meaning to go into winter quarters. Early eagerly followed as far as Middletown, intent on discovering what this might mean; but when, on the 12th, Torbert once more fell upon the unfortunate cavalry of Rosser, on both flanks of the Confederate position, and completely routed it, while Dudley, advancing with his brigade (1) in support of the cavalry, showed that Sheridan was ready to give battle, the Confederate commander became satisfied that Sheridan had sent no troops to Petersburg. Sheridan made all his arrangements to attack Early on the morning of the 13th, but Early did not wait for this, and when the sun rose he was again far on the way to New Market. It was during Dudley's movement that the Nineteenth Corps suffered its last loss in battle, the 29th Maine having one man wounded, by name Barton H. Ross.

When the approach of winter made active operations in the valley impossible, Lee, who had already detached Kershaw, called back to the defence of Richmond and Petersburg the whole of Early's corps, and at the same time, almost to the very day, Grant called on Sheridan for the Sixth Corps. Thus in the second week of December Wright rejoined the Army of the Potomac. Soon afterward Crook's command was divided and detached to Petersburg and West Virginia, leaving only Torbert and Emory with Sheridan in the valley. Early, his force reduced to Wharton and Rosser, went into winter quarters at Staunton, with his outposts at New Market and a signal party on watch at the station on Ma.s.sanutten.

These reductions of force, together with the increasing severity of the winter, made it desirable to occupy a line nearer the base of supplies at Harper's Ferry, and, accordingly, on the 30th of December, after living for six weeks in improvised huts or "shebangs," as they were called, roughly put together of rails, stones, and any other material to be found, the Nineteenth Corps broke up its cantonment before Kernstown, called Camp Russell, and marching over the frozen ground, took up a position to cover the railway and the roads near Stephenson's. Here, at Camp Sheridan, it was intended to build regular huts, but on the last day of the year, when the men were as yet without shelter of any kind, a heavy snow storm set in, during which they suffered severely. As soon as this was over, the men fell to work in earnest, and with lumber from the quartermaster's department and timber from the forest, soon had the whole command comfortably housed.

Meanwhile Currie's brigade, which had been so long detached, engaged in the arduous and thankless duty of guarding the wagon-trains, rejoined Dwight's division. Brigadier-General James D. Fessenden having succeeded Currie in command the 5th of January, 1865, the brigade was again detached to Winchester; McMillan was at Summit Point; and Beal, as well as the headquarters of Dwight and Emory, at Stephenson's.

On the 6th of January Grover's division bade farewell to the Nineteenth Corps, and, embarking upon the cars of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, set out by way of Baltimore for some unknown destination. This presently proved to be Savannah, whither Grover was ordered to hold the ground seized by the armies under Sherman, while Sherman went on his way through the Carolinas. On the 27th of February, Sheridan broke up what remained of his Army of the Shenandoah, and placing himself at the head of his superb column of 10,000 troopers, marched to achieve Grant's longing for Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and Gordonsville, and to rejoin the Army of the Potomac.

Hanc.o.c.k now took command of the Middle Military Division. Of the Army of the Shenandoah there remained only the fragment of the Nineteenth Corps. On the 14th of March the men of Emory's old division pa.s.sed for the last time before their favorite commander. A week later was published to the command the order of the President, dated March 20, 1865, by which the Nineteenth Army Corps was dissolved. Then bidding them a tender and touching farewell, on the 30th of March Emory quitted the cantonment at Stephenson's, and went to c.u.mberland to take command of the Military Department of that name.

In the early days of April the tedium of winter quarters was relieved by the good news of Grant's successes before Petersburg. It was evident that Lee's army was breaking up, and to guard against the possible escape of any fragment of it by the valley highway, on the 4th of April Hanc.o.c.k sent Dwight's division back to Camp Russell, but on the 7th the troops were drawn in to Winchester and encamped on the bank of Abraham's Creek. Here, at midnight on the 9th of April, the whole command turned out to hear the official announcement of Lee's surrender. The next morning, in a drenching rain, Dwight marched eighteen miles to Summit Point. On the 20th of April the division moved by railway to Washington, where it arrived on the morning of the 21st, and with colors shrouded in black for the memory of Lincoln, marched past the President's house and encamped at Tennallytown on the same ground the detachments of the corps had occupied on the night of the 13th of July the year before. Here the duty devolved upon the division of guarding all the ways out of Washington toward the northwest, from Rock Creek to the Potomac, in order to prevent the escape of such of the a.s.sa.s.sins of the President as might still be lurking within the city. This was but a part of the heavy and continuous line of sentries that stretched for thirty-five miles around the capital. A week later Dwight moved to the neighborhood of Bladensburg and encamped on the line the division had been ordered to defend on the afternoon of its arrival from New Orleans. In the first week of May heavy details were furnished to guard the prison on the grounds of the a.r.s.enal where the a.s.sa.s.sins were confined.

The armies of Meade and Sherman were now concentrating on the hills about Washington, preparatory to pa.s.sing in review before President Johnson; and Dwight being ordered to report to Willc.o.x, then commanding the Ninth Army Corps, and to follow that corps on the occasion of the review. Willc.o.x inspected the division on the 12th of May on the parade ground of Fort Bunker Hill.

Sheridan, although he had brought up his cavalry for the great review, had been ordered to take command in the Southwest, and as Grant deemed the matter urgent, because of French and Mexican complications, Sheridan was destined to have no part in the approaching ceremonies, yet he could not resist the chance of once more looking at what was left of the infantry that had followed him in triumph through the Shenandoah. When the men saw him riding at the side of Willc.o.x, mounted once more upon "Rienzi" and wearing the same animated smile that had cheered and encouraged them in the evil hour at Winchester, before the cliffs of Fisher's Hill, and in the gloom of Cedar Creek, they were not to be restrained from violating all the solemn proprieties of the occasion, but broke out into a tumult of cheers.

On the 22d of May, Dwight broke camp near Bladensburg, and, marching to the plain east of the Capitol, near the Congressional Cemetery, went into bivouac with the Ninth Corps. Here the men, after their long and hard field service, gave way to open disgust at hearing the order read on parade requiring them to appear in white gloves at the great review. On Tuesday, the 23d of May, the review took place. The men were up at three, and were inspected at half-past seven, but it was half-past ten before Dwight took up the line of march in the rear of the Ninth Corps, followed by the Fifth.

On the 1st of June, 1865, the breaking up began. The 114th and 116th New York were taken from Beal's brigade, and the 133d from Fessenden's, and ordered to be mustered out of the service of the United States. The 8th Vermont had already gone to the Sixth Corps to join the old Vermont brigade. The rest of Dwight's division embarked on transport steamers, under orders for Savannah, where they landed on the 4th of June. There they found many of their comrades of Grover's division.

To return to Grover. Embarking at Baltimore about the 11th of January, after some detention, the advance of his division landed at Savannah on the 19th of January. The rest of the division gradually followed, and at Savannah the troops remained doing garrison and police duty until about the 4th of March, when Grover was ordered to take transports and join Schofield in North Carolina, in order to open communication with Sherman's army, then advancing once more toward the sea-coast. Wilmington had fallen on the 22d of February. Then Schofield sent a force, under c.o.x, to open the railway from Newbern to Goldsboro, on the south bank of the Neuse. D. H. Hill met and fought him on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, on the south side of the river; but, the Confederates retreating to Goldsboro to oppose Sherman's march, Schofield occupied Kinston on the 14th and Goldsboro on the 21st. In these movements the 3d brigade, formerly Sharpe's, now commanded by Day, took part, while Birge's brigade was posted at Morehead City, and Molineux's at Wilmington.

On the 1st of April, Schofield's force, composed of the Tenth Corps, under Terry, and the Twenty-third Corps, under c.o.x, was reconstructed by Sherman as the centre of his armies, and designated as the Army of the Ohio. The next day the troops of Grover's division, then in North Carolina, were attached to the Tenth Corps, reorganized into three brigades, and designated as the First division; the command being given to Birge, and the brigades being commanded by the three senior colonels, Washburn, Graham, and Day. Some time before this, Shunk's 4th brigade of Grover's division had been broken up and its regiments distributed; the 8th and 18th Indiana to Washburn, the 28th Iowa to Graham, and the 24th Iowa to Day. The 22d Indiana battery formed the artillery of the division. All active operations coming to an end with the final surrender of Johnston on the 26th of April, about the 4th of May the division went back to Savannah. On the 11th of May it marched to Augusta, leaving Day with all his regiments except the 24th Iowa and the 128th New York to take care of Savannah.

Meanwhile, orders being issued by the government for disbanding the regiments whose time was to expire before the 1st of November, and the re-enlisted veterans of Dwight's division beginning to arrive in Savannah on the 5th of June, Birge's brigade came down from Augusta on the 7th and Day marched on the 9th to replace it.

From this time the work of disintegration went on rapidly, yet all too slowly for the impatience of the soldiers, now thinking only of home, and soon sickened by the weary routine of provost duty in the first dull days of peace. What was left of the divisions of Dwight and Grover continued to occupy Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta, and the chief towns of Georgia and South Carolina.

When at last the final separation came, and little by little the old corps fell apart, every man, as with inexpressible yearning he turned his face homeward, bore with him, as the richest heritage of his children and his children's children, the proud consciousness of duty done.

(1) Beal's, of Dwight's division. Dudley, having rejoined November 2d, commanded it till November 14th, when Beal came back and relieved him; again from November 18th to December 7th, when a dispute as to relative and brevet rank was ended by Beal's receiving his commission as a full brigadier-general.

APPENDIX.

ROSTERS.

I.

DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF.

As of March 22, 1862.

First Brigade: Brig.-Gen. John W. Phelps 8th New Hampshire Col. Hawkes Fearing, Jr. 9th Connecticut Col. Thomas W. Cahill 7th Vermont Col. George T. Roberts 8th Vermont Col. Stephen Thomas 12th Connecticut Col. Henry C. Deming 13th Connecticut Col. Henry W. Birge 1st Vermont Battery Capt. George W. Duncan 2d Vermont Battery Capt. Pythagoras E. Holcomb 4th Ma.s.sachusetts Battery Capt. Charles H. Manning (1) Capt. George G. Trull A 2d Battalion Ma.s.sachusetts Cavalry Capt. S. Tyler Read

Second Brigade: Brig.-Gen. Thomas Williams 26th Ma.s.sachusetts Col. Alpha B. Farr 31st Ma.s.sachusetts Col. Oliver P. Gooding 21st Indiana Col. James W. McMillan 6th Michigan Col. Charles Everett 4th Wisconsin Col. Halbert E. Paine 6th Ma.s.sachusetts Battery Capt. Ormand F. Nims 2d Ma.s.sachusetts Battery Capt. Henry A. Durivage (2) Capt. Jonathan E. Cown

Third Brigade: Col. George F. Shepley 12th Maine Lt.-Col. W. K. Kimball 13th Maine Col. Neal Dow Col. Henry Rust, Jr. 14th Maine Col. Frank S. Nickerson 15th Maine Col. John McClusky Col. Isaac Dyer 30th Ma.s.sachusetts Col. N. A. M. Dudley 1st Maine Battery Capt. E. W. Thompson B 2d Battalion Ma.s.sachusetts Cavalry Capt. James M. Magen

(1) Resigned October 20, 1862. (2) Drowned April 23, 1862.

II.

TECHE AND PORT HUDSON.

As of April 30, 1863.

FIRST DIVISION.

Maj.-Gen. Christopher C. Augur First Brigade: Col. Edward P. Chapin 116th New York Lt.-Col. John Higgins 21st Maine (1) Col. Elijah D. Johnson 48th Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Col. Eben F. Stone 49th Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Col. William F. Bartlett

Second Brigade: Brig.-Gen. G.o.dfrey Weitzel 8th Vermont Col. Stephen Thomas 75th New York Col. Robert B. Merritt 160th New York Col. Charles C. Dwight 12th Connecticut Col. Ledyard Colburn Lt.-Col. Frank H. Peck 114th New York Col. Elisha B. Smith

Third Brigade: Col. Nathan A. M. Dudley 30th Ma.s.sachusetts Lt.-Col. William W. Bullock 2d Louisiana Col. Charles J. Paine 50th Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Col. Carlos P. Messer 161st New York Col. Gabriel T. Harrowee 174th New York Col. Theodore W. Parmele

Artillery: 1st Maine Capt. Albert W. Bradbury Lt. John E. Morton 6th Ma.s.sachusetts Capt. William W. Carruth Lt. John F. Phelps A 1st United States Capt. E. C. Bainbridge

SECOND DIVISION.

Brig.-Gen. T. W. Sherman.

First Brigade: Brig.-Gen. Neal Dow 6th Michigan Col. Thomas S. Clark 128th New York Col. David S. Cowles 26th Connecticut (1) Col. Thomas G. Kingsley 15th New Hampshire (1) Col. John W. Kingman

Second Brigade: Col. Alpha B. Farr 26th Ma.s.sachusetts Lt.-Col. Josiah A. Sawtell 9th Connecticut Col. Thomas W. Cahill 47th Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Col. Lucius B. Marsh 42d Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Lt.-Col. Joseph Stedman 28th Maine (1) Col. Ephraim W. Woodman

Third Brigade: Col. Frank S. Nickerson 14th Maine Lt.-Col. Thomas W. Porter 177th New York (1) Col. Ira W. Ainsworth 165th New York Lt.-Col. Abel Smith, Jr. 24th Maine (1) Col. George M. Atwood

Artillery: 18th New York Capt. Albert G. Mack G 5th United States Lt. Jacob B. Rails 1st Vermont Capt. George T. Hebard

THIRD DIVISION.

Brig.-Gen. William H. Emory.

First Brigade: Col. Timothy Ingraham, 38th Ma.s.sachusetts 162d New York Col. Lewis Benedict 110th New York Col. Clinton H. Sage 16th New Hampshire (1) Col. James Pike 4th Ma.s.sachusetts (1) Col. Henry Walker