Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 : a diary covering three years and a day

Dedication

To my own family, to my Comrades in the Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry now surviving, to the memory of the dead, and to the families of all, I most heartily dedicate the historical pages of this book.

S. Millett Thompson-.

Providence, Rhode Island, .

Preface

Ix this book the Thirteenth Regiment is treated of as a unit. All personal items, whether concerning myself or any other member of the Regiment, are entered to do an act of justice, to relate an occurrence either of a limited or a general interest, or to fix a date or fact. Eulogies, obituaries, and the making any one person prominent to the disparagement or exclusion of others, have been carefully avoided. Repetitions and duplication of statements have been entered only to make the narrative more clear, or as matters of corroboration ; the book, running between a narrative and a diary, must needs be complete with each day, and still maintain the form of a narrative.

I have nothing to say against the collective body of the regular volunteer officers and soldiers of the Southern army as such ; though frequently carried out of the right by the external pressure of their own section, they were infinitely better than the order of things which they represented ; they were the very best men the South possessed, and I cannot, and would not if I could, detract from or wipe out their bravery, courage and honor.

Adhering to plain facts, I have endeavored to reproduce, as nearly as may be, the affairs, sentiments and spirit of the times of the war ; for the spirit of a day, a time or an age is the very soul of its history, without which a string of bald facts is a bit of mere book-keeping.

It is desired that the reader of this book shall gain some idea of what it cost, in labor, fighting and suffering, to re-unite the dissevered States of the American Union ; for every regiment in the Northern army had experiences similar to those of the Thirteenth, and many of them suffered more severely and lost more heavily, — and to gain that idea in some measure multiply this Thirteenth Regiment's work and sacrifices by 2,050, the number, equivalently, of regiments in the Northern army engaged in that war.

vi PREFACE.

Slang phrases, and a sort of camp language, were used in the army immensely ; they are not classic, but when a happy phrase, or a slang phrase of a reasonable character, condenses a page into a line and conveys its meaning clear, that phrase should be written until it becomes classic — grammarian dignity is the stage-coach, terse phrase the lightning express. Still, we hold all marred language under protest.

In making the sketches and tracing the maps, the chief aim has been not to be artistic, but by outlines to enable any person, with this book in hand, to find the exact spots where the Thirteenth camped or fought ; and nearly all the plats and maps look the way the Thirteenth faced or moved. Both sketches and tracings I made with my pen, and they are reproduced here by photogravure process. The official maps used were those of Brevet Brig. Gen. N. Michler.

No statements have been drawn from cheap newspaper accounts, popular yarns or realms dimesque. The negro is represented without prejudice or favor, and as I saw him ; and the broad things said of him, or by him, have been entered merely to show what he was. Swearing enough was done in the army to last any reasonable people until the millennium, and I have seen no need of repeating it here. The ideas and opinions ventured are such as I have entertained for many years, some during the war, and have seen no reason to change.

It was thought best to use the word battle for all engagements inscribed upon the flag. Names are attached to quotations by courtesy, to show whence the statements came. Col. Stevens was applied to for historical data the same as all the other officers of the Regiment and large numbers of the men, but he furnished nothing for this book.

The war was no holiday excursion, and but for the soldiers' fun the army had gone half mad ; the few jokes in this book have been put in as a common property ; the Thirteenth, as well as the army as a whole, laughed far more than it wept, and will remember its enjoyments far beyond the fading of its woes ; but to reproduce the sports of the soldiers, to describe their merry-making and fun, to relate their yarns and stories, to write their laughable anecdotes and jokes with any reasonable degree of clearness and justice, were impossible for any man, and I will not presume to make the attempt, and have carefully avoided all attempts at being funny.

My interest in the war and its results was increased by the fact that when a boy, twelve to fifteen years of age, I had served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad ; that is. guiding numerous escaped slaves through New Hampshire woods toward Canada.

PREFACE. vii

While temporarily engaged in business in the West in 1877-9, I employed a number of evenings in writing for my family such reminiscences of my army life as came to mind. Upon informing Asst. Surgeon Sullivan of this in 1880, he first of all suggested to me the idea of writing this book, and urged me to do it. I hesitated for a while, but finally undertook the work — not because of any ability of mine to do the subject full justice, but simply because no one else arose to do a much needed work — the meagre early accounts of her Regiments reflecting too small a measure of credit upon our State. Though entering upon the work with hesitancy, I believed it to be the sheerest folly for history to wither upon the stem of any man s modesty — such stems are too dry and dead : modesty was not instituted to choke facts into oblivion, excepting such facts as are most shameful and unfit to print.

The most of this book has been written offhand. I am not a professional writer ; ami whether able or otherwise, after examining the many letters, diaries and papers required in the work, after reading every reliable publication that I could obtain bearing upon the particular service in which the Thirteenth took a part, after visiting the fields and camps in Virginia twice for data and measurements, after making all the tracings and sketches, after the necessary correspondence and the arranging and writing of all, and attending to my private business at the same time, I have had no spare time in which to smooth sentences or polish paragraphs, — this book must be taken, as it were, in fatigue dress, there is no attempt at dress-parade about it, and the plain facts must stand as they are in their plain words.

In the compilation of d;ita for this history I have drawn my information from the following sources: Official papers and statements furnished by, and diaries and letters written during the war by, Lt. Col. George Bowers ; Lt. Col. William Grantman ; Lt. Col. Normand Smith (letters) ; Maj. Nathan D. Stoodley (diary and letters) ; Capt. Charles O. Bradley ; Capt. George N. Julian (letters) ; Capt. Charles H. Curtis ; Capt. M. T. Betton ; Capt. Buel C. Carter ; Capt. James M. Durell (official papers) ; Capt. William J. Ladd ; Capt. Rufus P Staniels (diaries) ; Quarter-master Mortier L. Morrison ; Asst. Surgeon John Sullivan ; Lieut. W. H. H. Young ; Hospital Steward and Lieut. Royal B. Prescott (diaries and letters) ; Lieut. S. Millett Thompson (diary and letters) ; Lieut. Henry Churchill ; Adjt. Nathan B. Boutwell ; Adjt. George H. Taggard (diary) ; Sergt. Major James M. Hodgdon (diary) ; Musicians: James M. Caswell; Charles W.Washburn (letters). Sergeants: W. G. Burnham ; Charles W. Batchellor (letters) ; Thomas S. Wentworth. Privates : Cyrus G. Drew (diary) ; Albion J. Jenness (letters) ; Horace W. Waldron ; Henry S. Paul ; William B. Luey (diary) , and others both officers and men whose names are mentioned in the text. Above diaries and letters were written at the front.

Besides the above, the following named sources of information among others were consulted :

via PREFACE.

Gen. A. A. Humphreys' Virginia Cam- Tenny's Civil War.

paign of 1864 and l!SGo. Military and Civil History of Connecticut.

Capt. Frederick Phisterer's Statistical Capt. James A. Sanborn's MS Hist. 10th

Record. N. H. Regiment.

New Hampshire in the Rebellion. Pollard's Lost Cause.

Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps. Greeley s American Conflict.

C. C. Coffin's — ' Carleton's ' — writings. Lossing's Civil War.

Adjt. Generals' Reports of all the New Moore's Rebellion Record.

England States, New York and New N. H. Adjt. General's Reports.

Jersey. A bound volume of New Hampshire

Official papers, letters and rolls in State Newspapers sent by A. S. Batchellor,

House, Concord. Esq., of Littleton.

Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant's Memoirs. Muster out Rolls of the Thirteenth.

The manuscript, excepting the addition made after the Reunion of 1887, was read before publication by Major Nathan D. Stoodley, Asst. Surgeon Sullivan, Lieut. Royal B. Prescott and Sergeant James M. Woods of the Publication Committee, who were privileged by the writer to correct, amend, add to, or cut from, the text as in their judgment was in the interest of the history. The Thirteenth and the writer are greatly indebted to these gentlemen for their unwearied efforts, painstaking care, and unswerving, hearty fidelity to the best interests of this history, its subject and its writer. We have worked together as one, in the spirit of the belief that the noble acts of each member of the Regiment are the joint property and heritage of all, — nevertheless the writer assumes all responsibilities, and takes to himself all blame that may attach for any inadvertences occurring in the book.

Previous to the committee's examination the writer had revised the manuscript in consultation with Major Stoodley, Lt. Col. Grantman and Lt. Col. Smith, — the purpose being to furnish so far as possible an absolute record to stand as an authority.

S. MILLETT THOMPSON.

Contents

Authorities fob the Work Preface

I. Page

Call for Troops 1

Camp Colby, at Concord N. H 2

March to the Seat of War . 9

Camp Chase, at Arlington Heights 11

Camp Casey, at Fairfax Seminary ....... 20

March through Maryland to Fredericksburg .... 27

SEPTEMBER 2S, 1864, TO FEBRUARY 28, 1865.

Battle of Fair Oaks 499

Winter Camp near Fort Harrison 508

Company C in Redoubt McConihe 527

CONTENTS. xi

X. March 1, To April 12, 1865

Last Campaign 537

Roster of Gen. Devens' 3d Division, 24th Corps .... 549

First Flag hoisted in Richmond 559

Thirteenth the First Regiment in 563

XL

Close of the War — Peace 589

Assasination of President Lincoln 589

Scenes in Boston, April 3-16, 1865 590

Welcoming the Homing Army Corps 595

Thirteenth mustered out and starts for Home .... 606

Personal Xotes 612

Rand of the Thirteenth 625