MILITARY: One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Second Regiment, Bucktail Brigade, Chapter 24 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB & JP Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm Table of contents for the book with graphics, may be found at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/military/cw/150-bucktails/150-bucktails.htm ________________________________________________ HISTORY OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS, SECOND REGIMENT, BUCKTAIL BRIGADE. BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL THOMAS CHAMBERLIN, HISTORIAN OF THE SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION. REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, WITH COMPLETE ROSTER. PHILADELPHIA: F. McMANUS, JR. & CO., PRINTERS, 1905. CHAPTER XXIV. FORT DUSHANE - FIRST MOVEMENT ON HATCHER'S RUN. 278 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH THE new line of breastworks, begun on the evening of August 21st, extended across the railroad and formed the extreme Union left. On the 22d ground was broken on the "Old Stage Road" for a large defensive work, called "Fort Dushane", in honor of Colonel Dushane, commander of the Maryland brigade, who was killed on the 21st. Here the regiment remained for several weeks, working upon the fort until it was completed, performing the usual picket duty, and getting under arms now and then to resist some apprehended attack. On the afternoon of September 1st a reconnoitring party of rebels drove in the pickets in front of the brigade, and an attempt at flanking was suspected; but a rattling fire of musketry soon compelled them to show a clean pair of heels. Prior to this, Colonel Tilton, who as commander of the brigade was not persona grata, had been replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Allen, of a Massachusetts regiment, whose conduct on this occasion reconciled the men to the appointment of a stranger to handle them temporarily. Water was a scarce article at this time, and, much of that which was used for cooking purposes having to be brought quite a distance, the men of the 150th dug a well near the fort on the 3d of September, obtaining a plentiful supply. About the 12th a plan for the consolidation of the troops of the old First Corps was carried into effect, and all were put into the Third division, Fifth Corps, under the command of General S. Wylie Crawford. The 150th became a part of the First brigade (General Bragg's), which then consisted of nine regi- PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 279 ments - viz., 121st, 142d, 143d, 149th and 150th Pennsylvania, 2d, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, and 24th Michigan. The 121st and 142d Pennsylvania were a few days later withdrawn and added to General Hoffman's command. On the evening of the 12th, after a hard day's work preparing and placing abatis in front of Fort Dushane, the brigade was ordered out of the fort and marched to the rear of corps headquarters, where it bivouacked for the night. On the following morning the entire division paraded to witness the bestowal of medals of honor, by General Meade, upon several enlisted men of the Fourth division who had distinguished themselves by gallant conduct in the action of August 21st. It was an imposing scene, the interest in which was heightened by appropriate addresses by Generals Meade and Warren. After the ceremony was over the 150th moved back into the woods t0 the right and rear of Yellow House, General Warren's headquarters, where it established camp, and with Cooper's old battery constituted a sort of special reserve. Being "on the reserve" was by no means the "soft snap" which many might figure it, and if the men could have had their choice, no doubt all of them would have preferred to remain at the front in the works. As it was, they knew no rest, but were called into line times without number, in response to alarms which frequently proved groundless. Elvidge records in his diary, contemptuously, "For the least bit of a row we have to be in readiness". In some cases, however, the call was genuine, and the regiment was hurried away to the relief of expeditions in distress. "Once", says Adjutant Wright, "we were sent to get Baxter in from a difficulty, when we were under a sharp skirmish fire for some time; and on another occasion, at a time when Potter's division of the Ninth Corps was being worsted, we were despatched quite a distance beyond the railroad, together with the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, dismounted, when we took a small earthwork, and came very near 280 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH being captured on our return by Bragg's not getting on the right road to bring us in". On the 22d, Crawford's division was reviewed by General Warren, and Bragg's brigade was selected to drill in front of the division, in the presence of the corps commander; who highly complimented General Bragg on the appearance and efficiency of the 150th. On this occasion the regiment aired its white gloves, which probably had something to do with the flattering comments passed upon it. From the 28th of September to the 1st of October new dispositions were made of the Army of the Potomac, to mask or assist a movement of the Eighteenth and Tenth Corps against the rebel works on the north side of the James River. The Fifth and Ninth Corps were moved farther to the left, leaving a comparatively small force to hold the line of fortifications, and everything was done to convey the impression that a serious effort would be made to gain possession of the South Side Railroad. This, indeed, was to be attempted, if the conditions proved favorable. On the 30th, Griffin's and Ayres's divisions carried the intrenchments and redoubt on the Peebles farm, capturing several guns and some prisoners. The 150th, while sharing in the movement to the left, had no part in this particular action. On the 1st of October it was deployed as skirmishers, and, advancing about half a mile, came within range of the enemy's fire and established a picket line. The result of the several days' operations was that the Union lines were extended considerably westward and brought closer to the objective point - the South Side Railroad - besides greatly reducing the area controlled by the forces defending Petersburg. On the 4th of October, Private Robert J. Edmonds, of Company I, rejoined the regiment. He was wounded so severely in the left foot on the first day of July, 1863, at Gettysburg. that it was doubtful whether he would ever be fit for service PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 281 again; and he returned to the front against the protests of the hospital surgeons, who wanted to assign him to the Invalid Corps. When he received his wound he continued firing until he fell exhausted from loss of blood, and was soon after made a prisoner, but was released July 4th, when our troops reoccupied the town. On the 3d and 4th, Bragg's brigade was busily engaged in throwing up an earthwork to hold thirteen guns, the name of which - if it was ever christened - is forgotten. On the 6th the 150th received a new stand of colors, the old flag having been too much exhausted by storm and battle to hold together longer. Its retirement was the subject of much regret in the regiment. The picket line of the brigade was advanced over a mile on the 8th, occasioning some severe skirmishing, in which a line 0f rebel pits was taken. The Pennsylvania State election took place on the i ith of October, and on the same day the polls were opened in the various regiments from that State. In the 150th the vote stood ninety-three Republican to twenty Democratic, including commissioned officers and detached men. The mean strength of the regiment on the 1st of October was one hundred and thirty-three. No statements for the 8th and 15th are at hand, but on the 22d the number had increased to two hundred and twenty-seven, owing to the return of convalescents and absentees on furlough. On the 18th, Elvidge entered in his diary, "Detailed for picket. After dark we got to 'hollering' between the lines, the Johnnies hurrahing for McClellan, Bob Lee and Beauregard, and we for Lincoln, Butler, etc. One Johnny hurrahed for h--l. It was kept up backward and forward for about two hours". On the 26th came marching orders, with instructions to carry four days' rations, which was quickly interpreted to mean 282 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH a determined effort to reach and hold, or destroy, the South Side Railroad. The Second, Fifth and Ninth Corps were to act in concert in the movement, leaving in the works only a sufficient force to defend them. At dawn of the 27th, Craw-ford's division began its march, leaving Baxter's brigade to occupy the defences. The morning was dark and rainy, and the progress of the troops through the woods, which covered a large portion of the country, was necessarily slow. The Ninth Corps was to carry some intrenchments near Hatcher's Run, or occupy the force defending them, while Warren's (Fifth) corps, advancing to Armstrong's Mill, was to support the Ninth in the event of its success, pushing forward on its left; or, if Parke's attack failed, General Warren was to cross Hatcher's Run, and, in conjunction with Hancock, endeavor to turn the enemy's right. It is unnecessary to rehearse all the details of the two days' operations, which were without important results, owing partly to the unfavorable weather, but chiefly to an insufficient knowledge of the topography of the country and a miscalculation of the obstacles to be surmounted and the distances to be traversed. Hancock's corps had some very severe fighting, with varying success, and Gregg's cavalry was closely engaged with Hampton's command, holding its own tenaciously and beating back every attack. Crawford's division, which was sent across Hatcher's Run, with instructions to deploy and sweep up the stream, with its right touching the run, until it , should connect with Hancock, encountered unexpected difficulties, and, owing to the dense woods and the too great distance of Hancock's position to the left, the junction was not effected. Adjutant Wright says of the part taken by the 150th in this movement, "We started on the Hatcher's Run affair at four o'clock on the morning of October 27th, and, deploying at ten o'clock, advanced with instructions to go to Hatcher's Run, but not to cross it. We soon found the rebels, but not enough to PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 283 stop our progress, and had advanced about two miles when Lieutenant Mead, of the division staff, halted us and drew the right of our line back to bring it on the north side of a small stream which we had crossed with that part of the line, saying it was Hatcher's Run. Shortly afterwards Lieutenant Herr, also of division staff, arrived and seemed surprised that we had halted, and, when informed that it was Mead's order, seemed amazed that he should have 'taken a little Spring ditch for Hatcher's Run'. Soon after starting again we encountered the first real hard opposition we had, and for some time were under quite a heavy fire, the rebels being, as usual, in a dense thicket. We finally got them on the go, and had no more trouble - except at one or two points of the line - in reaching Hatcher's Run, where we remained quite a long time, - I should think fully an hour, - waiting for the troops to come up. Artillery was parked in plain view of us on the other side, with horses picketed. The tobacco wagons were issuing tobacco to the 'rebs', and they seemed to have no knowledge of our being so close. The pickets that we drove off must have returned to their line very much to our right. It was then that Major Jones sent me to the rear to inform our brigade where we were, and to bring up the troops. Sergeant-Major Topping was captured before this, along with Sergeant E. L. Dickinson, of Company B, off to our left. As I was taken in the attempt to get to our troops, it ended my knowledge of what occurred afterwards". Some time before reaching the stream, and while the rebel pickets were still making a show of resistance, Major Jones instructed Sergeant-Major Topping to go to the extreme left of the line to see how it was getting on. He hurried away on his mission, and just as he reached the outside flankers, consisting of Sergeant Dickinson and two others, the main skirmish line swung around rapidly to the right, - an evolution in which the flankers were unable to join promptly on account of 284 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH an ugly morass in their front. Almost before he had time to take in the situation the sergeant-major was approached by a man of imposing size, wearing a regulation blue overcoat, and looking exactly like a Union cavalryman, who asked him a question or two in regard to the line as he moved forward, and then, suddenly whipping out a revolver from beneath his overcoat, thrust it in his face and with an oath demanded his surrender. At the same moment he became aware of the presence of half a dozen rebels, a little to the left and rear, all covering him with their guns, making any idea of resistance hopeless. One of the flankers, who subsequently escaped around the swampy thicket, fired at the man with the pistol, but failed to hit him. The sergeant-major and Sergeant Dickinson had nothing to do but surrender, and were soon on their way to test prison life at Richmond and Danville. Major Jones, with his skirmishers, having outstripped the line of battle, when (in Wright's homely phrase) he had got the rebels "on the go", and finding himself still unsupported after he had waited more than an hour at the run, began to surmise that something had gone amiss, and deemed it advisable to communicate with the brigade commander. He accordingly sent Adjutant Wright back on this errand, with the result already stated. Owing to the wide gap on Hancock's right, the enemy had occupied the woods some distance in Jones's rear, placing the little regiment in a most unenviable situation, although it was oblivious of the new danger. As he had no order to withdraw, and night was falling, the major concluded to make the best of it and remain where he was. The men were cautioned to maintain their line, exercise increased vigilance, and abstain from firing unless attacked. Meanwhile, Crawford's command, finding itself confronted by large bodies of rebels who had broken through Hancock's lines or skirted his right flank, and in danger of being surrounded, had withdrawn across the run and taken up a new PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 285 position. Either from ignorance of Major Jones's location or because in the excitement of the moment the matter was overlooked, no instructions whatever were sent to that officer. Indeed, it was not known either at brigade or division headquarters whether the major and his Bucktails - when their absence was finally remarked - had not been "gobbled up" bodily by the enemy, and much anxiety was felt for their safety. The night, like the day, was wet and gloomy, and the regiment rarely passed more uncomfortable hours. At dawn Sergeant Jonathan Hall, of Company B, returned to the line, having safely made his way to brigade headquarters and back. He was soon followed by Captain Davis, of the brigade staff, and some 150th men who had been on detached duty the previous day, or from one cause or another had dropped back from the front to the line of battle, and under their instructions Major Jones began the perilous work of withdrawing. It was no easy matter to retire in the presence of a watchful enemy, and the movement had hardly been undertaken before it was discovered and bullets began to fly. Breaking some distance to the rear, and filing to the right, the command crossed the run on a fallen log, not without the disabling of several men. Sergeant William F. Harpst, of Company C, lost his footing on the log and was thoroughly soused in the cold stream, but escaped without further injury. Piloted by the searching party, the little regiment was not long in rejoining the brigade, where it was welcomed with cheer upon cheer, having been given up as captured. Elvidge's record of the Hatcher's Run movement reads, "October 27. - Marched at daylight. One brigade of each division left behind. Moved out towards the South Side Railroad about ten miles. Here we came up with the Second and .Ninth Corps. Our regiment, as usual, deployed as skirmishers and moved forward about half a mile, then wheeled to the left and on again for about a mile and a half. A division staff- 286 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH officer took Captain Sigler, myself and Bill Williams out to hunt the lines. Found nothing but Johnnies in front, and, returning, he (the staff-officer) lost us all in the woods. After hunting around a couple of hours, found the brigade about dark. The Johnnies broke through the Second Corps and got in our rear. They brought all their prisoners and wounded into our lines by mistake. One party took two division orderlies and a staff-officer within about twenty yards of our line of battle. About half-past one o'clock General Crawford undertook to take our brigade out, as we were almost surrounded. Lost the way and ran into A. P. Hill's line of battle, but finally came out all right. The regiment lay on the line all night, with the Johnnies fighting them on one side and the 155th and 91st Pennsylvania on the other (?). "October 28. - This morning advanced the eighteen (150th men) left here, and found out where the regiment was, and succeeded in getting it in. Adjutant (Wright), sergeant-major (Topping), and 'Dixey' captured; other losses unknown. Commenced moving back about nine o'clock, and were all back inside of our works by four in the afternoon. What the move was intended for is more than I can say." In a letter to his mother, dated October 29th, 1864, Lieutenant Harvey Fisher, of Company A, says, "We started from here on the morning of the 27th, at four o'clock, and reached our old camp again last evening about six o'clock. We did not fight in line of battle, but had a very hot skirmish for about twenty-four hours, during which we lost in the regiment fourteen men wounded and two prisoners; also one officer, our adjutant, was taken prisoner. I am now acting in his place". Of the wounded at Hatcher's Run, Private Patrick Gibbons, of Company E, died of his injuries on the 5th of January following. Private Simon Erdley, of Company D, lost his right arm. Sergeant Edward B. Fowler, of F, who was slightly PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 287 wounded on the 27th, was appointed acting sergeant-major vice Topping, captured. Adjutant Wright tells the story of his own capture as follows: "On our way up we passed over a large swamp full of tussocks, and between these, in places, deep water. In returning (to look for the brigade) I crossed the same swamp, and was very careful not to make a misstep. Going on in this way, with my eyes directed to the ground, and having to jump from one grassy tuft to another, my progress became quite rapid. On reaching the end of the swamp I was on a pretty good run and well-nigh out of breath. The first thing I saw, on looking up, was two rebel soldiers looking away from me, and the next a large pine-tree, three or four feet across, just to my right. It took only an instant to jump behind the tree, where I caught my breath and considered what I should do. I had no revolver, and could not draw my sword, thanks to Lieutenant Funk, who, in riding over us one night at Laurel Hill, set his horse's feet on it and mashed the scabbard so tight to the blade that it required assistance to get the latter out. To run back over the swamp, which was at least four hundred yards wide, was too risky, and I did not know what to do; but finally thought I had better try to see if the rebels were still looking (or going) the other way. Peeping out from behind the tree, I was surprised to find them both expecting me, with muskets to the shoulder, cocked, and demanding, 'Surrender, sir!' This I had fo do, except to deliver my sword, which they did not ask me for. I used considerable argument to induce them to put down their guns, but only succeeded in getting one of them to do so. I was sure they would take me right into our regiment, as on asking them where their lines were they pointed in the exact direction from which I had come. They had been on picket duty there, or near there, and knew a path around the swamp. They marched me off, one in front of me with his gun at a trail, but the other kept his gun cocked and at a ready. 288 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH We soon struck a road leading to Hatcher's Run, and which crossed it but a short distance to the left of our regiment. On this road we met Colonel Peyton, of General Lee's staff, to whom both of my captors appealed to be allowed to take me to the rear, telling him how many prisoners they had already taken that day, while, in fact, they were stragglers from a North Carolina regiment which had gone to the left, where Hancock was having a hard fight. Colonel Peyton at once asked for my sword, and questioned me, trying to make me out a spy. He could not understand how I could be there and belong to the Fifth Corps ....He left me in charge of the two 'rebs' who caught me, and rode off to see if he could find anything of our regiment. He went directly to its rear, not very far from the line, and rode the full length of it. He was mounted on as pretty a bay horse as I ever saw, and was handsomely uniformed in gray, buttoned up to the neck, the buttons nearly as large as blacking-boxes. I expected him to be shot, every instant; but no doubt our men were so intently viewing the park of artillery, the tobacco train (it was 'Tobacco Day' with the 'rebs'), and the troops marching to the left on the other side of the run, that they did not look to the rear at all. On his return, Colonel Peyton turned me over to Sergeant Pollard, of Lee's headquarters guard, who was coming in from Hancock's fight with a squad of prisoners, and 'fired' the poor devils who had taken me out to the front". The adjutant gives many interesting details of the march to Petersburg, where he met Sergeant Dickinson, and of the journey to Richmond, where he was safely housed in "Libby, the palace of all rebel prisons". Thence, after a week's sojourn, he was taken to Danville, Virginia, at which point he rested until the middle of February, 1865. He was then fortunate enough to be returned to Libby, paroled and sent north, arriving at Annapolis about the 22d of the same month.