The Sword and Gun 4

The Sword and Gun 4

And so the 18th of June, a day memorable in the history of battles,

as the anniversary of Waterloo and Bunker Hill, wore to a close, and

as the welcome shades of night drew in around us, fresh troops taking

our place, we fell back to the woods we had left in the morning, with

sadly diminished numbers, thoroughly wearied and exhausted.

 

Our loss in this day's battle, though not so severe as in the charge

of the preceding day was, nevertheless, very heavy in proportion to

the number of men engaged. In company A, Capt. Stevens was mortally,

and 2d Lieut. D. A. Lowber, severely wounded, and company B lost its

2d Lieut. N. S. Davison, shot through the shoulder. Our total loss

in killed and wounded was 103, of which number 20 were killed on the

field or died of wounds, and 83 wounded, making with the casualties

of yesterday, an aggregate of 64 killed and 186 wounded. Total loss

250 out of 400.

 

We remained in the position to which we retired on the night of the

18th June, till the evening of the 20th of the same month, when we

again occupied the front line of works to the right of our previous

position on an eminence known as Hare Hill, so called from the owner

of the plantation on which it is situated, and which was afterwards

chosen as the site for Fort Steadman.

 

We remained here till the morning of the 22d, when we returned to

our old position, on the Norfolk and Petersburg R. R., where we

remained doing picket and fatigue duty, exposed day and night to a

heavy fire of artillery and musketry, till the 10th of July. On the

28th of June, Lieut. David Prutsman, of company D, was killed by

one of the enemy's sharpshooters while sitting at breakfast, in the

trenches, and our losses in all up to this period amounted to 286

rank and file. In addition to this the extreme heat of the weather

and the confinement to which they were subjected in the trenches, had

caused our previously well thinned ranks to be reduced still lower by

sickness. The position of the regiment, all through the hot summer

months was, indeed, anything but enjoyable, lying on the dusty, sandy

ground, exposed to the full power of the sun's rays by day and the

damp chilly dews by night; obliged to remain in a recumbent position,

where to raise a cap above the breastwork was to make it the target

for half a dozen sharpshooters; water, even for drinking purposes,

hard to get and poor at that, so that when on the 10th of July we

were ordered to the rear, it was hailed by all as a respite from

prison.

 

After a week's rest, during which, for fear I suppose that the men

might get lazy for want of work, they were kept busy cutting and

carrying material for abattis, the 37th was, on the 17th July, again

ordered into the trenches, where they remained till the morning of

the 30th of July, the day of the battle of Cemetery Hill, or as it is

generally called the "Mine Fort."

 

This Fort, which was one of the strongest of the enemy's works,

was situated on a hill a little to the right, and in front of our

position, immediately in front of the cemetery at Blandford, one of

the suburbs of Petersburg. A mine had been driven under the direction

of Colonel Pleasant of the 48th Penn. Vol. Inf., from the rear of

the Horse-shoe, where our regiment lay, under this fort, had been

charged and primed, and was to be exploded at daylight on the morning

of the 30th. Immediately on the explosion of the mine, the 9th corps

was to advance on the crater and, taking advantage of the confusion

and consternation excited, endeavor to break and hold the enemy's

line. On eminences to the right and left of Cemetery Hill were forts

which commanded it, and from which a severe enfilading fire could be

directed on the fort itself, and an error in the plan of attack seems

to have been the neglect of having a force ready to attack and, if

possible, capture these works simultaneously with the assault on the

main work, for, had they been captured or their fire silenced, there

is no doubt but that a permanent lodgment would have been effected

in the main line of the defences of Petersburg.

 

From the report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, the blame

of the failure of the whole plan, in consequence of this blunder,

seems to be attributed to General Meade, and it would certainly seem

to be an act of negligence on his part, with the force he had at his

disposal, to leave these important points unmolested.

 

The original arrangement had been to explode the mine at half past

four A. M., and for the assaulting column to advance immediately,

but, owing to a fault in the fuse, it was nearly 6 o'clock before the

explosion took place. At that time a vast column of smoke mingled

with earth, fragments of guns and platforms, logs, sand-bags, gabions

and human beings shot towering into the air to an immense height,

gradually subsiding again and followed immediately by a dull,

smothered roar which shook the ground for miles round, and was said

to have been felt even to City Point. A pause, in which one might

count, perhaps a dozen beats at the wrist, and 85 pieces of heavy

artillery opened almost simultaneously on the rebel lines. The enemy

was not slow in replying, and soon the light artillery and musketry

chimed in, making the noise completely deafening, and the very

ground under our feet to vibrate. From 6 till 12 this hellish uproar

continued unabated at which time it commenced to slacken, till, by

four o'clock, it died away, and, as the last of our troops fell back

from the crater, the battle of July 30th was at an end.

 

On the explosion of the mine, the rebels fled from their works on

each side of it, panic stricken, but, owing to some unaccountable

blunder, this panic was not taken advantage of, as it might, and

should have been, and the word to advance not being given, for some

minutes, time was given the rebels to recover from the consternation

into which the explosion, thoroughly unlooked for by them, had thrown

them.

 

The word was given, at last; the charge was made, and the crater

of the exploded mine occupied by our troops at an inconsiderable

loss. Col. Harriman, assisted by Adjutant C. I. Miltimore and men

from different regiments, succeeded in extricating two of the rebel

guns from the ruins of the fort, and turning them against their late

possessors.

 

The rebels had, by this time, however, recovered from their first

panic, which had led them to hastily and precipitately abandon the

works on each side the fort, and were forming in line of battle for

the purpose of recapturing the ruins of the works, and, to cover the

attack, were pouring in a tremendous enfilading fire from the two

forts on the right and left. Reinforcements were sent into the crater

from time to time, but no orders being given for an attack on either

of the flanking works, the crater had, by this time, become densely

packed with troops, and the explosion having completely leveled the

parapet, they were left almost entirely without protection, and the

whole place soon become a perfect slaughter house. The position was

held, however, till about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when, the

rebels having advanced near enough to plant their colors on the

outside of the works, and our men being unable to accomplish anything

or to hold the works without immense loss of life, orders were given

for them to fall back to our main line, which was accordingly done.

 

In this engagement, out of two hundred and fifty men who went into

action in the morning, only 95 remained to answer their names at

roll-call that evening. Capt. A. A. Burnett, of company K, received

a wound in the head, from the effects of which he died on the 18th

of August; Capt. Frank A. Cole, received a severe wound in the hip,

which necessitated an operation which proved fatal; Lieuts. Atwell,

G; L. U. Beal, E, and George D. McDill, K, also received wounds which

incapacitated them from further service, and Lieuts. Munger, D, and

Holmes, G, were taken prisoners.

 

On the evening of the battle, the regiment was relieved from the

front line and allowed to withdraw to the rear, where it remained,

doing fatigue duty, till the 19th of August.

 

On the night of the 19th, the whole regiment was sent out on fatigue,

the work in which they were engaged being the erection of a large

fort, afterwards named Fort Schenckl, on the Jerusalem Plankroad.

 

On returning to camp at daylight, next morning, orders were found

awaiting us, "to strike tents and get ready to march at once." This

was no very welcome order for men who had been hard at work all

night, part of the time exposed to a rather brisk artillery fire;

but there was no help for it, the rest of the brigade had already

started, and so after a hasty cup of coffee and a half hour's nap we

started out to overtake the command. After a long and tedious march

through rain and mud, made at a rapid rate, we caught up with the

remainder of the brigade, which had moved out before daylight, near

the Yellow Tavern, and after a short rest were ordered into action to

repel an attack of the enemy on our front line. The rebels fell back

as we advanced, being driven by us through the woods, till, gaining

an open place and receiving reinforcements, they once more made a

stand, and the 37th was ordered to take up a new position further to

the left, which they did, and held the same till dark, having lost

ten killed and wounded during the battle. During the night of the

19th and throughout the whole of the 20th, the regiment was moved,

from point to point, as the enemy massed his troops in different

positions, in attempting to regain possession of the Weldon road.

 

At an early hour on the 21st of August, the regiment was set to work

building a line of entrenchments across the Weldon railroad, facing

towards the rear of our main line of works. The works were hardly

completed before a determined and combined attack was made by the

enemy on three different points, simultaneously, for the purpose

of regaining possession of the railroad. The 37th was ordered up

to support the 19th New York battery, which was in position on the

extreme left of our line, and which was suffering severely from the

effects of a rapid and well directed fire which was being directed

against them from a rebel battery in their rear and to the left. In

performing this duty the 37th suffered severely, losing 10 killed

and 25 wounded, but succeeding in finally compelling the enemy to

withdraw his guns.

 

Till the 25th the men wore kept hard at work doing picket and guard

duty, and building breastworks and fortifications commanding the

Weldon railroad and its approaches. On that day, however, we were

once more ordered to march, our destination being Reams' Station,

where the 2d Corps was engaged and in need of support. On approaching

the scene of action we soon found strong presumptive evidence of the

truth of this position, the road, for several miles, being thickly

lined with stragglers wearing the clover leaf, the distinguishing

badge of the 2d Corps, and showing that an active retrograde move was

in progression. A part of our brigade was kept to do provost guard

duty and stop and re-assemble the stragglers as best they might,

while the rest, including the 37th, pushed on and covered the retreat

of the 2d Corps, holding the enemy in check till dark, when we fell

back within our lines and slept on our arms that night.