The Sword and Gun 5

The Sword and Gun 5

On the 27th a new line of works was constructed and a new camp formed

near Blick Station, where the time was passed till the 24th of

September in guard and picket duty. On the 29th the regiment moved to

the neighborhood of the Yellow Tavern, where Colonel Harriman assumed

command of the brigade, now 1st Brig. 1st Div. 9th A. C., and Major

Kershaw, who had partially recovered from the effects of the wounds

he received on the 17th of June, and had rejoined the regiment,

took command of the same. The brigade marched to the neighborhood

of Poplar Grove Church where it was formed as reserve to the second

brigade, which was about to assault the enemy's works defending the

South Side Railroad and which were distant about a mile and a half.

 

In the charge, the 2d brigade was repulsed and, retiring in disorder,

threw part of the 1st brigade into confusion; a battery also which

had been sent up to check the advance of the enemy, retreated

rapidly to the rear, as the enemy advanced from out of the wood,

thus materially adding to the confusion. The 37th fell back to where

the temporary shelter of a fence enabled them to reform their line

of battle, and by a heavy and well sustained fire, repulsed several

attacks of the enemy, and held the position till reinforcements

arrived and the imminent defeat was thus rendered a victory. The

same night the regiment went into camp on the Pegram farm where they

constructed a heavy line of works strongly protected by forts and a

line of abattis. The losses of the regiment in this successive series

of battles amounted in all to 25 killed and 75 wounded, and gained

it a reputation which it has maintained untarnished to the end. We

remained in camp on the Pegram farm and in that vicinity, occupied in

picket and fatigue duty till the 28th of October, when we took part

in the reconnaissance in force made in the direction of Thatcher's

Run. Our loss in this affair was very trifling, only two men being

wounded, one very slightly. We advanced about three miles, meeting

little or no opposition, and having entrenched and remained one night

in the immediate presence of the enemy, we fell back to our former

position on the morning of the 29th. During this movement Adjt. C. T.

Miltimore was wounded whilst on the picket line.

 

In the latter part of November, the 9th corps was moved from the

extreme left to the extreme right of the Army of the Potomac, its

left resting on the Weldon R. R. and its right on the Appomattox;

this brought the 1st Brigade back to their old station in front

of the Mine or Crater Fort, with the 37th Wis. and 109th N. Y. in

reserve in the woods, in the rear of the main line.

 

Our time here was fully occupied in building houses for the winter,

standing picket, doing guard and fatigue duty more or less exposed to

the enemy's fire, day and night.

 

On the 8th of December the 37th, in company with the 109th N. Y.

were ordered to move to the rear and report to Brevet Col. Robinson,

commanding Provisional Brigade. We moved out soon after dark on a

bitter cold night, a cutting north-east wind sweeping over the bare

surface of the country with a chill that went to the marrow. All that

night and the next day and night, when a mingled storm of rain and

snow set in, as if to cap the climax and add what little was wanting,

of making our situation as uncomfortable as possible, we remained on

a bare open common, without any tents, a good many without blankets,

and with nothing at hand with which to build a fire.

 

The Sanitary Commission, with its well-known generosity, sent down a

pair of woolen mittens and a cup of hot milk punch for each man in

the brigade, on the evening of the second day, which added materially

to our comfort and rendered our situation somewhat more endurable.

 

At length, at about 3 o'clock of the afternoon of the third day, the

orders came to march. It was drawing towards the close of a dull, raw

winter's day as our men, stiff and cold with exposure and want of

rest, started wearily off down the Jerusalem Plank Road. The road was

almost knee deep in half frozen mud and sleet, the broken planks lay

round in every direction, and as we blundered on through the darkness

that, accompanied by a drizzling rain, soon fell on us, many "a curse

not loud but deep" was vented on Virginia, her roads and her rebels.

Once, and once only did we rest that night, and daylight, or as much

of it as could struggle through a dull, leaden looking sky, found us

at the end of our march, at Hawkin's Tavern, on the Nottoway River,

the scene of the defeat of Kautz and Wilson in their raid during the

summer of '63. And here, for the first time, we learned the nature

and object of our expedition.

 

The second and fifth corps had started off on a raid along the line

of the Weldon R. R. which they had struck at Jarrett's Station, and

had torn up and destroyed the track from that point to the North

Carolina line, burning the bridge over the Meherrin River, and

pushing on, almost to Weldon. Our mission was to reinforce them and

protect their rear, on the homeward march, if the disposition of the

enemy's force should seem to menace their safety, and we were ordered

to wait at Hawkin's till their rear had passed.

 

About 3 o'clock the Second Corps passed through our camp and

immediately afterwards the Provisional Brigade was put in motion

and followed them at a rapid rate. About two miles from Hawkin's we

passed through the midst of the 2d corps, camped on each side the

road, but no orders were given us to halt and our command was pushed

on, without a halt and without a rest, until the thirty miles between

us and camp were accomplished. This was the severest marching we

ever undertook, the distance being accomplished in about seven hours

by men in heavy marching order, carrying sixty rounds ammunition

and four days rations, besides their knapsacks and accoutrements,

and chilled and stiffened by exposure to three days and nights very

inclement weather. On our return, in retaliation for the murder of

two of its number by citizens of Sussex county, the 2d corps fired

every house and building along the line of march, from the Nottoway

river to our rear line of works, in front of Petersburg, drove off

large numbers of oxen, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, &c., and brought

in with them a large number of negroes.

 

After our return to the inside of our lines in front of Petersburg,

we remained for two days in a temporary camp, in rear of the Jones

House, after which we returned to our old camp on the Baxter Road,

where we remained in winter quarters till the opening of the campaign

of '65.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III.

 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1865.

 

 

Never, since the first gun was fired at Sumter, had the prospects of

the Union cause appeared to be so nearly approximating a triumphant

result, as at the commencement of the year 1865. While the rebels

were daily, and almost hourly, losing all hope and confidence of

success, while, one after another, their avenues of supplies and

munitions of war were being closed to them, while their men, losing

all faith in the promises of their leaders, were deserting daily

by hundreds, and while their legislative assemblies were becoming

disorderly, and disorganized meetings where personal abuse and mutual

recriminations had long since taken the place of orderly and proper

debate,--even the most faint-hearted of those who had the interests

of the nation at heart, had begun to take courage, and to see the

dawn of a brighter day at length approaching. Sherman had made his

triumphant "march to the sea;" Fort Fisher had been captured and the

Cape Fear River, one of the principal blockade running ports, had

thus been effectually closed; Charleston was soon to fall and Sumter

once more bore the old flag aloft.

 

The rebel press, though arrogant and blatant to the last, in its

gross perversion of facts and its earnest endeavors to convert

any disaster to the Union arms, however trifling, into a great

Confederate victory, gave evident tokens, of a conviction, gradually

growing in force and spreading far and wide through the South, that

the frustration of their schemes was at hand, that secession was

a failure and its days numbered. The Richmond _Whig_, Petersburg

_Express_, and various other papers, tools of the rebel government,

in a series of articles, plausibly and cleverly written and well

calculated to deceive the unlettered masses of the South, claimed

for the South a better condition, than they had known since the

commencement of the war. Their army was reported by them to be well

fed, clothed and sheltered, the spirits and courage of the men to be

excellent and a certain and sure triumph of the Confederate cause,

was prophecied as about to be the result of the commencement of

hostilities, in which Lee would take the initiative in the spring.

 

On our side of the lines in front of Petersburg, however, a contrary

impression prevailed, and as the winter wore away, even the most

despondent began to cheer up as the hollowness of the Confederacy

became apparent, the most obtuse could see that the beginning of

the end was approaching, and all were looking forward to a speedy

crushing out and final extinction of the last spark of rebellion.

 

Throughout the whole of the long dreary winter, night after night,

shivering and half famished, miserably clothed, worse fed, and

wretchedly armed, the rebel pickets had deserted their posts and

came into our lines, all telling the same tale of suffering,

deprivation and disaffection. Sometimes singly, sometimes in squads

of three or four, or even greater numbers, they preferred running

their chances of being shot, by our men or their own, to lingering

on, suffering from cold and hunger, with an equal chance of being

eventually either shot or hung. The Army of the Potomac, on the

other hand, which had been comfortably hutted and furnished with the

best of food and clothing, through the winter, had received a large

accession to its numbers, both in recruits and also in convalescents

from the different hospitals; our leisure hours had been passed in

resting from the severe campaign of the preceding year, with drilling

enough to give us exercise, keep us in health, and to render us

more efficient as soldiers. The numerous desertions from the rebels

and the many successive Union victories had instilled confidence in

the minds of our men, just in proportion as it had dispirited and

demoralized the rebels, all felt sure of victory, and that the end

was at hand.

 

The commencement of the year found the 37th in winter quarters on

the Baxter road, just in front of their old battle field of the 17th

of June, and in rear of Fort Morton. Considerable addition had been

made to our numbers during the winter; a large majority had had an

opportunity of visiting their homes and friends; our casualties had

been few and the health and spirits of the entire regiment were

excellent. With increasing satisfaction, as each day's mail brought

tidings of further Union successes, we watched the net closing

tighter and closer around rebeldom and began to look forward toward

the prospect of a speedy return to our homes.

 

As the severer rigors of winter passed off, and the mild, warm days

of an early spring began to awaken the vegetable world from its long

sleep, the enemy, who had for some months, been remarkably quiet and

civil, commenced annoying us by assailing us with mortar and Parrott

shells whenever we attempted to indulge in a brigade drill or dress

parade. These exhibitions of animosity, however, beyond driving a few

timid natures to the doubtful security of pine trees and stumps, soon

ceased to create much excitement and served mainly as an excellent

preparation to accustom the ears of our new recruits to the sound

of these missiles. Nobody ever got hurt by them, and nobody cared

much for them. In the month of March we were visited by several

severe tornadoes which threw down a number of the trees, among which

our camp was built, and, on one occasion, killed one man, Corporal Kenneday of company F.