IT’S ORGANIZATION
.....The Forty-fifth Regiment was organized at Camp Mangum, Raleigh, N.C., in the early spring of 1862 with:
Junius Daniel, Colonel, of Halifax County
Jno. Henry Morehead, Lieutenant-Colonel, of Greensboro, N.C.
Andrew J. Boyd, Major, of Rockingham
W.M. Hammond, Adjutant, of Anson
Pryor Reynolds, A.Q.M., Rockingham
Dr. Wm. J. Courts, Surgeon, of Rockingham
Jno. R. Raine, Assistant Surgeon, of Rockingham
Rev. E.H. Harding, Chaplain, of Caswell County
.....The regiment contained ten companies, six of which were organized in Rockingham County, one in Caswell, two in Guilford and one in Forsyth. These companies were enlisted and organized for three years’ service. At the time of their organization, the war was on in dead earnest. The first battle of Manassas had been fought and won; the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson had been fought and lost, and the capital of one of the States of the Confederacy was in the hands of the enemy. The State of North Carolina had been invaded; Fort Macon had been captured, and the city of New Bern was occupied by the Federal forces. The authorities of Washington were putting forth tremendous energies in organizing and equipping great armies for the subjugation of the seceding States. The Confederate Government at Richmond, to meet these mighty preparations, had called upon the States of the South for more troops.
.....These ten companies were raised and commanded by such men as Dr. Jno. W. May, of Rockingham County, then nearly 50 years of age, Captain of Company A.
.....Chas. E. Shober, of Greensboro, Captain of Company B, himself fit to command a regiment.
.....Jas. T. Morehead, Jr., of Greensboro, Captain of Company C, afterwards the splendid commander of the Fifty-third Regiment.
.....Jno. L. Scales, of Rockingham, Captain of Company D, a man of sterling worth and splendid ability.
.....Samuel H. Boyd, of Rockingham, Captain of Company E, afterwards Colonel of the regiment and a most gallant man.
.....Jno. R. Winston, of Rockingham, Captain of Company F, a man who afterwards won great distinction as commander of the regiment.
.....Jno. H. Dillard, of Rockingham, Captain of Company G, who afterwards filled the distinction a position upon the Supreme Court bench of the State, and whose qualities of head and heart fitted him for any position he might be called upon to fill.
.....Dr. Wm. J. Courts, of Rockingham, Captain of Company H., afterwards Surgeon of the Regiment.
.....Thomas McGehee Smith, of Caswell, Captain of Company I, a most lovable man, afterwards promoted to Major and killed while commanding the regiment.
.....Dr. J.M. Hines, of Forsyth, Captain of Company K, whose manly qualities and uniform kindness to the boy soldier, the writer of this sketch, who served under him, will always be held in the fondest remembrance.
.....Junius Daniel, the first Colonel of the Regiment, was an officer in the old army and a graduate of West Point. He was transferred from the command of the Fourteenth Regiment to the Forty-fifth Regiment, of which he was elected Colonel upon its organization. He was promoted to Brigadier-General in September, 1862, and commanded Daniel’s Brigade with conspicuous ability from its organized in the spring of 1862, until killed at Spottsylvania Court House on 12 May 1864. On his promotion, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Henry Morehead, of Greensboro, was made Colonel of the regiment. He was a fine disciplinarian and did much before his untimely death in 1863 in qualifying the regiment for the ordeals through which it had to pass along it subsequent march to imperishable renown. After the death of Colonel Morehead, Samuel H. Boyd became Colonel of the regiment. He was wounded at Gettysburg and left in the field a prisoner, and remained a prisoner of war until exchanged in May, 1864. He then returned to the army and took command of the regiment on 17 May, at Spottsylvania; was killed two days thereafter while gallantly leading his regiment in a charge upon the enemy’s line. A few moments before the charge, in which he lost his life, he received a gunshot wound in the arm. He had his arm bandaged with his handkerchief to stop the flow of blood, refused to leave the field, and was killed as above stated.
.....He wore a bright, new uniform in this battle, was about six feet four inches tall, which made him a shining mark for the enemy’s riflemen. After his death John R. Winston became Colonel of the regiment. Nature had fashioned him for a soldier. He was a man of deep piety, of stern integrity and the coolest courage in battle. He was often wounded, but rarely left he field because of wounds. Was wounded and captured at Gettysburg in July, 1863, carried to Johnson’s Island as a prisoner of war, escaped from the island on a cold night in January, 1864, walked across the lake on the ice to the Canadian shore, went from Canada to Nassau, from there he reached a Confederate port by running the blockade, and returned to the regiment in time for the campaign of 1864. He led the regiment through all the battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and cold Harbor; was then transferred to General Early’s command in the Valley, advanced with that command upon Washington, carried his regiment in sight of the Capitol, fought his regiment at the battle of Winchester, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek, and in the last two engagements, held the regiment in line until most of Early’s command had left the field. After the Valley campaign was over, he joined the army of General Lee at Petersburg, where he remained during the winter of 1864 and 1865, marched and fought to Appomattox Court House where he surrendered with the army of his great Chieftain.
.....Thomas McGehee Smith, Major of the regiment, was a splendid officer, beloved by the men of the regiment, and was killing in one of the battles near Richmond which followed the Spottsylvania campaign of 1864.
.....I have given this sketch of the field officers of the regiment who served for any length of time with the regiment. Major Andrew J. Boyd, a brother of Colonel Samuel H. Boyd, was promoted from Captain of Company L, of the Twenty-first Regiment, but did not long remain with the regiment. Chas. E. Shober was promoted from Captain of Company B, but remained Major of the regiment only a short time until he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second North Carolina Battalion.
.....In approaching the difficult task assigned me of writing a true historical sketch of the Forty-fifth Regiment in this, the year 1900, thirty five years after the regiment laid down it’s arms at Appomattox Court House, I find myself involved in great difficulties. Very few of the officers of the regiment are living. In looking over the Roster of the non-commissioned officers of the various companies, I find that they too, have nearly all passed away. Among the surviving private soldiers of the various companies, there are very few, whose whereabouts I can ascertain. I have little left but personal recollection.
.....It will be seen that the men who composed this regiment were drawn from four contiguous counties, Forsyth, Guilford, Rockingham and Caswell. The officers who organized, disciplined and prepared them for war were such as would have made a good regiment out of almost any material. But the men themselves, in the main would have made good soldiers under almost any circumstances. The rank and file of the regiment was composed of men from the farm, from the shop, from the school room, from the office, from mercantile pursuits, in fact from all the walks of life. Many of them were without property, some of them the sons of the wealthy, but most of them from the middle classes. I knew one young private who was the owner of many slaves in his own right.
.....From the organization of the regiment in the early spring of 1862 until the beginning of the seven days’ fight below Richmond, the men were drilled almost incessantly. They were upon the drill ground upon an average from six to eight hours each day. When the first battle opened at Mechanicsville, Daniel's Brigade was in camp near Petersburg. We immediately struck tents and started for the field; crossed the James on a pontoon bridge above Drewry's Bluff, and became a part of the division of General Holmes. The brigade did not encounter the enemy until late in the evening of 30 June. We marched down the river in almost blinding dust until we reached a point between McClellan's army, then engaged in the battle of Frazier’s Farm, and the river.
.....The brigade was halted and the command was given for the first time to load with cartridges. A few stray balls of the enemy were falling around the regiment. While the regiment was loading its guns, a field battery opened fire directly enfilading the line. At the same time a squadron of Confederate cavalry stampeded up the road, threatening to trample us under the feet of their horses. Just at this moment, two gunboats, the Galena and another on the river directly behind the line, opened fire with 160 pounders. This was, what has always seemed to me, a poor way to break in a raw regiment The regiment thought so, and eight companies immediately broke to the woods and "Stood not upon the order of their going." Two companies, commanded by Captain May and Captain Jno. H. Dillard, rapidly disappeared up the lane. Just as these eight companies climbed out of the road, which was lower than the land on the sides, Private Harrison Green, of Company K, was killed by a shell from one of the gunboats and fell by the writer's side. Private Jesse Sapp, of Company K, was run over and permanently disabled by the horse of a frightened cavalryman. The eight companies did not go far until they recovered from their fright, formed on the flag and quietly marched back to a position near the point where they had left the road, each man with his mouth full of excuses for having lost his head. Just at this time the two companies, commanded by Captains May and Dillard, came marching down the lane with their two captains in front and marched up to Colonel Daniel. Captain May saluted the Colonel and said that Companies A and G had misunderstood the order and had marched up the lane. Colonel Daniel replied, with a smile on his face: "Yes, Captain, I saw the companies march up the lane at a very rapid gait, and, if I am not mistaken, their two Captains were making good time, and in front," which created a laugh all through the regiment, the two Captains joining in the fun. By a mistake of some one, our division that evening was not permitted to engage in the battle of Frazier's Farm, although it reached a point immediately upon the enemy's flank in time to have done effective service. The next day the sanguinary conflict of Malvern Hill raged until after dark, with our division again on the enemy's flank and under the enemy's fire without taking any active part in that engagement, except to endure the shelling from the enemy's guns. It was not the fault of "the men behind the guns." Daniel's Brigade, after the battle of Malvern Hill, returned to its camp near Petersburg. It remained near Petersburg until the army started on its march to Maryland. We were ordered to Richmond and remained in the city one day, awaiting transportation to Culpepper. The enemy made a demonstration on Drewry's Bluff and we were hurried back to that point. We went into camp immediately in the rear of Fort Darling, where we remained until ordered to North Carolina in the late fall of 1862. The brigade went to Kinston; was engaged through the spring of 1862 in marching and countermarching in the country between Kinston and New Bern and around Washington on the Tar river, under General D. H. Hill; some little fighting, but none worth describing here. We returned to Kinston in time to have reached Fredericks-burg before the battle of Chancellorsville, but were delayed for want of transportation facilities, and arrived at Fredericksburg just after the battle had closed and were immediately attached to General Rodes' Division of Ewell's Corps. Early in June the army broke up camp and started on the memorable Gettysburg campaign. The first excitement occurred over the great cavalry battle of Brandy Station. The brigade double-quicked from Culpepper Court House most of the way to Brandy Station one hot evening, going to the relief of General Stuart, but arrived on the field only in time to receive a few parting shots from the retreating enemy. The next morning found us on our way across the mountains marching rapidly toward Winchester. Rodes' Division was sent to Berryville, where it had a slight engagement, and cut off the retreat of Milroy, whose entire command fell into the hands of General Ewell as prisoners of war at Winchester. Ewell's Corps immediately took up its line of march into Pennsylvania, and Rodes’ Division went as far North as Carlisle, Pa. From this point the Brigade turned back in the direction of Gettysburg and arrived on that field in the afternoon of 1 July.
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
.....I was not present with my regiment at the battle of Gettysburg. I was left at Front Royal, on the march to Gettysburg, with a severe attack of acute pneumonia, contracted from lying on the damp ground at Brandy Station, after the rapid march from Culpepper, before alluded to. I met the regiment on its return between Hagerstown, Md., and Gettysburg, in command of a Captain. This much I know, when I met the regiment it was but a mere skeleton of what it was when it left me at Front Royal.
.....My own company lost seven men dead on the field, and lost between twenty-five and thirty wounded, including all of its officers save one. The Gettysburg Federal Memorial Association in 1897 published "A History of the Gettysburg Memorial Association with an Account of the Battle," from which I quote as follows:
"Another of Rodes’ Brigades, Daniel's North Carolina, moved past the front of Robinson's Division, and while the Fifty-third Regiment of the brigade, with the Third Alabama of O'Neal's, which had been detached from its brigade, and the Twelfth North Carolina, of Iverson's, attacked the Seventy-sixth New York, Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania and One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York, of Cutler's Brigade, on left of Robin son, Daniel's other regiment—the Thirty-second, Forty-fifth, Second Battalion and the Forty-third— moved further to the right around to the railroad cut, and attacked the One Hundred and Forty-third and One Hundred and Forty-ninth Pennsylvania, of Stone's Brigade, which regiments had been withdrawn from their first position and placed along the Chambersburg Pike to meet this attack. These regiments were from the lumber region of Pennsylvania and were expert riflemen, and the vollies with which they greeted Daniel's men were said by the Confederate officers to have been the most destructive they ever witnessed."
.....The same account of the battle, in giving a table of losses, shows that these two Pennsylvania Regiments lost 589 men out of a total of 915. While the Forty-fifth Regiment and the Second North Carolina Battalion (six companies), lost that day nearly 400 men. After recrossing the Potomac, I remember that General Daniel inspected the regiment, passing down the line inquiring after the condition of cartridges, we having waded the Potomac the night before. I remember hearing him ask Captain Hopkins, who commanded the regiment, "How many Rockingham companies are there in the regiment?" He answered, "Six." The General replied, "Rockingham county has reason to be proud of the record made by the regiment at Gettysburg."
.....After the Gettysburg campaign, we returned to the south side of the Rapidan, after many days of hot and toilsome marching, and went into camp near Orange Court House, and finally moved down the river to Morton's Ford. In the fall we left camp, marched to Madison Court House, turned the flank of General Meade, and started on, what appeared to be, a foot race after Meade's army retreating toward Washington. We overtook Meade at Bristoe Station just at sunset, after having been engaged in a running fight which lasted all day. The battle of Bristoe Station ended disastrously to us but Gen. Meade continued his retreat toward Washington. After a day or two's rest, we slowly returned to the south bank of the Rappahannoek river and went into camp, as we thought, for the winter. Shortly afterwards, after some sharp skirmishing with the enemy, we retired across the Rapidan and again took up our old quarters near Morton's Ford. Winter being now upon us, we thought all fighting was over for the year 1863, but shortly afterwards, General Meade, not satisfied with the result of the recent campaign, threw his army across the Rapidan. We hastened down to confront him, and for several days skirmished and fought by day and built breastworks by night in severe winter, until the enemy, finding that it was impossible to fight us to advantage, fell back across the river, and both armies returned to their quarters to remain during the winter. Each commander immediately engaged in filling up the ranks of the depleted regiments, preparing for the dreadful conflict that was to open up in the spring of 1864.
THE WILDERNESS AND SPOTTSTLVANIA COURT HOUSE.
.....In the afternoon of 4 May, the regiment abandoned its winter quarters and started on the march to meet General Grant, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. At nightfall we went into camp in "The Wilderness." On the morning of the 5th, after a hurried breakfast, we took up the line of march, and within a very short time, were halted and drawn up in line of battle. It was a beautiful May morning. We began to advance in line, having been informed that we had some of our troops in front of us. We could hear the scattering picket fire to the left and right. Suddenly we heard, what appeared to kea heavy volley of musketry a few hundred yards in front of us. Soon the woods were filled with demoralized men and we ascertained that the lines of Jones' Brigade had been broken, and that the regiments composing the brigade were quitting the field in the utmost confusion. We halted and let the men pass through our ranks. We were presently informed by the Colonel of one of the regiments that the brigade had broken at the first fire of the enemy, and that its commander, the brave General Jones, had refused to retreat with the men and had remained on the line until shot down. As soon as the way in front had been cleared, we heard the voice of our brigade commander, General Junius Daniel, give the command, "Attention, Battalions! Battalions forward, the center the battalion of direction, march!" The brigade moved forward at a quick step through the underbrush, just budding into spring life. We had not advanced far until, without notice, a white volume of smoke burst through the thick bushes, rendered thicker by the interlacing bamboo briers that had grown up in a little depression of the earth, parallel with our line, followed with an almost deafening crash of musketry. We had not, up to this moment, seen an enemy. The aim was too high and hardly a man in the regiment was touched. Without waiting for a command, every gun was leveled, and into the line of smoke we poured a terrible volley, and, with a shout, went at them. On reaching a little narrow thicket, which, with clubbed muskets, was instantly leveled, we discovered a thin line of the enemy in full retreat, with the dead and wounded lying before our eyes, indicating that something like half of the line of battle had fallen at our first fire. On went the brigade in a full run. Presently we approached a small opening containing only a few acres of cleared land.
.....In this was placed a battery of guns which opened upon us as soon as the fleeing enemy had passed beyond. They had time to fire but once. Down the little slope the brigade rushed past the guns. At this point we received, at short range, the fire of a new line of the enemy, concealed in the pines beyond. The brigade halted, the men dropped on their knees and engaged in a conflict, the length of which I have no means of knowing. This fight continued until both lines had suffered severely, and, as if by common consent, our line withdrew to the edge of the woods from which it had emerged, while the enemy went in the opposite direction. Shortly afterwards the position we held was given to another brigade and our brigade was permitted to retire a few hundred yards and rest. We had lost heavily. The battle was then raging all along the line of E well's Corps and continued until after nightfall. In the darkness we arranged our lines and worked most of the night throwing up earth works. Early the next morning the firing between the picket lines began. From time to time during the day we sent forward men to strengthen the picket line. This picket fire continued all day with a light fire of artillery at intervals. During this day, the 6th of May, the dreadful fight was raging on our right between the Corps of Hill and Longstreet and the greater part of Grant's army. We remained in our position during the night of the 6th and all day of the 7th with continued heavy picket and artillery firing. Early in the night of the 7th we moved out by the right flank, having been cautioned to make as little noise as possible, and commenced what turned out to be, a hurried flank movement to Spottsylvania Court House. We marched all night, and the whole of the next day, and in the afternoon heard heavy firing in the direction of Spottsylvania Court House. We hurried on. Now and then we passed through sections where the woods were on fire and would become enveloped in choking smoke, but nothing delayed us. Late in the afternoon, as we were approaching the field where Longstreet's Corps, now commanded by General Anderson, was engaged in an unequal fight with the assaulting columns of the enemy, the march became more hurried, frequently breaking into a double-quick. The afternoon was hot. The men, worn out by the long march and from loss of sleep, were dropping exhausted along the way. A little before sunset, and as we reached a point almost in range of the enemy's rifles, but in the rear of Longstreet's right, we were halted, the regiment closed up and ordered to a front. General Daniel dashed along on horseback in front of the brigade, halting in the center of each regiment, and announced that Longstreet's Corps had for hours been successfully resisting the repeated attacks of the enemy that had been thrown against him in almost overwhelming numbers; that we were now in half mile of his extreme right; that the enemy would, within a few minutes, turn his flank and get possession of a most favorable position unless we arrived in time to prevent it; that the only question was whether we should arrive in time to save the position or retake it after it had been secured by the enemy. This only occupied a few minutes, but it gave tie tired men these few minutes to recover breath.
.....The announcement of General Daniel was greeted by each regiment with a shout The brigade was ordered into column, and, in a rapid run, we passed the last regiment on Longstreet's right and discovered that the splendid brigade of General Ramseur, the front brigade in our corps, had passed Longstreet's last regiment, had turned by the left flank, and was moving forward in a beautiful line to meet the enemy that had just arrived and was advancing to turn Longstreets right Our brigade pressed on until its last regiment had passed General Ramseur's right, when it, in turn, halted and closed up its ranks, fronted, and under the immediate eye of General Rodes, our commander, who had by this time arrived on the spot, raised a yell and dashed at the enemy. In rapid succession the brigades of Generals Doles and Battle passed in our rear, and with a similar movement turned the enemy's flank, whose whole advancing line was driven back. The fight continued in the woods until after nightfall, the two respective lines firing at the flash of the adversary's guns. Slowly the firing ceased, the litter-bearers came in along the line and bore away the wounded. The dead, for the time, and in many instances perhaps for all time, were left undisturbed where they fell. .
THE HORSE SHOE
.....Soon after the firing ceased, our lines were drawn back for a short distance and preparations for the next day's fight were begun. A sergeant from each regiment of our brigade was called for and assembled at brigade headquarters. I was detailed as one. We were placed in charge of Captain W. L. London, now of Pittsboro, N. C, (and I could write many pages about the courage and faithfulness of this staff officer). Captain London carried us forward in the dark, and selected, what appeared to be, the highest point of a low ridge between the lines. He posted us, one at a place, along the crest of this low ridge, until he had posted each guide about the length of a regiment apart, giving each instructions to remain in the pine thicket where we were placed, "until we heard the signal come down the line from our right," and then to take it up and repeat it as often as it came, until the regiment formed upon us. In leaving the place where I stood, Captain London cautioned me not to sit down, for fear I might go to sleep, but to stand and rest upon my gun. I must have stood there for more than an hour listening to the strange cries of the wounded, doubtless of both armies, some begging for water, and one poor fellow, as I remember, who had perhaps been wounded in the head, was delirious, and now and then would change his cries and groans into a sound like the bark of a dog. After what seemed to me a long time, I heard away on my right coming down the line, a low "Halloo." This passed down the line and continued until we heard the tramp of the regiments as they came up and formed upon us. This was doubtless done all along most of the lines of Ewell's Corps, and done in many places in the darkness of a pine thicket. I have never been able to account for the forming of this salient, which was soon to become what is known as the historic "Bloody Angle," except in this way; we threw up breastworks all night, and, when daylight came, we found that a part of our division, and perhaps all of Johnson's Division and a part of Hill's men, were occupying breastworks formed in the shape of a horse shoe, with the toe upon elevated ground and the sides running back to the caulks, which were not, as I now see the ground, more than 500 yards apart
.....All day of the 9th we encountered a deadly fire from the sharpshooters and a heavy fire of artillery from the enemy, to which we replied in kind. This died away after nightfall and was renewed in more aggravated form on the morning of the 10th, and continued until late in the afternoon. Suddenly, at about an hour by sun, the enemy broke from cover to our right, and poured in overwhelming numbers upon the line occupied by General Doles' Georgians. These gallant men were overpowered by sheer force of numbers and driven from the works. The enemy poured through the breach, captured quite a number of men on the extreme right of our brigade; forced the brigade to retire to avoid the enfilading fire, and caused us the temporary loss of sixteen pieces of artillery. Our brigade slowly fell back firing as it retreated, the enemy advancing and taking possession of our abandoned guns. In a short time we were in line at right angles to the works; the enemy massing in great numbers in our front. It seemed even to the eye of a private soldier that a dangerous crisis was upon us. Suddenly a single horseman came dashing up to the rear of our regiment. He was instantly recognized by the men who saw him, as General Ewell, our corps commander. He had outstripped his staff officers who were following him, but not then in sight He halted in the rear of the Forty-fifth Regiment, and called out, "Don't run boys; I will have enough men here in five minutes to eat up every d—d one of them." His eyes were almost green. The line steadied and poured volley after volley into the enemy. Presently we heard a yell up the line in our rear as we stood, and Battle's Brigade of Alabamians were seen coming to our support. They ran down the line by us. We raised a yell and dashed forward. Now, what became of Battle's men, whether they passed around us forming a line parallel with the works and then charged with us, I cannot tell. I did not then know. I only know that we went forward in a full run; found the enemy standing where we had left our batteries; the guns all withdrawn from their embrasures, turned upon us, but not firing, while the infantry fired into our faces. They stood their ground until there were but a few paces between the lines. A fine-looking Federal officer stood in the front of their line with drawn saber, encouraging his men. He fell dead, within a few paces of the writer, shot through the neck. I ascertained the next morning that his name was Colonel Huling, of the Sixth or Seventh Maine Regiment, temporarily commanding the front brigade in this assault. He was a brave fellow and deserved a better fate. When he fell, his men breaking in confusion leaped over the breastworks, and we went in near the same place we had left them. My recollection is that these lines were restored by our brigade, Battle's Alabama Brigade, one or two regiments from Ramseur's Brigade and a part of the brigade of General R. D. Johnston. But I remember well that a few days thereafter, we had in the company a Richmond paper, giving an account of the battle as communicated by an army correspondent, as having been won and the lost line recovered by certain Virginia brigades; this, indeed, was quite a common thing with the Richmond papers. As we recaptured the line the brave artillerymen, one company of which was the Richmond Howitzers, as fine a body of men as ever wore a uniform, rushed up with rammers in hand; wheeled the guns to their places and commenced pouring canister into the ranks of the retreating foe. We then saw why it was that we had not been fired upon by our own guns. The artillerymen had carried away the rammers. Thus ended the bloody engagement of 10 May. The ground was covered with the dead and wounded from both armies. The gallant Colonel Brabble, of the Thirty-second North Carolina, of our brigade, was among the former.
.....If space permitted, I would be glad here to give instances of individual acts of heroism witnessed by me in this and subsequent engagements in this bloody angle. The morning after this fight, I was asked by a wounded Sergeant belonging to the Sixth Maine Regiment, to help him down under the hill where he would not be exposed to the artillery fire from his own batteries. I did so, and made him as comfortable as I could. I filled his canteen with water, and learned from him the name and rank of the officer killed the evening before. I observed among the enemy's dead inside our lines, what I thought was an unusual proportion of non-commissioned officers. I asked this Sergeant how this happened. He answered that the evening before, just before his brigade led the assaulting column upon our works, that this same Colonel Huling addressed the regiments of the brigade; reminded them that during the preceding battles many company officers had been killed or permanently disabled, and that he expected to keep an eye on the non-commissioned officers of the brigade and see to it that commissions should be given the deserving ones. He said: "We came in front looking for promotion, and you see the result." He himself had a badly shattered leg below the knee. The 11th of May passed with nothing more than heavy skirmishing and severe artillery firing at intervals. Early in the morning of the 11th, General Rodes placed our brigade at the right of the division and in the space previously occupied by General Boles. The brigade took this as a compliment, and General Daniel, soon after the brigade was so placed, passed down the line behind the men and said to us: "I want you boys to remember that if the enemy come over these breastworks today, you are to receive them on your bayonets."
.....The night of the 11th was dark and drizzly. We sat with guns in hand the entire night, with a man to each company whose business it was to see that the men kept awake. We were so near the enemy's lines that I heard them knocking open cracker boxes and heard them call to the men to come and get their rations (giving "a" the long sound). We could hear, during the night, the sound of axes. They were evidently engaged in clearing away the pine bushes near the toe of the horse shoe to unmask their batteries. Just as the light was beginning to show on the morning of the 12th, we heard a sharp rattle of musketry away to the right, and suddenly the enemy came rushing over the line of works occupied by Edward Johnson's Division. They did not come in front of our brigade. The Forty-fifth Regiment occupied the position at the extreme right of the brigade next to Johnson's Division. It seemed to me then, as I remember now, that they captured almost the entire division down to the extreme left, and up to our right. I saw very few men go to the rear. We instantly sprang to our guns at the first firing. Our brave brigade commander came running up the line from near the center of the brigade to our regiment and observed that the enemy on our immediate right was confused in gathering up prisoners. He called the regiment to attention; gave the command, "About face," and, as I remember, moved the regiment at a right wheel, thus turning the regiment upon a pivot on the left company, and in this movement threw our backs to the enemy. While we were executing this movement, we were ordered to fire to the rear, which we did as rapidly as we could. When we had reached a point at almost right angles with the works, we were halted, ordered to about face, where we stood for a minute or two firing into the enemy's lines enfilading them. We were shortly commanded to right face and double-quick, the brigade following us. This threw us partly across the lines between the two caulks of the horse shoe, perhaps half the brigade occupying that position. In the meantime the battalion of artillery, down the line to our left, drew their guns from the breastworks and threw them into line about fifty yards to our rear, in a position several feet higher than the position we occupied. We dropped upon our knees and opened fire upon the enemy, every man loading and firing as rapidly as possible. Immediately the artillery in our rear opened fire over our heads. For a little while the rush of canister and shrapnel above us seemed dangerous, but the conflict was on and in a short time we became accustomed to it. By the time the prisoners of Johnson's Division had been disposed of, the enemy in unbroken lines reaching back as far as we could see, came sweeping on in our front, but this combined fire of infantry and artillery was more than human flesh could stand and it was impossible for them to reach our line. The first men that came to our assistance was that brigade of North Carolinians commanded by the peerless Hamseur. This brigade always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It came up and formed on our right, as I remember, in an open field, lay down for a moment, but soon, at the command of its leader, sprang up and dashed forward into the horse shoe. For a moment it seemed to me our brigade ceased firing and held its breath as these men went forward, apparently into the very jaws of death. They were soon enveloped in smoke, which the heavy atmosphere of a misty morning caused to linger over the field. Now, from this time until dark I know nothing of what took place, except that which occurred in my immediate neighborhood. Without moving at times for hours, we fired into the advancing columns of the enemy who were trying to carry our position, while Ramseur's Brigade, and doubtless many other brigades, were fighting on our right. We made during the day during the little intervals between the enemy's assaults, a little temporary protection composed of fence rails, poles and earth, behind which we sat on our knees and fired. We went in with sixty rounds of cartridges each. This supply of ammunition was replenished from time to time during the day. How many rounds were fired no man knew.
.....The pine saplings standing at intervals in the field in front of us and along on the sides of the old breastworks of Johnson's Division, were torn and shattered by minie balls. The enemy would take shelter sometimes behind the captured works, which formed an acute angle with the line we occupied and several times during the day I saw pine saplings perhaps six or eight inches in diameter, finally bend, break and fall, from the fire of musketry aimed at the top of the breastr works. From some point along this line, the stump of a white oak, perhaps ten inches or more in diameter, that was cut down in this way, during the day, was taken up by the Federal forces after the battle and carried to Washington, and is there now preserved to show the effect of the musketry fire. There was not a moment, as I now remember, from daylight in the morning until long after dark that the battle did not rage in this horse shoe. The fire of the enemy's artillery from the higher ground near the toe of the horse shoe, and also from the right where bill's men fought, was terrific the entire day. Just after a severe cannonading, I heard General Daniel, who was sitting at the root of a little tree in the rear of my company with watch in hand, say to Captain London: "London, how does this artillery fire compare with the second day at Gettysburg." I do not remember Captain London's reply, but General Daniel continuing, said: "I have been holding my watch and counting the shells as they came into these lines, and part of the time they have averaged more than one hundred to the minute." I do not think I am mistaken in my figures. When night came on, the tired regiments fell asleep upon the wet ground. The men were in no condition to sit up and discuss the losses. We knew that General Daniel had been borne from the field mortally wounded. We knew that two senior Colonels succeeding him in command of the brigade during the day had also fallen, and that when night came on the brigade was in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Jas. T. More-head, of the Fifty-third Regiment. After the night's sleep, the soldiers looked about them and found that our losses had been terrific
.....The next morning we occupied a new intrenched line that had been fortified during the night, by whom I know not, and we were again ready for the enemy. There was little fighting of any consequence along our part of the line until the morning, as I remember, of the 16th, when the enemy advanced just at daylight in heavy forces, but were easily driven back without much loss on our side. On the 17th or 18th and after the enemy had drawn back their line into the woods, giving up the entire field where the conflict raged on the 12th, I asked permission of Lieutenant Frank Erwin, commanding my company, to pass the picket line and go over into this angle to make observations. It was a bright May day. There was no fighting on any part of the line, and by his permission I went. The pickets permitted me to pass, and I went over the breastworks to that portion of the field which had been occupied by our brigade, and then to the right, to the position which had been occupied by Ramseur's Brigade. On my arrival in this angle, I could well see why the enemy had withdrawn their lines. The stench was almost unbearable. There were dead artillery horses in considerable numbers that had been killed on the 10th and in the early morning of the 12th. Along these lines of breastworks where the earth had been excavated to the depth of one or two feet and thrown over, making the breastworks, I found these trenches filled with water (for there had been much rain) and in this water lay the dead bodies of friend and foe commingled, in many instances one lying across the other, and in one or more instances I saw as many as three lying across one another. All over the field lay the dead of both armies by hundreds, many of them torn and mangled by shells. Many of the bodies swollen out of all proportion, some with their guns yet grasped in their hands. Now and then one could be seen covered with a blanket, which had been placed over him by a comrade after he had fallen.
.....These bodies were decaying. The water was red, almost black with blood. Offensive flies were everywhere. The trees, saplings and shrubs were torn and shattered beyond description; guns, some of them broken, bayonets, canteens and cartridge boxes were scattered about, and the whole scene was such that no pen can, or ever will describe it I have seen many fields after severe conflicts, but no where have I seen anything half so ghastly. I returned to my company and said to old man Thomas Carroll, a private in the company, who was frying meat at the fire, "You would have saved rations by going with me, for I will have no more appetite for a week." On the 19th our corps marched in the afternoon around the enemy's right, crossed one of the prongs of the Mattapony River, and attacked the enemy on his right flank and rear. We carried no artillery, and, as it happened, that which we had hoped would be a successful surprise to the enemy turned out to be a desperate and unsuccessful battle. We found a large body of fresh troops coming up as reinforcements from Fredericksburg. We attacked them. The engagement began perhaps two hours by sun and lasted until in the night, and under cover of darkness our corps returned to its former position. In this engagement our regiment suffered severely. The Colonel of our regiment, the brave Samuel H. Boyd, was killed while leading a charge. My own company came out of the fight with not an officer nor non-commissioned officer left In this last charge the writer received a severe wound from which he has never entirely recovered. The next day the armies commenced a movement toward Richmond, confronting each other and fighting almost daily, which finally culminated in the great battle of Cold Harbor, 3 June, in which battle the enemy received awful punishment, and our regiment again suffered severely. While this battle was raging, I was lying helpless in the Winder Hospital in Richmond, listening to the roar of the guns. After nightfall the wounded began to arrive from the field. I remember how the wounded in my ward lay upon their beds and inquired, as the wounded were brought in from their companies and regiments, as to the result of the battle and as to friends engaged. There I first learned of the death of Major Smith. The ward masters and nurses were principally composed of disabled men, assigned to light duty. I remember that about 10 o'clock that night, a man was brought in from an ambulance upon a stretcher, and when brought to the light, was found to be the only brother of our ward master, and mortally wounded. The next morning I learned of the death of a dear friend and school mate, a member of Manly's Battery, M. F. Cummins. He was shot through the head while mounted on the breastworks, cap in hand, watching the effect of a shell fired from his gun; a brave, gallant fellow. Soon after this battle, the regiment was sent to join General Early, and with his command marched down the Valley, crossing the Potomac about 5 or 6 July, and had a severe engagement with the enemy's forces, commanded by General Lew Wallace, near Monocacy Junction. The regiment marched from there to the suburbs of Washington and lay there for a day or two drinking water from the spring of Hon. Montgomery Blair, and, as the boys afterwards told me, they interfered with the milk and butter in his spring house, but this is hearsay and therefore not evidence. On 14 July the command recrossed the Potomac with quite a number of prisoners and camped about Martinsburg and Winchester for some time, occasionally skirmishing with the enemy until 19 September, when Sheridan advanced with an overwhelming force and attacked Early's Corps, driving it from the field. In this battle our division lost its commander, General R. E. Rodes. He was a superb officer and beloved by every man in his division. The army retreated to Fisher's Hill, where it was again attacked on 22 September, both of its flanks turned, resulting in a disastrous rout. On this occasion, as I was afterwards informed by the men of any regiment, the regiment held a position across the turnpike, which it maintained after the troops both on the right and left had fallen back, and retired in good order but not till it became apparent that to remain longer would result in its capture. The courage and fortitude of the regiment on this disastrous day served the purpose of holding back the enemy and covering the retreat of the army. It was on this occasion that Colonel John R. Winston, coming up the pike with his regiment in the rear of the retreating army, was accosted by one of his soldiers, who was lying on the roadside disabled by a wound, and who pleaded with his Colonel not to leave him to fall into the hands of the enemy. He rode to where he was lying, reached down and took him by the hand, pulled him to his feet, removed his own foot from the stirrup of his saddle, assisted the soldier in placing his foot in the empty stirrup, lifted him into his lap and brought him off the field. The army fell back to Cedar Creek, where it remained until 19 October. On the night of the 18th the regiment participated in the flank movement which resulted in the rout of Sheridan's army in the early morning of the 19 th, which splendid victory in the early morning was turned into a disgraceful defeat later in the day, through the inexcusable blunder of some one. This ended Early's campaign in the Valley. Later in the fall the brigade returned to Lee's army and took a position in the line engaged in the defense of Petersburg. Here it remained through the winter of 1864 and 1865 in the trenches, almost continually under fire. The regiment had suffered severely during the Valley campaign and by the spring of 1865 had become a mere skeleton.
.....During the month of March, the regiment occupied a position a little to the right of Petersburg and just to the left of Fort Mahone and near the Crater. Just in front of the left of the regiment stood Fort Steadman which the boys called Fort "Hell," a powerful earthwork of the enemy.
.....On the night of 25 March, the regiment participated in an assault upon Fort Steadman directed by General Gordon, and again suffered severely. Hence Proctor, a private in my company, was one of the skirmishers who first entered the fort about daybreak. Inside of the fort bomb proofs were occupied by officers and men. Hence was a fine soldier, full of fight and fun. He poked his head into one of these bomb proofs, and called out with ugly words, to give emphasis to his command, ''Come out of there. I know you are in there," He wore long hair. An officer, startled by this unexpected command, sprang out of his berth in his night clothes, snatched his saber from its scabbard, seized Hence by the foretop and commenced to slash him about the head with his saber. Hence backed out of the bomb proof, the officer continuing his hold, coming out with him. On getting outside in the open, the fight became an unequal one. Hence's fixed bayonet on the end of his gun while thus held by the hair, was no match for the saber in the hands of his adversary, and but for timely aid from one of his comrades, he would have been quickly overcome. As it was, he came out of the fight with many gashes on his head and face. The assault upon the fort was unsuccessful.
.....Along the line of works we occupied we had but one man to five or six feet, an ordinary skirmish line. On the morning of 2 April, just before daylight, the enemy advanced upon our works in massed columns; brushed aside chevaux de frise,, cutting the chains that linked the parts together with axes, and poured over the line occupied by a part of Battle's and a part of our brigade. . Then commenced a struggle which, to my mind, was the most desperate of all the war, and which lasted until into the night. Our main line of works stood about four feet high, and was very strong. In the rear of, and at right angles with the line, had been built traverses, made by building log pens about five feet high and filling them with earth. They extended back perhaps forty or fifty feet. The purpose of these traverses was to protect the men, standing in line, from the enfilading artillery fire from Fort Steadman away to our left There was just room enough between the end of these traverses and the main line for a man to pass. When the enemy broke over the line they filled the spaces between these traverses, the traverses being about 200 feet apart. About 200 yards in the rear of this line had been placed batteries of heavy howitzers, which, up to this time, had been masked to conceal them from the en-my. As these traverses filled, with the Federal troops, these batteries in the rear opened upon them with grape and canister. Major-General Bryan Grimes commanded our division, and I need not say that at this perilous moment he was with the men at the point of greatest danger, for he was always at such places. All day long the men of this division fought between these traverses, slowly yielding one after another when compelled to do so by overwhelming forces. The fire from the enemy's artillery up and down the line was concentrated on our struggling troops.
.....Huge mortar shells, 12 inches in diameter, came plunging down, sometimes exploding between these traverses and sometimes burying themselves in the earth and harmlessly bursting six feet under ground. Long before noon all of our batteries had been silenced, and the conflict on our side was maintained by infantry alone. I saw the men of my regiment load their guns behind the traverses, climb to the top, fire down into the ranks of the enemy, roll off and reload and repeat the same throughout the day. While in the midst of this din of battle, time after time they would send up the old time defiant rebel yell. Late in the evening, I asked Matt Secrest, of my company, whose cheeks from the corner of his mouth to his ears were almost black as lampblack from the frequent tearing of cartridges, how many rounds he thought he had fired. His answer was: "I know from the number of times I have replenished my supply of cartridges that I have fired more than 200 rounds."
.....It was a matter of surprise to us during the day that we did not receive reinforcements. We did not know that our lines were broken throughout their length and that every soldier in the army of General Lee was doing five men's work, but it was a fact. In the afternoon, the Petersburg battalion of Junior Reserves, composed of boys without beard, were sent to our assistance and fought like veterans. At last, night came, and under cover of darkness the army that had been so long engaged in defending the gallant little city, retired from its lines crossed the Appomattox and started on the long retreat which ended at Appomattox Court House. If General Grant had succeeded in successfully breaking through our lines at Fort Mahone, he would have cut the army in two, and the war would have ended at Petersburg instead of Appomattox Court House. I have recently been along the lines at Petersburg, and it now seems to me a mystery how those lines were maintained so long with so few defenders.
The rest of my story is short. We fell back to Amelia Court House on the old Richmond & Danville road, where we expected to draw rations. It is hard to imagine our disappointment when we ascertained at this point that by some cruel mistake, the train loaded with provisions for our sustenance had gone through to Richmond and was in the hands of the enemy.
.....On 6 April, we started toward Lynchburg. Shortly after sunrise we were attacked by Sheridan on our left flank, and all day long we retreated and fought and fought and retreated, arriving at Farmville after night, leaving thousands of prisoners in the hands of the enemy. We continued our retreat on the 7th and 8th with little fighting. On the night of the 8th we camped in the woods near the village of Appomattox, and before day the next morning again started on the march toward Lynchburg. Our division, commanded by General Grimes, marched up the red road through the little village, passed the Court House and halted and formed a line of battle just behind the crest of a ridge that lay at right angles with the road. As soon as the line was established, the division was ordered forward in line of battle, no enemy in sight. As we reached the top of the hill, we were greeted with a fire of artillery and infantry. We did just what we had always done before; raised a shout and made a dash at Sheridan's line. The line was broken, of course, and his troops driven from the field. The division was halted and the men lay down to rest awaiting further orders. It was a supreme moment, and the fate of that division rested with General Lee, the man, who was almost worshipped by his soldiers. It was for him to say whether the conflict should there end or whether the remnant of his army should close the last scene of the mighty drama, by submitting to annihilation. In the kindness of his great heart, he determined that his soldiers had done enough, and he yielded to "overwhelming numbers and resources." During the seven days' retreat many of the regiments of that army had not eaten what was sufficient for one full day's rations. The ceremonies and capitulation having ended, the men returned to their homes. The course pursued by these scarred veterans during years following that surrender, in helping to build up waste places and establish stable government, in the Southern States, is a part of the country's history, and is as glorious as were their actions on the field. I venture to say that the conduct of the Confederate soldiers since the war, in submitting to its results, in bearing the burdens of taxation to raise enormous sums of money, with which to pay pensions to their old enemies, and all without scarcely a murmur, finds no parallel in the history of the human race.
The foregoing sketch has been written from time to time, between pressing professional engagements. I greatly regret that it had not been written years ago, while facts might have been furnished by the actors, most of whom are now dead.
.....I trust I may be permitted to say that my name does not appear, as Second Sergeant of Company K, in the Roster, published some years since, while the name of G. B. Mabson, Second Sergeant, does.
Some people do not believe in bad luck. I do.
Cyrus B. Watson.
Winston, N. C.
9 April, 1901.
NOTE.
On 19 May, 1901, 1 attended the unveiling of a monument by the survivors of the First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, on the battle field of 19 May, 1864, the thirty-seventh anniversary of the battle. I here met about sixty-five of the said survivors, some of them attended by wives and daughters. I spent a day or two with them and at their request took part in the ceremonies and delivered a short address. This regiment fought immediately in front of the Forth-fifth North Carolina, and the conflict was bloody. The monument bears the following inscription:
"in commemoration of the deeds of the first regiment
HEAVY ARTILLERY,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS.
Three hundred and ninety-eight of whose members fell within an hour around this spot during an action, May 19th, 1864, between a division of the Union Army commanded by General Tyler, and a corps of the Confederate forces under General EwelL
Erected by the survivors of the Regiment.
1901."
Together with these gallant men of New England I went over every part of the field and was surprised to find how familiar the fields, woods and houses appeared.
I also went into the Bloody Angle about a mile distant, and had no difficulty in finding the places where the regiment fought for days and nights. The fortifications are preserved without change all round the horse shoe. The old McCool house is just as it was thirty-seven years ago, the weatherboards perforated with bullets; the Harrison house almost ready to fall down from neglect; the trees that suffered during the battles are mostly down or dead, yet quite a number living, with marks of bullets and shells healed over, but plainly visible. There is considerable growth of younger pine trees. I brought away three blocks from a dead pine, with bullets embedded in two and a grape shot in another, which lies almost at the spot where the brave General Daniel fell. Another section from the preserved heart of the dead pine, too large for me to bring away, had nine bullets in it, partly concealed by the wood that had grown around them in the effort of the tree to outlive its injuries; many of the wounded trees seem to have recently died. It seems that after the armies left this dreadful angle, the dead of both armies were buried in shallow graves, or rather covered with earth, and the ground in the pine woods along these trenches plainly shows where the remains had since been removed. The survivors of Daniel's brigade should erect a monument on the spot where he fell.
C. B. Watson.
8 June, 1901.
(Source: Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65. Written by members of the Respective Commands, Edited by Walter Clark, Lieut. Colonel Seventieth Regiment, N.C.T. Vol. III. Published by the state. 1901. Pages 21-34)
|
