March 15, 1865, the day preceding this battle, was cloudy
and rainy, the brigade marching about ten miles on a plank road, getting into
camp after dark. The camp was in an ancient grave-yard, very damp and
disagreeable. Our men had just started fires and were preparing their frugal
supper, when a mounted orderly clattered up to my shelter tent with orders for
the regiment to be ready to march at once. Our brigade was soon in motion
through the pitchy darkness, over the most execrable of mud roads. We marched
only about five miles, but it was nearly twelve o'clock when we filed off the
road into a pine thicket, and lay down on the wet ground for the remainder of
the night. During the night march we learned that Kilpatrick's cavalry had
encountered a force of the enemy, and that we had been ordered up to relieve
one of his brigades. This force was General Hardee's command, which had been
halted in a strong position for the purpose of holding Sherman's advance, to
give time for Johnson to concentrate his army at some point beyond. About seven
A. M., I received orders to form the regiment on the left of the brigade, throw
out skirmishers and engage the enemy, and was told that my left would be
supported by cavalry. The ground in our front, over which we advanced during the
day, was a pine swamp, the water in some places being a foot or more in depth.
As soon as the regiment had taken its position, I ordered.
Captain J. I. Grafton, who commanded the left flank company, to take his
company and the one next on his right, and deploy them in front of the
regiment. The skirmishers were at once engaged, and we came under a well-directed,
scattering fire. Captain Grafton was just placing his men in position when he
was wounded in the leg and started to the rear, but when within a few yards of
the place where I was standing he turned again to the front, and almost
immediately was struck by a bullet in the neck. Even with this mortal wound he
staggered several paces to the rear, when he fell, and died a few moments
afterwards. Captain Grafton was a gallant soldier, and a gentleman in every
sense of the word. He joined the regiment as junior second lieutenant in
November, 1861. He was severely wounded at Cedar Mountain, and again at
Chancellorsville. The latter wound was in one of his legs, which caused a
lameness from which he never fully recovered, but in spite of pain and
discomfort he maintained his place at the head of his company at all times, and
with his fine bearing was an example of a gallant soldier. It seemed hard that
he should meet his death after passing through the great campaigns of the war,
and when the regiment was in action for the last time; but so it was, and we
had to mourn the death of one more brave and true comrade.
The skirmishers of our brigade steadily pushed back those of
the enemy, and after our ammunition was exhausted, we were relieved by General
Coggswell's brigade of the Third Division, the remainder of the Twentieth Corps
having now come up to the front and taken the place of the cavalry. Coggswell
continued to press the enemy with his brigade, and advanced for about a mile
until he encountered a line of breastworks into which the enemy had retreated.
In the meantime our brigade, the Third of the First Division, had been
transferred to the right, and late in the afternoon we were ordered forward
again. Our last advance carried us close to the enemy's works, and we became
hotly engaged. The action lasted until dark, when the firing subsided, and
during the night the enemy retreated from our front.
The regiment carried into this action only 141 officers and
men: the companies were mere skeletons. Captain Grafton, with two companies,
had but twenty men under his command when he was killed. The casualties in the
action were Captain Grafton and seven enlisted men killed or mortally wounded;
Lieutenant-Colonel Morse and fourteen enlisted men wounded. Lieutenant Samuel
Storrow, who had joined the regiment at Atlanta and had made the “March to the
Sea,” was detailed as aide on General Coggswell's staff when the latter was
placed in command of a brigade at Savannah. Averysboro was his first real
battle, and he went into it full of zeal and courage. While carrying an order
he was struck by a bullet, and although the wound did not seem serious he could
not rally from its effect, and died a few hours after. He was a fine, spirited
young fellow, and his loss was greatly felt by those who had been associated
with him during his short term of service.
The battle of Averysboro was a comparatively small affair,
but the fighting was spirited, and the march of Sherman's army was but little
delayed by Hardee's efforts.
The battle of Bentonville followed on March 19, but the
Second Massachusetts Regiment was not actively engaged.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 219-21
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