Stafford C. H., May 7, 1863.
I am going to give you, without any introduction, a history
of this last campaign against Richmond by the army under the great Joe Hooker.
I believe I have seen it and judged it fairly.
On Monday, April 27th, our corps broke camp early in the
morning and marched to Hartwood Church, ten miles; there it went into camp for
the night. The Eleventh and Fifth Corps also came up there and camped in our
vicinity; next morning, we all moved and camped that night near Kelly's Ford. A
pontoon bridge was thrown across and the Eleventh was over before daylight
Wednesday; the other corps followed rapidly and the advance began towards the
Rapidan. The Eleventh and Twelfth marched on the road to Germana Ford, the
Fifth on the road to Ely's Ford; all three of the corps were under command of
General Slocum. I was detailed, the morning of the advance, as Aide to General
Slocum, and another officer was made Acting Provost Marshal. All the companies
of the Second Massachusetts were sent to the Regiment. We skirmished all the
way to Germana Ford; there we met quite a determined resistance; our cavalry was
drawn in and the Second Massachusetts and the Third Wisconsin sent forward to
clear the way; they drove everything before them and, by their heavy fire,
forced the rebels at the Ford to surrender (about one hundred officers and
men). We lost in this skirmish about a dozen killed and wounded.
General Slocum now determined to cross the Rapidan, though
there was no bridge and the ford was almost impassable. He sent the First and
Third Brigade, (First Division, Twelfth Corps), through the water although it was
more than waist deep, also five batteries of artillery, which took position on
the other side of the river. A bridge was then constructed, and before daylight
Thursday morning, the remainder of the Twelfth and Eleventh Corps were across
the river. By eight o'clock, A. M., we were moving again. The rebels kept
attacking us on our flank with cavalry and artillery, and any less bold officer
than General Slocum would have halted his column and delayed the march; but he
kept along steadily, detaching a small force at intervals to repel the enemy. I
had the pleasure of superintending, at one of these skirmishes, having in
charge the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Regiment; we drove the rebels before us
for nearly a mile, almost capturing their artillery, taking a large number of
prisoners. At about noon, we arrived at Chancellorsville, and found the Fifth
Corps already there. We had a small cavalry skirmish, in which Colonel McVicars
was killed with about a dozen of his men, but besides that, nothing of
importance occurred that day; the troops were formed in line of battle, but
were not attacked. Up to this time you see everything had gone well and success
seemed certain.
Towards night, General Hooker arrived with his staff, and we
heard of the crossing at the U. S. Ford of the Second, Third and First Corps.
All the headquarters were in the vicinity of the Chancellor House, a large,
fine brick mansion. General Hooker took supper with General Slocum; he didn't
seem to be able to express his gratification at the success of General Slocum
in bringing the three corps up so rapidly. Then, in the most extravagant,
vehement terms, he went on to say how he had got the rebels, how he was going
to crush them, annihilate them, etc.
The next morning at ten, the Fifth and Twelfth Corps
advanced in order of battle on two parallel roads; we soon met the enemy and
skirmished for about two miles, when they appeared in considerable force and
the battle began. We were in a splendid position and were driving the enemy
when an order came to General Slocum to retire his command to its former
position. No one could believe that the order was genuine, but almost
immediately, another of General Hooker's staff brought the same order again.
Now, perhaps, you don't know that to retire an army in the face of an enemy
when you are engaged, is one of the most difficult operations in war; this we
had to do. I carried the order to General Geary to retire his division in
echelon by brigades, and stayed with him till the movement was nearly
completed. It was a delicate job; each brigade would successively bear the
brunt of the enemy's attack. Before the last brigades of the Fifth and Twelfth
Corps were in position, the enemy made a furious attack on the Chancellor
House; luckily, we had considerable artillery concentrated there and they were
driven back. The next attack was on our corps, but the enemy were severely
repulsed. This about ended the fighting on Friday; we lost, I suppose, about
five hundred men.
During the night, the men were kept at work digging trenches
and throwing up breastworks of logs. Our headquarters were at Fairview, an open
piece of ground rising into quite a crest in the centre. Skirmishing began at
daylight next morning and continued without much result to either side, till
afternoon, when the enemy began to move, in large force, towards our right,
opposite General Howard, Eleventh Corps. This corps was in a fine position in
intrenchments, with almost open country in front of them, the right resting on
Hunting creek. At about four P. M., the Third Corps, General Sickles, was moved
out to the right of the Twelfth and advanced towards Fredericksburgh. The order
then came to General Slocum that the enemy were in full retreat, and to advance
his whole line to capture all he could of prisoners, wagons, etc. Our right,
General Williams’ Division, advanced without much trouble, driving the enemy
before it, but the Second Division had hardly got out of the trenches before it
was attacked with great determination, yet it steadily retained its position.
At about five P. M., a tremendous and unceasing musketry fire began in the
direction of the Eleventh Corps. As it was necessary to know what was going on
there in order to regulate the movements of the Twelfth Corps, General Slocum
and the rest of us rode for our lives towards this new scene of action. What
was our surprise when we found, that instead of a fight, it was a complete Bull
Run rout. Men, horses, mules, rebel prisoners, wagons, guns, etc., etc., were
coming down the road in terrible confusion, behind them an unceasing roar of
musketry. We rode until we got into a mighty hot fire, and found that no one
was attempting to make a stand, but every one running for his life. Then
General Slocum dispatched me to General Hooker to explain the state of affairs,
and three other staff officers to find General Williams and order him back to
his trenches with all haste.
I found General Hooker sitting alone on his horse in front
of the Chancellor House, and delivered my message; he merely said, “Very good,
sir.” I rode back and found the Eleventh Corps still surging up the road and
still this terrible roar behind them. Up to this time, the rebels had received
no check, but now troops began to march out on the plank road and form across
it, and Captain Best, Chief of Artillery of our corps, had on his own
responsibility gathered together all the batteries he could get hold of, had
put them in position (forty-six guns in all) on Fairview, and had begun firing
at the rate of about one hundred guns a minute, into the rebels. This, in my
opinion, saved our army from destruction. After delivering my message to
General Hooker, I went back and tried to find General Slocum, but it was now
after eight o'clock and I was unsuccessful in my search, so I took hold and tried
to rally some of the cowardly Dutchmen. With the help of one cavalry orderly, I
succeeded in forming a good many of them on the left of the new line, but an
unusually heavy volley coming, they broke and ran like sheep. After this little
episode, I again searched after the General. Towards ten, I found the rest of
the staff, and soon after, we came across the General. At about eleven, the
fighting stopped, but we were all hard at work getting the men of our corps
into position. You see, while our First Division was advancing, the rebels had
routed the Teutons and were now occupying our trenches. The Second and Third
Brigades got into their former position, but the First made out only to cut
through the rebels, losing a large part of its men and taking a position
considerably in the rear of its former one. General Sickles fought his way
through with the exception of one division and one battery, which were left out
in front of our lines that night. The artillery men were hard at work all
night, throwing up traverses to protect their guns, and about two in the
morning we all lay down on the ground and slept until about four, when daylight
began to appear. Our right was now formed by the Third, Fifth and First Corps,
about five hundred yards in the rear of our first position. The rebels began
the attack, as soon as there was light enough, from the left of our First
Division to about the right of the Third Corps. General Birney's Division of
the Third Corps was out in front of General Williams; his men behaved badly,
and after a slight resistance, fell back into our lines, losing a battery.
The rebels now charged down our First Division, but were met
with such a deadly fire that they were almost annihilated. Their second line
was then sent in, but met the same fate, and their third and last line
advanced. Our men now had fired more than forty rounds of cartridges and were
getting exhausted. General Slocum sent almost every one of his staff officers
to General Hooker, stating his position and begging for support; Hooker's
answer was, “I can't make men or ammunition for General Slocum.” Meantime,
Sickles' Corps was holding its own on the right of ours, but it was rapidly
getting into the same condition as the Twelfth. The rebels were driven back
every time they advanced, and we were taking large numbers of prisoners and
colors. All this time while our infantry was fighting so gallantly in front,
our battery of forty-six guns was firing incessantly. The rebels had used no
artillery till they captured the battery from Birney, when they turned that on
us, making terrible destruction in General Geary's line. General Meade, Fifth
Corps, now went to Hooker and entreated that he might be allowed to throw his
corps on the rebel flank, but General Hooker said, “No, he was wanted in his
own position.” On his own responsibility, General Meade sent out one brigade,
which passed out in rear of the enemy's right, recaptured a battery, three
hundred of our men who were prisoners, and four hundred of the rebels, and took
them safely back to their corps.
It was now after seven o'clock. Our men had fired their
sixty rounds of cartridges and were still holding their position; everything
that brave men could do, these men had done, but now nothing was left but to
order them to fall back and give up their position to the enemy. This was done
in good order and they marched off under a heavy fire to the rear of our
batteries. The rebels, seeing us retreating, rushed forward their artillery and
began a fearful fire. I found I could be useful to Captain Best, commanding our
artillery, so I stayed with him. I never before saw anything so fine as the
attack on that battery; the air was full of missiles, solid shot, shells, and
musket balls. I saw one solid shot kill three horses and a man, another took a
leg off one of the captains of the batteries. Lieutenant Crosby of the Fourth
Artillery was shot through the heart with a musket ball; he was a particular
friend of Bob Shaw and myself; he lived just long enough to say to Captain
Best, “Tell father I die happy.”
The rebels came up to the attack in solid masses and got
within three hundred yards, but they were slaughtered by the hundreds by the
case-shot and canister, and were driven back to the woods. Still not an
infantry man was sent to the support of the guns. More than half the horses
were killed or wounded; one caisson had blown up, another had been knocked to
pieces; in ten minutes more, the guns would have been isolated. They, too,
therefore, were ordered to retire, which they did without losing a gun. You
see, now, our centre was broken, everything was being retired to our second
line, the rebel artillery was in position, their line of battle steadily
advancing across our old ground. This fire of the batteries was concentrated on
the Chancellor House, Hooker's original headquarters, and it was torn almost to
pieces by solid shot and was finally set on fire by a shell.
The army was now put in position in the second line; the
centre was on a rising piece of ground and protected by a battery of forty or
fifty guns. The Fifth Corps was on the right and was the last to fall back out
of the woods and it was closely followed by the rebel masses, but these were
met by such a tremendous artillery fire that they were actually rolled back
into the woods. Our corps was ordered to support first the Third, afterwards
the Second and Eleventh. Towards night the enemy made another desperate assault
on our centre, but they were again repulsed. Our corps was now ordered to the
extreme left to form behind the Eleventh. I believe that General Slocum
remonstrated with General Hooker so firmly that he finally got permission to
put the Twelfth Corps on the extreme left and to have only one division of the
Eleventh in the trenches on his right.
You can easily see that, if the enemy once forced our right
or left, our communications would at once be cut and all possibility of retreat
prevented. Late that night, we lay down close beside the Rappahannock. By three
o'clock next morning, we were awakened by a heavy artillery fire and shells
bursting over us. Our guns replied and kept at it for about an hour, when the
enemy's batteries were silenced. We now mounted our horses and rode along the
lines to look at our position; we found that it was a very strong one and
capable of being made very much more so.
We found that the sharpshooters were getting altogether too
attentive to our party, so we moved back to our line and had hardly turned
away, when a sergeant was shot dead almost on the spot where the general had
been standing. All that day, our men were hard at work throwing up breastworks,
cutting abattis, etc. No attack was made on us, but throughout that day and
night, we heard Sedgwick fighting in the direction of Fredericksburgh.
Tuesday morning, I knew by appearances that a retreat was to
be effected, as a large part of the artillery, all the ambulances, etc., were
removed across the river, although the men were kept at work making line after
line of trenches and breastworks. Just before dark, the order of retreat came,
the Fifth and Twelfth Corps being the last to cross. About four o'clock that
afternoon it began to rain in torrents. There were originally three pontoon
bridges, but before most of the crossing had been effected, the river became so
swollen that one of the bridges had to be taken up to piece out the other two;
this caused a great delay. At about twelve, I was sent down to the ford to
examine into the condition of things; it was a terrible night, the wind blowing
a gale and the rain pouring, the road for a mile full of artillery. I found, at
the bridge, that not a thing was moving, and learned from General Patrick that
the order for retreat had been suspended and everything was to move back to its
former position. This order came, remember, when half of the artillery was on
the north side of the Rappahannock, the soldiers without a ration and the
supply trains ten miles the other side of the river. I ran my horse back to
headquarters and made my report; the telegraph was down between U. S. Ford and
Falmouth, where General Hooker was. General Slocum wrote a dispatch,
saying, that unless the movement was continued, our army would have to be
surrendered within twenty-four hours; this was sent by an orderly who was
ordered to kill his horse carrying it. Then to prepare for the worst, General
Slocum sent one of his aides and myself back to the Ford to get our artillery
ready to move back into position, that our corps might, at least, be ready to
make a desperate fight in the morning; but at about two-thirty A. M., the
messenger returned from General Hooker with orders for the movement to
continue.
At about five, one of our divisions began to cross. The two
or three succeeding hours were the most anxious I ever passed in my life. A
large part of our army was massed on the south side of the river, only two
bridges for the whole of it to cross, the river full to the edge of its banks;
a very little extra strain would have carried away the upper bridge, and this
would have swept away the lower one and all retreat would have been cut off.
The rebel artillery began to fire on our troops and bridges, but was silenced
by our guns; we had sixty in position on the north side.
It soon became evident that the enemy were not in force in
our vicinity, but for all that, it was one of the happiest moments of my life
when I saw the last of our corps over the bridge. We all started then for
Stafford C. H., where our corps was ordered to its old camp. We arrived at our
old headquarters at about two P. M., and found, to our joy, that our wagons had
arrived and tents were being pitched. It was not until after we were in
comfortable quarters that the terrible fatigue of the last ten days began to
tell on us. Since we had left Stafford, we had been without wagons or blankets,
with nothing to eat except pork and hard bread, and half the time not even
that, and we had averaged each day at least twelve or sixteen hours in the
saddle. The moment we touched a seat, we sunk into the most profound sleep and
stayed in this condition for several hours. It may seem strange to you that I
speak of being happy to get back into our old quarters, but you must remember
that we had been through danger and hardship for ten days and had met with
constant disappointment and were now safe back again where we were going to
have sleep, rest, and food.
Now, let us see what this campaign shows. It seems to me
that the plan was a very good one, with the exception of separating Sedgwick
with thirty thousand men from the army, and that it was carried out with great
success till General Hooker arrived at Chancellorsville. The next thing shown
is that the commander of our army gained his position by merely brag and blow,
and that when the time came to show himself, he was found without the qualities
necessary for a general. If another battle had been fought on Monday, it would
have been by the combined corps commanders, and the battle would have been won.
I doubt if, ever in the history of this war, another chance
will be given us to fight the enemy with such odds in our favor as we had last
Sunday, and that chance has been worse than lost to us. I don't believe any men
ever fought better than our Twelfth Corps, especially the First Division; for
two hours, they held their ground without any support, against the repeated assaults
of the enemy; they fired their sixty rounds of cartridges and held their line
with empty muskets till ordered to fall back. The old Second, of course, did
splendidly, and lost heavily, twenty-two killed, one hundred and four wounded,
ten missing; my company had five killed and eleven wounded. Lieutenant
Fitzgerald was killed, Coggswell, Grafton, Perkins, and Powers, wounded. George
Thompson had a narrow escape; a grape shot tore one leg of his trousers and his
coat almost off and grazed his leg. Our colors got thirty new holes in them and
the staff (the third one), was smashed to pieces.*
You cannot imagine the amount of admiration I have for
General Slocum, for the gallant way in which he conducted himself throughout
the campaign, and his skillful management of his command; then besides all
that, we have been so together, that he has seemed almost like my old friends
in the regiment.
I have written in this letter a pretty full account of the
operations as I have seen them, and I don't believe any one has had a better
chance, for during the fighting, I was at different times at every part of our
lines, and in communication with General Hooker and other generals.
Our staff casualties were as follows: — Lieutenant Tracy,
badly wounded in right arm, his horse shot in four places; one of our orderlies
shot and two more horses. I feel thankful to have come out unharmed from so
much danger. Tracy was carrying an order to General Williams, when he was hit:
somehow, he got outside our lines and was ordered to surrender; he said he
thought he wouldn't, turned his horse and ran for it, while the rebels put two
volleys after him.
I telegraphed, last Monday, that I was all right; I hope you
received the message.
_______________
* Actual loss: 31 killed and mortally wounded, 91 wounded, 7
prisoners. Total loss, 129.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 127-39
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