Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 1, 1862

Remained in our quarters up to [March 7].

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 34

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Friday, March 7, 1862

Left Harper's Ferry. Detached to General Gorman's brigade. Marched till within a mile of Charlestown, Virginia, and went in camp to the left of the road, close to the First Minnesota, Colonel Sully.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 34

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 8, 1862

Remained in camp near Charlestown, and received new Sibly tents to-day.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 34

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Monday, March 10, 1862

Marched through Charlestown, and thence to Berryville. On this occasion, something happened that wants mentioning. When leaving Poolesville, Captain J. A. Tompkins ordered the men to carry the knapsacks on the back. This is contrary to regulations. It created a great deal of dissatisfaction. The lot of a soldier is hard enough, without irritating him unreasonably. But, honor to the lamented hero, General Sedgwick, who, riding by our battery, at Charlestown, peremptorily ordered Captain Tompkins to have no more knapsacks carried by any of his men. An engagement was anticipated. Rebels were seen beyond Ripton. By one and a-half o'clock, our left section unlimbered, and fired two shells towards Berryville. Van Allen's, and the Eighth Michigan cavalry, drove the rebel cavalry, two hundred and fifty strong, out of the town. Our battery followed closely—Gorman's brigade in our rear. The stars and bars were lowered from the church steeple, and a substitute furnished in the shape of the colors of the First Minnesota. The pieces of the battery were brought in separate position by sections.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, pp. 34-5

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Tuesday, March 11, 1862

Halted at Berryville during daytime. In the evening, the battery united outside the town, going in camp; but the guns in position.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 35

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Wednesday, March 12, 1862

Some men of the First Minnesota, and Corporal Butler, of our battery, took possession of Gregg's printing office, of "The Berryville Observator," and published quite a number of copies of said paper. News of McClellan's occupation of Manassas arrived, in consequence of which, a salute of forty guns was fired. In the evening, when Captain Tompkins rode into camp, the assembly was blown at once, and he addressed the men as follows: "Boys, a fight is going on at Winchester, and this battery must be there within twenty-five minutes." Camp was struck, and the battery on the road, when the order was countermanded.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 35

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Thursday, March 13, 1862

At Berryville. Marched by eight o'clock A. M. towards Winchester. When within two miles of the latter place, orders arrived for our division to return to Harper's Ferry. General Banks' troops were occupying Winchester already. Arrived at Berryville again by four o'clock in the afternoon.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, pp. 35-6

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Friday, March 14, 1862

Marched to our old campground, beyond Charlestown.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 15, 1862

Marched to Harper's Ferry, and occupied the government building, in which we were quartered before, again. A heavy rain-storm to-day.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 22, 1862

We left Harper's Ferry in the morning. During the afternoon, the battery was loaded on railroad cars at Sandy Hook. The train started by seven o'clock in the evening, for Washington.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Sunday, March 23, 1862

Arrived at Washington by eleven o'clock A. M., and unloaded the battery at once. Marched from the depot to the camp of the New England cavalry. The guns were guarded near the depot. The horses, under charge of Captain Tompkins, and Lieutenant J. G. Hassard, were coming on the country road.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Monday, March 24, 1862

At Camp "Dunkins." Quiet.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Tuesday, March 25, 1862

The drivers arrived with the horses. In the afternoon, our James' rifle guns were returned to the Washington Arsenal, and those of Battery I, First United States regulars, given to us. They consist of four Parrott guns and two brass howitzers.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Wednesday, March 26, 1862

Camp Dunkins. Nothing important.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 37

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Thursday, March 27, 1862

We are to join McClellan's army on the Peninsula. Had battery drill in the afternoon, and directly after that marched to the foot of G street to load the battery. Recruits arrived from Rhode Island, Joseph Brooks, who was taken prisoner at the Bull Run battle amongst them.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 37

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Friday, March 28, 1862

The guns were loaded on board the propeller Novelty; the horses on the barge Onrust. Those of the right section on the schooner Charmer. The vessels started by twelve o'clock M. Dropped anchor in front of Alexandria at six o'clock in the evening.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 37

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Sunday, March 30, 1862

On board the Onrust. Started again at daylight in tow of the steamer Golden Gate, having four companies of the First Minnesota aboard. Anchored near Port Tobacco in the evening.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 37

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Monday, March 31, 1862

Steamed down the Chesapeake Bay, and dropped anchor opposite Fortress Monroe.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 37

Speech of Theodore Tilton, December 2, 1859—12 p.m.*

I HAVE listened to the striking of your city bell! Who knows but it marked the very hour and moment when the gate of Heaven was opened, and the spirit of a new martyr passed in! To-day the nation puts to death its noblest citizen! (Cheers and hisses.) What was his crime? Guilty of what? Guilty of loving his fellow-men too well! (Applause and hisses.) Guilty of a heart of too great human kindness! Guilty of too well "remembering them that are in bonds as bound with them!" Has the brave old man still a few moments more of life? Then, though he cannot hear our words, let us say, "God bless him, and farewell!" (Applause and hisses.) But if the last sad moment is already passed, what then remains? I know not what remains for you, but as for me, I feel like throwing roses upon that scaffold and that coffin! (Mingled applause and hisses, which continued for some moments, during which the speaker advanced to the edge of the platform, and folded his arms.) Honor! thrice honor to the good Christian who to-day dies in the faith! It is the hour not of his defeat, but of his triumph! Our hearts are large for him to-day!

But what can I say? This is a time for silence rather than for words. We are standing by the old man's open grave, waiting for his body to be buried. When friends gather together to speak of a good man who has departed, every one has some word to utter which is peculiar to himself; some word which best expresses what is each man's most grateful and endearing memory of him who has gone. My own tribute to John Brown, which I offer on this day of his death, is gratitude for the influence which his heroism, his fortitude, and his faith have exerted upon my religious life. I have been made a better Christian by that man's life and death. His own great faith has strengthened mine. His own great courage has quickened mine. His Christian example of unwavering heroism and patience—in prison, under his wounds, in prospect of the gallows—all this has inspired me to a higher religious life. It has kindled within my heart a greater love to God and to my fellow-men. This is a tribute to his memory which I cannot to-day withhold.

I do not judge him merely by his last great act. John Brown was a Christian long before the great eye of the world was set on him; for, from his sixteenth year to his fifty-ninth, he has been a true and honored member of the Church of Christ. The world has not watched all that long career, but it has seen enough in a few days in his prison to make it wonder and admire.

You remember how he received the Governor of Virginia. He stood in his presence as Paul stood before Agrippa, not wishing to exchange places, but only holding out his hand and saying, " I would that thou wert altogether as I am, save these bonds!" (Applause.) You remember how he received his sentence. When the Earl of Argyle who, with his own hands put upon the head of Charles II, the crown of England, was afterwards condemned to death by the same king, the stern old Presbyterian, on hearing his fate, arose in court, and said, "The king honors me with a speedy gratitude; for while I helped him only to a crown which must shortly perish, he hastens me to a crown that is incorruptible, and that fadeth not away." So that other stern old Presbyterian, who dies this day in Virginia, arose in court and uttered a speech of equal heroism and moral grandeur — a speech that will go down to the end of time with all the grand words of all the world's heroes. (Applause and hisses.)

I cannot look upon his steadfastness without first marvelling, and then thanking God. John Brown was a Puritan — the sixth in descent from the band of Pilgrims who stepped on Plymouth Rock. I think of him and go back to old Bishop Hooper of English history — the first Puritan, the father of the Pilgrim Fathers who, when he was condemned to death for conscience' sake, wrote in his cell at Newgate, "I have spoken the truth with my lips; I have written it with my pen; I am ready to confirm it, by God's grace, with my blood!" John Brown's letters, written in his cell at Charlestown, bear in every line the same heroic testimony to God's truth! (Applause, mingled with loud hisses.) It is this high and grand faith in God that has sustained him in the long hours of his imprisonment, from its beginning until to-day that now ends it.

I have no fear how he mounted that scaffold. I have heard no news, but I believe in my soul that when the telegraph shall flash the story, it will tell of no faltering, no tremulous step, no recantation — nothing but faith, constancy, cheerfulness, heroism! When the great Marquis of Montrose, who suffered in Scotland for the cause of Church and King, was led to execution, it was a day of dark skies and threatening storms, but as he approached the scaffold the sun for a moment broke through the clouds and shone full upon his head as if the Divine glory had come to crown the saint before the martyr! And he mounted the ladder, as if it had been the ladder which Jacob saw, and walked straightway up into Heaven. So to-day, amid the greater clouds and shadows that have fallen upon our sad hearts, I believe that a light brighter than the sun has shone upon the old man who has this day gone to the gallows, and that, as he looked up for the last time toward the heavens over his head, —

"God's glory smote him on the face!"

(Cheers and hisses.)

He died no dishonorable death. Did you notice, in his late letter, which Dr. Furness read, the little line to his wife, "Think not that any ignomy has fallen upon you or upon your children, because I have come to the scaffold!" Ah! the scaffold is sometimes a throne greater than a king's. They who suffer upon it rule the world more than emperors!

You heard Mr. Hale's lecture last night. He said, "The highest province of history is to vindicate a good man from obloquy and reproach." To that impartial history which vindicates the martyrs and turns their martyrdom into glory, we commend to-day the name and memory of the martyr, John Brown! (Applause and hisses.) The deed of this day will not die! It will live in history as long as there shall be a history for heroes! Said Latimer to Ridley, when the blaze of martyrdom was wrapping them both around like a garment, "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley; we have this day lighted a candle in England which, by God's grace, no man shall ever put out." To-day God looks down from heaven on a martyrdom whose light shall shine over the world brighter than any blazing fire that ever gilded fagot or stake! This scaffold in Virginia shall stand as long as the world shall stand! No man can ever strike it down, or put it away! It will abide forever, as the monument of a Christian man who lived a hero and died a martyr, and whose name, to-day bequeathed to history, shall go down through the world gathering increasing honor through all coming time! (Great clapping and hissing.) I recall at this hour of noon those beautiful words of the New Testament, in the story of Saul, the persecutor of the prophets, struck down on his way to Damascus — "At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from Heaven above the brightness of the fun!" He fell to the ground, blinded and terrified! He rose to his feet, converted and transformed! I pray God that at this hour of midday, at this solemn and awful moment of death, this nation may be struck down upon its knees, by the sudden glory of God bursting out of Heaven — and that it may be humbled in the dust until it shall rise repentant, and the scales shall fall from its eyes, and the whole nation shall stand at last in the light and liberty of the sons of God! (Applause and hisses, during which Mr. Tilton took his seat.)

_______________

* Delivered at noon of the 2d of December, at a public meeting of the friends of John Brown's cause in Philadelphia. As the speaker rose to address the audience the clock struck twelve.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, pp. 93-7

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, Sunday Morning, September 20, 1863

. . . up and ready for battle at an early hour, and, after day-light, were allowed to build small fires.

Under the dense fog, no demonstration was made on either side until a late hour in the morning, and the opportunity was improved by our generals to make a better disposition of their forces than had existed on the preceding day. Gregg's Brigade was moved to the right, where the heaviest fighting had been, and was expected to take place again. It formed the second line, of which there were three, and was not expected to make the first charge. As soon as the fog cleared away, the battle opened on the extreme right and gradually came on down to the left, the artillery firing being much heavier than it was the day before. Between 10 and 11 o'clock, the enemy's batteries at one point opened and shelled us furiously for some time, our line lying down and taking it easy until the command "Forward" was given, when it advanced steadily and in splendid order until it overtook the brigade in front, which, after capturing the first line of works, had halted in the face of a terrible fire of artillery and musketry from across a field. There were said to be sixteen pieces disputing our advance here, supported by lines of infantry. The brigade in our front being sheltered by a shallow ravine, seemed loth to quit its vantage-ground, and Colonel Sugg, commanding Gregg's Brigade, asked permission of its commander to pass over it, which was granted. We sprang forward at the word with loud yells, and in a few seconds were under the play of the enemy's batteries in an open stubble-field. Our line made no halt or waver, but dashed ahead, and in a brief time had captured the guns, shooting down some of the gunners and clubbing others as they stood at their posts. The second line of fortifications, just in rear, was carried by the same assault-the infantry flying in disorder before us. This brigade being now ahead of every thing, was halted to allow other parts of the line to come up, when, if it had been pushed forward a couple of hundred yards, it could have captured, almost without resistance, a large train of wagons and ordnance. Its advanced position created some apprehension of a flank-fire, and, to meet this contingency, it was filed to the right, and skirmishers were thrown out to find out the situation. I was again called upon for this duty, though very tired and thirsty. We advanced, cautiously, from tree to tree, and sprang the game a half mile off, posted in a strong position among the hills. While on this duty, a solitary horseman came dashing through the woods from the front, and, not knowing our whereabouts, found himself in unexpected range of our rifles. Every man in the line fired upon him except myself. He looked so fine, on his gray charger, with fancy trappings, that I hadn't the heart to do so. Only one shot took effect, and this was fired by John Jobe, just as he was in the act of escaping over the hill. Moving forward to the top of a ridge, we found the enemy's skirmishers on the other side, but Captain Feeney's Company soon drove them back on the main body. The brigade now came on, and took position on the ridge, and waited for the enemy's attack, which, from the signs at the front, was momentarily expected. It had not long to wait. With a feeble cheer, a heavy force advanced through the woods and opened a furious fire. The brigade to our right—the same over whose heads we had charged at the opening-gave way and left us exposed to a heavy cross-fire. The colonel now ordered us to retire a short distance, until the other brigade could be rallied, when we moved forward again. Now ensued the hardest and closest engagement we ever had, the enemy being in heavy force; but, notwithstanding that our line was thinned by the casualties of battle already, we held our ground against the odds for two hours before reinforcements came to our help. These came under the same withering fire to which we were exposed, and suffered heavily. The fire was kept up obstinately by both sides, and it was not until a little before sunset that the enemy showed signs of weakening, when we made a charge, driving them over the hill, which they contested to the last inch. Again they rallied, but this time for a few minutes only, when they gave way and quit the field in disorder. Night and the tired condition of our troops prevented any further pursuit. Just before the enemy retreated, and as I was in the act of ramming down the last out of sixty cartridges, I was struck in the hip and rendered hors du combat.

Our loss this day was heavy, both in officers and men, though my company was comparatively favored. Doc. Conway had his shoulder shattered; Robert Fulton, flesh wound in arm, which proved fatal; Charley Bagley, in the shoulder; Billie Hill, in the shoulder, severe; and Tom Pinkerton, in the chest. Other companies in the regiment lost heavily, and other regiments in the brigade lost more than ours. Colonel Tillman was wounded in the shoulder; Major Robinson, in the groin; Colonel Beaumont was killed; Captain Wm. March, of the Forty-first, fell while leading his men in a charge. I was carried off the field, after the fight, by Lieutenant Chafin and Mathew Hathcock, and reached the Field Hospital during the night.

The hospitals were all crowded with our own and the enemy's wounded, and the surgeons could not attend to half of them. I remained there nearly a week, when I was so much improved that I could assist my friends who were worse hurt. Thos. Halbert was wounded in his good arm, but I don't think he will lose it. Doc. Conway is badly hurt, but we are keeping his arm cool with water, and hope to save it. We came to this place (Empire Hospital) last Tuesday, and are comfortably situated. I intend returning to my command to-morrow.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, pp. 366-8