An engagement going
on near Warwick Creek. Our division is ordered forward. We advanced to within
two miles of the rebels' first line. The battery went to camp. Battery B was in
action.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 39
Our two howitzers go
to the front. Considerable fighting was going on during the night. Our four
Parrott guns ready to march at a minute's notice.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 39
At three o'clock P.
М., orders came for our Parrott guns to advance to within a mile of the enemy;
when, getting in sight of the rebels, we were saluted by a twelve-pound shot,
the only fired at us this day. The sections divided, the guns were unlimbered.
We kept up a desultory fire until sunset. The guns were sighted for the night.
The order given to fire one gun every thirty minutes at the enemy's works,
which was carried out.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 39
A brisk cannonade,
kept up since daylight from our side, without response from the enemy. By six
o'clock P. M. the enemy fired three times at Carlile's battery. Heavy
picket firing at ten o'clock in the night.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, pp. 39-40
The rebel infantry
fired several heavy volleys into our lines, doing no damage however. Generals
Sumner, Sedgwick and Gorman inspected the line. Our battery fired steadily all
the morning. We were relieved at four o'clock by Battery B, and went back to
camp.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
Camp Scott. The
Vermont brigade, under General Smith, was defeated at Warwick Creek. Temporary
suspension of beating drums, sounding the bugle, and playing of musicians.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
At nine o'clock A.
M. we went to the front. The enemy fired twice at our arrival. We did not respond.
In the evening we fell back to the woods, covered by the Fifteenth
Massachusetts regiment. A siege gun was fired during the night.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
At the front. The
enemy fired twice in the morning, and several times in the evening. Fire
returned in both cases. At dark we fell back again, in reserve.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
At the front. We
were relieved at nine o'clock A. M., by Battery B. News arrived of McDowell's
occupation of Fredericksburg. Heavy cannonade in the night.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
Fighting going
on. Our battery was ordered to the front. At our arrival,
fighting closed, and we went back to camp.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 40
Going to the front.
At ten o'clock P. M., General Sedgwick ordered Captain Tompkins to take
his battery to the Redoubt No. 7, to cover the finishing of Battery No. 8. The
rebels commenced heavy shelling, to which we replied vigorously. Sections of
Batteries B and G were also engaged in it. They returned to their camps at
nightfall. We fell back in reserve, supported by the Fifteenth Regiment
Massachusetts volunteers.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, pp. 40-1
At daylight we took
position in Battery No. 8, supported by one company of telescope-rifle
sharp-shooters. The rebels kept up a heavy fire all day. We went back in
reserve at dark.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 41
Battery No. 8. We
were relieved in the morning by Battery B. Heavy cannonading in the night.
SOURCE: Theodore
Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light
Artillery, p. 41
HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, Dec. 2, 1859.
SIR: When one thinks
of the United States of America, a majestic figure rises to the mind—Washington.
Now, in that country of Washington, see what is going on at this hour!
There are slaves in
the Southern States, a fact which strikes with indignation, as the most
monstrous of contradictions, the reasonable and freer conscience of the
Northern States. These slaves, these negroes, a white man, a free man, one John
Brown, wanted to deliver. Certainly, if insurrection be ever a sacred duty, it
is against Slavery. Brown wished to begin the good work by the deliverance
of the slaves in Virginia. Being a Puritan, a religious and
austere man, and full of the Gospel, he cried aloud to these men — his brothers
— the cry of emancipation "Christ has set us free!" The slaves,
enervated by Slavery, made no response to his appeal — Slavery makes deafness
in the soul. Brown, finding himself abandoned, fought with a handful of heroic
men; he struggled; he fell, riddled with bullets; his two young sons, martyrs
of a holy cause, dead at his side. This is what is called the Harper's Ferry
affair.
John Brown, taken
prisoner, has just been tried, with four of his fellows — Stephens, Coppoc,
Green, and Copeland. What sort of trial it was, a word will tell.
Brown, stretched
upon a truckle bed, with six half-closed wounds—a gun-shot wound in his
arm, one in his loins, two in the chest, two in the head—almost bereft of
hearing, bleeding through his mattress, the spirits of his two dead sons
attending him; his four fellow-prisoners crawling around him; Stephens with
four sabre wounds; "Justice" in a hurry to have done with the case;
an attorney, Hunter, demanding that it be despatched with sharp speed; a Judge,
Parker, absenting; the defence cut short; scarcely any delay allowed; forged or
garbled documents put in evidence; the witnesses for the prisoner shut out; the
defence clogged; two guns, loaded with grape, brought into the court, with an
order to the jailers to shoot the prisoners in case of an attempt at rescue;
forty minutes' deliberation; three sentences to death. I affirm, on my honor,
that all this took place, not in Turkey, but in America.
Such things are not
done with impunity in the face of the civilized world. The universal conscience
of mankind is an ever-watchful eye. Let the Judge of Charlestown, and Hunter,
and Parker, and the slave-holding jurors, and the whole population of Virginia,
ponder it well: they are seen! They are not alone in the world. At this moment
the gaze of Europe is fixed on America.
John Brown, condemned
to die, was to have been hanged on the 2d of December—this very day. But news
has this instant reached us. A respite is granted him. It is not until the 16th
that he is to die. The interval is short. Has a cry of mercy time to make
itself heard? No matter. It is a duty to lift up the voice.
Perhaps a second
respite may be granted. America is a noble land. The sentiment of humanity is
soon quickened among a free people. We hope that Brown may be saved. If it were
otherwise—if Brown should die on the scaffold on the 16th of December—what a
terrible calamity!
The executioner of
Brown—let us avow it openly (for the day of the kings is past, and the day of
the people dawns, and to the people we are bound frankly to speak
the truth)—the executioner of Brown would be neither, the Attorney
Hunter, nor the Judge Parker, nor the Governor Wise, nor the State of Virginia;
it would be, we say it, and we think it with a shudder, the whole American
Republic.
The more one loves,
the more one admires, the more one reveres the Republic, the more heart-sick
one feels at such a catastrophe. A single State ought not to have the power to
dishonor all the rest, and in this ease federal intervention is a clear right.
Otherwise, by hesitating to interfere when it might prevent a crime, the Union
becomes an accomplice. No matter how intense may be the indignation of the
generous Northern States, the Southern States associate them with the disgrace
of this murder. All of us, whosoever we may be—for whom the democratic cause is
a common country—feel ourselves in a manner compromised and hurt. If the
scaffold should be erected on the 16th of December, the incorruptible voices of
history would thenceforward testify that the august confederation of the New
World had added to all its ties of holy brotherhood a brotherhood of blood, and
the fasces of that splendid Republic would be bound together
with the running noose that hung from the gibbet of Brown.
This is a bond that
kills.
When we reflect on
what Brown, the liberator, the champion of Christ, has striven to effect, and
when we remember that he is about to die, slaughtered by the American Republic,
the crime assumes the proportions of the Nation which commits it; and when we
say to ourselves that this Nation is a glory of the human race; that—like France,
like England, like Germany—she is one of the organs of civilization; that she
sometimes even out-marches Europe by the sublime audacity of her progress; that
she is the queen of an entire world; and that she bears on her brow an immense
light of freedom; we affirm that John Brown will not die; for we recoil,
horror-struck, from the idea of so great a crime committed by so great a
People,
In a political
light, the murder of Brown would be an irreparable fault. It would penetrate
the Union with a secret fissure, which—would in the end tear it asunder. It is
possible that the execution of Brown might consolidate Slavery in Virginia, but
it is certain that it would convulse the entire American Democracy. You
preserve your shame, but you sacrifice your glory.
In a moral light, it
seems to me, that a portion of the light of humanity would be eclipsed; that
even the idea of justice and injustice would be obscured on the day which
should witness the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty.
As for myself,
though I am but an atom, yet being, as I am, in common with all other men,
inspired with the conscience of humanity, I kneel in tears before the great
starry banner of the New World, and with clasped hands, and with profound and
filial respect, I implore the illustrious American Republic, sister of the
French Republic, to look to the safety of the universal moral law, to save
Brown; to throw down the threatening scaffold of the 16th December, and not to
suffer that, beneath its eyes, and, I add, with a shudder, almost by its fault,
the first fratricide be outdone.
For yes, let America
know it, and ponder it well—there is something more terrible than
Cain slaying Abel—it is Washington slaying Spartacus.
SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, pp. 99-102
PARIS, 6th July, 1851.
MADAME: I have scarcely any thing to add to your letter. I would cheerfully sign every line of it. Pursue your holy work. You have with you all great souls and all good hearts.
You are pleased to believe, and to assure me, that my voice, in this august cause of liberty, will be listened to by the great American people, whom I love so profoundly, and whose destinies, I am fain to think, are closely linked with the mission of France. You desire me to lift up my voice.
I will do it at once, and I will do it on all occasions. I agree with you in thinking, that, within a definite time—that within a time not distant—the United States will repudiate Slavery with horror! Slavery in such a country! Can there be an incongruity more monstrous? Barbarism installed in the very heart of a country, which is itself the affirmation of Civilization; liberty wearing a chain; blasphemy echoing from the altar; the collar of the negro chained to the pedestal of Washington! It is a thing unheard of. I say more; it is impossible. Such a spectacle would destroy itself. The light of the nineteenth century alone is enough to destroy it.
What! Slavery sanctioned, by law, among that illustrious people, who for seventy years have measured the progress of civilization by their march, demonstrated Democracy by their power, and liberty by their prosperity! Slavery in the United States! It is the duty of this Republic to set such a bad example no longer. It is a shame, and she was never born to bow her head.
It is not when Slavery is taking leave of old nations, that it should be received by the new. What! When Slavery is departing from Turkey, shall it rest in America? What! Drive it from the hearth of Omar, and adopt it at the hearth of Franklin! No! No! No!
There is an inflexible logic which develops more or less slowly, which fashions, which redresses according to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to great spirits, the facts, the men, the laws, the morals, the people; or better, under all human things, there are things divine.
Let all those great souls who love the United States, as a country, be re-assured. The United States must renounce Slavery, or they must renounce Liberty. They cannot renounce Liberty. They must renounce Slavery, or renounce the Gospel. They will never renounce the Gospel.
Accept, Madame, with my devotion to the cause you advocate, the homage of my respect.
VICTOR HUGO.
SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, pp. 103-4
Organized at Benton Barracks, Mo., August 11 to September 8, 1864. Attached to District of St. Louis, Mo., Dept. of Missouri, to November, 1864. Paducah, Ky., November, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 4th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to December 14, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division (Detachment), Army Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to February, 1865. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 16th Army Corps (New), Military Division West Mississippi, to March, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 16th Army Corps, to August, 1865.
SERVICE.—Moved to Mexico, Mo., October 20, 1864. Expedition against Paris, Mo., October 23-30. Moved to Paducah, Ky., November 7-10, thence to Nashville, Tenn., November 22-26. To Columbia November 26. Battle of Franklin, Tenn., November 30. Battle of Nashville, Tenn., December 15-16. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28. Moved to Eastport, Miss., and duty there till February 3, 1865. Moved to Vicksburg, Miss., thence to New Orleans, La., February 3-21. Moved to Lakeport, Mobile Bay, Ala., thence to Dauphin Island, arriving there March 3. Campaign against Mobile and its defences March 17-April 12. Siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely March 26-April 8. Assault and capture of Fort Blakely April 9. March to Montgomery, Ala., April 12-25, and duty there till August. Mustered out August 8, 1865.
Regiment lost during service 10 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 58 Enlisted men by disease. Total 68.
SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1336-7
Duty in District of Central Missouri. Skirmish on Clear Fork near Warrensburg September, 1862. Beach Creek, Johnson County, February 5, 1863. Operations against Price September and October, 1864. Defence of Jefferson City September 30-October 7, 1864.
SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1337
Organized at Benton Barracks, Mo., August and September, 1864. Mustered in September 16, 1864. On garrison duty at St. Louis, Mo., till July, 1865. Mustered out July 11, 1865.
Regiment lost during service 1 Enlisted man killed and 2 Officers and 34 Enlisted men by disease. Total 37.
SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1337
Skirmish at Barry, Mo., August 14, 1862.
SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1337
Organized at Macon, Mo., September, 1864. Attached to District of Northern Missouri, Dept. of Missouri, to December, 1864. Tullahoma, Tenn., Dept. of the Cumberland, to February, 1865. Unattached, 4th Division, 20th Army Corps, Dept. of the Cumberland, to March, 1865. 2nd Brigade, Defences Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, Dept. Cumberland, to April, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 1st Sub-District, District of Middle Tennessee, to June, 1865.
SERVICE.—Companies "A," "C" and "H" moved to Sturgeon, Mo., September 23, 1864. Garrison duty there and at Columbia till November. Regiment assigned to guard duty on line of the Northern Missouri and Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, till November 10. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., November 12-13, thence to Paducah, Ky., November 29-December 2. To Clarksville and Fort Donelson, Tenn., December 3-6, and duty there till December 30. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., December 30-31, thence to Tullahoma, Tenn., January 2-3, 1865, and duty there till March, operating against guerrillas in Southern Tennessee and Northern Alabama. Action at Corn's Farm, Franklin County, Tenn., February 6. Garrison duty at Shelbyville, Tenn., till June 23. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., June 23. Mustered out Companies "H," "I" and "K" March 22, 1865; Regiment June 28, 1865.
Regiment lost during service 6 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 124 Enlisted men by disease. Total 134.
SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1337
