The Story Of The First Massachusetts Light Battery, Attached To The Sixth Army Corps: Glance At Events In The Armies Of The Potomac And Shenandoah, From The Summer Of 1861 To The Autumn Of 1864.

A. J. Bennett, private, First Massachusetts Light Battery...

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Preface

The author takes this earliest opportunity, to gratefully acknowledge his indebtedness to Comrade John W. Bell, for valuable material contributed by him to the First and last chapters of this work; to Comrades Bussey and Kenney, for interesting matter furnished; to Comrades S. H. Reynolds, D. W. Ellis, and others, whose active sympathy and warm interest have materially aided him; to Gen. H. W. Slocum, whose kind letter of recognition of the services of our company appears in this volume; and to

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Biographical sketches

Was born in York, Pa., February 27, 1823; graduating at West Point in June, 1843, he was assigned to the corps of topographical engineers. In the Chihuahua Column in the early part of Gen. Taylor's campaign in Northern Mexico, he served upon the staff of Gen. Wool. He was on the staff of the Commander-in-chief at Buena Vista, and for Gallant and meritorious services in that battle, was brevetted first lieutenant. For several years prior to 1852, he was instructor in natural and experimental phil

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“Roster of the First Massachusetts Light Battery” Excerpt From The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, attached to the Sixth Army Corps: glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864

Capt. Josiah Porter, Commanding. First Sergt., Jos. W. B. Wright. Commissioned, later. Quartermaster Sergt., Jno. B. Mccartney. Discharged for disability. Died since muster out. Clerk, Jno. W. Bell. Guidon, Nicholas G. Lynch. Buglers, Francis Hoyt, Discharged for disability. Died since muster out. Thos. S. Hanick. Lieut. Wm. H. Mccartney, Commanding. (Commissioned Captain, Dec., 1862.) First Detachment.— Sergt. Joseph Barnes; Gunner, Geo. Lawrence; Chief of Caisson, Thos. H. Daily. Killed or die

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I.

The name of the literature of the great Civil War is Legion. During the Two decades since our muster out as volunteers, a steady stream of chronicles, some general in their character, others distinctively reciting the story of particular commands, has flowed from the press. Yet there will be ever room for One more version of the story of the deeds of the Army of the Potomac, until the tale has been told from the point of view of every regimental and battery organization of that army, by some sur

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II.

Reaching Alexandria at nightfall we encamped in the old town, on a waste tract which sloped from the Cloud's Mills road toward Hunting Creek. On the south side of this old pike, under the guns of Fort Ellsworth, nearly opposite the old slave mart, whose warehouse and dismal pen had served during the previous winter respectively for guardhouse and prison of the provost, we tarried Three days while arrangements were perfected for our embarkation and departure. As the paymaster appeared upon the da

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III.

Nothing unusual occurred until the middle of the week, when Boots and saddles!sounded, and, the camp being speedily broken up, we found ourselves moving down the river toward Cold Harbor. During the previous weeks, the Engineer corps of the army had been busy in performing various works which the wisdom and skill (conceded by the military world to be profound) of the chief of engineers had planned. One phase of this work was the trestlework bridges, rendered indispensable because the wings of ou

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IV.

The First weeks of August found us still lingering here. Newspapers had given us Pope's somewhat grandiloquent address to the Army of Virginia, and their version of the Battle at Cedar Mountain, in Culpepper County; from which it would seem that the ubiquitous Jackson is again near his old stamping-ground. Where is Lee? It must have been as late as the 20th of the month when the Sixth Corps commenced its march across the peninsula towards Williamsburg. We made speed as if it were a forced march.

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V.

The Sixth Corps moved to Fairfax, C. H., where a brief halt was made. On the afternoon of the First of September, we passed Fairfax Seminary on the edge of the county, Four miles from Alexandria, and a few minutes later crossed the field to the Leesburg pike, through our last winter's camp. We noticed a tiny Union flag flying from a pole nailed to John Going's gable. As it was alleged that John had said he would rot in Fort Ellsworth before he would raise the Union colors, and as John was not at

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VI.

A pontoon bridge had been thrown across the Potomac at this place, over which we passed and climbed the high banks on the Virginia shore. We marched up Loudon Valley, which is a continuation in Virginia of Pleasant Valley, in Maryland, lying between the same ranges, which, under different local names, cross the State of Virginia. Somewhat more than a day's march from Berlin, the Sixth Corps, having bivouacked on a farm which lies in the north central part of the valley, stretching from the pike

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VII.

On the 10th of December, there was a general movement of the Left grand division toward the Rappahannock. On the 11th, Thursday, the rear of the Sixth Corps moved across the road that runs from Falmouth to the Potomac, Via White Oak church, passing the church, which is perhaps Three miles from the town, and as far from the brow of the height which overlooks the Valley of the Rappahannock a couple of miles below Fredericksburg, on the opposite side of the river. From White Oak church southerly to

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VIII.

Our company lay in the rear of the church, and Hexamer's Hoboken Battery lay upon our right. The next week was diligently employed in preparing as comfortable winter quarters for men and horses as available means would permit; and the ingenuity and industry of the individuals of the several detachments soon reared a village of small log cabins with stone fireplaces, with their shelter-tents for the roofs of their dwellings, that was interesting to behold. A corral for the horses, the most comfor

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IX.

Thus light-weighted, on the 28th of April, 1863, the Sixth Corps, now commanded by Gen. Sedgwick, was once more in column, moving toward the river, creeping through woods, through ravines, behind ridges, to conceal the march from the Confederates. The progress was not rapid. Evidently, it was not designed to bring the corps in sight of the enemy this afternoon, for at night the corps had been moved forward a couple of miles by a circuitous route, and lay in quite compact order, hidden from the o

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X.

The great highway from Falmouth to Alexandria leads through Stafford, C. H., across Aquia Creek to the ford at Wolf Run Shoal on the Occoquan. North of the Occoquan, a road leads northwesterly from the highway, to the Fairfax Station on the Alexandria and Orange Railroad, Eighteen or Twenty miles West of Alexandria. This was part of the route traversed in June, 1863, by the Sixth Corps, in its transfer from the vicinity of the Rappahannock to the subsequent theatre of military operations in Penn

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XI.

Examine now the map, Vicinity of Gettysburg.Note the position of the town. Observe the long, irregular, curved ridge south of it; the east and short arm of this curvilinear range is Culp's Hill. At the apex of the angle formed by the intersection of Culp's Hill with the longer arm of the range, is Cemetery Hill. South, along the long arm of the ridge, where the crossroad passes from the Baltimore pike to the Emmetsburg road, is Little Round Top. South of this, and the base of the map, is Round T

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XII.

A hard forced march from Gettysburg to Frederick, Via Emmetsburg, Maryland, commenced on the night of the 5th of July; we encountered on the way Sisters of Charity, proceeding to the hospitals in Pennsylvania to minister to the wounded, as is ever their wont when the occasion for their services occurs. Our arrival at Frederick was in the midst of rain, that had been falling more or less through the previous Twelve hours, and we were quite hungry. After a brief halt in this town, where we saw the

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XIII.

At Eleven o'clock on the 26th of November, our corps, having been delayed since sunrise in the midst of the Third Corps camps at Brandy Station (that command having been ordered to precede us), moved with slow and tedious steps toward Jacob's Ford on the Rapidan. The movement was of that peculiarly irritating character which can only be appreciated by those who have experienced the effect of being prodded on through tanglewood, brush, and briar, and then suddenly pulled up standing, hungry, and

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XIV.

Once more established in winter quarters, the boys knew how to extract all the comfort and enjoyment of which the situation was susceptible; the leisure intervals occurring between times of regular camp duty, were employed by many in reading; papers, magazines, and books found their way to Brandy Station, furnishing pastime or food for reflection, according to the tastes and habits of the readers. In Two neighboring regiments, the men had erected commodious chapels, the walls of logs and the roo

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XV.

The march through the bottom lands of the Chickahominy, and over the fields of Charles City County, was uneventful, and, except that the weather was less sultry, and it was an advance movement, would remind One of the march down the peninsula, in the summer of 1862. It was, we believe, on the 5th of June, that, begrimed with dust and perspiration, we reached a point opposite Charles City courthouse, where the James burst upon our view, glistening in the sun like polished steel. What a spectacle

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XVI.

Opequon Creek rises Five or Six miles South of Winchester, and flows northeast from Three to Four miles east of the. city, into the Potomac. Beside the Three fords, to which we have alluded in a previous chapter, there were several nearer the mouth, notably One near Summit Point. There, Torbert was to cross, early on the 19th, and form a junction of Merritt's and Averill's cavalry, near Stephenson's Depot, on the Winchester division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, north of east from Winchest

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XVII.

An immediate pursuit commenced,— the Federal infantry and artillery hastening along the pike, from Strasburg up the Shenandoah, through Edenburg, onward, the livelong night, reaching Woodstock at early morning. What a solid mass of troops was here, drawn into the field on the east side of the pike,— artillery in close order, and regiments likewise. The men were somewhat tired, we judge, as riders would be seen to throw themselves down, drop to sleep, and anon jump to their feet when some lead or

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XVIII.

We left at Harrisonburg, October 3, 1864, not only those men originally recruited for our company, whose terms of service had not expired, and those who belonged to the Sixteenth New York Volunteers and had been attached to our command since the departure of their regiment, but also our veterans who had re-enlisted at Brandy Station in the spring. This roll of honor embraced the names of Charles Appleton, Joseph H. Marea, Henry Smitherman, Richard J. Isaacs, Wm. Hanscom, Martin V. Cushing, Nicho

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Notes

Russell's brigade consisted of the Sixth Maine, Fifth Wisconsin, Forty-ninth and One Hundred and Nineteenth Pennsylvania. The First Two, charging, seized the fort without firing a gun; then followed a hand-to-hand fight, and in Ten minutes, before the other regiments of the brigade had been brought forward, the Maine and Wisconsin regiments had each lost nearly half of its members. Then the remainder of the brigade, with the survivors of the First Two regiments, who had fallen back, leaped over

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Alphabetical Index

Absentees...103,104 Alexandria... 69 Andrew, Gov. John A. ... 101 Antietam... 78-80 Aquia Creek... 69, 115 Army Corps. ... 27 Arnold, Gen. Richard... 35 Bakersfield... 83, 84 Bands ... 26, 169 B. C. ... 42 Bladensburg... 21 Brown, John... 169 Botts, John Minor... 147 Brandy Station... 138, 139 Broad Run... 28, 70 Bridge, Woodbury's... 46 Bridges, Pontoon... 67 Brooks, Gen. W. H. T. ... 89, 110 Burnside, Gen. A. E. ... 89, 90 Bull Run... 28 Camps Cameron and Revere. ... 17, 23 Camps in Winter ...

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