The 6th corps had been ordered to support the 2d, but owing to the thick woods in the vicinity of the railroad the corps became separated and the confederates under Gen. A. P. Hill slipped in between the two commands and the first intimation we had of their presence was a furious firing on the flank and rear of our division which caused much confusion. So sudden and unexpected was the attack that part of several regiments and their colors were captured and Gen. Gibbons" second division lost four cannon.
The next morning the lost ground was regained and in this position we remained some time, erecting Forts Davis and Sedgwick, which were about a half mile apart south of the old Jerusalem plank road.
CELEBRATING THE FOURTH.
The Fourth of July, 1864, our bands played "Yankee Doodle" and other national airs, while strains of "Dixie," "My Maryland," etc., floated over from the rebel side. In the evening the usual artillery duels furnished fireworks for the occasion.
The lines were farther apart where we were at this time than over on the right near the Appomattox River, and the pickets used to meet on friendly terms under the cover of darkness. Of course there were strict orders against it, but they were disobeyed nightly and the men met and swapped stories, coffee for tobacco, newspapers, etc., and went back to their lines and were shooting at each other again the next day.
LINCOLN AT THE FRONT.
President Lincoln made a visit to the front about this time and was enthusiastically received.
The men knew by his looks, his kind words to the sick and wounded that he was in deep sympathy with them, and I think his presence was of untold benefit to the rank and file of the army.
DRUMMED OUT OF CAMP.
The only man I ever saw drummed out of camp was down in front of Petersburg. He was a coward, and large placards proclaiming the fact were suspended from his neck, one on his breast and the other on his back, his head was shaved and a fifer and drummer marched him all through the division to the tune of the "Rogue"s March," and then he was given a dishonorable discharge and sent home.
CAVALRY VS. HEAVY ARTILLERY.
Among the deserters from our company when we were in the forts, at Washington, was one whom we met more than a year later.
One day, on the march as we were taking a few moments rest by the roadside a regiment of cavalry came along and halted opposite us. All at once one of our boys exclaimed "Well, I"ll be blowed if there isn"t Sam P----," and sure enough there was our long lost Sam sitting astride of a horse.
"h.e.l.lo, Sam!" was shouted by several of his old comrades, and one ventured to ask what he had left his first love for?
Sam"s reply was about as follows: "I was willing to serve my country, but I"m cussed if I ever liked that heavy infantry business. It was a dirty, mean trick for them to enlist us for flying artillery and then change to heavy, and I didn"t propose to tread mud with a big knapsack on my back, a musket and 40 rounds of ammunition, so I just transferred myself to the cavalry."
About this time the bugles sounded "forward" and as Sam rode away with the dusty troopers he called out; "Good-bye old company H," and that was the last we ever saw of him, but I doubt not he rendered good service in the cause for he was not a bad fellow, even if he did prefer cavalry to heavy artillery.
CHAPTER XIII.
GRANT"S HEADQUARTERS AT CITY POINT.
City Point, a little insignificant wharf town on a point of land at the intersection of the Appomattox with the James River, about 25 miles from Richmond and seven or eight miles from Petersburg, leaped into world-wide importance in 24 hours in June "64.
Gen. Grant made his headquarters there until the surrender of Lee and it was the base of supplies for the army of the James, as well as the army of the Potomac.
Think if you can what it would mean to Sackets Harbor, if an army of 75,000 to 100,000 men should make that town the base of its operations against Watertown, and over on the Pillar Point sh.o.r.e was another army half as large.
Do you know what it means to clothe and feed such an army with the bare necessities, to say nothing of what the horses require to live upon or of the shiploads of ammunition that was used in the nine months" operations?
All had to be transported there by water, so you can imagine what a vast number of transports filled the river.
Admiral Porter"s fleet of monitors, gunboats and other warlike craft were anch.o.r.ed off Bermuda Hundred in sight of Grant"s headquarters, which was a modest log house on the bank of the Appomattox.
Gen. Grant was the least pretentious general officer in the army and used to walk and ride around with only one orderly with him, and seldom wore any insignia of his rank.
About a mile from his headquarters, towards the front, were the great field hospitals of the army. Large wall tents were used and they covered a vast acreage of ground.
It is not likely that so many sick and wounded were ever gathered together in this country before, and it is to be hoped that there may never be a repet.i.tion of it.
Transports left daily loaded with sick and wounded, for as soon as a patient could stand the trip he was sent north to make room for the daily arrivals from the front.
President Lincoln and many other distinguished men were Gen. Grant"s guests at different times, and Mrs. Grant spent most of the fall and winter with her husband.
The cannonading along Butler"s lines as well as at Petersburg could be plainly heard at City Point.
A WAR-TIME RAILROAD.
Gen. Grant wanted a railroad for the transportation of supplies and ammunition to the front and he had one built.
There was no pretense of grading; they just placed ties on top of the ground and laid the rails across them.
After the road reached the front it was run along in the rear of the lines and as they were extended the road followed.
The "Johnnies" got a range on the road for a mile or more and they wasted a lot of ammunition trying to hit the flying trains, which were partially protected by earthworks.
They did not run any parlor cars for the soldiers in those days and one day when the writer was the bearer of some dispatches to City Point he rode in a box car with Gens. Horace Porter, Forsythe and other officers of Grant"s staff, and it occurred to him that we were in greater danger than when at the front. After we got out of the car I heard the engineer talking about the flying run and laughing about the shaking up he gave the officers.
BEN BUTLER.
Ben Butler was the most unique character of the civil war on the Union side and was as full of eccentricities then as in public life in later years.
When Gen. Grant started out on his campaign against Richmond in 1864 he sent Gen. Butler with a force of 40,000 soldiers around by water to operate from the south side.
Butler landed his army on Bermuda Hundred, a peninsula that lies between the James and Appomattox rivers and there the confederates hemmed him in, or as Gen. Grant expressed it, "bottled him up" until Grant"s army arrived at Petersburg. Then his intrenched position became of vast importance in the operations against the confederate capital.
The 10th artillery boys, who were with that portion of the army on Bermuda Hundred, will remember Butler"s "Dutch Gap" ca.n.a.l.
The historic James river, from City Point to Richmond, is one of the crookedest streams in the country, and the rebel batteries had command of a seven-mile bend in the river that Butler thought to get around by cutting across lots, so to speak.
The distance across was not much over a half mile, and Butler conceived the idea of a ca.n.a.l. The banks were high and it required a vast amount of labor to make the excavation.
The position was exposed to the fire of the rebel artillery and they kept up an incessant bombardment of the men at work who had holes in the banks after the manner of swallows and when things got too hot they would crawl into their individual bomb proofs.
Butler did not get his ca.n.a.l finished in time to be of service to the gunboats before the fall of Richmond but I understand it was completed after the war.