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WHEN General Foster learned of the attack upon our outposts and that a large Rebel force was in the vicinity of Newbern, he ordered all officers and men to remain in quarters. The Provost Guard had orders to turn every one back to their stores and houses. After making my rounds with this order I was in duty bound to ride to my own quarters, or run the risk of being placed under arrest for disobeying General Foster's orders. However I found out from one of our Company Officers who had come off guard, that General D. H. Hill's Division, of Longstreet's Corps, had besieged the city with General Pettigrew's brigade over the Neuse, before Fort Anderson; General Robertson's brigade over the Trent, threatening the railroad to Beaufort Harbor; General Daniel's brigade out at Deep Gully this side of the Trent; and General Ranson's brigade near Batchelder's Creek, this side of the Neuse. And at lunch we held a council of War. The question was, "does the General's order include Mrs. Peabody?" It was decided for her to try and get as far as Provost Headquarters and then get a pass from Colonel Messenger, the Provost Marshal. She did, and went to the river front in the upper part of the city, where the shells had reached from the rebel guns, over the river, a mile and a half away; saw the Gunboat Hunchback aground, within range and firing, saw other gunboats steaming up; heard that the signalling on the "Hunchback," said for those in the fort not to surrender, for relief was being sent, and was told that every man would be ordered into the trenches before daylight. As darkness shut down there was a lull. We were just leaving the dinner table when an order came which Colonel Codman handed to me with the remark: "Adjutant, you will have to attend to this in person; bring

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up a company from For Macon." It was an order from General Foster to send an officer to Fort Macon and bring up one company of the two serving there as Heavy Artillery, to Fort Spinola on the left of our line, by daylight to-morrow morning. Colonel Ralph Webster to furnish transportation.

Taking my Smith and Wesson's seven shooter, a box of cartridges, and a liberal supply of cigars, I started out for the Railroad Depot, the headquarters of Colonel Webster, Quarter-master in charge of transportation, on General Foster's Staff. When I presented the order, he said: "Winsor you cannot get to Fort Macon. The rebel cavalry tore up the track and cut the wires below Havelock station just before dark and I expect ditched an engine." "Well, how about going by Steamer?" "Why, man, it is 90 miles to Hatteras Inlet, and you would not get to Beaufort Harbor before to-morrow noon." Then I said, "Just write transportation refused, and sign it right on this order."

"Oh, No, not for Christopher Columbus Holmes!" (Webster was an old Cadet). "The only engine I have here, is the new one, "General Foster," and if you lose her, you had better desert, rather than come back to this department." It took half an hour to get her steam up. Then she with a box freight car pulled into the station. The engineer stepped down and I arranged with him for a quick run for five miles to our last picket, then stop. It was now nine o'clock in the evening and we had thirty miles to make, if we could.

The "General Foster," was a high set engine. I sat on the seat for the fireman, and reaching down said: "Here Ralf have a smoke with us. You may get the wire on us, by the time we reach Havelock. We won't lose your rig." We were off, Slowly through the streets of the city over the long bridge, then hit her up for the picket. The night was cloudy, as black as ink in that pine forest; no lights on engine, the track is straight for the 30 miles; our time for the picket is nearly up; possibly tonight, he is not using a fire; so I tap on the boiler-head with my revolver to slow down that we may be sure to pick him up. He heard us coming and tapped on the rail, which the engineer

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understood. All the picket man knew was, that he had seen smoke rising away down the track before dark. It was now decided to take our chances on the next five miles. Engineers say for their part, they had rather run at night without a headlight. That may be right when they know every twist and turn and have switch-lights and semifores etc., but we were rushing into utter darkness on a straight track for thirty miles. My mind became absolutely blank, as there was no chance to judge distance, and could not comprehend that there was any headway except as the motion of the machine said so. I closed my eyes to save my mind. At last I crossed over to the engineer and he shut her down. He had no more idea, than I, whether we had run five or seven miles. We had an extra man in the freight car, and the engineer put him out ahead with a hammer to rap on the rail if he found any break in the track; and it was understood by the engineer that we would lose the man rather than the engine. I sat there with my revolver ready, but found it very nerve racking, thinking how easy it would be for the Confederates to take the whole outfit. After what seemed a very long and tiresome turning of the wheels, we saw the loom of a fire ahead on the track, so we picked up our man, and hurried forward, but my judgment soon prompted our coming to a stop, that we might listen to some sound to guide us How far this side of the fire were the rebel pickets located? I heard the engineer throw back his reverse lever, so as to be ready to run if we must. The more I listened the more confounded became my mind, for if a northern man is ever out of place, it is in a southern wood at night.

It was no use to get rattled by the mumbling of coons up the trees, or the rush of snakes through the grass, or over twigs. I felt quite sure the rebel pickets would let us pass them before they attacked, but if they had no implement with them to throw out a rail behind us, our chance of running back was good. So I decided to take that risk, and ordered the engineer to crawl up to the fire, and if attacked in the rear, to run her back "wide open," he to throw himself flat on the floor of the cab, as he must not be hit by a bullet. "All right I understand, Sir," and

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the engine moved forward. I sat down by the fireman in the tender on the coal. My thoughts went back to Ralph and his remark, "not for Christopher Columbus Holmes," then it wandered to Colonel Holmes' house in Milton, and a sleigh ride from there to Boston of a bright moonlight night, my friend was driving. We both fell asleep on Warren street, Roxbury. The mare stopped. That woke us. We were in Dock Square with the mare's nose close to the rear wall of Faneuil Hall. All of a sudden the engine shot ahead and as I gained the side of the engineer, he said, "We are all right." I can see them waving their mauls, and sure enough, the track hands from the other end of the line were just finishing the break in the track.

When ready we took them into the freight car, and let her go for Morehead, the engineer playing what he called "Yankee Doodle" on the whistle. I rushed aboard the Army tug, but the Captain could not get away for half an hour as his fires were banked. As we passed down the harbor the clouds cleared, and the moon was then up.

I was challenged at the wharf. The Corporal of the Guard came and took me through the Sallyport to the Officer of the Guard (one of our Lieutenants.) The Officer of the Day came and said "Lock him up." This officer was of the Regular Army, but the Lieutenant of the Guard sent word to Major Giles, 3d New York Artillery, commanding the Post, of my coming, and he ordered me to come to his quarters He gave the orders for the Company to be turned out, and while waiting I asked the Major what caused the flame of the candle, on the pine table in the centre of the casement to jump. there was no draft to affect it. He said: "I have noticed it and have been thinking that I had never seen a candle flame jump here before. It may be that the monitor fleet has opened on Fort Sumter, as I understood they were ready. If so, the vibration comes along 200 miles of sand-spit on the end of which this Fort stands." It proved that the fleet did open that night. We left the fort at two o'clock, and arrived at Fort Spinola soon after daylight. The rebels remained before our works for two days, and then withdrew as the attack planned on the other side of the Trent had not been

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pressed on the railroad, and the new Whitworth guns and their ammunition had proved worthless over the Neuse, with General Pettigrew. If it had been pressed what would have become of Colonel Webster's pet engine? Major General Hill says in his report to General Longstreet: "Robertson sent out a Lieutenant who partly cut the railroad. He sent out a Colonel who saw some Yankees and came back; Robertson did not go himself. We must have a better man. If Pettigrew's guns had not failed him I think we would have gained the town, or caused a very salutary alarm. Foster ought to be ashamed of letting one brigade run him into his rathole. For my part I could get no information from New Berne."

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AT our last "guard mount" in the city of New Berne, the adjutant read a vote of thanks which was sent by the residents, commending the regiment for the manner in which it had discharged its duty as provost guard. As we were leaving the city, General Foster rode down our line and complimented Colonel Codman on the fine appearance of his men. The 25th of April was a warm and pleasant day when we took up our line of march for Camp Massachusetts. Our camp site did not look very inviting when we reached it, and it required a good deal of hard work to make it neat and comfortable. It was outside the outer line of breast-works, between the river Neuse and the railroad track, and about a mile and a half from our old Camp Amory on the Trent. We were furnished with A tents, about eight feet square. These we enlarged considerably by setting them upon stockades of logs and boards, obtained from a deserted camp nearby. Some of us laid floors in our tents and made bunks of old barrel staves. Two days after our arrival, and before we had fairly got to "housekeeping," marching orders were read on "dress parade." Sixty rounds of ball cartridges were served to us, in addition to the forty already in our boxes. At half-past eight in the morning of April 28th, our regiment was in line in New Berne in front of the Academy Green Hospital. A very interesting account of the fight at Dover Cross Roads is given in another chapter by comrade Lang.

The month of May is a very pleasant one in North Carolina and we frequently obtained permission to pass our "campguard" and rambled over the fields and in the woods in our immediate vicinity. Wild strawberry and blackberry vines covered the fields for acres. Just outside our lines was an old log cabin, where Chaplain Stone conducted prayer meetings which were

[image: (together on their horses) Lt. Col. Fremont; Col. Codman; Major Sturgis]

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fully attended. Near our camp was the battle ground of New Berne, where General Burnside and the troops under his command fought and won a notable battle in March of the previous year. One warm day a small party of us paid a visit to this historic spot, and as we strolled along the woodpeckers and the mocking-birds were holding a concert high up in the branches of the trees. A tramp of three miles brought us to a line of breastworks extending from the railroad track to the fort on the river.

Beyond the railroad track was a succession of redans, rising one above the other like a flight of steps, all concealed. These redans must have proved a serious obstacle to the progress of our troops, and it was here that the hardest fighting took place and the determination and courage of our troops in storming and capturing these redans were severely tested. Near the railroad track were the ruins of a brick house and it was at this spot that the gallant Adjutant Stearns of the Twenty-First Massachusetts gave up his life. Nature had kindly covered the battle-ground with verdure and there were but few marks of that sanguinary contest. Here and there we saw a tree shattered and splintered as if by lightning bolts. Inside the breastworks were a few mouldy equipments and uniforms. We came upon an old negro splitting rails and entered into conversation with him, concerning the battle. He told us that General Burnside stopped at his house the night before. The day before the battle he said, "the road was gray with rebels, and the next day blue with Yankees." He gave quite an amusing account of the rebel retreat through and from New Berne. The shells of our gunboats made great havoc. One shell took the smoke stack off the engine that was hauling the train containing the dead and wounded of the enemy. On our way back we stopped at the house of "Farmer" Harrison, who supplied our hospital and officers with milk. He had a comfortable Southern style of house, surrounded by large and handsome shade trees. His garden was in a flourishing condition, particularly his fig trees, and near his house was a monster grape-vine having a trunk eight inches in diameter. On our return to camp we found the boys in considerable excitement. The Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania on the outer picket station had had a

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fight with the rebels at Dover Cross Roads, taking one hundred and sixty prisoners, but losing their gallant Colonel Jones.

At the nine o'clock "roll-call" that evening a train of open platform cars came up from New Berne and stopped in front of our camp. The short, sharp order rang out, "Fall in, Forty-Fifth in twenty minutes." We filled our haversacks, stowed away sixty rounds of ball cartridges, climbed on the cars and in twenty minutes we were off for Batchelder's Creek. It looked as though we might have a serious time, this hasty departure so late at night, through those inky woods, where, for aught we knew, a force of the enemy might be waiting our approach. On our arrival we learned full particulars of the fight. They were expecting another attack and we were sent to reinforce them. They slept that night on their arms in the trenches, and our regiment, with the exception of two companies sent out on picket, bivouacked on the parade ground. We learned that upon our retirement a few weeks previous, the rebels returned to their old position at Dover Cross Roads, and Colonel Jones with his regiment and two others started out at night to attack them. At four o'clock the next morning he surprised and defeated the rebels at their outpost, taking nearly all of them prisoners, besides a piece of artillery and several baggage wagons. As the Fifty-Eighth were returning to their camp, the rebels, heavily reinforced from Kinston, pressed closely upon them, and began shelling their camp with a piece of artillery. This movement annoyed the gallant colonel and he turned and fought the enemy in the swamp, saying as he did so, "Boys, we must have that gun." While attempting to take it, he was shot by a rebel sharpshooter. A fight ensued over his body resulting in the repulse of the enemy, and the Fifty-Eighth retired within their entrenchments, but their joy over their victory was overshadowed by the loss of their beloved commander. Colonel Jones was a brave and talented officer, a kind-hearted man and a sincere Christian. His name was a terror to the rebels around New Berne for he routed them out of their haunts and by his daring and scouting, kept them in continual dread.

On the arrival of the train from New Berne our regiment

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formed in column with "reversed arms" and followed by the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania, escorted the remains of Colonel Jones to the cars. Before embarking on the train Chaplain Stone offered a fervent prayer. On the 26th of May our regiment escorted the remains from the Masonic Temple to the steamer which conveyed them to his family and his home in Philadelphia.

The weather continued to grow warmer and once in a while a detail from our regiment was made for "fatigue duty," which was nothing more or less, than handling a pick or a shovel, or trundling a wheelbarrow in the trenches under a hot, broiling sun. One day we were sent to work on a fortification near our old Camp Amory on the Trent.

In shape it was half a hexagon, its open side being the river bank, the sides being sixty feet long. It was only intended as a defence against land forces. The ditch was nine feet deep and twenty feet wide. The blackberries had now passed from the red era, and near the camp there were acres of the luscious fruit. While they lasted we had a genuine feast, and they were both appetizing and beneficial.

One afternoon in the latter part of May, Major-General Foster and his staff rode over to our camp. The regiment was drawn up in line, and after we had given him the salute due to his rank as commander of the department, he made a short speech to us. He said, "he wished to state a project which he had in mind and which had the sanction of the war department. He wished to recruit a heavy artillery regiment out of the several nine-months' regiments in the department. The regiment would consist of twelve companies of one hundred and fifty men each. The inducements were $150 bounty and thirty days' furlough." Said he, "the rebels hereabouts have made their threats that when the nine months' men have gone, they will make us hum. You come back and we will make them hum.' " He paid a high compliment to Colonel Codman of whom he said, "a better man never rode at the head of a regiment." At the conclusion of his speech, we gave the general three rousing cheers which caused his horse to rear and plunge.

About this time the camp of the First North Carolina

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(Colored) Regiment was located near us and in a short time its ranks were full. A number of our boys visited their camp frequently, and drilled the raw recruits in the manual of arms and sometimes we taught them out of the primer.

Fort Totten was probably one of the strongest defences of New Berne and was located near our camp, and was planned by General Foster. It was a pentagon in shape, having four bastions and mounting twenty-six guns. These guns had a wide sweep commanding the approach to New Berne by the Trent road and also by the rivers Trent and Neuse. Crossing the drawbridge and entering the fort, the first object inspected was the tower, or lookout, under which was the principal magazine. There was a large stockade in the fort, made of logs, braced and riveted together, the spaces between being filled with sand, the whole extending across the fort. This stockade was twenty-five feet high and twenty feet thick. On top were rifle pits. The object of the stockade was to destroy the range of the enemy's guns. A shot that would pass over it, would pass clear over the fort. The fort was a very scientific affair, and if properly garrisoned it seemed impregnable to any force the enemy in that departmetn could bring against it.

At the time of our visit a portion of the Eighth Massachusetts was doing garrison duty there. As in Camp Amory on the Trent, we again settled down to the daily routine of drill. In the morning a brisk company drill, and late in the afternoon battalion drill, and thus we had more leisure, and in those excessively hot days, it was gratefully appreciated.

By ten o'clock we were taking our daily swim in the Neuse, and usually a large crowd were sporting in the water at the same time. Our road to the river lay directly past the regimental hospital, most beautifully situated in a grove of magnificent mulberry trees, as large as English elms, and so thick-leaved as to make a most perfect shade. The hospital tent was pitched under one of them, the farm house of the plantation being also occupied as a hospital; and near by was the quartermaster's building, while within a stone's throw stood Fort Spinola. The fort was built directly on the river-bank, and commanded, with its black-mounted

[image: (group of men gathered around a tree) Field And Staff]

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cannon, both the river and the surrounding country for more than a mile in every direction. On our arrival at Camp Massachusetts the fort was garrisoned by Company G of our regiment, who, having had practical heavy artillery drill at Fort Macon, were summoned to the defence of the city in the early part of April, when an attack was apprehended. Soon after our advent Company I returned from Fort Macon, and took the place of Company G at Fort Spinola, so that, after an interval of nearly six months, the whole regiment was once more united under one command. Near by the fort there was a long wharf, running into deep water, for the slope of the river-bed is very gradual, and this wharf was, so to speak, the headquarters of the bathers. Here were unlimited opportunities for swimming, diving, etc., while those who preferred shallow water had the whole river-bank to wade from. One of the men actually swam across the river one day, without making known his purpose. He not only reached the opposite side, but had started on his way back, when he was picked up by a boat which was sent after him. As the river is fully two miles wide at this point, it was to say, the least, quite a swim.

On June 23d, 1863, the following order was read on "dress parade."

Headquarters, Department of North Carolina, New Berne, June 23, 1863.

Special Order No. 178.

The commanding general bids farewell to the officers and soldiers of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, with the most sincere regret at losing a regiment which has proved itself so good and deserving in every position it has been called to occupy. In the various marches and fights they have exhibited that order, discipline, and courage, which he hoped and expected to find in an organization so worthily descended from the ancient and honorable corps of Boston cadets. For those who have fallen in the fight or by disease, the general offers his sincere and heartfelt sympathy to their comrades-in-arms, and to the beloved friends at home. To those who have survived the dangers, though sharing them, the general bids, "God speed!"

By command of Major-General Foster.

John F. Anderson.

Major and Senior Aide-de-camp.

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Early the next morning we broke camp. As we rolled away on open platform cars through New Berne and towards Beaufort, the cheers of the boys and the joyful strains of our band mingled together. At the same wharf in Beaufort where we landed nearly eight months before, we found the transports ready for our embarkation. Then, we were full of life and vigor, but the extreme heat during our few weeks' sojourn in Camp Massachusetts had told severely upon the health of the regiment. Many poor fellows fell victims to the terrible fever and passed on to their eternal home. Others had not succumbed, but the fever was in their systems, and they were weakened and emaciated.

There were two hundred and fifty sick men on the steamer S. R. Spaulding. At noon we steamed out of Beaufort Harbor, and were, at last, "homeward bound." After a delightful sail of twenty-four hours, we arrived at Fortress Munroe, and anchored under the guns of the fort.

Colonel Codman went ashore in the captain's gig, and reported to Major-General John A. Dix, commanding the department, the condition of the regiment. There was a possibility that we might be ordered to join the Union forces at White House, Va. It will be remembered that it was just at this time that General Lee and his army were invading Pennsylvania, and a few days before the battle of Gettysburg, where the Confederates received such a terrible defeat. We had but three hundred and fifty able-bodied men out of a total of eight hundred.

After some delay orders came from the war department to proceed directly to Boston. "Most of us were too miserable to display our joy in noisy mirth, but the spirits of the men brightened visibly as the way grew shorter. Two of our number passed away to their eternal home on that short passage and others survived the voyage, only to die in the arms of their loved ones at home." While anchored off Fortress Munroe we could see the "Rip Raps" where formidable works were being constructed. We also saw Sewall's Point around which steamed the rebel ironclad Merrimac on her mission of destruction--and the famous fight between the Monitor and Merrimac took place quite near our anchorage ground. At daybreak, Monday morning, June

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29th, 1863, our steamer the S. R. Spaulding passed Minot's Ledge Lighthouse and steamed up Boston Harbor. We were boarded on our way up, by a party of friends, who had been cruising around the harbor all the previous day anticipating our arrival. We landed our sick at T Wharf and hauled into the stream again to await the arrival of the Tillie, which was a slower boat.

She arrived late that afternoon so it was deemed advisable to postpone the reception of the regiment until the next day, and we passed an uncomfortable night in a crowded steamer, in sight of many of our homes. Tuesday dawned as bright and pleasant as heart could desire--and at about nine o'clock the regiment disembarked at Battery Wharf.

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APRIL 28th, 1863, the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts Regiment embarked on open platform cars at half past twelve o'clock, in the city of New Berne, having left Camp Massachusetts at an early hour. As was customary on such excursions, we were not informed regarding our destination. We rolled slowly along for twelve miles, passing through many camps and intrenchments, surrounding New Berne, running in a straight line through the pine forests, broken here and there by a clearing or a picket post. We were then at Batchelder's Creek, the outpost of the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Jones. We stopped here long enough to eat our lunch. This camp we found to be a strong one, surrounded by earthworks.

A blockhouse commanded the railroad and bridge across the creek, where a row of sharpened stakes pointing outward did not present an inviting appearance to an approaching enemy. On a side track stood Burnside's Monitor, which was quite a curiosity to us. It was a house built of strong and massive timbers, mounted on an open platform car, and mailed with iron plates half an inch thick. It had a peaked roof with a skylight entrance, reached by a ladder on the outside, which could be removed in case of need. There were two port holes on each side, and one at each end, and the armament consisted of two six-pounders. It was also pierced for rifles. Altogether it was quite a formidable affair on wheels, and capable of keeping quite a force at bay for some time. We were finally dumped at a place called Core Creek where we were informed we would bivouac for the night.

The Monitor came along with us, and remained with us during our stay in that camp. As on the Kinston march we set to work to make ourselves comfortable for the night, stripping the

[image: Silas W. Lang, Company A]

[image: (two drawings) Camp At Core Creek (and) Up The Rail Road]

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fences of rails for fires, making beds of the small branches of pine trees and constructing little shelter tents of rubber blankets as we did on the "Mud March," to Pollocksville. It was well that we did so, as a heavy thunder shower came up in the night, and our boys on picket were thoroughly drenched, and many of us on that bivouac were flooded out.

Although forty years have elapsed, we have a vivid recollection of that night.

Early the next morning Colonel Codman sent two companies, C, Captain Minot, and H, Captain Tappan, under command of Major Sturgis, up the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, to ascertain the strength of the Confederate forces, with orders not to drive in the pickets, or to engage in any action.

These companies left the camp at Core Creek, before seven o'clock, and proceeded towards their destination. At the same time Company D, Captain Bumstead, was ordered to take the Cross Road leading to the Dover Road, and to communicate with Brigadier-General Palmer, whose column was then on the Dover Road.

About noon, the remainder of the Forty-Fifth Regiment and the Seventeenth Massachusetts Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Fellows, all under command of Colonel Charles R. Codman, proceeded up the railroad to overtake Major Sturgis and to push on to the Cross Roads nearest to the position of the Dover Road, with the railroad, the object being to intercept any of the enemy which General Palmer's column might drive down this road.

Upon reachihg the Cross Road, we found Major Sturgis, who reported the enemy in force in the neighborhood of the, junction. Major Sturgis had proceeded with such caution as to give the enemy no intimation of the movements of the main column, thus preventing them from being reinforced.

One company of Major Sturgis' command was left at the point at which the regiment overtook him. The other company was ordered to follow slowly after the column. An advance was then made up the railroad, the Confederate pickets being driven in, by flanking companies of the Forty-Fifth Regiment, among them Company B, Captain Churchill.

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On reaching the Cross Roads, Colonel Codman learned that the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania, Colonel Jones, was pushing vigorously up the Dover Road, and he decided to proceed to the junction. Company F, Captain Daland, was then ordered to relieve Company B, which up to this time had been doing most excellent work, forcing back the enemy's pickets, in our front. After Company F had relieved Company B, in the advance, the column was pushed rapidly on, up the railroad, one company of the Seventeenth Massachusetts being left at the Cross Road. As we approached the junction, Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody, who was in command of the advance, reported that there was an earthwork across the track.

A halt was then ordered as it was not known whether the Confederates had any artillery in the earthworks, or not, and Colonel Codman decided to wait until Colonel Jones, with the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania arrived before making an attack. In the meantime that regiment was rapidly approaching the junction seemingly bent on being first at the game. Hardly had the Fifty-Eighth arrived within gun-shot of the fortification, when the enemy opened a brisk fire upon them, the regiment returning the fire, and with great vigor.

The firing now became general, and for a time it bade fair to be quite a serious engagement. Captain Daland's Company F, which was in the advance, now began firing for a time, and then deployed as skirmishers, on the right and left of the railroad track the company plunging into the woods in this movement.

Company K, Captain Homans, and Company E, Captain Wales of the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts, and two companies of the Seventeenth Massachusetts were now deployed as skirmishers on the left of the railroad maintaining a steady fire as they advanced. Company A, Captain Denny, having the colors, had, up to this time, been held in reserve and were lying down on the track in full view of the earthworks. Finally the order was given Company A to "Fix Bayonets," and then to fire by platoons.

Being supported by the Seventeenth Massachusetts, Company A was then ordered to advance, and then to "Charge," which they did with a determined rush forward toward the rebel

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earthworks. The whole line of skirmishers charged at about the same time, the rebels gave way, and Company A, dashing upon the earthworks, planted the State Flag of Massachusetts there, and the day was won. How many the enemy lost in this engagement, we never learned. Four of their dead lay inside of their works when we captured them. Our loss was H. M. Putney, Company F, killed, L. F. Ames, Company K, wounded, Corporal Leatherbee, Company K, slightly wounded, and Corporal G. C. Richards, Company E, wounded. The killed and wounded being members of the companies acting as skirmishers.

Captain Murdoch of the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts serving on General Amory's staff, was hit by a spent ball. The object of this demonstration having been accomplished, orders were given to return to our camp. We understood afterwards that the object was to compel the enemy to keep his forces at Kinston and thus prevent him from sending any troops to assist those who were threatening General Dix at Suffolk.

It was late in the afternoon and we were some distance from our camp so we made a very rapid return march. And who of us that took part in it, will ever forget that rushing, stumbling march back to Cove Creek? Not even the satisfaction of having our Colonel with us on that "go-as-you-please" gait, will compensate for loss of temper, while kicking into the grade sticks along the railroad bed. Most of us on that return march would agree with the soldier of the army of the Potomac, who was relieving his mind on a certain occasion when he had been called upon to do a little more than was agreeable. He was asked by his chaplain, who was trying to console him, "Why, don't you love your country?" "Yes," he said, "that is all right, but if I get out of this, I don't think I'll ever love another country." Well, we got home, at least it seemed like home, some time during the night, all of us soaked to the skin from the drenching rain which continued during the entire return march. Thus ended the affair at Dover Cross Roads.

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IT was our good fortune during our stay in New Berne to participate in a grand review of the Eighteenth Army Corps by our commander, General Foster. We had due notice, and were gotten up in a state of blackness and brightness, well nigh bordering on perfection. Blackness having reference to the state of our boots and equipments, brightness to our guns and brasses. The cleaning and polishing and furbishing one does in the army is beyond belief, for by the time you have come to the end of the long list of articles which require touching up, the first strap or brass, as the case may be, has become dull and you begin again:--but to return to the review.

The day was all that could be desired, bright and beautiful, and as the regiment formed in line on the parade-ground, looking so neat and nice, with colors flying, and the band outdoing itself in the excitement of the day, we felt proud of our State and the service which enlisted such men in its ranks.

The review was on the south side of the Trent, the country there affording splendid facilities for military manoeuvres on a large scale, as it presented an unbroken stretch of nearly two miles in each direction. We were well acquainted with the spot, having trodden almost every foot of land thereabouts in our numerous brigade drills, and were first on the ground that day, as befitted our position in line, the Forty-Fifth ranking as First Battalion, First Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps.

It was a beautiful sight to watch the long line of troops which filed over the bridge, their bayonets flashing in the sunlight, as regiment after regiment came up and took its place in

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line. The line was formed in brigades, four regiments deep, in the order of the brigades, our brigade holding the right, the artillery and cavalry occupying the extreme left.

The thunder of the artillery announced the arrival of our gallant commander, Major-General Foster, and soon he appeared at our front, finely mounted and attended by his full staff. Drums are ruffled and arms presented, while the band plays "Hail to the Chief," as he dashes along in his inspection of each regiment, the music continuing while he is passing through the brigade, then the next band takes up the strain.

After a long rest and a lunch by all who had been prudent enough to bring a supply of hard tack in their pockets, our turn came for an active part in the proceedings of the day.

General Foster had taken his station on a slight eminence, and sat facing the centre of the line, which brigade deep, extended for full a mile. Surrounded by his staff, he was the object of attraction of the crowd of spectators, who thronged about him, from Mrs. Foster and her brilliant staff of ladies, down to the most ragged contraband in all that motley assembly.

As we wheeled by platoons and marched in review, the sight which greeted us was one long to be remembered for its grandeur and beauty. Line upon line of unbroken ranks stretched on as far as the eye could reach. Over each regiment waved our beautiful flag, its colors glowing with unwonted richness in the warm winter's sun, the bayonets throwing back flashes of light, and the artillery and cavalry relieving the scene from all monotony, while the Neuse, sparkling in the sunlight, and its distant bank covered with the forest evergreen, formed a perfect background for this gorgeous picture.

Then there was the long row of spectators, some, seated in vehicles of all sorts and descriptions, others, mounted on animals ranging from the finest charger to the scrubbiest donkey, while on foot was a crowd composed of every age, sex, and color. In their midst sat our commander, patiently awaiting our approach.

As we drew near, the band filed off to the left, and took its position directly opposite the general, where it continued playing till our brigade had all passed, when it was relieved by the next

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band, and once more took its place in line. As each platoon passed, the general saluted, while he honored the colors by removing his hat, the band also giving the customary salute. Battalion after battalion, battery after battery, troop after troop, they came, till the first battalion, making the complete circuit, came upon the rear of the last troop, thus forming an unbroken circle. As each regiment reached the place of starting, it halted until the long, glittering array was once more in position, then again the artillery thundered forth the salute, and the grand review was over.

[image: Lieut. Gershom C. Winsor, Adjutant of 45th Massachusetts]

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ON November 5th, 1862, we left Readville for Boston and by night were at anchor down the harbor on the steamer Mississippi, Captain Baxter. The night was rough. The result was that the ship threw the sweepings from the last voyage from under the lower bunks, and made the confined air offensive, and endangered the health of our one thousand men, and five hundred of the Forty-Sixth Massachusetts, that Captain McKim, United States Quartermaster had judged were needed, as "dunnage" for the Forty-Fifth. The steamer Merrimac, Captain Sampson, was at anchor near us, with one thousand men of the Forty-Third Massachusetts and five hundred of the Forty-Sixth Massachusetts on board. Colonel Codman concluded that sick soldiers were useless at the front, and decided to protest, so the next morning he went to the State House, and the result was the steamer Saxon was added to our fleet for the Forty-Sixth Regiment.

Our convoy, the gunboat Huron, having reported, the four steamers Mississippi, Merrimac, Saxon and Huron, put to sea on the evening of November 10th. The Convoy would log about eight knots while the transports were good for twelve. After dark Captain Baxter of our steamer, seemed to think there was too much demand for his steamer for him to be logging at eight knots, so ordered twelve. When day broke we were heading for the Nantucket Light Ship, with not a steamer in sight.

We had a good run down by Hatteras, and as we headed in for Beaufort Harbor, we sighted another steamer headed for the land. It was the Merrimac, a little in the lead, for she got the pilot from the dugout and so we followed her in.

When well up the harbor her nose took the mud and we passed, so we were first at the railroad dock. This was not fortunate

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for we had to load on the flat cars and ride thirty miles in the rain to New Berne, where we passed the night, supperless, in freight-houses. The next morning we marched through the city over the railroad bridge, and a mile along the Trent to the county bridge near Fort Gaston. Here were barracks for the men and tents for the officers. Next we were brigaded with the Seven teenth, Twenty-Third, Forty-Third and Fifty-First Massachusetts Regiments, under Colonel Armory of the Seventeenth Massachusetts. Then came that which is so harmful to organizations, details, men for this, men for that. Two full companies were ordered on special duty: Company C, Captain Minot, to Morehead City, and Company G, Captain Murdoch to Fort Macon. This company went under command of Lieutenant Thayer, as Captain Murdoch was detailed on Acting-General Amory's staff. There should be a way provided to prevent this honey-combing a regiment. It is bad for the regiment, it is bad for the company, and bad for the detailed officers and men.

Now we put in a month's hard work in company, regimental and brigade drills, with day and night picket duty in the wooded country over the Trent.

The duties of an adjutant are such that to carry a canteen is only to have something that is always in his way, so as Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody had agreed with me that slab-chocolate was to be our emergency ration and had received a box from Menier, and as he admitted my annoyance of canteen, it was further agreed that if I would always carry an extra supply of chocolate in my saddlebags and pockets, he would always have water for me. Chocolate is one of the few foods that can be carried on a saddle-horse without becoming tainted by the heated leather.

Forty-four years later when writing this manuscript the following was clipped from the Boston Globe. "Every German soldier's equipment includes a Bible and a half-pound cake of chocolate."

About the 8th of December, the men were stripped of all extra baggage, including knapsacks which were put on board a schooner. On the 11th, the Eighteenth Army Corps broke camp, and headed for Goldsboro bridge, one hundred miles to the

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westward. The Army of the Potomac under Burnside, was about to fight the Army under Lee at Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and if successful there would be extensive campaigning for us, including Wilmington on the south, or moving north towards Suffolk and Norfolk.

Headquarters Department of North Carolina, New Berne, N. C., December 10th, 1862.

Major-General H. W. Halleck, Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Army Corps, Washington, D. C.

General:

I have the honor to report that I am about to take the field again, against the enemy in the direction of Goldsboro. The information that I have received is to the effect that the enemy's government is turning its attention to the importance of guarding the lines of communication to the South, and if possible, of recovering some portion of the Eastern portion of this State, the rich products of which would, at this time, be very valuable, as supplies for their Commissariat. Two brigades have already arrived to reinforce the troops already in the State for this purpose. I think by timely action I may disappoint their expectation and shall therefore move on Kinston tomorrow morning at daybreak. I hope to defeat two brigades that are known to be there before assistance can arrive from Wilmington, or Weldon, or Tarborough. Succeeding in this I shall push on to Goldsborough, destroy its railroad bridge, and another bridge across a swamp, ten miles south of Goldsboro, and then return to New Berne to prepare for an immediate attack on Wilmington. I sincerely trust that the reinforcements asked for in my letter of the 18th November, together with the officers of experience, required to command brigades may be sent me as soon as the exigencies of the service will permit. My present force of infantry, consisting of nine thousand men, capable of marching and fighting, six thousand of whom are nine months men, is too weak to give a good support to my forty pieces of artillery, and to afford a fair chance of success against the older troops of the enemy in front of us. I have therefore found it necessary to borrow from General Dix, the services for a time of General Wessell's Brigade, consisting of six regiments (2,200 men.) These regiments were kindly promised me, at the time I telegraphed to you from Old Point Comfort, and met me according to appointment on the night of the 6th instant, on the Chowan river, where I received them on board my transports and brought them to this place, arriving yesterday. General Peck has agreed to make a simultaneous attack on the Blackwater from Suffolk, in which

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our gunboats are to cooperate. Even if I do not succeed in my expectations, I hope my movement may be useful as a demonstration in favor of the Army of the Potomac.

I have the honor to be very respectfully

Your obedient servant, J. G. Foster, Major-General Commanding.

Our cavalry and the Ninth New Jersey in front kept the Confederates moving for three days. Saturday morning the enemy opened fire with cannon at South West Creek. There was a halt. The Ninth New Jersey crossed above, where there had been a bridge. The Ninety-Second New York got across and through the woods, and flanked the support of the Confederate artillery first, and as the enemy broke to the rear under their fire, they followed them up the road, leaving the artillery behind. When the Ninth New Jersey came out of the woods on the other side of the road, they claimed the capture of the guns. This over, the army bivouaced, as it then was.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody was on as general officer of the day. Sometime during the night, he punched me up and wanted a slab of chocolate, he said his orderly was making him some coffee, that he had had hard riding in the dark to find the pickets on the by-roads, of which there seemed an endless number, that two roads were blocked with felled trees, on which our pioneers were at work, and he would be fortunate if he could report to the General "All clear," by daylight.

Sunday morning the army moved forward, ours being the second brigade from the front. Soon there was earnest and stubborn firing with the advance, and our advance along the roadway was very slow, for it was governed by the room made, as regiment after regiment of Wessell's Brigade ahead of us was put in on the firing line.

By 9 30, we were up where in a clearing on our right were twelve guns of the Third New York Artillery, under Major Kennedy shelling the woods not twenty-five yards in their front. In the roadway ahead of us, was one gun of Morrison's Battery on a

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small bridge from which to the right a swamp widened out to about fifty yards in width, and evidently General Evans' engineers deemed it impassable under fire.

The Ninth New Jersey was lying in front of this gun and the Ninety-Second New York was crowded in on their right. On the right of the road in the woods up against this swamp was the One hundred and Third Pennsylvania. To the left of this gun was the Eighty-Fifth New York, One Hundred and First Pennsylvania and Ninety-Sixth New York, supported by the Twenty-Third Massachusetts and Seventeenth Massachusetts of our brigade, which double line had driven the enemy from the woods, so they swung forward and angled on the Ninth New Jersey. But when the left wing sighted the open field between it and the river, they found they were up against the enemy's main line strong in artillery. As General Wessell could get no guns to the front, he was stalled.

At this juncture about ten o'clock Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffman, adjutant-general to General Foster, came riding down the road. He ordered Colonel Codman to file his regiment to the right, along the edge of the woods, and when having lapped the front of Major Kennedy's guns to move to the left by regimental front, and if he came to a swamp to pass through it and press the enemy beyond. The colonel, lieutenant-colonel and adjutant dismounted. The regiment was filed to the right, halted, while the men stacked their blanket-rolls, then moved on.

It was distinctly understood that Major Kennedy's guns were to cease firing. The general, and it is fair to infer, Major Kennedy knew there was no enemy in the woods this side of the swamp, and his elevation to carry shells over the swamp would be firing over our heads. The firing from both sides was now heavy, and the smoke had settled in the woods and swamp.

The colonel had indicated when to make the change of front and I was standing on a stump to mark the movement, when at my left down fell two of our men, killed by a shot from one of Kennedy's guns. Our advance was now down a sloping wood with oak bushes, among which the leaden bees were humming at a lively rate. The swamp was in sight and the men began to

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spread out, for if they were to enter that, they wanted plenty of elbow room. It looked as if the bushes there grew up from a pond of printer's ink. The buzz of the bees increased. The colonel was still near the right. He halted Company B on the right and ordered it, "Ready, aim low, fire!" Then we struck into the swamp. There were bushes, and old roots covered with black ooze and water, with the moss of ages hanging from the trees. The drummer boys from behind the colors had from here, been sent back to where we left our blankets, and by them word was sent to Chaplain Stone to follow in with his bandmen and stretchers. We could see a Pennsylvania Regiment to our left up against the swamp. The order was passed along to the men to pass the swamp and lie down. "No firing." From this moment every man was for himself. The first step into the swamp filled their shoes with black ooze. If it had not been for the bushes to use as hand lines, they would have slipped and floundered, until they lost their muskets, for the bottom was a network of gnarled roots, covered with a thick black ooze, about two and one-half feet deep, -- even my top boots did not keep it out. After this fight was over and the regiment had gone into bivouac near Kinston, the sergeant-major had occasion to pass some of our prisoners. One hailed him with, "Where were you in the fight?" Sergeant major said, "With the regiment that came through the swamp." Johnny Reb replied, "We knew you were a new regiment sure enough, by the way you came on. When you fired from over the swamp you hit twenty-three men in my regiment." When the men came out of the swamp, and dropped on the leaves under the scrub oaks, they were a sight. Some had fallen and were black with mud from head to foot. The enemy had heaped the oak leaves for a cover and were firing down the slope. Our left replied first, as the right was not yet out, having found more depth of mud to contend with. Our men seemed to formulate the idea, that after returning their fire, they must make an individual rush ahead, and for three hours, it was spread out, fire, then rush. Our left was ahead of our right at first, but as it met the pressure the right got on the line.

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You could, or I could, judge this by the sound of the firing. But from any one point, it would be hard to count more than twenty men in sight.

Still so long as the movement was "forward," it seemed to need no orders from the colonel. Of course, the problem was up, how are we ever to get these men together after letting them drift apart in these dense woods, under fire and pinned to the ground. For old plainsmen of the regular army who had had this situation a dozen times, there was no risk, for they knew, privates and officers, how they would be relieved when the ammunition was gone. We had gained the rise now and lost our advantage of having the enemy fire down hill. On this level ground the fire was more effective on both sides, but the firing went on just the same from behind trees, logs, bushes and leaves bunched on the ground.

After a time the rifle-fire in our immediate front, let up. We had forced them out of the woods, and as we peered out we could see Harriet's Chapel, then the roadway, and beyond a clear field, with the Confederate artillerymen hard at work. In, out and under, the chapel was alive with their infantrymen. Now that the rebel line was out of the woods, the enemy opened on us with grape and cannister, as well as shells from large guns in the earthworks over the Neuse River. We had become masters of getting cover from direct fire, logs and stumps preferred, to wriggling a trench in the earth with your body, but we could find no cover from the grape which came in showers from above. It seemed as if there was an aerial thresher at work above us, and to con it required the use of a number of enormous whip lashes for the sounds made, resembled those of a whip lash increased one thousand times, and as it passed along the fall of limbs, twigs, leaves and bark, was a shower, to say nothing of its leaden grain. The regiment was terribly spread out with no unit. It should be closed up on the colors if it was to be led forward out of the woods. To do this under so close a fire, was to lose half our men. For the time until there was a lull, their only safety from being decimated and holding the ground we had gained was to cling to the bosom of mother earth. At this juncture Major Stackpole of

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General Foster's staff came to Colonel Codman and I think their decision was as I have just described. While they were con sulting I moved toward the left, with the idea of seeing just what the condition was, and to show this I will give you my experience. To get the cover afforded by the slope, I crept along twenty yards in rear of where I started. When in the rear of Company F there came a downpour from over the river that sent me to the ground.

Some of F men were up and sure that the Johnnies were in the rear, but Captain Daland was able to get them down and explained how it was that grape came from the rear. Soon I started to crawl again. Looking to the front I saw one of our men hurrying to the rear. His cap was gone. He had his musket. I rose erect and asked, "Why he had started for the rear?" When he stopped, he had passed me, but turned and said he had shot away his ramrod and his cap had dropped the other side of the log.

I said, "You must exchange your musket for any of the killed and wounded here and crawl back to your company." He did not move but stared at me with an expression of disappointment, as I thought owing to his going to the rear having been checked. Then I noticed a change of color at the roots of his hair which passed down his forehead with a line of demarkation which slowly passed his eyes, mouth, chin, and as it disappeared at his neck, he fell to the ground. As I bent over him I soon saw the blood settle on his cheek. While we had stood talking a bullet had entered his cheek and passed out at the base of his skull. As I went on from tree to bush, I heard someone calling and looking down the slope, saw a right wing of a regiment with an officer swinging for me to come to him. I ran to Colonel Lee of the Forty-Fourth Massachusetts. He wanted to know where the enemy was. I said, "If you want to put your men under fire, wheel to the left on your colors, and at the top of the rise, they will be under fire."

"No," he said, "my orders carry me across the rear." On my way to the front I met T. C. Evans of Company D, shot through the hand. He had but stopped to ask where Dr. Treadwell

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was located when another bullet went through the calf of one of his legs. "Get out of the woods as quick as you can by going in the rear of that regiment over there, where you will strike the roadway and then ask for the doctor." As soon as I turned away, out flew my sabre scabbard to the full length of its leathers. On getting to the front I came up on Company I and had a few words with Captain Rich, who was on the ground and made good cover for me. Just beyond I passed Lieutenant Thompson reading from a Testament. I upbraided him, and reminded him that his company had only two officers; that the colonel expected every officer to have his mind on his men for soon there will be a change of position, and officers should be on the lookout, not dreaming.

A short distance on my left I saw smoke arising. Thinking a fire had just started among the leaves, I made a rush, and there was Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody coolly smoking a cigar. His position was such that he could see well to the left under the forest growth.

"What orders have you, adjutant?"

"None, sir, I am going to the left and then back to the colonel. Major Stackpole was in from General Foster and I think we were to hold what we have got until he could report our situation. I will be back to the colonel as soon as the major is. What is your estimate of the number of rounds our men have now?"

"I think some ten, and some fifteen."

From there I got to Company K on our left and crawled in beside Sergeant Walker. All were cheerful here, although the firing was heavy. Captain Homans carried that smile on his face, that no duty, by day or night, could smooth out His company was more exposed, but the fire was over them to keep back our troops at his left and rear. Presently up came the Tenth Connecticut and laid down, extending our left, but overlapping our Company K. They had but three hundred and twenty-five men. Lieutenant-Colonel Lippett commanding, says in his report, that he "passed over a third and second line, and when he got on the first line, their firing was rapid, but they

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were in some disorder of formation and remained with them about twenty minutes." This regiment was closed on its colors and had special orders from General Foster, and Colonel Lippett, now that he had got his bearings, started in to execute them. He gave the order, "Tenth Connecticut, ready, forward on the colors, forward!" As they rose up and started forward they lost ninety men and two officers--nearly a third of their number. But that did not stop them. The order was still "Forward! Forward!" and they rushed out by the end of the chapel and down the roadway, our left going with them to bring up against the side of the building.

At this moment Captain Gouraud of General Foster's Staff dashed up and said the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts was to reform behind the chapel and then move down to the bridge. The charge of the Tenth Connecticut broke the angle of the enemy by the chapel and the fight was over, at least for the Forty-Fifth for we were ordered to haul out to one side and let others pass over the Neuse River Bridge. It was now three o'clock. We had a count in each company and found that the regiment was one hundred and twelve short. Our horses were brought up. Colonel Codman now left the regiment in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody and went to visit our field hospital. He ordered me to go to the ground we had fought over to see if the wounded had been taken away and then join him. As I dismounted at the end of the chapel I observed that the bark of the tall pine trees, at the edge of the woods, where we came out from the fight, was hanging in shreds from near the ground to thirty feet up. My mare, always before, would remain where I left her, but now she persisted in following me with her nose down. I had to halter her.

Passing in among the oak saplings and tall trees, I stopped. Not a sound could be heard, the birds had not returned for the smoke was still floating among the tree tops. Our own and the dead of the Tenth Connecticut were all about me, and my desire was to note the position of each of the dead, but my mission drove me on. Still there was one of ours I could not resist. He

[image: Topographical Map Of The Battlefield Of Kinston North Carolina. Drawn By S.M. Allis. From Sketch By G.C. Winsor - Late Adjt 45th Mass]

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was standing behind a tree, staring at me with wide open eyes. His brace was by a shoulder and foot hold, the muzzle of his musket having dropped to the ground in front.

Thus I left him as a sentinel over his ninety dead comrades, who had given all that mortal man can give for the unity of his country, and that all her citizens may live in Liberty and Freedom. All our wounded had been removed by Chaplain Stone and the members of the band, many times they had to come and go, under fire, so as to keep the number of wounded on the ground as few as possible.

The number they had to look after was more than fifty. Again on the move I cantered up the road, passing the surgeons still at work on the severely wounded. Just beyond where the regiment first filed to the right from this road, was our hospital. As I turned into the yard, a howl went up from our wounded, lying on the ground next the fence. Those who could, gathered around me, hung onto my legs, and the mare's bridle, mane and tail, overjoyed that it was not their Adjutant killed, as they had been told by a wounded officer of another regiment. They were interested enough to ask if I was hit, "Yes, it was my sabre that saved me." "Look at the dent in the scabbard," said the one, who had hold of my left leg. "Yes, when it hit, it flew out the full length of the leathers and gave me quite a pull to." It was very touching to me to see the men persist in their surprise of my being alive when they had troubles of their own. I cut it all short by dismounting, and entering the house. Here were the seriously wounded, with Dr. Treadwell, with arms bared to the shoulders, and, for the moment, his knife between his teeth, at work, as all heroes work, with all his might. Lieutenant Emmons, having had his scalp wound dressed, begged me to take him away from the place, with the doctor's consent, I put him on the mare and walked to town. We found our regiment in bivouac, along the railroad in Kinston town. It was now dark and Colonel Codman had not returned.

The officers wanted a bath and supper, so we crossed the way to the house of the jailor; a well in his yard furnished the water for a bucket bath, and Mr. Jailor was informed that if he

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would set out what he had to eat we would pay him in greenbacks. He was not inclined to be accused of furnishing comfort to the enemy after we were gone, so we set Deede, our headquarters mess-steward, to work ransacking his larder.

While this was going on, I was being douced by Lieutenant Thaxter from the bucket. On removing my top boots for the bath, I found my feet inflamed and my stockings worn in two at the ankle from the ooze that had dried, since the overflow in the swamp.

The jailor kept watch of all that went on inside the house, and when we had finished our supper, accepted "greenbacks" without a "thank you" in return.

An order came now for three companies to report to the Provost Marshal for duty in the town. Fires had been started in the Cotton Warehouses. Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody protested this order, but Major Frankle (the Provost) insisted by saying that half his guard was drunk, and he knew he could rely on the men of the Forty-Fifth.

As I went down that line of sleeping men, wrapped in their blankets, with the slight grading of the railroad for pillows, I felt ashamed to be recognized by them as being a part of any such poor administration, for there were regiments not under fire during the day, that should have been given this extra duty.

They marched away in the darkness, were on duty all night and the next day until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They then recrossed the Neuse bridge with the cavalry, atfer burning the bridge, to overtake the column that left at daylight with our regiment in the advance. Such a march is not a question of "will you?" but "can you?"

The officers were as near exhaustion as the men. You might paste the order against foraging on each man's back, and still you would find them going through every house, even the quarters of the negroes, and if they left anything to eat, or did not change the water in their canteens for applejack, they would not be human. Soon night was coming on. To do the stunt the men must have rest, and there was safety in keeping together, so Captain Bumstead ordered a halt for sleep, and for those that had dropped out to rejoin.

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When they started on they had the bivouac fire glare on the sky as their beacon, but the tramp in the dark woods, seemed an endless chain of hope. Every man mute and for himself, tracked along and began to show up about 11 o'clock along our fires, and by "Reveille" our space in the brigade bivouac had filled up. As our brigade was now in the advance we made an early start, and by 9.30 the men forgot all about their tender feet and lame legs, for we were again under fire

The regiment came on the ground along the end of a field, until we came to the riverbank. Jenney's six guns were in full play from a bit of a rise in the field. The leaden bees were humming again. Our road turned sharp to the left, along the riverbank. So we had to come, "On right, by files into line," and as each company got on the line, began "firing by file." No sooner was the regiment on the line, than we got the order to "lie down and fire." This allowed Jenney, in our rear, to open again. Directly behind us was a Virginia rail fence. Jenney's gunners were depressing so much as to make the top rails fly now and then, but they saw it as plainly as we felt the splinters.

Now came the order, "Cease firing and fall back over the fence." Massachusetts' boys knew nothing of what could be done with a Virginia fence when it is in their way and the splinters flying.

They tackled it at the bottom and tried to pull it apart; then the cry was "Tip it over." A thousand men could not raise it an inch. How the bees did hum! Then began an individual scramble to climb over, not so easy as you think, with loaded muskets and forty rounds in cartridge box and twenty rounds in pockets, with cap-box to catch the fence and haversack, and canteen and blanket roll. Go, they must, for Belger's Rhode Island Battery was coming down the roadway on the dead jump, and there was not room for the two commands.

The men had tackled here and there on the fence, so when they stopped running on the other side, the company formations were pretty well broken up. But the right spirit was there among the officers and men. No orders could be understood on account of the screaming shells. All looked back for their chief.

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There he stood perfectly calm with the colors, as if he was sure the men would rally on them and not break for the rear to be behind Jenney's guns.

The troops of two brigades with General Foster and his staff were looking on, so the moment must have been a trying one for the Colonel. The singing of the sharp-shooter's bullets, and the screaming of shells, was order enough for our men to take to the ground, and sure enough they crawled forward to their company officers and the new line with nothing to do but hug the earth, while the batteries played over us from both front and rear. Now Jenney burst a gun and then Angel's Battery opened alongside Jenney--what an uproar!

Harper's Magazine had an illustration of our position, with the statement that at one time the iron from forty-six cannons was in the air. I quote from the article published in Harper's Magazine in December, 1864,--entitled "Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men."

Extract from Harper's Magazine, December, 1864:

"As soon as our advance-guard appeared in sight the rebels opened upon them from their batteries on the opposite side of the river. When the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts which in that day's march led the main body of the army, came within reach of the rebel fire, six batteries, containing thirty-six guns, were immediately brought into position, and opened a deadly fire upon the guns of the rebels, ten in number, upon the opposite side of the river. These guns, on both sides, were loaded and fired with such rapidity that it is said that there were, in all, more than a hundred discharges each minute. It is seldom, in battle, that so large a number of guns are so closely concentrated.

The field of action was mostly a level plain, with a few slight undulations. It was necessary to place the Union infantry in position to protect their batteries from sudden charges by the foe. The Massachusetts Forty-Fifth found itself stationed exactly in the range between one of our batteries and the guns of the rebels. The balls and shells from both parties went directly over their heads, so near that were the men to stand erect every head would soon be swept away. As they lay flat upon the ground they could feel the motion of every ball, and the windage would often take away their breath. Occasionally a shell would explode near them covering them with dirt. It was a very awkward position to occupy, and General Foster soon changed it. To attain a new position there was a Virginia rail fence to be crossed. As one of

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the men put his hand on a top rail to spring over a shell struck the rail from beneath him, plunged him headlong but unharmed into a ditch, and knocked down and severely wounded with a splinter another man. Almost at the same moment another shell fell and exploded in their ranks, wounding four men. In the midst of such a fire as this, strange to say, many of the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts fell soundly asleep. They were so utterly exhausted by the march of two days, the battle in the swamp and the sleeplessness of the intervening night in standing guard, that even the deafening roar of battle and the greatest peril of wounds and death could not keep them awake.

One principal object in visiting White Hall was to destroy the two gunboats of which we have spoken as being there upon the stocks. As the enemy were in force upon the opposite bank our troops could not in a body cross. It was now night. The boats must be destroyed, and the army must be speedily again on its way to accomplish an enterprise still more important. Two thousand barrels of turpentine were seized, piled in an immense heap on the river's bank, and set on fire. Such a bonfire mortal eyes have seldom seen. Vast sheets of billowy flame flashed their forked tongue to the clouds. The whole region for miles around was lighted up. Every movement of the enemy was revealed, and their positions were mercilessly shelled. Still there was no means of reaching the boats but to call for volunteers to swim the stream and apply the torch. A private named Butler of Company C, Third New York Cavalry came forward, plunged into the wintry wave and pushed boldly for the opposite shore. Every gun was brought into action throwing grape and cannister to distract the foe.

Butler ran up the bank to the flaming bridge, seized a brand, and was making for the boats, when several rebels rushed from their sheltered hiding-places and endeavored to seize him. Quick as thought he turned, plunged again into the river, and through a shower of bullets returned safely to his comrades. The batteries were then brought to bear upon the boats, and with solid shot and shell they were nearly demolished, though the flames, could the touch have been applied, would more effectually have done the work."

Note. (For this gallant act, Major-General Foster highly complimented Butler on the spot, while Butler was in a situation not observable in civilized society.)

Having nothing to do made it all the more trying. While I was lying near Captain Daland, we made out to the rear the movement of a man's arm from a dry ditch. This open-field business, with sharpshooters in the tree tops just over a narrow

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river, was anything but quieting to one's nerves. I crawled up to the ditch and looked in, the man made a movement with his hand across his face, that he could not speak.

I signalled Dr. Treadwell to come. He said the man was "winded" by a shell passing near enough to paralyze the muscles of his throat. Chaplain Stone came with his men and carried him off the field on a stretcher. Just then our colors toppled over. Colonel Codman got up, took the colors, went five paces to the front and called for Sergeant Green. Color-Sergeant Parkman's body was taken off the field and Green took his place. In the afternoon when the regiment marched off the field over a bluff past Parkman's open grave, the field and staff turned out of column to attend a short service by Chaplain Stone, while the men looked on as they marched past. The loss of the regiment here at White Hall was five killed and sixteen wounded. "Ticks" don't count at the front, but I had two by bits of shell, one on the forehead, and on the back of my right hand, the cords laid bare, causing the arm to swell to the shoulder.

It was now a steady march until we bivouaced about dark. Whenever the column settled down to "route step" it was my habit to drop to the rear, dismount, and tramp for awhile with Sergeant-Major Wheelock, who was not only a first-class tactician, but a delightful companion for a tough march, or for an evening about a camp-fire. Our tour of duty as brigade-in-advance was now over, so we had no early start to make on the morrow, but moved along toward the fight at Goldsboro bridge near the rear of our column. Toward evening we were turned back to our bivouac of the night before, had our coffee and hard tack, and many were asleep when the order came for the regiment to go to the front, where the firing had started up again. The men did not respond very cheerfully. We filed out on the roadway, and after marching awhile the colonel halted the regiment for the grumbling continued. He gave them a few movements in the manual of arms, and then said to them, "Your safety in nightwork may depend on your keeping closed-up. Now what we have to do, let us do cheerfully. Right face! Forward, March!" and no regiment ever stepped off more cheerfully.

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The big pine trees along one side of the way were ablaze, and roared and snapped with a deal of energy. When the rosin melted from above and dropped down into the flames, they would shoot up as if forced by a blow pipe. By shielding the face, we passed the burning district without a blister. After an hour or so of marching we were halted, and soon turned back to our bivouac.

Now that this army had disabled the railroad between Wilmington, N. C., and Richmond, Va., and from prisoners taken learned that Burnside had been checked at Fredericksburg, is hurried back to near Kinston where we could hear from Burnside at Fredericksburg. Were we to turn towards Wilmington, or move north? When the dispatch boat came in sight, one wave of a flag from her deck started us on a silent march within our own lines at New Berne.

The troops of the Eighteenth Army Corps, under the command of Major-General Foster, that fought the engagements at Southwest Creek, Kinston, White Hall, Mount Olive, Goshen Swamp, Dudley Station, Thompson's Bridge and Goldsboro Bridge in North Carolina on the 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th of December, 1862, were as follows:

Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffman, Assistant-Adjutant General.

Major Anderson, A. D. C.

Major Stackpole, Judge Advocate.

Major Frankle, Provost Marshal.

Captain Gouraud, A. D. C.

Captain Fitzgerald, A. D. C.

Captain Messenger, Chief Quartermaster.

Captain Taylor, Chief Signal Officer.

Lieutenant Farquhar, Engineer.

Surgeon Snelling, Medical Director.

[image: General Foster's Headquarters Flag]

Ninth New Jersey--skirmishing.

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Eighty-Fifth New York; Ninety-Second New York; Ninety-Sixth New York; One Hundred and First Pennsylvania and One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania.

Seventeenth Massachusetts; Twenty-Third Massachusetts; Forty-Third Massachusetts; Forty-Fifth Massachusetts and Fifty-First Massachusetts.

Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts; Eighth Massachusetts; Forty-Fourth Massachusetts; Fifth Rhode Island and Tenth Connecticut.

Twenty-Seventh Massachusetts; Twenty-Fifth Massachusetts; Forty-Sixth Massachusetts; Third Massachusetts and Fifth Massachusetts.

Six batteries, Third New York Artillery, thirty-six guns; one battery, First Rhode Island Artillery, six guns; one section, Twenty-Third Independent New York, two guns; one section, Twenty-Fourth Independent New York, two guns, and Marine Artillery in boats for use on Neuse River.

Third New York Cavalry, two howitzers.

Now we had a right to change a company that had been under fire, for one that had not, so Company I, Captain Rich, was sent to Morehead City, to relieve Company C, Captain Minot. Soon after this, Company I was ordered to join Company G, at Fort Macon. Hardly had our men recovered from their lameness when our brigade was ordered on a five days' reconnoissance up along the Trent to Trenton, where we burnt the bridge to keep the enemy from raiding over on to our railroad from New Berne to Beaufort Harbor. From Trenton, we turned South, toward Wilmington, with the Third New York Cavalry raiding right and left. While in support at Young's Cross Roads of these raids, we had the wettest rain of all our bivouacing. Everyone

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and everything was soaked during the day and night that it lasted. If you started a fire you could not use it for the smoke would not rise, so you could not remain near it.

It was a bad night for the men on picket. Three of our men were on outpost, near a farmhouse, where the road dropped off a bit. They found an old door which they rested on a fence for shelter. Most of their time was given to keeping the locks of their muskets from getting damp. The man on lookout says, "There is something coming up that rise." But in such darkness and mist it was impossible to judge. "It's on top of the rise," says the lookout. "Fire then," says the corporal. Bang! The quality and number of the grunts that came from one shoat as he scurried for the farm-yard, made the men under the lean-to declare there was a whole drove. For half an hour all was quiet. Then the outpost man says, "There's cavalry coming!" All got outside and at ready. The cavalry was cantering up the rise. "Fire," ordered the corporal Bang! Bang! Bang! and three riderless horses that would not be turned by the firing, rushed by to the farm-yard. Then it dawned on the boys, that the farmer had run his stock off to the swamp for safety, and the night was such that the animals knew of more comfortable quarters if they could get there. These had got there; and it looked to the boys that if they kept quiet, by morning, they would have quite a lot of animals to turn over to the Provost Marshal.

There is a saying aboard ship, that when a sailor's seat gets wet, it is time to throw him overboard, but with our men soaked to the skin, there was not a case of doldrums as there was the night they were ordered up from bivouac, and started for the front, the night of Goldsboro.

Four days after returning from this march the regiment was ordered to do provost duty in New Berne. Our eight companies were quartered in houses in different parts of the city. Field officers and staff were together in a brick house on Pollock street.

Our evening parade was on Broad Street. With two companies away on duty at Fort Macon, and turning off a guard of

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two hundred and twenty-five each day, made our front small, but did not reduce the standard of our drill, or the promptness of our movement.

"Going to church," and "going to parade," were the only entertainments left for the inhabitants while under martial law, so the spectators outnumbered the regiment generally.

In camp each company had the same distance to march to get on the line at Dress Parade, and came on the line as you would count one, two, three, four, right and left from the markers with the Adjutant and Sergeant-Major on the jump. Every man seemed to have his muscles strung with willingness, for they knew it was soon over, if all went well. But here in New Berne, some companies were a long distance from our parade ground, and others quite near. Tomlinson's time was given in orders, as the regimental time, and commanders of the companies warned to be near the line when the Adjutant's call was sounded, ready to march on when the band played.

In a few days the companies had this down to a certainty, except one. I noticed that this captain when late, would not double-quick his company when he heard the band start in to play, which was as much as to say we could not go on without him. So the next evening when I saw he was even later than before, and all were on the line except his, the right company, I stopped the band, closed them up to the left, and went on with the parade. The band had played down the front, turned, and were halfway back when Captain Churchill stepped up behind me, and said, "Move up Adjutant, and I will put my company in line." "No, Captain, you can return your company to its quarters." Soon the band blazed in on my right, and as I went to the front, I saw his company returning to its quarters under Lieutenant Bond.

Captain Churchill had come round to the front near the colonel. Parade over, the colonel walked away with Lieutenant-Colonel Peabody, Captain Churchill following up in the rear. At headquarters the two colonels passed up stairs to their rooms and I turned in to my office, on the lower floor. Captain Churchill was left in the hallway. Soon he said to the orderly, "I

[image: Regmental Headquarters In New Berne While Doing Provost Duty]

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would like to speak to Colonel Codman." The orderly came to me and I told him to go to the colonel's room and ask, if he would receive him there, here, or in the office. The colonel said for him to come up.

That evening at dinner, the colonel looked pleasantly at me and said, "Well, Adjutant, Captain Churchill wanted to know if you commanded the regiment. I told him, not exactly that, but you represented its commander, and I was surprised you had not shut him out before." Colonel Peabody thought the captain might have wanted to argue the point, whether he, as captain, was to take such drastic orders from an adjutant. Colonel Codman said, "it did not follow that the adjutant being executive officer of this regiment need have orders direct from my lips to deliver anyone of it, if he is right, I am bound to sustain him."

Now, the regiment not being on the move, had visitors from Boston. Rev. Dr. Lothrop with his daughter, the wife of our Lieutenant-Colonel, Edward W. Kinsley, and others.

The winter weather is delightful in North Carolina, and now with our visitors we were having the heyday of our army service; but there came an interruption. One morning in March, as Lieutenant Pond has so well told in his paper, "A Stirring Day."

In April, we were relieved from duty in the city and went into tents near our two companies, now in Fort Spinola, which united the regiment for parade only. When Sergeant Green of the Color Guard went with his Company G, to Fort Macon, Corporal Keating acted as Color-Sergeant, and took great pride in the position. If the order under fire was given, "forward on the colors," he was a bit tardy, until he got a chance to turn his trousers up to knee-high, then he was alert as a tiger. He went up the face of the Dover earthworks all right.

While quartered in the city, I had a birthday party. I invited those I could accommodate, and instructed Deede to get the largest turkey in the city for our dinner. You must understand the stock of turkeys had long since been exhausted. But Deede never failed us if that which was wanted was within his reach. We dined on turkey. From the time we left Boston,

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there was a case of champagne being kicked about with headquarters' baggage, for which the colonel had no use, as he, while in command, never allowed himself to use wine, as he would have to pass judgment on his men that over indulged. The Major kept his eyes on it, and for fear it might be wasted, he got the sisters at the hospital to say how much it was needed there. At our mess-table I joked quite a deal about "our wine." My birthday friends adjourned to my room, which connected by a double closet with the colonel's room. We had never used this closet. My friends were having a pretty jolly evening when there came a knock on this closet door. Holding up my arm for silence, I opened the door, and the colonel walked to the centre of the room, with a bottle of champagne under each arm. "Gentlemen," he said, "I am not using wine on this campaign, but I wish you would include me in your drinking this to the Adjutant's long, happy and prosperous life, which he so well deserves."

After the colonel had retired, a knock came on the hall door. The night-orderly handed me an envelope. As soon as I glanced at the enclosure I handed it to Lieutenant Thaxter to read, which was as follows:

Dear Gershom C
Who I may be,
It matters not to say,
I wish for thee
Prosperity,
On this thy natal-day.
Long years ago, this vale of woe
You chanced to enter in, sir,
Your happy lot no doubt to show
Your Victory o'er friend and foe
Your parent's named you Win-sor.
In camp or city, youth or age,
Amid the battle's din, sir,
Most obstinate, life's fight you'll wage
And never yield, that I'll engage
For you must ever, win, sir.
The campaign o'er, in peaceful mood
Again you'll meet your kin, sir,
That lady fair! It's understood
Is ready to be won and woo'd
The "merry wife of Winsor."
In health and love, we all will trust,
You'll never be out of tin, sir,
In fortune's race may you be first
And ample store of golden dust
We hope you soon will win, sir.
Advanced in years, for youthful toys,
When you care not a pin, sir,
No doubt you'll have maturer joys,
And will not be known by girls and boys,
By name of "Old Brown Winsor."
We humbly trust with length of years
Without one mortal sin, sir,
'Mid manhood's grief and childhood's tears,
The aim of Christian's hopes and fears,
The golden crown you'll win, sir.
Dear Gershom C,
Who I may be,
'Tis vain for you to guess
I wish for thee,
Prosperity,
Long life and happiness.

New Berne, N. C., February 19, 1863.

For months I did not know to whom I was indebted for so ingenious a remembrance. My friends in Boston allowed the Boston Journal to publish it thinking it would lead to an acknowledgment by the author. It was not until one night while on duty in Boston, during the Draft Riot that Dr. Kneeland admitted that it was a trail from his pen, and how much he had enjoyed the blind hunt.

My relations with the colonel were so close that his modes

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of thought, of reasoning, of action were so plain to me, that I would ever be aware of any faint-heartedness, of evasion, or lack of courage, or justice, if there were any. But there never was.

If I started in to write about Colonel Codman, it would take more space than could be given in this review. His administration and tactics were fine. Two items only will I give.

When in camp, every Sunday morning the regiment was paraded for religious service.

Those men for Catholic service step four paces to the front.

Those men for Episcopal service step three paces to the front.

Those men for Methodist service step two paces to the front.

Each detachment was put under a non-commissioned officer, and marched away. Then the regiment was formed in a hollow square and we had service by our chaplain, who was always prompt, energetic and interesting. The leading voices of the singers were by Myron W. Whitney and William H. Beckett, in after years artists who graced operas, oratorios and New York Trinity Church Choir, respectively. Even the least devout men became interested.

While on provost duty in the city, the mornings after guard mounting, were devoted at headquarters to regimental court martial. One of the men had been up twice before for having liquor while on post. When the man stepped before him, the colonel settled down in his chair, run his hands into his pockets, worked one foot slowly, and was silent for a few minutes. Then he said, "Lawrence, I think you have proved your unfitness for duty that is required of our men here in the city, I shall not send you to Fort Totten. You will be detailed as helper to your company cook, and do no duty with a musket." We had left the city and had been in Camp Massachusetts quite awhile. The colonel had asked me to ride to town with him. When near the covered bridge, I saw a man coming with a bundle on his shoulder. Seeing us, he put it down, and stood at attention. I said, "Colonel, hold up, that man wants to speak with you." He stopped and turned his head from the brown study he was in and said at once, "Oh, yes, it's Lawrence." "I would like my musket back, Colonel." "Yes, yes, I will think that matter over, Lawrence"

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and twitching his reins, we moved off. Our term of service was now getting short. In the hurry of getting away the colonel ordered Lawrence to have his musket and take his place in the ranks. Did he forget Lawrence's homegoing? Some of you afterwards served under other commanders. If you found them always ready to give out all the punishment they could, then your mind must have reverted to your first colonel, who did not relish punishing any man.

Away back in Camp Meigs at Readville, when the regiment was forming, a man came to my tent, and said he would like to be detailed into the band, as he felt he knew more of music than of drill. "That is certainly what the bandmaster is looking for and you may report to him, saying that I sent you, and for him to try you out." Each department was so busy and there having been no parade of the regiment as yet, I had never met the bandmaster of a few days. The next morning, among others waiting, was a man in plain uniform, who said, "I am the bandmaster. The man you sent me yesterday will not do, he has never played a brass instrument." I sent for the man and then said to the bandmaster, "My understanding of what you wish to find in this regiment is, twenty or more enlisted men, that understand music that you may put instruments in their hands and teach them to produce harmony from them. Now take this man to your band tent, give him an instrument, and have him practice every day for a week. Then, if he won't do, I will listen to you." Turning to my man, I said, "What is your name?"--"Myron W. Whitney, sir." The bandmaster did not come back. Years after the war, when Whitney had become a famous singer, I boarded a train one night, and took seat with him. He said, "Winsor, when I go over my mental list of those who have rendered me assistance, during my professional studies, I find you very near the head of the list for your persistence in having me follow what I thought I understood, rather than have me perform the drudgery of a private soldier."

Two days after we went to Camp Massachusetts, the regiment was ordered to Core Creek, where we went into bivouac just off the railroad bed. General Palmer had a number of regiments

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on the Washington road between us and the Neuse River. General Amory was in command on the railroad bed. The next morning Captains Minot's and Tappan's companies under Major Sturgis, were sent up the railroad bed, to feel the enemy and hold a cross-road.

Before noon our regiment supported by the Seventeenth Massachusetts, under Lieutenant-Colonel Fellows, followed the two companies. As the rails were up, and the culverts open, the field and staff were on foot. The day was hot and close, the ground swampy. When we overtook our two companies, Captain Bumstead's company was sent on the cross-road to the right to open communication with General Palmer's column. As the regiment proceeded up the road bed with Captain Churchill's company out as skirmishers. The enemy were forced from stumps and logs. As the way widened out, Captain Daland's company was deployed on the left. Toward night we had driven them within their earthworks, at the junction of the Washington road and the railroad bed. We could not wait for the other column to come up on the Washington road as it was getting late. So Colonel Codman, who was in command of our column, decided, after conferring with Lieutenant-Colonel Fellows (General Amory who was ill being left behind), to charge the face of the works, which was made of sleepers and iron rails from the road, covered with sand.

Captain Homans' company was sent from the left to a wood ahead to try and get in a cross-fire--when the order was given to "charge."

Captain Denny's company, carrying the colors, had not been deployed, but held in reserve on the railroad bed, in platoons. When all was ready the order was given to Company A, to fire by platoon and then the regiment, deployed, to charge. Corporal Keating waved the colors for the third time as the signal for all to start, and just then there came a sheet of lead that made the air kick all about us, but it was aimed about a foot too high, Then was our opportunity, and everyone took advantage of it. forward they went! slowly followed by the Seventeenth en masse. With bayonets, for an Alpine stick, our men gained the top of the earthworks, the white State Flag waving from it.

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We fired some lively volleys after the retreating rebels. Captain Homans' men had helped for there were four dead bodies within the works. Colonel Codman was walking the top of the work, stepping over his men, ordering them to "cease firing." I had jumped down within the works, and was cutting a gourd from the waist belt of a reb, that was shot through the lungs, still blowing froth and blood from his mouth.

In reply to the colonel's order, the men would look up at him, and then bang away again, feeling sure they found rebels in the edge of the woods. Then he called for me to send a drummer. The men, for the drummer's beat, stopped their firing.

The explanation to my mind was, that the men did not propose to give up what they had gained, and to be sure of that, without a second thought, could not see what harm there could be in making sure, for possibly the colonel might be in error. This was nothing new of our volunteers, for they knew when they were doing a good piece of work. On a larger scale, the same idea predominated at Missionary ridge, when the centre under General Thomas advanced. The order was to take the first line of works at the foot of the ridge, but when the men had passed it, and the color-bearers kept going, the men rushed up, and up, so if Generals Sheridan and Baird who commanded these divisions, wished to, they did not stop them, for they were sure to gain the summit, which they did, much to the astonishment of General Grant.

A company skirmishing for the column on Washington road, now crossed our rear and halted. Its captain reported to Colonel Codman for orders, and was instructed to pass into the woods to the roadway and ascertain if the enemy had any artillery there Our orders had been fulfilled. We had lost one dead, and three wounded. It was dark and the order was given to return nine miles to our bivouac. It was very hot and sultry. The only water to be had was that along the road bed, covered with scum and dead leaves. Now, it was every man for himself again, except the wounded and the colonel. When his responsibility relaxed, he felt the strain of doing his work on foot, then came a reaction which required assistance by his men for a while.

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Colonel Peabody and myself, also felt this strain, but managed to stick to the pioneers and were the first back to our bivouac. After "coffee," we bunked together on the ground with a rubber blanket over us, for it was to rain. The next morning when I got up, my hair was matted over my eyes and ears by the heavy down-pour, while I had never even dreamed of rain.

Captain Minot's company had not been with the regiment, on a march, until this one. After breakfast Captain Minot lined up his company and said "Men, you may be called on today for as hard, or harder march than we had yesterday. I want to know what men I can rely on, for Company C has got to keep in the front, now we are back with the regiment." Most of the men wanted, at least, a chance to soak their feet, but there were quite a number who wished to be left behind. "Well," said the captain, "I think the next time I want to recruit a company, I had better go to a Female Seminary for them. Break Ranks! March!" He said to me afterwards, "Why, Adjutant I could not today march them a mile, before I would drop." But evidently he did not propose to have his men know it, if they were to remain in bivouac. The rumored movement on New Berne had been forestalled. The next day we returned to Camp Massachusetts.

Colonel Jones commanding our picket line, nine miles out on Batchelder's Creek was ever on the alert, and allowed no rebel post within his reach to remain unmolested. His own regiment, the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, was located with him at the creek, and he had command of all pickets on his right, to the Neuse, and on his left, to the Trent, an arc of some fifteen miles.

Not many days after our return from Core Creek, an orderly rode into camp about nine o'clock one evening, with an order for the colonel to have his command ready in twenty minutes, to load on the cars and proceed to Batchelder's Creek and assume command of the picket lines. If the enemy attacked in the morning, to bear in mind, that the general's fighting ground was at the works near the city, and so, not to bring on a general engagement but notify right and left, and retire. The regiment

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was ready when the train of flat cars was backed from the city across the bridge to our camp. We had taken only the men, leaving the horses, most of the drummer-boys, and the band behind, until we knew of our need on the morrow.

While alongside the track, loading, two of the drummer-boys from camp, "cheeked it," and begged me to take them, saying in a hurried way, how they attended to the wounded at Kinston, and what need there always was for them, when a fight was on; didn't I send them back from the swamp at Kinston, for the stretchers to come in. "Oh, Adjutant, let us two go, do!" My answer was, "We may need one more, so here quick, now draw lots", taking up some straw from the side of the track. Little Shields, who never was downed at any of his tricks, drew the long straw, dodged away in the darkness for his drum. Even General Foster started to call him down once, but the boy came out ahead.

It was the afternoon of Goldsboro bridge fight, the day when the Forty-Fifth was not of the advance brigade. Shields had tramped ahead to see what was going on. He had got up where exploding shells and falling branches reminded him of Kinston, so he concluded he had better hold on where he was, until there was a "let up," so sat on a log with his drum slung on his back. General Foster, with part of his staff soon halted there and looked the ground over. Presently the general said to his aide, "What is that drummer-boy doing back here?" The aide asks the boy, "Why are you back here?" The boy rose, saluted, "Sir, I am waiting for the Forty-Fifth Massachusetts to come up."

After the train got beyond our works, we could hear other regiments moving on the highways, later on some had stopped for coffee, and had small fires going. Unloading in the camp of the Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania, our men made coffee. There stood a C. S. A. army wagon, with its hitch, and a piece of artillery, the trophy of the afternoon fight.

The colonel must now look to his new command. We entered the headquarters' tent and saw the body of Colonel Jones, shot through the heart by a sharpshooter, while out with his regiment. Captain Daland's company was sent scouting to

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Burnt bridge, at our right. Lieutenant Thayer, with Company G, to the Red House on our left. Finally with the One Hundred Thirty-Second New York, Colonel Classen, at Burnt bridge, and other regiments on our left, we settled down for the night, except the engine, that ran all night, just for the effect of its whistle on the rebel commander. Before daylight our pickets reported that the rebs were astir. At the front you could hear them calling their men up After awhile they moved off. Their brigade commander had decided not to attack. The next noon we returned to New Berne, with the body of Colonel Jones, and two days after were ordered to escort it to the steamer that bore it North

Large daily details were now made from the Forty-Fifth, to work on new earthworks.

The weather had become very hot, 105 degrees in the day-time, and about 92 degrees at night. Malaria and all its kindred were now rife. Some men that marched out on the details in the morning were brought in on a stretcher at noon, and a few died by night. Our sick were increasing very fast. Everybody was sick of the summer climate, and seemed to lose interest, and began to realize they had struck up against an enemy they feared more than the rebels. Our strength was ebbing away. General Lee was moving into Pennsylvania. We got an order to report to General Dix at Fortress Munroe. Getting our sick from hospitals and other regimental effects together, we took train to Morehead and there boarded the steamers S. R. Spaulding and Tillie passed Cape Hatteras, and at Fortress Munroe reported the regiment to the secretary of war, as ready for any duty, but when he found we had two hundred and sixty men down sick the whole regiment was ordered to Boston for "muster out."

Speaking of the wastefulness of war methods. Here was a regiment that given a month's rest in a Northern climate, to regain their health, was in its prime, and should have been retained in the service at any reasonable cost. True, many re-enlisted, but the efficiency of the unit of a regiment was lost, and that is the reliance of an army.

The regiment while in action had eighty-four hit, of these, twelve were killed, viz.: Samuel F. Richards, Clarence W. Bassett,

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Edwin R. Clark, Thomas Daudley, John H. Williams, Henry M. Putney, Edward H. Daggett, Theodore Parkman, Dennis Boerdhouse, James Murphy, George Cooper and William L. Parker.

Eight died of wounds: Elbridge Graves, Henry F. Benson, Aaron H. Loring, Charles L. Ingram, George K. Robinson, Albert Brooks, William I. Rand and Abel R. Parlin.

Fourteen disabled from wounds and discharged: Horace Holmes, John Perkins, Jr., George A. White, Robert B Tougue, Obed Coffin, Stephen A. Gibbs, Henry Gromer, Davis Hall, Edward H. Johnson, William C. Marden, Frank Brooks, Benjamin H. Rockwood, Alvin A. Merrill and James Sheenan.

Total loss thirty-four men. Recovered for duty fifty men.

Major Theodore O'Hara of Frankfort, Ky., after his service in the Mexican War, mused, as all writers have who have seen service on the firing line, of their dead.

His fine mind depicted in verse, what thousands have felt, but never could express so well. The first verse is full of tender sentiment:

"The muffled drums sad roll has beat
The soldiers last tattoo:
No man on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
But Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead!"

May I say to the present and future members of the First Corps Cadets:

Those of us who went out from the corps and were mustered in the United States service one, two, three times, that can now have the privilege of standing on the curb to look at the corps as it passes, give but a glance to the commander, for he knows the whole of a soldier's duty, and is ever the same, reliable under all circumstances. It is the privates that we envy, for the reason of the many advantages they have over us of 1861, and how much better fitted they are than we were to go forth--when the

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call comes again the cadets of that time have only to go to the State House and ask for the old colors of the Forty-Fifth Regiment, put out their call for men and lead them forth. They certainly can find no better men than we led in 1862, but they might do better as officers, than we, for they are now, and ever will be better grounded in field service than of our time, as I have tried to explain.

Improve your opportunity by studying the United States Army regulations as well as your tactics; illustrate your study of earthworks and small forts, by building miniature works in the sand; go out to the edge of the woods and exercise your voice in giving the commands; have blocks of wood in your room, so that you may work out the movements of company, battalion and brigade; study Francis Galton's "Art of Travel"; commit to memory all the orders from "Attention" to "Echelon" by battalion, at thirty paces, on first battalion," etc.; practice making requisition blanks from the army regulations, then fill them up and sign them, so if called on suddenly you would at least have some idea how to proceed.

You are a member of the finest military school in infantry, outside West Point, if you will but improve your opportunity. In time of war the state is ready to give you the best commission your improvements can command. If you are well grounded there will always be an opening and promotion for you.

There was a captain who went from Boston in the Civil War that was ordered to throw up an earthwork, with his men, while on picket duty; when the work was finished the ditch was on the wrong side. If he had had your opportunities he would have been dismissed from the service for such an error.