.1111 liiPi ? V,i nil iiii! ii LIBRARY OF CONGRESS if[fJ mat umimumil wmmi P^k: MAJ.-GEN. EDWIN V. SUMNER Commanding Second Army Corps March 13 to October 9, 1S62 HISTORY Second Army Corps IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC FRANCIS A. WALKER BREVET BRIG.-GEN., U. S. VOLS. ASST. ADJ. -GEN. OF THE CORl'S, OCT. 9, 1862— JAM. 12, 1865 IV/TN PORTRAITS AND MAPS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1886 ^ Copyright, 1886, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS TROWS PRINTINQ AND BOOKBINDINQ COMPANY, NEW YORK. PREFACE. When, in 1882, after spending much time in collect- ing materials, I began to work actively and continuously upon the history of the Second Corps, of the five com- manders of that illustrious body of troops four were still living, and ready to give me their valuable suggestions and advice. As I write these closing lines, of the five four are dead. Among the prominent staff-of^cers of the corps, especially competent to give information of value, the losses have been scarcely less remarkable. Toward the end, therefore, this work has been pushed forward under a painful sense of pressure and emer- gency. I have almost felt that my task would never be done at all, unless it were done at once. The death of General Warren occurred before this narrative had reached the period during which that brill- iant young of^cer won renown at the head of the Second Corps. It was the expressed purpose of General Humph- reys, after concluding his •' History of the Virginia Cam- paign of 1864-5," for the Scribner War Series, to give much time, every hour of which would have been of price- less value, to aid the present work ; but before he had iv PREFACE. taken up his pen for this purpose that heroic soldier and thrice-accomplished scholar passed away from earth. Following close upon these afflicting losses came the death, in February last, of that great captain whose name all veterans of the Potomac Army delight to utter. Since General Hancock's unexpected and startling de- mise, I have strained every nerve to bring my arduous task to its completion, feeling that, in truth, the " night Cometh, when no man can work." This history has undergone a great change of plan since it was first undertaken, and has come to embrace a vast amount of statistical and personal matter, in ad- dition to the narrative of battles and marches which was contemplated at the outset. I cannot even hope that among so many thousands of separate statements regard- ing names, numbers, dates, order of events, juxtaposition of troops, direction of movements, etc., some mistakes have not been committed. I can only plead that great pains and labor have been expended in securing accu- racy. Even the present degree of success could not have been attained but for the information most kindly and cour- teously furnished by the accomplished Adjutant-General of the Army, General R. C. Drum, and by the officer who has, to the great advantage of American history, been placed in charge of the publication of the Rebellion Records. To the latter gentleman. Colonel Robert N. Scott, is due more than words can express. Colonel J. B. Batchelder, the Government historian of Gettys- burg, has rendered much valuable aid, which is acknowl- edged with warm gratitude. prp:face. V Colonels Fred. C. Newhall, Arnold A. Rand, and John P. Nicholson have also given me much assistance. For reasons which appear to me good, I do not here acknowledge the assistance which I have received from many officers of the Second Corps, to whom thanks have been personally returned, and whose kindness and cour- tesy 1 shall ever bear in remembrance. Among Confederate officers Generals Wade Hamp- ton, Henry Heth, and C. M. Wilcox ; Colonel William Allan, Major Jed. Hotchkiss, and Captain Gordon McCabe have given valuable information in response to my inquiries. I am indebted to St. George R. Fitzhugh, Esq., of Fredericksburg, for topographical de- tails regarding that memorable battlefield, now greatly obscured by roads opened and houses built since the war. The maps which illustrate this volume have been con- structed with a view to giving the greatest possible as- sistance to readers not skilled in topography or accus- tomed to study elaborate and intricate plans of campaigns and battles. Whatever credit is due for their mechani- cal execution belongs largely to Mr. Charles L. Adams, whose skilful pen drew all but three or four of them, with a result in clearness and accuracy which I cannot but be- lieve the reader will highly appreciate. The list of portraits embellishing this volume would have been at points different, but for the lack of good pictures of some of the most meritorious officers of the Corps, especially among those who fell during the war. It seemed best not to present a portrait of any officer, however distinguished, unless a fairly good likeness could VI PREFACE. be obtained, many of the ante-war ambrotypes and pho- tographs being scarcely less than caricatures. Mrs. General Morgan has from the first allowed the unrestricted use of the manuscript narrative, and other military papers of her distinguished husband ; and to this more than to all other causes must be attributed whatever merit shall be found in this history of the Sec- ond Army Corps. Boston, September, 1886. CONTENTS FACE CHAPTER I. The Muster i CHAPTER H. The Peninsula : Fair Oaks, . . - 14 CHAPTER HI. The Peninsula: The Seven Days, 54 CHAPTER IV. Antietam, 87 CHAPTER V. The Antietam to the Rappahannock, 127 CHAPTER VI. Fredericksburg 145 CHAPTER VII. Chancellorsville, 202 CHAPTER VIII. Hancock— Gettysburg 256 VIU CONTENTS. PAGE • CHAPTER IX. Gettysburg to the Rapidan, 306 CHAPTER X. Bristoe Station, 321 CHAPTER XI. Mine Run, 365 CHAPTER XII. The Winter Camps of 1863-64— Morton's Ford, . . . 392 CHAPTER XIII. The Wilderness, 407 CHAPTER XIV. Todd's Tavern and Po River, 441 CHAPTER XV. The I2TH of May : The Salient, 465 CHAPTER XVI. Spottsylvania, May r3TH to 19TH, 480 CHAPTER XVII. North Anna and the Totopotomoy, 49^ CHAPTER XVIII. Cold Harbor — June 2 to 12, 1864, 5^5 CHAPTER XIX. Petersburg, 5^4 CONTENTS. ix PAGB CHAPTER XX. Numbers and Organization, June 30, 1864, .... 548 CHAPTER XXI. Deep Bottom, 555 CHAPTER XXH. Reams' Station, 581 CHAPTER XXni. The Boydton Plank Road, 6^3 CHAPTER XXIV. The Winter Siege of Petersburg, 640 CHAPTER XXV. The Fall of Petersburg, 654 CHAPTER XXVI. The Pursuit — Appomattox, April 3 to 9, 1865, . . . 673 APPENDIX I. Commissioned Officers of the Second Army Corps Killed OR Mortally Wounded in Action, 710 APPENDIX II. Names of Officers of the Union Armies Mentioned in this History, 709 X CONTENTS. PAGE APPENDIX III. Names of Confederate Officers occurring in this History, . 723 APPENDIX IV. Union Corps, Regiments, Batteries, and other Organiza- tions Mentioned in this History, 725 APPENDIX V. Names of Places, Streams, Houses, etc., occurring in this History, 730 INDEX, 735 LIST OF PORTRAITS. Major-General Edwin V, Sumnei; Frontispiece. FACING PAGE Major-General Israel B. Richardson ^| Brevet Major-General Samuel K. Zook Brevet Major-General John R. Brooke \ 14 Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher Brevet Brigadier-General Robert Nugent j Major-General John Sedgwick 104 Major-General D. N. Couch 128 Major-General O. O. Howard , Major-General David B. Birney Major-General John Gibbon Major-General William H. French j \ 145' Brigadier-General Charles H. Morgan 208 Major-General Winfield S. Hancock 256 Major-General Gouverneur K. Warren 321 Xll LIST OF PORTRAITS. FACING PAGE Brevet Major-General William Hays ] Brevet Majok-General Ph. R. DeTrobriand Brevet Brigadier-General William G. Mitchell, y 407 v Brevet Major-General Alexander S. Webb Colonel Edw, E. Cross j Major-General Francis C. Barlow "] Brevet Major-General S. S. Carroll I Brevet Brigadier-General James A. Beaver y 475 Brevet Major-General Alexander Hays Brevet Major-General Thomas A. Smyth J Major-General Gershom Mott ") Major-General Nelson A. Miles Brevet Major-General Byron R. Pierce }■ 525 , Brevet Major-General Thomas W. Egan I Brevet Brigadier-General John G. Hazard J Major-General Andrew A. Humphreys 640 LIST OF MAPS. PAGE Richmond and Vicinity .facing 23 Sumner's Fight at Fair Oaks, May 31, 1862 36 Battle-field of Antietam , 103 "The Right" at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862 160 Marye's Heights, December 13, 1862 163 Chancellorsville and Vicinity 215 Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863 226 Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863 234 . Gettysburg and Vicinity .facing 270 Position taken by General Sickles, July 2 275 The Wheat-field, July 2, 1864 279 Attack on Second Corps, July 3, 1863 295 Line OF Retreat, October n-15, 1863 323 2 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. among whose Generals of Division were numbered Sedg- wick, Richardson, Howard, French, Barlow, Birney, Miles, Mott, Gibbon, Webb, and Alexander Hays ; the corps which crossed the Chickahominy to the rescue of the beaten left at Fair Oaks ; which made the great assault at Marye's Heights ; on which fell the fury of Longstreet's charge at Gettysburg ; which was the rear guard, October 14th, at Auburn and at Bristoe; which stormed the Salient at Spottsylvania, and at Farmville fought the last infantry battle of the war against the Army of Northern Virginia. One man there was who, of all the soldiers of the Sec- ond Corps, should have written its history. That man was its Inspector-General. The commanders of the corps gladly acknowledged how much they owed to him of the success they were enabled to achieve at the head of that gallant body of troops; but few of the more than one hundred thousand soldiers who, for longer or shorter terms, served under its colors while he was chief of its staff knew how much of dangers averted, of labors saved, of hardships mitigated, of glory won, was due to that peerless officer. General Charles H. Morgan ; how many blows that would have fallen with fatal effect were warded off by his sleepless vigilance ; how many useless marches and tormenting vigils his wise and thoughtful prevision avoided ; how many lives, in the furious assaults to which this devoted corps was summoned, were saved by his judi- cious dispositions, in which a thorough knowledge of the principles of war mingled with shrewd observation of the field, clear insight into character, and sound practical judg- ment." ' General Morgan, after the close of the war, undertook to write the history of the corps, and collected much material for this pur- pose. In a letter to me, under date of March 14, 1867, General THE MUSTER. 3 The Second Army Corps was organized March 13, 1862, by General Orders No. loi, Headquarters Army of the Potomac. Three divisions were included in the original assignment of troops — those of Richardson, Blen- ker, and Sedgwick. On the 31st of the same month, however, Blenker's division was detached, not only from the new corps, but also from the Army of the Potomac. The brief term during which this division remained of the Second Corps — it could hardly be said with the Sec- ond Corps, for no two divisions of the new command had yet been brought together — would not justify its inclu- sion in this narrative, and it will accordingly be left out of account in all statements regarding the history of the corps, its numbers, or its personnel. In like manner, the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, Colonel Farnsworth, whose service at the headquarters of the corps was of short duration and, for lack of opportunity, inconsequential character, will be omitted. Of the two divisions left to the corps, after Blenker's detachment, that of Richardson comprised the brigades of Howard, Meagher, and French, which were severally constituted as follows : Morgan, to my deep regret, intimated his purpose of abandoning the task ; and, on November 4th of the same year, he wrote me that he had definitely decided to do so, on the ground that, being in the regular army, he was not at liberty to express his views regard- ing some of his superior officers on matters which would neces- sarily come within the scope of his proposed work. General Mor- gan, however, before his lamented death, in 1872, left a continuous though brief manuscript account of the operations of the corps from November, 1862, to November, 1864, from which I have, with the permission of Mrs. Morgan, freely drawn in the follow- insj narrative. THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. FIRST BRIGADE. Brigadier-General OLIVER O. HOWARD, Commanding. 5th New Hampshire, Colonel Edward E. Cross. 6ist New York, Colonel Spencer W. Cone. 64th New York, Colonel Thomas J. Parker. 8 1 St Pennsylvania, Colonel James Miller. SECOND BRIGADE. [Known as the Irish Brigade.] Brigadier-General THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, Com- manding. 63d New York, Colonel JOHN BuRKE. 69th New York, Colonel Robert Nugent. 88th New York, Colonel Henry M. Baker. THIRD BRIGADE. Brigadier-General WILLIAM H. FRENCH, Commanding. 52d New York, Colonel Paul Frank. 57th New York, Colonel Samuel K. Zook. 66th New York, Colonel Joseph C. Pinckney. 53d Pennsylvania, Colonel John R. Brooke. ARTILLERY. Captain GEORGE W. HAZZARD, Commanding. Battery B, ist New York, Captain Pettit. Battery G, 1st New York, Captain FRANK. Battery A, 2d Battalion New York, Captain HoGAN. Batteries A & C, 4th United States, Captain Hazzard. This division was, until the formation of the corps, commanded by General Sumner. During the winter it had been encamped in front of Fort Worth, touching the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Camp California, THE MUSTER. 5 where, through the long months of weary waiting in the mud, it had been put through a severe and unremitting course of drills, reviews, inspections, sham-fights, marches, tours of picket, and reviews. The commander was him- self of race-horse stock ; he ran until he dropped ; and he expected no less from every man of his raw troops. On the assignment of General Sumner to the command of the corps, Brigadier-General Israel B. Richardson succeeded to the command of this division. General Richardson, a native of Vermont, graduated from West Point in 1841, entering the army as Second Lieutenant in the Third Infantry. He greatly distinguished himself in every important battle of Scott's column, during the Mexican War, and was brevetted Captain and Major. In 185 1 he became Captain; and in 1855 retired from the army, taking up his residence in Michigan, where, on the outbreak of the war, he organized the second regi- ment of that State. He commanded a brigade at Bull Run, and was subsequently appointed a Brigadier-Gen- eral of Volunteers, to date from May 12, 1861. Of the brigade commanders of this division, two were destined to high commands : Howard, as commander of the Eleventh Corps and subsequently of the Army of the Tennessee in the West ; French, as commander of the Third Corps. Thomas Francis Meagher, the third of the brigade commanders of the division, was already fa- mous as one of the orators and leaders of the Irish rebel- lion of 1848. An exile from his native land, he had often delighted and aroused his countrymen in America by his romantic eloquence, and, on the outbreak of hostilities, had raised the so-called Irish Brigade, which was to re- main to the close of the war one of the most picturesque features of the Second Corps, whether in fight, on the march, or in camp. 6 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. The division of Sedgwick comprised the brigades of Gorman, Burns, and Dana, which were constituted as follows : FIRST BRIGADE. Brigadier-General WILLIS A. GORMAN, Commanding. 1st Minnesota, Colonel Alfred Sully. 15th Massachusetts, Colonel Charles Devens, Jr. 34th New York, Colonel James A. Suiter. 82d New York (2d New York State Militia), Colonel GEORGE W. B. Tompkins. 1st Company Massachusetts (Andrew) Sharpshooters, attached to 15th Massachusetts. SECOND BRIGADE. Brigadier-General WILLIAM W. BURNS, Commanding. 69th Pennsylvania, Colonel Joshua T. Owen. 71st Pennsylvania, Colonel Isaac J. WiSTAR. 72d Pennsylvania, Colonel D. W. C. Baxter. io6th Pennsylvania, Colonel T. G. MoREHEAD. THIRD BRIGADE. Brigadier-General NAPOLEON J. T. DANA, Commanding. 7th Michigan, Colonel Ira R. Grosvenor. 19th Massachusetts, Colonel Edward W. Hinks. 20th Massachusetts, Colonel William Raymond Lee. 42d New York, Colonel E. C. Charles. ARTILLERY. Colonel C. H. TOMPKINS (ist Rhode Island), Commanding. Battery I, ist United States, Lieutenant E. KiRBY. Battery A, ist Rhode Island, Captain J. A. Tompkins. Battery B, ist Rhode Island, Captain Bartlett. Battery G, ist Rhode Island, Captain Owen. This division might not inappropriately be called the Ball's Bluff Division, most of the regiments having THE MUSTER. 7 served under General Charles P. Stone on the Upper Potomac during the fall of 1861, several of them, espe- cially the Fifteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts, the Forty-Second New York, and the Seventy-First Penn- sylvania, participating with much loss of life, though not of honor, in the disastrous battle of Ball's Bluff, October 2 ist. During the winter of 1861-62 the three brigades com- posing this division were stationed along the Upper Po- tomac, extending from Point of Rocks, near Harper's Ferry, to Great Falls, with division headquarters at Poolesville. About March ist the division began to move, by brigades or regiments, up " The Valley " to- ward Berryville, where the division headquarters were at the date of the issue of the order for the formation of army corps. The commander of the division, Brigadier-General John Sedgwick, a native of Connecticut, was a graduate of West Point, entering the army in 1837, as Second Lieutenant of Artillery. He was successively brevetted Captain and Major for gallantry in Mexico ; and, at the outbreak of the war, held the commission of Lieutenant- Colonel of Cavalry. April 25th, he was made Colonel of Cavalry, and August 31st, was appointed Brigadier- General of Volunteers. The Second Brigade, under General Burns, was com- monly known as the Philadelphia Brigade." It had been raised early in 1861, by Colonel E. D. Baker, then United States Senator from Oregon, one of the regi- ments, the Seventy-first, being first known as the Cali- fornia Regiment, The Seventy-second had been origi- nally known as the Philadelphia Fire Zouaves. ' The history of this brigade has been written by Colonel C. H. Banes, Assistant Adjutant-General of the command. 8 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. Of the commanders of brigades, the highest in rank, General Gorman, had formerly been Colonel of the First Minnesota Regiment. The next in rank. General Burns, a graduate of West Point, had been, at the out- break of the war, a Commissary of Subsistence in the regular army, with the rank of Captain. The com- mander of the Third Brigade, General Dana, had suc- ceeded General Gorman in the command of the First Minnesota, and had, in February, 1862, been appointed a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, being succeeded in the colonelcy of his regiment by Alfred Sully, Major of the Eighth United States Infantry, who was also to be, in the September following, appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers, making the third general ofificer gradu- ated from this splendid regiment. Such was the body of troops gathered together and named the Second Army Corps by the order of March 13, 1862. It is not possible at this date to give their numbers with exactness, inasmuch as the first two " Monthly Re- turns " of the corps, those for April and for May, do not include the Irish Brigade or the artillery of Richardson's division. If we adopt the returns from that brigade for June as good for April, and duplicate the figures of Sedgwick's artillery to make up that of Richardson, we should have the following : Richardson's Infantry. Present for duty 7,076 Present on extra or daily duty. 229 Present, sick 680 Present in arrest 25 Total present 8,010 Total absent 1.039 Total present and absent. . . 9,049 Sedgwick's Infantry. Artillery. Total. 9.807 1,050 17,933 242 16 487 261 18 959 27 36 88 10,337 1,120 19.467 1,005 42 2,086 THE MUSTER. 9 The foregoing figures, doubtless, afford a reasonably close approximation to the numbers of the new com- mand on the 13th of March, 1862. The commander selected for the Second Corps was Brigadier-General Edwin V. Sumner, a veteran officer of the regular army. A native of Boston, he had en- tered the army in 18 19, as Second Lieutenant in the Second Infantry, and served in the Black Hawk War. Upon the organization of the Second Dragoons, he was commissioned a Captain in that regiment ; was pro- moted Major in 1846, and in 1847 led the famous cav- alry charge at Cerro Gordo, where he was wounded and obtained the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. At Contre- ras and Cherubusco he won high honors, and at Molino del Rey commanded Scott's entire cavalry forces against the vast array of Mexican lancers, for which he was brevetted Colonel. In 1848 he became Lieutenant- Colonel of the First Dragoons, and in 1855 Colonel of the First Cavalry. Until the imminence of secession he remained upon the plains, commanding in Kansas during the border troubles, and conducting a successful cam- paign against the Cheyenne Indians. The distrust en- tertained by the Administration concerning the probable action of General Albert Sydney Johnston led to his being sent in 1861 to San Francisco to relieve that offi- cer in command on that coast, which General Sumner's unflinching loyalty and courage did much to hold true to the Union cause. It is an open secret that the commanders of the five army corps formed on the day of which we are writing were selected by the President, and not by the com- mander of the Army of the Potomac. Had General McClellan proceeded to effect the organization of his forces into army corps in the fall of 1861, he would lO THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. doubtless have been able to do so without interference ; but the long winter of inaction had so far alienated the President and Congress, had created so many jealousies among the expectant ofificers of high rank, and had kept General McClellan so long upon the defensive, in explaining and justifying his position, that when the or- ganization of the army corps took place in March President Lincoln was able to impose his will upon the commander of the Army of the Potomac in the matter of the officers to be selected for these immensely respon- sible positions. Of these designations it may be said that General McClellan should have been allowed his own untrammelled choice in the matter. Nothing but mischief could rationally be expected from thus overriding the judgment and will of the com- mander of the army. If General McClellan was not fit to appoint the heads of his corps, he could not have been fit to command them when appointed. In fact, how- ever, the corps commanders ' were as a body most un- happily chosen. General McDowell was, indeed, an officer of great accomplishments; but he lay under the deep and deepening shadow of his Bull Run defeat, and to the end was pursued by a demon of ill-luck. The President's scheme to give him a chance to rehabilitate himself was kindly, but was not wise. That thing has often been attempted in the history of war, but has rarely, if ever, proved successful. Of Generals Heint- zelman and Keyes, the designated commanders of the Third and Fourth Corps, respectively, it is not necessary to speak. The unanimity of the consent with which ' The 5th Corps was that of General Banks. This designation was afterward disregarded, and that number was assigned to the new corps of Porter. THE MUSTER. II they were " shelved," after a short trial, affords a suffi- cient commentary upon their original selection. Of the commander of the new Second Corps, much may be said upon either side of the question whether, with his mental habits and at his advanced age, he should have been designated for the command of twen- ty thousand new troops in the field, against a resolute and tenacious enemy skilfully and audaciously led ; but every voice must award praise, and only praise, to his transcendent soldierly virtues. Jupiter, shining full, clear, and strong in the midnight heavens, might be the disembodied soul of Edwin V. Sumner. In honor, in courage, in disinterestedness, in patriotism, in magnan- imity, he shone resplendent. Meanness, falsehood, du- plicity were more hateful than death to the simple- hearted soldier who had put himself, sword in hand, at the head of the divisions of Richardson and Sedgwick. The history of the Second Corps cannot be written without full and explicit recognition of the influence which its first commander exerted, especially upon the younger officers and soldiers of the corps, in that highly plastic state of mind which belonged to the early months of the war. It is difficult at this time, it was difficult even in 1865, to go back to the sentiments and feelings which moved the citizen soldiery of 1861-62, fresh from their homes, before custom had staled the ideas of pa- triotic sacrifice and martial glory; before long delays and frequent disappointments had robbed war of its romance, and a score of melancholy failures had stained our banners with something like disgrace ; before the curse of conscription had come to make the uniform a thing of doubtful honor, and to substitute the " bounty jumper" for the generous volunteer; while yet all the soldiers in the field were those who sprang to arms in 12 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. that great uprising of a free people. Yet none who re- member the first winter camps of the Army of the Po- tomac can have wholly forgotten the high resolve, the fervid enthusiasm, the intense susceptibility to patriotic appeals, the glad and joyous confidence in the speedy success of the Union cause, which animated ofificers and men, and which, seeking some embodied object, created that ideal of their first leader which defeat and disgrace could not shatter, and which time and distance have hardly yet dimmed to the sight of the men of 1861-62. A state of feeling like this is a source of tremendous power. Such Hoche found it in 1793; such Napoleon found it, when he commanded the army of Italy ; such McClellan found it in the Army of the Potomac. Doubtless, discipline and experience of war, even through disaster and humiliation, brought a compensation for the loss of this early spirit ; doubtless, the First Minnesota, the Fifth New Hampshire, the Seventh Michigan, the Twentieth INIassachusetts, the Fifty-third Pennsylvania, the Sixty-first New York were better regiments; doubt- less, they would have been better regiments, however handled, in 1863 than in 1861 ; yet not the less was the spirit of the earlier time a thing beautiful and precious. Upon a body of citizen soldiers, in the first flush of martial enthusiasm, a commander so chivalrous in feel- ing, so heroic in bearing, as Sumner could not fail to produce a profound and lasting impression. Frank Bart- lett w^as a captain at the time of which we are writing ; Nelson Miles, only a lieutenant of the line ; and from every camp a host of young fellows looked up, in almost child-like readiness to follow, quickness to learn, eager- ness to imitate, as their appointed leaders swept by in all the pomp of war. If the Second Corps had a touch above the common ; if in the terrible ordeals of flame THE MUSTER. 13 and death through which, in three years of almost con- tinuous fighting, they were called to pass these two divisions showed a courage and tenacity that made them observed among the bravest ; if they learned to drop their thousands upon the field as often as they were summoned to the conflict, but on no account to leave a color in the hands of the enemy, it was very largely through the inspiration derived from the gallant old chieftain who first organized them and led them into battle. It is easy to criticise Sumner's dispositions at An- tietam — the dangerous massing of Sedgwick's brigades, the exposure of the flank of the charging column, the failure of the commander to supervise and direct, from some central point, all the operations of the corps; yet no one who saw him there, hat in hand, his white hair streaming in the wind, riding abreast of the field officers of the foremost line, close up against the rocky ledges bursting with the deadly flame of Jackson's vol- leys, could ever fail thereafter to understand the furi- ous thrust with which a column of the Second Corps always struck the enemy, or the splendid intrepidity with which its brigade and division commanders were wont to ride through the thickest of the fight as calmly as on parade. The corps staff consisted of Captain J. H. Taylor, Sixth United States Cavalry, Acting Assistant Adjutant-Gen- eral ; Captain F. N. Clarke, Chief of Artillery ; Lieuten- ants L. Kip, A. H. Cushing, and S. S. Sumner, Aides-de- Camp ; Surgeon J. F. Hammond, Medical Director. CHAPTER 11. THE PENINSULA : FAIR OAKS. The command to move to the Peninsula of Virginia, to open the campaign of 1862, found the two divisions of the Second Corps widely separated. Few men in either division had ever seen so much as a regiment of the other. Into what an intimacy, extending through more than three years of indescribable exertions, hardships, and dan- gers, were they to be thrown, by their casual selection as the two wings of the same army corps ! Sumner's old division, now commanded by Richardson, was in the advance of the army on the direct route to Richmond, French's brigade lying at Manassas, with Howard and Meagher within supporting distance along the Bull Run. Sedgwick's division extended up the Valley of Virginia from Charlestown to Berryville. Yet, though Sedgwick was the furthest removed, he was the first to reach the new field of operations. His brigades, returning to Point of Rocks, there took cars for Wash- ington, where, after a pause of two days, they were em- barked for Fort Monroe. . The troops of the Army of the Potomac, as they arrived, were held as near as convenient to Old Point Comfort, in order to keep the enemy in doubt whether the movement was to be against Rich- mond or against Norfolk. On April 4th, however, Richardson not having reached the Peninsula, Sedgwick's division moved, under the orders of General Heintzelman, the commander of the BREVET MAJ.-GEN. SAM'L K. 200K BREVET MAJ.-GEN. JOHN R. BROOKE MAJ.-GEN. ISRAEL B. RICHARDSON BRIG. -GEN. THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER BREVET BRIG.-GEN. ROBERT NUGENT THE PENINSULA: FAIR OAKS. 1 5 Third Corps, proceeding by the New Market Bridge, taking the direct road to Big Bethel, and bivouacking for the night at Howard's Bridge. Early on the morning of the 5th, the division was again put in motion up the Yorktown Road, the order of the day stating that this division would, for the present, act with the reserve, and receive orders from headquarters. Not even when the army sat down before Yorktown had Richardson's troops come up. On the right of the line, Heintzelman, with the Third Corps, confronted Yorktown ; on the left, Keyes, with the Fourth Corps, held the line of the lower Warwick, while the one present division of the Second Corps occupied the centre, connecting with Hamilton of the Third and Smith of the Fourth. Sumner was compensated for the loss of two-thirds his original force (Blenker being detached, and Richardson not coming up until April i6th) by an assignment, April 6th, to the command of the entire left, including Sedgwick and the three divisions of the Fourth Corps. " Throughout the preparations for and during the siege of Yorktown," says McClellan, in his official re- port, " I kept the corps under General Keyes, and after- ward the left wing under General Sumner, engaged in ascertaining the character of the obstacles presented by the Warwick, and the enemy entrenched on the right bank, with the intention, if possible, of overcoming them and breaking that line of defence, so as to gain possession of the road to Williamsburg and cut off Yorktown from its supports and supplies." This intention was not des- tined to be realized. The work of Sumner and Keyes on the left ' proved as futile as that of Heintzelman at the 'On April i6th, Brooks' (Vermont) brigade of Smith's division, then of the Fourth, afterward of the Sixth, Corps, crossed the l6 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. Other end of the line. Just before the date fixed for the bombardment and assault of Yorktovvn, the enemy, hav- ing gained a precious month, evacuated their works. The morning of May 4th found their lines deserted, and Stoneman's cavalry, with Smith's infantry division of the Fourth Corps following, with other troops at greater in- tervals, was pushed forward in pursuit. On May 5th, at Williamsburg, twelve miles from Yorktown, was fought the first considerable action of the Army of the Potomac. Although not a regiment of the Second Corps fought at Williamsburg, this battle is not without importance in the history of that corps, from the fact that three of the five officers who commanded it, during its history, were prominently engaged therein. Sumner, the then commander of the corps, was, on May 4th, placed in command of the troops, of all arms, of all the corps hast- ening to intercept the Confederate retreat ; and it was under his direction that the battle of the 5th was fought ; Couch, who was destined to succeed Sumner in the command of the corps, was seriously though not des- perately engaged, with one-half of his own division of the Fourth Corps, in support of Hooker, in the imme- diate front of the main Confederate work, Fort Ma- gruder ; while, on the extreme right, Hancock, who in turn was destined to succeed Couch, crossing Cub Dam Warwick and had a very spirited encounter with the enemy. Sedgwick's division was not engaged, nor had it any other duty, be- yond the routine of the camp, during these days than that of pick- eting in front of the enemy. In this service, however, was sus- tained a loss worthy of notice, in the severe wounding of a captain of the Twentieth Massachusetts, afterward to become, as Colonel and as General William Francis Bartlett, one of the best known soldiers of the war, distinguished alike for his peerless gallantry and for the number and severity of his wounds. THE PENINSULA: FAIR OAKS. 1 7 Creek with five regiments of Smith's division, encoun- tered Early's brigade in an action which remained, to the end of the war, one of the prettiest fights on record. Awaiting the attack of the enemy with perfect compos- ure, until they had approached to within thirty yards, Hancock led his line forward in a charge which broke Early's brigade, and drove it back in confusion, with the loss of one hundred and sixty prisoners and one color. Hancock's enterprise, however, had little effect upon the general fortunes of the day, inasmuch as, without sup- ports, it would have been manifest folly for him to vent- ure farther into the enemy's rear; and he was according- ly obliged to content himself with the ground he had gained and with the brilliant repulse of the force sent to drive him away. And so, after ten or eleven hours of desultory and purposeless fighting, night fell upon the field of Williamsburg, and under cover of darkness the Confederate rearguard continued its interrupted retreat up the Peninsula. The divisions of Richardson and Sedgwick, which had, late in the afternoon of the 5th, been ordered by General McClellan toward Williams- burg, upon the receipt of news that Hooker's division was being roughly handled, were directed to return to Yorktown, thence to proceed by water to West Point, upon the Pamunkey.' This second movement to inter- cept Lee's retreat having failed, the several corps pro- ceeded for the rest of their journey more leisurely, until they reached the line of the Chickahominy, the destined scene of so many bloody battles, in which the prestige and the high hopes of the Army of the Potomac were to ' Dana's brigade of Sedgwick's division arrived at West Point in season to support Franklin in his engagement with Whiting's Confederate division, near that point, on May 7th, but was not it- self engaged. l8 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. be crushed by the swiftly dealt blows of a vigilant, dar- ing, and powerful enemy, to whom every avenue of effec- tive assault had been opened by the mischievous med- dling of the Government at Washington. During this march two new corps were added to the roll of the army, not by the much-needed reinforcement of its numbers, but by the partition of existing corps. The Fifth Corps, under General Fitz John Porter, was formed out of the division of Sykes, which contained the " regular " infantry, together with the division formerly commanded by Porter himself, and the reserve artillery of the Army of the Potomac. The Sixth Corps, com- manded by General William B. Franklin, comprised his own former division, together with that of Smith, de- tached from the Fourth Corps. Thus, the Third and Fourth Corps were reduced to two divisions each, as the Second Corps had, at an earlier date, been through the detachment of Blenker. The ten infantry divisions of the Army of the Potomac were now organized into five corps, the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth, the First Corps, McDowell, being held in front of Wash- ington. In the first instance the two new corps were apologeti- cally called " Provisional Corps ; " but all occasion for apology soon disappeared. After Gaines' Mill, Savage Station, Glendale, and Malvern, the "provisional" char- acter of these two gallant bodies of troops was forgotten ; and they took their place high up on the roll of the no- blest and the bravest of the defenders of the Union, retain- ing their corps existence unbroken until the conclusion of peace, surviving every one of those earlier formed except that whose history we are here writing, between which and one of the new organizations, the heroic, great- hearted Sixth, was to grow up a brotherhood in arms, THE PENINSULA : FAIR OAKS. 1 9 a spirit of mutual affection and confidence, largely, no doubt, the result, especially at the beginning, of fortuitous circumstances, but also, as the soldiers of either corps were glad to believe, the proper effect, in no small part, of moral sympathy and similarity of character. Tried to- gether on a score of fields, the Second and the Sixth were like brothers in fight. Side by side they loved to meet the enemy ; neither had any fear for its flank, as long as the other was there ; or, if the fight had been long and desperate, if straggling men began to go back from the front with significant frequency, if here and there a shattered regiment fell out, and a something like an actual weight kept forcing back the line step by step, while the shriller and louder yells of the foe told that they felt the inspiration of coming victory, then did the men of the Second rejoice to hear the word passed along that the Sixth Corps was coming up behind. Well they knew the stuff out of which its regiments were made ; well they knew the men who rode serene and strong at the head of its divisions and brigades ! During the march up the Peninsula, the corps sus- tained a great loss in the promotion of Colonel Charles Devens, Jr., to be Brigadier-General of Volunteers. Col- onel Devens had greatly distinguished himself in the disastrous battle of Ball's Bluff, and was destined, after leaving the Second Corps, to win high honors as com- mander, successively of divisions in the Eleventh and Eighteenth Corps, and later still, in civil life, as Attorney- General of the United States, and Justice of the Su- preme Court of Massachusetts. Sixteen days after Williamsburg, viz., on May 21st, the positions of the troops of the Army of the Potomac were as follows : Stoneman's advance guard lay one mile from New Bridge on the Chickahominy ; Franklin's 20 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. corps was three miles from New Bridge, with Porter's in rear, those troops constituting the right of the army; Sumner's corps, the centre, lay on the railroad about three miles from the Chickahominy ; while the Fourth and Third Corps under Keyes and Heintzelman, forming the Union left, were on the New Kent Road, Keyes in front near Bottom's Bridge. While in these camps, two important changes occurred in the personnel of the corps ; Lieutenant-Colonel Tracey M. Winans, Seventh Michigan, resigned May 21st, and Colonel George W. B. Tompkins, Eighty-second New York, was discharged May 26th. The latter was suc- ceeded by Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. Hudson. A few days later the left of our army had crossed the Chickahominy, which flows from northwest to southeast across the great plain east and southeast of Richmond, and had found its way up the Williamsburg stage road and the railroad to within six or seven miles of the Con- federate capital, Keyes in front at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, with Heintzelman behind, though scarcely at close supporting distance. The centre and right of the army, comprising the strength of three corps, still lay behind the Chickahominy, extending in the order of Sumner, Franklin, and Porter to Beaver Dam Creek.' The obvious criticism upon the position in which the Army of the Potomac was thus placed, out of which sprang the battle of Fair Oaks, is that, until the commu- nications across the Chickahominy had been made com- plete, rapid, and safe, it was the larger and not the smaller half which should have been exposed to the enemy's at- tack upon the Richmond side of the river. As it would be at any time in the Confederate commander's power, by 'See map facing page 13. THE PENINSULA: FAIR OAKS. 21 the movements of a single night and forenoon, to concen- trate six-sevenths of his army against the force on the WilHamsburg stage road, that force should have been, not two-fifths only, as in fact, but at least three-fifths, of Mc- Clellan's army. In other words, Sumner's corps, the cen- tre, should have been at the outset posted upon the right bank of the Chickahominy, to protect the flank of Keycs' corps or to support his line of battle. Our own right, consisting of the corps of Franklin and Porter, with the reserve artillery, was in no possible danger of an irruption from the enemy's lines. It could only be attacked by a movement around its flank, such as actually took place, June 25th to 27th, of which, however, abundant notice would necessarily have been given, such a movement fairly requiring a two days' march ; whereas an over- whelming force might, with scarcely an hour's notice, be poured against the two corps on the Williamsburg Road. Serious as was the altogether unnecessary danger to which the left was thus exposed, with the army astrad- dle of the river, its weaker half on the enemy's side, the situation became alarming when a heavy storm, on the night of the 30th of May, set the treacherous Chicka- hominy to rising fast and furiously. Aside from Bot- tom's Bridge and the railroad bridge, both behind our left wing, there were but two bridges over the river, both on the front of Sumner, the Union centre. No bridges had yet been constructed for the crossing of the right column, although the materials for three bridges were on hand. The necessity for the advance of Sumner, which was pressing on the 30th, became urgent the moment the storm and the rising river threatened the frail ex- temporized bridges, by which alone he could cross to the support of Kcyes, Yet the long hours of the morn- ing of Saturday, the 31st of May, wore away without any 22 THE SECOND ARMY CORPS. attention, at army headquarters, to the critical situa- tion of the left. Sumner's men were not ordered to cross, or even called to arms, until the thunders of the artillery announced that the Confederate assault had fallen upon Keyes' corps. The Confederate commander's plan of action was as follows : General Huger was to move on the Charles City Road, well down upon the Union left flank, then to emerge from the White Oak Swamp, crush our left and penetrate into our rear, cutting us off from Bottom's Bridge. Generals D. H. Hill and Longstreet, consti- tuting the Confederate centre, were to attack directly down the Williamsburg Road; while General G. W. Smith, commanding the Confederate left wing, was to pass beyond the right of Keyes, ready to support Long- street's attack, if needed, or to push toward the river, to prevent Sumner's crossing and to cut off the retreat of the Union forces if attempted in that direction. The force thus assigned to the attack comprised not less than twenty-three of the twenty-seven infantry brigades of Johnston. Fortunately for the Union forces. General Huger did not come to time, and the attack upon our left was never delivered ; but precisely at one o'clock, Hill and Longstreet, after waiting more than two hours for the signal of Huger's readiness, burst upon Casey's slender line, in its half-constructed entrenchments, with a fury new to war. Soon two of Couch's brigades were caught in the tornado. Backward, steadily backward, the Fourth Corps was pressed by an irresistible force. Again and again the broken brigades were reformed along the Williamsburg Road, at times not two hundred yards from where they had made their last stand. Here fragments of regiments and even brave individ- uals, rallying at the commands and entreaties of a knot -vJ^-"' ' T