Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 2 (of 2)

by Ann S. Stephens

BATTLES ALONG THE WELDON RAILROAD.

The summer of 1864 was exceedingly hot; and, for that reason, the enterprise of military life somewhat flagged with the besiegers of the rebel citadel. Yet many skirmishes, and several heavy engagements, took place; and the rebels were watched with unceasing vigilance, and were pressed wherever a point of attack seemed to offer the chance of gaining desirable advantage. On the 14th, 15th, and 16th of August there was some fighting in the vicinity of Deep Bottom, the Union loss being between four and five hundred men. This engagement was brought on for the purpose of distracting the enemy’s attention from the other extreme of operations and to draw his forces partially away from Petersburg. The feint succeeded; and, the Weldon railroad being left exposed, the Fifth corps advanced, on the 18th of August, and took possession of Reams’s Station, surprising a body of the enemy that was guarding it, but losing, in the incidental fight, about three hundred men. The track was torn up for about one mile. Next day, the 19th, the rebels made a furious attack upon the National forces holding Reams’s Station, and a bloody battle ensued. The Union line, being extended to a great length, was quite thin in the centre. It had been hoped that the rebels would not discover this weakness; but they did, and their first charge broke through and divided the Union forces. The conflict that followed was characterized by the most desperate bravery. Reinforcements arriving—the First and Second divisions of the Ninth corps—the rebels were finally repulsed. The most notable feature of this fight was, that, in the course of events, it became necessary to train the Union artillery upon a struggling mass of patriots and rebels, and sacrifice friends as well as foes, in order to hold the position originally taken by the Fifth corps. This position was held; but the rebels recovered the railroad as far as Yellow Springs. The loss, on the Union side, including prisoners, was three thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine.

CHARGING A BATTERY ON THE WELDON RAIL ROAD.

CAPTURE OF A RAILROAD TRAIN.

THE BATTLE OF REAMS’S STATION.
August 28, 1864.

A desperate battle was next fought, on the 28th of August, a little southward of Reams’s Station. It was brought on by an effort, on the part of the enemy, to break and disperse the Second corps, under General Hancock, posted at that point. The attack was made at about half past five in the afternoon, against Hancock’s centre, by the rebels under Wilcox: and against his left, by the rebels under Heth. It was met with great bravery, and vigorously resisted; but at length the enemy succeeded in breaking the line opposed to them. Happily, no permanent advantage was gained by this turn of fortune to the rebels. A portion of General Gibbon’s division was brought forward to repair the damage done to the National line. The enemy then fell upon General Hancock’s extreme left, but were severely repulsed by a dismounted cavalry force, under General Gregg, who handled his men with great skill—the cavalry, on their part, behaving with the utmost gallantry. At different points along the line the fighting continued briskly until dark, when the battle ended in the enemy’s signal defeat. The rebels then withdrew, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Many prisoners were captured from the divisions of both Heth and Wilcox, and the enemy’s loss was very heavy. The National loss in killed and wounded did not exceed twelve hundred.

Few battles of this war have been more determined or sanguinary than this one. In his official report, General Hancock says: “This has been one of the most desperate fights of the war, resembling Spottsylvania in its character, though the numbers engaged gave less importance to it.” The field of battle, when the conflict was over, has been described as hideously and repulsively awful to look upon. Such scenes as these, throughout the whole civil war, bore eloquent testimony to the bravery and noble self-sacrifice of the gallant men who laid down their lives in defence of their country.

BATTLE OF CHAPIN’S BLUFF.
September 28, 1864.

If not very successful, the movement which led to this battle was very bold, and was executed with remarkable courage and endurance by the soldiers of the Union. It began from two points, and was designed to capture Richmond by a bold push. General Ord, with the Eighteenth corps, crossed the James river at Aiken’s Landing, which is eight miles above Deep Bottom, and advanced against the works on Chapin’s Farm. At the same time, General Birney, with the Tenth corps, moved against the enemy’s works in front of Deep Bottom, which he captured, thence moving along the Newmarket road toward Richmond, and, at an early hour, establishing communication with General Ord. The latter had already captured the first line of the rebel intrenchments at Chapin’s Bluff, and with it fifteen pieces of artillery. When General Birney came up, an assaulting column was organized, of both corps, to carry the heavy interior line of rebel works. By this time, however, the rebels had received reinforcements, and hence were enabled—the works being of great strength—to repel the charge of the Unionists. The attack began early in the afternoon, the men rushing forward impetuously, and cheering loudly. A storm of grape and canister was hurled into their faces, which wrought terrible destruction in their ranks. But they neither flinched nor halted, but steadily held on their way. Soon a fearful enfilading fire of artillery swept in upon them, mowing down their ranks like grass; but still they pressed forward till they found themselves in front of the enemy’s redoubts, which proved to be of a much more formidable character than had been supposed. A perfect abattis held them completely at bay, while the enemy’s infantry leveled their ranks with the ground to the right and to the left. The few who succeeded in gaining the rebel lines found them to be utterly unassailable. They were completely surrounded by a ditch eight feet in depth, and twelve feet in width; and could only be reached by means of a drawbridge, which, of course, was now drawn up. The Union men still determined to make an assault if an attack was within the bounds of possibility, and leaped into the ditch, in hope of finding a passage to the forts beyond, but found themselves penned in, and unable to either advance or retreat.

The conduct of the colored troops, under General Birney, deserves the highest praise. Many of them, by climbing on each other’s shoulders, succeeded in reaching the parapet, but in numbers far too small to make an attack on the fort. They therefore, as many as could, effected a retreat; those who could not, as well as those in the ditch, being compelled to surrender.

This assault, though a failure, is worthy of commendation for its exceeding boldness; but it cost the Union troops a heavy price. Over five hundred men in killed and wounded were lost. The negro troops suffered very severely; and in General Foster’s division the loss in field-officers was so great that scarcely a regiment escaped losing its leader.