CHAPTER IV.
Again in Camp Barry—Batteries Reviewed by President Lincoln—Battery H Assigned to the Ninth Army Corps.
On the 22d of November our battery was ordered to proceed to our old camping ground, Camp Barry, on the Bladensburg Road, in the vicinity of Washington. We moved at two P. M. from Fort Scott, passing through Washington to Camp Barry, and occupied the old barracks that we had dedicated on January 1st. As this was the Sabbath, and as we observed the worshipers returning from church, it brought vividly to our minds the scenes we were accustomed to witness in our far-away northern homes, and of the privileges we had been deprived since we “donned the blue” and set forth to defend the Union established by our fathers.
Brevet Lieut.-Col. Crawford Allen, Jr.
A little more than a year ago we had first encamped on this familiar ground, and although our battery had not suffered from the casualties of direct conflict with the enemy, yet we mourned the loss of several tried comrades who had succumbed to disease and lay buried near the little chapel at Fairfax Station, while others who could not withstand the hardships and exposures incident to a soldier’s life had been discharged from the service for disability, and had returned to their homes with shattered constitutions, the result of disease contracted in the army. Besides, we had lost many by desertion. The men who enlisted in New York had no intention of exposing their worthless bodies to rebel shot or bullet, and such recruits were a dead loss to the government. We record with great satisfaction the fact that but very few of these deserters were men who had enlisted in Rhode Island. Now that we had been rid of these worthless and unprofitable soldiers, those that remained in Camp Barry were comrades whom we had learned to respect and trust, and with whom we were still further to share the vicissitudes of a soldier’s career.
We found on our arrival at Camp Barry that Lieut.-Col. J. Albert Monroe, who had formerly been in command of the camp, had gone to the front and had been promoted to chief of artillery commanding the artillery brigade of the Second Corps. He had been relieved by Lieut.-Col. James A. Hall.
December 1st. A battalion drill of the batteries stationed here took place on East Capitol Hill. The troops consisted of the First Pennsylvania, Seventh Massachusetts, Second Connecticut, Second Maine, Thirty-third New York, Nineteenth New York, Fourth and Fifth New Jersey, and Battery H, First Rhode Island. All of these were light batteries under command of Major Hall.
December 15th. There was a grand review of the several batteries encamped here before President Lincoln and Cabinet and General Barry and Staff. The following batteries took part: First Pennsylvania, Second Connecticut, Second Maine, Thirty-third New York, Nineteenth New York, Fifth New Jersey, Fourth New Jersey, and Battery H, First Rhode Island Light Artillery. To our battery was accorded the honor of firing a salute upon the arrival of President Lincoln and party at the reviewing stand.
It was an inspiring scene, and we were grateful for the privilege of observing our good president, Abraham Lincoln, a man providentially raised up to lead our nation through the trials and difficulties through which we passed in our late civil conflict. Surely no other man in our times had such a tremendous burden of responsibility thrust upon him. How patiently and uncomplainingly he bore himself during all those years of war is fully recorded by the historian and well known to all.
December 23d. At eleven A. M. a review occurred before Gen. William F. Barry, participated in by all the batteries in camp. It took place on East Capitol Hill, in rear of Lincoln Hospital.
December 31st. We find on this date that our battery is incorporated in the Twenty-second Army Corps, commanded by Maj.-Gen. Christopher G. Augur, and that Lieut.-Col. James A. Hall is in command of our Light Artillery Camp of Instruction.
January 1st, 1864. The battery repeated to-day nearly the same order of exercises which occurred here just one year ago. We moved into new and more commodious barracks than those we had formerly occupied. In the evening a turkey supper was provided, and we invited the soldiers of the Third New Jersey and Second Maine batteries to be our guests. After supper, in the absence of the fair sex the comrades arranged what is known among old soldiers as a “stag dance.” This is a dance with the ladies left out. The comrades who personated the ladies were distinguished from their partners by white handkerchiefs tied on their right arms. And now the fun began. A grand march was the first in order, and then came the ball, which consisted of the following programme: Quadrille, Lanciers, Cotillion, Spanish Quadrille, Portland Fancy, followed by an old-fashioned Irish Break Down (with no broken heads, however). The entertainment continued until two o’clock the next morning, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all present.
February 5th. The following recruits came to the battery to-day: Edward Sweeney, William H. Stone, Thomas J. Lofts, Charles E. Millard and Josiah Sheffield.
February 12th. A grand review of all the batteries in camp took place to-day on East Capitol Hill. On returning to camp we learned that Private Henry N. Arnold had taken poison. The surgeons in charge were called to attend him, but he was beyond all help and died in great agony at four P. M. What prompted Comrade Arnold to commit this rash deed we never learned. His father came and conveyed his remains to Warwick, R. I., where they were interred in the family cemetery.
February 15th. The following recruits came to us: Charles Tweedale, Apollos Seekell, Hurbert Ochee, Franklin W. Dawley and George A. Williams.
February 21st. A number of the men attended Divine service in Washington. In the evening our battery held services in the barracks. A clergyman from Washington, of the Free Will Baptist denomination, conducted the exercises.
March 3d. We had a grand review before President Lincoln and Cabinet on East Capitol Hill to-day, all the batteries encamped here participating. As on a previous occasion, Battery H was privileged to fire the salute on the arrival at the grand stand of the Presidential party, an honor we greatly appreciated. General Barry and staff and a large concourse of spectators also witnessed the ceremony.
March 14th. The battery was reviewed on East Capitol Hill by Gen. A. P. Howe.
Sunday, March 20th. Mounted inspection at ten A. M. Divine service was held in our barracks in the evening, led by a clergyman from the city.
April 10th. Mounted inspection to-day at ten A. M. The battery has at last received marching orders, and we expect to join the Ninth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, when it arrives from Annapolis. This news was joyfully received by us, as we had become weary of the seeming inactivity of camp life and longed for more active duties in the field.
April 24th. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and Rev. Augustus Woodbury, late chaplain of the First Rhode Island Infantry, visited us to-day and received a soldier’s welcome. We have now received orders to join the old Ninth Army Corps. We are proud of being attached to this gallant corps, commanded by the loved and esteemed Burnside, Rhode Island’s foremost soldier. This corps since its transfer from the West has been reorganized at Annapolis, and now numbers nearly twenty-five thousand men. It is composed of four divisions, three of white and one of colored troops. It has been well designated as “Burnside’s Geography Class,” for its tattered banners bear the inscriptions of battles in six states in which it has participated. Its history began in 1861, and was then known as “Burnside’s Coast Division,” and won substantial victories for the Union cause in North Carolina. It was afterwards reenforced by large accessions of regiments to its force, and was then organized into what is now designated as the Ninth Corps. After the transfer of the larger portion of the corps to the Army of the Potomac it was joined by a division from Port Royal under command of Gen. Isaac I. Stevens. It fought with great bravery at Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, and when General Burnside was placed in command of the Department of the Ohio, the Ninth Corps was assigned to that department. It was subsequently dispatched to the assistance of General Grant at Vicksburg. It arrived at General Grant’s lines on the 14th, and was immediately employed in protecting the besieging forces from any hostile demonstrations in their rear. With other troops it kept the rebel General Johnston at bay, forced him back and drove him beyond Jackson, and then returned to Vicksburg. Its presence assured the successful termination of the siege. It was afterwards ordered to Annapolis, as we have already mentioned, and is now about to enter another field of action.
On the 23d of April, 1864, the Ninth Corps marched from Annapolis and proceeded to Washington, encamping on the Bladensburg Road about six miles from the city, on the night of the 24th. The next day, as it passed our camp at eleven A. M. on its way to Washington, Battery H joined the column and moved to its position, it being assigned to the First Brigade of the First Division. Our division commander was Gen. Thomas G. Stevenson; our brigade commander, Col. Sumner Carruth. On its arrival in the city the corps marched down Fourteenth Street and passed in review before President Lincoln, General Burnside, and a number of civil and military dignitaries. The colored division, under General Ferrero, was the first body of colored troops that had marched through Washington, and they appeared to great advantage, President Lincoln acknowledging their cheers with great respect and courtesy. The corps crossed Long Bridge and went into camp near Alexandria.
Lieut. Benjamin H. Child.