CHAPTER XIII.
Company K, Third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia.
[Written by Corporal Henry Manley, Member of the Company.]
Company K was a new company recruited for the purpose of filling the quota of the towns of East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and Bridgewater. It was not connected with the Third Regiment of Massachusetts Militia either before or after its term of service.
In the call for 300,000 three years’ men early in the summer of 1862, the combined quota of the above-named towns was 102, and taking it for granted that about the same number would be required under the call of August 4th, for 300,000 men for nine months, concerted action was taken in town meetings in each of those towns.
A very enthusiastic war meeting was held on the evening of Aug. 18, 1862, in the town hall in East Bridgewater, at which Joseph Chamberlain was president and Sergt. Morton D. Mitchell was secretary. It was voted that it is expedient that East Bridgewater, together with Bridgewater and West Bridgewater, should endeavor to raise by voluntary enlistment a company to enter into the United States service for nine months.
Voted, That Messrs. James Mitchell, Benjamin W. Harris and George Bryant be a committee to wait upon the governor and request him to appoint some person or persons, to engage in the enlistment of such volunteers.
Voted, That Messrs. Richard M. Smith and William Allen be a committee to consult with the citizens of Bridgewater and West Bridgewater in relation to a meeting of the three towns for the purpose of forming a military company.
It is probable that similar meetings were held in each of the other towns, but no record of them has been found.
In West Bridgewater a town meeting was held on Aug. 22, 1862. It was voted that a bounty of $150 be paid to volunteers for nine months’ service, and it was recommended that the volunteers unite with Bridgewater and East Bridgewater to form a company. It was also recommended that the whole town attend a meeting to be held at Agricultural Hall in Bridgewater on the following Wednesday (August 26th) for the purpose of forwarding the formation of a military company. A committee had been chosen at a previous meeting to take charge of recruiting, consisting of the Selectmen (James Howard, Albert Copeland and George T. Ryder), together with one man from each school district, as follows: William O. Alger, J. Q. Hartwell, Nahum Snell, Samuel N. Howard, Charles E. Howard, Galen K. Richards, Thomas Ames, Leavitt T. Howard.
In East Bridgewater at a town meeting held on Aug. 23, 1862, it was voted to pay a bounty of $100 to volunteers for nine months’ service, and a committee of three was chosen to procure enlistments. The committee consisted of Samuel Bates, John B. Fisher, and George Bryant. The meeting also recommended to such of its inhabitants as may enlist for nine months’ service that they unite with the volunteers from the towns of Bridgewater and West Bridgewater in forming a company.
Capt. SAMUEL BATES.
A town meeting was held in Bridgewater on Aug. 26, 1862, to raise volunteers under the call for men to serve nine months. It was voted that a committee of seven be chosen by the town to take in charge the business of raising the number of volunteers necessary, also to pay a bounty of $150 to each volunteer who shall enlist to the credit of the town for nine months’ service. The committee chosen at this meeting were F. B. King, Edward W. Bassett, Nathan Fobes, Almansor Osborne, Lewis Holmes, and Holden W. Keith.
Shortly after this time a number of men from North Bridgewater and Easton who had arranged to join the Fourth Regiment, learning that this company was nearly full, and that the regiment was nearly ready to leave for the seat of war, joined the company, completely filling its ranks.
The mass meeting alluded to in the town meeting in West Bridgewater was held in Agricultural Hall, Bridgewater, on the evening of August 26th. The presiding officer was B. W. Harris, Esq., of East Bridgewater. The vice-presidents were Hon. Artemas Hale, Col. Samuel Leonard, Hon. J. H. Mitchell, Samuel G. Alden, James Howard, and Capt. Joseph Kingman. The meeting is represented as of an enthusiastic character, but no account of the addresses has been discovered.
The company thus recruited was assigned to the Third Massachusetts Infantry and named “Company K.”
It went into Camp in Lakeville, Mass., on Sept. 16, 1862, and was the second company of the regiment to arrive at the camp. It was given a patriotic and affectionate send-off by the people of the Bridgewaters, and was escorted to the train and from the train at Haskins Station to Camp Joe Hooker by the Bridgewater Cornet Band.
The barracks at Camp Joe Hooker were new. The main buildings, twenty in number, were each about 70 × 25 feet on the floor and nine feet high in the walls. They were built of matched boards, planed on the inside, with good tight floors, and shingled roofs. The bunks were built double “like two sinks, one above the other,” and each accommodated four men, two in the upper and two in the lower berth. Each barrack held one hundred men, or a company. They were well ventilated and comfortable. The barracks, cook-houses, officers’ quarters, stables, etc., fifty buildings in all, were built in one week.
The company consisted of one hundred and one men, exactly the legal maximum for an infantry company. The towns furnishing the men were as follows: Bridgewater, thirty-four; East Bridgewater, twenty-four; West Bridgewater, twenty-five; North Bridgewater, eleven; Easton, four; Middleboro, one; Boston, one; Gloucester, one; total, one hundred and one. It will be seen from the above that the members of the company were from contiguous territory with only two exceptions; First Sergt. Winter was imported from Gloucester as a trained and drilled man and was almost the only man in the company with military experience even in the militia, and he had never been in the United States service. With him came his friend “Natty” Ackerman who hailed from Boston. The remainder of the company was recruited amongst friends and neighbors. Nearly all were of American parentage, and most of them were men of standing in the community both before and since the war. They were “men of their hands,” too, and there are few things that could not be built, or machines that could not be run by members of the company.
The occupations of the recruits were given as follows: Boot and shoe workers in some form, forty-six; farmers, seventeen; moulders, seven; machinists, four; laborers, four; carpenters, three; salesmen, three; students, three; bookbinders, two; druggist, one; “railroader,” one; civil engineer, one; surveyor, one; butcher, one; nailer, one; wheelwright, one; painters, two; box maker, one; stone cutter, one; teacher, one.
The officers were as ignorant of military usages as the men, and, as may be supposed, the discipline at first was not of the most rigid character. But the members of the company as a rule were disposed to do the right thing, and perhaps enjoyed themselves better and did just as good service as they would have done under more severe officers. The men of the company owe a debt of gratitude to their officers who were all kind-hearted men and devoted to the welfare of the company, and whose mildly used authority was much better adapted to a company of intelligent men of pronounced Yankee blood than would have been that of military martinets.
Fifty-two members of the company were married and forty-nine were single.
The average age was between twenty-eight and twenty-nine years. Twenty were twenty years old and under, twenty-four were between twenty and twenty-five, nineteen were between twenty-five and thirty, twenty-two were between thirty and forty, and sixteen were more than forty.
Company K was the color company throughout its service, and its position was therefore on the right centre when the regiment was in line of battle.
The record of the company in the service is not a bloody one. No one was killed, wounded, taken prisoner, or missing, and no one deserted. Two men died from disease in the service and six men were discharged for disability before the regiment was mustered out. The story of the regiment as a whole will be given elsewhere, and that part of the company’s history which also means the regimental history, has been omitted in this account. Company K followed the fortunes of the regiment closely. The only time that it was on detached duty, except for picket, or service of that nature, was early in its service after it arrived in Newbern and before the arms had been distributed, when it was ordered to some mythical point to build a bridge. After groping around outside the picket line, entirely unarmed, for two days, the company returned, having found the bridge nearly completed.
The members of the company had an exceptional opportunity to see the details of warfare. At the Battle of Kinston the company with the regiment was in reserve, and, while under fire, was unharmed. After the action they had an opportunity, from the view point of the victors, to examine a well-fought field with many killed, wounded and prisoners, and also to explore the captured town of Kinston.
At Whitehall the company was again under fire, and, as was reported, the inferior character of its arms saved it from a more intimate acquaintance with the enemy.
At Goldsboro the company had an opportunity of seeing a charge repelled under sensational circumstances and with severe loss to the enemy, a sight which many soldiers of longer service have never seen. The circumstances of this charge have been traditional in the company and the results have been much exaggerated, the enemy’s loss being set all the way from five hundred to fifteen hundred. The unadorned facts are that after the burning of the bridge and during the withdrawal of the Union forces, by a blunder of the enemy a charge was made by two regiments of General Clingman’s brigade against a much superior force, and it was the fortune of Company K as a part of the regiment, to act as guard to Belger’s Rhode Island battery, which with another light battery had a fair chance to destroy the attacking force as it charged up a long slope. The Third Regiment lay on the ground in front of the battery (which was firing over the regiment), and Company K had an unobstructed view of the premises, and nothing to do but look on. The writer in a letter written at the time estimated that the nearest rebel came within fifty rods of the regiment. The attacking force consisted of the Fifty-second North Carolina Regiment, Colonel Marshall, and the Fifty-first North Carolina, Colonel Allen. These regiments, with two others which did not participate in the charge, made the brigade commanded by Gen. Thomas E. Clingman. His report, printed in the “Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” First Series, Vol. XVIII, page 117, gives the losses as follows:
| Killed | Wounded | Missing | |||
| Marshall’s Regiment | 11 | 58 | 10 | ||
| Allen’s | “ | 6 | 43 | 8 | |
| —— | —— | —— | |||
| Total, | 17 | 101 | 18 | making | |
a total loss of 136. The writer has not succeeded in learning the total strength of the two regiments at the time of the charge.
The company’s most potent enemies during its service were the severe marches to which it was subjected and the malarious climate. The effects of both of these are still felt by many of the survivors.
On the return of the regiment a public reception was given to Company K on Saturday, June 20th, at the Agricultural Hall by citizens of Bridgewater, East and West Bridgewater. The company met at the town hall, Bridgewater, and was escorted to the Fair grounds by the Bridgewater Cornet Band under the marshalship of Dr. Asa Millett, where twelve or fifteen hundred people had assembled to receive it. For the gratification of their friends the soldiers spent about half an hour in drilling. At about half past two o’clock, after stacking arms the company was drawn up in front of the judges’ stand on the track to listen to the speech of welcome. The president of the day, James Howard, Esq., of West Bridgewater, after stating the object of the meeting, introduced Hon. B. W. Harris, of East Bridgewater, who, in an appropriate speech in behalf of the citizens, welcomed the soldiers on their return home. A procession was then formed which marched to the hall to partake of a collation which had been prepared by the ladies of the several towns. After the repast the company adjourned to the upper hall to listen to the speeches. This hall as well as the lower was tastefully decorated with flags and pendants. The soldiers occupied seats directly in front of the speakers and were here presented each with a bouquet of flowers by the school children, the presentation speech having been made by one of the young ladies. Speeches were made by Hon. John A. Shaw, Hon. Benjamin W. Harris, and others. Later in the afternoon, Major Morrissey entered the hall, and, taking his seat on the platform, was received with great applause, Company K giving him three hearty cheers. He was then introduced and addressed the soldiers. The entertainment was closed by singing “America” by the whole audience under the direction of Mr. Wilde.
After the arrival home of the company and before it was mustered out came the death of one of its members, Mr. James Henry Packard, of North Bridgewater (now Brockton). He was buried in the Marshall’s Corner Cemetery with military honors from his comrades.
Twenty members of the company entered the military service after being mustered out of Company K. Ten of this number joined Company D, Fifty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry, three of them forming the commissioned officers of the company. Of these ten, one was killed in action, five were wounded, seven were taken prisoners, of whom two died in rebel prisons. All but one of the ten is included in one or more of the above categories, and whether the tenth man was taken prisoner or wounded the writer has not been able to learn. The remaining ten enlisted in various organizations, but none of them lost their lives in the service.
In June, 1906, thirty-six members of Company K were known to be living. One has not been heard from by his relatives for about twenty years, and the remaining sixty-four are known to be dead. The commissioned officers are all dead. Of the non-commissioned officers, two corporals survive. Fourteen of the surviving men of the company are past labor by reason of age or infirmities, or both. Twenty are “still in the ring” pursuing their usual avocations; one has retired, and one is in the Soldiers Home, in Togus, Maine.
The company was mustered into the United States service on Sept. 23, 1862, and was mustered out on June 26, 1863. The members of Company K were mustered on the above dates unless otherwise noted.