Christmas brought nothing more notable than a beautiful day, which in the midst of a cheerless winter was not unwelcomed, but there were none of the festivities which untold generations have developed as essential features of the coming of the Prince of Peace and, for that matter, what propriety could there be in observing the advent of the Christ Child in an army, yet the world is full of just such anomalies. As December nears its end and dies with the old year, careful observers scan the retrospect, and in the deeds of Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, Dec. 25, '64 behold the utmost encouragement. Grierson, with his cavalry marching from Tennessee to Louisiana, has discovered the Confederacy to be a "shell with nothing in it." With Grant holding Lee in his relentless clutches at Petersburg, Thomas looking about for the scattered remnants of Hood's Army, Price driven out of Missouri, Sheridan, at the head of his troopers, ready to vault into the saddle, and Sherman turning his face towards Augusta and Charleston, seemingly the "last ditch" is very, very near. Yet, that the enemy is not disposed to yield till forced to do so, on the very last day of the year, when "Happy New Year" is already ready for utterance by millions of happy voices, the Union picket line, in the region of Forts Wadsworth and Howard is surprised by a party of the enemy who charging furiously, yelling and firing rapidly, drive our men back into their main works with hardly a chance to exchange a shot. We lose two killed, three wounded and thirty-five captured, and the Johnnies took back with them the blankets, knapsacks and whatever other belongings they could find. So alert and swift were the rebels, so well had they planned their attack that they were out of range before the men in the forts could return their compliments. So ends the year.
1865.
January, the month of good resolutions and merry greetings, finds the opposing armies in front of Petersburg still grimly plying their guns and wishing for the end of the war. In the campaign from the Rapidan southward to the end of the year, Grant has lost in killed, wounded and captured more men than Lee was reputed to have had under his command when the fight began, yet the line in blue in front of the beleaguered city is just as persistent, just as vigorous as when the siege was started. While the exhaustless resources of the North are indicated by Lincoln's call for a half million more soldiers and follows that with a proposition to draft 300,000 more, Lee is writing the Confederate Secretary of War, "There is nothing within reach of this army to be impressed. The country is swept clear. Our only reliance is upon the railroads. We have but two days' supplies." General B. F. Butler, after the failure of the Fort Fisher attack has been relieved and sent home to Lowell, and General Terry is organizing a new expedition against the great fortification and ere the month is over his success will be heralded the country over. In its snug cabins or huts, the Potomac Army is gaining strength for the signal which will draw the men from their repose and send them forward. The winter is unusually severe, but, well clad and covered, the men in blue wot little of the sufferings of their adversaries in gray who are passing through all of the anguish which their fathers knew at Valley Forge. Of the Fifth Corps it need be said only that it and its many regiments are writing letters home, reading the matter sent them from those same homes, watching the foe and looking toward the end. The end of the month was signalized by the arrival of the so-called Peace Commission, consisting of Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens of the Confederacy and others who, February 3rd, met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward at Fortress Monroe, but, as the President would not enter into any negotiations without assurance of unconditional acknowledgment of perpetual union and the abolition of slavery, which the Confederates were not prepared to grant, nothing came of the meeting.
It is in this same January that Major A. R. Small, in his history of the Sixteenth Maine[U] has the following very Jan. 31, '65 pleasant words about the Thirty-ninth, words that the members of the Bay State Regiment thoroughly appreciate and fully reciprocate:
Among the strongest and most lasting attachments formed by the Sixteenth for other troops during its term of service was that for the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, Colonel Davis commanding. I have no record of the date when it joined the First Brigade, but it was a day which marked an era of progressive good feeling, which ripened into warm, personal attachments. The Regiment was splendidly officered, and under its able commander was an ever present incentive for us to do our very best. We never reached its precision in the manual of arms. We doubt if in this particular qualification it had a superior in the army; certainly it had not an equal in the Corps. Colonel Davis had a quiet way of coming into our hearts and he came to stay.
Though the men in the ranks knew it not, nor for that matter did the majority of the officers, yet it is stated that on the last night in January orders went to the several Corps of the Potomac Army to be ready to march. From that moment activity was prevalent; increased firing along the front concealed to some extent the work of the railroad in bringing up the necessary supplies from City Point. As early as the 4th of February came orders to the Regiment to be ready to move at a moment's notice. The 5th brought the order to report at brigade headquarters where the other regiments of that body were found, and the Corps was joined at 7 a. m. As usual Gregg's cavalry had preceded us and as on several former occasions the Fifth Corps leads the infantry to be followed by the Second and a repetition of the Hatcher's Run incidents of last October and December. The Fifth Corps is to pass around the enemy's right flank while the other troops assail in front; Crawford's Division to which the Thirty-ninth belongs marches last. Our direction is toward Dinwiddie Court House within two miles of which we camp for the night. Monday, the 6th, we are detailed for picket duty; in the afternoon we cross Hatcher's Run and in the first battle-line we are at the right, the enemy being strongly entrenched at Dabney's Mills. The first attempt to dislodge the rebels is unsuccessful, but in a second charge we take the works which, however, we are compelled to vacate because of lack of support.
The events of this day so far as the Second Brigade is concerned are effectively told by Major Isaac Hall, historian of the Ninety-seventh New York, at this time a part of the Brigade:
Early in the afternoon of the following day (6th), Crawford's Division moved forward into the woods in search of the enemy. He was supported on the left by Ayers' (Second) Division; Gregg's cavalry being on the extreme flank. This movement covered the Vaughn and Dabney Mill roads, and Baxter's Brigade was on the right of the column. The enemy's skirmishers were soon reached and pressed back upon the main line of Pegram's Division of Gordon's Corps, which also retired to the ruins of an old mill, where it made a stand. As the brigade came to an opening, a formidable fort—as was supposed—presented itself to view, and a strife occurred between the color bearers of the Sixteenth Maine and the Ninety-seventh New York as to which should first plant its standard upon the fort. The contestant of the Ninety-seventh achieved the victory; but great was his disappointment when instead of a veritable fort he found only a huge heap of saw-dust. A lively musketry fire was kept up here for twenty or thirty minutes, when Mahone's heavy columns came to the support of the line in our front. This was a most inopportune moment for the Fifth Corps; many of the men were already out of ammunition and the line surged back in spite of the officers. General Warren was himself at the front and with his ready glass was coolly surveying the enemy. He was pointed to by the officers, and as if ashamed of themselves the men faced about, but this was of no account since only a few shots were fired; the best of men will not stand with empty muskets and be shot down, and to charge with empty cartridge boxes and unloaded pieces was out of the question; hence the retreat was continued, not precipitately, but the line surged slowly and sullenly to the rear. The enemy was not eager to follow, as if doubting the sincerity of our retreat. An ordnance wagon had been ordered up, and some four or five hundred yards in front of our works Captain Trembly was met with an ammunition wagon with which, in the narrow road, he could neither advance nor retreat and was about to destroy it. The wagon was caught by Feb. 6, '65 the men and quickly changed ends, and when our trenches were reached the ammunition was quickly distributed. A part of the Sixth Corps had arrived, and as the Fifth emerged from the woods it was fired into by the former, which seemed inclined to dispute our passage to the rear, some raw troops mistaking our line for that of the enemy. The latter did not press heavily upon our fortified position but seemed satisfied to know that our forces were well up. Our men lay upon their arms through the long, cold night. The morning of the 7th was cold and rainy; the rain soon turned to sleet which covered the ground and rendered the movements of troops difficult and somewhat dangerous. Our hands became so benumbed that it was difficult to handle our pieces, still we held our positions and occasionally advanced upon the enemy, which seemed to consist of a thin, gray line covering itself in the woods.
The foregoing wagon incident is told in quite a different manner by a survivor of our Regiment who believes in giving credit to him to whom credit is due: