History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers

by B. F. Blakeslee

Spier's cavalry had gone ahead of us one day and surprised the rebels, they barely having time to get aboard a train which stood in readiness to take them to Richmond. The cavalry then made a little raid through three counties, returning on the evening after the day of our arrival. They reported one severe fight and the capture of Brig. Gen. Wm. H.F. Lee, one Lieutenant-Colonel, one Surgeon, and one hundred prisoners. They also brought with them thirty-five wagons, besides burning eighty-five wagons and several railroad bridges. On the 28th, General Dix and Staff arrived and preparations were at once made for a move towards Richmond. Captain Pasco, of Company A, received his commission as Major on this day.

BLACKBERRY RAID.

On the morning of July 1st, the reveille sounded early and the division crossed the river, and after marching hard all day encamped for the night near King William's Court House. The next morning we were aroused at three o'clock, and marched to Brandywine, a distance of eight miles. On July 3d the reveille sounded at three o'clock, but we did not commence to march till five, when we marched pretty steady until one o'clock. The entire army had to stop then on account of the heat. This was the hottest day of the summer, and between the hours of twelve and one, sixty-five men fell out of the Sixteenth, fifteen of them having received a severe sunstroke. Four out of our Brigade died almost instantly. At five in the afternoon, the division commenced to march again and did not halt till nine in the evening, making in all about twenty miles that day. The name of this place was Taylor's Ferry.

The next day being July 4th, was a legal holiday in times of peace, but was not so for this division. The 11th and 16th Connecticut regiments and a section of battery were left at this point to guard a bridge and the supply train. The rest of the army moved to Hanover Court House, where they had a rather tough time. After marching all day, they had to tear up three miles of railroad, cut telegraph wires and burn bridges, all under the fire of the enemy. This did a great deal of good, for Lee was in Pennsylvania, and finding his communication cut in the rear, retreated.

The next morning the Sixteenth was up at three, moved their position at five, and at eight the troops who had gone to Hanover Court House, returned. At noon three regiments were detailed to forage on the country and take all the beef, mules, horses, sheep and salt, which they could find. At two o'clock a supply train from White House Landing arrived with two days rations. At eight in the evening, we found that the enemy were after us, and we started on the retreat. Contrabands followed us in large numbers. At ten the rebels were close on our heels, as we passed through Mongoheck. At three o'clock the next morning we had gained somewhat on the rebels and were allowed an hour's rest at the Town of Ayletts. The men were so tired on this march, that they actually slept while marching, and when we halted at 3 o'clock that morning the men fell as if struck by lightning and were all sound asleep in two second's time. But our position was not safe, and the bugle sounded the reveille at four and after partaking of a scanty breakfast, we marched till half-past two in the afternoon, when we encamped about a mile this side of King William's Court House in a hard rain storm. This was certainly a hard fate for those who went to Hanover Court House, too fearful to be believed, making three days and two nights of hard labor with only one hour's rest. But it had to be done. Several who were unable to keep up and fell out were mercilessly shot dead by guerrillas who harassed the rear. A great many of the men provided themselves with horses, which they took out of barns by the road-side. The reveille as usual sounded at an early hour (three A.M.) the next morning and we marched to White House Landing, reaching there at eleven. The next day the division took up their line of march and marched to Hampton through a heavy rain storm and mud knee deep. Thence by boat they proceeded to Portsmouth, reaching their old camps on the afternoon of the 14th.

This raid in history is called the "Blackberry Raid," there being no end of blackberries, of the most luscious kind. It was during this raid that a new Chaplain, (Charles Dixon, of the Eighth Conn. Vols.,) reported for duty. There seemed to be at first serious objections, both among the officers and men, to our having a chaplain, but they were soon dismissed; for he was one of those rare men whom all learned to love, and his bravery in battle and southern prisons won him a good name. On our return to Portsmouth, through a special order, a Regimental Band was organized, which grew to be a most excellent one, and added not a little to our military standing.

CAMP TENNANT.

July 15th, 16th, and 17th, was spent in fixing up our camp. But the 19th, 20th, and 21st was spent entirely in trying to have a review. The first day we marched two miles, stood in a broiling sun for two hours, and then returned to camp. The next day the same performance was gone through with and no reviewing officer came. Finally, on the last day, just as General Foster got within a few rods of us the rain came down in torrents, and continued till General Foster went away. The rain stopped at five, and as the men were all ready for the review it was agreed that the ceremony should be gone through with by Colonel Burnham acting as reviewing officer, and Major Pasco taking the command. From this time until the ninth of September there was but little to attract attention, except the general routine of parades, picket and police duty. The regiment therefore had a little time of rest.

On the 30th of July, Colonel C.H. Prentice, J.G. Rathbun, J.A. Case, and J.S. Brooks, of Hartford, made a visit to the regiment. As nearly the entire regiment were acquainted with them, they were very welcome, and we presume they enjoyed their visit, especially the day that they visited the outposts, a distance of seven miles from camp, when one of those southern rain-storms came up, and they got a thorough soaking. This delayed their visit another day, in order to have their clothes dried. The quartermaster temporarily supplied them with brogans and clothes, but the amusing part of it was that Col. P. was so large and tall that the soldier's sizes could not be gotten only half on, and therefore with a cap and coat half on, and pants that reached a little below the knees, and with a huge pair of brogans, he looked so badly that he stayed in the Colonel's tent and played euchre all day and night. It was about this time that we had some terribly hot weather, the thermometer reaching 118° on August 2d, and 115° on August 3d. The pious members of the regiment went to work and built a chapel, which turned out to be a very fine edifice, and together with a temperance organization which started about this time, effected a great deal of good. The chapel was dedicated with impressive ceremonies, and a church organization was formed, the fruits of which last even to this day. The surgeons ordered some hospitals built, which were also dedicated by a fine dance. The morale of the regiment at this time was about perfect, and I can not better write of it than in the words of Surgeon Nathan Mayer, in his address to the regiment, at its reunion in 1867.

"Gradually the finest camp but one, which it has been my fortune to see, grew up. The most perfect order, the most civilized condition prevailed. The tents were neatly and prettily furnished, as our Connecticut country homes are, and the ground was always in beautiful condition. As winter approached the men built a hospital of logs, log-houses for the officers, log-kitchens, and eating saloons for the companies. Our pioneers erected a perfect village. Everybody purchased pine slats and made pretty huts, using their tents as peaked roofs to the structures. A chapel of considerable pretensions was raised—and here the difference between Connecticut and New York soldiers was apparent in more than one way, but in none more than in this. While the New York battery at our side thought first of all of erecting a theatre, we built a hospital and a chapel. While they gave their leisure to studying parts and rehearsing them, we organized prayer meetings, a choir, and endeavored in various ways to perfect ourselves as soldiers and men. Of great benefit was the presence of ladies in our camp. A number of officers and men had asked their wives to visit them in camp, and ere long a pretty row of cottages extended on the right flank of the grounds; in these there was singing, and chatting, and playing euchre or whist, and other social games almost every evening. And the demeanor of every soldier in the camp of the Sixteenth Connecticut at that time was gentlemanly. Not an oath was heard, not a phrase that in any way could offend the ear of a virtuous female; not an act perpetrated that savored of anything but deference and respect toward the sex. To complete the softening influence thus cast on the regiment the Colonel's mother, Mrs. Burnham, paid us a visit, and went among the men as such a good, sensible old lady, with a heart full of kindness, and a head full of shrewd Connecticut sense, would naturally do. She advised and comforted those in trouble, listened to complaints and nursed the sick. She was regarded as a representative of the good respectable home life which we had left, and to which we would sooner or later return, and the veneration and affection of the regiment for her was unbounded.