Notes of a staff officer of our First New Jersey Brigade on the Seven Day's Battle on the peninsula in 1862

by E. Burd Grubb

So after a little while I went back to the brigade. The pickets and skirmishers were coming across the bridge and after a while a few of our cavalry came across and after that the pioneers commenced to destroy the bridge by hewing through the timbers. We were lying down and resting on the top of the hill on the south side of the ravine when I saw the pioneers commence to cut the bridge to pieces. I said to General Taylor: "Why that gun is over on the other side." He said, "How do you know it is?" I said: "Why I saw it half an hour ago." He used a very strong expression, pulling his moustache and told me to tell our lieutenant to "get out of that as quick as the Lord would let him." So I ran down and stopped the men from cutting the bridge, ran up the other side and told the officer of the gun what the general had said. They were all ready and sitting on their horses but had had no order to move. The enemy's skirmishers who were coming on had fired several shots at them, and I must say that I never saw a gun go down a hill more rapidly than that did. To make a long story short they got the gun over all right, and the enemy's skirmishers shot at our pioneers while they were cutting the bridge. This was a curious, but as it turned out, a very fortunate occurrence, for history shows that these were Stonewall Jackson's men, and that Jackson with a heavy force was behind them. They reported that this bridge was held strongly with artillery and infantry, and this report made such an impression upon Jackson that he did not attempt to force the passage of the creek at that place. Why he did not cross the creek at a ford about a mile further up of which he should have known, historians on both sides have never discovered; but that Jackson's delay on that occasion, at that spot and his counter march gave McClellan the opportunity to withdraw his armies successfully to Malvern Hill, is the opinion of all authorities whom I have read upon the subject.

This was about two o'clock in the afternoon, it must be remembered that this was when the days were long and also very hot. In half an hour we received orders to march and move south along the White Oak road towards Charles City crossroads. After marching about two miles we were halted and the men were directed to rest along the east side of the road which was well wooded on the east side, and on the west side were several quite large clearings. I am sure that General Taylor was not informed that we were occupying the line of battle, and I am sure that General Torbert, who was then colonel of the First Regiment, did not know this until several years after, but it is a fact that we were a part of the line and an exceedingly important part. While we were lying down along the edge of the road an aid of General Slocum's rode by and told General Taylor that General Slocum's headquarters were in the field on the left or east side of the road about five hundred yards ahead of us, and that was all he said to him, for I heard it, and he then rode away. In about fifteen minutes the enemy opened with about sixty pieces of artillery, firing across the road in front of us and gradually increasing the rapidity of the firing until it was the most tremendous cannonade I had ever heard. No enemy was visible to us anywhere, the smoke of those guns came over the edge of the woods probably eight hundred yards from the road, and a few hundred yards further along the right of the brigade. None of those shells came across where we were. While the cannonade was at its height, and of course such a cannonade as this is always the precursor of a charge of a line of battle, General Taylor said that he must have some orders from General Slocum's headquarters as he did not know what was wanted of him, so he said: "Grubb, ride to General Slocum's headquarters and ask him what he wants me to do." I had then one of the most terrible experiences that I ever had under artillery fire, and what is more, I had two of them, for I rode down that road across that line of firing, and I think I came nearer being killed by the flying pieces of fence rails and pieces of trees than by the shells. I found the oak tree, but I did not find General Slocum, and I came back to General Taylor, really very much bewildered by the terrible fire, and told him that General Slocum was not where he said. He merely said: "Go back and find him." And I had to do what I should have done, of course, at first. It must be remembered that I was only a little over nineteen years of age. I finally did find General Slocum more than half a mile from where I was told he would be, and a very heavy infantry fight going on in front of him. I told him what General Taylor had said. He did not even look at me but simply said: "When I want him I will let him know." Which I had the pleasure of repeating to General Taylor word for word. The last time I came down the road the cannonade had almost died out, and the infantry fighting about opposite to where I had seen General Slocum was very severe. The corps engaged, it turned out, was the Third Corps and the division on its left which was of course next to our right because we were right in front in column and had been marching south when we halted, was General Phil. Kearney's division and commanded by General Phil. Kearney in person. Now it will be seen that our brigade being in column of four right in front under the old tactics to have formed a line of battle the order would have been given front, and all the men would have turned to the left which would have brought their backs to the enemy, as the enemy was on our right or west side. To have formed the line of battle we would have had to have faced by the rear rank, and while that did not make much difference in merely forming the line, only so far as the file closers were concerned, any subsequent manoeuvers from that formation would become exceedingly complicated; and I doubt whether any of the regiments of the First Brigade at that time could have successfully performed those manoeuvers. These were some of the difficulties which the Upton's tactics subsequently adopted, aimed to obviate and did so.

General Kearney was the idol and hero of our brigade from the time we first saw him. He and all his staff were well known to every man and officer of us; and when Captain Moore of Kearney's staff came riding down the road waving his hat and calling out that General Kearney had lost a battery, and wanted the Jersey Brigade to help him get it back, it seemed to me that the whole brigade heard him because I am sure that no orders were given to do that which occurred, and I had barely time to scramble on my horse and join in the rushing throng. General Taylor called to me as I passed him: "Keep ahead of them and keep them from going too far. The enemy's line is in the woods right in front of our guns." Captain Moore, who was talking to him, had probably told him this. The guns that had been captured were not more than three hundred yards from us, a little advanced to the west of the road. I had noticed that they were not gone when I passed along on my ride to General Slocum's but the melee was so confused that I have not and never had a very clear idea of it. When I got to where the guns were the road was somewhat sunken and as the bank was so steep that I could not ride my horse up, I jumped off and scrambled up. There were a good many men among the guns before I got there, and the guns were being re-captured. But I do know that when I passed near a gun, a sergeant of the First Regiment, whose name was either Hollins or Hollister, had a Rebel prisoner by the neck. The man, though captured, had not surrendered, and as I passed him in carrying out the order which I had, to stop the men from going beyond the guns, he thrust at our sergeant with his bayonet, missed him, and gave me a prod, the scar of which I carry to this day. Though it did not disable me then or now, as it was on the inside of the thigh. I passed the order to halt to several of the officers of our brigade. It is my impression that there were lots of Kearney's men from his own division who were there almost instantly; but I do not think they were there when we first came up.

I expected that we would receive a withering volley from the woods which were only across a small field in which the General had told me the enemy would be. For some blessed reason that volley never came; and in a few minutes our men were re-called to the road and continued our march, and towards night fall we went into line of battle along the side of the road not more than twenty yards from the road side. On the west side our skirmishers were thrown out perhaps fifty yards more and we engaged with the Rebel skirmishers until dark. There was a good deal of artillery firing along the roads which intersected the road on which we were marching; but most of the shots went through the tree tops and only a few of our men were injured. The line we were holding and which we held there from dark until twelve o'clock that night was the gap in the line into which the enemy had charged and captured Major General McCall and a large part of his division.

About nine o'clock that night I, having been constantly engaged under General Taylor's orders, in passing along our skirmisher line and getting reports from the officers, came up to where the General was in a fence corner, and found him utterly exhausted. Neither he nor I had had any nourishment, except a cup of coffee for breakfast, since the night before and that coffee had been given to us by some of the men of our headquarters. The wagon with all our rations was with the train and we did not see it for thirty-six hours afterwards.

I said to him: "General, the brigade is very much mixed up and ought to be straightened out." He said: "Very well, sir, go straighten it out." And so I went, but I had not gone more than twenty steps before I came to the conclusion that that was too much of a contract for a young man of my age, so I went to Colonel Torbert of the First Regiment and stated the case, just what the General had said, and that I believed that General Taylor was entirely exhausted, and that the job was too big for me. He said: "Never mind, sonny, I will fix it up for you." So we went together and Colonel Torbert arranged the brigade that night. Some of the companies of the Second were mixed up with the Third, and some of the Third were mixed up with the First until we straightened them out. The men were lying down, some of them asleep, all of them cross, and it was no easy job to shift them around, but we finally got it done about eleven o'clock. I got back to my old colored man, James Huggs, who had a blanket for me in the same fence corner where the General was, and I had about two hours' sound sleep. A little before one o'clock an aid of General Slocum's gave us marching orders. We found an entire brigade in the road ready to take our places, and passing through them to the road we continued our march in column going somewhere, we did not know where, but headed, we all knew, towards the James River on the way from Richmond. This last fact was heartbreaking to the men, for from the moment that we landed at West Point in May our faces had been towards the Rebel Capitol. Although the battle of Gaines' Mills had been lost just the day after we were much nearer Richmond than we were now and it was only the night of the battle of Charles City crossroads that our men realized that we were retreating. We marched until about seven o'clock in the morning and then the brigade was given about three hours' rest along the road. The General and I had some coffee which the men of the Provost Guard gave us and I went down into my old Company C, of the Third Regiment, and got from Richard Poole, a private in that company, who was a painter in Burlington, three hard tack, and after he had given them to me, just one-half of all he had, I searched in my pocket and found the silver ten cent piece, that was the last thing I had. Richard refused to accept this in exchange for the hard tack, but I finally pressed it upon him as a souvenir, and he showed it to me many times afterwards. About twelve o'clock the brigade was assembled and marched along the road towards Malvern Hill which we did not then know by that name or any other name, but it was a high and commanding position and we saw a great many of our batteries already in position upon it, and very readily came to the conclusion that our army was going to make a stand there. I think the Jersey Brigade was at that time in the rear guard, and the reason I think so is because after our brigade passed through the pickets which were at the edge of the hill nothing came behind us but some cavalry, and I have a good reason to remember that. Within about a half a mile of the hill on the left hand side of the road was a fine farm and near the fence were two fine cherry trees full of cherries. As we passed along, the General and myself being in the rear of the brigade, he said: "I would like to have some of those very much." So I immediately said: "I will get you some." I got over the fence and climbed up a tree dropping my sword and belt in the clover at the foot of the tree as I went up, I broke off a good many branches and proceeded to fill myself as quickly as possible. A scouting party of some of our cavalry came by going toward the hill and an officer told the General that there were some Rebel scouts not very far behind him, upon which the General recalled me from the tree, and we proceeded to rejoin the brigade which had gone up Malvern Hill. When the brigade was halted and arranged upon the line which had been assigned to us near the top of the hill, I instantly noticed that I had not my sword and belt and remembered that they were in the grass at the foot of the cherry tree a half a mile outside of our lines. I asked the General for permission to go back and get them and he proceeded to read me a lecture on carelessness. Saying, among other things, which I distinctly remember and always have, that "A soldier should lose his head rather than his sword." So I went back to the picket line and very fortunately for me I happened to know the captain very well who commanded a cavalry troop that was on picket on that spot, that is to say, near the base of the hill. He said to me that he had not seen any Rebel scouts for half an hour and that he would send two of his men with me to get the sword which he did, and we all got back safely without seeing anybody, and the cavalry also got a lot of cherries. I mention this incident so particularly, because it has a very particular bearing upon a very extraordinary occurrence that happened that night. There was an immense park of our wagons not very far from the hill the night before the battle of Malvern Hill, and while the brigade was on the hill in line of battle and sleeping behind the breast works which they had made of logs and earth, a very flimsy sort of breast works, but which by reason of the admirable position on the hill would have been very effective if assaulted, General Taylor received an order informing him that the wagon trains of the army would be burnt that night, and he, accompanied by some others and my old servant, James Huggs, went down into the wagon park and took out a small quantity of their personal belongings, among other things a small hand bag of mine containing some underclothing, my mother's letters, and a few other things of that kind. I did not go with them as I was asleep at the root of a tree, and when the order came the General told my man he did not wish to disturb me. I saw the printed order the next morning. It was in the same form and apparently the same type as that which we received from the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac. General Taylor returned to where he had placed his headquarters under a great white pine tree, and my old servant, James Huggs, sat at the camp fire, for, although it had been a hot day, the nights were cool and the fire was lighted. Huggs says that about eleven o'clock while the General was walking up and down between the tree and the fire, the orderly on duty came up to the General and said that a messenger from General McClellan's headquarters wanted to see him outside of the rifle pit, and Huggs says that the General walked straight down that way, he, of course, not going with him. The next morning at grey day light, I awoke with the most intense gnawing hunger that I had ever experienced in my life. I had had nothing to eat but three hard tack, two cups of coffee, and some cherries for two days, and I had ridden probably fifty miles in those two days. I had, moreover, been in a pretty severe fight and had an ugly wound in my leg which hurt me every instant I sat in the saddle. As soon as I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes I saw within about twenty-five yards of me a small pig rooting along on the ground, I also saw right close to me a rifle of the orderly's leaning against the tree, it being the custom then for an orderly merely to have the ram rod in his hand while he was on duty. I knew there was a positive order against the discharge of any firearm without permission, but I was very hungry and there was the pig, so I took deliberate and careful aim, and killed that pig dead. Simultaneously with the crack of the rifle came the voice of General Taylor: "If you had missed him, sir, I would have put you under arrest." He was standing on the other side of the tree and had not lain down all night. The pig was cooked and eaten at once. The battle of Malvern Hill which took place that day was a magnificent pageant for those of our brigade who could see it. The coming down of a great mass of the enemy on the open plain to their utter destruction by the awful artillery fire. It was indeed a cruel and bloody sight, but after it was all over, many of us felt that we were avenged for what had happened at Gaines' Mills.

Those of us who can remember can even see today in our mind's eye, knapsack, hats, and even bodies of men thrown up in the air by the explosions of our shells in the serried masses of the enemy. Our brigade was not engaged at all, some men were hit by spent shots and bits of shells, but I think our casualties were twenty-eight in all. During the day on more than one occasion my attention was called to the fact that General Taylor was not wearing his own sword, but the sword that he was wearing belonged to his son, Captain Taylor, who had been partially disabled in the battle of Gaines' Mills. I noticed this because the two swords were not alike at all, and moreover, because I had been the object of a lesson on carelessness the previous afternoon, but of course I did not say anything.

The morning after the battle of Malvern Hill our brigade marched into a great wheat field at Brandon, near Harrison's Landing, and went into camp in the mud. As soon as the wagons were up and our tents were pitched, General Taylor directed me to mount my horse and accompany him. We went straight down to the James River and up along the river bank until we came to Berkley Mansion, which was General McClellan's headquarters. We had an orderly with us and both dismounted and left our horses with the orderly. I accompanied the General into the house and upstairs to the second floor. There were a number of wounded men in the house lying on the floors, and the house was crowded with officers of all grades. General Taylor went into a room on the second floor which I afterwards found was General McClellan's private headquarters and in a few minutes came out and said to me. "I shall be here for some time, you may make yourself comfortable, and when I want you I will call you." So I went out of the house, for it was indeed a grewsome place. It was raining hard, and after telling the orderly to spread an oil cloth blanket, which I had, over my horse, I looked around for a place to make myself comfortable, and found a chicken coop with some bright dry straw on the floor (there were no chickens in it) so I lay down and went to sleep. In about an hour an orderly called me. The General was standing on the porch, mounting our horses we rode off towards camp, I riding, of course, a horse's length behind the General. After going about two or three hundred yards, he checked his horse and said: "Ride up along side of me." Which I did. He then said: "Did you notice that I did not have my sword when I went to General McClellan's headquarters?" I said: "I did, sir, I noticed that you had neither sword nor belt." He said: "You see I have got them now." I said: "I do, sir." He said: "Well, I got them at General McClellan's headquarters." He said: "Last night while you were asleep an orderly told me that a messenger from General McClellan wanted to see me outside the rifle pit, I went there and two men on gray horses met me, one of whom was dismounted. This man presented a pistol at my head and instantly demanded my sword. Believing that I was captured and a prisoner there was nothing else for me to do but give him my sword which I did. Upon taking it he immediately mounted his horse and rode off."

That is all that General Taylor ever told me on the subject, and it is all I know about it. (I may add that General McClellan's body guard always rode gray horses). The fact is that this occurred, on my word as a gentleman and a soldier, exactly as I have stated it.

As the brigade was marching in to the great wheat field at Berkley where the army was then commencing to encamp, suddenly and without any idea that the enemy was in the vicinity, several shells came in and exploded among the wagon trains which were in the road along side of which our men were marching. My recollection is that not more than a dozen shells came. A regiment of Zouaves, which I think were the 55th of New York, went back in double-quick, and I understood captured two guns which the enemy had run up close to our encampment without any supports whatever. The official records will show the circumstances of this. I remember that one of the shells exploded within a few feet of General Taylor's horse.