October 25th. More good news. At twelve A. M. we marched into Washington to Sixth Street wharf and embarked on steamer St. Nicholas, bound for City Point, Va., where we are to join General Benham’s forces. This command is guarding the base of supplies for twenty miles or more down the James River, and the line of breastworks from City Point toward our front.
October 26th. We arrived at City Point at eleven A. M. and went into camp near the Landing for the night.
October 27th. Marched to main line of breastworks and encamped. At twelve P. M. the long roll was sounded, caused by an attack by the enemy on our front and the rebel gunboats on the James River. The cannoneers were ordered to their guns and remained there until reveille. On the 31st the battery was mustered for two months’ pay.
During the month of November all was quiet along our lines and winter quarters were ordered to be built for the men. They were arranged in groups of four. The month was cold and stormy.
December 25th, being Christmas, we were bountifully supplied with turkeys for our Christmas dinner. There was a turkey for each group of four men who occupied the log cabins which had been erected the previous month. It was a Christmas long to be remembered by every man in the battery, bringing to mind the good cheer and kind faces of our loved ones at home, and we looked forward with intense longing for the time when we should be permitted to return to them again.
CHAPTER VII.
Battery H Proceeds to Petersburg and Encamps near Fort Tracy—Life in the Trenches—Rebel Attack on Fort Stedman Repulsed.
When Battery H was ordered to the defenses of Washington, in May, 1864, the Army of the Potomac was engaged in a deadly struggle with the Confederate forces at Spottsylvania. Shortly after this encounter with the enemy Grant commenced his celebrated left flank movement, crossed the North Anna River, where a sharp battle was fought, and a few days later the Union army was engaged in the more hotly contested battle of Cold Harbor. After this engagement General Grant became convinced that he could not accomplish all he desired north of Richmond, and determined to hold the ground then occupied by his forces, and, after his cavalry had been sent to break up the railroad communication between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley and Lynchburg, he began to move the Army of the Potomac again by the left flank to the south side of the James River, and where he believed he could more effectually cut off the sources of the enemy’s supplies. He accordingly moved his army from Cold Harbor and crossed the Chickahominy and James Rivers, and finally reached the vicinity of Petersburg, which he proceeded to invest with his forces. To the Army of the Potomac was entrusted the task of investing the place, while the Army of the James occupied Bermuda Hundred and the ground in possession of our troops north of the James River.
The Army of the Potomac was still investing Petersburg when Battery H reached City Point, in October, 1864. It will be observed that the battery did not immediately join the forces on the Petersburg front at that time, but remained at City Point until Jan. 2, 1865, when it was ordered to join the Artillery Brigade of the Sixth Corps.
On the 2d of January our battery moved toward Patrick Station, in front of Petersburg, Va., arriving there between three and four in the forenoon, and went into camp near Fort Tracy.