On reaching the junction of the roads Morrison ordered us into an open field on our left, and the Thirty-sixth was directed to take position in rear of a rail-fence, with our right resting on the Kingston road. The Eighth Michigan was on our left. The Forty-fifth Pennsylvania was deployed as skirmishers. Meanwhile the rest of the troops on the road from Lenoir's, and those which had preceded us, were moving to a position selected by Burnside, a little way beyond the village of Campbell's Station; and we were left to cover the movement. Unfurling our colors we awaited the advance of the enemy. There was little delay. In our front there was an occasional shot, and also to our right; but it was soon evident that the enemy were moving to our left, in order to gain the cover of the woods and obtain a more favorable position for attack. Moving off by the left flank, therefore, we took a second position in an adjoining field. Finding now the enemy moving rapidly through the woods, and threatening our rear with increasing numbers,—Hood's division, that had followed us from Lenoir's, being now up,—we executed a left half-wheel, and, advancing on the double-quick to the rail-fence which ran along the edge of the woods, we opened a heavy fire. The manner in which Major Draper handled the regiment in these trying circumstances was worthy of the highest praise. From this new position the enemy at once endeavored to force us. His fire was well directed, but the fence afforded us a slight protection. Lieutenant J. B. Fairbank and a few of the men were here wounded. For a while we held the enemy in check, but at length the skirmishers of the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania, who were watching our right, discovered a body of rebel infantry pushing toward our rear from the Kingston road. Colonel Morrison, our brigade commander, at once ordered the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts and Eighth Michigan to face about, and establish a new line in rear of the rail-fence on the opposite side of the field. We advanced on the double-quick, and, reaching the fence, our men, with a shout, poured a volley into the rebel line of battle, which not only checked its advance, but drove it back in confusion. Meanwhile the enemy in our rear moved up to the edge of the woods, which we had just left, and now opened a brisk fire. We at once crossed the fence, in order to place it between us and his fire, and were about to devote our attention again to him when orders came for us to withdraw, it being no longer necessary for us to hold the junction of the roads, as all our troops and wagons had now passed. The enemy, too, was closing in upon us, and his fire was the hottest. We moved off in good order; but our loss in killed and wounded was quite heavy, considering the time we were under fire.
Among the killed was Lieutenant P. Marion Holmes (Co. B), of Charlestown, Massachusetts, of whom it might well be said,
"He died as fathers wish their sons to die."
Lieutenant Holmes had been wounded in the foot at the battle of Blue Springs, October 10th, and, as the wound was not fully healed, had made the march from Lenoir's that morning with great difficulty. But he would not leave his men. On his breast he wore the badge of the Bunker Hill Club, on which was engraved the familiar line from Horace, which Warren quoted just before the battle of Bunker Hill: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,"—It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country. In the death of Lieutenant Holmes the regiment sustained a great loss. Frank, courteous, manly, brave, he had won all hearts; and his sudden removal from our companionship, at that moment, will ever remind us of the great price with which that morning's success was bought. His men made a noble endeavor to bear the body from the field; but the enemy were pressing us so hard that they were reluctantly compelled to leave it near the spot where the lieutenant fell. There he was buried, and his grave marked, so that, a few weeks after, friends from home found the spot, and took up the remains, and brought them to Charlestown, Mass., where funeral services were held January 18, 1864.
As we left the open field, and entered the woods between us and Campbell's Station, the enemy manœuvred to cut us off from the road, so that we were obliged to oblique to the left. Moving on the double-quick, receiving an occasional volley, and barely escaping capture, we at length emerged from the woods on the outskirts of the village. Our formation by fours was well preserved in this movement, and Major Draper afterwards learned from a rebel officer, that the order and steadiness displayed by the Thirty-sixth under these trying circumstances, prevented an attack upon us which might have led to a serious disaster to our brigade. He said they thought there was a "Regular" regiment among the rest, upon which the others might form.
Passing through the village of Campbell's Station, we were soon under cover of our artillery, which General Potter, under the direction of General Burnside, had placed in position on high ground, just beyond the village. Campbell's Station is situated between two low ranges of hills, which are nearly a mile apart. Across the intervening space our infantry was drawn up in a single line of battle. Ferrero's division of the Ninth Corps held the right; White's division of the Twenty-third Corps held the centre; and Hartranft's division of the Ninth Corps held the left. Benjamin's, Buckley's, Getting's, and Von Schlein's batteries were on the right of the road. Roemer's battery was on the left. The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts supported Roemer.
Longstreet, meanwhile, had disposed his forces for an attack on our position, but was delayed on account of the difficulty experienced in moving his artillery. At noon the rebels came out of the woods just beyond the village, in two lines of battle, with a line of skirmishers in front. The whole field was open to our view. Benjamin and Roemer opened fire at once; and so accurate was their range that the rebel lines were immediately broken, and they fell back into the woods in confusion. The enemy, under cover of the woods on the slope of the ridge, now advanced against our right. Christ's brigade, of our division, at once changed front. Buckley executed the same movement with his battery, and, by a well-directed fire, checked the enemy's progress in that direction. The enemy next manœuvred to turn our left. Falling back, however, to a stronger position in our rear, selected by General Burnside, we established a new line about four o'clock in the afternoon. This was done under a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries. Ferrero was now on the right of the road. Morrison's brigade was placed in rear of a rail fence, at the foot of the ridge on which Benjamin's battery had been planted. Several of the Thirty-sixth were wounded by the packing of the shells fired by Benjamin; and by a piece of a shell from the same battery, that burst prematurely, Sergeant Gallup, of Company A, was so severely wounded that he died in a short time. The position for the regiment was a very trying one. The enemy, however, did not seem inclined to attack us in front, but pushed along the ridge, on our left, aiming to strike Hartranft in flank and rear. He was discovered in this attempt; and, just as he was moving over ground recently cleared, Roemer, changing front at the same time with Hartranft, opened his three-inch guns on the rebel line, and drove it back in disorder, followed by the skirmishers. Longstreet, foiled in all these attempts to force us from our position, now withdrew beyond the range of our guns, and made no further demonstrations that day. Our troops were justly proud of their success; for, with a force not exceeding five thousand men, they had held in check, for an entire day, three times their own number, and with a comparatively small loss.[4] In the Ninth Corps there were twenty-six killed, one hundred and sixty-six wounded, and fifty-seven missing. Of these the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts had one officer and three enlisted men killed, three officers and fourteen enlisted men wounded, and three enlisted men missing.
[4] General Longstreet, in his official report of this action, says: "As soon as McLaws got up he was ordered to deploy three of his brigades in front of the enemy, and to put the other brigade upon a ridge on our left, so as to threaten the enemy's right. At the same time, Colonel Alexander put his artillery in position, and General Jenkins was ordered with Hood's division around the enemy's left, and, upon arriving opposite the enemy's position, to make an attack upon their flank, while General McLaws was advancing against the enemy's front to follow General Jenkins' attack. The flank movement and the fire of our batteries caused the enemy to retire in some haste. McLaws' division advanced promptly, and brought the enemy to a stand about a mile further toward his rear, in a more commanding position. If General Jenkins could have made his attack during this movement, or if he could have made it after the enemy had taken his second position, we must have destroyed this force, recovered East Tennessee, and in all probability captured the greater portion of the enemy's forces. He attributes his failure to do so to some mismanagement of General Law. Before I could get a staff officer to him to ascertain the occasion of the delay, night came on and our efforts ceased."