On the 31st, in the afternoon, an advance was ordered. We left our strong works in the plain, and moved forward in line to the woods, and supported a gallant attack of the Second Brigade, made in connection with the Second Corps. We advanced about three-quarters of a mile over what General Potter reported to be the worse ground he ever knew. The firing was very brisk, but being in the second line our loss was slight. The enemy was found to be strongly intrenched; but the attack forced him out of a line of skirmish pits, which were captured by our division, and the troops pushed closely up to the enemy's main line. The picket line was established with great difficulty, after severe fighting. The line of battle was now in a dense forest, reminding us of the Wilderness, and we occupied the remainder of the afternoon in preparing for a general attack. We connected on the right with Birney's division of the Second Corps, and were ordered to advance with the right or left, as the occasion might demand. On our right General Hancock attempted to force the enemy's line; but the resistance was so determined that no advantage was gained. A strong line of works was erected, and the men slept on their arms, ready to repel an attack.
Early the next morning a battery of six Napoleon guns was brought up and put in position immediately in rear of our regiment, and opened fire on the enemy. At the same time heavy skirmishing was resumed, and the line was prepared to assault the works in our front. General Birney was to attack on the right, and our movement was to conform to his. His troops moved out; but the works in his front were found to be very formidable, protected in front by marshy ground and a strong abatis, and the approaches enfiladed with artillery. In moving forward General Birney uncovered a battery, and he was obliged to suspend the attack. The men were under arms all day, ready to move forward or to the right or left. It was a long day of anxiety and suspense. Later the enemy made a fierce attack upon the two divisions on our left, but was handsomely repulsed, with heavy loss. Toward night he advanced a strong line to attack our division. He advanced in fine order, under a heavy fire; but, not liking the appearance of our works, prudently retired. The fighting all along the line was very severe. Much artillery was used, but no special advantage was gained.
About midnight we were aroused by whispered orders to move by the right flank, and with the utmost secrecy, to the rear. Long before daylight we were in position in the line of works built by us on the 30th of May. The Second Corps had been withdrawn from our right and moved to the left of the army. We were ordered to be in constant readiness for a rapid movement. While waiting here some of our comrades of the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania, seized with a sudden attack of the Eastern Tennessee foraging mania, visited a recently deserted house in our rear. Upon searching the premises they found some hams and bacon sides buried in the cellar, and, on pursuing their investigations further, dug up, not hams, but bags of silver coin, which the owner had secreted. The amount found, it is said, was more than $3,000, besides a considerable amount in gold. The lucky miners carried on a profitable brokerage business for an hour, and soon the silver coin, exchanged for currency, was everywhere throughout the camp.
CHAPTER XVI.
AT COLD HARBOR.
At one o'clock we were ordered to the left, and moved by the left flank. The heat was intense, and the roads dusty. After marching about two miles that portion of the corps which had left the line was massed in an open field near General Meade's head-quarters, in rear of the Fifth Corps right. Almost as soon as we halted we were overtaken by a furious shower, which soon settled into an easterly storm. The rain poured in torrents, and each one was sheltering himself as much as possible, when the enemy made an attack. Rhodes' division of Ewell's corps, supported by Hill and Gordon, had been thrown forward along the road from Hundley's Corner, and had struck the skirmish line that covered our flank. The corps was at once put in position to resist the enemy's advance. The movement was on open ground, and the only corps manœuvre we had witnessed during the campaign. It was directed by General Burnside in person. The corps moved in three long lines by division fronts, and presented a splendid spectacle. It was a review under fire. When we came into position the First Division was in the front, on high ground near Bethesda Church. The Second and Third Divisions supported the First. Two batteries of artillery opened upon the advancing enemy, who replied with artillery and musketry, and for a time there was a brisk duel. The attack of the enemy was handsomely repulsed, although, in the surprise occasioned by his first attack upon the skirmish line of the First Division, he succeeded in capturing a large number of prisoners. Toward dusk the division was moved by the right flank to extend the line of battle in that direction, and a line of rifle-pits was thrown up. Later in the evening we advanced farther to the right and front, where the brigade was massed, and ordered to bivouac for the night. The men had hardly time to roll themselves in their blankets when the Thirty-sixth was sent for to prolong the line of the Second Brigade. It was raining hard when the regiment moved out. We halted in rear of the left of the Second Brigade line, which formed the extreme right of the army. In front of us and to the left was a line of deserted intrenchments, which the regiment was now ordered to occupy. This was a very hazardous operation. We were ignorant of the position, but knew that the enemy was in the immediate vicinity, if not in the very works we were ordered to occupy. Not a ray of light illumined the more than midnight darkness. The trees were dripping with moisture and every drop sounded like a footfall. As discovery would frustrate the entire plan, the men were sent in singly, each being cautioned to move quietly. We were obliged to use the utmost vigilance, and as it was, we drew some shots in moving in. We soon discovered the enemy to be on the other side of our line of pits, but a little on our left. A long, anxious night followed, a fitting prelude to the fearful day to follow.
We now fully comprehend what then we could not clearly understand. Of the previous movements we had been able to form some conception; but the operations since crossing the Pamunkey, conducted rapidly in jungles, swamps, and labyrinths of forest; in storm and darkness; by marches and countermarches, advances and withdrawals,—all seemed to us to be without consistent plan or purpose. But these operations had been necessary to develop the strong position of the enemy along the line of the Chickahominy, covering the railroad approach and the principal roads leading to Richmond. The only direct path to the Confederate capital lay across this noted stream, which one writer says may be regarded as a wet ditch in front of the outer fortifications of Richmond. In order to further advance upon his chosen line, it was necessary for General Grant to force a passage of this stream. The enemy's position along its front was so strong and unassailable that no course seemed open except to extend the left, and, by a movement lower down, outflank his right, and endeavor to pass the Chickahominy at Cold Harbor.
On the first day of June Grant sent the Sixth Corps and other troops to take possession of Cold Harbor at the left extremity of the line, it being the junction of important roads leading to White House Landing, Dispatch Station, Hanover, and Richmond. It commanded these divergent roads, and was of particular importance, as it covered the road leading to the base of supplies at White House. The place was occupied after a sharp struggle, and the severe attack of the enemy to repossess the place had been handsomely repulsed. That evening General Grant determined there to force the passage of the Chickahominy, and drive Lee's army within the intrenchments of Richmond. For this purpose the Second Corps had been withdrawn from our right, and massed on the left during the night of the 1st. The enemy had detached correspondingly to his right, and the terrific shower in the afternoon, while it interrupted Grant's plan of attack, did not prevent the enemy from crowding all his available troops toward Cold Harbor, and perfecting his arrangements for defence. Our line was now being contracted and prepared to attack. Though the manœuvre during the afternoon had been intercepted, the enemy had gained no special advantage in following up our movement. Our line extended from near Bethesda Church on the right, to the Dispatch Station road at Barker's Mills on the left, a distance of about six miles. The Second Corps was now on the extreme left, the Second Division of the Ninth Corps held the extreme right. We were on historic ground. Two years before this had been the scene of several of the great battles between the armies of Lee and McClellan, with the positions, however, somewhat changed. That soil had drank the blood of thousands of our gallant comrades; it was again to drink the blood of thousands more.
The orders had been issued for a general assault along the entire line at daybreak, and the final preparations were now being made. As we have already said, the night was stormy and intensely dark. The men had no shelter, and could not sleep, and suffered much discomfort. Just before day the regiment, with one or two others of the Second Brigade, was withdrawn from the woods and ordered to construct a new line of breastworks. This work was prosecuted with all possible despatch, and was nearly completed when, most unexpectedly, the regiment was ordered to join our own brigade, then forming for attack. Without a moment's delay, though weary, hungry, and cold, these brave men leaped the breastworks and formed on the extreme left of the brigade, joining it on the double-quick. The line was short. The brigade had dwindled to a handful compared with its former numbers, but for the beauty and military precision with which it moved across the field it could challenge no superior in any corps of the army. The enemy's heavy skirmish line was posted in the edge of the forest, and, as we approached the woods, opened a sharp fire. Our rapidly advancing line caused them hurriedly to withdraw. As we neared the woods a withering volley swept the line. At the first fire the brave Color-Sergeant, Adams E. French, of Company D, who had borne the national colors in all the battles of the campaign, received a mortal wound, and fell in the line. The hands of the gallant Corporal Stevens, of Company K, caught the flag, and it did not reach the ground. The regiment pressed forward under a galling fire, pressing toward the right, and the enemy was driven rapidly across a creek, through a swampy morass, over a ridge, and into their strong intrenchments, within a few yards of the Shady Grove road, upon which was their main line. It was with great difficulty that a line could be maintained in the dense jungle under such a deadly fire. It was Spottsylvania over again. We were even nearer to the enemy's works. Captain Barker, commanding the regiment, looked to the connection on the right, while Captain Smith gave attention to the left. As we moved forward, a rise of ground in our front afforded slight protection; but when we reached the crest the fire was terrific. The men held up to the work nobly. Comrades were falling on every side, and very few escaped without slight bruises, or having clothing cut by flying balls.