During August 10th and 11th skirmishing continued. In the afternoon of the last-named day the 29th regiment was inspected. Adjutant Storer reported eighty-three men only present for duty.
The Union army remained on the field three days, retiring, on August 12th, to Culpeper Court House, where it encamped. Our pickets, going over the battle field on the 13th, reported that dead horses were piled in promiscuous positions; dismounted cannons, wrecked caissons, and broken firearms were everywhere, while the graves of the fallen, singly and in trenches, were scattered over the entire field, only the freshly heaped up earth marking the spots. In one spot were the unburied bodies of a boy in blue and one in gray, their arms interlocked as their brave souls went out to the God who gave them, the one for the right, the other, it is hoped, forgiven for his misguided championship of the wrong.
Twelfth, marched to Culpeper Court House, and went into camp. 13th, put up tents and prepared to live. 14th, and all is quiet. 15th, another inspection and review. There is one consolation if we do have inspection every other day, there are so few men left that but little time is consumed in doing so. 16th, 17th, and 18th, still in camp; was inspected again, and at 6 o’clock on the evening of the latter day, struck tents under orders to march; slept on our arms that night. 19th, marched at 10 A. M., north to the Rappahannock, a distance of eleven miles, and went into camp. Had only a small quantity of green corn to eat. 20th, all quiet in camp. 21st, at 6 A. M. firing began, and was kept up along the line all day; at 7 in the evening the regiment, under command of Captain Schoonover, marched two miles and halted; company H was sent forward to the picket line, and the regiment moved at 6:30 A. M. along the Rappahannock; halted at 9:30; after a brief rest the regiment again fell in, and marched till 12 at noon without breakfast; sharp firing along the line; halted until 6 o’clock P. M.; moved up the Rappahannock river two miles, halted, stacked arms, and remained up nearly all night; (rainy) no tents or blankets, made our bed of rails. Saturday, August 23d, at 6 o’clock A. M. the artillery opened fire, and continued until 11 o’clock P. M.; remained on our arms all day; at 10 o’clock P. M. moved a short distance up the river, and the Twenty-ninth went on picket. 24th, and all is quiet; at 9:30 A. M. the artillery commenced firing, which was kept up continually during the day. 25th, artillery and musketry firing all along the line; at 8 o’clock P. M. the Twenty-ninth with its brigade moved up the river four miles and camped for the night. 26th, no rations for breakfast, but after a short time some green corn was procured, which filled the bill. At 8 A. M. the artillery dueling again commenced and was kept up the remainder of the day. The Twenty-ninth regiment moved one-half mile for shelter, remained here until 9 P. M., when it marched forward until 3 o’clock A. M., of the 27th; halted, moved forward a distance of three miles, and again halted. At 1 o’clock P. M., moved in the direction of Warrenton Junction, and camped for the night (no rations for supper or breakfast). On the morning of the 28th day of August, the regiment moved at 5 A. M., marched three miles and halted, drew rations and moved on in the direction of Bristow station, and camped for the night. Heavy firing in our advance all day. 29th, remained in camp, about two miles above Bristow station. 30th, marched at 6 o’clock A. M. and halted at Bristow station, and remained till 5 o’clock P. M., when the enemy was reported in our rear. The sick and disabled were moved to Alexandria and other points. August 31st, teams and trains containing camp and garrison equipage and other army supplies, were moved in the direction of Fairfax Court House.
During the campaign under Major-general Pope from August 20th until the regiment reached Alexandria on the 2d day of September, 1862, it was one continuous march and counter-march, by day and night, moving up the Rappahannock as far as White Sulphur Springs. On the 29th and 30th of August near the Bull Run battle ground. A very hard battle was fought, in which the Nationals were forced from the field, and again late in the afternoon on the 1st day of September at Chantilly, a short distance from Fairfax Court House, a sanguinary battle was fought, which continued late in the evening. In this last engagement the Nationals held the field at night, and on the 2d the Union army fell back within the fortifications around Washington city. During the last two or three days of the above campaign the Twenty-ninth regiment was completely cut off from the main army, as it had been ordered to guard the quartermaster stores with other government property on the railroad at and near Bristow station, and when ordered to join its brigade it found the enemy in the rear, so that it was only by a circuitous route in the direction of Brintsville, and a forced march that it reached the Chantilly battlefield during the engagement, on September 1st. Here it bivouacked for the night, and on the following day marched to Arlington heights, via Alexandria, where it went into camp.
During the last twelve days of the campaign the Twenty-ninth suffered severely for rations and rest, it being on the march, under fire, and on the skirmish line the entire time. When we reached Fairfax station, on the platform of the depot we found an immense table upon which our wounded boys were being subjected to the ofttimes bungling butchery of ignorant alleged surgeons, a number of whom were busily engaged in depriving the poor fellows under their charge of wounded legs and arms, and in many cases hastening their death thereby. This worse than murder by men, the majority of whom, when at home, had never even witnessed a capital operation, cannot be too highly condemned. (The writer is personally acquainted with professional men of this sort, who came out of the service first-class carvers, but the number of brave fellows sacrificed to bring about this state of proficiency is unknown.) It was now ascertained that the Confederate army of General Lee was making rapid marches towards Maryland. To checkmate this movement our columns were at once ordered on a retrograde movement in the direction of Washington. Reaching Alexandria, we passed up the Potomac, crossing at the long bridge, and moving forward to Georgetown where a halt of one day was made, the command departing the following morning for Frederick City, Maryland, which was said to be occupied by the rebels. A day’s march brought us beyond Rockville, Maryland, where we encamped for the night. At 2 o’clock, on the afternoon of September 5th, the regiment marched to Monocacy Junction, where the rebels had a short time previous destroyed the railroad bridge.
CHAPTER VII.
Frederick City—Recruits—Dumfries.
The regiment remained at Monocacy junction, guarding the immense supply trains which had accumulated here by reason of the burned bridge. Sergeant Baldwin relates that a lot of rebel prisoners passed Monocacy bridge, one of whom claimed to have fired seven shots at Colonel Buckley at the battle of Port Republic, but without effect. About September 13th, the bridge having been replaced, we moved on to Frederick city, Maryland. Here we engaged in camp, picket, and provost duty, and a large number of the men were detailed to care for the wounded from the battlefields of South Mountain and Antietam, September 14th and 17th.
In the meantime we were joined by a large number of recruits, amongst which was a brigade cornet band, composed of the following members: George Shaw, leader; Everett Shaw, assistant leader; J. G. Caskey, Jacob Koplin, Sylvanus Hile, Columbus Ferguson, N. G. Hartman, Christian Hardag, William Kurtz, George Metcalf, James Lyon, “Bige” Nickerson, Benjamin Snyder, George Turney, Micajah Rice, Bennett Wadsworth, Edward White, Frank Waltz, Eli Waltz; Gurley G. Crane, drum major.
November 25th, Colonel Clark says: “Patiently waiting in camp. ‘Dress parade’ to-day, the first many of us have seen since May last. Only about two hundred men in line. Remembering how far our line reached at Camp Giddings, our force looks small indeed.”