History of the Nineteenth Army Corps

by Richard B. Irwin

It was about seven o'clock, and the fog had lifted, when Weitzel advanced to the attack on the right face of the priest-cap. The 12th Connecticut and the 75th New York of his own brigade were deployed to the left and right as skirmishers to cover the head of the column. Two regiments of Morgan's brigade, loosely deployed, followed the skirmishers; in front the 91st New York, with hand-grenades, and next the 24th Connecticut, every man carrying two cotton bags weighing thirty pounds each. In immediate support came the remainder of Weitzel's brigade in column of regiments, in the order of the 8th Vermont, 114th New York, and 160th New York, followed by the main body of Morgan's brigade. Birge was in close support and Kimball in reserve. Finally, in the rear, as in Paine's formation, was massed the artillery of the division.

Toward the north face of the priest-cap the only approach was by the irregular, but for some distance nearly parallel, gorges cut out from the soft clay of the bluffs by Sandy Creek and one of its many arms. The course of these streams being toward the Confederate works, the hollows grew deeper and the banks steeper at every step. At most the creeks were but two hundred yards apart, and the ridge that separated them gave barely standing room. Within a few feet of the breastworks the smaller stream and its ravine turned sharply toward the north and served as a formidable ditch until they united with the main stream and ravine below the bastion. This larger ravine near its outlet and the natural ditch throughout its length were mercilessly swept by the fire of the bastion on the right, the breastworks in front, and the priest-cap on the left. The smaller ravine led toward the south to the crest from which Paine's men had recoiled, where their wounded and their dead lay thick, and behind which the survivors were striving to restore the broken formations.

Weitzel therefore chose the main ravine. Bearing to the right from the Jackson road, the men moved by the flank and cautiously, availing themselves of every advantage afforded by the timber or the irregularities of the ground, until they gained the crest of the ridge at points varying from twenty to fifty yards from the works near the north face of the priest-cap. In advancing to this position the column came under fire immediately on filing out of the ravine and the wood in front of the position of battery No. 9. Then, in such order as they happened to be, they went forward with a rush and a cheer, but beyond the crest indicated few men ever got. From this position it was impossible either to advance or retire until night came.

At the appointed hour Dwight sent the 6th Michigan, under Lieutenant-Colonel Bacon, and the 14th Maine, to the extreme left to make an attempt in that quarter, the arrangements for which have been already described; but either Dwight gave his orders too late, or the column mistook the path, or else the difficulties were really greater than they had been thought beforehand or than they afterward seemed, for nothing came of it. Then recalling this detachment to the Mount Pleasant road, Dwight tried to advance in that direction. The 14th Maine was sent back to its brigade and Clark deployed his own regiment, the 6th Michigan, as skirmishers, supported by the 128th New York, now commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel James Smith. The 15th New Hampshire followed and the 26th Connecticut, under Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Selden, brought up the rear. These two regiments went forward in column of companies on the main road, but as the Confederates immediately opened a heavy artillery fire upon the head of the column, they had to be deployed. However, the ground, becoming rapidly narrower, did not long permit of an advance in this order, so that it soon became necessary to ploy once more into column. About 350 yards from the outer works the Mount Pleasant road enters and crosses a deep ravine by a bridge, then destroyed. The hollow was completely choked with felled timber, through which, under the heavy fire of musketry and artillery, it was impossible to pass; so here the brigade stayed till night enabled it to retire. Nickerson's brigade supported the movement of Clark's, but without becoming seriously engaged. Thus ended Dwight's movement. It can hardly be described as an assault, as an attack, or even as a serious attempt to accomplish any valuable result; yet indirectly it was the means of gaining, and at a small cost, the greatest, if not the only real, advantage achieved that day, for it gave Dwight possession of the rough hill, the true value of which was then for the first time perceived, and on the commanding position of its northern slope was presently mounted the powerful array of siege artillery that overlooked and controlled the land and water batteries on the lower flank of the Confederate defences.

Of Augur's operations in the centre, it is enough to say that the feigned attack assigned to this portion of the line was made briskly and in good order at the appointed time, without great loss.

The result of the day may be summed up as a bloody repulse; beholding the death and maiming of so many of the bravest and best of the officers and men, the repulse may be even termed a disaster. In the whole service of the Nineteenth Army Corps darkness never shut in upon a gloomier field. Men went about their work in a silence stronger than words.

On this day 21 officers and 182 men were killed, 72 officers and 1,245 men were wounded, 6 officers and 180 men missing; besides these, 13 were reported as killed, 84 as wounded, and 2 as missing without distinguishing between officers and men, thus making a total of 216 killed, 1,401 wounded, 188 missing—in all, 1,805. Among the wounded many had received mortal hurts, while of the missing, as in the first assault, many must now be set down as killed.

Paine, as we have seen, fell seriously hurt while in the very act of leading his division to the assault. Nine days earlier he had received his well-earned commission as brigadier-general. He was taken to New Orleans, and there nine days later, at the Hôtel de Dieu Hospital, after vain efforts to save the limb, the surgeons performed amputation of the thigh. A few days after the surrender, in order to avoid the increasing dangers of the climate, Paine was sent to his home in Wisconsin on the captured steamer Starlight, the first boat that ascended the river. Thus the Nineteenth Corps lost one of its bravest and most promising commanders, one who had earned the affection of his men, not less through respect for his character than by his unfailing sympathy and care in all situations, and who was commended to the confidence and esteem of his associates and superiors by talent and devotion of the first order joined to every quality that stamps a man among men.

The fiery Holcomb, wounded in the assault of the 27th, yet refusing to leave his duty to another, fell early on this fatal morning at the head of his regiment and brigade, in the first moment of the final charge of Weitzel's men. This was another serious loss, for Holcomb had that disposition that may, for want of a better term, be described as the fighting character. All soldiers know it and respect it, and every wise general, seeing it anywhere among his officers, shuts his eyes to many a blemish and pardons many a fault that would be severely visited in another; yet in Holcomb there was nothing to overlook or forgive. As he was the most prominent and the most earnest of the few officers of the line that to the last remained eager for the fatal assault, so he was among the earliest and noblest of its victims.

Mortally wounded at the head of Weitzel's brigade fell Colonel Elisha B. Smith, of the 114th New York. Barely recovered from a serious illness, his spirit could not longer brook the restraint of the hospital at New Orleans with the knowledge that his men were engaged with the enemy. Thomas was ill and had received a slight wound of the scalp; this brought Smith to the head of the brigade; his fall devolved the command upon Lieutenant-Colonel Van Petten, for though Thomas, unable to bear the torture inflicted upon him by the sounds of battle, rose from his sick-bed and resumed the command, his weakness again overcame him when the day's work was done.