On the 9th, Colonel Barnes was mustered out of the service, very much against the wishes of his superior officers, who had learned to appreciate his many excellent soldierly qualities. But his motives for leaving the army were of the most honorable character. His commission as Captain bore date of the 27th of April, 1861. He had been in the service of the United States since the 18th of May, 1861. During a large part of this time, he had had the actual and responsible command of the regiment, and for much of the time that of a brigade.
In taking leave of this excellent officer, who was so long and so honorably connected with the regiment, we deem it but an act of simple justice to him and his comrades as well, to quote some of the kind words spoken of him by several officers of the Ninth Corps. In 1864, General N. B. McLaughlin said of him: “During his term of service, Lieutenant-Colonel Barnes commanded his regiment nearby two-thirds of the time, and commanded a brigade for nearly two months in the present campaign. I consider him a cool, reliable officer, courageous, and of good judgment and conduct, both in action and in camp, a fine disciplinarian, and capable of commanding either a regiment or brigade.”
Major-General Orlando B. Willcox said: “I consider Colonel Barnes a man of great coolness and gallantry, of considerable experience as a regimental and brigade commander, and every way qualified.” Major-General Parke, commanding the corps, also expressed his high appreciation of this officer in the following language: “I consider Colonel Barnes a most excellent soldier, and a very efficient commander. He is eminently qualified for command.”
The soldiers of the Twenty-ninth, though they sometimes fretted over the stern discipline of this officer, both loved and respected him. The same qualities that made him a good soldier have made him a good and useful citizen, and in the important civil office which he now holds, he displays the same good judgment and strong sense of duty which marked his career in the army.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Movement to Wells’s Farm—The Camp at Pegram’s Farm—Building of Winter Quarters—Ordered Back to Petersburg—Disappointment of the Men—The Regiment Occupies Battery No. 11—Friendly Relations Between the Pickets—Battle of Fort Stedman—The Regiment Makes a Gallant Fight—The Prisoners Sent to Libby—Closing Scenes Before Petersburg—The Regiment Enters the City—Duties Performed After the Battle—Death of Abraham Lincoln—Ordered to Alexandria, and from Thence to Georgetown—Provost Guard—The Grand Review—Regiment Goes to Tenallytown, Md.—Soldiers of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Assigned to the Twenty-ninth Regiment—Ordered to Massachusetts—Parade in New York—In Camp at Readville, Mass.—The Last Order—Discharged the Service—Closing Remarks.
The last chapter left the regiment at Poplar Grove Church. Here it remained till the 27th of October, when, very early in the morning, the Brigade advanced in line of battle to and a little beyond Wells’s Farm, halted for the night, and the next morning fell back to Pegram’s Farm, between the Squirrel Level and Vaughan roads, the regiment covering the latter movement as skirmishers.
It was supposed that the corps was to pass the winter at this place, and the regimental commanders were ordered to prepare winter quarters for their men. No duty which the soldier is required to perform is so pleasant as that of erecting a house to live in. Such orders after a fatiguing campaign, promising both comfort and rest, are peculiarly welcome, and always cheerfully obeyed. In this, as in every other similar instance, the soldiers worked with great zeal, manifesting much ingenuity in the construction and arrangement of their houses. The rude idea of the negroes of building a chimney with sticks and clay, was adopted by the men, with some improvements of their own, while each hut was provided with comfortable bunks, spacious fire-places, and shelves for their guns and clothing.
This was the first time in nearly two years that the regiment had even seen the prospect of winter quarters, and was the first time in many months that it had been out of the range of the enemy’s sharpshooters and picket-firing. The camp was very unlike the ones it had occupied in front of Richmond, or in Tennessee, but was upon a dry, sandy knoll, well supplied with good water, and in full sight of Fort Sampson, a strong redoubt, named after the brave Captain Sampson of the Twenty-first Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, who fell there in the battle of September 20, with the colors of his regiment in his own hands, gallantly leading his men in a charge. Though the camp was very pleasantly located, yet winter was near at hand, the trees had already lost their foliage, and the cool autumn winds found their way through the cracks and crevices of the humble huts of the soldiers, often reminding them of the necessity of applying a little more of the “sacred soil” of Virginia, if they would be wholly comfortable. Thus quartered, it was natural that they should compare their present lot with that which fell to them the winter before in East Tennessee, where cold, hunger, nakedness, and danger were daily experienced for a dreary succession of weeks and months. But the soldier’s fondest dreams of comfort are often rudely dispelled, and so these anticipations of ease and quiet were never fully realized; the men were scarcely ensconced in their winter homes, before they were ordered to leave them. Any one who has heard a soldier grumble, and has noted some of his expressions, can understand what was said by the men about this change of location. Captain Taylor, who was of a positive temperament, rose to the sublimity of the occasion by swearing that “he would never lift another handful of dirt as long as he remained in the army”; while some of the soldiers declared that the officers were “a mean set,” and were bent on ruining the health and destroying the comfort of the men as a mere pastime.