The History of the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry / in the Late War of the Rebellion

by William H. Osborne

CHAPTER XIII.

Captains Leach’s and Wilson’s Companies Leave the Rip-Raps—Ordered to Newport News—General Mansfield Relieves General Phelps—The Drills Continued—Target Practice—Winter Quarters and Building of Barracks—The Organization of the Twenty-ninth Regiment—Dissatisfaction About the Appointment of New Officers—Court-Martial of Colonel Pierce—Bursting of the Sawyer Gun and Death of Two of the Men.

On the 3d of November, 1861, the companies commanded by Captains Leach and Wilson were ordered to join the Battalion at Newport News, and were relieved at the Rip-Raps by two companies of the Union Coast Guard under Major Halliday.

Upon arriving at Newport News, these commands were assigned camping-grounds inside of the breastworks, and with the Battalion. This was the first time that all the companies had been together; the uniting of them made an increased membership of nearly two hundred, and a total membership of between five and six hundred, which, at a later period in the war, would have far exceeded the numerical strength of even our largest regiments.

Toward the last of November, General Phelps was ordered to the department of the Gulf, and Brigadier-General Joseph K. F. Mansfield was assigned to the command of Camp Butler. General Mansfield was a native of Connecticut. He graduated at West Point, at the age of eighteen, second in a class of forty members. In the Cadet Battalion, he had served in every grade, and, on graduation, was appointed to the Engineers. From that time till the Mexican war, he was on sea-coast fortifications, and was principal constructing officer of Fort Pulaski, an experience that enabled him to give very valuable advice to General Gilmore, in his approaches to that place. In 1838, Mansfield was a captain, and in 1846 was assigned to General Taylor as chief engineer, when he directed the fortifications of Fort Brown, opposite Matamoras, and afterward assisting in its defence, won his major’s brevet for gallant conduct. In September, 1846, he was in charge of the reconnoissance of Monterey, and the battles which ensued around that place scarred him with seven severe wounds, and brevetted him a lieutenant-colonel. In the battle of Buena Vista, he was conspicuously engaged; so much so, that his services were rewarded by the brevet rank of colonel.

In 1853, he became Colonel and Inspector-General of the army. At the time of the inauguration of President Lincoln, he was stationed in Washington, and on the increase of the army in 1861, was made Brigadier-General, and assigned to duty about the city, supervising the construction of the fortifications there with his great skill as an engineer, and after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, contributing to the reorganization of the volunteers. Upon the appointment of General Wool to the command of Fortress Monroe, General Mansfield was sent thither, and after commanding for a short time the district of Hatteras, and subsequently Camp Hamilton, was ordered, late in November, to relieve General Phelps at Newport News. Here he remained till May, 1862, participated in the expedition against Norfolk, afterwards commanded at Suffolk, and, in September, was ordered to Washington on the McDowell Court of Inquiry, and while there was promoted to be Major-General of Volunteers, and assigned to the command of the Twelfth Corps, reaching his command just before the battle of Antietam. As we shall have occasion to speak of him in connection with that battle, we will not at this time follow his history further in that direction.

The same stern sense of duty which the General manifested while in the field was daily impressed by him upon the men under his command at Newport News. He was not a preacher nor a martinet; he was a plain, shrewd, well-educated gentleman, with a fine sense of humor, great practical talent, inexhaustible tact, and had an intimate knowledge of human nature. He was familiar with the men, always had a kind word for the sentinel at headquarters, and when the sentinel had once properly saluted him, he would say, “You will oblige me by not saluting me again to-day, as I have to be constantly going out and coming in, and I don’t care for it.”

One of the first orders issued by him, after taking command of this post, was to institute target practice, at ranges of 200, 400, 600, and 1,000 yards. By this order, a record of shots was to be kept; each company was to shoot three times a week, and the ten best marksmen of the regiment, every week, were to be selected and allowed a day’s liberty at Fortress Monroe; and as this included a sail on the steamer of some twenty miles (both ways) and a visit to one of the most interesting places in the department, being, as it were, a sort of metropolis, the reward thus offered was highly prized and eagerly sought for by all the men. By the same order, officers were encouraged to compete with the men in this exercise. No man was to fire less than ten shots each week; guards, on relief, were to discharge their pieces at a target, and be marked for it; and the best marksman in the guard got a day’s liberty. The targets used were pieces of old tents, stretched on frames six feet high and two feet wide, with a black cross four inches wide on them, the horizontal arm at a height of four and a half feet.

Volley firing was also practiced, by which means an excellent knowledge of the capacity of the musket was acquired, a knowledge that served all the regiments at Newport News in good stead, at a later period in the war. The officers always afterward knew their marksmen, and could at any time detail a few sharpshooters for special work when needed.

One of General Mansfield’s drills was a march in campaign order, and he was very particular to describe what things a soldier should carry in campaign, permitting what was forbidden in the army of the Potomac at one time,—photographs and letters,—and not encouraging a superfluity of blacking brushes. Upon the first marching drill, the staff-officers were sent round to say, that at route-step it was usual to allow the men to smoke and talk in campaign; and he desired the officers to encourage it then, as it would be necessary to allow it in the future. The drills thus inaugurated were continued as long as the weather would permit, and were all chosen with special reference to active service in the field.