On the 15th of August, the Twenty-ninth, with the rest of General Pleasanton’s troops, were recalled, and marched to Haxall’s Landing, the regiment being here supplied with tents, having been without them since the retreat. The Army of the Potomac was about to make another move; the sick and disabled were gathered up among the various camps and sent on board of the transports, as were also the knapsacks of the men and the officers’ baggage.
Towards evening of the 16th, Sumner’s corps left its camp and started down the river, marching about five miles and halting for the night. The next morning the march was resumed; but the army moved so slowly, that only six miles were travelled during the day. This brought the regiment to the mouth of the Chickahominy, where it empties into the James; and here it crossed on the remarkable pontoon bridge, said to have been over 2,000 feet long. In this manner, by short and easy marches, the corps proceeded to Yorktown; on the 18th, passing Charles City Court-house, and the following day, Williamsburg, the seat of William and Mary College. At noon of the 20th, the regiment reached the heights of Yorktown and went into camp, affording the men an opportunity of inspecting the fortifications, of which they had heard so much while at Newport News. Among these works were several that had been erected in the war of the Revolution by the English and American armies.
At Yorktown, all the troops save Sumner’s took transports for the Potomac, his corps having been ordered to Newport News, where it arrived on the 22d. To the Twenty-ninth Regiment, which were among the first troops to arrive, this seemed very much like going home. They encamped near the “Brick House,” where, during the first year of their service, they had often been on guard. Every tree and fence was familiar to them; the long plain near by was the scene of their drilling under Phelps and Mansfield, and the adjacent river-bank their target ground. The arrival here would have been far more pleasant, had it not been attended by very inclement weather and a hard march; but all these discomforts were forgotten the next day, when there reached camp a large mail, the first which had been received since the regiment left Harrison’s Landing.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Regiment Leaves Newport News—Ordered to Fredericksburg—Battle of Centreville—A Drill in the Face of the Enemy—March Through Maryland—Battles of South Mountain and Antietam—The Song of the Dying Soldier—A List of the Killed and Wounded.
During the latter part of August, 1862, Sumner’s corps began to leave Newport News and proceed to Fredericksburg. On the 24th, the Irish Brigade broke camp, went on board the steamer “Commodore,” and after lying off Newport News about forty-eight hours, steamed down the James, and from thence to Aquia Creek Landing, on the Potomac, where it disembarked. On the 27th, it proceeded by rail to Fredericksburg, and went into camp with its division on the north bank of the Rappahannock. Fredericksburg was then a beautiful town, showing none of those distressing signs of war which marked many other portions of Virginia. The recent showers had imparted an emerald hue to the whole country; the gardens about the town—which stands on a high bluff on the south side of the stream—were filled with blooming plants and trees laden with luscious fruits. Such a scene of peace and plenty as this the sunburnt and destitute soldiers of the Peninsula had not feasted their eyes upon for many months; the place seemed to them like a real Eden, into which they had suddenly and unexpectedly been dropped.
“It is rumored that we are to stay here during the remainder of the season,” says a soldier of the Twenty-ninth, in a letter to his friends, little dreaming how soon they were to leave this quiet spot and endure the hardships of another campaign. “It is rumored” was the familiar and stereotyped language with which all false camp stories commenced; and as they generally promised some better or happier experience than that of the present, none labored to dispel the pleasing illusions which they created, though these were repeatedly swept away by sad and bitter events. The soldier alluded to had barely finished his letter before the order came to march. Tents were struck, rations issued, and the men turned their backs on the green hills of Fredericksburg, never again to look upon the town in beauty and tranquillity. Going to the railway station, the Brigade took the cars and returned to Aquia Creek Landing, there embarking on the steamer “Louisiana” for Alexandria, arriving at the latter place on the evening of the 28th. The troops did not land here until the morning of the 29th; and as soon as they touched the shore, marched out to Camp California, about ten miles up the river toward Washington, pausing for dinner. On this march occurred a humorous incident. The Irish Brigade, in moving along the road with its tattered flags, the clothing of its men being almost as ragged as its banners, had occasion to pass the camp of a recently-mustered Pennsylvania regiment. The great contrast between the bright, new uniforms of the Pennsylvania troops and the shabby ones of the war-worn Brigade, led to much bantering, and many severe things were said by both sides. Finally, a soldier of the Pennsylvania regiment, with stentorian voice and in a triumphant manner, bawled out, “What have you done with your knapsacks; thrown ’em away, haint you?” The men of the Brigade were without knapsacks, and this impudent inquiry seemed difficult to answer satisfactorily. Very promptly, however, one of the soldiers of the Twenty-ninth replied, “Thrown ’em away? Yes, —— you, we’ve thrown away four sets.” This left the victory with the Brigade, and stopped the jangle; for it was an indirect way of saying what could not be denied, that the Brigade was composed of veterans, while the Pennsylvanians had not been long enough in the service to part with even one set of knapsacks, and were therefore very green. The four regiments of the Brigade went into camp that night at Arlington Heights.
General Pope was calling loudly for re-enforcements during these gloomy days, and the Army of the Potomac, the bulk of which was in and about Alexandria, had been ordered forward by General Halleck. Generals Sumner and Franklin were directed to make rapid marches to join Pope. On the morning of the 30th, the Irish Brigade marched, halting for a few hours at Fort Corcoran, only three miles distant from Arlington. As again showing the utter ignorance of the men of the intended movements of the army, and of the experiences in store for them, the brief halt at this fort led to a rumor that the regiment was to stay there for a period of thirty days to recruit; and so thoroughly believed was this report, that some of the men went leisurely at work “doing their washing,” so that at about three o’clock in the afternoon, when the order to march came, more than one soldier, half stripped, had nearly all his clothes “in the wash,” and one unfortunate corporal, who had taken a notion to wash both shirt and trousers, was called away so suddenly, that he was obliged to march all night in his drawers and a thin blouse, carrying his wet garments with him. Even the commanding officer of the regiment, who for the first time in many months was contemplating “a square meal,” was so much surprised by the order to move, that he was obliged to quit, leaving his dinner boiling in the pot and two live geese tied behind his tent, having made elaborate preparations for a long stay.
The regiment reached a point about two miles beyond Fairfax Court-house that night, halting beside the road leading to Centreville. Long before reaching here, the noise of the battle of the Second Bull Run was distinctly heard.