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

by William H. Osborne

May 25. Moved at four in the morning, and halted for dinner at Bowling Green. Crossed the Mattapony River; marched through General Ferrero’s division of colored troops, into camp.

May 26. In camp all day. Rained during the night. In the midst of the night, the camp was alarmed, and the Twenty-ninth was sent out to reconnoitre, the men realizing that they were again soldiers in the field; the alarm proved to be unfounded.

May 27. The Brigade moved through a beautiful section of the country, and camped near Penola Station.

May 28. Passed through Aylettstown and camped near a place rejoicing in the euphonious name of “Cat-tail Church.”

May 29. Came up with the Army of the Potomac after crossing the Pamunkey River, and bivouacked in a field with other troops. The army of General Grant was then moving away from the North Anna River, and the enemy being in his immediate front, skirmishing was of daily and almost hourly occurrence.

May 30. The regiment was assigned to the Fifth Corps, First Division, Third Brigade, and the fact, that, upon being assigned to this corps, it should retain the same numbers, having been in the First Division and Third Brigade of the Ninth Corps, seemed a little strange. Both officers and men were, however, alike disappointed at this assignment, it having been their expectation to return to the old Ninth, with whose history their own was singularly identified.

On the first day of June, the whole line moved forward. The Twenty-ninth Regiment was ordered to send out one hundred men on the skirmish line, and Captain Thomas W. Clarke was placed in command of this force, which formed the extreme right of the corps line of skirmishers. On the immediate right of the line was a dense growth of woods and a morass, which the staff-officer who directed the movement said were “impassable”; but Clarke, who, during his three years’ service, had acquired a familiarity with the enemy’s ways of fighting, was not satisfied with the staff-officer’s statement; there was a certain ominous silence about the dark woods especially, that greatly excited the Captain’s suspicions. His right was wholly unconnected with other troops, and his men too few to justify him in extending his line into the forest; if the enemy were lurking there, as he had reason to believe, his men were in imminent danger of being flanked, and he accordingly despatched an officer and squad of men to examine the place. The squad had scarcely entered the woods when the enemy commenced a violent attack all along the corps front, and at the same moment a large body of them came pouring out of the “impassable” woods, in the very faces of our men who had invaded their hiding-place. But for the starting into the woods of the squad, who could at best only give the alarm, the one hundred skirmishers would have been lost, and this result might have been attended with serious consequences to the whole line. As it was, an immediate and rapid retrograde movement became necessary, with a change of front, to prevent the enemy from moving directly to the rear of our line. The position of our men was both awkward and perilous, but they proved themselves equal to the emergency; changing front with great rapidity, they then fell back to the main line, firing deliberately as they did so, but suffering considerable loss. This movement resulted in a severe general engagement. The regiment formed in line at the breastworks, next the Eighteenth Massachusetts, and became hotly engaged, expending nearly all its ammunition. Toward night, the enemy were driven back, when the skirmish line was re-established and properly protected on the right. Considering the exposed situation of our hundred men, it is remarkable that their loss was not greater.

The death of private John C. Lambert of Company C was a shocking affair; he was wounded in the legs while in the edge of the woods, and left in that position by his comrades, who had no opportunity to remove him. Later in the day, the woods were set on fire, probably by exploding shell, and the poor fellow actually burned to death, his crisped and lifeless body being found by his comrades after the battle. Captain George H. Taylor and First Lieutenant George H. Long,[47] both of whom behaved themselves with great gallantry, were severely wounded. Martin Jefferson of Company F, and Charles Drake and Henry A. Osborne of Company C, were captured; and the following enlisted men were wounded: Sergeants Richard Harney of Company A, and Francis J. Cole of Company K; Privates Thomas Hawes and Charles Bassett of Company A; Thomas Manning and John Connolly of Company B; John A. Holmes of Company C; Perez Eldridge of Company D; and Abram Hascall of Company F.

Captain Taylor, though unfit for duty for some time, returned to the regiment, and served till it was mustered out, in 1865. The battle of this day has been called the battle of Bethesda Church.

June 2. About four in the afternoon, the regiment moved to the rear, the corps being engaged in a flank movement to the left. The enemy made a desperate attack upon our division during a severe rain-storm late in the day, and while the division was in a very disadvantageous position. Nothing save “the magnificent fighting” of the Regulars prevented serious disaster; they checked the enemy in his headlong charge, until the First Division could get into position in the rear. The Regulars then fell back in good order upon the division line, followed hotly by the enemy, who were met by a destructive fire, and after a long, hard fight, were repulsed with loss. The one hundred skirmishers of the Twenty-ninth were relieved at the front by a good Pennsylvania regiment of about two hundred men, which lost in this battle nearly half its number; showing how severe was the engagement, and how exposed the situation in which our comrades had been placed only the day before.