The Committee, in the same report, pay a most deserved tribute to the white troops of the Ninth Corps, and speak as follows:—
“They are not behind any troops in the service in those qualities which have placed our volunteer troops before the world as equal, if not superior, to any known to modern warfare. The services performed by the Ninth Corps on many a well-fought battle-field, not only in this campaign, but in others, have been such as to prove that they are second to none in the service. Your Committee believe that any other troops exposed to the same influences, under the same circumstances, and for the same length of time, would have been similarly affected. No one, upon a careful consideration of all the circumstances, can be surprised that those influences should have produced the effects they did upon them.”[53]
If loss of life is any evidence of the bravery of a corps in battle, that of the Ninth on this occasion would seem to speak most eloquently in this regard. Its entire loss in killed was 52 officers and 376 men; wounded, 105 officers, 1,556 men; missing, many of whom were killed, 87 officers, 1,652 men.
On the evening after the mine affair, Colonel Barnes took command of the First Brigade, General Bartlett having been captured; and on the following day, the regiment moved to the rear, taking up its former position, Captain Willard D. Tripp being assigned to the command, and retaining it till the 14th of September.
The regiment was greatly reduced in numbers at this time, having scarcely men enough to form a full company; yet, during a large part of the time that followed, it was required to perform the same kind and amount of duty as other and larger regiments, being one day at the front in the rifle-pits, exposed to the deadly fire of the enemy’s sharpshooters, and the next in the rear, doing fatigue duty, and both night and day, whether at the rear or the front, under almost constant fire from the enemy’s lines.
Late in the afternoon of the 7th of August, the enemy opened a furious fire upon our entrenchments. The fire was particularly heavy on that part of our lines occupied by the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery, which was still commanded by Major Chipman. Great confusion ensued, and the troops were ordered to form in line of battle. The faithful Major, who was never missing in time of peril, hastened from his quarters to attend personally to the formation of his regiment; but while engaged in the performance of this duty, he was mortally wounded by the fragment of a large mortar-shell which exploded near him. From this time till eleven o’clock the next forenoon, he lingered, apparently unconscious, when life became extinct. His body was carefully embalmed and sent to his home in Sandwich, Mass., for burial, where it was received by a heart-broken wife and children, and many sorrowing neighbors and friends.
Major Charles Chipman was a true man and most gallant soldier. He possessed some advantage over the most of his fellow-officers in the Twenty-ninth Regiment, at the outset, by having had, during his earlier life, the benefits of the strict discipline and thorough training of the regular army, in which he had served as a Sergeant; at one time under Colonel Gardner, who, during the war, commanded the Confederate forces at Port Hudson. The esteem in which Major Chipman was held by his comrades found a fitting expression at a reunion of the survivors of the regiment, held at Plymouth, Mass., on the 14th of May, 1873, when the fine oil-portrait of this officer, which had constituted a part of the collection in the “Gallery of Fallen Heroes,” having been purchased by Sergeant Samuel C. Wright, was re-purchased by the Association, and by it presented to his widow and children, together with a kind and highly-appropriate letter from the President of the Association, as a token of the love and regard of his comrades.
During the night of the 14th of August, 1864, the Ninth Corps was relieved by the Eighteenth, and on the 15th, the Ninth moved to the left and relieved the Fifth Corps, the latter having moved out towards the Weldon Railroad. While remaining here (some five days), the regiment with its brigade was placed on the front line as skirmishers. There were no trenches or works of any kind, and the men were considerably exposed.
On the 19th, the whole division moved to the left to connect with the Fifth Corps, which was in position on the Weldon road. While the division was on the march, in the midst of a blinding rain-storm, the enemy dashed out of the woods at a place called Blick’s House, and began a fierce assault upon the right flank. For a short time it looked as though all would be lost. The fierceness of the assault, and the unfavorable situation of our troops, threatened a serious disaster. But our men had been too long accustomed to such scenes to be disconcerted or alarmed. The line was quickly formed, though under a terrible fire, and the enemy routed at every point. It was a great victory, apart from the good fighting of the men. The enemy were engaged in a secret, well-planned movement to cut off the Fifth Corps from the main body of our army; but the division, by its gallantry, wholly frustrated their plans.
Great praise was awarded the division for its conduct on this occasion. General Julius White, a fine officer, was in command, and manifested great skill in handling his troops. Colonel Joseph H. Barnes, who commanded the First Brigade in this battle, by his good conduct, earned promotion to Brevet Brigadier-General.[54]