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

by William H. Osborne

An incident of the battle worthy of mention, is, the regiment captured one of the enemy’s captains, who fought the battalion at Great Bethel, June 10, 1861.

The regiment did not escape this battle without some loss. Sergeant Curtis S. Rand, Company A; Privates John B. Smithers, Company B; David A. Hoxie, Company D; William McGill and Edwin C. Bemis, Company H; and First Lieutenant George D. Williams, Company F, were wounded. Sergeant Rand had been a wagon-master during the most of his term; just before this battle, he requested permission to go into the ranks, saying that he was desirous of performing active service. Poor fellow! his wounds proved mortal, and he died a few days after the battle.

From this time till the 21st, everything remained in the same condition as at the close of the battle, except that our troops had entrenched themselves, the Ninth Corps “occupying the line extending from the Fifth Corps on the Weldon Railroad to the left of the Second Corps, near the Jerusalem plank road.”

The enemy had manifested great uneasiness ever since this ground had been occupied by our troops, and had more than once threatened an attack. On the 21st, he made a spirited assault upon our works, charging up to the breastworks several times in quick succession, but was repulsed with great slaughter. The regiment, though exposed to a severe enfilading fire, was not actively engaged in this battle.

The great losses sustained by the First Division, in the various battles in which it had engaged, rendered a reorganization of the corps necessary. The troops of this division were accordingly, on the first of September, merged with those of the Second and Third. The Twenty-ninth, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiments, Third Maryland, One Hundredth Pennsylvania, and Fourteenth New York composed the Third Brigade of the First Division.

On the 10th of September, eighty-three recruits from Massachusetts reached our regiment.

On the 14th, Colonel Barnes was relieved from the command of the Brigade by the arrival of Colonel McLaughlin of the Fifty-seventh Regiment, and again assumed command of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, relieving Captain Willard D. Tripp, who had been in command since the battle of July 30.

On the 24th of September, an order was issued from the headquarters of the Ninth Corps, directing Brigadier-General Hartranft, commanding First Division, to garrison Fort Howard with one hundred and fifty men. On the same day, General Hartranft designated the “Twenty-ninth Regiment Massachusetts Veteran Volunteer Infantry ... as a permanent garrison to be placed in Fort Howard,” and Colonel N. B. McLaughlin, commanding the Third Brigade, was directed to “see that the camp of the regiment is placed in the immediate vicinity of the fort.”

For a period of nearly two weeks, the regiment was happily exempt from the hardships of the field; but the necessities of the service finally required its presence at the front, and on the 5th of October, it was ordered out of the fort, and on the same day rejoined its brigade on the front line at Poplar Grove Church.

On the 8th of October, there was a reconnoissance in force on the left of the army by the First Division, but the regiment, though engaged in the movement, was not under fire.