Vermont riflemen in the war for the union, 1861 to 1865 / A history of Company F, First United States sharp shooters

by William Young Warren Ripley

The army was eager to attack; flushed with their success, and fully confident of their ability to give rebellion its death blow, they fairly chafed at the delay—but Meade favored the cautious policy, and spent the twelfth and thirteenth in reconnoitering Lee's position. Having finished this preliminary work, he resolved on an attack on the fourteenth; but Lee, having completed his bridges, made a successful passage of the river, and by eight o'clock on that morning had his army, with its trains and stores, safe on the Virginia side.

On the seventeenth the Third Corps crossed the river at Harper's Ferry and were once more following a defeated and flying enemy up the valley, over the same route by which they had pursued the same foe a year before while flying from Antietam. The pursuit was not vigorous—the men marched leisurely, making frequent halts. It was in the height of the blackberry season, and the fields were full of the most delicious specimens. The men enjoyed them immensely, and, on a diet composed largely of this fruit, the health of the men improved rapidly.

On the nineteenth the sharp shooters reached Snicker's Gap, where, on the 3d of the previous November, they had looked down on the beautiful valley of Virginia and beheld from their lofty perch Lee's retreating columns marching southward. To-day, from the same point of view, they beheld the same scene; but how many changes had taken place in that little company since they were last on this ground! Death, by bullet and by disease, had made sad inroads among them, and of the whole number present for duty the previous November, less than one-half were with their colors now, the others were either dead in battle, or of wounds received in action, or honorably discharged by reason of disability incurred in the service. Sheridan once said that no regiment was fit for the field until one-half of its original numbers had died of disease, one-quarter been killed in action, and the rest so sick of the whole business that they would rather die than live. Judged by this rather severe standard, Co. F was now fit to take rank as veterans. Descending the mountains, they marched southward, passing the little village of Upperville on the twentieth.

On the twenty-third the Third Corps was ordered to feel the enemy at Manassas Gap, and there ensued a severe skirmish, known as the affair of Wapping Heights. The sharp shooters opened the engagement and, indeed, bore the brunt of it, dislodging the enemy and driving them through the gap and beyond the mountain range. They inflicted considerable loss on the rebels, and made a number of prisoners.

In this affair a man from another company came suddenly face to face with an armed rebel at very short range; each, as it subsequently appeared, had but one cartridge and that was in his gun. Each raised his rifle at the first sight of the other and the reports were simultaneous. Both missed—the rebel bullet struck a tree so close to the sharp shooter's face that the flying fragments of bark drew blood; the Union bullet passed through the breast of the rebel's coat, cutting in two in its passage a small mirror in his breast pocket. They were now upon equal terms but each supposed himself at the disadvantage. Yankee cheek was too much, however, for the innocent Johnnie, for the sharp shooter, with great show of reloading his rifle, advanced on the rebel demanding his surrender. He threw down his gun with bad grace, saying as he did so: "If I had another cartridge I would never surrender." "All right, Johnnie," said the Yankee, "If I had another you may be sure I would not ask you to surrender." But Johnnie came in a prisoner. In this action the sharp shooters expended the full complement of sixty rounds of ammunition per man, thus verifying the assertion of their ancient enemy in the ordnance department that "the breech loaders would use up ammunition at an alarming rate;" both he and others were by this time forced to admit, however, that the ammunition was expended to very useful purpose. Passing now to the southeast over familiar grounds they encamped at Warrenton on the twenty-sixth, and on the thirty-first at or near White Sulphur Springs, where they remained until the 15th of September, enjoying a much needed rest. It was eighty-one days since they left their camp at Falmouth to follow and defeat Lee's plans for an invasion of the North, and during that time they had not had one single day of uninterrupted rest. Here the regiment had the first dress parade since the campaign opened.

On the 15th of September they broke camp and marched to Culpepper, some ten miles to the southward, where they remained until the 10th of October. On the 22d of September eight days rations had been issued and it looked as though serious movements were contemplated, but the plan, if there was one, was not carried out.

On the 11th of October, with full haversacks and cartridge boxes, they broke camp and moved again northward, crossing the Rappahannock by Freeman's ford, near which they remained during the rest of that day and the whole of the twelfth on the picket line, frequently engaged in unimportant skirmishes with the enemy's cavalry. On the thirteenth they marched in the early morning, still towards the north, prepared for action, and at Cedar Run, a small tributary of the Rappahannock, they found the enemy in considerable force to dispute the crossing. Here a severe action took place, and as the emergency was one which did not admit of delay, the attack was made without the formality of throwing out skirmishers, and the sharp shooters charged with the other regiments of the division in line of battle. Edward Jackson was severely wounded here, but returned to his company to remain with it to the close of the war. Quickly brushing away this force the corps advanced northwardly by roads lying to the west of the Orange & Alexandria railroad and parallel with it, and after a fatiguing march arrived at Centerville, only a few miles from Washington.

The cause of this rapid retrograde movement was not easily understood by the men at the time, but was subsequently easily explained. Lee had not been satisfied with the results of his three previous attempts to destroy the Union army by turning its right and cutting it off from Washington, and had essayed a fourth. It had been a close race, but the Union commander had extricated his army from a position that, at one time, was one of grave peril, and had it compact and ready on the heights of Centerville with the fortifications of Washington at his back. Lee was now far from his own base of supplies and must attack the Union army in position at once, or retreat. He took one look at the situation and chose the latter alternative, and on the nineteenth the Army of the Potomac was once more in pursuit, the Third. Corps with the sharp shooters passing Bristoe's Station on that day with their faces toward the South. On the twentieth they forded Cedar Run at the scene of their battle of the week before, and on the same day, owing to an error by which the sharp shooters were directed by a wrong road, they recrossed it to the north bank, from which they had, later in the day, to again ford it to reach their designated camping place on the south side near Greenwich, thus making three times in all that they waded the stream on this cold October day, sometimes in water waist deep. The next camp made was at Catlet's Station, when the sharp shooters with the Third Corps remained inactive until the 7th of November awaiting the repairing and reopening of the Orange & Alexandria railroad which had been greatly damaged by Lee in his retreat, and which, as it was the main line of supply for Meade's army, it was necessary to repair before the army could move further southward.

On the seventh, the railroad having been completely repaired and the army fully supplied with rations, ammunition and other necessary articles, Meade determined to try to bring his enemy to a decisive action in the open field, and to that end directed the right wing of his army, consisting of the Fifth and Sixth Corps under Sedgwick, to force the passage of the Rappahannock at Rappahannock Station, while the left wing, consisting of the First, Second and Third Corps, was directed on Kelly's Ford, some five miles lower down the river.

The Third Corps, under Birney, had the advance of the column, the sharp shooters acting as flankers, until the head of the column arrived at the river opposite the designated crossing place. The enemy were found in strong force occupying rifle pits on the opposite bank, and the column was deployed to meet the exigency of the occasion. The sharp shooters were at the front as skirmishers and advanced at the double quick in splendid order until they reached the bank of the river, when they took such cover as was afforded by the inequalities of the ground, and commenced an active fire upon the enemy in the rifle pits on the opposite side. It was soon found, however, that they could not be driven from their strong position by simple rifle work, and the regiment was ordered to cross the stream and drive them out by close and vigorous attack. It was not a cheerful prospect for the men who were to wade the open stream nearly waist deep and exposed to the cool fire of the concealed enemy, who would not aim less coolly because the sharp shooters would necessarily be unable to return the fire; but the line was carefully prepared and at the sound of the bugle every man dashed forward into the cold and rapid water and struggled on. Co. F was one of the reserve companies and thus followed the skirmishers in column of fours instead of in a deployed line. As the skirmishers arrived on the further shore they naturally took such cover as they could get, and opened a rapid fire. The Vermonters, however, closely following the movement, passed the skirmish line thus halted and pushed on without stopping to deploy even. Capt. Merriman, who had just succeeded to his well deserved promotion, led the way until he stood upon the very edge of the works overlooking the rebels within, of whom he demanded an immediate and unconditional surrender. He was far in advance of his men, and the rebels, at first taken aback by the very boldness of the demand, now seeing him unsupported as they thought, refused with strong language to surrender, but on the contrary called upon him to yield himself up as their prisoner. Merriman, however, was not minded to give up his captain's sword on the very first day he had worn it, and called out for "Some of you men of Co. F with guns to come up here." His call was obeyed, and five hundred and six Confederates surrendered to this little company alone. In the company the casualties were as follows: Patrick Murray, killed; Eugene Mead, Watson P. Morgan and Fitz Green Halleck, wounded. Having thus uncovered the ford the sharp shooters were pushed forward some distance to allow the remainder of the left wing to cross and form on the south bank. Advancing about a mile from the river they took up a position from which they repulsed several feeble attacks during the day, and at dark were relieved.