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 enemy followed the retiring Union troops closely, but once within the breastworks the Second Corps was soon rallied, and, reforming, lay down behind the rude entrenchments to await the signal for renewed action. The Confederates pushed their lines to within two or three hundred yards of the Brock road, but rested at that point until about four o'clock P. M., when they took the offensive in their turn and made a gallant assault on Hancock's command behind the breastworks. This attack was understood to be under the immediate direction of Gen. Lee, who was present and commanded in person.

The rebel line came gallantly forward to within a few yards of the road, when they halted and opened a fierce fire, which was returned by the Union troops from their shelter, coolly and with deadly effect.

Here the sharp shooters had the unusual good fortune to fight in a sheltered position instead of in the open field, as was usually their fate. During this affair the woods took fire and for a long time the troops fought literally surrounded by the flames. The wind was from such a direction as to bring the smoke from the blazing woods directly in the faces of the federal soldiers, while the heat and smoke combined made the position almost untenable, even had there been no other enemy to contend with. In many places the log breastworks themselves took fire and became a blazing mass which it was impossible to quench. Still the battle raged; at some points it was impossible to fire over the parapet, and the defenders were compelled to withdraw for a short distance. The rebels were prompt to take advantage of such breaks, and at one point pushed their advance up to and over the road, planting their battle flags on the Union works, but a brigade of Birney's Division charged them with such vigor that their holding was of short duration and they were driven back in great confusion, leaving numbers of their dead and wounded inside the breastworks.

In this charge the sharp shooters were conspicuous. Advancing in line of battle and at the double quick, they forced the enemy from their front over and far beyond the road, pursuing them and making prisoners even beyond the lines which had been held by the rebels previous to their assault. Their regimental flag was the only one advanced beyond the line of works; other troops contenting themselves with simply repossessing the line of the road. In this charge Jacob Lacoy of Co. F. was killed, the only casualty in the company on that day. Following this repulse Grant, still aggressive, ordered another attack by Hancock, and the troops were formed for that purpose; but before the advance actually commenced the order was countermanded and the men of the Second Corps lay down for the night along the road which they had so gallantly defended. The morning of the third day of the battle opened with the greater portion of the army quietly resting on their arms; but for the sharp shooters there seemed no relief or respite. At day break they were deployed, again on the right of the plank road, and advancing over the scene of the fighting of the two previous days, now thickly covered with the dead of both armies, encountered the rebel skirmishers at a distance of about four hundred yards from the Union line. Ordered to halt here and observe the enemy, they passed the time until about noon in more or less active sharp shooting and skirmishing. At twelve o'clock they were ordered to push the enemy back and develop if possible his main line. Supported by infantry they dashed forward and after sharp fighting drove the rebels back into their works, some half a mile away. Here they were brought to a halt and found themselves unable to advance further. Counter attacks were made by the rebels which were for a time successfully resisted; but the regiment was at last so far outflanked that it became necessary to fall back to avoid the capture of the entire command. The rebels did not pursue vigorously; the fight was out of them, and with a few unimportant affairs on different portions of the line the day passed without battle. Neither party had won a victory. Grant had not destroyed Lee's army, neither had Lee driven Grant back across the river, as he had done so many other Union commanders, and the battle of the Wilderness was of no advantage to either party, save the fact that Grant had destroyed a certain number of Lee's soldiers who could not easily be replaced, while his own losses could be made good by fresh levy from the populous North. Whatever may have been Gen. Grant's idea of the "capacity" of the Army of the Potomac for fighting hitherto, or whether he believed it to have been now "fought up to its capacity," he was forced to acknowledge that the fighting of the past three days had been the severest he had ever seen. But his thoughts were not yet of retreat; he had seen enough of the Wilderness as a battle field, however, and on the evening of the seventh issued his orders for a concentration of his army on Spotsylvania.

Company F. had lost in the action of this day Edward Giddings and Joseph Hagan, killed, and Lieut. Kinsman, Dustin R. Bareau, Henry Mattocks and Edward Lyman, wounded. The wound received by Mattocks, although painful, was not such as to disable him, and he remained with the company only to lay down his life on the bloody field of Spotsylvania a week later. The total losses now footed up nineteen men since the morning of the 5th of May.

All night long columns were marching to the southward. It was evident that the army was to abandon this battle field, but it seemed strange that the customs and traditions of three years should be thus ruthlessly set aside by this new man, and that he should have turned his face again southward, when by all precedent he should have gone north. The men, however, began to surmise the true state of affairs, and when during the night Grant and Meade, with their respective staffs, passed down the Brock road headed still south, the men took in the full significance of the event, and, tired and worn as they were, they sprang to their feet with cheers that must have told Grant that here were men fully as earnest, and fully as persistent as himself in their determination to "fight it out on that line." The stench from the decomposing bodies of the thousands of dead lying unburied filled the air and was horrible beyond description, and the sharp shooters were not sorry when at nine A. M., on the morning of May 8th, they were relieved from their duties on the picket line and, forming on the Brock road, took up their line of march toward Spotsylvania. They were the last of the infantry of the whole army; a small body of cavalry only being between them and the rebels who might well be expected to pursue.

The cavalry soon found themselves unable to check the pursuers, and Co. F, now the rear guard of the army, was faced about and deployed to resist the too close pursuit. In this order, and constantly engaged with the rebel cavalry following them, they retired fighting, until at Todd's tavern they found the rest of the division. During the day Wm. Wells was wounded and taken prisoner, the only casualty in the company during the day. Wells met the same sad fate which befell so many thousands of unfortunate prisoners, and died at Florence, S. C., during the month of September following.

Immediately upon their arrival a portion of the regiment, including Co. F, was placed on the picket line to the west of the tavern, their line extending across the Catharpin road. Here they met the advance of Early's rebel corps, and some skirmishing took place; but the rebels were easily checked, and no severe fighting took place. Early on the morning of the ninth a strong force of the enemy's cavalry appeared in their front and made a vigorous effort to force a passage. They were strongly resisted and at last forced to retire before the well aimed rifles of the Vermonters. Following rapidly, the sharp shooters pushed them to and beyond the Po river, along the banks of which they halted.

During this affair a rebel captain of cavalry was wounded and captured. Capt. Merriman, whose sword had been shot from his side during the action of the preceding day, thinking that a fair exchange was no robbery, appropriated the captured rebel's sabre, and thenceforth it was wielded in behalf of instead of against the Union. In the afternoon of this day the sharp shooters were recalled from their somewhat exposed position, more than two miles from any support, and resumed the march towards Spotsylvania, skirmishing with the rebels as they retired, until they reached the high around overlooking the valley of the Po, where they found the rest of the corps making preparations to force the passage of the river.

The Union artillery was noisily at work, while rather faint response came from the enemy on the opposite side. A rebel signal station was discovered some fifteen hundred yards away, from which the movements of our troops could be plainly observed, and from which Gen. Hancock desired to drive the observers. A battery opened fire on them, but the distance was too great for canister, and the saucy rebels only laughed at shell. The men of Co. F., who were in plain view of both parties, watched this effort with great interest for half an hour, when they concluded to take a hand in the affair themselves. Long practice had made them proficient in judging of distances, and up to a thousand yards they were rarely mistaken—this, however, was evidently a greater distance than the rifles were sighted for. They therefore cut and fitted sticks to increase the elevation of their sights and a few selected men were directed to open fire, while a staff officer with his field glass watched the result. It was apparent from the way the men in the distant tree top looked down when the Sharpes bullets began to whistle near them that the men were shooting under still, so more and longer sticks were fitted to still further elevate the sights; now the rebels began to look upward, and the inference was at once drawn that the bullets were passing over them. Another adjustment of the sticks, and the rebels began to dodge, first to one side and then to another, and it was announced that the range was found. Screened as they were by the foliage of the tree in which they were perched, it was not possible to see the persons of the men with the naked eye; their position could only be determined by the tell-tale flags; but when all the rifles had been properly sighted and the whole twenty-three opened, the surprised rebels evacuated that signal station with great alacrity. Gen. Hancock had been a close and greatly interested observer of this episode, and paid the men handsome compliments for their ingenuity and skill. The same night the division commander, Gen. Birney, ordered that thereafter the sharp shooters should report directly to his headquarters and also receive their orders from the same source. They were thus detached from their brigade. At six o'clock P. M. the line advanced, and, after some slight resistance, effected the passage of the river. Pushing forward the sharp shooters soon found themselves again on the banks of the same river, which here changes its course to the south so as to again cross the road along which the corps was advancing. It was now well into the night, and as the men found the river too deep to ford; the column was halted and spent the night in this position. The second corps, which had held the entire left of the Union line ever since the crossing of the Rapidan a week before, by these maneuvers found itself now on the extreme right of the army, and its position was a serious menace to Lee's left flank.