1862. CHAPTER IV. UNDER POPE. CEDAR MOUNTAIN TO CHANTILLY. THE corps under Frémont, Banks, and McDowell were numbered respectively 1, 2, and 3, and together formed the Army of Virginia, under command of Major-Gen. John Pope, an importation from the West, brought on to instruct the troops in the art and mystery of waging war. Possessed of unlimited self-assurance, and what the elder Weller termed "a gift of gab werry gallopin'," June 28. Pope, in assuming command on June 28, cheerfully undertook to do three things: cover Washington, threaten Richmond, and protect the Shenandoah Valley. As an interlude to all this, the utter annihilation of Lee's army was announced as being very probable.1 July 1. July 2. July 4. July 5. Frémont, objecting to serve under Pope, who was his junior in rank, was relieved by Sigel; and Pope began to mature plans for redeeming some of the promises he was so liberally making. The surgeon-general of Massachusetts visited the regi ment. The batteries belonging to the brigade were out targetshooting. Daniel Donovan of Company B died, and was buried on July 3. Warm. Marched at nine A.M. Knapsacks were left at the depot, to be forwarded by rail; and the regiment marched to Dranesville, where it received its knapsacks, and camped. Reveille at four A.M., marched at seven A.M. Halted 1 "I propose to defend Washington, not by keeping on the defensive, nor by fortifying in front of the enemy, but by placing myself on his flanks, and attacking him day and night as soon as he has crossed the Rappahannock, until his forces are destroyed." - Rep. Com. Cond. War., vol. i. p. 276, Pope's testimony. 1862. at Buckton. Picked cherries at New Baltimore, and camped for the night two miles beyond. July 6. July 14. Regiment mustered six hundred and fifty for duty. Orders received to be ready to march with ten days' cooked rations. A member of the regiment writes to a local paper, "There was not a regiment in the service that had up to this time marched more miles of tedious, disagreeable travelling than the Twelfth." The regiment remained here till the 22d. The following modest document was received: HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF VIRGINIA, To the Officers and Soldiers of the Army of Virginia. By special assignment of the President of the United States, I have assumed the command of this army. I have spent two weeks in learning your whereabouts, your condition, and your wants; in preparing you for active operations; and in placing you in positions from which you can act promptly, and to the purpose. These labors are nearly completed, and I am about to join you in the field. Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies, from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary, and to beat him when he was found; whose policy has been attack, and not defence. In but one instance has the enemy been able to place our Western armies in defensive attitude. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system, and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily. I am sure you long for an opportunity to win the distinction you are capable of achieving: that opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. Meantime I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry to find much in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of taking "strong positions and holding them" of "lines of retreat," and of bases of supplies." Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can most easily advance against the enemy. Let us study the probable lines of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of themselves. Let us look before us, and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance. Disaster 1862. and shame lurk in the rear. Let us act on this understanding, and it is safe to predict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a glorious deed, and your names will be dear to your countrymen forever. July 16. July 22. July 24. July 25. June 26. Aug. 1. Aug. 8. Aug. 9. JNO. POPE, Major-General Commanding. the fa This was the precursor of a series of orders, mous one to "burn and destroy" may be accepted as a fair type of the whole family. Unfortunately for this modern Capt. Bobadil, Lee declined to be ordered out of existence; and - McClellan having withdrawn from the Peninsula - the Confederate chieftain proceeded to make sundry pithy comments on Pope's glowing sentences. At evening Gen. Banks visited the brigade, and was cordially received, the general making a very complimentary speech. In a violent storm, the regiment marched at six P.M., leaving the Ninth New York behind to guard the town. Camped for the night at the Rappahannock River. At 3.30 A.M. received orders to move. In fifteen minutes every thing was packed and the men ready, when the marching orders were countermanded. Pope's foragingorders were in full force, and strictly obeyed. The only discomfort was the wretched water. Shifted camp at ten A.M. A violent tempest. Anniversary of arrival at Sandy Hook, Md. Pope reviewed the troops in our vicinity. A soldier in the Thirteenth Massachusetts, after contemplating his commander carefully, remarked, "A handsome man, but I don't see the major-general.” Marched at twelve м.; bivouacked at dark. Marched at daybreak. After proceeding two miles halted. Heavy firing was heard in direction of Rapidan River. At four P.M. received orders to move; and, leaving knapsacks in a field by the wayside, the regiment marched with the division, reaching the battle-field of Cedar Mountain at dusk. Banks — incensed at the remark of Pope's chief-of-staff, UNDER POPE. CEDAR MOUNTAIN TO CHANTILLY. 59 1862. that there must be no backing out this time, general had attacked Stonewall Jackson with such fury that that redoubtable leader had been obliged to put in all his available force. This, too, when his troops were numerically superior to Banks's. On finding this out, Stonewall began to press Banks; so that, when Ricketts's division arrived, the Federal lines were slowly giving way before the advance of the Confederates. Finding fresh troops in their front, the rebel lines halted, and began an artillery duel. A shell from the Confederate guns burst among the ambulances, just as Hartsuff's brigade was ordered forward; and, as the brigade filed off, a battery going to the rear with unmanageable horses dashed through its ranks. This temporarily detached the Twelfth from the rest of the brigade; but an aide informed its commander where his brigade was, and the regiment passed down the hillside, greeted with a volley of musketry, and the fire of a battery about one hundred and seventy yards away. Lying down to receive each volley, and marching during the intervals, the regiment rejoined the brigade, and lay on its arms until three A.M. of Aug. 10, Sigel's corps having gone to the extreme front. A correspondent of "The New-York Herald says, "I have witnessed many battles during the war, but I have seen none where the tenacious obstinacy of the American character was so wonderfully displayed." An officer of the regiment wrote to a friend as follows: "Certainly the Twelfth behaved handsomely in this their first engagement of any importance, and remained cool and courageous under the most terrific fire of shot and shell, without replying to it for three mortal hours." And the Eleventh Pennsylvania say, "Moving forward through the heavy fire, Hartsuff's brigade was placed under shelter of a stretch of rising ground. Batteries were now got into position, and the answers returned from the Federal lines were as savage as the messages received. In 1862. the comparative safety the rising ground afforded, we could distinctly trace by the burning fuse the shells from our own and the rebel batteries as they went hissing overhead through the heavy night air. The firing was kept up until after midnight, the enemy expending most of his shell on a dense woods some distance to our right." 1 Aug. 11. Aug. 15. Aug. 16. Aug. 19. Capt. N. B. Shurtleff of Company D, the first to enlist in the regiment, was the first to fall, being killed in this engagement. Hot in camp on the battle-field. : At two A.M. ordered to be "ready to move." Marched at seven A.M., leaving Company H as hospital guard. Rainy. At nine A.M. marched to the Rapidan River, and camped in the woods. The road was thickly strewn with débris of the late battle, with frequently a half-filled grave, where a hasty burial had been made. Marched at 9.30 A.M., and camped on Cedar Mountain. Orders received for teams to pack and go to the rear. Marched at eleven P.M. After travelling two miles, the wagons so obstructed the road that the brigade halted till daylight. At five A.M. marched past Cedar Mountain: the road was dotted with abandoned wagons, which had been burnt by the teamsters. Passed through Culpeper amid sneering grimaces by the Southern ladies, and halted at night on the banks of the Rappahannock. Crossed on the railroad bridge, and, after travelling a mile, went into camp. Distance marched, twenty-five miles; and yet "Gen. Halleck once said that the great want of the army was legs." 2 1 The Story of the Regiment, by Chaplain W. H. Locke, p. 90. |