Problems in other New Hampshire Regiments.

Official Gubernatorial portrait of Nathaniel Head

Natt Head, Adjutant and Quartermaster General of New Hampshire, visits the Petersburg front during the December of 1864, and reports on some of the desertion issues that had arisen with the new enlistees . . . who, we have learned, were not always real enlistees.

General Head Quarters State of New Hampshire,

Adjutant and Quartermaster General's office,

Concord, May 20th, 1865.

To His Excellency Joseph A. Gilmore, Governor and Commander-in-chief:

 . . .

On the afternoon of the 21st, I made a visit to the Sixth, Ninth and Eleventh Regiments* with which some of my party were quartered during my entire stay on the left. I found Col. Harriman, Col. Titus, Lt. Col. Cogswell, Lt. Col. Bixby and their subordinates in excellent health and spirits. All however were clamorous for reinforcements and justly complaining of the character of the men whom we had lately sent to their regiments. Indeed this complaint was very general among the officers of all our regiments and supported by statistics which should startle the people of New Hampshire. One or two examples will illustrate the nature of the evidence which was laid before us on this subject. During the twelve months preceding my visit three hundred and twenty-eight substitutes had been sent to the Ninth New Hampshire. Of this number only one hundred and forty were ever received. The remainder, one hundred and eighty-eight in number, helped materially to fill our quota, but were not of the least possible service in the field. They cost the State, at a low estimate, one hundred thousand dollars. Since the organization of the Eleventh Regiment, six hundred and fifty-two men had been sent to it; of this number not more than two hundred could be satisfactorily accounted for. The Fifth New Hampshire, (than which no regiment has a more honorable record,) had been recently moved back from the front because its men could not be trusted on picket. Thirty of them deserted in one night. Several had been hung for desertion to the enemy, others were awaiting trial at the time of my visit.

-Military history of New-Hampshire
 Chandler Eastman Potter, George Augustus Marden
1865



*All of theses regiments appear to have been together at the time in H.B. Titus' brigade of Griffin's division. While the Fifth was the only New Hampshire in Nelson Miles' division of the II Corps.

The Peninsula February 1864- Diversion at Morton's Ford

 While Butler sent Wistar up the Peninsula toward Richmond, Meade staged a diversion on the Rapidan at . . .

MORTON'S FORD, FEBRUARY 6, 1864

Early in February occurred the first break in the long winter rest of the troops. It had been arranged at Washington that General Butler, commanding the army of the James, should move rapidly upon Richmond from the south, and seek to capture that city by surprise, while the Army of the Potomac should so far co-operate as to move down to the Rapidan and by a show of intention to assume the aggressive, detain Lee's army on the line of that river.

In pursuance of this plan, the Second Corps broke camp early in the morning of the 6th of February, and moved to Morton's Ford, under the command of General Caldwell, General Warren, being at the time of starting, disabled from service, although he came up in the afternoon. Upon arriving at Morton's Ford, the enemy's skirmishers were found at the crossing, which was commanded by the high ground on our own side. Further back the enemy's works were seen upon hills which ran around in a semicircle resting at either end upon the river. A body of skirmishers from the Third Division, conducted by Captain Robert S. Seabury the gallant and accomplished assistant adjutant-general of General Owen, was thrown forward, and advancing with caution until the situation could be clearly discerned, dashed with great resolution through the ford, capturing the enemy's picket entire.

The artillery on either side opened promptly, while Hays division was thrown down to the river and crossed with comparatively little loss. A strong skirmish line was now thrown out under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W.H Baird, One Hundred and Twenty sixth New York, and the enemy's skirmishers, though reinforced and resisting stiffly, were driven step by step backward into their works. The field was an amphitheatre, and from the high ground on the other side where a brilliant staff consisting of Generals Meade, Humphreys, Warren, and two score of officers were assembled, a perfect view of the affair could be obtained. Colonel Baird's gallantry was all the more to be remarked, because he was one of those officers who had been dismissed for misconduct at Harper's Ferry in 1862, and had, but a few weeks before, been restored to his regiment. Certainly no man resolved to wipe out the stains of the past ever had a fairer opportunity, or improved it better.

No thought was entertained of actively assaulting the works, but the semblance of it was kept up with vigor, General Hays taking part in the frequent demonstrations with that reckless exposure of himself which always characterized him in battle. After dark the Third Division was relieved, on the farther bank by Webb's Second Division, and preparations were made to hold the ground and keep up the show of force through the next day, if required. During the night, however, General Meade decided that the demonstration had been protracted sufficiently, and Webb was withdrawn, a strong skirmish line, supported by artillery fire, being left on the other side. During the 7th the corps remained in position on the north bank until six o clock when it returned to camp.

It is needless to say that General Butler's movement on Richmond from the South amounted to nothing. The only report which the writer ever saw of his operations acknowledged the loss of six forage-caps by the men of his command. The losses of the Second Corps, in the demonstration intended to open the way for him were two hundred and sixty-one 1 killed, wounded and missing. Among the officers wounded were Lieutenant-Colonel Sawyer, Eighth Ohio; Lieutenant Colonel Lock wood, Seventh West Virginia; Lieutenant-Colonel Pierce, One Hundred and Eighth New York Major; Coit, Fourteenth Connecticut. From the last-named regiment six officers were wounded.

-History of the Second Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac, Volume 2, Part 4

Francis Amasa Walker
C. Scribner's Sons, 1891


A good overview of Morton's Ford at TOCWOC

Following the Greek Cross . . . through the Penninsula

FOLLOWING THE GREEK CROSS OR, MEMORIES OF THE SIXTH ARMY CORPS By Thomas W. Hyde, Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers

"Our marches were short and slow from Williamsburg to the vicinage of Richmond. Going through that ancient burgh where was the College of  William and Mary, and where all thegirls were patriotically clustering about the Confederate hospitals, we seemed a while in the world of Thackeray's Virginians*, and almost expected to see the coach of Madame Esmond.
The next night the moon shone clear upon our picket lines, and upon the roofs of a stately mansion far in front. A spirit of adventure led Connor and me to slip through our guards and ride a few miles out into the rebel land, in the belief that if there, the enemy must be asleep. We rode up the long avenue of elms, up to the ancient and hospitable looking veranda, and, leaving our horses in charge of an orderly- began to explore the premises. Doors and windows were wide open. Half-packed trunks were lying about, and all tokens bore witness to the hurried flight of the family. We lighted candies and explored the grand old rooms, looking at ourselves in the ancient pier glasses, and made acquaintance, in its sadness and desolation, of a Virginia homestead of the olden time when the county families vied with the nobility of the England from whence they came. A trembling black butler soon appeared and served us old Madeira in quaint decanters. We sent his fellow-servants to act as sentinels and warn us of the approach of the enemy, and made careful exploration of the mansion. In the third story a distinct snore became audible, and when we had summoned its author, and fully expected to bring in a rebel brigadier-general, we found we had only waked a stray signal officer of ours who had lost his way and put up there for the night.  As others less appreciative would, no doubt, have taken the Madeira, we loaded up our steeds with it and a memento or two. Mine was a feather pillow, which luxury was soon after purloined from me in turn. While we were looking over the library of choice books, the darkies gave the alarm, and we were at once in the saddle galloping across country toward the distant haze that concealed our faithful pickets. Such little episodes sweetened the usual grind of campaigning of which mud and hard-tack, rain and marching, were the salient features.

As we drew nearer and nearer to Richmond,one day we came to a crossing where four roads met. Above it was a weather-beaten and timeworn sign-board that no doubt was doing duty when Washington marched with Braddock; its legend read, with hand pointing westward, "21 miles to Richmond ; " beneath it another was nailed of the new pine of a bread-box, with a large hand pointing in the opposite direction, and "647 miles to Gorham, Maine " showed
unmistakably that some of our fellow-citizens had passed that way."

* A reference to William Makepeace Thackeray's 1857 novel The Virginians

This is a cross posting from New Kent County History