Bluebirds Take Flight

 Now some background on desertion in the New Hampshire regiments from the Confederate press . . .

YANKEE DESERTERS- The blue birds are flocking in from Grant's wide spread wings, and are daily reaching Richmond by scores in advance of the "Great digger." Among the arrivals on Saturday was about a full company of the Fifth New Hampshire regiment, recently on guard duty at Point Lookout. They state that a regiment of negroes took their places there, and they were hurried to Grant to help fill up the gaps made in Grant's ranks by Lee's artillery. One solitary, red bird, or zoo-zoo, came in and reported himself as the last of the New York Duryea(sic) Zouaves left out of one hundred, who went into the battles below with Grant. He was disconsolate looking enough, but bore himself as became the "last of the Mohicans."

-Daily Richmond Examiner, June 6, 1864


I assume the "Zoo-zoo" was a member of the 5th New York who had transferred into the 146th New York after the original regiment mustered out. The records show that regiment losing some 46 enlisted men missing during the first few weeks of June, 1864


And of course it is "Zou Zou."

"Beloved Friends": The Execution of Henry A. Burnham

 We return to the desertion issues faced by the New Hampshire regiments and their new recruits in 1864. Namely the execution of one Henry A. Burnham at Point Lookout, Maryland. The below account consists in large measure of his "gallows' speech" . . .

May 9, at 8 a. m., Henry A. Burnham, of Company E, was shot to death as a deserter He had deserted twice, received two bounties and been a bad soldier generally.

But the end of our experience at Point Lookout was at hand. The last week of May, 1864, we left there by steamer to rejoin the Array of the Potomac, from which we had been separated since the latter part of July, 1863. On the 28th of May we were at Port Royal, Va., and on the 1st of June, just two years after our first pitched battle, we rejoined the First Brigade, First Division, Second Corps."

During the winter an occasional escape from the prisoners-of-war camp, and many desertions from the recruits in our regiments, served to render our officers alert and vigilant. Among these the desertion, capture, trial, and attempted second escape, sentence and execution of private Henry A.Burnham, Company E, Fifth Regiment, were noticeable. This soldier attempted to desert to the enemy, and had upon his person, when captured, evidence sufficient to convict him beyond doubt. He had a fair trial, was convicted and sentenced to be executed by shooting. At night he escaped from the guard-house with some fellow-prisoners and launched a boat, from near the colonel's quarters, into the bay This escape was discovered and they were arrested by the sentinels and returned to confinement. The affair produced much excitement throughout the encampment. The following account is taken from the "Hammond Gazette," issued at Point Lookout, May 18, 1864: —

AN EXECUTION.

On Monday morning, May 9th inst., at 8 o'clock, in accordance with General Orders No. 15, the troops of this command were marched to the open field opposite the grove, and formed three sides of a hollow square, to witness the execution of Henry A. Burnham, Company E, Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers. At twenty minutes of 8 o'clock the prisoner, escorted by a detachment of twelve men of the provost guard, arrived upon the ground. After taking a position he was asked by Lieutenant Hilliard if he had anything to say, when he expressed himself as follows: —

"My friends: — The time has come when I must die. I am willing to die and leave this world of sorrow. There is but one step between me and eternity, and I feel as if it were my duty to acknowledge that it is for a beloved country's good that I should die at the time appointed. I have forgiven all my friends in the Fifth New Hampshire Regiment. I have forgiven all who have ever done me wrong or injured me, and I hope to be forgiven bj' all to whom I have ever done an injury.

"Beloved friends, — I can address you as friends, for you have acted as such to me — it is necessary that we should all be prepared for death, since we must all die. I admit that I am a sinner. I have not acted manly to the government that I have defrauded, not only once, or twice, but many times, and I now feel that I have done a serious wrong. My advice to you is to do your duty to your country, faith-fully and well. Be true to the oath which you have taken, and you will feel better in your own heart. I do not see that in any other case you can do better. The only source of happiness in this world springs from doing your duty to your country and your God, and unless you serve them faithfully you cannot experience true enjoyment of mind. I would also say to you, that you have taken the oath to obey your superiors ; so have I, and I now know the advantage which would arise from that obedience. It is only since I received my sentence that I have realized the full enormity of my errors; you should do so whilst you have yet time. Furthermore, my advice to you in future is to attend to your duty as you owe it to yourselves and the country o defend her.

"I hope if there is any one here who may have any hard feelings towards me, that he will forgive me as I have forgiven every one who has ever done me an injury You can all better your country far more by obeying the laws which govern you, and it is the last hope and prayer of a dying man that you will endeavor to do so. There is but one step between me and eternity, and in my case it is a solemn thing. It is solemn and sad, indeed, to dear friends to stand by the bedside and watch the spirit of the dear friend they love taking its flight from the world; but if that be solemn, how much more solemn must it be to a dear friend of mine, to see me depart in such a way as this, with an offended law taking justice upon me. I die to-day, and it may be better that I should do so; as, although I may have wished that a little longer time had been extended to me to prepare for so awful a fate, still I may not be any better for it. I may be putting off repentance to the last moment, and then what would I have gained by the delay? I feel now as if I were prepared to die — as if I am prepared to meet my God. I have placed my whole trust in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners. This has been the only subject of my reflections since the moment I received my sentence. I feel as if I could do a great deal of good for myself in this world, if I could only live, after the feelings which have taken possession of me within the last few days. But notwithstanding, I feel that it is for the beloved country's good, and I am satisfied. I cannot view it in any other light; it is necessary, and that is enough for me to know.

"Every man of you who has common sense must know that the state of things which has existed here, must be stopped. This rebellion must be put down, the country must be defended and the law upheld; and how is this to be done if desertion is not checked and discipline preserved in our army? I think the army is fighting in a good cause — the suppression of the rebellion; and if desertion is tolerated, it cannot succeed; it might as well be given up and all those who are true to their oaths, return home, having gained nothing by their exertions and zeal.

"I have, as I said before, forgiven every one who may have injured me; I have forgiven all the officers of the Fifth New Hampshire Regiment, as well as of all the regiments in the field, and I trust in God that they will endeavor to be as good as they can to the private soldiers. I suppose I am the first man who has been sentenced to pay the penalty of death on Point Lookout, Md., and I am satisfied to bear with it as an example. I have felt many times, since I received my sentence,that it would do the country a great deal of good by dying so — that I could do her more good in this way than by all the fighting I could do in the field, and I hope there is no one here who will doubt me. You do not better your condition by deserting; you may for a time succeed in escaping detection, but you have taken the oath before God and man that you will fight for the country, and it is a solemn and a very serious thing to break it.

"Dear friends, I hope that you will all come to Christ immediately; it is very wrong for you to delay; death is before you, and you do not know how soon it may come. I have enjoyed in my life all the earthly comforts which money could give on this earth ; but, after all, I was not happy, I was not contented, and no matter how badly he may have spent his life while on earth, when the time comes that he must die, he turns his heart to Christ for true happiness, and although I have lived a sinner, I want to die a Christian. Christ is willing to receive me even at the eleventh hour. I feel as if I were the greatest of sinners, but it is never too late to repent. Come to Christ immediately; the Christian's hope is great.

"Alas! my dear father and mother! How many hours have they wasted away in instructing me in the love which I owed to the Saviour! I forgot all their teachings; their hearts would be sad, indeed, to know the result of my waywardness. I never knew the worth of their teachings until within the last forty-eight hours. I feel it all now, the folly of my life, the reward of my neglect. Yes, it is true that order must be preserved amongst you. I say you, not myself, because I am about to die in a few, a very few minutes, and to appear before my God to answer my final account. That is a tribunal which is reserved for all, and from which none of us can escape, and I trust to Him for mercy. I have borne myself through this terrible ordeal as well as I could, perhaps as well as most men could, and I have been reconciled to my doom because it was one which I knew to be just, and because I threw myself upon Christ altogether in my hour of need, and I felt He would not forsake me. My last words then are, that you will do all in your power to procure for yourselves salvation. This world is nothing when compared with the world upon which I am about to enter. The trials, the sufferings of the just and righteous before God are easily borne with here. Be good Christians; obey the laws, and, when your hour comes, you can call upon Christ with confident hearts.

"My dear friends, I feel as if I could spend a much longer time speaking to you on this subject ; I could spend a whole day, but my time is come. I must say farewell to all. May you never meet so sad a fate. May you awake to the realization of the great truths of Christianity and reap the benefit of your devotion hereafter."

At the conclusion of his address he requested permission of the provost marshal to shake hands with the men who were detailed as the firing party, which was at once granted. He went through the ranks, accompanied by Lieutenant Hilliard, and clasped each man warmly by the hand. His step was firm to the last, and his voice clear and distinct. His memory seemed to catch inspiration from his position, as he did not forget even the most trivial matter which he wanted to settle. It compassed in that brief space the work which might, under ordinary circumstance, have taken years to accomplish.

Having bade farewell to his friends, the spot was pointed out to him where he was to stand, and he walked to it with great coolness, though exhibiting symptoms of confusion. He stood for a few seconds with his hands clasped in prayer, and when he had concluded he was requested to bend on one knee, which having done, the word was given to fire. One groan, alone, told that his troubles in this world were at an end — but two or three throes of the body, and all was still.

The deceased was a native of Vermont, was about twenty-eight years of age, had no family except brothers and sisters, to whom he sent his photograph with letters of condolence. His last words were,

"May God have mercy on me and receive my spirit."

-A history of the Fifth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, in the American Civil War, 1861-1865
William Child, M.D., Major and Surgeon
Historian of the Veterans' Association of the Regiment.
1893

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.

"To prevent the Regt. from deserting"

 Some more corroboration on the troubles in the 2nd New Hampshire . . .

Camp 4th, U.S.C.T., Yorktown, Va., April 9, 1864.

We are ordered to Point Lookout, Md.- for what purpose remains to be seen, but I guess to guard rebel prisoners. Our regiment is the only one of the brigade under orders, but the others may receive them before morning. The 2nd New Hamp Vols. landed here yesterday from Point Lookout and I suppose we will fill their place there. They were sent here, it is said to prevent the regt. from deserting: about 150 deserted within the last four or five weeks.

Memoranda of Samuel W. Van Nuys, Company F, Seventh Indiana Volunteer. 
-History of Johnson County, Indiana
Elba L. Branigin
B. F. Bowen & Company
1913

The Peninsula February 1864- The Fate of Private Boyle

 "He carries ..with, him," says Major Cronin "not only the guilt of an atrocious murder, but the consciousness of having thwarted one of the boldest and best planned expeditions of the whole war."-New York Times.

Once Condemned to be Hanged.

From the New York Sun.

 John Boyle was sentenced to be hanged in Williamsburg, Va., in 1863 for killing an officer, and he escaped from confinement. He was met in New York by a former comrade in arms about fifteen years ago, where he was working in a boiler shop, and afterward fled the city, fearing, it is supposed, that he would be rearrested and executed. He had relatives living in New York and a brother of his is an employe of a railroad in Jersey City. He has been living under an assumed name in the west, and has written to his relatives here at regular intervals. They received a letter from him last week. He was then working as a miner at Crested Butte, Col., in the mine where the disastrous explosion occurred on Jan. 24. His relatives believe he was one of the fifty victims of that disaster.

. . .

How the rebels had learned of Wistar's expedition has never been made known with certainty. A rebel prisoner however, taken after the disappointment at Bottom's bridge declared that a man giving bis name as John Boyle had been captured nearly dead from exhaustion and exposure, in their lines on the night of February 2. He told them he was a deserter from Wistar, and gave them, so the rebel prisoner said, the intelligence that enabled them to throw a strong force in the way of Gen. Wistar, and thus thwart what might have been one of the most brilliant and important movements of the army during the war.

-The Worthington Advance(Worthington, Minn.)February 14, 1884


This is a cross posting from New Kent County History.

"Deeming this sufficient for present purposes"

                                                                    A CARD!

MY name appears in the list of desertions, from the 12th Louisiana regiment, published in the Memphis Appeal and Vicksburg Whig. Through the same medium I desire to inform my friends and the public that fhe charge is false and unjust in the extreme, and that protracted illness alone prevented my return in due time to the 12th regiment, as will be shown by the su joined decision of the court martial before which I have been arraigned- not as a deserter but for alleged violation of the 21st Article of War:

HEADQUARTERS 12th LOUISIANA REGIMENT. .

Camp near Granada, Miss., December 29th, 1862

 General Order No 6

Before a regimental court martial,which convened at camp, near Grenada, Mississippi pursuant to special order No. 57. and where Captain Thomas C. Standiford, company B, 12th Louisiana regiment, was president, was arraigned and tried Private W.J. Bowman company K 13th Louisiana regiment. Charge- Violation of the 21st Article of War. Plea- Not Guilty. Finding-Not Guilty. And the court martial does therefore declare the accused acquitted of the charge aforesaid.

The proceedings and findings in the foregoing case are approved.

By command.                                                      J. A. BOYD

Lieut.-Colonel Command'ng 12th La. Regm't.

                                J. W. STANDIFORD, Adjut. nt.

A true copy- signed

                J. W. STANDIFORD, 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant

12th Louisiana regiment.

So far from being as published, a deserter, my offense does not even reach the alleged violation of the aforesaid 21st Article of War "Any non-commissioned officer or soldier who shall, with out leave from his commanding officer, absent himself from his troops, company or detachment, shall, upon being convicted there of, be punished according to the nature of his offence, at the discretion of a court-martial."

Deeming this sufficient for present purposes, I subscribe myself, very respectfully.

                                                                                                W. J. BOWMAN,

                                                                Company K, 12th  Louisiana Regiment.

 -Memphis Daily Appeal. (Memphis, Tenn.) January 01, 1863