  Captains Leach’s and Wilson’s Companies Leave the Rip-Raps—Ordered to Newport News—General Mansfield Relieves General Phelps—The Drills Continued—Target Practice—Winter Quarters and Building of Barracks—The Organization of the Twenty-ninth Regiment—Dissatisfaction About the Appointment of New Officers—Court-Martial of Colonel Pierce—Bursting of the Sawyer Gun and Death of Two of the Men. On the 3d of November, 1861, the companies commanded by Captains Leach and Wilson were ordered to join the Battalion at Newport News, and were relieved at the Rip-Raps by two companies of the Union Coast Guard under Major Halliday. Upon arriving at Newport News, these commands were assigned camping-grounds inside of the breastworks, and with the Battalion. This was the first time that all the companies had been together; the uniting of them made an increased membership of nearly two hundred, and a total membership of between five and six hundred, which, at a later period in the war, would have far exceeded the numerical strength of even our largest regiments. Toward the last of November, General Phelps was ordered to the department of the Gulf, and Brigadier-General Joseph K. F. Mansfield was assigned to the command of Camp Butler. General Mansfield was a native of Connecticut. He graduated at West Point, at the age of eighteen, second in a class of forty members. In the Cadet Battalion, he had served in every grade, and, on graduation, was appointed to the Engineers. From that time till the Mexican war, he was on sea-coast fortifications, and was principal constructing officer of Fort Pulaski, an experience that enabled him to give very valuable advice to General Gilmore, in his approaches to that place. In 1838, Mansfield was a captain, and in 1846 was assigned to General Taylor as chief engineer, when he directed In 1853, he became Colonel and Inspector-General of the army. At the time of the inauguration of President Lincoln, he was stationed in Washington, and on the increase of the army in 1861, was made Brigadier-General, and assigned to duty about the city, supervising the construction of the fortifications there with his great skill as an engineer, and after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, contributing to the reorganization of the volunteers. Upon the appointment of General Wool to the command of Fortress Monroe, General Mansfield was sent thither, and after commanding for a short time the district of Hatteras, and subsequently Camp Hamilton, was ordered, late in November, to relieve General Phelps at Newport News. Here he remained till May, 1862, participated in the expedition against Norfolk, afterwards commanded at Suffolk, and, in September, was ordered to Washington on the McDowell Court of Inquiry, and while there was promoted to be Major-General of Volunteers, and assigned to the command of the Twelfth Corps, reaching his command just before the battle of Antietam. As we shall have occasion to speak of him in connection with that battle, we will not at this time follow his history further in that direction. The same stern sense of duty which the General manifested while in the field was daily impressed by him upon the men under his command at Newport News. He was not a preacher nor a martinet; he was a plain, shrewd, well-educated gentleman, with a fine sense of humor, great practical talent, inexhaustible tact, and had an intimate knowledge of human nature. He was familiar with the men, always had a kind word for the sentinel at headquarters, and when the sentinel had once properly saluted him, he would say, “You will oblige me by not saluting me again to-day, as I have to One of the first orders issued by him, after taking command of this post, was to institute target practice, at ranges of 200, 400, 600, and 1,000 yards. By this order, a record of shots was to be kept; each company was to shoot three times a week, and the ten best marksmen of the regiment, every week, were to be selected and allowed a day’s liberty at Fortress Monroe; and as this included a sail on the steamer of some twenty miles (both ways) and a visit to one of the most interesting places in the department, being, as it were, a sort of metropolis, the reward thus offered was highly prized and eagerly sought for by all the men. By the same order, officers were encouraged to compete with the men in this exercise. No man was to fire less than ten shots each week; guards, on relief, were to discharge their pieces at a target, and be marked for it; and the best marksman in the guard got a day’s liberty. The targets used were pieces of old tents, stretched on frames six feet high and two feet wide, with a black cross four inches wide on them, the horizontal arm at a height of four and a half feet. Volley firing was also practiced, by which means an excellent knowledge of the capacity of the musket was acquired, a knowledge that served all the regiments at Newport News in good stead, at a later period in the war. The officers always afterward knew their marksmen, and could at any time detail a few sharpshooters for special work when needed. One of General Mansfield’s drills was a march in campaign order, and he was very particular to describe what things a soldier should carry in campaign, permitting what was forbidden in the army of the Potomac at one time,—photographs and letters,—and not encouraging a superfluity of blacking brushes. Upon the first marching drill, the staff-officers were sent round to say, that at route-step it was usual to allow the men to smoke and talk in campaign; and he desired the officers to encourage it then, as it would be necessary to allow it in the future. The drills thus inaugurated were continued as long as the weather would permit, and were all chosen with special reference to active service in the field. The following anecdote shows the dry humor of General When the cold weather approached, early in December, a general order was issued, directing the erection of barracks for winter quarters. Each regiment, and each company of a regiment, were required to build their own houses. All who could be spared from duty were provided with axes, and, under the charge of an officer, marched daily into the neighboring pine forest, where they cut the tall trees, and fashioned them into proper shapes for building purposes; the logs were hauled into camp by the mules and horses; and as each company had its complement of carpenters and other mechanics, a village of comfortable log-houses soon covered the plain, promising the troops ample protection from the biting blasts and drenching rains of the coming winter storms. About this time, an effort was being made in Massachusetts to raise three companies of infantry, which were to be united with the Battalion, and thus form a full regiment. Sometime in October, 1861, Dr. Henry B. Wheelwright of Taunton received permission from Governor Andrew to raise a company of infantry, and succeeded in enlisting a number of men. On the 2d of November, 1861, the Governor issued an order, that the men raised by Dr. Wheelwright, which were then in charge of Willard D. Tripp of Taunton, a corporal of the Fourth Regiment, be sent to camp at Assonet, a village of Freetown, to report to Brigadier-General E. W. Pierce, and be there merged, so as to form a company, with the men recruited by General Pierce. By the same order, Dr. Wheelwright was authorized to raise another company “immediately, ten days being allowed for that purpose,” from the 4th of November, and directing that all men recruited by him be sent to Assonet, and be under the command of General Pierce. The Quartermaster-General During the time the men were at Assonet, they were quartered in an ancient building known as the “Old Post-office”; they were lodged in that part of it called “Pierce’s Hall,” while their food was cooked in the basement. This old house was erected about the year 1745, and at the commencement of the Revolution, was owned and occupied by Colonel Thomas Gilbert, a captain at the siege of Louisburg. Gilbert was a Tory at the breaking out of the Revolution, and this house was confiscated and sold, he having gone into the English army. In April, 1775, a large body of Whigs assembled to tear down the house, but for some reason refrained from doing so. The recruits remained in Assonet till the middle of November, and were then ordered to Pawtucket, where was established a rendezvous for recruits, under Captain Milo M. Williams of the Fourth Regiment. By the middle of December, ninety-eight enlisted men had been secured for this company, representing nearly every county in Eastern Massachusetts, and on the 13th of December, Tripp was commissioned Captain, and the following order issued:—
The lieutenants of this company, whose commissions bear date of December 13, 1861, were First Lieutenant Alfred O. Brooks and Second Lieutenant Thomas H. Husband, both of Boston. Two other companies were raised about this time,—one On the 16th of December, Richardson was commissioned Captain, and this order issued:—
The lieutenants of Captain Richardson’s company were William Pray, a sergeant of Captain Barnes’s company, promoted to be First Lieutenant, and Charles D. Browne of Boston, commissioned Second Lieutenant January 1, 1862 (formerly a private in Co. B, Thirteenth Mass. Regt.). As early as October 31, 1861, Henry R. Sibley of Charlestown was authorized by a special order from the Adjutant-General’s office, “to raise a company of infantry, to be mustered into the United States service for three years or during the war, and to form a part of the Massachusetts Volunteers.” The order further provided, if the company was recruited within ten days, it “would be accepted as a part of a regiment to be formed of the Massachusetts companies now at Fortress Monroe.” If not recruited within ten days, the enlisted men were to be put into such other companies and regiments as the Commander-in-Chief might direct. The mention of ten days in this order as the limit of time allowed for the formation of this company seems to have been prompted by a purpose to stimulate the energies of those to whom the recruitment was confided; for while the The men who formed this command represented nearly every section of the Commonwealth, though, as no one nor half-dozen other towns contributed so large a quota as Charlestown, and as its Captain and First Lieutenant were citizens of that city, it has always, and with propriety, been spoken of as the “Charlestown company of the Twenty-ninth Regiment.” The men were all volunteers: some were recruited by Sibley, others by D. W. Lee (First Lieutenant), and a few by the State recruiting officers. No bounties beyond the United States bounty of $100, promised after two years’ service, were held out as an inducement to enlist; and though there was not that amount of enthusiasm, exhibited in rapid enlistments, which characterized the raising of troops in April and May, yet there was an utter absence of any of the fallacious ideas about the cowardly character of the enemy, and every man who placed his name upon the roll fully realized all the grave consequences that might follow. The material thus secured was most excellent, and the “Bay State Guards,” the proud name adopted by this company, proved a worthy member of the regiment, and an honor to the “Old Bay State.” Something of the touching and revered spirit of the 19th of April was manifested by the people of Charlestown toward this company of volunteers. The Bunker Hill Soldiers’ Relief Society of that city, an organization composed entirely of ladies, early sought to express their sympathy, by providing each soldier with many articles of comfort; while the men contributed money, reimbursing Captain Sibley for the expenses he had incurred, and presenting the officers with uniforms and side-arms. The militia system of the election of officers by the enlisted men was permitted in this case, and not abused. Henry R. Sibley was elected Captain; Daniel W. Lee, First Lieutenant; and William R. Corlew (of Somerville), Second Lieutenant. In view of the fact that the company was soon to leave for the seat of war, appropriate services were held on the afternoon of Christmas Day, at the First Baptist Church in Charlestown, Shortly after this, the company was ordered to Camp Cameron (Mass.), where it was under the general command, for the most of the time, of the Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, there recruiting for the field; and after that regiment left, guarded the public property, of which there was a large amount, and for the faithful care of which the company was publicly thanked by the Governor. It is apparent, from what has already been written, that Governor Andrew was endeavoring to carry out the long-neglected plan of erecting the Battalion into a regiment; but the official order, which we here give in full, was not issued till the 13th of December.
We have not pursued this subject strictly in the order of dates, as the above order really ante-dated the formation of Richardson’s and Sibley’s companies; but they were in process of formation before this order was issued, and, to prevent confusion in the narrative, we have chosen to complete the story of each company before treating of the organization of the regiment, of which there is much to be said. On the same day of the foregoing order, Brigadier-General24 Ebenezer W. Pierce of Freetown was appointed by Governor Andrew Colonel of the Twenty-ninth Regiment; on the same day, also, Captain Joseph H. Barnes was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and Captain Charles Chipman Major. The staff and non-commissioned staff were as follows: Orlando Brown of Wrentham, Surgeon; George B. Cogswell of Easton, Assistant Surgeon; Lieutenant Joshua Norton, 3d, of Captain Clarke’s company, Quartermaster; Lieutenant John B. Collingwood of Captain Doten’s company, Adjutant; Sergeant Henry S. Braden of Captain Barnes’s company, Sergeant-Major; Sergeant William W. Davis of Clarke’s company, Quartermaster-Sergeant; John B. Pizer, of Tripp’s company, Commissary-Sergeant; John Hardy of Clarke’s company, Hospital Steward. Rev. Henry E. Hempstead of Watertown was chosen Chaplain in January, 1862. On the 4th of January (1862), there were several promotions among the officers and men of the Battalion. First Lieutenant James H. Osgood, Jr., was made Captain of his company, in place of Barnes, promoted; First Lieutenant Charles Brady, Captain, in place of Chipman, promoted; Second Lieutenant William T. Keen of Captain Barnes’s The lettering of the several companies, by no means an unimportant part of the work of organizing a regiment, was determined by the following order:—
The companies of Captains Richardson, Sibley, and Tripp, together with Colonel Pierce, Surgeon Brown, and Assistant-Surgeon Cogswell, taking with them the colors of the regiment, left Boston for Newport News on the 13th of January, 1862, by the Stonington line to New York. At Philadelphia, they received the same bounty which the ladies of that noble city were giving to all the volunteers who passed through it. From Philadelphia, the command proceeded to Baltimore, and from thence by steamer to Fortress Monroe, reaching Camp Butler on the 17th of the month, and joining the Battalion there stationed. Beside the proper officers of the three new companies, there were commissioned about this time, and assigned to the regiment, Second Lieutenant Augustus D. Ayling, First Lieutenant Freeman A. Taber, and First Lieutenant John It would be useless to attempt to conceal the fact that the appointment of the colonel of the regiment was exceedingly distasteful to the officers and men of the Battalion. No fault was found with the manner of organizing the three new companies, and the appointment of officers of these companies, for the good reasons that these officers had been active in the recruitment of their commands, and were doubtless acceptable to their men. The chief cause of grievance of the members of the Battalion, therefore, was, first, the colonelcy of the regiment, and, secondly, the action of Governor Andrew in filling the vacant offices in the seven old companies with new men, and ignoring the just claims to promotion of the old officers and enlisted men of those companies. The well-nigh unanimous sentiment of the Battalion would have dictated a During the winter of 1862, charges of improper conduct were preferred against Colonel Pierce. A court-martial convened,25 and, upon trial, he was found guilty, and sentenced to dismissal from the service. General Mansfield approved of the findings of the court-martial; but General Wool, his superior, disapproved them, and Colonel Pierce was reinstated in his command of the regiment. With the feeling of a faithful historian, to record the facts as he finds them, the author, in telling the story of the regiment, has found it necessary to present this state of affairs, the responsibility for which would seem to rest upon the appointing power. Some reference has been made to the Sawyer rifle at Camp Butler, in the course of this narrative, and now we are called upon to record a very serious accident in connection with this gun, which occurred on the 11th of February. The guns, of which there were two in the department, were the invention of a man named Sawyer. “His system consisted of cutting in the bore of the gun six radial twisted grooves half an inch deep and rather more than an inch wide from muzzle to Two morals were drawn from this sad affair by two of the officers of the regiment, the one mechanical and the other |
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